CCEE2031 - Celebrating all Things Harry Potter

Lois Bak, our July CCEE Stampers hostess, is a huge Harry Potter fan!  Tomorrow (7/31) is his birthday.  Her challenge for the CCEE Stampers is to create a card to celebrate this event - something magical or just a birthday card.

To create my card, I computer generated this wonderful quote from Albus Dumbledore and added a Gina Maria Designs lantern hanging from an Altenew tree branch to illustrate it. I think it's perfect to celebrate Harry Potter during these dark times in which we find ourselves in 2020.

Linked below are the cards created by the members of the

CCEE Design Team to honor the wonderful Harry Potter

and his birthday! Enjoy!

Kelly McKown-Santi
Anne Harmon

Vicky Gould

Lois Bak
Liz Williams

Frances Byrne
Maryann Einam

Wild Thing with a Reverse Stencil - The Project Bin

A couple of weeks ago, Lyn Tomlin posted a challenge at Splitcoaststampers called Reverse Stencil. It involves inking the card front in bright, vibrant colors and then placing a stencil over that and inking  over it in black. I absolutely loved the look and knew I wanted to give it a try as soon as possible.

Needing several masculine birthday designs for the month of August, I decided today was the day to give it a try. Today's card, sponsored by The Project Bin, features images and sentiments from Wild Thing.

I started with a 4 x 5.25 white panel and blended Twisted Citron, Blueprint Sketch, and Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide inks by Ranger across the entire surface. I thought the Mini Gear stencil by The Crafters Workshop would be perfect with the motorcycle so I placed it over the colored panel and blended Versafine Onyx Black ink over the top of that. I then created an Abandoned Coral panel for the motorcycle and a Twisted Citron panel for the sentiments. They were stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink, as well. I spritzed a little water at the top to break up that large blue patch and am very happy with the results.

I certainly will be using this technique again!! It was quick and fun!! And I love the motorcycle and gears as a masculine birthday card!

I am entering this card in SCS Technique Lover's Challenge #804. Here is a link to other cards created with this same technique.

Double Easel Ocean - Kitchen Sink Stamps

This first Kitchen Sink Stamps sponsored card is a simple and fun double easel design using images from the newly released Tropical Fish Multi Step Clear Stamps and the Giant Coral & Seahorse Multi Step Clear Stamps. It is easy to make and looks awesome standing up on a table or windowsill.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations - July Challenge - All Creatures Great & Small

Creative Friday - Challenge #260 - Tropical

Cardz 4 Galz - Challenge #126 - Sea Shells



This first view of the card is what it looks like when it is closed and ready to insert in an A2 envelope.

This view is what it looks like standing on any flat surface.

The stamped images were all stamped with Stampin' Up Inks and fussy cut before they were attached to the card. The color recipes posted below were the colors I used on this design.

The background was created with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink brushed over the Pinwheel Scroll stencil from A Colorful Life Designs and then splattered over with more blue oxide inks. 

The sea grass, starfish, and sand dollar are Cuttlebug die cuts.

The sentiment was stamped with SU Brilliant Blue.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I am a true believer in this idea since I am a very visual learner. The pictures below should make it very easy to understand the construction of this card.

The basic construction takes two pieces of paper.

The white cardfront is 4.25 inches  x 11 inches scored at 5.5 into a standard A2 card.

The blue panel is 4 inches x 8.25 inches scored at 1.5 inches and 3 inches.

 Here I have folded the panels on the score lines.

Here I have glued the large portion of the blue panel to the cardfront. See how easy that was!

I am including a second card which I made yesterday and really love so I wanted you to see it. It is a masculine get well design using images from Tree Friends Multi Step Clear Stamps and Tiny Norway Pine which was a limited edition and no longer available.

The clouds and bushes were created with the Cloud Edger stencil also from A Colorful Life Designs.

For additional designs featuring Kitchen Sink Stamps, please visit the blogs and YouTube videos of the members of the Kitchen Crew linked below:

Kitchensinkstamps' Weblog by Maria Colosimo,

the owner and creator of KSS

Nancy Stamps by Nancy McCabe

For those wishing to purchase Kitchen Sink Stamps, click SHOP HERE. It will take you directly to the store as well as let Maria know that you are a fan of my work! Thanks so much!!

CCEE2030 - National Zookeeper Week

With this being National Zookeeper Week, CCEE hostess Lois Bak has suggested that the CCEE Stampers create a card which features a zoo animal.

I remember being amazed the first time I saw a stunning flock of pink flamingos at the Houston Zoo! What FABULOUS creatures!!

Check out the zoo animals featured by the rest of the CCEE DT in
honor of National Zookeeper Week!!

Kelly McKown-Santi
Anne Harmon

Vicky Gould

Lois Bak

Liz Williams
Frances Byrne

Maryann Einam

July Release - Kitchen Sink Stamps

Welcome to July Release Day from Kitchen Sink Stamps. The Kitchen is releasing three new sets today, and I am sure  you will enjoy creating some fun summer time designs with these wonderful images! 

Here today for your viewing pleasure are these hot off the press sets:

Tropical Fish Multi Step Clear Stamps

Giant Coral & Seahorse

Trout Fishing

My first two Kitchen Sink Stamps sponsored cards were created using the Giant Coral & Seahorse set with a sentiment from Tropical Fish. The fish net on the first card is a part of the Ocean Waters Multi Step Clear Stamps set. 

The Seaweed is a SVG Cut Stencil also available in the Kitchen today. After stamping the coral, I brushed the seaweed on using Stampin' Up Granny Apple Green ink. I watercolored the background with Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink. I made a little cluster of assorted ocean die cuts in my collection including the starfish and sand dollar from Cuttlebug, the punched fern from Martha Stewart, and the die cut fern from Tim Holtz by Sizzix. The twine is from Stampin' Up.

Here is the color recipe I used for the purple seahorses on the above card. All inks are from Stampin' Up.

Coral Color Recipe Using Stampin' Up Inks

Layer 1 Barely Banana

Layer 2 Crushed Curry

Layer 3 Watermelon Wonder

In addition to the Giant Coral and Seahorse images, this next card using Sage Shadow and Night of Navy cardstock from Stampin' Up and designer paper from Me & My Big Ideas. The seahorse and sea grass were stamped and matted on Recollections white cardstock.

This final card for today was created using the Tropical Fish Multi Step Clear Stamps and the Seaweed SVG Cut Stencil.

Both the Blue Tang and the Clownfish were stamped with Stampin' Up Inks. The Color Recipes are listed below.

The background was blended with Salty Ocean Distress Oxide Ink and then spritzed with water and dried. I added clear crystal air bubbles, as well!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the new images from Kitchen Sink Stamps.

For additional designs featuring Kitchen Sink Stamps, please visit the blogs and YouTube videos of the members of the Kitchen Crew linked below:

Kitchensinkstamps' Weblog by Maria Colosimo,

the owner and creator of KSS

Nancy Stamps by Nancy McCabe

For those wishing to purchase Kitchen Sink Stamps, click SHOP HERE. It will take you directly to the store as well as let Maria know that you are a fan of my work! Thanks so much!!

CCEE2029 - National Hot Dog Day

According to CCEE July Hostess Lois Bak, yesterday (7/15) was National Hot Dog Day.  So Lois has requested that the CCEE Stampers make a card using something you would have at a picnic -- a hot dog, a hamburger, a checkered tablecloth, or maybe some ants!

Around my place, picnic has as whole new meaning this year! Here is my entry into CCEE2029!

The cards created by the CCEE Design Team for this challenge
are linked below:

Kelly McKown-Santi
Anne Harmon

Vicky Gould

Lois Bak

Liz Williams
Frances Byrne

Maryann Einam

SCS Color Challenge 800

Today's birthday card sponsored by The Project Bin was created for a huge celebration going on over at Splitcoaststampers. Their Color Challenge is celebrating its 800th challenge with a fun choice of colors and prizes galore.

With one of my beautiful granddaughter's birthdays just around the corner, I have used one of the sensational sentiments from The Project Bin's fabulous Born Yesterday set! It is one of my favorite go-to sets for birthday sentiments, I am sure you can see why!

The three colors I have chosen to create with are Stampin' Up's Pool Party, Old Olive, and Poppy Parade. The neutral I have used is white. For a dessert option with these colors hostess Karen Barber asked for silver accents. I think I have covered all the bases.  The designer paper background is from BasicGrey, and I sponged it with Distress Oxide inks in like colors and spritzed it with water! I layered up the colors under the sentiment and added bits of a white doily for a little frill!!

Check out this delightful set and others over at

The Project Bin!! You won't be disappointed!!

Clean and Simple Challenge #594 - Gray Clouds

Good morning, Kitchen Sink Stamps Fans! I have been hard at work this week creating new color recipes and cards for the July Release that is coming on Monday, July 20! I think you will love the new images that lend themselves to bright and vibrant colors!! Here is a quick peek at one of the new images. I bet you guess pretty quickly what the theme of the release is!

All that work with the new stamps left me without a card to post today so I headed over to Splitcoaststampers to see what their challenges looked like this morning. And it turns out they had a perfect one for a masculine card I needed to create and mail today. Clean and Simple Challenge #594 is called Cloudy Days and it required that only gray and black inks be used to create the design.

So here is today's Kitchen Sink Stamps sponsored card which features images from Old World Door Multi Step Clear Stamps and Watercolor Prayers Multi Step Clear Stamps.

The inside sentiment says, "And I know they have all been hard days. May God be with you every step of the way."

Color Recipe for Prayers
using Altenew Inks

Layer 4 - Pure Graphite
Layer 3 Industrial Diamond
Layer 2  Silver Stone
Layer 1 Limestone

Look for more sneak peeks to be showing up here and on Facebook throughout the week!

For additional designs featuring Kitchen Sink Stamps, please visit the blogs and YouTube videos of the members of the Kitchen Crew linked below:

Kitchensinkstamps' Weblog by Maria Colosimo,

the owner and creator of KSS

Nancy Stamps by Nancy McCabe

For those wishing to purchase Kitchen Sink Stamps, click SHOP HERE. It will take you directly to the store as well as let Maria know that you are a fan of my work! Thanks so much!!

CCEE2028 - Don't Step on a Bee!

Lois Bak, CCEE Stampers July hostess, tells us that July 10th is Don't Step on a Bee Day.  We will, therefore, use a bee on our cards this week.  Easy Peasy!

Stamped images from All Hail the Queen Bee by Unity.

Die Cut Bee by Elizabeth Craft Designs.

Check out the BEEutiful designs by the CCEE DT:

Kelly McKown-Santi
Anne Harmon

Vicky Gould

Lois Bak
Liz Williams

Frances Byrne
Maryann Einam

Double Sweet Thanks and 100 Birthday - KSS

My first Kitchen Sink Stamps sponsored design today is my Double Sweet Thanks cards which features images from their newly released Summer Lemons Multi Step Clear Stamps and Watercolor Thanks Multi Step Clear Stamps. I used the same color recipe for the thanks as the one I used below for the lemons. For all that you do was stamped over the thanks with Versafine Onyx Black ink. The designer paper across the bottom of the card is from Patio Party by American Crafts.

This next card was a request from a friend for her farmer uncle who will be celebrating his 100th birthday this week in assisted living. The family will not be allowed in to help him celebrate so she wanted  something special to honor the life he has lived and bring a smile to his face. I hope this does the trick. It was created with images from Classic Old Truck Multi Step Clear Stamps and Cowboy Hat Multi Step Clear Stamps (which is a retired KSS set). The top sentiment was computer generated. The grasses across the bottom where die cut with grassy edges from My Favorite Things. The fence posts were embossed with a woodgrain folder.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Get Creative - Challenge #93 - Birthday

Allsorts Challenge #579 - Summertime

As You Like It Challenge - Jungle or Farm?  This Texas girl chooses farm, of course!

For additional designs featuring Kitchen Sink Stamps, please visit the blogs and YouTube videos of the members of the Kitchen Crew linked below:

Kitchensinkstamps' Weblog by Maria Colosimo,

the owner and creator of KSS

Nancy Stamps by Nancy McCabe

For those wishing to purchase Kitchen Sink Stamps, click SHOP HERE. It will take you directly to the store as well as let Maria know that you are a fan of my work! Thanks so much!!

CCEE2027 - World UFO Day

July CCEE hostess Lois Bak has a fun challenge for the CCEE Stampers this week.  Today is World UFO Day so Lois has asked that we make a card with something from space -- the sun, the moon, a planet, a UFO, a rocket ship.  Or, create a galaxy background for your card. 

My sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink.

My alien is from Bo Bunny.

Here are links to the "Out-of this World" cards by the CCEE DT:

Kelly McKown-Santi
Anne Harmon

Vicky Gould

Lois Bak
Liz Williams

Frances Byrne
Maryann Einam