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.

TCM Previews: Vintage Ornaments and Vintage Snowflakes

Thank you for joining The Craft's Meow's team for November's previews. Today, we're showcasing two more of my sets, Vintage Ornaments and Vintage Snowflakes. As you know, I love everything vintage and the images on these sets are just that with a modern twist.

My first card uses the ornaments with a snowflake centers and sentiment. The papers are Graphic 45.

My second card uses the same vintage images to create this CAS card. This is so easy to mass produce and uses scraps of paper and buttons. I don't know about you, but I have accumulated more buttons than I need. I just took whatever button colors I have a lot of and coordinated the colors on my card with them. Kraft and red, one of my favorite combos.

Make sure you visit the TCM blog for more inspiration. Please consider joining The Craft's Meow's Facebook page. When they reach 1000 "likes", they will give away the 7 new sets to one random fan. And while there, consider liking the NinaB Designs page as well. You can also grab my NEW badge and/or logo on the left sidebar to display on your blog.

TCM Previews: Season's Greetings

Welcome to the 2nd day of previews by The Craft's Meow team. Today, we're featuring one of my new sets called Season's Greetings. It coordinates with Spellbinders Labels 14. And it has many sentiments that fit inside, including Thanksgiving. You can make the stamped label as the main focal point of your card, or you can create fast and beautiful Christmas tags.

I stamped elements from the Telegram set on the background paper. All patterned papers are by Graphic 45.

Make sure you visit the TCM blog for more inspiration. Please consider joining The Craft's Meow's Facebook page. When they reach 1000 "likes", they will give away the 7 new sets to one random fan. And while there, consider liking the NinaB Designs page as well. You can also grab my NEW badge and/or logo on the left sidebar to display on your blog.

TCM Previews: All The Merry Best

Welcome to The Craft's Meow's previews. Today the TCM team is showcasing you two new sets, The Merry Best and Happy Hoo-lidays. I stamped the trees in different shades of green. I fussy cut 4 trees and mounted them on the front. The patterned paper is Graphic 45.

Make sure you visit the TCM blog for more inspiration. Please consider joining The Craft's Meow's Facebook page. When they reach 1000 "likes", they will give away the 7 new sets to one random fan. And while there, consider liking the NinaB Designs page as well. (Shameless plug, I know :). Or if you'd like, you can grab my NEW badge and/or logo on the left sidebar to display on your blog. Thanks, friends.

I hope you all have a great weekend! The TCM team will be previewing all weekend long, so you make sure you come back as I share 3 new sets by me for this release!

Layers of Color's Ornament Blog Hop and Tutorial

Welcome to the Layers of Color's Ornament Blog Hop. The LOC team, along with some dear friends, has put together this hop to get your creative juices going to make hand crafted holiday ornaments.

I love making hand made ornaments and I almost always put family photos on them. Here is one side view. I used one of the sentiments from the Glad Tidings clear art stamp set. I also used the Spellbinders Labels 16, Picot Edge Circles and Fancy Tags 2 dies on it. The papers are Pink Paislee.

The tutorial for this ornament is below.

As with any hop, there are freebies and giveaways:

FREE Ornament Templates,

FREE Vintage Roses Ornament Tutorial, and

6 drawings for a $20 Layers of Color Gift Certificate, hidden somewhere among these designers' blogs, so make sure you leave a comment as you hop along!

Diana Queen * Gini Cagle * Grace Nywening * Holly Simoni

Jennie Harper * Jessica Fick * Keri Lee Sereika * Linda Beeson Linda Lucas * Melisa Waldorf * Nina Brackett (you are here) * Rae Barthel * Savannah O’Gwynn

Make sure you stop by the Layers of Color blog for more info. And while there, make sure you check out LOC's Christmas Collection and the Ornament Gallery.
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Fancy square photo ornament tutorial

I love my ScorPal when making handmade ornaments!

Ooops, there's a typo! That should say, "Tie a knot on ONE end."

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!

Sweet birthday card

Thank you all so much for your birthday greetings on Friday's post. If you haven't done it already, I am also having a birthday giveaway there. 

Today's card is for my other daughter who also celebrated her birthday in October. Yes, October is a busy month for our family :). I used Mo Manning's cute image, which was colored with Copics. I had so much fun coloring this because this girl totally looks my daughter, who loves helping out in the kitchen. The sentiments are Layers of Color's Sentimental Banners and some Cosmo Cricket stickers. The papers are October Afternoon. I, of course, die cut the sentiments using Spellbinders' Ribbon Banner dies.

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.

Happy Birthday

Today is a big day for our family because our baby is turning 6! It's crazy how time flies. Here's a card I made for her, which is also my card for Card Patterns' sketch this week. Our sponsor is Sparkle Creations that provided the cute image that is fun to color. The papers are Cosmo Cricket. The sentiment is from The Craft's Meow's Just Sayin' set.I die cut the main image with Spellbinders Labels 10 and the border is my Classic Petal Edgeabilities.

Here's our sweet birthday girl.

Grandma Bird

Today's card is something I made almost a year ago, but have forgotten about. I submitted it for a publication, but was rejected. It's been hiding away within my complicated card organization system on my computer. :)

It uses Layers of Color's Warbler cling art stamps and a Flourishes' sentiment. The papers are Webster's Pages and flower by Prima.

Butterfly Card Set

I hope you all had a great weekend. We fought some bad colds and sickies around here, but we're all fine now, thankfully. This is a busy birthday week for us. Just finished some party favors that I can't wait to share with you all.

My cards today are a a part of a card set I made for a friend. The butterflies are from Layers of Color's Butterfly Collector set. The sentiments are from my favorite sentiment set at the moment, Sentimental Banners. I just love that they coordinate with Spellbinders Ribbon Banner dies. The papers are K&Co.

Have a great week!

God's Blessings to You

I apologize for the blurry photo, but I photographed this card a while ago and have since given it away. Today's card uses The Craft's Meow's Timeless Tags, which coordinate with my Spellbinder Grommet Tag dies. The sentiment is from Sent with Love by Layers of Color. The papers are Bazzill (did you know they make patterned papers, too?).

Have a great weekend!

Clean and Simple Cards

Once in a while, I get the urge to make clean and simple cards. I so admire those people who make them so well. I always feel like something is missing on my card, but here they are. The first one uses The Craft's Meow's Celebrating You stamp set.

My second card honors the Breast Cancer Awareness month of October, using Layers of Color's Granny's Jewelry and SRM Stickers.

Noel and Some Exciting News!

Today's card is for Card Patterns' sketch 136. Our sponsor is My Craft Spot which provided the gorgeous seam binding and twine on my card. I used my newest Layers of Colors stamps, Vintage Postcard and Christmas Verses sets. The papers are Graphic 45. I hope you can play along with us this week.

And now my exciting news is...after much consideration, I decided to divide up my TAC stamps among the stamp companies I work with. Both Layers of Color and The Craft's Meow will be releasing the stamps with styles that fit their respective companies in the next few months. They will be producing them as high quality, photopolymer stamps. 

If you're a fan of rubber stamps, I'm currently talking with another company that manufactures rubber stamps to license my designs as well. I'll give more info when that happens.Thank you for your continued interest in my designs.