Thankful For You

Happy Monday,

I sat down after dinner last night and made this card for Joanne's color challenge at the Paper Players. She has a fun, seasonal palette, shades of brown and orange. 

For my card, I've used the September 2024 SCT's Let's Stamp Together kit. This kit is from LDRS Creative. Each Let's Stamp Together kit comes with a stamp set, coordinating dies and a stencil. In this case, the stencil is for coloring the stamped images. 

The background is made with the SSS Basketweave 3D embossing folder. After embossing I used an old Color Box gold ink pad to highlight some of the raised pattern.

Recently, Gina K. did a video on faux no-line coloring and I used her process to add color to the flower image after stamping. It is a fun technique. If you want to learn more, view her Stamp and Chat video on YouTube here. I used GKD orange shades of Sweet Mango, Coral Reef and Tomato Soup for the flowers and the Color Box gold for the leaves using medium blending brushes for the shading and small blending brushes to add ink to specific areas on the stamp for the line details. These are added after the coloring/shading is done using a coordinating color, so inking of the stamp must be done with a sponge dauber or blending brush. 

I added a little more metallic with gold strips on the sides of the embossed panel and gold dot embellishments.

The stamp set has a few more images that I've used on the inside, however there is only one sentiment stamp so I pulled out the another LDRS Creative set for my inside greeting.

A fun color challenge with many possibilities. I just may use it again for some of my other card ideas. Have a great week!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: LDRS Creative Forever Thankful and My Wish For You sets

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight Vanilla, Charcoal Brown and Gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Charcoal Brown, Kraft, Sweet Mango, Coral Reef, and Tomato Soup. Color Box Gold 

Other: Simon Says Stamp Basketweave 3D embossing folder, Gina K Designs gold pearl embellishments, blending brushes

Holiday Cheer!

 Hello all,

We arrived home from our European River Cruise vacation Friday, late afternoon. It was a FABULOUS trip. 

On Saturday, after unpacking, doing laundry, getting everything put away, going through the mail and a few other chores, I headed to my craft room to see what challenges awaited, I was anxious to get back to card making. I settled on the Freshly Made Sketches challenge, hosted this week by Karen. What a fun layout! I've used all GKD products to make this holiday card. This cute mouse set is the alternate mini free set for the month of September at GKD, and it's called Christmas Friends.

The top section is made using a new layering stencil called Modern Poinsettia. The bottom section is dry embossed using the Holiday Flora embossing folder. I used the middle sized tag from Gina's Stitched tag die set, cutting it from Layering Weight White card stock. The images, with the exception of the greeting, are one stamp, and are colored with Copics. I also added some background stenciling with light gray ink.

For the inside, I used the left over stenciled paper and added a greeting from another GKD mini set called Two Step Holiday Greeting.

Thanks for looking in today, and have a great week.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs Christmas Friends and Two Step Holiday Mini stamp sets

Paper: Gina K Designs Cherry Red, Christmas Pine, Layering Weight White and Gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Lipstick, Cherry Red, Jelly Bean Green, Christmas Pine, Soft Stone and Black Onyx

Other: All GKD, Holiday Flora embossing folder, Modern Poinsettia Layering stencils, blending brushes, Stitched tag dies, Master Layouts 2 dies, Connect glue, foam squares, and gold ribbon from my ribbon stash

Fall Fun

 Hi Peeps,

One last post before we fly out tomorrow for our European River Cruise Vacation. Tomorrow will be a very long day of traveling, but then the fun will commence. 

I decided to make a couple cards after dinner tonight, as I'm all set on the packing front. Joanne has the monthly sketch challenge for Paper Players starting today, and I wanted to play along.

I've used some new stamps, dies and embossing folders from Spellbinders September clubs to make these cards.

For the challenge card I decided to forgo coloring the image and instead stamped it in colored ink. The backgrounds are made using both the Spellbinder's 3D EF and the regular EF of the month. The greeting and image are from the clear stamp set of the month.

I made a second card, no sketch this time, and colored the image with Copics.

That's all from me for about three and half weeks. We'll be in Europe for 18 days, flying home on Oct. 11. We will be cruising from Amsterdam to Budapest. It's been 11 years since we were last in Europe. That time southern Spain, a fabulous trip. I expect this one to be equally lovely.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Autumn Wishes set by Spellbinders

Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive, Gina K Designs Layering Weight white and vanilla and Black Onyx card stocks

Ink: SU Old Olive, Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Charcoal Brown, and Copic markers

Other: Spellbinders Autumn Chevron and Pumpkin Patch embossing folders, SU gold gems, SU Dimensionals

Warm Wishes

Happy Sunday evening peeps,

Here's three Holiday cards in non-traditional colors for you. When I saw the new colors for the Color Hues challenge, I thought of these SSS Bottle Brush Tree dies. I bought this die set at the end of the holiday season last year, but never used it. 

I've paired the trees with two SSS stencil sets, Layering Peppermint Stripes and Falling snow, and I've used Jen's sketch for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

The trees sit on a Lawn Fawn Hills with Trees die, cut from white paper and ink blended with light blue.

While looking through my SSS stencils, I came across the newer Large Snowflake Stripes stencil set and decided to use the Color Hues challenge colors to make a couple of cards. After stenciling, I cut the panel down to make two cards, one a mini-slimline. I really like this color block look.

Have a great week!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas Blessings Sentiments set by Simon Says Stamp

Stencils:  Layering Peppermint Stripes, Snowflakes Stripes and Falling Snow by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Large Bottle Brush Trees dies by Simon Says Stamp, Lawn Fawn Hill with Trees die, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2, 7 and 12 die sets, WOW white embossing powder, Nuvo White Crystal Drops, Gina K Designs blending brushes and Micro Disco Ball sequins, silver Stickles, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Best Wishes

Hi Peeps,

I hope your weekend was a good one. I've been busy packing for vacation. We are headed to Amsterdam tomorrow morning, spending a day in the city then we will be joining a River Cruise on the Rhine and the Danube, ending in Budapest 15 days later. 

I have a pretty Concord & 9th flower bouquet for you today. It's a birthday card for one of our very good friends. I've used this week's Color Throwdown colors with the C&9th stencils.

 

I love this C&9th stencil set and I think it looks great in these darker shades.

Enjoy your Sunday evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stencils: Filled With Joy stencil pack by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Concord & 9th Sentiment dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 Stitched die, Gina K Designs blending brushs and black pearls, Connect Liquid Glue

TRICK OR TREAT

 Hello peeps,

I've got a spooky, but cute Halloween frog for you today. This die is the freebie this month if you order the whole "club caboodle" from Spellbinders. As Ann's theme this week at The Paper Players Challenge is Nature, I knew this image would work perfectly. I've paired him with a beautiful full moon, a new layering stencil from Waffleflower.

I started by ink blending the moon using the layering stencil set onto the front of a white card base. After the stenciling I masked the moon then splattered some white paint over the panel for stars. The frog was assembled from the die cut pieces and glued in place. The frog pieces were all cut from white card stock and ink blended with the colors, except the hat is cut from black card stock.

I've added a simple Happy Halloween sentiment on the inside. This is from a Gina K Designs stamp set.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Haunts and Harvest set by Gina K Designs

Layering Stencil: Moon and Stars by Waffleflower

Frog Dies: Happy Halloween by Spellbinders

Paper: SU Basic White Thick and Black card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Blending brushes, white gel pen, Dr ph Martins white paint, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Happy Monday all,

I'm running super late getting my Freshly Made Sketches card posted! I didn't get around to taking pictures yesterday after making these cards and then I got sidetracked this morning.

These cards have some surprising insides and were very fun to make. They are based on a recent Jennifer McGuire post here. She calls them Center Stage Cards. I made two, so far. The first one took a bit, but the second was a lot faster, so I may make some more. I've used older Concord & 9th and Gina K Designs sets.

Card one uses all Concord & 9th stamp sets and fits will with Kim's sketch for this challenge, the front being a large sentiment. The background is made using a C&9th winter Turnabout stamp. The sentiment and trees are from the same stamp set that I used on the inside of the card. I added some small GKD Frozen gems around the front for embellishments.

Here is the inside with the Center Stage technique.

For the second card, I cut a circle out of some masking paper and ink blended a "northern lights" effect in the circle. Before stamping the silhouette images, I splattered some white paint across the front. After stamping, I added a few GKD Micro Disco Ball sequin.

Here is the Center Stage inside for this card. The images are from a different GKD set than the set used to make the front of the card.

As are most of Jennifer's techniques, this is pretty fun and impressive, yet fairly simple to make. I recommend you watch her video and give it a try.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Card 1 from Concord & 9th and Card 2 Gina K Designs

Paper: Concord & 9th and Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th, Gina K Designs, and Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks and Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Masking Magic, SSS Nested Arches dies, Spellbinders Nested Circle dies, Dr pHMartins white paint, blending brushes, Gina K Designs Frozen rhinestones and Micro Disco Ball sequins, Connect glue

Sending Best Wishes

TGIF Peeps,

I'm hoping that you all have a great Friday. 

When I had my Glimmer system out the other day, I hot foiled several plates from my Spellbinders Glimmer of the Month collection. Today's card is one of those and I used Elizabeth's Paper Players Challenge colors again with it.

This Glimmer plate comes with a layering stencil to color the image, if so desired, and I used the stencils with shades of red for the flower. There is no die to cut it out but it was super easy to fussy cut. The background is ink blended with some bright yellow and blue SSS Pawsitively Saturated inks. I added some ink splattering with white ink and added a few black enamel dots for embellishments.

The sentiment is also part of the Glimmer set. The flower is foiled with red foil and the sentiment with navy.

 

On the inside I continued the sentiment and added another lotus flower image. Both of these are from Gina K Designs.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Lovely Lotus and Thoughtful Flowers sets by Gina K Designs (inside images)

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight white and Cherry Red card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Red Hot and Cherry Red and SSS Pawisitvely Saturated yellows and blues

Other: Tropical Bloom, Spellbinders Glimmer of the Month Set May 24, Glimmer Hot Foiling System, Red and Navy foil, Dr PhMartins white paint, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies and black enamel dots, SU mini Dimensionals

Merry and Bright

 Hello,

Here's a bright and fun holiday card for you today. I thought I'd play along with the September sketch at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown today.

The background stripes and the wreath are PinkFresh Studio stencils. The greetings are from Gina K Designs and the embossing folder is Spellbinders.

The inside sentiment and image are from Gina K Designs as well.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Festive Phrases, Winter Terrain, and Two-Step Holiday Mini sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU and C&9th card stock

Ink: SSS Pawistivitely Saturated inks, Gina K Designs embossing ink

Other: Thrill of Hope Wreath and Border stencils from Pink Fresh Studio, Holly and Foliage 3D embossing folder from Spellbinders, Gina K Designs gold embossing powder, Gina K Designs gold enamel dots, SU Dimensionals and Connect glue