Gina K. Designs Black Friday

Stamps and patterned papers on sale, oh my!

Hope you are all having a fabulous time of thanks with family! :)

Ready for New Year's...

Here is another card I made for that winter call I mentioned on Monday, using my Lots of Letters set, and Beth Silaika's Lot of Dots.  Gina K. Powder Blue, Navy and Blue Denim inks are the perfect palette on Pure Luxury White for a Hanukkah, winter or New Years card!  Be sure to remember the glitter, here the dots are embossed with an iridescent clear EP, to make it more snowy and festive looking!

I went ahead and added a Christmas /Happy New year greeting to the inside of this card, I like those that work double duty!

It is so cold (for Texas anyway!) here this week! Brrrr!

A Year in the Making

No, this didn't take a year to make, but I don't think I ever showed you this card!  I made it months and months and months ago for a pub call, but it was not accepted.  I still love how it turned out! The best thing about "rejects", you get to actually send them to someone!* :)  And being that the season for the call is always way ahead, when the holiday finally rolls around I find, surprise, I'm more set than I thought I was for cards! (found this sifting through my basket)  This uses Becky Oehler's Warm Woolen Mittens and a heart Spellbinders die for the middle.  Sponging more pink ink to the underside of the heart makes it very "heart warming" indeed. ;)  Snuggling the heart inside the mittens just feels like a big hug, no?  (Did I mention I love this card?)  TIP:  Repeating the twine on the button at the lower right balances out the loop at the top left, so the string just keeps pulling your eye all around the card, love it!  (I said "love" again)

Supplies: Innocent Pink, White and Kraft Pure Luxury cardstock, pink button and brown bakers twine, corner rounder punch.

*Don't worry, I do send out published cards at some point, once they are returned to me and the magazine is finished with them.

Have a great day!

Really Good Gift #1

I wanted to tell you about a beautiful book my stepmother sent to us recently, which I think would be a really nice family tradition for you and a terrific Christmas gift for giving.  A Father's Legacy is a journal with a prompt on each page to have a father explain boyhood, the people who influenced him, holiday memories family traditions, etc, all things that kids would be interested to know but might never actually be discussed.  Flipping through it I was really impressed by the thoughtfulness of the different questions and realized not only would this be valuable for my kids to have, but a great way for me to get to know more about my husband.  We've been together 16 years but I still hear stories  that make me say "You never told me that!"*   He's not much for writing, so I will most definitely need to be his scribe to get thing done (started!).   My plan is to bring this book out at the dinner table sometimes because these are great conversation starters, the boys always love to hear dad's stories, but dinner is also a time where lots of life lessons and "stuff that Paul thinks is really important for them to know" is conveyed!  Also, I am thinking this will be a nice thing to do before bed when we are tucked in and he is watching the news, I can ask him to share a bit (during commercial break!) and then jot it down.  What a treasure it will be!

Anyway, with the holidays coming up, I think this is the first of my "this would be a really good gift" posts (see title).  We can always use more gift ideas, right?  These will be some I have received, and some I have given that were particularly well received.  Perhaps there will be some sprinkled in that are more "Wow, I sure would like to have this!"  because really , sometimes you might need to buy a little prezzie for yourself. :)  So for what it's worth!  Feel free to come back in the comment section of each and share ideas or even links of some you think are really great, too, because I just love something out of the box, that would be great for me to freshen up my gift giving also.

*This goes for recipes, as well. He'll bust out some dish he's never mentioned before that is the best thing I ever put in my mouth and will say, " Oh, we always made this growing up.  I have to save some surprises so you won't get tired of me."

Continued Season's Greetings

Here is a very simple card you could mass produce that I made with the StampTV kit Season's Greetings.  I love this reindeer silhouette! Repeat the image by stamping off twice.  This technique is great not only for adding multiple shades but also movement, now they are prancing!  Ink is the new Gina K. Charcoal Brown.  The touch of gray in this brown ink makes it such a versatile, unique neutral.  I used Pure Luxury In the Navy cardstock and the coordinating ink for the sentiment.  Add a little red colored pearl for his nose! The repeating pearls emphasize the sentiment and tie in the red embellishment. Some wispy white organdy from the kit adds softness to the card.  I folded up the white mat's corner just a touch to add a little more interest.

How's everyone doing on their holiday cardmaking?  Sifting through my basket yesterday I was pretty pleased with how many I have already just for making samples for our last few releases!  Yeah!

Do you know we have a new release coming up in just a few short weeks?  I have a new set I am so excited about, that I hinted about on Facebook, oh, maybe a month or two ago now, lol!  I couldn't be more pleased with the illustrations and hope you'll love this as much as I do. :)

Hugs!!

The Black Sheep

Here is another card I made with Fleece Navi-baa.  Coloring just the one little sheep black among all the others (who is also facing the other way, going against the grain) really emphasizes the point: Baa humbug!  They're all so cute that sentiment can't even bring you down!  Add just a touch of gray pencil to the whiteys to set them off from the white background and the little shadows underneath all blended with a waterbrush really adds dimension.

Supplies:  Pure Luxury White, Black Onyx, and Moonlit Fog cardstock, Gina K. Black Onyx Premium Dye ink, Faber-Castell neutral watercolor pencils, water brush, Spectrum Noir red and green markers, Gina K. black stitched ribbon and red bakers twine

Are you the black sheep in your family?  Time to embrace it!  Cast off old labels and celebrate your uniqueness. :)  There's a reason you're so different from everyone else. ;)

Faber-Castell Products on Blitsy Today!

 
Guess what, some of the Faber-Castell pens and crayons you've been ogling this week are on sale today at Blitsy, including the Big White Pen you are loving!  Plus a ton of other items!  If you used ot look at Blitsy's deals but havne't stopped by in a while, you will be amazed at how much they are offering on a daily basis!  Get a Big White Pen before they're gone, see the card i made with in my post below!   I may have to go throw a few of their colored bigg pens in the cart, would be greta to have some other opque inks for coloring on dark cardstock!

If you haven't signed up for Blitsy yet, it is free to do so.  You'll be glad you did. :)

Have a terrific weekend!  We have some really fun plans, I can't wait!

Gina K. Designs Faber-Castell Hop: Day 3

 
Welcome to Day 3 of the Gina K. Designs/Faber-Castell Blog Hop!  We are so excited to team up with the Faber-Castell designers! Both  design teams are sure to WOW you with their many beautiful, creative ideas for using Gina K. and Faber-Castell products together.    We've got another incredible day of inspiration for you, so let's get started!  Don't forget to keep those comments coming as you hop through the blogs to enter to win a Gina K. Designs stamp set of your choice (up to a $24.95 value)

Pop over to the Faber-Castell Blog  and leave a comment for a chance to win a Designing With Gelatos Kit, too!

I used three Faber-Castell products here: Stamper's Big White pen, which is hands down the BEST white pen I've tried, and worked beautifully on this Gina K. Designs Pure Luxury Kraft cardstock for my sheep (Gina K. Designs Fleece Navibaa set by Debbie Corbari), snow and drift; their neutral watercolor pencils to add some gray shadows to the body and brownish gray for his ears and face, both blended with a water brush; and finally silver and gold metallic pens to fill in the lights. Of course add a dot of white highlight over the gold and silver for dimension and twinkle! These pens and pencils I will be using again and again!  Red Hot cardbase, Black Onyx ink pad, Kraft button and ribbon are of course all Pure Luxury from Gina K Designs. :)
 
 Thank you Faber-Castell for your outstanding products and hopping with us today!

Now please go visit the lovely and talented Michelle Woerner!!