Hands, Head and Heart: Inspiration Hops, Day 2: Elegant Flourishes and Stamper's Favorites

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Inspiration Hops, Day 2: Elegant Flourishes and Stamper's Favorites

Good morning! The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas for our new sets, and as you hop through our blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! To see the full list of winners, check the Big News Forum at StampTV a few days after the hops.

Today we start off with my new set Stamper's Favorites! Which image is your favorite in the set? Or rather, which of these faves do you/did you already have a little stamping "thing" for? As you know I am pretty partial to flowers, but I love all these others too (and I can't tell you how happy I am to receive all the customer requests form Gina K fans for a feather! That is a fun trend that is here to stay!)

The hummingbird is the illustration I hinted at a few months ago when I said I thought it turned out to be one of my best. I wanted to show you here with these "lovebirds" that you can stamp them at different angles are on your projects to make them look like different birds so they can pair up! There are also many ways to color these, both stamped in black here, I made one a Ruby-throated (RV25, RV000, YG93, YG97) and the other an Emerald (RV25, G05, B06,B37, YG67, BV31). Try Google search for hummingbird for color reference (here is a good page) or check back on this blog often as I know I want to recreate every species! :) Their tiny iridescent feathers are like scales, so I did a little stippling with the markers . Watch for a video this will be my next one! Cardstock is Pure Luxury White, Passionate Pink and Black Onyx. I love how the pink just pops on his throat, the greeting and the flower (which I cut out from pink cardstock and popped up). Sponge just a bit of Ocean Mist ink to create the sky behind them. I also used the leaves from the set to finish the scene. Last I added one of Theresa's Vertical Greetings.

Here is one I shared at the party with the feather. There are so many ways to repeat this image and accent to create movement on your card, with stitching, rows of bling, stamping off, or pierced trails like you see here. Stamping off the image in Gina K. Moonlit Fog at different angles look like they are gently wafting down from above. Coloring just one feather red and popping it up (or cutting it out from red cardstock) really makes a statement. The feather, which measure over 3" long, is a great addition to any nature card. It's like a masculine flower. ;) Greeting is from Beth's Lots of Lines set.

We are also showcasing Elegant Flourishes by Carolyn King. So excited to have these new decorative elements from Cammie, that can be used alone or with almost anything else of your choice! I like her new set and mine so much I just have to keep putting them together! Doesn't this butterfly look fabulous with these flourishes? Butterflies are always better flying from a flourish, I always say! ;) It's like, poof, magic!

I stamped the large and small flourishes in Gina K. Cherry Red and Innocent Pink ink, stamping each off to make the flourishes dimensional, then did just a bit of sponging with the Innocent Pink along two sides and accented with some tiny adhesive pearls. Cardstock is Gina K. Pure Luxury Black Onyx, Innocent Pink and White.

And last is one I made with the dot circle in the Elegant Flourishes set, not just for "elegant" cards, these make fantastic whimsical or graphic elements, too! Starting at the top of a panel, I stamped a row in each ink color, Cherry Red, Sweet Mango, Sweet Corn, Grass Green and Turquoise Sea inks, stamping off for the in between shades, then turned my mat horizontally and added hello from my Lots of Letters set in Black Onyx side the circles. The size is just perfect for this alpha! And was a design element I do NOT have in that set! Finally I jazzed it up with a tiny rhinestone in between the circle rows and mounted on a Pure Luxury Cherry Red base. Easy peasy!

For more cards I've already created with the Stamper's Favorites set, please visit my StampTV gallery.

Here are the sets we are sharing today: