Make It Monday #255

Amy Sheffer's String Art Card

When I watched Papertrey Ink's 's Make it Monday #255 video this week, I fell in love with this card by Amy Sheffer who taught the technique. Somehow I had to find a way to make the technique my own. While looking for a certain color of sequins earlier, I passed up two spools of Silver and two spools of Gold DMC Metallic Thread... BINGO! I always love pink and gold and I knew this was what I was going to do for my challenge entry this week.

To start this card, I cut a Noted: A2 card base from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I masked off the scalloped edge then laid it in a shallow box and spattered Finetec Mica Gold Watercolor in Inca Gold on the front.  This card uses a #8 Silver Black Velvet Brush.  I set that aside to let it dry and went on to the String Art portion of the card.

I have 8 small medallion dies that I could swear came from Papertrey Ink, but I cannot find them on their website. I didn't realize at the time I received them that I would start a blog some months later and it would be important to know who made them.  I didn't used to keep track of that kind of thing.  If anyone recognizes these dies, please let me know what they are!  You have to use something that has holes in it or else make the holes for this technique that is also called Spirelli. It's really easy to do as Amy demonstrated for us and you can watch the video at Nichole Heady's Blog or at the Papertrey Ink YouTube Channel.  I had worked on something Spirelli years ago for a scrapbooking border set and used Iridescent Metallic Thread for that so I'm going to have to find that spool and put it with my others!

Once I had the medallions die cut, I used a Kabuki Brush to apply ink in Lovely Lady and Hibiscus Burst before doing the string art. I wanted some variation in the color of the blooms just as they would be in real life.  For the Spirelli art, my holes were big enough that a knot in the thread wouldn't have stopped it so I used a tiny piece of micro pore tape on the back side to hold the thread in place firmly so I could do the string art portion.  At the end of each flower, I tied it in a knot and taped it down with another tiny piece of micro pore tape. This held really well for me.

Using another Kabuki Brush (I have 5 - 1 each for the color families of Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue and Violet), I ink blended in Hawaiian Shores Ink ever so softly in the center of the front panel to give just a hint of a sky behind the flowers and then stamped the sentiment which is from Papertrey Ink's Friendly Flowers Stamp Set.  These Kabuki brushes give you a softness that is hard to achieve with an ink blending tool.

After that I cut 2 of the leafy stems from the Painted Petals Dies and another from a different set that I have.  Since I had gold spatter and gold metallic thread on my card, I wanted to cut the stems from gold cardstock as well to tie all of the elements together.  I adhered the flowers to the stems with a bit of Ranger Multi Medium Matte in one spot and then adhered the flower to the card front using Ranger Multi Medium Matte and Thin 3D Foam Squares.  A few sequins in Moonshine and Aquamarine finished this card.

This was such an easy card to create that I decided to make another one. This is a great one to send to my girlfriends to let them know I'm thinking of them and missing them since I don't live near any of them anymore.

For the flowers on the second card, I used Papertrey Ink's Tropical Teal and Amethyst Allure Inks with Simon Says Stamp Island Blue Ink for the flowers and a Hawaiian Shores Card Base.  The background panel was cut from Stamper's Select White with the Sunshine Layers Die Set for WPLUS9 Design Studios. I used Finetec Mica Gold Watercolor in Tibet Gold for the spatter and Hawaiian Shores for the soft area of "sky" behind the flowers.  Some Moonshine and Peacock Sequins finish it up.  The sentiment is one I often use from Altenew's Beautiful Day Stamp Set.

I've mentioned this before, but it probably bears repeating that I use Gold Metallic Poster Board from Hobby Lobby.  It's much less expensive and I can use all I want without worrying about the cost. I buy it when it's on sale 2/$1.00 and cut it into manageable pieces when I get it home.

Thanks for stopping by to share a quick card today.  I hope you'll stop over at the Papertrey Ink Blog and watch the video.