Canopy Crafts: March 2016

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Colorblock Dotty Angles PP288

Happy Easter, everyone! My lovely friend LeAnne has an awesome sketch for us this week at The Paper Players:

There are lots of possibilities with this sketch--strips of designer papers, leftover scraps, or even stamped images but I have to admit...I was a little stumped at first. Then, I was browsing my favorite accessory store--Charming Charlie--and this bracelet caught my eye:

I love the colorblock design and the gorgeous trio of black, pink and taupe/gold. Standing there in the store, a light bulb went off and I couldn't wait to turn it into a card! LeAnne's sketch was just perfect!

I cut a piece of thick whisper white as the focal panel and added a strip of Basic Black, Blushing Bride and Crumb Cake cardstock. It looked a little plain so I stamped the confetti dots from the Dotty Angles stamp set in versamark and heat embossed in gold.

I just recently acquired this Celebrate die from My Favorite Things and I couldn't wait to use it! I backed the gold piece with a second die cut in Basic Black which acts like a drop shadow and really makes the whole thing pop! Some gold cording looped around the back gives it a little texture and shine. I am really pleased with the way this one turned out and it was all because of that bracelet and no, I didn't even buy it!

Be sure to check out all the fabulous creations from our design team at The Paper Players. I just know something will inspire you to play along with us before the challenge ends on Friday, April 1st at Noon (PST). Hope to see you in the gallery!

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Love is Kindness PP287

Hello and happy Sunday, friends! Sunday means another week at The Paper Players where the lovely and talented Jaydee has a fabulous Clean-and-Simple challenge for us:

We are all ready for spring, right? Even here in Florida, where we've had closer to summer temperatures, we are ready to go back to Spring! I took Jaydee's challenge very literally and made perhaps the most CAS card I've ever made which, of course, made me wonder if it was too simple. My own worst critic, I tell ya!

Right? Verrrry clean-and-simple! The card base is think Whisper White cardstock and the [retired] image Love is Kindness was stamped in Archival Basic Black ink. I almost stamped it in the middle of the card but at the last minute moved it to the lower corner. I think it's a little more interesting and less predictable that way. My stamp-a-ma-jig is an invaluable tool for this kind of design decision. With the image stamped on the clear plastic sheet, I can play around with the layout until I figure out where it would look best.

Tulips are my favorite spring flower and yellow tulips are even better! I had so much fun playing with my [discontinued] Blendabilities markers last week, that I pulled them out again to color the tulips. I used light & dark Daffodil Delight for the flowers and dark Wild Wasabi for the stems. If you look close, you can see that I also made a thin wash of Soft Sky around the image using a Blender Pen and Soft Sky ink.

Lastly, I stamped the image a second time on a piece of scrap paper and fussy cut the newspaper bundle. I wrapped it with Linen Thread and popped it up with dimensionals. It adds the right amount of dimension to this otherwise uber CAS card!

Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to pop over to The Paper Players and check out the creations from the rest of the Design Team. We hope that you will join in the fun before our challenge closes on Friday, March 25th at Noon (PST).

The Paper Players Design Team

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Birthday Blooms of Color! PP286

Hiya friends! We have a really pretty (I think) color challenge this week at The Paper Players. I may be a little biased because I am the hostess but check it out:

Pretty, right?! So, I knew I wanted to use my recently acquired Birthday Blooms stamp. Have you seen this flower? Really pretty. I kind of let this one develop on it's own. I stared by coloring the flower and let the design go from there:

I stamped the flower onto Shimmery White cardstock with black archival ink and colored it with my Blendabilities markers. I wanted a funky edge to the banner piece and decided to fussy cut around the flower to make the bottom on the banner.

You can probably see better here what I mean. The banner ends with the edge of the flower I stamped the flower a second time, colored it and popped it up. The background was stamped tone-on-tone with Calypso Coral ink on the card base.

And because the shimmery cardstock wasn't enough :-) , I added some Wink of Stella to the flower for extra sparkle.

This flower stamp is so pretty that I had to stamp it on the inside. It looks so pretty just on its own with no coloring, doesn't it?. And have you seen the sentiments in this stamp set? Love the combination of fonts.

I hope you will check out the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team--they really rocked it this week! Once you've checked out the eye candy, go get busy in your craft space and join us before the challenge ends on Friday, March 18th @ noon (PST).

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Hello Sunshine PP285

Hi friends and happy Sunday...can you believe it's March already? Wow, where does the time go?! With another Sunday here, that means it's challenge time at The Paper Players where sweet Sandy has a fun theme challenge for us...Rain or Shine!

I pulled out all the stamp sets I had having to do with rain, sunshine, rainbows, and put them all together to make a bright and happy card of encouragement:

I wanted to make a raindrop background so I used the Happy Patterns Decorative Masks to sponge on some Smoky Slate ink to the Whisper White card base. I sponged heavier in the center of the focal point and applied lighter pressure toward the outer edges. I was going for a water droplet look--what do you think? The swoosh image from the Over the Rainbow stamp set was stamped 5 times to create the rainbow using (from the top) Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Pacific Point and Rich Razzleberry inks.

I die cut the sun using the Sunburst Thinlit die and then trimmed it down to a circle with a Circle Framelit. There's a close-up here to show you the Wink of Stella I slathered onto the sun as well as the stenciled background. If those were water droplets they would be sparkly, right? I just painted on some Wink of Stella before removing the mask.

This set, Over the Rainbow, really has some cute sentiments and I thought this one was perfect for a word of encouragement on the inside. I think I'll keep this little card until someone, probably our daughter, needs a little pick-me-up! Nothing like a rainbow to brighten your day, right?!

You would brighten our day over at The Paper Players if you joined in the fun! Just make sure to play along before our challenge ends on Friday, March 11th at Noon (PST). Be sure to check out the rest of the design team and their fabulous inspiration!

The Paper Players Design Team