Paper Smooches Winner Announced!

Woohoo! My Paper Smooches package arrived yesterday and I whipped up this card using Vogue Abode to tempt your wallet out of hiding tomorrow when all three new releases will be available for purchase! ;) Random.org has selected the lucky winner as:

Congratulations, Karen! Please email me with your mailing address so we can get Vogue Abode sent out to you right away.

Thank you all for hopping along with the Paper Smooches design team for this release! See you on the Paper Smooches Blog for inspiration all month long. Have an amazing New Year's Eve and Happy New Year!!

Sources: SU Naturals White cardstock; Echo Park For the Record paper pad; Paper Smooches Vogue Abode; Memories black ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Mustard Seed distress ink; SU Crumb Cake ink; Papertrey Ink medium scalloped border die; May Arts natural burlap string

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge {Dec 29th - Jan 11th}

A new Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge began yesterday! I love not only the words but also the fact that they are in rainbow colours. This inspiration photo is simply beautiful. I was inspired by the rainbow effect and the encouraging words. For my card, I used the two faces and a sentiment from Wake Up.

This Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge runs until January 11th so I hope you will play along with us! As always, there are fabulous stamps to be won and, if you don't have any Paper Smooches stamps yet, there is a holiday promotion going on HERE for only two more days, or you can grab the free digis that Kim offers every month. I look forward to seeing how this photo inspires you as we head into the New Year!

I'm sure you know by now that this is my last post for the SPARKS Challenge design team. I will see you on the Paper Smooches blog as a design team member there. I am so excited!! Thank you for all your sweet, congratulatory wishes!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; SU Island Indigo, Tempting Turquoise, Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango & Real Red cardstock; Paper Smooches Wake Up; Memories black ink; Lil' Inker Designs Rainbows & Clouds dies; foam tape

December Paper Smooches DT Blog Hop!

I'm super excited to be participating in my first blog hop with the Paper Smooches design team! It's Pep Rally week and we are here today to share a sampling of the Paper Smooches January stamp release with you! The three NEW clear stamp sets will be available to purchase on January 1st. You will find them HERE. Follow the Paper Smooches blog for more sneak peeks.

To add extra fun to our blog hop...we are offering up a prize! Just leave a comment on any of the five design team blogs listed below for your chance to win one of the three new January stamp sets! (you do not need to comment on all blogs to qualify) You have until midnight MT on Friday, December 30th to leave a comment. Please check all five blogs on Saturday, December 31st to see if you are one of the five lucky winners.

• Emily Leiphart <--- You are here.
• Heidi Van Laar
• Kryssi Ng
• Laurie Schmidlin
• Teri Anderson

To increase your chances of winning:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post
2. Tell us that you Facebooked about our blog hop
3. Tell us that you Tweeted about our hop
4. Tell us that you posted on your blog about our blog hop

(which means that you have up to four chances to win on each blog)

Unfortunately, my stamps didn't arrive in time for me to show you something with the brand new Vogue Abode set but here's a little teaser.

Oooohh, I know, eh? And, of course, I couldn't let you go without showing you a Paper Smooches card, even if it doesn't use the new stamps. This one uses Santa Paws and features a fun post-holiday word from Santa. If you didn't get Paper Smooches stamps in your stocking, you should definitely treat yourself on January 1st. ;)

This Santa is completely paper-pieced and the white parts were shaded with Copic markers. The skin colour is patterned paper. The brim of his hat, eyes/glasses and beard were all fussy cut/X-acto'd in one piece and adhered as the top layer.

Remember to check back here on Saturday to see if you are the lucky winner of Vogue Abode!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury black and white cardstock; Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas paper pad; Paper Smooches Santa Paws; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Memories black ink; Copics; Gutermann grey thread

Happy New Year

As hard as I try to remember everyone at Christmastime, and I sent out more than 60 handmade cards this year, there are always a handful of cards that show up unexpected. If I were to return the favour, a Christmas card would no longer seem appropriate so a New Year's card is the next best thing! The best part is it can arrive any time after New Year's Day, within reason, and not seem silly.

I'm playing with some new things I got before Christmas and didn't have a chance to play with 'til now. I was so excited when Unity included a 'Happy New Year' sentiment in the November 2011 KOM because they are rare (there's one other in Greetings of Christmas) and they are also perfect for Chinese New Year celebrations (Year of the Dragon begins on January 23, 2012). This particular sentiment is from Take Your Time and I used the must-have skyline border die from My Favorite Things. Imagine all the fun you could have with those tiny windows! I left them all unpunched this time to make it easy on myself. I made a half-dozen of these just in case. ;)

Sources: SU Pool Party, Island Indigo & So Saffron cardstock; Unity November 2011 Kit of the Month - Take Your Time; Memories black ink; MFT Die-namics Skyline Border; SU Basic Rhinestones

A Super Fun Birthday

Some of my new Hero Arts stamps arrived on Christmas Eve but I couldn't play with them 'til last night after some of our house guests left. They were staying in my craft room so I couldn't craft late at night like I love to do. You can only imagine how I felt! LOL I had to whip up a quick birthday card for a friend of mine who has a birthday on the second day of the year. This sentiment from Good Friends is perfect for him because he has an eight-month-old daughter, rides a motorcycle and races boats. 'Super fun', eh? ;) I used the Newspaper Skyline on the card base. This stamp had to come live with me! The dies were a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law and nephew, and the papers were one of many gifts from Angela. Thank you!! I also love that I finally have a tiny attacher. It felt so good to play with new craft supplies! I hope you're all finding a bit of time to wind down, too. :)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock; My Mind's Eye Away We Go paper pad; Hero Arts Good Friends & Newspaper Skyline; Memories black ink; Hero Arts poppy chalk ink; MFT Die-namics Layered Label Die; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher & staples; foam tape

Merry Christmas + A Winner!

I'm just popping in quickly to say Merry Christmas to you all! It's been supremely chaotic in my house and that's all I'll say for now. LOL I wanted to share a card I made a couple of days ago for my brother-in-law and his eight-year-old son. It turns out my nephew also loves penguins, plus he skis! I hadn't inked up any of the stamps from Pain and Pride or Take Your Time and I was happy to have a reason to. In fact, there couldn't be a more perfect stamp for him except if it's sports-related but this one is much more festive. ;)

Also, I'm here to announce the winner of my holiday giveaway from THIS post. Random.org has chosen the following winner:

Congratulations, Caroline! Please email me with your mailing address by 11:59pm on December 31, 2011 and I will ship out your stamps. If I do not hear from you by New Year's Day, I will draw another winner.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you are all enjoying the wonder of the season and the hustle and bustle of festivities with family and friends.

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & white cardstock; Unity November 2011 Kit of the Month - Take Your Time; Ippity Pain and Pride; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Hero Arts snow chalk ink; Copics; foam tape

Season's Greetings

This is my last design team post for Jane's Doodles. :( It's never easy to leave a team and I would stay with all my teams forever if I could. Jane and Judith have been so sweet and when they invited me to join the team, I was very honoured. I'm so appreciative of what they've given me and I will miss designing for them. I know they will continue to impress you with their future releases!

For this card, which I designed for my parents, I used Vintage Christmas. The outline poinsettia was stamped and heat embossed twice, fussy cut and adhered together. Then I die cut the banners and stamped the sentiment in two parts. After determining the placement of all three pieces, I used the three tiny snowflakes to stamp a partial background and adhered everything on to the card base. Once I finished the card, I added some rhinestones and burlap string.

I hope you're all having a great time with holiday preparations! We are having the best time with my brother-in-law and eight-year-old nephew. They both think our little man is loud, which he is, but it's so cute to see my nephew patting my son on the head and looking at him with such sweetness! Considering the fact that they only met each other last night, they are getting along really well. :)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & white cardstock; SU Real Red cardstock; Jane's Doodles Vintage Christmas; SU Whisper White pigment ink; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Hero Arts Snow chalk ink; PSX Snowflake embossing tinsel; PTI Double-Ended Banner dies; May Arts forest burlap string; SU Basic Rhinestones

Let's Hang Out

Not only do I make Christmas cards at this time of year, I also make New Year's and friendship cards. There are always friends that I haven't seen in ages and would love to get together with in the New Year so I sent them a card like this one which features Paper Smooches stamps. The sentiment and branches are from Hang Ups and the owl is from My Peeps. I love how the lines are so clean yet there are so many details and you can colour this cutie or paper piece him/her in so many different colour combinations. And I've used the word 'so' three times in that sentence. LOL I hand-cut a parallelogram shape for the base of the swing and hung it from the branches with burlap string. The branches are only adhered to the card at the outermost ends.

I just wanted to remind you all that there is a holiday-themed Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge going on and you have exactly one more week left to play in this round. Click HERE for all the details! :)

Only four more sleeps 'til Christmas Day and our first couple of guests arrive this afternoon from Denver! Eeek! I'm not sure how much crafting or blogging I'll get to do 'til after Boxing Day so I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas with family and friends. I have received cards and generous gifts from several of you so I also wanted to express my happiness and gratitude. I am one lucky gal!!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & White cardstock; SU Pool Party cardstock; AC textured brown cardstock; Paper Smooches Hang Ups & My Peeps; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Walnut Stain distress ink; Copics; May Arts natural burlap string; SU paper piercer; foam tape

Merriest Wishes Recycled Tag Set

Someone stop me! I seriously cannot stop making card sets. Thanks to the Hero Arts December Contest, I've discovered a new addiction. As if I needed a new addiction in card making. LOL I have sent out most of my holiday cards and I'm proud that I even sent out a lot of my favourites. I've made so many and since I didn't send out many last year, I wanted everyone to enjoy them this year. This set of tags was still sitting on my desk and I realized I had no one to give them to, nor did I ever think I would use them so I decided to turn them into cards! I needed a few extra cards so they came in handy.

The sentiments featured on the tags are from the Hero Arts clear set Very Merry Christmas. I snipped the twine off the tags and replaced it with natural burlap string. Then I stamped the Dash Pattern directly on to the card bases and sponged the edges with distress ink. I've owned this houndstooth background for a while now and I've been desperate to use it so I'm happy I finally found a reason to. I can't wait 'til my order of chalk inks arrive so I can play around with it more.

I'm still not happy with my photography for groups of cards. I wish I had a huge studio with a backdrop and big lights just for that purpose. Yes, I wish. LOL Well, back to holiday preparations. I hope yours are going well!

Sources: SU Natural White cardstock; Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock; Hero Arts Very Merry Christmas & Dash Pattern; Memories Black ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Antique Linen & Walnut Stain distress inks; Clearsnap SmoochSpritz in Gold Glow & Holly Berries; Clearsnap Funky Forest Design Adhesives; Clearsnap Irish Eyes Designer Foils; Papertrey Ink Tag Sale #3 die; May Arts natural burlap string; foam tape

What a Life Set

I made this quick and easy set of cards using the Hero Arts sets What a Life, Joy Ride and Bicycles for the Hero Arts December Contest. It's good to have a couple of last-minute gifts on hand during the holiday season for surprise drop-ins! ;)

I wanted to use all seven sentiments from What a Life because they cover all types of occasions and I love the impact of the bold fonts. The tricycle card even works for a new baby gift!

I paired up each sentiment with bikes from two sets, Joy Ride and Bicycles. The package of seven cards and envelopes is tied together with olive green burlap string.

Sources: SU Natural White cardstock; Hero Arts Joy Ride, Bicycles & What a Life; SU Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Summer Sun, Wild Wasabi, Ballet Blue & Melon Mambo inks; Tim Holtz for Ranger Scattered Straw & Dusty Concord distress inks; Memories Black ink; May Arts olive burlap string

Joy

Over the past three nights, my husband has been working on the Christmas card he's going to give me and I suddenly realized that I don't have one for him yet. LOL So I used one of the sketches from the Hero Arts December Contest to make this card for him. I've used the set Happy Holidays to sublicate but I haven't shown you anything I've made with it so I'd love to know what you think of these charming images! While looking through all my Hero Arts stamps, I realized that I have a lot more holiday stamps than I thought I did but I would love to have more. Isn't that always the case? ;)

Since this will be our first Christmas in our new house, I thought these houses from Happy Holidays would be perfect for the card, especially since the sketch called for a heart! I used three different reds to create a stone pathway like the one we have outside our house. On the card base, I stamped the Clouds background with watermark ink and the Envelope Pattern with Snow chalk ink. I kept the background subtle so that the holiday colours would pop right off the kraft card base.

I hope you're enjoying all the last-minute holiday preparations and taking some time to relax, too! We are going to try to clean the house from top to bottom today since we're entertaining friends from Italy tomorrow and our first house guests arrive on Wednesday afternoon. Eeek!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft & white cardstock; Hero Arts Clouds, Envelope Pattern & Happy Holidays; VersaMark watermark ink; Hero Arts Snow chalk ink; SU Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Real Red & Riding Hood Red inks; foam tape

Christmas Wishes Set

I made these a couple of days ago for the Hero Arts December Contest and posted them to the Hero Arts Flickr Group already but I needed to share them here. They are already in the mail and I want to make more because they were so much fun to make! I trimmed the card base slightly smaller than the standard A2 size to accommodate the bits that are hanging off the edges. That way they fit into a standard A2 envelope for easy mailing. I wanted to make good use of the Hero Arts set Wishes Come True so I used all four in this set with the leaping reindeer from Holiday Cheer. Their sweaters are coloured with red Copic markers and bodies with warm grey Copic markers.

Thank you for stopping by during this busy week before Christmas! I have exactly three days to craft my little heart out before I have house guests for ten days so I am planning on taking full advantage of that. I don't know if I'll survive if I can't craft for that entire length of time, especially since the next Paper Crafts call comes out on Wednesday. LOL Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Hero Arts Holiday Cheer & Wishes Come True; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Rose Red ink; Copic markers; foam tape

Unity Friends With Flair {Dec 16th} + Holiday Giveaway

It's been more than two months since I posted to Friends With Flair and I've missed all the fun! I do have a personal giveaway so I will provide details at the end of this post. This card was one of three cards I had published in Paper Crafts Magazine's November/December 2011 issue. This one was featured as an online bonus so that is why I wanted to show it here. It uses a holiday sentiment from Samantha Walker's Greetings of Christmas. I love the sentiments in this set and could easily make an entire set of cards just using this set. I created Carrick Bend boating knots (also shown HERE) with red and green baker's twine and added clear rhinestones. The white panel is adhered to the card with foam tape.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have a holiday giveaway of random Unity stamps! Most are brand new, never-been-inked stamps from sets that I own. I figured someone should give them love and since it's the week before Christmas there's no better time for someone to win some of Unity's fabulous stamps, right? One random winner will receive this EZ Mount 8.5" x 11" lightweight storage panel filled with Unity stamps. There are exactly 34 stamps total and you can see on the photo that they cover both sides of the panel. You must be a Follower of my blog to qualify. Just leave a comment in this post by midnight EST on Friday, December 23rd and I will announce the winner via Random.org on Christmas Day. Good luck to all! :)

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury black and white cardstock; Unity+Samantha Walker Greetings of Christmas; Memories Black ink; The Twinery Maraschino & Peapod baker's twine; SU Basic Rhinestones; foam tape

Lil' Inker Designs + 2 Cute Ink Release Week {Day 5}

Welcome to Day 3 of Lil' Inker Designs' December Release featuring a collaborative new line of stamps with 2 Cute Ink! Artist Heidi Schwoerer, formerly of 2 Cute Rubber Stamps, will now exclusively release her stamps with Lil' Inker. All stamp sets will be released in clear stamp format and feature sentiments in a fun font designed by Laura and Ariana of Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs! If you've come from Jen Carter's beautiful blog, you are on the right track. Today, the entire design team is featuring Cocoa Bear!

Look at that darling little bear! First, I used one of the sentiments to stamp a broad border. Then I coloured, fussy cut and adhered him to the card with foam tape. Even though there's a bit of dimension, it will still pass through the mail easily with regular postage. Cocoa Bear comes with three fabulous sentiments and two smaller images that you can use separately or inside the cocoa mug!

I have a cute little story about a snowman on a mug if you could bear with me. ;) My sister gave us a fun set of winter mugs and there is a snowman with feet skiing in the background. For fun, I asked my son if he thought snowmen could ski. Without skipping a beat, he said, "Ya, the real ones can, like that one (pointing to the skiing snowman on the mug), but not the ones that people build because they have round bums to the ground and no feet!" LOL

I think you'll agree that Arctic Friends, Snow Mouse and Cocoa Bear mix-and-match beautifully. Just click on the graphic below to purchase.

