Avery Elle Inspiration Blog Hop!

Hi friends!

Happy Friday Eve! I am super excited to be guest designing with Avery Elle in September, and to kick things off, Jamie was so sweet to invite me to participate in the Avery Elle August/September Inspiration Blog Hop!  You should have arrived here from Chunyuan's blog, but if not, head over to the Avery Elle blog and pick up the entire hop from there!

My hop project features a set from the new release earlier this month, Suzani, and lots and lots of embossing powder. ;o)

Suzani is a super versatile set and I can't wait to share more ideas in the coming weeks.  For this card, I used Suzani to replicate a folk art floral look. I stamped and heat embossed the flowers and medallions one at a time on a panel die cut from Avery Elle's Sapphire cardstock. Between colors, I wiped the panel with an embossing buddy to keep any stray powder in check.  In fact, I used the embossing buddy so much, I am going to refer to it as my "embossing bestie" from now on! 

As a final touch, I embossed a sentiment from Oh Happy Day in white Filigree powder.  I think the Filigree powder does a great job of capturing the details of this pretty font.

You can't have a blog hop without prizes! To celebrate AE's August/September Inspiration Blog Hop, Avery Elle is giving away a $25 Gift Certificate to one random winner.  To enter to win just leave a 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 have until midnight Sunday, September 1st to enter.  The winner will be announced on the Avery Elle Blog on Monday, September 2nd .  

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 of winning:

1. Comment on any of the design team's posts and/or 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)

Your next stop on the hop is Nina!  And just in case, the entire hop order is below:

Avery Elle / Jamie

Chunyuan Wu

Katie Gehring - you are here :)

 Nina Yang

Heather Campbell

JJ Bolton

Donna Mikasa

Maska Vanacker

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Katie

Supplies:

Cardstock: White, Sapphire (Avery Elle)

Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko)

Stamps: Oh Happy Day, Suzani (Avery Elle)

Embossing powder: Grapefruit, Mustard, Lavender, Wave, Rouge, Butter, Leaf (American Crafts Zing embossing powder), White Filigree powder (Stewart Superior)

Dies: Stitched rectangles (Lil' Inker Designs)

Ikat Happy Birthday

Hello friends,

Happy Tuesday!  A few weeks ago, I received my issue of Paper Crafts Magazine's Holiday Cards and More and fell in love with the talented Bethany Stepppflug's Ikat Greetings Card that appears on page 60 of the issue.

I decided to employ the same set Bethany used for her trendy holiday card, Irresistibly Ikat by Papertrey Ink, and create a birthday version of Bethany's holiday masterpiece.

After figuring out the center of the panel, I stamped the Ikat V in a zigzag pattern using MFT's Berrylicious (Blue).  Next I added the rounded diamonds in MFT's Razzle Berry and Hero Arts Orange Soda.  The yellow ink in the center of the pink diamonds is Hero Arts Butter Bar. 

I stamped the sentiment in black ink and accented it with a few yellow enamel dots. The stamped panel was then adhered to a Razzle Berry cardstock base. 

That's all for me today. Bethany, thank you for the awesome inspiration!

Katie

Neat and Tangled's Birthday Bash

Hi friends,

I am over at the Neat and Tangled Blog today with a card to share in honor of Neat and Tangled's First Birthday Bash.

Stop on by and see what I have been up to! 

Have a great weekend!

Katie

Wishing you... PIE

Well, maybe not pie in the traditional sense, but a pie CHART filled with all kinds of good wishes for a couple starting out.  I got some crafty time this weekend and made a card for this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.  My card this week's was inspired (loosely) by the inspiration sketch.

The hot-air balloon from the sketch became a pie-chart. I used the Notebook Paper set to stamp the lined background.  The sentiments came from the Chart Toppers set, and the little male and female icons are from Off the Charts.  The pie chart is a set of sticky notes that I picked up from the dollar spot at Target.  Some washi tape takes the place of the sketch clouds. 

Here is a look at this week's sketch.  You have a couple hours yet this evening to link up your take and play along. :)

That's all for me today!  Thanks for stopping by! 

Katie

Let's Eat Cake- Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hello and good morning!

I am so excited to be participating today in the Little Tangles Birthday Blog Hop!  Neat and Tangled is celebrating its first birthday this month and to celebrate we are having a Let's Eat Cake blog hop.  You should have arrived here from Suzanne Dahlberg's blog. If not, check out the Little Tangles blog for the full hop order.

With all this cake happening on the blog hop today, I thought, what goes better with cake than a cold glass of milk?  And if the milk can be drunk through cupcake adorned straws, all the better!

I paper-pieced the cupcake from Sketchy Cupcakes onto scalloped circles.  I attached the scalloped circles to paper straws with foam tape. The patterned papers are from Dear Lizzy's Lucky Charm 6 x 6 paper pad. 

I also made a little card to match the straws: 

So you can't have a birthday party without prizes, and Danielle is giving away an amazing prize to celebrate Neat and Tangled's first birthday.... the entire Year One Neat and Tangled stamp collection!!!! 

To enter, just leave a commnt below and on all the stops along the blog hop.  One lucky commenter will win every Neat and Tangled stamp that Danielle released over the past year.  Danielle is also giving away two $5.00 gift certificates too- perfect for treating yourself to some yummy sequins! You have until August 24 to hop along and comment.  The winner will be announced on August 25.

And don't forget to link up your cakey projects to the Little Tangles blog!  You have until September 1 to play along! 

Your next stop on the hop is Heather Hoffman!  Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Thank You "Deer"

Good morning and happy Monday!

I am playing along today with the Trendy Triangle Challenge that Cath is hosting over at the Moxie Fab World.  In the inspiration photos that Cath shared with us teeing up the challenge, there was a deer head brooch comprised of triangles.  I clearly found that piece of jewelry intriguing and used that as the inspiration for my card.

Using my Silhouette Portrait, I cut a deer's head and mounting plaque from black cardstock. Next, I ran the die cut shape through my xyron to add adhesive all over the front of the die cut. I then covered the deer with triangles that I cut from cardstock using PTI's Triangle cover plate. 

I flipped the die cut over and using scissors and a sharp crafty knife, I trimmed away the excess bits and pieces of cardstock.  I am not going to lie, this was a painstaking process and got me wondering how I could have done this better/more easily. I also learned that I needed to glue down the edge triangles as the pressure from the scissors and knife had a tendency to dislodge the triangles. 

I mounted the deer's head to it's plaque with a bit of foam tape and stamped the sentiment from Avery Elle's Modern Leaves stamp set in black ink. 

Here is a look at the jewelry that inspired this card: 

{photo credit}

You have Monday, August 19th to link up your take on this triangular challenge.  Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Sparks Challenge- thanks bunches

Hi all!

Happy Sunday!  I found a bit of crafty "me time" yesterday and made a card for this week's Sparks Challenge.  This challenge this week is to incorporate sheer or clear elements. I came up with this card:

This card used Crystal Clear, Calico and Many Thanks. I used this technique that Betsy Veldman showcased on her blog a few weeks back to make my mason jar look a little more realistic.  I die cut the jar from Hawaiian Shores paper and stamped the jar outline and the stems.  I overlayed the jar with vellum and stamped and embossed "Ball" from Crystal Clear with clear powder.

Finally, I stamped Thanks Bunches onto a tag and tied it to the jar with twine.

The photo above shows the embossing a little better. 

Well that's all for me today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Avery Elle- I {heart} you July Challenge

Hello friends!

TGIF!  Just popping in briefly to share a card I created for this month's Avery Elle AEI(heart)U challenge.

This month's photo challenge was all about arrows, so used the arrow top from Oh Yeah and stamped it repeatedly in the pink, yellow and blue colors featured in the inspiration photo.  

Once the stamping was complete, I trimmed a sliver of Fog cardstock, ran it through my xyron and adhered it to the card to make the arrow shaft.  The sentiment is from Oh Happy Day and a couple of enamel dots from Basic Grey finish off the card. 

Here is a look at this month's inspiration photo: 

You have until Sunday, August 4th to link up your take on the inspiration photo!  Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by!
Katie