Pals February Blog Hop!!!

Thank you for joining us for the February Pals Blog Hop! Today the Stampin' Pretty Pals are excited to introduce you to the Stampin' Up! products we LOVE. We hope you find new ideas for using the products you already have - or find new items to add to your wishlist.

 You should have just left stop number 7 on the Pals Hop - Ann Schach at The Stampin' Schach. If so, you are in the right spot.  If you get off track, the full blog lineup below will help you move along from blog to blog so you see all of the amazing creations.

I LOVE so many of Stampin' Up!'s products, but lately I can't get enough of heat embossing the Swallowtail stamp from the Spring Catalog!  I love the elegance of this stamp and I think that when you combine it with heat embossing, you end up with a WOW card!  The only problem is that the cards turn out so pretty that I don't want to mail them!  Help!  I am hoarding my Swallowtail cards!

I made three cards with the heat embossed Swallowtail, each one a bit "stepped up" than the one before.  What do you think?

This card was the easiest and quickest of the three to create.  I was able to make this card while my youngest daughter was sitting in her high chair eating breakfast - about 15 minutes.    I heat embossed the Swallowtail in Melon Mambo embossing powder onto Whisper White cardstock.  *Tip- Make sure you rub your Embossing Buddy over your cardstock first!  I forgot this step on this card, which is why I added the spritz of Daffodil Delight Stampin' Write Marker.  Since I didn't use the Embossing Buddy, I had some stray powder left on the card that I couldn't get off so I disguised it with some color spritz.  I really like the finished product though, and I like how the Daffodil Delight spritz ties in with the Daffodil Delight layer of cardstock.  The sentiment is from Made for You, stamped in Midnight Muse.

My second card took just a bit longer to create, because I sponged color onto the Swallowtail after embossing it, then I cut it out and propped it up with Stampin' Dimensionals.  I used Sponge Daubers and Daffodil Delight, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, and Baja Breeze to add color to the image.  The sentiment is from Lacy and Lovely, stamped in Certainly Celery.  I remembered my Embossing Buddy on this one, so no color spritz needed. :)

My third card took the longest to create, about 45 minutes - probably because I don't have the 1" Square Punch yet (it's on my wish list).  I heat embossed the Swallowtail in Pewter embossing powder then used Sponge Daubers and So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, and Melon Mambo to color it in.  I love the sheen from the Pewter powder!  

My heart skipped a few beats when it was time to cut into my beautiful butterfly.  Using my Stampin' Trimmer, I cut my image (stamped onto a 3" x 4" piece of Whisper White) into 1" squares.  I then pieced them back together for a tile look.  

The card base is Basic Gray, which I think pairs nicely with the Pewter powder.

The next stop is Shannon Hokanson at Paper Works, stop number 9 on the Pals Blog Hop! Thanks for visiting – and I hope to see you next month!

1. Maggie Mata at Maggie Made Cards
2. Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty
3. Cermen Sublasky at The Creative Stamptuary
4. Dawn Tidd at Tiddbits from Dawn
5. Leslie Davis at Stampers Paradise 
6. Peggy Noe at Pretty Paper Cards
7. Ann Schach at The Stampin' Schach
8. Amy Williams at Stampin' on the Range
9. Shannon Hokanson at Paper Works
10. Nancy Gleason at My Stampin Space
11. Diane Roberts at Score At Four and a Quarter
12. Angela Curry at Kindred Stampers
13. Rae Harper at Wild West Paper Arts
14. Patti MacLeith Papercrafts by Patti
15. Maxine Conrad at Stamp to the MAX!
16. Debbie Crowley at expressivelydeb...
17. Nicole Picadura at Scraps & Stamps
18. Lynn Hoyt at cattaildesigns
19. Kerry Willard Bray at stampgoodness
20. Jennifer Takacs at Stamped in Full