Video: Black Embossed Magic with Fabulous Flowers

Hello! Here's the technique and card so many of you have been asking for since  Fabulous Flowers hit the release party a couple weeks ago! Today I  share a twist on the Black Magic Technique that uses your embossing powder and markers instead of pigment ink and pencils!  This technique produces vibrant OR soft color depending on the shades you choose, and creates a very similar look to "Black Magic", but goes super fast with no worry of going outside the lines or making a stray mark, as your alcohol marker ink  just disappears into the black background. Magic, indeed!  Please enjoy!

Note: I am using White pigment ink in the video to show how to build the scene so you can see the images better as I go along, but I recommend Versamark for this technique and your embossing when you recreate the card to create a whiter, more opaque surface for laying down your colors.  The images are subtle like a watermark with Versamark, but *will* be visible to *you* as you stamp out your scene!  Gina K White pigment is a fabulous pad, but it dries a lot during the course of creating the scene, which you want it to do, otherwise it would be smudging like crazy without heat setting, which you don't want!  I hope this makes sense to everyone, they are both great pads and have their specific purposes! :)

Vintage Rose (incentive set) is available FREE for a limited time with a purchase of $75 or more.  After that time, it will go into our regular catalog for purchase.

Supplies:
Gina K. Fabulous Flowers (and Vintage Rose or Scripty Love for sentiment) stamp set
Gina K. Pure Luxury Black Onyx (4” x 5 ¼”) and Lipstick (4 ¼” x 11", scored at 5 ½") cardstock
Tsukineko Versamark (or Gina K White pigment) ink pad
Spectrum Noir markers: BP4, DG2, DG3, GB3, OR3, BP1, PP2 
Heat gun, White embossing powder, adhesive, acrylic block

Video: Direct to Stamp and Rolling

Hello! Today I have a petite arrangement with my new Fabulous Flowers set. Stamped in bold first for eye popping color, I'll demonstrate how to roll on just a hint of color with the two step line art elements to add dimension, artsy flair and detail that looks like YOU drew it yourself! Please enjoy!

Gina K. Fabulous Flowers stamp set
Gina K. Pure Luxury White (4” x 5 ¼”) and Peach Bellini (4 ¼” x 5 ½’) cardstock
Gina K. Designs Peach Bellini, Lipstick, Dark Chocolate, Fresh Asparagus, Jellybean, Wild Dandelion, Prickly Pear ink pads
Gina K. Stitched (or double stitched) oval dies and die cutting machine, acrylic block, adhesive foam squares
Optional: Spectrum Noir BG 3 marker

Gina K Designs Inspiration Hop, Day 2: Spring Fling, Springtime Baskets, and Vintage Rose

The Cast and Crew for Gina K Designs welcomes you to another fabulous blog hop celebrating the new stamp release for February by our illustrator team! We hope to inspire you with some beautiful card projects as you hop along to each of the designer’s blogs! Today, we are featuring the stamp sets by Beth Silaika, Claire Brennan and our new Incentive set, Vintage Rose!

Please enjoy the gorgeous inspiration samples from the team and then comment on each blog for your chance to win a $20 Gina K Designs gift certificate! To see who won, check the Big News Forum at StampTV a few days after the hop. Ready for some inspiration?

Here are a few of the projects I have created for today’s hop:

First up, Spring Fling by Beth!! I made this card for my son, because middle school is really tough, but attitude is everything!! I love this little frog and "Think Hoppy!"

I used the Spots and Dots Cuttlebug folder on the GK D Pure Luxury Applemint cardstock to imitate some froggy flesh! :)  I also used GKD Black Onyx, white and Kraft for my card base.  Colored with Spectrum Noir markers.  LG3, LG5, JG2, PP2, and BG3.  Since it's a "boy" card, I just did a button, which works nicely with all the dots.

 I showed this next card at our party. The images were all so cute, I just had to put them all on one (minus the frog which got his own card!)  If you haven't noticed, the solid oval stamp in the set fills these little oval shaped creatures perfectly, not just the egg, so that is a really fun and versatile filler!  I used GKD Wild Dandelion ink on the duck and chick, Moonlit Fog for the bunny, and Lovely Lavender, Applemint, Innocent Pink, and Ocean Mist on the eggs. Then it's just coloring a few details and adding shadows! Cardstock is GKD White and Passionate Pink.

Net we have Claire's beautiful Springtime Baskets !!  I loves me all these two step bits and her thoughtful, tasteful greetings! This first card I thought the basket images and eggs would work so nicely in my Fabulous Frame window.  Love this sentiment to go with the basket of eggs so encouraging!  I refrained form my impulse to mask the different gorgeous eggs into the  open areas, because I wanted the the theme of the card to very simple , appropriate for this sentiment, and less Eastery. I love how the sentiments  and images go beyond Spring and Easter!  I plan to give to one of the ladies in my Bible study.  CR2, CR4, GB8, EB6, BG3 for coloring.

 
Next, isn't this daffodil arrangement so elegant?!  I kept the layout simple to focus on the exquisite detail of the weaving and flowers, and just a strong punch of that sunny yellow paper! Cardstock is GKD Wild Dandelion, Black Onyx, and White.  Spectrum Noir markers CT1, CT4, GB6, LG5 JG2, GG2, IG2, and BG3.

Last, Vintage Rose, one of the best incentive sets evah!! It's free for a limited time with a purchase I'm going to have so much coloring and doing techniques with the beautiful roses in this set.  Cardstock is Honey Mustard and white. I stamped the roses in GKD Dark Sage (so the leaves are already halfway colored!) and colored with Spectrum Noir markers: CR3, CR5 DR1, DG2, DG3, BG3, and BG2 .  Sponging with the sides with Honey Mustard ink gives it a nice glow, adds to the vintage feel and ties it into the base.

Last I made a simple still life with the jar of roses.  I stamped everything in Charcoal Brown and colored with Spectrum Noir markers, same as above.  The base is GKD Fresh Asparagus.

Don't you love these stamp sets?! You will be able to create amazing card projects using each individual set, or by combining the images and sentiments from multiple sets from this release. Have fun and be creative!

Ready for more?! Just click on the links below for more from Gina and the Cast & Crew….

Gina K

Beth Silaika - Illustrator for Spring Fling

Claire Brennan - Illustrator for Springtime Baskets

Cathy Tidwell

Chris Dayton
Donna Idlet
Karen Hightower
Laurie Schmidlin

Melanie Muenchinger
Sean Fetterman
Sheri Gilson
Silke Ledlow
Susie Moore

Theresa Momber

Don’t forget to pop over to the Gina K Designs Store and check out all of the new products available this month in the “What’s New” section at http://www.ginakdesigns.com.

Thank you for stopping by!

Gina K Designs Inspiration Hop, Day 1: Fabulous Flowers and Framescape: Simply Spring

Good morning, and happy Monday! The Cast and Crew for Gina K Designs welcomes you to another fabulous blog hop celebrating the new stamp release for February by our illustrator team! We hope to inspire you with some beautiful card projects as you hop along to each of the designer’s blogs! Today we are featuring the stamp sets by me and Theresa Momber. Please enjoy some gorgeous designs from our team and then comment on each blog for your chance to win a $20 Gina K Designs gift certificate! To see who won, check the Big News Forum at StampTV a few days after the hop. Now for the cards!

My first card with Fabulous Flowers I just wanted to focus on one little arrangement. I used GKD Red Velvet ink for the bold flowers and stamped off to create the second flower in a lighter coordinating shade. Outline is stamped and stamped off in GKD Cherry Red to be just a hint darker than the Red Velvet for a subtle outline.

After laying out where my my mat would be on the base, I stamped up some more flowers and leaves to create a little border peeking out. I did the same on my envelope and inside the card (and one bud on the back where I sign my name!) Added skinny strip of Ocean Mist to enhance the stamped water filler in the vase. it is SO fun to put these tiny blooms anywhere (and everywhere!!) You could do a clean and simple single layer card with just this little vase arrangement if you want, but it was fun going a bit further with some layers and more stamping! Centers are stamped in GKD Sweet Mango, leaves and stems in GKD Grass Green, and water in Ocean Mist.

For this next card, I just played around with using the flowers as accents and the doodle bits to frame up this popped up sentiment from Scripty Love.  Isn't that border across the top and bottom fun?  I dotted every other loop with the Ebony Black Nuvo Crystal Drops for shine and more dimensions.  Dies I used are GKD Inverted Scalloped Ovals and Stitched Ovals. Oh, I almost forgot to point out, you can make BIG daisy-like petals with the different leaves, like I did with the red! :) Create your own flowers!

Here is one I made since I hadn't used the lily yet in a sample (and hadn't used any purple), aren't these flower "centers" stamped in GKD Wild Dandelion fun being flowers of their own, and a great match for this Gina K. patterned paper?!  To fill in the line art stamped vase, I inked up the bold filler vase with lavender and then swiped my lilac pad across and stamped. Lot sf irect to stamp possibilities to add multiple colors, hand-drawn detail and cool ombre effects with these bold vases! I created my own coordinating embellishment using the larger stem, leaf and lily images from my A Year of Flowers 2 set.  (I used Spectrum Noir markers to color in the larger lily) A Year of Flowers 2 is not currently in stock, but on order, and will be back in time for the next kit release in a couple weeks! Put it on your wishlist! :) Cardstock is GKD Pure Luxury Wild Lilac, Lovely Lavender and White.

Some of my favorites I've made so far with this new set, though, I'm not showing YET because I really want to demonstrate the design and technique in videos the next few weeks!  Gotta leave some surprises! Trust me, FUN stuff, soon, soon!  

Next up, we have Theresa's new Framescape: Simply Spring!  I like this one even better the first, and that's saying a LOT, because both are fantastic!  Here I created a night sky by sponging GKD Blue Denim and GKD Navy ink at the corners (masking with sticky notes) and having the balloons reflecting on water instead of coloring like a grassy meadow.  I looked at a few photos of hot air balloons over water to help me determine how to make them glow and the colored ripple trail they would cast from their fire.  I'll admit, I didn't create the "glow" of these illuminated balloons exactly to my liking, but even so, I still think it looks really cool!!  I also sketched in just some blurry tree reflections, and then, just add stars! (white gel pen) Card base is GKD Pure Luxury Lipstick.

Finally, here is the card I showed at our release party, I just LOVE this one!  Ink sponging and  card base are GKD Blue Raspberry, and grass is sponged with GKD Jellybean.  After sponging the sky, I left an open white space and ran my Faber-Castell Pitt White Artist pen out in rays from that area, over the blue ink, to look like a burst of sun.  After  coloring the bushy areas with Spectrum Noir CG4, I used this same white paint pen to create some open areas in the bushes so I could dot on red, pink and yellow with my markers that would really pop and show up over my dark green coloring . Drawing a quick shadow "puddle" with a gray marker or pencil under your girl running will create a lot of light instantly in this scene! Dies again are GKD Inverted Scalloped Ovals and Stitched Ovals.

Fabulous Flowers

Framescape – Simply Spring

Ready for more from our team?! Just click on the links below for more from Gina and the Cast & Crew:

Gina K

Melanie Muenchinger  - Illustrator for Fabulous Flowers (you are here!)

Theresa Momber  - Illustrator for Framescape – Simply Spring

Cathy Tidwell

Chris Dayton
Claire Brennan
Donna Idlet
Karen Hightower
Laurie Schmidlin
Sean Fetterman
Sheri Gilson
Silke Ledlow
Susie Moore

Don’t forget to pop over to the Gina K Designs Store and check out all of the new products available this month in the “What’s New” section at http://www.ginakdesigns.com.

Thank you for stopping by! See you tomorrow as we showcase three more new stamp sets! And then a new video and tip sheet from me for Fabulous Flowers on Wednesday!

PS I didn't realize until this morning I never posted my video from last week here on my blog! Oops! Here it is if you missed:

And one more from the party!! Lots of requests for a video on this one, so look for that!

Praying you have a blessed day!

Video: How to Fill a Spring Basket

Hello, sunshine!! In today’s video, I share simple masking for the handle and coloring for Spring Basket and one of its coordinating toppers from Basket Additions 2. The straight bottoms of several of the toppers require no masking when added to the Spring Basket (or coordinating sets’ containers-Holiday Basket, Beyond Baskets, and Beyond Baskets 2, all available in clear) making  creating these two step overflowing and festive containers a snap! Please enjoy!

Supplies:

Gina K. Designs Spring Basket, Basket Additions 2 stamp sets

Gina K. Pure Luxury White (4” x 3 ¾”), Sweet Corn (4 ¼” x 11”, scored at 5 ½”), and Kraft (4” x 5 ¼”) cardstock

Gina K. Dark Chocolate ink pad

Spectrum Noir markers: BG3, CG3,  GB4, CR11, TN7, GB8,

Autumn Landscape patterned paper 4 ¼” x 4 ¼”

Acrylic blocks, adhesive, white gel pen, stocky notes for masking, scissors

Which topper is your fave?  And while, I'm asking, out of the whole Basket and Beyond Basket line, with container is your fave? :)