CAS-ual Friday (a few days late!)

Good morning! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! We had our first family camp out, at beautiful Enchanted Rock, I can't wait to share pics! Quickly though, I am behind on something I was supposed to post a few days ago: I am sponsoring the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge this week! CFC#46 theme is "Name that Tune", SO fun to create cards inspired by songs, hope I have time to whip something up! Please check their blog for details, deadline to enter: 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday! You guessed it, I donated a signed copy of my book " A Year of Flowers"! Good luck, hope you play along!

Back soon with more crafty card inspiration! We got our new release stamps for April last week and I have been stamping up an inky storm preparing for next week, woo hoo! :)

Thanks for visiting today!

Card Positioning Systems

Good morning! Be sure to check out the CPS blog, this week I am sponsoring the challenge and donating a prize! (Gotta go look to see what it is!) Wednesday I will be sharing my take on this sketch. (I think Tami *somehow knew* I would like working with flowers...) ;)

I hope you can find time to participate in the next several days, and have fun playing with the sketch! I love how my card turned out!

Sponsoring The Play Date Cafe

Good morning, hope your weekend is off to good start! Just wanted to give you all a heads up if you have not yet seen it that I am sponsoring The Play Date Cafe Challenge this week! Isn't this a beautiful color story for inspiration? I'd hoped to have a sample today to play along (just for funsies, of course, since I have no intention of trying to win my own prize, lol!) but haven't had time to stamp yet, it has been an extremely busy week.)

The prizes I am offering for their color challenge are signed copies of both my new "Stately Flowers 3" AND "A Year of Flowers" stamp sets!
Hope you can play along! You have until next Tuesday night to enter, be sure to read their post for official rules, as well as reading about their new design team members! (Remember, enter there, not here!)

Happy Saturday!

A little peck...

So I was looking at these images I hadn't inked up yet from The new StampTV "Falling for You" kit and noticed they both had their eyes closed...and that if you tilted the chicken just right he could lean in for a kiss! The fact that they both had the little plaid detail on their bodies made their match all the more perfect! After coloring the two and choosing some pinks and green and aqua for the plaid pattern, I saw Donna had a Mix it Up Monday challenge on StampTV to make your own background plaid using markers and a straightedge, so that's what I did! The Kraft cardstock has a subtle scored plaid pattern in it as well (used the Scor-Buddy). I hand wrote the words I wanted for my sentiment with a marker on Basic Grey Curio paper and then cut up the pieces. Card also uses Pure Luxury Ocean Mist and Grass Green.

This is the first card I've gotten to sit down and stamp in awhile! (Felt good!) :)

Have a great weekend! Guest design spot from Kyra coming up!

STV Color Spotlight 20

Here is a simple sample for this week's color challenge, this crisp and sunny pairing with a pop of blue made me think of trying to create a patterned background using "Bring the Bling" and one of my other favorite sets, "A Year of Flowers"! It was fun to mix it up and use the blingy stems with the realistic looking daisies, makes for a happy pattern! Blue, white and yellow are always such fresh palette with this type of flower! I stamped the daisies and bling flourish with Vivid Inky Blue. Then I colored the centers Copcis Y08 and Y15. TIP: Because this blue ink is NOT waterproof, instead of coloring on your yellow in circles like you normally would, just dot it on until you get the deep yellow you are looking for, dabbing mostly into the white areas. Pushing through the blue with the yellow and you'll get more of a green, make sense? :) Greeting is also from "A Year of Flowers", punched out with 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches. By the way, WHICH flower from "A Year of Flowers" is your absolute favorite?? (I know this daisy gets see a lot of ink in my house!) Be sure to sure the tag STVCSP when you upload to the STV gallery using this color combo, good luck and I hope you win some free stamps! Have an awesome weekend (psst, I just bought two more GREAT deals, wanna know?? or are you getting sick of them? Email if you're curious and 'll send them on the sneak, hee hee!) PS I am still sick, but thankfully I started this card before I was feeling bad, but thanks so much for all your well wishes and prayers and VERY kind comments about my card yesterday, I still my head buried in the sand over that!

STV Sketch Spotlight 15

Happy Monday! Welcome to another StampTV Sketch Spotlight Challenge! This week we have a fun sketch, with three little panes to fill!

