Christmas Preview: Joy to the World

I don't know about you, but I just can't get enough of this Christmas stuff! Sure, I get just as mad as the next person about the retailers shoving Christmas down our throats before it's even Halloween. But there's something different about creating handmade items that you know will be sent to friends and neighbors far and wide and filled with love and family pride!

Today, I bring you a new design with one of my favorite Christmas stamps. And when I saw this card by Susan Raihala over at her blog Simplicity, I just knew I had to try it for myself. I loved the effect of tracing the line in the sand with the scissors to really give the effect of the wisemen shuffling through the dessert sands on their way to find the King. Couple that with the genius use of white space and you have a combination that equals perfection, IMHO. We opted to allow the scene to take center stage, but to keep the sentiment from disappearing altogether, we embossed it in gold for just a bit of dimension and sparkle.

All of our Christmas products are available for immediate order. This card is available in packs of 10 for $30, or you may purchase any design individually for $5 each (prices excluding shipping).

Keep stopping in - we have plenty more to share!

Christmas Preview: Let Earth Receive Her King

Good day, everyone! The holidays are in full swing here at HNI. Whitney and I sit around listening to Christmas music on Pandora while we work. I *heart* Christmas music, especially the classics. I really could listen to it all year. But I digress. On to today's reveal!

We've invested in some new stamp sets this year, and we absolutely fell in love with The Sounding Joy set from SU!. So many possibilities with this set. For this card, we chose to layer the beautiful star (lyrics from "Joy to the World") with the gorgeous sentiment "Let earth receive her King." And what better way to reinforce our royal theme than with a royal color scheme. To make the sentiment really pop, we chose to emboss it and then pop up the panel. The kraft base reminds me of the stable - absolutely fitting, don't you think?!

We're really loving all of the designs that we're creating this year, and we hope you do too. Remember, all of our Christmas preview items are available for order RIGHT NOW. Each card design is available in packs of 10 for $30 or you can purchase individual card designs for $5 each (shipping excluded).

We have LOTS more to share with you, so stop by tomorrow.

Christmas Preview: Twinkling Trees

Hello, everyone! I hope your week is going well. Today, I'm super-excited to bring you a preview of one of the cards in our 2011 Christmas Collection - Twinkling Trees.

We were really late in introducing our 2010 line, so we felt that a few of our designs didn't get enough love. This lovely card is a perfect example. While the design is recognizable from last year, you may notice that we've spruced it up a bit to give it some more punch.

I love the simplicity of the design - a little sparkly embossing powder, the perfect stamps, and *voila* Sometimes you don't have to have a lot of bells and whistles to exact the perfect amount of holiday cheer! All of our designs are available for immediate order. Each set of 10 is $30 or you can purchase an individual card for $5 each (shipping not included). What a cheerful bargain!

We hope you like what you've seen so far. We have more exciting reveals on the way!

Congratulations

Good Monday to all! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. We've been busy here at HNI. Our Holiday Sweat Shoppe is going full throttle and we couldn't be more excited.

Today, though, I have a different reason to celebrate. Recently, some dear friends of mine got married, and no gift would be complete without a handmade card to express best wishes, right?! In making this special card, I took this design a step further by incorporating the bride's colors and a portion of the wedding invitation. And I found this Viva la Verve challenge perfect for the layout - a perfect balance of all of the elements I wanted to include. I used some Glimmer Mist to mute the white flowers and to change the color of my eyelet ribbon so that both would better coordinate with the other papers I had selected.

When all was said and done, I really loved the look and I especially loved the personal touches that let the new couple know that this card was made especially for them on their special day.

Thanks for stopping in today. We have some VERY exciting holiday reveals coming up this week; so be sure you pop back in!

Sitting Next to You

Good Tuesday, everyone! I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend as much as we did. The weather finally cooled off and it turned out to be the most wonderful weekend to be outside. And so I spent the majority of it out in my new outdoor kitchen/entertaining space!

Unfortunately, because I was so interested in lounging around outside, I wasn't paying very good attention to the challenge deadline calendar for this wonderful creation. But I shall give props to the inspiration challenges anyway.

Last week, Whitney told you about a client of ours who asked for pet sympathy cards. This particular client runs a boutique catering to pet owners and she hasn't been able to find "good" pet sympathy cards. In my own experience, I know exactly what she's talking about! So I've always made my own. And now we'll be providing some of our personal designs to others for those times when you need to express condolences to friends on the loss of their furry loved ones.

This card was made with cat owners in mind. I don't know if your sweet kitties are anything like mine, but they are definitely lap companions. And my furry felines always bring to mind the phrase "Sitting next to you is my favorite thing to do." I believe this sentiment goes both ways.

Our design was inspired by this Sweet Stop Sketch. It was perfect for creating our little living room scene. And what better to make the scene more realistic than a little felt! The gals over at Moxie Fab challenged us to use felt and we knew it would work perfectly in this design. We popped it up to give the scene a little more depth and dimension. The muted color scheme really draws your eye to the couch where the kitty sits.

When all finished, we really loved how this one turned out. Hope you do too!

Hellloo.

Howdy everyone!

Today I wanted to bring to you another card that is in a group of cards called Pet Sympathy cards. We had a special request to make these, and we have finally made out initial 5 designs. I don't know about y'all but I think my pup Hamlet is the best thing ever. He is about my favorite thing in the world, and I would be devastated if anything ever happened to him. I love that this set of cards we are making helps ease the sorrow that one feels when their 4 legged friend leaves them. In this process, we really had to think about what we would want to get in the mail after such a tragedy. You do not want to be too happy or too sad, you have to keep a general design that is pleasing and not too crowded, and I really think that today's design fits all of these, and it is one that I absolutely LOVE. The colors and layout mixed with the image and sentiments seems just perfect to me. I would love to get some support as sweet as this after losing the love of my life (don't tell my hunny that. lol). The layout of this card was inspired by Simon Says Stamp's Challenge here.

