Paper Players Challenge # 85 – Spring has Sprung!

Hi Everyone.

I know it may not feel  like Spring to some of us, but that didn't stop me yearning for it!  It is my pleasure to host the Paper Players challenge this week and it's a theme challenge.  The theme I chose?

I decided to do a little color blocking.  I have to say, color blocking is the one time when my SU clear stamping blocks come into their own!  It is so easy to create a fabulous, motled background for your image.  In this case I used Pear Pizzazz on the bottom and Bashful Blue on the top.  All I had to do was stamp my pad over the block, and voila…. An instant background.

I really wanted to take the sentiment off the page for this challenge.  When I do that, I always get frustrated because it no longer fits in my envelope.  This time, I reduced the size of the card and placed the sentiment off the card – and the card still fits into a normal A2 envelope.  Also… I think the smaller frame around the focal image works well!

Here's my card

I inked up my stamp using Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait and Cajun Craze.  A little Pretty in Pink worked for the flower in the lower left – just above the sentiment. 

For the base of the card, I ran it through my Big Shot using a Papertrey Ink embossing plate called Linen and Canvas. 

I mounted the focal image onto Peach Parfait card stock and the base is Pear Pizzazz.

So, why not pop along to the Paper Players and play along with us this week.  I can't wait to see what you do with this theme.

Why not visit the design team member blogs and check out their fabulous cards. 

• Ann
• Anne Marie
• LeAnne
• Lesley
• Nance
• Jen
• Heidi
• Sherry

On a personal note:

I had planned to do a blog update late last night… however, Lou and I got home at 1.30 am.  Yep.. a pair of dirty stop outs!  If I tell you we went to see the house, have dinner and watch a blues concert, you wouldn't be surprised that we got home at that time, would you!  Now… I love the blues…. I can thank my first boyfriend Alan for that.  He decided it was a good time to educate me about "real music" and made me listen to the earliest blues known to man.  I remember these incredibly scratchy recordings that he had copied on to reel to reel tape.  (Now I am showing my age!)  Delta Blues as I came to know it.  I remember sitting listening to the grittest vocals, with the grittest content and the most amazing rhythmic musical structure. I fell in love.  I am still in love. 

Last night we went to see Buddy Guy.  Eric Clapton (no wannabee as a guitar player) named Buddy Guy as the world's best living guitar player.   Now…. I have to tell you… Buddy Guy wasn't the best part about last night's performance.   And I LOVE Buddy Guy.  The musicians came on the stage and this young man joined them.  Dressed in skechers, khaki pants and a plaid shirt.  His blonde hair looked like a mop.  He took up the guitar and I thought….. oh for pete's sake… what do we have here.    OH….. BOY… If we ever needed a lesson in NOT judging a book by it's cover – we got one.

This young man, was…. in a single word…… GOBSMACKING.   He was about 1/4 way through his first song and I turned to Lou and said….. It's Frank White! (more about him later) but he sounds like Diana Ross.   He gave us both goosebumps.  At the end of his first song we were both in tears.  Yep.  Seriously. he was amazing.   I turned to Lou and said… this guy's voice has broken yet, he's about 3 years away from getting a driving license……..  we came to find out that he was, indeed, 13 years old.  YEP.  You heard me… 13 years old.  Lou calls him a reincarnation of Jimmi Hendrix.  I say that's an insult.  Jimmy could play the guitar – but he never connected the way this kid does.  He blew our minds.  Absolutely.  We heard from Buddy that he first saw him when the boy was 7 years old.  He said that he didn't believe it was him playing the guitar, so he followed the cord from his guitar and went behind the curtain to make sure that it really was him.

We came to find out that he was on the Ellen de Generes show at 6 years old.  His favorite TV program back then – Spongebob Square Pants.  How can someone who listens to Spongebob Square pants play the Beatles – technically perfectly – and then play the blues?  The boy has come a long way since then….. astonishing.  His voice still needs to break, and he needs to get out of the upper registers – but he can do things with a guitar that take my breath away.  Frank White was a musician from my home town that my first boyfriend, Alan, introduced me to.   Frank played a double neck – 18 string – Gibson guitar and had riffs and licks that I had never seen before.  This young man…. was even better… and he's only 13.   If you haven't checked out this young man… you really should.  His name is Quinn Sullivan and you can catch him here on the Ellen de Generes show at age 6.  Then you can catch him here.  Then you can catch him here opening for Buddy Guy a year ago.  Remember… the kid hasn't even grown facial hair yet!  That ladies… is a God given talent 🙂

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee