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

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

Trick or Treat

Hello all,

Elizabeth has a super fun Clean and Simple challenge for this week's Paper Players called Critters. Now, I have no shortage of critter images, so the hard part was deciding which to use. I finally settled on this cute Trick or Treater die from Spellbinders, and popped him onto a stenciled background.

I'd give him lots of treats, wouldn't you? This is a sweet, small die set and very easy to put together.

For the inside of the card, I used a Spellbinders clear stamps set from las year.

Enjoy your evening. I'm waiting for the finals of the Mixed Doubles special at this year's US Open. I watched the matches yesterday and they were indeed fun. Looked as if the players enjoyed this new addition to the tournament as well.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps:  Autumn Wishes set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs 

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Spellbinders Colorful Pumpkins stencil set, Woof-or-Treat die set, Hoppy Halloween (front sentiment) die set.

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

Happy Birthday

 Happy Hump Day Peeps,

I was looking through my boxes of SU patterned papers for some beehive images yesterday and while doing so, I ran across this very old Botanical Gazette DSP. There's a hive on one of the pages that I could use for the other card, and then I saw these moth and flower images that looked like they would be great for vintage style cards. Now, I'm pretty crappy at doing vintage, but I decided to give it a try. After finishing the card this morning, I realized it would fit with the current Mood Board challenge for Just Us Girls.

I tore a couple of edges of the DSP and blended some Dark Sage ink over them. I then stamped some images from the SSS Butterfly Blossoms set around using Charcoal Brown ink. Another piece of the DSP has moths scattered around and I used some postage dies from Waffle Flower to cut them out. They are arranged around the front of the card, an I added some gold dots to finish.

For the inside I used my current favorite "inside" birthday sentiment with a left over moth cutout.

This afternoon I'll be packing for a trip to NY tomorrow. My nephew, my sister and I are going to the Base Hall Of Fame Inductions in Cooperstown this weekend. My nephew's all time favorite player is being inducted. He really wanted to go and since I'm a huge BB fan too, I was all in, then my sister (his mom) decided to join us.

Have a great afternoon,

Colleen

Supplies

 Stamps: Butterfly Blossoms set by Simon Says Stamp and Gentle Silhouettes set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Ivory and Dark Sage card stock, SU Botanical Gazette DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs Dark Sage and Charcoal Brown

Other: Waffle Flower Postage dies, Spellbinders Sealed Twine die, Gina K Designs metallic pearl embellishments and blending brushes

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 

Chill

Hello Peeps,

Claire is hostess for this week's Paper Players with the monthly CAS challenge. Her theme this time is Fruit.

I have lots of options in my collection and actually made four cards, although one isn't even close to CAS. The other three are, and I ended up choosing this cute watermelon man from Spellbinders for the challenge card. Using some old SU DSP called Tutti Frutti to make a swimming pool, he is indeed "chilling."

The swimming pool is a Lawn Fawn die and I thought the watermelon blue paper would make a good pool and the green scalloped paper looked like watermelon rind, so perfect for the vibe of the card. The little floaty is from Spellbinders.

The inside is simple with just a birthday greeting and more SU papers.

Our neighbor has a birthday in a couple of weeks, and she's getting this one. She likes silly cards.

I'm off to Northern Cal tomorrow, just for a long weekend. Unfortunately, I'm attending the memorial for my cousin who passed a few months ago at the young age 60 from breast cancer. 

Here are the other Fruity cards that I made. All of the stamps and dies for these are from Concord & 9th. The strawberry and flowers on the left card are cut from felt.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Paradise Resort stamp set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and SU Tutti Frutti DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Summertime Slice and Summertime Wade Pool Dies by Spellbinders, Stitched Pond and Frame Dies by Lawn Fawn, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals

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

Dive Into Happiness

 Hello,

Well, I'm finally feeling better, just a little lingering cough left. The best part is my energy has returned so I spent more time creating today instead of sitting around a reading.

I wanted to get a card made for the current Color Hues challenge, where Marcia has a summery color duo of blue and yellow. I pulled out some Spellbinders stencils and sentiments and combined them with some Lawn Fawn dies to make this "looking forward to summer" card.

After putting the pool over the stenciled background, I thought the card needed a little something, so I added the silhouette palm trees, which led to the heat embossed sentiment on black. 

For the inside of the card, I used the same beach ball stencil and another summer sentiment.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Typewriter Adventure Sentiments set by Spellbinders

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated inks, Gina K Designs embossing ink

Other: Summertime Graphics and Summertime Spray stencils by Spellbinders, Stitched Pond and Palm Trees dies by Lawn Fawn, Brutus Munroe Alabaster embossing powder, heat tool, blending brushes, Concord & 9th yellow enamel dots

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

Spring Flowers for Easter

Hi-ya Peeps,

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. 

I have a couple of cards to share today. They have the same basic design, but have different sentiments and one has an extra image. The focal images are inspired by Claire's theme for this week's Paper Players Challenge, which is Spring Flowers. I know there are many flowers that bloom in early spring and then are done for the year, and the two that I think about most are daffodils and tulips. I went with Daffodils for my cards.

The main image of Daffodils is a Spellbinders Glimmer plate and I've hot foiled it with mat gold foil and colored the images with Copics. This is a very large image and I didn't want to cut it so these are both 5 x 7 inch cards.

On the card above, I've added a stitched butterfly. The stitching plate/embroidery hoop is a die from Lawn Fawn. There are several in the line, but there is also a "blank" that just cuts the circle with holes. Lawn Fawn has several patterns on their website on how to stitch many different images and I used a newer one, this butterfly. To make it easy to know where to stitch the different colors, I used colored pencils to color each square in the appropriate color, then did the stitching. So easy this way!

The sentiment on this card comes with the hot foil plate and it's foiled with the same mat gold foil.

For the second card, I used a sentiment from a Gina K Designs set, stamped it in black ink on vellum and then used clear embossing powder to emboss it. I cut it out with a die from the Gina K Designs Master Layouts 18 die set and glued it to a strip of Lemon Yellow card stock to match the card base.

The insides of both cards are the same images, but one says Happy Spring and one says Happy Easter. The daffodil image is from Gina K and the bunny and sentiments are from Concord & 9th.

I really like how both of these cards turned out. I loved coloring these up, and I love how bright and cheery they are. 

Have a great Monday evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Hot Foil set: Daffodil Spray Feb 2024 Glimmer of the month by Spellbinders

Stamps: Easter Blessings set by Gina K Designs and Some Bunny set by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy White, Black Onyx, Ocean Mist,  and Lemon Yellow, Vellum

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Lemon Yellow, Soft Stone. Copic Markers

Other: Spellbinders Glimmer hot foil, Glimmer System, Lawn Fawn Embroidery Hoop dies, Embroidery thread, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 8 and 18 dies, foam tape, Connect liquid glue

Love You

 Hello all,

I have another very pink and bright Valentine's Day card for you today. I was watching this Jennifer McGuire video and decided to give the technique a try. This video is  part 2 of 2. Part 1 is the same technique using embossing folders, which I also tried and made several cards with the backgrounds I produced.

I'm playing with the current Color Hues Pink and Red challenge, and Ann's Theme challenge, Love is In The Air for the Paper Players.

All of the supplies for this card are from Gina K Designs. They include the heart sentcil, Script background stamp, focal dies, paper and ink.

As with most inking techniques, it's hard to stop, but even with the door open to the outside and the over head fan on, the alcohol fumes got to be a little much. But, I got some nice results from both the stencils and the embossing folders. Like Jennifer, I found that the Simon Says Stamp Pawsitivitly Saturated inks gave a little better result, but the Gina K dye inks still worked well. I'm assuming most dye inks would work. I used a Tim Holtz sponge ink applicator instead of blending brushes to apply the ink and blend the colors. I thought that a heavier ink application would probably work best.

Here's the inside of this card. Also using GKD stamps.

The following cards are made using backgrounds from the same technique, but with embossing folders. The embossing folders are from SSS, SU, and Spellbinders. The die sets used to finish the cards are all from Spellbinders. Inks are all SSS Pawsitively Saturated inks.

If you're looking for a fun inking technique, watch Jennifer's two videos and give this a try. I love picking the blending colors.

Enjoy your week,

Colleen

Supplies for Challenge Card

Stamps: Elegant Script Background Stamp and You Are So Loved set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock Cherry Red, Passionate Pink, Innocent Pink, and Heavy Weight White

Ink: Gin K Designs Passionate Pink, Bubble Gum Pink, and Cherry Red

Other: Gina K Designs Layering Hearts Stencil (I used only the open heart stencil), Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, small heart from the Stitched Circle die set, and Ornate Love You dies, Tim Holtz sponge applicator, rubbing alcohol in mister bottle, red enamel heart, foam tape