Grateful

 Happy Tuesday Peeps,

Elizabeth is hostess this week for the Paper Players Challenge. It's theme week and she has chosen Give Thanks, a very timely theme for November here in the U.S. 

My card is super simple. Some stenciling, die cutting and a few embellishments and it was done. I did add some stamping in the mix with the inside sentiment.

This is last month's Spellbinders' stencil of the month set called Colorful Pumpkins. The die cut sentiment is from Gina K Designs. I cut it from shiny gold card stock and added some GKD gold embellishments for accent. I thought the gold was a good choice for the fall colors. (However, it was hard to get a picture to actually show the shiny gold. it took me several tries, LOL.)

Before stenciling the pumpkins, I used an older Taylored Expressions masking stencil to do the inside deckled rectangle pattern. After finishing the card, I'm still not sure I really like the way it looks. In my mind's eye, it was way prettier!

I added just one of the stenciled pumpkins on the inside with a stamped greeting from Spellbinders' October Clear Stamp of the month.

It's finally election day here in the U.S. I voted early, about 3 weeks ago, actually. The day after dropping off my ballot I received the text that it was received and counted. One very rewarding life experience I've had is working a polling place. I can't remember the exact year because it was over 10 years ago now, but I remember most everything else about that day and the training day prior to election day. I remember feeling like I was participating in something special that day. 

I'm taking off to my mom's tomorrow, a 12 hour drive. Basically from one end of California to the other. I'm staying with mom while my sister goes back to Oregon to baby sit her two grand children for a week. I'll be there for two weeks or maybe a little more, then I'm bringing my mom back to stay with us through Thanksgiving. I see lots of card games and some bingo nights in the near future.

Have a great evening,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Autumn Wishes by Spellbinders

Stencils: Colorful Pumpkins by Spellbinders and Deckled Rectangle Masking stencil by Taylored Expressions

Paper: Gina K Designs Vanilla and Dark Sage card stock, Concord & 9th gold card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Grateful die with shadow die, blending brushes, gold metallic embellishments, SU Deckled Rectangle die, Connect glue, SU mini Dimensionals

Give Thanks

 Hi again,

I have one more quick post for this morning. I made this card last night using Jen's sketch for the "just about to end" Freshly Made Sketches challenge, and the theme challenge from the new Paper Players Challenge. Claire is this week's hostess with a Thankful theme. 

I started by ink blending a square card panel with four ink colors then spraying some water over the panel to get the water reactive effect. Using the GKD stamp set called Painted Autumn, I stamped the layering flowers and leaves in fall colors then cut them out using the set dies. The sentiment is part of the stamp set. After stamping it in black ink, I cut it out using a double stitched circle die and cut a single stitched circle for the layering. After cutting the ink blended panel per Jen's sketch I glued it to a black mat and put them onto a white card base. The images are glued with liquid glue and some are popped up with dimensionals. All in all, pretty simple.

I made a second card, even easier, using GKD patterned paper and pre-printed images. The sentiment is also from the Painted Autumn stamp set. This time I layered the circle onto a scalloped circle die from Spellbinders.The size of this card is much smaller, 4.2 5 x 4.25 inches.

Enjoy your afternoon, and thanks again.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Painted Autumn stamp set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, Black Onyx, Fresh Asparagus card stock and patterned papers from the Autumn Splendor Card Kit

Ink: Gina K Designs Sweet Tomato, Prickly Pear, Fresh Asparagus, Tranquil Teal and Black Onyx

Other:Gina K designs Double and Single Stitched Circle dies, Spellbinders Scalloped circle Nestie die, GKD black and gold gems, GKD pre-printed fall images from the Autumn Splendor kit, Connect liquid glue, SU Dimensionals

Thankful/Grateful

 Hi all,

I have a Thanksgiving card for you today, made using Anne Marie's Tic-Tac-Toe grid for this week's Paper Players challenge. I went with the diagonal of yellow and/or orange, texture, Fall/Thanksgiving.

I started by ink blending a white card panel using GKD Prickly Pear, Tangerine Twist and Tomato Soup inks and running it through the Falling Leaves EF for texture. Next, I cut it out with the ML 2 stitched and mat dies. Finally, I used a VersaMark ink pad and lightly swiped it over the raised leaves to make them sticky then used a small paint brush and dusted some gold Pearl Ex powder over the leaves.

For the focal leaves in the center, I stamped them in GKD Honey Mustard, Prickly Pear, Tangerine Twist and Tomato Soup. The veins are a separate stamp which I stamped using VersaMark and heat embossed with gold EP. They are cut out with their dies and popped up over some gold twine twirled in a circle in the middle of the card. 

For sentiments, I cut two small tags from white. The tag die is part of the GKD Stitched Ovals set. The Thankful and Grateful sentiments are stamped using VersaMark and heat embossed with gold. I tied them with the same gold twine and stuck them down with a couple of mini glue dots.

For the inside, I started with a panel of SU So Saffron card stock and ink blended PricklyPear and Honey Mustard inks around the edges then cut it out with the ML 2 stitched die.  The sentiment is stamped using black ink and the small leaves with Tomato Soup.

TGIF tomorrow. Enjoy!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All Gina K Designs sets, Layered Leaves, Beautiful Leaves, and Everything Nice mini

Paper: Gina K Designs White Layering, Black Onyx and Stampin' Up So Saffron

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard, Tangerine Twist and Tomato Soup; VersaMark

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 & small tag dies, Gina K Designs Falling Leaves embossing folder, Pearl Ex powder,  Gina K Designs fine detail gold embossing powder, heat tool, Big Shot Switch, Misti, Gina K Designs gold pearls, stash gold twine

So Very Grateful

Hello to all,

I'm posting my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Claire is our hostess for this week's theme challenge, a timely Thanksgiving theme. 

My card is somewhat of a CASE of a card I saw in the Concord & 9th Instagram gallery. I loved the non-traditional fall colors in pastels on their card and since I have the stamp sets, card stock and inks, I decided to play around to see if I could make something that I liked just as much. For my card, I added the pop of orange and the sparkle of sequin, as well as a center image. I'm pretty happy with the result.

To add the Marmalade dots, I used one of the background leaf stamps from the C&9th Triple-step Autumn Leaf set. I used the ink cube to ink only the dots in the stamp and stamped them randomly around the panel. After the stamping was done, the panel was cut out using the scalloped die from the Gina K Designs  Master Layouts 4 die set. The stamped panel is glued to a Sea Glass top folding card base. I stamped a few extra leaves in green and blue, cut them out with the dies, and popped them over the stamped images with foam dots for a little dimension. 

The pumpkin pie image is from a newer C&9th set. I colored the image with Copics, cut it out with the set die and popped it up in the center. I added the gold rim to the plate using a gold gel pen because Thanksgiving pie should be served on the "good" dishes. The greeting is stamped on Marmalade card stock with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with white EP, then cut out with the sentiment strip die from the same stamp set.

For the inside, I couldn't find a "Happy Thanksgiving" stamp among my C&9th sets, so I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Cutie Pie mini stamp set and used it. After stamping and coloring the images, I cut the panel and the mat using the Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 die set.

I'm off to continue making more Holiday cards today. Thanks for looking in, and have a fab day!

Colleen

Supplies

Concord & 9th sets and dies: Triple-Step Autumn Leaf, Simple Seasons, and Harvest Wreath Turnabout. Lawn Fawn Cutie Pie stamp set. Concord & 9th White, Sea Glass, Buttercup and Marmalade card stock and ink cubes, Gina K Designs Black Onyx ink and Master Layouts 2 & 4 die sets, VersaMark ink, GKD white detail EP, heat tool, Misti, Gemini Jr, SSS sequins, Gold Gel Pen, Copic markers, SU mini Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

Eat, Drink and Be Thankful

 Hello,

Happy Monday evening to all. I hope the beginning of the week was good for you.

I have a card to share that I made yesterday evening. It fits for two challenges that started yesterday. For the Paper Players Challenge, Laurie has a Thanksgiving theme this week and the Sunday Stamps Challenge is a color challenge with the perfect fit fall colors.

My card is a carousel of Thanksgiving pies. I don't know why this popped into my mind, but I thought of it and it worked pretty well. Using two Lawn Fawn sets and the Gina K Wreath Builder system, including the corresponding Fall/Autumn Gina K stamp set, here is my wreath of pies.

The plaid in the background I made with the C&9th Holiday Plaid stamp set by just randomly stamping images on the diagonal. Not a bad outcome.

Since the sentiment is about eating and DRINKING, I added the drinking image on the inside using the Lawn Fawn Thanks a Latte set tea cup. The sentiment is from the Gina K Autumn Wreath Builder stamp set.

So, what do you think of my "Pie Carousel?" Too much fun!

Thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Lawn Fawn sets, Forrest Feast, Cutie Pie and Thanks A Latte, Concord & 9th set Holiday Plaids

Paper: Gina K Designs Faded Brick and Black card stock, SU Whisper White card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Faded Brick, Honey Mustard, Sweet Mango, Jelly Bean Green, Sweet Tomato, Peach Bellini, Dark Chocolate

Other: Gina K Wreath Builder system, Misti, Michaels Burlap ribbon, foam tape, enamel dots

So thankful for each moment with you

Hi all,

It's yet another gloomy day here on the San Diego coast. Lots and lots of fog, and it's damp and chilly. It's a good day to be inside stamping. Also, we are headed out to a party a little later in the afternoon. We'll have some good conversation, good wine, and good fun.

Today is Sunday and the new Paper Players Challenge is out. Since I missed making a card for last week's challenge due to a busy work week, I thought I'd get this week's done and posted today. Claire is our hostess with a fun theme challenge - Thankful. Since it is November, I played along with the obvious Thanksgiving theme.

I put all of the stamps and dies from this Lawn Fawn holiday set to use. In fact all of the stamps, dies and patterned papers used on this card are from Lawn Fawn. Clearly, this isn't a Clean and Simple card, and luckily Claire's challenge is not CAS, LOL.

All of the images were stamped on X-Press It Blending card stock and colored with Copics. I stamped, colored, then cut everything out before assembling my background and card. My assembly process is once I have an arrangement that I like, I'll take a quick photo with my phone so I can remember the layout if I stray too much. For this card, the trees and houses were the part that I kept playing with for some reason. I finally got them how I thought they look best. The foreground was fairly easy to arrange, but I did waffle between having Mr. Squirrel and Mr. Hedgehog holding their cups or having them on the table. I finally decided holding the cups looked pretty cute.

For the inside, I used some additional LF dies to make some fall leaves. The sentiments are from the same stamp set.

That's it from me for now. I'm still working on examples to take for my next Craft Day with my girls. I want to do some fun folds or interactive cards, so I've been looking to see what Jennifer McGuire has in her videos. I'm thinking maybe using a turnabout set from Concord & 9th as well.  We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great work week!
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Forrest Feast by Lawn Fawn
Paper: TE kraft and brown card stock, X-Press It Blending card tock, SU Hello Honey and Cajun Craze card stock, various Lawn Fawn plaid pattern papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, Gina K brown and orange cubes
Other: Various Lawn Fawn dies, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Bountiful Blessings

Happy Friday all,

I'm "working" from home today. Gotta love those Friday office days. I do have to attend a two hour training class via the internet in about 30 minutes, but after that, I'm calling it a week. It's rainy here in SoCal and perfect for making more holiday cards.

Today, I have a Thanksgiving/Fall themed card made to fit a few challenges. This week's Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge is a color challenge using Dark Brown, Yellow and Rust. The current Curtain Call Challenge theme is Acorns. Using some older Taylored Expressions sets, I made my card.

I started by stamping the the images using Memento tuxedo black, for the open stamps, and SU inks in Crushed Curry, Early Expresso, and Cajun Craze, for the solid stamps. The open images are colored with Copics.  After the stamping and coloring was finished, I trimmed the panel down to 3.75 by 5.0 inches and layered it onto an Early Expresso panel dry embossed with the TE Fall Leaves EF. The card base is Crushed Curry card stock. I cut the TE label and stamped the sentiment and squirrel, layered it over some copper twine and popped it up on the front of the card with dimensionals. A few enamel shapes in rust finish it off.

I used the TE Fall Wreath set for the inside.

Thanks for looking in today. Enjoy your Friday afternoon.

Supplies
Stamps: Falling For You and Fall Wreath sets by Taylored Expressions
Paper: SU card stocks: Very Vanilla, Crushed Curry, Early Expresso
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Crushed Curry, Early Expresso, Cajun Craze, Copics
Other: TE Label die, TE Fall Leaves EF, twine, enamel shapes, The Big Shot, dimensionals

Wishing You a Harvest of Blessings

Hello stampers,

Got home from work early enough to finish some reports that needed to be completed and then I had time to take some pictures of a couple of cards that I made yesterday afternoon. Before I get to those, I want to send prayers and good thoughts to all of the folks in TX and LA that are in the path of Harvey. Boy, are the news pictures of the flooding, especially in Houston, heartbreaking. It's just so amazing how weather events can be so devastating.

As yesterday was Sunday, we have a new Paper Players Challenge. This week, Laurie has a fun sketch for us to use. It seems that I've moved on to Fall themed cards lately and this one is no exception.

I started with the MFT Harvest Mouse set. Using a card base of Heavy Whisper White, I blended orange and gold Distress Oxide inks over the card stock. After it dried I randomly stamped the pumpkins and leaves using Distress Oxide brown and green inks. The lawn and hill was cut with MFT Stitched hill dies from Lawn Fawn Fall plaid patterned paper. The greeting is stamped with the same Distress Oxide brown ink. The mouse image is stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. Since these older MFT sets have dies that are solid, I ended up fussy cutting out the image because I should have used the die on the blank card stock then stamped the image. I forgot! At least it is a small image and not hard to cut out. I popped the mouse up with dimensionals and added some enamel dots.

For the inside, I used a Lawn Fawn Thanksgiving set called Cutie Pie along with one of the pumpkins from the MFT set and more Lawn Fawn plaid paper. I stamped the pumpkin, made a mask then stamped the pie. After all, for Thanksgiving everyone wants pumpkin pie!

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Harvest Mouse set by My Favorite Things and Cutie Pie set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Heavy and regular Whisper White, X-Press It Blending card stock and Lawn Fawn Fall patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, Distress Oxide inks
Other: Die-namics Stitched Hill and Cross-stitched circle dies, enamel dots, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Have a Happy Thanksgiving

Hi stampers,

I hope that your weekend is going well. It's been a quiet and fairly lazy day here, and I'm all for that. This afternoon, I made it into my craft table and made this Thanksgiving card using this week's Freshly Made Sketch and some Lawn Fawn cuteness.

I'm also linking it up to the Lawnscaping challenge # 141, which is CAS this week and to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Thanks or Thanksgiving cards.

See you back here tomorrow for the new Paper Player's Challenge.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Cutie Pie and Thanks A Bushel sets by Lawn Fawn
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock and Lawn Fawn Fall Plaid patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Hello Honey and Tangerine Tango, Copics
Other: Cutie Pie and Stitched Round Tag dies by Lawn Fawn, SU ribbon, the Big Shot, dimensional

Happiness Is a Grateful Heart

Hello all,

I hope your weekend is going very well. It's Sunday and time for our first Paper Players challenge of November. Laurie is our hostess this week with a timely theme challenge. Here you go:

I've been traveling for work for the past several weeks and unfortunately, my stamping time has been very limited. I usually try to have my Paper Players card done early each week, but for this week's card, I was frantically trying to get it stamped, colored, photographed and blogged late yesterday afternoon. Luckily, my idea turned out well, so it all came together pretty quickly. A great sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch helped!

I wanted to do something seasonal, and this sweet little image by Jennifer Nilsson for MFT stamps was the perfect choice. As you all know, I love to color, so I colored her up with my Copics. I found this great seasonal patterned paper to use for the sketch layout and it has an added bonus of having the perfect message for Laurie's theme this week too. The stamped sentiment is from the set and it's stamped with Early Expresso ink.

The inside uses some images from a super old SU set called Autumn Harvest. I layered the squash and pumpkins using the masking technique. The inside greeting is from the MFT set.

The Design Team has some awesome inspiration cards. Stop by and say "Hi."

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

Have fun with Laurie's theme. I know we'll see some great cards again in the gallery. 

I'm off to Nashville Tuesday and back very late Friday night. I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Happy Harvest set by My Favorite Things and Autumn Harvest set by Stampin' Up (inside images)

Paper: SU Really Rust, Old Olive and Very Vanilla card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, Apple Cider by Imaginisce patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Early Expresso

Other: Dimensionals and enamel shapes

Have A Happy Thanksgiving

Hello and Happy Sunday,

Welcome to a new The Paper Players challenge. Today, Laurie is our hostess with a fun CAS challenge called "Clean and Simple Taste of Fall". 

So many options, but I recently bought Cutie Pie and Thanks A Bushel sets from Lawn Fawn and I just had to use them. I love this little pie, and doesn't it work well with the apples?! I thought I'd get started on more holiday cards and this set is perfect for Thanksgiving. I know most folks have Pumpkin pie but I'm not a fan of it and mom always made apple for my sister and I at Thanksgiving. Mom is a master pie maker, (seriously, there's no comparison) so I will send this one to her.

While I do have some layers here, it was a super quick and simple card to put together. Maybe because I had designed it in my mind and the finished project came out just as I envisioned it. This card is a small 4x4" note card.

All of the images are stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. They are cut out with the Lawn Fawn coordinating dies. The Spellbinders Scalloped die is cut from SU Cherry Cobbler and Die-namics Stitched square is cut from MFT Brights Plaid in green. The sentiment is from the Cutie Pie set.

Check out the rest of the Design Team's blogs for more awesome inspiration.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

I know you'll have fun with this challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing the gallery this week.

Have a nice Sunday and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cutie Pie and Thanks a Bushel sets by Lawn Fawn

Paper: SU Crumb Cake and Cherry cobbler card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, My Favorite Things Brights Plaid patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics 

Other: Lawn Fawn Cutie Pie and Thanks a Bushel dies, Spellbinders Scalloped Square die, Die-namics Stitched Square die, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Let's Celebrate

Hello again,

One more post today. This time a change of pace from Christmas cards. Here's a Thanksgiving card for you.

Stacey has a super cute theme this week on her Curtain Call challenge blog called Foxy. I just had to play along with it. Who doesn't love the trendy fox theme? I used the Lawn Fawn Party Animal set with the holiday additions for my little Thanksgiving fox. The layout is from this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and I'm also linking up to this week's CanYouCaseIt? Color Challenge. The colors this week are browns, yellows and neutral.

Supplies
Stamps: Party Animal and Party Animal Holiday Addition sets by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Heavy Whisper White, Really Rust, Summer Sun card stocks, X-Press It Blending card stock, Doodlebug Friendly Forrest patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Early Expresso
Other: Lawn Cuts Stitch Party Banners and Party Animal dies, Spellbinders classic circle die, white enamel dots, SU small circle punch, the Big Shot, dimensionals

Thanks again for stopping by my blog,
Colleen

Happy Harvest

Happy Labor Day to all,

I hope your holiday was fun and relaxing. We started cleaning our garage yesterday and finished it this morning. After that chore was done, I did some stamping and tennis watching. As yesterday was Sunday, I decided to make a card for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch.

Since it's Labor Day, I thought I'd do a fall card, but not Halloween, to send to my mom. While looking through my stamp sets, I found this My Favorite Things Happy Harvest set.

I made a couple of modifications to accommodate the image. I rotated the layout and used an oval instead of the circle.

She is stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. The patterned papers are Pumpkin Patch from American Crafts. To add some texture, I used some new burlap ribbon from SU, wooden leaves from SU and the Argyle EF from SU. I love the way it turned out.

Here is the inside:

Stamps: Happy Harvest (I think) set from My Favorite Things
Paper: SU Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla card stock, Pumpkin Patch by American Crafts patterned papers
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive pads and Copics
Other: Oval Nesties, SU Argyle embossing folder, SU burlap ribbon, SU wooden leaves, SU label punch, Pebbles enamel dots, twine, white gel pen, the Big Shot, dimensionals, small glue dots

Unfortunately, it's back to work tomorrow. I sure did enjoy the long weekend though. Have a great week and thanks for looking,

Colleen

Thanksgiving Cards

Happy Monday to all,

Each Sunday the new Paper Players challenge is posted, and with my travels lately, I haven't had a chance to play along. This week for The Paper Players #172 , Nance has a fun challenge to make a CAS card and to use leaves on your card. I rarely make Thanksgiving cards ( I don't know why because I do have several appropriate stamps for Thanksgiving), but decided this was a great opportunity to make one. I actually made two with the Paper Players challenge in mind because the first one that I made I thought may not be considered CAS. What can I say, I love layers! Anyway, I made a second card trying for a cleaner look.

Here is my version of a CAS card. The patterned papers are from Fancy Pants and everything else is Stampin' Up.

 The inside:

Here is the first card that I made. The patterned papers are from the same Fancy Pants pad and the card stock is from Taylored Expressions. The stamps are SU. The layout comes from the Seize the Sketch #8 challenge.

Supplies
Stamps: Four Seasons, Gently Falling and Seasonal Sayings sets all from Stampin' Up
Card stock: SU Confetti white, Tangerine Tango, TE gold, rust and Choice Buttercream card stocks and Fancy Pants Happy Go Lucky patterned papers
Ink: SU More Mustard, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, and Cajun Craze
Other: SU circle punches, Classic circle Nesties, SU button, SU border punch, SU twine, SU rhinestones, TE brown ribbon, SU brown button, Fiskars large corner rounder punch, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

Have a great week and thanks for looking in,
Colleen