These windows inspired me to do some little "Basket Blessings" bunny vignettes and split the little "peek-a-boo" sentiment into three parts using a marker to ink up the stamp and cleaning it after each stamping word. Hide and PEEK!! :)

The DP is Basic Grey Sugar Rush and cardstock is Gina K Pure Luxury Innocent Pink, Black Onyx and White. The border I threaded the 5/8" gingham through is NOT a punch, but a piece of PLASTIC I salvaged from when my kids were opening Christmas gifts, you know those pieces all the parts of a plastic toy that needs assembly are attached to before popping off? I thought it looked really pretty and might come in handy later! (If it looks good,why not?) ;)

TIP: I used B60 and BV31 (Pale Blue Gray and Pale Lavender) to add shadows to my bunnies, these colors look a lot fresher and coordinate better than gray would with the periwinkle in the DP.

Please upload your creation using this sketch to the STV gallery with the tag STVSKSP15, I hope you'll play along, you could win some FREE stamps! Hop to it! ;)

STV Sketch Spotlight 12

Hello and happy Monday! Time for another Sketch Spotlight, here is my interpretation of the sketch, using my "Mugs and Kisses" set.
DP layers and cup is paper pieced with Basic Grey Nook and Pantry, (used E43 to shade the cup and E57 and E77 to color the coffe inside) Cardstock is Gina K Pure Luxury White, Innocent Pink and Chocolate Brown (this layer is embossed with Cuttlebug Scrollwork folder). Mug and sweet and popped up for dimension and I sponged the Beaded Oval die with pink ink.

I used my scraps to decorate the inside and flap of the envelope. I used the tiny stamps from my set to create "coffee plus sugar equals love!" Write in your own + and = with a coordinating marker...

Be sure to sue the tag STVSKSP12 when you upload your new creation using this sketch to the STV gallery. I hope you participate and best of luck winning some free stamps!

Fun stuff this week, thanks for stopping by today, see you tomorrow!!

Sketch Spotlight 9

It's Monday!! Time for another Sketch Spotlight Challenge with Gina K on StampTV! Be sure to upload your creations to the STV gallery with the tag STVSKSP9, hope you'll play along for a chance to win a free set!
I used the sketch to make a special Valentine for my son's kindergarten teacher. I found this cute sheet of vintage valentine paper from The Paper Studio at Hobby Lobby, always get so nostalgic for making homemade Valentines and decorating bags to put them in back in elementary school this time of year! Glad my kids give me LOTS of excuses to keep making crafts like those!

I trimmed it so I'd have this little blond boy (who looks like William!) saying, "I've the nicest teacher in the world." (The girl above that looks like his blonde teacher, too, how about that?!) It's REALLY helpful to check out the details in your patterned paper before you start cutting to find the best parts for your particular design. The Black Onyx layer is Cuttlebugged with Numbers Collage and swiped a Cream White ink pad over the embossing to look like black board, isn't than fun? Sponge the Beaded Circle lightly with Antique Linen ink and add your stamped hands from "Where Your Heart is". I colored the hands with E51 and E02 (this color is a little pinker/peachier than the ones I've used on other posts, I wanted to give the little boys hands a slightly ruddier look) I pieced the heart middle with Red Hot to match the little "I love you" sentiment and cardbase, wanted a more opaque look as if you were cutting out little red hearts from construction paper. Pure Luxury White layer under the black mat is sponged with the Antqiue Linen as well to match the DP. I can't wait to make more Valentines with this set! I got some trendy heart paper too so I'll be making some with designs with that as well!

Hope you had a great weekend, ours is still going with the MLK holiday!

Some words in honor of today:

"Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everyone!! Put your gifts to work! :)

Sketch Spotlight #6

Good morning! I hope you had a terrific weekend! Time for another Sketch Spotlight Challenge to start the week! For today's card, I combined the teacup from "Mugs and Kisses" with the flowers from "Buds and Vases", isn't that sweet in the cup? These mugs are the same size and scale as the containers in the vase set, so have fun mixing and matching. (hey, you could even drink your tea from jar, Texas style!) All DP is from the DCWV Mariposa pack, butterfly is cut out from the print I used for paper piecing the cup. I used two Copics slightly darker than the DP to shade the sides. Flowers are stamepd on white CS and popped up. The little tag was created with the oval label image and happiness greeting from "Mugs and Kisses". Corner is a Fancy Punch and I also used an orange Pure Luxury Button (love the peachy, pearlized finish on this one!) and adhesive pearls to embellish it. I substituted the oval for a Labels Eight die cut from Ocean Mist, sponged with Tumbled Glass ink. Card base is Sweet Corn.

Here is the sketch, please use the tag STVSKSP6 when you upload your sample to the STV gallery. Be sure to check out Gina's video and samples from the our other illustrators using today's sketch! Hope you play along for a chance to win some free stamps!

Have a happy day! Thanks for visiting me!

Sketch Spotlight #5

Good morning, happy Monday! Time for another Sketch Spotlight Challenge from StampTV and Gina K Designs! Here is Sketch 5:
The diagonal in the sketch sketch inspired me to make this candy cane striped paper for my "Mugs and Kisses" sample today, as well as that cool Candy Cane Cuttlebug folder she demoe'd a couple weeks back! This was fun to do and used up my scraps, let me show you! (and be sure to scroll all the way to the end of this post there's alitle surprise hiding under that mug!)

You know all those 1/2" strips of white you have left over after cutting white 4 x 5 1 /4" mats for your A2 cards? Well, I cut a red mat corner to corner, then adhered 4 strips with Scor-Tape leaving some wide AND narrow stripes of Lipstick Red peeping through to resemble a candy cane pattern.

Then I flipped it over and cut the ends off. I left mine hanging over about 1/16" of an inch, you can really see all the layers this way, but you may prefer to cut it exactly.

I really like this look! And here you can see that my popped up focal point was hiding a little coupon tag I made with sentiments from "Mugs and Kisses" on Kraft cardstock. it just slides out, stays snugly in there without adhesive between the layers. Ribbon is Pure Luxury and mug is pieced with Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly.

I also didn't want to hide to much of that paper I slaved over (wink!) so I stamped "Christmas" from "Seasonal Sayings" onto a piece of vellum paper. The glue dots adhering it are hidden by the red buttons. (And I'm totally diggin this color combo: White, Lipstick Red, and Little Boy Blue, with a touch of Kraft)

Hope you can play along with us this week, you could earn free stamps! Be sure to upload your card to the STV gallery with the tag STVSKSP5! Excited to see what you make!

Praying your week is off to an excellent start, see you tomorrow!

STV Spotlight Sketch #3

Good morning! Happy Monday and welcome to another Sketch Spotlight challenge with StampTV, Gina K and the team!

If you follow my blog or are familiar with my sets, you know I love puns! I'd been thinking about making a card like this for a couple weeks, after I was reminded by many of our GKD customers and fans during our peeks of holiday images that Christmas isn't associated with Wintery weather in their part of the world, but summer! o this holiday card is beach inspired, "Jingle Shells", get it? hee!! This sketch I thought was perfect for using the border from "A Year of Borders", large sand dollar from "Gifts from the Sea" as the focal point and some little bells as accents!
I created a computer generated sentiment and printed it on white layering weight CS to go below the border. Images are embossed with Versamark and gold EP.

Base and mats are Red Hot, ribbon is 5/8" stitched Pure Luxury. I pierced holes through the border layer and hung the bells from jump rings.

After working on this, I have a couple more ideas I'm really excited about it for beachy Christmas cards I'm going to have to make with these sets will share soon, (a virtual high five from me if you beat me to it!) ;) I think our family members in Florida (where it WILL be winter but won't feel like it!) will really get a kick out of them!!

Hope you'll pay along with our challenge! Be sure to upload your card with the keyword STVSKSP3 to the StampTV gallery, and be sure to check out Gina's newest video with this sketch and more samples from our team!

Talk to you soon, it's abusy, BUSY week getting ready for Thanksgiving, house guests, AND our new release next week, eek! :)

STV Sketch Spotlight #2

When I saw Gina's sketch for this week, I was pretty sure she created it with my "A Year of Borders" set in mind, hee! Haven't seen her card yet, but I'll be off in a flash to do so at the end of this post! :)
Not thinking about how you would have JUST seen my other card for the last challenge with the same butterflies, I have them on today's card, too LOL! Sorry about that, I love how it turned out, but if you are needing of change of pace, just squint and pretend I used leaves! (The colors would be the same...) ;) Today I stamped the butterfly border in Wild Honey on the bias, stamping diagonally from corner to corner on the Ivory mat , leaving about a 1/4" between each row until the entire piece of cardstock was filled in. Then I sponged it with Wild Honey and Vintage Photo inks. Doesn't like that look like a printed piece of patterned paper? Angling the border gives the card a lot of energy and is a nice contrast to the horizontal, colored border.

I already had this Circle Nestabiltie die cut (Fresh Asparagus) out on my desk so I swapped that for the rectangle and went ahead and let it peek over the top of the border, little changes like this are okay as long as you can still see the inspiration sketch in it! I used the "Labelled with Love" greetings again, they fit so perfectly in this small space, and cut out one butterfly to pop up next to it.

I used a green pen to make the faux piercing around the circle and my Scor-Bug tool to do real piercing around the edge of the mat. Button is Pure Luxury and base is Chocolate Brown. Images are colored with Copics.

Be sure to use the tag STVSPS2 when you upload your submission to StampTV for this challenge, hope you'll play along and maybe win some free stamps! Go check out Gina's video and more samples from our team now! :)

Happy Monday, here's to a brand new week, make it a great one! Froday i'll be saring a sample using the bold flower border from this set that matches "Wild at Heart" for the Color Spotlight, can't wait!

STV Sketch Spotlight #1!

Hello! Are you as excited about the new episodes Gina will be adding to StampTV each week as I am? In each episode, you will see her creating a card from start to finish with each of our new release sets during the month, we are just thrilled to share more ways to use all our new stamps so they become new favorites in your collection! Mondays are devoted to a sketch she'll create, here is the first sketch below!
I used my "A Year of Borders" set to make a card with this sketch. I took a small liberty on using the whole border as a rectangle instead of an oval, but if you look closely, there is a round design embossed (Sizzix folder) into the Fresh Asparagus mat that frames the image imilar to the sketch. ("Festive Frame" would have been perfect with this sketch to use with the border going across, (I just might have to make another entry doing so!) but today I really wanted to use just the borders set.) I sponged the edges with some olive ink to make the pattern pop out more.

Border is embossed in gold, colored with Copics (E13 and E57 for pinecones, R37 and R59 for flowers, YG23 and G99 for needles), and matted onto Good as Gold CS. Tip: Make the greenery as full as you desire by making quick swipes with your marker starting at the base of the needles and working outward, don't worry abut tracing the image exactly! I like to use two greens to give the needles more depth.

The little greeting from the STV kit "Winter Wonderland"(isn't that font lovely with this image?) is embossed Innocent Pink, which I die cut with a Petite Oval and sponged with Vivid Brick, I love how that brings out the dark and lighter areas of the poinsettias.

I added some punched Fancy Corners, gold adhesive nail heads and stitched red ribbon to complete the sketch. As you can see the embossed border panel slides out, it can now be used as a bookmark! Card and gift, all in one, I love it!

Check out Gina's video now on StampTV. I don't know what set she's using today, but it's sure to be a good one! You'll see this sample of mine PLUS our other design team members and illustrators interpretations of the sketch there as well.

Thank you for joining us to kick off the new episodes and spotlight challenges! Of course, like other STV challenges, there are FREE stamps up for grabs, so I hope you'll all participate! See the full details on the StampTV. Put this on your calendar for Mondays and then look ahead to Fridays, which will be filled with glorious color! :)

Have a terrific day!

Card Drive for Kids and Spina Bifida (and a sketch!)

Hello! Giovana is doing a repeat of her card drive for children she knows who have Spina Bifida, you can get all the details here to participate on Giovana's blog. I was delighted to see her post a photo of little Rebekah receiving all her cards from last year's drive! (My card is the little "Bug Me Anytime one in front, hee, I'd forgotten which one I'd sent until she posted!) :) She is asking for cards again for Rebekah, now 8, and a little 2 year old boy named Logan, who both have Spina Bifida. Now several people have sponsored the drive with stamp sets you can win by particpating, you have until November 5th to enter! Please play, it's fun, and these kids will be so happy to get your special creations! I donated my set "Wee Tees", which is not just for babies! Here I cropped the stamped onesie to make a cute tee for that cutie Rebekah! I made the flower with some silk ribbon from Sharon I twisted together with some Scor-tape. DP is from the Basic Grey Olivia pack (and I know just what I'm going to do next for Logan with the Wee Tees set and the Basic Grey Oliver paper! choo chooooo!)
Since this card turned out different than I originally planned, I thought I'd go ahead and make up the sketch of it for you! Enjoy! If you make something with it, please let people know about my sketch with a link to this post and share a link to your card in the comment section below! It would also be great even if you can't participate to link this post on your blog to spread the word about the card drive, thank you in advance!

And if you do play, don't forget to add your card to Giovana's blog, not here! The sketch is NOT part of a requirement for the card drive, just for fun, anytime! Good luck winning Wee Tees or one of the other great sets offered! :)

Have a terrific weekend!

Thank you! (x 5)

Today please be sure to check out the thank you hop for our retiring challenge hostesses! I am SO sorry I couldn't participate, we have been hit hard with colds in our home, I was actually hoping to make a card this morning to share since I haven't posted in a few days but the school nurse just called a little while ago and had me pick up my younger son so that won't be happening! But also, I couldn't just make one card for this hop, I would need to make 5 for these extremely talented, big hearted ladies! Today, we honor and thank:
Linda Payne
Melissa Shultz
Giovana Smith
Carla Suto &
Brenda Turner

All five of these women have been guest designers for my stamp sets in the past, they are some of my favorite designers in all of STV! As you know "life" gets in the way sometimes of being able to stamp as much asone would like, and I am so fortunate to have so many people that love our stamps and fill our StampTV gallery with so much inspiration when I can't! They are all very precious to me for their support of Gina K Designs and my sets, as well as being the sweetest, most encoruaging ladies! So when we come out from under this sickness (and frosting a zillion cupcakes and cookies I volunteered for the school bake sale tomorrow!) , I'll be sending out five cards!! :)

And Jessica Fick has put together a free download of all the challenges they have done during their term, what a great resource, thank you Jess for assembling!

Start hopping here! Have a great weekend! I hope I can come back later today or tomorrow with some stuff! (but new stamps are arriving tomorrow for our November 4th release! eek!)

(hee hee, I just noticed 3 of my sets were used in the gorgeous samples above, woot! Finally a "cover girl" LOL! thanks again ladies!) :)

STV Challenge

Oh, I'm so sorry, circumstances today prevented me from finishing up my tip sheet for you, and I don't want to post it prematurely without including everything I can think of for the new set! BUT in the meantime, here is a sample I created before our release which very coincidentally meets Cathy's Recipe challenge from our release, you have until Monday to enter for a chance to win a GKD set! Cat was pretty specific on this one: at least three bits of bling, one layer (but she said you could cut out and add your focal point to that layer), NO DP, and two rounded corners! I laughed out loud when she posted her sample and saw how similar her card and mine were! (I am a big fan, so guess I just want to be more like her!) I've made several cards with the different "Buds and Vases" containers resting on of the new label stamps, either from "Labeled with Love" (shown hre) or "Lovely Labels 2", will be shaking the others soon, and I love how they can look like a little doily, platter or placemat underneath! Flowers are masked and stamped twice, also added a couple additional stamped single flowers to make it even fuller and give more dimension, colored with Copics, centers are adhesive pearls, base is Kraft (edges swiped with Cream White pad to give if a softer look), label is stamped on Lovely Lavender, ribbon is Pure Luxury.

Happy World Card Making Day! I actually had another project that needed my attention, which I will be sharing more about soon! and, it does involve card making!

More later, hope you are enjoying this beautiful weekend! :)

CSS Alumni Limited Supply Challenge Hop!

The CSS Alumni were sweet enough to let me join in the hop, thanks ladies!
This month's challenge was to create a card that contains only the following items and no others:

One Neutral color for your card base: White, Ivory, Black, Brown or Kraft (check)

Two different colors of card stock (check!)
One patterned paper (check!)
Three buttons (on flower centers, check!)
One color of ribbon (oops, does gingham count?! eek! it's just one ribbon, though!)
As little or as many images as you'd like (check!)

I inked over my flowers from "Wild at Heart" with a black marker, huffed then stamped them onto this Mariposa DP fron DCWV. I wasn't sure if the supplies were so limited that you couldn't use Nesties or punches, so I cropped my greetinginto a rectangle just to be safe! (Okay, now I'm wondering if my white and black count as colors?! hmmm...) This was my first time to try the gathered ribbon with Scor-tape, you like? It was fun to do!

Hope you are enjoying hopping! Please make you way over to Melissa Cash's blog!