The Cat's Pajamas

 Hello all,

Yesterday was the final Wednesday for January which means it's time for the January edition of Wood Block Wednesday. Probably the only time many of us actually pull out our wood mounted rubber stamps. I try to play along each month  when I'm not away from home.

For this month I have a Valentine's Day card and I've used the new Freshly Made Sketch to help with my layout.

I hope you're a pink fan, LOL.

This little cat in her pjs is one of my favorite stamps. It's an oldie from Uptown Rubber Stamps. I was wondering when/why this saying came about. Luckily, we have Google these days so looking it up was easy. Google says its first recording was 1920 as part of the typical vocabulary of the Jazz Age flappers. The term "cat" is slang for cool person and pajamas were just becoming fashionable for women in 1920. The saying was popularized by the cartoonist Tad Dorgan, who is also credited with the phrase, "the cat's meow." 

The large Valentine sentiment and the small hearts are also wood mounted stamps, as is the large heart on the inside. The sentiment on the inside is from an older SU set.

I love looking through the gallery because I recognize many of the stamps used each month, as I have them in my drawers too.

Enjoy the end of the week, and thanks for looking in. I'm off to buy some fabric for  backing and some batting for two quilts I've recently pieced. Retirement is the BEST!

Colleen

Supplies

Wood mounted stamps: Cat: Uptown Rubber Stamps, Valentine Sentiment: Great Impressions, Small Hearts: Rubber Stampede, and Large heart doily: Penny Black.

SU set: XOXO

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th and Copic Markers

Other: Spellbinders Scalloped Circle and Basic Circle dies, white heart embellishments, SU Dimensionals

Wishing You A Happy (Lunar) New Year - Year of the Snake

 Happy Lunar New Year Peeps!

That's the theme for today's card. While it's not something that we've traditionally celebrate, we are heading to a little Lunar New Year party tomorrow night and I wanted to make a card for the hosts. Using a few stamp sets in my craft room, I was able to come up with something appropriate.

I've used Joanne's sketch for this week's Paper Players Challenge and I'm posting my card to the Lunar New Year Challenge Blog as well.

To make this card I started by stamping the lantern images around the card panel with black ink, then colored them with Copic Markers. After the coloring was completed, I used a blending brush to add a yellow glow to the background.  Per Joanne's sketch, I added the sentiment panel with the happy snake image and another lantern, but in gold.

I duplicated the snake image on the inside with a simple Let's Celebrate sentiment.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stampin' Up sets Color Me Happy (lanterns) and Light the Sky (sentiments). Lawn Fawn set Jungle Critters (snake)

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 die set, MFT Stitched Rectangle and Banner dies, Spellbinders gold dots, SU Dimensionals, Foam tape

A Royal Flush of Wishes

Happy Monday Peeps,

I hope you had a fab weekend. 

I'm squeaking in my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I recently received an order from Spellbinders that included the Jack of All Trades bundle. It is a combination of stamps, Betterpress plates and dies. I spent some time inking up the betterpress plates with different paper and ink color combos and now have about 10 card front panels to make into actual cards. I did make one complete card that I'm sharing today, a birthday card for our friend whose birthday is Feb 2.

For this card, I combined a die cut from the Spellbinders Love On the Rock die set, which is the old fashion glass. 

The background is the largest Betterpress plate in the bundle. I used Lisa Horton Cloud 9 Charcoal Gold Shimmer to ink the plate and some Bisque Betterpress paper to get a letterpress effect. The letterpress effect is so pretty, but doesn't photograph well here. For the glass, I did direct to paper with the same ink pad over black card stock then die cut the glass. For the Manhattan drink, I used some Merlot card stock and ink blended a medium brown ink over it. 

The vellum looked a little "plain," so I used a card front die to adde some texture.

The rest of the royal flush cards are here on the inside of the card.

The club and diamond images are from another Betterpress set from the bundle, as are the all of the sentiments, front and inside. The die cut spades and card denominations are from a die set in the bundle.

It's a really  fun kit to play with and has so many options for card making.

Enjoy your week, and thanks for checking in!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps, Betterpress plates and dies: Spellbinders Jack of All Trades Bundle

Paper: Spellbinders Betterpress Bisque card stock and Gina K Designs Vanilla and Black card stock, Gina K Designs Vellum, SU Merry Merlot card stock

Ink: Lisa Horton Charcoal Gold Cloud 9 shimmer ink pad, Gina K Designs Warm Cocoa ink pad

Other: Spellbinders Love On the Rocks die set, Simon Says Stamp Detail Swirls embossing plate die, Corner Rounder punch, Hero Arts Martini Glass dies (cherries, orange garnish, swizzle stick dies), Spellbinders Betterpress System, Spellbinders gold enamel dot embellishments, GKD Blending brush, SU Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

Sending A Fluttering Hello

 Hi and Happy Weekend!

It's Anything Goes Stencil Week at Just Us Girls, one of my favorite challenges. Since I had not used the new Spellbinders Stencil of the Month for January, I took the opportunity to use it for my challenge card. To help with color selection for these pretty flowers, I've used the colors for the current Color Throwdown, pink, blue and yellow.

These pretty hummers are Spellbinders Betterpress plates that I've hot foiled with my Glimmer System. 

The sentiment is from the same Betterpress set and it's hot foiled as well with black foil. I tried to get a picture with the shine and this is the best I could do with my phone.

The black scalloped oval is a die from the January Stitching Die of the Month set. It is the perfect size for the large space in the center of the stenciling and I liked the tiny scallops. The enamel flower embellishments are from my stash. I think I picked them up in a scrapbooking store in Sacramento years ago.

For the inside of the card, I used the stencils again, but just in the corner. No sentiment, I'll just leave it as a note card.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stencils: Natures Frame, Spellbinders 1/25 Stencil of the Month

Betterpress: Flutter Into Spring and Fluttering Hummingbird sets, Spellbinders Betterpress of the Month 2/24

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Oval Die from Spellbinders Stitched Ladybug set 1/25, GKD blending brushes, enamel flower embellishments, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals

Betterpress Butterflies

 TGIF Peeps!

Playing around with the Betterpress set of the month for January last night and I made a couple of cards using the current Color Hues challenge colors of Lime and Navy.

The background is made with another Betterpress plate of the month from March of last year called Friendship Book Plate. I liked the foliage motif as the backdrop for the butterflies. The butterfly set comes with both dies to cut out the images and coloring stencils, which I did use. I love the modern feel of the images.

The cards differ in the landing shape, circle vs rectangle, the sentiment, and the enamel dot arrangement.

 

Card 1, front and inside.

Card 2 front and inside.

I hope everyone has a fab weekend! Thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps and Betterpress Plates: Spellbinders Natures Dance CSOM 1/25, Friendship Book Plate BPOM 3/24, and Take Flight BPOM 1/25

Paper: Gina K Designs Navy, Lime and Layering Weight White Card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Navy, Simon Says Stamp Limelicious,  and Laurel Betterpress ink pad

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 stitched die, blending brushes, Concord & 9th Navy enamel dots, Spellbinders Betterpress System

Postage Set Fun

 Hello Peeps,

Hope your day is going well. 

I've just finished sewing a Bingo Bag for my mom that I've been working on most of this week. She is an avid player at her town's Senior Center, and she's been playing for years. It's required to use daubers to play and most bingo players have several in multiple colors, hence the need for a specialized bag to carry them. Most bingo bags are round, with the dauber pockets on the outside of the bag, which usually has no additional pockets on the inside for other storage. I decided to create my own pattern with more pockets inside and out, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. We'll see how mom likes it. It's going in the mail for her tomorrow.

I did take some time from sewing to make a card for Jaydee's CAS Postage theme at the Paper Players. In fact, while I had the postage die and stamp set out, I ended up making five cards. It's been a minute since I've used these postage themed supplies and I was having some fun. 

The postage die that I used is from Gina K Designs, as is the coordinating postage stamp set. The larger images are all from GKD stamp sets as well. 

Here are all of the cards. For me, it's hard to choose a favorite, so I'm entering one I consider more "clean and simple" for the challenge. Plus, the kitties just make me smile.

The paw prints, sentiment and kitty images are from the GKD Frisky Felines stamp set. I stamped them in Charcoal Brown and colored them with Copic Markers. The postage themed images are from the GKD Postcard stamp set. The die is from her Master Layouts 1 4 die set. After cutting out the die, I used 1/8" Masking Magic strips to block off the boxed areas before stamping and coloring.

Here are the other four cards, all made using the same postage die and Postcard stamp set.

This large stamped image is from the Blooming Butterfly Mini set, one of the incentive sets from a few months ago. The image is stamped with Black Onyx ink and colored with Copic Markers. 

This is the newest incentive stamp set called Dreams Come True. I've used some brand new GKD ink colors to stamp the flowers and leaves.

The final two cards use the same stamp set called Delicate Dahlias. It comes with coloring stencils and I used those to color the images with blending brushes. After the images were colored, I used the coordinating postage grid stencil to add shading in each box.

 I didn't finish the insides of these yet. I will add them to my stash and do the inside sentiment depending on the occasion.

Now that the sewing project is finished, I'll be back to paper crafting. I've got a few challenges in mind to get me going.

Have a great Friday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All Gina K Designs sets, Post Card, Delicate Dahlias, Dreams Come True, Blooming Butterfly, Frisky Felines

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 14 die set (postage die) with coordinating stencil, Blending brushes, Masking Magic strips

Sunny Days Ahead

Hello,

I hope your weekend is going well. I started the day with some stamping followed by rummaging through my fabric stash looking for something to use to make my mom a new bingo bag. 

The stamping, mostly die cutting, was successful, but I'm not too sure about the fabric search, so we'll leave that for another day. I'm still drawing up my pattern and figuring out the dimensions.

Yesterday I received some new dies and Betterpress plates that I had ordered from Spellbinders. I decided to use one of my new die sets to make a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. This set is appropriately titled Duck with Umbrella. I added the die cut clouds, dies from Erin Lee, and the rain puddle, die from SU, to make a little scene out of Narelle's the sketch.

Here's the inside.

Wishing everyone a relaxing Sunday.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Typewriter Adventure Sentiments and Fill My Heart Sentiments by Spellbinders

Dies: Duck with Umbrella die set by Spellbinders, Clouds by Erin Lee and Diorama Dies by Stampin' Up

Paper: Gina K Designs and Spellbinders card stock, Concord & 9th Glitter paper

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 dies and Blending Brushes, enamel rain drops, white gel pen, foam squares and tape

 

You're Always In My Heart

Hey all,

I ordered a set of Lisa Horton Cloud 9 inks during Black Friday sales and finally got around to playing with them. They are so interesting in how they react on different colors of paper. After playing. I ended up with two cards with the exact same design and using the same Lisa Horton ink pads. The only difference is the card stock colors.

Elizabeth has the first color challenge for2025 at the Paper Players this week, orange, pink and green and one of my cards works perfectly. 

Notice the bottom of the heart die is orange, then notice that the background panel is green. Both of those are using the same ink pad, Cloud 9 Ripe Mango Shimmer "direct to paper" technique. The ink is orange on white card stock and green on dark card stock. The upper part of the heart is another Cloud 9 color called Tropical Paradise.

The heart die and the sentiment are from Concord & 9th. The sentiment is heat embossed using black EP.

I think that the second card works for this week's Just Us Girls  Word Week "Masculine" challenge. I used the same Ripe Mango ink on this card with three different dark card stock shades from GKD. They are black, dark sage and Christmas green. The die cut heart is the Christmas green after using the ink pad direct to paper. The background black panel is stenciled using the ink and a blending brush, and the mat for the black panel is a piece of dark sage with the ink direct to paper. On this shade, it looks gold, which is why I used the gold accents in the enamel dots and gold embossed sentiment.

Here are the insides for both cards. 

If you're looking for some fun inks, these fit the bill. I didn't mention how sparkly they are, but I think you can see that in the photos. I don't usually do swatches for my supplies, but I did with these inks, stamping each color with a silhouette style stamp on both white and black card stock. I think that will come in handy for future use.

Hope your day is going well. I have a dental appt this afternoon and I'm watching the Australian Open tennis matches.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hugs of Happiness set by Concord & 9th and Friendship Hearts set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th

Ink: Lisa Horton Cloud 9 Shimmer inks, Gina K Designs Embossing pad and Black Onyx ink

Other: Concord & 9th Stay Cozy stencils and Knit With Care dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies and Gold embossing powder, Brutus Munroe black embossing powder, gold and orange enamel dots, blending brushes, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

I'm a Sucker for You

Hello all,

I'm adding another card to my Valentine's Day stash and playing along with this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. 

Most supplies are from Concord & 9th.

 

In place of the circle element, I've used this fun candy jar die from the Sweet on You stamp and die set, cut from some Valentine's Day pattern papers. The sucker and heart dies are from the same set. The background is done using the C&9th Stitched Heart Card Front die.

On the inside, I added a strip of the patterned paper down the edge and then stamped the greetings.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sweet on You stamp set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th and Gina K Designs card stock, Crate Paper "Love Notes" patterned papers

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

Other: Stitched Heart Card Front die and Poppy enamel dots from Concord & 9th, Gina K Designs white embossing powder

To the Moon and Back

Hi Peeps,

How about another Valentine's Day card? (Although this one could be for any occasion, I'm calling it a V-day card.)

For the first 2025 Color Throwdown challenge, the colors are black, white and gray. I decided on using this Sun and Moon Letterpress set from Spellbinders. I did some masking to ink the center in black, then again to ink the rays in gray. The sentiment comes in this die set.

The card base is embossed with the Spellbinders  3D embossing folder of the month for December. For embellishments, I've added some GKD silver dots.

I've used the same sentiment from Spellbinders that I used on the card in my previous post. (I like it.)

Happy Monday, and enjoy your week!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps/Dies: Spellbinders Sun & Moon Betterpress plate and Forever Yours stamp set

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock, Spellbinders letter press porcelain card stock

Ink: Betterpress Black ink, Gina K Designs Soft Stone

Other: Spellbinders 3D Hearts embossing folder, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies, silver dots

Love You

Hi and Happy New Year Crafty Friends!

I'm happy to see the challenge blogs are starting their new challenges for 2025 this week and I'm ready to play along. I managed to make a card that works for three of them. I'm using the colors from Color Hues, Red and Kraft, the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, and the Just Us Girls die cut challenge. 

Since the next card making holiday is Valentine's Day, I'm getting started on my V Day stash.

The stitched letter dies for Love, the You die, and the Strawberry dies are all from Spellbinders, as is the embossing folder. The Stitched square die and the tiny hearts on the strawberries are from GKD.

The word "love" is stitched with red floss but the word "you" is faux stitching that I used a white get pen over. I thought the faux stitching would stand out better. I cut the strawberry elements from white card stock and ink blended the colors for a softer look.

The inside is very simple with just a couple of stamped images, also from Spellbinders.

Wishing everyone a great week. If you're in those blizzard areas, stay warm and safe. We are sunny and dry here in SoCal.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Forever Yours set from Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs Kraft and Layering Weight white card stock, SU Real Red card stock and SU kraft heart DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Heart Swag EF, Stitched Love die set, and Faux Stitched Sentiments die set, 2023 Advent Calendar dies from Spellbinders, Double stitched square die and tiny heart embellishments from Gina K Designs, white gel pen, red embroidery floss