w&w 3rd Birthday Bash | Special Guest Star Yana Smakula

Today's special guest star, Yana, is so gifted, sweet and inspiring!  Her projects are as lovely as she is...full of the same bright vivaciousness as she is.  We've been privileged to have Yana guest on the w&w blog before...CLICK HERE to see her beautiful cards.

Please welcome Yana once again to the w&w blog! Hello Winnie & Walter fans! This is Yana Smakula and I’m super excited to share a few absolutely simple one layer stamped speech bubble cards.

I used Sketchy Thoughts stamp set and only a handful of ink colors to create these cards. I went with pink, peach and apricot colors to stamp the backgrounds.

I love that the speech bubbles included in the Sketchy Thoughts set aren't entirely solid images, there's a bit of detail to them - they look like they are sketches and thus the inside of the bubble isn't completely filled in, they look very cool.

I used black ink to stamp main sentiments for these cards and black really made them pop against the vibrant background. I also added additional subliminal messages from the Sentimental: Love stamp set using light gray ink and I stamped those overlapping the bubbles.

Lastly, I added my favorite clear droplets in small and medium size to spice this design up. You can skip adding those if you prefer to have an absolutely flat card.

Sentimental: Love

Sketchy Thoughts

InLinkz.com

February Belated 2nd Birthday Bash Release | Premiere Day No. 4

To enter our Belated 2nd Birthday Bash GIGANTIC Giveaway (to win all w&w stamps released in 2016) CLICK HERE
To enter our February Belated 2nd Birthday Bash Release's The Big Giveaway CLICK HERE.

To enter to win In Bloom: Eva's Favorite Flowers + In a Word: Kisses Cutaway + Scenery: Pattern of the Rings Creative Screenings...continue reading!  CLICK HERE

To enter to win Scenery: Into the Woods  + Wishing You with Evelin T Designs (special free with purchase promotion stamp set) + True Multifaceted Border Cutaways  CLICK HERE (goes live at 7:00 a.m. CST on February 24, 2016) 

To enter to win Kindness with Evelin T Designs + True Multifaceted Circle Cutaways + True Multifaceted Heart Cutaways  CLICK HERE  (goes live at 7:00 a.m. CST on February 25, 2016)

To enter to win LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs + Flawless Diamond Cutaways + Flawless Heart Cutaways + Winnie's Sparkly Shaker Selection + Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection CLICK HERE (goes live at 7:00 a.m. CST on February 26, 2016)

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Shay here to welcome you to our final Premiere day of our February Belated 2nd Birthday Bash Release!  Make sure you comment on all the posts to enter all the giveaways because we have quite a few.  They are all open until tonight at 11:59 p.m. CST.

I know LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs will steal you heart as it has mine!  Laura Sterckx came to us with an idea of super cute, plump and quirky birds and we knew Evelin of Evelin T Designs was the perfect person to take the inspiration and bring it to life.  We wanted birds that could also celebrate love, babies, little ones, family and more and this set will bring happiness on any occasion!

Like the True Multifaceted Cutaways we have 2 additions of gems from My Precious in larger (True Diamond Cutaways are pretty substantial) stand-along die form with the same options of using the pattern, solid or both together. I think you are going to really love Flawless Diamond Cutaways and Flawless Heart Cutaways as they really impart quite a touch of brilliance to any project!  These are also excellent for creating shaker cards!

