Canopy Crafts: December 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!

Hi friends! We're taking a bit of a break at The Paper Players and with the holidays my blog posts have been infrequent...at best. :-) However, I wanted to take a minute to wish all my blogging friends a Happy New Year with a card I made recently:

The single Happy New Year stamp made this card easy-peasy with some silver glimmer paper and the Itty Bitty Banner Framelit.

I used a very dusty Circle Circus set to decorate the inside. I thought all the circle elements looked like bubbly champagne...a glass of which I will enjoy tonight and I hope you will too! We're visiting family in the northwoods of Wisconsin this week--much different than what this Florida family is used to!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Happy Holidays to you...

Sunday, December 16, 2012

{PP126} CAS Snowflakes

Hiya everyone! It's our last challenge of 2012 over at The Paper Players. It's also our last with the current crew of Guest Designers. It's been a pleasure working with Dawn, Helen, Amy and Jen. I would like to wish them well and thank them for all their hard work these last 6 months--thank you ladies! It's also an exciting time because we welcome our new group of designers...what fun! Be sure to stop by and hear the news! In the meantime, you're here for a card! It's Clean-and-Simple week and Ann asked us to use Snowflakes on our projects.

And here's what I created:

This card is so simple to make--the hardest part was figuring out what colors I wanted to use! I rarely use Elegant Eggplant but I love it for a holiday card. It pairs so nicely with Wisteria Wonder which was run through the Big Shot with the Northern Flurry embossing folder--still a favorite!

You might notice that I sponged some Frost White Shimmer Paint over the embossed areas and edges to give it a shiny lustre. Shimmer paint elevates it from ho-hum to YUM in no time!

You might also be wondering about the smaller snowflake and why it looks darker? Well, that's because I used a sponge dauber and colored the Silver Glimmer paper with Elegant Eggplant ink. I think the color would be stronger if I used a re-inker bottle but the subtle difference is lovely too. Both the idea for coloring Glimmer paper as well as the layout for this card were seen in Stampin' Success--our magazine for demonstrators. It's always full of great ideas!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Paper Players Design Team for some fabulous inspiration. Because of the holidays, we're leaving this challenge open for two weeks! It will close on Friday, December 28th at Noon (PST).

Finally, a big shout-out and welcome to our new team of Guest Designers! Amy, Brian, Justin, Jen & Sandy, I am delighted to welcome you to the team and look forward to working with you!

The Paper Players Design Team
Ann Schach
Anne Marie Hile
Jaydee
LeAnne Pugliese
Nance Leedy
Amy White
Dawn Easton
Helen Heil
Jen Arkfeld

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Just in Time Sketch {CCMC229}

This week's sketch over at Create with Connie & Mary was just in time for a card I needed to create for my nephew's birthday! It had been forever-and-a-day since I played along so I decided to dig in. Here's their fun sketch:

Normally, that skewed panel would have me running for the hills, lol. But I wanted to use the Extreme Skateboard digital stamp in My Digital Studio and the tilted panel seemed like a perfect ramp to me!

Would you believe that there is no traditional stamping on this card? There's hardly any layers or embellishments either! I designed it completely in My Digital Studio to fit on a 4.25" x 5.5" card base. Once it was finished in MDS, I printed in onto Whisper White cardstock, matted it with some Crumb Cake and popped it up on a Midnight Muse card base. The only thing I added were some Mini Silver Brads to the wheels. I have to say I was pretty pleased with how it turned out and I [hope] think my nephew will too!

Since I wanted to use the same image on the inside and it was a digital "stamp", I designed the inside with MDS too. Just copy and pasted the chevron borders from the front, colored them in the same "inks" (Basic Gray, Midnight Muse & Summer Starfruit) and then staggered them. I also played around with the coloring tool in MDS2 that allows you to color sections of a digi stamp just as we would if we used markers to color a rubber stamp. How cool is that?! I used Basic Gray, Baja Breeze and Summer Starfruit to color the sentiment from the Word Play digital set. I also got a little digi crazy with the paint splatter tool--also a new feature of MDS2.

Well, thanks for checking in on me today...lots to do as we get ready for my daughter's birthday tomorrow! Have a great night!

Photobucket

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Cool Pool Snowflakes {PP125}

Hi everyone, glad you could join me for another week at The Paper Players! I am delighted to host this week's color challenge with one of my favorite color combinations:

I really like the contrast of a cool blue shade, such as Pool Party, mixed with the deep rich red of Cherry Cobbler. Paired with any neutral such as Crumb Cake or Basic Gray and it's heaven on cardstock! My mojo seems to have taken an early holiday, so I took inspiration from a card I designed previously to create this for you:

Pretty simple really, using the Triple Stamping Technique. The graduated sizes of Whisper White cardstock, largest to smallest, are 4" x 5.25", 3" x 4.25" and 2" x 3.25". I held each layer together with removable adhesive and then stamped, stamped and stamped! The Snowflake Soiree set really is so lovely and makes for elegant snowflakes.

I inked the smallest snowflake and the More Merry Messages sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed them all with Pewter embossing powder. It's a little darker than silver and, in my opinion, shows up better on the white cardstock. On the third matted layer, I wanted to mix it up a little and instead of using another layer of Pool Party I added some glitz with Silver Glimmer Paper. Love the stuff!

I do hope you'll find a little time this week to join in our color challenge. Be sure to pop over to The Paper Players to see all the lovely inspiration from my gal pals on the design team. They outdid themselves this week! Our challenge ends Friday, December 14th at Noon (PST). Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Players Design Team

Nance Leedy
Amy White

Dawn Easton

Helen Heil
Jen Arkfeld

Supplies
Stamps: Snowflake Soiree; More Merry Messages
Ink: Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray Classic Inks; Versamark
Paper: Pool Party, Whisper White CS; Silver Glimmer Paper
Xtras: Pewter embossing powder; Basic Rhinestones

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Snow Many Snowmen {PP124}

Hello friends! Can you believe it's December already? Wow, where did this year go? Wherever it went, it sure went fast didn't it?! Well, anyway....it's Sunday and that means time for another week at The Paper Players. Our dear friend Ann is the hostess for a just-in-time holiday appropriate theme challenge:

Not having stamped much this week, I needed a little help with the mojo. I went looking around my favorite blogs and found some fabulous holiday colors at colourQ as well as a great layout from Rita at Freshly Made Sketches.

Armed with my inspiration and the only snowman stamp set I have, Snow Much Fun, here's what I made:

It seems this might also be the favorite snowman stamp set of the design team! You'll see quite a few of us used it. :-) But really, who can resist this jolly guy even if you have lots of snowman?! I stamped him in Jet Black Stazon onto a Whisper White oval cut with a retired oval die. I used a blender pen and the challenge colors to fill in his hat, scarf and boots. I also substituted Pool Party and Gumball Green for the two colors I didn't have.

I drew a faint trace of Pool Party with the blender pen around his body and face. It's quite faint but it helps give him slight definition and an icy snowy look. I also drew in some snowy hills with a Pool Party marker and added some Dazzling Diamonds to the snow...and to the trim of his hat!

To the inside, I added some scraps as well as this whimsical sentiment from More Merry Messages and the little birdie also from Snow Much Fun.
I just know you'll have snow much fun with this challenge too! LOL. Check out the rest of the design team for some fun inspiration and then join us over at The Paper Players...we'd love to see your creations! Just be sure to join in before Friday, December 7th at Noon (PT). Have a great week, friends!