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

Paper Players Blog Hop {PP100}

Hiya friends, I am so glad you're here.  Today is a VERY special day at The Paper Players because we are celebrating our 100th Challenge!!  100 challenges with these amazing women on the Design Team who I respect so much for their creativity, support and friendship.  I am honored to work alongside of them and, though we've never met in person, I count them among my very best friends.  :-)

For our 100th challenge, we each chose a favorite past challenge to re-visit.  Looking back at our past sketch and color challenges, I was immediately drawn to Anne Marie's fabulous sketch for Challenge #65. 

Such a great sketch!  I love the focal circle and the trio of panels so perfect for featuring designer paper.  What sold me on using this sketch was that I didn't get to play with it the first time!  I was on a short break the week that it posted and am delighted to get a second chance!  The big brown truck delivered some new goodies this week and I couldn't wait to dig in.  New paper, new ribbon, new stamps, new colors...oh my!

There is so much inspiration in our designer paper and this one is Patio Party featuring some of the newest In Colors: Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals paired with Baja Breeze.  Gorgeous together.

The Summer Silhouettes set is great because each element is a separate stamp so you can mix and match flowers, leaves and colors too.  The leaves and stems were stamped in Summer Starfruit while the flowers were stamped in Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals and Baja Breeze.  

Summer Silhouettes also includes this fabulous trellis pattern that I used here.  So trendy!  I stamped it in Primrose Petals onto cardstock of the same color and used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up both rows.  Each panel is 4" x 1.5" and the image is stamped twice. I needed to pull in another color and frame the focal circle somehow so I used the Four Frames set and punched four Baja Breeze decorative labels.  As you can see above, two labels were adhered directly to the circle and two were adhered to the card base--giving each layer a little more dimension.

Those bitty pearls are the perfect accent for the Midnight Muse flowers, aren't they?  So, what do you think?  Will you join us for our 100th Challenge?  Take a browse through Paper Players history and see what catches your eye.  You can play along with any of our previous challenges (except Anything Goes challenges, please)...or, pick one of the challenges featured by the Design Team.  Hop along to all of their blogs and see which one inspires YOU to play along with us.  And did I mention?  This week's Headliner will receive ALL of the Design Team's cards--it's a Paper Players inspiration package!  So come along, join us, and let's raise a toast to 100 more challenges with The Paper Players!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile
Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

 

Supplies 

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes; Petite Pairs; Four Frames

Ink: Summer Starfruit, Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse; Baja Breeze

Paper:  Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse; Baja Breeze, Naturals White; Patio Party DSP

Extras: 3" circle die; Decorative Label punch; Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon; Basic Pearls

Making My Own Edgelit

Hi everyone, just a quick post to share some new colors and new stamps with you!  I was totally inspired by this fabulous card my Mom made:

At first, I thought she used an edgelit to cut around the beautiful butterflies but no...she fussy-cut the edge!  How cool is that?!  The original idea came from Simply Stamped here (4th card down).  Awesome idea!!  So...I wanted to try it out with all Stampin' Up and here's what I made:

I am so happy with the results!  I used all the flowers from Betsy's Blossoms and a bunch of new In Colors.

All the color combinations are straight from the Color Coach.  This first one is so much fun: Gumball Green, Melon Mambo and So Saffron.  I stamped all the flowers onto Naturals White cardstock (sturdier than Whisper White), hand cut around the edge, sprinkled some Basic Rhinestones and added a strip of coordinating designer paper to the inside edge. 

To pull in a little color behind the sentiment, I adhered two pieces of coordinating ribbon behind the banner and added another rhinestone to the end.

I think this color combination is my least favorite but I was determined to test out the Color Coach suggestions!  Midnight Muse, Rich Razzleberry and More Mustard.  I think it might look brighter with Summer Starfruit instead of More Mustard...but that's for another day!

I'm disappointed that I didn't get a better picture before I sent this one off to my Mom because this color combination is definitely my favorite!  Straight from the Color Coach: Summer Starfruit, Baja Breeze and Elegant Eggplant.  Gorgeous together! 

So what do you think?  What other stamp set can you see using with this technique?  I'd love to your ideas!  Be sure to pop over to my mom's original post to leave her some comment love.  Thanks Mom, for the inspiration--it's even prettier in real life!  {wink!}

Supplies 

Stamps: Betsy's Blossoms; A Word for You

Ink: Gumball Green, Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Midnight Muse, Rich Razzleberry, More Mustard, Baja Breeze, Summer Starfruit and Elegant Eggplant

Paper: Naturals White CS; Designer Series Patterns Stack (Regals & Brights); Be of Good Cheer DSP

Extras: Basic Rhinestones; So Saffron grosgrain ribbon (ret.); More Mustard Scalloped Dots Ribbon; Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon

Melon Limeade Cupcake {PP99}

Hi there friends...it's Sunday and you know what that means...The Paper Players!  It's our fearless leader Lesley's turn to host and she has a gorgeous color combination for us:

I paired these colors with my friend Linda's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

To make this bright and happy birthday card:

 We've been having a lot of rain here in the "sunshine" state so I apologize for the poor lighting.  Not much natural light today!  I think this card is pretty straightforward so I won't go into a lot of detail and you'll have the whole supply list at the bottom.  You might want to see a close-up of the cupcake:

The cupcake and cake stand, from Easy Events, were colored with a Blender Pen and stampin' write markers in Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade and Basic Gray.  I stamped the cupcake frosting a second time, added some dazzling diamonds and popped up the frosting.  The silver glimmer hearts were punched with the Heart to Heart and Owl Builder punches.

And a quick look at the clean and simple inside featuring sentiments and cupcakes from the Create a Cupcake stamp set.  I'm still waiting on my first box of goodies from the new catalog so for now, I'm using oldies-but-goodies!  Whether you've got new stamps or not, we would love to have you join Lesley's color challenge this week!  Be sure to check out the rest of the lovely ladies on the Design Team:

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile
Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

Lesley's challenge will end on Friday, June 15 at Noon (PST)...I hope you will join us!

 

Supplies 

Stamps: Easy Events; Create a Cupcake

Ink: Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray, Basic Black

Paper:  Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White CS; Silver Glimmer paper; Designer Series Patterns Stack (in color)

Extras: Basic Gray taffeta ribbon; Scallop Border punch; Heart to Heart punch; Owl Builder punch; Stripes embossing folder

Better late than never! {PP98}

Hi everyone! I am so sorry for being very late with my Paper Players DT card...I hope our hostess Jaydee and the rest of the gang will forgive me!  We've had a very busy week as the school year winds down and with only 2 more days to go, we're in the home stretch!  And that's perfect for Jaydee's theme challenge this week...SUMMER!

Doesn't that look like fun?!  Love the photo and I took inspiration for my card from the clean graphic elements:

It's difficult to tell in the photo but the main panel with the sun is popped up on dimensionals.  I used a 3 3/4" x 4" piece of Daffodil Delight.  I free-hand drew sun rays onto a piece of Summer Smooches DSP, cut them out and adhered them to the main panel.  I cut a 3" circle from more Daffodil Delight and ran it through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  Then I trimmed all the edges of the main panel to square up all the bits of paper.

Of course, those are my favorite "cupcake clouds" stamped in Tempting Turquoise with words from Fabulous Phrases and punched with the Cupcake Builder punch.  I used a 2-way pen to add a little Dazzling Diamonds to the edges.

I didn't want a really bulky knot so I literally tied on a little piece of Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon with some matching Baker's Twine.  Makes for a different kind of "bow" and adds a touch of whimsy.  Whimsical is just what I need as this little card will get tucked in my daughter's backpack on her last day of school...hello summer vacation!!!

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team for their fabulous projects!  Jaydee's challenge will end this Friday, June 8th at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by tonight!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

 

Supplies 

Stamps: Fabulous Phrases

Ink: Tempting Turquoise 

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Naturals White; Summer Smooches DSP 

Extras: Square Lattice embossing folder; Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon & Baker's Twine; 3" Circle Die; Cupcake Builder punch