December New Release Hop Day 3

So here we are just a few days before Christmas and gawking at Valentine's Day Cards! Gotta love it!!! Hey, it's never too early to start thinking about the next holiday, right? RIGHT! HA!

Today is the third and final day of our new release hop. Thank you all SO MUCH for all the feedback you've left. It's so fun and inspiring to read!

I have a few more projects to share with you today, but before I do here's a look at everything we released this week. If you'd like read about these projects I'll encourage you to read my posts for
DAY 1 and DAY 2 or head on over to our SHOP HERE to read about them there too.

Sigh.......I lurve this batch of goodies!

Here is a look at some new projects that I haven't shared with you yet :)

This card uses our new Stitches & Stripes as well as Shiny Happy Sentiments. Making an appearance is the largest die from our Flags & Tags Die Set as well as a star from Starry Sky Die. LOVE this sentiment heat embossed. It's one of my faves from the set!

Oh boy, do I love me some chalkboard!! This sentiment from our Love Things Set is heat embossed on a Stitched Mat: Rectangle and my card front of pretty hearts was created using our Floating Hearts Die.

For my final card I used our new Cover Up Die: Love which I cut from some glittery gold paper which I layered over pink. I'm obsessed with pink and gold right now for some reason. I created the sentiment "Love U" by adding a die cut letter U to the heart as seen above. FUN!

Here is everything I shared with you over the last two days using all of our new goodies.

Before I send you on your way a HUGE THANK YOU

to Jingle for being our guest for this release! It's been incredibly fun! Thank you so much! 

Don't forget that we're giving away three $15 store credits as hop prizes and all you have to do is leave some love along your way today. We'll pick the winners at random from a secret prize blog so spread your love around. You have through December 22nd at 11:30 P.M. EST to leave comments to be eligible to win.

Here is today's hop line up...

Alicia Thelin - next up!

Alyssa Scritchfield

Amy Kolling

Jingle - Guest Designer  

Jen Carter

Karen Baker

Sarah Jay

Suzanne Dahlberg

Most importantly, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Thank you to everyone for all of your support this year! It's been an incredible year for Lil' Inker Designs and we're looking forward to bringing you even more crafty goodness in 2014! 

We'll see you SOON!

December New Release Hop Day 2!

Hello there! Welcome to day 2 of our December New Release Hop!

If you're just joining us today we have some truly fun, trendy and unique products just releasing this week! I'm so excited to bring them to you. Let's get right to it with a brief recap on everything new!

The first new goodie below might just be my favorite of the release and is totally inspired by my husband who always teases me and says I should make a stamp set of sentiments that people would NEVER put on a card. After some thinking I think we nailed his concept! The Fine Print set actually has lovely and sweet things to say but you must read between the lines in order for the entire message to be clear. Loving this set! These sentiments make some hilarious cards for friends, loved ones and are fantastic for masculine cards too! 

Oh but wait I love this set too!!!!! I'm obsessed with fonts and subway art and chalkboard style and I think all of those things inspired this set. Love Things is a fun set which will make great Valentine's Day cards, cards just to say I love you or even an anniversary card using the "true love/love birds" stamp! The fonts are so awesome in this set and what I love about this is that several of the smaller ornamental stamps can all be adhered to one stamping block and used to make a terrific background!

Shiny Happy Sentiments was designed specifically to coordinate with our Stitched Stars Dies and Starry Sky Die having mostly a "shine" or "star" theme. But if you take a close look at these sentiments you'll quickly see they can be used for SO MANY DIFFERENT occasions; congratulations, encouragement, birthday, love and MORE!! The fonts a fun, quirky, handwritten, sketchy and right on trend!

Seriously, I'm loving this Cover Up Die. It makes a gorgeous clean and simple background by creating a striped effect. We added in the stitching for additional detail and spunk! And I know there's another use for the stripes this plate cuts away. I love a die that lets me use its negative pieces. Stitches & Stripes  is super fun and makes for such a cool background for your paper crafting projects!

Floating Hearts Die is a follow up to our popular Starry Sky Die. It's one of those dies that every crafter should have. Whether you use it so that you have many paper hearts to use at once or to sprinkle some heart cut outs across a card front it's worth it's weight in gold!

Oh, yes we did!! I was trying to think of a clever way of bringing you a tag set but in a way that would surprise you and I think we've done that with our Love Tags die set! The large tag is a standard size and the second a mini and each features a scored hearts detail all around the edges which press into your paper during cutting. Of course we designed the hearts to coordinate with our new Floating Hearts Die! Loving these tags!!!

