Paper Players Color Challenge 15

Ahhhh….doesn’t this lovely maple tree with all its beautiful colors evoke fond memories of fall, back-to-school, jumping in piles of leaves, cool, crisp mornings, stamping!!  What!?  Of course, stamping lends itself to EVERY season!  LOL!  Ann chose this lovely photo as her Paper Players color inspiration today, with these colors:  Old Olive, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla!!  I used Mercy’s sketch 90:

 

and SU’s Trendy Trees to make my fall-inspired card:

Truthfully, I can’t believe I did all those little cross-stitches on the side.  As much as I love cross-stitch, it is very challenging on cardstock!  But I persevered and I like the effect!!!  And that fun dotted paper is actually Christmas DP from Jolly Holiday!  To follow along the polka-dotted them, I ran all three strips of cardstock through my Perfect Polka Dots EF at one time, and the tag is from Lots of Tags die cuts.  My handy-dandy Stamp-a-ma-jig helped me line up my trees just where I wanted them!  I am thinking this would be a good masculine card, so I limited my embellishments to a single button.

I hope you’ll try your hand at this color combo, too!  You can find all the details at the Paper Players blog—even if you don’t have these exact colors, you can still play, and you don’t have to use SU stamps---anything is fine!  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

• Stamps:  Trendy Trees, Occasional Quotes
• Paper:  Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Old Olive, Jolly Holiday DP
• Ink:  Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Old Olive
• Acc:  Nesties, Perfect Polka Dot EF; SAMJ, Needle & Crochet Thread, Button, Paper Piercer, Lots of Tags Die

Have a blessed day!

JUGS 50 Christmas Card

What a beautiful day we are having here in Pennsylvania!  I had some time to stamp this morning, and decided to combine the JUGS challenge with my weekly Christmas card.  This week it’s a technique challenge, to use the Cracked Glass technique. 

You can find details on their blog or SCS…it’s a fun technique that adds a real vintage touch to your project.  Since I hadn’t done a vintage-style card in a while, I jumped on it!  Here you go:

This is a large card, almost 5 1/2” square…..I just had to make it that big to use that absolutely gorgeous new SU paper from the Holiday mini, Deck the Halls.  It is SO pretty, I don’t want to use it up!!!  This is just a little corner of one of the pieces….it is stunning!  And so easy to “let the paper do the work”, right?  My image is faithful Dasher—he is so accommodating for so many projects.  Here I stamped him on Crumb Cake in Cherry Cobbler ink and distressed him with Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip, once I did my embossing and “cracking”.  That lovely new Victoria crochet trim and Antique brads added the finishing vintage touches.  The inside sentiment is from Occasional Quotes, a great hostess set!

• Stamps:  Dashing, Occasional Quotes
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Bravo Burgundy, Deck the Halls DP
• Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Choc Chip, Versamark
• Acc:  Heat Tool, Glassy Glaze, Victoria trim, Antique Brads, CAD, sponges

Okay, you’ve been asking for pictures of my little Cassidy, so I was able to get a few yesterday:

and just to prove that I am a good sport, and I know you are all friends, and since Kristin thinks that it would be really funny, I am sharing THIS picture with you that my DD snapped.  Obviously, she had her eye on her daughter, and not ME:

My DH only WISHES I had cleavage like that!  Enjoy your day! :D

Happy Harvest

I have been wanting to do one of these “stair step” cards for a while, so I pulled out Autumn Harvest and stamped the pumpkins and gourds on various fall shades of cardstock.  I really was just sort of playing around, so I will admit that some of the pumpkins are shaded, well…..not so good!  But you know how it is, once you start and have put all the time into it, you hate to chuck it!

I have to admit, these are a challenge to photograph!  And I really didn’t want to make it Halloween-y, but that pumpkin in the middle just looked lost, so I ended up making him into a jack-o-lantern!  Here’s another side view:

If anyone is interested in the measurements and scoring for this card, let me know and I’ll post it.  Thanks for visiting today!

• Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Loads of Love Accessories
• Paper:  Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze
• Ink:  Stazon, Old Olive
• Acc:  Pastels, Dimensionals, 1 1/4” Circle Punch Square Scallop Punch, Grograin Ribbon, Daubers

JUGS49 Wedding Card

A customer of mine requested a wedding card in purple, so I stamped a couple and thought I would share this one.  It uses the JUGS sketch challenge 49:

And here’s the card:

I am not 100% sure I like this….but I made several and if she doesn’t like it, I’ll have one for my stash!  It uses Wisteria DP by Basic Grey as well as several SU sets.  I scored some really pretty double-sided satin picot ribbon while on vacation and used it for the vertical panel.  Thanks for visiting today!  And here’s a picture of my sleepy girl:

• Stamps:  God’s Blessings, Punch Potpourri, Graceful Words (ret)
• Paper:  Naturals Ivory, Elegant Eggplant, Vellum CS, Very Vanilla, BG Wisteria
• Ink:  Elegant Eggplant
• Acc:  Chantilly Trim, Satin Ribbon, Boho Blossoms Punch, Large Heart Punch, Sponge Dauber

Color Throwdown 109

It’s Wednesday, and that means CTD time!  Today Tammy is our hostess and she has chosen a fun, bright palette!  Check these colors out:

 

I pulled out my little scallop envelope diecut (that I haven’t used in forever) and some of SU’s Patterns DP in Tammy’s colors to make my happy card today!  First, I used sketch #155 from Mojo Monday:

and lots and lots of hearts from the I {Heart} Hearts set:

I don’t know if you can see the subtle design on the white paper---that is the Presto Patterns Specialty paper from SU; if you sponge or brayer it, the recessed design resists the color, but I thought it looked fun just by itself in all its pretty glossiness!  I layered some little hearts as my cute little “tag”:

So now you need to hop on over to the Color Throwdown blog to play along too!  You can find all the details right there; you don’t even have to have the exact colors, just something close---we want you to have fun!  And now here are links to the other designers as well:

• Broni - Splashes of Watercolor
• Tammy - Stamp Happy
• Barbara - Paper Pursuits
• Danielle – Wild Dragonfly Designs
• Laura --Lil’Inker
• Kristen – Mindless Creativity
• and our Guest Designer for this month, Silke Ledlow – My Life

• Stamps:  I {Heart} Hearts
• Paper:  Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Patterns DP in Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz, Tempting Turquoise & Daffodil Delight; Presto Patterns Specialty DP
• Ink:  Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Daffodil Delight
• Acc:  Nesties, Satin Ribbon, Large Heart Punch, Small Heart Punch, 3-Heart Punch, Scalloped Envelope Diecut,

ColourQ49

Well, as I was checking my email today, a reminder popped up that my nephew Will’s birthday was coming up!  Arielle’s colors today were perfect for a boy’s card:

I just LOVE these colors and definitely will be using this combo again!  Since I am still trying to help my DD with the baby, time is tight and I went to a stand-by layout and the cute set, Every Little Bit for my images.  I stamped them in Soft Suede and colored them using inks and a blender pen:

I used sentiments from On Your Birthday, and as I was getting ready to put Will’s age in the parentheses, I thought, “OH DEAR—this kid is THIRTEEN?!!!”  How did THAT happen?  Since when did my sweet little nephew turn 13?  He’ll think this is a real baby card!!!  Oh well, it’s done now and he’ll more likely be interested in what’s enclosed than what’s stamped on the outside!!!   Here’s the inside sentiment:

I hope you can visit the ColourQ to see what the other designers have made with these yummy colors, and play along with us too!  Now that school is back in session and life is “settling”, hopefully we’ll all have some stamping and creative time!!  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Now here’s a  photo of the awesome birthday boy (a couple of years ago!):

and shoot, we’ll throw in a couple of Cassidy too!

I am thinking her little dress would make a good inspiration piece, don’t you!?  Thanks for visiting today!

• Stamps:  Every Little Bit, On Your Birthday
• Paper:  Naturals White, Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Blueberry Crisp DP
• Ink:  Soft Suede, Pacific Point, Marina Mist, Craft White
• Acc:  White EP, CAD, Large Eyelets, Blender Pen, Pacific Point Marker

Paper Players Challenge 14

Well, I am back from vacation AND I MISSED EVERYBODY!!!   It is a good thing that Jaydee’s theme challenge for the Paper Players this week is a Clean & Simple one!  (My mojo is still on vacation; it took me way too long to do this card!)  A few hours after our return, we got news that a family member had passed away, so I took the opportunity to make a CAS sympathy card:

I always think that this tree from Lovely as a Tree is a perfect image for a masculine card.  I used sponge daubers to apply some fall colors to the tree and watercolored the trunk and grass.  A sentiment from Thoughts & Prayers was stamped in Old Olive to tie in with the Old Olive brads I used on the Twill ribbon. 

I hope you’ll take the opportunity to play with the Paper Players in this challenge!  Be sure to check out their blog and share your creation with us as well; you can use the keyword PP14 if you post using an online gallery. 

It’s good to be home, but I always feel a bit rusty after taking so much time off!  I hope you’ll bear with me as I get back in the stampin’ saddle!  And of course, I can’t go without posting a cute picture of my new granddaughter:

I know, I know….this is a stamping blog, right?  You’re probably tired of seeing pictures of her, but just indulge me for a bit longer! :D

• Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Thoughts & Prayers
• Paper:  Naturals White
• Ink:  Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Riding Hood Red
• Acc:  Sponge Daubers, Aquapainter, Twill, Brads