Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Peaceful Wishes

Hello! Here is another card I shared at the release party last week. I used Many Wishes, the free with three set from Gina K Designs.

Here is how I made the card...

I started by sponging some So Saffron ink in the middle of my cardstock.

Sponged some Apricot Appeal around the sides and top of the So Saffron.

Sponged some Regal Rose as shown.

Then some Almost Amethyst.

Sponged with Lavender Lace all the way out to the edges.

Added some Perfect Plum to the outer edges.

I used post-it notes and tore the edges to create a mask for the land along the horizon line, then sponged with Going Grey and Basic Black. I also used a 1/2 circle punched from a post-it note as a mask to create the sun, then sponged a bit of So Saffron around it.

Next, I stamped the dandelion heads, followed by the stems, and the little seeds floating away in the breeze. I added some leaves from Tropical Flowers and layer with Basic black on a Lavender Lace cardbase. The sentiment is also from Many Wishes.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a day filled with smiles and stamping!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Country Roads

Happy Monday to you! Here is a card I shared at the Gina K Designs release party last week. I used Asela's new set, The Journey, paired with the mountain scene from my new set, Happy Camper.

Here are a few details...

I used Copic markers to color the truck from The Journey. I started by laying down a layer of B21, then started adding the darks (B29 and B24) to the shadowed areas, using B21 to blend them out. Then I added some N3 to some areas to dull up the blue a bit, so it would look more like an old paint job. Finally, I used my blender pen to lighten some areas for highlights.

On the tires, I used W1 and W3 with my blender pen. For the chrome parts, I used C1 and C3.

For the wooden rails in the back, I used E33 and E55 and for the inside of the cab, I used N3 and N5.

For the background, I did some loose sponging. I made a horizontal band across the middle with Going Grey ink, then added Certainly Celery and Old Olive along the sides and bottom. Bashful Blue on the top and some Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip at a bit of a diagonal, to create a subtle impression of an old country road.

After sponging, I stamped the mountain scene from Happy Camper.

I added a bit of stamped grass to the foreground using another image from The Journey and then added the cut out truck that I colored earlier.

I layered with Pure Luxury Black Onyx and a piece from the new free digital paper pack from Gina K, called, The Great Outdoors. The card base is a piece of the new Pure Luxury Soft Sand cardstock.

I am working on a tip sheet for Happy Camper, like Melanie does for her sets, and should be back in a few days with that.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope your day is fun and happy!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sooooo Sweet!

Hi, I shared this card last week during the Gina K previews, but I wanted to post the step by step photos that I didn't have room for in my post that day, in case anyone wants to see them. Sorry to make to look at this again.

I used Rupa Shevde's new stamp set, 100% Sweet. Here are the photos...

Stamped both ice cream cones with Memento ink and then colored with Copics. I started with E57.

Added E35.

Added E33.

Added a bit more E35 to the right sides, then finished off with E31 and my blender pen to lift a bit of color for highights.

Used E53 on the soft serve cone and E57 on the two scoop cone.

Finished of the soft serve cone with E51 and then added some more E53 for shading. Added E35 to my chocolate scoop and then used my blender pen to get some highlights.

Made a strawberry scoop using R20, R22 and R24 and used my blender pen for highlights.

Quickie glue pen with some Doodlebug glitter to kick it up a notch. Bam! (watch out, Emeril!)

I cut out the cones using rectangle Nestabilities and left it in the die to sponge some Regal Rose ink.

Cut a piece of card stock for the back panel and sponged Regal Rose on it.

Turned it over on my Scor-pal and scored a diamond grid pattern.

Turned it back over and sponged more Regal Rose over the scor lines to bring them out a bit. I just love this effect. Bam! again.

I used Pure Luxury Chocolate Kiss and some SEI glitter paper (from Jessica's Fun With Glitters class kit) to layer. The punched border on the horizontal layer is from an EK Success slimline punch. Used nesties to cut out the sentiment and added some white brads and satin ribbon.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Birthday Camper

Hello and happy weekend! How about that release party Thursday night! What a lot of fun. All the new releases are now available from Gina K Designs, including my new set Happy Camper. There are also some new freebies up at StampTV, including new digital papers from Gina and Rupa and some great templates. Did you see that fantastic s'more gift box that Gina made? The template for the box top is up on the freebie page.

In addition to all the wonderful challenges to play in every week at STV, there are three release party challenges at Split Coast Stampers and two contests to play in. A random winner from each one will win the stamp set of their choice! The good news is, you can combine challenges, so if you make a card that works for two challenges, then go ahead and enter it in both.

Gina has another amazing giveaway going on this weekend. She is giving away a Janome mini sewing machine!!! All you have to do is leave a comment. Go to this thread at STV to enter.

I've got a few photos from making my card. All the images are from Happy Camper.

Here are the colors I used on the lantern. I used Copics, YG93, YG95, C3, Y23 and Y17.

On the brown parts of the tent I used E37, E35, E33 and E31. I also used these colors on the sign and marshmellow stick. I used E53 on the marshmellows.

For the blue parts of the tent, I used B21, N3, N5 and N7.

All the images were cut out, but other than that, this is a one layer card. I used a pencil and drew a line all the around my card base, added post-it notes to mask and then sponged Sahara Sand and Chocolate Chip lightly.

After sponging, I used a straight edge and drew another line using my Copic multiliner.

I popped up the marshmellow stick using Pop Dots. It was very narrow, so instead of using the dots, I cut some narrow bits to stick on the back. I can't stand to waste all extra parts from my Pop Dots, so I usually just cut it into strips when the dots are gone and use that for my layering. I bet I'm not the only one!

When I'm poppin up narrow pieces like this, I frequently use a marker to color the Pop Dots on the side, so they won't be so noticable.

