Day 3: Peace Love and Sushi Kit and Take Care Incentive

Welcome to our final day of blog hops for our August release, please know there will be continued inspiration throughout the month and beyond! Thanks in advance for your comments, we really appreciate knowing what you liked best and really want you to win one of those $50 gift certificates! The more you comment, the better your chances! You should be coming from Lisa's blog.

So the sushi in this Peace Love and Sushi Kit kit is so stinkin' adorable, I just had to cut and stamp and color them ALL as soon I opened the box. ( I know the lotus is great and all, but this is SUSHI! With FACES!)  I made a pile of cards in no time, some bold colors, clean lines and minimal details make for quick cards and really give these such a zen feel! Add a silly face, and you can't help but smile!

Squiggle on a bit of brown with a marker to the top of the rice for a drizzle of soy (much love!) Accent the bottle with white gel pen to make the surface look super shiny and dimensional. I used Lisa's wheel die from Wildflowers and Wheels set and the HELLO caps die. I said it the last two days and I'm saying it again: The caps dies are all amazing!  Click that link to see them all and add as you are able to your collection. You're welcome.

TIP: When adhering letters, put the die just below like a template where you are gluing to put each letter above for perfect spacing. Or, if you haven't already used the the negative part of your cutting (I had on another card) drop them into the letter holes with glue and then remove the template, easy peasy!  I lined these up with the bottom of my card to keep them straight and it looks so clean and graphic along the edge.

"Shrimply the best"! SHRIMPLY!!

I doubt I'll ever just say "simply" again...

The punny sayings are so great for the younger peeps, 

or anyone who loves good sushi or a good pun! 

Master Layouts 2 dies above and below make professional looking layouts a snap!

Smiling faces, happy places! 

Have you gotten your RAINBOW HEARTS yet?

Originally I was going to use the I like the way you roll greeting with the circle die cut above, in reference to a wheel, but just changed my mind on layouts. It's still rolled sushi!  Leave some white on the side when coloring for a shiny nori wrap! I love the GKD Lucky Clover as a base, like hot wasabi!  It's also easy to make larger chopstick accents with those skinny trimmings of cardstock you have a ton of, just snip at an angle! Here the Coral Reef cardstock really brings out those matchstick carrots in the roll and just give some added energy for a dynamic layout.

Peace Love and Sushi Kit

Have we given you enough ideas to create a cart that totals over $75 so you can get this adorable set? I hope so! Treat yo'self!

Take Care

Next on the hop is Mindy's blog! Thanks for hopping, happy shopping!

Day 2: Welcome Home, Love Conquers and Delightful Booms

Welcome back, everyone, it's Day 2! Today we are featuring Welcome Home by Beth Silaika,  Love Conquers by Emily Loggans, and Delightful Blooms by our newest illustrator, Arjita Singh !! You know the drill, please leave us some comments as you hop, we love your feedback and each one gives you a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Gina K. Designs, there are 2 up for grabs!  Winners announced after hops conclude.

You should be coming from Lisa's blog!

Please come see what I made with these lovely new sets....

First up, Welcome Home! All the little houses in Beth's set were so cute, I wanted to make a background with them, not exactly collage stamped but in rows to create a little community, just keep the bottom of each parallel with the mat's bottom edge to help ground them. I perched one tiny bird to go with the baby sentiment and a few hearts! Super sweet! Colors are GKD Barely There cardstock, Chocolate Truffle, Tranquil Teal and Passionate Pink. Very easy single layer card.

I'm glad she added an anniversary greeting, this would make a really nice card for my husband who is continually working on our nest. I'm the one on the left in Passionate Pink, natch! I used a life changing blender brush with the same pink ink to create a simple cloudy sunset, stamped the branch in Chocolate Truffle, then added my birds. I die cut one house from GKD Ivory cardstock (Welcome Home dies), stamped a heart, then "hung" it inking just part of the dotted trail stamp that goes with the birds to look like it's connected to the branch with a chain. Pop up with foam squares!

Next up Emily's Love Conquers!  Wouldn't the world be a much better place if we could all write like Emily?? For now, we just have to settle for her stamps, and I am glad to do that if "settling" means embossing and stamping these babies in every color times infinity! I had to throw a butterfly on both, of course! The first I blended on some blue inks and dropped on a little water to create more texture, then stamped the sentiment a few times with Obsidian Amalgam ink and the Mini MISTI. I used the Beautiful Butterflies dies to cut out the images on both cards.

