Papertrey Ink's Fresh Bouquet

Jenni Murray's Card

Today I have a card for 2 different challenges that was inspired by this card from Jenni Murray over at the Muse Challenge Blog. They are celebrating their 200th Challenge this week. As a card maker, I find my inspiration (a.k.a. Muse) in many different places but most often it is in seeing what others create and share. It might be a color or color combination, a design or a technique. I love going around to the different challenges and seeing what everyone creates.

One of my favorite techniques from the past year is Gold Paint Spatter.  It provides a lot of textural interest without having to add another layer of paper which makes it a CAS (Clean and Simple) technique and is why I am participating over at the CAS on Sunday Challenge as well with "Hearts" as the challenge.

I started by adding spatters of Gold Watercolor to a card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  Using the Papertrey Ink Fresh Bouquet Die I cut one from Stamper's Select White then stamped the Fresh Bouquet Outline Stamp in Versamark and heat set it with Simon Say Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  Next I stamped the images using Altenew's Ruby Red, Coral Berry and Forest Glades inks and then attached that to my card base using Foam Squares.  Fresh Bouquet is a multi layer stamp set so that you can use several colors for the blooms.  I love the color Jenni used so I chose to stick with the Ruby Red.

The greeting was cut from Gold Foiled Cardstock using the Big Basics: Love You Die from Papertrey and the hearts were cut using the Simon Says Stamp Mini Hearts Die.  I popped up only one of the hearts on some Thin 3D Foam Squares cut down to fit.  Everything else was adhered with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

I have a few choices for Gold Watercolor but since I am only creating cards and not art pieces that need to last for the next thousand years, I've been looking for a less expensive alternative.  I adore the Finetec Mica Gold Watercolor Set, but it doesn't take long to use up one of the little pans and my supplier doesn't carry the individual refills in that brand although they are available.  Another choice is Gansai Tambi Watercolors Set of 36. My retailer carries the individual little pans of color for this brand but I found a less expensive alternative before they got them in the store.

While I was searching for Finetec Refills, I found Sargent Art Watercolor in Metallic Gold and Metallic Pearl White.  This is a huge 8 ounce bottle that is currently available for $6.64 for the Gold and $9.94 for the White on Amazon.  I love this size and I don't have to be careful with how much or how often I use it. It can also be diluted with water which is what I did with this card. You can see the spatter but it doesn't overtake the whole card.  I plan to try it again soon with a straight-from-the-bottle solution of the paint. There are so many ways to achieve this look.  I've also tried it with the Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold Lamé.  Rather than using the spray bottle, I put a bit in a small container and spatter it on with a paintbrush or you can use the end of the sprayer to tap color onto your paper or cardstock.  I'd recommend just trying different mediums and techniques until you come up with one you like. Personally I like them all but I use different ones for different looks.  The biggest bang for the buck is the Sargent Art brand and I can only imagine that a bottle will last a few years for sure.

Thanks for coming by today and spending a few minutes at my blog.  Be sure to check out the Challenge Blogs to see all of the beautiful cards for that have been submitted.

One Card for 3 Challenges

It's not very often that I have a card that works for 3 challenges but I do today and I'm so excited.  I am playing at The Fusion Card Challenge, Double D Challenges and CAS (Clean and Simple) on Sunday Challenges.

The image on the left is the inspiration image from The Fusion Card Challenge. Jennifer McGuire even played at The Fusion this week!  We haven't yet gotten our first snow here in Northeastern Oklahoma, but it went all around us last week and even schools were closed on Friday! My daughter even had a little snow in Texas but so far, none for us. CAS on Sunday's theme this week is Black and White with one color of our choosing.  I used Pure Poppy Ink from Papertrey Ink.

The Double D Challenge is having it's 3rd Anniversary this week. Since my grandson, Charlie, is about to have the "Anniversary" of his birthday, I went in that direction with this challenge by using numbers from the Bookprint #'s Die. I don't have the Bookprint Alphabet Dies but I plan to put them on my Wish List now.  I also used the Customer Appreciation gift, Celebrate Big, from Papertrey Ink.  I wasn't sure I would like this set because it isn't my usual style but I qualified to get one so I wanted to try it out. I LOVE it! By using the negative from the die cut with the MISTI, it was very easy to line it up for stamping.

The stamps and dies are all together in this set and I used Papertrey Ink's True Black and Pure Poppy Inks to do all of the stamping. It was so easy to do the banners with the clever way Nichole designed this set. There are also a few little filler images that I didn't use today. With the background paper, it wouldn't have been noticeable but I plan to use them soon.

This set is only available for a short time with a qualifying purchase so hurry if you want to get one for yourself.

I used Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White Cardstock and True Black Cardstock with a piece of Creative Memories Gingham that I have had for close to 20 years!  As usual, I used my Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Dies in the largest size to cut the white mat.

I hope to get a couple of other projects up this week.  I'll be gone for a couple of weeks this month (I'm so excited to be attending CHA), but I have projects for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Designer in the Spotlight each Wednesday.  The projects are finished and the blog posts scheduled.  Be sure to stop by as my last two blog posts feature some Valentine's Day projects.  My post for January 25th is my favorite of the ones I've made so far this year.

I'll be taking lots of notes at CHA about new products that are coming although I confess I am most excited about seeing Tim Holtz and hearing about the new "Distress" items coming to market in 2017!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. The kind and encouraging comments you leave for me are so appreciated and treasured.  I hope you'll be back soon!