Enjoy Your Birthday

TGIF!

I hope everyone had a good week. I've been spending many hours at my crafting table as well as going for daily walks, on non-rainy days. Believe it or not, we had two days of rain here in SoCal early in the week, and it was a bit chilly too. Of course, nothing comparable to the South and East this week.

My card today I made for this month's GKD Monthly Mix Challenge.. Gina's challenge this month is to show the water reactivity of her inks. I used two techniques on this card. First, I smooshed ink pads onto an acrylic block, spritzed it with water and then pressed it down onto some Tim Holtz water color paper. I dried it with my heat tool, then stamped the flower image over the darker part of the ink. I used Lipstick Red, Bubblegum Pink and Innocent Pink for this part. I did another combo of Jelly Bean Green and Applemint for the leaves. 

I used a second technique on the background in the lower right of the white panel. I blended Coral Reef, Sweet Mango and Innocent Pink in the corner with blending brushes. Next I placed the Ornamental Fans Stencil over the ink and with a wet paper towel, blotted through the stencil, pulling off the color, making a lighter shade in the shape of the fans.

For the greetings, I cut the large "enjoy" die three times from black card stock, glued them together, then glued them onto vellum cut with the corresponding shadow die. The smaller greeting is from the Enjoyable Greetings stamp set and is cut with a Sentiment Strip die.

I've been playing with my Hot Foil System and having a ball. It's that WOW factor. I'll have some cards to post in the next couple of days. I made a bunch of backgrounds, now I need to turn them into cards.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

All Gina K Designs except Tim Holtz water color paper and the black rhinestones.

Stamp sets: Season of Peace and Enjoyable greetings

Dies: Stamp set corresponding dies, Master Layouts 2, Sentiment Strip dies, Script Enjoy and shadow dies

Paper: Innocent Pink, Black Onyx, Layering Weight White card stock, vellum

Ink: Lipstick Red, Bubblegum Pink, Innocent Pink, Sweet Mango, Coral Reef, Applemint, Jelly Bean Green

Connect glue, foam squares, GKD blending brushes, Misti, Gemini Jr

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

You Warm My Heart

Hi all,

Claire has the monthly Clean & Simple challenge for the Paper Players blog this week with a winter animal theme. I have many stamp sets that work for this, I just seem to struggle with the clean & simple part, LOL. In fact, I actually made three cards and decided the first two were not really CAS. I'll show them at the end because they turned out super cute. (and now I have 3 holiday cards for 2022 already, so it's a good thing.)

This card is a mini-slimline style. It's one layer, stamped using my Misti, and colored with colored pencils. Not sure if kitties count as winter animals, but in this Anita Jeram set, they are, walking through a snow storm.

I used very few supplies. The white card stock is Gina K Designs Heavy weight. The Black Onyx and Sea Glass inks are GKD, and I used Prismacolor colored pencils, and of course, the Misti to stamp everything. The stamp set is called Kittens & Mittens and it's by Colorado Craft Co.

Here is the inside. This stamp set has two images and three sentiments. I managed to use all of them on this card.

Here are the fronts of the other two cards. I made the bears with the night sky first, decided it wasn't CAS and made the snow angel card, which is even less CAS, LOL!

The stamp sets for this card are Lawn Fawn Winter Skies and Avery Elle Starry Scene. To make the sky look night-ish, I first used GKD Blue Denim ink, then stamped over that with GKD Wild Lilac and Lovely Lavender. The images are colored with Copics.

The stamp set for this final card is called Snow Much Fun by Lawn Fawn. The background is made with an ancient SU wheel stamp. (I forget how fun they are.) This is also a mini slimline style card, and the images are colored with Copics.

The card stock and inks are all by GKD. The night sky card uses Hero Infinity rounded corner rectangle dies on both the card base and the top panel. I used GKD Master Layouts 7 dies on the snow angel card to cut the top panel.

Thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Colorado Craft Co. Kittens & Mittens set, Lawn Fawn Snow Much Fun and Winter Skies sets, Avery Elle Starry Scene set

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy and Layering Weight white and Blue Denim card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Black Onyx, Sea Glass, Blue Denim, Wild Lilac, Lovely Lavender, Ocean Mist ink pads, Copic markers, Prismacolor colored pencils

Other: Hero Arts Infinity Rounded Corner Rectangle dies, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 7 dies, coordinating Lawn Fawn dies, Gemini Jr, Misti

Rainbows

 Hello peeps,

Today I have two cards to share. Both are made using the same stamp set and die bundle, and patterned papers, all from Stampin' Up. Each uses a different sketch from weekly blog-land challenges.

Here are the two together.

This first card uses the current Sunday Stamps Sketch Challenge.  The stamp set is a recent release from SU called Rainbow of Happiness and the pattern papers are from the current Sale-a-bration promotion, which are made to coordinate with this stamp set. There are several dies in the die set that coordinates with this stamp set. Here, I used the little cloud die, cut from holographic card stock, popped up in the middle of the rainbow. It's super sparkly!

Here's the inside of this card. I used the medium rainbow die to cut the rainbow arches.

 Card two uses this week's As You See It Challenge, which is also a sketch this week. Same stamp set with other dies from the bundle, and same patterned paper pack.

I cut both dies on the front 6 times each, 4 times with colored card stock and twice with the white so I could layer and inlay the rainbow arches. The 3 little black hearts are also from SU. They come as white and I colored them black with the 100 Copic Marker.

Here is the inside of this card.

I think I'm going to send this second card to my new grand nephew, Brady. He's six weeks old now and this looks like a sweet baby card for his room.

Have a super Sunday afternoon and evening, and thanks for looking.

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Rainbow of Happiness by Stampin' Up

Dies: Rainbow of Happiness Bundle, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 1 & 2

Paper: SU White, Misty Moonlight, Pool Party, Only Orange, Granny Apple Green, Magenta Madness, Kat Scrappiness Holographic cs

Ink: GKD Black Onyx, SU Misty Moonlight, Magenta Madness, Granny Apple Green, Pool Party, Grapefruit Grove

Other: SU enamel hearts, SU Dimensionals, GKD Connect Glue

Sending You A Warm and Cozy Hug

 TGIF all,

I've certainly been having a fun time at my craft table this week! I'm happy to be home with my "stuff" after being gone for a few weeks. I'm also trying to get back into a routine of morning walks, and so far, I've made it 4 of the 5 days that I've been home.

Here is one of the cards that I made yesterday during my crafting session. I've used this week's Freshly Made Sketch by Judy, and the colors from this week's Color Throwdown. The colors this week are green, blue, yellow and gray.

I started by using the MFT Brick Wall stencil, a blending brush and Gina K Grass Green ink to make the background. After blending the ink on, I used some stencil paste over the green, then let the panel dry. In the mean time I stamped the images, colored them and cut them out with their corresponding dies. All of the images and the sentiment are from the GKD set called Hygge Time, except the plant, which is from a Concord & 9th set. The images are colored with Copics. The white panel is layered to a GKD Grass Green panel and the card base is GKD Denim Blue.

Here is the inside, image and greeting from the Hygge Time set.

Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Hygge Time set & dies by Gina K Designs and Simple Seasons set and die by Concord & 9th

Paper: GKD Layering Weight, Grass Green and Denim Blue card stock

Ink: GKD Black Onyx, Grass Green, Blue Denim, Copic Markers

Other: MFT Brick Wall stencil, GKD Blending Brush, Dreamweaver Embossing Paste, Misti, Gemini Jr, SU Dimensionals

Hello

 Good Monday to all,

I'm happy to be back home after spending time with family and friends over the holidays. I drove home (San Diego) from Sacramento yesterday where I spent the weekend with my Bestie. Prior to that, I was at my Mom's in Redding since 12/28. So yes, it's good to be home in my own space. I have some "maintenance" appointments this week like dental hygienist for cleaning and a hair cut appointment, but other than that it should be a quiet week.

