BOO

 Hi Peeps,

Here's a fun Halloween card today using the Spellbinders Large die set of the month from a few years ago. This cupcake with all of its spooky decoration options is so fun. As it's die week, Anything Goes, at Just Us Girls, this card fits in perfectly.

The background is made using a Betterpress plate and the Betterpress system. I thought the Damask was appropriate for a Halloween card. The skull and bones, bats and cupcake paper overlay are all cut from white Glimmer paper. To color it, I used both Copics and ink blending. IRL it looks great, but the photo doesn't show much sparkle. The arch is cut from black card stock and then brushed with white craft ink to make it look foggy.

For the inside, I used just a simple sentiment from Gina K.

I think my little five y/o friend that lives in Brooklyn would like this card for Halloween.

Have a good evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hey, Boo! set from Gina K Designs (inside sentiment)

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock, Spellbinders Betterpress card stock & SU white Glimmer paper

Ink: Gina K Designs, Spellbinders Betterpress ink, Copics

Other: Spellbinders Boo-Licious Fall Cupcake die set &  Lux Damask Betterpress Plate & Betterpress System, Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arches, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 die set, blending brushes, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

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

Two From One Botanical Cards

 Hello,

I'm playing with the Mood Board Inspiration from this week's Just Us Girls challenge. When I saw the inspiration photo, it reminded me of those Botanical posters you see in museums and other gift shops. After thinking about the direction to take my card, I decided to re-create the inspiration photo using stamps from my stash. The stamps are all from various Gina K. sets, both regular size and her mini sets. The flora wasn't hard, and turns out the garden critters weren't either. Here's the pretty mood board.

I started with a half sheet of white card stock and stamped three rows of the larger images using GKD inks then filled in areas with the tiny stamps. Since this was a 5.5 x 8.5 inch panel, I cut it in half to then decide on the card layouts, ending up with the same layout for both. Just different colors, sentiments and embossing folders.

I have several wax seal stamps from Spellbinders from participating in the clubs, but I don't use them often (not at all!), and so I tried them here. The embossing folders are also from Spellbinders and the arch die is from the SSS Nested Arch Die set.

Here's the inside of the card above. The front sentiment is from the Spellbinders Field Notes bundle, as is the "on your birthday" on the inside. The rest of the inside sentiment is from GKD.

A fun project for sure, and I had stamp sets piled all over my desk when I finished, LOL.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Many Gina K Designs floral sets and Gentle Silhouettes set for sentiments. Field Notes bundle from Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Simon Says Stamp Nested Arch dies, Spellbinders Field Notes and Floral Fence 3D embossing folders, Spellbinders wax and wax seal stamps, Spellbinders Sealed Twine die,  Gina K Designs blending brushes, SU twine, Simon Says Stamp pink sequins, Gina K Designs Pastel disk embellishments, Connect glue, foam tape 

Smiles!

 Hello to all,

I hope that you've had a relaxing weekend. I've been watching lots of tennis, Wimbledon, and making cards like crazy. It's great to have these things to keep me occupied as I can't go out and about for a few more days after having some facial surgery last Tuesday. There's still swelling and bruising, and not to pleasing to look at. I had a very small melanoma removed from the side of my nose. I found it very early, so no additional worries.

Carol Mc at Just Us Girls has the die cut challenge this week with a theme of summer. I recently received some new stamp sets and dies from Lawn Fawn and I thought this Summer Friends set was perfect for the challenge.

I started by stenciling a large sun on the card base as a landing for the drink images that are popped onto postage die cuts. I used some 1/8" Masking Magic strips to block off the scalloped edges of the postage dies before blending bright yellow ink around the outer edges.

The front sentiment is continued on the inside of the card. The inside water melon and sentiment images are from the LF Summer Friends set. The die cut sun is from the GKD Master Layouts 6 die set. I cut it from both orange and yellow card stock and layered the orange rays between the yellow, then added one of the smiles from the LF set.

I get my stitches out tomorrow which should help with the swelling, etc.

I hope you al have a great week ahead!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Summer Friends stamp set by Lawn Fawn

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, 6 and 15, Gina K Designs Sea, Sun and Sky  stencil, Masking Magic strips, blending brushes, foam squares

Oh Baby!

 TGIF Peeps,

It's a drizzly morning here in SoCal. June Gloom is definitely upon us. No worries, as it makes for a good crafting day. I'm also watching the men's semi-final matches of the French Open.

The June Monthly Mix Challenge on Gina K Designs FB group is "postage." I decided to use some baby images and a new background stamp from GKD to make my card. There's  a new baby on the way for good friends, their first. Bady is due around Thanksgiving.

It's die week at Just Us Girls, with Layers as the theme and this card has many of both.

There are many steps to put this card together, and it was very fun to make. All supplies are from Gina K Designs.

Enjoy your afternoon and evening,

Colleen

Supplies- all Gina K Designs except Copic Markers

Stamps: Double Background 2 Grip Mat, April Showers stamp set, Post Card set

Paper: Layering Weight White and Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Lemon Drop, Applemint, Sea Glass, Innocent Pink, Black Onyx, Copic Markers

Other: Swiss Dots embossing folder, Master Layouts 11 and 15 sets, Masking Magic strips, Foam Squares, 

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

Graduation Congratulations

Hello,

It's graduation season and I have three kiddo friends who are graduating this year. Two from high school and one from the eighth grade. 

Today's card is for one of the high schoolers. She lives just down the street from us. They moved by us when she was around one years old. Both of her parents are veterinarians and that is her goal as well. She will be heading to college and my alma mater, Sacramento State University here in Ca.

Using Joanne's theme of old and new for this week's Paper Players challenge, here's her card. I'm also posting to the current Just Us Girls challenge as it's Die Week. I used many dies for my card.

My new is the background made with a previously unused Betterpress plate from Spellbinders. It's the March 2025 Betterpress Plate of the month aud has coordinating layering stencils to color it with. I used the plate in the Glimmer hot foiling system foiling with gold before using the stencils to add the blue shades.

My old is the graduation cap die and the sentiment. Both are from Taylored Expressions and I'd say they are at least 10 years old, if not older. I choose Navy and white for the caps because the school colors are those. Seemed appropriate.

The 2025 numbers and dies are also from Spellbinders. They are Betterpress plates which I again foiled in gold onto navy blue card stock and used the coordinating dies to cut them out.

The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP on navy card stock. 

The inside is simple with another sentiment from the same Taylored Expressions Graduation stamp set as the front sentiment.

I'm feeling somewhat better, but the drippy nose remains. Hopefully, only for a few more days. I need to feel well enough to get a Mother's Day card made.

Enjoy your week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Dream Big stamp set by Taylored Expressioins

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Betterpress Plates Quilted Memories and Large Numbers set, stencils and dies, Taylored Expressions Graduation Cap die, Brutus Munroe Alabaster embossing powder, hear tool, Glimmer Hot Foiling System, Spellbinders gold foils, blending brushes, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 die set, foam tape, Connect liquid glue

Lovely Day

 Hello Peeps,

I forgot, again, to take pictures and post my card for this week's Just Us Girls challenge. I made these cards on Sunday! It's stencil week, one of my fave challenges too. I made a very bright and bold card using Concord & 9th stencils and stamps.

I decided that I wanted to use really bright colors on this wavy checkered stencil pattern and originally, I was going to color the flower with Copics. But, I re-thought and decided to go with a black and white image. I did color the center with yellow Copics, but after putting the flower on the bright background, I decided to pull out a bottle of yellow Stickles and jazz up the center of the flower. It looks much happier.

The inside uses some word dies that come in the stamp and die set, and I found some small flowers from another C&9th set to add.

And while I had the stenciling supplies out, I made a couple of other birthday cards. These are made with Gina K layering stencils. I haven't done this layering technique in a long, long time, and these images seemed to work great with it.

Enjoy your day, at least what's left of it, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Lovely Day bundle and H2Hello bundle both from Concord & 9th, and Spring Fling stamp set from Gina K Designs

Stencils: Checkered Stencil Pack from Concord & 9th and Spring Daisies Layering Stencils from Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock Layering Weight White, Black Onyx, Red Hot, Wild Dandelion, Wild Wisteria

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Tangerine Twist, Red Hot, Craft White, Soft Stone, Light and Medium Lilac, Light and Medium Spruce, Wild Dandelion, Butterscotch, Copic Markers

Other: GKD white & clear embossing powder, yellow Stickles, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies, Gina K Designs black and gold gems, foam tape, Connect glue

Love You Friend

 Hi,

Since we are leaving tomorrow until Wednesday, I thought I'd do a 2nd post today with my Just Us Girls card. It's Word Week and the word is Friend.  The DT cards are all so pretty, and I love Stephanie's Snoopy card. 

I made a birthday card for a friend using some layering stencils. There are three layers of stencils and for the third stencil I used Deco gel instead of ink. After it was sufficiently dry, I used my GKD Fuse System and foiled some pretty pink foil to give it shine. The large Love sentiment is also foiled. To make it, I foiled a piece of Polyglaze with the iridescent foil then cut the die.

This stencil is called Heartfelt Snowflake, by Gina K, and I thought that it would make a pretty spring-ish looking card with the pinks. 

Here's the front again but tilted to show the shine.

For the inside, I used the Gina K set Delicate Dahlias for the sentiments and the Gina K set You are So Loved for the cupcake.

This card is very pretty IRL.

Enjoy your weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Gina K Designs sets Delicate Dahlias and You Are So Loved

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Black Onyx and Passionate Pink

Ink: Gina K Designs Innocent Pink, Passionate Pink and Black Onyx. Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Heartfelt Snowflake Layering stencils, Love die from A Little Love bundle, Deco gel duo, Deco pink and iridescent white foil, Fuse System, Mini Disco Ball sequins, Connect glue, Foam tape

Happy "Love" Day!

 TGIF Peeps,

It's a very drippy, but not really rainy, day here in San Diego today. Too drippy for my daily walk. I've been doing a little cleaning and a lot of crafting. 

This week is die week at Just Us Girls and Lisa is looking for heart dies. I'm sure we all have many to choose from in our die stashes. I decided on a few older Concord & 9th sets and made two cards.

This first one is a die set called Enchanted Hearts. So many ways to use it. I simply cut everything from white card stock and then cut some strips of colored card stock and glued those to a background panel so they show through the cutouts. The sentiment dies are from two other C&9th sets. I cut them from black card stock twice and layered them, then brushed a thick layer of Nuvo clear glitter gloss over them followed by some Glossy Accents. After they dried, I glued them to the front. Also, it's a little difficult to tell from the photo that I popped the large scalloped heart up with foam tape matching the stripes as best I could.

Here's the inside of this card with a sentiment from the C&9th Paper Bouquet stamp set.

 

The second card also uses the same Enchanted Hearts die, with a different layout and some different stamps. Again, all are from C&9th. I made a shaker card with this one. The card stocks and ink colors are the same on both cards.

And the inside of card two.

Wishing everyone a happy and relaxing weekend,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps and Main Dies: All Concord & 9th: Enchanted Hearts Die set, Happy Heart set with dies, Sweet Talk set with dies, Paper Bouquet set with dies, Pop Up Heart Turnabout set, Scattered Hearts Turnabout set

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock  in Pink Lemonade, Honeysuckle, Sea Glass, Juniper, Clementine and white

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Concord & 9th Pink Lemonade, Honeysuckle, Sea Glass and Juniper

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 and 12 die sets, Nuvo Clear Glitter, Glossy Accents, Misc shapes and sequin for shaker, Acetate, foam tape, Connect glue

Sending A Fluttering Hello

 Hi and Happy Weekend!

It's Anything Goes Stencil Week at Just Us Girls, one of my favorite challenges. Since I had not used the new Spellbinders Stencil of the Month for January, I took the opportunity to use it for my challenge card. To help with color selection for these pretty flowers, I've used the colors for the current Color Throwdown, pink, blue and yellow.

These pretty hummers are Spellbinders Betterpress plates that I've hot foiled with my Glimmer System. 

The sentiment is from the same Betterpress set and it's hot foiled as well with black foil. I tried to get a picture with the shine and this is the best I could do with my phone.

The black scalloped oval is a die from the January Stitching Die of the Month set. It is the perfect size for the large space in the center of the stenciling and I liked the tiny scallops. The enamel flower embellishments are from my stash. I think I picked them up in a scrapbooking store in Sacramento years ago.

For the inside of the card, I used the stencils again, but just in the corner. No sentiment, I'll just leave it as a note card.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stencils: Natures Frame, Spellbinders 1/25 Stencil of the Month

Betterpress: Flutter Into Spring and Fluttering Hummingbird sets, Spellbinders Betterpress of the Month 2/24

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Oval Die from Spellbinders Stitched Ladybug set 1/25, GKD blending brushes, enamel flower embellishments, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals

You're Always In My Heart

Hey all,

I ordered a set of Lisa Horton Cloud 9 inks during Black Friday sales and finally got around to playing with them. They are so interesting in how they react on different colors of paper. After playing. I ended up with two cards with the exact same design and using the same Lisa Horton ink pads. The only difference is the card stock colors.

Elizabeth has the first color challenge for2025 at the Paper Players this week, orange, pink and green and one of my cards works perfectly. 

Notice the bottom of the heart die is orange, then notice that the background panel is green. Both of those are using the same ink pad, Cloud 9 Ripe Mango Shimmer "direct to paper" technique. The ink is orange on white card stock and green on dark card stock. The upper part of the heart is another Cloud 9 color called Tropical Paradise.

The heart die and the sentiment are from Concord & 9th. The sentiment is heat embossed using black EP.

I think that the second card works for this week's Just Us Girls  Word Week "Masculine" challenge. I used the same Ripe Mango ink on this card with three different dark card stock shades from GKD. They are black, dark sage and Christmas green. The die cut heart is the Christmas green after using the ink pad direct to paper. The background black panel is stenciled using the ink and a blending brush, and the mat for the black panel is a piece of dark sage with the ink direct to paper. On this shade, it looks gold, which is why I used the gold accents in the enamel dots and gold embossed sentiment.

Here are the insides for both cards. 

If you're looking for some fun inks, these fit the bill. I didn't mention how sparkly they are, but I think you can see that in the photos. I don't usually do swatches for my supplies, but I did with these inks, stamping each color with a silhouette style stamp on both white and black card stock. I think that will come in handy for future use.

Hope your day is going well. I have a dental appt this afternoon and I'm watching the Australian Open tennis matches.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hugs of Happiness set by Concord & 9th and Friendship Hearts set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs and Concord & 9th

Ink: Lisa Horton Cloud 9 Shimmer inks, Gina K Designs Embossing pad and Black Onyx ink

Other: Concord & 9th Stay Cozy stencils and Knit With Care dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies and Gold embossing powder, Brutus Munroe black embossing powder, gold and orange enamel dots, blending brushes, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals