Happy Birthday

 Hi all,

The youngest children in the family next door are twins and their birthday is this coming Friday. They are delightful young women, who will be turning 23. Mom, their older sister and the twins all LOVE pink, so LeAnne's colors for this week's Paper Players Challenge is very timely to make them birthday cards.

Their names are Bella and Cara. They both graduated from college last year, are back living with mom while beginning their careers. They are super fun to visit with and are two of the most polite and nice young women. Bella loves flowers, she does flower arranging for friends weddings and other special events and Cara is into surf photography. Cara recently returned from Mexico where she was a photographer for a line of women's surf wear. I thought about these interests while designing their birthday cards.

For Bella's card I used a Simon Says Stamp cover plate and die set called Fab Floral. The silver looking flowers are actually cut from Smoky Slate card stock then I put a layer of sparkly Glossy Accents over the die cut. After they dried, I added a small dark pink rhinestone to the centers. The deckle circle dies in the center are SU and the Happy Birthday wax seal is from Spellbinders. (FYI, this card is CASED from Jennifer McGuire.)

Here's the inside of Bella's card. The sentiments are from a Gina K Designs mini birthday stamp set.

For Cara's card I pulled out a "summery" stamp, die and stencil set by Gina K Designs called Tropical Sunshine. Instead of using typical beach colors, I used LeAnne's pinks and I really like how it turned out. 

Here is the inside of Cara's card.

Enjoy your Wednesday, and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies 

Bella's card

Stamps: Birthday Cheer Mini set by Gina K Designs (inside greetings)

Paper: SU Bubble Bath, Berry Burst, Smoky Slate, Thick Basic White

Ink: SU Bubble Bath & Berry Burst

Other: Fab Floral Cover Plate and dies set by Simon Says Stamp, Deckle Circle dies by Stampin' Up, Happy Birthday Wax Seal stamp and wax by Spellbinders, Silver pen, Glitter Glossy Accents by Concord & 9th, Trinity Pink Rhinestones, Big Shot, Misti, Connect glue, 

Cara's Card

Stamps: Tropical Sunshine and So Many Sentiments stamp sets by Gina K Designs

Paper: SU Bubble Bath, Berry Burst, Smoky Slate, Thick White card stock

Ink: SU Bubble Bath, Berry Burst, Smoky Slate and Gina K Desgins Black Onyx

Other: Stencil and dies from Tropical Sunshine kit, blending brushes, Big Shot, Misti, Connect Glue, Foam Tape, SU Dimensionals

Valentine's Day Cards

 Hello and Happy Monday peeps!

It's a wet one here in SoCal and a perfect day to hang in the craft room. I have some plans to play and practice with wax seals, but first I waned to blog a couple of cards that I made yesterday.

I watched one of Gina K.'s YouTube videos from last week on making bokeh backgrounds and decided to give it a try. All were fun, but one is my favorite, so I made two of them for these cards.

This first one uses the current Freshly Made Sketch by Jen T. Honestly, I'm not sure that I'm thrilled with this card, but I do love the colors. There's a variety of supplies used. Spellbinders Heart Stitching die and embossing folder, Simon Says Stamp pierced heart die, Reverse Confetti XOXO die, Gina K Designs card stock and inks, Tim Holtz domed sponge ink applicators to make the background circles, and SU pearls.

I love how this second card turned out with the silhouette stamping over the bokeh background, which is how Gina made her cards in the video. This stamp set is one of her older mini sets. All supplies on this card are from GKD. 

Joanne is hostess for the new Paper Players Challenge with a Valentine's Day theme. While both cards work, I'll use this one for my entry.

Here ae the two together with matching bokeh backgrounds. A fun technique to try if you haven't already.

Enjoy your day and thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies Card 1

Dies: Simon Says Stamp Pierced Flower heart, Spellbinders Stitched Heart Card Front, Reverse Confetti XOXO

Paper: Gina K Designs Dusty Rose, Plumb Punch, Red Hot and Layering Weight White card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Dusty Rose, Plumb Punch, Red Hot, Soft Stone

Other: Tim Holtz domed sponge ink applicators, Gina K Designs blending brush, embroidery floss and needle, SU pink pearls, Gina K Designs Masking Magic 1/2" strips, Big Shot, foam tape and SU Dimensionals

Supplies Card 2

Stamps: Gina K Designs Mini Blossoms and Hearty Greetings stamp sets

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Gina K Designs Red Hot, Dusty Rose, Plumb Punch, Soft Stone and Black Onyx

Other: Master Layouts 2 dies, Masking Magic 1/2" strips, blending brush, Misti, Big Shot, Domed Ink Applicators, Foam Tape

Have So Much Fun!

 Hey all,

I hope your weekend was amazing! Low key for me. I got a couple of birthday cards made and worked a couple of rows on a crochet afagan that I'm making for my great niece.

Since I'm heading back to my mom's tomorrow for the week, I got my card finished for the new Paper Players challenge this afternoon. Jaydee has the monthly sketch challenge for us this week, and there are lots of possibilities with this one. I've used a Concord & 9th set that I've had for a few months, but not used yet until today.

This is a stamp and coordinating die set called Plane Awesome. I used the small plane window dies to make the five images across per the sketch. The little windows actually open and close. So cute! I decided to use a rainbow color scheme to go with. 

The inside uses more sentiments from the stamp set.

Enjoy your week,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Plane Awesome stamp set with dies by Concord & 9th

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight white and Black Onyx card stock, Concord & 9th colored card stocks

Ink: Concord & 9th and Simon Says Stamp 

Other: Misti, Big Shot, Connect Glue, Blending Brushes

Wishing You A Happy Day & Buzzing By To Say Hello

 Hi and Happy Weekend,

I received a new order from Gina K Designs a few days ago that included this fun new background stamp called Doodle Garden Background. It's a large 6 x 6 inch background stamp that I'm sure is super fun to color, but I decided to use it in another way with this week's Freshly Made Sketch as inspiration.

My idea was to ink it with a light gray shade of ink then make a reverse circle mask for the center and stamp that with a darker color, and/or heat embossing the circle with clear or metallic embossing powders. I ended up trying both techniques, but I didn't get the desired effect of the circle standing out with either. My solution was to make a circle border for each and then continue with the rest of the cards.

On the first card card I stamped the background stamp using Soft Stone ink and then used Amalgam Black ink and clear embossing powder for the center.  The flowers are from the GKD Fancy Flowers mini stamp set stamping them in the colors from this week's Color Throwdown Challenge. The border circle is navy card stock.  The centers of the flowers have GKD pearls in pink and red.

For card two, the background is stamped with Soft Stone ink, the center circle is stamped with GKD Embossing ink and heat embossed with GKD fine detail Silver EP. The additional stamped images are from the  GKD Flowers & Wings mini stamp set stamped with colors from the current Sunday Stamps challenge. The border circle here is cut from GKD silver card stock. The centers of the flowers have GKD yellow pearls.

The inside of both cards I left blank for writing a personal message.

I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend. I have a birthday card to make for a very good friend of ours. Since I also just received some Spellbinders wax seal supplies, my first, that I'm anxious to try, my plan is to incorporate that in his card. Should be fun to play with. 

Colleen

Supplies 

Stamps: Doodle Garden Background stamp, Fancy Flowers Mini and Flowers & Wings Mini sets with dies all Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Heavy Weight  and Layering White, In the Navy and Silver card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Soft Stone, Amalgam Black, Embossing pad, In the Navy, Passionate Pink, Red Hot, Red Velvet, Faded Brick, Fresh Asparagus, Prickly Pear, Honey Mustard and Black Onyx

Other: Gina K Designs single stitched circle dies, Gina K Designs colored pearls, Connect glue, Masking Magic, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs Silver EP, SU Clear EP, Heat tool, foam squares

Winter Fun and One More Sympathy Card

Happy WET Monday!

It's been absolutely pouring rain here since very early this morning. This is our third day of rain, and it's the day with the most and the hardest. I believe it started around 4:00 am (PT) and is supposed to rain non-stop until 4:00 pm (PT). I'd like to go to the postoffice to drop off the sympathy cards that I've made, but I'm not sure I want to brave the streets.

So, I do have one more sympathy card, this one is for another cousin, the brother of my cousin that passed recently. I've used the Winter Trees layering stencil set from Concord & 9th and the Freshly Made Sketch again.

I added a very simple sentiment for the inside. It's from the SSS XL Greetings set.

Here's to not having to make another sympathy card for a long while!

My second card is a much more fun one. Claire is hostess for the new Paper Players Challenge this week with the monthly Clean and Simple challenge. Her theme to go along with is Winter Fun. I pulled out an older set from Pink Fresh Studio, ink blended some snow hills on the front of this one layer card, then stamped and colored these cute forrest animals having a fun ski day.

To make the ski runs, I cut masks and lightly ink blended Sea Glass and Stone inks along the edges.  All of the images the sentiment are from the PF stamp set, as are the inside images and sentiment.

Personally, my idea of winter fun is to play in my craft room, but these guys seem to be having fun.

Enjoy the day and the week ahead, and thanks for looking in.

Colleen

Supplies Card one

Stamps: Sketched Flowers and XL Greetings sets by Simon Says Stamp (sentiments)

Paper: Gina K Designs Layering Weight White and Black Onyx

Ink: Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated various Greens and  Gina K Designs Amalgam Black

Other: Winter Trees Layering Stencil set by Pink Fresh Studio, Blending Brushes, Simon Hurley Gold Lunar paste, Simon Says Stamp Thin Frames dies, Misti, Big Shot, Gina K Designs gold dots, foam tape, Connect glue

Supplies Card two

Stamps: Skiing By to Say Hi set by Pink Fresh Studio

Paper: SU Basic white thick

Ink: Gina K Designs Amalgam Black, Sea Glass, Soft Stone, Innocent Pink, Peach Bellini, and Christmas Tree Green

Other: Colored pencils, Misti, Blending brushes

Sympathy Cards

 Hello peeps,

I'm squeaking in just under the wire to post my card for the current Paper Players Challenge. Anne Marie's color challenge this month is Black & White with a bit of color. These are usually fun to do and lend to so many creative possibilities.

One of my cousins passed recently after a short illness, and I thought this challenge would be good to make a few sympathy cards, one for his wife and one for his mom.

This first card also uses the current Freshly Made Sketches layout, although my card is a little more layered than the usual clean designs for this challenge, but I'll post it there anyway.

All of the images used for this card are from Gina K Designs. I made a cloudy sky background for the balloon and for the strip down the side of the card using pastel rainbow shades and a cloud stencil. I wasn't going to add color to the balloon, but in the end it felt it needed some.

The second card uses the Spellbinders Betterpress system and the January 2024 plate of the month. I first ink blended some GKD Coral Reef ink from the bottom of the white panel getting lighter as I approached the middle before running it through the Betterpress system using just black ink. After the ink dried, I cut the panel out with a stitched die and popped it up with some foam tape onto a black card base. The sentiment is heat embossed.

These cards are never fun to make and I don't make them ahead for my stash. In this particular case, it was SO not something I wanted to do.

On a brighter note, we are having a little neighborhood happy hour this afternoon and that will be fun.

Thanks for checking in,

Colleen

Supplies Card 1

Stamps: Vintage Summer set with dies from Gina K Designs

Paper: Gina K Designs Black Onyx and Layering Weight White card stocks

Ink: Gina K Designs Amalgam black, Innocent Pink, Peach Bellini, Lemon Drop, Applemint, Sea Glass, Lovely Lavender and Copics

Other: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 dies, Misti, Foam Tape, Connect Glue, Big Shot

Supplies Card 2

Stamps: Spellbinders Fill My Heart Sentiments

Paper: Spellbinders Betterpress Cotton card panels and Gina K Designs Black Onyx card stock

Ink: Spellbinders Betterpress black, Gina K Designs Coral Reef and Craft white

Other: Spellbinders Betterpress system, Big Shot, Spellbinders Betterpress plate Poppy Greetings, Gina K Designs Fine Detail White EP, heat tool, blending brush, Gina K Designs Master Layouts 12 dies, foam tape

 

Let's Celebrate Your Day

 Hello,

I'm combining challenges for my post today using Ann's theme challenge for The Paper Players and Cecile's sketch for the new Freshly Made Sketches.

I recently completed the annual calendar that I make for my bestie every year using supplies from Concord & 9th and there were some of the die cut flowers left over. I decided to use one for Cecile's sketch and make a birthday card for my mom's birthday coming up in March. In addition to the flower, I added the March month stamp from this year's C & 9th calendar set and a birthday sentiment from another C & 9th stamp set. In fact, all of the card stock, stamps, ink and dies on the card are from Concord & 9th except the inside greetings, which are from Gina K Designs.

As mentioned, the inside greetings below are from Gina K Designs and the die cut flower is from Concord & 9th.

Enjoy the rest of the day and TGIF tomorrow!

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Celebration Squad set, 2024 Calendar Stamp set by Concord & 9th and Filled With Sunshine mini set, Friendly Silhouettes set by Gina K Designs

Paper: Concord & 9th card stock

Ink: Concord & 9th inks

Other: Concord & 9th Build A Bloom, Cottage Garden, and Quilt Card Front dies, Misti, Gemin Jr, Connect glue, SU Mini dimensionals