CardMaker Magazine and Lil' Inker Designs Blog Hop!

Surprise!!!!

 How are you today? Laura here with an exciting post I didn't tell you was happening because I wanted to surprise you! Today, the Lil' Inker Design Team and CardMaker Magazine are getting together for a special blog hop focusing on a Fall theme.

More than likely you're here because you've made your way through our hop and I'm the last stop, but if you've stopped by to say hello and would like to see the entire hop, just keep on reading. :)

I'm so excited because I think you're going to see some sneak peeks from our Design Team Members today of things we're getting ready to release on October 8th here at Lil' Inker. Edited to add: Holy Moly! I've hopped and the designs are AMAZING!!!!

For those of you just learning about Lil' Inker Designs, let me tell you a little bit about who we are.
I was a work from home home who loved to paper craft and make greeting cards and one day I wanted something for my crafty stash that I could not find on the market. I ended up reaching out to my friend from high school, Ariana Grant. She and I had recently reconnected on Facebook and I remembered reading that she was now a professional graphics designer. I sent her my idea and some illustrations and we got to work right away and in August of 2010 we released our first die and stamp set combination Sentiment Flags Original Die and Stamp Set. This die was the first "ribbon-tailed" die on the market in our lil' crafty world. I didn't know it at the time but this was the accidental birth of our company and we've been releasing dies and stamps continuously since then.

We're known for our dies with stitching and later in 2013 we were the innovators behind dies with what we call Dual Stitching or stitching on the inside and outside of the main cut line. These are two concepts that we're super proud of!

If you're new to Lil' Inker Designs we'd love it if you'd shop with us. Visit our website and check out our line of fun and versatile products, browse around and have fun!

We continue to remain a small, but creative company. We have a FABULOUS and dedicated team of Designers who create amazing things with our products to inspire you. I personally handle all of our customer service and it's one of my most important jobs here at Lil' Inker Designs.

I am a work from home mom, who runs a household and this crafty business out of two rooms in my home which are my humble little headquarters. I love what I do but it's made possible entirely with the support of my family, my bestie Ariana Grant, additional right-hand-woman and graphics designer, Karen Baker and Gillian and Courtney Nolan, sisters who are both college students and assist me part-time packaging our products and fulfilling all of your orders with care and love and shipping them out to you.

Here is a list of everyone participating today. I simply cannot WAIT to hop around and visit the blogs of the CardMaker Mag ladies They too are going to be using goodies from Lil' Inker Designs in their posts today. I think this is going to be so fun!

CardMaker http://www.cardmakermagazine.com/blog/

Karen Baker http://thebalddragonfly.blogspot.com/

Chitra Nair http://www.craftingchitra.blogspot.com/

Amy Kolling http://stamp-n-paradise.blogspot.com/

Sarah Jay http://www.criminalgrace.com/ 

Gini Williams Cagle http://ginicagle.blogspot.com/

Heather Hoffman http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com

Maureen Merritt http://www.mamamostamps.com/

Jennie Harper http://stampawaytheday.blogspot.com/

Chrissy Larson http://chrissycards.blogspot.com/

Lisa Henke http://mylittlecreativeescape.blogspot.com/

Mendi Yoshikawa http://www.snippets-of-mendi.blogspot.com/

Laura Williams http://lauralooloo.blogspot.com/

Stacy Morgan http://twinshappy.blogspot.com/

Laura Pryor(You are here): http://shoplilinker.blogspot.com

Remember to go back and visit all the ladies participating today and leave them some love because we're also giving away a $35 gift certificate to one lucky winner so please comment along your way through our hop today. We'll be picking a winner from the comments left throughout blog-land and announcing the winner so stay tuned! Thanks :)

Here are a couple of projects I created for you and for our hop today.

This first cards is a small 4.25" square. It's been my go-to card size recently. I die cut the background with our Cover Up Die: Stitched Woodgrain which is one of my most favorite background dies EVER!!!! It also features some new-ish goodies in our store; the newly redesigned Acorn Dies and Nuts About You Stamps! These were goodies we released back in 2011 and were out of stock for some time. Before I restocked them for you, I decided to give them a little update. Now our Acorn Die is a set of three acorns and we tweaked the design just a little for you. Perhaps the biggest change it to the stamp set. We gave the set a whole new looks but stayed true to its original, quirky, fun design. The sentiments in this set are silly and fun and can be used for so many different occasions in additional to Autumn designs. Also featured here are our So Thankful Stamps and So Thankful Label Die from our most recent release. I just love how this came together and I'm delighted to have these items back in stock and looking FAB!

This last project contains a little sneaky peek for you of a leaf die set we're releasing on October 8th called Leaf Love. Here I die cut it one of the leaves with a remnant piece of corrugated cardboard which I then painted with a little gold paint. I used a vintage doily as a backdrop which was quite large so I cut it in pieces and layered it a bit to make it a better size for my card front. Also used here are our Stitched Mats: Rectangles used for the focal panel and the Nuts About Stamp Set again for the sentiment. I LOVE the size and shape of this die!!! Yahooo!!!

I hope you love the cards I made to share with you today!

Thank YOU so much for coming by today. Whether you're a "repeat offender", LOL and come here often or your brand new to our blog and company - we're so glad you're here!

We hope you'll join us here in a few days on October 8th because we'll be bringing you a fresh new crop of goodies for the Christmas Holiday but also some FABULOUS items for Fall that you won't want to miss!

Thank you SO VERY MUCH to CardMaker Magazine and Brooke Smith and for organizing this wonderful hop and and for this amazing opportunity and a big thank you to all the participating designers from CardMaker for showcasing goodies from Lil' Inker Designs and sharing with CardMaker Mag readers!!!!!!

What a great way to kick off Monday!

Love,