Fabulous Finds Friday — CHA Treats

I have a few quick hits on some Fabulous Finds from CHA.

I’ve always been a fan of Avery Elle, and this year’s collection of new stamps and dies prove my point. Check out these two adorable cards:

Cute, right?

Last year we were introduced to Ken Oliver’s Colorbursts pigment inks. This year he made it even easier to get that beautiful look but without the mess — just use his pre-printed sheets. Check out these samples:

Ken Oliver paper

So pretty!

(For more inspiration, check out Ken’s blog here.)

Stay tuned for more highlights!

Happy Heart Balloon Bear

I know Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but I had to share this Valentine I made for a very special boy using this adorable balloon animal set, called Balloon Builders, from Stampin’ Up!

The set has various shapes that you mix and match to create designs. I played around a bit with the shapes to find the “formula.” (My first one was a bunny, but he came out a little creepy, so we went with the bear!)

I started with the largest balloon for the body then continued to build the bear. The main stamping was done in Stephanie Bernard’s ColorBox brown. The heart balloon was stamped in my old Marvy Matchables red.  The string, eyes, nose and inside the ear were hand drawn. Grass was added with watercolor pencils, then blended (I kind of made a mess of that….) and the sentiment (from the same set) was stamped in blue. The pierced panel is from the Richard Garay/Spellbinders Pierced Rectangles set. 

Oh, heck… here are two more cards I made for Valentine’s Day (but they can be used for other occasions, too!)

How sweet are those birds?

It’s the same die I used here, a Cath Edvalson design for Technique Tuesday. The paper is from Simple Stories and the sentiment from Stampin’ Up’s Bloomin’ Love set.

And this fast and easy card uses the Scribble Heart  Arrow die set from Simon Says Stamp. I cut a bunch from various brightly colored papers and glued them on this purple card stock (a discontinued color from Paper Source. You’ll see a lot of it because I bought a huge package when I found it on clearance!) The sequins are from Lawn Fawn, attached with Ranger Multi Medium. (I also used the inside of the hearts on other cards.)

These were so fast and easy I made a bunch (note the inside pieces, too) :

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are a few more Valentines … enjoy! I hope your day is was sweet!

I’m so crazy about Tim Holtz’s Crazy Birds (Stampers Anonymous) and the accessories pack. I’m also crazy about my new *Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors (I have six, but now I want more!). What better time to combine these two products?

I started this card by playing around with these delicious watercolors. I used Deep Pink and a touch of Carmine Red to create the background on watercolor paper. The colors are so rich I found myself diluting them with more water to get softer shades.

While the background was drying I stamped the sassy bird on Tim Holtz Watercolor Card stock (smooth side) in VersaFine and painted her with the watercolors. The hat was stamped separately and painted with Distress Ink Fossilized Amber; the rose and the ribbon on the box with more red. (The rose, the ribbon, and the details on the bird were later highlighted with Kuretake’s Wink of Stella Pink and Dark Pink. Oh, how I Wink of Stella!)

I cut the watercolor paper to fit on a tan card, edged it with VersaMark and Judikins’ Egyptian Gold powder (love the sparkle!), and affixed it to the card front. For my last step, I die cut Technique Tuesday’s  adorable *Heart Strings from gold paper scraps and glued them on top. How sweet is this card? Oh yeah … and I stamped the sentiment using *Stampin’ Up’s! Bloomin’ Love set. (You’ll see the coordinating die set used in my earlier Valentine cards here.) The sentiment is perfect for my “gal-entine” cards that went to my BFFs.)

Here’s another version using the same materials (and the other die in the Technique Tuesday Heart Strings set. See how I got some extra hearts?)

One more quick card using the Heart Strings in a different way:

The adorable bird (Love Bird by Cath Edvalson) is also from Technique Tuesday. The sequins are from Lawn Fawn. The sentiment from *Stampin’ Up! Bloomin’ Love. 

 

*These products were generously donated by the companies. See this note.

(This post was written on Feb. 13, but then I lost it all!!! Aaargh. )

Valentine’s Flowered Heart

It was instant love when I saw this flowered die set (and coordinating stamps) from Stampin’ Up! The die is so beautiful that it does all the hard work for you, whether you are making a Valentine’s Day card, a wedding card, or anything in between.

Look at how easy it is to change the look with just a change of colors. These are very simple, but can easily be used on a more elaborate card.

Enjoy:

I did use the Sizzix Precision Cutting Mat to cut this on my Big Shot — the mat made a huge difference in how well this intricate die cut. The flowers were also die cut and added using Glue Dots™ Minis. Self-stick rhinestones add a bit of sparkle.  The sentiment (Hero Arts) was embossed in white.

Basically the same card. The pink card stock is from World Win and cuts like a dream.

The faux stitching is done with a white gel pen. The sentiment here was stamped in Wendy Vecchi’s Potting Soil archival brown. I love that color.

Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Heart

I’m taking a brief break from CHA reporting to delve into Valentine’s Day! This is probably my favorite card making holiday. (Last year I sent 40 Valentines, each one just a bit different) to my best gal buddies.

Here’s the first of this year’s batch, a quick-and-easy heart in non-traditional colors:

So easy! I die cut the heart (Hero Arts) three times from white card stock, glued the three together and embossed the top with WOW! gold glitter powder.

I built my card base (using some older card stock from Stampin’ Up!) and affixed the heart on top. The banner was stamped (old Hero Arts sentiment) on white scrap paper, trimmed, and affixed with thin foam squares. Easy peasy!

CHA Highlights: Spellbinders

Spellbinders® always has a delicious booth at the CHA MEGA Show, but this year’s entry was a delightful mix of artistic styles that gives the company a fresh appearance, with something for everyone.

There are also some cool new tools, including the Platinum™ Die-Cutting & Embossing Machine, billed as Spellbinder’s most powerful machine to date. I’ll post more on the new tools later.

There was a decided Southwestern look to the booth, with lots of clean, simple geometric shapes – all very on trend.

“We’re looking for a modern, contemporary (feel) while staying true to our roots,” said Spellbinders CEO Greg Tipsord. And that they did.

The company teamed with some of my favorite designers to create these fresh looks. “Creativity is more than selling a lot of products,” Tipscord noted. “Designers are a big part of who we are.”

Here are a few of the designers, including some new (to Spellbinders®!) faces:

Mixed media artist Seth Apter’s first release with Spellbinders® includes dies, embossing folders, stamps and a journal/planner/artist book set.

Here is a closer look at his display:

Tammy Tutterow, whose blog is on my “must visit” list, also joined the Spellbinders® team with dies, designs and embossing folders perfect for her shabby chic style:

The third designer added to the team is Debi Adams, who created the Quite Contrary™ collection with her signature clean and spritely style. The collection includes stamps and beautiful steel rule die flower shapes.

Don’t those flowers make you say “Yay, Spring!”?

Here’s a closer view:

I’ve long been a fan of Becca Feeken’s stunning Amazing Paper Grace line (and blog), so I was immediately drawn to her display of the Amazing Paper Grace Wedding Collection with its gorgeous array of elegant, delicate, swirling die designs.

Here she is with designer Donna Salazar, who brings a load of new dies and stamps to her “Girlie Grunge” style, including my faves, Cascading Butterflies die and Flower Bouquet, a stamp/die flower combo.

Spellbinders® founder Stacey Caron has gone all out with a gorgeous, elegant selection of Art Deco dies, which I covet! But we’ll have to save the rest of my Spellbinders® report for another post.

Stay tuned for more on Spellbinders®, including a look at some of the samples seen at the show!