Vintage Copper Leaves PP312

Hi friends and happy Sunday!  Welcome to another week with The Paper Players where the lovely LeAnne has a seasonal and pretty color challenge for us:

 

The calendar may say September (BTW, how did THAT happen?!) but it's nowhere near fall temperatures here in Florida!  So, I was glad for the opportunity to pretend with LeAnne's pretty fall palette. 

 

I knew that I wanted to use my all-time favorite leaf stamp...Vintage Leaves...and I couldn't wait to see them embossed in copper.  The delicate detail of the embossing really shows up on the colored leaves. 

 I stamped the leaves on Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry and Pear Pizzazz, heat embossed with copper ep and cut them out with the coordinating Leaflit Thinlits.  So pretty!  I tried the leaves on several different background neutrals and really liked the way they popped on Basic Black [retired] DSP.  

A little swirl of new black metallic thread helps pull together the DSP and the sentiment.  I think this card will go for a male colleague with an October birthday.  MAYBE by then it will feel like fall around here!

Be sure to go check out the rest of the Paper Players Design Team for their awesome inspirations.  We hope you will join in the fun before our challenge closes on Friday, September 16 at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

Colleen Begley

 

 

Hooray, a Fan-tache-tic Birthday!

Hiya friends!  I've got another Paper Players card for you today but first, take a look at the fun challenge that Jaydee is hosting this week:

You would have to be living under a rock if you didn't know that mustaches are [still] the rage.  :-)  Among the younger set (like our DD), mustaches appear in unexpected places--on a squirrel, a clock, whatever!  You name it and she's probably got a doo-dad, t-shirt or locker accessory with a mustache on it!  My husband mumbles, "I just don't get what it is with mustaches...".  Well, I don't profess to "get" it either but I do think they are cute and couldn't wait to use the oh-so-reasonably-priced Mustache Framelits die ($7.95!!) on my card today:

Isn't it cute?  My husband says, "yeah, it's cute but I don't get it"--lol.  I had a male co-worker in mind when making this card.  His birthday is coming up and he is a HUGE Florida Gator fan.  While the cool colors in the Confetti Celebration DSP I chose didn't include Gator blue, I decided to highlight Gator orange--AKA Tangelo Twist.  Really loved this week's sketch from the talented gals at Freshly Made Sketches.  Love how their sketches are always right in time for designing my Paper Players card!

The plain cardstock mustache looked a little...well, plain!  So I stamped the line image from Gorgeous Grunge across it multiple times in Tangelo Twist and I really like the results.  Almost gives  it a textured look, doesn't it?  You can also see, in the background, that I popped up the panel of hexagon DSP for some extra dimension. 

My Six-Sided Sampler stamp set hadn't seen any ink in a long time so I brought it out to play off the hexagons on the DSP.  This [retired] stamp from Happiest Birthday Wishes coordinated perfectly with the Hooray sentiment from the current Remember This stamp set. 

I hope you will remember to pop over to The Paper Players and check out the other eye candy from the rest of the Design Team.  You're sure to find loads of inspiration for masculine Clean-and-Simple cards!  Maybe you'll play along with us before our challenge ends on Friday, September 26th at Noon (PST).

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Andrea Whisman

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Mike Funke

Yapha Mason

 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Wavy Trims

Thanks for stopping by tonight!  Before I get to the card, just want to give another shout-out for the great sketch challenge over at The Paper Players.  You still have time to participate and we would love to have you join us.  Here's the fun sketch:

On to today's card...a masculine card for a co-worker who loves the ocean & the beach.  With my new XL die Tasteful Trims in hand, I was able to make rollicking waves of Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue.

The boat is a PTI image (I don't have any SU boats!) that I stamped once in Crumb Cake and again in Daffodil Delight paper piecing the boat for a splash of color.  The cloud paper is from the retired Good Neighbors hostess pack--I'm hoarding it--and the Curly Cute sentiment fits on the sky quite well.  A little linen thread and a Daffodil Delight button finish it off in nautical style.  I have to give a shout-out to my dear blogging friend, Christina of Sea Glass & Sentiments.  She always makes fabulous beach/ocean/nautical cards so I was channeling her when I made this one!  Thanks for the inspiration, Christina!  And thanks to all of you for visiting and leaving me the most encouraging comments.  It warms my heart to know you are out there and I am grateful for your kind words.

supplies:

stamps: curly cute, masculine motifs (pti)

ink: not quite navy, crumb cake, daffodil delight

paper: crumb cake, not quite navy, baja breeze, bashful blue; good neighbors dsp

xtras: tasteful trims die; brights buttons; linen thread; corner rounder punch

It's a man card!

Card makers are united in their opinions about man cards...they're difficult! No flowers, no rhinestones, very little embellishments...whaaat?! But the Motorcycle stamp in the summer mini catalog makes the man card achievable! This one is designed with my Harley-riding Uncle in mind and for the inaugural Paper Players challenge...to create a father's day or masculine themed card. I also used this Mojo Monday sketch. I'm not usually an angle girl but I really liked this sketch! In fact, I'm so into angles this week that I have another angled card for you tomorrow--so check back!

For today's card, I started with a Kraft base topped with a panel of tangerine tango (it's coming back!!) run through the Big Shot with the square lattice folder. I thought it needed a little grit, a little street dust, ya know? So I sponged it with some Sahara Sand ink to make it look a little dirty.

The motorcycle was stamped with Versamark ink, sprinkled with black stampin' emboss powder and heat set. Gorgeous! The embossing really shows off the detail in this stamp. To get a nice crisp font, the sentiment from Pedaling Past (summer mini) was inked in jet black StazOn and it does just that!

I finished off the inside by stamping the motorcycle, again, in sahara sand ink on a panel of very vanilla cardstock. The sentiment comes from All Holidays set and was stamped in jet black StazOn. I hope this inspires you to create a masculine card--go check out the Paper Players and play along!

supplies:
stamps: motorcycle; all holidays; pedaling past
ink: sahara sand classic ink pad; jet black stazon
paper: kraft, tangerine tango, basic black & very vanilla cardstock
xtras: top note die; black striped 1.25" grosgrain ribbon; star punches (big & little); 1/2" circle punch; silver paper (non-SU); ticket corner punch

it's finally here!

As I write this tonight, it's actually cool enough to have the windows open and today it was beautifully cool for our area. Yahoo! I guess all my fall cards have made an impact--tee, hee! Today's post is a large 5x7 card for a male co-worker's birthday. I really like how the colors turned out--it took me awhile because they were out of my usual zone but I like the combination. I was inspired by this card over on the fabulous Nancy Riley's blog. I loved her use of the {in colors} and the Season of Friendship stamp has long been a favorite. The main panel is stamped with the Season of Friendship (#111776) tree in soft suede ink. I stamped the little tri-bunch of leaves all over the tree to fill it out with autumn color. I intended to stamp just a few leaves but I was not happy with it and as I added more and more, I came to a point where I realized that I liked the full look of it and just kept going! There might be one too many but you know how hard it is to know when to say "when"! LOL! The leaves are inked up in crushed curry, dusty durango, rich razzleberry & just for good measure...kiwi kiss (retired) makes a return appearance. Has it been hard for you not to use kiwi kiss too?! The tree is partially matted with some dusy durango cardstock attached on dimensionals to a larger mat of rich razzleberry that was stamped with the Sanded background stamp (#109294) in soft suede. I stumbled for awhile longer (sometimes it just takes me FOREVER!) over where to put the sentiment and I ended up using the Teeny Tiny Wishes set (#115370) popped out with the Word Window punch (#105090) and attached to a Modern Label (#116630) of crushed curry. I just love how the Word Window fits perfectly on top of the Modern Label punch! I punched a small hole in each end of the modern label and using some hemp twine "tied" the sentiment onto the card. Oh, I almost forgot the inside! A couple pieces of light cardstock are a must to line the inside of a dark card base and it provides the perfect blank canvas to carry over a little bit of the front image on the inside. I think stamping a matching or coordinating image on the inside just adds a little professional touch, don't you? I'm pleased with the results and hope you are too...thanks for looking.

Supplies:
stamps: season of friendship, sanded background, teeny tiny wishes
ink: soft suede, crushed curry, rich razzleberry, dusty durango, kiwi kiss
paper: very vanilla, soft suede, dusty durango, rich razzleberry cardstock
extras: word window, modern label, and 1 1/16 circle punches, hemp twine

sunset wheat

A "guy" card I actually am proud to post! That doesn't usually happen...but this one came together nicely. I needed a birthday card for my brother-in-law and I got the idea to cut shapes from a six-pack beer case. Specifically here, I used Leinengkugel's Sunset Wheat because the images were so, dare I say it, "pretty" and since my BIL lives in Wisconsin Leine's was a perfect choice! I started with a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2" card cut from pacific point (retired) textured cs and folded at the top. I tried to punch out parts of the carton but it was too much for the punch so I ended up using my tabletop paper cutter to cut out the sections that I wanted. I think next time, I will scan the carton and print it out onto cardstock so that I can punch the desired sections. Anyway...after I cut out my sections I played around with the layout until I liked the distribution of color and pattern. I mounted them onto a piece of river rock (retired) cardstock using an alternating pattern of up and down with stampin dimensionals. This helped it look not so flat since 3 of the 6 squares were on dimensionals. Three brown eyelets (jo-ann's) gave a final touch of masculine metal to the front. For a little more interest, I rounded the bottom right corner of both panels with my corner rounder. The sentiment is stamped in basic black from the "on your birthday" set (*love* that set!). But wait, look at the inside! A beer mug stamp from the dollar bin at Michaels was stamped in basic black on another river rock panel and then colored in with my crushed curry marker. And see the envelope behind there? I love stamping the front of the envelope with a related image--sort of a sneak peek to what's inside. Do you recognize the image? It's the wheat from the "autumn days" inked up in crushed curry. It is similar to the hops/wheat image from the beer carton, dontcha think?