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

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Aparrotly It's Your Birthday

Hello all,

I'm loving the Slimline card trend that's happening lately and I've made a few recently. I even bought some Slimline layering dies about a month ago, so I was pleased to see that Linda's Freshly Made Sketch challenge this week is to make a Slimline card.

Using a couple of new stamp sets, corresponding dies and stencils from the July Honey Bee release, here's what I came up with.





The stamp set is called Birds of Paradise and it has a companion set of sentiments called Tropical Tweets. Both the birds and the sentiments have dies that go with, and they are both too cute.

I started with a card base of Yoyo Yellow. That is layered with first a green scalloped panel and a panel that I made with the new Honey Bee Pineapple stencils. The inks used are from Gina K. Her inks really blend beautifully! That is cut with another Slimline die.

The parrots are stamped with Memento black and colored with Blends then popped up with Gina K foam squares. The little presents are from an Avery Elle birthday set. 

I played around with putting a sentiment somewhere on the front, but I didn't like any of my tries, so I left it off and opted for just the inside sentiment. I did use some SU Shimmery Crystal Effects over the parrots' eyes and used my Nuvo glitter pen on the bows and dots on the presents.

Here is the inside with the greeting. I love how the sentiment set has dies to match each. 



Thanks for looking in, and have a nice Friday and weekend!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets sets by Honey Bee and Sweet Swines set by Avery Elle for the present stamp
Paper: SU retired Yoyo Yellow, Gina K Jelly Bean Green and White layering weight card stocks
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Blends, Gina K Wild Dandelion and Jelly Bean Green ink cubes
Other: Honey bee set corresponding dies, Slimline layering dies by Kat Scrappiness, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Nuvo clear glitter pen, TE Blending brushes, Misti, Gemini Jr, Gina K Connect glue and foam squares

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Hello

Hi and happy Hump Day eve,

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe!

Today was my last day of vacation, and I'm really not looking forward to going back to work. Does anyone ever?

This week is sketch week at the Paper Players and Anne Marie has a fun one for us to use. I pulled out one of the project kits from the new SU annual catalog to make a birthday card for a friend.




I paired the new 2020-2022 in-color Just Jade with the Night of Navy, and I think it makes a great contrast. The sentiment strip doesn't show well in the pic, but IRL, it does. I wanted it to blend with the background paper some, so I used Very Vanilla card stock. The "hello" stamp is from the Forever Fern set. I did use a sentiment from the Boho Indigo set here on the inside.




Have a nice end of the week and thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Boho Indigo and Forever Fern sets by Stampin' Up
Paper: Night of Navy, Just Jade and Very Vanilla card stock, Boho Indigo DSP
Ink: SU Night of Navy and Just Jade
Other: SU Boho Indigo set dies, 2020-2022 in-color enamel dots, Misti, Gemini Jr., Waffleflower A2 rectangle dies, SU Dimensionals

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Happy Anniversary

Hi again,

I have one more post today. Using the colors from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge and a new stamp set from Honey Bee called Birds of Paradise, I made this anniversary card for our friends in Mass.




I stamped the leaf images around the white panel with Memento black and colored them with Blends. The flamingos are stamped, colored and cut out with the corresponding dies and popped up with Gina K foam squares. The sentiment comes from the corresponding sentiment stamp set, which also has it's own die set. The card base is SU Poppy Parade, although it looks more coral in the picture. For embellishment I used some small orange and yellow sequins randomly around the panel.

Here is the inside of the card.



Thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets sets by Honey Bee
Paper: SU Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White thick
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and SU Blends
Other: Honey Bee set dies, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K foam tape, sequins

HO HO HO

Happy Hump Day,

I'm still at my sister's house in Oregon and while she is working, I've been doing a little stamping. Today's post has my card for this week's Paper Player's Challenge. This week Jaydee has a CAS Celebration theme challenge. CONGRATS to the PP team on this being the 500th challenge. I'm proud to say I was lucky to be part of this wonderful group of ladies a few years ago. It was a blast!

I sometimes struggle with CAS cards, but this idea seemed to work pretty well. The stamp set is Gnome For the Holidays by Simon Says Stamp.





This card maybe took 15 minutes from start to finish. The images are stamped in Memento black and colored with SU Blends. I added some sparkle to the holly berries and the HO HO HO using a Nuvo glitter pen. After cutting the panel out with a Die-namics square die, I cut two more squares of paper and used them to pop it up instead of using foam tape.

The Gnome is on the inside of the card.




I'm headed back to California tomorrow afternoon.  Have a great Wednesday and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Gnome For the Holidays set by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SU Whisper White Thick and Real Red card stock
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Blends
Other: Misti, Die-namics die, Big Shot, Connect glue, Nuvo glitter pen

Monday, July 20, 2020

Welcome To Your New Home

Hi Peeps,

Happy Monday.

My Bestie bought and moved into a brand new home recently. The July Simon Says Stamp Card Kit turned out to be the perfect stamp set to make a congrats card for her. The neighborhood stamp image is also perfect for making a Slimline card.

To make the background I cut strips of different colored card stock in half inch strips and glued them at an angle onto the card base. I decided to not color all of the houses, and I added the WIFI symbol above one of the houses after I decided on the inside greeting (which I love, BTW!) I matted the stamped panel with gray and navy card stock and glued them to the card base. I used Copics for the images I did decide to color.

Front of card:


Inside of card:



I'm hoping to get to see her new home soon, but will need to wait until we all feel safe visiting.

Have a great week all and thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Home Sweet Home set by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SSS white card stock, SU Old Olive, Night of Navy, Magenta, Barely Banana, Going Gray card stocks
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Old Olive, Copics
Other: Misti, Connect Glue, TE cloud dies, Gemini Jr

Sunday, July 19, 2020

This Calls For Cake

Hello and happy Sunday,

I'm currently on vacation at my sister's house in Portland, OR. I drove to northern California last week to pick up our mom to bring her here to stay with my sister for a month or so.

I usually bring some crafting supplies when I travel by car to mom's and/or my sister's house, although my sister is also a paper crafter and I can use some of her supplies while here. Yesterday, she and I did some shopping at a local scrapbooking and stamping store in Beaverton.

The supplies I brought with me are mostly for making some Holiday cards, but I also brought some misc sets too, which I used to make this birthday card for a co-work's end of July birthday.

The sketch is this week's Freshly Made Sketch. The stamp set is from Avery Elle called Sweet Swines. I used the Gina K Wreath Builder to stamp the balloons.





The images are all stamped with Memento tuxedo black on Whisper White Thick card stock and colored with SU Blends. I brought my Blends instead of my Copics to color with on this trip, because they take up less room. Honestly, I don't like how the Blends color as well as the Copics.

Here is the inside of the card.



Have a nice and restful Sunday. Thanks for checking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Sweet Swines set by Avery Elle
Paper: SU Brilliant Blue, Granny Apple Green, Poppy Parade and Whisper White thick card stocks
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Blends
Other: Sweet Swines set dies, Gina K Wreath Builder, Big Shot, Misti, Gina K foam squares

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Hello and Ride The Wave - Two Cards, Two Challenges

Happy Sunday peeps,

I rarely post multiple challenge cards in one blog post, but that's what I'm doing this morning. I'm headed out of town early tomorrow morning and since I had the cards completed, I figure should get them out.

You'll notice that I must have been in an ocean color mood yesterday.

This first card is for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. The flower stamp and die are from Pink Fresh Studio and the Hello die is Stampin' Up. The card stock and inks are from Gina K Designs.

I used one of the new nested background stamps where the pieces can be removed so that each line can be stamped in a different color. These stamps are quite fun. I trimmed the stamped panel down to 4.0x5.25 inches and and mounted it onto the dark teal card base. For the triangles at the top and bottom, I simply cut a piece of the the dark teal to the same dimensions and then cut it corner to corner.

The hello die is cut from the pool card stock 3 times and glued together then glued to the front of the card with Connect glue. I added a layer of SU Shimmery  Crystal Effects for some shine and added three enamel dots for embellishment.




The current  CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge sketch is very interesting. After spending some time looking through my stamp sets, here's what I came up with for it. This is my rendition of "surfing the tube." The wave and surfer dies, and the sentiment stamp are from Hero Arts. The background wave cover plate is from Avery Elle. I cut the cover plate from white, and from Tranquil Teal and Tranquil Sea card stock. The card base is Sea Glass. The surfing girl and her surfboard are cut from bright pink card stock with a layer of Shimmery Crystal Effects over top. The card stock is Gina K and the pink ink is Rina K Electro-pop Poppin' Pink.



Finally a card that I made yesterday evening that isn't for any challenge. Just because I had the stamp sets on my table. Stamps and dies are Hero Arts and inks from Gina K and Hero Arts. The sand is made using blending brushes. I tried to be arty and make cloud shadows on the sand using a darker ink to blend. The sky is blended with a very light blue. The clouds are stamped with Hero Sky Blue ink for the first stamp and the layering stamp is stamped with Hero Unicorn Craft ink. They came out pretty nicely.



I'll be packing the rest of the day. I'm off to see my mom and my sister for a few weeks.

Thanks for looking in and have a nice Sunday,
Colleen

Supplies Card 1
Stamps: Modern Layered Florals and Nested Chevron Background by Pink Fresh Studio
Paper: Gina K White, Sea Glass and Tranquil Teal card stocks
Ink: Gina K ink cubes in Jelly Bean Green, Key Lime, Applemint, Sea Glass, Tranquil Teal
Other: SU Hello die, Modern Layered Florals die, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue, Gina K foam squares, enamel dots

Supplies Card 2
Stamps: Beach Heroscape set by Hero Arts
Paper: Gina K card stocks
Ink: Rina K Electro-pop Poppin' Pink
Other: Hero Arts Surfs Up dies, Avery Elle Wave Cover Plate, Gemini Jr, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Connect Glue, foam tape

Supplies Card 3
Stamps: Beach Heroscape set by Hero Arts
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock, Gina K Sea Glass card stock
Ink: Gina K ink and Hero ink cubes, Hero Unicorn craft
Other: Beach Heroscape dies, TE blending brushes, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue

Friday, July 10, 2020

Hello Beautiful

Hi and happy Friday,

Not much stamping time for me this week, work got a little busier again. I made time last evening to make a card for Ann's Fun and Fancy Folds challenge at the Paper Players. I had the inside to finish this morning,  and I got it done to squeak in before the deadline.



Years and years ago, when I first started stamping, I remember making holiday cards where the front panels overlapped when folded, kind of like a box closes. I couldn't find one of those nor the instructions, so I tried to remember. Here's what I came up with.

Front of card closed:


Card partially opened:


Card fully opened:



The card is made using two pieces of card stock 4.25 x 8.5 inches. I trimmed maybe 1/16 inch from one long side of each before gluing them together. This helps the folded pieces lay flatter. Both are scored at 2 1/8 inches from each end. This makes the center 4.25 square.

The stamps and stencil are Rena K (Gina K Designs) and these super bright fluorescent inks are Rina's Electro Pop inks.

The outside panels and the inside background are created by blending various colors of the inks with the Gina K Sending Sunshine stencil and blending brushes.  The sliced citrus fruit are made by stamping the inside first with the colored ink then over stamping with VersaMark and heat embossing with clear EP. I used two layers of clear EP. The rinds are made by inking just the outside of the stamp. I wanted to leave the center area and the areas between the sections white. The sentiment is stamped with Gina K Amalgam black ink and I added some sparkly enamel dots that compliment the colors and the background design.

The "fine-apple" on the inside is made using three stamps. The little orange accents are stamped in the same manner as the fruit slices using the colored ink then stamping over with VersaMark and using clear EP to heat emboss.

I hope you enjoy this differently folder card. They are fun to make. I am thinking a pop-up image would be a nice surprise inside.

Thanks for looking in, and have a relaxing and safe weekend.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Sending Sunshine set by Rina K Designs
Paper: SU Green Galore (retired) and Whisper White card stock
Ink: Electro Pop inks by Rina K Designs, VersaMark, Gina K Amalgam black ink
Other: Sending Sunshine Stencil, Sending Sunshine dies, Die-namics square die, clear embossing powder, heat tool, TE blending brushes, Misti, Gemini Jr., Connect liquid glue, enamel dots

Monday, July 6, 2020

Christmas in July - Gina K

Happy Monday Peeps,

I hope your holiday weekend was relaxing and safe. I spent most of the day on Saturday making Christmas cards.

I'm loving the Slimline cards and decided to make some for Christmas. I had my latest kit from Gina on my desk which inspired me to pull out my Gina K Christmas sets and see what I could come up with. I ended up with three cards, so far, and I'm loving them all. The Gina K July Mix Challenge is Christmas.

These are all made with mostly Gina K supplies.  Here are pictures of the three, including the insides of each.

Front Card 1:


Inside Card 1:


Front Card 2:


Inside Card 2:



Front Card 3:



Inside Card 3:



I'm thinking I will duplicate each of these, since they turned out pretty cute. Maybe make a total of 5 each to add to my 2020 Christmas card stash, which is currently pretty light.

Thanks for looking in, and have a good week!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Christmas Silhouettes set, Warmer With You set, Winter Hugs set all by Gina K
Paper: Gina K card stock in various colors
Ink: Gina K ink cubes in various colors, Memento tuxedo black, Copics,
Other: Gina K corresponding set dies, Gina K oval layering oval dies, Gina K stencil, TE blending brushes, Misti Stamping tool, Gemini Jr, Gina K connect glue and foam squares, Nuvo glitter brush, misc yellow rhinestones and red pearls

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Sweeter Friend

Hi again,

I'm back with another challenge card that I made yesterday. I decided to make a separate post rather than combining them into one.

This card is inspired by two weekly challenges, this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge and this week's Color Throwdown challenge. Like many stampers, I used the photo as my theme inspiration.







Using my Misti, I stamped a background of water melons using the new SU set called Cute Fruit. This is a sweet stamp set for sure! The ink colors are SU Watermelon Wonder and Cucumber Crush. After the stamping was completed, I used a dark green Copic marker to add a layer of dark green to the images. From this background piece I cut the diagonal panel. This is added to the card base covered with SU retired black and white DSP. The sentiment is heat embossed with clear EP and VersaMark over Memento tuxedo black ink. I used black Nuvo Crystal Drops over the seeds in each water melon image and added a couple of enamel hearts as embellishments.

Here is the inside of my card.

  
Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by my blog,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Cute Fruit set by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Whisper White and Cucumber Crush card stock, SU retired DSP
Ink: SU Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Memento Tuxedo black, VersaMark, Copic dark green marker
Other: Misti, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Nuvo Crystal Drops, enamel hearts, foam tape

Hello

Happy July 4th!

Yesterday was a work holiday for many of us and I took advantage and did lots of stamping. I made a few cards for challenges and a few just for fun. Not that they're all NOT fun, LOL!

This post has my card using this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch by Jacquie. I really debated over how to go about making a card, whether to follow the sketch exactly or use a little "creative license" with it. As you can see below, I did the later, and I love the clean feel, even with multiple images.




I started with a piece of Soft Sky card stock and sponged some clouds in the center with Hero Unicorn craft ink using the SSS cloud stencil. While that was drying, I stamped the kites and die cut all of the images. The kite stamps and dies and the cloud die are from Concord & 9th. The top panel is trimmed to 4 x 5.25 inches and layered on the Soft Sky card base with two pieces of scrap card stock to give it a lift. I arranged the there images in the group and added some SSS iridescent gems and outlined the cloud with a few layers of sparkle using a Nuvo glitter brush.

Here's the inside made with more images from the C&9th Kite set. I heat embossed the greeting with clear EP and VersaMark over the Memento black ink.



Have a fab day and thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Kite Strings set by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Soft Sky and Concord & 9th white card stock
Ink: SU Poppy Parade, Blueberry Busshel, Memento Tuxedo black, Gina K Wild Dandelion and Red Hot ink cubes, VersaMark, Hero Unicorn craft ink
Other: Concord & 9th Kite Strings dies & Brighter Days dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, heat tool, clear embossing powder,  SSS cloud stencil, blending brush, SSS gems, Nuvo glitter brush, Gina K foam squares

Friday, July 3, 2020

Let's Celebrate

Hi peeps,

It's a holiday Friday, Yay! I had a fairly long day at work yesterday, almost 10 hours, and so I'm really happy that I'm free to veg today.

A few days ago I made some 4th of July themed cards. I was playing around with an older Concord & 9th Turnabout set and after making a few backgrounds in other colors, I thought it would make a great red and blue background for 4th of July cards. One of the cards uses this week's Sunday Stamps Sketch Challenge for inspiration.


Here are the two cards together. These are bright and bold cards. The stamp set is a long retired SU set called July 4th.


Below are the insides of the cards. The greeting is Avery Elle, the fireworks stamp is from the same SU stamp set.




Here are close up pictures of each card.

This first one uses the Sunday Stamps layout. If you haven't used one of the C&9th Turnabout sets, you use a square "jig" to hold the paper and stamp the image 4 times turning the jig 1/4 turn each time. To get the background colors in the order I wanted, I stamped red ink on turns 1 and 3 and the blue in on turns 2 and 4. The star stamps in the stamp set correspond to the SU medium star punch. I layered them with the medium Die-namics Star die. The flag banners are also Die-namics dies.





For the second card, I stamped the small star stamp from the set all over two narrow strips of white card stock with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with gold EP.  To make the folded circle element, I used my Scor Buddy to score at 1/4 inches down each strip, then folded each score line in the opposite direction. I did this with both strips of paper and glued the ends together with double sided tape, then formed it into the circle. I used a fair amount of liquid glue to hold the circle shape and glue it on the card. It's been a long time since I made one of these. I thought it fun for a July 4th card.

For the background, I used the same C&9th Turnabout stamp. I stamped with blue ink for turns 1 and 3 only. Then I moved the jig with the paper so that the image was in the middle of two blue rows, then stamped in the same manner with red. To me, the rows kind of look like crape paper streamers.


These were not quick cards to make, but super fun to make.

Wishing everyone a fun, relaxing, social distanced 4th of July holiday. Stay safe all!
Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: July 4th set by Stampin' Up, Retro Petals Turnabout set by Concord & 9th, and Banner Bits set by Avery Elle
Paper: SU Whisper White, Real Red and Brilliant Blue card stock, Neenah Desert Storm card stock
Ink: SU Real Red, Brilliant Blue, VersaMark
Other: SU Medium Star punch, Die-namics Star and Fish Tail Flags dies, Lawn Fawn Stitched Banner Die, Spellbinders Large Scalloped circle die, Scor Buddy, white and gold embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr., foam tape, liquid glue, enamel star embellishments