Season's Greeting

Hello Peeps and Happy Halloween,

The week is winding down and I'm glad. It's been a busy work week for me and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Since it's Halloween, you'd think I'd be posting a Halloween care, but I'm not. I have a Christmas card for you.

My card uses this week's Paper Players Challenge sketch. It's a good one! I pulled out the very pretty Peaceful Boughs set and corresponding dies and used some of the new Christmas Time is Here DSP.

The die boughs are cut from SU Mossy Meadow and Mellow Moss card stock, the pinecones from SU Early Expresso and Crumb Cake. The large square is cut with SU square and scalloped square dies. The sentiment is heat embossed with gold EP and the little gold embellishments are also SU.

Here's the inside of the card. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and it's also embossed with gold EP.

Happy Friday to all and enjoy your weekend,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Peaceful Boughs by Stampin' Up
Paper: All SU, Whisper White thick, Mossy Meadow, Mellow Moss, Early Expresso and Crumb Cake card stock, Christmas Time is Here DSP
Ink: VersaMark
Other: SU dies, SU gold dots, gold embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

A COZY Little Christmas

Hello again,

One more card to post late this afternoon while watching the World Series game. The ladies at the Retro Rubber Challenge blog have a fun sketch this week and I wanted to play along with it.

The stamp set is called Cozy Christmas and it's from Sept 2018, so just fits the requirement for the challenge to use stamps at least one year old. This set has a "country" feel to me with it's stitched look images so I used some wood grain accents to go along with it. I like the way it turned out, but when I checked the sketch one last time, I realized that the sentiment in the sketch is under the circle element. Hopefully, I'll get a pass, LOL.

After stamping the panel, I used some white ink mixed with a little water and splattered it over the panel to look like snow.

The inside used additional stamps from the same set.

Thanks all,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Cozy Christmas by Concord & 9th, SU Woodgrain background stamp
Paper: Neenah Desert Storm and SU Shaded Spruce card stock
Ink: SU Poppy Parade, Shaded Spruce, Crumb Cake, VersaMark, Hero White Craft ink
Other: Die-namics stitched circle border and basic circle dies, SSS Sentiment Label dies, SU Woodgrain EF,  white EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, foam tape

It's Definitely Sweater Weather

Happy Friday Peeps,

As far as sweater weather, not so much in California where it's extremely hot up and down the state.
But, as I was looking through my stamp sets this morning to make a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, I came a cross these SSS stamps. They are Christmas Sweater Background and Right Meow. Who can resist these cute kitties dressed up for winter weather?

I finally added the Purple Posy ink to my SU collection and decided to use that color as the card base and sweater panel. The cats are colored with a combination of Copics and SU  markers.  The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP on Elegant Eggplant card stock.

Here's the inside of the card. The sweater background is stamped with Elegant Eggplant then I cut the center out with one of the SU Stitched Rectangle dies.

I hope you have a nice Friday evening and a great weekend!
Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Christmas Sweater Background and Right Meow sets by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SU Purple Posy, Elegant Eggplant and Whisper White
Ink: SU Purple Posy, Elegant Eggplant, VersaMark, Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU markers
Other: Misti, white EP, heat tool, Gemini Jr, SU Stitched Rectangle die, SSS Right Meow dies, dimensionals, SU Purple Posy enamel dots

Thanksgiving

Hello all,

I'm finally back home from our trip to the Central Coast Wine Country. We were there on vacay with our friends from Massachusetts. They flew home yesterday and I'm still off until Monday, so I have a few days yet before I have to go back to work. We visited several Wineries in the Paso Robles area and then spent two nights in the small coastal town of Cambria. It's a really beautiful area.

This morning while doing the towels and sheets laundry, I had time to stamp. LeAnne is our hostess for this week's Paper Players Challenge. It's time for the monthly clean and simple challenge and the theme is the sentiment. I had a few ideas in my mind. I decided on using this older Hero Arts Color Layering set called Thanksgiving. I've also used the colors from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. They are gray, orange and cream.

I tried to pay attention to the CAS requirements of limited layers, white space and limited embellishments. My card is totally one layer, no embellishments and not too busy. I generally like the way it turned out. The pumpkins on the front and all of the images on the inside are from another Hero Arts set called Coloring Layering Fall.

I'm enjoying my long weekend at home. We're having a heat wave here in SoCal this week, so staying in and crafting is ideal. 

Here are a few pictures from our week. First is a picture from the Paso Robles area wine country, then a few from the coast. Up Hwy 1 from Cambria is San Simeon. You may have heard of it because it's where the famous Hearst Castle is located. One of the beaches is a protected area for seals, mostly Elephant Seals. We stopped to see them.

Enjoy your Friday,  and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering sets Thanksgiving and Fall

Paper: SU Very Vanilla Thick card stock

Ink: Hero Arts Charcol, Taylored Expressions Candy Corn and Gina K Tangerine

Other: Misti Stamping tool

 

O COME LET US ADORE HIM - CAS(E) this Sketch! #345 Guest Designer

Hi peeps,

I'm thrilled today to make this post. I'm guesting on the CAS(E) this Sketch! blog as this week's guest designer. Many, many thanks to the regular DT for the invitation to join them for this week's sketch.


