Friends Like You

 Hi all,

How was your weekend. Relaxing, I hope. We spent part of the afternoon at Costco and bought a new TV for our living room. The one we had decided it had worked long enough and stopped this past week. As it was a pretty inexpensive one, and prices are even less for a pretty nice TV these days, we just decided to get an new one. No repair guy needed.

In addition to the costs being reasonable, the setup is amazingly fast with the new Smart TVs.

This morning was crafty time. It is Sunday and time for a new Paper Players Challenge. Ann is hostess with a Tic-tac-toe board. I love these!

I recently saw a Jennifer McGuire card on Instagram that I wanted to try. She calls them See Through Cards. She has a blog post here, although I haven't actually watched her video yet. I just saw the card she posted on IG and decided to give it a try. Not sure if I came close to her method, but mine worked pretty well, and I love the finished card. For the PP Tic-Tac-Toe challenge, I've used the diagonal upper right to lower left of patterned paper, embossing, die cut for my card.

Here is the card closed:

Here is the card standing so you can see the "open" format.

I scored the card base of heavy Gina K white card stock to make a top fold card. The front of the card is cut out using the Pink Fresh Studio Ornate Floral die. On the inside, I glued a piece of Whimsey Rainbow patterned paper to cover the entire inside panel. Using the Die-namics Stitched Oval dies, I cut two larger ovals and glued them back to back with the card front between them using liquid glue. The flower on the front is from the Altenew Engraved Flowers set. It is stamped using Gina K Amalgam ink and then heat embossed using VersaMark ink and clear embossing powder. This is done on another piece of the same Gina K card stock. After heat embossing, the flower is cut out using the corresponding set die and is popped up using Gina K foam squares. The sentiment, from the same stamp set, is heat embossed with white EP on black card stock. Finally, I added a few gold Pretty Pink Posh gems as embellishments. I love the black and white against the rainbow colors!

On the inside, I used a smaller oval from the same die set, making sure it is hidden by the front oval when the card is closed. The images are embossed using the same technique as on the front of the card.

Now, I will watch the video on Jennifer's blog to see if the technique is much different than mine. Regardless, these are pretty cards. Give it a try. I have other cover plate dies that would work well for this technique too, but I really like this very open PFS die.

Happy work week. Mine is looking rather light as a project that I was supposed to start on Monday has been postponed for another week.

Thanks for stopping by my blog,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Engraved Flowers set by Altenew

Paper: Gina K heavy white card stock and Whimsey Stamps Rainbow paper (from a recent SSS monthly kit), SU Black card stock

Ink: Gina K Amalgam black and VersaMark

Other: Altenew set dies, Pink Fresh Studio Ornate Floral die, Die-namics Stitched Oval dies, Gemini Jr, Misti, clear and white EP, heat tool, Connect liquid glue, Pretty Pink Posh gems, Gina K foam squares

I Like the Way You Roll

 Happy Saturday evening,

I hope you are having a nice and relaxing weekend. I had some chores to do this morning, but after finishing, I spent a few hours in my craft room playing with another new Gina K Designs stamp set from her recent release. 

This set is sushi themed. Kind of like me and coffee, which I don't like, but I love coffee themed stamps, I'm not a sushi fan either, but I just couldn't resist this super cute set. Using the current Freshly Made Sketches layout, here's my first card using it. 

I have a bunch of japanese paper that I got years ago at a department store in downtown Honolulu. I pulled out this pretty red with flowers to use for the center panel. It's cut with the Gina K Designs Master Layout 2 die and matted with a piece of Blueberry Bushel card stock. The sushi rolls and the soy bottle are stamped using Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics, then cut out using the corresponding set dies. I used a SU embossing folder to make a "bamboo" tray. The sentiment banner is also a die from the GK Master Layout 2 die set. The greeting is stamped using VersaMark and heat embossed using white EP.

For the inside, I used the Gina K Designs Fan stencil with SU Pistachio Pudding ink. I stamped more images from the set and made another "bamboo" tray using an older SU die.

I think this one turned out super cute, but that's what happens when the stamps are super cute.

We are headed over to friends to have a social distancing dinner of pizza and salad, and of course, some wine. Thanks all,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: I Like The Way You Roll set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K heavy white card stock, SU Blueberry Bushel and Crumb Cake card stock, stash patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Pistachio Pudding, VersaMark, Gina K Cherry Red

Other: Gina K Designs dies, SU die, SU embossing folder, SU candy dots, foam tape, mini Dimensionals, Misti, Gemini Jr, white EP, heat tool, Gina K Fan stencil

Scream and Sugar

 Happy, happy Friday Peeps,

I'm getting into making some fall and Halloween cards lately. Maybe because it's been SO HOT recently, working on fall projects help it seem cooler? Not really, LOL. 

The ladies at the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog have a fun and simple sketch this week. I pulled out a retired SU set,  DSP and an embossing folder to make my card.

For the inside, I've used some old wood mounted Hero Arts stamps.

Hope you're having a nice day. Here's to the weekend!

Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Merry Cafe set by Stampin' Up, Hero Arts cat and sentiments - wood mounted

Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango card stocks, SU Apple Cider DSP

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Chocolate Chip

Other: SU Tasteful Label dies, Gina K Master Layout 2 dies, SU Spiderweb EF, Misti, Gemini Jr, 

large sequin bat and spider embellishments, Dimensionals

Wishing You Peace

Hi again peeps,

I have another quick post to share a card that uses this week's Mojo Monday sketch and images from the new Gina K release. This stamp set is called Lovely Lotus. 

As you can see, I turned the sketch on it's side for my card. The lotus is stamped with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Prismacolor colored pencils in the "Gina K" way using Gamsol. I used the set dies to cut out the images and I've used Gina's new Master Layouts 2 set to make some of the layers on my card. The patterned papers are from Honeybee. 

Here's the inside of this card, again using colored pencils and Gamsol. The greeting is stamped on velum and overlaid. All images are from the Lovely Lotus stamp set.

Thanks again,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Lovely Lotus set by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU Not Quite Navy and Whisper White card stock, Honeybee patterned papers

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Not Quite Navy, Prismacolor colored pencils, Gamsol

Other: Lovely Lotus set dies, Gina K Designs Master Layout 2 dies, SU embossing folder, Misti, Gemini Jr, Pretty Pink Posh gems, foam tape, Gina K foam squares

 

Happy Birthday

 Hello peeps,

I'm having kind of a lazy morning so I thought I'd get my blog post written to share the cards that I made for LeAnne's sketch challenge at the Paper Players. As she pointed out in her sketch intro, this is a great one for using patterned paper. I really like the sketch too and I've used it to make three cards (so far.)

Here is LeAnne's sketch:

Here are my cards. The first pic of each set is the outside of the card, and the second pic is the inside.

Card 1:

Card 2:

Card 3:

I made these Sunday and Monday evenings. They all went together pretty quickly too. I really do think I'll use this sketch to do some more holiday cards.

Happy Hump Day to all! Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All Stampin' Up sets, Hello Cupcake, Winter Woods, Cup of  Christmas, Honeycomb Happiness

Paper: SU DSP Birthday Bonanza and Merry Moments, Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Terra-cotta Tile, Mossy Meadow, Grapefruit Grove card stocks

Ink: SU Mossy Meadow, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay, Chocolate Chip, Terra-cotta Tile, Memento tuxedo black, Copics, VersaMark

Other: SU corresponding set dies, SU label die, Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday die and Postage Stamp Die, Die-namics Stitched Rectangle die, Misti, Gemini Jr, Nuvo clear glitter pen, enamel dots, SU gold dots, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Dimensionals, gold EP, heat tool

Be Strong, Be Happy, Be You

Hi and happy Sunday,

I hope you are all doing well. The weather is the thing here in California, up and down the state. It's hot and humid here on the southern coast, hot and smoky every place else with the horrible fires. I spoke with my mom, who lives in the far northern part of the state, and while there are no fires in her immediate area, she said that the air quality is bad and when she got up Saturday morning, there were ashes covering everything outside.

Our good friends that live in the Central Coast wine region decided to leave their house there for their house here because of the smoke and very poor air. 

So, I hope all is much nicer where you live.

I spent most of yesterday re-orging dies that don't go with stamp sets. I'm not quite finished, but I think I'm going to like the end result. 

Since I didn't do any actual stamping yesterday, I am today. I've got a couple of cards to share with you. One uses this week's Freshly Made Sketches layout along with the colors from the As You See It Challenge, and the second uses the CAS(E) This Sketch layout from a few week's ago.

The Freshly Made Sketch is certainly interesting. I do have triangle dies, but I thought I'd play around with other shapes and images placed in the general layout of the sketch. Here's what I came up with.

This stamp set is an older one from Stampin' Up called Rooted In Nature. The tree is stamped on water color paper using Distress ink cubes in rust, yellow and brown. After inking the stamp, I spritzed it with water then stamped it on the paper. The leaf image is stamped in the same way using rust Distress ink. Both images are cut with the set dies. The greeting is stamped using Bermuda Bay ink and each line is cut out and glued with liquid glue.

Here is the inside of this card.

For the second card, I used two new Concord & 9th sets. The background is made with the Painted Turnabout set and the greeting is from the new "freebie" set called  Lots of Thoughts.

The inks are Gina K ink cubes in various blue shades and a dark red shade. The greeting circle stamp is layered onto a Die-namics double stitched circle die.

Here's the inside of this card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great work week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Rooted in Nature by Stampin' Up, Painted Turnabout set, Hey Bestie set and Lots Of Thoughts set all by Concord & 9th

Paper: Card 1: SU thick and regular Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Bermuda Bay card stocks Card 2: Gina K card stocks

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink cubes, SU Bermuda Bay, Gina K ink cubes

Other: SU Rooted In Nature dies, Lil' Inker square stitched die, Misti, Gemini Jr, Hero A2 rounded corner dies, Spellbinder and Die-namics circle dies, SU Candy Dots, Dimensionals, Gina K Connect glue

 

Best Wishes To an Old Goat

Hi again,

My cousin, who owns a ranch in Northern California, has a birthday in a few days. As a family, we lived on this ranch until I was around 10 years old, so I grew up with my cousin. During my jr high and high school summers, I worked, with another cousin, changing hay wagons during the summers. We also did lots of horseback riding making sure that the cows were off the open ranges where the highway ran through. It was another time. My Grandfather owned the ranch at that time, and it's been passed on from him to my uncle, and now to my cousin. He happens to be one of my favorite peeps and I try to remember his birthday every year. I usually visit a few times each year when I visit my mom, but with COVID, that's not possible, so this year a card is even more important.

The stamps are from an older set from Simon Says Stamp. Not sure of the year, but I've had it for at least 3 years, if not more. I did go with a newer, Slimline layout. The Retro Rubber Challenge is "anything goes" this week, so I'm posting to their blog.

I stamped the farm animals on X-Press It Blending card stock with Memento tuxedo black and colored them with Copics. They are cut out with Spellbinders circle dies and layered onto the card. The green card stock is from SSS and the patterned paper is from the latest SSS monthly kit. 

Here is the inside of the card. I really like how this card turned out, and I think my cousin will get a kick out of it too. (he's 3 years older than I).

That's it from me for today. I hope you have nice evening and a good week.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Birthday Farm Animals by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: SSS Green and white card stock, Doodlebug pattern papers

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, Gina K Blueberry

Other: Spellbinders circle dies, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Nuvo glitter pen, Misti, Gemini Jr, foam tape

Thanks For Being A Great Teacher

 Hi Peeps,

I hope you are having a nice Sunday! We went to breakfast at our favorite local spot this morning, early. Not too many folks and of course, all tables are outside. After, I completed a few weekend "chores" and then looked to see what the new Paper Players Challenge is for the week.

Claire is our hostess with the monthly CAS challenge, and with a theme of "Back to School." I don't have many (really any) back to school themed stamps. I'm way, way past that! I managed to find a PI set that worked. I combined stamps from MFT, Taylored Expressions, and Lawn Fawn to make this card. I know that Claire likes the PI girls, so I think this works pretty well.

The image is stamped with Memento tuxedo black on X-Press It Blending card stock and colored with Copics. I'm a little rusty coloring, but managed to make this presentable. Instead of a one layer, I did mat the colored panel, but I think it still can be considered CAS.

Here's the inside of the card with the teacher tribute. We have friends with kids that are teachers and they are certainly having to re-boot their teaching plans. My heart and my admiration goes out to all teachers, parents and students who have to deal with COVID 19 and schooling. YIKES!!! 

Thanks for stopping in. I hope your coming week is a good one!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pure Innocence It's A Sign set by My Favorite Things, Little School House set by Taylored Expressions, and Thanks A Bushel set by Lawn Fawn

Paper: SSS heavy white, X-Press It Blending white, and SU Handsome Hunter card stocks

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, VersaMark

Other: White EP, heat tool, Misti

So Berry Kind Of You

Hello,

I had some time this afternoon after finishing work to do some stamping. I haven't played with the Fusion Card Challenge in quite awhile, and decided it was time. I liked the theme this week of berries. I pulled out my C&9th set called Sweet Strawberry and got to work. I used both the sketch and the inspiration picture this time.

The card stock and inks are also C&9th. The patterned papers are from SU. I brushed some glitter over the strawberry stem using a Nuvo glitter pen.

Here is the inside of my card with more images from the same stamp set.

Thanks for checking in!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sweet Strawberry set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock in white, Midnight and Cranberry

Ink: Concord & 9th ink cubes in Midnight, Cranberry, Poppy, and Parsley

Other: Concord & 9th Sweet Strawberry dies, Die-namics Stitched Rounded Corner Rectangle dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, Gina K masking paper, Pretty Pink Posh gems. SU embossing folder, Nuvo glitter pen, foam tape

A Paper Hug Inside

 Hi and happy Monday,

My Sunday night after dinner stamping. I still wanted to get a card made for Kim's Freshly Made Sketches! challenge before the link deadline, and I decided to make a holiday card to add to my 2020 stash. Using a variety of SU card stock in blue shades for the vertical striped element and Gina K stamps and a stencil, here's my entry. A snowman offering paper hugs.

To make the stripes, I used the Pink Fresh Studio Pop Out Diagonal die and card stock in five different SU blue shades. They are glued to a 5.5 x 2 inch strip of card stock. For the background, I used a Gina K stencil, blue ink and a blending brush. The snowman, candy cane, and letter are stamped on Whisper White card stock and colored with Copics, then cut out with the corresponding dies. They are layered onto ovals cut with more Gina K dies. I used the same stencil to add the background to the oval, and I used the same Gina K ink cube, just with a heavier application of ink. After gluing everything in place, a few Pretty Pink Posh blue gems were added for sparkle.

For the inside, I used sentiment stamps from the same Gina K set, stamped using the Powder Blue Gina K ink cube.

Yay, another holiday card to add to the stash.

Thanks for stopping in.

Colleen                                                                                                                                     

Supplies

Stamps: Winter Hugs set by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU Whisper White, Shimmery White, and various Blue card stocks

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, Gina K Powder Blue ink cube

Other: Pink Fresh Studio Diagonal Stripe die, Gina K Winter Hug set dies, Gina K Layering Set #1 oval dies, Gina K stencil, Picket Fence blending brush, Misti, Gemini Jr, Gina K foam squares, Pretty Pink Posh gems, red enamel heart

Sure Do Miss You

 Happy Sunday peeps,

It's time for a new Paper Players Challenge. Joanne is hostess with a color theme this week. I decided to use the SU Blossoms in Bloom set and dies to make my card. I bought this set during the demo pre-order but I've not used it yet, so I though it time. I've certainly seen some beautiful creations with this set around blog-land.

To make my card, I've CASE'd the example in the SU annual catalog on page 50. Different background, landscape orientation rather than portrait, and of course different colors, but the idea certainly came from this photo.

The card base is Sahara Sand stamped with the Hardwood background stamp using Sahara Sand ink. The flower dies are made with layers of Joanne's color choices and Whisper White. Other than the time to cut each color out with the dies and gluing the pieces in, this is a fairly simple card, though it looks more involved. For embellishment, I brushed Wink of Stella over the Melon Mambo and Mango Melody parts of the flowers, and added some twine to the sentiment banner. This turned out to be an all SU card.

I finished the inside using more stamps from the Blossoms In Bloom set.

I hope this coming week is a good one, and thanks for stopping by,                                                                                   Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Blossoms in Bloom set and Hardwood Background stamp both from Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Night of Navy, Melon Mambo, Mango Melody, and Pool Party

Ink: SU Sahara Sand, Night of Navy, Melon Mambo, Mango Melody

Other: SU Blossoms in Bloom and Tasteful Labels dies, Wink of Stella, twine 

Thank You

 Happy Friday afternoon peeps,

I have been enjoying Gina K's Stamp and Chat videos since she started them a few months ago. I don't watch them live since they are on while I'm usually working, so watch them later via YouTube. I've learned some fun techniques, and she is always so fun as a person. I watched Wednesday's video yesterday and decided to make a card after we finished dinner last night. The technique is coloring with water color markers. Gina used Zig Clean Color markers and since I have them, I did too.

The stamp sets that I used are from Gina K Designs. I used Tim Holtz watercolor paper as she did. For the markers, I used two purple shades, two yellow shades and two green shades to color the flowers. The layout is this week's "retro" CAS(E) this Sketch!. 

Gina's technique is to use a darker shade at the bottom of the petal and then blend it up using a lighter shade. She doesn't use water. I like how easy the Zig markers blend in this way. I've tried the same idea, but used a water brush to blend up and it was basically a hot mess. I'm pretty happy with my first try results here. Gina used white EP on her flower image prior to coloring. I used the Gina K Designs Black Amalgam ink without embossing and it worked great with no bleeding of the black ink. After the coloring was completed, I used the light blue Zig marker to outline the images for contrast.

Here is the inside of my card. I used regular white card stock, the black Amalgam ink and Copics to color the flower here.

I am still trying to get used to this new blogger. It's kind of driving me crazy, but at some point it will become routine again.  I hope you all have a great Friday evening and weekend, and thanks for stopping in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Friendship Flower set and Scripty Encouragement set both by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU Whisper White and Black card stock, Tim Holtz water color paper

Ink: Gina K Black Amalgam ink, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (084 Deep Violet, 081 Light Violet, 050 Yellow, 051 Lemon Yellow, 042 Turquoise Green, 040 Green, 036 Light Blue), Copics

Other: Misti

Happy Wedding Day

Hi all,

Here's my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Laurie is our hostess with a Wedding/Anniversary theme. I didn't really need a card for either celebration, but I wanted to play along with a wedding card. I'll just add this one to my stash.

I first made a card base from SSS Oyster Gray card stock and glued a very subtle patterned paper on it. The die layers are cut from the same Oyster Gray paper using SU dies. I layered some Pink Pirouette paper under the smaller die layer. The image is stamped with Gina K Slate ink onto white X-Press It Blending card stock. I didn't want to add a greeting to the front as I thought it would detract from the overall picture effect. I did add that tiny pink heart because I couldn't resist some embellishment.

Here's the greeting on the inside of the card.

 

I'm happy it is Friday tomorrow. I've had somewhat of a busy work week and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Thanks for looking in!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Couple stamp from Inkadinkado, Happy Wedding Day from Magenta, inside bkg stamp from Magenta

Paper: X-Press It Blending, SSS Oyster Gray, SU Pink Pirouette card stock and Polkadoodler Timeless Rose patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Slate ink cube, SU Pink Pirouette

Other: SU dies, Gemini jr, heart embellishment, Gina K Connect glue

Love You

Hello,

Some weekend stamping results. This card I made for the Gina K August Monthly Challenge. Mindy Eggen is the August hostess and her theme is "White Space."

Using two Gina K stamp sets, Gina K paper and Ink, a Gina K stencil, and the Gina K Wreath Builder system, I made this card. 

I stamped the hands image first in the middle of a 4 x 4 inch panel of layering weight card stock using my Misti and Gina K slate ink. Next I placed the panel into the Wreath Builder template, and using the new circle guide, placed the large heart where it would work best to make a circle around the hands. After the circle was completed, I used the smaller heart in the same way stamping with a lighter shade of pink. I placed the panel back into the Misti to stamp the sentiment using Black Amalgam ink. After folding and cutting the card base, I used the Gina K fan stencil with the same pink inks so the color would just peak around the stamped image once glued to the card base. For embellishments, I used some Pretty Pink Posh gems in pinks and white.

Here is the inside of the card using more images from the same two stamp sets.

This card has lots of details along with sufficient white space for Mindy's challenge. Thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wreath Builder set and Hands of Love set both by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K card stock

Ink: Gina K ink cubes in Amalgam black, Slate, Dusty Rose, Innocent Pink

Other: Misti, Gina K Wreath Builder system, Gina K Fan Stencil, Picket Fence blending brush, Pretty Pink Posh gems, Gina K Connect glue