Crafty Friends Challenge #3

The CFC ladies have challenge #3 for you today, hosted by the talented Charmaine Ikach. She provided this lovely photo and color combo for inspiration. Aren't those colors beautiful together?

I was inspired by the colors and made this Mother's day card using two of my favorite Gina K Designs stamps, Nana's Needlework and NN Sentiments. The papers are Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl. I used various Memento Inks for the doily stamp.

InLinkz.com

Card Patterns 2nd Anniversary Celebration

I hope you've been enjoying the week-long Card Patterns 2nd Anniversary celebration. Thank you for joining us weekly with your beautiful interpretations of our sketches. You all bring so much inspiration to the Card Patterns crew. And it has been a treat being a part of the paper crafting side of your life. Thank you!

Today is my turn to show you my take on this sketch.

But first, here is the prize package I'm giving away today:

• Gina K Designs' Fanciful Tags set
  
• Gina K Designs' Grand Damask set
  
• Layers of Color's Sent with Love set
  

And for my card, I went back to my roots of Clean and Simple style. But of course, I have to include my favorite doilies, which is from my Nana's Needlework set by Gina K Designs. The sentiment is from Layers of Color's Sent with Love set, which is one of the sets I'm giving away today.

The winner of the prize I'm giving away will be picked randomly from one of the commenters on today's post. The giveaway closes on Friday, Feb 25th!

For more info and to link up to your interpretation of sketch 103, please go to the Card Patterns post -->>HERE.

Moxie Fab Christmas Challenges

It seems it's been ages since I participated in any challenge. I got some play time this weekend and made some Christmas cards. I used to mass produce my holiday cards, but I've been inspired to make individual ones lately. I'm sure I can't do this for all the 150+ cards I have to make, but I'm having fun for now.

The first two cards are for the Jolly Holiday Card Challenge. The papers are from the brand new Graphic 45 Christmas Past. This paper collection is so beautiful. The ribbon is Offray and the sentiment is from SRM Stickers Happy Holidays. And that beautiful flourish is my new love, Zva Creative crystals.

My second card uses the beautiful Penny Black angel stamp and SRM Stickers again. The papers are Pink Paislee.

My next card is a gift card holder that I made awhile ago. It's for the Moxie Fab All Wrapped Up Challenge. I need to make special projects like this way in advance so I can send them in a timely manner to friends and family in the US. The dolls are by Hero Arts, sentiments from GinaK Designs Festive Frame. The shelf is from Nana's Needlework set. The papers are Cosmo Cricket.

Here's a close up with the gift card and/or cash inserted inside the card:

Guess who's sponsoring SSIC?

I am giving away a copy of one of my best-selling GinaK sets, Nana's Needlework, on the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge this week. Make sure you check it out and join in the fun. Today's card uses the coordinating sentiment set, Nana's Needlework Sentiments. These note cards were published in the CARDS Magazine August 2010 issue. The patterned papers are Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl. The card base is GinaK Ocean Mist.
I had a busy WCMD weekend and spent cleaning and organizing my craft area yesterday. I'm not quite done, and I can't get creative again until it's all finished. I'm kind of OCD that way :-)

Kanzashi flower card

I've been wanting to try to make Kanzashi flowers ever since I found a tutorial on Youtube a few months ago. Moxie Fab's Fun with Fabric challenge was just the push I needed to try it. I adapted the video to use fabric instead of paper. Here is my first attempt:

For the background, I did an emboss resist technique. I first stamped the text background from Vintage Backgrounds set. I then white embossed the doily from Nana's Needlework and sponged the panel with a few pink inks. The sentiment is from the Botanicals set.

Here is a close up.

I think I will make more of these flowers. They are so pretty.

My Challenge Winners!

First, I just want to let you know how blown away I was with your beautiful creations. There were so many fantastic cards and each one was a feast for the eyes. Just in case you missed them, here are some of my favorites from the challenge participants.

Lynn - I love that ribbon rose.


Justine - another fabulous handmade embellishment flower.


Jennie - all the different elements just come together so well here and she used several of my Gina K stamp sets, Nana's Needlework and Vintage Backgrounds.


Amy - her color combo is one of my favorite and who wouldn't love a blinged out butterfly trail?


Janice M - I love the trail, too, but even more, I love the crocheted butterfly!

Janice W - another beautiful handmade flower and it's so clever how she did her ribbon. She used two of my Gina K sets, Lovely Shelf and Nana's Needlework.


Heather - I love her stitching, subtle backgrounds, fantastic color combo and lovely design. She used my GinaK sets Nana's Needlework, Vintage Borders, Lovely Shelf.


Last, but certainly not the least...Carla with this beautiful vintage card. I love her muted color combo, and the simple elegance of it all. She used my Lovely Labels set.


I am so glad I am picking the winner by random, or I wouldn't be able to choose one favorite. The winner of the $20 gift certificate from Lisa Walsh (Stampin' Up! demo) is...#4 Janice Whiting.

And before I give you the winner from the commenters and followers, I have to explain how I pick my winner. There were almost 400 comments and over 300 followers, so it's a little daunting to count them. What I do is I assign a number per day and the followers get two days:
#1 Followers
#2 Day 1 comments,
... Days 2 - 15
#17 Followers again

I picked a random number 1-17 (via random.org)...I got #7, so the winner will be picked from Day 6 comments. Using the random.org site again, from the comments the winner of some paper crafting goodies from me is... #17 Lynn! I will be in contact soon, ladies, to get your goodies out to you.

Shabby Butterfly Card and Another Challenge

Thanks for the comment on my hand made flower yesterday. It was easy. I found the tutorial HERE.

My card today uses several GinaK Designs stamps. The doily is from my Nana's Needlework, the beautiful sentiment is from the Elegant Flowers set. The word "you" is from Lovely Shelf. This flower here uses a strip of fabric.

You can click on the photo for a larger view.

My anniversary was last month, but I got a great response from the last challenge that I thought I'd do another one.

The Challenge: Create a card that uses my card as an inspiration. You can follow the layout or the color combo, or you can create one of these flowers, whatever inspires you.

The Prize: I will pick a winner from among the participants and from a commenter and followers. One random participant will win this:
FYI, my generous friend and SU Demo, Lisa, always has a great monthly special. For April, you need to check it out HERE. It's the perfect time to stock up.

One random commenter will receive some paper crafting goodies, including some stamps from me. I will gather up some goodies and post here later.

The Details:

• Create a new project using my card as the inspiration.
• Post it on your blog, forum gallery or flickr making sure you provide a link to this challenge post, so others can join too.
• Enter the direct link to your card via inlinkz below. You can enter as many projects as you want.
  
• The deadline is April 29 at midnight.
  

GinaK Designs Illustrators Blog Hop

For the SRM Blog Hop, please scroll down below or click here.

Welcome to the Gina K Designs Illustrator Blog Hop. Start over at GinaK's StampTV Page for more complete instructions about tonight's Challenge Hop.

• Challenge: Choose favorite children's book and make a project inspired by the book. Include photo of book along with why you chose it and how it inspired your project.
• Requirement: use at least one of the March Release stamp sets: A Beautiful Life, By Your Side, Fairy Tales, Friends, Happy Spring, Nana's Needlework, Nana's Needlework Sentiments, Sending Sunshine, Spring Mix, Spring Has Sprung
• Deadline: Monday, April 12th at 8 pm, CST.
  
• Prize: CenterStage Spotlight Designer for April (receives entire April release!)

I had so much fun with this challenge as a mom of young kids. The most difficult thing was to decide on which books to use. I couldn't decide on one, so I picked my top 3 most favorite children's books. We have an Aunt Meme who's a school teacher and she's given our girls literally hundreds of books over the years. So, these books are really special because they're picked from so many choices.

First, it's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. My girls loved its rhymes and colorful pictures. It's like a rap for kids. :-)
Here's my card using Nana's Needlework and some Li'l Man Cosmo Cricket papers. I followed the book cover's layout and bright colors.

My next book is one that just tugs on your heart strings. I love the soft colors of the illustrations here and that's what inspired my cards below.

The blocks on the cover remind me of a quilt, so I made quilted backgrounds (surprise! :-) on the following cards. This one again uses Nana's Needlework and Nana's Needlework Sentiments. I white embossed the doily on vellum. The card base is GKD Sweet Corn. The buttons are from the Spring Assortment.

This card uses Tami's Fairy Tales set and the sentiment is from Nana's Needlework.
This card uses the adorable goose image and sentiment from the Spring Mix StampTV Kit. If you want to see my tutorial on how I mass produce quilted cards, please go HERE.

Finally, I had to use this book. If you have little kids, I think you will really enjoy it.
I followed the layout and color scheme of different shades of browns for my card below using Theresa's Sending Sunshine set.
To keep the inspiration going, check out these GinaK Designers' joining in on the hop tonight:

• Jessica Fick
• Tami Mayberry
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Theresa Momber
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Lee Murphy
• Erika Martin
• Jennie Harper *March CSS Guest Designer Winner*

I hope you can play along. This is your chance to receive all of the April release and be Gina K Designs CSS Guest DT next month! And believe me, you will love the new stamps and other products coming up in just two weeks. :-)