The Paper Players #350

Today is a quick, no frills post for you because I am about to run out of time to post an entry to The Paper Players Challenge #350 which is a sketch challenge this week.

Yesterday's mail brought my Bouquet of Thanks Bundle from the most recent Simon Says Stamp Release and I knew right away that I wanted to use it for this sketch.  That particular bundle came with the Thanks Die, the Bouquet Die and the stamp set.

I've been practicing this week with my Copic Markers and I wanted to continue with that trend as I am getting a little more comfortable with them each time I use them. At this time, I think my issue is with the paper I'm using.  

For the style of this image, I stamped it using Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink.  I used a single color marker on the stems (G24).  For the blooms, I used 4 colors; RV00, RV52, RV63, and V12. As in my other projects this week, this is very simple Copic coloring.  I'm trying to get more comfortable with the way the markers move and feel on the paper, so I just wanted to keep it simple. To that end, I ordered some X-Press It Paper made specifically for Copic Markers. I've used some super silky paper at CHA this year in the Spectrum Noir Booth and I'm looking for something that feels similar. I'll have to let you know later if it worked out or not.  Once I had it all colored, I went over all of the flowers with Wink of Stella Clear Shimmer then die cut it with the coordinating die.

To assemble my card, I started with a Top Folding Card Base made from Lavender Moon Cardstock. I die cut the MFT Striped Sentiment Cover Plate from True Black Cardstock and popped out the cut outs so the Lavender Moon could show through.  I adhered the flowers with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  I cut the "Thanks" from a scrap of iridescent white cardstock and a few sparkling confetti and iridescent black sequins finished off my card.

I'm going to link this card up over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for a second entry this week as well.  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you'll come back soon.

This card won A Cut Above at The Paper Players

Simon Says "Anything Goes"

It feels like it has been forever since I got to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Challenges but today's card was made especially for this week's challenge.  I am pretty smitten with this stamp and die bundle from Avery Elle called Floral Bouquet. I almost never use black ink, choosing instead heat embossing with Antique Gold Embossing Powder, but Copic markers work better with Copic friendly black ink.  I have a particular one that I like to use -- Simon Says Stamp Intense Black. It was formulated to work with Alcohol Markers such as Copics. I have two other images already inked up and ready to be colored today with some lovely pink shades.  

This is pretty simple Copic Coloring with no special techniques.  I am not a master colorist and I've had almost no training. Most of what I know is from watching others on YouTube.  I'm also not trying to achieve perfection, I just want something that looks pretty.  It doesn't need to be photo realistic.  

I basically used 2 colors of green for the leaves and 3 for the blooms + black for the Stamens. The part of this card that really helps it pop is the My Favorite Things Striped Sentiment Cover Up.  I die cut it from Stamper's Select White and mounted it to a Deep Indigo Top Folding Card Base.

The Sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp and is the Painted Hello Die.  I cut four of them and glued them on top of each other to make a thick embellishment.

This is it for today.  Thank you so much for stopping by to see my card.  I hope you'll come back soon.  

Summer 2017 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

I am popping on here today with a quick card for the Summer 2017 Coffee Lover's Blog Hop. My cards don't get any easier than this one. I'm not linking any products but if you have a question I can sure answer it.

I stamped and heat embossed the images from the Tim Holtz Coffee Time Stamp and Die Set (which also happens to include a coffee themed embossing folder) using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I cut that panel down using the 2nd largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die. I did the most basic coloring with Copic Markers and I didn't even keep track of the colors. I finished off by using some Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen on the colored parts for some shimmer and shine. Next I cut another panel from Kraft Cardstock in the MFT Blueprints 15 die and then ran it though my die cut machine using an embossing sandwich.

After that I went over the surface of the embossed paper with some Nuvo Embellishment Mousse in Indian Gold.  I just used my finger and worked with a very small amount of product at a time to apply it to my embossed background. I figure I can always add more, but I can't take it away.

I adhered the front panel to the background panel and then that panel to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I'm planning to send this card to my friend, Lorie, as we're already talking about another coffee date soon.  We have to make the most of our time in the summer because kids and her students keep her very busy during the school year.  Be sure to check in over at the Coffee Loving Cardmaker's Blog to see all the projects along the the hop - there are nearly 800 of them by now. and there are still two more days to participate.  Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #289

Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday this week is #289 in the series and Lizzie Jones has a demonstration on how to use the smaller images in our stamp sets to create a wreath. For her card, Lizzie used a circle die cut to trace a faint outline on her card front panel to serve as her guideline. When I saw the subject of her video, I immediately thought of the Make It Market Mini Kit: Garden Gild that is available in the Papertrey Store. This set has lots of smaller sized flowers and leaves that you can use to create a wreath. I could have used Paper Clippings: Done in Love or Friendship Jar Flowers would also have been great choices.  Any set that has lots of smaller images would work well.  

Because I have the kit, I also have a few of those pre-printed watercolor pages that Betsy designed so I used one of those sheets.  It has the watercolor in a circular arrangement already so I only had to add my stamping to it. 

I used Papertrey Inks in Aqua Mist, New Leaf, Lavender Moon, Summer Sunrise, and Pale Peony.  The three large flowers have a little crystal center and I used a Jelly Roll Sparkler Pen in clear for the center of the other flowers.  As you probably already noticed, I didn't use any gold on this card and I do love how it came out. I used a few different stitched rectangle dies to cut the front panel and the background layer was cut from Aqua Mist Cardstock and were then adhered to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.

Thank you so much for stopping in today!  Be sure to check out the post and video at Nichole Heady's Blog here. 

Words Have Power

I have a post today for the AAA Card Challenge with the theme of "Words Have Power".  This was perfect for me to do since I recently purchased a stamp with words so powerful that it needs little else to make a beautiful card.  I don't buy too many stamps in this style, but I loved this one and I hope there will be others that speak to me this strongly in the future.

Before I stamped the saying, I did a watercolor wash on my background panel (made from Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper) and let it dry.  I wanted to keep the look simple but elegant.  I used Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral and Ripe Persimmon for the wash of color. I made a few cards in this style so I used several other Distress Inks in blue's and greens for all of my panels.

By the time I finished, my first panel was dry and ready to heat emboss with the saying. I stamped each panel with Versamark and heat set it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder. Once that was done I die cut the panels using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die in the largest size to cut those panels.

I have lots of little Prima Flowers around from my Scrapbooking days and I have been trying to use a few of these with my cards. The small sized ones I used here are great for this kind of thing but I found that this was about the largest size I could use for a card front and in fact, used several even smaller ones on some of the cards I made.  I wanted the focus to be on the sentiment not on the decorations.

Encouragement or Thinking of You Cards are my favorites to make and send and I can't think of any that are more appreciated than that except maybe Thank You's. Sometimes a person gives you an ear, a hug or a word of praise or encouragement when you most need it and I don't want that person to think their kindness went unnoticed.  We all need words of affirmation that what we are doing makes a difference in people's lives.  I do it by making and sending cards. These particular words have great personal meaning for me.  They tell the story of the journey I've been on for the last two years that altered the entire course of my life.

I can't wait to see what everyone else makes for this challenge and to read their words that have power. Have a great day and thank you so much for stopping by today!

Papertrey Ink June 2017 Blog Hop Challenge

Today is the June 2017 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop where all the Papertrey customers get to share our creations with everyone. Nichole selected the image on the left for us to be our inspiration this month. The particular thing she liked about this is the perfectly executed ombre in these two vases. I used them directly as my inspiration by creating an Ombre Background using my Reinkers as watercolors.  I was a bit surprised about the turn out of this background panel as I haven't tried actually painting one before. I normally do a bit of ink blending with a lot of shimmer mist to get the color moving.  Because I was going for a linear look, I had to use an actual paintbrush this time.

I started by wetting the watercolor paper on both the front and the back.  This keeps your water color paper from moving around and helps to decrease how much warping there is since the back and front dry at the same time.  It's a cool trick I learned from Lydia Evans.

