Christmas Wishes

Happy Friday, everyone!  Hope you have something fun planned this weekend....other than mowing the yard, that's what I have planned!  I made a fun little Christmas card for you today, as there seem to be many Christmas in July challenges around!  First, let's get to my card:

I am in LOVE with this sketch; it's from Freshly Made Sketches courtesy of my sweet friend Jen, who is one stamper I really admire! 

It also uses the colors from Fab Friday and the Christmas in July challenge from The Spot:

I started my card by diecutting a bunch of the little leafy diecuts from Forever Flourishing dies and adhering them to my card front, using a circle die as a guide.  Usually I draw a circle, but I just laid the die itself on my cardstock and adhered around it.  Worked great!  I used some little glue dots from a Paper Pumpkin set and curled them up around a piercing tool to adhere the diecuts without a gluey mess:

I stamped the ornament lineup from the new Little Treats set, once in each challenge color, and fussy-cut a few of them out to line up beneath the sentiment, which is from Banner Year.  The die is used is from Tasteful Labels, and I had to extend it a bit to fit the sentiment.  On the inside, after a disastrous attempt at stamping directly on to the inside (let's just say this stamp got a LOT of trimming after my initial attempt), I stamped this sentiment from Wrapped in Christmas on some white cardstock, added the little doodads at the top and bottom, and diecut it with a Stitched Rectangle die:

Everything got adhered to a pretty Bermuda Bay card!  I did also add some white epoxy dots to my wreath just to dress it up a bit!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

A little more painting of Cassidy's spooky house; we got a new bottle of green paint and she was happy with that color!  We need to add some embellishments...I'll keep you posted!

Tic Tac Toe Challenge 074 Summer Fun

Hi stampers!  It's time for another Tic Tac Toe challenge with Team X's Joanne hosting!  Here is her grid for you to play with:

Oh dear...when I saw her board, I was dismayed!  I had no hot air balloon stamps, no mountain stamps, no palm trees or tropical flowers....I know, crazy, right?!  But I did find some of those other elements in an  Echo Park Soak Up The Sun 6x6 pad!  These papers have gotten a LOT of use lately! I took one page and trimmed the elements to fit my card, and here we go:

So I was aiming for the center row across of hot air balloon, yellow and beach!  Luckily, there was a hot air balloon on one of the pages, and I added a sentiment from Happiest Birthday Ever, stamped in Bumblebee

The other elements were beachy enough...flip flops, bathing suitf, sailboat and ice cream:

I embellished my layout with some new Blue Gems from the upcoming catalog...very blingy and fun!  

So I hope you'll play along with our Tic Tac Toe grid this week and be sure to stop by to see what the DT created....there are some stunning creations there!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Happiest Birthday Ever
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Soak Up the Sun DSP (Carta Bella)
Ink	Bumblebee
Accessories	Blue Adhesive Gems (available Aug 4)
Tools

IB134 Surf's Up

Happy Thursday, peeps!  Time for another Inspired By challenge, and we are quickly jumping right back into summer...no fall colors here!  Here's Danni's photo inspiration and optional sketch; you can use one, the other, or both:

I made two cards for this challenge; I almost posted the first one and then remembered I had a stamp that would be perfect for "surfing" part of the challenge!  So I'll show you that one first; it does use the sketch and is pretty simple:

I began with a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock and some striped papers from Carta Bella's Soak Up the Sun line for the base.  A piece of "sky" paper from the same pack was diecut with a scalloped rectangle die and the retired Surfer stamp was stamped on top in Bermuda Bay; I added some Ice Glitter to give the impression of a frothy wave:

The sentiment is from a really old Pure Innocence stamp called Beach Bum; I stamped it in Pretty Peacock and diecut it with a Tasteful Labels die, cutting another one to outline it in Bermuda Bay:

Since I wanted this for a masculine birthday, I was pushing it with the glitter, so I thought I'd just stop there with embellishments!  I am also entering this in the Little Red Wagon challenge, which is looking for stripes or spots!  

And my original card was this one:

Same basic layout, papers from the same pack; I created a palm tree silhouette with the Forever Flourishing dies:

 and added some sequins and a sentiment from Unity:

This is decidedly more feminine, so I am happy with both!  I hope you'll find some inspiration from the photo....and be sure to check what the DT created....they are AMAZING!  Thanks for popping in today---be sure to come back later for a Tic Tac Toe challenge card too!

First Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Surfer (ret), Beach Bum (Pure Innocence)
Card stock & Papers	Bashful Blue (ret), Whisper White, Soak Up the Sun DSP (Carta Bella)
Ink	Pretty Peacock, Bermuda Bay
Accessories	Ice Glitter, Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Tasteful Labels Dies, Long Scalloped Rectangle Dies (Nestabilities)

Second Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Basic Black, Soak Up the Sun DSP (Carta Bella)
Ink	Memento Black
Accessories	Sequins (Sylvia's Etsy Shop), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Forever Flourishing Dies,  Stitched Shape Dies, Long Scalloped Rectangle Dies (Nestabilities), Stitched Labels Dies (ret)

Two More Fall-ish Cards

Hi stampers!  I have two cards today for two sketches, both use new products from the upcoming catalog...I can't stop using these pretty stamps and papers!  First, a card for the Hand Stamped Sentiments sketch:

And here we go:

This card uses the first plaid paper I saw in the Plaid Tidings DSP package, and it had such pretty fall colors, I knew I wanted to break it open right away! The bottom panel is Mango Melody and features an open diecut from Ornate Layers.

I used images and a sentiment from Beautiful Autumn, stamped in Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Bumblebee, and stamped some more images on a piece of Bumblebee DSP.  I fussy-cut a few leaves to tuck in under the sentiment.

The next card uses the sketch from Try Stampin on Tuesday, and features some beautiful papers from the Gilded Autumn Specialty papers.  Here's the sketch:

And here's the card:

The papers do most of the work here; I added a simple sentiment from Banner Year, added an Early Espresso diecut border, a few leaves, gold gems and some pretty ribbons:

The leaves were punched out with the Autumn Punch Pack punch....so quick and easy!  Thanks for popping in today!

Every month Cassidy gets a little engineering kit from Kiwi Kits; this month she got something called an automaton; the little gears are staggered, moving three balls up and onto a little platform by turning the crank.  The platform is at an angle so the balls go back into the little chute, over and over again!  She needed a little help from Wayne getting them lined up, but she got it to work!  Grampy was fascinated (and look at that bored look on Cassidy's face--and she's not even a teenager yet!):

Boys and their toys!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

First Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Beautiful Autumn (available Aug 4)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Early Espresso, Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie, Flowers for All Seasons DSP,  Plaid Tidings DSP (available Aug 4)
Ink	Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Bumblebee
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Ornate Layers Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies

Second Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Beautiful Autumn, Banner Year (available Aug 4)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Gold Foil, Early Espresso, Terracotta Tile, Mint Macaron, Sahara Sand, Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP (available Aug 4)
Ink	Terracotta Tile, Mint Macaron, Sahara Sand
Accessories	Gilded Gem, Basketweave Ribbon, Suede Ribbon, Linen Thread, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tasteful Labels Dies, Ornate Layers Dues, Autumn Punch Pack

Fall Little Treat Box

Are you still sweltering, everyone?  Well, except for my friends down under, LOL!  I finally had a chance to play with some goodies that will be coming out in the new Holiday mini on August 4.  OH BOY, there are some fun things in there to play with!  I am IN LOVE with the Little Treat Box die.  This die creates a sweet little box with NO GLUING!  And there are lots of other dies with the set, and of course, since it's a bundle, there is an adorable stamp set to match.  But let me quit yakking...here you go:

I did use several new products for my little box, and I used the Facebook Colour Inkspiration #81  as my color palette: 

I started by diecutting the box from Cinnamon Cider cardstock and assembling it. Here's what it looks like when you fold it and insert the tabs...NO GLUING required!

Then I set about doing my embellishments!  I added some 'Tis the Season DSP on the front, stamped leaves from Beautiful Autumn on Crumb Cake cardstock, using Crumb Cake and Real Red inks, then punched them out with the punches from the Autumn Punch Pack.  I stamped the circular element (Wrapped in Christmas) in Cinnamon Cider and Real Red and cut out the "love" to adhere over top:

On the back, I added another sentiment, this time from Banner Year, and used some circular dies to cut it out.  I tied it all together with some ribbons from Playful Pets and Metallic Ribbon combo packs:

I can't wait to play with this little box some more...there are so many cute stamps and dies in the bundle, the possibilities are endless!  And since this is NOT a card, I am entering it into the Always Fun Challenge for this week, which is Anything But A Card!  Thanks for popping in today---enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Banner Year, Beautiful Autumn, Wrapped in Christmas (all coming out August 4)
Card stock & Papers	Cinnamon Cider, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Tis the Season DSP (coming out August 4)
Ink	Real Red, Crumb Cake, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories	Playful Pets Ribbon, Basketweave & Metallic Ribbon (coming out August 4), Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Little Treat Box Die, Tasteful Labels Die, Layering Circles Die, Autumn Punch Pack (coming out August 4)

Retro Santa

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a good weekend...was it hot where you were?  It was hot here!  How about a Christmas card to cool you off?  The Christmas Card Throwdown challenge wants to see Santa, and the Less Is More challenge wants a one-layer Christmas card!  Coming right up!

This retro Santa flying by on his reindeer is a favorite of mine; it's from a company from NZ called Flonzcraft!  So here we go:

I used my stamparatus to get a good inking of Real Red, and the sentiment is Shaded Spruce.  To jazz him up a bit, I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to his beard and trim:

The sentiments are from the same company; I love the vintage/retro feel to them!  Here's the inside:

Thanks for popping in today! 

A little pool volley ball:

Oops!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Dashing Santa, Vintage Sentiments (both Flonzcraft)
Card stock & Papers	Thick Whisper White
Ink	Real Red, Shaded Spruce
Accessories	Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (ret)
Tools	Stamparatus, Glue Pen

Paper Players 500 CAS Celebration

Happy Sunday, peeps and happy Paper Players 500th birthday!  Woohoo!  Can you believe, 500 challenges!  That's pretty awesome!  Jaydee is our hostess for this week, and she has a CAS celebration challenge for us!

Remember, this is a CLEAN AND SIMPLE challenge; if you need a refresher as to our terms for clean and simple, check out the blog for the details!  For my card, I did NO stamping, but I did use lots of glimmer paper, a punch and a couple dies!  Here we go:

To me, if you're having a celebration, you need to have SPARKLE!  I punched out three balloons in various shades of glimmer paper, then added a big gold sparkly celebrate at the bottom and "attached" my balloons to it:

Just a quick hint when you're doing intricate diecuts with glimmer paper; I always separate the backing paper from the glimmer paper so it's a little thinner.  That makes it easier to pop it out of the die.  For this particular sentiment, I did add a piece of Adhesive Sheet to the back of the glimmer paper after I had separated it and before running it through the Big Shot, and it still ran through and cut very nicely!

To pep up the sparkle, I added some shimmery stars as well, and accented each balloon with a sparkly sequin!! You can never have too much sparkle!

Everything went on a thick Whisper White card base; I'll stamp a sentiment on the inside when I'm ready to mail it out!  And I am also squeaking this in just under the wire at Festive Friday:

I've got pink, green, diecuts and SPARKLE!!!  

I hope you'll play along with our special celebration...share your CAS creation with us at the Paper Players blog, and be sure to check out what everyone else has created!  Can't wait to see it!

This is my last fishing picture, I promise.....but I think you'll like it:

Apparently fishing has been quite popular this summer!  Thanks for popping in...enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps
Card stock & Papers	Thick Whisper White, Glimmer Paper in Silver, Gold, Bermuda Bay and Rose (some ret), Adhesive Sheets
Ink
Accessories	Sequins from my stash
Tools	Big Shot, Celebrate You Dies (ret), Balloon Punch, Black Marker, Star Dies (Verve)