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Monday 30 May 2016

... Gina K Designs May Inspiration blog hop Day One


 It's my first blog hop as a member of the GKD team! So excited! There's a lot of pics, grab a cuppa! Here's what you need to know:

The Cast and Crew for Gina K Designs welcomes you to another fabulous blog hop celebrating the new stamp sets from the May StampTV Release Party! We hope to inspire you with some beautiful card projects as you hop along to each of the designer’s blogs! Today, we are featuring two stamp sets by Therea Momber and Melanie Muenchinger. 


The first set we are featuring is Country Roads 2 by Theresa Momber. Theresa has created a second set to her popular Country Roads collection. Whether you are a country lover or an animal lover, you will be making creative and fun projects with this wonderful set. 



The second set we are featuring is Fill It with Flowers by Melanie Muenchinger. Melanie has done it again! She has created another wonderful set that is incredibly versatile and fun where the possibilities are endless for making beautiful cards for any occasion.

Enjoy the gorgeous inspiration samples from the team and then comment on each blog for your chance to win a $20 Gina K Designs gift certificate! To see who won, check the Big News Forum at StampTV a few days after the hop.


Ok, here we go with my Country Roads 2 cards:


I made this cheery Happy Birthday card with the Country Roads 2 set - I brushed the large floral stamp with bottled inks and stamped it - it comes out all watery and splotchy, but when it dries you can stamp the image again with proper stamping ink and it gives this artsy painterly look, I like how this turned out.


This is what the image looks like stamped in the bottled, liquid inks.


Once it dries, I stamp again with black ink, the detail shows up nicely over the 
artsy look of the dried inks.

I used the smaller floral image from Country Roads to create these little notelet cards, 4 inch square, the fine detailing lent itself to a simple card layout.



If you were at the release party at Stamp TV you may have seen this card - 

I decided to take one of the silhouette images from the set and do something a little different with it. Instead of using it as a silhouette, I stamped it in a very pale shade of grey and then used some colouring pencils to add some colour directly to the stamped image. There's some how-to pics below, you can try this with other silhouette images. It can be a great way to extend the range of your stamps.



And now for my Fill it with Flowers cards:


I loved this milk glass style vase from Melanie's set, I paired it with some of the oversize blooms and coloured with copics. I stamped a few extra flower heads and trimmed out the flower heads and some single petals. I used an embossing tool on the backs of my trimmed-out images to create a little dimension and then I stuck some of the extra petals to the flower heads to give the arrangement a little more depth.



The butterfly was fussy cut from some of the patterned papers in the Sending love Stamp TV kit, it was just the perfect size! The lovely gingham paper is from the kit also. Have you seen the kit? It's here.

For my second card I used the paper wrap stamp and paired it with the hydrangea stamp. The paper wrap is an ideal stamp to paper piece - all the patterned papers on this card are from the sending love kit - it's a great kit. I used copics again to color the flowers and I sponged a little behind the main image to ground the bouquet a little. Couldn't resist another little butterfly.

I sure hope these tickle and I can't wait to see what you folks get up to with these sets - also tomorrow I'm looking forward to showing you some more creations, there's another hop!

If you are ready for more inspiration today, just click on the links below for more from Gina and the Cast & Crew:


Gina K

Theresa Momber – Illustrator for Country Roads 2

Melanie Muenchinger – Illustrator for Fill It with Flowers

Allie Gower

Beth Silaika

Cathy Tidwell

Claire Brennan

Donna Idlet

Karen Hightower

Kendra Wietstock

Laurie Schmidlin

Sheri Gilson

Silke Ledlow

Susie Moore


Don’t forget to pop over to the Gina K Designs Store and check out all of the new products available this month in the “What’s New” section at http://www.ginakdesigns.com.
Thanks for popping in!

146 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, such colorful, cheery cards with so many details. Thank you for sharing how you created each of these masterpieces!

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  2. Claire, your cards are amazing! I love all your wonderful techniques and thank you for sharing how to do them. So happy to have you on our team!

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    1. ah cheers Theresa! I had a ball with these stamps!

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  3. Clair, I love all your cards and thanks for the tutorials. I love how your flowers and the barn turned out! Beautiful Creations! <3 :)

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  4. Your cards are wonderful, especially the daisy. Welcome to GinaK. You are a perfect fit.

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    1. Thank you so much! I really appreciate the kind comment!

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  5. Beautiful card samples.

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  6. That is such a cool technique with Theresa's flowers, thank you for sharing that, looks awesome! The coloring on both these flowers is magical, and I love the dimension you created. These cards make me so happy!!!

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    1. Thanks Melanie - I loved working with these sets!

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  7. Claire your samples are awesome!

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  8. Your cards are beautiful!

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  9. I love tha Father's Day card! That is soooooo cool - ok that makes me want that stamp set!

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    1. Cheers Jenefer! Mission accomplished then? :)

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  10. Thank you for sharing the techniques. Great job!

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  11. Love that technique. Will be trying that today. Love your cards. Welcome to the best team ever.

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    1. Thank you El - so chuffed to have joined Gina's crew!

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  12. Whether muted or bold, your color combinations just make the cards "pop"! I really love the Father's Day card, too!

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    1. Thanks for the kind comment! much appreciated!

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  13. Beautiful cards. I like the way you colored the barn - great inspiration. Your milk glass vase with the daisies is gorgeous. Thanks for giving details.

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  14. Oh my gosh the flowers in the vase are so gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks Nana, they are great stamps to work with!

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  15. Beautiful cards you created. I especially love how you did the petals to look so dimensional. That is cool!

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    1. Thank you Verna, thanks for taking time to leave such a nice comment!

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  16. Love them all! Thanks for sharing the cards and most especially the 'How to' part as well.

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    1. thanks Irene! yep I love a peek at behind the scenes stuff too!

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  17. Love them all! Thanks for sharing the cards and most especially the 'How to' part as well.

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  18. Thanks for the how-to pics on the barn card. (I was hoping for a tutorial!) I will definitely be trying this. You made my day.

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    1. Hi Sharon - yep it's such an easy thing to do and it really expands the uses for your silhouette stamps!

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  19. Thanks for the paper piecing tip. I keep forgetting about that technique. Will definitely try it when my stamps arrive. Beautiful cards, all of them.

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    1. Many thanks Mary Anne, great stuff, hope you enjoy your new goodies, ta for popping by!

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  20. Loved all your cards but especially the daisies in the vase. They really popped...fantastic job

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    1. Thanks Suzanne, yep they are great flower stamps to work with!

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  21. Great cards! I like the techniques you are sharing. Thanks for giving instruction with your cards.

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  22. Wonderful cards, thanks so much for the great inspiration!!! I love the gray card base on the set....simply stunning!!

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  23. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! I've never seen the watercolor techniques you used. It is awesome! Those floral cards are stunning. Thanks for the tip of cutting out extra petals for making the flowers really pop. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. You're so welcome Daylene! Thanks for taking the time to comment!

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  24. OK Claire. That's it. I'm following you. Two techniques I have never seen before in one post? If I don't follow you I will forget where I saw them and never use them. The bottled ink technique and the alternative for the silhouette stamps? Amazing.

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    1. LOL, I know what you mean, I have post it notes all over the house.... Thanks for popping in Terri!

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  25. Such beautiful cards and love, love the daisies.

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  26. Gorgeous cards, Claire! Love them all...my favorites are how you brought the vase of flowers to life and the technique you used on the barn!

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  27. Thanks for the tip " watery and splotchy".

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  28. Stunning, your images just pop right off the card!!

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  29. Very nice cards..thanks for sharing.

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  30. WOW fantastic cards. I will have to make another order soon I'm getting so much inspiration.

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  31. Your coloring of the flowers is awesome. Love the cards.

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  32. Love how you colored in the silhouette, just inspiring! Each more beautiful then the last...thanks so much for sharing your talent!

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  33. Beautiful cards, flowers, coloring...

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  34. Claire, love your cards - they are totally my "style". And the new ideas and techniques you show are very inspiring. So glad you joined Gina K!

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    1. What a lovely comment Diana! Thank you!

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  35. Love all the cards, but my favorite is the card made with the Fill It With Flowers set. The colors are vibrant. It's just a beautiful card. Thanks for sharing.

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  36. Ahhh, these cards are fabulous. Especially love how you popped up the flowers to give them a realistic dimension:)

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  37. WOW! Absolutely amazing cards!!!! Thanks for the tutorials as well.

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    1. Rettarae Thank you for taking the time to comment!

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  38. Super bright and cheerful cards, Claire! I love your popped up petals!

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    1. cheers Donna, they were super stamps to use!

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  39. Claire such a beautiful collection of cards.

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  40. Claire your cards are bright and cheerful but elegant at the same time... what a great addition to Gina K. I can't wait to see what else you have in store for us. Welcome.

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    1. What a great thing to say Linda, thank you!

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  41. Bright and beautiful. Thank you for the tutorials to go along!

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  42. What pretty cards. I especially like the one you did with liquid inks. I've never seen or heard of that before (I'm somewhat of a newbie to certain things). How is this achieved? Are they just ink refills or are they a special type of ink? Very nice!!!

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    1. You can just use a few drops of ink from your re-inker bottles - the Gina K re-inkers would work for this, it's concentrated stuff so you only need a tiny amount - I would dab the top of a paintbrush tip to the re-inker 'juice' and then paint that droplet onto a clean ceramic dish, then I would load up the paintbrush with some water and rub that around the ink on the dish to create a sort of watercolour puddle. You are using the ceramic dish as your palette. Make a few puddles in different colours and use those - you can make them as strong or as weak as you like!

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  43. Amazing cards and I could not choose one over the other. Your coloring is beautiful and I loved how you added extra petals into the flower. Thanks for sharing.

    Linda D.

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    1. Thanks for taking time to stop by Linda! much appreciated!

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  44. Stunners! Every single card is gorgeous and I cannot pick a favorite one, although the barn card is definitely at the top of the list.

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    1. Thanks Kay! I appreciate the kind words!

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  45. I want to try every technique you showed. I love your cards and your style!

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  46. Beautiful cards, especially love the daisy's in the vase...but the barn one is nice too!

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  47. Wow, what lovely cards and pretty techniques! TFS!

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  48. What fun and inventive cards with so many ideas. It's great to see you on the team.

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  49. Welcome Claire, very colorful cards. Thank you for sharing.

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  50. I love the way you splattered the paint to color
    the first flowers. there is just enough color
    to make them interesting.
    Those sunflowers look like the ones I just bought
    at Joann's to put in my wine barrel. Beautiful.
    thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thanks Mary, I really appreciate you taking time to leave such a nice comment!

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  51. Love the daisy's and vase card!!

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    1. Me too Patty, think it's my fave also!

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  52. Claire, I really love your work!

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  53. Flowers are so rich looking! Great Job

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  54. I love the Colors in these cards.

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  55. TOTALLY AWESOME SAMPLES ... can't wait to try all of your ideas and tips for this wonderful release.

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    1. thanks Connie, ta for the fabby comment!

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  56. You created some wonderful cards and I especially liked the one with the yellow flowers and extra petals to give dimension. Must be fun to get these stamps and then create with them.

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    1. Johanna, you hit the nail on the head, I had a ball!

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  57. Hi Claire! Thank you for creating such wonderful stamp sets....I really enjoyed putting my creative spin on them! I sure do love the beautiful samples you have crafted...and can't wait to see what else you have in store for us tomorrow 😉!!!!

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    1. Hi Silke, aw thanks for such a lovely comment! hugs!

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  58. Claire so happy to see you here , we missed you big time! Your cards are all amazing and darling!

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    1. Ah hugs Marybeth! You're a sweetheart!

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  59. Beautiful techniques and card designs. I like the dimension and wonderful coloring. Fabulous job.
    quilt 4 fun 2 at hot mail dot com

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  60. Fabulous cards and so inspirational! Thanks for the tutorials. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us tomorrow ;)

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  61. Love your flowers in the vase. Very beautiful! Thanks for sharing and looking forward to seeing more of your cards.

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  62. Claire: Thank you from this “color and flower challenged” gal who really likes all of your cards, but thinks that your set of notelet cards seem to be far more achieveable, while the others will have to remain as inspiring challenge pieces for quite some time -- although I am quite drawn to them by there extreme color.

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    1. Thanks Linda, yep my challenge area is people, I'm not great with people stamps! lol! we all have our blind spots!

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  63. Gaaaahhhh!!! Outstanding examples!! I love all the techniques you shared! Thank you for your expertise and ideas. Great way to showcase another way to use a solid stamp image but stamping it lightly, then penciling in over it. Hope you do videos 'cause I love Irish accents!

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    1. Hugs Rosy, what a lovely message, and videos are on my list...a bit far down yet, but I'll get there!

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  64. Beautiful cards and welcome to Gina K! Thank you!

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  65. TFS your lovely art work = you did a fine job!

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  66. Beautiful effects. I like them all.

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  67. Your cards are all so beautiful and creative!

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  68. WOW Claire - your cards are stunning! Thank you for the beautiful inspiration!

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  69. Beautiful florals and love how you colored the barn.

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  70. Love the Hog Heaven cards. So cute.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment, :) I read them all and I appreciate you taking time to visit!