Happy Friday, crafty friends! It's always a happy day when we are celebrating a brand new release from Simon Says stamp, right?! Their latest collection is called Lucky to Know You, and is full of gorgeous Spring themed products! SSS is also giving a cute freebie 3x4 stamp set with purchase purchase using the code WLY777. This is valid until Sunday, 03/08 at 11:59pm or while supplies last.
This is day 1 of the Lucky to Know You Blog Hop, and we've got quite the lineup for you! I will put all of the blog hop details at the end of my post, but how about we get to my card first? Today I've created two lovely Easter cards featuring some of these latest products!
For this first card, I started by heat embossing a background in white using the Diamond Tiles background stamp. Then I ink blended around the edges with Lemon Whip ink, and diecut the entire panel with the largest Stitched Rectangle. Then I mounted the background panel to the front of a white A2 card base.

Next I diecut the Daffodil Stem 4 times: once from glitter paper and three times from white cardstock. The I stacked & adhered the diecut layers with a Zig glue pen. Then I diecut the He is Risen sentiment die from white cardstock three times, and the shadow one time from vellum. I stacked & adhered these as well. Finally, I stamped the teeny sentiment from Clean Lines Faith in black to white cardstock, and trimmed into a thin strip. I put the card together as shown, then accented with the Crystals Mix to finish.
For my next card, I stamped the new Layered Tulips stamp set in the follow ink colors: Fresh Pear, Meadow, Lemon Whip & Coral Reef. I diecut the panel with the largest Stitched Rectangle, then mounted to a yellow A2 card base. Next I diecut the Big Happy die once from glitter paper & twice from white cardstock, then cut cut the shadow from vellum. I stacked the layers together with a Zig glue pen.

I decided I wanted the word Easter from Clean Lines Faith stamped directly to the card front, and I just put the entire card in my MISTI without the foam pad. Then I placed the word Easter, and stamped it like normal in black. I adhered the diecut word Happy to the right of the stamped word, then accented with the Crystals Mix to finish.

That is everything I have for you today! If you have any questions about my card, feel free to leave them in the comments and I will be sure to reply.

Happy Wednesday, blog friends! I hope the middle of the week finds you doing great! Today I wanted to pop in and share a fun spring card with you. Something that I do each month is create exclusive newsletter projects for Lil' Inker Designs, and these is the card that was featured in the March newsletter!

If you haven't already signed up for the LID newsletter, just click on that banner, and then scroll to the bottom of the page. There is a place to sign up in the lower right corner! Along with getting to see exclusive projects from me before they post anywhere else, there are also special promotions & monthly deals as well.

Before I get to my cards, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media. This is a great way to keep up with me, my latest creations & new product that I work with!


While Minneapolis, Minnesota isn't necessarily playing nice when it comes to Spring weather (it snowed all day Monday & Tuesday, and continues to be just plain cold), I am definitely looking forward to Spring when it eventually arrives. In the time being, I've created this colorful card to bring Spring to my snow filled world! :)

To start I created an A2 card from heavyweight black cardstock. Then I cut a block of heavyweight white cardstock slightly smaller, and set both aside. Next I diecut the wreath shape with the Wreath of Roses diecuts from white cardstock, and proceeded to stamp the wreath image from the Wreath of Roses stamp set to it in onyx black Versafine ink. Then I hit the stamped image with my heat gun to make sure the ink was set.

**Quick Tip: The first time I did this, I stamped & colored the wreath first...and then diecut it. I didn't line the die up very well, so the second time around I did it in opposite order. I like to use my MISTI in order to get a crisp stamped impression. In order to do this with the shape already diecut, I put it back into the negative space of the cardstock block I cut it from and used a little washi tape on the back. Then I stamped as usual!**

Then I watercolored the wreath using my Zig Clean Color Real Brushes and a size 2 watercolor brush. Once dry, I adhered the wreath to the white cardstock block with foam tape & added some shimmer to it with my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen.

Next I added black paint splatters to the front. I use a basic set of watercolor cakes to add black splatters to my cards, and it works perfectly for me! Once dry, I adhered the entire block to the black card base with foam to give it some dimension.

Then I diecut the Hello word die four times: one time from pink glitter paper, and three times from white cardstock. Then I layered them together to give it some rigidity and structure.

Next I stamped and heat embossed the word spring from the Egg & Flower stamp set in white to a strip of black cardstock. I cut banner edges to it, then adhered it to the bottom of the wreath with foam dots. Then I added the glitter hello to the middle of the wreath with foam dots as well.

To finish, I accented the card with my signature jewels tucked here & there! 

That is the card that I have for you today! I hope that you like it, and if you are in the same weather boat as I am...that it brought a little bit of spring to your cold days!


 Card Challenges:
-Diecut Divas April challenge - anything goes
-CAS-ual Fridays challenge - spring fever
-Simon Says Monday challenge - trio of something (jewels)
-Addicted to Stamps & More challenge - anything goes
-The Card Concept challenge - photo inspiration (flowers)

Happy Monday, blog friends! I hope the start to your week has been a good one! My hubby has been on a business trip for a few days, so today he caught an early flight so he could get home sooner. Such a nice treat, considering I didn't think I'd be picking him up until this evening!

Now on to some crafty stuff - did you know that MFT Stamps is having a 2 day sale on their clear stamps?

I actually took advantage of a sale like this from MFT right before Layton was born, and needless to say...I never ended up getting to use those stamp sets. So today, I broke one of them out for my card. It is a sentiment set called "True Friends", which has already been discontinued from MFT, but I paired it with the newer "Painted Flowers" to freshen it up! {Seriously - one of my favorite things to do. I think it stems from the fact that I didn't have a chance to use my products during my pregnancies & subsequent losses.} I combined the most current MFT sketch & color challenges to create my card (linked below) - check it out!

Happy Sunday, blog friends! I hope that you've had an amazing weekend!  I've got a couple cards to share with you today using some new Pinkfresh Studio stamps! We've started a new monthly challenge this month, and it is a beautiful Spring color palette. It works perfectly with many of the new scrapbooking collections we've recently released, plus many of our newest stamps & dies!


The challenge is open to all paper crafters, including scrapbookers & cardmakers. The only rules are to use the color inspiration & at least one Pinkfresh Studio product - old & new! If you don't have any Pinkfresh Studio products, I suggest picking up some of our newest stamps & dies, or take a look at the deeply discounted Sale items!

What's a challenge without a prize? Two randomly picked projects will receive a $25 gift certificate to Pinkfresh Studio! You have until March 31st to enter our March challenge - I can't wait to see what you create!

Hey there blog friends! I hope that you've been having a really great week! Today I wanted to pop in and share a couple of projects with you. Something that you might not know is that I create exclusive newsletter projects for Lil' Inker Designs, and these are the cards that were featured in the February newsletter!


 If you haven't already signed up for the LID newsletter, just click on that banner, and then scroll to the bottom of the page. There is a place to sign up in the lower right corner! Along with getting to see exclusive projects from me before they post anywhere else, there are also special promotions & monthly deals as well.

Before I get to my cards, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media. This is a great way to keep up with me, my latest creations & new product that I work with!

Hey there, blog friends! I hope this Sunday finds you having had an AMAZING weekend! We got what feels like a foot of snow yesterday & overnight, so we have had a quiet weekend indoors. We knew it was coming, so I did all the necessary grocery shopping on Friday afternoon so we wouldn't have to venture out unless it was an absolute emergency.
Before I get to my card, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media. This  is a great way to keep up with me, my latest creations & new product that I work with!


When I recieved the Papertrey Ink email this morning with their February Blog Hop info posted...I decided I REALLY wanted to break out some of my PTI stuff. I haven't used any of it since before losing Ellie & Layton, so it was time to put it to good use.

The Papertrey Ink February Blog Hop inspiration image is all about Easter & Spring!


We may have just gotten a foot of snow, but I'm not going to let that dampen my spring spirit! :) I decided to use a PTI blast from the past....Friendship Jar Spring Fillers! When I purchased this stamp set, I was not comfortable with flowers or coloring in any fashion - so I never used the gorgeous tulip image that is included. I decided that today was the perfect day to finally ink it up!

Hey blog friends!  Hope you are having a wonderful Easter Sunday!!

Did you know that I am a new teacher this year at Big Picture Classes?  Have you seen the all-new Big Picture Classes website yet? With its recent launch, I wanted to share a little bit about the site with you. I'll be teaching some classes online with Big Picture Classes this year, and I'm so glad to be able to work in such an all-around amazing place to find inspiration, advice, and creative content from experts all over the world.

If you're not familiar with Big Picture Classes, it's an online learning platform for all things crafty, offering classes that cover all the crucial topics about crafting, creating, and documenting memories that you'll need to excel and then some. Become a member of our learning family, and you’ll get access to as many classes as you want for only $9.99 a month. Each class brings you a variety of topics and ideas, not to mention videos, PDFs, prompts and so much more! Stop on by the BRAND NEW Big Picture Classes website to start your FREE TRIAL & find out how much you'll WANT to be a member!!

I'm doing a year long class called "Cards for Every Season".  The winter class was available in February when BPC did it's launch of the new format, and the second installment, "Cards for Every Season - Spring" is going live TOMORROW!  Here is a peek at what I've got in store for you!


 There are 4 lessons in the class, with each lesson having two cards.  The first card in each lesson is simple, while the second card is a more elevated version of the first!  You will learn different techniques including watercolor, stamping, diecutting, layering, embossing....& how I combine them together to create fun cards for every season!

I hope you will join me over at BPC this week, and try out my class!  I think you will love being a member at BPC, and all the amazing classes & teachers the site has to offer!

Until later,
~Lea