Party Like A Sea Caption

 

Happy Weekend Folks,

My card today is inspired by two challenges. The colors come from the current Color Throwdown challenge no. 836. The colors are kraft, orange and fushia, and I've used this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge no. 693 for the layout. I rotated Amy's sketch to fit my idea for this fun ocean themed card, with somewhat unexpected colors. (think a really great sunset, LOL).

Most of the dies, stamps and stencils are from Spellbinders June 2025 clubs. I love all of the fun sentiments in the June club's clear stamp set. 

On the front of the card base, I've used one of the stencils in the June stencil pack. I used the layering stencils from the pack on the inside of this card below, along with another sentiment from the June clear stamp set of the month.

I need a couple of birthday cards for later this month and this will be one of them. 

Enjoy your Saturday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Anchors Away stamp set from Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs Kraft, Ivory, Tangerine and Passionate Pink card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Kraft, Tangerine, Passionate Pink

Other: Rolling Tide Layering stencils, Sailors Designs Large Die set, Set Sail small die set, and Essential Oval Dies all from Spellbinders, clear sequin embellishments

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

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

Happy Holidays

Hi again,

I decided to do one more post today since I had this card finished. It's made using the current Color Throwdown challenge colors of Red, Green, and Cream.

I started with a cream card base and used the C&9th Plaid Turnabout stamp with two shades of red and two shades of green.  The center oval is from Spellbinders and it's cut from the same vanilla card stock and ink blended with the brighter red shade and the two greens. It's a landing space for the tree dies from Gina K Designs, cut from glitter paper and backed with green card stock. The sentiment is from an older Gina K Designs mini stamp set.

For the inside, I've used a sentiment and small tree image from the 2024 GKD-SSS Stamptember promotion.

Thanks for looking in today, and enjoy your Friday evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plaid Turnabout stamp by Concord & 9th, Seasonal Greetings Mini set and Stay Cozy set by Gina K Designs  (2024 Simon Says Stamp Stamptember set)

Paper: Gina K Designs Vanilla card stock, Concord & 9th glitter paper, SU green card stock

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively inks

Other: Ornamental Tree dies by Gina K Designs, Oval die by Spellbinders, blending  brushes, SU Dimensionals

Best Wishes

Hi Peeps,

I hope your weekend was a good one. I've been busy packing for vacation. We are headed to Amsterdam tomorrow morning, spending a day in the city then we will be joining a River Cruise on the Rhine and the Danube, ending in Budapest 15 days later. 

I have a pretty Concord & 9th flower bouquet for you today. It's a birthday card for one of our very good friends. I've used this week's Color Throwdown colors with the C&9th stencils.

 

I love this C&9th stencil set and I think it looks great in these darker shades.

Enjoy your Sunday evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stencils: Filled With Joy stencil pack by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Concord & 9th Sentiment dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 Stitched die, Gina K Designs blending brushs and black pearls, Connect Liquid Glue

The Loveliest Day

Happy Thursday peeps,

I have a fun Fall card for you today, but not in traditional Fall colors. Yesterday afternoon I was going through my box of Fall stamp sets looking for one to use for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I picked an older SU set called Hello Harvest. I remembered that I liked coloring these images and they seemed perfect for Linda's sketch.

I also remembered that the new Color Throwdown challenge started so I went to see what the colors were for this week. Not really a fall palette, but I decided to use it anyway and I really like how these colors worked out with the fall stamp set.

The background is made with two embossing folders, one from Spellbinders and the other from GKD.

On the inside of the card I used a couple of the other images from the same SU set, then cut and matted using the GKD Master Layouts 2 dies.

Have a wonderful day all!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hello Harvest set from Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Gorgeous Grape, Parakeet Party, and Thick Basic White card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock

Ink: Memento Tuxedo black and Copics

Other: Spellbinders Cascading Leaves & Stripes embossing folder, Gina K Designs Falling Leaves embossing folder and Master Layouts 2 die set, purple candy dots, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue

Frosty Wishes for Color Throwdown & Just Us Girls

Hi and happy Sunday evening,

For all of my stamping friends in the U.S., I hope you are having a fab Labor Day holiday long weekend. (I'm lucky, as being retired, all of my weekends are long ones. :)

I have two cards to share, made for two different challenges. These share the same postage stamp theme that is super popular right now. Both of these are holiday cards. I'm kind of behind on my holiday card stash, so I've decided when I make one for a challenge, I need to make at least two cards.

First up is a card made using the colors from Color Throwdown. The colors this week are pink, yellow and green. I've used one of the holiday postage stencil sets from Waffleflower to make this card.

Card two is made using the other Waffleflower holiday postage stamp collage sets, but here, I didn't use the large postage die. 

I'm CASEing Carol McFarland's card for the current Just Us Girls Case the Designer Challenge.

Here's Carol's fabulous postage stamp card.

And here is my second postage stamp card. For this one, I used the Holiday Collage accompanying stamp sets and randomly stamped the images on a white card panel in various colors. After stamping, I cut it out with a SU Deckled Rectangle die.

Using the Waffleflower Holiday Postage Collage stencil sets, I stenciled some images, then cut them out with the medium postage die included with the die set and arranged them in the center of the card on a red square panel. It's a bit "busy" but I like the way it turned out, nice and bright.

As you can see, I used the same sentiment on the front of both cards. I also used the same images for the inside of both, just stamping them in different colors. Here's the inside of card two.

Happy Labor Day and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Waffleflower Holiday Postage Collage stamp sets and Gina K Designs Wishing You Mini Holiday set (insides)

Paper: Gina K Designs card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Waffleflower Holiday Postage Collage stencils and dies, blending brushes, WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies, My Favorite Things Stitched square die, SU Dimensionals

Sending Big Hugs

 Happy Monday Peeps,

It's July 1 and time for the Championships/Wimbledon tennis tournament, which means that  I'll be in front of the TV for a lot of the next two weeks. Luckily, I can make cards and/or do some sewing while watching. It's all about multitasking, LOL. 

I made a card last evening using the current Color Throwdown challenge, which ends in just a few hours. This is the first time using this die set from Concord & 9th. It took a few tries to get things lined up correctly. I ended up running the plate through the die cutting machine with the embossing rubber mat to get the lines to glue the pieces down, which worked pretty well. The background polkadots are made using a C&9th stencil and black ink. All of the card stock is C&9th too.

The stamps and all of the dies are part of the same set. Hello was cut three times and glued together. I added some Nuvo shimmer over it and then glossy accents, but it's hard to see in the photo. The other part of the sentiment is heat embossed with white EP.

Here is the inside of the card. Very simple, and the sentiment is also from the same set.

Enjoy your day and have a great week ahead!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps and dies: Spring Print set by Concord & 9th

Stencil: Dots and Blossoms stencil set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and White craft ink

Other: WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, Concord & 9th Buttercup enamel dots, Connect glue, blending brushes

Thank You

Happy Saturday Peeps,

I have a couple of bright cards for you today. You might need to wear some shades, LOL. I love the colors this week at Color Throwdown and I had to play along.

I pulled out some stenciling paste and re-inkers to make the stenciled background on both of these cards. The stencils, stamps and stitching dies are from Spellbinders.

These were really fun to make, although a bit messy. 

Here are the individual cards, fronts and inside.

I love, love this pineapple stitching die. It was the Spellbinders May 2024 Stitching die of the month. It looks great made in any color.

The inside sentiment is from the May 2024 Clear Stamp of the month set.

The large flower on this card is from the February 2024 Stitched Die of the month. There is also a stitched card front with the set. I added the bright pink scalloped circle using an older Spellbinders die. The sentiment comes from the Spellbinders Happy Stitching set, April 2024 Clear stamp of the month.

 

This sentiment is from the Spellbinders Sentimental Greetings stamp set.

Enjoy your day, and thanks for looking in. I'm spending my day binding two quilts that I made for wedding presents. They just came back from the long arm quilter, and I can't wait to see them finished. 

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spellbinders Sentimental Greetings, Happy Stitching and Let's Get Together sets

Dies: Spellbinders Stitched Floral Focal Card Front, Stitched Pineapple and Scalloped Circle. Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1

Paper: Concord & 9th White and Dragonfruit card stock, Stampin' Up Pineapple Punch, Bumble Bee, Grapefruit Grove and Pale Papaya card stock. Gina K Designs Tangerine Twist and Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Craft White. Concord & 9th Dragonfruit ink pad and re-inker

Other: WOW white pearl embossing powder, heat tool, Cloud Whip paste, palette knives, orange and yellow embroidery floss, needle, Concord & 9th Dragonfruit enamel dot, SU Sequin, Connect liquid glue, Gina K Designs foam squares

To My Friend

 Hi all,

Happy Leap Day 2024!

I don't have a Leap Day card for you but I do have a sweet birthday card for a sweet friend. Since yesterday was the last Wednesday of the month, it's time for the February edition of Woodblock Wednesday. I still have many wood mounted rubber stamps and this challenge makes me gives me a chance to use them.

For this month's card, I pulled out some very old SU DSP to go along with my old stamps for this birthday card. After I finished, I realized that the colors in the papers work well for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. The colors this week are sage, burgundy and rose.

The tea cups stamp is from Stampendous, circa 1998. I stamped it with black ink and colored it with colored pencils. It's cut out with a Gina K Designs Double stitched circle die then layered over a Pink Fresh Studio circle die called Ornate Circle cut from sage card stock. I heat embossed the sentiment with white EP, from a wood mounted SU stamp, circa 1999 and cut it out with a tiny Spellbinders Scalloped Circle die.

The inside greeting is a Judith wood mounted stamp, circa 1994. I added a strip of the DSP at the bottom of the white panel and layered it onto some sage card stock.

Here are the stamps used for this card.

I just love looking through the gallery each month to see the creativity with these wood mounted stamps!

Thanks, and enjoy your extra day.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stampendous Tea cups, Judith Birthday Joy For You, Stampin' Up To My Friend

Paper: Stampin' Up Basic White Thick and Pear Pizzazz card stock, Bella Rose DSP (retired)

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Craft White

Other: Polychromos Colored Pencils, Gina K Designs Double Stitched Circle die, Pink Fresh Studio Ornate Circle die, Spellbinders Scalloped Circle die, Gina K Designs Fine Detail white embossing powder, heat tool, stash enamel dots, Big Shot, Foam Tape, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Wishing You A Happy Day & Buzzing By To Say Hello

 Hi and Happy Weekend,

I received a new order from Gina K Designs a few days ago that included this fun new background stamp called Doodle Garden Background. It's a large 6 x 6 inch background stamp that I'm sure is super fun to color, but I decided to use it in another way with this week's Freshly Made Sketch as inspiration.

My idea was to ink it with a light gray shade of ink then make a reverse circle mask for the center and stamp that with a darker color, and/or heat embossing the circle with clear or metallic embossing powders. I ended up trying both techniques, but I didn't get the desired effect of the circle standing out with either. My solution was to make a circle border for each and then continue with the rest of the cards.

On the first card card I stamped the background stamp using Soft Stone ink and then used Amalgam Black ink and clear embossing powder for the center.  The flowers are from the GKD Fancy Flowers mini stamp set stamping them in the colors from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. The border circle is navy card stock.  The centers of the flowers have GKD pearls in pink and red.

For card two, the background is stamped with Soft Stone ink, the center circle is stamped with GKD Embossing ink and heat embossed with GKD fine detail Silver EP. The additional stamped images are from the  GKD Flowers & Wings mini stamp set stamped with colors from the current Sunday Stamps challenge. The border circle here is cut from GKD silver card stock. The centers of the flowers have GKD yellow pearls.

The inside of both cards I left blank for writing a personal message.

I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend. I have a birthday card to make for a very good friend of ours. Since I also just received some Spellbinders wax seal supplies, my first, that I'm anxious to try, my plan is to incorporate that in his card. Should be fun to play with. 

Colleen

Supplies 

Stamps: Doodle Garden Background stamp, Fancy Flowers Mini and Flowers & Wings Mini sets with dies all Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight  and Layering White, In the Navy and Silver card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Soft Stone, Amalgam Black, Embossing pad, In the Navy, Passionate Pink, Red Hot, Red Velvet, Faded Brick, Fresh Asparagus, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard and Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs single stitched circle dies, Gina K Designs colored pearls, Connect glue, Masking Magic, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs Silver EP, SU Clear EP, Heat tool, foam squares

Hello

 Hi Peeps,

Happy Friday to all. I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. We have zero plans, which is fine with me. More crafty time!

I had some time this evening to do some stamping. I decided I wanted to do some coloring, and this very large daisy stamp from Gina K Designs is perfect for that. It's from her July release and this is the first time I've inked it up. My colors come from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. Lori's colors are Gray, Aqua and Green.

The flower and leaves are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic markers. I placed it on an embossed Slate gray card base. After embossing I rubbed a silver craft ink pad over the raised areas then brushed silver Pearl Ex powder over the ink. The large hello die is also by Gina K Designs. It's cut 3 times from dark teal card stock and one time from black and stacked together. The black on the bottom is offset for a shadow effect. I added some silver dots in the center to go along with the silver on the card base.

Here is a pic of the inside of the card using another GKD stamp set.

 

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for looking,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Devine Daisy set and Pretty Posy Mini set both by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock in Slate, Tranquil Teal, Black Onyx and Layering Weight White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Craft Silver and Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Lattice embossing folder and Hello die, Silver Pearl Ex powder, GKD silver pearls, Connect Glue, Misti, Big Shot, Foam Tape