Paper Smooches September Blog Hop

It's Pep Rally week and we are here today to share a sampling of the NEW Paper Smooches SEPTEMBER release with you!  TWO new stamps and TEN new dies will be available to purchase on August 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 30th to leave a comment. 
• Please check the Paper Smooches blog on Monday, August 31st to see if you are one of the FOUR lucky winners.  

Alice Wertz

Ashley Marcu
Emily Leiphart

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Kalyn Kepner

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)

Now, let's take a look at the new die, Birch Trees, in action!  This new die is the perfect thing to get you in the mood for Fall (which I have to admit is my favorite season)!  So for my card, I colored my birch tree in two shades of blended ink, a light grey and a darker grayish-tan.  For the background, I masked off a circle and then blended some clouds in a dusty blue.  

Next I perched a little cardinal (from the Warm Hearts set) on one of the birch branches.  I love that little bird:)  The final step was to add the sentiment (from Scripty Sentiments) which I heat embossed in white on black and then fussy cut.   

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

aloha,
jj

Flip Flop Friday with Paper Smooches

Back-to-school stuff is everywhere, but I'm still holding on to summer!  This Paper Smooches sentiment is just how I'm feeling:)  And what says summer more than flip flops and tropical flowers?  Just a tip, when you put together your die cut flip flops, bend the straps ever so slightly off the card to create a 3D look.  Fun, right?

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

Mahalo and Aloha,
jj

Three for Thursday with Avery Elle

Hi guys!  Just stopping in to share a couple of cards I made with the summer Avery Elle release!  This first card uses the Geek Love set and the matching die.  Instead of die cutting an aperture with the die, I used it to create a mask and blended the background heart.  I love the softness and depth of that blended ink heart:)  To create the panels, I used the Double Pierced Rectangle die set.  

These next two cards were made awhile back, but didn't get a chance to get them up on the blog yet.  Both of these use the Tweet Tweet stamp set.  For the card below, I just chose my favorite of the bird stamps and started stacking them up!  For the overlay panel, I used one of the dies in the Dotted Borders die set to create that wave cut.  

My last card also uses the Tweet Tweet stamp set, but in less obvious way.  This card was inspired by a movie that my mom used to love called Paulie.  It's about a parrot trying to find his way home and it's such a sweet story.  

That's it for me today!  Thanks for visiting!

XOXO,

jj

Double Burst with Avery Elle

Hi everyone!  This summer has been pretty crazy, but I have a couple new cards to share with you today!  These two cards use the really fun Burst die from Avery Elle.  This die is perfect for adding texture and detail without being to busy.  For this card, I used it as a frame for a background I made with watercolor powders.

For this card, I used the burst frame to mimic rays of sunshine.  I trimmed off the closed edge around the die cut so that I could fan out the rays.  

Hope these cards spark some ideas!  Thanks for visiting!

XOXO,

jj