The Paper Players Design Team
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Pretty Pines for Tic-Tac-Toe PP319
Hi friends and happy Sunday. Welcome to another week with The Paper Players where the lovely LeAnne is hosting a bonus Tic-Tac-Toe challenge:
Tic-Tac-Toe challenges are great fun because you get to pick which three elements to include in the design. I chose the bottom row: diecut, pine and ribbon with an added bonus of washi tape, red, glitter and patterned paper! I almost got them all!
I used the awesome sketch at Fab Friday for my inspiration just turning it to the vertical, rather than horizontal, orientation. The music sheet paper is from This Christmas Specialty designer paper--it has a lovely thin texture that is great for layering without bulk. The Very Vanilla panel is embossed with the Softly Falling embossing folder (swoon!) and layered with a strip of [retired] gold glitter washi tape.
The real star of the show is these gorgeous diecuts from the Pretty Pines thinlits. They were the first thing in my shopping cart from the Holiday catalog! Here I used Garden Green and Wild Wasabi to cut several layers of pine boughs. There are some berry sprigs in this set as well and here they are cut from Cherry Cobbler cardstock. The pine cones are backed with a sold shape in Basic Black and the outer layer of the pine cone is cut from Gold Foil paper.
I used stamps from the coordinating stamp set, Christmas Pines to decorate the inside and added a little snip of the matching dsp from the front. Lastly, here's the Fab Friday sketch that inspired my design:
My friends on the Paper Players design team have some gorgeous eye candy to inspire you to play along this week. Check them out before our challenge closes on Friday, November 4th at Noon (PST). Thanks for stopping by, friends!
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Star of Light for a Paper Players Sketch PP318
This week at The Paper Players, the fabulous Jaydee has a sketch challenge for us and it's a great one! Take a look:
Next to color challenges, sketches are my favorite. I love having a starting point for my design...as well as a little freedom to interpret the sketch my own way (wink). So, here's my card:
Here you can see the star I created with two framelits from the set. The base layer is silver glimmer paper and the top layer is Night of Navy cardstock. I adhered them together with some glue dots and swirled some silver thread behind. Oh, and that strip of clear acetate is pretty neat too--Patterned Acetate sheets from the Holiday Catalog. The print can be use on either side depending on whether you want silver or gold! Sorry the pic is a little too washed out to see the detail in the acetate--it was too sunny!
I did take the liberty of flipping the sketch and placing the focal point on the left side instead of the right. It seemed to work better with the sentiment I had in mind. The Star of Light stamp set and coordinating framelits are amazing! I love that swirling trail of stardust...here I stamped it in Night of Navy on the Smoky Slate card base.
I stamped the swirling stars on the inside in Smoky Slate ink and saved the Night of Navy for the sentiment. When stamping on the inside, I like to use the lightest colors of my design for background stamping so as not to detract from the sentiment.
Be sure to check out the rest of the inspiration from The Paper Players design team...I know you will find lots of beautiful projects to inspire you to play along. Join in the fun....just do so before our challenge closes on Friday, October 28th at Noon (PST). Thanks for stopping by, friends!
The Paper Players Design Team
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Woodgrain Flourishing Leaves PP317
So, I have a thing about leaves...the colors, the textures, the patterns, the amazing symmetry of nature. This week I am hostess at The Paper Players and we are celebrating Leaves with a Clean-and-Simple challenge:
It seems as though Clean-and-Simple is all I've got time for lately so this challenge was perfect for another busy week. Here's my creation:
The hardest part about making this card was deciding the colors and the spacing of the squares! The card is small notecard sized--just 3.5" x 5"--so the squares needed to be proportional. I used the 1.25" square punch to pop out squares of Island Indigo, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry and Always Artichoke. When I ran them through the Big Shot with the Woodgrain embossing folder, I laid them out as I wanted them on the card. This allowed the embossed lines to continue seamlessly across the 4 panels. The leaf stem was cut from Copper Foil paper with a Flourish Thinlit and some Copper Thread wound behind it. The only stamping is the Early Espresso sentiment from the coordinating Flourishing Phrases stamp set.
I have a bit more stamping to show you, albeit not really clean-and-simple but does feature leaves:
You might remember the Halloween candles I shared with you in this post. This time I made a fall version that I gave to a friend as a hostess gift for the SU party she booked with me. I heat embossed some images from the Vintage Leaves set onto vellum cardstock using copper embossing powder and clear embossing powder with Cajun Craze, Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry inks.
Here's a view of the vellum before I wrapped it around the candle. After all the leaves were stamped and embossed, I stamped the back with the [retired] Dictionary stamp in Crumb Cake. I am really pleased with how it turned out and my hostess loved it! I'll have to make a few more in other fall colors, starting to get a little addicted to making them!
So there you have it....two leaf projects...one clean-and-simple and the other, well...not! Do go check out the inspiration from my friends on the design team at The Paper Players. We hope you will join us before the challenge closes on Friday, October 21st at Non (PST). Thanks for stopping by!
I have a bit more stamping to show you, albeit not really clean-and-simple but does feature leaves:
So there you have it....two leaf projects...one clean-and-simple and the other, well...not! Do go check out the inspiration from my friends on the design team at The Paper Players. We hope you will join us before the challenge closes on Friday, October 21st at Non (PST). Thanks for stopping by!
The Paper Players Design Team
Sunday, October 9, 2016
It's a Charlie Brown Halloween PP316
Hi friends, welcome to another week with The Paper Players! Where our sweet friend Sandy has an awesome color challenge for us. Next to sketches, color challenges are my next favorite!
I was trying not to go in a Halloween direction because that was the first thing that came to mind and I wanted to do something different. Well, that different something ended up in the trash bin and I took the easy way out...Halloween!
This sweet little [retired] stamp set, Happy Scenes, always reminds me of a scene from a Charlie Brown episode. Charlie Brown was a staple holiday favorite of my childhood so maybe that's why I like this set so much! The Wild Wasabi cardstock is embossed with the Petal Burst folder and popped up on the Happy Scene image.
The stamp was heat embossed in black and colored with [retired] Blendabilities markers in Wild Wasabi and a Stampin' WRite marker in Pumpkin Pie. I did use the lightest Soft Sky Blendabilities marker to outline the tree and horizon line for emphasis. You can't see it here but I also washed the tree with clear Wink of Stella. I swear I can't make a card without it!
I repeated the scene and coloring on the inside--this time without the heat embossing. Left it blank for a sweet handwritten note! I think my daughter might send this to her bestie who, sadly, moved out of state last year.
My Paper Player besties have some great projects lined up for you with Sandy's colors so be sure and check them out. We hope you will join the fun before our challenge closes on Friday, October 14th at Noon (PST).
My Paper Player besties have some great projects lined up for you with Sandy's colors so be sure and check them out. We hope you will join the fun before our challenge closes on Friday, October 14th at Noon (PST).
The Paper Players Design Team
Sunday, October 2, 2016
A Labeler Halloween PP315
So, you know how some weeks are just crazy? Extra hours at work, people pulling you in all different directions, deadlines looming? Yeah, it was one of those for me. Which is way I cheated a little for Claire's awesome theme challenge this week at The Paper Players:
I cheated because I used the exact same sketch and layout as my cards for Joanne's awesome sketch challenge last week! Ugh, I just couldn't come up with anything new. That said, I do really like how my Halloween version turned out. Take a look:
Like Thanksgiving stamps & accessories, Halloween stamps and goodies stick around in my craft room too. Here, I've used some old DSP with Edgar Allen Poe's verses as well as a retired bat stamp from the set called From the Crypt.
The real star, though, is the gorgeous tree from the Sheltering Tree set. Embossed in silver on black it looks positively spooky! I washed over it with some clear Wink of Stella because a Halloween forest has to sparkle! The Labeler Alphabet stamp was super fun to use on the sentiment. I love the ransom note (i.e. creepy) look of the crooked letters. This is my first time using the fun black/grey Baker's Twine from the holiday catalog--love it! Because I felt guilty for not coming up with a new design, I decided to try out an idea that had been floating in my head since my mom showed me this awesome idea from Pinterest:
I made a candle to go with the card! I bought plain white candles at Dollar Tree and set to decorating them. I cut a 6.5" x 7.25" piece of vellum cardstock. I heat embossed the same tree as well as a gate image from another retired set, Toxic Treats. On the back of the vellum I stamped the retired Dictionary image with Basic Gray archival ink. I used spray adhesive and rolled the vellum onto the candle. Some Glitter Tape around the bottom and some more black/grey Baker's Twine was tied around the top. Easy-peasy!
By this time, I got my crafty groove on so while I had everything out I made three more! I dug deep into my retired collection for these stamps including a contraband (non SU) stamp of some dancing Day of the Dead ladies. Here's a close-up so you can see the background stamping and the detail:
And here's the whole set:
So, I guess I created someting new afterall! Thanks for the fun theme, Claire. I love Halloween and though I don't send many cards, I do love decorating for the holiday so these candles will be put to good use...and will make a good present for a friend or two!
The Paper Players Design Team
Be sure to check out the rest of the inspiration from my friends on The Paper Players design team! We would love see your Halloween projects before our challenge closes on Friday, October 7th at Noon (PST)...thanks for stopping by!