CSS Blog Hop!

Welcome to another fun blog hop being hosted by members of StampTV's Center Stage Alumni. This time around, our hop is based on a Sketch Challenge. If you came from Cheri's blog, then you're right where you should be. You can also go to StampTV to see a list of all those participating.

Here is the sketch we had to work with.  It was created by Melissa Cash who is celebrating her birthday today. We decided to surprise her and design birthday cards using her sketch! We wish you a wonderful birthday, Melissa!

My card for Melissa is made with stamps from the new StampTV kit, Falling for You.  I love this delicate image, and paired it with some pretty floral Sweet Threads designer paper from Basic Grey.  I stamped the image with Memento ink directly on one of the solid colored prints from the pack, then colored it with Copic markers, cut and embossed it with a reverse wonky rectangle, distress inking it before removing the die.  Since I'm traveling with limited supplies I opted to use a single strand of ribbon rather than the three embellishments pictured in the sketch.  Hopefully you still recognize the layout, flipped on its side to portrait orientation!

Notes:

Pure Luxury card stock in ivory and just peachy

Falling for You StampTV kit

Memento ink

Ranger distress ink

Copic markers

Basic Grey Sweet Threads designer paper

Nestabilities reverse wonky rectangle

gingham ribbon

We are also giving away a set! Make sure to leave a comment as you hop along because on Tuesday morning (August 16th), we will randomly choose one of the comments from all the blogs to receive a stamp set of their choice valued up to $24.95!

To continue the fun, head on over to Giovana's blog to see her amazing cards!  She always has a WOW to share!  :)

Unity Sale at i {heart} papers!

Hello! Today the IHP DT is Hip Hopping along with the Unity Design Team, so be sure to check our blogs and theirs for fabulous projects showcasing Unity stamps!

In celebration of this little hop, ALL full-sized kits are $12 or less! There is VERY limited inventory and these past kits will not be restocked so don’t wait or you might miss your chance to get them at this price. Happy hopping and happy SHOPPING!

Tracy
Carolyn
Kendra
Kate
Lori
Lynn
Gretchen
Loretta

Notes:
Unity Bouncy Blue
Echo Park designer paper
Memento ink
Copic markers
Copic multiliner
Nestabilities tag
satin ribbon
adhesive dots

Flower Soft is Sponsoring CPS

Here's a card for Flower Soft's bi-weekly challenge using this week's CPS sketch and Flower Soft's "The Wine Buffs" paper-crafting kit.  The current challenge is to use rectangles.

For this quick, simple card, I rounded the corners of two rectangular pieces of designer paper that I cut from prints included in The Wine Buffs kit.  The kit also comes with lots of whimsical full-color printed images, and fun "shaped" card templates that are easy to put together.  I used classic circle dies to cut and emboss the image, distress inked everything, then added a bow of two-toned satin ribbon and some Snow White pearls.  The cork flower was fashioned from thin cork recycled from an old coaster, in keeping with the wine buffs theme.  

I hope you'll play along with CPS and Flower Soft!  Visit the CPS blog and Flower Soft's forum at SCS for more info!

Notes:
The Wine Buffs papercrafting kit
Ranger distress ink
Nestabilities large and small classic circles
corner rounder
two-toned satin ribbon
Kaiser Craft Snow White pearls
recycled cork coaster
Copic multi-liner

Gina K Designs Inspiration Day 3!

Today our Gina K Designs team is sharing cards made with Gnome One Like You, and the one free with 3, Various Verses!

Gnome One Like You is a blast!  These images are so fun to color, and the sentiments crack me up!  I love how this guy looks in these earthy colors!

Notes:
Pure Luxury card stock in pumpkin spice, chocolate brown, and tan leather
Gnome One Like You
Memento ink
Ranger tea-dye distress ink
Copic markers, multi-liner
button
jute thread

This card is the opposite, totally CAS, bright and clean!  I used markers directly to the stamp, cut the image with nestabilities ovals and left the layout super simple.  I love that bright pop of color with lots of wide-open white-space!

Notes:

Pure Luxury card stock in ivory, black

Various Verses

Markers

Flower Soft

Nestabilities small and large ovals

Bow Easy

double-stitched grosgrain

Here are the designers for today:

• Gina K
• Tami Mayberry - Illustrator Gnome One Like You
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Sharon Harnist
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Jennie Harper

More GKD Inspiration!

Welcome back!  Hopefully you have been hopping along for the last couple of days as our Gina K Designs team has shared their creations using stamp sets that were released on Tuesday night.  Today we're sharing projects made with Heartfelt by Theresa Momber, and Basket Buddies by Melanie Muenchinger.

My first project is a card made for Suzanne's "paper only" release party challenge.  The fence in this scene is from Heartfelt, while the mower, sentiment and tree are from two other sets from this release.  If you haven't already made cards for our two release party challenges, there's still time to participate...you don't wanna miss the chance to win a stamp set!

My second project is a very clean and simple remembrance card using Basket Buddies that's perfect for a friend who's lost their beloved four-legged friend.  The heart-shaped knot is easier to make if you use fiber that is smooth and a little slippery!  I tried it with rope and with jute and the jute was much more difficult.

This card qualifies for the DTGD challenge I'm hosting on Splitcoaststampers today...if you're a Fan Club Member you can go check it out!  

Here are the designers sharing projects today!  Enjoy all of their amazing work!

• Gina K
• Melanie Muenchinger - Illustrator Basket Buddies
• Theresa Momber - Illustrator Heartfelt
• Giovana Smith
• Janice Whiting
• Jennie Harper
• Lee Murphy
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker
• Emily Giovanni

Gina K Inspiration Hop and DTGD!

Were you able to join us for last night's Gina K Designs release party?  Whew, that forum was hoppin'!  Forget dinner,  bathroom breaks, or even taking your time to reply!  Do that and you're 5 pages behind!  ;) SUCH a blast, so much great inspiration, and a chance to really get to know each other.  I love that!  If you missed it, you can still check it out!  Hey, even if you were there, it all happened so fast that you might want to take another look!

Today we're sharing projects made with the new StampTV kit, Falling for You!  My card also features the Origami Diamond Fold that my dear friend and current SCS Dirty Girl, the Wickedly Wonderful Wendy shared with me for a challenge she's hosting (are you a Fan Club Member?  you need to be!).  This cool fold features a flap that tucks into a little diamond-shaped pocket formed by a few score lines...Wendy's video tutorial is easy to follow and the fold is quick and fun to do!  It starts with an 11-inch square of designer paper.

That cute plaid-bellied frog was stamped on a scrap of white card stock and colored with Copic markers, then cut out and popped up with foam dots.  For the focal image and sentiment panels, I layered some Pure Luxury card stock squares cut and embossed with large and small  classic square Nestabilities.

Another image from the set adds a little interest to the inside.

In this view you see can the little pocket for the flap and what the card looks like when opened.  The little button-embellished gingham bow is for accent only since the diamond-shaped pocket holds everything securely closed.  Thanks, Wendy, for teaching us such a fun, cute fold!

Notes:

Pure Luxury card stock

Falling for You StampTV kit

Memento Tuxedo Black ink (time to re-ink mine!)

Large and small classic square nestabilities

Pop dots

Mono Multi adhesive (I use this glue on nearly every card I make!)

MS edge punch

11-inch square of designer paper*

gingham ribbon

button

jute thread

*I much prefer the scale of 6 x 6 or 8 x 8 inch printed designer paper pads for card-making but still use 12 x 12 scrap-booking designer paper for making cards with special folds!

There's lots of inspiration here!

• Gina K
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Janice Whiting
• Jennie Harper
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean
• Tami Mayberry
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

You're Invited!

I am indeed tickled pink to invite you to TONIGHT'S Gina K Designs release party on the StampTV forum!  We have a fun evening planned!  We'll get to chat with each other while the design team shares their cards, the release party challenges are issued, the full stamp sets are revealed, and then, finally, you can go shopping for new goodies at Gina K's online store!

If you came from Cat's blog, you're in the right place!

This pink flamingo is perfectly at home in Passionate Pink amid a sky of sponged clouds!  She was colored with Copic markers ranging from pale to almost florescent pink and then topped with cotton candy Stickles so that she is nearly as tacky and gaudy as her lawn ornament counterpart, whose history dates back to 1957!  She makes me smile and feel like a kid all over again!  She is just one of the fun lawn ornament images in a soon-to-be-released set called Gnome One Like You!

Notes:
Gina K Pure Luxury card stock in White, Passionate Pink and Black Onyx
Pink flamingo from Gnome One Like You!
a scrap of designer paper
Memento ink
Copic markers
Stickles in crystal, cotton candy, and goldenrod
Romance ribbon assortment

The Party Details:

• TONIGHT
• StampTV Release Party Forum
• 7-9 Central Time

Just show up at the forum and keep hitting the refresh button!  Watch for the page turns!

And now you're off to Donna's!  Enjoy the hop!

CPS 229

I find it difficult to make sympathy cards.  They are typically not the kind of card you can make ahead and keep "in the stash" for when the occasion arises, and usually the emotion of the occasion sends the mojo into exile.  For once, though, this one simply fell together.

This card was made using a new set from the {stamps} of Life, branches4flowers, and CPS sketch 229.  It is quite simple but I like the symbolism of it and wanted to keep the embellishments subtle...even though the Graphic 45 metallic flower is rather large, it has an almost monochromatic feel that does not distract from the focal image.

Until now, I didn't have many inks that would work well with solid images, but Stephanie gave me her whole new line of ColorBox inks, and then I received the ColorBox Mix'd Media Inx for CPS, both recently released at Summer CHA by Clearsnap.   I *love love LOVE* them!  Stephanie's inks are bold and provide great coverage for her solid images, and the Mix'd Media Inx are soft and sheer, packaged as a sponge applicator that can be applied directly to paper.  It gives a soft sheen to the card, uniting the elements without overpowering them.

Catch-up Post!

As the beginning of August approaches, and with that, a new release, I just realized that I haven't blogged a whole bunch of cards made with sets from the {stamps} of Life!  This month's club set, island2visit, was a really fun one for a Florida stamper!

The idea to use "cloth" for the hammock on this card was inspired by the cloth slings that moms use to "wear" their babies.  That sweet smilin' baby face is from sweet4babies.  The sky was sponged in using a scalloped circle mask and light blue ink, a technique that I use quite often.  The tops of the palms were embossed so they look shiny like real palm fronds, and they had to be trimmed and strategically positioned to keep the card A2 width.

For this quick card I used the sentiment only...the print on this designer paper reminds me of the shoes piled outside the door when we lived in Hawaii.  Island custom is to take off your shoes before entering someone's home, probably to keep out all the dark red dust from the pineapple and sugarcane fields that would ruin the carpet!

Most of the supplies for these cards were purchased from i {heart} papers.

Used on every card:
Memento ink
Copic markers
Zva Creative dimensional dots
Scor Buddy


Beach scene
Fancy Pants designer paper (a gift from Winter CHA)
Gina K button
jute thread


Babe in the hammock
Kaiser Craft designer paper
Kaiser Craft pearls
twine
*so excited that Kate will be carrying more Kaiser Craft products from the recent Summer CHA!


Life is Good
Fancy Pants designer paper
heart-shaped nestabilities
Basic Grey buttons
Jute thread

Dare to Get Dirty!

It's Dare to Get Dirty week at Splitcoaststampers!  The Dirty Girls and Dirty Dozen Alumni are thrilled to host some fun challenges for our fan club friends...we're hoping to inspire you and get your MOJO flowing!  If you're not a fan club member yet, you can find out about it here!  We hope you'll join us!  You don't wanna miss this fan-club-exclusive event!

I combined this week's OCL sketch with Christine's DTGD challenge for this simple, summer-time card.  All supplies are from i {heart} papers.

Notes:

OCL's Growin' with Granny

Memento ink

Copic markers

Platinum Sparkly Fluff

Echo Park For the Record designer paper

Basic Grey buttons

Burgundy double-faced faux suede ribbon

Zva Creative dimensional adhesive dots