Happy Monday, crafty friends! Today is the start of Sweet Peek Week for SugarPea Designs, and we are revealing adorable products from the Spring release all week long!

I will get all the blog hop info to you below, but how about we get to my card first? Today we are featuring a bunch of honey themed products, which I think you are going to just love! I've used the new Hey Honey stamp & die set, Honeycomb coverplate, and Stacked Honeycombs on my card for today. With two foster babies, everything I do has to be quick & clean in nature these days as I don't have a lot of extra time. I whipped this cutie shaker up in about an hour, and the products made it super easy!

To keep it simple, I decided against using any image I would have to color, like the bear or hive. I can't wait to use them in the future, but for now I stuck with the bees that could easily just be stamped & diecut.

I chose to just emboss the Honeycomb coverplate to yellow cardstock to give it that beautiful design but keep all the pieces intact. I seriously love how it turned out. Then I created the shaker element using the Honeycomb stackers along with clear sequins & iridescent gems. I also peeked another new product, but we will share more about that later!

That is all I have for Day 1 of Sweet Peek Week! These two adorable stamp & die sets will go live in the SugarPea Designs shop on Friday at 6pm EST.

Happy Thursday, friends! I hope that your week has been going wonderfully! It has been great having my family here...though I've gone to the Mall of America more times in one week than I've maybe gone all year. Lol! And with my brother and his fiance Bri arriving, we will likely be going again. I can't wait for them to get here tonight!!

Today I wanted to share some cards that I made for the Pinkfresh Studio October release using one of my FAVORITE standalone dies called Hello With A Bouquet. I just think this die is SO gorgeous, and there are so many different ways you can use it. Today I've got a trio of cards, sharing three different techniques with it!

 To start, I cut the die out multiple times from white cardstock, and then once from gold glittered paper. Then I wanted to try embossing it to a panel of white cardstock. This took a few tries to figure out the best sandwich option for my Gemini Jr. The embossing mat that comes with the Gemini didn't work for this die, as it still cut out a large portion of the die. After some trial & error, I found that the standard embossing sandwich for the Gemini worked, but I used a handmade shim of three blocks of cardstock in place of the embossing mat that comes with it. It is always best to try it out on some scraps of paper first to find the best embossing sandwich for your particular machine.

Welcome to day 2 of this month's Lil' Inker Designs April release!  We've got some fantastic stamps, dies & papers to share with you this month.  They will all be linked below for easy access to viewing & purchasing all of the new items!

Today my cards are focused on the new Tribal Chic items!  I was going to turn this first card into a shaker card, but I liked it so much in its simple form that I decided to leave it without the shaker part.




And for my second card I did one of my favorite techniques...rainbow watercolor over white heat embossing!




For your shopping convenience, I have provided a link list with all of the newly released products on it.  I will only be linking Lil' Inker Designs product for today's post, but if you have questions about anything else that I used...please leave them in the comments & I will reply.

Lil' Inker Designs April 2016 Product Release




As is the case every month, this is a blog hop. Here is today's order so you don't miss a thing! There are three $15 gift certificates up for grabs...just be sure to leave comments on each blog to up your chances!


LID Blog http://www.shoplilinker.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Carter http://jensinkspot.blogspot.com/
Karen Baker http://thebalddragonfly.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Gold http://goldensimplicity.com/
Chrissy Larson http://chrissycards.blogspot.com/
Joy Taylor http://www.simplebydesignblog.com/
Amy Kolling http://stamp-n-paradise.blogspot.com/
Sarah Jay http://www.criminalgrace.com/
Angel Rivera http://angelsworld94.blogspot.com/
Lisa Henke http://mylittlecreativeescape.blogspot.com/
Lea Lawson http://www.lealawsoncreates.com/
Heather Hoffman http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com
Link to Store http://lilinkerdesigns.com/

I will be back tomorrow for Day 3 of the release!

Until later,
~L.

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

Hey there, blog friends!!  I hope your week has been a good one so far!  Just wanted to pop in today and share a new monthly challenge from Lil' Inker Designs!!

• Make a new project or share something you've been working on featuring LID goodies!
• Post this project to your blog or favorite gallery.
• Link your project to our challenge by using the InLinkz tool beneath my signature below.

What can you win? Well, that's up to you! Since this is our first challenge we'd like to stir things up by offering a super big prize and the prize will get bigger depending on how many entries we receive. Multiple entries are allowed as long as your projects are featured in separate posts. 

51 and more: $75 credit to one winner plus 3 stamp set winners

Winners will be announced here in a new blog post shortly after February 24th.
 I've created this sweet Valentine card for the monthly meet up!!  Check it out!
I wanted the stamped lips to look like lipstick, so I used pigment inks for them.  This way the ink stayed on top of the paper rather than soaking in, like dye ink does.  It turned out just how I wanted!

Creation Instructions:

1. Make A2 card from white cardstock.
2. Emboss the card front with the Quilted Swirl Stitch pattern die.
3. Diecut the tag from matching white cardstock.
4. Stamp & heat emboss the sentiment to the bottom of the card.
5. Stamp the lips to the top of the tag using pigment ink.
6. Layer the tag to the front over top of a knot of gold thread with dimensional adhesive.
7. Accent the card with jewels to finish.

Be sure to head on over to the LID Monthly Meet Up challenge post, and check out what all the designers have created.  And be sure to link up your LID projects there too....there is a fantastic prize to be won!!

If you want to see sneak peeks of future projects & keep up with me on Facebook, please head on over & like the Lea Lawson Creates page!!  And don't forget to become a follower in the right sidebar so you never miss a post.  Have a wonderful Monday!

Until later,
~L.

Hey there, blog friends!!  Sorry for the absence...I've just been super busy lately.  I hope that you are all doing well, and having a great start to 2015! 

I just wanted to pop in today and share a little peek at a card I have up on the Taylored Expressions blog today!
  Head on over to my Taylored Expressions Blog Team blog post to get all the details on the card, including how I created it & a link supply list so you can pick up any products that catch your eye!

ALSO, Taylor is giving away a $25 gift certificate to the Taylored Expressions store to one lucky commenter...so be sure to head on over to check out the post!  {While I would LOVE for you to leave me a comment here as well, this is a reminder that the winner will only be picked from the TE blog post.}

Thanks so much for checking out my little peek today...have a terrific rest of your Tuesday!

Until later,
~L.