Since this card is all about dogs, I thought I would post a picture of my 4 legged child, Hamlet. He is almost 3 years old and is FULL of energy. He loves to run, play and go for walks. He is also the best snuggler. :) Well, I hope you have a great day and show some extra love to your pets if you have any. Have a good one! (Hamlet says "Ruff!")

Sending some sunshine

Good morning all,

We have officially broken our streak of +100 degree weather here in North Texas after 40 days with temperatures in the 100's. We definitely are not lacking any sunshine here, but for those who might be, we have a perfect card to send your way!
This cutie is an adaptation of one I made before, but we chose to make it a little cleaner and do White on White for the current Simon Says Stamp Challenge. We love this cute little scene, and thought that it was perfect for one of our Cards Of The Month for the lovely ladies who get one of our cards in the mail each month. We love using our new PTI dies and of course, my favorite, Lawn Fawn stamps!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed your short time with us! I am gonna enjoy this 90 degree weather! Such a cool front! :)

Hoppin' Good Birthday

Good morning, everyone! I hope your week has gotten off to a great start.

Today, I have a super cute card to share with you that is a part of our new Simply Birthday pack. The entire card is based around a sketch - the Week 1 Viva la Verve sketch for August, to be precise. After admiring our creation when finished, we also realized that it works for the current Wee Memories Dare to Color challenge - after all, there are certainly more than 4 colors going on here!

Knowing that we were designing a birthday card, we wanted the colors to be bright & cheerful so we began digging through our patterned paper stash. That's when we found this adorable fish paper, which got our wheels turning ... the sketch lent itself perfect to an ocean scene! And we just happened to have some really cute ocean-themed, glittery foam ... and, well, you can see what happened from there. We used some new PTI dies to make the sun and we pulled in a strip of cork to give illusions of the sand on the beach.

When all was said and done, Whitney and I were both over the moon with how c-u-t-e, CUTE this card turned out! I would love to get this in my mailbox. Wouldn't you??

Thanks for swimming by today!

Party Hats!

Good Thursday Mornin' Y'all!

It is HOT HOT HOT here in North Texas, so Susan and I are staying cool inside while working on some more fun projects. We have lots of orders, which is great, and just got our biggest one delivered the other day, so YAY! It is nice to check things off the list, and it seems like we are on a roll. We are almost done with our new Simply Birthday Pack and this is one of the cute cards we are adding to the mix. It is CAS which is my usual style, and bright and cheery which makes me happy. We thought we would pick a plethora of colors for this one-layer wonder, going right along with Wee Memories' current challenge #63 Dare to Color.  The initial inspiration came from Chupa's recent post here. The party hats worked great as solid colors, and the sentiment just "sang" to us! :) We thought the music notes from Lawn Fawn's 'Teeny Tiny Backdrops' really brought to sentiment to life. It just makes me wanna sing the whole song...which I did....while making this card!

Well ladies, I know Susan has an ADORABLE card to share tomorrow, so we hope to see you back! Thanks for stoppin' by, and stay cool!

Mixing it Up

Happy Saturday! I hope you're all enjoying a little respite from the work week. I know I sure am. Whitney and I have been quite busy with a queue FULL of orders. Whoohoo!

Today I'm bringing you one design that we made for a client who was looking for a unique set of thank-you cards. When I saw this month's Diva Dare over at Verve, I just knew it would be perfect for this set. AND we have this pack of patterned paper that we've just been itching to use on something. And *voila* this beautiful card was born.

Do you ever have paper that you just fell in love with but then find difficulty using? That would certainly apply to the paper we used for this set. It's all cream & white patterns - a mixture of toile, stripes, filigree, and damask. Simply stunning but a bit challenging to use without losing it in the overall design of the card. With designs this gorgeous, you want them to speak for themselves, if ykwim?!

Oddly enough, we hadn't thought to let the patterns stand alone until the Verve Divas dared us to be Sentimental About Paper! All we needed was a few pop dots, a little pop of sparkly color, and a simple sentiment to make the design complete. Why a simple sentiment? Well, for this particular job, we didn't need a sentiment that said it all because the client would be using these beauties to write personal notes to her intended recipients. But you can see how this design is easily adaptable to accommodate a much larger/longer/wordier sentiment.

For me, the combination of this fantastic paper along with the beautiful turquoise accents really seals the deal. Yum!

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you've enjoyed the visit.

Coral?? Really??

Howdy, everyone!

I hope you're staying cool. It sure is h-o-t, HOT here and I know it is in other parts of the country too. Sure, we're used to heat but not for a month straight! My poor a/c is running all. the. time. Which means that it's a great time to be inside making goodies!

Up for you this evening is a card for our new Simply Birthday pack. We want our pack to be as diverse as the people who will receive them, so we're mixing it up with images and color schemes.

Today's color scheme comes from this week's ColourQ challenge - early espresso, calypso coral, pool party, island indigo, and white. I'll be honest, I loved it all until I saw the coral. And you wanna know what I groaned to Whitney? "Do you think we can substitute an orange without anyone noticing? Orange is so much more ... I don't know, birthdayish." *snicker* Needless to say, I found this color scheme pretty challenging!

But once we started pulling papers and possible stamp sets to use, it all kinda came together. We saw this card by Mariana Grigsby in our browsing this week and decided the layout was just perfect for our card. We knew that our blue hues would serve as the anchors, while the key to making it all work would be to make the most challenging color - coral - the "color pop." What can be coral-colored? *insert Jeopardy theme* Of course...flowers! And that pared down our stamp choices considerably. We used the brown, along with pop dots, to make our sentiment panel stand out against the busy background and the scalloped grossgrain ribbon added a nice touch to finish it all out.

When all was said and done, I was surprised to find that I liked the card so much ... coral and all! So thanks, ColourQ, for making me spread my wings and break outside my very boring color box!!

Critters in the cake!

Heelllloooo Everyone!

We are so happy to bring to you an amazingly cute card we put together this week. We got some new Lawn Fawn stamps in, and after seeing Kelly Marie's you tube video using Bake Me A Cake here, we decided that paper piecing this cute card would be perfect! We also have some recent animal inspiration and thought we would go with that to bring extra cuteness to this birthday card! The polka-dot papers worked great for this fun cake...or stack of presents, whichever you see it as, and the orange, yellow, and blue accents seemed like good bold accents between the multitude of colors this card has going on! A simple layout inspired by the sketch over at Sweet Stop proved perfect for this cute little scene! A touch of color on the animals, a few pink noses, and it turned out better that we could have hoped!

Thanks so much for stopping by! We have more cute stuff coming over the weekend! So see you back here soon!

08/03/11: Thanks to the ladies over at the Lawnscaping Challenge who spotted this card on their patrol this week and gave us a shout-out on their blog!!

HELLLLOOOO!

Hi Everyone!!!

Susan and I have taken a little hiatus over the past couple weeks due to our ridiculously crazy lives, but we are back in full force and have TONS of projects to share with you. We have been busy, we just haven't snagged the time to post all of them right away. With that being said, we wanted to share with you all today another addition to our recently requested pack of cards titled "Difficult Anniversary". These cards are meant to be sent to someone on a difficult anniversary, be it a wedding or birthday of someone who has passed away. This card is one of my favorites and could be used for so many different occasions, but we chose an inside sentiment specifically for this pack. I never thought the color scheme would be so perfect, but it has really become a combo I am very fond of! It is amazing what 1 accent color can do for the whole card!!

Well, I hope you all love it as much as I do!

See you back tomorrow!!

Sending Some Sunshine

Good Afternoon All,
I am excited to share with you today a new card for our Simply Sunshine pack. It is fun, bright, cheery, and CAS of course! Susan and I got in some new dies and we are having fun using them! Today's card uses a few new ones, and also some cute critters from Lawn Fawn's Critters In The Burbs. The dog and cat go so well together, that I just HAD to use them together. I usually like mixing sets up, but this one just seemed right. I chose to enter this one in Lawnscaping Challenge #11 which is clean and simple, ad right up my alley. Now, I am no pro, but I also was able to work on my watercoloring skills for this beauty, and I really think I am coming along nicely. Well I hope you enjoy the post for today! We will see you back here soon!

Feel Better Soon Flowers

Good Morning!

I hope everyone is waking up as refreshed as I am. I have a fun post to bring you all this morning, one that I really love. This Get Well card is from the most recent Assortment Pack we are putting together here at HNInk! It is bright and cheery enough to make anyone's day, but seems perfectly perky for that friend who might be feeling under the weather. There is nothing a few flowers can't fix, and it helps that the colors are so vibrant! I love that there is lots of white space, something I am quickly swooning for. I am always thinking about white space when brainstorming now! We thought this would be a perfect example of our style here at HNI and that is why we wanted to enter it in Wee Memories Challenge 59 Free For All! I usually don't enter these very often because I am a super sucker for getting inspiration from something and going from there, but I really love how this card turned out. It is based on this card by Latisha Yost. 

 Thanks for stopping in today! See you all back here tomorrow!!

Dad...My Guide, My Compass

Hey there! Thanks for joining us for our second reveal of our 2011 Father's Day card designs. When designing our line, we gave serious thought to what we wanted each card design to represent. We wanted each of them to be more than just a card that goes in a drawer. We wanted each one to speak to its recipient and convey a special message from each cardgiver.

Today's card speaks to the stalwart. Not only is this dad dependable and steadfast but he is an ever-present compass and moral guide on his child's journey of life. We felt like the Viva la Verve sketch from Week 3 really reinforced this simple yet effective message. We took a few liberties with the sketch, but if you study the card, you will see that each element is firmly in place - just not in the form that you may have expected. Simple but oh-so effective! Wouldn't you say? The color scheme is one of our tried and true masculine favorites. What better way to reinforce dependable and steadfast than with a favorite color scheme? I love the effect of the white craft ink on the chocolate - aged, worn, like dad's favorite shirt.

What do you think? Have we achieved what we set out to convey in our design?

Thanks for stopping by!

Steadfast and True...Dad

Well, yesterday's little soap elicited some responses from you, dear readers. And honestly, I'm quite glad for that. Sometimes one wonders if there's any validity to the ideas that go floating across the ol' noggin. So it's nice to get some commentary.

As I mentioned, when Whitney and I designed this year's line of Father's Day cards, we really gave each some serious thought. We wanted them to speak, not only to the cardgiver, but also to each intended recipient.

Today's card design speaks to all of those dads we see as the mighty oaks of the family. They are steadfast, true, strong, an ever-present shelter in both fair and foul weather. This week's Color Splash Challenge over at The Playdate Cafe was absolutely perfect for this card, particularly since we were able to use a neutral, like kraft. The splash of green is perfect for our sheltering tree. The sketch is straight from Saturday's Sweet Stop Sketch. Turn it on its side and *voila* the perfect design!

Thanks for dropping by today. We hope that you've enjoyed the second of three Father's Day card designs!

Faithful, Dependable, Comfortable ... Dad

Hey, everyone! Are you enjoying your holiday weekend? I heard an interesting observation about Memorial Day that really made me stop and think. So often we take the true meaning of the holiday for granted and merely view it as a means to a long weekend when instead we should be both remembering and celebrating those who have believed that "some things really are worth fighting for." So thank you to the fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, and friends who have believed and still believe that this great nation and its ideals are worth fighting for!

Oddly enough, this same notion made me reflect upon Father's Day. I know you may be thinking: Susan, you've rocked OUT of your rocker! But follow me for a second. So often we become desensitized to the meaning behind a holiday and merely focus on the celebration itself. Don't get me wrong, celebrating is important. But I think that consumerism has led us away from true intent. So in designing our Father's Day cards, we asked ourselves: what does Father's Day really mean; what messages do we want our cards to convey?

Today's card is for those fathers who we view as great protectors with soft hearts and comfy hugs. They're much like their favorite chair - faithful, dependable, trustworthy, comfortable, comforting, safe. That's why we chose a stamp from On My Couch (Papertrey Ink) as our focal image. It truly wrapped up this message in one convenient package. Our masculine color scheme and eye-catching addition of text is from this week's Embellish Color Trends Challenge. I really loved how the soft color palette reinforced the feelings of calm, comfort, and serenity that so many of us think of when describing our dads. The CAS layout is straight from the Viva La Verve Sketch May Week 1. The sketch was ideal in its simplicity, which really allows the image and imagery to take center stage.

When all was said and done, both Whitney and I stood back and gave ourselves big ol' pats on the back for how well this design was formed and executed. I'd like to tell you it's my favorite design of all of our 2011 Father's Day card designs, but let me tell you, when you see some of the others, you'll see why I'm not so quick to commit! But this one ranks right at the top for sure!

Thanks for dropping in today - I hope my little step up on the holiday soap box doesn't scare you away from the other terrific designs we have to share with you!

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A big THANK YOU to Paige for choosing this card as 1 of 26 featured in the Create: Blog! Father's Day Challenge. If you've come here from the Create: Blog, welcome! And thanks for stopping by.

CONGRATS!

Hello All,

It is about that time in the year, when graduates are making their way through finals, papers, and across the stage. What better way to tell them what a magnificent or amazing job they did (whether expected or not) than a fun and cheery Congratulations card! I know when I graduated, it was super exciting to see how many people were truly excited and congratulatory about my hard work and success. It really makes you feel appreciated after all those late nights in the library. So with that as my inspiration, I threw together the idea of STARS! and I love the simplicity of this card. It is definitely CAS with Kraft as a beautiful and complimentary backdrop to my bright and bold stars, and add a simple sentiment...TA-DA! I was stoked to decide that I would pop up the stars on 3, you heard it...3 different levels. It really gives it good dimension in real life, even though it is not SOO dramatic in the picture! I promise, it looks awesome! This worked out perfectly for the Pop It Up! challenge over at Paper Sundaes. It is my new favorite card, which I say often, but still!

Thanks for stopping by! May your stamps stay inky!!

Special Delivery

Hello, ladies! (And my apologies if we have any gents. Hello to you, too! *waving*) And happy Tuesday to everyone. Having been out of the swing of things for so long, I'm feeling a little rusty but am SO loving be back in the craft room and back in good graces with my card-making mojo!

Today, I'm sharing the second card that I made last night. This card will complete our custom order for a 21-card variety pack for our customer's grandmother. So without further adieu, let's get to it.

To finish out the pack, I needed a baby card design. Whitney did a fantastic job of keeping all of the baby designs fairly gender-neutral. And my choice of color scheme (a la this week's CR84FN Color Challenge 29) kind-of teeters on the edge. I really liked this week's Mojo Monday Sketch 192, and so that is the inspiration behind the layout.

I had great fun sorting through our stash of patterned papers for this design. To me, the sketch really allowed for larger patterns. I was thrilled to find two very fun patterns in the stash. I mean, who doesn't love cheetah print? *grin* And the large polka dot worked perfectly to give the eye a rest from all of that wild cheetah print and it also made a perfect grounding for the sentiment.

You'll notice I adapted the sketch in several ways. Since our aim for this custom order was to keep all of the designs light enough to mail with a standard first-class postage stamp, I opted to eliminate the bottom layer (shown in black) of matting beneath the patterned paper. Instead, I cut the patterned paper just a wee bit smaller than the kraft background I was using and allowed that to peek from behind and serve as my mat. Secondly, in lieu of the ribbon in the center, I opted to use a larger sentiment stamp as the center element and matted it in a plum color just a shade darker than the plum I stamped the sentiment on to give it just enough dimension to be the all-important focal point. I loved the scallop circle element in the sketch and chose to keep it by punching my own scalloped circle from a sheet of cork. I was so excited to finally have the opportunity to use cork on a card! I added a threaded button in the center and popped it all up to give the allusion of a flower. You'll notice that I did not completely eliminate the tag element from the sketch. Instead, I left long tails on the threading, allowing the bottom tail to drape across the sentiment panel.

When all was said and done, I was elated with the finished result. I must admit that I doubted myself just a wee bit on my combination of patterns. But as I suspected when I got started, the sketch was the key to making them all work together in harmony! I hope you agree!

Thanks for visiting today - have a great day!

Congrats, You're a Star

Hey, everyone! Thanks for stopping in this evening. It's shaped up to be a beautiful day here, which made it kinda hard to come home and go to "work" again. *grin* But I'm glad I did b/c I'm pleased as punch with the two cards I made tonight.

While on vacation, I left Whitney with the lion's share of the work on a custom order that I took before I left. The customer is looking for a wide variety of cards to give to her grandmother as a birthday gift - a total of 21 cards in all! Since our variety packs have been our biggest sellers (by the pack anyway), it actually turned out to be a great opportunity to develop more designs. I must say that Whitney did an AWESOME job while I was gone and made some really, really FANTASTIC cards - 19 in all!

So tonight, I'm sharing with you one of two that I am contributing to the pack: a congratulations design. Since we haven't had much time to participate in many challenges lately, I thought it would be a terrific opportunity to go searching for one or two for inspiration for this design. And I had no trouble finding a few to spur the creative juices.

I began with the layout, where I turned to this week's Sweet Stop Saturday Sketch 109 (w/ a spin!). The simple design made it easy to have the sentiment take center stage. Next, I needed a color scheme, and when I saw this week's Embellish Color Trends Tag Challenge, I knew that it would be absolutely perfect for what I had in mind.

With both sketch and color scheme firmly in hand, I set about trying to figure out how to make it all work. For me, the hardest part was figuring out how to make the pale, dusty pink work with such an overall masculine color scheme. And that's when it hit me: make it a small accent color. And *voila* that also solved the dilemma of how to make the center tag w/ its cute star punchout not disappear into the background. Two birds, one stone - me likey!

The other elements just fell into place. I knew I wanted the darkest color to serve as the backdrop for the whole design. And I liked the lighter blue as just the *pop* of color in the center. To draw one's eye to the focal panel, I chose to pop it up. Getting those lovely little tags to line up was no easy fete, but I managed to make it work ... somehow. (Now I know why I generally only use one of those at a time!) HINT: it never hurts to use a pop dot or two if you want tags to both pop out & stay put! When I was all finished, I felt like the card was still missing a little something. So I lightly misted it with GlimmerMist. Perfecto!

You wanna hear a funny confession?? I didn't even see "the spin" on the sketch until after I was composing this post! Awesome how it accidentally I totally intended to make it a masculine card and that it just so happened to give me the "spin" I needed! *snicker*

Thanks for stopping in this evening. Drop back in tomorrow for my second card!

Anniversary Bling!

Happy Sunday Morning to Everyone!

It is still overcast here in North Texas, but that doesn't darken my mood at all! It has been a great week, AND I get to start a new job tomorrow! I am sooo excited. I am also excited to share with you a sweet anniversary card I made this week. With CAS-ual Friday's challenge being Bring on the Bling, AND Simon Say's Stamp - Sparkle and Shine, I took it to heart and added bling to almost all the cards I made. It really does jazz things up! And I decided to try and incorporate "blingy-ness" in ways other than purely gems, and on this card, I decided to heat emboss the image and sentiment in silver. I think silver is such a nice formal color and I like how it turned out on the gray paper. Romantic and sophisticated all in one. Of course I added some real bling with my gem, and I think the simplicity of the card really works. I also love doing tone on tone cards and I don't have too many chances to use my fancy 3 in 1 corner punch from fiskars. I then popped up the tone on tone panel so you could see the shadows through the cute corners! I love it! This is a perfect way to use Paper Sundaes Pop It Up challenge! So this card is using many new techniques and styles that I haven't used recently, and I am loving it! Simple and muted but elegant and sweet at the same time.

Hope you like it! Have a happy Sunday!!

Graduation is just WEEKS away!

Howdy, everyone! I've returned from my vacation in the Bahamas and am ready to get back to work. But with laundry to be done and details to take care of for a party tomorrow, crafty work for me will have to wait until Monday. =( BUT ... I'm coming to you today with an important reminder!


Do you know a graduate? Do you still need to send a card and/or gift? Let High Notes Ink customize a card just for your graduate. We offer both a traditional card and a money envelope - both of which are completely customizable to your graduate's school and school colors!

Our traditional card can double as a gift card / money holder. See the black panel underneath "Wishing you ..." on the right-hand photo? It's actually a pocket - perfect for sliding in a little green!

Our money mailer is perfect for a gift card or check. And we've even included a panel on the back of the envelope perfect for a personal message to your grad!

With graduation just around the corner, don't delay in ordering if you want guaranteed delivery before the big day! Each card is just $5 plus shipping. To place an order for your graduation card, simply send us an email at highnotesink (at) gmail (dot) com. Please specify which school your grad hails from, graduation date (if known), along with any other personalized details you wish to add to your card.

Thanks!

Good Morning Ladies!

It is quite overcast here in North Texas today, which made it the perfect day to sleep in...til 9! Wow! I feel so rested. I thought I would post a quick post before we head out the door to take the dogs on a walk, and I wanted to bring you this SUPER CUTE Thank You card I made yesterday! As you know, (and I always say), I LOVE Lawn Fawn! Their stamps just float my boat! So, I decided to work my water color pencil magic on this little baby... I, unlike many people, am a SUPER FAN of white space. Whenever those challenges arise, I am so excited. I feel like for me, less is more most of the time, and I think that this is a perfect example of that! It is such a charming scene and would also work insanely well for a Miss You card (I just didn't need a Miss You in this particular pack). Well, just wanted share with you all! Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Happy Friday!

Hello All,
I hope you are having a wonderful day. I have spent a WEEK now buried in the craft room, and although I love it, it can get to be a little much! Although, when I look at the cards I have made over this week, I am truly proud of myself! I made a pack of 25 NEW DESIGNS for a customer, and then made 2 - 5 card duplicate packs for another customer! It has been a whirl-wind week, but WOW!! It is definitely harder when there isn't someone to bounce your ideas off...let's just say there was plenty of trial and error!

Well, without any more jibber jabber, today I bring you a super adorable get well card AND a CAS new baby card! TWO CARDS!! Oh my! This must be a good day!

First is the Get Well card. This card was inspired by Pattie's cute card here. I LOVE the bicycle, and I had a different one, but it still worked! I also knew I had to add in this super fun ribbon that goes with chevron chic challenge by Moxie Fab! I decided to bust out the water color pencils AND the brushes, and tried my hand at water coloring the flowers and little bits of the bike! I actually got pretty decent in one day, and I will post another of those fun creations later on this weekend!!

Now on to the baby card, which is also adorable and definitely CAS!! I got the sketch here from Waltzing Mouse blogspot! What a great layout, it really is perfect for so many things! I originally wanted to make it a Congratulations card with fireworks instead of flowers, but I don't have a fireworks stamp! lol. So I brainstormed a bit, and I came up with this! Added a couple gems to the sentiment and I think it is fabulous! I love monochromatic colors if you didn't notice already, and I think that the yellow is so perfects for that baby card you just need to have on hand and is not specifically for a boy or girl! It is just so sweet too!!!




Thanks for stopping by everyone!! Oh, and BOTH of these cards will be entered into CAS-ual Friday's challenge for this week, which is Bring On The Bling! I cannot tell you how many cards I added gems to TODAY! It was amazing and liberating all at the same time! Have a GREAT weekend, see you back here tomorrow!

What, Whitney? It's your birthday??

**If You are here to see the Teacher Thank You card for PES, please scroll down or go here.**

and yes it is my birthday! 

Today is my birthday, and I will be turning a whole 23 years old! Yes, you heard it, 23!! There is nothing exciting about this, but I DID get to spend all week in the craft room, and that was fun enough for me!! While I have been hiding out in here all week, I actually have gotten TONS accomplished. Today I wanna bring you another birthday card that we are using for a new assortment pack. It it great to get some new stamps all inky! It is so fun! So, without further ado, I bring you this fun and happy birthday card based on CR84FN's most recent color challenge, and also tailored expressions challenge! I love the bright and bold colors for any birthday card, and this layout worked perfectly for this party hat stamp! I added some gems on the point of each hat and it makes we smile to look at them! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and I would personally love to receive a cute card like this! (not to toot my own horn or anything. lol.)

Thank you all for stopping by! Check back tomorrow for more fun cards I have whipped up this week!!

Teachers...Summer is days away!!!

Good Evening Everyone!

I promised the teachers at the school where my father works, that I would post about a special offer I have going on for them. Soooo if this is your first time here, thanks for stopping by, and you are in the right place! As many of you do, knowing my father (who teaches pre-K through 2nd grade and seems to forget important things he needs until the night before [sound familiar to anyone?] hehe) is a pleasure!  Now, I being his daughter know that he is going to come to me the day before the last day of school, if not THE last day of school, and ask me for some Thank You cards he can give to the students who bring him end of the year gifts. With this in mind, I decided to send a little flyer to the school so that other teachers could be JUST as "prepared" as my dad would be! Now my dad is an enrichment teacher and has a bazillion students, but I am under the impression that most of the other teachers have much smaller classes!

So High Notes Ink is offering a GREAT deal to those teachers, which is 15 identical Thank You cards for just $15. We know how teachers are on a budget, trust me (my Dad always asks me to make the cheapest cards I can for him because he has to save up his milk money to buy them ;) teehee! ) so we thought of a way to make fun and cute school themed thank you cards, and this is what I created in the craft room yesterday! This cute but simple card reminds me a lot of elementary school. I love the serif font that the THANKS stamp is in, and I LOVE my Lawn Fawn apple. I thought it needed a little something more, so the red paper is embossed with little polka-dots (you can see better if you click on it). It really turned out great I think! The inside is blank so you can write whatever you wish, and also so if you end up with a few extras, you can use them throughout the year for other things.

Now Teachers, you have until THIS FRIDAY 5/20 to place your order by emailing us at highnotesink at gmail dot com. We will have your cards hand delivered to you ASAP and definitely before the last day of school. 




Thanks for stopping by today! You might see this card in another one of our packs sometime soon!!!

This card is made with the Lawnscaping Challenge for polka-dots and the white space challenge over at 365 Cards in mind. Thanks for the inspiration ladies!

Thank You Card number 13040606...Just Kidding!

Happy Monday everyone!

Sometimes it seems like I have made that many Thank You cards! Anyways, I am coming to you today from the craft room with a card we made a few days ago. We were so crazy in our regular lives (Susan was preparing for the CRUISE she is on this week [lucky] and I was working as usual) that we did not get it posted when we planned. We used the layout from iheart2stamp and the color scheme from last weeks CR84FN color challenge, and when I couldn't fine the right patterned paper, I decided to use the challenge at 365 Cards and just make my own. I really love flowers this time of year, they just seem to work for almost any kind of card. This one will be in our new Thank You pack and might also appear in a new Variety Pack that we are working on at the moment! Well, I will be in the craft room ALL week dreaming up new ideas! Thanks to all those lovely ladies out there who offer such inspiring challenges on their blogs! It really makes our job easier! :) Thanks for stopping by. The weather here in North Texas is to dye for. Cool in the shade, warm in the sun, and crystal blue skies as far as you can see! Pure heaven! Now it is time to get started on those teacher thank you cards everyone will be needing soon! Come back tomorrow to see what I come up with! Something CAS more than likely. ;D

Twins???

Hello All,
Wow, I have such luck that blogger went down RIGHT as I hit Publish on this very post, which it did not save or post! So I am writing it again! :) Anyways, we have a SUPER cute card for you all that was supposed to be for yesterday, but I will post it today! I love having reasons to make cards, and this is a good one. Susan's cousin is expecting TWINS! Yes I said it, TWO babies! One boy and one girl, and when I heard that, I knew I had to use this adorable Verve stamp! I had recently seen the color challenge at Inkspirations and chose to use the layout from The Sweet Stop. I had so much fun with this one because it is not as CAS as I usually make. I did some coloring with colored pencils, embossing, inking with a sponge... It was quite entailed for my kinda card!
Anyways, happy Friday to you all!

Birthday Blast

Hey, everyone! Our April showers have waited to fall in May. So I guess we'll have June flowers?! *snicker* We've gotten lots of rain over the last week or so. My grass is growing like crazy!

Today's card is the first in a new series called Birthday Boy. Up until now, I believe that we've had a great assortment of birthday cards good for all ages and sexes. But when you really get down to it, none of them were perfect for the kiddos. With the addition of a number of new stamp sets, a new line of cards is born! Over the next several weeks, you'll designs geared towards all those little girls and boys in your life.

Let's get to it, shall we? Today's card is based on this week's Mojo Monday sketch. Whitney used a super cute new stamp set we found on sale at Michael's. And I love, love, LOVE how she framed the focal image with the stars, which is our creative take on the 365 Cards Day 61 challenge to use a frame anywhere on a card. (It may not be exactly what they had in mind, but I think it totally works. *wink*) I love how the stars give the effect that the rocket is flying through space. And I love how Whitney then reinforced the journey into space theme by embossing stars in silver on the bottom panel.

One thing you may not have noticed at first glance is the rivet detail on the rocket. Just a small strip of silver beads there at the nose. That one element really shows you that you don't have to color an image to make it work. In fact, sometimes it works better to leave an image nekked (in the words of HRR Julie Ebersole). And this is certainly one of those times IMHO. All of the little details in combination with the simple, yet stunning, color scheme really makes the whole thing *pop*! We thought that the sentiment on the outside might be a little too distracting so it's inside and it reads, "I hope you have a BLAST on your birthday!"

Thanks for popping in today. I hope you've enjoyed your visit! Hop back by this afternoon for a special BONUS post.

The best form of flattery

Happy Wednesday, everyone! We've made it to the hump this week and are well on our way to the weekend. What are your plans?

While I've been at my dayjob this week, Whitney has been working away on lots of new product designs. Today, I have the pleasure of sharing with you the second card in our Difficult Anniversary pack.

When Whitney and I saw this week's TCP Tuesday (#158) color combo, we knew exactly where and how we would use it. The soft, muted colors lend themselves perfectly to a sympathy or thinking of you card. So naturally, we knew they would be perfect for the Difficult Anniversary pack. With a color scheme firmly in hand, we went on a quest for the perfect layout, so we went to our Pinterest pinboards and started browsing. (Have I mentioned Pinterest before? Oh my, this is such a wonderful site. And it's particularly handy for us. We're able to bookmark great layouts and ideas and know exactly how to get back to the posts where we first saw them. So much easier than our old system for bookmarking inspiration!) I found this wonderful card on the Hero Arts blog on one of my recent surfings.

We adapted the card design to incorporate the TCP colors and substituted images from our stash of stamps. Adaptation is the best form of flattery, no? *wink* We didn't have a flower stamp that filled up enough white space, so Whitney opted to incorporate the butterflies to fill in. I love how they seem to be flitting about on the card. I also love the text behind it on the main panel. It gives a nice elegant feel to the card and also incorporates text for the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays, which is a perfect site for Whitney's CAS cards! Nothing sends a little cheer like butterflies flying by, don't you think?? I think this just might be one of my favorite cards from this pack!

Thanks for stopping by today. We'll have more inspiration for you tomorrow. We hope you'll come back by for a visit.

for those Difficult Anniversaries...

Hello all,

It is quite gloomy here in North Texas today. Rain is in the forecast and I am in the craft room. Susan is working today, so I thought I could get some things knocked out today and for some reason, I am moving quite slowly. It must be the weather. :) Anywho, I was able to get some things done, and now I am finally getting to posting them. It isn't that we haven't been working, but that we have yet to post anything!

We have a great new pack coming out that is geared towards difficult anniversaries. We have had a customer request something like this since they are so difficult to find on store shelves. Today I have one of my favorites of the bunch, inspired by Joan over here at her blog Paperlicious. I loved the color scheme and the simplistic look. You all know me and my CAS cards, and this is one of them!!!

This card is also great for the challenge over at 365 Cards Day 59 using Kraft and Nature.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!!

Now it is time to cozy up with my pup and enjoy the dreary afternoon inside!

Thanks for stopping by!

Custom Invitations

Howdy, everybody and happy Wednesday!

Today we would like to share with you a recent custom order that we have been working on. Our client was looking for a sweet invitation to send for her daughter's christening. She wanted it to be light and airy and, of course, feminine and a little frilly. We worked through lots of samples trying to get it just right. Our client really loved this baby card and so we began tweaking the design to adapt it for the christening invitation. But something wasn't quite right. And then today when we saw the Your Next Stamp So Charming challenge, we knew exactly what was missing from our design - a sweet charm. And *voila* instant happy customer!

As you can see, we didn't change much on the original design b/c the customer was really in love with most of the card elements just as they were. We substituted a smaller sentiment and placed it so it was less prominent on the card front, at the client's request. And then we've added the twine, giving the appearance that the bouquet of flowers is tied together as a nosegay, and threaded this adorable little charm through to solidify the christening theme. The actual invitation is printed on the inside of the card (not shown).

When Whitney designed the original card, she kept saying that "it will be so versatile. I mean, we can use it for sweet birthday cards and all kinds of other things." And she was right (as usual).

Do you have an upcoming party or event? Do you have a special card in mind that you don't see offered? We are always happy to work on your custom orders! We've had nothing but happy customers thus far. Just pop over to our Facebook and see for yourself.

Thanks for stopping in today!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Good Morning fellow bloggers,

I hope everyone is doing well. Susan and I have been hard at work in the craft room cranking out card after card. We have had TONS of great response to our Mother's Day cards and are SO happy for that! Contrary to the weather here in North Texas, we have been quite cheery and springy between the two of us, and the card we have for you today is JUST THAT!


I LOVE LOVE LOVE Lawn Fawn as you all know, and I received this flower set as a prize from them. I have not had much luck in deciding how to use it until recently. After blog hopping and discovering pinterest.com, I came up with this fun springy card inspired by TCP Tuesday's Challenge 153 using Yellow, Orange, and Teal. I also loved that I was able to use the fun "gracias" stamp sent with our most recent order of Lawn Fawn products! I love having different ways to say "Thank You" on our cards...especially when we are turning out NEW "Thank You" variety packs!

 Anyways, it is nice to spice things up a bit here at High Notes Ink. We also are excited to enter this card into the VERVE Diva Dare where you are asked to make a card based on the title of this post - April Showers Bring May Flowers. I think that this card really channels the inner flower power and it just makes me think spring...even though it has been quite rainy here lately - but then again...the flowers are not supposed to come until MAY, and the saying does begin with April Showers...so I guess it is all going according to plan!

With that being said, keep your umbrellas handy and your stamps inky!

Thanks, Friend!

Good Saturday to everyone. I hope you're enjoying some lovely weather to plant some flowers in honor of Earth Day, which was yesterday.

And it's in that vein that I bring you a fun woodlands card today using a new Lawn Fawn set called Critters in the Forest that arrived on my doorstep last week. I love, love, love these critters, especially the fox. *wink* This set just gets my head spinning with all kinds of ideas. There are so many possibilities for building scenes, like this one. And how appropriate that this week's Lawnscaping Challenge is Calling All Critters!!

I sat down with these cuties and got to stamping. I wanted just the right look for this little woodland scene. And wouldn't you know that I came up with this card on the first try. That, my friends, is a FIRST! LOL! Rather than coloring all of these adorable images, I decided to take a little time and paper piece them. The designers over at Lawn Fawn make their stamps super user friendly in that respect. Selecting the right paper took more time than actually stamping them and cutting them out. I really loved the white space on this card and Whitney suggested the rounded corner to give that white space a little more purpose - perfect!

In honor of Earth Day and just a general desire to bring some happy to my patio, I'm off to plant boockoos of flowers! Thanks for popping in today.

In Honor of Earth Day

Back again!

We decided since it is also Earth Day today, that we would post something that represented this holiday, and we just happened to have this one from a few days ago!!  I LOVE Lawn Fawn as I have mentioned before, and this Critters in the Burbs set is ADORABLE! I got the sketch over at The Get Sketchy Blog and thought it would work great for this cute outdoor scene. I LOVE the squirrel and it is just precious with this tree. I don't usually paper piece but this was too easy and I knew it would bring so much more to the card. As we all know, CAS is my style and I think that this really is just that! This card will be one in our NEW Thank You pack that is now for sale. We sold so many of the first packs of Thank You Cards that people needed more and different styles, so since the customer called, of course we answered. You will be seeing some more of these little babies soon! Thanks for coming by again! We love it when you do!

Happy Earth Day to all! Be sure to step outside and enjoy it!

The Perfect Bouquet

Happy Good Friday to all,

Susan and I are enjoying the half-day of work by getting things rolling in the craft room. We are working like busy bees turning out Thank You cards and brainstorming for some contests. It always feels good to ink up some stamps that just came in or use a set that you really have yet to break in! But aside from those projects, we wanted to share with you the final Mother's Day selection for Mother's Day 2011! It is coming up, and this final option has proven to be the MOST popular in the sales so far and we hope that you all like it too! 

The sketch is simple and seen all over, but we thought that the color scheme and image really work for a loving and simple (do I make anything that is not?) card perfect for that Mother who has made all the difference in your life. I added a touch of purple Stickles in the center of the flowers, which was Susan's idea. I love how it turned out. This image by SU! is so versatile. We use it for so many things and it can really go any direction! 

Thanks for stopping by today! We hope that you all have a Hoppy Easter Weekend! 

Mommy, Dearest

Hello all,

Coming to you today from a gloomy and rainy North Texas. Today I wanted to share with you another fabulous Mother's Day card that we are offering this year. This one is sure to bring a little glimmer to this dreary afternoon. The card that I came up with is one that I though up for my own mother...a little sweet, a little sassy, and I thought it was just perfect for my Fashion Forward Interior Designer of a Mother! As I have mentioned before, I have a certain love for Black and White. These papers and cute stamp really make this card pop and a tad of color on her outfit adds some sparkle and glitz! Be sure to come back and visit tomorrow to see our final option for Mother's Day cards!! I am sure you will be able to find one that will work for the fabulous mom in your life!

See you all tomorrow for the reveal of the final Mother's Day Card option!!!