Inspiration, Day 1: This Girl Is and Unicorn Wishes

Good morning! Welcome to Day 1 of our Inspiration Hop! Today we are showcasing This Girl is and Unicorn Wishes.  Enjoy the cards and ideas from our design team and be sure to leave comments along the way-each one will give you a chance at wining a prize! We will give away a $50 gift certificate each day and they will be announced in the Big News Forum at StampTV a few days after the hops conclude.

Starting out with This Girl is! I'd like to say a little about what this hands raised, eyes closed posture represents to me, and what I was thinking about when I drew it. This girl is at peace.  This girl has hands open, letting go of what's behind, and open and ready to receive good things and challenges ahead. An open hand reflects an open heart. She's being still. She's focused on what's true, and listening to an inner voice, instead of the noise and distractions of the world that can often overwhelm us or make us doubt. If you are a believer, you may recognize this as surrender and giving honor. If you are a seeker, you may recognize a desire and longing for freedom of burdens that weigh you down. If you've overcome something big, you may see this girl stands in victory. This woman, no matter her age, is enjoying the breeze and the carefree innocence, energy, and health of her youth. This girl is FREE. (What this means to ME anyway! Plus all the other words in the set) ;)

Here I gave her hair a little "trim" (by just masking off the image or cutting off the stamped hair and popping it up!)  Nice little summer cut, lol! I had a couple different ladies in mind as I colored the hair, one in her 40's and the other in her late 60's, who both really rock their silvery locks!  (I hope mine turns out as nice one day*) I used this embossing folder to create rays of light, which I sponged darker yellowink onto the Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion cardstock. and made a fun, dimensional banner with the words.  Did you notice her necklace?? Yep, you can add ANY small image from this stamp set (or another set) like a charm to either girl's necklace, and this cross is from the coordinating Women of Faith set! Love it!

Here is an example with NO girl, using just the words. I used ink cubes and a MISTI on both cards, the difference being I added some of the little doodly images from the set to the one on the right as accents!  I love both looks! I'll show this in a video. After coloring, add just a few tiny black dots around each with a fine line pen, gives it a little extra personality. :) I plan to do to recreate this on some larger mats to put in frames as wall art and gifts. I used this same configuration of words in the MISTI to create this watercolor background as well!

Now I have to tell you I didn't realize until I received the stamps how it looked like she was full stretched out swinging, with the sky behind her! 

 The seat of the swing is soooo easy to add, and I just pierced holes on either side of her dress and strung some jute through.  I'll definitely show you how to make this! 

And see the little flower I added to her hair? You can create garlands from the 10 flower images in this set to hold in either figure's hands or crowns of blossoms to wear. Love that sweet, romantic, flirty touch! It's the little things!  Cardstock is Pure Luxury White, Sea Glass and Kraft.

On this girl, I paperpieced with the GKD Pink Passion cardstock and stamped a flower from the set on her shirt. I love stamping stuff on her shirt because I sooo miss my Little Tees set! I colored in the center with a white gel pen, then just free cut a large heart from the same cardstock for my stamped birthday greeting. 

Adhere to a piece of contrasting paper like Black Onyx and then cut a border approx 1/8-1/4" inch all the way around.  Check the heart as you go to fit in between her hands.  I love cutting out hearts, but have a ton of dies this would work with an look forward to trying them out! You can also stamp just the hands so you know how much space you have in between, or lay your dies down over the image sheet to see what will fit.  Something that's a teensy too narrow can be matted to add extra width and stretch across. Card base is Kraft.

I hope you love this set as much as I do! Stay tuned for more ideas with the smaller images and words. I have another sample tomorrow with our new incentive set! Also, wait for it...Bible journaling! This girl is taking the plunge!

This Girl is

Next up we have Beth Silaika's Unicorn Wishes. This set is darling and magical! Plus lots of fun sentiments.

After stamping the little unicorn in Jet Black Amalgam ink, I drew a big cloud around him with enough room for one of the sentiment. I colored and shadowed everything with my Copics and then cut it out.  I used a piece of watercolor paper for the background, stamped on a few clouds and stars, then swirled on some Peerless Watercolor blues with a water brush. Base and mat are GKD Pure Luxury Black Onyx and Tranquil Teal.

I used a piece of watercolor paper for the background, stamped on a few clouds and stars, then swirled on some Peerless Watercolor blues with a water brush. Ad a little glitter and/or Crystalline Drops to the stars and hooves and horn for dimension and shimmer! Base and mat are GKD Pure Luxury Black Onyx and Tranquil Teal.

Unicorn Wishes

Having a few blogger issues today where I can't get all the fonts the same and same size! Sorry if that is distracting! My old computer crashed recently and I got a new one with a new photo editing programming that is my different from what I had previously, so  if the photos look a bit different than usual I ask for your patience while I adjust to that, too. 

Let's go see what the rest of the team has with these two sets!  Let me know in the comments which of these cards you'd like to see demo'd in this week's video! I appreciate it!

Gina K. 
Beth Silaika-Illustrator of Unicorn Wishes
Melanie Muenchinger-Illustrator of This Girl Is-you are here!
Arjita Sepaha Singh
Cathy Tidwell
Donna Idlet
Karen Hightower
Lisa Hetrick
Rema DeLeeuw
Sheri Gilson
Susie Moore
Theresa Momber
Laurie Schmidlin

* William said about the little grays around my hairline recently, "I love your little white hairs, Mom. They'll be as pretty as Miss Mary's! (Who is my mother in law, and she has been rockin' the *most*  beautiful white hair, for the 20 years I've known her, in her 80's now!) So clearly, not all men think we need to color! :)