Stampin' Royalty Sketch Challenge #56

Trying to squeeze this in under the Stampin' Royalty Sketch Challenge for this week.  This is another minimally embellished card because it too is headed to either Operation Write Home or From Our Hearts. 

The stamps are retired from Stampin' Up! (the Big Bold Birthday set), but if you have My Digital Studio, they are available in that awesome software program.  The whole card is Concord Crush and Whisper White (patterned papers are from the In Color hostess DSP pack).

Another card that is simple, quick and easy to reproduce in quantity should you have a need to ;-)

Paper Player's Blog Hop!

I just had so much fun (and ended up following several new blogs LOL)!  The Paper Players are having their first Blog Hop today (several stops are giving away blog candy ) and I learned a lot in a short period of time about all the wonderful great products Stampin' Up! is offering in our Occasions Mini--and with Sale-A-Bration going on until March 30, what better time to shop (who doesn't love free?)

Go check out the Hop (and play along with the newest challenge--Anything Goes)...I'm off to make something now ;-)

Jingle Belles' Sketch Challenge

I loved the sketch challenge at Jingle Belles this week--nice and simple.

Many of the cards I will be making for these challenges will be sent either to Operation Write Home for the troops to use to send to their loved ones, or to From Our Hearts for the same purpose, so quite a few will be embellished simply if at all (the flatter the better for these purposes) and will have white, plain insides to maximize the amount of writing space for the sender's message.  This is one of the cards designed with that in mind--mainly retired Stampin' Up! products:  Always Artichoke cardstock (current) with Deck the Halls fabric, Tags for Christmas tag and inked edges that are Cranberry Crisp and True Thyme (all these are retired).  The Cherry Cobbler seam binding and library clip simply set off the single embellishment.
 
Here's the Jingle Belles' sketch that was the challenge, so I think I may have kept it too simple, but I am still happy with the result and I hope the serviceman/woman who uses it will be happy with it too:

Oldies for Bah! Humbug!

Bah! Humbug! has challenged us this week to use oldies--stuff we have had stashed away and perhaps even forgotten we had. So, the only "current" Stampin' Up! item on this card is actually the Chocolate Chip frame and the piece of Very Vanilla the trees are stamped on...

I've loved this Patterned Pines set from Stampin' Up! ever since it came out, but it is retired, as are the colors I used here--Cranberry Crisp and True Thyme were both In Colors for 2007 but I always loved them and couldn't wait to pull them out for this card.  The herringbone DSP is actually from a retired set called Autumn Meadows and the corduroy button/brad combo were Kraft and retired before Kraft was renamed Crumb Cake.  The bottom piece is a button and the top piece was a Kraft brad that I rolled and smooshed over the Cranberry Crisp pad because unfortunately I was unable to get re-inkers in 2007 for any of the In Colors before they sold out (won't make THAT mistake again LOL).  Really Rust and Cranberry Crisp were patted onto the Very Vanilla cardstock layer with plastic wrap--I LOVE that technique...

And I love how simple and easy this challenge was after the "cracker" challenge last week--ladies, thanks for giving us a bit of a break LOL!

Rest In Peace, Ariana Franklin -- "Mistress of the Art of Death"

I've had this series on my TBR mountain for a while now and just haven't gotten around to reading them...sadly, there will be no more written.  Ariana Franklin was the pen name of Diana Norman, a British journalist who won awards for her historical mystery series.  While researching for this post, I found several historicals written under her own name as well--they look so good I will be adding them to my list of books to read "someday". Diana died, aged 77, this week.