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

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

From Our Home To Yours

 Happy Hump day peeps,

I'm planning another lazy day of watching US Open tennis and maybe doing some crafting. I did go for a 2.5 mile walk this morning so I'm not feeling too badly about sitting around, LOL.

I'm adding a card fairly late for this week's Just Us Girls Stencil Challenge. I made this yesterday, but didn't get around to taking the picture until this morning.

I'm using the Spellbinders Stencil Of the Month for July 24 called Sprigs and Bow. It's a fun one to play with. Instead of the usual green and red, I decided to do aqua and red.

In addition to the stencil of the month I also used the wax seal of the month for July as an embellishment. Note to self, I need to start using these wax seal stamps more. I added some sparkle by using red Stickles to outline the ribbon.

For the inside of this card, I used a Gina K Designs mini holiday stamp set. The image is colored with Copics.

Enjoy your day,

Colleen

Supplies

Stencils and stamps: Spellbinders Sprigs and Bow Layering Stencil and Gina K Designs Under the Mistletoe mini stamp set

Paper: Gina K Designs Red Velvet, Black Onyx and Layering Weight Weight card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Sea Glass, Blue Lagoon, Black Onyx, Red Velvet and Red Hot. Copic markers

Other: Red Stickles, Spellbinders Snowflake Wax Seal Stamp, Spellbinders white wax, silver marker, silver twine, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 & 2 dies, GKD blending brushes, SU Dimensionals

Love You Friend

 Hi and Happy Monday Peeps,

After a very wet weekend, we are back to our beautiful blue skies and sunny days. I had a very pretty beach walk this morning before some chores and now I'm planning my craft room fun. Not sure if I'll be stamping or working on a quilt that I'm making, but either will make for a fun afternoon for me.

My card today is inspired by the current challenge at  Just Us Girls. It's Anything Goes Stencil week. I've used a stamp, stencil and die set from Gina K Designs along with the Master Layouts 14 postage die and postage stencil set for my card.

I bought this set when it was first release but have not played with it until now. It's quite fun! I started with the postage die and coordinating postage stencil and inked around the borders with Sea Glass ink. After removing the postage stencil, I blocked off the postage lines with Masking Magic and stenciled and stamped the small and large flowers. The panel is layered with black and glued to a white card base. The sentiments are from the same stamp set, and they have coordinating dies to cut them out.

Here's the inside of this card. The sentiment is from one of Gina's Mini stamp sets.

That's all for now. Have a great Monday afternoon and evening.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps/Stencils: Modern Floral set and On My Mind and In My Heart Mini set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Deisgns Layering Weight White and Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Meduim and Dark Orchid, Carnation and Lilac, Sweet Mango,  Tangerine Twist, Red Hot, Red Velvet, Jelly Bean Green, Black Onyx and Craft White

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 and 14 die sets, blending brushes, white embossing powder, Masking Magic, and silver pearls. Misti, Big Shot, foam squares, Connect glue, 

Warmest Wishes & Sunshine

Hi and Happy Sunday,

The February Monthly Mix challenge on the Gina K Designs FB Group is to use paper strips on our cards. Since it's almost the end of February, I played around some last night using strips with stenciled images and made two completed cards. In addition to posting these to the GKD FB group, I'm also playing along with the Anything Goes Stenciling challenge at Just Us Girls.

  

The first stencil and strips combination that I tried was the blue mandala snowflake. Using one of the dies from ML 8, I cut strips from Gina K.'s teal card stock shades. I used the die because I wanted the strips to be the same width and using the die ensured that they are. After gluing all of the strips to a 2.25 x 5.5 inch panel, I placed the mandala stencil over it and used a sponge dauber to apply white craft ink . I put this aside to dry and placed the stencil centered over a white card base and used a blending brush to blend Soft Stone ink over the stencil. I glued the strip panel over the center matching the pattern. The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP and cut out with a small stitched circle die from ML 7 and layered to it's shadow die cut from white. Finally I added many Frozen rhinestones around the mandala image to complete the card.

For the second card I followed the same process, but I wanted to see if I could make it work with a layering stencil. I choose the GKD Sunflower Layering stencil and used shades of yellow for the strips. For the stenciling on the white card base I used a very light shade of yellow. For stenciling on the strips I used white craft ink for the first layer and a medium yellow shade for the second layer. Again, the sentiment is heat embossed with white EP and cut out using the circle dies from ML 3. For embellishing this card I used yellow pearls from GKD.

This is such a fun process, and results in some very pretty note cards. 

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

Colleen

Supplies

All from Gina K Designs

Stamps: Fancy Flowers Mini and Filled With Sunshine Mini sets

Paper: Layering Weight white, Black Onyx, Tranquil Teal, Turquoise Sea, Sea Glass, Ocean Mist, Lemon Drop, Sweet Corn, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard, and Wild Dandelion card stock

Ink: White Craft, Soft Stone, Lemon Drop, Prickly Pear

Stencils: Snowflake Mandala and Sunflower Layering

Other: Frozen rhinestones, Rainbow Pearl mix, Connect Glue, Blending Brushes, Sponge Dauber, Fine Detail White embossing powder, Master Layouts 8, 3, 7

Stencil Fun

 TGIF Peeps!

I hope your Friday is going well. It's mid-day here on the West coast, and it's official June Gloom. (We just finished May Gray, LOL) If you want to vacation in San Diego, don't come in May or June if beach weather/sun is your preference. There isn't any sun at the beach in May and June.

Any-hoo, I have a couple of cards for a couple of challenges. I had fun stenciling on both.

First up is a pretty flower card for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. The colors this week are green, yellow and white. I threw in a touch of black.

The daisy layering stencils and the brick background are from Gina K Designs. I used some very bright SSS inks today. The greeting is a pre-printed sentiment strip.

Here is the inside of this card. I added a die-cut sentiment and used the layering stencil to add one daisy under the die cut.

The second card uses Jen M.'s sketch for this week's Freshly Made Sketches. This is a one layer card except for the mermaid tail and the sentiment box. I used two Gina K Stencils for the diagonal pattern of the sketch. The stamp set is an older one from Ellen Hutson by Julie Ebersole.

This is one of my all time favorite sentiments.

And the inside of this card.

Enjoy the rest of your day and have a fab weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Flower card:

Spring Daisies Layering stencil and Brick Wall Stencil by Gina K Designs

Gina K Designs White Layering and Black Card stock

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated inks

Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 dies and Pre-printed sentiment strip, Trinity Pearls, Misti, Big Shot

Mermaid card:

Inner Mermaid stamp and die set by Ellen Hutson, Water Droplets, Sea Shells  & Sending Sunshine (from a kit) Stencils by Gina K Designs

SU thick white card stock

Gina K Designs blue, turquoise & embossing inks, Copics

Gina K Designs Gold embossing powder & Mermaid Tail Sequins,  MFT Curved Rectangle die, Misti, Big Shot, heat tool 

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

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

Happy Birthday

 Hello to all,

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday yesterday. Our good friends hosted a birthday party for Mr. Personal Chef at their house. It was just their family and us with some good food and good wine. Plus, it was an afternoon party, and we were home by 6:00 pm. Today, I had lunch with a former co-worker and his wife. They are both retired too, so we had an extended lunch to catch up. I worked with him for all of my 30 year career, and it was great to catch-up with them.

Because it was an early party yesterday, I was able to start on a card for this week's Paper Players Challenge, and I finished it this afternoon.  Ann has a fun Tac-tac-toe challenge for us this week. I went with the diagonal of floral, birthday, circle.

The background, focal image outline and sentiment are all hot foiled. I have the Gemini hot foil system and it's very easy to use, however, since I don't pull it out often, I sometimes have to do a couple of tries before I get a good foil. But, it's still pretty fun and somewhat addicting, LOL.

The focal image is a Pink Fresh Studio set that has the hot foil plate, die and layering stencils. The daisy image comes as a wreath, but I cut it apart and used the circle as a grounding point. Because the foiling is bright and shiny, I decided to use pastel shades of ink with the stencil.

I used one of the flowers of the layering stencils on the inside and paired it with a Gina K Designs stamp for the sentiment.

On Friday morning I'm driving up to Northern California to spend most of June with my mom so tomorrow I will start deciding what crafting supplies I'm going to take with me. I usually end up filling my car with stamps, dies and all of the other things needed to make cards. My mom always rolls her eyes as I'm unpacking everything.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Fancy Flowers Mini set by Gina K Designs (inside sentiment)

Hot Foiling supplies: Daisy Wreath by PinkFresh Studio, Yana's Sentiments by Spellbinders, Triple Line Diamond Foil Plate by Waffleflower, Spellbinders Glimmer Copper colored Foil, Gemini Hot Foil System,

Stencils: Daisy Wreath Layering Stencils by PinkFresh Studio

Card stock: Gina K Designs Layering weight white, Black Onyx and Innocent Pink

Ink: Gina K Designs Innocent Pink, Dusty Rose, Applement, Lemon Drip, Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 & 2 die sets, Gina K Designs double and single stitched circle dies, Gemini Jr, Pretty Pink Posh pink gems, Connect liquid glue, blending brushes

Celebrate Birthday Cards

 Hello all,

I hope you all had a fabulous "hump day." I started the day with eye surgery #2. I had the lens replaced in my left eye, due to cataracts. Just like my right eye, all went very well. Things are a little blurry, but other than that, it's all been good. I'm so glad to have both completed now.

Yesterday, I played around with LeAnne's sketch for the Paper Players Challenge. I made three cards, all using different supplies and techniques.

This first card is simply put together with some fun patterned papers, dies, and a pre-printed sentiment strip from the March SCT kit. I added some enamel dots from my stash. 

Here is the inside of this card. The stamped sentiment is from Concord & 9th.

To make this second card, I used masking paper, ink blending and silhouette stamping. All supplies are from Gina K Designs, including the pre-printed sentiment strip. I used three different GKD stamp sets on the three panels.

Here is the inside of the second card.

And finally, the third, and my favorite card. My favorite because it uses the same sketch, but looks quite different. I used the same stencil over three different patterned papers with three different ink colors, cut strips and put them back together to make the original image.

For the inside of this card, I used another piece of the patterned paper on the inside with the same stencil and a die cut sentiment. (I'm not sure why the card stock looks purple in the picture?! It's really pink like the picture above.)

Thanks, LeAnne, for such a fun sketch. I'll be saving this one for sure!

Have a good rest of the week, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies Card 1

Paper: SU Daffodil Delight, Basic Black and Basic White care stock, Echo Park patterned papers from the SCT March 2022 Sampler

Die: SCT Celebrate die and shadow from March 2022 Sampler

Inside greeting stamp from Make A Wish set by Concord & 9th

Supplies Card 2

Stamps: Friendly Silhouettes, Autumn Silhouettes,  Natural Silhouettes, and Perfect Posy sets by Gina K Designs

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

Ink: Gina K Designs Sweet Mango, Sweet Corn, Lovely Lavender, Blue Denim and Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs Masking Magic, blending brushes, Birthday pre-printed sentiment strip, Disco Ball sequins, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 die set

Supplies Card 3

Stamps: GKD Mini Blossoms stamp set

Paper: SU Pretty In Pink, Basic White and Basic Black card stock and Pawsitively Prints (retired) DSP

Stencil: Gina K Designs Bold Bouquet 

Ink: Gina K Designs Bubble Gum Pink, Fresh Asparagus, Blue Denim and Blue Raspberry

Other: GKD blending brushes, SU tag die, Pink Fresh Studio Sparkling Diamonds Cover plate, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 die set, SSS Thank You die, Trinity pink gems

Coffee & Friends

 Hi Peeps,

This card fits both the Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge and the current Coffee Chalkboard theme for the Fusion Card Challenge.

I have in my stencil stash a coffee themed stencil from Picket Fences that I bought a few years ago and I don't think I'd used it yet. I thought it would work well for the Stencil Press technique, so I pulled it out with the other stencils that I used on Saturday. I used a dark slate shade for the background and then blended each row of coffee pots in rainbow order using pastel shades, which works well for both challenges. Very serendipitous!

I followed the top cross option on the Tic-tac-toe grid and the sketch for the Fusion challenge.

All of the stamped images are from the Reverse Confetti set called Be a Barista. Here is the inside of this card.

I recommend checking out Jennifer's video here. It's super fun! 

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Picket Coffee Pot Stencil, Reverse Confetti Be A Barista stamp set,  Gina K Designs card stock and inks, Concord & 9th Glimmer papers, Copics, Taylored Expressions Large Scalloped Border die, blending brushes, Big Shot, Misti, SU Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

Happy Birthday

 Hello,

I hope everyone had a good weekend. 

Yesterday I had a very fun afternoon playing with the latest technique from Jennifer McGuire that she calls Stencil Ink Press. I made a bunch of panels, some with single stencils and a few with layering stencils. They all turned out well and really didn't take long to make.

I'm using one of the panels for my card for the current Sunday Stamps Challenge called Cool Winter Love, a color challenge.

This stencil is the SSS Painted Flowers Wreath. I followed Jennifer's instructions of making a hinge between the paper and the stencil, then used a brayer to ink up the stencil. I used GKD Soft Stone light gray ink. After inking, I put it in my Big Shot with the embossing mat and plate and cranked it through. I only used one layer of ink for the background as I wanted to keep it pretty light. I made sure that it was completely dry, then placed the stencil back over the panel and used blending brushes to color the flowers and leaves, using red and pink shades for the flowers and a darker gray for the leaves. The die cut sentiment is also from SSS. I cut the happy birthday dies twice each and layered them. After gluing them to the shadow dies, I added a very liberal coating of Nuvo clear glitter, then some glossy accents. For added embellishments, I added some silver enamel dots.

Here is the inside of this card. Sentiment and image are GKD.

Thanks for checking in and have a good week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stencils: Painted Flower Wreath from Simon Says Stamp

Stamps: Enjoyable Greetings & Take Care sets by Gina K Designs 

Paper: SU Thick White, GKD Dusty Rose, Stormy Sky, Cherry Red

Ink: GKD Cherry Red, Dusty Rose, Soft Stone, Stormy Sky

Other: SSS Happy Birthday dies, blending brushes, Big Shot, Misti, Silver enamel dots, Nuvo clear glitter pen, Glossy Accents, SU Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue