Best Wishes To You

 Hi everyone,

It's time for my last post as Just Us Girls April Guest Designer. It's sure been fun to participate with this talented group of ladies this month.

This week is Stencil week. I love using stencils and do so quite often when card making.

For this week's card, I've used mostly all Gina K Designs products again and they include a large background stamp, a background stencil, a floral stamp set with dies and a couple of her Master Layout die sets. This card uses several techniques including emboss resist, ink blending, and the Joseph's Coat technique. I hope you enjoy what I've created.

The process to make this card started with cutting a panel from white card stock and using 1/4" Masking Magic strips to mask off a boarder around the panel. Next I heat embossed the Petite Flourish background stamp with white embossing powder over the entire panel ink blending the panel with yellow, green and blue inks from top to bottom. After letting the ink soak into the paper for a bit, I wiped the ink off of the white embossing using a dry paper towel. Using the Flower Garden stencil, I blended black ink over the entire panel for the Joseph's Coat technique. When the stencil is removed, the colored ink is revealed as the stencil flowers.

Using the You Give Me Butterflies stamp set, I stamped a couple of the flowers and leaves using the coordinating stencils to color the images. They are cut out using the set dies. The black oval is from the Master Layouts 1 die set and cut from black card stock.The sentiment is heat embossed with white. I added some of Gina's colored pearls in the center of the flowers and on the oval for embellishments.

Here is the inside of this card with stenciled, stamped and die cut images. Both the front and inside sentiments are from the Sweet Sentiments Mini stamp set.

I can't wait to see what you do with stencils. They are one of my favorite tools so I'm looking forward to the gallery this week.

Many, Many Thanks to the Just Us Girls DT for inviting me to play along as the Guest Designer this month! 

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Petite Flourish Background stamp, You Give Me Butterflies set and Sweet Sentiments Mini set all Gina K Designs

Stencils: Flower Garden and Coordinating You Give Me Butterflies 

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onyx Card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Craft White, Black Onyx, Wild Dandelion, Jelly Bean Green and Blue Raspberry

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 and 2, Masking Magic, White Embossing powder, blending brushes, Pearl Mix, Connect Glue, Misti, Big Shot, Heat Tool, SU Dimensionals

Enjoy the Good Life

 Hi all,

It's the third Thursday of the month and time for my third post as April's Guest Designer for Just Us Girls.

This week we have a fun Mood Board to use as our inspiration.

I used the small shot of the sunset with the silhouette of palm trees for inspiration and using a couple of Gina K Designs stamp sets, here's what I came up with.

I really like how this worked out. I've used this ocean/sunset stencil many times and it never gets old. The Palm tree silhouette image and the greetings are from another stamp set by Gina as is the image I've use on the inside of this card here.

I can't wait to see where this mood board takes you. 

Enjoy your Thursday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Tropical Sunshine and Ocean Silhouettes sets by Gina K Designs

Stencil: Tropical Sunshine set

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Blue Raspberry and Black Onyx

Ink: Gina K Designs Sea Glass, Ocean Mist, Turquoise Sea, Blue Lagoon, Tranquil Teal, Blue Raspberry, Powder Blue, Wild Dandelion, Sweet Mango, Black Onyx, Craft White

Other: Fine Detail White EP, Heat Tool, Misti, Big Shot, Banner die from Master Layouts 3, Foam Tape

It's Time To Celebrate You

Hello and Happy Monday evening peeps,

My card today is inspired by Claire's Color Challenge for this week's Paper Players. 

To make it, I cut a piece of masking paper the same size as the white card panel and die cut a heart shape from it. After placing the masking paper over the white panel, I stamped the various flowers in the negative space using Claire's challenge colors, masking the flowers as needed. After removing all of the masks, I ran the panel through an embossing folder, using heavy weight card stock cut with the same heart die, as a mask because I didn't want the embossing to show in the stamped area. Unfortunately, my mask wasn't thick enough. In order to make the embossing show more outside of the stamped area, I rubbed the Granny Apple Green ink pad over the white areas to color the scallops. In my mind, I wanted to leave the scallops white, but they needed to be more obvious since my embossing folder mask didn't work.

The sentiment is stamped using white craft ink and heat embossed using white EP. I cut each line out with sentiment strip dies and popped them up in the center with foam tape. 

Here is the inside.

Honestly, I came close to pitching the front panel a few times and starting over, but I kept thinking I should try to make it work, and in the end, it did.

Happy stamping,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Heavenly Hollyhocks and Messages for Mom sets by Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Basic white, black and Granny Apple Green card stock

Ink: SU Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Granny Apple Green. Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Craft White

Other: SU Scallops embossing folder, SU Deckle Edge Rectangle dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 4 (heart die), Sentiment Strip dies and Masking Magic, SU enamel dots, fine detail white embossing powder, heat too, Big Shot, Misti, foam tape

Sunny Days Ahead

 Hi and Happy Thursday,

I have my second April Guest Designer card for Just Us Girls. This week is WORD week and our word is Rain.

I'm using all Concord & 9th supplies today with this cute umbrella turnabout stamp and coordinating Rain or Shine stamp and die set. 

I started with the turnabout stamp using four ink colors from C&9th. Matching the card stock to the ink colors I cut the umbrella die from Watermelon card stock and heat embossed the sentiment using white embossing powder. For the Sea Glass circle, I first stamped the rain drops to completely cover a 5.5 x 4.25 panel again embossing with white embossing powder. After cutting the circle, I ink blended Sea Glass ink over the edges for a darker shade of color. The flower embellishments on the umbrella are from the stamp/die set and the enamel dots in the flowers and on the bottom of the umbrella are from C&9th.

I decided to use the negative piece of the raindrop panel on the inside. Sentiment and heart stamps are also from the Rain or Shine set.

I hope you play along with us this week. I look forward to seeing how "Rain" inspires you.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Rain or Shine stamp and die set and Umbrella Turnabout set from Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th Sea Glass, Watermelon, Pebble and white

Ink: Concord & 9th Sea Glass, Watermelon, Pebble, Buttercup and Oceanside, and Gina K Designs White Craft ink

Other: Gina K Designs Double and Single Stitched Circle dies, White embossing powder, heat tool, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, Concord & 9th enamel dots, Big Shot, Misti, blending brush, foam tape, SU glue dots

Just Us Girls April Guest Designer - You Are All Kinds Of Awesome!

Hi all,

I'm SO, SO EXCITED! Today is my first post as April's Guest Designer for Just Us Girls. 

Week one is color week and the colors are purple, orange and mustard.

I decided to make a "groovy" denim jacket using this fun Concord and 9th die and stamp set from their March release. This die set is so detailed. It has the dies for elbow patches, a yoke die, additional cuff and collar dies, in addition to many different embellishment dies. Because of the bright colors in the challenge, I thought these daisy flowers would be fun.

I kept the theme going for the inside. All of the stamped sentiments on the front and the inside are from the coordinating stamp set.

I hope you play along with us this week. It's a fun color palette with lots of possibilities.

Thanks,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Concord and 9th Carpe Denim stamp set and dies

Paper: Concord and 9th card stock

Ink: Concord and 9th

Blending brushes, Misti, Big Shot, foam squares, Connect glue

Love You Friend

 Hi and Happy Monday Peeps,

After a very wet weekend, we are back to our beautiful blue skies and sunny days. I had a very pretty beach walk this morning before some chores and now I'm planning my craft room fun. Not sure if I'll be stamping or working on a quilt that I'm making, but either will make for a fun afternoon for me.

My card today is inspired by the current challenge at  Just Us Girls. It's Anything Goes Stencil week. I've used a stamp, stencil and die set from Gina K Designs along with the Master Layouts 14 postage die and postage stencil set for my card.

I bought this set when it was first release but have not played with it until now. It's quite fun! I started with the postage die and coordinating postage stencil and inked around the borders with Sea Glass ink. After removing the postage stencil, I blocked off the postage lines with Masking Magic and stenciled and stamped the small and large flowers. The panel is layered with black and glued to a white card base. The sentiments are from the same stamp set, and they have coordinating dies to cut them out.

Here's the inside of this card. The sentiment is from one of Gina's Mini stamp sets.

That's all for now. Have a great Monday afternoon and evening.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps/Stencils: Modern Floral set and On My Mind and In My Heart Mini set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Deisgns Layering Weight White and Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Meduim and Dark Orchid, Carnation and Lilac, Sweet Mango,  Tangerine Twist, Red Hot, Red Velvet, Jelly Bean Green, Black Onyx and Craft White

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 and 14 die sets, blending brushes, white embossing powder, Masking Magic, and silver pearls. Misti, Big Shot, foam squares, Connect glue, 

Going Postal - March Woodblock Wednesday Post

 Hi and happy Hump Day Peeps,

What's the saying? Everything old is new again. 

If you've been paying attention around blog-land lately, postal images seem to be all the rage. I've even ordered some of the new stamps and dies in the last month to play with. This morning when I realized it was time for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday Challenge, and I was thinking of what's in my wood mounted stamp drawers, I remembered that I might have some older postal images. I did some digging and found what I had. Enough to make a couple of cards.

I used several stamps to make both of these cards, as well as some newer dies to cut out the panels including GKD Master Layouts 14, which is a postage themed die set. To color the images, I used both Copics and some direct to stamp ink blending prior to stamping, and I also did some ink blending around the edges of the cream card stock on both front panels.

Here's a close up of the pink card front, the inside, and the stamps used. Notice the old fashioned stamp positioning tool. I used it to stamp the sentiments on the front so they were along the lines of the journaling stamp.

The lavender card front and the stamps used to make it.

It was fun putting all of these old stamps together to make these cards!

Happy stamping,

Colleen

Supplies

Wood mounted stamp manufacturer's: All Night Media, Sparkles, Rubber Stampede, Stampin' Up, Rubber Moon, Judith, Tin Can Mail, Hero Arts, A Lost Art, Magenta

Paper: Gina K Designs Innocent Pin, Lovely Lavender, Charcoal Brown, Black Onyx, Vanilla

Ink: Gian K Designs Black Onyx, Charcoal Brown, Prickly Pear, Wild Lilac, and Craft White. Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, 2, 14, Blending brushes, Big Shot, WOW white EP, heat tool, foam tape, Connect glue