Canopy Crafts: 2016

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Joyful Christmas Wishes PP325

Hi all--here we are at the last Paper Players challenge for 2016. After this week, we will take a break from blogging to enjoy the holiday! It's also our last challenge with our amazing Guest Designers. They have worked so hard all year, sharing their work with us. Linda, Coleen & Hannelie, I am going to miss you all--thank you for going above and beyond to work with us the whole year!

The fabulous Jaydee is our hostess for a color challenge and she's picked a favorite combination of mine...silver and gold! Are you singing along with Burl Ives in your head? I sure am! I love the contrast of cool silver with warm gold and find it adds instant elegance to any project.

I knew I wanted to create something with an embossed poinsettia for my project so I dug out a favorite retired set for today's card....Joyful Christmas. The card base is actually thick whisper white cardstock to which I adhered a piece of [retired] brushed silver cardstock. The whisper white panel was trimmed on an angle for a bit of interest and embossed with the Holly Textured Impressions folder.

The star of this card is the poinsettia. It is heat embossed in gold on vellum cardstock. I embossed two images so I could fussy-cut the inside petals and pop it up on dimensionals for added texture and depth. I heat embossed the leaves from the same set on whisper white cardstock with silver embossing powder and fussy-cut. The leaves are tucked under the flower and some pine boughs are interspersed after cutting from silver glimmer paper with the Christmas Pines thinlits. The final touch are some basic pearl jewels in the center.

Pretty easy, really--just a lot of embossing and fussy-cutting! I hope you will stop by and visit my friends on The Paper Players design team before our challenge closes on Friday, December 16th at Noon (PST). This will be my last post of 2016 as I take a bloggy break to enjoy the holidays with my family. Wishing you and yours all the warmth and love of the season...see you in 2017!

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Snowflakes of Joy PP324

I may live in Florida now but I am a born-and-raised midwestern girl so as The Paper Players hostess for this week's theme challenge, I chose snowflakes! There is nothing like the sparkle and magic of new fallen snow; it blankets everything with quiet grace. I miss those first snowflakes...but certainly not the ones that fall in March, LOL!

For today's card, I was inspired by this tutorial for creating a beautiful winter night sky as well as Narelle's awesome sketch at Freshly Made Sketches:

I started with a layer of Shimmery White cardstock, die-cut a 2.75" circle and ran it through the Big Shot with the Softly Falling embossing folder. This embossing folder is so versatile--falling snow, champagne bubbles, water, confetti--it makes it all! It's a must-have folder.

To create the sky, I sponged a 3.5" x 3.5" piece of Whisper White cardstock all over with Tempting Turquoise. Night of Navy was added just to the top half and over that [retired] Blackberry Bliss deepens the Navy and turns it a lovely indigo. The water speckles, are just that...water flicked onto the ink with my fingertips. When dry they created a lovely snowfall effect. Scattered snowflakes from the Christmas Pines set were stamped in Night of Navy. I die-cut the sentiment from the Wonderful Wreath Framelits in Silver Glimmer paper. The letters were cut apart so I could add a snowflake--cut with the Starlight Thinlits--to the "o" in 'Joy".

I thought the inside needed some color so I sponged and spritzed another piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped this lovely sentiment from Christmas Pines in Blackberry Bliss (I really miss that color!).

I hope you won't miss a change to play along with this fun theme this week. Or miss a change to check out the rest of the Design Team's beautiful inspiration at The Paper Players! Join us, if you can...have a great week, friends!

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Frosted Pines & Sugarplums PP323

I hope all my friends in the US enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It was beautiful weather here in north FLA and we spent a fun-filled day with family. Today, at The Paper Players, our sensational Sandy has a sketch challenge for us--my favorite--and it's a good one!

I have a confession to make.....I am not fond of red and green together--gasp! I know, right?! How could this be? Well, I'm a frosty winter kind of girl--pastels, silver, white and grey. Those fantastic mercury glass ornaments in shades of pink, blue and green. All of them hanging on our vintage silver aluminum Christmas tree--really we have one! I might add, our tree trimming sessions are always accompanied by A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra. So, it was with dreams of frosty sugarplums dancing in my head that I made today's card...

Happy sigh....these colors are gorgeous together. Trust me, lay your ink pads next to each other and see how pretty they look. Sweet Sugarplum, Pool Party and Smoky Slate/Silver. Like a frosty winer wonderland!

The Pool Party base was stamped with snowflakes from the Christmas Pines set. Over the Sweet Sugarplum layer I added a slightly smaller piece of Vellum cardstock embossed with the Pine Bough embossing folder. Love how the vellum cracks and turns white when embossed. The Pretty Pines thinlits were cut from Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper--love its icy iridescence.

I repeated the same colors on the inside using Smoky Slate for the snowflakes, Pool Party for the pine boughs and Sweet Sugarplum for the sentiment. Did I mention that I love these colors together?! :-)

I hope you've enjoyed today's card as much as I enjoyed making it. Be sure to check out the rest of The Paper Players design team for even more fabulous inspiration! Come along and play with us before our challenge ends on Friday, December 2nd at Noon (PST).

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Chai Latte Inspired CAS: PP322

I was picking up my favorite fall drink at Starbucks the other day and I saw this gorgeous sign that stopped my in my tracks. I'm sure the people behind me didn't appreciate me stopping to snap a pic but I was totally inspired:

The white on black, the cut border, the winter foliage....I was smitten. Our dear, sweet friend Claire is hosting a Clean-and-Simple Christmas challenge this week at The Paper Players and I knew instantly how I would turn this inspiration into a card.

How did I do?! I used a retired stamp set called Watercolor Winter for the beautiful holly sprigs. They were heat embossed in white on basic black cardstock. I simply trimmed around the edges of the images and layered a piece of silver foil paper behind. The sentiment, from Holly Berry Happiness, is embossed in silver to match and die cut with the new Stitched Shapes Framelits.

I stamped the holly leaves and berries from the same Holly Berry Happiness set and punched them out with the coordinating Holly Berry Builder punch--yeah for a coodination punch! I stamped the holly leaves in [retired] Mossy Meadow on Old Olive cardstock and the berries are in Cherry Cobbler on Real Red cardstock. I love the way the green/red pops off the black. You may see some bits that look like stray embossing powder but that's actually Wink of Stella that I brushed around the holly for some added sparkle!

The Holly Berry Happiness set has some gorgeous sentiments and I love that they can be used on the inside of my cards. This one is particularly nice and reminds me what the holiday season is all about!

I hope you've enjoyed my Starbucks inspired CAS card...I hope it inspires you to look around you everyday. You never know where you will find YOUR inpspiration! You might find it among the lovely projects created by the rest of the design team so be sure to check them out. Maybe you'll even be inspired enough to play along with us before the challenge closes on Friday, November 25th at Noon (PST). For all my US friends....happy, happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I'm truly grateful that you stop by my little corner of blogland. ((hugs))

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Pretty Pines of Festive Color PP321

Happy Sunday, friends! I hope you're having a great weekend. This week at The Paper Players our sweet and talented friend Joanne is hosting a color challenge for us:

These colors are so festive together! Emerald Envy and Mint Macaron complement each other nicely. I had an idea in my head for these colors but I just couldn't translate it to paper. Sometimes that happens, right?! Anyway, here's what I came up with:

I just love the Christmas Pines stamp set and coordinating Pretty Pines Thinlits. I also used the Pine Bough Textured embossing folder but in a slightly different way. I wanted the embossed pine boughs to radiate out from the center sentiment but the way the folder is made the pine bough comes down from the upper left corner. I cut my card front in half and embossed each half. Then, I flipped one of the pieces so the pine bough went in the opposite direction. I adhered both of them to a Real Red card base and covered the seam with a piece of [retired] Real Red satin ribbon. That gave me just the look I wanted with the pine boughs!

I used several dies from the Pretty Pines Thinlits to embellish the sentiment panel. Even tucked in some Metallic Real Red Thread behind as well. And speaking of the senitment, did you notice those fabulous Stitched Shapes Framelits? Newly released by Stampin' Up, I was so excited to receive them this week that I coulnd't wait to use them. I love the extra detail the stitched edge adds without any extra bulk.

Before I let you go, I want to share a picture of a special visitor we had to our pond Saturday morning. I apologize for the poor quality photo--my phone was all that was handy and he was far away--but I think you will recognize his shape:

A Blue Heron paid us a visit and waded around in the pond on our property. So cool to see him swoop down into the water and then wade around ever so gingerly. I know you can't see his detail--and I couldn't either--but I could see that he was a beautiful gray-blue color. I don't know that we have any fish in that pond but there certainly are tons of frogs to keep him fed!

That's it for me today...please go check out the lovely inspiration from the rest of our design team over at The Paper Players. I hope you will join us before our challenge closes on Friday, November 18th at Noon (PST).

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Acorny Gratitude PP320

Hi peeps! Here we are, rolling on into November. I can't believe it. I don't even want to think about Christmas yet! It's finally feels like fall here in North Florida and I'm thankful for that! Sweet Laurie is our hostess this week at The Paper Players where we are celebrating just that....being thankful:

I have much to be thankful for and try to remind myself of that as often as possible. I like sending cards for Thanksgiving to the people in my life that I am thankful for so it was with that in mind that I created today's card:

I havent' used the Acorny Thank You stamp set in ages and I was so happy to see it return to the 2016-2017 catalog. I thought it was the perfect set for this week's fabulous sketch over at Create with Connie & Mary. The Cable Knit embossing folder sets off the acorns nicely and I wanted to mimic a cozy sweater in Very Vanilla. The acorns are kinda like a necklace on the sweater in pretty jewel tones of Deligthful Dijon, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo and Cajun Craze.

The acorn toppers look gold here but I promise you, they are punched from Copper Foil paper. I thought they needed to be "grounded" by something--I didn't like them just floating--so I added two oak leaves from the Vintage Leaf set and cut with the coordinating Framelits. Of course, I added a little Wink of Stella to the leaves and acorns because, well...why not?! The Linen Thread was just looped behind the acorns and attached with glue dots.

It's really a simple card and while I strayed from the sketch a little bit, I think you can see the inspiration:

For even more inspiration, check the rest of The Paper Players design team. I hope you will consider joining us before our challenge closes on Friday, November 11th at Noon (PST). Thanks for stopping by, friends!

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!

The Paper Players Design Team

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:

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.

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 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!

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).

The Paper Players Design Team