Happy 1st birthday, Lily Pad!

For my post for the brand new challenge Crafty Friends post, please scroll down below or click HERE.

Welcome to the Lily Pad Cards’ First Birthday blog hop! I can't believe it's been a year since we had a blog hop to introduce Lily Pad to the crafting world! What a great year it has been and am looking forward to many  more! You should be joining us from Sarah Moerman’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” Lily Pad on Facebook. If you would like to better your chances, you can leave comments on the blogs participating in this hop (including the Lily Pad). For each comment, you get your name entered again (but only one comment per blog, please).

Here is my Birthday card for today celebrating Lily Pad's first. I stamped the solid butterfly from The Craft's Meow's Beautiful Spring set and mounted it on two die cuts (from Spellbinders' Persian Accents dies). The beautiful papers are My Mind's Eye.

Here you can see close up the different layers and, of course, that lovely corner bling from Want2Scrap. The sentiment is from The Craft's Meow's Timeless Tags set. You can see more cards using this layout here.

Thanks for stopping by! The next stop on the hop is Tiffany's blog. If you hit a bad link, you can always go back to Lily Pad blog to view the master list of blog links. Please report any bad links to aris@inlinkz.com.

InLinkz.com

Fun-tache-tic CAS card

Thank you for sharing my excitement regarding my new designs for Want2Scrap! As soon as I am able, I will have a giveaway of them right here, so stay tuned!

Today's card is for CAS-ual Friday challenge (the mustache was paper pieced using the same paper as the flag), which is being sponsored by The Craft's Meow, and for Moxie Fab's Around the House challenge (I used staples and kebab sticks on my card). I'm also entering this to the Lily Pad patterned paper challenge. I don't know if you've noticed, but I have been making "scrappy" cards lately. I've been inspired by so many beautiful cards at Two Peas in a Bucket whose primary fans are scrapbookers. I have such a collection of patterned papers, why not use them up?

I used Crate Paper papers, TCM's Fun{tache}tic set and twine. It's super CAS, took no more than 15 minutes to put together. Have a great weekend, friends!

InLinkz.com

More Vintage Christmas cards and Winner!

EDIT: The winner of my birthday giveaway is at the end of this post.

I hope you have been enjoying The Craft's Meow's previews. I have another one today using Lily Pad Cards' Sketch. I used Vintage Ornaments and Vintage Snowflakes for this card. The papers are Graphic 45.

Here are my friends' take on the sketch:

Iwona

Jessica

Diana

I hope you can play along with the Lily Pad sketch. You have until November 3rd to enter for a chance to win some of my stamp designs!

And the winner of my birthday giveaway is...#58 Jan Marie. Please email me with your address, Jan Marie. Thanks to everybody who played along. Make sure you check out my FB page for more chance to win just by posting your creations using any NinaB Designs stamps (through Gina K Designs, The Craft's Meow or Layers of Color). Check out which stamps I made via tabs above.

More Lily Pad Cards

Edited to add: The Lily Pad Cards just posted my interview on their blog, if you care to know more about my design process :).

Today's cards are for Lily Pad Cards' Challenge and yours truly is the sponsor (4 stamp sets are up for grabs!). I hope you will play along. I used Layers of Color's Happy Wishes and Regal Wings sets on my card. The papers are Webster's Pages. The yellowish panel is a little collage I put together using vintage images. I've been playing around with them in Photoshop and it's so much fun. Maybe one of these days, I'll share them here in full :). The border is my Spellbinders' Classic RicRac Edgeabilities.

Speaking of Edgeabilities, have you seen my birthday blog candy? I'm giving away the Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Edgeabilities.

Here are some friends' take on the sketch

Lynn

Linda

Keri

Finally, the Layers of Color team is having an Ornament Blog Hop tomorrow. From the LOC blog,

*All new creative designer project ideas for Christmas ornaments! *
*FREE unique Christmas ornament templates! *
*$20 gift certificate giveaways!*

You won’t want to miss this event that will add sparkle to your mojo this holiday season!

On turning 40, a Challenge and a Birthday Giveaway

Thank you all for your birthday greetings for my daughter yesterday. I didn't mention that I also celebrated my birthday this week. And I hit the big 40! I used to dread turning 40. When I was a child, I always thought 40's is my mom's age forever. And now I'm 40 and I'm the mom. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Every year on my birthday, I have a tradition to stop, reflect on my life and ask myself some important questions:  Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year or On Your Birthday

Actually, it starts as 10, but the author adds 21 more. All the questions in this article are worth checking out, but I picked some here that I want to share with you. I hope you will find these helpful as you reflect on your own life as well.

• What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
• What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
• What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way you could simplify in that area?
• What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
• What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?
• In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?
• What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

I want to emphasize the last one, which covers pretty much all the other questions. I strive every day to do everything with eternity in mind. Card making or stamp designing may not quickly bring eternity to our minds, but every little thing we do to honor God and to bless others has eternal significance! I have much room for improvement, but by God's grace, my life has been a testimony of His goodness. I love getting older because the more years I have, the more I can speak of God's faithfulness in my life.

Life is good because God is good. 
 (I just love this and I think I may make this into a stamp someday).

Now on to my card for today. I am the proud sponsor of the Lily Pad sketch Challenge. I am giving away several stamp sets as a prize. I hope you will play along. Here is my take on the sketch using The Craft's Meow's Simply Delightful and Fly Free sets.

Some of my dear friends have joined me on this challenge and here are their beautiful cards.

Laura

Lisa

Jennie

Now, we can't have a birthday without a giveaway. Please leave me a comment on this post and I will pick a winner to win one of my new Spellbinders die designs, Classic Scalloped Edgeabilities. The contest ends on Friday night, Oct. 28th and the winner announced soon after.

Octopus Hugs

My card today uses the GinaK Make a Splash stamps by Asela. I colored the octopus with Copics. The papers are Cosmo Cricket Salt Air. The main image was die cut using Spellbinders Labels 17.

The sketch follows Deborah's card in the LilyPad Cards' Make This Card Beautiful Challenge. I'm also entering this to the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge (to make a card for a child).

Welcome, Lily Pad Cards! Blog Hop

Welcome to stop #5 in the Lily Pad Cards blog hop! I am so excited to be a part of this event that finally reveals what Lily Pad Cards is all about and features so many of my paper crafting idols from all over the world. This blog hop starts today and will feature seven blogs per day when it culminates 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 Cards 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 - including a $100 gift certificate to a very popular online store! Go here for specific prize details and contest rules.

The hop’s theme is Welcome because 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 all the fun.

I have two cards to show you. The first welcomes spring. The girl is Little Frieda stamp by The Craft's Meow. The papers are Echo Park Springtime and the sentiment is SRM Stickers Sentiments' Spring.

My second card uses GinaK's Lovely Labels 3 (label and sentiment) stamps and Layers of Color's Embroidered Butterfly, which was colored with Copics. The papers are Crate Paper's Portrait Collection.

Thanks for stopping by! The next stop on the hop is my dear friend, Kathy Racoosin's blog, The Daily Marker. If you hit a bad link, you can always come back here and click on the next link in the hop. Please report any bad links to webmaster@inlinkz.com.