Tea Party Invitation

It's time for a tea party!  One of my sweet friends asked me to make her daughter's birthday invitations for her 5th birthday.  They were having a pretty shabby chic party and wanted to coordinate the colors and look on the invite.

I pulled out my sweet little Stacked Teacup die from Taylored Expressions along with the Some Like it Hot stamp set for the sentiment.  I love how the invite turned out!

For the inside of the invitation, I used the Little Bits Teacup & Teapot along with the RSVP stamp set & the Eventful - Holidays stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Gina K ~ Festive Foliage Tutorial

Welcome to Monday and the start of the Christmas cardmaking season.  This pretty Christmas set from Gina K Designs is called Festive Foliage by illustrator Claire Brennan.  Below is a tutorial on how I stamped the background with Spectrum Aqua Markers.

Step 1: Using the holly leaf image, color the entire image with the Spectrum Aqua Olive marker.

Step 2: Using the Moss marker, dot the edges of the image.

Step 3: Spray the inked image with a fine mist of water ~ you don't need much.

Step 4: Stamp on watercolor paper.

Step 5: Using a waterbrush, blend the ink colors.

Step 6: Using the Crimson Spectrum Aqua marker, color the berry image.  Then add Wine Red (Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker) to the edge of each berry.

Step 7: Spritz with water & stamp on the holly leaves.

Repeat around the entire card panel for the background & add a stamped sentiment.

Have a wonderful day!

Spring Break 2013 ~ Cafe Du Monde

Hi All... I'm back today with more Project Life pocket pages that I made for our Spring Break 2013 trip.  For these pages, I used the Simple Stories ~ You Are Here Collection, along with some Studio Calico wood embellishments.    Here are my pages from Cafe Du Monde... you can't go to New Orleans without stopping for this deliciously messy visit!

Here are some close up shots of a few pockets :)

I pulled out the typewriter for my journaling

and a second page...

Enjoy your weekend!

Project Life App ~ St. Croix Pages

It's Thanksgiving and I know everyone will be posting fabulous pictures of fall cards & table decor, or food & family gatherings.  Today I decided to post these last few pages from our Spring Break trip 2015 because I am so grateful to this bunch of amazing people and the awesome adventures we have shared together.  To say we love to travel, is probably the understatement of the year.  We travel every chance we get & particularly enjoy going on cruises or RV trips.   We enjoy building memories together as a family through experiences & I will never apologize for the amount of trips we have taken because that's what we enjoy.   

St. Croix is one of our favorite cruise ports & we can't wait to go back and spend a full week there some day so we can explore the island more.

Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you have a blessed day!

Spring Break 2013 ~ City Tour Project Life Inserts

Hi Friends!  As I continue my quest to document more family moments, I've been scrapping up a storm the last 3 weeks.  I'm currently working on pages from our 2013 Spring Break Trip to New Orleans and Caribbean cruise.  I have tons of fun Project Life Pocket Pages and 12x12 layouts to share; however, I have forgotten how long it takes to photograph pages vs. photographing cards, so I've been a little slow getting things up on the blog.

Last week I shared my first two pages from my Spring Break Album, and here are some pocket inserts I made from our first day in New Orleans.  So far, I'm using the You Are Here Collection from Simple Stories for the majority of my pages; however, I have so many fun travel supplies, I've been changing things up a bit here and there.   The dies & stamps I used on these inserts are from Unity Stamp Co, Taylored Expressions & Technique Tuesday.

Here's the full layout

And here's another 12x12 pocket page using the same Simple Stories Collection ~ We Are Here.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great day!

Stamp TV ~ Friday Funday Watercolor Marker Tutorial!

Welcome to the Friday Funday Tutorial this week for Gina K Designs & the Stamp TV Kit Addicts Group!  Today I'm not only sharing a fun watercolor background technique, but also a great way to get more mileage out of your Christmas stamps.    I'm using the Home for the Holidays Stamp TV Kit that comes with this awesome Music Background stamp and the sweet little fairy that is part of the Christmas Magic stamps and dies.  Rather than make a Christmas card, I decided to switch up the sentiment and make it a birthday card while still using the cardstock colors that came with the Stamp TV Kit ~ Turquoise Sea & Jelly Bean Green.

Step 1: Stamp & heat emboss the Music Background Stamp on watercolor cardstock with white ink and white embossing powder.

Step 2: Select a watercolor palette to work with.  I selected several colors of my Spectrum Aqua markers ~ Bud Green, Aquamarine, Kingfisher, Peacock Blue, and Navy.  I added ink from the marker to my watercolor tray.

Step 3: Using a waterbrush, I added a drop of water to each color so it was nice and wet and began adding color to the music background. {sorry about the lighting on the following pictures... didn't notice it until after the card was done.}

Step 4: Keep adding color to the background until you have the desired look.  Then let it air dry, or use a heat gun to speed up the process.

Here's a close up!

Come play along on the Friday Funday Challenge in the Stamp TV Kit Addicts Group!

Have a great weekend!!

Gina K. Designs & CardMaker Blog Hop!

Hello Everyone!!!  Welcome to my little spot on the web as we hop around today for the CardMarker Magazine & Gina K Designs Christmas Blog Hop.  The designers are using the fabulous Stamp TV Kit Christmas Kit called Home for the Holidays!  

I made this adorable little tag trio using the Christmas Magic Stamp & Die sets along with Red Velvet, Turquoise Sea, Jelly Bean Green cardstock and Home For the Holidays Patterned Paper... all from this amazing kit. 

Here's what's included in the Stamp TV Kit

Want to see more?  Of course you do... hop on over to see my teammate Melanie Muenchinger's Blog for the next stop on the hop!  If you get lost along the way, check on the CardMarker Blog for the entire list and don't forget to leave a little love along the way to each designer!

Spring Break 2013... Highlights in NOLA!

As I continue with pages from our Spring Break 2013 trip, it brings me to some of the highlights from our 2 days in New Orleans, LA {NOLA}.  We had gorgeous weather and a fantastic time exploring this beautiful city.  A trip to NOLA would not be complete without a visit to Cafe DuMonde, a horse drawn carriage ride through the French Quarter, or a cemetery tour!  It was a jam packed few days... but what a blast!

I continued using this fabulous You Are Here kit from Simple Stories and typed up/die cut the tabs for each picture.   The word stickers are also from the kit and I added them in an uneven line to hide the edge of the pattern paper because it was a bit crooked... but I love how it turned out.

I love all the bits and pieces in this kit... flowers, pretty patterns, multiple alphabet stickers ~ all so much fun.  In fact, I went and purchased another kit so I could use it in my entire album.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Back to the Books...

 Hi Friends... Sorry I've been so quiet here on the blog lately.  It's been a crazy fall with marching band, but now the season is finished and it's time to refocus my crafty time and get back into my scrapbooks.  While I enjoy making cards {and will continue to make them}, I've decided that I need to spend more time in my photo albums going forward.  I've got tons of albums/piles just waiting to go!  I love getting lost in my photos with pocket page scrapbooks, digital pages from the Project Life App, mini albums and the traditional 12x12 layouts.

Today I'm sharing the cover page of my latest project... Spring Break 2013 using the Simple Stories kit called You are Here.  So far, I am using this kit for most of my pages, which helps me accomplish more pages.  We flew down to New Orleans for a few days and then went on a 7-day cruise to the Western Caribbean.   This page shows a glimpse of the stops we made & the things we did on that trip.  The rest of the album is a combination of 12x12 layouts, pocket/Project Life pages, and 8 1/2" x 11 portrait pages.  In the last few weeks, I have completed about 20 pages in this album & I'm excited to share my layouts with you in the coming weeks.

I did an image search on Google for each of the places we visited and then printed these photos on my printer at home with a white border around each.  I used my typewriter for the labels & then trimmed them out with a tab die from Taylored Expressions.

I love to mix and match the pretty patterned paper from the kit and add stickers, stamping and die cut embellishments to my pages. The postage border & leaf dies are from Taylored Expressions & the stamps for the dates are from Hero Arts.   I also added Kaiser Craft rhinestones to the center of each flower sticker.

Thanks for stopping by today for a little tropical break!
I'll share more very soon...

Project Life: All Dressed Up!

Hi Friends!  I'm back in my books again this week & have some Project Life App pages that I did from our 2015 Spring Break trip.  We always enjoy getting dressed up on the ship and having some family photos taken.  I generally use one or two on our photo Christmas card each year.    

The kids with their uncle and grandparents ~ special memories!

My favorite people!

Thanks for stopping by today!