Avery Elle Birthday Month: Favorite Avery Elle Project & Giveaway

June's not over and we're still celebrating Avery Elle's first birthday!  This week, the DT is posting projects using their favorite Avery Elle stamps:)  With all the graphic stamps that Avery Elle offers, you'll probably be surprised at what I chose as my favorite!  It's Petals and Stems!  And last month, the matching dies were available, so my favorite got even better!  

This is my go-to flower set for sure!  To me, it's perfect because it's just the right balance between modern and traditional.   As you can see, I went the modern route:)

For this card, I created a bold striped background with gold and white card stock strips.  I stamped and die cut the largest flower in the set and added some highlights with a Copic marker.  The tag is from the new set Simply Tags: Everyday (stamps and dies).  I added a little more gold to the tag with tiny accent triangles:)

Now to the giveaway!  All week long you can center to win this custom Avery Elle 4 x 6" address stamp set with your personal information on it. *Please note that it will take approx. 4 weeks from the time the winner contacts us to the time the winner will be shipped the set.*

To enter to win just comment on this post.  There is no purchase necessary and you must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  This giveaway is void where prohibited.  You can also do options 2, 3, 4, 5 or all 6 of the following to increase your chances on any or all blog posts this week from today, 6/24, through Friday, 6/28, at midnight PST.

1. Comment on any of the design team's posts and/or here on the Avery Elle Blog
2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet the contest (we are @averyellestamps )
3. Follow us on Facebook (we are www.facebook.com/AveryElle ) and share us with your friends - make sure they tell us you sent them.
4. Follow us on Pinterest
5. Become a blog follower through Google Reader or Feedly or Blog Lovin' (comment on the Avery Elle blog if you already follow us)
6. Join our Flickr group (comment on the Avery Elle blog if you already belong)

The winner will be selected at random and announced on the Avery Elle blog on Monday, 7/1 .

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Mahalo and aloha,
jj

Mama Elephant June Highlight: Up and Away

Hi guys!  It's the last day of the Mama Elephant June release highlights, and today we are highlighting my favorite new animal set!  How cute is Up and Away?

Aren't these animals adorable?  I don't know about you, but I think that colorful balloons + chubby baby monkey = cute overload:)  I even added a cute little tree action from the set Tree Friends.  

My favorite part is the balloon bundle.  Some of the balloons are paper-pieced and some are colored with copics.  So much fun to do:)

Well thank you so much for stopping by all week!  Every day I'm just so touched by all teh folks that stop by and comment:)  I'm a lucky gal!  

I hope everyone gets the chance to click over to the rest of the team to see more of the cuteness that is Up and Away!

Mama Elephant/Kryssi 

Alice Wertz 
Cheiron Brandon 
Lea Lawson
Mariana Grigsby 
Savannah O'Gwynn 

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Mama Elephant June Highlight: Big Words

Morning all!  Today we are highlighting the third set of the Mama Elephant June release.  I used this set in the June Stampede, but here's another look at Big Words...

I thought I'd try a card that would use multiple words and here's what I came up with:)  A fun and easy birthday card!    I stamped each word onto card stock strips and hand cut the flames from glitter foam (with adhesive backing).    

Because the sentiments are oversized and bold, I stamped them in the same colors as the card stock.  That way it doesn't look too busy:)

That's it for me!  Click over to the rest of the team to see more Big Words inspiration.  

Mama Elephant/Kryssi 

Alice Wertz 
Cheiron Brandon 
Lea Lawson
Mariana Grigsby 
Savannah O'Gwynn 

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Mama Elephant June Highlight: Water Blooms

Hey everyone!  Have you been enjoying all the Mama Elephant goodies this week?  Well today, we are highlighting the beautiful floral set Water Blooms!  I love that this set comes with individual builder stamps as well as 2 larger bundles for when you need quickie cards:)  

For my card, I went the build your own route!  I used my alpha stamps from the set Flashy Letters to create a completely custom card.  

I stamped the letters first and then just filled in with various colored blooms and leaves.  For some of the flowers I stamped off first to get a softer look.  Two of the blooms are fussy cut and popped up and I just love how it looks!  

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Click over to the rest of the team to see more Water Blooms inspiration.  

Mama Elephant/Kryssi 

Alice Wertz 
Cheiron Brandon 
Lea Lawson
Mariana Grigsby 
Savannah O'Gwynn 

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Mama Elephant June Highlight: Be You

Hey guys!  Hope this week is starting off well for you!  Today is the first day of the Mama Elephant June release highlights and we're starting off with the new set Be You!   (Which is available on the site NOW)  Here's a look see at the whole set...

Of course I had to use that little birdie with the french fry because 1) it's adorable and 2) I have a serious weakness for french fries, lol!   As you can see I used the frame from Today Was and the sentiment bubble from Hello with my little birdie.  I love how all the Mama Elephants play well together:)  

I hope that you get a chance to drop by the rest of the DT to see what they did with this set!  I'm sure the DT gals have lots of fun in store:)

Mama Elephant/Kryssi 

Alice Wertz 
Cheiron Brandon 
Lea Lawson
Mariana Grigsby 
Savannah O'Gwynn 

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Mahalo and Aloha,
jj

Mama Elephant June Stampede

Hi everyone!  Welcome to the Mama Elephant June Stampede!  You've already seen the first looks at the June release on the Mama Elephant blog, and the new release is now live and available for purchase in the store here!  For the stampede, I'm using the new set Big Words!

This set is chock full of bold, large scale sentiments and they really stand up to the graphic stamps at Mama Elephant:)  In my stampede card, I paired up Big Words with the bunny stamp from Up and Away!  Doesn't he look like he's waving "hi"?  Perfect little guy to go with the "HOLA" sentiment:)

   

To celebrate the new release, Mama Elephant is giving away 3 gift certificates worth $20.00 each to 3 lucky people! Winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs in the Stampede. Winners will be announced on the blog on the last Stamp Highlight day.

Here's how to qualify to win (leave a separate comment for each):

1. Leave a comment on this blog post

2. Become a follower of our blog

3. Like/share us on Facebook:http://facebook.com/mamaelephant

4. Follow/tweet us on Twitter:http://twitter.com/heymamaelephant

Kryssi Ng / Mama Elephant 

Nichol Magouirk 

Lea Lawson 

Cheiron Brandon 

Mariana Grigsby 

Geralyn Sy 

Alice Wertz 

Lindsay Amrheim 

Savannah O'Gwynn 

JJ Bolton 

Jenn Biederman 

Thank you so much for stopping by!!  Come back next week for the start of the DT stamp highlights!  

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Avery Elle June/July Release Highlight: Papel Picado

Hola peeps!  Hola seems appropriate because today I'm back with the stamp set Papel Picado from the June/July Avery Elle release:)  For those of you who aren't familiar with the term Papel Picado, they're beautifully intricate and colorful tissue paper banner flags. Here's a look of the entire set including fantastic matching sentiments (how perfect is that font?).  

For my card, I grabbed some of the brightest, cheeriest colored inks I could find and went to stamping a banner.  After I stamped the banner, I masked each flag and created the background. Nothing but blue skies here!  In my mind, I was picturing a scene with the papel picado banner swinging in the wind during a backyard celebration:)  To fill in the background behind the banner, I used my Fantastix in the cutouts of each banner.  This card just makes me smile:)

Thank you so, so much for stopping by!  I hope you're having a wonderful week!

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Avery Elle & IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko Blog Hop

Today is a fun day because Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko & Avery Elle have paired up for a blog hop!  There are going to be a lot of amazing projects on the hop today showing how well Avery Elle and Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko products work together.  We also have a fun giveaway, so be sure to visit all of the blogs participating.  Here's the list of all the fantastic folks hopping today!

Avery Elle / Jamie
Chunyuan Wu
Nina Yang 
Heather Campbell
JJ Bolton - you're here!
Donna Mikasa
Kasia Curry
Linda Lucas (Lovely Linda)   

Eric Ericson     

Taylor Usry
AJ Otto  

Renee Zarate   

Tenia Renee Nelson  

Kazuko Kocho  

Emily Lanham     

Debbie Gaetz     

Maureen Cronin     

Jennifer Ingle     

Naghma Husain     

John Creighton Petersen

For my hop cards, I used the new Avery Elle release Ikat Additions.  Jamie has given us some really cool new ikat images that you can use with the original set or alone.  With these ikat stamps it is so easy to create your own custom background which is exactly what I did with this card!

First, I stamped my design with Versamark ink (watermark ink) and heat embossed it in clear.  I have to say that Versamark is one of my favorite Tsukineko supplies!  I don't think I've gone a week without using it.  After heat embossing, I gathered up a handful of colorful Memento inks.  To be exact, I used Dandelion, Morocco, Rose Bud, Lilac Posies, Sweet Plum, and Elderberry.  I used my handy dandy sponge daubers (can never have too many of these things) to blend the ink over embossed design.  Don't you just love how rich the color turned out?  I didn't have the heart to stamp a sentiment over the design, so the card has no sentiment:)  The next card I made has a slightly different look but just as colorful!

As you can see, this card uses only one ikat stamp, the chevron.  I stamped chevrons in multiple colors and then cut out three strips.  The strips are attached with a bit of foam tape so that I could feed the twine behind them.  For this card, I used a bunch of the yummy new Memento colors including Morocco, Teal Zeal, Gray Flannel, Lulu Lavender, Expresso Truffle, Nautical Blue, and Pistachio.  I even slipped in a bit of gold in the chevrons (who me?) with some Delicata Golden Glitz ink.  The "hello" sentiment if from the new set Modern Leaves.  

That's it for me today and now it is time for our giveaway!  Leave a comment below and/or on any of the posts in the hop to be entered to win.  There is no purchase necessary and you must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  This giveaway is void where prohibited.  We will be selecting two random winners.  One will win a $50 Avery Elle gift certificate and the other will win $50 worth of Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko product!  You have until midnight PST, June 14th to comment for a chance to win!  The winner will be announced on the Avery Elle blog on Monday, June 17th.

Thanks for hopping with us!!

Mahalo and aloha,
jj

Iron Craft: Colorful Washi Shakers

Good Monday folks!  I'm popping in today to share my Iron Craft project!  Iron Craft  is the brainchild of Chaitali Narla who blogs over Cuts, Crops, and Creativity.  The basic premise is that two designers use the same ingredients (theme, color, products, etc) and see what happens!  A while back, Chaitali asked me to be one of the participants and here we are:)   

As our "ingredients", we used the same product, Avery Elle's rounded diamond dies...

And picked a theme of interactive cards!  For my card, I was inspired by my buddy Donna Mikasa who makes these adorable washi shaker cards (we like to refer to them as washakers, lol).  I adapted the technique to make little shakers!  I used my rounded diamond dies to cut clear card stock (transparencies), filled them up with sequins, and sealed the shaker pockets with washi tape.  The washi tape is very pliable and I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked even around the corners.  I finished the card off with a sentiment from the new Avery Elle set Oh Happy Day.  (The sequins are also from Avery Elle)  I love all the color and patterns of this card!  So cheery!

Thanks Chaitali for the invite (and for putting up with my chaotic schedule and craziness:)!  Hope it was fun!   

Thanks for stopping by!

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Supplies:

Avery Elle June/July Highlight: Texture Tiles: Be Cool

Hi guys!  I'm back with another set from the June/July Avery Elle release:)  I'm so excited because not only is this a fun set, but it was designed by my friend and teamie Nina Yang from Waffleflower!  This set is called Texture Tiles: Be Cool and it comes with a ton of fun graphic elements.   

This is one of those sets that definitely plays well with others:)  I paired it up with a die from the new set Simply Tags (also designed by Nina) and a sentiment from another new stamp set called Oh Yeah.  

First, I used the mini tag die to reverse cut 3 little tags into a gray card stock panel.  Then I went to creating some fun backgrounds with the teeny triangle stamp from Texture Tiles: Be Cool.  The triangles are perfectly spaced so that if you stamp in one color, flip the stamp, and stamp the second color, you get this lovely colorful design!  I created 3 different color combos using this technique (teal/coral, yellow/gray, and navy/red).   The "hello" sentiment from Oh Yeah fits perfectly inside the mini tag frame:)  I added a little bit of baker's twine by punching a small hole into the gray panel and feeding the twine through.  That's it!  

Thank you so, so much for stopping by!  I hope you get the chance to check out Heather's blog today!   

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Supplies: