Darling Diamonds...Exciting News!!

Hello!! Today is such an exciting day for me!  It is Lil' Inker Designs release day 1 and I have a special fondness for this particular release!  Way back in July, I approached Laura about an idea I had for a set of dies and stamps that I felt fit LID to a "t".  After many, many hours of research and emails back and forth today is the day that that dream idea becomes a reality!  If you are following along in the blog hop, you should have come from Isha's blog.  If you'd like to start at the beginning, please visit Laura's blog.

One more thing before we get to the release, I want to send a big welcome to our new design team member Suzanne Dahlberg!! She is amazingly talented and I am so excited to have her on the Lil' Inker Design Team!

Here's part of what I sent to Laura on the process of narrowing down what to include in the set and why.  It was a lot of fun to explore all of the ideas associated with this set!

I have made quite a few samples with this set and I'll be showing you a few each day through Wednesday (and another new set being released by LID tomorrow too!)  

So...let's get on with the samples, shall we!

This card really does make me smile.  It includes my favorite color combos and I had SO MUCH FUN putting this together!  The new Darling Diamonds stamp set includes eight different patterns of diamonds to choose from and I used four different patterns for this card: solid, wood grain, polka dot & stripes.  I stamped each of those patterns in a different color...can you even begin to imagine all of the possibilities that you have with those options?  Then, I used the little pointed oval stamp to stamp tea dye ink inside of each of the little ovals made by the cover plate die. I know it seems like a lot of stamping, but it went really quickly!  I love the large sentiments included with this set too!  (The "It's Your Birthday" sentiment comes from the Lil' Inker Designs Acorn set.)  I added colorful colors of matching twine from The Twinery to the sentiment panel.

If you think that this set can only be used for feminine cards, think again!  For this masculine themed card, I used a different pattern for stamping my colors (it plays tricks on your eyes if you look at it for long!).  I chose to stamp the matching colors on the circles above & below the actual circles and it created a totally different effect (see examples below).  Then, I stamped the diamonds in the middle of those circles with tea dye ink and left the original diamonds open.  The sentiment is from the previously released set, Sentiment Flags Additions set.

The first picture above, shows the complete circles highlighted in aqua, brown & ocean.  The second example shows how I stamped the circles on the masculine card above.  I used different parts of the circles to create a "fuller" look.  (This is really hard to explain, so I hope it makes at least some sense!)

I think it's about time to see the products in full, don't you?

I haven't shown you this border die in action yet but it'll be coming yet this week! ;)

Also, if you place a $75 order, you'll receive a FREE bonus sentiment set with your order!  Just add it to your cart and use the code: AWESOMESAUCE.  This will remove $5 from your order giving you the set for free.  Or, if you'd like to purchase it, it can be yours for $5!

 

Would you like to win a gift certificate to the Lil' Inker Designs store?  There are TWO $10 gift certificates up for grabs!  Two comments will be chosen from the comments left on the blogs along the hop this week to win!  And, I am particularly interested in hearing about what you think of this new set!! I hope you LOVE it!! I have been SO excited to share it with you!

To continue on in the blog hop, visit Mary's blog.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see you back tomorrow!