Window on a Happy Scene {PP262}

Hiya friends! We've got another lovely color challenge over at The Paper Players this week but it's also a bittersweet one.  My dear friend, Ann Schach stepped down from our Design Team after 5 years with us.  Ann and I started on the team within a few weeks of each other and grew together as teammates and friends.  I've always admired her ability to blend a fierce commitment to the business side of Stampin' Up with incredible creativity and talent.  She's helped shape our team into a strong "family" unit and she will be dearly missed.

This week we have a pretty trio of colors that could be used many different ways.  I chose to use some more Holiday Catalog goodies and went with an autumn themed design:

 The Happy Scenes stamp set and coordinating Hearth & Home Thinlit dies are just so cute!  AFter much fussing, I finally settled on a So Saffron base embossed with the Brick Wall impressions folder and a piece of retired Lost Lagoon DSP. 

The real fun was stamping and coloring this sweet little scene from the Happy Scenes stamp set.  I sponged the sky lightly with Lost Lagoon and colored the leaves & pumpkins with my So Saffron and Tangelo Twist Stampin' Write markers.  A little bit of Venetian Crochet Trim perfectly framed the my window view.  

The windowsill is a separate piece and I was able to emboss one of the sentiments from Happy Scenes in gold on the Early Espresso "wood"

A scene this cute deserves to be repeated on the inside and that's exactly what I did with a little more sponging in Lost Lagoon and So Saffron.  There are several sentiments in the Happy Scenes set and I love how this one coordinates nicely with the one I used on the front of the card.  Easy peasy!

I do hope you will go check out the rest of The Paper Players Design team.  Lots of inspiration there!  If you chose to use these colors, please be sure to link up your creation before the challenge closes on Friday, September 18th at Noon (PDT).  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team

  Claire Broadwater
 Jaydee

Joanne James
Laurie Schmidt

 LeAnne Pugliese 

Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Amy Koenders
Jodi McKinney

Lisa Elton

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

 

Acorny Love Note {PP261}

Hey there, friends--it's Sunday you know what that means....another week with The Paper Players!  Thank goodness for my weekly DT posts otherwise I might not get to my blog--geesh!  Anyway, this week Sandy has a sweet theme challenge for us--perfect for the back-to-school season:

I saw this great Flap Fold Card Tutorial via my teammate Joanne's fabulous blog and knew the idea was just perfect for my Lunchbox Love note.  I also thought the sentiments and images in the Acorny Thank You set would make a fun card.  Let's see what you think:

I have to say...I am nuts about this stamp set and coordinating punch--so cute!!  I won't go into full detail on how to make this flap fold card because the tutorial is super easy to follow and you won't have any problem seeing how it goes together.  I used a base of Mossy Meadow cut to 4.25" x 11" and scored at 2.5" and 6.75".  I used a 2.5" circle punch to make the hold for the pop up piece and the circle of Daffodil Delight was made with a circle framelit just a little bit smaller than 2.5".  The tutorial does use a small embellishment--about 1"--to close the flap but I went a little larger because I wanted to use this cute acorn sentiment.

I used one of the sweet stamps from the acorn set to stamp a background pattern on the Daffodil Delight circle.  I wanted it to stand out and the Hello Honey ink--while not a color in the designer paper--does coordinate with the other colors and gives just enough contrast to read the words.

Here's the flap open to reveal more of that pretty Into the Woods designer paper--such rich autumn colors with the bright white!

 Inside is a 4"x4" piece of Whisper White cardstock.  I laid it down and from the back side, drew a light line around the existing circle in the Mossy Meadow base.  Then, I lined up my 2.5" circle punch on the line I drew and popped out the half circle.  It lines up perfectly!  This little sentiment is also from the Acorny Thank You set but the little leaves here, and on the front, are from the Among the Branches set.

When I was all finished I showed it to our 11 year old daughter and she squealed "That's so cute, Mama!"  I guess I hit the mark on the love note for a kid!  Now, you will want to check out the rest of the Design Team's fabulous inspiration.  I hope you will play along with us before the challenge closes Friday, September 11th at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by! 

 The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile (on leave) 

Claire Broadwater
 Jaydee

Joanne James
Laurie Schmidt 
LeAnne Pugliese
Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Amy Koenders
Jodi McKinney

Lisa Elton

Sleigh Ride on a Moonlit Night {PP260} {FMS201}

Hi friends!  It's Tic-Tac-Toe week over at The Paper Players and I am still having fun playing with all my goodies from the upcoming holiday catalog.  First, here's the challenge board:

Today's card was a hmmm shall we say..."fluid" process.  By that I mean, I started out with only two things in mind.  1) I wanted to use this gorgeous technique demonstrated here by the talented Lydia and 2) I wanted to use the Sleigh Ride edgelits (I can tell they are going to be my favorite thing from the holiday catalog).  Once I got going...well, I kept adding things on until it looked like "me":

I ended up working with the middle row from the board: circle, embossing and Mint Macaron.  The background was created by inking a piece of Whisper White cardstock with Mint Macaron, Night of Navy and Blackberry Bliss inks.  I was inspired by this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches (although I may have taken a few liberties!) and added the Sleigh Ride Edgelit and a silver foil moon.

Th trees have a 3D effect because I added a second layer of Mint Macaron behind giving them a bit of a drop shadow effect.  Kinda cool?  You'll notice also that the snowy hills are two layers.  That's because the first layer got smudged with Blackberry Bliss ink so I covered it up with a second layer and added the Dazzling Diamonds at the edge.  Shhhh, don't tell anyone!  :-)

I busted out another stamp set, Happy Scenes, for the inside using all the same colors again for the snowy trees and starry sky.  

So what do you think?  I hope you like today's card and it inspires you to play along with us over at The Paper Players before our challenge closes on Friday, September 4th at Noon (PST).  I know that the rest of the Design Team has some awesome inspiration for you too so check them out:

 The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile (on leave) 

Claire Broadwater
 Jaydee

Joanne James
Laurie Schmidt 
LeAnne Pugliese
Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Amy Koenders
Jodi McKinney

Lisa Elton

In case you missed it, this week's layout at Freshly Made Sketches is fantastic! 

Among the Branches {PP259}

Hiya friends!  The crafty owl herself, Joanne, has a great sketch for us this week at The Paper Players:

I delved further into my box of pre-order Holiday catalog goodies and put the Spider Web doilies to good use...as did several DT members too!

I took a liberal approach to the sketch using several elements that harkened back to the circles in the sketch.  The spider web doily, the offset circle and the silver cording trim all echo the double circle of the sketch.  The new Woodlands embossing folder is fabulous and looks equally as beautifully on cardstock or vellum as I've used here.  To line up the embossed images perfectly, I simply laid the vellum on top of my cardstock when I ran it through the Big Shot. 

 I heat embossed the "spooky" image from the Among the Branches stamp set in black on Crushed Curry cardstock.  I offset the circle framelit when I cut out the image which gave the illusion of a harvest moon.  If you look closely you will see that the Spider Web doily has a glossy finish.  I covered the front of the doily with Versamark ink and heat set it with clear embossing powder.  The result is a shiny spider web to coordinate with the embossed sentiment.  

Besides being totally clear and super clingy, photopolymer stamps have the added bonus of being two-sided.  To create the Crushed Curry moon, I stamped the back side of the stamp I used on the front.  That is, I turned it over on my clear block and used the back of it--which is a solid circle--as my stamp. This gave me a nice full moon! One stamp = two images!   The branch and owl silhouette are also from Among the Branches while the sentiment is from another fabulous new set called Happy Scenes! 

I hope you've enjoyed my card and the sneak peeks at Holiday Catalog goodies it brings you.  Be sure to pop over and check out the rest of the Design Team at The Paper Players.  We would love for you to join us before our challenge ends on Friday, August 28th at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile (on leave) 

Claire Broadwater
 Jaydee

Joanne James
Laurie Schmidt 
LeAnne Pugliese
Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Amy Koenders
Jodi McKinney

Lisa Elton

Beachside Bungalows and a Sleigh Ride {PP258}

Hi all!  The lovely LeAnne is our Paper Players hostess this week with a fun Clean-and-Simple Challenge...The Beach!

I had just received my box of pre-order goodies from the Stampin' Up holiday catalog (goes live for customers September 1st) and I was itching to use something, anything from that box for my card today!  But what to do with holiday goodies for a beach challenge?  Let's see if you can find the holiday goodie on my card:

I wanted to create the look of a tropical seaside village with colorful houses and a rising sun.....so I used the new Sleigh Ride Edgelit dies to make my sand dunes, ocean and houses!  I cut two hills with the house edgelit die from Crumb Cake cardstock.  The die has these little houses on it and since I wanted to make them in different colors, I simply snipped them off the Crumb Cake layer leaving me with a good sand dune.  Stamping some Gorgeous Grunge speckles in the same color gives the illusion of sand.  I cut another edgelit from Pool Party cardstock and used the line stamp from Gorgeous Grunge in the same ink color for the illusion of moving water.



For the houses I used a scrap piece of cardstock to cut just a part of the edgelit.  Since I only needed one house in each color, I didn't need the whole piece.  I chose Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride and So Saffron for my seaside village.  The Sun from the stamp set Kinda Eclectic was stamped in Daffodil Delight and the clouds were stamped in Soft Sky with the Work of Art stamp set. 

One more sneak peek you really can't even see but trust me, you're going to want it!  That's the fine tip glue pen I used to adhere the Hello framelit to my card.  It has a needle like tip that hollow and lets the glue flow freely and easily onto the tiniest of surfaces.  Love it!

I hope you like today's card and an alternative way to use your holiday goodies!.  Do stop over to the rest of The Paper Players design team to see what goodies they are sharing.  I hope you will play along with us before our challenge closes Friday, August 21st at Noon (PST).

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile (on leave) 

Claire Broadwater
 Jaydee

Joanne James
Laurie Schmidt 
LeAnne Pugliese
Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Amy Koenders
Jodi McKinney

Lisa Elton