The Challenge #83

Hello!  I'm back today at Always Playing With Paper and The Challenge #83, a Christmas Inspiration Challenge.

I loved the bright pops of color on the white packages in the photograph and really wanted to use the same colors for my card.  In fact, I have two cards for you today featuring the Be Merry Stamp and Die Combination from WPLUS9 Design Studio.  I love the big bold graphics of this set with its mixed typography and how the die is designed to go around the entire sentiment including all those fun little details like the lower swoosh of the "g". There are a couple more choices of greetings you can use in the same set as well.

Both of these cards were made with Stamper's Select White Cardstock for the bases. This is my very favorite cardstock of all that are out there.  It is #110, heavy weight, super smooth and stamps beautifully, no matter what kind of ink you choose.  All of Papertrey Ink's card stocks are just beautiful and the quality simply can't be beat. The greeting was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder which is my favorite embossing powder and and my favorite gold as well. *Ü*  I love that it has a warm rich tone to it.

Dawn created a card similar to this on the WPLUS9 Blog during the first week in October and I loved it.  There is set of stand-alone dies that were created to work nicely with this set called Woodland Basics and that is what Dawn used in her video tutorial.  I already had the Tim Holtz Holiday Greens Dies which are along the same lines, so I wanted to try those out first. I'm okay with how they look but I think the Woodland Basics are a better scale for the stamps so I'll be trying those in the near future.  I did some ink blending on watercolor paper in blues & greens then die cut them with the Holiday Greens Dies.

I stamped the flowers on Pure Poppy cardstock, heat set them, die cut them, then arranged them around my sentiment. The Be Merry Coordinating Dies have a few little flowers and stems in it and I used those in combination with the Holiday Greens die cuts.  I also have a sentiment stamped and heat embossed using WOW! Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder, but I haven't used it for a card yet.  I have to say, I really loved Dawn's card that she created using black cardstock and I definitely have it on my list of cards to make. I also have a few other stamps and dies that I want to try with this sentiment but I really love how large it is and the detail in the stamp as well.

I also wanted to try this card in some classic colors as well which is what I like to use for masculine cards.  I really like how it turned out. The sentiment was stamped on True Black, then die cut.  The greens are cut from gold foiled cardstock and the flowers on Pure Poppy Cardstock again. The greens on the cards were adhered with Ranger Multi Medium Matte and the sentiments with Thin 3D Foam Tape.  

Be sure to stop over at The Challenge to check out all of the Design Team's projects and inspiration!  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a great weekend everyone!