Inspiration Hop, Day 1: "Holiday Basket" and "Under the Weather"

Welcome to day 1 of our Inspiration Hop with the new sets, I hope you had a GREAT time at the release party last night! I am so excited to tell you about my new "Holiday Basket" set! This Longaberger style basket, flower bunches and petite version of three of the flowers and leaf elements from the "A Year of Flowers" set coordinate with "Spring Basket", "Basket Buddies" and "Basket Blessings", you will love mixing all these images! Of course all these new images will fit in the other basket and vice versa. Additionally, these work beautifully with all my other hand drawn nature sets.
The first card I am sharing today uses the basket and bunch of roses. First I stamped the basket, covered it with a mask, and then stamped the roses in Memento Rich Cocoa. Remove the mask and color! three are SO many ways to color this basket, here I created a two tone look to emphasize the warp and weft of the weave (I will be back with step by step Copic photos of how I colored it after our hops, still need to upload the photos) My inspiration was this gorgeous DP from the Basic Grey Curio pack (I tore the edge to add some texture like the curling rose petals). Stamp the handle twice, cut out and attach with brads. Edges are sponged with Antique Linen, Tattered Rose and Vintage Photo Distressing Inks. Cardstock is Pure Luxury White, Ivory, and Black Onyx.
For my next card I wanted to do a quicker one with just two layers and no basket. The flower bunches alone look beautiful inside an embossed frame or die cut. When you stamp or emboss one of the long greetings included in the set underneath it fills up the whole space so elegantly! That's all you need! :)
I traced the embossed border with a Sakura Stardust pen as tracing a few parts of the image to the flowers and added a 3 mm pearl to the center of each.

Finally I have the card I shared yesterday, I realized I didn't give you details about how I made it! Originally I colored the basket and flowers, but then decided I really wanted that pumpkin cardstock I used on the die cut mat to "pop", so I paper pieced over it, stamping it in brown and no shading. I think it looks really rich without any coloring! Flowers and handles are popped up for dimension.
This is a straight greeting, but is long and narrow enough to curve it on the block, isn't that pretty going around the flowers? (When I was bending it, I was thinking I would use it to sort of "suggest" a curved handle, but then I really wanted to use the handles I drew so I added those anyway, hee hee! I'll do another card like that, okay?) Cardstock is Pure Luxury White, Pumpkin Spice, Chocolate Brown, Fresh Asparagus and Wild Dandelion. Come on fall colors, I am so ready for you!) I used my new Classic Petal Edgeabilities for the side which I thought went perfectly with the petals and leave in this image. Tip: Cut a skinny strip of the green cardstock to place behind the dots to add color to your die cut border. This card measures 5 1/2" x 5 1/2". The basket and whatever it's holding is a large image, it works well on A2 cards, but the scale is also lovely for bigger cards like these, I need to make them more often...


Next we have "Under the Weather" by Rupa Shevde, an adorable set of images and greetings perfect for sending get well wishes! I used this little teddy with his arm in a sling and paper pieced his bandages with Echo Park "Walk in the Park" DP.
I added just a touch of shading with Copics B00, B000 and R83 for the ears. I used some scraps of the polka dot paper to make my own "bandage" since I didn't have any coordinating ribbon, and free cut a little heart from Lipstick Red Pure Luxury CS to match the mat. I added a button and hemp (see it, XO?? get it?) and a little heart brad secures the sentiment pennant. Card base is Pure Luxury Bubblegum Pink.

Enjoy hopping with the rest of the team, and don't forget to leave comments all along the way for chances to win a free set of your choice from Gina K Designs, the more comments you leave the more chances you have to win!

• Gina K
• Melanie Muenchinger-illustrator Holiday Basket (thanks for visiting!!)
  
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Theresa Momber