Zva Creative September DT Blog Hop!

Zva Creative and our talented Design Team welcome you to join us for our September Blog Hop! We are happy to have you join us and hope you enjoy all that we have to share with you along the way!

The Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative’s blog! Be sure head on over to check it out! Leave a comment there for a chance to win an extra prize package just for visiting the blog and telling us that you stopped by! You will also find a complete list of all the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way).  

As you know, Zva Creative offers many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals.  We want to make sure that they shine bright for you, so each designer was will be sharing a creation using a specific color or color combination on their blog hop project.  If you like what you see you can find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE.

Here's a little early Christmas inspiration. I love using Zva's red flourishes on my special holiday cards.

To play along with our design team, just follow along the blog path.  I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on.  Hidden on FIVE of the designer’s blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts today, September 24th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, September 25th. The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, September 26th on Zva Creative’s blog. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to Zva’s blog on Wednesday.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this Blog Hop post... you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. However, the more times you comment along the blog hop path, the more chances you will have to win.

We also thought it would be more fun to add even more chances to win our blog hop prize!  To increase your chances of winning:

* Comment to let us know that you posted on your Facebook page about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you "tweeted" about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you asked your local store to carry Zva creative products.  If they already do, that's fantastic, maybe you can suggest other products that they don't carry.

*Hop over to Zva’s blog and leave a comment there to tell us that you made it there!

The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative’s blog. And this is your last stop, so if you want to start from the top (or even the middle:) head on back to Zva's blog for a full list of blogs you can visit. Enjoy!

Thank you for joining us!

P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on October 29^th for our next Zva blog hop!

Go-to Gal Blog Hop: Celebrating Holiday Cards & More

Hello & welcome! Thanks for visiting today. Its a fun day because the Go-to Gals are teaming up again for another fun blog hop! We are celebrating the release of the new issue of Paper Crafts Magazine's Holiday Cards & More Vol. 7 by sharing projects that you can create using photos.

In the issue you will find an awesome section on photo cards, so we thought it would be fun to expound upon that and show you a few other things that you can create using your photos.

I love banner garland on Christmas trees. So I decided to create one for our family tree with photos. I'm always putting photo ornaments on it so I can remember what my girls look like each year during the holidays. So I thought... what better way to add photos than as a banner?  That way I get to add more than what one single ornament will hold! And the best part is that I can add to it year after year, making the garland longer as our family ages together.

To create the garland, I simply printed vertical photos as 2"x3" prints and die cut them with Spellbinders™ Nested Pennants. The cardstock behind the photos was cut with the Nested Lacey Pennants. To create the banner without a die cutting machine you would cut your photos with a banner shaped pattern, mount them on colored cardstock and trim around edges with scalloped edge scissors.  Then stitch along tops of banner pieces with a sewing machine.

Want to win a copy of Holiday Cards & More? It really is a stunning issue & will surely put you in the holiday crafting mood (if you are not already there). All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post by Thursday at 11:59 pm and you will be entered to win the copy given away from this blog.

Ok, so now it is time to hop on a see other fab photo creations. Here's a list of all of us that are participating today... I hope you enjoy all that we have created for you!

·  Teri Anderson

·  Julie Campbell

·  Kim Kesti

·  Jennifer McGuire

·  Betsy Veldman

  

And don't forget that you can find inspiration for your holiday projects all week over at Paper Crafts Connection as they celebrate Holiday Cards & More Week! 

i {heart} papers and Zva Creative Joint Blog Hop

Hello & happy Tuesday!

Today I’m teaming up with some of my fellow design team members from Zva Creative and new friends from i {heart} papers to share a new project using Zva’s beautiful crystals and fall patterned paper that is available at i {heart} papers.

We are celebrating a week-long event that is happening over at Paper Craft Planet.  The Planet’s design team, the Super Novas, are hosting some special fall challenges all week that feature both Zva Creative and paper from i {heart} papers. Be sure to stop by, see their lovely creations and be inspired to join in on the fun!

Here are my projects created using Zva's beautiful blings and flowers paired with Jillibean Soup's Country Pumpkin Chowder Soup 6x6 paper pad from the i {heart} papers online store. 

Please leave our designers lots of love and comments along the way because Zva Creative will be selecting one lucky winner who comments along the blog hop to win a Zva prize package worth $30.  All comments must be received by 11:59pm on Wednesday, September 19^th. Winners will be announced on Zva’s blog on Thursday, September 20^th.

i {heart} papers retails the industry's best paper crafting supplies from your favorite manufacturers while offering stellar customer service and super fast and FREE US shipping with any $60 order. (We also ship internationally.) We are proud to offer our exclusive i {stick} papers redline tape, which is manufactured just for us in long-lasting 60 yard rolls, at an amazing price! We also provide a publication incentive for our three private stamp lines, Mint Motif, The Petal Press and Chicken Girl. Visit our website and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and our blog for news, sales, coupons and more!

Zva Creative produces many beautiful color groupings of high quality pearls, flowers and crystal embellishments that can be used on scrapbooking, card making and mixed media projects. Visit Zva’s gallery or blog for great project ideas and to find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva click HERE.

From here, you have officially finished the hop. You can start from the beginning or find a list of participating blogs at Zva's blog.  Thanks for visiting, and enjoy the hop!  And don’t forget to also visit Paper Craft Planet this week for much more inspiration and fun challenges!

Embossed Birthday

Hello all!

Thanks for stopping by today! I suspect that most of you are stopping over from the Paper Crafts Connection blog where I had a post up talking about all of the fun crafting holidays that are coming up in September alone. If not, you can check it out HERE if you like.

In my post, I shared a card that had some embossing on it that was created with metal dies. Here's a sneak of what the embossing looks like.

And as promised I have a quick tutorial today showing you how to use your dies to emboss only on a paper project.

1) Start by arranging your die templates on your paper. To create the sun's rays above, I layered four nesting die templates on a card stock rectangle and embossed with out cutting the shape out. Secure with a low tac (washi tape works wonderfully).

2) Build sandwich using the embossing feature only on you die cutting machine.  On the Spellbinders™   Grand Calibur®  die cutting machine, you'll be using the base plate, embossing mat and embossing plate.

3)  Run sandwich through machine.

And that's it. Very simple and a great way to add texture to your project!

Variations: If you are embossing a pattern onto your paper using a single die, then you would run the die template through your machine multiple times to obtain a repeat pattern of the single die template.

Please let me know if you have any questions & have a lovely day!

Products used:

Spellbinders - Grand Calibur

Spellbinders Labels Twenty-four

*Crate Paper PRETTY PARTY 12 x 12 Paper Collection Kit 680046

Papertrey Ink White Cardstock

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