Avery Elle: Needle Little Love

Happy almost Friday folks!   Just quickly stopping in this morning to share a card that I made with the Avery Elle stamp and die set, Needle Little Love!  Have you noticed that handcrafted is THE thing to do these days?  Handwritten fonts and calligraphy.  Knitting and crocheting.  And lots of stitching and sewing!  Cue the card;)

This fun die makes it so easy to create a stitched embellishment for your cards.  You could go folksy and do some cross-stitching.  Or maybe you want to try a custom monogram.  I went CAS and rainbow (shocker, I know)!  Totally easy to do even without a needle;)  Raise your hand if this card reminds you of a rainbow shirt or sweater you had in the 80's!  Heehee!   

Until next time!  Have a wonderful rest of the week:)  

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj

Avery Elle February/March Release Blog Hop

Hello everyone!  It's time for the Avery Elle February/March Release Blog Hop!  The previews have been rolling out on Avery Elle blog all week and they are available in the store right now!  Today, I'm working with the Simply Said Hello word die and coordinating stamp set!  This new word die is very similar to Love die that came out last release (which is awesome;).  Here's my first go at it!

All the loops in the word die got me thinking about how I could incorporate them into  a design.  So I thought, let's try embroidery thread:)  I love how it turned out!  And the coordinating "sunshine" stamp was the perfect addition.  I stamped it with the new Avery Elle white ink and look how vibrant it is!  Love it!  Very white, white!

For my next card, I did a technique I like to call stacked stamping.  You've seen me do it a number of times before (such as here, here, here, and here), but this time I had 3 different layers.   The card base, the word die, and the angled reverse cut panel (whew!).  The flower stamp is from the set Petals and Stems and it's one of my faves!  All 3 parts were done separately (with the help of a stamp positioner) but they were all colored with a Copic at the end.  This last step with the Copic really brings depth and makes all 3 pieces come together.  

Here's a close up of the die cut stacked over the card base.  Love how it blends in!

Those are my cards for today!  I hope that you go check out the new release and check out all the lovely project my teamies have in store for you today!  Here's the full list... 

Avery Elle / Jamie
Chunyuan Wu
Larissa Heskett
Nina Yang
Heather Campbell
JJ Bolton (you are here)
Yainea
Kasia Curry
Maska Vanacker 

And of course, to celebrate our February/March Release Blog Hop, Avery Elle is giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to one random winner.  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 of winning. You have until midnight Sunday, February 9th to enter.  The winner will be announced on the Avery Elle Blog on Monday, February 10th .  All products are available for purchase in the Avery Elle store right now.

To enter to win you can do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or all 6 of the following to increase your chances:

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 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)

Mahalo and Aloha,
jj

WCMD: I {heart} you

I made this card over the weekend for WCMD, but I'm just now getting around to posting it:)  Earlier this year I worked on some feather cards and ever since then, I've been smitten with feathers!  Today's card is a CASE of one of those feather cards, but this time I thought I'd try an embroidery floss version:)  I've tried this method before but this is the first time I'm happy with how it turned out!  It's not a difficult method, just time-consuming.   

I didn't have a sentiment to fit, so I wrote one up and printed it on the computer.  I used the Silhouette to cut the shape of the feather (just a quick freehand version), but I'm sure it could be done with an xacto knife.  In the interest of sharing, I'm going to show you the back side of the card as it was being made.  Brace yourself because it's a HOT MESS:)   

Here's the Cliff Notes version of the process...A piece of black twine was taped down as the spine of the feather down the middle of the die cut feather.  I outlined the die cut with scortape.  One by one, I hand tied a piece of floss to the black twine (one overhand knot) and anchored it on each end to the scortape to either side.  Like I said, easy but tedious.  I really like how it turned out, so don't be surprised if this technique shows up again.   

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the week!

{Aloha, jj}

Supplies

Paper:  Speckled (Avery Elle)

Fibers: Embroidery floss

Tools: Silhouette, Corner Chomper