Thinking of You & Hello Friend

 Hello Stamping friends,

TGIF! 

While watching Opening Day Baseball last night I did some playing around with texture and made two cards. Both use this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch. I'm quite pleased with the way these two cards turned out.

For the first card, I stamped the SSS Friendship Text background stamp using navy ink on a white panel, then cut an oval from the center. Next, I inked up one side of a We R Memory Keepers embossing folder with GKD ink cubes, spritzed it with a little water, laid the panels on the inked side of the folder keeping them as if not cut, and embossed them. I wasn't sure exactly what I'd get and was nicely surprised. 

To finish  the card I cut an oval mat from black and the SSS Leafy Tear Drop dies from white and SU Orchid Oasis card stock and layered it all together. The sentiment is pre-printed from GKD and the pearls from Trinity.

For the second card, I heat embossed the SSS Arches Background stamp with Gold EP on a white panel. I cut an oval from the panel and dry embossed that using the Spellbinders Stylized Trellis EF, inked with lavender, green and turquoise inks. Again, I spritzed the EF with a small amount of water before laying the oval in and running it through my die cutting machine.

I used the same EF on the card front and the layered top oval. The butterflies and greeting are from the SSS set called Beautiful Butterflies. The butterflies are colored with Copics and cut out with the set dies. The greeting I embossed with gold to go with the gold in the bottom oval. I finished this card with flat gold sequins.

 

Enjoy your Friday evening. You'll find me watching more BB. First our friend's high school game, and after that, I'll be in front of the TV watching my pro-BB team. 

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies - Card 1

Stamps: Friendship Text Background

Paper: Gina K Designs heavy weight white and Black Onyx card stock, SU Orchid Oasis card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs In the Navy, Red Hot, Medium Orchid, Medium Lilac, Blue Raspberry, Turquoise Sea

Other: We R Memory Keepers embossing folder, Gina K Designs pre-printed sentiments and Sentiment Strip dies, Gina K Designs Single and Double Stitched Oval dies, SSS Leafy Tear Drop die, Trinity pearls, Big Shot, Connect glue, SU mini Dimensionals

Supplies - Card 2

Stamps: Arches Background and Beautiful Butterflies set by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: SU Basic White Thick card stock and Gina K Designs Layering Weight card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Blue Lagoon, Jelly Bean Green, Wild Lilac, and Embossing Ink and Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Single and Double Stitched Oval dies, Spellbinders Stylized Trellis embossing folder, Gina K Designs Fine Detail Gold EP, heat tool, Big Shot, Connect glue, SU mini-Dimensionals, SSS gold sequins

Just Because

 Hello,

Lots of die cutting on my card today. In fact, the front has no stamping at all. Using the current color challenge from Sunday Stamps, the sketch from this week's Paper Players Challenge, and a new die set from Spellbinders I made this.

The Spellbinders die set is the March 2023 Small Die of The Month. I didn't use the half cover die included, but I did use all of the other dies in the set. The card base is made from SSS Oyster Gray card stock and it's embossed with the Spellbinders Stylized Calla Lily embossing folder. The flowers and butterfly are made from SU card stock. I embossed the white butterfly using the Spellbinders Hydrangea Blooms embossing folder before gluing the colored flower dies on top. 

For the inside, I stamped a simple greeting and added another of the small die cut flowers.

Thanks for looking in, and have a nice evening.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sentimental Greetings set by Spellbinders (inside greeting)

Paper: Simon Says Stamp Oyster Gray card stock, Stampin' Up Basic White, Brilliant Blue, Ballet Blue, Poppy Parade, Parakeet Party, Black card stock, Lovely In Linen DSP

Other: Floral Butterfly Card Front die set by Spellbinders, Stylized Calla Lily and Hydrangea Blooms embossing folders by Spellbinders, Fishtail Flag dies by MFT, Misti, Big Shot, foam tape, Connect liquid glue

Just Saying Hello

 Hello,

I really like the Color Throwdown Challenge colors this week and I thought I'd see how this new Stitching Die of the Month from Spellbinders would look with them. The colors as well as the die shape reminds me of Moorish architecture. and I do like how they worked together. I pulled some SU DSP that has wall texture to cut the background of the die set which helps with the theme I was going for. The rest of the card stock is SU and the stitching is with basic embroidery thread, 4 strands.

The greeting is from Spellbinders and it's heat embossed with white EP.

I used the background die for the inside and a greeting from Honey Bee. 

I've already put this card in the mail going to one of my sweet nephews. Have a good week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sentimental Greetings from Spellbinders and Inside Kindness Sentiments by Honey Bee

Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Cinnamon Cider, Night of Navy, Basic White card stock and In Good Taste DSP

Ink: VersaMark and Gina K Designs Charcoal Brown

Other: Nested Layered Stitched Petal die set by Spellbinders, WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Big Shot, embroidery thread, Connect Liquid Glue, Pretty Pink Posh Espresso Jewels

Ears To You

 Good Monday Morning peeps,

I hope it was a relaxing weekend for you. I did some crafting, some reading, attended a high school baseball game and had dinner with friends, which adds up to a very nice one for me.

I have a cute and simple Easter card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I've used older SU stamps for both the front and back images, combined with new SU papers and GKD Master Layouts dies.

And the inside:

I love that greeting on the front! Enjoy your week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Ears To You single stamp, A Good Egg set and Basket Bunch set all by Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Night of Navy and Basic White card stock, Regency Park DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Soft Stone, In the Navy,  Grass Green, Sea Glass, Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 5 and 3 dies, blending brushes, Misti, foam tape, SU star embellishments, Connect Liquid Glue

Welcome Spring

 TGIF peeps,

I'm finally back home after visiting my mom in Northern California for about 5 weeks. It's good to be home, but sunny SoCal has been everything but that! Finally today, our sunshine is back! I plan a walk at the beach this afternoon.

I haven't had any time in my craft room since I got back until this morning. I used some already stamped and colored images to quickly put together a card for Ann's CAS Spring theme for this week's Paper Players Challenge. I'm cutting it very close to the deadline, so I'm making this a very quick post.

The tulip image is a hot foil of the month plate from Spellbinders. I foiled it in green foil in one of my crafting sessions while visiting my mom. The border is a background stamp from Pink Fresh Studio that also has a coordinating stencil set. I made it an A2 border using Blanket Stitched dies from Pink Fresh Studio. This was also done while at my moms. Today, I colored the flowers using blending brushes and some GKD yellow and light orange inks and put that piece together with the frame. The greeting is from a GKD stamp set called Welcome Home.

I used only a greeting for the inside. No additional stamping this time around. This is from another GKD set called Filled With Sunshine.

Have a super Friday and weekend,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Dainty Plaid Background stamp with layering stencils by Pink Fresh Studio, Welcome Home and Filled With Sunshine sets by Gina K Designs

Hot Foil Plate: Tulip Border with die Glimmer of the Month by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Stampin' Up Basic White Thick card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Wild Dandelion, Sweet Mango, Jelly Bean Green, Turquoise Sea, Ocean Mist, Black Onyx, Slate Gray

Other: Spellbinders Glimmer System, Green Foil, Waffleflower detail blending brushes, Blanket Stitched Rectangle dies from Pink Fresh Studio, Big Shot, Misti, Connect Liquid Glue, SU mini Dimensionals

Wishing You A Happy

 TGIF Peeps,

Happy St. Patty's Day to all.

I signed up for the latest of Kristina's and Jennifer's On Line Card Classes, this one on creating with stencils. I have quite a collection of stencils by now and I love using them, and I knew that I'd learn more from these two ladies and the rest of the instructors. I've only been able to watch Day one so far and my card today is one of the techniques taught in day one.

The technique is simply turning the stencil after using it in the way it was meant to be used. This stencil is from Taylored Expressions. It creates boxes out of the lines. I used it as intended ink blending with some rainbow colors. Next I turned the stencil 45 degrees (1/4 turn) and used lighter shades of the same colors.

My eyes see something close to hexagon shapes, so that's the embellishment shapes I used for the tree circles in Judy's sketch for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge. These dies are last month's small die of the month set from Spellbinders, and they are super cute! (The black hexagons behind are Hexagon Nested Infinity dies from Hero.)

Here's the inside of my card. The birthday image is from C&9th and I added a few more Spellbinders die cut flowers.

Enjoy your evening and weekend.

Colleen

Supplies

Stencil: Topsy Turvy by Taylored Expressions

Stamps: All The Birthdays by Concord & 9th

Paper: Taylored Expressions Misc. colored card stock, Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs ink cubes

Other: Spellbinders Floral Minis Tiles (Feb 2022 sm die of the mo), Hero Arts Hexagon Nested Infinity dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, Gina K Designs Pre-printed sentiments strip, Gina K Designs sentiment strip dies, Gina K Designs Pearls, Blending brushes, Big Shot, Misti, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Wishing You Happy Birthday

 Happy Weekend Peeps,

I found Amy's sketch for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, well, challenging. Add to that, I have limited stamp sets as I'm still visiting my mom.

Looking through the C&9th box that I brought with me , I found this older mandala stamp set with coordinating dies and I thought maybe I could make it work. Here's what I came up with.

Using some misc card stock in rainbow shades, I stamped two of the mandala images, cut them out with their dies and layered them for the two larger circles in the sketch.  I stamped two of the greeting stamps and cut them out using the smaller of the same dies. The smallest circles are cut from another die from the set. I laid out the die cuts per the sketch on a white card base, but it looked "lonely" so I used the GKD Fizzy stencil to make more circles in the background.

