Tuesday, January 29, 2019







Welcome to InKing Royalty's January Blog Hop! This year's Blog Hop themes are inspired by a single word - and this month our projects are centered around LOVE. You're certain to see some amazing ideas for Valentine's Day in the hop, but there are other ways to honor love in the lineup, too. What fun! We are excited to share our creations with you today! After you read my post, I hope you'll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.

When I first saw the So Happy Together stamp set in the new Sale-a-bration (SAB) catalog I immediately decided that, while there were some cute things about the set, I was definitely not interested in getting it! (Please don't judge me!) There were plenty of other great things in the SAB catalog which, by the way, are all available as a free gift with an order of $50 or more. Then I saw this great New Year's card posted by my upline Brian King and I thought maybe I need it after all! Here is my card. 

                                    



As I was looking for ideas for Valentine cards to make with my monthly card class when my eyes caught a glimpse of the juggling frog on the unicycle in the So Hoppy Together set. It occurred to me that he could be juggling hearts! I had also planned to use the group of hearts in the Be Mine Stitched Framelits Dies on another card and had all the punch out hearts sitting on my table. I used the tiniest ones for the juggler and some of the other small ones for the sitting frog. (I had to cut out 2 pieces of cardstock with the die in order to get enough tiny hearts.) You also could use tiny hearts from other Framelits sets and punches. 

I stamped everything with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and used Stampin Blends for coloring the images. For the frogs I used light and dark Granny Apple Green with dark Daffodil Delight for the "spots". On the unicycle I used more dark Daffodil Delight plus dark Smoky Slate and dark Basic Black. The card base is Granny Apple Green cardstock with a layer of Daffodil Delight and then the Whisper White stamped layer which I cut with the largest rectangle die from the Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies. I cheated a little on the sentiment. The set contains the sentiment "Hoppy for you". I found an old wood mount greeting set that had the sentiment "Happy Valentine's Day". I could have masked the unneeded parts of each stamp I took the quick and easy way out. I unmounted the wood mount sentiment and cut off "for you" and "Happy" from the two stamps to make the sentiment I needed. While the stamp I used to add the "Valentine's Day" is no longer available there are many current or retired sets that would have a sentiment that would work here.  

I think the first greeting cards that I ever made were ones that I helped my kids make to sent to their grandparents. That was a long time ago - probably before many of you were born. Our options for supplies were extremely limited! I think the only place to buy anything for crafting was our local Kmart or Woolco (a discount owned by Woolworth that is now out of business). Mainly our supplies consisted of construction paper and that was only in primary colors, no Bermuda Bay or Granny Apple Green! I remember wishing I could buy dollies, especially heart shaped ones. I knew they existed because I had seen pictures of them but I had never seen any for sale. Things have sure changed and it is wonderful to have the all fantastic products that Stampin Up! now offers to crafters no matter where you live. Hope you make some Valentine's Day cards this year either by yourself or with others. Happy Valentine's Day!!

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you'll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp. There's lots of inspiration to be found in this group - and you don't want to miss it!

Thank you for hopping along with us.  If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:
  1. Brian King at Stamp with Brian
  2. Jennifer Spiller at Westside Paper Creations
  3. Sue Jackson at Just Peachy Stamping
  4. Katie Ferguson at Cottage Paper  ← YOU ARE HERE
  5. Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
  6. Windy Ellard at Windy's Wonderful Creations
  7. Robin Myren at Songbird Designs by Robin
  8. Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie
  9. Jackie Beers at Blue Line Stamping
  10. Nina King at InkPaperSequins
  11. Shawn de Oliveira at Shawn Stamps
  12. Lynn Kolcun at Avery's Owlery
  13. Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
  14. Robbye Hamilton at Miss Hammie's Crafts
Addendum 2/1/2019: Stampin Up! has just announced that Hop Around Framelits dies that coordinate with the So Hoppy Together set will be available to order from March 1, 2019 to March 31, 2019!! The die set will sell for $28. If you do not have the stamp set and would like to have it and the dies, you can purchase the dies and add one or two more things to your order to bring the total to $50 or more and you can get the stamp set for free!  




I comments and would love to hear what you think!!  Leave your thoughts below! Thanks!