Sending Holiday Cheer

 Happy Monday Peeps,

I have another holiday card today. This one uses the sketch from the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Also, I realized that the Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop is in full swing, so I pulled out some fun SSS cup dies for the focal images of the card to play along..

First, I made my own patterned paper using a couple of C&9th Turnabout stamps and seasonal colors. After those were completed, I used the dies to cut out the cups. There are three sizes of cups in the die set and I've used the largest and mid-sizes on my card. I also pulled out some old wood mounted rubber stamps to gold emboss the small images that I've used on the cups.

The gold panel and the white oval are embossed with Spellbinders embossing folders and the greenery under the cups is from a Honey Bee Holiday die set. The images here were all cut from white card stock and ink blended for the color. Finally, the sentiment is from SSS.

As I usually do, I decorated the inside of the card to match the front. The sentiment on the inside is from Gina K Designs.

Thanks for looking in today,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plaid and Retro Petals Turnabout sets and Candy Stripe Background stamp by Concord & 9th, Christmas Blessings Sentiment set by Simon Says Stamp and Joyful Seasons set by Gina K Designs, small wood mounted holiday images by PSX and Hero Arts

Paper: Gina K Designs card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th

Other: Essential Stylish Oval and Scalloped Circle dies by Spellbinders, Coffee Mugs by Simon Says Stamp, Lovely Layers Winter Greenery dies by Honey Bee, Autumn Chevron and Joyful Candy Canes embossing folders from Spellbinders, GKD blending brushes and Gold Embossing Powder, Wagoner heat gun, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

Let's Celebrate Your Day

 Happy Friday Peeps,

I hope everyone had a good week and you are ready to enjoy your weekend. It may be an interesting one here in SoCal with our very first hurricane/tropical storm watch and warnings due to Hurricane Hillary. Predictions are for the worst to hit Sunday into Monday. Different models are predicting differing strengths. Some saying it will hit us as a Tropical Storm and others predicting it will hit us as a Cat 2 Hurricane. I'm voting for Tropical Storm!

I have a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge where Jen M. has a fun sketch. I like the open space in the middle. Last week I received my July release order from Concord & 9th and this die and stamp set called Celebration Squad worked perfectly for Jen's sketch. This is a really fun stamp and die set with tons of options. 

I kept things fairly simple by ink blending a cloudy background using a GKD cloud stencil and blending brush. For the girls top I first stamped the tiny flowers in bright pink on a white scrap of card stock then die cut it. I outlined the sleeve edges with a bright pink Copic to help with dimension. For the rest of the die cuts, I used scraps from my bag of colored card stock pieces. The only embellishments are the pink heart added to the hair bow and I used a white gel pen to make the line and dot on the balloon.

For the inside I used a couple of sentiments from a Honey Bee birthday sentiment stamp set, which has coordinating dies too.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Celebration Squad stamp and die set by Concord & 9th, Inside Birthday Sentiment stamp and die set by Honey Bee

Paper: Gina K Designs Turquoise Sea, Black Onyx and Layering weight white, SU and GKD card stock scraps

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Sea Glass, Passionate Pink

Other: Gina K Designs cloud stencil and Master Layouts 1 die set, blending brush, white gel pen, paper heart embellishment, Misti, Big Shot, Connect liquid glue

I Love You to the Core

 Hello crafty peeps,

I hadn't used the latest Let's Stamp Together set yet and when I saw the Red and Yellow colors for the new Color Hues Challenge, I thought this Honey Bee apple suite would work perfectly.

I first cut three of the large apples from white card stock and then used the coordinating stencils and blending brushes to color them. 

For the background, I die cut a stitched panel and the mat using the Gina K Designs Master Layouts 7 die set, the one for mimi-slimline cards, from SU small gingham yellow and very large red DSP. The die cut sentiment is from the LST suite which also includes the sentiment dies.

Here is the inside of the card. All of the images are from the LST suite. The red mat here is the reverse side of paper of the red mat on the front of the card. After stamping this and looking at it, I decided this would also make a nice layout for a Clean and Simple card front. Maybe a set of cards using red, green and yellow apples. 

Enjoy your Thursday, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps, stencils and image dies from the July 2023 Let's Stamp Together kit

Paper: SU Thick Basic White card stock and SU gingham DSP 

Ink: Distress Oxides, Gina K Designs Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 7 dies, GKD blending brushes, Misti, SU red enamel dots, SU foam tape

You're So Flocking Fabulous

 Happy Hump Day Peeps,

Hope everyone is having a good week. We've had some really nice sunny days so I've been putting in some walking miles along the beach. This morning I was able to watch a pod of Dolphins swimming just outside of the break. They are so beautiful.

My card today works for two challenges. Ive used the theme from this week's Paper Players Challenge and the sketch from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge.

Jaydee's theme challenge this week is to use birds or bees on our projects. I decided on birds and pulled out a couple of  fun sets from Honey Bee. The background papers are retired SU and make a perfect background for these colorful flamingos.

The flamingos and flowers are stamped with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. I popped up the flamingo on the right with Dimensionals. I made a custom greeting by masking off words from a few of the stamps in the set, stamped them on different colors of SU card stock, and cut them out with a stitched flag die from the GKD ML 2 die set.

Here is the inside of the card. The Toucan and the greeting are from the same two Honey Bee sets and the heart die is GKD.

My walk this morning was an early one and the rest of my day will be watching a baseball double-header, due to a rainout yesterday, and of course, probably more stamping. 

Enjoy your day,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets stamp and die sets by Honey Bee

Paper: SU Peekaboo Peach, Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride, Basic White, Basic Black card stock and Playful Palette DSP (retired)

Ink: Mememto Tuxedo Black and Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, 2, 4, 5 die sets, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

Happy Birthday

Hi peeps,

Happy Tuesday afternoon to all. I have a couple cards that I made after watching this technique on Jennifer McGuire's blog. She calls this the Sparkled Glass Technique. Super fun to do and I probably would have done some more practicing, but I discovered I had just one half sheet of acetate window plastic left. Needless to say, I ordered more!

This first card is made using Claire's colors for this week's Paper Players Challenge. I used the closest shades of Copics in BG, RV and YG to match the SU colors. The stamp set is by Gina K Designs, the sentiment strip is a pre-printed SSS sentiment, and the background glimmer paper is SU from a few years ago.

I followed Jennifer's instructions very closely and the cards came together pretty easily, although not quickly. IRL, they are very pretty, but my amateur photography doesn't really show the true effects. 

On this second card, I used Erin Lee Holographic card stock in the background. It is actually very cool looking. All stamps on this one are from Honey Bee, and the sentiment cracks me up!

Since I have several different types of shimmery papers in my stash, I really think I'll try a few more of these when I get the acetate.

Thanks for checking in, and have a great Tuesday evening.

Colleen

Supplies

Delightful Blooms stamp set by Gina K Designs, Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets stamps sets by Honey Bee, Gina K Designs Heavy Weight white card stock, SU Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral card stock, SU white glimmer paper, Erin Lee Holographic card stock, VersaMark ink, Copics, Gina K Designs white EP, heat tool, Misti, MFT Stitched Rectangle and Stitched Scalloped Rectangle frame dies, JudiKins acetate window plastic, Big Shot, Connect glue

Sending Warm Hugs

Happy Friday!

Work has been super light for me this week, not that I'm complaining. I've had several hours each day to do some crafty things because I finished work stuff early. 

Yesterday and the day before, I re-organized all of my dies that don't go with stamp sets. I used to keep them on magnetic panels grouped by company, but sometimes I had a hard time locating the die that I was looking for. I decided to do a few things differently for the storage. One, I'm using all the same sizes of magnetic panels, two, I put the panels into plastic sleeves and three, I've grouped them by categories instead of company. I also made bright yellow dividers that I could label with my label maker. They look great and hopefully, it's a usable system.

Today, I finished with work super early and had time to make this card. The challenge that I was working on is the Sunday Stamps Sketch Challenge, and I also realized it works for the current Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge. I've already submitted one card, but I'll add this one too. I used the same diagonal elements as I did with my first card, dies, embossing, patterned paper.

The stamps are from an older Honey Bee stamp and die set called Warm Wishes. I stamped the images on Very Vanilla card stock with Gina K Charcoal Brown ink and colored them with colored pencils. The patterned paper is from SU, retired, called Harvest Orchard. I love the fall hues in this paper! I used an SU EF to emboss the horizontal element.

Here is the inside of the card.

I hope you all have a great Friday and a relaxing holiday, Labor Day in the US, weekend. Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Warm Wishes set by Honey Bee Stamps

Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Neenah Desert Storm card stocks, SU Harvest Orchard DSP

Ink: Gina K Charcoal Brown

Other: Prismacolor colored pencils, Gamsol, Warm Wishes set dies, Gina K Master Layouts 2 die set, SU Basket Weave embossing folder, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

 

Aparrotly It's Your Birthday

Hello all,

I'm loving the Slimline card trend that's happening lately and I've made a few recently. I even bought some Slimline layering dies about a month ago, so I was pleased to see that Linda's Freshly Made Sketch challenge this week is to make a Slimline card.

Using a couple of new stamp sets, corresponding dies and stencils from the July Honey Bee release, here's what I came up with.

The stamp set is called Birds of Paradise and it has a companion set of sentiments called Tropical Tweets. Both the birds and the sentiments have dies that go with, and they are both too cute.

I started with a card base of Yoyo Yellow. That is layered with first a green scalloped panel and a panel that I made with the new Honey Bee Pineapple stencils. The inks used are from Gina K. Her inks really blend beautifully! That is cut with another Slimline die.

The parrots are stamped with Memento black and colored with Blends then popped up with Gina K foam squares. The little presents are from an Avery Elle birthday set. 

I played around with putting a sentiment somewhere on the front, but I didn't like any of my tries, so I left it off and opted for just the inside sentiment. I did use some SU Shimmery Crystal Effects over the parrots' eyes and used my Nuvo glitter pen on the bows and dots on the presents.

Here is the inside with the greeting. I love how the sentiment set has dies to match each. 

Thanks for looking in, and have a nice Friday and weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets sets by Honey Bee and Sweet Swines set by Avery Elle for the present stamp

Paper: SU retired Yoyo Yellow, Gina K Jelly Bean Green and White layering weight card stocks

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Blends, Gina K Wild Dandelion and Jelly Bean Green ink cubes

Other: Honey bee set corresponding dies, Slimline layering dies by Kat Scrappiness, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, Nuvo clear glitter pen, TE Blending brushes, Misti, Gemini Jr, Gina K Connect glue and foam squares

Happy Anniversary

Hi again,

I have one more post today. Using the colors from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge and a new stamp set from Honey Bee called Birds of Paradise, I made this anniversary card for our friends in Mass.

I stamped the leaf images around the white panel with Memento black and colored them with Blends. The flamingos are stamped, colored and cut out with the corresponding dies and popped up with Gina K foam squares. The sentiment comes from the corresponding sentiment stamp set, which also has it's own die set. The card base is SU Poppy Parade, although it looks more coral in the picture. For embellishment I used some small orange and yellow sequins randomly around the panel.

Here is the inside of the card.

Thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Birds of Paradise and Tropical Tweets sets by Honey Bee
Paper: SU Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White thick
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and SU Blends
Other: Honey Bee set dies, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K foam tape, sequins

Bee Awesome

Happy Saturday all,

I had a fun day stamping while catching up on laundry today. Since I've been out of the house working every day, my weekend seemed to be "normal." Although, no running errands out and about, but I got all of the laundry done, including the sheets.

One of the cards that I made today uses this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! What an interesting sketch this week and I had some fun with it. I pulled out some Honey Bee pattern papers and paired those with a Honey Bee stamp set to make my card.

I really like how my card turned out. Love these honeycomb patterned papers together. The images are all stamped onto SU Whisper White card stock, colored with Copics, and cut out with the corresponding set dies. The Bee Awesome sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp set as is the inside sentiments. I also used the angled paper on one side of the inside.

Have an awesome Sunday and thanks for stopping by,
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: Bee Hive set by Honey Bee stamps and Bee Yourself set by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SU thick and regular Whisper White card stock and Honey Bee The Bee's Knees patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Daffodil Delight, Copics
Other: Misti, Gemini Jr, Honey Bee dies, Dimensionals

Enjoy this Day

Good morning to all,

After we finished dinner last evening, I sat down to make a card for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge. I had in my mind to use bees for the three little elements and went looking through my sets to find something appropriate. I ended up combining two sets, one from Paper Smooches and one from Honey Bee. I paired the bees and butterfly images with some older flowery DSP from SU to make this rather cheerful card.

The insects are stamped with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored with Copic Markers. The largest bee was stamped on a scrap piece of card stock and fussy cut out to pop up over the edge of the patterned papers. I added some Wink of Stella to the wings and three little enamel flowers for embellishments.

On the inside of the card I used the bug image from the Paper Smooches set and the inside sentiment is from Concord & 9th.

I had another piece of the DSP left over so I made another card with the strip of DSP down the side. In this case, I cut the length down to make a square 4.25 x 4.25" card. The stamp image and sentiment are from the C&9th set called Forever Flower, one of their newer sets. The big flower is stamped using Hero Arts purple ink. The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP and I've added gold twine and gold sequins for embellishments.

And the inside of this card. The sentiment and heart image are from the same C&9th set.

As far as work today, I did go to visit one of my labs here in San Diego this morning, but came home as soon as I was finished with their requested task. The highways are very light with traffic. I guess with no schools and many folks working from home it's to be expected, but even knowing this, kind of surprising.

Have a great Tuesday evening, and thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Bee Hive set by Honey Bee, Flap Happy set by Paper Smooches, Lots to Say and Forever Flower sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Thick and regular weight Whisper White, Basic Black and Floral District DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic markers, Hero Arts Grape Juice and Bubble Gum Shadow ink, VersaMark
Other: Wink of Stella, enamel flowers, gold sequins, SU gold twine, white EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Stitched Rectangle die, dimensonals