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