Seven Hills Crafts Blog

Friday, 5 April 2019

Altenew 5th Anniversary Blog Hop Day 4 + Giveaway

My post is a little later than normal today as I am joining Altenew to celebrate their 5th anniversary as part of their blog hop you should have come to me from the awesome Laurie Willison but if you missed the first part of the hop, head to the blog hop main page at Altenew and start again as you can win prizes by leaving comments too including a gift certificate to spend in our store!

Prizes

Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners and one Altenew Academy class to 10 lucky winners. There are also 14 awesome companies/crafty friends who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:

Altenew: 5 $50 Altenew Gift Certificates
Altenew Academy: 10 Class Spots
Jennifer McGuire Ink: 2 $100 Altenew Gift Certificates
My Sweet Petunia: 1 Prize Bundle(Original MISTI, a set of Creative Corners, a Cut-Align and a bar magnet)
Pretty Pink Posh: 2 $50 Gift Certificates
Simon Says Stamp: $50 Gift Certificate
Scrapbook.com: $50 Gift Certificate
Ellen Hutson LLC: $30 Gift Certificate
Blitsy: $30 Gift Certificate
Online Card Classes: 3 Class Spots
Butterfly Reflections Ink: $25 Gift Certificate
Seven Hills Crafts: £25 Gift Certificate
Chameleon Art Products: 1 Pack of 5 Chameleon Pens
Scrapbook & Cards Today: 1 Copy of Scrapbook & Cards Today Spring 2019 Issue
WOW! Embossing Powder: $20 Gift Certificate
Simply Cards & Papercraft: 1 Copy of Simply Cards & Papercraft Spring 2019 Issue

Be sure to leave comments by 12th April 2019 for a chance to win! 33 winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the blogs on the hop and will be announced on the Altenew Blog on 20th April 2019.

So, now for my projects - I decided to go floral for a change as Altenew do so many beautiful floral sets.

For my first card I used the fabulous Nature Snippets set and the first time I stamped out all the circles I noticed that if you arranged them in a specific order, you could line up the "branches" so it looks as though each circle is a snapshot taken along one continuous branch. I stamped them using inks from the newly released colour sets (Lapis Lazuli, Golden Sunset and Spring Bouquet) and used a black fine liner to add some dotted details to the bloom centres.

The sentiment comes from Shades of Friendship and I used that also to create a fun accent panel down the side of my DL card. I inked a strip of white with the yellow I'd used in the flowers and then used the green to stamp the hexagon patterns randomly and overlapping, sometimes as second generation, to get a grungy feel.

For my second card I wanted to do some marker colouring so selected a gorgeous big bloom from an older set - Engagement Wishes and set about colouring it with markers from the Set D and Set E which I just love.

I coloured the bloom then cut it with the co-ordniating die and set it aside whilst I worked on my background. I die cut the Striped Leaf Cover Plate die from green card and then trimmed out a strip so there was still some white space on the card,

The darker leaf behind the bloom is taken from the Hibiscus Garden 3D die set and was cut from dark green card and then part embossed with Rose Gold Embossing Powder to provide some highlights and to tie it into the colours in the bloom centre which were also highlighted with glitter.

For the sentiment I used the Simply Hello Die and stacked a couple in white for dimension before colouring ombre style using the same markers I coloured the bloom with again to tie the project together.

I hope you've found something to inspire your creativity and are now ready to hop on to Gayarti Murali who will have more fabulousness awaiting you.

You can find everyone taking part in the hop by following the links below:

Gayatri Murali
Hussena Calcuttawala

WOW! Embossing Powder

Laura Jane
Sandra Dietrich

Happy Hopping and Happy Anniversary to Altenew!

Tara

Thursday, 4 April 2019

Crafting in Miniature!

I've been so excited about the products I'm using today ever since I got a peek at them in January - I love anything miniature so these new dies from Tim Holtz and Lynda Kanase that are designed to fit in the snow globe domes are right up my street and means that snow globes aren't just for Christmas either we can use them all year round!!!

For my first card I used the fabulous Tiny Travel Globe set paired with some Lawn Fawn fireworks to create a fun engagement card.

I started with the die cut circle of mist cardstock cut using the circle die in the Tiny Travel Globe set and laid it in place on a A2 piece of Adriatic cardstock so I could work out where to die cut the fireworks. I ran that through the die cut machine and traced the firework centres and some of the lines using Distress Crayons in white and added blob of stickles to their centres.

Whilst that dried I made my teeny-tiny Eiffel Tower, just cutting it from black cardstock and colouring the layers with a silver pen over the top of the black. I die cut a second base tower so I could give the piece more dimension inside the globe.

Once the fireworks were dry I stamped and embossed the sentiments which are both from the Congratulations set from Reverse Confetti and I think the two together are perfect for an engagement.

To finish the card I simply added the tower to the blue circle and carefully piled some tiny shaker beads on top, peeled away the tape from the dome and secured it over the top. Adding the little snow globe base really turns it into something cute and fun!

Whilst I had the Tiny Travel Globe set out, I wanted to make more of the tiny icons - yes they are a little fiddly but nothing that a good pair of tweezers can't manage and they are really fun to put together like a tiny jigsaw! So I decided to forget the domes and pair them with Tim's new Destination die instead to make a fun travel card - this would work well on the front of a travel journal too to give to someone about to set off an adventure.

I die cut the globe from some pale khaki cardstock and then used the "waste" to create a mask so I could ink up some blue seas just inside the die cut area on my white base card. After glueing the map in place I stamped the sentiment directly over the top (firm pressure required to stamp over the die cut onto the card but it does work) and then added my 3 icons roughly over their destinations. The sentiment is another from the Congratulations set from Reverse Confetti.

For my final card, I went from global icons to pain free lepidopterology!

Here I die cut one of the tiny butterflies from the Tiny Nature Die Set by Lynda Kanase from white card and coloured them using Altenew's Set D markers (front and back of the die cut) and then layered them up and because I was going to pop the butterfly in a dome, it meant I could fold it for added depth and just glue it to the base circle down the centre.

I popped it onto some patterned paper and made a frame using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Circle Frame dies both in tonal shades to match the butterfly to bring it all together. The sentiment this time comes from Altenew's Birthday Builder.

Hope this inspires you to give tiny a go. Big isn't always better!

I'll actually be back again tomorrow (sorry!) but this time as part of the Birthday Blog hops for Altenew so do pop back then.

Tara

Wednesday, 3 April 2019

Bunny Antics

Hello, all, Tallie here. Spring is definitely in the air and it's getting close to Easter so my card today is inspired by some cute little bunnies from the Lawn Fawn Some Bunny stamp set. It's not quite the right time of year here to be harvesting carrots, but that doesn't stop these little guys!

I started out by stamping out the bunnies, carrots, watering can and the flower bed in some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending cardstock. I had to stamp the carrot multiple times and I also used the tree stump from the Lawn Fawn Mom & Me set. I used my alcohol markers to colour in the images, cutting them out with the coordinating dies.

On two separate panels, I blended on some Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn/Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon/Broken China. These are my two favourite scene combinations! I cut the both panels with the largest Lawn Fawn Fancy Scalloped Circle Stackable die and then cut the green one twice with the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die to give me a stackable scene. I used some foam tape to layer up some of the pieces to give some dimension.

I used probably my most favourite sentiment combination - the 'Just a Little Note to Say...' and 'Hope you have an Awesome Day!" - from the Lawn Fawn Critter Concert set. This sentiment is perfect for a variety of occasions so the cards can be multi-purpose. I stamped the beginning onto a banner cut using a Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banner die and the end on the inside of the card. I also added the hopping bunny and another carrot to the inside for some extra fun!

It's been good to get back into making some scene cards lately, even if it takes a few more supplies!

Thanks for reading, have a great week.

Tallie

Tuesday, 2 April 2019

Greatest Hits

The Greatest Hits stamp and die sets from Sugarpea Designs were a must have for me as soon as I saw them. I think they are so well designed and I love that the die set works on it’s own as well as with the stamp set.

For my card today, I used mostly the die set and it was so quick and easy to put together.

I went for a pop art vibe, die cutting squares of coloured card stock to create a background, matting them with a large black square on my card base.

I die cut the record four times from black card, then added a die cut label to each, using the same colours as the card stock. I adhered them together them added them to my card.