Cattail Sunset - PP405

Hi friends!  Today's post is bittersweet, I guess it's a sunset of sorts for me too.  I've decided to step back from creating for The Paper Players design team and this is my last post for awhile.  Our daughter starts high school tomorrow--how did THAT happen??--and I've become increasingly involved in her school and activities.  Also working full-time and trying to carve out family time means that most weeks I have trouble getting into my craft room let alone actually making something!  However, I can't completely leave my fabulous gal pals on the team so I will still work behind the scenes as our blog administrator.  I hope to participate occasionally but my blog posts will be few and far between.  That said....today lovely LeAnne is our hostess this week with a sunshine-y monochromatic color challenge:

To me, these colors were crying out for a sunset and sunsets make me think of silhouettes!  Luckily I just got an order of new-to-me dies from Simon Says Stamp (I blame my teammate Sandy for that one!) that included this pretty Cattail Triptych.  Take a look:

I used a piece of watercolor paper to create the sunset with ink pads and an Aqua Painter.  I've discovered the key, for me, to watercolors is to add layers of color allowing time to dry between each layer.  Pumpkin Pie is the base of the sunset, and because I don't yet have Mango Melody, substituted with Crushed Curry and lastly a So Saffron sky.  There's probably about three applications of color here which provides intense color and blending between each shade.  The triptych was run through the Big Shot on Basic Black cardstock and I used lots of dimensional trimmed verrrrry skinny to attach it to the base. The sentiment is from the Enjoy Life stamp set and reflects my feelings today as I write this post.

Inside, I used one of the brushstroke images from the Waterfront stamp set to mimic the setting sun.  Some silhouette images, also from the Enjoy Life stamp set, complete the look.

Be sure to check out the fabulous work of my teammates over at The Paper Players--maybe you will play along with us this week!  Stay tuned to The Paper Players for some fun surprises in the coming weeks.  Big thanks to all of you who follow me each week and even some who have been with my for years.  Knowing y'all are out there has kept me going as long as I have!  Until the next time...take care, sweet friends!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

  

Die-cut use of Negative Space - PP402

Hi friends and welcome to another week with The Paper Players!  This week I am pleased as punch to be the hostess for our Clean-and-Simple challenge.  I've challenged everyone to use negative space on your card:

What do I mean by negative space?  It means letting the under layer of your card--be it patterned paper, yardstick, etc. to show through either a die-cut or a sponged area.  I think this technique is so cool for showing off pretty patterned paper in a different way.

My card is super, duper clean-and-simple...just some patterned paper covering the card base and a top layer featuring these pretty die-cuts.  I covered the whole card front with some pretty [retired] Stampin' Up paper then used a [retired] Butterfly Thinlit to cut out some shapes from the thick whisper white cardstock.  I used a small circle die to cut out some random circles and let even more of the pretty paper peek through.  The sentiment is from the companion stamp set, Watercolor Wings and will be perfect to send to a friend.  

I hope you've enjoyed my card today...be sure to check out the rest of the loveliness from my teammates over at The Paper Players.  We would be happy for you to join us before the challenge closes on Friday, July 27th 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 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

  

Climbing Orchids for the Paper Players PP401

Hi friends--WOW what a turnout we had these last two weeks for our 400th challenge over at The Paper Players.  Randomly selected winners of all 41 prizes will be announced on Wednesday July 18th - so be sure to check back.  In the meantime, our sweet friend Joanne has a lovely color challenge for us this week:

Flowers were all my mind could come up with for these colors so I pulled out one I was so glad to see return in this year's SU catalog...Climbing Orchid:

I have to admit that I haven't purchased many of the new SU colors so I had to make do with what's already in my craft room...Melon Mambo, Wisteria Wonder [retired], and Granny Apple Green [new!].  I think they're a pretty close match.  The main panel of Wisteria Wonder DSP was trimmed with a stitched border die from My Favorite Things.  I found the little strip of Melon Mambo cardstock in my scrap bag and it was already embossed!  I think it's a long ago retired SU folder called Lattice.

The orchids were heat embossed in gold on thick whisper white cardstock and colored using a sponge dauber and Melon Mambo ink.  The center piece is stamped in Wisteria Wonder and them and even tinier image is heat embossed in gold.  I can't believe there is a die tiny enough to cut out these little centers!  The gold stem holding the orchids is cut from Gold Foil paper using the branch die from Seasonal Layers Thinlit dies.  I used Granny Apple Green for the leaves and die cut them with the coordinating dies.  One thing I did purchase right away from the new catalog are these Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins.   There are 5 colors in the pack and 50 of each color--that's a lot of sequins!  

There's also a lot of inspiration waiting for you over at The Paper Players!  Check it out and come play along before our challenge ends on Friday, July 20th at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by today!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

PP400 - Second Week!

Hi again, friends!  We're into the second week of our big 400th Celebration over at The Paper Players.  There are tons of prizes that will be given to 41 winners randomly drawn from all the participants.  Be sure to enter for a chance to win some amazing prizes.  Check out our original post for all the rules and details.

The balloons in our challenge badge are so much fun, that this week they inspired me to dig out any stamps I had featuring balloons.  I settled on a retired set, Balloon Adventures and with the awesome sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch in hand....here's what I made:

 I let the colors from a retired DSP pack, Cherry on Top, take center stage with my bouquet of festive balloons.  Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, and Calypso Coral (not in the paper pack but I liked it anyway!)  Since the sketch challenge is a clean-and-simple one, I kept the design verrrry simple.  Just a piece of balloon string paper for the background and the punched balloons.

I did add a liberal amount of Wink of Stella to the polka dots and stripes for a little bit of glam.  Stop on by The Paper Players to check out all the inspiration from my teammates during this second week of our celebration!  I hope you will find time to play along before the challenge closes on Friday, July 13th at Noon (PST).  You don't want to miss out on these prizes!!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

Special Guest Designers

Anne Marie Hile

It's a HUGE Celebration - PP400

Oh my gosh, do we have a HUGE party going on at The Paper Players this week!  It's our FOUR HUNDREDTH challenge--yes, I'm shouting because it's a big deal!  I am so proud to work alongside this amazing group of crafters.  Week in and week out we laugh, sometimes cry, and craft together.  They are kind, caring, and wicked creative and I'm so honored to call them my friends.  This week we're even joined by some of our best design team buddies--Ann Schach and Anne Marie Hile--who are back to play with us this week!  Big hugs ladies--great to have you with us again.  

So any good party has to have prizes, right?  We've got tons of them--40 prizes to be exact and we will draw winners from our participants with random.org.  This is such a big deal that we are running the challenge for TWO WEEKS to give folks lots of time to participate.  

Our theme this week is....what else...Celebrations!  Any kind of celebration--birthday, anniversary, retirement, whatever you want.

Our challenge badge features balloons but our cards don't have to....just any celebration.  My in-laws are celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary next month so that seemed a fitting celebration for the theme:

I used the awesome sketch from the gals at Freshly Made Sketches for the layout and played with a new SU set and coordinating thinlits, Serene Garden.  I'm also playing with one of the new SU colors, Soft Seafoam which is really lovely.  Paired with Smoky Slate and Pink Pirouette, it makes a pretty color combination.  

This set has a really cool die that cuts out just part of the stamped image to let a little bit of the under layer peek through.  Here I stamped the corner image in Soft Seafoam and layered a piece of Smoky Slate cardstock underneath that had also been stamped.  The flowers have a coordinating die too--they were stamped in Basic Gray archival ink and colored with [retired] Stampin' Blends in three shades of Pink Pirouette.

There's some really nice sentiments in the returning set, Beautiful Bouquet.  I combined three of them for the inside of this special anniversary card.  My in-laws were high school sweethearts and are true role models of "love is in the staying there"...relationship goals!

Here's the layout from the team at Freshly Made Sketches:

I mentioned the amazing number of prizes we have for PP400 at The Paper Players so check out the full list, in alphabetical order:

1. Altenew - $30 gift card
2. Atenew Academy - $20 gift card  - compliments of Jaydee
3. Avery Elle - $20 store credit
4. Butterfly Reflections - Breathe Rainbows Stamp Set (US only)
5. CAS-ual Fridays - $25 store credit
6. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card  
7. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card - compliments of Laurie
8. Concord & 9th - $25 gift card
9. Craftin Desert Diva's - $10 store cedit
10. Dies R Us - $15 gift card
11. Ellen Hutson -  20 gift cards - compliments of Annie 
12. Ellen Hutson $20 gift card - compliments of Eliz
13. Happy Little Stampers - $20 store credit
14. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Sets (exclusive - not available for purchase)
15. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
16. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
17. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
18. Lawn Fawn - $25 gift card
19. My Favorite Things - $25 store credit
20. Neat & Tangled - $15 store credit 
21. Newton's Nook - $20 store credit
22. Pink & Main - $20 store credit
23. Power Poppy - $10 store credit
24. Stampendous - $20 rewards cards (US only)
25. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
26. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
27. Stamplorations - $20 gift certificate
28. Stampin' Up - $20 gift certificates compliments of Nance (US only)
29. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of LeAnne (US only)
30. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of Joanne (UK only)
31. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of Claire (US only)
32. Stampin' Up $20 gift certificate - compliments of Jan (NZ only)
33. Technique Tuesday - $20 gift card
34. The Foiled Fox - $25 store credit
35. Trinity Stamps - Let it Grow and Lady Liberty Stamp Sets
36. Tutti Designs - $15 gift card
37. Uniko - any in-stock stamp set of winner's choice
38. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
39. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
40. Waffle Flower - $15 gift card

Huge thanks and appreciation to all our sponsors who gave so generously for all these wonderful prizes.  I knew the crafting community was generous but this really takes the cake!  With a prize list like that, I'm sure you will want to participate...just be sure to link up before our special two week challenge ends on Friday, July 13th at Noon (PST).  Don't forget to visit the rest of The Paper Players design team and our special guests for even more inspiration.  I'll be back again next Sunday with a second card for our challenge...have a great week, friends!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

Special Guest Designers

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile