Merry Christmas

 Hello all,

One more Holiday card for today's post. This one uses the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and  the theme challenge from the Paper Players where Stef has the monthly CAS challenge. She also added a theme of Favorite Holiday Image. I cheated a little and used my current favorite technique, which is stenciling.

These stencils are from Concord & 9th as are the inks and card stock. 

For the inside, I stamped a simple greeting, also from Concord & 9th.

Well, that's it from me for about a month. We leave on Wednesday for the east coast, Long Island, Greenport, NY, for a couple of weeks and then to Connecticut for a couple of weeks. We fly back home on 12/13, so a nice long holiday.

For those celebrating in the U. S., have a fun and festive Thanksgiving.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Joyful Holiday set by Kristina Werner for Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

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

Other: Simple Christmas and Merry Mix Stencil Packs by Kristina Werner for Concord & 9th, Spellbinders Nordic Noel Embossing Folder, white embossing powder, blending brushes

Wishing You Many Blessings

Hello Peeps,

After taking care of some chores this morning I had time in the afternoon to do some stamping. Again, I interrupted my Holiday card making to make my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. It's color week and Jan has a rich color palette for us this time. Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso.

I shopped my stash of goodies and used supplies from Stampin' Up, Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th to make a Thankful/Thanksgiving card.

 

The background is made using a Concord & 9th Plaid Turnabout stamp, stamped in the four SU inks. I cut the panel down using the GKD Master Layouts 2 Die set. The focal floral image and the sentiment are from the Stampin' Up set called Fruitful Blessings. The floral is stamped in Early Espresso ink on Vanilla card stock. I decided not to color the floral image as it's pretty striking just stamped in the dark brown ink. The image is framed with Early Espresso card stock cut out with a die from the Gina K Designs Master Layouts 19 die set For the sentiment, it's stamped on Old Olive card stock with Early Espresso ink and cut out using a banner die from the GKD ML2 die set. Finally, I added three gold metallic pearls from GKD.

For the inside of the card, I used another sentiment and image from the SU stamp set and cut the panels out with the GKD ML2 dies again. The leaves are lightly shaded with colored pencils.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plaid Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th and Fruitful Blessings stamp set by Stampin' Up

Paper: Stampin' Up card stock

Ink: Stampin; Up

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 and 19 dies, gold metallic pearls

Happy Birthday to You!

 Hello and Happy Monday,

In addition to Holiday cards, this time of year I need many, many birthday cards too. Several family members and several of my friends have birthdays in November and December. I did some assembly line stenciling yesterday afternoon for holiday card panels that I'll actually make into cards later this afternoon, then I decided to make this birthday card after dinner last night. 

Just Us Girls happens to be celebrating their 800th challenge this week with an "Anything Goes" celebration challenge and I thought a birthday card would work well to help them celebrate. Wow, 800th challenge! That is certainly worth celebrating! 

I made this card using a couple of sets from Concord & 9th. For the front of the card, I used the Stamp, die and stencil set called Celebrate You.  All of the card stock and inks are also from Concord & 9th and they come from their November color palette called Fable. The colors are Nectar, Watermelon, Starfruit, Pistachio, and Rainforest.

For the inside of the card I used one of the Celebrate You stencils for the background and the sentiment comes from the Concord & 9th Defined Stamp and Die set.

I'm not sue which friend or relative with get this one, but it will definitely go to someone in the next few weeks.

Again, CONGRATS to all of the Just Us Girls ladies that bring us such fun challenges each week!  YOU LADIES ROCK!

Colleen 

Supplies

Stamps: Celebrate You and Defined sets from Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th

Other: Concord & 9th Celebrate You Dies and Stencils, Gina K Designs blending brushes, foam tape, Connect liquid glue

Have A Sunny Birthday

TGIF!

I'm not so sure it means the same after retirement, LOL. 

I must be on a bit of a sunflower kick. This is the second card in a row with sunflowers as the focal image. Today's card uses Kim's sketch for Freshly Made Sketches. The off-center circles are a little different, but fun. 

I had been playing around with the Gina K Designs Wreath Builder template and made a few panels with the flower from the fall themed Breath of Sunshine stamp set yesterday. I didn't make a card with either of the panels then. Today, I thought I'd try making this one work for Kim's sketch. The SU Deckled Circle die set has a die that's large enough to cut out the wreath and I used it for the largest circle in Kim's sketch. For the smaller circle, I used a plain piece of Dark Sage card stock, run through the Lattice embossing folder. I added a basket of the same flowers, stamped in lighter shades on top, as well as the sentiment banner, also run through the Lattice EF. 

The card base is one of the newest colors by GKD called Marigold. It's really a pretty yellow and the color is true to the name.

Here's the simple inside of the card. I used a sentiment from an older GKD mini stamps set.

We're off to meet some friends for a glass of wine and do some catching up.

Enjoy your evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Breath of Sunshine and Sweet Sentiments sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Wreath Builder, Lattice embossing folder, pearl embellishments, Stampin' Up Deckle Circle dies, My Favorite Things banner die 

Grateful For You

 Hello Peeps,

I took a break from making holiday cards today to make my card for this week's Paper Players challenge where LeAnne is hostess. It's theme week and LeAnne has picked "Thankful for You" as this month's theme.

I decided to use the very pretty Spellbinders Sunflower Stitching die with metallic threads paired with gold inked sentiments for the background and a gold foiled main sentiment.

This is a 5x7" card. To make the background I used the largest Wreath Builder template from Gina K Designs. Using various thankful sentiments, I stamped them in Lisa Horton Cloud 9 Solid Gold ink. The main sentiment at the bottom is one of Gina's Polyglaze sentiments that I foiled using 14K gold foil with the Fuze Foiling System.

The large sunflower is cut from a couple shades of gold paper for the petals and a very dark green for the center, then stitched with shiny gold and red metallic threads.

I fussed with the background card base color and finally decided on Navy. 

The joys of home ownership. We've had plumbers here ALL DAY installing a new water softener, new valves at all of the sinks, showers, washing machine, dishwasher, and our fairly new tankless hot water heater. We had a water conditioner that we installed approx 10 years ago, but it just wasn't doing the job for San Diego's very hard water, which was "eating" up all of the fittings in our pipes. Needless to say, not an inexpensive fix!😠

Hope your day was better. TGIF and enjoy your weekend! I'll be back to making holiday cards.

Colleen 

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs Breath of Sunshine, It's All You, Bold Bloom and Grateful Greenery sets

Paper: Gina K Designs, Spellbinders and Concord & 9th card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs and Lisa Horton

Other: Spellbinders Large Sunflower Stitching die, metallic embroidery floss, Gina K Designs Wreath Builder template, Fuse Foiling system, gold foil, Master Layouts 8 dies, Elegant Thoughts Polyglaze sentiment and dies

Carbs!

TGIF and Happy Halloween Peeps,

Although I don't have a Halloween card for you today, I do have a super fun birthday card. I just couldn't resist the Buon Appetito Collection when Spellbinders released it last month. As I needed a break from making Holiday cards, I decided to work on some birthday cards that I'll need in Nov. and Dec. 

The layout is inspired by this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch.

The tablecloth was made using a Diagonal stencil from SSS and the embossing folder is part of the Spellbinders Buon Appetito collection. I cut the pasta shapes from white card stock and colored them with ink and blending brushes. I love all the little accessories!

I used more of the pasta shapes on the inside and sentiments to make this a birthday card.

Enjoy your evening and don't get too spooked.

The daughter of one of our neighbors is getting married tomorrow in the Japanese Gardens at Balboa Park and they are having a taco truck come to the house this evening. We've been invited to the festivities tonight, but not the wedding tomorrow. I am going to be out of town any way. My bestie from Sacramento is flying into Palm Springs tomorrow morning. I'm driving out and we are staying for the weekend to visit friends that moved from Portland to PS last year.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stay Saucy stamp set by Spellbinders

Paper: Spellbinders and Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Pasta Friends and Ingredients Buddies die sets, Al Dente 3D embossing folder, and Oval dies, Simon Says Stamp stencil, Gina K Designs blending brushes

Warm Cocoa Wishes

 Happy Hump Day Peeps,

I've been working on my Holiday cards this week. It's kind of been a slow process because I'm playing with mostly die cuts right now, but boy, there are some pretty cute cards in my pile.

Today's card is no exception to the die cuts, and in fact, I've added some Glimmer Hot Foiling to the mix for the snowy background. (Although, I don't recall ever seeing heart shaped snowflakes, LOL.)

The sketch is curtesy ofJoanne at the Paper Players. It's a fun one! I love embellishments, and Joanne added the little dots around the focal image in her sketch. I used three large die cut snowflakes with a wee rhinestone in the center of each.

All of the die cut images except the flags are from the Spellbinders Mugs and Mittens Large Die of the Month for this past July, including the sentiment. The flag dies are from an older MFT die set.

For the inside, I've used the Spellbinders Christmas Magic Sentiments set, also from this past July.

There will be more die cutting today. I made several backgrounds, some on acetate, which are really nice that I plan on putting to use.

Have a great day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas Magic Sentiments stamp set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs cardstock and retired SU DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Mugs & Mittens die set, Magic Wonderland Glimmer plate, Glimmer system and hot foil, My Favorite Things Flag die set, Gina K Designs small rhinestones

Quiet Peace

Happy Friday Peeps,

I'm playing along with the July edition of Woodblock Wednesday today with a very simple and monochromatic card.

I started by stenciling the GKD Snowflake Mandala on the front of a Soft Stone panel, then stamped the snowy village using a darker gray ink. The greeting is heat embossed with silver EP. After cutting the panel out with the SSS A2 Lacy Point die, I adhered it to a silver mat, then onto a dark gray card base.

The inside is very simple with more stenciling and a short greeting.

The Snowy Village stamp is from Ink Blocks, the front sentiment stamp is from Artistic Stamp Exchange and the inside greeting stamp is from Hero.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted from Artistic Stamp Exchange, Ink Blocks, Hero

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Simon Says Stamp A2 Lacy Point dies, Gina K Designs Snowflake Mandala stencil, blending brushes, and fine detail silver embossing powder, Spellbinders rhinestones

Grateful

 Hello all,

Since it's Thursday, I thought I'd better get busy and post my Paper Players card. Jaydee is our hostess this week with the monthly Clean and Simple challenge. The added theme is Foliage. 

I decided to use two older SU stamp sets and make this leaf silhouette Thanksgiving card. 

To make the squares, I used Gina K Designs 1/4" Masking Magic Strips and Post-It notes. I picked three fall-ish ink colors to ink blend from the center out, then stamped the leaf images with black ink. Pretty simple and quick.

The outside greeting, and here on the inside, I've used another older SU stamp set.

I made two cards, the second using an older C&9th Turnabout set that has some fun leaf dies too, which I used on the inside of the card.  I love the bright C&9th ink colors here.

Enjoy your afternoon and evening.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gently Falling and Falling Leaves sets by Stampin' Up, Harvest Wreath Turnabout set by Concord & 9th

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

Ink: Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th

Other: Gina K Designs Masking Magic strips, blending brushes, Hello die from Concord & 9th Tiled Turnabout set

No Kings 2025

 Happy Saturday!

Winter Wishes

 TGIF Peeps,

Here's another holiday card completed. Using inspiration from The Paper Players color challenge and the Sunday Stamps sketch challenge, I made this fun winter themed card.

The green snowy background and the large snowflake purple background in the postage stamps are both foiled with Deco hot foil. The hat, sweater and gloves are from the GKD Christmas Cheer stamp and die set. The images are stamped in embossing ink and heat embossed with black embossing powder, then colored with Copic markers.

For the inside of the card, I've used sentiments and a small snowflake from the same GKD stamp set.

Have a fun Friday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas Cheer set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Card Stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Deco hot foil in Grass Green and Wild Wisteria, Fuze Foiling machine, Master Layouts 15 postage dies, black embossing powder 

Believe in Magic

Hey all,

This cute little JOY-ful reindeer is from the Spellbinders October Stitching die set of the month and when I saw Jen's sketch yesterday for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, I immediately thought of this set. I did rotate the placement from landscape to portrait view.

To make the open circle in Jen's sketch I used the circle die in the set, and a slightly bigger circle die, cut from Spellbinders gold glimmer paper to make the "O" in joy.

The bottom half of the card base is embossed with the new 3D embossing folder for October to add a little texture.  The reindeer is popped up using a small Action Wobbler device. So fun to watch him wiggle. For a little embellishments, I added a gold pearl to the center of the stitched circle and some sparkly Glossy Accents to the reindeer's horns.

I'm happy to have another holiday card completed. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Paper: Gina K Designs Card Stock and Spellbinders Gold Glimmer card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Peppermint Prancer die set, Magic For You die set, Brick by Brick 3D Embossing folder, gold pearl, red and gold metallic threads, Concord & 9th Sparkly Glossy Accents, Action Wobbler

CHERISH, DREAM, LIVE

Hello all,

I was playing around with ink and embossing folders a few days ago and actually created a couple of panels that I liked. This card uses one of them with the ink colors for this week's Paper Players challenge. Christie is hostess and her colors are green and purple.

The embossing folder is from SSS and is called  Magnificent Mums. I used some Letterpress paper instead of basic card stock. It's a little more porous and thicker and it certainly gave good embossing results. 

To ink it up, I used small detail blending brushes over the raised areas with GKD inks. For the solid green background, I put the panel back into the embossing folder, taping it in place with a small bit of tape runner on the back of the panel then inked the smooth side of the folder with Christmas Pine ink. This took several passes. 

The sentiments on the front and inside are from Gina K Designs. I added some gold accents in the form of twine and gold pearls.

Here's the inside.

A fun time was had and I ended up with a nice birthday card and inky green fingers!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: From Gina K Designs Wonderfully Made, Blooming Sunflower and Gentle Silhouettes sets for the sentiments

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and Spellbinders Betterpress paper

Ink: Gina K Designs Dark, Medium and Light Lilac and Spruce sets, Christmas Pine

Other: Simon Says Stamp Magnificent Mums 3D Embossing Folder, Gina K Designs gold pearls, blending brushes, gold twine from the ribbon stash

Spooky

Hello crafty friends,

It's wet, wet, wet and windy in my neck of the woods, which is a bit north of San Diego. No complaints as we certainly need the rain. I had some errands this morning and I made it home just as the rain started coming down, so good timing on my part.

The Just Us Girls word week challenge is Halloween, perfect to make one more card with the Spellbinders Small Die set and 3D embossing folder of the month for Sept. I really loved all of the club goodies last month.

This is a fairly simple card. I ran a black card base through the embossing folder, then heat embossed the sentiment, which is from an older GKD stamp set. The three pumpkins are cut from Concord & 9th patterned paper and card stock.

Here's the inside.

Happy Hump Day tomorrow!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hey Boo set by Gina K Designs (front and inside sentiments)

Paper: Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Harvest Magic die set and Patchwork 3D Embossing Folder by Spellbinders, Gina K Designs fine detail gold embossing powder, Concord & 9th glittery Glossy Accents

Happy Holidays

Hello peeps,

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I did lots of crafty projects. Last night I finished a poncho that I was working on while recouping from the foot surgery. I love how it turned out, too.

Today's card was one of my weekend projects. It's another Holiday card for the stash, inspired by the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Also, the Gina K Designs FaceBook group October Monthly Mix challenge is holiday cards in non-holiday colors, and this one fits perfectly as all of the supplies are from GKD.

The snowflake is made using the emboss resist technique. The background papers are from a GKD kit from several years ago. I like the retro feel of them. They are die cut using one of the dies from the Master Layouts 13 die set.

A simple and quick inside. Snowflakes from the same stamp set as the large front snowflake and the greeting from the GKD Joyful Season set.

My friend just texted me and has requested a poncho after I sent her a pic. She has a birthday end of next month, and this will be a good present. I'm off to Michaels to look at yarn.

Have a great day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Blizzard andJoyful Season sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs white embossing powder, Master Layouts 13 die set, pastel pear embellishments

No Tricks, Just Treats

Hello all,

I have a couple more Halloween cards to share today. These are inspired by the current  Paper Players challenge. Claire is hostess and her theme this week is Halloween Costumes. I've used some older Lawn Fawn sets to make these.

First up are some four-legged Trick or Treaters. I ink blended a panel with light and dark purple shades then used a Hero Star cover plate to cut stars in the sky. For a very full moon, I simple used a die cut circle ink blended with yellows. The black silhouette trees and hills is an older die from Lawn Fawn.

Here's the inside of the first card. Images and greetings are from the same stamp set.

For the second card, I pulled out some older SU patterned papers to make the background and the trees. The trees, grass and moon dies are made using the Gina K Designs Master Layouts 6 die set. The trick or treaters and sentiments are from Lawn Fawn.

And the inside:

One of these will be sent to my little three year old Great Nephew. Enjoy your day, and thanks for stopping in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Happy Howloween and Costume Party sets by Lawn Fawn

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and SU DSP (retired)

Ink: Gina K Designs, Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated and Copics

Other: Hero Stars Coverplate die, Lawn Fawn Hills and trees die, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 6 dies, blending brushes, Brutus Monroe white embossing powder, SSS tiny clear rhinestones