A Day in the Life

Can't see the video?

Gina K — 2010-03-16T04:23:00Z

If you read my blog through a reader or through your email, the video may not come through. You can view today's video here: Coloring Tiger Lilies with Copic Markers Enjoy!!

Preview Day 2

Gina K — 2010-03-15T14:58:00Z

Introducing Happy Spring (with a free card kit by Jessica Fick)

Nothing says spring like spending time in the local greenhouse choosing starter plants and seeds for the long summer ahead. I am looking forward to trying my luck at my own small garden this summer and now is the time to start planning.

The new stamp set, Happy Spring, will put you in the mood for digging with it's adorable gardening images and sweet greetings of friendship.

Perfect for paper piecing, these images can be used to create cards, scrapbook pages, even pretty little tags to hang off of bouquets of flowers and baskets of vegetables that you give as gifts to neighbors and friends.

Complete with a beautiful card kit and instructions created by Jessica Fick, you will love to recreate her ideas or come up with ideas of your own using the vibrant supplies included.

Many of you have requested that the card stock and patterned paper in Jessica's kits be sent as full sheets so you can have more creative options. This kit will give you those options to adjust the projects as you see fit or copy them exactly according to the provided instructions.

To get a peek at the cards that you can make with this kit, click over to Jessica's Blog.

Introducing By Your Side by Asela Hopkins

By Your Side is one of those stamp sets that you look at once and say, oh, I've gotta' have that set! The words of encouragement along with the beautiful floral and koi fish images will leave you breathless.

I love lilies, every single kind of lily!! But one of my favorites are the tiger lilies with the spots. So, I decided to convert these lilies into spotted tiger lilies using Copic Markers and one Prismacolor marker. (You can use a copic but I wanted something with a finer tip. You can also use a sharpie or bic marker too!)

The actual image from this set has no spots. I added them myself. I love that because I can make many different styles of lillies so easily with this set. And they are large and easy to cut out so you can create a whole garden quickly and easily!

You will love the words of encouragement in this set along with the beautiful font style! Complete with bible verses, this sets makes the perfect addition to every collection.

And check out that beautiful BLUE card stock!!
(It matches the Basic Grey Sugar rush patterned paper perfectly!) That's another new Pure Luxury card stock color being released this month called Little Boy Blue. (Look for a separate post with color comparisons later in the week.)

A Video for You!
Now, I am NO expert at coloring with Copic markers, but I don't think you have to be to get rich vibrant color from these markers. In this short video, I will show you how I colored my flowers and turned them into spotted tiger lillies.

So, what do you think of tonight's preview?
Would you like to win one of these two new sets?
Leave a comment here and I will randomly choose two winners who will each win one of these fabulous new stamp sets! I will announce the winner right here on this entry tomorrow night, just before I post preview day 3.

Ready for more?
Check out what the design team has created using these new sets!
Jessica Fick (Happy Spring card kit preview)
Asela Hopkins {Illustrator of By Your Side}
Melanie Muenchinger
Theresa Momber
Nina Brackett
Cathy Tidwell
Lee Murphy
Kurtis Amundson
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Bev Gerard
Colleen Schaan
Sankari Wegman
Suzanne Dean
Valerie Stangle
Jennie Harper - our Spotlight Designer for this Month!

Coming tomorrow, I will be previewing the new StampTV kit and the new One free with three!
Make sure you stop back!

Hugs,
Gina K.

Just found out . . .

Gina K — 2010-03-15T13:18:00Z

that my automatic email didn't go out to all of my blog subscribers so if you missed last nights post, it's here.

More to come~
Hugs,
Gina K.

Preview Day 1

Gina K — 2010-03-15T00:07:00Z

ETA- This contest is now closed.

The winner of A Beautiful Life is:
Velta wrote:
Oh How I Love these images!!! Immediately I could think of several ways to show off these beautiful flowers!! They remind me of Easter, so what a perfect time to bring them out!!! Also, thank you for Stamp TV...I have learned so much from this avenue. Happy Anniversary!!!

The winner of Fairy Tales is:
Sharry Brown wrote:
I love all your teaching videos, and your web site. Congratulations on your one year birthday celebration. You have given all of us so much inspiration..thank you!

The winner of Sending Sunshine is:
Karen Wallace wrote:
I love the new sets previewed and the video for adding glitter with the pen It is so messy to try to do this with glue and glitter!. Ther results are beautiful

Congratulations to all of the winners. Please send your name, shipping address and which set you won to info@ginakdesigns. We will ship them right out. Thanks to all who played along!

___________________

In order to watch the videos, you will have to click into the blog directly using the link below if you are reading this in an email, RSS feed or Google reader. Many of the readers will not import embedded video and I am unable to send the videos through email.

Preview Day 1

Happy Birthday StampTV! And welcome to Preview Day 1 of our March release.

I am so excited to celebrate the one year birthday of StampTV along with our March release! This is such an exciting time for all of us at Gina K. Designs and StampTV! Here is a little video about what's to come throughout this birthday bash / March release celebration. (If you are reading this in an email or through a reader, you will need to go to my blog to see the videos.)

Introducing A Beautiful Life by Melanie Muenchinger

Nothing shouts spring like a bouquet of tulips and Melanie Muenchinger has done it again with her newest stamp set, A Beautiful Life. One of the many things I love about this set is that Melanie maintained the same exact proportions in these tulips as in her A Year of Flowers set and her Pressed Flowers set. So, if you want to pop up the tulips, you can stamp the ones from A Year of Flowers rather than stamping this whole huge stamp and they will perfectly match up. You can also two-step stamp the tulips in A Beautiful Life because the solid tulips in Pressed Flowers match up as well.

As you can see, I added lots of shimmer and mess-free shine using a Sakura Star Dust Pen to highlight the borders, tulips and butterflies. I decided to pop up the butterflies and make a beautiful wedding card using this new set. (With wedding season just around the corner, this set will make quick and easy work of wedding cards. And imagine how beautiful wedding invitations would be using this set. You can print the invitation on your computer and cut it out with Nestabilities Ovals or Petite ovals and place in on top of this gorgeous image. It would also be the perfect stamp to add a photo for scrapbooking and home decor. Melanie has done it again. This set is fabulous!

Introducing Sending Sunshine by Theresa Momber

When Theresa sent the images from Sending Sunshine to me for consideration, I instantly fell in love. Theresa captured the essence of the spring memories from my childhood. From swinging on a tire swing to early daffodils poking through the grass, this set takes me back to my good old days and takes my breath away.

I decided to use the daffodils image to create a card that just bellows spring. And when the morning sunshine reflects off the springtime dew, everything seems to shimmer. So again, I added a touch of glitter with a Sakura Star Dust Pen around the perimeter of both of the Spellbinders die cuts you see on this card. Theresa has created another must have stamp set! It really is like Sending Sunshine!

Introducing Fairy Tales by Tami Mayberry

Having two daughters, I love everything girlie! So when Tami sent the Fairy Tales images to me, I told her to run with it and fast! The images in this sweet, whimsical set will melt your heart. Not only perfect for cards and scrapbook pages for younger girls and teens, this set makes the perfect engagement card , encouragement card or any other project that has to do with love or romance for girls of all ages. (However, that frog would make a pretty cute boy card too!)

I used the Labels 7 dies to create the look of a storybook on which to create my scene.

And of course, I had to once again, add some glitter with my Star Dust Pen by highlighting the rim of my book and bling up my frog's crown and the magic wand. I love how you can put this glittery pen anywhere you want with no mess by using the Sakura Star Dust Pens. And is there anything more glitter-deserving than a fairy tale? Tami has created a winner here! This set is a Fairy Tale come true!

Are you loving the new pink card stock in the first and third project?
That's one of three new card stock colors being released this month. This one is called Bubblegum Pink. I will have a color comparison for you later in the week and a preview of the three new colors. Stay tuned.

