Season Of Comfort

Hi Peeps,

I'm checking in for the first time post surgery last Wednesday. I had surgery on my left foot and I've been mostly sitting with it propped up on a pillow to help reduce swelling. Yesterday, I decided to see if I could sit at my desk long enough to make a card. I had to take a break partway through, but finally was able to finish it in the late afternoon. All's well with the post surgery recovery with no unexpected issues or horrible pain, so I'm feeling grateful.

The card I made is for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge and I've used new supplies from the September Spellbinders Clubs. Specifically the Betterpress Plate, the Stitching Die, Embossing Folder, and the Clear stamp set.

The card base is a piece of Concord & 9th patterned paper from a few years ago. It's cut to A2 size and put through the new EF. Then I used some orange ink to rub over the raised areas so the pattern shows a little better. The arched panel is the Betterpress plate inked with various golds and orange colors.. The September stitching die is three sizes of pumpkin tops and I've used the middle size here along with the stem and leaves. The pumpkin is cut from another piece of C&9th pattern paper, orange plaid, and stitched with orange floss.

Here's the inside of this card. Both the image and sentiment are from a Fall Spellbinders set from last year. The patterned paper is again, C&9th.

I'm back to sitting with my foot propped up and doing some crocheting to keep me occupied. Maybe later this afternoon I'll try more stamping. Hope you have a good Sunday evening and week ahead.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Autumn Whim set and Autumn Wishes set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and Concord & 9th patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Autumn Breeze Embossing Folder, Stitched Pumpkin Tops dies, Sketchy Hexi Betterpress Plate and Betterpress system. Simon Says Stamp Nested Arch dies, embroidery floss

What's The Buzz?

Hi Peeps,

I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the weekend. After some light, very light, house cleaning this morning, it's time to head to my craft room. I have a bunch of card panels that I've made over the past few days and now it's time to make them into some cards. 

Before I do that, I have my card for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I had fun making this one. It uses one of the inky backgrounds I mentioned. It's a modified blackout technique on an embossing folder, but instead of using black ink, I used a dark green.

 

To make the background panel, I first randomly blended GKD Honey Mustard and Prickly Pear inks to cover a white panel. I then inked the flat side of the Fall Leaves embossing folder with Fresh Asparagus ink before running the ink blended card stock through. The final step was to use a Honey Mustard ink cube to darken up the raised leaf outlines. I think it ended up to be a pretty interesting panel.

The bee skep and bees are from the GKD mini stamp set called Hey, Honey! The flowers and leaves are from the Flower Medley stamp, die, and stencil bundle.

For the inside of the card I used another of the bee images and a sentiment from the Flower Medley stamp set.

The Monthly Mix challenge on Gina's FB group for Sep is a color challenge using Fresh Asparagus, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard and Plum Punch so I'll be entering this card into that challenge as well.

Again, enjoy the weekend,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hey, Honey! and Flower Medley sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Fall Leaves embossing folder

Make A Wish

Happy Labor Day Peeps,

I've been enjoying a weekend of US Open Tennis and some crafting too. I hope you all have had a very enjoyable weekend as well.

I'm again squeaking in a card at the last minute , this time with my card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. This sketch made me think, LOL, but I finally decided on some birthday candles.

The candles are from Concord & 9th and the background is a Polyglaze background from Gina K Designs that I hot foiled with rainbow deco foil. The foil has tiny stars in it too. The sentiment is embossed with black embossing powder.

The inside sentiment is also heat embossed with black embossing powder over a piece of the foiled stars. The sentiment is from the same Concord & 9th set as the front dies and sentiment.

Enjoy the rest of the long weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Make a Wish stamp and die set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs white and black card stock, Concord & 9th metallic card stock and SU gold glitter card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs embossing ink

Other: Gina K Designs Starstruck Polyglaze card front, rainbow Deco foil, Fuze foiling machine, black embossing powder, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies

Make A Splash

Hi and Happy Monday Peeps,

It's been a minute since my last post. Not much stamping/paper crafting going on here lately. Instead, I've been doing some crocheting (baby blanket) and quilting. Both of those projects were completed on Friday. Over the weekend, I pulled up the Freshly Made Sketches challenge to get back to stamping.

I thought that some of the Spellbinders August sets would work well for the circle theme of the sketch. I ended up with a cute birthday card and since the current Just Us Girls  Word Week challenge is Birthday, this card works for that as well.

The background of fishes is the Betterpress plate the month. They are inked with yellow, orange, teal, bright blue and dark blue. The circle element is from the Gina K Designs Master Layouts #16 die set, cut from silver card stock and I added some blue gems around the edge. I also cut the center from vellum card stock so that the fish can be seen through, then popped the scuba diver on the vellum. The scuba diver is from the Small Die of the month, and the sentiment is from the clear stamp set of the month, all Spellbinders.

Here's a peak of the inside of the card using more dies from the Small Die set and a birthday greeting from a older Spellbinders stamp set.

Wishing everyone a great week.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Paper Splash by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and vellum, & Tim Holtz metallic card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Fish Parade Betterpress plate, The Deep Blue Two die set. Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 and 16., SU blue gems, Spellbinders Betterpress system

You're Pretty COOL

Hey Peeps,

It's time for another fun Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Jen M. is hostess and her sketch inspired this fun popsicle card. There's been so many "Christmas In July" cards around IG and the blogs that I needed some more summer. When I saw Jen's sketch, I immediately knew that I'd use this older Concord & 9th Turnabout set with the large popsicle die.

 

I've used some bright, fruity C&9th ink colors and card stock to add to the summery feel. 

For the inside, I used a piece of the front panel that was trimmed off and another sentiment image from the same turnabout set.

Enjoy your weekend! I'll be in Cooperstown, NY for the baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies with my sister and nephew.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cool Treats Turnabout stamp set by Concord  & 9th

Paper:  Concord & 9th

Ink: Concord & 9th and Gina K Designs craft white

Other: Brutus Monroe white embossing powder, Spellbinders Citrus embossing folder

Merry Christmas

Hello Peeps!

Happy Monday. I have a bright and blingy holiday card today that I made for the soon to end Freshly Made Sketches challenge, so I need to make this blog post a short one.

I was playing with some of Gina K.'s polyglaze background panels the other day and made the two used on this card. Over the weekend I decided to use them with Jen's sketch to add to this years holiday card stash.

I've pared these sparkly panels with some sparkly retro trees from the SSS Bottlebrush Tree dies. I've cut them from some Tim Holtz Metallic papers and added some Gina K. Disco Ball sequins. The Merry Christmas die is also from GKD.

Here's the inside where I've used the panel that the oval was cut from for the front mat and a sentiment and die from Stamps Of Life.

Hope your weekend was Grand!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps:  Flip-It Merry Christmas Add-on set by Stamps of Life (inside)

Paper: Gina K Designs and Tim Holtz Metallic card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Polyglaze card front panels, Deco foil, Merry Christmas die, Master Layouts 12 dies, Disco Ball sequins, Simon Says Stamp Bottlebrush Tree dies, Nested Oval dies

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

I Love Tea

 Happy Saturday Peeps,

Hope your day has been a relaxing one. I started by taking my daily walk in the morning followed by picking up a quilt from being quilted by a long-arm quilter I met last year. We usually meet at a fabric/quilting shop in the La Mesa area of San Diego for handoff and pickup. This is the fourth quilt that she has quilted for me and they always look amazing. Plus, she is very reasonable in her charges. In the mid-afternoon we drove to the airport to pick up a neighbor who was flying in from Oregon where she and her wife have a second home. So, a rather productive day, but also time to do a little reading and blogging.

My card today is made using inspiration from two challenges. The layout is from this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge and since Wednesday was the last Wednesday in June, it's time for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday challenge.

The tea cup and the sentiment on the front and the tea pot on the inside are all small wood mounted stamps. They are from three different companies and the dates are from the mid and late 1980s.

I used a GKD embossing folder for the black background, then rubbed a gold ink pad over the raised areas to make them stand out more. The white and gold panel is a GKD Polyglaze panel that I foiled with gold deco foil. To continue with the shinny gold theme, I heat embossed the three tea cups and the sentiment with gold ep.

The inside is simple. I wasn't really sure what sentiment I wanted to use on the inside to go along with the "I Love Tea" on the front.

I hope your evening is grand!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Tea Cup by Great Impressions, Sentiment by Stephanie Olin Stamps and Tea Pot by Stamp Francisco

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Honey Bee, Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Petite Flourish embossing folder and Vintage Flourish Polyglaze panel, Deco Gold Foil, Brutus Monroe gold embossing powder

High Tides and Good Vibes

 Happy Monday Peeps,

More Sunday late night stamping for me last night and I made my card for the soon ending Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I had some ink blending fun and made another silhouette stamped card. 

There is lots of masking off areas and I worked from the top down to create this summer sunset scene. The images, inks and paper are from Gina K Designs.

While the front sentiment is kind of generic, I turned this one into another birthday card with the inside greeting. I can always use more summer themed birthday cards and bonus, this can be used for boys or girls.

Enjoy your day, or what's left of it.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Window On the Water and Ocean Silhouettes stamp sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs White and Black card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Wild Wisteria, Bubblegum, Wild Dandelion, Turquoise Sea, Black Onyx, Soft Stone

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies, Beautiful Backdrops Stencil, Masking Magic strips and sheets, Blending Brushes

A Joyful Christmas

 Happy Monday Peeps,

It's still full on June Gloom here and very drippy outside. No rain, just a very heavy marine layer/foggy day. Again, a great day to have fun at the craft desk, or catch up on blogging cards.

Speaking of blogging cards, I made this one for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge a few days ago and didn't get around to taking pictures and blogging it. Better late than never, and I'm making this a short post as the Linky closes in less than an hour.

I decided to do a holiday card, my first for this year. I've used sets from GKD, and an embossing folder, also from GKD.

Here's the inside of the card.

Thanks for checking in, and enjoy your Monday.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Joyful Season and Holiday Floral sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Christmas Red, Christmas Pine, Layering Weight White card

 stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Christmas Pine, Red Velvet, Light and Medium Spruce, Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Holiday Flora Embossing Folder, Double and Single Stitched Square dies, Nuvo Glitter pen, gold twine, foam squares, Connect glue

Snail Mail Hugs

Hi and Happy Monday Peeps,

For this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, I decided to use this cute Spellbinders Snail Mail die set from April, and the coordinating stamp set, as the image seemed perfect for Jen's sketch. I found some older Waffleflower patterned papers that are mail themed to go with. (They're probably from a past SSS kit.)

The front and inside greetings, and the background envelopes on the inside, are from the April clear stamp set of the month called Send & Seal.

Enjoy your Monday afternoon,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spellbinders Send & Seal stamp set

Paper: Concord & 9th, Spellbinders and GKD card stocks. Waffleflower Special Delivery patterned paper pack

Ink: Concord & 9th and GKD Black Onyx

Other: Spellbinders Snail Mail Post die set, Spellbinders Abstract Study embossing folder,  Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Scribbled A Note

Hello,

Last week I played around with some of the new Spellbinders monthly club sets and made several cards with them. While I don't have any kiddos in school I still managed to make several fun birthday cards.

For my post today, I have one of them. This one uses Kim's sketch for Freshly Made Sketches. In addition, since I used a rainbow theme, I think it works to post to  this week's Mood Board Challenge at Just Us Girls.

I used the Stencil , the Betterpress plate, the Glimmer plate and sentiments, and the Embossing Folder of the Month for May to make my card. I started with the stencil using pastel shades in rainbow colors. (I think these little fat pencils are so cute). I used black ink for the Betterpress alphabet plate then ink blended darker rainbow shades over it. For the window, I used an older SU star die, then added one of the Glimmer plate pencils. The sentiment at the bottom is also from the Glimmer plate set. The Sending Cheer sentiment is from a previous Spellbinders monthly club stamp set.

Here's the inside of the card. The sentiments are from Spellbinders. The pencils are left overs from another card I made using the Glimmer plate.

This card is on its way to our little friend in Brooklyn, NY who turns five years old later this week. He is very much into do arty things, so I think he will like this colorful card.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spellbinders Confetti Wishes and Send & Seal stamp sets

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders May clubs, Layering Stencil, Glimmer, Embossing Folder, Betterpress plate, Glimmer and Betterpress Systems, Glimmer silver hot foil, Stampin' Up Star die, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies and blending brushes, Connect glue, foam squares

Fruity

Happy Mom's Day to all the Moms out there. I hope someone is spoiling you a little (a lot) today!  Being far away from my mom, it's really just another day. I sent her card earlier in the week, and I spoke with her yesterday.

I have a couple of fun and fruity cards for you today. I'm playing along with Vicki's Word Week challenge at Just Us Girls, and I've used Linda's sketch for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge for one of my cards.

I keep thinking I need to start using more patterned papers when I make cards. I have so much of it but rarely seem to use it. I made a point to use some on these cards, although it really didn't make a dent in what I have in this SU line called Tutti Frutti.

The stamp set used for both cards is from Concord & 9th called Fruit For Thought.

This stamp set includes several fruits and small sentiments as well as a very large focal type sentiment, which is what I used on the second card.

Using several of the patterns in the pack I layered them on the front of the card base. The large sentiment is heat embossed on yet another pattern. I did two layers of embossing powder, the first layer is black EP and the second layer is the old SU Dazzling Diamonds EP.  I cut the sentiment out with the coordinating die and popped it up over a Real Red panel.

The inside of the first card is stamped with "Thanks a mellow," and the inside of the second card says "You're sweet." 

Enjoy your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Fruit For Thought set by Concord & 9th

Paper: SU card stock and SU Tutti Frutti DSP

Ink: Concord & 9th and Gina K Designs Embossing pad

Other: MFT Stitched Rectangle die, Brutus Monroe black embossing powder, SU Dazzling Diamonds embossing powder, heat tool, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Lets Celebrate You

 Good Monday Morning Peeps,

I have my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge this morning. This blog post will be a quickie, because, #1:  I'm cutting the time very close and #2: I feel like crap! Somewhere on my drive home from my mom's house last week I picked up a nasty cold bug and it just doesn't want to leave. Some times I feel pretty good, then wham, not so much. Any-hoo, I made this quick card yesterday afternoon using Jen's sketch.

I've used all Gina K Designs supplies on this one. The background flowers and dots, and the brick border are stencils. The background stencils and the sentiment are from the Spring Fling bundle. The pretty lacy border die is from her Master Layouts 18 die set.

My plan for today is reading and heading to CVS for some cough drops and more tissues. Hope you all are feeling fine.

Thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spring Fling stamp set

Paper: Gina K Designs White Layering Weight and Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spring Fling layering stencil, Brick Wall stencil, Master Layouts 18 die set, Stitched circle die, gold dot embellishments, all from Gina K Designs

A Veggie Happy Birthday

 Happy Weekend and Happy March to all!

It's a low key day around here. I did some organizing in my craft room this morning, and then a little reading {napping in my chair :)} while listening to pre-season Baseball. I decided I needed to do something to keep my brain busy and that something is to post the card I made last night using Linda's sketch for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge. 

Linda has a very interesting sketch this time and I pondered how I wanted to use it. Mostly, I kept thinking of using multiple sentiments, but while looking through my boxes of stamps, I came across these Lawn Fawn cuties and thought I could make them work for the sketch. 

The Inspired By Challenge theme is Gingham this week, so I'll post there too.

Lawn Fawn has some of the funniest, or punniest, sentiments to go with their images, and I love these on the inside of my card. Who knew  veggies would make such a great birthday card?

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All from Lawn Fawn, Simply Celebrate Veggies, Veggie Happy, and Simply Celebrate Critters sets

Paper: Neenah Solar White 100 lb, Concord & 9th Parsley card stocks and Lawn Fawn Gingham patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Copic Markers

Other: Connect liquid glue and SU Mini Dimensionals