You Are My Sunshine!

Hi again,

Since I'll be away all week, I'm writing one more post this afternoon so I can enter my card for Jaydee's CAS-one layer card challenge at the Paper Players. As with many of us, one layer cards are not my "go-to" card style. (And my pattern paper stash proves it, LOL.) But, as I was flipping through my Concord & 9th stamp sets, this idea popped into my brain.

To make this a one layer card, I placed the Concord & 9th Sun Turnabout stamp into my Misti, using the turnabout jig and stamp alignment template. I then removed the Turnabout stamp and put the banner stamp in my Misti aligning it so it would stamp at the center of Turnabout sunshine stamp. It is stamped with Memento tuxedo black ink. Next, I cut a mask with Post-its to cover the banner,  then re-aligned the sunshine turnabout stamp in it's original position, and stamped it using the four rotations with four different SU ink colors. The third step was to remove the mask and stamp the the two greetings.

For the inside, I folded the card front behind, reinserted it into the Misti and lined up the other Concord & 9th Turnabout Sunshine set and stamped it using four rotations. Using Memento tuxedo black ink, the inside greeting was stamped in the center.

To complete the card, I colored in the banner using yellow Copics, added sparkle with a Nuvo glitter pen, and finally added three small gems around the sun.

A fun and bright card, still one layer with minimal embellishments.

Thanks for checking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Hello Sunshine Turnabout and Sunshine Turnabout sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU thick Whisper White card stock
Ink: SU Pineapple Punch, Grapefruit Grove, Mango Melody, Calypso Coral, Peach Parfait, Watermelon Wonder and Memento tuxedo black ink pads, Copic markers
Other: Concord & 9th Turnabout jig and turnabout set alignment guides, Misti, Post-Its, small orange gems

Trying A New Technique

Hi all,

I hope your weekend has been lovely. Mine has been great, except I've come down with a cold. I started feeling it late yesterday afternoon. So far, it's not horrible and I hope it doesn't get worse since I'll be back on the road for work all next week. Oh well, not much to do about it.

Yesterday was my craft group get together and I decided to teach them a new technique. It's also new to me. A few weeks ago I was cruising through some of the stamping blogs that I have bookmarked, and came across this post by Therese Calvird on her blog, Lost In Paper. She calls it Over the Top Partial Die Cutting. It looked pretty fun and not to difficult, so I decided to give it a try using some of the new Stampin' Up Sale-a-bration and Occasions sets. I loved how they turned out. These were not quick cards, especially the tea themed card because I paper pieced the images, but boy were they fun to make. I recommend watching Therese's video and giving it a try.

Using So Hoppy Together, Lasting Lily, and  Tea Together along with their newly released dies, these are the cards that I made. These are also all SU only cards. I pulled a few sentiments and dies from other sets that coordinated with my themes, and the patterned papers are all SU. For the tea card, I used the current Freshly Made Sketch as my layout template.

Because these are basically one layer cards, Therese recommended not to use alcohol markers or heavy water coloring because it would show through to the back sides of the card. Following her recommendation, I used paper piecing on the tea cards, direct stamping in the case of the Lily card, and SU water color pencils on the frog card.

I'm not sure which is my favorite. I think they all turned out pretty great, and my Craft Group loved them too. Thanks, Therese for teaching this the new technique.

Have a wonderful Sunday evening everyone, and thanks for stopping in.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: So Hoppy Together, Lasting Lily, and  Tea Together sets all by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU thick Whisper White and regular Whisper White, Blushing Bride and Lemon Lime Twist, SU Gingham Gala and Tropical Escape DSP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Archival Black, Shaded Spruce, Blackberry Bliss, Highland Heather, Lemon Lime Twist, SU watercolor pencils
Other: SU coordinating set dies, SU Sale-a-bration ribbon, SU pearls, dimensionals, SU mini glue dots, Misti, Gemini Jr

For A Wonderful Friend

Happy Wednesday all,

On Sunday I made two cards that work for Claire's Rainbow color challenge at The Paper Players. I posted one on Sunday evening. Here is the second one. I've used the Concord & 9th Peak-Through Pattern set and dies again.

For the front of the card, I used one of the set dies, and then stamped the greeting on top of the cutout. The flower was stamped using the two purple shades,  fussy cut, and glued on with a dimensional. For a little embellishment, I glued an enamel heart for the "period" over the "i".

This is a one-layer card except the little flower in the upper corner. I stamped the inside first by folding the front behind and using some temporary adhesive to hold it flat. The stamp set has a couple of stamps that are flat and I used the larger one to make the rainbow. The greeting is stamped with Memento black

This was a fun card to create and really didn't take too long.

Have a great Wednesday and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Peak-Through Pattern set by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU thick Whisper White
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Highland Heather, Concord Crush, Balmy Blue, Granny Apple Green, Pineapple Crush, Grapefruit Grove, Lovely Lipstick ink pads
Other: Peak-Through Pattern set dies, Gemini Jr, Misti, enamel heart, dimensionals

You Mean the World To Me

Hi again,

One more post tonight with another card from today. Claire is the hostess with a super fun Rainbow color theme challenge this week at The Paper Players. Again, so many options. I decided on using a  couple of sets from Concord & 9th. One older and one from their February release.

The newer set, called Peak-Through Pattern, has a stamp with 3 horizontal lines. Using SU markers in the rainbow colors, I stamped a piece of SU Whisper White card stock until it was completely covered in the colored lines. Next, using two SU Stitched Rectangle dies, I cut a frame from this stamped panel. The flat world stamp is from another Concord & 9th set called Map Love and it's stamped in the center of a Whisper White card base using Balmy Blue ink. The sentiment is from tis same set and is stamped using Gina K black ink. The little map marker is stamped in Lovely Lipstick,  fussy cut and popped up using a mini-dimensional. Finally, I adhered the frame using foam tape all around. The single embellishment is a SU clear heart placed over the map marker.

For the inside, I've used more stamps from the Map Love set. The panel is layered with a piece of Concord Crush card stock.

I'm pretty happy with how this card turned out.

I have one more rainbow card to post, but later in the week.
For now, thanks again for checking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Map Love set and Peak-Through Pattern set both Concord & 9th
Paper: SU thick Whisper White, regular Whisper White and Concord Crush card stock
Ink: SU Lovely Lipstick, Grapefruit Grove, Pineapple Punch, Granny Apple Green, Balmy Blue, Concord Crush, Highland Heather markers, and Gina K black, Lovely Lipstick, Concord Crush, and Balmy Blue pads
Other: SU Stitched Rectangle dies, SU clear enamel heart, Misti, Gemini Jr, foam tape, mini-dimensional

Have a Wild, Wild Birthday

Hi all,

Sadly, it's Sunday evening already! I say sadly because I could really use one more day off, LOL. This weekend just zoomed by to me. Probably because I was gone all five days last week, then Saturday was the opening day for Little League baseball here, which meant that I spent the day watching my little friends ( 8 and 11 years old) play in their games. So not much "me" time on Saturday.

Today, I did have a whole day of "me" time and I spent it doing two of my favorite activities. Stamping and watching ATP tennis from Indian Wells.

Here is the first of the cards that I made. This one uses the current Freshly Made Sketch. I thought of several ideas for this sketch, and in the end, I decided to go with these fun Lawn Fawn stamps.

This is a pretty simple card. I stamped the animals from the Wild For You set using Memento black ink and colored them with Copics, then cut them out using the corresponding set dies. Using some SU DSP, I cut the horizontal element and the circles using SU and Die-namics dies. Everything is arranged onto a card base of SU Pool Party card stock following Amy's sketch. The greeting is stamped in Memento black too.

Here is the inside. I didn't realize that the picture turned out so badly, but I decided to use it anyway. I love this little lizard!

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend and I wish you a pleasant week ahead. I think I will be gone only one night this coming week, so I'm happy about that after all the traveling I've been doing.

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Wild For You set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Pool Party and X-Press It Blending card stock, SU Animal Expedition DSP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copics
Other: Wild For You Lawn Cut dies, SU Stitched Rectangle die, Die-namics Pinked Circle dies, enamel shapes, SU wooden butterfly, Misti, Gemini Jr. SU mini glue dots, dimensionals

Hello Friend

Hello,

Here is the second card that I made Sunday evening. I love how this one turned out! The stamp set is from Concord & 9th called Hey There Turnabout. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I love these Turnabout sets! The colors come from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge. I've used four of the colors, the darker blue (SU Blueberry Bushel), the medium/sea blue (SU Lost Lagoon), gold (SU Crushed Curry) and pink SU Flirty Flamingo).

If you are a fan of these turnabout sets and haven't gotten the new plastic jigs, I highly recommend purchasing them. It makes lining up the card stock perfectly a breeze, and the secret to using these sets is the alignment.

For this card, after finishing the 4 turns of stamping, I trimmed it to mount on a Blueberry Bushel card base. The sentiment stamps come in the set. I've heat embossed them using white EP and cut them out using a Die-namics oval die. The banner die is part of the Concord & 9th bundle for this stamp set. I found some enamel shapes in my stash that matches the Flirty Flamingo shade pretty perfectly, so those are the embellishments for this card.

I've used another Concord & 9th set called Lovely for the inside. I think this may have been one of their freebies last year.

The images are both stamped using Blueberry Bushel ink and the tiny roses were quickly colored with pencils.

Have a great day and thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Hey There Turnabout set and Lovely set both by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Blueberry Bushel, Crushed Curry and X-Press It Blending card stock
Ink: SU Blueberry Bushel, Crushed Curry, Lost Lagoon, Flirty Flamingo, VersaMark, Colored Pencils
Other: White EP, Heat tool, Misti, Turnabout jig, Die-namics oval die, Hey There corresponding set dies, Gemini Jr, Doodlebug enamel shapes, dimensionals

Happy Birthday

Hi and happy Monday,

I made two more cards after dinner last night and since I don't have to leave for Los Angeles until later this afternoon, I have time to get my blog posts written. The card for this post is a fun birthday card using one of the newer Stampin' Up sets called Sweetest Thing and the sketch from As You See It Challenge.  I like sketches with askew panels and this one was fun to play with.

I started with some Pool Party card stock for the card's base and added another layer that is dry embossed. The DSP that I used for the askew panels is SU Naturally Eclectic layered onto Lemon Lime Twist card stock. The images are stamped onto the two card stock colors and heat embossed with white EP. I used the corresponding dies to cut them out. The candies are stamped in Memento black and colored with Pool Party, Lemon Lime Twist, Bermuda Bay, and Emerald Envy markers. The sentiment banner is cut out using a Die-namics Pierced Fishtail Flag die. For embellishments, I brushed on a fairly thick layer of Wink of Stella over the suckers and parts of the jars, and then added some SU sequins.

For the inside of the card, I used more DSP and another sentiment from the stamp set. The jar and candy are colored with the same SU markers with more Wink of Stella added.

Thanks for looking today. Have a great afternoon and evening,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Sweetest Thing set by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Pool Party, Lemon Lime Twist and Whisper White card stock, SU Naturally Eclectic DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, VersaMark, Emerald Envy ink pads, SU Pool Party, Lemon Lime Twist, Bermuda Bay and Emerald Envy markers
Other: SU Sweetest Thing dies, Die-namics Pierced Fishtail Flag die, SU Embossing Folder (retired),  white embossing powder, hear tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, dimensionals, SU sequins,Wink of Stella

Hey There!

Hi all,

I'm back again with another card to share. Just like my last card, this one was made using inspiration from two challenges. I've used the Freshly Made Sketch for the layout and colors from the Color Throwdown Challenge along with dies from Lawn Fawn and Concord & 9th.

As you can see, the front of the card is made using dies only. No stamping. To make the poppies, I first smooched some Distress Oxide inks in the challenge colors onto water color paper. After the ink dried, I flicked some black Distress Oxide ink over the paper using a small paint brush. Using the Concord & 9th dies, the leaves and flower pieces were cut out and the flowers put together with liquid glue. Using Neenah Desert Storm kraft paper, I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Woodgrain cover plate to make the background. It's glued to a card base made from the same paper. The flowers were arranged and glued down using SU mini glue dots. The sentiment banner was cut out twice, once from black and again from kraft. This is so after cutting the kraft banner with the sentiment die, the black shows through. The banner is attached using dimensionals. For embellishment, I've used two SU wooden butterflies. I painted tiny SU pearls with the 110 black Copic marker and glued them to the centers of the butterflies.

The inside of the card is stamped. All stamps are from the Concord & 9th Pretty Poppy set. I had one leaf left over so I glued it to the poppy here. I think it makes a rather interesting look.

Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pretty Poppy set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Neenah Desert Storm, SU Basic Black, and Bristol water color paper

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide and Gina K kraft and black ink cubes

Other:  Concord & 9th Pretty Poppy and Hey There Turnabout dies, Lawn Fawn Stitched Woodgrain cover plate, SU wooden butterflies and pearls, Gemini Jr, Misti, SU mini glue dots, diemensionals

You Are Loved

Hello,

I'm combining two challenges with my card this morning. The Paper Players has a Spring theme challenge this week, and I'm using the sketch from the Retro Rubber Challenge for my card's layout.

This pretty little flower basket is from a previous year's SU Sale-a-braton, although I don't remember if it is from last year or the year before. It is stamped with Memento black ink and colored with Copics in pastel shades. I wanted to use lighter shades for a nice contrast to the dark background that I used. The background is from the SU Wood Textures 6 x 6 DSP pack and then embossed with the Basket Weave EF. After coloring the image, I cut it out with SU square die and layered it on a SU scalloped square. The sentiment is cut out with a SU Stitched Rectangle die, and for the three flag elements in the sketch, I used three SU pink flower sequins.

I made this card into a birthday card by using birthday themed sentiments on the inside. These are from another SU set that is also over a year old.

It's still rainy here today. I may do more stamping, but I also need to do laundry and pack for this week's work trip.

Hope your Sunday is relaxing. Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Blossoming Basket and Perennial Birthday sets by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Pretty In Pink and X-Press It Blending card stocks, SU Wood Textures DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Pretty In Pink, Copics
Other: SU Basket Weave embossing folder, SU Square and Stitched Rectangle dies, SU flower sequins, Gemini Jr, Misti,

I Can Hardly Bear It

Happy Weekend,

It is a very WET Saturday here in southern California. A great day to stamp and watch some pre-season baseball. Tonight we are headed to our friend's house for dinner, so I thought I'd make a thank you card.

I'm using this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! for my layout. The stamps are all from the Concord & 9th February release. I'm loving this little flower background. I've used SU Tempting Turquoise, Midnight Muse and Concord Crush inks and some Die-namics dies to make this layered card.

Here is the inside:

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Floral Print Silhouette, Mini Spirograph Turnabout, and Peak Through Pattern sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Midnight Muse and X-Press It Blending card stocks
Ink: SU Midnight Muse, Tempting Turquoise and Concord Crush
Other: Concord & 9th Floral Print Silhouette set dies, Spellbinder Circle die, Die-namics Inside and Outside Stitched Square die, diemensionals, Gemini Jr, Misti