April Pit Crew Review

So let's get started with the fab creations this month, shall we?

These sets were so easy to use and play with!  Hope you enjoyed everyone's creations.  Stay tuned for more fabulous inspiration!!

A Mother's Love and When & Where with Amanda

Hi everyone!  I just adore this month's releases.  With Mother's Day right around the corner, A Mother's Love is perfect for all of your Mother's Day card and project needs.

There are so many ways you can use the buttons sentiment from A Mother's Love.  This button gift container was super fast and easy to make.  I filled a container with buttons, wrapped it with ribbon, and adhered a stamped sentiment.  Any mom would love to get a fun box of buttons!

My kids have a lot of grandmas to send cards to on Mother's Day so A Mother's Love was perfect for making lots of pretty cards for lots of pretty grandmas.  I combined the triangle stamp from When & Where with sentiments from A Mother's Love to make a fun and trendy card for a fun and trendy grandma.

Crafty Confession: I am a stamp cutter.  If a stamp can be neatly reassembled I am more likely to cut it apart for custom stamping.  I cut the stem off of the dandelion so I could just stamp the blossom without the fuss of repeated masking.  One-layer cards are perfect for mailing as they don't require any extra postage.

While I had the kraft and orange ink out, I made a bonus card with A Mother's Love.  I stamped the blossoms, drew the stems with a marker, and then stamped the leaves.

Happy stamping!

Amanda

A Mother's Love and When & Where with Heather P.

Hi, everyone! Heather P. here with three projects featuring the new April sets, A Mother's Love, and When & Where.

For my first card, I started by die cutting two tags, one from patterned paper, and another from vellum.  I then stamped the love flower and mom sentiment from A Mother's Love in versamark ink, then heat embossed with white powder.  I adhered the two tags together with a tiny dot of Tombo glue, then added some pink twine.

For my next card, I started by die cutting a large heart from some pretty floral patterned paper.  Next, I stamped the grandma sentiment from A Mother's Love in versamark ink before heat setting with white embossing powder.  I then stamped the chevron strip from When & Where in versamark onto yellow CS, and heat embossed it as well with white powder.  To finish up, I adhered the yellow chevron strip to the card front, then cut banner ends on the sentiment strip before attaching it with pop dots and embellishing with white enamel dots.

For my final project today, I started with a pool card base, and stamped the arrow strip from When & Where in versamark ink before heat embossing with white powder.  Once my two rows were complete, I stamped the journaling card in light gray ink, and masked off the lower right corner before stamping one of the flowers from A Mother's Love.  I then stamped the sentiment in a darker gray ink.  Gray and white twine was then wrapped around the card front before adhering the journaling card to the card front with pop dots.  To finish up, I embellished with silver enamel dots.

Well, that wraps it up for me today, but be sure to come back on the 25th for more Avocado Arts inspiration! :)

Have a great one!

Heather P.

A Mother's Love and When & Where with Teri

Hello again, Avocado Arts fans!

How is your day going? I hope swell!

I am tickled to bring you a couple more projects with Avocado Arts' newest stamp sets: A Mother's Love and When & Where.

Such fun stamp sets!

My first project uses the A Mother's Love stamp set.

I stamped the flowers on watercolor paper with Distress Ink pads and then used a wet paint brush to spread the color. I love the artsy look you get when you do that.

My second card also uses the A Mother's Love stamp set.

I created a patchwork design with patterned paper for the card base and then stamped the sentiment onto a small white rectangle panel. To keep with the homespun theme, I added a few buttons.

My final project is a set of journaling cards I made with the Where & When stamp set. I dabble in pocket page scrapbooking, and this stamp set is just perfect for that kind of thing!

I had picked up a set of steel dies for the Project Life system (from Becky Higgins and American Crafts) a month or so ago. I was pleased to discover the stamp set's stamps were the right size to use with it! Talk about a pleasant surprise!

By the way, I will just tuck these journaling cards away so I can pull them out and use them when I am ready to scrapbook with them.

I hope you enjoyed these projects! I'll be back again soon!

April Release with Annette Allen...

Hello Crafty Avocado Arts Fans..

I always look forward to the 18th of the month so I can share the new release with you.

It is that time of the year that we show a little something extra to celebrate our Mother's.

With this new Avocado Arts Stamp set: A Mother's Love you are all set.

This set is full of beauty and special sentiments for all.

I just had to mix the sets and add this fun pattern from Avocado Arts: When & Where

How fun is this set? I love these patterns and the note pad is perfect.
Both of these sets are a MUST HAVE!

I hope that I have inspired you today.

Thanks for stopping by today.

A Mother's Love W/ Pinky

Hey there AA friends, 

It's Pinky today with another post filled with Avocado Arts goodness.

This new "A Mother's Love" stamp set got me in the mood to try

some alcohol ink resist stamping techniques. I actually cover acrylic with 

alcohol ink. Set it up to dry, then stamp my image with a water based ink,

 and wipe away revealing a clear image. 

