Cool Summer Colors

Have you had a chance to play along with our color challenge yet?? There's still plenty of time, and we'd love to see what you create! We have a super refreshing combo this month. It's pear lemon fizzies from Martha Stewart. She makes everything look gorgeous!




And take a look at what some of our designers have made!

You have until Tuesday, September 7th at 11:59 PM PST to enter. Leave your link on this original post (directly to your entry, please) and remember to comment after you play! You could win FOUR digi images from our store if you play along and use an InStyle Stamps image. If you don't use one of our images, you could win TWO digi images from us.

Here are the rules:

• Make a new card using our sketch (you are welcome to combine with other challenges)
  
• Link directly to your post
• Mention our challenge, or use the picture of our sketch on your post - be sure to link back to us!
  

Be sure to link your amazing creation to this post to be entered to win!

Inspiration Time

Have you had a chance to play along with our InSpiration challenge this month? We are using this beautiful nursery room picture we found at Room Decorating Ideas. Aren't the colors and the clean lines fabulous?

Take a look at what some of our always amazing designers came up with for this one! Simone starts us off with Kristina, who is available as a digi image in the store.

Kerry featured Hanna on her sweet card! Hanna is available as a digi image in the store.

Angélique shared one of our newest digi images, Buzz, on her lovely card.

We would love to have you play along with us! Just make a card or project using our photo as inspiration and link your awesomeness to this original post. You have until Tuesday, September 14th at 11:59 PM PST to enter!!

Blog Hop Winner!

HUGE thanks to everyone that hopped along with us, voted, and commented! This was a great blog hop, wasn't it? I used random.org to generate a commenter:

And that commenter is:

Congrats Rhonda! Be sure to use the "contact" button at the top of the blog to claim your goodie bag within 48 hours. Put "August Blog Hop Comment Winner" in your subject line!!

We can't wait until our next hop! It will be the last Friday in September - mark your claendars!

Cupcake Inspiration

This week we are sponsoring the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge. Head over to their blog to check out what their team has done with our images, and to see how you can win a prize from us! Before you go, take a look at what a few of our amazing designers whipped up for the challenge:

Angela featured Pastry Girl on her card. Pastry Girl is available 

as a digi image or a cling rubber stamp.

Sarah's project uses Cupcake Chloe, 

who is available as a digi image.

Kristine used Mellie for her project. Mellie is available as a digi image or a cling rubber stamp.

Robin's card features Cupcake Chloe, who is available as a digi image.

Patti shared Tatiana on her card. Tatiana is available as a
digi image or a cling rubber stamp.

Jan is showing us more of Cupcake Chloe!

Get Sketchy With Us!

This month we had a little fun with our sketch challenge - not only did the whole team follow a sketch, but everyone made easel cards, too!

Have you had a chance to play along in our sketch challenge yet?? There's still plenty of time, and we'd love to see what you create! You don't have to make your card an easel card, but we encourage you to try it out! Here is the sketch:

Axa used the Wedge for her card. It is available as a digital image in the store.

Jan used the newly released Summer Breeze image to create her card. It is available as a digi image in the store.

Robin used another newly released image, Hanna. This one is also available as a digi image in the store.

You have until Tuesday, August 31st at 11:59 PM PST to enter. Leave your link below (directly to your entry, please) and remember to comment after you play! You could win FOUR digi images from our store if you play along and use an InStyle Stamps image. If you don't use one of our images, you could win TWO digi images from us.

Here are the rules:

• Make a new card using our sketch (you are welcome to combine with other challenges)
  
• Link below, directly to your post
• Mention our challenge, or use the picture of our sketch on your post
  

Be sure to link your amazing creation to this post to be entered to win!

We're Blog Hopping Today!

**VOTING IS NOW CLOSED, BUT FEEL FREE TO LEAVE LOVE ON THE DT MEMBER'S BLOGS!**

We've reached the end of yet another month, and that means it is blog hop time! This month we are celebrating the end of summer (ok, maybe some of us are celebrating, and others are sadly saying goodbye to all that summer fun!) with lots of amazing projects from our talented designers. 

Kimme

Tina

Axa

Jan

Barbara

Sarah

Patti

Cyndi

Taylor

Cathy

Kerry

Angela

Kristine

Robin

Angelique

Genevieve

Virginia

What did you think? Fantastic, weren't they?! Vote below for your favorite, and then leave us a comment letting us know you voted (**you do not have to tell us who you voted for, unless you want to!**). Once you do those things, you will be eligible to win a goodie bag valued at $25 from InStyle Stamps!

Which designer made your favorite project for the August Blog Hop?

• Kimme
• Tina
• Axa
• Jan
• Barbara
• Sarah
• Patti
• Cyndi
• Taylor
• Cathy
• Kerry
• Angela
• Kristine
• Robin
• Angelique
• Genevieve

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

Voting will remain open until Sunday, August 29th at 10:00 Am PST - that's 48 hours to look them over and make the tough decision about your favorite. We'll post the fan favorite and the random winner from your comments that afternoon!

Spotlight on Genevieve

Have you met Genevieve? She is one of our amazing designers. Genevieve has been with us for awhile, and we love having her here. She makes gorgeous projects and has an awesome shabby chic style!! Here's her fun interview:

How long have you been stamping?
I started to get beautiful stamps in 2007. However, they have had time to gather dust because I started making cards and used them only during the school year 2008-2009. It's with the arrival of Copics in my homeland that I realized the full potential of its beautiful pictures.

Do you prefer to make cards or other projects?
I love doing anything with my hands. However, I have a strong preference for making cards. I love to play with my Copics.

If you were a Copic marker/Prismacolor marker which color would you be?
Probably pink... all of them!


Which of your InStyle Stamps projects was your favorite?
Hard to choose - I love them all! I especially like the Christmas card I made with the new stamps from the A Day In The Life collection, my box for small items for the school, and the map I made for the Secretary of the school.

You are stranded in a craft store, which aisle do you sleep in?
Wherever the Copics are! I always seem to not have enough.


What 5 words describe you?
Romantic, dreamy, moody, colorful and insecure. I always know where my twins are . Whenever there is a problem at work I'm worried and I don't sleep.

What’s your crafting style?
I really don't know. I touch everything! But I think that shabby chic particularly attracts me.

Messy or clean scrap room?
MESSY! Everything is upside down ... I'm always doing a little housekeeping before and it always end up a mess!


What tool or embellishment can you not live without?
Unquestionably my Copics. I also like crochet lace and flowers I think I have it on just about everything I do.

What is your favorite stamping technique?
Coloring with Copics!!

Genevieve, we are so happy you are a part of our InStyle Stamps family!!! Thanks for all of the wonderful work you do!

Little Miss Molly

Today I want to share some of the absolute cuteness that is Molly, our little shopping girl. Our designers have made some marvelous projects with her this month! You can purchase Molly as a digi image or as a cling rubber stamp (she's currently out of stock, but will be back soon). We love to give you options!

First there is Janelle's coupon holder -- how perfect is it? It has a notepad, space for a pen, and all of your coupons. How handy!!

Next up is Kristina's adorable birthday bag. Aren't the bold colors on her designer paper wonderful? They show off Molly so well!

Lastly, Axa made a fun acetate birthday tag - so sweet! The sparkle is great!

Coloring Boldly

Hi, I’m Janelle Stollfus, a colorist and column contributor for InStyle Stamps. I’m going to bring you tips and ideas for coloring our images with different drawing media. For our premier newsletter, I thought it would be a great time to discuss bold coloring. InStyle Stamps has a wonderful array of bold and unique images that make for a deliberate difference in your paper crafting creations. Boldly coloring our images, can only contribute flavor to your project and draw attention to the focal image. You can create boldly with any drawing media and markers are at the top of the list. Let's take a look at coloring bold with markers.

Step One: Choose your colors to complement your patterned paper.


Step Two: Make sure you use colors that blend well together and yet pop individually.

Step Three: Apply the color in circular motion to eliminate blend lines and then highlight areas with a lighter or darker color for dimension.

Step Four: Trust your instinct. If you feel a color is too bright or dull, try other colors in its place to see if there is a better color combination.

Step Five: Have fun! Experiment with color. You can always start over on a fresh image.

**Janelle used the Teapot and Teacup With Chick digi images for her project.

Sweet Treats

I just had to show off a few of the adorable projects that our talented designers made this month, using Ellie, one of our newly released images!

Just look at this adorable box that Kristine made! She paired this cutie pie image, the perfect paper, and a super sweet sentiment to make a great gift, didn't she?!
And the amazingly talented Jan created this fabulous gum box - what a thoughtful gift to make for teachers, coworkers, for use as stocking stuffers...endless possibilities!



Virginia made cupcake toppers -- yummy!!!!!! How sweet are those little ribbons on Ellie's ear? Oh.My.Gosh!!!!!!


Thanks for sharing such marvelous projects, ladies!!!

A Cool Color Challenge

Have you had a chance to play along with our color challenge yet?? There's still plenty of time, and we'd love to see what you create! We have a super refreshing combo this month. It's pear lemon fizzies from Martha Stewart. She makes everything look gorgeous!


Take a look at what some of our designers have done with this color scheme:

Kristine paired Peggie and Kristina to make a darling acetate box. Isn't it cute? Peggie is available in both digi and cling rubber format, and Kristina is available as a digi image.


Kerry used Kristina paired with a great off kilter layout - love those papers!

Cyndi used Hanna to create an adorable card with the perfect sentiment!

You have until Tuesday, September 7th at 11:59 PM PST to enter. Leave your link on this original post (directly to your entry, please) and remember to comment after you play! You could win FOUR digi images from our store if you play along and use an InStyle Stamps image. If you don't use one of our images, you could win TWO digi images from us.

Here are the rules:

• Make a new card using our sketch (you are welcome to combine with other challenges)
  
• Link directly to your post
• Mention our challenge, or use the picture of our sketch on your post - be sure to link back to us!
  

Be sure to link your amazing creation to this post to be entered to win!

A Place for Your Notes

Happy Monday!!! Kerry here - hope you had a wonderful weekend. It's my turn for Method Monday, and I would like to share a simple project with you. Let's get started!

You will need:

• a 12"x12" cork tile
• a 12" x12" cardstock (main frame - dark blue)
• a 11.5" x 11.5" cardstock (inside frame - light blue)
• your favorite ISS image
• embellishment(s) of your choice

First, you have to create a frame. So, using your first piece of 12"x12" cardstock, measure at 2" (cut a straight line) from 2" to 10". Repeat for the next 3 sides.

Here is the picture of the frame #1.

Then use the 11.5" x 11.5" cardstock. Measure at 1" (cut a straight line from 1" to 10.5"), and repeat for the next 3 sides.

Once you have completed these steps, your frame will look like the picture above.

Now, for the the fun part... time to decorate!!! I used Trish for my project, and I also added some chipboard letters, 2 thumbtacks, and more chipboard goodies.

Really simple, right? Hope you give it a try! Leave a link to your project here so we can all come and see it!!

Release Week Recap

We hope you loved all of the images we released last week, and all of the samples that our designers shared with you! In case you missed any of it, here is a quick list of all of the images we shared (each one links to the post about it, so you can see the samples).

Tree Tire
Summer Breeze
Buzz
Flower Love
Raining Tilly
Summer Tilly
Linc
Let's Hang
Ellie
Alma
Hanna

All of the images are available in the store now! To find them quickly, look in the What's New section. Happy Shopping!

Get InSpired With Us!

Have you had a chance to play along with our InSpiration challenge this month? We are using this beautiful nursery room picture we found at Room Decorating Ideas. Aren't the colors and the clean lines fabulous?

Our designers came up with some amazing inspiration to share with you! Check out some of their projects:

Barbara used the three small pictures frames as her jumping off point, and made a sweet little animal trio using Hanna, Ellie, and Linc. All three are digi images!

Axa went shopping with Molly. She's available as a digi image and a cling rubber stamp, but is currently out of stock. Don't worry, though - she'll be back soon!



Kimme used bold flowers to accent her darling Hanna. Love the fabulous patterns and colors on this!!

We would love to have you play along with us! Just make a card or project using our photo as inspiration and link your awesomeness to this original post. You have until Tuesday, September 14th at 11:59 PM PST to enter!!

Have You Seen Our Sketch?

This month we had a little fun with our sketch challenge - not only did the whole team follow a sketch, but everyone made easel cards, too!

Have you had a chance to play along in our sketch challenge yet?? There's still plenty of time, and we'd love to see what you create! You don't have to make your card an easel card, but we encourage you to try it out! Here is the sketch:

Virginia used our Sunflower digi image - isn't it gorgeous?!?!

Kerry made an adorable card with Paula - how cute is she? Paula can be purchased in digi or cling rubber format!

Angela wowed us with a Hanna card. Hanna was released this week, and is now available as a digi image in the store!

You have until Tuesday, August 31st at 11:59 PM PST to enter. Leave your link below (directly to your entry, please) and remember to comment after you play! You could win FOUR digi images from our store if you play along and use an InStyle Stamps image. If you don't use one of our images, you could win TWO digi images from us.

Here are the rules:

• Make a new card using our sketch (you are welcome to combine with other challenges)
  
• Link below, directly to your post
• Mention our challenge, or use the picture of our sketch on your post
  

Be sure to link your amazing creation to this post to be entered to win!