YNS 3rd Birthday Blog Hop!

(This is going to be a very long post so please bear with me!)

Hi all! We have another special Blog Hop this month because Your Next Stamp is celebrating its 3rd Birthday!!! We are so excited about this milestone, and we have some fun and ADORABLE projects to share with you today!

You should have come here from Wendy R.'s blog, but if you just happened upon my post, please start at Peggy's blog because you won't want to miss a stop!

We are making this hop even more fun, because we have put together a scavenger hunt! Each DT member and guest has a bold, colored letter on her blog. Collect all the letters and unscramble them to find the special saying. Once you do that, e-mail Karen at karen@yournextstamp.com and you will qualify for the $25 YNS shopping spree GRAND PRIZE!!!

We also have 3 special new release prize packs hidden along the hop. Just leave comments along the way to win!

You have until August 9th at 12 midnight EST to play along and the winners will be announced August 10th on the YNS Blog!

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

Remember in this post where I said there was more to the Fab-u-licious! image than what I showed? Well, here you can see the full image (if you haven't already):

As you can see, in my previous card, I cut out the worm from my stamp so that it would just be a plain apple on a branch. For this card, I've left the worm in and even popped him up a bit for dimension:

For my next card, I've used Gordon the Pig:

He comes with a couple sentiments, including this one, so I thought it would be appropriate to make a shaker card for him! I also used YNS' Puffy Cloud die set and the Flower Fun Spring Grass die.

For my final project, I've made a special card to celebrate YNS' 3rd birthday:

I used Party Fhiona and papers and stickers from Echo Park's A Walk in the Park collection. The 3 and its shadow were cut with my Zing using Make-The-Cut and the banner is stuck to a bit of Timeless Twine.

When you open the card, a little piece pulls up to reveal a gift card or hidden message:

I adapted this design from this one I saw on the Dandelion Designs blog. I adapted it to be made from 1 piece of 8.5x11 cardstock instead of using a piece of 12x12 paper. Here's how:

Take a piece of cardstock oriented in the portrait position and cut at 5". You should have 1 piece that's 5x11 that you will turn and score at 4.25 and 8.5". The other piece is 3.5x11. Cut it off so that it's 7.5" long and turn and score at .75" and 4". Then turn over and apply tape to the bottom section and the other piece as shown:

Adhere the pocket on the larger piece and attach the smaller piece to the top as shown. Place your gift card in the little folded area and it will look like this:

Finally, you just tuck the gift card piece into the pocket and close the card up. Instead of a gift card, you can just write a message on the inside piece that will lift up when you open the card. It's fun and easy - I hope you try it!

As always we have some awesome specials at the YNS Store! Everyone will receive a FREE scratch card with every purchase all month long or while supplies last! Every card is a WINNER!

Also receive 25% off your order August 6th-August 10th! Online code is HAPPY

Karen has just improved the YNS Store website, so make sure you check it out! We now have larger thumbnails so you can see these adorable images even better!

Now it’s time to hop on over to Suzanne’s blog, but before you go, don’t forget about the scavenger hunt! My letter is T. Happy hopping!