Forever Yours with Amanda

Today is new Pit Crew Member Amanda Coleman's first post with us.  She will tell us a bit about herself.

I live near Rexburg, Idaho with my husband of 12 years, my 9 year-old son, and 7 year-old daughter. Just over a year ago we bought a small farm and are still learning the quirks of managing a larger property as well as a barn full of critters.  I delight in everything chocolate and relish my daily Coke Zero.  I enjoy crafts of all types.  I sew a little, crochet a little, and enjoy baking and cooking.  I used to be a high school teacher and teach biology part time at the local university.

Hi everyone!  Amanda here and I am so excited to be sharing my first post as an official Pit Crew member!

I couldn't resist the darling little Bug in the Forever Yours set and thought it would be fun to bring them to life with some cute little faces.

I paper pieced the taillights and drew in eyelids, pupils, and eyelashes on the little lady Bug.  Even Mr. Bug got a touch of color on his lids.

The pretty champagne flutes and the congratulations sentiment in the Forever Yours set make a lovely wedding card.  After stamping the champagne flutes on the card, I stamped them on gold vellum, fussy cut the champagne and adhered it to the card.  I added a few gold sequins to really make the card shine.

I combined Forever Yours with the Days and Months add-on to create a floral save the date card.  The mint, gray, and coral are so trendy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Amanda

Forever Yours with Heather

My name is Heather Pulvirenti, and I live in Columbia, MD with my husband Jason, and our 8 year old daughter Lindsay.  I was born in England, and have spent most of my life in the US (in Maryland and Virginia), except for the four years we lived in Canberra, Australia (my mom was career Air Force).  I am currently a SAHM, but since my daughter is off during the day at school, I try to keep busy by filling my days  running my Etsy business and working on remodeling projects around the house. 

Hi, everyone! Heather P. here with my first Avocado Arts Pit Crew post.  I'm so excited to share with you what I've created with February's new set. :)

For my first project, I decided to create a tag, using the beautiful wedding cake as my main focal point.  I started by printing the color background and sentiment with my computer, then cut out the tag shape.  Next, I stamped the cake image onto gray card stock, and heat embossed it with white powder.  I then stamped some roses with pink ink, trimmed them out, and adhered them to the cake.  To finish up my tag, I added some silver metallic twine, embellished with clear gems and covered the roses with stickles.

For my next card, I focused on the Mr. & Mrs. sentiment, as well as the knot (love!).  I created this card by first covering a card base with floral patterned paper, then layering the striped pattern on top of a turquoise piece of card stock.  Next, I die cut the yellow heart, then heat embossed the sentiment and image with white embossing powder.  To finish up my card, I assembled the pieces, and embellished with black enamel dots.

For my final card today, I started by heat embossing (haha, yes, I'm obsessed with this technique!) the adorable beetle car image onto yellow card stock, then trimming it out.  Next, I used a few different distress inks as watercolors to create the colorful background.  I then cut a panel of white card stock and wrapped it with twine before adhering it to the card front.  To finish up my card, I stamped the sentiment in black ink, attached the car with pop dots, and embellished with aqua enamel dots.

That wraps it up for me today, have a great one!

-Heather P.

Forever Yours and Days & Months with Teri

Hello again, Avocado Arts fans!

Teri here, and I'm happy to bring you three more projects made with the Forever Yours and Days & Months stamp sets from Avocado Arts.

My first project uses just the Forever Yours stamp set. 

I created my own patterned paper for the bottom of the card with kraft cardstock and the set's large label stamp. I simply stamped the label over and over until it completely covered the panel. My stamping process looked a little something like this.

My second project uses both stamp sets. I thought two of them had some nice words for party invitations so that's what I did here.

This here is the outside.

And this here is what the inside looks like.

This invitation would be really easy to duplicate with paper scraps, the two stamp sets and a couple different ink colors.

Finally, I was determined to make a pocket-style scrapbook page with Days & Months stamp set. 

I took part in a bunch of organized 5K runs last year. These pictures are from a color run. Boy, I love those messy runs! 

One of my favorite elements of this page is the top card. I guess you'd call it a title card. I simply stamped all the days and then used a pen to circle the day the event happened on.

 

You'll see a few other stamps from the set made their way onto my page, too. I also pulled a few word stamps from the Strike a Pose set onto my page. 

And that's all I have for you today.

Looking for more Avocado Arts inspiration? Be sure to check out the blog here for more great Pit Crew projects!

February Guest Designer Daniela Dobson

So happy to introduce you to our February Guest Designer Daniela Dobson.   She is a fabulous woman and is uber talented.   Here is what she is sharing with us this month:

For this card I used Forever Yours stamp set. This stamp set is perfect for many different occasions. My favorite are the little love birds. I used watercolor to color the adorable birds. I stamped a row of hearts on the bottom to create a border. The frame and “love” were stamped on cardstock that I cut out and added to the card.

For this card I used  Days & Months stamp set. I arranged the numbers on a stamping block. I tested the arrangement several times to make sure my numbers were aligned. I adhered the washi tape first and used that as my line to align the numbers. It was pretty easy.

I like that Days & Months stamp set can be used for cards and other projects. I created a little journaling card that can be added to a scrapbook layout or Project Life page. Several of these can be created at once and then a month and date added as needed.

Thanks so much to Daniela for sharing her wonderful creations with us this month!!  

Days & Months and Forever Yours with Annette

Well hello sweet Avocado Arts friends.. So excited to be here with you today to share February release Days & Months and Forever Yours. Both of these sets are full of cuteness. 

I love the script on this set I just had to repeat stamp them in these fun bright colors. 

I also stamped one of the hearts on a wood veneer heart. Don't you just love it?

I just love Forever Yours it is the perfect set for a very special occasion.

again the script on this sentiment is just perfect. So fancy

I absolutely adore this little frame with the really cute hearts at each end. 

I hope you have been enjoying all the samples from the design team.

I totally love these amazing and super fun new sets. 

Thanks so much for joining me today.

I hope that I have inspired you.

Happy Crafting!

Forever Yours EVERY Day & Month With Pinky!

Hey there Avocado Arts friends,
It's just me Pinky today with more "love"ly projects using the
gorgeous Forever Yours stamp set.

What a beautiful stamp set heading into the season of spring and love.
The first card I created is an acrylic card, I thought the pinks and
lavenders would be  pretty for that wedding theme. 

See these amazing small intricate stamps in the set? I love them. 

You will see them throughout my projects this month!

I mean WOW this set is fun!

For the second card I covered the card itself in a shimmering vellum 

and stamped on top of that- adding some Adhesive dots and white glitter. 

The champagne glasses I heat embossed in gold. 

For the third card I did not cover the gold heart patterned paper but 

instead I "enhanced" it using the intricate little rose stamp. 

I used silver ink and stamped those all over!

Here is a close up of the roses...I mean they are too precious. 

And how fun is this Day & Months set? 

I have a special add one project for this one. 

My boys actually love to read and my son saw these stamps

so he said "MOM Read every day like the stamp has all the days!".

So we made his friend a bookmark. 

It was a fun family project- I loved his idea. 

I hope you enjoyed my projects today!

Share the love-Tell your friends how much you love Avocado Arts.

Until next time- Keep on creating.

Pinky Hobbs- Avocado Arts Pit Crew

Forever Yours and Days and Months with Heather H

We are so happy to welcome Heather Hoffman to the Pit Crew.  Here is a bit about her in her own words:

My name is Heather, and I blog over at Houses Built of Cards. Here is a little about me: I have been married for 13 years to the man of my dreams, and have two sweet daughters age 10 and 9 that I homeschool. I absolutely LOVE making cards – and also enjoy scrapbooking memories of my family. I lived my entire life up until about a year and a half ago in Northwestern Washington State, and now live in a very small town in Wyoming. While we are still adjusting -especially to the cold winters – it has been nothing short of an adventure for us all, with the normal ups and downs of missing our family and friends back home. If you aren’t familiar with my blog name, then let me explain a little! When I started card making, I quickly found that I was making WAY more cards than I could possibly use. Thanks in part to my young daughters and something they both cared deeply for, I decided to direct all the proceeds from the sales of my cards to the building of houses for widows and their children in Burundi, Africa, through a ministry called Sister Connection. Building one house is amazingly just $600!!! I just finished the money portion of my 4^th house, and am continuing to work toward a 5th. I’m so excited to be joining the Avocado Arts Pit Team!

Good morning! Heather here from Houses Built of Cards - super excited to be sharing my first post over here at Avocado Arts! First up, I made a couple cards with this months stamp set:

As soon as I saw this, I fell in LOVE with that adorable love bug! Isn't it the cutest?!?!? I stamped it on pattern paper, carefully fussy cut it out, then paper pieced a bit of white paper on it. I stamped that tiny "Just Married" sentiment - that conveniently fits just perfectly in the window - then added the little bow on the back.

I used some Heidi Swapp color shine in gold and peach on the background, a bit of embossing paste on a stencil, then attached the bug with foam adhesive, and stamped and embossed my sentiment on a black banner. Finished off with a bit of bling and some gold sequins.

Next up - I came OH so close to making a one layer card - but I ended up adding a bit of bling in the end! I inked up "Congratulations" one time, then stamped it off 3 times to give a bit of movement. The tiny hearts are from the little love birds - I just used some washi tape to mask off everything but the hearts.

I colored the glasses with my Copic markers, then added some Stickles over the surface to provide a bit of sparkle.

Then - I had to play with the add on set for this month:

This set has so many possibilities - I can't wait to use it for my scrapbooking! But first I decided to make a card with it. I lined up the days of the week on my stamp press, then added a tiny sentiment from an older stamp set, Wishes and Kind Thoughts. I inked them with Ranger Archival Ink, stamped on watercolor paper, then used a water brush and some basic watercolors to brush over each day of the week.

I sprayed some Smooch Spritz over the entire thing to magnify the watercolor effect and add a bit of sparkle. It doesn't show very well in the pictures, but maybe you can get a peek in this shot?

Finished off by matting in black card stock to make that panel pop before mounting on my card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a wonderful day!