Mom and I are meeting up with two of my Aunts and a few of my cousins for dinner tonight. One of my aunts turns 90 today, my mom will be 87 Tuesday, my other aunt was 84 this past Tuesday and one of my cousins will be 60 tomorrow! Should be fun to see them all.

Wishing you a fun and crafty weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps and dies: Many Mandalas set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Misc colored card stock, SU Thick Basic White

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Jelly Bean Green, Turquoise Sea, Sweet Mango, and Wild Lilac

Other: Blending brushes, Big Shot, Misti, SU Dimensionals, Connect Liquid Glue

Easter Blessings

 Hello,

Today's post has my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. This week is theme week with Joanne as our hostess. Her theme is Easter.

Since I'm still at my mom's with limited stamp sets to choose from, my Easter card has some pretty tulips instead of a bunny and eggs. This sweet little Gina K mini set is the only Easter set I have here. I brought some of the newer SU DSPs with me and I liked these pastel polka dots to go with Joanne's them. Hence, turquoise tulips.

The layout comes from this week's Sunday Stamps sketch.

After stamping the tulips, I masked them and used the GKD Sunshine stencil to add the sun rays behind, then cut the panel using a double stitched rectangle die and the black mat. The greeting is cut using a banner die from the GKD ML 2 die set and popped up with Dimensionals.

I used two other GKD sets for the inside greeting and images. The flower box and flowers are colored with colored pencils.

Enjoy your Thursday, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spring Greetings Mini, Welcome Home and Window Additions sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onxy card stock, Taylored Expressions textured turquoise card stock, Stampin' Up Dandy Designs DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs Ocean Mist, Turquoise Sea, Jelly Bean Green, Fresh Asparagus, Lemon Yellow, Black Onyx cubes

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 and 2 dies, Gina K Designs Double and Single Stitched Rectangle dies, Gina K Designs Sunshine stencil, blending brush, Masking Magic, Prisma colored pencils, Misti, Big Shot, SU Dimensionals

Happy Birthday

 Happy Friday to all,

I love Karen's simple sketch design at Freshly Made Sketches this week. It's a great design to use up some of my reams of patterned papers. I'm also using some retired SU card stock. This card base is made with Mint Melody card stock and it matches the newer Mint Macaroon shade in this new gingham DSP pretty well.

The embossing folder is from Simon and the Stamped daisy is from Gina K Designs.

 After embossing the background, I used a tiny blending brush to add white craft ink over the petals of the daisies and also yellow in the centers. (IRL, the yellow is much softer looking. In the photo, it's looks too harsh.) After gluing the strip of plaid paper down, I used some green metallic embroidery floss along the line. The daisy is colored with a light gray alcohol marker and Light and Dark Daffodil Delight SU Blends markers then popped up with Dimensionals.

For the inside, I used a greeting from the same GKD stamp set and a strip of the SU DSP.

Thanks for checking in. Now I have another "fun" task to start. Taxes!

Enjoy your Friday,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Delightful Daisies stamp set

Paper: SU Mint Melody and GKD Layering Weight White card stock, SU Country Gingham DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs White Craft, Wild Dandelion, Soft Stone, SU Daffodil Delight Blends, misc gray alcohol marker

Other: Gina K Designs Pre-Printed Birthday sentiment, GKD Sentiment Strip dies, embroidery floss, Connect Liquid glue, SU Dimensionals, Misti, Big Shot

With Love and Prayers

 Hello,

I'm almost late getting my Paper Players Challenge card posted! Jaydee's sketch is a great one for this huge Peony stencil from Gina K Designs.

I started by cutting a 4.75 x 4.75 inch square of white card stock for the background and stenciled the leaves with GKD Dark Sage ink. On a second square, I stenciled the Peony, which is a two set layering stencil using GKD light and dark Lilac inks and Key Lime and Fresh Asparagus for the leaves. This panel is cut using the Master Layouts 3 dies. Both stenciled panels are layered with black mats. The sentiment is also from GKD and is pre-printed. I cut it out with a Sentiment Strip die.

For the inside, I used a sentiment from the GKD So Many Sentiments stamp set and a mini bloom from the GKD Pretty Posie mini stamp set.

My Aunt asked for some Birthday, Get Well and Sympathy cards, so this will go in her box.

Enjoy your Friday, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: So Many Sentiments and Pretty Posie Minni sets by Gina K Designs

Stencils: Layered Peony and Lush Leaves by Gina K Designs

Paper: Layering Weight White, Black Onyx by GKD and Lilac by Taylored Expressions

Ink: Dark Sage, Light and Dark Lilac, Black Onyx, Key Lime, Fresh Asparagus by GKD, SU Blends

Other: GKD Pre-printed sentiment strip, Master Layouts 3 dies by GKD, Blending Brushes, Misti, Big Shot, GKD sentiment strip dies, Micro Disco Ball sequins, Connect Liquid Glue