Fall Charm

Hi and Happy Weekend Folks,

I had some fun with today's card using the new clear stamp from the September Spellbinders clubs called Autumn Whim. It's a single stamp with several small images. The bundle comes with dies to cut each out as well as coloring stencils for some of the small images.

I used it to make a card for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge, Michele has a super fun sketch this week, and cutting out all of these little charms worked perfectly for her sketch. I did use the coloring stencils with detail blending brushes to add color.

I arranged the cutouts on the background, made with the 3D embossing folder for the September clubs called Patchwork, a perfect landing spot for the little cutouts. Some are popped up with foam tape and others are glued flat. I thought some gold accents would help set off the fall theme, so I added a gold card stock mat and some Spellbinders gold dots for embellishments.

For the inside, I used a Fall set from last year for both the image and the greeting.

Hope you all have a great weekend. Thanks for popping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Autumn Whim and Autumn Wishes sets by Spellbinders

Paper: Spellbinders and Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Patchwork 3D embossing folder and gold enamel dots, 

Sending Love

Hello,

Here's my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. LeAnne is our hostess with the monthly color challenge. For this challenge, LeAnne chose SU colors of Lemon Lolly, Soft Sea Foam, and Lost Lagoon. 

I debated on what kind of card to make. I stenciled up a pretty poinsettia, which I really liked, but then I tried making a diagonal gatefold card with it and messed it up totally. So, I then decided to use a new flower stencil bundle from Gina K Designs. This bundle includes layering stencils, Polyglaze sheets and dies. I used all of these to make this card. The card stock and inks I used are all from SU in LeAnne's colors.

 

This is a 5 x 7 inch size card and to help with the layout I used Gina K Designs Master Layouts 8 and 20. As I mentioned, I did use the Polyglaze printed sheets for this card, foiled in gold deco foil. After completing the stenciling using Lemon Lolly and Lost Lagoon inks, I cut out the flowers with the die and then ran the cutout through the GKD Swiss Dots embossing folder. To make the dots white in the inked areas, I used a paper sanding block to sand off the ink. 

Here's the inside of this card. I've used images and a sentiment from the GKD Gentle Silhouettes stamp set with the SU inks.

My foot is coming along after surgery. It still has a lot of swelling, but unless I'm on it more than I should be, which happened on a couple of days, there's not much pain any longer. The stitches come out a week from today. I'll tell you with all this sitting, I'm watching lots of stamping videos while crocheting a blanket and I'm getting lots of ideas. I'll probably forget half of them before I get to them. LOL.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Single Peony Mini Set (front sentiment) and Gentle Silhouettes (inside images) set by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU white, Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam, Lemon Lolly, and black card stock

Ink: SU Lost Lagoon, Soft Sea Foam, Lemon Lolly and Gina K Designs white craft

Other: Gina K Designs Autumn Delight Stencils, Polyglaze sheets and dies, Swiss Dots embossing folder, Master Layouts 3, 8 and 20, Fuze foiling machine, 14K gold foil, Brutus Monroe Alabaster embossing powder, SU dot embellishments

Season Of Comfort

Hi Peeps,

I'm checking in for the first time post surgery last Wednesday. I had surgery on my left foot and I've been mostly sitting with it propped up on a pillow to help reduce swelling. Yesterday, I decided to see if I could sit at my desk long enough to make a card. I had to take a break partway through, but finally was able to finish it in the late afternoon. All's well with the post surgery recovery with no unexpected issues or horrible pain, so I'm feeling grateful.

The card I made is for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge and I've used new supplies from the September Spellbinders Clubs. Specifically the Betterpress Plate, the Stitching Die, Embossing Folder, and the Clear stamp set.

The card base is a piece of Concord & 9th patterned paper from a few years ago. It's cut to A2 size and put through the new EF. Then I used some orange ink to rub over the raised areas so the pattern shows a little better. The arched panel is the Betterpress plate inked with various golds and orange colors.. The September stitching die is three sizes of pumpkin tops and I've used the middle size here along with the stem and leaves. The pumpkin is cut from another piece of C&9th pattern paper, orange plaid, and stitched with orange floss.

Here's the inside of this card. Both the image and sentiment are from a Fall Spellbinders set from last year. The patterned paper is again, C&9th.

I'm back to sitting with my foot propped up and doing some crocheting to keep me occupied. Maybe later this afternoon I'll try more stamping. Hope you have a good Sunday evening and week ahead.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Autumn Whim set and Autumn Wishes set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and Concord & 9th patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Autumn Breeze Embossing Folder, Stitched Pumpkin Tops dies, Sketchy Hexi Betterpress Plate and Betterpress system. Simon Says Stamp Nested Arch dies, embroidery floss

BOO

 Hi Peeps,

Here's a fun Halloween card today using the Spellbinders Large die set of the month from a few years ago. This cupcake with all of its spooky decoration options is so fun. As it's die week, Anything Goes, at Just Us Girls, this card fits in perfectly.

The background is made using a Betterpress plate and the Betterpress system. I thought the Damask was appropriate for a Halloween card. The skull and bones, bats and cupcake paper overlay are all cut from white Glimmer paper. To color it, I used both Copics and ink blending. IRL it looks great, but the photo doesn't show much sparkle. The arch is cut from black card stock and then brushed with white craft ink to make it look foggy.

For the inside, I used just a simple sentiment from Gina K.

I think my little five y/o friend that lives in Brooklyn would like this card for Halloween.

Have a good evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hey, Boo! set from Gina K Designs (inside sentiment)

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock, Spellbinders Betterpress card stock & SU white Glimmer paper

Ink: Gina K Designs, Spellbinders Betterpress ink, Copics

Other: Spellbinders Boo-Licious Fall Cupcake die set &  Lux Damask Betterpress Plate & Betterpress System, Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arches, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 die set, blending brushes, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Have A Spec-Taco-Lar Day!

 Hello all,

Surprise, I'm not waiting until the last minute to post my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. Ann is hostess with a fun FOOD theme. So many options to choose from!

But first, before I get to my card, I want to add my congrats to Christy for joining the PP team. I always enjoy your cards that I see around blog-land so I know you will give us some great inspiration each week.

As I mentioned, so many food choices to make a card. I ended up using a very fun Lawn Fawn Taco stamp and die set, because, who doesn't like tacos?!  I ink blended a park setting with a walkway trough  the lawn then added all the little stamped and die cut images to create the scene.

These little animals are having a fun lunch at the taco cart, and I particularly liked how the chalkboard sandwich boards turned out.

This large taco on the inside is from another Lawn Fawn stamp set, but the sentiments are from the same sets as the front of the card.

On a personal note, I'm have some foot surgery tomorrow, so I may not be feeling up to sitting at my desk to stamp for a week or so. I'm imagining I'll be sitting with my foot propped up reading and maybe doing a little crocheting for a bit.

Thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Treat Cart set, Treat Cart Taco Add-On sets, Year Nine mini set (inside image) all from Lawn Fawn

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic markers

Other: Lawn Fawn Grass and Road dies, Gina K Designs Cloud stencils, blending brushes, Master Layouts 1 dies, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals, 

What's The Buzz?

Hi Peeps,

I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the weekend. After some light, very light, house cleaning this morning, it's time to head to my craft room. I have a bunch of card panels that I've made over the past few days and now it's time to make them into some cards. 

Before I do that, I have my card for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I had fun making this one. It uses one of the inky backgrounds I mentioned. It's a modified blackout technique on an embossing folder, but instead of using black ink, I used a dark green.

 

To make the background panel, I first randomly blended GKD Honey Mustard and Prickly Pear inks to cover a white panel. I then inked the flat side of the Fall Leaves embossing folder with Fresh Asparagus ink before running the ink blended card stock through. The final step was to use a Honey Mustard ink cube to darken up the raised leaf outlines. I think it ended up to be a pretty interesting panel.

The bee skep and bees are from the GKD mini stamp set called Hey, Honey! The flowers and leaves are from the Flower Medley stamp, die, and stencil bundle.

For the inside of the card I used another of the bee images and a sentiment from the Flower Medley stamp set.

The Monthly Mix challenge on Gina's FB group for Sep is a color challenge using Fresh Asparagus, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard and Plum Punch so I'll be entering this card into that challenge as well.

Again, enjoy the weekend,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hey, Honey! and Flower Medley sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Fall Leaves embossing folder

Birthday Wishes

 TGIF Peeps,

Well, once again I'm posting a card just before the challenge closes. Seems like the norm for me lately. My late card today is for the Paper Players. Joanne is hostess with the always fun Tic-Tac-Toe challenge.

For my card, I've used the center vertical of Flowers, Free, Word Die, and I've used an embossing folder for the free element.

The background was created using the negative side (indented images) after sending the white card stock through the EF. I then used small blending brushes to add color to the leaf and flower indentions. After finished, I rubbed a green ink pad over the entire panel several times to get a nice heavy application.

The embossing folder and inks are all from Gina K Designs. The die cut sentiment is from Scrapbook.com.

For the inside, I added a simple sentiment and butterfly, both from a Gina K Designs stamp set.

I made two other panels with the same EF in totally different colors. Having too much fun to stop, LOL.

Hope you enjoy your day. I just finished my morning walk, so now I can play some more (while doing some laundry 😒).

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gentle Silhouettes set by Gina K Designs (inside images)

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Contemporary Floral 3D embossing folder, Master Layouts 1 dies, Detail blending brushes, Scrapbook. com Birthday Wishes Dies, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, gold twine, mini glue dot for twine

Hope Your Birthday Is On Point

Happy Hump Day Peeps,

The Color Hues colors this time are orange and green, perfect for fall and pumpkin themed creations. I took a bit of a different direction with my card, however.

This is a mini stamp set from Gina K. I paired it with her Basket Weave card front die and some Lawn Fawn patterned papers to create a birthday card. I have many friends and family who have birthdays in the fall and winter, so I'm happy to add another birthday card to my stash.

The stamp set comes with four cactus images. I used three of them on the front of the card and the fourth on the inside here.

Have a great day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stuck On You and So Many Sentiments sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and Lawn Fawn patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copics

Other: Basket Weave Cover Plate and Master Layout 2 dies by Gina K Designs, MFT Circle dies, Brutus Monroe Alabaster embossing powder

Make A Wish

Happy Labor Day Peeps,

I've been enjoying a weekend of US Open Tennis and some crafting too. I hope you all have had a very enjoyable weekend as well.

I'm again squeaking in a card at the last minute , this time with my card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. This sketch made me think, LOL, but I finally decided on some birthday candles.

The candles are from Concord & 9th and the background is a Polyglaze background from Gina K Designs that I hot foiled with rainbow deco foil. The foil has tiny stars in it too. The sentiment is embossed with black embossing powder.

The inside sentiment is also heat embossed with black embossing powder over a piece of the foiled stars. The sentiment is from the same Concord & 9th set as the front dies and sentiment.

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Make a Wish stamp and die set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs white and black card stock, Concord & 9th metallic card stock and SU gold glitter card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs embossing ink

Other: Gina K Designs Starstruck Polyglaze card front, rainbow Deco foil, Fuze foiling machine, black embossing powder, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies

Happy Owl-O-ween

 TGIF Peeps,

I'm just squeaking in my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. Jaydee has a fun sketch this week and I've used it to make a fun Halloween card. (It will be time to send them out before we know it.)

The stamps are from Taylored Expressions and are fairly old.

As you can see, I rotated the sketch to fit the stamps. I originally thought I'd make a gate fold card, but decided to just make a regular landscape design. The papers are from my stash of fall paper scraps. I used a Gina K Designs cloud stencil to make the cloudy background.

For the inside I used another Taylored Expressions Halloween stamp.

Thanks for checking in. Wishing everyone in the U.S. a fun and relaxing Labor Day long weekend. I'll be hanging in watching US Open Tennis and a little baseball.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Owl-o-ween and Trick Or Treat sets by Taylored Expressions

Paper: Gina K Designs Kraft and Tangerine Twist card stock, misc patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copics

Other: Gina K Designs cloud stencil, Master Layouts 13 dies, Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arch dies, Glossy Effects

Birds and Butterflies in Red and Blue

TGIF Peeps,

The current Color Hues challenge is red and blue. Initially, I had pulled out some of the recent nautical dies from my Spellbinders collection to use, but then totally switched gears. I was looking through my stencils and embossing folders for a background and ran across an older Taylored Expessions stencil that makes four card fronts at once, with images of birds, flowers and butterflies. I decided to see how they looked in red and blue. The colors may be a little unexpected for these images, but I kind of like how they turned out.

The TE stencil set came with some pre-printed strip sentiments. I hot foiled them with some red foil to use on the cards then added some embellishments to each card. 

Enjoy your weekend,

Colleen

Supplies

Fit and Flutter Bundle by Taylored Expressions includes layering stencils, dies, strip sentiments

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Taylored Expressions Burlap embossing folder, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies, Fuse Foiling System, Red Velvet hot foil, misc embellishments

Trick or Treat

Hello all,

Elizabeth has a super fun Clean and Simple challenge for this week's Paper Players called Critters. Now, I have no shortage of critter images, so the hard part was deciding which to use. I finally settled on this cute Trick or Treater die from Spellbinders, and popped him onto a stenciled background.

I'd give him lots of treats, wouldn't you? This is a sweet, small die set and very easy to put together.

For the inside of the card, I used a Spellbinders clear stamps set from las year.

Enjoy your evening. I'm waiting for the finals of the Mixed Doubles special at this year's US Open. I watched the matches yesterday and they were indeed fun. Looked as if the players enjoyed this new addition to the tournament as well.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps:  Autumn Wishes set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs 

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Colorful Pumpkins stencil set, Woof-or-Treat die set, Hoppy Halloween (front sentiment) die set.

Make A Splash

Hi and Happy Monday Peeps,

It's been a minute since my last post. Not much stamping/paper crafting going on here lately. Instead, I've been doing some crocheting (baby blanket) and quilting. Both of those projects were completed on Friday. Over the weekend, I pulled up the Freshly Made Sketches challenge to get back to stamping.

I thought that some of the Spellbinders August sets would work well for the circle theme of the sketch. I ended up with a cute birthday card and since the current Just Us Girls  Word Week challenge is Birthday, this card works for that as well.

The background of fishes is the Betterpress plate the month. They are inked with yellow, orange, teal, bright blue and dark blue. The circle element is from the Gina K Designs Master Layouts #16 die set, cut from silver card stock and I added some blue gems around the edge. I also cut the center from vellum card stock so that the fish can be seen through, then popped the scuba diver on the vellum. The scuba diver is from the Small Die of the month, and the sentiment is from the clear stamp set of the month, all Spellbinders.

Here's a peak of the inside of the card using more dies from the Small Die set and a birthday greeting from a older Spellbinders stamp set.

Wishing everyone a great week.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Paper Splash by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and vellum, & Tim Holtz metallic card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Fish Parade Betterpress plate, The Deep Blue Two die set. Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 and 16., SU blue gems, Spellbinders Betterpress system

You're Pretty COOL

Hey Peeps,

It's time for another fun Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Jen M. is hostess and her sketch inspired this fun popsicle card. There's been so many "Christmas In July" cards around IG and the blogs that I needed some more summer. When I saw Jen's sketch, I immediately knew that I'd use this older Concord & 9th Turnabout set with the large popsicle die.

 

I've used some bright, fruity C&9th ink colors and card stock to add to the summery feel. 

For the inside, I used a piece of the front panel that was trimmed off and another sentiment image from the same turnabout set.

Enjoy your weekend! I'll be in Cooperstown, NY for the baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies with my sister and nephew.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cool Treats Turnabout stamp set by Concord  & 9th

Paper:  Concord & 9th

Ink: Concord & 9th and Gina K Designs craft white

Other: Brutus Monroe white embossing powder, Spellbinders Citrus embossing folder

You + Me

 Hello, 

My CAS card for LeAnne's "things with wheels" challenge at the Paper Players. I pulled out my favorite friends, Gus and Gertie, heading out for a road trip. 

First, I stenciled a rainbow for the background with red, orange and yellow. I stamped the car and friends image on another piece of card stock and colored it with green and blue, cut it out and layered it over the rainbow. The rainbow colors were completed with purple hearts on the large arch. I colored in the pebbled road and called it done.

The inside uses one of the other images from the Ride On set. I just love this line by Taylored Expressions.!

I'm off to upstate NY tomorrow bright and early. I'm meeting my sister and nephew at the Albany airport, then we are headed to Cooperstown for the HOF induction weekend. Should be amazing for us BB fans!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Ride On stamp set by Taylored Expressions

Paper: Neenah Solar white card stock and retired SU DSP (inside mat)

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Gina K Designs and Copics

Other: Rainbow stencil by Paper Smooches, blending brushes

Happy Birthday

 Happy Hump Day Peeps,

I was looking through my boxes of SU patterned papers for some beehive images yesterday and while doing so, I ran across this very old Botanical Gazette DSP. There's a hive on one of the pages that I could use for the other card, and then I saw these moth and flower images that looked like they would be great for vintage style cards. Now, I'm pretty crappy at doing vintage, but I decided to give it a try. After finishing the card this morning, I realized it would fit with the current Mood Board challenge for Just Us Girls.

I tore a couple of edges of the DSP and blended some Dark Sage ink over them. I then stamped some images from the SSS Butterfly Blossoms set around using Charcoal Brown ink. Another piece of the DSP has moths scattered around and I used some postage dies from Waffle Flower to cut them out. They are arranged around the front of the card, an I added some gold dots to finish.

For the inside I used my current favorite "inside" birthday sentiment with a left over moth cutout.

This afternoon I'll be packing for a trip to NY tomorrow. My nephew, my sister and I are going to the Base Hall Of Fame Inductions in Cooperstown this weekend. My nephew's all time favorite player is being inducted. He really wanted to go and since I'm a huge BB fan too, I was all in, then my sister (his mom) decided to join us.

Have a great afternoon,

Colleen

Supplies

 Stamps: Butterfly Blossoms set by Simon Says Stamp and Gentle Silhouettes set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Ivory and Dark Sage card stock, SU Botanical Gazette DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs Dark Sage and Charcoal Brown

Other: Waffle Flower Postage dies, Spellbinders Sealed Twine die, Gina K Designs metallic pearl embellishments and blending brushes