Hi everyone and welcome to Day 2 of the Stamp of Approval Celebrate Friends Collection Blog Hop!  If you arrived here from Ashlea’s blog then I hope you’re having lots of fun seeing all of the inspiration for the new SOA Collection.   If you arrived here directly then I highly recommend starting at Catherine’s blog first for the full blog-hoppy experience!

If you’re not familiar with Stamp of Approval, you’ll find out a lot about it by checking the info on Catherine’s blog. In a nutshell, it is a quarterly themed collection of stamping products that all co-ordinate and can be used alone or together along with some cardstock or other embellishments  to create tonnes of different kinds of projects.  It often sells out like lightning and there is a waitlist ahead of time to place an order just in case it does sell out on release day.  This release is extra special as there is a choice of box – a Tea theme (Cuppa Tea stamp set and Bordering Sweet dies) and a Coffee theme (Perfect Blend stamp set and Morning Joe dies).  I’m a coffee gal!!

This collection is maybe the best yet in my humble opinion. I love the fun twist of choosing coffee or tea, and all of the stamp sets are so perfect for multi-color inking to create bright and celebratory cards and projects.  The stamps and dies have been revealed this week, and there’s a mystery ink included that you’ll see when you receive your box (I joked to my Creative Teamies that I wanted to eat it :D). Stamp of Approval Collections sell out like hotcakes so get on the waiting list in time for release on April 24th!  And if that’s not all, the Collection comes with a downloadable Project Guide with tonnes of ideas to inspire you.

I have a few projects to share with you today that I made using the new collection.  I’m first focusing on the word dies in the collection.  I love Shawna Clingerman’s gorgeous brush script word dies and the three in this collection are no exception.  I have a video to share to show how I made these cards.  I then have a bonus card using the Perfect Blend stamp set and co-ordinating add-on dies.  Join me back on release day on April 24th where I’ll show you some more cards I created with the Collection.

Using Word Dies as Stencils

For each of these three cards, I used the Sweet, Celebrate, and Hooray dies and die cut them from a panel of cardstock which was cut to the same size as the final size of my card (A2, 4.25″ x 5.5″).  I removed the diecut word, and retained the panel itself to act as a stencil. I sprayed the back of each panel with temporary spray adhesive (I used Krylon).

Card 1

For this card, I used Decofoil Transfer gel over the stencil I created using the Sweet die, over a panel of Catherine Pooler Premium White cardstock.  When dry (it dries clear), I ran it through my Minc machine using Thermoweb Decofoil in Rainbow.  I lined up the rainbow so that each of the letters had a different color.  The decofoil did adhere in a couple of places where I didn’t want it. It is easy to remove though, using a Mono sand eraser (also great to use for removing accidental ink smears or stray melted embossing powder).

I went around the edge of the foiled word with a black gel pen to give more contrast.   I kept the card simple and trimmed down the panel, popped it up on foam tape to a Neenah Solar White card base. I stamped a sentiment from the WooHoo stamp set from the Collection in Versamark onto black cardstock and heat embossed in white embossing powder, trimmed it out and popped it up on foam tape.  To co-ordinate with the foil, I scattered some Colorful Confetti sequins adhered with multi-medium matte liquid adhesive.

Card 2

My second card uses the Hooray die stencil.  I mixed up some white embossing paste with Flirty Fuchsia Catherine Pooler ink, leaving it slightly streaky to get a more marbled look.  I then smoothed it out over the stencil on a panel of CPD Premium White, lifted up and left to dry.

Once the paste was dry, I took sentiments from the WooHoo stamp set from the Collection and stamped them randomly in different complementary ink colors, including Flirty Fuchsia, Royal Treatment, Sweet Sixteen, It’s a Girl, and Sugared Lavender.

The sparkles are from the same stamp set, and stamped in Mint To Be.  As a finishing touch I added sequins in Clear Iris (by Honeybee Stamps) with liquid adhesive, and the entire panel was adhered to a Neenah Solar White cardbase.

Card 3

My final card using this technique uses the stencil I creates using the Celebrate die from the Collection. I adhered it over a panel of CPD Premium White cardstock as before.  I then used Bo Bunny Glitter Paste in Caribbean and smoothed it over the upper half of the word. I then used glitter paste in Frost, and smoothed over the lower half of the word, slightly overlapping with the previous color to blend the two together.  I then removed the stencil and set aside to dry.

While my stencilled word dried, I trimmed a panel of silver glitter cardstock to 4.25″ to 5.5″ and adhered to a 110lb Neenah Solar White card base.   I recommend cutting the centre out of the glitter panel so you can use it for something else later as it will just be covered up by the focal panel later on.

When the glitter paste was dry, I stamped the sentiment words from the WooHoo set in Black Jack ink. I stamped the vertical lines stamp four times roughly along the bottom in Daydream ink and the spray at the top from the same set, also in Daydream. I popped the entire panel, trimmed to 4″ x 5.25″ onto the glitter base using foam tape.

Hope This Perks You Up

My final project uses the Perfect Blend stamp set and co-ordinating dies.  I trimmed a panel of Canson XL watercolor cardstock to 4.25″ x 5.5″.  I then smushed ink down onto a craft mat, and using a waterbrush, picked up some of the color and abstractly painted it onto the centre of the panel, squeezing out some water while I did it.  I then heat set, and repeated the process twice more.  After heat setting, I flicked on some drops of water with the brush, then lifted off with a paper towel and heat set.  Finally, I picked up some more ink and flicked that on with the brush and heat set again.  I stamped the tiny heart from the stamp set in the same ink randomly around the ink on the panel.

I stamped the coffee pot from the Perfect Blend set in Rose Petals ink onto CPD Premium White cardstock.  I stamped the mug in Sugared Lavender, and the top of the ‘coffee’ in the same ink as I used for the background, stamping off onto scrap first before stamping to get a lighter color.  (I like my coffee with milk :D).  I used the same ink to stamp the leaf pattern over the top of the mug, and then used a white gel pen to add some additional detail.  I used the same ink again to stamp the coffee bean twice onto the card panel, and once on the white cardstock.  I die cut out the images with the co-ordinating dies.

I temporarily laid the images down on the panel so I could work out where to add my sentiment, then removed them.  I stamped the sentiment from the set in Versamark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I then added the diecut images to the panel with foam tape, doubling up the tape behind the mug for extra dimension.  As a finishing touch, I corner chomped the upper right corner after adhering the panel to a Neenah Solar White 110lb card base.

Comment to win!

So now it’s time to carry on the hop.   Catherine is giving away a $97 Gift Certificate to spend in her shop to three random lucky winners, but you’ve got to comment to win!  The winners are revealed on Catherine’s blog on April 23rd at 6pm. Good luck!

Your next stop on the Blog Hop is the awesome Susan Powell.   If you get lost along the way, the full list of hop participants is below

  1. Catherine

  2. Karen Baker

  3. Chrissie Tobas  

  4. Melissa Miller  

  5. Ashlea Cornell

  6. Jenny Colacicco  <<– YOU ARE HERE

  7. Susan Powell <<– GO HERE NEXT

Enjoy your hopping!!

Jenny x

Supplies Used (in addition to the Celebrate Friends Collection)

Affiliate links used in some cases


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147 Comments

  4. I am in love with your Celebrate life everyday card. I love the color combo and of course all the sparkle.

    Reply

  5. I really enjoyed your post today and all the techniques you
    used with the word dies. I L*O*V*E the coffee card! It is so pretty
    with the awesome ink smooshing and the pretty colors you
    used for the cup & coffee pot.

    Reply

  11. Fun! I like how you tried different mediums inside the word stencils! I also love those word dies in this set!!

    Reply

  12. Great cards! It looks like you had a lot of fun! I LOVE how you made stencils from the words and lov ethe foiled one!

    Reply

  21. Lovely cards! How awesome to use the dies to create a stencil, so fun to see the stencils used multiple ways.

    Reply

  22. Love the coffee stains.
    Your cards are fantastic – the use of the
    sentiments as the main ingredient is
    wonderful. thanks for sharing
    txmlhl(at)yahoo(dot)com

    Reply

  29. Very beautiful and fun cards. I do love the fonts of the new sentiment die! Great stamp images too. Coffee, Tea, cant go wrong there 🙂

    Reply

  31. Your cards are colorful and inspiring and I love them all. I never think about using dies as stencils and appreciate you showing this technique.

    Reply

  35. I will have to get so.e krylon adhesive and give this a try with my dies! Also, love the “spilled coffee ” look on the card.

    Reply

  39. You did a great job on all four cards. I love the simplicity of card, but also the wonderful card. Great designs all around.

    Reply

  42. Rainbow foiled diecut sentiment? Yes, please!!! And a glitter sentiment? Bring it on. These are all fabulous. Can’t wait to get my box!!

    Reply

  62. Love all your ideas and especially using dies with foil! Gorgeous! Love the glitter paper used as well! Great job and thanks for the video as well!

    Reply

  65. Jenny, your cards are gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and techniques. Love the rainbow sentiment so sweet. Got to love the blog hop cause you learn so much from all the designers. Oh by the way thanks for sharing your video.

    Reply

  69. Fantastic ideas! Thanks for so much inspiration. I love the way you created a stencil for the Celebrate Die and used glitter paste. Very striking. Thanks for sharing your technique. All your cards are very creative.

    Reply

  87. Wow! Love the idea of using those word dies as stencils! I love Shawna’s lettering – this is such a fun SOA! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  93. Wow you created so many cool cards! I really loved seeing the foiled card and the Beautiful coffee splatter card at the end

    Reply

  110. Such AWESOME cards! What an inventive way to use the collection. I can’t wait to get my hands on it to start playing.

    Reply

  113. HI Jenny,
    It’s so cool to see different ways to stretch the already awesome products in this collection. You are so clever!!! 🙂 I can’t wait to try them out. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  117. Fantastic video, really enjoyed watching and listening to you. Great cards made via the words stencils, just try that for myself. Enjoyed the coffee card, even though in a tea drinker lol x

    Reply

  122. Great cards. BTW you are not cheap. You are frugal or thrifty, but never cheap. lol!
    I really can’t decide which card is my favorite.

    Reply

  128. Ooh, what a great variety of uses of the word dies! Thanks for sharing all those with us. I also really like the cup with the extra gel pen detail; it just adds so much to the whole look of the card. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow’s hop brings!

    Reply

  135. Love how you used the dies to make stencils!!! Thank you for doing a video, too!!! Love your cards!!! TFS

    Reply

  137. I really like the look of that foil on the first card, and the last card has such a cool background! thanks for inspiring us!

    Reply

  138. Using word dies as stencils ! Genius. Lived seeing all the techniques used in the video. Ok ed the coffee card especially the background.

    Reply

  139. Love your cards!
    Can’t wait to try these techniques
    I an now inspired to use some foils I have had up on a shelf for some time.

    Reply

  146. Cool techniques and cards. Thanks for showing different ways to play. I can’t wait to get my hands on these goodies.

    Reply

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