MFP Blog Hop Day #1 - Pocket Watches

Mark's Finest Papers August Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured August 13th - Pocket Watches

Featured August 14th - Joyous Season

Featured August 15th - Country Charm 

Featured August 16th - Wealthy Fish

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on August 17, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday August 16, 2013.

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

"Lucky You"

 The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Take Time Mini"
                                                      

Today's set is called "Pocket Watches" and as I mentioned in my previous post it is the perfect compliment for the mini set this month:

I love background stamps and this was a fun one to play with.  I came up with three cards this time (no pun intended, lol):

I had fun trying to figure out different ways to use the stamp and I played with some nice bright colours, which is not usually like me!  :)

I hope you enjoyed my cards, but the fun is not over!  You can visit Mark's Finest Papers store to purchase these sets along with lots of other wonderful sets.  Or, if you need some inspiration the DT list is below!  This is a blog hop after all and talented Toni is next on the list!  Or if you've started here click below to go back to the beginning.

Patty
Lois
Jane C
Debbie
Pam
Pat G
Thrfity Stamper
Marilynn

Karen K

Bonnie

Kathy
Angela
Cathy C
Toni
Sue W
Janine
An'Jenic
Shirley Q
Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

Marks Finest Papers Sneak Peek - a bit late!

Its time for a Mark's Finest Papers  Sneak Peek!  Actually the time was yesterday but I am running late (seeming to be a theme these days), but better late than never!

For this post I'd like to highlight the extra and mini sets that are included with the August stamp release. First is the extra set called "Lucky You".

So many lovely images to choose from.  This is what I came up with:

With these Asian themed sets I can't seem to resist the colour scheme of red black and gold.  For this card I had fun playing with my new opaque white marker.  I really love the effect of the white ink with the gold embossing.

The second set I'm showing you is the mini called "Take Time".  

On my next post you'll see that this set is a great compliment to the set being featured for day one of the hop.  For now I'll show you two cards I came up with. I didn't intend to use light blue on each but appearently I like that colour!

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I love the combination of the satin and burlap ribbons!  :)

I hope you liked my cards today!  You can find these sets at Mark's Finest Papers store, and I will shortly have my post up for Day #1 of the hop. See you then! 

Get Inspired - Butterflies and Dragonflies

Hi Everyone!  Its Inspiration Saturday and its my turn to contribute some ideas to the Get Inspired page at MFP Speedy TV.

Yet again I've found another picture from Pinterest, but really its tough to resist!  The below picture originally comes from french website called Serendipity, and this is actually a photo of a work of art by Julie Oger called "Branches with Butterflies".  So lovely!

When looking at this picture, I could have easily made a card with some of the lovely butterfly stamps available with Mark's Finest Papers' stamps, but instead I decided to use the July mini set called "Dragonflies".

I started by stamping and embossing the larger dragonflies, colouring them, and adding some clear glitter pen, then trimming them out.

I then cut the card base and main panel, and randomly embossed the solid dragonfly images in black and gold.  Some natural jute twine was added to echo the branch in the original picture.  The larger dragonflies were added with foam tape.

The sentiment with a bit of added glitter finished the card front off.  I left the inside blank so I can add a sentiment when I am ready to give it away.

This CAS card took more time than I thought it would, but I love the sparkly large dragonflies framed by the smaller black and gold ones.   Are you inspired to create?  If so why not let us know what you make in the comments below. In the meantime don't forget to go to the Get Inspired page at MFP Speedy TV next week to see MariLynn's take on the  image I've chosen!

As I mentioned before, this post is part of the  Get Inspired page at MFP Speedy TV .   If you are not a member of MFP Speedy TV, its a free social networking site focused on stamping and cardmaking with MFP stamps.  In additon to our column you will find lots of inspiration, including other informative columns on a daily basis, so why not click over and see what you are missing!

Get Inspired - Lilies

Hi Everyone, happy Saturday!  Its my turn to contribute for our Get Inspired column over at MFP Speedy TV!

My card this week uses inspiration provided by MariLynn last week, a photo of beautiful Surprise Lilies in her garden:

You can find MariLynn's card here.  I love the muted tones she used in her card, they complement the photo very well.  When I first saw her photo I thought I might use a similar colour pallet and a vintage feel, but in the end I decided to use soft colours similar to the photo, but with a white base and background panel to keep things a bit more crisp.  

You can see I used a composition reminicent of the photo, and I really love how the blossoms are bunched together in the photo so that was the effect I was going for.  The stamp for the flowers is not actually a flower stamp, it comes from a MFP mini set called "Wings". 

I stamped the wings on vellum, heat embossed them, and coloured the back side of the vellum sheet before fussy cutting them out.  Turned on their sides I love how the two wing stamps look like flowers! I also love how the slightly translucent vellum gives the flowers a softer feel. I wish you could see them in person because the photo doesn't really do them justice.

As I layered the flowers, adhering them with glue dots, I also added stems by adhering embroidery thread with liquid glue (I like Scotch Quick Dry but I think any liquid glue that dries clear would work well).  A sentiment MFP set called "Glad Glads"  was adhered over the stems with foam tape and some gems finished off the card front.  I left the inside of the card blank so I could add a sentiment when I'm ready to use the card.

I really love this card, and I love how when you look at both mine and MariLynn's card you can clearly see how we derived inspiration from the photo, but yet our cards are so different! Are you inspired to create? If so please link your creation below, we would love to see what you come up with!

As I mentioned before, this post is part of the  Get Inspired page at MFP Speedy TV .   If you are not a member of MFP Speedy TV, its a free social networking site focused on stamping and cardmaking with MFP stamps.  In additon to our column you will find lots of inspiration, including other informative columns on a daily basis, so why not click over and see what you are missing!

So thats it for me this week! Next week I will have some new inspiration for you, see you then! :)

MFP Christmas in July Blog Hop (In August)

Welcome to the Final Day of our Christmas in July Blog Hop!

Thursday August 1, 2013

HO,HO, HO!! WELCOME TO MARKíS FINEST PAPERS, a Heinrich Coís CHRISTMAS IN JULY BLOG HOP!  DURING THIS FUN CHRISTMAS HOP, MANY OF THE CHRISTMAS SETS IN MARKíS FINEST PAPERS, a Heinrich Co.'s ON-LINE SHOP WILL BE FEATURED BY MFPíS VARIOUS DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS.  WE HOPE YOU CAN FOLLOW ALONG WITH US ON THE HOP  - AND MAYBE GET A JUMP START ON SOME OF THOSE CHRISTMAS CARDS AND PROJECTS!

Today's special blog hop project is Christmas Cards using Non-Traditional colors.

Can you believe that Christmas is less than 1/2 a year away?  I can't!  All week Mark's Finest Papers has been having a Christmas in July hop and today is the last day.  Our theme today is non traditional Christmas colours and here is what I came up with:

This was a really fun one.  When thinking of non traditional Christmas colours I immediately thought pink and black so I started with the pink panel, heat embossing some white snowflakes from a lovely MFP set called Winter Scenes.

While making this card I must admit I was thinking of this card, so I pulled out some vellum and heat embossed the trees from my favourite MFP stamp set All is Calm.  This set is actually the first MFP set I ever got, and I find I return to over and over.  

I absolutely love the trees image, and I love the effect of layering one stamped image over another.  I have a feeling that you are going to see a lot more vellum from me in upcoming posts! :)

I decided to go with a kraft card base and also cut a white panel to keep things bright and clean.  I lightly distressed the edges of the white panel and the vellum with a Tonic distressing tool.  I added some black ribbon to the white panel, foam taped it to the base, adhered the vellum to the pink panel with glue dots hidden behind the stamped image, and adhered the pink panel over the ribbon.  Some pins, rhinestones, and a sentiment from Winter Scenes finished of the card front.  It was difficult to capture but the middle tree has pink rhinestones while the other two have white.

For the centre of the card I stamped the cute verse from Winter Scenes on a white panel, and layered it on some pink card stock.  

I really love this card, and I really love all of the inspiration that has come from the designers this week.  With all of the dreary wet weather we've had recently I didn't think I could start to feel Chrismas-y but with all of the lovely inspiration how could you not start to feel the Christmas spirit? Jane C  is next on the hop, or if you haven't visited the rest of today's particpants the list is below!

Shirley Qu

Amy E 

Janine B 

An'Jenic 

Cathy C (you are here)

Jane C 

Angela 

Hop with us for a chance to win this fabulous stamp set
 THE WINNER CHOSEN AT THE END OF THE HOP WILL BE RECEIVING THIS AWESOME CHRISTMAS/WINTER STAMP SET!!

 
Thanks for Joining us today, be sure to stop back by tomorrow for the announcement of the winner of this great stamp set for our Christmas in July Hop.