Blogging Friends Lovely Blog Hop

 

Welcome to our February ‘love-ly’ Blogging Friends Blog Hop!

I don’t know about you, but I’m still trying to figure out how January went by so fast!  Here we are, now into February, and of course that means that the big celebration is LOVE!  I know, some people focus on ‘Valentine’s Day’, but to me, that seems so restrictive to a ‘sweetheart’.  Of course, not everyone has a ‘sweetheart’ when Feb. 14th rolls around, but we all have friends and family whom we love, and I  think it’s always important to celebrate those special connections.

If this is your first time visiting a blog hop, just sit back, relax and enjoy the fabulous projects our newly expanded group of blogging friends! We have a number of new friends added to our group, so you are in for a real treat!   Each of us is linked to the person in front and behind us, so all you have to do is click on the ‘Continue’ button at the bottom of each blog post, and you’ll be taken to the next page.

In the event of technical difficulties – meaning the internet gremlins have been at work – go to the bottom of the page, and you’ll see a complete list of all participants in order, so you can continue on that way.

So you should have arrived here from Danica Ferrante’s blog – isn’t she talented?!  It’s such a treat to follow her in the line up 🙂

My first project was inspired by one of my team members, Chantal.  She had spotted this cute project that she wanted to make for her coworkers, so she asked me if we could get together and put one together, then she would make the rest on her own.

We put together the basics of the mailbox together, and I decorated mine later.  Here’s the adorable little ‘love note’ mailbox we came up with:

The main part of the mailbox is made using the Baker’s Box Thinlits Die; you create it as normal, except you cut the ‘door’ for the mail (treats) to fit in/out.  Then a piece of cardstock is added to fit arcing over the top and down both side, to create the top and feet for the mailbox.  I used the retired Curly Label Punch to create the feet, but you could also use the Decorative Label or Label Bracket punches for the same look.

The small Silver Glimmer hearts were cut from the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits, and I also used the Silver Glimmer paper to cover the handle of the mailbox door.

I used last year’s Valentine’s Paper Pumpkin stamp set for the stamped heart and sentiment; I cut that out by hand, and layered it on top of a punched heart in Blushing Bride Cardstock.

You can see on this picture of the back of the mailbox that I did the same; layering the Paper Pumpkin stamp with the punched pink heart, and Silver Glimmer Hearts.

I decorated the rest of the box using Night of Navy cardstock; adding a simple band around the bottom third of the box, then adding another band across the top/sides, in Night of Navy that I had die cut using the same heart border thinlit from the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits set.  (I love that I can get so much use from the extra thinlits from these sets!)

This little mailbox holds lots of sweet treats for your friend, or sweetie!

My next project was inspired by another Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and incredible artist, Lydia Fiedler.  Besides being a SU! demo, and incredible artist, Lydia is also the Community Manager at Splitcoaststampers, which is an amazing resource site for everything crafty and artistic!  Lydia’s card that inspired me can be seen HERE; make sure you have time before you click; you’re going to want to look at everything on her blog! 😉

Here is my card, which uses 2 new sets; Going Global and Beautiful Ride:

I prepared my card base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock, layered with a panel of Mint Macaron cardstock.

To create the stamped image, I took a piece of Watercolour Paper, stamped the Big Dipper from Going Global and the couple from Beautiful Ride in Versamark ink, covered them with White Embossing Powder, then heat set the powder.

I then used a Post-it Note to mask off the grass area underneath the couple, and using Sponge Daubers created the sky using Mint Macaron, Blackberry Bliss and Night of Navy ink pads.  I removed the mask for the ground, the masked off the sky, and sponged the ground using Crumb Cake, Tip Top Taupe and Old Olive ink pads and Sponge Daubers.  After sponging, I used some paper towel to rub the excess ink off of the embossed images.

Next, I used my Aqua Painter and ink pads in Real Red, Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight , Tip Top Taupe and So Saffron to colour in the couple’s clothes and hair.  I tried to add a shadow under them, but just ended up making it look like they are sitting on a hill!  *sigh*  Oh well; I will need to practice that more, obviously!

The sentiment is from the Picture Perfect stamp set; it’s stamped in Blackberry Bliss ink onto Whisper White cardstock; it and the Blackberry Bliss layer below it had banner ends created using the Banner Triple Punch.  The sentiment and image panel were layered onto the card base using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my projects for this blog hop; if you have time, I would love to read any comments you’d like to leave for me!

Now, you can click on the image below to see what wonderful projects Jessica Mink has in store for you!

Until next time – happy stamping, my friend!

PARTICIPATING BLOGS:

Crystal Komara  

Anna Masciovecchio

Libby Fens

Anne Power

Mary Blocher

Danica Ferrante

Deborah Smart – YOU ARE  HERE!

Jessica Mink

Jodi Horsley

Leanne Johnson

Michelle Clark  

Lorene Yoshimura-Tanigawa

Areli Johnson 

Mary Ann Rossiter

Tammy Gill

Susan Timchak

Sarah Cade

Rick Adkins