Papertrey Ink - Celebrating 2016

Today we are marking the 10th year of Papertrey Ink and there was no question in my mind which set I would choose as my favorite from 2016; Tulip Time, which was designed by Betsy Veldman!  I knew lots of folks would use this set as a favorite so I had to think of a way to make my project stand a bit apart from the others you'll see.

Earlier in this 10 day celebration Laurie Schmidlin created a bold card with some score lines on it for a bit of texture.  It was such a lovely idea and one that I tend to forget about.  My first experience with score lines was in a class I took at Online Card Classes and was taught by my now friend, Laurie Willison who was on the Papertrey Design team  I have a small scoring board that I use most of the time, but I still have the big 12 x 12 inch Scor-Pal and that is a lot easier to do this type of technique on.  I wanted my diamonds to be closer together than I did on a previous card posted during this week's festivities.  That particular card was done with a score line every 2 inches but today's background was done with score lines every 1 inch.  To start, I score the first line on the diagonal from the upper left corner to the lower right and then made the score lines every inch in either direction.  Then rotate it 90 degrees and do it again every 1 inch and that will give you your pattern.  You can vary the width of space in between the score lines to get bigger or smaller diamonds or squares.  Doing straight lines would give you a checker-board pattern.  I happen to really like diamonds (all kinds) so that was what I figured out how to do.

In real life and on paper, Pink Tulips are my favorite.  These were stamped with Lovely Lady, Hibiscus Burst and Raspberry Fizz inks.  For my background panel, I did a bit of ink blending with Berry Sorbet Ink and then misted the panel all over with Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist and let it dry.  I used my Mini MISTI to stamp the sentiment in Versamark and heat emboss it with Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I wanted to add a little "jewel" at each point where the lines intersected except where my sentiment is so using some Ballerina Pink Liquid Pearls, I placed just a dot at each of those points.  Then I sprinkled it again with embossing powder and heat set it.  I couldn't think of any other way to get gold since I didn't have Gold Liquid Pearls and I'm happy with how this worked.

On the yellow tulip card, I blended Lemon Tart Ink, misted with Iridescent Gold and used White Opal Liquid Pearls for the intersecting points. Once my background panels were completely dry, I cut them with a large stitched rectangle die and then mounted them to Top Folding A2 White Card Bases made from Stamper's Select White.  Then I could add my tulips to the card fronts. The Yellow Tulips were stamped in Lemon Tart, Bright Buttercup and Summer Sunrise.  I used Thin 3D Foam Squares to attach them to my background panel. You'll have to trust me that this card is just gorgeous in real life with all the golden shimmer and shine.

Today's post is the most significant for me as I became fully immersed in Papertrey Ink, it's products, it's forum and all the challenges that go on each month of the year during 2016. February is always special as it is the anniversary month for Papertrey with lots of activities, revisiting older sets, seeing new products, getting the annual "anniversary discount" which typically corresponds with how many years they are celebrating.  Papertrey had a huge pre-anniversary sale in January and the warehouse staff is just now starting to catch their breath so there is a delay in all the big announcements for this year, but it won't be too many more days before we get to see and hear all the news. Be sure to stop over at the Papertrey Ink Blog and see the gorgeous projects! There are a ton of them from customers and Design Team Members alike. Have a great week everyone!

I'll be linking this up over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the theme of "Fantastic Florals".