Lil’ Inker Designs Release Hop Day 3 ~

Welcome to the final day of the February release for Lil’ Inker Designs!  I’m sure you’ve been inspired and wowed and woo-ed over the past couple of days…hopefully, you have your orders in already!  I have two more cards for you today using the Darling Diamonds set and Circles & Diamonds Stitched die plate. 

First off is my favorite of this release.  If you read my post on Monday, you know I found inspiration on Pinterest.  Here’s the pic that inspired this next little diddy.

{I can’t ever get this green paper to photograph/edit properly, sorry!}  I really wanted to clear emboss the oval-ish shapes but knew it would be a nightmare with embossing powder getting caught up in the stitched detail.  I found that just stamping in VersaMark set the tone just fine.  Some large black rhinestones at all the points created the perfect background for a sweet sentiment, also set off with a row of small rhinestones.  The sentiment is from The Sugar Kissed Cottage Eat Dessert First.  This particular flower is not a clip or anything special, but I thought this might be a nice way to give a little pin or clip to give a friend for their hair.

Here’s a second card with a layout that’s just a little different

The little woodgrain pattern diamond is rotated once each time it’s stamped – just a fun little extra detail if you look uber guber close.  The colors are Distress Pumice Stone, Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick, as well as PTI Ocean Tides.  I popped this all up on dimensional foam tape, added a bow tied with embroidery floss and stamped the sentiment.  Easy peasy and mail-able!  Yay!  Gotta love those cards that don’t need extra postage but still pack a lot of punch!

Comment along the hop for your chance at prizes – two $10 gift certificates to the Lil’ Inker Designs store – randomly placed on a secret blog.  You should’ve arrived from Judith’s blog. If not, hop on back to Laura’s to get started right! Your next stop from here is the super amazing Amy! Thanks so much for stopping by :) Have fun hopping!

Alyssa

Lil’ Inker Designs Release Hop Day 1 ~

Welcome to the February release for Lil’ Inker Designs!!  We have two introductions today.  First, and most important, we have a new design team member!  Please welcome the spectacular Suzanne Dahlberg!  As you continue on the hop, please give her a warm welcome.  We also have a super fun, on trend stamp and die set that we are introducing today.  The stamp set is called Darling Diamonds, and it pairs perfectly with a die that is a stitched pattern.  Make sense?  Yeah, not really…I know, so just take a look

The die covers the entire front of a 4.25 x 5.5 card.  It stitches in a beautiful circle and diamond pattern.  I was totally in love with this when I first saw the sneak peek, but then when I got it in my hot little hands, I was completely stumped!  Off to Pinterest my fingers flew to find something, anything to give me some inspiration.  I found cakes, phone cases, fabrics, frosted glass fixtures…all kinds of ideas.  So I decided to make a sparkly card just for fun! I used blue and white shimmer cardstock and gobs of clear rhinestones.  I added the small stitched bow at an angle to accentuate the sentiment.  The sentiment is from Winter Greetings and is selectively inked and stamped on two stitched sentiment flags.  

Here’s my next card that shows how you can use the stamp set with the stitched die plate.

For this card, I layered a 4.25 x 4.25 stitched square over the card front.  It is stamped with Distress inks in Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac, Tumbled Glass and Weathered Wood.  The hello is from the Darling Diamonds stamp set and is paired with a random friend stamp from my stash.  I liked the mix of the two fonts.  Of course, I could’ve left well enough alone and had myself an easy to mail card, but it needed a little something.  I added a peacock colored satin ribbon and topped it with a smokey shadow button tied with white embroidery floss.

Ok, this is a hop with prizes – two $10 gift certificates to the Lil’ Inker Designs store – randomly placed on a secret blog.  Leave comments along the way for more chances to win!  You should’ve arrived from Alicia’s blog.  If not, hop on back to Laura’s to get started right!  Your next stop from here is Amy!  Thanks so much for stopping by :)  Have fun hopping! 

