Happy Wednesday!  As you may have noticed, Wednesdays are afternoon posts due to my schedule.  I hope I haven't kept anyone waiting to long!!

The middle of the week is brought to you by none other than My Mind's Eye!  I used to be a card designer for this company in the past, and I have always loved their paper collections!  They have branched out into party goods & stationary, but they do still produce paper crafting collections as well!

Today I am taking a break from stamping & background techniques, and focusing on paper products & diecutting!  I made a collection of gift boxes with a matching card using the Joyful paper collection.  This paper collection has a modern feel to it, and is black, white & gold foil.  I love the non-traditional color palette!  Check them out!

Hey there, blog friends!  Welcome to the final day of the Lil' Inker Design's October release!  As I've stated before, we've got 4 new stamp sets, and 8 new dies for you this month.  You can check them out & make your purchase under the Latest Release section of the website!

My blog has been covered in Christmas the past few days, so for today I thought I would share my projects using the non-holiday themed items we are releasing!

First up is a rainbow watercolor card using the new "I'm All You're All" stamp set & Speech Bubble dies. You all know I adore to make rainbow cards, and I am so excited about how this one turned out!
 I used my Tim Holtz Distress Inks to create the blended watercolor rainbow.  I then stamped part of the sentiments to diecut vellum bubbles, and let everything dry.  After that this card came together very easily...just some foam tape & some pretty jewels to accent.





For my next project I focused on the Donut themed items in this release.  I created a sweet little gift that you could give to a co-worker, teacher, pastor....really anyone!!  Check it out!
  I love this cute sentiment, and would definitely be great as a"Thank You" to someone.  If you were giving it to someone you weren't very close to, I would maybe suggest using a less personal sentiment....there are some other great ones in the stamp set.





Do you want a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to Lil' Inker Designs to put towards your purchase this month?  {Seriously...who wouldn't?!}  Then be sure to hop along to each of the designer's blogs & leave a comment.  The more blogs you visit & comment, the better your chances are at winning!!  Here is a link list in case you need the whole thing:




Thanks for checking out my cards tonight!!  I hope that they inspired you!  I also wanted to let you know that I have started my Lea Lawson Creates Facebook page in order to separate my personal Facebook profile from my crafting.  This is a great way to follow my work on Facebook without having to personally be friends....I am paring my Facebook friends list down to just family & close friends in the next couple of months.  If you want to keep in touch with me on Facebook, I would love for you to like my page, and then turn on the notifications!!  (To do that just click on the drop-down menu in the same place you clicked the "Like" button first.)  I will link up my blog posts, post images of all my projects, ask fun crafty questions so we can get to know each other better, etc.  It is all part of wanting to be more intentional in all the avenues of my life, and I actually think this will help me get to know my crafting friends better. :)

That is the end of our release week, but I know I will be using these products a lot!  Feel free to like my Facebook page above & click to follow my blog in the right hand column in case you want to stay up to date with all of my projects from now on!  Have a great Friday!

Until later,
~L.

Happy Thursday, blog friends! How are you doing today?  Doing well over here.  It's been a pretty quiet week so far.  We cleaned the church last night with our missional community group, and that has been the extent of it.  Other than that we've kept pretty close to home.  I've gotten in some crafting, and Josh has mostly been working from home as well.

Before I share my projects today, I just wanted to remind you that I have a giveaway on THIS POST.  A Glitz Design "77" 12x12 collection pack is up for grabs...I will announce the winner this coming weekend! Check out that post & leave a comment for your chance to win! 

I am up on the My Mind's Eye blog today with a gift set to share with you!  Father's Day is near, and I've created a greeting card & matching gift card holder than any dad would be excited to receive.  I've combined My Mind's Eye Market Street "Nob Hill" and Necessities "Wood" to create this masculine but trendy combo.

I love the green & red & yellow in the "Nob Hill" collection...but mostly I love the black & gold.  I don't know why, but those two classic & elegant colors just gave this project the masculine feel it needed.  (The deer head & mustaches helped a bit too!)  I also added just a touch of woodgrain here & there.


Supplies: Market Street - Nob Hill: "Sparkle" 12x12 paper, 6x6 Designer Paper Pad, Label Stickers, Mixed Bag diecuts, Chipboard Buttons, Flair Pins, Decorative Brads, Enamel Dots.  Necessities - Wood: 6x6 Designer Paper Pad, Alpha & Word Stickers, Wood Shapes. Other: Lawn Fawn metallic twine, Spellbinders circle die, WPlus9 vintage envelope die, vellum.

Instructions to recreate the card:
1. Cut an A2 card from green cardstock, then layered a block of mustache paper to it. 
2. Adhere a strip of woodgrain paper to the middle of the black & gold dotted paper.
3. Diecut a circle from the middle of the paper block. 
4. Adhere the paper block to the card front using foam adhesive.
5. Add the flair & diecuts to the front. 
6. Finish off the sentiment using woodgrain alphas in the lower right corner.
7.  Then accent it with a wooden arrow & enamel dots to finish it.

Instructions to recreate the gift card holder:
1. Diecut an envelope template from vellum & assembled it. 
2. Cut a block of scalloped paper to line the inside of it. 
3. Wrap the celebrate sticker around the top of it.
4. Thread the chipboard banner with metallic twine & adhere. 
5. Tie a double bow from the twine, & adhere to the top of the banner. 
6. Add shiny gold diecut circles randomly to it, trimming the excess from the edges as needed.
7. Top the twine bow with a brad to finish. 

It's now ready to add a gift card to your dad's favorite store, restaurant or coffee shop!

Card Challenges:
-The Challenge #8 - card sketch
-The Pink Elephant #254 - father's day
-A Blog Named Hero #45 - anything but a card

That is all I have for you today!  I hope that you have an awesome Thursday!

Until later,
~L.