The next one I emphasize the LOVE in the greetings with the huge new LOVE caps die!  These are the letters from yesterday's card, popped up over a butterfly background I collage stamped with Peach Bellini, Red Velvet and Passionate Pink inks on Warm Glow cardstock.  I love using round (ish!) objects as a substitute for the O in LOVE on projects (or something pointy for the V like a heart)  to add some whimsy, and this perching butterfly on her script greeting does not disappoint! I like how it was roughly the size of the letters, correct scale to blend seamlessly.  Once again, sentiment is stamped with Obsidian Amalgam and the MISTI to get a nice crisp impression.

Finally we have Arjita's new Delightful Blooms! Didn't it follow if she could paint such gorgeous flowers, she could probably also draw a few (hundred) that would take our breath away? Oh, yes. It did! This set *also* sold out, so be sure to click notify me so you know as soon as it's back to place an order! My copy of this set just arrived last night so I only have one sample so far for today, but will share more later for sure! I just love the style of these flowers and fonts. It is has been such a pleasure and privilege to work with Arjita and get to know her personally, she is as kind as she is talented and unbelievably humble. I am so happy for her getting this well deserved opportunity to share more of her art with the world!

I wanted to show something easy to make that would still be very elegant.  I like monochromatic cards for sympathy, it is soft and calming but not overly cheerful. I stamped this one of two GINORMOUS flower bunches in GKD Blue Raspberry and blended the ink same ink around the top with a Life Changing Blending Brush, no need to mask.  The greeting is stamped in Chocolate Truffle ink a few times using the Mini MISTI.  I used another die cut butterfly from the pile I made, always love chocolate with blues. Finish with a rainbow heart adhered with GKD Connect Glue. Cardstock ins Pure Luxury Ivory.  The gentle reminder of a butterfly's life cycle I've found is great comfort to people who are suffering a loss, and of course once can't help but be cheered by beautiful flowers. I can't wait to color both of her floral images and do loads of other techniques, but I'm really happy with how this card turned out! Her illustration captures the beautiful simplicity and complexity of flowers, no doubt a result of the countless paintings she has expertly, meticulously and lovingly created.

            Here are all the stamp sets and die sets showcased today:

Delightful Blooms

Love Conquers

Welcome Home dies

Welcome Home

Now let's go see what the lovely and talented Mindy Eggen has for us! Thank you for visiting today!

Day 1 Beautiful Butterflies, Wildflowers and Weeds, and Grow Positive Thoughts

Good morning! Welcome to the first day of our August release inspiration hops!  Today we are showcasing my new set, Lisa Hetrick's Wildflowers and Weeds, and Hannah Drapinski's Grow Positive Thoughts! Be sure to comment along the way because there will be two $50 gift certificates up for grabs!  Winners will be announced a few days after hops...

Beautiful Butterflies is...out of stock, I'm sorry!  It will be back soon and I'll post that video I promised you shortly! We moved my firstborn son into his dorm this weekend so the only positive thing about running out so early is it bought me a little more time! 

Here is my little butterfly at age 3 with a butterfly on our front porch. Now he's 18. And almost 6'3". Unbelievable! Where did the time go? It's been such a blessing to have him in my life and I'll look forward to him drifting in and out during this next season... "Nothing gold can stay..."

For me, butterflies have always been so much more than beauty and change. To spot one seems so rare and special, for one to rest long enough to capture a photo magical, that to have one light on your hand allowing you to gaze at all the intricacies of their wings before flying away so lucky you should go buy a lottery ticket! They are stolen moments. It was such a privilege to draw and capture each of these, preserving them forever. I hope you feel the same creating with the set and adding that extra bit of wonder to your art.

For example, here are two cards I grabbed from my stash from a past hop and video (you may remember them if you watched, if not totally cool)...

And here are the same cards after adding a butterfly! Which would you want to send? Receive? I know, right? Serious level up!

Okay, now that's settled, on to new cards!

For this card, first I stamped the largest butterfly in Peach Bellini ink on Warm Glow cardstock, love all these images for subtle, elegant coordinating butterfly backgrounds. I used one of the Master Layouts 2 rectangle dies for my mat and ran one of the cap dies at the same time. Punch out the letters (which you'll save for another project), your mat die cut behind it will show through and really pop! Such a sharp tag!! I inked up just the YOU from the "lifting you up" greeting in the butterfly set to stamp next to the LOVE, and accented the center of the O with one of the smaller butterflies in the set.  Finish with one of the rainbow hearts and pop up your mat! Image is colored with alcohol markers and accented with glitter pen for sparkle. You'll see these LOVEly letters on a card in tomorrow's hop!

By the way, the caps dies are ALL amazing!  Click that link to see them all and add as you are able to your collection, you can thank me later! 

Again, I am so sorry if you missed out on purchasing this set on release day, it literally flew off the shelves Thursday night (please pardon the pun), but will be back in stock soon! Click the notify me button to get on the Beautiful Butterflies wait list and get an alert as soon as it's back! You will be seeing more butterflies inspo throughout our hop with the other sets and of course videos in the weeks to come to tide you over and get your ready to get busy, this is one of my favorite all time sets I have illustrated, I hope yours, too!

Next up is the wonderful Wildflowers and Weeds!

I was sure this wheel image would be very popular with our design team and sure to make wonderful scenes with it, (so unique but lots of applications), so I hoped I might come up with something a little different for this and grabbed the set after I'd been coloring all my stained glass butterfly panes, how cool would it be to color in the spaces between the spokes and intersections with rainbow colors!  I used the coordinating Wildflowers and Weeds die set, and to be completely honest, that flower is strategically placed because I accidentally colored the section opposite yellow *blue*, doh!!! I'd almost finished and didn't want to start over so here is another tip for the day: cover the boo boo with WHITE GEL PEN, let dry, then color with the marker you *meant* to use! This wouldn't have worked as well with a very large section, but I could fake it just having a bit peeking out from under the die cut, ha! We do what we can...

This next one I had to add one of my side view butterflies enjoying these lovely pansies! I used my butterfly dies (a few sets left!) plus one of the pansies from Lisa's coordinating Weeds and Wildflowers and Weeds die set again.  Cardstock is Barely There, Lipstick, and Lovely Lavender. Stamping is Obsidian, Plum Punch, Lovely Lavender, Wild Dandelion and Fresh Asparagus.  Images are stamped on Pure Luxury White and stitched die cut mat using Master Layouts 2 in GKD Barely There. I am down to small scraps of white only, but am loving this Barely There as my mat color with the lavender and lipstick! Greeting is from the new Incentive set Take Care. Spend more than $75 and get that adorable set for free!

Next we have Hannah's Grow Positive Thoughts set! This first card I stamped the woman onto Kraft cardstock and did some simple coloring on the flowers and leaves with colored pencils. Fel free to change up your position of the woman to change it up, go out of the box and off the card! Next I die cut some of my butterflies from Beautiful Butterflies and the coordinating dies to pop up over the flowers.  I thought coloring each side with completely different colors went so well with the sentiment about creating change, and the butterflies themselves of course, metamorphosis and all.) The affirmations Hannah included are just wonderful!

This next sample is going to date me a bit, I hope you recognize the inspiration! I wanted to try modifying the woman by cutting off the flowers (which I saved of course, for a flower card that will be in our Instagram hop later!) Just add a bright red mouth and you've got the beginnings of an iconic 80's album cover, fun square card to send to a friend who'd remember!  You couldn't go anywhere for a few years without seeing graphic art prints of beautiful women by Patrick Nagel, and I was pretty obsessed with Duran Duran!!

Anyway, even if you weren't a Durannie, I hope this opens your mind to different ways you might make this gorgeous lady for your own. Cardstock is Pure Luxury Passionate Pink, Lovely Lavender, Plum Punch, Black Onyx and White. I layered all the cardstock and used white and black gel pens to draw simple folds, and Lisa's *wheel die* to cut out a vinyl record from black cardstock to slip in! Write your note on the back...

Grow Positive Thoughts 

Now let's go see what else the team did with the new goodies, I myself can't wait! Shop all the new stuff and more here!

Gina K.

Melanie Muenchinger-Illustrator of Beautiful Butterflies, you are here!

Lisa Hetrick-Illustrator of Wild Flowers and Weeds

Hannah Drapinski-Illustrator of Grow Positive Thoughts

Arjita Singh

Beth Silaika

Donna Idlet

Karen Hightower

Mindy Eggen

Rema DeLeeuw

Sheri Gilson

Thanks for visiting today!

Beautiful Butterflies Now Available!

 Hey, everyone! I hope you were able to check out our live release on facebook! If not you can go back and watch! We'll be hopping with the team next week, too, be sure to come check out all the ideas and inspo with our new sets starting Monday!  

Beautiful Butterflies is now available for purchase, and I think this one is gonna go fast!  

I hope you love it as much I am creating with it!

Have a beautiful weekend!  

We are leaving in the morning to take my son to his new dorm at LSU!  I had no idea when I turned in this set how close it would be releasing to when I am literally releasing my butterfly into a big new world! Soar! Bittersweet, but so exciting!  

Any of you been following this blog since he started school? 

It has been 13 years for him, almost a lifetime!  

Sunrise, sunset...