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

Birthday Wishes for PP802

Hello friends! I'm back with a card for our new challenge at the Paper Players.  This week we have a great theme from the amazing Joanne.

Paper Players

This is a really flexible theme.  As you can see by the prompt, candles for any occasion (or decor) will work.  I chose to make a birthday card this time because I can always use more plus I have a stamp and die set that hadn't been brought out to play yet, so this was the perfect opportunity.  And because I made a birthday card with it and this is its first outing, I'll be linking up to the Anything Goes challenge at Seize the Birthday and to Darnell's NBUS challenge.  I'm also sharing with the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where they're looking for stamped images (no digi).

STB #333

NBUS

I went with some bright colors for this birthday card.  

Aren't those fun and festive images?  The set is one stamp that adds all the images, then there are two dies - one that cuts the 3 small designs in a row and the two larger together, all with the postage collage look.  I decided to cut them all apart so I could create this look with each one at a tilt except the small one in the middle at top.

Before cutting apart, everything was colored with Copic and Olo markers.  The frames were open too, so one could use any color, but because I had a variety of bright colors, I thought black worked best.  And I think it really makes them pop.

Once cut apart, they were added with thin foam squares to a teal panel cut with a postage edge rectangle.  I found the sentiment already stamped and die cut so I place that at the bottom of the panel, then arranged all the cute images above.  The last thing was to add Glossy Accents to the balloons and use a shimmer pen to add sparkle to the ribbon on the package, the confetti, hat and cupcake.  

Thanks for taking time to visit!  The team has some wonderful cards with candles over on the challenge blog, so head on over there for more inspiration.  The challenge will remain open until 3pm Friday September 11th.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• Simon Says Stamp Birthday Mail stamp and die
• Taylored Expressions Mini Strips-Sending stamp and die
• SSS A2 Postage Rectangle die
• Copics - BG49, 13, 11, YR24, Y15, 13, Black 100
• OLOs - V2.6, 2.4, 2.3, RV 1.7, 1.5, 1.3, 1.1
• Tonic Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen

Winter Cheers for CH140

Hello friends!  It's hard to believe but today is the first of September!  Wow!  While the year seems to be rushing by, the good news is that we have a new challenge at Color Hues.  This time the lovely and amazing Nancy is hosting and she's chosen a really nice, subtle color pairing.

Color Hues

When I saw this color combo, immediately my mind went to a die set that I'd purchased on sale last winter but never had a chance to use.  As such, I'll be sharing with Darnell's NBUS challenge.  

NBUS

It's kind of fun, when it's the last, hot dregs of summer, to think of cooler days to come, which my card reflects.  

I used three different dusty blues from Spellbinders for the sweater and cocoa cup, although my camera made the colors a bit more vibrant than they are IRL.  I wanted to use white for the gloves, so I went with a tan background and a very light gray for the "steam" coming off the cup.

I did some ink blending on all the die cut pieces for a bit of dimension before assembling.  The background was embossed then I went over the raised areas with a white pigment ink pad so all the pretty snowflakes could stand out more and to break up the solid brown.  

The greeting is from the coordinating sentiment set.  It was stamped and die cut, then added to the blue layer.  After everything was adhered, I used Stardust Stickles in the centers of all the snowflakes, including the one on the cup of cocoa.  You may be able to see it a bit better in the photo below.  It just adds a little bit of a sparkling finish to the card.

Thanks for stopping by.  I encourage you to head over to the challenge blog to see the beautiful cards created by the other DT members and our amazing guest designer, Michele Ferguson.  The challenge will remain open until Monday, September 14th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• Spellbinders Mugs & Mittens dies
• SB Stay Snuggly sentiment stamp set
• Simon Says Stamp Snowflake Visions embossing folder
• Altenew Featured Sentiments dies
• Stardust Stickles
• Altenew Icy Water and Winter Lakes inks
• SSS Flannel ink

Birthday Dragon for PP801

Hello friends!  I hope you were able to join our fun celebration last week for our 800th challenge at the Paper Players!  We had a great turnout and are so appreciative of everyone who chooses to join our challenges every week.  

