New Bud and Vases Set by Melanie

Have you had a chance to see the sneak peeks of the new, fabulous set by Melanie Muenchinger for Gina K Designs? It is fabulous!

Melanie Muenchinger is releasing a companion to her "A Year of Flowers" called "Buds and Vases", a die cut stamp set filled with brand new flowers and containers, this Thursday night, September 30, at 10 PM CST from Gina K Designs! Be sure to check out her sneak preview of the set on her blog and enter for a chance to win the set!

Here is just one of the beautiful creations she made for the previews. Isn't this gorgeous? I love the bright colors and great coloring she did on this.

This is a must-have set because it goes with so many other sets. The possibilities are endless! Take a look at all the fabulous samples on Melanie's blog and then take a quick hop through the design team's sneak peeks. 

Enjoy!

CSS Alumni Inspiration Blog Hop

You most likely came here from the blog of Karen Knegten so you know that the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Alumni are having an inspiration blog hop tonight. (If you didn't come here from Karen's blog and would like to jump on the blog hop from the start, go to here on Stamp TV to join.) The inspiration for the hop is this delicious photo!

Don't those cupcakes look divine! Made me hungry the whole time I was looking at them for this hop! Yum! I didn't eat the photo but I did make this card.

As you can see, I was inspired by the colors and the swirls. It wasn't until I was uploading the photo of the cupcakes tonight that I realized the photo was called "brown wedding cupcakes," which is a coincidence since my card is a wedding card!

Here are the ingredients for the card:
Paper: Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Chocolate Brown, Innocent Pink, and White
Stamps: Grand Damask and Fanciful Tags
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Textile
Spellbinders: Fancy Tags
Ink: Stampin' Up - Pirouette Pink and Memento - Rich Cocoa
Miscellaneous: Ribbon - Stampin' Up; Pearls - Gina K Designs; Lace Punch - Martha Stewart

Now hop along to the blog of Melissa Cash to see what inspired her from the photo. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!

Gina K Design Team Challenge

The design team challenge over at Gina K Design's tonight is to create a card based on a favorite fall memory. I love fall and all the things about it -- the colors, the smells, apples, pumpkins, and the mood to bake again. (I don't like to bake during the summer months when it is warm but fall snaps me right back to it!). For many years when my kids were little we ventured out to the apple and pumpkin farm just a little way south of where we live. We would pick apples and then let the kids pick out their pumpkins for Halloween. When my youngest son was about two years old he thought pumpkins were the best thing ever! I'm not sure why they intrigued him so much, maybe it was the color or their round shape, but he adored them. There was one small problem, however, he couldn't say pumpkin! He called them "kumpkies" and to this day we still call them that at our house! It was so adorable to hear him call the pumpkins "kumpkies" and when we went to the pumpkin farm he was just thrilled to see so many of them in one place. We have picture of him sitting in a farm wagon filled with pumpkins and he is just as happy as can be! What a sweet, precious memory of my boy who is now on the verge of becoming a teenager. Despite being almost 13, he still enjoyed going apple picking last weekend and is waiting to go back for a pumpkin or two!

Here is the card I made to go with the "kumpkie" memory.

Supplies used for this card include:

Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury Ivory for the base and focal image; Pure Luxury Chocolate Brown and Pumpkin Spice.
Patterned Paper: Imaginisce Apple Cider
Stamps: Gina K Designs: Pumpkins - Signs of Autumn and Leaves - Autumn Beauty
Ink: Memento Cocoa Brown; Ranger Distress Ink Spiced Marmalade; Copics
Miscellaneous: Flower Soft Autumn and pop dots

I hope you enjoyed my fall memory tonight and I hope you are making lots of autumn memories of your own during this beautiful season.

Another CSS Alumni Blog Hop

Once again it is time for another blog hop featuring Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Alumni. I am hoping you arrived here from the blog of the super talented Karen Knegten. I'm sure you were awed by the gorgeous creation she shared tonight!

Since you came from Karen's blog you probably already know that our "challenge" for tonight's blog hop was to create our cards using fall colors since that beautiful season is fast approaching! The colors for tonight are Orange, Red, Brown, and ONE Neutral Color from the following: White or Ivory. I chose to use Gina K Designs Pure Luxury cardstock in Pumpkin Spice (I love that color!), Cranberry Tart, Chocolate Brown, and Ivory. I had a piece of designer paper in my hand to use on this card but decided that I would go more simple and just use the beautiful colors so here is the result.

The images are from the beautiful fall stamp set by Rupa Shevde for Gina K Designs called So Grateful. I colored the images with Copics and sponged around them with Distress Ink in Rusty Hinge. The sentiment is also from that set. The piece of Pumpkin Spice cardstock is embossed with the Sizzix embossing folder from Stampin' Up called Square Lattice. The cool Jute Ribbon is from Gina K Designs -- isn't it just perfect for a fall card?

I'm really enjoying making cards with fall stamps and colors as the first hints of autumn are beginning to appear here in Wisconsin. I think the fall colors are among my favorites to work with when I'm making cards; how about you?  While you are thinking about that, hop on over to the blog of Melissa Cash called Inklinations -- isn't that a clever name?! I'm sure she has something beautiful wating for you!

Thanks for stopping by tonight! Don't forget to visit StampTV when you are done hopping to see what other great inspiration you can find.