How eggciting! (Neat and Tangled release week)

Hi there!

Welcome to the first day of this month's Neat and Tangled release week. We will tease you with new products all week long and then they will be available for purchase on Friday morning in the store.

Today, the team is showing off a 3x4 stamp set that I designed, called Eggciting:



The bunny from Eggciting got more egg than he bargained for! The other bunny and butterflies are from a set you'll see more of tomorrow.

I started out with a dusty rose colored patterned paper that has gold flecks covering the top (and before you ask, I have no idea where this came from!) and it set the tone for my pretty and pastel card.

I colored the bunnies in a soft brown using copic markers (E41, E42 and E44) and then added a floral detail to the egg wrapper. I used the sprig image from Magical Day, and added some dots with a black pen. I love how this looks! When illustrating the egg, I purposefully left the egg wrapper plain so that you could add your own creativity to it. There is a small open circle included in the set, to add polka dots to the wrapper, or you could even paper-piece it for a completely different look.

I hope you like it! Be sure to leave me a comment before you leave - Danielle will choose a winning comment from among the design team's blog posts this week. You could win a $25 gift card to the NT store. Now hop on over to the NT blog to see what the rest of the team created using this set - click!

See you tomorrow!

♥.

Simple and sweet cards

Hi there!

Sometimes I like to spend hours on one card, but sometimes I like things to move a little faster. I've made 2 cards, using products from the Ellen Hutson store, that I made in 30 minutes or less.

The first card is an Easter card, because Maia wanted one to gift her teacher with before Easter weekend:

I colored the bunny from Party Pals, and stuck him onto a banner that I hand-cut. I adhered the Happy Easter line border in lieu of a stamped greeting.



I cut into my white cardstock using the Outside In Easter Egg Stackables die, and lined the back with some Avery Elle patterned paper. I added a little sprig, from Magical Day to balance out the images and add a soft touch.

My next card is for a last-minute birthday card that I forgot to make until the morning-of. ack!

I used the sweet dogs from Dog Lady, and gave them party hats from Puppy's Favorite Things. I also used the sentiments from that set to complete the card.



I hope you like them both! If you have to make cards quickly, and at the last minute, here is what works for me: don't worry about the layout. ha! The longest part of designing a card, for me, is figuring out an interesting layout. Here, I colored images and didn't think too much about anything.

Happy Easter weekend!

♥.

Beautiful You (Neat and Tangled release week)

Hi there!

We're kicking off the June Neat and Tangled release week today! woot! I have some summery/beachy themed sets in the line-up, which you'll start seeing as of tomorrow!

For now, we're showing off a gorgeous set designed by Danielle, called Bloom.  I can't get enough of her hand-lettering, and the sentiments are large and so beautiful.



I stamped the sentiment onto a sheet of Lawn Fawn watercolor wishes paper, using my MISTI tool to make sure that the black ink was good and saturated.

The blooms from Bloom were paired with the sprigs from Magical Day to create a full garden of flowers.



I added a strip of black and white striped paper to add a graphic element to the card, and used a white gel pen to add little accents above and around the flowers.

I hope you like it!

As usual, leave a comment on the Design Teams' blogs to be eligible to win a 25$ gift card to the NT store at the end of the week, and comment on the NT blog this morning for a chance to win today's showcased products. Good luck!

♥.

Maia's unicorn party

Maia turned 7 last week and we celebrated in magical unicorn style this past weekend.



My pastel-loving heart was so happy to craft and bake for this little party.

I used the unicorn stamp set, Magical Day, from Neat and Tangled to create all of the party decor.

Like, this cake topper:

and these cupcake toppers:

as well as the glass bottle wrappers:



I also baked up all of the treats.

This cake was so yummy. A confetti cake with strawberry cream filling (both were recipes from the Layered cookbook) and my own favorite vanilla buttercream.

I used the sprinkles (a splurge, from Sweetapolita's shop) to cover everything. They are so dreamy!



I had a few suggestions to try rainbow-icing for the top of the cupcakes, and I'm so glad I listened! It was my first time attempting this and now I want to multicolor the top of every cupcake! It was so fun to watch all the colors swirl out.



The last baked item were these sugar cookie bars, covered in marshmallow buttercream icing and more sprinkles. So good.

And, we broke out our rarely-used cotton candy machine for the occasion. I put those little fluffy bundles on display and snapped a quick picture but they oxidize and turn to shrivelled lumps pretty fast. We made a few batches with the party girls as an activity and it was a hit.

The first to arrive was Maia's cousin, Lauren (because we all live on the same street!) I thought it was a sweet opportunity to snap a picture of the 2 of them together.

I made all of the girls unicorn horn headbands, and I loved seeing them enjoy them!

They were all pretty happy when we finally started serving those desserts:

Speaking of cake...

That face! One day I'll provide a montage of all the times she looked at cake that way, and it will play for an hour. haha.

On the way out, the girls grabbed a little gift bag and I slept for 10 hours straight.



♥.

Neat and Tangled release day projects

Hi there!

It's Neat and Tangled release day! You can find all of the new products in the store right now: CLICK.

I have a few more projects to share with you.

Using the sprigs found in Magical Day, I created these monogrammed drink bottles for Maia's unicorn party tomorrow:

I also used them to flank the sweet mouse from Into the Woods:

The tree stump is from Lumberjack Love and the sentiment is from Big Top Birthday.

I also have one last dinosaur card to show you - I am really have fun with Prehistoric!

I love that little dinosaur sliding down the mama's tail!



Thanks for stopping by, and happy shopping in the NT store!

♥.

Fairy dust (Neat and Tangled release week)

Hi there, and welcome back to another day of new Neat and Tangled reveals. Before I show off today's set, I just want to shout a huge "thanks!" for all of your sweet comments on Prehistoric yesterday. You made my day!

I combined images from Fairy Dust with the previously shown Magical Day unicorn. They are a match made in unicorn heaven:



I stamped the starry Fairy Dust background in a light blue ink, and stamped out the sentiment in a graphic black. I opted to use the word "magical" from the unicorn set, but there is a bigger version of that same word in Fairy Dust. I just thought it fit better around the unicorn.



I colored the unicorn's mane in shades of pink, and the horn in shades of blue. I've colored at least 20 unicorns and I still want to color more! So much fun. I adore how large the image is. It fills up a card front so perfectly.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the NT blog this morning - click!

♥.

Unicorn party prep (Neat and Tangled release week)

Hi there!

It's the first day of Neat and Tangled's May release week (did you miss us in April? i did. insert sad face.) We're making up for it this month with amazing new stuff. Seriously, I love everything we have to offer!

To kick things off, I designed a 3x4 unicorn set. Magical Day was made on the request of my soon-to-be-seven-year-old Maia. She desperately wanted a unicorn birthday party but none of the unicorn sets out there were quite what she was looking for. She asked me to make a unicorn with "hair coming to the front."

I had to get approval from both Danielle (owner of Neat and Tangled) and Maia. ha. I included some delicate sprigs that could be used to frame the unicorn. I love that they could be used to frame any woodland image too, or be built up into a wreath. I will be using those images a ton.

I don't want to give away too much, but here are some things I've already made for Maia's party:

I used our Classic Tag 1 die to make thank you tags. I cut a circle into a top tag layer, and popped it up onto a minty tag layer. Into the opening, I slid the unicorn (I cut around the mane so that it would spill outside the frame) and added sprigs on either side. The simple greeting is from Itty Bitty Welcoming Committee and was stamped in gold ink.



I also made a set of simple cupcake toppers. I bought a set of striped paper plates in a rainbow of pastel colors and I colored the unicorn manes to match. With all of these rainbow colors, I'm not sure what color to dye my frosting. Any suggestions?



Finally, here is a peek at the invitations I sent out. I stamped the unicorn, masked it, and stamped sprigs on each side. I doubled-up on the sprigs to create a fuller wreath.

I hope you like this magical unicorn!  Don't forget to leave a comment to be in the running for a 25$ gift card to the Neat and Tangled store, and check out the NT blog for a chance to win your own Magical Day stamp set.

♥.