Playful Petals for Paper Players #714

Happy Sunday.

It's the fabulous Elizabeth's turn to host our Paper Players challenge this week and the set that I chose to showcase makes it a very aliterative title – and I love a little aliteration!  I love this take on a bouquet from Pinkfresh Studios and was so happy to open it up and give it a little love for Elizabeth's challenge.  Here's a sneak peek:

Oh…. and here's Elizabeth's challenge:

I'm always happy to make thank you cards and, as we approach thanksgiving, I certainly look upon my life and realize I have much to be thankful for!  I decided to go with a clean and simple card and heat embossed the sentiment onto a piece of 4 x 5.25 card stock.  I stamped and heat set the imaage with gold embossing powder and then colored it using the matching stencils.  I then die-cut it the image and used the die to cut two more pieces out to use as backing so that I could pop it up without using foam.

Here's my card:

Such a pretty image and I chose some warmer colors to match the season!  I hope you will join us and play along with our challenge this week.  We would love to see your giving thanks creations.   As always, the design team have some fabulous inspiration for you:

• Ann
• Claire
• Joanne
• Laurie
• LeAnne
• Anne Marie
• Jolanda
• Eliz
• Jen
• Stef

On a personal note:

Well, we are still trying to finish jobs around the house and it feels wonderful when we get them done.  One of the jobs that got done this week was reach-in closets in the master bedroom.  The single fitting in the cupboards was from when the house was originally built – almost 40 years ago and the closets had mirrored sliding doors.  I have an aversion to mirrored sliding doors as you can only reach half the closet and, with the position of the single fitting in the original closets, it meant you couldn't get to half of the closet – even with the doors open.

So, we removed the fitting in both closets, painted the insides a wonderful rich, deep espresso color, put in new fittings with drawers and lots of hanging space, added glass panel bi-fold doors and some movement-sensitive lighting.  Oh… boy… what a difference!  In the new house we don't have walk-in closets, so we wanted to make the most of the reach-ins.  Here's a look at the before and after.  You can imagine how many layers of paint were on the original fitting.  The drawers didn't slide properly.  There was limited hanging space and the drawers had a slightly funky smell – not surprising after all that time.

Now…… let's take a look at what they look like – oh… and the old carpet has gone too and been replaced with the fabulous new flooring!   We still need to repaint the trim around the doors and you can see a small piece of skirting board lying on the floor.  We are replacing all the small skirting boards with more modern looking, much taller board…. but that will be an on-going effort!

Even Chilli and Charlie managed to get a look inside the new cupboards :-). Here's a photo with the doors closed.

Much better.   I'm sorry, but I just don't like sitting in bed and looking at myself in a massive mirrored door.  The new bi-folds give us much better access to the clothes and the glass panels still reflect the light coming in through the window.

One other thing I did manage to get done was finishing the decorations in the family room.  Ah…. I just love that fireplace.  I also am obsessed with the light up maple tree – so obsessed that I got two!  One for the sunroom and one for the living room.

Here's a photo of the fireplace now that it is finished – oh.. and ignore the random counter stool sitting next to the fireplace… that wasn't meant to be there!

I still haven't worked out what to do with it for winter and Christmas… I'm still thinking about that.  Also… I need to fix the lights on the garland on the left hand side!  Here's another view of the garland and the wreath:

I got the pears on the coffee table a couple of years ago and I just love them!

Oh… and can we talk about my favorite lamp……. I am obsessed with it.  It's hard to believe that it was originally released in the very early 60s.  Oh… and one more look at my favorite tree:

Well… that's enough for today:-) Still much more to do over the next two days as I have to finish the sunroom and the dining room.  As you can tell, I've been having a lot of fun and it's wonderful  to see in real life what I saw in my head when we first viewed the house.

I'll be back later in the week showcasing some cards I have made in my new craft room.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

card recipe:

• Stamps, dies, stencils. Playful Petals – Pinkfresh Studio