Celebrate 2014

Hi everyone and happy last day of 2013!

I trust everyone had a fun and festive holiday season. It's almost behind us for another year, which means it's time to head back to work for many of us. I was lucky and had about 10 days off. I have to say, I was very lazy. I read. A lot. I did some stamping, but not much. I took some walks. Went out to dinner with friends. It was a super relaxing time and I'm kinda' bummed that it's almost over as I do return to work on Jan. 2.

This morning was one of the times that I took a few hours to do some stamping. I rarely make "Happy New Year" cards, but decided that I wanted to send a few good friends/family New Year's wishes. While cruising around blogs this morning I ran across the latest and newly posted Colour Q 222 challenge. Super good colors for New Years cards. I did substitute silver for the basic gray, however.

I used several dies to make this card. The only stamping is on the inside. The sunburst die is from TE and the "Celebrate", "2014" and "champagne glasses" are Die-namics from MFT. After scoring my background paper, I cut out the 2014 using dies, then placed some SU silver glimmer paper behind the cutouts. The "celebrate" is glued with a swipe of tape runner. I then sprinkled it with SU silver glass glitter and pushed it into the tape for added sparkle (as if the gold glimmer paper isn't enough LOL).  The champagne glasses are popped up with dimensional tape then gold rhinestones were added for the bubbles.

I think these blingy cards will be a hit with the recipients.

Supplies
Paper: SU black and whisper white card stock, SU silver and gold glimmer paper
Other: Taylored Expressions Ray Of Sunshine cutting plate die, My Favorite Things Die-namics By the Numbers, Let's Toast, LLD Accent It-Celebrate dies, Kaiser gold rhinestones, the Big Shot, and dimensionals.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL. I hope 2014 is good to you.

Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Friends Like You. . .

Happy Monday,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and you were able to celebrate with family or friends.

I have another quick post today. I made this card last night using the Paper Players theme of "evergreen", the Retro Sketch, and the Color Throwdown #270 colors of silver, Crumb Cake, Gumball Green and white.

Supplies
Stamps: Pure Innocence Happy Christmas by My Favorite Things
Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Gumball Green card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, SU DSP, SU Glimmer Silver paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Circle Nesties, SU woodgrain EF, SU twine, wood button, Die-namics Fishtail Flags STAX die, SU small star punch, white liquid appliqué, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Merry Monday Guest Designer This Week

Hi all,

I'm SOOOO excited to be included with Leslie and the Merry Monday design team this week as the "guest designer".  It's definitely an honor.

The theme for this week's challenge is to make a "Chalkboard" look card. I love the process of making this style of card so I was very pleased to see it's this week's challenge.

I pulled out a few of my Taylored Expressions holiday stamp sets and used a mixture of greetings and pictures. My technique when doing this type of card is to stamp it all out on a scrap piece of paper in the size of my finished piece. I just stamp everything in black on the scrap paper, mostly working on the spacing to make sure it looks right. Then, I get my black card stock, dust it with the anti-static powder and stamp from the top to the bottom. I will do a horizontal line of stamping, then pour the EP over so the ink doesn't dry out. Then on to the next line. I don't heat until the entire card is done.

I used some colored pencils to add a little color to the stars and holly. Then swiped  a sponge dauber across various areas with craft white ink. All pretty easy, just need to take the time to get the spacing correct. I kept the rest of the embellishments pretty simple so that the stamping remains the focus.

Supplies
Stamps: Various stamps from these Taylored Expressions sets: Sparkle and Cheer, Banner Holidays,  and Winter Wonderland
Paper: SU black, Gumball Green and Real Red card stock and Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas patterned paper
Ink: Versamark and SU Craft white
Other: SU white embossing powder, colored pencils, SU sponge dauber, sequins, SU wood grain EF, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

What a fun card this was to make! If you haven't done one of these, give it a try.

Thanks again to the girls at Merry Monday and thanks all for looking in,
Colleen