...Gina K Designs DT Blog Hop, Day 2

Welcome to another fabulous blog hop celebrating the new stamp sets from the July 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 stamp sets by Beth Silaika and little old me, Claire Brennan. I have over 20 photos to show you - so you need to pop off right now and get that mug of coffee/tea - whatever will sustain you through the following inkfest.

Bella Elephant

The first set we are featuring is Bella Elephant by Beth Silaika. Beth has created a super cute set with the sweetest images and matching sentiments to make the perfect card project!

I thought the Bella images would be perfect to decorate some baby blocks - and I made up a little template for the blocks. I am trying to get the template ready to giveaway as a download and I may or may not have that ready by the time this post goes live - watch this space. ED - The template will be available here tomorrow, I'll put up a new post for it, it was too much for today's post! So pop back tomorrow for the free download!

The blocks are made of card and they are hollow, I created mine with room decor in mind, and sealed them shut, but when you make these, you could easily leave them open-able and put little gifts such as baby socks or little washcloths or pacifiers in them.

I stamped Bella and coloured her using copics and then added thin frames and the A, B and C - these should be included in the download so you can replicate what you see here exactly if you wish - it's super simple. I coloured my little elephant yellow and used some patterned papers from the  Sending Love paper pad to create my colour scheme.

I made up a matching card to present along with my blocks. Simple assembly, stamping and colouring, and what a neat set you will have to present to your next mum-to-be.

Next up are my sets, sure hope these tickle!

Petite Patisserie

A brand new set featuring a large store stamp with two 'dressable' windows and all the little bits that you need to dress this up as a cake shop, an ice cream parlour or a cafe, and all with a little European flair. Even teeny curtains! After all, why say 'Cake Shop' when you can say 'Petite Patisserie' lol! I love this set.

This tip sheet shows you how the accessory stamps (in orange) can be used with the main store image (in black) - there's a multitude of options!

This set can go as simple or as fussy as you like - let's start with fussy shall we? This Patisserie features cakes - these could be birthday or even wedding cakes,
depending on your need.

The idea is simple - stamp and colour - but if you look close up, you can see that I have cut out the windows and then added some curtains in behind. I cut out the curtains too, because I wanted the cakes to be 'behind' the curtains - I had such a load of fun with this set. ALL of the lines that you might want to cut are very simple on purpose, there are no awkward lumps or bumps protruding anywhere that you might want to cut! Just simple clean lines. You can achieve a really detailed look with simple trimming. I used a craft knife, it's way easier than scissors for cutting out internal shapes.

Create a Coffee Shop, below - I simply trimmed the windows and added curtains behind and then the tables and chairs behind that. I would love to show you how easy this is and I'm planning a how-to post in the next day or two where I show you the behind the scenes on how to put a card like this together.

You may have seen this Version already, I shared it at the party:

Of course you don't always need to use the full store when you make cards with this set, the smaller images work well with the sentiments also!

So Cool

Something a little simpler now - the So Cool set. Another brand new set!

A super clean, super simple, ice cream and lolly set. A selection of faces is included for folks who enjoy the kawaii look, and indeed these are terrific for adding meaning to your card - take a look at this card below. I stamped some of the small images in two rows and added the sentiment 'you're the coolest ever' together with the word 'dad'. I was able to add the little moustachio-ed face to the orange lolly to reinforce the masculine element.

A super simple, single layer, masculine card, AND you get to use all the bright colours that you sometimes don't associate with 'man cards'! win win!

Or what about this - for the 'coolest ever coach' - reinforce the idea of a 'team' by adding tiny faces to the little triple ice cream cone - I love this so much!

I included some vital words in this set such as 'dad' 'mom' 'nurse' 'doctor' 'teacher' 'friend' 'coach' - these can all be added to the larger sentiments to create specific cards in case you want to make something jolly for the important helpers in your life.

Sweet Thing

 The next set up is Sweet Thing, another brand new set. This is a cupcake builder set and I believe it to be the most versatile cupcake builder set that I have ever seen.

This is what the set looks like (click image to make it bigger), below is a tip sheet that shows examples of what you can create with these stamps.

Here's how the tip sheet works - In the top left is a small image of the stamp set -  you can see that I have put numbers beside the various stamps in the set. On the right hand side and at the bottom I show you how to 'add' these pieces together to create the cupcakes featured. 

On this card below, I stamped the cupcake from the bottom right corner of the tip sheet (I added the little banner as an extra) and you can see what pieces go together to create it. Once you get the hang of this, the combinations are endless. I will be doing a dedicated blog post about this set soon also.

There are a ton of sentiments in this set also - I love this one:

 This is another cupcake combination from the set - there are plenty of options for birthdays, babies, weddings, and any other day that cupcakes are required. The little teddy, angel and rose can all be used on their own also.

When I got to the end of drawing this set I had a wee area of blank space and I hate to waste space! So, I drew up a little apron label type stamp - it has room for you to write your name and it's a little 'from the kitchen of' stamp - I love it, it's perfect for when you bake and you are giving out little informal gifts - like these jars of cookies - they are re-purposed salsa jars containing some homemade spice biscuits, simply dressed with a square of fabric and a little apron stamped tag - perfectly simple, the work of moments!

My Island

My Island is a grungy silhouette style tropical inspired summer set, I brought it with me to Gina's from WMS and I love it. Here are a few samples that long time WMS folks might recall, but other folks may not have seen! You will have seen this set featured in Gina's video at the release party.

It's been a long post, and thanks for sticking with me, I'm going to stop waffling, but if there's anything you need to know, just leave me a comment and I will reply to you - in the comments. I'll be posting lots of How-To's over the next couple of days, so when you have recovered, you might like to pop back! :)

Don't forget to comment on each DT 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.

After a small nap and some food, you might be ready for more awesome creations?! Just click on the links below for more from Gina and the Cast&Crew:

Gina K
Beth Silaika - illustrator for Bella Elephant
Claire Brennan (Me!) - illustrator for My Island, Petite Patisserie, So Cool and Sweet Thing
Allie Gower
Cathy Tidwell
Karen Hightower
Kendra Wietstock
Laurie Schmidlin
Melanie Muenchinger
Sean Fetterman
Sheri Gilson
Susie Moore
Theresa Momber

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.

Thank you for stopping by!