Your Next Stamp Blog Hop!

Hi everybody! Thanks so much for joining us for the very first Your Next Stamp Blog Hop! Your Next Stamp has a whole bunch of Fall, Halloween and Christmas stamps that were just released so the Starlets have whipped up some yummy eye candy for you using many of the new stamps!

If you didn't start at Karen's blog and work your way here, you'll definitely want to go back: If you comment at every stop on the hop, you'll be entered to win the grand prize of $50 of stamps - winner's choice, along with free shipping! We also have a "mystery" blog where one commenter will win a stamp set of their choice (with free shipping), but we're not telling you which blog it is! And, if that's not enough yet, each of the Starlets will be giving away one of their hop projects to a random commenter at their blog!

Here's the hop order again in case you missed it:

Karen
Amy
Simonne
Cabio
Maylee
Lana
Ryann
Kerri
Maureen (you're here!)
Stephanie
YNS Challege Blog

The hop will run through midnight EST Sunday, September 27 and then all the winners will be drawn on Monday, September 28. ***The giveaways are now closed. Thank you!***

One last thing to mention before I get to my cards: Karen is offering FREE shipping until Thursday, September 24 at midnight EST so you can go shopping for the new releases (which are all available now), as well as any previous stamps that you can’t live without and/or other products carried in the store! The coupon code is PARTY.

And now, without any further ado, on to the show!

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I’m a big fan of the reality show "Top Chef" and love it when the chefs prepare things three ways, so I decided to do my new release cards three ways! [All pictures can be clicked to enlarge.]

My first card is a clean and simple card done with colored pencils:

I used the set Yummy Pie which came with the pie image and the Thanksgiving sentiment. Both were stamped in Dark Chocolate ink and then I did some very simple coloring with Prismacolor colored pencils. Blending was just done with the pencils themselves, no odorless mineral spirits! I added a bit of patterned paper from the DCWV Rustic stack punched with a Martha Stewart border punch, and then a piece of ribbon.

My second card is a little more complicated and was done with watercolors:

I used Little Isabel with her Friend Snowman, which also comes with a really cute snowflake border stamp that I didn't use on my card. I colored with Peerless watercolors and added some flocking to her coat trims and the snowman’s hat top, and also glitter to the snow line. You can see those better in this close shot:

I did some crazy straight stitching all around the outside, then added a little trim and foam Thickers letters that I covered with Stickles. I added more Stickles to the snowflakes in the patterned paper, which is from Imaginisce (I used one sheet of double-sided paper called Comfy Cozy), and finally I added the focal panel with foam boosters.

My final card is the most complicated - it has lots of layers and 3-D cut out parts and was colored with Copics:

I used the set Windswept Fhiona which comes with a sentiment and a bunch of little images like the mushrooms. I used a sketch from Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge (yes, I just finished this card today!) and 5 different papers from Basic Grey's Mellow line.

Fhiona was stamped multiple times and colored with Copics. Then I cut out different parts and popped them up with scrap cardstock. I also popped up the mushroom caps and the leaves were stamped on patterned paper and cut out. (A little note - the leaves came attached to the Fhiona image, but I cut them off so they could be stamped separately. Of course I can still stamp them all together like the original just by sticking them all together on the acrylic block before inking.) The finished Fhiona was stuck on with foam boosters. You can see all the layers of Fhiona here:

I added a torn piece of patterned paper for the ground, some Prima bling for the wind and a piece of ribbon.

I seem to be a little obsessed with distressing lately - almost all my cards have at least one piece where I roughed up the edges with my scissors and these three cards are no different! All of them have distressed edges on at least one layer; the third card has distressing on every layer! So they all qualify for the Cupcake Craft Challenge which is distressing. The third card also qualifies for the My Time To Craft Challenge which is Autumn Fest.

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Some final info before you go: If you join our Yahoo Group before October 1st, you'll be entered to win a $20 stamp shopping spree at Your Next Stamp!

Our challenges will be starting on October 7 on the new YNS Challenge Blog. There are a couple stamp sets you can win and you'll find all the details here-> YNS Challenge Blog.

Whew! That’s all for now - I hope you liked my cards and thanks for visiting!

Your next stop on the hop is the amazingly talented Stephanie!