Happy Birthday

 Hello to all,

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday yesterday. Our good friends hosted a birthday party for Mr. Personal Chef at their house. It was just their family and us with some good food and good wine. Plus, it was an afternoon party, and we were home by 6:00 pm. Today, I had lunch with a former co-worker and his wife. They are both retired too, so we had an extended lunch to catch up. I worked with him for all of my 30 year career, and it was great to catch-up with them.

Because it was an early party yesterday, I was able to start on a card for this week's Paper Players Challenge, and I finished it this afternoon.  Ann has a fun Tac-tac-toe challenge for us this week. I went with the diagonal of floral, birthday, circle.

The background, focal image outline and sentiment are all hot foiled. I have the Gemini hot foil system and it's very easy to use, however, since I don't pull it out often, I sometimes have to do a couple of tries before I get a good foil. But, it's still pretty fun and somewhat addicting, LOL.

The focal image is a Pink Fresh Studio set that has the hot foil plate, die and layering stencils. The daisy image comes as a wreath, but I cut it apart and used the circle as a grounding point. Because the foiling is bright and shiny, I decided to use pastel shades of ink with the stencil.

I used one of the flowers of the layering stencils on the inside and paired it with a Gina K Designs stamp for the sentiment.

On Friday morning I'm driving up to Northern California to spend most of June with my mom so tomorrow I will start deciding what crafting supplies I'm going to take with me. I usually end up filling my car with stamps, dies and all of the other things needed to make cards. My mom always rolls her eyes as I'm unpacking everything.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Fancy Flowers Mini set by Gina K Designs (inside sentiment)

Hot Foiling supplies: Daisy Wreath by PinkFresh Studio, Yana's Sentiments by Spellbinders, Triple Line Diamond Foil Plate by Waffleflower, Spellbinders Glimmer Copper colored Foil, Gemini Hot Foil System,

Stencils: Daisy Wreath Layering Stencils by PinkFresh Studio

Card stock: Gina K Designs Layering weight white, Black Onyx and Innocent Pink

Ink: Gina K Designs Innocent Pink, Dusty Rose, Applement, Lemon Drip, Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 & 2 die sets, Gina K Designs double and single stitched circle dies, Gemini Jr, Pretty Pink Posh pink gems, Connect liquid glue, blending brushes

Oh, Ale Yes!

Hello peeps,

I used LeAnne's sketch from this week's The Paper Players challenge to make a birthday card for my oldest nephew. Like many in their twenty's, one of his favorite beverages is beer. He became a beer "connoisseur" a few years ago when he did a year of his college in Ecuador. (Besides the college thing, I think it's one of the safest things to drink.)

I received this new SU set with a recent order, and it proved timely to make his card. The card base is from a pre-packaged set of note cards and envelopes from the new SU catalog called Texture Chic. The look of the texture and colors is very nice IRL. The size is larger than an A2 card at 4.25 x 6.25 inches.

 

Most all supplies used to make this card are from SU. I used  Gina K ink cubes to stamp the images because her dye inks are Copic friendly and I knew I wanted to add some shading with Copics.

The Ale greeting is heat embossed and fussy cut to fit over the growler bottle, and I used a blending brush to blend brown ink around the edges. The second greeting was stamped prior to running the panel through an embossing folder.

Here is the inside. The sentiment is from an older SU birthday set and the beer mug from the beer set. Notice this is a late birthday card. I did call him and sent his usual birthday $$ via Venmo, so the important part arrived on his birthday, which was Sunday.

This Brewed For You set and dies is a fun one to use. I'm sure you'll see it more on this blog. 

Have a good rest of the week and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Brewed For you set & dies and Happiest Of Birthdays set both by Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Texture Chic note cards, SU Soft Succulent, Soft Suede, Basic White card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Amalgam Black, Charcoal Brown, Soft Stone, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard and Sweet Corn ink cubes, VersaMark, SU Soft Suede and Soft Succulent ink pads,  and Copics

Other:  Clear embossing powder, heat tool, SU Tasteful Textile embossing folder, SU Brushed Metallic enamel dots, Big Shot, SU Dimensionals

Spring Card Camp 2022 - Day 2 Card

 Hi all,

I have one more post for this evening with a card that I made after watching the Day 2 instructions. Day 2 class techniques are the Joseph's Coat technique using stencils. Class instruction by Cathy Z., and Jessica Frost-Ballas. Cathy showed the traditional Joseph's Coat technique with a single stencil and Jessica stepped it up with layering stencils. I haven't tried it yet, but I will.

For my traditional JC technique card, I used a new-ist SSS stencil called Fanfare. I think most crafters use stencils with larger open areas to blend the dark ink through, but I wanted to try this one with smaller lines. I really like the result and with the background ink colors, the panel has a very art deco look.  The colors are from this week's Sunday Stamps Challenge.

=

The skyscraper/city die is Cityscape B from Altenew. I cut it once from dark blue card stock and once from red card stock so I piece the blue into the red outlines. The Hello die is from Gina K Designs. I blended Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass ink on white card stock before cutting it to match the lighter blue in the blended background. I cut the word three times to stack for dimension and cut the shadow die from vellum. The strip sentiment is from the SSS Spring In My Step stamp set. It's stamped with GKD Red Velvet ink and cut out with a GKD Sentiment Strip die.

The blended inks on the background are Distress Oxide Candied Apple, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch, Tumbled Glass and a very light application of Black Soot around the edges. After drying the blended inks with a heat tool, I placed the Fanfare stencil over and blended GKD Black Onyx with a blending brush. I really love how the background turned out. 

Thanks, and enjoy your tomorrow!

Colleen

Supplies

Stencil: Simon Says Stamp Fanfare

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp Spring In My Step set

Paper: Gina K Designs heavy white, Blue Denim, Red Velvet, Layering weight white

Ink: Distress Oxide and Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Red Velvet

Dies: Gina K Designs Hello with shadow, Sentiment Strip, and Altenew Cityscape B cover plate

Spring Card Camp 2022 - Day 1 Cards

 Hello,

I signed up to take latest Online Card Class and day one was all about ink lifting. I made a card for each technique demonstrated in the class video. Day 1 techniques were taught by Jennifer McGuire and Channin Pelletier. The ink lifting in all of the techniques is accomplished with water and an ink that is water reactive. I've used Distress Oxide inks on all of my cards.

Jennifer showed two techniques for making backgrounds and I made cards using both. The second technique she showed actually makes two backgrounds.

Ink lifting in the first technique is done using a paint brush, water and a paper towel. Here's my card.

The  SSS Tumbling Shells background stamp is stamped using Hero Arts craft white ink and heat embossed using GKD white fine detail embossing powder. After embossing, I blended three blue shades of Distress Oxide ink using a Tim Holtz sponge blending tool. The stamp set is called Inner Mermaid from Ellen Hutson. I heat embossed the sentiment on Vellum and the mermaid tail on white card stock using GKD Amalgam black ink and clear embossing powder. The tail is colored with Copics. The sentiment is die cut using a GKD circle die. I matted the top panel with white and used a GKD Blue Raspberry card base.

Here are my examples using the second ink lifting technique taught by Jennifer.

I used the new Freshly Made Sketches sketch for the layout.The flowers and leaves are from the Pink Fresh Studio set called Brighter Days which includes a hot foil plate, layering stencils, stamps and dies. I first hot foiled the flowers using gold foil. Next I used GKD inks and the stencils to color the flowers and then cut them out using the corresponding die. I arranged the flowers per the sketch and added a GKD pre-printed sentiment strip to each. The top panels and mats are cut out using the GKD Master Layouts 1 die set. Finally, I added some sequins, gems and pearls for embellishments.

The last card uses the technique taught by Channin. This technique used a line stencil sprayed with water to do the ink lifting. 

The background stencil is from Pretty Pink Posh called Jungle. The stamps and dies are from the Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets sets by Honey Bee. I colored the images with Copics and cut everything out with the corresponding set dies. The stenciled panel and mat are cut using the GKD Master Layouts 1 die set. The card base is GKD Sweet Mango card stock.

Sorry for a such a long post, but I wanted to put all of my Day 1 cards together.  I've listed most of the basic supplies in the post, but if anyone has a question on something I didn't list, just shoot me an email.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

The "Nut" House (I'm Nuts About You)

 Hello all,

Laurie has a fun theme this week for The Paper Players Challenge called House. I have several house stamps and dies that I could have used, instead I decided to pull out this super cute Gina K Designs set by Melanie Muenchinger called Forrest Friends to use. Using the tree "house" stamp I created a house for this squirrel and his/her nut stash.

The tree image is stamped with Charcoal Brown ink and colored with a few different E Copic markers. I stamped the greeting in the center and layered the acorns at the bottom by stamping and masking. These are also colored with Copics. The squirrel is stamped in Slate ink and colored with a few W Copics.

The inside greeting is stamped on a heart that is cut from Red Velvet card stock. This die is part of the stamp set dies. The squirrel is from the Forrest Friends Additions stamp set. 

Have a good afternoon.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Forrest Friends and Forrest Friends Additions sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Layering Weight White and Red Velvet card stock by Gina K Designs

Ink: Charcoal Brown, Slate and Red Velvet ink pads by Gina K Designs and Copic markers

Other: Forrest Friends dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

Sending Cheer

Happy Wednesday afternoon,

I made a couple of cards using Joanne's color theme for The Paper Players Challenge. One uses all SU products and the other uses SU card stock and a SSS image colored with colored pencils.

For the all SU card, the stamp set is new from the 2022-2023 Annual Catalog called Bottled Happiness. I stamped the images using the challenge colors and then did some fussy cutting. I made a wood grain background on the card base by scoring the card stock, then dragging a gray ink pad across the paper from both directions, then added a distress look by splattering the challenge colors over the panel with a paint brush. My layout uses the sketch from this week's Global Design Project Challenge.

I left the inside blank, but coordinated the layout with the outside of the cards.

 

The second card uses the SSS set called Mom's Spring Flowers. 

The image is colored with colored pencils. It's cut out with the set die. The navy background is embossed using a SSS cover plate, but it doesn't show up in the photo. Using some SSS mini-slimline rectangle dies, I made the Fresh Freesia frame. In fact, I made three and stacked them together. The sentiment is pre-printed, also from SSS and I blended Fresh Freesia ink over it with a blending brush.

Enjoy the rest of the week, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Bottled Happiness stamp set by Stampin' Up, SU Basic White, Night of Navy, Fresh Freesia, Granny Apple Green card stock, Night of Navy, Fresh Freesia, Granny Apple Green, Gray ink, SU sequins

Mom's Spring Flowers stamp set and dies by Simon Says Stamp, Gina K Designs Layering Weight White card stock, SU Night of Navy and Fresh Freesia card stock, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, Polychromos colored pencils, SSS Detail Bohemian Slim Cover Plate, SSS mini-slimline rectangles

You're So Flocking Fabulous

 Happy Hump Day Peeps,

Hope everyone is having a good week. We've had some really nice sunny days so I've been putting in some walking miles along the beach. This morning I was able to watch a pod of Dolphins swimming just outside of the break. They are so beautiful.

My card today works for two challenges. Ive used the theme from this week's Paper Players Challenge and the sketch from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge.

Jaydee's theme challenge this week is to use birds or bees on our projects. I decided on birds and pulled out a couple of  fun sets from Honey Bee. The background papers are retired SU and make a perfect background for these colorful flamingos.

The flamingos and flowers are stamped with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. I popped up the flamingo on the right with Dimensionals. I made a custom greeting by masking off words from a few of the stamps in the set, stamped them on different colors of SU card stock, and cut them out with a stitched flag die from the GKD ML 2 die set.

Here is the inside of the card. The Toucan and the greeting are from the same two Honey Bee sets and the heart die is GKD.

My walk this morning was an early one and the rest of my day will be watching a baseball double-header, due to a rainout yesterday, and of course, probably more stamping. 

Enjoy your day,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets stamp and die sets by Honey Bee

Paper: SU Peekaboo Peach, Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride, Basic White, Basic Black card stock and Playful Palette DSP (retired)

Ink: Mememto Tuxedo Black and Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, 2, 4, 5 die sets, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals