Inspired By All The Little Things #31

Hello everyone!  I took a few days off at the end of the week last week and the weekend off because I had lots of company, so I am scrambling to get back into my groove this week.  This is always helped along when I get new products to work with.  I was so excited when I saw the inspiration image for this week as I knew my order had shipped on Friday and was scheduled to be delivered on Monday (yesterday) so I would have a couple of new things that I really wanted to use for the Inspired By All The Little Things Challenge #31.  

I started by using a sheet of the soft, warm yellow paper from the Wild Rose Studio Harvest Meadow Paper Pack (a 6 x 6 paper Pack) and stamping the Holly Leaves from the Papertrey Ink Enclosed: Bell Stamp Set with Ripe Avocado Ink.  I did this by starting in the center of the paper and rotating it vs. rotating the stamps to get the leaves going all different directions and nicely spaced although I didn't do any kind of measuring.  My friend Yana is a whiz at this but this was my first try to do a pattern of this sort.  I actually surprised myself with how well it turned out.

Next I stamped the Holly Berries using Pure Poppy Ink and then stamped the Hero Arts Music Background in Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  Even though the paper is very thin, I still heat set that ink with Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder being careful not to hold it too long in one spot.  This prevents the pigment ink from smearing. Then I cut a panel of Pure Poppy Cardstock with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die, cut the printed paper I had made with the same rectangle, then re-aligned it back into the die to take about 1/8th inch more off two sides which gives me about 1/16th of an inch all the way around for the Poppy Mat. This is a favorite technique to stretch my dies even further.  

Before/After stamping the pattern

This card really mixes a lot of different brands of products for the finished card; Wild Rose Studio, Hero Arts, Papertrey Ink, Simon Says Stamp, Winnie & Walter and there's even a punch from SU!  I love to take the bits and pieces from any brand I have to get the exact look I want on my finished product.

Once I had the patterned paper created I just pulled in all the bits and pieces off my desk to create my card. The Poinsettia is from the Simon Says Stamp Winter Flowers Stamp & Die Combo, the banner and leafy branch are from Papertrey Ink's Songbird Dies, and even though there is a bird in that set that I really like, I felt it was too big for this project so I used my SU! punch for that.  I used Festive Berries Re-inker to paint the Poinsettia but I was going more for the color rather than the technique on that element.  Because I used Black Versafine for the sheet music, I wanted to also use that ink for the bloom.  A little Nuvo Crystal Drops in Ebony Black Gloss for the center and for the bird's eye finished out the details.

For not having any sheet music paper, I am pretty darn happy with how this came out.  The card base is made from Mossy Meadow Cardstock (SU!) and the banner and branch are both cut from some Antique Gold Shimmer Paper scraps. Be sure to stop over at the Inspired By All The Little Things Challenge Blog to see how everyone interpreted this challenge.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today.  I appreciate it when you take time to leave encouraging comments.  I hope you'll come back soon.