So Very Thankful

Hello Peeps,

It is a gorgeous day here on the SoCal coast. I went for a walk around 7 am and it was very foggy, our natural air conditioning, but now it's a super blue sky with a nice ocean breeze coming in the window of my craft room.

My card today is made using inspiration from the current Just Us Girls challenge. It's Mood Board Week and it's a very pretty picture. I mostly used the sunflowers as my inspiration, but I did pull in the teal color from the butterfly wings. 

I started by using the GKD Sunflower Garden Layering stencils. After finishing the stenciling, I splattered some Guppy Lunar paste and gold water color over it. This is layered under a piece of wood grained patterned paper that I cut a circle from so the stenciled panel shows through. The stamped and die cut sunflowers layered around the circle are from the GKD Breath of Sunshine stamp and die set as are the front and inside greetings. Embellishments are some teal enamel dots and a twine bow.

Here's the inside.

I'm looking forward to watching the women's and men's Cincy Open Tennis finals later today. Enjoy your Sunday afternoon!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Breath of Sunshine set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock and stash patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Designs, Spellbinders gold water color pot

Other: Gina K Designs Sunflower Garden Layering stencil, Master Layouts 12 dies, Single Stitched circle dies. Simon Hurley Guppy Lunar Paste, Concord & 9th enamel dots, SU twine,  

Happy Brunch-day!

Hello Peeps,

It's been a "minute" since I've posted on my blog. Actually, this is the first card that I've made since May! Life and other things got in my way, but I'm happy to finally be back to paper crafting.

I thought I'd start with a couple of challenges. This card fits with this week's Anything Goes Die challenge at Just Us Girls, and I've used the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

The background embossing folder and the die set are both from Spellbinders. I used a piece of pastel orange glossy card stock in the embossing folder then brayered some darker ink over the raised areas. The background uses the negative side of the embossing folder and the banner die is the positive side of the folder. All of the die cuts are cut from white card stock and then colored using blending brushes and various SSS Pawsitively Saturated inks.

On the inside I used a sentiment from a Spellbinders stamp set and another image from the Spellbinders die set. (All of these images are too cute!)

Hope your weekend was a good one and not too hot. Thanks for looking in!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Go To Girl set by Spellbinders (Clear Stamp of the Month 11/25)

Paper: Scrapbook.com pastel glossy card stock, Gina K Designs white layering and heavy weights and black onyx card stocks

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks

Other: Spellbinders Petite Tuft 3D embossing folder, Spellbinders Let's Do Brunch die set (Small Die set of the Month 11/25) MFT Banner die, Spellbinders gold dots, Tim Holtz Brayer

LIfe's Changes

Happy Thursday Peeps!

Two of my friends have had or will have had a significant life change this month.

My friend Patti was remarried last week after becoming a widow about four years ago, and our neighbor, Wendy is retiring from teaching at the end of this month. I made a card for each last night using some beautiful floral 3D embossing folders and coloring stencils from Gina K.

Happily, I see that the new Just Us Girls challenge is for Flowers, so these cards will work perfectly.

Here's the Wedding card for my friend Patti. 

This 3D embossing folder is called Gorgeous Bloom. It comes with coloring stencils and a die that cuts out only the flower. The background is made using the GKD Swiss Dots embossing folder. Since there is no die for the leaves, I fussy cut them for this card.

The front and inside sentiments are from the GKD set called Toss the Bouquet and they are heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

Next is the Retirement card for our neighbor Wendy. She is currently a 5th grade teacher and is retiring at the end of this school year. She loves the color pink so of course I had to make a card with lots of pink. 

This 3D Embossing Folder is also from Gina K. and is called Daisy Delights. It also has coloring stencils and dies to cut out the daisies, although I didn't use the dies. I made this a 5 x 7" card because I didn't want to cut any of the image.

The front is a Dusty Rose 5 x 7" panel that I cut using the SSS Nested Arches dies. After cutting it I ran it through a Spellbinders 3D Embossing Folder called Floral Fence of Togetherness. This is popped up over the daisy and rose floral panel with foam tape. The sentiment is from the GKD Peaceful Peonies stamp set. For embellishments I added a few small pink sequins also from GKD.

On the inside of this card I used a GKD rose stencil to add some color, along with the sentiments, since it's such a large space.

Hope you enjoy your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All from Gina K Designs, Toss the Bouquet, Peaceful Peonies, Enjoy

Paper: Concord & 9th (Wedding card) and Gina K Designs

Ink: Concord & 9th (Wedding card) and Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Gorgeous Bloom and Daisy Delights 3D Embossing Folders, Swiss Dots embossing folder, Shimmering Roses Layering Stencil, Master Layouts 2 and 7 die sets, gold dot and pink sequins embellishments, blending brushes. Simon Says Stamp Nested Arch dies, Spellbinders Floral Fence of Togetherness 3D Embossing Folder, Brutus Monroe gold embossing powder

Graduation Cards

Hello and Happy Monday!

I think I'm finally finished purging and organizing in my craft room. Luckily, our neighbor is a 5th grade teacher and she takes a lot of the supplies that I  purge for her class and for the other teachers at her school. 

I changed my desk layout too. I used it yesterday for the first time while making a couple of cards, and it seemed to work well. I reduced the area by half, so I wasn't sure if I'd like it. There may be more tweaks, but for now I'm calling it good.

Both of the cards that I made are Graduation cards. One is for our neighbor, a young man graduating from high school this month. The second is for the DIL of our friends we visit in New England. Erin graduated from UCON four years ago with a nursing degree. She worked in hospitals and then decided to go into the Nurse Anesthetist Program. She graduates from that program this Friday.

Here's the High School Graduation card.

The background stamp is from Gina K Designs. There is a die that will cut out all of the words, but I decided I liked it as a background, and it works great for a Graduation card. The trophy die cut and sentiments are from Concord & 9th. The school colors are navy blue and white and then I added some gold accents.

For Erin's card, I used the same GKD background stamp. I also used Claire's colors for this week's Paper Players Challenge. The tulip dies and the large die cut sentiment are from Concord & 9th.  As the Just Us Girls challenge is die week/sentiment, this card works for that as well.

Here is the inside of this card. (I forgot to take a photo of the inside of the first card).

We are off to have lunch with some friends who are here from Palm Springs for the day. We're meeting at a restaurant in Carlsbad Village. Menu looks yummy!

Hope your week is a good one!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: So Many Words set by Gina K Designs and Dream Big by Taylored Expressions

Paper: Stampin' Up and Gina K Designs card stock, Altenew glitter gold card stock, SSS mat gold card stock, striped Vellum

Ink: Stampin' Up and Gina K Designs

Other: Concord & 9th World's Greatest dies, Celebrate You dies, and Tulip Festival dies, SSS A2 Scalloped Rectangle dies, Spellbinders Large Oval die, Taylored Expressions Graduation Cap die, Gina K Designs Blending Brushes and purple heart embellishments

This Card Traveled All This Way

Happy Cinco de Mayo! (and Taco Tuesday)!

I had fun making a scene card yesterday for this week's CASE the Designer challenge for Just Us Girls. I'm CASEing Lisa's really cute bunny card. 

My bunny image comes from the Spellbinders Clear Stamp of the Month for Feb 2025.

 

I love the arch die that Lisa used and while I have some nesting arch dies, I decided that I'd make an oval shaped card to build my scene on. I used the Spellbinders Essential Stylish Oval die set using the largest to cut the card base and the second to largest to make the background scene. The sky is stenciled with a GKD cloud stencil, the purple hill is made with a SSS background stamp and a Lawn Fawn hill die. The grassy meadow is also cut with a Lawn Fawn die and ink blended with three GKD green inks. The flower and bunny images are from the same Spellbinders stamp set, but the sentiment is from another Spellbinders set.

For the inside of the card, I used more images from the bunny set. These two cute chicks are standing on a meadow made using the die as a stencil.

All of the images on the front and inside are colored with Copics.

Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo and I hope there's some yummy Mexican food in your future. And, maybe a Margarita too.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spring Smiles and Send & Seal sets from Spellbinders and Sweet Garden Background from Simon Says Stamp

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic Markers

Other:  Spellbinders Oval dies, Lawn Fawn Hil land Grass dies, Gina K Designs Cloud stencil and blending brushes

Hey! Miss You and Cozy Up!

 TGIF Peeps,

I have two cards today that use the same layout and same stamps and dies, inspired by two different challenges. For the Paper Players it's Clean and Simple week and Christy's theme is Baby Animals. While I have many, many stamps with animals, not so many are of babies. I do have this cute suite from Waffle Flower with kitties that I thought would work. For the theme of my card, I decided to go with Postage and pulled out an older Gina K Designs Postcard set to go with.

It's Stencil week at Just Us Girls and Vicki's challenge is Anything Goes. I decided to use the same basic layout on this card, but stenciled the background with a Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th stencil pack and inks. I wasn't sure if the Postage elements would show up when stamped , but I think it worked well.

For this card I layered the kitten images onto some Waffle Flower postage dies and popped up the sentiments. 

The inside of the two cards is identical.

Enjoy your Friday and weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Postcard set by Gina K Designs and Simple Joy set by Waffle Flower

Paper: Concord & 9th Nectar and Wildberry Gingham card stocks, Gina K Designs Layering Weight card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th and Gina K Designs, Images colored with Copics

Other: Waffle Flower Simple Joy dies and Postage dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies, Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th Bitsy Blooms Stencil Pack

Wishing You Luck and Love

 Happy Hump Day Peeps,

It's been a little bit since I've posted to my blog. I've been doing more sewing than card making for the past few weeks. I finished, for the most part, my quilting project and I had some time yesterday afternoon to do some stamping. 

Looking around the blogs, I decided to make a St. Patrick's Day card following the challenges at both the Paper Players and Just Us Girls. Joanne is hostess for this week's Paper Players Color challenge and she has chosen "Colors of the Rainbow."  Sue is hosting the Just Us Girls Die Week with a theme of Luck or Green for the works. These two challenges seemed easy enough to combine, so here's my card.

I used images from two different Gina K Designs stamp sets to make this St. Pat's Day themed card. I stamped the paint swoosh using some GKD ink cubes in rainbow colors across the top of a white panel, which is cut out with the stitched die from the Master Layouts 2 die set. All of the other images were stamped and cut out with their respective set dies and arranged around the swoosh. 

The inside of the card uses a sentiment from SSS. Apparently it's the only Happy St. Patrick's Day sentiment stamp that I have, and it took me longer to track it down that to make the card, LOL.

I hope you have an enjoyable day. I've got a few chores to do. First, I need to pack as I'm driving to my mom's house tomorrow in Northern Calif. Saturday is her 90th birthday! Second, I'm actually emptying out my craft room and putting everything in our garage because I want to get the tile floors professionally cleaned while I'm gone. 

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Always Thinking of You and Love and Luck sets by Gina K Designs. Wooly Luckly set by Simon Says Stamp

Paper: Gina K Designs card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies set and Sentiment Strip dies, Brutus Monroe white embossing powder, Gold Sequins from stash

Hi Peeps and Happy Saturday!

Also, Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm playing along with a few challenges with today's card. I'm using Verena's sketch for Freshly Made Sketches along with Carol's "Word Week" theme for Just Us Girls. In addition, the February Monthly Mix challenge on the Gina K Designs FB Group is to use hearts, and as all of the supplies for my card are from GKD, I'll post it over there too.

I went with an unexpected and punny themed card for this Valentine, shopping my GKD stamp sets and stencils for the idea that I had in my mind.

I started by stenciling the hearts on the bottom half of the front panel and then ink blending some gold in on the top half along with some splatter. I stamped,  colored and die cut all of the images and used the charcuterie board and the sushi for the middle element in the sketch. 

For the inside of the card I used more images and another sentiment from the sushi set along with more ink blending and more splatter.

Wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day and a great weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: I Like the Way You Roll, Count It All Joy, and Friendship Hearts sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Heartfelt stencil, blending brushes, Master Layouts 3 dies, red paper hearts

XOXO

 Hello Peeps,

I'm playing with this week's Just Us Girls challenge. This is Die Week with an added theme of hearts. I pulled out various shades of red card stock and an appropriate Valentine's Day cover plate to created this very bright card.

I inlaid some of the mosaic pieces in the center heart but left other cutouts with the under layer showing through. The sentiment dies are cut from red glimmer paper with the shadow layers cut from white glimmer paper.

For the inside, I cut a second heart and used a stamped Valentine's Day sentiment over it.

It's Super Bowl Sunday. Any plans to watch the game? I'm not much of a FB fan, but we're going to friends to watch. It will be a small group and I think most of us are more excited for the pre-game and halftime shows than the game. And, of course, the snacks and wine, LOL.

Enjoy your day,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: You Are the Best set by Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock and SU glimmer papers

Ink: Concord & 9th

Other: Enchanted Heart dies set and Short and Sweet Sentiment dies from Concord & 9th

Hello Friend

 Hello and Happy Monday Peeps,

Another Valentine's Day card to share today and I'm playing along with two challenges. This week's challenge at Just Us Girls is CASE the DT and I decided to case Elizabeth's very colorful rows of rainbows card. As it's "love month," I used hearts instead of rainbows, which makes this card work well for Claire's "Love Is In the Air" theme challenge for Paper Players.

The hearts come from an older SU Cut & Embossing folder called Adorable Hearts. I don't think I've used it before. The greeting, the papers, and the inks are from Concord & 9th. The background embossing folder is from Spellbinders.

I kept the inside very simple with just a greeting.

Wishing you all a creative and relaxing week.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: You Are the Best set by Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock and patterned papers in Watermelon, Creamsickle, Wild Berry and white

Ink: Gina K Designs white craft, Connord & 9th Watermelon and Wild Berry

Other: Stampin' Up Adorning Hearts Cut & Embossing Folder, Spellbinders Petite Tuft 3D embossing folder, Brutus Monroe white embossing powder

Happy Birthday

Happy Hump Day Peeps,

My Bestie got me a Waffleflower gift card back in July for my birthday and I sat on it until this month when the January release caught my eye. I ordered several fun things, including a few of the newest Postage Collage stencils. (Stenciling has become my favorite lately.)

I've used one of the new stencils to make my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Jaydee is our hostess with a fun sketch and this new Peony stencil fit her sketch very well. In addition to the Paper Players challenge, it's Anything Goes Stencil week at Just Us Girls so this card works for that challenge too.

I added lots of layers to this card using some older SU dies and a Spellbinders 3D embossing folder. The sentiment strip is a preprinted one from Gina K.

For the inside of the card I used a Gina K stamp, my favorite for birthdays, and another stenciled peony.

Here are a couple of cards made with my new Postage Collage stencil packs. The stamps are also part of the Postage Collage line from Waffleflower.

I couldn't resist these kitties :)

This is the Peony Postage Collage stencil.

Enjoy your Wednesday afternoon!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gentle Silhouettes set by Gina K Designs, Postage Collage Stamps by Waffleflower

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Waffleflower NPC Peony stencil pack, Postage Collage Meow stencil pack, and Postage Collage Peony stencil pack, Waffleflower Postage Collage Die set, Stampin' Up Scalloped Contours Die set, Spellbinders Petite Bow 3D Embossing Folder, Gina K Designs pre-printed sentiment and Sentiment Strip dies, Blending Brushes, foam tape, Connect Glue

Daisy Garden Window Cards

Hi Peeps,

It's "Anything Goes Stencil Week" at Just Us Girls. I used a new to me stencil set from Concord & 9th to create two 5" x 7" cards.

Using a couple of Gina K Master Layouts die sets, a SSS 3D embossing folder, and a SSS background stamp I made two slightly different window cards.

Card one is a birthday card. I cut the arched window 5 times and layered them together as well as cutting small pieces of foam tape to pop it up over the flower background.

Here's the inside of card one. I used the leftover piece of the stenciled panel for added color along with the GKD sentiments.

Here's card two, a friendship card. I cut this window die five times as well, and also popped it up with pieces of foam tape.

The inside of card two has the same layout as card one.

Enjoy your Tuesday evening! Thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sweet Garden Background stamp by Simon Says Stamp, Sending Flowers set (outside sentiments), Filled With Sunshine Mini set, Birthday Cheer Mini Set and Floral Friendship set all by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Daisy Bouquet Stencil Pack from Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th, Simon Says Stamp Stacked Blooms embossing folder, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 8, 17 and 20 dies, Blending brushes, foam tape, Connect glue