PP396 Animal Antics

Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's time for another Paper Players challenge with Joanne as our hostess!  She has a fun one, I don't think we've done one like this for a while!  Check it out:

I don't have many animal stamps, but I did receive this wee little elephant stamp as a gift a while ago from Simon Says Stamp, and never inked it up, so I thought this would be a good time!  She's stamped in Memento Black ink and colored with SU blends:

I think this would make a really cute child's birthday card!  After die-cutting her out, I added a scalloped mat and popped it up onto a very simple Pool Party DSP mat, and that to a Powder Pink card.

I stamped a separate balloon, colored it with blends as well, and fussy-cut it out, popping it up as well!

The sentiment and stars are from the same set....it really is adorable!  I rarely do kids' cards OR animals, so I am happy that Joanne came up with this challenge!!I hope you'll play along too!  Be sure to check out the cute creations at the Paper Players blog and share yours with us as well!

The "fierce" karate look:

HI-YAA!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Birthday Elephant (Simon Says Stamp)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Powder Pink, Pool Party DSP (ret)
Ink	Memento Black, Powder Pink
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Layering Squares Framelits, SU Blends in Dark and Light Smoky Slate, Dark and Light Pink Pirouette, Dark and Light Soft Sky, and Light Bermuda Bay, Stamparatus

SIP85 Love You

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  The Stamp Ink Paper team has a lovely, "heart-felt" challenge for you today:

I wanted to do something a little different, and I remembered I had this very cool gold-embossed paper in my MME My Story pad.  My card came together so easily, it was amazing:

There's no stamping on this, except for the inside!  I used a couple of heart dies to cut out the Very Vanilla heart and a Simon Says Stamp die for the gold foil sentiment.  A wee piece of vellum under the heart helps the sentiment not get lost with all the other goldiness going on!!!  Here's a different view...you can see how the gold arrows shimmer!

And here's a closeup of the focal point...so simple but I love it!

I am also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp "Young at Heart" challenge, as it uses a SSS die!

So be sure to get busy and share your heart/love creations with us...it doesn't necessarily have to be a Valentine's card...how about an anniversary card?  Use your imagination and be sure to check out what the DT did as well!

Speaking of Valentines, Cassidy has almost 30 to prepare for her classmates and teachers, so she went the store-bought route and has gotten a head-start on them!

Good practice, writing all those names!  Enjoy your day!

Project Details
Stamps
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Gold Foil, Botanical Gardens Vellum (ret SU), My Mind's Eye My Story DSP
Ink
Accessories
Tools	Big Shot, Nestie Heart Dies, Simon Says Stamp Small Love You Die, Small Heart Punch, Dimensionals

SR338 and JAI320 Birthday

Happy Saturday, peeps!  Hope you have something fun planned!  I've got a masculine birthday card to share with you; it's for my nephew, and it uses the colors from Stampin' Royalty and the sketch from Just Add Ink:

I never quite know in which direction to go when created a card for a young man!  This is a mix of eclectic vintage images with some silver accents thrown in:

My base was stamped with a Simon Says Stamp grid background, and added a lot of elements from Timeless Textures randomly along the edges.  A scripty image (Artistic Outpost's The Outpost) was stamped horizontally as well.  I stamped the watch image (also Artistic Outpost's The Outpost) in Night of Navy and fussy-cut it out and mounted it on a circle of Mint Macaron.  I added a banner and a sentiment from last month's Paper Pumpkin and popped everything up with some dimensionals.  I just couldn't figure out what to use for the embellishment, and in the end, to follow through with the tree image, diecut some silver leaves with the Flourishes die.  I added some Silver Encore speckles on the card base as well!

Thanks for popping in today!  Be sure to come back tomorrow for a new Paper Players challenge!

A week of Vacation Bible School just wore her out!

