Hey There Cutie

Happy Sunday,

Looks like it's Valentine's season around blog-land and I've got a card inspired  by a couple of challenges for you today. I'm using the sketch from this week's Freshly Made Sketches and the colors from the current Sunday Stamps.

This is a Valentine's Day card for my little 2 y/o great niece. I think she'll like the fringe, plus the sentiment fits her perfectly.

I've paired SU card stock and old DSP with a Concord & 9th stamp and die set from a few years ago. 

The fringe was simple to make as I have the C&9th die just for that. I was originally going to use alternating plain card stock, but then thought of using the DSP instead and I like the way it turned out. 

Here's the inside of the card.

Now I need to come up with a card for her 3 y/o brother. I'm thinking of one of the Spellbinders monster dies from last year. We'll see.

Hope the rest of your weekend is relaxing.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Happy Heart Box set and dies from Concord & 9th

Paper: Stampin' Up Lovely Lipstick, Crumb Cake and Basic White card stock and All My Love DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Copics

Other: Concord & 9th Happy Heart Box dies, Fringe die, SU enamel hearts and flowers, twine

Happy Birthday

Hello,

I have a bright and very colorful card for you today. The layout inspiration is from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge. I liked the three images along the bottom in the sketch and decided to use these fun flowers from Gina K.

The background is made using the Double Background Stamp 1/Grip Mat from GKD, stamped in black ink on white card stock. The flower set comes with coloring stencils, which I used with blending brushes to add color to the flowers and leaves. I used the GKD Gingham embossing folder on the black strip at the bottom, although it's hard to see the detail in this photo.

On the inside, I used another flower from the same stamp set and a greeting from a new GKD Birthday set.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Bold Summer Blooms set, Cheers To Another Year set, and Double Background 1/Grip Mat all Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: From GKD:  Bold Summer Blooms coloring stencils, blending brushes, Single and Double Stitched dies, black enamel dots, Connect glue

Winter Wishes

 TGIF Peeps,

Here's another holiday card completed. Using inspiration from The Paper Players color challenge and the Sunday Stamps sketch challenge, I made this fun winter themed card.

The green snowy background and the large snowflake purple background in the postage stamps are both foiled with Deco hot foil. The hat, sweater and gloves are from the GKD Christmas Cheer stamp and die set. The images are stamped in embossing ink and heat embossed with black embossing powder, then colored with Copic markers.

For the inside of the card, I've used sentiments and a small snowflake from the same GKD stamp set.

Have a fun Friday!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas Cheer set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Card Stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Deco hot foil in Grass Green and Wild Wisteria, Fuze Foiling machine, Master Layouts 15 postage dies, black embossing powder 

Big Hugs and Lovely Day

 Hello peeps,

I have two cards to share today. Both are made using fun Concord & 9th supplies and they are inspired by two challenges. Joanne has a theme challenge for us at The Paper Players, and I'm using the colors from the new Sunday Stamps challenge.

The Paper Players theme is dots or stripes. I've used a bit of both on my cards. 

The backgrounds are made with the C&9th Scattered Dots Turnabout stamp. 

On card one, I cut some C&9th fall themed patterned papers into stripes, in various widths, and glued them to a piece of card stock at an angle. Then I cut a large C&9th Heart die from the striped paper.

The large sentiment die is also from C&9th and I added some SU Shimmery Crystal Effects over it. For additional embellishments I cut three smaller hearts from the same die set as the large heart die and I also added some enamel dots from my stash.

Here is then inside of card 1. I did some die inlay for the sentiment and added some more small hearts and a leaf cut from the paper stripes.

Card two has the same background except I changed out the light blue ink for navy and the bright yellow ink for gold. The C&9th leaf die is cut from four pieces of the fall paper pack and I inlayed the small pieces. The greeting is heat embossed onto navy card stock and cut out with a GKD die.

The inside of card two is stamped with a C&9th birthday greeting and the leaves are from the stamp set that goes with the large leaf die.

I'm still enjoying the US Open Tennis matches, although I tend to listen and then watch the replays when I'm also crafting. There has been some exciting matches. My bestie that lives in Sacramento is also a big tennis fan so we tend to do a lot of texting during the evening matches. Almost like watching together.

Enjoy your afternoon and evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Scattered Dots Turnabout set, Triple-Step Autumn Leaf set, Tiny Tagalongs set all by Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock and fall patterned papers

Ink: Concord & 9th, and Gina K Designs craft white 

Other: Concord & 9th Just Say More and Pop Heart dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 5 & 12 die sets, WOW white embossing powder, SU Shimmery Crystal Effects, enamel dots, metallic embroidery floss, Connect glue, foam tape, SU Dimensionals

 

Wishing You A Happy Day & Buzzing By To Say Hello

 Hi and Happy Weekend,

I received a new order from Gina K Designs a few days ago that included this fun new background stamp called Doodle Garden Background. It's a large 6 x 6 inch background stamp that I'm sure is super fun to color, but I decided to use it in another way with this week's Freshly Made Sketch as inspiration.

My idea was to ink it with a light gray shade of ink then make a reverse circle mask for the center and stamp that with a darker color, and/or heat embossing the circle with clear or metallic embossing powders. I ended up trying both techniques, but I didn't get the desired effect of the circle standing out with either. My solution was to make a circle border for each and then continue with the rest of the cards.

On the first card card I stamped the background stamp using Soft Stone ink and then used Amalgam Black ink and clear embossing powder for the center.  The flowers are from the GKD Fancy Flowers mini stamp set stamping them in the colors from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. The border circle is navy card stock.  The centers of the flowers have GKD pearls in pink and red.

For card two, the background is stamped with Soft Stone ink, the center circle is stamped with GKD Embossing ink and heat embossed with GKD fine detail Silver EP. The additional stamped images are from the  GKD Flowers & Wings mini stamp set stamped with colors from the current Sunday Stamps challenge. The border circle here is cut from GKD silver card stock. The centers of the flowers have GKD yellow pearls.

The inside of both cards I left blank for writing a personal message.

I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend. I have a birthday card to make for a very good friend of ours. Since I also just received some Spellbinders wax seal supplies, my first, that I'm anxious to try, my plan is to incorporate that in his card. Should be fun to play with. 

Colleen

Supplies 

Stamps: Doodle Garden Background stamp, Fancy Flowers Mini and Flowers & Wings Mini sets with dies all Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight  and Layering White, In the Navy and Silver card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Soft Stone, Amalgam Black, Embossing pad, In the Navy, Passionate Pink, Red Hot, Red Velvet, Faded Brick, Fresh Asparagus, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard and Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs single stitched circle dies, Gina K Designs colored pearls, Connect glue, Masking Magic, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs Silver EP, SU Clear EP, Heat tool, foam squares

Happy New Year

 Greetings and Happy New Year,

For my first post of 2024  I have a card for the new Freshly Made Sketches challenge. It's a relatively clean and simple card using a fun Concord & 9th set.  The colors come from the last Sunday Stamps challenge, called Winter Warmth. Appropriate for the theme and the weather this week.

On the inside I used a larger cup with another greeting from the stamp set.

I've been visiting my mom and sister in Northern California for the past few weeks. I drove up a few days before Christmas, then we all drove to Bend, OR to visit my niece and her family. In addition to Christmas, my niece had a birthday on 12/26 and her daughter (my great niece) turned one on Christmas day, and my youngest nephew was 25 on 12/28.  Lots to celebrate that week. 

One thing not to celebrate, my mom, my sister and I all came down with Covid the weekend after Christmas. No one else that we were with over the holiday tested positive, so I think we must have picked it up just before we left to go to Bend. All three of us are up to date with the vaccine, and we've had very mild to no symptoms other than a light cough for my mom and my sister has some fatigue. I've had no symptoms and have felt normal. I even cleaned and reorganized mom's garage this past week. It's just we are kind of limited to going out and if we have to, wearing masks, of course. This is the first Covid infection for any of us, so kind of a bummer that we finally got caught. Also, I will wait until I test negative for the recommended times before I head home so I bring it there.

Luckily, my sister and I have a nice craft space here to help keep me busy. 

Enjoy your weekend, and Happy 2024 to all!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cup Of Kindness set with dies from Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight white and SU Basic White thick and Navy

Ink: Concord & 9th and Hero Arts

Other: Altenew embossing folder, Misti, Gina K Designs white embossing powder, heat tool, Gemini Jr, enamel dots, Connect Glue, SU foam strips

So Very Thankful

 

TGIF Peeps,

Here's a very quick post with my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. I made this a few days ago but didn't get around to taking the pictures. Anne Marie has a timely theme challenge for us and I created a a Happy Thanksgiving card, which is the simple inside sentiment on this horizontal "Z-Fold" style card.

I pulled the colors from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge.

All of the supplies to make this are from Gina K Designs. The stamp and die set are one of the newer fall bundles. The side panels are made with stencils from her latest release.

Here is the card standing up. The side panels and the circle background are cut using two of Gina's Master Layouts die sets. I didn't take a picture of the inside greeting, which is just a simply stamped Happy Thanksgiving.

Have a great day. My friend is coming over to work on her quilt that I'm helping her with. Today we should finish all of the block construction.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Breath Of Sunshine set with dies

Paper: Gina K Designs Kraft, Layering Weight White, Black Onyx

Ink: Gina K Designs Kraft, Prickly Pear, Sea Glass, Tranquil Teal, Coral Reef, Sweet Mango, Black Onyx

Other: GKD Master Layouts 9 and 13, Fancy Florals Layering Stencils, Blue Pearls, Misti, Big Shot, Foam Squares, Connect glue

Thinking Of You

 Hello,

The June Gina K Designs release had some vintage themed stamps and dies and I thought this pretty butterfly image would work well on a mini-slimline card for the current Sunday Stamps Challenge. 

I cut a piece of newspaper with the stitched die from the GKD Master Layouts 7 die set and cut a mat from navy card stock using the layering die. After cutting the news print, I crumpled it up then flattened it before using a blending brush to add color. 

The color scheme comes from the current Color Hues Challenge. The colors this time are merlot and navy.

Enjoy your Thursday. It's going to be a bit cooler here in northern California for the next three days with temps in the  high 90s instead of the triple digits we had all last week.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Vintage Summer set with coordinating dies by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU card stock, old news paper

Ink: SU

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 7 dies, blending brush, SU metal rose dots, Misti, Big Shot, Connect glue, SU Dimensionals

For You

 Hello,

One more post tonight. For this post I have my card for the current Sunday Stamps challenge. This challenge is a color challenge. I wasn't sure if the lightest color was blue or light gray, so I picked blue. 

There is no stamping on the front of this card, which is not something I do often. I've joined the Stitching Die of the Month Club at Spellbinders and this is the April 2023 die. It's SO pretty! I stitched it using some metallic thread in relatively the same shades as the card stocks. After stitching, I glued the fans together with the center greeting and mounted it onto an embossed background.

When these stitched dies first started coming out, I didn't think I'd want to use them. However, last year Spellbinders sponsored one of the Let's Stamp Together kits and it was a stitching die. I loved it and made several cards, so this year, I joined the Spellbinders monthly club.

Enjoy your Thursday, and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stitched FanFare, Spellbinders Stitching Die of the Month for April 2023

Spellbinders Seamless Floral Background Embossing Folder

SU card stock

Metallic embroidery floss, embroidery needle, Connect glue, foam tape, Big Shot, SU gold metallic dots

Pretty Paper Birthday Cards

 Hello and TGIF!

I made a set of three birthday cards using some pretty SU DSP. The greetings on each are stamped and heat embossed. The sketch and inspiration for these is from the current Sunday Stamps Challenge, Panel Love.

I had not used this pack of papers yet, and as this sketch is perfect for patterned paper, I decided to finally use them. Once I got started, it was easy to make a little trio of cards. The flowers popped up on the sentiment ovals are fussy cut from the paper. (I didn't purchase the coordinating stamp set.)

That's all for now. Enjoy your Friday and your weekend!

Happy stamping,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Stamped birthday sentiments from Gina K Designs Succulent Spray Stamp Set

Paper: SU Blackberry Bliss, Evening Evergreen Calypso Coral, Basic Black card stock and Favored Flowers DSP (from 2023 Sale-a-bration promotion)

Ink: Gina K Designs Craft White

Other: Gina K Designs Double and Single Stitched Oval Dies, fine detail white embossing powder, heat tool, Big Shot, Misti, SU enamel dots and jewel embellishments

...because you're awesome

 Hello,

I had fun doing lots of stamping on this card today!

I'm playing along with the color challenge at Global Design Project this week. The colors are very pretty together and perfect for a fun floral background. The layout of my card comes from the current sketch at Sunday Stamps.

All of the supplies used for this card are from Stampin' Up. 

For the inside of the card, I used an older SU sentiment stamp set and an image from the floral set used on the outside of the card.

Enjoy your evening!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Bottled Happiness, Happy Thoughts and Botanicals For You sets by Stampin' Up

Paper: SU Basic white Thick, Basic Black, Flirty Flamingo card stock, Follow Your Art DSP and Dandy Designs DSP

Ink: SU Flirty Flamingo, Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate, VersaMark, Memento Black

Other: White embossing powder, heat tool, Misti, SU dies, SU hexagon embellishments

Just Because

 Hello,

Lots of die cutting on my card today. In fact, the front has no stamping at all. Using the current color challenge from Sunday Stamps, the sketch from this week's Paper Players Challenge, and a new die set from Spellbinders I made this.

The Spellbinders die set is the March 2023 Small Die of The Month. I didn't use the half cover die included, but I did use all of the other dies in the set. The card base is made from SSS Oyster Gray card stock and it's embossed with the Spellbinders Stylized Calla Lily embossing folder. The flowers and butterfly are made from SU card stock. I embossed the white butterfly using the Spellbinders Hydrangea Blooms embossing folder before gluing the colored flower dies on top. 

For the inside, I stamped a simple greeting and added another of the small die cut flowers.

Thanks for looking in, and have a nice evening.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sentimental Greetings set by Spellbinders (inside greeting)

Paper: Simon Says Stamp Oyster Gray card stock, Stampin' Up Basic White, Brilliant Blue, Ballet Blue, Poppy Parade, Parakeet Party, Black card stock, Lovely In Linen DSP

Other: Floral Butterfly Card Front die set by Spellbinders, Stylized Calla Lily and Hydrangea Blooms embossing folders by Spellbinders, Fishtail Flag dies by MFT, Misti, Big Shot, foam tape, Connect liquid glue

Easter Blessings

 Hello,

Today's post has my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. This week is theme week with Joanne as our hostess. Her theme is Easter.

Since I'm still at my mom's with limited stamp sets to choose from, my Easter card has some pretty tulips instead of a bunny and eggs. This sweet little Gina K mini set is the only Easter set I have here. I brought some of the newer SU DSPs with me and I liked these pastel polka dots to go with Joanne's them. Hence, turquoise tulips.

The layout comes from this week's Sunday Stamps sketch.

After stamping the tulips, I masked them and used the GKD Sunshine stencil to add the sun rays behind, then cut the panel using a double stitched rectangle die and the black mat. The greeting is cut using a banner die from the GKD ML 2 die set and popped up with Dimensionals.

I used two other GKD sets for the inside greeting and images. The flower box and flowers are colored with colored pencils.

Enjoy your Thursday, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Spring Greetings Mini, Welcome Home and Window Additions sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onxy card stock, Taylored Expressions textured turquoise card stock, Stampin' Up Dandy Designs DSP

Ink: Gina K Designs Ocean Mist, Turquoise Sea, Jelly Bean Green, Fresh Asparagus, Lemon Yellow, Black Onyx cubes

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 and 2 dies, Gina K Designs Double and Single Stitched Rectangle dies, Gina K Designs Sunshine stencil, blending brush, Masking Magic, Prisma colored pencils, Misti, Big Shot, SU Dimensionals