Livin' Life in the Creative Lane

Color Throwdown

2012-01-22T17:42:00.001-06:00

I am trying to jump on board with some new challenges, so this is my first time doing a Color Throwdown challenge. This week's challenge was to use kraft, ivory, olive and red. Here is the card I made using those colors.

I decided to go with a fairly clean and simple design on this one. Isn't that little mouse adorable?? He's from the Sweet n' Sassy stamp set called So Sweet Cocoa. I just bought this set and a couple of others from Sweet n' Sassy, and I will definitely get more with this darling little Cocoa mouse!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a sweet day!

Stamp TV CSS Sketch Hop

2012-01-13T21:00:00.001-06:00

It's time for the first CSS hop of 2012! If you came here from the lovely blog of Karen, you are on the right track. If you want to start the hop from the beginning, jump back over to Stamp TV where you will find the list of all the participants in this hop.

We are doing a sketch challenge this time around based on this fun sketch created by Melissa Cash.

I had a lot of fun coming up with something for this sketch, and here it is! Since we are finally getting some winter weather here I thought something wintery would be fun.

I used Pure Luxury White base weight paper for the card base and layered on the plaid paper from the Wishing You Joy Stamp TV Kit patterned paper pack. The images and sentiment are from the Gina K. Designs Warm and Wonderful stamp set. I stamped the mug and scarf onto PL White layering weight, colored with Copics, and paper pieced the scarf with the same plaid paper. I added a bit of sparkle on the mug and scarf snowflakes with my Gelly Roll stardust pen. I layered the image square onto a square of PL "In the Navy" and then onto a PL "Ocean Mist" piece cut out with the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square. The mittens were stamped onto the plaid paper and cut out, then I adhered them to the white twine and used a glue dot to hang them from the side of the main panel.

A simple sketch for a quick and easy card! I like the design because it really focuses your attention on the image.

Thanks for hopping with us, and don't forget to leave a comment at each blog stop. There is a huge grab bag of fabulous Gina K. Designs stamps waiting for someone who comments on the blog posts. On Tuesday, January 17 one comment will be randomly chosen and that person will receive the grab bag of stamps. Cool, huh?! Now head on over to see what Linda has waiting for you.

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

2012-01-06T16:16:00.000-06:00

Hello! I am trying to stick to my New Year's goal of jumping into some new stamping challenges, so today I'm sharing my first time with the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge. I always love sketches because I don't have to think about the layout, I can just focus on the fun stuff, like colors, images, and embellies!

Here's the latest sketch:

And here is my card based on the sketch:

The colors I used were inspired by the plaid paper in the new Gina K Designs True Love Patterned Paper Pack (this card is also going into the Stamp TV Mix It Up Monday Challenge). I used Pure Luxury Grass Green, Passionate Pink, Black Onyx and White. The patterned paper is from Echo Park's Be Mine paper pad. The images/sentiment are from Gina K STV Kit "Sent with Love" and from the "Hopeful Hearts" set. I colored with my Copics and used an SU punch and Spellbinders Eyelet Pendant for the details.

I really like this sketch and think I'll add it to my sketch book so I can use it again! Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to pop over to the Mojo Monday blog so you can join the fun!

CMC Copic Challenge

2012-01-03T22:04:00.001-06:00

The holiday madness is finally behind me and a new year has started! Whew! It was fun while it lasted, but I have to say I'm mighty glad to have the holidays behind me and a fresh new year stretching out in front of me. Don't you always feel like you can conquer the world when a new year starts? I do, and while I don't really make resolutions, I do try to think about things I'd like to accomplish in the new year. One of those things for me is to participate in more challenges from a variety of blogs and websites. So, this is the first one I'm jumping into - it's the Color Me Creative Classroom Copic Challenge group. The challenge this time was to do projects that were in cream, white and gold. Of course, since this is the Copic Challenge group there had to be copic coloring also! Yikes! Coloring gold is a real challenge! At least it was for me, but here are my two creations for the challenge.

This card has a base of Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory base weight and Pure Luxury Good as Gold that was embossed with a Sizzix folder. The image and sentiment are both from the Gina K Designs set called "With This Ring." I used Spellbinders classic circles and scalloped circles as well as the Fancy Tags.

This one also has a base of Pure Luxury Ivory base weight, a layer of Good as Gold and a layer of Ivory layering weight paper that was embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder. The pears and sentiment are from a Gina K Designs set that I've had for quite a while and really haven't used much, but the pears seemed like a good choice for coloring gold (they actually look more golden in real life than they do here; they also have some sparkle on them that didn't show up in the photo). The set is called "Fruitful Harvest."

I hope you enjoyed these creations. They were fun to make and did provide a challenge for me when it came to the coloring -- I hadn't really tried doing a gold look and it wasn't as easy I had hoped! LOL! That's what challenges are for, right? To stretch us and to help us improve our skills.

Thanks for stopping by! Smiles :-)

Inspiration Blog Hop

2011-11-18T21:00:00.003-06:00

It's time for the Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight (CSS) alumni November blog hop. This time around is an inspiration hop based a super fun photo! I hope you came here via the amazingly talented Karen's blog. If you didn't, be sure to hop back over to Stamp TV and start at the beginning so you don't miss any gorgeous creations this group is sure to be sharing along the hop. Now on to the inspiration photo!

Cool, huh? I think this is actually a fun Advent calendar, so each of these is a little box that would hold a treasure for each day of Advent until Christmas. We were to use any part of this photo as our inspiration. I was inspired by a couple of these; see if you can guess which ones!

Here's my first card:

Card details:
Stamps: Gina K Designs - A Year of Flowers and STV Kit Wishing You Joy
Paper: SU Cherry Cobbler; Gina K Designs White and Fresh Asparagus; DP - Echo Park - Season's Greetings
Ink: SU Cherry Cobbler; Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic markers
Misc: SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter; Spellbinders Eyelet Pendant

And here is the second card:

This didn't show up very well in the photo, but I inked the snowflake first with Bermuda Bay ink and then with Versamark. I used the SU Iridescent Ice embossing powder and in real life it is sparkly and has an iridescent shimmer to it. Sorry I couldn't get it to show up in the photo.

Card Details:
Stamps: Gina K Designs: Blessed is the Season and Holiday Hospitality
Paper: SU Bermuda Bay and Early Espresso; Gina K Designs White and Silver Lining; DP- Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas
Ink: SU Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Early Espresso; Versamark; Copic markers
Misc: Brad - Basic Grey; Baker's Twine - Raisin Boat; Embossing Powder - SU Iridescent Ice

Did you figure out which of the little boxes in the photo inspired me? If not, take a look at the one in the bottom right corner of the photo and the one in the top left corner.

Thanks for visiting and now be sure to leave a comment here and on the other blogs as you hop along because on Tuesday morning (November 22), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs and that lucky person will get a stamp set of their choice valued up to $24.95 from Gina K Designs!

Now head on over to see my very talented friend, Linda. I'm sure she has something awesome waiting for you!

CSS October 28 Sketch Hop

2011-10-28T21:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to my blog. I hope you arrived here from Linda's marvelous blog. If not, and if you want to start from the beginning of the hop, jump back over to Stamp TV where you will find the list of everyone participating in today's hop.

Today we are doing a sketch hop using this great sketch created by Melissa Cash.

This was such a fun and easy sketch to work with, so I made two cards to share with you. If I'd had more time I probably would have made more, but I will definitely be going back to this sketch again.

Both of my cards were made using stamps from the new Stamp TV kit, Wishing You Joy. I would have to say that this is one of my all time favorite Stamp TV Kits. I'm a huge fan of the holidays, and there are so many fun images and great sentiments in this kit. I'm sure many of my holiday cards this year will be made using it.

Here's the first card:

This was a really quick card to make. The main card base is made with Pure Luxury White heavy base weight card stock and the strips are Pure Luxury In the Navy and Silver Lining. I embossed the strips with some Cuttlebug folders that are one inch strips. They work perfectly for something like this. I stamped the ornament image in Versamark and embossed in silver. The edge of the oval is also embossed with silver, which I did by going around it with a Versamark pen. I colored the ornaments with Copics and filled in the stars with a glitter pen. The snowflakes were in my stash of stuff and I don't know where those came from. Easy to make, but not so easy to photograph; too much shiny, sparkly stuff, I guess.

And, here is the second card:

For this one I used a Pure Luxury Ivory base and Lipstick Red that was embossed with a Sizzix folder from SU. The paper strips on this one are from the Cosmo Cricket Dear Mr. Claus, which is one of my favorite new paper pads. It has a very vintage Christmas look to it and some really fun designs. I stamped the trees onto PL Ivory using Memento Tuxedo Black and then paper pieced them with more of the Cosmo Cricket paper. I didn't put a sentiment on the front of this one because it was busy enough with the paper strips, so it will just get a greeting on the inside.

Well, that's all for me! Hop along now to see what the creative Karen has in store for you. Make sure to leave a comment as you hop along because on Tuesday morning (November 1), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs and that lucky person will get a stamp set of their choice valued up to $24.95!

Special CSS Blog Hop

2011-10-14T21:00:00.002-05:00

Today we are doing a special blog hop for some very special kids. Our blog hop is a Card Drive for Kids with Spina Bifida. The four kids below were all born with spina bifida and October is spina bifida awareness month, so we made cards to send to send to these adorable, intelligent, fun-loving kids.

You should have arrived here from Karen's wonderful blog, but if you didn't and would like to start at the beginning so you don't miss anything, jump back to Stamp TV.

I made two cards for the hop (and will be making two more, so I can send a card to each child). Here is the first one that will go to one of the boys, I think. I used the Gina K Designs stamp set called "Framed Friends" for both cards. On this first one I used the little versions of the stamps and then used the large stamp of the kitty for the second one.

This card started with a Pure Luxury Pumpkin Spice base with a layer of Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg dp. I used PL Chocolate, Ocen Mist and Ivory for the rest of the card. I stamped the little animals/bug with Memento Tuxedo Black and then colored with Copics. The sentiment if from the GKD set, Tag Lines. I edged the tag with Memento Potter's Clay.

This card will go to one of the girls. I started with Pure Luxury Passionate Pink layered with SU Going Gray and Echo Park Be Mine dp. The kitty and greeting were stamped with Memento London Fog. The kitty was colored with Copics and the pink sponging around it was done with Memento Angel Pink. I made the dots around the tag using a pink Spica pen.

Would you like to join us in putting a smile on the face of one of these kids (or all of them)? Here is what you need to do:

Create a fun, uplifting card or cards for one or all the kids listed below (you can click on their names to read more about each of them). The card can be anything cheery, encouraging, supportive, etc. Please DO NOT send sorry, get well or anything like that. Remember, we want to cheer them up. The kids:
- Madison: 2 years old
- Logan: 2 years old. (turning 3 on October 17th!!)
- Tanner: 2 years old (turning 3 on December 25)
- Rebekah: 9 years old
All cards need to have a message in it for the child/family. Please also sign your name and where you are from. On the card envelope, write the name of the child. Please, don't seal the envelope, as the parents might want to read the cards before the kids see them.
Cards must be received by October 31st to be eligible for the drawing (see below for the photo and list of prizes)
Mail your card(s) to Giovana Smith along with a piece of paper with your name, address, e-mail address and blog (if you have one). This will help a lot to contact the winner a lot faster!:

Giovana Smith Card Drive for Kids 181 Perry Way Yakima, WA 98901

Everyone who mails in a card for each of the children will be entered into the drawing to win this grand prize!

Awesome companies have donated amazing prizes for you! More than $400.00 in prizes!!

Heartfelt Creations: 8 stamping sets + 1 Coordinated Die Set. Value: $150.00!
Gina K. Designs: 2 StampTV Kits: Value: $70.00 (Gina will send the prize direct to the winner!)
Unity Stamps: 10 Itty Bitty Stamps. Value: $70.00
SP & Company: 3 Stamp Set. Value: $40.00
Lawn Fawn Stamps: 2 Stamp Set: Value: $30.00
Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps: 1 Stamp Set. Value: $11.00
Spellbinders: 2 die sets!! (Not included in the picture yet)

I hope you enjoyed seeing my cards. Now take a hop on over to Melissa's blog. I'm sure she has something fun and creative waiting for you!

Stamp TV CSS Alumni Inspiration Hop

2011-09-09T21:00:00.007-05:00

Welcome to another Stamp TV CSS Alumni blog hop. This time we are doing an inspiration hop based on the fabulous picture below. I hope you got here from Karen's fantastic blog. If not, head back to Stamp TV to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don't miss any of the beautiful creations of the CSS alumni.

Here is the photo we used for our inspiration. Isn't this a gorgeous bedroom? I was inspired by the colors, the textures, and most of all by the rug on the floor.

Here is the card I created based on my inspiration from the photo. I am a bit disappointed with the photo of this card because it doesn't show the shimmer from the SU Shimmer Paint I spritzed on it. I think it is prettier in real life, so you will just have to use your imagination and give it some shimmer!

Card details:
Cardstock - Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Kraft, Ocean Mist, and Ivory
Stamps: Gina K Designs - Wild at Heart and Tag Lines
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Other: Sizzix embossing folder; Stampin' Up ribbon; Stampin' Up Shimmer Paint Champagne Mist

Thanks for stopping by. Now hop along to the blog of Linda Payne and see the gorgeous creations she has to inspire you!

August CSS Sketch Challenge Hop

2011-08-12T21:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to another fun blog hop being hosted by members of StampTV's Center Stage Alumni. This time around the hop is based on a Sketch Challenge. If you came from Karen's fabulous blog, then you're right where you should be. If not, you can also go to StampTV to see a list of all those participating.

Here is the sketch we had to work with.

The sketch was created by the very talented Melissa Cash who is celebrating her birthday today! We decided to surprise her and design birthday cards using her sketch! We wish you a wonderful birthday Melissa and here's the birthday card I made especially for you!

This is a fairly simple card so I decided to add detail to it with the buttons, not only along the bottom edge of the focal image as depicted in the sketch, but to dress up the flowers as well! The card base is Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Chocolate Brown. The next layer is SU Crumb Cake and the patterned paper is leftover from a Stamp TV kit. I used Nestabilities long rectangles to create the scalloped brown layer and the focal image layer, which is Pure Luxury Ivory. I stamped the flower from the Gina K Designs set, Garden Silhouettes twice. I used markers to color the petals, stems and leaves.The birthday wishes sentiment is from the same set and is stamped with Vivid Coffee Bean.

A simple birthday wish, but I hope you like it Melissa! :-)

Make sure you leave a comment at each blog as you hop along because on Tuesday morning (August 16th), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs and the lucky winner will get a stamp set of her/his choice valued up to $24.95!

To continue with Melissa's birthday celebration and to see more cards, head on over to Linda's blog to see her amazing card!

CSS Sentiment Hop

2011-06-24T21:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the second blog hop for June of the Center Stage Spotlight alumni. I hope you arrived here from the fabulous blog of Linda Payne. If you didn't, be sure to hop back over to Stamp TV and start at the beginning of the hop so you don't miss any of the awesome creations of my fellow CSS-ers!

Today our challenge was to Get Wordy! Gina K. Designs is known for including some of the best quotes and sentiments in its sets. For this challenge we were to use a sentiment or quote as the main focal point. So, here is my card for this challenge. The only thing that is stamped on this card is the sentiment; everything else is designer paper.

This was a fun card to make, but it is more challenging than I expected to just use a sentiment as the focal image and not add in something else here or there. I guess that's why I went for the dp to fill in where I'd have done some other stamping. Try making a sentiment focused card sometime -- it will make you look at your stamp sets and other tools in a different way!

Thanks for stopping by. Now hop on over to visit my friend and stamper extraordinaire, Karen Knegten. Be sure to leave a comment at each stop and you just might be the lucky winner of a Gina K stamp set of your choice valued up to $24.95. A random winner will be chosen on Tuesday from all of the comments left along the blog hop.

Card supplies:
Pure Luxury Chocolate Brown; Ivory; SU Tangerine Tango, Sweet Stitches Designer Series Paper
Stamp Set: Gina K Designs Sew Pretty
Ink: Vivid Coffee Bean and Lemon Ice
Buttons: SU and Basic Grey

Stamp TV Center Stage Alumni Inspiration Hop

2011-06-10T21:00:00.003-05:00

Wow! It's hard to believe we are cruising through June and it is time for our first Center Stage Alumni blog hop for the month. Today is an inspiration hop and you should have arrived here from the gorgeous blog of Karen Knegten. If you didn't and you want to make sure you don't miss any of the wonderful creations along the hop, go back to Stamp TV and start your hop from the beginning there.

This inspiration hop is based on this very fun and summery photo.

Don't you just love the reds and yellows and flowers? The whole photo just made me feel like I was going to a summer party in someone's backyard! So here is my inspiration card.

Of course I had to go with red and yellow as my theme on this card since that is what really grabbed me in the inspiration photo. The base is Pure Luxury Red Hot, layered with Pure Luxury Dandelion. The dp is DCWV Citrus. I stamped the sunflowers from the lovely GKD stamp set, A Year of Flowers and colored them with Copics - R24, R27, R29 and Y15 and Y17. The greeting is from GKD set Stenciled Spring. I poked holes on the corners and then went over them with a white gel pen to make them stand out. Brads are GKD and I used Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Poppy Parade, and Vivid Lemon Ice inks.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoyed my summer sunflowers. Now continue along to the fabulous Joy Hadden's blog for more inspiration.

Center Stage Alumni Sketch Challenge Hop

2011-05-13T21:00:00.001-05:00

Another blog hop from the Stamp TV Center Stage Alumni group! You should have arrived here from the awesome blog of the Linda Payne. If you didn't, jump back over to Stamp TV and start the hop from the beginning so you don't miss any of the gorgeous creations from the Center Stage Alumni team.

This time we are doing a sketch challenge hop using this fun sketch created by the super talented Melissa Cash!

I had a blast making my card for this hop! I rarely make shape cards so this was out of my usual zone and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It made me think a bit more creatively, which is always a good thing!

I started with a scalloped circle made from Pure Luxury White and cut out using my largest scalloped nestie. The dp is Cosmo Cricket DeLovely. The layers are cut from Pure Luxury Passionate Pink and Key Lime (have you gotten this new color yet from Gina K? It is gorgeous and just says 'summer' to me!) and layering weight white. I stamped the flower from the Gina K set Garden Silhouettes using Memento Rose Bud and New Sprout markers. The sentiment is from Gina K Elegant Flowers. The flowers are from a pack from Michael's and the Baker's Twine is from Raisin Boat.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to leave a comment as you hop along because on Tuesday morning (May 17th), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs and that lucky person will get a stamp set of their choice from Gina K Designs valued up to $24.95!

Next stop on the hop is Karen. I'm sure she has something amazing to share!

Stamp TV Kits Blog Hop

2011-04-29T21:00:00.002-05:00

It is time once again for the Center Stage Spotlight team to have another blog hop and this time our hop is focused on the Stamp TV Kits. There have been quite a few kits since Stamp TV started (17 kits to be exact!), and I used three of them to make my card for this hop! I hope you came here from the blog of the very talented Linda Payne. If you didn't and would like to start the hop from the very beginning, go back to here at Stamp TV.

I made this card to send to my sister-in-law who had emergency surgery last Saturday. She is doing fine now, but if you are so inclined, please offer up a quick prayer for a quick recovery since her daughter will be graduating from high school in a few short weeks.

Sorry for that side bar -- now about the card. I used Pure Luxury Creme de Menthe as the base and Lemon Drop as the second layer. I embossed the white layer with one of my favorite Cuttlebug folders and added the yellow grosgrain ribbon from Gina K. The scalloped oval is Creme de Menthe again. I used Memento markers to color the flower stamp, which is from the latest Stamp TV Kit, Spring Silhouettes. The 'feel better' sentiment is also from that kit. The two butterflies came from the Spring Mix Kit and were stamped onto yellow patterned paper that came from the Spring Silhouettes Kit. Now I said I used three of the kits to create my card, and I did. The third set I used was the Elegant Flowers Kit and the greeting is on the inside of the card (sorry - I didn't take a photo of it but it is just the greeting inside so I didn't think it warranted a photo! LOL!)

I hope you enjoyed seeing my card. Now hop along to Karen's blog to see which of the kits she used for her lovely creation.

Inspiration Challenge Blog Hop

2011-04-08T21:00:00.002-05:00

Time for another Stamp TV CSS blog hop! I hope you got to my blog from Karen's lovely blog. If you didn't, jump back over to Stamp TV and start the hop from the very beginning so you don't miss out on any of the gorgeous creations the center stage spotlight alums have created.

Today's hop is an inspiration hop and here is what we were to use as our inspiration.

Can you believe those are cookies? Aren't they gorgeous, not to mention delicious looking? Yum!

I could have used any of these as my inspiration, but I chose the blue cookie that is on the far right in the third row down. Here is the card it inspired me to make.

When I saw that cookie I immediately thought of the Pure Luxury Little Boy Blue paper! As you can see, I used it in several different layers on the card. The base is Pure Luxury Kraft along with Pure Luxury White. I used the Gina K Designs latest "One Free with Three" stamp set, "Stenciled Spring" for the flowers and the greeting. I embossed the flowers in white on the squares of blue paper and in SU Brocade Blue on the white strip. The pearls were colored with Copics to match the blue paper.

Time now to continue along the hop by going to Lori's blog to see the beautiful creation she was inspired to make. Before you go, please leave a comment, and be sure to leave one at each blog you visit because on Tuesday morning (April 12th), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs and the lucky winner will get a stamp set of their choice valued up to $24.95!

Stamp TV CSS Sketch Blog Hop

2011-03-25T21:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight Alumni blog hop! If you arrived from the blog of the super talented Karen, then you are on the right hop path. If you didn't hop here from Karen's blog and would like to start the hop from the very beginning, go back to Stamp TV and start from there. That way you won't miss any of the fabulous creations made by the Center Stage Alumni.

Tonight is a sketch challenge hop. Here is the wonderful sketch, created by Melissa Cash, that we used as our inspiration.

This sketch was such fun to play with and here is the card I made using the sketch to inspire me. The card base is Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Chocolate Brown, layered with Pure Luxury Green Apple. The red layer is Pure Luxury Red Hot with another small strip of Green Apple that was run embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder (called Lattice, I think!). I stamped the images onto Pure Luxury White Layering White paper using Stampin' Up Kiwi Kiss and Poppy Parade Ink. The ribbon is also SU Poppy Parade. The images are all from the Gina K Designs set called Lean on Me. I just love the way the flowers turned out stamping them in red! The Thinking of You sentiment is from the Gina K Designs set, Buds and Vases.

Now it's time to hop along to Lori's blog to see her beautiful creation, but before you go be sure to leave a comment here (and on each blog you visit) because on Tuesday morning, March 29, one comment from all the blogs will be chosen at random and that lucky person will get a stamp set of their choice valued up to $24.95 from Gina K Designs!

CSS Sketch Blog Hop

2011-01-28T22:00:00.004-06:00

I hope you arrived here from the fabulous Karen's blog. If you did, you are on the right track for the hop. If you didn't, don't fret, just hop back over to Stamp TV and start at the beginning.

Today it's time for another Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight Alumni blog hop. We are doing a sketch blog hop this time and here is the sketch we used for our inspiration.

Here's the card I made using Melissa's sketch as inspiration.

I love the wine and green colors together with the touch of pink. Here's all the details for the card.

Paper:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury - Wine with Everything, Fresh Asparagus, Bubblegum Pink and White; Patterned paper is from the Stamp TV Kit.
Stamps: Gina K Designs Sent with Love and Tag Lines
Ribbon: Stamp TV Kit
Buttons and Brads: Basic Grey Sultry
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copics
Miscellaneous: SU punch, Spellbinders Nestabilities, SU labels sizzlet

I hope you enjoyed seeing this card. Now hop along to Linda's blog to see more sketch inspiration. I am sure she has something fabulous to share.

Be sure to leave a comment on each blog as you hop along because on Tuesday morning (February 1st), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs and that lucky person will get a stamp set of their choice valued up to $24.95 from Gina K Designs!

Center Stage Spotlight Alumni Color Challenge Hop

2011-01-14T22:00:00.003-06:00

Wow! I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted here! That's what the holidays will do! It's good to be back and today is a Color Challenge Blog Hop with the Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight Alumni. It's our first hop for 2011, and if you got here from Karen Knegten's blog you are on the right path. If you didn't and you'd like to start from the beginning of the hop just jump over to Stamp TV to get started.

These are the colors were were asked to use for the hop today and as you can see, they are the colors for this week's color spotlight so you can play along over on Stamp TV. Go to Gina's video to get all the details on how you can enter to win a free Gina K. stamp set.

I had fun playing with this color combo and made a somewhat unconventional Valentine! Here it is.

I used the Fresh Asparagus as the base with a layer of Sweet Corn on the top two-thirds. Over the Sweet Corn I layered a piece of Cosmo Cricket Early Bird dp. I used the Nestabilities Labels 9 to cut out a piece of Red Hot and popped up the image oval on top. The image from the Gina K Designs set The Giving Tree by Theresa Momber and the sentiment is from the Gina K set called Heartlily Yours Additions by Nina Brackett. I used the Spellbinders Fancy Tags to cut out a White tag, a Red Hot Tag and a Sweet Corn tag. I cut the swirls off the white tag and sponged around the oval, layered it onto the red tag and then cut the swirls off the Sweet Corn tag and tucked them behind the red swirls. The little red heart in the word 'Love' is colored with a red Spica pen to give it some glimmer. The heart brads are from Stampin' Up a while back.

Be sure to hop along now to see what Linda Payne has in store for you. I'm sure it will be something gorgeous! And don't forget to check out Gina's video on Stamp TV to find out how you can win a free stamp set!

CSS Sketch Challenge Hop

2010-12-10T22:00:00.003-06:00

Welcome to the CSS Alumni blog hop. You should have arrived here from Karen Knegten's blog but if you didn't and would like to start the hop from the top, go back to Stamp TV where you can start at the beginning.

Tonight's hop is a sketch challenge using this sketch.

Sketches are always fun to use because you can just jump straight to picking paper and colors and images instead of taking time to figure out what the design is going to be. That always seems to take me the longest so it's nice when I have that part already decided for me!

Here is the card I made for tonight's hop. It is a very literal interpretation of the sketch but there are many different ways this design could have been used; I just like it as is and went with it!

This card has a lot going on in terms of shimmer! I used Pure Luxury Good as Gold and Mother of Pearl layers and for the snowflakes and label. The trees were stamped in Versamark and embossed with SU Iridescent Ice EP. Then I lightly spritzed the red background with some SU shimmer paint in Champagne. So, needless to say, the card is sparkly and shimmery IRL, which made it very hard to photograph. I love using shimmer and sparkle but I have to remember that photos don't turn out very well when using it. My disclaimer is that this card is much prettier IRL! LOL!

The recipe for the card is listed below. Now jump on along to Lori McAree's blog to see how she used the sketch to create something beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card ingredients:
Paper: Gina K Designs Pure Luxury - Cranberry Tart, Good as Gold, Mother of Pearl, White and Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper.
Stamps: Gina K Designs Blessed is the Season (trees) and A Very Merry Christmas (sentiment)
Dies: Nestabilities Scalloped and Plain Ovals, Fancy Tags, and Create a Snowflake
Ink: SU Cherry Cobbler and Versamark

Stamp TV CSS Inspiration Challenge

2010-11-26T22:00:00.006-06:00

Tonight is the Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight alumni Inspiration Challenge. You should have arrived here from Karen Knegten's blog. If you did, you are on the right track for the hop. If you didn't, and you'd like to start the blog hop from the beginning, go back to Stamp TV and you can start the hop there.

We were challenged to create a card using this photo as our inspiration.

Isn't that fun and wintery/holiday-ish? I was immediately inspired by quite a few things but it was the colors and the light-hearted feel that really inspired me to make this card.

This was one of those cards that just made me smile while I was working on it. I love those little snow-people and the designer paper from Imaginisce is so fun. It kind of makes me think of Whoville from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas!

I used Pure Luxury Red Hot, Creme de Menthe and Ocean Mist. I embossed the snowflakes with a Cuttlebug border folder, leaving a blank space in the middle. I cut the dp to fit into the non-embossed space. I stamped the snow-people and colored them with Copics, then cut them out and popped them up with pop dots. I punched a circle of the Red Hot paper and layered the "Feel the Magic" circle on top. Stamps are Gina K Designs "Winter Friends" and "Holiday Greetings." After it it was all put together I spritzed it all over with SU Frost White Shimmer Paint. I think if you look carefully you can see it in the photo. In real life it gives the card a nice subtle shimmery look.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Winter Friends card tonight. Now it's time to hop along to see what Lori McAree has in store for you.

Winter Mittens

2010-11-24T19:42:00.000-06:00

I made this card for the Stamp TV color challenge this week, which was to use Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Apple Green, Lipstick Red, and White (or the equivalent in other brands colors). I think these mittens from the Gina K Designs stamp set, "Winter Mittens," are just adorable, and since I am still making holiday cards, I decided I'd use this opportunity to make something I could use as one of my cards.

I used the Lipstick Red for the base and Apple Green for the strip. The striped patterned paper is from my stash. I stamped the snowflakes in Memento Pear Tart and Lady Bug onto the White Pure Luxury paper. I punched the edges with a border punch from EK Success. The mittens I stamped twice with the Lady Bug ink and the top edge twice with Pear Tart. I cut out the red mittens using the Nestabilites mittens dies and then cut out the green cuff by hand so I could paper piece the cuffs to add some color to the mittens. I glued red grosgrain ribbon to the backs of the mittens and glued the mittens together. I adhered them to the card and added the Basic Grey Sugared button at the top for them to "hang" from. The little red button comes from an assortment of Gina K buttons. I stamped the oval in Pear Tart and cut it out; then added the greeting from the Fanciful Tags set. I popped the oval up on pop dots to finish it off.

Thanks for visiting. Have a blessed Thanksgiving wherever you may be celebrating tomorrow!

CSS Color Challenge

2010-11-12T22:00:00.002-06:00

If you arrived here tonight from Karen Knegten's blog, you are on the right path. Tonight is the Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight alumni color challenge blog hop. We were challenged to make cards using the following color combo:

White or Ivory
Brown
Light Blue (Little Boy Blue, Ocean Mist, or Turquoise Sea)
Yellow (Lemon Drop, Sweet Corn, or Wild Dandelion)

I chose to use Gina K Designs Pure Luxury ivory, chocolate brown, little boy blue, and sweet corn on my card. Here is the result! Don't you just love this cute set -- it is the Gina K Designs Funny Farm set ? The expression on that cow's face just cracks me up! I realized after I posted this photo that the cow looks like it is jumping up in the air! She is popped up with pop dots (so is the farmer boy and the wheelbarrow) but in real life she appears to just be standing on the ground. I think the shadow on the paper makes her look like she is jumping --maybe she's trying to jump the fence and make a break for it! (Aren't I a good Wisconsin girl -- I know that is a "she" because she has an udder! LOL!)

As I mentioned above, I used Little Boy Blue as the card base and sponged a bit of Memento Summer Sky on the top half just to give it some interest and to make it look a bit more like sky. It doesn't show up well on this photo, however. I punched the brown strip with the Martha Stewart fence border punch. I stamped the images on ivory, colored them with Copics and cut them out. I added the greeting at the bottom in Memento Rich Cocoa and added the ribbon, which is the Pumpkin Mango striped ribbon from Gina K Designs as are the two brown buttons. A fairly straight forward card except for cutting out the images! Yikes it is hard to cut around some of those thin pieces like the farmer's arms. I managed not to cut off any limbs or important pieces so it's all good!

Hope you enjoyed my farm card. Now hop along the lane to Linda Payne's blog. I'm sure she has something gorgeous to share!

Snowy Village

2010-11-07T20:35:00.000-06:00

I finally was able to get started on some holiday cards this weekend. I'm having a hard time believing it is November already so it is hard to get in the groove to make Christmas/Winter/Holiday cards but I forced myself to start working on some. Listening to some holiday music seemed to help me get in the mood!

Tonight I'm sharing one card that I made using a non-holiday stamp set! I used the Gina K Designs stamp set called "Welcome Home"by Rupa Shevde. The little row of houses seemed to fit so well with the designer paper from the Basic Grey pad, "Eskimo Kisses" and I figured adding some snow and holiday decorations would make them look very festive and wintery.

The base is Gina K Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart and the dp is Basic Grey. I stamped the image onto Pure Luxury White and colored it with Copic markers. I added Stampendous Crystal Snow glitter to the trees, the rooftops and in front of the houses. I used green Stickles to add garland to the fences and porch post and added some holiday stick-on rhinestones for Christmas lights on the houses. I punched the bottom edge with a snowflake punch I picked up at Archivers a while back (can't recall the brand right now) and used the snowflakes that were punched out to decorate the top edge. I pressed each one into a glue pad and then into SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I sponged a bit of SU Blue Sky ink along the snowflakes to make them stand out and at the top for a touch of "sky" above the houses. The greeting is stamped in Memento Rhubarb Stalk and is from the Gina K Designs stamp set, "Holiday Hospitality."

I made a couple of other holiday cards and will share another one tomorrow night so check back! Hope you had a great weekend and that the upcoming week is a good one for you.

I've Got Attitude, Baby!

2010-11-05T13:40:00.000-05:00

I have never said that before and probably never will again, but today my friend Tina Gilliland gave me this award so I can say I've Got Attitude (or at least my blog does-- hee-hee)!

This award has to be given to you by a fellow blogger and I'm honored that Tina picked me! Part of the award is that I have to tell three things that make me different from everyone else. Let's see . . .

1. All of the schools I went to as a kid were within a one mile radius of my house. Two of the three were within 6 blocks.

2. I have only lived in three states and two of their names start with I.

3. I am a singer -- not just with the radio in the car but I've taken about ten years of voice lessons, have sung with numerous choirs, and sang two solos at my wedding.

The other thing I get to do is give this award to five other bloggers so I am passing the award to:

Be sure to visit these blogs with 'tude and don't miss the Digi's With Attitude Challenge Blog for some fun challenges and prizes.

CAS Limited Supply Challenge

2010-10-22T22:00:00.005-05:00

Time for another challenge blog hop with the Center Stage Spotlight Alumni. I hope you arrived here from the blog of Karen Knegten but if you didn't and would like to start from the beginning of the hop, go to Stamp TV and start out at the top of the hop.

These challenges are such fun and they really do challenge me, especially this time. I'm not usually a clean and simple (CAS) stamper. I really like the look of many of the CAS cards that others make but somehow I've always felt mine looked too unfinished. But this challenge was to do the following:

Create a CAS card or project that contains only the following items and no others:

Your design must be CAS - Clean And Simple: lots of white or open space with one main focal point
One image
One sentiment
One layer card - your card base plus only one more layer
Embellishments - you can use any number of embellishments you want, but they all must be the same color

I managed to follow the rules (I think!) and made not one but two CAS cards for the hop. Here is the first one, which, as you can plainly see, is a Thanksgiving card!

This card was made with Gina K Designs Pure Luxury cardstock in Pumpkin Spice and Ivory. I scored the ivory piece using my Scor-Buddy at 1/4" and 1/2" on each side. The image and sentiment are both from the Gina K Designs set by Rupa Shevda called So Grateful. The image is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. The greeting is stamped in Memento Potter's Clay and I sponged just a bit around the edges with Distress Ink Rusty Hinge. I added some adhesive nailheads as my embellishments since the requirement was to make all the embellishments the same color.

Moving on to Christmas, here is my second card.

I have to say that I really live the way this card turned out! It is made using Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart as the base and Ivory as the snowflake panel. I embossed the ivory panel with the Cuttlebug embossing folder called Distressed Snowflakes and then went over the snowflakes and the open area at the bottom with a glue pad. I sprinkled Stampendous Crystal Snow glitter over it to make it sparkly. Then I stamped the adorable image from the Gina K Designs Warm and Cozy Christmas with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Copics. I sponged around the image with some Memento Summer Sky. Now here is where I have to admit to needing all my creative powers! LOL! I stamped the greeting from the GKD set Warm Winter Wishes in black onto the white piece of cardstock right where it is now in white, but it came out crooked!! What made me even more mad was that I even used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to position it! I must have bumped it before stamping the greeting since I had it positioned just fine with the Stamp-a-ma-jig. I can't stand it when things are crooked on my cards so I got creative and punched the oval, stamped the greeting in white onto the cranberry tart paper and trimmed around the edges with some Flower Soft Polar White. I think I like the way this turned out better than the way it started out, so the mistake was a good one!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed seeing my two CAS cards. Now pop over to the blog of Lori McAree to see what she has in store for you.

CSS Alumni Sketch Hop

2010-10-08T22:00:00.007-05:00

It's time once again for another Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight Alumni blog hop. I hope you arrived here from the blog of Karen Knegten but if you didn't and you want to start the hop from the beginning, jump over to Stamp TV to see all of the great cards the CSS Alumni made based on this sketch.

I am really a fan of sketches because they save me so much time. When I have a sketch I can just jump to figuring out the paper and stamps I want to use instead of trying to figure out the design. They are especially helpful when I need a card quickly and I can just plug in the elements I want rather than agonizing over the layout of the card. I don't use sketches for everything I make but I do like to use them on occasion.

Here is the card I made using this sketch. Even though it is almost 80 degrees here in southern Wisconsin (very un-fall like!), I decided to make a holiday card. It's about time I get started on those, so here is one to get me (and you) going!

I just love this little snowman from the Gina K Designs stamp set called Warm Winter Wishes. The sentiment is from the same set. The cardstock is Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Papers in Ocean Mist and Rocket Red. The designer paper is from a really fun holiday paper pad from Imaginisce called Cottage Christmas. I stamped the snowman and greeting with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored him with Copic markers. Those spots you see on his hat are actually glitter -- Stampendous Crystal Snow -- but I couldn't get it to photograph without making it look like spots! There is a touch of glitter other places on the snowman and on the ground also but they don't show up very well. The Ocean Mist strip was embossed using the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder and then swiped with some Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, which I also sponged around the edges of the white image piece. The snowflakes were made using the Spellbinders Create A Flake One and are held together with the silver brad. The brad doesn't adhere the snowflake to the blue strip, however; I decided to give it a bit more dimension and popped the snowflakes up on a pop dot.

I hope you enjoyed my little snowman card. Now hop on along the trail to the blog of Melissa Cash. I know she will have something wonderfully creative to share with you!

New Bud and Vases Set by Melanie

2010-09-27T09:40:00.000-05:00

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

2010-09-24T22:00:00.002-05:00

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

2010-09-19T17:34:00.000-05:00

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

2010-09-10T22:00:00.008-05:00

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.

Center Stage Design Team Alumni Blog Hop

2010-08-27T22:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight is another blog hop of the Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Alumni organized by Carolina Buchting. Carolina challenged us to create cards for tonights hop using only the following items:

One Neutral color for your card base: White, Ivory, Black, Brown or Kraft
Two different colors of card stock
One patterned paper
Three buttons
One color of ribbon
As little or as many images as you'd like

Here is the card I created (and now that I am posting it I think I goofed and used one extra color of cardstock! Yikes! Does the ivory layer count since my images are on it?! Oops!)

Well, despite the fact that I guess I didn't quite follow the rules, I hope you like it! It got me in the mood to start making some Christmas cards. Maybe I'll actually get my cards done early this year!

Supply List:

Paper: Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart, Moonlit Fog, Chocolate Kiss (base of card) and Ivory

Designer Paper: Cosmo Cricket Jitterbug

Buttons: Basic Grey Sultry and Sugared

Ribbon: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip

Stamps: Gina K Designs Spirit of Christmas and Holiday Greetings

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Rhubarb Stalk, Rich Cocoa, London Fog, Bamboo Leaves and Distress Ink Antique Linen

Spica Pens in Gold and Lipstick were used to decorate the tree.

Now hop along to the blog of Melanie Muenchinger to see her creation for tonight's challenge (and see if she was a better rule follower than me! LOL!). Melanie always has fabulous cards, not to mention the gorgeous stamp sets she creates. Check out her latest set at Gina K Designs (after you finish the blog hop, of course!).

Thanks for visiting!

Design Team Alumni Blog Hop

2010-07-23T21:00:00.014-05:00

All of the alumni from the Gina K Designs Center Stage Design Teams have been invited to participate in blog hop challenges and tonight is the second one. Thanks to Carolina Buchting for organizing these challenges and hops for us. Tonight she shared this photo with us and challenged us to use it as our inspiration for a card.

How fun is that?? I love all the great colors and the yummy treats! I'd love to get that box for my birthday!

Here is the card it inspired me to create.

When I saw the picture of the treat box with the big spots of different colors, it immediately made me think of Melanie Muenchinger's latest stamp set from Gina K Design's Fun Year Round. I pulled it out and stamped the main circles image on Pure Luxury Sweet Mango cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black. Then I stamped some of the circle designs inside the circles with Memento Tangelo ink. I punched circles from various paper scraps (I think they were SU Bermuda Bay, Pure Luxury Bubble Gum and Grass Green. I stamped designs on each of those as well.

The cupcake, candle and party hat are from another set of Melanie's from Gina K Designs called Candles on Your Cake. I stamped them and cut them out, added some glitter and then popped them up on pop dots. The greeting on the white circle is from the Gina K stamp set called Holiday Greetings that I stamped using Memento Tangelo and SU Bermuda Bay inks. The buttons are from Basic Grey and the ribbon is SU Bermuda Bay as is the card base.

What a fun, cheery card to make, and I hope someone will enjoy receiving it as well. Enjoy the rest of the hop by moving on to Linda Payne's blog to see what beautiful creation she was inspired to make.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gina K Designer Challenge

2010-06-14T22:00:00.003-05:00

Tonight's design team challenge is to think of a favorite summer time memory and use it as your inspiration for creating a card made with one (or several) of the stamp sets released in May. For all the specific details on how to enter your card in Gina's Design Team challenge, please visit GinaK's blog.

I made two cards for tonight's challenge. The first card was based on all of my childhood memories of going to the lake when I was a kid. There was nothing better than having long, sweet summer days to dig in the sand and swim. We did a lot of camping and visiting my grandparents' cottage when I was growing up and that was the epitome of summer for me, especially since I endured the long winters of northern Wisconsin! While I don't camp anymore, I still love the beach and I still feel like that is the height of summer when I can sit in the sun at the beach (not to mention it makes a pretty good respite in the middle of winter when I can get away to warm, sunny beaches!).

I made this card with Pure Luxury Red Hot paper as the base. The fun patterned paper came from the April card kit that came with the Gina K Designs stamp set Quite a Catch. I used a piece of the new Pure Luxury Grass Green paper and another piece of the Red Hot paper under the focal images. I stamped the pail with the shovels and the beach ball, colored them with Copics, and popped them up on dimensionals. The waves are pieces of designer paper that also came with the April card kit onto which I put some Frosted Lace Stickles to give the waves some sparkle. The "sand" is Flower Soft. It is called sand and it definitely looks like sand. I colored the sky with pencils and OMS. The sentiment is stamped on Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion and cut out with a nestability scalloped circle.

The second card I made is a simple, sunny and summery card. Flowers and bright sunshiny colors have always meant summer to me. My grandmothers and my mother always had a lot of flowers in their yards in the summertime. I suppose since we lived in northern Wisconsin they filled their gardens with as many flowers and colors as they could since the summers were short and they wanted to cram as much brightness as possible into the brief warm months we had! So, my card is based on the memory and joy of summer flower gardens, which I still love!

The card is made with Pure Luxury Sweet Mango paper and then layered with a really yummy, sparkly patterned paper from the DCWV mat stack, Citrus. If you haven't looked at the mat stacks from DCWV, take a peek; you will love them! This one has some papers that are glittery and, oh, they are gorgeous! The flowers and the sentiment are from the Stamp TV Kit - Enjoy the Sunshine. I used Twinkling H20s to color the flowers. It doesn't show up on the photo but the flowers have some shimmer to them from the H20s. I don't use them very often but when I do I always like the results and wonder why I don't pull them out more often! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by my blog tonight. Now stop by these participating GinaK Design Team member's blogs for their projects for tonight's hop:

Botanicals Blog Hop

2010-06-06T22:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight we are featuring the new Botanicals stamp set with a special technique themed blog hop event!
All of the designer's participating in tonight's hop were asked to choose a technique or techniques to use with cards made using the Botanicals set.

I have two cards to share tonight. The first was made using the "thumping" technique, which is simply taking several colors of markers and tapping or bouncing them on your stamp to get a mix of the colors. It gives things a unique look and each time you do it the colors/design come out differently. Here is my card:

The flowers were made by thumping the stamp with three different colors of marker: SU Coral Cameo, Memento Canteloupe, and SU So Saffron. The card base is Pure Luxury Chocolate Kiss with Pure Luxury Creme de Menthe (love that color) layered on top. The designer paper is from Cosmo Cricket Earth Love. The other colors used are SU Groovy Guava and Pure Luxury Sweet Corn.

The second card I made for tonight features heat embossing for the flowers. I made this as a sympathy card for a dear friend of ours whose mother passed away this weekend.

I used SU Going Gray as the base for this card and layered that with SU Apricot Appeal. I brayered the background with Going Gray, Barely Blue, Apricot Appeal and Pretty in Pink inks (all from SU). The flowers were stamped with Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder. It is different from some of my cards but I like the way it turned out.

Please visit these designer's blogs for their project using a variety of techniques all made with the Botanicals stamp set:

Then, for even more samples with the Botanicals stamp set, visit the StampTV gallery here: botanicals. To view more information about the free card kit that is included with the purchase of the Botanicals stamp set, click here.

Anniversary Card, Cabin Card, and Graduation Gift Card

2010-06-01T22:27:00.001-05:00

I have a rather eclectic group of cards to share tonight for different occasions and from different stamp companies.

The first card is for my parents for their 62nd wedding anniversary. Isn't that amazing!! I hope and pray they will celebrate their 65th or even their 70th anniversaries! I don't very often take time to stamp or embellish the inside of my cards but this one I did and I really like how it turned out.

I made the card with Pure Luxury White base weight and layered it with the new Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion (love that color!). I embossed it with a Texturz plate in the Big Shot. I used various nestabilities ovals and labels to create the focal image and the sentiment. The gingham ribbon is also the new Wild Dandelion and comes in the Stamp TV kit "Enjoy the Sunshine."

The second card tonight was made a while back using a stamp set I received from my friend, Kim, over at RaisinBoat stamps. Have you seen their stamps?? Fun, fun, fun! And, if you don't want to commit to your stamp sets for the long haul or don't have storage space for them, Raisin Boat is the answer for you! Their whole concept is built around the "Netflix" idea where you rent stamp sets, use them as much and for as long as you like, and then return them. Or if you rent a set and really love it, you can buy it. There is a monthly low rental fee and you make your list just like you do with your movies so they can send your picks out to you. If this sounds like something you'd like to try, head on over to Raisin Boat and please mention that you heard about them on my blog (it won't get you a discount or any freebies but I'd like them to know that you heard about them from me).

This card was made with one of their popular sets called, "Pier Happiness."

And, finally, I have a cute little graduation gift card holder I made for my dearest friend's daughter who graduated from high school this past Friday night. I learned how to make these from a Stampin' Up demo, who got the pattern from someone but I don't have the proper reference to give that person credit. Sorry about that! Please forgive me for not having your information if you are the person who came up with this clever card!

This was a bit hard to photograph because I embossed the sentiment onto the shimmery paper so I kept getting glare from both of them! The mortar board pulls up (it is velcroed shut) and the gift card or money slips into an opening inside. The image is from a Stampin' Up set called "Go, Graduate."

That's all for tonight! Thanks for stopping by!

Last Night of Gina K Designs Previews

2010-05-26T22:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight is the final night of previews and the release party is tomorrow! Do you have it on your calendar? Be sure to join the fun starting at 7:00 PM (central) over at Stamp TV.

Tonight's preview features two more sets. The first one is fabulous! It is so much fun to play with and has a million possibilities! This set was illustrated by Nina Brackett and is called, "Fine Furnishings." There is an accompanying set that is, "Fine Furnishings Additions" and together these two sets will make for some unique cards. Here is my first card using these two sets.

I started with a Pure Luxury Black Onyx base for the card. The patterened paper (which reminded me of wallpaper) is from October Afternoon. I cut out the black background piece using the Top Note Bigz Die and the Ivory piece using a Nestabilities Labels die. I stamped the chandelier onto the ivory piece in Memento Tuxedo Black and all the other furnishings are paper pieced and popped up with pop dots. Very fun to make! It reminded me of furnishing my doll house when I was little!

The second set for tonight is the One Free with Three set by GinaK, called Friends are Forever. This set has some very pretty stamps and the greetings are all things you could use to make cards for friends or even your significant other. The card I made with this set is a simple little card, but I wanted it to focus on the lovely flowers and the sweet greeting so I purposely kept it simple. I chose the new Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion paper as the base for this one and layered it with a piece of digital paper from the "Bright Botanicals" pack available tomorrow night over at the Gina K Designs store. The oval scallop is made from the new Pure Luxury Sweet Mango and the plain oval is Pure Luxury Ivory. I stamped the flowers in Mememto Tuxedo Black and colored them with my Copics. Do you see that little piece of ribbon tucked behind the sentiment? That is one of the ribbons from this month's Stamp TV kit! It is gorgeous and brings in the new Dandelion and Mango colors! Love it!

For more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, check out these Designer's Links:

Gina Krupsky *Friends are Forever designer
Nina Brackett *Fine Furnishings and Fine Furnishings Additions designer
Jessica Fick
Theresa Momber
Melanie Muenchinger
Cathy Tidwell
Lee Murphy
Donna Baker
Lynn Mercurio
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Kurtis Amundson
Sankari Wegman
Kay Simmons *May's CenterStage Spotlight Team Member!* (You are here!)

Please make plans to attend our Release party tomorrow night, Thursday night, May 27th from 7-10 central time which will be held at StampTV. There will be contest questions, challenges, samples from several designers and lots of chatter all leading up to 10pm central, when all the new products and stamp sets previewed this week on our blogs become available online through GinaK Designs store!

Gina K. Previews Continue

2010-05-25T22:00:00.014-05:00

Hello again and welcome to the third night of the Gina K Designs May release previews! Tonight the latest Stamp TV Kit is being previewed and I have to tell you, this kit is going to knock your socks off!! It is HUGE with tons of stamps, loads of cardstock, ribbon, brads, and those fabulous new easy set eyelets. The Stamp TV Kit is called "Enjoy the Sunshine" and here is what you get in your kit:

Cardstock: (26 total sheets)

Black: 3
Heavy White: 3
Layering White: 3
Red Hot: 3
Turquoise Sea: 3
Grass Green: 3
Sweet Mango: 3
Wild Dandelion: 3
Navy: 2

8 Yards of Ribbon - assorted 5/8" and 1/4" widths and colors

Silver Brads

Silver Eyelets (easy set)

Assorted Patterned Papers

And, of course, the fabulous stamp set, which if purchased alone would be valued at $34.95!

You can make so many cards with this kit! You will love it! (and did I mention that the ribbon in this kit is fabulous! Great colors and lots of ribbon!)

Here is the first card I made with the set. Summer is my favorite time of the year and sweet, fresh strawberries are to me one of the first signs that summer has really arrived so, of course, I had to use this image for my card!

The card base is Pure Luxury Red Hot. The ivory layer is Pure Luxury Ivory that I embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. The patterned paper is from October Afternoon and was cut out using the Top Note Bigz Die for the Big Shot. That piece of green paper you see peeking out from under the focal image is a new Pure Luxury color called Grass Green. The ribbon is from the Stamp TV kit. I stamped the strawberries in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored them with Copics. They are coated with Crystal Lacquer to make them shiny and juicy looking! The sentiment is stamped in Memento New Sprout.

The second set for tonight's preview is Stars by Tami Mayberry. This fun little set is going to be a favorite for making lots of different types of cards. Of course, it will be perfect for the Fourth of July but you will see that it can be used for other things as well. Here is the card I made with it. (The colors are coming through a bit wonky in this photo for some reason. The stars and the green background really do match in real life!)

When I saw the "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" sentiment I knew I would have to use this set for a baby card because it reminded me of my son when he was very young and loved to sing, "Twinkle, twinkle, 'tar." As luck would have it, I have to attend a baby shower this week so this card is perfect for it! The card base is made with Pure Luxury Innocent Pink and the patterned paper is from a new digital paper pack being released tomorrow night, called Double Dots and Plaids by Tami Mayberry. This set has a variety of patterned star stamps; I've used four of them here and cut them out using my Nestibilities Stars. It is a bit hard to see in the photo but I used a fifth star stamp in the center over the sentiment. I used five different stars on this card and I didn't use all of the star stamps included in this set! There are a number of different sentiments in this set that allow for lots of types of cards. I think you will find this one surprisingly versatile.

So are you ready to see more previews of these sets? Check out these Designer's Links:

Gina Krupsky *Enjoy the Sunshine StampTV kit designer
Tami Mayberry *Stars designer
Jessica Fick
Theresa Momber
Melanie Muenchinger
Nina Brackett
Carolyn King
Cathy Tidwell
Lee Murphy
Donna Baker
Lynn Mercurio
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Kurtis Amundson
Colleen Schaan
Kay Simmons *May's CenterStage Spotlight Team Member!* (You are here!)

Please make plans to attend our Release party this Thursday night, May 27th from 7-10 central time which will be held at StampTV. There will be contest questions, challenges, samples from several designers and lots of chatter all leading up to 10pm central, when all the new products and stamp sets previewed this week on our blogs become available online through GinaK Designs store!

Gina K.Designs May Release Preview #2

2010-05-24T22:00:00.004-05:00

Happy Monday and welcome to the second preview night for the Gina K Designs May stamp release. I love the fact that the sets in this month's release are really varied, providing loads of possibilities for a wide range of cards. The first set I am previewing for you tonight is made with the beautiful set called, "Hope Grows" by the always talented Theresa Momber. As you will see, I created a sympathy card with this set but there are many other types of cards you could use this set to create.

This card was made with Pure Luxury white base weight with the sentiment stamped directly onto the card base in Memento London Fog. The scalloped circles are punched from Pure Luxury Moonlit Fog and the plain circles are from Pure Luxury In the Navy and Pure Luxury White. The images were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black. I colored the owl with Copic markers and sponged around the images with Memento London Fog.

The second card for tonight is a completely different direction from this one! Isn't that part of the fun of making cards -- all the different types of cards you can make in the span of an hour or two! This card is made with Melanie Muenchinger's new set, "Candles on Your Cake." How perfect given that yesterday was my birthday. I had a lot of fun making this card and it felt like I was making my own birthday card since I made it on my birthday. Fun way to celebrate, huh?

Now if all those bright colors don't make someone's birthday cheery, I don't know what will! I made the card base with Pure Luxury Passionate Pink and layered Pure Luxury White base weight on top. The striped designer paper is from the new Basic Grey pad, "Delovely." I stamped the candles with Memento Rose Bud, Dandelion, and Pear Tart and the flames are Memento Cantaloupe. The blue candle was stamped with an SU color. The cake was stamped on white paper in Memento Rich Cocoa and cut out. I stamped pink sprinkles in Rose Bud and then added a bit of pink glitter just to bling it up a bit! The gorgeous green ribbon is from the new Stamp TV Kit, which will be previewed tomorrow night so be sure to check back for that and another fabulous set on preview night #3!

For more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, check out these Designer's Links:

Gina Krupsky
Theresa Momber * illustrator of Hope Grows
Melanie Muenchinger * illustrator of Candles on Your Cake
Jessica Fick
Carolyn King
Cathy Tidwell
Lee Murphy
Donna Baker
Lynn Mercurio
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Kurtis Amundson
Bev Gerard
Kay Simmons *May's CenterStage Spotlight Team Member!* (You are here!)

Gina K.Designs May Release Preview #1

2010-05-23T22:12:00.001-05:00

Tonight is the first Gina K Designs May Release preview and I am SO excited to be participating as this month's Center Stage Spotlight Guest Designer!! I am always excited about each new stamp release but this one is fabulous!! The stamp sets are amazing!

Here is the first set being previewed tonight. It is by Rupa Shevda and it's called Beach Bum. This is the perfect set for making fun, fun, fun summer cards! We are having record high temperatures today in southern Wisconsin -- around 90 -- so it is the perfect day for previewing this set! Wish I were at the beach!

This was made with Pure Luxury Ivory base weight paper from Gina K. and the that yummy orange paper is new one coming to the store on Thursday as part of the May release. It is called Sweet Mango. Doesn't that sound like summer? I paper pieced the surf boards with some designer paper I had picked up a long time ago at a local store. The towel is paper pieced using a new digital paper by Nina Brackett, and the umbrella is made with the new Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion paper, both of which are also coming in the May release. The "sand" is from Flower Soft. It is called sand and it truly does look like sand!

The second set being previewed tonight is called Botanicals by Gina K. You are going to love this set for it's wonderful versatility. There are so many different ways it can be used and Nina's gorgeous coordinating digital paper pack will really help to make this a favorite for making a variety of cards.

This card is made with Pure Luxury Turquoise Sea paper and the background paper is part of the digital paper pack called Bright Botanicals. One of my favorite things about this set is that it has a script background stamp. I used it on the yellow strip and on the kraft focal image. There are various flowers and some really great sentiments. I forgot to take a photo of the inside of this card but the rest of the sentiment is in a super fun script and says . . . for being such a good friend. That gorgeous turquoise ribbon is a little sneak peek from the Stamp TV kit this month. I can't wait to make more cards with this set to share at the release party!

Thanks for stopping by tonight! Don't forget to come back tomorrow for more previews.

For more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, check out these Designer's Links:

Gina Krupsky
Jessica Fick
Theresa Momber
Melanie Muenchinger
Nina Brackett
Cathy Tidwell
Lee Murphy
Donna Baker
Lynn Mercurio
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Kurtis Amundson
Bev Gerard
Colleen Schaan
Sankari Wegman
Suzanne Dean
Valerie Stangle
Kay Simmons *May's CenterStage Spotlight Team Member!* (You are here!)

Gina K. Designs Center Stage Spotlight Designer for May! That's ME!

2010-05-17T09:19:00.004-05:00

I've been doing a happy dance all weekend long! Ever since Gina K. announced the May Center Stage Spotlight Designer on Friday, I have been on cloud 9, along with bouts of anxiety! I could hardly believe my eyes when I opened my e-mail and there was an e-mail titled, "Congratulations" from Gina K. I didn't believe it at first! I had this momentary thought flash through my mind that she must have sent the e-mail to me by mistake, but, no, it was MY card that she had chosen. (See my post from May 11 to see the card)

I cannot tell you what a honor it is to have been chosen as the May Center Stage Spotlight Designer! I am so excited and nervous all at the same time! I can't wait to get the new stamps so I can start making some cards for the sneak peeks that will be starting soon. You are going to love the new sets! I know -- we say that every month but there are some really fun, unique sets in the May release! Can't tell you anything more right now but just wait, you'll see what I mean!

Thanks to everyone who has sent their congratulations and support! I hope you will enjoy my creations this month . . . and who knows, maybe next month it will be you in the spotlight! Be sure to watch for the challenge from Gina in a few weeks when you can enter your card to become the next spotlight designer. If I can do it, so can you!

Gina K. Movie Inspired Challenge

2010-05-11T21:27:00.004-05:00

Gina K.'s challenge for this month's Center Stage Designer search was to make a card using one of the stamp sets from the April release based on a favorite movie. One of my favorite movies is a recent one -- Julie and Julia -- starring the always wonderful Meryl Streep. In case you haven't seen this delightful movie, it is about a young woman in New York who is unhappy with her job and decides to start cooking her way through Julia Child's famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She decides to cook a recipe every day from the cookbook and blog about it. The movie follows her cooking adventures and shares the story of Julia Child's life and how she became a famous chef.
This is the cover of that famous cookbook and it is the inspiration for the card I made.
I used one of the stamps from my favorite set in the April release, called Sew Pretty. I just love the retro look of these stamps and thought this very 60s looking woman in her pearls and apron fit well with the Julia Child era. The card base is Pure Luxury Ivory and the polka-dot background, apron, skirt, and oven mitt dps are from Cosmo Cricket. The red squares are Pure Luxury Red Hot. I paper pieced the apron, skirt and oven mitts, and I colored her sweater, hair, face, arms and jewelry with Copic markers. I used Spica markers on her pearls and earrings to give them some sparkle.

This was a fun card to make and it made me think again how much I enjoyed the movie Julie and Julia. I just may have to rent it and watch it again some day soon! I hope you enjoyed seeing my card and that it inspires you to see this light-hearted, funny movie, or inspires you to find a new recipe and give it a try! Bon Appetit!

Gina K. Book Inspired Challenge

2010-04-09T08:37:00.005-05:00

Does anyone else remember this delightful book? It was one of my favorite books as a child! (Note the 29 cent price on the front! That tells you how old I am! Actually, I believe the original publication date of the book was about 10 years before I was born but I'm sure it didn't cost much more than that when my mother bought it for me.) I remember my mother reading it to me and when I was old enough to read, I continued to read it because I loved the story about the kind little chipmunk mailman who delivered cards and letters to all the animals on Bayberry Lane, except for Mrs. Pig. Mrs. Pig never got any mail even though she waited every day for Mr. Chipmunk to come. Seeing how sad she was that she never got any mail, Mr. Chipmunk and the other animals arranged a surprise party for Mrs. Pig and sent her an invitation in the mail in a yellow envelope. She was so happy to get that invitation in the mail and to make new friends with the other animals along Bayberry Lane. Amazing what one little piece of mail in the mailbox can do for someone's spirits. That's why we all make cards, isn't it? To bring a smile to someone's face when they get it in their mailbox?

My card for Gina K.'s illustrator blog hop challenge was inspired by this lovely little book. When I got the new Stamp TV Kit "Spring Mix" I knew that the mailbox with the chipmunk in it reminded me of something and when I saw Gina's challenge to use a favorite childhood book for a card inspiration, it clicked! The stamp reminded me of this favorite book from my long ago childhood. Here is the card I made using "The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane" as my inspiration.

This gatefold card is made with Stampin' Up Groovy Guava as the base and the scalloped circle. The green panels and scalloped circle are Pure Luxury Creme de Menthe and the dp is from the Cosmo Cricket Earth Love paper pack. All stamps are from the Stamp TV Kit Spring Mix. I colored the images with Copics, including the background, which I colored in with Copic B32 and then went over with the colorless blender to remove some of the color because it was too much blue.

Thanks, Gina, for bringing back such warm, childhood memories for me! I had many, many books as a child (and still do! So do my kids!). My mother was an elementary school librarian so reading was a huge part of our lives and home. It was really fun to take a quick stroll down memory lane to recall this book and a sweet little piece of my childhood!

Thanks for stopping by and for sharing this memory with me!

Spring is in the Air

2010-03-02T21:49:00.005-06:00

There has been just a hint of spring in the air here the past few days as we see the temperatures begin to creep up over the freezing mark and the snow banks start to melt. That spring fever has hit my card making, too! All of the cards I made tonight are done in spring colors, all from the new Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Spring Assortment card stock. Gina has posted an Illustrator/Design Team Color Challenge over on her blog. The challenge requires that two colors from the spring assortment be used on each card as well as one of the stamp sets from the February release. So, I decided to join in the challenge and ended up being so inspired by those spring colors and new stamp sets that I made three cards!

Here they are:

This one has a Pure Luxury Lemon Drop base with Pure Luxury Creme de menthe layered on top. The designer paper is from Basic Grey and was cut out using the Top Note die from Stampin' Up and was then embossed with a cuttlebug folder. I used Nestabilities Labels Nine to cut out the Creme de menthe layer and a white layer that had been stamped with one of the fabulous stamps from Lovely Labels. (I LOVE that set!!) The flowers are from the Spring Florals stamp set that I colored with Memento markers and stamped into the center. The little medallion and "Happy Birthday" greeting are from a new SU stamp set called Vintage Labels. I punched it out with a scalloped punch and added green and yellow punched flowers and a brad before adhering it to the card.

This card was pretty quick to put together but I had fun with the adorable stamps from Dream Birds. Aren't they cute? I used a Nestabilities Label Two to cut out the white piece that I stamped the flowers and bird, tree, and butterfly onto. I sponged a bit of Memento Lulu Lavendar around the edges and adhered it to the card, which has a base of Pure Luxury Creme de menthe, a layer of Pure Luxury Lovely Lavendar, and a strip of embossed Creme de menthe. The lavendar gingham ribbon is a piece I had in my stash (somehow I missed ordering the GKD Spring Ribbon Assortment! Gotta get that!). I added some buttons from the Spring Assortment buttons to finish it off. Oh, the sentiment is also from the Dream Birds set.

And, my favorite! The poison dart frog! I looked this guy up on line so I could make him somewhat authentic looking! This card starts with a base of Pure Luxury Ocean Mist and a piece of designer paper from a K & Company mat pad. I used the Nestabilites Deckle Edge rectangles to cut out the Pure Luxury Lemon Drop and White layers. I stamped my froggy, which is from the fun new set by Theresa Momber called Hang in There, with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored him with Copic markers. I also sponged around the edges of the white layer in Memento Summer Sky. I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of PL Ocean Mist and cut it out with the double ended tag from Spellbinders. I attached it with yellow brads from Basic Grey and it was done!

Hope you enjoyed seeing these spring inspired cards! Now if spring would really come, I'd be very happy! Think spring!

CenterStage Spotlight Blog Hop - Hope is Faith

2010-02-18T22:00:00.002-06:00

Feelings of Hope

Gina challenged the CenterStage Spotlight team to make a card with the new Hope is Faith stamp set using the photo above for inspiration. Check out Gina's blog for all the details of this special stamp set.

Here is the card I made for tonight's hop. I tried to take inspiration from the colors in Gina's beautiful photograph, so I used some Pure Luxury Green Apple base weight paper and some orange paper I've had around for a while (I think it came from a pack of paper I got for free at Archivers). The leaves and flowers up the side are printed on the paper, not stamped. The butterfly was stamped on a scrap piece of the orange dp so it would match the card paper. I stamped the butterfly in Versamark and then embossed it with black. I popped the butterfly up on some pop dots. The sentiment is stamped on Pure Luxury Ivory in Memento Cantalope ink and was layered on a rectangle of Green Apple card stock. The glazed brad is from Basic Grey's Marrakech line.

A relatively clean and simple card but I love how it emphasizes the beautiful butterfly and the sentiment! This is such a lovely little stamp set and I love the fact that buying it contributes much needed funds to the Red Cross relief efforts to the disaster stricken people of Haiti. Thanks for your generosity, Gina!

Now, stop by these designer's blogs who are participating in the hop tonight:

Jessica Fick

Diana S. Queen

Tina Gilliland

Pam Imholz

Carla Suto

Cheri Weston

Jennie Harper

Joy Hadden

Shannon Bracken

Karen Knegten

JenMarie Taylor

Brenda Turner

Giovanna Smith

Sue Morris

Melissa Shultz

Peggy Wainman

Sharri Seffens

Carolina Buchting

Geri Utterback

Melissa Cash

Betty Neville

Sue Van deVusse

Janice Melton

Jen Charboneau

DeeMarie Kelemen

Linda Payne

Lori McAree

Kay Simmons (you are here!)

Shelly Wilson

Selma Stevenson

Vicki Dutcher

Sue Walsh

Three New Cards to Share

2010-01-23T19:26:00.007-06:00

I have finally had some time to get into my craft room this weekend! Yahoo! I managed to complete three cards, all for challenges over at Stamp TV.

The first is for the sketch challenge this week. I really like sketch challenges because they eliminate the step of trying to come up with the layout, which is often the hardest part for me. Sometimes I just like to have the idea already in front of me so I can concentrate on the colors and other elements.

This card turned out pretty wild! I'm not usually one to use a lot of bright colors and patterns but I kind of like this card. It seems springy and not dull and gloomy like our weather lately!

The card base, square layer, and ribbon are all SU Rich Razzleberry. The yellow layers are Crushed Curry from SU. The dp is from the Basic Grey Lemonade pack. The flower stamps are from Tropical Flowers by Gina K Designs and the birthday sentiment is from Friendship Blooms, also by Gina K Designs. I stamped the flowers in Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, and Rich Razzleberry inks from SU.

The next card was made for the inspiration challenge at Stamp TV this week. Gina had a gorgeous fall forest photo that was all shades of red. I knew immediately I had to use some paper from the Basic Grey Indian Summer pack for this card.

I started with come Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart paper from Gina K Designs and layered that with a piece of Pure Luxury Tan Leather. I used a fairly large piece of the dp from Basic Grey because I wanted it to be the focal point of the card since it reminded me so much of Gina's photo. I layered a small piece of Cranberry Tart, Pure Luxury Innocent Pink, and Ivory for the stamped image of the leaves. I stamped the Leaves from the Gina K Designs set, Botanical Dreams, with versamark and embossed them with clear embossing powder. I sponged over the leaves with Memento Rhubard Stalk and Angel Pink and Vivid Tuscan Tan. Then I stamped Friend at the bottom with Tuscan Tan. A piece of ribbon, which is actually pink even though it doesn't show up that way in the photo, and some nailheads complete the card.

Finally, I did a card for the color challenge at Stamp TV. I love these colors together -- red, brown and white. They are the predominant colors in my living room, dining area and kitchen so you know I had to do this color challenge!

For this one I started with Pure Luxury Rocket Red and then layered on a piece of SU Soft Suede that I embossed with the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder. The piece of dp is from some SU specialty paper they had available at the holidays called Christmas Cocoa. It such pretty paper but it has a sheen to it and I find it hard to get a good, accurate photo of it. The scalloped oval is Rocket Red and the plain oval is Pure Luxury White; both cut out using nesties. The coffee mug and sentiment are both from the Gina K Design set called My Cuppa' Joe. The red ribbon is from Gina K and the brown polka dot is SU Soft Suede.

Those are my cards for tonight! Hope you had fun seeing them. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and be sure to include some creative time -- it's good for the soul!

Center Stage Spotlight Inspiration Blog Hop

2010-01-13T22:00:00.001-06:00

It's time for another GinaK CenterStage Spotlight Team Blog Hop!

Each artist was asked to design their project by drawing inspiration from these photos of the AMAZING Christmas Cookie Bouquet the CSS Team sent to Gina's DT Coordinator Jessica Fick:

Aren't those cookies gorgeous! (and, of course, Jessica's kids are adorable, too!) The blog hop tonight is based on whatever inspiration the designers have drawn from these photos -- it could have been the colors, the winter theme, the kids, anything!

I have to admit that the colors along with the winter theme were what inspired me (not to mention that the photos inspired me to want to eat cookies but that's for another blog post isn't it? Hee-hee!) Here's the photo of my card.

The card base is made with Baja Breeze from Stampin' Up (a retired InColor; I'm trying to use up some of my old paper so I can add new stuff!) The red piece is also a retired SU InColor; Riding Hood Red. I embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder and made some white "stitches" down the side. The dp is from Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding collection. I used my nesties to cut out the scalloped and plain circles and layered them together. The mug was stamped with white ink onto Baja Breeze paper and then cut out. I colored the marshmallows with a white pen and added some "cocoa" to the mug with a brown marker. The mug is popped up with a couple of pop dots. The sentiment is stamped on white with Baja Breeze ink and cut out with a Spellbinders tag. The ribbon is Baja Breeze from SU also. The mittens were stamped on red with Versamark and then embossed with white EP. I cut them out and adhered them with a glue dot. All of the stamps used on this card are from the Warm and Wonderful stamp set designed by Rupa Shevde for Gina K. Designs. Love that set! It is perfect for this time of year - wintery but not Christmasy. Pretty simple but a fun, wintery card to make.

Click on the following links to see what the participating Designers have prepared for us tonight:

Jessica Fick,
Betty Neville,

Jen Charboneau,
Joan Ervin,
Vicki Dutcher,
Lori McAree,
Cheri Weston,
Melissa Cash,
Carla Suto,
Giovana Smith,
JenMarie Taylor,
Sue Morris,
Carolina Buchting,
Sharri Seffens,
Brenda Turner,
Peggy Wainman,
Sue Van deVusse,
Shannon Bracken,
Tina Gilliland,
Deb Felts,
Jennie Harper,
Geri Utterback,
Selma Stevenson,
Melissa Shultz,
Linda Payne,
Joy Hadden,
Karen Knegten,
Melanie Muenchinger,
Nina Brackett

Everyone's projects will be added to the StampTV gallery and Idea Center over the next few days. You can search for them by using this tag: cssjf4

Have fun checking out all of the fun, inspired projects and don't look at those photos too long or you will be inspired to go find some cookies to go with all of these projects! LOL! Thanks for stopping by tonight! Happy stamping!

Getting My Creative Mojo Back with a Color Challenge

2010-01-03T09:20:00.007-06:00

I often find that after the big holiday rush and making nothing but Christmas cards/projects for weeks on end that it is hard to shift gears and start making other things. This year seemed worse than most, probably because I was still making Christmas things right up until Christmas Eve day! Yes, I was a bit behind this Christmas! I think I've finally overcome my creative block and have moved on to making other things now. Today I'm sharing a card I made for a friend's birthday and also for the color challenge over at Stamp TV, which was to use pink, brown, and white for your card. I love those colors together so this was a fun one to make!

Here are the card details:

Paper:

White card base is Pure Luxury Heavy Base Weight White from Gina K Designs

Pink, Tan, Dark Brown are all from Bazzill papers

Designer Paper is Basic Grey Bittersweet

The images and sentiment are stamped on Pure Luxury Layering Weight from Gina K Designs

Stamps:

Main focal image stamps are all from the Perfectly Polished stamp set by Rupa Shevde for Gina K Designs

Sentiment is from Hip to Be Square set by Melanie Muenchinger for Gina K Designs

I colored the images with Copics, added some sparkle to the nail polish bottles with some Spica pens and covered the entire image with crystal lacquer to make it look like a window. The circle is stamped with Memento Angel Pink and the sentiment is Memento Rich Cocoa.

Here is the inside of the card:

I rarely add anything but a sentiment on the inside of my cards but one the sheets of dp in the Bittersweet pad has different border strips and this one went so well with this card that I had to cut it out and use it on the card. The sentiment on the inside is from the Eclectic Summer Sayings stamp set by Gina K.

Don't you just love these colors together? I sure do! I hope you enjoyed seeing my card today and I hope your creative mojo is ready for a whole new year of creativity! Here's to lots of creative cards and projects in 2010! Thanks for stopping by!

A Very Important Birthday

2009-12-28T20:11:00.005-06:00

Can you believe that December is almost over? What a whirlwind month it was for us! We had many wonderful holiday related things to do and partake of but we also lost one of our family members in mid-December. A tragic loss of a 20-year old nephew made us all pause and reflect on the specialness of family and the true meaning of the holiday season. Along side that tragedy, we celebrated the milestone birthday of my son who turned 18 on December 13. Having just experienced the loss of someone so close to his age made us realize how precious it was to be celebrating his special birthday. I must say that I am so very proud of him and all that he has accomplished in his 18 years. He is such a talented young man and was just accepted to the college of his choice to study music. I'm thrilled for him and even though I know I will miss him terribly when he heads off to school next fall, I am so happy he will be following his dream.

Here is the card I made for my son's birthday. The trees and train are stamps from the gorgeous Life is Good set by the very talented Theresa Momber. I stamped them using Memento "London Fog" onto Pure Luxury Ivory paper. I colored the train with Copics and sponged around it with Vivid "Tuscan Tan". The sky is sponged very lightly with Vivid "Cobblestone" ink. I didn't quite like the way the trees turned out when I stamped them with the London Fog. They were a bit too bluish looking or something so I decided to use a glue pen and some glitter to make them look frosty. The focal image is layered onto a piece of Basic Grey Granola paper and that is layered onto Pure Luxury "Tan Leather" and Pure Luxury "Smoky Slate" papers. The word "Son" and the "Explore. Dream. Discover." sentiment are stamped in "Cobblestone." This was a fairly simple and quick card to create but it seemed fitting for a young man's birthday, especially one who was a huge train fan when he was younger!

Life is good and I am thankful for being able to celebrate my son's 18th birthday and to know that he is becoming a very special young adult with dreams to explore and many new things to discover.

Thanks for visiting my blog tonight. I wish a very happy, joy-filled New Year for each of you!

Recipe Blog Hop

2009-12-10T22:00:00.001-06:00

Several members of the Center Stage Spotlight Team have joined together to share a special Christmas Treat Recipe Blog Hop event with everyone tonight! They have whipped up some treats in their kitchens and their stamp rooms over the past few weeks so we could compile our very first Recipe Book for StampTV!

I created a modified pocket card for my blog hop entry. This pocket card does double duty; it acts as a Christmas card and it holds the recipe card for the Toasted Almond Toffee Bars. I created it this way because I'm actually using these greeting cards/recipe cards for the annual cookie exchange I'm participating in tonight with my Beta Sigma Phi sorority group. (Anyone else out there a member of Beta Sigma Phi?). The photos show the Christmas card alone, the card with the recipe inserted, and the recipe card. I forgot to include a photo of the back side of the recipe card, which has the directions for making the recipe. It has simple snowflakes stamped along the bottom in black with some bling from a clear stardust pen.

The card is made from SU Real Red cardstock. The white strip at the bottom front is Pure Luxury White that was embossed with two snowflake border folders from Cuttlebug. The gingerbread people are from the First Christmas stamp set by Asela Hopkins and the gingerbread house and trees are from the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV kit. I stamped the gingerbread people and house, colored them with Copics, blinged them up with Stickles and Spica pens and attached them to the white strip with adhesive. The Peace, Joy and Love sentiment is from the Holiday Hospitality set and was stamped in Versamark and embossed with white ep. The trees were stamped with Shimmer Paint from SU and the whole card was spitzed with Shimmer Paint mixed with rubbing alcohol to give it a shimmery, sparkly look. Unfortunately, it doesn't show up in the photos.

Here is the card with the recipe inserted in the pocket. The recipe is printed on white paper and layered onto red cardstock. I stamped the smaller gingerbread people onto the recipe and colored them with Copics and Spica pens. I also stamped snowflakes onto both sides of the recipe card and gave them some sparkle with a clear stardust pen.
Here's the recipe card. Don't worry about trying to read it here. It is included in the recipe booklet that wonderful Jessica put together for this blog hop tonight. See the note below for where to find the recipe booklet. The booklet also includes photos of everyone's treats. That's why I didn't include a photo of the bars here tonight.

Thanks for stopping by my blog tonight! Now, check out these designer's blogs for the sweet projects they've designed around their treats:

Carolina Buchting
Carla Suto
Deb Felts
Donna Baker
Giovana Smith
Jennie Harper
Jessica Fick
Joy Hadden
Karen Knegten
Kay Simmons(You are here!)
Lee Murphy
Linda Payne
Lori McAree
Melissa Cash
Pam Imholz
Selma Stevenson
Sue Morris
Sue VanDeVusse
Sue Walsh
Vicki Dutcher

Then, stop by GinaK's blog for a super sweet give-away she has tonight in honor of the hop!

