Happy Birthday

Greetings from a very gloomy Southern California!

It's very cloudy and gray today, and a little chilly. The perfect weather to stay in and create. Especially since I've not had much time for it lately. More of the same next week as I have a meeting in Los Angeles starting tomorrow evening and going through Thursday.  Any-hoo, the first thing that I did this morning was to check out my pals at The Paper Players blog to see what this week's challenge is. Sandy is hostess and this week's theme is to "cut it out."

This reminds me of my "delusions" when the Big Shot first appeared in the Stampin' Up catalog. I was adamant that I didn't need one and resisted buying it for about a year. I was so sure I'd just never use it. The reality is that I rarely, make that VERY rarely, make a card or project without using it these days. My collection of dies grows larger by the month, especially now that almost every stamp set has matching dies. Clearly I was SO wrong!

Here's my card for Sandy's fun and appropriate, challenge this week.

 I've used my Big Shot on several elements. I started with the TE Quatrefoil cutting plate over a panel of MME wood grain paper. The card base is Wild Wasabi card stock. The Avery Elle image is stamped onto X-Press It card with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. It's cut out with the corresponding die. The sentiment is a die from MFT. (yes, a hodgepodge of supplies this week). The flower spray is popped up with dimensionals and I placed some sequin around the card for a finishing touch.

Inspiration for my design comes from the current Inspired By All the Little Things challenge. I'm also playing along with the current "green" challenge at the Curtain Call.

On the inside I've used a stamp from Paper Smooches to add to the hodgepodge, but it fits.

 
I'm off to put some laundry in the machine and do some more challenges while listening to my nephew, Ian, host his weekly radio show, Rock n Roots on the Macalester College Radio Station.  He's on every Sunday at 11:00 AM Central. Have a great Sunday stamping friends!

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: Mother's Day set by Avery Elle and Best Buds by Paper Smooches
Paper: SU Wild Wasabi and X-Press It Blending card stock, My Minds Eye patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Wild Wasabi and Copics
Other: Quatrefoil Cutting Plate by Taylored Expressions, Mother's Day die by Avery Elle, Die-namics Happy Birthday die by My Favorite Things, the Big Shot, diemensionals, sequin

Happy Haunting

Hello stamping friends,

Today we actually had some wonderful fall weather here in southern California. It was cloudy, a little rainy and cool temps. A really nice change from the 80's we've been experiencing for the last several weeks.

After doing my weekend chores, I ended up organizing in my craft closet because I was looking for a particular tool that I know I have, somewhere, and that morphed into a reorganization. I never did find the blending tool that I know is here somewhere, but I did make some progress in the organization.  I had in my mind a technique that I wanted to do for a Halloween card, but that quickly went bye, bye without the tool. So, to blog-land for inspiration. . . and came across this card by Birgit  Edblom on the Penny Black blog, which I love, and I decided I'd try the background technique using my Zig Real Brush Markers. The gray's with the pop of color just pulled me in and I though it would be fun for a Halloween card.

One of my favorite weekly challenges, The Paper Players, has a Halloween theme this week, and my thought was to make a card to post for the challenge. Here is my CASE on Birgit's card that I made for this week's Paper Players Halloween challenge. Also, my card works for The Curtain Call's "Going Batty" challenge.

To make the background, I started with some Tim Holtz watercolor paper and the mid, light, dark and blue gray pens in the Zig Real Brush Marker set to make the hills, sky and foreground. I used my heat tool to dry the paper between each application. After I was finished with the background, I used Memento tuxedo black to stamp the images of the trees, bats and fence directly over the watercolored background. I used the largest Die-namics Inside and Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die to cut the panel. The house and pumpkins were stamped on watercolor paper, colored and cut out before gluing them on the card to finish the scene. I'm super happy with the way it all worked and I hope you enjoy it too.

Supplies

Stamps: Holiday Home set by Stampin' Up, Spooky Cuties set by Revere Confetti (fence), and Happy Haunting set by Lawn Fawn (greeting)

Paper: Tim Holtz water color paper and SU black and Smoky Slate card stocks, SU vellum

Ink: Zig Real Brush Markers (60 marker set), Memento tuxedo black, SU Archival Black Ink pad, SU Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Twist

Other: Die-namics Inside & Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die, SU mini glue dots, SU Holiday Home dies, the Big Shot

Unfortunately, the weekend is over and it's back to work. I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Cocoa Melts the Winter Blues

Hi-ya all,

I have a card today that I made using this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch and inspiration from The Curtain Call challenge. The Curtain Call inspiration is "Cuppa Cocoa" and I have a couple stamps sets that would work well. I decided to use one of my WTG sets from My Favorite Things.

 
I used the brown and blue colors, and the cuppa for my inspiration. I paper pieced the cup with the patterned paper and colored the cocoa and marshmallows with Copics. A little layering, per the sketch, and some sewing finished up the look.

Here's the inside:

Have a wonderful Friday and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps:WTG Gets Cozy With  Cocoa by My Favorite Things
Paper: TE blue and buttercream, SU Early Expresso card stocks and Simple Stories Harvest Lane patterned papers
Ink: SU Early Expresso marker, Memento tuxedo black, Copics
Other: SU heart dies, Die-namics Fishtail Banner STAX dies, SU punch (inside) sewing machine, the Big Shot, and dimensionals