Color Combo Hop

It's time for the second Stamp TV Center Stage hop for June. We are doing a color combo challenge this time using red, white and blue. Did you see what Linda made with this color combo? If you didn't stop at her blog before coming here, you can jump back to Stamp TV and start the hop at the beginning.

I decided to make a fun, bright card with this color combo. Here it is!

This was a fairly quick card to put together using the Gina K Designs Poster Board Sentiments. I used the banner, the frame and one of the sentiments from the set. I stamped the banner in Gina K Designs Red Hot and Blue Raspberry inks and the sentiment in Gina K Black Onyx ink. (The bottom banner is in blue raspberry but the lighting made it look lighter!) The card stock is Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Blue Raspberry and White Layering Weight. The brads were in my stash -- I think they were Stampin' Up.

I hope you enjoyed my red, white and blue card. Now it is time to hop along and get inspired by Karen's fabulous creation, but before you go be sure to leave a comment here and on each blog you visit because we will choose a random comment and that stamper will win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! Look for the announcement on Tuesday, June 25.

CSS Inspiration Hop

It is time for another Center Stage Alumni hop; this time it's an inspiration hop, and I'm sure you will find some inspiration along the way. If you arrived here from Joy's beautiful blog, you are on the right track. If you just happened by and would like to start the hop at the beginning head back over to Stamp TV where you will find a list of all of the participants.

Here is the piece we were challenged by Vicki to use for inspiration.

Here is the card I was inspired to make. The colors are the thing that really jumped out at me as well as all the texture.

I used Gina K Designs Pure Luxury papers in Fresh Asparagus, Sweet Corn, Turquoise Sea, Blue Denim, and White. The stamps are from the Gina K Designs sets Bold Blooms and Stately Flowers 1

I used Gina K Turquoise Sea, Fresh Asparagus, and Black Onyx inks. The ribbon and brads are from my stash.

Now head on over to Karen's place to see what she was inspired to create! Thanks for stopping by!

CSS Color Challenge Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stamp TV CSS blog hop for May. If you came here from Linda's fabulous blog, you are on the right track. If you didn't and would like to start from the beginning of the hop, head back over to Stamp TV where you will find the complete list of blogs on the hop.

Our hop for May is a color challenge. Miesje challenged us to make a non-Christmas card that is red and green with a neutral color (black, white or tan). This was a fun challenge, and I got to make a card with one of my favorite summer fruits . . . can you guess which one? Here it is!

Yum! I love juicy, sweet strawberries, so I always enjoy making cards with this Gina K Designs stamp set created by Theresa Momber called Sweet Strawberries. I stamped the large strawberry plant onto the white panel and colored it with Copics. Then I stamped the small plant onto a piece of white scrap paper, colored it and cut it out. I glued it onto the main panel just to give a bit more depth and the feel of  a patch of strawberries. All of the paper used on the card is from Gina K Designs Pure Luxury line: Fresh Asparagus, Red Hot, and White Layering Weight. The patterned paper is the Gina K Berries and Vines paper. The greeting is stamped with Gina K Designs Red Hot Ink and the strawberries were stamped with Gina K Black Onyx.  The buttons and ribbon were from my stash.

Be sure to leave a comment here and on each of the blogs as you go because we will choose a random comment and that stamper will win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! Look for the announcement on Tuesday, May 28.

Now head on over to Joy's blog to see the gorgeous creation she has for you!

Card and Flower Serendipity

Isn't if curious how things work sometimes in our lives? I had one of those serendipitous things happen today that was really just a small thing, but it made me smile.

Last night I made this card for my mom for Mother's Day. I used the Wood Violet from the beautiful Stately Flowers 1 set by Melanie Muenchinger at Gina K Designs to make the card. The Wood Violet is the Wisconsin state flower so it seemed fitting to use it for my mother's card since she has lived her whole life in Wisconsin.

All materials used for the card are from Gina K Designs with the exception of the Copic markers used to color the flowers. Cardstock is Pure Luxury heavy base weight white, layering weight white, wild lilac and lovely lavender. The sentiment is from the GKD set "Notes to Mom."

Now for the serendipitous part . . . this afternoon I was in our backyard doing some spring clean up and as I raked some leaves away from the rock wall, look what I found!

This is a Wood Violet! This is the only one that has deep purple flowers on it. All the rest of the plants growing in our yard have white flowers with a purple center, but this one that was buried under a pile of leaves has the beautiful purple flowers just like the ones on my card (although I didn't color them quite as dark as the real thing. Maybe if I had seen this one first . . .)

That was my fun bit of serendipity for today! I hope you are finding things that make you smile on these lovely spring days. Enjoy!

CSS Spring Has Sprung Hop

Spring has sprung -- at least according the calendar! I'm not sure that is true here where I live! Spring is definitely in the air for our blog hop today. Our challenge was to make cards that showed signs of spring. If you came to my blog by way of Karen's, you've already seen some fun spring-themed cards. If you arrived here by some other path and want to start the hop from the beginning, head back over to  Stamp TV for a full list of participants in the hop.

Here is my spring card. I took inspiration from this video by Gina K. I loved how she created her background for the card in this video, so I made a similar one for my card and then carried it over onto the focal image panel as well.

I used Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Turquoise Sea card stock for the base. I layered that with PL Black Onyx and White Layering weight on which I stamped the background. The focal panel is Black Onyx, Wild Dandelion and White Layering weight. I stamped the background with Gina K Ocean Mist and Fresh Asparagus ink and Memento Dandelion and Tangelo. I used the same inks on the focal image panel. I used the "rock and roll" technique on the dragonflies by stamping first into ocean mist ink and then rolling the stamp edges in fresh asparagus to get the two toned dragonfly. I added a piece of turquoise sea ribbon (from the Spring Parade Stamp TV kit) and some dots in the center of the flowers with a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen.

Now head on over to see what is waiting for you over at Lori's blog and think spring!

CSS Sketch Blog Hop

It is CSS blog hop time again and this time it is a sketch hop! I hope you came here from Linda's blog, but if you didn't and would like to see what you missed earlier in the hop just head back over to Stamp TV to find the full list of blog hop participants.

This is the sketch Brenda created and challenged us to use as the inspiration for our cards.

Here's what I was inspired to created from this sketch.

I'm (im)patiently waiting for Spring to arrive here in Wisconsin, so I had to do something that was very spring-like for my first card. These colors just shout warm weather to me as does this "Day at the Park Diva" from the Diva Collection at Gina K Designs.  I used GKD Pure Luxury card stock in Bubblegum Pink, Key Lime, and Wild Dandelion. The patterned paper is from the GKD patterned paper pack "Petals and Wings." I stamped the Diva, her kite and the sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black and the clouds in Memento Grey Flannel. Colored areas were done with Copics. The ribbon, buttons and brads are all from my stash. Just a note: the sheer ribbon and bow are actually lime green like the paper, but came out looking yellow in the photo. :(

Here's the second card I made using the new "Spring Parade" Stamp TV Kit. Can I just say that I love, love this kit?? Love the colors, the stamps, the patterned paper . . . well, OK, everything in it is fabulous!

This card is made using the Gina K Pure Luxury card stocks Tomato Soup and Turquoise Sea. The patterned paper is from the Spring Parade pack. The cute birdie, the flowers and cloud are all stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. I don't have a Silhouette so I hand cut the cloud and raindrops and popped them up with pop dots. The sheer ribbon is from the STV kit also. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my cards. Make sure to leave a comment here and on all the blogs as you go along because we will choose a random comment and that stamper will win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! Look for the announcement of the winner on Tuesday, April 16. Now hop on over to see what Joy has waiting for you. 

CSS Simplicity Sparkles Blog Hop

Today is another Stamp TV CSS Alumni hop. This one features a challenge from Carolina to make CAS cards that sparkle and shine. I'll be the first to admit that CAS cards are always a challenge for me. I find it hard to keep them simple because I always think they need something else, so it will be fun to see what everyone had created for this hop!

If you came here from Karen's blog, you are on the right path. If you didn't and want to start at the beginning of the hop, go back to Stamp TV to find the whole list.

Here is my sparkly CAS card.

I used the "Sweet Tweets" stamp set from Gina K Designs for this card. The card base is Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Powder Blue that was embossed with a Sizzix Texturz plate. The orange layer is from the Gina K Designs Calypso card stock collection and the white is GKD Pure Luxury white. I stamped the cupcake with Memento Tuxedo Black and the greeting with Gina K Designs Powder Blue ink. I colored the candle and the blue trim on the cupcake with Copics. Then I used a glue pen to color in the hearts, the dots and trim on the frosting and used orange and white glitter to make them sparkle. I added some tiny rhinestones below the greeting that I colored with the orange and blue Copics. A quick, simple birthday card that has a bit of pizzazz from the sparkly glitter.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to leave a comment at each stop along the blog hop because we will choose a random comment and that person will win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! Look for the announcement on Tuesday, April 2. Now head on over to see what the very talented Linda has created for you today.