Happy Holidays

Merry Christams,

I hope everyone is enjoying the day with family and friends. I was visiting my mom and sister last week in northern California so my family time was a little before the holiday, but just as sweet. I even got to see my nephew who lives in MN and my niece who lives in OR.

Here at home, it's a very low key couple of days, but we do spend Christmas Eve and Christmas evening with our good friends for yummy dinners and wines for celebrating.

I noticed that Amy's December Woodblock Wednesday challenge is up, even thought it falls on Christmas Day, and since I'm just hanging out today,  I had time to make a quick card for it.  This is one of my favorite older SU holiday stamp sets and I've used it a lot over the years. This time I kept things super simple with a little background ink blending and layering. The images are simply stamped with black ink and cut out, then layered as the focal images.

Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for a wonderful and crafty 2025!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stampin' Up 

Paper: Stampin; Up and Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: SU black enamel dots, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 banner die, SU dimensionals

Winter Wishes and Happy Birthday

Hello to all,

The year is winding down for challenges and blog posting, and so I'm finishing up the last of my challenge cards until the new year. 

This post has a couple of cards that I made using an embossing folder / inking technique that is super fun to do and fairly easy. You can find the instructions on a few of Jennifer's videos if you want to see how it's done. Just search embossing folders on her YouTube or blog.

First up is a birthday card made with the Spellbinders 3D EF called Rosette Burst. Truth, I made 6 half sheet panels using different color combos because the first one was so pretty and I couldn't stop playing. The inks I used on this one are SSS Pawsitively Saturated inks. The butterfly with flowers is the latest incentive stamp set from Gina K Designs, and the sentiment is hot foiled using navy foil. This card uses the current Color Hues challenge colors of purple and blue. 

My second card is made using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and the color challenge from the Paper Players. Ann's colors this week are Cherry Cobbler Red, Pretty Peacock and Gold.

The circles are made using the inking technique with the SSS Holly Branch 3D Embossing folder and the SU Cherry and Peacock inks. I cut the circles using Spellbinders dies.

Wishing all of my fellow crafters a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Peaceful New Year. I hope you get to enjoy the season with family and friends.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs Blooming Butterfly Mini and Seasonal Greetings Mini sets

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight white, Lovely Lavender and gold card stock, SU Cherry Cobbler card stock

Ink: SSS Pawsitively Saturated, SU, Honey Bee Gold, and Concord & 9th Black

Other: Spellbinders Rosette Burst 3D EF, Simon Says Stamp Holly Branch 3D EF, Tim Holtz Brayer, Spellbinders circle die, Gina K Designs Gold embossing powder, Pink Fresh Studio Fancy Script Words Hot Foil plate, Spellbinders Navy Hot Foil, Glimmer system, Blending brushes, Gina K Designs corner punch, foam tape, SU Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

Happy Holidays

Hi again,

I decided to do one more post today since I had this card finished. It's made using the current Color Throwdown challenge colors of Red, Green, and Cream.

I started with a cream card base and used the C&9th Plaid Turnabout stamp with two shades of red and two shades of green.  The center oval is from Spellbinders and it's cut from the same vanilla card stock and ink blended with the brighter red shade and the two greens. It's a landing space for the tree dies from Gina K Designs, cut from glitter paper and backed with green card stock. The sentiment is from an older Gina K Designs mini stamp set.

For the inside, I've used a sentiment and small tree image from the 2024 GKD-SSS Stamptember promotion.

Thanks for looking in today, and enjoy your Friday evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plaid Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th, Seasonal Greetings Mini set and Stay Cozy set by Gina K Designs  (2024 Simon Says Stamp Stamptember set)

Paper: Gina K Designs Vanilla card stock, Concord & 9th glitter paper, SU green card stock

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively inks

Other: Ornamental Tree dies by Gina K Designs, Oval die by Spellbinders, blending  brushes, SU Dimensionals

Just for You

 TGIF everybody! 

I hope you have some fun plans for the weekend. I am going to a holiday party tomorrow afternoon hosted by my former manager for her current team and I've been invited. I can't wait to see everyone as it's been 3.5 years since I retired. 

My card for this post is for LeAnne's theme challenge at the Paper Players. LeAnne wants us to use a deer on our projects. I realized that I have way more deer images than I can ever use, although it might be fun to make it a theme one year for my holiday cards and use each set for one card. (Hmmm, that could be a fun idea.)

Anyway, I chose this cute Simon Says Stamp Holiday Ornament set for my card today.

All of the images used are from the SSS stamp and die set. The background patterned papers are from my misc. bag of papers, so I have no idea of the company. I liked the collage for the background to the ornaments. The ornaments are colored with alcohol markers, both Copic and OLO.

There are five ornaments in the set, and I used another for the inside.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday! I need to do some chores, one being getting my car washed.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Holiday Ornaments by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: Gina K Designs Cherry Red card stock, X-Press It blending card stock, misc patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic and OLO markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 stitched rectangle die, Gold, Silver, Green and Stardust Stickles, Gold enamel dot, white gel pen, SU Dimensionals

Season's Greetings

 Happy Saturday,

I hope everyone is doing well this weekend. I'm finally back home after spending the past, almost month, at my mom's in Northern California. I wasn't planning on staying as long as I did, but it ended up that way. I drove the 12.5 hour drive on Thanksgiving day. The good news, no traffic, even through Los Angeles and no waiting for car charging in LA. 

After wading through mail and packages on Friday I was able to spend today in my craft room. Since this past Wednesday was the last Wednesday of the month, it is time for Woodblock Wednesday over on Amy's blog. I really like digging through my drawers of wood mounted stamps to play along each month. This month, I made two cards. (I'll write a second blog post for the second card.)

Today's card has a fun snowman, who seems to be very excited for the holidays. I've used Linda's sketch for this week's  Freshly Made Sketches challenge for the layout.

The background snow flake embossing folder is from Gina K Designs and the pattern papers are scraps from my stash bag. No clue of the company.

I kept the inside really simple with just the greeting.

The snowman stamp is from Stampendous circa 2000. The front greeting is from Hero and the inside greeting is from Annette Allen Watkins, 1992.

I love looking through the gallery to see how the wood mounted stamps are used. 

Have a great Sunday, the end of a four day weekend for most of us in the U.S. 

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted stamps from Stampendous, Hero Arts and Annette Allen Watkins

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and misc patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs, Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Snowflake embossing folder, Taylored Expressions Scalloped die, Stampin' Up white snowflakes with silver sequins, SU Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

CHRISTMAS

 Happy Monday Peeps,

I'm still visiting my mom and sister in Northern California, mostly just hanging out with mom. We play cards and Yahtzee in the evenings after dinner, and I've been getting some crafty time in. I've made another crochet beanie hat and I've also done some sewing. Of course, a little stamping.

Today's card works for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge and the new Paper Players challenge. It's Clean and Simple week at the Paper Players and Jaydee's theme is Christmas.

I pulled out a fun and punny GKD set from my sister's stamps to use for my card.

Mom and I were reminiscing yesterday morning about how my grandmother (father's mother) would make homemade popcorn balls with red and green food coloring, wrap them in plastic wrap with curling ribbon, and put in our stockings, so when i was looking through the stamps yesterday and saw this sentiment, I just had to use it.

The inside of the card is super simple with just a greeting.

I wish everyone a good week. It will be rainy here starting Wednesday then for the rest of the week. Mom has an endoscopy scheduled for Friday, then she and I will drive back to my house on the weekend.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: A Very Silly Season  and Snow Carolers sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU Basic White and Real Red card stock

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Gina K Designs Soft Stone,  and "cheap" alcohol markers

Happy Brrr-thday!

 Hello,

Claire's color challenge this week for the Paper Players is both bright and fun. It would be perfect for some summer flowers for sure. However, I used a new winter set from Simon Hurley to make this winter themed birthday card. 

I started by tearing some copy paper to mask the snow hills for the penguins to stand on and then ink blended the colors for a winter sky. Then I stamped four penguin images, cut them out with the set dies and colored the balloons, scarves and hats using the challenge colors.

I've used another of the penguin images, there are four total in the stamp set, on the inside with a birthday greeting from a GKD stamp set. I used the same process for the snow hills and sky as on the front of the card.

I'm currently visiting my mom and sister in northern CA. Between the supplies that I've brought and my sister's supplies, we have a well stocked craft area.  Besides some stamping, I brought some crocheting to work on. I finished this fun beanie hat recently. I gave it to my sister as an early birthday present. 

Tonight, I'm joining my mom for bingo at the senior center here in her town. Hope one of us wins a game or two, LOL.

Enjoy your Friday,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Fall Crop & Create 2024 set by Simon Hurley & On the Inside-Birthday by Gina K Designs

Paper: Layering Weight white and Black Onyx card stock by Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs and Alcohol markers

Other: Blending brushes SU Dimensionals, Connect glue

Grateful

 Happy Tuesday Peeps,

Elizabeth is hostess this week for the Paper Players Challenge. It's theme week and she has chosen Give Thanks, a very timely theme for November here in the U.S. 

My card is super simple. Some stenciling, die cutting and a few embellishments and it was done. I did add some stamping in the mix with the inside sentiment.

This is last month's Spellbinders' stencil of the month set called Colorful Pumpkins. The die cut sentiment is from Gina K Designs. I cut it from shiny gold card stock and added some GKD gold embellishments for accent. I thought the gold was a good choice for the fall colors. (However, it was hard to get a picture to actually show the shiny gold. it took me several tries, LOL.)

Before stenciling the pumpkins, I used an older Taylored Expressions masking stencil to do the inside deckled rectangle pattern. After finishing the card, I'm still not sure I really like the way it looks. In my mind's eye, it was way prettier!

I added just one of the stenciled pumpkins on the inside with a stamped greeting from Spellbinders' October Clear Stamp of the month.

It's finally election day here in the U.S. I voted early, about 3 weeks ago, actually. The day after dropping off my ballot I received the text that it was received and counted. One very rewarding life experience I've had is working a polling place. I can't remember the exact year because it was over 10 years ago now, but I remember most everything else about that day and the training day prior to election day. I remember feeling like I was participating in something special that day. 

I'm taking off to my mom's tomorrow, a 12 hour drive. Basically from one end of California to the other. I'm staying with mom while my sister goes back to Oregon to baby sit her two grand children for a week. I'll be there for two weeks or maybe a little more, then I'm bringing my mom back to stay with us through Thanksgiving. I see lots of card games and some bingo nights in the near future.

Have a great evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Autumn Wishes by Spellbinders

Stencils: Colorful Pumpkins by Spellbinders and Deckled Rectangle Masking stencil by Taylored Expressions

Paper: Gina K Designs Vanilla and Dark Sage card stock, Concord & 9th gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Grateful die with shadow die, blending brushes, gold metallic embellishments, SU Deckled Rectangle die, Connect glue, SU mini Dimensionals

Sending Holiday Cheer

 Happy Monday Peeps,

I have another holiday card today. This one uses the sketch from the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Also, I realized that the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop is in full swing, so I pulled out some fun SSS cup dies for the focal images of the card to play along..

First, I made my own patterned paper using a couple of C&9th Turnabout stamps and seasonal colors. After those were completed, I used the dies to cut out the cups. There are three sizes of cups in the die set and I've used the largest and mid-sizes on my card. I also pulled out some old wood mounted rubber stamps to gold emboss the small images that I've used on the cups.

The gold panel and the white oval are embossed with Spellbinders embossing folders and the greenery under the cups is from a Honey Bee Holiday die set. The images here were all cut from white card stock and ink blended for the color. Finally, the sentiment is from SSS.

As I usually do, I decorated the inside of the card to match the front. The sentiment on the inside is from Gina K Designs.

Thanks for looking in today,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plaid and Retro Petals Turnabout sets and Candy Stripe Background stamp by Concord & 9th, Christmas Blessings Sentiment set by Simon Says Stamp and Joyful Seasons set by Gina K Designs, small wood mounted holiday images by PSX and Hero Arts

Paper: Gina K Designs card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th

Other: Essential Stylish Oval and Scalloped Circle dies by Spellbinders, Coffee Mugs by Simon Says Stamp, Lovely Layers Winter Greenery dies by Honey Bee, Autumn Chevron and Joyful Candy Canes embossing folders from Spellbinders, GKD blending brushes and Gold Embossing Powder, Wagoner heat gun, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Merry Christmas

 Hello and Happy November!

Wow, 2024 is almost in the books! November also means busy times for us crafty folks. Besides getting holiday cards completed and mailed, I also have 12 family members with birthdays in November and December. 

Today, I'm happily guesting again for the Color Hues challenge. The colors for this challenge are red and black. Using last month's Gina K Designs (free) Incentive stamp set, called Folk Art Christmas, I made this Nordic Folk Art style card.

For inspiration, I "Googled" Nordic Folk Art and got hundreds of images. Many used multiple colors, but a few used just two, so I figured the challenge's two colors would work for a basic Nordic design. I decided to pull out the Gina K Designs' Wreath Builder and see what I could come up with using the stamp set, since some of the on-line pictures were in a circular design. 

I've used five of the set images on the front of the card, as well as a few small images from other GKD stamp sets, and used the remaining images on the inside of my card here.

I think my Nordic Folk Art card turned out pretty well.

Thanks to all of the ladies on the Color Hues DT for inviting me to be Guest Designer for this challenge. It's always so fun!

I can't wait to see what everyone makes with this classic color duo!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Folk Art Christmas set, Winter Hugs and Wreath Builder Stamp sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Red Hot, Black Onyx and Layering Weight White card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Red Hot

Other: Gina K Designs Wreath Builder Template, Teeny Tiny red and black gems, medium clear rhinestone, Connect glue

Surprise and Delight!

 Hello Stampers,

It's time for the October edition of Woodblock Wednesday. I love being prompted to "shop" my fairly large stash of wood mounted rubber stamps, at least once a month, to participate in Amy's challenge. I missed September's due to being on vacation, but I'm ready to play today.

I decided on making a holiday card for my little 4 y/o friend, Oliver who lives in Brooklyn, NY, and I knew just the stamp I wanted to use. 

This little ice skating bear is stamped with black ink and colored with copies. I cut him out using a Spellbinders square die and layered the panel onto some SU Holiday DSP.

The sentiment is also a wood mounted rubber stamp. Both it and the bear stamp are from 1992, so they've been in my drawer for many years. I've used them many times over those years, as they are favorites. The bear stamp is from PSX. The sentiment stamp logo is very hard to read. I can only make out 1992 and Annette on the side of the stamp. There is more, but it's unreadable.

Thanks for stopping by. I love looking through the gallery each month to see what folks are making.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Ice Skating Bear by PXS and sentiment by Annette (?)

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

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Red Velvet and Copic Markers

Other: Spellbinders Square die, Waffleflower A2 rectangle die set

JOY

 TGIF Peeps!

It's a very Fall day today. Very foggy, (thick marine layer) and cool. Perfect excuse for staying in my craft room (although I really don't need any excuse for that).

Today's card works for two challenges. I've combined the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches with the stencil challenge from Just Us Girls.

I've used the Simon Says Stamp Layered Holiday Grid stencil for the images and the greetings on the front and inside are from the SSS Christmas Blessing Sentiment set with coordinating dies. For a little texture I used the TE Falling Snow EF and for a little sparkle, some Frozen rhinestones from GKD.

Here's the inside. I used the holly leaves stencil to make the package bows.

Enjoy your Friday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas Blessings Sentiments set by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Layered Holiday Grid stencil by Simon Says Stamp, Falling Snow embossing folder by Taylored Expressions, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, blending brushes, Gina K Designs Frozen rhinestones, Connect liquid glue

Let It Snow, Peace On Earth, Happy Holidays: Tag You're It!

 Hi all,

LeAnne is hostess for Clean & Simple week at the Paper Players. The added parameter is to make a tag. I went round and round in my mind with different ideas and then I couldn't decide if I wanted to make just tags or make a card featuring a tag. In the end, I decided on just tags, because I can always use them for gift wrapping.

I made three graphic style tags using a cute Gina K Designs stamp set from last year.

The tag die is also from Gina K Designs. There are three sizes in the set and I've used the middle size here. After stamping the words, I used Masking Magic strips to create areas to blend inks for the graphic design part. The strips come in half inch, quarter inch and eighth inch widths, and I used all of them.

The backs of all three are finished exactly the same:

Here are pictures of the individual tag fronts.

I quite like the way these turned out. 

TGIF tomorrow. 

Enjoy!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Winter Wishes, Festive Phrases, and Merry Sentiment Strips sets by Gina K Designs

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

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic Markers

Other: Tag Trio Die set by GKD, Masking Magic Strips by GKD, various twine from my stash, Connect liquid glue