TSOT Vintage St Pat's

Happy Tuesday, all!  We've got another sketch from Try Stampin' On Tuesday, with the optional theme of St Patrick's!  Here ya go:

I don't have too many St Patrick's Day stamps, but I have collected a few digital images of vintage St Pat's postcards, so I printed one out to use for my card today:

My base was Naturals Cream, embossed with the Elegant Dots EF; my banner is Glorious Green (remember that color??) and Basic Gray on which I stamped a grid (Simon Says Stamp) and then filled in each grid with a shamrock from Itty Bitties....you can see some gray shamrocks on the digital image itself.  The sentiment is from Sprinkles of Life, and it was stamped in Garden Green on a banner diecut from the Large Numbers die....I shaded it a little with some Sahara Sand ink to make it look 3D:

I think this little Irish lass is quite fetching, don't you?!  I hope you'll play along with us today--you have two weeks to participate and you can show your card off on the blog or on the TSOT Facebook page--either one is acceptable!  Can't wait to see what you create!

Cassidy sportin' a new hat Mommy crocheted....hot off the hook!

Enjoy your day!

Paper Players 280 Yellow Bird

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Wow, can you believe it is the last day of January?!  I am excited to spend some time today with my club hostesses!  I stopped my clubs temporarily, so this is a chance for me to reconnect with them and show them my appreciation.  But first, it's time for the Paper Players, and Jaydee is our hostess today with a fun Tic-tac-toe challenge!

As soon as I saw "birds", I knew that I would be using that bottom horizontal line for my card!  It gave me a chance to use lots and lots of images, papers and elements for my eclectic card:

Hello Honey and Basic Black are the main colors I've used, along with some MME Sunshine papers.  I've used a plethora of stamps, including Red Lead Paperworks' Bird,  SU's Timeless Textures, Crafty Secrets Birds, Simon Says Stamp Grid Background, and a stamp set from Pink Paislee that has no name on it...it just has lots of vintagey French ephemera and cool uplifting sentiments!  I added a wee bit of watercoloring to my bird, and a shabby seam binding bow, along with a diecut zigzag edge:

A couple of banners, one in champagne glimmer paper, and a sweet little sentiment:

And you can see the Grid background stamped in white, along with some other textures and bird images!  Oooh, I had so much fun making this card!  My desk was a mess but I was HAPPY!

I didn't make this card for any particular occasion, so I left the inside blank...when the need arises, I can add the appropriate sentiment!  Now, let's see how the other designers used the tic-tac-toe grid!  Check them out:

• Claire
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Laurie
• Nance 
• Sandy
• Linda
• Hannelie
• Colleen

And I hope you'll play along with us as well!

Cassidy is "potty training" her little boy baby doll Liam (who is anatomically correct, which makes for some interesting scenarios!) and she made a Potty Chart, with 100 spaces on it.  Amazingly, he got all 100 check marks on his first try, LOL!  We should all learn so quickly, right?!  Enjoy your day!

Two Cards…..

…for today, the first of October, because there are so many awesome challenges out in blogland, I can’t get them all done in time!  My first card is for the Paper Craft Crew sketch 164 and the Color Throwdown challenge 362 :

I pulled out an older SU stamp called Harvest Home and did some watercoloring:

The background is a piece of Color Me Irresistible embossed paper that I sponged with Chocolate Chip ink to give it a darker color…the embossed portion resists the ink and looks really cool!  The banner was stamped every which-way with the sketchy line stamp from Gorgeous Grunge; the sentiment, leaves & acorn are from September’s Paper Pumpkin..what a great kit!  This is also for the Stamplorations Project 40 challenge; I chose this card as my inspiration!

My next card is a little 3 1/4 x 4” card for a baby shower; it’s for the Kraft Journal’s CAS baby card challenge as well as the CAS On Sunday challenge to use polka dots:

I used Crumb Cake for my card base, embossing it with SU’s Large Dots EF and giving each dot a little highlight with some white craft ink and a sponge dauber.  The “stitched” panel is from Stitched Shapes by Simon Says Stamps, inked up in Lost Lagoon, and the heart and duck are from Sweet & Sassy, Polka Dot Silhouettes.  The duck was stamped in Crushed Curry; the smaller heart was actually a larger image;  I heat-embossed it in white on Mint Macaron, then punched it out with a smaller heart punch:

The sentiment is from A Dozen Thoughts, and I made a custom envelope for the card with some retired Christmas DSP from last year and my Envelope Punch Board!  This card is also for Little Red Wagon’s embossing folder challenge!  Phew!  I think I got them all in!  And here’s a little peek at something I made for the shower as well:

Cassidy is becoming quite the little chef; this child can break an egg on her own and not get any shell in it!  She prefers to mix her cake batter by hand, rather than use the mixer:

but she still does love to lick the bowl:

Enjoy your day!

Paper Players 254 Faux Shaker Card

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Time for another Paper Players challenge with Laurie as our hostess, and she’s got a CAS challenge for us this week:

Fun, huh?  The DT has some really cute samples using eyeglasses, but alas, I have no eyeglass stamps or dies, but I did have a new cool Simon Says Stamp die called Holiday Frames that I was hankering to use!  My first thought was to make a shaker card.  I love shaker cards!  However, after almost an hour of trying to cut my foam strip (which is extremely sticky) narrow enough for the edge, I gave up and chucked it.  Hence, I made a FAUX shaker card:

Please don’t laugh….you know the issues that can be had with shaker cards….they can be challenging to assemble!  And yes, I know, it’s just got the sequins GLUED on, but the weather is sticky, the sequins jump all over the place and this is supposed to be clean and simple, so this is my story and I’m stickin’ to it!  Anyway, the frame is cut from Gold Foil; the background paper is some stash I’ve had forever; the sequins were a gift from Verve (love the colors), along with some retired holiday snowflakes from SU, and the baker’s twine is SU’s gold.  I used a one-hole bow again to make sure it didn’t wiggle off:

And just for a little extra sparkle, although you can’t see it very well, I heat embossed some snowflakes from Endless Wishes with Versamark and Iridescent Ice embossing powder on the card base:

Please be sure to check out the Paper Players blog to see all the designers’ handiwork:

• Ann
• Claire
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Laurie
• Nance
• Sandy
• Amy
• Jodi
• Lisa

And be sure to play along!

Last week, Cassidy went to VBS where she learned about missionaries Jim and Elisabeth Elliot; if you don’t know their story, you can read the children’s version here.  Cassidy didn’t talk much about it during the week, but she did finally get excited when they talked about the Elliot’s daughter, Valerie, who was just a baby when Jim gave his life.  Of course, there was a doll there representing Valerie and she was quite enamored with the doll……as she is her own dolls!  Valerie and Elisabeth continued Jim’s work, so God’s purpose was fulfilled despite their loss. The children learned about the jungle as well; here she is with her parrot mask:

and the necklace she made; I think the white things are supposed to be teeth (I hope not bones)!!!  She had a great time and the teaching team did an awesome job as well.

Thanks for popping by today!

Paper Players 238

Happy Palm Sunday, peeps!  We have a brunch today at church, so this will be short and sweet!  Claire is our sweet hostess today at the Paper Players, and she’s got a Tic Tac Toe challenge:

Now, I am sure you’re expecting something springy, but I haven’t made a Christmas card for a while, so I thought I would use the center horizontal line of die-cut, sequins and glue to make a pretty card using the Merry Monday theme of “trees” and the Just Add Ink sketch:

So here we go:

I had about 45 minutes to throw this card together and I made it just in time!  I recently purchased this fun tree die from Simon Says Stamp, so I cut it out of some Brushed Silver cardstock, mounted it on a Shimmery White tag and popped it atop a little white doily.  While rummaging around in my cardstock drawer, I realized I hadn’t used Baja Breeze for a long time, and it was one of my favorite shades of blue, so I used that for my base.  I embossed the sentiment from Good Greetings in silver EF and then added these amazing sequins that I got as a freebie from Verve: 

They are SO pretty in their iridescence! 

So, what will you create with this fun challenge…the possibilities are endless!  Check out what the design team has done with it:

• Ann
• Anne Marie
• Claire
• Debbie
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Karren
• Laurie
• Nance
• Sandy
• Shannon

It is STILL very cold outside here in PA, but I took Cassidy out last week anyway just to get some exercise!  She had fun using a plant stand as a basketball hoop:

Well, you’re sure to get it in if you stand directly above it, LOL!

She had fun, anyway!  Enjoy your day!