Hope Your Day Doesn't Bite Card by Samantha Mann

Hope Your Day Doesn't Bite!

Today Samantha is sharing a stunning underwater scene that will definitely make you say "Wow"! This fun card features two of the fun sharks from our Shark Bites Stamp Set. She colored the sharks in gorgeous shades of yellow and gray and even gave them sweet pink cheeks! The images were cut out using the coordinating Shark Bites Die Set.

For her amazing underwater scene she created a background of light to dark using distress inks. She stamped lots of little fish onto the sea (also from the Shark Bites Stamp Set) and added rays of sparkly light from the top using our Sunscape Stencil with glittery paste! Doesn't this look like sun shining down through the water? So cool! 

For her sentiment, she cut out a fun black speech bubble using our Speech Bubbles Die Set and embossed "Hope your day doesn't bite" from the Shark Bites Stamp Set in white. This was then added above one of the sharks.  sHe also embossed the "NOM! NOM! NOM!" with white right onto the water next to him!

This card would be perfect for sending a fun and cheerful hello to a friend and would be sure to make them smile! 

To say hello to Sam and see more of her amazing creations you can visit Sam over on her blog, Sam's Scrap Candy!

Jaw Humbug Card by Samantha Mann

Jaw Humbug!

Today we have a funny card by Samantha featuring sharks with the"Jaw Humbug" sentiment! I guess those sharks are not too excited about the holidays! So funny! She used two sharks from our Shark Bites Stamp Set, colored them and fussy cut them out. She added hats onto them that were stamped from our Newton's Christmas Kittens Stamp Set. These hats are just the right size to add onto the sharks and look even cuter with the tiny pom-poms on the ends!

For the card base she created layers of lovely waves in purples, blues and greens using our Waves & Splashes Stencil with distress inks. Adding a bit of water splatter to the inked parts really adds a nice touch for the water theme! Then she created that custom sentiment "Jaw Humbug" into the center, cutting letters out using our Essential Alphabet Die Set. She added cute little accents to the letters with a white gel pen too. The sharks perfectly frame the sentiment on each side.

Sam is fabulous at fussy cutting but if you don't like cutting images out with scissors you could use the coordinating Shark Bites Die Set  to trim out the sharks and the Newton's Christmas Kittens Die Set to trim out the hats!

We hope this project by Sam made you smile today! To  say hello to her and see more of her awesome creations you can visit Sam over on her blog, Sam's Scrap Candy!

Shark Cards by October Guest Designer Bobbi Lemanski

Hey there! It’s Bobbi Lemanski and I’m back with more cards this month as the October guest designer for Newton’s Nook. I may not be a card shark, but I am a lover of a good shark card. I’ve got two to share with you today. I hope they really grab and pull you in! Beware: These Newton’s Nook shark stamp sets are dangerously awesome! 

Shark Bite Tunnel Card

Being a mom of a teenage son, I’m always in need of a card that is not too cutesy. Sharks are great images to use for teenage boys. Who doesn’t love a scary shark? The first card features images from both stamp sets, Shark Frenzy and its complementary set, Shark Bites. I really love the strong contrast between the black mouths and the white teeth of the sharks on the Shark Frenzy image. I was drawn to this set immediately. I knew I had to sink my teeth into this one!  

Figure 1 Shark Frenzy adds drama to this card front!

To make my first card, I alternated between blues and grays for the sharks’ colors so that each shark really stood out. I colored and fussy cut the Shark Frenzy image for the card front and popped it up slightly using foam squares. This is a 5” X 7” card so Shark Frenzy really fills the space easily! If you like to make smaller cards, this design can be easily adapted to fit other sizes and the stamp image fits on an A2 card size (5-½” x 4-¼”), too.

I wanted one of the sharks to pop out of the shark frenzy, so I used one of the images from Shark Bites to pop up and out. I think he really makes a splash on the front! I hand drew and cut out a speech bubble and added a sentiment from the Shark Bites set for the focal image. For the blue background, I simply drew abstract waves using Copic blue markers and my Signo Uni-ball white gel pen. This is so easy to do and adds a little drama and movement to the front.

Figure 2 A close-up of the image from Shark Bites that splashes out of the shark frenzy!

For the inside, I wanted there to be an element of surprise for the recipient. I created a tunnel in the inside to mimic the mouth of a shark.  There are so many fun sayings in the Shark Bites set that I had to use four of them! The tunnel teeth were made by hand cutting a row of imperfect triangles like a banner out of white cardstock. If you try this, make sure to keep them attached together so you can easily glue them inside the circle cutout. It’s quicker and much easier to glue a row of them v. individual teeth. Plus, there’s less chance that a shark tooth will fall out!

Figure 3 A tunnel card is the perfect design to mimic an open and fierce shark mouth!

When a tunnel card is opened, the inside becomes dimensional offering the element of surprise to the recipient. When in the closed position, the tunnel collapses flat.

Figure 4 A tunnel card becomes dimensional when the card front is opened.

Figure 5 The tunnel card becomes flat when in the closed position and fits into a standard envelope.

I took two photos of my shark card from the top to show what it looks like when open and closed. Tunnel cards can be mailed using regular postage (unless you’ve added other dimension or weight to the card). There are so many possibilities with this design, I hope you give it a try if you have not already!

Beware: Shark Waters

My second card was inspired by a transparency I made with Ranger Alcohol Inks. These inks dry so vibrantly, giving the appearance of stained glass or glassy waters. I must admit, my photos just do not do this card’s amazing vibrancy justice!

Figure 6 Alcohol Inks on a transparency creates a fluid water scene.

 Figure 7 A close-up view of the alcohol inks on a transparency.

The blue and green alcohol ink combo transparency was the perfect background for these Shark Bites sharks. I cut a rounded corner rectangle out of the front of a white card base and one out of another piece of white cardstock, to match the front. I added the transparency sheet between the two perfectly matched cardstock pieces, keeping all my adhesive on the transparency edges hidden inside the sandwich of cardstock. I added the front-facing shark image to the transparency front and one on the top. If you notice, my transparency only covers about 75% of the opening, as if you are looking at a slice of the ocean from the water line to the bottom. This top opening was perfect for placement of the diving shark. There was also room for the inside sentiment, “Snappy Birthday” to show through to the front, too.

Figure 8 The inside of the card includes another shark, a school of fish and the sentiment that all show through to the front.

Inside, I stamped another shark image chasing a school of fish. They both show through to the front, under the transparency which adds some depth and dimension. I really enjoyed designing this one. The alcohol inks are fun to use to create awesome organic looks. I’ll be featuring another card using a slightly different use of alcohol inks in October with more Newton’s Nook stamp sets. Stay tuned for more ideas later this month! 

Have a great week-

Bobbi Lemanski

Newton's Nook Designs & Xyron Inspiration Week - Day 2 with Maria & Naki

This week we are partnering with Xyron for a very awesome inspiration week! Each day we will have fresh inspiration using Newton's Nook Designs products with Xyron adhesives on the NND blog and Xyron will be featuring  projects as well on the Xyron facebook page! There are prizes too! Read all the way to the end of this post to find out how you can win!

Today we are featuring projects by Maria and Naki! 

First up is a fun stair step card by Maria:

For her card, Maria used two cute llamas from our new Loveable Llamas Stamp Set and the coordinating dies to create an awesome stair step card! She has one llama on the top of the stairs and cute little pots of cacti on each step! So adorable! She used the Mega Runner tape gun by Xyron to put it all together!

Visit Maria's blog: Maria Russell Deisgns to see more and leave a comment for another chance to win!

Next, we have calendar stickers by Naki:

Naki used several of her favorite NND stamp sets to create fun stickers to add onto her big wall calendar to decorate the dates in July! She used the cute little BBQ grill from the Winston's BBQ Stamp Set, the kitty wearing a nurse hat and bottles of pills from the Newton's Sick Day, the kitty on a stack of books from the Newton's Book Club Stamp Set, sharks from the Shark Bites Stamp Set., cake from the Newton Loves Cake Stamp Set, balloons from the Playful Pandas Stamp Set, and die cut metallic arrows and feathers from the Points & Plumes Die Set.

To make the stickers, Naki die cut out the images using the coordinating die sets and then used the 1.5" Teresa Collins Create-A-Sticker Maker by Xyron to make them into sticker sheets! These are so fun too because you don't have to use them right away and can keep the stickers on their sheets until you are ready to add them to the calendar pages! 

Visit Naki's blog: notes from Naki to see more and leave a comment for another chance to win!

Would you like to win a Prize pack including a Mega Runner from Xyron and a $25 store credit to Newton’s Nook Designs? 

Here's how to win:Leave a comment on the NND & Design Team blog posts using Xyron products all week (June 25-29) to enter. One winner will be randomly chosen from blog posts throughout the week so the more posts you leave comments on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Friday June 29th at midnight EST to comment. The winner will be announced on the NND blog post on Monday, July 2nd.

Xyron will also be giving away a prize pack! Make sure to visit the Xyron facebook page each day this week for inspiration and leave comments there for another chance to win!  

Hope Your Day Doesn't Bite Card by Ellen Haxelmans

Today's card by Ellen is sure to make you smile! She created an adorable water scene using several stamp sets. How cute are those two kitties!!? The kitty wearing the shark costume is from the Newton's Costume Party Stamp Set. She also colored a cute pirate hat from the Newton's Costume Party Stamp Set and added it onto the kitty from the Newton's Antics Stamp Set.  She trimmed out the kitties using the coordinating dies from both sets. Then she created a scene for them using the Land Borders Die Set and Sea Borders Die Set. She added in some cattails on the the sides from the Winston's Lake House Stamp Set. To finish off the card she added in the funny "Hope your day doesn't bite" and "Nom! Nom! Nom!" sentiments from the Shark Bites Stamp Set

This combo of images is so creative and fun! I love the idea of using the costumed kitties to create cards for occasions other than Halloween!

Do you love this card by Ellen? To seem more of her beautiful creations, you can visit Ellen over at her blog Crafty Ellen!

Newton's Nook Designs & Studio Katia Co-Hop!

Welcome to the Summer Fun Collaboration Blog hop with Newton's Nook Designs and Studio Katia! Both teams are celebrating the start of summer with fun and colorful cards using stamps from Newton's Nook Designs and dies and embellishments from Studio Katia. There's prizes too! Both companies have a prize to give away too so make sure you read all the way to the bottom of this post to see how to win!

Here's what I created:

I started out using the Stitched Loops Die from Studio Katia. I love the three little circles in a row an it reminded me of port holes on a ship so I decided to go with a sea theme and grabbed our Shark Bites Stamp Set to create my card.

I created a shaker card, using the Stitched Loops Die from Studio Katia to cut out a window in the center of a piece of bright blue cardstock. I also cut it out in black to create the inner frame. Before assembling my shaker, I stamped little tiny fish all over it from the Shark Bites Stamp Set. I also stamped the little shark silhouette from that set to put behind the window. I filled the shaker with sequins using the Summer Fusion sequin mix from Studio Katia. I love the bright colors in this mix! Then I added a shark in front of the shaker using the shark image from the Shark Bites Stamp Set and coloring him with copics. I also added the "Feel like grabbing a bite?" sentiment into a little circle (this circle was the innermost cut that comes out when you use the Stitched Loops Die from Studio Katia). I finished the card off with a little strip of heart patterned washi tape and a bright yellow cardstock base! 

I hope you enjoyed this project! The next stop on the hop is Olga. 

Make sure you hop through all the blogs to see all their gorgeous projects and leave comments for a chance to win! Details are below.

We are giving away TWO prizes - one prize pack from Studio Katia and one $25 store credit from Newton's Nook Designs!

Here's how to win:
Comment on the Design Team blogs from Newton's Nook Designs and Studio Katia Team Blogs (see list complete list at the Studio Katia and NND blogs)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective blog hop posts. Make sure to check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning! You have until Sunday June 4th at 12pm CST to comment -- winners will be announced on the Newton's Nook Designs and Studio Katia blogs on Tuesday, June 6th.

Check out all the awesome Design Team Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs
Olga
Amanda 
Kristina
Holly
Laurie
Jennifer
Svetlana
Maria
Ellen
Svitlana
Naki
Valentyna
Juliana 
Larissa
Liliushka
Samantha
Tatiana
Studio Katia

Fan Feature - Day 4

Last day! Sharing creations by our fans!

We see so many amazing projects featuring Newton's Nook Designs products that we thought it would be fun to have our Design Team members pick their favorites and share them on our blog! Today is our last day for  favorite projects, created by YOU, our fans! See your project below? Make sure to scroll down to the end and grab our "spotted" badge for your blog!

Design Team member Jess Gerstner picked this cute London card by Diane Morales. This card uses our Shark Bites and Love à la Carte stamp set. 

"I love how Diane mixed two sets that might not seem to go together at first. It's a cute scene with a clever design!"

Design Team member Lydia Evans picked this cute London card by Just Kate Crafting. This card uses our Newton Dreams of London stamp set. 

"I love the soft yet bold watercolour look. And Kates placement of the images is perfect .... love it!

Don't forget - we've created a fun "spotted" badge too - so if your project was featured above, you can you can grab this badge and share it on your blog with a link to this post to show everyone that you were spotted by the Newton's Nook Design Team! 

If you'd like to be considered for a future feature, tag your posts with #newtonsnook in social media to make sure we see them! We hope you enjoyed all our fan features this week!!

Watch for new stamps - next week!

Next week we're revealing some adorable new fall stamp sets! We can't WAIT to share these with you! Make sure you check back in for sneak peeks throughout the week and new stamps for sale next friday, August 19th!

Fan Feature - Day 1

The rest of this week we're spotlighting creations by our fans!

We see so many amazing projects featuring Newton's Nook Designs products that we thought it would be fun to have our Design Team members pick their favorites and share them on our blog! Each day for the rest of this week we will share a couple of our favorite projects, created by YOU, our fans! See your project below? Make sure to scroll down to the end and grab our "spotted" badge for your blog!

Design Team member Larissa Heskett picked this adorable card by Jenn Shurkus. This card uses our Shark Bites and Tranquil Tides Stamp sets. 

"I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the AMAZING Scene she created!"

Design Team member Samantha Mann picked this adorable card by D'Anns Crafting Whims. This card uses our Naughty Newton stamp set. 

"It seriously CRACKS me up!!! What a FANTASTIC scene!! I love all of the detail, and the cat in between the blinds is HILARIOUS! Ha ha! The attention to detail on this card is amazing - I'm in LOVE! Awesome!"

Design Team member Yukari Yoshioka picked this adorable card by Just Kate Crafting. This card uses our Newton Dreams of London stamp set. 

"Wow! How fun is this card? The background goes perfectly with the London-theme London-theme and the coloring is amazing! Absolutely love everything about it!"

Don't forget - we've created a fun "spotted" badge too - so if your project was featured above, you can you can grab this badge and share it on your blog with a link to this post to show everyone that you were spotted by the Newton's Nook Design Team! 

If you'd like to be considered for a future feature, tag your posts with #newtonsnook in social media to make sure we see them! Check back tomorrow for more fun fan spotlights!

Shark Week Day 5 - Jess & Larissa

Welcome to Shark Week - Day 5!

Have you enjoyed our Shark week? Today is the LAST day! 

If you missed it, make sure you pop back through this week's posts. All week we've been featuring our  Shark Bites stamp set and NEW Shark Bites Die Set all week on the NND blog, with two new fun projects each day! 

Today we have sharky inspiration from Jess and Larissa!  

First we have this incredibly cool shark card by Jess: 

Isn't that background so cool? Jess will have a video on her blog showing how she created this so make sure to pop over there and see it. I love how it looks like the two sharks are having a friendly conversation! So cute!

Next we have this awesome shark slider card by Larissa: 

Larissa created a fun scene for her shark using some coral and fish from our Tranquil Tides stamp set too! Isn't it awesome how the bright coral contrasts with the blue water background? Plus I bet it's so fun to play with this card and spin that shark around in the slider!

That concludes Shark WEEK! Hope you enjoyed it!
Don't forget you can still save on our Shark Stamp set and Die until Midnight CDT tonight (July 1, 2016)

Here's a look at our Shark Bites stamp set and NEW coordinating Shark Bites Die Set:

Don't forget - these sets are on special through Friday, July 1! 
You can get the stamp set for just $12.99 (regular price $14.99) and the dies set for just $21.99 (regular price $24.99) If you buy both you save a total of $5!

Tomorrow they will be back to the regular prices so you'll definitely want to pop over to our shop and grab them while the sale is on!