Graphic Greetings Birthday for The Paper Players 177

Hello all,

I hope your weekend was fab. We went to Redondo Beach Saturday evening to spend some time with friends. Had a great dinner out Saturday then did some shopping in Manhattan Beach this morning. The weather was super nice in the mid-70s and not a cloud. (sorry friends in the mid-west and east)

After getting home around 3 pm today, I spent some time organizing my SU DSPs, then I made this card for the first Paper Players challenge of 2014. The challenge this week is to make a card using the "chalkboard" technique, which I love. I went totally easy and used one of Taylor's Graphic Greetings stamps.

Supplies
Stamps: Graphic Greetings Birthday stamp by Taylored Expressions
Paper: TE blue and green card stock, SU black card stock, Websters Pages patterned papers
Ink: Versamark and SU craft white
Other: SU white embossing powder, heat tool, Fiskars corner rounder punch, resin flowers, dimensionals, glue gun

Thanks for looking in and have a great Monday,
Colleen

Be Like A Flower. . .

Hello,

It's Friday afternoon after a very short work week and I'm glad it's the weekend already. Next week will be hard with having to work five whole days, LOL.

Unfortunately, I was in need of a sympathy card last week. I used the current Sweet Sunday Sketch #200 (CONGRATS Karen!) to make one.

Supplies
Stamps: Summer Afternoon set by Taylored Expressions
Paper: TE green and vanilla card stock and My Minds Eye patterned papers
Ink: SU Old Olive and Poppy Parade
Other: Classic Oval Nesties, Die-namics dies, Kaiser pearls, the Big Shot and dimensionals

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Love Can Transform the World

Happy Back To Work Day! At least for me, LOL.

I made this card for the current MOJO Monday # 326 challenge. The papers and stamps are from the Taylored Expressions KI kit from October 2013. When I received my kit, I really wasn't "inspired" shall we say, by the stamps but I do love how this card turned out. I think I will try using these stamps and papers for more Valentines Day cards this year. You just never know how things will look until you actually make something, right?

After stamping the camera and fussy cutting it out, I placed a small rhinestone heart on the side and covered the lens and flash areas with Crystal Effects. Unfortunately, there was some slight bleeding of the ink, but fortunately it's not quite so noticeable IRL. I used the small heart stamp from the set and stamped inside a few of the little hanging Polaroid pictures in the background paper. Love that look! I did the same on the inside here:

Supplies
Stamps: Instant Love by Taylored Expressions (October 2013 KI)
Paper: TE card stock and Recorded by Websters Pages patterned papers
Ink: SU Raspberry Ripple and Bermuda Bay
Other: Die-namics Fishtail Flags STAX dies, Kaiser dark pink rhinestones, heart rhinestones, Crystal Effects, TE ribbon

Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

For the Birthday Boy

Happy New Year!

I'm having a relaxing day, stamping and watching TV. I started off with the Rose Parade this morning, now I'm watching the Rose Bowl Game. Rooting for Stanford as my little sis is an alumni.

I saw that Kim posted the new MFTWSC157 sketch this morning, so I started my stamping with it. My colors come from a new color challenge blog called Colour Me!. Today is their first challenge which is to use a single color, Island Indigo, along with a neutral. I chose to use Crumb Cake as my neutral and make a masculine birthday card.

In the photo, the Island Indigo looks more dark blue than IRL, but I really did use Island Indigo CS and ink. The dies and stamps are from My Favorite Things.

Here is a look at the inside:

Supplies
Stamps: Birthday Sentiments by My Favorite Things
Paper: SU Island Indigo, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla card stock and My Minds Eye patterned paper
Ink: SU Island Indigo and Crumb Cake
Other: Die-namics Triangle Screen die, Die-namics Star STAX dies, SU Crumb Cake candy dot, the Big Shot and dimensionals

Have a super week and thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Celebrate 2014

Hi everyone and happy last day of 2013!

I trust everyone had a fun and festive holiday season. It's almost behind us for another year, which means it's time to head back to work for many of us. I was lucky and had about 10 days off. I have to say, I was very lazy. I read. A lot. I did some stamping, but not much. I took some walks. Went out to dinner with friends. It was a super relaxing time and I'm kinda' bummed that it's almost over as I do return to work on Jan. 2.

This morning was one of the times that I took a few hours to do some stamping. I rarely make "Happy New Year" cards, but decided that I wanted to send a few good friends/family New Year's wishes. While cruising around blogs this morning I ran across the latest and newly posted Colour Q 222 challenge. Super good colors for New Years cards. I did substitute silver for the basic gray, however.

I used several dies to make this card. The only stamping is on the inside. The sunburst die is from TE and the "Celebrate", "2014" and "champagne glasses" are Die-namics from MFT. After scoring my background paper, I cut out the 2014 using dies, then placed some SU silver glimmer paper behind the cutouts. The "celebrate" is glued with a swipe of tape runner. I then sprinkled it with SU silver glass glitter and pushed it into the tape for added sparkle (as if the gold glimmer paper isn't enough LOL).  The champagne glasses are popped up with dimensional tape then gold rhinestones were added for the bubbles.

I think these blingy cards will be a hit with the recipients.

Supplies
Paper: SU black and whisper white card stock, SU silver and gold glimmer paper
Other: Taylored Expressions Ray Of Sunshine cutting plate die, My Favorite Things Die-namics By the Numbers, Let's Toast, LLD Accent It-Celebrate dies, Kaiser gold rhinestones, the Big Shot, and dimensionals.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL. I hope 2014 is good to you.

Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen

Friends Like You. . .

Happy Monday,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and you were able to celebrate with family or friends.

I have another quick post today. I made this card last night using the Paper Players theme of "evergreen", the Retro Sketch, and the Color Throwdown #270 colors of silver, Crumb Cake, Gumball Green and white.

Supplies
Stamps: Pure Innocence Happy Christmas by My Favorite Things
Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Gumball Green card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, SU DSP, SU Glimmer Silver paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Circle Nesties, SU woodgrain EF, SU twine, wood button, Die-namics Fishtail Flags STAX die, SU small star punch, white liquid appliqué, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Merry Monday Guest Designer This Week

Hi all,

I'm SOOOO excited to be included with Leslie and the Merry Monday design team this week as the "guest designer".  It's definitely an honor.

The theme for this week's challenge is to make a "Chalkboard" look card. I love the process of making this style of card so I was very pleased to see it's this week's challenge.

I pulled out a few of my Taylored Expressions holiday stamp sets and used a mixture of greetings and pictures. My technique when doing this type of card is to stamp it all out on a scrap piece of paper in the size of my finished piece. I just stamp everything in black on the scrap paper, mostly working on the spacing to make sure it looks right. Then, I get my black card stock, dust it with the anti-static powder and stamp from the top to the bottom. I will do a horizontal line of stamping, then pour the EP over so the ink doesn't dry out. Then on to the next line. I don't heat until the entire card is done.

I used some colored pencils to add a little color to the stars and holly. Then swiped  a sponge dauber across various areas with craft white ink. All pretty easy, just need to take the time to get the spacing correct. I kept the rest of the embellishments pretty simple so that the stamping remains the focus.

Supplies
Stamps: Various stamps from these Taylored Expressions sets: Sparkle and Cheer, Banner Holidays,  and Winter Wonderland
Paper: SU black, Gumball Green and Real Red card stock and Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas patterned paper
Ink: Versamark and SU Craft white
Other: SU white embossing powder, colored pencils, SU sponge dauber, sequins, SU wood grain EF, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

What a fun card this was to make! If you haven't done one of these, give it a try.

Thanks again to the girls at Merry Monday and thanks all for looking in,
Colleen