Joyful Wishes

Hello and happy late Sunday afternoon,

I hope your weekend was relaxing and fun. I just finished a 5K that starts about 1/2 mile from my house at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, CA. It's called the Surfing Madonna Fun Run and it's a Save the Ocean benefit run. I don't actually run, but walk it and by the time I walk from home and back, it ends up to be an 8 mile afternoon. I've been trying to get back into walking every day and this past week I did pretty good, clocking more than 14,000 steps each day.

On to the real reason we're here, to post a card that I made yesterday for this week's Freshly Made Sketch. Cecile has a fun sketch this week where the card is divided in half and has a vertical greeting element. Here's what I came up with.

I pulled out one of my favorite Avery Elle holiday sets, called Retro Ornaments, to make a Christmas card. The images are stamped using Memento tuxedo black and colored with copies.The sentiment banner is from Lawn Fawn and the patterned paper is very old SU DSP holiday paper with a retro look, which I thought matched the ornaments quite well. After getting everything glued down, I added some tiny clear rhinestones to the starbursts on the DSP and used a very liberal amount of Nuvo glitter pen on the white areas on the ornaments.

I used one of the set greetings and some tiny starburst images on the inside.

I actually had several ideas for Cecile's sketch and I may make them later for some of my holiday cards that I send out this year.

My evening plans include vegging and watching the Sunday evening baseball playoff game.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Retro Ornaments by Avery Elle and Winter Scripty Sayings by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Real Red and X-Press It Blending card stock, SU retired DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Call Me Clover & Shaded Spruce
Other: Nuvo glitter pen, clear rhinestones

Merry Christmas

Hi to all,

I have a quick post before I head off to work this morning of a card that I made last night after dinner. I've used the sketch from Global Design Project #158. It looked like a fun one so I decided to see what I could come up with.

Since I know most of the DT are SU demos, I used all, mostly, SU products from the Holiday catalog.

I had not inked up this set, nor used the DSP yet, and I think this one turned out pretty darn cute. In fact, I may make a few more I think.

The images are stamped with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Stampin' Blends. I cut them out with the set dies and popped the two elves and presents up with dimensionals. The greeting is from another Holiday set. I love this red sparkly twine too. The only product not SU is some Nuvo white drops that I used on the North Pole sign for snow and on the elves' hats. For additional embellishment I added some SU enamel snowflakes.

I'm off to work. Have a great day and thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Signs of Santa and Timeless Tidings sets by Stampin' Up
Paper: SU heavy Whisper White, Whisper White and Shaded Spruce card stock, Santa's Workshop DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Stampin' Blends, Shaded Spruce
Other: Signs of Santa dies, SU Santa's Workshop Enamel Shapes, SU Sparkly Red twine, Nuvo drops, dimensionals

Hug In a Mug

Hi again,

One more quick post this afternoon. This card was made last night after dinner and is for another challenge. This time it's the Retro Rubber Challenge, where they have a fun sketch this week. Luckily again, like the previous card, this also works for the Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge. This time it fits the bottom row of die cut/orange or rust/glitter or sequins.

I started with a card base of Pumpkin Pie card stock and layered some Lawn Fawn fall plaid patterned papers per the sketch. The mug is stamped onto X-Press It Blending card stock with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. It' s cut with a Die-namics cross-stitched circle die and layered with a Spellbinders circle die cut from Pumpkin Pie. I used yellow Stickles to add sparkle to the mug and three shinny gold hearts as the "steam."

The stamp set is from Concord & 9th and is their free gift for ordering the entire monthly collection, which was September 2017, I'm pretty sure.

The inside is another free gift from Concord & 9th from 2017. This one is a little later, I think from October 2017 when I ordered a several holiday sets.

I love the orange and teal together. Very bright and retro.
Again, thanks for looking in.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Cup of Cozy and Heartfelt Smile sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie and X-Press It Blending card stock and Lawn Fawn Fall plaid patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Pumpkin Pie, Distress Peacock Feathers
Other: Die-namics Cross Stitched circle and Spellbinder Circle bestie dies, gold enamel hearts, yellow Stickles, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

Happy Fall

Hello all,

It's a beautiful SoCal fall day. Sunny, clear and in the low 70s. I hope it's a fine day where you are.

I've been making a few challenge cards this morning. I started with a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketch since the challenge ends tomorrow. Lucky for me, this card will also work for LeAnne's tic-tac-toe challenge at the Paper Players. Without actually planning it, I can use the left side of leaves, ribbon, die cut.

I started by embossing the card base with a TE Fall Leaves embossing folder. The three sketch elements are cut from rust and ivory card stock with a Die-namics Inside and Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die. Those sweet little foxes are a sticker pack from Paper Source. The greeting is from Lawn Fawn.

The inside is simple. I just stamped another Lawn Fawn greeting that says "Jump for Joy!"

I'm enjoying watching & listening to the final regular season baseball game for 2018. I'll watch the post-season (even though my team won't be playing), then I'll look forward to spring training 2019.

Have a nice afternoon and evening, and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Jump For Joy set by Lawn Fawn

Paper: SU Naturals Ivory and Soft Suede card stock, Taylored Expressions textured rust card stock

Ink: SU Soft Suede

Other: Paper Source fox stickers, Doodlebug leaf stickers, SU ribbon, Taylored Expressions Fall Leaf embossing folder, Die-namics Inside and Out Diagonal Stitched Rectangle STAX dies, Gemini Jr, dimensionals

You're My Cup of Tea

Hi all,

How about a tea themed card on National Coffee Day, LOL. This card just kind of came together pretty easily using the new CAS(E) this Sketch. The stamp set is from Verve and I think it's the very first coffee and tea themed set that I bought.

The images are stamped onto some fall patterned papers from American Crafts call Pumpkin Patch. I stamped the cup using Memento tuxedo black, then masked it with a post-it to stamp the tea stains.  The tea cup is paper pieced instead of colored to coordinate with paper at the top of the card. I added some black crocheted ribbon from SU and some black rhinestones for embellishment and rounded the top corners with a corner punch.

The inside sentiment is Mama Elephant.

A quick post this afternoon. Have a great Saturday evening and rest of the weekend.
Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Better With You set by Verv and Scripty Notes set by Mama Elephant
Paper: SU Naturals card stock and American Crafts Pumpkin Patch patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Baked Brown Sugar and Hello Honey, Copics
Other: Fiskars corner punch, SU black crochet ribbon, black rhinestones

Happy Birthday

Happy Friday!

Yay, it's Friday and the weekend is here. It's just too bad that they go by so quickly.

I have two close friends who both have birthdays at the beginning of October. One is on Oct. 1 and the other is on Oct. 2, so I've been working on their birthday cards. Since they are Fall birthdays, I decided on Fall flowers.

The first card uses the current Sunday Stamps Sketch and an older MFT Fall set.

I really like how this sketch looks with my completed card. The sunflowers and birdie are stamped with permanent black ink onto water color paper and colored with Zig Real Brush Water color markers and an aqua painter. The papers are from an older Pebbles 6 x 6 pad called Woodland Forrest. I didn't want to cover too much of the flowers so I used the twine as the horizontal element.

Here's a look at the inside. The sentiment is from Neat & Tangled and the die is TE.

For the second birthday card, I've used a new set from the Simon Says Stamp October Card kit. I heat embossed the image in gold EP on SU Heavy Very Vanilla card stock and colored it with Copics. For the splatters, I just used some gold craft ink on an acrylic block mixed with water with a paint brush and flicked it across the image panel. The card base is SSS card stock from the October kit. I used a recent sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, #355.

The inside is super simple. I used VersaMark ink and my Misti to stamp the image several times to get this dark watermark look. The sentiment is part of the stamp set.

It's a really dreary day here on the SoCal coast, but I'm not complaining as yesterday I was back in Palm Springs where it is still 107 degrees! I'll take the cool and foggy weather over that any time!

Have a great afternoon and a great weekend.
Thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Card 1:
Stamps: Fall Friends by My Favorite Things and Celebrate You by Neat & Tangled
Paper: SU More Mustard card stock, SU water color paper and Pebbles Woodland Forrest patterned paper
Ink: SU Black Archival, Zig Real Brush Markers, SU Early Expresso
Other: MFT Fall Friends dies, Fiskars Corner punch, TE Scalloped Border die, Avery Elle twine, Gemini Jr, Misti, dimensionals

Card 2:
Stamps: Sketched Flowers by Simon Says Stamp
Paper: SSS orange card stock, SU heavy Very Vanilla and SU So Saffron card stocks
Ink: VersaMark, Memento Tuxedo black, Copics, craft gold ink pad
Other: Twinery Gold Baker's twine, SSS gold sequins, SU gold EP, heat tool, Misti Stamping Tool

Thanks

Happy Hump Day,

I'm "working" in my home office today. Working in quotes because I'm really pretty caught up on all my projects etc until the next one starts next week. I have a few little tasks to get done, but other than that, I have time to do some other fun things.

Fun things like get my card for this week's Paper Players Challenge posted. I made this last night while watching baseball. Jaydee has a sketch for us that is very versatile, and this card took no time to make using it.

I decided to use the same patterned papers for both the top and bottom sections, but I trimmed a quarter inch from the bottom and layered a coordinating paper underneath. These papers are from a fall 6x6 pad that I picked up at Target last week. I stopped in for a particular item and wondered over to the section just inside the doors where they have all the fun, cheap stuff. I found these fall papers and also a pad of glitter papers too. Not to mention some halloween note pads and pencils and some really fun wine glasses.

The stamps are from last September's Hero Arts monthly kit. I hadn't used this particular one yet. Each letter has two stamps. One with the outlines and one that is solid to add the color. Easy to do with my Misti Stamping tool.

Because I love them, I added some embellishments. I like the gold accents with this paper.

I used more of the set and some Hero dies on the inside, along with more of the patterned papers.

That's all for this post. I see more stamping in my future for this afternoon.


Have a great Wednesday all and thanks,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Color Layering Thanksgiving set by Hero Arts
Paper: SU Night of Navy and Whisper White card stock, Horizon Group (Target) patterned fall papers
Ink: SU Night of Navy, Pistachio Pudding, Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango, More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Garden Green
Other: Die-namics Stitched Rectangle border die, Hero Arts Autumn Icons Fancy dies, SU Sequin ribbon and twine, Lawn Fawn wooden leaf, SSS gold sequin disks, glue gun, foam tape, Gemini Jr, Misti