Welcome, welcome, welcome to the official kick-off for our April Release! We are so excited about his month being dedicated to the boys! While most of the products are geared towards teens and toddlers, today I have a few new sets to share with you that can be used for practically any age!
Tiffany Pastor has used her fabulous & unique sense of style to put together two amazing sets that leave the door wide open to endless possibilities. First up is Grunge Me. This set is chock full of amazing design elements that can often be found on trendy t-shirts and logos today, making them perfect for so many applications! You will love mixing and matching, layering and experimenting with all this set has to offer.
The details.
- Grunge Me will be available for purchase on April 15th.
- It will retail for $15.
- Grunge Me contains a total of 14 stamps (1 abstract frame, 2 sentiments, 2 paint splatters, 2 birds and 7 additional pattern/background building elements).
The second set she designed for this month's release is entitled My Dad, My Hero. This sentiment set focuses on grandfathers, sons and dads, making it so easy to create the perfect Father's Day cards, birthday cards and more. The term "hero" is also used repeatedly throughout the set making it appropriate for projects to encourage our troops and more as well. The meaningful words and bold titles are truly memorable and will add so much to your stamp collection!
The details.
- My Hero, My Dad will be available for purchase on April 15th.
- It will retail for $24.
- My Hero, My Dad contains a total of 29 stamps (10 titles, 1 hero definition strip, 9 companion sentiments, 1 bracket, 8 accent images)
- The titles included in this set are as follows: Dad (2, one large outline, one small bold), Father, Grandpa (2, one large outline, one small bold), Son (2, one large outline, one small bold), My Hero (2, one large outline, one small bold) and Papa.
Now that I have introduced you to these two amazing sets, let me share some of my creations!
First up, a bright colorful card that could be appropriate for either a birthday or Father's Day!
I used our new Alpha-blocks die (more about this later in the week) to cut a frame with multiple openings from white cardstock. I die-cut the openings first, then trimmed around the outside to make everything even. Note how I left some extra space at one end of the frame.
With the extra space I allowed at the side, I stamped the corrugated pattern with Smokey Shadow ink followed by the outlined Dad title in black (both images from My Hero, My Dad)
I then die-cut the blocks from six different colors of cardstock: Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado and Ocean Tides. There is a small dotted rectangle pattern in Grunge Me that fits PERFECTLY in these openings! *sigh* I just love it when these happy little accidents happen!
For the interior, I added a sentiment and bracket from My Hero, My Dad. I am totally in LOVe with this sentiment because it is exactly how I feel about my dad...he made the choice to live his life to the best of his abilities, to work hard, to always be there, which in turn showed me the kind of person he wanted me to be. It doesn't get much sweeter than that!
I created an accent strip for the interior repeating the same cardstock colors from the cover. This time I stamped each of the pieces with a small striped stamp from Grunge Me. In this photo you can also see some of the splatter images I stamped on the Smokey Shadow cardstock with black ink.
And here you can see some additional splatters that were added to the cover.
Now for some simple one layer cards! As soon as I saw Tiffany's Grunge Me set I knew I wanted to experiment with layering and building patterns.
I started with this amazing distressed circle pattern stamped with Ripe Avocado. Notice how I kept to the rule of three when deciding where to place the images.
Next I added small splatters using Ocean Tides ink, followed by the dotted rectangle showcased in my first card.
The sentiment and dotted stripe (also from Grunge Me) were stamped in black. As a finishing detail, I used my Crop-a-dile II to punch holes in the center of the three circle patterns.
I have always thought that little peek-a-boo holes like this in a card can make the project more fun, giving it that little unexpected detail.
Here is the same card in more feminine colors.
Raspberry Fizz & Simply Chartreuse.
Both of these cards would be great for nearly any recipient! And can you just imagine all the fun color schemes you could recreate them in?
Another simple card with style coming up next.
I used this fun square border from My Hero, My Dad to build my focal point. I stamped the border four times, once each in Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides and Enchanted Evening.
I used a single dot from the set to add a bit more vibrancy and color emphasis to the center of each square. I also added this sentiment combination, being sure to overlap the bold portion slightly over the square pattern, while the remainder of the text was placed to the right of the pattern.
For the interior, I used some additional sentiments and accented the side with a single square image from the set, again repeating the colors that appear on the cover.
If you look carefully, you can see how I added two embossed lines at the edge of my card base using my Scor-pal.
To shake things up a bit, I recreated the same card, only geared towards a more general use/recipient.
The strips of squares & dots were stamped in Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Spring Moss & Ripe Avocado. The sentiment (from Think Big Favorites #3) is added in black.
I wanted to be sure to showcase how the My Hero, My Dad set can be used to create more rustic projects rather than just modern looks.
I stamped the hero definition strip vertically with Dark Chocolate ink and then added the corrugated border alongside it with VersaMark. The star was created with the Seeing Stars dies. I die-cut the largest star first from Dark Chocolate cardstock, then ran the star through my die machine a second time with the medium star centered on it. Before adhering it with foam dimensions, I stamped the distressed circle image from Grunge Me in the center and highlighted some of the circles with an E55 Copic.
This sentiment combination was stamped with Dark Chocolate ink. I colored the interior of "Father" using my E55 Copic once again.
I think this too could look fabulous in a variety of colors!
How about a card for Grandpa?
I started with a white card base and added a stamped pattern to the cover using elements found in Grunge Me. The dotted rectangles were stamped first using Enchanted Evening ink. I then added the striped rectangle in all of the leftover spaces. LOVE, love the way this turned out!
This wonderful retro-style frame from the set works really well with elements from Modern Basics! The frame (from Grunge Me) was stamped with Spring Moss ink. Then "Grandpa" and "an incredible" were added with Enchanted Evening ink.
And I can't forget to mention the little bird from the set as well.
I have one more set of layered grunge cards for you today.
This first one started with the corrugated background from My Hero, My Dad stamped in Summer Sunrise.
I then added this fun line & dots image.
Last, a few splatters stamped with Terracotta Tile. And the sentiments are amazing together. The "epic year" sentiment is from a new set that will be debuting later this month.
The "son" portion is from My Hero, My Dad.
Here's the same card in an alternate color scheme and an alternate sentiment. The colors used for the background are Aqua Mist, Spring Moss & Simply Chartreuse.
This beautiful sentiment is from Through the Trees, added with black ink.
I hope you enjoyed everything that I have shared with you today! I really enjoyed working with these sets and I hope that you are able to take away a little bit of inspiration with you. We would love to hear your initial thoughts on both today's projects and the sets themselves. Who would you make cards for using this set? What are some of your favorite images or sentiments that you saw today? You could win big just for sharing your thoughts with us today!
- Grunge Me stamp set
- My Hero, My Dad stamp set
- Father Knows Best stamp set
- Men of Life stamp set
- Modern Basics stamp set
- Seeing Stars dies
You have until 7am EST, Monday, April 11th to leave your comment here and be eligible to win. Only one comment per person please. One randomly selected winner will be announced on our April Release Winners page no later than noon EST the same day. Thank you SO much for stopping by today and best of luck to all of you on the contest!
Betsy Veldman has some additional projects using Grunge Me & My Hero, My Dad.
Tiffany Pastor is featuring some inspiration using her new sets as well.
Beth Silaika is showcasing her new set, Train Tracks.
Lisa Johnson, has a few things to share using her new sets.
Heather Nichols is focusing on some projects she created with her new sets this month.
Maile Belles has prepared some inspiration with her new set, Background Basics: Chevron Stripes.
Melissa Bickford also has some things to share using Flower Fusion #3.
RAINBOW DAD CARD
- STAMPS: My Hero, My Dad & Grunge Me (both available April 15th)
- INK: True Black, Smokey Shadow, Versamark
- PAPER: Stamper's Select White, Smokey Shadow, Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides
- OTHER: Alpha-blocks die
- FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"
YOU ROCK CARDS
- STAMPS: Grunge Me (available April 15th)
- INK: True Black, Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides/ Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chartreuse
- PAPER: Stamper's Select White
- OTHER: Corner Chomper & Crop-a-dile II (We R Memory Keepers)
- FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"
RETRO SQUARES CARDS
- STAMPS: My Hero, My Dad & Grunge Me, Think Big Favorites #3 (available April 15th)
- INK: True Black, Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides, Enchanted Evening/Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores
- PAPER: Stamper's Select White, Ocean Tides/ Aqua Mist
- OTHER: Scor-pal
- FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"
MY FATHER, MY HERO CARD
- STAMPS: My Hero, My Dad & Grunge Me (available April 15th)
- INK: Dark Chocolate, VersaMark
- PAPER: Kraft, Dark Chocolate
- OTHER: Seeing Stars dies, E55 Copic Marker
- FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"
INCREDIBLE GRANDPA CARD
- STAMPS: My Hero, My Dad & Grunge Me (both available April 15th), Modern Basics
- INK: Spring Moss, Enchanted Evening
- PAPER: Stamper's Select White
- OTHER: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)
- FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"
LAYERED GRUNGE CARDS
- STAMPS: My Hero, My Dad & Grunge Me, Boy Basics: Game On (available April 15th), Through the Trees
- INK: True Black, Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Terracotta Tile/Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Simply Chartreuse
- PAPER: Stamper's Select White, Terracotta Tile/ Simply Chartreuse
- OTHER: Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)
- FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"
