Punny Valentine, Intended PP375

 Hi friends and Happy New Year!  We're back at The Paper Players for a new year of challenges with you.  This week our fabulous friend, Sandy has dug herself out of the snow to host our first theme challenge and it's a cute one...

It seems like "punny" stamp sets are everywhere so I think everyone is going to have fun with this one.  I dug into my stash of retired stamps for this older hostess set called Pun Intended and it had just what I needed:

Isn't it cute?  Love this old style light bulb and the sentiment is especially cute!  I was able to play with a new-to-me product from the SU Spring catalog called Brusho Crystal Colors.  These very fine crystals come in a small little bottle that you use like a shaker.  The crystals can either be sprinkled on wet or dry watercolor paper.  If the paper is dry, then you can spritz them with water.  Either way, when mixed with water they spread and react in different ways. 

The really cool part is that they contain a mixture of colors so you'll get little drops of similar colors--you can see some speckles of orange on my "yellow" background.  The crystal colors are not matched directly to Stampin Up colors but coordinate well and contain a basic set of yellow, orange, green, blue and red.  I've only just begun to experiment with them so I'm sure there is way more to be done with them!

I used my Mini Misti to stamp the light bulb and sentiment 3 times to get a good solid impression of the ink.  Since I used watercolor paper--which is textured--being able to stamp the same image, exactly the same way multiple times is essential.  On the background, I used this cute [retired] line of hearts stamp from an even older set called Valentine Defined.  Also seemed like that little snippet of black chevron ribbon was really needed in the corner there for some decoration and interest!

I hope you've enjoyed my card today...be sure to check out the rest of our fabulous Design Team over at The Paper Players.  This week we're welcoming a brand-new Guest Designer, Elizabeth and welcoming back Annie and Jan.  We're delighted to have all of them with us!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

A Sketch for the Paper Players {PP35}

Happy Sunday everyone!  Hope you're having a good weekend. Welcome to Paper Player Sundays!  Lesley is our hostess this week and she has designed this versatile sketch for us:

It's a good one, eh?  I went with a traditional A2 size as it fit the focal image that I had in mind...

When I pulled the Build-a-Cupcake punch out of my Sale-a-Bration order box and looked at all the parts it punches, I couldn't wait to use the top part of the cupcake--that is, the frosting--as clouds!  Believe it or not, this card started with the clouds!  I knew I wanted to use the clouds where the flowers are in the sketch.  Once I had the clouds, a tree seemed the next logical choice and it just snowballed from there!  My three colorful and fun panels are taken from the Play Date designer paper.

This tree from Valentine Defined is one of my favorites in the set and it fit perfectly inside a 3" circle mat cut from Chocolate Chip cardstock with my new 3" Circle die.  Of course, I used the same Pony Party grass I used in this card and added a red glimmer heart with the smallest heart from the Heart-to-Heart punch.

The clouds were punched from Whisper White cardstock with the Build-a-Cupcake punch:

and the edges were sponged with Tempting Turquoise ink so they would stand out against the other white cardstock.

The sentiment from You're a Gem seemed to fit the mood of this card and I matched the Old Olive ink and Chocolate Chip mat to the main image.  For a little more texture, a strip of Chocolate Chip cardstock was edged with the Scallop Border punch and run through the Polka Dot impressions folder.

So there you have it--what do you think?  I hope you like it!  Be sure to hop on over to the rest of The Paper Players design team for some fabulous inspiration.  If all that inspiration gets you crafting, come back to our blog and link up your creation by midnight Friday February 25th for a chance to be our "Headliner" or "A Cut Above"!  Hope you'll join us!

the goodies:

stamps: valentine defined, you're a gem, pony party

ink: old olive, tempting turquoise

paper: so saffron, chocolate chip, whisper white CS; play date DSP

xtras: build-a-cupcake, scallop border, 1" circle, 1 1/4" circle, heart-to-heart punches; 3" circle originals die; nestabilities; stampin' write markers; red glimmer paper

Love is in the Air {PP33} & candy winner!

Happy Sunday everyone and welcome to another week at The Paper Players.  What a time we had last week with our first-ever Blog Hop.  I am so grateful for all those who stopped by during the Hop and became one of my followers.  I just love to see all your little smiling faces on my blog each day--it warms my heart to know you're out there! 

So first order of business is to announce the winner of the Blog Hop candy!!  I used Random.org to generate the winning comment and it selected #65...Michelle!!! 

Congratulations Michelle!  Please email your snail mail address to nleedy@cox.net and I will put your Polka Dot impressions folder AND my blog hop card in the mail to you right away!