Since it's the 5th Sunday of the month, the amazing Jaydee is hosting out Tic-Tac-Toe challenge, and she's created a fabulous board!

Paper Players

I'm also sharing my card over at Seize the Birthday, where the prompt no stamping* dies only. (*stamped and die cut sentiment is the exception).

STB #333

For my card, I went down the center column - things that fly, free and texture.  I used a super cute little dragon die to create a fun shaped children's birthday card.

I am so smitten with this wee little flying dragon! The die set is made with the option of having the body swing back and forth but I chose not to for this card.  She was die cut from three colors of green cardstock and then the gift and her glasses were cut from the same colors as the background layers.  I'm enjoying adding eyeglasses to my critters and last week's Santa.  I think it's a fun and unexpected detail.

I used the Spellbinders Make A Wish Arch Labels dies to create the shaped card and add the wonderful texture around the edges.  After putting the layers on the card base, I added the sentiment then the dragon with foam tape.  The little clouds were die cut and tucked in behind here and the last steps were to add some sparkly gems and use a shimmer pen on the dragon wings, glasses and the gift bow.  

Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll take a moment to visit the challenge blog to see what TTT choices my amazing teammates used.  The challenge will remain open until Friday September 4th at 3pm EDT.  I hope to see your card in the gallery!

Stef

• Spellbinders Dancin' Birthday Dragon dies
• SB Essential Arches and Make a Wish Arch Labels dies
• SB Smart Glasses die
• SB Jump for Joy Sentiments Stamp
• Altenew Featured Sentiments die 
• MFT Petite Clouds dies
• Simon Says Stamp Taffy Dazzling Gems
• SB Mulberry, Orchid, Fairytale, Peridot, Rainforest and Fern cardstock
• Tonic Shimmer pen

Spectacular Santa for PP800

Hello friends!  It's an exciting day over at the Paper Players as we celebrate our 800th challenge using our very first sketch from back in August 2010!  The talented Ann is hosting and has recreated the original design from PP3. 

I was always looking for challenges for card making inspiration and I discovered the Paper Players in 2011, playing along my very first time with PP61.

But enough memory lane from me!  Here's our commemorative sketch!

Paper Players

I'm still working on building my Christmas card stash, so I used this sketch as an opportunity to play with a new Santa die.  

Isn't he cute?  He's the Spectacular Santa referred to in the blog title and he's rockin' his red and white spectacles, don't you think?  He's part of a bundle from Spellbinders with four different images.  Here's a link to a July blog post where I used the polar bear and penguin on 2 cards.  There's also a deer/reindeer but I haven't had a chance to play with him yet.

This card is sized at 5" x 7" so I could include all the sketch elements.  I dug through my limited stash of Christmas patterned paper and found the perfect design for the background.  After assembling Santa, he was popped up on a snowflake embossed panel, and a strip of green was layered below.  The sentiment is from the same bundle.  

To balance the design, the double layer snowflake was added to the left side of the green strip, and I used a trim die for the white scallop along the bottom.  The last step was to add Stardust Stickles to the center of the large snowflake as well as to all the snowflakes and snow dots on the embossed panel.  It added a lot of sparkle to the card.

Thanks for visiting and I encourage you to head over to the challenge blog to see all the fantastic cards by my talented teammates!  The challenge will remain open until Friday August 28th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join in this week to celebrate such a big milestone for the Players!

Stef

• Spellbinders Spectacular Santa die set and Holiday Sentiments stamp and die set
• SB Sparkling Snow ef
• SB Ribbon & Trim die
• Simon Says Stamp Lea Snowflake die
• Honey Bee Stamps Gingerbread Village patterned paper
• Stardust Stickles

Sending Hugs for CH139

Hello friends!  It's time for a new challenge at Color Hues and this time the lovely Marcia is hosting.  She's chosen a beautiful combination that can work for many designs.

Color Hues

I'm also joining the current Pick 2 challenge at Time Out Challenges. My picks are CAS and floral.  It's a maybe on monochromatic since I used 2 colors.

 

TOC #319

Originally, I had another card created and posted using these colors with die cuts, but decided to go another route and with some vibrant ink blending.  Take a look.

I was sorting through some older stamps and happened upon this oldie but goodie, and realized a silhouetted sunrise/sunset would look wonderful and it would be an easy make.

A panel of white cardstock was trimmed down to 3" x 4.25", then stamped along the bottom using black pigment ink.  When dry I used several Distress inks to create the background sky.  I thought I might use a black mat beneath and add to a white card base, but the drama of no white was too much to resist.

I think I spend more time trying to find a sentiment with the right words that were also sized appropriately.  Three gems finished things off.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll take a moment to visit the challenge blog where my talented teammates and our wonderful guest designer Priscilla some have beautiful cards to inspire you.  The challenge will remain open until 9 am EDT Saturday August 29th.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef 

This is my second post today.  If you wish to see my first card, you can take a peek here or scroll down. 

• Impression Obsession Garden Silhouette stamp
• Altenew Evergreen Beauty Mini Stamp set
• Fossilized Amber, Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Carved Pumpkin and Wild Honey Distress inks
• Simon Says Stamp Warm Tones Dazzling gems

Chinese Lanterns for PP799

Hello friends!  This week at the Paper Players we have a new Clean and Simple challenge.  The lovely Claire is hosting and has added the theme of Looking Forward to Fall.  

Paper Players

For this card, I used three stamps that are oldies but goodies, two of which I've had for at least a decade.

The floral image includes both Chinese Lanterns and American Bittersweet.  When I first met my husband, he had a huge yard with so many plants I'd never seen before, including Chinese Lanterns.  They are a delight, with small white flowers in summer, then come fall, the orange lanterns develop and in that temperate zone (Vancouver, WA), they were fairly long lasting.  So, when I saw this stamp a few years later, I had to buy it.

It's illustrated by Marcella Hawley, the owner of Power Poppy.  She has an amazing garden that inspired her beautiful drawings.  While Power Poppy no longer appears to sell stamps, there are oodles of beautiful digital images for sale, including this one.

I colored everything using Copic and Altenew Artisan markers, including the addition of a bit of light blue around the image.  The sentiment is one of my favorites and so I made sure that oval die I used to cut out the panel had sufficient room for it.

On the orange panel I used a large background stamp from MFT to create a subtle tone on tone look.  I opted not to add any embellishments.

Thanks for taking time to stop by and I encourage you to pop over to the challenge blog to see all the amazing inspiration from the rest of the design team.  The challenge will remain open until Friday August 21st at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

PS if you're here early, come on back a later when my Color Hues DT post goes live.

• Power Poppy Sunny Harvest stamp set
• Stampingbella Autumn Sentiments stamp set
• MFT All Line Up Diagonally background stamp
• Spellbinders Essential Stylish Oval die

Cozy Up for PP798

Hello friends!  Today I'm hosting our new color challenge at the Paper Players, and I chose a color combination that I really like!  As a reminder, you may also use neutrals along with the challenge colors.

Paper Players

I'm also joining the current Anything Goes Die challenge at Just Us Girls.

JUGs #835

Initially, I chose these colors with a water or beach scene in mind but ended up going a completely opposite direction with my design, which just shows you that there are plenty of design options with these colors.

As I was preparing to make the card for this challenge, I received some items that I'd ordered from Spellbinders.  In that order was this darling reindeer, which was the club stitching die of the month for July 2026. At that point I realized I could use the challenge colors just as well for a Christmas card as a summer scene card.  So why not? ;-)

As the name suggests, there are dies are made for stitching - the scarf as well as the sweater front.  But rather than stitch, I used a white paint pen to create faux stitching.  I don't mind the idea of actual stitching, but I don't have the right needles or floss...yet lol!  

All the deer parts and pieces were die cut from colored cardstock with the exception of metallic cardstock for the strings of lights wrapped around his (her?) antlers.  Everything went together so easy although the strings of lights were a bit fiddly to wrap around the antlers.  Rather than die cut the cheeks, I used a light red Copic marker to create some color in the embossed cheek area on the face.  The set also has either a gift or a coffee cup for the reindeer to hold.  I chose the coffee cup because it seemed perfect for the sentiment I used.  A white paint pen was then utilized to add polka dots.  

The ivory embossed panel was matted on a red A2 panel, then adhered to the card base.  The last step was to use foam tape to pop up both the reindeer and sentiment.  I think he's adorable!

Thanks for visiting, I appreciate it!  I encourage you to take and moment and visit the challenge blog to see the fabulous cards with a variety of designs created by the rest of the design team.  The challenge will remain open until Friday August 14th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

• Spellbinders Sweater Weather Friend Stitching Die OTM - July 2026
• SB Spectacular Holiday Sentiments Stamp
• SB Festive Greetings Embossing Folder OTM - July 2026
• SSS Sentiment Label die
• Posca 0.7mm white paint pen

Let's Party for PP797

Hello friends!  It's the first Sunday of August and that means a new theme challenge at the Paper Players.  This time the fabulous Jan is hosting and has chosen a delightful theme.

Paper Players

I'm also sharing with Darnell's NBUS challenge as this is the first outing for the main stamp and die set I used in today's card and joining in with the Anything Goes option of the Seize the Birthday challenge.

NBUS

STB #331

The newest little in our family is our great niece, and she is a cutie patootie!  She turned two in mid-July and I had So.Much.Fun. making this card for her birthday!

I started out with Lawn Fawn's stamp and die set that came out last year for Stamptember at Simon Says Stamp.  It has all the kitties and much of the other parts, but I also grabbed two older LF stamps from my collection to add the balloons, the cute bird, the hearts and one of the sentiment bubbles.  

I decided on a color palette (other than the critters) of pink, aqua, yellow and lime green.  I used my Copic markers to color everything, then out came the white gel pen to add some polka dots and stripes on the balloons and some of the packages.

I was trying to decide what type of scene to make with all these critters and thought it would be a fun design to use one of the postage collage A2 dies to create frames for little vignettes.  I went with the A2 size, which is 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and it was die cut 3 times and stacked for dimension. 

Distress inks were softly blended on a panel of white for the background, which was trimmed down to the same size as the frame before adhering.  Most of the images were popped up on foam squares.  Before adding to the card base, I ink blended pink around the edges. Lastly, I added Glossy Accents to the balloons, Stickles to a couple of the party hat pompoms and lots of sparkle with a shimmer pen to many of the items.  

Thanks so much for visiting!  I encourage you to take a moment and head over to the Paper Players, where my amazing teammates have some super cute cards to inspire you.  The challenge will remain open until Friday, August 7th at 3pm EDT.  I hope to see your card in the gallery!

Stef

• Lawn Fawn/SSS Purrfect Birthday stamps and dies (no longer available but LF has oodles of similarly cute sets available).
• LF Happy Birthday Deer stamps and dies
• LF Hippo Birdie to You stamps and dies
• Waffle Flower Postage Collage A2 Block die
• Kitsch Flamingo, Twisted Citron and Salvaged Patina Distress Inks
• Stardust Stickles, Tonic Shimmer pen and Ranger Glossy Accents
• Copics - BG11, 13, RV 02, 04, Y00, 11, 15, YG05, 01, T1, 2, 3, 4, YR14, 16 18, Black