CSS Alumni Challenge Time

It's time for our bi-monthy challenge for the Gina K. Designs Center Stage Alumni Design Team.  This time Carolina has given us a limited supplies challenge.  She has asked us to use the following elements:

1 Neutral Cardstock

2 Solid Colors of Cardstock

1 Print Paper/Cardstock

1 Ribbon

3 Buttons

and as many Gina K images as we would like.

You should have arrived at my blog from the uber talented Melanie's blog, if not you can head back to StampTV and start from the beginning.

I am not sure what happened to creating fall cards, but here I am thrusting ahead to Christmas again.  I choose to use the sentiment and script image from the Blessed is the Season stamp set.  The print cardstock was layered to panels of PL Cranberry Tart and PL Ocean Mist.  I edged each one of the panels with some Vintage Photo Distress ink to mute the tones enough to coordinate with the print cardstock.  I used some braided trim in place of ribbon (a little creative license here) and layered it all to an Ivory panel that was embossed with my French Script CB EF. 

I played around for quite awhile with the buttons before coming up with the idea to stack them.  Brilliant, if I say so myself!  No really, the heart button just offered up the perfect spot for the other two buttons. 

Well, I should send you on your way to Melissa's blog.  I am sure she will have something beautiful for you to look at. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Pretty in Pink

Happy Saturday! The card I am sharing with you is one that I created for last Monday's color challenge over at StampTV . My friend Tina is the Color Challenge hostess for the next three months and for her first week she chose the colors pink and white (only). I was expecting purple as that is her favorite color, but nope she zigged down the pink/white road this week. I really, really tried to make this card in the CAS (clean and simple) style and although I added some ribbon and layering I am pretty proud of myself because I could have easily piled on a little more! My original idea was to emboss the white card as you see and then just layer the white image panel with the pretty pink flower from the Pressed Flowers set from GKD. I just couldn't stop there, I added the ribbon (w/o the bow).........still wasn't happy. Added the pink panel behind the image panel........was starting to feel a little better. Finally I added the little bow, pearls to the flower center and some Diamond glitter glue. Then I was happy.

Tomorrow, I hope to play in some of the other challenges over at StampTV.

Hugs,

CSS Inspiration Blog Hop

Each artist was asked to design their project by drawing inspiration from these photos of the AMAZING Christmas Cookie Bouquet the CSS Team sent to Gina's DT Coordinator Jessica Fick:

For my card, I chose the blue/white color from the snowflake mitten cookie as my inspiration. I stamped both the butterfly and sentiment in Paris Dusk Memento ink on Gina K Designs Pure Luxury White cardstock and used a bit of B21 Copic marker for the inner portion of the wings on the butterfly. The sentiment is from the Tree Silhouettes set and the butterfly is from Take Flight. The light blue background and the top white circle are embossed with the Stylized Flowers Cuttlebug EF.

Click on these links to see what the participating Designers have prepared for us tonight:

Jessica Fick, Betty Neville,

Jen Charboneau, Joan Ervin, Vicki Dutcher, Lori McAree, Cheri Weston, Melissa Cash, {you are here} Carla Suto, Giovana Smith, JenMarie Taylor, Sue Morris, Carolina Buchting, Sharri Seffens, Brenda Turner, Kay Simmons, Peggy Wainman, Sue Van deVusse, Shannon Bracken, Tina Gilliland, Deb Felts, Jennie Harper, Geri Utterback, Selma Stevenson, Melissa Shultz, Linda Payne, Joy Hadden, Karen Knegten, Melanie Muenchinger, Nina Brackett

Everyone's projects will be added to the StampTV gallery and Idea Center over the next few days. You can search for them by using this tag: cssjf4

Christmas Treat Recipe Blog Hop

Several members of the Center Stage Spotlight Team have joined together to share a special Christmas Treat Recipe Blog Hop event with everyone tonight! They have whipped up some treats in their kitchens and their stamp rooms over the past few weeks so we could compile our very first Recipe Book for StampTV!

Hi there! The recipe I am sharing tonight is a quick and easy favorite around my house. I hope you will like them too! I am going to keep my post short and sweet so you can continue along on the hop. The cookie recipe and card recipe are listed below.

Peanut Butter Dream Bites

Ingredients: · 1 1/4 cups flour, sift or stir before measuring · 1/2 teaspoon salt · 1 teaspoon baking powder · 1/2 cup butter · 1/2 cup peanut butter · 1/2 cup granulated sugar · 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed · 1/2 teaspoon vanilla · 1 egg · 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (for topping)

For crust: Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside. Cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars; beat in vanilla and egg. Stir in flour mixture, blending well. Place dough in lightly greased 13” x 9” baking dish and flatten to create cookie bottom. Bake at 375° for about 14 to 16 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before adding chocolate topping.

For topping: Melt chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments until chips are melted. Pour chocolate over peanut butter crust and refrigerate until chocolate is firm. Cut into bite sized squares and enjoy!

Recipe for Peace, Hope, Love card: Stamps: Festive Frame, A Year of Flowers (Gina K. Designs) Cardstock: PL Ivory, PL Chocolate Kiss, PL Rocket Red (Gina K. Designs), Vintage DP (Webster’s Pages) Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa Embellishments: Cuttlebug Textile Texture EF, Brown Rhinestones (Kaisercraft), Copic Markers (E31, Blender) Check out these designer's blogs for the sweet projects they've designed around their treats:

Carolina Buchting Carla Suto Deb Felts Donna Baker Giovana Smith Jennie Harper Jessica Fick Joy Hadden Karen Knegten Kay Simmons Lee Murphy Linda Payne Lori McAree Melissa Cash {you are here} Pam Imholz Selma Stevenson Sue Morris Sue VanDeVusse Sue Walsh Vicki Dutcher

Then, stop by GinaK's blog for a super sweet give-away she has tonight in honor of the hop!

The Recipe Book will be available as a free download PDF on StampTV tonight as well. Look for it on the Freebie Tab link.

Snowy Trees

Good morning! Today I am sharing a fun card that I made for this weeks sketch (STVSCJH01)over at StampTV. My friend Jennie will be hosting the sketch challenges for the next 3 months and she would love it if you would join in on the fun! Each week Gina K. gives away a stamp set to one lucky person, all you have to do is create a card using the sketch and upload it to your StampTV gallery using the proper tag for the week.

I started by cutting the petite oval nestie and then stamping the trees with Adirondack Meadow, the window pane with Adirondack Espresso and sponged the edges with Colorbox Dune before removing the image from the die. Then I layered it up with a couple more ovals and attached to the main panel. It is hard to see but there is gltter all over the trees and on the panes of the window. So sparkly in person! On the left is a pic of the inside of the card and on the right is a detail shot (you can always click on them to see them bigger) .

I hope you all have a great day! I have some errands to run and some baking to do!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Tree Silhouettes, Hip to be Square, Signed with Love, Festive Frame (GKD)

Cardstock: PL Ivory, PL Kraft, PL Fresh Asparagus (GKD), Glitter paper from Christmas Stack by My Mind's Eye Inks: Adirondack Espresso & Meadow, Colorbox Dune

Extras: Glitter, Dew Drops, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots EF, Petite Oval Nesties (classic and scallop)

all non GKD supplies can be purchased at: The Cat's Meow

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,

Gina K. Designs CSS Challenge Blog Hop

Welcome to our first Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Blog Hop! Jessica Fick, the Design Team Coordinator for GinaK Designs has issued a challenge to all of the past and present team CSS team members to make a Christmas card with one of these sketches:

We know you're going to LOVE what everyone has designed for us tonight!

The card I have created for you uses the Festive Frame set that was illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger for Gina K. Designs. I started my card with a base of PL White Base weight cardstock and rounded the right corners. I then ran a piece of In The Navy PL through the Cuttlebug with my Victorian embossing folder and rounded the right corners and adhered that to the card. I cut strips of light blue and PL White and layered them to the blue panel. With my Nestabilities dies I cut and embossed a circle of PL White cardstock and stamped the sentiment and floral image in Adirondack Denim ink using a stamp positioner to get them right where I wanted them. I layered this to a light blue panel that was cut with my Nestabilities Blossom die and attached to my cardfront with some foam tape. I finished off the card with lots of little white pearls and a big white bow that I created using the Bow Easy. You can click on the photos below to enlarge if you would like to see all of the details.

First, here are the links for GinaK's Current CSS Team Members: Deb Felts Diana S. Queen Karen Knegten Melissa Cash {that's me} Sharri Seffens Sue VanDeVusse and the links for all of the past CSS Design Team members participating:

Brenda Turner, Carla Suto, Carolina Buchting, Charlene Merrick, Dawn Lusk, DeeMarie Kelemen, Geri Utterback , Giovanna Smith, Janice Melton, JenMarie Taylor, Jennie Harper, Joy Hadden, Kay Simmons, Linda Payne, Lori McAree, Melisa Waldorf, Pam Imholz, Selma Stevenson, Shannon Bracken, Shelly Wilson, Sue Walsh, Tina Gilliland Some of GinaK's Senior Design Team Members and Illustrators wanted to get in on the fun tonight too: Gina Krupsky

Asela Hopkins Carolyn King Cindy Lawrence Jessica Fick Lee Murphy Lynn Mercurio Nina Brackett Melanie Muenchinger along with Nina Brackett's Guest Designer: Lisa Hjulberg All of these gorgeous cards from the entire team will be added to the StampTV gallery throughout the next few days with the tag cssjf1 (which stands for center stage spotlight jessica fick 1) These sketches are also our sketch challenge for this week, so be sure to check out all the information in the discussion in our Challenge group over on StampTV Thursday morning. We'd love to see your cards with the sketch too!

Somer's Flowers

Hi there!

The card I have for you today is for last week's Potluck Friday challenge over at StampTV. My fellow Center Stage Spotlight Design Team member Deb Felts challenged us to create a soft and femine card. There was a special reason for this challenge, Deb lives in Florida near where Somer Thompson and her family live. This card will be sent to Deb and she is going to give all of the cards to Somer's Mom so that she will know how much people are thinking about her during this terrible time. If you would like to create a card and send it on, you can find the information in the challenge thread here.

I stamped the iris in Black Stazon ink onto Arches 140# cold press watercolor paper and used my Tombow markers to watercolor with. The image was cut/embossed with the Nestabilities Classic Octagon die. I turned it a bit and layered to a light pink octagon and then popped that up with a little foam tape to the print cardstock. Some lavender satin ribbon and clear gems (that I colored with Copic marker BV11 were added to finish off the card.

Stamps: Elegant Flowers (GKD) Paper: purple (Bazzill), print (PTI), pink (Worldwin), Arches 14# watercolor paper Ink: Stazon Black Extras: Ribbon , Gems, Nesties, Copic BV11

P.S. Notice something new? I'll post more about the change later.

Hugs,

Celebrate the Beauty

I created this card for Cindy's sketch challenge for Gina K Designs release party over at SCS. There is still time to play, you can find all of the details here. I used two of the new sets that were just released, they were Festive Frame (for the sentiment) and Vintage Borders (ornament image). The snowflake is from the Special Delivery set. I love sketch challenges and this one was alot of fun. You have until Monday Nov 2 @ 7:00 CST to upload your card over at SCS. Please be sure to use the keyword: GKDOCTCL so that Cindy will be able to find your card.

****The winner of this challenge will receive any stamp set they choose from Gina K Designs valued at $24.95 or less!*****

Stamps: Festive Frame, Vintage Borders, Special Delivery (GKD) Paper: Kraft, Rocket Red (GKD), White (Neenah), Aqua Print (stash) Inks: Rocket Red Brilliance, White VersaMagic Extras: Ribbon (stash), Pearl (Kaisercraft), R29 Copic (to color the pearl), MS Snowflake punch, Fiskars Apron Lace border punch, buttons (Autumn Leaves), Nesties

Hugs,

Doing the happy dance today!

It's official! I was chosen to be on the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team for Gina K Designs for the next few weeks. I was shocked when I received my an e-mail from Gina K asking if I would like to participate. I immediately e-mailed her back and accepted. I didn't want her to come to her senses and change her mind ya know! I will be joined by these fabulous ladies:

Sue VanDeVusse

Karen Knegten

Sharri Seffens

Diana Queen

Deb Felts

So come on back and see what we have up our sleeves for the next design release. The illustrators have been hard at work!