Wishing You A Harvest Of Blessings

Happy Hump Day,

I'm excited because I only have one more work day then I have five days off. Whoo-hoo! We are heading to our friend's farm up on the Central Coast. There will be lots of visiting and lots of wine drinking. They may even be harvesting the grapes this weekend too. That's always a fun time (if you're not the one doing the work, that is.)

When I finished work today, I looked to see what the new Freshly Made Sketch looked like for this week. Karen has a fun one and I immediately had an idea of pumpkins. Of course, I had to throw in a Jack-o-lantern too.

I changed mine to a square card as I thought the pumpkins would look good framed with a square.  I stamped the pumpkins, gourd and leaves with Memento tuxedo black and colored them with Copics. I fussy cut them and layered them with dimensionals onto the background that is made using patterned paper and Die-namics stitched hill dies. I had some leaves left over so I colored them in autumn colors and placed them blowing across the sky. I added some very small  enamel dots as embellishments next to the blowing leaves.

I think I'll send this one to my brother.

Have a great rest of your week and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Autumn Harvest set by Stampin' Up and Harvest Mouse set by My Favorite Things (sentiment)
Paper: SU Crumb Cake and Apple Cider by Imaginisce pattern papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo Black, Copics, SU Cajun Craze
Other: Die-namics Stitched Hill dies, enamel dots, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Wishing You

Hi and Happy Monday,

While I'm waiting for a program to finish updating on my work computer, I'm multitasking and writing up this post for the Tag You're It! challenge #54. I don't think that I've played along with this one in quite awhile.

I recently purchased a couple of the Distress Crayon sets but really had no idea how to use them. Saturday, I went to the Tim Holtz blog and viewed  a few of his YouTube videos on the product and then tried my hand at a few of the techniques using a tag. I decided that my attempt wasn't too, too bad and used my tag on a card, which I'm posting to the challenge.

I colored the Peonies by applying the crayon directly to the image stamped on watercolor paper with SU Archival black ink then distributing the color with a water brush. I dried between applications in order to layer more color on. For the blue background, I applied color around the outside of the tag and used the water brush to color the rest of the tag around the flowers. Finally, using a diamond patterned stencil I used my finger to rub a third color over a portion of the tag. The sentiment is from MFT Label Maker Sentiments. I added a few glass beads for embellishments.

The Distress crayons are fun to use, but I do need way more practice.

Have a good week all. Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Peony Bouquet by Altenew and Label Maker Sentiments by MFT
Paper: SU Strawberry Slush card stock, SU water color paper, very old patterned paper from my stash box
Ink: SU archival, Memento tuxedo black, Distress Crayons
Other: Taylored Expressions tag die, MFT Laber Maker dies, Fiskers corner rounder punch, clear glass beads, MFT stencil, SU white ribbon, dimensionals, water brush

Life Is Good

Hello again,

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I made several cards yesterday morning and even a few more yesterday afternoon. A couple are for challenges that end tomorrow so I'm going to have a few blog posts today to squeeze in my submissions.

First up is a card that I made for this week's Freshly Made Sketchs challenge.

I had way too much fun with this Fall coffee card, and I used many products to make it. Love Cindy's sketch this week and I'm definitely saving it in my "sketches" folder for another time.

I started with dry embossing the front of the card base with a TE embossing folder. The square of patterned paper, cross banner and oval are all cut using Die-namics. The focal image is form Reverse Confetti and the sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. I have the tools and I'm using them all, LOL.

Here is the inside of the card:

More coffee fun from a gal that doesn't drink it.  I hope you all have a nice and relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps-
Card front: Caffeinated Cups set by Reverse Confetti and Life Is Good set by Lawn Fawn
Inside: Caffeinated Cups and Be A Barista sets by Reverse Confetti, Time for Bubbly set by MFT and Sweater Weather set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Delightful Dijon and Mossy Meadow card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock and Pebbles Woodland Forrest patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Crumb Cake, Delightful Dijon, Mossy Meadow and Early Expresso
Other: Taylored Expressions Scattered Leaves EF, Die-namics Stitched Square, Pierced Fishtail Flags and Stitched Oval Frame dies, Reverse Confetti Caffeinated Cups dies, SU banner punch, the Big Shot and dimensionals

Pamper Yourself

Good Morning,

Can you believe that it's the last Sunday of August? Wow, the summer flew by, didn't it!

Since it is Sunday it's time for a new Paper Players challenge. This week Nance is our hostess with a super versatile sketch for us to play with.

I recently ordered some new stamp sets from My Favorite Things and I really wanted to use one of them. This is a brand new "Whose That Girl" set called Time For Bubbly. I thought the main stamp panel would be perfect for this layout, although it's not quite as large as the large panel in the sketch, but it still worked well. This card is super, super girly and I love it!

I started by stamping the images on X-Press It Blending card and colored them with Copics. Since the panels aren't as large as the ones in Nance's sketch I decided to really make them stand out by putting the Die-namics Scalloped Rectangle frames around them. I originally tried a banner sentiment from the right edge as the sketch, but it was too long so I pulled out the MFT Label Maker dies and heat embossed a sentiment from the set with white EP on black card stock.

I kept the embellishing minimal, just using a liberal coat of Crystal Effects over the mirror and some Wink of Stella over the bath bubbles.

Here's the inside sentiments, also from the stamp set. So are the cute little champagne glasses.

You can link up to the other DT's blogs here. They have some awesome cards to share.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

Have a super Sunday and thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Whose That Girl-Time For Bubbly set by My Favorite Things

Paper: SU Orchid Opulence and Basic black card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, Pink Pailsee Take Me Away patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, VersaMark

Other: Die-namics Scalloped Rectangle Frame and Label Maker Sentiment dies, Crystal Effects, Wink of Stella, SU white EP, heat tool, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Ghoul's Night Out

Hi and happy weekend!

I'm so glad that it's the weekend after this past work week. I had a, as I like to call them, an "ON" week where I'm in the spotlight. I was mentoring a new team member and also doing technical training in a customer's laboratory, two sessions for four hours each day. It's exhausting being "ON!" I was so happy to get home to relax and my favorite relaxing technique is stamping, so needless to say, I was quite productive this morning. I got three cards made and I'm quite happy with them.

I thought the new Case This Sketch layout looked fun and I immediately had an idea for a Halloween card. 

I love how this turned out! I started with some watercolor paper that I smooshed with two colors of Distress Crayons to create the night sky background. I quick dried the panel then cut the stars out with a Die-namics start background die. The panel is layered over SU silver card stock. The card base is textured dark gray.

I stamped the ghouls and their costumes in Memento tuxedo black and colored them with Copics then cut them out with the coordinating dies. I arranged them on the panel, popping them up with dimensionals. Could they be any cuter?

The sentiment is more smooshed watercolor paper using the same crayons, just a little more blue this time than pink. After quick drying, I stamped the sentiment and cut it with a Die-namics pinking circle die. I cut a second circle in black card stock to create a shadow effect.

I added two more ghouls on the inside with the greeting stamped onto a panel of patterned paper. It's layered onto SU Gable Green card stock.

This card was super fun to make! I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Have a great Saturday evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Booyah set by Lawn Fawn

Paper: Watercolor paper, X-Press It Blending, TE textured gray, SU silver and Gable Green card stocks and Doodlebug Ghouls and Goodies patterned papers

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Crayons

Other: Booyah dies, Die-namics Star background and Pinking Circle dies, the Big Shot, dimensionals

'Tis The Season

Hello again,

I hope you're having a nice and relaxing Sunday. After spending the morning doing some organization of my growing collection of photopolymer stamp sets I decided to make a card. I wanted to play along with this week's Freshly Made Sketch challenge and time is running out.

While looking through some of my older wood-mounted stamps, I found this uber cute ice skating bear and decided to color him up.

He is stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. I used a very liberal amount of Wink of Stella over the skate trail and the trees, but it's not too noticeable in the photo. IRL looks sparkly. I wanted to keep the focus on the bear image, so I used some wood snowflakes as embellishments in place of the circle element.

Who remembers this super bright green that SU had years ago? I loved it and hoarded a whole pack. Luckily my matching ink pad is still wet too. I stamped a few MFT snowflakes in the Green Galore ink after "stamping off" some of the ink to create a more interesting background.

Here is the inside.

I'm off to the high desert east of Los Angeles in a little community called Apple Valley and Victorville for work this week. I'm mentoring a new co-worker. I won't  be back home until Thursday night so my blog will be quiet this week.

Thanks for coming by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Fuzzy Bear by PSX and Holly Jolly Christmas by Stamp LaJolla, MFT snowflakes
Paper: SU Green Galore, Real Red and X-Press It Blending card stocks
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Green Galore, Real Red
Other: Wink of Stella, wood snowflakes, mini glue dots

Eat the Icing First

Good Morning,

It's Sunday morning and that means it's time for a new Paper Players challenge. Our hostess this week is Sandy with a fun CAS theme challenge. Use something "sweet" on your project.

When I sat down to make my card earlier in the week, I was in the mood to color. What's more fun to color than a PI stamp? This set is called "Hello Cupcake" and is a perfect image for something sweet. Since this is also a CAS challenge, I kept the outside of my card to a single layer. The image is stamped with Memento tuxedo black in the lower left corner and then colored with Copics. I made a mask of the image so I could sponge in the grass and sky.  You know me, I had to do a wee bit of embellishing, so I added a few white enamel dots. Also, to add a little more interest to the image, after coloring her dress, I used my white gel pen to add polka-dots.

Here are the links to the other PP DT blogs. Be sure to stop in for more awesome inspiration and to say hello.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

                 Nance Leedy - Off this week

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

I'm looking forward to seeing some "sweet" images and projects this week. 

I hope you all have a great week ahead. Thanks for looking in today,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pure Innocence "Hello Cupcake" set by My Favorite Things

Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Emerald Envy, So Saffron, Pool Party, gel pen

Other: enamel dots, sponge

Bee Sweet

Hello again,

We did go shopping (see my last post), but I actually didn't buy a thing! More money to buy stamps with, LOL. Once we got home and had lunch, I did sit down and make a quick card using the Mojo Monday sketch for this week. Squeaking it in, too.

I used some older Lawn Fawn Halloween stamps and another new paper pad that I bought at Paper Source with the other on Wednesday. This one is a fall themed pad from Pebbles. My little bear dressed up like a honey bee is stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. I've used a variety of dies to create the sketch elements.

Thanks again for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Critters in Costume by Lawn Fawn
Paper: Taylored Expressions textured card stock, SU Early Expresso and X-Press It Blending card stock, Pebbles Woodland Forrest patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Early Expresso, Copics
Other: Spellbinders Open Scalloped circle die, Die-namics Wonky Stitched circle and Curved Stitched rectangle dies, the Big Shot, enamel dots, dimensionals

You're Sweet

Hello,

Yay for Saturday! I hope you have something relaxing or fun, or both, planned for the weekend. We are headed to the mall a little later this morning. I don't have anything on my list to buy, but that's usually when I do buy. This evening we are going to a friends for dinner. In between, I'll probably do some stamping.

While the personal chef was creating (making dinner) last night, I created this card. I had a design in my mind and it took no time at all. It's made using this week's CAS(E) This Sketch.

The card base is X-Press It Blending card stock. The patterned paper is from Pink Paislee called Take Me Away. I just bought it and the stamp set on Wednesday. I got them at my local Paper Source store. It's the first time I've seen stamps other than the wood mounted ones that they usually carry, so I'll stop by more often now to check what's new. Unfortunately, they didn't have the coordinating dies, so maybe I'll order them.

The pineapples are stamped in the new SU in-color inks. The tops are stamped in VersaMark and heat embossed in gold, then fussy cut. I stamped the orange pineapple again, stamped the sentiment, then fussy cut it so I could do the twisted twine look underneath. It's popped up on dimensionals.

Here is a look at the inside:

The inside stamps are from the set too.

That's it from me for now. Be sure to come back tomorrow for my Paper Players post. Sandy has a fun theme challenge for us. I know you'll want to play along.

Thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Pop Art Pineapples by Concord & 9th
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock and Pink Paislee patterned paper
Ink: VersaMark, SU Flirty Flamingo, Peekaboo Peach, Sweet Sugarplum, Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: SU gold EP, heat tool, mini glue dots, dimensionals, My Minds Eye gold enamel shapes

Birthday Fishes

Happy "humpday" all,

Yesterday evening while cruising through blogs I saw that my good friend LeAnne is the guest designer at the RetroRubber Challenge, so of course I had to play along with her. I was watching (listening to) the Olympic track and field events and made this card before going to bed.

While it's not exactly like this week's challenge sketch, I think it will work.

Part of the challenge is to use stamps that are at least one year old. This set is from 2004, so I think that counts. Notice the jar and fish are very similar to the new Stampin' Up set called Jar of Love set, although the new set has many more images and is photopolymer (lately my favorite kind.) Also, the old set doesn't have any greetings. The one I've used is from Taylored Expressions, as it was appropriate.

The dies are from MFT.

I stamped the images on X-Press It Blending card stock with Memento tuxedo black and colored them with Copics. The jar, fish and flower are fussy cut since back then we didn't have matching dies for most of our stamp sets like we do now, LOL.  The patterned paper and enamel dots are from My Minds Eye.

Tomorrow I'm driving out to the Palm Springs area for work. It will be nice and toasty! I saw today it was expected to be 114 degrees out there. Luckily, my car's air-conditioning works really well.

I hope you all have a great evening and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: All Wrapped Up by Stampin' Up circa 2004 and Under the Sea by TE
Paper: SU Pool Party, Peach Parfait and X-Press It Blending card stock, My Minds Eye Tangerine patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Die-namics Scalloped Oval border and Pierced Fishtail Flags dies, My Minds Eye enamel dots, Wink of Stella, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Thank You

Hello,

Since I saw this week's sketch at Case This Sketch, I've been thinking of how to create a card for it. I was kind of stumped to tell the truth. After viewing all of the lovely submissions on the blog to help with inspiration, I finally came up with an idea. This week's color challenge at CanYouCaseIt? helped too.

Here's what I came up with to play along with both challenges.

This is one of my very old wooden stamps from Rubber Stampede. I've had it about a billion years. I first stamped it in the center of the right side of the white panel in Memento tuxedo black ink. I made a mask from post-it notes and stamped it again at the top and bottom changing the angle each time.

After stamping, I colored the images with Copics in greens and yellows and used B01 and B02 for the space around the images.

I trimmed the panel to 3.5 inches and glued it over the strip of patterned paper onto the card base. I added a few enamel dots in the challenge colors for final embellishment.

We went to a friends for a summer dinner party on Saturday. I'll send this as their "thank you" card. Here's the inside:

Thanks for looking in today,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Apple image from Rubber Stampede, Thank You greeting from Avery Elle, inside sentiment from MFT
Paper: SU Pear Pizzazz and X-Press It Blending card stock, Crate Paper patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Enamel dots

Happy Fall

Hi again,

Yesterday after making my Paper Players card for today's post, I made this one using the Freshly Made Sketch. Kim's sketch looked super fun and a good one to use some nice patterned papers. Even though it's only mid-August, I decided to make a Fall card using some Lawn Fawn goodies.

The stamp set, most of the dies, and the patterned papers are Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather. The wooden leaves are also from Lawn Fawn.

Love how this colorful card turned out!

I hope you had a fun and relaxing weekend and if you're in one of those areas suffering from excessive heat, I hope you stay cool.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Sweater Weather set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: Card base is SU crumb cake, X-Press It Blending card,  Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather 6x6" pad
Ink: SU Early Expresso, Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango and Bravo Burgundy
Other: Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather dies, Die-namics Stitched Fishtail Flags banner die, Lawn Fawn wooden leaves, the Big Shot, SU small corner punch, dimensionals

Big Smile On Your Face

Hello,

What a busy week back to work I had! But it's the weekend and time for stamping and relaxing. Since it's Sunday, it's time for a new Paper Players challenge. Claire is this week's hostess with a fun color challenge.

This Primary Color combo is perfect for those back to school cards that so many of you make each year and I know we will see some great ones. I didn't go that route simply because I don't actually have any "back to school" stamps. How can that be? I guess since I don't have any kidos, it didn't seem like something that I would use much.

I have a friend who is feeling a little under the weather so I made a card to cheer her up using the Happy Birds set from W Plus 9. Who wouldn't smile when looking at these cute little creatures?

I started by stamping the birdies on X-Press Blending card stock in Memento tuxedo black ink and coloring them with blue and red Copics to match the SU color shades. After they were colored I cut them out using the matching dies. The top white panel was cut with Mama Elephant dies. I mounted it onto a Real Red panel with some Lawn Fawn red and yellow plaid patterned paper peeking through  the circle. Before gluing in the plaid, I stamped the wire in Memento black. The red panel is mounted onto a Daffodil Delight card base. The birds are mounted with dimensionals. The sentiment from the same set is stamped in Memento black too. Embellishments are the red, yellow, blue and black sequin.

The inside is super simple. I stamped the bird with french fry, colored him with Copics and added a Taylored Expressions sentiment. The white panel is mounted onto SU Pacific Point card stock.

Here are the links to the other PP DT blogs. Be sure to stop in for more awesome inspiration and to say hello.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

I'm hoping my coming week isn't so busy as last, although it sure makes the days go by fast. I hope you all have a wonderful one. 

Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Happy Bird set by WPlus9 and Doctors Orders set by Taylored Expressions (inside sentiment)

Paper: SU Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, Lawn Fawn plaid patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black , SU Old Olive and Real Red, Copics

Other: Happy Bird dies, All Prettied Up dies by Mama Elephant, sequin, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Celebrate Your Day

Good Morning,

Welcome to this week's Paper Players post. Joanne is our hostess for week 307 and she has a super fun theme challenge which is to include a source of light on our projects.

When I saw her challenge, I had so many ideas running through my mind. Light bulbs, candles, Christmas lights, light houses, sun images, moon images. There is an endless supply if you stop to think about it. I actually made two cards. For the first one, I decided to try something "creative" and use jack-o-lanterns as my focal theme. Unfortunately, I don't have a good stamp for what I wanted to do. I'll post a picture of my card at the bottom of my post, but I REALLY didn't love it so I made another, of course with a completely different focal image. Here's my second card.

These lanterns are from the Avery Elle set called Bunting. It 's a very simple card. The layers of bright patterned papers help to create the celebration theme. The images are stamped on X-Press It Blending card and cut out with a Die-namics Wonky Stitched Rectangle die. The patterned papers are from Doodle Bug Take Note 6x6 pad. I found these enamel shapes that go with the colors in the background papers and thought the stars worked with the celebration theme too.

Now for my first card. I wanted to create the effect of candlelight in the pumpkins. I tried cutting out the faces after stamping them in bright yellow ink, but that turned out to be a little to much with such small images. I had the idea of using Stickles. Seemed like a good idea. I think they are a little too thick looking. Anyway, you be the judge.

As you can see, the layout is from this week's Case This Sketch. The stamps are Stampin' Up and the patterned papers are Doodle Bug Friendly Forrest 6x6 pad. I don't love it, but I'll send it to someone who won't be so critical.

Here are the links to the other PP DT blogs. Be sure to stop in for more awesome inspiration and to say hello.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

We made it home one day late from the East Coast due to cancelled flights. Vacation on Cape Cod was great, but flights going and coming were not. The day we left was the same day that Southwest had their computer issues and we finally landed in Providence at 3:30 am! Coming home, our flight from Providence to BWI was first delayed, then cancelled. They put us on later flight to BWI, but it arrived after the connecting flight to San Diego left. We had to get a hotel near the airport for Tuesday night. We were re-booked onto a flight from BWI to Chicago then on to San Diego. It's good to be home and back into the work routine. 

Yesterday, the weather was super gloomy, drizzly, and cool, but perfect for staying in and stamping.

Have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies Card 1

Stamps: Bunting set by Avery Elle

Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock, SU Pink Passion card stock and Doodle Bug Take Note patterned paper

Ink: SU Gray Archival, Daffodil Delight, Mambo Melon, Momento tuxedo black

Other: Die-namics Wonky Stitched Rectangle die, Enamel shapes, Wink of Stella, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Supplies Card 2

Stamps: Stampin' Up Fall Fest set and Stampin' Up Seasonal Sayings set

Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie and X-Press It Blending card stock, Doodle Bug Friendly Forrest patterned papers

Ink: SU Pumpkin Pie, Island Indigo, Always Artichoke and Memento tuxedo black

Other: SU Fall Fest dies, Die-namics Pierced Fishtail Flag die, yellow Stickles, gold enamel dots, the Big Shot, dimensionals