Happy new year!

Hello, stamping friends. I hope you had a wonderful holiday celebration. I'm still enjoying the break since my girls are still off this week. Do you find it hard to go back to routine after a long pause? I know I do, so I'm just going to enjoy my time adjusting this week before school starts on Monday.

I do have cards to share because it's GinaK Designs' preview week. But, first I have a card to share for StampTV's sketch challenge today. I used my well-loved sets, Grand Damask and Heartily Your Additions stamp sets. The papers are Pink Paislee's Cupid.

Finally, I haven't forgotten about my giveaway. I have so many things new this month that I was having a hard time to decide if I should wait till I am able to share about them all with you. Some of my new designs will have to wait until CHA at the end of the month (and I hope you will like them like I do). So, I decided since I can't all share my new designs at once, I'll divide my giveaways over the next few weeks.

My first giveaway will be tomorrow that includes my new GinaK Designs stamps to be released on Thursday, Jan 6th. So make sure you all come back. :-)

A Snippet and a Pixiepetal Giveaway

Before I share the giveaway, Gina K has started the snippets. Here's my upcoming stamp set that coordinates with the Spellbinder die I designed. This is going to be a fun release!

My card today uses my latest Grand Damask and Inside and Out. And did you notice that gorgeous flower embellishment? That beauty was sent to me by Pixie Petals, an etsy store that sells gorgeous handmade embellishments that are perfect for your crafts.

Pixie Petals is offering a generous discount for you, my wonderful readers:

AND, leave me a comment below and I will draw a winner of a $10 gift certificate to Pixie Petals. I will pick the winner on Saturday.
Supplies (All products are from GinaK Designs, unless noted otherwise):

Stamps: Vintage Backgrounds, Grand Damask, Inside and Out
Ink: Vivd Aqua, Memento Black
Cardstock: Turquoise Sea, Ivory
Patterned Paper: Thrift Shop by Oct Aft
Accents: button and flower from Pixie Petals

Favorite Fall Memory

Welcome to Gina K Designs' Sr. DT Hop. Our task is to create something based on a favorite fall memory. I'm showcasing my latest sets, Grand Damask and Fanciful Tags.

Without a doubt, my favorite in the last 38 autumns God has blessed me to have is the birth of each of my children! We didn't plan it this way, but all three of my girls were born in the fall. Here is my greatest earthly treasure, my family.
And my second favorite next to the blessing of having the girls in the fall is... Kris and I went to a college football game for our very FIRST date 16 years ago! And what is fall without football, right? I combined both fall memories to create the following cards.

First is a birthday (for the birth of my girls) card with University of Georgia Bulldogs (my hubby's favorite team) colors, red and black. The card base is GinaK Lipstick Red, the patterned papers are Thrift Shop by Oct Afternoon. The large circle and fancy tag is cut with Spellbinder dies.

This simple get well card uses colors of my Alma Mater, UCLA. I have a lot of fun football memories there for sure. The card base is GinaK Wild Dandelion. The patterned paper is from my Bright Botanicals Digital paper pack. The button and ribbon are also from Gina K.
For all the information about how to enter your card into this month's challenge, please visit GinaK's blog, then check out these participating designer's blogs for more inspiration using the newly released stamp sets available through GinaK Designs:

• Jessica Fick
• Theresa Momber
• Nina Brackett -- you are here!
  
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Tami Mayberry
• Carolyn King
• Cathy Tidwell
• Lee Murphy
• Kurtis Amundson
• Miesje Flach - our CenterStage Spotlight designer!
  

Country shabby card

I've been busy doing digital designs and spending most of my free time in front of a computer. It was nice to get away from that and create something with my craft supplies instead of a mouse. :-)

Today's card uses my latest Gina K Designs sets, Grand Damask and Fanciful Tags. The card base is GinaK Kraft, the patterned paper is Fly a Kite by October Afternoon. The lace is from my stash that I bought from a flea market a long time ago. The cream buttons are also GinaK.

Have a happy Thursday!

Butterfly Shabby

Today's card is a shabby-fied (I know it's made up, but you know what I mean :-) butterfly using my latest sets, Grand Damask and Fanciful Tags. The damask is stamped with Vivid Straw. The polka dot paper is from the Bright and Grungy Dots digipaper pack. The butterfly is by Martha Stewart.

The Lean On Me Blog Hop is going on. You can start on Gina's blog for more info.

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.

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!