Have So Much Fun!

 Hey all,

I hope your weekend was amazing! Low key for me. I got a couple of birthday cards made and worked a couple of rows on a crochet afagan that I'm making for my great niece.

Since I'm heading back to my mom's tomorrow for the week, I got my card finished for the new Paper Players challenge this afternoon. Jaydee has the monthly sketch challenge for us this week, and there are lots of possibilities with this one. I've used a Concord & 9th set that I've had for a few months, but not used yet until today.

This is a stamp and coordinating die set called Plane Awesome. I used the small plane window dies to make the five images across per the sketch. The little windows actually open and close. So cute! I decided to use a rainbow color scheme to go with. 

The inside uses more sentiments from the stamp set.

Enjoy your week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plane Awesome stamp set with dies by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight white and Black Onyx card stock, Concord & 9th colored card stocks

Ink: Concord & 9th and Simon Says Stamp 

Other: Misti, Big Shot, Connect Glue, Blending Brushes

Wishing You A Happy Day & Buzzing By To Say Hello

 Hi and Happy Weekend,

I received a new order from Gina K Designs a few days ago that included this fun new background stamp called Doodle Garden Background. It's a large 6 x 6 inch background stamp that I'm sure is super fun to color, but I decided to use it in another way with this week's Freshly Made Sketch as inspiration.

My idea was to ink it with a light gray shade of ink then make a reverse circle mask for the center and stamp that with a darker color, and/or heat embossing the circle with clear or metallic embossing powders. I ended up trying both techniques, but I didn't get the desired effect of the circle standing out with either. My solution was to make a circle border for each and then continue with the rest of the cards.

On the first card card I stamped the background stamp using Soft Stone ink and then used Amalgam Black ink and clear embossing powder for the center.  The flowers are from the GKD Fancy Flowers mini stamp set stamping them in the colors from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. The border circle is navy card stock.  The centers of the flowers have GKD pearls in pink and red.

For card two, the background is stamped with Soft Stone ink, the center circle is stamped with GKD Embossing ink and heat embossed with GKD fine detail Silver EP. The additional stamped images are from the  GKD Flowers & Wings mini stamp set stamped with colors from the current Sunday Stamps challenge. The border circle here is cut from GKD silver card stock. The centers of the flowers have GKD yellow pearls.

The inside of both cards I left blank for writing a personal message.

I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend. I have a birthday card to make for a very good friend of ours. Since I also just received some Spellbinders wax seal supplies, my first, that I'm anxious to try, my plan is to incorporate that in his card. Should be fun to play with. 

Colleen

Supplies 

Stamps: Doodle Garden Background stamp, Fancy Flowers Mini and Flowers & Wings Mini sets with dies all Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight  and Layering White, In the Navy and Silver card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Soft Stone, Amalgam Black, Embossing pad, In the Navy, Passionate Pink, Red Hot, Red Velvet, Faded Brick, Fresh Asparagus, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard and Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs single stitched circle dies, Gina K Designs colored pearls, Connect glue, Masking Magic, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs Silver EP, SU Clear EP, Heat tool, foam squares

Winter Fun and One More Sympathy Card

Happy WET Monday!

It's been absolutely pouring rain here since very early this morning. This is our third day of rain, and it's the day with the most and the hardest. I believe it started around 4:00 am (PT) and is supposed to rain non-stop until 4:00 pm (PT). I'd like to go to the postoffice to drop off the sympathy cards that I've made, but I'm not sure I want to brave the streets.

So, I do have one more sympathy card, this one is for another cousin, the brother of my cousin that passed recently. I've used the Winter Trees layering stencil set from Concord & 9th and the Freshly Made Sketch again.

I added a very simple sentiment for the inside. It's from the SSS XL Greetings set.

Here's to not having to make another sympathy card for a long while!

My second card is a much more fun one. Claire is hostess for the new Paper Players Challenge this week with the monthly Clean and Simple challenge. Her theme to go along with is Winter Fun. I pulled out an older set from Pink Fresh Studio, ink blended some snow hills on the front of this one layer card, then stamped and colored these cute forrest animals having a fun ski day.

To make the ski runs, I cut masks and lightly ink blended Sea Glass and Stone inks along the edges.  All of the images the sentiment are from the PF stamp set, as are the inside images and sentiment.

Personally, my idea of winter fun is to play in my craft room, but these guys seem to be having fun.

Enjoy the day and the week ahead, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies Card one

Stamps: Sketched Flowers and XL Greetings sets by Simon Says Stamp (sentiments)

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onyx

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated various Greens and  Gina K Designs Amalgam Black

Other: Winter Trees Layering Stencil set by Pink Fresh Studio, Blending Brushes, Simon Hurley Gold Lunar paste, Simon Says Stamp Thin Frames dies, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs gold dots, foam tape, Connect glue

Supplies Card two

Stamps: Skiing By to Say Hi set by Pink Fresh Studio

Paper: SU Basic white thick

Ink: Gina K Designs Amalgam Black, Sea Glass, Soft Stone, Innocent Pink, Peach Bellini, and Christmas Tree Green

Other: Colored pencils, Misti, Blending brushes

Sympathy Cards

 Hello peeps,

I'm squeaking in just under the wire to post my card for the current Paper Players Challenge. Anne Marie's color challenge this month is Black & White with a bit of color. These are usually fun to do and lend to so many creative possibilities.

One of my cousins passed recently after a short illness, and I thought this challenge would be good to make a few sympathy cards, one for his wife and one for his mom.

This first card also uses the current Freshly Made Sketches layout, although my card is a little more layered than the usual clean designs for this challenge, but I'll post it there anyway.

All of the images used for this card are from Gina K Designs. I made a cloudy sky background for the balloon and for the strip down the side of the card using pastel rainbow shades and a cloud stencil. I wasn't going to add color to the balloon, but in the end it felt it needed some.

The second card uses the Spellbinders Betterpress system and the January 2024 plate of the month. I first ink blended some GKD Coral Reef ink from the bottom of the white panel getting lighter as I approached the middle before running it through the Betterpress system using just black ink. After the ink dried, I cut the panel out with a stitched die and popped it up with some foam tape onto a black card base. The sentiment is heat embossed.

These cards are never fun to make and I don't make them ahead for my stash. In this particular case, it was SO not something I wanted to do.

On a brighter note, we are having a little neighborhood happy hour this afternoon and that will be fun.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies Card 1

Stamps: Vintage Summer set with dies from Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Layering Weight White card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Amalgam black, Innocent Pink, Peach Bellini, Lemon Drop, Applemint, Sea Glass, Lovely Lavender and Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 dies, Misti, Foam Tape, Connect Glue, Big Shot

Supplies Card 2

Stamps: Spellbinders Fill My Heart Sentiments

Paper: Spellbinders Betterpress Cotton card panels and Gina K Designs Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Spellbinders Betterpress black, Gina K Designs Coral Reef and Craft white

Other: Spellbinders Betterpress system, Big Shot, Spellbinders Betterpress plate Poppy Greetings, Gina K Designs Fine Detail White EP, heat tool, blending brush, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 dies, foam tape

 

Let's Celebrate Your Day

 Hello,

I'm combining challenges for my post today using Ann's theme challenge for The Paper Players and Cecile's sketch for the new Freshly Made Sketches.

I recently completed the annual calendar that I make for my bestie every year using supplies from Concord & 9th and there were some of the die cut flowers left over. I decided to use one for Cecile's sketch and make a birthday card for my mom's birthday coming up in March. In addition to the flower, I added the March month stamp from this year's C & 9th calendar set and a birthday sentiment from another C & 9th stamp set. In fact, all of the card stock, stamps, ink and dies on the card are from Concord & 9th except the inside greetings, which are from Gina K Designs.

As mentioned, the inside greetings below are from Gina K Designs and the die cut flower is from Concord & 9th.

Enjoy the rest of the day and TGIF tomorrow!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Celebration Squad set, 2024 Calendar Stamp set by Concord & 9th and Filled With Sunshine mini set, Friendly Silhouettes set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th inks

Other: Concord & 9th Build A Bloom, Cottage Garden, and Quilt Card Front dies, Misti, Gemin Jr, Connect glue, SU Mini dimensionals

Just A Note to Say

 Hi stampers,

The Color Hues blog has a pretty color challenge for the new year of Navy and light blue and I thought of one of my Concord & 9th sets to use for it. This is a sweet little set called Hello Wishes and it's perfect for a card for some friends that live in Chicago.

For the layout I used the current Global Designs Project sketch challenge.

All of the die cuts and the sentiments, including the inside below,  are from the same C & 9th set.

I used a shadow stamping technique to highlight the large inside greeting.

Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hello Wishes stamp set with dies by Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stocks white, Harbor and Midnight

Inks: Concord & 9th Harbor and Midnight, Hero Unicorn white craft

Other: Misti, Gemini 2, Gina K Designs white EP, heat tool, white ribbon, small blue and clear rhinestones, Connect glue, SU mini dimensionals

Happy New Year

 Greetings and Happy New Year,

For my first post of 2024  I have a card for the new Freshly Made Sketches challenge. It's a relatively clean and simple card using a fun Concord & 9th set.  The colors come from the last Sunday Stamps challenge, called Winter Warmth. Appropriate for the theme and the weather this week.

On the inside I used a larger cup with another greeting from the stamp set.

I've been visiting my mom and sister in Northern California for the past few weeks. I drove up a few days before Christmas, then we all drove to Bend, OR to visit my niece and her family. In addition to Christmas, my niece had a birthday on 12/26 and her daughter (my great niece) turned one on Christmas day, and my youngest nephew was 25 on 12/28.  Lots to celebrate that week. 

One thing not to celebrate, my mom, my sister and I all came down with Covid the weekend after Christmas. No one else that we were with over the holiday tested positive, so I think we must have picked it up just before we left to go to Bend. All three of us are up to date with the vaccine, and we've had very mild to no symptoms other than a light cough for my mom and my sister has some fatigue. I've had no symptoms and have felt normal. I even cleaned and reorganized mom's garage this past week. It's just we are kind of limited to going out and if we have to, wearing masks, of course. This is the first Covid infection for any of us, so kind of a bummer that we finally got caught. Also, I will wait until I test negative for the recommended times before I head home so I bring it there.

Luckily, my sister and I have a nice craft space here to help keep me busy. 

Enjoy your weekend, and Happy 2024 to all!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cup Of Kindness set with dies from Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight white and SU Basic White thick and Navy

Ink: Concord & 9th and Hero Arts

Other: Altenew embossing folder, Misti, Gina K Designs white embossing powder, heat tool, Gemini Jr, enamel dots, Connect Glue, SU foam strips