Magical Stardust & Rainbows PP389

Hi friends!  Welcome to another week with my gal pals at The Paper Players where the lovely and talented Sandy has a trendy Clean-and-Simple challenge for us...Magical!

As a child I loved unicorns....The Last Unicorn was a favorite book of mine but sadly, I only have ONE stamp set featuring these magical creatures--an old retired set called Pony Party.  As it looks quite a bit like a My Little Pony type of unicorn, it wasn't really what I had in mind for today's card.  So, I turned to the Silhouette Design Store to find a design I could cut on my Cameo...

...and I did cut it out but found that I liked the negative space better!  I used a piece of watercolor paper underneath to color a rainbow with my watercolor pencils starting with Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Pacific Point, and Rich Razzleberry.  The white embossed sentiment is from the retired Pony Party set and it is just perfect for my grown-up unicorn.  I was tempted to add some embellishments or dry embossing but kept to the clean-and-simple style of today's challenge and only added Wink of Stella around the edge of my cut shape.

The inside is equally as Clean-and-Simple with a sweet sentiment and some Crushed Curry stars from another retired set, Be the Star.  Can you tell I have a difficult time getting rid of my retired sets?! LOL.  The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set called Inside & Out: Birthday--my Mom (a die-hard PTI aficionado) bought this set for me ages ago and, along with PTI's Birthday Basics, it is one of my go-to sets for inside sentiments.  It's hard to beat PTI for sentiments!

And it's hard to beat my pals at The Paper Players for creativity!  Be sure to check out all their fabulousness over at The Paper Players....maybe you'll play along with us before our challenge ends on Friday, April 20th at Noon (PST).  

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

It's been a little while since I shared some volleyball shots, so here's a few of our favorite player last weekend at a tournament in Jacksonville.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Sunshine & Rainbows for your Birthday PP385

 Hey there friends!  Welcome to another week with The Paper Players....coming to you on day three of the Disney Volleyball Showcase in Orlando, Florida.  Our daughter's team is 6-0 headed into gold bracket play today, so wish them luck! :-)  This week I am tickled pink to be the Clean-and-Simple challenge hostess with a bright and colorful challenge...

Rainbow!!  Anything with a rainbow, rainbow element, or rainbow colors.  I went very literal with my take on the challenge:

 The Sunshine & Rainbows stamp set and coordinating dies made quick work of this clean-and-simple card.  A thick Whisper White card base and a few white die-cuts from the Rainbow Builder Framelits.  Once I made a straight cut on the main panel of clouds, it was the perfect place for this sweet sentiment.

 I played around with some cardstock colors to get just the right combination of ROYGBIV.  The Rainbow Builder Framelits nest perfectly with each other.  Here I used Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Tempting Turquoise, Island Indigo, and Rich Razzleberry.  TIP: After cutting place the rainbow arches face down on a piece of Press-n-Seal wrap and then tape them together with your favorite tear tape.  You can peel the whole rainbow off the press and seal wrap and position it on your project.

 Here's to wishing you a sunny day from Orlando!  Do go check out all the the fabulous inspiration from my teammates at The Paper Players.....I hope you're inspired to play along with us before the challenge ends on Friday, March 22nd at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

CAS Crazy about Sewing PP381

Hiya friends!  Welcome to another week with The Paper Players where the lovely LeAnne is hosting a Clean-and-Simple challenge that's sew much fun!

Sewing was among my first hobbies as a child--my mom is an excellent seamstress and taught me to sew when I was in fifth grade!  Although I don't sew as much as I used to, I still love the satisfaction of creating something out of a piece of fabric.  So of course, I am a sucker for any sewing related stamp set and couldn't part with the set Sew Suite that retired ages ago.  Lucky I didn't because it is perfect for LeAnne's "sew suite" challenge!

I could see this card completed in my mind's eye and was thrilled that it turned out just as I imagined.  That so rarely happens, lol!  Anyway, the card base is Crumb Cake and the top Whisper White panel is 3.5" x 5.5".  True "random" stamping is so hard for me to do--what with the OCD tendencies, ha--so, of course I used my stamp placement tool to get these sweet little sewing machines just right.  I alternated colors of Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist, Calypso Coral (I know it looks red here), and Crumb Cake.  The sentiment combines a couple stamp sets--I stamped the "sew" in Early Espresso ink using the Hand Lettered Alphabet photopolymer set while the "thanks" and "much" came from the Crazy About You [retired] set.  

I hope you liked my card today.  Be sure to check out all the eye candy from my teammates over at The Paper Players.  I hope you're inspired to join us before the challenge closes on Friday, February 23rd at Noon (PST).

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Elizabeth Stewart 

We had a rare weekend off from volleyball this weekend but here's a shot from the previous weekend's tournament in Orlando.  Yep, that's our daughter leaping over the backpacks and a teammate on the sidelines to save this pass and assist in a point.  They ended up losing the match but they sure played their hearts out.  Love their determination--every point matters!

Thanks for looking in on me...take care, friends!

CAS Color for Birthday Blooms - PP358

This week at The Paper Players, the fabulously talented Joanne has a fun Clean-and-Simple challenge for us: Get Coloring!

 Like so many people, I find coloring very relaxing.  In fact, I saved time at the end of a busy work week just so I could color a project for this challenge.  I came home from work, poured a glass of wine and got busy coloring with my inks and Aqua Painter!  Ahhh.....relaxation.

 This big gorgeous flower in the Birthday Blooms set is one of my absolute favorite to color.  The lines on each petal give a hint where there should be some shading and no matter what color you use, it always turns out beautiful! I always admire the white embossed and watercolored flowers of my teammie, Deanne, and she is the inspiration for today's creation.  The bloom is embossed in white on some hot press watercolor paper.

I have mentioned before that my watercolor technique involves layers of color.  I thought you might want to see how that works for me as I colored this blossom.  Above is my first pass with color including Blushing Bride, Soft Sky, and Lemon Lime Twist.  I try to pick colors that are close to each other--think of how they might appear on a strip of paint colors.  So, the flower uses Blushing Bride and Calypso Coral, the background is Soft Sky & Pool Party, and the leaves...well, I didn't have a pair to Lemon Lime Twist so I just started with a light wash of color and kept adding depth with darker versions of the ink.

 I added a few more layers of Blushing Bride to make it true to the color.  Once dry, I started adding layers of Calypso Coral to achieve the final effect.  Where there are extra lines on the petals, I made sure to add a deeper color using less water for close to a full strength color.  Using the same technique as last week's flamingo card, I trimmed the sides of my main panel with the rotary cutter and fussy-cut around edges I wanted sticking out.  This is a Clean-and-Simple challenge so I didn't want to add layers but the plain card base needed a little detail.  I stamped opposite corners with the same blossom as my focal point in Soft Sky ink.

The inside is a very simple treatment of more blossoms and a fabulous sentiment from Watercolor Wings.  This flower is so pretty all on it's own just as a line stamp as you see here--it doesn't even need color!

I hope you've enjoyed today's card for our Clean-and-Simple challenge at The Paper Players.  Pop over and see all the gorgeous inspiration from my teammies.  Maybe you'll be inspired to join us before our challenge closes on Friday, August 25th at Noon (PST)  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Deanne 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Tomorrows as Happy as Today - PP353

Hi friends, and welcome to another week with The Paper Players!  My sweet friend, Claire, is our hostess with the mostess this week for a Clean-and-Simple challenge:

Summer fun in the water, woohoo!  That's actually where I am this weekend--spending time with family at the beach.  I never really enjoyed the beach growing up but 24 years living in Florida has turned me into a beach-lovin' gal!  

My card represents my favorite thing to do at the beach....sit.  LOL.  As a busy mom, I don't really sit much.  Even at work, I'm constantly up and walking around.  Beach time means sitting in a sling chair just like this one from the Colorful Seasons stamp set and relaxing.  The only thing that's missing is a book--my second favorite thing to do at the beach--but I didn't have a small enough book stamp!

Since this is a Clean-and-Simple challenge, there isn't much to explain.  Just some simple watercoloring and stamping.  My beach scene is painted with a blend of many, many colors including Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana, So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Peekaboo Peach and Calypso Coral.  Early Espresso was used for the chair base and sentiment.  The only tricky thing is the chair itself....I stamped it in Calypso Coral on thick Whisper White and fussy-cut it out so it would be a solid color over the watercolor background.

I'm keeping it short today--gotta get back outside!  Wherever you are, I hope you're finding a little fun in the sun this weekend!  Be sure to check out the rest of the design team inspiration over at The Paper Players.  Maybe you will be inspired to play along with us before the challenge closes on Friday, July 21st at Noon.  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Deanne 

Annie Abrahamson 

Jan Clothier 

Bold Butterfly Window PP345

Hey there, friends!  I am excited to be the hostess this week at The Paper Players with a fun Clean-and Simple challenge...Butterflies!

With my crazy busy life, Clean-and-Simple seems to be the way my crafting is trending these days.  I suspect it's that way for a lot of people right?!  While I like Clean-and-Simple style, I still try to add small details that make the design intriguing....something that makes you say "how did she do that?"

Super clean design--just some card stock strips and a simple sentiment but the interesting part is the window sheet butterfly!  First I adhered some cardstock strips to a scrap piece of Whisper White cardstock.  Then, I die cut the butterfly from this piece with the Bold Butterfly Framelits.  Next, the butterfly wings were clear embossed onto a piece of Window Sheet using the Watercolor Wings stamp set.  The Bold Butterfly Framelits were used again to die cut a butterfly from my card base.  Once I had my three pieces (card base, window sheet & panel), I started building my layers.  The Window Sheet is adhered to the card base with glue dots and the cardstock panel it adhered over the Window Sheet with dimensionals.  Basically creating a sandwich of card base, window sheet, and main panel.  The last step for the front was the sentiment in Black Archival ink from One Big Meaning.

The inside looked a little plain through the clear window sheet so I lined up and stamped the solid butterfly from Watercolor Wings on the inside.  I used a new ink color--Powder Pink--part of the new In Color palette coming from Stampin' Up in June!  From left to right: Berry Burst, Fresh Fig, Lemon Lime Twist, Powder Pink and Tranquil Tide.  Aren't they pretty?

Here you have a better view of the clear embossed butterfly wings from the inside.  Isn't that a cool look?!  Inside sentiment placement can be a little tricky with a clear hole in the middle of the card but the spot on the inside left works perfectly!  There's still enough room to write a note around the butterfly on the right.  So there you have it...Clean-and-Simple, Detail Style!

I hope you enjoyed today's card. Be sure to pop over and check out the rest of the lovely butterflies from my design team buddies at The Paper Players.  Maybe you'll be inspired to play along with us before our challenge closes on Friday, May 26th at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Crystal Komara

Valentyna Komisarenko

Deanne 

Thank Goodness for Clean-andSimple PP340

That's right, thank goodness for LeAnne's cute Clean-and-Simple challenge this week at The Paper Players!  My brain couldn't handle more than CAS this week and even at that, my card is ridicuously simple.  First, here's LeAnne's cute challenge:

I had all kinds of ideas swimming in my head and maybe that was part of the problem--I couldn't settle on just one.  I think it's really after a couple weeks off, my creative juices are slow to get started again.  Anway, here's my card:

Almost embarrassed to post it because there is little stamping or creativity involved--I let this cute paper do all the work.  I've been hoarding saving this retired paper for just the right moment and I think this is it.  Love these cute bikes in their bright colors.  I used a new-to-me die from My Favorite Things--Stitched Basic Edges--to make the fun off center edge.  Before I cut it, I did back the DSP with a piece of cardstock to give it more weight.  I knew I wanted to pop it up on the card base and didn't want it to sag.  The sentiment is from a sweet PTI set, Pedal Pusher, that I borrowed from my mom.   Thanks, Mom!  The sentiment is heat embossed in white on the Bermuda Bay base.  Like I said, ridicuously simple!!

My teamies have some great CAS projects to share with you over at The Paper Players so go check them out before our challenge closes on Friday, April 21st at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by, friends....and for those that celebrate...Happy Easter!

The Paper Players Design Team 

Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy 

Sandy Mathis 

Crystal Komara
Valentyna Komisarenko
Deanne 

Clean and Simple Moon Baby: PP336

Our wonderful and talented friend, Joanne, is hostess this week at The Paper Players with a sweet Clean-and-Simple challenge:

I was thrilled with this challenge because it gave me another excuse to use the adorable Moon Baby set!

 

This sweet little nugget just makes me smile every time I stamp with it.  So sweet!  The base of my card is thick Whisper White cardstock which I covered with a piece of Soft Sky embossed with the [retired] Swiss Dot folder.  I associate Swiss Dot fabric with sweet baby outfits and delicate details so it was a natural choice for this card.

So you might be wondering what I did here......well, sweet Joanne is the queen of the partial die-cutting technique (where part of your stamped image goes beyond the edge of the die cut) and she inspired me to do the same with today's card. 

Although I didn't use a die cut, the technique is the same.  After I stamped the image on a piece of Shimmery White cardstock, I used my rotary trimmer to cut in from the sides stopping just at the moon.  From there, I fussy-cut around the sweet little cherub.  I really like the way it frames the image and emphasizes the direction of the moon.

I added a little doily folded in half under the main panel.  You can't see it here but it's brushed with Wink of Stella--love!  This is a CAS challenge so I kept the layers and embellishments to a minimum but the moon needed a little special treatment.  Some looped silver thread was just the thing!

I couldn't neglect the inside and there are some other sweet stamps in this set.  I colored these little guys with a mixture of watercolor pencils + blender pens and [retired] Blendabilites markers.  So cute!

I know that the rest of The Paper Players design team have some more adorable Baby creations for you--be sure to check them out!  Maybe you will even play along before our challenge ends on Friday, March 24th at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team 
Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy  

Sandy Mathis 

Crystal Komara
Valentyna Komisarenko
Deanne 

So Very Much Watercolor PP332

Happy Sunday, peeps!  This week at The Paper Players, sweet Laurie is our hostess for a Clean-and-Simple challenge:

Clean-and-Simple with a sentiment as a focal point......hmmmm.  I'll admit I was a little stumped until I remembered this awesome Sale-a-Bration stamp set, So Very Much, that I got for free:

I knew that a watercolor background would be the perfect way to make this large sentiment the focal point.  SU's Watercolor Pencils just arrived in my mailbox and the Fab Friday challenge had some colors that were just perfect to create a watercolor wash background: (from the left) Calypso Coral, Peekaboo Peach, Rich Razzleberry, and Bermuda Bay.  I did use an ink pad for the Peekaboo Peach since it doesn't come in a pencil.  These colors are so pretty together and blend very well. 

The watercolor pencils are so easy to use--just scribble some color onto your choice of paper (I used watercolor paper here) and blend the pigment with either a Blender Pen, Aqua Painter or a paintbrush.  I like the effect of the Aqua Painter best as I wanted a very watery look.  A few passes with the heat gun made sure the design was good and dry.  A dry surface was especially important here because I heat embossed the sentiment and I didn't want any stray bits of embossing powder sticking to the watercolor! 

So Very Much, also from the same set, was stamped with Black Archival ink onto a strip of Watercolor paper and the ends were snipped.  I used watercolor paper instead of Whisper White for the sentiment because I wanted the sentiment banner to match the color of the focal piece--watercolor paper is slightly more vanilla than white.  Since this is a CAS challenge, I resisted the urge to add more details and just added a little bit of washi tape to dress it up.

I hope you like my So Very Much Watercolor card today. I had fun playing with the watercolor pencils and these gorgeous colors.  Be sure to stop by the rest of The Paper Players design team to see how they used sentiments as a focal point.  Maybe you'll even join our challenge before it closes on Friday, February 24th at Noon (PST).  Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team 
Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy  

Sandy Mathis 

Crystal Komara
Valentyna Komisarenko
Deanne 

  

Clean-and-Simple, You've Got This PP328

 Hi friends!  This week at The Paper Players, wonderfully talented Jaydee has a Clean-and-Simple (CAS) challenge for us--flowers! 

All we have to do is keep our projects CAS and feature a flower.  Oh boy, the only trouble here was deciding which flower set to use! There are so many wonderful ones. Each time a new one comes out I tell myself that I don't need another flower set.....yeah well, you can guess how long that logic lasts.

Since the You've Got This stamp set hadn't seen ink in awhile, my decision was made!  My colors came from an older challenge at Color Throwdown.  To stamp the two-color background, I laid the background stamp on my craft table rubber side up.  The top third of the image was inked with Perfect Plum ink by tapping repeatedly on the stamp.  The bottom two thirds were inked in the same manner with Pear Pizzazz.  I didn't worry too much about the inks blending, just made sure that there wasn't any open space on the stamp with no ink.

The flower was stamped directly over the background image with Night of Navy ink.  I inked up the background image again with Perfect Plum and stamped it on a scrap piece of white cardstock.  Then I stamped just the top of the flower so I could fussy-cut some of the petals out and pop them up for dimension.  Oh yeah, and I washed the popped up piece liberally with Wink of Stella of course!

I thought the leaves and stems needed a little more dimension but in keeping with the CAS look, I didn't want more layers or fussy-cutting.  I colored in the stem and one side of the leaves with my Pear Pizzazz Stampin' Write marker.  It provided just the right amount of shading and variation from the background.  A single navy flower was stamped off the inside corner and that completed my CAS Flower card! 

I hope you enjoyed today's card.  I know you will enjoy all the eye candy that the rest of the design team has for you at The Paper Players, so check 'em out!  Maybe you will be inspired to play along with us before the challenge ends on Friday, January 27th at Noon (CST).  Thanks for stopping by, friends!

The Paper Players Design Team 
Claire Broadwater

 Jaydee

Joanne James

Laurie Schmidt

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy
Sandy Mathis 

Crystal Komara
Valentyna Komisarenko
Deanne