CAS Geranium

Hi friends! It's Sunday and that means time for a new challenge at The Paper Players! This week the awesome Jaydee is our hostess with a Clean-and-simple challenge: Blooms. You know I am all over this one!

So here is my CAS creation. I love a card like this - lots of white space, a little texture, and one pretty image. I left it sentiment free so it could be more of a note card than for a specific occasion. I'm on a watercoloring kick lately, so I heat embossed this and then colored with distress inks.

Stamp Sets: Geraniums (Stampendous)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Whisper White Textured (Stampin' Up), Smooth Watercolor (Bristol)

Ink Pads: Versamark, Watercolor Dot Palette (Daniel Smith)

Tools: Heat Gun, Paintbrushes

Accessories: White Embossing Powder (Hero Arts)

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 :)

Snowdudes

Hi friends! Just a quick post today, and a QCAS card. I'm sorry to say I've hardly made any Christmas cards at all this year, but this one came together in a jiffy as I already had my snowdudes colored and cut and leftover from another project. 

My inspiration was the snowman theme at the CAS Christmas Challenge, which I'm playing along with for the first time.

Stamp Sets: Swanky Snowdudes (Paper Smooches), Holiday Ornaments (Hero Arts)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Lipstick Red (Simon Says Stamp)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Markers: Copic

Tools: Big Shot, Swanky Snowdudes Dies (Paper Smooches)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hello Lovely, PP393

Hi friends, and a Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! My awesome kids are already spoiling me silly. I've received beautiful flowers, had a wonderful dinner out last night, and will be celebrating with my daughter and mother-in-law today. I must say this is one of my favorite holidays of the year :)

Since it's Sunday, that also means it is time for a new challenge at The Paper Players. This week the sweet Claire is our hostess with a vibrant color challenge.

Now I must be honest, I find a color challenge with four colors, well, challenging! My go-to solution for that many colors is a floral bouquet, and these colors were perfect for that. I used a brand new stamp set from Concord and 9th. I've been wishing for this stamp set for ages, and kept telling myself that I do NOT need one more floral stamp set! I finally caved when C9 had a sale recently, and I have no regrets. 

I've seen so many different techniques used with this set, which I can't wait to try. This time I heat embossed with gold embossing powder and then watercolored. I used distress inks in the challenge colors, and I had to show them side by side because they are pretty darn close.

Here is a close up so you can see the pretty shine of the embossing. The sentiment was cut from gold foil paper, also very shiny, though I couldn't capture it all in this shot. I think you get the idea :)

I'm also sharing this card at the Concord & 9th Challenge, which is Floral this month. Perfect! 

Stamp Sets: Hello Lovely (Concord & 9th)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Smooth Watercolor Card Stock (Bristol)

Ink Pads: Versamark; Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks (Ranger)

Tools: Heat Tool, Big Shot, Small Hello Die (Simon Says Stamp)

Accessories: Gold Embossing Powder (Hero Arts), Gold Foil Paper (Stampin' Up), Moonshine Sequins (Simon Says Stamp)

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 :)

Butterfly Twofer

Hello again, my lovelies! I have two cards today as I am playing along with the Twofer Challenge for the first time. I attempted to do so last month, but messed up as I didn't properly read the rules. My bad. Hopefully, I've got it right this time. 

So the rules are that you have to use the exact same stamp (not just the same stamp set), and make two cards for two different occasions. The theme this month is butterflies, and I used the same small butterfly on both cards, one for sympathy and one for a 70th birthday. I posted the 70th birthday card yesterday and the details can be found here. 

I don't always love my own creations, but I'm really happy with the way this came out. I think the colors are nice and subdued which I find most appropriate for a sympathy card, and I also find butterflies quite symbolic for the occasion. The background is very softly stenciled. Thankfully I don't need this card just yet, but it never hurts to have one or two sympathy cards in your stash.

Here's a close up of the butterfly who's made the repeat performance :)

As my cards are in shades of pinks and blues, I'm also linking them up to the color inspiration challenge at the Altenew Blog. 

Sympathy Card

Stamp Sets: Painted Flowers, Painted Greetings (Altenew)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Black, Fog (Simon Says Stamp)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Arctic, Caribbean Sky, Parisian Blue (Altenew)

Tools: Big Shot, Painted Butterflies Dies, (Altenew), Stencil Brushes (Clarity), Scallop Stencil (Heidi Swap), Femme Frames Dies (Mama Elephant)

70th Birthday Card- link here 

Thanks for visiting! Inky hugs!

STB It's Just A Number

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

This time around the "Toppings" options is "It's Just A Number". However, you can also chose to do an Anything Goes birthday card, the choice is yours!

I needed a 70th Birthday card for a friend, so the timing of this challenge worked perfectly for me. I used three sets from Altenew for my images and sentiment, and the numbers are from a Mama Elephant set. It was fun to create my floral 'bouquet' around the oval panel in the middle.

Here's my card inside. I thought the sentiment was great for a 70th, as well as echoing the challenge theme. 

Stamp Sets: Painted Flowers, Painted Butterflies, Birthday Greetings (Altenew), Bella Letters (Mama Elephant)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Black, Fog (Simon Says Stamp)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Coral Berry, Ruby Red, Forest Glades, Frayed Leaf, Evening Gray (Altenew)

Tools: Big Shot, Painted Flowers Die, Painted Butterflies Dies, (Altenew), Layering Oval Dies (Stampin' Up)

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 :)

PP392 Tea Party

Hi friends! It's Sunday and that means time for a new challenge at The Paper Players! This week the amazing Nance is our hostess with a theme challenge: Tea Party. What a gorgeous inspiration photo and a lovely assortment of cups, certainly very inspiring!

Though my first thought was to create something vintage-y and floral, unfortunately I didn't have the appropriate stamps for that. Instead, I created this CAS card with more graphic and modern lines. I let the patterned paper do most the work, and stamped only the cup and sentiment. 

Stamp Sets: Caffeinated Cups, Be a Barista (Reverse Confetti)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah)

Patterned Paper: Summer Fun (Echo Park)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Soft Brown (Hero Arts)

Makers: Copic

Tools: Big Shot, Large Tag Dies (Simon Says Stamp), Caffeinated Cups Dies(Reverse Confetti)

Accessories: Black Hemp Twine (Hemptique), Enamel Dots (Simple Stories)

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 New Home (Tic Tac Toe Times Two)

Hi friends! It's Sunday and that means time for a new challenge at The Paper Players. This week the sweet and talented Joanne is our hostess with a Tic Tac Toe challenge, and it's a good one! I chose the bottom row across: Yellow (the sun), Circle (sun center and mushroom dots), Bird (just a little one)!

I recently needed a new home card for someone, and was sad to find I didn't really have anything in my stash. Though I was tempted to purchase something, I stopped and forced myself to see if I could find something suitable that I already owned. What I came up with is this cute little mushroom house, and I love it! I didn't have a sentiment either, but with a little ingenuity pieced this one together from two sets. My pocketbook was spared, this time! 

How about another Tic Tac Toe challenge, from none other than the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! On this board I've got Yellow, Free, and Die Cut. This is just as much fun as bingo! 

Stamp Sets: Gnome Sweet Gnome, Hello Sunshine, Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)

Card Stock: Solar White (Neenah), Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, (Stampin' Up)

Patterned Paper: Maritime (Stampin' Up)

Ink Pads: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Warm Sunshine (Altenew)

Markers: Copic

Tools: Big Shot, Gnome Sweet Gnome, Hello Sunshine Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Picket Fence Border Die, Stitched Hillside Borders Dies (Lawn Fawn)

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 :)