Baby It's Cold Outside

 Hello to all,

Another Holiday card to share today inspired by Narelle's sketch for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

All of the images to make this cute penguin mug are from Spellbinders and they include a Betterpress plate, an embossing folder, a die set and a clear stamp set.

This little die cut mug was super fun to put together. There are also dies to make a Santa mug.  I haven't used them yet, but I will, since I have lots of holiday cards still to make.

The inside of the card is pretty simple with just a greeting and a few stamped snowflakes.

Thanks for stopping in, and enjoy your Monday.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stitchmas Sentiments set (2024) by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Spellbinders Betterpress and Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Paint the Town Betterpress plate set, Starry Snowfall 3D Embossing Folder, Cocoa Greetings Small Die of the Month 07/2025, Betterpress system, Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strip dies, red and silver Stickles, Pretty Pink Posh Pink rhinestone gems

Wishing You A Happy Birthday

Hello and Happy Sunday,

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

Today's cards are birthday cards for a couple of good friends. Both cards use the same 3D Embossing Folder, Layering Stencil and die bundle from Gina K Designs called Dazzling Sunflower.

I really like how the plum and coral shades work together here. I'm often amazed how a plain white piece of card stock can be transformed with a little ink! For the background on card one, I inked up the recessed side of the folder with Plum Punch ink, using several applications until I achieved a dark background.

This is Anything Goes Stencil week at Just Us Girls, one of my favorite challenges, and either of today's cards will work as I used the layering stencils to color the flowers. 

I wanted to use the small flower image from the embossing folder on the inside of my card. I tried blocking the larger flower with extra pieces of card stock, but I couldn't get a good impression of the small flower. In the end I just cut it out with scissors and glued it down. Here's the inside of this card.

While I had all of the supplies out, I played around with die cutting the larger flower. The bundle comes with a die as well as with the embossing folder and layering stencils. 

Another good friend has a birthday on Thursday, so this second card is for her.

To make the flowers, I first die cut the image from white card stock five times, then used the layering stencils to color them. After the coloring was done, I used the embossing folder to add the dimension. The card base is foiled using deco foil and one of Gina K.'s Polyglaze card front panels. The sentiment is also foiled.

For the inside of this card, I used another foiled Polyglaze panel, the negative of the outside,  and flower image from a second GKD stamp set. The inside greeting is from HoneyBee. 

I have one more birthday card to make for next week. It's for my young friend Liam, who will be turning 15. He's the son of my friend whose birthday is Wednesday, and he's into surfing, so that will be the theme of his card. We will see what I can come up with.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gentle Silhouettes and Life In Full Bloom sets by Gina K Designs. Inside Birthday Greetings by Honey Bee

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs & Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Dazzling Sunflower 3D Embossing Folder, Layering Stencils and die bundle, Black and Pastel enamel pearl embellishments, pre-printed sentiment strips, Polyglaze card front, Deco foil, Fuze foiling system, blending brushes, Master Layouts dies

Autumn Birthday

Hello Peeps,

It's Clean and Simple week at the Paper Players where Jan has a watercolor theme. Water coloring images with a paint brush is definitely not my forte, for sure, but I do like a good watercolor "smoosh" for die cutting images. That's exactly what I did for my card this week.

The leaves were made using the smooshing technique with some fall-ish shades of GKD ink cubes. After spraying with water, I placed a panel of watercolor paper down to soak up the colors. After a sufficient time to dry, I stamped the leaf image with gold craft ink, heat embossed with gold powder and cut them out with their dies.

This owl wax seal stamp is from the Spellbinders September clubs. I used a combo of dark red, gold, and dark green wax to go with the leaves. After the wax was set and the stamp removed, I used a gold pen to highlight the owl image. 

The greeting is from the same GKD stamp set as the leaf image.

For the inside, I used my current favorite "inside" birthday greeting, and nothing else.

Foot surgery update: I just returned from my two week post surgery appointment. All's good regarding the surgery, but now I've developed Achilles tendonitis from walking on my heal, which is more painful than the actual surgery was. Now I'm in one of those walking boots to support the tendon. Hoping that it clears up fairly quickly. I'm really ready to be out and about more😢. Next appointment in 30 days.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Thankful and Blessed set and Gentle Silhouettes set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Ivory card stock, Tim Holtz water color card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Lisa Horton Cloud 9 gold craft ink

Other: Spellbinders Owl Wax Seal stamp and wax, Brutus Monore gold embossing powder, Uchida gold metallic marker

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