Thank You

Hello peeps,

We arrived home Monday evening from our three weeks on the east coast. We had a super fun time, but as always, it's also great to be back home. It will be a short time for me however, as I'm headed to my mom's house on Wednesday. 

After catching up on chores on Tuesday, I finally had some time in my craft room yesterday afternoon. I made a Thank You card to send to our hosts using two of my routine weekly card challenges. This week's Paper Players Challenge is a color challenge and I combined it with the new Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

The stamps, dies and embossing folder are all from Spellbinders. The mushrooms and leaf dies are from the Enchanted Stitched Mushroom die set, which is the 09/2023 Stitching Die of the Month. The embossing folder is the Spellbinders 3D EF of the month for 09/2023. The card stock and inks are from Stampin' Up.

I cut several thin strips of Melon Mambo card stock and glued them on the diagonal on a piece of white card stock for the lower panel. The upper panel I ink blended with the Tahitian Tide, light at the top and darker towards the bottom of the panel. The black card base is embossed with the EF and then I used some craft white ink to rub over the raised areas. The sentiment is heat embossed with white powder and cut out using an older SU oval punch.

No picture of the inside since it's just a white panel to write a personal message.

Thanks for checking in and have a great Friday and weekend.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Fill My Heart Sentiments set from Spellbinders

Paper: SU Basic Black, Basic White, Real Red, Melon Mambo, Tahitian Tide card stock

Ink: SU Craft White, Tahitian Tide, Real Red

Other: Spellbinders Stitching Die set Enchanted Stitched Mushrooms, Spellbinders 3D embossing folder  Mushroom Harvest, Gina K Designs white embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Big Shot, black embroidery thread, SU small oval punch, red pearls, blending brushes, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals

For You

 Happy Hump Evening to all,

It's been a nice autumn day here in SoCal with a little rain and wind, but still fairly warm at 63 degrees. Yesterday it got up to 75! We've been preping for our trip to NY on Friday, getting laundry done, scheduling our ride to the airport, etc. Tomorrow will be packing day.

It's color week at The Paper Players and Joanne has a holiday color palette this month of red, gold, green and another color of our choice. I choose blue, well I guess really it's aqua, as my fourth color to make these all die cut cards. All of the dies are from Spellbinders, as are the card stocks and glimmer paper. 

I started this card by embossing the top of the card base. Then I very  lightly rubbed the top with gold craft ink so it just highlighted the raised portions from the embossing folder. The large bow is a die set called All Occasion Bow, and is super fun to put together. I've made several in many different colors, but when I saw that gold was one of Joanne's colors, I thought it would look pretty with this glimmer paper from Spellbinders. The flowers, leaves and sentiment dies are from another Spellbinders holiday die set which is called Petite Blooms.

For the inside, I used sentiments that I hot foiled using a Spellbinders Glimmer holiday sentiment set.

On the second card, I went with a green background starting with the same steps as with the first. Dry embossing the card base and using gold craft ink to highlight the raised portions. The Christmas tree has a base but I just used the inside florals here. The leaves are cut from gold card stock and the flowers are cut from white and colored using blending brushes. Unfortunately, in my photos they look pink-ish, but I did use red inks, Gina K Red Velvet and Lipstick. I took the pictures both inside and outside, but no difference in the colors on the flowers. The dark red pearls match the darker ink blending almost perfectly IRL.

Here's the inside of this card. I heat embossed this with gold EP. This sentiment is from Gina K Designs.

This may be my last post for several weeks. We leave on Friday early am, so I'm not sure I'll be doing much crafting tomorrow. We are back home on Dec. 12. Happy Thanksgiving next week to all those celebrating in the U.S. I hope you get to spend it with family and friends.

Colleen

Supplies

Spellbinders die sets: All Occasion Bow, Petite Blooms and Layered Poinsettia Tree 

Paper: Spellbinders card stocks

Ink: Color Box gold craft, Gina K Designs Embossing craft ink, Gina K Designs Red Velvet, Lipstick, Turquoise Sea, Sea Glass

Other: Spellbinders embossing folders Holly & Foliage and Stylized Trellis, GKD gold embossing powder, heat tool, Big Shot, Connect glue, foam squares, Red Pearls

Merry Christmas

 Happy Monday Morning Peeps,

Hoping everyone had a wonderful weekend full of crafting. I'm sure there are lots of Holiday cards being made. That's what I've been doing because I need to get all of mine finished and addressed prior to this Friday. We are headed to the East coast on Friday and we will be gone until Dec. 11. We'll be home for three days before friends from Chicago come for a five day visit and two days after that, I will drive to my mom's house in NorCal for the Christmas Holiday. Needless to say, a very busy time for me and after this week, I don't see much crafting going on.

Last night I played around with Jen's sketch for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. As the card was coming together, I wasn't sure I was liking it, but once completed, it actually turned out pretty cute. 

All of the supplies are from Gina K Designs and I used ALL THE TOOLS, stamping, embossing folders, stencils, die cutting and coloring. 

The background and the horizontal element are embossed using the GKD Snowflake embossing folder. The background is teal card stock with white craft ink rubbed over the raised snowflakes. The horizontal piece is opposite, white card stock with teal ink rubbed over the raised snowflakes. For the second panel, I laid out several sentiments from several holiday sets in two directions and stamped them to make a background. I used three different shades of teal inks from very light to medium. I also threw in some small snowflake images to fill in some spaces. The top angled panel is the GKD Falling Snow stencil over white using Sea Glass ink. I used a curved hill die to cut it towards the bottom to make a hill for the snow folks. They are colored with Copics and on the light string I glued clear and red pearls for some shine.

On the inside, I used two sentiment images and matted the panel with dark teal card stock.

I'm really looking forward to our trip on Friday. We are first heading to an area of NY that I've not been to. Our friends have a house in Greenport at the northern tip of Long Island. We'll be there until Nov. 29 then we are taking the ferry over to New London, CT and our friends that live in Mass. will pick us up and we will be spending the rest of our vacation with them. We have tickets for a couple tours of the Newport, RI mansions, which we've done before, but they will be decorated for the holidays and should be spectacular. 

Have a great week all, and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies- all Gina K Designs

Stamps: Snowmen from Feeling Frosty set, background greetings from multiple GKD sets

Paper: Tranquil Teal and Layering Weight White card stock

Ink: Black Onyx, Tranquil Teal, Craft White, Sea Glass, Turquoise Sea, Blue Lagoon, Ocean Mist, Red Velvet and Copics

Other: Snowflake embossing folder, Falling Snow stencil, Master Layouts 6, Frozen rhinestones and colored pearl mix, blending brushes, Misti, Big Shot, foam squares, Connect glue

So Very Thankful

 

TGIF Peeps,

Here's a very quick post with my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. I made this a few days ago but didn't get around to taking the pictures. Anne Marie has a timely theme challenge for us and I created a a Happy Thanksgiving card, which is the simple inside sentiment on this horizontal "Z-Fold" style card.

I pulled the colors from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge.

All of the supplies to make this are from Gina K Designs. The stamp and die set are one of the newer fall bundles. The side panels are made with stencils from her latest release.

Here is the card standing up. The side panels and the circle background are cut using two of Gina's Master Layouts die sets. I didn't take a picture of the inside greeting, which is just a simply stamped Happy Thanksgiving.

Have a great day. My friend is coming over to work on her quilt that I'm helping her with. Today we should finish all of the block construction.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Breath Of Sunshine set with dies

Paper: Gina K Designs Kraft, Layering Weight White, Black Onyx

Ink: Gina K Designs Kraft, Prickly Pear, Sea Glass, Tranquil Teal, Coral Reef, Sweet Mango, Black Onyx

Other: GKD Master Layouts 9 and 13, Fancy Florals Layering Stencils, Blue Pearls, Misti, Big Shot, Foam Squares, Connect glue

When Life Gets Nutty

Hello,

I'm combining two challenges for my card today. The sketch comes from the current  Freshly Made Sketches challenge and the parameters are from Claire's Tic-Tac-Toe challenge on the Paper Players blog. I pulled out a super cute set from Lawn Fawn that I've not used in forever called Let's Go Nuts!

I used the diagonal plaid, die-cut and embossing options on the Tic-Tac-Toe and kept very close to Jen's sketch. 

For the embossing elements, the card base front and the plaid background are both dry embossed using the Concord & 9th Stitched Fall Leaves card front die and I heat embossed the three sentiments using clear EP over Charcoal Brown ink. The sentiment strips and the squirrels are all die cut.

On the inside, I matched the embossed plaid from the outside and added one more squirrel. No sentiment, just a place to write a personal message.

Enjoy your Thursday evening, and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Lets go Nuts by Lawn Fawn with co-ordinating dies

Paper: Gina K Designs Sandy Beach and Charcoal Brown card stock, SU Very Vanilla card stock, Lawn Fawn brown plaid patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Designs Charcoal Brown & embossing ink, and Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, Concord & 9th Stitched Fall Leaves card front die, Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strip dies, SU clear embossing powder, heat tool, Big Shot, SU Mini-Dimensionals, Misti, Connect glue

Happy Halloween

 TGIF Peeps,

It's funny, but even being retired I still look forward to the weekends. Probably because that's when we get together with friends more than during the weekdays. Our plans for tonight are for a little wine and a little pizza with friends.

Last night I pulled out some old wood mounted stamps to make a card for this month's Wood Block Wednesday Challenge. Since I still could use a couple more Halloween cards, that's what I made.This is Rosiland and Russel from Stampassions. All of the images, inside and out, are from wood mounted stamps.

I stamped the duo in Memento black ink on vanilla card stock and colored the images with Copics. After, I cut them out using oval dies from Spellbinders, using the next size to cut a black mat. The orange chevron patterned paper is very old from SU. The greeting is inked first with coral ink and then with black for a two-toned effect, cut out with a sentiment die and also matted. While it's hard to see in the pic, I added some Nuvo glitter to the pumpkin's eyes, nose and mouth, as well as to the tiny stars around the outside, and added two small black enamel dots on the sides for embellishment.

The inside:

Thanks to Amy for hosting this challenge to use these older wood mounted stamps. They usually sit  neglected in their drawers.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps:

Witch stamp: Stampassions

Happy Halloween stamp: Stampendous

Inside sentiment stamp: Simply Stamped

Tiny cat stamp: Hero Arts

Paper: SU Vanilla and Black card stock, SU DSP

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Gina K Designs Coral Reef, Copic markers

Other: Spellbinders Essential Stylish Oval dies, Simon Says Stamp Sentimental Label dies, Big Shot Switch, Nuvo clear glitter brush, black enamel dots, foam squares, Connect glue

Happy Birthday Sweet Friend

 Hello Peeps,

I have a pretty birthday card to share this evening and it is going to a young lady that turns 28 on Oct. 31. 

I've used Jaydee's sketch from The Paper Players Challenge. All of the butterflies and flower images are rub-ons! (Apparently, they are making a come-back.) These are from Scrapbook.com, as is the background patterned paper and the butterfly stencil used on the background paper. 

To make this card I first used the butterfly stencil with Cloud Whip, which is like stencil paste, but it gets slightly puffy with heat. To add the rub-ons to the front panel, I simply cut them out from the plastic sheet, arranged them and used my bone folder to rub them in place. Each little image is separate. The sentiment is from a new Gina K Designs stamp set. It's stamped it with white craft ink and heat embossed it with white powder.

Here's the inside with another GKD stamped image and another butterfly rub-on.

Happy Friday, and have a great weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs Fancy Phrases and Birthday Cheer mini sets

Paper: SU Basic White Thick card stock, Scrapbook.com Joyful patterned paper pack

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and white craft inks

Other: Scrapbook.com Joyful Flowers rub-ons, Scrapbook.com butterfly stencil and Cloud Whip, Gina K Designs white embossing powder, Sentiment Strip dies, Master Layouts 2 dies, Misti, Big Shot Switch, heat tool, foam tape

Happy Birthday

 Happy Monday,

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. On Saturday we headed to the wine country in Temecula to pickup our Fall allocation from one of the wineries there. We took some lunch and had a glass of wine then made it back to the coast by late afternoon. It was a nice little diversion from the usual Saturday stuff.

I'm cutting it close with my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches entry. I finished this late last night and took the photo before heading out for a walk this morning so I could edit and post. I had a totally different approach in mind for these banners, but then I remembered this C & 9th stamp and die set and here's what I did.

The background is embossed with a Spellbinders embossing folder. I trimmed the panel and matted it before adding the ice cream cones. The cone bases are cut from kraft card stock and ink blended with Warm Cocoa ink and the waffle die is straight kraft card stock. The ice cream is die cut from some older Tim Holtz papers as are the jimmies (or are they sprinkles?) The Happy Birthday stamp is from a different C & 9th stamp set.

Thanks for checking in and have a great week!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps and Die sets by Concord & 9th: Petal Pushers set for the sentiment and Pretty Sweet set for the ice cream dies

Paper: Gina K Designs Ivory, and Black Onyx, Tim Holtz colored card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Warm Cocoa

Other: Spellbinders Birthday Candles embossing folder, Gina K Designs large Sentiment Strip dies, Big Shot Switch, Misti, Connect Glue, Blending brushes, SU dimensionals

PS- Here's what Google has for jimmies Vs sprinkles:

The sprinkles vs. jimmies debate

Though the term sprinkles seems to be more widely used, regionality comes into play when it comes to this ice cream topping. According to Philadelphia’s WHYY publication Billy Penn, the term jimmies is used widely in Pittsburgh and Boston and parts of the Midwest, though sprinkles is heard more in New York.

But it’s not always so cut and dry. A 2006 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee survey reported that some respondents use different terms when it comes to length, color, or application (jimmies on ice cream and sprinkles on donuts, for example). So there you have it :)

Happy Halloween

 Happy Hump Day folks,

Today I have a Halloween card that was super fun to make, and super easy to make. No stamping on this card at all. It's pretty rare for me to make a card without any stamping, but here we have one.

This card works for two challenges this week. The Paper Players challenge is the monthly CAS challenge with a theme of Signs of Fall, and the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is called Text It. 

To make this card I started with a slimline card base in thick white card stock. This one measures 8.5 x 3.5 inches. I lined up 4 of the Tim Holtz Bold Text dies from the set down the front, taped them in place and ran it through my die cutting machine. After removing the die cut letters, I ink blended orange ink over the entire front of the panel, then blended black ink around the edges. I glued a piece of black shiny/matte card stock under the front panel, die cut the spider and popped her up over one of the "Os" in BOO!, and covered her body with black Stickles to allow her to stand out a little more.

This was SO fast and easy to make and I love how it turned out. It will go to one of my nephews for their Halloween card.

For the inside, I added another of the text dies, but this time instead of using the negative, I used the letters and another die from another Tim Holtz Halloween die set.

The signs of Fall and Halloween are very obvious around the hood. Everyday on my walk I see more and more skeletons, ghosts, and goblins popping up in trees and yards. It's very festive!

Wishing you all a great day and week,

Colleen

Supplies

Dies: Sizzix-Tim Holtz dies Bold Text Halloween, Spider Web, and Retro Halloween

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight White, Black Onyx, & Tomato Soup,  SU Pumpkin Pie, and Erin Lee Matte Black card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Tangerine Twist, Black Onyx

Other: Blending brushes, Big Shot Switch, Connect glue, black and yellow Stickles, SU mini Dimensionals

Happy Birthday

Hello and Happy Wednesday,

I have the  pleasure of being a Guest Designer for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge today after my card was one of the winners for their 600th sketch celebration a few weeks ago.

I've made a fall themed birthday card using many fun techniques, stamping, ink blending, stenciling, and die cutting. Most of the supplies used to make this card are from Gina K Designs.

Thanks to the FMS ladies for inviting me to play along as a Guest Designer this week. So Much Fun! I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone interprets this sketch. Have fun with it!

On a personal note, Starting today, I'm hanging with my young friends,16 and 13 year old boys, for the rest of this week, so their parents can get away for a little R&R in Chicago. Time for "Auntie" to do some spoiling, LOL.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Fancy Phrases set with coordinating dies by Gina K Designs (from the Fancy Folds card kit)

Paper:  Vanilla, Warm Cocoa, Prickly Pear and Tomato Soup card stock

Ink: Warm Cocoa, Prickly Pear, Tomato Soup, Fresh Asparagus

Other: Decorative Doubles Stencils by Gina K Designs (from the Fancy Folds card kit), GKD Master Layouts 7 dies, GKD blending brushes, Misti, Big Shot Switch, GKD Connect glue, foam tape, SSS gold sequins

Thank You

 Hi,

In today's post I have a couple of cards made using the colors in this week's Paper Players Challenge.  LeAnne is hostess with the months color challenge and she has some great colors perfect for Halloween cards. I took a different route with the colors however, and decided to use a large floral layering stencil from Concord & 9th to make some thank you cards. They are striking, and I really like how they turned out.

After completing the stenciling, I ran the panels through Concord & 9th Stitched card front dies.

The large die cut sentiment is also a Concord & 9th die. I cut it twice from regular black card stock and glued those together. I cut them once again from Erin Lee black shinny card stock and glued these on top of the other two, finally gluing the stacked dies to the front of the card front. A few Gina K Designs black pearls are added around for embellishments.

Simple sentiments make up the inside of the cards.

On this card, I reversed the orange and purple layers, but the Highland Heather shade was a little too light to cover the Pumpkin Pie, so I went over it with a darker shade of purple, in the case GKD Plum Punch ink. I also used a different C&9th Stitched card front die and gold pearls instead of black.

I hope you have a great rest of the week, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps & Stencils: Cottage Garden Layering stencils and Lots Of Thoughts stamp set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, SU Basic Black, Thick Basic White, Highland Heather, Pumpkin Pie card stock, Erin Lee Shinny Black card stock

Ink: SU Highland Heather, Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive & Gina K Designs Black Onyx & Plum Punch

Other: Concord & 9th Quilted Card Front and Triangle Background card front dies, Gina K Designs Pearl Mix, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies,  blending brushes, Big Shot Switch, Misti, Connect glue

Warm Wishes

 Happy Sunday peeps,

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. 

As far as my weekend, yesterday, I made a really cute crossbody belt bag for my friend's birthday coming next month. She put in her order that she wanted one for a European trip she's taking with another friend, also next month. It turned out really nice, if I do say so myself. Since it won't be sent to her for a couple of weeks, I can't post the pictures yet. 

I also did a bunch of laundry while sewing. I wanted to change to the fall bedding, which meant washing both what had been on the bed and what I wanted to put on it, including the down comforter.

Today, it's stamping time until late in the afternoon when we are headed to friends for dinner. My card is for this week's Freshly Made Sketches. A seasonal card to send out with Halloween cards in a week or so.

Front:

Inside:

Thanks for looking, and have a great week ahead.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pumpkin Spice set with dies from Stamps Of Life (Sept 2023 Let's Stamp Together kit), Harvest Silhouettes Set by Gina K Designs (for inside greeting and image)

Paper: Concord & 9th, Gina K Designs card stock and Concord & 9th patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Designs, Copics

Other: Lots of Circles dies by GKD, Stitched Leaves card front die by Concord & 9th, SU gold gems, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue, Misti, Big Shot Switch

There's No Place Like Home

 TGIF Peeps and hello,

I'm squeaking in with my Paper Players card for this week. I made this earlier in the week, but didn't get around to taking the pictures and blogging it. 

The focal circle-snowflake image is done with a fun technique called faux dry embossing. Using inks, you can get the look of texture similar to using an embossing folder. Gina K has an instructional YouTube video if you are interested in learning about this technique.

I have two examples here. Both using the same stamp set. The first follows Anne Marie's sketch, the second is slightly different. Both cards use the same embossing folder for the background. All supplies are from Gina K Designs. The stamp set is the 2023 Gina K Designs Stamp-tember Simon Says Stamp collaboration set. 

On both cards I ink blended a white panel using three shades of purples and blues before running the panel through the GKD Snowflake embossing folder. This was then cut into strips and glued onto the card bases, one Lovely Lavender and the other Powder Blue.  The stamp set has a coordinating die set for both the snowflake images and many of the sentiments, which I used with my cards. For some sparkle, on the lavender card I used rhinestones and on the blue card I used sequins.

The inside of the cards are the same layout and the stamps are all from the same stamp set as the front of the card.

I had a very fun day today! I am taking the Fall 2023 Crop & Create class that started today and goes through Sunday. It's awesome! There were four classes today and in each we made three cards. Being on the west coast, it starts at 06:30 am! After today's classes, I'm really looking forward to the next three days.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Shimmering Season set and dies by Simon Says Stamp/Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs dye inks in purples and blues and craft white

Other: Gina K Designs Snowflake embossing folder, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs Frozen Rhinestones and Disco Ball Sequins, Connect Glue, SU Dimensionals

Happy Birthday & Thank You Cards

 Hi all,

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. 

I am finally back home after visiting my mom and sister and helping my sister unpack after she moved to our mom's. I spent two weeks unpacking boxes and helping to organize rooms. My sister's house in Portland, OR will be going on sale next week after some renovations, and it looks great.

I arrived home on Thursday in the late afternoon, and spent  most of yesterday unpacking, going through mail. In the late afternoon we went to have a couple glasses of wine at al local wine bar and then came home to watch some baseball. Today, I did some stamping with some fun new things that I ordered from Spellbinders. I made six cards using dies and stamps from the 2023 Advent Calendar pack. This Advent Calendar has 24 doors with a die, stamp set, embossing folder or sequins behind each. This week's Freshly Made Sketch provided the inspiration for these cards. 

All of the inks and card stocks are from Gina K Designs. The card bases are top folding 4.5" x 4.5" square cards.

Here are the other five cards that make up the set.
 

It was fun to spend the day at my craft table after being away for two weeks. I hope you're enjoying the weekend too.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps and Dies: All From Spellbinders 2023 Advent Calendar

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock-many colors

Ink: Gina K Designs pads and cubes

Other: Big Shot, Misti, SU Dimensionals, GKD Connect liquid glue, Nuvo Aqua shimmer pen, Glossy Accents, Gina K Designs Single Stitched Square die