Wishing You Many Blessings

Hello Peeps,

After taking care of some chores this morning I had time in the afternoon to do some stamping. Again, I interrupted my Holiday card making to make my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. It's color week and Jan has a rich color palette for us this time. Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso.

I shopped my stash of goodies and used supplies from Stampin' Up, Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th to make a Thankful/Thanksgiving card.

 

The background is made using a Concord & 9th Plaid Turnabout stamp, stamped in the four SU inks. I cut the panel down using the GKD Master Layouts 2 Die set. The focal floral image and the sentiment are from the Stampin' Up set called Fruitful Blessings. The floral is stamped in Early Espresso ink on Vanilla card stock. I decided not to color the floral image as it's pretty striking just stamped in the dark brown ink. The image is framed with Early Espresso card stock cut out with a die from the Gina K Designs Master Layouts 19 die set For the sentiment, it's stamped on Old Olive card stock with Early Espresso ink and cut out using a banner die from the GKD ML2 die set. Finally, I added three gold metallic pearls from GKD.

For the inside of the card, I used another sentiment and image from the SU stamp set and cut the panels out with the GKD ML2 dies again. The leaves are lightly shaded with colored pencils.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plaid Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th and Fruitful Blessings stamp set by Stampin' Up

Paper: Stampin' Up card stock

Ink: Stampin; Up

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 and 19 dies, gold metallic pearls

Happy Birthday to You!

 Hello and Happy Monday,

In addition to Holiday cards, this time of year I need many, many birthday cards too. Several family members and several of my friends have birthdays in November and December. I did some assembly line stenciling yesterday afternoon for holiday card panels that I'll actually make into cards later this afternoon, then I decided to make this birthday card after dinner last night. 

Just Us Girls happens to be celebrating their 800th challenge this week with an "Anything Goes" celebration challenge and I thought a birthday card would work well to help them celebrate. Wow, 800th challenge! That is certainly worth celebrating! 

I made this card using a couple of sets from Concord & 9th. For the front of the card, I used the Stamp, die and stencil set called Celebrate You.  All of the card stock and inks are also from Concord & 9th and they come from their November color palette called Fable. The colors are Nectar, Watermelon, Starfruit, Pistachio, and Rainforest.

For the inside of the card I used one of the Celebrate You stencils for the background and the sentiment comes from the Concord & 9th Defined Stamp and Die set.

I'm not sue which friend or relative with get this one, but it will definitely go to someone in the next few weeks.

Again, CONGRATS to all of the Just Us Girls ladies that bring us such fun challenges each week!  YOU LADIES ROCK!

Colleen 

Supplies

Stamps: Celebrate You and Defined sets from Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th

Other: Concord & 9th Celebrate You Dies and Stencils, Gina K Designs blending brushes, foam tape, Connect liquid glue

Have A Sunny Birthday

TGIF!

I'm not so sure it means the same after retirement, LOL. 

I must be on a bit of a sunflower kick. This is the second card in a row with sunflowers as the focal image. Today's card uses Kim's sketch for Freshly Made Sketches. The off-center circles are a little different, but fun. 

I had been playing around with the Gina K Designs Wreath Builder template and made a few panels with the flower from the fall themed Breath of Sunshine stamp set yesterday. I didn't make a card with either of the panels then. Today, I thought I'd try making this one work for Kim's sketch. The SU Deckled Circle die set has a die that's large enough to cut out the wreath and I used it for the largest circle in Kim's sketch. For the smaller circle, I used a plain piece of Dark Sage card stock, run through the Lattice embossing folder. I added a basket of the same flowers, stamped in lighter shades on top, as well as the sentiment banner, also run through the Lattice EF. 

The card base is one of the newest colors by GKD called Marigold. It's really a pretty yellow and the color is true to the name.

Here's the simple inside of the card. I used a sentiment from an older GKD mini stamps set.

We're off to meet some friends for a glass of wine and do some catching up.

Enjoy your evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Breath of Sunshine and Sweet Sentiments sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Wreath Builder, Lattice embossing folder, pearl embellishments, Stampin' Up Deckle Circle dies, My Favorite Things banner die 

Grateful For You

 Hello Peeps,

I took a break from making holiday cards today to make my card for this week's Paper Players challenge where LeAnne is hostess. It's theme week and LeAnne has picked "Thankful for You" as this month's theme.

I decided to use the very pretty Spellbinders Sunflower Stitching die with metallic threads paired with gold inked sentiments for the background and a gold foiled main sentiment.

This is a 5x7" card. To make the background I used the largest Wreath Builder template from Gina K Designs. Using various thankful sentiments, I stamped them in Lisa Horton Cloud 9 Solid Gold ink. The main sentiment at the bottom is one of Gina's Polyglaze sentiments that I foiled using 14K gold foil with the Fuze Foiling System.

The large sunflower is cut from a couple shades of gold paper for the petals and a very dark green for the center, then stitched with shiny gold and red metallic threads.

I fussed with the background card base color and finally decided on Navy. 

The joys of home ownership. We've had plumbers here ALL DAY installing a new water softener, new valves at all of the sinks, showers, washing machine, dishwasher, and our fairly new tankless hot water heater. We had a water conditioner that we installed approx 10 years ago, but it just wasn't doing the job for San Diego's very hard water, which was "eating" up all of the fittings in our pipes. Needless to say, not an inexpensive fix!😠

Hope your day was better. TGIF and enjoy your weekend! I'll be back to making holiday cards.

Colleen 

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs Breath of Sunshine, It's All You, Bold Bloom and Grateful Greenery sets

Paper: Gina K Designs, Spellbinders and Concord & 9th card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs and Lisa Horton

Other: Spellbinders Large Sunflower Stitching die, metallic embroidery floss, Gina K Designs Wreath Builder template, Fuse Foiling system, gold foil, Master Layouts 8 dies, Elegant Thoughts Polyglaze sentiment and dies

Carbs!

TGIF and Happy Halloween Peeps,

Although I don't have a Halloween card for you today, I do have a super fun birthday card. I just couldn't resist the Buon Appetito Collection when Spellbinders released it last month. As I needed a break from making Holiday cards, I decided to work on some birthday cards that I'll need in Nov. and Dec. 

The layout is inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch.

The tablecloth was made using a Diagonal stencil from SSS and the embossing folder is part of the Spellbinders Buon Appetito collection. I cut the pasta shapes from white card stock and colored them with ink and blending brushes. I love all the little accessories!

I used more of the pasta shapes on the inside and sentiments to make this a birthday card.

Enjoy your evening and don't get too spooked.

The daughter of one of our neighbors is getting married tomorrow in the Japanese Gardens at Balboa Park and they are having a taco truck come to the house this evening. We've been invited to the festivities tonight, but not the wedding tomorrow. I am going to be out of town any way. My bestie from Sacramento is flying into Palm Springs tomorrow morning. I'm driving out and we are staying for the weekend to visit friends that moved from Portland to PS last year.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stay Saucy stamp set by Spellbinders

Paper: Spellbinders and Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Pasta Friends and Ingredients Buddies die sets, Al Dente 3D embossing folder, and Oval dies, Simon Says Stamp stencil, Gina K Designs blending brushes

Warm Cocoa Wishes

 Happy Hump Day Peeps,

I've been working on my Holiday cards this week. It's kind of been a slow process because I'm playing with mostly die cuts right now, but boy, there are some pretty cute cards in my pile.

Today's card is no exception to the die cuts, and in fact, I've added some Glimmer Hot Foiling to the mix for the snowy background. (Although, I don't recall ever seeing heart shaped snowflakes, LOL.)

The sketch is curtesy ofJoanne at the Paper Players. It's a fun one! I love embellishments, and Joanne added the little dots around the focal image in her sketch. I used three large die cut snowflakes with a wee rhinestone in the center of each.

All of the die cut images except the flags are from the Spellbinders Mugs and Mittens Large Die of the Month for this past July, including the sentiment. The flag dies are from an older MFT die set.

For the inside, I've used the Spellbinders Christmas Magic Sentiments set, also from this past July.

There will be more die cutting today. I made several backgrounds, some on acetate, which are really nice that I plan on putting to use.

Have a great day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas Magic Sentiments stamp set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs cardstock and retired SU DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Mugs & Mittens die set, Magic Wonderland Glimmer plate, Glimmer system and hot foil, My Favorite Things Flag die set, Gina K Designs small rhinestones

Quiet Peace

Happy Friday Peeps,

I'm playing along with the July edition of Woodblock Wednesday today with a very simple and monochromatic card.

I started by stenciling the GKD Snowflake Mandala on the front of a Soft Stone panel, then stamped the snowy village using a darker gray ink. The greeting is heat embossed with silver EP. After cutting the panel out with the SSS A2 Lacy Point die, I adhered it to a silver mat, then onto a dark gray card base.

The inside is very simple with more stenciling and a short greeting.

The Snowy Village stamp is from Ink Blocks, the front sentiment stamp is from Artistic Stamp Exchange and the inside greeting stamp is from Hero.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted from Artistic Stamp Exchange, Ink Blocks, Hero

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Simon Says Stamp A2 Lacy Point dies, Gina K Designs Snowflake Mandala stencil, blending brushes, and fine detail silver embossing powder, Spellbinders rhinestones