The sketch is from Brian with the sentiment as the focus. When I opened the email with the sketch, I immediately though of the Silent Night holiday set by Concord & 9th with this great sentiment. I decided to make a night sky and use gold embossing powder to make the sentiment stand out. Of course, I had to gold emboss the "guiding light" star as well.

Using blending brushes and Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks in shades of blue and purple I made the sky, blending darker to the outside of the panel. In fact, the very edge of the panel is lightly blended with black soot ink. Once I was satisfied with the panel, I cut it out using the largest Die-namics Wonky Stitched Rectangele die. After the ink was good and dry, the sentiment and large star were heat embossed with gold EP. The rest of the stars are made using white paint diluted with a few drops of water and flicked on using a small paint brush. After drying for a few hours, I layered the panel with light lavender card stock and then onto a dark purple card base. For embellishment, I added some clear enamel dots and some clear rhinestones.

I've used more images from the stamp set on the inside of the card.

Thanks again to the DT for the invitation to be this week's guest designer. I'm looking forward to seeing all your awesome cards in the gallery.

Enjoy your week and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Silent Night set by Concord & 9th
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock, Taylored Expressions textured lavender and purple card stocks
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide, VersaMark, SU Blackberry Bliss, Shaded Spruce, Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry
Other: Misti, gold EP, heat tool, white paint, Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes, Die-namics Wonky Stitched Rectangle die, rhinestones and clear enamel dots, Gemini Jr

Thank You For Your Kindness

Happy Thursday evening peeps,

It's been one of those weeks again. Tons of driving and long work days. I sat down Tuesday after dinner, fairly late actually, and tried to come up with something for this week's Paper Players Challenge. The awesomely creative Joanne is the hostess this week with a theme challenge of thankful. While looking through my sets, I came across this Altenew set and decided on it. I also wanted to use fall colors so that I could enter my card to this week's Sunday Stamps Color challenge.  I know that Camellias don't really grow in these colors, but I think these blooms turned out rather pretty.

Using the Misti, I stamped the three layers for each flower then cut them out with the corresponding die. Same for the leaves. The background is made using the SU Quilt Top EF, and the sentiment is cut out with the SU Stitched Rectangle dies.

In addition to the Paper Players and Sunday Stamps challenges, my card also works for the current tic-tac-toe challenge at Retro Rubber.  It fits the floral, embossing folder, die or punch diagonal. The stamp set is from 2017, I think.

Here's the inside of the card. The inside sentiment is from the same stamp set.

I'm thankful for only one more day of work for this week, and I get to stay in my home office to finish some reports. Then I'm on vacation for two weeks!  Our Mass friends are coming west and we are headed up to the Central California Coast wine country for 8 days. I. Can't. Wait!

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Build a Flower - Camellia set by Altenew
Paper: SU Whisper White and Neenah Desert Storm card stocks
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and various SU inks in oranges, rusts, golds, pinks, tans and greens
Other: Misti, SU Quilt Top EF, Altenew set dies, SU Stitched Rectangle dies, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

You're the Pumpkin Spice in My Latte

Happy Thursday evening to all,

Yay, one more work day then it's the weekend! I'm always happy for the weekends, LOL.

I have two cards to share. Using Jaydee's Tic-Tac-Toe grid for this week's Paper Players Challenge, and a couple of weekly sketch challenges, I made these. They both use Lawn Fawn stamp sets.

For this first card I used the Freshly Made Sketch 404, which is actually the previous week's sketch. For the tic-tac-toe, this uses the diagonal options.

 This is a shaker card. I haven't made one of these in quite awhile. Here is the inside of this card.

For card number two, the sketch is the current Sunday Stamps sketch. It uses the right side down on the tic-tac-toe grid.

And the inside of card two.

That's it for today. Have a great Friday!
Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Pumpkin Spice, Love You a Latte, Sweater Weather, Costume Party sets all from Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Whisper White card stock, Doodlebug patterned paper, SU Painted Autumn DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, VersaMark, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn set dies, Die-namics oval die, Plastic, mounting tape, heat tool, black EP, Gemini Jr, Misti, dimensionals, enamel hearts, white Nuvo crystal drops, sequins

Merry Christmas

Hello,

I have a very quick post with my card for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge. I made these cards on the weekend, but as it happens more than it should, I just didn't get around to taking the pictures.

I've used some new Christmas DSP from SU and dies and stamps from Concord & 9th.

This was super quick and fairly simple to make, and I really like the way it turned out. So much so that I made a second card using metallic card stock for the mistletoe and another sheet of the DSP.

The inside of both cards are the same and uses an older Concord & 9th holiday set.

Thanks all for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: All from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages and Trim the Tree sets
Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Garden Green card stock, Concord & 9th Gold Metallic card stock, SU Toile Tidings DSP, SU red glimmer paper
Ink: SU Real Red, VersaMark
Other: Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages dies, Gold EP, Heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, red paper rhinestones, SU red sparkly twine, liquid glue and SU mini glue dots