Circles and More Circles

Hello and Happy Thursday Peeps,

Stef is the hostess for the current Paper Players challenge, the monthly theme challenge. Stef has decided on circles. I may have gone a little over board making circle cards, but I sure had some fun.

I ended up making three cards. The third was unplanned. More about it later.

The first two planned cards are holiday cards. The July Monthly Mix challenge on the Gina K Facebook page is "Christmas In July," and I wanted a card to enter over there. When looking through my GKD Holiday sets, I came up with two ideas, hence, the two cards. 

Card 1: This is a 5x7" card using all GKD supplies.

Front:

Inside:

 Card 2, also using all GKD Supplies. (I was going for that retro feel, bright colors and metallics.)

Front:

 Inside:

Card three's story. You see the vellum circle on the front of card two? I originally cut a larger one to use, but decided it was too big and cut the smaller one. I have a box with misc. geometric shapes (which I'm sure all of us do) and when I opened it to pitch the larger circle in, I saw these circle leaf die cuts. Hmmm, circles. Wonder what I can do with those?

Here's card 3: My bestie that lives in Sacramento had back surgery yesterday, so this will be in the mail for her later today.

Front:

Inside:

So yes, a little over board with the circles. Two more holiday cards for the stash is good though. Now to choose which one to post to Stef's challenge.

My nephew that lives in Minneapolis is coming to San Diego for a conference that starts Monday. He is flying in tomorrow evening to spend the weekend with his Auntie. We will be going to the Padre game on Sunday afternoon. Not sure what else, but it will be great to spend time with him none-the-less.

Colleen

Supplies - cards 1 and 2

Stamps: Penguin Pals, Christmas Cheer, Blizzard, and Graphic Tree Mini sets all by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs 

Ink: Gina K Designs & Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Snowflakes embossing folder, Crop Circles stencil Polyglaze snowflakes background panels, Silver embossing powder, Master Layouts 2 and 3, Stitched circle dies

Supplies - card 3

Stamps: Gina K Designs Graceful Greetings and So Many Sentiments sets

Paper: Gina K Designs Card stock and Erin Lee mat black card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Simon Says Stamp circle stencil, Pink Fresh Studio Floral Circle dies, Gina K Designs Master Layoouts 3 dies

Merry and Bright

 Hello,

Here's a bright and fun holiday card for you today. I thought I'd play along with the September sketch at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown today.

The background stripes and the wreath are PinkFresh Studio stencils. The greetings are from Gina K Designs and the embossing folder is Spellbinders.

The inside sentiment and image are from Gina K Designs as well.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Festive Phrases, Winter Terrain, and Two-Step Holiday Mini sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU and C&9th card stock

Ink: SSS Pawistivitely Saturated inks, Gina K Designs embossing ink

Other: Thrill of Hope Wreath and Border stencils from Pink Fresh Studio, Holly and Foliage 3D embossing folder from Spellbinders, Gina K Designs gold embossing powder, Gina K Designs gold enamel dots, SU Dimensionals and Connect glue

Happy Hour

 Hey and happy Monday,

This card was made using the current Color Hues challenge colors of aqua and white. 

I used a PinkFresh Studio background stencil with three different shades of aqua as a backdrop for these fun beverage glasses, also from PinkFresh Studio. I used the clear stamp set and coordinating stencils to color them as well as the coordinating dies to cut them out. I altered the look a bit by cutting off the sprig of greenery at the top of the glass. After using the stencils, I added some shimmer to the ice cubes, unfortunately, my Nuvo pen leaked a bit on one of them. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and it's heat embossed on a darker shade of card stock.

v

On the inside, I used just a sentiment.

Most of my morning was spent updating websites with a new email. We are ditching our current cable provider for internet and TV and going to fiber optic internet and streaming TV. The cable providers just keep getting more and more expensive. I'll be glad to see them go.

Enjoy your week, and thanks for checking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: PinkFresh Studio

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: PinkFresh Studio layering stencil, Spellbinders embossing folder, WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, blending brushes, Nuvo clear glitter pen, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12, aqua sequins, Connect glue

Just A Note

TGIF Peeps!

