Glam gold ink and a Go-to Gal Designer Challenge!

Hello, hello! I love it when I have LOTS to share with you - and today is one of those days! First of all, I am posting over on the Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking blog today. We're glamming up our springtime palette with GOLD.  And as I promised in that blog post, I have some more GOLD to share with you here too, in the inky variety.

The Delicata ink pads from Tsukeniko came highly recommended to me, from my crafty advisors on Facebook. (Seriously - do you ask your Facebook friends for recommendations on EVERYTHING, like I do?!) These ink pads are amazing. There's something so buttery about this ink - it's easy to work with, it dries pretty quickly, especially for pigment ink, and it is absolutely GORGEOUS! So without further ado, let me show you how I used it!

On the first card, I tapped that wooden veneer heart in the ink, then into a clear, glittery embossing powder. I heat set it, and let it dry for a minute or two. Fun, right!? And that beautiful gold paper is from Stampin' Up, and it's another GLAM GOLD crafting material that I have been using a LOT lately!

Okay - next up. . . .on this card, I dragged the edges of the journaling card (from Close To My Heart) through the ink, and I stamped the sentiment. Then I stamped some gold circles on cardstock, trimmed them, and added dimensional glaze over the top to make some faux enamel dots. I adhered them to the card with glue dots. Super fun. (The smallest ones I used a hole punch to cut out, but the larger ones I cut by hand, because I'm crazy like that.)

Please stop on over at the Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking blog if you haven't already, because my generous friends at Tsukeniko have helped me put together a glam, gold giveaway. You'll have the chance to win both the Golden Glitz and the Silvery Shimmer Delicata pads, plus some other golden goodies, when you comment on the Paper Crafts blog post! 

BUT WAIT. . .there's MORE! (I told you it was a big day. Go refill your coffee if needed. . . it's okay. I'll wait. . . . .) Ready?

Today is also Go-to Gal Designer Challenge day. On the last Wednesday of the month us GTG's like to throw out a challenge to each other and get creative with some of our favorite companies' products. Today we are showcasing Echo Park. It's also an important day because it's the first time our NEWEST Go-to Gal is joining us. Did you see the news that Laina Lamb has joined us? I am thrilled to get to know her better, and I hope you are too! (Show her some extra love today, okay!?) 

So I sort of accidently fudged the challenge on this card. I realized just as I was posting it, that I used a Carta Bella collection for this card. . .Carta Bella is the sister company to Echo Park. So it's sort of the same. . .and sort of totally different. At any rate, this card is using the new "It's A Celebration" collection. And I just love the colors - the navy and mint with yellow and coral are so pretty! 

Now go and visit the rest of the girls, and see what Echo Park lovelies they've created!! Thanks so much for coming by! (And if you made it to the end of this LONG post - kudos to you!)

• Betsy Veldman

• Heather Campbell

• Kim Kesti

• Kimberly Crawford
• Laina Lamb

• Teri Anderson