PaperFections

Grand Die Storage

If you didn't already know, I'm a bit of a storage nut . . . I think most of us paper crafters with a hoard of supplies HAVE to be, if we want to know where our supplies are so we can use them, right?!! :) So I wanted to share my recent storage solution for Spellbinders fabulous new Grand Nestabilities dies: I'm using these 8.5" x 11" Full Size Storage Panels from Stamp N' Store (Ellen Hutson is the only online retailer of these that I’ve been able to find): The dies are held in place with business card sized magnets, cut in half OR you could use Inchie Magnets from Inchie Arts: You can place a set of dies on each side of the storage panels -- they are quite sturdy. The panels are all stored in this Clear Translucent Full Size Binder from Stamp N' Stor (measures approximately 11” x 11-1/2” x 1-1/2” closed) that Ellen carries in her store: I like that this binder will close up for travel, so no dies can accidently escape! I punch holes in the die’s packaging insert and place them in the binder, for easy reference of die name, SKU... Read more →

Spellbinders Thank You Blog Hop

Today the Gina K Designs team is having a second bog hop to thank Spellbinders for their generous gift of their amazing new Grand Calibur die cutting machine to each member of our team! What an exciting gift and we are absolutely enjoying this fabulous machine! We have made some special cards and projects to showcase the new Grand Calibur and why we are loving it so much -- thank you so very much Spellbinders! You can find my post & project from the first Spellbinders hop HERE. You should have come to me from Melanie Muenchinger's blog, if not, or if you would like to start from the beginning of the hop, you can find a full list of participants at the bottom of this post or at Stamp TV. (Click on any photo for a larger view) I love all of the different shapes of Spellbinders dies – makes it very easy to choose just the right shape you need for a project. For this window card, I chose the different, new shape of the Labels Twenty-One die to cut a window in the front of my card, revealing the pretty floral image I stamped inside: I chose... Read more →

Book Giveaway Winner & Reminder

Announcing the winner of Marianne Walker's Shadows & Shading book giveaway from my blog. Random.org chose #170: . . . . . . Who is: 170 - Carole (FibreJunky) said... "Wait a sec...you didn't remake the card? That's the original card just adjusted with Copics???? Well knock me over with a feather." Congratulations, Carole! Please email me with your mailing address and we'll send your book on its way to you! I also wanted to remind everyone that you have until this coming Thursday, March 31 at 8am Central to enter the current JustRite Stampers Friday Challenge, which is An Act of Kindness -- either to make some kind of gift or card to give someone, telling them how much you appreciate them OR to make a thank you card thanking someone else for a random act of kindness! This is the pretty label I created for a vase of flowers (colored with Copics, of course!), thanking someone for cheering my day. You can find all the details about my project and the challenge HERE. We hope you'll join us! I'll be back tomorrow morning, along with a bunch of the Gina K Designers, for another Spellbinders Thank You Blog... Read more →

Copic Team Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Hello and welcome to a Copic team blog hop and giveaway! Marianne Walker’s Shadows & Shading book is now available at many of your favorite retailers (I know Ellen Huston currently has them in stock, HERE) so the Copic team wanted to offer a chance to WIN a copy for yourself! Marianne’s new book, Shadows and Shading, is great for beginners, either papercrafters or artists. This is the reference book you have been looking for to help you add shadows to give your projects more dimension. The book does not teach you to draw, rather it helps you add shadows and shading to your artwork, for a more realistic look. This is a wire-bound book that comes with 4 clear printed guides to help you add shadows properly on your own work. It is not Copic-specific; rather, it is filled with principles that can be used by people who love Copic markers, or people who can't imagine coloring with anything other than their colored pencils, or people who wouldn't dream of using a medium other than watercolors. Seriously, it's good stuff! So far, the people who have read it love it! There's a lot to digest, so take it slow... Read more →

Gina K Designs New Stamp TV Kit Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Gina K. Designs March Release Inspiration Hop 4! Today we are sharing with you the new Stamp TV Kit that was released last Thursday night and is currently available in the Gina K Designs store, Springtime Silhouettes! This kit is GORGEOUS and has a style for everyone! I know I'll use all of these beautiful images . . . here's just the first of many projects I'll be making with this HUGE kit: I thought this might make a nice anniversary card for my husband in a few months, so I chose more masculine colors and embellishments. For the pretty flower stamped image, I used Memento markers to ink the image, spritzed it with a little water, and then stamped onto some patterned paper. It's so quick and easy to get a great multi-colored stamped image this way! I added this beautiful sentiment (love the fonts!), distressed the edges and then machine stitched it to a red cardstock mat. I used Clear Copic Atyou Spica Glitter Pen to accent the red flowers and the embossing on the black Spellbinders Floral Doily Accents border strip -- hopefully you can see that pretty shimmer in the photo above (you... Read more →

