Variations on a Theme

Hey y'all, how's your week going?  We have been go-go-go the past few days doing staycation things:  a ghost town/wild west museum on Monday; the Manitou Springs cliff dwellings and Cave of the Winds on Tuesday; and the Royal Gorge train yesterday, among other things.  For something totally different today, I got my annual mammogram this morning (go get those done, ladies!) and we got flu shots.  Now Daphne and I are enjoying a quiet afternoon while Ryan and the hubs are out bowling with Ryan's girlfriend and her dad.  (Remember, Ryan is 8 years old.)

Anyway, I mentioned in Sunday's Paper Players post that I had made several other cards for the current Paper Players challenge:

So I have those cards to share today, which you will see are pretty much variations on a theme of what I posted on Sunday.  This was my first runner-up:

I masked off the edge of my Very Vanilla cardstock and used blending brushes to add ink colors, then stamped and die cut some leaves to go on top and of course I had to use that October sentiment because I love it and no matter what Ryan says, October definitely counts as a color.  But even this card was the third one I made, here are the first two:

I wasn't entirely happy with how the stamped leaves looked on the background bit on these two cards, which is why I started making the other ones.  These cards did not go to waste though, all four of my "October is my favorite color" cards went out in the mail this past Monday.

That's it for now, peeps.  I've got a pot roast in the crock pot and an adorable doggo sleeping in the chair next to me, but I think I should take this opportunity to go upstairs and see how things are in my craft room since I haven't gotten to do anything in there all week other than getting the cards ready to go in the mail on Monday.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, single card:
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Riley & Company greeting
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Versamark
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Dimensionals, Clear EP

Supplies, two cards:
Stamps:  Gathering Moments, Riley & Company Greeting
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Pecan Pie
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Gathering Moments dies, Dimensionals

Copper Leaves

Hey y'all, how's your weekend going?  We did get to spring the hubs from hospital jail yesterday ; )  We think he's doing really well considering he had brain surgery on Wednesday.  The incision is much larger than I expected it to be so I told him that he should tell everyone it was a shark attack.

I ended up conking out for a 3-hour nap after we got him home yesterday, and then I had to go grocery shopping and do some laundry and all that stuff, but I couldn't let a couple of challenges slip past me so I got some time in my craft room today.

Bringing back some retired stamps for this one, Gorgeous Leaves is one of my all-time favorite fall sets, and Sunny Sentiments just has some great greetings to choose from.  Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

It said Christmas trees to me but I'm hard-headed so I had to do something different.  It's still kinda tree-related because I had to use this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Copper Clay (and copper embossing powder and copper metallic accents), Basic Black, and Mossy Meadow, which I thought worked nicely for some fall leaves.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Have a great Sunday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Sunny Sentiments
Ink:  Copper Clay, Mossy Meadow, Versamark
Paper:  Mossy Meadow, Very Vanilla, Basic Black
Accessories:  Copper EP, Brushed Metallic Dots, Wink of Stella, Mini Dimensionals

Maine: Ocean Trail

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  And today's layout is one I particularly liked from the Maine book, take a peek:

I think Baja Breeze might be my favorite ever SU! color, I was so bummed when they retired it.  The Ocean Trail was yet another area of Acadia National Park with some gorgeous views out over the water.  I think Missy used one of these pics for her Christmas cards that year.  I think the hubs and I have already picked a photo for this year's cards : )

Today's color palette might be a little less obviously fall-inspired, but I still love it:  Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss (I think I bought three packs of that Bella Rose DSP!), Elegant Eggplant, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, and white.  All of the colors are retired except white...which I guess is technically retired too since we switched from Whisper White to Basic White.

Ryan is feeling good this morning so he's definitely going to school, which makes me happy after he missed two days last week.  My big plans for the day?  Plotting out my lineup of Thanksgiving recipes!  I know there will be at least four pies involved...cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Gorgeous Leaves
Ink:  Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Concord Crush marker
Paper:  Baja Breeze, Elegant Eggplant, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Kiwi Kiss, Thick Basic White, Bella Rose DSP
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies

Grateful Leaves

Hey y'all, happy Friday.  Ryan is once again staying home from school : ( and camping out on the couch today.  Poor kid.

I did some quality time in my craft room yesterday and made this card:

The layout was inspired by a card I saw on Facebook.  The Paper Players supplied the theme:

And The Card Concept supplied the colors:

I chose to go CAS this time and I used Wild Wheat, Rich Razzleberry, Sweet Sorbet, and Basic Black, which coincidentally is yet ANOTHER color combination that fits with the SUO! Challenges theme!  (Not the black, but the other colors, definitely!)

Don't forget to play along over there, obviously I've been having fun with the theme.  Well, guess I don't get to go to yoga this morning, but I'll go spend some quality couch time with the spawn while he doesn't feel good.  Have a good weekend, y'all.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, For All Things
Ink:  Wild Wheat, Rich Razzleberry, Sweet Sorbet, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Dimensionals, linen thread

Hello Fall

Hey y'all, how's it going?  It's a cloudy, dark day over here and I'm channeling Morticia Addams and absolutely loving it.  Fall is coming!

It arrived in my craft room on September 1 : )  And I have another fall card today!

I didn't buy this year's leaf stamp set (or last year's, even), so I pulled out Gorgeous Leaves from 2021 to play with, it is one of my favorite ever leaf stamps.  Check out this week's Color Throwdown:

I used Boho Blue, Night of Navy, and Crushed Curry for my colors.  The Boho Blue card base is coming across as more gray than it really is, but I promise it's blue.  And here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I immediately thought snowman when I saw the sketch, but I really really wanted to stick with fall so I could play along with the irresistible Retro Rubber Challenge:

Fall is by far my favorite season so of course I have to participate in this challenge!  As I said before, Gorgeous Leaves is two years old, but I went extra super retro for the sentiment, Four You is at least 10 years old.

That's it for me today, y'all.  Not sure if I'm going to go up to my craft room, or watch another episode of Smallville before I take my car in for an appointment later this morning.  Either way it'll be fun!

Supplies, all SU! (some retired)
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Four You
Ink:  Boho Blue, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Boho Blue, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Rhinestone Waves Basic Jewels, Dimensionals

Autumn Leaf

Hey y'all, how's your Saturday going?  As I mentioned yesterday, I made another card with this week's Color Throwdown colors, so here it is.

Almost everything I used on this card is retired, from the stamps (Gorgeous Leaves and Lighthearted Leaves), to the color Merry Merlot.  I recently saw a beautiful card by Helen Read (it's the one on the right in the pic with three cards) and I just had to CASE it.  Thanks for the inspiration, Helen!

I had all these intentions of cleaning the house a bit this morning, but...I don't wanna.  Might go up in my craft room instead, Ryan is up there playing with Legos so then I can just spend time in his vicinity while we both do something fun.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU! (many retired)
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Lighthearted Leaves
Ink:  Merry Merlot, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla, Merry Merlot DSP, Gold foil
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies

Gilded Greetings for the Paper Players

Happy Sunday and get ready for a great new challenge from the Paper Players!

Today's tic-tac-toe is from Anne Marie and there's lots of fun options.  I went with the top row, metallic - die cut - fall/Thanksgiving, and I made this:

I've got four different metallic elements on here, starting with the Gilded Autumn DSP and then gold metallic dots, twine, and a gold foil leaf.

Hope you'll have fun with this challenge and upload your card to the Paper Players blog.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Mint Macaron
Paper:  Cajun Craze, Thick Very Vanilla, Gilded Autumn DSP, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Stylish Shapes dies, gold twine, Brushed Metallic Dots, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford <-- You are here : )

Jennie Maier

Leaves of Beauty

Fall is my favorite season by far, but my husband thinks summer is better (clearly he's crazy and also wrong).  So while I keep talking about how pretty the fall leaves are, he's sitting next to me talking about how it's so sad that all the trees are dying and here I am glorifying their death throes : p  So I made a card to further glorify all those poor dying trees.

I think this year's color family DSP is my favorite ever, for once I got all of the color families and I can't stop using it.  I used this week's sketch from Global Design Project:

And the colors from Retro Rubber:

I chose Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, and Bermuda Bay as my colors from the graphic.  The sentiment is from Simply Fabulous, which doesn't count as retro yet; the leaves are from last year's Gorgeous Leaves, so just one year old for that one but it counts as retro.

My brain keeps trying to tell me it's Saturday because kiddo is off school and the hubs took today off work, it's doing me a confuzzle ; )  Next up on today's list of things to do:  go get flu shots and Covid boosters for the adults.  Ick.  At least I can enjoy the pretty fall colors while we're out.

Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Simply Fabulous
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Crushed Curry, Poppy Parade, Thick Basic White, Bermuda Bay DSP
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Stylish Shapes dies, Dimensionals

Leafy Thoughts

Back with another super quick card for today!  Check it out:

Stampin' Up! didn't come out with a leaf-centric stamp set this year (unless you count Soft Seedlings, I suppose, and it's got just one big leaf in it) so I got out last year's Gorgeous Leaves to play with again.  I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

Though I admit it's a bit of a looser interpretation.  The woodgrain stamps are the larger rectangle and I'm counting the sentiment as the smaller rectangle; both of those elements are stamped directly on the card base and I just popped the leaves up on top.

I used this week's color challenge from CAS Colours & Sketches:

Which is why I tried to CAS-ify the sketch a bit by cutting down on the layers.  The larger leaf was inked up with Calypso Coral and then a bit of Merry Merlot around the edges; I promise I did use all the challenge colors : )

And don't forget this also fits with this week's theme challenge at the Paper Players:

And that's all she wrote today!  Have a good one, peeps.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Nature's Prints
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Merry Merlot, Calypso Coral, Mossy Meadow
Paper:  Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Dimensionals, Rustic Metallic Dots

You Get a Gold Star

Hey kids!  The hubs "surprised" me the other day by scheduling me for my Covid booster shot, so that's happening this afternoon :p  Here's hoping I don't feel as bad as I did with both of the other shots!

Quick and simple card for today.

I started with the Paper Players color challenge:

I keep forgetting that I bought the gold ribbon in the Blackberry Beauty suit, I could have used it for this challenge!  Oh well, maybe next time.

This week's Freshly Made Sketch is similar to the Global Design Project sketch I used yesterday:

Funny how that worked out!  I used the star as the pink circle in the sketch, and stamped the splatter from Gorgeous Leaves twice on the background for the other two circles.  I stamped them in Versamark and clear embossed so they would be shiny like the star but not be too dark on the Merry Merlot cardstock.  I really don't use Merry Merlot very often...

Cheers, y'all.  Wish me luck with my shot today!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Frosted Gingerbread
Ink:  Versamark, Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Shaded Spruce, Merry Merlot, Thick Very Vanilla, Gold Foil
Accessories:  Gingerbread dies, clear EP, Dimensionals

Autumn Hugs

Hey y'all!  We just got back home last night after spending a long weekend in Berlin.  It was a good trip; I got to see the super-famous bust of Nefertiti at the Neues Museum and all of us highly enjoyed the zoo.  But it's good to be home too because I managed to snatch a few minutes today to make a very quick card.

The colors are changing here and I LOVE IT.  Fall is definitely my favorite season!  Couldn't pass up the Paper Players color challenge:

I added Crumb Cake for the fourth color (I figure white doesn't count).  The leaf is inked up with Pale Papaya and then I sponged on some Pumpkin Pie ink before stamping.  The card still seemed too plain, so I added a bit of sponging to the white layer for a bit of added interest.  I'm really itching to play a lot more with fall and Halloween stamps but I have Ryan with me for the rest of the week, which makes it challenging.

Oh well, at least I snuck in a teeny bit of stamping.  Now I just need to convince the child that we have GOT to go grocery shopping or we won't have anything for dinner tonight.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Positive Thoughts
Ink:  Pale Papaya, Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Paper:  Pale Papaya, Thick Basic White
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

Autumn Greeting

Mornin' y'all!  My day off got cut short yesterday when the daycare called me to pick up Ryan because their AC went out.  I call shenanigans because most places here don't even *have* air conditioning.  I was getting frustrated with projects in my craft room though so maybe it's a good thing that I had to leave to get the kiddo.

Here's the card that was giving me issues:

I used the Color Throwdown palette:

I used Real Red, Rich Razzleberry, and Pumpkin Pie, with a lot of Cinnamon Cider and some Early Espresso.  I like the colors but I was having SUCH a hard time getting a good balance on this card, hence the Cinnamon Cider card base and DSP.  I love the leaves though, I inked them with Pumpkin Pie and then used a sponge dauber to add Real Red, choosing a different part of the leaf for each one so they all look different even though it's the same stamp.

I also used the Try Stamping on Tuesday sketch:

I love this sketch and I think I'll be using it again soon.  In the meantime, I'm going to get upstairs and get to work and hope to accomplish some things in my craft room today--I'm motivated to get started ASAP just in case I have to pick Ryan up early again :)  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Timeless Tropical
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso
Paper:  Cinnamon Cider, Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso, Thick Very Vanilla, Cinnamon Cider DSP
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Dimensionals

The Changing of Leaves

Hey hey, y'all, how's it going?  I'm excited I got to play with a couple of my new stamp sets for today's card!

The sentiment is from Beauty of Tomorrow, and the rest of the stamps are from Gorgeous Leaves--no joke, the leaf stamps are definitely gorgeous!  So are the Intricate Leaves dies that coordinate.  Just when I think I have enough leaf stamp sets they come up with something new and different that I just *have* to have ;)

I made this card for three different challenges.  First up is the Festive Friday challenge:

I used pearls (happily for me I found some retired ones in a yellow that I thought jived well with the rest of my card), leaves, and two die cuts.  The splat stamps kinda look like spritzing too.

Next up is the Inkspirational challenge:

Yes please.  I love making things with autumn leaves and all the gorgeous autumn colors!  Speaking of which, here's the color palette from Sunday Stamps:

In SU parlance, I read the palette as Terracotta Tile (retired), Mango Melody, Bumblebee, Mellow Moss (long retired), and Very Vanilla; the only color I didn't use was the green.  I worried a bit that the Mango Melody was going to be way too bright to play well with the Terracotta Tile and Bumblebee, but to my surprise the Bumblebee toned it down quite a lot.  The splats behind the leaf die cut are in both colors, and on the card base the splatters are in Bumblebee while the small leaves are in Mango Melody.  And like I said above, the pearls are actually pale yellow, I think they were supposed to be So Saffron?  But they worked with the rest of the colors too.  Love it when that happens.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  We enjoyed our holiday yesterday!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Gorgeous Leaves, Beauty of Tomorrow
Ink:  Bumblebee, Mango Melody, Early Espresso
Paper:  Bumblebee, Terracotta Tile, Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Intricate Leaves dies, Rectangles Stitched dies, linen thread, retired yellow pearls