Mum's Bouquet with Laura's Loft

Welcome to this month's Shop and Hop with Laura's Loft. I've been busy making some spring time cards using the same sets I did for the CHA release but with a very different look. They are Birthday cards but you could easily make them Mother's Day cards if you wanted. Mother's Day is in March for me as I'm English so I decided just to go with spring time colours and my favourite dragonflies. 

Use a white card for your base and using a Tim Holtz mini round blending foam blend on some Distress Inks in Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron and Salty Ocean. What a zingy combination! Not my usual one, but I wanted to try something different.  Spritz with a little water and blot. Over stamp in the same colours of ink using the dots from Hero Art's Mason Jar Bugs set. Spray with some Perfect Pearls spray in Pearl. Let dry. Meanwhile cut a white panel just wide enough to fit the dragonflies at an angle and the length of the card. Cut a purple panel slightly larger on either side but not the top or bottom. Adhere together. Cut "celebrate" from the same purple cardstock using the die from Avery Elle's sentimental set. Put some white and purple highlights on it using Prismacolour pencils.

Stamp the dragonflies from Hero Art's Mason Jar Bugs set on vellum using Hero Art's Unicorn White ink pad and emboss with white embossing powder.  Blend the same color of Distress Inks on the vellum. Alternate between blending on the front for a bolder look and the back for a muted one. If wished pick out some fine detail on the body with an alcohol marker. Adhere the dragonflies to the white panel using Designer Dries Clear Adhesive. Adhere main panel to backing card, then place the "celebrate". Finally stamp on Happy Birthday from the Avery Elle Sentimental stamp set.

Here is another variant on the card, the products and techniques are the same. 

Here is this month's wonderful prize.

Don't forget to comment on each blog step and use other social media for extra entries!

Full instructions on Laura's post.

And even better news...there is a HUGE sale over at the Loft! 30% off everything!!!! Take advantage while you can, on till 4th May!!! 

Here's the whole hop in case you are lost!

1. Laura 2. Deana  3. Jasmine 4. Robbie 5. Heart of Craft ← you are here.
6. Lisa

CHA Release Hop with Laura's Loft

See Robbie's beautiful work here!

Welcome to the CHA new release hop!

                                                                                                           So many exciting new products this month... Wow! 

Here's my card using Hero Art's Mason Jar Bugs set. I had a lots of fun with this.

Using Kraft card stock make a greetings card with three circles on the right hand side. You want them slightly towards the top to leave room for the sentiment. I used my Silhouette Cameo, but you could also use dies or punches. The circles are 1 1/2 " across. Cut a second set of just the circles to use as a mask.

Take some white card stock and print out the dictionary definition of a dragonfly on it (I typed mine up in a word processor) three times. Place a circle mask over one and using Distress Inks in Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain sponge over it using Tim Holtz's mini ink blenders. Use darker colours at the edges and for the end blending remove the mask. Spritz with water and blot. Repeat twice more. Cut into squares (you need the border to stick it to your card). Adhere to the back of your circles. 

Stamp the dragonfly from Hero Art's Mason Jar Bugs set in black ink. I ran mine through a copier and then my Minc machine with silver foil. But if you don't have a Minc, you could heat emboss them in silver instead. Sponge them with Distress Inks in Twisted Citron, Tumbled Glass and Wilted Violet. If wished add a little shading to the body with a fine tipped marker.  Make sure the dragonflies are flat and cover the wings in glossy accents and a little glitter. Let dry and then stick the body only to the card. Lift the wings.

Stamp the thanks and so very much from Avery Elle's Sentimental set using black Memento Ink.

A quick bonus project for you here. Cut a circle from the centre of a kraft card. Place some scrap paper behind it to protect while you stamp around the edges using Memento Inks in New Sprout, Pear Tart, Cottage Ivy and Grape Jelly and MFT's Fall Florals. Add some dots with a pink marker. Then stamp the ladybird from Hero Arts Mason Jar Bugs set in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. Colour with prismacolour pencils. Stamp the small firefly off to the right and colour. On a separate piece of kraft cardstock stamp the dragonfly again and colour with pencils. Cut out and cover the wings with stickles glue in Crystal. Let dry and adhere body to card. Lift wings.  Die cut Thanks from Avery Elle's Sentimental die set using purple cardstock. Shade it with Black Soot Distress Ink and a white coloured pencil.

Here's the prize for our hop.

Aren't those bunnies adorable! And those papers are sooooo pretty.

How do you win it I hear you cry?

TO ENTER:

There are several ways to enter and the more comments you make in the different social media platforms, the more entries you earn! It is required that you comment on each blog in the Hop.  After that, you are encouraged to like and comment on our Facebook page, tag on our Instagram post and pin on Pinterest, as well as share on your own pages. The participant with the most entries wins the fabulous prize package! 

Don't forget March is National Craft Month so there are lots of bargains in the shop... 

                                 
                                                                    15% off store wide till April 3rd as well as the $10 off if you spend $75 (code $10off75)

Hop on over to see what the lovely Lisa has to offer...

Here's the complete list of hoppers....

1. Laura's Loft

2. Deana

3. Jasmine

4. Robbie

5. Heart of Craft  ←you are here

6. Lisa

7. Sue

Stamp-a-Faire 2015 - Mix and Match challenge

More tough challenges from the Stamp-a-Faire day! This time the mixing colours challenge from Dawn McVey. I definitely don't use enough yellow so that was my challenge....I picked out a pinky toned purple...the two colours had alot of punch being complimentary, so I picked a moss green (another colour I don't use too much) to tone it down.

I then used a die from Memory Box called Sunburst Cutworks on the purple card. It reminded me a little of a waterlily so I added some colour with Prismacolour pencils. The edges were sponged with Distress Inks and Finnabair pines stamp with the ink splodge from Stampin Up's French Foliage set. I then stamped the dragonfly from Prima Marketing Butterfly Wings Stamp-N-Add Stamp & Embellishment Set on the moss green cardstock using Memento ink pads, let them dry and coloured them in with Prismacolours again. Finally I used some glitter glue to add some sparkle to the wings and assembled the whole with tape.