Scooter Birthday Wishes

Good evening!

The Release party just wrapped up over on SCS and I thought I'd pop into my blog and do a quick blog post with a card I shared tonight during the party. Tons of eyecandy and samples were shown tonight by the entire Design Team... wow, it was fun!

Rupa came into Gina's store today to chat, shop and have lunch with me! My sweet friend even treated me to Subway - how fun to sit and chat over lunch with her. While we were chatting today, she mentioned that her favorite image in her new set in this scooter. So, in honor of my friend Rupa and her adorable new set Are We There Yet? I thought I'd share my scooter card with you tonight!

I colored the scooter in with Sakura's glitter pens and then added a layer of crystal lacquer over it. When I use this image again, I'm going to skip the lacquer (it's a little too thick for such a delicate image) and use Sakura's clear glaze pen. The scooter just sparkles - as do the helmets on my handmade patterned paper...

I used a silver Sakura glitter pen on the helmets - those pens are my favorite glitter pens because they just shine!!

I've added some new cards to my Etsy shop and will be adding more throughout the day tomorrow. I hope you'll check it out - I've sold several cards since I've started my shop and have been having fun picking which ones to add. If there is a specific card you've seen on my blog and are interested in purchasing it, let me know and I'll add it to my shop.

Have a great night!
Jessica

Tropical Windows

Good evening!

Hasn't it been a fun seeing all the preview samples this week? I love seeing everyone's designs every release and this has certainly not been the exception this month! Tonight is our last night of previewing before the party begins tomorrow night in GinaK's Forum on SCS. It starts at 7 pm CST - mark it on your calendars because it's going to be a blast! I have a ton more samples to share during the party and know that many of the other Design Team members do as well!


Tonight, we're showcasing Gina's new Free with Three stamp set called Tropical Windows. I adore this set - the flowers are so fresh and fun and the sentiments she's included in the set... well, let's just say I must love them because you've seen them on several of my cards already this week!

For my first card tonight, I decided to use a sentiment from Gina's new Signs of Autumn StampTV kit - so I could make this into a thank you card. I colored the images in with a couple of Memento Markers as well as the new Stampin Up pink and blue markers.

Then, I took my Versamark pen and traced over the stamped lines and embossed with detail clear embossing powder. This added a really nice subtle shine to the image and was quick and easy to do.

For the inside, I inked only the flowers and stamped them along with another Signs of Autumn sentiment. Quick and easy - isn't this a bright and cheerful thank you card?

I had to share this card with you tonight too because I wanted to show how gorgeous the other main image is in this set...

I used Basic Grey's Lemonade patterned papers for this card - oh, how I adore these patterns!! I inked the image with a several Memento markers - using a lighter and darker marker on each part of the image to get some great shading. After I assembled the card together, I took some colored Stickles and applied them to all the stamped lines. The sparkle on this card is so much fun!

The inside is quick and easy - just enough room to jot a little note to a friend, but still pretty with more of the Lemonade paper and those gorgeous Prima flowers.


For more projects made with the stamps previewed today, be sure to check out our other Senior Design Team Member's Blogs:
Gina, Cindy, Cathy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Kurtis, Joanne, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, and Theresa
and, our CenterStage Spotlight Design Team member, Sue Morris is joining in on our previews today showing off a card she has made with the new Free with Three stamp set - Tropical Flowers.

Don't forget to join us at our Release Party tomorrow night over on SCS starting at 7pm CST. There will be contests, challenges, lots of chatter as well as a ton more samples shared by the Senior Design team members and our CenterStage Spotlight team too! You won't want to miss it!

See you there!
Jessica

Signs of Autumn StampTV Kit

Good evening!

Have you had a chance to check out GinaK's new StampTV video yet? You've got to see it - she is using items and stamp sets from her new Signs of Autumn StampTV kit! This kit is so amazing - I am so in love with the autumn images and sentiments she has included in it as well as our new Green Apple and Pumpkin Spice cardstocks... yummy!

My card today shows several stamp images that are included in the kit. Being a former Elementary teacher, I LOVE anything to do with apples. I have quite the collection of apple decor in my kitchen, courtesy of many of my students throughout the years. So, when I was looking through my projects to decide on which card to share with you tonight I had to use this one.

I colored the bushel basket with Copics and then cut the image out with a nestability die. Leaving the die in place, I sponged some light yellow ink around the die to highlight it. Then, I applied a layer of Crystal Lacquer to the apples, used my Clear Sakura Glaze pen for the barrel and put some Judikins Dark Straw Speckles for the dirt.

This picture really shows the difference between the Glaze pen and Crystal Lacquer. The lacquer is much thicker and more dimensional, while the glaze pen shows up more as shiny - almost leather-like, I think. I like the contrast between the two mediums.

What a great sentiment, huh? Once again, the StampTV kit has a full size stamp set filled with images and a half-sized companion sentiment stamp set. The sentiments are all mixed fonts like this one and each one has to do with gratitude and thankfulness. I love them all and know they will get a lot of use from me throughout the entire year as I am always making thank you cards.

The inside of my card shows another sentiment as well as these gorgeous leaf images that are found in the image stamp set of the kit. To get the two tones on the leaves, I used two different colored inks on them before I stamped them and then cut them out to layer them on my card.

For more projects made with the StampTV kit previewed today, be sure to check out our other Senior Design Team Member's Blogs:
Gina, Asela, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Kurtis, Joanne, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, and Theresa

Our CenterStage Spotlight Design Team member, Dawn Lusk is joining in our previews today showing a card today too. Remember to check out StampTV for the new video today - Gina will be showing a project made with the new Signs of Autumn StampTV kit!

Tomorrow is our final day of previews before the big Release Party over at SCS Thursday night! We'll be showing Gina's new Free with Three stamp set - you're going to LOVE this one! See you then!
Jessica

Timeless Treasures and Are we There Yet

Welcome to Preview Day 2! Tonight we are showing two more new stamp sets that will soon be available from GinaK Designs! My first card shows some images from Theresa Momber's Beautiful Timeless Treasures stamp set. I have had so much fun designing with her stamp set, that I had a hard time deciding which project to share with you tonight!

I finally decided on this card because I love the colors and layers of it all. It actually goes with an accordian scrapbook that I made with Theresa's stamp set, but I'm going to save that project to share for another date since there are a ton of photos that I want to share with you showing all the pages of the book.

My card is 5 1/2" square - plenty of room for lots of this gorgeous DejaView's patterned papers. Emily Giovanni designed some gorgeous digital papers to coordinate with Theresa's stamp set, but I didn't have a chance to print it out to use yet. I'm sure several of the other Design Team members will be using it tonight on their preview cards, so watch for it - you're going to LOVE the colors and textures Emily designed!

The images Theresa has included in her stamp set have a vintage feel to them and I'm so excited to have her set in my collection as I love to scrapbook with this style of stamps! And, the sentiments in this stamp set... well, let me just say that I LOVE them as much as I love the images!

For the inside of my card, I decided to stamp this sentiment from Nina's Elegant Post stamp set because I wanted this to be a birthday card. I think they work very well together, don't you?

Next up is Rupa Shevde's new stamp set that I've been asking her to make for us since I met her. It's filled with fun images that are perfect for any family! She named her set Are We There Yet?

What girl doesn't need a card like this!? lol! I had so much fun coloring this moped all pink and girly. I paired it with some bright and cheerful K&Co patterned papers. The body of the moped is popped up on dimensional adhesives, so it has a nice 3D look to it.

The sentiment is from another new stamp set that we'll be talking about on Wednesday - so I won't say anything about that yet...

Now, I HAD to share one more card with Rupa's set because I have been begging her to make me a bicycle stamp image forever! My husband Brad's hobby is bicycling and I was hoping to have a nice image to use for cards for him. Rupa came through BIG time - look at how great her bike image is...

Because the image is so detailed, I decided to pull out my Sakura glitter pens and color it in with them since they are much easier to stay in the lines with AND they give a great sparkly look at the same time. See all the shimmer ...

To highlight the wheels, I ran the black onyx cardstock through my BigShot with an embossing folder and then wrapped Silver cording around the cardfront to mimic the wheel's spokes. You can see I used the 'un-named' new stamp set for the sentiment again on this card too... lol! More about that to come, I promise!

My husband really liked this card... so, mission accomplished, Rupa! Thank you SO much for indulging me and giving me my bike image!!

For more projects made with the stamps previewed today, be sure to check out our other Senior Design Team Member's Blogs:
Gina, Asela, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, and Theresa

and, be sure to check out our CenterStage Spotlight Design Team member's blogs for a card made with Timeless Treasures by Shannon Bracken and Brenda Turner has a card to show us that she made with the fun Are We There Yet stamp set too!

Tomorrow night is an exciting one!! We'll be showcasing Gina's new StampTV kit on our blogs and Gina's new video on StampTV will be featuring the kit too! See you then -
Jessica

Elegant Post and Inspiration Mosaic

Good evening!

I'm thrilled to be sharing a couple of cards tonight that I made with some brand new GinaK Designs stamps that will be available for purchase this Thursday, July 30th after our Release Party! I hope you'll be able to join us for the party - we have contest questions, challenges, chatter, and tons of eyecandy to share throughout the 3 hour online party! It starts at 7 pm CST - so mark your calendars because we'd love to have you join us.

My first card is made with Nina Brackett's new stamp set called Elegant Post.

The images Nina includes in her set are so detailed and beautiful. I've made a couple of cards with her set, but thought I'd share this one with you tonight because I love this flower basket! I decided to highlight one basket by coloring the entire image in with Sakura's Glitter pens and then popped it up on dimensional adhesives.

Can you see how sparkly those glitter pens are?! I LOVE them because you know how much I love glitter! Nina has also included several sentiments in her stamp set in the most beautiful fonts - that script is my favorite! I cut it out with a long deckled nestability die and sponged inks around the die while it was still attached to the cardstock.

For the inside, I pulled out last month's Free with Three stamp set - Many Wishes. This set will be available for purchase Thursday night when all the new stamp sets go into Gina's store. Right now, the only way to receive this set is by purchasing three stamp sets - then you get it for FREE.

The next stamp set we are previewing tonight is Melanie Muenchinger's Inspiration Mosaic stamp set. I decided to make a quilt with her stamp set - this is probably the only kind of quilt I'll ever make! One with paper, ink and an embossing folder...

I paper pieced her stamp set with Basic Grey's 6x6 Lemonade paper pack. It is my FAVORITE new paper collection from them right now. I can't get enough of it... and am excited to announce that Gina will be adding both this paper pack and the new Junebug paper pack to her store on Thursday night.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law make the most beautiful quilts and we have been blessed with several blankets from them over the years. I am always in awe of how much work they put into their quilts. I would love to know how to make a quilt... but, since I'm too afraid to even thread my sewing machine and sew on paper - I don't believe I'll be adding quilting to a hobby of mine! Actually, I have so much invested in this papercrafting hobby of mine that there is no way that I can get started with another hobby... heehee...

To make my faux quilt realistic, I added stitching around each block with a Copic Multi-liner pen. I varied the stitches to make it more interesting...

After I finished the stitching, I cut around the quilt with my Fiskars Cloud scissors and ran the entire paper through my BigShot with a Stampin Up Sizzix embossing folder. To highlight the embossing, I sponged SU's Blush Blossom ink over the whole quilt.

To finish it off, I added some felt flowers and buttons to one of the panels of the stamp set. The inside of the card was kept nice and simple....


For more projects made with the stamps previewed today, be sure to check out our other Senior Design Team Member's Blogs:
Gina, Cathy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn, Melanie, and Theresa

and, don't forget to check out our CenterStage Spotlight girls joining us in Previews today: Sue Walsh is showing an Elegant Post card today and JenMarie Taylor has a card made with the new Inspiration Mosaic stamp set.

I'll see you back here tomorrow night for two more new stamp set previews!
Jessica

Mirror, Mirror on the wall....

Good morning!

Today's card is one that I made with a fun girly-girl stamp set called Perfectly Polished. Lots of fun images to color and use to make cards for girls of all ages!

I used decided to pop the mirror up a little to help give it a little more dimension. I colored the mirror in with Sakura's glitter pens using my Niji waterbrush. I've shared a little tutorial on this technique HERE on my blog.

Here's a little closer look so you can see the popped up mirror and the glazed brads I used to embellish it too.

Thanks for checking in with me today! The previews for new GinaK Designs stamps begin on Sunday night at 10 pm. I can't wait to share my projects with you and to see what GinaK's other Senior Design Team members have in store for us during our preview week!

Have a great weekend - I'll see you Sunday night!
Jessica

Card Supplies
Stamps: Perfectly Polished (GinaK)
Cardstock: SU, watercolor, Basic Grey Euphoria
Ink: Versafine
Other: Detail clear embossing powder, Basic Grey Euphoria glazed brads, flowers, nestabilities, Sakura glitter pens, Niji Waterbrush, SU ribbons, metallic rub-on paste, pearls

Happy Little Ducky!

Good morning!

I love this little Stampin Up duck image - isn't it cute? Rather than making it into a baby card, I paired it with this Penny Black sentiment and decided that it would be a fun all occasion card - perfect to send to a friend wishing them a happy day!

Here's a closer look at the duck that I colored with Copics and highlighted with my Stardust glitter pen...

The inside sentiment fit perfectly with the outside sentiment... 'happy day!'

Thanks for stopping by today - and I wish you a HAPPY DAY, my friends!
Jessica

Have a Purrfect day!

Good morning!

Isn't this kitty adorable!? She is from another clear Penny Black stamp set. I found it at my local Archivers - I'm so tickled that they are starting to carry them! Because I wanted the focus to be on the kitty - I kept the card pretty simple.

Here's another look so you can see the chalked clouds, sparkle on the balloons, and liquid pearls on the brads & scallops...

The grass and sky were shaded with Pebbles Chalks and the blades of grass were made with a couple of Copic markers. I shared a tutorial on how to make clouds HERE if you missed it. Gina also recently shared a video on how to make clouds with inks on STV - you can see her video HERE.

Here's the inside view...

Thanks for stopping by today - have a great rest of your day!
Jessica

Card Supplies
Stamps: Penny Black
Paper: GinaK Pure Luxury, Stampin Up, K&Co. patterned
Ink: Versafine & Memento
Other: Nestabilities, Copics, Stickles, Pebbles Chalks, SU brads, Liquid Pearls, Stampin Up border punch

Forest Friends Digital Images

Good morning!

The Design Team from PaperCraft Planet has a really fun challenge for you today -- it's a product challenge, sponsored by MyGrafico. To play along, create ANYTHING using one of the MyGrafico images -- they have a ton to choose from, but if you're trying to cut costs, here's a link to some free images.

Post your project in the Paper Craft Planet photo gallery, and use the tag "PCPgrafico". (Here is a tutorial on adding pictures to the gallery, if you need it.) MyGrafico has generously offered a $10 gift certificate to the store to one of our lucky challenge players.

I decided to show the versatility of Digital stamps by making this first card - look at how big I printed this tree image from their Forest Friends digital stamp set. The image fits the entire card front:

I decided to keep it clean and simple by coloring the tree with Copics and embellishing with Stampin Up flower punch-outs and stuck a rhinestone in each center. An EK Success corner punch, SU button and ribbon - and it's finished!

A quick card - perfect for any occasion so I kept it sentiment free to make it easy to use when I need it.

Next, up is a fun owl card that I thought I'd give to my daughter Ashley because she loves owls:

I went quick and easy again with this card and used some bright K&Co. patterned paper for my background and brought the focus of the card entirely on these fun images. They are colored with Copics and then a ton of stickles! Since it's for my 8 year old daughter - I added as many different colored stickles as I could! lol!

A note about working with digital stamps:

• You do NOT have to have a photo editing software. You can just open and print these jpg images.


• If you have a photo editing program, the images come in both jpg and png files. You can resize the images and combine them into scenes with just a click of the mouse.


• Digital images last forever and require very little storage space!


• There are several great tutorial videos over on Paper Craft Planet that will show you how to use digital images, if you have any questions.

Here's what some of the other Design Team members have designed for our challenge today:

Adela Rossol

Lynn Mercurio

Kim Burmeister

Wendy Price

Tammy Hershberger

Erika Martin

Lori Tecler

Sankari Wegman

Susanna Boyd

Now, it's your turn! Take the challenge and let's see what you make!
Jessica

Spoil Yourself Silly!

Good morning!

I have another birthday card to share with you this morning made with this super cute Penny Black image. I love how cute he is in the tree - doesn't it look like he's relaxing and waiting for an unsuspecting bird... lol!

Here's a closer look so you can see the embossing, sparkle and rhinestone collar...

This DCWV paper pack is very busy - but so fun with the colors and patterns. I couldn't resist using more of it on the inside of this birthday card...

Thanks for checking in with me today! I hope you have a chance to do something fun for YOU today!
Jessica

Good Times with Friends...

Good morning!

Here's another card that I made with some Stampin Up images and the Sizzix dies that they sell as well. I was experimenting with these flower dies that I've had for a while and LOVED how easy they were to make & embellish!

The leaves were highlighted with white Versamagic ink and the flowers were sanded with a sanding block to show off the white core DCWV paper I used to cut them out with. The butterflies were stamped in Versafine pink ink and embossed with SU's Iridescent Ice embossing powder onto Vellum paper and then cut out...

It turned out to be such a pink and girly card - I LOVE it! lol! The sentiments are on more Sizzix diecuts -

Here's closer look at the inside embellishments...


I'm so glad I finally pulled out those Sizzix dies to play with - I can't believe I didn't do it sooner!

Have a great day - I hope you have time today to pull out some new stamping products to experiment with today!
Jessica

Get Well Flowers...

Good morning!

I have a Stampin Up card to share with you today. It's just a quick and easy 'get well' card that are always good to have on hand. The die cuts are from their Sizzix embossing/cutting dies - I love those things! To highlight the leaves, I rubbed a little bit of white versamagic ink on the embossed parts. The tag is also a Sizzix die cut.

I colored the flower pot in with copics after stamping in Black Memento ink. Then, I drew a few lines around the image with my Stardust glitter pen.

Here's the inside -


I have another card that I'm going to share tomorrow that I made with more of those diecuts - they were so fun to play with. For the flower, I used white-core DCWV paper, so I used a sanding block to highlight the embossing.

Have a great day and see you tomorrow!
Jessica