Season's Greetings

Hello,

If you saw my last post,  you know that we were anxiously awaiting the birth of my Great Nephew. I'm happy to report that he did arrive yesterday at 1:00 pm Pacific time. He is a big boy weighing 8.4 lbs. He has very chubby cheeks, and so far seems to be very content. He took his time arriving, 9 days past his due date. We are all thrilled, and can't wait to meet him.

Today I have my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Anne Marie has a great sketch for us this week. It is perfect for using up patterned papers, but as I'm visiting my mom, I only brought card stock with me as far as papers go, so I made my own with stamps and inks.

The background stripes are made using the Concord & 9th Candy Cane Stripe background stamp. I stamped it three times using red, pink and orange inks. I matched up the stripes when I placed them following the sketch, and I like the way they look. The matting behind the striped panel and the ornament circle, and the thin strips on top of the background, are cut from holographic card stock. IRL, it is super shinny.

The center ornament stamp is from a Gink K set from last year. The ornament is heat embossed with silver EP. This GKD set does not have dies, so the ornament is cut with a circle die, but I had to fussy cut the ornament topper and the string/bow image. I added three clear gems around the ornament for embellishment.

For the inside greeting, I used images from another GKD holiday stamp set. The sentiment is heat embossed with silver and I used more holographic card stock for the mat.

Enjoy your day. Mom is off to play bingo at the senior center today. I will do some errands for her then probably more stamping. I have a bunch of December birthdays that I need to get some cards made for.

Colleen

Supplies

Candy Cane Stripe BKG stamp by Concord & 9th, Sparkle & Shine and Holiday Tapestry sets by Gina K Designs, Layering White and Red Velvet card stock by GKD, Holographic card stock by Kat Scrappiness, GKD Red Velvet, Bubblegum, and Coral Reef inks, VersaMark ink, GKD Master Layouts 1 die set, GKD single and double stitched circle dies, GKD silver fine detail EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, Trinity gems, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Wishing You Love and Joy

Happy Monday,

I had a great holiday weekend, and I hope you did too. 

After my friend left to drive home yesterday morning, I managed to get some cards made. This one uses this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch. 

I used a new to me 3-D embossing folder from Altenew to make the background. After embossing, I used a blending brush with some Gina K aqua ink to highlight the snowflakes. I also painted them with a Nuvo Aqua shimmer pen so they sparkle, but per usual, that doesn't show in the photo.

The center image is 3 snowflake dies from Gina K cut from 3 teal shades of card stock, also Gina K. The sentiment strips came in the November Gina K kit, and I cut them with her sentiment strip dies. Finally, I added some clear gems to the snowflake.

 

Mom and I are off to run some errands and do some grocery shopping. Most importantly, we are awaiting news that we have a new Great Grandson (for her) and a Great nephew (for me.) My niece in Oregon is at the birthing center in labor. We are super excited, and may be getting in the car for a trip later in the week to meet him.

Thanks for looking in today, and have a great week ahead!

Colleen

Supplies

Altenew 3-D Snowflake Embossing Folder, Gina K Designs card stock, ink, snowflake die trio, Sentiment Strip dies, Holiday Sentiment Strips, blending brush, Nuvo Aqua clear Shimmer pen,  Gemini Jr, Trinity clear gems, Connect liquid glue

Happy Birthday

 Hello to all,

I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving yesterday. I'm back at my Mom's in northern California for a couple of weeks, and my bestie drove up yesterday morning to spend Thanksgiving Day, and the rest of the weekend with us. I made a fairly traditional meal, although we skipped the whole turkey and just roasted a breast instead.  To accompany the meal, I made a King Arthur Flour roll recipe called Japanese Milk Bread Rolls, and they turned out very yummy.

Since I'm going to be at Mom's for a few weeks, I brought quite a few stamping supplies with me. However, I forget to bring any actual coloring tools, so I'm going to have to make designs that don't require coloring the images. 

On Wednesday afternoon, I made a card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Laurie is our hostess with this month's Clean and Simple challenge, with the added theme of Fairies or Gnomes. I decided to use a couple of Hero Arts sets that were part of a monthly kit from a few months ago and make a birthday card.

All of the images are from the Meadow Heroscape stamp set. The meadow is a three stamp layering image, and the little fairies and greeting are part of the set as well. Since nothing required coloring, it worked out well.

On the inside, I used another set from the same Hero monthly release called Fairy Kisses. I love this large Fairy image and have used it several times. To add some color, I used a Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen with ink pads. This added some sparkle as well as color.

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend. Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Fairy Kisses and Meadow HeroScape sets from Hero Arts, Gina K designs Layering and Heavy weight white card stock, Lovely Lavender card stock, Black Onyx, Soft Stone, Jelly Bean Green, Fresh Asparagus, Lovely Lavender and Plum ink cubes, Misti, Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen

May All Your Christmases be Bright

 Hello,

I hope you all had a nice, relaxing weekend. I spent most of today stamping, but yesterday I spent ALL day doing some house cleaning. We went to a friend's house for dinner and ate some very yummy seafood paella. It was warm in SoCal, and we ate out in the back yard by the pool.

I have a couple of cards using Linda's sketch for the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge. Since it's Sunday, it's time for a new Paper Players Challenge. and one of the cards fits Joanne's color challenge for this week.

The backgrounds on both cards use this Jennifer McGuire embossing folder technique. It's super fun! If you have some pots of Glitz Glitter Gel and some embossing folders, give it a try.

This first card is for the PP color challenge of gray, black, white and silver. The background looks blue, but it's just the picture. The Glitz Glitter Gel that I used is clear. The trees are all embossed using silver EP and I used black and gray accents.

Here is the inside of this card:

Here's the second card. This time I used bright pink Glitz Glitter Gel to fill in the EF. The ornament images are gold heat embossed with parts of the images colored with a light pink Copic. I used a clear Aqua Shimmer pen over the white spaces in the images for more sparkle, not that there isn't enough already. IRL, it is a shitty and bright card!

The inside of this card:

Wishing everyone a good week ahead! Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamp sets:  Card 1, Tiny Trees Turnabout set by Concord & 9th 

                    Card 2, Retro Ornaments set by Avery Elle

Embossing Folders:

                    Card 1 Stampin' Up Snow Burst

                    Card 2 Stampin' Up Poinsettia

Other: Gina K Designs card stock and inks, white, silver and gold fine detail embossing powders

VersaMark ink, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, Glitz Glitter Gel, SU silver sequin, SU Dimensionals

                    

So Very Grateful

Hello to all,

I'm posting my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Claire is our hostess for this week's theme challenge, a timely Thanksgiving theme. 

My card is somewhat of a CASE of a card I saw in the Concord & 9th Instagram gallery. I loved the non-traditional fall colors in pastels on their card and since I have the stamp sets, card stock and inks, I decided to play around to see if I could make something that I liked just as much. For my card, I added the pop of orange and the sparkle of sequin, as well as a center image. I'm pretty happy with the result.

To add the Marmalade dots, I used one of the background leaf stamps from the C&9th Triple-step Autumn Leaf set. I used the ink cube to ink only the dots in the stamp and stamped them randomly around the panel. After the stamping was done, the panel was cut out using the scalloped die from the Gina K Designs  Master Layouts 4 die set. The stamped panel is glued to a Sea Glass top folding card base. I stamped a few extra leaves in green and blue, cut them out with the dies, and popped them over the stamped images with foam dots for a little dimension. 

The pumpkin pie image is from a newer C&9th set. I colored the image with Copics, cut it out with the set die and popped it up in the center. I added the gold rim to the plate using a gold gel pen because Thanksgiving pie should be served on the "good" dishes. The greeting is stamped on Marmalade card stock with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with white EP, then cut out with the sentiment strip die from the same stamp set.

For the inside, I couldn't find a "Happy Thanksgiving" stamp among my C&9th sets, so I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Cutie Pie mini stamp set and used it. After stamping and coloring the images, I cut the panel and the mat using the Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 die set.

I'm off to continue making more Holiday cards today. Thanks for looking in, and have a fab day!

Colleen

Supplies

Concord & 9th sets and dies: Triple-Step Autumn Leaf, Simple Seasons, and Harvest Wreath Turnabout. Lawn Fawn Cutie Pie stamp set. Concord & 9th White, Sea Glass, Buttercup and Marmalade card stock and ink cubes, Gina K Designs Black Onyx ink and Master Layouts 2 & 4 die sets, VersaMark ink, GKD white detail EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, SSS sequins, Gold Gel Pen, Copic markers, SU mini Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

That's typewriter for. . .

Hi peeps and Happy Monday,

I spent the weekend making Holiday cards so today I was in the mood for something else. After looking through some of my saved blog sites, I saw that the current Fusion Card Challenge looked fun, and I knew that I had stamps and other supplies that would work well for the theme. Here's what I came up with.

 

I made a mini-slimline card using some fun patterned papers from my stash. I'm not sure of the company they are from. I pulled them from a plastic sleeve with a bunch random papers. My guess they are from an older SSS Monthly kit. Regardless, they work well for the typewriter theme.

The stamped greetings are from Concord & 9th, as are the inside images.

I cut the patterned papers using the GKD Master Layouts for mini-slimline cards. The circle and heart dies are also GKD.

Here's the inside, finishing off the sentiment for the challenge.

A fun card, that 's not a Christmas card, LOL.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Type Talk stamp set and dies from Concord & 9th, Gina K Designs Heavy weight white and black card stocks, stash patterned papers, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 7 and Stitched circle dies, sequin, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

Merry Christmas

 Well hello to all,

I've been MIA around blog-land for about a month. You know how everyone says how busy they are after retiring, well I'm here to say it's SO true! Since mid September, I've been to see my mom in northern California, went to the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta with my bestie, came home in time for our friends from Mass. to visit for two weeks. The first week they were here, we spent in the Central Coast wine region. It's been great fun!

During the past couple weeks, I've been home, but my creative mojo was leaning towards my sewing machine, and I've been working on a few quilting projects. I'm waiting for some fabric to arrive, so I put the machine away last night and this morning pulled out some stamps, paper and ink.

I made a card to squeak in for this week's Paper Player's Challenge. Ann is hostess with Tic-Tac-Toe, a fave challenge of mine. I've also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch. Love this classic sketch from Jen!

My card fits the top across option of ribbon/twine, circles, die cut.

And the inside:

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

Colleen

Supplies

Concord & 9th Dahlia Turnabout set, C&9th inks in Ballet Slipper, Honeysuckle, Poppy, Cranberry, C&9th white and Cranberry card stock, Pebbles Merry Little Christmas patterned paper, Spellbinders circle dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 & 2 dies, Cranberry/Gold twine, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue