Are You Enjoying the Previews??

Have you been hopping along with the blog hops the past few nights? Talk about some awesome cards! The possibilities seem endless with the stamp sets in this release. They are so versatile -- holiday cards, fall cards, baby cards, snowmen cards -- so many stamps, so little time! I can't wait for you to see the full sets when they are released this Thursday. You will be amazed at how great these sets are. I've had a sneak preview of all of them as a member of the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team and I'm still wow-ed everytime I take one of the sets out to make a card. Now if someone could arrange for me to have more time for stamping, I'd be able to make a ton of cards with all these fun new stamps!

I have been busy making cards to share during the big release party on Thursday, October 1! Be sure to join the fun over at the Gina K forum on Splitcoast Stampers from 7-10 PM Central Time (8-11 ET; 6-9 MT and 5-8 Pacific). It will be a fast-moving fun evening with loads of great new cards by the Design Team and the Spotlight Team with some fun challenges thrown in too. See you there!

P.S. Don't forget! At 10:00 PM Central on Thursday (after the party!) all of the new stamp sets,including a great new Stamp TV Kit, papers, inks, ribbons and other accessories will be available to purchase at ginakdesigns.com.

Gina K Designs Preview Tonight

I'm so excited to be participating in the Gina K Designs September stamp release! Tonight begins the previews by the Design Team and the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team for this month. I am helping to preview the new set called Special Delivery. This set also has a companion add-on set. This is a really fun, versatile set by a brand new designer for Gina K. This set is great for many different occasions, including the upcoming holidays.

My preview card was made for Christmas but you will find this set great for making cards for birthdays, new babies, valentines, and other events.

This card is made with a gorgeous new green Pure Luxury cardstock called All Spruced Up that will be released this Thursday, October 1. It is a deep, rich green that will be perfect for your holiday cards. The red paper is the Pure Luxury Rocket Red and that designer paper you see peeking out from behind the focal image is one of the beautiful new digital papers you'll see in the September release. The stamps are from the Special Delivery stamp set. I stamped the Happy Holidays circle in the Vivid Dye Ink - Brick Red and the others in Memento Tuxedo Black. I colored the ornaments with Copics, added a touch of sparkle with my Spica pens and then covered them with crystal lacquer to give them some shine. The ribbon, which didn't photograph very well, is also going to be released this Thursday along with several other beautiful ribbons that will be perfect for the holidays. This one is edged in the same green as the All Spruced Up paper and has a gold thread along with the red center. I tied a bit of gold cording on the bow also.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek! There will be more to come all week and then the big release party is on Thursday over at Splitcoast Stampers. Be sure to check out all the sneak peeks tonight for the Special Delivery Set and A Very Merry Christmas.

Stop by GinaK's blog today to add your comment to her blog entry for a chance to win the new stamp sets being previewed tonight on our blogs!

Then, check in with the Illustrators of our two stamp sets featured tonight:

Theresa Momber: A Very Merry Christmas

Tami Mayberry: Special Delivery and Special Delivery Add-on

Design Team Members participating in the hop tonight:

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Cindy Lawrence

Donna Baker

Emily Giovanni

Erika Martin

Jessica Fick

Kurtis Amundson

Lee Murphy

Lynn Mercurio

Melanie Muenchinger

CenterStage Spotlight Designers:

Kay Simmons

Linda Payne

Happy Fall Card

As promised, tonight I'm sharing a fun little fall card I made yesterday. I was just playing around in my stamping room and wanted to make something pretty but uncomplicated. So, this is what I came up with.

The base card is the new Stampin' Up In Color called Dusty Durango. I used the Dotted Swiss Cuttlebug folder on the front of the card to give it some texture and interest. The scalloped layer is Stampin' Up In Color Soft Suede that I used the scallop punch on and then pierced each scallop with a piercing tool. The plaid paper is from a Debbie Mumm paper pack that I picked up at Joann's recently and amazingly enough the orange in it matched the Dusty Durango paper and the lines are the same color as the Soft Suede. The layers under the focal image repeat the same colors and the pumpkins are stamped on Pure Luxury Ivory paper from Gina K Designs. The pumpkins are stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa and colored with the Dusty Durango marker and a SU Pumpkin Pie marker. The pumpkins are from the Gina K Designs Stamp TV Kit set called Signs of Autumn.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this card yet but I'm sure I'll find someone to send it to. I hope it brightens someone's day, whomever it is, and I hope it brightened yours as well!

Doing the Happy Dance!

I am so excited, thrilled, and honored to have been chosen to be part of the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team for Gina K Designs. I nearly fainted when I opened the e-mail from Gina K inviting me to be part of the Center Stage Spotlight Team for the September release. Now here is the funny part -- I was SO excited, but I couldn't tell anyone associated with stamping because it needed to be officially announced by Gina before we could breathe a word of it. So, I decided to share it with my husband. Now, my husband is a wonderful, caring man and he is very supportive of my "stamping habit." However, he had not a clue what a Center Stage Spotlight Design Team was! He tried very hard to be happy for me, but just between you and me, I still don't think he really understands it! LOL! I didn't really care that he didn't get it -- I just had to tell someone who wouldn't spill the beans to anyone who would understand it and I knew he most certainly wouldn't since he doesn't know anyone who would care!

I will be joining five other very talented women (see links to their blogs on the side bar) and the Gina K Designs Design Team in showcasing previews of the new stamp sets that will be released on October 1. We will also have cards to share at the release party that night. More details on the previews and release party later.

Thanks for listening to my news! Sorry I didn't have a card to share this afternoon. I do have one that I'm planning to share here later tonight or tomorrow. I'm just waiting to get a decent photo of it. I take my card photos outside and we are having a very much needed rainy day here so I have to wait until the rain stops to get a photo! One of these days I really need to get one of those Ott lights so I have good lighting for taking indoor photos!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Sometimes Things Don't Turn Out Quite Right . . .

Do you ever have an idea in mind for a card and when you try to create it with real paper and stamps it just doesn't turn out right? Well, my card today was one of those. Oh, I know, I could have just tossed it in the trash can or just not posted it for the world to see but isn't it fun to know that everyone has those "off" moments when trying to create cards?? Gosh, at least I hope everyone has those moments! Or is it just me? LOL!

I used Gina K Pure Luxury Moonlit Fog paper for the base of this card. The black and orange are from Basic Grey's Ambrosia pack. The white is also Pure Luxury layering weight white. I stamped the images and sponged the ground with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and sponged the sky with Memento London Fog. I colored the moon with Copics and created the little fences with my Martha Stewart fence punch. All of the images, except the stone path are from Spooky Silhouettes by Gina K Designs. The path is from the Gina K set called The Journey. The big orange brad and the fiber are also Basic Grey Ambrosia.

Here it is.

I suppose it isn't really horrible but it just doesn't match what I had in my head or wanted it to look like. Oh, well, hope you enjoyed seeing it anyway! And, if nothing else, it makes me want to try again to make something else that I really like! Whatever that is, I'll share it here!

Enjoy your day wherever you may be and no matter what you are creating!

Saturdays . . . don't you love them?

Ahhh! Saturdays . . . I love Saturday. Call me lazy but I love being able to sit around on Saturday morning and drink coffee, check e-mail, post things on my blog or Stamp TV, and just relax. I suppose it is because my mornings all week are hectic with getting up early, getting ready for work, getting the kids off to school, and making sure the cat is fed. (That is important because she will definitely let me know if she hasn't been fed!) So, Saturday is my day to relax a little and do things I don't get to do the rest of the week. I love Saturday and Sunday because they are the two days during the week that I can find some concentrated time to stamp and that really makes them great days! I did sneak in some stamping time last night (Friday) and I'm sharing that card here this morning.

I made this for the weekly color challenge over at Stamp TV. I don't always find time to do the challenges but I just had to do this one because I loved the color combo for this week. Orange, green and yellow -- lovely fall colors (or at least that was where my mind went immediately. I have fall on the brain!) I chose to use a fall palate of those colors as you can see and included some fall designer paper. Here are the details:

Paper:

Base card is the gorgeous Pure Luxury Pumpkin Spice from Gina K Designs. It is such a lovely, rich orange-y rust color. I keep finding reasons to use it because it is so pretty!

Designer paper is from a paper pack I picked up at Joann's. It is from the Debbie Mumm Harvest and Holiday pack.

Green paper is the Pure Luxury Green Apple and the yellow piece is a Stampin' Up In Color from a couple years ago called Marigold Morning.

Image:

The images are all from Autumn Beauty a fall set from Gina K Designs that was designed by Theresa Momber who is an awesome artist. Check our her blog for some inspiration and great coloring tutorials. I stamped the images with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and then watercolored them using Memento markers and a waterbrush. I have a little plastic artists palette that I color on with the markers and then pick up the ink with the waterbrush. I haven't used that coloring technique in a long time and it was fun to do it again although I find I don't have nearly as much control over my colors as I do with markers or pencils and OMS. It's fun to go back to things once in a while just to get different looks (and to use some of those items that are sitting around collecting dust and feeling neglected).

Embellishments:

The ribbon is from the Signs of Autumn Stamp TV kit. I'm not sure what it is actually called but it is like twine that is made into a ribbon. It is perfect for fall cards. The frame around the sentiment is from SU and that little leaf is from a button pack I picked up a long time ago at Archiver's.

That's the card. And now I am going to get up and do some baking -- apple kuchen for a dinner we are going to this evening. Yum! Enjoy your weekend all my stamping friends!

Fall, apples and other reflections

The summer passed so quickly this year. I think because we traveled a lot and the kids had a lot of things going on the time just flew by and I didn't really have time to keep up with my poor little blog. I'm hoping I will be able to set aside more time this fall to keep it up to date so check back in the coming weeks to see if I'm here!

We have been having such gorgeous weather the past week that I'm finding it hard to believe it is the middle of September. If the kids weren't back in full swing at school I wouldn't believe that the official start of fall is just around the corner, as in next week! I know this lovely summery weather we've been having isn't going to stay around much longer. Next week the temperatures are predicted to be in the low to mid 60s instead of high 70s and low 80s we've been having. Despite the gorgeous, summery weather we are starting to see some peeks of color in the trees here and that inspires me to make cards with all of the pretty fall colors. The card I'm sharing here today is one of those cards.

The base of the card is Stampin' Up's new In Color Soft Suede and the designer paper is also from Stampin' Up. The dp pack is called Autumn Traditions. The two small layer pieces are SU Ruby Red and More Mustard. I stamped the image, which is from the Signs of Autumn set by Gina K Designs on Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory layering weight paper using Memento Rich Cocoa. I colored the basket and the apples with Koh-i-noor pencils and OMS. It had been a while since I pulled those out and I realized how much I like using the pencils and OMS. They were perfect for getting the look I wanted on the basket and apples. I'm such a coloring addict! Must be all the coloring I did as a child that comes out when I pick up colored pencils, markers, crayons, etc. The ribbon is actually purple, although for some reason it didn't show up as purple very well in the photo. I punched an oval of soft suede and folded it over and put the button on top just for a fun little embellishment. I punched a large oval from soft suede and a small oval from Pure Luxury Soft Sand and stamped the greeting in Rich Cocoa on it. The ovals are adhered to the card with some pretty copper brads from the Stamp TV kit. To put some final polish on the card I used some crystal lacquer on the apples to give them that just shined up, ready to eat look.

A fairly straight forward card to put together but I think it is one of my favorites of the cards I've made recently. The fall colors and the bright, shiny apples just make me feel good.

I hope you are enjoying the fall colors, either in nature where you live or in your card making and you are finding yourself ready for the shiny new apples and orange pumpkins! Thanks for stopping by today. Have a happy day!