October Autumn Leaves, Wexford, PA
Change.
When the fear of change
challenges your thoughts
and stifles your actions,
look to the leaves of Autumn.
Marvel in their bold beauty,
and allow them to ignite your bravery.
Dare to embrace something new.
Confront your experience differently.
Welcome the transformation.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
I’m not pushing for this white stuff just yet! But….
Our challenge this week at The Paper Players is just that: Winter Wonderland, so I had a lot of fun creating this blustery scene for my Design Team Inspiration Card.
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For this card, I simply stamped the images from Recollections Winter Wonderland Clear Stamp Set onto watercolor paper. I then painted some blustery cold snow with turquoise blue watercolor paint and some other small details like the scarf, carrot nose, stars and a teensy bit of shading. While the blue paint was still a bit wet, I sprinkled on some silver embossing powder and heat set it. I then added a little silver bow and matted it in matching SU Tempting Turquoise card stock and adhered all to SU Pumpkin Pie orange card stock. I added a few turquoise snowflakes to the inside also. I love how blue and orange look together, and now I have a card ready to send to someone soon.
Hope you will join in on the Winter Wonderland cardmaking fun at The Paper Players this week!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
This week’s Paper Players Challenge #267 is a Clean & Simple Leaves Theme.
I needed a thank you card to send to Charlie‘s “Aunt” Tracy who babysat him while we were away at Krautfest last weekend. (After all, the sweet “Aunt” that she is, she even let him sleep in bed with her – and hog the covers – and woke up at 6am with him on a Sunday morning to go for a walk!) THANK YOU my dear friend Tracy!
So this was a great reason to turn my CAS leaves Paper Players Design Team inspiration card into a special thank you card.
Charlie in the Fall Leaves
Trying to keep it “clean and simple,” I chose the StampinUp “For All Things” stamp set with oak leaves that stamp in a watercolory kind of effect. I stamped them in Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, and Cajun Craze Ink colors, and stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip Brown Ink.
Charlie and I wrote her a note of thanks inside, where I also stamped some acorns, which should remind her of the acorns Charlie likes to chomp on our walks and that I like to crack and smash when I step on them to hear that awesome crunching sound.
You see – Tracy has been my walking partner for the past 20 years or so! We are neighbors with a path through the woods to each other’s homes now and were neighbors before these homes! Wow – another testament to how time flies! We have been walking together all this time and neither of us is skinny yet! LOL! But we sure do enjoy the company and the “therapy” our walks provide – both physical and mental.
So thanks, Tracy, for your great friendship.
And thanks to all of you for visiting today.
In all things give thanks, for there is so much to be thankful for!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi (& Charlie)
As a guest designer for The Paper Players, I think Sketch Challenges are my favorite. (I love a good color or theme challenge too! – – – Heck – I guess I just love a paper challenge – eh?!)
This week, Claire presented us with this sketch for PP264 that I really fell in love with, so my card is pretty true to the sketch.
I haven’t used the StampinUp “Too Kind” flower stamp in a while. I love it’s versatility and layers, so I did it in Autumn pumpkiny colors to pop off the black and (very vanilla) white background of the rest of the card.
What would you do with this sketch challenge? Join us! I’d love to see your interpretation and creative expression of this sketch.
For my card, I used the following “ingredients:”
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
This Wednesday, September 23, 2015 is the first day of Fall – the Autumnal Equinox – here in Mars and the rest of us in the Northern Hemisphere, so Happy Fall Y’All!
And this week’s Paper Player’s Challenge (#PP263) is to “Create a Fall Scene.”
I’ve been having warm thoughts of Fall as this past week has to have been the most gorgeous ever that I can recall in recent history. Seriously amazing here in Mars! Crisp, cool mornings and evenings, pure blue sunny, sunshiney days, and NO humidity! The birds seem happy, Charlie is in his glory, the windows and doors are wide open, and I even got hubby to sit out on the deck with me a little bit!
I am cherishing these glorious Fall moments!
For my Paper Players Design Team Inspiration card this week, I used:
Hope my paper crafting friends will join our challenge, and those who aren’t just enjoy the warm thoughts I send with this card and post!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
This week’s theme at The Paper Players is to make a “Clean & Simple” Beach-Themed card, so for my #PP258 design team inspiration card, I used a watercolor abstract I had made when I was at the beach recently.
I stamped some cute little seagulls on it from the StampinUp Wetlands Stamp Set. Then I simply added a black die-cut “hello” greeting, matted the scene in black, and put on a crumb cake card stock. Voila – a clean and simple “Let’s Get Beachy” card.
Hope some of you will join us this week at The Paper Players with your interpretation of “Let’s Get Beachy!”
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Hi All – I am on a little vacation this week. A fun trip to the beach with some girlfriends from GFC (Girlfriend Camp).
I thought it would be fun to send Hubby a little card while I am gone to let him know I miss him.
