Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone  Happy Sunday.

I am very late with my Paper Players post today.  I set the publish time and date for Monday instead of Sunday!   

It's the fabulous Claire's turn to host our challenge this week and she has a sketch for us.  It's a great sketch, too!

I looked at the background and thought it would be a great sketch to bring out some of the new DSPs I bought.  I rarely buy DSPs these days, but fell totally in love with a new set from My Minds Eye called Blush.  It's a set of pale blush, blue and gold papers and some of them have gold foiling.  Gorgeous papers and I couldn't resist them.

I began with my focal element - a multi-layered stamp from Altenew called Build a Flower: Rose.  It is a beautiful stamp set and I've seen it stamped in everything from grey to purple - and it looks wonderful every time.

Here's a closeup of the rose and the little flowers that I stamped to go behind it:

I stamped the flower and the leaves and then die-cut them.  Then, I had to think about the background.  The background choices were so very out of character for me that Lou said, "wow.  That isn't YOU!"  He was right, it isn't me, but I love it. :-)

I went with a polka dot AND a striped DSP for the card.   The one thing that I forgot when I was putting the card together, was to cut the bottom of the vertical element short!   Arrrrggghhh... Sorry, Claire.  It was only when I loaded my card onto the PP blog that I noticed.

Here's the full card:

The amazing thing about this rose is that, even though the background papers have strong patterns and color, the rose holds its own and I love the pink against the blue, gold and white.

I stamped the second of the rose layers onto a gold envelope and it still looks fabulous without all the other layers of the stamp.  I really think this is one of the most beautiful stamps that Altenew have issued and know that it will be getting a lot of use.

I hope you will join us and play along with Claire's challenge this week.  As usual, if you are looking for some inspiration, you can find some amazing creations from our design team:

• Claire
• Joanne
• Laurie
• LeAnne
• Nance 
•  Sandy
•  Deanne
• Jan
• Annie

On a personal note:

The weather has been in the mid to high 70s the last couple of days, but we had a storm yesterday and the wind was really strong.  Consequently, it removed a lot of leaves from the trees and the woodland and wetland now look very autumnal.  The grasses in the wetland have lost their green and are various shades of brown.  I love the changing seasons right outside our window.

It also meant that we changed out the curtains from the sage of spring and summer to the red of autumn and winter.  I also did a little shopping at Pier 1 and found these fabulous blown glass pumpkins that are battery lit.  They come in shades of orange, brown and white/gold.  I bought two white/gold ones for the dining room, along with a lovely little arrangement in a glass vase that lights up and sparkles beautifully at night.

As I take the photos of my cards on the buffet in the dining room - right where the flowers and pumpkins are, I thought I would share a photo of the little arrangement with you.

You can imagine how pretty they are at night with their soft light.  Oh... and if you look closely, you can see my favorite chandelier above the dining room!   We put that in just over a year ago.  When we last visited the UK we stayed at a country house hotel that had a similar light in the dining room and we both fell in love with it.  I was so surprised to see a similar one at Pottery Barn a few months later.  We waited for a sale and then bought it.  I cannot tell you how many times Lou used profanities when we were hanging each of the crystals individually!!!  But it was totally worth it :-)

Here's a photo of the card in front of the flowers and pumpkins, before I cropped it for the card shot.

Still loving that rose :-)

I'm off to spend some time in my craft room today.  If I do, and can manage to make some cards, I will be back later in the week with some cards and photos to share with you.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

• Stamps:  Build a Flower: Rose - Altenew
• Inks:  Altenew
• DSP:  Blush - My Minds Eye