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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It's the most wonderful...

...time of the year! Oh yes! Paper Crafts September/October 2012 issue is on sale! That means that it is time to commence holiday paper crafting... starting with my favorite time of the year... HALLOWEEN!

Let the fun begin & have a great holiday weekend!

PS... Mark your calendar! World Card Making Day (Oct. 6th) is coming up! It's a great time to start making those holiday cards;) To find out how you can participate in all of the festivities, click HERE. 

Go-to Gal Challenge: Simon Says Stamp

Hi everyone!

Today is a fun day because the Go-to Gals are teaming up for another installment of Go-to Challenge!  On a select Wednesday of the month the Go-to Gals take turns picking a manufacturer and challenge each other to create something using products from that manufacturer. It's a fun little hop to see how we put some of our favorite goodies to use. There are really no rules... some times we all play, some times we don't.  But it will ALWAYS be fun!

Today we are all featuring some products that have been newly released by...

I had the pleasure of combining two of Simon's stamp sets Absolutely Delightful and Beautiful Words with Delicate Dahlia as a background for my card. 

Simon Says Stamp's stamps are fabulous and have quickly become a favorite of mine. I've used the banner stamp from Beautiful Words set six times already! That's a lot of usage for me:) I simply love layering it with a sentiment to create a banner that almost pops the words right off the card. I hope you like it! 

Now don't forget to visit each Go-to Gal and leave everyone some love because we each have one of Simon's new dies to give a way to one lucky hopper who visits our blog today. All comments must be received by midnight EST on Thursday, August 30th-- thank you!. 

Teri Anderson

Julie Campbell

Kim Kesti

Jennifer McGuire 

Betsy Veldman

AND check out the colossus prize that is up for grabs over at Paper Crafts Connection. Boy oh boy, it is a good one!  Lovely Heidi from Simon Says Stamp one generous gal! We just love her... if you've never shopped Simon before, please give it a try... it is such a great shop for all of your stamping needs. 

Products used:

InLinkz.com

Zva Creative August DT Blog Hop!

Zva Creative and our talented Design Team welcome you to join us for our August 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 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.

On my fun and whimsical congrats card I layered Zva's NEW pink crystal flourishes (item # CRW- 05CB-122) with some of Zva's pink paper roses on Crate Paper's chip board flower sticker.

If you would like 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. Be prepared to be inspired along the way!

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, August 27th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, August 28th. 

The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, August 29th 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. Your next stop is the blog of the very talented Nicole Martel. Enjoy!

Thank you for joining us!

P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on September 24^th for our next Zva blog hop!

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PLAY

This one is for my baby girl who will start Kindergarten in less than a week. I will never forget this day, she was just so cute... toddling around the yard in that big smile, darling pink stripped dress, matching shoes, and  ringlets in her hair. You hung from those "monkey bars" just like your big sister... SO BIG! Now as you go off to Kindergarten I will miss the days of just hanging out and playing with you... and most I will miss your little hugs... the ones that sneak up from behind, squeeze my legs real tight and nearly trip me to the floor because I don't know they are coming. The ones that are accompanied by the "I love you" in your little tiny voice.

So from the words of Michael Jordan...  I hope that you get to spend all of the days of your young life just playing. Having fun and most importantly enjoying the game of life that you play each and every day!.

My page was created with Spellbinders™ Cut • Fold • Tuck die templates  S5-113 Floral Burst and LF-191 Grand Dahlia.

You can find a complete list of supplies over at Spellbinder's Idea Gallery HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy weekend!

Duct Tape Roses & Blog Hop Winners

Happy Wednesday! I'm blogging over at Paper Crafts Connection blog today! Click on over for a tutorial on how to make the duct tape roses that I created below and a for chance to win your own stash of  duct tape:)

Also, don't forget to check  Zva Creative's blog today to see if you were one of our July blog hop winners!

Products used on notebook:

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