Gina K Inspiration Hop Day 2: Vintage Notes & Sweet Strawberries

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop!!! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of deeply etched, pre-cut Gina K. Designs stamps! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a couple of days after the hops!!

First up is a 6” scrapbook page I made using Vintage Notes by Tami that I made for my 6-yr old niece Gabriella.  It’s been a while since I’ve made any scrapbook pages and really enjoyed making this!  She adores these pages.  When I went to visit at the beginning of April, I saw she had this scrapbook page (click to see) I made her from Nov ‘10 on her dresser and she told me the day I left, that she slept with it (crying herself to sleep because she missed me so much), her mom told me she grabbed it before it could get ruined though.  It just broke my heart over and over.  She was still crying a week & a half after I left!  That’s the price we pay for me being the Most Awesome Auntie I am, I told my sister!

One thing I know is priceless, is when you write things in your own handwriting.  I want her to have this kind of stuff because one day when I have passed on from this world, it will mean 10 times more to her when she remembers me.  I know I wish I had more things my mom had written me than I do, since she is gone.  Gabriella is so cute, the first night I got there she was so eager to share her treasure box with me…it held a bunch of items she has received that mean so much to her.  So, I know she will treasure this.  The girl even collects tags from clothing and the coloring sheets/menus from when they go out!  it’s so funny.  So a little about what I did now – I used Bubblegum cardstock, Petals & Wings pattern paper, yellow, pink & green buttons, flower punch, green silk ribbon, coated pink paper clip, pink paper flower.  The sentiment in the yellow punched flower is a greeting from the new set One in a Million which was perfect for this page. 

 

Next up is a card & box ensemble I made using Sweet Strawberries by Theresa.  The box was fashioned after a little chocolate box I got that I tore apart to make a template.  I then ran the whole thing a piece at a time through my swiss dot embossing folder to mimic the spots on strawberries.  The card measures 2 1/2 x 3 inches.  I added some red & white polka dot ribbon to mimic those spots again!

Here is a view of the inside of the box, where I tucked in some delicious Ghirardelli chocolate squares.  Here is a bit of trivia for you – did you know the factory store is in my hometown of San Leandro, CA?  yes that’s right!  Their factory store offers the chocolates at 60% off retail.  What a deal.  I came home with quite a bit of it of course!  I just couldn’t help myself. 

Check out all the amazing designs and inspiration:

• Gina K
• Tami Mayberry - Illustrator Vintage Notes
• Theresa Momber – Illustrator Sweet Strawberries
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Donna Baker (you’re here!)
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Lori McAree
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

Gina K Inspiration Hop Day 1: Basket Additions 2 and Lacy Borders

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop!!! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of deeply etched, pre-cut Gina K. Designs stamps! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a couple of days after the hops!!

First up is a card I made for Jen’s Deconstructed sketch 48 using Melanie’s Basket Additions 2 which coordinates with Spring Basket and Holiday Basket (used the holiday basket to make this colorful Birthday Basket).  I used My Mind’s Eye Fine & Dandy pattern paper which equally matches the colorful & fun feel to this card.  In Melanie’s signature style, with each new set she comes up with, it increases the value of the original sets so you have endless creations to make intermingling them!  The new die set I have is Spellbinders Labels 23 and I used White, Sweet Mango and Turquoise Sea pure luxury cardstock and added some coordinating buttons!  The banner is paper-pieced with the fine & dandy papers and the image is colored with copic markers.

Next up is a card I made using the new set Lacy Borders and yes, I went traditional with the white lace!  I stamped it on the smoky slate pure luxury cardstock and layered some organdy ribbon over it then put some silver pearls on top of that.  What I really love is the simple Spellbinders Labels 4 for the greeting with the top and bottom embossed with my Kassie’s Brocade folder.
Check out all the amazing designs and inspiration:

• Gina K
• Melanie Muenchinger – Illustrator Basket Additions 2
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker (you’re here)
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Lori McAree
• Sharon Harnist
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you will come back on Monday, Apr 30 as our inspiration hops will continue!

You’re Invited to the April Gina K Release Party!

The Gina K. Design Team is excited to invite you to another fabulous Release Party!!! The party starts at 11:00 am Central Time in the Stamp TV Release Party Forum. Join us for Challenges, Contest Questions, Design Team Samples, Full Stamp Set Reveals and, of course, party chit chat!!! Everything will go "live" at 11:00 am Central in Gina's Store so there won't be any long wait to start shopping!  Hope to see you there!

If you came from Deb’s blog, then you're right where you should be. If not, please go to Stamp TV where you will find a list of all those participating. Here's a sneak peek of one of the cards I will be sharing with you at the party tonight:

Here is a sneak peek of one of the cards I made using Lacey Borders that will be shared at the party today!

Go to Emily's blog, to continue the hop and I hope you will make it to the party today!

April SFYTT–I Miss You

Hi there!  If you’re looking for a Friday Night Sew In** post, I apologize, I was not able to participate this month! 

This is my April sketch for you to try using my Pure Innocence set by My Favorite Things.  Can’t find the direct link to the set, so I’m not sure it’s still available.  The supplies are from an old Taylored Expression key ingredients kit (pattern paper is American Crafts Happy Go Lucky).  It also included the Thickers white fabric alphabet that I used for the hi and colored with a pink copic marker.  On the inside of the card it says, “The One Good Thing About Not Seeing You Is That I Can Write You Letters – I Miss You”.  I made this card to send to my niece Gabriella who will be celebrating her 6th birthday this coming Thursday!  It’s so hard to believe it!  I visited her for a week the first week of April for her Spring Break and have been gone for nearly 2 weeks and got an email from my sister she is still missing me and was still crying about it this week.  It just breaks my heart!  When I talked with her on Wednesday, she said “I miss you'” about 3 or 4 times!  Then after we got off the phone, she asked my sister, “Do you think Auntie Donna will write me a note?”  She had sent me some colored pictures telling me she missed me which made me cry!!  It’s so fun she is learning to write so I can start getting more letters from her!  I have all the pictures from our trip already printed and in the box she will get for her birthday, which includes a collage picture frame that I believe she will cherish! 

I will leave you with a picture of us from my trip, this was taken one evening after I sewed a sundress for Gabriella and this Batman pillow for Joey which they both stuffed!  It was a family effort!  I only got 2 pictures with them (sad) but love this one because they’re both smiling and it was more impromptu! 

**Sorry I don’t have anything to share for Friday Night Sew In which I had previously signed up for, this has been a busy week and I still have a long to do list and I have not sewn a thing in 2 1/2 weeks (since I was in California!) and I miss it a lot!  I am hoping to get something made by tomorrow though since I am suffering some withdrawal from it!  ha.  One thing on my to do list, which I am super excited about is working on a project picked up for publication in Stitch Magazine in the Winter issue!!  In fact, once I finished publishing this post, I MUST get back to working on my submittal document!  Then, I need to finish with preparing for the Gina K release which is on Thursday!!

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

Take Flight Hop with Gina K

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to a fun Take Flight blog hop. For this hop we will showcase the Petals & Wings StampTV Kit with the central theme being "Take Flight". The DT Members have all used a wide variety of Gina K. Designs stamp sets to inspire you to get inky too! Come play along with the Current Challenges at Stamp TV!!!

If you came from Deb Felts’ blog, then you're right where you should be. If not, please go to Stamp TV where you will find a list of all those participating.

I decided to make a wiper card to share with you today.  My niece **Gabriella’s 6th birthday is on Apr 26 and I still needed to make her a card so this was perfect timing!  I love that the pattern paper included in the kit has lots of pink on it since that’s her favorite color!   I added some simple buttons and pink gingham ribbon as embellishment.  This card was so easy to make, it came together in under an hour!  The hardest part is trying to narrow down what images to use because there are so many fun ones in the set that will enable you to make MANY varieties of cards for all sorts of occasions! 

Here is a picture of the wiper part showing at the top – I bet she will love this, she always loves the cards I make her but I know she will adore that I moves!!  Oh, and that it has butterflies on it too.  I stamped the greeting ‘May All Your Wishes Come True” on the pattern paper with black ink to make it pop. 

Here is a recent picture taken of us** together last week I spent Gabby’s  Spring Break in CA with her and her brother.  We had a lot of fun together!  I can hardly believe how much she’s grown since I saw her Nov ‘10; in kindergarten and now reading, writing, doing math and still dancing!   We took them to the Ice Creamery where we indulged in some good old fashioned ice cream sundae creations – oh my!! 

Now hop on over to Emily’s blog for more Gina K. goodness!!!