The Recipe Book will be available as a free download PDF on StampTV tonight as well. Look for it on the Freebie Tab link.

Blizzard, Snow Day, and Stamping

2009-12-09T21:53:00.003-06:00

We will not need to dream of a white Christmas here in southern Wisconsin! We had a huge snow storm last night that dumped 12-20 inches of snow on our area. The snow totals varied a bit depending on where you live in the area but everyone got over a foot of snow! Most of it came during the night Tuesday into Wednesday morning and pretty much everything was closed. All area schools were closed today including the University of Wisconsin which hasn't happened in about 20 years. My kids didn't have school and my husband and I decided we weren't going to try to make it out to work today since city and county officials were begging people to just stay home today. Well, you don't have to ask me twice when it comes to staying home in the middle of a snow storm! I had a fun day of making cards and doing some baking. I'll share one card with you that I made today but I'm also going to share some photos of all the snow we got. (Even though I hate snow it was quite beautiful!) This first photo is in our backyard.

This photo is of the pine trees that line our driveway. There was so much snow on them the branches were touching the ground even though they are normally about 4-5 feet off the ground.
This poor little guy was trying to find some food but the bird feeders were completely covered in snow. Isn't he pretty against the snow?

I hope you are warm, safe, and dry where you are tonight! Enjoy the photos and for those of you with the sense to live in warm places like California, Arizona or Florida, please send us some warm thoughts! The temps are going to drop here tonight to around zero and the wind chills are going to be -20 to -25! Brrr!

Thanks for stopping by. Here is my card made with the gorgeous Festive Frames set from Gina K Designs. I used gold embossing on Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart paper and, yes, I did cut out the oval in the middle. No easy task! I only made four cards like this and I don't think there will be any more! Other papers used are Pure Luxury Ivory and Good as Gold.

I'll share the other cards tomorrow when we have a special blog hop so be sure to stop back tomorrow night after 10 PM.

Time for Another CenterStage Spotlight Challenge Blog Hop

2009-11-27T22:00:00.007-06:00

Wow! Where has November gone?! I can't believe our last CenterStage Spotlight Challenge Hop was on November 4 and that was the last time I posted here! Thanksgiving is over?! Really? How can that be! Even worse -- Christmas is less than a month away and I'm totally unprepared. It has been such a busy month and I've had very little time to do anything for the holidays. I'm hoping to have a bit more time in the coming weeks to do some 'creative' things. If I don't, people may be getting New Year's cards from me instead of Christmas cards!

Here is one Christmas card I can add to my stack. I made this for tonight's challenge blog hop. It was fun to stamp and color on patterned paper, although I have to admit I didn't end up doing a lot of coloring! LOL! Take a look at the card both inside and out. All card info is below. Be sure to hop along and see all the gorgeous things the past and present Spotlight team members have made and are sharing tonight.

This is the outside of the card, which was difficult to photograph because the ornament is covered with Crystal Lacquer. I stamped the ornament onto the candy cane striped paper and then stamped the sentiment in the middle. I colored the lines with a red copic and covered them with red crystal lacquer. I sprinkled glitter onto the wet lacquer and then used clear lacquer on the rest of the ornament. Since the dp wasn't very heavy, I got some wrinkling from the lacquer. If I were going to make this again I'd adhere the dp to some heavier stock before cutting it out and putting the lacquer on it. I taped the silver cord to the back of the ornament and then popped it up on pop dots. Note the ivory frame here and the green striped frame on the inside of the card. These are the left over pieces from cutting out the Top Note die on the Big Shot. I went to a holiday card making event and we made some cards that used the center piece but I decided to keep the frames just in case I could make use of them and I did! I like it when I can "recycle" pieces like that!

Here is the inside of the card. The ornaments are blinged up with Spica red, green, clear, and silver pens. I never embellish the insides of may cards so this was quite a challenge for me!

Card Recipe:

Card base: SU Riding Hood Red
DP: All from SU
Large ornament and Merry and Bright sentiment: Holiday Hospitality from Gina K. Designs
Happy Holidays sentiment: Holiday Cheer Stamp TV Kit - Holiday Greetings set
Small ornaments on inside: Vintage Borders set from Gina K Designs
Embellishments: Silver Cord from Gina K Designs; brads from Basic Grey Wassail; ribbon from SU

It's time for another CenterStage Spotlight Challenge Blog hop!

Hostess: Jessica Fick {Design Team Coordinator} Theme: Stamp and color the image on Patterned Paper { any occasion card acceptable, it doesn't have to be Christmas themed} { image may be cut out and layered, but must be stamped and colored on patterned paper} Requirement: any GinaK Designs stamp set & Glitter Bonus Challenge: decorate the inside of your card to coordinate

Participating Designer's links:

Brenda Turner Carla Suto, Carolina Buchting,

Cheri Weston Deb Felts Geri Utterback , Giovana Smith, Gina Krupsky Janice Melton, JenMarie Taylor, Jennie Harper, Joy Hadden, Karen Knegten Kay Simmons, Linda Payne, Lori McAree, Melisa Waldorf, Melissa Cash, Melissa Shultz, Nina Brackett, Pam Imholz, Peggy Wainman, S elma Stevenson, Shannon Bracken, Sharri Seffens

Sue Morris Sue VanDeVusse Sue Walsh, Tina Gilliland

Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Past and Present Blog Hop

2009-11-04T22:00:00.004-06:00

Welcome to our first Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Blog Hop!

Jessica Fick, the Design Team Coordinator for GinaK Designs has issued a challenge to all of the past and present team CSS team members to make a Christmas card with one of these sketches:

I'm so excited to be able to participate in this hop tonight as a past design team member! I chose to make a card that follows the more "embellished" sketch. Here it is:

I used Pure Luxury Rocket Red as my card base and Pure Luxury Ivory as the next layer. I embossed the ivory layer with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder and then randomly colored some of the snowflakes with a Stardust Pure Glitter pen. I used Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Antique Linen around the edges of the snowflake layer as well as around the edges of the focal images circle. I used a strip of the Rocket Red with a piece of music paper from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly paper pack layered on top of it under the focal image. The scalloped circle is Pure Luxury All Spruced Up and the plain circle is Pure Luxury Ivory again.

I stamped the house image, which is from the Gina K Designs set, Let It Snow, with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Copics. I sponged the sky with Memento London Fog and Paris Dusk. I added some falling snow to the sky with a white gel pen. The snow on the ground, rooftops and trees was created with crystal snow glitter by Stampendous. The oval was punched out using a Stampin' Up punch, was edged with Vivid Dye Ink Brick and "peace" from Let It Snow was stamped with the Vivid Brick ink also. The two buttons are from the Gina K. Holiday button assortment collection.

This was a really fun sketch to play with and I can't wait to try a couple of other variations with it. Now hop along and see what other Design Team members have created for tonight's hop! You're going to LOVE what everyone has designed!

First, here are the links for GinaK's Current CSS Team Members:

Deb Felts
Diana S. Queen
Karen Knegten
Melissa Cash
Sharri Seffens
Sue VanDeVusse

and the links for all of the past CSS Design Team members participating:

Brenda Turner,
Carla Suto,
Carolina Buchting,
Charlene Merrick,
Dawn Lusk,
DeeMarie Kelemen,
Geri Utterback ,
Giovanna Smith,
Janice Melton,
JenMarie Taylor,
Jennie Harper,
Joy Hadden,
Kay Simmons,
Linda Payne,
Lori McAree,
Melisa Waldorf,
Pam Imholz,
S elma Stevenson,
Shannon Bracken,
Shelly Wilson,
Sue Walsh,
Tina Gilliland

Some of GinaK's Senior Design Team Members and Illustrators wanted to get in on the fun tonight too:

Asela Hopkins
Carolyn King
Cindy Lawrence
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Lynn Mercurio
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger

along with Nina Brackett's Guest Designer: Lisa Hjulberg

Last but not least, don't forget to visit Gina over at http://blog.ginakdesigns.com/

All of these gorgeous cards from the entire team will be added to the StampTV gallery throughout the next few days with the tag cssjf1 (which stands for center stage spotlight jessica fick 1)

These sketches are also our sketch challenge for this week, so be sure to check out all the information in the discussion in our Challenge group over on StampTV Thursday morning. We'd love to see your cards with the sketch too!

It Has Been a While . . .

2009-11-03T20:34:00.003-06:00

It has been a few weeks since I last posted here. I haven't been making cards during that time for several reasons. I have been extremely busy at my job, working on a large proposal that was finally submitted TODAY! Yahoo! I'm so glad that is out the door! Now just keep your fingers crossed that we hear something positive about getting the grant! It will mean four years of jobs, work, and money for the company at which I work so we are very much hoping we will get it.

On top of the proposal work, I have been spending a lot of time running back and forth from where I live to my parents' home, which is two and a half hours away. My almost 82 year old father had three bypasses done on his heart last week so he and my mother have needed a lot of extra help.

So, I have had very little time to spend with my stamps recently. It makes me an unhappy camper when I don't have time to play in my stamping room so I was very excited to get back to it last night. I can't share yet what I made -- it is for a special blog hop that will be happening tomorrow night! Stay tuned and stop back to join in on the hop!

Thanks for stopping by! See you back here tomorrow! :)

Warm Winter Wishes Blog Hop

2009-10-21T22:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight is my last blog hop as part of the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team. This is the official end to my 'duties' as part of the design team. I'm sad that it has come to end because I really had a blast being on the CSS. I hope to have the chance to do it again sometime or to participate on another design team. I learned a lot and had a great time. I'm really looking forward to finding out who the next lucky group is to be named to the Center Stage Spotlight! I'm sure we'll be hearing soon!

Now on to tonight's blog hop card. Tonight we are featuring the stamp set, Warm Winter Wishes, created by Carolyn King. This is, of course, one of my favorites because it has a snowman in it. I've already mentioned on a previous blog post that I collect snowmen so any stamp set that has one will find its way into my stamp room!

Do you ever find inspiration for your cards in odd places? My card was inspired by a bottle of bath gel that has been in my shower since last holiday season (I guess I don't use the stuff very much! LOL!). I was in the shower this morning thinking about the card I would make for this blog hop and I looked at the bottle and had one of those aha moments! The bath gel is from Bath & Body Works and is called Twisted Peppermint. The gel is a reddish-pink color and the bottle has three triangular trees in silver and red designs with peppermint stripes. For some reason I suddenly saw a card done in those colors with lots of bling. So, that is where the idea for my card was born!

Here it is:

To make this card I used Pure Luxury Rocket Red for the base and Pure Luxury Pure White for the next layer. I stamped the snowflakes onto the white paper with Versamark and then embossed them with a white EP that has silver mixed into it. I used my brayer to ink up the sky using Memento London Fog. All of the designer paper I used on the card is from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly pack. I stamped the coffee mug and two trees onto dp and cut them out. I also stamped the tree on Pure Luxury Silver Lining and cut that out. (The tree stamps are from the fabulous set by Nina Brackett, "Lord of the Season") The ground cover is also a piece of dp from Jolly by Golly that has these great curves in the design so it is perfect for cutting out and using on a card like this. I stamped the snowman with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Pure Luxury Pure White base weight paper, colored him, and cut him out. I purposely used base weight for the snowman because I knew I was going to cut him out and pop him up so I wanted him to be a bit more substantial.

As you can see, I got kind of carried away with all the bling on this card! LOL! It just seemed like it should be 'blingy'! I colored the snowman's scarf, hat, and holly with Spica pens to make them glittery. Even his nose is colored with an orange Spica! The trees have silver and red brads for some of their ornaments and Christmas Red and Frosted Lace Stickles for other ornaments. I used the Frosted Lace Stickles to put snow under the trees and in various places on the ground. I hope you can see all the sparkle in the photo -- it was a bit hard to photograph because of all that sparkle!

For even more inspiration visit Carolyn King - the Illustrator of Warm Winter Wishes and the Idea Center gallery HERE.

Then, check in with Carolyn's special guest designers:

Charlene Merrick

Tina Gilliland

Deb Anton

And, finally stop by these GinaK Designer's blogs participating in the hop tonight:

Cathy Tidwell
Cindy Lawrence
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger
Tami Mayberry
Theresa Momber

and our CenterStage Spotlight Team:

Joy Hadden
Kay Simmons
Linda Payne
Lori McAree

GinaK will be giving away a copy of Warm Winter Wishes on her blog tonight - so pop over there to leave your comment on her blog for your chance to win the set for free! (If you've already purchased the stamp set, we can swap it out for another GinaK stamp set valued at $19.95 or less.)

Special Delivery Blog Hop Tonight

2009-10-19T22:00:00.005-05:00

Tonight we are featuring the fun stamp sets of Tami Mayberry whose first two sets for Gina K Designs were part of the September release. They are Special Delivery and the Add-on set that coordinates with Special Delivery. As part of the September Center Stage Spotlight Design Team for Gina K Designs, these were the sets I helped to preview before they were released. If you go back to late September you'll see that I had a holiday card made with these sets but tonight I made a baby card with the same set! This is quite an unconventional baby card -- kind of bold and wild but it was fun to make and I look forward to giving it to just the right someone when they have a new little one. Don't know who that will be yet but I know it will be perfect for someone!

This card was made using Stampin' Up Green Gable as the base card and for the scalloped circle. The yellow layer, circle, and strip are all made from Stampin' Up Yo-Yo Yellow. That crazy dp is from the wonderful Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper pack (I just love that collection; some great colors and designs!). I stamped the Sweet One image with Gable Green ink from SU on Pure Luxury Pure White layering weight paper and punched it out with the SU scalloped punch. The postage stamps, designs on the postage stamps, and Special Delivery were stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black. The buttons are also from the Basic Grey Lime Rickey collection. I colored the stars on the carriage wheels with a yellow Spica pen and colored the moon and stars with a clear Spica pen to give them some shimmer.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my wild card tonight! It's a bit out of the ordinary for me but I was feeling in the mood for something colorful and fun tonight. Now take a hop along the blog trail to see what the Gina K Designs team and friends have created tonight.

Tami Mayberry, the Illustrator of these two stamp sets has invited a couple of her friends to join in on the blog hop tonight, so click on their blog links to see the projects they've created for us tonight:

Keri Sereika

Jeanne Streiff

Then, check in on these GinaK Designer's participating in the Blog Hop tonight:

Tami Mayberry (Illustrator)
Carolyn King
Donna Baker
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Melanie Muenchinger
Theresa Momber

Kurtis Amundson

Cathy Tidwell

After you're done hopping to all the Designer's blogs stop by GinaK's Idea Center here: Special Delivery & Special Delivery Addition for lots more ideas on how to use Tami's stamp sets. And, don't forget to check in on GinaK's blog so you can leave your comment to be entered as a chance to win these two stamp sets too!

Lord of the Season Blog Hop

2009-10-16T22:00:00.003-05:00

Tonight is another blog hop that features the beautiful stamp set, "Lord of the Season" by Nina Brackett for Gina K Designs. This set really does feature the four seasons, giving you options for many different cards. For my card tonight I chose the fall topiary but made it into a birthday card for a friend with a fall birthday.

This card was made with the Pure Luxury Pumpkin Spice cardstock. I used a Cuttlebug edge folder to create the design on the side of the card and used a glitter pen to fill in the indentations and the scallop line to make it pop. The dp is a piece that came in the Signs of Autumn Stamp TV kit from Gina K Designs. The scalloped green is Pure Luxury Green Apple. I stamped the focal image onto Pure Luxury Pure White that I cut out and embossed with a rectangle nestie. Before removing the nestie, I sponged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen.

I colored the image with Copics and stamped the sentiment in Memento Potter's Clay. The purple ribbon is from the Signs of Autumn Stamp TV Kit from Gina K. A couple of copper brads finish it off. A clean and simple card but I felt the image was so pretty and detailed that I didn't need to add a lot of extra bling. I like to make cards like this when I know I need to mail them because they don't need extra postage or special handling.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my card tonight. Thanks for stopping by my "Creative Lane!" Now hop along and see even more ideas with Nina Brackett's Lord of the Season stamp set. Visit her blog as well as the GinaK Idea Center here: Lord of the Season

GinaK Designer's joining in on the hop tonight:

Nina Brackett
Carolyn King
Cathy Tidwell
Donna Baker
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Melanie Muenchinger

Theresa Momber

September's Center Stage Spotlight Team:

Janice Melton
Joy Hadden
Kay Simmons
Lori McAree

Nina's Guest DT and friends:

Crystal Bernsdorf
JenMarie Taylor
Lisa Hjulberg

Very Merry Blog Hop

2009-10-14T22:00:00.002-05:00

We are hopping again tonight! The featured stamp set is Theresa Momber's Very Merry Christmas set. I'm sure you will see many different cards on tonight's hop because this set has so many different options. During the release party I posted three different cards made with stamps from this set and tonight I have another one using a completely different stamp than I used on the others. You could easily make all of your holiday cards with just this set. Enjoy the hop tonight! I hope you get lots of great ideas from all the great designers who are participating tonight.

Here is the card I made for tonight's blog hop. I decided to use a gate fold card just for something different than my usual card. It was a fun way to get a card that looks different but wasn't difficult to make. I'm always on the lookout for cards that look good and have a unique element but that I could easily make to use for the holidays.

This card is made using the Pure Luxury All Spruced Up paper from Gina K Designs as its base and for the strip onto which the tree is stamped. The scalloped rectangle and circle are Pure Luxury Silver Lining (that is some gorgeous paper!). I stamped the tree and snowflakes with Colorbox Silver ink and the Magic of the Season circle is stamped with Tsukineko Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy ink.

The tree and snowflake stamps are from Theresa's wonderful Very Merry Christmas set. The Feel the Magic of the Season circle stamp comes from the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV Kit set called Holiday Greetings. I stamped the circle and punched it out with a 1¼" punch and then punched out the center snowflake. I stamped the circle again onto a scrap of the All Spruced Up paper using the silver ink and punched the center snowflake out with a 1/2" punch. I glued the greeting circle onto the silver scalloped circle and then adhered the snowflake dot in the center of the circle with a glue dot. I then popped the whole thing up with pop dots so the tree flap could fit under it. That way the circle acts as a closer to hold the card shut.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my card! Now for even more ideas with Theresa Momber's A Very Merry Christmas stamp set, visit her blog link below as well as the GinaK Idea Center here: A Very Merry Christmas. Theresa's tip sheet has been added to the Idea Center as a PDF so you can print out her tips and suggestions for a handy reference tool. We've also included her Copic coloring links too.

Here's all the Designer's Blog Links to check out tonight:

Theresa Momber
Carolyn King
Cathy Tidwell
Donna Baker
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Nina Bracket
Melanie Muenchinger

September's Center Stage Spotlight Team:

Giovana Smith
Janice Melton
Kay Simmons
Linda Payne
Lori McAree

and finally, Theresa's Guest Designers for A Very Merry Christmas:

Selma Stevenson
Sharri Seffens

As a bonus, two other stamping friends are playing along on tonight's hop. Check out the blogs and creations of:

Geri Utterback

Brenda Turner

Hip to Be Square Blog Hop Tonight

2009-10-12T22:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight is the start of a bunch of blog hops featuring the Gina K Designs stamp sets that were released on October 1. Tonight's hop features Melanie Muenchinger's great new set called "Hip to Be Square." This is a really versatile set for making winter/holiday cards, Halloween cards and even baby cards. I have to admit that I didn't order it right away when I saw it because somehow my brain wasn't coming up with a lot of creative ideas for using the set but after I saw some of the absolutely adorable cards some of the Gina K design team made, I knew I had to have it! Some of the snowmen cards were the cutest I've seen! I'll be using this set to make some of those for my holiday cards but tonight's card is actually showcasing the Halloween option in this set.

To make this card I used Pure Luxury Black Onyx paper as the base and layered the new Pure Luxury Fresh Asparagus and Pumpkin Spice on top of it. I stamped the "window" on Pure Luxury Ivory with Versamark and then embossed it with black embossing powder. I cut the two Halloween scenes from a piece of Debbie Mumm dp so they would fit into the windows. You can't see it very well in the photo but the dp is really sparkly! Love that! I trimmed a small piece off the bottom of each one and put them into the window below so it appeared that you are looking out a window with four panes at the scene outside (well, at least that is what it's supposed to look like!) I stamped the circle that comes in the set and then added the jack-o-lantern face in the circle with yellow to look like it is lit up. I colored the pumpkin with Copics and punched it out with a circle punch. Then I stamped the pumpkin top, cut it out, and glued it to the pumpkin. The greeting is stamped in Tuxedo Black ink from Memento. That ghost, candy and 'Happy Haunting' strip is also from the Debbie Mumm dp paper.

For even more ideas with Melanie Muenchinger's Hip to be Square stamp set, visit her blog link below as well as the GinaK Idea Center here: Hip to Square. Melanie's tip sheet has been added to the Idea Center as a PDF so you can print out her tips and suggestions for a handy reference tool!

Here's all the Designer's Blog Links to check out tonight:

Melanie Muenchinger
Carolyn King
Cathy Tidwell
Donna Baker
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Nina Bracket
Theresa Momber

September's Center Stage Spotlight Team:

Giovana Smith
Kay Simmons
Linda Payne

Melanie's Guest Designer for Hip to be Square:

Karen Knegten

and Special Guests:

Tina Gilliland

Selma Stevenson

Geri Utterback

Very Merry Christmas, Indeed!

2009-10-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here's the last of my cards from the big release party last night. What fun! Could you believe all the fabulous cards the design team put out during the party. My mouth was hanging open at some of them because they were so amazing! I hope you enjoyed the party as much as I did and I hope you'll enjoy these last few cards I made.There will be a few more later this month for some blog hops, so stay tuned!

I am a huge fan of the holidays, especially Christmas. When I was a little girl my very German grandmother dearly loved Christmas, especially decorating her tree with all of those old-fashioned glass ornaments made in Germany. My mother is a close second to her in Christmas decorating, baking, etc. so I think I know where my love of the holidays came from!

This new set by Theresa Momber, called A Very Merry Christmas, is perfect for someone like me who never gets tired of making Christmas-themed cards and gift items. I have a ton of Christmas/holiday stamps but this set goes to the top of my list of favorites. I have three cards to share that I made with this set and I have ideas for several more! I love it when a stamp set inspires so many card ideas!
This Bell Card is the first one I made with this set. I used the jingle bells and the holly swag stamps. I stamped the holly first, then masked it and stamped the jingle bells, and then colored them with Copics. I added a little bit of shimmer to the bells with the gold Spica pen. I stamped the greeting with versamark and then embossed it with gold embossing powder to make it coordinate with the gold paper I used. (I really need to get the gold Colorbox ink pad that was part of the great Gina K Designs September release. I don't have a gold pad so I have to emboss if I want anything done in gold.) I cut the greeting out with a nestabilities rectangle and did a scalloped rectangle in gold behind it. Then I used my slot punch so I could thread the ribbon through it and gave it a curling twist to go with the ribbon on the bells.

Here is the rest of the detailed information about the card.
Paper:
Base card is Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart
Gold is Pure Luxury Good as Gold
Green is Pure Luxury All Spruced Up
Ivory is Pure Luxury Ivory

Ribbon is from the new Gina K Designs Holiday Assortment (it also comes as part of the latest Stamp TV Kit)

My second card was made with the fireplace scene from this set. It looks so warm and cozy I just want to pull up a chair and enjoy the crackling fire! I stamped the image with Memento Rich Cocoa and then colored it with Koh-i-noor pencils and OMS. I decided to use the colored pencils on this instead of markers to give it a softer look. After I colored the image I sponged some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen around the image to soften it even more. If you like to color, you will love working with this stamp. There are lots of details and so many ways you could color it.

Here's the recipe for this one:
Paper:
Red: Pure Luxury Rocket Red
Brown: Pure Luxury Chocolate Kiss
Ivory Pure Luxury Ivory

Ink:
Image and sentiment stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa
Sentiment is edged with Vivid Dye Ink Brick Red

Ribbon and Brads: The ribbon is from the Gina K Designs Holiday Assortment (also available in the Stamp TV Kit); the brads are from the Stamp TV Kit

Nestabilities: Labels Two and Double-ended tags

And, finally, the Holly Card. This one features the holly swag from the set as its focal image. The base cardstock is Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart and the white layer is Pure Luxury base weight in Pure White, which is fabulous for embossing like I did here. I used the Cuttlebug 'Joy & Cheer' embossing folder but only embossed part way down the card so I could stamp that lovely sentiment below the focal image. I used the nestabilities scalloped and plain ovals to cut out the cranberry and white ovals. I also embossed the white oval and then used silver rub-on paste around the rim for a bit of added elegance. I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Copic markers. There is a tiny bit of Spica red on the berries to add some bling and the stars are colored with the silver Spica pen. To create the sentiment with the two words in silver I inked all of the other words with Memento Rhubarb Stalk and then did the other two words with Versamark. After I stamped it I very carefully poured silver embossing powder on those two words and heated them. I like how it turned out but would like some finer embossing powder if I were going to do it again. (Note to self -- look for fine silver embossing powder!) Once again, the ribbon is from the Gina K Holiday Assortment. The final touch on the card is the three self-adhesive rhinestones at the bottom, which are available from Gina K Designs.

Whew! That was a lot of ground to cover! I hope you enjoyed seeing these three cards as much as I enjoyed making them!

Don't You Love Snowmen??

2009-10-02T01:00:00.000-05:00

I have to admit that I am a "snowman-aholic!" I collect snowmen figures and snowmen stamps and other assorted snowmen things, but here is the other part of my confession, I really hate snow!! My husband cannot understand why I want so many snowmen when I could totally do without winter, cold and snow. I am a born and raised Wisconsinite but every year I dislike snow and cold even more. With all of that said, I have to say that I think the snowman in Carolyn King's latest stamp set, "Warm Winter Wishes," is just darling. He is the focal point of my card today and I really enjoyed working on this one just because he was so fun to play with.

This is a simple card with a few fun detailsto add some pizzaz.

Here is the recipe for this cute guy:

Paper:

Dark Blue: Pure Luxury - In the Navy
Gray: Pure Luxury - Moonlit Fog
White: Pure Luxury - Pure White (layering weight)

Inks:
Snowman: stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black; colored with Memento Markers: London Fog, Paris Dusk, and Lady Bug
Sentiments: Memento London Fog
Background: Cuttlebug "Snowflakes" folder
Ribbon & Brads: These are from the Gina K. Designs Summer Stamp TV Kit
Snow on ground and snowman's belly: Flower Soft - Polar White

I added crystal lacquer on the red heart to really make it stand out and a tiny bit on the berries on his hat. I added just a touch of "snow" on the ground and on his belly using Flower Soft's Polar White. If you haven't tried that stuff you really must -- it is so fun to play with!

This is a card that I could easily make in quantity for holiday cards this year, if I ever get around to getting started on that little project! LOL! I'm one of those people who waits until Thanksgiving and then realizes I'd better get a move on to get my cards done by the holidays! Some year I will have the time (and will get motivated) in July to start making my holiday cards but until that happens, I need cards like this snowman that are quick but fun to create.

Holiday Mix

2009-10-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

The brand new Stamp TV Kit is fabulous! It is filled with wonderful paper, ribbons and two stamp sets that will help you make a lot of holiday cards. I've had a great time trying out the stamps on various cards. I have two cards to share that were made with stamps from the two sets but they couldn't be more different!

The first one is simple but elegant card the would be an easy one to make in quantity and because it doesn't have a lot of thickness or embellishments, it would be easy to mail.

This card is made with the Pure Luxury All Spruced Up cardstock with a layer of Pure Luxury Ivory over it. I used the base weight of the Ivory because it takes the embossing so crisply. The embossing was done with the Cuttlebug "Holly" folder. The wreath was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black, then was cut out and colored with Copics. I wanted the ribbon/bow on the wreath to stand out more than it did from just stamping it, so I stamped it again with Memento Brilliance Ivy ink, cut it out and layered it over the top of the original bow. The sentiment was stamped in the same Ivy ink and then I added the green ribbon, which comes from the Gina K Designs Holiday Assortment.

The second card from this set is quite a departure from my usual style but I had such fun with it! This card is much more whimsical and, dare I say, a bit on the wild side?! I used the cute little gingerbread house and tree from the Holiday Mix set to create this and the sentiment from Holiday Greetings, both sets are in the new holiday Stamp TV Kit. It kind of reminds me of the Dr. Seuss Whoville in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. See what you think!

The base layer of this card is Pure Luxury Chocolate Kiss and layered on top of that are two pieces of designer paper from Cosmo Cricket. The red is Riding Hood Red from Stampin' Up and the white is Pure Luxury Pure White layering weight. I stamped the house and sentiment in Memento Rich Cocoa and the tree stamp was colored with Memento markers. There are some decorations on the tree stamp, which I did in red but then I went through and added some extra red baubles with a red Spica pen. I colored the house with Copic markers and then added some glitz with Spica pens (red and green on the gumdrops, lollipop and along the roof edge. Then I used my glue pen on the white roof shingles, edging on the house, chimney, and white parts of the lollipop so I could sprinkle those parts with white glitter. The ribbons are both from Gina K Designs and the buttons are Basic Grey Bittersweet.

As you can see, the new holiday Stamp TV Kit is really versatile in its mix of stamps, and these cards only show a few of the options. You will love this kit, not only the stamp sets but the gorgeous papers, ribbons and brads you will find in the box. At $49.95 I think the set is truly a bargain because you will be able to make a lot of cards and gifts with it this holiday season.

Postage Stamps in Gold

2009-10-01T21:00:00.001-05:00

The Special Delivery and Special Delivery Add-On sets were two I helped preview this past week on the preview blog hop. I shared one card on the blog hop but I made another that I am sharing with you tonight. I plan to make more cards like this one for my holiday greeting card list because it goes together quickly, looks good (if you don't mind me saying so! LOL!) and will mail easily because it doesn't have a lot of bulk to it.

The postage stamp block is from the Add-on set and as you can see, I stamped the whole block onto Pure Luxury Ivory base weight paper with Versamark and then embossed it with gold embossing powder. The red "Happy Holidays" circles are stamped with Vivid Dye Ink Brick Red and the snowflakes and cancellation lines are embossed in gold. I added red brads that came in the Stamp TV Kit in the middle of the the snowflakes for some extra interest. The ribbon is ivory with a line of gold thread on each side and can be found in the Holiday Assortment of ribbon from Gina K. The card itself is made from the gorgeous Pure Luxury Good as Gold and the red paper is Pure Luxury Rocket Red. The circle that is adhered to the ribbon is actually two layers but I don't know if you can see the tiny little gold scallops peeking out from behind the ivory circle. I used my Nestabilities petite scalloped circle to make that (the smallest one in the set) and the smallest plain circle for the ivory one.

Let me just take a moment to say that I think the Good as Gold paper is the prettiest gold paper I have every used and I love that it has some shimmer but is still easy to work with. Other shimmer papers I've tried in the past were very difficult to adhere things to. I would find that after a short time whatever was glued to it would fall off -- not so with this wonderful paper! If you like to work with metallic type paper, give this one a try. You won't be disappointed!

Are You Enjoying the Previews??

2009-09-30T13:35:00.003-05:00

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

2009-09-27T22:00:00.001-05:00

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

2009-09-22T21:22:00.007-05:00

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!

2009-09-22T14:17:00.003-05:00
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 . . .

2009-09-21T12:33:00.005-05:00

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?

2009-09-19T09:49:00.003-05:00

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

2009-09-17T07:47:00.016-05:00

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!

How can it be the end of July?

2009-07-24T13:19:00.011-05:00

I am sitting here wondering how it has gotten to be almost the end of July. Summers always go quickly but this one really seems to be flying. I think it is because we have had such a busy summer. We seem to have a lot going on this summer so my stamping has taken a back seat lately to all the other things that are going on. I wish I just had a couple of days that I could stamp and not be bothered with other things.

I have made a few cards that I haven't had time to post here so I thought I'd share a couple of them today. The first one is quick card I made to send to my 11 year old while he was at church camp. He loves that show on Animal Planet called Meerkat Manor, and while I'm not sure this little guy is a Meerkat, I thought it was close enough for a card for my son.

The base card is Pure Luxury Chocolate Kiss, with Pure Luxury Soft Sand as the bottom layer under the focal image. The corners are made from Soft Sand as well. The patterned piece is from Basic Grey's Granola paper pack. The Meerkat image (or is he a Prairie Dog?) is from the adorable stamp set Zoo Animals from Gina K. Designs. The sentiment is from that set as well but I only used part of it. The whole thing says, "Friends Like You Are One of a Kind" but since I was sending this to my son, the friends part wasn't appropriate but the "You are one of a kind" fits him perfectly. I stamped the image using black Memento ink onto Pure Luxury white paper that I cut out using my long scalloped rectangles nestie. I colored him with my Copics and then stamped the sentiment next to him in brown Memento ink. I used some distressing ink to age the paper a bit and make it less "white" since it seemed a bit blank without adding some color to it. The ribbons and brads are from Gina K. (I think I pulled them from one or two of the Stamp TV kits or class kits). My son really liked the card -- I'm not sure if that was because he liked the Meerkat or if it was just that he was happy to get mail at camp! LOL!
The next card is one I made for my closest friend's birthday. Unfortunately, we don't live near one another but we still remain very close. We have know one another for about 28 years! Wow! That can't be possible!

The base of this card is SU Elegant Eggplant and the DP is from Basic Grey's Wisteria pack. I stamped the door on Gina K. Design's Pure Luxury White layering weight paper and colored it with Copics. The stamp set and sentiment are from the stamp set called The Journey from Gina K. Designs. I love this set. It is so pretty and there are so many different types of cards that can be made with it. The ribbons are SU Elegant Eggplant and Mellow Moss, which coordinated perfectly with the Basic Grey paper. I cut out the tag with nesties and stamped the sentiment in Vivid Ink Tuscan Tan. A fairly simple card but I think it turned out quite pretty and was perfect for my friend's birthday.

Here's another birthday card made with the beautiful set Arranged with Love by Melanie Meunchinger for Gina K. Designs. This is a great set for making a quick card that is really pretty. I stamped the flowers on Pure Luxury white with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. I used the Pure Luxury Rocket Red for the base of the card and Stampin' Up Yo-Yo Yellow as a layer under the focal image. I stamped Happy Birthday with Vivid Ink-Brick Red. After I put it all together, I added the stick on rhinestones in the corners and colored them red with a Copic. Quick and easy but a pretty bouquet of flowers to brighten someone's day.
Finally, here is the most recent card I made. This was to thank some friends for a lovely weekend at their lake home in northern Wisconsin. I've been wanting to try this technique for quite a while and decided this would be the perfect card for it. I used a Cuttlebug folder on the card front but left a blank circle to stamp the wreath into. I learned this technique from Cathy/Catdidit. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy but it took me a few tries to actually get a blank circle. If I had followed her 'sandwich' recipe for the Cuttlebug from the start, it wouldn't have taken so long!
I stamped the wreath with Memento tuxedo black and colored it with my Memento markers. The DP is from Basic Grey's Sultry pack and the ribbon is Kiwi Kiss from Stampin' Up. The layer under the DP is also Kiwi Kiss from SU. I covered the whole circle with Crystal Lacquer just to make it pop a bit more.

That's all the cards for now! I just learned I'm going to need a sympathy card to send to a long time family friend who just lost her daughter to cancer. So very sad. Off to my craft room to work on that card.
Have a wonderful summer evening!

I'm Baaack!

2009-07-07T09:04:00.008-05:00
I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last posted! Where does the time go? Getting the school year finished and moving on to all of our summer activities has kept me busy and without much time to make cards. I hate that! I really miss having my creative time. We made our annual trip to Florida last week (June 29-July3) and the much anticipated fun in the sun did not happen. It rained the entire week, and I don't mean just sprinkles. One of the days we were there Tampa broke their one-day rainfall record which was set back in 1953 or something like that! We have been going to Florida for a week in June for years and have never experienced weather like that. The boys were not too happy, although they did manage to get in a little bit of time in the ocean on a couple of the days. The rainy, stormy weather stirred up some great waves so they had a blast playing in those between the rain storms. Luckily I had taken some pre-stamped images and my watercolor supplies (Peerless watercolors, watercolor pencils and some of my Twinkling H2Os) so I had fun painting up some images that I can use on cards at some point. I had forgotten how much I enjoy using watercolors. My markers have taken over my cards, especially my Copics, so I don't use watercolors much. I think I might start using them more now that I have reminded myself of how much I like them!

Here is a card I made last night to send to a friend whose birthday is tomorrow. (Lucky for me she lives in town so she will get it by tomorrow!) The paper I used on this card is all from Stampin' Up. The base of the card is Close to Cocoa. The DP is from Stampin' Up and was one they discontinued recently; I don't recall the name of it right now. The pink label is SU Pirouette Pink from last year's In Color line and the red piece under the scallops is Riding Hood Red from SU's In Colors. The yummy cake stamp, candle and sentiment are all from the new 100% Sweet set by Rupa Shevde for Gina K. Designs. Love that set! There are so many yummy treats to stamp. A word of caution with that set -- don't stamp with it when you are hungry! LOL!

Do you see those little rhinestones on the four corners of the label? Those are the new rhinestones from Gina K Designs. I colored them with my Copic marker to make them that reddish-pink color so they would coordinate with the card. It works like a charm to color them with your Copics; no smearing or color coming off on your hands. How great is that??
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Celebrate Summer

2009-06-09T08:57:00.007-05:00
A quick card I made to give to one of the other teachers at my son's school. This was a simple card to make but I enjoyed pulling out my watercolors and working with them again. It has been a long time since I've used my Peerless Watercolors and my Twinkling H2Os. I've gotten so focused on my markers in the past months that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy using watercolors. I am a bit out of practice with them, however, so it took me longer to paint this little picture than I expected. Here's the details.

The base card is Yo-Yo Yellow from Stampin' Up and the blue circle is Brilliant Blue from SU. I used watercolor paper for the main focal piece and the patterned paper is from Basic Grey's Lime Rickey paper collection. (If you haven't seen that collection, check it out. The papers are fun and summery!) The main image is from the Gina K. Designs set, "You Are My Sunshine" and the sentiment is from "Lazy Days of Summer" from Gina K. Designs.

** I changed out the photo to this one which is much better than the photo I originally posted. I was finally able to get outside to take this photo. We've had so much rainy, gloomy weather that it has been hard to find a time to take photos outside and since I don't own an OTT light, I can't get very good photos inside.

Have a wonderful, stamping day!

Summertime Card

2009-06-04T21:54:00.004-05:00
I made this card last night for my son's teacher. The last day of school is next week so I wanted to have something to give her on the last day. I really enjoyed making this card. It is based on the sketch challenge for this week over at Stamp TV. The sketch was for a longer card, which I'd like to try making but I didn't have envelopes that size so I had to go back to my good ol' standard size card! Making and coloring those little square pictures was a lot of fun -- I think I still have my childhood coloring passion! I knew all that coloring as a child would come in handy some day! LOL!

Here's the details on the card:
Base card is Pure Luxury In the Navy from Gina K. designs. The strip of paper with the stars is an old piece of 12 x12 paper I picked up from a local scrapbook store. I had intended to use it on scrapbook pages for my son (who is now 11) because he had an adorable baby outfit that was navy with stars! Since I still have the paper, you can imagine how far I have gotten with that scrapbook! Terrible mother, I know!
The red squares and red scallop are also Gina K. Pure Luxury Rocket Red (which is a gorgeous red BTW, although my photo doesn't do it justice)
The ribbon is from the new Stamp TV kit, "Eclectic Summer" and the three images are from the One Free with Three set, "Lazy Days of Summer" from Gina K., which I colored with my Copics. The sentiment is from the Gina K. set called You Are My Sunshine and it is stamped with Vivid Dye Ink - Inky Blue that matches the "In the Navy" paper.

Here's hoping that summer has arrived wherever you live! Can you believe it is June?! Where does time go?
Have a wonderful weekend, my stamping friends!

Anniversary Card

2009-06-03T07:58:00.005-05:00
Today I'm sharing a card I made for my parents. They are celebrating their 61st wedding anniversary on June 5th. Can you believe that?! 61 years they have been together! I think that is amazing. Not many people see such milestones in their marriages anymore so I'm really proud of them. The cool thing is that they are still happy together and enjoy doing things together.

The card base is Gina K Pure Luxury Ivory base weight and the other small pieces of ivory are the Gina K Pure Luxury layering weight. That gorgeous designer paper is from the digital paper pack designed by Emily Giovanni for Gina K called Rich and Shabby. The red piece in the center is from my scraps but I think it is a piece of Bazzill paper. The red and ivory focal image pieces were cut out using the Labels 1 nesties. That beautiful wreath stamp is from Rupa Shevda's latest creation for Gina K. called With This Ring. It is such a lovely set; not only the images but the sentiments as well. By the way, the sentiment is from the same set as are the two I used inside (sorry I didn't take a picture of the inside to share). I colored the wreath with my new Memento markers. Yes - I finally broke down and bought some of the Memento markers. Since I have the dew drops, I wanted markers to match. I wasn't going to do it but when I couldn't get my SU markers to match, I just 'had' to buy some of the Mementos!
The strip along the bottom was punched on both sides with the scalloped edge punch from Stampin' Up and then pierced in each scallop. I used my Metallic Rub-on paste on the scallops to make it blend with the dp and then tied the ribbon around it. The ribbon is the Riding Hood Red 3/8" taffeta ribbon from Stampin' Up. If you like it, hurry on over to your favorite SU demo or to the SU website. It is part of their In Colors line and they are closing out all of those items in preparation for their new catalog. The ribbon is 25% off right now along with a number of other items.

OK - raise your hands. How many of you went crazy on your order of the new sets and accessories from Gina K.'s latest release?? I wanted everything and while I didn't buy quite everything, I came close! My order came on Monday and the only thing I've been able to play with so far is the set I used for today's card. I can't wait to have some time to cut up the other sets I ordered and make some cards. There are so many fun, summery images that will make really great cards for summer birthdays, teacher end-of-the year cards, etc. The two new Pure Luxury paper colors and the ribbons that go with them are gorgeous. I'm getting excited about making some cards just talking about it! Gosh, I must be coming down with something and probably need to stay home from work so I can stamp . . . I mean recover. LOL! :)

Have a good day everyone!

No Cards Tonight

2009-05-26T19:50:00.008-05:00
I don't have any of my own cards to share tonight but I just have to say that I have seen some really awesome cards in the Gina K. May release sneak peeks. Have you seen some of those gorgeous cards over at Stamp TV?! I am dying to get my hands on that new set by Rupa Shevda with the beautiful cake! Such talented women!

I also have to mention that Melanie Muenchinger is quite a star in the new issue of CardMaker magazine. She has at least four cards featured in the July issue. If you don't subscribe, you can get your paper or digital subscription by going here. Check out her adorable giraffe card -- his head turns! Way to go, Mel! And, along with Melanie, there are two cards by Carolyn "Cammie" King. Cammie's holiday card is beautiful! You guys rock!

Despite the fact that I didn't get one single bit of stamping done during the long holiday weekend, I must say I did have a great weekend. My husband and I went on a mini-vacation to New York City minus children. We had such a fun time and what a great way to celebrate/forget about having another birthday. We saw two shows on Broadway -- Billy Elliot (you might remember the movie from a few years back about a young boy from a mining town who wanted to learn to dance) and God of Carnage, which stars James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano for all you Sopranos fans out there), Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels, and Marcia Gay Harden. Very different shows but both were wonderful. The young boy who danced as Billy Elliot was good beyond belief. How someone so young gets so good at something is really amazing. Here are a couple of photos from our trip. They probably are not the best photos because I took them with my phone camera. I had my good Nikon along on the trip but didn't have it with me when we went to the shows. They don't allow photos to be taken inside the theaters so I didn't think it made much sense to haul it with me. They are serious about the photo taking in the theaters; I saw one person get yelled at for taking a photo of her group before the show even started! I got yelled at by an usher at Carnegie Hall last year when my son's high school choir was singing there and I snapped a photo of the empty stage before the performance. Yikes! Union rules or something, I guess.

The marquee for Billy Elliot

The marquee for God of Carnage

James Gandolfini and Hope Davis signing autographs outside the theater after the play.
Hope you are having a wonderful day! I promise to be back with card talk soon!

Happy Trails

2009-05-20T22:48:00.007-05:00
Where does the time go?? Here it is, a week since I last posted. Sigh! I guess I'm not a very good blogger or maybe it is just that I'm too busy at this time of year with all of the end of the school year things going on. I guess that is the price we pay for having active kids but I'm so glad my boys are involved in positive, creative activities. As busy as it gets sometimes, I know I'm going to miss it when my older son graduates next year and is "out of the nest."

I made some time tonight to make a card for a guy in our office who is leaving to pursue other things. Oh, to be young again . . . I decided to make use of my Gina K. Out West set, which was designed by Theresa Momber. I haven't played with it yet despite the fact that I've had it for quite a while. This seemed like the perfect time to pull it out and play since it seems to work well for a male card and for someone who is heading off to new things. I was inspired by a beautiful card created by Theresa that you can see by clicking here.
This card was really a lot of fun to make. I incorporated a couple of fun techniques, including the foil embossing technique that was featured on Stamp TV recently. I used my paisley Cuttlebug folder on the foil and then went over the embossed image with some silver metallic rub-on paste. I have a real love/hate relationship with that paste! It makes things look so cool but I inevitably end up with it everywhere because it is hard to clean off your fingers and every time you touch something to which it has been applied, it comes off on your fingers again! (If anyone has tips for how to keep the paste for coming back off onto your fingers, I'd love to hear them!)
I also used the bandana technique on the small red square behind the main focal image. Using various stamps from several stamp sets (a paisley stamp, swirl, circle and circle flower) I randomly stamped them in black ink on the red paper. Then I used my white gel pen to outline, fill in and make dots until it looked like one of those red bandana handkerchiefs. Easy to do and it makes a really fun background paper, especially with this set.
The red card base is made from Stampin' Up Real Red paper as is the bandana paper. The black is Pure Luxury Black Onyx from Gina K. and the ivory paper on the front is also Gina K. Pure Luxury.
I stamped the images and sentiment with black memento ink and colored them with Copics. It is hard to tell in the photo but the cowboy hat was cut out and popped up with a Stampin' Up dimensional. I used the silver rub-on paste around the edges of the ivory paper to help it blend with the rest of the card a bit better. The "lasso" is made from some twine and the little metal tag embellishment is from a Stampin' Up Hodgepodge Hardware kit (I think it is one that is retired).
So, there you have it! A fun, fairly simple card that is perfect for a guy, or for anyone who likes cowboys, the west, etc. I'm really looking forward to playing with this set some more and to trying the foil embossing on other types of cards. My eleven year old son came into my craft room and saw what I had done with the foil and had to try it with some of my other Cuttlebug folders. You know it has to be a pretty cool technique when an eleven year old boy wants to play with it!! LOL! Some of them turned out really cool so I can't wait to incorporate them into my cards.

I hope you are having a beautiful, sunny day today like we are here in southern Wisconsin. Spring/summer has finally arrived and I am loving it! Too bad I have to be at work today. Oh, well, tomorrow morning my hubby and I leave for a long weekend in New York City for my birthday. Woo-hoo! I can't wait! Four days of being grown ups without kids tagging along.
Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!