Inspiration Hop, Day 2: "Bring the Bling", "Warm with Love", "Make a Splash"!

Welcome to Day 2 of our Gina K Designs March Inspiration hop, I hope you had a fantastic weekend (and that your new stamps will be arriving any day now LOL!) We have three sets to show today, the first is my "Bring the Bling" set. No need to keep buying more packs of adhesive pearl or rhinestone embellishments and then hoarding your favorites, this set does all that and so much MORE! (You can scroll down to see yesterday's post for my tip sheet on the many ways you can use this bling.) I shared several samples with it at the release party, but wanted to show you a very different look today from what I'd shown previously. I was glad Gina mentioned piercing in her release party video, this card uses piercing, faux stitching AND embossing, the result I think looks like I stitched clear sequins onto my mat! Let me show you what I did.

First I stamped the one of the large flowers in Versamark on my Innocent Pink mat. This rounder flower is a little more "cutesy" than the pointy petal flower. Then I stamped the smaller version of the flower inside, see how perfectly it nests? Then, I stamped the large bling flourish in the open areas, turning the stamps as I went. You could leave it like this, but I'm still going! :)

Next, put a mouse pad under it and pierce into the highlight in the center of each dot. It's okay if it's not exact, but having that little circle inside really takes out a LOT of guesswork and makes the piercing go MUCH faster !

Then take a brown fine tip marker and connect the dots, the tracing when the dots are pre-pierced goes so fast, this is the only stitching I ever intend to do on my cards! ;)

Then I added clear embossing powder over the whole thing (yes, it WILL still stick to your Versamark even after you've pierced and faux stitched!) and then heat set. Be sure to emboss AFTER drawing on your stitches or the embossing will resist your marker and you won't be able to make the connections. I'm holding it an angle so you can hopefully see the shine and dimension. (I didn't bother to pierce or stitch the tinier areas, these will mostly be covered by buttons and the tag.)

Last I adhered some buttons in to the flowers centers and on the vine, then added a beaded oval I'd sponged with pink and a greeting from the "Springtime Silhouettes" Stamp TV kit. I created the layer flowers the same way I did my mat above and then cut around the outside and popped up over the oval. Originally I intended for this to be a baby card, the faux stitched mat looked like beautiful girly quilting, but since I don't know anyone due with a girl, I turned it into a thank you! :) An extra step you could take before adding the button embellishments to take the card up another notch would be to emboss it with a flowery or swirly Cuttlebug folder...

Hope this card makes you see beyond the sparkly bling possibilities for this set! It's quickly becoming one of my favorites I've released!

The next set we are sharing today is Theresa Momber's "Warm with Love", filled with illustrations and sentiments in Theresa's signature style you know and love! Who can resist a beautiful swan? A picture of grace and serenity.... I know you'll see lots of beautiful stamped and sponged scenes today, so I decided to play with color and the new StampTV kit papers for a more whimsical look. Cardstock is Pure Luxury White, Lovely Lavender and Black Onyx, also found in the kit.
I shaded the swan with BV31 and BV23 to blend with the lavenders in my papers and floral prints and popped it up over the sponged circle. I stamped my small "Bring the Bling" flourish above and below the die cut and then dropped Liquid Pearls over the center of each dot. Allow several minutes for the card to dry FLAT to avoid smearing. Don't they look like real, tiny pearls? I also added some tiny adhesive flowers to finish the project. Love how this project turned out!

Next up we have the fun "Make a Splash" from Asela Hopkins. Kids will love these silly sea creatures! I stamped the octopus twice onto more paper from the STV kit and carefully cut them out, cutting around the heads and in between tentacles just enough so they wouldn't come apart but allowed me to bend some parts forward and push other back to make the more dimensional. Add shadows to the tentacles and a kissy face and rouge to Ms. Octopus with markers!

I used a piece of Basic Grey DP for the sea that had a lot of distressing and variation in the turquoise to make the ocean and then stamped two rows of my "Bring the Bling" scallops at the top, one embossed with Seafoam White, the other with Silver. Cut around the top edge to create the scalloped border and reveal a bit more of the Lemon Drop base.

Here is a closeup. Don't you love the way they are entangled? I embossed some individual bling dots and heart above them in white and the just colored inside the hearts with a pink marker. I didn't bother to rub my paper with the anti-static pad before doing the powder this time, in some cases, like this one, stray flecks can work in your design, now it just looks bit more bubbly. ;)

Have to share an old joke that is stuck in my head ever since I saw these images:

What did one octopus say to the other octopus?

"I wanna hold your hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand."

hee hee

Now please go check out more samples from our talented Gina K Designs team!

Gina K

Lee Murphy

Melanie Muenchinger ( you are here, thanks for visiting!)

Michelle Woerner

Nina Brackett

Sharon Harnist

Theresa Momber

Tina Gilliland

Valerie Stangle

Vicki Dutcher

AJ Otto

Asela Hopkins

Carolina Buchting

Cathy Tidwell

Deb Felts

Emily Giovanni

Giovana Smith

Janice Whiting

Jennie Harper

Thanks for joining us! Hope it inspired! :) More samples and ideas tomorrow, see you again soon!