Happy Halloween

 Hello,

I was playing around with some Lisa Horton metallic inks and a fall stencil yesterday and ended up making a fun Halloween card. After all, it is that time of year. These inks look really pretty on black card stock.

This week's Just Us Girls challenge is a "word week" challenge. The word is move, and they are asking us to make something on our card that moves. I took a simple approach and made a shaker card, using a couple of SSS pumpkin dies to make the window.

I cut the stenciled panel using the large pumpkin die and then cut the segmented pumpkin die from plain black card stock and used the inks to color the segments, which I used for the background of the shaker window. I have a bunch of Halloween themed plastic shapes in my stash that worked well for some of the shaker pieces, and I also used some sequins and other clear pieces. 

I popped the front up with foam tape and added a gold embossed greeting to finish the front of the card.

On the inside, I used the front cutout piece and another embossed greeting, that I thought worked well with the glowy inks.

These inks are really stunning IRL and make a fun card. Hope your day is a good one!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Autumn Whim set by Spellbinders, Costume Party set by Lawn Fawn

Paper: Gina K Designs Black and Sweet Mango card stock, 

Ink: Gina K Designs Embossing ink, LIsa Horton Metallic inks in Copper, Gold, Silver, Golden Sun Shimmer and Milk Chocolate Roses Shimmer

Other: Spellbinder Colorful Pumpkins stencil, Simon Says Stamp Layered Pumpkin dies, Gina K Designs gold embossing powder, various shapes and sequins for shaker bits, Window Acetate, Altenew foam tape

Thank You, You're the Best

Helloooo Peeps! 

Long time without posting on my blog, or stamping for that matter.  We were visiting friends in the New England area for six weeks and returned home this past Wednesday. 

It took a few days to get settled. By yesterday afternoon I was ready to pull out some stamps, paper and ink and get my fingers inky again, LOL. I decided to start off with Jan's challenge at The Paper Players. It's always a good one! Jan has a color challenge this week and I paired the colors with the September 2026 Let's Stamp Together kit, designed by Gina K.

To start making my card I ink blended Granny Apple and Azure inks onto a scrap white panel. Next I used the LST kit stencil and sponged some water through so that some of the ink was removed and the stencil design was visible.

I stamped all of the leaf designs using Crumb Cake ink, repeating the stamping to get the ink nice and dark and followed by stamping embossing ink over the images and heat embossing with clear powder. Some of the images were stamped on the coordinating colored CS and some on white paper and then ink blended with the blue and green shades.

Both of the sentiments are heat embossed with clear EP as well.

I used some torn strips of Crumb Cake CS to make a border for the stenciled panel, arranged the shapes and sentiments, then glued them all down. For a little sparkle, I used some Pink Fresh Studio gems in copper among the leaves.

I left the inside blank to write a personal message, adding a little ink blending using the stencil and added a couple of left over leaves.

I'm actually heading out of town for another couple of weeks, beginning on Thursday. This time I'm going to Northern California to visit my mom and sister, and to meet my second Great Niece, born on 10/02.

Hope you enjoy your week!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps, Dies and Stencil: September 2026 Let's Stamp Together kit designed by Gina K.

Paper: Stampin' Up

Ink: Stampin' Up

Other: Clear embossing powder, heat tool, Pink Fresh Studio gems, SU Deckle Edge rectangle dies

So Very Thankful

Hello Peeps,

It is a gorgeous day here on the SoCal coast. I went for a walk around 7 am and it was very foggy, our natural air conditioning, but now it's a super blue sky with a nice ocean breeze coming in the window of my craft room.

My card today is made using inspiration from the current Just Us Girls challenge. It's Mood Board Week and it's a very pretty picture. I mostly used the sunflowers as my inspiration, but I did pull in the teal color from the butterfly wings. 

I started by using the GKD Sunflower Garden Layering stencils. After finishing the stenciling, I splattered some Guppy Lunar paste and gold water color over it. This is layered under a piece of wood grained patterned paper that I cut a circle from so the stenciled panel shows through. The stamped and die cut sunflowers layered around the circle are from the GKD Breath of Sunshine stamp and die set as are the front and inside greetings. Embellishments are some teal enamel dots and a twine bow.

Here's the inside.

I'm looking forward to watching the women's and men's Cincy Open Tennis finals later today. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Breath of Sunshine set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock and stash patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Designs, Spellbinders gold water color pot

Other: Gina K Designs Sunflower Garden Layering stencil, Master Layouts 12 dies, Single Stitched circle dies. Simon Hurley Guppy Lunar Paste, Concord & 9th enamel dots, SU twine,  

Stay Cool

TGIF! 

I've had a very relaxing day watching tennis, the Cincy Open, and doing some stamping while watching.

The current Color Hues challenge colors are yellow and orange and I wanted to see what I could come up with for them. I figured using bright color shades would make a great summer card while using more muted shades would work great for a fall card. As I'm not ready to give up on summer quite yet, I made a fun "beachy" summer birthday card. I've used the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge for my layout.

The sunglasses dies are from Concord & 9th. The palm trees are from one Gina K.'s silhouette stamp sets and the sun is made with a Gina K. stencil. The sunglasses are cut from yellow, orange and black glossy card stock as are the tiny orange and yellow hearts, which are part of the C&9th die set.

For the inside, I used sentiments from both the C&9th set and the Gina K. set.

Enjoy your Friday evening and weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spectacular Shades stamp and die set by Concord & 9th, Ocean Silhouettes stamp set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and Scrapbook.com Glossy card stock

Ink: Altenew and Simon Says Stamp

Other: Sun Spots Stencil by Gina K Designs, Essential Diamond Dies by Spellbinders, Waffle Flower blending brushes, Connect liquid glue

Your the Pumpkin Spice In My Latte

Hello Peeps,

Here's a fun fall card inspired by Claire's The Paper Players challenge, called Looking Forward to Fall. To make my card, I pulled out some older stamp sets. The latte and the sentiment images are from Lawn Fawn and the leaves are from Gina K Designs.

Here is the inside.

Have a great Friday and weekend everyone! Thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pumpkin Spice set by Lawn Fawn and Layered Leaves set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock and plaid paper

Ink: Concord & 9th and Copics

Other: Circles Windows Plate, Master Layouts 2, and Sentiment Strip dies by Gina K Designs

Just A Note

 Hello Peeps!

Stef has a pretty color challenge for this week's Paper Players challenge and I thought it might be fun to make a little birdie card with them. I'm also using the sketch from the current Sunday Stamps challenge.

This stamp, stencil and die set is the July 2026 Let's Stamp Together bundle designed by Pretty Pink Posh. I used the stencils for the background and the bird and branch dies to make my card today. I've also used a GKD cloud stencil for the background on the bird panel.

There are two sentiments in the included stamp set and I've used one on the front of the card and the other on the inside here.

Hope your Wednesday is a good one. Thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps, Background stencils, Notched Corner panel die, and bird dies from the July 2026 Let's Stamp Together kit

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Cloud stencil, Master Layouts 2 and 10, blending brushes

Happy Brunch-day!

Hello Peeps,

It's been a "minute" since I've posted on my blog. Actually, this is the first card that I've made since May! Life and other things got in my way, but I'm happy to finally be back to paper crafting.

I thought I'd start with a couple of challenges. This card fits with this week's Anything Goes Die challenge at Just Us Girls, and I've used the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

The background embossing folder and the die set are both from Spellbinders. I used a piece of pastel orange glossy card stock in the embossing folder then brayered some darker ink over the raised areas. The background uses the negative side of the embossing folder and the banner die is the positive side of the folder. All of the die cuts are cut from white card stock and then colored using blending brushes and various SSS Pawsitively Saturated inks.

On the inside I used a sentiment from a Spellbinders stamp set and another image from the Spellbinders die set. (All of these images are too cute!)

Hope your weekend was a good one and not too hot. Thanks for looking in!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Go To Girl set by Spellbinders (Clear Stamp of the Month 11/25)

Paper: Scrapbook.com pastel glossy card stock, Gina K Designs white layering and heavy weights and black onyx card stocks

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks

Other: Spellbinders Petite Tuft 3D embossing folder, Spellbinders Let's Do Brunch die set (Small Die set of the Month 11/25) MFT Banner die, Spellbinders gold dots, Tim Holtz Brayer