The challenge this week at The Paper Players is to make a CAS (Clean and Simple) Card with the theme: “Frames.”
The first thing I thought of was glass frames as Hubby and I are at that fun stage in life where we are always looking for our reading glasses and/or sharing each others.
And… After 33 years, my heart still does stop and skip a beat when he looks at me. ❤
Hence the design for this week’s Paper Players Design Team Inspiration Card.
Here’s what I used and how I made it.
Card Recipe/Ingredients:
I simly drew and watercolored a heart on a piece of watercolor paper, splattered it a bit, and stamped the sentiment on with Stazon JetBlack Ink.
I then die cut the glasses out and put a thin layer of Crystal Accents for a glossy accent on them. When that dried, I adhered it with small glue dots, and assembled the layers on the card.
I added a little line heart on the inside from StampinUp’s Hello Life Stamp Set.
So – Here’s looking at you, Merv. And if you look back, I might wink. 😉
Cheers and Hugs,
Jodi
I have always loved mailing cards to family and friends. It is such a simple way to bring such great joy.
Who doesn’t love receiving a special card or note in the mail amidst all the bills and “junk?”
Electronic communication is quicker and easier and more immediate (and I am all about that!), but knowing that someone took the time to choose, or even better yet make a special card, hand write a note, address the envelope, adhere postage, and take to the mailbox or post office, is quite flattering – right?
My BFF Jill makes the most amazing handmade cards, and I am always so thrilled when I find an envelope in the mail with her handwriting on the envelope.
I hope people feel that way when they receive a card from me.
I hope they feel the love.
I hope they appreciate the time and effort.
I hope it makes them feel special.
That is why it is such a thrill for me to be a Guest Designer for the Design Team at The Paper Players and make a card each week to inspire others to create and share this joy.
This week’s challenge is a sketch challenge based on the photo above. We get to make whatever we want that closely resembles this sketch inspiration.
I used this as an opportunity to create a “thank you” card.
There are so many people I could send this card to….
I truly believe one of the best ways to feel gratitude is to think of all the special sweet things people do that “make your day.”
It doesn’t have to be something big…
It could be a stranger’s smile…
a word of encouragement…
a compliment…
a gesture of kindness…
The happiest people are those that see and appreciate these cherished moments.
It is so good for the soul to take time to realize these sweet gestures, and even grander when you have the opportunity to reciprocate or give thanks and appreciate.
So I will look forward to sending this card to a special sweet someone who made my day.
And I hope I’ve inspired you in a small way to show gratitude, appreciate kindness, and cherish the moments.
I used the following materials to create this card:
Wishing you a Sweet Day!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
It’s time for another Paper Players Challenge Guest Designer Post. This week’s challenge (PP249) is a color theme using Real Red and Blue Shades of Pool Party and Indigo Blue.
My Dad’s birthday is coming up in a few days, and we are going to visit him today to celebrate, so I thought I would use the opportunity to create a birthday card for him.
Instead of using those colors in ink, I used them in creating shapes and cut-outs of some beautiful StampinUp designer series paper (DSP) with the StampinUp Star Framelits Dies.
I wanted to give it a bit of a “vintagy” look too, so I sponged each piece with Tim Holtz Tea-Dye Distress Ink. I popped the stars and sentiment (from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler) on with some dimensionals.
Looking forward to celebrating Dad’s birthday and Father’s Day with him today.
Love you Dad!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
This week begins my three-month journey as a Guest Design Team Member for The Paper Players. I have admired this group of talented individuals for some time now since discovering the hobby of stamping and card making and paper crafting. I have participated in their challenges over the past year or so when I had a chance, and I always appreciated the kind and fun feedback and encouragement. I’ve even been recognized and won a few times! When I got an email asking if I would be interested in being a Guest Designer to inspire others, I was extremely flattered. Also a little nervous! I decided to commit for three months, and see how it goes. If all goes well, I will extend to the six-month commitment requested. So you will notice I will be posting a card each Sunday morning now that will be an inspiration for others to participate in the weekly challenge.
This week, for my debut card as a Paper Players Designer, our PP248 Theme is Masculine Card. I decided to pull out my StampinUp “By the Tide” stamp set as I haven’t used the lobster stamp yet.
I had some navy blue designer series paper with nautical knots printed on it that I thought would go well, and embellished it with a jute knot to somewhat simulate the design of the paper. (Anyone know how to do that specific knot or what it really is?)
I used SU Cherry Cobbler red ink for the lobster and SU Crumb Cake for the sea grass, print and to sponge the edges of all the paper for a more “rugged” look. I finished it off with silver brads and a tan candy dots on all four corners.
So I’m off and running with ink and paper cutter and stamps as an official “Designer.” I hope some of my fellow stampers and paper crafters will play along in the challenges.
Happy Sunday!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
