Lily Pad Cards' First Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Lily Pad Cards’ First Birthday blog hop! You should be joining us from Pia’s blog. There are three prize packages with a total retail value of over $300! These prizes will be awarded by random draw. To be eligible, you need to “like” us on Facebook HERE. For even more chances to win, comment on the blogs participating in this hop (including the Lily Pad). For each comment, you get your name entered again (just one comment per blog, please!) Many of our blogs have some blog candy of their own to give away, too! Start hopping at the Lily Pad Cards blog so that you won't miss any of the fabulous birthday cards or blog candy!

This hop features birthday cards, but I chose to make a 1st birthday card, since it's Lily Pad Cards' 1st birthday. You could easily change this for any birthday by just changing the number, or leaving it off altogether. Get ready for some Paper Smooches cuteness:

Isn't that pup just too cute? He is from Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums. I just got this set and couldn't wait to ink it up! I love to mix and match my stamp sets, so I added a party hat from {ippity}, a number 1 from Unity, and a sentiment from Studio Calico. Spreading the love, lol! Paper is from a mix of companies, too: Cosmo Cricket, DCWV, Heidi Grace, Bo Bunny, and Basic Grey.

Ready for some blog candy? I have some brand-spanking new {ippity} to give away! It's so new that I can't even share a sneak with you yet, but I have it right here on my desk, ready to send to one lucky winner! Unity designer Angie Blom has created our April release sets for us, and I am giving away a set called "Let Your Heart Take Flight." To be entered to win, you must leave me a comment on this post AND be a follower of my blog. All comments for the Lily Pad prize package and my blog candy must be received by midnight (EST) on Sunday, April 8th. Check back on Monday, April 9th to see if you are a winner!

I am so glad that you hopped by today! The next stop on the hop is the amazing

Vanessa Menhorn:

http://www.wingsofabutterfly-vanessa.blogspot.com/

If you hit a bad link, you can always go back to the Lily Pad (http://www.lilypad.inlinkz.com) to view the master list of blog links. Please report any bad links to aris@inlinkz.com. Happy hopping!

Happy Wishes

Happy Friday, everyone! I can't think of a better reason to celebrate this week. What a week!

Today I am sharing the card that I made for this week's Lily Pad Cards sketch challenge. Lucy has made a sweet little sketch for us-I know you will love it and hope you can play along! Our sponsor this week is one of my very favorites, too-Lawn Fawn! I just love Kelly Marie's adorable stamp designs, and I was so excited to get to play with one of the new releases from CHA Winter. The set is called Lunar Lights. Here is what I made:

I decided to use a Hero Arts acetate card for my card base. First, I stamped the lanterns and string on the white cardstock inside the card. Then I stamped the lanterns and string directly on my card front using black StazOn ink. Paper-piecing the lanterns allowed me to add lots of fun colors and patterns.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Don't forget to check out all of the Dream Team's cards and challenge details HERE.

The Greeting Farm Presents...A New Lily Pad Challenge!

It's Friday, so that means the Lily Pad Dream Team has a new batch of cards to inspire you, plus a new challenge and a new sponsor! Our challenge this week is another gorgeous color combination from Kathy-a collection of soft, muted colors that would be perfect for a Mother's Day card or any spring project.
Not only do we have a great color combo for you, but our sponsor this week is none other than The Greeting Farm! I have been in love with TGF's adorable images since I first saw them about a year ago. The sweet characters fit in perfectly with my cutesy card style! My card this week features a sweet digi stamp-it's called "Kissy Kissy".

It's true that these images are perfect for coloring. I am just learning how to use Copics, however, so my colors (and skill) are quite limited! My image is entirely paper-pieced, using scraps of cardstock and some Distress Ink. A touch of Crystal Stickles "eyeshadow" finishes off the image.
I hope you will all join us this week for our Color Throwdown! You can see all of the details, as well as the rest of the Dream Team's gorgeous cards, HERE.

Lily Pad Inspiration Challenge

The Lily Pad DT had a fun assignment this week: we got to hunt through all of the submissions from the past month and create a card inspired by one of them! This assignment is perfect for me because I am always inspired by others' cards, and I always tell myself that I will "lift" their design someday. Well, life gets busy and I forget. Having this as an assignment was the perfect reason to make one of these cards!

I loved THIS card by Therese, who entered this for the Lily Pad Color Throwdown. I had that same scooter stamp in my stash, and I had never inked it up. Time to remedy that! Here is what I came up with:

I cut this fun shaped card using my Cricut Wild Card cartridge. It's hard to see the detail, but the pink cardstock is dry embossed with the same quirky heart that is on the scooter-love that! I also hope that you will join us for this fun challenge-you could win a gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp! Check out the challenge details and the rest of the Dream Team's cards HERE.

Lily Pad Sketch Challenge

I feel so honored to be working with the girls on the Lily Pad Cards Dream team. Our sketch artist in the amazing Lucy Abrams! She created this wonderful sketch for us to use this week:

We also have a generous sponsor this week, Penny Black! This was my first time using Penny Black stamps and cardstock. I used the Mimi in Paris set to create my card based on Lucy's sketch:

Ooh la la! Be sure to check out all of the details for this week's challenge HERE on the Lily Pad Cards blog. I know you will be amazed by all of the Dream Team's cards, as well!

New Lily Pad Cards Challenge!

It's Friday, so it's time for another fun challenge over at Lily Pad Cards! This week, we're hosting a Frames, Dies & Dimensions Challenge. To enter, simply create a new card that uses a frame or die-cut mat that uses pop dots (or something similar) to add dimension. The design team got to work with these fabulous frames and cards from our very generous sponsor, Globecraft Memories. I paired my card with fun new papers from Momenta and a sweet stamp set from Hero Arts. Check out the Lily Pad Cards blog for all of the DT's gorgeous creations-hope to see yours linked there soon!

Lily Pad Cards-Our First Challenge!

Welcome to the first challenge from Lily Pad Cards! Kathy came up with a beautiful Color Throwdown for us-I love the rainbow of colors, don't you? When I first saw this color combo, I knew that I wanted to do something fun and light-hearted.

I decided to ink up one of my newest sets-the Birthday Purses set from Skipping Stones Design. I paper pieced the stripes using scraps of cardstock. I also added a fun circle border using Versamark ink.

The Dream Team would love it if you would play along with us!

The challenge. Make a card using the color palette above (an exact match is not required-just land in the same ballpark.)

The prize. The lucky winner will receive her choice of ONE of the following fantastic marker sets from Letraset:

You can see all of the challenge details HERE. The deadline for this challenge is Thursday, April 14, at 11:59 PM. Now hop to it! :)

Lily Pad Cards Blog Hop

Good morning, Hoppers! Welcome to your first stop on Day 2 of the Lily Pad Cards Blog Hop! Today's cardmakers are literally going to make you ribbit out loud! Each day, the hop will span 7 different blogs, then culminate on Friday, April 1, with the grand opening of Lily Pad Cards. Lily Pad Cards is a new challenge blog that will feature interviews, articles, videos, challenges, great prizes, and more!

Although Lily Pad doesn't officially bloom until April 1, 2011, you'll be able to see a new sneak peek every day until then. And you'll definitely want to drop by because there are three prize packages with a total retail value of over $800 (WOW!)-including $100 worth of gift certificates to a very popular online store! Go HERE for specific prize details and contest rules.

The theme of our hop is "welcome"-not only are we welcoming Lily Pad Cards to the neighborhood, but we're also welcoming all of you to come in and join in on the fun.

Thanks for being neighborly and hopping by my pad today! Your next stop on the hop is the incredibly talented Jill Foster: http://www.stampinginspiredby.blogspot.com/. If you hit a bad link, you can always hop back to the Lily Pad and click on the next link in the hop. We'd also appreciate it if you would report any bad links to webmaster@inlinkz.com.

Happy hopping!