Get Cracking On Christmas {Blog Hop}

Welcome! 

Jenn Shurkus has brought 
some great designers (and friends) 
together for a fabulous Christmas in July blog hop! 

(Bonus: there might be a few giveaways!)

For those of you who may not know me or my company, my name is Tifany and I own Ink Blot Shop. I design clear stamps (made in the USA) for card making, Bible art journaling, bullet journaling, and more.

If you aren't already following Ink Blot Shop, please be sure to follow along on the @InkBlotShop Instagram account and the Ink Blot Shop Facebook page.

The Projects:

For both cards, I used the Peas on Earth stamp set (without the peas). I am not a fan of red, so my Christmas cards generally tend toward non-traditional colors.

I started by stamping a couple of the globe images in a light ink, and used some markers to do a bit of no-line watercoloring. (One card is done with Zig markers and one is done with Tombow markers.)

I used the same basic layout (the sentiment over the globe) for both cards, but decided to add a little extra pizzazz to one by turning it into a shaker card. I heat embossed the sentiment on both cards to help it pop.

If you want to see another card design using the same Peas on Earth stamp set (this time with the peas), you can check it out here. And here are two more cards created by Jenn Shurkus for you to check out.

Although it was definitely a creative challenge for me to create Christmas cards in the middle of the summer, it was really fun to stretch myself and I hope you will give it a shot, too. If you do, please be sure to use #GetCrackingOnChristmas on your social media posts. 

The Giveaway:

Would you like to win the Peas on Earth stamp set that was used on my cards today? You can!

To enter:

Leave a comment on this blog post. That's it!

If you would like additional chances to win:
Comment on any of the posts associated with this particular giveaway on the Ink Blot Shop Facebook page and/or the @InkBlotShop Instagram account.

Rules of this giveaway:
Blog comments for the giveaway will close Monday, July 23rd @ 11:59pm (Eastern) and the winner will be announced Thursday, July 26th here on this blog.
- The winner will have 48 hours to contact me with their information.
- Due to shipping costs, giveaways are available to US mailing addresses only.

Please remember to check back to see if you've won.

Disclaimer: This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter.

After leaving a comment, be sure to hop on over to Jana Millen's site to continue on the hop.

The Hop List:

Jenn Shurkus

Susan Opel

Chari Moss

Cheiron Brandon

Libby Hickson

Caryn Davies

Emily Midgett

Vera Yates

 >>> Tifany DeGough <<<

Jana Millen

Lydia Fiedler

Lisa Cisneros

Susan Wymer

Jessie Banks

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Teri Anderson

Lisa Henke

Thanks for stopping by today!
Get cracking!

Supplies: 
Stamps: Ink Blot Shop, LLC (Peas on Earth); 
Watercolor Paper: Ranger (Distress Watercolor Cardstock); 
Shaker Window: Grafix (Dura-Lar Clear Film);
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye (Lime Twist - Life of the Party 6x6); American Crafts (Dear Lizzy - 5th & Frolic 6x6); Crate Paper (Portrait Collection 6x6); 
Ink: Tsukineko (VersaFine - Onyx Black); Simon Says Stamp (Barely Beige); 
Markers: Tombow (452, 133, N75); Zig (31, 41, 94);
Embossing: American Crafts (Zing! Clear Embossing Powder);
Sequins: MultiCraft Imports (Go Green Sequins, Black & White Sequins); Martha Stewart (Iridescent Glitter); Pretty Pink Posh (Silver Heart Confetti);
Dies: Spellbinders (Standard Circles);
Tools: Fiskars (Trimmer, Scissors); Scor-Pal (Scoring Board); Wagner (Heat Gun);

Little Lads and Little Ladies Tags {Unity Stamp Company}

Looking for my current giveaway? Find it HERE.

I am thrilled to be able to sneak into this week's Unity blog hop!
Although I am not technically a part of the Unity Design Team, I am one of Unity's Artists...so I was able to squeeze my way in. :o)

I am so excited to share my projects with you today! To create them, I used two new stamp kits (Little Ladies and Little Lads) that I created for Unity Stamp Company:

{Little Lads}

{Little Ladies}

These sets were created to be interchangeable with each other, and also with some of my previous sets: Meow. Purr. Baa. and Roar. Grr. Eek.

Here are the tags I created:

(The speech bubble and heart here are from the Meow. Purr. Baa. kit.)

I hope you love these new stamp kits! I loved creating them!

Don't forget: for today's blog hop, Unity is giving away two great prize packages! Be sure to leave a comment on each blog in the hop (including the Unity blog) to be entered to win. (The winners will be announced Monday night on the Unity blog.)

Continue hopping on through to the Unity blog, and then go shopping!

Thanks for stopping by today!


Supplies: 
Stamps: Unity Stamp Company (Little Lads, Little Ladies, and Meow. Purr. Baa.); 
Cardstock: Discount Cardstock (Brilliant White 110#);
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye (Cut & Paste: Adorbs 6x6); Studio Calico (Brighton Pier 6x6);
Twine: The Twinery (Spring Blossom, Shore, Cantaloupe, Solid Pink Sorbet, Solid Stone, Buttercream); 
Colored Pencils: Prang (50 Warm Gray, 19 Lake Red, 20 Tan, 60 Spanish Orange, 10 Brown, 7 Light Blue, 16 Yellow Green, 18 Pink);
Markers: Tombow;
Other: (washi tape);
Tools: Fiskars (Trimmer, Scissors);

Grey is the New Black

Grey is a great trendy neutral and I am playing along today with the Gray is the New Black Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

I created three cards using grey as a basic neutral - then added some splashes of color.

Man Shirt Card:

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill {Ash}
Patterned Paper: Echo Park paper Co. {Sunny Spots from Sweet Summertime Collection}
Other: Buttons, needle, Coats & Clark thread {yellow}
Tools: Fiskars Paper Trimmer, Scoring tool

Miss U Card:

Patterned paper: (Family Ties, So Sophie collection) My Minds Eye; (Celebrate, So Sophie collection) My Minds Eye
Color media…pens: (White/Signo) UniBall
Sticker: (Delight #53073) American Crafts
Tool: (craft knife) Fiskars, trimmer
Other: (3D-Dots) EK Success

Graphic Love Card:

Cardstock: (Cinder) Bazzill
Patterned paper: (Element Card Paper, A Walk In The Park collection) Echo Park; (Flutter, A Walk In The Park collection) Echo Park
Tool: (scissors) Fiskars

You Warm My Heart

When I saw this stamp set from Cornish Heritage Farms, I immediately started thinking how fun it would be to try to color the fire. I used some Distress Inks (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Fired Brick) to create a gradient effect for the flames and then stamped with Black Soot Distress Ink on top. I used Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain for the logs and frame. I then cut out a few different images and pieced them together to get more depth in the flames and logs. (The photos don't show it well, but the logs are 2-3 layers thick.)


I used a Maya Road chipboard coaster book as a template to make my own window/frame (I used Mod Podge to attach the paper I had inked with Distress Inks to a piece of a cereal box and then cut out the frame I had drawn). I finished it off with some black cord from IKEA. I used the same chipboard piece to make the white background which I inked with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink to accentuate the fire.


Once I had the flames and logs pieced onto the background I attached them to the card (which is made from basic black cardstock and the red paisley paper which is from My Mind's Eye). I used the back side of the My Mind's Eye paper (the orange piece) to write the sentiment for the inside of the card. I wrote it with the white Ranger Inkssentials Pen and used a Sakura Micron 01 in Black for the accents.