Design Team Reveal Day 7!

Good morning!!! I'm back with another exciting Design Team reveal!

This designer really caught my attention with her application and loads of amazing projects she posted recently using Lil' Inker products. I was also very impressed with her work for The Twinery. When I saw how creative she was I just knew there was a spot for her on the team.

Please welcome Jen Carter of Jen's Ink Spot.

Here is a little more about Jen in her own words...
I am a stay-at-home mom to two children. My son is 9 and going to be in the 3rd grade and my daughter is 3. My husband and I recently celebrated 14 years of marriage! We live in a small rural town in Kansas where my husband is the Lead Pastor at our church. I am very involved at the church and am the Director of the Women’s Ministry. I started scrapbooking way back in Junior High school and continued through my son’s 2nd birthday. At that point I was a little burnt out on making everything boy themed so I turned to card making as a way to broaden my paper crafting options. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to use pinks & purples and flowers in my art, as opposed to the blues and greens and trucks and tractors from my son’s scrapbooks. I still scrapbook from time to time but most of my projects revolve around card making. I love to paper craft and consider it a passion. I am so excited to be a part of the Lil’ Inker Designs team!

Welcome Jen!! I am beyond thrilled to have you as a member of our team! Please stop by and visit Jen at Jen's Ink Spot and welcome her aboard!

See you tomorrow with our final Design Team reveal!!!

Design Team Reveal Day 6!

Good morning! Time for another fun reveal!!!

I happen to think that this designer's work is so great!! She's a total up and comer and I think I've been able to snag her as a design team member just as she's becoming a wildly popular stamping star!

Say hello to Amy Kolling of Stamp-n-Paradise!!!

Here is a little bit more about Amy in her own words....
Hi everyone! My name is Amy Kolling and live in Topeka, Kansas. I have been married to my husband for 15 years and have 2 kids.
My son is starting 4th grade and my daughter will be starting a new venture this fall herself: Kindergarten! So my "nest" of sorts will be empty here in just a few weeks!
I work full time for a large dialysis clinic as a dialysis charge nurse but have been a nurse for 15+ years. My stamping career started when I decided I wanted to do more than
scrapbooking. So I hosted a Stampin' Up "party" and it was then that I never looked back! I later found a local stamping company and became a demonstrator where I was
given the opportunity to design for their catalogue! Through that company, I met some of my best friends who truly understand me and this crazy thing called stamping!!
I love papercrafting and am super excited to join this wonderful new venture with Lil' Inker Designs on the first DT!!

Amy is a rockstar stamper! Please stop by and visit her at Stamp-n-Paradise and help me welcome her to the team!!

Design Team Reveal Day 5!

Good morning! Isn't this fun? It's been so fun seeing the team build each day!

Today? Yep! You guessed it! More fabulosity!! This next designer is something special. Her style is just so cool. She's been published loads. She was recently featured as a Moxie Fabber of the Week in July. She's even worked at Stampin' Up! as a concept artist! But I'll let her tell you a little bit more about that herself.

Wait for it...... It's Alicia Thelin of Scrappy Betties!

And here is a little more about Alicia in her own words...
Hi, I’m Alicia Thelin and I am obsessed with creating cards. Ok, well I didn’t mean to invite you to my personal twelve-step meeting… but I just can’t stop!
I’m a born and raised California girl whose been transplanted to little ol’ Herriman, Utah. I’ve been married to my devastatingly handsome husband, Brett, for twenty years. We have three sassy children: Meagan-16, Madeline (Maddie)-13, and my baby Alexander (Alex) 11.
In 1999 I became a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator in order to get out of the house, you know, a little grown-up conversation? I adored learning and teaching all about stamping. A few years later I found myself in the position to leave the home and go back to work full time while my husband went back to college. Blessings come in crazy ways you know! Before I knew it I was working full-time as an Event Coordinator at the Stampin’ Up! home office here in Riverton, Utah. My job blossomed into a Concept Artist for that team. Soon the actual Art Department approached me and felt like I’d be a good fit for their team. Greatest job ever. Stamping with new products all day long, everything in their catalog at my fingertips. Fun days! Oh, but the criticism was hard to swallow…
Eventually my husband finished school with another two degrees and obtained employment. I LOVED my job, but MISSED my kids. Time to come back home. It was excruciating to leave to say the least, but I still have some great friends that I’ve been able to keep in touch with. Not to mention all the mad stamping skills I was able to develop and take with me.
Over the last three years I’ve been re-learning how I like to create and sharing those projects and experiences on my blog, ScrappyBetties. This is my little corner of the paper-crafting world that I hold dear, where I share my h{art}. It’s a place for kind words, encouragement and a dose of reproducible inspiration. I try to make things, and then let you know where I succeeded and any little tips and tricks I may have learned along the way.

Please head on over to congratulate Alicia and continue to join us over the next few days as we continue to reveal more fabulous ladies!!

See you tomorrow!

Design Team Reveals Day 4!

Good morning!! I hope you're enjoying the excitement of the reveals this week!

Today I'm here to introduce another amazing designer! You know her from her work at Jane's Doodles, The Twinery and Pink Cat Studio. Her style is clean, adorable and uber-creative. I love her work and I know you already do! She is recently published in Stamp It! Cards Vol. 8 and just learned that her work will be gracing the cover of another special issue from Paper Crafts Magazine, Card A Day 2012! Woo hoo!!

Please help me welcome, Emily Leiphart of Art♥from♥the♥Heart!

Here is a little about Emily in her own words...

I’ve been married for seven years and have a very energetic two year old son. I worked in the corporate world for 15 years before my son was born. After a two-year maternity leave, I decided to stay at home and I love it. In my office jobs, everyone would always ask me why I wasn’t doing something more creative. Well, I am now! I love that my decision to stay at home has taken me to so many places in blogland. I’ve learned so much from the talented friends I’ve made and I’m looking forward to what the future brings. I’m so honored to have been chosen to join the team at Lil’ Inker and I hope you enjoy the projects I make with these amazing products.

What can I say? I'm thrilled! I've been doing back flips here in Boston for weeks now! See you tomorrow for another amazing reveal and don't forget to mark your calendars for August 8th for our first group post, our Kick Off Hop! More details coming soon!

Design Team Reveals Day 3!

Ok! Here we go! Brace yourselves for another exciting Design Team Member announcement!!!

What can I say? She's amazing! She's a rising star! She's this week's Moxie Fabber and she recently made the Gallery Idol Top 15 at Paper Crafts Magazine!

It's none other than Sarah Jay of Criminal Grace!

Here's a little about Sarah in her own words...

I'm Sarah Jay: web developer, mother, and wife by day, paper crafter by night. I live in Southern New Hampshire with my husband and an insanely active toddler. I work full time maintaining web sites for an IT solutions provider, so late night crafting sessions are the way I unwind and let out some of my creative energy. I've been paper crafting and stamping since the turn of the century, and have recently had the thrill of seeing my work published.

I just love Sarah's work! It's going to be fabulous to have her as a part of the team!!

Thanks for stopping by today! Don't forget to visit Sarah and let her know how exciting you are to see her upcoming projects!

Lil' Inker & The Catered Crop

Hi there!! Have you heard? Lil' Inker is sponsoring the Catered Crop's Follow The Recipe Challenge #17 this week! Have you played along? This is a really fun challenge! Have a look...



Playing along with the current Catered Crop Follow-the-Recipe Linking Party (FTR17) is a piece of cake! Just use any of the ingredients in the sample projects seen HERE, add some of your own spice and cook it up your way. All the details are at the Catered Crop Recipe Party home page.

The current party began on July 24. Our Top Chef designers will share their culinary delights in the Quickfire on July 31. The current party ends August 4. A winner will be announced and a new party will begin on August 4.

Here's your FTR17 recipe made from this week's samples. With the combined ingredients, it's almost an anything goes challenge, so have fun!

I have bold-faced the ingredients I've used in my card this week.

Colors – red, white, green, blue, gray, kraft
Stamps and Stickers – strawberries, sentiment, aliens/monsters, scientists or science subjects
Patterns – circles, checked/gingham, scallops
Color Mediums – markers (ProMarker, Copics, White Signo Pen)
Embellishments – clear gloss, glitter, charms, brads, ribbon
Tools – corner rounder punch, border punch, die cut shapes
Techniques – faux stitching, doodling/drawing, make an easel card
Theme – birthday, just hello/because

Here's what I made....



It was really fun to make my own creation based on the items in the sample cards! And there was so much to choose from it was easy! I hope you'll play along!

One lucky winner chosen at random will receive a stamp and die set of choice from Lil' Inker Designs!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Design Team Reveals Day 2!

Good morning! I'm so excited to share another member of our design team with you today.

This amazing designer first caught my eye a while back. Her style is beautifully clean and simple and her blog is so inviting right down to the name. You know her from her design team work at CASE Study and For Your Inspiration.......

It's Debby Hughes of Lime Doodle!
Here is a little bit more about Debby in her own words...

Hi, I’m Debby Hughes. Originally from England, I now live in Scotland with my Welsh husband of 15 years and I’m a stay at home Mum to our three children. When my youngest was little I discovered card making was a great way to unwind after a hectic day. That was six years ago, and as my children grew and I had a little more time for my hobby I started my blog (www.limedoodle.blogspot.com) as a means of recording and sharing my projects. I am so excited to be joining the Lil’ Inker Design Team, in fact I can’t quite believe it!

Debby, your work is beautiful and I can't wait to see what inspiring designs you create for our team!

Please stop by and visit Debby's blog Lime Doodle and let her know you're as happy as I am to see her Lil' Inker Designs work!

Join me tomorrow. I have another VERY exciting designer to announce who will equally knock your socks off!

Design Team Reveal Day 1

Today's the day! Today we begin to reveal our brand new, first ever Lil' Inker Design Team Members!

I have to start off by saying that I was truly floored by the astonishing amount of applicants we had for our very first design team call. But it wasn't just the quantity that blew me away. It was QUALITY!! You ladies are so darn talented! You made this decision incredibly difficult. WOW! It was so hard to narrow everyone down to just a few spots.

Without further delay, I'm so excited and honored to announce that this amazing and talented lady will be joining our team!

It's none other than Teresa Kline!

How does one go about introducing Teresa? Her blog, Paperie Blooms, is amazing! She's no stranger to design teams with her work as a Dirty Girl at SCS, Verve Stamps, Mojo Monday and Stamper's Dream to name a few. I can't even believe that we can add Lil' Inker Design Team to this incredible resume.

Here is a little bit more about Teresa in her own words...

My name is Teresa Kline and my husband's name is Gary.....he is truly my number one fan! I have always been crafty and started scrap booking around 2004, but really became hooked when I started making cards. I really enjoy sending cards to others, what better way to show an expression of love to others than with a handmade card? I send cards to family, friends, people in our church, and I donate them to different organizations. I have had the honor of being on numerous design teams and have met the most amazing people! I cannot wait to get started designing for Lil' Inker Designs. It is going to be an amazing journey. I hope that I can inspire you as much as I have been inspired! Let the fun begin...enjoy!

I'm going to send you over to visit Teresa to leave her some love. Please let her know how excited you are that she'll be here to inspire you with Lil' Inker Designs!

Thanks for stopping by today!

See you tomorrow when we introduce you to another amazing designer who has her own stunning, clean and simple style.

Introducing..........

These next several days are going to be fun, fun, fun! Starting tomorrow, we will begin revealing our brand new Design Team Members each day one by one! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it and I think the ladies are just as excited to share their news with you as I am!

Then join us here on August 8th. We will be bringing you our very first group post as a team, our Kick Off Hop! It's sure to be loaded with inspiring designs from some incredibly talented ladies!

We'll start our today with a little *get to know* about myself and Ariana Grant.

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to visit the blogs of the designers as they are revealed and let them know how excited you are for them!

Hiee! I’m Laura, owner of Lil’ Inker Designs. I live just outside of Boston, Massachusetts with my incredibly awesome and supportive husband Keith and our smart, so funny and VERY BUSY three year old son, Keithie.

I’ve been stamping since 2003, but it wasn’t until I started working from home in 2008 when I REALLY started becoming passionate about stamping. In 2010 I decided to take this passion and to a whole new level.

I was using a flag for my sentiments on a regular basis, but I was cutting these flags by hand. Each time the notched end would be crooked and imperfect. When I researched the internet for a die that would cut this shape and didn't find one I was surprised and motivated to create one myself! I figured if I wanted this die for my collection then maybe lots of other crafters would too!

After much research and communication with manufacturers I knew I needed a graphics artist and then like a lightbulb a friend’s name popped into my head. Ariana Grant, now a professional graphics artist, and I went to High School together and it was our reconnection via Face Book that brought us here today. Ariana is the “ag” of “Lil’ Inker Designs with ag designs” and this venture would not be possible without her! While I have a creative vision for new products it’s Ariana that makes them come to life! We brought our first product Sentiment Flags to market in the Fall of 2010 and we’re currently working on our upcoming fourth release together!

I have a desire and commitment now more than ever to grow this business one little step at a time. It's my commitment to bring you new products that are innovative and FUN to work with. It's my dream to build this line and become a favorite company you love to visit.

I am the ag in the team up of “Lil’ Inker Designs with ag designs”, Ariana Grant. Laura and I went to high school together. She contacted me one day with her ideas about producing stamps and dies for her card making passion. I said YES and here we are today!

Art has always been something that I do. I met my now husband of ALMOST 10 years in a college Art class! I have BFA in Graphic Design and work full time in prepress for a specialty printer in MA. Through high school and college I was always involved in some art class or project. Later on I discovered decorated books and scrapbooking and then even made a few cards here and there for family. Now my ventures are wedding invitations and of course any ideas Laura has here.

I have two boys, Kiernan is turning 6 next week, and Logan is almost 7 months old. They are so much fun to watch! Working full time and being a mom of two keeps me busy. I say all the time that I wish I had more time to do more creative things, but doing the graphic design for Lil' Inker keeps my hand in it all. This is the “balance” I have arrived at. I’d love it if you’d visit my blog at http://arianagdesigns.blogspot.com/




See you tomorrow with the annoucement of our first designer!

It's a Rainbow Day!

Hi there!!! It's Color Throwdown Day! This week, Kristin is our hostess and take a look at the F.U.N. colors we get to work with this week....



That's right! ALL of them!! It's a rainbow challenge! Can you handle it?

I'm so lucky to have such wonderful and supportive friends at the CTD. Many of the girls are featuring the newest Rainbows & Clouds dies and stamps release from Lil' Inker Designs which coordinate with this week's challenge! And they have some beautiful projects to share with you today. You MUST head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog to check them all out.

Here is my card for this week's challenge...



I wanted to make sure I represented each of the colors of the rainbow at least once somewhere on my card, but of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't add kraft paper to the mix!

I started cutting my rainbow using various papers from different collections which I thought went well together using the larger, arc rainbow from the die set. Not knowing "where" on my card I want to place my rainbow, after it's all cut out, I adhere all the "bows" together using double stick tape, but I leave on the outer tape layer so that my rainbow is intact and I can float it all over the card until I have it in the right spot!

After figuring out my layout, I texturized my kraft base with the Sunshine impression plate from PTI (love this). Then I simply added a scalloped, purple border to the top of my card and tied it off as shown.

Don't forget the clouds! Aren't they so cute? I didn't add in that stitching detail. The die cuts that stitched border for me! I. LOVE. THESE. CLOUDS. Everyone should have them! Cut from the lined note paper they're just the cutest! I added both sizes of clouds from the die set to my card, but popped up the smaller on for some extra dimension.

For my sentiment I stamped the "Have an _______ day" in black ink and added in my "awesome" stamp in bright green. I'm (almost) 35 and I still say awesome....A LOT! I think it's a Boston thing...anyone?

If you are new to this blog then I should tell you a bit more about the Rainbows & Clouds dies and stamps. You will receive 2 dies which each cut 2 shapes: 2 rainbows and 2 clouds. The rainbow dies cut a smaller full rainbow and a larger arc-shape rainbow while the cloud die cuts 2 different sized clouds. In addition to the dies you receive a 20 piece sentiment stamp set. This set retails for $24.50 plus s&h.

To get a better idea of what this bundle includes here are some pictures of what you receive:




I hope you've enjoyed reading about the Rainbows & Clouds set! I love having it in my collection and I think you will too. Please feel free to email me at lpryor1@hotmail.com or click HERE for more information.

And come play along with us at the CTD!!!! Head on over to the Color Throwdown Blog to read all about how to play along and please don't forget to leave my friends some love! Here is a list of the designers playing along this week:

Kristin Eberline
Broni Holcombe
Barbara Anders
Tammy Hershberger
Keva Brown, Guest Designer

Thanks for stopping by today and see you SOON!

Busy Morning!

Good morning! I have a couple of things to share with you this morning!

First, Jo Freant is our first Face Book give away winner! She was chosen at random to receive one item in her order for FREE! Congratualtions, Jo! We will definitely be doing this again SOON! So stay tuned!

Also, encourage your crafty friends to "Like" Lil' Inker Designs on Face Book. We're working towards our goal of 500 "Likes". Have your friends post on the wall that you sent them! I am going to give away a whole bunch of prizes once this goal is reached! Woo hoo!! You can find a link to our FB page HERE.

As of this morning, there are only 17 Rainbows & Clouds dies and stamp sets bundles left in stock! I will be re-ordering them, but come and get them before they run out!

And last but certainly not least.....The Lil' Inker Design Team is busy behind the scenes preparing for our first group post!! You'll be hearing more about our Kick Off Hop and our new and FAB.U.LOUS Designers VERY SOON!

And just so you have a little something to look at while your here....



Here is a card I made for last Wednesday's Color Throwdown Challenge. The flower is made using a technique my dear friend Kristin Eberline discovered using our Rainbow die and I've been really wanting to try it myself! It was super easy to do. I ran my Rainbow die through my machine twice using the same piece of patterned paper because I wanted 5 *bows* from the smaller Rainbow die. I then used glue dots to bring the ends of individual bows together. I did that 5 times and then assembled my flower adding a button to the center. This is SO EASY and FUN! You can make all different size flowers too if you use the bows from the larger rainbow die. Isn't Kristin SMART to have thought of this?

Have a great day!!!

Pinwheel Update & More

Good morning!! I got word today that the Pinwheel restock items will be shipping out today. Therefore, I will be able to start shipping them out to you MUCH sooner than I expected! YAY!

Also, I'd like to share the new Rainbow & Clouds stamp set graphic made by our very own Ariana Grant :) You can click on it to make it a bit larger if you'd like.



I L.O.V.E. these graphics! Thanks, Ariana!

See you soon!

More Recent Faves & Some News!

Good morning! I thought I would come back and share a few more cards I've seen in Blog Land recently that totally knocked my socks off! We'll get to them in just a second....

First, I just wanted to say that when the Pinwheel dies and stamps are restocked you will be happy to know that I will be adding back the option to purchase the double die set once again. I will have two different Add to Cart buttons; one for the single die and one for the double die option. This is possibly the best solution I could arrive at to offer both set options AND still maintain a manageable inventory. What do you think?

Also, the Design Team Acceptances will be going out VERY VERY SOON! Hang in there and thank you so much for your patience!

And now that we've got the housekeeping items out of the way, here are a few beauties to share with you....

This first card is made by the amazing Tammy Hershberger of Stamp Happy! You can read all about this card HERE.



Another beauty from Jen Carter of Jen's Ink Spot who had this great idea to create a 3-D rainbow. You can read all about this card HERE.



This one is from Judy Rozema of Joy in a JAR and I'm STILL squealing over it! I LOVE when someone does something out of the box with one of our dies!!! You can read about Judy's card HERE.



This one is a stunner from Sheri Gilson of Paper Crafty's Creations. You can read all about Sheri's card HERE.



Drooling? Me too!

Thanks for popping in!

Update & News!!!

Good morning! As of this morning the Pinwheel dies and stamps are sold out! More have been ordered so you may continue to place orders, however, it may be up to 10 days before they will ship out to you.

Thank you!! I'm so glad you love them!

News!

Behind the scenes I'm as busy as a bee...packing and shipping lots of orders, making Design Team decisions with Julie Ranae, working with Ariana on new products, product graphics, and other design team preparations. Busy, BUSY! AND FUN!

The Design Team announcements will be going out in the next few days so please stay tuned and thank you for your patience!

With all the recent craziness I realized this morning that we are down to only 8 Pinwheel die and stamp set bundles!!! I'm ordering more this morning which will arrive and be available to ship in about 2 weeks time.

Pinwheels and Rainbows are HOT HOT HOT!!

Thanks!

Recent Faves

Hi there! I thought I would swing by quickly to show you a few recent creations I've discovered in blog land using products from Lil' Inker Designs. They are amazing. Brace yourselves.......

The first one is made by Jen Carter of Jen's Inkspot. I love that the rainbow is non-traditional in color and how it's paired perfectly with the little sailboat in this scene. You can read all about how Jen made this card HERE.



This next one is a fabulous and fresh home decor project made by Gretchen Belknap of Happiness Is. I just love every little detail and I think the pinwheel is the perfect touch here. You can read all about Gretchen's project in this post HERE.



I have one more for you today. This one is made by Amy Sheffer of Pickled Paper Designs and practically brought a tear to my eye because it's so fabulous, HA! You can read all about Amy's card HERE.



Inspired? Impressed? Me too!

You can check out our current products by visiting us at Shop Lil' Inker.

Have a great day!

Rainbow & Cloud Dies

Hi there! Ariana and I are busy behind the scenes working on lots of things. At the top of our list is a set of product graphics. Here for you today so you can see the Rainbow & Cloud dies before you buy them is a picture of exactly what you'll receive including product dimensions.
Thanks!!