You Are A Blessing

Hello,

I hope that you had a nice and relaxing Sunday afternoon. Since it's "summer again" here in San Diego, a very warm weekend, I stayed in and stamped. I'm heading out for a mini work trip tomorrow, bright and early, and I wanted to make cards for a couple of challenges before I go.

This one is for CAS(E) this Sketch #191. The tilted panels look fun on this week's sketch, don't they? I pulled out my new MFT Fall Friends set and some Die-namics Stitched Frame dies to make my card.

Unfortunately, the photo changed the shades of my card stock. The green is really Emerald  Envy, which is a true green color and the gold is really Delightful Dijon, which is a darker gold. IRL the look great together. The sentiment is stamped with Emerald Envy Ombre pad and it's color isn't true either. (At least it's consistent, LOL.)

The background is embossed using the TE Scattered Leaves embossing folder and the die cut leaves are also TE dies.

Here is the inside:

Have a great week all and thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Fall Friends by My Favorite Things
Paper: SU Crumb Cake, Emerald Envy, Delightful Dijon, Very Vanilla and Pebbles Forrest Friends patterned paper
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Emerald Envy Ombre pad
Other: Die-namics Fall Friends, Square Stitched Frames, TE Fall Leaf dies, TE Scattered Leaves EF, the Big Shot, SU enamel dots, Wink of Stella, Dimensionals

Wishing You a Good Day

Hello crafty friends,

Welcome to a new Paper Players challenge. This week, Joanne is our fabulous hostess with a sketch challenge. You're going to love this fun and versatile sketch. 

I really did have some fun with this and ended up making two cards. One for Fall and another for Christmas. 

This first card uses a new Pure Innocence stamp set which are always so fun to color. For the background, I stamped the leaf stamps randomly on watercolor paper with SU Archival black ink and painted them with Distress ink with my aqua painter. After they dried, I painted between them alternating red and yellow Distress Ink.

For the focal image, I stamped her with Memento on X-Press It Blending card stock and colored her with Copics using Fall colors. I cut her out with the corresponding die and used the Die-namics Circle Spinner Channels and slider elements to make her tumble. So fun! Instead of using a sentiment form the set, I used the MFT Label Maker set to make my own greeting.

And here is my second card using Joann's sketch. For this one, I used a new Avery Elle set called Retro Ornaments. 

I remember decorating the tree with ornaments like these when I was a kid. I think my sister has them now, anyway I hope that's where they are. They were glittered all over. Here, I tried to recreate that with Stickles and Wink of Stella.

The ornaments are stamped with Memento ink onto X-Press It Blending card stock. Using the masking technique, I layered the ornaments and colored them with Copics. I used Diamond, Silver and Gold Stickles on all three and where I didn't use the Stickles, I coated those parts with Wink Of Stella. I let the panel dry over night then assembled the card.

Here are the links to the rest of the DT's blogs. Be sure to stop by to say hi.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese-off this week

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

I know you'll have fun with Joanne's sketch. I'm looking forward to seeing your cards. 

Have a fun and relaxing Sunday and thanks for stopping in today,

Colleen

Supplies

Card 1: 

Stamps: Jumping With Joy and Label Maker sets by My Favorite Things

Paper: Cold press watercolor paper, X-Press It Blending and SU Soft Suede card stock, Pebbles Woodland Forrest patterned paper

Ink: SU Archival black, Memento tuxedo black, Tim Holtz Distress ink, Copics, SU Soft Suede

Other: Die-namics Jumping With Joy, Circle Spinner Channel, Label Maker, and Taylored Expressions Small Scalloped Border dies, Fiskar Corner Rounder punch, MFT Slider Elements, foam tape, aqua painter, the Big Shot

Card 2:

Stamps: Retro Ornaments by Avery Elle

Paper: SU Real Red, SU Gold, X-Press It Blending card stock, American Crafts Be Merry patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Real Red

Other: Stickles, Wink Of Stella, Taylored Expressions Curly Border die, 

Hanging Out

Happy Friday everyone,

Work is mostly done, yay, and we have plans with friends for Happy Hour at our favorite Wine Bar "hang out" later this evening.

While watching (mostly listening to) baseball after dinner last night, I made this card using the Freshly Made Sketch for this week. Amy has a great sketch with lots of open space. I decided to play with my new Tim Holtz Distress Crayons for my background pumpkin patch.

This is a new MFT set called Fall Friends. The pumpkins were stamped onto coldpress watercolor paper using SU Archival black ink and a masking technique, then colored with two shades of orange Distress Crayons using an aqua painter. The scarecrow, his crow buddy, and the leaves are stamped with Memento tuxedo black on X-Press It Blending card and colored with Copics. These images are cut out with the corresponding dies. The watercolor paper is layered with SU Pumpkin Pie paper.The sentiment banner is cut from Pumpkin Pie as well. The patterned paper from Pebbles is called Woodland Forrest.

