Did you see...

Cath of MoxieFab picked my Gradient is Radiant Challenge tree card to highlight alongside 9 other cards on her 2010 Countdown post today. I'm over the moon excited! What an honor. She's also doing a poll to vote for your favorite 3 cards. If you have time, go check it out HERE and vote. The poll is on the upper right hand corner.

And the winner is...

...Michelle L, after drawing a winner through random.org. Please email me at the email tab above and I will get the Lovely Shelf stamps and papers sent out to you. Thank you all for entering my blog candy. I so wish I could send you all a copy. Have you taken advantage of GinaK Designs' current sales yet? More info HERE. You wouldn't want to miss it.

Have a happy new year!

Sweetest Memories

It's been a very busy time here with ministry, entertaining, and other fun family stuff. We had a great Christmas. We hosted some friends for Christmas dinner, then celebrated again with more dear friends at their home the next day. While we were there, we got to try Wii for the first time and I can't believe how much fun we had! My girls were clueless what it was just a few days ago. We were sweating and sore by the time we finished, but we had a blast. Video games have come a long way since Pacman ;-).

I have two cards to share with you that I made a couple of weeks ago that I haven't shared here. The first one uses Signed With Love, the new free with 3 (you get the set free when you purchase 3 sets). The card base is GKD Kraft, the DPs are Pink Paislee Mistletoe Collection.

The next card is a clean and simple design using Lovely Shelf. The card base is GKD Kraft.

Make sure you check out my blog candy on my previous post for a chance to win Lovely Shelf set. You have until tonight to enter. I'll announce the winner tomorrow. And have you seen the snippets on Gina's blog? Can you guess which one is mine? It's going to be a HUGE January release with lots of new stamps, new Perfect patterns, and new cardstock colors!

StampTV and GinaK Designs Dec Blog Hop

Welcome to StampTV's December Blog hop featuring GinaK Designs' December release. Make sure you stop by Gina's blog to find out details on how to win a stamp set valued at $24.95 or less.

Here are a few cards I made last week that I never posted here. The first one uses Theresa's new set, Life is Good, and my Special Fathers set. Aren't they perfect together? The card base is Green Apple. The DPs are from SEI.

These next two are very similar to the two I already shared on my Lovely Shelf blog hop, but uses the other two flower images from the set. The card base is Soft Sand and the flowers are colored with Copics.

This one uses a sentiment from my Elegant Post set.

I have a BLOG CANDY on the previous post, so make sure you go there to be entered to win a copy of my Lovely Shelf set and a sampler pack of GKD's awesome cardstocks.

Blog Candy and Some Cute Creatures cards

This Christmas, I have much to be thankful to God for in the last 9 months I've been blogging. And through your kind comments and faithful visits, He continues to show me His goodness everyday. Thank you for your part in making my blog life as exciting and blessed as it is. May you have a wonderful Christmas season, praising the eternal Savior, whose love and mercy have given us countless reasons to celebrate the holidays.

So, to celebrate Christmas, my 9 month blogaversary and 67,000+ hits on my blog, I am offering my newest GinaK Designs set, Lovely Shelf, and a sampler pack of GinaK Designs' Pure Luxury Cardstocks (as of today, there are 20 colors!) as a blog candy.
All you have to do is leave me a comment here and tell me your favorite holiday movie, so I can check it out and maybe watch it with my family during the Christmas break. If you post about my blog candy on your blog, leave another comment for more chances to win. This contest is open until next Monday, Dec 28th. All international commenters welcome!

Two cards for the Moxie Fab's All Creatures Great and Small challenge. All stamps are by Hero Arts (Jolly Christmas and Birds, Trees and Messages).

GinaK Designs' Tech Talk Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us tonight for Melanie's Tech Talk Blog Hop. Ever since I saw the previews of this set, I've been meaning to make the card I'm about to show you. I just love the sentiment Melanie included, "love your blog." When I started blogging 9 months ago, I had no idea I would enjoy it so much and would make so many wonderful friends through it. I have been blessed so much more than I imagined through the inspirations from my talented friends' blogs and the encouragement and kind comments you, my friends and visitors, have left me. Thank you!

I made this card with the super talented Melanie in mind, of course, because she is one of the most clever, artistic, out-of-the-box designer I know (not to mention, one of my favorite stamp illustrators :-). I went to her blog, zoomed it a few times on my screen, hit print screen, pasted it on Word, readjusted the size to fit inside the computer screen, printed it, then cut it out. The card base is GinaK's new yummy color, Ocean Mist. I also used Ivory and Chocolate Kiss. Don't you just love this color combo? I embossed the card front using a Quickutz folder that I got as a birthday gift. The patterned paper is Farm Fresh by October Afternoon.

Here's a close up of her blog on my card.

For more inspiration with Tech Talk tonight, check out these links:

Melanie Muenchinger {Illustrator}
Jessica Fick
Donna Baker
Lee Murphy
Lynn Mercurio
Theresa Momber
Sankari Wegman

Melissa Shultz {CSS Designer}
Peggy Wainman {CSS Designer}
Tina Gilliland {Guest Designer}
Karen Knegten {Guest Designer}

The Tech Talk discussion on the StampTV Idea Center is a valuable resource filled with tips, sample projects, and tutorials. Melanie's tip sheet, free PDF template as well as the Card Kit is available in the discussion as well. If you haven't already, stop by GinaK's blog today to leave your comment on her blog for your chance to win today's featured stamp set or any of Melanie's stamp sets valued at $23.95 of your choice!

And speaking of giveaways, come back on Monday when I will have a Christmas blog candy to celebrate the holidays and for having almost 67,000 hits after 9 months of blogging. It's been an amazing year and you all have been a part of that!

Snowbody card

Thanks for joining me today for Unity's Friends with Flair. Check the Unity blog for the list of participants and find the hidden flair to get a chance to win some Unity stamps.

I used my long awaited Unity stamp set, the November Store Kit: Believe in Fairytales, for my card. This was a birthday gift that I got 2 months ago and I'm delighted to finally get my hands on them. International shipping sometimes can be frustrating.

Here's my card with the snowman image and the coordinating sweet sentiment. This will be for my hubby, so I had to pick his favorite college team's colors, red and black.

Stamps: Unity Store Kit Nov 09 (snowman and sentiment), Vintage Borders (music background)
Papers: GKD Soft Sand and Rocket Red, Jolly by Golly papers
Ink: Memento Black and Vivid Brick Red
Accents: GKD Button Assortments, ribbon and lace from my stash.

Life is Good Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us in today's Life is Good blog hop. Theresa did a great job illustrating this nature-themed set. I always love her realistic drawings, perfect for masculine and/or vintage cards, which I am loving right now.

I stamped the trees using Memento Rich Cocoa on the text patterned paper, which I stitched onto the distressed white layer. The sentiment is from Rupa's Warm and Wonderful set, which I punched out with SU's curly label punch. The ribbon is by Joann's, buttons from the Autumn Button Assortment, and the card base is Chocolate Kiss.

For even more inspiration tonight with the Life is Good stamp set, check out these links:

Theresa Momber {Illustrator}
Jessica Fick
Melanie Muenchinger
Lee Murphy
Erika Martin
Emily Giovanni
Colleen Schaan

Cheri Weston {CSS designer}
Melissa Shultz {CSS designer}
Peggy Wainman {CSS designer}

Geri Utterback {guest designer}
Brenda Turner {guest designer}
Linda Payne {guest designer}

The Life is Good discussion on the StampTV Idea Center is also a valuable resource for tips, samples, and tutorials. Theresa's tip sheet and the Card Kit is available in the discussion as well.

And, finally stop by GinaK's blog today to leave your comment on her blog for your chance to win Life is Good or any of Theresa's sets valued at $23.95 of your choice!

My Guest DT and Inspiration from Stockings

I've been honored to have my good friend from Germany, Vanessa Menhorn, as my Guest DT this month. Did you see her beautiful card from the Lovely Shelf Blog Hop? She is an amazing artist and I'm not the only one who has noticed! Check out her blog to find out all the numerous awards and recognitions she's received. I'm so thankful to her for designing with my Lovely Shelf set amidst her busy schedule. Thanks, Vanessa!

I asked her a few questions, so you can get to know her better.

1. How long have you been paper crafting and how did you get
started?
* I started making cards about 10 months ago - I thought it would be nice to make my own birthday cards and saw the beautiful creations on some company and challenge blogs, so I joined a flickr group and started taking part in their challenges

2. What are your current favorite:
* Techniques : distressing, layering, stamping

* Tools: die-cutting machine, sewing machine, border punches
* embellishments: pearls, gems, buttons, ribbon
* coloring mediums: distress ink, colored pencils

3. What inspires you to create? Define your crafting style.
* other designer, challenges, images in magazines
* my style is changing, I love trying new techniques and prefer the vintage/shabby chic/elegant style. My crafting is chaotic and not organized...

4. Tell us something about your family. Where are you from? Other
interests besides paper crafting.
* I am married and have a 16 months old sweet daughter. I live in Germany and I am half Italian. Besides paper crafting I don`t have much time for other hobbies - but I love cooking, baking, sewing (cute stuffed animals for my daughter), reading and gardening. I used to do a lot of sports before I had my girl.

-------------------------
I also want to encourage you to check out and participate in Cath's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger uses my inspiration from Arts and Soul:

Aren't these stockings so soft and pretty? My girls would love them! And here's my card:

Stamps: Lovely Shelf, Warm and Wonderful (GinaK)
Paper: GKD Creme de Menthe, DCWV La Creme, Basic Grey Eva, GKD Vintage Holly digipapers
Accents: ribbon by Michael's, lace from a local store here, buttons from my stash

Come back tonight (or tomorrow morning for me) for the Life is Good blog hop.

GinaK Designs' Lovely Shelf Blog Hop

ETA: For another inspiration using Lovely Shelf and Rupa's Warm and Wonderful set, make sure you stop by Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger post today!

Welcome to the Lovely Shelf Blog Hop. Thank you for joining us today, amidst your busy holiday schedule. I hope you will find inspiration in the cards you will see during this hop that will motivate you to create during the Christmas break.

I wanted to show the versatility of Lovely Shelf by creating 2 types of cards. The first two are CAS (clean and simple) cards that took no more than 15 minutes to make. Here is one of them with the rose image. I stamped it on Ivory cardstock, then colored with Copics. I embossed the sentiment from the Elegant Post set and drew the lines with my Inkssentials white pen. The card base is Soft Sand. A little pearl is the only accent right where the lines intersect.

This one uses another flower image, as well as the sentiment, from the Lovely Shelf set.

The other style of cards that I've been trying to get better at making is the shabby chic style. I just love lace, ribbons, pearls and buttons that I'm naturally drawn to this style. My first card follows the colors from Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry paper pack.

The card base is Ocean Mist. I sponged all my panels and card base, as inspired by the sponging-extraordinaire, Theresa Momber. It just adds softness to your card. The yellow flower was stamped with the quote from Theresa's Life is Good set. The swirly chipboard is by Tim Holtz. This may be the very first time I've ever used a chipboard on my card. It's sponged with Vintage Green Vivid ink.

I wanted to make another card with the same layout using softer colors. Here I used K&Co Madeline paper pack. The card base is Soft Sand and the pink panel is SU's Regal Rose.

For more inspiration, make sure you visit these GinaK Designs DT blogs:

Jessica Fick

Donna Baker

Emily Giovanni

Lee Murphy

Melanie Muenchinger

Theresa Momber

Peggy Wainman {CSS designer}

Cheri Weston {CSS Designer}

And last, but certainly not the least, is my Guest DT:
Vanessa Menhorn

The StampTV Idea Center is also a valuable resource for tips, samples, and tutorials on how to use all of GinaK's stamp sets. Check out the Lovely Shelf stamp set discussion HERE. The Lovely Shelf Card Kit information can be found there as well.

And, finally remember to check in on GinaK's blog tonight to leave your comment on her Lovely Shelf post so that you can be entered to win Lovely Shelf or any of my stamp sets valued at $23.95 or less!

A weeklong of hops...

I just want to let you all know that the GinaK Designs crew is having 4 hops this week, beginning tonight. All GinaK Designs hops begin at 10PM, CST (or if you're in Croatia, 5AM) and throughout the next day.

You don't want to miss tonight's hop as it features GinaK Designs' brand new Card Kit Club DT. Just look at these names and you know they will not disappoint you.

Bev Gerard: http://savorthejourney.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Colleen Schaan: http://www.distinctivetouches.com/distinctive_touches/
Sankari Wegman: http://sunnysankari.blogspot.com/
Suzanne Dean: http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/
Valerie Stangle: http://valeriestangle.blogspot.com/

I've been a fan of all of these ladies and it's such a treat to work alongside them. One of them will feature my Lovely Shelf set. I can't wait to see!

Monday night is my Lovely Shelf blog hop. Make sure you come back as there will be a giveaway, I'm sure. ;-). And you will love my Guest DT. She's a relatively new card maker, but is so very talented that she's already made a big name for herself.

Wednesday is Theresa's Life is Good.

Friday is Melanie's Tech Talk.

Pear Tree and Cupcake

It's Unity's Friends with Flair Friday. Make sure you stop by the Unity blog for a list of participants and find the hidden flair for a chance to win some Unity stamps.

I have two cards to show you that I made a few months back, but never got to share here. First is a Christmas card with the huge pear tree stamp from the June KOTM. The little bird is by HeroArts. They're both colored with Copics. I'm entering this to Cath's new challenge, Moxie Fab's All Creatures Great and Small.

My next card is something for a sweet little girl. The cupcake image is from the August KOTM and the sentiment is again by Hero Arts.

I'm off to bake some more desserts and finish little things for the parties this weekend. Speaking of desserts, the GKD CSS team put together a Sweet Treats Blog Hop today. Make sure you stop by Gina's blog for the list of participants and a free download of all the recipes featured in the hop. I know I can't wait to try many of them. I hope you all have a good weekend!

Busy Holidays

I've been very busy preparing for 2 parties this weekend, making desserts, side dishes, decorating, making and wrapping party favors, etc. I haven't seen my craft table in almost a week. I hope to get creative this weekend, after all the festivities!

Thank you for all the congratulatory comments on my Moxie Fab Christmas in the Old Country Challenge win with my Matroyshka gift card holder card. It was such a fun challenge for me, who represents 3 cultures (Croatian, Filipino and American). And we're celebrating all three this Christmas.

Finally, the GinaK Designs have some exciting news that you can read about in Gina's blog. I can't tell you how excited I am to see one of my stamping idols create beautiful cards with my Lovely Shelf stamp set. Watch out for the blog hop this weekend. And tonight, the CSS DTs will be having a Sweet Treat blog hop, starting at 10 PM, CST. You can begin at Gina's blog for a list of participants.

Some Challenge cards

First is for the Embellish Magazine's color challenge to use rust, brown and green. I used GinaK's Pure Luxury Cardstocks Pumpkin Spice, Chocolate Kiss and Green Apple. If you want to see how these colors compare with SU and PTI papers, please go to my post ---> HERE.

This is a masculine set of 6 note cards (2 of each) using Theresa's newest set, Life is Good. These are super easy to make. The hardest part is cutting out the buck image, but it's totally worth it.



I had to add one design with a ribbon.


Here's a multi-challenge tag that covers the following:

• Mojo Monday (sketch - I substituted 2 of the circles on the sketch with trees)
  
• Stamp Something (glitzy something)
• Cute Card Thursday (Swirly Girly)
• Clearly iStamp (Winter)
• Pile it On (Tinsel Town)
• TSG Challenge (Tags)
• Hero Arts Challenge (Tags)
  

And here's a close up. This is now hanging on our tree.


Finally, my card for this week's Card Patterns. Here is the sketch and my card follows.



Chris Franco, demo for The Angel Company, is the sponsor again this week. The snowman and postage stamps are from TAC. She is also offering a sweet deal for CardPatterns fans. Check out the CP blog for more info. Please join us for a chance to win some TAC goodies.

Color Comparisons: GinaK Designs, SU and PTI Cardstocks

I've been asked a few times how GinaK Designs' beautiful cardstocks compare with Stampin' Up and Papertrey's colors. So, here's a quick post with pictures of the papers I have in comparison with GKD. It took these pictures outside with a white background for best results. Please note that a BIG advantage of GinaK papers over the other companies is their weight and smoothness.

Click on the photo for a larger view.













I hope this gives you an idea about GinaK's great colors.