Heartfelt Creations Alumni Team Blog Hop - March 2012!

Hello, Hoppers!  Welcome to our blog hop!  We have some great projects for you to see on some fantastic designer's blogs on this month's Heartfelt Creations Alumni Blog Hop!  The hop started this morning at 8am EST, and closes Friday, March 30 at midnight.  Have fun, enjoy the view, leave some love and grab some incentive free, just for visiting! 

One lucky blogger will be chosen at random to receive a $25 gift certificate from Heartfelt Creations.  The winner will just need to email Emma Lou at  emmalou@heartfeltcreations.us, with "winner of alumni hop March 27" in the subject line.  Good luck!  Each blog will try to post the name of the winner by Saturday, March 31.

Selma's beautiful blog is before mine, so if you missed hers, or any of the other previous ones, you can click on any link to go to it.  Please visit each one, and leave a comment so that you are entered in the drawing!  We don't know which blog will have the prize on it and you won't want to miss any of the beautiful creations either!  The hop order is listed below, but I need to show you my project before I forget.  (Sometimers, don't you know!  hehe)

Flower with petals curled downward

Flower with petal corners curled up

For a church function, I was asked to make 40 3-D flowers to decorate cupcake boxes.  The napkins were the same color, and the pattern was paisley.  The tables were so pretty, all decked out in Spring colors!

Here's the recipe -

HCPC 3375 Flora Grande 1 PreCut Set

HCPC 3374 Flora Grande 2 PreCut Set

HCD 707 Falling Leaves Diecut Set

Paper Blossoms Molding Mat

Acrylic blocks

Spellbinders Blossoms 3 dies

Spellbinders Blossom Tags & Accents dies

Spellbinders Foliage dies

Spellbinders Grand Calibur

Stampin' Up Detail Embossing Powder, white

Stampin' Up's Fresh Fillers stamp set, paisley stamp

Stampin' Up Craft Inkpad, white

Stampin' Up cardstock - Daffodil Yellow, Pretty in Pink & Green Galore

Stampin' Up craft inkpad in More Mustard

heat gun

pop-dots

5/8" wide grosgrain ribbon, green

Scor-tape

Glue of choice

EK Success small butterfly punch

Yellow seed beads from stash

Dry embossing stylus

small paintbrush or dowel rod, 1/8" thick

4" x 4" clear plastic cupcake boxes with insert for positioning cupcake

Scrap piece of cardstock or paper for butterfly

Directions:  Apply rubber stamps to your acrylic blocks, and for each flower, stamp one each of the largest (no.5) through the second to smallest (no.2), using the craft inkpad on yellow cardstock.  Immediately apply the white embossing powder to the wet ink, and heat with heat gun to set.  Position the corresponding sized Blossoms 3 die over each stamped flower, and run through diecutting machine.  Using the paisley stamp and the Classic inkpad More Mustard, stamp all over the flowers on the right side.  Diecut one of the leaf and branches in the Green Galore cardstock for each flower.  Diecut one large scalloped circle flower from the Spellbinders Blossom Tags & Accents dieset out of the Pretty in Pink cardstock.  Punch one butterfly from a scrap piece of corresponding cardstock or paper.  Cut a piece of green ribbon 18" long, and on the same side of the ribbon, apply a 1" piece of scor-tape to each end. 

On the molding mat, use your embossing stylus to break up the paper fibers in the leaves.  Do this on the wrong side of the diecut, causing the leaves to curl up - when leaves are turned right-side-up, they will curl down in a natural way.  On each flower petal, use the paint brush handle or the small dowel rod to curl both sides of the petal down or up, depending on your preference.  Both techniques are shown here.  Apply glue to the center of each of the smaller flowers, and sprinkle on seed beads. Completely cover glue, shaking extra beads off and let dry.

To finish - Apply two pop-dots to the center of the largest flower, right side up.  Stick next smaller flower to center.  Apply another pop-dot to center of this flower, and apply next smaller flower.  The next flower should be the smallest with the beads in the center - apply this one the same way.  Using two or three pop-dots in the center of the pink scalloped diecut, apply the flower to the center along with the leaves. 

Peel the Scor-tape from one end of the green ribbon, wrap ribbon around the box, and overlap ends with the other scor-taped end on top, face up; adhere.  Remove paper from the top Scor-tape and apply the flower.  To finish, fold the butterfly's wings up, put a little glue on the center bottom and position in just the right spot.  Done!

Hint:  Please don't forget to put the cupcake in the box prior to applying ribbon and flower!

FYI - I ran out of the yellow cardstock, so I had to substitute another shade.

Here is the hop order:

olga http://craftieodamae.blogspot.com

Carla: http://carlasstampingspot.blogspot.com/

Selma: http://selmasstampingcorner.blogspot.com/

Clare: http://clarespaperworks.blogspot.com/    <----You are here!

Marsha: http://stampingdownsouth.blogspot.com

Dina: http://mamadinis.blogspot.com

Angelica: http://bellisimavida.blogspot.com/

Linda:  http://paynehollercards.blogspot.com

From my blog, talented Marsha's is the next wonderful blog to visit, http://stampingdownsouth.blogspot.com.  Just click on this link and you will arrive safely!  I hope you have enjoyed your visit, and I know you'll have fun at all the others!  Don't forget to leave a comment on each blog for your chance to win the $25 gift certificate!


Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, and I appreciate you! 

Egg-citing Chocolate Baroque Beauties

Good afternoon, everyone!  I am blessed, humbled and pleased as punch to tell you that Chocolate Baroque, a rubber stamp company in England has asked me to be on their design team!  I am so excited, and their stamps are the most beautiful and extremely detailed stamps I've ever worked with!

Chocolate Baroque has just released a new set called Baroque Eggs, and they are absolutely beautiful!  I'd like to share some Easter cards I made using this set.

There are so many stamps in this set, I don't know if I'll be able to use them all!  So many detailed eggs of many sizes!  Several sentiments too!  http://www.chocolatebaroque.com/UA4SP0385-Baroque-Eggs-Unmounted-stamp-sheet--A4_p_3997.html  These stamps are the best-made I've used thus far in my stamping career!  The deeply etched rubber is very pliable making it very easy to cut, but very strong, and the images stamp out sharp and detailed each and every time!  They come on a sheet, uncut and unmounted so that you can cut and mount them to your preferred method of use.  I used the E-Z Mount sheets, and although very sticky, this method works well.  The other method I use is the Tack 'n Peel sheet on an acrylic block.  This works well too, but your stamp doesn't have the "sponginess", so it's important to make sure the stamp is secure and totally flat on the acrylic block in order to get a good stamped image.  Sometimes, I will use the stamp flat on the desk, face up, and place the paper facedown on the inked image, then use a brayer to roll over the top.  The paper must be held securely so that it does move to smudge the image, and the brayer makes it easy to get every little detail of the image stamped onto the paper.  This is especially beneficial when using large stamps.

Inside the card

I wanted to say that Glenda is very prompt in getting your order out to you in a timely manner.  Since it's coming to you (if you live in the United States) from England, it takes a a few days, but is so worth the wait! 

Here is another Easter card that I made yesterday.  I think these stamps make anything you create with them a wonderful one-of-a-kind piece of art!

This egg stamp is just so gorgeous!  That's another problem I have with these stamps!  There are too many to chose from, and they are all beautiful!  The choice is hard as to which one I'll work with next, or maybe I should use several on the same project!  On this one, I heat embossed the stamped image with white embossing powder, then used a sponge dauber to add the colors to the empty spaces.  I stamped the sentiment, then used a die to cut it out.  I find it much easier to stamp it first, then it's easy to position the die over it where you want it.  I even used the "negatives" of the die cut label for decorating the upper corners.  This card was very easy to make, although it doesn't look like it.

A close-up view of the detailed heat embossing.

Thank you for coming by, and I hope you enjoyed your visit! 

Please feel free to leave a little love in the comments - I need all I can get!  Have a great Eggy day!