PP703 CAS Challenge from Claire x Three

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Claire is our Paper Players hostess this week, and it's a Clean and Simple week! Here's her prompt:

What a fun challenge!  I confess that it took me THREE tries to get a card that I was happy with for this challenge; first, I don't really have that many fruit stamps (although when I thought harder about it, I did have a few!). Second, one of them wasn't clean-and-simple enough for me, and third, I just wasn't altogether happy with it!  But here's the one that I finally ended up with:

My fruit is a basket of grapes from an older SU set called Provencal; I heat embossed it in black ink and watercolored the image in with inks and an aquapainter.  The swirly image is from Timeless Textures and the sentiment is from Harvest Home, all of which are also retired.

I stamped another swirly image on the inside and added a stamp from Day of Thanks:

My first Thanksgiving card!  

This next one was my original card, and I just didn't feel it was CAS enough. I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and the colors from Colour Inkspiration:

Same image....did some watercoloring, paper piecing (because my watercoloring bled like crazy), some embossing and some diecutting:

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The little "celebrate" tag is from Our Daily Bread Designs.  

The final one was certainly CAS enough but it just didn't have any "oomph" to me:

Basic Beige background with a wee bit of decorative diecutting and Berry Burst image and sentiment (Unity). I love this sentiment, so I am sure I'll be able to use it for something!

SO....what will you create with our fruity CAS challenge?  There are lots of gorgeous fruit-related stamps out in our stamping world, so dig yours out and share it with us at the Paper Players, where you can see all the DT's submissions as well!   We'll be celebrating Cassidy's 14th birthday today, so I'm gonna run!  Thanks for popping in today, enjoy it and be blessed!

First Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Provencal, Harvest Home, Timeless Textures, Day of Thanks  (all retired)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Gorgeous Grape, Crumb Cake
Ink	Versamark, Versafine Black, Crumb Cake, Highland Heather, Basic Beige, Misty Moonlight
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Deckle Edge Rectangle Dies, Stitched Square Dies (Lil'Inker), Aquapainter

Second Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Provencal (ret), Timeless Textures (ret),Mini Tag Sentiments (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Summer Splash, Blackberry Bushel, Berry Burst, Bubble Bath Glimmer (ret)
Ink	Blackberry Bushel, Berry Burst, Craft White
Accessories	Dimensionals, Pink Seam Binding (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Nested Essential Dies, Ornate Borders Die (ret), Distress Tile Embossing Folder, Tiny Tag Punch (ret), Aquapainter

Third Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Provencal (ret), Stamp of the Month March 2024 (Unity)
Card stock & Papers	Basic Beige, Berry Burst
Ink	Berry Burst
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Labels Die (ret), Layering Squares Dies (ret), Stylish Shapes Dies

PP566 Season of Thanks

Hi there everyone!  The first Sunday of November, and Claire is our awesome Paper Players hostess!  She's got a very timely theme for us:

 

I should have saved my big fat turkey card for this challenge, but truthfully, I have many seasonal images in my stash of stamps that I can use, and I pulled out a couple of real oldies but goodies for my card today:

Nature's Seasonal Borders is one of my all-time favorite stamps!  I stamped the fall border with some Stazon ink on Shimmery White cardstock and watercolored my images in.  Once I was finished, I trimmed it down and mounted it on a piece of Cinnamon Cider cardstock on which I had stamped a fall image and sentiment from Harvest Home, then embossed with the Subtle embossing folder and did some sponging around the edges.   Here's a closeup of the images:

I added a couple of diecut leaves that I subtly watercolored to add a little dimension.  I just love the line images in this set, and I hope you do too!  Thanks for popping in today!  Be sure to check out what the other designers created for our thankful challenge, then share yours too at the Paper Players!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Nature's Seasonal Borders, Harvest Home (both ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Cinnamon Cider, Shimmery White, Crumb Cake (leaves)
Ink	Stazon Black, Cajun Craze, Poppy Parade, Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Bumble Bee, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Seasonal Swirls Dies (leaves), Subtle EF (ret), Aquapainter, Sponge Dauber

Shades of Green

 Happy Saturday, peeps!  Hope your weekend has some fun plans!  I have a couple of cards to share today, both featuring shades of green!  The first one is for the FMS sketch and uses some retired items:

The set I used is called Harvest Home, and it was stamped on some Naturals White cardstock with Stazon and watercolored with various inks.  I overstamped it with the Linen background stamp because I just love the effect that it gives!  The leaf is from the same set, fussy-cut, and the sentiment is from a Paper Pumpkin kit from a few years back.  The papers are from Orchard Harvest, also a few years back. I love the line-drawing detail in these types of stamps:

My next card uses the sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday:

I had these three little strips of Forever Greenery floating around on my desk for several weeks and when I saw the sketch, I knew they would be perfect!  I diecut them with a narrow Stitched Rectangle die; they weren't quite long enough to go all the way across the card, so I cut and separated them and just layered my Pretty Peacock banner on top:

The sentiment is from Comfort and Hope, and I overstamped it with an image from the same set, stamped off with Old Olive.  I used the Stitched Shapes dies to cut it out, then backed it with another diecut from Tasteful Labels.  It was finished off with some retired Old Olive Linen thread:

That's it for today!  So happy you popped in!  Be sure to come back tomorrow for a new Paper Players challenge!  And, someone asked me for my daughter's Spaghetti Squash Lasagna recipe; unfortunately, it does use marinara sauce, but I am sure you could substitute alfredo if you didn't like tomatoes.  Also, I am pretty sure she used ground turkey instead of sausage!  You can find the recipe HERE.

And here are a few more natures pictures from my walks this week:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Maple Leaf Thanks

Happy Monday, peeps!  I have two stamp camps today so this will be short and sweet!  The CAS Watercolour challenge this month is "Maple Leaf".  There are many gorgeous creations in the gallery and try as I may, I just cannot replicate those amazing free-flowing watercolor techniques!  So I found an outline maple leaf image (sort-of) from a retired set called Harvest Home, stamped it with Stazon ink, and colored it in with my new Arteza watercolor pens.  Originally this was just a practice piece, but it turned out fairly well, so I added a sentiment, a little embossed stitching, a Real Red border, and mounted it on a Crumb Cake embossed card base:

To add a little interest, I stamped another leaf, colored and cut it out and popped it up on the panel:

A friend did a very nice thing for me, so I stamped this on the inside, and this card will go out in the mail ASAP!  Thanks for popping in today!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Itty Bitty Greetings, Harvest Home (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Thick White, Real Red
Ink	Stazon, Real Red
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitching Lines Dies (Ellen Hutson), Arteza Watercolor Pens, Fall Leaf Background EF (Darice)

Grateful Heart

Happy Saturday, peeps!  Hope all is well with you in your little corner of the stamping world!  I saw a pretty color challenge at Inspire.Create, and I am willing to bet when you see it, you'll be surprised at what came of it!  So first, I'll show you my card; it features an older SU image that I found on ebay, and it is perfect for some seasonal watercoloring:

And here is my challenge prompt:

These colors look very "flowery" to me, but when I thought about putting them together on this scene, they worked into some pretty fall colors!  I just used inks of all the shades with an aquapainter after stamping the image on watercolor paper with Stazon ink:

I framed it with an Avery Elle stitched rectangle frame, and then stamped a sentiment from Right at Home below it:

That's pretty good advice by which to start one's day, any time of the year, don't you think?!  And since my image was watercolored, I am also entering it in the Paperminutes challenge of watercolors!  Thanks for popping in today!

SO.....on Wednesday afternoon, Cassidy caught her thumb in the car door!  Youch!  It didn't break the skin (or even get a bruise that I could see), but Mommy gave her some Tylenol and took her to the ER for some x-rays anyway:

Dana said the doctor made her laugh!  And blessedly, she only had a sprain, so no cast, just a splint!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Harvest Home (ret), Grateful Heart (Right at Home)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Watercolor
Ink	Basic Black, Sahara Sand, Lovely Lipstick, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Crushed Curry
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Double Pierced Rectangle Die (Avery Elle), Aquapainter

Paper Players 320 Thankful Autumn Blessings

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Laurie is our Paper Player hostess with a lovely theme challenge this week:

