USA - Happy 4th of July

 Hello peeps,

I'm so late trying to get my post done this morning. Many technical difficulties in setting up some things on my new computer, especially things related to my blogging. In addition, my light box's light strip broke, so my pictures are dark! I will try to fix, but I think I'm going to have to try another light source for it.

Here is my 4th of July, summer themed card for this week's Paper Players Challenge. I'm using Linda's sketch from this week's Freshly Made Sketches.

These are images from the Tylored Expressions 4th of July Wreath. The bottom of the card is embossed with a SU Stars EF, and the fireworks dies are also TE. I added some die cut stars cut from holographic card stock using a SSS die.

Here is the inside of the card using the sentiment from the TE stamp set.

Happy Friday and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Gina K Designs Red Velvet and Layering Weight white card stock, GKD Black Onyx and Red Velvet Ink, Copics, SU Brilliant Blue card stock and Stars Embossing Folder, Erin Holographic card stock, Taylored Expressions 4th of July Wreath stamp set and Fireworks dies, Simon Says Stamp Many Starts die, Misti, Gemini Jr, Connect glue

Sending Happy Thoughts

 Happy Monday Peeps,

I hope you had a relaxing weekend. I hear some areas of the U.S. were scorching over the weekend. Here on the San Diego coast, it was our usual June-Gloom, very cloudy and misty in the morning, but by the mid afternoon, we had some sun and breezes. We spent a good portion of Saturday watching our little friend play in a Little League playoff game. It was actually a really good game, and his team won 1-0, so tonight we'll be watching him in the championship game. 

I made a card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge after the LL game on Saturday, but I didn't get around to taking a picture until this morning, hence, I'm squeaking in just under the wire.

Since there are rainbows all over blog-land this month, I jumped on the bandwagon and made a few cards with ink blended rainbows. This is one of them. 

The inks are all GKD as is the card stock. The wreath die is from PinkFresh Studio. I cut it 3 times from heavy weight white card stock and glued the layers together, then glued it to the rainbow. The small flowers are from my stash. I think I got them at a scrapbooking store in Sacramento a few years ago. The sentiment strip is pre-printed from SSS. I cut it out with a sentiment die, also from SSS.

Have a great week! Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Gina K Designs heavy and layering weight white card stock, Red Hot, Sweet Mango, Wild Dandelion, Lucky Clover, Ocean Mist, Wild Lilac inks, blending brushes, Connect glue

MFT Rounded Corner Stitched rectangle die

Pink Fresh Studio Wreath Die

Simon Says Stamp Sentiment die and pre-printed sentiment strip 

Gemini Jr

Hello

 Hi peeps,

Happy Thursday! 

While cruising around blogs this week, I watched this video by Jennifer McGuire and fell in love with these house cards. Of course Jennifer used some awesome new dies to create them, and also of course, I don't have the dies, but I do have many other dies that I thought I could use to try and make some similar cards. The basic shape was pretty easy, and using some border dies, an older SU scalloped circle punch, a circle die, and some flower and star dies, I came up with a couple of cards.

This first card is a shaped card that fits into a regular A2 envelope. I used red, white and blue colors to participate, again, in this week's Paper Players Tic-Tac-ToeChallenge.

The card base is made from SU Very Vanilla card stock. Using some Gina K Red velvet ink and the SSS Sweet Garden background stamp I stamped the front of the card. The house trim is cut from SU Brilliant Blue card stock, which is decorated using stars in various sizes that were cut using a SSS die from Very Vanilla card stock. The Hello die is Gina K and is cut three times from Red Velvet card stock and glued together with liquid glue. After gluing it to the top of the card, I painted on some clear Nuvo Aqua Shimmer, then covered it with Crystal Effects.

The birds are from the SSS Spring Birds set, colored with Copics and cut out with the set dies. Their perch is made with another older SU punch.

I used more images and a greeting from the Spring Birds stamp set on the inside of the card.

In the video, Jennifer made a popup card in slimline format. I also gave that a try and it turned out pretty well, but next time I need to use a heavy weight card stock for the base. It's a little top heavy with the large greeting die glued on top.

The flower dies are made using the SU In Bloom dies. The Thank You die is from SSS. The Scalloped borders are a Taylored Expressions border die, the birds and greetings are from the SSS Spring Birds set, and the background is made with the SSS Friendship Text background stamp and white craft ink.

Here is a view of the side of this one.

Such fun cards to make. I'm seriously thinking of ordering the actual dies, but they are a little pricy. (Like that's ever stopped me before, LOL.)

Have a great day. I will be trying to setup a new computer, so I see some periods of frustration ahead.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Simon Says Stamp: Spring Birds Stamp set and dies, Sweet Garden and Friendship Text background stamps, Many Stars Party die, Scripty Thank You die

Stampin' Up: Very Vanilla and multiple colored card stocks, In Bloom set dies, Scalloped Circle and Word Window punches, Dimensionals

Gina K Designs: Hello die, Red Velvet and Kraft card stock, Red Velvet and Black Onyx ink, Connect glue

Taylored Expressions: Small Scalloped Border die

Spellbinders: Circle die

Hero Arts: Unicorn white craft ink

Misti, Gemini Jr, Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen, Glossy Accents, red enamel dots

Thankful

 Hello peeps,

Over the last few days I've been working on "Thank You" cards to send to friends that sent me Retirement gifts. I finally got most of them finished and now I just need to get them in the mail. This card is one of them.

Using the Tic-Tac-Toe gird from this week's Paper Players Challenge and using the middle horizontal options of red, twine and die cuts, this is what I came up with. The background is made using Tim Holts alcohol inks on black Yuppo card stock. The new GKD Monthly Mix June 2021 Challenge is backgrounds, and this card will be entered there too.

The stamp set is from Gina K Designs, as are the inks, card stock, (other than the alcohol inks and Yuppo) and dies. If you look closely, there is a red heart eyelet that I attached to the board and threaded the loop of twine through.

Here is the inside of the card using more images from the GKD stamp set.

Happy Hump Day to all and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Count It All Joy stamp set and dies, Red Velvet, Black, Layering Weight White card stock, Red Velvet, Black Onyx ink, Master Layouts 2 and 4 die sets,  and foam squares, all Gina K Designs. Tim Holts alcohol inks, Yuppo  black card stock, large heart eyelet, black and white Baker's twine, Misti, Gemini Jr,  

Thanks

 Happy Friday Peeps,

Before I get to my card post, I have some news. Last Friday was my last day of work. I've joined the officially retired set, and I couldn't be happier. No more driving the freeways of Southern California, no more getting on planes. 

So, how did I spend my first week at home? Lots of reading, I started walking again each morning, and of course some stamping and craft room organization. I'm kind of home bound for a few months without wheels. I've had  company cars for the past 30 years, and my last one was picked up last Friday at 8:00 am. I have ordered a new car, but due to the micro-chip shortage, it doesn't go into production until June 14. Denis, Mr. Personal Chef as I usual refer to him, of course has a car that I can drive when needed, but this first week, I was very content to hang at home.

On to my card, I received some retirement gifts from friends that I wanted to make "Thank You" cards for. Using this week's polka-dots theme at the Paper Players Challenge, I made a few cards. Along with polka-dots, this is also CAS week, and this card is the most CAS of the cards that I made. It's a one layer top folding card base that I embossed using an older SU large dot EF.  The flags are cut from a panel that I made using the C&9th Scattered Dots Turnabout stamp, stamping each rotation with VersaMark ink, then heat embossing with gold EP. The Thank You die is also an older SU die, and I added the gold twine because it just needed a little something more.

You'll notice that the background in my picture looks different than usual. Denis surprised me with a small foldable light box to take my pictures. I usually take my cards out to the deck and take pictures in the sun, so he thought I needed a better setup. It's a small white plastic box that can be folded flat for storage, and it has several colors of fabric to use for the backgrounds. It also has a strip of tiny LED lights that uses a USB connection to turn them on. I can see a bit of a shadow behind the cards, so I clearly need some practice. 

I hope you all have nice weekend plans. Our surrogate daughter's family arrived yesterday to her parents house from NYC. Due to COVID, we've yet to meet her new son, who will turn 1 year old on Sunday. A beach party has been planed. Our plans are to spend as much time as possible with them over the coming week, starting with dinner tonight. Today's plans are to make his BD card. I'm thinking Lawn Fawn jungle animals. We'll see what I can come up with. 

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Concord & 9th Scattered Dots Turnabout stamp, SU Powder Pink, Basic Black, and Gina K Designs Layering Weight white card stocks, SU Large Dots Embossing Folder, VersaMark ink, Gina K Designs Fine Detail gold embossing powder, heat tool, Gina K Designs Stitched Flag die (Master Layouts 2 Dies Set), SU Thanks die, gold twine, Misti, Gemini Jr, liquid glue

Hi There!

 Hello,

Did you see this video on Jennifer McGuire's blog. She teaches us a cool way to do ink transfer using Distress inks, heat embossing, stencils, water and a die cutting machine. It looked like a super fun technique so I decided to give it try Friday evening after work. I ended up with several panels, some that look pretty good, others not so much. Two that worked well, I've used on these two cards.

The darker one on the right is the panel that I applied the ink to and then embossed with the background stamp. The lighter card on the left is the ink transfer card. For these two cards, all of the stamped images are from Hero Arts.

As the Hero Arts Background stamp is bee themed, I combined it with another Hero Bee themed stamp set to make a card using this week's Freshly Made Sketches layout. I used the Hero Infinity Hexagon die set for the focal element in the sketch.

For the second card, I use the SSS Hexagon Hi die, in keeping with the bee theme. Using a gold gel pen to make the bee's trail on the "Hi" cutout, and then I popped the little bee image like he's "flying off."

This ink transfer is a really fun technique, and once you get going, it's kind of hard to stop, LOL. In Jennifer's video, she uses some stencils in the process. I tried those too, and mine turned out pretty well. Now I just need to make some cards with them.

Happy crafting all, and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Hero Arts stamps Bees & Flowers Background, Bees & Flowers Wreath set, My Monthly Hero Jan. 2021 set, SU Bumblebee, Daffodil Delight, and Basic Black card stock, Gina K Designs Heavy Weight white and Honey Mustard card stock, VersaMark, Tim Holts Distress Inks in various gold and yellow shades, Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Copic markers, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Hero set dies, Hero Infinity Hexagon dies, Simon Says Stamp Hexagon Hi die, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1, 2 and 4 die sets, Misti, Big Shot, Gemini Jr, enamel dots, gold gel pen, SU mini Dimensionals

Stay Cool!

 Hello peeps,

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I spent most of Saturday sewing some face masks for a friend who asked me to make her some more. We are all vaccinated, but think we will feel comfortable with face masks in crowds through the summer. Today, I set the sewing machine aside and did some stamping.

As Sunday's bring us the new Paper Players Challenge, I like to see what the ladies have cooked up for us. This week, Joanne is our hostess with a fun "card for boys" challenge, and indeed, I had loads of fun crafting this card.

This stamp set by Avery Elle is called Stay Cool, and it's perfect for boy's cards. Today, I made a fun fold card with a belly band. The card is the "mini" slimline size, 6 inches by 3.5 inches. The patterned papers are older SU called Bubbles and Fizz.

For the focal image on the belly band, I stamped the skateboarding bear with Memento tuxedo black and colored him with Copics, then cut the image out with the corresponding die. The circle of stars die is also from Avery Elle and I cut it twice. Once in white card stock and once with holographic card stock. On the white one, I colored the starts with Copics to co-ordinate with the stripes in the patterned paper. I used some foam squares to pop the bear over the star circle cutouts, then used some orange Stickles on the wheels and some Stardust Stickles on the board. I also added some Glossy Accents over his sunglasses. The rectangle base is cut from Gina K Designs stitched rectangles.

Here's the inside of the card, which uses another of the animal images from the set.

I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Taylored Expressions Lime Green card stock, SU Bermuda Bay card stock, Gina K Designs heavy weight white card stock, SU Bubbles and Fizz DSP, Avery Elle Stay Cool stamp set and dies, Avery Elle Circle of Stars die, Gina K Designs Single and Double Stitched rectangle dies, Memento Tuxedo Black, GKD Stormy Skies, SU Bermuda Bay and Lemon Lime Twist inks, Copic markers, Stickles, Glossy Accents, Misti, Gemini Jr, Foam tape and foam squares