Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday #302

Hello there!  Today's card is for this week's Make It Monday #302 with Stephanie Gold showing us less traditional ways to use twine, ribbon, and the like on our cards. Since we were using less traditional techniques I made my colors a little less than traditional by using Pine Feather with Autumn Rose and Scarlet Jewel Inks and coordinating patterned paper.

I started by die cutting a few of each of the die cuts from Spruce & Sprig Stamp Set and Spruce & Sprigs Coordinating Dies.  I used a negative as my place holder in my Mini Misti and stamped the die cuts in this way.  I prepared 2-3 of each piece as this makes it easy when you start assembling your arrangement.  I used Pine Feather for the dark green, Scarlet Jewel for the dark red berries and Autumn Rose for the rose colored springs.  This makes me think of when you do a planter and you need Pillars, Fillers and Spillers.  It's kind of the same philosophy.

I die cut a banner using the Number the Stars Banner Die, then stamped my sentiment from Beautiful Berries: Winter on the banner using Versamark and heat embossed it with Antique Gold Embossing Powder. 

I die cut a stitched rectangle panel from Scarlet Jewel Bitty Big in the wide stripes and attached it to my top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  If you haven't seen the new Bitty Big Patterned Papers from Papertrey Ink, they are awesome. There are stripes, plaids and polka dots.  There is a wide stripe on one side of the paper and a narrower stripe on the opposite side so you can use whichever side you want. It's the same with the plaids and polka dots, so you just use whichever side you want. So far, 9 of the Papertrey Colors have been released, but each month a few more get released. I'm ready for some pink ones - Hibiscus Burst for instance.  The Spring Rain is just the most awesome color.  In fact, I think I might take it to do a color match for paint for my studio in the home we are building although I have already selected a similar color.

Next I die cut Rustic Wreath 3 times from Ocean Tides Cardstock.  Rather than stacking them one on top of the other, I staggered them to make my wreath appear fuller.  I put about 6 dots of Ranger Multi Medium Matte on the back side of each one and let them dry for a couple of minutes before moving on.

I had some Hemp Cord in burgundy that I tried out first but I didn't care for the look so I switched gears and used some thread.  I unwound enough of the Gold DMC Thread to make a messy "nest" of thread in front of my wreath.  I wrapped a small piece of Scor-Tape (with the release paper intact) around the side where the ends met so I could kind of keep it in the shape I desired without having to hold it constantly. I knew that my arrangement of greenery would cover that up so it was no big deal.

I adhered the striped paper to the card base and then using 1/8" Scor-Tape, stuck about 4 pieces on the back of my wreath layers to adhere it to the card front.  Using another skinny piece of Scor-Tape, I attached the gold thread on top of that at the left side.

I created the arrangement by using a combination of Scor-Tape, Kokuyo Dot Liner Adhesive, and Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  In the 2nd photo you can really see all the different layers.  The only part that I used foam tape for is the big cluster of berries.  The rest of the layers are laid on top of or tucked under the other parts. Even the banner is just stuck down with Kokuyo Adhesive.  It looks dimensional because it's laying on top of more layers.

In my attempt to really use ribbon and twine (albeit elevated quality twine) I made a small bow from some white sheer ribbon that has a gold accent thread.  Once I got the card finished and photographed, I decided it need a little something more so I added a few sequins from Lucy's Rose Gold Shaker Selection.  It even has those tiny stars in the mix like the one I added to the banner.

Before Sequins

Just for the sake of comparison,  the image on the left was before sequins.  I'm so happy with how this card turned out that I am planning to make a few more that are similar in design for a special blog hop that is coming to you this weekend.  We will be honoring Papertrey Ink's very own Designer and Design Team Member, Dawn McVey with a blog hop starting this Saturday at 7:00 a.m. over on the Papertrey Blog.  Everyone will be using stamps and dies designed by Dawn who received a small intestine transplant early last Sunday Morning.  She has a long recover so we are surprising her with the blog hop.  The linky will be open for 1 week and you can link up as many projects as you wish, as long as they all use one of the products that Dawn has designed. We hope to see you there!!

I am also linking this up to the challenge over at The Paper Players.  They have a Tic Tac Toe Challenge this week and I used the center row across: Christmas, Die Cut, and Wreath.

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.