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June 30, 2011

Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop!!!!

Hi blogland, and welcome to the Young Crafter's Unite Blog Hop!
 https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=ce141941a4&view=att&th=130d736f1671fca1&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_gph34h030&zw
What a great reason to have a blog hop! By now, you should know a few key things.  First, be sure to comment as you go on the blog hop for a chance to win some AMAZING prizes!  =)  Second, the theme of the hop (other than young crafters) was to use our favorite things!

If you are hopping along, you should have made your way here from Deena's Blog.  If you just stumbled upon this post and would like to start from the beginning, please head over to www.youngcraftersunite.com!  The blog hop starts at 12:00 PM CST on July 1st!  =)

So what makes me a young crafter?  Well, I'm only 27 so my age qualifies me as pretty young, but also I definitely have a very fun, whimsical and vibrant style that gives my cards a cutesy and young feeling!  I truly believe that my personality is that of someone that will always be young at heart no matter how old I get, and that I show that style often through my paper crafts!  =)

For this blog hop, I chose to feature two of my three favorite stamping companies.  I also tried to use many of my favorite products to make these two cards.

When I really got back into card making about a year ago, two stamp companies really stood out to me and caught my eye as fitting my style!  The first was DeNami Design!  If you've never checked out their awesome, high quailty, adorable rubber stamps, you should!  DeNami has a fabulous style and is known for their cute and whimsical images, especially animals: 
Here's a card showing off some of my favorite DeNami Design images - their owls!  I just think they are so cute, versatile, and super easy to paper-piece (another thing I love about DeNami stamps)!  And how cute is that sentiment?  I also used some of my other favorite products for this card: VersaMark watermark ink (the best for watermark images AND embossing) and Copic markers.  I cut and colored the tree free-hand!  Here's a close-up of the Copic coloring:

The second stamp company that caught my eye when I started blogging is ALSO super whimsical, fun, full of animal images, and easy to paper piece!  That's right, it's Lawn Fawn!  =)  Lawn Fawn has super high quality photopolymer clear stamps that are fun and easy to use!  Again, I chose animals (and birds too, I do like birds on cards) and did a lot of paper piecing:
One of the things I love most about Lawn Fawn's stamp sets is how well they all work together!  Here I'm using several Lawn Fawn sets: Critters in the Snow, Hats off to You, Bannerific, Sophie's Sentiments (I needed the loose exclamation point), AND Teeny Tiny Backdrops.  I also used Copic markers again here (because they are awesome), and two of my other favorite types of ink: Memento's Tuxedo Black (the best all around for Copic coloring), and Tim Holtz's Distress Inks (here showing in Broken China and Tumbled Glass, these inks are super versatile and amazing for creating a distressed look or many other inking techniques).  Finally, I used a new favorite tool here - my Spica Glitter pen!  If you've never used one of those, they are amazing and worth every penny!  =)

Finally, there are TWO favorite items that I have that I use ALL of the time but that didn't make it on either card, and I wanted to take a second to share those items with you because they both rock!  First are my handmade clay embellishments that I make with my molds from MoldMuse.  These molds are SO easy to use and produce beautiful embellishments:

Second, I love pearls!  I've tried many pearls from many different stamp companies, but my FAVORITE by far, for both quality, price, and convenience, are the pearls from Queen and Co.  I love these pearls because they come in a TON of colors, they are individually adhered (not attached by a row of adhesive), and each package of 60 (which includes 3 sizes) runs between $1 and $1.50!  Here's a picture of mine, which you can see are very loved:

 
OK!  I know that was a long post but in the past few years I've learned a lot and have a lot of favorites and I wanted to pay homage to them all correctly!  =)  It's time to hop along to Jillian's blog!  Thanks for stopping by, happy hopping young crafters!  =)

54 comments:

  1. Cute cards, Kristy! Love that you made your own tree for the owls to sit in- it looks great! Also, the watermarked background is fab.

    The second card is adorable- love the hats on the penguins! Such a fun, happy card.

    Oh, I didn't know you did resin flowers. I have wanted to try them out, but don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a few at my LSS. Let me know if you want to sell a few. :)

    Thanks for the fun eye candy!!

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  2. Such cute cards! I love how you made a background with the sentiment onb the first one, and I love how you several of the penguins on the second card =) Thank you so much for joining our bloghop!

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  3. Great information and suggestions. I'm just a baby with this card making stuff and have yet to settle on some favorites... other than lawn fawn. :D

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  4. I am partial to the owl card...IT ROCKS!!!

    scraptaculardesigns.blogspot.com

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  5. Aw I love all those things too! And pearls make everything perfect, don't they?! :)TFS!

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  6. Sweet cards! I love the party penguins! TFS!

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  7. I love your post! Your cards are very beautiful, I love how you stamped the sentiment in the first card, so cute!

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  8. Adorable cards! So Cute! I love your flowers that you've made with Mold Muse. Did you use clay? Can you share how you got them to be so shiny?

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  9. Really cute cards. Love your coloring. Your style is fun:) I love using pearls too:) TFS! I am on the hop too. You can check out my project if you want. I am # 58:)
    ~Madison funkycards.blogspot.com

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  10. I really like how you watermarked the sentiment in the background. What a great idea! Thanks for the tip about Queen & Co. I'll have to check them out!

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  11. Love those stamps!!! Thanks for sharing.

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  12. So cute both cards! I love owls!
    Thanks for sharing,
    Blessings,
    Bunny
    http://bunnyrunswithscissors.blogspot.com/
    http://www.ajillianvancedesign.com/

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  13. Super cute cards! Thanks for sharing the tip about the pearls!

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  14. cute cards. The birthday card is really beautiful with those lovely penguins.

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  15. I loved the penguins.. They are just so cute and the owl card.. I loved the sentiment.. perfect... great embellies...!!

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  16. thanks for sharing - cute cards. stamps are great!!

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  17. Wow! I had no idea about those molds! Thanks for the link. Love your cards. :-)

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  18. Both cards are super cute. Agreed with you on LF. They are just so versatile to use and for so many different kinds of cards. DeNami has some of the cutest images and sentiments.

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  19. These cards are both so fun and cute! Great job!

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  20. Very pretty cards - love your penguins!

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  21. Two great cards! I just got some DeNami stamps in the mail today, they are the first DeNami stamps I have ever had so I can't wait to get them inky (even if they are thanksgiving themed) :) Thanks for the tip on the pearls, I haven't used pearls yet so it's good info to have for when I do.

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  22. What cute cards :) Love the flower embellishments you made :)

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  23. these are both so cute! love the fun images! those flowers you made are awesome too!

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  24. super cute cards and love your roses.

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  25. I love the penguin card best. I've just ordered my 1st set of Lawn Fawn stamps and it looks like others will follow!

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  26. Super cute cards, Kristy! Thoese Penguins are adorable! Thanks for sharing! :D

    I am also participating,I'm Number 32 in the hop!

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  27. Super cute cards Kristy. The images are so sweet! I love pearls too and I just got some of the tiny resing flowers!

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  28. Hey, Kristy! These cards are adorable. Love those owls AND penguins! And your handmade clay embellishments are awesome. I may have to look into doing something like that. What a great idea! Thanks for sharing! :)

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  29. I am in LOVE with your adorable cards and style! Owls are in my top faves for stamping (I am planning a card with them now) and penguins in party hats are FABULOUS. Way too cute!
    Thanks for the info on the Mold Muse...I have always wanted to create my own clay embellies! :)

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  30. These are really cute and thanks so much for all the awesome tips. I'm going to have to check out the stores you recommended for sure!

    Be sure to stop by my blog to enter my 500 followers giveaway!


    XO ~ Amy Jo (follower)
    amyjrockstar at gmail dot com
    http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com/

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  31. I'm with you ... love bling! Great job on the cards ... really fun!

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  32. The owl are so cute. Like what you did with the versa mark words in the background. I want to try the molds too!

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  33. Your owls and penguins are adorable! I didn't know about the molds, so I'll be checking on those. Thank you for the tip and sharing your cards.

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  34. oh my goodness, the owls & penguins are adorable! Love your cards!!

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  35. Your owl card is just a HOOT!!! I love the whites of their eyes. :)

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  36. I LOVE all of your cards!! THANKS for sharing, you have a very fun style!!
    Have a FABULOUS WEEK!! =)

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  37. CUTE cards! I love those fun, sweet stamped images!

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  38. Adorable cards! Those owls are too cute! I also love pearls :)

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  39. I love cards with cute little animals on them, they always put a smile on someone's face.

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  40. Both of these cards are so pretty! I just joined DeNami as a contributing designer and couldn't be more thrilled to be working with them. Those owls are definitely going to fall into my cart this weekend. :) They rock, and you rocked them! Thank you so much for joining us on the Young Crafters Unite blog hop!

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  41. I love your owly card. Totally cute.

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  42. Very cute cards--I like owls too!

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  43. I love owls. Very cute.
    -Elaine Uhl
    http://createNstamp.blogspot.com

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