Video: Holiday Cards That Sing

   
It's Friday, woot! Early video post! :) In today’s video, I will show you how to spell out a fun greeting with my Lots of Letters 2 set and accents from Fabulous Holiday Fillers. This is a quick card and design that lets you take it “inside” the card for a fun surprise! 

  You can add lots of short words for any occasion in this fun circle border, which adds a pop of color and makes letter placement easy, and the holiday elements can be changed out to work for season.

More winter holiday greetings using Lots of Letters 2 or Lots of Letters (lowercase set):

MERRY
XMAS
BRIGHT
HO HO HO
FA LA LA
JOY
HOPE
PEACE
LOVE
NOEL
LET IT SNOW
JOLLY (I accidentally typed "July" on the sheet above, oops!)
SANTA
NAUGHTY
NICE

In this one, I used some of the different Fabulous Holiday Fillers elements to turn them into hanging ornaments.  To "hang" them, use the dashed and straight line from Lots of Letters 2 or Fabulous Frame Fillers. You could also use a piercing tool or Scor-Bug embosser to create the lines. And for more ideas and videos with Lots of Letters 2 if you missed them the first time around, click here.

Supplies used:
Gina K. Designs Lots of Letters 2 and Fabulous Holiday Fillers stamp sets
Gina K. Pure Luxury White cardstock
Gina K. Cherry Red, Christmas Pine, Kraft ink
Optional:  patterned papers and colored cardstock

Becky and Melanie's Holiday Hop!

This blog candy giveaway is now closed. See post above for the winner.

  
Good morning!  Becky and I thought it would be great fun to team up for a little Holiday Hop today! We are showcasing Becky's new set, "Warm Woolen Mittens" along with Becky's new cut file "Grand Banners" and "Grand Banners - Winter Sentiments" and my newest set, "Lots of Letters" (clear  and rubber) today, along with a few of my designing friends' recent faves from me! Joining us are some dynamic designers that will knock your socks off with their beautiful work today!  Make sure you visit everyone's blog to leave a comment and be entered to win a clear "I do!" and "Beyond Baskets" stamp set! We will draw a winner randomly and announce Thursday morning!

Now on to today's projects!

 Today I have a sample using both Becky and my newest sets, Warm Woolen Mittens and Lots of Letters! I love how this design turned out and hope it gives you lots of ideas for other ways to frame the letters than the ones I included in the set, like, mittens, for instance! I stamped the outlines of the mittens in Memento Espresso Truffle, and because I didn't have any masks ready, I just went ahead and made them overlap, and colored in the little areas with a Blue Copic, just like the loops in the scripty greeting (and over parts of the knit pattern for accents), isn't that fun?! Then I centered a letter on each mitten to start my greeting, cut them out and popped them up, and added Becky's cute sentiment below. 

TIP:  Stamping out the Lots of Letters alphabet to create just shorter, large words on a card is a *great* way to incorporate them with part of another greeting, rather than spelling out a long one. Mixing fonts and letters sizes this way gives you cards and sentiments such a fresh feel.  I used a Spellbinders Matting Basics B die to trace a border with a marker and then added the little faux stitch detail to connect the greeting to it.  Card base is the beautiful new Powder Blue Pure Luxury!

 Next, I have a very simple card with Lots of Letters and the coordinating Pretty Patterns set (clear or rubber). This fun circles border looks terrific with circle framed letters (punched with a 3/4" circle and popped up), and I will be making some personalized cards and gift sets for the holidays.  Inks are Memento Teal Zeal, Summer Sky, Sweet Plum, Bahama Blue and cardstock is Powder Blue and Pure Luxury White.

 Finally, I had to share this card (because I love it so!) using the magnolia from Stately Flowers 3. It's one of my favorite images in the series, and I made it for a movie inspired challenge (favorite films, can you guess?*)  This is like the triple panel stamping technique, but way easier if you have Spellbinder Matting Basics dies!  Stamp just one piece of CS with the magnolia in hot pink.  Now place three nested rectangle dies from the set on top, centering each and run through your cutting machine. Leave the dies in place and sponge peach ink on top with a sponge dauber. Remove dies and cut two mats 1/8" larger from Passionate Pink to layer under smaller stamped mats.  

  Adhere to a Just Peachy Pure Luxury base.  I used one of the smallest dies in the set for the greeting and stamped the flower again on Ivory (in that same pink) and added just hints of color with Copics (E93, YG00, YG63) and cut out.  I stamped it one more time on Fresh Asparagus cardstock in Bamboo Leaves and cut them out to layer underneath the flower.

Here are the sets I used today:

Warm Woolen Mittens

Lots of Letters clear
and rubber

Pretty Patterns

Stately Flowers 3

 Happy holidays and happy hopping!  Don't forget to leave comments for more chances to win some stamps!

Designer Hop-

Becky Oehlers (Illustrator of Warm Woolen Mittens)  

Beate Johns

JJ Bolton

Laurie Schmidlin

Latisha Yoast

Michelle Woerner

Richard Breaks

Vera Yates

Tosh Leyendekker

Thanks for visiting today! And thanks to my fabulous guests!

*Steel Magnolias, using Shelby's wedding colors "Blush" and "Bashful"

More Word Window Inspiration

 Hello! Here is a quick card I made a couple weeks ago but had not shown yet, wanting to give you some inspiration for how you can collage style stamp the different images in the Lots of Letters set. It's a fun way to make your own patterned paper or put together a custom color palette you enjoy. Here I used Memento Tangelo, Love Letter, Bamboo Leaves and Teal Zeal and a different round image for each color.

I used a 5 circle long piece from the Lots of Letters Word Window-Circles Studio file to stamp the Miss U greeting (letters stamped in Teal Zeal) and divided the words with a button attached with a glue dot.  I popped up the greeting and mounted all on a Pure Luxury Ocean Mist base, pierced around the sides with the Scor-Bug embosser and Scor-Buddy.

Originally, I stamped a larger mat, but decided to trim it down and I really like how it turned out putting it all the ay to the top edge and then adding the rounded letters to the bottom of the straight frame, gives it a lot of energy! 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Day 2 Inspiration Hop: Elegant Florals and Sentimental Holiday

 Good morning!  The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas, and as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because  a few random comments will be chosen 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 couple of days after the hops.

First up we have Theresa Momber's Elegant Florals (clear and rubber. I love these long stems!  One of my most popular posts recently was a CAS card I made with the colored lilies, but today I wanted to to share some inspiration from one of the set's bold silhouette images. Even with their delicate details, they make for really awesome graphic cards and work beautifully with modern elements, check it!

First I stamped a background with my Lots of Letters set with the long strip of rounded squares going down on white CS, first in Memento Toffee Crunch, then Cantaloupe, Tangelo, and finally Morocco. Next I stamped out some of the individual rounded squares in the same colors, cut them out and adhered them with pop dots over the stamped background to mix up the colored pattern and add dimension.

Now stamp the sentiment and leafy branch in Memento Rich Cocoa.  I also stamped just a bit of the branch to one more square to make the pattern dance and repeat around the card.  Isn't that gorgeous? Base is Pure Luxury Sweet Mango.

TIP:  Stamping the first line of the sentiment in the white space between the stamped pattern makes it easier to read.

Next up we have Beth Silaika's Sentimental Holiday 

(clear and rubber.)  These sentiments and bold images make creating holiday cards a snap.

 Base is Pure Luxury Red Hot.  Stamp sentiment on Pure Luxury White in Memento Rich Cocoa.  I stamped the star in Bamboo Leaves centered over the & and then did some scoring with the Scor-Buddy though the points of the star and around the mat. I layered this onto Dark Chocolate Pure Luxury.  DP is from the GKD Merry Little Christmas Patterned Paper pack.

I added a few more adhesive rhinestones to embellish the mat and the star print on the DP.

Thanks for visiting today! Please enjoy hopping for more inspiration with these two terrific sets with the rest of the 

Gina K. Designs team.

• Gina K
• Beth Silaika – Illustrator Sentimental Holidays
• Theresa Momber – Illustrator Elegant Florals
• AJ Otto
• Becky Oehlers
• Carolina Buchting
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Lori McAree
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean
• Tami Mayberry
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

Day 1 Inspiration Hop: Lots of Letters and Warm Woolen Mittens

Good morning!  The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas, and as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because a few random comments will be chosen 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 couple of days after the hops.

 This get well card with Lots of Letters (available in clear or red rubber) was so fun to make!  My letter stamps were all laying in a jumble on my storage board sheet after making so many different words for other designs, so I smacked my Versamark pad on top of the letters and then pressed a piece of Sweet Corn CS on top and embossed with white EP to create this alphabet soup! Die cut with a circle.

 "Soup bowl" frames are stamped in Memento Cantaloupe ink and then I stamped the individual letters at angles to look like they are floating around to spell the sentiment.  Card uses Pure Luxury Sweet Corn, Black Onyx, Kraft, and White, and the  spoon image is from Mugs and Kisses, stamped in Tuxedo Black on Moonlit Fog CS.

   Last I added some black gel pen faux stitching around the edges and folded up a little scrap or Merry Little Christmas DP with a little strip on black CS as a holder and adhered with a pop dot.  I created this template for the card for the bowl cut out and windows for the letters using our Studio cut files Lots of Letters Circles (for the words) and Lots of Letters Rounded Squares for the rounded mat, sized for A2 cards.  (you can see the one I made for the template below in this post.)

I created this template for the card for the bowl cut out and windows for the letters using our Studio cut files Lots of Letters Circles (for the words) and Lots of Letters Rounded Squares for the rounded mat, sized for A2 cards.  (you can see the one I made for the template below in this post.)

 Lots of Letters Circles

  

Lots of Letters Rounded Squares  

Be sure to watch Gina's video for how easy it is to customize your mats for these letter and image stamps in just the length you need for the number of letters in your word by copying and pasting the different options available in the Lots of Letters cut files, in just the orientation you want them!

Also, please help me welcome my special guest for Lots of Letters this month, Beate Johns! Can't wait for you to see what adorable project she has cooked up with these stamps!

Next we have Becky Oehler'sWarm Woolen Mittens. 

  It was super fun getting to "knit" my own pattern for once! :)  

I stamped the border in Memento Rhubarb Stalk on Soft Sand Pure Luxury CS. Stamp mitten outlines and cuffs in Memento Rhubarb Stalk on White Pure Luxury. Then stamp the knit border across both and cut.  TIP:  Take care to make the pattern straight and even across both (I just lined up the diamond in between the two thumbs, so they look like a matched set.)

Cut them out and adhere with pop dots.  I stamped a piece of white twill with Tami Mayberry's Perfect Plaids in Love Letter, love the plaid and knit patterns together on one card.  Add a bit of red bakers twine to tie on the mittens.  Greeting is stamped in Rhubarb Stalk and Love Letter.  Base is Pure Luxury Innocent Pink.  Pierce holes across the top and bottom of the white layer with the Scor-Bug Embosser and Scor-Buddy.

So snuggly! :)

Now please continue hopping with our Gina K Designs team for more inspiration with these sets!  Thanks for visiting!

• Gina K
• Becky Oehlers – Illustrator Warm Woolen Mittens
• AJ Otto
• Beth Silaika
• Carolina Buchting
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Lori McAree
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean
• Tami Mayberry
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher 
 

Simple Thanks

Very clean and simple card.  Was just playing with my new Lots of Letters stamps when they first arrived (a warm up card) and some ink pads.  Testing out stamping letters with no stamp positioner, woo hoo! I fit pretty much the whole Memento rainbow on here after adding the words! 

Cardstock is Pure Luxury White and Blue Raspberry.

Sweet Hello

Hello!  For today's card, I used Lots of Letters circle elements to make my own background with Memento colors Angel Pink, Lulu Lavender, Sweet Plum, and Grape Jelly.  See how you can layer the the solid and double rimmed circle border, as well as the burst and coordinating rim (with the jagged edge) for two step stamping?  I stamped a few of the letters directly onto the background centered in the circles, and then popped up a couple I punched out with a 1" circle add interest.  These circle images are also fun for adding buttons or flowers to the centers, just add glue dots.

Cardstock is Pure Luxury White, Wild Lilac and Lovely Lavender. 

TIP: It probably looks like I change colors a lot here, but actually I had the different circles on different blocks and stamped them all across in rows in lavender.  Then I went back with the pink and plum and jelly to add color in spots. :) 

For short posts, do you like the larger font better? Let me know if this is easier to read. :)