Nina B Designs - 2nd Blog Hop!

Welcome to the NinaB Designs's 2nd blog hop! We had a great time last month and we just want to thank you for your enthusiasm and encouraging words. The NBD team has new projects to show you today featuring NinaB Designs Spellbinders™ Paper Arts (Home Sweet Home and Sewing Elements), The Craft's Meow Stamps, and Want2Scrap bling.

We have added a new twist to our hop. Not only do we have tons of inspiration for you, but we also are joining in the Crafty Friends' challenge that you can participate in. And of course, there will be prizes up for grabs! You will find more info below.

For my project I focused on the flower dies in the Spellbinders Home Sweet Home set. When I was looking at them I thought they're just the right shape for hydrangea flowers. I hadn't made a hydrangea flower before but I was dying to have a go! So I made a card and matching gift box featuring one of my favorite flowers the blue hydrangea.

I did have a bit of a search in blogland for any tutorials on how to go about making these flowers and I stumbled upon one that inspired me at Kittie Kraft. Kittie used a lot of smaller punched flowers on her hydrangeas and they look fabulous, the flower dies in the Spellbinders Home Sweet Home set are a bit larger so I didn't need as many pieces. To achieve the height I used a series of circles layered on top of one another with foam tape and then attached the individual flowers.

On the card I used a combo of the large flower die around the two outer layers and the smaller flower die for the centre. I used the top of a pen and a foam mat to shape each flower into a cupped shape. The gorgeous bling on this card is from Classy Corners - Class by Nina Brackett at Want2Scrap. The sentiment on the card is from one of Nina's retired stamp sets from Layers of Color.

I didn't have the exact shade of blue card I wanted to make the blue hydrangeas so I mixed up some acrylic paint and painted some sheets of white card (front and back), left to dry, then die cut the flowers. For the leaves, I cut a simple leaf shape from green card, scored down the middle, then pinched and twisted the veins with a tweezers. (I think I'll have to do a little tutorial!) I inked the tops of the leaves with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

It's important that the circles you layer the flowers onto are the same color so you can't see them. I love the dimension of these flowers!

I made a simple white box and decorated the top with some little bits left over from the Classy Corners - Class from Want2Scrap and the sides with Beautiful Bling Borders - Fancy Waves from Want2Scrap.

These borders really add a special touch to projects and I love how you can trim the pieces you want. They go such a long way!

For this smaller flower I only used the smaller flower die from the Spellbinders Home Sweet Home set.

The little tag is from the same set and I stamped it with a stamp from the Sew Lovely set from The Crafts Meow. It's the 'Made for you from the heart stamp' but I masked the bits I didn't need. I also added a little bit of left over bling from the Classy Corners - Class set from Want2Scrap.

THE CHALLENGE: If you choose to participate in the challenge, create a new project that uses two die cuts. They don't have to come from two different die cut sets. Then, link it to the Crafty Friends' challenge blog. One participant will win the Sewing Elements dies. You can enter as many as you want.

THE RULES: Leave a comment on as many blog hop stops as possible. FOUR commenters left on the NinaB Designs team blogs will be picked to win prizes. One comment per blog please. This is open to our international friends. Here are the links to the NBD team:

NinaB Designs * Beate Johns * Beatriz Jennings * Clare Buswell * Heather Jensen * Jennie Harper * Lea Lawson * Linda Lucas * Mona Pendleton * Viola Mahr * Crafty Friends' Challenge Blog

THE PRIZES: There are several prizes to be won. One Crafty Friends' challenge blog participant will be randomly picked to get the Spellbinders' Sewing Elements dies

Four commenters left on the NinaB Designs team blogs will be picked to receive the following:

 Spellbinders Home Sweet Home

The Craft's Meow's Thanks Bee to Thee stamp set

The Craft's Meow's Lovely Birds set

Finally, please consider liking the following Facebook pages that are represented on today's hop:

NinaB Designs

Spellbinders Paper Arts

The Craft's Meow

Want2Scrap

We hope you enjoy the projects we're sharing with you today and enter the Crafty Friends challenge as well!