Celebrating Topflight Stamps' 8th Birthday

I'm excited to join in again this week to celebrate Topflight Stamps' 8th birthday! And in honor of the celebration, I'm joining the store's design team as well as a few other guests to make and share celebration-themed projects in a fun little blog hop. (There is a master list of Hop stops on the Topflight Stamps blog.)

We're also hopping on Instagram if you'd like to check it out there. You can start the Instagram hop at the Topflight Stamps account.

Oh, and did I mention that there are prizes? Info is at the bottom.

Our theme is "Celebrations" and I'm celebrating Spring (which I think I did the last time I participated as well!) The trees are in bud, early flowers are blooming, and birds are starting to gather materials to build their nests. I decided to take all of that inspiration to put together a little celebratory mini journal using dies, patterned paper, my stamps from PaperArtsy, and a few other things - most of which you can get from Topflight Stamps. (I've put together a supply list below the project.)

I used a few really fun and new-to-me sets of wafer dies to create both the book and pages and the fun layered banner on the cover. I love the layers of texture and pattern and topped it off with a stamp from one of my floral stamp sets and a hand written title (I've been a bit more into using my own handwriting lately.) Using the dies to make the book is so easy - everything lines up and you just tie it together! I used some waxed linen thread that I had handy. The cover and pages were both just cut from cardstock weight patterned paper.

I like using patterned paper as a background. For the pages, I chose lightly patterned papers so I could still stamp on top of them. This spread was obviously inspired by all of the birds building their nests right now... we even have a few finches who keep trying to pull from the grapevine base of the wreath on our front door! 

I used the feather and butterfly stamps from my "Nature Study" stamp set to create the background, my upper case alphabet set (EGL16) to do the title, and mixed together a few other sets to get the bird. I also added a few more die-cut pieces from the same die sets I used to make the book for backgrounds and frames. Below you can see a bit of a closeup of both pages.

On to the second spread... the trees that blossom in Spring are all in bud and we should be getting cherry blossoms here in the DC area any day!

The stamps on this spread are all from my "Ulassa" stamp set which is very nature-inspired. Although we technically don't get Peacock butterflies here, I figured it was okay on paper. LOL. The dogwoods in my yard and in the neighborhood should be just behind the cherry trees in putting out all those gorgeous flowers. 

The third spread is my favorite... I can't deny it. I still adore playing with all of the little glass elements I drew in a few of my stamp sets and they're fun to use together! I used a watercolor marker to put water in the jars (color with it on a Teflon craft sheet, spritz water on top, and then use a brush - watering down the marker will help dilute the color so that it looks more like water.)

And there you go! I still have a few pages left in the book that I'll continue to add to as the season goes on, but I hope you enjoy and are maybe even a bit inspired by the book and the first three spreads!

Supplies

• AALL & Create Dies (I used Set #45 - Tops of the Pops)
• Studio Lights / Art by Marlene Dies (I used Journaling Fun)
• My PaperArtsy Stamps
• Patterned Papers from Craft Consortium (I used Ink Drops Dusk and some older papers I picked up from the shop a few years ago.)  
• Washi Tape (I used AALL & Create 104, 114, and 117.) 
• VersaFine Clair Ink Pads
• Watercolor Markers (to make water in the jars)
• Colored Pencils (to color stamped images)
  

GIVEAWAY DETAILS
Of course, it wouldn’t be a birthday celebration without prizes! Topflight Stamps is giving four lucky winners $50 Gift Certificates to the store. Two winners will be chosen from commenters on the blog hop and two will be chosen from commenters on the IG hop.

​For a chance to win, make sure to visit the stops on the hop and leave a comment by April 1st. Winners will be announced on the Topflight Stamps blog on Thursday, April 3rd. U.S.A winners only due to shipping issues. Good Luck!

Blogs for the hop:
Topflight main post
Kathi Rerek
Dina Kowal
Esther Asbury
Annette Allen
Rachel Kleinman
Connie Mercer
Lisa Hoel
Gwen Lafleur --> You are here!
Colleen Dietrich
Ericka Strange
Autumn Clark
Natasha Vacca
Mel Pilling (Instagram only)
Colleen Balija
Alanna Moses
Sara Naumann