Beautiful Day for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  It's the fourth Sunday of the month and that means a sketch challenge over at the Paper Players.  I'm hosting this week and I've created a sketch that should give you lots of options for your card.

Paper Players

I'm also sharing my card over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where they are looking for feminine cards.

I really love wreaths and thought the wide-open space on the right side of the sketch would work well for one.

The wreath is from Concord & 9th's Briar & Blooms die set and the banner sentiment is from the matching stamp set.  The wreath, along with the layering leaves and flowers, was die cut from colored cardstock, then I did some ink blending to give them more depth and dimension.

I took my color inspiration from the strip of plaid paper, which was part of an old paper pack from MFT.  The light purple paper was embossed with a floral design, then both pieces were adhered to the card base, with a strip of white to cover the seam.

I had to chuckle because this is my sketch and I almost forgot the shape at the lower right.  I wanted something small, which I found in an older Mama Elephant sentiment set.  The smallest die from a Hexagon die set worked beautifully to die cut the sentiment.  

After gluing the wreath to the card front, a bit of foam tape was added beneath the large purple flowers and also the center of the banner.  The happy birthday was also popped up with foam tape. Then, to finish things off, tiny little gems were added to the tiny little flowers for some pretty sparkle.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Be sure to take a moment to visit the challenge blog for some wonderful inspiration by my talented teammates!  The challenge will remain open until Friday, May 1st at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

• Concord & 9th Briar & Blooms stamp and die sets
• Mama Elephant Mini Everyday Messages stamp set
• Simon Says Stamp Tiny Flora embossing folder
• SSS Strips die
• Pinkfresh Studio Nested Hexagon die
• MFT Plaid Patterns Paper Pack
• Spellbinders Fairy Tale, Lavender, Beeswax and Saffron cardstock
• C&9 Sprout and Parsley cardstock
• Inks - SSS Honey and Iris; Altenew Fresh Leaf and Mountain Pine; Versafine Clair Mountain Mist

Thankful Wreath for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  Wow, we're sure moving quickly towards the holidays.  Are you ready?  I'm not yet.  At the Paper Players this week, the lovely LeAnne has chosen a wonderful theme that is definitely appropriate for this time of year.  

Paper Players

In the fall of 2024, I attended the Altenew Cozy Comfort retreat, where we made many very beautiful fall and Christmas themed cards.  But one class, with the amazing Jacee Gaspar, was a wee bit early for me, so I opted to watch recording of the class.  Fast forward to 2025, I finally did that, finished the card, and I decided to share his beautiful design for this challenge.

We began by cutting a number of leaves with four different dies from three shades of cardstock, then doing a gradient of ink blending from the bottom to near the top.  Those were arranged in five groupings that we used to create the wreath on the Burnt Orange panel.

Next is where I varied from the class instruction.  Rather than stamping the pumpkins, I chose to gold heat emboss just three, colored them with the coordinating stencils according to the class instruction, then fussy cut them.  They were mounted on the wreath, with the die cut sentiment layered across the top.  Jaycee had the class add splatter, but I opted not to do that. I really like the wreath as is and felt the gold embossing and die cut sentiment added enough extra interest.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I encourage you to check out the bounty of beauty and thankfulness my teammates have created over at the challenge.  It will run until Friday, November 7th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• Altenew Mixed Foliage, Pistachios, Hazelnut Branch and Stylish Greetings dies
• Altenew One-Go: Sweet Pumpkins stamp and stencils
• Altenew Green Onyx, Sagestone, Red Jasper, Mandarin Burst and Raw Amber inks

Heart Hugs for The Flower Challenge

Hello friends!  It's time for the first challenge of the year at The Flower Challenge, where this month we're asking everyone to add a heart to your card.

TFC 88

The new year brings about an update to our challenge badge and we're also thrilled to be welcoming Vicky Hayes as our latest team member!

For my card I used a retired stamp set is still perfect for hearts and flowers.

 

I adore this heart wreath.  I colored it, along with two extra flowers, with Copic markers then die cut everything, including a couple more of the heart wreaths in white for layering.  Next a panel of white was lightly stenciled with pink hearts, then trimmed down and adhered to a postage edge rectangle.

A separate heart was die cut, inked around the edges with the same pink ink, then added to the back of the layered wreath.  I wanted the sentiment to match the flowers, so I used my Copic markers to create an ombre on a piece of white cardstock then die cut the sentiment from that.  The ombre is definitely subtle but in real life it's more evident than in the photo. The sentiment was also mounted on two additional die cut layers then added to the center of the heart.  I have to say I'm very happy with how this turned out, especially finding an appropriate sentiment to fit inside the heart wreath!

I do hope you'll join us this month!  There's a wide variety of ways to add a heart to your floral card and if you drop over to the challenge blog, my amazingly talented teammates will dazzle you with their designs!  Come on back on the 15th of the month, when I'll return with my reminder post.

Take care!

Stef

• Simon Says Stamp You Have My Heart stamp and dies
• SSS Nested Rounded Hearts
• Altenew Versatile Greetings die
• Spellbinders Postage Edge Rectangle die
• Memory Box Drifting Hearts Stencil
• Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black, Altenew Pink Diamond
• Copics - R59, 85, 83, 81, G99 29, 21, YG45
• Sketchmarkers - V61, 61
• Olo markers - YG8.7, 8.5, 8.3

Hello for Sunday Stamps

Hello and welcome!  It's time for a new challenge at Sunday Stamps and this time it is a fabulous sketch by Annette!  

Sunday Stamps

While Annette has included flowers on each side of her sketch, you are free to add whatever images you like.  I decided to create a wreath with die cut branches and flowers.

I knew I wanted to use my new Sweet Blooms die set from Altenew, but it took me a while to settle on die cutting colored cardstock.  I thought I might watercolor the stems and flowers on watercolor paper but didn't like how it looked. Then I tried Copic coloring on white cardstock and still wasn't happy, so I finally pulled out some of my favorite cardstock colors from Concord and 9th, did more die cutting and was finally okay with the results.

To create the wreath on the panel of Aqua Sky, I originally started with just white die cut branches, decided that looked to blah, so I added some die cut from Peacock.  The flowers were die cut from Honeysuckle, Ballet Slipper, Stampin' Up's Calypso Coral and white.  They were layered up, added to the wreath, then several of the tiny die cut flowers were adhered around the wreath.  Finally, I added silver pearls to all the flowers before placing the die cut sentiment (Altenew's Versatile Greetings) in the center of the wreath.

This is a great sketch and I hope you will join us with your fabulous creation!  For more inspiration, be sure to swing by the challenge (link above) and check out the beautiful cards by the other DT members!

Take care!

Stef

Thankful Wreath for the Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hello and welcome!  It's time for a new Tic Tac Toe Challenge and this time Carol has given us some great inspiration with this board!

Tic Tac Toe Challenge

I'm also joining the current Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the challenge is to use die cuts.

I dallied around with several card design ideas but finally decided to go down the left column - Fall/Halloween theme, plaid, die cutting, although I did get wreath in there is well.

I love this pretty wreath and it was so fun to color with some of my favorite fall colors like purples and red violets in combination with yellows and oranges, plus a bit of green and brown thrown in for good measure.  There are several images to color but they are small and completing it wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be.  The coordinating die was used to die it, plus I also used sentiment dies, cutting from gold and white card stock.  The sentiment was layered with two white beneath the gold then adhered to the white shadow die cut.

My original plan was to create my own plaid background with an A2 sized plaid stamp and stencil set, but I just didn't like how the wreath looked being cut down.  So, I went through my 6x6" paper pads and found The.Perfect. plaid. I was thrilled to say the least!  I used a square die to trim it down the cut a gold frame with two square dies.  I was going to add the frame on top but sadly found it was noticably uneven on one side, so it became a layer on the card base and under the plaid paper.  I die cut the wreath two more times out of white cardstock, layered them all together, then added the sentiment across the middle with a bit of foam tape it the cut out section.  Lastly, a few gold glitter crystals were added for that bit of sparkle and I was done.

Thanks for taking time to stop by, I appreciate it.  I do hope you'll check out the fabulous cards by the other DT member (link above) and also are inspired to play along with us this week!

Take care!

Stef

Stamps:  Thankful Wreath (Simon Says Stamp)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Matte Gold (SSS), Plaid Tidings dsp (ret. SU)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Other:  Thankful Wreath die, Thanks Dies (SSS), Gold Sparkle Crystals (Studio Katia), Layered Square dies (Pink & Main)

Copics:  YR27, 24, 23, 18, 07, 16, 14, 31, 30, Y19, 17, 15, G28, 21, YG 67, 45, 17, 25, 03 RV69, 66, 63, E89, 87, 84, 81, 49, 47, 44, 42, 19

Sketchmarker Brush Pro: V60, 61, 62, 54

Just a Hello for Just Us Girls

Hello and welcome!  It's my third week as January guest designer over at Just Us Girls and this week we have some beautiful colors to work with.

Just Us Girls 615

I'm also sharing my card at Four Seasons Challenge, where the theme is Winter, and the new Colorful Options Challenge, where the theme is Winter Blue. Colorful Options is a new challenge, so be sure to head over there and check it out.

Four Seasons - Winter

Colorful Options - Winter Blue

When I saw the JUGs colors, I had an idea in my head about using a large branch die that I bought a while ago but hadn't made it onto a card yet.  While my card turned out a lot different than my original vision, I really love the end result.

I started by ink blending a light blue on a panel of white, then trimming it down with the deckled rectangle die.  Then I die cut the large leafy branch from silver and twice from white, layering it up for stability and dimension.  I dug through all my leaf/branch dies and found a few, some die cut from white cardstock and some from vellum.  Then I hit upon grounding everything with a die cut wreath.

Before assembling all the parts, the blue inked panel was popped up on the white card base with foam tape and then I remembered I wanted to splatter with silver metallic and white gouache. So the splatters ended up on the panel and the card. Oh well. ;-)  The wreath was die cut a couple times, adhered together then added to the card.  All the branches were adhered, then I found a previously die cut sentiment that worked perfectly in terms of size.  It was layered across the silver die cut branch and anchored with a bit of foam tape on the right end, and that finished things off!

Thanks for taking time to stop by, I really appreciate it!  Be sure to use the link above to see all the gorgeous cards by the DT members and hopefully join the fun this week!

Stef

Stamps:  Just a Hello Floral (Pinkfresh Studio)

Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Matte Silver (SSS), vellum

Ink:  Blueberry (Altenew), Versafine Clair Nocturne

Other:  Delicate Leafy Branch die (SSS), Etched Meadow Flower and Leaves dies (SSS), Create-A-Wreath dies, Just a Hello Floral sentiment die (PS), Deckled Frames die (Waffle Flower), White Gouache, Finetec Pearl Silver metallic paint