Thank you for joining us for the November Pals Blog Hop. We are thankful you are visiting today and hope you enjoy our thank you inspired projects.  You should have just left stop #1 on the Pals Hop:  Nicole Watt at Pixel Maven’s Retreat.  If so, you are in the right spot.  If you get off track, the full blog lineup below will help you move along from blog to blog so you see all of the amazing creations. 

With all of the fall and holiday cards that are prevalent this time of year, how about a little “shabby chic thank-you” for a change of pace?  I pulled out all the stops on this one, as it is going to be hand-delivered to a very special person.  The shabby chic style, while giving  the appearance of age and wear, still has an aura of softness and opulence.  So I distressed, embossed, and added pearls to my heart’s delight.  Enjoy!

The Stampin’ Schach Design Tips:  Shabby Chic
This finished card measures 5-1/4″ square.

• Flower power! Afternoon Picnic Designer Series Paper and the Fancy Flower Punch were used to make the roses which adorn our shabby card.  After crafting the roses, I curled the edges using a small round file. A Splitcoaststampers tutorial for similar roses can be found HERE.  Although paper roses are not great for mailing, ribbon rosettes are.  The one on this card was made from Crumb Cake Seam Binding. If you would like to mail your card, three of these would be a viable option.  A few leaves, punched out with the Bird Builder Punch, complete the look.

• Flourish and pearls! The Flourish from Everything Eleanor was inked with VersaMark and stamped directly onto the Afternoon Picnic Polka Dot Paper.  It was then heat embossed with White Stampin’ Emboss Powder.  A few Basic Pearls were added for fun.

• Snipped and curled! The sentiment from Sweet Essentials was inked in Baked Brown Sugar and stamped onto Very Vanilla card stock.  One end was snipped into a “V”, while the other was double curled using a small file.

I hope you enjoyed today’s card.  If you are in need of a masculine thank you card, don’t forget this Walk in the Wild card I made last week.  You can find the details HERE.

I hope you enjoyed today’s card. Won’t you let me know in today’s comment.  Your comments are very  important to me.  Of course, if you ever have a question about the cards I create, or the techniques I use, I am only an email away!

The next stop is Katy McGloin at Just Fun Stamping, stop # 3 on the Pals Blog Hop! Thanks for visiting.  Until next time…

Blog Hop Line Up List: 

1. Nicole Watt at Pixel Maven’s Retreat
2. Ann Schach at The Stampin’ Schach
3. Katy McGloin at Just Fun Stamping
4. Carmen Sublasky at The Creative Stamptuary
5. Shirley Sumption at Look at my Cute Stuff
6. Mary Fish at Stampin’ Pretty
7. Connie Lindsey at Crafting a Joyful Life
8. Michelle Gleeson at Stampinmojo
9. Shannon Hokanson at Paper Works
10. Colleen Mollema at Uncanny Crafting
11. Lynn Kolcun at Stamping With Avery’s Owlery
12. Kerry Willard Bray at Stampgoodness.com
13. Debbie Mageed at Secret Stamper
14. Amy L. Lazzell at Just A Thought…Cards by Amy
15. Lisa Davis at Cherry St. Paper Treats
16. Shannon Jaramillo at ezpeasycards
17. Susan Itell at Simple Stampin’
18. Martie Pollard at The Crafty Bandit
19. Donna Kopenski at craftycardmaker
20. Rae Harper at Wild West Paper Arts
21. Sherrie Gross at Stampin’ Sunshine
22. Lisa Ann Bernard at Queen B Creations
23. Linda Callahan at Stampin’ Seasons
24. Diane Roberts at Score at Four and a Quarter
25. Brian King at Stamp with Brian
26. Beth Beard at My little craft blog
27. Debbie Crowley at expressivelydeb…
28. Dawn Tidd at Tiddbits from Dawn
29. Sue Becker at Sue’s R n R Stamping
30. Nancy Gleason at My Stampin Space
31. Peggy Noe at prettypapercards
32. Marlene Heringer at So Many Toys in Schertz

 

Stamp Sets:  Everything Eleanor, Sweet Essentials, Gorgeous Grunge; Inks: VersaMark, Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar; Designer Series Paper:  Afternoon Picnic; Card Stock:  Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory, Baked Brown Sugar;  Tools: Big Shot, Beautifully Baroque Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Paper Snips, Bird Builder Punch, Hexagon Punch, Fancy Flower Punch, Heat Tool, White Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Distressing Tool;  Glitz and Glam:  Basic Pearls, Crumb Cake Seam Binding, Hemp Twine (retired)

It’s Sunday…and time to play with The Paper Players!  This week the Players are treating us to a wonderful trio of colors:  Crushed Curry, Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango.  I decided these would be the perfect colors for a fall card, so I pulled the Harvest of Blessings set out, and inked up this image for the first time.  Enjoy!

The Stampin’ Schach Design Tips
This finished card measures 5-1/2″ wide by 4-1/4″ long.

• Layered Label! I inked and stamped the Harvest of Blessings image three times in each of the challenge colors.  The Tangerine Tango version served as the base, while I snipped out the Chocolate Chip image for the words.  The Crushed Curry Corn was snipped out and adorned with pearls.

• Snipped leaves! Leaves from Gently Falling were inked in Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango and Crumb Cake, and over-stamped with Chocolate Chip.  I introduced Crumb Cake as a neutral for the pin oak leaf.  I tried inking it up with Chocolate Chip and stamping off, then overstamping with Chocolate Chip again, but I just did not like the look…hence, the introduction of a neutral.

• Bowl me over with the bow! A double Crumb Cake bow, stamped with Chocolate Chip speckles courtesy of the Gorgeous Grunge set, balances the leaves on the left.

I hope you enjoyed today’s card. I like this trio of colors for fall.  I also like Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, and Always Artichoke.  What about you? Do you have a favorite fall color combination? Won’t you let me know in today’s comment? Your comments are important to me.  Of course, if you ever have any questions about the cards I create or the techniques I use, I am only an email away.  Until next time…

(Note to Chellie B:  I use Sticky Strip to apply the Burlap Ribbon.  I apply the strip to the paper first, remove the backing, and then apply the ribbon.  I hope this helps!)

One of my goals, now that the dog show season is behind me for a few months, is to participate in challenges.  When I saw The Friday Mashup was having a Wildlife Challenge, I thought…”Oh, boy! This is right up my alley!”  However,  I had just made a wildlife card using the Moose image from Walk in the Wild for The Paper Players Wildlife Challenge.  Other than the retired Dasher stamp, I didn’t have another moose-deer-elk stamp that I felt was “challenge-worthy”. Then I remembered a vintage Stampin’ Up! set from 2003…A Beautiful Season.  I was not stamping in 2003, but this is one of the sets, found at a yard sale,  that started me down the path to stamping.  I hope you enjoy today’s card.

1. Create a project with a “Game/Woodsy type Animal (Deer, Moose, Turkey, etc). “
2. Create a project using a “Woodgrain look. “
3. Or Mash it Up and create a “project with Woodgrain and a Woodsy animal image. “

The Stampin’ Schach Design Tips
This finished card measures 5-1/2″ wide by 4-1/4″ long.

• What was I thinking???  I wanted to create an elegant card, so I inked the image in VersaMark, and heat embossed it using Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder.  I kept it simple, using three simple pearls as an embellishment.  I used Gold Foil and Brushed Gold for the matting.  Alas…when will I ever learn that gold embossed cards never photograph well.  Since I was entering this card into a challenge, I wanted a good picture.  In real life, it was a gorgeous card.  But, in the pictures it looked hideous.

• Back to the drawing board!  I stamped the image in Soft Suede and replicated my original design.  I thought… “Hmmm…I’ll just keep it simple.”  But deep down inside of me,  I felt that something was missing.  

• Third time is a charm….maybe.  I removed the image panel, and added Burlap Ribbon, a few feathers from my stash, and a Naturals Designer Button with Hemp Twine bow.  Plus I added a little Dazzling Diamond snow on the trees.  

• The final result was earthy and organic…but I still wasn’t sure that I liked the result.

•  A Goldilock’s card!  Back to the drawing board…again.  I pulled off the feathers and large button, and added a smaller button with a Linen Thread bow.  Finally, a card that was not too simple, and not too busy…but just right!

And there you have a glimpse into why it takes me forever to make a card!  Which version of the card did you like the best?  Won’t you let me know in today’s comment? And remember, if you ever have a question about the cards I create or the techniques I use, I am only an email away.  Until next time…