Hey You

 Hello to all,

It's been a super busy work week for me this week. I'm commuting 90 miles each way from home to the hospital where I'm installing a chemistry system in the lab. Luckily, with many folks still working from home, the freeways in Los Angeles aren't their usual stop and go, so it's about an hour and 20 to and hour and 30 time frame each way. Needless to say, the days have been long ones. 

I made this card for the Color Hues Challenge 2 last weekend, but never got around to posting it. I used last week's Freshly Made Sketch.

I made a reverse circle mask for the top panel and stamped the SSS Chunky Flower Background stamp using VersaMark ink then heat embossed it using clear EP. Next, I blended some turquoise ink in the circle using a blender brush, then wiped the ink off the embossed images. The large die cut flower is made using the SSS Chunky Flower die. I cut it twice, in Navy and Turquoise card stocks, then arranged the Turquoise petals inside the Navy border and popped it into the center of the circle using foam squares. The greeting is stamped in Navy ink and cut out with a SSS small circle die.

I kept the inside simple with just the sentiments.

I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing weekend. I may end up working most of one day {insert sad face.} Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All Simon Says Stamp sets: Chunky Flower Background, Happy Days, Greetings Mix 2

Paper: Concord & 9th White, Midnight and Oceanside

Ink: Concord & 9th Midnight and Oceanside, VersaMark

Other: Misti, clear EP, heat tool, SSS Chunky Flower die, SSS small circle die, Gemini Jr, foam squares, sequins, liquid glue 

BOO!

 Hi and happy Sunday,

Since I need to review some spreadsheets so I can present data for a meeting tomorrow, I did some stamping early in the day today. I got two cards made as I went pretty simple letting dies and embossing folders do most of the work.

For this post I have my card for LeAnne's CAS Paper Players Challenge. She has a fun pets theme this week. CAS means limited layers, embellishments, and plenty of "white" space. My card pushes the boundaries some, but I'm going with it. 

I need a few more Halloween/Fall themed cards and I remembered this cute Avery Elle Halloween cat set. I've used this week's layout from CAS(E) this Sketch!.

I started with a panel of Basic Black card stock and dry embossed a spider web then sponged some white craft ink over the raised areas using a sponge dauber. I trimmed the panel down using a die for A2 card layering and glued it to an Oyster Gray card base. The sentiment panel is made with another piece of the same Oyster Gray card stock and topped with a Halloween border cut from Holographic card stock. The cat images are stamped, colored with Copics, and cut with the set dies.

Here is the inside using more images from the same Avery Elle stamp set.

I hope all is well in your world. Thanks for looking,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Bad Kitty set by Avery Elle

Paper: SU Basic Black, Whisper White card stock and SSS Oyster Gray and Holographic card stocks

Ink: Gina K Black Onyx ink, Copics, Hero Unicorn 

Other: Avery Elle set dies, SU Spider Web EF, Taylored Expressions Dripping border die, Gina K Master Layouts 1 & 2, sponge dauber, Gemini Jr, Dimensionals

Thank You

 Happy Monday evening peeps,

Yesterday, I didn't get a chance to do any stamping until last evening after dinner. I went right to the new Paper Players Challenge to see what fun was in store for us this week. Anne Marie is the hostess with the monthly color challenge, except this week, there is a little extra challenge added in.

I have the Crafters Companion Gemini FoilPress system, so I decided I would use that to add the foil option to my card. I actually made two quite different looking cards for Anne Marie's challenge, and both have hot foiled elements.

This first card uses the Spellbinders hot foil die called Flower Pattern. It covers a full 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of paper. I used gold foil on Tim Holtz water color paper. After foiling, I used the SU Stampin' Write Markers in the challenge colors and a water brush to water color the images. I matted the panel with black card stock and used a Whisper White card base. For the sentiment, I used another Spellbinders hot foil die that also has a cutting die. Using the same gold foil, I foiled the sentiment onto black card stock, cut it out with the die and popped it up with SU dimensionals. I added 5 gold sequins for embellishments.

I didn't stamp anything on the inside, instead saving this a a Thank You note card.

For this second card, I used a relatively new Taylored Expressions stamp and die set, and a stencil. Using the stencil to mask off the outside of a white panel, I used blending brushes to brush on the three challenge colors in a diagonal pattern. I heat embossed the image onto Tim Holtz water color paper using gold EP, then used the same Stampin' Write Markers and water brush to color the image, then cut it out with the set die. I used mini SU dimensionals to pop it up over the sponged background. The small thank you sentiment is done with the hot foil system using gold foil on Cajun Craze card stock. I cut the sponged panel with the Gina K Master Layout 2 die and mat. The mat is Cajun Craze card stock and the card base is again Whisper White thick card stock. As with card one, nothing is stamped in the inside. Just a blank thank you note card too.

I don't do much foiling, but it is pretty fun. I've only gotten a few plates and dies, although I've tried using some of my regular dies and they do work okay. The lines are just super thin.

I thought these colors were a strange choice together, but after seeing them on these and the DT cards, they look good.

Thanks for looking,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sketchbook Florals set by Taylored Expressions

Paper: SU Whisper White, Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Tim Holtz water color paper

Ink: SU Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock, Blackberry Bliss ink pads and Stampin' Write Markers, VersaMark

Other: Spellbinders hot foil plates and dies (Flower Pattern, Yana's Sentiments, Elegant Occasion Sentiments), Spellbinders gold foil, Gemini FoilPress system, Gemini Jr., Misti, gold embossing powder, heat tool, Taylored Expressions deckle rectangle A2 mask, TE blending brushes, Gina K Designs Master Layout 1 and 2 die sets,  gold sequins, gold cord, SU dimensionals

I've Been Thinking About You

Happy Friday Peeps,

Here's a sweet little 4.5 inch square card that I made last evening full of fall colors. I pulled out a couple of small Gina K stamp sets and the Wreath Builder system, which is always so FUN. The September Monthly Mix Challenge is Fall and that's what I had in my mind when designing this one.

 

The images I used to make the wreath are from the freebie set from Gina's last release. I stamped the larger flower in Honey Mustard ink, the leaf images are stamped in Faded Brick, Fresh Asparagus and Jelly Bean Green (one of my fave green shades). The greeting on the outside of the card is from the Doodle Greetings set.

Here on the inside, the greeting is from the Hearty Greetings stamp set and is stamped in Honey Mustard ink. The small heart is from the same set and it is stamped in Faded Brick.

I hope you have a nice Friday. I'm thinking about all of my fellow western state neighbors who are in the path of these horrible wild fires, especially all of those who have lost their homes. I'm live on the coast in northern San Diego county and we've had smoky skies due to a fire in our east county area as well as smoke drifting down from the norther CA fires. Every year seems to be worse than the year before. We are all so grateful for the brave fire fighters on the fire lines. 

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Take Care, Hearty Greetings, Doodle Greetings sets all by Gina K. Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Jelly Bean Green and white card stock, Taylored Expressions textured gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Honey Mustard, Jelly Bean Green, Fresh Asparagus, Faded Brick

Other: Gina K Designs Wreath Builder system, Misti, Die-namics Inside and Out Stitched Circle die, Gina K Foam squares, Pretty Pink Posh yellow and green gems, Gemini Jr 

Hello Autumn

 Hello,

I have a card made using the new Freshly Made Sketches, sketch. I pulled out new Concord & 9th sets from the August release that includes a fall themed Turnabout set that is just too cute!

The outside:

The inside:

If you look closely to the images in the turnabout stamp, you'll see the little animals. C&9th made dies for them that accompany the set. The large center die and the leaves are from different C&9th sets, but all of the greetings and animal images are from the Turnabout set. The leaf dies come as two dies for each leaf shape. One die cuts a solid leaf and the other cuts the spine and segments. I cut them in three colors, brown, orange and yellow and pieced them back together. This turnabout makes a really fun background!

Thanks all and have a nice rest of your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Woodland Turnabout set by Concord & 9th

Paper: C&9th card stock in white and Mushroom, Taylored Expressions card stock in yellow and orange

Ink: C&9th ink cubes in Wheat, Mushroom, Marmalade, and Buttercup

Other: C&9th Woodland and Hey Bestie set dies, Leafy Layers dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals

Flower Child

Hello peeps,

I did some late afternoon stamping and coloring today. I hadn't inked up this new stamp that was in the last Gina K Designs release yet and when I saw the fall color palette for the new Sunday Stamps Challenge, I knew it would be fun to color the stamp in these colors.

After stamping the image using Gina K Amalgam black ink, I colored it with colored pencils and used Gamsol to help with blending. (I call it coloring in the Gina K way.)

After coloring the image, I used the Gina K Master Layout 2 dies to cut the white image panel and the dark brown mat. The card base is the old SU Really Rust card stock.

I kept the inside of my card fairly simple by stamping the flower image in the upper corner and the greeting in the center. Like the front, I matted the focal panel.

Have a great Thursday and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Flower Child set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K white and brown card stock, SU Really Rust card stock

Ink: Gina K Amalgam black, Charcoal Brown, and Honey Mustard

Other: Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils, Gamsol, Misit, Gina K Master Layout 2 dies, Die-namics stitched oval die, My Minds Eye gold enamel shapes, Gemini Jr., Gina K foam squares

Happy Birthday

Good evening peeps,

I have my card for this week's Paper Player's Challenge. Jaydee is hostess with a Masculine Birthday Card  theme. I had lots of ideas and finally settled on this one because I wanted to use some of my new Concord & 9th goodies. Everything on this card, except the VersaMark ink, is C&9th supplies.

I picked a gold, gray, and blue palette for my colors, which is really what makes this a "masculine" card. If I'd used pastels or pinks and purples, it would have more a feminine feel.

The background stamp set is the Dots Turnabout stamp set and the birthday stamp and die set is called, appropriately, All The Birthdays. The square elements that I turned on point, the HB dies and the banner die are all dies that are part of the stamp set. For the large HB, I first stamped the C&9th Woven Plaid Background on white card stock, then cut the dies.

 

For the inside of the card I've used an older C&9th Turnabout and another sentiment stamp set from C&9th.

Thanks all for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All The Birthdays set, Dots Turnabout set, Woven Plaid Background set, Confetti Turnabout set, I Like You set all Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stocks in white, Midnight, Stardust

Ink: Concord & 9th ink cubes in Midnight, Stardust, Dove, Oceanside, VersaMark

Other: C&9th All the Birthdays and heart die, white EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

Treats Of Course!

 Happy Labor Day all,

It's a scorcher in California and the western US this weekend. I spent most of the day at my craft table under the ceiling fan. We don't have air-conditioning in our house. We've not really needed it being so close to the ocean, but the last couple of years have had way more hot days. Since it going to be more of the same today, I'll be doing more of the same, LOL.

Here is one of the cards that I made. I've used the current Freshly Made Sketch for the layout.

The stamp set is an older Lawn Fawn Halloween set of kids in costume. The patterned papers are from my Halloween stash bag. I have a bunch of scrap pieces in a bag and these were big enough to use for the sketch. I used a cover plate from Waffleflower to add texture to the background.

Here is the inside of the card. All images on the front and the inside are from the same LF set. The images are colored with Copics.

Thanks for checking in. Stay Cool!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Costume Party set by Lawn Fawn

Paper: SU Very Vanilla and Basic Black card stock, Tricks & Treats Patterned Paper pack by Pebbles

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Gina K Tomato Soup, Copics

Other: LF Costume Party dies, Waffleflower Circles Cover Plate die, Gina K Master Layout 1 dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

Sending Warm Hugs

Happy Friday!

Work has been super light for me this week, not that I'm complaining. I've had several hours each day to do some crafty things because I finished work stuff early. 

Yesterday and the day before, I re-organized all of my dies that don't go with stamp sets. I used to keep them on magnetic panels grouped by company, but sometimes I had a hard time locating the die that I was looking for. I decided to do a few things differently for the storage. One, I'm using all the same sizes of magnetic panels, two, I put the panels into plastic sleeves and three, I've grouped them by categories instead of company. I also made bright yellow dividers that I could label with my label maker. They look great and hopefully, it's a usable system.

Today, I finished with work super early and had time to make this card. The challenge that I was working on is the Sunday Stamps Sketch Challenge, and I also realized it works for the current Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge. I've already submitted one card, but I'll add this one too. I used the same diagonal elements as I did with my first card, dies, embossing, patterned paper.

The stamps are from an older Honey Bee stamp and die set called Warm Wishes. I stamped the images on Very Vanilla card stock with Gina K Charcoal Brown ink and colored them with colored pencils. The patterned paper is from SU, retired, called Harvest Orchard. I love the fall hues in this paper! I used an SU EF to emboss the horizontal element.

Here is the inside of the card.

I hope you all have a great Friday and a relaxing holiday, Labor Day in the US, weekend. Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Warm Wishes set by Honey Bee Stamps

Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Neenah Desert Storm card stocks, SU Harvest Orchard DSP

Ink: Gina K Charcoal Brown

Other: Prismacolor colored pencils, Gamsol, Warm Wishes set dies, Gina K Master Layouts 2 die set, SU Basket Weave embossing folder, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

 

You Have My Heart

 Hi and happy hump day peeps,

I have a card to share this afternoon that I made for a new challenge blog. It's the new Color Hues challenge. For their very first challenge, the hues are green and yellow. Very summery.

I pulled out some stencils to make the background of my card. The butterfly stencil is from Simon Says Stamp and the leaves stencil is from Pretty Pink Posh. The butterflies are two hues of yellow, colored using a blending brush.  I cleaned the stencil then sponged VersaMark ink over the butterflies and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. Using some Mint Macaron ink, I used a blender brush to color the rest of the panel and then used a microfiber cloth to wipe the ink off the butterflies. I then placed the leaf stencil on and used another blending brush and Just Jade ink to make the first leaf layer. I turned the stencil a quarter turn and added Tranquil Tide ink with a blending brush.

The focal image is a Simon Says Stamp die set. The background is cut from vellum and the words are cut from thick SU Whisper white card stock,  three times and glued together. After adding it to the card front, I brushed the letters with a Nuvo clear glitter pen and then covered them with SU Shimmery Crystal Effects. Finally, I added some green and yellow Pretty Pink Posh gems for embellishments.

Here is the inside of the card. The stamps are from the SSS set called Thoughtful Flowers. The images are colored using Prismacolor colored pencils and Gamsol.

Isn't this a great sentiment?!

Thanks for looking in. Have a nice Thursday.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Thoughtful Flowers set by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: SU thick Whisper White, Just Jade card stocks, Vellum

Ink: SU Pineapple Punch, Mango Melody, Just Jade, Mint Macaron, Tranquil Tide, VersaMark, Memento tuxedo black, Concord & 9th Dove ink, Prismacolor Pencils

Other: SSS Butterfly Trails stencil, Pretty Pink Posh Layered Leaves stencil, TE and Picket Fence blender brushes, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Gemini Jr, Connect liquid glue, Pretty Pink Posh gems, Gamsol, blending stumps

Happy Everything

 Hi Peeps,

I sat down after work yesterday afternoon and made a card for the current CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge. This turned out to be one of those quick cards, just a little time to color the images with Copics.

These sunflowers are from the Avery  Elle set called, appropriately, Sunflowers. The background patterned is from SU called In Good Taste.

Here is the inside of the card, also using Avery Elle stamps, though the sentiment is from another set called Simply Said Hugs set.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sunflowers set and Simply Said Hugs set by Avery Elle

Paper: SU Night of Navy card stock and In Good Taste DSP, X-Press It Blending card stock

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, VersaMark, SU Bumblebee and Night of Navy

Other: Sunflowers set dies, SU label die, white EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini jr., SU Dimensionals