Season's Greetings for Paper Players #220
02 November 2014
Hi Everyone. Happy Sunday.
It's the fabulous LeAnne's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and she has a theme challenge for us.
Well, we all know that vintage isn't my style, so this challenge took me a little out of my comfort zone. I really wish I was more like LeAnne. She manages to move between vintage, CAS, bold and shabby chic with an amazing ease. Me? Not so much so!
I did remember that I had received some free papers a number of years ago when I bought a British stamping magazine and realized that they had a vintagey feel and would be perfect for this challenge. I hadn't intended to make a Christmas card but, as the papers were Christmas-sy - then a Christmas card it would be. :-)
I began with one of the pieces of paper and ran it through my Big Shot with a tag die. I backed it with some of the Stampin' Up! Vanilla coaster board as the paper is printer-paper thin and I knew it wouldn't hold up as a tag on the card. The coaster board gives it a little heft and means that it will survive a trip through the postal system!
I then used my stitched rectangles die to cut out another piece of the paper and adhered it to an Always Artichoke base. I used yet another piece of the paper and die cut some holly leaves. It's rather a pretty music themed paper, but I needed something more, so stamped the leaves from the accompanying stamp set over the die cut. All that was left was to stamp the sentiment in Antique Gold embossing powder and add some sparkly berries. Here's my card:
When I adhered down the leaves, I made sure not to glue up to the edges so that I could curl the edges of the leaves a little. I think it adds just a little bit more interest. Once I had completed my card I realized that the leaves were a little too "flat" and that holly leaves are shiny, so I took out my Wink of Stella glitter pen and went over the leaves to give them a little shine!
The design team have created some fabulous cards again for your inspiration this week. I hope you will pop along to their blogs and then come back and play along with us. We'd love to see what you create this week.
On a personal note:
It's cold and bleak and windy and I'm beginning to feel like I am back on the Yorkshire Moors. The leaves have all gone off the trees and the fact that we can now see the houses down the street from the back of our garden reminds me of why we put in the fabulous River Birches earlier this year :-) Mind you, we aren't out in the back garden much in winter, so privacy isn't as much of an issue. It's the time of year when we change out the curtains and pillows to warmer tones and put away the cool greens knowing that we won't be taking them out again for at least 6 months!
I was saying to Lou this morning that I think I am at the stage in my life where I need to live in a place where winter doesn't last from the end of October through to May:-) He wanted to put away the furnishings in our screened in porch but, I looked ahead to the weather and found it was going to be in the mid-50s for a couple of days next week...... warm enough to spend 15 minutes or so sitting in our porch :-) I know that we will have to put them away after that as the temps will be getting to 40 as a high. Now that is just a little too cold to sit outside :-)
We have had multiple visits from a rafter of turkey's these last few days. I managed to get a shot of a couple of them this afternoon when I was photographing my card. They really blend into the fall colors of the grasses and are loving eating the seeds from the flowers and grasses that we planted.
When I went into the screened in porch today to let the cats have a run, all of the cats - including the 20# big girl's blous Bailey run in the opposite direction of the turkey's and pretend they don't exist. Not Charlie. No. He saw them and took a running jump towards the screen as they weren't too big for him!!!!! Even though he is considerably smaller than he, they decided to do an exit stage left :-)
I'll be back tomorrow with an update on the Cards for a Cause card drive. In the meantime warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.
Hugs
Jaydee