Jen's Ink Spot

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Berry Thankful

Hello!! Today is a good day!! It is finally raining and it has been raining all day!! We have been in a drought here in Kansas for such a long, long time that this rain is so welcome and so refreshing!

I've been working on a booth for our church's ministry fair tomorrow and I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and make a card, but I have been doing lots of craft projects this week! I will share those with you soon because I think that they turned out great!

I have a card that I made some time ago that I can't believe I have never shared with you! I found this paper and immediately fell in love with it! It is so hard to cut up paper that I love but I am getting a lot better about USING it and not letting it get so old and then out of date. What is the point of that?

I kept this card super clean and simple! On the sentiment panel I added some of the brown & white Cappuccino twine from The Twinery. I know you probably get tired of hearing me say this but I love what a nice accent the twine adds!

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend! Thanks for visiting!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop

Hello everyone!! Welcome to Operation Julie's Smile Blog Hop! If you are following the hop, you should have come from my friend Emily Leiphart's blog! And, if you get lost along the way you can always start at the beginning by visiting the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog where you will also find all of the information on the blog hop as well.

Did I mention that this hop contains PRIZES!? LOTS of them too!! There are over $2,500 worth of prizes that you are eligible to win! One of the ways you can be eligible to win is by leaving a comment on my post! Easy peasy!!

My team member Julie Ranae has had some major problems with her teeth recently that has caused severe pain and problems and she is in need of something to smile about. Hopefully this blog hop will cheer her up and help her get her smile back along the way!

So with that theme in mind, I thought what better way to cheer someone up than silly, goofy, smiling acorns?!

I am on two design teams with Julie: The Twinery and Lil' Inker Designs (LID). I incorporated items from both teams into this fun card. The acorn dies & their fun little smiley faces are from Lil' Inker Designs and of course that fun little frilly poof on the top of the party hat and the twine bow are from The Twinery's collection of wonderful, beautiful twine!

From this angle you can see the dimension on the acorns a little better. I just LOVE giving these acorns fun and non-traditional "hats" (LOL!!). I popped each of the acorn tops up and then popped up the party hat even more. I couldn't resist making the top acorn with a HUGE SMILE in honor of Julie and the joy she must be feeling today as she goes through this blog hop in her honor!

Thank you for visiting today and for helping us celebrate! Don't forget to comment on this post to be eligible to win some of the $2,500 worth of prizes available!!

The next stop on the hop is my creative Lil' Inker Designs teammate Alicia Thelin!

Supplies

Acorn Dies & Acorn Stamps: Lil' Inker Designs

Twine: Peapod & Maraschino twine from The Twinery

Other: Echo Park Patterned Paper Country Drive, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler, PTI Banner Builder Dies, PTI Kraft & Rustic White Cardstock, PTI Pure Poppy, True Black & Summer Sunrise Ink

Monday, September 26, 2011

Falling For You & Giveaway Winner...

Hello everyone!! Whew!! Wasn't last week a FUN week!! There were so many fun new products that Lil' Inker Designs Released and a Twinery Blog Hop! If you are wondering who won the Ultimate Twine Sampler Package from The Twinery, you will find that information at the bottom of this post!!

Today I want to share another project with the new Lil' Inker Acorn Set and share ANOTHER fun announcement!! Lil' Inker Designs has a new website!! Yippee!! If you would like to check it out, click here!! And, to celebrate this grand opening, Laura is offering 20% off of the Rainbow & Clouds sets! Just use coupon code "20OFFRC" at checkout! You can visit the Lil' Inker blog for all the details!

This little acorn is so cute!! Isn't that smiley face so adorable? The fun thing about this set is that there are several different faces to choose from! I love that!

Here's a closeup of the acorn's face. I colored her with my copics. I thought that it looked like she was sporting a beret too so I added a little twine bow tied with twine from The Twinery to play on that theme. She is just so cute!

To show that the acorn was falling, I used my sewing machine to stitch some loopy lines. I also used the Lil' Inker Designs cloud dies (which are ON SALE right now with coupon code "20OFFRC"!!) I love how the perforated lines on the clouds match the lines on the acorn die too!

If you haven't checked out Lil' Inker Designs before, please take time to stop by their new website!! It's great!! You'll also find a link to the blog and to the Flickr gallery so you can find ideas on ways to use your Lil' Inker sets!

Now for those of you who are curious as to who won the Twinery giveaway, your winner is:

Linda Harris!

Yea Linda!! I will send you an email with information on how to claim your prize! Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway!! I had a great time reading all of your comments!

For those of you wondering who won the gift certificates for Lil' Inker Designs, be sure to stop by the store blog today to see if you are a winner!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Lil' Inker Designs New Release: Acorns

Welcome to the Lil' Inker Designs New Release Blog Hop! Today is the last day of the hop and you should have come here from the talented Teresa's blog if you are following the hop!

Have you been enjoying the Lil' Inker Designs new release products!!? Well, wait until you see today's new release! I love it!!

Introducing Acorns!

You know that wonderful dotted line around the cloud dies that we have all come to love? It's back!! This time it appears on the acorn outline and on the tiny leaf die cut too!! Simply fabulous!!

AND...one of the GREAT things about this acorn die that sets it apart from other acorn dies, is that the top & bottom of the acorn are separate dies so it is SUPER, SUPER easy to mix & match patterns and colors!! I LOVE this feature so much!!

And this release also includes a super fun and adorable stamp set!! Fun fonts, fun sayings and really FUN faces for the acorns!

I am really excited to share my project with you today!!

I made a baby gift set using the acorns cut out of fabric. It looks so adorable and was fairly easy to do!

Let's start with the card.

I cut two acorns out of fabric with my die cut machine. In order to make the fabric stiff enough to die cut, I used Pellon Craft Fuse Iron-On Backing which adds stability and strength (I got that right off the package, lol!!) to your fabric. It was simple, simple to do. I picked up a 1/4 of a yard in the fabric section of Hobby Lobby. Then, I cut a small square of fabric and backing. Then, you just iron them together. That's it! Very simple! It makes the fabric stiff enough to die cut (although I went over the die in my machine 3 times to make sure it cut through all of the material).

I die cut a front and a back of the acorn. If you sew two acorns together so that the fabric shows on the back and front of the acorn, you will have to die cut the front of the material for one acorn and then turn the fabric over so that the back side is facing up in your machine and cut the 2nd acorn so that when you put both pieces together they line up.

After I had the pieces cut, I sewed them about 3/4 of the way together, left the needle in the fabric (but released the foot so I had some give) and took some quilt batting and carefully poked it into the acorns. Once it was completely in and "puffed" up, I continued to sew the acorns closed. (Please ignore the fuzzy edge on my card...not sure how I missed that!!)

For the bag I wanted to create a simple design but yet still allow the acorns to be the star of the show.

I created these much the same way that I created the acorns on the card, except I didn't "puff" them up with the quilt batting. I strung them around the handle with The Twinery's twine and before I sewed them together, I taped the twine on with scor-tape and then sewed so that the twine was inside the layers of acorns.

Here is what the acorns look like flipped over. The nice thing about this is that these can be reused as a decoration or placed on another package!

I adore this onesie! I wanted these acorns to stay in place while I was sewing them on the onesie, so I die cut some Pellon Wonder-Under which is a transfer web material (it is an adhesive that bonds the fabric diecut to the onesie). It almost feels like tissue paper and can be purchased in packages or by the yard at stores that sell fabric. After I die cut this thin paper out, I ironed it onto the back of the acorns, then peeled the paper off the back of the wonder-under and ironed it directly on to the onesie. This kept the diecuts exactly where I wanted them while I sewed them onto the onesie.

Here's a closeup. I'm not a real great sewer, but practice makes perfect right, LOL!!

Here's one more look at the gift set.

There are lots of fabulous projects for you to see on this amazing blog hop!! Your next stop is to Amy's blog who I am sure has something fabulous up her sleeve!

Don't forget to leave a comment on my blog and on the other designer's blogs along the way for your chance to win one of three $10 gift certificates to the Lil' Inker Designs store!! I'd LOVE to know if you have ordered or are going to order from Lil' Inker Designs this week!!

Here is the complete blog list order for your hopping pleasure!!

Jen ~ You are Here!

Amy