Hello and good morning! Today we are THREE companies and design teams strong, hopping together to showcase some of their fabulous new products and how well they all play together! Thanks to Picket Fence Studios, My Sweet Petunia and Gina K. Designs for this fun, creative opportunity! Each participating company has generously donated one $50 gift card to their online store, and the winners will be randomly drawn from all the comments at each stop on today's hop. Winners will be announced on the company blogs no later
than June 7th. The more comments you leave today, the more likely you are to win a prize! Best of luck to you, I hope you win!
You should be coming from Karen Reategui's blog, but if you are just joining in, the full list is at the bottom of the post. I hope you have time to check out every stop and enjoy the different styles and ideas created for your inspiration today. :)
For my first card, I used the Picket Fence "Martini Stencil" along with stamps from the Gina K. Wishes stamp set . A rainbow of different Gina K. Ink cubes and one of Picket Fence Studio's Life Changing Blending Brushes filled in this cute drink background in no time. I think it's really cool how working the blending brush up against the edges of the stencil details creates such a realistic shadow on the edge of these glasses, with translucent color to look like blown glass! Cardstock is GKD Pure Luxury Passionate Pink, Black Onyx, and White. My Sweet Petunia's new Cut-Align tool makes it so easy to create quick and perfect mats without measuring (I hate measuring, but I also hate wonky, uneven mats), just follow the line!
My desk is pretty small, so my cardstock is in a file cabinet on the other side of the office, where I keep my big cutter with a rotary blade on top, no room for it here. With the Cut-Align I LOVE now being able to make perfect quick cuts and mats while I'm seated as I make changes to my design on the fly with a craft knife, instead of getting up and going back and forth, not to mention not having the precision of the Cut-Align with my current cutters, so the Cut-Align will be used ALL the time, not just for mats but long enough for full sheet of cardstock to create bases! I have a smaller guillotine cutter for cropping, but it isn't large enough to handle a longer piece of cardstock, but Cut-Align will accommodate any size and I love that it has not one but two rulers, to use the one you need, instead of always using a larger one. And you can make the teeniest of cuts mats, and trims. Iliana really put a LOT of thought into this tool based on a crafter's needs, which I very much appreciate!
Can you current cutter do THIS? (Probably not)
I made this card for a friend whose family is from Denmark and when she came back from a recent trip to Copenhagen, she brought me a kit to make some little woven basket hearts to put on the Christmas tree, papercrafting and weaving is very popular and old tradition there! The woven baskets are much bigger and made out of thinner paper to do the weaving, but I wanted to scale it down and use Gina's Pure Luxury cardstock, so these 1 by 4 inch pieces of Coral Reef and Tranquil Teal were my compromise. Cuts are made every 1/4", with a 1/4" space at the top to keep the strips togther and the smaller Cut-Align ruler made it simple. I mounted it over my stamping with foam squares and think it's a fun graphic element to go with the flowers and leaves. I know she'll get the reference to her gift to me. Adds nice texture and an intricate handmade embellishment. Stamping with the GKD Elegant Asters stamp set is done GKD Soft Stone, Peach Bellini, Coral Reef, and Tranquil Teal.
As bright as the first samples were, I wanted the next to be very soft. I used some of the new pale Amalgam inks Gina carries, designed for watercoloring and no line coloring, but fabulous for other uses and elegant for your paper and card base choices, for my stamping and blending. The round Waffle Squares stencil from Picket Fence Studios reminded in its shape and texture of a dream catcher, so I paired it with the dreamy greeting from Gina's Elegant Asters set. Cardstock is GKD Pure Luxury Stormy Sky, Barely There and White. Stamping is done in Gina K. Warm Glow, Peach Bellini, Barely There, and Soft Stone.
Adjusting where you hold the long handle of the brush shifts the pressure of your blending without you having to push a lot harder, which is easy on the hands and wrists, and allows for a much wider range or shades in your sponging with just one color. I love the control and the ability to add just a hint of ink with these! The smaller brushes in the Fine Blending 6 pack assortment or full set of 10 allow you to work in tight areas and small stencil details without getting color in an unwanted area, so those are very unique and useful as well, had not used anything like that before!
I used My Sweet Petunia's Mini MISTI to stamp the greetings and images on all cards for a solid, crisp impression. :) All the gorgeous cardstock and inks in today's post can be found in the Gina K. Designs store.
I am really enjoying all the new supplies and grateful to be part of today's hop! Below is the full link list. I can't wait to see what the other designers have in store for us! Your next stop on the hop is the Angela Bode!
Melanie Muenchinger-you are here!
