My Love Always

I wanted to make a card for the Limelight Sketch Challenge this week (which was to incorporate patterned paper) and combined it with the Color Challenge over on STV to make a card using monochromatic colors. It was also an excuse to set aside my Christmas stamps to create something different and so I went with a Valentines theme using the stamp sets Calendar Grid and Calendar Bits and Pieces from Tami Mayberry. This stamp set is truly a year round stamp set and the sky is the limit to all of these word combinations. I chose to create a Valentines card for my hubby. He loves all shades of brown so this will be perfect!

This is going to be a very busy week for me so stamping time will be limited a bit. We have a tradition of decorating the Christmas tree on the night December 1st and it will be here before I know it! So if it is silent here this week, you will know why.... I am LOST in lights, ornaments, wrapping paper and bows! Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Card Deets~

Stamps: Calendar Grid, Calendar Bits and Pieces

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel and Basic Grey dp

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel

Accessories: Tab Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Felt Ribbon, Oval Scallop Punch and Nailheads

Center Stage Spotlight Challenge Blog Hop

It's time for another CenterStage Spotlight Challenge Blog hop!

Hostess: Jessica Fick {Design Team Coordinator}
Theme: Stamp and color the image on Patterned Paper
{ any occasion card acceptable, it doesn't have to be Christmas themed} { image may be cut out and layered, but must be stamped and colored on patterned paper}
Requirement: any GinaK Designs stamp set & Glitter
Bonus Challenge: decorate the inside of your card to coordinate

It is such a delight to work with these ladies from the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Alumni and Jessica does a remarkable job organizing these hops! I used a stamp from the Stamp TV Kit Holiday Cheer Kit to add another card to my Christmas card stash. I used the new Kraft cardstock and sadly cut my last sheet (but no worries, I am ordering more ASAP!) I stamped the image on a piece of snowflake Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper and colored it with Copics. In order to add glitter to my card, I added some Christmas Red Stickles to my berries. The edges were lightly sponged with White Craft ink. I am going to have to skip the bonus challenge of doing the inside as I ran out of time... I can't wait to see what everyone else has created for this challenge...

Participating Designer's links:

Brenda Turner
Carla Suto,
Carolina Buchting,

Cheri Weston
Deb Felts
Geri Utterback ,
Giovana Smith,
Gina Krupsky
Janice Melton,
JenMarie Taylor,
Jennie Harper,

Jessica Fick,
Joy Hadden,
Karen Knegten
Kay Simmons,
Linda Payne,
Lori McAree,
Melisa Waldorf,
Melissa Cash,
Melissa Shultz,
Nina Brackett,
Pam Imholz,
Peggy Wainman,
Selma Stevenson,
Shannon Bracken,
Sharri Seffens

Sue Morris
Sue VanDeVusse
Sue Walsh,
Tina Gilliland

Blessings,

Card Deets:
Stamp: Holiday Cheer Stamp TV Kit
Cardstock: Kraft, White, and Basic Grey Wassail
Ink: Memento Black, White Kraft
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, Christmas Red Stickles, White Embossing Powder

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I have auto-posted this knowing that I am going to be quite busy cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner and enjoying time with family.  

This little project is a Post-It Note Holder that I made for Thanksgiving.   Are you addicted to sticky notes??? I am definitely a "sticky note person"...I have them everywhere...in my purse, in my Bible, in the kitchen, next to the computer, on my craft table...you get the idea.   I knew I needed one to keep straight all of my Thanksgiving meal plans...

The CCS stamp set Turkey Day was perfect for post it note holder and I used some Basic Grey Indian Summer designer paper. I stamped the turkey with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored him with Copics. Then added the words "Turkey Day" from one of the sentiments and also used one of the cutest sayings in the whole set: "First one done, does dishes" I figured the one who is organizing the meal, buying the ingredients, cooking most of the meal can find some relief in sight if someone ELSE cleaning up! :o) I know my daughter was a HUGE help last year and I am sure she will be this year as well.

I like to make a little assortment of hand made gifts for Christmas and can easily see these with a Christmas theme....  I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving :o)
Blessings,

Deets:
Stamp: Turkey Day
Cardstock: Chocolate Brown, Vanilla, Basic Grey Indian Summer
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Vivid Butterscotch

Accessories: Copics, Scallop Edge Punch

Calendar Bits and Pieces Blog Hop

In October, I received an email from Tami Mayberry asking if I would be her guest designer for her next stamp set... What other answer is there than..."Eeeks, I would LOVE to!" Her first set Special Delivery is a favorite of mine and I knew whatever she had up her sleeve would be wonderful so of course I wanted in on it! She has outdone herself with Calendar Bits and Pieces. and Calendar Grid (which you can also get the grid in a digital form if you prefer). Not only is this set perfect for calendars, but cards, scrapbook pages, altered art... you name it, it fits! Some dear friends recently had a party celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary and I just knew this set would be perfect! Little did I know that the calendar layout for the month of November was the same in 1959 as 2009...How cool is that!?! I wanted to commemorate their years together with my design so this is what I came up with...


I so enjoyed making this card and am thrilled with the result...(I don't mean to sound prideful, it just came out better than I envisioned). :o) I even worked in some images from Timeless Treasures and Good as Gold cardstock for their Golden Anniversary! I made a little gift card holder using the Labels One Nesties for a fun treat for the happy couple!

For more inspiration, please visit Calendar Bits and Pieces' illustrator, Tami Mayberry, then to the following Blog Hop Participants from the GinaK Designs team:

Carolyn, Erika, Donna, Jessica, Lee and Nina

{the GinaK Designs CSS team}
Deb, Sharri, Sue, Melissa.

{Tami's Guest designer}
Jennie Harper (that's me!!)

Make sure you stop by Gina's blog to leave your comment for a chance to win this amazing stamp set for free! Remember to check our Idea Center for even more samples, tutorials, and links!

I can't wait to see what the others created for this Blog Hop... Thanks for stopping by!



Card Deets:
Stamps: Calendar Bits and Pieces, Timeless Treasures and Sporty Accessories (for the "th")
Cardstock: Gina K. Designs
Ink: Memento Black, Memento Rich Cocoa, Purely Pomegranate, Creamy Caramel, So Saffron, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Antique Linen
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Oval Punch, Nesties Label One, Brown Organdy Ribbon, Gold Ribbon, Charm, Gold Cording

CPS143

Can you believe this Thursday is Thanksgiving? I am amazed with how the month of November has flown by! This year my parents are joining us for Thanksgiving and we have much to be thankful for!

I had a little time over the weekend to stamp and made this card for the CPS sketch challenge. I used two stamp sets: Vintage Borders and the snowflake from Calendar Bits and Pieces....Speaking of which, there is going be a blog hop Monday night at 10 CST for this fun new perpetual calendar set by Tami Mayberry. I was asked to participate and can't wait to share what I made.... Here is a itty bitty sneak peek :o)



Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Blessings,



Card Deets:
Stamps: Vintage Borders and Calendar Bits and Pieces (the snowflake)
Cardstock: Kraft, Cranberry Crisp, Ivory, and K&Company dp
Ink: Memento Rhubarb, Antique Linen Distress Ink, Creamy Caramel, and Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Mega Scallop Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Ribbon, Button, and Jute

Vintage Borders ~ Peace

Are you ready for a fun Gina K. Designs Blog Hop?? I know I am :o) The idea was started by Jessica over on Stamp TV to have a special Blog Hop featuring the newest released Gina K. Designs stamp sets. My card features the stamp set by Nina Brackett called Vintage Borders. I

had some K&Company designer paper I bought years ago and paired it with Cranberry Tart cardstock.  The ornaments were stamped with Rhubarb Memento and embossed with Clear Embossing powder.

Each one of us participating will be linking our project up over at Gina's blog with Mr. Linky so if you are looking for some inspiration, this is the place to be!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Card Deets ~
Stamps: Vintage Borders

Cardstock: Cranberry Tart, Ivory, K&Company dp

Ink: Memento Rhubarb

Accessories: Nesties and Ribbon

Hostess with Mostess

This card uses the Sentiment Single Hostess with Mostess which is the perfect sentiment to use to create a project for a friend who is hostessing an event.  I made this using last week's CCS color challenge (Ruby Red, Kraft and Creamy Caramel). I used Versamark and Clear Embossing powder to make the sentiment pop and sponged over it with Creamy Caramel. I wanted to keep this very CAS and think I managed to. Sometimes when you don't have a lot of time to design a card, know that a little is sometimes all you need :o)

I don't know about you but stamping time is not quite as abundant as it was a week ago. My brain is whirling with Thanksgiving plans, Christmas gifts and the fact I need to *START* on my Christmas cards, LOL!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day!



Card Deets:
Stamps: Hostess with the Mostess
Cardstock: Creamy Caramel, Kraft and Ruby Red
Ink: Versamark, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Clear EP, button, twine, CB Herringbone folder

Sketch Girls Sketch #9

Isn't this sketch just the coolest! I love it because you can keep it simple of layer is up. I decided to keep it simple...Here is my take on the sketch:


I used Special Delivery and Special Delivery Addition for this card and love the snowflake stamp in this set.  I thought the postage grid would be perfect for this sketch and lightly sponged it with Creamy Caramel, finishing the card by adding the little circular clip with ribbon.  Be sure and check out what the other Sketch Girls have to share...they are so creative with each sketch and can't wait to see what they have...

One more quick thing...


Thank you so much to Theresa for giving me this award...
If you have a chance be sure and hop over to her blog, she has some fabulous projects to share and is one talented stamper!

This award comes with a little quiz:

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your hair? needs another highlighting!
3. Your mother? loving
4. Your father? giving
5. Your fave food? Italian
6. Your dream last night? No idea...
7. Your fave drink? Coffee
8. Your dream/goal? Being faithful/true
9. What room are you in? Family Room
10. Your hobby? Papercrafts
11. Your fear? Being alone (I'm a people person)
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Content
13. Where you were last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? Angry
15. Muffins? Chocolate
16. Wish List Item? Lots of Nesties
17. Where did you grow up? All over (proud military brat)
18. Last thing you did? Changed little one's diaper
19. What are you wearing? pajamas
20. Your TV? on
21. Your Pets? crazy dog
22. Friends? thankful for them
23. Your Life? Full/Busy :o)
24. Your Mood? sleepy
25. Missing Someone? brother (deployed)
26. Vehicle? Nissan Quest
27. Something you are not wearing? socks
28. Your fave store? Starbucks
29. Your fave color? Pink
30. Last time you laughed? this evening
31. Last time you cried? a couple of days ago
32. Your best friend? Husband
33. One place that I go to over and over? Kitchen
34. One person who emails regularly? Mom
35. Fave place to eat? Panera Bread
36. Facebook? Yes, but bad at it!

Now I have to pass this award to 5 people...if you have already been given this, I understand :o)
Leigh Ann, Julie, Michelle, Laura, and Shelly

I hope you have a wonderful and creative day!
Blessings,

Card Deets:

Stamps: Special Delivery and Special Delivery Addition

Cardstock: Kraft, Cranberry Tart and Basic Grey Wassail dp

Ink: Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Creamy Caramel

Accessories: Ribbon, Circle Clip, 

Vintage Borders

I made this card using Nina's new set Vintage Borders and this time embossed the musical score with Gold Embossing Powder. The wording background was stamped with Elegant Eggplant on Ivory cardstock. I just love the colors on this even though they aren't the traditional Christmas colors. As I was making this card, it made me realize how soon I will be needing to mass produce some to send.  Eeks, need to get moving on that! :o) How many cards do you send each year? I need to make about 50...um, I think, need to check on that too!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Blessings,



Card Deets:
Stamp: Vintage Borders
Cardstock: Ivory, Elegant Eggplant, and Black
Ink: Versamark and Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Ribbon, Gold Cording, Button, Scallop Edge Punch, Nesties, and Gold EP

Let It Snow Slider Card

I thought this cute little snowman from Let It Snow would be cute punched out with the scalloped circle punch and twirling across in slider card fashion. I stamped the scene first using the trees from Let It Snow which are paper pieced with Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses. If you want to see how I created this step-by-step, I have a tutorial over on the Creative Clear Stamps Blog.

I am so tickled with how this turned out. I ended up with a 5x5 card and love that is larger than the standard size card.  Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Card Deets:
Stamps: Let It Snow
Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, WW and Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses
Ink: Memento Black, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky
Accessories: Word Window Punch, Dimensionals, Pennies

Vintage Verse

The weekend went by fast!!!  Last week we were out of town on vacation...we enjoyed being up in the mountains, but my poor hubby came down with a virus that has been hard to shake!  I don't know about y'all, but I enjoy going away for vacation, but I love coming home again!

When I got home I had a new stamp set waiting for me: Vintage Borders.  I was just itching to get it inky ASAP, but had unpacking, settling and other things so it had to wait a bit. :o)  The musical score is very classic looking and will be a beautiful accent for designing cards in the future.   For this card,  I used some K&Company dp I bought years ago and love the vintage look to the paper.  I lightly sponged with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress ink to age it a bit more and lightly sponged over my focal image.  I thought a strip of ivory tulle would be a nice accent to the image so wrapped it around the bottom panel before adhering.  

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my blog!   I truly appreciate the time you take to visit and comment and hope you have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Card Deets:
Stamp: Vintage Borders
Cardstock: Kraft, Ivory, K&Company Hannah Pad

Ink: Creamy Caramel, Vivid Tuscan Sun, Antique Linen Distress

Accessories: Nesties, Scallop Edge Punch, Ivory Tulle

CSS Challenge 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!

I have two cards to share for the Blog Hop that I made using each of these sketches (because I couldn't just stop at one!), one with the simpler sketch and the second card with more embellishments added. I think it makes for a nice quick easy card or more detailed one, whichever you prefer. I altered the focal image a bit in each by using a oval instead of a circle... so know that you can tweek it up to fit your interpretation of the sketch (or if you are like me and don't have Circle Nesties yet...) :o)

I used the gingerbread house stamp from the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV Kit and colored it with Copics and heat embossed it with Clear EP. The little snowflakes were embossed with Clear EP as well and then I lightly sponged to make them pop.

Then here is a card using the sketch with more embellishments.....

The images for this card are also from the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV Kit. I added little pearls to the center of the flowers and a bit of ribbon under the sentiment. I am going to keep this short so you can hop, hop, hop!!!

First, here are the links for GinaK's Current CSS Team Members:

Deb Felts
Diana S. Queen
Karen Knegten
Melissa Cash
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 K.

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!

**ADDED BONUS**

Nina Brackett is giving away an extra copy of Melanie's Hip to be Square stamp set to a random commenter from one of the blogs, but no idea which so be sure and leave comments along the hop and it could be YOU! :o)

Special thanks to Jessica for organizing this...she is AMAZING!!! Now I am off to hop myself and see what these creative ladies have to share.....I am giddy with excitement! :o)
Blessings,

Creative Clear Stamps Special!!!!

Creative Clear Stamps is having a fabulous deal right now! Be sure and check out their blog HERE for the code to get $10 off your order....but it is only for a limited time so HURRY!!! I heard something about the Grinch sleeping....Hhhmmm.. :o)

Enjoy the Attention

With a new month, I have some new stamp sets to share with you from Creative Clear Stamps... I made this card using Bunch A Numbers and the Sentiment Single Enjoy the Attention. I lined up the numbers (1-9) on a 2x4 acrylic block and stamped them using Memento Tuxedo Black several times to create a background. I stamped my sentiment, embossed it with Nesties and sponged over it with Taken with Teal. A very simple card to put together and this design makes it easy to create a lot of cards in a short amount of time! I do hope you have a wonderful day!
Blessings,

Card Deets:

Stamps: Enjoy the Attention and Bunch A Numbers

Cardstock: Black, Taken with Teal, VV

Ink: Memento Black, Taken with Teal

Accessories: Nesties

Limelight Sketch #33

I made this card for the Limelight Papercrafts Sketch Challenge #33 featuring a sketch by the uber talented Lauren Meader. I used Basic Grey Indian Summer designer paper and the stamp set Take Flight from Gina K. Designs. I stamped the butterfly twice on a piece of the plum colored leaves designer paper (from Indian Summer) and like the way it gives various shades to the butterfly without actually needing to color it. I cut them both out and layered them popping up one to give extra dimension with its' wings taking "flight". Here is a close up:


It is just a beautifuil sentiment... Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,



Card Deets:
Stamp: Take Flight
Cardstock: Chocolate Kiss, Ivory and Basic Grey Indian Summer
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Pale Plum and Pink Pirouette
Accessories: Brown Organdy ribbon, Button, Circle Punches and Basic Grey Bling