Friday, December 2, 2011

Inspiration Hop, Day 3: "Inspirational Blocks", "Butterfly" and "Just Calling to Say" Duos


Happy Friday, and thank you for joining us for our third and final day of Inspiration Hops for our November Gina K Designs release! Today we are showcasing the "Free with Three" set and to more new duos. "Inspirational Blocks" is a very versatile set, the bold images are perfect for so many different stamping techniques, so get your ink pads ready! Here I stamped this leafy block three times in Frayed Burlap Distressing Ink onto Pure Luxury White, turning the block each time after re-inking to create some different angles with the leaves. (Three blocks on a card is always a recipe for success!)

Next, I stamped in out three more times on another piece with Faded Jeans, Fired Brick and Crushed Olive Distressing Inks, then punched a 1 1/4" square out of the center of each. I popped each of these up over the blocks on the strop lining up the images. I mounted the strip on Soft Sand and then a scrap of Basic Grey Curio, and adhering it all to the Pure Luxury White base. Sentiment is also stamped in Fired Brick, I put that red block at the top to balance out the greeting at the bottom.

Next we have this "Master Butterfly" duo. I love this quote and actually have this same sentiment one of my sets, but this font is so different: here, instead of a sympathy greeting, this end of the world quote is more whimsical, and I thought would be really appropriate for those daily life disappointments that seem like the end of the world in the moment but just days later (or even later that day!) are really no big deal, know what I mean? So I wanted this card of encouragement to have some seriously happy colors: Passionate Pink, Key Lime, Blue Raspberry and Sweet Mango. I created a color block by stamping the butterfly in the center of these three different scraps of paper, cutting them into thirds and then piecing them together, leaving division in between.

Next I used the unused pieces to cut out the three separate parts of the body and create a reverse effect, gluing them over the contrasting colors. So it's a little spotlighting little split negative, little pop art! I like how this conveys the change and growth. (I have actually been doing a terrific Bible study this semester called Jonah: A Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer, the main theme of the study is that is that life's interruptions are really divine interventions and if we allow them to be, amazing opportunities, I highly recommend it!) Finally I applied a layer of Crystal Stickles over each. Base is Black Onyx.
Our last duo is this adorable "Just Calling to Say", the kind of retro style and shape of the phone had me reaching for this cute Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas number patterned paper, numbered backgrounds are always fun for birthdays (although, ahem! all my friends are older than 25 now lol!) and this one for a Christmas birthday especially! I stamped the phone in black first and then stamped it again in red to cut out and pop up over the first.

I used some tiny adhesive rhinestone on every other number in the dial and free-cut my own word bubble out of Grass Green cardstock for the sentiment to come blasting through the phone! :) Heart cut with a Cuttlebug die from Lipstick Red Pure Luxury, base is Chocolate Brown. I also used a small corner rounder punch and Classic Circle Nestabilites.
Thanks very much for visiting today! Be sure to leave lots of comments along the way, you could win a grab bag of 12 stamp images from Gina K Designs, the more you leave, the better your chances of winning!

I hope you have a great weekend! We'll be putting up our tree, decorating the house and lots of other fun festive stuff! See you next week!

65 comments:

  1. Wow! love how you stamped behind the blocks and lined them up, what great dimension and the colures are so pretty. Card 2 really grabs the attention so bright and funky and the calling card is inspired with the DP and speech bubble

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  2. I LOVE the colors you used on that first one, just gorgeous stamping! And love the dissected butterfly! LOL! wonderful bright colors together! And the cut out phone, just awesome!

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  3. Beautiful--I like the colors and layouts.

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  4. Fabulous cards! I especially like the first one with the blocks. The colors are really eye catching and I like how you stamped the block behind and then added the colored ones on top. Your phone card is really fun with the "wild" dp in the background!

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  5. Great card designs, especially your first one! All terrific!

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  6. Ooooh, I just love the colors and popped images of the first one. That butterfly is so cool and funky. Gorgeous cards!!!

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  7. Very, very pretty! I love them all!

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  8. Great use of colors. I love the blocks on the first card and the butterfly with the bright.

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  9. Love the first one and how the stamping looks like it goes off the edges.

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  10. Great way to use up those scraps. Love the cards.
    Marcie

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  11. Beautiful cards and such neat layouts!

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  12. Very cute cards. Like what you did with the butterfly.

