Simply Inspired Blog Hop: Seasonal Expressions 1

I am so excited! It's the Holidays. And there is a new Seasonal Expressions full of fun new stuff. And because of that, we are blog hopping again. Time to share some great ideas with new product that will inspire you!

You should be arriving here from the lovely and talented Michelle Snyder's blog. Should you get lost along the way, simply go here to find your way. And now on to it!

Valentine's is right around the corner and I don't know about you, but my house always seems a little bare after Christmas and I don't have that many Valentine decorations. The Seasonal Expressions is full of great Valentine's stuff so I dove right in to make some Valentine decor.

I started with the Heartstrings Paper Packet and the Forever in My Heart stamp set. I've been experimenting a little bit with mixed media lately so I grabbed a canvas and started getting messy.

  

I embossed this little cherub in white and sponged around him. He didn't pop as much as I hoped so I shaded around him a bit and added a cute little puffie bow. 

I love the way this heart turned out embossed. And yes, the multi-medium made the black ink on Love Struck bleed just a little but I don't care. This is supposed to be messy, right? And I love the arrow badge from the Heartstrings Assortment. I loved these badges so much I used two.

More puffies (these are so stinking cute) and a few stickers from the Heartstrings complements...

  

And ta da! A finished canvas. This was so much fun. I used the Heart embossing folder and some Whisper cardstock to add a little more texture. I almost can't wait for Christmas to be over so I can display this (I said almost). 

I hope I've inspired you. And now on to the wonderful Lisa Stenz's blog. Happy Blog Hopping!

Want to Win a Stamp Set?

Everyone likes to win, right? Well, in August, Close to My Heart is giving away 25 E size acrylic alphabet sets. Just watch the video below and follow the instructions to enter yourself to win. You could win my current favorite alphabet, the Framework Alphabet. I used it on the canvases in my last post to do the initials and I used it on this fun pocket album to stamp "my Stuff".

Yup, I played a teeny bit with mod podge on this one too. I botched the paint job on the y but hey, I wanted it a little bit grungy and that is the story I'm sticking to.

The video is less than a minute and a half and has cute samples so watch it and then enter to win. Good luck!

Playing with Mixed Media

Most of the time, I am a paper, glue, ink and scissors type of gal. Once in a while I may dabble in paint but that's getting pretty brave for me.

However, after playing with a little mod podge back in March, I decided there was a whole world of creativity out there waiting to be experienced. So, I recently dabbled a bit. And here was my result.

I started with 6x6 canvases. I cut overlays from the Cricut artbooking cartridge and used those to stencil with some acrylic paint (I mixed white with reinkers to get custom colors). Add some Proplayer paper and Proplayer assortments, the notebook paper stamp from the Cricut Artbooking collection stamp sets (this has got to be my favorite stamp and Cricut cut) and the new Framework Alphabet Stamps and these were actually pretty quick.  Avoid using mod podge or any multi-medium directly on the stamped images unless you are using pigment ink and avoid using the multi-medium on photos. It's not pretty. I am definitely not the expert on this but I am having fun with it.

 

 I'm wrapping up a Claudine Hellmuth class on Big Picture Classes so there may be some more mixed media appearing on this blog in the future. I really am enjoying it. But know you can always count on me for paper, scissors and ink creations. Always.