Thank You, Spellbinders!

The Gina K design team would like to welcome you to this special "thank you, Spellbinders" blog hop!  Recently Spellbinders gave each member of our team the amazing new Grand Calibur....what an exciting gift!  We each love having this "Cadillac" of the die cutting machines to use for our projects and want to show our appreciation by sharing some projects that showcase the features of this fabulous tool!

You should have arrived here from the amazing Colleen Schaan's!

As I have mentioned before, the Grand Calibur makes die-cutting a breeze because it makes such clean cuts and beautifully embossed details!  I love that it will cut multiple shapes in one pass or, using the larger dies, cut a unique shape for a card that transcends the standard A2!  It's not only great for those special cards...those qualities make it great for batch card-making or special occasions, but it is great for a CAS "everyday" card too!

For today's card, I used one of the beautiful impressabilities to emboss a subtle background on a layer of ivory card stock.  I inked the edges with distress ink and popped it up on dimensional foam on a black onyx card base, adding a favorite sentiment from Nina's Elegant Verses and a beautiful bird from the current StampTV kit, Springtime Silhouettes.  I used a long rectangle to cut and emboss the sentiment, inking it before removing it from the die.  I love the simple yet elegant look of that clean border!  A bow of sheer, gold-edged black ribbon provides the only embellishment.  I kept trying to add pearl or rhinestone swirls, flowers, etc., but in this case, less was truly more and so I left it as is.

Notes:
Pure Luxury card stock in ivory and  black onyx
Elegant Verses
Springtime Silhouettes
Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Tim Holtz tea dye distress ink
Spellbinders' Impressabilities
Spellbinders' Nestabilities long rectangle
gold-edged black ribbon
pop dots

And now you're headed to the talented Emily's!

Thank You, Spellbinders!

The Gina K Designs team would like to welcome to you this special Spellbinders Thank You Blog Hop!!  Spellbinders generously gave each member of our Design Team the amazing new Grand Calibur!!!  What an exciting gift!  It was really hard to keep quiet about it until now (I actually squealed when I opened it!), but the time has finally come to publicly/collectively say "thank you!"   I am SO enjoying this fabulous machine!!

Our GKD design team has made some special cards and projects to showcase the new Grand Calibur and why we love it so much!!  Thank you so very much, Spellbinders!!!

You should have arrived from Cat's blog!  If you arrived from elsewhere, you might want to head to AJ's to start at the top!

It's hard to know where to start when it comes to sharing the wonderful things about the Grand Calibur!  I love that it is wide enough to accommodate Spellbinders' larger "grand" dies for making non-traditional shaped cards or for scrapbooking, but that is not my favorite thing about it.  I *love* the deep etching of the embossing it makes and that you can cut multiple dies in one pass on its larger cutting surface.  Crisp, clean edges and the time-savings are high on my list, something that matters on an everyday basis when I'm in the studio on a tight timeline.  I can hardly wait to get my order of new dies!  I've had a growing wishlist for a while, but soon it is gonna be reality!  :)

Our theme for today's hop is Spring, and Melanie's Spring Basket provided the perfect Spring image!  When I was growing up my mom had lots of day lilies in our yard, so this basket of tulips and lilies makes me smile!  I wanted the colors to represent the warm sunshine and lovely emerging greens of Spring, so I reached for some coral, golden yellow, and various green Copic markers along with a warm and elegant print from Basic Grey's Curio 6 x 6 designer paper.

I used a few favorites from Spellbinders along with a new border that a dear friend gave to me just because!  Thank you so much!  I am so grateful!  xoxo

Notes:
Spring Basket, Lovely Shelf (sentiment)

Pure Luxury Card Stock in Fresh Asparagus, Sweet Corn, Wine with Everything, Ivory

Basic Grey Curio designer paper

Memento ink

Tim Holtz distress ink in tea dye, tattered rose

Copic markers

Basic Grey rhinestones

Spellbinders

• classic circles
• eyelet circles
• fancy tags
• long rectangles
• banner basics 2, which recently debuted at Winter CHA in Los Angeles

I am looking forward to seeing you again soon!  Release Party is Thursday, so hopefully I'll see you there!  Right now, you're headed to Donna's!  Enjoy!

Just Ducky!

Hello friends! I'm excited to show you another adorable 2RedBananas set today! I just love this cute little fella from Abbey Westemeyer's new set, Just Ducky...he makes me smile because puddles are like a boy magnet no matter how old my Matthew is! Gotta love it!

To me, this little guy just screams Spring! I wanted to stamp him in bright fun colors, so I grabbed for my baby oil and prismas in rainbow colors after stamping him in Memento tuxedo black. I went over the umbrella, raindrops and puddle with a Copic At You Spica glitter pen. (I got a new packet of markers this weekend at the Copic certification class, and learned that At You Spica translated from Japanese into English means something like, *WOW, stars!* In the close-up shot you can see why!)

The designer paper I used is the flip side of Imaginisce's Hot Chicks...the yellow of the print matches the duck almost perfectly. I popped a couple of bright orange buttons on top of some spring green flowers and gave them little knots of yellow crinkle ribbon. I love the contrast of the pale and bright against the real red card base. I hope you like it too! Be sure to check out the preview that Jeanette made on the 2RedBananas blog, and Wendy's too! It's kinda funny...this set has several images but we all chose the same one!

I'd like to say thanks to all of you who were praying for me and my Spellbinders' submission! I am sad that I didn't make the final cut, but as I said before, I am thrilled to have made the top 24 and my prayer was that what was best for me would be what would happen. So I'm taking a deep breath and believing that this year will still be filled with good things and lots of fun opportunities! Hugs to my friend Kelly who also waited and didn't get a call, and congrats to Karen! We're so proud of you!

News!

I have been working on cards for some up-coming design team requirements, so nothing to show you YET! I do have some news though, that I'm very excited to share!

First, I have been blessed with a beautiful blog award from Cassie! Thank you so much! It is a privilege and an honor! I am humbled, and am so very grateful! There are sooo many awesome blogs out there that it is nearly impossible for me to choose among them to pass this along!

AND my other news!!!!---I have been chosen for the Spellbinders' Top 24! I am so *beyond* excited to have been selected to compete in the final phase of selection for their 2009 design team.

I prayed long and hard before submitting for this team because it is a big commitment. Finally I got to the point where I felt I should submit my best and let God take care of the rest. I submitted my projects with two hours left until the deadline.

Today, after receiving the news, my prayer is the same! If I make it, so be it. If not, Amen to that too! Please whisper a prayer for me! I believe that all creativity comes from God and I pray that He'll use me for His glory, come what may!

To make it even sweeter...my friends Karen and Kelly both made the top 24 also! I'm so excited that we could all end up on a team together!