Bountiful Blessings

Happy Friday all,

I'm "working" from home today. Gotta love those Friday office days. I do have to attend a two hour training class via the internet in about 30 minutes, but after that, I'm calling it a week. It's rainy here in SoCal and perfect for making more holiday cards.

Today, I have a Thanksgiving/Fall themed card made to fit a few challenges. This week's Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge is a color challenge using Dark Brown, Yellow and Rust. The current Curtain Call Challenge theme is Acorns. Using some older Taylored Expressions sets, I made my card.

I started by stamping the the images using Memento tuxedo black, for the open stamps, and SU inks in Crushed Curry, Early Expresso, and Cajun Craze, for the solid stamps. The open images are colored with Copics.  After the stamping and coloring was finished, I trimmed the panel down to 3.75 by 5.0 inches and layered it onto an Early Expresso panel dry embossed with the TE Fall Leaves EF. The card base is Crushed Curry card stock. I cut the TE label and stamped the sentiment and squirrel, layered it over some copper twine and popped it up on the front of the card with dimensionals. A few enamel shapes in rust finish it off.

I used the TE Fall Wreath set for the inside.

Thanks for looking in today. Enjoy your Friday afternoon.

Supplies
Stamps: Falling For You and Fall Wreath sets by Taylored Expressions
Paper: SU card stocks: Very Vanilla, Crushed Curry, Early Expresso
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Crushed Curry, Early Expresso, Cajun Craze, Copics
Other: TE Label die, TE Fall Leaves EF, twine, enamel shapes, The Big Shot, dimensionals

Happy Birthday, U.S.A.!

Happy July 4th everyone!

It's a day for family and friends, having fun, and relaxing, and good eats! We are doing all of those things and wrapping up with a great view of the San Diego County Fair fireworks tonight.

For my 4th of July card, I started out with inspiration from two challenges. The layout comes from this week's CAS(E) this Sketch, and the colors come from the current Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge. (I love the photo they have this week!)

All of the images are stamped in Distress inks. The background is made using the SU woodgrain background stamp and I've used many dies and a SU punch for the rest of the wreath elements.

Here's the inside:

Unfortunately, it's back to work tomorrow, but at least it will be a short work week.
Again, Happy 4th of July, and as always, thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: July Fourth set by Stampin' Up and MFT Let's Celebrate stamp on the inside

Paper: SU Pool Party and X-Press It Blending card stocks

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Barn Door, Fired Brick, and Peacock Feathers

Other: SU Star punch, SU Swirly Scribbles Thinlets die, Avery Elle banner die, Die-Namics circle and banner dies, SU twine, enamel heart, rhinestones, dimensional tape, the Big Shot

Let's Celebrate

Hello again,

One more post today. This time a change of pace from Christmas cards. Here's a Thanksgiving card for you.

Stacey has a super cute theme this week on her Curtain Call challenge blog called Foxy. I just had to play along with it. Who doesn't love the trendy fox theme? I used the Lawn Fawn Party Animal set with the holiday additions for my little Thanksgiving fox. The layout is from this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and I'm also linking up to this week's CanYouCaseIt? Color Challenge. The colors this week are browns, yellows and neutral.

Supplies
Stamps: Party Animal and Party Animal Holiday Addition sets by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Heavy Whisper White, Really Rust, Summer Sun card stocks, X-Press It Blending card stock, Doodlebug Friendly Forrest patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Early Expresso
Other: Lawn Cuts Stitch Party Banners and Party Animal dies, Spellbinders classic circle die, white enamel dots, SU small circle punch, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Thanks again for stopping by my blog,
Colleen

Happy Fall Y'All

Well Hello,

Yes, it's been forever since I've posted on my blog. It's been a very busy summer so far for me. I've been doing traveling for work and for vacation, and my crafting time when I could squeeze some in, has mostly been devoted to doing some quilting. I'm making some baby quilts for a friend who is having twins. I will post my finished pieces once done.

I had two really, really fun trips over the summer. In mid-July I had my 60th birthday. My bestie and I went to the Oregon wine country and stayed at the Allison Inn and Spa for a long weekend. Talk about pure luxury! Then the last week of July and first week of August, Denis and I took our annual trip to Cape Cod with our Massachusetts friends. Our rented vacation house this year was only a block from the beach in the Dennis area. Being on the Cape is just pure relaxation! Here are pictures of our house and Mayflower Beach. The first day it was cloudy as shown in these pictures. The rest of the week was all sun.

I sat down this morning and made a card. Looking through my saved blogs, I noticed that this week's Mojo Monday sketch is the contest sketch for August so I decided to make a card using the sketch. The theme for my card comes from Stacy's Curtain Call -Orchard.

This cute SugarPea image is colored with Copics. Her overalls are paper pieced and I used YR23 and YR24 to do some shading on them. To compliment the stamp and keeping with the Orchard theme, I used some older SU DSP called Orchard Harvest. I added some rhinestones and an enamel heart on her pocket.

Supplies
Stamps: Bountiful Blessings set by SugarPea Designs
Paper: SU Raspberry Ripple and Early Expresso card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, SU Orchard Harvest DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Early Expresso, white gel pen, and Copics
Other: Die-namics Stitched Rectangles, Pierced Fishtail Flags, Spellbinders circles dies, Fiskars corner punch, TE sequins, Ranger Multi-matte medium, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

S.W.A.K.

Hi,
Is it really Monday again? Weekends are just too darn short!!! As I mentioned in my last post, I had a productive weekend card making wise. Here is another Valentine's Day card that I finished.

The color palette comes from The Curtain Call Inspiration challenge, Kissing Booth. The sketch is the Freshly Made Sketch 172.

Supplies
Stamps: S.W.A.K. set by Taylored Expressions
Paper: TE wood grain white and TE textured black card stocks, XPress-It Blending card stock
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: TE Medium Layering Doily die, TE large ric-rac die, classic circle Nestie die, Michaels glitter tape, Stickles, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Have a fab week and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Thinking of You

Hi all,

I hope you had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. I certainly am. I had a chance to  do some stamping on Tuesday evening and since I had just received my Taylored Expressions Key Ingredients/Stamp of the Month kit in the mail, I thought I'd see what I could come up with. I used the Mojo Monday sketch #344 for the card layout. And, since I've used pink as a focal color along with flowers, I'm adding it to Stacey's Curtain Call Challenge: Pretty In Pink.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bloom and Grow set by Taylored Expressions
Paper: TE pink and black card stock and Pebbles Garden Party patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Hero Arts Shadow Ink pads
Other: SU tag punch, SU small corner rounder punch, Fiskars large corner rounder punch, pink rhinestones, small clothes pin, rhinestone flower from TE KI kit, dimensionals

Have a great weekend! Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

"Peachy" Thank You

Happy Monday afternoon,

I got busy last evening while watching the Oscars and made this card. I decided to combine three challenges, Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch #209, The Paper Player's #185 challenge, and Stacey's Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge.

First of all, I loved Karen's sketch this week with the large panel. A perfect place for a colored Pure Innocence image. Then, Stacey's Peachy colors reminded me of Spring, which then fit perfectly with The Paper Player's challenge "Thankful for Spring" thank you cards.

So, what could be more spring-like than kids pulling out their bikes after a snowy winter. (Yes, I must imagine this as we just don't get much snow in San Diego, LOL) I colored up this sweet little girl and her bike with my Copics and used some Echo Park "Sweet Day" patterned papers. And, don't you love those little flower shaped sequins? Those were in the sequins packages that I recently received from a Lawn Fawn order. So, so cute!

Here is the inside:

Supplies
Stamps: Pure Innocence "I Wheelie Like You" set by My Favorite Things
Paper: SU Peach Parfait and Whisper White card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, and Perfect Day by Echo Park patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics and SU Peach Parfait and Marina Mist
Other: classic rectangle and large scalloped rectangle Nesties, Die-namics large banner die, Lawn Fawn sequins, the Big Shot and dimensionals

I hope everyone has a great week. Thanks for coming by,
Colleen

Thank You

Hello,

I don't know about you, but I'm super happy that tomorrow is Friday. I'm really ready for a weekend!

I have a card today that I made for Stacey's Cozy Quilt Curtain Call Challenge. I've been wanting to use this tree patterned paper from KaiserKraft. They remind me of the quilting technique called appliqué. So, when I saw the new CC challenge when Stacey posted it, I thought this paper would be perfect to use.

The layout is from the MFTWSC163. For the center element, I cut 1/2" pieces of coordinating papers from the pad and glued them down on diagonal to a piece of white cs, then used the MFT die to cut it out. I also cut the die from Rose Red card stock to use as a shadow to help the patterned paper one stand out better. To keep with the quilt/fabric theme, I used felt and a button for the flower element, as well as the tape measure ribbon. I hope you enjoy!

                                

                                  

Supplies
Stamps: Big Greetings set by My Favorite Things
Paper: SU Very Vanilla and Rose Red card stock and Suga Pop by KaiserKraft pattern papers
Ink: SU Rose Red
Other: Die-namics label die, Fishtail Flag die, and flower die, MFT pink felts, SU button, baker's twine, TE tape measure ribbon, Kaiser pink rhinestones, the Big Shot, mini glue dots and dimensionals

Thanks all and TGIF!
Colleen