Hello Friend, PP346

Hi friends! It's Sunday and that means time for a new challenge at The Paper Players! This week the wonderful and talented Laurie is our hostess with a sketch challenge. I love this sketch and had an idea right away.

I've been trying to use my stencils a little more often, and stenciled some subtle bricks for my background. I did a little piercing on the square layer, something I haven't done in ages. A few die cut flowers and a sentiment and that's all there is to it! 

Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Painted Flowers, Floral Shadow, Beautiful Lady (Altenew)

Card Stock: Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz (Stampin' Up)

Ink Pads: Frayed Leaft. Forest Glades, Frosty Pink, Coral Berry (Altenew)

Tools: Big Shot, Painted Flowers Die (Altenew), Piercing Essentials, Piercing Tool, Sponge Dauber (Stampin' Up), English Brick Wall Stencil (My Favorite Things)

I'll be taking a little bloggy break for the next few weeks but I'll be back soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please leave a comment, and then head over to visit the rest of the Design Team at The Paper Players. We hope you'll play along with our challenge this week, too! 

Inky hugs :)

Happy Birthday Cutie Pie

Hi everyone! It's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday! 

This time around the "Toppings" options is "Something Sweet". However, you can also chose to do an Anything Goes birthday card, the choice is yours!

I opted against a traditional birthday cake or cupcakes, and instead made a trio of birthday pies using the Cutie Pie stamp set from Lawn Fawn. The pies were colored with Copics and die cut. The gingham background was created with another stamp set, also by Lawn Fawn. The linen twine was repurposed from some packaging. Super simple card, but that's all I seem to have time for these days!

Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Cutie Pie, Gingham Backdrops (Lawn Fawn), Birthday Greetings (Altenew)

Card Stock: Whisper White, Watermelon Wonder, Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Pale Tomato (Hero Arts)

Markers: Copic

Tools: Big Shot, Cutie Pie Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies (Lawn Fawn), Pierced Rectangle Dies (My Favorite Things)

I'm so glad you paid me a visit today! If you have a moment please leave a comment, then visit the rest of the wonderful Design Team at Seize the Birthday. We'd love for you to play along, too!

Inky hugs :)

PP345: CAS Butterflies

Hello friends! It's Sunday and time for a new challenge at The Paper Players. Our wonderful Nance is our hostess this week with a Clean and Simple challenge: Butterflies. I was very grateful for a Clean and Simple challenge this week because that is all I had time for!

I almost told my teammates that I would need to take the week off, but managed to whip up this card in a jiffy yesterday afternoon between work and a graduation party. This card will be for the generous host and hostess of the party, who put out quite a lavish spread. I did some simple stenciling for my background, stamped and die cut my butterflies, and that was pretty much it.

As I love anything in multiples of three, I was quite enamored with Hannelie's sketch at CASE this sketch this week. For the white strip along the left side, I faded out my stenciling. I hope that works well enough :)

Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Painted Butterflies, Label Love (Altenew)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Bamboo, Parrot, Sea Glass (Altenew)

Tools: Big Shot, Painted Butterflies Dies (Altenew), Mosaic Stencil (Heidi Swapp)

Accessories: Enamel Dots (Echo Park)

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please visit the rest of our Design Team at The Paper Players, and we hope you'll play along with our challenge this week, too! 

All Aboard Birthday, CTS221 & TCC73

Hi friends! I have a simple card to share with you today which I made for hubby's birthday a few days ago. It's almost overly simple, but there is a bit of a story behind it which made it special to him. He's a retired railroad conductor, and because of that I've always held onto the retired All Aboard stamp set. I was going through my stash of patterned papers looking for a good background, when it occurred to me how cool a vintage railroad map would look. A few google clicks later, and I found this NYC Transit System map circa 1933:

I thought it was so cool! If you zoom in you can see places like Ebbett's Field, home of the previous Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. I sized it and printed on some Vanilla card stock, and thought it made an amazing background. Hubby loves it! This is one of the things I love about being a card maker, making something so personal. You can find the source for the map by clicking here.

The challenges that inspired me are the layout at CAS(E) this sketch, and the Vintage Notes challenge at The Card Concept. 

Here is the inside of my card. Did you know that trains have shoes? That is another conversation which I won't bore you with :)

Products Used:

Stamp Sets: All Aboard, Guy Greetings (Stampin' Up)

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Basic Black (Stampin' Up)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Thanks for stopping by!

Amazing Mom, PP344 & MOJO496

Hello friends, and a Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! As you read this I'll likely be having brunch with my family. I hope you all have a nice day in store, too. It's also time for a new challenge at The Paper Players. The fabulous Claire is our hostess this week with a bold, tropical color challenge. 

I've been doing a lot of watercoloring with white embossing lately; I hope you are not tired of it yet! I watercolored with my Zig markers again today. The bright colors matched the challenge colors perfectly. Though my Mom is no longer with me, I was thinking about her and how is amazing she was while I made this card.

The inspiration for my layout came from this week's sketch challenge at Mojo Monday.

Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Bohemian Garden, Amazing Women (Essentials by Ellen)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Green Apple (Simon Says Stamp)

Patterned Paper: Black and White Basics (My Favorite Things)

Ink Pads: Versamark, Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Markers: Clean Color Brush Markers (Zig)

Tools: Big Shot, Heat Tool, Stitched Rectangle Dies (Lawn Fawn), Bohemian Garden Dies (Essentials by Ellen)

Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Moonshine Sequins (Simon Says Stamp)

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please visit the rest of our Design Team at The Paper Players, and we hope you'll play along with our challenge this week, too! 

Birthday Elephant

Hi everyone! It's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday! 

This time around the "Toppings" options is "Critters". I love it, and have lots of critter stamps! But remember, you can also chose to do an Anything Goes birthday card, the choice is yours.

My challenge was which critter stamp set to use, but I finally settled on this cute little elephant from Simon Says Stamp which was a free gift on my birthday month. It's a super simple card, just stamps, paper and ink. I'm doing a lot of clean and simple cards these days, partly for lack of time!

I'm also playing along with the Stamp Ink Paper Challenge, which is Kids Birthday. 

Products Used:
Stamp Sets: Birthday Celebration (Simon Says Stamp)
Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Surf Blue, Lipstick Red (Simon Says Stamp)
Patterned Paper: Polar Pals (Doodlebug)
Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Markers: Copic

I'm so glad you paid me a visit today! If you have a moment please leave a comment, then visit the rest of the wonderful Design Team at Seize the Birthday and check out our collection of critters! We'd love for you to play along, too!

Inky hugs :)

Sweet Pineapple, PP343 & FMS286

Hi everyone! It's Sunday and time for a new challenge at The Paper Players. This week the wonderful LeAnne is our hostess, and she has a tasty challenge for us: Sweet Treats! 

In perusing my stamp sets I found I actually had very little in the line of baked goods, and not a single ice cream or candy set. Can you imagine? I did have a few fruity options, and settled on this sweet pineapple stamp set from Avery Elle. I heat embossed with white EP onto watercolor paper, and colored with Zig Clean Color Markers and a water brush. The Zig's are still new to me and I'm learning how to use them, but I love how fluid they are.

I wasn't thrilled with my first try at a card, but was able to salvage the pineapple. The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches inspired my second try, which I like much better.

Products Used:

Stamp Sets: Stay Fresh (Avery Elle), Mini Messages (Mama Elephant)

Card Stock: Smooth Watercolor (Bristol), Solar White (Neenah), Cucumber Crush, Basic Black (Stampin' Up)

Patterned Paper: Snow Day (Lawn Fawn)

Ink Pads: Versamark, Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Markers: Clean Color Brush Markers (Zig)

Tools: Water Brush, Big Shot, Heat Tool, Stitched Rectangle Dies (Lawn Fawn)

Accessories: White Embossing Powder (Simon Says Stamp), Enamel Dots (My Minds Eye)

Thanks for paying me a visit today! Please visit the rest of our Design Team at The Paper Players, and we hope to see your creation in the gallery, too! 

Inky hugs!