I haven't done anything in a vintage nature lately, so I checked my digital image file and found this lovely postcard image of children bringing in some fall harvest!  So sweet!  Instead of creating a card, however, I decided to make a little 6x6 collage to display along with my other Thanksgiving collectibles:

I printed out the postcard on some cream-colored stationery, trimmed and distressed it and added some Cajun Craze cardstock behind it.  I took a piece Autumn Day 6x6 paper from Photoplay and stamped a myriad of fall images on it in Early Espresso ink; I used SU's Harvest Home. Truly Grateful and last month's Paper Pumpkin, along with some leaves from last year's Paper Pumpkin Halloween set.  I used Papertrey dies to cut out the "thankful" and the "fall" in Early Espresso and Old Olive cardstocks, then adhered them to the side and bottom.  The banner was created with SU's burlap ribbon and some Tim Holtz seasonal stickers.  The leaves were inspired by my friend Vicki - you can see her adorable tag HERE - and they were cut with Lawn Fawn's Stitched Leaves dies, then sponged and liberally coated with Wink of Stella....it's a shame you cannot see how gorgeous they are!  I added a little baker's twine knot to "tie" them together!

 

Finally, I added a shabby seam binding bow made from some seam binding I dyed a long time ago...not even sure what color ink I used!  Anyway, I tied it up with a little button and added another shimmery leaf behind it...you can see the glimmer on this one a wee bit better!

I mounted everything on a 6x6 piece of chipboard and cut an easel (Tim Holtz die) to prop it up.  Now it sits on my piano with all my little turkeys...maybe I'll share them later if I can get a good photo!

I can share one of the vintage postcards from my own collection.  I probably inherited this (and the others) from one of my grandparents, or I might have found it at a yard sale:

So how will you interpret this challenge?  I hope you'll share your ideas with us at the Paper Players blog!  Meanwhile, check out what the other designers did:

• Claire
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Laurie
• Nance 
• Sandy
• Linda
• Hannelie
• Colleen

And one last photo of Mandy Panda before she went back to school, helping Cassidy eat her waffle...and yes, it had Nutella on it and she very methodically ate the middle before eating around the edge!!!  Normally she doesn't do this, so I thought it was kind of funny...hence the photo!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Paper Players 272

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Laurie is our hostess at the Paper Players this week, and she has a lovely sketch for us.  I think I might have to pin this one for future reference!

I am still making Thanksgiving cards…..I can send them out tomorrow and they’ll still arrive in time, right?!  I pulled out the lovely, sadly retired, Truly Grateful set and some retired DSPs and went to work:

I stamped the wheat bundle in Hello Honey on a stitched tag from Simon Says Stamp, then stamped it again and cut it out, sponging it and popping it up with dimensionals:

It looked a wee bit plain, so I added a little Soft Suede ribbon tied with some Linen Thread to match my Soft Suede banner.  I cut out a stitched banner (same die set) in Pool Party and isolated just the word “Thankful” with a marker to stamp on top.  My Hello Honey panel is matted with some Cajun Craze cardstock and the whole shebang was mounted on a Hello Honey card.  I found this sentiment in my Harvest Home set, stamped it in Soft Suede on the inside and used my Versamark pad to stamp the wheat again in a lighter tone.  I love this look:

The “Happy Thanksgiving” is from last year’s Paper Pumpkin kit!  I have gotten a lot of use from that little set!  I am also entering this in the Papercraft Crew Challenge #171, which is a theme challenge of giving thanks!

 I hope you’ll join along with us and create something with this wonderful sketch!  You can see everyone’s creation here, or visit us at the Paper Players!

• Claire
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Laurie
• Nance
• Sandy
• Amy
• Jodi
• Lisa

Last week we found a slate-colored junco and a wee little mouse, both of whom had met their demise somewhere near our house…thankfully not IN the house!  After a few tears (Grampy told her the mouse went to mouse heaven, at which she replied “There is NO mouse heaven, Grampy!”), we had a little burial for both of them, complete with blanket!  She insisted on digging with her own shovel, although Grampy did have to help her with that:

Never a dull moment!  Enjoy your day!