Proplayer, December Paper Trail blog hop

Welcome to the Paper Trail blog hop. First I must apologize if you have tried to do the hop & were interrupted by my absence.  You should be arriving from Karen's Inky Fingers blog if you are not starting here.  We are a small circular hop so you should be able to link right through us and back to your starting point.

For December we decided not to do Christmas paper.  As a paper crafter you are probably already getting tired of green, red & gold or blue, gray & silver.  We are going in another direction!  Pro-Player offers up some lovely dark papers including reds & blues and a touch of neutral. Dark stormy wintry colors.

Trying to think outside the box and yet stay with the Holidays, I saw the dark and dotted paper as an out of focus lighted background, almost like a very distant and dark lit up tree.  I decided to use it as a background on a 6x6 card with an ornament overlay from the Artbooking Cricut Cartridge cut from silver glitter paper.

I paper pieced the lighter blue, red and neutral papers behind some of the ornaments to help give them definition and then filled in those areas with liquid glass.  A stamped and popped sentiment from the Sparkle & Shine Workshop on the Go completes the card. 

In the stamp club I attend monthly we were playing with the sun ray cards.  I'm sure these have another name but I'm not clever enough to think of it.  I wanted to do one of them as well, so I created this card and attached "Congrats!" stamped with our Framework Alphabet and colored in with our alcohol markers.  My daughter graduates from college in less than two weeks, so I think this one is for her.

I hope you've enjoyed what I've done with the Proplayer papers.  Next in our order on the trail is Tracey, the Paper Crafting Princess.  Please continue on and check out what she has done!

Here's a view of the six designs.  The products I used are listed below and you can purchase them on my website by clicking on the item number. 

Products used:
X7172B - Proplayer Paper Packet
E1027 - Framework Alphabet
Z1829 - Black & Gray Glitter Paper
Z679 - Liquid Glass
Z1906 - Artbooking Cricut Collection
G1071 - Sparkle & Shine Workshop on the Go (Celebrate the Season stamp)

A Little Frost on the Paper Trail

Welcome to the Paper Trail blog hop.  This is a circular blog hop so no matter where you start you'll come around to that point if you just keep following the links.  If you are not starting here you must have come from Connie's blog, Scraps & Stories.

We are featuring the cool tones of the Close to my Heart "Frosted" paper pack this month, with icy blues and greys and a bit of snowflakes.  I made up a sweet card for winter with this pack.

My cute little chilly Willy is from a hostess only stamp set which features three adorable little penguins in different activities.  I've added silver Shimmer Trim and Bitty Clear Sparkles for an icy look.  And one of my favorite things about our papers is the zip strip, a half inch coordinating strip on each 12x12 patterned card stock.  I added one here to break up the background and *ground* my focal image. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Mary is up next on the trail. Just follow the link to her Road to Peace of Mind or Escape? to see more!

1-2-3 Craft! October

Welcome to our little blog hop.  You may have come from Mary's blog or you may just be getting started.  There are only four of us so we'll be quick!

Our 1-2-3 Craft design this month is from the CTMH publication, Make it From Your Heart Volume 1. We are using pattern #19 on page 42.  If you don't have this handy little book you can order yours for just $7.95 on my website.  As far as I am concerned it's a *must have* for scrappers and card makers.

The pattern in the book is a top fold card but I decided to reorient to a side fold.  One of the many many things I love about these patterns is their versatility.  There is no right or wrong, just be inspired!

For my color inspiration I went to Design Seeds on Facebook.  It's a wonderful page all about color combinations.  You can check them out here.  I translated their colors to Close To My Heart color pallet:  Sweet Leaf, Ponderosa Pine, Outdoor Denim, and Cranberry.  It may not be exact but it's the inspiration, remember?

Scandinavian Wishes Stamp of the Month

 I've continued on using the Scandinavian Wishes stamp of the month.  I'm having so much fun with it and finding lots of happy results.

To see what the other 1-2-3 Craft! Ladies have been up to with this pattern, check out Tracey's blog, Paper Crafting Princess and work your way back around.

Scandinavian Wishes Outside the Box

Another card for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  A fun way to exercise your creative muscles.

For this card I used the Close to my Heart Babycakes paper pack and Scandinavian Wishes Stamp of the Month. Although the theme of the stamp of the month is Christmas, I decided to try to think outside the box and came up with this house warming card.  Another way to make this set even more versatile!

This is the sketch that inspired my card.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch #24

Click on it to go see what others have made with this sketch to inspire them.  There are some really beautiful ideas there!

Products used for my card:
S1310 - Scandinavian Wishes
X7173B - Babycakes Paper Pack
Z1744 - Opaques Pearl Flourishes
D1525 - Casual Expressions (Congratulations)

Atlantic Hearts Meets Scandinavian Wishes

Playing along again with this weeks Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge I decided to use the Close to my Heart stamp of the month, Scandinavian Wishes.  I'm also sticking to the Juniper & Ruby that are featured colors in our soon to be released Holidays from the Heart mini catalog.  Here's my response to the challenge.

It doesn't show as well as I had hoped, but the heart is rimmed with glitter.  I love glitter, but glitter doesn't like to be photographed.  Ever notice that?

I went around and around on what color to use where for this card.  I cut pieces in one, two or three colors and kept mixing and matching them until I finally ended up with what you see here.  Then I decided that I would use some of the left over stamped scraps for the inside of the card.  I'd like to say "nothing goes to waste" but it's really only a very small part of what I didn't use.

Here is the sketch from Atlantic Hearts.  Why don't you give it a try?  It's really fun!

This is the full set of stamps included in the Scandinavian Wishes Stamp of the Month from Close to my Heart.  You can click on the photo to go to my website to order it if you wish.  It's just $17.95 or you can get it for just $5 when you place a $50 order!

Scandinavian Wishes

Patty Cake Babycakes Paper Trail

Thank you for stopping by on the Paper Trail.  You should have arrived here from Tracey's blog, The Paper Crafting Princess.  If you are just getting started, just follow the links and they'll circle you right back here by the end.

This month the Paper Trail Crafters are featuring Babycakes.  It's an adorable baby themed paper done in soft grey, yellow, brown & orange.  Such a nice alternative to the traditional pink & blue.

This month I did a card for you:

I rarely buy just the paper pack any more.  The Workshop on the Go has so much more to offer - and the stamps included with it are exclusive to each workshop.  I adore this "dream big" banner and the little flags that I stamped out and attached.

I also stamped the little stars to separate the flags and added a small sparkle. I gave the flags a little pop with a couple of layers of paper.  Just a little pop - not a big pop-dot pop.

My original plan was to put the buggy on the front of the card.  But the beautiful cards I see in my head seldom work out in reality.  So, the buggy was moved to the inside.  Since I colored with alcohol markers, which bleed through, the buggy was stamped separately and attached.


Below are the products I used for my card and by clicking on the item number you can go right to my website to order your own.  Next up on the Paper Trail is Linda at The Paper Taylor.  Enjoy!

Babycakes

Papers:
X7173B - Babycakes Paper Pack
X1410 - Colonial White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack

My Acrylix Stamps:
G1068 - Babycakes WOTG (included in the Workshop on the Go only)
M1027 - Baby Carriage
D1525 - Casual Expressions (Congratulations)

Inks:
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads:
Z2111 - Chocolate
Z2114 - Cocoa
Z2191 - Sunset
Exclusive Inks Markers:
Z2405 - Buttercup (regular & dark)
Z2419 - Cranberry (regular)

Embellishments:
Z1263 - Bitty Sparkles

Cricut Collection:
Z1686 - Art Philosophy

Sunshine Wherever You Go

I had so much fun playing along with the sketch challenge from Atlantic Hearts last week I thought I'd play again.  You don't have to be invited to play, so if you think having a sketch to inspire you is fun, check them out.  You can post your creation for everyone to see or just keep it to yourself.  If you know me at all you know I'm an attention hog so I always like to share.

I wanted to use the You Are My Happy special one more time before it becomes unavailable to you, my friends.  So I did this whimsical card suggesting you can just pick a sun off the line and take it with you.

I'm still playing with my retired papers and created a monochromatic theme for this card.  Stamps & inks are both currently available from my website.

This is the Atlantic Hearts sketch that inspired my card:

I stayed pretty true to the sketch but there is no right or wrong.  It's just a fun way to get the creative juices flowing!

My card will be available for you to make at my card buffet workshop this Friday.  Don't lie - I know you aren't busy so I hope you'll come.  All the cards you can make for just $15.  I have six new designs including Halloween, birthday, Christmas, this one (above) and 2 more.  Contact me to register!

Find the products I used for my card:
CC1025 - You Are My Happy - My Acrylix Stamps - Constant Campaign, Available until September 30, 2013
Z280 - Natural Hemp
X1410 - Colonial White Cards & Envelopes Value Pack
My Exclusive Inks:
Z2110 - Buttercup
Z2162 - Honey
Z2123 - Goldrush