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

Wish Big

 Hi all,

It's a beautiful day in my neck of the woods. Clear blue skies and a cool ocean breeze. I'm busy rounding up things I need to pack as I'm headed back to my mom's tomorrow. I'm flying instead of making the 650 mile drive since I'll only be there a couple of weeks this time. My sister and all of her stuff arrived on Monday, and I'm going to help with unpacking and putting away. 

Last evening while watching tennis I made my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. Joanne has the monthly theme challenge this week and it's called Four Legged Friends. I pulled out one of my favorite Lawn Fawn sets and the coordinating dies to make this birthday card. I found these balloon papers in my misc paper stash and thought they would make a fun background. I have no idea of their origin. Probably from a long past card kit.

For the inside, I used another Lawn Fawn dog stamp set, which is actually a Halloween set.

The green background and white panel are cut from the SU Radiating Stitches die set and I threw in some more of the polkadot paper too.

My blog will be pretty quiet for the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for checking in, and have a good day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Simply Celebrate Critters, Elphie Selfie, How You Bean-Strawberry Add-On, and Happy Howloween sets all from Lawn Fawn

Paper: Gina K Designs heavy and layering weight white and Jelly Bean Green card stock, stash patterned papers

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Gina K Designs Blue Denim, and Copics

Other: Radiating Stitches Dies from Stampin' Up, My Favorite Things Banner die, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue, Misti, Big Shot

Warm Autumn Wishes

 Happy Labor Day Monday,

I hope you're enjoying the long weekend. I sure have been, mostly crafting while watching the US Open Tennis matches. I've been good about getting up early and getting at least a 3 mile walk in each day so I don't feel too guilty about sitting around the rest of the day.

Yesterday I pulled out some new Gina K Designs Polyglaze sheets, some deco foils and my Mink laminator and made a bunch of backgrounds. Just like hot foiling, once you get started, it's hard to stop. They are all so shinny and pretty! Since I still needed to make my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, I decided to use some of the panels for it.

I made four of these leaf panels with different colors of foil then cut them all using the same die and then arranged them so the panel is put back together with each quadrant in a different color. The card base is embossed with the Gina K Designs Fall Leaves embossing folder for some added texture.

The sentiments on both the front and inside, and the small leaves on the inside, are also from Gina K Designs, a newer stamp set called Harvest Silhouettes. Here is the inside.

Enjoy your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Harvest Silhouettes stamp set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Heavy Weight and Layering Weight white, Tranquil Teal, Jelly Bean Green and Black Onyx by Gina K Designs

Ink: Tranquil Teal, Jelly Bean Green, Black Onyx and Craft White by Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Grungy Leaves Polyglaze sheets, Deco Foil, Mink Laminator, Gina K Designs white embossing powder, heat tool, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 11 and 2 die sets, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs gold dots, Connect glue, foam tape

The Cookie of Life

 Happy Saturday peeps,

If you're in the U.S., it's the first day of the Labor Day Holiday weekend and it's a rainy and steamy day where I live. My only plans, however, is US Open Tennis watching and crafting, so the weather isn't bothering me any.

I pulled out some really "old" wood block stamps to play along with Amy's August Woodblock Wednesday challenge. It always takes me awhile to pick through my drawers of wood mounted stamps trying to pick out which I want to use. This month, I choose a chocolate chip cookie stamp and a greeting stamp that goes well with it.

I stamped a background of cookies and colored them with Copics then trimmed the panel down using the GKD Master Layout 2 dies. I decided to put the sentiment on a heart and also stamped another cookie, fussy cut it out and popped it up. 

I used a stamp from Concord & 9th for the inside sentiment and added one more cookie, cut in half.

Enjoy your weekend and happy crafting!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cookie from Limited Edition (1997), Front Sentiment stamp from Judith, Inside Sentiment stamp from Concord & 9th

Paper: SU Vanilla, Gina K Designs Dark Chocolate and Red Hot card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Dark Chocolate and Red Hot, Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 and 4, SU Dimensionals, Connect Glue, Big Shot

Boo & Thanks

 TGIF Peeps,

Here's my card for LeAnne's Paper Players sketch challenge for this week. I made my card way back on Tuesday, but never got around to taking a picture and writing my post until this morning. It's been another warm week, but I like the sunny days of August. Our May, June and much of July are foggy and we can go weeks without seeing the sun, so I'm not complaining about a few warm-ish days, LOL.

I made a Halloween card using July release sets from Concord & 9th. The background is made using a Turnabout stamp and the rest of the images are from it's coordinating stamp set and dies. The pattern paper, card stock and inks are also all C&9th.

Instead of a square for the focal panel I used  hexagon dies from Spellbinders and a cover plate from Concord & 9th for the Pumpkin's background. The twine has a gold sparkle running through it although it's hard to see in the picture.

On the inside, I used the piece of the background on the front that I trimmed off and more images from the pumpkin stamp set.

I'm also sharing this card made with one of the new C&9th Layering  Stencil, stamp and die sets.  This is made with C&9th inks as well. Their fall colors  are so pretty, especially the dark rust color which is called Cayenne. The stamp set has two large and 3 small sentiments with coordinating dies to cut them out. 

Here is then inside of this card using a coordinating flower die from the suite. Again, paper and inks are all C&9th.

That's it for me. I just received some new stamps and dies from Gina K.'s August release yesterday so I think I'll play with some of those today. I hope you all have a super weekend. 

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pumpkin Patch Turnabout set, Playful Pumpkins stamp and die set and Cottage Garden Layering Stencils, Stamp and die set all from Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th white, Nutmeg, Cayenne, Juniper, and Buttercup card stock and Fall 2023 patterned papers

Ink: Concord & 9th Spiced Cider, Cayenne, Buttercup, Peacock, and Nutmeg. Gina K Designs White craft ink

Other: WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, Spellbinders Nested Hexagon dies, Concord & 9th Stitched Leaves Card Front die, blending brushes, foam tape, white and gold twine, SU mini glue dots and Dimensionals, Doodlebug enamel dots, Connect liquid glue, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, Misti and Big Shot