Hopping into Spring with Laura's Loft

Hello! Welcome to my stop on the Hopping Into Spring shop and hop with Laura's Loft. You should have landed here from Deana's blog, but if not and you want to start from the beginning, click on Laura.  We have lots of projects along the hop to inspire you today, not to mention a bomb prize pack giveaway to enter, exciting new CHA products added to the shop collections, a 15% off store-wide sale to celebrate National Crafting Month and as always, $10 off a purchase of $75 or more from the shop.  More details are at the bottom of my post :)

This shaker tag is my first project and I absolutely love how it turned out.  It was inspired by the colors in the Design Creative Bling Sequin Mix in Lauren's Bouquet, which is exclusive to Laura's Loft.  Let's see how it came together.





Supplies:
Ranger #8 Manila tag (2)
Distress Inks in Tattered Rose (Set #10), Abandoned Coral (Set #13) and Mermaid Lagoon (Set #13)
Faber-Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel
VersaMark
WoW Clear Supergloss Embossing powder
Tim Holtz Speckles Stencil
Tim Holtz Beautiful Die
Simon Says Stamp smile die
WRMK Fuse Tool
WRMK Next Gen 3D Gemstone embossing folder
Avery Elle Stamp Pockets
Design Creative Bling Sequin Mix in Laurens Bouquet
Tim Holtz Melange Tissue Paper
Prima Art Basics Soft Matte Gel
3M Foam Tape
Scor-tape - 1/4" and 1/8"
Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue

Plug in your Fuse tool to let it warm up.  It takes a good 15 to 20 minutes.  Tear off a section of tissue paper wide enough to cover the tag.  Adhere paper with matte gel using a large paint brush.  I like to brush a thin, even layer of gel over a third of the tag at a time and smooth out the paper with a bone folder.  Once it's adhered, I place it under something heavy for 15 minutes or so to dry (this helps to keep it flat).

Once dry, place the die along the right edge of the tag, leaving at least 1/4" border along the outer edge.  You'll need that to adhere the shaker pouch later.  Run through the Big Shot (or other die cutting machine).   Use the actual die cut for another project.  Using the embossing folder, I did some partial embossing on the top and bottom left corners of the tag.  The "smile" die cut was from another tag covered with the same tissue paper.  I covered it with VersaMark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

To create the peachy-orange color in the sequin mix, I tap back and forth a couple times between Tattered Rose and Abandoned Coral and blend onto the tag, starting on the edges and working in toward the middle.  I kept all the inking on the light side to keep the vintage feel of the tissue paper and to coordinate with the sequins.  Mermaid Lagoon is an intense color, so I was sure to keep a light hand with it as well.  I inked the smile die cut with the same Tattered Rose/Abandoned Coral mix to make it stand out against the Mermaid Lagoon.  I really like how the inking makes the texture of the embossing stand out.  AFTER the ink is dry, I added more texture and sparkle with the glitter gel and Speckles stencil.  Make sure you wash your stencil and palette knife as soon as you're done using them; the gel will ruin them if it dries on.


 Time to make the shaker pouch from a stamp pocket.  I like to lay the pocket down over the back of the tag and draw my seam lines on using a sharpie and the ruler.  I added Scor-tape adhesive along the edge of the word on each side and where I could on the back of the letters.  I leave at least 1/4" of plastic along the outer edge of the seam to attach it to the tag.  Don't forget to leave an opening to add your shaker bits.  Add the bits and seal it up.  As you can see, I made a long and narrow pouch so that the sequins would show along the entire cutout.  I added a double layer of 3M Foam tape to add stability and make a level surface of the finished tag.  Adhere the smile die cut and a few sequins to the front with Tombow liquid glue and our tag is finished.


This watercolor card is my second project and was a lot of fun to do.  I used the original set of Colorburst watercolors, Liquid Metals Colorburst, stamps and gold embossing.  Let's get started.

Supplies:
Strathmore 140 lb hot press watercolor paper
WorldWin Petallics Cardstock in Gold
Neenah Solar White 110 lb cardstock
Colorburst pigments in Pthalo Green, Ultramarine Blue,
Violet, and Lemon Yellow
Colorburst Liquid Metals in Mandarin, Amethyst, Sky and Jade
Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set
Unity Wondrous stamp
Archival Black ink
MISTI
Post It notes
VersaMark ink
WOW Metallic Gold Superfine Embossing Powder
Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, largest two
Fun Foam
1/2" Scor-Tape
Black Velvet #4 paintbrush

Step 1)  Starting with a 4.25" by 5.5" piece of watercolor paper and the MISTI, stamp the rose outline from the Beautiful Day set in the top left corner in Archival black ink.  When using watercolors, or water techniques, make sure the ink is waterproof when dry.  Otherwise it can smear and run.  Stamp the rose on a Post-It note and cut it out, making sure to stamp with the adhesive on the back.  Add the mask on top of the rose and stamp the leaves to the right of the rose and the flower spray along the left edge.
Step 2)  Stamp the Wondrous stamp in the middle, but along the right edge, in the same ink.  Stamp the sentiment towards the bottom left edge in VersaMark ink.  Remove the mask from the rose and stamp it again in VersaMark.  Using the MISTI makes this much easier.  Add Gold embossing powder over the rose and sentiment.  Tap off excess and return to the jar.  Heat to melt.
Step 3)  Colorburst are powdered watercolor paints.  They are fun, but can be messy and unpredictable.  I spray my paper with two or three spritzes of water and add the colorburst powder lightly and spread with a paintbrush if necessary.  If two colors mix too much, just use a paper towel to soak it up and remove it.  Be careful with purple and yellow; these are complimentary colors, but will make brown if they mix.  Let dry.
Step 4)  Using a paintbrush, make a drop of water on your work surface.  Add a tiny bit of blue to the drop and add color to the girls hair.  Add color to the flowers with the girl using the Liquid Metals.  Let dry.
Step 5)  Position the smaller of the two Stitched Rectangles dies over the watercolored piece and run it through the Big Shot.  Run a 4.25" by 5.5" piece of the gold cardstock through the big shot with the largest of the rectangle dies.  Adhere the gold piece to a card base using Scor-tape.
Step 6)  Cut a piece of fun foam slightly smaller than the watercolored piece and adhere it to the back with Scor-tape.  Remove the backing from the tape, center it over the gold and stick it down.  Our card is complete!

Be sure to check out these collections for
new additions we have this month:
Stamping Bella stamps
Hero Arts stamps, including Handmade Kindness
Tim Holtz Distress watercolor paper,
Lawn Fawn Paper packs

We will be having an extra Hop coming up as we are finally getting in the last of our CHA New Releases and there will be lots of Inspiration heading your way soon along with some awesome prices and sales.  But first, we aim to knock your socks off with a store-wide sale, 15% off everything in the store starting NOW thru to April 3 at Midnight, as well as $10 off at checkout for all order $75 or more: use code $10off75 at checkout!

Here is a complete list of stop on the hop this month:
1. Laura - http://www.lauralscott.com/hopping-into-spring/
2. Deana Benson -http://www.designcreativelybling.com/2016/03/hopping-into-spring-with-lauras-loft.html
3. Jasmine Burgess - You're here!
4. Robbie Rubala - http://inkedx2.blogspot.com/search/label/LL
5. Emma Hall - http://heartofcraft.blogspot.com/2016/02/hopping-into-spring-with-lauras-loft.html
6. Sue T.-http://thecre8tivestudio.blogspot.com/2016/02/hopping-into-spring-at-lauras-loft.html
7. Lisa - http://royalpumpkinart.blogspot.com/2016/02/hopping-into-spring-with-lauras-loft.html

Now for that killer prize pack I mentioned! Sweet, eh!



There are several ways to enter and the more comments you make in the different social media platforms, the more entries you earn! It is required that you comment on each blog in the Hop.  After that, you are encouraged to like and comment on our Facebook page, tag on our Instagram and pin on Pinterest, as well as share on your own pages. The participant with the most entries wins the fabulous prize package! How cool is that!?!  Robbie is the next stop on the blog hop and I'm sure you'll love what she has to offer.

Thanks for hanging out with me today! I hope you had fun and were inspired to try something new! Be sure to comment to be entered to win!  See you later!

Much love,
Jasmine