Potluck Friday!

We have a new Potluck Friday Challenge on StampTV this week, this time hosted by Emily! I can't wait for you to see her sample, it just took my breath away! Please check it out here, and be sure to play along before next Friday! BTW, you have about one hour left (until 8 AM CST today!) to enter my Potluck Friday Challenge from last week, and then I'm picking a winner! Hurry up and get them in! :)

No project pic just yet, I'm having some lighting issues right now, but I think I know what I need to do, back soon! I got some gorgeous cards from Donna and Lee this week I want to share, too but not until I have pics that do them justice!

more later!

Another Sketchy Sketch!

Here is the sample I made for this week's So Sketchy card sketch by Allison Cope, are't these circle cards fun?? The placement for the images in the sketch was very unique , I was delighted to find I could work in these four completely different paper flowers from the Gina K Floral Frenzy Kit! (DPs are the digital papers from the kit as well, isn't that circle background fabulous with the card shape and round sentiments? The card base was cut with a scalloped circle nestabilitie, blooming like a fifth flower in the design!) The little circles greetings you see are digital images from The Cutting Cafe, I pressed an adhesive page pebble onto each after coloring the paper pink and then trimmed around them.

To see the original sketch, (my card look's a wee bit different), please check out Allison's So Sketchy Blog, and stay awhile to get some stellar scrapping inspiration!! :)

Have a great day!! We are just week away from the Gina K Designs release!! woo hoo!

Happy Spring! (it really DOES feel like Spring here...)

Here is a sample I created for the MFT Ambassador Challenge this month, my challenge was to make spring card with no flowers and no black! I used the new bling 'bet and a sheet of DP from the DCWV Spring Stack. I thought the pastel polka dots were so cute with these letters! i put all my letters on my long gridline block to get them properly aligned and inked them each up with SU! markers, Gable Green, Pretty in Pink, and Regal Rose. I loved the tiny brown stitched line around each circle in the paper, so I made my own stitched line around each samped letter with my SU! Close to Cocoa marker. The "Happy" is from a sentiment in "Who's that e-girl?", I curved it on my block before stamping so it would slink around the "p"!



I punched the bottom of the DP with the threading water punch to go along with the dot theme and used a clear button over some Berrylicious CS from Paper Temptress. Card base is SU! Regal Rose and 5/8 grosgain is SU! Celery.



For more challenge deets, see here!

Hoppy Birthday! (Spring has sprung!)

Out of all the animals I've drawn, I think this little bunny from "Just So Hoppy" is still one of my top 5 faves! I've been neglecting him for too long! Glad spring is here and I have all sorts of crads to make with him! Here I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black on GK Pure Luxury White , added a little shading with the pink and gray Copics (plus a tulip from the set!), and cut him out (popped up on dimensionals) sitting on top of the stamped "hoppy" using that cute bling 'bet from MFT(stamped in SU! Pretty in Pink). The polka dots on the letters are just perfect with the centers of the flowers on this digital paper (Digital Neopolitan pack from the Floral Frenzy Kit )! "birthday" from the Just So Hoppy set is stamped along the "y" at the end. Card base is Mountain Rose Glimmer from Paper Temptress. I made this card shorter (folded it measures, 3 1/4" 5 1/2"), so with my extended bunny ears it would still fit into an A2 envelope.

BTW, my back is so much better! (still haven't stamped yet, but it was fortunately nothing a good trigger point massage, Advil, Epsom bath, glass of wine and 8 hours on a heating pack couldn't fix!) Thanks everyone for your well wishes and prayers! ( now my problem is I'd rather be working on my NEWEST TIP SHEET than making cards, heh heh! it's a good one!!) Sneak peeeks start one week from today!! can't wait, can't wait!

Bold Flower Background

Starting off your week with a happy, simple card, just says (shouts!) "Hi!"

This bold set of stamps from the Floral Frenzy kit is so fun for making your own backgrounds with different size flowers, circles and centers! Today I used completely different colors from in the kit, although I did use the Back Onyx and Pure Luxury White CS(which are in the kit!). Inks are SU! Real Red and Old Olive, and Memento Tuxedo Black. I offset my focal point for a nice "rule of thirds" design and punched out the polka dot centers with my 1/2" circle punch to create some little buttons to pop up and center over the flowers n the right to accent the mat. like they're tacking it down. These 6 petal flowers "nest" so nicely toge her when you stamp a pattern of them in rows offsetting them (see the bottom?) A grid line blocks make placement easy! Placing your focal point flower(s) outside of the mat really makes it seem like it's growing! (I'm *told* punches! for all the folowers in this "Bold Flowers" set will be available this week in THE STORE(wink!) , so I'm kind of foaming at the mouth over that!!!)


Have a wonderful day! New release Gina K Designs sneak peeks in just one week!!!

Expect shorter posts the next couple days most likely, I'm having terrible back pain (since Wednesday, ugh!!) and can't sit for more than a minute or two (standing while I type this) you'll be okay without "the usual blah blah", right???????? (yes, I stamped this over a week ago!

Guest Designer: Shannon Bracken

A few projects today from Shannon Bracken!
"Once I say your set " The Best Things in Life" I knew I wanted to also get Rupa's "Retro Boutique" to go with it. And I've been wanted to play with the faux tile backgrounds created with the Scor-Pal since I now I have of those. (Best tool ever!!!) I distressed the papers from Basic Grey's "Boxer" pack with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Antigue Linen and Walnut Stain using both sponging and direct to paper. Then I added the little paper piecings to the purses and perfume bottles."

Supplies
Stamps: "The Best Things in Life" and "Retro Boutique" by Gina K. Designs
Paper: "Boxer" by Basic Grey, Night of Navy by Stampin' Up!
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Walnut Stain
Accessories: Scor-Pal, Rust velvet ribbon, linen thread, Prismacolor Markers, Hardware by We R Memory Keepers, Classic and Scallop Oval Nestabilities.

"The next one, a pretty basic card, but I think it's cute! "

Details...
Stamps: "The Best Things in Life", "Warm and Fuzzy" and "Comfy Valentine" by H&M Stamps for the hearts
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Night of Navy
Paper: Naturals Ivory, "Granola" by Basic Grey
Accessories: Chocolate Chip double stitch grosgrain ribbon, self adhesive rhinestones, mini dots, cat charm

Thanks for playing with my stamps, Shannon, and giving some more ideas for my readers! She's got a really RED HOT one here, check it out! :)

DID you know: my 16th stamp set is coming out in less than 2 weeks? (you can click on that link to see the other 15, but you won't find the new one in there yet LOL!) It is a new favorite of mine, SO many uses! Is it too early to start giving hints? Any guesses? (You'll never guess!!!) can't wait, can't wait!

How do you like your Sorbet?

This card uses the Sorbet Double-sided papers from Paper Temptress, which had me intrigued as soon as I saw it on the site and had me wanting to create a card where you definitely saw BOTH of those fabulous colors! I really like the colors pairings, they’re just so fresh and modern, but my favorite color combo is this Cappuccino/Blue Ice, they are the perfect shades of chocolate and turquoise! (and I had no problem finding coordinating inks and embellishments already in my stash to match, which is a big plus!) There are other really juicy colors for spring, too, : melon, kiwi, etc, YUM, you'll see more of these here, I promise! This was made from only one piece of paper, I just love rich, vibrant color on each side! I Cuttlebugged the card front, and since it is essentially like TWO pieces of paper glued to each other, you get this deep, deep embossing. Then I made a scalloped window to let some of that beautiful blue peep through as well as bending down the flap for another a little teaser of what’s to come!

When you open it, you card is fully lined with this gorgeous color! (greeting and paper flowers are from Bold Flowers in the Floral Frenzy Kit) If you’ve ever tried to line a card completely, you know it’s difficult to get the score just right, and for them to fold together properly, the bulk just doesn’t really allow it, and you have to trim one to make it smaller, but with this, no problem! I give these Double-sided Sorbet papers two thumbs up!

TIP: to make some really beautiful coordinating "buttons", stick an adhesive page pebble to a wide piece of ribbon. Carefully trim around it with your scissors and add a circle mat just a touch larger in metallic or contrasting colored CS behind it. Doesn't that ribbed texture and sheen of the ribbon coming through the pebble look cool?! I was so excited how they turned out!

Have a great weekend!

StampTV Stuff!!

Did you know you have an entire week to play the challenges on StampTV, wow, that's a lot of chances to win free stamps! So no excuses not to enter (except "I had so long I forgot!" LOL!) My lucky friend Charmaine Ikach won the very first Stamp TV challenge, congrats Charmaine! We've already had technique challenges, a color challenge, sketch challenge and yesterdays' potluck... ;) Don't think you'll be able to do them this week? We've got another round of 'em next week for you!

If you haven't yet joined StampTV, please do so today, it is SO exciting to see the community grow (already over 2000 members!), and I want to be sure you're all on "my friends" list, then we can stay in touch even more easily :) (just click on my pic and add me as a friend!) While you're there, have fun customizing your own page by adding a picture, start building your own gallery with your favorite projects, change the settings to make the page look they you want it, and add your friends to create your own little network.


Also, when you are uploading pics of your projects to the gallery, you can include as much or as little in your description as you want/have time for, but if you can please put the first name of the artist, like "Melanie" or Rupa" as a keyword, and/or the name of the set with no spaces, "bestfishes", haveacookie" etc. This helps us sort them into the proper albums so you get lots more views and we don't miss your wonderful work! I have albums set up for my sets already, with all the animals going in one since they are so interchangeable, tees, sweats and Tee Talk in another, tins sets together of course!, etc Thanks in advance for your help with this! :)

Potluck Friday Challenge!

For our very first Stamp TV "Potluck Friday" challenge*, I chose the theme “Split Screen”, and here is my sample. By splitting up one large image (or several images that make up a focal point) into different pieces, you can extend your design and bring focus to different areas of the image or spotlight a special one! Flowers images (from the new Floral Frenzy Kit, or others you may have in your collection) are perfect for this, so many beautiful parts to a flower: the bloom, the stem, the leaves.

This card uses a silhouette from “Elegant Flowers” from the "Floral Frenzy" kit (papers and ribbon are included in the kit, too!) is divided into equal one inch sections (I was feeling very “Zen” whe I made it!), but separating your image into uneven large and small sections can also make for a very stylish design, too! The parts can be aligned or skewed, you decide! (You do not have to use my layout, or even flowers for that matter LOL!) Can’t wait to see what you make!

This is what the card started out as, I liked the calm simplicity of it but decided to punch it up a bit with matching ribbon and greeting. The floral background mat is made by stamping the silhouette all over the green CS from the kit in different angles to make a random pattern (that was one of the very first things I learned when stamping, but it is still such a great way to get the perfect background!), and the edges were sponged in the same Garden green ink to give it a little "glow". TIP: Keeping the borders in between the sections of your image a consistent size, here I used 1/8" to match the border on my card front, will make your design look extra sharp! :)

Please upload your creation to Stamp TV with the keyword STVPF1. You do not need to use Gina K stamps to participate, although we'd love it if you did! We just want you to play along and have fun! You have until next Friday, March 6th, at 8am CST, to upload your sample. One winner will be drawn at random to win a Gina K stamp set valued at $19.95 or less, winner's choice!

* Potluck Challenge, as defined by me: “A little of this, a little of that…whether our Friday challenge focuses on a product , requires certain elements in your design, or puts a new spin on a favorite technique,… you can always expect something fun!” :)

Luster and Ore

Here is the full card I peeked at the Wednesday night's Paper Temptress party! This sample uses three papers, all from Paper Temptress, the Black and White you see are the new “Lustre” papers. I recommend having your stripes going in the same direction if you’re going to layer them like this, isn’t that black on white and matching striped texture and sheen on both stunning and so coordinated-looking? This White Lustre paper gives your images such a 3D look, and even though the paper has the finest striped texture, you still get such perfect detail in your stamp image, even those tiniest of lines as you can see (I really don’t know how it works, but it does! ) The mat behind the butterfly is Gold Ore, it is perfectly smooth and so shiny, I can only think to compare to the gold foil stars your receive for a job well-done LOL! Use these in large sections or even just the tiniest borders like this to really accentuate earthy tones; your reds, orange and yellows (like I’ve used on the butterfly) will look like they’re on fire when paired with this to this paper! This was a simple and quick card to make, but the papers really say WOW! These papers cost a little more than some I work with, but they need little or no ornamentation which saves me time and money in the end, so I’m loving these!

Butterfly image is from Gina K's "Take Flight", stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics.

I think Patricia has almost everything added to the store now or will soon (be sure to check the newly added cardstocks here, she'll keep updating through tomorrow, takes a while to list 50 new papers!) , You can buy as little as one sheet of each (or as much as you need!), so you might want to create a custom sampler of your favorite finishes!

It's almost time...!

Here's a sneak peek from a sample I made for tonight's Paper Temptress Paper Lover's party at 8 PM CST on Papercraft Planet, this gives you a glimpse of THREE different and gorgeous papers from Paper Temptress, they are different from anything I have used before! Hope you can join us, Patricia has two prizes she'll be giving away among those who attend! :) Now she knows not everyone can get there on time or stay for the whole thing (including yours truly!), so she is giving you a chance to enter anytime between 7PM and 12 AM CST to visit the thread, see the samples and put your name in for a prize pack valued at almost $30, a sampler of all 50 of her new papers! (that'll keep you busy for awhile!)

The word of the day is "KISSING"

Did you see it??? Dare I say, it's even prettier than the first Neapolitan pack?!
I was SO inspired by these new "Neapolitan 2" prints that coordinate with the "Floral Frenzy" Kit and papers, I got busy printing out 3 of my faves to create a little coaster tabletop book for a friend who's having a baby girl. Each side of the coaster page will be for a month in the first year where she can easily add a little pic of the baby (which is REALLY important for the new mom, "EASY"!!).

For this project, you need: 7 coasters, (6 for the 12 months, one month on each side, plus a front and back page), Cropodile for making the holes, patterned paper, adhesive, a corner rounder, and these binder rings. Embellishments and ribbon optional (I used the paper flowers and some ribbon from the Floral Frenzy kit, plus a couple other ribbons)

I printed out 3 sheets from the Neapolitan 2 pack, one pattern per each 8 1/2 x 11 piece, the coasters are 4 inches square so you can cut 4- 4" square pieces, plus have some extra for trim , embellishments, whatevah! I 'staggered" my prints so the front and back of each would be a different pattern. Punch each corner with the corner rounder, line them all up back to front with which page you want each the patterns to fall, and mark where you want your two holes to go on the top sheet.

You can punch through all 14 pieces (if you've just used regular printers paper like I did, with the big hole in the Cropodile punch. TIP: Then place your first sheet upside down in the inset of your Scor-Pal if you have one, this is such a great way for getting two things the same size lined up when adhering! Put your adhesive all over the coaster and stick down onto the paper (see pic, I am about to put the coaster on the paer!). Now cover the top side of the coaster with adhesive and press you next piece of DP right side up, onto the coaster. Use the holes already punched in your paper a a guide to punch your holes through the coaster.

Repeat until all coasters are covered. Below are some pics to show a few details I added to the pages. (I may also add the month for each page later, starting with the month the baby is born, or numbering them 1-12 ) The little flowers are such a pretty simple accent to add to the corners to still have room for a photo or through the binder rings holes like I did here...

You can also embellish it with punched out flower images or the circle words from the kit: "happy" , see below....

And here's the end!! (I loved the idea posted on my altered cube day to have the "bottom" or last page be a little "heiney" pic, KWIM? but I'll leave that up to my friend, what to put on the last page, just a suggestion ;)

Isn't this bling 'bet from MFT perfect with these papers?? I didn't even *bling* them up, LOVE the pink showing through, a perfect match with the little dots on the button flowers pattern!!!If you scroll back up to the top you can see I used a paper flower to dot the "i" on the cover(with a page pebble over some of the stamped dotted paper for the flower center, polka dot stamp is in the Floral Frenzy kit, too!), and on the last page I actually stamped my "e" right on to one of the larger flowers! (all stamping was done in Rich Cocoa Memento) Have fun with this alpha, it's so sassy and classy, lots of options!!

So what's up with the "kissing", you might be wondering? The "technique of the week" is KISSING, a fave of mine LOL! ;) I don't have a sample of it TODAY, but you can bet Gina does, in glorious, moving technicolor, so go check out the kissing video now on StampTV and take the kissing challenge! :) You could win free stamps!

Dn't forget to get your free download of this gorgeous digital paper pack, click here!

PS One detail not pictured here, wrap some ribbon arund the page and tie. This works really well, not only as an accent, but to hold a photo in, kind of French bulletin board style, where you just tuck the pic under the ribbon :)

Paer Temptress party tonight 8 PM CST!! More deets to come, hope you can come, there's free paper up for grabs!

Bold Thank You

Today's sample uses Bold Flowers from the Floral Frenzy kit. Although these stamps lend themselves to lots of other colors papers than what is included in the kit, I am challenging myself to show you a lot of things you can make using ONLY materials in the kit, with the exception of changing out the inks. Any color ink can be used, you don't HAVE to match your colors with the patterned papers, because you have the gorgeous 4 neutrals in your kit, just use whatever colors you are "feeling" that day!) ;)

But I did include PINK today (from the kit!) LOL! I found you can carefully ink up just one row of dots from the background stamps in Bold Flowers with a marker, (I chose the middle line of dots on the stamp so the block wouldn't rock), and line that up with the middle line on your grid line block andalign that line with one of the stamped dotted rows on the pink, then stamp! I like how this detail draws your eye back in forth in a zig-zag Z down the card. The sentiments are punched out with the SU! 3/4" and 1/" circle punches and popped up on dimesnionals (uh oh, just realized I used dimensionals,(not in the kit) but you have these right?? It's really hard for me to stay away from those, dimension just makes it "pop"!) , the little dotted scraps are stamped in Rich Cocoa Memento ink with the polka dot stamp from this set, and scallops on the ends to match my flowers were created with the threading water punch. Foliage is inked up with Old Olive. All papers, base and layering, are from the "Floral Frenzy" Kit. This clean and simple creation makes for a very happy thank you in under 10 minutes!



Have a great day, thank you for visiting! Remember, Paper Temptress Party tomorrow night! and don't forget to play the StampTV challenges, there's free stamps to be had!

Easy as 1, 2, 3!

A recipe for success: 1 ink, 2 stamps, 3 papers= 1 fast and FABULOUS card!

Today's sample uses two beautiful new papers from Paper Temptress, Elegant Laid (Avalanche White) and Silver Lustre, a kind of prismatic holographic paper that allows the ink to "slip" below the surface to create an almost 3-D effect. Clcik the pic for a closeup to see the silver shimmer! The silver stripes are so beautiful by themselves, I stamped Gina K's "Tropical Flowers" image on top in Memento Tuxedo Black ink (the silver paper turns the black ink a dark gray) and mounted it onto SU! Basic Gray CS. The Elegant Laid paper, which I stamped my greeting onto (These are words put together from my "Say it with Flowers" set tp form the one sentiment, stamped off Memento Black once to get a dark grey ink to match the flowers) has a very fine striped texture as well. I made sure the lines were both going vertically in my design, gorgeous with the vertical of the flowers. The matted panels are all popped up on dimensionals. This a is a 4 1/4" square card.

Another terrific feature of this Lustre paper, the back is smooth white, so this makes a fantastic card base: outside you have a beautiful silver finish, the inside is white for writing your message! Above I have it pulled over so you can see the front and the back.

Love this simple elegance, this was a VERY simple card, but I think it's just stunning! Special papers like these with a beautiful image make it easy...you don't even need embellishments or ribbon, the whole card front looks like a gorgeous piece of striped satin!

Now! there are several things you need to mark your calendar for this week:

Patricia is adding 50 NEW kinds of paper to the Paper Temptress store this week, and you are invited to come out and join in the fun! There will be TWO lucky winners who will receive one sheet of all the new cardstock, that is a value of over $29.00 just for attending the event!! Just another great reason to join us (Patricia, me, the rest of her design team, and the rest of her paper lovin' fans!) in the Paper Temptress Paper Lover's Forum on Papercraft Planet, Wednesday night, February 25th, at 8:00 PM Central time, (9:00PM Eastern time 7:00PM Mountain Time and 6:00PM Pacific Time.)

Also, there is a new challenge with a prize (free stamp set!) EVERY day over at StampTV this week! Yesterday's challenge was thumping, watch the video and upload your card to the site for a chance to win,( it's a random drawing) you have until Wednesday for that one! Challenges will be hosted each day by a different member of the Gina K Designs design team (one by yours truly on Friday!) This will be going on EVERY week so get in the habit of playing! :) Let's go see the challenge for today!

Bathtime for Isabelle!

Here is a card I created for the My Favorite Things Masking Challenge. Going through my MFT, MFTPresents, and BCDZYNS stamps, I didn't right away see any images that were begging me to put them together, and then shazam! Little Isabelle from Stephanie Fizer and one of Annie Lapointe's tubs, made for each other, don't you think? Her little bare shoulders are perfect for tubby time, and their styles really go together to look like it could very well be one image. To put them together, start by inking up only the tub, no ink on the flowers, and stamp. Now cover the tub with a post and stamp Isabelle so her head and shoulder are peeking out. I colored everything with Copics (the focal point started as a white piece of Gina K Pure Luxury CS, I filled in the background with a pale aqua Copic), and added a few rhinestones bubbles above. The tub, puddle and fish toy below are all covered with Crystal Lacquer. The dark red background DP is from the Basic Grey Bittersweet pack which inspired the fabulous colors for the tub. Ribbon is SU! 5/8" rose and base is Paper Temptress Berrylicious.