Gina K Preview Day 1

Hello!!! It has been a while. I had a great Thanksgiving with the family. I took a good long nap this morning to get over all the FUN! ha!


Tonight begins the the Gina K previews. All of the new sets will be available for purchase on Thursday night at 10 p.m. cst on the website! Tonight the design team is peeking Block Greetings (by Tami Mayberry) and Mugs and Kisses (by Melanie Muenchinger).

Here is my card with Mugs and Kisses:

What a fun mug---and it is just one of the ones that come in the set! Mugs are a great focal point for cards for every season and holiday. I chose to do a more "Valentine" inspired project with mine but the set has tons of sentiments and images for just about every occasion you can imagine.

I stamped the mug and colored it with Copic markers and prismacolor pencils.
The designer paper is by Echo Park.


Next, this is the project I created with Block Greetings:
I love this set because you can design elegant cards easily with it but it also is great for tags, wall hangings, etc.
I chose to do a Christmas wall hanging because we have been decorating for the past few days and I thought it would be fun to have a handmade decoration in our breakfast area.

I used onyx cardstock layered with some Wine with Everything cardstock. The frames were stamped with Memento black ink on white cardstock and they layered on the white, black and wine cardstock. I used some foam tape between some layers for dimension and to add accents like the ribbon between the layers.

Here is a detail shot so you can see some of the detail:

Want to see some more projects with these sets? Just head on over to these designers' blogs for more inspiration:

AJ Otto
Asela Hopkins
Carolina Buchting
Carolyn King ---> You are here!
Cathy Tidwell
Colleen Schaan
Deb Felts
Donna Baker
Emily Giovanni
Gina K
Giovana Smith
Janice Whiting
Jennie Harper
Lee Murphy
Melanie Muenchinger
Michelle Woerner
Tami Mayberry
Theresa Momber
Tina Gilliland
Valerie Stangle
Vicki Dutcher

Thanks for stopping by!

Holiday Blessings

Hello! Just wanted to pop in and wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating this great holiday on Thursday!

My kids are home from school for the rest of the week---so I am taking a break from blogging. So just wanted to pop in and wish you all a happy and healthy holiday.

Here is a gift idea for the approaching holiday season. Since cookies are a classic gift this time of the year----this is a fun way to dress up the gift: I picked up the container at Hobby Lobby and dressed it up with some ribbons, stamps and stickers.

The adorable cookie image is from First Christmas (Gina K Designs).

Materials used: Stamps- First Christmas (Gina K Designs); Memento tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; white cardstock (Gina K Designs); rub-on- Farm Fresh (October Afternoon); ribbon- May Arts; adhesive dots (Mark Richards); letter stickers- Baked brown alphabeans (Jillibean Soup); jar-(Hobby Lobby).

Thank you for stopping by!

Feeling Kinda Witchy!

Here is a scrapbook page I created with the Halloween Paper from Echo Park! I LOVE this collection and have used it lots--
I wanted to capture my youngest daughter's costume choice in a page. This is the 5 year old who always wants to wear a dress and be a princess to trick or treat:

Lauren was adamant that she

wanted to be a "scary" witch for Halloween this year...

She had so much fun giving me her "witchy" look

for these pictures.

Shhh....Don't tell her but she was

the cutest witch EVER!

Yep...scary!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

JustRite 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hop 11

Welcome to the 11th week of JustRite Stampers’ Wednesday feature, 12 Weeks of Christmas Blog Hops! Every Wednesday up until Thanksgiving some of your favorite designers will be joining some of the JustRite design team for a series of Christmas blog hops, showcasing JustRite’s entire Christmas Collection of stamps!

Don’t forget that JustRite has some Christmas stamps in their newly released CLING line of stamp sets, too -- you can find them HERE. This week, the designers joining the JustRite design team are the Stampers Dream design team and a few other special guests!

For the month of November, we thought we would switch gears a little and throw in some holiday gift ideas using your JustRite stamps! And, for an added gift---Stamper's Dream is having a sale---25% off all JustRite Christmas stamps!!

