Gina K Designs - Lucky Seven Sale and Blog Hop

Welcome to the Gina K Designs - Lucky Seven Sale blog hop!

Today I have a little sample made for you using Many Happy Returns from Gina K Designs. I also used the designer paper which is included in the Eclectic Summer Stamp TV Kit - Lime Rickey from Basic Grey! I thought it was just perfect for margaritas! Mmmmmmm...

I used Copic Markers to color in the margarita mix, then added a coat of diamond glaze for shine and then added a coat of stickles on top of that.

You won't want to miss the today's blog hop tour of the Lucky Seven Stamp sets by my friends on the Gina K Design Team

Check out these GinaK Designs Senior Design Team blogs tonight for projects made with these seven Lucky Stamp sets!

Many Happy Returns: Joanne (that's me!) 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

Lucky Seven Sale Event: July 10-14, 2009

Buy any three of these seven stamp sets(regularly priced at $23.95 each) for $49.95 and you can choose from one of these normally priced $19.95 stamp sets for free! (A value of $91.80)

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)

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

Stamp sets available for free with the purchase of 3 of the Lucky Seven Stamp Sets:
WhooHoo!
Rectangle Greetings
Heartfelt Hits 1
Kindred Greetings for Kids

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

The Lucky Seven Sale event will start at 10pm CST on July 9th and run thru midnight July 14th.

Friendships Garden

Welcome to the second day of previews for Gina K Designs!  Today, I've got a preview of Friendships Garden for you!   

I'm always a huge fan of Asela's illustrations and this month is no exception.  My all time favorite set from her is Botanical Dreams, but.. this one might have just surpassed it for me.  Its so beautiful, elegant, clean, versatile.  

I had a wonderful time watercoloring this image.  I used So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango reinkers for the flowers, and Kiwi Kiss and Close to Cocoa for the leaves and flowerpot.  The background is colored softly with the Soft Sky reinker.  I just love the fine tips on the Ninji Waterbrushes that Gina carries. They allow for really fine detail work!

Do you see the luxurious cardstock that I used for the base. It is the latest Pure Luxury cardstock, Chocolate Kiss from Gina K Designs.  Its amazing, gorgeous, beautifully colored and so strong.   I added So Saffron Cardstock from SU as well as Basic Grey Porcelain designer papers and lots and lots of distressing.  

My watercoloring is done on SU's watercolor paper, but the inside of the card is lined with Gina K Pure Luxury ivory cardstock.  I love the look of finishing a card both inside and out, but when you're working with a dark colored cardstock like Chocolate, I think its just essential. 

This is only one of the sets that is being previewed today, the other set is illustrated by someone who is new to illustrating at Gina K Designs, but not certainly not new to Gina K - its Theresa Momber and she's done an amazing job!  

Be sure to hop on over to Gina's Blog to see her samples from both sets, and you know, she's always especially generous with the give aways during launch week!  You'll also see samples from 

Gina, Asela, Theresa, Erika, Jessica, Donna, Carolyn, Melanie, Kurtis, Cindy, Emily, and Beverly our Spotlight Designer this month. 

Theresa also has a guest designer this month, she's no stranger to Gina K Designs its Cathy Tidwell

And, my friend Jen Del Muro has been playing along and has a preview with Mel's set Wee Tee's today tool! Now, that's a LOT of eye candy! 

A Penny Lane Wee Tee

Are you ready for the previews for this month's release at Gina K Designs to begin? Get this, there will be SEVEN stamp sets released this coming Thursday night!

Up first are previews for a new set from Melanie titled Wee Tees and in true Melanie form there are 100 million ways to customize the stamp set depending on what sort of baby card you need to make.

Me, I fell back on my favorite technique, stamping to patterned paper to make little designer onesies!  

I am in LOVE with the new My Minds Eye collection titled Penny Lane.  I had to throw in a piece of this polka dotted paper from October Afternoon too.  Everything is stitched down. Seems lately I *can't* make a card without pulling out my sewing machine.  

I added shadows to the insides of the onesie by darkening those areas with my Versamarker for a tone on tone effect.  This fun sketch is courtesy of Jen at i{heart}2stamp.com - I always love her weekend sketches, they're just the right start to a project!  

I'll have another preview for you on Wednesday and then more to share with you at the launch party!  Hope you can join us Thursday night from 7-10pm CST for chit chat, challenges, contests and lots of eye candy on the Splitcoast Member Company forum!