I adhered all the pieces down on my cardbase. I stamped the sign image extra times to make enough grass pieces to span the entire card. Then I added some dots and brad heads to the cardbase. On the inside, I stamped "and many s'more!"

Thanks for visiting. I hope your weekend is fabulous!!!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Gina K Preview Day 3 - The Journey and Many Wishes

The Journey - Illustrated by Aslea Hopkins

The Journey the new stamp set from Asela Hopkins. You will love the beautifully drawn images in this set. They are so wonderfully detailed and the sentiments she included are just perfect. This set will be wonderful for cardmakers and scrapbookers, alike.

I chose to used this amazing Adirondack chair for my card today. I colored it with Copics and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I used my Nestabilities to cut it out, then sponged Creamy Caramel ink while it was still in the die.

I made that background paper with another stamp from the set, repeatedly stamping it with Old Olive ink on Pure Luxury Ivory cardstock. The patterned paper below that is from Gina's new digital paper pack, called The Great Outdoors. You are going to love the papers she created in this set. It goes beautifully with the new Soft Sand Pure Luxury and it's free! Be sure to check the Freebies page at StampTV on Friday to download this gorgeous set of digital papers.

Many Wishes - Illustrated by Gina K Designs


Many Wishes is our new Free With Three for this month set from Gina K Designs. If you purchase three stamp sets, you will get this one free! I love this silhouette set!

For more inspiration check out what the rest of the design team has to show you...

Gina, Carolyn, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Joanne, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, and Asela

Our CenterStage Spotlight Design Team members Selma Stevenson and Pam Imholz are joining us this morning with previews as well!

To get the dandelions white, I stamped the images on Pure Luxury White cardstock using Versa Mark ink.

Sponged Bashful Blue ink.

Sponged Ballet Blue and just a little bit of Lavender Lace, going a lot heavier on the upper left corner.

I stamped a few drifts of fluff on a second piece and sponged it the same way. Layers are Pure Luxury White, Black Onyx and Bashful Blue (SU).

I also decorated the inside by stamping the dandlion with Bashful Blue and stamping the sentiment on top.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you have a great day!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Gina K Prevew Day2 - Bug Me Anytime and Arranged With Love

But Me Anytime - Illustrated by Nina Brackett

Thank you for all the wonderful comments and congrats you left yesterday! It just makes my day to read them! Today I am previewing two new sets that will be released Thursday from Gina K Designs.

First up is Bug Me Anytime, illustrated by Nina Bracket. This set is filled with so many cute and fun images. Nina also designed two digital paper packs to go with this set and you are going to love those, too!

I colored the images with Copic markers, then used my Quickie Glue Pen and Doodlebug Glitter to add some sparkle. To assemble the card, I cut out all the images and arranged them on a sponged background. I used So Saffron, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose to sponge with.

Did you see I sewed a border around my layers? Gina posted the latest StampTV video and she shows you how to sew on your cards in this week's episode. Isn't that awesome!


Arranged With Love - Illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger


Next up is a stamp set that I am so excited about. Last year, Melanie Muenchinger illustrated one of my all time favorite stamp sets, A Year of Flowers. I was lucky enough to be her guest designer for that month and after using it, I told her that everyone should have that set in their stamping arsenal.

Well, now Melanie has come up with the perfect companion set to A Year of Flowers. It's called Arranged With Love and it features a large background stamp, with the flowers already arranged perfectly around a frame. There are 10 sentiments that fit perfectly (and easily) into the frame, allowing you to customize the stamp for nearly any occasion.

The large background stamp is perfectly proportioned to fit the standard 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 card (half an 8 1/3 by 11 sheet of cardstock), with a bit left over for borders.

I decided to do something a little different to show you how versatile the large flower stamp is. I made this picture card by just using a portion of the stamp, to create a border on two sides of my card.

I have the details posted below, but now how about some inspiration from our design team?


Gina, Carolyn, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn, and Melanie
and, be sure to check out our CenterStage Spotlight girls joining us in Previews today: Carla Suto and Melisa Waldorf

Melanie has also asked some guest designers helping to preview her set this month: Selma Stevenson, Denise Marzec and Dawn Lusk

Release Party Details: Join us here in our forum on this thread-Thursday, June 25th from 7-10 PM Central Time for all the fun! Then at 10 PM central time, we will release the 6 new stamp sets, new Pure Luxury card stock and some great new accessories! Gina will be giving away lots of freebies too, including templates and digital paper! We hope you'll come and party with us!

And now the details...

To made my photo card, I started by stamping the large flower image from Arranged With Love. Then I cut out the bottom and right side, creating a corner flower border. I used Copic markers to color. For the roses, I used Y23, Y17 and my blender pen.

I colored the purple flowers (I think they are called Lisianthus) I used V04, V06 and my blender pen.

I used G05, YG03 and YG05 on the Lisianthus leaves and YG03, YG93, YG95 and YG99 on the Rose leaves.

To assemble the frame, I first cut a piece of Pure Luxury Ivory cardstock to 3 3/4 by 5 inches. Then I used my circle nestabilities die to cut a circle where I wanted it. To cut the black layer, I started with an over sized piece of Pure Luxury Black Onyx cardstock. Then I cut the circle using one size smaller nestablities circle cutter. Then I lined up the circles from ivory layer and black layer and used the ivory as a guide for cutting the black.

Here are the three pieces assembled together.

Since it is a photo card, the recipient may want to remove the card later, so I only used adhesive on three sides, leaving the left side clean, to be able to slide the photo into place.

And here it is finished. I added some piercing around the border on the ivory layer and embellished the corner using my EK Success Curved Corner punch. My cardbase is Certainly Celery from SU.

This was a fun project to make. Wouldn't this be a great way to present special photos of your child to her grandparents?

Thank you so much for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful day!