Thank you for stopping by today! Be sure you hop along all week and leave comments on all the design team blogs for a chance to win all three of the new winter-themed stamp sets or one of two $10 gift certificates to the Lil' Inker Store. I hope you've enjoyed this fun and fabulous release!

Your next stop today is the extremely talented Alicia Thelin!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Lil' Inker Designs + 2 Cute Ink Cocoa Bear; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Real Red & Garden Green inks; Copics; foam tape

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge {Dec 15th - Dec 28th}

A new Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge begins today! As you can see, this is going to be a super fun holiday challenge. Even though it's a very busy time of year, I hope you'll find a bit of time to play along! I was inspired by multiples of three, red antlers, red noses, googly eyes and brown background. For my card, I used one of the newest releases, Chubby Chum Pals.

Initially, I was going to stamp three reindeer using Santa Paws but when Chubby Chum Pals landed in my mailbox on Monday, I just had to ink up these cuties. While I was stamping the moose, it dawned on me that the tops of all the heads were the same size. Being the type that loves silly animals and silliness in general, I decided to include the bear and chick in moose costume! Aren't they festive with their holly berry antlers and red snouts? LOL I came close to using googly eyes but I couldn't bear covering up Kim's illustrations and the original eyes give them so much more character and expression than googly eyes so I just added some glossy accents instead. I didn't have blue ink that matched the patterned paper so I played around and came up with a solution that I'm going to make note of for future reference. If I ink the stamp twice, first with Faded Jeans distress ink and then a second time with Basic Gray dye ink, I get the exact shade of slate-grey-blue required to match the patterned paper! Since Gina K's kraft cardstock is Copic-compatible, I gave the animals some light shading and finished by adhering them to the card with foam tape.

This Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge runs until December 28th so I hope you will play along with us! As always, there are fabulous stamps to be won and, if you don't have any Paper Smooches stamps yet, there is a holiday promotion going on HERE or, you can always grab the free digis that Kim offers every month. I look forward to seeing how you interpret this photo!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock; Echo Park Wintertime Collection; Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals; Memories Black ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Faded Jeans distress ink; SU Basic Gray ink; Copics; SU Crystal Effects; foam tape

Lil Inker Designs + 2 Cute Ink Release Week {Day 3}

Welcome to Day 3 of Lil' Inker Designs' December Release featuring a collaborative new line of stamps with 2 Cute Ink! Artist Heidi Schwoerer, formerly of 2 Cute Rubber Stamps, will now exclusively release her stamps with Lil' Inker. All stamp sets will be released in clear stamp format and feature sentiments in a fun font designed by Laura and Ariana of Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs! If you've come from Laura's blog, you are on the right track. Today, we are featuring Snow Mouse!

Isn't she the cutest?! I love mice and rats in general just because I was born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Rat. My husband and son are also rats so we are just a cute rat family. LOL I probably wouldn't want to encounter a real one but cute illustrations, and especially stamps like this one, make me go crazy! :D I paper pieced this cutie using Echo Park paper. I didn't add dimension to this card because I had a certain person in mind when I made it and I wanted it to be easy to mail.

Much like Arctic Friends, showcased on Monday and Tuesday, Snow Mouse comes with several versatile sentiments that are perfect for Christmas and throughout the winter season. This is definitely one of those sets that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside even though the weather might be frightful. Just click on the graphic below to purchase!

Thank you for stopping by today! Be sure you hop along all week for a chance to win all three of the new winter-themed stamp sets or one of two $10 gift certificates to the Lil' Inker Store! For Day 4 of this release and to see more projects using Snow Mouse, please start at Laura's blog tomorrow at 12:01 a.m. EST. I'll be posting for Lil' Inker again on Friday for Day 5 and the final stamp set of this release!

Your next stop today is fabulous Sarah Jay!

Sources: SU Island Indigo & Natural White cardstock; Echo Park Be Mine Collection; Lil' Inker Designs + 2 Cute Ink Snow Mouse; Memories Black ink