July Release Day 1

Hi there, everyone! I am delighted to be here during this whirlwind Summer with a brand new release from Lil' Inker Designs!

We really do have some FABULOUS new stamps and dies for you BUT before we get right into it I would like to welcome a brand new member of our Design Team. We've actually been keeping this news under wraps for several weeks now.......please help me welcome.....

Here's a little bit about Jessica in her own words...

Hello!  I'm Jess and I am so honored and excited to join the Lil' Inker Designs family!  I've been a big fan for quite some time and I shrieked a bit (okay a lot, ha!) when I received Laura's email a few weeks ago!  So, a little about me...I live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with my incredibly supportive husband, two shelties, a tortoiseshell cat, and a senior bunny.  I am a professional musician by day and a papercrafter by night (or really early morning)!  I enjoy creating cards for my friends and family and I can often be found coloring a couple images or embossing a sentiment in-between lessons and gigs!  I love experimenting with new techniques and mediums and I usually can't resist adding a little extra sparkle to all of my cards and projects!!  You can find me blogging over at All the Sparkle and sharing video tutorials at my Youtube channel.  I really love the encouraging and supportive papercrafting community and I look forward to making new friends here at Lil' Inker Designs!  

Yahooooooo!!! Welcome Jess!! You might already be familiar with Jessica's blog, All the Sparkle. Jess is an inspiring paper crafter and designer and I can hardly wait to see what amazing designs she creates with Lil' Inker Designs goodies!! 

Welcome, Jess and thank you so much for becoming a part of our lil' family!!

Ok, let's get right into our new products for July!!

Say it with me.... oooooohhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Hahahahh!!!! I know! I'm really excited about these new dies and stamps!

Ok, let's chat about each individual product.....

Alphabet Gems Die Set

Alphabet Gems Stamps - previously released

This is a BRAND NEW die set for an existing and fabulous stamp set called Alphabet Gems Stamps. Each letter has a faceted gem--like appearance. These stamps are fun to use on their own when taken direct to paper but having this die set will really take this set to new levels. Oh MY!!!! This is a MUST HAVE if you already own our Alphabet Gems Stamps and if not the stamps and dies together will be a fabulous addition to your collection. We really love that these stamps and dies coordinate with a lot of items already in our collection such as the Girl's Best Friend Stamps, Girl's Best Friend Diamond Die and Cover Up Die: Faceted. This set will require separation prior to being able to use the dies individually and we recommend our Wire Cutting Pliers which are sold separately.

Please note, this die set is available in very limited quantity only.

Here's a great project using our new Alphabet Gems Dies from our designer, Joy Taylor, which I chose to feature here because it shows how these dies can work together with some of the supplies already in our collection which I've just mentioned above.

Moving right along... here is yes another fabulous Boxed Up Greeting Die! Our Boxed Up So Happy For You Greeting Die is just as cute and fun and purposeful as its predecessors. I especially like this one because it can be used for so many occasions like if a friend is having a baby or got a new job or what about if a friend has been working hard at Weight Watchers and doing great? Wouldn't it be nice to send them a cute and fast card? That's one of the things I like most about these Boxed Up Greeting Dies.....this die makes for the simplest cards but they look like they took you a long time. This is also a great die to use if you need to mass-produce cards as well.  Love this!!

Here are some great projects using our new Boxed Up So Happy For You Greeting Die.

Great example above from designer Heather Hoffman and how a card can come together with dies only and still be fab! A more traditional use of this die featured here atop a card front.

Ohhhh!!! Attached to a pillow box!!! How clever is that? Great idea, Stephanie Gold!!

Ok, these Doodled Daisies Stamps ROCK!!!! Let me tell you why......they can be used in a lot of different ways and that might not be apparent at first glance so let me explain. Some of the floral images in the set have two coordinating elements; an outlined image and a silhouette image. So, you can stamp the outlined image and color it or heat emboss it or you can stamp the silhouette image and then the outlined image over it in a coordinating color. Isn't that cool?  

Let me show you what I mean....

When stamping the flowers in my gift card project above I started with a lighter ink color for my silhouette images and then stamped over with a darker but coordinating color. You'll see that some elements in the image remain white and that's easy to achieve as the stamps are very easy to line up.

Contrastly, here is an excellent project from designer Angel Rivera which shows how awesome our Doodled Daisies can be stamped in black and colored in. RIGHT??!!!!! 

I think it's lovely that this set can achieve such different looks.

I also really love the greetings and the fonts we used in this set and you will too. You will love playing around with this set and seeing all the fun things it can do! And depending on which way you decide to stamp these awesome flowers we have a coordinating die set for you which cuts these out perfectly. Have a look...

Doodled Daisies Dies

Pure awesomenesssssssss!!!

Here at Lil' Inker we just adore our Quilted Stitched Cover Up Dies. They have got to be one of the best ways to quickly add visual interest, texture and pattern to any of your projects! I really love the whimsical spirals this die will create. They even give the appearance of wind blowing so this would be great to use for a card with outdoor or weather elements like the clouds dies in our Rainbows & Clouds Die Set and so many other things. LOVE!

Look at this awesome project from Joy which I think shows how just a little bit of texture goes a long way.

Our word tag dies are super fun and here we're adding to our collection with this set of Everyday Word Tags Dies which say Hello, Enjoy and Thanks. These are fun tags to tie onto your cards but were originally intended to tie onto a small gift. I also love that you can snip off the tag hangers and just use these as word dies which make this a set of three very versatile dies and because they've been done in a traditional, bold, block-letter font they will go with anything else you want to feature on a card front!

Here are some awesome projects featuring our Everyday Word Tags.

Here, Heather has shown how these dies can pack a big punch on a card front and they also feature the perfect spot for adding in some twine. I also love that she's shown that you can create a full greeting with some clever stamping from other sets. Here she's used our Warm Welcome Stamps to say Hello Sweet Baby.

I couldn't possibly love more how the Hello Word Tag seems to be the perfect perch for the birdie in our The Little Things Stamps. Love!!

This Happy Birthday Border Die is new to our collection and was designed entirely by Karen Baker. I really love the lettering Karen chose to work with because it reminds me so much of a neon sign! I also love dies that make my crafting easier and faster and this is TOTALLY one of those elements and it can be used on so many different ways. 

This die is exactly 5.50" w which is perfect because it will fit horizontally across your card front OR you can use it vertically and just trim off the excess. I think you'll find this die fun and useful for sure!!! Enjoy!!

Here are some excellent samples from our Design Team which show some different uses of our new Happy Birthday Border Die.

Here Dt's Chrissy Larson used this die in a more traditional manner and created a blocked out panel which perfectly compliments her flowers and colors.

And here is a more out-of-the-box idea for using this die. Not only did Stephanie cut her sentiment down to stagger it but she left a bolder bottom beneath each word to give it a bold, underlined look which I really love!

So, we've been releasing lots of dies with this new Fringe Scallop we've created and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the Fringe Scalloped Circles are the BEST ONES YET!!! WHY? Well, because I'm finding that they can make some really fun flowers!

I really like that our Fringe Scallop Detail is very versatile. Cut and laid flat, this detail adds visual interest to your card fronts but this detail was truly designed to be popped up with your fingers to create a fringe-like appearance.

Let me show you how I used these fabulous dies to create one version of a cute flower....

Here I used the smallest die in the Fringe Scalloped Circles Die Set which I took directly to my card front to cut. You'll see how the die cut out a small circle and then left this sweet little fringe all around the outside which I then chose to pop up with my fingers to give a more flower-ish look. As I sat looking at the cut and the flower potential I got to thinking.......what can I put in the center of my flower on the inside of my card when it occurred to me to see if my Spot On Stamps would do the trick and LOW AND BEHOLD IT DID!!!!!!!!! LOOK how PERFECTLY that "you are" spot stamp fits inside the center of my flower. Oh MY GOODNESS!!!!!! Now, don't be mad at me but this set is currently sold out but now that I know it can be used with these new dies so awesomely I will be sure to bring them back for you!

To finish creating my flower I just cut a strip of green paper and adhered it to my card base and then I used one of the leaf dies from our Doodled Daisies Die Set for my flower's leaves which I then dressed up by die-cutting a line of stitching in the middle for some visual interest which I achieved by using the line of stitching die from our Long & Skinny Rectangles. This die only stitches and doesn't cut anything out which allowed me to create this texture. Of course, then I finished off my card by completing the sentiment with the fabulous stamp and made this cute "You Are Fabulous" card. YAY!!!

Here is yet another example of how our new Fringe Scalloped Circles can be used to create flowers from designer Jen Carter! Isn't this so bright and cheery?

Last but certainly not least is a new and quirky stamp set called The Little Things and it has a something theme, LOL........yes something.....what it is? It's sketchy and sort of down-home don't you think? Well, apparently I'm obsessed with birds lately because this is two bird sets in a row that we're releasing and while each is totally different than the other the birds in this set too are also buildable which allows for your birdies to be stamped in different colors.

I also really love the sentiments in this set. I think they're super pretty and I love what they have to say!

The set features two main bird images, one facing in each direction and each has its own wing stamp. You can take these both directly to paper by stamping the body and then the wing right over it in another color or same if you so choose and then of course there are some other finishing elements like tail feathers and feet. 

We've also created a set of dies for you to coordinate with this set. For the birds, I recommend stamping the body first, then die-cutting and then finish your cut by stamping in the feet. Doing it in this order will allow you to get the most perfect leg placement. The wings are separate dies  so stamp and then die cut and then affix to your completed bird however you like.

Not only are these birds facing in different directions which gives you some design options but one bird can be designed to appear as though it's in flight while the other looks a bit more perched - even more versatility. 

I really love this birdie example from designer Chrissy Larson done in a true-Robin style!!! Love love love love love!!

And here is an equally lovely monotone birdie from designer Amy Kolling.

OK, so what do you think??? What are your favorites?? What are your must haves? I'd love to know!!

Before head off on your way to see what the Design Team has done with these new items remember that we're giving away a $15 to three lucky winners!!!!!

How do you win?? All you have to do is leave some comments along our hop today for our designers. Comments should be left by Sunday, July 31st, at 11:30 PM EST to be eligible.

Here is a list of everyone participating in our hop today:

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

Jessica Frost Ballas http://www.allthesparkle.com/ - New Designer YAHOOOOO!!!!!

Stephanie Gold http://goldensimplicity.com/

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

Heather Hoffman http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And don't forget to stop by our store to check out all of your favorites and our sale page which has been recently updated in include loads of stamps and dies! 

OH and before I let you go we've recently brought back a couple of items to our store that you might have been looking for; Flip Flop Sentiment Stamps and our Stitched Gift Card Holder Die which is back for a limited time!!

Thank you again for spending part of your day with me! Off you go now and I hope you enjoy our blog hop today!