Flower Cascade: CQC{65} & CPS{96}

Whew!  I am glad to have some time to recuperate after the holidays before heading back to work next week.  Whatever winter holiday you celebrate, I hope it was a wonderful one!  This week I've finally had time to play along with some of my favorite challenges.  When I saw this gorgeous scarf and color combo at the Colour Q, I just had to play along:

Stunning, right?!  And this sketch at Card Patterns was just perfect for what I had in mind:

 and here is what I created:

I had so much fun making this one!  I started with a Basic Black base and added some of my favorite retired DSP, Walk in the Park.  I cut a Whisper White circle with my Netsabilities and stamped a sentiment from Hope Happens in Jet Black Stazon--my favorite ink for a crisp black image.  The real fun came from creating the flowers!  I used the Floral Fusion sizzlit--a SU exclusive die--to cut these tri-layered flowers from Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake cardstock.  Before assembling the Crumb Cake flowers, I stamped all the layers with the En Francais background stamp in Crumb Cake ink.

I discovered that the flower punch from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack is a perfect match to the Floral Fusion sizzlit!  A little black cardstock and a basic rhinestone brad made the flower centers sparkle!

 With so much beautiful felt in the inspiration piece, I had to use some on this card.  I dug into my stash of retired Sweet Pea felt flowers and came up with some Old Olive felt leaves--so stinkin' cute!

I am in need of a belated birthday card and I think this sentiment from On Your Birthday coordinates well with the one on the outside.  To incorporate all the colors I inked up the stamp with my Basic Black and Old Olive Stampin' Write markers and added a few Crumb Cake flowers from Eastern Blooms.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy the rest of your week...cheers!

supplies:

stamps: hope happens, on your birthday, en francais, eastern blooms

ink: jet black stazon, crumb cake

paper: basic black, whisper white, walk in the park dsp

xtras: stampin' write markers;  basic grey taffeta ribbon; floral fusion sizzlit; rhinestone brads; itty bitty punch pack; sweet pea felt leaves; nestabilities

Happy Holidays 2010

Happy Holidays to all my blogging friends, everywhere.  I am grateful for each of you who stop by and especially thankful for those who leave a little comment love.  Your support and encouragement keep me going!

I wish all of you a Happy Holiday season and peace, love and happiness today and all the year through!  See you in 2011!

One more Christmas CD{89} & SSC{182}

Hi everyone, sorry it's been quiet under the Canopy this week!  Like everyone, I've been rushing about with last minute holiday projects.  I know that you are just as busy so I will keep today's post short and sweet....kinda like my Color Dare card using this week's holiday colors of Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, and Soft Suede.

 

 

 I started out with this sweet little sketch from the operators at the Stamping 411.  Love 

this site!  An uber-talented group of SU demos with great techniques and fun challenges. 

 I don't make square cards very often but the operators had a great tip for this sketch--make a 4.25" square card!  It will still fit in a regular envelope, will not require extra postage and best of all it makes a cute little card!  With this in mind, I happily got busy with some Jolly Holiday DSP and a favorite retired set, Berry Christmas.

I thought my Soft Suede card base looked a little plain so I used the Sanded BG stamp in Soft Suede for a subtle effect.  I stamped the berry wreath in Old Olive on Very Vanilla CS and punched it out with a non-SU 2" circle punch.  Next the Merry Details sizzlit provided a sweet little Cherry Cobbler bird to nest inside the wreath.  Before the birdie could land there, I spritzed him up with some Champagne Mist shimmer spray.  Maybe you can see it here:

The sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes was stamped in Soft Suede on VV CS and popped out with the Word Window punch.  I fussed for a awhile about where to put it and decided I liked it inside the wreath as a perch for my Cobbler birdie.  Some Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon finished off the front nicely.

Not much room on the inside of a 4.25" square card but I made the most of it repeating the wreath to frame one of my favorite "inside" sentiments from Christmas Greeting.  Believe it or not, the sentiment is stamped in Cherry Cobbler and the bow hanger is Soft Suede.  The sun was so bright during this quick photo shoot that it washed out my colors a little!

So, you're probably wondering why this is Color Dare 89 again when last week was 89?  Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, you know?!  So, there was no official Color Dare post last week.  This is still week 89 for challenges but with new colors for the holiday week!  So let's see your Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede creations over at the Color Dare blog.  Be sure to check out the rest of the design team where you are sure to find loads of inspiration.  You can follow the links below to their blogs:

• Riley - our leader
• Glenda - Papers, Scissors & Rocks
• Heather - Princess Scrapper Stamper
• Joan - JJ Creations
• Marisa - Rosemary Reflections
• Melissa - My Paper Obsession

We're into the home stretch now...only 4 days until Christmas!  I hope this post finds you enjoying fun holiday traditions and making new ones with friends and family.  I hope to have another post for you by the end of the week but until then...happy wrapping, baking, shopping and merry-making!

supplies:

stamps: berry christmas [retired]; christmas greeting; sanded BG

ink: cherry cobbler, soft suede, old olive

paper: soft suede, very vanilla, cherry cobbler CS; jolly holiday DSP

xtras: corner rounder, 2" circle, scalloped ribbon border & word window punches; cherry cobbler seam binding ribbon; champage mist shimmer spray; merry details sizzlit

Peaceful Color Dare {89}

Hi everyone!  I promise I will at least try to put this stamp set down...soon.  It's so pretty, I can't help myself!  I used it again for this week's challenge at the Color Dare: Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette, Rich Razzleberry & Very Vanilla. I don't have any Pink Pirouette so I substituted Blushing Bride--a very similar but deeper shade of pink.  These colors are so soft and serene, I thought they were perfectly matched for the dove and sentiment from Peaceful Season:

If this card looks familiar you might have seen a very similar layout on my card from last week's Color Dare.  This time I used the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder on Very Vanilla and three strips of the Scalloped Ribbon Border punch in the challenge colors.  Just like last week's card, I wet embossed the edges but this time with Iridescent Ice stamping emboss powder for a softer look:

 

I stamped the globe a second time in Baja Breeze, punched it out with a 3/4" circle punch and popped it up on a dimensional adding a bow of silver elastic cord attached with a glue dot.  Just the finishing touch!

I hope you find time to play along with the Color Dare this week--these colors are so pretty together and could be used for any kind of card...remember Valentines Day is just around the corner!  ;-)

Be sure to hop on over to the rest of the design team where you're sure to find loads of inspiration:

• Riley - our leader
• Glenda - Papers, Scissors & Rocks
• Heather - Princess Scrapper Stamper
• Joan - JJ Creations
• Marisa - Rosemary Reflections
• Melissa - My Paper Obsession

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week, my friends!

supplies:

stamps: peaceful season

ink: rich razzleberry, blushing bride, baja breeze, versamark

paper: very vanilla, baja breeze, rich razzleberry, blushing bride

xtras: vintage wallpaper embossing folder, silver elastic cord, iridescent ice stampin emboss powder, 3/4" circle punch, scalloped ribbon border punch

Organic Winter PPA{28}

Happy Sunday everyone!  It's challenge day at The Paper Players and this week we are asking you to show us your favorite color combination for a specific card!  You might like Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive for Christmas cards or Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze for sympathy cards--you choose!

 

One of my favorite color combinations for the holidays?  Silver & gold!  The shine, the shimmer, the cool elegance...I love it!  On my card, this translated to Very Vanilla, Brushed Silver and Crumb Cake.  I wanted to make a holiday card but wanted to use a non-traditional stamp so I reached for a favorite [retired] set Organic Outlines...I think it looks a bit like mistletoe, don't you think?  I stamped the solid image in  Crumb Cake onto my Very Vanilla panel then stamped the outline in Versamark, sprinkled with silver embossing powder and heat set.  I promise the outline is metallic silver, it doesn't look like it in the above pic but here you can see it better:

I don't think I will ever tire of watching the embossing powder turn to liquid silver under the heat gun--it's magic!  The circles were just calling out for some basic rhinestones so I just had to oblige!  Who am I to argue with more sparkle?!  I matted the whole piece with Brushed Silver cardstock and added some Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon to the side:

Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon is just one of the new and fabulous items in the upcoming spring Mini Catalog.  For the scrunchy ribbon technique, I just lay a piece of sticky strip where I want my ribbon and using the tip of a paper piercer pull up a little bit of ribbon and press down in between each ruffle.  Easy peasy!  You can see a close-up here, too, of the Woodgrain texture plate from PTI that I used in the background.  I brayered it with Crumb Cake ink first before running it through the Big Shot and the result is a wonderful tone-on-tone texture.

The inside got a little treatment too with the same organic stamp in Crumb Cake and stamped off once.  I overstamped a sentiment from Occasional Quotes in Encore metallic silver ink.  The effect is soft and subtle.

This card was a good opportunity to participate with the design team over at Pals Paper Arts.  I always enjoy their challenges and love to play along when I can.  They're having a "Winter White" challenge this week and I just love the inspiration storyboard.  My eye was drawn to the silver earrings and the Crumb Cake cookies which inspired me to use these colors on my card.
  

So what are your favorite colors for that special card?  The Paper Players would love to see!  Head on over to our blog for more inspiration from the design team and our returning guest designers.  Link up your project by midnight (PST) Friday, December 17th to be in the running for "A Cut Above" and "Headliner".  Have a great week, my friends!