About Me

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I love crafting, especially rubber stamping. Most weekends I can be found surrounded by paper, rubber stamps and ink.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Hooray

Hi Peeps,

I hope your Monday went well. I had a few hours of driving, more spreadsheet work and trying to setup my new work IPhone. The last of the bunch probably the most difficult, LOL.

As promised I have one more card to share that I made using Claire's tall and skinny challenge for the Paper Players.  I've used a new set from Stampin' Up called Sip Sip Hooray.




You can see this card has lots of sparkle that comes from pink metallic and pink glitter papers, and a few SU clear drops glued around the glasses.

On the inside, the images are from the Avery Elle set called Mimosas.




Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Sip Sip Hooray set by Stampin' Up and Mimosas set by Avery Elle
Paper: Ellen Hutson Oyster Gray, X-Press It Blending, Powder Pink, SSS Pink Metallic and Concord & 9th Pink Glitter papers
Ink: Taylored Expressions Sea Salt, Fruit Punch, Pink Champagne ink cubes and SU Merry Merlot
Other: SU Sip Sip Hooray dies, Die-namics Wonky Stitched Circle die, SU clear drops, Misti, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Sunday, September 22, 2019

You're RAWRsome!

Hello peeps,

My cyber friend Claire is this week's hostess for the Paper Players Challenge, and she has a sketch challenge with a twist for us this week. I had tons of fun with this challenge and I made two totally different cards. I'll post the second tomorrow.

This one I made for our little friend Liam, who has his eighth birthday on October 5. Since I love this SU dino set, and he's eight, I grabbed it and the DSP to make a card using Claire's challenge.

In addition to the sketch, the twist is to make a tall and skinny card. My card is 9 inches tall and 3.75 inches wide.





The card base is Mango Melody card stock.  I stamped the dinosaur and tree elements and cut them all out with the matching dies. The rectangle is cut with a Die-namics Wonky stitched rectangle die and I used a cloud stencil, blending brush and Pool Party ink to make the background. It is layered onto a Mango Melody mat cut with the SU Stitched Rectangle die. The dinos and tree were arranged and glued with temporary adhesive so I could place the sentiment in the right place. Once that was stamped, then the dinos were glued with permanent adhesive and dimensionals. I also added a few of the enamel shapes that go with this suite.

On the inside I added a Happy Birthday sentiment from and older SU set and my favorite dino and sentiment from the main set.



This wasn't a quick card, but boy, did I have fun with it. Unfortunately, now I have to finish some spreadsheets for work for tomorrow. Boo-hoo!

Thanks for checking in. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon with my second card using Claire's sketch.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Dino Days and Age Awareness sets by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Mango Melody, Pineapple Punch, and Whisper White card stock, Dinoroar DSP
Ink: SU Lovely Lipstick, Mango Melody, Old Olive, Pretty Peacock, Flirty Flamingo, Pool Party, Early Expresso
Other: Dino Days set dies, SU Stitched Rectangle die, Die-namics Wonky Stitched die, cloud stencil, TE blending brush, TE grass border die, SU enamel shapes, Misti, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Unicorns, Rainbows & Sprinkles

Hello,

Happy Sunday morning. I was up early for some reason this morning. I thought I'd sleep in a little since I didn't go to bed until after 1:00 am, but no, I was wide awake at 6:00! I guess that means I'll have a little more time to stamp today. Bright side, right?

It also gives me a chance to get this card posted. I made it yesterday afternoon and it uses this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! sketch. I had loads of fun making this card.




Using three shades of Distress Ink cubes, a cloud stencil, and Taylored Expressions Blender brushes I made the background first. It's trimmed down and glued to a white card base with some fun foam in between. The images from the Julie Ebersole set Unicorns and Rainbows are stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics, then cut out using the set dies. The sentiment is stamped with Gina K dark black ink directly onto the clouds. For a little embellishment I added the gold sparkly heart and cut the swoosh from pink glimmer paper.

Here's the inside. This will be another card for one of  my friends with October birthdays.


The top sentiment is heat embossed using gold EP. It is from the companion Julie Ebersole set called Pure Magic. The Birthday Greeting is Mama Elephant and is stamped in SU Balmy Blue.

Have a great Sunday and thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Unicorns 'N Rainbows and Pure Magic sets by Julie Ebersole for Ellen Hutson, and Scripty Birthday set by Mama Elephant
Paper: SU Whisper White regular and thick, Concord & 9th pink glitter paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Gina K black ink cube, VersaMark, SU Balmy Blue, Copics, Distress Ink cubes Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans
Other: Cloud stencil, TE Blender Brushes, stamp set corresponding dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, gold EP, heat tool, gold enamel heart, dimensionals

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Simply brew-tiful

Hi peeps,

I haven't played along with the Fusion Card Challenge in quite awhile. I always save their new sketch to my computer's desk top thinking I'll get to it, but unfortunately, I usually run out of time. I put all of the blame on that work thing that I have to do five days a week. I loved the sketch this week, and though I'm not a coffee drinker, I do have some cute coffee stamps, so I decided to make a card after we finished dinner tonight.

I found some really pretty patterned papers in my stash. These are from a 6 x 6" pad called Take Me Away from Pink Paislee. For you coffee drinkers, aptly titled, LOL. Here's my card.




The card base is Oyster Gray card stock from Ellen Hutson. It's such a nice weight and very smooth. This gray shade is beautiful. The patterned paper background is matted with SU Poppy Parade as is the hearts piece. The scalloped border die is by Taylored Expressions. I cut it out twice, once with the poppy and once with the gray and then layered them. The sentiment is from the Lil' Inkers set called Latte Love and it's stamped using Memento tuxedo black ink. The green coffee cup is also from this set, also stamped with Memento black, then colored with Copics. The to-go cup is from the Reverse Confetti set called Caffeinated Cups. It's stamped with Memento black on the Oyster Gray card stock and the belly band is paper pieced with the background paper.

For the inside, I've used another Reverse Confetti set called Be a Barista for both the image and the sentiment. They are stamped on X-Press It Blending card stock that is again matted with Poppy Parade. The sentiment is stamped using Poppy Parade ink. The cup is colored with Copics and the band is paper pieced with the heart patterned paper used on the front.



I have friends with birthdays next month. This will go to one of them.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: Latte Love set by Lil' Inkers, Be a Barista and Caffeinated Cups sets by Reverse Confetti
Paper: Ellen Hutson Oyster Gray card stock, SU Poppy Parade card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock and Pink Paislee patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Poppy Parade, Hero Cup of Joe ink cube
Other: Taylored Expressions large scalloped border die, Lil' Inkers and Reverse Confetti set dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, dimensionals and Gina K connect liquid glue

All the Good Stuff

Happy Weekend Peeps,

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday.

This morning I got my hair cut, did some shopping and then laundry. After that, it was time to stamp and catch up on a couple of sketch challenges.

These cards use this week's Freshly Made Sketches layout. I ended up making a second one using the same set of SU DSP. One with more masculine colors and the other with feminine. The dies are from Taylored Expressions and the sentiments and background stamp are Concord & 9th.







The sentiment on the card above is stamped using Tranquil Tide ink, then I stamped VersaMark ink over it and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.



Other than the strips of DSP and the die cuts, these are one layer cards. The card bases are both Whisper White Thick card stock. Super fast and simple to make.

Have a great Saturday evening and thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Concord & 9th Lots to Say and Herringbone Background sets
Paper: Whisper White Thick, Blackberry Bliss, Cajun Craze, Tranquil Tide, and Powder Pink card stocks and SU Nature's Poem DSP
Ink: SU Cajun Craze, Tranquil Tide and VersaMark
Other: Taylored Expressions Wine dies, Concord & 9th Sending Happy Thoughts dies, clear EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Shine Bright

Happy Sunday Peeps,

Yes, Sunday means time for a new Paper Players Challenge. It's CAS week and hostess Anne Marie's theme is metallics, which gives us a little different thought process for making our cards. It's also a good theme for adding to our Holiday card stashes, which is exactly what I used it for.

The stamps and dies are from the new September release from Concord & 9th. The metallic papers are also from Concord & 9th. I really, really like the way my card turned out.






In addition to being able to use these fun metallic glimmer papers, I also used my new Gemini Foiling system for the sentiment. I think that I mentioned in an earlier post that I bought it for myself for my birthday in July. I haven't used it too much and I have to reread the directions each time I do. I also don't have many dies for it yet, but I do have a set of sentiments from Spellbinders that had the perfect one for my card.

The stamp and die set is called Merry Shapes. Only the dies are used on the card front.  The ornaments are cut from the glimmer papers and the ornament tops from smooth gold metallic card stock. There is a die that is a line of dots which I used to make the strings for the ornaments to hang with, and I backed them with more gold metallic paper that shows through. The colored centers of the ornaments are popped up with dimensionals to give a little dimension to the card front.

For the inside, I used stamps from the Merry Shapes stamp set. Keeping with the metallic theme, the J, Y and parts of the O - ornament are heat embossed using gold embossing powder.



This was actually the second card that I made. The first card didn't really fulfill the CAS theme, so I went back to work. It also uses the same stamp and die set from Concord & 9th. Here's the front of that cards.


The card base is a pre-printed note card from Concord & 9th. I used the same glimmer papers to cut the tree shapes and the same foiling sentiment. The stars above the trees are heat embossed with gold EP. I do like the way it all worked out, but it seems kind of busy for CAS, hence my second card.

Anyhoo, two more holiday cards added to me stash. I'm happy about that.

Thanks for looking in and have a great Sunday evening,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Merry Shapes set by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Whisper White thick card stock, Concord & 9th glimmer and metallics papers, Concord & 9th preprinted note card
Ink: VersaMark, SU Lemon Lime Twist
Other: Gemini Foiling System, Spellbinders foiling die, Concord & 9th Merry Shapes dies, Gemini Jr, SSS gold EP, heat tool, Misti, dimensionals, liquid glue, SU glue dots

Saturday, September 14, 2019

A Very Merry

Happy Saturday Peeps,

Yay for the weekend! I don't have much planned and I'm good with that. More craft time! We are going to friends for dinner tonight, but other than that, some weekend chores and my craft room.

Last night after I turned off the work computer, I pulled out my new Concord & 9th September release stamp sets. All are Holiday/Christmas sets and all are gorgeous. I decided to make a card using this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! layout. It's a simple and fun sketch with tons of possibilities.




The plaid background is stamped using the new Woven Stripes background stamp. It's layered onto a Cherry Cobbler panel, then both onto the kraft card base. The flower is from the new Christmas Florals set. It's stamped on Whisper White and colored with Copics, then cut out using the set die. I also used the set die to cut the shape from the kraft square panel, which is popped up so that the flower is inset. Unfortunately, it really doesn't show up in the photo. For embellishment, I used three gold pearls from SU in the center of the flower, and added some Wink of Stella over the petals.

Here is the inside of the card. Images are from the Christmas Florals set.



I had made a card for last week's sketch, but never got around to writing a blog post. Sometimes that happens when I have a week with pretty long work days that include lots of driving. Anyhoo- here's last week's card and sketch. These stamps are from an older MFT set called Fall Friends. The background is stamped using the Concord & 9th Gingham Background stamp.

The paper is SU Neutrals Ivory, and I think that is why the background is rather splotchy. It kind of goes with the country feel of the stamp images.



Thanks for looking in. Have a wonderful weekend!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Woven Stripes Background and Christmas Florals sets by Concord & 9th
              Gingham Background set by Concord & 9th and Fall Friends set by My Favorite Things
Paper:   Neenah Desert Storm, SU Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler
             SU Garden Green and Neutrals Ivory
Ink:       Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Cherry Cobbler and Shaded Spruce
             Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Garden Green
Other:   Christmas Florals set dies, Die-namics Stitched Square die, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU gold pearls
             MFT Fall Friends set dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU green enamel dots
             dimensionals

Thursday, September 12, 2019

THANKS

Happy Thursday Peeps,

Wow, I feel like it's been a long week! Work has been hectic and stressful this week so I'm really glad to see the week coming to an end.

I made my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge on Sunday evening, but didn't have time to write the blog post. This week Ann has a pretty color challenge.

I've used new Concord & 9th dies from the August release to make a pretty fall card.




To start, using blending brushes, I blended each of the three SU inks onto white card stock. After the ink dried, I cut each piece with the Concord & 9th dies. Then, using the Concord & 9th Sew Essentials kit, I stitched each leaf using thread that closely matches the SU ink shades.

Black is used for the "neutral" color and the card base is SU Pretty Peacock. I used an embossing folder to dry emboss the black piece.

On the inside, I used another 2 of the C&9th dies from the set, stitching one of them as well.



These stitching dies are kind of fun. I wasn't going to get into these, but. . .  (you all know how that goes!)

Thanks for looking,
Colleen


Supplies
Sew Sational die set and Sew Essential kit both by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Pretty Peacock, Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Whisper White
Ink: SU Pretty Peacock, Cajun Craze, Merry Merlot
Other: SU embossing folder, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Thursday, September 5, 2019

I just HERD the news

Hi Peeps,

It's rather late on Thursday night, but I was bound and determined to get a card made for LeAnne's theme week for the Paper Players.

Work has me traveling to Los Angeles or Orange County all week, so with traffic I'm not getting home until after 7:00 pm. Everyday, I would plan to stamp but just too tired. Since it's Thursday, I had to do it tonight. It's not the most creative of cards, but pretty cute after it's all put together.





Using blending brushes and some Distress Oxide inks, I made the sky and barnyard. Next, the fence was stamped and colored with a dark brown Copic. The rest of the images were stamped, colored and fussy cut then arranged.

Here's the inside.



Happy Friday everyone! I'm certainly looking forward to the weekend.
Thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Green Acres set by Taylored Expressions
Paper: SU Early Expresso and X-Press It Blending card stocks
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Early Expresso, Copics, Distress Oxide blues and browns
Other: Misti, TE blending brushes, dimensionals

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

You're All Kinds of Wonderful

Hello again,

This is my second post with another card for the Sunday Stamps Sketch Challenge. I've used more Concord & 9th sets. The same Plaid Background combined with the Winter Wear set and the Everyday Bouquet Turnabout set. I must have been in the mood to make Fall and Winter cards because the temps were pretty warm in the wine country, LOL.

The plaid background is stamped on SU More Mustard card stock with Gina K Plum Punch ink, SU Rose Red and Mossy Meadow. I used other Gina K cubes to stamp the Turnabout set. After stamping,  it was cut with a Die-namics Zig Zag circle die. The images from the Winter Wear set are stamped using Memento tuxedo black and colored using Stampin' Blends. I fussy cut them and popped them up with dimensionals over the circle. The sentiments are layered with Die-namics Fishtail Flag dies.





Here's the card inside. More images from the Winter Wear set.



Thanks again,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: All Concord & 9th, Plaid Background, Winter Wear, Everyday Bouquet Turnabout sets
Paper: SU Whisper White, More Mustard, Taylored Expressions purple card stocks
Ink: Gina K, SU, Memento tuxedo black, Stampin' Blends
Other: Misti, Die-namics dies, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Grateful

Hello,

Well, it's back to work today for me. Sigh! I hope you had a nice Labor Day long weekend, if you reside in the U.S. that is. We were on a little get-a-way to the California Central Coast Wine country. It's our favorite place to go for long weekends. We were actually there for nine days and had a wonderful time. Tasted some excellent wines, great dinners and enjoyed our friends.

I managed to take some stamps and supplies and was able to make a few cards during the week. I've got a couple that I made using the current Sunday Stamps Sketch Challenge. I'm posting the first here and I'll do another quick post with the second card so I can link them both to the challenge.

Using a couple sets from Concord & 9th, I made this fall themed card.






The background is stamped with the Plaid Background set using SU More Mustard, Mossy Meadow and Cherry Cobbler inks. The pumpkin and leaves are from a new set called Autumn Harvest. The images are stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Stampin' Blends markers. After coloring, I used the set dies to cut them out. The sentiment is a die in the set too. It's cut from Cherry Cobbler card stock and layered over white card stock.

The images for the inside are also from the set.



Thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Plaid Background and Autumn Harvest sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White
Ink: SU More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow,  Stampin' Blends
Other: Concord & 9th Autumn Harvest dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU enamel dots, dimensional

Sunday, September 1, 2019

The Sweetest Pick

Hello and Happy September,

Today is our last day in the Central California Wine Country. Boo-hoo. Even though we live in a beautiful beach area, there's something about the Central Coast Wine area that makes it my happy place.

While here, I did some work projects and also made time for stamping, since I did load up the car with supplies. Today's card is made using this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! sketch. One last tribute to summer's fruit bounty.





This is another Concord & 9th set. I think it's from a few releases ago, but I hadn't used it yet. It's pretty cute. The card base is Neenah Desert Storm card stock. I stamped the berries using some Taylored Expressions ink cubes in Fruit Punch and Pink then cut them out using the set dies. For the background plaid and the berry tops, the inks are a combo of SU Call Me Clover and TE Lime Twist inks. The circle dies are Die-namics.

I've used another sentiment from the same set for the inside greeting with one of the small berries. I also added some of the left over background that I stamped.



If you've not been to the California Central Coast wine country, the main town is Paso Robles. Highway 101 runs through the area. People refer to the "west" side and "east" side. The west is everything west of the 101 to the coast, which is about 20 miles away. The landscape is rolling hills and oak trees, and of course, lots of grapes, olive trees, some almonds and cattle ranches. Here's a representative picture of the hills, trees and grapes.



Happy Labor Day tomorrow. I hope it's relaxing and fun.
Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Sweet Strawberry and Gingham Background sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: Neenah Desert Storm and Solar White card stocks
Ink: Taylored Expressions ink cubes in Fruit Punch, Pink and Lime Zest, SU Call Me Clover and Rose Red
Other: Sweet Strawberry set dies, Die-namics Double Stitched Circle dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, Dimensionals