Zoo Cards by February Guest Designer Emily Lauritzen

Today we have our first post from our February Guest Designer, Emily Lauritzen! We are excited to have Emily join us this month and can't wait to see what se creates using our products! Scroll down to read about Emily and to check out her first project below!

Hi, everyone! I am so so so excited to be guest designing for the month of January for Newton’s 

Hello and thank you so much for having me as your February guest designer! My name is Emily Lauritzen and you can find me at Scrappy Sweet Creations! I am beyond excited to be here! Newton's Nook has held a special place in my heart since they opened and I'm always thrilled to get my paws on their gorgeous stamps!

I have been a paper crafter for many years. I shifted my focus from scrapbooking to cards when I saw how happy my loved ones got when they received a handmade card. My card style is ever changing but the basis stays the same-use the products I love and create what makes me happy. I love to put together a striking colorful background and add some simple layers to build the card up. You will find plenty of kitties featured on my cards since I have 3 of those little furry rugrats running around my house. They certainly put a smile on both me and my husbands face and our lives wouldn't be complete without them!


Hello hello!  I'm so happy to be guest designing at Newton's Nook Designs this month!  Such a wonderful company that totally speaks to my heart with their adorable designs!

For my first project this month, I chose to use the Wild About Zoo stamp set!  Valentine's Day is just around the corner and this set works beautifully for this theme.

I started my card by drawing a little inspiration from the ever-wonderful Jennifer McGuire, and did a little distress resist background using the totally awesome animal print hearts in this set, Wild About Zoo!  The hearts are stamped at random with versamark onto my white cardstock and then heat set without any embossing powder.  Once they are dry, I used some Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, and Worn Lipstick distress inks to blend on an ombre background.  The dried Versamark resisted the ink and left a really soft subtle design on the cardstock.

For the banner down the middle, I used that same Worn Lipstick ink and applied a super light layer of it with a very slight ombre from top to bottom.  I didn't want that to be too dark and combat with the background, but it also didn't look right being just straight white.  You'll notice the outside edge is still white though since I did mask that off before doing the ink blending.

This super cute zebra was stamped and colored in with some Prismacolor pencils and then fussy cut with a very slight border.  I used my Silhouette to cut out the scripty Love sentiment and did a little ombre ink blending on that as well before layering it onto a white shadow and foam mounting it to my card.

The rest of the sentiment was stamped and clear heat embossed between the zebra and the large love and then I just scatted a bunch of little hearts around the tag.  This helped finish the card off with extra love!

As a bonus, I created a second card!

I changed the theme and color scheme, and did white heat embossing on this background instead of the distress resist.  But overall everything else is the same!

Thank you so much for joining me today!  Have an awesome week and I'll see you again next Monday!

- Emily

Sweet Treats Blog Hop!

It's our 3rd Annual Sweet Treats Blog Hop!

The Newton's Nook Designs Team is hopping along today to share some great Sweet Treats - just in time for Valentines day! Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the whole list and hop along and comment for a chance to win!

For my stop on this hop I created these fun chocolate holders:

These cute treat holders were created using the elephant and zebra from our Wild About Zoo stamp set! For the tags, I stamped the images onto watercolor paper with Ranger Archival black ink. I colored them using Zig Clean Color brush markers, keeping the colors simple gray and peach. Then I used a circle die to cut them out. 

I also added a little die cut heart onto each tag. The xoxo and polkadot heart are from the Darling Duos stamp set. I cut them out using the small heart from the  Darling Hearts Die Set. 

The wrap that goes around the chocolates was created using purple and dark pink cardstock. Here's how to make the wrap:

1. Cut a piece of cardstock to 8.25 inches long by 2.25 inches wide. 
2. Score the cardstock at 3.5 inches and 4.75 inches along the long side. 
3. Decorate the paper. I stamped various hearts over the paper using hearts from the Darling Duos stamp set and the Wild About Zoo stamp set (the hearts in these two sets are the same size so they coordinate perfectly!). 
4. Add the chocolate into the center, between the score lines. I adhered the chocolates together with glue dots and attached them to the bottom of the holder. 
5. Fold it up into a triangle shape and punch a hole through both layers. Use twine or ribbon to tie it all up!

The chocolates I used were just a little over an inch wide so if you find some that are the same size, you could use the same measurements I did, otherwise you might need to adjust if your chocolates are larger. By the way, I found those adorable chocolates with the animal print labels at the dollar store. Don't they look perfect with our Wild About Zoo stamp set?

Hope you enjoyed this project. The next stop on the hop is Amanda Bodine! Make sure you hop through all the blogs below and comment for a change to win :)

Sweet Treats Blog Hop Giveaway!

Would you like to win a $10 store credit to Newton's Nook Designs online shop?
We are giving them out to TWO lucky winners!

Here's how to win:
Comment on the NND blog and Design Team blogs (see list below)! The winner will be chosen at random from the collective reveal 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 Monday, February 6th at 9pm CST to comment -- winners will be announced on the blog post on Tuesday, February 7th.

Check out all the awesome Design Team Blogs below to enter:
Newton's Nook Designs
Amanda Bodine
Holly Endress
Ellen Haxelmans
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Juliana Michaels
Naki Rager
Maria Russell
Jennifer Timko
Tatiana Trafimovich

Safari Birthday Card by Yukari Yoshioka

It's a Birthday Zoo!

I just love all the fun watercolored animals on this card by Yukari! She used the fun lion, elephant, and lemur from the Wild About Zoo stamp set and added them into fun die-cut tag windows! This is such a unique and fun card layout, don't you think? She added on the "Happy Birthday" sentiment from the In Slow Motion stamp set, embossed in white on a black rectangle. I love how the sentiment really pops off!

Thanks so much to Yukari for the this super fun card today! You can head over to Yukari's blog, Handmade by Yuki to see more of her amazing cards!

Elephant Birthday Card by Kimberly Rendino

Birthday Elephants!

Today we have the super cute elephant card by Kimberly! She took the cute elephant image from our  Wild About Zoo stamp set and stamped it once and then MIRROR stamped it so the two elephants could face each other! So CUTE! Have you tried mirror stamping? It's such a great technique to get more mileage out of your stamps! Kimberly finished off her scene using balloons from the Winston's Birthday stamp set and the swirly "for you" from the Beautiful Blossoms Stamp set.

Thanks to Kimberly for the cheerful card today! You can head over to her blog, Kimplete Kreativity to see more  about her card and lots more of her beautiful creations!

Inky Paws Challenge #28 - Love Theme

This month's challenge is a Theme Challenge! 

create a project that is all about Love!

Are you ready to get your paws inky with us and play along to win a prize? The Challenge winner will receive a $10 store credit to our online store and a Inky Paws Challenge Top Pick Badge to add to your blog! If we get more than 15 participants, we will choose two winners so be sure to tell your friends to play along! 

You have TWO WEEKS to play along - Deadline to enter is Friday, February 5th, 2015 at Midnight CST. The winners will be announced on the NND blog on Monday, February 8th.

Are you ready to play along and get your paws inky?

• Create a NEW project (card or other paper craft item).

• Your project MUST use at least one Newton's Nook Designs stamped image (or free digital stamp - check out our Freebies page).

• Post your project to your blog or to an online photo gallery such as Flickr, Pinterest, or splitcoaststampers (on splitcoast please use keywords newtonsnook and IPC28).

• Link back to this challenge (if posting in an online gallery copy the link into the photo description). 

• Submit your project to this challenge using the InLinkz widget below. You must submit a DIRECT link to your post page.

• Have more than one great idea? You can enter more than once! Just link up each card separately. 
• TIP: Please make sure your photo in focus  - We can't pick you as a winner if we can't see your card clearly because your photo is blurry! 

Here's some inspiration!

Several of our Design Team Members decided to play along - check out all the awesome birthday cards they created! Read the description below each card to see who made it.

Here is an adorable Valentine by Jess! She used the cute frog image and "Hoppy Valentine's Day" sentiment from our Hoppy Days Stamp set!  I love how the colors pop off the black background!

Samantha used the cute pup from our Fetching Friendship stamp set for her love-themed creation! Pet lovers will definitely agree that LOVE is a four-legged word! 

Here is delightful Valentine by Yukari! That sweet kitty image, eiffel tower and hot air balloons are from the Newton Dreams of Paris stamp set. I love the scene she created with them! Then she added the "Happy Valentine's Day" sentiment using our Simply Seasonal stamp set! 

Here is an adorable Love card by Stephanie featuring our elephant image from the Wild about Zoo stamp set. I love the big pink bow and the  "Will ZOO be mine?" sentiment on the wood!

This sweet card by Danielle is purr-fect for Valentines Day! This image from the new Darling Duos stamp set is perfect to go with the "I just want to Snuggle" sentiment that Danielle created!

The rainbow hearts on this card by Kimberly look good enough to eat! She used our new Darling Hearts die to cut out the hearts and the "thinking of you" sentiment is from our Whispering Pines stamp set!

And lastly, here is what I created. I used the love birds from our new Darling Duos stamp set and colored them bright colored copics. I cut them out with the coordinating Darling Hearts die set. I also added the small heart & "love" sentiment from the die set. 

Now it's your turn! What will you create? Link up below:

An InLinkz Link-up

You're my MANE squeeze!!

Lion Love...

Who's ready to start making Valentine cards? We will be releasing a couple of fun new love-themed sets later this week but I thought it would be fun to share this card today with one of my favorite animal love sets, Wild about Zoo! This set is SO fun for making valentine cards for friends of ALL ages!! For this card I used  the cute lion image and colored the lion with watercolors. Then I added the image onto a light green card base along with some fun heart and striped patterned papers.

I added on the "You're my MANE squeeze" sentiment, also from the Wild about Zoo stmap set, on a circle to make it pop! I also added a bit of bright green ribbon to finish it off! I chose to use non-traditonal Valentine colors for this card too - which makes it more versatile. I could use it for a love or anniversary card too! 

NEW Designs coming soon!

Make sure you stop back tomorrow - I'll be sharing some SNEEK PEEKS for our January Release!! You are going to LOVE them!!

Inky Paws Challenge #22 - Birthday

This month's challenge is to a create a project with a Birthday theme!

Are you ready to get your paws inky with us and play along to win a prize? The Challenge winner will receive a $10 store credit to our online store and a Inky Paws Challenge Top Pick Badge to add to your blog! If we get more than 15 participants, we will choose two winners so be sure to tell your friends to play along! 

You have TWO WEEKS to play along - Deadline to enter is Friday, July 10th, 2015 at Midnight CST. The winners will be announced on the NND blog on Monday, July 13th.

Are you ready to play along and get your paws inky?

• Create a NEW project (card or other paper craft item).

• Your project MUST use at least one Newton's Nook Designs stamped image (or free digital stamp - check out our Freebies page).

• Post your project to your blog or to an online photo gallery such as Flickr, Pinterest, or splitcoaststampers (on splitcoast please use keywords newtonsnook and IPC22).

• Link back to this challenge (if posting in an online gallery copy the link into the photo description). 

• Submit your project to this challenge using the InLinkz widget below. You must submit a DIRECT link to your post page.

• Have more than one great idea? You can enter more than once! Just link up each card separately. 
• TIP: Please make sure your photo in focus  - We can't pick you as a winner if we can't see your card clearly because your photo is blurry! 

Here's some inspiration!

Several of our Design Team Members decided to play along - check out all the awesome birthday cards they created! Read the description below each card to see who made it

Here's a birthday card by Yuki - she used the cute zoo animals from the Wild About Zoo stamp set and added on birthday hats from the new In Slow Motion stamp set. So adorable! 

Here's a cute turtle birthday card by Danielle using our new In Slow Motion stamp set. I love the fun paint splatter background.

This sweet kitty card by Samantha is so fun! I love the confetti watercolor dots in the background. She used the kitty image with the gift from our Newton's Birthday Bash stamp set and added on the hat from the Fetching Friendship stamp set. 

Jess also used the fun turtle image from our new In Slow Motion for her birthday card! I
love the purple and yellow color combo and the fun dot background!

Here's a birthday card by me - I used Winston's Birthday stamp set to create a fun and simple birthday card! I added some paint splatter and sequins to the background to help add dimension!

An InLinkz Link-up

Inky Paws Challenge #19 - Use Watercolor

This month's challenge is to a Create a project using WATERCOLOR! 

Get your your watercolor pencils, paints or inks and play along!

Are you ready to get your paws inky with us and play along to win a prize? The Challenge winner will receive a $10 store credit to our online store and a Inky Paws Challenge Top Pick Badge to add to your blog! If we get more than 15 participants, we will choose two winners so be sure to tell your friends to play along! 

You have two weeks to play along. Deadline to enter is Friday, April 10th, 2015 at Midnight CST. The winners will be announced on the NND blog on Monday, March 9th.

Are you ready to play along and get your paws inky?

• Create a NEW project (card or other paper craft item).

• Your project MUST use at least one Newton's Nook Designs stamped image (or free digital stamp - check out our Freebies page).

• Post your project to your blog or to an online photo gallery such as Flickr , Pinterest, or splitcoaststampers (on splitcoast please use keywords newtonsnook and IPC19).

• Link back to this challenge (if posting in an online gallery copy the link into the photo description). 

• Submit your project to this challenge using the InLinkz widget below. You must submit a DIRECT link to your post page.

• Have more than one great idea? You can enter more than once! Just link up each card separately. 
• TIP: Please make sure your photo in focus  - We can't pick you as a winner if we can't see your card clearly because your photo is blurry! 

Here's some inspiration!

Several of our Design Team Members decided to play along - Scroll down to see how they added hearts into their projects and then enter your project at the bottom of the post! Read the description below each card to see who made it!

Larissa created this gorgeous floral card using our new Beautiful Blossoms Stamp set. I love the layers she cut with the watercolored flowers! 

Yukari tried the "no line" stamping technique with watercolors on the kitty from Newton Dreams of Paris stamp set! So beautiful!

Jess tried some fun watercolor techniques on her card - head over to her blog to see a video too! She used our Simply Sentimental and Wild about Zoo stamp sets. Love the water splatter!

Stephanie created this charming card with our Beautiful Blossoms stamp set! I love the watercolored blooms and the bits of watercolor splatter! She also used the words from our Simply Sentimental stamp set. 

Here is a sweet card by Samantha using watercolor as a background. It's so beautiful how she watercolored the kitty from our new Newton's Birthday Flutter too! 

Here's one by me - I watercolored a fun background for the Eiffel Tower from our Newton Dreams of Paris stamp set!

An InLinkz Link-up

I Love You from A to (rainbow) Zebra by Crafty Math-Chick

Rainbow Stripes!

Today I'm sharing this fun and whimsical rainbow Zebra card by Crafty Math-Chick! The zebra in our Wild About Zoo stamp set made her think of  "Fruit Stripe" gum - do you remember that gum? I do - it had the cutest colored stripes on the pieces! She was inspired to make a zebra with colored stripes like on the gum packet! What a fun idea!

She inspired me to look up the ad - I totally remember this one - anyone else?

Thanks, Crafty Math-Chick for the fun rainbow card today!

To see more details and other projects, you can visit her blog, Canines & Card Designs.

Sponsoring Cupcake Inspirations Challenge!

Have you heard of the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge? For each challenge they post a YUMMY cupcake photo and color combo for inspiration! Everybody likes cupcakes, right?

The current challenge going up today features this adorable image:

We're sponsoring this challenge so If you head over to their blog and play along you have a chance to win a $20 store credit to our store at newtonsnookdesigns.com! How awesome is that?

Of course I had to play along -- here's the card I created. I was inspired by the cupcakes with the zoo animals and took out the Wild About Zoo set. I wanted to mimic the cupcake designs so I stamped the lion, zebra and elephant and punched out just their faces with a circle punch. I colored them with copics and then found coordinating papers to frame them up like on the cupcakes in the photo! I added the "wild about you" sentiment from the Wild Child  sentiment in a circle too!

To finish it off I added a strip of yellow paper embossed with a polka dot embossing folder in the big shot and some pink and white bakers twine. I love how this turned out! So fun!

Make sure you pop over to the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge blog to see more fun today. We have several other NND Design Team members featured as "Guest Sweeties" for this challenge and a bunch of the regular "Sweeties" (that's what they call their Design Team -- cute, right?) are featuring Newton's Nook Designs stamps too!

I Only Have Eyes for You Card on Acetate by Lydia Evans

Note: this is our 2nd post today - to see the SWEET TREATS blog hop winners click here. 

This card is CLEARLY adorable!

Today I'm sharing this fun card by Lydia using acetate!  Lydia used a clear sheet of acetate for her card base, and added on a fun woodgrain tree for the cute little lemur to sit on! The lemur is from our new Wild About Zoo stamp set.  Doesn't he look so cute sitting in the tree she created? To make him extra cute she added on some big google eyes for him! This makes me laugh!  Have you ever tried making an acetate card? I bet it would be such a fun surprise to receive a clear card like this in the mail!

 To see more projects by Lydia, make sure to visit her blog, Lydia Evans Design!

There's still a little time to Enter our Inky Paws challenge  - Use a Heart!

Our newest challenge just started up so make sure you head over and check it out! All you need to do is create a card or project with a HEART using NND products! You can create a card or 3D project - just as long as there is a heart on it somewhere!

The winners of this challenge will get a $10 gift card to our shop! You can view full details and link up your card to our Inky Paws Challenge on this post.

If you don't own a NND stamp set yet you can still play along - just download and use one of the digital freebies on our freebies page.

Will Zoo Be Mine Card by Kimberly Rendino

This Valentine is Wild!

I love this fun animal print Valentine by Kimberly! She used the 3 little animal print hearts from our new Wild About Zoo Stamp Set and embossed them in different metallics! She also added the "will zoo be mine?" sentiment from the same stamp set. I love how she made the card really clean and simple and added just a hint of a zebra print border! Super fun!

Take a minute to pop over to Kimberly's blog, Kimplete Kreativity today to tell her how much you love this!

Sweet Treats Blog hop - Check out all the awesome treats in time for Valentine's Day!

If you haven't had a chance to go through all the awesome Design Team projects from yesterday's blog hop, you still can. Check out all the fun treats and leave comments along the way for a chance to win a $10 store credit to Newton's Nook Designs! Start the hop at the Newton's Nook Designs post here.