You Really Are the Best

Hello stamping peeps,

I hope you had a nice weekend. As always, they are just to darn short! I worked most of the morning on Saturday, but in the afternoon, I pulled out some stamps and papers and had some fun. I like the simplicity of Judy's sketch this week on the Freshly Made Sketches blog and wanted to be sure to make a card.

While looking though some embellishments that I have in a box, I ran across some SU wooden elements and thought they would work for her sketch. I colored this wooden wreath with a dark green Copic and paired it with some retired DSP called Comfort Cafe.

I used both sides of the sheet of paper on my card. The card base is Cajun Craze, as are the tiny punched flowers that are made with an SU punch. The centers are SU enamel dots in one of the current In-color shades. The stamped sentiments on the outside and inside are from the SU set called In Bloom. The die cut flower on the inside is made with the In Bloom dies. I've used another piece of the Comfort Cafe paper for the background on the inside.

Wishing everyone a good week! Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stampin' Up In Bloom stamp set and dies, tiny flower punch, In-color enamel dots, wooden element, Mossy Meadow and Cajun Craze ink pads and Stampin' Write Markers, Cajun Craze and Very Vanilla card stock, Comfort Cafe DSP, Misti, Gemini Jr

You Make Me Smile

 Hey and Happy Monday evening,

Late Sunday afternoon stamping resulted in a card for LeAnne's challenge at the Paper Players. It is Clean and Simple week with a theme of cats. I have this older wooden stamp of a Kliban cat swinging that I've always liked. I remember that I took a class at a stamp store down in the El Cajon area of San Diego, probably at least 20 years ago, and one of the cards that we made used this stamp. I believe that the class was on making cards using only black and white paper and black ink. I also remember that it was taught by a gentleman named Mike, who was a hoot.

An interesting side story, Bernard Kliban was an artist who did cartoons for Playboy magazine, and he also drew these cats. In 1975 a friend convinced him to publish a book of his cat cartoons/drawings. Sadly, he passed away at the early age of 55 from a PE after surgery.

Back to my card, here is a swinging Kliban cat. He/she is stamped in GKD black ink on some GKD layering weight white card stock. I colored the flowers and swing with Copics and added some clouds with a blending brush and SSS stencil. After finishing the coloring, I cut the panel out with the GKD Master Layout 2 stitched die and layered it to the white card base.

The sentiments for both the outside and inside are from the Pure Magic stamp set by Julie Ebersole for Ellen Hutson.

The inside is super simple with just the sentiment and little rainbow in the corner, another stamp from Julie Ebersole.

Have a super week, and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

BKliban wooden stamp by American Art Stamps, Pure Magic and Unicorns & Rainbows stamp sets by Julie Ebersole for Ellen Hutson, Gina K Designs Black onyx and Denim blue inks and Layering Weight white card stock, Master Layout 2 die, Copic Markers, Simon Says Stamp cloud stencil, blending brush

Faraway Hugs

 Happy Sunday morning Stamping peeps,

It's been awhile since I've posted on my blog because it's been awhile since I've had time to sit down to stamp. That whole work thing again! Can't wait until I'm retired and can "work" full time in my craft room.

I actually worked for about 4 hours yesterday to get some reports completed for one of my labs. But, I did make time in the afternoon to stamp. I love this week's Freshly Made Sketch by Amy. I think it has so many possibilities. Since I recently received some new stamps from PinkFresh Studio, I decided to use one of the flower stamps. It was a little too long for the card in a portrait format, so I rotated the sketch to landscape.

The plaid is made with a PinkFresh Studio stencil. The card base is stenciled using Spun Sugar Distress ink and the top layer is stenciled with the newest Distress color called Kitch Flamingo. The inks are applied with blending brushes. For the top stenciled layer, I taped the card stock down onto my glass mat at an angle, then put the stencil down and blended the ink. I cut this layer and the mat using Gina K Designs Master Layout 2 dies. I used black as the mat because my idea was to stamp the flower image with black ink and to not color it. It's cut out using the corresponding die. I've used SU vellum for the cross element so that the plaid shows through. The sentiments, outside and inside, are from SSS.

On the inside, I made another stenciled plaid panel with Spun Sugar. I stamped the flower image using GKD Soft Stone ink so that it would be in the corner of the panel, then stamped the greeting in black. I used the same GKD dies to cut out the panel and the mat.

We are joining our friends for brunch later this morning. We rarely go out still, but this restaurant has a very large outdoor area with tables spaced nicely apart. Looking forward to it. It's a beautiful day here in Northern San Diego, so we'll take advantage.

Have a great Sunday, and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Infinite Blooms stamp and die and Simple Plaid stencil from PinkFresh Studio, Gina K designs white and black card stock, Master Layout 2 & 4 dies, Black Onyx and Soft Stone inks, Tim Holts Distress inks in Spun Sugar and Kitch Flamingo, SU Vellum, VersaMark ink, SSS white EP, blending brushes, Misti, heat tool, Gemini Jr, Pretty Pink Posh pink gems, GKD connect glue

XOXO

 Happy Friday Peeps,

Yes, I'm all about TGIF this week. Besides my usual work duties, I was covering for my manager while she was on PTO this past week. Not that it was too bad, but still some issues to take care of.

I had not done any stamping in quite awhile. Instead, I finished my project of un-mounting all of my wooden SU stamps and putting them into plastic sleeves. I cut white card stock to fit the sleeves and stamped the images in each set so they can easily be seen. I also ordered some thicker mylar sheets, cut them so that I could stick the unmounted stamps to it in the sleeve. It's all wonderful. My next project is to take the sets from the DVD boxes and do the same. That will take up even less room. Not sure when I'll start that part of the project though.

I wanted to make a card for Laurie's Tic-Tac-Toe challenge at The Paper Players, but I didn't get to it until last night after dinner, hence the very late posting.

I choose to use the vertical options of die-cut, red and stencil to make my card. The background heart panel is made with a SSS stencil and a blending brush. The ink color is GKD Red Hot. The large die cut heart is from SSS and is cut from SU Poppy Parade card stock, and the flower die is from Pink Fresh Studio. The XOXO die is from either SSS or maybe Reverse Confetti, I can really remember. I cut it 3 times, glued the layers together then glued them to the card. I brushed some Nuvo glitter on and then covered it all with Glossy Accents, a technique inspired from watching Jennifer McGuire videos.

Here's the inside, stamps all from SSS.

The card base is GKD Blue Denim and on both the front and inside I used the GKD Master Layout 2 dies to cut the white stitched panel and the shadow of Poppy Parade.

Have a great Friday and weekend, and thanks for looking.

Colleen

Supplies

Love You Beary Much stamp set from the Simon Says Stamp January kit, SSS heart stencil, SSS large heart die, Pink Fresh Studio flower die, XOXO die, Gina K Designs Master Layout 2 set, Blue Denim ink and card stock, Red Hot ink, SU Whisper White and Poppy Parade card stock, Misti, Gemini Jr, Nuvo glitter pen, Glossy Accents, Connect liquid glue