THE PAPER PLAYERS SKETCH CHALLENGE

Claire has presented us with a sketch challenge this week and the timing was perfect for me to send a graduation card to my nephew's oldest son. 

I turned the sketch on its ear for a horizontal card that would allow me to include an envelope to insert a gift card.

I attached a black stitched rectangle that was matted with gold cardstock. To this I layered iridescent red and gold vellum strips after gold heat embossing the sentiment. I die cut a strip of gold stars from an old die from I don't know who. I wanted to add a graduation cap and tassel so went to Pinterest for some ideas - great source! I cut a couple of small squares and attached a little tassel I made from red thread and mounted it with a gold brad. I glued white panels inside the card and die cut a small envelope from red iridescent vellum and attached some gold vellum stars to the top flap. That's it.

The other designers have prepared some wonderful examples of Claire's sketch - so have some fun with it! 

The Paper Players: PP646 - A Sketch Challenge from Claire

Cat News: A couple of nights ago my husband and I were relaxing on the patio catching up with each other's days and suddenly 4 small black and white kittens came through the fence! We had just the night before discussed that our little Chenin (named after a bottle of Chenin Blanc wine we were drinking one evening when we decided she needed a name instead of just Mama Kitty) had probably lost her kittens, since it had been at least 8 weeks since she was trapped and spayed. So, to suddenly have these 4 little cuties appearing was a bit of a surprise - the first words out of hubby's mouth were, "We're totally screwed!" Now begins the problems of what to do with these 4 new babes that were born feral. No way do we want 10 outside cats. Their mom has done a great job of keeping them safe and hidden from view.

But who is the mom? The other female that we thought had given birth was one we call Lady Jane Grey - white with lots of dark gray areas and spots. When we had her spayed at the same time as Chenin, we were surprised to get the message that only Chenin was lactating, because we were sure that both of them had been pregnant and given birth. Each time that the new kittens have arrived in the patio they've been accompanied by Lady Jane and last night she was engaging them all in play on the side lawn in the way that we have seen mama cats do. This morning they were all with her outside the gate and she was keeping her eyes on them, while Chenin was not really paying attention to them. So, it appears that Lady Jane is their mother, which is quite a surprise!

THE BEACH LIFE

I kind of waited until the last minute to make my "One Layer Wonder" CAS card for this week's The Paper Players #PP645, so when it wasn't really meeting my expectations, it was too late to turn back! I think one-layer cards are harder than most because once you commit your ink to the paper you can't save it by die cutting and layering. It's one shot!

I started this card with a row of flip-flops from Lawn Fawn's "Simply Summer" stamp set, inked with Memento "Tuxedo Black" and colored them with Copic markers. Then I tore a piece of paper and masked off a rectangle and masked the flip-flops and blended Altenew "Rocky Shores" ink and overprinted stipples with the same ink and an Alexandra Renke "Accentuation - Areas" stamp. I overprinted the sentiment from Hero Arts #CM317 "Color Layering Sea & Sky". Then I folded the card at the top and realized it just didn't look finished. I had set the image too far up on the card and the sentiment didn't quite look right so I added a shell and embossed a couple of lines from the back of the card to balance things out. 

Jaydee's challenge deserved more than this, but I'll leave it to all of you to fill in for me, and next week I'll start a little earlier. Go see the wonderful inspirational cards from my fellow design teamers! 

The Paper Players: PP645 - A Clean-and-Simple Challenge from Jaydee

FRIGHT NIGHT

Mid-June and time for a mid-month reminder to get your Halloween cards in for the June Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! Only 19-1/2 weeks until the Magic Witching Hour! If you have been following along with us, you're over half-way to having all of your Halloween cards finished and ready to send out.

I had originally intended to pursue my idea about a layered cake for this card, but I really ran short of time this week and opted for a design inspired by a couple of other challenges. I've had this "hound of hell" die from Whimsy Stamps ("Monster Parade Die Set #WSD488) that I've looked for an opportunity to use. I started with the current sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches #590 with three horizontal bands bleeding off on the right side of the card. After preparing a white card base by stamping a Tim Holtz cobweb on it with PTI "Soft Stone" and then stamping it a second time on a die-cut stitched rectangular panel. I then layered three scraps of printed papers over the front panel, attached it to the card base with dimensional foam, and slipped the banded papers under the top panel to continue to the right edge. The final step was my hound die cut from black card stock.

While I didn't follow the June mood board, you're welcome to come up with your interpretation, or anything Halloween. It's a fun challenge!

 Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: June Anything Halloween

This was my jumping-off point for my card this time around:

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #590 - A Sketch by Kim

And for good measure, I'm also entering my card in the Inkspirational Challenge #291 - "Seasonal":

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #291 - SEASONAL (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

Added June 24, 2023:

SUNDAY HELLO

Hello! Here we are back at Sunday and ten days into the month of June - how did that happen? It's color week at The Paper Players and our beloved Anne Marie has chosen, for Challenge #PP644, Lost Lagoon, Lemon Lolly, and a neutral for us to play with. I chose to go with gray as my neutral.

My card base and Tim Holtz flower dies are all PTI cardstock, color "Ocean Tides". I die cut a pale gray linen-textured rectangle, stamped the sentiment with PTI "Ocean Tides", and mounted it to the front with a darker green mat. Over this I layered the Sizzix/Tim Holtz #661808 die cut flowers. Before gluing the first image I used pale yellow cardstock for the flowers and used a VersaMarker to darken portions of the stem and leaves. I also did this with a second bloom and laid it over the first one with some tiny bits of dimensional foam and added three clear gemstones that I had colored yellow with a Copic marker.  

 

The Paper Players: PP644 - A Color Challenge from Anne Marie

Now it's your turn - I look forward to seeing what you come up with! But first check out what all of our talented card designers have created with Anne Marie's light-hearted colors.

It was suggested that I also link this card up to the new challenge at Just Us Girls#683 - Word Week "Hello". 

"Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls Challenge #683 - Word Week

On a personal note, things have been in a bit of turmoil at our home due to some "improvements". I added the italics because we're at the point where it's hard to see that things are improving! Last year at about this time we had our front yard completely torn out to make way for a more water-wise landscape with native plants, grasses, and rocks. But in the middle of the tearing out our heat pump condenser broke down and we had to replace it and the pump, so we basically ran out of money. We've lived with just dirt for a year now, but finally on Wednesday we had men and machinery cutting trenches and setting lines for an irrigation system. We've hand-watered a very large lawn and surrounding flowers for more than 35 years and it was time to change all of that. Now it's still all dirt but we have irrigation black plastic pipes coming up and getting ready for bender board, sprinkler heads, drip lines, and a much smaller area of sod. I have a bunch of 1-gallon containers of ornamental grass, yarrow, and manzanita plants waiting in the wings to be planted soon, along with a couple of small trees. This won't complete the landscape, but it will fill in near the entry and the rest will be mulched until the fall or next spring when we refill the $ coffers.

In addition to all of the above, we had to replace the living room carpet because of all of the cat dramas. We chose to replace it with wood-textured luxury vinyl planks. The installers had to remove all of the wall base to slip the planks under and we've lived with gaps between the floor and wall boards for a couple of months, so yesterday a handyman came in to install shoe toe to the base - now I have to get busy and repaint all of the wall base and toe and finally pull the living room back together. I get weary with all of the half-finished projects!

BUT WHO'S COUNTING?

Well, I am because he'll always be my "little boy"! 

How fortuitous that this week's challenge at The Paper Players is "It's a Man's World" and it's also my son's 49th birthday! The lovely and talented Ann is this week's hostess, and she has selected a masculine theme for our cards. I'm pumped!

There's no stamping anywhere on this card - it's all die-cuts and cut-outs. I started with a white card base and adhered a brown stitched rectangle to the face. I generated the sentiment on my computer and printed it directly on a piece of Alexandra Renke printed paper. Then I matted that with a die-cut red-orange stitched rectangle and added both layers over the brown layer. The numbers are from PTI and I cut them from both brown and red-orange card stock, offsetting them slightly to make them pop out from the background. Finally, I attached them and the Tim Holtz cut-out to the card. 

The Paper Players: PP643 - A Theme Challenge from Ann

Let's see what you can create for a man in your life - it seems tailor-made for Father's Day cards. Take a look at what the rest of the design team has created!

TWO OLD BATS - JUNE CHALLENGE

We're closing in on Halloween now and it's time for the June Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge! We have a great mood board for you with lots of ideas to choose from.

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: June Anything Halloween

I decided to bake some cupcakes for you. I tried to bake a cake and I couldn't quite pull it off with the supplies on hand!

I had a black card base with a stitched die cut panel attached and the sentiment was already heat-embossed with red-orange embossing powder and edge-punched table cloth. I had stamped and heat embossed the cobweb because I had intended to use it as sugar work on top of the cake. Well, the cake didn't quite come up to my expectations after overworking it for a what felt like an entire day. So, I turned out the light and poured myself a glass of chardonnay and went back at the card this morning. I scrapped the cake and pulled out some other scraps and print and fussy cut some birthday cupcakes, covering the candles with candied toppers like in the photo. Some fussy-cut caramel candy corns finished everything off.

So, more and more crafters have been showing up to join in our fun - you have a month to do a card for our June challenge. Go see what the other designers have come up with as inspiration for our current mood board!