Guest Designer for Top Dog Dies and a Giveaway

I have been asked to make some projects from Top Dog Dies and well I was happy to do so!

Top Dog Dies is a new online store that offers their own brand of wafer-thin and steel-rule dies, along with dies from brands you already know and trust, including My Favorite Things, Sizzix, Savvy Stamps and Cheery Lynn Designs. Top Dog Dies is also the leading U.S. retailer for Tattered Lace, a new line of intricate dies designed by U.K. designer Stephanie Weightman.

I have 2 projects today. The first is a wedding card using a monogram with the Vintage Alphabet dies.  The Madison Doily cut beautifully (that's patterned paper, Amy Tangerine Sketchbook pack). I did poke some of the holes with a piercer but they pieces fell off easily. 

This card was an evolution. Let me show you how it started:

 I seem to always go for the cream card stock, so I wanted to try something different. I die cut the doily and alphabet from patterned paper and rounded the corner.

And then just stared at it.

 It didn't "feel" right. What do I do with these elements? So off to talking to Elena to figure it out. Elena is the creative genius behind JUST ME PRINTS. She gets me, and what I am trying to achieve, and is my GO TO person for help when I hit a wall with a card.

Sometimes she tells me to walk away.

Sometimes she tells me try again.

And she is ALWAYS right!

She didn't like the black and didn't like the paper. Yeah, she's tough, but it's worth it. We work well together. She suggested a monogrammed look and showed me a sample HERE.

So I sent this one below. (I kept the black and the paper, I liked it myself and well sometimes you gotta stand up for your designs)  ;)

Her reply?

"It's better than it was, but the focal point isn't strong enough for me and where is the rosette??"

So I went back and added the rosette like I should have in the first place. And that's how I got the final card folks!!

For my next project, I was asked by Crate Paper to make a mini album. I had lots of ideas, but nothing was as easy or as cute as the circle mini album by Top Dog Dies.

 Here are just a few of the pages. To see the album in full, check out the Top Dog Dies Blog HERE. 

I used some old cardboard and backing to 12x12 paper packs to create the album and then die cut the paper with the die as well. It was so easy then to glue together. 

For this one, I die cut half the die and stitched the bottom.

All supplies by Crate Paper Oh Darling Collection. 

Top Dog Dies has generously offered a gift card for one lucky person. To be eligible for the giveaway, you need to register on THIS page, but you can get extra entries by both commenting on my blog post and following them on our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/topdogdies

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/topdogdies/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/topdogdies

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TopDogDies

Deadlines to enter the giveaway will be Sunday, Jan. 26 at midnight.

Thank You so much for visiting. I appreciate it so much :)