Tic-Tac-Toe & the Players {PP106}

Hiya friends! It's another Paper Players Sunday and that means it's been a week since I last posted...yikes!  Hopefully, this week I'll be a little more active in my stamp room.  Nothing like a big box of new toys for some motivation!  We've also had a new addition to the family that's kept me busier than usual but more on that later...  Today, the lovely Lesley has a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for us.  Choose any 3 elements from the board: vertical, horizontal or diagonal:

I couldn't wait to use my Floral Frames Framelits and matching Daydream Medallions stamp set.  I found this great sketch over at Create with Connie & Mary and am delighted to play along with my friends over there--Hi gals! 

I combined the sketch with the center column of the Tic-Tac-Toe board: Birthday, Dry Embossing & Ribbon to create this:

The color combination is directly from the Color Coach and I love it: Basic Gray, Primrose Petals and Summer Starfruit!    The background paper is actually new Halloween paper called Howlstooth & Scaringbone from the upcoming Holiday mini.  Love those gray polka dots!  The center panel is 2 3/4" wide and stamped with the largest image from Daydream Medallions in Summer Starfruit.  I trimmed it with more Summer Starfruit cut with the Adorning Accents edgelit and matching embossing folder.

Here's a close-up of the flower--don't you just love a coordinating stamp set and Framelit?  I used 3 different ribbons: Chantilly crochet trim (ret.), Summer Starfruit stitched satin and some new Basic Gray striped satin ribbon.  All the ribbons are held together with our cool new Ribbon Slides (Holiday mini).  I knew right away that they would be perfect for pulling together a riot of ribbons and I was right!  (love it when that happens, lol!)  It's a great way to make a big impact with a small amount of ribbon.

Of course, you know I had to finish the inside!  More stamping of the medallions in the background as well as the center panel and the perfect sentiment from Bring on the Cake.  

The Paper Players Design Team

Jen Arkfeld
Lesley Croghan
Dawn Easton
Helen Heil
Jaydee
Nance Leedy

Anne Marie Hile

LeAnne Pugliese

Ann Schach

Amy White

Please be sure to visit the rest of the design team for some amazing inspiration! I'm so happy that almost all of the senior design team is back in action this week.  Between vacations and SU convention, we've all been scattered!  Now we just need our fearless leader!  I hope you'll play along with Lesley's Tic-Tac-Toe challenge...you have until Friday, August 3rd at noon (PST) so go get your craft on!

Now, if you would like to stay tuned for some personal stuff....first a couple pix of a different kind of craft:

These gorgeous platters are handmade by a group of women living near Royal Natal National Park.  Each coil is made from reeds, wound together with thread and coiled into a platter.  The colors are added with different colored threads and string--often recycled from purchased products.

Their smiles are genuine and the creativity astounding.  We actually saw them harvesting the reeds by the side of the road.  Our daughter couldn't wait to have her picture taken with them!

OK, lastly...if you're still with me...we took the plunge this week and added a new member to our family.  Our last kitty passed on a few months ago and the house had been too quiet ever since.  So, we visited the rescue center run by our vet and well....let's just say there's no such thing as "let's go have a look", ha!  May I present....Miss Sadie Leedy:

She is a 3 year old mix of Jack Russell terrier / Italian Greyhound and all kinds of uber-cuteness! 

We are all in LOVE...and I think she is too.  :-)  She's become quite attached to me in a short period of time--follows me everywhere, even to the bathroom, ha!  Nothing like a dog for dedication!  If you've made it this far, thanks for indulging my need to share and thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week!

 

Supplies 

Stamps: Daydream Medallions,Bring on the Cake, Blooming with Kindness

Ink: Summer Starfruit, Basic Gray, Primrose Petals

Paper: Summer Starfruit, Basic Gray, Primrose Petals, Very Vanilla CS; First Edition Specialty DSP; Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP

Extras: Floral Frames Framelits; Adorning Accents Edgelit & Embossing Folder; Ribbon Slides (Holiday mini, avail Aug 1st); Basic Gray Striped Satin Ribbon (Holiday mini, avail Aug 1st); Large Basic Pearls; Chantilly crochet trim (ret.); Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon; Basic Pearls.

A Welcome Sketch {PP105}

Hi everyone!  Wow, I'll bet you were wondering if I was ever coming back, right?  My family and I just returned from 3 weeks touring the beautiful country of South Africa!  We had an amazing time--traveling by car from one end to the other--we went on game drives, saw incredible wild animals, hiked the Drakensburg Mountains (snow!), sampled the vineyards of the Western Cape, ate fabulous food and had a wonderful time!  If you're interested, I'll share some pics with you over the coming days.  In the meantime....I apologize that it will take me awhile to catch up with all my blogging buddies but it sure is good to be stamping again with my pals over at The Paper Players!  We have some uber-talented guest designers that I am so excited to work with too--hi gals!  This week Jaydee has a fantastic sketch for us:

Lovely sketch, eh?  Dress it up or down, anyway you like it.  I eased into a return to stamping with some of my favorite papers and colors from the Comfort Cafe DSP: Soft Suede, Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse and Pool Party:

That gorgeous flower takes center stage from the Blooming with Kindness stamp set.  I stamped my Soft Suede card base with the Distressed Dots background stamp and added a couple flagged banners of DSP to the bottom of the main panel.  Love the new Naturals Designer Buttons to which I added an Itty Bitty Banner sentiment, cut with the coordinating Framelit and secured with Linen Thread.

You might not be able to tell, but I stamped the flower again, fussy-cut the middle and popped it up for extra dimension.

The flower is so pretty that I had to stamp it again a few more times on the inside.  This time in Summer Starfruit and Pool Party--such a great color combination! 

Finally, coz I just gotta share...here we are on a hike in Royal Natal National Park.  That huge mountain behind us is part of the Drakensburg range and this particular part is known as the "amphitheater".  Just stunning.

I hope you will play along with us this week at The Paper Players!  Jaydee's sketch challenge will run until Friday, July 27th at Noon (PST).  Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team has created!  Thanks so much for stopping by! 

The Paper Players Design Team

Jen Arkfeld
Lesley Croghan
Dawn Easton
Helen Heil
Jaydee
Nance Leedy

Anne Marie Hile

LeAnne Pugliese

Ann Schach

Amy White

 

A Grandmother of a Blog Hop!

Hiya friends! Just poppin' in today, while on holiday, so I could participate in the blog hop organized by Lesley in honor of Grandmother-to-be Linda Callahan! Linda was one of the first friends I made in blog-land and I remain inspired by her creativity, envious of her sharp wit and thankful for her feedback and encouragement.  She is going to make a fabulous Grandma!  Congratulations Linda!

If you're following the hop, you've arrived here from Jaydee's blog where I am sure she had a beautiful project to share!  If you're just popping in and want to start at the beginning, hop on over to Lesley's blog to get started!  

In honor of grandmothers, Lesley asked us to share something about our own grandmothers that inspired the card we created for Linda.  Above is my Nana.  I love this picture of her.  The shadows, that dress, those shoes and her smile!  Nana was born in Scotland and emigrated late enough that her brogue still hung around and became prominent when she told stories.  Oh, how I loved that sound!  I was fascinated by her accent.  While I was in college, my mom and I accompanied Nana back to Scotland.  The raw beauty of the countryside was breathtaking.   In keeping with the garden theme of our Challenge Quote and the Scottish hillsides blooming with heather, I made this for Linda:

 

Linda always uses bold colors in a smart way, so I wanted to go outside the box a little on this one.  The color palette is Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight and Pool Party.  Of course, I took it straight from the International Bazaar DSP...isn't it pretty?

So many smiles begin with our grandmothers...and whether in her comments or her posts, Linda never fails to bring a smile to my day.  So, I hope this card brings a smile to you Linda...congratulations!  I can only imagine how thrilled you are and how delighted your new grand baby will be to have you as her Grandmother!

Please be sure to hop along to Jen Mitchell's fabulous blog where you are certain to find some amazing inspiration!  Here is the full list of friends honoring Linda on this Grandmother of a Blog Hop!

Lesley Croghan

Mary Fish

Cindy Hall

Anne Marie Hile

Jaydee

here>>Nance Leedy<<

next>>Jen Mitchell<<

Tui Nathan

LeAnne Pugliese

Ann Schach

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

 

Supplies 

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Petite Pairs, French Foliage, Occasional Quotes (ret.)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Chocolate Chip

Paper: International Bazzar DSP; Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Naturals White CS

Extras: 3" circle die; Pool Party ruffled ribbon; Linen Thread; Scallop Ribbon border punch; 1 1/4" square punch

A wee little break...

Hi all...Happy Sunday!  Just a little note to let you know that things will be quiet under the Canopy while my family and I are on holiday.  We'll be in and out but blogging will be at a minimum.  In the meantime, be sure to check out the fabulous new challenge over at The Paper Players!  Lesley has a surprise guest designer subbing for me...check it out, you won't be disappointed!

I'll be back soon...until then,

 

Cheers, Paper Players! {PP100}

Happy Wednesday friends! Surprised to see me posting in the middle of the week, right?!  It is just so exciting with our 100th challenge over at The Paper Players that I had to play again. It's been loads of fun seeing new inspiration in the gallery with our past challenges!  I have new stamps to play with so found a sketch that was just perfect for the set I wanted to use.  Here's LeAnne's fabulous sketch for Challenge #60:

Back in August when this challenge posted, I was playing around with fall colors and patterns.  Here is my original card for PP60:

And here is my new card:

I just love this Happy Hour stamp set!  Oh my gosh, how cute it is with all the patterns on the drinks and the separate accessories to decorate each glass.  It has some great sentiments too--all of the ones I've used here are from this set.  The Baja Breeze background is embossed with the new Chevron embossing folder and the Calypso Coral bottom was stamped in the same color with the lime slice.  

Love that you can stamp the drink accessories separate.  I even colored the itty bitty olive with markers!  I changed up the colors of my drinks: Baja Breeze, Summer Starfruit and Calypso Coral but kept the accessories all in Lucky Limeade for some continuity.

There's still plenty of time for you to play along with our 100th challenge over at The Paper Players.  The challenge is simple: choose any past challenge (except Anything Goes please), make a project and link it up!  We love seeing what challenges are inspiring to each of you.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies 

Stamps: Happy Hour 

Ink: Baja Breeze, Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit, Lucky Limeade, Basic Black

Paper: Baja Breeze, Calypso Coral, Whisper White

Xtras: Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon; Chevron embossing folder; Early Espresso marker; Calypso Coral marker; Lucky Limeade marker