GKD March Inspiration Release Blog Hop 3

Welcome to the Gina K. Designs March Release Inspiration Hop 3! Today we are sharing with you three of the stamp sets that were released last Thursday night and are currently available in the Gina K Designs store: Perfect Pennants, Cute As A Bug, and Lovely Labels 3. . . . . . . . . . . Perfect Pennants, illustrated by Tami Mayberry - This wonderful on-trend pennant set has it all: geometrics, classic shapes & stripes, pretty florals AND they coordinate with Spellbinders new Nested Pennant Dies! (Click on any photo for a larger view) I jazzed up this cute little zebra striped gift bag/box (from Hobby Lobby, I believe) by making the coordinating pennant accents for it. After stamping the largest pennant stamps from this set with Rhubarb Stalk and Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto Gina K Designs Pure Luxury 120 lb. Heavy Base Weight White cardstock, I die cut them using Spellbinders Nested Pennants dies (these should be available soon in Gina’s store!). Next, I backed each pennant with black and red cardstock die cut with the coordinating Nested Lacey Pennants. The number “9” is from a set of numbers that are in this set –... Read more →

GKD March Release Blog Hop 2

Welcome to the Gina K. Designs March Release Inspiration Hop 2! Today we are sharing with you three of the stamp sets that were released last Thursday night and are currently available in the Gina K Designs store: Bring The Bling, Warm With Love, and Make A Splash! Bring The Bling, illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger -- While this set makes fabulous guides to place your own gemstones, pearls, liquid pearls or glittery dots, I thought it would also make great piercing or stitching guides, so here’s what I did with it: I lined up all three separate stamps I wanted to use on an acrylic block and inked them with Memento Desert Sand and Tuxedo Black inks, then stamped them onto GKD Pure Luxury 120 lb. heavy base weight Ivory cardstock and pierced holes in all of the dots: This would be a great look in itself, but I decided to use the holes as an embroidery guide and did some simple straight stitching and French knots with green and pink embroidery thread: The images were die cut with Spellbinders Long Classic Rectangle Megabilities (before stitching!), layered onto a black mat, and then adhered to a rose card base made... Read more →

Copic Hand-Dyed Ribbon

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MY GINA K DESIGNS MARCH RELEASE BLOG HOP POST, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT POST. THANKS! A few of you asked about how I hand-dyed the seam binding ribbon with Copic Various Ink Refills, that I used on the card/post below this one so I thought I would give you a quick tutorial. 1. Start with white ribbon or seam binding (this is why I always keep white of everything on hand!). Place it in a snack sized ziplock bag. After I use a bag, I mark it with the color family, so I can just reuse it again the next time I need ribbon in that color family. You can certainly use a fresh bag each time, if you wish: 2. Place a few drops of your LIGHTEST Copic Various Ink Refill color (here I'm using R83) onto different spots on the ribbon. I only used about 3 or 4 drops on this amount of ribbon (about 16", which is enough for at least one card). I usually don't bother to zip the bag closed, but you can if you wish. Working quickly (because remember the Copic Various ink is alcohol based and... Read more →

GKD March Release Inspiration Blog Hop 1

Welcome to the Gina K. Designs March Release Inspiration Hop! Today we are excited to share with you two of the stamp sets released last night and they are both FREE! The new “Free With 3” Stenciled Silhouettes and a darling 2nd Anniversary set: free with $35 or more purchase until April 15, Celebrate In Style. Stenciled Silhouettes - Purchase any three stamp sets and you will receive this month's One Free with 3 stamp set (a $19.95 value)! I used one of the three floral stamps from this set, for this card: I was going for a "chalkboard" look -- I thought it would look great with the stenciled style of this set! I placed both the flower and sentiment stamps onto an acrylic block together, and stamped them with white pigment ink onto an Inchie Arts Black Twinchie Square. Something I had been wanting to try with the Inchie matboard squares is to stitch on them, so I started by piercing holes in the Twinchie: And then just hand stitched red thread through the holes! Celebrate In Style is Gina K Designs' 2nd Anniversary stamp set duo. It’s yours free with any $35.00 or more purchase! I love... Read more →

Copic Updates-Workdesk Wednesday

I have a few Copic updates for you today . . . and here's what's on my Workdesk Wednesday! First -- I'm very excited to finally have these in my studio ... the new 2011 Copic Sketch colors and Marianne Walker's (Copic's Product Specialist) Shadows & Shading - A Beginner's Guide to Lighting Placement: I can't wait to play with those new colors! If you haven't been able to find them yet, I know Ellen has received her second shipment of them -- you can find them in her store HERE. A lot of you have asked how and when you could get Marianne's Guide. They are in stock at the Copic warehouse and your local Copic retailer can order them for you, or I know Ellen also currently has a supply of them HERE. Some of the material in this book is covered in the Intermediate Copic Certification class, so I can't wait to read it and refresh my memory! It also includes four clear placement guides that help you with the proper placement of shadows. I'll be showing you some tips with those over the next few weeks. Second -- I also wanted to let you know new... Read more →

JustRite Birthday Blog Hop!

The JustRite designers have planned a sneaky surprise cyber birthday celebration today for our fearless Design Team Coordinator and fabulous Product Development Director Kellie Fortin . . . happy birthday, Kellie! For this grand 5.50" round scalloped birthday card made from Spellbinders Grand Big Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, I used JustRite's 3-1/4" Birthday Celebrations and colored the center with a little Copic R27 marker to tie it to the red in the Cosmo Cricket Circa patterned papers I used. The red stamped border/layer under the red Spellbinders Floral Doily Motifs die cut is also from this set. It is accented with black gemstones. I don't know about you, but I didn't have black gemstones in my stash, so I used my Black 100 Copic marker to make some: A little bit of machine stitching and buttons finished the card. You can visit each of these designers’ blogs today, to see the lovely birthday creations they have prepared for Kellie: Angela Barkhouse Barb Schram Becca Feeken Heidi Blankenship Kathy Jones Kazan Clark Michele Kovack Sankari Wegman Sharon Harnist < You are here! Please feel free to leave birthday wishes for Kellie today over at the JustRite blog! We all wish you a... Read more →

Spellbinders Thank You Blog Hop with GKD!

The Gina K Designs team would like to welcome you to this special Spellbinders Thank You Blog Hop! Recently Spellbinders generously gifted each member of our Design Team with the amazing new Grand Calibur die cutting machine! What an exciting gift and we are absolutely enjoying this fabulous machine! We have made some special cards and projects to showcase the new Grand Calibur and why we are loving it so much! Thank you so very much Spellbinders! You should have come to me from Nina Brackett’s blog on the hop -– if so, you are on the right track. If not, you can start from the beginning of the hop and see the full list of design team hoppers at Stamp TV or Gina's blog. My project today is a Spring thank you card with a little bit different fold that I created with Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Square Nestabilities die #3 which measures 5.50” square. I began by die cutting Gina K Designs Kraft cardstock: I love that I can cut all the pieces I need for a project at one time on an 8.5" x 11" piece of cardstock with Spellbinders Grand Calibur machine! After die cutting, I scored... Read more →

Copic Colorless Blender Bleaching

Today’s tutorial on Splitcoaststampers was written by my awesome Copic team mate Colleen Schaan. It’s a great way to use the Copic Airbrush System and Colorless Blender solution for a bleached out look! You can follow the step-by-step tutorial linked above; here are a few details about how I made my Mother's Day tag: For my sample I started with Glossy White cardstock and airbrushed my layers of color in this order: R83, R85, and R89. Using a chunkier bold/solid stamp will yield some fabulous two and three-tones of colors (you can see a whole gallery of samples HERE), but I was also pleased with the outcome of these more detailed floral stamps (Hero Arts Layered Flowers)! After airbrushing, I spritzed the stamp with Copic Colorless Blender and then quickly stamped onto my airbrushed cardstock. The Hero Arts Celebrate Everyday Mother's Day sentiment was also stamped onto glossy cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then airbrushed with my lightest R83 marker. I tried different combinations of colored and black Memento ink and airbrushing both first and over the stamped ink, but this is the combination that worked best for me. Stamping with colored sometimes smeared both before and after... Read more →

Charmed JustRite Birthday

This week's JustRite Friday Challenge was posted today and we hope you'll join us and try out making your own envelope and card with a birthday or Spring theme OR birthday or Spring gift packaging, using scoring! Here's my sample I created for the challenge -- a square birthday card and hand-made square envelope! My 5-inch envelope was made using these instructions from Scor-Pal's site. It was super simple -- just four score lines, trim out where the score lines meet, fold up and secure with tape! Since I used double-sided thick paper, the inside of the envelope is also pretty! I gave the envelope a "To and From" tag, created using JustRite's new Charmed cling stamp set and coordinating custom Charm dies! The dies are co-branded and made by Spellbinders and will be shipping around March 25th. I attached the tag to the center of a tissue paper flower I made using Spellbinders Dahlia die set. You can find the full instructions for making one of these flowers HERE at Splitcoaststampers. My 4.50" square scalloped card was made with Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Square Nestabilities die (smallest in the set) and Grand Calibur machine: I machine stitched around the edges... Read more →

Copic Airbrushed Direct To Rubber Technique

I have a fun Copic background technique to share with you today, using a solid stamp and your Copic Airbrush System! (Stamps by Hero Arts) I love the rain or water-like effect this background ended up having! I hope you'll join me over at Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom for all the details on how to create this awesome background! Stamps: Hero Arts Cling: Large Blossom & Clear Design: Find Joy, Paper: Copic X-Press It Blending Card; Memory Box Sunflower cardstock & Ocean notecard OR Cardstock Collection: Summer Brights, Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers: B23, V0000, V12, V15, V17, G21, G24, G28, Y21, Colorless Blender Solution, Lemon Atyou Spica Glitter Pen, Tools: Copic Airbursh System-1, Sparmax Windstorm Air Compressor, Accessories: Ranger Mini Mister, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares, Read more →