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