April New Release Hop Day 1

Hi there, Lil' Inker Friends! It's a big day here! Not only is it the first day of our April Release but we're also going to announce our three new Design Team Members!!!!

Let's talk about our new team members first because I am super DUPER excited to be working with them for the first time as members of our new fam!!!

DRUM ROLL..................

Angel's Blog

Hi, my name is Angel Rivera. I've been a card maker since 2006 but started scrapbooking before that, back when it was all about the stickers and decorative-edged scissors! Lol! I live in Oklahoma with my hubby of almost 22 years and our 3 boys (18, 15 and 12). I also work full time, so crafting helps keep me sane with such a busy household! I'm SO excited to be joining the Lil Inker Designs DT!

Stephanie's Blog

Hey friends! I'm Stephanie... wife to my amazing husband, Bryan, mama to my sweet little ones, Abbey and Jack, and obsessor of all things papercraft! I love casual, boho styles, collecting vintage cameras, laughing hysterically, and spreading love and kindness. I truly believe making cards and crafts keeps my heart and mind healthy. Thank you, Laura, for the opportunity to be a part of such an incredible creative family! Love & hugs! Xo.

Joy Taylor's Blog

I am Joy and I live in Australia in a small country town with my partner, Darryl. We live in a small cottage with a brick path and lavender on either side and a garden out the front. I have love to craft for as long as I can remember and I realised that I certainly needed my own room to come and go as I please. Darryl has built me all of my furniture in my craft room and he is super talented. I love and adore my room and it is constantly in a work of progress and a busy little hub designing cards either for design teams or for myself. I have been on many design teams and have guested for many more and always honoured and humbled when asked.. I have met so many people around the world through this craft and many have become close friends. This craft is something that keeps my life sane and smiles every day!

These ladies are truly, truly amazing and I can't wait for you to enjoy their blogs this week and see how they can inspire you to use your Lil' Inker Designs goodies! Welcome, Ladies! I am honored and so excited to work with each of you!!!!

Let's get right to what's new in store this week so that we can enjoy the creations from ALL of our amazing and talented Design Team Members!!

First Up is this adorable set we're calling Clean Lines: For the Guys and it will be part of a series we're releasing. Designed with all the men in your lives in mind, this set gives you a simple way to make a masculine card but keeps everything looking clean and cute, but you know, in a man-ish way! LOL!

Using a few simple but adorable car-related icons we designed a series of sentiments that you will love to use and which cover many purposes and occasions.

Of course, we had to design a die set to coordinate so that you have a way to easily cut out these cute images!

Next up is a set that I am super in love with which we're calling Tribal Chic. This stamp set contains a series of geometric shaped border and background building stamps that have this great tribal or even Southwest feel but are kept feeling so modern and chic because of the font and sentiment pairings we've done to go with them.

When using this set and seeing what the Design Team does with them you will be amazed as to all the different pattern possibilities this set has! Loads of potential here!

Our Dual Stitched Triangle Dies is a set of three triangles each featuring our signature Dual Stitching Design and were created specifically to compliment and work with our Tribal Chic Stamps. These are just so fun to use and I really feel like if you're a fan of our Dual Stitched Dies in general then these are truly a MUST HAVE for your collection.

OH EM GEEEE......These Tribal Chic papers are rediculously yummy! I don't even know what to say! We basically have combined two tribal-inspired paper packs together here and are releasing them as one big set! The patterns are fun, colorful and feature this amazing distressed vibe all while being so fresh and modern. Of course, our papers are printed on only THE best quality of paper we could possibly find for you - a true crafter's dream. These papers will compliment our Tribal Chic Stamps and Dual Stitched Triangles so so nicely! You won't want to miss your chance to work with this paper pack!

One more item in our Tribal Chic Collection is this brand new Cover Up Die!!! You guessed it! It's a perfect A2 size so that all you have to do is pre-cut your A2 card base, line it up with this die and run it through your machine! It creates this wicked cool pattern of stitched, arrow-like chevrons! It's AMAZING!!!! I have a tip for you! You know I'm kind of a perfectionist, right? I found that with my pretty worn cutting pads that I got the most perfect results with this when I ran it through once, then flipped it around and ran my sandwhich through again. Love love love this!! You will too!!

OK!!!!!! You need this next die set in your lives, like STAT!!!!!!!!! I think out of everything in our release these are going to move the fastest so if you love them purchase them as soon as you can.

These are our brand new Fringe Scalloped Rectangles. The scalloped border you see pictured below is something quite unique! When you make your cuts, this decorative border will lay flat but you can pop up these little scallops all the way around giving them dimension and texture! It's almost a ruffled-like effect! WAIT until you see these in action!!! 

As with most of our Rectangle Dies, the largest die in this set ONLY cuts the Fringe Scalloped Border around the edge of a premade A2 card base. The other two dies in this set feature this new detail on each side of the cut line giving you two Fringe Scalloped Rectangles to use OR the Fringe Scalloped frames left around the negative cuts!!!! Love!!! SWOON!!!! LOVE!

I am loving the sweet images in our new Kite Flying Stamp Set!!! We have had this set in our inventory since last Summer and we are now just getting around to giving it to you! I can't believe that!!!! Featured here are three main images, bear, bunny and chick. There are two different styles of "vests" that you can stamp on to this bear to dress him up included in this set. How cute is that?? There are also two different styles of "skirts" that can be stamped for the bunny as well. More cuteness. Even chick has a patterned wing! Then, use the two halves of the kite done in different patterns to create the cutest and simplest kite ever and then stamp it's stitched kitestring and don't forget to add the bows included along the string. This is truly a sweet set!!!!!! I think you'll love the adorable font we used here which we've worked with in the past but just seemed so right for these guys!

Of course we had to give you a Die set for these stamps!!! Now - there is something you should know.  The dies that myself and some of the team are using for our release projects are not the exact dies you are going to receive, but a sample version we received prior to the final product. The layout will look exactly as depicted below but they will cut much much closer to the edge of the stamps than what you might see used in some of our blog posts today. Somehow there was a discrepancy during production and these dies were created with a far too generous border between the stamp and the edge of the die and our manufacturer has addressed that issue for us. Therefore, when you order these to use with your Kite Flying Stamps you will receive dies that are perfect and nice and neat! :) YAY!! More good news?? New, smaller die set also means a smaller retail price too so your cost for these dies is now LESS! That almost never happens!!!!! Happy accidents!!!

Also noteworthy to mention is that the kitestrings in this die set cut only the stitching into your paper and do not "cut out" anything! I like the effect. I think you will too!

I've created a Kite Flying Die & Stamp Index for you as a handy tool. Check it out HERE!

These next flowers are truly truly beautiful with their vintage, toile-like feel! Two of the five main blooms are two-step stamps having separate centers. There are three additional two-step stamps in the set so that the leafy part and buds or blooms can be stamped in separate colors. Then, there are plenty of leaf and vine images which will all come together to make beautiful collections on flowers on your cards and paper crafted projects.

These flowers will be gorgeous stamped in different colors, heat embossed and watercolored, stamped and colored with markers or even just stamped in black for a true toile look.

We've of course given you a die set to cut out all of these gorgeous flowers and their pieces. I've created you a Vintage Flower Stamp & Die Index which you might find as a helpful guide when using this set. I recommend that you use the guide and then label your stamps and dies with the same numbering system as I created in the guide. Simply a must have die set if you love the Vintage Floral Stamp Set!

TIP: I found when using the two-step stems and bud images that it was best to stamp the stem first, then die cut and then stamp the bloom. You also know that I'm a bit of a perfectionist and that it's probably not necessary, LOL.

You might have noticed that our Vintage Flower Stamp Set does not have any sentiments. Welllllll, that's because this next set was designed entirely as a companion set BUT totally will work on its own as well.

This is our Vintage Label Sentiments Stamps and it was designed for all the special ladies in your life and is PERFECT for Mother's Day! We've included a beautifully shaped vintage label frame stamp and then a decorative center stamp. All of the keywords in this set stamp within that center frame and the coordinating phrases can be mixed and matched and stamped above and beneath the keywords......it sounds like a muddy explanation all typed out but I promise when you see the team samples you'll see how easily these stamps all work together.

Here is a die made special to cut out the vintage label frame in the Vintage Label Sentiments Stamp Set. I recommend stamping everything first and then cutting out your greeting with this die. It's been hollowed out in the center which will aide you in perfect alignment!

Okay!!! How about some projects?? I think I'll focus on our Tribal Chic collection of items today.

This is a card I made with our new Dual Stitched Triangles Dies as well as our Tribal Chic Papers and Stamps. I started with a kraft card base and die cut a stitched border using my Stitched Mats: Rectangles. I did an arrangement of triangles using my Tribal Chic Papers which are so so so so pretty, right????? Er meh gerd.....LOVE!!!!! To create my sentiment I layered a vellum strip heat embossed with Neon Pink embossing powder over another paper from this same collection. I really love the way this turned out and how quickly it came together using these items.

Here I did something a little different with the same stamp set. I used my Ranger Distress Inks to create this blended panel and then I created a background with my tribal borders in black ink. My sentiment is done in permanent ink on vellum again. I love how vellum adds a touch of softness.

One more!

Here I started with a taupe card base which I die cut with our Cover Up Die: Tribal Chic. LOVE this color. Then, on a smaller, white card panel I did some stamping with the Tribal Chic Stamp Set and added my sentiment in coordinating Taupe Ink.  Easy project and can be made in loads of different colors too!

What do you think?? Are you loving these goodies??

Before I send you on your way, here is a list of everyone participating in our hop today! Be sure to leave extra love for our three new and fabulous designers, Angel, Stephanie and Joy! Let them know how excited you are to have more talented ladies' blogs to cruise to get your LID inspiration on!!!

LID Blog http://www.shoplilinker.blogspot.com/  <<-----You are here

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

Angel Rivera http://angelsworld94.blogspot.com/

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

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

Stephanie Gold http://goldensimplicity.com/

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

Jennifer Carter http://jensinkspot.blogspot.com/

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

Lea Lawson http://www.lealawsoncreates.com/

Heather Hoffman http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com

Joy Taylor http://www.simplebydesignblog.com/

And don't forget to leave comments for everyone along the way because you will then be eligible to win a $15 store credit prize! Yessss!!

Winners will be chosen from one Design Team Member's blog which is why we encourage you to leave comments for everyone. You must comment by Sunday,  April 24th at 11:30 PM EST in order to be eligible.

I am so very excited to have new Design Team Members with us for this release. Once again, welcome to Angel, Joy and Stephanie!!!!! 

I appreciate every single person who applied and enjoy cruising everyone's blogs and projects. If you didn't make the team, don't worry! I have a plan! I have loads of people who I am planning to contact that I would like to work with in a different capacity! This would be a commission gig with a discount!!!! NOW, I say this and being that I am the sole person running the biz end of Lil' Inker Designs I have a To Do list a mile long but I promise emails will be going out soon!!

Ok, off you go to hop! Enjoy today and we'll see you tomorrow for Day 2 of our New Release Hop!!