PP787 I'm Here For You

Happy Sunday, all!  It's wet, rainy, and chilly this weekend, so no marching in the Memorial Day parade sadly!  But it is time for the latest Paper Players challenge, and I am the hostess this week with an easy sketch for you:

I am trying to use up some of my retired DSPs---a never-ending job, really---and thought one of the scenes from Beautiful Gallery would fit the bill, so here we go:

I used a Rectangle Stitched die to cut out a portion of the design, then a Stitched Shapes to highlight another portion of it.  My background paper is from a couple of years ago, it's a corduroy print from All About Autumn; I liked how it coordinated with the darker blues in the main panel.  A simple sentiment from the retired set Occasional Quotes was stamped on a banner.  My only other embellishments were some little dots placed in the corners.  I did add a sympathy sentiment to the inside, because I like to have some on hand.

I hope you'll find some inspiration from my sketch this week and play along with us at the Players!  While you're there, check out what the DT created and give them some love too!  Thanks for visiting today! Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Occasional Quotes (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Boho Blue (ret), All About Autumn DSP (ret), Beautiful Gallery
Ink	Secret Sea
Accessories	Matte Dots (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies (ret), Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Banner DIes (Pink & Main)

AYSI143 Wedding Congrats

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a great weekend.  I got to do some stamping, went out to lunch AND dinner, knitted, read and relaxed!  It was great!  I made a wedding card, just to have on hand, with the As You See It sketch:

I realized (too late) that I put my sentiment over a bit too far....hopefully they won't kick me out!

My card base is Very Vanilla and I used some pretty papers from My Mind's Eye.  The embossing folder is the new Falling Petals; to make the hearts more impressive, I sponged them a wee little bit with some Pink Pirouette ink.  I added some gold foil accents as well as gold wire, and a wee little bit of the new doilies, which I love, because they are white on one side and vanilla on the other!

Thanks for popping in today!

Our church had a bowling event and everyone, young and old, enjoyed themselves!  

Cassidy even got a strike!  Better than I could do!

Enjoy your day!

Project Details
Stamps	Occasional Quotes (SU retired)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Gold Foil, Blush Blossom, My Mind's Eye My Story DSP
Ink	Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette
Accessories	Gold wire
Tools	Big Shot, Falling Petals EF, Sponge Dauber, Heart Punch, Doilies

Engagement Card

Happy Friday peeps!  Yay, the weekend is almost here!  Looking forward to spending some time with friends tomorrow!  A customer asked me to make an engagement card, and I really had to scramble as I realized I have very few stamps for that occasion!  But I remembered that I had some of these beautiful laser-cut cards from last year, so I looked through my stash of paper to find something to back the heart:

I first stamped the sentiment in Calypso Coral, then I embossed the flourish from Creative Elements in clear embossing powder on the front.  It’s a subtle look but very pretty.  I backed the heart cut-out with a paper that would work with the inside of the card as well, stamping a wee sentiment inside the flourish:

and added another sentiment and butterflies on the right side:

I finished it off with a couple of butterflies stamped in Versamark and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder, punched and adhered to the side of the heart.  Oh, and I added that pretty bow!

I was all ready to give this to my customer, using the Blush Blossom envelope that came with the card, but that big honkin’ bow was really squished, so I used my new Envelope Punch Board to make one to fit!  How exciting!  This little tool is SO COOL!  I had some random scrapbook paper that complemented my colors and look how wonderfully it came out:

Thanks for visiting today!

My friend Martha gave me some glittery pumpkin stickers, so Cassidy decided to make her mom a card:




It opened the wrong way, but who cares?!

Wee Project Details
Stamps	Creative Elements, Papillon Potpourri, Occasional Quotes (ret),, Wonderful Words (ret Verve)
Card stock & Papers	Designer Cuts Very Vanilla Card, Lost & Found Market Street (MME), K&Co DP
Ink	Calypso Coral, Versamark
Accessories	Clear EP,  Iridescent Ice EP, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Pearls
Tools	Heat Tool, Bitty & Elegant Butterfly Punches, Sponge Dauber, Envelope Punch Board

Paper Players #51

Happy Sunday to everyone!  Another challenge from the Paper Players, and this week it’s a color challenge:

Aren’t these fun, cheerful colors?  Now I understand that a couple weeks ago, our friends at Stampin’ Royalty chose the exact same colors—LOL!  Great minds think alike.  So we’d like to see a NEW creation—no fair using the same one!   Put on your creative thinking cap! 

I like this time of the year—the anticipation of the new sets and accessories coming out in the SU catalog, but I have to admit, I get bored seeing the same stuff used over & over again.  I know, I’m like a little kid, aren’t I?  So I have been trying to pull out some of my older sets and show them some love and give you readers something different to look at!  This set, Enjoy the Moment, probably hasn’t seen ink for over a year:

My upline, Pennie, recently gifted me with this wonderful die, Tasteful Trim!  Since our challenge colors this week are big and bold, I decided to use that big, bold rickrack too!  I added a few buttons, birdies and pompom trim, and I think this will make a fun graduation card for a special someone!  I stamped the “congrats” sentiment from Occasional Quotes in the challenge colors on the inside:

I am sad to see this little bird from the Merry Details diecut retire…..he is such a fun little guy!  I think I’ll keep him around anyway! 

Thanks for visiting today, and make sure you fly on over to the Paper Players blog to see what the other designers came up with, and play along with us too!

Here’s my little  “color challenge” girl today!  ALMOST crawling---watch out!

JUGS 88, Monkey 60

It’s Saturday!  Yay!  It is finally a little cooler here in PA and my day is going to be spent spackling my bathroom!  Fun!  But first, stamping…..I have a card that I am sort of on the fence about.  Love the technique and the sketch, just not liking how my blender pen bled my image….anyway, the JUGS  challenge is to make a woodgrain background.  This was a really fun technique and there is a link to a tutorial on their blog, with which, of course, I had to do my own thing.  And the sketch, from A La Card Monkey, is so sweet:

So without any more blathering, here it is:

The images are from my all-time favorite set, Garden Pleasures.  I know, I don’t use it enough.  I just like to look at those pretty images, LOL!  I stamped them in Early Espresso and used a blender pen to color them…yes, I know, I have never seen a red bee skep, but I used artistic license, just like I did by substituting a rectangle for the circles on the sketch! :D  Maybe the bee skep didn’t like being colored red and that’s why it bled! 

Anyway, this card is for a man from our church who is going through some rough cancer treaments; he’s a real country guy so I am hoping he’ll overlook the bleeding bee skep!  I also wanted this to be from me and my DH, so I eliminated the word “I’m” from the Occasional Quotes sentiment and just inked up the remaining words. 

Just in case you were wondering, this is my “recipe” for my barn boards:

1. Swipe Very Vanilla craft ink on Sahara Sand cardstock; I then dried it with my heat tool.
2. Swipe Ruby Red over the Very Vanilla ink; dry again.
3. Then I decided to score the cardstock to make boards; I scored them at 1” intervals.
4. I then swiped Crumb Cake over all of that---not dark enough, so I swiped the Mahogany Tea Stain from the Distressing Kit over it all….finally dark enough! 

It was still a little tacky after heating it with the heat tool, so I stole a little baby powder from Cassidy’s stash and wiped it on the “boards”.  Now it smells good too!    Added my images, some brads and retired Soft Suede ribbon and it’s good to go.  And if you’ve made it this far through this long post, here’s a little treat for you:

 

Be sure to come back tomorrow for the weekly Paper Players challenge!

Paper Players 48

Happy Sunday! The Paper Players are back to their regular schedule after the little blip we had last week with Blogger! Nance is our hostess this week and she’s got a great sketch for us:

I was blurfing the other day and came across a great blog called Paper Punch Addiction. Each day, Kim finds great projects made with punches and posts the links on her blog. I found this adorable card by Linda Fisher and knew I had to make one for myself!!! Well, to give to someone! So here we go:

I changed mine up just a little bit, but used the same basic shapes and punches! This was so fun—and it went together very quickly!

Now I hope you can find some time to play with the Paper Players this week---skip on over there and check out what the other Players came up with this week, and add your creation as well!

(This picture is so cute I can hardly stand it!)

• Stamps: Occasional Quotes, A to Z
• Paper: Naturals White, Pacific Point, Cajun Craze, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, WW, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Play Date & So Saffron Patterns DP
• Ink: Bashful Blue, Pacific Point, More Mustard
• Acc: Scallop Trim Border, 5-Petal, Large Oval, Small Star, 1 1/4” Circle, 1/2” Circle, 1/4” Circle, 1/8” Circle Punches, Brads, Corduroy Button, Nesties, Lots of Tags Die, Dimensionals

PP42 Color Challenge

Happy Sunday to everyone!  Warmer weather is on the way and that makes me happy!  Today’s Ann’s color challenge for the Paper Players makes me happy, too:

Woohoo, I love it!  I used the Skipping Stones sketch 71:

And here’s my card:

This color combo is fresh & and bold—even though Poppy Parade is not one of my “go-to” colors!!  I realized I had been neglecting my wheels, so I used Friendly Words to make my banner, and an image from Dreams duJour for my focal point.  They are both stamped on Textured WW cardstock, as is my card base, and the main image is  watercolored with an aquapainter and ink:

I just love that canvasy look the textured cardstock gives!  This is just such a happy card!  I have to admit, I was feeling smug because I actually started my card on Thursday evening and had it all finished, when I realized that I had used the wrong neutral---ACK!!!  Would you like to see the first version?  Here IT is:

I had this idea in my head for days----but I used Ivory cardstock for my main image.  It’s okay---I need a congrats card for a special couple who tied the knot in a Western ceremony---so it will still get used!  But I had to regroup and quickly make another card---any excuse to stamp more, right?  And I used the Fall to Layout 135  for this card:

I sure hope you can find some time to play with these wonderful colors Ann has chosen.  Make sure you gallop on over to the Paper Players to find out all the details and share your creation with us too!

First card:

• Stamps:  Dreams duJour, Tiny Tags, Friendly Words jumbo wheel
• Paper:  Text & WW, Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze, DP:  PP  & SS Patterns, Elegant Soiree, Sew Suite
• Ink:  Stazon Black, Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Baja Breeze, So Saffron
• Acc:  Aquapainter, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Brads, Sewing Machine, Tiny Tag punch, dimensionals

Second card:

• Stamps:  Out West, Occasional Quotes, Sanded, Woodgrain, Plane & Simple
• Paper:  Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Naturals Ivory, PP Patterns DP
• Ink:  So Saffron, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze
• Acc:  Pinking Hearts Border & Star punches, Nestie, Paper Piercer, Crumb Cake marker, Vintage Trinkets, dimensionals

Color Throwdown 124

Happy Wednesday! Broni is our hostess today and she has chosen a beautiful color combo for us to play with:

This is a bit of a long post, but you’ll want to read it! This week’s challenge is a special one. You may have heard about Katie Renz….you can read her story here. This week the CTD gals have decided to dedicate our posts to her……if you choose to play, we’re asking that you make a card for Katie and send it to her. You can get her address by contacting Tammy at colorthrowdown[at]gmail[dot]com. So let’s rally around a fellow stamper and show her some love!! But there’s something in it for you, our players, too! Stay tuned for more, later in the post. Edited to add: I got permission to put Katie's address here on my blog, so here it is:

Katie Renz, PO Box 5913, Bellingham, WA 98227-5913

So here’s my card….really simple design, a little different style and some fun colors:

The Early Espresso panel is actually the bottom of the top portion of the card….the Soft Sky panel extends below it. I wasn’t in the mood to do frilly, vintage or coloring…so I chose a cute birdcage from the Unity set Fall For You and stamped it over a little Melon Mambo diecut bird from SU’s Merry Details Sizzlet. I added some Melon Mambo and Early Espresso accents as well as a sentiment from the SU Hostess set, Occasional Quotes. Easy peasy!

Now remember, I said there’d be something in this for you if you choose to participate! I will be giving away a Stampin’Up! stamp set called Birthday Bakery to one lucky participant!

We’ll do a random drawing from all the participants and you could be the winner! And you’ll see on the CTD blog, there’s a contest there as well! And all the CTD designers have things you can win as well! CHECK THEM OUT!! Winners will be chosen on Tuesday, January 18. And we hope you will play along…can you imagine the look on Katie’s mailman’s face when he delivers all those cards?! PRICELESS! You can check out all the others’ designs here:

• Broni - Splashes of Watercolor
• Tammy - Stamp Happy
• Barbara - Paper Pursuits
• Danielle – Wild Dragonfly Designs
• Laura --Lil’Inker
• Kristen – Mindless Creativity
• Cathy – Crafty Thoughts
• Guest designer, Lori Tecler – Inking Aloud

Thanks for your participation!

• Stamps: Occasional Quotes, Fall for You, Unity
• Paper: Confetti White, Soft Sky, Melon Mambo, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo Patterns DP
• Ink: Early Espresso, Melon Mambo, Soft Sky
• Acc: Perfect Polka Dots EF, Lots of Tags Diecut, Merry Details Sizzlet, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Melon Mambo Ribbon, Neutrals Button, Bling