A Video for You!
In celebration of our one year birthday at StampTV, I've created a short video episode to show you how I used the Sakura Star Dust Pen to create the perfect glittery frame and to showcase the glitter that is hard to see in still photos. Enjoy this episode!

So, I would love to hear what you think of the first three new stamp sets previewed tonight!
Would you like to win one?
Leave a comment here and I will randomly choose three winners who will each win one of these beautiful new stamp sets!
(I will announce the winners tomorrow, right here on this blog entry just before my preview day 2 post.)

Ready for more inspiration?
Check out what the design team has created using Sending Sunshine, Fairy Tales and A Beautiful Life.
Melanie Muenchinger - A Beautiful Life
Theresa Momber - Sending Sunshine
Tami Mayberry - Fairy Tales
Jessica Fick
Nina Brackett
Carolyn King
Cathy Tidwell
Lee Murphy
Lynn Murphy
Donna Baker
Kurtis Amundson
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Colleen Schaan
Jennie Harper - our Spotlight Designer for this Month!

Tomorrow, I have two more brand new stamp sets to preview and another video technique for you to try!
Thanks for visiting today ~ stop back tomorrow for more!

Hugs,
Gina K.

Snippet 9 and OH MY GOODNESS!!!

Gina K — 2010-03-13T05:52:00Z

Tonight's snippet is another one I am so excited about! This stamp set comes with a FREE card kit by Jessica Fick and when you see the card stock, patterned paper and embellishments that come in this kit, you're going to freak out! It's so beautiful!

On a personal note (sort of):

Tonight, my computer was acting up and not allowing me to upload photos to my blog (which is why my blog post is so late.)

So, I was sitting on the couch watching TV while waiting for Alicia to get home and I thought I would try it again. I happened to check my email first and there was a message from Jessica that said, "Check it out!" with a link.

Then, I remembered that Cammie had told me to check her blog at 10:00 PM tonight to see a card she made for me. (I had totally forgotten to check in my frustration.)

Well, since I have now dried my eyes from my tears long enough to type, all I will say to you is, "Check it out!" - Start at Cammie's Blog Here.

To my wonderful team and fabulous friends- Thank you for this honor. You guys are the best ever and I love you!
Hugs,
Gina K.

Snippets 7 and 8

Gina K — 2010-03-12T00:55:00Z

I'm so excited about this set! This mix of images and greetings will inspire you!

Is there anything cuter in the whole wide world? I just love this little guy and his friends! Wait until you see!

Any guesses as to the artists of these two sets?

More to come~

Snippets 5 and 6

Gina K — 2010-03-11T01:48:00Z

Spring always reminds me of growing up and playing on the tire swing at my cousins house. Can you guess who drew this image?

I send many cards to friends so a stamp set dedicated to friendship cards and scrapbook pages is something I am so excited for!

More to come~

snippets 3 and 4

Gina K — 2010-03-10T03:42:00Z

Tonight, I am excited to show you two more snippets!

You will love the whimsical style of this set:

And this set will coordinate with a set we released last month. It makes card making and scrapbooking a breeze! And because it's so HUGE, I can only show you a small corner.

So who do you think illustrated these sets?

More to come~

Snippet # 2

Gina K — 2010-03-09T04:11:00Z

Today's snippet is from two sets that work so well together, I just had to show you the snippets together!
Can you guess the illustrator for these fun new stamp sets?

More to come!
Hugs,
Gina K.

Happy Birthday StampTV!

Gina K — 2010-03-07T22:32:00Z

Can you believe it?
StampTV is one year old! And we invite you to celebrate with us!

This month, the Gina K. Designs preview party and release party will be a little bit different and we will reveal a lot more of the fun we have planned over the next few days.

But in the meantime, here are some FUN FACTS about StampTV's first year:

In just one year, StampTV has over 10,400 members.

StampTV gets over 30 thousand visitors each day!

We have given away over $6500.00 in prizes in our first year!

StampTV has given design team opportunities to over 40 designers!

We have over 100 technique and project videos with new video episodes added each week.

StampTV's gallery includes over 31,000 beautiful projects to inspire you.

StampTV offers freebies on our freebies page for anyone who wants them.

There are over 90 individual groups of stampers who are sharing friendship and inspiration at StampTV.

There are brand new challenges 5 days a week for you to try and a prize offer for every single one!

Many new and exciting features will be coming to StampTV in the months to come! Stay tuned!

We have had so much fun developing the website, the videos and StampTV kits throughout the year and this month, we are releasing a brand new StampTV kit with an expanded stamp set that is just HUGE! Also included will be beautiful patterned papers, ribbons, brads, card stock and more in this gigantic anniversary kit.

So let's start the Gina K. Designs March release snippets with a few images from the new up and coming StampTV kit called Spring Mix-

I can't wait to show you all we have to offer this month! Make sure you stop back each day to see new snippets of our upcoming release.

Happy Stamping!
Gina K.

A Special Thank you to our Alumni Challenge Team

Gina K — 2010-03-05T03:31:00Z

Tonight several GinaK Designs designers are joining together to host a special thank you blog hop to our recently retired StampTV Challenge Hostess Team. The four designers we're honoring tonight have provided weekly challenges for the STV members for the entire months of December, January, and February and we are so thankful for their inspiration and hard work!

Shannon Bracken: Monday's Color Challenge
Carolina Buchting: Tuesday's Anything but a Card Challenge
Jennie Harper: Thursday's Sketch Challenge
Selma Stevenson: Friday's Blast from the Past Challenge

To see all the challenges the Retired Hostess team has shared during their term, visit the StampTV Inspiration Category on the StampTV Idea Center . Each hostess has her own category with all the card samples they made along with the links to the Challenge Discussions as well as the gallery samples over on StampTV. Be sure to check out the PDF attached to each discussion as well, as you can save or print out all the challenges to keep for a reference tool for your stamping inspiration! Each participating designer was asked to choose one challenge shared during the past 3 months and make a card to share on their blogs tonight as well as to send that card to the hostess. Visit these links to see all the projects we've prepared for our alumni hostess team:

And, the new StampTV Challenge Hostess team is also joining in on the hop tonight!

Tina Gilliland: Monday's Color Hostess
Karen Knegten: Tuesday's Anything but a Card Hostess
Vicki Dutcher: Thursday's Sketch Hostess
Sharri Seffens: Friday's Blast from the Past Hostess

Thank you ladies so much for your time, dedication and fabulous challenges from all of us at Gina K. Designs and StampTV! We love you so much!
Hugs,
Gina K.

Congratulations to our new Center Stage Designer!

Gina K — 2010-03-04T02:51:00Z

I absolutely loved looking at all of the beautiful projects that were submitted for the Illustrator blog hop and Center Stage Design Team Contest! This was truly one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.

I would like to take this time to introduce you to the March release Center Stage Designer:

And this is the card that inspired me to choose Jennie for the month of March.

I want to thank everyone who participated in this challenge. You work was truly amazing! I am excited to tell you that we will be doing this every month! So, for those of you who would like to participate again, we will be doing another Illustrator Blog Hop/Center Stage Contest coming up after our March release.

And huge congratulations to Jennie Harper. I can't wait to see how Jennie inspires all of us throughout the upcoming month. Stay tuned because the March snippets will be starting soon!

Hugs,
Gina K.

Spring Florals Blog Hop

Gina K — 2010-03-01T03:59:00Z

Tonight, check out all of the beautiful inspiration our Card Kit Design Team, along a few of our CSS girls, have put together for you using our new set, Spring Florals!

To feel inspired, click on these designer's blogs:

Jessica Fick
Brenda Turner
Bev Gerard
Colleen Schaan
Sankari Wegman
Suzanne Dean
Sharri Seffens
Tina Gilliland
Giovanna Smith
Melissa Cash
Carolina Buchting
Jennie Harper

There are many more projects that can be found in the StampTV gallery by clicking on this tag: springflorals

Enjoy all the samples tonight! If you haven't purchased this stamp set yet, please take note that the free Card Kit will be included with each purchase until March 18th. At that time, the next card kit stamp set will be released.

Hugs,
Gina K

Illustrator Blog Hop Challenge and more exciting news!

Gina K — 2010-02-26T02:25:00Z

For this month's Illustrator/Design team challenge, I challenged our illustrators and design team members to a color challenge. I asked them to make a project using any two of the new Spring Assortment Pure Luxury Card Stock colors.

They were allowed to add these colors to their project in any way they wanted- card stock, buttons, ribbon, patterned paper or other embellishments.

Here is my challenge card featuring the newest stamp set by Rupa Shevde called Oh Baby!

My two colors featured are Innocent Pink and Ocean Mist. I added one of the Stamps from the Lovely Labels set by Nina Brackett as a backdrop for my collection of paper pieced images.

Card details:
Stamps: Oh Baby!, Lovely Labels
Card Stock: Innocent Pink, White, Fresh Asparagus
Buttons and Ribbon: GKD Spring Assortment packs
Patterned Paper: October Afternoon Ducks in a Row.
Ink: Memento Black and Vivid Vintage Green

To see the rest of the team's challenge projects, check out their links here and get ready to be inspired!
Jessica Fick
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger
Theresa Momber
Carolyn King
Tami Mayberry
Cathy Tidwell
Lee Murphy
Donna Baker
Kurtis Amundson
Erika Martin

And tonight, we begin the hunt for our newest Center Stage Design Team member and we will be doing that a brand new way from now on!

We invite you to play along with the illustrator/design team color challenge tonight using any of the new release stamp sets which include:

Hope is Faith
Lovely Labels
Pressed Flowers
Hang in There
Oh Baby!
Dream Birds
Inside and Out
Spring Florals

Make sure to use two of the colors shown above. You may enter multiple times but you must use a different stamp set from our new release for each entry.
The deadline for entering this challenge is Wednesday, March 3rd at 8:00 PM central time.

I will look at each entry throughout the entry period and choose one winner who will join the Gina K. Designs Team for the month of March.

That designer will have the opportunity to participate in our previews, release party and design team/illustrator blog hop challenge and will receive our entire new release including the new upcoming StampTV kit, card stock and all 10 stamp sets from our upcoming March collection!

The winner will be announced on Thursday, March 4th, here on my blog, and their package will ship out by priority mail the next day so they will have ample time to participate as a design team member!

Isn't that SO exciting!!
Do you want to play along? Link your challenge project in the Mister Linky box below. Please use a direct link to your project, not just your main blog link, so that when we click on it, the challenge project will be up. All links that do not go to a challenge project will not be considered.

Show us what you've got! We can't wait to see your creations!

And, just when you thought it couldn't get any better, we have a shopping special for you!

*Please note that if you choose Spring Florals as your free set, the free card kit will not be included.

This special starts right now and goes through 11:59PM on this Sunday night so stock up now and get some fabulous free stamp sets!

Have a wonderful weekend and happy stamping and shopping!
Hugs,
Gina K.

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger and StampTV

Gina K — 2010-02-24T05:01:00Z

This week's Tuesday Trigger on the Moxie Fab World Blog shows some beautiful yellow projects along with a pretty row of embellishments.

Luckily, I had planned to use some yellow on StampTV this week for the new episode on Creating a Decorative Edge with the Scor-Pal.

I changed up the embellishments from a long row to a short one and created this card that reminds me of looking out a window and seeing a beautiful butterfly.

The butterfly image is from the StampTV Organize It! Kit. I stamped it on some Origins Patterned Paper and popped it up using pop-dots. And of course, my scored frame was created using the Scor-pal.

To watch this week's StampTV episode, click here:
Creating a Decorative Edge with the Scor-pal.

Thursday night, we are having our huge Illustrator's Blog hop.
All of our illustrators- all in one huge hop and there will be a special challenge for you that just might land you a spot on our design team! More about that tomorrow!

Oh, and there are two great giveaways going on! One here on the Moxie Fab World Blog- you can get some great Gina K. Designs stamps just for leaving a comment for Cath!

And, one here on StampTV. We are celebrating our 10,000th member with a $200.00 shopping spree giveaway. Come play along.

Have a great day!
Hugs,
Gina K.

Moxie Fab!

Gina K — 2010-02-23T06:48:00Z

Have you visited the Moxie Fab World Blog yet?

You have to check out the amazing Cath Edvalson and this fun blog, full of challenges, inspiration and everything Papercrafts!

It's Stamp it! Cards week and Cath has tons of fun planned for you at Moxie Fab and at Papercrafts Connection.

We are so excited to be sponsoring a giveaway over at Moxie Fab World where Cath is giving away 8 of her favorite Gina K. Designs stamp sets! Two lucky winners will each take home 4 sets so make sure you hurry over and check out this week's Tuesday Trigger and play along!

And leave Cath a comment about what you like about this week's Tuesday Trigger and a whole bunch of new stamps may be coming your way!

To get to the Moxie Fab World Blog and check out all the action, click here: Moxie Fab World

One of the eight sets that she is giving away is Retro Boutique, one of my all-time favorites too!

I pulled out a card I had made some time ago to kick off the celebration. Nothing like celebrating in style!

For more inspiration using these Moxie Fab Sets, check out these designer's links:

Asela Hopkins
Cathy Tidwell
Carolyn King
Donna Baker
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Lynn Mercurio
Melanie Muenchinger
Nina Brackett
Tami Mayberry
Theresa Momber

Thanks so much to Cath Edvalson for having Gina K. Designs as part of the huge Stamp It! Cards Celebration week!

Tomorrow, an all new episode of StampTV!

Hugs,
Gina K.

Hope is Faith . . .

Gina K — 2010-02-19T03:03:00Z

"Whenever I look at a butterfly, I get a sense of Hope. Caterpillars curl up to die, not knowing the majestic beauty that they will become. It gives me hope that, even in the darkest hours, there is a plan that we are not aware of."

This is the paragraph and photo that I sent to the Center Stage Alumni Team over at StampTV. I challenged them to use these words and this photo to create a project for tonight's CSS Hope is Faith Blog Hop.

I am so excited for you to see what our fabulous team has created!
And remember, $2.00 of every sale of the Hope is Faith mini stamp set will go to the Red Cross to help them with the work they are doing in Haiti. (Donations will be made on sales throughout the month of February. After that, this set will go into our regular inventory.)

To purchase the Hope is Faith stamp set, click here: Hope is Faith

And here are the designer's who are participating in this very special hop:

Jessica Fick

Diana S. Queen

Tina Gilliland

Pam Imholz

Carla Suto

Cheri Weston

Jennie Harper

Joy Hadden

Shannon Bracken

Karen Knegten

JenMarie Taylor

Brenda Turner
Giovanna Smith
Sue Morris Melissa Shultz
Peggy Wainman
Sharri Seffens
Carolina Buchting
Geri Utterback
Melissa Cash
Betty Neville
Sue Van deVusse
Janice Melton
Jen Charboneau
DeeMarie Kelemen
Linda Payne
Lori McAree
Kay Simmons
Shelly Wilson
Selma Stevenson
Vicki Dutcher
Sue Walsh

We hope you feel inspired tonight! And to those of you who have purchased this set or are planning to purchase it by February 28th, thank you for making a difference to those in need.

Hugs,
Gina K.

Introducing the new One free with 3- Inside and Out

Gina K — 2010-02-11T22:33:00Z

Introducing Lovely Labels by Nina Brackett

Gina K — 2010-02-11T22:26:00Z

Introducing Dream Birds by Asela Hopkins

Gina K — 2010-02-11T22:25:00Z