Vellum Orchids for a Sketch PP386

Hi there friends!  Thanks for stopping by for another week with my teammies at The Paper Players.  This week, the fabulously Crafty Claire has an awesome sketch challenge for us:

I'm not really sure where the inspiration for this came from except that I wanted to use a stamp set that had not been inked in awhile and I wanted to think a little outside the sketch.  Instead of using the circle in the sketch as the focal point for a stamp set, I used it as a landing spot for my focal image.  I really like elements that "fall off" the edge--the edge of a die cut or the edge of an image.  So here, my Climbing Orchid falls off the edge of the Stitched Shape element.

There are three orchid pieces to this flower, each one inked in Versamark on cardstock vellum, heat embossed in gold, and cut with the coordinating Thinlits.  Usually vellum shows any adhesives but here I was able to hide both glue dots and dimensionals with each layer of the flower.  It was only after I glued everything down that I realized I was supposed to have ribbon element around the top of the card front...d'oh!  I hope Claire will forgive me!

With a specific placement for a sentiment, the sketch gives us freedom put it anywhere--love that!  I had a lot of elements going on here and didn't want to add another element for the sentiment.  With that in mind, I did some tone-on-tone stamping with Berry Burst ink on the same color cardstock stitched circle.  It's a subtle way to incorporated the sentiment without extra bulk!

Was anybody else excited to see THICK Very Vanilla cardstock in the latest catalog?  I was so happy--love it!  I didn't need to add an extra panel to the inside because the base is thick enough but with all the layers on the front, it still felt a little whimpy on the inside.  So, I cut a 4 x 5.25" panel and inked up my design for the inside.  Since I used the Seasonal Layers thinlit to cut the branch on the front of the card, I used this fabulous sentiment from that coordinating Colorful Seasons set on the inside.  Such a great sentiment and useful for so many occasions!  

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to check out the rest of the inspiration over at The Paper Players where my teammates also had fun with Claire's sketch.  Perhaps you'll be inspired to play along with us before the challenge closes on Friday, March 30th at Noon (PST).  Have a great week!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

Colorful Seasons of Watercolor PP365

Hi everyone!  Our sweet and talented friend, Joanne, is our hostess this week at The Paper Players for a lovely color challenge:

I must admit I haven't used Peekaboo Peach much at all and now that I have, I'm not sure what took me so long.  It's a really lovely shade of orange and a refreshing take on the traditional orange of autumn.  I needed a masculine birthday day for a work colleague so I was inspired to make a relatively clean and simple card:

I am quite fond of this trend or watercolored backgrounds.  It's such a simple way to combine colors and it's really difficult to mess up watercolor! There's no mistakes in watercolor as it's all supposed to look rather artistic anyway!  I layered on washes of Crushed Curry and Peekaboo Peach to the hot press watercolor paper.  After each layer, I dried it with the low setting of my heat gun coz I'm impatient like that and can't wait for it to dry naturally, ha!

Once I was happy with the color intensity of the background, I stamped some random leaves from the Colorful Seasons stamp set in Early Espresso using my MISTI several times to achieve a [almost] solid stamped image.  The companion dies to this set are gorgeous and this maple leaf is amazing--especially in Copper Foil paper.  I backed it with a solid Early Espresso leaf to really make the copper pop.  Just a touch of linen thread was all this simple masculine card needed.

This pretty little leaf makes a great spray across the inside of the card.  Here we really get to appreciate the fresh look to the peach leaves.  I think I had a little leftover Early Espresso on my stamp when I inked up the leaves but, in truth, I like the little bit of speckle it adds to the leaves.  

I hope that you've enjoyed today's card and it inspires you to play along with us at The Paper Players.  For even more inspiration, pop over to my teammates' blogs and check out all their pretty creations.  Thanks for stopping by, friends!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Deanne 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Autumn Blooms PP364

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Sunday is fun day because it's the start of another challenge at The Paper Players.  My dear friend Sandy has some gorgeous inspiration to get our mojo going for her theme challenge of Autumn Floral:

This card took waaaay longer than it should have.  Not because of the theme of the inspiration photo, because I could not translate the image in my head to paper!  I tried numerous stamp sets but couldn't capture the blended hues I wanted with just a single color of ink.  In the end I went with an old standby image and found my happy place in watercolor! 

I also used the fantastic sketch at the Global Design Project as my starting point--sure do love a sketch challenge and this one is great!  The first thing I stamped was the leaf from the Colorful Seasons stamp set.  I inked it in Crushed Curry and lightly kissed the inked stamp with Cajun Craze.  When stamped it gave a two-toned color to the leaves and no two are exactly alike, just like real leaves!

I am really liking the Fresh Fig in color for fall projects.  The gorgeous flower from Birthday Blooms was stamped in Basic Gray archival ink onto cold press watercolor paper.  I colored the image in layers starting with Sweet Sugarplum, adding a few layers of color to rich the intensity I liked.  Fresh Fig was washed on to shade the flower and add dimension.  I washed the center of the flower with Crushed Curry with some drops of Cajun Craze.  I wanted to mimic the color of the leaves in the inspiration photo as well as my stamped ones, so I colored these with a blend of Old Olive, Crushed Curry and just a hint of Cajun Craze.  The whole image was actually stamped twice--once to provide the base with leaves and the second to cut out and pop up just the flower.  I added some looped copper thread and a bitty die-cut stem in copper foil paper from the Flourish thinlits.

By this time, I was running out of light to snap a pic of my card so the inside was a quick 1, 2, 3 stamp job using a sentiment from Thoughtful Branches in Fresh Fig, the Birthday Blooms flower in Crushed Curry and some [retired] Gorgeous Grunge splatters in Sahara Sand ink.  There were a TON of stamp set and dies on my desk by the time I finished this card, lol!  It took me awhile to get there but, in the end, I am pleased with the colors and final result.  I hope you are too!

Here's the awesome Global Design Project sketch--thanks for the inspiration GDP!

Please go check out the rest of the lovely autumnal inspiration from my teammies at The Paper Players.  Maybe you'll be inspired to play along with us before the challenge closes on Friday, October 6th 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 

Deanne 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Tomorrows as Happy as Today - PP353

Hi friends, and welcome to another week with The Paper Players!  My sweet friend, Claire, is our hostess with the mostess this week for a Clean-and-Simple challenge:

Summer fun in the water, woohoo!  That's actually where I am this weekend--spending time with family at the beach.  I never really enjoyed the beach growing up but 24 years living in Florida has turned me into a beach-lovin' gal!  

My card represents my favorite thing to do at the beach....sit.  LOL.  As a busy mom, I don't really sit much.  Even at work, I'm constantly up and walking around.  Beach time means sitting in a sling chair just like this one from the Colorful Seasons stamp set and relaxing.  The only thing that's missing is a book--my second favorite thing to do at the beach--but I didn't have a small enough book stamp!

Since this is a Clean-and-Simple challenge, there isn't much to explain.  Just some simple watercoloring and stamping.  My beach scene is painted with a blend of many, many colors including Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana, So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Peekaboo Peach and Calypso Coral.  Early Espresso was used for the chair base and sentiment.  The only tricky thing is the chair itself....I stamped it in Calypso Coral on thick Whisper White and fussy-cut it out so it would be a solid color over the watercolor background.

I'm keeping it short today--gotta get back outside!  Wherever you are, I hope you're finding a little fun in the sun this weekend!  Be sure to check out the rest of the design team inspiration over at The Paper Players.  Maybe you will be inspired to play along with us before the challenge closes on Friday, July 21st at Noon.  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Deanne 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Lakeside Anniversary PP350

 Hiya friends, did you miss me?!  I had a nice little break as we wound up the club volleyball season with my daughter's team at AAU Nationals in Orlando.  They placed 5th out of 118 teams in their division and we are so proud of their spirit and tenacity!

Anywhooo...this week I am excited to host our sketch challenge at The Paper Players:

I love the look of tone-on-tone stamping and that's what I tried to capture in the sketch.  With some new goodies from the 2017-2018 SU catalog in hand, it was good to get back into the creative groove and create this for you:

I won't lie, the first thing I did was cut out these adorable Adirondack chairs with the [new] Seasonal Layers Thinlits.  Aren't they cute?!  I wasn't exactly sure what I would do with them but started to get the idea of them sitting by a sunset--what better way to celebrate an anniversary, right?

Here you have a better view of the tone-on-tone stamping with Pool Party ink on the Pool Party base.  The congratulations sentiment is from the companion stamp set, Colorful Seasons.  The strip of paper on the side is a design (I think it's Tip Top Taupe?) from the retired Cherry on Top DSP stack.  The neutral color helps ground the other bright colors of Real Red, Crushed Curry and Pool Party.  I stamped the sunburst from the retired Kinda Eclectic set directly on the new Color Theory DSP stack; this paper has a gradient stripe which works well with the idea of a setting sun.

The Colorful Seasons stamp set has some beautiful sentiments and this one is no exception.  Love the sentiment and love the font!  It's stamped in Early Espresso on top of a Crushed Curry sun with a little random heart from my stash.  I think it's the perfect sentiment for an anniversary, don't you?

I know this has been a photo-heavy post but I also have to share this one.  I know my bird-loving teammies Jaydee & LeAnne will love it!

We live on 1.5 acres with lots of live oaks, water oaks, and pine trees.  Hawks and owls are our resident companions and this guy was squawking up a storm while I was photographing my card.  He feels so comfortable in our yard that he stayed on this branch while I went inside the house to swap out my camera lens for the zoom.  Managed to get him mid-squawk too!  Isn't he majestic?

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and humoring me and all my photos!  Check out the rest of the inspiration from my fabulous teammies at The Paper Players and come play along!  It's also our last challenge with Guest Designers Valentyna and Crystal.  Thank you ladies for all your hard work and participation with us--it's been great having you on the team!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Crystal Komara

Valentyna Komisarenko

Deanne