Yippee!!!!

 Dear Ones~
I have some fabulous news to finally be able to share with you. Last Monday I found out that I was chosen, along with 2 other AMAZING and TALENTED women, to be Guest Designer for the month of April over at StampTV.  I had to enter two challenges and the competition was tough. There are some VERY talented paper crafting artists out there.

Here are the creations that helped me to win:

These cards were for Challenge 1

This was for Challenge 2
 

I, along with my fellow Guest Designers Karen Hightower &  Nancy Leppek, and the rest of the Gina K Designs Team, will be showcasing new stamps from Gina K Designs which will be released later in the month of April.  I feel extremely honored, and am beyond excited to be a part of this amazing group of people. I look forward to showing you what wonderful things Gina K Designs has to offer. Stay tuned to see what we have in store for you.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for all your well wishes - it means the world to me!!!

Chocolate Rose

Dear Ones~

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Mine has been relaxing and happy. My card for today was made for the Mod Squad Challenge. We were asked to use red and brown.

Here's my card:

This was a fun card to do. I stamped the rose image from the GKD Stately Flowers 6 stamp set by Melanie Muenchinger onto GKD Dark Chocolate card stock with Versamark, and heat embossed it with black powder. Then I used the bleach technique to lighten the image and colored it with my Copics. It came up a nice light gold color with the bleach, so the Copics worked great.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Dark Chocolate and Cherry Red Card Stock
Hot Off the Press Red Velvet Paper Stack
Gina K Designs Stately Flowers 6 Stamp Set
Die-namics Mini Delicate Doilies Die
Spellbinders Ovals and Scallop Ovals Die
Copic Markers
Judy's Enamel Dots

Guess that's it. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends.

Black Magic

Dear Ones~

Another card to share with you. This time it's for the MIUM Challenge over at StampTV. The challenge is to use some kind of knot on your card.

Here's my card:

I used a technique called Black Magic for this card. You can see how to do this technique HERE. I saw it over at Split Coast Stampers on a video by Wendy Weixler. It's pretty fun to do. You stamp a solid image on dark card stock, in this case GKD Dark Chocolate, with white ink. Then you color it in with colored pencils or watercolor pencils. Adding the white dots gives it dimension. My knots were made with pink ribbon and were used to hold the fancy tag onto the front.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Dark Chocolate and White Card Stock
Patterned Paper from my Stash
EK Success Corner Punch
Spellbinders Labels 4 and Fancy Labels 2 Dies
Gina K Designs Springtime Silhouettes Stamp Set
Gina K Designs White Pigment Ink
Prismacolor Pencils
Uniball White Pigment Ink Pen

That's it for me, thanks for stopping by again - and think spring by friends.

Feathers

Dear Ones~

Well, I really haven't much to say today. I refuse to post yet another comment on the $%^& weather. Many schools in our area were closed this morning due to icing on the side roads. Geesh!!!

So, today's card is for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday Challenge, where we were to do a cover plate. See the link for details.
Here's my card:

I used the stamp set and the die set by Papertrey Ink called Feather Finery, and a Paper Studio wood grain embossing folder. I had a difficult time photographing this card, but there are embossed gold dots on top of the feathers. It's really quite pretty IRL.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Lipstick Red Card Stock
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Kraft Card Stock
The Paper Studio Wood Grain Embossing Folder
Papertrey Ink Feather Finery Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Fanciful Tags Stamp Set
Papertrey Ink Button Die
Gina K Designs Cherry Red Ink
Ranger Super Fine Gold Embossing Powder

That's it for me, I will probably be back later to do another post. I'm looking forward to the weekend so I will have some time to get inky. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends!

Sprocket

Dear Ones~
I'm about to leave to meet up with some gal pals for Girls' Night. Love my BFFs so much!! There are 7 of us and we meet once a month for some frivolity. And of course there is NEVER any gossiping or joke telling - lol!!

But enough about me. Today's card is for the sketch challenge over at My Favorite Things.
Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

This was a fun sketch. Something a little different. The patterned paper reminds me of sprockets, hence the name.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory Card Stock
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Tourquoise Sea Card Stock
My Mind's Eye Remarkable Paper Stack
The Craft's Meow Typically Teen Stamp Set for the Greeting
Spellbinders Die - Sorry, I Don't Know the Name
Homemade Enamel Dots
Gold Thread from my Stash

That's it for me today. I'm off for some fun and frolic. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends.

Lunch!!!

Dear Ones~

Another Sunday come and gone, and tomorrow is a new week again! What will it bring? Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Today's card was made for the Mod Squad Challenge. We were challenged to do some hand cutting - and boy have I done that. My hands are tired!!! It took me many tries before I finally got something I liked. I hand cut the two orange flowers, the frog, and the butterfly.

Here's my card:

As you can tell, it's tongue-in-cheek. I thought it was kinda funny.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory Card Stock for the Base
Gina K Designs Black Onyx & Sweet Mango Card Stocks
My Mind's Eye Deena's Penny Lane Stack
Gina K Designs Dogwood and Butterfly Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Pressed Flowers Stamp Set
Inkadinkado Patterned Frogs Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Fresh Asparagus & Sweet Mango Inks
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and Copic Markers
Ribbon from my Stash
Greeting Computer Generated
Homemade Enamel Dots
Stickles

That's it for me today. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends.

It's So Easy Being Green

Dear Ones~

Today's card was made for the MIUM Challenge over at StampTV.

Here's my card:

Now I KNOW you're saying, "What's she doing coloring a rose green?" Well, the challenge was to use only  green on the card. And I felt like coloring this rose image from Stately Flowers 6. So, I colored it green. Besides, the author of the challenge this week (Lee Murphy) likes to color everything pink. So I figure, if the Lovely Lee can color everything pink, I can color a rose green. So that's the scoop. And I think it looks kinda cool. The background was made with watercolor paper and Distress Inks. I love the effect. The focal image was stamped on watercolor paper and colored with Distress Markers.

Here are the supplies I used for this card:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Fresh Asparagus Card Stock
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Jelly Bean Green Card Stock
Strathmore Watercolor Paper
Recollections Habitat Card Stock Stack
Gina K Designs Stately Flowers 6 Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Stamper's Favorites Stamp Set for the Greeting
Spellbinders Floral Flourishes Die
Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Distress Markers in:
     Peeled Paint
     Shabby Shudders
     Crushed Olive
     Forest Moss

That's it for me today. It has been raining here all day. Maybe it will wash away all this snow. Sure do hope so!! Thanks for stopping by! Make a great day - and think spring my friends.

Best Wishes

Dear Ones~
Hope you had a lovely weekend. Can't believe it's Monday again and we have another week before us. What will it bring? Here's hoping only good things. Oh, and happy St. Paddy's Day!

My card for today was created for the Wednesday Sketch over at My Favorite Things.
Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I love this bright little card. It was just fun to make and I think it came together pretty well. I colored the image with Copics.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Blue Raspberry Card Stock
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory Card Stock
Recollections Fleurs deJardin Paper Stack
Flourishes Lots of Thoughts Stamp Set
Clear Arts Stamp Set for the Greeting
         - it's a really old set and I couldn't find the name
Some of my Homemade Enamel Dots
MFT Die-namics Stitched Circle Stax
Copic Markers
Stickles

That's it for me today. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends.

Smile Daily

Dear Ones~

Another card for the Mod Squad Challenge - Tag-Your It. This time I decided to make a fancy, frilly tag. Why not - tags come in all different shapes and sizes, right?

Here it is:

I love this sentiment and need to use it more. It says it all really. And I also love making those flowers, they seem to really add something to a card. Oh, and I just want to say that the colors are a little bright in the photo. They are much softer IRL. Don't know what's up with my camera.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory Card Stock
Colorbok Textured Soft Pastels Card Stock
Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing Folder
Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8
My Favorite Things Die-namics Delicate Doilies
Gina K Designs Warm Cocoa and Passionate Pink Ink
Hot Off The Press (Paper Wishes) Simply Susan Stamp Set
McGill Petite Petals Punch
Martha Stewart Leaf
Butterfly Punch from my Stash
Stickles (of course)

That's it for now. It's bright and sunny here this morning, albeit a little cold. Make a great day - and think spring my friends.

Midnight Butterflies

Dear Ones~
Happy Saturday to you all. Don't ya just love the weekend? I mostly do because I'm pretty sure I will be in my craft room. Oh who am I kidding? I'm in my craft room most days....lol.

My friend Donna is hosting the Mod Squad Challenge this week. She is the tag queen, loves tags. So she has challenged us to make a card with a tag on it. What fun!!!

Here is my card:

This card was made by stamping the image on the card, then masking that image, placing the tag where I wanted it, and stamping the butterflies on the tag with the part on the card front masked off. It took a bit of fussing with it to get it right. I love this kind of spotlighting - I think it is a cool effect. And of course I HAD to add some Stickles to the wings.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Vibrant Violet Card Stock
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Ivory Card Stock
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Gina K Designs Stamper's Favorites Stamp Set
Copic Markers
Stickles
Black Enamel Accents for the Antenna

Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends.

Simply Fabulous

Dear Ones~
Well, it's raining - yay!!! Hope it rains for a week and washes all the snow away. Not raining hard enough though. This morning it was sunny - go figure!!

Today's card is for the MIUM Challenge over at StampTV. The challenge is color blocking. Hope this qualifies, there are blocks of color, so I guess it's okay.

Here's my card:

This image was so much fun to do. With Versamark I stamped the grapes from the GKD duo set called Better With Age on the green card stock, and heat embossed it with black powder. Then I brushed bleach on the image and it came out that nice golden yellow color. I used my Copics to add the tones of color. It was very interesting, because as I colored, the bleach would lighten the ink. I had to go over it several times. I love how the image has just a hint of each hue, and even though I only used one purple ink, the bleach created different shades. Oh, and I also love those buttons cut with the Papertrey Ink Button Stax Die Set. They are paper, so mailing them will be a breeze.

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Black Onyx Card Stock
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Fresh Asparagus Card Stock
Core'dinations Card Stock from the Tim Holtz Nostalgic     Collection
Gina K Designs Better With Age Duo Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Fanciful Tags Stamp Set
Papertrey Ink Button Stax Die Set
Darice Embossing Folder
Gold Mirror Card Stock and Gold Thread from my Stash

That's it for me. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends!!

Treasure Box

Dear Ones~
Today's creation is not a card. I made it for the StampTV Guest Designer Challenge. This is the challenge:

Make anything BUT a regular, flat greeting card.  It can be a unique card....like a pop up card, a gift card holder, a tent topper....or it can be an altered item....let your creativity flow!!!!   

 So I decided to go outside the box, or rather, to go inside the box. Last fall I made a really cute Advent Box that contained 24 drawers for each day of advent. I thought, wouldn't it be fun to make that again, only just do 8 drawers that could hold earrings or other treasures.

Here's what I came up with:

Here's a view of the top:

And here's a view of the box with some of the drawers open:

The drawers are staggered, so each one is in a different position. I made my own patterned paper with stamps from the Gina K Designs stamp set Hello Sunshine and Simple Flowers. It took me FOREVER to pick the color combination, I think that was the hardest part. I finally settled on Gina K Designs Bubble Gum Pink, Passionate Pink, Sweet Mango and Memento New Sprout. I just stamped the images all over an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of Pure Luxury Card Stock with no particular pattern. Just wanted to completely fill in all the spaces. What fun!!!

The flower on top was cut with my Cricut using the Art Philosophy cartridge, and I used the Spellbinders Lotus die for underneath the flower.

Here are the supplies I used:
Strathmore Bristol Board for the drawers
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Card Stock in White
Recollections Pink Buttons Card Stock
Gina K Designs Dye Ink in:
     Bubble Gum Pink
     Passionate Pink
     Sweet Mango
Memento Dye Ink in New Sprout
Gina K Designs Hello Sunshine Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Simple Flowers Stamp Set
Spellbinders Lotus Die
Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge
Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch
White Brads from my Stash

This was rather labor intensive and took a couple of days, but it was so much fun to make. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends!!!
 

Donna and Me

Dear Ones~

Didn't think I would make a card today, but I just couldn't resist, so I thought I would enter the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge. It was a pretty simple one this week. This card makes me think of my friend Donna. She and I have never met, but we are the best of friends because of the internet, and our love of card making. I have made so many wonderful friends that way, and you know who you are *wink wink*.

So here is the sketch:

And Here is my card:

I love this stamp set, it's full of little sweet images of kids. They just make me smile. I colored the image with Copics, and the greeting is heat embossed with black powder on vellum. I love the look!

Here are the supplies I used:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Card Stock in Innocent Pink
Colorbok Light Bright Designer Paper
My Favorite Things Die-namics Stitched Circle Stax
Janie's Friends Stamp Set by Hot off the Press (Paper Wishes)
Vellum
Copics
Stickles

That's it for me. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends!!

Spring Tulips

Dear Ones~

Just got back yesterday from visiting our daughter and her family. Our two grandsons never stop - always exhausted when I get back, but we had so much fun.

Today's card is for the Mod Squad Challenge. It seems there are a lot of challenges out there that are focusing on spring cards, and this one was no exception. Guess we are all tired of the white stuff and want to see some spring color.

Here's my card:

For this card I used one of my new Flourishes stamp sets and colored it with Copics. I have recently begun investing in those wonderful markers and can't get enough of coloring with them.

Here are the supplies I used for this card:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury Heavy Weight Card Stock in White
Colorbok Crown Jewels Textured Card Stock
DCWV Bouquet De Fleur Card Stock
My Favorite Things Stitched Circles Di Namics
Flourishes Thank You Stamp Set for Focal Image and Greeting
Enamel Accents
Homemade enamel Dots

That's it for me today. Just trying to re-group after a very wonderful but tiring weekend. Thanks for stopping by - and think spring my friends.

Bold Bloom

 Hello Again Dear Ones~

This is another entry for the StampTV Guest Designer Challenge. You can see the challenge HERE. This time I chose this video: http://stamptv.ning.com/video/bold-blooms. The technique was a lot of fun, and very easy to do. And Gina is right, it's very soothing. I could have done it all day!

Here's my card:

I stamped this huge, beautiful zinnia image ( think it's a zinnia) from the GKD Bold Blooms Stamp Set with Versamark on yellow card stock, and heat embossed with white. Then I used one of my Copic Markers to outline each petal.

Here are the supplies I used to make this card:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury 120 lb Heavy Weight Card Stock in White
Gina K Designs Bold Blooms Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Fanciful Tags Stamp Set for the Greeting
Recollections The Sweetest Thing Patterned Paper Stack
Recollections Garden Florals Patterned Paper Stack
Cheery Lynn Flourishes Die
Martha Stewart Border Punch
Various Card Stock from my Stash

Oh, and see those cute enamel dots in the upper right? I made 'em myself! I know you're impressed, right? I used mini acrylic pony beads and baked them in the oven!!!! Super fun to do, and you get  TONS of different colors. If you want to see how it's done, click HERE. Try it, you'll like it!!! The only thing I would caution you to do is make sure that each bead is spaced out from the next one, or you will get a lump of unsightly beads all melted together.

That's it for me today. Thanks for stopping by - and stay warm my friends!

Spring Blossoms

Dear Ones~

What a beautiful, sunny day here in the Great White North. They are even promising warmer weather for tomorrow - it's supposed to get into the 30s!!! WOW!
This card has been created for the Guest Designer Challenge over at StampTV. You can see the challenge HERE. The challenge was to find a technique video on StampTV, and use that technique to make a spring card. This is the video that I chose to use: http://stamptv.ning.com/video/coloring-with-colored-pencils

Here's my card:

As you can see, I used my Prismacolor Pencils and odorless mineral spirits to color in the beautiful blossoms inside the oval. I used the GKD Dogwood and Blossoms stamp set, but cut the oval that was part of the image away from the flowers, and then adhered that to the green Spellbinders Floral Oval die cut.

Here are the supplies I used to make this card:
Gina K Designs Pure Luxury 120 lb Heavy Weight Card Stock in White
Gina K Designs Patterned Paper Pack Petals and Wings
Gina K Designs Dogwood and Butterfly Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Dreams Take Flight Mini Stamp Set for the Greeting
Spellbinders Floral Ovals Die
Various Circle Punches and Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch
Stickles
Pearls and Various Colors of Card Stock from my Stash

I'm not even going to mention the fact that we are all waiting for spring, that's a given *wink wink*. Thanks for stopping by - and stay warm my friends.

Icelandic Poppies

Dear Ones~
Such a sunny day, too bad it's freezing outside. I'm just happy as a clam to stay inside and play in my craft room. Today's card is another one for the Mod Squad Challenge. Creating spring cards makes me happy! And after all, it IS the first day of March. We're getting there my friends!!!

Here's my card:

Don't you just love sunny, yellow flowers? They just make me smile. We have Icelandic Poppies that bloom every spring in our gardens. They are one of the first to show their sweet yellow faces. These poppies were colored with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. The button is punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I have been using this instead of a real button lately because they go through the mail better.

Here are the supplies I used for this card:
Gina K Designs 120 lb Heavy Weight Card Stock in White
Gina K Designs Black Onyx Card Stock
DCWV Bouquet deFleur Paper Stack
Recollections Garden Florals Paper Stack
Sweet and Sassy Poppies and Greetings Stamp Set
Gina K Designs Fanciful Tags Stamp Set
Prismacolor Pencils used with Odorless Mineral Spirits
Martha Stewart Border Punch and Button Punch
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder
Spellbinders Classic Circles and Lacy Circles Dies
Black Enamel Accents

Guess that's it for me, thanks for stopping by - and stay warm my friends.