For some reason, I didn't look at the inspiration photo before I started working on my card this morning. Rather than pink and teal ombre, mine is a soft pink (Sweet Blush) panel from the top to the center of the panel. And then a brownish grey (Soft Stone) from the bottom to the center with the lightest shades of each color meeting in the middle.  I didn't know if this was going to work out or not, but I wanted to try it and the image on the right is the background panel attached to the card base before the bouquet was added.  It turned out exactly as I had pictured it.  I also splattered Gold Watercolor Paint for added texture and some shine.  Once everything was dry, I die cut the panel with an MFT Blueprint 15 Stitched Rectangle Die.  I am happy that I finally have a stitched rectangle in all 3 of the sizes that I like to use. My WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Die has a full 4.25 x 5.5 in Stitched Rectangle, MFT Blueprint 15 has 4.125 x 5.375 Stitched Rectangle and Simon Says Stamp has the 4 x 5.25 size.  For me, I'm going to use use one of those 3 with pretty much every card I create.  Each of these sets comes with several sizes of dies that will also be used from time to time.  But these three are my go to dies for cutting out my background panels because at least 75% of the time, my background panel is done on Watercolor Paper rather than card stock.

My rinse water had a touch of pink in it so I mixed that with the Soft Stone and felt it gave the grey color a warmer look.  I like it and it was exactly what I had in mind.  The next part for me was figuring out which stamp set to use with this card.  I started with Brushed Blooms but ended up liking the way Fresh Bouquet looked with the background panel.  For me, the difference is that Fresh Bouquet comes with an outline stamp that I can heat emboss which helps the bouquet to stand out from the background and define it more.

Using my MISTI tool with a die cut negative (which acts like a place holder), I stamped the largest bloom in Sweet Blush and the bigger blooms in Pale Peony. I used Soft Stone to stamp all of the leaves and Berry Sorbet for the berries.  I used Thin 3D Foam Squares to attach the bouquet to the card base. I stamped a greeting from Botanical Blocks onto the banner from Tag Sale Quilted Dies using Versamark with Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

There's sure to be lots of fantastic projects for the blog hop this month and I enjoy seeing everyone's take on the inspiration.  Be sure to stop over at the Papertrey Ink Blog to see all of the linked up projects.

The Challenge #88

Hello Everyone!  It's time for a new challenge at The Challenge on the Always Playing With Paper Blog and we have a fun one this week. Lesley created several keywords words for us to choose from and we can use one or a combination of several.  I used a few for my card.

I recently got a couple of stamp sets with the dies from The Ton. I have to say, Effie sure knows how to do a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. I love Anemones and how many colors they come in.  The particular stamp set I used for this card is Anemone Bouquet.  The flowers are all arranged for you and the vase is a separate stamp. This was perfect for what I had in mind because I wanted to stamp my vase onto Vellum and color on the backside to make it seem as if there is water in the vase. This worked out perfectly.  I stamped the bouquet and the vase in in Versamark and heat set it with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder. This is my most used Embossing Powder and I keep a large amount of it in a container next to my heat tool.

I colored everything using a water brush and Distress Markers in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Mowed Lawn.  For the back of the vase, I applied color directly from my Hawaiian Shores Ink Cube.  I actually liked this bouquet better before I put Wink of Stella on the flowers but that will just be a lesson for next time.  Don't get me wrong, I love the shimmer but I guess I like it better diluted a little bit.  I have one Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush Pen that I added water to when there was not much left in there and I keep adding a little bit of shimmer from another pen's barrel with a lot of water.  Otherwise, it is sooooo shimmery that you can't see the detail of the watercolor because the light is bouncing off of it.  I hadn't realized before just how much shimmer they put in that glitter brush pen until today.  I normally use a shimmer spritz over the whole thing but today I didn't.

When the watercolor was dry,  I die cut the bouquet and the vase with the coordinating dies and mounted it to a panel of Aqua Mist Cardstock cut with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle which was then mounted to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White using Kokuyo Adhesive.  This was my favorite adhesive for many years when I was scrapbooking but I had been unable to find it for several years.  I was sparingly using my last refill of it when Jennifer McGuire found it again and Simon Says Stamp started carrying it as well as Amazon.  The cool thing is that they now have an extra long roll.  In fact, they have an extra long dispenser, a regular and a mini.  I hope I never have to go back to using my Pink ATG Gun.  It's here if I want it, but only as a last resort.  *Ü*

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  Be sure to stop over to all the stops and see the Design Team's Projects for inspiration and then be sure to add your project to the link up.  For products from The Ton, they are only available at The Ton Online Store in the US.  If you live in another country, contact them to find your nearest retailer.

Anita Madden

Claire Broadwater

Kim Heggins

Lee Ann Barret

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld
Vicki Finger  (You are here)

The Card Concept #76 - {Romantic Roses}

Today's theme for the Card Concept Challenge #76 is Romantic Roses. Nothing says love quite like red roses as that is the most universal emotion associated with Red Roses. Red Roses can have many different meanings depending on the shade of red and how many are given, but Red Roses are the most popular flowers given for Valentines Day each year which is why the cost of them is so much higher in that month. Their bright color is the ultimate expression of romantic and everlasting love.

When my daughter got married, her dress was white with red accents, because Red is good luck in Chinese culture and she married a Chinese man. Her bouquet was one dozen red roses arranged into the tight bouquet like the inspiration image to symbolize their everlasting love for each other.  His boutonniere was also a single red rose like in the inspiration image.

For my card, I stamped a couple of roses from the Altenew Amazing You Stamp Set in Versamark and heat embossed them using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I used Distress Inks in Festive Berries and Mowed Lawn to do the water coloring.  When it was dry, I cut that panel down using a stitched rectangle die and then cut a larger one from the white on white striped paper.  That paper reminded me of the white shutter in the inspiration image.  I tried it with black first, but I really liked the tone on tone look.  The sentiment is stamped on a piece of black cardstock for that pop of black to tie it all together.

Be sure to stop in over at the Card Concept to see the other inspiration from by the design team. Thanks so much for stopping by today! Please be sure to stop over at The Card Concept Blog and see all of the styles.  We hope you will join us for this challenge.

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #288

Hi all!  I posted my project for this week on Instagram, but then decided I wanted to post it on my blog as well.  Lexi Daly did this week's technique and you can find it on the Papertrey Ink/Nichole Heady's Blog here. The general idea is to be inspired by Pantone Color Chips and we are to mimic that art form in our project. If you enter Pantone Chip Style into the search box on Pinterest, you'll see lots of examples of some of the art that is being done with these.

The basic look of the Pantone chip is a block of color with a narrower white box underneath.  In very simple text it lists the color number and name in the white part of the box.  For my "chip" I made it 2.25 x 3 inches and the color part of the chip is 2.25 x 2.25.  I used Limitless Layers 2.25 inch square to cut my shape. Since the overall size of the focal point is smaller, I also cut an A1 Scalloped Notecard from Stamper's Select White since I was planning to make a Thank You Note. I wanted something that was the right scale for the paint chip but the only dies I have in that size are older ones from Quickutz.  I've tried them a few times with my Cuttlebug but I don't get very clean cuts normally.  I had recently made an anniversary card for my husband where I used one of these dies but I took all of the foam off and it cut perfectly in my Cuttlebug then.  So I thought I'd give it a go for this small butterfly this morning and it worked perfectly.

I still have the small Sizzix Sidekick from 10 or so years ago and I saw new ones at CHA in Phoenix this year, but so far, I haven't seen the cutting pads available yet and my old ones are worn and cracked.  Those pads were scheduled to be out out sometime this summer, so I'm on the lookout for them.

Edited to add:  I thought I would check the Simon Says Stamp Store again and they do indeed have the cutting pads in stock for the Sizzix Sidekick. I ordered three pairs to get me started.

Anyhow, if you're like me and have lots of dies from your scrapbooking days, this is a way to use them in the bigger die cut machines.  I've always loved these little butterflies and I was happy to get them out and use them again this morning.  I used True Black Cardstock for the butterfly bodies and antennae and some watercolor smooshing with Tropical Teal and some Hawaiian Shores reinkers for the cardstock that the sparkly butterfly parts are cut from.  Since I was using black ink for the stamping, I wanted a narrow 1/16th inch black mat around the color chip.

The sentiment I used here is from Bitty Bouquets.  I really like the clean lines of this card and I can see this style working great for masculine cards as well.  I had to add another picture because this card is really hard to see on the white background.  It's side folding and I normally do Top Folding cards so the table top seemed the easiest solution to the problem.

Thanks for stopping in to check out my project!  Be sure to see all the projects at Nichole Heady's Blog and you can also find Lexi's Video there as well.

Special Sales in the Altenew Shop!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I just wanted to let you know that Altenew is running a couple of promotions this week: 

• Save 20% off on the NewDay Card Kit & Artist Marker Set A Bundle now through 6/21 at 11:59 pm EDT. No discount code needed to enjoy this deal! 
• Save 25% off on the BambooRose Stamp & Die Bundle now through 6/21 at 11:59 pm EDT. No discount code needed to enjoy this deal!

I appreciate it when you shop through my affiliate link here: https://altenew.com/.

Ellen Hutson's June 2017 Pin Sights Challenge

I was so surprised when I went to look for something I'd seen on the Ellen Hutson Classroom and saw that I won the Mix It Up Challenge for last month. I haven't gotten my gift certificate yet, but I was excited to win.  For one thing, Ellen Hutson Challenges require the use of their products and I only have a few things. The gift Certificate will allow me to purchase another of their products that I've admired for a while, the Mondo Peony Stamp and Die Set.  I'm pretty anxious to order it.  It's a more expensive set that I wouldn't normally buy for that reason so I'm glad I'll have a gift Certificate to help pay for that.  I won with the entry on the right which was made with the BCRF Fundraiser Set called Courage.

Anyhow, when I was on that site, I saw the newest Pin Sights Challenge and wanted to play. I just love the colors in this challenge - the pink and orange in particular.  There's a touch of Yellow but the whole combination is just so pretty and summery!  We can use the shapes, the objects or whatever we love about the inspiration to be inspired by for our design.  For me, It's a combination of the colors and the flowers.

The Mondo Magnolia is one of only two Ellen Hutson Stamp Sets I have and it can be water colored so I chose to use that.  I started by heat embossing the magnolia in Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I wanted to make a card for a girlfriend using my "Fabulous" die designed by Julie Ebersole and was a gift with purchase a couple of years back around Thanksgiving.  You can purchase it now and I've linked it for you.  

To color my bloom, I grabbed three acrylic blocks and smooshed Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Fossilized Amber - one color to each block.  I did a light wash of color over the entire bloom with Picked Raspberry.  I wet the entire bloom with clean water first and then dropped in the color while it was still wet so that it would spread out and make each petal light pink to begin with.  There were a few areas where the color didn't touch at all initially so those areas remained white. Once that was dry, I went in and did a second and third layer of color because I wanted something more vibrant.  Next, I wet each petal again and went in with the Ripe Persimmon and put that color only where I thought the shadows would be. This let the Ripe Persimmon mix and mingle with the Picked Raspberry.  For the final color, I mixed a little Fossilized Amber with some Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist to drop in the yellow color on the petals and then misted the whole thing with Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist.  When it was nearly dry but not quite there yet, I used my fingers to shape the outer petals a little bit. That is a little trick I learned from my friend Yana.  

I die cut a Scalloped Top Folding Card Base from White Cardstock and adhered the magnolia to the card base with a piece of 1 inch scor-tape on the back.  It's such a strong adhesive that it will hold just by placing it in the center of the bloom.  I heat embossed the "hello" from the Altenew Label Love in Antique Gold as well and then trimmed it out to go above the gold die cut word, "fabulous" so that it would read "Hello Fabulous".  It is always hard to photograph White on White cards, but this one worked out pretty well and you can see all of the shimmer on the bloom.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and seeing my project.  I hope some of you will be able to check out the challenge and participate in it with me.  There a $50.00 Gift Card to the Ellen Hutson Store up for grabs.  

The Challenge #87 - Colors

Today I have a fun card for The Challenge!  This is Challenge #87 and uses fun, bright colors. You can always find the current challenge by going to Lesley's Blog, Always Playing With Paper.

It's no secret that I love butterflies of all kinds and this Papillon Bundle from The Stamp Market is a favorite because of the details you can add.  To stamp the butterflies, I did the largest layer of the butterfly in Brilliance Pearlescent Coral Pigment Ink for the base layer and let that dry for just a couple of minutes before I went on to the detail stamping.  So that there would be a deep enough contrast in color from the coral, I used Papertrey Ink's Raspberry Fizz Ink for the wing details. Because the color was stamped on top of the Pearlescent Coral, that shimmer shows through on the die ink portions as well. Lastly, I stamped the butterfly body with Papertrey Ink's True Black.  To do this, I use my Mini Misti with a die cut negative to hold the butterfly in place.  It makes it super simple.  I've also been know to put a piece of Post-It tape on the back side which aids in holding the die cut in place on very intricate and detailed dies.  It's really not necessary on this particular die cut.

For the striped panel, I used the MFT Striped Sentiment Cover Up and cut one from each cardstock color.  The cardstock colors I used here are Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White, Vintage Jadeite, Hibiscus Burst and Berry Sorbet. By alternating the colors on the inlay, I was able to get three additional striped backgrounds for future use.  To inlay the stripes, I laid the cardstock face down, inserted the stripes, and then used a bit of masking tape on the back side to hold them in place.

I stamped the Label Sentiment (Altenew's Label Love) in Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder.  The Waffle Flower "Awesome" was die cut from a scrap of Black Chalkboard Cardstock that I got a few years back from Stampin' Up!

The Design Team has lots of examples to inspire you to create your own project and play along! Be sure to check it out over at Lesley's blog, Always Playing With Paper.  Thanks for stopping by today!  I appreciate you taking a few minutes of your time to check out my card!

Here are the other designers you'll want to check out:

Anita Madden

Claire Broadwater

Kim Heggins

Lee Ann Barret

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld

The Ton - June 2017 Challenge & The Flower Challenge

There's a company that is fairly new to the paper crafting industry and was launched in January of 2015.  The owner, Effie, is an attorney by education and profession, but loves card making and crafting. When she realized that some of the designs that she was searching for simply weren't out there, she decided to design her own and The Ton was born. Effie designs some of the most gorgeous layering stamps on the market and many beautiful florals. Some of the ladies whose work I most admire are on their Design Team. I only have a few stamp sets from The Ton, but I couldn't resist the layering Anemones from their Summer 2017 release and that is what I am using today. One of the things I like most about their stamps is that many of them are larger floral images and can be "the show" on your cards.

Anytime I get a new layering stamp set I cut several of the die cuts so that I can stamp multiples as it definitely takes a bit of practice to learn how to line each set up. I have no magical formula for that; it simply requires practice. I print Layering Guides for all of my sets when I receive them, but I always find I still need the practical application to stamp them successfully.  If you don't want to use good cardstock for the learning process, you can practice on some scraps of cardstock or on cardstock of a lesser quality than what you normally use for cards and you can even practice on scraps of cardstock you have laying around. I know I always have a pile of scraps despite my best efforts to use them.

After practicing with this set a bit yesterday, I wanted to create a card for The Ton Challenge Blog today.  For the base layer of my blooms, I used one of my favorite techniques which is to stamp the lightest layer in a Pearlescent Pigment Ink. By doing this, no matter what type of ink I put on top of it, it picks up that shimmer of the pearlescent ink. I used Brilliance Pearlescent Coral for these blooms. I stamped the next layer in Altenew Coral Berry and the darkest center layer in Altenew Ruby Red. For the flower centers I stamped the circle shape in Papertrey Ink's Smokey Shadow and the stamen were stamped in Papertrey Ink's True Black.  For the leaves I stamped the first layer in Forest Glades (Altenew), the middle layer in New Leaf (Papertrey) and finally in Evergreen (Altenew).

I cut a stitched rectangle panel from a scrap piece of pink cardstock and another from Hawaiian Shores Cardstock. I arranged the flowers how I wanted them and then adhered them with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  The sentiment is one from Altenew's Beautiful Day that I often stamp extras of and I need to do this again as it's a favorite and I only have one left in black cardstock.

I think these Anemones would make a gorgeous wedding card and I plan to test that theory with some lilac, lavender and grey inks.  I haven't quite figured out which ones are right so a bit more experimentation will definitely be required but I really enjoyed the process.


Thank you so much for coming by my blog today. You can check out The Ton Challenge Blog here and see all of the projects from their design team as well. They had a truly spectacular June release, so be sure to check that out while you're there.  I always appreciate your encouraging comments if you'd like to leave one for me.

The Flower Challenge has an Anything Goes Challenge this time around so I am also entering this card there.











This card won Honorable Mention at The Ton Challenge and was spotlighted on Trending With The Ton.