My morning didn't start off well. When I came into my craft room around 7:00 am, my stamping table was covered in ants! I mean it was black there were so many of them. Before going to bed around 11 last night,  there were none. I'm still not sure why or what they were after as there is nothing related to food in the room. It took a good hour to move everything off, spray them with Clorox Cleanup, wipe and vacuum the whole room. I've been seeing a rogue "scout" periodically since and I make quick work of it. It's been getting hotter outside and I'm wondering if they are after water, although the only water is my wet shammy for stamp cleaning. Anywho- disgusting!

On to a more pleasant subject, I have a card that fits two challenges. It's Anything Goes Stencil week at Just Us Girls and I've used Ann's sketch for Paper Players Challenge.

The background is stenciled using a fun layering stencil set from PinkFresh Studio called Modern Rug. The flower stamp is also from PinkFresh Studio. It's a stamp, stencil and die set called Beautiful Blooms. After stenciling the background, I stamped the daisies in black ink in the middle of the panel and again on white card so I could fussy cut the daisies and glue them over the stamped image on the stenciled panel. For the sentiment strip, I heat embossed one of the Beautiful Bloom sentiments using white EP, placed it per the sketch, and then popped up the small daisy in place over the stamped image. 

To make the card front edges per Ann's sketch, I cut the center from both Lime and Orange 5.5 x 4.25" panels using a SU Stitched rectangle die then cut through at the corners and glued the pieces in place. I finished the card by placing some colored paper circles as embellishments.

For the inside, I used another of the images from Beautiful Blooms coloring it with the set stencils, and a sentiment from the PinkFresh set called Heart Smiles Sentiments, which I stamped on a scrap piece of white card stock and cut out with a GKD Sentiment Strip die.

Thanks all for checking in. I hope your Friday and weekend are ant free!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Beautiful Blooms set and Heart Smiles Sentiments set by PinkFresh Studio

Layering Stencils: Modern Run by Pink Fresh Studio and Beautiful Blooms Layering Stencils

Paper: Gina K Designs Card stock Layering Weight White, Key Lime and Sweet Mango

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Craft White, Key Lime, Sweet Mango, Lemon Drop, Lipstick, and Turquoise Sea

Other: WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, GKD Sentiment Strip dies, Stampin' Up Stitched Rectangle dies, Taylored Expressions Rainbow Discs

Wishing You All the Best

Happy Thursday Peeps,

I have two very different cards using Joanne's colors for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Joanne's color palette this week is Boho Blue, Night of Navy, Lemon Lolly and a fourth color, our choice. My fourth color for both of these cards is Grapefruit Grove.

Card one is made using a pretty bundle from PinkFresh Studio. It comes with a stamp set, hot foil plate, die and layering stencils. I've used everything except the hot foil plate to make my card. The back ground embossing folder is from Spellbinders. The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP onto Night of Navy card stock and the three shinny blue enamel dots are from SU.

Here is the inside of this card. I stamped, stenciled and cut out the image again and glued it to the top corner of the inside white panel, then trimmed the excess off. The sentiment is from the same stamp set, again heat embossed with white EP on Navy card stock.

Card two is made with Concord & 9th supplies. The background is a turnabout stencil using the four challenge colors. I cut it out using a C&9th postage stamp die and layered it to Night of Navy card stock. The drink cup (Yeti style) is made using a fairly new stamp and die set that has some super fun sentiments included along with some sweet ones.  I used three of the sweet sentiments here on the front. The two on the side are heat embossed with white EP on Navy card stock (why mess with something that works).

I used one of the funnier sentiments on the inside. (In my case it would be Iced Tea, not water.) I'm putting this in the mail for my nephew who lives in Minneapolis. 

Enjoy your Friday,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Floral Trio set by PinkFresh Studio and H2 Hello set by Concord & 9th

Paper: SU Basic White thick, Night of Navy, Boho Blue, Lemon Lolly

Ink: SU Night of Navy, Boho Blue, Lemon Lolly, Gina K Designs craft white

Other: PFS Floral Trio layering stencils and dies, C&9th H2 Hello dies & Postage Stamp dies, C & 9th Faceted Turnabout Stencil, Spellbinders Latticework embossing folder, Altenew Curved Sentiment Strip dies, WOW white embossing folder, heat tool, Misti, SU enamel dots, C&9th enamel dots, SU Dimensionals

Winter Fun and One More Sympathy Card

Happy WET Monday!

It's been absolutely pouring rain here since very early this morning. This is our third day of rain, and it's the day with the most and the hardest. I believe it started around 4:00 am (PT) and is supposed to rain non-stop until 4:00 pm (PT). I'd like to go to the postoffice to drop off the sympathy cards that I've made, but I'm not sure I want to brave the streets.

So, I do have one more sympathy card, this one is for another cousin, the brother of my cousin that passed recently. I've used the Winter Trees layering stencil set from Concord & 9th and the Freshly Made Sketch again.

I added a very simple sentiment for the inside. It's from the SSS XL Greetings set.

Here's to not having to make another sympathy card for a long while!

My second card is a much more fun one. Claire is hostess for the new Paper Players Challenge this week with the monthly Clean and Simple challenge. Her theme to go along with is Winter Fun. I pulled out an older set from Pink Fresh Studio, ink blended some snow hills on the front of this one layer card, then stamped and colored these cute forrest animals having a fun ski day.

To make the ski runs, I cut masks and lightly ink blended Sea Glass and Stone inks along the edges.  All of the images the sentiment are from the PF stamp set, as are the inside images and sentiment.

Personally, my idea of winter fun is to play in my craft room, but these guys seem to be having fun.

Enjoy the day and the week ahead, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies Card one

Stamps: Sketched Flowers and XL Greetings sets by Simon Says Stamp (sentiments)

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onyx

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated various Greens and  Gina K Designs Amalgam Black

Other: Winter Trees Layering Stencil set by Pink Fresh Studio, Blending Brushes, Simon Hurley Gold Lunar paste, Simon Says Stamp Thin Frames dies, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs gold dots, foam tape, Connect glue

Supplies Card two

Stamps: Skiing By to Say Hi set by Pink Fresh Studio

Paper: SU Basic white thick

Ink: Gina K Designs Amalgam Black, Sea Glass, Soft Stone, Innocent Pink, Peach Bellini, and Christmas Tree Green

Other: Colored pencils, Misti, Blending brushes

Happy Birthday

 Hello peeps,

I have a fun card made using a fun technique for this week's Paper Players color challenge. The technique can be found here on Gina K.'s YouTube channel. 

With four panels of white card stock cut to the same size, you stamp an image on two of the panels in exactly the same place. Using a cover plate, a geometric pattern seems to be best, you cut one of the stamped panels and both of the non stamped panels. Glue the three cut panels together with the stamped image on top, then glue this stack to the panel that is still whole, lining up the image. The image appears complete with some interesting dimension.

Gina recommends using black and white for this technique. I made three cards with black and white stamping after I watched her video. For this card, I decided to give something with color a try. While I do like the black and white best, I think this one turned out pretty nice.

This image is a single background stamp from Pink Fresh Studio with a coordinating layering stencil set for coloring. I used the SU challenge inks with the stencil. The greeting is hot foiled with black foil.  The butterfly image is also from Pink Fresh Studio and is heat embossed with white embossing powder on black card stock. The cover plate I used is from Gina K Designs.

The inside greeting is from one of Gina's Mini stamp sets.

If you're looking for a new and fun technique, give this one a try. Here are a couple of cards using just black and white. The stamps are from GKD.

Supplies

Stamps: Delicate Floral Print stamp with layering stencils and Small Butterflies set by Pink Fresh Studio, Sweet Sentiments mini stamp set by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU Lemon Lolly, Basic Black and Basic white card stock 

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Lemon Lolly and Lost Lagoon, Gina K Designs white craft ink

Other: 3D Diamond Cover plate by Gina K Designs, Pink Fresh Studio Fancy Script hot foil set with dies, Glimmer Hot Foiling system, Misti, Big Shot, Spellbinders black foil, Gina K Designs white embossing powder, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies, heat tool, blending brushes, Connect liquid glue

My Heart Smiles

 

TGIF Peeps,

Well, May Gray is back in SoCal today.😒 If nothing else, a good excuse to stay in and craft. 

I've been busy between making some challenge cards and doing some crocheting this week. I'm making a crib blanket for my great niece, Daisy. I found a granny square pattern with daisies in the centers of the squares. It's easy and cute.

On to today's challenge card, this is made using the colors from the current Color Throwdown, which are Orange, Lilac, Aqua and Black. I've used various shades of all of the colors in my card. I recently received this fun stencil and die set from Pink Fresh Studio and decided it would work nicely with these colors.

I cut a white panel using an older MFT die and then blended orange, aqua and lilac inks down the front. Using the layering stencil, I blended light and dark shades of each of the colors accenting with the black then cut them out with the corresponding dies. After figuring out an arrangement, I found a nice sentiment, also from PFS, and put everything together. I used some bright paper dots in the same shades in the centers of the rosettes.

I left the inside blank on this one.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday and your weekend. Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Heart Smiles Sentiment stamps from Pink Fresh Studio

Stencils: Rosettes Layering Stencils from Pink Fresh Studio with dies

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

Ink: Gina K Designs Wild Lilac, Turquoise Sea, Tangerine Twist, Peach Bellini, Sea Glass, Light and Medium Lilac, Black Onyx

Other: blending brushes, Misti, Big Shot, SU Dimensionals, Taylored Expressions Rainbow disks, Connect glue

Lucky To Have A Friend Like You

Happy Weekend!

I've got a sweet friend card for you today. I've used a couple of sets from Pink Fresh Studio and the colors from this week's Color Throwdown challenge.

The patterned papers are from SU and were perfect for the colors in this week's challenge. I used a Pink Fresh Cover plate to add some texture to the polka-dots and used another pattern for the three cross pieces.

Have a nice aftrernoon and evening, and thanks for looking,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Modern Layered Florals and Heart Smiles Sentiments sets by Pink Fresh Studio

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Lemon Yellow and SU Watercolor Wonder DSP

Ink: SU Mallow Moss and Mossy Meadow, Gina K Designs Lemon Yellow, Wild Dandelion, and Embossing Ink

Other: Pink Fresh Studio Floral Backdrop Cover Plate, Gina K Designs Silver embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Big Shot, Trinity pearls, Connect Glue, SU Mini Dimensionals

Welcome Spring

 TGIF peeps,

I'm finally back home after visiting my mom in Northern California for about 5 weeks. It's good to be home, but sunny SoCal has been everything but that! Finally today, our sunshine is back! I plan a walk at the beach this afternoon.

I haven't had any time in my craft room since I got back until this morning. I used some already stamped and colored images to quickly put together a card for Ann's CAS Spring theme for this week's Paper Players Challenge. I'm cutting it very close to the deadline, so I'm making this a very quick post.

The tulip image is a hot foil of the month plate from Spellbinders. I foiled it in green foil in one of my crafting sessions while visiting my mom. The border is a background stamp from Pink Fresh Studio that also has a coordinating stencil set. I made it an A2 border using Blanket Stitched dies from Pink Fresh Studio. This was also done while at my moms. Today, I colored the flowers using blending brushes and some GKD yellow and light orange inks and put that piece together with the frame. The greeting is from a GKD stamp set called Welcome Home.

I used only a greeting for the inside. No additional stamping this time around. This is from another GKD set called Filled With Sunshine.

Have a super Friday and weekend,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Dainty Plaid Background stamp with layering stencils by Pink Fresh Studio, Welcome Home and Filled With Sunshine sets by Gina K Designs

Hot Foil Plate: Tulip Border with die Glimmer of the Month by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Stampin' Up Basic White Thick card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Wild Dandelion, Sweet Mango, Jelly Bean Green, Turquoise Sea, Ocean Mist, Black Onyx, Slate Gray

Other: Spellbinders Glimmer System, Green Foil, Waffleflower detail blending brushes, Blanket Stitched Rectangle dies from Pink Fresh Studio, Big Shot, Misti, Connect Liquid Glue, SU mini Dimensionals

Birthday Wishes

 Hi all,

I hope you had a fab weekend. We spent some time with friends, which is always fun and I had plenty of time in my craft room too.

I made this card yesterday afternoon using Linda's sketch for the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge and Ann's color challenge for the Paper Players. I took a wee bit of creative license with Linda's sketch with three flowers instead of two, but the card balance needed three.

The background is made using a new set of layering stencils from Pink Fresh Studio. Because I wanted to use the Crumb Cake challenge color as card stock, (in this case Kraft card stock),  I first stenciled each layer with white ink then repeated using the remaining three colors in the challenge, slightly off-set.

The large flowers are from another Pink Fresh Studio set that includes stamps, stencils, dies and a hot foil plate. I stamped the flowers on kraft card stock using kraft ink, then used the layering stencils in the same manner as the background inking first with white then with each of the challenge colors. 

The horizontal panel is made by cutting strips of the card stock and gluing them on an angle to a 2 x 4.5  inch piece of paper. This is stamped and heat embossed with white EP and popped up with foam tape.

Finally, I used some Trinity white pearls for embellishments in the centers of some of the background flowers and in all of the focal flowers.

Here is the inside of the card. The stamps are from a new birthday set from Gina K Designs.

Have a great week, and happy crafting!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps/stencils: Pink Fresh Studio Floral Lace layering stencil set, Brighter Days stamps and layering stencils, Delicate Floral Print background stamp. Gina K Designs Birthday Cheer Mini stamp set

Paper: SU Thick White, Balmy Blue, Petal Pink, So Saffron and Gina K Designs Kraft card stocks

Ink: Hero Arts Unicorn craft white, Gina K Designs Kraft and Black Onyx, Stampin' Up Balmy Blue, Petal Pink, So Saffron

Other: Gina K Designs Pre-printed sentiment strip, WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, Big Shot, Trinity white pearls, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals, foam tape, SSS mini blending brushes, Tim Holtz sponge blending tool

Hot Foiling Fun

 Happy 2023!

Today I have several cards that I made (finally) using images and panels that I hot foiled over the past month. When I pull out my hot foiling machine, I end up making a bunch of things. I get caught up in the reveal of the foiling. It's just plain adicting!

This is a batch of cards using mostly Pink Fresh Studio stamps, dies, cover plates, hot foiling plates, and stencils.  

On this first card, I hot foiled the flowers and colored them using the coordinating stencil set and blending brushed. I then cut masks for the flowers and leaves and used the Layering Sunburst stencils for the background. The foiled areas resist the ink blended over it.

On the last three cards, I used the coordinating dies to cut out the flowers.

These are not for the crafter that likes to make quick cards, but man, are they fun to make. I love all of the details and the steps to put them together. Plus, picking all of the colors. So fun!

Have a great New Years 2023 Holiday. For many, it's back to work tomorrow. Luckily, that's not me. Retirement is the best! Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Go For It and Pop Out Hexagon sets by Pink Fresh Studio

Paper: Gina K Designs card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs and Stampin' Up

Other: Pink Fresh Studio Go For It, Best Wishes, Fancy Script Words,  & Geo Blocks Hot Foil Plates, Coordinating Go For It dies, Essentials Ornate Circle die, Folk Edge Rectangle dies, Dotted Scallops & Ornate Medallions cover plate dies, Go For It and Geo Blocks layering stencils, and Layered Sunburst stencils. Stampin' Up Stylish Shapes dies, Simon Says Stamp Nested Domed Arches dies, Waffleflower Sentiments Hello Hot Foil plates, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 & 2 die sets, Avery Elle Scalloped rectangle dies, Spellbinders Glimmer machine, Spellbinders hot foil, Gina K Designs blending brushes and Masking Magic sheets, Big Shot, Connect Glue, foam tape

OCC Holiday Workshop 2022 Day 8 Cards

 Hello,

Day eight of the workshop was all about hot foiling. Hot foiling is very addicting to me. It seems when I pull out my Spellbinders Glimmer machine, I just cant stop and end up with many pieces. If you have not tried it, fair warning, but you really should. 

I actually made 20 Holiday cards this year with variations of my four examples in this post. (I really do have a hard time stoping.)

Yana Smakula was the instructor for the Glimmer hot foiling section and she had two tips for us that I absolutely found very helpful. They have to do with foiling the negative foil and oh my gosh, perfect results where before I was getting good foiling only sometimes.

Here are my four card examples. Each pair is made with the positive foiled image and the negative foiled image.

Foiling plates and products from Spellbinders and Pink Fresh Studio. Card stock from Gina K Designs and I used Stampin' Up Glossy white card stock for foiling the negative pieces. Worked perfectly and I have tons of it that I bought years ago. I'm happy to have another use for it. Other background dies and embossing folders from Gina K Designs and Simon Says Stamp. Colored images done with Copic markers.

Thanks all,

Colleen