Season of Friendship for The Paper Players {PP20}

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Thanks for joining me here for another great week at The Paper Players.  This week Lesley has a clean and simple sketch for us to try:

Isn't that great?  You can do a lot of things with the center panel...and here is where I went with it:

I really like the colors of this card--traditional with a twist!  Here I used Crumb Cake, Real Red, and Baja Breeze--love BB and RR together.  I started with the center panel of Crumb Cake that I spritzed with Champagne Shimmer mist and stamped with the Season of Friendship tree in Whisper White craft ink.  Of course, it's always difficult to capture the sparkle in a photo (pic above looks so flat!) but maybe you can see it here:

Pretty, isn't it?  The trio of Real Red birdies are from another favorite tree stamp, Branch Out (retired) as are the sweet little Baja Breeze snowflakes.  With my glue pen, I added some Dazzling Diamonds to the Baja Breeze snowflakes as well as the ones on the background Candy Lane specialty designer paper because you can never have enough sparkle!

I thought this simple design needed a simple bow treatment so I ran a piece of the Whisper White organza ribbon around the strip of Real Red cardstock and then tucked a couple loops of ribbon under each side of the main panel.  I like the look of it and it's postal-friendly!

I had fun repeating the same elements on the inside stamping the tree in Crumb Cake on Whisper White with more Baja Breeze snowflakes and another Real Red bird:

And isn't this sentiment just perfect?!  It's another one from the level 2 hostess set Occasional Quotes--so versatile!  As I was taking these pictures, I realized I should have put some more Dazzling Diamonds on the inside so I may go back and add just a touch. :-)

I hope you've enjoyed my sample today...be sure to head over the The Paper Players and check out the rest of the design team.  I'm sure you'll find some wonderful eye candy and inspiration.  Then try your hand at Lesley's sketch and link it up.  We can't wait to come visit you!

supplies:

stamps: season of friendship; occasional quotes; contempo christmas (sentiment); branch out (retired)

ink: whisper white craft; baja breeze, real red, crumb cake, jet black stazon, basic black

paper: crumb cake, whisper white, real red CS; candy lane specialty DSP

xtras: MS glue pen; dazzling diamonds; whisper white organza ribbon

The Paper Players {15}: a color chalenge

Hi everyone!  I sure have missed blogland the last couple of weeks.  I checked my Google Reader today for the first time in a little over a week and found 765 posts...my gosh blogging stampers are a busy bunch!!   I am sorry that I haven't been able to check in with all of you and leave comments...it's been all I can do to keep up with my guest designer responsibilities!  OK, let me pull up my big girl pants and stop whining.  You came here to see a card for The Paper Players not to listen to me. :-)

The uber-talented Ann Schach is our challenge hostess this week and she has chosen a fabulous example of autumn inspiration with this beauty:

Isn't it pretty?!  With the challenge colors of Old Olive, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, and Early Espresso in mind here is what I came up with:

The idea of this tree has been kicking around in my head for awhile and the new 2.5" circle punch provided the perfect sized Old Olive circle on which to base my Early Espresso tree from Season of Friendship. I stamped the tree first on the Naturals Ivory cardstock then layered the OO circle on top and using my Stamp-a-ma-jig for alignment, stamped the tree again.  So, you're probably wondering where those little leaves came from?

They came from the Lattice die after it's been run through the Big Shot!  I have to give credit for this fabulous idea to one of my customers, Linda!  We made a card months ago with the lattice die and she saved all the little pieces that were left over knowing she would do something with them.  Months later she turned them into leaves for a paper tree she hand-cut herself.  How clever is that?!  

Notice that the Cajun Craze and More Mustard paper is textured?  First, I ran a solid piece of cardstock, large enough to cover the die cutting area, through the Square Lattice embossing folder.  This gives it that great texture.  Then I ran it through with the Lattice die, that's a lot of lattice isn't it, popped out the little almond shapes and attached them to my tree as leaves.  

I just received my packet of Autumn Spice specialty designer paper and it's gorgeous!  That's a bit of it peeking out underneath.  Lovely texture that matches the leaves.  I also couldn't resist the new vintage brads and a bit of linen thread.  All this texture and natural elements were inspired by this week's photo.  I hope that you will check out the rest of the creations at The Paper Players and come help us celebrate the beautiful colors of fall!  Until then...thanks so much for stopping by and...cheers!  

9/12/10 edit: I just discovered a new challenge blog for Stampin Up-only cards so I've entered this one!  If you're a SU devotee or even have enough supplies to make a SU only card, check it out here!

supplies:
stamps: season of friendship; falling leaves (sentiment)
ink: early espresso
paper: naturals ivory, more mustard, cajun craze, old olive cardstock & autumn spice specialty designer series paper
xtras: lattice die; square lattice embossing folder; lots of tags sizzlit; 2.5" circle punch; vintage brads; linen thread.

PPA11

I couldn't resist making another version of my curried moon card to answer the challenge posed by the design team at PPA. This week it's a color challenge: old olive, pumpkin pie and perfect plum. Great fall or halloween colors and I thought these colors worked pretty well with my card from yesterday's post. (Please take a look for directions on how I made this card.) The challenge did allow us to add neutral colors so I also have basic black, basic grey and just a tad of whisper white. It was a challenge to fit the perfect plum in there but I relied on the Cast-a-Spell designer paper to pull all the challenge colors together for me! Since I used just a bit of it on the actual card, I carried more designer paper into the lining of the envelope. Cute!

I also can't resist showing you my new personalized stamp! Another thing I've held off purchasing... don't know why... I'm glad I did because I love it! What a great way to advertise our craft and the best part is, the butterfly stamp meets SU!'s Angel Policy which allows individuals to sell any cards you make as long as they bear this stamp--done! This is actually the Hand Stamped by stamp (#115602) AND a one-line Text-Only Stamp (#115576). They are ordered separately but the wood block was big enough for both so I mounted them together--otherwise, I would never get the blog address lined up exactly where I wanted it, LOL!

Supplies:
stamps: woodgrain, season of friendship, forest friends, all holidays
ink: basic black, stazon jet black, perfect plum
paper: basic black, basic grey, pumpkin pie, whisper white cardstock, cast-a-spell DSP
extras: 1 3/4" circle punch, SAMJ, modern label punch, word window punch, crop-o-dile, 1/4" old olive grosgrain ribbon, whisper white medium envelope