Your Next Stamp May Feature - Fun With Squares

Welcome to the May YOUR NEXT STAMP feature post. Each month the design team uses specific stamps, dies or follows a theme to create a project that will hopefully inspire you!

This month our theme is.......FLOWERS!

This was a great theme! Flowers......so many amazing stamps, dies and paper to choose from. What is a girl to do? I decide to play around with the FUN WITH SQUARES die and the MINI FLOWER INK SPLATTER stamp for my card.

On the inside I used some of the leftover flower die cut pieces and added a sentiment from the Little Note stamp.

PRIZE ALERT!!!

Head over to the YNS blog to see all of the Design Team member sharing projects for this month's feature. Leave a comment on the blog post for the May Feature and you will have a chance to win a prize. One lucky stamper will WIN a YNS stamp set of their choice!

Your Next Stamp Supplies Used:

Stamps: Mini Flower Ink Splatter, Little Notes, Soaring By.. (front sentiment)

Dies: Fun with Squares, Stitched Rectangle

Your Next Stamp Sketch / Colour Challenge # 39 - Java Geek

Hello and welcome to another week of the Your Next Stamp sketch/colour challenge # 39

Every two weeks there is a new challenge that features a sketch and colour inspiration. Pick the one that inspires you most, or try both for an added challenge. The best part of these challenges is you could WIN a gift certificate to the YNS store!

When using the colour inspiration, be sure to use at least 3 colours. You may add neutrals.

This week I was inspired by the sketch and created a card using the fun JAVA GEEK stamp set and a few yummy Gumdrops.

Here is a look at the inside of the card. The sentiment is from the LITTLE NOTES set.

For the sketch/colour challenge #39, you will have until Thursday May 26th (midnight EST) to play along. Head over to the Your Next Stamp blog for more inspiration and to link up your creations.

One random participant will WIN a $15 gift card to the YNS store. If you feature a YNS stamp or die (it must be the main focus on your project), you will receive an additional $5. When you use a YNS stamp/die, there is also a chance of being selected as the YNS top pick! The winner and "top pick" are announced on the Your Next Stamp blog, the Sunday after the close of the challenge.

Thank you for stopping by and have a fabulous and crafty day!

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp May Release Blog Hop - Oceans of Love

I am so excited! It is time for us to celebrate the May release for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. On today's blog hop you will SEA a lot of WHALEY amazing projects. Sit back and enjoy this amazing release.

To recap this amazing release, we started the previews off with three gorgeous sets called Serena Sparkles, Treena Twinkles and a background set The Ocean.

Next we featured those darling Krafty Kids Lucas and Lulu along with a few ocean friends in Keep Swimming!

 Then there was a lovely mermaid set called Mermaid Friends.

Finally we finished out the week with a super cute of underwater creatures called Oceans of Love. This is the set that I am featuring on our hop today.

I love the sweet sea creatures it this set. They are fun and easy to colour and great for fussy cutting to add to a fun ocean background.

I again used the distress inks for by background, however I wanted to incorporate colours that were found in the fun Photoplay paper Summer Day Dreams.

For this background I started with four inks (Twisted Citron, Peacock feathers, Abandoned Coral and Carved Pumpkin). I applied these colours directly to my nonstick craft sheet and sprayed the ink with water. I took my water colour paper and laid it on top of the watered distress ink. Once I picked it up, I used a paper towel to pull up any splotches of ink then heat set. I used the remain ink on my mat to add the little splotches of colour. Heat setting in between. After to pulling in a darker blue, I added the Mermaid lagoon to my craft sheet, added water and dipped my distressed background into the ink for additional blue.

Once it was dry I used my circle die and cut out the section of the background I wanted to showcase on my card.

Here is a look at the inside of the card.

Supplies Used
Stamps: Oceans of Love (Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps)
Dies: Stitching/Piercing Circle and Circle Die (Your Next Stamp)
Other: Magical Pastel Gumdrops (Your Next Stamp)

I hope you enjoy all of today's projects that are featured in the May new release blog hop for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

Happy Hopping!

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps May Previews - Day Four: Oceans of Love (Plus a Challenge)

Welcome back for another fun day of previews for the May release at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. We are now into our fourth day and I am positive that you will love today's adorable set. Today we are featuring another underwater set, this one by artist Becky Pearce called OCEANS OF LOVE!

Since it's Saturday and a release preview day, we are also excited to present a new ANYTHING GOES challenge. Create a new project (card, scrapbook page or altered item) and share it with us on the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps blog or on our Krafty Friends Facebook page. All stamps are welcome, however if you use a KKS, you will double your chance to win. You have all week to play along with this challenge. At the end of the month, a winner will be selected from all of the weekly challenges to win a $20 gift certificate to use in the shop.

I created a clean and simple card using the sweet octopus and highlighting him on the card with a touch of distress ink (Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers).

Here is a look at the inside of the card.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Oceans of Love
Paper: Fancy Pants Nautical
Ink: Distress Ink (cracked pistachio, peacock feathers), Memento Tuxedo black, Versa Fine onyx back

Remember to hop along and check out all of the fabulous previews today. Leave a comment on each of the blogs as you are hopping along. There will be one lucky winner selected from all of the comments this week to WIN some Krafty $ to spend in the KKS store.

Release Party
Join Kimmie and the Krafty Girls as we party and celebrate the May release. The party will be on the Facebook events page (HERE) on TODAY, Saturday May 14 at 2 PM (EST). Hope to 'SEA' you there!

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps May Previews - Day Two: Keep Swimming!

Hello Krafty friends and welcome to day two of previews for the May release at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

Today we are featuring a darling set from Cheryl Grant called KEEP SWIMMING.

Here is a look at my card featuring Lucas and the adorable turtle.

I played around with Distress Ink to created my underwater background. I used Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon. To create the effect, I spread the first 4 colours on my Ranger nonstick craft sheet and sprayed with water. I laid my water colour paper into the ink/water mixture and moved the paper around a little. After picking up the paper, I heat set it a little and then dipped in back into some of the ink to create more splotches. I then applied the last colour to the mat and applied water and again laid the paper down to add a few darker section. After each dip in the ink/water mixture, I heat set.

Here is a look at the inside of the card.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Keep Swimming, Oceans of Love (Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps)
Dies: Stitched Rectangles Your Next Stamp
Paper: Doodlebug Anchors Aweigh
Ink: Distress ink Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, StazOn Jet Black
Other: Recollections twine, cheese cloth

Now it's time for you to hop along and check out all of the fabulous creations being featured in today's preview. Leave a comment on each of the blogs as you hop along today. There will be one lucky winner selected from all of the comments this week to WIN some Krafty $ to spend in the KKS Store.

Release Party
Join Kimmie and the Krafty Girls as we party and celebrate the May release. The party will be on the Facebook events page (HERE) on Saturday May 14 at 2 PM (EST). Hope to 'SEA' you there!

Your Next Stamp Sketch / Colour Challenge # 38 (Build a Bike)

Hello and welcome to another week of the Your Next Stamp Sketch/Colour Challenge # 38

Every two weeks there is a new challenge that features a sketch and colour inspiration. Pick the one that inspires you most, or try to use both for an added challenge. The best part of these challenges, is that you may WIN a gift certificate to the YNS store!

When using the colour inspiration, be sure to use at least 3 colours. You may also add neutrals.

This week I was inspired by the colours and created a simple card using the fun Build a Cute Bike die, the Fancy Hello die and some yummy gumdrops.

Inside the card I used the sentiment and flower from the Little Notes stamp set.

For the sketch/colour challenge #38 you have until Thursday May 12th (midnight EST) to play along. Head over to the Your Next Stamp blog for more inspiration and to link up your own creation.

One random participant will WIN at $15 gift card to the YNS store. If you feature a YNS stamp or die (it must be the main focus), you will receive an additional $5. When you use a YNS image/die, there is also a chance of being selected as the YNS Top Pick! The winner and "top pick" are announced on the Your Next Stamp blog, the Sunday following the close of the challenge.

Thank you for stopping in and have a fabulous and crafty day!

Supplies Used:
Stamps; Little Notes
Dies: Build a Cute Bike, Fancy Hello
Paper: Lawn Fawn Polka in the Meadow
Other: YNS Gumdrops

Your Next Stamp May DT Dare (Word Critter - Gardening Birds)

It's time for the May Your Next Stamp Design Team Dare challenge! Each month the design team is given a special challenge to help show off the new stamps and dies released each month.

For the month of May our challenge theme is........STRIPES!

This challenge was hard for me, even though I will use stripes on a large number of my cards, usually in the form of paper. Your Next Stamp has a number of new amazing stamps and a entire line of stripe-tastic dies (here) that would be perfect for this challenge.

My trouble came in the form of too many amazing choices, that I went back to my standby of striped paper. I used the adorable Word Critter - Gardening Birds and some of the new Magical Pastel Sparkly Gumdrops.

These birds are just the 'tweetest!

Here is a look at the inside of the card where I used the stamp and added the Scrapwork Strips die.

Head over to the Your Next Stamp blog and look for the May DT dare post. Leave a comment on that post and there is a chance that you could WIN a stamp set of your choice!

Have a wonderful and crafty day!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Word Critter - Gardening Birds
Dies: Scrapworks Strips
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Meadow
Other: Magical Pastel Gumdrops