Avery Elle May Release Blog Hop

Happy May People!!!   Are you enjoying the Avery Elle May Blog Hop?  So many fun things are coming out this month!  

My first card today uses the awesome new Father's Day set called The Man!  I can always use more masculine sets, and I love the style of this one.  Modern, fresh, and loving without being sappy:)  You laugh, but that combo is hard to find!

I knew that I wanted to use the bubbly bottle for my card but instead of beer, I went "pop"!  First I stamped the bottle and soda in a yummy orange. {Just a tip, it's easier to stamp the soda part first and then the outline}  I used my Silhouette to cut out the simple "pop" and glued it over the bottle with some foam tape.  I added a bit of colorful paper at the top (October Afternoon Midway) and some orange "bubbles" (My Minds Eye enamel dots).  I really love how this turned out!  Colorful and still masculine:)

My second card is a quickie that I made using one of the new dies I introduced earlier this week in this post.  For this card I used the Chevron Border in a slightly different way! 

To get this look, I layered 3 chevron borders in 3 different colors.  All 3 layers were glued together and glued to the card base under a circle cut out.  A simple and compact sentiment from All Squared Up was the perfect sentiment to finish it off!   Are you thinking how you could do this other colors?  Fun, right?  

That's it for me today!  I won't hold you up because there's so much more to see!  Just remember, the new release is available in the store now!  No teasing for weeks here;)  

Before you fill up your cart, you may want to check out all the amazing projects in store for you today!  Here's the blog line up if you've just started...

Jamie Gracz (Avery Elle blog)

 Chunyuan Wu
Nina Yang
Heather Campbell

JJ Bolton (you are here:)

Amy Kolling (guest designer)
Donna Mikasa

Kasia Curry

Don't forget, to celebrate the May Release Blog Hop, Avery Elle is giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to one winner!  You have until Sunday, May 5th midnight EST to enter.  The winner will be announced on the Avery Elle blog on Monday, May 6th.  All products are available for purchase in the Avery Elle store right NOW!!!

To increase your chances of winning:

• Comment on any of the design team's posts and the Avery Elle blog
• Tweet the contest (we are @averyellestamps)
• Share with your friends on Facebook (we are www.facebook.com/AveryElle) and make sure they tell us you sent them
• Pin one of the April Release projects from the Avery Elle blog or the design team blogs to Pinterest
• Like us on Facebook (comment on the Avery Elle blog if you like us or already like us)
• Become a blog follower at the Avery Elle blog (comment on the Avery Elle blog if you become  a follower or are already a follower)
• Join our Flickr group (comment on the Avery Elle blog if you join or are already a member)

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

New Release Giveaway!

Just wanted to quickly let folks know about the giveaway I'm offering! This new giveaway has a bit of twist:)  If you decide to play along, you could win my 2 new dies or a $20 Avery Elle gift certificate!

Check out the details here! 

Mahalo,
jj

Avery Elle Sneak Peek: Chevron Bits & Border Dies

I'm so excited today to be giving you a sneak peek of two dies that I designed coming out for May at Avery Elle!  The card above uses the Chevron Border die (the sentiment is also from the new release)!  As you can see this die perfectly fits an A2 card (the die measures 5-1/2" X 1-1/4").  You can use it as a border die or use it to quickly cut diamond pieces that can be used to build all kinds of patterns!

The design of the border die was inspired by this chevron card that I created almost a year ago.  I designed the Chevron Border die to give you a similar look but a lot quicker and easier.  The second set I designed is called Chevron Bits.  This set has 6 dies in all.  Some coordinate with the Chevron Border and some are totally new shapes.  These dies are all separate pieces so you can use them for positive and negative die cuts.    

The card below uses the diamond shape from the Chevron Bits set with pieces from the Chevron Border to create a new totally custom look!  I'm a big fan of getting the most out of your tools, and with these dies, there are endless possible combinations!  This is just the beginning of what can be done with these dies:) I hope the projects I've shared today whet your appetite for the Avery Elle May Blog Hop on May 2nd!  

The new release will be available on May 2nd in the store and Jamie is showing more sneak peeks of the rest of the release over at the Avery Elle blog now!  There are lots of goodies this month, so go check them out!  

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Avery Elle April Release Highlight: Link It Up

Hi guys!  Today Kasia and I have our final April release projects to share!  I'm working with the stamp set Link It Up!  This set includes 3 border stamps in fabulous modern chain patterns!  

This is one of those sets that just sneaks up on you:)  Once you start using it, you realize that it is so versatile!  I decided to stamp it across the top and bottom of my card in a soft gray (Wet Cement from Hero Arts for those taking note;)  For a bit of color, I used Copic markers to color in the boxes created by the pattern.  

To finish it off, I stamped and fussy cut the large bloom from Petals and Stems and stamped a sentiment from All Squared Up.  I love how all these sets work together!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Hop on over to Kasia's blog today too! She's highlighting the set Bonjour !

Avery Elle is gearing up for May's release, and I hope to see you back the first week of May!  So much goodness next month:)

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Mama Elephant April Stamp Highlight: Flashy Letters

***please scroll down for my Waltzingmouse Stamps Flower Show post***

Hi guys!  Today is the last day of the Mama Elephant April release highlights!  Thanks for visiting everyday and for all your sweet comments:)  The final set of the release is the super fun Flashy Letters!   (Which are available on the site NOW by the way) 

This set is all the things I love about Mama Elephant!  Bold, graphic, and versatile!  The lines on this font are so lovely that I had to go full on CAS with this one:)  I stamped the sentiment in my favorite Versafine Onyx onto a linen texture cardstock panel.  Then I cut the sentiment directly down the middle.  Behind the gap, I adhered a piece of metallic gold to the card base.  The split panel is lifted up a bit with foam tape.  And that's that:)  Something about the classic simplicity of this card just makes me happy!  

Thank you for dropping in all week!   I hope that you get a chance to drop by the rest of the DT to see what fun they had with this alpha set! 

Mama Elephant/Kryssi 

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

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

April Waltzingmouse Stamps Flower Show

Good morning all!  How about we celebrate this lovely Spring Friday with a flower show?  Specifically a Waltzingmouse Stamps Flower Show!  I have been a fan of Claire and Waltzingmouse Stamps for a long time.  In fact, the WMS Sketch Challenge was the very first card challenge I ever entered!  So, of course when she asked if I would join the Flower Show blog hop, I was ALL IN:)  Let's get to the flowers, shall we?  

For my first card, I used WMS's lovely Folk Art Medallion stamp set.  This builder set has so many wonderful elements that just fit together perfectly!  I started by stamping the large flower medallion and added in all kinds of elements in bright cheery colors.  Then I stamped the small circle medallion in the same colors and cut it with my circle punch.  To temper some of the hot colors, I created a vellum frame overlay to go over both of the medallions.  This softened up the colors and gave me a place to stamp the sentiment (from Say It Loud).  

Here's a closer look.  I love how you can have a complex background but it doesn't look too busy (or at least I hope not!).  

My second flower card uses the WMS stamp set Camellia.  This card is heat embossed in gold onto black card stock.  The corners have a bit of metallic cardstock to frame the embossed panel.  Complete easy, but really dramatic!  {After repeated tries, I only got one good pic of this card!  If anyone has any tips on capturing black and gold, I'm all ears.}  Doesn't that Camellia stamp beautifully?  

That's it for me!  Now I'm off to see what the other gals have created!  You know it's going to be amazing!  Here's the list of flower show hoppers today...

Claire/Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog

Taheerah Atchia
Debbie Olson
Meredith MacRitchie
Aneta
Kimberly Crawford
Emilie Chamel
Pauline Pollington
Anne-Elise
Suezie Howard
JJ Bolton (you are here)
Helen Berry

To celebrate the flower show, Claire will be hosting a challenge to CASE one of the projects from the flower show blog hop!  Don't worry, you've got until April 23rd to create your own flower projects:)  One lucky person picked at random will win 5 stamp sets!  Check out the WMS Blog for details!  

Thanks for stopping by!  And big thanks to Claire for letting me play along:)

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Mama Elephant April Stamp Highlight: Central Park

***please scroll down for my Avery Elle/A Blog Named Hero post and my CASE Study post***

Hey y'all!  Welcome back for the next Mama Elephant's April release highlight!  The new release is already available in the store as we feature the new releases one by one:)   The third set to highlight is Central Park!  You've already seen me use this set this week during the Stampede, but I've got one more card to show you:)

I'm a big fan of NYC, so you know I love this set!  My sister and I used to take regular trips up to NYC and we loved every minute of it!  Each trip lasted only a few days, but those trips were packed with fun train rides, stays at gorgeous boutique hotels, and shopping for EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE!  It also included lots of scary cab rides, lol!  Well, this cab ride isn't so scary;)

What a shocker, I used the cityscape stamp (again).  I love the large scale of it!!  I split it in two to make a background and plunked a cute yellow cab right in the middle.  The "road" was made by masking the shape and blending black Distress ink over it.  I used a white gel pen to create the road lines.  [The trick is to draw in the lines shortest to longest to really emphasize the perspective]  Really fun to do!

I hope you enjoyed the card today!  Please be sure to visit the other Mama Elephant team members and see what they did this fun set!

Mama Elephant/Kryssi 

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

JJ Bolton (you are here)

Come back tomorrow for the last highlight from the April release!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj