CSS Sketch Challenge Hop

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

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

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

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

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!

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:

Jennie Harper

Lori McAree

Karen Knegten

Melissa Cash

Miesje Flach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

CSS Alumni Inspiration Blog Hop

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

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

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

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

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

Gina K Design Team Challenge

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

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

Supplies used for this card include:

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

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

Another CSS Alumni Blog Hop

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

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

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

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

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

Center Stage Design Team Alumni Blog Hop

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

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

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:

• Jessica Fick
• Nina Brackett
• Theresa Momber
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Tami Mayberry
• Cathy Tidwell
• Lee Murphy
• Donna Baker
• Kurtis Amundson
• Carolyn King
• Emily Giovanni
• Erika Martin

Botanicals Blog Hop

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:

• Jessica Fick
• Suzanne Dean
• Colleen Schaan
• Bev Gerard
• Jennie Harper
• Sharri Seffens
• Donna Baker
• Lee Murphy
• Nina Brackett
• Erika Martin
• Brenda Turner
• Giovana Smith
• Tina Gilliland
• Carla Suto
• Linda Payne
• Kay Simmons
• Vicki Dutcher
• Karen Knegten

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

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

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

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

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!)

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 #1

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!)

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!