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  13. All the cards are great but I especially love the first blocked card. Wonderful job!!

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  14. Melanie, all three of your cards are so perfect. The butterfly one couldn't help but lift someone's spriits. THanks for sharing your talents.

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  15. All of your cards are stunning. Your first one really stands out to me! Beautiful!!!

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  16. Thanks so much for walking us through your thought process on the butterfly card. I learned SO much from that. You expanded my own thought process in making cards.

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  17. All the cards are so different! Love the texture and vibrancy. Just gorgeous

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  18. Love the different techniques you used. I as especially impressed with the one where you cut the butterfly into three different panels. I would never think to do that.

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  19. Hi, Melanie,
    How clever to use.. almost like tile work for the first 2 cards, but in different ways. I also like the 'bubble' talk coming out of the phone-brilliant again!

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  20. Simply beautiful, the believe card is my favorite but the one with the phone is so much fun.

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  21. Wow! I love what you did with the Inpsirational blocks, inspiring to me! That Master Butterfly card is of "seriously happy colors", very cool effect.

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  22. Great cards! Love how you made the blocks.

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  23. Love today's cards! The bright, happy pop art card is my fave of the bunch!

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  24. Fantastic cards Mel!!! Sad I didn't order more stamps, love what you did with them!!!

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  25. I will be CASE'g your Believe card. What an impact your technique on that has. Lovely!

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  26. The butterfly card is awesome. I love how you pieced them.

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  27. Great cards! I'm going to have to try some of your techniques.

    nanettemt at yahoo dot com

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  28. W O W ! ! to alllllllllllll three cards. Thank you sooooo much for the recipes - as I read them I had to keep going back and thinking so that's how she did that. Thanks for the lessons. You are one talented lady.
    Jean McGee

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  29. As always, these cards are wonderful. I love using the stamps you design, and I love your blog. Thank you.

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  30. The "believe" card is simple, yet stunning. I love the color scheme.

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  31. I am loving the colors on all of your cards and the bling on the phone is great! It's funny how we can all see things differently: I look at that quote and see hope and joy.

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  32. Such neat cards. I am partial to the butterfly and love the pink background

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  33. Beautiful cards, I love these 2 techniques!

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  34. Adore the colors you used on your cards ... fabulous! Beautiful cards! Thanks for a great hop and gorgeous stamps!

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  35. Love your layouts. The blocks are so lovely, can't wait to try it. Your butterfly card is stunning! Great job on all the cards.

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  36. The first card is amazing love the color combo. Nice job. thanks

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  37. Wow - your cards are soooo cool!

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  38. Loved the colors used on the first card! Creative use of colors and application of the butterfly, and liked the phone card, too. All very uniquely done!

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  39. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Love all the cards. Love your ideas. Thanks for sharing.

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  40. WOW, i really favored the inspirational blocks, great technique. but also like the sentiment for the phone

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  41. Your phone card is beautiful, your butterfly card has gorgeous vibrant colors, but I absolutely LOVE your first card with the 3 tiles, they look amazing! TFS!!!

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  42. the believe card is wonderful and would really work well for a masculine friend.

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  43. Wow how very cool love the way you made the cards and the way you blocked out the Butterflies is very cool. love the colors and the papers. thanks for sharing and for the chance to win.
    abbraddock@msn.com

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  44. Nice use of color blocking. Great butterfly card. Thanks

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  45. Pretty cards. Have fun decorating!

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  46. Amazingly hot colors, Melanie. Love the blocks, too.

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  47. Wow, great cards. Thank you for sharing.

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  48. I love the three color butterfly. Very pretty and appropriate for the subject.simply beautiful!

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  49. Love your cards, They are stunning and truly inspirational. Thanks for sharing

    hugs julie

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  50. Wowsers! Stunning to say the least! Love them all! TFS!

    Kris in Alaska
    funamom at yahoo dot com

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  51. Great cards. So much wonderful inspiration.

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  52. These are gorgeous, Melanie!! Love the colour blocks, the panel butterfly and that cute telephone card. Fun cards!!

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  53. Such creative cards. Love the blocks.

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  54. Love the split butterfly card, it looks ver Andy Warhol-esque

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  55. Wow! Just love how graphic that butterfly card is. Fabulous!

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  56. Thanks for the inspiration. Loving the blocks of colour and your layout!

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Your generous feedback helps make my work and this blog better! Thanks for inspiring and motivating me! :)