Modern Neapolitan

I had to go back and double check all my posts to make sure I hadn't already posted this for you, it is from a looong time ago, but I apparently I never did! I cranked out so many mosaics when this set first came out I didn't have time to show them all before our next release came around LOL! This "Inspiration Mosaic" sample used "100% Sweet"s sundae as it's focal point, all the layers of a sundae were perfect for this color blocking concept! When you cut it out and mount it over the white rectangle it looks like it's sitting on a place mat, and really pops out from the other panels colored in all these yummy sundae colors (all colored with Copics, no paper piecing here)! I colored the bottom of the strawberry dark brown and added a little glaze to make it look chocolate dipped. :) This time I trimmed the mosaic exactly on the edge and then did the matting a little differently with a thick fudge stripe (Pure Luxury Chocolate Kiss) along the bottom and a little punched square at the top corner for balance. Base is cherry, I mean Rocket Red! ;)

I am SO excited, the "Inspiration Mosaic" set will be featured in a publication's "Favorite Products" section in a just a few weeks, I have been on pins and needles waiting for this one to come out! :) Any guesses which??

Hope your day is super sweet!

Happy Birthday StampTV! (and a little tutorial)

I can't believe it's been a year since the inception of StampTV! In some ways, it's gone by in a blur, but in others I can barely remember what it was like before this community got off the ground, you know?! You also know Gina has all sorts of fun things and freebies planned, including a new and improved release party for our March release next week, so stay tuned! Here is a simple birthday card I made in honor of the occasion, kind of a "fill in the blank, paint by number" card if you will, using "Arranged with Love" and "Pressed Flowers"! :) Start by stamping the Arranged with Love frame in black onto Pure Luxury White and trim.

Now take the bold images from Pressed Flowers you want to spotlight in the frame, here I chose the roses and a shade of pink. Mask off the edges of the frame and stamp!

You could leave it like that and mat it onto coordinating black and colored base for a sweet monochromatic card. You might choose to do just one flower instead in an eyepopping color for a spotlighting effect, OR you could keep adding more color, see below...

Now I'm doing the rose leaves in light green. In addition to the post it notes for the straight edges, you'll also need a mask of the rose you cut from sketch paper to cover the flower before stamping.

You can compare the different looks, both versions took under 10 minutes. If you have more masks cut out, it is a snap to add more flowers and color if you wish. If you'd like to add shadowed areas to these images instead of solid color, just color them directly onto your stamps with markers.* Then add a little bling with some pearls and rhinestones and a ribbon to take it up another notch!

I hope this is helpful to show the possibilities with these two sets! :) Happy birthday StampTV! Thank you for such a fun year...and many mooooooooooooooooooore!

*I am working on a post showing each of the bold images in the set which I have photoshopped to show the exact areas for you to add your darker colors to get realsitic shading when stamping these images, think you will find this very helpful! coming soon!

Week 4 with Diana Queen

In our fourth week with Diana, she has this lovely "Pressed Flowers" card to share. While you can still see some beautifully embossed flowers peeping around the corners of the die cut frame, the focus of this card is really the leaves, like stepping out into a lush garden, and I love how you could use these without any flowers to create a "less feminine", although still beautiful, nature themed project.
The patterned paper adds wonderful texture and color without distracting from the focal point and that lattice border really takes the ribbon treatment to another level! Greeting is from "Arranged with Love". Here are Diana's details for the card:

stamps: Gina K Designs "Pressed Flowers" and "Arranged With Love" paper: Gina K Designs pure luxury card stock in Pure Luxury Ivory and Creme de Menthe
ink: VersaMark dazzle watermark embossed with yellow embossing powder, Memento dye ink in bamboo leaves and brown, Ranger distress ink in tea dye.
other:Martha Stewart edge punch, ribbon and rhinestones

Diana, you have done such a wonderful job designing with this set, thank you so much for all the "Pressed Flowers" inspiration! Let's go see what else she has for us!

We are the Champions

Hello! Sorry I've been MIA, my DH was out of town so I was solo for a weekend with the kids and a weekend o' sports! Oh, I stamped a little bit, but not much I can show you just yet, most of it's for our next release!! But there is a little stampy sporty something at the end... :)
Here's William and his soccer "Dream Team", otherwise known as the Blue Jets. William rocked. I think the word is already on the streets that they will be tough to beat, they won their game Saturday 13-0. The tiny one up front in the pink glasses is the star, scoring the most goals, she is FAST!

Next up, we had Jonathan's baseball game, here he is a bat. They won their game 14-11. He had a great game, with a double and a triple, he is my "big" slugger.

I spent a couple hours Friday afternoon, instead of cardmaking, working on the baseball poster since I'm the team parent, they hang it on the dugout to help all the patrents know who's who, makes it easier to cheer for everybody when they are wearing those batting helmets! I had fun photoshopping up some balls and pennants, and of course adding a few stamp images from my sporty sets. ;)

Here is a closeup that uses both "Just So Sporty" and "Sporty Accessories". Wish I'd gotten a better pic, but it was a rainy day when I took this!

Lots of fun things coming up , an "Arranged with Love" sample using the new "Pressed Flowers", and a little tutorial of how to color all the bold blooms to get some great Direct to Stamp effects! Thanks for visiting, have a great week!

Thank You STV Challenge Hostesses!

Hello! Tonight several GinaK Designs designers are joining together to host a special thank you blog hop to our recently retired StampTV Challenge Hostess Team. The four designers we're honoring tonight have provided weekly challenges for the STV members for the entire months of December, January, and February and we are so thankful for their inspiration and hard work!*

• Shannon Bracken: Monday's Color Challenge


• Carolina Buchting: Tuesday's Anything but a Card Challenge


• Jennie Harper: Thursday's Sketch Challenge


• Selma Stevenson: Friday's Blast from the Past Challenge

Each participating designer was asked to choose one challenge shared during the past 3 months and make a card to share on their blogs tonight as well as to send that card to the hostess.

My card is for Selma Stevenson, the week I chose was wood graining. (Well, I had to use some flowers since they are Selma's favorite!) ;) Although I didn't look at any when I made this card, those distressed frames that look they were made from reclaimed wood and belong in some beautiful country farmhouse were what I was going for here...
I started with a rectangle of Kraft CS, then swiped it several times vertically with Tuscan Tan, olive and Cream White pads. Doesn't matter how many times I do this technique, I'm always amazed after adding the ink how realistic the finished product is, and how simple to create! Next I stamped on the Pressed Flowers sunflower and leaves in tan, then went over them with the outlines from A Year of Flowers in olive to make them pop a little more. On Pure Luxury White I stamped the Pressed Flowers in Versamark and then used daubers to add pastel chalks over it. (I'd been meaning to make a Pressed Flower card with this poppin pastel technique, plus I thought it would give a nice faded look to go with my country frame.) I used aqua ink to make the soft background around it. Then I cut a rectangle out of the middle going around the sunflower in the corner like it's carved out, and then snipped the other three corners at at a diagonal to give the frame mitered edges. I put them all back together and popped them up onto a Confetti base, haven't used confetti in awhile but thought the natural fibers in it would be really beautiful with this weathered wood frame. The card still needed a little something, so I punched out some fancy corners from Chocolate Kiss to play off the Coffee Bean stamped greeting from "Say it with Flowers", I rubbed a little more Cream White over them to give them a little patina, and then added an adhesive nail head to each, now they look like some old wrought iron hinges or embellishments.

Visit these links to see all the projects we've prepared for our alumni hostess team:

• Jessica Fick


• Theresa Momber


• Cathy Tidwell


• Lee Murphy


• Melanie Muenchinger


• Nina Brackett


• Carolyn King

And, the new StampTV Challenge Hostess team is also joining in on the hop tonight!

• Tina Gilliland: Monday's Color Hostess


• Karen Knegten: Tuesday's Anything but a Card Hostess


• Vicki Dutcher: Thursday's Sketch Hostess


• Sharri Seffens: Friday's Blast from the Past Hostess

If any of you have not participated in the STV challenges before, they are such a great way to hone your skills as a crafter, add new techniques to your repertoire, and get busy doing the same thing as so many other ladies at once, so fun to see how different all the cards are at the end of the week! A warm welcome to all the new hostesses taking over our StampTV challenges for the next three months! :) Congrats!!

*To see all the challenges the Retired Hostess team has shared during their term, visit the StampTV Idea Center , jessica added pdfs so you cnaa print all these out for your reference! :)

Shy Bunny

Hello there! On today's "Square Pegs" sample I used Tami's "Happy Hearts" set, kissing the different prints form the patterned inked up hearts onto my solid ovals before stamping to make the eggs, I also masked the little pile with another stamped egg I'd cut out. The little blades of grass are...the whiskers, hee hee! I just love multipurpose stamps, don't you? ;) I cut out and popped up the little pile with the bunny peeking from behind, you can use that same oval mask from the eggs over the bunny face when you add your ears, too!

Card uses Pure Luxury White and Creme de Menthe. I Cuttlebugged a pretty Swiss Dot and added a large bordered to the middle strip to match the green egg. Add a little white paper flower and button from the Romance Collection and the card is complete!

I just love how this card turned out, super sweet with those little patterns! Have a wonderful day!

Week 3 with Diana Queen

Today I have another "Pressed Flowers" card from Diana Queen, that completely charmed me once again when I opened the attachment. :).

Stamping these bold flowers in deep coral on ivory paper is so stunning with this coral and idovry patterned paper, instantly makes the graphic print and image look they were made to go together, so try this in lots of different colors! :) The way she arranged them into this little die cut oval, surrounded it with more stamepd and cut leaves and then worked this wide matching ribbon in are just perfection! Love the green crackle DP, too, paired with the bold print it makes the card feel both country and trendy at the same time! Sentiment it from Say it with Flowers. I love how the sweet adhesive pearls under the quote and around the scalloped frame play off the dots in the background.

Here is Diana's list for creating this card:
stamps: GKD Pressed Flowers and Say it with Flowers both illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger
card stock: Gina K Pure Luxury in Ivory (card base, ovals and stamped images)
and Fresh Asparagus (for scalloped ovals).
ink: large flowers are stamped in Lady Bug Memento dye ink, small flowers stamped in frost white pigment ink and leaves are stamped in bamboo leaves and New Sprout Memento dye inks. (Flowers were stamped, paper pieced and shimmer added with Smooch pearlized accent ink.)
other: DP, tiny pearls, ribbon

Now let's go see what else Diana made today, I haven't seen it yet but she has been teasing me with it that it is really different so I can't WAIT! :)

Buds and Buttons

Yippee, Spring is almost here! That is cause for celebration with sample I made with the "Pressed Flowers" tulips, lots of labels and Spring Collection of buttons.
I began stamping one of Nina's Lovely Labels in pink and then die cutting with the coordinating Labels Eight. After lots of hemming and hawing I decided to use the largest of these set of dies to cut my base, just somethin' different! I cut a reverse mask so I could stamp the stems in the labels, and then popped up the tulip heads. My favorite things about this card are the two different borders: one made out of pastel buttons to match the flowers (attached with glue dots), instead of the more often used ribbon, and the grassy border made with two of the different bold leaves from the the Pressed Flowers set. TIP: Place a sheet of scratch paper along the bottom of the card, stamp the leaves across and remove to get the straight masked edge.

Here you can see a closeup of how I added just a bit of darker pink to the tulips, I was also really pleased with how adding the light pink over the yellow blended so nicely with a marker before stamping. You can also see I did not mask the leaves when masking the grassy strip, I like the overlapping with the greenery.

Thank you for visiting! Try something new this week, whether that is learning a new technique or taking a stamping challenge, try out a recipe or sign up for class, and feel yourself growing! :)

PS I am pretty bummed with how dark these photos are looking at them in the post now, wish I'd retaken them. I assure you I made it from Bright White Pure Luxury!

In the Nick of Time...

I admit it. I almost missed my dear friend's birthday. We made last minute plans to go out with her and her husband the other night at 5:30, and at 5PM I got an email from her husband saying "hey, it's her birthday tomorrow!" Whoops! (I mean, I knew it was at the end of February, but how did we get to the end so fast??) Well, you know I had puh-lenty of cards laying around here (and fortunately even had one I knew she really liked already!) but I had to put together an impromptu gift, FAST, as we had to leave in 20 minutes to meet them! Luckily, with Arranged with Love, a bottle of wine, and some waterproof labels , putting together something pretty and appropriate was not a problem! Here it is, my own private happy birthday label! I stamped the frame onto the waterproof label in Memento Tuxedo Black, centering the little greeting card so as not to catch any of the borders on the sticker. After adding my greeting, I quickly colored it with Copics, sponged on a bit of Antique Linen Distressing ink and placed it over the existing wine label! Done in 15 minutes, (with time to spare to take photos for the blog heh heh), whew!! If you haven't used these labels before, you do not need to use special inks to stamp or color, kind of unbelievable I know, but true, your artwork is now waterproof!

With all the sentiments included in the "Arranged with Love" set, a personalized wine label like this one makes the perfect quick gift for weddings and anniversaries as well, and one that the recipient is sure to remember. Who knows how many times this set will save my hide in the future LOL! (Don't worry I'm still getting her something else, just didn't want to show up empty handed! ;) Hope this project inspires you to give the waterproof labels a try if you have not yet discovered how terrific they are for gifting!

Have a bee-yoo-ti-ful day!

Rockin Rocking Horse Tutorial

Here is a Lovely Lavender card I made for our release party with Rupa's "O Baby!" set. The little rocking horse was just calling "rock me, Melanie!" So I made a tilt mechanism, and it is super simple to do.
Color and cut out the rocking horse. I decided to use one of Nina's "Lovely Labels" as the base to frame it. You will need 2 pennies and two 1/4" pop dots, just as you do with a spinner card to create the tilting mechanism. Adhere a pop dot on the back of the horse in the center, then a penny. and a pen. Take a craft knife and cut a hole slightly taller and 1/8-1/4" wider than the pop dot in the the middle of the label. Put the second pop dot on the back of the penny, then put the pop dot through the hole and adhere the second penny to the back. Your horse is ready to rock! Pop the label up with more pop dots onto your card base ( more Lavender and Pure Luxury White, embossed with Swiss Dot to give the penny room to move back and forth behind the mat. That's it!

There she goes!! I made mine dappled with Copics to match the cut polka dots in the label image.

This interactive card will create such excitement and whimsy for the recipient celebrating their new arrival. Try a tilt card today! :)

Enjoyed this tutorial? Please feel free to share it with others by linking it on your blog, I appreciate it!

Twiggy Tuesday Trigger

Thought I'd hop into the Tuesday Trigger this week (since everybody else was doin' it!) and I haven't had enough time to love on Theresa's adorable "Hang in There" set as much as I'd like yet but I'd been meaning to make a little koala card, replacing the branch part of the image with a real twig, so I thought the Tuesday Trigger combo of natural Kraft , yellow and black would go great! I inked up just the koala, colored, and then cut it out, the paws behind the branch and back arm are separate. Then I just went out in the yard and hunted around until I found the perfect stick! (hey, try getting involved and make them go do it! LOL!) :) It's so fun to put a natural element on a card, and gives it a great masculine feel. I glued my twig and back pieces on with Mono Multi on the Kraft background stamped with the leafy branch images in Memento Black, then popped up the body with two layers of dimensionals to compensate for the thickness of the twig. Base is Pure Luxury White, plus Black Onyx and Lemon Drop mats.

Have a wonderful weekend! Some exciting stuff coming up, stay tuned!

Gina K Designs February Illustrator Hop

Welcome to our February Illustrator Hop! Tonight I have a project using my "Pressed Flowers" set, the challenge Gina threw down for us (and all of you, too, if you choose to participate, there is a SUPER SPECIAL REWARD for the winner, read on!) was to use at least two colors from her Pure Luxury Spring Collection... I chose Lemon Drop and Creme de Menthe... but I didn't feel like making a card this time around LOL! So I made a bookmark instead, it was really very simple...
I noticed the fancy tag die would make a beautiful bookmark base, and a rose at the bottom would look like it was climbing a fancy trellis. After die cutting the tag from Pure Luxury White, I stamped the greeting from the set at the top in Memento Black and rubbed a little yellow ink in along the top edge while the die was still in place, gives it a glow like a sunrise or sunset. TIP: I placed my tag die onto Pure Luxury Lemon Drop CS and traced around the outer edge, which gives your tag a perfectly shaped mat once you cut it out! Next I inked up my rose in Vivid Lemon Ice, added just a bit of shading directly to the stamp with a Memento Cantaloupe marker, then stamped onto White Pure Luxury and trimmed it with Cutter Bee scissors. I stamped two of the leaves onto Creme de Menthe card stock and cut these out too, then adhered all the three pieces to the bottom of the die cut. Before gluing the mats together, I put a long strip of ribbon between the layers in the middle to look like a stem, which hangs out the end of the book. TIP #2: I refrained from using dimensionals or adding any thick bling like pearls, while that could take the project up a notch aesthetically, from a practical standpoint, I don't want any bumps on it: flat I think is better in this case for marking your place!

A bookmark like this would be perfect for Easter or a Mother's day gift, and was so easy and inexpensive to make. I really hope this Spring project inspires! :)

Tonight, we welcome you to join us by using one of the newest February release stamp sets from any of our fabulous illustrating team. Choose any two of our new spring colors to create your card. The colors can be in the card stock, buttons, ribbon or patterned paper. Then, add your project to the Mister Linky on Gina's blog here.

Gina will view every single project linked and she will choose one winner who will be invited to join the Design Team for the month of March. The winner will receive the entire March release including the brand new StampTV kit, stamp sets, card stock AND will participate in our Design Team preview party, release party and special Senior DT and Illustrator blog hops!

The Mister Linky contest will end at Wednesday night March 3rd at 8:00 PM CST. The winner will be announced on Thursday morning and his/her DT package will ship out on Thursday in plenty of time to get ready for their term on our Team! For complete details on this exciting blog hop event, please check out GinaK's blog! We'd love to have you join in the hop by adding your project's direct link to Gina's blog in the Mister Linky box.

AND, we have a gift for you! Starting tonight at 10:00 PM through Sunday night at midnight, place any $35.00 order and you can choose a free set of stamps from this category! (Valued up to $24.95!) Now is a great time to stock up on what you need and get some great stamps for free!

Here are all the designers joining in the hop tonight featuring February's new stamp sets:

Jessica Fick

Nina Brackett

Melanie Muenchinger

Theresa Momber

Carolyn King

Tami Mayberry

Cathy Tidwell

Lee Murphy

Donna Baker

Kurtis Amundson

Erika Martin

I really hope you will all try the challenge, the very best of luck,

I can't wait to see who wins it all!! :)

