Hey Bestie and Love You More Releases Blog Hop

I am so thrilled and excited to be a part of today's Simon Says Stamp Hey Bestie and Love You More Blog Hop!!  Simon is combining two fabulous releases, Love You More which was released last month, and Hey Bestie, released yesterday, to showcase all the new products in these releases in one blog hop!!  There are sooo many amazing dies, stamps, stencils and accessories in these two releases...follow the hop, and I KNOW you find lots of inspiration!!
I have used one of the beautiful new dies from the Hey Bestie release, Snowflake Mandala, and made a couple cards celebrating this release and die!!...

From the moment I saw this die, I was in love!!  Although I am somewhat of a snowflake snob(having to have 6 points), this is a Mandala snowflake, and mandalas have 8 points, and I think this is really beautiful, so those two alone, made it ok.  The first thing I thought, though, is that all the sides MIGHT not be exactly alike, so I marked the tip of one of the points with a sharpie marker, and used that as my base for making a rainbow of colors mandala.  Good thing I did, as all the sides four and four...are NOT alike....they are a tiny bit different than each other!   I wanted to put all the colored pieces in a white die cut that was adhered to a die cut that had all it's pieces still in it(a whole die cut serves as a base for all the many pieces), so making sure the pieces exactly fit was crucial.  Here's what it looked like when I die cut it...the pink is where the die is marked...then I have laid a pin next to the marked tip to show you how I contnued to die cut the colors based on the first two, die cutting two colors at a time.  

Once I had all the colored pieces in the white die cut on the solid die cut, I adhered one more die cut snowflake over all the colored pieces.  I embossed the mandala die on the cardstock on the top and bottom, and added a sentiment that I made into a strip.  Here's a close up...

The second one, I left all the pieces out of the die cuts, and used some striped papers behind the layered die cuts...

I embossed the stripes with a snowflake embossing folder which I believe is no longer available.  I used a Simon winter flavored sentiment strip.  Here's a close up...

OK...my fun is above, your fun is below!  

Simon Says Stamp will be generously giving a $25 coupon to one commenter from each and every blog on the hop, simply leave a comment for a chance to win!!  The winners will be chosen and be posted on the Simon Says Stamp Blog on Wednesday, January 15th, 

so make sure you check the blog on the 15th, to see if you're a winner!

   The list of participants of the hop are below.  If you get lost, you can head to the Simon Says Stamp Blog...hope you will check out all the amazing artists' inspiration today!! 

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Jennifer McGuire

Cathy Zielske

Nina-Marie Trapani

Nichol Spohr

                                        Lisa Addesa<-------YOU ARE HERE

Heather Ruwe

Suzy Plantamura

Kathy Racoosin

Heather Hoffman

Barb Engler

Cheiron Brandon

Lea Lawson

Betty Wright

Bobbi Lemanski

AND...TWO THINGS before you go:
1.  Don't forget the offer in the heading!!  With a $50 purchase and the code: BFF489,  you will recieve the Simon Says Stamp Friend Outline die!!  Good until
1/12 at 11:59 or while supplies last!
2.  Don't forget that there's a second blog hop tomorrow at the Simon Blog...hope you will check back for MORE inspiration!!
Ok...now I'm done...have a wonderful day...hop on!!
Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa