You Made It Monday Vol. 39

It's time for another You Made It Monday!  We are super excited to share some more amazing creations that you, our customers, have created and shared with us online.  You Made It Monday is now a monthly feature and there are prizes!!!  That's right!  If you're featured in our You Made It Monday post you will receive a $10 gift certificate to Lil' Inker Designs!  Isn't that awesome??

You know how much we love seeing what you create with the products in the Lil' Inker Designs store.  You never cease to amaze us with your talent and creativity. Here is just a sampling of the awesome creations you have shared with us lately.

First up, this gorgeous creation from Nakaba, @notesfromnaki.

I love the softness of this card!  It is so perfect and the many layers are amazing.  Nakaba certainly made our Whoops Word Die and Whoops Stamp Set stand out!  I love how "My Bad" creates such a cool grounding point on the panel cut using Silly Stitched Die Set and who can resist that adorable kitten!  I love the soft colors on our kitty from the Lovie Friends Stamps.  Love!

Next up, a card you may have seen me share on our Instagram feed, this card from Jenny, @crafting_inthe_country.
 

Could this be any cuter?  I love the cloudy sky Jenny created to hang out the wash.  Ha ha ha!  Her coloring on the briefs from I'll Be Brief Stamps and cutting them out with the I'll Be Brief Dies really make them stand out on her clothesline.  I love the sentiments she chose and putting them in a speech bubble with a pop of color...perfection!

This card just pops and I couldn't Nance's, @tarheelsoulmom, gorgeous card.

The gorgeous water coloring on this card front makes the amazing Lovely and Sweet Stamps really pop! Here layering and the flower colors are amazing and are such a fun use of the Jar of Flowers Stamps and Jar of Flowers Dies.  This card would make anyone smile and I'm so happy to share it today!

 
Speaking of amazing color choices, Erica (@erica_cacacraft), created this amazing card:

This card really grabs your attention!  I love the purple and Erica's coloring on the Wreath of Roses Stamps is...wow, I can't even think of a word to describe how amazing it is!  It would be beautiful just stamped and colored on a card front but by using the Wreath of Roses Dies and adding to a purple card base, it makes it pop even more.  Absolute perfection!

The final card today is super cute and comes to us from Linda, @linda_layton.

Linda's inking on this card is AMAZING and you'd think it would be awful to cover it up but peeking through the Cover Up Die: Diamond Chevron, the inking looks even more fabulous!  I love how she used the Hi Word Die and paired it with a sentiment from I'll Be Brief Stamps before putting the cute bear in briefs on the card front.  He's adorable popped up after being cut with the I'll Be Brief Dies.  It's too adorable!

We hope you enjoyed this small glimpse of the amazing creations you guys are sharing using Lil’ Inker Designs products.  I can’t wait to see what else I discover in the weeks to come.  As I mentioned above.  You can expect to see You Made It Mondays on the first Monday of each month, unless it's a new release day, then we'll bump it to the next Monday.

We want to make sure you know how much we appreciate you sharing your creations with us and others so, I will be awarding the 5 featured You Made It Monday participants each month with a $10 Lil' Inker Designs Gift Certificate! I'm so excited about this! You also get to proudly display our special blog badge showing that you were picked as a feature!
 

If you're featured here in a You Made It Monday Post then you are a WINNER!!!!

To claim your prize, email me at lilinkerdesigns@gmail.com with subject line You Made It Monday Winner and add the "Volume" number as listed in the title of our blog post. So these winners will write in the subject line:

You Made It Monday Vol. 39 Prize Winner

To be a part of our You Made It Monday feature be sure to use (hashtag) #lilinkerdesigns so we can find you on social media and the internet.  5 people will be featured each month and if you are featured you win a $10 store credit to Lil' Inker Designs - yahoooooo!!!!!

We loved your work this week and we're so happy to see it!  

See you soon and happy crafting!!!!

Like Lil' Inker Designs? Follow us on social media!

August Release: Spotlight on Modern Mandala

Good morning, Everyone!!!! How are you today? I'm stopping by today because I'm inspired and I wanted to share this inspiration with all of you.

I was looking through our Design Team projects today, in awe of course. Our team is so talented! Specifically I was very inspired by the projects made with our Modern Mandala Stamps and Die and I just thought I would stop by with a closer look at the team's projects using these new goodies. Why not! Right?

Here is another look at the Modern Mandala Stamps and coordinating Modern Mandala Die Set with additional and fancy label die that I love!

These metallic water colors over black card stock? I'm dead! Click on over to visit Amy Kolling's post and to read up on how she was inspired to create her project.

Gold heat embossing over navy stock and a spotlight on a few of the stamps in a bold bunch of color. WOW, Chrissy! This is sensational! Read more HERE on how Chrissy created her project to share with you.

One layer WONDERS!!! Wonderful idea to let these intricate and pretty images stand on their own and to make a lovely and giftable note card set! Great job, Heather! See more from Heather HERE.

Jen's embossing over this incredible ombré background has left me speechless! I'm in awe of this blending because I cannot make my colors this seamless! So so so excellent and I love the use of the label die in this piece. Jen's punched holes in each end to add a twine treatment. More brilliance! See more from Jen HERE.

Heat embossing over black stock and letting the label die be the punch of color. Simply excellent!!! WOW!!!!!!! See more from Jess HERE.

What a wonderful layout for the images created here by Karen. I love how she stamped on colored stock to add a punch of color to this design. It's perfection! See more from Karen HERE.

I love how Lisa used our Mandala stamps as a subtle background texture. Great idea! See more from Lisa HERE.

WOW! Great creativity here from Sarah using our Mandala to create a simple but elegant flower. Lovely! See more from Sarah HERE.

So many techniques were used here to make these stamps and dies come to life. Which technique inspires you?

These cards are jaw-dropping truly are deserving of the spotlight today!

Have a wonderful weekend! I hope you enjoyed my spotlight post today!

Like Lil' Inker Designs? Follow us on social media!

August Release Blog Hop Day 3

And just like that it's Day 3 of our August Release Blog Hop! How can that be?

If by chance you're just joining us today, I would love it if you'd go back and visit our Day 1 and Day 2 posts because typically in the Day1 and 2 posts I share a LOT more details about the products and how to use them. I figure that by day 3 you might think I'm a broken record! HA! Of course, I always try to include the most important tid bits of info about our products in the descriptions on our website. So, be sure to visit OUR STORE for additional details as well.

That being said, again Day 3 and I usually just share the images of what we've released and some new projects I have for you. Today, I am also going to include a closer look at our Deco Edge Border Dies and all the different things that die set can do by showing you Design Team examples and how they put this set to great use.

Here is a look at everything new to the store this week which you literally MUST get your hands on. They are FABULOUS!!!!!

CLICK HERE to check out the entire new release!

Today, I'm going to focus on the projects I made using our beautiful new Modern Mandala Stamps and Dies! Earlier in the week or perhaps even last week I shared this little video snippet as a sneak peek which I made using Boomerang.

For some reason these Mandala Stamps screamed foil technique to me and would you believe I didn't have a laminator or any foils?? GASP!!! So, over to Amazon I went and within 48 hours I had all the tools to foil all the things!! Hahahaha!!

Here is the card I made using that foiled piece of goodness from the video above...

I received a request to give instructions on how I was able to foil a stamped image and I have to say that before this project I had no idea what I was doing and I solicited the help of Jessica Frost-Ballas who helped me with the tools I needed and more! Thanks, Jess!!

Step 1 - Stamp your image onto any paper. I used my MISTI so that I could stamp my image twice making sure that every bit of the image was deep and dark with ink.

Step 2 - Photo copy your stamped image onto card stock using a laser printer. I made sure the quality of my image was increased ensuring the most amount of toner on my print out.

It's the toner of the printer that the foil needs to adhere.

Step 3 - Using a laminator or specialty foiling machine, layer your foil, color side up, over your printed piece and run through your machine according to the manufacturer's guidelines.

Step 4 - Remove from machine, peel off foil and marvel at the excellence of your foiled image and use for any project!

Here's a closer look at the glow of this foiled image.

To create my project, after foiling I stamped two more of the same image just in black to hang over the edges of the white card stock which I then layered over a pink base with a strip of deco paper. Then, using my Modern Mandala Die Set I cut a label from black stock and heat embossed with the happy birthday stamp in the Modern Mandala Stamp Set.

So, there are definitely a few extra steps to foiling images but honestly, it's so worth the extra effort. I already ordered green and red and gold foils so that for Christmas I can foil all the things!!! Hahahaha!!!!

Here is another project I made using Modern Mandalas and before you even look I must credit Jennifer McGuire for providing me with the inspiration for this design which is basically a CASE from THIS VIDEO. Thank you, Jennifer!!

I started first by making a sentiment background which I planned to foil but didn't get a chance to do. All of the thanks and gratitude stamps are from Lil' Inker Designs exclusively and I have to say it was super duper fun to pull out all these previously released sets and put the to great use. I love how the background turned out and because I used my MISTI was able to stamp these sentiment repeatedly making several of these panels for future cards.

Then, I got to stamping this gorgeous Modern Mandala which I then quickly colored with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. To finish off this card I die cut a circle from my Stitched Mats: Circles Die Set and a label from the Modern Mandalas Set which I heat embossed with this thanks sentiment and laid everything out as you see above.

Do you ever have a day when you want to create so badly but you just need something to CASE? That was me on the day I made this card and Jennifer's video really came in clutch! :) I love how this all turned out!

One last card for you today.

Here I used our Modern Mandalas Stamps and Dies again. I started with some Distress Oxide Inks and a blending tool to blend out these soft backgrounds. In hindsight, I should have saved my blended panels for another project because the stamps are so detailed it really covered a lot of the blending up and it looks like colored card stock which is totally fine. You live you learn!

I heat embossed and die cut these images and arranged them over a card panel cut with our new Cover Up Die: Hello Beautiful. I love the lacey look of all of these items and how this turned out. My sentiment panel was made with the label die from the Mandalas Die Set but I traced it and cut it out by hand so that I could make it long enough to go across my card. This came out so soft and pretty and I love that these mandalas can also look like little doilies!

As I promised, let's take a closer look at our Deco Edge Border Dies and all the things you can do with them!

This is exactly what I had in mind for these dies when I first envisioned them. Here you can see that Heather has die cut her bright pink stock and then layered a very light pink underneath also die cut with the Deco Edge Border Dies. Doesn't it look like the paper was torn? What's interesting about what Heather did here is how she repeating this treatment on the top and bottom creating a pretty focal panel. I really love this. Here's a closer look.

I really love what Lisa did here. She used her Deco Edge Border Dies to create a striping effect on her card front. In fact looking at this it almost appears as though this is the under hanging of a tree and the bottom is grass and if I didn't know better I'd think there was a tree trunk behind her circle panel. Can you see it? Love that these can be used to create interesting stripes and color blocked panels!

Here, Jessica has used her Deco Edge Border Dies as a ground or terrain element. It totally looks like a rocky background, don't you think? It's perfect with the Dinos!

Here Karen used the same technique but added additional visual interest with some sponging and layering of these panels. I think it's great that two different tones of paper can be used to indicated a background and a foreground!

Here Amy used her dies to create layers of field and grass which I love. This was achieved I believe by using some foam tape on the bottom most panel. Fantastic! Here's a closer look.

Fantastic job, Ladies!!!! 

Would you be interested in winning everything from this new release? Who doesn't like a prize?! Have you noticed we've really kicked it up a notch here with our new release hop prizes as of late? The entire release? Sign me up!!! HA!!

All you have to do to be eligible to win is leave comments for our designers along your way as you hop with us the next three days. Comments should be left by Tuesday, 8/8/2017 at 11:30 PM EST!

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

Here are all of the people participating in today's hop:

Laura Pryor/LID Store Blog << --- You are here

Amy Kolling

Chrissy Larson

Heather Hoffman

Jen Carter

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Karen Baker

Lisa Henke

Sarah Jay

Thank you so so much for hopping and shopping with us this week! It's been a wonderful release. 

Please be advised that we will be closed for shipping at the beginning of next week 8/7 - 8/9 and resuming on 8/10 SO if there's something you want and you don't want to wait a few extra days order now and I hope to get all orders out as I leave for a few days away on Monday. I'm heading off to Ogunquit, ME to spend time with my parents and my son. It's such a beautiful place!

Thank you again for supporting my small business. For those of you who don't know this already, while I have the amazing support of our Design Team to show you what our dies and stamps can do, Lil' Inker Designs is run out of two bedrooms in my home that have been dedicated as Lil' Inker Designs Headquarters. All the dies are packaged and stickered in house by myself and an occasional helper and all orders are fulfilled by me personally. I can often be found cooking dinner while answering customer emails or under the covers chatting with customers as well in between watching Netflix! It's just what I do and what I've been doing now for the last SEVEN YEARS. That's right! Lil' Inker Designs turns SEVEN this month! Holy moly!

So, that's a little bit about the operation here. It's small in comparison to others you may be familiar with but it's mine and I'm proud. I've honestly never worked so hard in my entire life, but I love every minute!

See you soon and thank you again for your support!

Like Lil' Inker Designs? Follow us on social media!