Gina K Designs Wreath Builder in Rectangle Orientation

Hello everyone!  I am here sharing a post using the Gina K Designs Wreath Builder Templates with a variety of Gina K Designs Stamps in a slightly different way than the traditional 4 x 4 square orientation.  Not long ago, I got the new Stamp TV Kit, "Fruits of the Season" and at the same time, I was able to get the Autumn and Holiday Wreath Builder Stamp Sets.  I've been having so much fun playing and I posted 7 different cards in the Gina K Designs and Stamp TV Facebook Group.  I got a ton of questions about how I did this rectangular card, so I have a full photo tutorial about how I did it.  Fair Warning: This is going to be a photo heavy post.  This particular technique I learned from Gina's Stamp TV YouTube Video that she had done when the Autumn Wreath Builder came out so using that as my guide, I made a few modifications to be able to use a few larger images to build my wreath so that my front panel is a full rectangle rather than the square format of the templates.  You will use the templates for the top and bottom corners but use the MISTI in the normal way to do the center parts.  You still use the Wreath Build Templates to do it, so no worries!  I took photos all along the way to show you how I do it.

The first thing I did was to pull the holly leaves from last year's Merry & Bright Stamp Set.  The kit is no longer available, but the stamps and dies are.  I'll have them linked below for your convenience.  Because this particular stamp is the size I want, I carefully cut between the leaves and the berries so I would be able to stamp in a different color, just be careful not to damage either piece of the Photopolymer.  

Start by cutting your cardstock to 4 x 5.25 inches so that it will still work with the 4-inch template.  If you haven't gotten the templates you can find them here.  They are pure genius, and you can use them with any stamps you have!  I only discovered Gina K about one year ago, but I am slowly accumulating several of her sets.  Also, with one exception, all the inks I am using today are Gina K Inks and the colors will be listed as I go along and included in the supply list below.  

To start, put your cardstock in the top vertical square orientation.  I like to use the heavy base weight card stock for this.  The end will hang out of the MISTI, but that's no big deal,   If you want to make sure the wreath goes all the way around, it's important to start in the square orientation rather than the diamond orientation. Because the Holly stamp is quite a bit larger than most of the wreath builder images, I do it first and then make the other things fit in with it.  

Place your stamp in the top left corner and stamp it.  I used Fresh Asparagus Ink and I like to double stamp it since it's in the Misti.  Before moving your cardstock, take a little finger dauber and put some darker green at the base of the leaves and soften it going about 2/3rds of the way up the Holly leaves.  I used another Pine colored Ink because I don't have the Gina K Designs Christmas Pine Ink yet.  I also feel like the Dark Sage Ink would work really well, but I don't have that one yet either.  I buy Ink Cubes almost exclusively because I can afford them faster and with large pads, I just seem to drop them on my cardstock about every time.  Since I have MS, my balance and coordination aren't the best.  Once I get all the ink cubes I want, then I buy re-inkers a few at a time.  Gina K Inks are very saturated and stamp incredibly well.  

Before you move on, CLEAN your stamp!  Because I'm using two colors of ink, I don't want any leftover of the 2nd color to get on the lighter ink pad.  So, stamp twice (if that's your preference), sponge on a bit of the darker green then clean your stamp before moving onto the second corner.  Rotate your paper 90 degrees to the left and stamp again repeating adding the darker color at the base of the leaves and moving up.  Once you have those two finished, rotate your paper 180 degrees to get the other two corners.    

Once you do that, you should have a holly in each of the four corners of the cardstock like this image on the right.  

For our next step, leaving the template in place (I use Temporary Adhesive on the corners of mine to keep it in place).  Put your cardstock into the corner like this.  Not in the corner of the template, but in the corner of the MISTI.  Now I should probably mention that I use my MISTI like a left-handed person even though I am not a lefty.  This is because Yana Smakula is the first person I saw using a MISTI and she is a lefty so that's how I use mine.  It was about a year before someone asked if I was a lefty and I realized I was using my MISTI like I was one.  Ü *Wink*

I might also mention here, that I use little silicone rubber feet on the door of my Misti so that when I set the door down, there is still a way for me to pick it up without having masking tape all over it for little handles.  I have a lot of glass surfaces in my house, so I always have different thicknesses of these little feet around.  You can find them on Amazon or sometimes at hardware stores but Amazon is cheaper and easier.  You put them on the outside of the door so that when it's open it has a little space for you to get your fingers under there and grab ahold of the door.  The ones I use are about ¼ inch thick.  I included a picture of one of them close up.  They're clear silicone and they have been a life-saver (or sanity saver as the case may be).

Anyhow, moving on to the next step, place your cardstock all the way to the corner of the Misti (not the template this time) and line up the Holly leaves at the approximate center point of the horizontal orientation.  It doesn't have to be perfect, but in order to leave a good-sized opening for the sentiment, the larger leaf should be placed as close to the edge as possible.  Stamp that the same way in two or three total layers (remember the darker green at the base of the leaves).  Rotate your cardstock panel 180 degrees and stamp again.  You should have something that looks like this.

Next, you want to add the berries.  Since I already have one with Gina K Designs Cherry Red berries, I am going to do something fun and use Plum Punch for my berries today.  The corners are easy to repeat, but you'll have to adjust for the berries on those horizontal holly leaves so stamp the corners first, remembering to start in the vertical square orientation. 

I like to use the three berries from the Holiday Wreath Builder as they are slightly bigger than the ones from the Holly leaves in Merry & Bright Stamp Set.  Once you do the corners, clean your stamp really well and reposition it for the top horizontal berries.  If you don't clean your stamp first, you might get some transfer onto your cardstock before you have it aligned properly (says the voice of experience).  Then stamp again, rotate your cardstock 180 degrees and stamp one more time.  Now your card should look something like this.

Choose your next stamp to fill in and do the exact same rotations as we did for the Holly Leaves; the four corners and then realigning in the MISTI in the horizontal orientation, then rotate 180 degrees for the flip side of that.  I used the small pine branch from the Holiday Wreath Builder.  This gets a little bit trickier so take your time and look before you ink up your stamp to make sure it is aligning how you want it to.  The get all the pine branches I wanted, and to be able to use the little poinsettia flower how I wanted, I like the top and bottom Vertical Center areas blank.

I used the larger poinsettia flower for the top and bottom and then I used the smaller flower for the center sides as you can see in this photo.  I stamped the blooms first in Passionate Pink and then using a finger dauber, sponged a bit of the Plum Punch on each one for a blend of color.  I kind of messed up the one on the right side but since I was planning to die cut the panel I decided to wait and see if it showed once the panel was cut.  Thankfully it did not show or I would have felt the need to start over.

Now we are ready to stamp our sentiment.  I used a greeting from the Gina K Designs Holly Jolly stamp set which is tall and thin so it fits perfectly with the wreath builder stamped in this way.  I heat set the panel just to make sure the inks were all nice and dry and then I used my powder tool to prep the surface of my cardstock.  Then I stamped using Versamark and Gina K Designs Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder.  After heat setting that, I die cut the wreath panel to fit with two mats -- one cut from Gina K Designs Gold Metallic Cardstock and one from Plum Punch Cardstock.

Before adhering to a top folding vertical card base, I added Magenta Stickles to the berries and to the flower centers and set it on my window sill to let it dry overnight.

Depending on the weather outdoors and my flash, the color of the flowers is brighter.  The card above is the view that I feel is the most accurate representation of the actual colors.

A lot of what I did here was just a process of trial and error to find what worked and what didn't so get some scratch paper and practice a few times until you figure out what works for you.

Affiliate Links Used Whenever Possible

Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	GKD Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: GKD	GKD Fresh Asparagus Ink Shop at: SSS | GKD	GKD Gold Metallic Cardstock Shop at: GKD
GKD Heavy Base Weight White Cardstock Shop at: GKD	GKD Holiday Wreath Builder Shop at: GKD	GKD Holly Jolly Stamp Set Shop at: GKD	GKD Merry & Bright Stamp Set Shop at: GKD
GKD Passionate Pink Ink Shop at: SSS | GKD	GKD Plum Punch Cardstock Shop at: GKD	GKD Plum Punch Ink Shop at: SSS | GKD	GKD Wreath Builder Templates Shop at: GKD
Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS

Altenew Educator - In The Mood For Color

Today's post is for the Altenew Educator Certification Program Class "In The Mood For Color" and was about the kind of emotions associated with certain colors.  You can use this as a tool to aid in your card designs.

Blue – Calm, Tranquility; Red – Love, Passion, Energy; Green – Soothing, Growth, Natural; Yellow – Energy, Cheer, Optimism; Pink – Sensitive, Caring, Sweet; Orange – Health, Happiness, Courage; and let's not forget Rainbow – Happy, Cheer, Optimism, Courage, Energy, Growth, etc….  Each day of class featured a specific color with a bonus class at the end for Rainbow.

I ended up making several cards today with a wide variety of supplies in a variety of colors as well.  I was trying to decide what type of card I wanted to make for my project as as I was looking through my stamps I saw that just to the left of me were my Wreath Builder Templates from Gina K Designs.  I then decided that would be a great way to come up with a monochromatic color scheme for a card.

I don't remember where I first heard it or read it, but I did remember hearing someone talk about how you could still use the templates to make an oval shape rather than a circle shape so I went to Gina's YouTube Channel to see what I could find.  It seems like Jennifer McGuire did something similar to this as well although for the first 2 months after our move, I had very limited Internet access, which meant I didn't get to watch too many videos because it would use up all my data.  I did find one where she shows the technique at this link from about a month ago.  I told you . . . I am way behind in my videos!  You don't realize how much you use the Internet until you have to limit what you can look at based on how much data it uses.

For my first card using the wreath builder I chose Altenew Crisp Ink in Blues which was day one of our Class.  I used Galactic Stream for the darkest blue, then Teal Cave, Aqualicious, and Ocean Waves.  I also used Ocean Wave for the Tri-dots.  I didn't have any Nuvo Drops in the right colors so I used Turquoise Stickles for the little Tri-dots and with the Ocean Waves underneath it really helps to add a little depth to the tone of the blue.  The longest image that I started with came from Altenew's Henna Elements Stamp Set.  The little 5 petaled flourish and the tri-dots also came from that set.  The sprig came from the Gina K Wreath Builder Set and the little star shaped flower came from the WPLUS9 Be Merry Florals. I love the way the images all came together at the bottom and made that kind of swirl for the start of my wreath. Once you start looking at what you have it is so easy to see other things you already have that you can use with the wreath builder.  I found so many different things to try and I have a stack of stamp sets still sitting on my desk to try with the Wreath Builder Templates.


Blue is a calming color and in large part that is why I chose a blue based grey for the paint color in my new home.  I have lots of blues throughout and plan to add some soft and mid toned teal in the future in things like pillows or throws, etc.

For my second card, I wanted to play with greens which is also a soothing or calming color.  Our painting is titled "Hawaiian Memories" in honor of a trip that Fayne and I took there way back in 1992. I actually won that trip through my job at the time.  It's got lots of sea blues with teal as well as gold and silver.  You know how I love my gold, but since the fixtures in my house are all Brushed Nickel, I thought we'd better tie that in as well.  You have no idea how hard it was for me not to put gold fixtures in the house but I feel like Brushed Nickel is more timeless.  Let me just say, this painting is very heavy and so large that it requires two of us to move it as well as barely fitting above our mantle.   We had planned to put it on another wall, but changed our minds when we tried it on the wall. 

Anyhow, I liked the first card so much that I decided to try a green version.  I used primarily Altenew Crisp Inks in Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades and Fresh Asparagus from Gina K Designs. Fresh Asparagus is my favorite fall and winter green. When I got it all put together, I liked it a lot and decided to add a holly leaf in each corner with Altenew Evergreen.  The tri-dots were stamped in Ruby Red and I put Christmas Red Stickles over the top of them.  I thought this might be a nice one to send after a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal with family or friends. 

The Sentiment I used for these cards is from the Papertrey 2016 Anniversary set that was only available for that year called Painted Petals.  ON the first card I used some Stampendous Sapphire Blue Embossing Powder and my usual Antique Gold on the 2nd card. I used a panel of Navy Blue Cardstock with a narrow strip of Silver Glitter Paper for the front of the card.  For the second card, I matted it in Antique Gold Vellum.

Then, while I had everything out, I decided to try a more fall or thanksgiving type of card with this technique using some fall themed stamps.  I usually make a few cards for one of my Sisters-In-Law that she sends to all of their Harvest Helpers when Harvest is finished each year.  So while this is only a prototype and there are things I would change (color wise), I like the basic design so I thought I'd still share it with you. 

I used a wheat stalk for the longest/tallest element of this wreath, the little sprig from the Original Wreath Builder Set, the acorns from a Papertrey Set, the leaf and the little flower are from the WPLUS9's Be Merry Florals and Autumn Leaves.  I put little gooseberry type things on the little branch-y sprig because that was all I could think of at the time.  I would definitely change up some of the colors to be deeper and brighter, but as I said, this was just for a prototype to get a feel for whether or not it would work.  Happily, it did.

Whenever I am doing a lot of stamping using multiple colors it seems that's always when I find out I don't have a reinker for some color or other.  It's practically a full time job just keeping track of those things.  I have three brands of ink that I use most of the time which is Gina K Designs, Altenew, and Papertrey Ink. I have quick access to the latter two right on my desk, so those were the colors I used for the Thanksgiving card.  I used Nuvo Drops in Bottle Green for the green berries on this card.  When I get to make more of these, I will actually look up which type of berries are out in the fall and stamp accordingly.  The town near where my Sister in Law lives is Hiawatha, Kansas and is known as the City of Beautiful Maples.  The have the most maples and they come in gorgeous reds and oranges so I would want to use more vibrant colors next time. 

I'm going to wrap up this post so I can move on to my next class which is called "With a Twist".  I hope you enjoyed my projects for this class and will think about trying one of your own.  It was a lot of fun to see how easily these wreaths came together.  Try finding small stamps in your collection to make wreaths with and you'll be surprised at how many you have or you can always buy the Wreather Builder Templates and so far there are three different Wreath Builder Stamps set made for this purpose.  You can check it all out at Gina K Designs here (Affiliate Link).  The templates are now offered separately.  Altenew Products are linked here (Affiliate Link).  Have a great rest of the day everyone!