Friday, January 28, 2011

YNS CHA Release Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Your Next Stamp CHA Release BLOG HOP!

We are so excited here at YNS because Karen has taken YNS to CHA for the very first time! That's right, as you're reading this Karen will be at Winter 2011 CHA at booth #4518! WOO-HOO!!

So to celebrate this event, YNS is releasing some fab new YNS stamps just in time for CHA. You may have already caught a sneak peek of some of them last week over at the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, but today you get to see all 9 World Kids stamps plus a fabulous new Celebrate Collection from HR Designs and 7 new mini stamps.

These new stamps are available to buy right now from the Your Next Stamp store along with all your YNS favourites.

Of course we couldn't let this release pass by without having a fun blog hop! We also have 4 fabulous guests joining us for our hop - the amazing Tori Wild, Cindy Haffner, Carole Burrage and Maylee Pham!

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

The hop starts today (January 28, 2011 at 08:00 EST) and ends on February 2, 2011 at midnight EST.

As always here at Your Next Stamp, we have a wonderful prize for you to win! One lucky winner will be drawn at random from the links in the linky list to receive their choice of 3 of the new World Kids stamps!

You will see that every stop along the hop has a linky list - this is the SAME linky list posted on every blog, so that you can enter the prize draw from any stop (although we hope you will visit all the blogs on today's hop!). The linky will update itself on everyone's blog when a link is entered - how cool is that? Please remember to only enter your name ONCE into the linky list during the hop - you do NOT need to enter your name at every stop and multiple entries will be removed. It's not a requirement for you to comment at every stop along the hop to be eligible to be entered into the prize draw, but the DT would sure love to hear what you think of their new release creations!

Karen is also running some special bundle promotions, so be sure to hop on over to the YNS store once you've finished the hop. If you order all 9 World Kids stamps in one bundle, you will save 15% over the cost of buying them individually!

Here is a complete blog hop list in hopping order:

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

I was thrilled to work with the Tootega from Alaska because I had an idea for him as soon as I saw the image! Here's what I came up with:

WorldKidsAlaska1
I'm going to be calling him a girl since I colored the outfit pink (not that boys can't wear pink, but it's what I had in mind when I making the card). She's colored with Copics and colored pencils/odorless mineral spirits. I cut her out, leaving off the fishing pole, and added a heart in her hand that was cut from the patterned paper.

The sentiment was computer generated using the LD Little Piggy font, and then cut up to go around the curve of the circle. I hand sewed iridescent tinsel around the whole circle and added a bit of fake "snow" around her feet.

For some texture, I covered a bunch of the trim parts with my own custom blend of flocking. I wanted it to look a little like animal fur, so I mixed a little brown in with a larger quantity of white, and then added in the tiniest bit of black. It's very hard to see, but here's a close up shot anyway:

WorldKidsAlaska1b
So now it's time for you to hop on over to Tori's blog as she is the next stop on our hop, but I'd love it if you left me a comment before you go!

Thanks so much for hopping with us today! I hope you enjoy our new release!

Hugs,
Maureen =)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Another Yippee Fhiona!

Did you hear that the Your Next Stamp DT is now posting on Facebook for the weeks between new challenges? My day is Thursday and here's what I came up with:

YippeeFhiona4a
I used one of my all-time fave YNS images, Yippee Fhiona and a sketch from Mojo Monday. The papers are from the Crazy Love 6x6 paper pad from Bo Bunny (so cute!).

Fhiona was colored with Copics and colored pencils/odorless mineral spirits and the sentiment (from the Garden Greetings set) was stamped directly on the twill. I covered up the flower on her headband with a felt heart and a bit of pink Timeless Twine. Here's a closer shot:

YippeeFhiona4b
This card is also for the following challenges: I hope you like it and I hope you'll stop by our Facebook page for more YNS eye candy! TFL!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Some Odd Elements

I found a little mojo to play along with another Some Odd Girl anniversary challenge - yay! This time I chose the Some Odd Elements challenge where you have to pick at least 3 things from the list to incorporate into your card. I chose Shaped card, Embossing, and Orange and came up with this:

TinyTiaBow1
I used the super cute Tiny Tia Bow and a computer generated sentiment using the LD Little Piggy font. After printing, I taped down the Nestabilities die where I wanted it and ran it through my machine. Then I embossed it with the Swiss Dots folder.

Tia was printed at about 3" tall and colored with Copics and colored pencils/odorless mineral spirits. Finally she was attached with foam boosters.

This card is also for the following challenges: I hope you like it and TFL!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

SOG Kid's Day!

Some Odd Girl just celebrated their first anniversary and are having a whole week of fun on their blog! I've been mojo-less lately, so haven't been playing, but I just had to do this one - get your kids involved!

I printed out a couple Odd Girl images and let my 2 boys have a little coloring time! First up, here's Griffin (age 2) coloring Tobie and His Dog (for some reason I can't find it on the site to link it up):


And here's Miller (age 3) coloring Princess Mae (he *loves* princesses!):


Here's Miller showing off his finished Princess (please try and ignore the giant orange ball behind his head!):


I don't have a picture of Griffin showing off his finished picture because he refused to take one!

They wanted to color more so I printed out a couple more images and they kept going. Griffin wanted to color a boy and Tobie and His Dog is the only one I have so here's his second time coloring Tobie:


And here's Miller with his finished Bu'Fly Tia:


It was fun watching the boys color, so thanks for a great challenge Kristy! Happy First Anniversary and here's to many more!!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Your Next Stamp News!

The end of January is shaping up to be a busy and exciting time for YNS ...


The first piece of extremely exciting news is that Your Next Stamp is going to be at Winter 2011 CHA in LA! WOO-HOO! The event runs from January 29th to February 1st and Karen will be promoting YNS at Booth #4518.

So with CHA in mind, Your Next Stamp will soon be welcoming some new friends to its little family with a fabulous YNS CHA New Release BLOG HOP on January 28th, so be sure to mark your calendars as you really won't want to miss this!



But if you'd like a small sneaky peek of who is joining us, hop on over to the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog right now, and while you're there, why not enter the super fun contest to WIN a $25 gift certificate to spend on stamps at the YNS store!



And that's not all... Your Next Stamp now has a Facebook page!

We would love to invite you all to LIKE our YNS FB page so you can be the first to know about promotions, new releases, sales, competitions ... and there may even be the odd quick giveaway! We'd also love to see all your YNS creations, old and new, so why not upload them to our YNS FB wall.

To celebrate our YNS Facebook launch we have 2 special promotions:

1. We have a special 20% off discount code - hop on over to our FB page to grab it (discount ends Jan 31st).

2. We are holding a prize draw just for those of you who LIKE our page. Come on over and sign up by February 1st to be entered into the draw to WIN a $25 gift certificate to spend on stamps at the YNS store.

I hope to see you there! TFL!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Your Next Stamp Challenge #33

Your Next Stamp Challenge

Happy New Year! I have another Your Next Stamp Challenge today! This time our hostess is Kerri and she has a great sketch for us:


Here's what I came up with:

MonkeyGoneBananas1a
I used the adorable Monkey Gone Bananas set and papers from Echo Park. I stamped the monkey on brown cardstock and added some extra color with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. Then I cut him out, shaped him and added some foam boosters.

The leaves and sentiment were paper pieced and I did a little shading on the leaves with pencils and OMS. Lastly, I finished off the sentiment piece with a button tied with Timeless Twine. The frame and sentiment are also popped up with foam boosters. Here's an angled shot so you can see some of the dimension:

MonkeyGoneBananas1b
You may have noticed that I'm missing the thin horizontal strip that goes across the middle. Well, I took a little artistic license and left that out because you'd see it behind the monkey in the frame and that just didn't look right!

This card is also for Kaboodle Doodles - Anything Goes.

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!