I used this on two of my cards this month. 

I have an mother-in-law and wanted her to have a special card too. 

This stamp set was perfect for all my card making needs...

Isn't this set amazing?

And my third card I went frilly and soft with that 

"Mother's are like buttons" stamp, which I love so much because 

I am a seamstress- so it's perfect. 

Every card was incredible to make, and I feel like the recipients 

will feel very loved. 

I hope you enjoyed my inspiration today.

Until next time- Keep on creating!

Pinky Hobbs: Avocado Arts Pit Crew

April Release with Heather H.

Good morning! Heather here from Houses Built of Cards - to share a few cards with you using the new April stamp sets! First up - I have a couple using this set - full of so many amazing options for the beautiful women in your life! With Mother's Day right around the corner - this is the perfect time to make use of these:

For this first card, I heat embossed the flower on vellum with some pink Zing embossing powder, then heat embossed the sentiment in black. Tucked some fun pattern paper by Crate paper behind it, then added that adorable bird paper clip with a bit of jute twine tied on it. Finished off with some pink cardstock that I embossed with my Cuttlebug for some texture, and a generous sprinkling of bling!

Next up, I decided to stamp one of the flowers on some pattern paper from Crate paper. I also added a jewel bling to the center of the flower, stamped my sentiment, mounted it on a mat of cork paper, then added two colors of jute twine tied around it. Mounted it with foam adhesive on my pattern paper.

And next up, I made a card with this new set - LOVE it so much! I can think of so many fun things to make with this:

For this, I stamped the triangle border several times with Versafine black ink on watercolor paper, then colored over it with watercolor paint. I used my paintbrush to flick some additional paint over the card, then stamped a sentiment from Wishes and Kind Thoughts (see below) and watercolored over it as well. I also added some Glossy Accents to a few selected triangles for some interest, before mounting it on some blue cardstock.

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

April Guest Designer Laurel Beard

Hi there! I was pleased as punch when Ashley contacted me about guest designing. I have been a long time admirer of Avocado Arts. They have such cute stamp sets with adorable images. They stamp perfectly! AND, they have digital die cuts? Yup???? I had no idea! Digital die cuts that work with an array of machines... Perfecto!! A little bit about me.... I was born, raised and still live in Florida.... I am married to a pilot but am afraid of heights.... I have two precious kids that are such miracles.... I like breakfast for dinner, bacon NOT sausage, and I love Coke Zero (Pepsi, plgh)....... I got into crafting by accident. A friend of mine had some weird contraption sitting on her dining room table. I asked what it was and she told me a cuttlebug. After laughing at the name, I asked what it did. Then she starting talking about stamps. I thought she was nuts. I'm like, I just get liberty stamps because they are forever stamps and the rates don't change, because surely she was talking about postage stamps... HAHAHA! I started searching the web, bought a few inks and stamps and then never looked back..... I LOVE techniques with distress inks and gelatos and just recently, I discovered the world of embossings pastes! You can find me on my blog (www.laurelbeard.org) or over on my youtube channel (www.youtube.com/laurelscrafts)......

I had the pleasure of working with two adorable stamp sets today... A Mother's Love and When and Where (insert links). The first project I created is with A Mother's Love. I decided to watercolor the flowers by coloring the stamps with distress markers and then stamp them to a card base! I misted some Mister Huey's in Dewey onto the background and then adhered the panel to a card base! I love the sentiments in this set and how you can build custom sentiments.

The next card showcases a lot of technique and uses When and Where (insert link)... I stamped the triangle border onto a card base and colored in a few of the triangles with markers... I took two pieces of glitter tape and adhered them onto the center of the card!   I then took the journaling card stamp and stamped it onto watercolor card stock in versafine onyx black ink and heat set it in clear embossing powder... The Who/What/Where was stamped in versamark and heat set with Liquid Platinum embossing powder. Just delicious.... See the background? That was created with Faber Castell gelatos.... Love those babies.... And as a finishing touch, I popped up the arrow with some foam dimension and colored it in with a Faber Castell Big Brush pen....

And finally, I created this tag for my daughter using A Mother's Love (insert link)..... I die cut the tag twice and adhered them together showing just a little bit of the pink. Look closely at the pink base because I stamped the chevron image from When and Where (insert link) in white.......   The flowers were softly colored with distress markers and stamped onto the tag.... The sentiment was stamped with Audrey Blue Simon Says Stamp ink.. See? I love all the sentiment builders in that set...

I've had so much fun playing with these sets..... Very versatile.... The sky is the limit!!! :) Oh and during April, they are offering FREE SHIPPING! AND, if that's not enough, if you spend $30, they throw in a free stamp set valued at 16.99. Not bad eeeh? Thanks again so much for having me... I'll see you again soon.