FISH SPEAK

Happy Hump Day Peeps,

I'm playing along with the current Color Hues challenge today. Tracey is hostess and she's picked Lime and Violet for the challenge colors.

I ordered this fun fish stencil, die and stamp set called Fish Friends from Concord & 9th a few months ago and haven't used it yet. I thought green and purple fish might make a fun birthday card.

The layering stencil set has a stencil that makes wavy lines and I used GKD Key Lime ink to very lightly stencil my card base. Using SSS inks in Limelicious and Violet I stenciled the fish using the remaining 3 layering stencils. The sentiments on the front of the card are from the coordinating stamp set. 

Here's the inside. The sentiment is from the Concord & 9th set called Big Birthday. The die cut fish are from the Fish Friends die set.

Thanks for checking in today,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps, dies and stencils: Concord & 9th Fish Friends bundle and Big Birthday set

Paper: Neenah card stock for card base, scrap purple and lime card stock

Ink: Simon Says Stamp and Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 7 circle die and GKD purple paper heart embellishments, blending brushes

Just For You

 

Happy Friday Evening Peeps,

Here's a card inspired by two challenges. This past Wednesday was the last of April, so it's time for April's  Woodblock Wednesday. I pulled out a pretty flower spray and some sentiment stamps from my wood mounted stamp stash to make a Mother's Day card. I'm using the colors for the new Color Hues challenge. This time around Stef is our hostess and wants to see blue and yellow.

This card started with an older plaid background panel that I had done in blue shades. Another piece that I pulled out of the boxes last week doing some cleaning. I thought the Pink Fresh Studio Folk Art Frame die would go nicely with the stamp and the plaid so I die cut the largest frame from some Daffodil Delight card stock and layered it over a navy card base. I cut the flower image with the smallest frame from navy and layered it over a panel of yellow.

You might wonder why I placed the sentiment where it is. The stamp has a flaw in the rubber in that corner and I needed to hide it, LOL. I first tried a round die cut with the sentiment, but I liked this flag better.

For the inside, I used just a sentiment stamp. I didn't take a picture of it but it's also wood mounted. I used the large PF Frame again for a little added interest.

Enjoy your weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted Flowers from All Night Media, SU Just For You and Happy Mother's Day by Annette Watkins

Paper: SU Daffodil Delight, Spellbinders Navy, Gina K Designs white

Ink: Gina K Designs & Yellow Copics

Other: Pink Fresh Studio Folk Art Frame dies, Gina K Designs MasterLayouts 5 dies,  Concord & 9th Plaid Stencil, White embossing powder, Gina K Designs yellow dots

Birthday and Friendship Cards

 Hello,

In my last post, I mentioned that while doing some spring cleaning in my craft room that I found boxes of background panels that i'd made but never used. There were five that I pulled out which were made after watching a Jennifer McGuire Gel Press inking technique. My last post featured a card using one of these. Today's post is three more cards using three more of the five panels.

This first one worked well for the current Color Hues challenge. The colors this time are Coral and Green. 

All of the supplies used on both the front and the inside below are from Gina K Designs.

The other two cards are Gatefold cards. The original panels were 5.5 x 8.5 " so there was enough inked paper to use for the side panels once I cut out the center line art images. Instead of leaving the inked sides plain, I decided to use a couple of large background stamps and stamped them with the same ink colors used in the original technique.

Again, most of the stamps are from Gina K. except on the red card, the background stamp is from Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th.

I used the same design for the inside both cards.

Here's the inside of the blue card.

Here's the inside of the red card.

Enjoy your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink:  Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, 12, and 13 dies, Graphic Happy Birthday dies, Embossing Folder, Pastel Pearls, Metallic Pearl and White Heart (colored with Copics) embellishments and white embossing powder, MFT Large Stitched Square die, Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arch dies

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Happy Weekend Peeps,

Hope your's is off to a good start. I've gotten a couple of cards made this morning, just playing around with some new and some very old supplies, especially with this card. The embossing folder is new, the Spellbinders 3D EF for the December clubs and the first time I'm using it. The dies are very old, from Taylored Expressions. 

I decided to make a Valentine's Day card using non-traditional colors, and I quite like how the card turned out. The colors come from the new Color Hues Challenge, blue and white this time.

The greetings on both the front and the inside are from the Gina K Designs Mini set called Captured Heart. After cutting the heart doily, I decided to try stamping the sentiment along the top curve. It took a bit of finagling, but I managed to get it pretty well centered. It's heat embossed with white EP.

I've used a couple more very old Taylored Expressions doily dies on the inside with a letter image and greeting from the Captured Heart set.

I'm excited to watch the Australian Open opening day matches that start around 4:00 pm here on the Pacific Coast. Most of my evenings for the next two weeks will be spent watching tennis.

Enjoy your weekend,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Captured Hearts Mini set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Spellbinders card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs In the Navy and White craft

Other:Spellbinders Unlock My Heart 3D embossing folder, Taylored expressions doily dies and house die, Gina K Designs paper heart embellishment, Brutus Monroe white embossing powder

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

Red and White

 Hello and TGIF,

Also, happy July 4th to those in the USA. Nothing planned here except watching Wimbledon tennis and some Padres baseball later this afternoon, then at 9 pm, going to friends to watch the fireworks at the SD County Fair. Our friend's house over looks the area where the fireworks go off, so great views of them.

Yesterday, I did a little multi-tasking while watching the tennis matches and made some red and white cards for the new Color Hues challenge. This new-ish Gina K Designs set seemed perfect for these colors. It's called Home is Where the Heart Is and it's has some pseudo cross-stitched images that I thought would look great in red and white.

I made two cards, exactly the same except for the focal stamped images and front sentiments..

The background is made using the GKD Linen background stamp. It and the shadow layer are cut out using the GKD Master Layouts 1 die set. The greetings are from the same set as the focal images. I stamped them with white craft ink and heat embossed them with white embossing powder. They are cut out with flag dies from ML2 dies.

I decided to add some more dimension and ran the centers through the GKD Swiss Dot embossing folder. 

I used more images, sentiment and flowers, from the stamp set for the inside of the cards. Also the same for both.

Enjoy your day and weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Home is Where the Heart Is set and Linen Background stamp by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Red Velvet, Cherry Red and White Craft, Copic Markers to color embroidery hoop

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 and 2 die sets, Gina K Designs Swiss Dot embossing folder, Brutus Monroe white embossing powder

A Papper Hug & You're the Best

 Hello all,

I have a couple of bright and fun note cards that I made using the current Color Hues challenge colors of coral and green. I made two because this Concord & 9th layering stencil set is large and does a half sheet. I simply cut it in half and made two cards. I changed up the orientation and the sentiments, but otherwise they are the same.

This Concord & 9th bundle, designed by Kristina Werner, has the layering stencils, a coordinating stamp set, and a die set. I've used all three to make the cards. I decided to make a "landing pad" for the die cut flowers, so I cut some vellum rectangles with a GKD stitched die. The sentiments are heat embossed with white EP.

TGIF tomorrow. Enjoy!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Simple Flowers set by Kristina Werner & Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Card Stock Layering Weight White, Black Onyx, Key Lime, Coral Reef and Sunkissed Coral, Vellum

Ink: Gina K Designs White embossing ink, Key Lime, Sunkissed Coral and Coral Reef

Other: Concord &9th Simple Flowers Layering Stencils and dies, Gina K Designs Stitched Rectangle die, Gina K Designs black pearl embellishments, Brutus Monroe white embossing powder, heat tool, blending brushes, corner rounding punch, Connect glue, foam squares

Retro Bowls: No One Stacks Up To You

Hello,

It's a lazy Sunday morning here. I've been watching crocheting videos looking for a new project, and I sometimes get lost in the videos, going from one to the next, and then it's two hours wasted. 

Yesterday evening I noticed that the new Color Hues challenge was up. Carol is hostess and her color choices are green and white. Great for March, great for shamrocks, but I decided greens would be perfect for these retro bowls, a new-ish set from Concord & 9th. Also, green is my favorite color, so there's that.

I'm using all Concord & 9th card stocks, three green shades and white.

When I pulled out my pack of Lemongrass card stock, I already had this card front die cut. I glued it to a white card base and then cut the bowls and flower dies from white, Avocado and Artichoke. I stacked the flowers x2 for a little extra dimension and also used the alternate green for the centers. The sentiment is from the same set, cut with a banner die from a different C&9th set.

My aunt is turning 92 later this week and so I made this into a birthday card to mail to her. These birthday images are from C&9th too, yet another set.

I hope you have a relaxing Sunday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamp and Die sets: Kitchen Classics, Celebrate You and On My Mind all from Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock: White, Lemongrass, Avocado and Artichoke

Ink: Concord & 9th Lemongrass and Artichoke

Other: Concord & 9th Lattice Corner Die Cut, Gina K Designs white paper hearts, Connect Liquid glue, SU Dimensionals

 

Hey Friend

Hello,

I received a new order from Concord & 9th last week and the Color Hues challenge seemed the perfect challenge to use these lovely stencils from Kristina Werner. I tried to only use just the two colors of yellow and coral, with white of course, but I did end upusing some black ink on the inside of my card.

I used the GKD Master Layouts 2 dies to cut the stenciled panel and the shadow layer and I used the Concord & 9th Basket Weave Card Front die as a background on the card base.

Here's the inside.

Thanks for checking in and enjoy your Tuesday evening.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps & Stencils: Sweet Stems Bundle and Simple Flowers Bundle by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering White, Sunkissed Coral, Wild Dandelion card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Lemon Drop, Wild Dandelion, Sun Kissed Coral, Black Onyx

Other: Concord & 9th Basket Weave Card Front die, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 die set, Gina K Designs heart embellishments, Connect glue

Love You

 Hello all,

I have another very pink and bright Valentine's Day card for you today. I was watching this Jennifer McGuire video and decided to give the technique a try. This video is  part 2 of 2. Part 1 is the same technique using embossing folders, which I also tried and made several cards with the backgrounds I produced.

I'm playing with the current Color Hues Pink and Red challenge, and Ann's Theme challenge, Love is In The Air for the Paper Players.

All of the supplies for this card are from Gina K Designs. They include the heart sentcil, Script background stamp, focal dies, paper and ink.

As with most inking techniques, it's hard to stop, but even with the door open to the outside and the over head fan on, the alcohol fumes got to be a little much. But, I got some nice results from both the stencils and the embossing folders. Like Jennifer, I found that the Simon Says Stamp Pawsitivitly Saturated inks gave a little better result, but the Gina K dye inks still worked well. I'm assuming most dye inks would work. I used a Tim Holtz sponge ink applicator instead of blending brushes to apply the ink and blend the colors. I thought that a heavier ink application would probably work best.

Here's the inside of this card. Also using GKD stamps.

The following cards are made using backgrounds from the same technique, but with embossing folders. The embossing folders are from SSS, SU, and Spellbinders. The die sets used to finish the cards are all from Spellbinders. Inks are all SSS Pawsitively Saturated inks.

If you're looking for a fun inking technique, watch Jennifer's two videos and give this a try. I love picking the blending colors.

Enjoy your week,

Colleen

Supplies for Challenge Card

Stamps: Elegant Script Background Stamp and You Are So Loved set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock Cherry Red, Passionate Pink, Innocent Pink, and Heavy Weight White

Ink: Gin K Designs Passionate Pink, Bubble Gum Pink, and Cherry Red

Other: Gina K Designs Layering Hearts Stencil (I used only the open heart stencil), Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, small heart from the Stitched Circle die set, and Ornate Love You dies, Tim Holtz sponge applicator, rubbing alcohol in mister bottle, red enamel heart, foam tape

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