Canopy Crafts: June 2016

Sunday, June 26, 2016

A Sketch for Affectionately Yours: PP301

Hiya friends! Wow, I finally feel like my family and I can settle into summer. It's been one activity or another around here since before school let out but now it's clear sailing...well, until mid-August that is! This week, the lovely Joanne is hosting a fabulous sketch challenge for us at The Paper Players...take a look:

Don't you just love it? Sketches are my favorite challenge and this one is a keeper! With all the afore-mentioned activities, I have yet to place an order for new SU goodies...gasp! Since I'm working only with pre-order goodies I decided to feature the gorgeous Affectionately Yours speciality DSP:

Not a lot of stamping here--just let the paper and colors do the work. Night of Navy, Watermelon Wonder, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight and Cucumber Crush.

It's a subtle accent but the Crumb Cake butterfly base layer is stamped with the same ink and the solid image from Watercolor Wings. Just the tone-on-tone stamping gives a little extra dimension to the background. There's a little bit of gold thread looped behind the butterfly and some leaves from the Bird Builder punch tucked on the sides.

I can never capture how much sparkle Wink of Stella adds to a project but trust me, it's there! I brushed it on the background butterfly so it the sparkles would peeok through the die cut.

I hope you enjoyed today's card...be sure to pop over to The Paper Players and check out the rest of the Design Team inspiration. Maybe we will inspire you to play along before our challenge closes on Friday, July 1st at Noon (PST). Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, June 19, 2016

It's a Milestone Celebration PP300

What a fabulous day today--so many great things happening! First and foremost, here's wishing all the dads, grandads, opas, uncles, cousins, nephews and brothers a happy, Happy Father's Day. What a special place our daddies hold in our lives--forever. Second, today is the opening day of the AAU Girls' Junior National Volleyball Championships and we get to watch our daughter and her team defend their 19th place (out of 94 teams) ranking in the state! And as if all THAT wasn't enough fabulousness.....over at my other family...my Paper Players family...we are celebrating our 300th CHALLENGE today!

It's difficult to describe what The Paper Players challenge and my friends on the Design Team--curent and previous--mean to me. Since my first appearance as a Guest Designer for PP12 on August 22, 2010, this challenge is a place where I have grown as a designer and found a small stage to feature my craft. But more than that, I found a close group of friends that nuture, care for and laugh with each other. I will be forever grateful to the immensely talented Lesley Croghan for creating this challenge and bringing us together. Here's to the next 300 challenges, gals!

But, you came here for a card didn't you?! How about I show you one that celebrates our accomplishments and answers this week's challenge for a Clean-and-Simple Celebration card!

Woohoo, this was fun to make! The Balloon Celebration stamp set returns to the new 2016-2017 SU Annual Catalog and I am so glad. I paired it with some fabulous colors from the Playful Palette DSP stack including: Emerald Envy, Peekaboo Peach, Sweet Sugarplum and Blushing Bride. They're pretty together aren't they?!

Here's a close-up so you can see the heat embossed sentiment from the returning set, Bravo, and just a hint of Wink of Stella I brushed onto the balloon bottoms. I never would have paired these colors together without the aid of the DSP but they look great together.

So I might have mentioned how great today is, right? Well, if you participate in our 300th challenge at The Paper Players it might just get even better for you!

To celebrate our 300th challenge, we are giving away Blog Candy, and lots of it! The team has assembled not one, not two, but ten grab bags full of stamping goodness! To be eligible to win one, all you need to do is play along with our challenge this week. You can play as many times as you like, but each needs to be a new project (no back linking, please) and see The Paper Players blog for our other challenge rules. Winners will be selected from all PP300 challenge participants using random.org and will be posted at The Paper Players on Saturday, June 25. We hope you will help us celebrate and join in for a chance to wine--just link up before the challenge closes on Friday, June 24th at Noon (PST). Be sure to check out the rest of the Design Team inspiration--we are so happy to have a visit from our former DT friend, Ann!

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Star Spangled Birthday PP299

I just couldn't get my head away from the ideas of stars when I saw LeAnne's color challenge for us at The Paper Players this week:

Even from the design of the badge straight through to my card, these colors just said STARS! I am holding onto my favorite SU star set, Be the Star, even though it's retired and used it for my card today:

Oh my, I had fun making this card! It will go to one of our nephews who celebrates a birthday close to July 4th but more than that, he loves primary colors. I heat embossed some silver splotches in the background with Gorgeous Grunge and then layered my stars on top. If you look closely, you can see a small vellum star in the background that's been heat emobssed with white on vellum. So pretty!

I want to give you a close-up to see the sentiment. It's a [retired] wooden accent but I inked it up with Versamark and poured silver embossing powder on it. Heat it up and look at that texture! Isn't it cool? I wasn't sure how the wood would handle the heat from the heat tool but it was just fine. I did keep the heat moving across so I think that helped. A little silver thread looped behind tied all the silver accents together.

I had a couple vellum stars left over that I used on the inside with a fun sentiment to finish off this birthday card. Maybe just a little glitzy for a boy but I think the primary colors keep it a bit more masculine and totes okay for a teenage boy!

I know the rest of the design team have some totes adorbs projects for you to gaze upon--please chek them out! Then consider playing along with us before the challenge closes on Friday, June 17th at Noon (PST). Thanks for stopping by, friends!

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Sail Away with Dapper Denim PP298

Hi friends, I'm back after a little bloggy break to celebrate my birthday last weekend. Big thank you to my Paper Players teammies who showered me with birthday cards--you gals are the best! Today, our very own Crafty Claire has a perfect theme challenge for this time of year!

With this challenge, it means that I actually have a father's day card done EARLY--wow! Since making this card, I've kinda been hooked on watercoloring and wanted to do another one for today's card.

This is a long ago retired stamp called Sail Away that I still love. I knew it would be perfect not only for my water color background but also for my father-in-law who makes his home on the shores of Lake Michigan. The background was created with several colors to help achieve depth in the coloring. I started with lighter shades of Soft Sky and Daffodil Delight for the water and sky. From there I layered in additional shades of blue to give depth and a wavy look. I brushed on Marina Mist, Pool Party and my new In Color love, Dapper Denim.

In the sky I layered on Crushed Curry, Peekaboo Peach and lastly a light wash of Blushing Bride. The sentiment is from the new set, Thoughtful Banners which has nearly every conceivable combination of words you would want on a card...and it's photopolymer (clear)....and it has a coordinating punch!

When I had the main panel completed and I went to attach it to the Dapper Denim base, I thought the base looked too plain. I didn't want a lot of layers so I did some stampin instead. I used a stamp from Timeless Textures in Dapper Denim all the way around the edge of the front. I thought it gave some interest to the card and almost looks like splashing water.

That's it for my card today--I hope you like it! Be sure to pop over to The Paper Players and check out the rest of the Design Team inspiration. We hope you will join in the fun before our challenge closes on Friday, June 10th at Noon (PST). Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team