Speaking of shaker cards, we have the perfect product to fill your shaker up!  We worked with Lucy Abrams of Little Things from Lucy's Cards (who is also a gifted crafter and a special guest star for our release) to bring you two special mixes to celebrate our Belated 2nd Birthday Bash!  We took our logo colors and broke them.  You will find pinks, oranges and yellows in the Winnie's Sparkly Shaker Selection and the greens and blues in Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection.  Of course you can mix them together to get Winnie & Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection. ;-)

LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs

Available for purchase the evening of February 26, 2016
6x8 stamp set
Retails for $22.00
Includes Thirty-three (33) stamps--nine (9) sentiments + twenty-four (24) images

 

Flawless Diamond Cutaways
Available for purchase the evening of February 26, 2016
Wafer Thin Steel Dies
Retails for $16.00
Includes two (2) dies

Flawless Heart Cutaways
Available for purchase the evening of February 26, 2016
Wafer Thin Steel Dies
Retails for $14.00
Includes two (2) dies

Winnie's Sparkly Shaker Selection

Available for purchase the evening of February 26, 2016
Little Things from Lucy's Cards Shaker Mix
Retails for $4.50

Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection

Available for purchase the evening of February 26, 2016
Little Things from Lucy's Cards Shaker Mix
Retails for $4.50

>>>IF SHAY CAN DO IT ANYONE CAN!<<<

Although I have been crafting and stamping for ages I am no expert.  That said you never ever need to be an expert to have fun and make great projects.  Let me show you!

Before I get to the cards I made, I wanted to show you a comparison between Flawless Heart Cutaways and True Multifaceted Cutaways so you can see the differences between them.  I think they are both awesome.

As you can see the basic shape and size of the hearts differ and the details are certainly different as well.  Did you also see that there is a heart shape within the Flawless Heart Cutaways?  To see it used look at Mayuri's card below.

Card No. 1

I played with the solid shorter solid border from True Multifaceted Border Cutaways by cutting out a few using different pink cardstocks.  I used one of the borders as a spacer as I added the stripes to my card adding 2 of the light pink and this is where I added the sentiment from Kindness with Evelin T Designs in picked raspberry.  I then stamped the birdie from LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs in picked raspberry and added a dot of Stickles in crystal on the eye.  I love that the birds are just as adorable without coloring them in too.  I can see them being embossed as a background or as a focal point to a card.

Card No. 2

I created quite a few backgrounds playing with Scenery: Into the Woods and one of them was this simple woodgrain one stamped in evergreen bough Tim Holtz Distress Ink.  I cut out the solid heart from Flawless Heart Cutaways from the woodgrain panel.  I wanted to make a shaker card that actually shakes well (oh the horrors I have had with some of my shakers in the past where everything gets stuck and doesn't shake) so I finally pulled out my Fuse and put it to good use. Lydia had made a shaker tag earlier with the Fuse (she also made a shaker card using the same idea without a Fuse) and I knew it could be the answer I was looking for.

I used a plastic stamp pocket from Simon Says Stamp to create a packet that I filled with the awesome Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection...seriously Lucy did an incredible job on it!  I filled up the packet and used the Fuse to seal it up (as it seals it also cuts the pocket out...awesome).  I adhered the sequin packet behind the woodgrain panel and added thick dimensional foam adhesive behind it (you could also double up on a thinner dimensional foam adhesive).  If you are adding ribbon or seam binding as I did make sure to tie it around your card front prior to adding the dimensional foam adhesive...I thought of it after and had to carefully perform some card surgery. No fatalities thankfully!  lol

At the end I added the detailed heart from Flawless Heart Cutaways over the sequin packet.  I had cut the heart from light blue cardstock and then pounced broken china Tim Holtz Distress Ink over it.

I didn't add a sentiment to this card.  Truthfully when I am crafting I sometimes leave off sentiments so I can use the card for whatever I want in the future...I can simply stamp inside or write a message (gasp) without stamping any sentiment whatsoever.

Card No. 3

I started this card with another panel I made using Scenery: Into the Woods (I sorta am obsessed with this stamp set).  I used the MISTI to stamp so I could easily add different layers of Distress Ink colors over the trees...I love how it turned out!

On a solid heart from True Multifaceted Heart Cutaways I had used as a mask on a card I made for yesterday I stamped the love birds (the birds that face each other) in black tuxedo Memento ink as well as the little sentiment from LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs.  I stamped the birds again on a piece of white cardstock that I then watercolored in with Tim Holtz Distress Ink and fussy cut out (not worrying about cutting out their feet) and adhered over the counterpoints stamped directly upon the heart.  I colored in the feet and added some sparkle with ZIG Wink of Stella.  I added the heart to the tree panel with dimensional foam adhesive.  Aww, aren't those birdies so sweet?

I can't believe we've already reached the last day of the premieres.  I have been loving reading all your comments and am as impressed with the what our February Leading Lady, special guest stars and the Talent have made and today is no exception!

>>>THE GOOD STUFF<<<

Let's get to the fun part and see what Evelin, Lucy, Yana, Emily (our February Leading Lady), and The Talent (our supernova creative team) made with the products. And make sure you visit Lucy's, Yana's, Emily's and each of The Talent's blogs for more knock-it-out-of-the-park projects and details.  Don't forget to share some love with them too!

Evelin T of Evelin T Designs

   

Evelin on Instagram: @evelintdesigns

Evelin on Facebook: http://facebook.com/evelintdesigns

Special Guest Star, Lucy Abrams

 

CLICK HERE to see more from Lucy.

Special Guest Star, Yana Smakula

 

CLICK HERE to see more from Yana and her video HERE. 

February Leading Lady, Emily Leiphart

  

CLICK HERE to see more from Emily.

The Talent

CLICK HERE to see more from Gayatri.

CLICK HERE to see more from Heather H.

CLICK HERE to see more from Heather P.  

 

 CLICK HERE to see more from Kelly.

 

CLICK HERE to see more from Laura.

CLICK HERE to see more from Lea.

 

CLICK HERE to see more from Lydia.

 

CLICK HERE to see more from Mayuri.

CLICK HERE to see more from Vanessa.

CLICK HERE to see more from Kate.

>>>THE GIVEAWAY<<<

Comment here on this post for a chance to win LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs + Flawless Diamond Cutaways +  Flawless Heart Cutaways + Winnie's Sparkly Shaker Selection + Walter's Sparkly Shaker Selection of your own by 11:59 p.m. (central standard time) February 26, 2016.  One comment will be chosen at random.

All winners during our February Belated 2nd Birthday Bash Release will be announced by March 2, 2016.

To enter our February Belated 2nd Birthday Bash Release's The Big Giveaway CLICK HERE.

To enter our Belated 2nd Birthday Bash Release GIGANTIC Giveaway (giving away to one randomly chosen winner all w&w stamps being released in 2016) CLICK HERE.

w&w Belated 2nd Birthday Bash | Special Guest Star Yana Smakula

 

To help make our Belated 2nd Birthday Bash even more special and fun we've got several special guest stars sharing their talents with us this month.

Our first such special guest star is Yana Smakula.  

I had the privilege of meeting this lovely and talented lady at CHA in 2015 and again this past January.  She's truly beautiful inside and out!  

Wait until you see what delights she has for you today!   I really love her cards and I am sure you will too....

 

Hello Winnie & Walter fans!

Yana is here today joining the awesome Create Your Own Background Challenge with Gayatri to help celebrate Winnie & Walter's 2nd Birthday! I love to make you own backgrounds so when Shay asked me to pick a challenge I wanted to participate in - I immediately knew I wanted to join this one.

Creating a custom background is always fun! Today I used Winnie & Walter's beautiful Scenery: Persuasion Script Creative Screenings and several colors of distress inks. I went with yellows, blues and purples and ended up having this fun and vibrant background for my card. I also used the You've Got Love Mail stamp set to create my sentiment - I just love the little bow in this set and all the other small images.

 

I filmed a video tutorial showing you in detail how easy it is to make a card like this -

Or go directly to the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mjUN0XvWw

Be sure to join this and other challenges by Winnie & Walter, lets celebrate together!

You've Got Love Mail

Scenery: Persuasion Script Creative Screenings

InLinkz.com

January Release is Now Playing!

Happy February!  The stamps, digital elements, cutaways and Pretty Pink Posh items are now being sold in our shop (some quantities of our cutaways are low, but we will be putting in a reorder soon).

It is time for big thanks and also for a little peek into what is coming up.

>>>THE TALENT<<<

We would be a sky without stars if not for our incredible creative team, The Talent.  They have humbled us once again with their wonderfulness and we feel so very fortunate to have an amazing group of incredible artists and women creating dynamite projects with our designs.  THANK YOU!

If you haven't had a chance check out each of The Talent.  Their blogs are amazing and you will want need to follow them!

CLICK HERE for Gayatri Murali's blog
CLICK HERE for Heather Pulvirenti's blog
CLICK HERE for Joni Adaya's blog
CLICK HERE for Kelly Griglione's blog
CLICK HERE for Laura Sterckx's blog
CLICK HERE for Lea Lawson's blog
CLICK HERE for Mayuri's blog
CLICK HERE for Vanessa Menhorn's blog

>>>GUEST STARS<<<

A huge round of applause to our Guest Stars: Tenia Nelson ; Taheerah Atchia; Debby Hughes; Emily Leiphart; Laura Bassen; Laura Williams; Laurie Willison; Stephanie Klauck; Suzanne Dahlberg; and Yana Smakula!  We loved working with these outstandingly talented and gracious ladies!  They were such a pleasure to work with and we were delighted by their creativity and generosity of sharing their talent with us!

CLICK HERE for Tenia Nelson's blog.
CLICK HERE for Taheerah Atchia's blog.
CLICK HERE for Debby Hughes's blog.
CLICK HERE for Emily Leiphart's blog.
CLICK HERE for Laura Bassen's blog.
CLICK HERE for Laura Williams's blog.
CLICK HERE for Laurie Willison's blog.
CLICK HERE for Stephanie Klauck's blog.
CLICK HERE for Suzanne Dahlberg's blog.
CLICK HERE for Yana Smakula's blog.

Thank you so much for making our January Release such a smashing success!  CLICK HERE to see who won our January Release giveaways.

>>>COMING SOON<<<

• The winner of our GIGANTIC Giveaway will be announced later this week.  
• Our 1st Birthday Bash Challenge winners and monthly giveaway winners will be announced later this week.
• Our next Playdate winner will be announced later this week.  You have made this a really tough one! ;-)
• We have really exciting Leading Ladies in the coming months!
• Awesome Special Guest Stars!
• More posts full of inspiration!
• Lots of sponsorships including a monthly sponsorship of the brand new Sparkle and Shine Challenge beginning in March! 
• A new feature shining the spotlight on some very inspiring ladies. :-)

January 1st Birthday Bash Release | Premiere of Scenery: The Party Hangover + The Party + Goldie Trim Cutaways + Lulu Fringe Cutaway

To enter our 1st Birthday Bash GIGANTIC Giveaway CLICK HERE
To enter our January Release's The Big Giveaway CLICK HERE.

To enter to win The Big, the Bold and Party + new The Big, the Bold Cutaways CLICK HERE

To enter to win Scenery: Stripes + Essentials: Katharine Cutaways + In a Word Cutaways CLICK HERE

To enter to win Sugar Rush + Sparkle + Big Bang Confetti Cutaways + The Party Confetti Cutaways  CLICK HERE 

To enter to win Scenery: The Party Hangover + The Party + Goldie Trim Cutaways + Lulu Fringe Cutaways ...continue reading!

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Today's our last day of premieres for our January 1st Birthday Bash Release, but don't worry we still have some really exciting products to introduce to you today!

In fact today is all about partying!  So it is time to get down and boogie.

We have Scenery: The Party Hangover which at first looks like a simple set of borders, but you can do so many things with them!  Make a background, curve them to allow them to drape and dangle embellishments and/or images off them!

The Party is all about celebrating with lovely images and sentiments.  We think this one set will see you through lots of moments to celebrate!

Then we have two very cool cutaways for you: Goldie Trim Cutaways and Lulu Fringe Cutaway!  Goldie Trim Cutaways are dies that are cut on all sides and thus why we call them trim rather than borders although you can certainly use them to decorate an edge.  The Lulu Fringe Cutaway is designed so you can continuously cut the fringe as there are no cut lines on the shorter ends of the die.

Insider news: we have so many new cutaways that we plan on dedicating a week to them next month.  It is going to be a week to die for! haha

>>>THE DETAILS<<<


Scenery: The Party Hangover
Available for purchase the evening of January 30, 2015
4x6 stamp set
Retails for $15.00
Includes fifty-five (55) stamps--five (5) big words + forty-nine (49) small words


The Party
Available for purchase the evening of January 30, 2015
6x8 stamp set
Retails for $22.00
Includes thirty-four (34) stamps--seven (7) sentiments + twenty-seven (27) images


Goldie Trim Cutaway
Wafer Thin Steel Dies
Available for purchase the evening of January 30, 2015
Retails for $18.00
Four (4) dies


Lulu Fringe Cutaway
Wafer Thin Steel Die
Available for purchase the evening of January 30, 2015
Retails for $12.00
One (1) die

>>>THE GOOD STUFF<<<

Let's get to the fun part and see what Shay, our guest stars, Tenia Nelson (our fabulous winner of the Playdate No. 4 challenge),Taheerah Atchia (our January Leading Lady) + special guest stars, Emily Leiphart, Laura Williams, Suzanne Dahlberg and Yana Smakula, and The Talent (our supernova creative team) made with it. And make sure you visit Tenia's, Taheerah's, Emily's Laura's, Suzanne's, Yana's and each of The Talent's blogs for more knock-it-out-of-the-park projects and details.  Don't forget to share some love with them too!

Shay


For months Julie and I had planned this release to be about celebrations as we hadn't specially addressed birthdays.  We also wanted to throw a birthday party of sorts to celebrate our 1st birthday with every one of you being invited.  These thoughts really informed this release and I think perhaps these particular stamp sets today.  Scenery: The Party Hangover was a concept we had brainstormed earlier in 2014 and actually had a set slated to come out in October, but we wanted to rethink it.  So we did.

What we came up is Scenery: The Party Hangover which are borders, background makers and so much more!  They coordinate rather well with The Party, Scenery: Stripes and The Big, Bang series as you can drape them, decorate them and hang images, embellishments and objects off them.  Obviously they also work with Sugar Rush and Sparkle too. :-)

Here is a little storyboard to help illustrate some ways to use The Party along with other stamp sets courtesy of Julie. :-)

When coming up with projects I sort of went crazy with the Scenery: The Party Hangover...she's sort of like a baby you want to show off and say, "See isn't she smart?  She can do all of these things and more!"  So be forewarned. lol

Card 1

I started with simple.  I curved the eternity chain/crape paper on my acrylic block and stamped it repeatedly on piece of white cardstock in glass slipper and flamingo (this was the second generation color) Color Theory Studio Calico inks.  I filled in the open space with the fully lined filler (there are several to choose from in the set so you can choose different textures).

Then using the same colors I stamped the oval solid balloons from The Party.  I wanted the teal ones to stand out more so I overstamped them with tidal pool Mid-Tone Hero Arts ink.  Still wanting more definition I stamped the outline balloon around them.  Better!  With Wink of Stella in clear I colored in the balloons for some shimmer (not showing up in the picture).  I stamped the sentiment from The Party.  Last some sequins, because life without them is just less pretty and happy.

Card 2

 

Next something colorful.  On some Distress watercolor paper I stamped the big scallop stamp several times using a rainbow of Distress Ink in picked raspberry, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn and salty ocean.  With water and a brush I spread the ink.  Next I die cut In a Word: Cheers Cutaway from the panel.  I adhered the rainbow scallop panel to a fuchsia card base with dimensional foam adhesive making sure to also adhere the parts of the word that keeps the word having definition.

Card 3

Next something flirty.  I pulled out the scallop stamp from Scenery: The Party Hangover and stamped it on a piece of white cardstock in flamingo Color Theory ink by Studio Calico.  I added some drops of gold and black mists.  On the larger tag from Essentials: Katharine Cutaways I stamped the cake stand from Sugar Rush in black.  The hole reinforcement is also from the Essentials: Katharine Cutaways.  On a piece of white cardstock I stamped the present from The Party in Versamark and embossed it in white.  Using picked raspberry and stormy skies Distress Ink and water I colored it in and cut it out.  The sentiment is from Sparkle our free with purchase for qualifying order stamp.  I stamped it with Versamark and embossed it with Zing! gold glitter embossing powder.  I adhered the scallop panel to a black card base.  I then added some 6mm metallic gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Card 4

Here is my crazier card for today.  I stamped the large scallop from Scenery: The Party Hangover and stamped the banners from Sugar Rush before coloring them in with Copics.  In black I also stamped the smaller tassel from The Party in black.  I added some mustard seed Distress Ink to the edges of the panel.  I colored in the pom poms/flowers and paper lanterns with Copics and then sprayed them with Mister Huey's shine by Studio Calico before cutting them out.  I stamped lines for the pom poms and paper lanterns to hang from using one of the balloon strings from The Party and the thinnest line from Scenery: Stripes.  I adhered the pom poms and paper lanterns with dimensional adhesive.  On a strip of black cardstock I stamped the sentiment from The Party in Versamark and embossed it in white.  I added the party panel to a piece of patterned paper from Amy Tangerine's Cut and Paste 6x6 paper pad before adhering that all with dimensional foam adhesive to a white woodgrain card base.

Card 5

The confetti border stamp from Scenery: The Party Hangover is so darn cute!  And the most of the shapes coordinate back to Scenery: Big Bang Confetti!  I filled in the shapes with their coordinating solid stamp shapes (the six point star is included in Scenery: The Party Hangover) in lemon drop, chicken feed and chewing gum (all from my beloved, but no longer made Jenni Bowlin inks) and clear blue Color Theory ink by Studio Calico.  I added a frame I created using the larger and smaller rectangle layers from Essentials: Katharine Cutaways. I found out that the In a Word Cutaways fit perfectly within the frame. I used In a Word: Love Cutaway on this card.

I thank you for your patience as I warmed you up for our headliners: Tenia; Taheerah; Emily; Laura; Suzanne; Yana and our mindbogglingly good Talent.

Guest Star, Tenia Nelson

CLICK HERE to see more from Tenia.

Leading Lady, Taheerah Atchia

CLICK HERE to see more from Taheerah.

Special Guest Star, Emily Leiphart

CLICK HERE to see more from Emily.

Special Guest Star, Laura Williams

CLICK HERE to see more from Laura.

Special Guest Star, Suzanne Dahlberg

CLICK HERE to see more from Suzanne.

Special Guest Star, Yana Smakula

CLICK HERE to see more from Yana.

The Talent

CLICK HERE to see more from Gayatri

CLICK HERE to see more from Heather

CLICK HERE to see more from Joni

CLICK HERE to see more from Kelly

CLICK HERE to see more from Laura

CLICK HERE to see more from Lea

CLICK HERE to see more from Mayuri

CLICK HERE to see more from Vanessa

>>>THE GIVEAWAY<<<

Comment here on this post for a chance to win Scenery: The Party Hangover + The Party + Goldie Trim Cutaways + Lulu Fringe Cutaway of your own by 11:59 p.m. (central standard time) January 30, 2015.  One comment will be chosen at random.

All winners during our January Release will be announced by February 1, 2015.

To enter our January Release's The Big Giveaway CLICK HERE.

And to enter our 1st Birthday Bash GIGANTIC Giveaway (you could win all w&w stamps released in 2015!) CLICK HERE.