Paper Smooches August Blog Hop

It's Pep Rally week and we are here today to share a sampling of the NEW Paper Smooches AUGUST release with you!  Four new stamps and EIGHT new dies will be available to purchase on July 31st at 8:00pm pacific time. Once our release goes live, you will find our new products HERE.  

To add extra fun to our blog hop...we are offering up a prize!  The prize - a $25 gift code to choose what you like at the PS online store.

Here are the details:

• FOUR winners will be chosen at RANDOM from any of the design team blogs and the PS Blog to win the $25 prize.
• Just leave a comment on any of the design team blogs listed below or the PS blog for you chance to win!  (you do not need to comment on all blogs to qualify but it increases your changes)
• Deadline: You have until midnight PT on Sunday, August 4th to leave a comment. 
• Please check the Paper Smooches blog on Monday, August 5th to see if you are one of the FOUR lucky winners.  

Emily is taking a small hiatus to care for different things in her life. Kathy Racoosin is filling in for her.  We are so excited to have Kathy join us in August!

Alice Wertz

Ashley Marcu

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Kalyn Kepner
Kathy Racoosin

Kay Miller

Laura Bassen

Laurie Schmidlin

Michele Boyer
Pamela Ho

Teri Anderson

To increase your chances of winning:

•   Tell us that you Facebooked about our blog hop

•   Tell us that you Tweeted about our hop

•   Tell us that you posted on your blog about our blog hop

(which means that you have up to three extra chances to win on each blog)

Are you ready to get a look at one of the new dies?  My card today features the new Easel die and Spreading Sunshine stamp set!  The new Spreading Sunshine set has such lovely, uplifting sentiments.  I know that I will be that set A LOT!  This mini easel was specially made to coordinate with the Spreading Sunshine stamps, which is what I did right here...

I die cut my easel using woodgrain paper for a bit of realism:)  Then I stamped my sentiment in two different colors.  On the card base, I used a scrap piece of paper as a mask to create rays of sun with ink and a blending tool.  The rainy clouds were made using one of the Landscape dies blended with some soft blue ink.  The "raindrops" are just water drops dripped and flicked over the water-based ink.  That's it!

Thanks for hopping with us today!  The next stop on the hop is the fantastic Kalyn Kepner!  Have a wonderful day guys!

aloha,
jj

Watercolored Cards with Avery Elle

Hi guys!  I've got two colorful cards today using some of my Avery Elle stash!  This first card uses the Giraffe Balloon stamp set.  I stamped the balloon with Versamark and heat embossed it in clear onto watercolor paper.  Then I used my Zig Watercolor pens and a water pen over the embossing.  (Love the intense color of the pens)  I cut down watercolored panel using the Double Pierced Rectangle dies because I wanted the clean white background around it.  I finished it off with some acrylic raindrops.

My second card uses the Stay Fresh set.  I love me some pineapples!  (I'm from Hawaii, what can I say?)  But this time, I used the same watercolor pens to create a pink and teal version.  The background is just the one "mahalo" stamp covered with some vellum.  

I really had fun using watercolors with my Avery Elle stamps today!  Thank you SO much for stopping by!

XOXO,

jj

Poppystamps Blog Blitz ~ Holiday 2015

Stop by the Poppystamps blog to check my second post for the new release Blog Blitz!  Just a reminder, you have a chance to win a die for each Blog Blitz post you comment on!  You don't have to comment on all the blog posts (although we hope you are moved to do so), just the ones you want a chance to win:)

I'm featuring the new die Stitched Snowflake Cutouts!

Aloha!
jj

Colorful Paisleys with Paper Smooches

Good morning all!  Can I share a Paper Smooches card with you today?  This card was made using the Paisleys dies.   Just like the Dainty Flowers dies that I used here, these dies are open looped die designs (which I love!).  This time I just used the outline part of the die to create very delicate and airy paisleys.  I colored them with blended ink (splashed with some water) and placed behind a peekaboo panel.  They are attached to the back of the panel, so they appear to be floating over the card base.  Aren't these dies lovely?

Thanks for stopping by today!  Enjoy your weekend!

Mahalo and Aloha,
jj

Chalkboard Tags with Avery Elle

Today, I've a got a quick and easy project for teacher chalkboard tags!  This was so easy, I was able to knock out a few of these tags in just 15 minutes!  I used the Avery Elle teacher set called Little Minds.  The chalkboard frame was made using woodgrain paper die cut with Double Pierced Rectangles dies.  The best part of the rectangle dies is that I could cut a frame for the front and a full panel for the back.  I added a little twine loop just to make it easy to attach to a gift.  

That's it for me today!  Thank you SO much for stopping by!

XOXO,

jj

Essentials by Ellen July Pin-Sights Challenge

I'm so excited to playing along with the July Essentials by Ellen Pin-Sights Challenge!  Have you played along with this challenge yet?  It's super easy.  Basically, just create a piece based upon the Pinterest inspired piece.  For details and to link up your challenge card, go to the CLASSroom:)  Let's take a look at the inspiration, shall we?

I was so inspired by the pic that I made two cards:)  The first uses the Wild Garden dies that have been colored with blended ink.  I really love how blended ink has so much more depth than colored cardstock.  The background is striped paper (Avery Elle) covered with a vellum panel.  Love the contrast of the red, white, and blue:)  BTW, the sentiment is from the Fancy Thanks set.

My next card was inspired by that little image of a golden sparkler in the inspiration piece!  I used some stamps from the Bohemian Garden and Bokeh Dots sets to make a modern-ish fireworks card.  The sentiment is the awesome Brushstroke Peace die.  

Just like my first card, I used blended ink to create the deep blue color.  The "fireworks" were stamped and heat embossed in gold, white, and clear.  

That's it for me today!  Don't forget to link up your card here for a chance to win a $50 GC!  You have until July 31st to link up:)  I hope that you're feeling inspired to play along!  

Mahalo and aloha,

jj

Poppystamps Blog Blitz ~ Holiday 2015

Stop by the Poppystamps blog to check my post for the new release Blog Blitz!   Did you know that you have a chance to win a die for each Blog Blitz post?  As easy as leaving a comment:)  Hope you do!

Aloha!

 

Happy Surprises!

Sometimes things happen that you don't mean to happen, but they seem so right that you just go with it!   I wasn't looking to join another team, but when the opportunity came up with a company that I've always loved, I couldn't resist:)  So today I get to share that I will be joining the Poppystamps design team!   

Thanks so much to Dave, Jeanne, and everyone on the Poppystamps team for the pleasure and the honor!  

aloha,

jj

P.S.  Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks to see some projects using the new Poppystamps release!  Seriously gorgeous stuff!  XOXO, jj

Colorful Triangles with Neat and Tangled

Hi everyone!  I have another Neat and Tangled card to share with you today.  This one uses the Tiny Triangles die!  I used the die to cut a mask that I used to make this card...

I used finger tip blenders to blend various inks in small groupings.  I love the colorful look. And speaking of colorful, I just couldn't  bear to throw away the mask I used to make my first card!  So I layered it over a piece of metallic gold foil paper and created this card...

Just love the jewel colors against the metallic shine of the gold paper.  I really wanted to keep the die cut the focal point of the card, so no sentiment here.  (I'm really digging the "no sentiment" look and I should remind myself to keep a few of these in my stash)

Thanks for stopping by!  

aloha,

jj

Friday with Paper Smooches

How about a couple Paper Smooches cards, today?   My first card uses the new coordinating dies for the too cute Pip Squeaks stamps.

This second card uses the lovely Foliage 1 dies.  I love the shapes of these leaf dies.  For my card, I colored the leaves and the frames with blended Distress Ink.  The background was done with a simple cloud mask and more blended ink.  I spritzed the frame and leaves with a bit of water and I made the background with linen texture paper.  I love how it softens the look of the card.  

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you have a great weekend!  

Mahalo and Aloha,
jj

Fishbowl Shaker with Avery Elle

It's always fun to use dies in unexpected ways:)  Today I experimented a bit with the new Avery Elle Wine Shaker die to create a little fishbowl!  Such an easy way to get more mileage out of your supplies:)  [The little fish and sentiment are from Swim Team and the circle frame was cut with the Double Pierced Circles dies]

That's it for me today!  Thank you SO much for stopping by!

XOXO,

jj

Rainbow World with Neat and Tangled

Hi everyone!  I have another Neat and Tangled card to share with you today.  This one uses the Origami Map stamp designed by my good friend, Miriam Prantner :)  I just got some watercolor powders (Color Burst) and I thought this was the perfect stamp to use it with!  

The powders can be used directly on wet paper, but to get this look, I laid down a layer of water onto a large acrylic block (the card size one).  Then I sprayed the powders onto the block.  After the colors blended a bit (no intervention needed), I laid the paper onto the block.  It's so much fun and next time I'll try to video it.  BTW, I stamped the map after I made the colored background.  And I used Versafine ink to stamp (as a general rule, I use Versafine with water based color media like Distress Inks and watercolors).  

Thanks for stopping in and have a wonderful weekend!  And thanks to Miriam and Danielle at Neat and Tangled!!!

Much love,

jj

Amazing Petals with Avery Elle

I'm a sucker for word dies and the new Avery Elle Amazing die is my new word die crush!  Don't you just love this handwritten font?  Since the die is so bold, I wanted to pair it with something just as bold.  So I used the Petal Plate die to make a shaker, but this time with just half of the die cut.  I filled the "petals" with some of my favorite star sequins:)  So messy, but so cute!

That's it for me today!  Thank you SO much for stopping by!

aloha,

jj