Sunday, August 25, 2013

[Birthday Bash] Funday Sunday: A Series on Sequins, Inspirations and Cake-related Things

Happy Saturday Neat & Tangled fans! Today I have something different up my sleeve. It's my turn again on the blog and I have gathered a few of my favorite friends to help me put today together.

We will announce the Blog Hop winner tomorrow, so you will want to check back. Remember there are 2 $5 gift certificate drawn, and someone who will Win It All.


What I really wanna cover with you are a few things our blog readers have requested...


Birthday Q&A
Happy Birthday! I am new to Little Tangles but I have ordered the beautiful sequins you offer and love them. I would love to see more ideas using the sequins. ~Saundra

Happy Birthday!! I am new to N & T, but I would love to see more projects using Ink Splash (which I have and LOVE!!!) and sequins. Thanks!!

Well, I'm 100% addicted to N&T sequins...so I'd love to see sequiny stuff. :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I'm loving the N & T sequins so would love to see more ideas on how to use them. I struggled my way through a shaker card the other day and it just didn't turn out the way I'd hoped

We saw a few inspirations during our Challenge #19 blog hop, because our dear Design Team were given the task by yours truly to create with these little, popular, precious pieces of bling. However, between the five of us girls, plus the extra unexpected creations, it is not possible to cover a infinite amount of possibilities. 

Today I would like to share a few things that my dear friend Lisa has helped put together to help quench your inspiration for sequins.

Little Tangles' Sequins Inspiration
Lisa is a Pinterest fiend, and with her help we see how sequins are used:
  • filler to a frame or jar
  • accents placed strategically across the card
  • focal point to a card by making them stream or rain down.
  • mixed size and finish make for a fun interesting texture
  • a border
  • filler for a shaker card
  • a placeholder to represent something, e.g. like a cherry on top of a cupcake
Feel free to follow the link, since this collage doesn't have everything showcased, but rather just a sampling!

Inspiration for Gifts
Since Lisa was pinning away, she also decided to create a great board for gifts. Because if you're attending a party, usually a gift idea is in order....right? Here is just a few ideas...


Gift Ideas
Again, this collage is not complete, so please feel free to hop over there and peruse...!

Thanks Lisa for your help!

Challenge #19 Eat Cake Inspiration
Next I wanted to share with you some inspiration from our Design Team Barb. We have a challenge going on and this darling project is a great reminder for it.

by Barb Murphy
Isn't it just gorgeous? I love the layers and the fun use of sequins here too! Little accents of loveliness. And all to bring out the great Sketchy Cupcake as a focal point. Isn't it just perfectly cake-a-licious?

Cupcake Topper Tutorial
Last, and certainly not least, is Samantha's contribution to our Funday Sunday. She was on the blog earlier last month with this excellent masking technique. She is here with another great tutorial (and in my mind, a genius on how to use these Neat & Tangled stamps).

It's samantha here again! are you loving all of the celebration happening this month, or what?? 
I am totally excited to check each post every day! it's so fun!! yahoo for neat and tangled's 1st birthday (month) celebration!

today i'm back on the blog and wanted share how we recently celebrated my little men with their birthday's this month! what's a birthday without cupcakes, am i right!? so since my little guys have birthdays 2 weeks apart in august (the littlest Mann turned 2 and the bigger one turned 5), it's an exciting time for us! and we made vanilla cupcakes to celebrate! so, i decided to dress up the cupcakes with some super fun, neat and tangled stamped cupcake toppers!!


**please note - the cupcakes themselves look a little lackluster, i know. that's why i added the toppers! ha ha!
and full discolsure here...my little menn don't like icing (or chocolate!)...so the icing was only added for these pictures!! and if i'm really doing full discolsure, we call them vanilla muffins at our house (not cupcakes, because in my opinion, if there's no icing, there's no fun. so there's no 'cupcake' term, because cupcakes are fun!) ha ha!!!


i used three neat and tangled stamp sets: sketchy cupcakessparkle and shine, and just thinking of you.


here's how i made them, first i stamped the fork image (LOVE that image!):


colored it in:


cut it out:


and attach a popsicle stick to the back (be sure the popsicle stick hangs off the end so you have part to stick in the icing and cupcake without getting the fork gooey)


the end! :)


and here are some pictures of the little Mann's themselves with their cupcakes! (...see them eyeing the icing there? they're literally about to tell me to scrape it off. ha ha!!)




so that's it! it's your turn now! make a project to celebrate something (anything!) and link it up to the latest little tangles challenge! and stay tuned for more FUN and laughs on the little tangles blog as they continue to celebrate 1 year of neat and tangled stamps!!

Wow, these are perfect. I bet those cupcakes taste pretty special, just because it has so much lovely design pizzazz. And they say we eat with our eyes, too, right? Thanks for sharing the pictures with the boys. They really look like they are enjoying them and admiring your piece of craft and baking work here! Lucky them!


So what are you up to this weekend? In case you're looking to add some fun into your Sundae Sunday...(those cupcakes are putting food on my mind)...


Challenge Reminders
Technique Challenge - ends Sept 4; Guest Designer Spot
Challenge #19 Eat Cake - ends Sept 1; free stamp set
Project Life Challenge - ends Aug 28; $5 gift certificate

Just because I can, I'm throwing out a free pack of sequins to those who will share with me what your favorite part of the Birthday Bash has been so far. Has it been the guest post? The challenges? Answering the reader questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I will announce winners on Aug 28.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

[Birthday Bash] A Surprise Gift Bag

Happy Saturday Neat & Tangled fans! I've decided that the perfect music to listen to on Pandora while working on these blog post is Zee Avi. It's the perfect balance of sweet, light and catchy. It's a perfect pairing to Neat & Tangled goodness.

My public service announcement today is that our blog hop commenting ends today. And if you haven't, then you better drop everything (short of crying babies) and go here. Because this is at stake...


My 2nd public service announcement today is that you still can enter the Party Favor challenge. Once upon a time I made party favors 20 minutes before the guest arrived. Ahem. So..."In the words of my uncle, I say unto you...Allez Crafting." (Someone hopefully got that reference?)

Eat Cake Challenge #19 Hints

Tenia made an awesome card using "On The Strip" and "My Heart Sings" to make candles for her card. What about using "On the Strip 2" or that pole from "Santa's Notes"?


I know you can make it work ;) Today we have a special guest hailing from Sweden. Inspirations are coming in two days in a row from Europe. Aren't we just so lucky? I know Lisa from another DT gig, and I knew her style and Danielle's design would be match made in heaven. Keep reading on to see what I mean...


Hi, it's Lisa here from Myrans bo! I was so happy when Ren-Yi asked me to be a part of the 1st birthday celebration here at Neat & Tangled. It's been a great party so far!

When I think of parties and birthdays, I think of cake :) And a while ago I heard of this thing called 'surprise cake' and it's such a fab idea for a birthday cake! Basically, it's just like any other cake on the outside, except when you cut in to it you find something you didn't expect! I would have loved to make lots of different cakes to show you all the endless ideas but it probably would have ended with me eating all of them so I decided to show you some inspirational photos instead ;)






Now I really feel like baking some cake! But instead I decided to make a surprise card instead.  


On the outside it just looks like an ordinary small little gift bag BUT...



... when you open it there is a little cake for the birthday boy/girl :) Isn't it cute?!
Once again, a huge thank you to Neat & Tangled for letting me join the fun. Happy birthday girls!!!

Holy moly, Batman. Well, with Batman I mean Lisa. You brought a fun little surprise, and the first pop-up card to the mix. I'm so lucky to know you and I knew you and Neat & Tangled would be a perfect fit. Your lovely style and these wonderful designs from Danielle are a match in heaven! We are at Day 24, and I've learned that I haven't seen it all! I'm the lucky one, since I see the creations way in advance before you... ;)

So what are you up to this weekend? In case you need a few inspirations...

Challenge Reminders
Challenge #19 Eat Cake - ends Sept 1; free stamp set
Project Life Challenge - ends Aug 28; $5 gift certificate
Party Favor Challenge - ends Aug 24; $5 gift certificate
Technique Challenge - ends Sept 4; Guest Designer Spot

Have a splendid weekend!

Friday, August 23, 2013

[Birthday Bash] A Super Shaker Cupcake Card

Hello Neat & Tangled fans! I hope by now you all have commented through the blog hop. You have until tomorrow to do so. We are looking for loads of players to help us Eat Cake, so we're hoping you'll be joining us here with your fab creation. Otherwise, if you're the kind that loves throwing parties, we would love to see your party favor inspiration. There is still a little time left to play.



Eat Cake Challenge #19 Hints
What about making cupcakes and putting cute little cupcake picks or toppers with these? In fact there are plenty of other sets where you can take the sentiments and make a cute little cupcake banner.



Off we go to introduce you to our next super star. This girl hails from Germany and caught our eye with her continued enthusiasm in the Little Tangles challenges. Her signature style is CAS and she has a lovely video for almost every card. Her videos are short & sweet and well captioned. Check out this cardthis card, or this card. I could watch Betty's videos all day long!


Hallo, hier ist Betty J. und ich wünsche euch Happy Birthday zum einjährigen Bestehen eures Blogs, zu dem ich mir für euch ein ganz besonderes Rezept ausgedacht habe.

Man nehme:
- eines eurer Stempelsets
- einen eurer Free Digi Stamps
- die Form eines eurer Stempel

... und heraus kommt dieser tolle Shakercard cupcake.


[Ren-Yi] No worries, if you didn't understand that, I'm here to translate for you with some liberties...

Hello, it's Betty J. and I want to wish you all a Happy 1st Birthday to Neat & Tangled and its challenge blog. In celebration for it, I have whipped up a special recipe:

  • One Neat & Tangled stamp set
  • One free Neat & Tangled digi
  • and the shape of one of your Neat & Tangled stamp set
And voila...out comes a fun cupcake shaker card  (I call it a Super Shaker Cupcake Card, or SSCC for short ;)



Videolink:

Alle Zutaten/Supplies:
- Papier: Savanne (crumb cake), Flüsterweiß (whisper white) und Morgenrot (primrose petals) von SU und Overheadfolie (transparente Folie)
- Stempel: Free Digi Stamp und Stempelset „Just Hello“ von Neat & Tangled
- Stempelkissen: Zartrosa (pink pirouette), Lachsrot (regal rose) und  Morgenrot (primrose petals) von SU
- Silhoutte Cameo und Studio-Datei (download)
- gepunkteter Embossingfolder und Big Shot
- Herzstanze (ca. 1 cm)
- rote und rosafarbene Pailetten
- Schere, Kleber und 3-D-Klebepads
- Schneidemaschine

Viel Spaß beim Nachbacken wünscht euch

Betty



Have fun recreating this - Best wishes from
Betty
Oh, my! Betty, this is just amazing. It doesn't get more perfect than this. It's a party full of sequins and such an awesome creation! We also have our first video tutorial on the blog. Yay, thanks for making this special.

So what do you have planned for the weekend? If you need inspiration, here are a few ideas ;)

Challenge Reminders
Challenge #19 Eat Cake - ends Sept 1; free stamp set
Project Life Challenge - ends Aug 28; $5 gift certificate
Party Favor Challenge - ends Aug 24; $5 gift certificate
Technique Challenge - ends Sept 4; Guest Designer spot

That's all folks! And happy happy weekend!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

[Birthday Bash] A Birthday Song

Hello Neat & Tangled fans! Have you commented through the blog hop yet? Just nonchalantly asking since a very small prize is at stake...Ahem ;)



Eat Cake Challenge #19 Hints
Those cute little row of hearts motif would make a great way to frost the cake. Either along the top or along the base of each tier of the cake. Do you see my vision?



Agree or not, I'm going to introduce to you our next guest designer. Do you remember this awesome card? 


Only crazy, dedicated crafters like Jen come up with these ideas. It's one thing to have crazy ideas, it's another thing to execute it well and make it look stunning. Jen is able to do all of those three things consistently, and that's why I have a huge amount of awe for her (and a teensy weensy bit of jealousness ;).  We all want part of that creative brain, and see why...


Hello there!  It's Jen Wills here from JENerally Speaking.  I was so excited when I was invited to take part in Neat & Tangled's 1st birthday bash!  Have you been to the Neat & Tangled blog or the Little Tangles challenge blog lately?  If not then you must take some time to check them out.  Both blogs have been jam packed with celebrations all month long - gorgeous crafty creations, challenges, giveaways, party ideas, recipes, music - it rocks!  The N&T team have worked so hard to put it all together especially coordinator Ren-Yi.  Whoop whoop, ladies!  :D

I've got a couple of things to share today as part of the celebrations.  First is a card.  I don't have any birthday themed N&T stamps so I had to get creative.  I got the My Heart Sings set after a recent Little Tangles win and wanted to do some Copic colouring.  I also wanted to use washi tape as that's something that Danielle rocks on a regular basis.


I also wanted to include one of my party must haves.  These s'mores cookies are my favourite and are always a huge hit.  



The recipe can be found at Sprinkled With Flour.  The only thing I do differently is that I don't use chocolate chips.  I found that when I did they tasted more like chocolate chip cookies than s'mores so I only use the Hershey bars.  Make sure you have somewhere to take them when you bake them though - you don't want them sitting around the kitchen tempting you!  
Oh, Jen, I know what you mean with baking for a purpose or function. If I didn't, I would be in trouble! The card is stunning and it's just a perfect case to show how to think outside of the box :) Love the washi!


Day 6 Un-birthday Birthday Challenge
We had some lovely entries. You made this one painstakingly hard. Funny how there are just a few entries, but it was quite a challenge to find a winner. But we would like to invite one person back to be a Guest Designer on the Little Tangles blog. And that is this girl


by Smilyn Stef
Congrats, Stef! You really created with the spirit of the challenge. We love how you just "made it work" with the un-birthday stamps and still made a fun & cheery card. Please email me at neatandtangledstamps(at)gmail.com with the subject line "Day 6 Un-birthday Birthday Guest Designer." 

I do want to put throw a few shout-out to the entries that we believe deserved a few mentions. In no particular order, here are three others that we really liked.


by shirley-bee, Lyndal, and katie ann brooks

Challenge Reminders
Challenge #19 Eat Cake - ends Sept 1; free stamp set
Project Life Challenge - ends Aug 28; $5 gift certificate
Party Favor Challenge - ends Aug 24; $5 gift certificate
Technique Challenge - ends Sept 4; Guest Designer spot

That's all folks! See you tomorrow...when we can finally say TGIF! :)

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

[Birthday Bash] Watercoloring Party

[2013.08.21 Edited - I made a boo boo in Vera's description. It's fixed now]

Hello Neat & Tangled fans! Woah - it's Day 21. And it's my little brother's birthday today. Awww, but you're not here to hear me get all gushy on him ;) Remember we have a bunch of challenges closing soon, including the Party Favors one on August 24. You're giving the two gals who entered this competition an easy stab at the $5 gift certificate ;)

Eat Cake Challenge #19 Hints

Ready for another off-the-wall idea? These would make some awesome cake sides, the scalloped, the chevrons, even the little tangles.

You see it, don't you? If not, turn that head 90 degrees and hold it there... ;)

So our mystery guest is a dear talented friend of mine Vera. I met Vera pretty randomly at a CHA event. When I attended I was still pretty new in the carding world, and if I knew how awesome she was, I'd be more star struck. But I was pretty naive then. Vera is an accomplished publisher, made it to the Top 5 of Gallery Idol 2012, is Stamping Royalty, and is one the kindest persons I know. She runs a Caring Hearts Card Drive and it has an overwhelming response every year. I'm one of those lucky recipients that takes a box of cards to the Assisted Living Home near by and they love it every year. It's by pure coincidence that I asked to guest design and she just placed an order of her first Neat & Tangled stamps and received them. It was meant to be, don't you think? Vera, take it away...


Hi everyone. Vera’s here from Ling’s Design Studio. First of all, I want to thank Ren-Yi for the invitation to help Neat & Tangled celebrate their birthday. I am delighted to be here.
When I got the invite, I literally just got my first two Neat & Tangled sets the day before, so the timing was perfect.
I was debating what kind of card to make and decided that since I’ve been enjoying playing with watercolor lately that for my cards I decided to go that same route.



This card is so much fun to make. I first stamped the circle and heat embossed the circle and then drop watercolor randomly and using a straw to blow the color. With this method you’ll never know what kind of pattern you’ll get. That’s the fun part, right? I do 2 to 3 colors at first and then let the watercolour dry that way the color doesn’t get mix up too much and get muddy. I added some sequins to finish the card.

I was going to do a matching tag to the card, but ended up adding the tag to a card. Again for the tag I sued the same method as the first card and then add it to a color cardstock that’s been stamped with the circle border. I think these 2 cards totally will get you in party mood. What do you think? I hope you like the cards and to Neat & Tangled happy 1st birthday and wish you many success.
Oh, Vera, this is stunning! I have no words... your watercoloring is perfection. You made the Party Dots really the center of a fun bubbly party. You really hit a home run with these. What do you gals think about this?

It's been too quiet on the blog and I think it's time for another challenge. We have seen already 21 days of inspiration on the blog. So I know there are at least 20 days of creativity show cased. I also asked you about your favorite techniques. Some of you mentioned heat embossing and paper piecing. So what do I want you to see?

Technique Challenge
  • Create any card (or project) with a technique
  • Describe your technique
  • Grab our Birthday Bash Banner so that we can spot you easily
  • Link up your post below
  • The link is open until Sept 4, 11:55p Eastern Time; yep I am giving you 2 weeks to come up with some wonderful
  • The Little Tangles Prize is one Guest Design spot with The Little Tangles
  • The Design Team will vote on their favorites

Some hot trends right now are: water coloring, faux blackboard, washi

Do you want to have a chance to play with these stamps or all the stamps for that matter? Don't forget you can win it all by commenting across our LT 19 Challenge Blog Hop.




Challenge Reminders
Challenge #19 Eat Cake - ends Sept 1; free stamp set
Project Life Challenge - ends Aug 28; $5 gift certificate
Party Favor Challenge - ends Aug 24; $5 gift certificate

That's all for today. We have a few more inspirations coming along to answer some of your questions, and we will provide sneak peeks for the next Little Tangles release last week of August! Ta for now.