About Me

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I love crafting, especially rubber stamping. Most weekends I can be found surrounded by paper, rubber stamps and ink.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Spring Blessings

 Hello,

Here's a pretty bouquet of spring flowers. A perfect use of Jaydee's colors for this week's Paper Players Challenge. The colors for the monthly color challenge are green, pink, yellow, black and white. 

My card has a black and white stenciled background. All but two of the tulips are cut from white card stock and colored using blending brushes. The two darker pink tulips were cut from Pretty In Pink card stock and then ink blended.

I hardly ever use ribbon on my cards these days, but this one called for it. I used a piece of light pink ribbon that was on my desk from a recent shipment of Lawn Fawn goodies. 



Here's the inside:



The stencils, stamps and dies are all from Spellbinders March clubs.

Thanks all,
Colleen

Supplies
Spellbinders March Club supplies:
Stamp set: Lily Arch (sentiments)
Stencil set: Spring Stencil Backgrounds
Large Die set: Floral Bunny Basket
Card Stock: Gina K Designs Layering white, SU Pretty In Pink and Pineapple Punch
Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitivity Artichoke, Field, Fairway, Sunbeam, Lemonade, Bubblegum, and Sweets, Gina K Designs Black Onyx
Other: Misti, Big Shot, blending brushes, Concord & 9th pink enamel dots, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue, pink ribbon

Sunday, March 10, 2024

You're the Bee's Knees

 Hello,

Here's my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketch.  I had a hard time with this layout, for whatever reason LOL. I actually made two cards while playing around with the sketch and I ended up choosing this first one because to me it fits with the clean lines for the FMS challenge better than the other card I made.

For this card I did a bit of ink smooching with honey and yellow inks. The bee skep is a die from the SU Honey Bee set cut from the DSP that was part of that suite. The stamped images are from the Bee Yourself set from Simon.





And the inside:


This is the other card I made using SU papers, stamps and dies from the Dino Days bundle.

Front:


Inside:


This card might go to my young friend Liam. He's a pretty awesome young man.

Thanks for looking in and have a good week to come.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Bee Yourself Stamp set by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SU Bumblebee and Basic Black and White card stocks, SU Golden Honey DSP
Ink: Gina K Designs Honey Mustard, Wild Dandelion and Black Onyx, Copic Markers
Other: SU Bee Skep die, Misti, Big Shot, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue

Stamps: SU Dino Days set and dies
Paper: SU Lovely Lipstick, Flirty Flamingo and Basic White card stock, Dinoroar DSP
Ink: SU Pool Party, Old Olive and Early Espresso , Gina K Designs Tranquil Teal and Black Onyx
Other: Pink Fresh Studio Ornate Medallions Cover Plate die, My Favorite Things Speech Bubble die, SU Dinoroar enamel shapes, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue, Misti, Big Shot


the Best of Luck

Hello and happy Sunday,

Green is my favorite color so of course I had to play along with this week's Just Us Girls Color Challenge. I wasn't quite sure about putting these two shades together, lime and green, but I love the bright result.  

The theme for my card comes from the current Inspired By Challenge.

The background is created using a Turnabout stamp from Concord and 9th. Instead of using different colors I used lime for all four rotations. The stamp set has small stamps to add images to some of the shapes and I again used lime for tone on tone.  For the focal image, I had to get crafty and made a four-leaf clover using a heart die because the dies in my stash are too small. 








Here's the inside of the card. The greeting is from Spellbinders and the clover stamped image from Gina K Designs.




I've been watching Indian Wells Tennis this week and I'll probably do more of the same today. I can craft or color while watching. I picked up a couple of coloring books by Johanna Bashford. She has beautifully drawn images, especially her flowers and they were very inexpensive at Amazon. I've been practicing with colored pencils. It's such a relaxing activity for me.

Enjoy your Sunday afternoon. 
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Pop Heart Turnabout set by Concord and 9th, Luck and Love set with dies by Gina K Designs and Lily Arch set and dies by Spellbinders
Paper: Layering weight white, Lucky Clover and Black Onyx by Gina K Designs
Ink: Key Lime, Black Onyx, Craft White and Embossing ink pad by Gina K Designs
Other: Concord & 9th heart die, Gina K Designs fine detail white and gold embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Big Shot, Stampin' Up dot embossing folder, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Sending Fairy Kisses

 Happy Saturday Peeps,

I saw the Stay Crafty with a Blog Named Hero March Chaallenge on a few blogs while surfing some of my favorite crafty blogs yesterday and decided I would play along. This month it's about the "magic" of melting embossing powder. Who doesn't think it's magic? I thought I'd pair embossing magic with fairy magic with the Hero Fairy Kisses stamp set.





In addition to the Fairy Kisses set, I also used the July 2021 My Monthly Hero set, the Meadow Heroscape set and the Mushroom Forest die to complete my card. The stamped images are embossed using gold EP and the sentiment is embossed with white EP.

The night sky background is ink blended using Gina K Designs inks. After the card was assembled, I added some Nuvo white drops (because I can't find my white paint) and tiny clear sequins for some sparkle.

For the inside of of the card, I used the other large image and sentiments from the Fairy Kisses set, both heat embossed.




Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for checking in.
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: All Hero Arts Fairy Kisses, July 2021 My Monthly Hero set, Meadow HeroScapes set
Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Black Onyx and Lovely Lavender card stock
Ink: Gina K Designs Craft White, Embossing and Watermark ink, Powder Blue, Blue Denim, In the Navy and Wild Wisteria inks
Other: Hero Mushroom Forrest die, Gina K Designs fine detail gold and white embossing powder, Nuvo white pearl drops, Gina K Designs mini disco ball sequins, Connect glue, Misti, Big Shot, heat tool, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, SU Dimensionals and mini dimensionals


Tuesday, March 5, 2024

No Bad Days!

 Happy Tuesday,

I have a fun card today with lots and lots of color. Rainbow color! Claire is hostess for this week's theme challenge for the Paper Players and the theme is Rainy Days. I took my inspiration from the rainbow image in the photo to make my card.

This is an easel card, which is why the top isn't laying flat in the photo. 




This is a very large stamp and die set by Erin Lee with many fun images and dies. After stamping the large image I cut it out with one of the SU Deckled Circle dies. I used two of the circle dies and made a thin ring then used blending brushes to color it in as a rainbow. I matched the ring with the stamped image and glued them to the 5.25 x 5.25 inch square card base. The pattern papers are from SU called Rain or Shine.

Here is the card folded back as an easel.



The front image is colored with Copics and then the greeting was stamped over the clouds. I found some enamel rain drops in my embellishments and added three. The No Bad Days sentiment on the inside is a die with a shadow that comes with the coordinating die set.

Happy Hump Day tomorrow!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Hug, Sunshine, Smiles and Rainbows set by Erin Lee
Paper: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Layering Weight White card stock, SU DSP Rain or Shine DSP
Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Navy and Copic Markers
Other: Stamp set coordinating dies, SU Deckled Circle dies, Misti, Big Shot, enamel embellishments, SU Dimensionals

Monday, March 4, 2024

Hello

Happy Monday,

I hope you all had a nice weekend. It was a quiet one here and I spent a few hours both days in my craft room.

This is a card that I made yesterday afternoon. I'm submitting it to two challenges. Just Us Girls has the "CASE the Designer" challenge this week. I don't play with these often as I get lost in the details for some reason. The second challenge is for the Color Hues turquoise and green colors.

I decided to CASE Lisa's card. I liked the single die cut image, and I knew I had several die options I could use. Here's Lisa's very pretty card I used as inspiration.


 

This is how I CASED it. Instead of stamping images in the background, I used a SSS cover plate with a similar design as the large SSS flower die that I used as the focal image. I used a die cut sentiment instead of a stamped one. The green and turquoise shades of card stock are from Gina K Designs as is the hello sentiment die, and the turquoise and green pearl embellishments. The black card stock is from Erin Lee and it has a glossy black finish.





There is a coordinating background stamp and I used it to stamp images in opposite corners on the inside of the card. The sentiment is from the SSS set called XL Greetings.




Enjoy the rest of your day, and thanks for looking in.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Chunky Flower background stamp and XL Greetings set both by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: Gina K Designs Jelly Bean Green, Turquoise Sea, Sea Glass, Layering Weight white card stock, Erin Lee Glossy Black card stock
Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Sea Glass
Other: Simon Says Stamp Chunky Flower die, Gina K Designs Scripty Hello die, Simon Says Stamp Detail Mandala Plate die, Gina K Designs pearl embellishments, Misti, Big Shot, Connect glue, SU Dimensioals



Saturday, March 2, 2024

Warm Hello & Knit Happens

Hi all,

Another rainy day here in SoCal. I hear that the Tahoe area has already received 42 inches or more of snow this weekend, so a little rain is no worry.

I spent some time yesterday evening and this morning playing with the Freshly Made Sketch for this week and made two cards.

This first one uses all Stampin' Up supplies. I bought this suite when it first came out, but I haven't really done much with it. While looking through my DSP stash, I landed on this paper, and so that's where this card's inspiration started. Instead of using just the coordinating stamp set for everything, I pulled out the Circle Sayings set for the focal circle images.




For the inside of this card, I added a border die and left the center blank to write a note.


Card two uses Concord & 9th supplies for the focal images and greeting. Again, I think this is the first time I've used this stamp and die set. It's pretty cute. For the background, I used a Gina K Designs background stamp that matches the knitting theme perfectly. To make the knitting needles more "real" I added Glossy Accents over them and glued some silver balls to the tops.




The greeting on the inside is also from the same stamp/die set.





Enjoy your Sunday,
Colleen

Supplies Card 1
Stamps: Circle Sayings and Seaside Bay sets by Stampin' Up
Paper: Stampin' Up Basic White Thick and Night of Navy card stock, By the Bay DSP
Ink: VersaMark, Early Espresso
Other: Stampin' Up Seaside Bay, Deckled Circle and Radiating Stitches dies, gold embossing powder, Misti, Big Shot, SU Dimensionals

Supplies Card 2
Stamps: Knitting Together set by Concord & 9th and Close Knit Background stamp by Gina K Designs
Paper: Concord & 9th Fig, Grape Soda and white card stock
Ink: Concord & 9th Fig and Grape Soda
Other: Concord & 9th Knitting Together and Knit With Care dies, Gina K Designs Double Stitched circle die, Misti, Big Shot, Glossy Accents, Gina K Designs silver dots, SU Dimensionals

Thursday, February 29, 2024

To My Friend

 Hi all,

Happy Leap Day 2024!

I don't have a Leap Day card for you but I do have a sweet birthday card for a sweet friend. Since yesterday was the last Wednesday of the month, it's time for the February edition of Woodblock Wednesday. I still have many wood mounted rubber stamps and this challenge makes me gives me a chance to use them.

For this month's card, I pulled out some very old SU DSP to go along with my old stamps for this birthday card. After I finished, I realized that the colors in the papers work well for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. The colors this week are sage, burgundy and rose.






The tea cups stamp is from Stampendous, circa 1998. I stamped it with black ink and colored it with colored pencils. It's cut out with a Gina K Designs Double stitched circle die then layered over a Pink Fresh Studio circle die called Ornate Circle cut from sage card stock. I heat embossed the sentiment with white EP, from a wood mounted SU stamp, circa 1999 and cut it out with a tiny Spellbinders Scalloped Circle die.

The inside greeting is a Judith wood mounted stamp, circa 1994. I added a strip of the DSP at the bottom of the white panel and layered it onto some sage card stock.





Here are the stamps used for this card.




I just love looking through the gallery each month to see the creativity with these wood mounted stamps!

Thanks, and enjoy your extra day.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Stampendous Tea cups, Judith Birthday Joy For You, Stampin' Up To My Friend
Paper: Stampin' Up Basic White Thick and Pear Pizzazz card stock, Bella Rose DSP (retired)
Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Craft White
Other: Polychromos Colored Pencils, Gina K Designs Double Stitched Circle die, Pink Fresh Studio Ornate Circle die, Spellbinders Scalloped Circle die, Gina K Designs Fine Detail white embossing powder, heat tool, stash enamel dots, Big Shot, Foam Tape, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals