Life is Better. . .

Happy Friday all,

My work computer is being updated this morning so while it's unavailable, I have a chance to post my Paper Players Challenge card for this week. I'm just squeaking it in, LOL.

A few days ago I watched another of Jennifer McGuire's technique videos called Faux Die Cut Monoprinting and decided to give it a try. I made several attempts, some worked pretty well and some, not so much. But, one that did come out pretty cool is the background for today's card.

In the instructions, Jennifer recommends using inks that are water sensitive such as Distress or Distress Oxide. Since this week's PP challenge is a color challenge, I wanted to see if the SU inks would work. I had good luck with the Real Red and the Tranquil Tide, but the Basic Gray inks is clearly a different formula. As you can see in my picture, no color for the Basic Gray ink transferred using this technique. I tried it a few times with always the same no color transfer.

The die that I used is the Taylored Expressions Quatrefoil Cutting Plate. For this particular background, after running everything through my die cutting machine, and before removing the die, I used purple tape over the  whole back side so that I could pull the pieces out still in their original formations. I then used this whole piece as the mono print. It really is a pretty cool technique.

The flower dies and the stamped sentiment are from the SU set called Peaceful Moments. After gluing everything in place I added some silver sequins to compliment the gray card stock.

For the inside, I used the large stamp from the new Blossoms in Bloom set, stamping off to get a light image. The sentiment stamp is also from this set.

If you are looking for a new technique to try, head over to Jennifer's blog and check this one out. I think you'll have fun.

Thanks for looking in and have a great Friday!
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: Peaceful Moments set and Blossoms in Bloom set by Stampin' Up
Ink: SU Basic Gray, Real Red, Tranquil Tide, VersaMark
Paper: SU Thick Whisper White, Real Red, Tranquil Tide and Basic Gray card stocks
Other: Misti, Gemini Jr,  Big Shot, TE Quatrefoil Cutting Plate, SU Peaceful Moments dies, white embossing powder, heat tool, liquid glue, dimensionals, sequins

Treat Yo'self

Hi peeps,

It's a gloomy Monday here on the San Diego coast. I'm home because my car is in getting a new tire. I had a flat yesterday when we were heading to meet friends for dinner. It's always something!

Dinner was early so there was plenty of time to make a card before bed. I love the colors this week on the Sunday Stamps Challenge. Using those with the current Freshly Made Sketches layout, I made this bright, summer themed card.

The stamp set is the Cool Treats Turnabout set by Concord & 9th. It's a really fun summer set with great matching dies. The inks are mostly from SU. The brightest blue is from Hero. After cutting and stamping the snow cone and popsicle I used some Wink of Stella over each to give them an icy look. As usual, that doesn't photograph well. The sentiment is heat embossed with white EP.

Her is the inside. This is made using the largest popsicle die and more sentiment images from the stamp set.

I hope your Monday is a good one. Thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cool Treats Turnabout set by Concord & 9th

Paper: SU Watermelon Wonder, Balmy Blue, and Blueberry Bushel card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, Neenah Desert Storm card stock

Ink: SU Watermelon Wonder, Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel, Hero Summer Sky cube, VersaMark

Other: C&9th set dies, Die-namics Stitched Square dies, Waffleflower Nested Rectangle dies, Misti, Gemini Jr, white embossing powder, heat tool, Wink of Stella, dimensionals

Sending Birthday Joy

Hello,

Since I was home and on PTO today due to our bathroom remodel, I had a chance to do some stamping. I also did some drawer reorganization in my craft room. Last night, I was playing around with some Gina K ink cubes by applying the ink directly to some paper to make a variety of squares. Using my SU 1" punch, I punched out the squares and glued some of the them down on a piece of white card stock. I set it aside until I figured out what to make with it and this afternoon, I used it for this week's CAS(E) this Sketch!

Using the Misti, I stamped one of the flowers from the Altenew Wallpaper Art set with Gina K black amalgam ink. I stamped it several times to get a darker image. Next I cut a flower mask from Gina K masking paper and then stamped the leaves. After the stamping was completed, I matted the panel with white and black card stocks. On the card base I stamped the same flower image with Gina K Red Hot ink, matching one of the colors used to make the squares.

The large sentiment is heat embossed with white EP onto black card stock, and the smaller sentiment is stamped with Red Hot ink onto a white strip. The sentiments are from the SSS Leafy Frames set.

The inside is super simple. I heat embossed the sentiment using white EP on a panel of Poppy Parade card stock.

I bought a new toy. I use a label maker quite a bit for organizing my stamp sets and dies. My old one finally wore out. The tape cut mechanism quit working so I have to pull the tape out far enough to cut it with scissors. That is a major waste of the tape, so I decided to buy a new one. I got the P-touch Embellish machine. It does a lot! They have patterned wash tape cartridges and ribbon cartridges. Tons of fonts too. Very fun!

Have a nice Monday evening and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Altenew Wallpaper Art set, Simon Says Stamp Leafy Frames and Sketched Flowers sets
Paper: SU Whisper White thick and regular card stock, SU Poppy Parade card stock
Ink: Various Gina K ink cubes in reds and pinks including Red Hot, Gina K black amalgam ink, VersaMark
Other: Misti, heat tool, white embossing powder, SU 1" punch, Gina K Masking paper, foam tape and Dimensionals

You Radiate Kindness

Hi peeps,

I hope your weekend was nice and relaxing. Mine certainly was and I enjoyed it. Since it's Sunday, it's time for a new Paper Players Challenge. This week Anne Marie has a fun and colorful theme challenge called Sunshine and Rainbows.

I decided to try something different using the Concord and 9th Sunshine Turnabout stamp. Instead of using four colors appropriate for sun rays, I wanted to use it to radiate rainbow colors. In order to do this, I stamped it as you normally would with four colors and then labeled the rays with both numbers, 1-4, and with the rainbow colors. Using this "map," I was able to stamp the rainbow colors in the appropriate red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet order.

The front sentiments are from the same turnabout set and are stamped using Gina K black amalgam ink and heat embossed with clear EP. They are cut out using cloud dies from the Concord & 9th Brighter Days set. I used the B000 Copic to outline around the edges of the clouds then popped them in the center of the background panel using foam tape and Dimensionals.

The sunshine die is also part of the Brighter Days set. I first colored a scrap of Whisper White with a bright yellow Copic and then colored over that using the Florescent Orange Copic before using the die to cut the sun. After gluing it to the back of the cloud die, I used yellow Stickles on the ends of the rays and orange Stickles on the lower parts of the rays. Since you can't have a rainbow without some rain, I added three jewel raindrops as embellishments.

More stamps from the C&9th Brighter Days set are used to make the inside of the card. The sentiment is heat embossed here too.

This was not a quick card to make, but certainly a fun one to make!

We are having a little remodeling done in one of our bathrooms. It is one with a bathtub-shower combination and we are having the tub removed and made into a walk-in shower. Looking forward to  having something new. I hope you all have a nice week ahead. Thanks for looking in,
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: Sunshine Turnabout and Brighter Days sets by Concord & 9th
Paper: SU Pool Party and Whisper White card stock
Ink: Gina K and Taylored Expressions ink cubes, Gina K black amalgam ink, VersaMark, Copics
Other: Brighter Days set dies, clear embossing powder, heat tool, raindrop gems, yellow and orange Stickles, Gemini Jr, Misti, foam tape and Dimensionals

Heat Wave

Hello,

For my second post this evening I have a card inspired by the current Retro Rubber theme challenge, Summer time, and the current Freshly Made Sketches sketch. I've used this Avery Elle set many times over the years and it's one of my favorite to color. I thought it perfect for the Summer Time theme. I found this fun Hawaiian themed patterned paper in my stash and I thought it would pair well with the stamp set.

I do not have any diamond shaped dies so I used the SU banner die instead. After cutting it from some brown card stocks, I embossed them with the SU Coastal Weave embossing folder. The stamped images are colored using Copics and cut out with the corresponding set dies. The banners are popped up with foam tape and the images are popped up using Dimensionals. For embellishments, I added tiny clear rhinestones to the centers of the two small flowers, and added a few enamel flowers too.

I didn't put a sentiment on the inside, yet, because I'm not sure who and what I'll use this card for. I did add another image from the stamp set though.

I'm not sure exactly how old this set is, but I know I've had it for several years. The retro challenge is to use stamps at least one year old.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Aloha set by Avery Elle

Paper: TE Gold, light & dark brown card stock, Concord & 9th white card stock, ??? patterned papers

Ink: Gina K Charcoal Brown ink cube, Copics

Other: Avery Elle Aloha set dies, SU banner dies, SU Coastal Weave embossing folder, Gemini Jr, Misti, rhinestones, enamel flowers, foam tape, Dimensionals, liquid glue

You Blow Me Away

Hi peeps and Happy Saturday afternoon,

I was looking around blog-land today for some inspiration and found the latest word challenge on the CASology blog. The word for the current challenge is "wind." I thought this fun to color dragon stamp from SugarPea Designs would be appropriate. Over the years I've colored this image in many colors. Today I choose purple. I used various Copic V shades for his body and greens for his back scales and toe nails. After coloring the dragon and bubbles, I made a mask and stamped the heart background using the Concord and 9th Hugs and Kisses Turnabout stamp using lavender and light pink inks. The card base and the stamped panel are SU Whisper White. I added some dimension by layering a couple of card stock pieces under the stamped panel.

Here is the inside of the card, using more images from the same SugarPea set.

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Blow Me Away set by SugarPea Designs
Paper: SU Whisper White and Gorgeous Grape card stock
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, Altenew ink spots in light pinks and lavender, SU Gorgeous Grape
Other: Misti, Gemini Jr., SSS rectangle die

Birthday Wishes

Hi all,

Well, my stamping mojo has taken a serious vacation and is nowhere to be found. I don't think I did any stamping for about a week and a half. Since I didn't make a card for last week's Paper Players challenge, I really wanted to play along this week. I got some new stamp sets from Pink Fresh Studio and thought those may help with my creativity.

This week's Paper Player's Challenge is hosted by Jaydee, and her challenge is the always fun Tic-Tac-Toe.

My card actually works for the top horizontal and the right to left diagonal options.

This is a one layer top folding card with the diecuts popped up using Dimensionals. Couldn't be more simple. The background is made by blending some Hero Wet Cement ink over the MFT brick stencil. The stamp set is from Pink Fresh and all the pieces fit together perfectly for making the bouquet.

Each of the sentiment words have three stamps that need to be lined up perfectly. I admit that I tried about three times before I got it. I do like the shadow die around the words.

Here is the inside of this card.

I'm headed up the I-5 to the Los Angeles area for an afternoon meeting. Not particularly what I want to do, but work is work. Have a nice day all and thanks for looking in.
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Modern Layer Florals, Layered Script Words, Whole Lot of Awesome sets by Pink Fresh Studio and Bitty Blossoms set by Gina K (inside sentiment stamp)
Paper: SU Whisper White thick, and Gorgeous Grape card stock
Ink: SU Purple Posy, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Garden Green, Granny Apple Green inks, Hero Wet Cement ink
Other: Modern Layer Florals and Layered Script Words set dies, MFT stencil, TE blending brush, rhinestones, Misti, Gemini Jr, Dimensionals