Whimsy Stamps Holiday Blog Hop

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Holiday Release Blog Hop for Whimsy Stamps,  celebrating NINE new holiday stamps and stamp sets from my favorite WS illustrators Crissy Armstrong and Raindrop Echo Designs.  All nine stamps and sets are available today at Whimsy Stamps. 

 I was so happy to have the opportunity to finally color one of Crissy’s carousel horses!    This, of course, is her Christmas design called Jingle Bell Ride and I just love him!    

 

 

Once again, I’ve used the VERY cool paper from Basic Grey’s new jovial paper pad for my card – In case you missed it, I did a sneak peek of one of Ann Vento’s new images also with this paper – here.   

This gorgeous guy is all decked out for the holidays and would be perfect for a special Christmas card.   The matching sentiment is part of a set included with the carousel horse ~ Jingle Bell Ride.    Seems to be a slight glare from the gold embossing in this photo, so here’s a quick closeup view …

 

 

If you’ve come here from Simonne Clay’s blog,  you’re on the right path and your next stop is

 Marley van der Heljden.

For those of you who just happened to stop by today ~ since the list for the blog hop is rather long, there will be several surprise opportunities throughout the hop for hoppers to win prizes.  The grand prize of ALL nine of the new release stamps will be at the end of the hop ~ with candy stops along the way.   Here’s the complete list of blog hop participants:

Bev Rochester

Vanja Stevanovic

Elaine Hughes

Crissy Armstrong  

Suzanne Dean

Chris Olsen 

Janna Sicard 

Simonne Clay  

Me (You are here!)

Marley van der Heljden 

Deb Routledge

Ann Vento  

Melanie Holtz

Nathalie Jobin

Debbie Eastman 

Patricia Garcia  

Dena Concienne 

Crystal Irwin 

Annika Ryan  

Donna Smith

Erin Bailey  

Lori Pachkowsky

Denise Lynn

Thanks for stopping by today.   Happy Hopping!

 SUPPLIES USED:  

• Whimsy Stamps by Crissy Armstrong ~ Jingle Bell Ride
• Basic Grey ~ jovial
• Blending Card by X-Press Graph-X Supplies
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Classic Squares 
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Tags Trio
• Smooch paint ~ snickerdoodle
• Smooch paint ~ moonlight
• Distress ink ~ crushed olive
• Distress ink ~ forest moss
• Distress ink ~ walnut stain
• Ranger ~ gold super fine embossing powder
• American Crafts glittered brads
• Mini jingle bells
• Miscellaneous ribbon
• Pop Dots
• Copics:   R01, 24, 27, 35, 46, 59, 89;  YG01, 03, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99;  G99;  Y11, 17, 28;  E50, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59;  T0, 1, 3, 5, 7

Whimsy Stamps Sneak Peek!

 

Hehehe … tis the season ~ ALREADY!    I was sooo very excited when Denise, the owner of Whimsy Stamps, contacted me to ask if I would be interested in joining them to show some sneak peeks of their new holiday images!!    Since my good friends, Crissy Armstrong and Ann Vento are two of their amazing illustrators ~ how could I possibly refuse? 

I really had fun with this one!    How perfect for so many people on your Christmas card list ~  fellow crafters or your own santa!   Of course my list is everything I NEED for crafting!!    Wouldn’t that be a wonderful day to receive all this?!    🙂

 

 

This image was illustrated by Ann Vento of Raindrop Echo Designs, who has the most wonderful collection of digi sentiments, customized signature digis, watermark digis and now actual customized signature rubber stamps over at Whimsy Stamps.   She’s one talented lady – I’ve told her it’s time to quit her day job!   🙂

I also received an early surprise Christmas present, at least it felt that way, from a dear friend – Jami Bova!!    The package was filled with LOTS of awesome goodies, including this brand new Basic Grey jovial paper pad.    OMGoodness, I love every single sheet!!    (I think I say that with each new collection from BG!   But it’s so true)  Sending HUGE hugz to Jami – you’re the best! 

Tomorrow is the official blog hop showcasing some of Whimsy’s new holiday images  from both Ann and Crissy …  I hope you can stop back!

Happy weekend!

 SUPPLIES USED:  

• Whimsy Stamps by Ann Vento ~ Wish List
• Basic Grey ~ jovial
• Gold metalic cardstock
• Blending Card by X-Press Graph-X Supplies
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Mega Labels Eight 
• Stickles ~  golden rod
• American Crafts glittered brads
• Miscellaneous metal dots
• Miscellaneous ribbons
• Janome Sew Mini
• Pop Dots
• Copics:   R20, 21, 27;  E00, 11, 13, 40, 42;  BV31;  T1, 3

Stop & Smell the Paper Roses! :)

 

Happy Monday!    Hope you all had a great weekend.    Isn’t that the most perfect sentiment???   It’s designed by the awesome Ann Vento and available from Raindrop Echo Designs at Whimsy Stamps.   (All of Ann’s Word Art sentiments are on sale right now too!!) 

Quite awhile ago I ordered one of the new Cuttlebug Quilling Kits.  I’ve always loved the look of quilled items, but knew they were pretty labor intensive;   So, seeing these kits and watching the video tutorials, I thought hmmm… I could do that!   

 The one drawback was that it is recommended that you also purchase the new larger/longer plates to use with the kits.   That’s quite an investment, so I decided to wait on it.   

Well, I finally couldn’t take it anymore and HAD to try the Daisy Quilling Kit with my regular standard CB plates.   In my opinion, it worked!    I’ve included a few photos to show you how I made these flowers WITHOUT the larger plates . . .

 

 

• This is what is included with each kit:   A sample flower, a handy-dandy quilling tool, four cutting dies, instructions and green covered wires.   It’s really helpful to have the sample flower!

 

 

• Here’s a closeup shot of the cutting dies from the Daisy Quilling Kit.   I love all the detail on the leaves, which can be added to other flowers too . . .

 

 

• This is also an AWESOME way to use some of those scraps of paper and cardstock that we all seem to have!   Cut your strips one inch wide and at least 7.5 inches long.   (the length of the standard CB plates)     I’ve used several different lengths here.

 

 

• And this is what you end up with after you run the strips and dies through your Cuttlebug using the standard plates:  more than enough leaves for one flower, also more than enough strips for your flower center, two middle flower strips and one outter flower petals strip.

 

 

• I have not included a tutorial on the actual quilling technique, as there are several detailed videos available . . .  here are a few that I found to be really helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7I8wFIF_8k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXdjVTusMKA   (this artist used thin metal with these dies to make an amazing flower, colored with alcohol ink!)  

Here’s the flower that I quilled with only some of the above strips of cut paper.   For this flower, I’ve used one inner strip, one middle strip and one outter petals strip.   I think it’s okay without the longer plates, although I’m sure if you do have and use the longer plates , your flowers will just be a little fuller.

 

 

Hope this was helpful.    Thanks for visiting today!

  

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Supplies Used:  

• Cuttlebug Embossing & Die Cutting Machine
• Cuttlebug Daisy Quilling Kit 
• Raindrop Echo Designs sentiment  (on sale!!!)
• October Afternoon ~ miscellaneous papers
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Standard Circle
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Big Scalloped Circle
• Miscellaneous ribbon
• Pop Dots
• Copics:   None!!