It’s the last day of the Lil’ Inker Designs May blog hop and we’re saving one of the best things for last: Sentiment Flag Additions, a fun extension of our flagship stamp and die set! To celebrate, the entire team is hopping today, starting at Laura’s Lil’ Inker blog. If you’re following the blog hop, you just saw Emily Leiphart’s adorable project. And when you’re done here, you’re off to Alicia’s blog.

My first ever Lil’ Inker card used the original Sentiment Flags set to create a festive banner on a clothesline. I decided to revisit that idea for the Sentiment Flag Additions set, but with a little twist. The new die set includes a flagpole, which I used to build string up my baker’s twine clothesline. The clothespins are just tiny slivers of kraft cardstock.

Maybe I just have baby clothes on the brain, since I’ve been handling so many in preparation for my little one’s arrival next month, but I thought a mini clothesline full of little laundry would be cute. I’ve been eying all the cute onesie dies and stamps released this spring, but decided to make my own paper baby clothes using circle punches and a few well-placed snips. The jumper even got a few extra details, like a canvas texture stamp and faux stitching, before being hung from the twine.

The sentiments in this new set are fun! Laura and Ariana have a gift for finding fantastic fonts that I really want to use on my cards, and this “It’s a girl” is one of my favorites. All of them are seeing ink lately. And I hope they’ll have you feeling inspired to dig out the original Sentiment Flags set and maybe even try the new version.

Supplies for It’s a Girl card
Stamps: Sentiment Flag Additions from Lil’ Inker Designs, Canvas Background from Stampin’ Up! (retired); Ink: Versamark, Whisper White craft ink from Stampin’ Up!, Memento Paris Dusk; Paper: Bashful Blue from Stampin’ Up!, white, kraft, and navy from Papertrey, heart patterned paper from Martha Stewart Crafts, floral paper from Crate Paper; Other: Sentiment Flag Additions and Clouds and Rainbows dies from Lil’ Inker Designs, grass punch from Martha Stewart Crafts, circle punches, white gel pen, baker’s twine from Clear and Simple Stamps, Copic markers, fun foam.

Hello! The Lil’ Inker team is blog hopping again today, this time to show off the clever new Texture Plate Collection frame. If you started at the beginning of the hop, you probably got here via Teresa Kline’s blog. This is the last stop before the Lil’ Inker Designs store. I hope you’ve been leaving comments along the way too, because we’re giving away one of our new stamp sets and a LID gift certificate at the end of the week. And now onto the new texture plate and my tips for using it.

The Texture Plate Collection: Frames 1 is a double-sided metal embossing plate that creates a raised wood frame or a simple beveled frame. I love that it has so much blank space for your favorite stamped images and sentiments. But even more than that, I love that it’s large enough to cover an entire A2 card front, making it easy to line up every time. Because my Cuttlebug is notorious for shifting dies and embossing plates as it the sandwich rolls on through, I use small pieces of washi tape to hold my cardstock and dies/plates in place.

For this anniversary card, I trimmed the plain frame just enough to show a contrasting card base. Then I filled the center with a trio of patterned paper hearts and a soft sentiment. It’s not very easy to capture an accurate image of the frame, but the texture is obvious and rather luxurious in real life. And to get even more definition from your Texture Plate, give your cardstock a light spritz of water or steam bath before embossing.

Supplies for Framed Anniversary card
Stamps: sentiment from Flags & Tags by Lil’ Inker Designs; Ink: Smokey Grey VersaFine; Paper: Nantucket Collection from Paislee Press, rustic white cardstock from Papertrey, and Bayou Blue from Stampin’ Up! (retired); Other: Texture Plate Collection: Frames 1 and From the Heart dies from Lil’ Inker Designs.