Paper Players: Love and Friendship

Good morning stampy friends!  Are you ready for a new challenge from The Paper Players?

Love the pictures on the challenge graphic :) Here's what I made:

I was planning on making something completely different, but then that sentiment in the new Calming Camellias stamp set caught my eye and it's perfect, am I right?  Since I had no idea what color camellias are, I asked the all-knowing Google and found a lot of pictures with bright pink blooms.  Know what else?  Tea comes from the camellia plant, camellia sinensis.  And now I love this stamp set even more :) I am enjoying a cuppa Assam black tea as I type this.

So anyway!  I decided to keep the card simple and stamped the floral image in Polished Pink on retired Pink Pirouette cardstock, and added some Wink of Stella to the flowers for a bit of glitz.  Love that diagonal wood pattern from the Heart & Home DSP pack.  A few Polished Pink rhinestones and some retired white taffeta ribbon and there's my card!  It's even already in the mail to one of my besties (who also enjoys a nice cuppa tea on the regular). 

And now a short message from Ryan (almost 5), who wanted to help write this blog post:
abcdfghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz     123456789   134679285463917465
There you have it, folks, you heard it here first.

Make your own love and friendship card and upload it on the Paper Players blog, looking forward to seeing what you make!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Calming Camellia
Ink:  Polished Pink, Basic Gray
Paper:  Polished Pink, Pink Pirouette, Thick Basic White, Heart & Home DSP
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Tasteful Labels dies, white taffeta ribbon, In Color rhinestones, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier

The Language of Love

 Bonjour, mes amis.  Today's card-making adventure takes us to Paris.

*singing* I love Paris in the springtime...okay, it's not spring yet, but with all those pinks it sure feels like it on this card.  I painted the "Amour" with Wink of Stella too, but it shows up a bit better in this pic:

I stacked three die-cut words together to give it a bit of dimension, too.  This little card is for three challenges, starting with Retro Rubber:

Parisian Beauty (the Eiffel Tower and postmark stamps) is two years old; Artistic Etchings (the circle design) is eleven years old; and French Script (the...wait for it...French script background) is sixteen years old.  I think that qualifies my card as retro ;)  I ended up with a bit of a collage thing going on my card which was a surprise to me.  Sometimes things take an unexpected turn when I'm crafting.

Next up is The Color Throwdown:

I used Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Cherry Cobbler, and Cinnamon Cider for my colors.

Finally, I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I admit, when I first saw the sketch, my reaction was not positive.  Imagine my surprise when I made something with it that I do like!  I had no plan when I went in my craft room, just started looking for Valentine-y stamp sets and pulled out Parisian Beauty; the card just kinda happened from there.

Have a great day, peeps. À bientôt!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Parisian Beauty, French Script, Artistic Etchings
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Cinnamon Cider
Paper:  Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Cherry Cobbler, Thick Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Parisian dies, Wink of Stella

Minty Fresh

Mornin', folks.  Do you ever craft in the middle of the night?  I did on Monday night...not my plan, but that's what happened.  Ryan woke up around midnight and started throwing up, so the hubs and I both got up to take care of him--get him cleaned up, strip the bed, etc.  Got Ryan settled back in, he'd fall asleep for about 10 minutes and then throw up again, poor kid.  So I ended up staying up until about 2 until he went back to sleep and stayed that way (and also I waited until the washer finished so I could put things in the dryer).  So I ended up with about 20 minutes in my craft room in the middle of the night.  Not what I wanted to be doing, but I did make something:

I tried to resist Cactus Cuties, really I did--I have last year's Flowering Cactus medley and I still love it but somehow Cactus Cuties came to my house anyway.  The font on the sentiments just screams 80s to me but I can't think specifically of what it reminds me of.  Anyway, this is Cactus Cuties' initial outing in my house and I'm participating in two challenges.  First up is the Global Design Project CASE the Designer challenge:

Admittedly I was going off of what I remembered from the inspo picture and it was the middle of the night, but I was trying for a similar layout (and still plant-related) but in a different style to go with the cactus stamps, so DSP layers instead of the soft watercolor look.  I wanted to use pastel colors but I thought I'd give the Cupcake Inspirations color challenge a whirl:

Happily the new Abstract Beauty DSP has both pink (Blushing Bride) and mint (Just Jade, though it looks like a darker shade of Mint Macaron).  I bought Abstract Beauty expressly with the idea of using it with Cactus Cuties, I don't know why but they seem to go together in my head.  Oh, one more thing--the card base is actually Thick Basic White, but I thought it made the DSP look a little dingy, but I'd already stuck everything down, so I took the light Mint Macaron Blend and carefully colored around the card base.  Voila, green card base and I didn't have to redo anything.

Hope your day (and night) are free of gastrointestinal pyrotechnics!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Cactus Cuties
Ink:  Mint Macaron, Cinnamon Cider, Memento Tuxedo Black, Mint Macaron Stampin' Blends
Paper:  Thick Basic White, Abstract Beauty DSP Stack
Accessories:  Rectangles Stitched dies, Dimensionals, Gold Glitter Enamel Dots

SUO Challenges: Happy Heart Day

Happy Tuesday, stampers!  It's time once more for a new challenge at SUO Challenges!

Our theme this time is Valentine's Day so bust out your LOVE stamps!  I did...

I bought the super-cute Sweet Talk DSP but didn't get any of the Valentine sets in the occasions catalog.  My "Love" stamp is from Create with Friends which has lots of useful words in it!  I kept the layout very simple since the patterned paper is so busy.  Aren't those colors great?  You have the super traditional pink and red but with some great pops of aqua, green, and purple to keep it fresh.

Make your own lovely creation and share it on the SUO Challenges blog.  Most important, have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Create with Friends
Ink:  Real Red
Paper:  Pool Party, Real Red, Thick Basic White, Sweet Talk DSP
Accessories:  Layering Circles dies, Dimensionals

Tidal Basin

Scrappy Monday, y'all!  I got my giant picture order in the mail so I spent a lot of time on Saturday going through all the prints and getting them organized for future scrapbook pages :) It's doubtful I'll ever catch up, but I'll never be bored, either.

So here is today's layout:

We took these pictures in November of 2016 at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. and used that focal point photo as our Christmas cards that year.  I think I used up my last two pieces of Handsome Hunter 12x12 cardstock on this layout but I think it was worth it.  The new Evening Evergreen is similar though...I should do a side-by-side comparison of the two greens.  Anywha, Handsome Hunter ended up jiving quite nicely with the other colors in that Painted Autumn DSP.  I used my favorite piece of it on this layout.

Today's color palette:  Handsome Hunter, Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Cinnamon Cider, Soft Sky, and Very Vanilla.  My only day off this week is Friday so I guess I'll be plotting out future scrapbook layouts in my head until then.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Make a Difference, Painted Harvest
Ink:  Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Cinnamon Cider, Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Handsome Hunter marker
Paper:  Handsome Hunter textured, Garden Green, Cajun Craze, Thick Very Vanilla, Painted Autumn DSP
Accessories:  Stitched Shapes dies, leaf punch

Paper Players: Have a Rainbow Day

Happy Sunday, stampers!  It's time for another Paper Players challenge, and this time we're doing tic-tac-toe.  Check it out:

Fun, right?  Here's my card:

At first I was trying to do the left column, rainbow - CAS - birthday, but when I added the rhinestones I worried that it was veering out of CAS territory.  Happily it works for the top row, rainbow - sparkle - die cut.  I had fun choosing colors for a pinky-purple rainbow :) I didn't buy the new rainbow stuff in the Occasions catalog, but I do still have an old Paper Pumpkin stamp set with rainbows, so that's what I used. I have a friend in mind to receive this card, so now I just need to remember that when her birthday comes up this summer!

Take a look at the tic-tac-toe board and share your creation with us at the Paper Players blog.  Have fun!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  My Paper Pumpkin, Biggest Wish
Ink:  Magenta Madness, Flirty Flamingo, Fresh Freesia
Paper:  Fresh Freesia, Thick Basic White, Flirty Flamingo DSP
Accessories:  Stitched So Sweetly dies, gold sequins, Dimensionals

The Paper Players Design Team

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Cindy Beach

Christy Stanford

Jennie Maier

Hydrangea Valentine

Happy Friday, y'all!  How has your week been going?  I think I'm still sleepy from the night earlier this week when I woke up at 3:45 and couldn't get back to sleep, ugh.  It's been kind of a weird schedule this week too since I've been working until 3, then rushing home to work in my craft room for about 30 minutes before heading back out to pick Ryan up from daycare.  I don't like feeling rushed when I'm crafting, ya know?  But I did make a card yesterday.

I am calling this a Valentine because why should roses be the only flowers on Valentines?  So it fits with the Global Design Project theme:

I also used this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I did make my card the standard A2 card size rather than square, because I don't *like* making square cards.  I realize I may be in the minority with that opinion but that's okay.  Last up, I used the color challenge from the Color Throwdown:

This color palette immediately made me think of the Hydrangea Hill DSP from last year's Occasions catalog, so I used Rococo Rose, Highland Heather, and Mossy Meadow for my colors.

Gotta get ready to go to work.  Cheers, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hydrangea Haven
Ink:  Early Espresso, Rococo Rose, Mossy Meadow, Highland Heather
Paper:  Highland Heather, Thick Basic White, Hydrangea Hill DSP
Accessories:  Hydrangea dies, Highland Heather ribbon, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella