Friday, February 28, 2014

Facebook Friday

Hello, hello, hello!  What a wonderful word, hello.  And today is especially sweet as it is Friday!  Anyone else looking forward to the weekend?  Let's start the weekend and the ending of February (a favorite month) right by showing off some of the delightful projects shared with us on Facebook in February.  We love when you share what you make with us!!

Melissa Thiede shared this pretty in pink and gold card for her husband for Valentine's day featuring The Big, the Bold, and the Happy stamp set.  Surely her husband loved it as much as we did!

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Heather Hoffman of Houses Built of Cards has shared many lovely cards (she sure is rocking The Big, The Bold and The Happy stamp set!) and her latest is this simple, but striking one using The Big, The Bold and The Happy stamp set (love how she stamps it several times for a shadow effect).

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Gayatri Murali created this stunning card using The Big, the Bold and the Happy and Scenery: Big Bang Confetti stamp sets.  The colors and graphic boldness are sensational.  Love!

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Melissa, Heather and Gayatri, thank you so very much for sharing your w&w creations with us and for all of those who did so in January.  We can't thank you enough for not only purchasing our stamps, but also using them to create art.  Seeing the beauty you create using w&w products makes our hearts go pitter patter with joy and that is not an exaggeration!

Before we head out, just wanted to mention a few things: 
  • We are ending our free with purchase of the coordinating cut files with stamp set promotion tomorrow, March 1st.
  • As February closes today, we will be picking the winners of our join in to win!, #wwcraftcompanion and blog blinkie giveaways for February.  We are thrilled with the responses we've gotten!      
  • Oh and March is when we have our second release!  Yay!! Check back March 10 for coming attractions and our big giveaway!  

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Winnie Wednesday | updates (with adorable pictures)

Hello there friends!

We have been loving seeing all of your gorgeous projects using w&w designs when you link using the link-up tool on our join in to win! page.  Make sure you don't miss out all that amazing inspiration.

Thanks to Marlene for mentioning the our blinkie was not directing to the right location!  It has been updated and you can find in on our blog blinkie page.

Lastly, Winnie asked for you to share pictures of your crafting companions (#wwcraftcompanion) on Instagram and here are the results so far.  This is an ongoing thing so it is never too late to participate.

Winnie couldn't contain her excitement over the #wwcraftcompanion pictures so far so here they are.

beakie4 shared a picture of her adorable and talented cat, Mochi.  Wow, look at those skills!

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sophienme shared this precious friend.  How could this lovely not inspire?

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lcoats01 shared her sweeties.  Looks like they are crafted out!

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And Julie shared a photo of her and her constant companion, the one and only Walter.

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Adorable, right?!

Big thanks to beakie4, sophienme, lcoats01, Julie and Walter for posting your #wwcraftcompanion on Instagram! 

Winnie wants to see your #wwcraftcompanion too so post on!

Monday, February 24, 2014

join in to win! | loving the linky links

We are loving all of the projects being linked up on our join in to win! page.  So far we have entries from:

Shirley-bee

Shirley-bee certainly knows how to use color!  These beauties using The Big, the Bold, and the Happy stamp set are sure to cheer up any person who receives them.

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Scrapthat

Using The Big, the Bold, and the Happy stamp set, Scrapthat, created these pretty cards.  We love how she used so many variations in sentiments from that one set to create cards for all sorts of occasions!

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Anita in France

Anita in France used The Big, the Bold and the Happy stamp set on the her first sweet card.  See how she gently bent the stamp to have it follow the curve of her grass?  Love that.  Her second card uses the "sci fi" stars from the Scenery: Big Bang Confetti stamp set.  Such fun cards!

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Thank you ladies for using our stamps to create your wonderful cards and linking up on join in to win! page.  We want to see your projects too!  Make sure to link up.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Winnie Wednesday | #wwcraftcompanion

Winnie told us she wanted to see who your favorite crafting companions are.  Walter also gave it a green light.  Obviously we had to listen.

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On Instagram (use #wwcraftcompanion) start sharing pictures of your daughter, sister, mother, significant other, BBF, next door neighbor, cat, turtle, hamster, snake, dog, Mr. Darcy, Harry and Sally, Conan O'Brien, Lady Gaga, One Direction, The Beatles or anyone else that keeps you company while you craft.  And because Winnie is so appreciative, we will randomly select a monthly winner.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Media Monday | Join In to Win

Not sure if Media Monday will be a thing, but I (Shay) sure liked the alliteration. :-) We thought we would let you know of 3 new ways for you to win by joining in (you know you wanna!).
  1. add our blog blinkie to your blog. Find out more about it HERE
  2. comment and/or share your w&w creations. Each month we will randomly choose from the comments on the w&w blog for a stamp set of the winner's choice. That's pretty sweet! For more details go HERE
  3. we will have pop up giveaways on other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest (links found on the sidebar to the right) so make sure you follow us and join in! 
We love hearing what you have to say and to see what you are creating, so join in! And we love interacting with you guys, because you are awesome.:-)

Friday, February 14, 2014

February Special Guest Star: Wida Miller

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Happy Valentine's Day to you, friend!  We think you {yes, you!} are amazing.  We hope your day is brimming with love and fun.

Hopefully, you saw the gorgeous layouts by Lilith Eeckels.  Now we have the honor of showing you what our second special guest star has made.

Wida Miller has a gift for making pretty projects that are clean and yet have just the right amount of texture, dimension and flair.  This is by no means an easy feat.  And her use of patterns and simple perfect layers are such a delight.  And you just know she is having fun.  Just read her bio a little further down and you get a sense of her humor.  She's funny, real and oh so talented!  

>>>MEET WIDA<<<

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Hi I'm Wida Miller, I have 4 kids and I am too tired to write any more about myself!! HA!

>>>WIDA'S PROJECT<<<

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>>>WANT MORE?<<<

Just stunning!  And without a doubt you will want to learn more.  CLICK HERE to go to Wida's blog post.  Make sure to leave some love here and on Wida's blog.

Again, happy Valentine's day and may you life be blessed with love given and love received.  Make sure you show yourself some love and do something that make you happy!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

February Special Guest Star: Lilith Eeckels

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For this week for Valentine's we have not 1, but 2 special guest stars as our way of expressing how much we love you all.

First, is the gloriously talented and sweetly disposed Lilith Eeckels.  We are great admirers of her layering, use of pattern, dimension and the beautiful way she showcases her darling sons.  Her love and caring is apparent in every layout she creates.  We think you will be blown away by what she has created, but see it for yourselves!

>>>MEET LILITH<<<

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Hi. I'm Lilith. I was born in Leuven, Belgium on 26th January 1979. As a child I grew up in South Africa and my parents moved back to Europe when I was a teenager and settled in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. I now live in the South of Belgium in the Ardennes. I am a mother to four marvellous but mischievous boys (Damien, Noé (10), Robin (7) and Elouan (4)) and have been married to the most wonderful man for 14 years. I'm a  foreign language teacher. I teach Dutch and English to French speaking students and I LOVE it. Besides my passion for languages and teaching, there is also music, photography and on the top of my list SCRAPBOOKING. I started just after getting married as I wanted to make a wedding album. I really got hooked when my two eldest boys were born in 2003 and I haven't stopped since. It helps me unwind from my hectic days being a mum and teaching teenagers. Scrapbooking has made me realise that I can be creative and I love documenting my family's life. It has made me become more confident and willing to have a go.

>>>LILITH'S PROJECTS<<<

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>>>WANT MORE?<<<

Swoon-worthy, right?!?  CLICK HERE to go see all the details about and more pictures of Lilith's layouts.  Make sure to leave her some love her and on her blog!

Now, we aren't done with you this week.  Be sure to stop on by again Friday and be delighted by our next Special Guest Star this month!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Birthday and Valentine Cards



Hello everyone!

I can't believe it is already Valentine's week!  Time really does fly, doesn't it?  I am still in awe from all of the fabulous projects shared last week during the Share the Love week with Lawn Fawn.  Great inspiration from everyone!

I have some special projects to share with you today that are created by some people who I dearly love.  The first is my mom, Debbie Hilton.  Our love of crafting goes WAY BACK!  I can't remember a time when we weren't coloring, cutting, gluing or glittering - it makes us happy happy happy!!!  She is also a fan of stamping, and truth be told, she stamps much more often than I get the chance to.  I remember we were ooohing and aaahing over this card created by Nichol Magouirk (post) during our release week.

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Then, a short week later, my husband receives this birthday card in the mail from my parents.  I love this card!  A quick change of colors makes it appeal to men and I love the added banner strip. Confetti makes me happy and Davis really liked it.

Debbie

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 I asked her about coloring in the confetti because I thought it might be a long process. She said that it really didn't take long at all.  The little single solid circles match the size of the open circles, so then you just have to pick your colors and start filling them in.  I think it also looks fun with they are offset some - it just adds to the look of falling confetti.  I'm really wanting to try this technique - too fun. Thanks MOM!!!

(ETA: The stamps sets used were Scenery: Big Bang Confetti and The Big, the Bold and the Happy. )

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The next project is created by someone you may least expect....it is my husband, Davis!  Davis loves to come check on what I'm up to in my studio/office that is dubbed "the laboratory". One day recently he had the day off and he and Walter started poking around the stamps and ink.  It should also be said that Davis is an idea man and this is NOT his first time using stamps and inks.  He even wrote some notes about creating this card.  

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Before you read this I want to let you know that by no means should you expect your significant other to pick up your stamps and start making cards for you.  What can I say, I’m married to one heck of a creative woman and some of it has rubbed off.  With that said, I hope you enjoy the story behind my latest card.

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(side note - this is a puppy picture of Walter before he ever had a hair cut - total ewok)



This is the Valentine’s Day card I created for my wife, Julie.  Some of you may also know her as the co-founder of Winnie & Walter and some of you may also notice when looking at the card I used several of the Winnie & Walter stamps.  I’m never really sure of what my cards are going to look like when I work on them, they just seem to happen.  This time I remembered there was a stamp in one of the sets that had a line from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  The journal heart in The Write Stuff: Love Story was perfect for putting a message on the picture of Walter and myself.  

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I also used a variety of the words from The Write Stuff: Love Story, You've Got Love Mail, and The Big, the Bold, and the Happy for the inside sentiment, plus adding my own pun. Big Bold Happy is especially helpful - you can use it for so many different occasions.  



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On the back of the card I used the postage style stamp with the date on it.  Overall, I used a total of 8 Winnie & Walter stamps to create the card.

Davis

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Cute, right? So I did get this a little early, but I have to say that I loved this card.  It is so personal and funny.  The pictures cracked me up and he used the stamps in some creative ways.  Good job, honey!  LOVE YOU TOO!!!

I hope you enjoyed these cards and that they inspire you to create a card for a friend or loved one.  

Happy Stamping!

Julie

Friday, February 7, 2014

Share the Love Week Featuring Lawn Fawn | Day 5

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Today is the end of our first Share the Love Week...ah sadly all good things must come to an end. And it has been sweet working with Lawn Fawn's stupendous products along with w&w's.  Before we say farewell to this Share the Love Week featuring Lawn Fawn we have a few more projects to share with you.

Julie

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Boy, oh boy!  I really had fun making this card.  I tried a few different things with this card and I am pretty happy with the results.  So, see if you can follow my thinking on this....my eyes fell upon the soda shop fountain drink from Lawn Fawn's Here's the Scoop set, and the wheels start turning in my head - soda shop, shared with a boyfriend (two straws) and a girl doodling hearts in her notebook.  Getting the picture?  I started with a red card base and cut a piece of the Crate Paper's Classic Love and adhered it off center / diagonal.  I love the chalkboard look here and promotes the idea of the young girl daydreaming during class.  The Write Stuff: Love Story notebook heart works perfect here.  I stamped it in pale blue and highlighted the margin lines with red pencil to mimic notebook paper.  Then I added the "you are so sweet" sentiment and open heart (also from Here's the Scoop) stamped in red for the doodling. I stamped the fountain drink twice.  Once on matte silver paper and once on white paper, where I colored in the straw stripes and the cherry, and then fussy cut from the whipped cream - up and around and then added it to the silver cup.  The silver paper isn't catching the light here, but it has just enough sheen to give you the right idea.  I felt like the left side was missing something and added some red and white baker's twine and sprinkled a few silver and black sequins (do they look like records from a juke box? - lol) plus one clear gemstone.  So Sweet, indeed!

Shay

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Another struggle, but I came out alive with a few scrapes and bruises.  Pretty in pink is this little number.  I started out with a rather large piece of watercolor paper that I white embossed using the rectangle of solid circle confetti from Scenery: Big Bang Confetti.  Then I watercolored pink all over it.  I toned down the watercolor by sewing on a piece of vellum.  On the vellum I stamped some of the stars also from Scenery: Big Bang Confetti in pink.  I cut out the letters using Lawn Fawn's Quinn's ABCs Lawn Cuts (okay, I am like a broken record already but this is another really great die cut set to have on hand...what can I say Lawn Fawn designs great product!) out of white cardstock and attached it to the vellum panel with dimensional adhesive.  The vellum panel was added to a white panel and then to a card base that had been embossed with Lifestyle Crafts' Linear embossing folder.  Last I added a flower I had stamped from Lawn Fawn's Summertime Charm stamp set over the "o" and accented the flower with a white gem from Studio Calico.

Suzanne

Are you ready for a card of such graphic magnitude and impact you will be awed?  Then check out Suzanne's card.

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CLICK HERE to go to Suzanne's blog and get all the detail!  I can't wait to read what Suzanne wrote.

Thank you goes out to the ever wonderful Lawn Fawn for designing such incredible products, superb Talent who inspired all week long and you, our gracious audience, for participating in our new blog feature.  What did you think?  Were you inspired to see how w&w stamps can be used with all the cool stuff you already own?  Who would you like to see featured in future Share the Love Weeks?

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Share the Love Week Featuring Lawn Fawn | Day 4

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We still have today and tomorrow to Share the Love in which we use w&w products with Lawn Fawn's products and play.  It's a sweet gig.

Julie

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Since I have been making cards more lately, I'm coming across supplies in my stash that I had nearly forgotten that I had.  This time it was the Gamsol.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Gamsol, it is odorless mineral spirits that I use with a blending stump to soften / smooth the look of my colored pencils.  From the moment I knew I was making a birthday card, I envisioned floating balloons and confetti behind a birthday message - and so that is what I created.  I chose the balloon from Lawn Fawn's Admit One set and I love how they look. I made this card once before and ruined the background, but when I remade the card, I forgot to use the very cute balloon string that is included in this set, so I just drew the strings myself.  The Scenery: Big Bang Confetti came in very handy to create the fun backdrop to the balloons.  The circles are stamped with versamark and then embossed silver, as well as the happy from The Big, The Bold, and the Happy.  Then I added the star singles from the Confetti set in a bright pink.  So cute!!! To finish the sentiment, I used the "birthday" from Lawn Fawn's Year Two and added "to you" in hot pink, also from Big, Bold, Happy.  This was so fun and easy to make, gender neutral, and works with just about any color combo.

Shay

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This is the card I mentioned yesterday that wasn't working.  I worked on it and added quite a lot and here it is.  It all began with the library card from Check This Out by Lawn Fawn.  I gold embossed the big love and over stamped with aqua from The Big, the Bold, and the Happy stamp set and filled in more "love", "I" and "you" from the same set.  I think this card has more loves than any other card I have ever made.   This is for someone who really is stressing how much they love someone.  The "check this out" is also from Check This Out.  I added a reinforcement cut from cardstock covered with gold washi using Lawn Fawn's Tag You're It Lawn Cuts (another truly useful and versatile die set).  All of the die cuts are from October Afternoon and they were so much fun to customize with stamping.  The red "love" "4ever" and the gold embossed "love you" are all from The Write Stuff: Love Story.  I find this set great for adding accents to a card.  The little heart is from You've Got Love Mail.  Of course I had to add some more gold with those little sweet sequins (maybe some of you are familiar with them?).  Thankfully the card ended up better than where it ended last night!  Sometimes a night's rest gives you new perspective.

Joni

Today Joni is joining us with a stupendously sweet and adorable card (no surprise there!).  Ah, love w&w + Lawn Fawn style.

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CLICK HERE to go to Joni's blog to get all the details.  You really should go!

Don't miss our last day of the Share the Love Week featuring the ever darling Lawn Fawn tomorrow with the one and only Suzanne tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Share the Love Week Featuring Lawn Fawn | Day 3

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Winnie and Walter's love fest for Lawn Fawn continues.  If you are just tuning in we are spending a week making projects using w&w products with Lawn Fawn's.  What a fun task!

>>>THE GOOD STUFF<<<

Heather

Today Heather is playing along and she sure did an impressive job!  Her use of color and abilities with embossing are truly astounding.

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CLICK HERE to go to Heather's blog for more details.  And why would you not want to go?

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I must admit that the card I was originally making was not working so I took inspiration from Heather's embossing and dark card base accented with a dramatic border to create a trio of very simple cards.

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The Big, the Bold, and the Happy stamp set comes out again (it is currently out of stock, but don't worry it will be back!).  I embossed each of the large words in gold on white cardstock die cut using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Journaling Card Lawn Cuts.  That is one amazing die set and a must have!  For the first card I used Lawn Fawn's Love 'n Breakfast and Belinda's Borders (this would be a sweet wedding or anniversary card).  On the second I used Lawn Fawn's A Birdie Told Me and Belinda's Borders.  On the last card I used Lawn Fawn's Blue Skies and Interlocking Backdrops.  The stamped images are colored in with Copics and the borders with colored pencils.  I finished the card with various tiny and oh-so-cute clothespins.

Come back tomorrow because there are 2 count them 2 more days of our Share the Love Week featuring the incomparable Lawn Fawn!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Share the Love Week Featuring Lawn Fawn | Day 2

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Welcome to our second day of w&w + Lawn Fawn creations.  Winnie and Walter are crafters from the top of their furry heads to the tip of their tails which means we love inking up other stamps to play along with w&w stamps.  Who says you can have too many stamps?  And boy do Winnie and Walter love Lawn Fawn.  Who else has so much playfulness, joy and sunshine in everything they do?  We think stamping with Lawn Fawn stamps would put a spring in anyone's step.

We hope we lift your spirits today with our w&w and Lawn Fawn projects!

>>>THE GOOD STUFF<<<

Julie

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Today I have a sweet little valentine for you. We have a special place in our heart for the little snail, and I knew he would be cute with the Bee Mine set from Lawn Fawn. I created a little garden with the flowers, stamping them with chalk ink colors and coloring them in with Prismacolor pencils, and accenting them with a white gel pen. I masked off the snail from You've Got Love Mail so that I could use green chalk ink for the snail and then stamped him in brown on pink paper for the shell.  I added fruit punch stickles :) to the revealed pink heart and accents of more white gel pen. I stamped the cute little bee with his heart shaped trail and added blue stickles to the trail and his wings too.  I think the two sentiments also work very well together.  Mixing fonts makes me happy.  I did use a pen to draw the fluttering of the wings and added a few pearls to finish off the card.

Shay

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I know Lawn Fawn is adorable (and Julie and soon Vanessa will be giving you the cute), but for some reason I went down a different route for this card.  An unorthodox color scheme may even mean this could be given to a guy...real guys will accept a little pink as they have nothing to prove.  I began with a white woodgrain card base (never can have enough woodgrain!).  The background is made of flicks of Color Shine by Heidi Swapp, sci-fi stars and open circles from the Scenery: Big Bang Confetti stamp set with an open heart added from Lawn Fawn's A Birdie Told Me. I filled in the hearts with white Inkssentials enamel accents and the small black circles with black Inkssentials enamel accents from Ranger to add glossy texture.  The sentiment strip is a piece of vellum black embossed with the "love note" from The Write Stuff: Love Story.  Note to self: buy embossing buddy or the like for a much cleaner end result when embossing on vellum.  I attached the vellum strip to a larger strip of yellow patterned paper using my beloved Tiny Attacher.  All the patterned paper is from Allison Kreft's Sweet Notes 6x6 paper pad for Webster's Pages.  The two larger hearts were die cut with Lawn Fawn's Hearts Lawn Cuts (dies).  Last touch was the xoxo wood chip by Freckled Fawn (so darling).

Vanessa

Vanessa has made a trio of sweetly sensational cards.  We are not sure which one is our favorite as we love them all.  

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Adorable, right?  Make sure to CLICK HERE to visit Vanessa's blog to get the details on these perfectly precious cards!

See you tomorrow for Day 3 of Share the Love Week featuring Lawn Fawn!