May 2023 Pinkfresh Studio Grand Prize WIN

Hello friends.  A couple of months ago in May, I was a lucky girl to win the GRAND PRIZE at Pinkfresh Studios.  That means they send you one of EVERYTHING they released that month...stamp sets, coordinating dies, stencils, and hot foil plates!  We're talking anywhere between $300 - $400 worth of product...FREE!! And Pinkfresh Studios does this every month for 2 lucky winners!  I think it is amazing that they are SO generous every month, and I was just grateful to be one of the lucky winners!!  Thank you, THANK YOU Pinkfresh Studios!!  

Last week Monday my sweet friend Michele and I played with the Pretty Blossoms stencil set that you can see HERE, but I still had a LOT of stamps, stencils, dies, & hot foil plates to play with, so I spent most of this past week making cards using all the new goodies.  I managed to use everything but The Magic is in You set, but I will get to that at some point down the road.  I had to play with the Pretty Blossoms set again, but I also used the Delicate Foliage set, the Handpicked Flowers set, and the Butterfly Garden set.  So anyway, this is a loooooong post and very picture heavy!  Hope you can hang in there!!

The Delicate Foliage set has a hot foil plate, so I foiled the leaf image in silver prism foil and it's so pretty when the light hits it!

It also has a coordinating stencil set, although I have to admit I struggled a bit because this stencil set doesn't line up completely with the foiled (or stamped) images of the leaves.  After going to their website to check it out and finding it was intended to be that way (kinda artsy!), I relaxed and just kind of did my own thing.  Did a bit of ink blending on my background and then used foam tape on the back of the leaves  before placing it on the ink blended card base.  A few gems and the included sentiment finished off this card.

This card and my next card both use the Handpicked Flowers stamp, die & stencil set, and the background on this card uses the Diagonal Stitched Plaid coverplate die.  I love the soft yellow and blue color combo on this one!

My die cut Hello comes from the Perfect Sentiments stamp and die set, and a few silver metallic pearls added a little bling to finish off this card.

This card isn't too much different than the previous card, just a color change with reds & pinks this time, and then the background is the Stitched Diamonds coverplate die.

I did add a piece of red cs behind the die cut flowers, and popped the flowers up on foam tape, so it's fun to see a bit of that solid red peeking through.  I also added a thin red strip of cs on the side and then finished with a few red gems and some black & white twine.  The die cut sentiment is part of the Handpicked Flowers set.

 This card is one of those that looks so much prettier in real life!  The embossed background piece is really a tea rose color (Gina K) and not the peach color that my camera was picking up.  I used a rubber mat and the hot foil plate to the Pretty Blossoms set to emboss the cs and it makes such a lovely background!  I used the Butterfly Gardens stamp set for my top layer and embossed it in silver before using the coordinating stencils to color in all the leaves, flowers & butterflies.

I used the Slim Ornate Banner Dies to cut this top layer and then added foam tape to the back before layering it over the embossed background.  A piece of ribbon (SU!), a few pink gem stones, and the sentiment (also from the Butterfly Gardens set) finished off this sweet card.

I think this 5th card turned out to be my favorite because of the colors...YELLOW is my favorite color after all!!  I went back to the Pretty Blossoms set and used the hot foil plate and Aura foil to make my top layer and the stencils to color it all in.  I then die cut it and added it over top of a yellow layer that I used my rubber mat and the hot foil plate to emboss with.

I used foam tape once again so you could see the back layer better...isn't that embossing so pretty peeking through the die cut areas?!  I used the Fancy Script Words hot foil plate with more of the Aura foil for my birthday sentiment and that finished off this card.

My last card came about after I had foiled the yellow card and had the leftover piece of foil that had all the outlines for the flowers and the rest being solid gold and it was just too pretty to throw away!  So I used a solid circle hot foil plate with the leftover piece of foil and ended up with this beautiful foiled circle!

I used the Butterfly Garden set again and embossed it in gold before stenciling it and then used the coordinating die that cuts out all the pieces individually.  I used only the leaf pieces and framed them around the circle to make a wreath and then added one of the butterflies and my sentiment from the the set.  I added a few gold metallic pearls to finish of this CAS card that isn't really so CAS...but I LOVE how it turned out!!

Are you still with me??!!  You all deserve a prize for sticking with me through this long, loooooooong post, but hey, I did warn you!!  This seriously was such a fun release to play with, and once again, many, many thanks to Pinkfresh Studio for this generous gift...I know I will be playing with these stamps over and over again!

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Playing Cards with Pinkfresh Studios & Michele

Hello friends.  Back with a fun post today using a FEW of the goodies I received from PINKFRESH STUDIOS back in July after winning their GRAND PRIZE July Release!  Yep, they sent everything from their whole release that month to me...absolutely FREE!  And it was a BIG release!  LOTS of stamps, stencils, dies, foil plates, & even their little silver and gold gems!  It definitely pays to play along with their giveaways each month!  Somebody's gonna win, and I was the lucky one in July!  Of course I do need to give credit to my sweet friend Michele who texted me to let me know my name was listed as the grand prize winner, otherwise I would probably have missed the 2 week deadline to email them (I had a lot going on this Summer with my cancer scare and just wasn't keeping up with much in blogland!) and forfeited the prize!  Thanks Michele for looking out for me!!  

Because there were so many of the hot foil plates in the prize, I invested in one of the Spellbinder Hot Foil machines...I love the look of the foil on the cards, but there is definitely a learning curve to using them!  Michele and I both struggled a bit, but after a few tries (well ok, maybe more than a few!) we got the hang of foiling, and each have a few cards to share with you today.

I started with the Small Butterflies and the Daisy Wreath to come up with this card...

Here's a close up so you can see the silver foiling better...

The shine is so different from embossing with silver...super shiny and so pretty!  I had already had the Daisy Wreath stencil and die, but part of the prize was the matching foil plate...what a beautiful touch it adds to the wreath!!  The little butterfly was also foiled with silver, and then stenciled and die cut.  My background is also a PFS stencil...Argyle.

Another foil plate included in the prize was this Thankful for Friends which I foiled in gold, and then stenciled and die cut before adding to a Spellbinders hot foil frame that I also did in gold.  (Don't look too closely...I was still learning when I used the frame!)

Isn't it so pretty in the deep reds and the gold foiling?!  I pop dotted it to my frame and card base, and also added a few of the gold gems that were part of the prize package.  (The sentiment is part of the stamp set Thankful for Friends)

My next two cards use a background stamp (Sweet Blooms) that I already had, but part of the prize was the matching hot foil plate.  I foiled the plate in silver and had to try several times before I got one that was acceptable to me.  I think the larger the plate, the more room there is for extra foil to appear...grrrr!  I have learned that a sand eraser is a very valuable tool to have on hand at this point as it does a really good job of removing extra foil from spots you didn't want foiled!  There is a matching stencil for this design, but I don't have it, so I just used my Copics to color the leaves and flowers.

Here you can see the shine a bit better.  I also added some WOS to the purple flowers, and a few purple gemstones, so this card really does sparkle and shine!

My last card uses the same background stamp as the last card (Sweet Blooms) that I foiled in gold this time.  Because a good portion of this one was over foiled with gold smudges everywhere, I cut the panel down, and still came up with a really pretty card!

I colored in the leaves and flowers again with my Copics, and then added a small die cut wreath (Leafy Circle which I die cut 3 times and stacked for dimension and colored with the same Copic YG03), and also another one of the Small Butterflies that I foiled in gold.  The Leafy Circle and butterfly also helped to cover up some of the gold foil smudges.  Even though this card started out not looking so great, I think it turned out really pretty after I doctored it all up!

A big, BIG THANK YOU to PINKFRESH STUDIOS for their so very generous prize to me...I am still so blown away by your generosity and kindness!!  Make sure you check out too what Michele did with the Small Butterflies and the first Butterflies set with the foiling...you'll be blown away by her color choices!!  I know this was a loooooong post, so thanks for sticking with me to the end!!  :0)  

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!