'Tis The Season To Be Jolly

 Hello to all,

I had some creative fun last night after dinner just playing with one of my new C&9th stamp sets. I had an idea and I wanted to see if it looked as good on paper as it did in my mind's eye, LOL.

Using a few challenges, the Just Add Ink color challenge, the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge, and the Clean and Simple theme from this week's Paper Players Challenge, I made this card.

The triangle stamp is from the C&9th Painted Shapes stamp set. I pulled five colors represented in the inspiration photo from Just Add Ink and stamped it to make a large triangle (tree). The large sentiment and star tree topper are from an older C&9th set called Trim the Tree. 

Keeping with the PP Clean & Simple theme, this is a one layer card with only the stamped images and a small yellow gem in the center of the star.

I've used a holiday sentiment and images from the C&9th Hollyberry Turnabout set on the inside.

I had fun making this card. The triangles were stamped using an acrylic block, and I used the Misti to line up and stamp the sentiment. Love that it turned out as I imagined it. 

Thanks and have a great Tuesday afternoon and evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Painted Shapes set, Hollyberry Turnabout set, Trim the Tree set, all from Concord & 9th  

Paper: Gina K Designs heavy weight white card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th ink cubes in Ballet Slipper, Honeysuckle, Sorbet, Oceanside, Buttercup, Parsley, Wheat, Mushroom

Other: Misti, Pretty Pink Posh yellow gem, Connect liquid glue

Warm Wishes Happy Holidays

Happy Saturday,

My first card for the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. I've used the retro sketch from this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! in landscape layout instead of portrait.

It's a Slimline card and I've made another small dent in my patterned paper stash. I think theses are some papers that I got as part of an old Taylored Expressions kit. I love how bright and fun they are. The stamp set is Lawn Fawn, and I've used it many times lately. 

The inside of my card uses some images from a new Gina K Designs Sparkle and Shine set.

My plans for the rest of the day include one fun thing and one not so fun. This morning I'm going fabric shopping. This afternoon I have my annual mammogram. I hope you all have at least one fun thing on your to do list today.

Thanks,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Love You A Latte set and Gina K Designs Sparkle & Shine set

Paper: Gina K Layering Weight white card stock, Real Red card stock and Taylored Expressions patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Black Onyx, Cherry Red, Grass Green, Jelly Bean Green, Warm Cocoa, Charcoal Brown, Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn dies, Paper Source snowflake stickers, Gemini Jr, Dimensionals

Happy Holidays and JOY

 Happy Sunday peeps,

I've been spending some quality time in my Craft Room making Holiday cards. I have a long way to go still, but I'm making progress. I have two to share today. One uses the current Freshly Made Sketch, and the second uses the current CAS(E) this Sketch! 

On the first card, I used some retired SU DSP and a SU embossing folder. The images are from a Lawn Fawn winter drink holiday set. I think my favorite part is the heart shaped "marshmallows." I followed Jen's sketch pretty closely, as I like this sketch and I'm planning on using it a few more times to get more Holiday cards made. It's also a great way to use up patterned paper, which I certainly need to do.

The inside of this one is super simple with just a greeting from the same Lawn Fawn set.

This second card is made following another one of Jennifer McGuire's techniques. This is super fun to do and I made several "letter press" images using the die cut. You can see Jennifer's video in this blog post.

The tree die is from a C&9th 2020 Holiday set. I used Distress Oxide ink to sponge over the vellum top layer of the die cuts. My photo doesn't show the dimension that I got using this technique, but IRL it's really pretty cool. The Peace, Love, Joy stamps are from Paper Smooches as is the JOY die cuts. I cut the large JOY dies in Real Red card stock and again using SU gold glimmer paper. The gold gems are from Pretty Pink Posh, and the snow falling background is done with a MFT stencil and a blending brush.

Here is the inside of this card using sentiments from another Paper Smooches Holiday stamp set.

Today's stamping will be all about birthday cards. Beginning in November and going through December, I have many family and friends with birthdays. 

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies Card 1:

Stamps: Thanks A Latte set - Lawn Fawn

Paper: SU Blushing Bride and Whisper White card stock, SU Quilted Christmas DSP

Ink: Gina K Black Onyx, Copics, SU Real Red, Blushing Bride

Other: Lawn Fawn dies, SU Quilted Embossing Folder, Misti, Gemini Jr, SSS heart embellishments, Dimensionals

Supplies Card 2:

Stamps: Christmas Sampler and Spreding Joy sets - Paper Smooches

Paper: Tim Holtz water color, SSS thick white, SU Jade, Real Red, gold glimmer card stocks

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide, Gina K Black Onyx and Sea Glass, SU Real Red, Copics

Other: Concord & 9th All The Merrys dies, Paper Smooches Joy die, Gina K Master Layout 1 die set, Gemini Jr, Misti, Pretty Pink Posh gold gems, MFT Snow Falling stencil, blending brushes, Connect glue

Happy Everything

 Hi Peeps,

I sat down after work yesterday afternoon and made a card for the current CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge. This turned out to be one of those quick cards, just a little time to color the images with Copics.

These sunflowers are from the Avery  Elle set called, appropriately, Sunflowers. The background patterned is from SU called In Good Taste.

Here is the inside of the card, also using Avery Elle stamps, though the sentiment is from another set called Simply Said Hugs set.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sunflowers set and Simply Said Hugs set by Avery Elle

Paper: SU Night of Navy card stock and In Good Taste DSP, X-Press It Blending card stock

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, VersaMark, SU Bumblebee and Night of Navy

Other: Sunflowers set dies, SU label die, white EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini jr., SU Dimensionals

Thank You

 Happy Friday afternoon peeps,

I have been enjoying Gina K's Stamp and Chat videos since she started them a few months ago. I don't watch them live since they are on while I'm usually working, so watch them later via YouTube. I've learned some fun techniques, and she is always so fun as a person. I watched Wednesday's video yesterday and decided to make a card after we finished dinner last night. The technique is coloring with water color markers. Gina used Zig Clean Color markers and since I have them, I did too.

The stamp sets that I used are from Gina K Designs. I used Tim Holtz watercolor paper as she did. For the markers, I used two purple shades, two yellow shades and two green shades to color the flowers. The layout is this week's "retro" CAS(E) this Sketch!. 

Gina's technique is to use a darker shade at the bottom of the petal and then blend it up using a lighter shade. She doesn't use water. I like how easy the Zig markers blend in this way. I've tried the same idea, but used a water brush to blend up and it was basically a hot mess. I'm pretty happy with my first try results here. Gina used white EP on her flower image prior to coloring. I used the Gina K Designs Black Amalgam ink without embossing and it worked great with no bleeding of the black ink. After the coloring was completed, I used the light blue Zig marker to outline the images for contrast.

Here is the inside of my card. I used regular white card stock, the black Amalgam ink and Copics to color the flower here.

I am still trying to get used to this new blogger. It's kind of driving me crazy, but at some point it will become routine again.  I hope you all have a great Friday evening and weekend, and thanks for stopping in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Friendship Flower set and Scripty Encouragement set both by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU Whisper White and Black card stock, Tim Holtz water color paper

Ink: Gina K Black Amalgam ink, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (084 Deep Violet, 081 Light Violet, 050 Yellow, 051 Lemon Yellow, 042 Turquoise Green, 040 Green, 036 Light Blue), Copics

Other: Misti

Friday Evening Cards - Two Challenges

Hi and happy Saturday,

After a frustrating day of work computer issues, still unresolved, I needed some paper, ink and stamp therapy last evening. I managed to make two cards, well, actually three because one of them I dumped my drink on after it was done, so I had to re-make it.

Over the past few years, I've purchased a few of the SU card kits. The latest one that I purchased is the Simply Citrus All-inclusive kit. The citrus theme is trendy, the stamp set is adorable, and the card bases are bright. Sometimes I put the cards together following the kit instructions and sometimes I do my own thing with the supplies. With this kit, I followed the instructions for all, except I kept out one card base and some other supplies to make a card a little differently. Because of the citrus theme it turned out perfectly to use for this week's Inspired By Challenge.

Unfortunately, this happened to be the card that I dumped my drink on, so the card base and the terracotta panel are not items from the Simply Citrus kit. I was able to quickly rescue the banner and stamped circle, and the little plastic flower embellishments from the soggy mess. Since I'd already used the rest of the supplies from the kit, I had to come up with my own card base. Using a SSS dotted stencil, a blending brush and inks, I made the random dot background, which is similar to the original card base from the kit.

I had to re-make the inside as well. I actually changed it from my original design and I like this one better.

My next card is made using the sketch from this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! and the colors from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge.

Both stamp sets are from Concord & 9th, and both are Turnabout sets, although I didn't used the Turnabout stamp in the coffee set. The background Turnabout set is from their July release. Since the Color Throwdown has limited colors this week, black and terracotta, I stamped 3 turns with black ink and the final turn with the terracotta color.

Using a black side folding card base, I used dies to cut windows in the front of the card and glued the stamped background behind. I used a white gel pen to make the stitched border for a little added interest. The coffee cups are all from the C&9th Coffee Blend Turnabout set. They are colored with Copics and cut out with their corresponding dies. The sentiment is a die from the same set, cut 4 times from white card stock and glued together. Finally, I added the gold #, the gold hearts, and a white enamel dot over the J for embellishments.

Here is the inside of this card.

Have a fab weekend and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: SU Simply Citrus set, Coffee Blend Turnabout and Positive Print Turnabout sets by Concord & 9th

Paper: SU Terracotta Tile, Night of Navy, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock, pre-printed citrus banner from Simply Citrus kit

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Night of Navy, Copics, Hero Unicorn craft, SU Terracotta Tile, Gina K Honey Mustard and Wile Dandelion, White gel pen

Other: Misti, Gemini Jr., Spellbinders circle dies, Die-namics square and rectangle dies, C&9th Coffee Blend kit dies, Nuvo glitter pen, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Simply Citrus kit embellishments, misc enamel shapes, Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

Hello and Ride The Wave - Two Cards, Two Challenges

Happy Sunday peeps,

I rarely post multiple challenge cards in one blog post, but that's what I'm doing this morning. I'm headed out of town early tomorrow morning and since I had the cards completed, I figure should get them out.

You'll notice that I must have been in an ocean color mood yesterday.

This first card is for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. The flower stamp and die are from Pink Fresh Studio and the Hello die is Stampin' Up. The card stock and inks are from Gina K Designs.

I used one of the new nested background stamps where the pieces can be removed so that each line can be stamped in a different color. These stamps are quite fun. I trimmed the stamped panel down to 4.0x5.25 inches and and mounted it onto the dark teal card base. For the triangles at the top and bottom, I simply cut a piece of the the dark teal to the same dimensions and then cut it corner to corner.

The hello die is cut from the pool card stock 3 times and glued together then glued to the front of the card with Connect glue. I added a layer of SU Shimmery  Crystal Effects for some shine and added three enamel dots for embellishment.

The current  CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge sketch is very interesting. After spending some time looking through my stamp sets, here's what I came up with for it. This is my rendition of "surfing the tube." The wave and surfer dies, and the sentiment stamp are from Hero Arts. The background wave cover plate is from Avery Elle. I cut the cover plate from white, and from Tranquil Teal and Tranquil Sea card stock. The card base is Sea Glass. The surfing girl and her surfboard are cut from bright pink card stock with a layer of Shimmery Crystal Effects over top. The card stock is Gina K and the pink ink is Rina K Electro-pop Poppin' Pink.

Finally a card that I made yesterday evening that isn't for any challenge. Just because I had the stamp sets on my table. Stamps and dies are Hero Arts and inks from Gina K and Hero Arts. The sand is made using blending brushes. I tried to be arty and make cloud shadows on the sand using a darker ink to blend. The sky is blended with a very light blue. The clouds are stamped with Hero Sky Blue ink for the first stamp and the layering stamp is stamped with Hero Unicorn Craft ink. They came out pretty nicely.

I'll be packing the rest of the day. I'm off to see my mom and my sister for a few weeks.

Thanks for looking in and have a nice Sunday,
Colleen

Supplies Card 1
Stamps: Modern Layered Florals and Nested Chevron Background by Pink Fresh Studio
Paper: Gina K White, Sea Glass and Tranquil Teal card stocks
Ink: Gina K ink cubes in Jelly Bean Green, Key Lime, Applemint, Sea Glass, Tranquil Teal
Other: SU Hello die, Modern Layered Florals die, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue, Gina K foam squares, enamel dots

Supplies Card 2
Stamps: Beach Heroscape set by Hero Arts
Paper: Gina K card stocks
Ink: Rina K Electro-pop Poppin' Pink
Other: Hero Arts Surfs Up dies, Avery Elle Wave Cover Plate, Gemini Jr, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Connect Glue, foam tape

Supplies Card 3
Stamps: Beach Heroscape set by Hero Arts
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock, Gina K Sea Glass card stock
Ink: Gina K ink and Hero ink cubes, Hero Unicorn craft
Other: Beach Heroscape dies, TE blending brushes, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue

Sweeter Friend

Hi again,

I'm back with another challenge card that I made yesterday. I decided to make a separate post rather than combining them into one.

This card is inspired by two weekly challenges, this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge and this week's Color Throwdown challenge. Like many stampers, I used the photo as my theme inspiration.

Using my Misti, I stamped a background of water melons using the new SU set called Cute Fruit. This is a sweet stamp set for sure! The ink colors are SU Watermelon Wonder and Cucumber Crush. After the stamping was completed, I used a dark green Copic marker to add a layer of dark green to the images. From this background piece I cut the diagonal panel. This is added to the card base covered with SU retired black and white DSP. The sentiment is heat embossed with clear EP and VersaMark over Memento tuxedo black ink. I used black Nuvo Crystal Drops over the seeds in each water melon image and added a couple of enamel hearts as embellishments.

Here is the inside of my card.

  

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by my blog,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cute Fruit set by Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Whisper White and Cucumber Crush card stock, SU retired DSP

Ink: SU Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Memento Tuxedo black, VersaMark, Copic dark green marker

Other: Misti, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Nuvo Crystal Drops, enamel hearts, foam tape

Miss You and Enjoy

Hi and happy Tuesday,

I'm having lots of crafty time this week as work is pretty slow. I feel so fortunate that I have my hobby to keep me busy during these strange times.

Yesterday evening I made a couple of cards for a couple of weekly challenges. This first uses the sketch for the current CAS(E) this Sketch!

I'm using some of the new SU 2020-2022 In-color card stock and inks, a new SU stamp/die set as well as an older SU stamp set here. I've made a Slim-line card.

The new stamp and dies set is called The Right Triangle. There is a small die that cuts out tiny triangles and I used it to cut the vertical element. I noticed that the way I used it, some of the triangles looked like they made flowers, so I cut it from a scrap piece of white card stock and glued some of the tiny white triangles inside the cutouts in the Bumblebee paper. The Bumblebee piece is backed with Just Jade. The large square is two of the triangles in the stamp set stamped next to each other and cut out with a SU square die. It's backed with the scalloped layering die. The gold flower is from an older SU set called Flower Shop. The flower is punched out using the corresponding SU punch. The sentiment dies are SU Well Written dies, cut x 3 from SU Basic Black card stock and stacked together with liquid glue. I added some SU Shimmery Crystal Effects over the tops of the words. Finally, I've used some of the new in-color enamel dots for embellishments.

Here is the inside of the card.

The second card uses the sketch from the CAS on Sunday Challenge. I wanted to use the new in-colors again and decided that the new Concord & 9th Scattered Dots Turnabout set would make a good background.

The coffee cup is from the C&9th Coffee Blend Turnabout set. As you can see, I angled the center square, I liked it better with the large coffee cup.

Here is the inside of this card. I've used another C&9th Turnabout set called Retro Petals for the sentiments.

Thanks for checking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: SU The Right Triangle and Flower Shop sets, Concord & 9th Coffee Blend, Retro Petals and Scattered Dots Turnabout sets
Paper: SU Bumblebee, Misty Moonlight, Just Jade, Basic Black, and Whisper White card stock
Ink: SU Bumblebee, Misty Moonlight, Just Jade, Cinnamon Cider
Other: SU The Right Triangle, Well Written, Square/Scalloped Square dies, Die-namics Stitched Square die, Concord &9th Coffee Blend dies, SU Flower Shop punch, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU in-color enamel dots, SU Shimmery Crystal Effect, liquid glue, Gina K foam squares, SU mini Dimensionals

Sending Birthday Joy

Hello,

Since I was home and on PTO today due to our bathroom remodel, I had a chance to do some stamping. I also did some drawer reorganization in my craft room. Last night, I was playing around with some Gina K ink cubes by applying the ink directly to some paper to make a variety of squares. Using my SU 1" punch, I punched out the squares and glued some of the them down on a piece of white card stock. I set it aside until I figured out what to make with it and this afternoon, I used it for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch!

Using the Misti, I stamped one of the flowers from the Altenew Wallpaper Art set with Gina K black amalgam ink. I stamped it several times to get a darker image. Next I cut a flower mask from Gina K masking paper and then stamped the leaves. After the stamping was completed, I matted the panel with white and black card stocks. On the card base I stamped the same flower image with Gina K Red Hot ink, matching one of the colors used to make the squares.

The large sentiment is heat embossed with white EP onto black card stock, and the smaller sentiment is stamped with Red Hot ink onto a white strip. The sentiments are from the SSS Leafy Frames set.

The inside is super simple. I heat embossed the sentiment using white EP on a panel of Poppy Parade card stock.

I bought a new toy. I use a label maker quite a bit for organizing my stamp sets and dies. My old one finally wore out. The tape cut mechanism quit working so I have to pull the tape out far enough to cut it with scissors. That is a major waste of the tape, so I decided to buy a new one. I got the P-touch Embellish machine. It does a lot! They have patterned wash tape cartridges and ribbon cartridges. Tons of fonts too. Very fun!

Have a nice Monday evening and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Altenew Wallpaper Art set, Simon Says Stamp Leafy Frames and Sketched Flowers sets
Paper: SU Whisper White thick and regular card stock, SU Poppy Parade card stock
Ink: Various Gina K ink cubes in reds and pinks including Red Hot, Gina K black amalgam ink, VersaMark
Other: Misti, heat tool, white embossing powder, SU 1" punch, Gina K Masking paper, foam tape and Dimensionals

Warmed With Love

Hello again,

One more card this evening for the Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. This one is tea themed. While I'm not a coffee drinker, I am a tea drinker, mostly iced, but I also like hot teas. The sketch comes from the new CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge.

I've let this really pretty patterned paper do most of the work in this layout. It's from one of the SSS monthly card kits from 2019. I love the flowers and plaid together, and the colors really say Spring. The tea cup is from a SU set and the dies are SU as well.

The cup is stamped with Memento black ink on SU Very Vanilla card stock and colored with Copics.

I use more images from the same SU set for the inside of the card. The sentiment on the front and the inside are the same stamp. I just inked up half for the front and then the other half for the inside. I thought that the SU Mint Macaron shade was perfect to match the plaid patterned papers.

Thanks,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Time For Tea set by Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Very Vanilla and Mint Macaron card stock, Simple Stories Spring Farmhouse patterned papers

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Mint Macaron, Copics

Other: Time For Tea dies, SU Tasteful Label die, SU Ornate Garden die, Misti, Gemini Jr, Dimensionals