Tropical Paradise with Heartfelt Creations

It's time for another new collection from Heartfelt Creations. This one is called Tropical Paradise, and it is full of tropical birds and foliage and plumeria flowers. Anyone from home knows them as frangipani flowers, which are one of my favourite flowers. I love the way they smell.

Escape to an exotic paradise where the air is warm, lush rainforests are filled with the calls of outlandish birds of paradise, and the day begins and ends with the most spectacular array of colors!  Heartfelt Creations invites you to slip away to utopia with the new Tropical Paradise Collection!  Filled with bright and vibrant colors, the exquisitely designed paper collection will transport you to a tropical island with its fiery sunset reds, dazzling sunny yellows, deep ocean blues and rich leafy greens!  Discover the unique and breathtaking birds that call this exotic place home, from toucans to parrots, flamingos and cockatoos which have all been beautifully illustrated and assembled into three dynamic cling stamp sets and coordinating dies!  Further your equatorial escape with realistically shaped plumeria flowers most commonly known for their inclusion in traditional Hawaiian leis boasting blossoms in pinks, whites, reds and yellows amid their large, leafy foliage.  Join us as we walk the warm, sandy beaches and the glistening ocean laps at the shoreline and help us bid a warm Aloha to the new Tropical Paradise Collection!

If you haven't been already, I highly suggest you watch Emma Lou's video on the blog today. Not only does it give you a far better look at some of the projects from the blog, but she will show you step by step how to shape the flowers. I for one had some trouble with them at first, and that's with 3 years of Heartfelt flower making behind me. They are not difficult once you know how, but they are not as obvious to make if you haven't been shown. Emma Lou also recommends you use a hot glue gun for these flowers, and I really want to back her up on that, it makes them so much easier, especially with the smallest size. I've just made 200 of them, and couldn't have done it with regular glue. 

Here's my first project with this collection:

 This was made with a combination of hand cut pre-printed elements and stamped images. I wish you could see how dimensional it is in real life. 

See loads more on the blog, plus get the written instructions for anything you want to try your hand at. 

Celebrating Easter with Ruby Rock-It |Alicia Barry|

With Valentine's Day now past, it is time to start looking to Easter. I have been wanting to do a hot air balloon for ages, (well another one, this is my second, but in a different style). I was inspired by Teresa Horner's recent post where she created an Easter banner for her mantle. She used the pastel colours of the Hearts and Stripes range, which made me think of all things fresh and new which of course is the epitome of Easter.  

So, moving on, I created this gift basket style of hot hair balloon using a paper lantern for the top. I used the pastels from the Hearts and Stripes range to cover the basket, and to create a co-ordinating mini banner for the balloon as well as the basket. This was then adorned with bling.

I used Happy Days paper to fussy cut floral pieces to create the base for the floral cluster, then topped with Bella! florals. Some more bling accentuates the main floral cluster.

The letters are mini wood veneers coloured with a Copic marker. 

Notice the mini bows from the Fundamentals embellishments on the posts holding up the balloon.

Supplies used:

Hearts and Stripes paper collection

Happy Dayz paper collection

Heritage Florals

Faded Empire Florals

Fundamentals Bitty Bows

Fundamentals wood veneers

Bella! Bling

Easter time with Heartfelt Creations

It is almost time for a new product release over at Heartfelt Creations, but I really wanted to take a week out to go back and work some more with the Flowering Dogwood collection. I think this is one of my favourite ranges. The colours are soft and pretty and the flowers are very sweet. 

This range even gave me an opportunity to go back and do some fussy cutting, which I haven't done in ages. 

If you look over on the blog you will see that many of the designers have done the same thing, and gone back to re-visit old collections. This wasn't planned, it just happens that way sometime and is a good opportunity to go back and give those collections a second look. 

At the same time as looking back, I'm sure you are looking forward to the new collection, so lucky for you, you will also catch a glimpse of that over on the blog.