Holiday Home Card for The Paper Players

Happy Sunday! I'm getting close to the end of my guest designer spot at The Paper Players. It's been an honor to be featured alongside these super talented ladies! There is a definite feeling of sadness that it's coming to an end. So, I hope you will celebrate the last couple of weeks with me and share one of your creations at The Paper Players. This week the wonderful Jaydee has a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for us. I always enjoy a good Tic-Tac-Toe challenge and I'm sure you will too. To play along choose any three items across, down or diagonally.

Here are your choices:

My design started with the idea of a starry night Christmas card. When I read the choices the star was the first thing I gravitated to, but I ended up choosing the Tree going diagonally with Embossing and Glitter. I could have also used the bottom across with Star, Die Cut and Glitter but I just fussy-cut the house instead of using the coordinating framelits. To create the stars I used the decorative mask and applied VersaMark ink and then heat embossed using clear embossing powder. Then I sponged on Soft Sky, Lost Lagoon and Night of Navy inks. To add the glitter I used a VersaMark pen and went over the stars, applied the glitter and then heat set. I did the same with the trees, first I stamped them then used the VersaMark pen and dipped them in the glitter and then heat set. The card really has a lot of shimmer that the picture doesn't show. The Peace & Joy sentiment from the Good Greeting set was stamped in black Memento ink. From the Holiday Home stamp set Santa and his reindeer and the house were stamped with black Memento ink. Then I colored the house with my Copic markers, fussy-cut and adhered with dimensionals. That pretty much sums it up!

Now, you should definitely check out the inspiration from the rest of the design team at The Paper Players. Then, play along! You have until NOON (PST) on Friday, December 5th to link your creation in the gallery. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!                 

Thanksgiving Blessings Card

Thanks for stopping by! Today is the start of a new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz. This week we would like to see food or drink featured on your card. Since I still needed one more Thanksgiving card, I decided to use the Thanksgiving Corn Mouse by Meljen's Designs. The image was colored with Copic markers and then cut into a 3" circle. The circle was then layered onto a Spellbinders scalloped die cut from Early Espresso cardstock . Then I decided to cut into my hoarded stash of retired Stampin' Up! patterned paper from one of my all-time favorite collections, Orchard Harvest dsp. The sentiment is from AAW PrintWorks Collection and was stamped in Early Espresso ink. The last detail was adding the gold glitter leaf brad and that finished my Thanksgiving cards for this year. This card is already in the mail and headed to one of my relatives to arrive just in time for Thanksgiving. I hope they like it!

Click here to view the creations from the Cardz 4 Guyz design team. We hope you will join us this week!

My Thanksgiving Blessings Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Robyn's Fetish: Use a Digi
• My Craft Spot: Thanksgiving and Fall!
• Open-Minded Crafting: Grateful
• Party Time Tuesdays: Anything Goes

Hello Sweet Friend Card

Hello stamping friends! It's time again for another challenge at The Paper Players. This week the lovely LeAnne is hostess for a wonderful sketch challenge. The sketch is really versatile. I can't wait to see how you use it! To play along at Crazy 4 Challenges I've used a Hello sentiment from the Six-Sided Sampler stamp set.

As you can see, I went with a non-holiday card. The black and white was accented with Bermuda Bay and Real Red. When I make cards I don't plan everything out first, I create as I go. However, by doing it this way there is always something I wish I did differently. The polka dot panel needed to be a little narrower to bring the flower up. There needed to be more space between the flower and sentiment area. Other than that, I like the way it turned out. Do you plan out your card or create as you go?

We would love for you to join us this week! Click here for more inspiration from The Paper Players design team. You have until NOON (PST) on Friday, November 28th to link your creations. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day!

Here's the sketch:

Hello Sweet Friend Card Supplies:

• Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Bermuda Bay and Real Red cardstock, patterned paper from the Back to Black dsp and polka dots by Recollections.
• Stamps: Flower from Beautiful Bunch set and sentiment from Six-Sided Sampler set.
• Inks & Coloring: Memento black ink, VersaMark and Zing Red Glitter embossing powder.
• Other Stuff: Finishing Touches edgelit, oval punch, scalloped oval punch, red button, Bermuda Bay twine, black glitter brad and stampin' dimensionals.

