Let Your Heart Be Light

Happy Black Friday,

I am NOT a shopper and certainly not on Black Friday usually, but I am in Pacific Grove/Carmel-by-the-Sea (Monterey, CA area) for the Thanksgiving weekend with my bestie and my mom, so we are going into the village later today for lunch and a little shopping. It shouldn't be like hitting the large department stores or malls.

We've had great weather so far, but tomorrow the rain is supposed to start. I brought some coloring projects and we have Five Crowns to play and other games if it gets too windy and wet. Maybe we will do the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We've all been, but it's a place you can go again and again.

I made this card last Sunday for Joanne's sketch challenge at the Paper Players. I like the simplicity of the sketch and it certainly has tons of room for interpretation, but I kept to the sketch pretty closely.

The stamp set is by Altenew from a few years ago. It's one of their layering sets and super fun to play with. I went with traditional Christmas colors of green, red and gold.

Here's the inside of the card. Stamps here are from Concord & 9th.

Here's a little picture from the famous 17 Mile Drive I took yesterday. I believe these are Black Cormorant seabirds.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day with family and friends. Wishing you a nice and relaxing weekend. Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Candlelight Set by Altenew and Christmas Florals by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow and Whisper White card stock, SU Christmas Time Is Here DSP, Concord & 9th Gold paper
Ink: VersaMark, SU Old Olive and Mossy Meadow, Cherry Cobbler, Merry Merlot, Copics
Other: gold EP, heat tool, Misti, Altenew dies, gold sequins

Holiday Greetings

Happy Monday,

Happy Thanksgiving week to all. I only have to work two days this week, then I'm off beginning Wednesday and don't go back to work until December 9. Whoo-hoo!

I am working in my office today "crunching" verification data but decided to take a break to write up this post before the deadline expires in about an hour. This is another Christmas card, and I've used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for the layout.

All stamps and dies are Concord & 9th. The card base and the top panel are both stamped with the Christmas Cheer Turnabout set. For the card base stamping, I used Shaded Spruce to stamp the four turns. The top panel is stamped using four different inks. The deer head is from another C&9th set as is the sentiment dies.

Here is the inside of the card, which uses a fourth C&9th set.

Have a good afternoon all and thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps and corresponding dies all Concord & 9th: Christmas Cheer Turnabout, Floral Print Silhouette set dies, Season of Cheer dies, Merry & Bright set
Paper: SU Shaded Spruce, Blueberry Bushel, Riding Hood Red and Whisper White card stock
Ink: SU Shaded Spruce, Blueberry Bushel, Riding Hood Red,  More Mustard and various others
Other: Misti, Gemini Jr, gold sequins, foam tape

Let There Be Peace

Hello.

I hope all had a nice weekend. We went to our neighbor's for dinner and a little birthday celebration last night. After dinner, we had a rousing game of Five Crowns. If you've not played it and like card games, give it a try.

I spent the afternoon doing some stamping to make the birthday card and I stamped up a desk calendar as a present. It's the 2020 Concord & 9th calendar set and I made it a coffee theme using the C&9th Coffee Turnabout set. Turned out pretty cute. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

I did take pictures for this card. Jaydee is this week's hostess for the Paper Players Challenge. It's theme week combined with CAS. I got the theme part pretty well, and while my card was super fast and easy, it actually does fail some of the traditional elements that make up Clean and Simple. But, I'm sticking with it. Jaydee's theme is North Pole. I have several cute Avery Elle sets that work and I've combined four of them to make my card. When I saw the theme this morning my mind went immediately to the Aurora Borealis depicted in the photo. I gave it a try using my blending brushes and Distress Oxide inks.

I started with the Citron shade blending streaks from the top to the bottom of the card. Then I used several blue and and purple shades, and finally black soot to make the night sky in-between the light streaks. For the ocean that the iceberg is floating on, I kept the blues lighter. The bear and iceberg are stamped, colored with Copics and cutout with the set dies. The sentiment is also Avery Elle. It's stamped in black ink first, then all of the words except Peace were masked so I could stamp VersaMark over Peace to emboss with gold EP. The little star is from the same sentiment set, also heat embossed with gold.

The card base is SSS fog card stock. I used some fun foam to raise the scene panel up.

Her is the inside of the card, keeping with the North Pole theme.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: All sets are Avery Elle; Polar Pals, Corner Sentiments Holiday, Winter Woodland Wonders, Bring on the Joy
Paper: Simon Says Stamp Fog and SU Whisper White card stocks
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, VersaMark, Midnight Muse, various Distress Oxide
Other: Misti, Blender Brushes, Gemini Jr, Avery Elle set dies, fun foam, liquid glue, heat tool, gold EP

You and a Unicorn for Christmas

Hi again Peeps,

Another post with another Holiday card that I made this weekend. This card uses this week's Case this Sketch! sketch. I was looking through some of my older Lawn Fawn sets and came across the little unicorn set and decided it would work well with the sketch layout. Since the theme of my card is Unicorns, I decided to go with a pastel color palette. I'm also posting to this week's Retro Rubber Challenge. It's Anything Goes week.

To start my card I needed to make the small rectangle/square element for my little Unicorn. I made the background using the Concord & 9th Star Turnabout set and four SU pastel shades of ink. The card base is SU Purple Posy card stock. Using Purple Posy ink, a blender brush and a cloud stencil, I made the background. The circle of stars, cut from Pretty In Pink paper, is from Avery Elle. The Unicorn is colored with Copics and cut out using the corresponding die. The first two lines of the sentiment are stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with white EP. The "You" is stamped with Purple Posy ink first, then over stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with clear EP. All were then trimmed and popped up with small dimensionals. The last part of the sentiment is stamped with black ink in the lower corner.

Here is the inside. This sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies set. It fit perfectly with the rest of my card. The little snowflakes are from this set as well.

Thanks again for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Winter Unicorn and Winter Skies sets both by Lawn Fawn

Paper: SU Whisper White, Purple Posy and Pretty In Pink card stock

Ink: SU Purple Posy, Pretty In Pink, Pineapple Crush, and Pool Party, Gina K amalgam black ink and VersaMark, Copics

Other: Winter Unicorn die, Avery Elle circle of stars die, cloud stencil, TE blender brush, Misti, Gemini Jr, white and clear EP, heat tool, Nuvo clear glitter brush, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Celebrate the Season

Well hello to all,

It's been a fun weekend in my craft room. I've been trying to concentrate on making Holiday cards and I've gotten another four made. I still have a long way to go!

I have two cards using Linda's great sketch for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I made one of these, the 2nd one in this post, yesterday. I usually look through the gallery before writing up my blog posts to see what other's have made and when I did that yesterday, I saw several other cards using the same SU Snowman stamps and papers, so I decided I'd make another card to post to the gallery, which is the first card in this post.

In addition to using the FMS, I'm using Claire's colors for this week's Paper Players Challenge. She has chosen Granny Apple Green, Bermuda Bay and Gorgeous Grape. I had to do some thinking before I came up with a Christmas card design using these non-traditional holiday colors. I'm very happy with how pretty these bright colors worked out. I've used gold embossing as an accent for them.

I started with a Whisper White card base. It's the thick weight card stock. I used a new Gina K stencil and the three ink colors with blending brushes to make the background. Using the same blending brushes, I blended the three colors in a horizontal pattern on another piece of WW card stock. After letting it dry, I stamped the ornament from the SU Beautiful Baubles set using VersaMark and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. This was cut out using SU square and scalloped square dies. For the smaller square in Linda's sketch, I used a Die-namics square frame die cut from Granny Apple Green. The sentiment is stamped with Gorgeous Grape ink onto vellum and heat embossed with  clear embossing powder, then trimmed down for the bottom element. I've used gold Stickles for the top of the ornament.

For the inside, I've used one of the set dies, cut three times from the three colored card stocks. I saved the small pieces from the die and glued them back into the ornaments so that each has two of the colors. The hangers and bows are gold heat embossed and I've brushed some Nuvo clear liquid glitter over all of the inserts. The sentiment is from the same SU set, stamped in Gorgeous Grape ink.

Here is the card that I made yesterday afternoon using the same sketch. Mostly, the DSP does all of the work. I did use the coordinating SU stamp set for the sentiment and for one of the snowmen's hats. I really liked how this card turn out and it was so quick and easy using this fun DSP. I did use the Gina K stencil with Pool Party ink for the background. The card stock is also Pool Party, so a tone on tone look. The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP. The holly berries are red Kaiser rhinestones.

Thanks for looking, and have a good Sunday evening, and a good start to the week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: all SU, Beautiful Baubles, Itty Bitty Christmas and Snowman Season sets. 

Paper: SU Whisper White thick and regular, Granny Apple Green, Bermuda Bay, Gorgeous Grape and Pool Party card stock, Let It Snow DSP, vellum

Ink: VersaMark, SU Granny Apple Green, Bermuda Bay, Gorgeous Grape, Pool Party

Other: Misti, white, gold and clear embossing powders, heat tool, Gina K Snowflake Mandala stencil, Taylored Expressions blending brushes, SU square and scalloped square dies, Die-namics square border die, Kaiser rhinestones, liquid glue, dimensionals, Gemini Jr

ERR MAH GERD

Hello,

Some before dinner stamping today. I combined a couple of sets from two different companies to make today's card. The coffee cups are from Paper Smooches and the background images are from a Concord & 9th Turnabout set.

I started by stamping the cups randomly on a white panel with Gina K amalgam ink. Then I used the corresponding set die and cut 6 masks from some Gina K Masking paper. (Love this stuff. It works way better than post-it notes). After masking, I used the two turnabout stamps in the Holly Berry Turnabout set to make the background. Next, I removed the masks and colored the cups with Copies. The sentiments are from the same Paper Smooches set and they crack me up. They are heat embossed with white EP.

Of course, this will be posted to both the 30 Day Coloring Challenge where it's day 7 and to the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. I think today is it's last day. (sad face).

I kept the inside pretty simple using the same coffee cup and more images from the Paper Smooches set.

Thanks all and have a great evening and a very pleasant Friday,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Caffeinated Set by Paper Smooches and Holly Berry Turnabout set by Concord & 9th

Paper: X-Press It Blending, SU Rose Red and Call Me Clover card stock

Ink: Gina K amalgam black ink, VersaMark, Copics, SU greens and Rose Red

Other: Misti, Paper Smooches die, Gina K masking paper, SU white EP, heat tool, foam tape, Gemini Jr, gold sequins

Thinking Of You

Hi all,

More after dinner stamping tonight. I'm still trying to keep up with Kathy Rac's 30 Day Coloring Challenge. It's early in the month, but so far I'm doing a fairly good job. This is day 6 of the challenge.

This is a recent SSS monthly kit set. I've colored it using the new Color Throwdown Challenge colors of orange, brown and moss. In addition, SSS Wednesday Challenge theme is "Thinking of You."

I've used my Copic markers to color the images. I'm thinking after looking at the finished card that the birds should have been colored in greens or browns instead of oranges. They kind of blend in with the flowers. Oh well. 

Here is the inside of the card.

Thanks for looking in, and have a good Thursday,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Look for the Rainbow set by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: SU Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip card stock

Ink: Gina K amalgam black ink, SU Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Copics

Other: Misti, enamel dots, liquid glue

Cup of Cozy

Hello stampers,

I'm loving that I've been able to stamp after dinner lately. Keeps my blog busy, LOL.
There are two challenges going on now helping to keep my inspiration going. Its day 4 of the 30 Day Coloring Challenge and day 5 of the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and my card is for both.

The stamps are from Concord & 9th and I used some winter themed patterned papers from Echo Park. The sketch comes from this week's Global Design Project.

The cup is stamped on X-Press It Blending card stock and colored with Copies. I did paper piece part of it with the patterned papers. Instead of twine, I used some old SU red/white polka-dot ribbon under the SU Stitched Label dies. I love how bright and fun this turned out. I found some Doodlebug stickers to add for embellishments. 

The inside stamps are from Verv.

Hoping to get some more stamping in tonight too. Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Cup of Cozy set by Concord & 9th and Better with You set by Verv
Paper: SU Real Red, Neenah Desert Storm, X-Press It Blending card stocks and Celebrate Winter by Echo Park patterned papers
Ink: Gina K amalgam black, Gina K Blue Denim and Sandy Beach ink cubes, SU Real Red, Copics
Other: SU Stitched Nested Label dies, SU red polka-dot ribbon, Doodlebug stickers, Misti, Gemini Jr, foam tape

Birthday Wishes

Happy Monday evening all,

Here's my day 4 card for Kathy Roc's 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I started this card last night after dinner and finished it tonight after dinner. The stamp set is from the October Simon Says Stamp Monthly club. One of the cutest sets they've done lately. I debated with myself on how much detail I was adding, but kept going with it none the less. In the end, the details worked pretty well to create a little fall woods scene. Consequently, this works well for this week's "into the woods" challenge at The Paper Players. I also used the current Sunday Stamps Challenge, where the title is Autumn Richness, for the leaf colors.

The three animals were stamped first using masking technique. Masks were made for all of them and then the trees were stamped over the animals. All images are colored with Copic sketch markers. The leaves are colored in the Sunday Stamps challenge colors and fussy cut out. On the trees, I've used mini dimensionals to adhere them.

Here is the inside of the card. Stamps and dies are from Need & Tangled.

I love coloring time. This was a fun card to make, although not a quick card to make, LOL.

Thanks all,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Woodland Whimsey set by Simon Says Stamp and Celebrate You set by Next & Tangled
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock, SU Island Indigo, Basic Black, Hello Honey card stock
Ink: Gina K amalgam black ink, SU Island Indigo and Copics
Other: Misti, Concord & 9th Masking Paper (love this), Need & Tangled Celebrate You die, Gemini Jr, mini dimensionals

Book Lovers Have the Best Stories

Hey again,

A second post here this afternoon. Here's a card for day 3 of the 30 Day Coloring Challenge and also for the Fall / Winger Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. I had loads of fun putting this together! Lots of coloring with my Copics, which I love. This color theme comes for the current Color Throwdown Challenge where the colors are teal, olive, rust and navy.

All stamps are from Concord & 9th. The plaid background is made using the Woven Stripes Background stamp colored with SU Old Olive, Night of Navy and Really Rust markers. It's stamped on a card base of Neenah Desert Storm card stock.

The other images are from the C&9th set called Daily Wear. The images are stamped with Gina K amalgam black ink onto X-Press It Blending card, and colored with Copies in this week's colors. After all of the images were colored, I cut the panel using a Die-namics Wonky Stitched Rectangle die, which I layered onto mats of Old Olive and Night of Navy card stock. The coffee cup is cut out using the corresponding C&9th die. I decided that I needed some steam coming from the cup and this is done using a small heart die from my collection. It's cut from Really Rust card stock, which I then painted with Wink of Stella and added 3 rhinestones for embellishments.

For the inside of the card, I've used stamps from the C&9th Coffee Blend Turnabout set. The layers are Old Olive and Really Rust card stock.

Thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: All by Concord & 9th, Daily Wear, Coffee Blend Turnabout, and Woven Stripes Background sets
Paper: Neenah Desert Storm, SU Old Olive, Really Rust, Night of Navy and X-Press It Blending card stocks
Ink: Gina K Amalgam black ink, SU Night of Navy, Old Olive, Really Rust markers and ink pads, Gina K Kraft, Copics
Other: Concord & 9th dies, Die-namics and Hero Arts dies, Ellen Hutson heart die, Wink of Stella, small clear rhinestones, liquid glue, Misti, Gemini Jr, foam tape, dimensionals                                                          

Hello There

Happy Sunday to all,

I hope your weekend has been relaxing so far. I can say mine has been and I've had lots of time for stamping, and I'm actually planning on spending most of today stamping too.

Since it is Sunday, that means a new Paper Players Challenge. Anne Marie has a fun theme challenge this week called "Into the Woods." Now, I have many stamp sets that would work for this challenge. My usual approach is to pull out one or two sets, look for a sketch and then papers that works with the stamps, and go. This morning, I had in my mind to make a Christmas card and I'd pulled out my SU Peaceful Boughs set, but as I was looking through my patterned papers, I came across the Pick A Pattern DSP. Well, there went my Christmas card idea! I did this instead.

I've used Jen's sketch from this week's Freshly Made Sketches. It's simple and the design allows the DSP to be the star. I pulled out the coordinating SU stamp set called Pieces and Patterns which works perfectly for Jen's design. This card went together in no time. The green vertical element is the reverse side of the woodland paper design. I stamped the sentiment using black ink, several times, in order to make it very dark. Then used VersaMark and heat embossed it with clear EP, and popped it up with dimensionals after fussy cutting it out. The little puffy woodgrain heart embellishment is from my stash. Probably from a kit I purchased at some point.

Here's the inside of the card. The images are from the same SU stamp set.

Don't you love that little pink fox?!

Thanks all! Have a great Sunday,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pieces & Patterns set by Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Basic Black and Whisper White card stock, SU Pick a Pattern DSP

Ink: Gina K amalgam black, VersaMark, Copics

Other: Misti, SU clear EP, heat tool, dimensionals, puffy heart sticker

Chai Adore You

Hello peeps,

With my trusty assistant, who was visiting this afternoon and pictured below, I made another card for three challenges. The sketch comes from this week's CAS(E) this Sketch!, the theme from the Fall and Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, and I'm also trying to play along as much as I can with Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

Using some new Paper Smooches stamps, here is my winter tea themed card.

 

The winter themed patterned papers are from one of the SSS monthly kits from last year, I think. It's from Echo Park. The cup is stamped using Gina K Amalgam ink in black and colored with Copics and paper pieced with the patterned papers. It was cut out with the Paper Smooches set corresponding dies. The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP.

Here is the inside of the card. The cup, saucer and spoon are from Lawn Fawn. The sentiments are from Paper Smooches.

Thanks again all for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Caffeinated and Caffeinated Two sets by Paper Smooches and Love You a Latte by Lawn Fawn
Paper: Whisper White thick and Night of Navy card stock, Echo Park patterned paper
Ink: Gina K Amalgam ink, SU Night of Navy and Real Red, Copics, VersaMark
Other: Paper Smooches dies, Die-namics Stitched Square die, Lawn Fawn dies, SU white EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, Paper Source snowflake sticker, foam tape

My assistant this afternoon: