Going Green

Hi there! Yep, I've gone green! Green is my favorite color, so when Cindy gave us a color challenge on StampTV of green/ivory I was in frog heaven (get it, frog--green) LOL. It must be the coffee kickin' in! This card also is part of the StampTV Member Blog Event. We were asked to use one of the new sets from the last release. If you are a member, and have one of the sets listed here you can upload a card and then go to Gina's blog and add a link to your STV Member Blog card using Mr. Linky at the bottom of her post. If you are not a member and want to be, go here to sign up. It's free and heck, we're just alot of fun to hang out with! :) The card details are listed below.

This card also covers a couple of other challenges going on this week in blogland. Over on the Lord Have Mercy blog, there is a sketch challenge on Tuesdays. I always check out the challenge, but never seem to get anything made, well by golly this week was the week to get 'er done! This week is #48, so you can see I am waaaay behind!

The next challenge is for the Just Us Girls blog. Each Saturday they have something new and exciting they want us to do. This week it is to use dry embossing. That's an easy one for me because almost every card I make I used my beloved Cuttlebug and embossing folders. For this card I used Divine Swirls and Swiss Dots. Need these folders, you can get them at The Cat's Meow. Just e-mail Sharon and tell her I sent ya!

Here's the deets:

Stamps: Vintage Borders (Gina K Designs)

Paper: PL Ivory, PL Fresh Asparagus and PL Green Apple

Ink: Adirondack Lettuce

Extras: MS Branch punch, MS Snowflake punch, button,pearl, gems, G99 Copic for coloring gems and pearl, Cuttlebug Textile Texture and Divine Swirls EF

I've also had a few questions about the bin full of "It's Gotta Go" stuff from this post and the adorable little green (we've got a theme here) cup/saucer from this post. I will post about them on Sunday, so stay tuned.

Vintage Borders Blog Hop

How about some more inspiration with the Vintage Borders stamp set?

Tonight, I have some fun little tags that I made using one of my favorite borders from this set. I embbosed the ornament border in gold ep on PL Ivory cs and cropped the images down to fit on the tags. The image is mounted on a PL Rocket Red layer and this is popped up with foam tape onto the print layer. I colored one of the ornaments with my red Spica glitter pen and added three teeny tiny rhinestones to give it a little flair! For the tags, I took regular shipping tags and inked them up with Gold Colorbox ink (just smooshed it around on both sides), wrote "To" and "From" on the inside and then folded them to just under the hole. I cut around the reinforced hole with my craft knife (didn't think to use one of the many tools I have) and slipped the top edge of the folded tag under to hold it closed. This was mounted onto some PL Rocket Red cs and then I trimmed the corners to match the shape of the tag. I tied bows through the hole with some pretty red ribbon I had in my stash.

First, check in with the Illustrator of this versatile stamp set, our Senior Designer Nina Bracket and her friend Lisa Hjulberg joining in the blog hop tonight.

Now, stop by these GinaK Designer's & Center Stage Spotlight blogs for even more fabulous samples:

Asela, Carolyn, Cindy, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn,Theresa, Tami and Melanie

Deb, Melissa {me}, Karen, Sharri, and Sue

Before you finish hopping, be sure to check in on GinaK's blog to enter your comment for a chance to win Nina's Vintage Borders stamp set. If you already have purchased Nina's set, you can substitute any GinaK Designs stamp set valued at $23.95 or less.

For those of you are who looking for a quick and easy Christmas card idea, check out the Vintage Borders Card Kit available online in GinaK's store tonight. The Kit includes the step by step tutorial as well as all the card stock cut to the exact measurements needed to make 4 cards. For more details and photos of this card kit, see Jessica Fick's blog link as well as this Class Kit link.

happy hopping,

Split Negative Trees

Hi there! I hope you are all having a happy Monday. We had a pretty quite weekend around here. I had a nice visit with my Mom and Sister on Saturday and that is always fun. Yesterday I hung out at home. Sunday is turning into baking day around here. First I made my MIL's Peanut Butter popcorn and then a little later I make an apple cobbler with apples from my inlaws tree. The cobbler recipe I use is EASY PEASY and can be found here.

The card I have to share with you today is one that I made for last Tuesday's technique challenge over at StampTV. The technique is called Split Negative and it was as easy as the cobbler I made yesterday! I inked up the trees from Gina K's Tree Silhouettes set with Top Boss ink and embossed them with Detail White EP (The Cat's Meow) on PL Fresh Asparagus cardstock and Malachite EP (Judi-Kins) on PL White cardstock. I cut them both out with my Labels 2 Nesties and then cut them in half. I then matched up one half from each color combo to create the Split Negative. The image layers were attached to a piece of PL Black Onyx cs that had been run through the Cuttlebug with the Diamonds (?) embossing folder. The card was finished off with some ribbon, brads and some crystal glitter.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

New and Improved Studio-Lots of pics

Wow, I can't believe it has been two years ago today since I last blogged about my studio. You can read that post here. Well, I am here to show you the new and improved room! First, I moved out of the room that I was in (David's Man Cave) a few months ago and into the spare bedroom. The room was neutral in color, so I painted the window wall with a light aqua color (matched from some My Mind's Eye paper). Well, today I am ready to share pictures. It is not perfect, but I love working in this room now.

This is the view from the doorway looking to the right, there are no stamping supplies in the closet, except for some ribbon that is hanging on hangers. The brown antique dresser has "stuff" in the top three drawers and keepsakes from when my boys were little in the bottom two.

This is my new desk, I have been dreaming about storage like this for awhile now. I just put it together yesterday, so I haven't quite figured out what is going to go where in the drawers. See that little sewing machine? I have never used it. I might now!

This is the left wall of the room. See those pretty shelves? My dear BIL made them. One actually belongs to my sister, but when they moved she didn't have room for it. Lucky me! See the little white desk/chair under the shelves.......those were my sister's also. It is perfect for my Cuttlebug station.

This is the right side of my desk, David made this for me several years ago for a Christmas present. It is 8' long. Mr. Lappy sits on this end when I take him in there. One of these days, I will hang the memo board on the wall, for now, it is just resting on the top shelf of the desk.

This is the left side of the desk. Copics at my fingertips, it doesn't get much better than that! The top shelf is home to my clear and cling mounted stamps (in the white bins). My trusty old Fiskars cutter stays here all of the time. The little white bin to the right of the cutter has scraps of paper in it.

Here is the best part, a place for my shoes! As soon as I come in the door I kick them off. Most people would keep them in their bedroom, but I never make it that far with my shoes on!

And this sad pile of stuff, IT HAS TO GO! Ya see something ya want, just holler! If you've stayed with me this long, thanks for touring my room with me!

See ya soon,

Calendar Grid and Calendar Bits and Pieces Blog Hop

Can you believe it, two more great sets from Tami Mayberry for Gina K. Designs? I am going to keep my description brief as there are several of us who are previewing this set tonight and you won't want to miss a thing! I stamped my Calendar Grid/Month and numbers in Adirondack Espresso ink on PL Ivory cardstock. I also stamped the Christmas Topiary from Nina's Lord of the Season set in the lower corner of the grid with Adirondack Espresso ink. All coloring is with Copic markers, the little swirlies and the star on the tree were colored with Gold Spica glitter pen. I added some gem and pearls (that were colored w/Copics) to the tree for a finishing touch. The cardstock, ribbon and hardware are all from my stash! Yeah! The finished size of this calendar page is 8 x 8.

For some helpful tips on how to use the Calendar Bits & Pieces and Calendar Grid stamp sets, please be sure to check out Gina's blog and StampTV for a helpful video on just how quick and easy it can be to use! Both of these sets as well as the PDF version of the Calendar Grid image will be available for purchase tonight over on our online store.

After that, stop by our Illustrator's blog - Tami Mayberry for some projects with her timely stamp sets.

Here are the GinaK Designer Member's links who are joining us in the preview tonight:

Carolyn, Donna, Erika,Cathy, Jessica, Lee, Lynn, Melanie,Nina and Theresa

You'll also want to check in on these CenterStage Spotlight Designer's blogs for more ideas:

Melissa {you are here }, Sharri, and Sue

Come on a Festive hop with me!

Tonight we are sharing cards/projects using the Festive Frame set from Gina K. Designs. I embossed my image with Hematite (black pearl) embossing powder on white shimmer cardstock. The flower image was colored with R20, R29, R35 and a touch of R59 Copic markers. I punched the corners of the PL Black Onyx cardstock with an Iron Eagle punch and attached it to a white shimmer panel that I ran through my Cuttlebug with the Divine Swirls EF. I added some red Midori ribbon tied up in a big bow and layered to a 5" x 7" PL Black Onyx card. Melanie Muenchinger, the Illustrator of Festive Frame has invited a couple of her friends to join in on the blog hop tonight, so click on their blog links to see the projects they've created for us:

Joan Ervin

Linda Payne

Wendy Price

Melanie is going to be giving away a Bow Easy and some ribbon to one lucky person. All you have to do is visit our blogs and leave us some love. Melanie will be randomly picking one of our blogs and then randomly picking a comment for the prize winner.

Then, check in on these GinaK Designer's participating in the Blog Hop tonight:

Carolyn King Donna Baker Erika Martin Jessica Fick Lee Murphy Melanie Muenchinger Theresa Momber

And our fabulous Center Stage Spotlight Team:

Deb Felts Diana S. Queen Melissa Cash {me} Sharri Seffens

After you're done hopping to all the Designer's blogs stop by GinaK's Idea Center here: Festive Frame for lots more ideas on how to use Melanie's stamp set. And, don't forget to check in on GinaK's blog so you can leave your comment to be entered as a chance to win this stamp set, too!

Peace

I created this card for my sketch challenge at StampTV last week. I totally forgot to upload it here on the blog. I used the new Vintage Borders set from Gina K Designs for this card. The red layer was embossed with the Victorian CB EF. For the print background I stamped the border several times with Adirondack Espresso ink. The ornaments and "peace" were embossed with detail gold ep. The ribbon is two ribbons layered together. I used a button and some MS branch punchies for the spray accross the round panels.

Stamps:Vintage Borders (gkd) Cardstock: Chocolate Kiss, Rocket Red, Ivory (gkd) Ink: Adirondack Espresso, Top Boss Extras: MS branch punch, Button, twine, ribbon, nesties, cuttlebug, Victorian EF

Thanks for stopping by,