Just For You

 

Happy Friday Evening Peeps,

Here's a card inspired by two challenges. This past Wednesday was the last of April, so it's time for April's  Woodblock Wednesday. I pulled out a pretty flower spray and some sentiment stamps from my wood mounted stamp stash to make a Mother's Day card. I'm using the colors for the new Color Hues challenge. This time around Stef is our hostess and wants to see blue and yellow.

This card started with an older plaid background panel that I had done in blue shades. Another piece that I pulled out of the boxes last week doing some cleaning. I thought the Pink Fresh Studio Folk Art Frame die would go nicely with the stamp and the plaid so I die cut the largest frame from some Daffodil Delight card stock and layered it over a navy card base. I cut the flower image with the smallest frame from navy and layered it over a panel of yellow.

You might wonder why I placed the sentiment where it is. The stamp has a flaw in the rubber in that corner and I needed to hide it, LOL. I first tried a round die cut with the sentiment, but I liked this flag better.

For the inside, I used just a sentiment stamp. I didn't take a picture of it but it's also wood mounted. I used the large PF Frame again for a little added interest.

Enjoy your weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted Flowers from All Night Media, SU Just For You and Happy Mother's Day by Annette Watkins

Paper: SU Daffodil Delight, Spellbinders Navy, Gina K Designs white

Ink: Gina K Designs & Yellow Copics

Other: Pink Fresh Studio Folk Art Frame dies, Gina K Designs MasterLayouts 5 dies,  Concord & 9th Plaid Stencil, White embossing powder, Gina K Designs yellow dots

Happy Spring

 TGIF Peeps!

Hope your week has been a good one. I've mostly been working on a new quilt, actually it is an old WIP that I ran across while looking for something else, so I decided I'd pull it out to finish. I need some additional fabric, so later I'm headed to the fabric store.

Yesterday late afternoon, I finished what I could on the quilt and decided to do some stamping. Since it's the last week of the month, it's time for the February edition of Woodblock Wednesday. I pulled out some spring themed stamps and papers and used this week's Paper Players sketch by Jan to make this card.

These pretty papers are from The Stamps of Life Company and the pack is called Happy Florals collection. The front floral stamp is from Magenta. I stamped it twice, cutting one image with a stitched die from GKD. The other image I colored with Prismacolor colored pencils then cut out the floral boxes and popped them up. The sentiment strip image is from Hero Arts and again, it's cut out with a GKD die.

On the inside I wanted to stay with wood mounted stamps and I found this cute kitty dressed as the Easter Bunny, from Magenta, in my stash. I paired her/him with a simple Happy Easter greeting, also by Hero.

Here are the wood mounted stamps used for today's card.

Enjoy your Friday and the weekend. I'll be sewing.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Sentiment stamps by Hero Arts and Image stamps by Magenta

Paper: SU card stock and The Stamps of Life Co. patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Bubblegum Pink

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 5 and 13, Prismacolor Colored Pencils, Gamsol, Gina K Designs Pastel enamel pearls, foam tape

Another Birthday?

Hello all,

I'm playing along with the January 2026 edition of Woodblock Wednesday today. The monthly challenge where Amy gives us the motivation to use our neglected wood mounted rubber stamps. I'm always ready to play along each month.

I've got a punny birthday card today using stamps from Uptown Rubber Stamps and Penny Black. 

I started by finding some background patterned papers in my stash. I paired these with a floral embossing folder from Honey Bee. After stamping the topiary image, I colored it with Copics and mounted it on an espresso frame, cut with a Pink Fresh Studio die. The flowers under the sentiment are from SU.

I split up the sentiment with part on the front and the rest on the inside below. It cracks me up!

Hope you enjoy your Thursday evening and the upcoming weekend.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Topiary stamp from Uptown Rubber Stamps and sentiment stamp from Penny Black

Paper: SU Espresso, Gina K Designs white, Pebbles Treehouse patterned paper

Ink: Gina K Designs and Copic markers

Other: Kaleidoscope 3D Embossing Folder from Honey Bee, Folk Edge Square dies from Pink Fresh Studio, enamel flowers from Stampin' Up, 

You're the Cat's Pajamas

 Happy New Year all,

It's been many weeks since I've posted a card. Partly due to being on the east coast for a month and partly because of a broken left wrist. Yes, while on the east coast, I fell and fractured my left wrist. After 4 weeks in a cast, the cast was removed this past Monday and I'm in a brace now while it continues to heal. As long as I don't put much weight on it, I can manage to do some things, and luckily, I am right handed.

As yesterday was the last Wednesday of 2025, I wanted to participate in Amy's Woodblock Wednesday Challenge. Using the layout from the current Freshly Made Sketches, I made my first Valentine's Day card for 2026.

The background is made using the SSS Holiday Grid Stencil Pack. I only used the grid stencil to make the pink and peach squares. Then using some small Stampassions Valentine's stamps, I randomly stamped hearts and sayings in the squares.

After stamping and coloring the cat image, I fussy cut it and added it as the focal image per Narelle's sketch.

There was a column of the grid left over after trimming it for the front of the card so I used it for the inside of the card along with a very old SU greeting.

Here are the wood mounted stamps used for this card. FYI, this Cat's pPajamas stamp is one of my all time favorites, and I use it almost every year.

I hope everyone had a good holiday season and I'm wishing you all a Happy and Crafty 2026!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Woodmounted Cat from Uptown Rubber Stamps and Heart and Greetings from Stampassions Art Stamps

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Positively Saturated inks and Gina K Designs

Other: Simon Says Stamp Holiday Grid stencil, blending brushes, Gina K Designs paper heart embellishments, Gina K Designs circle dies, 

Quiet Peace

Happy Friday Peeps,

I'm playing along with the July edition of Woodblock Wednesday today with a very simple and monochromatic card.

I started by stenciling the GKD Snowflake Mandala on the front of a Soft Stone panel, then stamped the snowy village using a darker gray ink. The greeting is heat embossed with silver EP. After cutting the panel out with the SSS A2 Lacy Point die, I adhered it to a silver mat, then onto a dark gray card base.

The inside is very simple with more stenciling and a short greeting.

The Snowy Village stamp is from Ink Blocks, the front sentiment stamp is from Artistic Stamp Exchange and the inside greeting stamp is from Hero.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted from Artistic Stamp Exchange, Ink Blocks, Hero

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Other: Simon Says Stamp A2 Lacy Point dies, Gina K Designs Snowflake Mandala stencil, blending brushes, and fine detail silver embossing powder, Spellbinders rhinestones

I Love Tea

 Happy Saturday Peeps,

Hope your day has been a relaxing one. I started by taking my daily walk in the morning followed by picking up a quilt from being quilted by a long-arm quilter I met last year. We usually meet at a fabric/quilting shop in the La Mesa area of San Diego for handoff and pickup. This is the fourth quilt that she has quilted for me and they always look amazing. Plus, she is very reasonable in her charges. In the mid-afternoon we drove to the airport to pick up a neighbor who was flying in from Oregon where she and her wife have a second home. So, a rather productive day, but also time to do a little reading and blogging.

My card today is made using inspiration from two challenges. The layout is from this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge and since Wednesday was the last Wednesday in June, it's time for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday challenge.

The tea cup and the sentiment on the front and the tea pot on the inside are all small wood mounted stamps. They are from three different companies and the dates are from the mid and late 1980s.

I used a GKD embossing folder for the black background, then rubbed a gold ink pad over the raised areas to make them stand out more. The white and gold panel is a GKD Polyglaze panel that I foiled with gold deco foil. To continue with the shinny gold theme, I heat embossed the three tea cups and the sentiment with gold ep.

The inside is simple. I wasn't really sure what sentiment I wanted to use on the inside to go along with the "I Love Tea" on the front.

I hope your evening is grand!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Tea Cup by Great Impressions, Sentiment by Stephanie Olin Stamps and Tea Pot by Stamp Francisco

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs and Honey Bee, Copic Markers

Other: Gina K Designs Petite Flourish embossing folder and Vintage Flourish Polyglaze panel, Deco Gold Foil, Brutus Monroe gold embossing powder

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello Peeps,

It's been almost two months since I've done any stamping and posting to challenges. My craft room is also our guest room and my mom came to spend about six weeks with us beginning the second week of March. Before going to pick her up, I dismantled my craft room to make it into a bedroom for her. 

We had a great visit and I took her home about a week and a half ago, staying and visiting with her and my sister at their house in northern California, finally returning home on Tuesday. I was able to get my crafty things put back into their spots and today I made a card. A very simple card.

Since yesterday was the final Wednesday for April, it's was Woodblock Wednesday. An opportunity to pull out those rarely used wood mounted stamps, and I used the current Paper Players Sketch for my card's layout.

These wood mounted stamps are some I've had since the late 1990's. I stamped the cookie repeatedly using embossing ink and heat embossed using chocolate embossing powder. It's even chocolate scented. I think I bought it when I bought these stamps at Stamp La Jolla. Although it's a little clumpy, surprisingly it still embossed well. After embossing, I colored the cookies with blending brushes using Honey Mustard and Warm Cocoa inks.

I used dies from various Gina K Designs Master Layouts sets for the cutouts.

For the inside, I stamped a simple sentiment.

It's great to have my room back to normal and to be stamping again. 

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted Chocolate Chip Cookie stamp from Limited Edition Stamps. Wood mounted sentiment stamp from Judith

Inside sentiment stamp from Gina K Desings

Paper: Gina K Designs

Ink: Gina K Designs

Dies: Gina K Designs

Other: Chocolate embossing powder, heat tool, foam tape

The Cat's Pajamas

 Hello all,

Yesterday was the final Wednesday for January which means it's time for the January edition of Wood Block Wednesday. Probably the only time many of us actually pull out our wood mounted rubber stamps. I try to play along each month  when I'm not away from home.

For this month I have a Valentine's Day card and I've used the new Freshly Made Sketch to help with my layout.

I hope you're a pink fan, LOL.

This little cat in her pjs is one of my favorite stamps. It's an oldie from Uptown Rubber Stamps. I was wondering when/why this saying came about. Luckily, we have Google these days so looking it up was easy. Google says its first recording was 1920 as part of the typical vocabulary of the Jazz Age flappers. The term "cat" is slang for cool person and pajamas were just becoming fashionable for women in 1920. The saying was popularized by the cartoonist Tad Dorgan, who is also credited with the phrase, "the cat's meow." 

The large Valentine sentiment and the small hearts are also wood mounted stamps, as is the large heart on the inside. The sentiment on the inside is from an older SU set.

I love looking through the gallery because I recognize many of the stamps used each month, as I have them in my drawers too.

Enjoy the end of the week, and thanks for looking in. I'm off to buy some fabric for  backing and some batting for two quilts I've recently pieced. Retirement is the BEST!

Colleen

Supplies

Wood mounted stamps: Cat: Uptown Rubber Stamps, Valentine Sentiment: Great Impressions, Small Hearts: Rubber Stampede, and Large heart doily: Penny Black.

SU set: XOXO

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th and Copic Markers

Other: Spellbinders Scalloped Circle and Basic Circle dies, white heart embellishments, SU Dimensionals

Season's Greetings

 Happy Saturday,

I hope everyone is doing well this weekend. I'm finally back home after spending the past, almost month, at my mom's in Northern California. I wasn't planning on staying as long as I did, but it ended up that way. I drove the 12.5 hour drive on Thanksgiving day. The good news, no traffic, even through Los Angeles and no waiting for car charging in LA. 

After wading through mail and packages on Friday I was able to spend today in my craft room. Since this past Wednesday was the last Wednesday of the month, it is time for Woodblock Wednesday over on Amy's blog. I really like digging through my drawers of wood mounted stamps to play along each month. This month, I made two cards. (I'll write a second blog post for the second card.)

Today's card has a fun snowman, who seems to be very excited for the holidays. I've used Linda's sketch for this week's  Freshly Made Sketches challenge for the layout.

The background snow flake embossing folder is from Gina K Designs and the pattern papers are scraps from my stash bag. No clue of the company.

I kept the inside really simple with just the greeting.

The snowman stamp is from Stampendous circa 2000. The front greeting is from Hero and the inside greeting is from Annette Allen Watkins, 1992.

I love looking through the gallery to see how the wood mounted stamps are used. 

Have a great Sunday, the end of a four day weekend for most of us in the U.S. 

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted stamps from Stampendous, Hero Arts and Annette Allen Watkins

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock and misc patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs, Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Snowflake embossing folder, Taylored Expressions Scalloped die, Stampin' Up white snowflakes with silver sequins, SU Dimensionals, Connect liquid glue

Just A Friendly Little Boo

TGIF Peeps,

I have another Halloween card for you today. I made this with all wood mounted stamps to participate in Amy's Wood Block Wednesday Challenge, and I'm also using this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch by Jen T. 

After stamping Rosiland the witch, and her kitty Roscoe, I colored them with Copics. The image is cut out with a Spellbinders Oval die and then matted with a slightly larger oval cut from orange card stock. These are popped up with SU Dimensionals onto a panel of SSS holographic card stock.

The sentiment is cut using a GKD circle die which I layered with a slightly larger circle die from the same die set.

There are plenty of embellishments on this card including small holographic stars, sequin spooky shapes and I used black Stickles on her outfit and yellow Stickles on the pumpkin's smile, nose and eyes.

The inside is very simple, stamped in two-toned orange and black with another wood block Halloween sentiment stamp.

The witch stamp is called Rosland & Roscoe and it's from Stampassions. The outside sentiment stamp is from Simply Stamped by Dee Ann McLen, and the inside sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday and the coming weekend!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wood mounted stamps from Stampassions, Hero Arts and Simply Stamped

Paper: Gina K Designs, X-press It Blending white, Hero Arts, and SSS holographic card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Tangerine Twist  & Copics

Other: Spellbinders Oval dies, Gina K Designs circle dies, black and yellow Stickles, holographic stars, large sequin halloween shapes, SU dimensionals, Connect glue

Hello

Happy Sunday,

I realized that I didn't blog and post my cards for this month's Woodblock Wednesday Challenge.  I made the cards a few days ago while enjoying a baseball game on TV.

While looking through my wood mounted stamps, I found some sweet watermelons. Since it's summer, they seemed like a good idea. These are super simple, square note cards.

Both cards are stamped with GKD Black Onyx ink and colored with Copics and Olo markers. I found some picnic themed pattern papers in my stash and used them on one of the cards.

Here are the individual cards, both front and the inside.

Enjoy your day. We are headed to the San Diego county fair late this afternoon. Our young friend Liam has an art project entered and we need to go see it. I like looking at all of the school projects and the photography.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Watermelon and watermelon border stamps from ©imaginations, sentiment stamps from Hero Arts

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White, SU Poppy Parade, Call Me Clover and Granny Apple Green card stock, stash patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Red Velvet, Copic and Olo markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 3, SU corner rounder punch