Color Dare Design Team Debut {CD76}

Woo hoo!  I am delighted to share this card with you as my first contribution on the Color Dare design team! Riley Fitzgerald runs the Color Dare challenge with a new batch of fresh color combinations each Wednesday and I have joined their team for the next six months. We would love for you to play along...come check it out! This week's combination is Rose Red, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy & Elegant Eggplant and here is what I did with it:

I knew that I wanted to feature a fan fold flower--been seeing them all over blogland--and with a strong focal piece like that I needed to keep the rest of the card pretty simple.  This week's sketch over at Taylored Expressions was just perfect!  I love sketches and layouts that allow me to feature our beautiful designer paper.  Here I've used a combination of retired designer papers except for the Elegant Eggplant.  I didn't have any designer paper in EE so I stamped the cherry blossoms from Eastern Blooms in EE on my EE cardstock for instant patterned paper!

Here's a close-up of the fan fold flower with an Antique Brad center.  These brads sure are gorgeous!  I'm usually a clean and modern kind of girl but these brads have me humming a vintage tune!  I backed it with a circle of Not Quite Navy.  If you would like to see how I made the flower, check back tomorrow for a pictorial.  You'll want to try it right away, it's that easy!

Finally, a little peek at the inside for you.  I carried over a narrow strip of the same papers and repeated the Eastern Blooms cherry blossoms in Versamark behind the sentiment.  The sentiment is such a great one from the level 2 hostess set Occasional Quotes.

So that's it from me today...will you take the Color Dare?  Hop on over and take a look at the inspiration from the rest of the design team and then go get crafty...we would love to see what you come up with! 

supplies:
stamps: sincere salutations; occasional quotes; eastern blooms
ink: elegant eggplant; versamark
paper: crumb cake, very vanilla, old olive CS; urban garden, haiku, thoroughly modern DSPs (retired)
xtras: corner rounder, 2 3/8" scallop circle, 3/4" circle punches; old olive satin ribbon; antique brad

Island Lattice: PPA {59}

Oh how I love this paper...so much so that I have hoarded saved it for the perfect opportunity and the fabulous design team at Pals Paper Arts provided just the right one with this week's color challenge. With this paper in hand, this was literally a 10 minute card!  Love the colors: Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron and Old Olive and don't you just love these stylish ladies decked out in their SU frocks?!

Anyway...the Island Oasis designer paper includes all three challenge colors so it was the perfect choice for my clean-and-simple card.  I love how SU repeats design elements and shapes in paper, stamps and accessories and this paper is no exception.  The tropical floral pattern of the paper mimics the pattern made by the Lattice die I featured in yesterday's post...can you you see it?  So for my card, I thought it would be fun to make a flower from pieces of the lattice die.  I ran the die through my Big Shot on Tempting Turquoise cardstock and then cut away two of the flower pieces.  I layered the pieces on a 2.5" circle of Old Olive with a stampin' dimensional (cut in half) between each one. 
The center is topped off with a 3/4" circle of So Saffron and one of the sparkly new Glimmer Brads in Olive Olive.  I wrapped some (retired) So Saffron striped grosgrain ribbon around the main panel and stamped a Teeny Tiny Wishes sentiment in Old Olive to complete the look.  Cute, eh?!  I really like this one...clean, simple and cheerful.  I hope it brightens your day...cheers!

supplies:

stamps: teeny tiny wishes

ink: old olive

paper: so saffron, tempting turquoise, old olive & whisper white CS; island oasis DSP

xtras: lattice die; 2.5" & 3/4" circle punches; glimmer brads (brights); So Saffron striped grosgrain 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.

The Paper Players {14}: clean and simple

Happy Sunday everyone and welcome to the Paper Players challenge (14)!  Did you see our entries last week?  Lots of talent out there in blogland and we received over 100 entries!  That's wonderful--thank you so much.  This week the lovely and talented Jaydee asked us to create a clean and simple card--my favorite! 

I didn't expect to make a Christmas card in September (!) but after all the Halloween cards I've been making, I thought it was time for a change.

My colors are inspired by the Elegant Soiree designer paper: Soft Suede, Baja Breeze and Very Vanilla.  The Soft Suede base was run through my Big Shot with the Elegant Lines embossing folder--the perfect compliment to the designer paper.  I stamped the ornament from Contempo Christmas first in Versamark and Soft Suede ink, stamped onto Very Vanilla and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  After punching it out with the coordinating Oranament punch (love it!), I added some of the new adhesive Basic Pearls and popped it up on a piece of Baja Breeze.  A little strip of DSP, some 1/4" Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon, the sentiment from Contempo Christmas and my clean and simple card is finished!

Head on over to the Paper Players and check out the design team's inspiration.  We would love to see your take on clean and simple! 

supplies:
stamps: contempo christmas
ink: soft suede, versamark
paper: soft suede, baja breeze, very vanilla cardstock
xtras: ornament punch; very vanilla 1/4" grosgrain ribbon; elegant lines embossing folder; clear embossing powder; basic pearls

Paper Players {13}

Anything goes this week at the Paper Players--come on over and check it out!  Any paper project, any colors, any layout--whatever your crafty fingers feel like making!  For me, I am in full Halloween card making mode.  I love all the new papers and accessories for one of my favorite holidays.  Today's card features many items from the Holiday Mini catalog that are my favorites: Spider Web embossing folder, Nite Owl designer series paper, Raven black lace ribbon and look close at Glimmer Brads!  Shiny sparkly brads in all your favorite color families. 

I adapted the layout from this week's sketch challenge over Pals Paper Arts and used the Two Tags die as my focal piece.  The stamp set From the Crypt is a favorite that made a return appearance this year in the new catalog.  Here, I stamped it on my Tangerine Tango Two Tags die in Versamark and heat embossed with Black embossing powder--gives such a crisp image!  A cute bitty bat punched from vellum cardstock is the final touch on my creepy card.

And on the inside, I just repeated the same color scheme and DSP but stamped the bats from Wicked Cool on a scrap of Tangerine Tango and used the 1 3/4" Circle punch to make a batty moon!


We would love for you to play along with us this week at the Paper Players...remember anything goes!  Head on over to see what the rest of the team has come up with.  Hope to see you there!

supplies:

stamps: from the crypt, wicked cool, sanded background

ink: versamark, tangerine tango, basic gray, jet black stazon

paper: basic black, tangerine tango, basic gray, pear pizzazz & vellum CS; nite owl DSP

xtras: basic gray taffeta ribbon; raven lace ribbon; glimmer brad (neutrals); two tags die; scallop oval, large oval, 1 3/4" circle and bitty bag punches; basic jewel rhinestones; black stampin' emboss powder; spider web embossing folder