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Blog Hop Time!

It's time for another monthly Blog Hop! I'm just amazed at how quickly the time is going by this year. How are you liking the changes we've made in April? The redesigned blog? The fantastic new look for the store? And if you haven't noticed, we have a "What's New" tab in the store, and it will take you directly to all of the fabulous new images you've seen out Design Team creating with over the past month or so!

The theme for this month's hop is Mother's Day - it's coming up fast! Are you ready? Have you made all of your cards and/or projects? We're here to help get you inspired! Don't forget to pick your favorite project and vote for that DT member - once you go visit everyone's blog, come back here to vote. Then leave a comment, and you'll be eligible to win a prize! This month, we are giving away 7 Spica Glitter Pens!

Here is the blog hop order this month:

Kerry
Taylor
Angela
Robin
Janelle
Genevieve
Raquel
Angelique
Jodi
Lana
Cyndi
Once you have enjoyed all of the wonderful things everyone has created, don't forget to come vote AND comment to be eligible to win those Spica Glitter Pens! Voting closes tomorrow night, Saturday, May 1st, at 11:59 PM PST. I'll use random.org to draw a winner, and announce it on Sunday! You'll then have 48 hours to contact us to claim your prize -- good luck!

Thanks for joining us on our hop today - we appreciate it!

Design Team Spotlight - Janelle!

It's time for another of our new monthly features - the Design Team Spotlight! We'll be bringing you feature posts regularly, introducing you to our awesome Design Team Members. They'll share some fun information and projects with you, too!

This month we'd like to introduce you to Janelle. Her blog, Rain Puddles Design, is truly amazing. There is no way you won't find inspiration there!
Let's chat with Janelle about her craftiness, and take a look at some of her amazing work!

How long have you been stamping?
I have been crafty and artsy my whole life, but I've been stamping over 13 years. At first I only went to parties and did the projects there, then I started collecting scrapbooking supplies (which are mostly still in their bags), but then one night, 3 years ago, I was searching for some help on the internet and ran across a blog that lead me to a design team blog hop. That was the beginning of cardmaking for me.

Do you prefer to make cards or other projects?
This is a tough one, I love making cards right now because they seem to be quick small projects, but I love to create so you can find other projects sitting around my house so I can be doing something when I'm not in my craft studio.

If you were a Copic or Prismacolor Marker, what color would you be?
Definitely Prismacolor but any one color would be too hard to pick out. I like so many colors just as I have so many roles to play in my life. When I'm with my family it's going to be a rich and vibrant color like Teal Blue or Parrot Green, but when I'm by myself maybe Cream or Violet Mist.

Which of your InStyle Stamps projects has been your favorite?
I have enjoyed every project because it's bringing InStyle Stamps to life when you color them or paper piece that brings me joy, but my favorite project would be a three-way tie. My very first project was my submission project using Alyssa where she comes to life out of a page in the sports section of the newspaper, the Christmas Tree Chick stands just over 11-inches tall and has real ornaments to hang and Birdhouse was a trio set of journal, gift card and birdseed bagel feeder. Each one I wasn't sure if I could make it work out how it was in my mind and whether or not I could meet my deadline. LOL


You are stranded in a craft store: which aisle do you sleep in?The paper aisle! That is my papercrafting comfort.

What five words describe you?Mom, wife, procrastinator, perfectioner, artist

What's your crafting style?
My style is all over the place. I often wonder when I'll settle down into a style!
Messy or clean scraproom?
Definitely messy. Of all the space I have when I'm in the middle of a project I barely have the space on my 12x 12 Cutting pad to do my work. You'll find me standing so that I can use my seat as an extra table for paper cutter or scoring board.

What tool or embellishment can you not live without?
SU! Paper Snip scissors because I cut everything out almost. Glossy Accents because its a MacGuyver (old tv series) tool for me. It can turn something into a polished piece or the hidden glue that holds it all together.

What is your favorite stamping technique?
Embossing paper with a pre-inked embossing folder and then either sponging or bray another ink over the raised emboss. It creates a wonderful texture to any project.

We are so happy to have Janelle on our team - you truly rock, girl!

Freebie alert, Freebie alert *CLOSED*

Not only are we giving away a free Lucy (to use in a project for us to choose for FANtastic Friday), but I have some samples of Dew Drops that I'm giving away.

I have about 13 left. If you want one and LIVE in the US, please EMAIL me your address and I will send you one. They are wonderful little inks.

Once the supply is gone, the supply is gone. So first come first serve.

Remember, I need your mailing address so PLEASE click on the tab contact and EMAIL it to me. :)

Have a great weekend!

**THEY ARE ALL GONE!**

A New Celebration: FANtastic Friday!

We love our fans here at InStyle Stamps - you all have such talent, such flair, such style! So we have decided to set aside one special day each month to focus on YOU, your blog, and the wonderful projects you make with our images!

Sounds fun, yes? If you are chosen as our FANtastic fan, you'll get a fun thank you package from us, an "I was featured on InStyle Stamps" badge for your blog, and a special post on this blog (highlighting some of your amazing samples and some fun facts about you)!

What do you have to do to be a FANtastic fan? Nothing more than you are already doing, of course! Just keep being fabulous and creating with our stamps and images. Ideally, we'll be choosing people who follow our blog, or are Facebook fans (if you are both, you'll stand a better chance of getting noticed by us!) AND who regularly use our stamps and images. Do you play along in the challenges? That's another great way to get noticed!

You can leave us links to your cards or projects on our Facebook page, on any challenge you enter, any tutorial you follow, or send them to us using the "Contact Us" button on this blog.

Do you need more InStyle images or stamps? Remember, there is a *huge* sale going on right now -- all in stock rubber stamps are 50% off in the store! And to kick off our fun new FANtastic Fan celebration, we are giving away a digi image if you leave a comment on this post! You'll receive Lucy, our super stylish momma-to-be. Perfect for an expectant mom! If you already have Lucy, just let us know in your comment and we'll send you a different image (a retro one of our choosing).


We appreciate all of our fans so much, and can't wait to see more of your gorgeous work! Have fun creating! **Remember - to get Lucy for free, you have to leave a comment on this post, giving us a way to contact you! That means we need your email address. You are welcome to leave it in the post, just make sure you add spaces or something so that you don't get a bunch of spam. If you email is not left in the comment or emailed to us, we have no way of sending you the image. We will not have the time to search for it on your blog, so help us out by leaving it please.

You will have until May 7th to receive this free digi. Make sure you use the digital image in your project before the next FANtastic Friday (3rd Friday of the month.) Thanks for stopping by.

Method Monday - Clocks!

It's Angela here and today is Method Monday! I'm here to show you step by step how to take an ordinary cheap clock and make it your own. You can make it match any decor or to give as a gift to someone. I decided to make a clock for my son; I have already made one for my daughter and my son asks me everyday to make him one. So I finally got around to finding time to create his! For his clock he wanted me to use Nico with red and black to match his room.

This is the finished project without the glass put back in to show you what we will end up with. Are you ready to get started?

Here are some of the supplies you will need. In addition to the supplies in the picture, you will also need some adhesive, whatever you prefer. And a case knife like I used or a flathead screwdriver to take the back off that holds the batteries.

Start by turning the clock upside down and loosen the screw that holds the front rim and glass to the clock's body.

Then flip back over and pop off the rim and glass and set them aside.

Next take a case knife or a flathead screwdriver and pop out the part that holds the batteries and the clock hands.

After that you can carefully turn it back over and take off the clock's hands. Set them aside in the order you took then off. With this clock I was able to take out the thin piece that has all the numbers on it.

I used it to trace my circle on my background paper. If you are not able to take yours out, you can just use an embossing stylus and lay the paper on top of the clock. Push the paper down inside and use the stylus by going around where the inner circle is.

Then just cut out your circle with your scissors. Add your glue where your paper will lay (Note: adhesive tape works better than liquid glue). If you do use glue, make sure to to run over the paper to get all the excess glue out and to make sure to get all air bubbles out so that all the paper will adhere to the clock.

I just used my bone folder for this step.

Before I glued down my image, I colored it and then cut it out.

Then make a hole in the center to attach the hands back.

I used some Sizzix dies to make my numbers but you can use small chipboard numbers or stickers.

Here is the finished product! What do you think? All you have to do now is attach the glass and rim back and tighten back up with the screws up. I tried to take a picture with the glass but it reflected too much light.

Here is a picture of the one I made my daughter. I add some trim and some satin butterflies to hers.


Give it a try! I'd love to see what you come up with!

Over-the-Hump-Day Blog Candy Giveaway!!

Happy Over The Hump Day! We have a lot in store, so please be prepared for a long post.

How are you liking our new redesign? It was actually able to go live today as well as the website so please check that out! I (Virginia) also had my personal blog changed to match these so we are all uniform! I love them.

Veronica of vkdesigncompany did an absolutely wonderful job on our websites and blogs. This girl rocks. She is so talented. One thing I love about creative people is that if they are good, they don't need you to feed them everything. They will hear your vision and run with it. That is exactly what she did. Not only is she affordable, but she is easy to work with and super fast!

If you are looking for a redesign, she is the gal to go to! Thanks Veronica!

So with our new look, we want to offer not only our regular OHDBCGA prize (which will be announced shortly), but also a redesign blog candy!!! Woo hoo! Don't you just love blog candy?

And if that is not enough, come back tomorrow where we will be having another give-away for Mother's Day. :)

Now onto our OHDBCGA winner from last month. We are using random.org to choose the winner and that winner is Lena!!!!! You've won 25 digital images. WOW!!! Please make sure you contact us within 48 hours to claim your prize. CONGRATULATIONS!

And now our projects for this month. This month's theme is Mother's Day. With Mom's Day right around the corner, we thought we'd give you a little head start on some card/project ideas for that special day. Here they are:

Genevieve

Robin

Angela

Linda
Jodi

Janelle

Cyndi

Kerry



Lana

Taylor

Raquel

Angélique

The prize this month is a paper pack filled with 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock and 6 x 6 sheets of patterned paper, SIX (6) Copic makers (V05, R21, B16, BG34, R14, E34) and 5yards of assorted ribbon. Yummy!



You have one month to complete your project. Make sure you post a link via Mr. Linky by no later than 11:59 pm PST on May 11th. The winner will be announced on OHDBCGA on May 12th! Good luck.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our new look. Let us know how you like it! Have a great day!

Two Challenges in One!

Before I share all the fun we have for you today, I need to announce the winner of last month's Color Challenge!

I used random.org to select a number for me.... so congrats go to Cheryl!!!! You have 48 hours to contact us and claim your $25 gift certificate!

Now, on to the new challenge! Yesterday was our sponsored sketch challenge over at Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenges. Check out this gorgeous sketch that Mindy created for it! Be sure to go by the Fussy and Fancy site to see what their Design Team members created using Mindy's sketch!

Today is also the day for our monthly Color Challenge, and we have a super great inspiration piece for you! It comes from a piece of fabric I found at Spoonflower.com -- they have amazing designs!

Here is what our fabulous Design Team came up with for this combined challenge:

Taylor:

Linda:

Angela:

Robin

Cyndi

Jodi

Janelle

Kerry:

Genevieve

Raquel:

                                                                      
Lana 

The prize this month is a grab bag full of assorted goodies ranging from buttons, to a fiskar punch!

You have 30 days to get your project in to us. You don't have to use an ISS image, but if you have one, why not use it!

Please link to your project by no later than 11:59 pm PST on May 7th. We will announce the winner on Saturday, May 8th before the next Color Challenge. Good Luck!

Changes at InStyle Stamps

Hi everyone! I wanted to take a second to update you on some of the line up changes we are putting in place starting this month...it's going to be so fun!

Our Method Monday tutorials will still be a regular feature, but only twice a month. You'll also still be seeing a monthly Sketch Challenge and Color Challenge. Rather than the ones we used to host over on the Club Anime blog, they will be hosted here, and include all of our images and not just the anime ones. Sketches will be on the 2nd day of every month, and Color Challenges will be on the 2nd Saturday of each month. We'll still be giving away amazing candy for our Over the Hump Day Blog Candy Giveaways each month, and having our end of the month Blog Hops.

Now, what's new? We'll be spotlighting YOU, our super talented fans! One day each month we'll pick one of our followers and showcase your supercute blog and some of your InStyle Stamps projects. We will also be showcasing one of our wonderful Design Team members each month, and giving everyone a chance to get to know them better!

Hopefully you are as excited about these changes as we are!

Method Monday - Z Fold Cards

Hello everyone! It's Taylor here, welcoming you to another week. Today's Method Monday tutorial is all about making Z Fold Cards - a simple fold that adds lots of pizzazz to a card. The finished card size is 4.25" x 5.5" so it still fits in the envelopes you already have on hand!

Here is what you need:

• 4 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock
• coordinating cardstock and/or paper
• scoring tool (stylus, scor-pal, bone folder, etc)
• stamps, ink, embellishments, etc to decorate as you like!

To make the fold, score your 4 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock at 5 1/2" and again at 8 1/4". Fold along those score lines, and your card will fold like the picture below:

I used my Cuttelbug and Nestablities to make my focal image, and an embossing folder to do half of my blue panel of cardstock. I handstitched my dp onto the smaller panel.

This is a super fun crd to make! I made this one for my daughter, who now has it sitting on her nightstand - that is such a great added bonus for this fold. They stand up by themselves really well :)

Hope you have a wonderful week, and be sure to join us later this week for another fun challenge!

It's Sketch Challenge Time!

Hi everyone! We're changing things up a bit here - we are no longer going to be posting the monthly challenges on the Club Anime blog. They will all be on here! How fun will that be? Everything in one easy place!

Today we have our monthly sketch challenge to share with you. Before I show you the sketch, let's announce last month's winner of the terrific CD full of images from InStyle! It's Poppet!! She made an adorable card - check it out here! You have 48 hours to contact us to claim your prize.

Ok, here is the sketch for this month:

And here is what our amazing designers have done with it:

Cyndi:

Kerry:

Robin:

Jodi:

Janelle:

Taylor:

Genevieve:

Angela:

Angélique

Raquel

The prize for this month is a goodies package filled with paper, ribbon, stamps and even some thicker stickers.

You have one month to post a link to your creation using our sketch via Mr. Linky by no later than 11:59 pm, May 6th. You don't have to use an ISS image, but if you got one, why not? We will make the announcement of the winner on May 7th.