Remembering Gina K. Favorites Mini Hop: with bonus video

Last week during the mini hop, I promised a video on a watercoloring technique which I have been using with success on recent projects. While I love the cards I see on pinterest with all the bells and whistles, layers and eye catching baubles, I really have a hard time re-creating those in my craft room.  I wanted to get back to the basics of stamping and just create with what I have!  I have a small fortune invested in stamping products, but today's creations will allow you to keep your stamping budget within reason! 

I grabbed one neglected item from my stamping closet - a watercolor brush - to create this technique.  You can use a regular brush or one with the fancy reservoir with water - it doesn't really matter!  There are other items which you need, but certainly can find either in your stampers stash or in your kitchen (reusable craft sheet (Ranger makes one), or even parchment paper, wax paper or large acrylic block). You will also need a spritzing bottle!  You can buy a mini mister (they come in 3 packs) or use an old bottle of hairspray (cleaned out of course). You may want to grab your heat gun, just to speed up the drying process!

Here are some of the projects I created with this technique I call watercolor smash.  For this card I used two colors of pink Gina K. inks and one red.  I also used Gina K. white ink.  The images were stamped on watercolor paper and adhered to a base of Gina K. ivory!

  

The best thing about this technique: you do not need to use watercolor paper! I used Gina K. ivory and white paper on these projects! 

The final project was done with ocean mist and turquoise sea!

Here is the video I made showing how to use your Gina K. image stamps to create this watercolor look! Also, be sure to check out the Spectrum Noir tutorial from Kendra!

Let's see what other projects the design team has in store!

Beth Silaika <you are here>

Cathy Tidwell

Debbie Corbari

Karen Hightower

Kendra Wietstock *Spectrum Noir tutorial*

Tricia Traxler

all items from Gina K. Designs unless otherwise noted

All projects use the Gina K. Fleur De Lis for both images and for sentiments
All projects use Gina K. paper (first project uses a piece of watercolor paper, which is available in most craft stores by the multi-pack). 
All projects use Gina K. inks 
Extra items - sequins, black pearls and crystal gems

Remembering Gina K. Favorites Mini Hop!

Good morning! 

Today some of us from the Gina K. Designs team are showcasing some past favorite sets from Gina K. illustrators Debbie Corbari and Beth Silaika.  Another mini hop to start your Monday right, we hope it inspires!  Grab your cuppa'!  We also have another prize today: the Fleece Navi-Baa stamp set by Debbie Corbari!  So be sure to comment on the blogs as you hop through for more chances to win!  Winner announced Tuesday in the StampTV forum.

Here is a little card I created with Let's Talk by Debbie Corbari! It is super simple, using patterned paper and the colors from the paper. I used a fun angle on the pattern paper layer. Bubble words were stamped and gently trimmed, then adhered with foam dots!

I am also showing you some cards with my Fleur de lis stamp set. I can honestly say that this set has become one of my favorites.  I took a little stamping break, cleaned off my desk and found some supplies which I had not used in a while (watercolor brush). I started playing with the set and created some cards which I love. Sometimes I am my harshest critic.  I can honestly say I made these cards and I was GRINNING! It has been a LONG time since I have been happy with a

stack of cards.

  

This first flour de lis card was stamped with a pice of ivory base, along with a piece of die cut Gina K. Ivory. This is the key, I stamped the flour de list image with black ink and used clear embossing powder on it immediately, heat set it and it gave a raised embossed look. Then, I used ink pads and a watercolor brush to blend the background. I washed the card with blues and greens (ocean mist, artichoke, turquoise sea) simply picking up the color on the brush.  I added some extra deep color inside the our de lis image. I dried it with my heat gun and then added the sentiment and some gems.

I created the next card the same way, adding embossing powder to the black stamped image to make it slightly raised. I used the watercolor brush to color in the images.  

While the cards are clean & simple, there may be some of you who say that they are techniques that hard to do! Next week the Gina K. Design team will host another mini hop and I will actually share a fun technique which will allow you to use this stamp set to achieve some unique results! 

So dig into your supplies and pull out your watercolor brush! That is all you need! See you Friday!

Now please continue to enjoy the hop and have a fabulous day!

Debbie Corbari

Beth Silaika <= you are here!

Sean Fetterman

Melanie Muenchinger

Laurie Schmidlin

Lee Murphy

all items from Gina K. Designs unless otherwise noted