Stamp TV CSS Sketch Hop

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

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!

CSS October 28 Sketch Hop

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!

Stamp TV Kits Blog Hop

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.

CSS Sketch Blog Hop

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!

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!

Postage Stamps in Gold

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!

Summertime Card

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!