Since I didn't tale any stamping supplies with me this time, it's been awhile since I've made any cards. I thought I'd get started this morning and make a card that works for both the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge and this week's Paper Players Challenge.

I ordered some SU supplies during the Demo Pre-Order period for the new mini catalog, but haven't had a chance to use any yet, until this morning. These images are from the new Hello Ladybug Bundle, stamp set and punch.

Since the ladybugs are a little large for a portrait card, I turned it for a landscape layout. 

Here is the inside of the card:

This is such a sweet set, and I can't wait to use it some more. Have a wonderful day, and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Hello Ladybug Bundle from Stampin' Up, SU Basic Black & Just Jade card stock, Gina K Designs Layering Weight white card stock, SU Pale Papaya and Calypso Coral inks, GKD Black Onyx ink, SSS Detail Petal Cover Plate, black enamel dots, SU dimensionals

Happy Birthday Friend

 Hello all,

It's the first Sunday of 2022 and time for the first Paper Players Challenge of the year. Ann is hostess with the monthly theme challenge, and we are challenged to use sparkly items on our projects.

Before I get to my card, I want to say congrats to the 2022 Guest Designers, Cindy, Christy and Jennie. You will have a fun year!

My card today is a shaker birthday card I made in November for a friend, but never posted. It fits the theme with metallic sequins and black rhinestones, that I used for the dots on the "i's," and I covered the die cut words with Shimmery Crystal Effects.

 

For the background, I used the Concord & 9th Weathered Wood Background stamp with gray and pool inks. 

To make the shaker, I used some recycled plastic packaging and double-sided tape. 

The stamped image is from  a Concord & 9th stamp and die set called Heartfelt Blossoms. I stamped it on watercolor paper with permanent black ink and used Zig Brush water color markers to color the flowers. The image is cut out using the corresponding set die and popped up over the shaker background with foam tape. 

The greeting is made by cutting three layers of each word and gluing them together. The top layer is cut from Kat Scrappiness shinny black card stock. Before gluing the stacked words onto the card I covered them with SU Shimmery Crystal Effects and let it dry really well before gluing the words onto the card. The word dies are from the SU Well Written die set. After the top panel was completed, I glued it to a purple note card.

Here is the inside of the card. The flower image is from the same Heartfelt stamp set and the sentiment is from a SSS set.

Enjoy your Sunday, and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Weathered Wood Background and Heartfelt Blossoms sets by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Lovely Lilac, Layering weight white, Tim Holtz water color paper, Kat Scrappiness shinny black card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Amalgam black, Sea Glass, Stormy Sky ink, Zig water color markers

Other: Stampin' Up Well Written dies, Shimmery Crystal Effects, Sequins, black rhinestones, Misti, Gemini Jr, foam tape, double-sided tape, Connect glue, 

Happy New Year, and a Concord & 9th 2022 Calendar

 Happy New Year to all!

For the last several years, I've made my bestie a desktop calendar for one of her Christmas gifts using the Concord & 9th calendar. After the first couple of years, she now requests this gift, LOL. 

It's a true labor of love, and it takes me several hours to complete. I start by looking through my catalog of stamp sets and decide what I'll use for each month. I usually use mostly C&9th stamps for the calendars, but I've used other brands to fill in as needed.

For this year, I ended up with all C&9th stamps, and this year's calendar may be my favorite one yet. Concord & 9th made this year's calendar format in 5x7," so it was a little easier to come up with layouts for each month than in past years when the format has been smaller, usually 4x6". On a couple of the months, May and June, I've CASE'd ideas from cards on the C&9th Instagram feed. You'll notice that November has a birthday theme, since my friend's birthday is in November.

Pictures were a little difficult to take, so forgive the photography. The first picture is all 12 months together, then pics of 4 month blocks, making the details easier to see.

Wishing you all a healthy 2022 (most importantly), and a crafty one too!

Colleen

Supplies

Calendar, stamps and dies from Concord & 9th

Ink and card stocks from Concord & 9th, Gina K Designs, Stampin' Up