CTS #308

Good morning!  It's another fun and chilly week here in Iowa.  I don't know about you but I am really ready for winter to be over.  Luckily, I've had some fun inspiration from CAS(E) this Sketch to keep be going all winter long.  This week is a retro sketch and I always have a great time with these.  It is so fun to see the difference between the card I made before and now.  I'm always amazed at how differently I the whole team interprets sketches.  SO fun!  Well, here's my take on this week's sketch:

I had a ton of fun with this card because I absolutely love the Lil' Inker Designs Scooter Balloons set.  It is SO fun and the sentiments are just perfect.  I started by stamping and coloring my scooter and cutting it out to layer on one of Lil' Inker Designs Wonky Square dies cut in black.  Next, I found this super fun scooter paper in an older 6x6 paper pack that isn't out there anymore but I linked to another fun pack that has some cool scooter paper that would be equally as cute.  I added my wonky square to my card base with some foam squares for dimension and then added some enamel hearts for a little extra fun.  I felt like the card needed a little extra shine so I used some Glossy Accents on the balloons and scooter lights.  Super cute and simple.  Here's a closer look:

Thanks so much for checking out my card and I hope we'll see you over at CAS(E) this Sketch this week!
 
Some of the product links included are affiliate links. You can use them at no cost to you with a big thanks from me!

Wonky Squares Dies Shop at: LID	Scooter Balloons Dies Shop at: LID	Scooter Balloons Stamps Shop at: LID	Wander Paper Pack Shop at: SC
Neenah Solar White 110lb Cardstock Shop at: SC	Lawn Fawn Black Licorice Cardstock Shop at: SC	Prima Havana Enamel Shapes Shop at: SC	Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares (Black) Shop at: SC
Scotch ATG Adhesive Gun Shop at: SC	Sizzix Big Shot Shop at: SC	Ranger Glossy Accents Shop at: SC

Lil' Inker Designs July Release Day 2!

It's day two of the Lil' Inker Designs New Release Hop and I'm having the hardest time deciding what to share with you on what days because I think it's all SO amazing!  How's a girl to choose?  Lucky for you, you can get it all right now in the Lil' Inker Store.  You should have come here from the Lil' Inker Blog.  If you didn't, don't miss out on the amazingness there.  For now, I'm ready to show off some more fun stuff!

First up, I'm going to show off the Pineapple Panache Stamps and Pineapple Panache Dies.

Ok, these pineapples are way cool!  You could do tons of fun combos with pattern and color but the patterns are even fun as an element of their own.  I decided to use them for a fun black and white graphic punch on my card.  I started with a green stripe using the Stitched Mats: Long & Skinny Rectangles Dies and then added a sentiment from Pineapple Panache Stamps.  Then I took some of the fun pineapple bottoms from Pineapple Panache Stamps and stamped them in a line on the top and bottom of my stripe.  SO fun!  Next, I cut out a pineapple with Pineapple Panache Dies and stamped my pineapple topper with Pineapple Panache Stamps.  I embossed the topper with gold embossing powder which I reheated and layered 3 layers of gold embossing powder on.  I liked that it gave me a sort of dipped look in the end.  I finished off the pineapple with a faint pattern using watermark ink and then added my pink pineapple to my card.  A couple blingy dots, and you have a pretty fun birthday card.

Next up, I went a little more nuts with pineapples but added the Cover Up Die: Dotted Scallops and the Greetings & Salutations Stamps.

I just love this card!  So much shine and fun.  I started with a black card base cut with the Cover Up Die: Dotted Scallops.  I layered some gold foil paper behind to peek through those amazing holes!  Next, I stamped and embossed a super fun sentiment from Greetings & Salutations Stamps on some gold dotted vellum.  I cut a frame from some gold striped paper using the Wonky Squares Dies and framed my sentiment in the center of my card.  I cut a gold and a black pineapple using the Pineapple Panache Dies and after embossing a fun gold pattern on my black pineapple with the Pineapple Panache Stamps, I layered the two and added them to my card.  Love!

Here's what I used today:

 

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

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

Amy Kolling 

Lisa Henke 

Jen Carter 

Maureen Merritt

Heather Hoffman

 Laura Williams 

Sarah Jay 

  Karen Baker

  

Don't forget you can get the new release right now in the Lil' Inker Store!

Lil' Inker Designs April Release Day 3!

Well, it's the last day of our new release hop at Lil' Inker Designs and I'm super excited to show off these last few products but before we get into all that I have to make sure you are coming here after visiting Laura.  If not, head on over to the the Lil' Inker Blog so you don't miss a a stop on the hop.  You won't want to miss a thing!  While you are visiting the Lil' Inker Blog, make sure you go check out the Lil' Inker Store where all of the January release goodies, and a whole lot more, are ready and waiting for you to put in your cart.  Now it's time to show off these fantastic products!  I've packed in tons of products into this last day and I hope you like them.

These elephants are FABULOUS!  They have such personality and are so playful.  That's why they are the perfect elephant set.  What can't they do?  Congrats, sure!  Birthday, of course.  Baby, yup.  You'll want to invite these guys to every celebration possible.  I stamped the adorable Party Pachyderms Stamps with ombre ink pads and added the sweet little birds to the party in two different shades of turquoise.  Then I added my sentiment to the bottom of the card along with some shiny music note stickers and enamel dots.  My card looked a little heavy in the bottom right hand corner so I broke out my Heart Banners Die Set and cut them out of different color vellum to layer in the upper corner and balance out the card.

My final project of the day uses several products and includes a bunch of photos.  Bear with me and I hope you like it!

I started my project on the outside with a Glassine Mini Envelope tied with twine and adorned with a little label I made using Stitched Mats: Dual Stitched Squares,  Wonky Squares Dies, Send Pretty Greetings Stamps, and a sentiment from Party Pachyderms Stamps.  I stamped my images onto my Wonky Square and added some color and glossy accents.  I used a little foam tape to pop that up and hold my twine in place on the Stitched Mats: Dual Stitched Square.  I then tied my twine around my Glassine Mini Envelope.  Are you ready to see what's inside the envelope?

This is the adorable Petal Card Die.  How cute is this?  It's like a little flower just waiting to pop with fun!  The stitching makes it even cuter and I can't wait to add it to a card front to add a little surprise inside.  So much fun.  I had a little more fun with my message inside.

For the inside, I cut a Stitched Mats: Dual Stitched Square from pattern paper and decorated it with one of my favorite stamps sets Really Rosemaling.  The soft colors were perfect for a baby card and I found just the right sentiment in the Send Pretty Greetings Stamps.  These sentiments are SO cute.  I love the little touches of whimsy and different font styles.  It's really a great sentiment set for prettying up a card, envelope, tag, etc.  LOVE!   I added a little glossy accents to the hearts to tie it in with the outer envelope.  I can see myself playing with this often.

Here's a list of the products I used today:

 
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

Lisa Henke 

Laura Williams 

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

Maureen Merritt

Sarah Jay

Lea Lawson

Jen Carter    

Heather Hoffman 

Karen Baker

Amy Kolling
 

Don't forget you can get the new release right now in the Lil' Inker Store!

CTS #114

It's an awesome Thursday here in Iowa and it finally feels like spring.  I'm loving these temps and it is actually supposed to be almost 70 today!  Wow!  I'm just now coming down from the high of my amazing weekend of crafting with some amazing women down in Kansas.  What a great way to kick off some warmer weather.  These ladies are just the best and I feel so privileged to get to spend time with them.  Here's a quick picture of these gorgeous group!

Can you see my MASSIVE smile in the back?  Yup, I was a little excited.  Ha ha!  We had a great weekend and I can't wait until the next one.  Now, I guess it's time to share my take on the CAS(E) this Sketch challenge for the week.  Luckily, my card matches our t-shirts.  I wouldn't want it to clash.  Ha ha!

I had some fun with Lil' Inker Designs Wonky Squares Dies and Hey, Foxy Word Dies.  I had this gorgeous gold striped cardstock which I diecut with the largest Wonky Square Die and then diecut a smaller square out of that piece to add back to the center.  I placed these pieces on my pink cardstock and then diecut the Hey, Foxy Word Dies in both black and pink.  I offset these and then attached them to my card front.  Super simple but I think it captures the fun of the sketch.

I hope you'll join us at CAS(E) this Sketch this week.  Have a great one and here are the products I used:

Lil' Inker Designs March Release Day #2

It's day two of the Lil' Inker Designs New Release Hop and I'm having the hardest time deciding what to share with you on what days because I think it's all SO amazing!  How's a girl to choose?  Lucky for you, you can get it all right now in the Lil' Inker Store.  How awesome is that?  Awesome pretty much sums up Maureen's designs and hopefully you are coming here from her blog.  If not, don't miss out and make sure you start at the beginning of the hop, right here on the Lil' Inker Blog.  Now I get to show off some more goodies including the Wonky Squares Dies which you can get a serious deal on during the release hop.  Check out the deal and then I'll show off some more amazing new release goodies!

How great is that deal?  Well, I promised you that I'd show you another fun way I used the
Wonky Squares Dies and I'll do just that right now!  I also used the Cover Up Die: Pointelle and the Really Rosemaling Stamps.

I live in Iowa and I'm surrounded by Norwegians.  That means lots and lots of rosemaling on all sorts of things and I LOVE IT!  It is such a gorgeous art and I was super stoked when I saw the Really Rosemaling Stamps.  I just know that using this set, I can make cards that will be even more special to the amazing people I get to share my life with.  I tried to make this card look as much like traditional rosemaling as possible by layering my ink on each stamp before stamping it in place.  I started by covering the stamp with a light pigment ink in the color I was using and then taping on a darker version of the color.  When I stamped it, I was left with a a nice graduated look which was just what I was going for.  After I finished stamping my rosemaling on the largest of the Wonky Squares Dies, I went back with copics to add some extra shading on the edges of my shapes.  This really made them pop!  I embossed my sentiment from Really Rosemaling Stamps in a flat gold so it didn't draw all the attention to it since I wanted my Wonky Squares Dies art canvas to be the star.  I wrapped the vellum strip around the edge of my focal point and then bent the ends back out so I could wrap them around the card edge also.  I started to layer this on just a plain card base but it just wasn't right.  It needed a little something and when I used the Cover Up Die: Pointelle on the card base, I knew that was exactly what it needed.  This Cover Up Die is SO cool!  It adds so much to a card but doesn't take over.  I just LOVE it.  Here's another card that shows it off.

  
I went a little more modern with my rosemaling on this card and I think that is what I like the most about this stamp set.  You can do some really cool graphic and modern things with it but you can also keep it traditional and classic.  Who doesn't need a stamp set like that?  For this card I stamped my Really Rosemaling Stamps design on white cardstock and then cut it out to make a strip across the card front.  I used the Cover Up Die: Pointelle to put a pattern on the top half of my card and layered some yellow behind the cut to make the pattern really pop.  I finished it all off with an embossed sentiment from Really Rosemaling Stamps at the bottom of the card.  Now, I have one more way that I showed off my rosemaling skills.  ;)

Rosemaling is an amazing art and what better way to show that off than with a little piece of art on your desk, tucked on a shelf, or anywhere you need a little something to brighten your day?  I have to say this Mini Canvas Die makes me SO happy.  I had such a great time making this little canvas and it makes me smile every time I see it on my desk.  I created my rosemaling design using the same method as my first card and then I embossed one of the many amazing sentiments from the Paint Your Canvas Stamps in the corner.  I love the the script of this stamp set and the sentiments...I'll be using them on everything!  I can already tell you that.  The Mini Easel is SO perfect for displaying this little piece of art and the whole thing would make such a great gift for anyone.  I can totally see some seriously cute teacher gifts made with Lil' Inker goodies and the Mini Canvas Die and Mini Easel.  The possibilities are endless! 

I hope you enjoyed my projects today and I hope to see you tomorrow for the last day of the release hop.  Keep hopping and don't forget to comment along the way.  You don't want to miss your chance to win one of the three $15 Lil' Inker Designs store credits that Laura will be giving out!  Here's the hop order:

Laura/Shop

Sarah Jay 

 Amy Kolling

Maureen Merritt 

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

Lea Lawson

Karen Baker

 Jen Carter 

Laura Williams

Lisa Henke

Don't forget you can get the new release right now in the Lil' Inker Store!

Here are the products I showed off today available NOW in the Lil' Inker Store!

 Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow!