CTS #215

Good morning!  It's a rainy day here in Iowa and it's been rainy for a few days now.  I could totally use a little sunshine and lucky for me, it's Thursday!  Thursday means a new CAS(E) this Sketch challenge and they always put me in a good mood.  Today is no different and I hope you'll join us this week.  The sketch is great and the cards the team created are amazing.  Make sure you check it out.  Another thing you might want to check out is the Right At Home National Craft Day Bloghop.  You can see my post below or go to Nicole's blog to start at the beginning.  Either way, you won't want to miss out on that either.  First, here's my take on this week's sketch:

Remember the card where I created the fun background using the Color Blocking Die?  Well, I cut a star from the card front to create a window using Stitched Stars Die Set.  The star was so cute with the color blocking, that I had to save it for another card and the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch this week was perfect.  I started with a coordinating patterned paper for my card front then I stamped a trail of stars using Girl's Best Friend Stamps.  I just love these little stars and somehow they look like they sparkle even stamped in black.  I added a sentiment from next to my trail of stars using Fancy Feathers.  Finally, I added my color blocked star to my card using some foam tape.  Simple and fun!  Here's a closer look:

Thanks so much for checking out my card for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch challenge!  I hope you'll come join us and have some fun.  We'd love to have you.  Here's what I used to create this card:

Color Blocking Cat

Good morning!  The sun is slowly creeping up over the horizon here and I'm slowly (very slowly) waking up.  It might be a two cup of coffee morning.  Wowza!  We have lots of congestion in the house from the crazy temperature swings as of late.  Everyone has full ears and sinus headaches, except me.  A house full of men that don't feel 100%...not a super fun situation for a mom.  Luckily, I've had a few opportunities to escape to my craft area and get a little relaxation time.  Here's a little something I crafted up the other day:

I played with the awesome papers from Simple Stories called Say Cheese.  Again, I layered my papers before passing them through my die cut machine to be cut with the Color Blocking Die.  I aligned my die to make the long line of the die straight up and down.  This one cut created three card fronts with different combos of the papers.  Talk about easy!  I attached my background papers to my cardbase and then using Stitched Stars Die Set, I cut a star through the cardfront.  I added a piece of dotted vellum to the inside of the card to show through the window  I created.  I stamped a sentiment from You're Invited Stamps along the line under the star before adding my cute kitty from Cat Treats Stamps and cut using Cat Treats Dies.  Here's a closer look:

Thanks so much for checking out my creation today!  I hope you enjoyed yet another idea using the Color Blocking Die!  Have a great week and here are the items I used to create this card:

Laura's Birthday & Lil' Inker Designs Anniversary Bloghop!

Hello everyone and happy birthday, Laura and Lil' Inker Designs!!!!  If you are just stumbling on my blog then maybe you haven't heard but the Lil' Inker Designs design team decided to surprise our fearless leader, Laura, with a little birthday bloghop to thank her for everything she does for us.  We are super excited to share with you all some our favorite Lil' Inker Designs creations and we hope you'll enjoy the hop as much as we enjoyed sneaking around to plan it.

First up, I want to make sure you know about the awesome sale Laura is offering to you guys TODAY ONLY!  Check it out:

Make sure to check out the Lil' Inker Blog to read all the details!  Now it's time for me to share some of my favorite cards from my time with Lil' Inker Designs.  It was not easy to choose but I went ahead and stuck to birthday cards!  :)

I did some mass die cutting to make this card using the Awesome Blossoms Dies.  Then I stamped them with Awesome Blossoms Stamps in various shades of ink.  I love how you can layer the stamps or not layer them and they still look just as awesome!  I added my flowers to a Stitched Mats: Dual Stitched Square that I had cut and stamped with a sentiment from Awesome Blossoms Stamps.  I chose this black pattern paper and mounted my focal point at an angle to match the angle of the words.  Finally, I trimmed off the overhang to finish the card.  Still one of my favorite cards!

This card from the most recent release will always be a favorite!  I actually started this card playing around with all the different combos of dies and stamp options available using Doodled Daisies Stamps and Doodled Daisies Dies.  These are really fun to play with and I enjoyed mixing and matching solid stamps with the image stamps.  When my desk was full of flowers, I realized I better figure out what I wanted to do with them all.  I found this green pattern paper that reminded me of the doodled quality of my stamped images so I went with that for a card base.  Next, I new I was dying to use the Happy Birthday Border Die so I cut it from black to make it really stand out against the green.  I added it to my card front using some foam tape so I had plenty of room to arrange flowers in front and behind the cut.  I laid all my flowers out so I could get the alignment of the swirly sprig just right before stamping it in black on my patterned paper.  Next, I fastened all my blooms to my card.  All done!  One more:

This final card just made me think of Laura!  She could totally pass for 29!  :)  I couldn't wait to use these Dotted Tag Dies!  They are SO cute.  So, I cut a tag out of a fun navy patterned paper and added a star from the Stitched Stars Die Set.  I stamped my sentiment from Keep It Sassy Stamps around my star and the Awesome Word Die that I added to build my full sentiment.  I added a ribbon and then put my tag on this card front cut using the Dual Dotted Rectangles Dies.  I added another cute stamp from Keep It Sassy to finish off my sentiment just below the tag before adding a little bling to the card as a finishing touch. 

I hope you enjoyed my creations and will join the rest of the team on the hop.  Don't forget to check out the sale in the Lil' Inker Store.

Laura/Shop

Heather Hoffman

Jessica Frost Ballas

Sarah Jay

Stephanie Gold

Joy Taylor

Angel Rivera

Lisa Henke

Amy Kolling

Jen Carter

Chrissy Larson <---Yup, that's me!!!

Karen Baker

Ariana Grant

Have fun on the hop and happy birthday, Laura!!!!  Here are the products I used for these creations:

   

   

   

   

Lil' Inker Designs December Release Blog Hop Day 1!

Hi, you guys!  It's day one of the Lil' Inker Designs New Release Blog Hop and I'm super excited to share all the new products with you!  I think you are really going to enjoy this release.  It's packed with fun, as always!  I can't wait to show off all the new release goodies and, lucky for you, they are available right now at the Lil' Inker Store!  We have an amazing blog hop for you today so, hopefully, you are coming from Heather's blog and if not, you won't want to miss her amazing creations or anyone's for that matter!  So make sure you didn't miss anyone and start at the Lil' Inker Blog.  Now for the fun!

First is a card I created using the Inky Flower Stamps, Dual Dotted Circles, and With Sympathy Word Die.

I started this card with a piece of watercolor paper cut with Dual Dotted Circles.  How awesome is this cut!  I feel like it adds almost a matted look without having to actually mat it.  Next, I stamped my circle with the gorgeous flowers from the Inky Flowers Stamp Set and used some water colors to color them in.  I painted some of my water color on the drip stamps in the set and stamped those also for a little extra interest.  Next, I layered a vellum and a black With Sympathy Word die cut to help the black stand out just a bit more.  I had a perfect focal point now to layer on my black card base textured with the Quilted Stitched Pattern Die.

Next up, is a card I created using Dotted Tags Dies and Keep It Sassy Stamps.

I couldn't wait to use these Dotted Tag Dies!  They are SO cute.  So, I cut a tag out of a fun navy patterned paper and added a star from the Stitched Stars Die Set.  I stamped my sentiment from Keep It Sassy Stamps around my star and the Awesome Word Die that I added to build my full sentiment.  I added a ribbon and then put my tag on this card front cut using the Dual Dotted Rectangles Dies.  I added another cute stamp from Keep It Sassy to finish off my sentiment just below the tag before adding a little bling to the card as a finishing touch. 

I hope you enjoyed my creations and will join the rest of the team on the hop.  You'll want to leave comments along the way because Laura gives out a $15 Lil' Inker Designs store credit to a lucky commenter each day of the hop.  It could be you.  I'm sure I'll see you on the hop and tomorrow for another fun day of release projects.  See you then!

Laura/Shop

Sarah Jay

Laura Williams

Heather Hoffman

Chrissy Larson <---Yup, that's me!!!

Amy Kolling

Lisa Henke

Maureen Merritt

Karen Baker

Leah Lawson

Jen Carter

Don't forget you can check out the new release right now in the Lil' Inker Store and you can get all the goodies I used today.  Here's what I used:

 

 

 

Lil' Inker Designs November Monthly Meetup

It's that time again!  Time for this month's, Lil' Inkers Designs' Monthly Meet Up Challenge.  I'm ready to get started, how about you?  This challenge is going to be SO fun this month because we are all seeing stars.  Laura decided our inspiration this month should be stars so we are making all the Lil' Inker Designs' star products the stars of the show and even better than that, Laura is offering you a special deal on some awesome products.  I'll tell you all about that in a second.  I can't wait to share my cards and see what you guys create for this awesome link up!  Let's get this party started!  I'll get to all the nitty gritty of the challenge after I show you what I created with stars in my eyes.

My first card uses Stitched Stars Die Set and Awesome Blossoms Stamps.  I started by wrapping a kraft card base with a piece of vellum printed with copper triangles.  Next I wrapped some copper twine and added a mint colored star I cut using the Stitched Stars Die Set.  I stamped a birthday sentiment from Awesome Blossoms Stamps along the bottom of the vellum and added a chipboard asterisk and enamel dot to finish off the card.  I had so much fun making this card, I took another stab at the basic design and created the card below.

This card also uses Stitched Stars Die Set but I used a differnt sentiment from Sentiment Flags Original Stamps.  Again, I started by wrapping a card base with a piece of vellum printed with copper triangles.  Next I wrapped some copper ribbon and added two mint colored stars (one metallic) I cut using the Stitched Stars Die Set.  I stamped a birthday sentiment from Sentiment Flags Original Stamps on a strip of cardstock that I attached to the smaller star.  To finish the card, I added a chipboard asterisk and a couple other blingy things.  I couldn't resist using some glitter with stars so I created one more card.

My final card uses Stitched Stars Die Set and a sentiment from Pineapple Panache Stamps.  I decided to pair the smaller stars cut from Stitched Stars Die Set cut from silver glitter with washi tape flags to create this fun birthday banner card.  I added me two color sentiment to finish this fun birthday card!

Stars are SO versatile and you can make everything from holiday cards to birthday cards using them. If you love stars the way we do, join us this week for the challenge and take advantage of this awesome sale Laura is running in the Lil' Inker Designs Store!  You can get 15% off using the code NOVMMC of Stitched Stars Die Set, Seasonal Stars Dies Set, Starry Sky Die, and Quick Notes Star Fold Out Die. 

Here are the details for this month's Meetup:

• Make a project inspired that makes us see stars using Lil' Inker goodies!
• Post this project to your blog or favorite gallery please include the challenge graphic above and link to our challenge. 
• Link your project to our challenge by using the InLinkz tool at the bottom of the challenge post.
• You can also share your project on Instagram using @lilinkerdesigns, #lilinkerdesigns #monthlymeetupchallenge.
• You have through November 18th at 11:30 PM EST to link your project and share on Instagram to be eligible to win a prize.  
• Projects should exclusively feature LID goodies to be eligible to win but do not need to exclusively feature LID goodies to join our Meet Up.
• This month's prizes are a $35 gift certificate to Lil' Inker Designs, a Star Fold Out Die, and the Quick Notes Stamp Set! 
• Winners will be announced in a new blog post shortly after November 18th. 

 

 
So, get to your crafty space and start playing!  We can't wait to see what you are doing with the amazing products from Lil' Inker Designs.  I'll see you over on the Lil' Inker Designs blog!  Can't wait to play along with you.  Also don't miss out on the awesome sale!!

Here's what I used on today's project: