Birthday Wishes

 Hello,

Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating their 500th sketch this week. WOW! Like many, this is one of my favorite weekly challenges to play along with. Who doesn't love a great sketch(?), and the ladies at FMS never disappoint with theirs week after week. I couldn't let this go by without playing along.

Linda is our hostess with a great sketch and I liked how she explained her inspiration for adding the five elements for the 500th sketch. Very clever Linda!

I actually have two cards. This first one is a larger 5 x 7 inch card. All supplies except the gold pearls are from Gina K Designs. I used her new larger Wreath Builder System to make the top stitched panel. The Wreath Builder is really addicting once you get going with it, LOL. All of the stamped images used with the Wreath Builder and the stamped images on the background panel are from the GKD set called Fresh Flowers, and I used the coordinating dies as well. For the background panel, I used an acrylic block to stamp the flower images, using the "stamping off" technique. I stamped just a few flower images, then using the GKD Fall Flourish stencil, I very lightly added the flourish pattern in Fresh Asparagus ink.  

Here's the inside of the card: The sentiments here are from the GKD set called Enjoyable Greeting.

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For my second card I used mostly Concord & 9th supplies, the FMS sketch and the current Color Throwdown colors. Since there are four colors this week, I picked out one of the newer C&9th Turnabouts and a coordinating set to make the card. This week's colors are red, blue, green and gray. I went with a pastel palette, for the most part.

And here is the inside of this card:

Thanks for checking in and have a wonderful Friday!

Colleen

Supplies

Card 1: All Gina K Designs: Fresh Flowers Stamps set and coordinating dies, Birthday Wishes stamp set and coordinating die, Enjoyable Greetings stamp set, Master Layouts 3 and 7 dies, Fall Flourishes stencil, inks, card stock, blending brushes, Connect glue. Big Shot and Misti, Trinity gold pearl embellishments, SU Dimensionals

Card 2: All Concord & 9th: Flower Garden Turnabout set, Flower Shaker Shapes Stamp set and dies, card stock, inks. Big Shot, Misti, SU Dimensinals, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 Dies

Fun In the Sun

Happy Friday to all,

I'm squeaking in under the limit with my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. This is a super simple card that I made using supplies from the August 2021 SCT Monthly Sampler kit. The only stamping is on the inside panel. 

I love this patterned paper with the smiling suns. They are just SO happy! The card stock is from Gina K Designs, as are the rectangle dies. The sentiment is a puffy sticker from the kit and the radio and beach bag are from the back of the sunglasses patterned paper that I fussy cut out.

Here is the inside of this note card. The hello stamp is from Stampin' Up.

I made this first card early in the week, I think on Monday. Yesterday I was playing around with some stencils and ended up turning what I made into another card using this same sketch. The stencils, coordinating stamps and dies are from a GKD release from a few months ago.

Card front:

Inside of card:

I'm still in Northern California at my Mom's house. I'll be here another week until after Labor Day. We have some light smoky days and some heavy smoky days with very unhealthy air quality. On those days, we just stay inside with our crafts or house projects. 

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Card 1: Papers and stickers from SCT August 2021 Monthly sampler. Stampin' Up Hello stamp, Gina K designs card stock, single and double stitched rectangle and Master Layouts 1 dies, Big Shot, Misti

Card 2: A Little Hello kit coordinating stencils, stamps and dies, Master Layouts 2 and stitched rectangle dies, inks, blending brushes, card stock all from Gina K Designs, Misti, Big Shot, SU Dimensionals

Hey Boo

Happy Saturday afternoon,

I'm on the road again, this time I'm visiting my mom in Northern California. For this trip, I drove instead of flying, so I packed my car with lots of craft supplies to play with while here. I'm planning around a three week visit, so being able to bring supplies is great. 

Yesterday, I managed to make a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Jen M. is the hostess with a square card layout, which is always fun to do. I decided to make another Halloween card. 

I started by using the On the Diagonal Turnabout stamp by C&9th, stamping it with two orange shades and black and gray. I wanted to use this for the two triangle elements, so I cut out the center with a square die, then cut that in half diagonally. The two triangles are glued to a 4.5" square white panel that I stamped the GKD greeting and bat images. The panel is matted with black and then glued to an Orange card base. Finally, I added some small pumpkin sequins for embellishments.

I used another GKD set for the inside images.

My mom lives in the Redding, CA area where it is smoky from the surrounding wild fires. The sky is a gray/brown, and some days the smoke is lower and some days higher in the sky. When it's lower, it's really hard to be outdoors, so those days we stay in with the air conditioning. Everyday the fires grow in size and more towns are being evacuated. It is so horrible!

I hope your Sunday is nice and relaxing. Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: On the Diagonal Turnabout set by Concord & 9th, Haunts and Harvest, Hey Boo sets by Gina K Designs, Gina K Designs inks in Tangerine Twist, Sweet Mango, Black Onyx, Stormy Sky, Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Black Onyx, Tangerine Twist card stock, Polychromos colored pencils, pumpkin sequins, Misti, Big Shot

Halloween Happiness

Happy Fri-yay to all! 

Really, I'm not sure why I'm excited about Fridays now that I'm retired, LOL. But, there are plenty of workers out there who probably are, so I'll continue to be excited for Fridays.

I had a really fun, crafty day yesterday and made several cards. Some playing with new techniques that I'm learning by watching YouTube videos. (It's great to have the time for that now.) However, today's card isn't made using a new technique at all, rather the oldie and goodie technique of using markers to color directly on the rubber before stamping. This Halloween Happiness is a single stamp with multiple images that I wanted to use different colors on, so coloring with markers was the way to go. It's a rather old SU stamp that was wood mounted. Recently I unmounted all of my SU wood sets and I'm loving how much less storage room they take up, as well as being able to use them in a stamping platform, like the Misti. 

This is my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge, and I love the center oval design. Because this stamp included a sentiment, I used some Halloween embellishments from my stash in the place of the two sentiment banners in Jen's sketch.

I've used another older SU Halloween stamp set for the inside greeting and images.

My photos this morning turned out much better than yesterday's, and I did use the Shot Box again. I lowered the light intensity today. Besides brighter, no blue tones either. Maybe this is the secret! I need  to try and find some additional instructions or suggestions on the web, but I'm feeling much better about my purchase.

Have a great day and weekend, and thanks for looking in!

Colleen

Supplies

Halloween Happiness stamp and Halloween Smiles set both by Stampin' Up, SU Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black and Basic White card stocks, Halloween patterned paper from my misc stash, SU Markers in various colors, Gina K Designs Black Onyx ink cube, GKD Master Layouts 2 and Stitched Oval dies, Altenew Featured Sentiments die set, Misti, Gemini Jr, stash Halloween embellishments, Connect liquid glue

Peace, Love & Macarons!

Hello and Happy Thursday peeps,

I love the jewel tones in the current Sunday Stamps Color Challenge! I had to play along. Trying to come up with an idea other than the beautiful flowers in the inspiration photo, I ran across this stamp set from Colorado Craft Company and thought it would work just fine. After all, macarons do come in all sorts of colors (flavors). Plus, this is such a fun image to color with Copics.

This stacked macaron image is large enough for a slimline card, so that's fun too. I stamped it with Memento black ink onto GKD layering weight white card stock and colored each cookie with various markers in each of the challenge colors, then cut it out using the corresponding die. To make the background, I used a bkg stamp from Concord & 9th inked with the Memento black and then cut it out with a Kat Scrappiness slimline die. I cut a mat for it from black card stock and layered it to the Lost Lagoon card base. The main image is popped up on the background with SU Dimensionals. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and it has a die to cut it out too. 

I decided to make some other flavors (chocolate) of cookies for the inside, and the other sentiment from the stamp set. These images are single cookies that I "stacked" by stamping the smaller one on top of the larger one.

So, I bought a We R Memory Keepers Shot Box to use for taking blog pictures. So far, I'm not thrilled! No matter how I set the light, my pictures are darker than I expect them to be! I'm not sure how to correct this. If anyone else has used it with better success, let me know the secret. It was fairly "spendy," so I don't want to give up on it, yet! These photos have a blue tinge for some reason too. I couldn't adjust the color in the photo editing software, and retaking them didn't change. Fairly frustrated here, LOL.

Anyhoo, thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Slimeline Macaron stamp set and dies by Colorado Craft Company and Woven Plaid bkg stamp from Concord & 9th. SU Lost Lagoon card stock, Gina K Layering Weight white and black onyx card stocks, Memento tuxedo black ink pad, Copic markers, Kat Scrappiness Slimline die, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

Today is the Best Day Ever

 Hello crafty peeps,

I'm posting my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. This week Claire is our hostess with the monthly color challenge. Our colors this time are yellow, red and olive green. I decided to make a pretty floral birthday card using Gina K Designs stamps. In addition to the Paper Players Challenge, my card also works for the Gina K Monthly Mixe Challenge. The challenge for August is to use multiple greetings/sentiments on our cards.

The images are stamped with Black Onyx ink and colored with Copic markers. There is a house down the street from us that has several beautiful Dahlia plants close to the street. Some have huge blooms as large as small dinner plates. Many are the variety with bright colored tips, which is what I was trying to emulate in my coloring. 

Here is the inside of the card with the Birthday wishes greeting.

Enjoy the rest of your week and thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs stamp sets Beautiful Bees, Forever Flowers, Enjoyable Greetings, with set dies, GKD Flourishes Stencil, GKD Layering Weight White, Fresh Asparagus and Black Onyx card stock, VersaMark, GKD Black Onyx, Fresh Asparagus and Red Velvet ink, GKD white detail embossing powder, heat tool, GKD blending brush, Master Layouts 1 dies, Copic Markers, foam squares, connect glue

Happy Harvest Blessings

Hello and Happy Thursday,

Last night I made a couple of Fall/Thanksgiving cards while watching the Olympics on TV. I've watched just a few nights for these Olympics. I guess mostly because we were on vacation when they started.

This first card uses the colors of Kraft, Gray and White from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge, and the sketch from this week's Freshly Made Sketches. Since the stamp set is over a year old, I'm also entering it into the Retro Rubber Challenge where it's "anything goes" this week.

The stamp set is from Stampin' Up and it's called Country Home. I stamped the water can using GKD Soft Stone ink and colored it with colored pencils. I cut a mask for the can then stamped the fall arrangement using GKD Kraft ink and shaded some of the images with a Kraft colored pencil. While the mask was still in place, I stamped the tile image in a darker gray shade using a block. I was very pleased with how well I was able to get it to line up perfectly with each stamping. The panel is cut out with the dies from the GKD Master Layouts 2. I used Stormy Skies card stock for the mat and Kraft card stock for the card base. I thought the twine added to the "country" theme and the sentiment is from the same stamp set.

I made the second card using the GKD Wreath Builder System. All of the stamped images are from the GKD Autumn Wreath Builder stamp set, and all of the inks and card stock are from GKD as well.

After stamping the images, I used the GKD Master Layouts 3 dies to cut the panel and the mat. The circle dies are from the Master Layouts 5 die set. I added some bling in the form of coper sequins around the card. This is a 4.5 x 4.5 inch square card.

I hope you all have a lovely Thursday. Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Country Home set by Stampin' Up, Autumn Wreath Builder Set by Gina K Designs, GKD card stock in Kraft, Layering Weight White, Storm Skies, Tangerine Twist, Fresh Asparagus, GKD inks in Kraft, Soft Stone, Stormy Skies, Dark Sage, Fresh Asparagus, Honey Mustard, Prickly Pear, Faded Brick, Tomato Soup, Tangerine Twist, Faber Castel Polychromos Colored Pencils, GKD Master Layouts dies, twine, sequins, Misti, Gemini Jr, GKD Wreath Builder System, SU Dimensionals

Take A Little Time To Coast

Hello peeps,

Getting back into my stamping mode, I have my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Joanne is our hostess with the monthly theme challenge "Beside the Seaside." 

Using some new-ish Gina K Designs stamps, I created a framed window looking out to the sea and a sail boat. 

I used Gina's Wreath Builder to make the flower frame, and then some masking and ink blending for the scene inside the frame. This was a super fun card to create, and I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I did  making it.

Most all stamps, inks, paper, dies and supplies are from GKD, with the exception of the Copic markers that I used to color flowers and the boat and sails. The seagull stamp is from Hero Arts.

The greetings inside and out are from a single stamp that I split between the front and on the inside. I just taped off each section to stamp Happy Birthday for the front, and then the rest of the stamp for the inside here.

Enjoy your Wednesday, and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

From Gina K Designs: Take Time to Coast stamp set, Black, Sea Glass and Layering white card stock, Black Onyx, Daffodil Delight, Sweet Mango, Sea Glass, Blue Lagoon, Blue Raspberry, Powder Blue inks, Master Layouts dies, Wreath Builder system, Hero Arts June 2018 My Monthly Hero Beach set, Copic Markers, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals, liquid glue

Oh Hello

Hi everyone,

After an extended vacation to visit friends on the East Coast, I'm finally home. It's always great to do some traveling and spending time with great friends, and it's always great to get back home. We arrived back late Tuesday night, and the rest of the week was super busy. But, yesterday, I pretty much spent the day in my craft room stamping.

I knew that I could rely on the Freshly Made Sketches challenge to get me started with a sketch after such a long vacation from stamping, and when we had our mail delivered, I had some new Concord & 9th stamps to play with for the sketch.

 

I made three panels with different C&9th ink colors using the new Flower Garden turnabout set. Using dies from GKD, I cut the panels to sizes to work for the sketch, and cut mats from solid card stock colors.

The large flower and sentiment are from another new C&9th set called Flower Shaker Shapes. I cut them out with the corresponding dies and popped them up in the center. 

All papers, stamps and inks are from Concord & 9th.

Here's the inside, using the dies that come with the Flower Garden Turnabout bundle. (The die cut element looks black in the photo, but it's cut from C&9th Eggplant card stock.)

One of the many things that kept me busy last week is that I picked up my new car. Because for the past 30 years, I drove a company car, I had to buy a car after retiring. I ordered it at the end of last March and it arrived this past Monday. I picked it up on Thursday afternoon, and so far, I am loving my choice! I decided I wanted to go all electric and after doing tons of research, I went with the brand new Ford Mustang MACH E SUV/Crossover with a single full charge range of 300 miles. Here's a picture of it. This car is "smarter" than I, LOL!

I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Concord & 9th sets Flower Garden Turnabout set and Flower Shaker Shapes set with corresponding dies, Concord & 9th card stock and ink in several colors, Gina K Designs Master Layouts dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals, liquid glue