I hope you have a great weekend coming up. I'm attending a birthday party for one year old twins tomorrow. Should be fun! I made them some awesome cards, if I do say so myself. 

Thanks for looking in today,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Woodland Friends set by My Favorite Things

Paper: Coldpress watercolor paper, SU Pumpkin Pie, X-Press It Blending card stock, Pebbles Woodland Forest patterned papers

Ink: SU Archival black, Memento tuxedo black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Crayons

Other: Die-namics Woodland Friends and Pierced Fishtail Flags dies, the Big Shot, dimensional, aqua painter

Warm Wishes

Happy Monday to you all,

While waiting for a 62 page set of instructions to print out for a work project for tomorrow, I'm multitasking to post this card that I made last night after dinner.

While looking for some challenges I ran across Leslie's Inspired By All the Little Things challenge. This week there is a cute table-scape inspiration. I also came across the CAS on Sunday challenge, which is to make a "one layer card."

Here's what I came up with to combine these two challenges:

The card base is SU Naturals card stock. I scored it at 5.5 inches and ran it through the Big Shot using the Mama Elephant Sew Fancy die set to add a bit of interest around the outside of the card front. Using the Lawn Fawn set called Love You a Latte, I stamped the cup, masked it and stamped the saucer, then the spoon. They are watercolored with Zig Real Brush markers and an aqua painter. After the paint was dry, I masked all images and stamped over the whole card front with the SU Hardwood stamp using SU Sahara Sand ink. Using my Mini Misti, I stamped the sentiment, re-stamping a few times to get it nice and dark over the Sahara Sand. A few little blue enamel hearts added for embellishment.

For the inside, I wanted a larger cup, and used Reverse Confetti's Be A Barista set. This cup is colored with Copics. I used the little stitched die from the same Mama Elephant die set.

A simple and quick card to make.

I hope your work week is a good one. As always, thanks for looking,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Love You a Latte set by Lawn Fawn and SU Hardwood - outside
Be a Barista set by Reverse Confetti and SU Hardwood- inside
Paper: SU Naturals white card stock
Ink: SU Archival black, Zig Real Brush Water Color Markers, Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Soft Suede, SU Sahara Sand
Other: Mama Elephant Sew Fancy dies, aqua painter, the Big Shot, Mini Misti, enamel shapes

Have A Happy Thanksgiving

Hello and Happy Sunday,

Welcome to a new The Paper Players challenge. Today, Laurie is our hostess with a fun CAS challenge called "Clean and Simple Taste of Fall". 

So many options, but I recently bought Cutie Pie and Thanks A Bushel sets from Lawn Fawn and I just had to use them. I love this little pie, and doesn't it work well with the apples?! I thought I'd get started on more holiday cards and this set is perfect for Thanksgiving. I know most folks have Pumpkin pie but I'm not a fan of it and mom always made apple for my sister and I at Thanksgiving. Mom is a master pie maker, (seriously, there's no comparison) so I will send this one to her.

While I do have some layers here, it was a super quick and simple card to put together. Maybe because I had designed it in my mind and the finished project came out just as I envisioned it. This card is a small 4x4" note card.

All of the images are stamped in Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics. They are cut out with the Lawn Fawn coordinating dies. The Spellbinders Scalloped die is cut from SU Cherry Cobbler and Die-namics Stitched square is cut from MFT Brights Plaid in green. The sentiment is from the Cutie Pie set.

Check out the rest of the Design Team's blogs for more awesome inspiration.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

I know you'll have fun with this challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing the gallery this week.

Have a nice Sunday and thanks for looking in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Cutie Pie and Thanks a Bushel sets by Lawn Fawn

Paper: SU Crumb Cake and Cherry cobbler card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, My Favorite Things Brights Plaid patterned paper

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics 

Other: Lawn Fawn Cutie Pie and Thanks a Bushel dies, Spellbinders Scalloped Square die, Die-namics Stitched Square die, the Big Shot, dimensionals

You're Just My Cup Of Tea

Hi again everyone,

Welcome to my second post this afternoon.

The ladies over at the CAS(E) THIS SKETCH blog have a fun and creative challenge this week, and I wanted to jump right in. The sentiment is separated with an image. I immediately thought of doing a "Thanks a Latte" type card, but it morphed into a tea theme instead. Blame it one these pretty Pink Paislee patterned papers.

As I was saying, I had pulled out my Reverse Confetti Be A Barista and Caffeinated Cups stamp sets all ready to do a coffee card, but while looking though patterned papers to use in the background, I saw this pretty cross stitched rose and thought tea instead. After trimming the patterned paper down for the card, I used the extra to stamp the cup. It's stamped with SU Wild Wasabi and Pretty In Pink. I used an aqua painter to water color Wild Wasabi in the white spaces. The tea is stamped first with Baked Brown Sugar, stamped off once, then a layer of Hello Honey over the top. After stamping and coloring I cut it out with the RC coordinating die. I placed the image on my card and then lined up the sentiment and stamped it using my Mini Misti. Because the sentiment is on one stamp, I taped off the bottom half then inked it with Memento tuxedo black, removing the tape prior to stamping. I followed the same process for the bottom of the sentiment. Unfortunately, I missed covering a wee bit of the upper letters with the tape. A carefully stamped tea bag solved the problem. The cup is raised with dimensionals.

Here is a look at the inside. Here I colored the image with Copics. One of my good friends, who only drinks tea, no coffee (like me) has a birthday in a few weeks, so I think this will work well. (she doesn't read my blog so it's safe to post)

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Be A Barista and Caffeinated Cups sets by Reverse Confetti
Paper: TE textured pink card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock, Take Me Away by Pink Paislee patterned papers
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, SU Wild Wasabi, Pretty In Pink, Baked Brown Sugar, Hello Honey, Copics
Other: Aqua painter, Caffeinated Cups dies, Mini Misti, the Big Shot, Dimensionals

You're Bootiful

Yay for Friday! Hello all,

Yup, it's my favorite day of the week because it means that the next two days are time to relax and do more stamping.

I had Happy Hour with one of my favorite customers last evening. We sat out on the deck of the restaurant and had a couple glasses of wine, some lite-bites, and fun conversation. After driving the hour home, I still had about three hours until I needed to go to the airport to pick up Mr. Personal Chef. Yes, his flight arrived at 11:20 pm. It was a late night! Luckily I didn't have to go out to a customer's site today, instead just catching up on some reports.

Since I had those three hours, I decided to make a quick Halloween card using this week's Freshly Made Sketch. Narelle's sketch is a fun one that accommodates some layering, a favorite of mine. For my card, I used an older Paper Smooches set called Spookalicious. I've always (owl-ways) liked this cute-a-licious owl.

I wanted his big eyes to standout even more so I used a liberal amount of Crystal Effects over them after rimming them with my FYG1 Copic. The rest of the owl is colored with Copics too. The patterned papers are from Doodlebug and all of the dies are Die-namics from MFT. Last year I found some Halloween themed sequin images at Michaels. Here I've used some bats.

I hope you're off to a good start to the weekend. Thanks for stopping in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Spookalicious set by Paper Smooches
Paper: TE green and orange card stock, X-Press It Blending card stock and Ghouls & Goodies patterned papers by Doodlebug
Ink: Memento tuxedo black and Copics
Other: Wonky Stitched Rectangle, Inside and Out Stitched Circle, Pinking Circle and Fishtail Flag Banner dies all from Die-namics, Michaels bat sequin, SU Crystal Effects, the Big Shot, Dimensionals

Hugs

Hi and happy Tuesday evening,

I'm home alone this week as Mr. Personal Chef is working in Virginia. I spent last evening finishing some work reports and watching baseball. I wasn't ready for sleep so I decided to make a quick card. Here's what I came up with using this week's CAS(E) THIS SKETCH sketch.

The stamp set is MFT Sunflower. I inked it using Distress Ink in two gold shades and stamped it onto some water color paper. Using an aqua painter, I went over each petal to activate the ink with water. The center of the flower is stamped in a darker gold and a dark red. Using a Die-namics circle die, I cut it out for the focal image in the sketch. The sentiment is a die from Avery Elle. The patterned paper is from Lawn Fawn's Fall plaid 6x6 pad.  I really like the browns, yellows and red together. Such a great fall color combo! A few flower sequin for embellishments.

Have a great Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by,
Colleen


Supplies
Stamps: Sunflower by My Favorite Things
Paper: SU Soft Suede card stock, SU water color paper and Lawn Fawn Plaid pattern paper
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink
Other: Aqua Painter, Die-namics Stitched Zig-zag die, Avery Elle Hugs die, Mama Elephant Stitched Scalloped panel die, TE flower sequin, the Big Shot, dimensionals

No Tricks, Just Treats

Hello again,

I  hope you're having a nice and relaxing Sunday. After making my Paper Players card yesterday, I decided to play with a new stamp set that came in the mail this past week. I ordered several new fall and holiday Lawn Fawn sets. This one is called Howl-o-ween. 

As you can see, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for my layout and some old SU DSP in fall colors. These little pups in their Halloween costumes are just too cute! Here is the inside:

Thanks for looking in,
Colleen

Supplies
Stamps: Howl-o-ween set by Lawn Fawn
Paper: SU Whisper White, Always Artichoke and X-Press It Blending card stock, SU Juntos DSP
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics and SU Always Artichoke
Other: Die-namics Stitched Square and Pinking Round dies, Lawn Fawn banner die, SU Spider Web EF, LF Howl-o-ween coordinating dies, the Big Shot, Dimensionals

Wishing You the Most Beautiful Day

Hello,

This week's Paper Player's Challenge is hosted by LeAnne and she has a color challenge for us. Check out these fun, Fall colors!

I actually had a hard time coming up with something that I was happy with. I started a couple of cards that I didn't finish. They just weren't going anywhere I wanted them to go! Very uncooperative of them. This one is so totally different and I almost scrapped it, but I persisted and I think it worked okay.

I started with some new cold pressed water color paper and my mini Misti.  Using some of the smaller images in the Beautiful Day stamp set by Altenew, I stamped them randomly with SU Archival black ink. Using an aqua painter water pen, I did that messy, quick water coloring with the challenge colors. While the panel was drying, I stamped the large flower onto X-Press It Blending white card stock starting with Crushed Curry stamped off for the first layer. The second layer is Crushed Curry full strength, but stamped three times to get a nice dark shade. The third layer is Cajun Craze ink, stamped off lightly. Finally, I used the outline stamp inked in SU Archival black. This I inked and stamped about four times for a nice dark outline.

For the leaves, I used essentially the same process with Cajun Craze ink. The two leaves and flower are cut out with the corresponding dies.

I trimmed the background panel down and layered it onto my card base which is Crushed Curry. I cut the Stitched Rectangle Frame from Cajun Craze and glued it onto the water colored panel. The flower and leaves are attached with dimensionals. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and is stamped onto vellum with SU Archival black ink and cut out with a Pierced Fishtail Flag banner die and glued under the flower. I found some light green glass beads that I used for embellishments.

For the inside, I used more stamps from the set. They are stamped on X-Press It Blending card with Cajun Craze and Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics that match the challenge colors.

Be sure to check out the other DT's blogs. Here are the links.

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan-Off This Week

Hannelie Bester

I'm really looking forward to seeing the projects this week in LeAnne's colors. I know they will be awesome! I hope you all have a great Sunday and work week ahead.

Thanks for stopping in,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Beautiful Day set by Altenew

Paper: SU Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and X-Press It Blending card stock, Acquarello Cold Pressed extra white water color paper, SU vellum

Ink: SU Archival Black, Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Pear Pizzazz, Memento tuxedo black and Copics

Other: Altenew Beautiful Day dies, Die-namics Stitched Rectangle Frame and Pierced Fishtail Flag Banner dies, aqua painter, glass beads, the Big Shot and Dimensionals

S'mores Anyone?

Hello,

It's the middle of our Labor Day Holiday weekend here in the U.S., and I've been having a great one. We are away for the weekend visiting friends in the Central Coast wine region of California. This is a great time of year here, although I really can't think of a bad time of year here.

We have a really fun theme challenge this week at the Paper Players. Jaydee is our hostess and she has picked circles as the theme. You can do like me and make a circle card or you can incorporate circles on your card. It's totally up to you and I know we are going to see some fun and clever cards in our gallery this week.

This card kind of came out of nowhere. I had a completely different plan, but when I was looking through my stamp sets to find the one that I had in mind, I came across all of my Fred Bear stamps. Then, this Doodlebug "Happy Camper" 6x6 paper pad happened to be in the front of my box of patterned paper pads. Wa-la, this camping card was born. I guess it's fitting for the last summer holiday weekend.

I did know I wanted to to a round card because I haven't made one in a long, long time. The base and background dies are all Spellbinders as is the top layer of patterned papers. After putting the card together, I stamped Fred and his campfire on X-Press It Blending card stock with Memento tuxedo black and colored them with Copics. I fussy cut them and placed them on the card. I decided it was a little plain so I added the tree, also cut from the patterned paper using Die-namics dies. I added a ton of Wink of Stella to the fire and then the three enamel stars in the sky for embellishment.

I really think it turned out pretty darn cute. Speaking of petty darn cute, don't forget to stop by the rest of the DT's blogs for more cuteness. You can find them here:

The Paper Players Design Team

Claire Broadwater

Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis

Linda Callahan

Hannelie Bester

That's all from me today. We are out doing some wine tasting since we are in the heart of wine country. Have a fab Sunday and Monday Holiday tomorrow, if you are in the U.S. to celebrate Labor Day.

Thanks for stopping by,

Colleen

Supplies

Stamps: Fred Bear Goes Camping by My Favorite Things

Paper: SU Crumb Cake and X-Press It Blending card stock, Doodlebug "Happy Camper" patterned papers

Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics, SU Early Expresso

Other: Spellbinders classic circle and large scalloped circle dies, Die-namics Tree and Leaf dies, the Big Shot, Wink of Stella, enamel stars, dimensionals