Our new Cover Up Die: Love is really something else! I was saying before how I love text and fonts and I think it's exciting to bring that into a die which cuts more than one word which we see a lot of. What I love about this die is what I'm seeing some our designers doing which is to hi-light or isolate some of the words with markers or different papers. I also love that you can cut out and use some of the words and phrases on their own. Both of these things really add to the versatility to this plate.

This die is extremely detailed and intricate which means you've got to spend a little more time with at your cutting machine so it's easier to work with after. I personally use this die with my Big Kick machine without any paper shims and if I use the Rock and Roll die cutting technique (SEE VIDEO HERE) and make sure I make a couple of passes through my machine this die cuts like butter. I then hold it in my trash can and shake or tap out the pieces and I'm left with very few pieces to poke out. Fingers work fine for this but if you have a piercing tool that works even better.  If you have a Big Shot or a Big Kick and you're not getting the same results try making your sandwich and then on top add a shim of cardstock. The shim should be as large as your die so that the additional pressure is distributed evenly.

If you have a Cuttlebug, we highly recommend that you use shims with this die and metal adapter plates are working wonders. We've actually stocked a small quantity of these in our store in case you'd like to give one a try. It's an additional investment but I can almost guarantee that you'll have crisp clean cuts with all dies especially detailed ones if you introduce this plate.

Would you like to see some projects?

This card was made and shared earlier in the week as one of my sneak peek cards. It uses our new Cover Up Stitches & Stripes as well as our Love Things Stamp Set and Stitched Mats: Rectangles. I think this ended up being such a neat and simple design and it came together in just minutes.

Next up is  little card set I made using The Fine Print Set. I made a set of four cards featuring four different sentiments and I made a wrapper to hold them together.

Here is the assembled card set.

The above is a shot of all four cards. I used our Stitched Mats: Squares to make this as well!

Ok, one more project for today.....

I wanted to make something to show you how nicely our new Shiny Happy Sentiments pairs with both our Stitched Stars Dies and our Starry Sky Die.

Ok, so that does it for today. Isn't this a fun release? Tell us what you think by leaving comments along your way today. Don't forget to leave some extra love for our guest designer Jingle! I'm so excited she's here with us for this release!!! And just in case you get lost along your hop here is a list of participants:

Alicia Thelin - next up!

Alyssa Scritchfield

Amy Kolling

Jingle - Guest Designer  

Jen Carter

Karen Baker

Sarah Jay

Suzanne Dahlberg

You could win one of three $15 gift certificates just by leaving a comment for our team! We'll be picking winners from one randomly chosen secret prize blog! You have until Sunday night December 22nd at 11:30 P.M. EST to be eligible to win!

See you tomorrow with more projects to get you inspired!!

December New Release Hop Day 1

Well, hello there!!!!! I'm so excited to be here today! It's day one of our fabulous new release and there's nothing better than bringing you new goodies!

Before we get going, wait and see where you'll land while on your hop today! We have a FANTASTIC Guest Designer with us for this release and I'm super duper excited! Drum roll............

It's JINGLE!!! 

I'm so excited to have Jingle with us for this release and I'm super excited for you to see what she's made with our new goodies to share with you today!!!

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

Alicia Thelin

Alyssa Scritchfield

Amy Kolling

Jingle - Guest Designer

Jen Carter

Karen Baker

Sarah Jay

Suzanne Dahlberg

This release is extra special to me because we're releasing three stamp sets that I personally designed!

This one was totally influenced by my husband who always jokes about me making a stamp set that has something negative to say. I built on that idea by hi-lighting certain words within the phrases so at first glance they appear to be rude but when you read the fine print they actually have something really nice to say and thus The Fine Print set was born! This is a 3x4 stamp set of six main sentiments, 2 supporting sentiments and 2 image stamps which Karen Baker designed to compliment this set. This stamp set is totally fresh and unique and a little sassy! It says things like when YOU'RE not here with me A PAIN runs through my heart, I would GO TO HELL and back just to see you, I'D KILL just to be with YOU, without YOU life would STINK and I HATE when YOU are not here with me. The supporting sentiments are Always Read the Fine Print  and Read Between the Lines which are paired perfectly with the eyeglasses and magnifying glass stamps. 

Here is a fantastic stamp set perfect for Valentine's Day Cards, Love Cards and more inspired by subway art, chalkboard art but done in trendy and fun handwritten and sketchy fonts. I. LOVE. THIS. SET. And I know you will too! This is a 4x6 set of 12 stamps; 7 main sentiments and 5 elements. Try combining the elements together on one stamping block for a fun background image! Lots of possibilities here!

Oh, my STARS! I wanted to bring you a stamp set designed with our Stitched Stars Die Set and Starry Sky Die in mind - something that coordinated with the dies but could be used for all kinds of different purposes and I think we've done just that with Shiny Happy Sentiments! The fonts are mixed; some bold, some sketchy, some handwritten and the sentiments have so many great things to say including "You're pretty much my favorite person of all time ever". Notice that we have two stamps which coordinate with the "totally stellar" sentiment. You can say "You are totally stellar, far out & groovy......" or "Hope your day is.....". Gotta have this in your collection!

Let's talk dies!!!! We have some fantastic new dies for you today! 

Our Floating Hearts Die is a follow up to our popular Starry Sky Die but features trendy, cute hearts. This is a small die but packs a big punch because it does so many things! First, you can use this die to cut many hearts at once to use on your paper crafting projects. Sometimes it's nice and it's a time saver to make one cut and have many pieces to use. Second, you can use this die to cut a sprinkling of hearts in a row right on a card front. The neat thing about this die is that it's designed to be used on two widths of cards; 4.25" and 5.5" without the hearts touching the edge of the paper. Third, you can actually cut an entire card front of heart cut outs by cutting and moving the die and cutting again. Super fun effect and ADORBS heart shape. You'll LOVE this die!!!!

Whoa, Nellie!!! That's right! These tags ROCK!!!! Our new Love Tags is a set of two tags; a large standard tag size and a mini tag and each have a scored heart detail which presses into the tag all along the borders. I love our new Love Tags. I have a funny feeling these are going to be the star of the release!

Next, we have two brand new Cover Up Dies each totally unique and fantastic!

Oh, this is the coolest die! Cover Up Die: Stitches & Stripes cuts a panel which creates a striped effect but also includes our signature stitching for added detail and beauty.

Above is our brand new Cover Up Die: Love. It's a follow up to our Cover Up Die: Christmas and features a series of love words and phrases and even hearts. I love text and fonts so I'm super excited to have dies that create textual elements for your card designs. Not to mention this die makes beautiful and easy cards as well!

This die is incredibly detailed and intricate. We recommend using a piece of cardstock as a shim when using this die in your Sizzix Big Kick or Big Shot. Cuttlebug users, we HIGHLY recommend that you use a metal adapter plate which will give you crisp, clean cuts. We currently have a small quantity of these in stock. Not only are they handy for our Cover Up Dies: Christmas and Love but they will work along with any other intricate dies you might have in your collection!

How about some projects??

This card uses our new Cover Up Die: Love, Love Tags and Love Things Stamp Set. Also seen here are our Of the Hearts Dies which have just been restocked. Here I layered my cover up die over paper of the same color creating this subtle background. My tag is embellished as my focal point and my sentiment is stamped in light grey ink.

Here is our Love Tag which is stamped with a background pattern I made with a few of the smaller stamps from the Love Things Stamp Set. I aligned them on my block and was able to ink and stamp them all together. The little chalkboard stamp is also from our Love Things Stamp Set.

One more thing for you today is a project made with my favorite of the three stamp sets: The Fine Print!

This card also features our On the Diagonal Die, Stitched Stars and a heart from our  new Floating Hearts Die.

So what do you think? Are you loving everything as much as I do??

Before I send you off to hop a reminder to leave some love along your way today for our designers. We'll be picking a $15 store credit winner from a secret prize blog for each of our three hop days! So you might just get to WIN some free LID goodies!

Everything we're releasing this week is now available in our STORE along with so many of our TOP sellers which have just been restocked like Stitched Mats: Circles, One the Diagonal Die and MORE!!!

Ok, off you go now to visit Alicia! We'll see you tomorrow with more projects.

Pre-Release Sneak Peek Day 3!!

Hieeeeeee!!!!!! Just stopping by with another creation to get you pumped for our new release hop beginning tomorrow.

Remember, tomorrow begins our three day release hop featuring all kinds of new goodies for Valentine's Day, everyday and MORE!!!

Today's sneak peek project belongs to the incredibly talented and wonderful Karen Baker!

Isn't this gorgeous? More about how Karen added those delicious heart cut outs to her card front tomorrow :)

Thanks for stopping by and see you for our big day tomorrow beginning here on our store blog at 12:01 AM EST December 18th!