Christmas Stocking for Cardz 4 Guyz

Greetings! It's time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz. This week the theme is Christmas Stockings. For my card I decided to use a shaped card using a retired Christmas Stocking Bigz die from Stampin' Up!. Using the Big Shot the stocking pieces were die cut and adhered together. The colors used are Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green and Very Vanilla. The patterned paper was called Be Of Good Cheer and like the die it is also retired. However, most of it can be found on eBay.

We would love for you to join us this week! Click here to visit the creations from the design team. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day.

My Christmas Stocking is entered into the following challenges:

• Love to Create: Christmas
• Dies R Us: Christmas

Give Thanks Card for MOJO372

Good evening! I had today off and between errands I spent some time in my craft room. It's been awhile since I've played along at Cards in Envy and Mojo Monday so today I printed out the Mojo sketch and made this Give Thanks Card.  

Give Thanks Card Supplies*:

• Paper: Very Vanilla, Mossy Meadow, Blackberry Bliss and Cajun Craze cardstock, patterned paper from Color Me Autumn dsp and retired Neutrals dsp.
• Stamps: For All Things stamp set.
• Inks: Classic stampin' pad in Cajun Craze and Antique Linen distress ink by Tim Holtz.
• Other Stuff: Needlepoint embossing folder, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, 2" circle punch, leaf brad by The Paper Studio and stampin' dimensionals.

*All supplies by Stampin' Up! unless noted.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!!!

Casual Fall Thank You Card

Happy Sunday! I hope you're having a relaxing weekend and I'm also hoping you will have time to make a card for this weeks challenge at The Paper Players. The amazing Ann has a wonderful Clean-and-Simple Thank You challenge for us this week. To start my card I chose the colors from the Pals Paper Arts Challenge to use Crushed Curry, Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie. Then I remembered a layout from a previous card I made. It was from 2012 and featured an emboss resist leaf that I really wanted to duplicate using the PPA colors. I retrieved the retired French Foliage stamp set and went to work. The Crushed Curry background paper is from the Color Me Autumn dsp and to change up the design a bit, I added three Candy Dots and used the Itty Bitty Banners Thank You sentiment. Finally, I've kept a Clean-and-Simple challenge, well... clean-and simple.

Click here to check out the designs from the rest of The Paper Players. We would love to see your card in the gallery! You have until Friday, November 21st at NOON (PST) to link up your creation. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Quirky Turkey Card Take Two

Hello! I have one week to get all my Thanksgiving cards done. If I would have know earlier in the year that I would go back to work full-time, I wouldn't have procrastinated. Oh well! I am thankful I have a fun new job and it adds an element of fun to have a short deadline. Earlier in the month I made a Quirky Turkey Thanksgiving Card and at the same time I printed out several images and stamped several sentiments. So, I decided to make another Quirky Turkey Card. The image is by Doodle Pantry and comes pre-colored which works perfectly when time is an issue. The patterned papers are from the Pumpkin Patch and Sweater Weather collections both by DCWV. I kept the layout simple with a center focused design. For detail I did some stitching on the green panel and added some Candy Dots. All in all this was a pretty easy card. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day/night!

This Quirky Turkey Card is entered into the following challenges:

• The Sisterhood of Crafters: Thank-ful
• Crafting by Designs: Give Thanks
• Papertake Weekly: 2 or 4 Legs

Masculine Give Thanks Card

Fall colors are wonderful to create masculine cards. So, take advantage of the season and join us this week at Cardz 4 Guyz for our theme Thanksgiving/Thankful. For my card I chose to use the Lovely as a Tree stamp set by Stampin' Up! It truly is a classic and perfect for masculine cards. I used the rock-n-roll technique for the leaves of the tree using More Mustard and Cajun Craze inks. The patterned papers are from the Sweater Weather collection by DCWV. I dug through my punches and found the leaf punch from Creative Memories. I added a touch of Frayed Burlap distress ink onto the leaves to darken the edges. The final details were adding the three Candy Dots and the Give Thanks sentiment from the Stampin' Up! hostess/freebie set called Good Greetings. The sentiment was punched using the word window punch and layered onto the modern label punch both by Stampin' Up! I kept the layout simple and let the paper and colors do all the work.

To check out the inspiration from my fellow designers at Cardz 4 Guyz, just CLICK HERE. I hope to see your card in the gallery. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

I'm entering my card in the fall photo challenge at {PIN}spirational. 

Merry Little Christmas Card for The Paper Players

Hello friends! It's beginning to sink in that Christmas will be here shortly. There is only six weekends left to get all the shopping done. In the past I would be done with my shopping before Thanksgiving, however in recent years I've waited to the last weekend and knocked it out in a day. This year I started early but I definitely won't be done by Thanksgiving. I would love to hear your approach to Christmas gift shopping!

When it comes to card giving at Christmas I only make handmade Christmas cards for immediate family. I give the card to them with their gifts. I love seeing their faces when they open their cards. For the rest of my family and friends I'm still mailing my stash of store bought cards. For years before I started making handmade cards I loved to buy boxes of cards at after Christmas sales. Needless to say, I still have years worth of cards.

Okay, enough of my rambling! Today is the start of a cozy color challenge hosted by Sandy at The Paper Players. The colors are perfect for a Christmas card. I used the new Festival of Trees stamp set and Tree Punch by Stampin' Up! The Cherry Cobbler colored background dsp is from the Festival of Prints paper stack from 2012 and the Mossy Meadow  paper is from the current All Abloom paper stack. I added silver heat embossing to trim the tree along with three clear rhinestone basic gems and a clear star. Then I adhered the focal panel to a scalloped circle created using a die by Spellbinders. Lastly, I punched and adhered the sentiment. That's it! We sure hope you will join us this week. For more inspiration from The Paper Players make sure to visit their blogs. To enter your card in the challenge you have until Friday, November 14th at NOON (PST). Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Relax... Masculine Card

Hello and happy Tuesday! It's time for another challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz. This week we want to see Technology Toys for the Boyz featured on your cards. For my card I used a digital image by San's Designs called Resting Dude. The image was colored with my Copic markers and Stampin' Blendabilities markers. I played around with my patterned papers before I settled on these from The Paper Loft. In the end the colors and patterns worked well with what I wanted to create. The sentiment is from Crafter's Companion and was stamped with Memento black ink. Everything else was simple details... a big brown brad, five Candy Dots and a couple of punched details.

Now, click here to check out the inspiration from my fellow design team members at Cardz 4 Guyz. We would love for you to join us this week! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day.

My Relax... Masculine Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Allsorts: Masculine
• Sentimental Sundays: Anything Goes w/ Sentiment
• Crafts Galore Encore: Anything Goes

Quirky Turkey Thanksgiving Card

Here it is.... my first Thanksgiving card for 2014. I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches and the Quirky Turkey image is by Doodle Pantry. The image used came pre-colored which makes creating multiple cards super easy. The background and patterned paper is from the Sweater Weather collection by DCWV. The purple patterned paper is digital and comes with the Turkey image by Doodle Pantry. It seems I placed the sentiment label a little low from the sketch placement but it didn't alter the sketch too much. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Quirky Turkey Thanksgiving Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Tuesday Morning Sketches: Sketch
• Hiding in My Craft Room: Fall Colors
• Doodle Pantry: Any Digi Goes
• V's Sweet Ideas: Anything Goes

Vintage Floral Card for The Paper Players

Hello and Happy Sunday! Today is the start of a Vintage Theme Challenge at The Paper Players hosted by the lovely LeAnne. This challenge gave me the opportunity to use some of my supplies that were bought just because I liked them, even though I had no idea if I would ever use them. Do you ever do that? A good example is the patterned paper used on this card. It's by Graphic 45 from A Ladies' Diary Collection and it's been in my stash for a couple of years. Until now, I never had a reason to use it on a card. The stamp I used is another item I bought just because I liked the design. It's by Heartfelt Creations and it's called Majestic Collage. I stamped the whole image on Very Vanilla cardstock and then I stamped the flowers in the design onto: Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride and Summer Starfruit cardstock and fussy-cut them. On the edges of most of the papers and flowers I used Antique Linen Distress Ink by Tim Holtz. Since the stamp size is large, this card is 5.25' square. A little twine and a Fleur De Lis charm and this Vintage Floral Card was complete.

Do you have some supplies just waiting to be used? Now is your chance!!!

We would love you to join us this week at The Paper Players. The design team have created a wonderful variety of vintage inspired cards. To check out their designs click here. All paper crafting brands are welcome and you have until NOON (PST) on Friday, November 7th to enter your card in the gallery. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!