YNS Fall into Halloween Blog Hop

Welcome to the Your Next Stamp "Fall into Halloween" BLOG HOP! I'm sure you've guessed from the title that we're showcasing some fabulous new YNS Fall and Halloween stamps today! These new stamps are available to buy right now from the Your Next Stamp store along with all your YNS favorites.

Not only do we have a fantastic blog hop for you, but today is also the official start of the new YNS DT term! AND it's also a YNS Challenge day too, so we've combined our hop creations with our YNS Challenge #24 creations! Although the DT have used Fall and Halloween stamps, the theme for this challenge is "Anything Goes!"

If you would like to participate in the hop and you didn't arrive here from Chris' blog, please return to the start of the hop at the YNS Challenge blog, as you don't want to miss these fab new releases!

The hop starts today (Wednesday, September 1st at 03:00 EST) and ends on Monday, September 6th at midnight EST.

As always, here at Your Next Stamp, we have some wonderful prizes for you to win! Two lucky winners will be drawn at random to each receive a new release stamp package, but please make sure you comment at every stop along the hop to be eligible to be entered into the draw. We'd love you to join us over at our new Paper Craft Planet (PCP) Group, and so as an added incentive, anyone that becomes a member of our YNS PCP Group will automatically receive a second entry into the blog hop grand prize draw! How great is that? (It's free and easy to join PCP by the way!)

Not only is Karen offering two amazing prizes, she's also going to include a free surprise gift with every order placed at Your Next Stamp during the hop! And that's not all! If you join our YNS Group over at PCP, you'll also be personally emailed an exclusive PCP-YNS-Group-only YNS store discount code! Whew! That was a lot of info - I hope you got it all!

*****And now on to the show!*****

I got to work with the super cute Fhiona's Squirrel Friend set. It comes with an adorable squirrel holding an acorn, a separate acorn, and 3 different leaves!

I went a little nuts (hardy har!) with the set and made 3 different cards! The first idea that popped into my head when I saw the set was to make a wreath out of the leaves:


I stamped the leaves a bunch of times on a few different patterned papers and cut them out. I then crumpled up all the leaves and then opened them up without smoothing them too much for texture. I also stamped the acorn a few times on brown cardstock and colored the tops with a brown Copic marker. I then used 2 circle Nesties to cut a ring of kraft cardstock to give me a base for the wreath and then glued the leaves and acorns on. I added a little bow of rustic twine, then stuck the wreath to the kraft base with foam boosters. Finally I stamped a sentiment from Papertrey Ink and added a couple little gemstones.

For my second card, I just had to use the squirrel:



I stamped him right on the kraft base and gave him a little shadow with a W-1 Copic marker. For the leaf border, I masked the area with sticky notes then stamped the leaves and acorn all across. Next I punched holes and hand sewed the rustic twine on either side, knotting the ends on the front for fun. I added two super skinny scalloped strips on either side and a rub on sentiment.

I loved the look of my second card so much, I did another project with all the same materials, but this time I made a gift holder card shaped like a tote bag:


A little shot of the inside to show it really does hold a gift card:


I designed the card myself with my new favorite Make the Cut software and cut it out with my Cricut. The little tag is a Quickutz die and I did the sentiment with a little alpha set from Papertrey.

I hope you liked my projects and thanks for hopping along with us! Your next stop is the incredibly talented Jenny.

YNS Blog Hop Blinkie Contest!

It's that time again! Your Next Stamp will be having a new release Blog Hop starting on September 1st, so we have a pre-hop Blinkie contest for you! You can find all the details on Karen's blog!

So Sweets!

Yay! I have another Your Next Stamp Challenge today! This time our hostess is Kerri and she challenged us to use "Bold, bright Summery colours."

Here's my card:


One of the boldest, brightest paper pads I have is this one from K&Co. I thought the papers went perfectly with the candy images from Hula Hoop Fhiona. I paper pieced the 3 candies with 3 different patterns and cut them out, popping them up with punches of scrap cardstock. I also did a tiny bit of coloring on them with Copics and a white colored pencil. I glittered all the edges of the focal panel and popped it up with foam boosters, then did a straight stitch 2 times around the patterned paper.

The sketch is from Get Sketchy. I wrapped pink and green Timeless Twine around the card and placed a bow where the sentiment was supposed to be (my sentiment just wouldn't fit there!). I then placed my sentiment at the bottom. It's from the Ellie's Berry Basket set.

Other challenges:

• Allsorts - paper piercing or paper piecing
• My Time to Craft - Glitter & Glitz

We hope you'll play along with us! One lucky participant will be drawn at random to win $10 in YNS Stamp Bucks!! You don't have to use YNS images on your card, but if you do you'll get a double entry in the draw!

Also, the challenge hostess will choose her favorite card, and that winner will get the YNS Challenge "Top Pick" blinkie to proudly display on their blog PLUS $5 in YNS Stamp Bucks! You must use a YNS image to be eligible to be chosen for Top Pick.

Full details can be found at the YNS Challenge Blog. TFL!

Cupcakes!

I have a whole bunch of cupcakes for you today:


I converted the new EK Success Cupcake Chain punch into a Make The Cut file (I just LOVE this program!!) and cut out a chain of cupcakes from some brown Basic Grey Bittersweet paper. Then I created a solid layer and cut that out from pink patterned paper. I colored the bottom of the pink layer for the liner and left the top part as is. Finally I added some ultra fine glitter on all the tops, dots of red Stickles for the cherries, and a tiny bow of pink Timeless Twine.

The embossing folder is Cuttlebug and the sentiment is from the Forget About the Cake set from The Cat's Pajamas.

This is for the following challenges:

• Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - another really cool sketch!
• Crazy 4 Challenges - cupcakes
• Our Creative Corner - embossing

I hope you like it and TFL!

My winner!

Hi all! I just wanted to thank everybody who stopped by my blog during La-La's Birthday Beach Bash and left such wonderful comments!! I hope you enjoyed all of the mini hops as much as I did - I was so blown away by the talent of the La-La Land crew!!

Enough chatter - let's get to my winner!!

I had 3 days of posts and random.org picked day 3:


Commenter #11:


Which makes our lucky winner:


Congratulations Ola!! You're my winner of a mystery stamp from La-La Land Crafts! Please email me (addy is in my sidebar) your full name and address and I will pass your info on to Irina so she can send your stamp!

Thanks again to everybody for helping us celebrate La-La Land Crafts' first birthday!!

Which stamp would you like to see?

Hi everybody and welcome to my stop on the mini hop for Day 7 of La-La's Birthday Beach Bash! If you came here from Kim's blog then you're on the right track. But if you just happened on this post, then please start at the La-La Land Crafts blog so you don't miss a stop on the hop! We're all giving away mystery party favors so make sure to comment on each hop post to increase your chances of winning!

Before I get to my card, I am so excited to tell you that Irina has introduced another image in the new Marci line - Marci Ballerina:


She's available as a digi image for one week only, so hurry over to the store and pick her up!

Today is my last day posting for the Bash, so I wanted to make a really special card, and I hope I succeeded:


What makes it extra special is that it's a tilt card! I put together a simple animated gif so you can how the tilt action allows Sherman to come up for air when needed:

I used Snorkel Sherman and this tutorial on Splitcoast. I used the Create A Critter cartridge for the fishbowl and had to make sure it was big enough for Sherman to swim around so my card is ginormous!! And by ginormous I mean 5.25" tall by 6.25" wide!

I colored Sherman with Copics, then cut him out leaving just a little white margin to make sure he stood out against the background paper. I cut all the other pieces with my Cricut and sponged the white bowl with some light blue ink to give it dimension. Lastly I followed the tutorial to put it all together and added some Dew Drops for air bubbles.

This card is also for the following challenges:

• Lollipop Crafts - Anything Goes
• Little Red Wagon - Circles
• Cute Card Thursday - Whateva (open theme)
• ABC Challenge - A is for August

I'm the last stop for today, so please head back to the La-La Land Crafts blog and leave your answer to the question "Which stamp would you like to see join the La-La Land family?" I hope you like my card and thanks very much for hopping with me this week!

What did Lala take to the beach?

Welcome to my stop on the mini hop for Day 6 of La-La's Birthday Beach Bash! I hope you're having fun hopping along with us every day! If you came here from 1LuvnMama's blog, then you're on the right track. But if you just happened across my blog, you'll want to start at the La-La Land Crafts blog because there's a great prize to be won for playing our game! We also have mystery party favors to give away so be sure to comment on all the hop posts to increase your chances of winning!

Here's my card for you today:


As you already know, today we're playing "What did Lala take to the beach?" Although I do have a Lala card for you, it's not the right Lala!! You'll just have to keep hopping to find her and see what she took to the beach!

In case you'd like to know more about my card, here you go: I stamped Mermaid Lala, colored most of her with Copics, then cut her out. I paper pieced the shell in her hair, her top and her tail. Next I shaded her tail with a combo of Copics and colored pencil (I used the pencil to make the thin shading lines on her tail - it's way easier than trying to make really thin lines with my Copics). I then glued all the pieces on Lala and Stickled them all as well. Lastly I glued on micro half pearls for her necklace.

The sun was cut out with a Nesties die and the waves with a die from The Cat's Pajamas. I sanded the edges of the sun and waves and also ran my scissors along the straight edges of the wave pieces. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and was curved on the acrylic block to fit around the sun.

This week's CAS-Tastic challenge is to CASE one of the DT member's cards. I picked Maylee's card and followed it pretty closely except for flipping it and my sentiment only goes part way around the circle (you can see Maylee's card at the above link).

This card is also for the following challenges:

• Stamptacular - "Out of this world" (something you wouldn't really see here on Earth - like a mermaid!)
• Cupcake Craft - distressing
• Delightful Challenges - distressing
• Dutch Dare - anything goes
• Creative Card Crew - Cute and Girly

Your next stop is Sue's blog. Thanks for hopping with me!

YNS 1st Birthday Bash & Blog Hop!

Today is a very special day as Your Next Stamp is celebrating its very 1st birthday with a Birthday Blog Hop!

The YNS Starlets are being joined by some fabulous friends for this hop, and together we are showcasing some fantastic new release stamps as well as some old favorites! These new stamps are available to buy from today from Your Next Stamp, along with all your YNS favorites.

If you'd like to participate in the hop and you didn't arrive here from Nicole's blog, please start at Karen's blog, as I'm sure you don't want to miss out on all the fun we have for you!

The hop starts today (Thursday, August 5th at 08:00 EST) and ends on Wednesday August 11th at midnight (EST).

We have not one, but two grand prizes for you to win - two lucky winners will be drawn at random to each receive a $25 gift certificate to spend on YNS stamps! WOW! As the prize is so fantastic, we are going to make you work a little to enter, LOL! Each Starlet and Guest Starlet have a letter hiding in their blog post. All you need to do is gather these letters, Rearrange them to form a 3-word phrase, and then email this phrase to Karen. All correct entries will be entered into the grand prize draw so make sure you hop around to every blog and we'd love it if you left a comment at every stop too!

Before I get to my projects I have to tell you that all that cake must have affected Karen as she has gone a little crazy and is holding a 20% off sale for the duration of the hop. The crazy part is that everything will be reduced by 20%, including items already on sale! I'm not sure when (or even if!) this will happen again, so make sure you hop on over to the YNS store once you've completed the hop and fill your basket!

*****And now on to the show!*****

I just adore this super cute new Ellie's Berry Basket set! First up I have a card:


I recently was lucky enough to win a Crafting Kit of my choice from the Cosmo Cricket blog (thanks so much Cosmo peeps!!) and I picked Garden Variety. As soon as I got it I knew it would go perfectly with this set!

I stamped the basket, colored it with Copics, cut it out and popped it up with a foam booster, then finished it off with a little bow of yellow Timeless Twine. I pleated up a strip of the polka dot paper then sewed down the middle, added it to the yellow paper that was also sewn and stamped the sentiment. Most pieces were also roughed up with the edge of my scissors and sponged with Distress Ink.

Then I made a strawberry basket with papeR strawberries inside:


And a side view with one of the strawberries out:


For the tag I used a Cuttlebug die, stamped and colored with Copics. For the basket of berries I used a Hot of the Press template called Berry Box and a strawberry box pattern. For the strawberry, I actually used my new Make the Cut software (with a little bit of help from Photoshop) to convert the pdf into a cutting file for the Cricut. I was able to cut all my strawberries at once in less than a minute! For the tops, I just used a 5 petal flower punch. I embossed the bottoms with Swiss Dots and the tops with D'Vine Swirls and tied them up with cream crochet thread. I used the same Timeless Twine to tie the basket sides together and tie the red ribbon onto the tag.

Both of these projects are also for The Pink Elephant - Something Yummy.

So now it's time for you to hop on over to Heather's blog, but don't foRget to grab my hidden letter first and also leave me a comment!

Thanks so much for hopping with us today! I hope you enjoy our birthday celebrations and new stamps!

Your Next Stamp Challenge #22

Yay! I have another Your Next Stamp Challenge today! Our hostess is none other than our fearless leader Karen, and she has challenged us to make a birthday card. Of course that makes sense since YNS is celebrating it's first birthday starting August 5th!! Here's my card:


I used the Lily stamp (which can also be found in the Garden Greetings set) and a sentiment from Elegant Greetings.

It's a little late, but I used a slightly modified FTL #100 (I flipped the sentiment to the other side). I stamped the Lily in white on kraft cardstock then colored with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. After I was done coloring, I restamped over the image with white to bring the lines back over the colored pencil, and I also stamped with glue and poured ultra fine glitter all over it (I glittered the sentiment as well).

I embossed just the bottom portion of the white card base and rounded both top corners. Finally I added some ribbon, a button and Timeless Twine.

This card is also for the following challenges:

• Dutch Dare - Anything Goes
• PaperPlay - Anything Goes
• Stampin' B's - make a birthday card

We hope you'll play along with us! One lucky participant will be drawn at random to win $10 in YNS Stamp Bucks!! You don't have to use YNS images on your card, but if you do you'll get a double entry in the draw!

Also, the challenge hostess will choose her favorite card, and that winner will get the YNS Challenge "Top Pick" blinkie to proudly display on their blog PLUS $5 in YNS Stamp Bucks! You must use a YNS image to be eligible to be chosen for Top Pick.

Full details can be found at the YNS Challenge Blog. TFL!

La-La Land's Beach Ball Game

Hi everybody! Welcome to my stop on the mini hop for today! If you came here from 1LuvnMama's blog, then you're on the right track. But if you just happened across my blog, then you'll want to go back and start at the La-La Land Crafts blog because there are fab prizes to be won!

Today we're playing the Beach Ball Game: Count the number of beach balls on each card (watermarks or other beach balls, if in the stamp itself) and leave your answer (total of all beach balls that you found) back at the La-La Land Crafts blog. Here's my card:


I used Sitting Pretty Rosie and a sketch from Crazy 4 Challenges. Rosie's dress was paper pieced with a cool bit of tropical print paper (it was actually a tag that matched the paper line) and the rest of her was colored with Copics. I actually made those little paper roses with an EK success punch and the sentiment (Papertrey Ink) was stamped on another little tag, and then cut out with a Spellbinders die.

This card is also for:

• Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Summer Days
• Crafty Creations - Summer Lovin'
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Patterns (I used stripes)

And just a quick reminder that Birthday Marci is available in digi form this week only!!

Your next stop is Eva's blog. Thanks for looking!