Wish Big

 Hi all,

It's a beautiful day in my neck of the woods. Clear blue skies and a cool ocean breeze. I'm busy rounding up things I need to pack as I'm headed back to my mom's tomorrow. I'm flying instead of making the 650 mile drive since I'll only be there a couple of weeks this time. My sister and all of her stuff arrived on Monday, and I'm going to help with unpacking and putting away. 

Last evening while watching tennis I made my card for this week's Paper Players challenge. Joanne has the monthly theme challenge this week and it's called Four Legged Friends. I pulled out one of my favorite Lawn Fawn sets and the coordinating dies to make this birthday card. I found these balloon papers in my misc paper stash and thought they would make a fun background. I have no idea of their origin. Probably from a long past card kit.

For the inside, I used another Lawn Fawn dog stamp set, which is actually a Halloween set.

The green background and white panel are cut from the SU Radiating Stitches die set and I threw in some more of the polkadot paper too.

My blog will be pretty quiet for the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for checking in, and have a good day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Simply Celebrate Critters, Elphie Selfie, How You Bean-Strawberry Add-On, and Happy Howloween sets all from Lawn Fawn

Paper: Gina K Designs heavy and layering weight white and Jelly Bean Green card stock, stash patterned papers

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Gina K Designs Blue Denim, and Copics

Other: Radiating Stitches Dies from Stampin' Up, My Favorite Things Banner die, SU Dimensionals, Connect glue, Misti, Big Shot

Warm Autumn Wishes

 Happy Labor Day Monday,

I hope you're enjoying the long weekend. I sure have been, mostly crafting while watching the US Open Tennis matches. I've been good about getting up early and getting at least a 3 mile walk in each day so I don't feel too guilty about sitting around the rest of the day.

Yesterday I pulled out some new Gina K Designs Polyglaze sheets, some deco foils and my Mink laminator and made a bunch of backgrounds. Just like hot foiling, once you get started, it's hard to stop. They are all so shinny and pretty! Since I still needed to make my card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, I decided to use some of the panels for it.

I made four of these leaf panels with different colors of foil then cut them all using the same die and then arranged them so the panel is put back together with each quadrant in a different color. The card base is embossed with the Gina K Designs Fall Leaves embossing folder for some added texture.

The sentiments on both the front and inside, and the small leaves on the inside, are also from Gina K Designs, a newer stamp set called Harvest Silhouettes. Here is the inside.

Enjoy your day!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Harvest Silhouettes stamp set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Heavy Weight and Layering Weight white, Tranquil Teal, Jelly Bean Green and Black Onyx by Gina K Designs

Ink: Tranquil Teal, Jelly Bean Green, Black Onyx and Craft White by Gina K Designs

Other: Gina K Designs Grungy Leaves Polyglaze sheets, Deco Foil, Mink Laminator, Gina K Designs white embossing powder, heat tool, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 11 and 2 die sets, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs gold dots, Connect glue, foam tape

The Cookie of Life

 Happy Saturday peeps,

If you're in the U.S., it's the first day of the Labor Day Holiday weekend and it's a rainy and steamy day where I live. My only plans, however, is US Open Tennis watching and crafting, so the weather isn't bothering me any.

I pulled out some really "old" wood block stamps to play along with Amy's August Woodblock Wednesday challenge. It always takes me awhile to pick through my drawers of wood mounted stamps trying to pick out which I want to use. This month, I choose a chocolate chip cookie stamp and a greeting stamp that goes well with it.

I stamped a background of cookies and colored them with Copics then trimmed the panel down using the GKD Master Layout 2 dies. I decided to put the sentiment on a heart and also stamped another cookie, fussy cut it out and popped it up. 

I used a stamp from Concord & 9th for the inside sentiment and added one more cookie, cut in half.

Enjoy your weekend and happy crafting!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cookie from Limited Edition (1997), Front Sentiment stamp from Judith, Inside Sentiment stamp from Concord & 9th

Paper: SU Vanilla, Gina K Designs Dark Chocolate and Red Hot card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Dark Chocolate and Red Hot, Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 2 and 4, SU Dimensionals, Connect Glue, Big Shot

Boo & Thanks

 TGIF Peeps,

Here's my card for LeAnne's Paper Players sketch challenge for this week. I made my card way back on Tuesday, but never got around to taking a picture and writing my post until this morning. It's been another warm week, but I like the sunny days of August. Our May, June and much of July are foggy and we can go weeks without seeing the sun, so I'm not complaining about a few warm-ish days, LOL.

I made a Halloween card using July release sets from Concord & 9th. The background is made using a Turnabout stamp and the rest of the images are from it's coordinating stamp set and dies. The pattern paper, card stock and inks are also all C&9th.

Instead of a square for the focal panel I used  hexagon dies from Spellbinders and a cover plate from Concord & 9th for the Pumpkin's background. The twine has a gold sparkle running through it although it's hard to see in the picture.

On the inside, I used the piece of the background on the front that I trimmed off and more images from the pumpkin stamp set.

I'm also sharing this card made with one of the new C&9th Layering  Stencil, stamp and die sets.  This is made with C&9th inks as well. Their fall colors  are so pretty, especially the dark rust color which is called Cayenne. The stamp set has two large and 3 small sentiments with coordinating dies to cut them out. 

Here is then inside of this card using a coordinating flower die from the suite. Again, paper and inks are all C&9th.

That's it for me. I just received some new stamps and dies from Gina K.'s August release yesterday so I think I'll play with some of those today. I hope you all have a super weekend. 

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Pumpkin Patch Turnabout set, Playful Pumpkins stamp and die set and Cottage Garden Layering Stencils, Stamp and die set all from Concord & 9th

Paper: Concord & 9th white, Nutmeg, Cayenne, Juniper, and Buttercup card stock and Fall 2023 patterned papers

Ink: Concord & 9th Spiced Cider, Cayenne, Buttercup, Peacock, and Nutmeg. Gina K Designs White craft ink

Other: WOW white embossing powder, heat tool, Spellbinders Nested Hexagon dies, Concord & 9th Stitched Leaves Card Front die, blending brushes, foam tape, white and gold twine, SU mini glue dots and Dimensionals, Doodlebug enamel dots, Connect liquid glue, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 dies, Misti and Big Shot

Holiday Greetings

 Hello all,

I thought I'd do one more card for the 600th celebration at Freshly Made Sketches. I really like the layout of this sketch. This time, I used a new die set from Spellbinders to make a Holiday card.

This is one of the stitching dies and they are fun to do. I have several now in my collection and a little bag of embroidery floss to choose from to stitch them up. The background cover plate is from SSS and the glimmer paper and gold gems are from SU. The greeting is from GKD. 

It's a beautiful, sunny, but not too hot day here on the SD coast. I hope all is well where you are.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Wishing You Mini stamp set by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU thick basic white and glimmer papers

Ink: Gina K Designs Christmas Pine

Other: Spellbinders Stitched Poinsettia and Holly and Scalloped Circle dies, Simon Says Stamp Detail Petal Cover Plate,  Embroidery thread & needle, Connect liquid glue, Misti, Big Shot

Hello

 Hi Peeps,

Happy Friday to all. I hope you have an enjoyable weekend. We have zero plans, which is fine with me. More crafty time!

I had some time this evening to do some stamping. I decided I wanted to do some coloring, and this very large daisy stamp from Gina K Designs is perfect for that. It's from her July release and this is the first time I've inked it up. My colors come from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. Lori's colors are Gray, Aqua and Green.

The flower and leaves are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic markers. I placed it on an embossed Slate gray card base. After embossing I rubbed a silver craft ink pad over the raised areas then brushed silver Pearl Ex powder over the ink. The large hello die is also by Gina K Designs. It's cut 3 times from dark teal card stock and one time from black and stacked together. The black on the bottom is offset for a shadow effect. I added some silver dots in the center to go along with the silver on the card base.

Here is a pic of the inside of the card using another GKD stamp set.

 

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for looking,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Devine Daisy set and Pretty Posy Mini set both by Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs card stock in Slate, Tranquil Teal, Black Onyx and Layering Weight White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Craft Silver and Copic markers

Other: Gina K Designs Lattice embossing folder and Hello die, Silver Pearl Ex powder, GKD silver pearls, Connect Glue, Misti, Big Shot, Foam Tape

Let's Celebrate!

Hi all and Happy Wednesday evening,

Freshly Made Sketches is celebrating their 600th sketch this week. As it's one of my favorite challenges to play along with each week, I'm excited to join in the celebration.  The design team and the Guest DT has provided some beautiful cards for our inspiration and I've enjoyed seeing each card.

For my card I wanted to keep it in the "clean" spirit of the FMS challenge. I used some ink blending for the horizontal element, a fun circle die from GKD and a pretty stamped and stenciled butterfly. I kept the color scheme simple too, using various shades of green, blue and purple.

After ink blending across the top of the panel, I cut the dots circle die and the center circle die from the GKD Lots of Dots die set popping up that center circle providing a landing space for the butterfly.

I'm also posting my card to this week's Clean and Simple Paper Players Challenge.

For the inside, I used a couple of GKD mini stamp sets and made this card a birthday card.

Congratulations to the ladies who bring us such a fun challenge each week. Think of all of the beautiful inspiration they've provided over the years!

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: All Gina K Designs You Give Me Butterflies, Flowers & Wings Mini and Birthday Cheer Mini

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight and Layering Weight White

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Apple Mint, Sea Glass, Lovely Lavender, Lucky Clover, Turquoise Sea and Wild Lilac

Other: You Give Me Butterflies Layering Stencils and dies, Flowers & Wings dies, Lots of Dots dies, blending brushes, Pre-printed sentiments and Sentiment Strip dies, black enamel dots, Misti, Big Shot, Connect Glue, SU Dimensionals