You'll find even more previews from Gina and the Design Team for both this set, and another titled "Guiding Light" from Rupa.  Be sure to hop on over to visit: 

Gina, Asela, Erika Jessica, Donna, Kurtis, Cindy, Carolyn, Melanie, Theresa and our Spotlight Designer this month - Beverly Cole!

Watercolor Dreams

I hope you've been able to head on over to Stamp TV and get yourself set up with a login. Did you see that its already jumped to number THIRTEEN on the Stamping Top Fifty? WOW!  

Each day, Monday through Friday there will be a challenge hosted by either Gina or one of the Design Team members.  And get this, every single challenge comes with a chance at a free stamp set valued at $19.95!  Get over there and get stamping!!

This is for Cindy's color challenge on Monday which included Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie and Apricot Appeal.  There is, just the teeniest bit of Pumpkin Pie in there, I used it to deepen portions of the orchid.  

I used the crackle background stamp included in the Bold Flowers stamp set (part of the Floral Frenzy Stamp TV kit!) and stamped it repeatedly with Always Artichoke onto Always Artichoke paper.  Then I wanted it to be all distressed and aged, so I ran it through my crimper.

I know, I NEVER use that thing, but once in a while it comes in handy...  I ran it through in both directions. Gives it a neat waffle weave texture, then I ran my palm over it a few times to smooth it back out.  It was adhered lightly with adhesive and then all the edges were sewn down with my Janome to the card base.  

Since I stiched it directly to my card base, I wanted to be especially sure that all the edges were nice and neat.  You want to go nice and s-l-0-w around the edges, I actually operated the machine by hand around the corners rather than whirling the foot pedal.  On my last turn, I made sure to tie a nice discreet knot in the thread on the inside and snipped it close.  

The main image is from Asela's "Botanical Dreams" set which I stamped to watercolor paper then painted with my reinkers.  The sentiment is lifted from the "Elegant Flowers" set (also part of the Stamp TV kit) which I added with a piece of WeR Memory Keepers hardware. 

I'm feeling the urge to add more more more to this card, but my mom commented the other day on how she missed some of my more clean looking cards. So mom, this one's for you.  

Have a great day everyone!

Tailor It!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  We were skiing all weekend with the boys, and oh goodness, am I dreadfully out of shape. My legs hurt!  After a weekend of family outdoor adventures, I was of course, inspired to pick up this stamp set "Got Snow?"- which was my first ever purchase from Gina K Designs!  

Its Monday, so of course that means another challenge is posted on the Gina K Designs Member Company Forum on Splitcoast Stampers.  This week, I challenge you to "Tailor It"! That is, create a "Tailored Bow"  

Now, we all know I love my usual loopy bow/button combination, but for this card, I went for a flat tailored bow.  

They're SO easy to make, but if you haven't done one yet, here's a quick walk through.

1) Tape a flat piece of ribbon across your cardfront. I placed a dimensional just behind the ribbon where I intended the bow to sit. The bow does get a little heavy, and can cause your ribbon to sag.  So by placing a dimensional or adhesive there, you'll ensure that your bow doesn't cause your ribbon to droop. Cause, that's just not cute!

2) Create a small length of ribbon and form a closed loop (circle...). Secure with a piece of tape, adhesive, staple etc. You can see I used tape, and don't worry, you won't see it once you do the next step. 

 

3) Wrap a small piece of ribbon around the center of that loop and secure with adhesive or a glue dot. This is the "icky back" part with the ribbon end and the glue dot.  Attach the finished bow to your flat ribbon base on your cardfront.

As always be sure to "floof" up your bow to make them purty once they're on your card front.  I'm all about floofed bows.  If you ever get a card from me, or another stamper, that has a bow on it, be sure to primp it upon opening! They get squashed once mailed! 

You can experiment with this bow making several layers of closed loops, adding tails to your ribbon etc.  Can't wait to see your tailored bows! Remember my challenge is open till next Monday at 9am, and one lucky winner will be picked at random to win a Gina K stamp set valued $19.95 or less. See the details and enter HERE.

Happy Stamping!!!

Details: 

Cardstock: Gina K Pure Luxury White, SU Close to Cocoa, SU Ski Slope Paper

Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Nestie Circle, Martha Stewart Punch, SU Baja Breeze Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Glue Dots, Dimensionals