For my project, I used Sparky the Snowman cling set to create a bookmark card:

I created a vellum pocket on the card front to slide the bookmark into for gift giving. The bookmark looks like this when it is removed---ready to be used:


Please visit these designers’ blogs to see what fabulous JustRite Christmas inspiration they have for you today!
JustRite Inspiration Blog Beate Johns Debbie Olson Michelle Rodgers Sankari Wegman Tosha Leyendekker Kazan Clark Lori Craig Amy Sheffer Stephanie Kraft Denise Marzec Michele Kovack Carolyn King Barb Schram Jenn Balcer Cindy Lawrence Angela Barkhouse Christina Fischer Heidi Blankenship Mariana Grigsby Terre Fry Teresa Kline

Thanks for stopping by!

WSC - Brown Paper Packages Tied up with Strings

Hello!! It is time for the weekly MFT Wednesday Stamp Challenge! This week the challenge is: These are a few of my favorite things (finding inspiration from the Sound of Music song).

This song is full of different images you can pull from. I chose to go with "Brown paper packages tied up with strings...These are a few of my favorite things." (Thank goodness you cannot hear me sing!) And I created a GIFT tag featuring a package:Awww....she is just dying to rip into that sucker! I used the Pure Innocence set Don't Open Until (currently sold out!) for this. The sentiment is from Merry & Bright.

Designer paper and stickers are by Echo Park.

Wanna play along? Head on over to Kim's blog at 11 am EST (on Wednesday) for all the details on how you can be entered to win a $15 gift certificate. Kim will also have a a complete list of participating designers for this week's Wednesday Stamp Club so you can check out all the samples before you play!


Thanks for stopping by!

Herd the NEWs??

Hello!!! Happy Monday!

Today I have a punny little card I designed using Gina K's Funny Farm stamp set: I love the faces on the animals in this set! ADORABLE!

AND.....speaking of Gina K.----She has some news to share on her BLOG today. Head on over to see what's NEWs!

Thanks for stopping by!

Paper Pretties Hop!

Hello!!! I am so excited to have been asked to be a guest in this month's Paper Pretties hop! If you didn't start at the beginning of the hop, you might want to start THERE!

In case you haven't heard yet, Paper Pretties has a BRAND NEW owner. Now located in Madison, WI, they offer you amazing customer service, faster and cheaper shipping, and a wider variety of stamping "must have" products to go along with all of the new stamps!! Basic Grey, Kaisercraft, Copic and more! All orders are shipped within 24 hours.

This month they are releasing 7 new sets! I created a card using Get Well Fairy Violet:

Isn't that a sweet stamp?? In the original stamp, the fairy is sitting on a leaf....but I just cropped off the leaf and had her perch on a cloud to show you another option!
I paper pieced her outfit and wings and colored the rest of her with Copic markers. I used some Crystal stickles on her wings and cut a moon shape and added some yellow glitter to it to light up the sky.

The next stop on the hop is talented Jessica George! This girl has a LOAD of talent...

And here is the complete list of designers in case you got lost along the way:
PP blog http://paperprettiesblog.blogspot.com/
Cindy Haffner (Sledding Cooper) http://cindyhaffnerscorner.blogspot.com/

GUEST HOPPER AJ Otto (Surprise Sophia) http://thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/
Frances Byrne (Get Well Fairy Violet) http://stampowl.blogspot.com/

GUEST HOPPER Delia Vieira-Cruz (Sledding Cooper) http://scrappingwithfriends.blogspot.com/
Jackie Rakoski (Best Friends) http://stampingsister.blogspot.com/

GUEST HOPPER Shemaine Smith (Thanks Snow Much Sophia) http://scraptasticdesigns.blogspot.com/
Jana Weaver (Skater Zac) http://stampwithjana.blogspot.com/

GUEST HOPPER Carolyn King (Get Well Fairy Violet) http://myblogbycammie.blogspot.com/

Jessica George (Best Friends) http://jessobsession.blogspot.com/
Jane Matsumoto (Surprise Sophia) http://whoopsiedaisy-jane.blogspot.com/

GUEST HOPPER Shannon Teubner (Skater Zac) http://withfeathersandsequins.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Greco (Everyday Sentiments) http://www.glitterinmyhair.blogspot.com/

GUEST HOPPER Beate Johns (Surprise Sophia) http://beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Pam Varnell (Thanks Snow Much Sophia) http://jessobsession.blogspot.com/

GUEST HOPPER Jen Shults (Best Friends) http://deconstructingjen.com/
Wendy Hoff (Skater Zac) http://creationsbywendalyn.blogspot.com/

ARTish (Get Well Fairy Violet) http://allthingsartishtic.blogspot.com/
Heather Lee-Reppen (Everyday Sentiments) http://inkonmyear.blogspot.com/


Enjoy the hop! Thanks for stopping by!

Thank YOU!

Happy Veterans Day!

To all those who have served,

who are currently serving,

and for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice....

Thank you.

From my family to yours.

MFT Wednesday Stamp Challenge

Hello!! It is time for the weekly MFT Wednesday Stamp Challenge! This week the challenge is Creative Cooking. Create a project with a food theme.

Well, since I am a total slacker and ran out of time I am going to show you a "food related" card I recently created that features Die-namics dies:
My happy birthday cake card features the new Stacking Stars Die-namics die (which are becoming my favorite EVER cause I love the outline one sooo very much!) and the jumbo scallop die!

Designer paper and stickers are by Echo Park.

Wanna play along? Head on over to Kim's blog at 11 am EST (on Wednesday) for all the details on how you can be entered to win a $15 gift certificate. Kim will also have a a complete list of participating designers for this week's Wednesday Stamp Club so you can check out all the samples before you play!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pure Innocence Hop

To help celebrate a YEAR of Pure Innocence stamps, My Favorite Things is having a Greatest Hits Pure Innocence Blog Hop! ****Please visit Kim's blog around 11 a.m. EST for a full list of designers who are participating in the hop!****

I used the adorable Better Get Better set for my card:I just love the little bandaged up teddy bear (totally looks like something my youngest would do!)
I stamped the image, pieced the pink part of her dress with patterned paper and then colored the rest with Copic markers. TIP: When you paper piece an image, make sure you color the image completely before adhering the pieced part onto it.

Materials used: Stamps- Better Get Better (My Favorite Things); Copic markers; ribbon (May Arts); cardstock-ivory, white (Gina K Designs); Patterned paper-Life is Good: Bold Stripes, Life is Good alpha border, A Walk in the Park: Treetops (Echo Park); button.

Special promotion----From November 9 - November 11, all orders over $30 get free budget shipping using code BUDGETFREE. The code will reduce your order by the cost of budget shipping, which is $3.45. International customers may also use the code for a discount based on the US budget shipping cost, making international budget shipping only $2!

Please note that to qualify for budget shipping, your order must contain ONLY stamps and/or Die-namics dies. If your order contains any other products, you may use the code, but must choose the appropriate shipping method, which will leave you with a small shipping charge of $1.50 (for US customers).

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas list

You can check out this post if you want to see the project!!

Thanks for stopping by!

...and the Winner Is....

Congratulations to Cassie_lu who said...
"what a beautiful stamp set and gift bag love all the bling to you added too"

You are the Cardswaps winner from my blog. Please email me your mailing address so I can send your prize to you.

Thanks to everyone who played along!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hop and Win....CardSwaps Sugar Crash Hop!

Hello!!! Welcome to the CardMaker Magazine CardSwaps Sugar Crash Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Lora's blog. If you didn't, you might want to go back and start at the beginning.

There are 16 different stops on the hop where you can win a PRIZE or a digital image or a cool sketch. The only way to enter to win the prizes is to leave a comment on that blog.

You are also invited to participate in the Sugar Crash Crop at CardSwaps, too. There are 10 challenges to be posted over the next 3 days (November 4-6, 2010) and EVERY challenge will have a winner. What’s the prize, you ask? A paper crafts books from CardMaker Magazine!! PLUS, one lucky crop participant will win a card making kit that makes 50 cards!!!!

My project: The Christmas holiday is very important in my family. It is the one time of the year that my whole family gets together (siblings, parents, nieces and nephews) and we all gather to have dinner and a Pollyanna. (ETA: A Pollyanna is where you put every one's name in a hat and then you buy a gift for that person. We pick on Thanksgiving and then have a party to give the gifts right after Christmas. And...you keep it a secret for that whole month--which is difficult in our family!) Because this is one tradition that we all look forward to...I chose to create a Christmas gift bag:

Here is the detail shot of all the bling on the ornament:

I stamped the ornament stamp (Heirloom Ornament by Gina K Designs) in ruby on some ivory cardstock. I cut it out with Spellbinders Nested Ornament dies that coordinate perfectly with this set. I stamped the sentiment on some ivory cardstock and matted it with ruby cardstock.

I added a few more stamped and die cut smaller ornaments under the sentiment and added some bling to them.

Enter to win! You have until 11:59 PM CST, November 6, 2010, to post your comment on this post to be entered to win the new stamp set I used on this bag. It is called Heirloom Ornament (by Gina K Designs). It is a GORGEOUS set!

If you want to participate in the challenges for the Sugar Crash Crop go check it out after the blog hop and upload your completed projects by 11:59PM CST, November 8, 2010. (There are prizes to win there, too!)· The link to the challenges are on the last person's blog

The next stop on this hop is the talented..........Meredith! (If you have a few extra minutes, you should check out the adorable Halloween cards she posted!)

In case you get lost along the way....Here is the FULL list of blogs that are participating in the hop:

Lora http://craftsaremything.blogspot.com/2010/11/sugar-crash-blog-hop.html
Carolyn King -http://myblogbycammie.blogspot.com/2010/11/hop-and-wincardswaps-sugar-crash-hop.html < --You are here! Meredith -http://whatsnextma.blogspot.com/2010/11/sugar-crash-crop-nov-4th-nov-6th.html
Ashley - http://handstampedbyashley.blogspot.com/2010/11/cardmaker-sugar-crash-blog-hop.html
Christy Croll (Tiddly Inks - Guest Designer) -http://tiddlyinks.blogspot.com/2010/11/sugar-crash-blog-hop.html
Susie - http://lilbitofme-susan.blogspot.com/2010/11/sugar-crash-blog-hop-and-crop.html
Diana - http://b4ustamp.blogspot.com/
Jane -http://jane-notsuchaplainjane.blogspot.com/2010/11/welcome-you-are-on-cardswaps-sugar.html
Traci (Guest Cardmaker) -http://scrapbookpagelayouts.blogspot.com/2010/11/card-swaps-sugar-crash-blog-hop-and.html
Angelina - http://angel-artdesign.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-hop_04.html
Tami Mayberry (Guest Designer) - http://tamimayberry.blogspot.com/2010/11/cardmaker-magazine-card-swaps-sugar.html
Irina - http://sami-creativityworld.blogspot.com/2010/11/welcomeyou-are-on-cardswaps-sugar-crash.html
Ana - http://anaggarciam.blogspot.com/2010/11/cardswaps-sugar-crash-blog-hop.html
Margaret - http://mmora-lilyana-365.blogspot.com/2010/11/sugar-crash-blog-hop.html
Natalie (Chi Chi Memories - Guest Designer) - http://chichimemories.blogspot.com/2010/11/sugar-crash-blog-hop.html
Laura - http://ljjonescircus.blogspot.com/2010/11/sugar-crash-blog-hop-yeah.html

Thanks for stopping by!

Gina K Preview Day 2

Hello!!! Tonight starts Day 2 of the Gina K previews. All of the new sets will be available for purchase on Thursday night at 10 p.m. cst on the website!

Tonight the design team is peeking Snow Much Fun and Winter Wonderland (New Stamp TV Kit!) Luckily, these sets fell on the same night because I love them together.

My first card uses the background stamp from Winter Wonderland and the tree image from Snow Much Fun: I stamped the script bg on some ivory cardstock for thebackground of this card. I stamped the tree on some green paper and then cut it out. I added stickles and then punched a star and added some Doodlebug sugar coating glitter to it so it really sparkles. I layered this on some Kraft cardstock to frame the image.

I finished this design with a little raffia tied to the top.

Materials used: Stamps- Snow Much Fun, Winter Wonderland (Gina K Designs); Memento tuxedo black ink; other ink- Bashful blue (SU!); Copic markers; Cardstock- ivory, Kraft (Gina K Designs); stickles-Red (Ranger); star punch (SU!); glitter- Doodlebug Sugar Coating- yellow; raffia; other-scrap green paper.

Next, I used one of the cute snowmen and sentiment from Snow Much Fun to create this winter greeting:

The image is stamped on white cardstock and colored with Copics. I paper peiced his vest and hat. I added some Crystal stickles to the ground for some sparkly snow. For a final touch, I stitched the edges of the white and Leather cardstock.

Designer paper is by Echo Park: Everybody Loves Christmas

Materials used: Stamps- Snow Much Fun (Gina K Designs); Memento tuxedo black ink; cardstock-white, tan leather (Gina K Designs); Designer paper- Everybody loves Christmas(Echo Park); Copic markers; crystal stickles (Ranger); snowflake die- Snowflake wonder (Spellbinders); twine (Gina K Designs); metal dots; bell; sewing machine.

Want to see some more projects with these sets? Just head on over to these designers' blogs for more inspiration:
Cathy Tidwell
Carolyn King <---- You are here!

Emily Giovanni
Gina Krupsky
Lee Murphy
Melanie Muenchinger
Theresa Momber

Don't forget: The Gina K release party will be held this Thursday night, November 4. We'll have contest questions, challenges, chatter, and lots of samples with the new stamp sets to share during the party. Please make plans to join us from 7-10 central on StampTV!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gina K Preview Day 1

Hello!! Tonight begins the previews for the new Gina K Designs release. All the stamps and new products will be released on THURSDAY night (after the release party) at 10 p.m. on the site.

Tonight the design team is using Winter Mittens (by Nina Brackett) and A Year of Borders (by Melanie Muenchinger).

Here is the project I designed with Winter Mittens: I stamped the mittens on ivory cardstock and then cut them with the coordinating Spellbinders Nested Mittens die (which will also be available on Thursday night at Gina K Designs). I cut another mitten from the cardstock to create the back of the mitten so I could insert the stick into it. I used a tin I found at Target for the base and added the sentiment right to it. I thought this would be a cute presentation for a Starbucks gift card or even some candy. (You can poke the lollipop sticks into the Styrofoam base.)

Next, I used A Year of Borders to create a holiday card that is easy to mass produce and mail:I embossed the poinsettias on green cardstock ( All Spruced Up )and then matted it on white before adhering it to the card base. I rounded the corners, added some raffia and rhinestones and done.


Want to see some more projects with these sets? Just head on over to these designers' blogs for more inspiration:

Cathy Tidwell

Carolyn King <---- You are here!

Emily Giovanni

Gina Krupsky

Lee Murphy

Melanie Muenchinger

Nina Brackett

Theresa Momber

Don't forget: The Gina K release party will be held this Thursday night, November 4. We'll have contest questions, challenges, chatter, and lots of samples with the new stamp sets to share during the party. Please make plans to join us from 7-10 central on StampTV!

Thanks for stopping by!

So excited to finally be able to share...

http://octoberafternoon.typepad.com/october_afternoon/2010/11/november-guest-designer-carolyn-king.html

Yippee!!