Day 1 "Lovely Labels" and "Buds and Vases"

Welcome to September's first night of Gina K Designs sneak peeks! I know I always say I'm excited (that's just how I am about stamps), but tonight I am extra super excited because my newest set "Buds and Vases" is a must have companion to one of your favorite floral sets: "A Year of Flowers"! Squeeeeeeeeal!!! This set features *new* flowers drawn in the same style, grouped together and alone for more versatility (and to minimize the need to mask!) plus beautiful containers that will allow you to mix and match the flowers in both sets, arranging them to your heart's content! You simply won't find container stamps or vase die cuts or punches more perfectly suited for the style and scale of the images in "A Year of Flowers" anywhere else! "A Year of Flowers" has almost one THOUSAND samples in the STV gallery, and now with a matching set with vase options, you will never run out of inspiration or design possibilities! :)

This first sample uses the glass vase, colored with pale aqua Copics, a cluster of stems(no masking!) and a cluster of flowers. I made a little tag out of one of the greetings and tied it around the top of the vase with some raffia. Special delivery, indeed! DP is Basic Grey Lemonade, stamped with "In Stitches" and layered onto Innocent Pink. Gingham and button are also Pure Luxury.

Now, there are SO many ways to alter the different containers so will you have even more than originally meet the eye when you see the whole set Thursday night after our party! Here I used the same vase, but this time I inked up just the outside of the image (omitting the middle which makes it look clear) and stamped it onto a Basic Grey Junebug print. Now it looks like a beautiful painted ceramic vase!

I cut a slit following the line near the top with my craft knife and slid my stamped stems inside. Flowers are colored all over first with Cadmium Yellow and outlined with Strong Red. Go back over the blend these areas with the Cadmium Yellow. Leaves are colored first Pea Green and darkened with Moss. (These blossoms also look fabulous without any stems, just trailing out of the tops of a pot!) Although I don't have step by step pics today, I will doing a lot more coloring tutorials in the months to come for these new vases and flowers, plus more tips and tricks to the alter the containers, so be sure to subscribe or follow my blog so you don't miss a post! :)

Base is Red Hot and gingham and button are Pure Luxury.

Now to show how well these containers work with the "A Year of Flowers" blooms, I created a Christmas card, stamping and masking three poinsettias from that set, cut them out, and then stamped the pot from"Buds and Vases" onto a piece of distressed looking solid colored DP from the Basic Grey Lemonade pack, those solids are perfect for old, shabby chic pots! Adhere the flowers overlapping the top of the pot and then trace the underside of the leaves and one side of the pot with a slightly darker marker to give it dimension and shadows. Easy peasy! Poinsettias are colored with Copics and traced with a Stardust pen.
The label is from Nina Brackett's new "Lovely Labels 2", images that custom fit Nestabilities Labels 14, 15 and 16 (more about her new set in a minute!) stamped in cranberry ink on White and colored with a pink Copic for contrast in the middle. Last I matted these onto Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses DP and Cranberry Tart Pure Luxury and added some buttons and lace using glue dots.

This next card in Pure Luxury Red Hot, White and Black Onyx also uses Nina's "Lovely Labels 2", her second edition of beautiful labels and greetings designed to fit some of Spellbinders hottest new dies! First I stamped the label in Vivid Brick and cut it out. Although I do plan to get each of these new die sets, I want you to know if that is not in the budget I found these shapes with their curves are very easy to free cut just following the outside or leaving a small border, if its not perfectly 1/8" around you won't notice like you would trying to cut out a perfectly symmetrical circle, KWIM? Just sayin', if you start out with 3, 2,1 or none of those dies at all you can still go to town creating immediately with all the label images in the set! (but, as you know, dies make it soooo much easier!)

I added one of her sentiments and embellished it with this popped up spray of blooms, also from "Buds and Vases". These flowers are also one image, so no masking! Don't they complement the floral pattern on the label beautifully? Card is finished with some 5/8" gingham and a Pure Luxury red button.

Now I wasn't planning on these originally for the preview, but your many comments about the jar snippet (yup, I drew it and it's in this new set!) on Gina's blog last week inspired me to go to stamp up several jars and get busy filling with them different Gina K Designs sets: shells, strawberries, and caterpillars, oh my! A few were possibilities I hadn't really been thinking about yet, flowers came first LOL! I haven't had a chance to make them into cards with all the preview we are busy preparing for you this week, but you can see the style and scale of the jar is just as appropriate for flowers as it for sets like "Gifts from the Sea", "Have a Cookie", "A Year of Leaves", Gina's strawberries from "Enjoy the Sunshine ", Tami's "Happy Hearts", and I know many, many more! how's that for a versatile stamp? And, you can also see how you can color the top to make it look like it has a lid, I love that option!

Want to win "Buds and Vases"? Leave me a comment below telling me which of the samples above is above is your favorite or what you would do with this set first!

Want TWO chances? Help me spread the word, because there are so many people out there who own the first set that will want the second! After leaving a comment below, copy and post your favorite sample of mine from above onto your blog, along with the following info and a link back to this preview post:

"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!"

Then, come back here and leave a second comment with a link to your post so I know you did so! Thanks in advance for getting the word out to your readers (friends don't let friends miss out on stamps! ;) I will choose a winner from all the comments and post it here Thursday before the party!

For more samples with tonight's new stamp sets, please visit these participating designer's blog links:

• GinaK




• Nina *Illustrator of Lovely Labels 2*
  



• Melanie *Illustrator of Buds and Vases* (you are here!)
  



• Jessica




• Theresa




• Tami




• Cathy




• Lee




• Lynn




• Kurtis

Thank you for visiting me today, more previews tomorrow!