Alright, now onto this week's challenge..it's February and that means Valentine's Day and all things LOVE-ly!   Please join us for our "Love is in the Air" challenge to create a romantic card of any style.

I like to try and find other uses for holiday stamps and so it was with that approach that I used Valentine Defined to make an anniversary card.

I started with a card base of Basic Gray and a piece of Bashful Blue run through the Elegant Lines impressions folder and matted with Rich Razzleberry.   To make the focal medallion I stamped the heart grass from Valentine Defined in Bashful Blue and overstamped the lovin' flamingos in Rich Razzleberry.

I punched the flamingos with a 1 3/4" circle punch, backed it with a 2" Brushed Silver circle and a 2 1/2" scalloped circle in Rich Razzleberry.  I punched a bitty heart with the two-step owl punch (really, this time!) and added some Crystal Effects.  It makes a sweet little puffy heart!

I needed a place for the sentiment but didn't want to interfere with the embossed background.  So I stamped a piece of cardstock Vellum with a Basic Gray sentiment from A Word for You, punched a scallop border and added some pearls.  Some Basic Gray taffeta ribbon hid the adhesive perfectly!

On the inside I added a strip of more embossed Bashful Blue cardstock, a scalloped border of Rich Razzleberry and a sentiment from Occasional Quotes in Basic Gray.


Be sure to check out all the inspiration from the rest of The Paper Players design team and then link up your love-inspired creation on the Paper Players blog by midnight (MST) on Friday February 11th.  The design team will each choose A Cut Above and a Headliner.  Have fun all my lovely friends!

supplies:

stamps: valentine defined, a word for you, occasional quotes

ink: basic gray, rich razzleberry, bashful blue

paper: basic gray, rich razzleberry, bashful blue, brushed silver, whisper white, vellum CS

xtras: basic gray taffeta ribbon; basic pearls; 1 3/4" circle and 2" circle punches; 2 1/2" scalloped circle punch; scalloped border punch; crystal effects; elegant lines impressions folder

Friendly Valentine {SUO11}

Hi friends!  I have a sweet little valentine to share with you and the SU-Only Challenge design team today.  This is a card that we made a couple weeks ago in my monthly stamp club--it was a big hit!

The base is SU's Scallop Square Clear Die (a SU exclusive) that creates a 4 3/8" x 4 3/8" square.  I simply cut two from Crumb Cake cardstock, scored a line at the first scallop on both pieces and adhered the top together with sticky strip.  Easy Peasy.  There's something about small cards for Valentine's Day that warms my heart--maybe they remind me of the ones we gave and received as children.

With my base together, I inked up the hearts banner from Valentine Defined in Crumb Cake ink and stamped it 3 times across the top--it fit perfectly!

Next, I inked the tree with Pretty in Pink ink and went over just the base of the tree with an Early Espresso marker.  The EE is dark enough that it covered right over the pink.  I punched an itty bitty heart out of red glimmer paper with the 2-step owl Heart-to-Heart XL punch and popped it up on a smidgen of a stampin' dimensional.  I keep my dimensionals sheet until every scrap is gone--using the edges as little trim pieces for detail work like this.  Can't bear to throw them away!  :-)

I thought the tree looked a little bare and needed something to ground it, so I dug through my stamps until I came up with the perfect grass accent.  Do you know where this stamp came from?  Can you guess?  If you have small children--girls especially--in your house you might already have this one...Pony Party!  That's right the one that looks like My Little Pony.  I bought it for my daughter but actually it has all kinds of great little accents such as this grass, a birthday hat, rainbows and a cloud--so cute!  Anway, inked in Old Olive it was perfect for my little tree.  A sentiment from Tiny Tags in Real Red made a sweet addition to the bottom corner.  I added a scallop trim border of Glimmer Paper and tied the whole thing with a piece of Early Espresso 1/8" taffeta ribbon.

The inside needed the finishing touch so I stamped the heart banner again in Pretty in Pink and added a Teeny Tiny Wishes sentiment in Real Red.  And there you have it!  If you like this card and others that I've made you might consider joining our monthly Canopy Club virtually--check out this post if you're interested.  Thanks for stopping by today and before you go, please let me know what you think of today's card with a comment.  I love hearing from you!  Have a goodie, my friends!

supplies:

stamps: valentine defined; teeny tiny wishes; pony party

ink: real red, pretty in pink, crumb cake, old olive

paper: crumb cake, whisper white CS; red glimmer paper

xtras: scallop border punch; heart-to-heart xl punch; square scallop clear die; early espresso 1/8" taffeta ribbon; scor-pal; early espresso stampin' write marker