Good morning! The Gina K. Designs Team welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop! Today we hope you are inspired with many beautiful ideas, and as you hop through our blogs,
make sure to leave a comment on each of them because Gina will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of
Gina K. Designs products! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a few days after the hops.
Today I thought I'd first share how Debbie made the background for one of the cards she shared at the party. I love the illusion of the circles in the negative space.
To begin, make sure your stamp
is properly aligned on your block (a 6 or 8 inch block works for these 4 3/4" borders). You'll
notice that other than the herringbone and tile pattern border,
the remaining
5 border strips all have 6 repeating elements. This allows them to be centered over one another when you stamp to make all sorts
of two step and three step combinations. You'll want to center the 3rd
and 4th elements in the border on either side of the crosshairs at the center of your
grid line block (so, three on each side). The points of these will be pointing to that spot.
Stamp the border in the middle of your mat in
Gina K. Passionate Pink.
Working outward this way keeps you from having a full pattern on one
edge and just a sliver on the other.* You can easily find the center by placing your cardstock on top of a ruled mat like the
Scor-Mat. TIP: I'm going to make this card portrait style, but I always stamp
long images left to right since it is easier to hold, and then just turn
the mat after stamping.
Next, ink up the border in
Gina K. Sweet Mango and line up below the first stamped border, hovering over the mat until you see circles "appear" between the concave diamonds (so cool!) and then press down.
Now stamp the third row above in
Gina K. Turquoise Sea in the same
manner. It's okay if you get a little bit off and one row of circle spaces is a bit "taller" or
"fatter" than the other. Note: to get a "perfect" circle, the diamonds borders will *not* be touching, but please don't worry about being perfect! Just sayin' for you perfectionists! ;)
The open space created with this stamped pattern is
perfect for placing a greeting (I used
Theresa's By the Sea 2) stamped in
the new
Black Onyx ink. I stamped some tiny circle elements from the set
on either side of the sentiment (switch the colors putting the orange and turquoise on opposite sides of their stamped borders for balance) and
inside a few of the openings in the new
Gina K. Bubblegum ink. Some tiny rhinestone bling and a
Black Onyx Pure Luxury base make
this card complete. Easy peasy, under 10 minutes! Two layers, three stamps!
I hope this helps show that you don't always have to cover the entire
mat with pattern, and can use just a few images for dramatic effect and
get a bold CAS. Love these colors!
Here is another quick sample I stamped up with the new
Gina K. inks
(Sweet Mango, Passionate Pink, Grass Green, Turquoise Sea, plus
Memento Rich Cocoa) using the smaller elements collage style to make a whimsical
background. You don't always have to make a pattern, this looks so magical and "sparkly" to me, like fairy dust! Greeting is from
Carolyn's Stamp it Big! 2.
Finally, some cards mixing up the "fancier" patterns from this set to go with the next set we are showcasing today:
Becky Oehlers's new
Bold Blooms. Below is a step by step for the diamond pattern I created on one of the cards I
showed at our release party. I stamped this up before the new Gina K inks arrived,
so I used
Memento Lulu Lavender, Sweet Plum, and
Elderberry (but I hear
"the Gina K. purples" are coming soon, yay!) I knew I wanted to have my greeting at
the top, plus some white space to add the flower, so it wouldn't get
lost on top of the pattern, so I stamped the tile border avbout 1/3 of the way
down my Pure Luxury White card front.
Next
I inked it up again and stamped it below, lining up the points and
leaving a space for stamping some of the smaller square elements in between. Repeat
one more time, going off the bottom edge. I know that stamp looks so much darker than lavender (but it just has staining on it from previously being inked with darker colors, no worries!)
Repeat
one more time, going off the bottom edge.
Next I inked up the 4 square image in Elderberry and stamped into every other open
white space. Follow up with the smaller open square inked in Sweet Plum in a few of the remaining
spaces.
Last, I inked up the tiny diamond in Sweet Plum and stamped it at most, but not all, of the intersections between the tiles.
You can keep the pattern completely symmetrical or random. Keep stamping until you are happy with the look! If you get a smudge, make a boo boo, or get a little "off with the pattern, you can hide it with your focal point of sentiment tag over it! ;)
That's it! I
love how the different purples in this monochromatic pattern pick up
the dark and light shades I added to the petals in
Becky's Bold Blooms flower. The addition of the smallest diamonds adds such a "sparkle" to the pattern and goes nicely with the tiny seeds inside the bloom. These step outs are a re-creation of the pattern from my card from last week, so you will notice below I had more space in between the borders and elderberry stamped squares on the finished card.)
I colored the flower with Copics, BV00 , BV02, V17, YG03 and G99. The purples aren't exact matches for these Memento ink pads, but thy blend nicely, no need to always worry about the matchy matchy. Cardstock is
Pure Luxury White and
Lovely Lavender. Greeting is from
Tami's Simple Flowers.
Here is one more I made with
Pretty Patterns 2 and
Bold Blooms, this time using one of my
Studio cut files I simply stamped the four rows of the Moroccan pattern in black
on the cut mat, and then added the diamond border. I wouldn't have
thought to put these borders together when I was designing the set, but I like
it!
Copic colors are Y19, Y21, Y23, YG03 and G99. I love how the stamped pattern and cut out resembles a trellis.
Greeting is from
Tami's Simple Flowers.
I was hoping to have a video complete for today's hop, but no. Soon! Be sure to come back for moe inspiration and some pattern making
videos! And definitely a tip sheet for this set with so many
possibilities, so stay tuned!
Here are the full sets we are showcasing today.
Now please enjoy continuing the hop with our Gina K. Designs design team!
* TIP: An easy reference, however,
is 4 of the large borders will stamp on a mat with layers for an A2 card. Refer to card in
this post. If I'm
planning to do that, I start at the top or bottom and work my way to the
other side since there won't be a "middle" row when you are stamping
four. All the border strips are 4 3/4" inches long with is perfect for
centering on a card front. On a portrait layout, they will go off the
edge when you stamp them horizontally. If you want to extend these
borders beyond 4 3/4" they will nest or stamp together easily. You can
also use just one of the individual matching elements to stamp just one or as
many as you need on the ends to add to the length.
I I also stamped the individual Moroccan images on either side of the her punched tag to go with the border. Cardstock is Pure Luxury White, Cherry Red. Ink is Black Onyx, Chery Red, and Memento London Fog. Victoria Cuttlebug folder. I have so many ideas for these round elements paired with my square tile pattern border, too, eek! So many patterns, so little time!
