Beautiful Bouquet of Thanks - PP378

Hey there peeps!  Sorry to have missed you last week.  Volleyball season has begun and this family is busy, busy--a tournament last weekend and one this weekend too.  It's a time commitment but our daughter loves the sport and we love watching her team play!  Anyhooooo, I'm back this week to host our Sketch Challenge over at The Paper Players...take a look:

I just recently purchased the Beautiful Bouquet stamp set and matching Framelits--I know, what took me so long, right?!  I thought this sketch would be perfect to highlight all the pretty flowers in this set:

So, this card is a little more simple than my usual style.  There's not much beyond the big bouquet but I thought the colors and depth of the bouquet was enough to carry the design.  Although from a couple weeks ago, I really liked the colors of the Global Design Project color challenge #121 so that was my inspiration for the florals.  The stems are cut from Lemon Lime Twist cardstock and the flowers are all stamped on thick Whisper White in Bermuda Bay, Peekaboo Peach and Sweet Sugarplum.  A Crumb Cake base is a good neutral to balance all those colors and I think it adds a rustic charm that goes well with the wildflower look of the bouquet.  Of course, Linen Thread is the perfect finishing touch of rustic charm!

No time to stamp the inside this week and I'm prepping for another tournament this weekend.  The weekend keeps me busy as I've ended up in the role of team photographer.  Watching the action through the lens helps keep my mama bear tendencies in check and helps me keep calm--I'm sure all you sports moms, dads, and grandparents can relate!  Here's a shot of our daughter at the net from last weekend's tournament in Jacksonville. Proud mama!  :-)

I hope you've enjoyed my card today and feel inspired to play along with my sketch at The Paper Players.  I'm sure the fabulous work of my teammates will get you even more fired up!  Just be sure to play along before the challenge closes on Friday, February 2nd 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 

Tranquil Waterfront PP376

Hi friends...oh my our fabulous friend Jaydee has a beautiful color challenge for us this week at The Paper Players!  Take a look:

 The colors are lovely together and I added a neutral, Crumb Cake, as my "+ any other color".  I've been playing around with a new photopolymer set--Waterfront--from the Occasions catalog.  As you would expect from the name it creates great waterfront scenes.  The stamps are designed to look like watercolor strokes but I enjoyed taking it a step further....

 ...and by a step further I mean, actually watercoloring with the stamp set!  I stamped each image onto watercolor paper and then used my Aqua Painter to spread the ink around and give it a real watercolor look.  Dapper Denim was used on the lake and both Lemon Lime Twist and Tranquil Tide were used to create the shoreline with trees.  Crumb Cake is my additional color and I used it to add some mountains to my scene and the Burlap background stamp on the card base.

I guess I cheated a little by adding a smidge of another color to my setting sun.  Lemon Lime Twist was looking a little green for a sunset so I added just an itty bitty bit of Yellow Brusho Crystals to the sun and it's reflection in the water.  Just that little bit, I think, helps define it as a setting sun--at least I hope it does!

Dapper Denim is a lovely dark shade of blue--too dark for the sky. Normally I would grab Soft Sky but since I had to stay within the challenge colors, I needed a way to make Dapper Denim much, much lighter.   Easy to do with a clear acrylic block and water!  Just add some ink to the block--I used my Aqua Painter but a brush would do--then add as much water as needed to dilute the color.  I had a test piece of paper nearby so I could get it just right.

I didn't want to use another piece of heavy watercolor paper on the inside so I just used the stamps as is on a piece of Whisper White.  This is what they look like when not smudged with an Aqua Painter--just as pretty, right?!

I'll tell you what else is pretty....all the lovely creations from the Design Team over at The Paper Players!  Check 'em out and then play along with us before our challenge closes on Friday, January 19th 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 

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