Dinosaurs and Punch Art!

 

Are you a fan of Punch Art?

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, punch art is creating cool objects and scenes with paper punches. I looooove punch art.  There's something very cool about creating neat objects from just basic shapes. Today I wanted to make a punch-art palm tree to go with my Dinosaur! I used a large oval punch to make the palm branches and then cut little slits in it for the bottom. I also used a small circle for the coconuts and then just free-hand cut out some rectangles for the tree trunk.  Then I just sponged all the edges with brown ink and a sponge - this really helps give dimension. 

Once I had the tree completed, I cut out some circles with circle dies and my Big Shot and created the little background scene for him to run into. I also stamped some little footprints in the sand... do  you think he's following a friend? Maybe?

What do you think? Isn't punch art fun?

There's still time to enter our Inky Paws Challenge! 

We hope you'll play along! You have until Sept 6 to play along with the sketch on our Inky Paws challenge for a chance to win a prize! If you don't have a stamp set yet, no problem, there is a digital freebie on the our first challenge page for you to use! Don't forget to tell your friends - if we get more than 15 participants we will give away two prizes! 

Loads of Happiness and Kitties!

Kitties and Pumpkins make me happy! 

Can you believe it's the last weekend of Summer? Wow. Where did the time go? We've been so busy here creating and planning and working on our new business we feel like summer went by in the blink of an eye! But, I am looking forward to Fall. I'm hoping we will have time this Fall for lots of Fall drives and trips to Pumpkin patches and orchards! That's what this image reminds me of... I love that cute little kitty in the wagon with the pumpkins! So perfect for Fall! 

To make this card, I simply stamped the images of the kitty with the pumpkins and the wagon and colored them with copic markers. Then I kept it simple with some patterned paper from my stash, and a cute little orange flag and button! Who wouldn't love this? 

Hope you have great plans for the last weekend of summer!!

ONE WEEK LEFT to enter our Inky Paws Challenge! 

We hope you'll play along! You have until Sept 6 to play along with the sketch on our Inky Paws challenge for a chance to win a prize! If you don't have a stamp set yet, no problem, there is a digital freebie on the our first challenge page for you to use!

Happy Harvest card by Jocelyn Olson

We've been having fun with the dinosaurs the last couple of days but today we're switching gears and featuring this beautiful Fall card by Design Team Member Jocelyn Olson using the Wagon of Wishes stamp set! The shocking thing about this card is that Jocelyn didn't use the wagon! GASP! Crazy, right? But I love how pretty this turned out... She repeated the leaf pile stamp to make that beautiful background! It's also so neat how she stamped the happy Harvest Sentiment on a ticket! 

Thanks so much Jocelyn, for the new look at this set! 

Make sure to go over to Jocelyn's blog, Red Balloon Crafts today and tell her what you think! 

If you'd like to purchase the Wagon of Wishes set for yourself you can find it in our online shop at www.newtonsnookdesigns.com.

Pink Dino card by Tessa Wise

Pink dinosaurs make me smile!

How about you? I'm really not sure why... maybe it's that the thought "dinosaurs should be for boys" can be completely destroyed by making them pink, cute and girly! I just love it! 

This card was created by Design Team Member Tessa Wise using the Prehistoric Pals stamp set. She always does the coolest, bright colors and makes them work wonderfully together! Make sure you head over to her blog, Crafty Girl Designs, today and tell her how cute this card is! 

Do you have the Prehistoric Pals set, or any other set from Newton's Nook Deisgns?

Don't forget to enter our Inky Paws Challenge! 

We hope you'll play along! You have until Sept 6 to play along with the sketch on our Inky Paws challenge for a chance to win a prize! If you don't have a stamp set yet, no problem, there is a digital freebie on the our first challenge page for you to use!

Dino Magnets by Samantha Mann!

Dinos go magnetic today!

Design Team Member Samantha Mann is rockin' the Prehistoric Pals set today with this project!  She created this super cute set of dinosaur magnets using all the dinos from the set mixed in with some clouds and thought bubbles!  I love them all set out on the magnetic board above -- the way some of them are jumping in the sky reminds me of a Nintendo game like Mario Brothers! I can just imagine those Dinosaurs jumping around!

Oh, and I just spied a wagon in there too from the Wagon of Wishes set! Look how those guys fit right in that wagon... so fun!  Here's a close up -- those googlie eyes are too funny!

And Samantha's little Man playing with them - wouldn't this be a perfect activity for a long car ride?

Make sure to head over to Samantha's blog - Sam's Scrap Candy - and tell her how very cool these are! 

Then- if you'd like to make some for yourself, you can purchase the Prehistoric Pals set in our shop at www.newtonsnookdesigns.com -- Sorry, googlie eyes not included :)

Wagon full of Cheese by Emily Leiphart!

Wagons & cheese Combined? Oh MY!

Wow - Design Team member Emily Leiphart  has really got her creative juices flowing this month! Check out this super cute card using not one, not two, but THREE stamp sets from Newton's Nook Designs! Emily used the cheese from Just say Cheese, the wagon from Wagon of Wishes and the Bird from Winged Wishes to create this card!

I never would have thought to put the cheese in the wagon - it's super cute! Now she's got me thinking.... I wonder what else we could put in that wagon? So many possibilities!

Make sure to pop over to Emily's blog Art from the Heart to say hello and read more about this card!

Thanks Emily for the fun inspiration!

Are you inspired? Don't forget to enter our Inky Paws Challenge! 

We hope you'll play along! You have until Sept 6 to play along with the sketch on our Inky Paws challenge for a chance to win a prize! If you don't have a stamp set yet, no problem, there is a digital freebie on the our first challenge page for you to use!

Newton's Nook Designs - Open House Recap!

On Friday we had an open house party to celebrate our business with our local friends! I thought it would be fun to share some pix from that night. Unfortunately the first couple hours of the party I misplaced my camera so I only got photos of those who stayed later. Oops - Sorry early birds! 

Newton doesn't know what to think of the banner featuring his logo... a good place to sit, perhaps?

Setting up -- Jeff puts up our banner! So cute! 

We had our sets laid out with all the card samples I've made!

We had wine and cheese and of course, thank-you favors for the guests!

Newton is awaiting the guests at the make-and-take area!

Our youngest Stamper,  Jacob, and his mom Nicky working together!

Jacob had a lot of fun being creative with the stamps! Notice Hobbes is in the background, surveying the situation!

Here's a close-up of his project! So cute!

    

And proof that men can have fun stamping too. Here is Matt, proud of his card!

Kelly and I showing off the yummy goldfish thank-you treats!

Friends Nicky and AnneMarie saying "cheese" 

  

And we managed to get a photo snapped of Jeff and I too, with our big kitty, Newton! 

I want to thank everyone who came to celebrate this new endeavor with us. It was so nice to have your support and we really appreciate all the well wishes!!

Happy Harvest Wagon Card

Having a blast with the wagon! 

Although I'm not quite ready for Fall yet I am having a ton of fun making all these cute little fall cards with the Wagon of Wishes stamp set! The little wagon is so easy to color and fill with different things. The leaves make it a perfect fall card, don't you think?  On this card I colored the wagon and leaves with Copic Markers and then added the happy harvest sentiment with a punched out tab..... 

Can I tell you a secret?  The reason I used that punched out tab is because I tried to stamp the sentiment next to the wagon on the white card stock and I messed it up! Ahhhhhhhg! I was so mad since I spent all that time coloring the wagon and leaves so I was determined to find a way to use. Tah- dah! Enter the punched out sentiment...  What do you think? Would you have ever known if I hadn't told you? Nope. But I wanted to share that because I think that happens to everyone and I want to encourage you to be creative and fix your mistakes. Sometimes they look even better than you had originally planned. I think I really like that pop of light yellow on this card! 

Have you ever "fixed" mistakes on cards and liked them better for it?  I'd love to hear about it... just comment below! 

Inky Paws Challenge #02 is now open!

Do you have a stamp set from Newton's Nook Designs? We hope you'll play along! You have until Sept 6 to play along with the sketch on our Inky Paws challenge for a chance to win a prize! If you don't have a stamp set yet, no problem, there is a digital freebie on the our first challenge page for you to use!

Inky Paws Challenge #02 Starts Today!

Today is a good day -- because it's Friday, of course, and because it's the start of our new  #02 Inky Paws Challenge!

Here's this month's Sketch: 

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! 

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

• Create a NEW project (card or other paper craft item) based on the sketch above.
• Your project MUST use at least one Newton's Nook Designs stamped image (or free digital stamp -see our First Inky Paws Challenge post to get the freebie).
• Post your project to your blog or to an online photo gallery such as Flickr or splitcoaststampers (on splitcoast please use keywords newtonsnook and IPC02).
• 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. 

You have two weeks to play along. Deadline to enter is Friday, September 6th, 2013 at Midnight CST. The winner will be announced on the NND blog on Monday, September 9th.

Ready for some Inky Paws inspiration?  

Read the description below each card to see who made it!

Design Team Member Samantha Mann played along using Winged Wishes. 

Isn't it just adorable how she put those baby onsies on the clothesline? Looks like she flipped the sketch upside down... Yup... you can totally do that! 

Design Team Member Tessa Wise decided to use the wagon from the Wagon of Wishes Stamp set and filled it with the cute little fall pumpkins and kitty image.  I love the plaid background on her card and the cute little happy harvest tag! 

I love the colors on this card by Design Team Member Jocelyn Olson! Plus - she thought of such a cute way to use the mouse from the Just say Cheese set! 

Here is a fun interpretation from our Design Team Member Emily Leiphart! Isn't It cute how she made that Dino look like he's looking up into the sky? The T-rex and sentiment are both from the Prehistoric Pals stamp set. 

Of course I had to make a couple cards too! 

For my first card I also used the set Wagon of Wishes to create fall-themed card! I colored the the wagon image using Inktense watercolor pencils on watercolor paper. I love this stamp with the pumpkins and that cute kitty peeking out from behind them! 

For my second card I used the set Newton's Antics to create this adorable cozy kitty card! Again -- I colored the kitties using Inktense watercolor pencils on watercolor paper. I tried to make them look just like our kitties, Newton and Hobbes! 

Now it's your turn! We can't wait to see what you create - Link your projects up below:

Fishing Bear Card using Watercolor Pencils

Wow - can you believe it's almost the end of August? 

Where did the time go? As summer is wrapping up it's last few weeks, I wanted to go back and make another card using our Campfire Tails stamp set! Although camping is mainly a summer activity I think this fishing bear could be used for nearly any time of year - especially if you know someone who likes to fish! Both my father and my father-in-law are big on fishing so I can see using this set to make cards for them!

To create this card I stamped the bear on some watercolor paper and colored him using Inktense colored pencils and a water brush. I really had fun coloring him. I love how vibrant those pencils are... you get the watercolor look but still have that bright color!  I just color around the inside edges of each part of the image and then very lightly across the rest. Then you use a water brush to move and blend the color around. 

I also used some patterned paper from my stash that had an outdoors theme and used the "hooked on you" sentiment from the same stamp set.

Here's a close-up of the card so you can see the coloring:

Is anyone going fishing or camping this weekend? 

Inky Paws Challenge #2 is coming...

Make sure to pop back over to the blog tomorrow for details and brand new sketch!!

Purr-fectly sweet cards by Elena Roussakis!

Today I have two especially sweet kitty cards to share created by our Guest Designer this month, Elena Roussakis from justmeprints.blogspot.com!  

Elena used one of first and favorite sets, Newton's Antics to create these two kitty cards! You can find this set for sale in our online shop!

On the first card she used the two snuggly kitties and colored them subtle shades of grey! I love the subdued colors on this card - So cute! 

On the second card she paper pierced that box and kitty! I love all the polka dots on this card! 

To read  more details about these cards and to say hello to Elena, check out her blog: justmeprints.blogspot.com

Thanks so much to Elena for the inspiration! 

T-Rex Tuesday!

Big Wishes for you this Tuesday using the T-Rex from our new Prehistoric Pals stamp set! This is one of my Favorite cards I've made using this guy! This card was pretty simple, I stamped the T-Rex on some white card stock and cut him our using a Sizzix circle die in my Big Shot.  Then I colored him with Copic markers. I did the same with the tree except that I did it on Kraft colored paper. I wasn't sure how it would color on that paper but I like how it turned out. 

I added the sentiment "BIG wishes" in orange and framed it with a brown circle - It's nice to have circle dies and/or punches in a variety of sizes! 

Here's another view of the card - I love how the leaf stamp can be used to make a fun background. I also used some orange patterned paper from my stash to give the background a pop of color along with some striped orange bakers twine and two little orange epoxy stickers.

Hope this T-Rex on Tuesday makes you smile!