Peace & Joy

Hi to all!

I hope the first two days of the work week was good to you. Mine was fairly typical. Tomorrow I head back out to Palm Springs for the rest of the week to finish, hopefully, my project there. I'm hoping that like here on the coast, the temps have cooled somewhat.

Since I'm going to be gone for the rest of the week, I wanted to get my Paper Players challenge card done last night. Jaydee has a fun sketch for us this week .

I decided to use some of the new SU items from the Holiday Catalog. This catalog is jam packed with awesome goodies.

The card base is SU Crumb Cake and the patterned paper is from a We R Memory Keepers 6 x 6" snow themed pack. I stamped the tree from the new Winter Woods set using Garden Green. The three in the back ground are "stamped off" before stamping on the paper. The one in front is stamped three times to make it darker. After the stamping was done, I cut the paper per the sketch. (I forgot to cut off the bottom of the third panel, darn!) I wanted to use Peace as the greeting and the new Christmas Traditions Punch Pack worked well. I CASE'd the idea of the banner behind the punched image from the catalog. I used a twine bow at the top and some enamel shapes for embellishments.

The inside uses more trees and the sentiment from the Winter Woods set.

I love this sketch and will use it more. I have my monthly crafty get together on 9/15 and the theme is Christmas. I plan on doing a quick M&T with some new DSP using Jaydee's sketch for the ladies.

I'm looking forward to some US Open Tennis tonight, and I have to pack.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Winter Woods set and Christmas Traditions Punch Pack set both by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Crumb Cake, SU DSP  and We R Memory Keepers patterned paper
Ink: SU Garden Green & Crumb Cake, Real Red and Garden Green markers
Other: SU Christmas Traditions punch, twine, enamel shapes, Die-namics Fishtail Flag die, dimensional

Love Ya

Hello to all,

I hope your Tuesday has gone by uneventfully. I had a few work meetings, but mostly a fairly light day and finished up early afternoon.

I made my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge on Sunday evening, but didn't get around to photographing it until this afternoon. This week Sandy is hostess with a CAS challenge with a theme of fruits and vegetables. CAS cards are not my forte. I like layers and embellishments. I managed a very simple card with one layer. Simple in that it uses stickers. I really don't know what inspired the concept, but it did turn out bright and fun.

The card base is X-Press It Blending card stock. Using the Misti, I arranged all of the frames on it. They are inked with Memento tuxedo black and stamped all at once. I colored them with bright Copics to match the shades in the fruit stickers. I also added some sparkle to the frames with a Nuvo glitter pen. The stickers are by Amy Tangerine and are from a SSS Monthly kit. Ten minutes at the most to do this card!

Here's the inside. The sentiment is from the same sticker pack and the puffy stickers are also Amy Tangerine, from another pack in the same SSS kit.

Enjoy your evening. We are having Happy Hour at a local wine tasting shop with friends. Should be fun!

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Flirty Frames set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Amy Tangerine stickers, Misti Stamping Tool, Nuvo glitter pen

Enjoy

Happy Sunday peeps,

I hope your weekend is going well. I've been enjoying being at home after traveling last week for a work trip.

One of the things that I've done in order to do something crafty while on my work trips is to stamp a bunch of images from many different stamp sets onto card stock that I've cut to 4.25 x 5.5 inches. I have a little plastic box that these fit into perfectly. I bring my box of stamped images along with my box of Polychromos colored pencils so I can do some coloring in the evenings in my hotel rooms. (I'm not a TV watcher and I will go the entire week without turning it on. I'd much rather read, or color. I do listen to baseball games on my Sirius Radio app while reading or coloring.) Bringing these supplies gives me a chance to practice coloring with pencils too. The images used to make the card in today's post are some from my little travel box.

The coffee cups are from the Simon Says Stamp set called Coffee & Tea. They are stamped onto X-Press It Blending card stock and colored with Polychromos colored pencils. I fussy cut them out and used SU dimensionals to adhere them to the card. The sketch is from the current CAS(E) This Sketch! challenge. The patterned papers are retired fall themed DSP from Stampin' Up. The fall leaves embossing folder is from Taylored Expressions, and the card base is SU heavy weight vanilla card stock.

Here's the inside. The images and greeting are Lawn Fawn.

Wowzers! Lots of different products to make this card. The inside is also colored with Polychromos pencils. The greeting is stamped in SU Early Expresso ink.

Even though it's still super hot out, I guess I'm ready to start making fall themed cards, like many stampers I've seen posting around blog-land recently.

Have a great Sunday afternoon and evening all. Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: SSS Coffee & Tea set and Lawn Fawn Pumpkin Spice set
Paper: SU heavy weight Very Vanilla card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, SU Early Expresso card stock, & SU retired DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Early Expresso
Other: Polychromos colored pencils, SU enjoy die, Die-namics Stitched Rectangle and Stitched Square dies, Taylored Expressions Fall Leaves embossing folder, Gemini Jr, We R Memory Keeper heart and star enamel shapes, SU dimensionals

You Are Lovely

Hi again,

One more quick post this afternoon. I made this card yesterday afternoon using the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. The background inks used on the turn-about stamp are Melon Mambo, Calypso Coral, Mango Melody and So Saffron. (similar colors as my previous post for the Paper Players.)

The greeting is inlayed into the horizontal element made with SU Mango Melody card stock. The small flower is a die from the same set, cut from white card stock and colored with SU Spiced Spruce and Mambo Melon Blends. Finally, there are several SSS sequins scattered on the front for embellishment.

Here's the inside.

Wishing everyone a short and easy work week. Thanks again,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Lovely Blossoms Turnabout and Triple Step Thank You sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Mango Melody and X-Press It Blending card stocks
Ink: SU Melon Mambo, Mango Melody, Calypso Coral, So Saffron ink pads, SU Dark Spiced Spruce, Melon Mambo, Mango Melody Blends
Other: Lovely Blossoms dies, Gemini Jr, SSS sequins

For You

Hello,

I hope you're staying cool this weekend. Especially if you're in the west. It's still HOT, HOT, HOT here. At least in SoCal, the humidity is down today. I've been hanging out under my ceiling fan in my craft room to keep somewhat cool.

It's time for a new Paper Players challenge today and LeAnne is hostess with a pretty color theme challenge. I thought it would be pretty with flowers. I pulled out some stamps from the last Simon Says Stamp monthly kit and using this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! sketch, I made this thank you card.

Using my Misti Stamping Tool, I inked up the SSS Modern Rose Blossoms background stamp using the SU ink colors, inked in a diagonal pattern, and stamped it onto a panel of X-Press It Blending card stock. I trimmed it and rounded the bottom corners and adhered it to a card base of Pumpkin Pie card stock. The wreath/flower stamp is from SSS Mandy's Flowers set and is stamped on X-Press It Blending card stock using Memento tuxedo black and colored with SU Blends and Copics. I used the Pumpkin Pie and Mango Melody Blends and for the So Saffron shade, I used Copics as the Daffodil Blends were a little too bright. After coloring the image, I fussy cut it out. I stamped the image onto the front of my card then using foam tape, popped the fussy cut image on top of the stamped image. I added a couple of black enamel dots and a puffy butterfly sticker per the sketch and stamped the greeting in black in the lower right corner.

On the inside, I used another sentiment and image from Mandy's Flowers and again colored them with Blends/Copics markers.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday evening and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Mandy's Flowers set and Modern Rose Blooms Background stamp both by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron and X-Press It Blending card stock
Ink: SU Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody and So Saffron, Memento tuxedo black, Stampin' Blends, Copic Markers
Other: Enamel dots, puffy butterfly sticker, foam tape, Misti Stamping Tool, Fiskars Corner Rounder punch

Later Gator

Hi again all,

Here is the second card that I made for Laurie's Humorous theme challenge for the Paper Players.  When this set was released a few months ago I knew I had to buy it. It's one of my favorite good-bye sayings to wee ones. However, in this case, I made it for our good friends that we just vacationed with out in Mass.

The background is made by gluing strips of card stock in different colors to a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of copy paper, then cutting with the Neat & Tangled Snake Scales Cover Plate. I adhered it to a piece of heavy weight Whisper White card stock for the card base. The Alligator and Crocodile are stamped with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics then die cut using the set dies. The greetings are  stamped both on white with black and on black with VersaMark and heat embossed with white EP. I just cut them in rectangles using scissors and popped them up with dimensionals. Some jewel tone sequins finish the embellishments.

The inside uses a SU sentiment along with more images from the Neat & Tangled set.

Thanks again for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Later Alligator set by Neat & Tangled and inside sentiment from At Home With You from SU
Paper: SU Heavy Whisper White and various rainbow colored SU card stocks, X-Press It Blending card stock
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, VersaMark and Copics
Other: Neat & Tangled Snake Scales cover plate and Later Alligator dies, Gemini Jr, white embossing powder, heat tool, Misti Stamping Tool, dimensionals, sequins

that's Wine!

Hi to all,

Unfortunately, the weekend is winding down and I need to get some laundry done and pack up for a work trip this week. Tomorrow I head out to Palm Springs for the week. The project will actually be for the next three weeks, but I will be home on the weekends. The unfortunate part is that it will no doubt be around 116 degrees most days!

It's a new Paper Players Challenge today and Laurie has a super fun, humorous theme for us this week. I have a more than a few stamps that would qualify so I actually made a couple of cards. I'm going to do two separate blog posts so that I can enter both cards. Greedy right!

For this post, I've used a sentiment stamp from Funny Bones on the outside and on the inside, a sentiment stamp from Two-Lips as well as some wine themed dies from Taylored Expressions. The sketch is from the current Sunday Stamps.

I found the patterned paper in my misc stash and thought it looked kind of wine-ish. I coordinated the card base color to the patterned paper. To pull in the gold, I used a panel of gold metallic card stock for the bottom layer in the sketch and used gold EP on the sentiment.

Using my Misti Stamping Tool I stamped the sentiment in Blackberry Bliss ink. I cleaned off the ink, blocked out the bottom of the stamp with tape, then inked it again with VersaMark and stamped over the first impression and heat embossed it with gold EP. I die cut it using a Die-namics Stitched Square die. I cut two wine glasses, one from the gold card stock and one from retired SU Orchid Opulence ink to finish the front design.

Here's the inside using another humorous wine themed sentiment.

We do actually put our Rose and Sparkling wines in the bottom crisper in our refrigerator, LOL.

Thanks Laurie, for a fun theme challenge. I'm really looking forward to checking out the gallery this week. I'm sure we'll get many chuckles.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by my blog,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Front greeting from Funny Bones by Riley & Co, inside greeting from Two-Lips Stamps
Paper: Taylored Expressions dark purple, SU Orchid Opulence and kraft confetti card stock, ?? patterned paper
Ink: SU Blackberry Bliss and VersaMark
Other: Gold EP, heat tool, Misti Stamping Tool, TE wine themed dies, Die-namics Stitched Square die, Gemini Jr, SU mini dimensionals

Be a Mermaid

Hello and happy Saturday afternoon,

It's been a nice and relaxing day so far and I've been able to spend a few hours in my craft room. I love this Mermaid themed set designed by Julie Ebersole, especially the "be a mermaid" sentiment that I've used on the front of today's card. I've used this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! as inspiration for the layout.

I did take a little creative license with the sketch and used the mermaid tail stamp as the larger background element. I tried stamping them on a rectangle, but I didn't like it, so I went with die cutting and layering them behind the sentiment panel. The tails are stamped using Memento tuxedo black and colored with various BG and G Copics. I used a liberal amount of clear Nuvo Glitter Gloss over the tails and they really do shimmer IRL.

The inside uses more greeting stamps from the same set.

I hope you are all having a fin-tastic weekend and staying cool in the West where we're having a major heat wave and staying dry in the East where there has been tons of rain.

Thanks all, for stopping in today!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Inner Mermaid by Ellen Hutson and Abstract Wave Background stamp by Hero Arts
Paper: SU Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo & Whisper White, and X-Press It Blending card stocks
Ink: SU Coastal Cabana, Memento tuxedo black, Copics
Other: Inner Mermaid dies, Taylored Expressions Wave Border die, Die-namics Stitched Rounded Rectangle die, Nuvo Clean Glitter Gloss pen, SSS solid sequins disks, Gemini Jr, SU dimensionals and mini dimensionals

With Love

Hello and happy Friday!

I've been on vacation for the past two weeks, our annual trip to Cape Cod. We had a great time as we usually do. It's our 8th trip, so we have favorite activities and restaurants, etc. We got home very late Wednesday, (actually 02:30 am Thursday morning due to flight delays) and now I'm back to work Thursday and today. Luckily, working in my home office catching up on e mails and other tasks.

Yesterday afternoon, I had a few hours to get out my stamps, paper and ink and I decided to make a card using Claire's sketch for the Paper Players challenge this week. I've used stamps and papers from the latest Simon Says Stamp Monthly Kit called Mandy's Flowers.

The images are stamped using Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. I fussy cut the flower and vase and glued it to the tag cut from one of the papers in the kit. The fence is also fussy cut. I added three small enamel hearts to the tag for embellishment as well as the twine around the fence.

Here is the inside greeting, stamped on another piece of the patterned paper using Memento tuxedo black and SU Real Red inks.

I hope to spend more time in my craft room this weekend. Beginning Monday, I'll be working in Palm Springs, CA for the next two to three weeks. I'm going to try to bring some craft supplies since I'll be traveling by car instead of flying.

Have a great weekend,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Mandy's Flowers set by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SSS and X-Press It Blending card stock, Bo Bunny Early Bird patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Real Red and Copics
Other: Die-namics tag die, Fiskers Corner Punch, enamel hearts, Gemini Jr, foam tape and mini dimensionals, Wink of Stella glitter pen