Sleigh Ride for the Paper Players

Happy Sunday!  And that means it's time for a new challenge from The Paper Players!  This time we have a great CAS challenge from the lovely Stef:

Since I've been stamping for over 20 years now, and since I still have yet to sell anything in my To Sell? boxes (note the question mark), that means I have LOTS and LOTS of holiday images to choose from.  The one stamp set that kept popping in my head when thinking about this challenge is the one I used for my very first handmade Christmas cards in 2004:  Sleigh Ride (it is not in the To Sell? boxes).  Here's what I made:

The full image stamp is actually much larger, but I decided to go with just a portion of the image so I could have more open space and keep my card feeling CAS.  I stamped it in Cloud Cover ink on Soft Sea Foam cardstock because I discovered recently that I like those two colors together, die cut it and did a bit of sponging and popped it up on some little scraps of Cloud Cover DSP, also die cut.  I had one little bitty scrap of that DSP and so I cut one end of the rectangle shape twice, the pieces don't actually meet in the middle under the main image.  Don't tell anyone.  Couldn't resist adding a few pearls around my greeting and it's kind of amazing how the Soft Succulent pearls picked up the color of the Cloud Cover cardstock!

Side note:  I took at least ten pictures of this card over several days in various places and this was the best I could get.  Does anyone else have trouble photographing Cloud Cover?  The colors kept coming out wonky.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride
Ink:  Cloud Cover, Soft Sea Foam
Paper:  Cloud Cover, Soft Sea Foam, Cloud Cover DSP
Accessories:  Textured Notes dies, Festive Pearls

Want to see my 2004 card?  You can see the full stamped image here:

I made...uh...somewhere between 40 and 60 of these?  And I watercolored every single one because clearly I was bananas.  This is also before I got a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig so I just stamped the greeting and hoped it was straight (spoiler alert:  it wasn't).  Nowadays I order photo cards online for most of our card list and only my favorite peeps get handmade cards (in addition to the photo card and family newsletter).  Mostly because I don't want to make the same design that many times.

Back to today's challenge, we hope you'll join the fun at the Paper Players!  Don't forget to keep your card clean and simple:  limited layers and embellishments, with lots of white space (though my white space is, in this instance, Cloud Cover).  And here are the other challenge rules:

1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL
4.  Have fun!

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

you are here --> Christy Stanford

Christmas Thoughts Duo

Mornin' y'all, how's your Friday going?  Mine started extra early...every once in a while the hubs has a weird work schedule that involves getting up at 4am so guess who was *also* awake at 4am.

Nevertheless, I have two cards to share today, starting with this one:

Here is this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

And I used the colors from CAS Colours & Sketches:

But I worried that it wasn't really CAS enough, and I still had all my paper scraps out including another bit of that same plaid, so I made this:

Same basic idea as the first card, but I took out the Night of Navy layer and I changed the layout around to leave more white space and thus make it more CAS.  But before I mail this out I'm going to add some gold glitter enamel dots like on the other one ; )

That's it for now, peeps.  Have a good Friday...I'm going to go make a cuppa tea and try to wake up.

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride, Greatest Part of Christmas
Ink:  Night of Navy, Stampin' Blends in Real Red & Shaded Spruce
Paper:  Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Gold Glitter Enamel Dots

Retro Winter Wishes

Hey y'all, I'm back with a second post today because I've been a card makin' fool and I want to enter a bunch of challenges : )  So here's my card:

I reached waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the archives to Sleigh Ride, which is the stamp set I used to make Christmas cards my very first year as a stamper.  For today's card, I embossed the image with pewter embossing powder and then watercolored with a bunch of different colors and I wonder why I was crazy enough to watercolor 50+ Christmas cards that year because this takes a while.

Now for the challenges, check out the Festive Friday Challenge:

I used white, metallic (pewter embossing powder), and pearls.  I very nearly used Way to Goat just so I could do the tin can element...and maybe I still will ; )

Next up is the Retro Rubber Challenge:

And apparently I just missed the deadline on this one, the linky is already closed.  Last up is the CASE-ing Tuesday Sketches challenge:

I have been having a lot of fun doing this challenge : )  One more, I almost forgot the Inkspirational word prompt:

I've got some snow in my stamped image, you can't have a sleigh ride without snow!

Okay for realsies, that's it for me today.  I'm going back up to my craft room because it's my birfday and I wanna be crafty.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride, My Paper Pumpkin
Ink:  Versamark, Lost Lagoon, Shaded Spruce, Misty Moonlight, Copper Clay, Pecan Pie, Petal Pink, Moody Mauve
Paper:  Lost Lagoon, Thick Basic White, Winter Meadow DSP
Accessories:  Squares Collection Framelits, Pewter EP, Dimensionals, Festive Pearls

Friday Flashback: Sleigh Ride

Two good things today:  so far it looks like the apocalypse is a dud, and I was picked as a Fab Fave at Fab Friday :)  That was a lovely surprise!

So usually for the Friday Flashback, I choose the name of a stamp set out of a proverbial hat (it's actually a rather large Rubbermaid container, I don't think all those slips of paper would fit in a hat unless it was the one Big Tex used to wear at the Texas State Fair...and he combusted this year anyway).  This time, since it's the last Christmas edition of the Friday Flashback for this year, I decided I wanted to use Sleigh Ride, which is the set I used for my very first-ever handmade Christmas cards back in 2004.  Wanna see?

D'awwwww.  Oh yes, this is before I discovered the joys of the Stamp-a-ma-jig, which I still use pretty much every time I stamp.  This card was pretty much an exact copy of what was in the catalog that year, only the original had brads on it somewhere.  I think that I'm still on that very first pack of Confetti Cream cardstock too...not one I use much.  (Supply list here if you want it.)  I must have been crazy to watercolor a gazillion Christmas cards (not that I haven't done that again since then, I never learn)...my sweet hubs even helped with the watercoloring that year.  Anyway, I intentionally didn't look at this card again before I made the new 2012 version:

And I'm laughing because I colored in most of the image with pretty much the same colors as the first time, except I left the trees snow-covered this time.  Well, I'm consistent.  This time I used WWC to color it in instead of watercolor pencils, much better color matches to cardstock.  And since I am now a seasoned stamper, I was brave enough to add brads to this one, which kind of made me giggle because I remember thinking brads were just too advanced when I made that first card way back when.

I'm an overachiever today, I made two cards for the Flashback.  I don't think I'd used the bell stamp before so it needed some love.  This sketch isn't particularly my style though...it was an SCS challenge a couple weeks ago that I didn't do thanks to my cold (the previous card is this week's sketch tweaked a little bit).  Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do So Saffron for a Christmas card and it worked with the bells, I kinda like it.  And can you tell how much I love my Framelits?  I did have to cut the squarish one in half on this card as it wasn't *quite* wide enough to mat my bell image how I wanted it to.

So that's it for the Christmas Friday Flashbacks, so who knows what it will be next week!  Thanks for stopping by today, may your Friday be totally non-apocalyptic :)

Happy Holidays card supplies:
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride (retired, obviously, or this wouldn't be a Friday Flashback)
Ink:  Chocolate Chip craft (is there a petition to get this back?  'Cause I'd totally sign, I love this ink pad)
Paper:  Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Deck the Halls DSP (retired)
Accessories:  WWC, clear EP, Apothecary Accents Framelits, retired vintage brads, Dimensionals

Christmas Bells card supplies:
Stamps:  Sleigh Ride
Ink:  Chocolate Chip craft
Paper:  So Saffron, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Jolly Holiday DSP (retired)
Accessories:  WWC, clear EP, Labels & Apothecary Accents Framelits, Dimensionals