Rainbow Butterfly

Good morning! The goal of this clean and simple card was to focus on this dazzling butterfly from"Hope is Faith". Have you bought your set yet? Throughout the month of February, $2.00 from every sale of the Hope is Faith stamp set will be donated to the Red Cross to help with the work they are doing to help the people in Haiti, so there are a few days left to get this beautiful set and help their cause! Card base is Pure Luxury White with the bottom corners rounded with a punch. I embossed a curvy panel with the Labels Eight, choosing this shape to frame both image and greeting and emulate the beautiful curves of the butterfly wings. (originally I intended to leave the card flat (just didn't want to you think I was to lazy to emboss!) but I think without may have been a better design, though, you'll see in a minute. I colored the image in a rainbow pattern with Copics, the rainbow a reminder to us that God keeps his promises, and then covered the entire butterfly with Versamark and shimmery embossing powder to make the whole surface sparkle. I cut it out, bent the wings and popped it up. Wish you could see the shimmer in real life! (click for closeup)

Now THIS card is my 7 year old son's who wanted to CASE my card after he saw me coloring my butterfly. He colored and cut it out himself and LOVED doing the glitter part and using the heat gun! See how much more dramatic the butterfly is without the embossed frame? (IMO) Now of course you'll notice a HUGE shadow under the butterfly like it is not attached but hovering. Well, I was so proud of him, he engineered this terrific pop-up all by himself by folding up two strips of paper at a couple different angles to have it standing out about two inches from the card without drooping, very cool! It won't flatten to fit in an envelope, but that's okay, hand delivered cards when you can are best, right? Thanks for visiting and letting us share today!

Blog hop tonight with a one of kind prize opportunity from Gina K! See you at 10PM! :)

Week 2 with Guest Designer Diana Queen

It's a new week, and another amazing "Pressed Flowers" creation from Diana, which she calls "Window Box Morning Glory", and it is truly glorious!

Not only are the colors and design superb, but I really love how she layered several of the frilly flower this way to make it a much larger, dramatic bloom, like a morning glory, or peony or ranunculus to name a few! She added the outline from" A Year of Flowers" over each in a deeper ink. The layered leaves in two shaped and colors and flourishes draw your eye all around the card, and the little curvy border layer she created from the ivory and pumpkin makes a charming flower box! The understated floral print in muted green and delicate swiss dot were perfect choices to allow this show stopping flower center stage. :)

Card details:
Card base is Gina K Pure Luxury card stock in Ivory
2nd layer is a DP framed in Gina K Pure Luxury card stock in Pumpkin Spice
3rd layer is Gina K Pure Luxury card stock in ivory embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and framed in Pumpkin Spice pure luxury card stock
Window box is made from pumpkin spice and ivory Gina K Pure Luxury card stock and an EK Success edge punch. The flourish die cut is by Quickcutz.
Stamps: Gina K Designs Pressed Flowers and A Year of FlowersInk: All inks Tsukineko: Dye inks Bamboo Leaves and Potters Clay, pigment ink in Pearlescent Ivy and chalk ink in Pumpkin Spice


Now let's go see what else Diana has for today! :)

Gina K Goes Moxie Fab!

Hello! Gina K. Designs is sponsoring the Moxie Fab World Blog today! Check out the 8 fantastic Gina K Designs stamps sets Cath Edvalson is giving away in celebration of Stamp It! Cards week long celebration!

One of the eight sets selected is Gina K's "Many Wishes", filled with beautiful words to customize your own "wish". I used these to create one on the sample below...

Instead of using the set's sweet dandelion today, I cut out my "Pressed Flowers" daisy image stamped in Vivid Brick ink on white CS, trimmed two of the petals off and then popped up everything over the stamped stem... loves me, loves me not! I did a two-toned effect on both the stems and leaf and on the word "laughter" with two green markers to add some more dimension. Last, the pop of Gina K yellow and black buttons for the flower center contrast beautifully with the crisp White Pure Luxury base. This clean and simple card with very minimal supplies can be recreated in less than 10 minutes!

Thank you very much for visiting me today, my wish is that you'll return often! :) Now go check out our other designers links for more samples with all the prize sets at Gina's blog, and then stop over to The Moxie Fab World Blog (you do not need to make card for the Tuesday Trigger to win, just leave a comment in the comment section) for a chance to win those fabulous stamps!