Fancy Cards from Jennie and Me

Where has time gone? It seems we just arrived from Croatia yesterday and now I can't believe it's almost September already. My craft stuff has been put away and split up between "must have's" and "can wait till next time" categories. In light of that, I haven't made anything new. I do have some new cards to show you today, though.

First up is from last week's Card Patterns sketch using my Fine Furnishings and Melanie's Arranged with Love sets. The papers are Cosmo Cricket DeLovely and Pink Paislee.

Speaking of beautiful friend... my Guest DT, Jennie, created this gorgeous card using my latest Grand Damask and Fanciful Tags sets. You can read more about it on her blog post HERE.

Introducing Grand Damask and Fanciful Tags

We're busy organizing and packing (including my craft supplies) for our upcoming departure for Croatia. It has been hectic, so it's nice to get my mind off that for a short while and introduce you to my latest stamp designs, Grand Damask:

And Fanciful Tags, which coordinate well with Spellbinders' Fancy Tag dies.
I have a beautiful card by my friend, Carla, to show you using these sets. You can find more info on her StampTV post.

We're taking a day off and enjoying the day with my parents and girls today. It's always good to take a break once in awhile. Stay cool and enjoy your day.

Lean on Me Card Kit

Thanks for joining the Gina K Designs crew for today's blog hop featuring the new card kit, Lean on Me. I made another card set using the silhouette flowers and sentiments from Lean on Me and Fanciful Tags sets.

I used GinaK Designs' Pure Luxury Ivory, Passionate Pink and Lemon Drop. The ruffled ribbon is by May Arts. Please click on the photo for a larger view.

For more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, please check out these participating designer's links:

• Gina *Illustrator of Lean on Me and You are Not Alone*
• Jessica *Designer of Lean on Me card kit*
• Melanie
• Theresa -
• Tami -
• Cathy
• Lee
• Kurtis
• Suzanne
• Bev
• Colleen
• Valerie
• Sankari
• Miesje - *our CenterStage Guest Designer!*

You are invited to join us for our Release party tomorro night, August 26 from 7-10 central time for contest questions, challenges, and chatter along with tons more samples! The party leads up to the new products featured this week on our blogs being available for purchase online through GinaK Designs at 10 pm.

Gina K Designs' Aug 2010 Preview, Day One

Welcome to another week of previews and release party with the Gina K Designs' team. I'm so excited to share with you my latest sets, Grand Damask and Fanciful Tags, which fit inside the Spellbinders' Fancy Tags dies. These are smaller sets, so they are more affordable, and they go well together.

The Grand Damask set has a large damask as seen below and coordinating elegant flourishes.

The Fanciful Tags set includes the small frames that fit inside the Spellbinder Fancy Tag dies and FIFTEEN sentiments that fit inside the frames and/or dies. It could very well be the only sentiment set you'll ever need :-).

If you're a frequent visitor to my blog, you know how much I love to make card sets to give away to friends and family. I want to show you how easy it is to make an elegant set of cards with these two stamp sets. Here are the cards (click on the photo for a larger view):

And a close up of one:

The card base is the heavy base weight Ivory. I used the following inks: Vivid Aqua, Brick Red, Tea Rose and Lemon Ice. The ribbon is also by GinaK. I die cut Black Onyx with the Spellbinders Fancy Tags dies. The white oval in the center was punched out with a Stampin' Up! oval punch. I added rhinestones to fancy up the damask :-).

For more samples with the stamp sets being previewed tonight, please check out these participating designers' links:

• Jennie - my Guest DT
• Gina
• Jessica
• Melanie - *Illustrator of Wild at Heart*
• Nina -->> you are here!
• Theresa
• Cathy
• Lee
• Lynn
• Kurtis
• Carolyn
• Colleen
• Miesje - *our CenterStage Guest Designer!*

You are invited to join us for our Release party this Thursday night, August 26 from 7-10 central time for contest questions, challenges, and chatter along with tons more samples! The party leads up to the new products featured this week on our blogs being available for purchase online through GinaK Designs at 10 pm. We hope you'll make plans now to be able to join us in all the fun!

Blessed friend that I am

There have been very few instances in my life when I immediately "clicked" with people I just met. It's even rarer that I would do that with someone I never actually met in person. But, that is exactly what happened when God allowed my path to cross with that of my dear friend's, Laura Campbell, just a little over a year ago while blog hopping.

As many of you already know, she is the talented artist behind and owner of Layers of Colors Stamps. We met online and I was instantly drawn to her amazing art and love for Christ. By God's good grace, I finally met Laura in person just this summer. And the best part was my family met hers! We were all blessed beyond words with our short time with them. Each member of their dear family (including their sweet dog) touched our hearts in such a deep level that we can only attribute it to God's working in all our lives. He truly gifted us with dear friends in the Campbells and we will never thank Him enough for them.

I'm sharing all this so you can understand how much Laura's friendship has meant to me. And now she's doing something more for me, my family and the people we minister with in Croatia that just leaves me speechless with gratitude to her and our Awesome God for bringing her to my life.

I am so thrilled to announce

The Grand Opening of Laura Kirste Campbell's new line of digital stamps offered exclusively on Squigglefly!

And she is donating 100% of her Squigglefly profits to The Theological Biblical Academy, (TBA), where my husband teaches. TBA trains pastors and church planters who will establish and lead biblical churches in Croatia and other former Yugoslav states. TBA is wholly supported by donations from all over the world. We are truly humbled by this gift and it could not have come at a more opportune time. Thank you so much, Laura and Layers of Color, for your generosity and desire to proclaim Christ in our part of the world. I truly am a blessed friend because of you!

Visit Laura's images on Squigglefly, and you will know why I love her artwork so much.

Sweet Cards with Cosmo and SRM

Today's cards feature the Cosmo Cricket Togetherness collection and SRM Stickers' We've Got Your Stickers Sweet. Aren't they a great match together?

I love the white sentiment on dark cardstock.

Make sure you stop by the SRM Stickers blog to find more inspiration and a chance to win some paper crafting goodies.

Heavenly Retreat

I am currently out of town on a retreat with some of my favorite people in the world (all 300 or so of them!). I'm at our church's Missions Conference with dear friends who serve in different parts of the world. We only get together every two years so this week is a real treat for me and my family. And being close to the Pacific ocean is a big plus too. There is nothing like it to remind me of the vastness of God. It truly is a picture of heaven where we are right now.

My card today is for this week's Card Patterns' sketch:

And here's my card using an image from our sponsor, Blackleaf Studios. The sentiment is by SRM Stickers.

And make sure you check out the snippets on Gina's blog.

Thanks, Kristine

As some of you know, I love Layers of Color's stamps. Not only it's because Laura, the owner, is a good friend of mine, or because the vintage images were beautifully illustrated by her, but also because I've found met some wonderful friends through it. One of these friends is Kristine Breach. She is leaving LOC and we are doing this blog hop to show our appreciation for her.

Kris is a talented artist as you see in these cards she made below:

So shabby vintage and a 3D card, wow!
What I appreciate most about Kris is that she is a dear sister in the Lord whose kind words (even only through cyberspace) have been a blessing to me. Thank you, Kristine, for your prayers and being a source of encouragement and inspiration to me. May God give you many more opportunities to shine for Christ and proclaim His beauty and goodness through your artwork and ministry.

To see the other LOC friends who are participating in this hop, please visit:

Grace
Janice
Laura
Linda
Melisa

A Family Affair

My family and I spent all day yesterday putting together 40 card kits that make 5 cards each. I am teaching a class next week at our home church's (Grace Community Church) Missions Conference. The best part about this class is I'll be teaching fellow missionaries who serve all over the world. It'll be fun to introduce my friends to this hobby I love.

Here are my mom and Gaby putting together the kits while I cut paper.

Doesn't that pile of ribbon look so pretty?

The Card kits put together - all 40 of them!

And these are the cards we'll be making.

Well, I'm off to help with a make and take with SRM Stickers at Stamp Your Heart Out in Claremont. If you're in SoCal, come see us.

Pssst, did you see?

There's a little sneak peek of something I've been working on in the Spellbinders blog?

My card today uses the newly released, SRM Press' Quick Card Stickers . The papers are Dear Lizzy by American Crafts.

Well, we're off to do something fun with the girls today. It'll be good to enjoy being outside. May you see God's splendor in your surroundings today.

One of the favorite cards...

...I made this year is this using Layers of Color's Flutterescent stamp set. The papers are by Basic Grey. The sentiment is by SRM Stickers Express Yourself Mother's Day. The cardstocks are GinaK Designs' Creme de Menthe and Bubblegum Pink.

My family and I have been meeting with so many friends since arriving in LA a month ago. Often our days are packed with lunch with a family, then dinner with another. We are spoiled, that's for sure. I haven't cooked in a long time. It'll be interesting when we get back home to Croatia when we return to our routine. In the meantime, we can't thank God enough for blessing us with so many people whom we call friends.

PC mega fan and Card Patterns #76

Did you see that my Gracie is on the Paper Crafts Connections blog? She was a mega fan of the week on their Facebook page and that really made her day. This was taken in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb.
And here's this week's Card Patterns sketch:

Here's my card using a cute image from Meljen Designs. The papers are the new Cosmo Cricket Togetherness line. It's so adorable. The sentiment is a new one by SRM Stickers (We've Got Your Sticker Hello).

Card Patterns Sketch 75 and a Coupon

I hope you are staying cool. LA has been uncharacteristically cool. But it hasn't stopped my girls enjoying swimming in the pool. Here is this week's Card Patterns sketch. You have until this afternoon to submit to win some Sweet and Sassy Stamp goodies.

Here's my card using one of SNSS' digis.

And look at this might generous coupon from Gina K Designs? It's time to stock up.

Blast from the Past: Gina K sets

Today, the Gina K Designs crew is highlighting our favorite stamp set by Gina K. I am a sucker for anything butterfly, so naturally Take Flight is my first ever Gina K set. I paired the butterfly with a beautiful quote from the Love Notes set.

For even more samples of some of our favorite 'Blast from the Past' GinaK Designs stamp sets, check out these participating designer's blogs:

• GinaK
• Jessica
• Melanie
• Theresa
• Tami
• Nina - you are here!
  
• Lee
• Lynn
• Kurtis
• Bev
• Emily
• Erika

The entire GinaK Designs team would like to invite you to the virtual Release party we'll be having tonight (Thursday, August 5th) on StampTV. It will be a bit different than our usual release party, but we'll still have challenges, contest questions, and designer samples that you won't want to miss out on! See you there for all the fun!

Blast from The Hop: Stamp TV Kit

Here is a clean and simple card for tonight's blog hop using the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV set. The sentiment is from Asela's First Christmas set. The card base is the Gina K Ivory.

For even more samples of some of our favorite 'Blast from the Past' GinaK Designs stamp sets, check out these participating designer's blogs:

• GinaK
• Jessica
• Melanie
• Theresa
• Nina - you are here!
• Lee
• Lynn
• Kurtis
• Emily
• Erika

The entire GinaK Designs team would like to invite you to the virtual Release party we'll be having this Thursday, August 5th on StampTV. It will be a bit different than our usual release party, but we'll still have challenges, contest questions, and designer samples that you won't want to miss out on! More information on that event will be shared by GinaK soon, so stay tuned to her blog for all the details this week.

Gina K Designs' Blast from the Past Hop

I'm slowly recovering from the busy-ness of CHA, but feel so inspired by all the new products and people I met while there. I can't wait to play with the new products. :-)

In the meantime, I am so excited to show off today's cards for the special Gina K Designs Blast from the Past Hop. I have two cards to show you using three sets that were released in 2009. It was so good to play with these again.

The first card follows the elegant and classy style (perfect for Moxie Fab's Elegant Style contest) uses my Lord of the Season and Elegant Verses sets. The flower topiary was colored with Copics and accented with pearls. The verse was heat embossed with white.

This card uses my first GinaK Designs set, Special Fathers. The background diagonals is a PP by The Paper Studio. Doesn't it look like wall paper? The white strip is scored with a ScorPal to create the baseboard look.

For even more samples of some of our favorite 'Blast from the Past' GinaK Designs stamp sets, check out these participating designers' blogs:

• GinaK
• Jessica
• Melanie
• Nina - you're here!
  
• Theresa
• Cathy
• Lee
• Lynn
• Donna
• Emily
• Erika

The entire GinaK Designs team would like to invite you to the virtual Release party we'll be having this Thursday, August 5th on StampTV. It will be a bit different than our usual release party, but we'll still have challenges, contest questions, and designer samples that you won't want to miss out on! More information on that event will be shared by GinaK soon, so stay tuned to her blog for all the details this week.

Some Moxie Fab Card Style Cards

I've been so busy that I almost forgot to submit these for the Moxie Fab Card Style Challenge that deadlines today. It was so much fun to finally meet Cath at CHA. She's as nice as I imagined who has a very soft soothing voice that I've always wanted. (I have a very low voice and I've been mistaken too many times for a boy on the phone :-).

Anywho, here are my cards. The first two are for the Fun and Cute Category, which is one style I struggle with a lot. The fish and sentiment are from the Stamp TV Eclectic Summer set.
This card uses the Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg papers and chipboard. The sentiment is from Heartily Yours Addition by Gina K Designs.

This card is for the Moxie Fab Elegant and Classy Category that uses my Fine Furnishings and FF Addition sets.

This card uses the Basic Grey Origins papers and Layers of Colors Nature Walk set.

The last cards are for the Vintage Shabby Chic Category, which competes with the Elegant style as my favorite :-). The background roses and bowl are from Layers of Colors' Vintage Roses set.

Finally, this vintage card uses October Afternoon's Report Card papers, Unity stamps and SRM Stickers (Live Life Schooldays) for the sentiments.