Neutral Noel for Paper Players 800

This week is a special week for us at The Paper Players as it is our 800th challenge! That's some dedication from the women who started up the challenge, some of whom are still on the team. At roughly 50 challenges a year, that means it all started up sixteen years ago. Sixteen years ago, I didn't even know what a rubber stamp was, let alone how to use one!

To celebrate this wonderful milestone, our hostess Ann has brought out the very first Paper Players Challenge for you to play with again for Challenge 800.  We also thank the many of you who loyally play along with us so often. We're all interested to see what you do with it!

Since this challenge landed on my desk at about the same time as the pre-order for the September-December Mini Catalogue, the choice of set was made for me! It was going to be the Neutral Noel suite and a Christmas card. 

Instead of the central rectangle of the sketch, I used the large oval die from Noel Tidings to cut a Basic White oval which was then embossed with the Softly Woven folder. This folder has quickly become a favourite of mine already. 

For the strong horizontal element, I used one of the beautiful foil-heavy patterns from the Neutral Noel DSP pack. All of these are beautiful, single-sided and heavy-weight papers. 

For the Christmas cluster I used a mix of the stamps and dies from both Noel Tidings and Welcome Noel bundles. The little houses were stamped in Crumb Cake and Pecan Pie. The foliage was stamped in Mossy Meadow, the branches in Pecan Pie, the deer in Early Espresso while the berries were cut from Cherry Cobbler and the wreath from Mossy Meadow. This was all arranged and adhered, some on dimensionals.

The sentiment is gold embossed and cut with a label die from Noel Tidings. The trio of embellishments are the Gold Adhesive Backed Dots that are part of the suite. Pretty, aren't they?

The team and I would love to see what you do with this very special sketch challenge. You can see what everyone has done and link up your entry at The Paper Players. And again, thank you for continuing to play along with us!

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

1. Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
5. Have fun, and thank you for playing with us!

Don't forget to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Elegant Leaves for Atlantic Hearts Challenge 695

 Let's face it. I don't really need much encouragement to abandon real life and escape into my craft room. Today, it wasn't bad weather. It was that the warm spring sunshine was filling my room with light and I'd seen a sweet sketch challenge to play along with. 😀

The sketch was the latest challenge from Atlantic Hearts Challenge. 

It enabled me to have another play with my new Elegant Leaves bundle (available from September).

I started by inking the spade shaped solid leaf stamp in Crushed Curry and adding extra colours with a sponge dauber. Over the two leaves I daubed Cajun Craze and touches of either Old Olive or Cherry Cobbler. Then I stamped over it with the vein stamp in Cajun Craze. I did similar with the smaller leaf.

I also cut a medium leaf skeleton in Cajun Craze and a small gold foil leaf skeleton. For the final foliage, I cut a small leaf trio in gold foil and the matching skeleton from Crushed Curry. I daubed some touches of Cajun Craze over that before layering the two together. 

I arranged, and attached, all of these over a stitched circle cut with Stylish Shapes. I stamped the sentiment in Cajun Craze, cut it then popped it up on dimensionals. Then I put is aside while I prepared the rest of the card.

I cut three Basic White panels, one 4cm and two 2.5cm. The narrow two were embossed using the Fern & Flora 3D embossing folder. The wider one was embossed with the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder. This folder will be available once the September-December Mini Catalogue goes live next month.

I arranged these over a panel of Basic White and adhered them before adhering the card front to a Cajun Craze card base. 

Then it was a simple matter of adhering the leafy sentiment circle to it and adding a trio of Sunset Sparkle sequins in autumn shades. And just because I love Linen Thread, I added a generous bow into the final mix. 

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Lustrous Leaves for CAS Colours & Sketches 591

I fell down the rabbit hole of the new Stampin' Up! Hot Foil system. It's a lovely place to be! I have purchased, as part of the next pre-order of Hot Foil products, the Lustrous Leaves dies and some copper foil. Leaves are like catnip - I just can't have enough of them. And as to copper.... irresistible!

So, I needed to try them out and CAS Colours & Sketches came to the rescue with inspiration. I think I'll just sneak in under the wire for the end date. 😀

I started by hot foiling the leaf die using the copper foil and Willow White card. As part of the Lustrous Leaves bundle, there is a set of decorative masks (or stencils) perfect for colouring the images. I've used Timid Tiger, Cajun Craze and Pecan Pie inks, applied with Blending Brushes.

Because the die makes five leaves, I used the cutting dies to cut them apart and chose three for the front to represent the rectangle shape of the sketch. The others were very handy for the inside of the card.

I used the Sweetly Sentimental hot foil dies, again with copper, to make a number of sentiment labels. I chose 'Here's to Another Year' because it worked for both birthday and anniversary occasion. 

Given the lovely shine of the copper foil, I didn't add any embellishments but left it naked instead. 

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Elegant Leaves for Paper Players 799

Many thanks to all of you who joined in with Stef's colour challenge last week at The Paper Players. This week, Claire is giving us a double challenge: to look forward to fall and to do in in a Clean and Simple style.

By chance, a brand new stamp set had arrived fresh from the pre-order for the September-December catalogue. It's the Elegant Leaves bundle and since I'm a sucker for foliage, it went straight in my cart. And I'm not sorry at all!

This card is my first play round with it. I started with a Cajun Craze base. I was intrigued by one of the dies in the set and was happy to find that it imprints a woodgrain pattern into the paper. It was perfect to create a horizontal line to build my leaf cluster on. Because it actually does cut the paper, you get little peeps of the underneath colour.

There's a very pleasing array of leaves to both stamp and die cut, so I tried out a few for this. I started by using the baby wipe technique to stamp the solid leaf. I used drops of Crushed Curry, Timid Tiger and Cajun Craze to make my ink pad and stamped the large spade shaped leaf with it. Happily, it's a two-step stamp (if you want it to be) and I stamped the veins over top in Cajun Craze. Then I die cut it out. 

 For the other leaves in the cluster, I die cut the skeletal overlay for the large spade leaf in Timid Tiger, small skeleton overlays in Timid Tiger and Early Espresso, and a leaf trio die cut in Cajun Craze with a matching skeleton overlay. For that leaf, I sponged Cajun Craze on the overlay to give it more colour depth.

Then it was a simple matter to cluster the leaves around the sentiment, stamped in Early Espresso before adding a trio of Timid Tiger Flat Pearls. 

The team and I would love to see what you do with this theme. You can see what everyone has done and link up your entry at The Paper Players.

Don't forget that this is a Clean and Simple challenge so make sure you have an uncluttered design with lots of white space with minimal layering and embellishment.

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

1. Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
5. Have fun, and thank you for playing with us!

Don't forget to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Neutral Noel for Freshly Made Sketches 749

The rainy, cold afternoon meant more time at my desk. I'm still exploring possibilities with my pre-order goodies: the Noel Tidings and Welcome Noel bundles along with the Neutral Noel DSP. For inspiration, I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

My other experiments centred on the Noel Tidings bundle and mainly stamped images so this time, I wanted to try out the Welcome Noel bundle and some die cuts. I started with creating a couple of houses and added a stamped tree and deer. 

I used the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder for the front of the card and to warm things up, I used Very Vanilla rather than Basic White.

For the striped elements of the sketch, I used two patterns of Neutral Noel DSP. I cut them on the bias so that the vertical lines would remain vertical. It was a bit like being back in Soft Materials class in high school! For the centre stripe, I used the banner label die from the Noel Tidings bundle.

I finished off with a trio of Gold Adhesive-backed Dots. I stamped the sentiment and went to put it at the centre bottom of the front but... when I tucked it up in the cluster it just looked so much more at home that I left it there. 😀

Anyway, I was pretty happy with the result of this experiment and look forward to more playing!

Update: Delighted to be chosen as a Perfect Princess at Freshly Made Sketches.

Handmade for You for As You See It 379

It's hard to believe that, at As You See It, we're already back to the regular Speed Stamping Challenge. This is the one people either love or hate. If you've never played one before, you have ten minutes to create something of the given theme - in this case, 'Crafting.'

Before you decide that's impossible, here are the details.

• You have ten minutes to complete your card.
• Thinking time is not included, so you can have planned it in your head.
• Supplies can be assembled but not used. So block up your stamps, get the embellishments out on the desk, put the dies beside the machine and so on.
• The  timer starts the moment you cut, ink up, stamp or emboss anything.
• Thankfully, clean up is not on the timer!
• Don't forget to tell us what your time to completion was. 

My biggest problem was to find something on the given theme. It sent me into my craft library to find the retired Handmade for You set, which I had because it contained the angel policy stamp. 

So, I started by stamping the sewing dummy and colouring it with Crumb Cake and Pool Party blends. 

I cut it out using one of the Perennial Postage dies, then stamped the sentiment. I have a number of friends who are craft queens, so this card will end up being very useful. 

I decided on a Basic Black card base and added a layer of the pretty Pool Party polka dots from the Beautiful Ordinary Life DSP pack.

As a quick finish off, I added a trio of Pool Party Glossy Enamel Dots (retired).

And the time was ....

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done, and link up your entry, on the As You See It page. The team and I are all keen to see how you see it!

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

 

Neutral Noel for Atlantic Hearts Challenge 694

When the winter rains come in to settle, there's not much to be done but hunker down in the craft room. It's a good time to do so with a box of pre-order goodies for the September-December mini awaiting attention.  That's my story... and I'm sticking to it!

For inspiration, I turned to the sketch at Atlantic Hearts. And for product inspiration, I picked up the Noel Tidings bundle, the Neutral Noel DSP and the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder. All of these products will be readily available from September.

I started by cutting an oval, from Very Vanilla, using a die from Noel Tidings, then embossed it with the Softly Woven folder to give me the central panel of the sketch. I stamped various leaves, branches and pinecones using Mossy Meadow, Old Olive and Pecan Pie before die cutting them out. I coloured the cones in light Pecan Pie Stampin' Blend and die cut some berries from Cherry Cobbler.

I chose two patterns of DSP from the Neutral Noel specialty DSP, cut them and adhered them to a panel of Very Vanilla before attaching the embossed oval.

Then I arranged the die cuts on the oval around a centre point.

To create the sentiment, I stamped the 'Season's Greetings' in Mossy Meadow on Very Vanilla and fussy cut the words out. I arranged them over a Mossy Meadow label shape from the set.

To finish off, I added a trio of Gold Adhesive-backed Dots from the same suite.

Given this is only the second experimentation with this bundle, I'm very happy with the result. Thank you for the sketch to inspire, Atlantic Hearts!

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

Update: Delighted to be chosen in the Top 3 at Atlantic Hearts Challenge.

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.