Spreading the word....

I have a soft spot for any company or organization who tries to make the world a better place...in whatever way they can.

Today, I found out that Cosmo Cricket is donating $1 for every comment they receive on this POST to their local food bank. They are doing their part to help out families who really need our help. So, drop a comment on THIS POST and then drop off a can off food at your local food bank....

Just because....together we can make a difference.

Thanks for stopping by!

Feeling Lucky?

Lucky Seven Sale Event: NOW Through Monday!

Gina K Designs is having a special sale for 4 days only!!! Read all the funtastic details below!!!

Here are two cards created with one of the Lucky Seven sets---How Sweet it Is! This set is so versatile....it includes many images suitable to make so many different cards or scrapbook pages.

My first card uses this adorable stork image (one of my favorite images to make baby cards with!):

Materials used: How Sweet it is (Gina K Designs); Memento tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; White pure luxury cardstock (Gina K Designs); designer paper (My Mind's Eye), paper piercing tool; sponge; blue ink (SU!); buttons (PTI); circle punch (SU!); sewing machine.

Another favorite image in the set is this funky heart!!! I just love it and I love how it looks stamped in multiples. The two hearts on the ends are stamped and then I used a Quickie Glue pen to fill them in and then added some glitter, so they are really sparkly in real life!

Materials used: Stamps-How Sweet it is! (Gina K Designs); Memento tuxedo black ink; Pure luxury white cardstock (Gina K Designs); Quickie Glue Pen; Doodlebug glitter; sewing machine; button; hemp; word window punch (SU!); designer paper (Everyday-How's It Going? American Crafts).

Here are the details of the BIG SALE:

Buy any three of these seven stamp sets (regularly priced at $23.95 each) for $49.95

Lucky Seven Stamp sets available for this sale event:

Many Happy Returns

How Sweet it Is!

Jumping for Joy

Zoo Animals

Christmas Blessings

Whatever Floats Your Boat

Cuddles and Hugs

and you can choose from one of these normally priced $19.95 stamp sets for free! (A total value of $91.80)

WhooHoo!

Rectangle Greetings

Heartfelt Hits 1

Kindred Greetings for Kids

OR

for an even more amazing deal: Buy them all for $125! Purchase all of the Lucky Seven stamp sets and you will receive all 4 of the free stamp set choices for free! (A total value of $247.55)


To take advantage of these sale prices, look for the Lucky Seven Button on GinaK's Online Store that will go live tonight!

And for some inspiration using the seven Lucky Stamp sets......Check out these GinaK Designs Senior Design Team blogs tonight:

Many Happy Returns: Joanne and Lynn
How Sweet it Is: Gina and Carolyn
Jumping for Joy: Cathy and Lee
Zoo Animals: Asela and Donna
Christmas Blessings: Kurtis and Emily
Whatever Floats Your Boat: Erika and Jessica
Cuddles and Hugs: Melanie and Theresa

The Lucky Seven Sale event will starts NOW and runs thru Monday night at midnight!

Happy Shopping!

Thanks for stopping by!

Forever Friends...

Ahhh!!! Here are those kiddos again. (I cannot help using them as they remind me of my kids!)

For this card I combined the children The Journey with the background from Happy Camper ,both from Gina K Designs. This card reminds me of the trip we took with our kids to the Grand Canyon and Utah this past spring break.
I stamped the background and colored the mountains and trees with Copics on Pure Luxury white cardstock and sponged the sky. I used the sentiment from The Journey. I stamped the children and colored them with Copics and then raised them a bit over the scene to help create some dimension. The card is created on rocket red cardstock and I added some chocolate kiss to offset the image on one side.

The ribbon is from Gina K Pure Luxury holiday collection. I added some new self-adhesive nail heads on the sides of the sentiment.

These sets really work well with each other.

Materials used: Stamps-The Journey, Happy Camper (Gina K Designs); Memento tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; sponge; mustard, bashful blue stamp pads (SU!); Cardstock-rocket red, white, chocolate kiss Pure Luxury (Gina K Designs); ribbon - Gina K designs; Spellbinders circle/scalloped circle dies; metal nail heads (Gina K Designs; oval punch (Stampin' Up!); dimensionals.

Stay tuned: Something FUN is coming to Gina K Designs on FRIDAY!

Thanks for stopping by!

Holly Berry Mission Bell

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great weekend!!! Thanks for all your sweet comments about the race. It was fun and it is nice to be running in them again.

Today, I wanted to share a special project with you. This is made from a stamp!
When Michelle (Stamper's Dream) sent an email out to the design team to have us look over a site for stamp suggestions...I was mesmerized by these Holly Berry House Mission Bells. They are gorgeous. I used the Chesapeake Bell for this project.
Basically, the stamp is a panel. You stamp it on cardstock or paper and color as you wish and then assemble.

Here is the bell I created:

I really had this hair brained idea to paper piece the bell and was not going to rest until I finished it the way I had envisioned. I stamped the bell panel five times and embossed it in gold. I cut out each panel and it looked like this:

<----This is one panel embossed on red paper. As you can see, it looks beautiful left alone....but I already had this idea in my head and had to try out piecing the bell! So, I embossed the image five more times on each: yellow, light green, dark green. Yes, crazy! But it went much faster than I thought and I took breaks!

<---Here is the same panel with the paper piecing. I cut out each section of the bell and applied the sections I wanted to the main panel. Then, I went back with a Zig Painty gold pen to fill in some gold accents.

After I assembled the bell, I added the bow and small jingle bell. I then applied a thin coat of acrylic spray (because I paper pieced the bell and didn't want to take the chance that any section would come loose!)

But...You can do many things with this stamp:
You can use the bell stamp to create a bell card....just stamp the image and cut it out (cut off the tabs) and cut out a back panel (the same size as the front) and tie a bow at the top.
On the Holly Berry House site, they have the bells AND a description on how to assemble them (EASY!) They embossed the bells in gold and then painted them with Twinkling H2Os.
These would also be stunning hanging from a Christmas tree or you can create a beautiful Wedding bell for a shower!

I just love this unique idea. You can find a nice selection of these bells at Stamper's Dream! They are VERY cool!

Thanks for stopping by!

Running again...

A while back, I mentioned that my husband and I are going to start entering a few road races again. (Road races= running races on the road/concrete) We used to race A LOT before the two youngest were born and both of us stopped because we didn't have to time to train and compete. We kept running...but training and "going for a run" are very different things.

Yesterday, we ran our first 5K (3.1 miles) together in about 7 years. We both didn't get anywhere near our old best times (minutes off!) but it was fun.
The temperature at race start was just hitting the 90s and it was humid but the course was flat and it was through our neighborhood so we knew the roads well.

I finished with a time of 23:53 (a full 4 minutes slower than my best time from years ago) but I was happy with it. I finished first in my age group (35-39) and won a medal that my son has now taken ownership of: Overall, I finished 14/111 women. My husband did well too...finished ahead of me but just missed placing in his age group (men are faster than women.)

Anyway, thanks for letting me share! I am glad that I am getting moving again. Competing is fun (before and after the race--anyway!)

Have a great day! I will have something crafty to share tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!!!!! (since I won't be posting tomorrow, this is early!)

Special thanks to all those who have family members who are serving (who have served) our country here and overseas! Your sacrifices are greatly appreciated!

I used the newest set by Asela for Gina K Designs called The Journey to create this patriotic tribute. It reminded me of kids going to see a parade. (I just need to find a tiny flag for their hands!)

I used some ribbon from the newest Stamp TV kit -Eclectic Summer and some Pure Luxury rocket red and white cardstock.

The star is created using the stars from Lazy Days of Summer (also from Gina K Designs).

Materials used: Stamps-The Journey, Lazy Days of Summer (Gina K Designs); cardstock-red, white (Gina K Designs), blue (SU!); Memento black ink; copic markers; rub-on (Making Memories); ribbon (Gina K Designs); paper piercing tool; red marker (SU!); slit punch (SU!).

Wishing you a happy holiday weekend!!!!

If Tomorrow Never Comes...

Check out the lovely note my son, Ben (6), left for me on my bed:

In case you are having trouble reading the scan it says:

If

Tomro

neve

came

wold

you

No

how

much

I love you

Be still my heart! That boy has a way of melting my heart just when he needs me to be melted. (And for those of you who think I should get him under a song writing contract--just thank Garth Brooks, these are lyrics to his song "If Tomorrow Never Comes." Apparently, I play that song a lot....!)

Just wanted to share! Remember to let the ones you love know how much YOU love them :)

Thanks for stopping by!

(Bee) Happy Announcements

Hi everyone! It is overcast here and I am (silently) rejoicing!! We have had so much sun/pool already this summer...it is nice to just have a break!

I spent a little while this morning making this: I used Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday borders and elements to create this....no stamping involved! I layered some of the designer paper and then I saw the little Bee happy on one section of the paper and knew just what I wanted to do. I used the little bee in the center of the stitched flower, added some ric rak for the stem and cut another piece of dp for the leaf. The velvet ribbon along the bottom is also from Cosmo Cricket-Fleuriste.

Materials used: Designer paper-Girl Friday, borders and elements (Cosmo Cricket); In Stitchz template and thread (Bazzill); cardstock-(SU!); ribbon-Fleuriste (Cosmo Cricket); ricrak (May Arts).

Did you know??? You can find Cosmo Cricket at Stamper's Dream store! Yep, you can! Also, I wanted to take a minute to welcome Amy to the Stamper's Dream design team! Woohoo Amy!!

Did you know x2??? There is still time to apply to be on the Cosmo Cricket design team! You can find all the information HERE! Good luck to all of those who apply!

Have a GREAT day. BEE happy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love boat

..heeheee...couldn't resist that title! (Remember that show?)

Anyway, I just got some designer paper with these fun waves (and whales!) on it...I used a portion of it on this card featuring one of my favorite My Favorite Things sets called Ben Paper Dolls. I just love this fella!
This set is so much fun to play with!

**Rumor has it that MFT is gearing up for a new release on Wednesday night!!! I cannot wait to see all the newest sets!!!

Materials used: Stamps-Ben Paper Dolls (My Favorite Things Presents); Memento tuxedo black ink; White Pure Luxury cardstock (Gina K Designs); designer paper-Whale of a Tale (Sassafras); pirate ship (Quic Kutz); Cuttlebug (Provocraft); corner rounder punch; Copic markers; Making Memories rub on; metal edged tag; hemp; dimensionals.

Well, off to enjoy the day. My friend Melanie and her kids are coming to visit and go to the pool with us!

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

I heart you...make each day count!

I have to admit.....I am still stunned over the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I grew up with a Michael Jackson poster on my wall and stalking MTV for the "longgggg" Thriller video. And, for YEARS, my brother had a lifesized poster of Farrah in his room (right next to one of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders). My sisters and I tried to get that trademark flip in our hair...and were obsessed with Charlie's Angels. Because they were both such a memorable part of my childhood--- It is hard to believe that these entertainment icons are gone. It is just another reminder of our fleeting time on this Earth...make each day count!

We are having a blast enjoying the HOT summer here....we have been hanging at the pool/ the lake and enjoying lots of sunshine!!! We are so excited because my 6 year old, Ben, just learned how to swim a few weeks ago and has progressed soo much over such a short time. Now if we could just get "I just drowned" Lauren (4) to swim. (Lauren LOVES to say that she "just drowned" if her head gets submerged under the water at all. Needless to say....she "drowns" a lot which doesn't make her eager to try to swim without her lifevest.)

I created this card for a pub call a while ago...and although it wasn't accepted....it is still one of my favorite designs. It just makes me happy: Materials used: cardstock: black (SU!); white 120 lb Pure Luxury (Gina K Designs); Designer paper-Colorful Paper Pack (KI Memories); I heart you rubber stamp (Stampabilities); heart punch (Marvy); clear embossing powder, white embossing powder (SU!); Heat tool; Versamark;Stapler; ribbon-turqoise, olive, celery (Stampin' UP!), red dot (Offray), other-Vacation Scrapbooking (Retail Inc); Brenda Walton adhesive rhinestones (K & Company); Paper piercing tool and mat pack (SU!); black classic marker (SU!).

Stay cool! Thanks for stopping by!