Hello

Happy Monday peeps,

I hope the start of the work week went well for you. I worked in my office today which was a nice way to start the week. The last three, I had to be up very early to get to the airport.

Mr. Personal Chef and I went out to the Temecula Wine Country yesterday afternoon. It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We tasted at a couple of wineries and had lunch, then headed home. After dinner, I spend the time making this card following Claire's sketch for this week's Paper Players challenge. What a fun sketch this week.

I pulled out some Carta Bella Spring Market patterned papers that came with the Simon Says Stamp March kit which was the inspiration for my card design. The stamp set is from Hero Arts.

After adhering the pattern papers to the Whisper White card base I cut a circle from X-Press It Blending card stock with a Die-namics Double Stitched circle die. I stamped the daisy flowers using Memento tuxedo black on X-Press It Blending card stock and colored them with Copics. They were then cut out using the set dies and placed on the circle. The top daisy is popped up with dimensionals. The bees and the sentiment are from the same Hero Arts stamp set.

Here is the inside:

The inside flower is stamped with SU Blushing Bride ink. I used my Misti to align the inside sentiments.

I'll be working around San Diego tomorrow and then we have a Little League game to attend in the late afternoon. I hope your Tuesday is a good one.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Daisy and Bugs set by Hero Arts
Paper: SU Whisper White, X-Press It Blending card stock and Carta Bella Spring Market patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Blushing Bride, Copics
Other: Hero Arts Daisy & Bugs set dies, Die-namics Double Stitched Circle and Fishtail Flags STAX dies, SU green Baker's twine, Gemini Jr, dimensionals, Misti Stamping tool

We Must Celebrate

Happy Friday to all,

TGIF!! I don't know about you, but this week seemed like it went on FOREVER! I didn't think that Friday would come. I think I was exhausted by Tuesday night, LOL. This week's work travel took me to Phoenix, AZ and to Los Angeles. While LA isn't all that far, it's dealing with the traffic. But, it's all done and I'm waiting on my Personal Chef to whip up some noshes for Happy Hour.

Last night after dinner I made a card using the layout from this week's Freshly Made Sketch and the colors from this week's Color Throwdown. I've used the uber cute SU set called We Must Celebrate.

I stamped the celebration crew using Memento tuxedo black on X-Press It Blending card stock, colored them, sparingly, with Copics then fussy cut them out. The pink plaid paper that makes the circle element is from MFT. The black and white flower paper is from We R Memory Keepers "Chalkboard" 6 x 6 pad, and the card base is pink card stock from Taylored Expressions.  Both sentiments are from the same SU set.

Here's the inside.

I'll add this one to my stash.

I hope you have a super fun and relaxing weekend! Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: We Must Celebrate set from Stampin' Up
Paper: X-Press It Blending card stock, pink TE card stock, pink plaid patterned paper from MFT, black and white patterned paper from We R Memory Makers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Blushing Bride
Other: Die-namics Inside Out Stitched Circle die, Gemini Jr., mini-dimensional, black enamel shapes

Happy Birthday

Hi again,

I mentioned in my post this morning that I would share the cards that we made at our "craft day" yesterday. I usually try to put something fairly simple together for the others to make from my SU supplies. Since this year's Sale-a-bration is almost over, I thought I'd use one of the newer sets from the Occassion's Mini Catalog and I picked the Birthday Wit set with it's too cute sentiments.

The pattern papers are from SU as well, an older set and a new set of DSP.

This first card is based on this week's CAS(E) This Sketch! layout.

Here are the others all using the same SU stamp set.

Simple and fun cards!

Thanks again for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Birthday Wit set by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Old Olive card stocks, SU Summer Smooches and SU Bubbles & Fizz DSP, SU Gold Glimmer Paper
Ink: SU Island Idigo, Basic Gray, Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist, Calypso Coral, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango
Other: Die-namics Stitched Rectangle, Pierced Circle dies, Spellbinder circle die, Gemini Jr, sequins, SU candy dots, dimensionals

Everything Is Cooler With You

Hi and Happy Sunday,

I finally managed a little time for stamping Friday evening and this morning. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been traveling every week for work which means weekends have been used for getting other chores done. Last weekend, my sister came for a visit and we spent the weekend planning for a trip to Ecuador and Peru to visit my nephew (her son) who is in Ecuador for school (semester abroad.)

Yesterday was "craft day" with my little group and I put together some cards for them to make on Friday evening. I'll show you what we made in another post.

Today's card is for this week's Paper Players Challenge. Nance is the hostess with a CAS theme for this week. I decided to keep things very simple by using some rainbow inspired patterned paper and when I went looking through my stash this popsicle paper from Doodlebug caught my eye. Then I looked through my Lawn Fawn sets and found this winter holiday set that I thought would make a fun combo, especially with the greeting. The sketch is from this week's Freshly Made Sketches, a fun one by Linda.

My brother has been having some health issues and this should cheer him up a bit.

I cut the square frame using a Die-namics Stitched Square Frame die. The bears and iceberg are stamped with Memento black and colored with Copics then cut out with the set dies. The greeting is stamped in Memento black as well. Super simple and probably took all of 15 minutes to make.

Here is the inside. I used the reverse side of the popsicle paper and die cut some clouds. The greeting is from the same stamp set. A fun non-holiday card made with holiday stamps.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday afternoon. I'm off to Phoenix, AZ for a few days, then I'll be in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Hopefully, that will be the end of back to back travel for awhile.

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Beary Happy Holidays set
Paper: SU Whisper White card stock and Doodlebug Fruit Stand patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Beary Happy Holidays dies, Die-namics Stitched Square Frame die, Taylored Expressions Cloud dies, Wink of Stella, SU mini glue dots and dimensionals, Gemini Jr

Happy Spring

Well hello everyone,

It's been quite a while since I've done any stamping. I decided it was time to makeover my craft space/room, so about three weeks ago I took everything out of the room and the storage closet and piled it in our garage. I had the room painted, ordered some wall storage, drawers and new desk. I also ordered some ink, marker and drawer inserts from Organize More. This afternoon I finished putting all of my "stuff" into the new storage, with the exception of the inks and markers. Unfortunately, the Organize More pieces have not come yet, but I'm expecting them soon. Regardless, I got everything organized enough to actually make a card.

The talented Jaydee is the hostess this week at the Paper Players with a fun theme challenge. I was in the mood to color and reached for a spring themed Pure Innocence set to work with. The sketch is based on last week's Paper Players sketch.

The images are stamped with Memento tuxedo black on X-Press It Blending card stock, colored with Copics, and cut out with the set dies. The pink flower patterned paper is SU and the top layer is some random that I have in my stash and perfect for the Spring theme.

The inside:

I'll share a few pictures when the room is completely finished. For now, I'm off to pack as I'm heading to Colorado for the week for work.

Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Pure Innocence Spring Friends and My Basket of Eggs sets by My Favorite Things
Paper: SU Pixie Pink, X-Press It Blending card stock and SU DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Spring Friends dies, Die-namics Stitched Rounded Rectangle dies, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Oh Happy Day!

Hello crafters,

My second day of vacation and I've been running around like crazy. Too many errands! We pick up our visitors from the airport at 8:00 pm and many of those errands were to get ready for them. We are super excited for them to arrive.

Yesterday I took all of my stamping supplies out my room and they are in a pile in the garage, so this post will be my last for a few weeks to a month until I get everything put back together again. After our friends leave, the room will be painted then I'm putting in some IKEA furniture for storage and a new desk.  I've also ordered some ink and drawer storage from Organize More. Those should be arriving any day now. I can't wait to get everything done, and I plan on taking this opportunity to do some purging of things that I don't use.

Today's card uses this week's Sunday Stamps sketch challenge. It's a fun sketch and I enjoyed working with it. I've used some new Mama Elephant stamps. These flying elephants are too cute!

I found this patterned paper with the constellations and thought it would be fun to pair with the elephant flying high with his balloon. The images are stamped with Memento tuxedo black, colored with Copics and cut out with the set dies. I've used a TE cloud border die for the horizontal element. I cut it twice, once in white and once in mint to make a shadow for the white. For embellishments I've added a few enamel stars and brushed a liberal amount of Wink of Stella over the balloon.

Here's the inside:

Don't you love those little caps?!

Thanks for checking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Fly With Me and Scripty Bday sets by Mama Elephant
Paper: SU Mint Macaroon, Dapper Denim, Whisper White, X-Press It Blending card stock
the patterned papers are from my misc stash bag, so I don't know the company.
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Dapper Denim
Other: Fly With Me dies, Taylored Expressions Border Cloud die, enamel stars, Wink of Stella clear, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

You Are So Loved

Hello crafters,

I have tons to do today as today is when I start packing up my craft room. Since it's still relatively early here on the west coast, I'm indulging in a little internet time before I get started.

I had a very productive Sunday as far as card making. There's a fairly new challenge blog, Inspired By Challenge, that is in it's second week. I first saw it on this post by my friend,  LeAnne, and thought it would be fun to play along. Looking through my paper stash I found this cute envelope paper and built my card around it and the inspiration photo.

The critters are from the Mama Elephant Woodland Gifts set. The Tree dies used in the background are from Lawn Fawn and the Stitched Hill die is Die-namics. The images are stamped on X-Press It Blending card stock and colored with Copics and cut out with the set dies. Before popping them into the scene using dimensionals, I cut out the background with a Spellbinders Scalloped Square die and matted it using a Spellbinders Square die in Real Red. The ribbon is SU.

Here's the inside using more images from the Woodland Gifts set and a sentiment from SU.

Wishing everyone a great day! Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Woodland Gifts set by Mama Elephant, Good Greetings by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU Whisper White, Real Red and Mint Macaroon, X-Press It Blending card stock and misc patterned paper (loose sheets that I have bagged up from various 6 x 6 pads)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Real Red
Other: Woodland Gifts dies, Spellbinder dies, Lawn Fawn dies, Die-namics dies, SU Red stitched ribbon, Gemini Jr, dimensionals