Welcome to The Creative Grove and the second Blog Hop for Happy Little Stampers! Chances are you hopped along from Carol’s blog. Today I have three projects to share for you from the second release at Happy Little Stampers!

In addition to some great inspired projects, HLS is giving away a $50 gift certificate to the store to one commenter! And, four other randomly selected lucky commenters will win a mystery prize too!  So as you’re hopping along, don’t forget to leave a comment!

I used two of the new sets – Mix Mash and Everyday Sentiments to make some great cards that I hope you’ll love! Here are all the creative tips and details…

Blog Hop Projects

Project One – OMG #YOUROCK

For this fun card I wanted something funky and cool for my niece Rebecca. I love the lightheartedness of some of the sentiments in the Mix Mash set. To create this card:

• You’ll want to use the OMG and #YouRock stamps embossed in Black to really stand out from the colorful background.
• You’ll need to match the quirkiness of the stamps, so choose a fun background stamp or stencil. I chose a Hero Arts Stencil that I recently purchased.
• To get that fun colorful design, use a sponge applicator and sponge Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, Mowed Lawn and Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks to create the pattern on a piece of white card stock.

• To get the sentiment perfectly positioned, you’ll want to figure out how large you want your space to be, then plan on 1/8″ for the top and bottom.
• I chose 3/4″ for my space and to keep with the Rule of Thirds theory of design, made sure to split my piece 1/3 of the way through. This helps to balance your project.
• For a little dramatic effect – pop your panels up with dimensionals or foam tape. That will help to give you a great shadow effect.

It’s a fun project, right?

Project Two – Spunky Birthday

I just spent several weeks with my family in NY. My 10 year old niece Chiarra is all spunk and spirit. She loves to break out in song, dance or just start acting a scene – mark my words…she’ll be a future actress! I couldn’t get her singing out of my head this morning when I was stamping – so… fun, bright and playful is the direction this project went.

The Mix Mash stamp set is filled with great birthday sentiments and some awesome little detail stamps. I actually was going to add white sequins to it, when I decided to add the circle and lined circles in their place – it looks way better and talk about versatile! I love stamps like that. This project is a fun mixed mash itself! Here is how to recreate it:

• First stamp your main sentiment.  Ink up the center of the largest Happy Birthday stamp with Distress – More Mustard, then use Picked Raspberries and Salty Ocean being sure to overlap them a bit to get a great mix of color. Keep it towards the bottom of a 3 3/4 x 4″ panel, leaving an inch to stamp other sentiments.
• An embossing buddy/destatic tool is key for this project, as you’ll be handling it numerous times. Use your embossing buddy on a space above or below your main sentiment, and stamp one of the happy birthday stamps repeatedly across in versamark.

• Try to keep them aligned. I had to stamp, add powder, then stamp again to see it right.
• Once you have white powder on a line  – emboss with a heat tool and then repeat till your panel is filled.
• Matte onto a matching panel – I used Melon Mambo by SU.  I trimmed my panel so that it was just slightly smaller than a 1/16″ border.
• Figure out where you are placing your panel and stamp solid and lined circles in a few spots as in the card.
• Pop up your panel and you’re all set!
• This card is an A2 top folding card – 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″.

I know she’ll love it, it’s bright and fun. The white Happy Birthday’s really make a statement.

Project Three – Masculine Birthday

For this card, I wanted a more masculine look for my nephew Matt’s upcoming birthday. So I decided to go with a grey panel and keep it rather simple. Originally I was going to stamp and emboss the greeting on vellum, tear and overlay, but as I began, I thought simple might be better here. What do you think? This one is pretty straightforward, but here’s the step by step anyway!

• Stamp and emboss your greeting from Everyday Sentiments in black about 1/3 rd of the way up from the bottom onto a piece of Basic Grey card stock (SU) – 3 7/8 x 5 1/8″.
• Stamp the arrow stamps from the Mix Mash set in Versamark and emboss with clear powder to get the darker grey color.

• Stamp and emboss your circle stamps from the Mix Mash set in black.
• Add gold sequins and matte onto a black base 1/16″ larger ( 4 x 5 1/4″)
• Adhere to a top folding A2 card – 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″.

It’s a simple card, but sometimes simple is just perfect. One of the reasons I just love CAS cards!!

Well, there you have it – just a few ideas and fun ways to use some of the new stamp sets in this second release. I hope you enjoyed the creative juice…and that’s a wrap for the second blog hop! If you didn’t start at the beginning with the Happy Little Stampers blog…be sure to head there next and hop along the way for 20 other designers ideas! WOW…that’s a ton of creativity!!

And be sure to comment to win too – in order to win, you need to comment on all the blogs including the HLS blog. Happy Hopping, see you next time!!

Here are links for the whole hop!

Happy Little Stampers
Kylie Purtell
Loll Thompson
Joyce Mehrberg
Gloria Lee
Tanja Kabel
Susan Bridgman
LesLee
Gail Townsend
Carol Steedman
Melissa Lane
Linda Walmsley
Birgit Norton
Kim Heggins
Valentyna
Sue T.
Bonnie Klass
Toni
Chrissie
Anita
Carol Dunham
Ingrid Blackburn <—- You are Here!