Our Newest Design Team Members!

Design Team calls at Gingersnap Creations are always tough on the Creative Team as we have to choose from so many talented and inspiring artists. What makes it even tougher is that very few of our Gingers leave us each term. For this call, we only had 2 design team spots available and 2 contributing artist spots.

Before I introduce our newest members, I would like to make mention of our fabulous returning design team members, The Incredible Gingers!

We are welcoming back Annette Goatley, Helene Huber, Jules Eickmeier, Lucy Edmondson, Petra Berendsen, Penny Bennington, and Stephanie Severin back for their second term of art and inspiration.

Linda Ledbetter and Suzanne Brookfield will be starting their third term with us and we can't wait to see what they have in store for us for the next 6 months.

We are blessed to still have 4 of the original Gingers from our very first design team call when we put together a team of 9. As creative as when they first started, we welcome back the Charter Members of the design team - Jean Franks Beck, Joanne Wardle and Laura Liddell. Debby Boltman is on sabbatical at the moment, taking a much deserved break, but she'll be back to delight us all in October.

So who's joining us now? Please give a big Gingersnapper welcome to our two newest Gingers! We'll let them introduce themselves and their art. As with all new team members, we asked our newest additions to create a Gingery creation!

Gerri Herbst

Hello there! My name is Gerri Herbst and I live in the “wilds of New Jersey, USA”. Ever since I was a little girl, I have had some type of “art” project on the kitchen table. I used to spend more time making the covers for school reports, then the reports themselves!

I have been married for 25 great years to my dear, loving husband. We have a daughter in college, who is the light of our lives. My family is artistic too by painting, drawing, taking photos, cooking up a storm and building things. I started making cards a number of years ago and send out 200 unique cards or collages each year. I also dabble in jewelry, watercolor painting and floral arranging. My style is definitely vintage inspired. In my pieces, there are lots of sparkly bits, shiny paper, vintage images and word snippets. I believe vintage images hold a special story and it’s up to us to listen closely, so we can bring them to life. I’ve been blogging for 6 months and have really enjoying sharing, connecting and seeing others creations. You can see my work at my blog “Its All Treasure” .

This is my first Design team position, ever! I am giddy with excitement to have been honored to be part of this delightful Ginger team. I look forward to our time laughing, learning and sharing all our artistic treasures here at Gingersnap Creations.

Here is Gerri's introductory Ginger piece:

Trisha Neal

I'm Trisha (also known as "trisha too" in the blogosphere) and I have a love of all things all things art, and am happiest with my hands covered in paint, ink, or dye. I've been published in Altered Arts, Scrap N' Stamp, and Somerset Studio. I also design for Altered Pages, where I create mixed media art kits and write project tutorials.

Here is Trisha's introductory Ginger piece:


Also, joining the Gingersnap Creations team are two talented women who will fill the positions of our Contributing Artists, delighting our readers with fabulous tutorials and projects over the next 6 months. Take a moment to meet these fabulous papercrafters!

Alexa Noble

I live in Poole, Dorset which is a beautiful area and provides a lot of my inspiration. I have always loved art and been addicted to papers and art supplies since I was small. I have been scrapbooking for around 2 years and I take part in local scrapping groups.

I love vintage and grunge and anything with birds, nests, clocks, crowns and hearts. I love experimenting with new techniques and as time goes on, I'm drawn to the more messier techniques of inks, pastels and paints. I love stamping, embossing and playing with UTEE. Gingersnap is my first Design Team post.

Here is Alexa's introductory piece:

Deb Corder

I've always enjoyed being creative. In the beginning (and for 25 years after that) I was a needle worker. I owned a needlework shop in Colorado Springs for several years. But after closing the store, I needed a new creative outlet. I moved to paper - mostly cards & tags - but occasional scrapbooks. My style is mixed. I love quick & cute, grungy & old, and over-done & elegant. I live in the mountains west of Colorado Springs with my “green” cat, Edgar ELLEN Poe. Poe was a rescue cat I “recycled” last Halloween weekend (hence the name). During the day I’m a software developer, but at night I get inky!

Here is Deb's Gingery piece:


We are all looking forward to another 6 months of fabulous papercrafting fun and can't wait to see what our newest Gingers create and share!

Helene Huber: Rubber Band Stencils

In keeping with this month's theme, World of Work, I took rubber bands (a common office supply) and used them as a stencil with various mists.

You'll see I used several sheets of thick cardboard with my paper so that the rubber bands would stay taut, preventing the mist from getting underneath them. Since we also worked on Zentangle this month, my first rubber band design was an extremely simple tangle.

I placed this inside a box and sprayed into the box. On this one I used a two step mist, Adirondack Butterscotch Color Wash, followed by Perfect Pearls Sunflower Sparkle. I'm kind of a splotchy mister, but I like the effect. After the mists dried, I removed the rubber bands to reveal my pattern.

This is the finished card: (Stampabilities Floral Stem stamp, Maya Road gem flowers, Red Lead Paperworks angel from collage sheet, gold scrap).

Here is a second card I made with a different pattern of rubber band stencils. On this one I used Maya Mist in Purple Mist that already had gold flecks in the spray. This office supply card features Petaloo flowers, paper clips, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels, and a Stampin' Up sentiment from their Office Accoutrement set.

Fond Farewell to Jo Capper-Sandon

An original Ginger through and through, Jo has been with Gingersnap Creations since our first Design Team Call. While we are overjoyed at all her amazing achievements these past 18 months, we are also heavy in heart knowing that her time with us has come to a close.

Jo has such an amazing talent, it practically explodes off the page. Her style is fresh and sophisticated with a touch of humor and whimsey thrown in. If you haven't seen her fabulous line of stamps at Stampotique Originals, do hop over and have a look! They are incredible!

I could try and explain Jo's wonderful designs but words don't do them justice so I'll just show you instead with a slide show of her work on Gingersnap Creations!

You can always see Jo's fantastic art on her blog, the aptly named Jo Blogs.

We wish Jo every success in the future and we also hope that she drops by once in awhile as she will be much missed!

Gild Your Doodles by Joanne Wardle

There are lots of ways to add a metallic finish to your artwork, amongst these is gilding. Gilding can be obtained in leaf form or as, the much more cost effective version, flakes. These can be applied with any adhesive that isn't "wet", such as double sides adhesive, xyron, size, and two way glues such as the Quickie Glue pen by Sakura, these 2way adhesives go on wet (and if used immediately are permanent or if allowed to dry become a repositionable adhesive perfect for attaching gilding.)

The quickie glue pen goes on blue so you can see where you are putting it, and when it turns clear, it is no longer wet and you can attach your gilding.

The fine nib of the quickie glue pen gives you the freedom to gild your doodles,

For example, you've made a simple ATC, and it needs "something".

you will need, gilding flakes (it's always best to transfer them from the pot they came in to a larger airtight box. Be aware that they can be very floaty, so they can easily escape with a stray cough or sneeze.), quickie glue pen and a brush (as stiff as you can find) or texture sponge

Here I doodled a few lines in the corners

I allowed it to dry and then placed in my tub of copper gilding flakes. brush the flakes onto the glue until it has attached and then brush off,
be firm with you brushing, the more you brush off, the shinier it will be.




I also repeated this on white card (it's really hard to photograph the lines)


and here's the effect.

I had a further play on this piece and doodled a zentangle heart with the glue pen, and foiled as before.


one of the great benefits of this technique is that you can keep adding to it.

I missed a bit of foiling at the base of the card, so I just repeated.


I further played with this piece and inked it up with a blending tool. The foiling acted as a resist. However repeated rubbing did start to remove some of the foiling.


I also overstamped, and again the foil acted as a resist.


All of the stamps I used are from Scrolls Work and are also available from Happy daze in the UK
The gilding flakes are by Crafty notions


I hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial, and I look forward to seeing your gilded doodles.

Joanne

Fond Farewell to Dan

After a year of great makes, it's time to say a fond farewell to Dan who is moving on to do other creative endeavors in papercraft.

Dan's wonderful style is unmistakable and his great take on challenges was inspirational.

Please see the slide show below for a retrospective of his work with the Gingers:

To keep current with all Dan's great art, check out his blog My Crafty Life.

We wish Dan a world filled with fun and ink and we can't wait to see what new and inventive art pieces he will create in the future! Thanks for being a Ginger this past year, Dan!

Gingersnapper Spirit Blog Hop

Visit all the blogs of our Gingersnappers participating in our Gingersnapper Spirit Blog Hop! Please be patient for the first day as we have players from all over the globe so there may be some time zone delays.


Each Gingersnapper aka members of our Yahoo Group has created a special piece for our 3rd Annual Copper, Ginger or Rust Challenge!

1. BastelMania

2. LOTSA SCRAP

3. Gott Heart Art

4. This Little Place

5. Ill Tempered Ink

6. Stampin Up Roses

7. Suz's Stamping Story

8. As Happy As

9. Sharon's Showcase

10. A Penny for Your Thoughts

11. Wishin' I Knew How to Blog

12. Kunterbunt Cottage

13. Ingenious Inkling

14. Just Jingle

Follow along from link to link and get into the Gingersnapper Spirit!

Wrap-Up - GC92: Jewel Colors plus Gold

We had a lot of jewels in the mix this time. Thanks to all who played! Your art was stunning and very creative. We loved all the different uses of this color combination!

The randomly drawn Home Page Artist this week is

Ellie Knol
of
Ellie's Creahoekje

Congratulations, Ellie. Your artwork will be showcased on the Home Page of the Gingersnap Creations Yahoo Group as well as on the sidebar on the blog.

Now onto our fabulous Ginger Gems. When each challenge closes, we also pick 10 Ginger Gems - fabulous creations that we feel really exemplify that challenge's objective. The Ginger Gems appear in a slide show in the blog sidebar for the entire week, as well as in this wrap-up post, and their creators have the honor of displaying this Ginger Gems blog badge.


For more information about Ginger Gems and entering our challenges, please visit the FAQ page.

Our Glittering
Ginger Gems

Artwork by Jane


Artwork by Daniele


Artwork by Vada


Artwork by Diane


Artwork by Chris


Artwork by Juliet A


Artwork by Stamper Sue


Artwork by Teri Sherman


Artwork by Zoechaos



Artwork by Fiona


Special Guests


Artwork by Jingle
March Muse 2011


Artwork by Gerri Herbst
Visiting Artist March 2011


Artwork by Stephanie Severin
Active Ginger

Congratulations to all our Ginger Gems this week! We hope you take a minute to stop by their blogs.

Come by tomorrow for a new Color Challenge.

Saying Goodbye to Jennie!

We were very privileged to have such a wonderfully creative artist as Jennie as a Contributing Artist this past year! A fabulously talented lady, Jennie owns the Artistic Stamper and teaches very sought-after mixed media classes. If you want to find out more about Jennie, check out the interview we conducted with her back in 2010.

We want to thank Jennie for all her wonderful tutorials over the last year. Her ability to create exciting and fun projects is limitless and her amazing instructions and handy tips are priceless.

Here are some of the wonderful projects that she shared with us:

You can revisit all Jennie's wonderful Gingersnap Creations tutorials by clicking on her label on the sidebar and you can see her new art on The Artistic Stamper blog.

Don't forget to drop by her store also named The Artistic Stamper. It has a wonderful selection of wonderful stamps and supplies!

Thank you for sharing your creative process with us all, Jennie!

Jennifer Ingle: Hop! Hop! Hop! A Mixed Media Pillow Hanging

Ah, yes. It's me, Jingle. Again. Yup. Comin' at ya with another fun tutorial. AND....since we started talking about this whole world of work thing, I've just been reminded how much work makes me need a nap! HA! SO, alas, we shall create a cute little pillow wall hanging today by stamping on fabric and basically creating cuteness! K? K. Let's get started!


For starters, you will need a couple pieces of muslin slightly larger than the image you wish to stamp and then one colored print for the edge accent. Mine is a Samantha Walker fabric. You also need an ink that will stamp well on fabric, I went with Momento Desert Sand. And, of course, a stamp of choice! I used a super fun giant rabbit couple from 100 Proof Press!


Begin by stamping you image clearly on one panel of muslin.

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Next, create a fabric sandwich with one piece of muslin on the back, then your colored fabric, then your batting, and then your stamped image muslin. I chose this order so the colored fabric would not show through the top layer behind my image.


Pin the edges of your fabric sandwich to make the stitching easier.


Hand stitch all the way around the image with a contrasting thread color. Once you have finished the stitching you can trim the fabric edges with pinking shears to the width you like.


Using Tim Holtz Distress Ink add ink all around the edges to darken them up a bit.


Now comes the fun part! Add whatever embellishments strike your fancy! I chose a Tim Holtz pin, a couple of ribbon bows, and some Maya Road pins, along with some metal letters.


Stitch a ribbon to the back for hanging.


And there you have a fun little hanging piece! No, I guess it won't work so well for that after work nap, but still. It's fun. Just say'n.