 

Alyssa

Cloud9 February Challenge ~

Hey there!  I combined two challenges the other day to create this little ditty.  This is for the Cloud9 February inspiration challenge which used this picture

I was inspired by the kraft, cream, hearts and layout of the top right valentine.

I only have a few Wplus9 sets, so I pulled out Poinsettia Patterns (I'd link to it, but I can't find it for some reason) and stamped a background in Distress Festive Berries.  I added some hearts, from My Favorite Things Lovey-Dovey sentiments, stamped in Classic Kraft ink.  The sentiment is also from MFT, their Essential Sentiments.  The negative heart on the tag is popped up over a stamped kraft heart.
It’s also for the 10 minute craft dash #11!  Here’s the pic of the stop watch from my phone

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I'm off to make valentines for the kiddo's pre-school class.  Have a super day!

Alyssa

Just for the Blog of It #2 ~

GET READY FOR A LONG POST!
Hola!  My friend, Wida, and I decided to challenge each other with inspiration pics and come up with cards.  You can see the first one here (we called it Pint of Interest waaaaaayyy back then).  For the second one, she came up with the clever title, Just for the Blog of It.  Then the little man got sick, then the big mama (my mom), then the little mama (me), then we got company, then the big man (hubby) got sick, then the company got sick :(   Then we all got sick again!  Stomach flu is lame.  Head colds are lame.  Company is fabulous!  So, I didn’t get to play along with the first Just for the Blog of It, and Wida threw me under the bus!  She so didn’t have any sympathy and still has not let up on me about it.  lol
About 2 weeks ago, a few of us Colorado bloggers met at a local-ish Archivers.  It was soooooooooo cool to meet all these *computer* friends in the flesh.  Everyone was working on different projects – I chose to work on coloring.  Long story short, I gave the image I colored to Wida and a few days later, she suggested we both make a card with it.  Well, I decided to one up her and make 2 cards for this challenge!  Beat that Wida Wida!
The first is a technique that I’ve been wanting to try and putting off.  A clean and simple colored card with a color I rarely use…white!  If I stamp or emboss anything, it’s usually black or clear embossed.  For this, I chose to emboss white on white.  It is so very beautiful up close and a little *eh* from a distance.

  These poppies are from Crafty Secrets.  The patterned paper is from My Mind’s Eye.  I used the Stitched Rectangles from Lil’ Inker Designs around the front – don’t look too close!  I mussed it up by running it through twice, which also made the washi tape used to hold the two pieces together stick too much and tear the patterned paper – hence the extra orange banner flag.  The sentiment is also on a banner flag that is stitched from Lil’ Inker Designs.  And a close up of the coloring to show you how much better it is up close

My only problem with this technique…or maybe this image…is that I’m too impatient to color around the embossing.  Just imagine if all those little lines were truly white!  I still love it though :)  I’m going to enter these in the Simon Says Stamp challenge – Anything Goes.
On to the second card…I have to begin by telling you that I embossed it on Kraft with Versafine Onyx Black with detail clear embossing powder.  After that, I bleached out the flowers and leaves.  Here’s a little look at before/during/after.  Sorry about the discrepancy between the colors of kraft in the pictures.  I truly tried my best to get them to match!  argh
                      
The point of these is to show you just how very much bleaching makes the image *POP*.  Here’s the card

Colored in the true reds of poppies used as a symbol of remembrance for a sympathy card.  I’m not super happy with the layout, so this may get changed.  And a little detail shot of the coloring

I’ve found that using a dark red violet for the deepest shading really packs a punch.  I'm adding this one into the Oozak challenge: favorite colors.  My favorite color for the longest time was orange, but it has slowly switched over to red.  Red and black are predominant in my wardrobe, in my nail polish, in my Copics - you name it!  Ok, I think I’ve rambled on long enough!  ha  Head on over to Beachorado and the fabulous Wida to see what she did!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Alyssa