Mountain Peak for PP806

Hello friends!  It's the first Sunday of October and that means a new theme challenge at the Paper Players!  This time the talented and lovely Ann is hosting and has chosen a wonderful theme.

Think of all the possibilities with this theme!  Winter snow, October skies and leaves, the bright colors of a field of wildflowers in spring... For my card, I went with my beloved mountains.  Growing up in western Oregon, I had the delight of seeing Mt. Hood in all her glory nearly every day (when it wasn't raining ha ha) and then spending decades skiing up there.  So, when I saw the Mountain Peak stencil set from Altenew, there was no question it belonged in my craft room.

The set includes 4 layers plus a mask of the mountain, which allows you to extend the scene to include more than one peak, which is what I did here.  Instead of using grays, I went with a set of periwinkle-ish inks to create the look of a partial mountain range.  For the sky I used a light hand to apply a slightly different light purple, blush and light blue inks.  

Since this card was going to my husband for our anniversary, I decided to dress it up with the arched window die cut from Altnew Glacier Iris cardstock, popped up with foam over the stenciled mountains scene and added a gold frame.  I had a number of previously foiled sentiments on hand that fortunately included the "Happy Anniversary" which fit perfectly in the arched opening and finished off my card.

Won't you come join us this week for this great themed challenge?  I encourage you to visit our challenge blog to see all the wonderful inspiration from my talented teammates.  The challenge will remain open until Friday, October 9th at 3pm EDT.  Hope to see your card in the gallery!

Stef

• Altenew Mountain Peak Stencil set
• Simon Says Stamp A2 Arches die
• Spellbinders You Are Everything Press/Foil plate and die
• Sea Breeze, Blue Horizon, Blush, Wisteria, Celestial Mist, Glacier Iris, Dreamy Periwinkle and Twilight Sky Altenew inks

Artsy Leaves for CH142

Hello friends!  Happy October 1st!  I'm doubly happy because October is my favorite month of the year and I am hosting the new challenge at Color Hues.  I've chosen a definite fall-ish color pair of Amber and Burnt Red, and I hope you have fun playing with these colors.  

Color Hues

In addition to challenge colors, you may also use neutrals (e.g. white, ivory, brown, gray, black and metallics).  And unfortunately, green is not a neutral. *wink*

Don't get too hung up on perfectly matching the colors in the prompt. Use what you have to get as close as possible.

For my card I had a great time mixing and blending Distress Spray Stains for my leaf dies.  Take a look...

Aren't those leaves fun?  I started with a couple panels of Distress Watercolor paper and used a mixed of reds and some yellow on one and then two yellows and a yellow mica stain on the other.  I know the photo makes the red look almost rust...I had a heck of a time getting one decent photo.  But in real life, the red really comes through.

The leaves were cut out using Artsy Leaves dies from Tim Holtz.  The veins were cut with Spellbinders Tuscan and Concord & 9th Brickyard. The Alabaster background was embossed with the Whimsical Skies folder, which I thought was perfect for fall.  The gold frame was layered on two additional die cuts then added to the embossed background before adhering the leaves.  

The panel was matted on a slightly larger piece of Vineyard Berry from Altenew, which has more of a brick look than a berry appearance. The final step was to add the gold die cut sentiment, also layered on two additional die cuts.

I hope you'll find time to join us this next fortnight!  I encourage you to head over to the challenge blog to see all the fabulous inspiration by the other DT members and our fabulous guest designer Crystal.  The challenge will remain open until Wednesday, October 14th at 9 am EDT.  Please come play along with us!

Stef

• Tim Holtz/Sizzix Artsy Leaves dies
• Simon Says Stamp Fancy Hello die
• SSS A2 Nesting Frame die
• Spellbinders Whimsical Skies ef
• Fossilized Amber, Rusty Hinge, Lumberjack Plaid and Crackling Campfire Distress Spray Stains
• Flickering Candle Distress Mica Stain

Indian Summer Birthday for PP805

Hello friends!  This week at the Paper Players, the lovely Jaydee is hosting our monthly sketch challenge and she has a great one for us to create with.

Paper Players

This sketch gave me the opportunity to use a piece of loved, older (aka hoarded) patterned paper and combine some different colors for a fall look.  

I'm also joining the current Seize the Birthday challenge, where the toppings option is to use fall colors.

STB #335

And here's my card...

After searching through my patterned papers, I came upon on old Basic Grey pad called Indian Summer.  I chose this piece because I like the drama of the dark background and the inclusion of berry and pink colors along with yellow and orange.  I found a half panel of Stampin' Up retired Merlot cardstock and matched it up with some Spellbinders Scilly cardstock, which to me kind of looks like a coral-orange color, both of which I thought they worked well together and with the BG paper.

Both the Merlot and patterned paper were cut down with the Spellbinders Playful Stitched Panels die and adhered to the Scilly background panel just in the middle of both sheets. This allowed me to gently bend up all the corners.  The leaf and branch die cuts were from some unused leftovers, and I used an old SU stitched circle die onto which they were adhered.  The foiled sentiment was added atop all of those layers, then the final touch was to add three gold confetti embellishments.

Thanks for visiting, I appreciate it.  Please take a moment to head over to our challenge blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from the other DT members.  The challenge will remain open until Friday, October 2nd at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

• Basic Grey Indian Summer patterned paper pad
• Spellbinders Playful Stitched Panels die
• Altenew Zero Waste Leaf Pattern die (leafy branch)
• Spellbinders Build-A-Wreath die set (branches)
• Spellbinders Fancy Sentiment Strips Betterpress plate and die
• Stampin' Up retired Stitched Shapes circle die
• Simon Says Stamp Carmel Corn embellishments

Polar Bear Pal for PP804

Hello friends!  Sunday has rolled around again, bringing a new challenge at the Paper Players.  This week, the amazing Christy is hosting our CAS challenge, and she wants us to include a bear or bears on our cards.  Just remember to keep it clean, with minimal layers and embellishments.

Paper Players

I went looking through my stamp and die sets and found a few potentials for a bear card.  I finally landed on a cute one from MFT.  While they're out of business, I have a good amount of product from them that I will never part with, and the stamp set I used for today's card is one of them.

He's so cute, isn't he?  I went with a teal and purple color scheme, a combo on the cool end of the color spectrum, which seemed apropos for a polar bear.  I stamped and colored him with Copic and Olo markers. I left the stamp in the stamp positioner, so I could restamp him in black pigment ink, remove that stamp and line up the sentiment beneath him.

I wanted to use something more playful than a normal rectangle and my old MFT Modern Rectangle stax came to the rescue.  The larger panel was cut from Simon's Peacock cardstock, which tends to be more on the green than blue side of teal and matched the teal markers I used on his scarf.  Unfortunately, photos using my phone camera tend to give everything more of a blue hue.  The teal panel was die cut then I use a large background stamp to add tone on tone little twinkles and dots for just a bit of interest.  After it was added to the card base, the main image was mounted with foam tape. No embellishments this time.

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it.  I encourage you to head over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous cards from the rest of the design team.  The challenge will remain open until Friday September 25th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

• MFT Polar Bear Pals stamp set
• SSS Twinkling Stars background stamp
• MFT Stitched Modern Rectangle Stax dies
• SSS Aegan ink
• Olos - V2.6, 2.4, 2.3, 1.1, BG 2.7, 2.5, 2.4, 2.1
• Copics - C3, 1, 0, BG 000, 0000

Potentially Cursed for Color Hues

Hello friends!  It's time for a new challenge at Color Hues and this time the lovely Sheri chose this wonderful combination of colors.

Color Hues

I was quite tempted to create a floral with this duo of colors, but my love of Halloween took me in a "hauntingly" different direction, bwwwhhhaaa!

I had so much fun making this card.  Spellbinders recently came out with the new Color Block Rectangle dies, which I had to have after loving the arched version that came out earlier this year.  Anyway, while I was shopping, I found this cute Halloween cat and she had to come home to me along with the rectangle dies.

I knew the basic layout I wanted but messed around with the background and finally decided to use a panel of C&9 Avacado cardstock and darken it by ink blending SSS Artichoke ink and Black Soot Distress ink over the entire thing, keeping it lighter in the middle.

The cat was easy to assemble, although the eyes were a bit tricky.  If you don't get them placed correctly, the eyes can appear crossed or wandering in opposite directions lol! Before adding our witchy cat to the panel, I stamped it with a spider web from another set.  Once I had her in place, the two die cut bats were added, along with the sentiment, which makes me giggle every time I see it!  To me the sentiment looks a bit crooked, but I checked it three times with my T-square ruler and the word are straight.  I may still fiddle around with it.

After assembling the card, I decided to add one last thing.  Using my white gel pen, I gave her some magic sparkles around her head.  

What are you inspired to create with these colors?  For more ideas, please head over to the challenge blog where my amazing teammates and our wonderful guest designer Amanda have some fabulous cards to inspire you.  The challenge will remain open until Tuesday, September 29th at 9 am EDT.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• Spellbinders/Simon Hurley Bewitched die set
• Spellbinders Trick or Snark Aug26 Clear Stamp and Die OTM
• Spellbinders Color Block Rectangle dies
• Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Stamp and Stencil Halloween Collection (spider web)
• Sixxix/Tim Holtz Big Frights dies (bats)

Rustic Thanks for PP803

Hello friends!  Here we are, the second Sunday of the month and that means we have a new color challenge for you at the Paper Players!  This time the lovely LeAnne is hosting and has chosen a trio of pretty colors that I find perfect for fall.

Paper Players

 

Because these colors remind me of fall, I created a pretty bouquet with the challenge colors along with neutrals in ivory, a metallic champagne plus light and dark browns.

The bouquet definitely has a lot of layers and dimension.  I probably got a little carried away (a little???) but I love how it turned out.

I started by cutting the five layers of each flower from Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry.  The foliage was die cut from ivory, dark and light brown along with PP and CC. The two ivory leafy branches were then ink blended with bright yellow and Real Red inks. The layers of the flowers were ink blended with darker shades of orange and yellow then white pigment ink was dabbed onto the ends.

The background panel was stamped with the Cracked Background stamp from Simon Says Stamp using a light brown ink.  A strip of wood embossed brown cardstock was layered at the bottom for the "table", then the doily and watering can with the Thanks sentiment were added.  The flowers were layered on with varying levels of foam tape then all the foliage was tucked in behind them.  I decided there was enough going on so embellishments weren't necessary. 

So what are you inspired to make with this trio of colors?  To see the fabulous designs by the other DT members, use the link here to visit the challenge blog.  The challenge will remain open until 3pm EDT on Friday, September 18th.  I hope to see your card in the gallery!

Stef

• Concord & 9th Rustic Bouquet die and stamp set
• SSS Cracked Background stamp
• Tim Holtz Lumber embossing folder
• SU Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry cardstock
• SSS Dark Chocolate cs
• Altenew Espresso cs
• C&9 Sand cs

You Are Spell-tacular!

Hello friends!  I had some crafty fun this weekend and made a card for the current challenge at Time Out Challenges, which is The Movies.

TOC 321

 

When I first saw the theme, I didn't think I had anything that would work, but then the proverbial light bulb came on, and I remembered a set from Stamping Bella that I bought last year that I thought would work great for this challenge.

These are the Tiny Townie Witch and Wizards in Training stamps.  I became a huge fan of Harry Potter thanks to my grandchildren, and I've read all the books and seen all the movies (multiple times), so I was quite pleased to see Stamping Bella come out with this trio of stamps.

There are no dies for these images, so after the Copic coloring was complete, they were fussy cut.  There is a backdrop stamp by SB that accompanies these three, which I have, but I was running short of the time it would take to color the whole scene, so I opted to put them in front of the Forbidden Forest lol!

I created the background panel by ink blending a dark sky and full moon, then adding a bit of white splatter for "stars".  I then die cut the "forest" using the Simon Says Stamp Arched Forest Die and embossing folder with dark brown card stock.  After embossing, I went over it with both Black Soot and Scorched Timber Distress inks to darken the appearance.  

With those two layers adhered together I added our wizards and witch with layers of thin and thick foam squares.  The sentiment is from the Wicked Words SB set and was white heat embossed and die cut with a small rectangle die.

I hope you like my fun card about one of all-time favorite movies series. I had a blast making this and it even prompted me to open up the first book and start reading it again. 

Thanks for taking time to visit!

Stef