Gina K July Sketch Challenges

I fianlly got my hands dirty again. This past Saturday, I went to Stamp Works, my local stamping shop, for some motivation and inspiration. Nicolette, the owner of Stamp Works is such a talented lady. I usually do the make n' take from Nicolette every Saturday. Yesterday, I finally clean up my crafting area, but now it is mess again after do last night's cards. While I was cleaning up and going through all my crafting items, I have so much things I hardly even touched. Some things are still seating there in their packages for over a year now. I really need to use up all the pattern papers, cardstocks, and embellishments before I buy anything new. I am such a HOARDER and these things can't be collected because it gets dusty and discolored by the dust, incense fumes, and our cat furs and rubs. I still have tons of papers and embellishments since I start stamping almost 2 years ago. Wow, I can't believe I have been doing this for 2 years now. I know I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on this hobby. I am slowing down with my purchases because I need to tell myself if I will use, is it worth it, can I find an alternative item I already have, and can I wait. I have so much scrap paper laying around. I need to start using my scraps before going for a new piece of paper.

I finally got back into making some cards. Since last Thursday, I wanted to play with my Gina K stamps after seeing the sketch challenges on the Gina K forum on SCS. I have to say that some of this stamps are not inked. I am so bad, I like to collect rather than play with them. This first card took me at least 2 hours to make such a simple card. I couldn't decide on the paper, rubber stamp, and ink. I just couldn't decide what to do. I guess after 2 months of not playing, it gets rusty. The next card, took me 30 minutes. That is an improvement. I haven't bought any new stamps from Gina K Designs since January. I LOVE her stamps and check out all the monthly releases. They have some talented designers.