Papertrey Ink June 2017 Create Along With Us

Each month during Papertrey Ink's release week, we are invited to create a project of our own that is inspired by one of the projects we've seen during the release previews. On the 10th through the 14th of each month, we get lots of previews of the projects and on the 15th we get a full release reveal.  There's lots of anticipation going into it and at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the 15th, these items become available for purchase in the Papertrey Store.

There have been lots of projects from Nichole and the Design Team that have inspired me already this month including this one on the left from Heather Nichols and the one on the right from Keeway Tsao.  I wish they would let us enter more than one project as I already have one in each style completed and it's hard to pick only one favorite.  But I selected Keeway's project which features the new Year of Psalms - June.  For my card, I used the Quoted - Start Again Stamp Set.

To begin my card, I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 inch rectangle of Stamper's Select White and using one of the Modern Background Stencils, I added Hawaiian Shores Ink to that panel with a stencil brush.  Then I die cut the panel with a large stitched rectangle die and mounted it to a top folding white card base made from Stamper's Select White.

Next I cut the mat from Mix and Mat Scallops out of watercolor paper and watercolored the two stripes using Hawaiian Shores and Vintage Jadeite Inks. Once that panel was dry, I used my Mini MISTI to stamp the quote in Versamark and heat set it with Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

I popped up the front panel on a piece of fun foam cut to slightly smaller than the stitched rectangle of the panel.  That finishes off my card for this month's Create Along With Us Challenge.  Be sure to stop over and see all of the beautiful creations at Nichole Heady's Blog.

I'm also going to be entering this card in the challenge at Word Art Wednesday.

Make It Monday #287

Hello there!  Today I have a card for the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge #287 - Baby Wipe Inking. Ashley Cannon Newell did this week's video and you can find it here on the Papertrey Ink Blog.  I really liked the little rosettes that Ashley created for a background panel so that is what I wanted to make.  I made my rosette considerably larger than Ashley's by folding my baby wipe in half lengthwise and then in half again, then rolling it tightly and wrapping a rubber band around one end to keep it snug.  Ashley used reinkers to dip her baby wipe into, but I just went straight to my ink pad.  I only had to dip it once for all the rosettes as it really sucked up a lot of the color.

In case you aren't here all the time (or this is your first time here) and are wondering why a grandmother would have baby wipes in the house its because they are really great to clean stamps with. However, since I got those, I purchased an Absorber at Walmart.  I cut mine into 8 pieces and I have two I've used so far to clean my stamps with.  It works like a car chamois to clean your stamps. I keep them in small container with a lid along with my stamp cleaner and just rinse them with water when they get covered with ink.  The inks do stain them, but it doesn't matter and there's less waste to go into our trash this way.  It's worked out great for me and it's handy. Normally when I am finished with a stamp set I take it to the sink in our adjacent bathroom and wash them with mild soap and water before putting them away.  I like for my stamps to be very clean because if they get "stuff " (think powder tool, embossing powder and the like) on the bottoms of them they will fall off the carrier sheet.

For this card, I used Papertrey Ink's in Sweet Blush for the rosettes, Mint Julep for the Leaves and Classic Kraft for the dots.  The leaf and the dots are from One Big Happy (a gift with purchase set from Christmas one year) that I stamped three times on each bloom. I started out with a white gel pen, but you couldn't really see the dots so I changed over to the Kraft.

After I had the background panel stamped, I die cut it with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and mounted it to a top folding horizontal card base made from Classic Kraft Cardstock.  The Sweet Blush strip across was die cut with the middle sized die from MFT's Vertical Stitched Strips.  I stamped the greeting using Scripted from Papertrey Ink.  I used three small prima flowers with a little crystal in the center of each.

I wasn't too certain about how I would do with this technique but it came out great. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you'll leave a comment for me.

The Challenge #86

Hello everyone and welcome! Today's card is for The Challenge where we have a sketch challenge for you this week.  I realized as I was finishing up my project that I did no stamping on my project - alas, the reason I struggle to use patterned papers! So this post is an example of what you can do if you don't have time to stamp something but you still need a card for a special occasion.  Lesley provided dimensions for you or you can wing it which is what I have done. Even though there isn't any stamping on this card, I really like how this card came together.

All of the papers came from the same 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye Fancy That Collection. I had some of these papers a few years ago from a Simon Says Stamp Card Kit and loved them! Then when we were in Dallas for Christmas last year, I picked three more pads up at Michaels. Because these papers were all meant to work together, it was super easy to pull a coordinated look together.  

I love the way color blocking looks and I wanted to incorporate that into my card. This particular sheet comes with 4 stripes, but I cut off the eggshell white stripe and then used it for one of my vertical pieces (#4).  The color blocked panel was cut with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die in the largest size. I used a bit of washi tape to hold it in place so it wouldn't come out crooked.


The paper with the Gold Confetti on it was cut with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle two sizes down from the largest.  This pattern has the gold confetti bits going all around with open space in the center so I positioned the die to include the confetti in primarily one corner.  The pale pink confetti piece is cut from the pattern that has much more confetti on the whole pattern and it was perfect for the little banner. That banner was cut from the Number The Stars Die by Papertrey Ink.  I use that die A LOT along with a couple of other ones from Papertrey that I use all the time.  Tag Sale Quilted has a banner the perfect size to go across a card and is another that I leave out all the time.  It has stitching all the way around and I love that.

Since I had two papers that used the Confetti, by the time I got this far, I thought it would make a fun and festive Birthday Card so I cut the "Happy Birthday" using a Penny Black Die that I have had for quite a few years.  I have several stamp sets that I could have used to stamp a greeting, but I wanted the gold to coordinate so I used the die.  The star is one from Spellbinders that cuts and embosses at the same time.  It has a long curly tail on it, but I had previously cut it off thinking I would use it for another project and then didn't. But I don't throw those things out so it was sitting there in my little container of "parts and pieces" as I call them. I try to keep all but the smallest scraps of any specialty paper as well and for a coordinated line such as this one, they get their own file pocket so that when I am trying to pull a look together, everything is right there.  

I assembled everything onto a top folding Horizontal Card Base made from Papertrey Ink's True Black Cardstock.  Whenever I use a black note card, I always put a white panel on the inside to write or stamp on.  I've found this much easier than trying to find a pen that works well on black cardstock.

Thank you so much for joining me today.  I hope you'll leave a comment and be sure to check out all the projects the design team has created to inspire you.  You can find the blog post here.

The Card Concept - Boldly Graphic

Hello everyone! Today I have a card for The Card Concept #75 Challenge. This is actually the 2nd or 3rd card I've created for this inspiration image.  I like the contrast of the bold graphic on the wing backed chairs with the more neutral and muted tones of the rest of the room. That was the look I wanted to mimic so I started over. For my card, I started with a piece of  Rose Gold Foiled Patterned Paper for my background panel. This is some of the leftover paper I have from a Wedding Scrapbook Album I made recently and I love it so I've been using bits of it here and there in my cards when I can. It's a charcoal colored background with the Rose Gold Foiled leafy branches and berries.  I die cut a panel of it using the Gift Card Layers Die from WPLUS9.

The pale pink ombre paper is also from the same paper pack and I used it to mimic the lines of the dining table going through the center of the room in the inspiration image.  I cut it on three sides (top, bottom and one side) then re-aligned it the die to get the stitching line on that 4th side.  You can feel when the paper slips into the stitch line so that you know it is lined up correctly. It isn't hard to do but it takes a little bit of practice. I like for all of my pieces to have the stitched lines so I figured out how to do this early on in card making.  I don't particularly like cuts made by blades but prefer to have the crisp edge of a die cut.  I did use only a trimmer for the top and bottom of the sentiment strip that goes all the way across the card.

The "friend" die cut is a favorite from Mama Elephant cut from Rose Gold Foiled Cardstock that I found at Michaels. I used a scrap of a pale pink card stock on top of  a piece of Charcoal Cardstock for the horizontal strip.  I laid it across the Gift Card Layers die and ran it through my die cutting machine so that the sides would have stitching on them to match the background panel.  The leaves are Papertrey Ink's Fancy Foliage Details Dies and work so well with this paper because they are outline images. The card is assembled onto a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Be sure to pop in over at The Card Concept Blog for more inspiration and to enter your own card into the link up. Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today.  I hope you'll come back soon!