SSS Flickr Challenge #51 & Muse Challenge #178

Hello and Happy Monday! Today I am participating in the Muse Challenge #178 as well as the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #51 with a theme of Embossing. Tracey McNeely is our Muse for this week on the Muse Challenge. Her card reminds me of poppies with the black specks in the center of it so a Poppy Image is what I used for my card!  My image is from Botanical Blocks III by Papertrey Ink. This stamp has quickly become a favorite for me.  It's easy to watercolor and makes a lot of impact.

Queen Alexandra Poppy

I started with a 4.5 x 5.5 inch piece of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper. I stamped with Versamark & heat embossed two of the Poppy images on that size panel with Simon Says Stamp Ultra Fine Antique Gold Embossing Powder so that I would have an extra all ready to go if I messed up the first one.  That was a few weeks ago during the Papertrey Stamp-A-Faire 2016 and I didn't mess up the first one so I had this second one sitting on my desk for a while ready to color.

Although there are quite a few colors of poppies in the world, my favorite is the Queen Alexandra Poppy seen in this image.  My mom has one in her yard. I'm thinking if I wanted an exact match I should have used Worn Lipstick Distress Ink but since my card is not an actual photograph, I think it is still quite pretty.  I used my favorite water brush, a Kuretake Zig that I buy on Amazon, with Hibiscus Burst Ink from Papertrey Ink. Hibiscus Burst is becoming my "go-to" choice for Pink.  It's not too dark or too pale and I love to use it for watercolor.

This is really simple to color since it is such a small image (approximately 2 x 3.25 inches) but I think it has pretty big impact here.  I really enjoy using Pink and Black together; one is feminine and the other is classic. Together it is a winning combination.

I used Shabby Shutters Distress Marker for the leaves and stem of the poppy. I'm not too keen on the more yellow greens but it was perfect for this image.  The pink background is a panel I made using a stencil brush with Lovely Lady Ink and then misted with Tsukineko Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Mist. Once it was dry, I cut it using the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies.  I also cut a plain white rectangle in the same size for the inside of my black card base.

Next I cut around the outside of the Botanical Block and matted a very thin layer of black cardstock behind it. It's about 1/16th of a inch wider than the block all the way around. I used Papertrey Ink's True Black Cardstock.  Additionally I used the second from the smallest Stitched Rectangle Die to cut the sentiment out.  I love the stitched detail and these are my absolute favorite dies.  I've gotten very good at using them creatively to make a custom sized stitched rectangle in just about any size I need (except larger).  Anytime I use a dark cardstock for my card base, I cut a stitched rectangle to put on the inside of my card.  For the very center of my flower I used my Zig Clean Color Black Marker to color it in with no water added.  The greeting is from Mums the Word Stamp Set.  One I had the card assembled, I gave the front of the whole card another layer of Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz.

I have several challenges that I want to play along with this week so I'm going to scoot off here.  If I've left out some detail, be sure to send me an inquiry and I'll come back and edit my post. There's not much new and different here but I enjoy this poppy so much that I already have another color combination in my mind. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes here at my blog today.   I appreciate all the encouraging and uplifting comments!

ETA:  I'll also be linking up this card to the Stampin' Royalty Challenge for their "Anything Goes" Challenge.

Make it Monday #258 Spritzed Stamps

This will be a super quick post today. I took a couple of days off this week and now I have several other projects on my agenda for this week still, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

This week on the Make It Monday over at Papertrey Ink, Melissa Phillips did a technique featuring spritzing stamps.  This technique really requires at least a two step stamp set and I used one that has been on my desk a lot lately, Friendly Flowers.  I've done this technique before so I knew a lot of what to expect as far as the behavior of my inks when spritzed.  My spray bottle happens to have a very fine mist sprayer which I think makes for smoother and more predictable results. I also used watercolor paper which helps the water move although in my case, it didn't move too much because my mist was superfine.  Mostly it only softens the hard lines of the stamps.  If you used more water, it would feel a lot looser and more like watercolor.  

I combined two of the stamps from Friendly Flowers for the blooms and only one layer of the leaves. The Blooms are stamped in Lovely Lady and Hibiscus Burst.  I tried a 2nd layer of the leaves (stamped in New Leaf) on another card but I didn't like the look. For this card, I stamped the base bloom then the dotted petals on top of that.  For my third layer, I stamped the dotty petals again with Versamark and heat embossed them with WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Glitter.

For the greeting, I cut three of the "Hugs" and glued them one on top of the other for a thicker embellishment.  Using Hibiscus Burst Ink Cube direct to paper, I colored the sentiment.  When that was dry, I inked it up with Boss Gloss Liquid Embossing Ink from Stampendous and sprinkled it with the same WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Glitter.

I cut the stamped panel down with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and adhered it to a Noted A2 Card Base cut from Hibiscus Burst Card Stock. If I hadn't done this technique before, the card would have taken me a lot longer just to learn and understand how the inks work when combined with water. It was a quick card to make although I must admit, it really isn't my usual style.

I'll be back soon with another project or two.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Simon Wednesday Challenge with CAS on Sunday (Butterflies)

I am very slow to get around to this post.  In fact, the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Animal Magic" will end early tomorrow morning, so I'm barely making it!  I've been in a class at Altenew Academy for the past 6 days and I've been practicing some new techniques.  I still need a lot of practice for some of them and in fact my favorite thing that came out of this class was something I had actually seen Marika (our instructor) do before. This was just the first time I had tried it.  

I combined this technique with a couple of elements so that I could participate in these two challenges.  On the Simon Challenge, they did say Butterflies to Buffaloes if you're wondering what my animal is.  The CAS on Sunday Challenge is "Butterflies". So I combined two of my favorites for this challenge, flowers and butterflies.  

For today's card, I did the same technique that I used on this card but I stamped both of the detail layers and softened them out with water rather than just the one layer of detail. So, I stamped the outline images in Versamark and heat embossed them using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  Then I stamped the 2 detail layers and softened them up using a water brush. This particular card uses Lavender Moon Ink from Papertrey Ink. It actually works better with pinks than it does with purples for my purposes anyway.  But it is a color I love almost as much as my pinks.  I also used Lavender Moon Ink to do the ink blending on my background panel but since I misted it with Tsukineko Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz it is also a bit lighter. For that, I used watercolor paper and then die cut it when dry with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die. 

For the spatter, I used Hibiscus Burst Ink with a very small amount of water and a #4 Round Brush.  All of a sudden I'm really into all kinds of "dot" accents and I can hardly wait for my Pico Embellishers to get here so I can try those out as well.  I ordered black and gold.  I think the black one would have looked great on here but I know I will create another pink card pretty soon, so I will have opportunities to try it.   

The stamped part of the greeting is from Papertrey Ink's Enclosed: Butterfly Mini Stamp Set and the "Perfect" is a die from Waffle Flower Crafts.  The blooms are from my favorite Altenew Set, Beautiful Day and I used the coordinating dies. The butterfly is from Impression Obsession.  I really love the look of this softened ink and I have another project in the works using a few different color combinations.  This bloom always makes me think of Wild Roses.  Everything was attached to an A2 Top Folding Notecard made from Lavender Moon Cardstock.

I have so enjoyed Marika's class this past week.  I feel like the small details I put into my cards may not be visible on first glance, but probably will be on the second glance. It's okay if they aren't because I enjoy the entire process and people do love to get a handmade card.  For me, that is what it's all about.

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my project.  Have a fantastic week everyone!

Color Q & Simon Says Challenges

When I got up this morning, the first thing I checked was the Color Q Blog to see what the new colors were for the new challenge this week.  I love coral and pink so this challenge was one I definitely wanted to participate in.  Plus the new theme for this week over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog is Flowers.  The colors listed at Color Q are all Stampin' Up! colors but we can use a representation of the colors listed which is what I did.

I started with the Square Label from the Don't Forget to Write Kit cut from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  This kit has been wildly popular and they are accepting pre-orders for a very limited time -- until May 16 at 7:00 a.m. ET.  The stamps and dies alone make up $80.00 of the cost plus there are many additional items in the kit including stencils & papers and a downloadable PDF File created by the Designer, Betsy Veldman.  Anyway, I love it.

I used the Don't Forget to Write Stamp Set that came in the kit (it is not available for individual purchase) and stamped the corner flourishes and then the striped outline in Papertrey Ink's Berry Sorbet.  I used my MISTI tool so that I could double stamp to intensify the color.  Then I set that aside while I started stamping the bouquet. Since green wasn't one of the colors in the "Queue", I decided to stamp the leaves and stems in Kraft Ink.  I actually really like how this looks and decided this will be a great way to start using up some of my Kraft paper as well. Initially, I wasn't too crazy about the way it looked until I was finished putting all of the other layers of color in. For the large bouquet, there are seven different steps to get the finished product. The colors I used are Sahara Sand (Kraft), Berry Sorbet (Calypso Coral), Hibiscus Burst, Melon Mambo, and Sweet Blush (for Peach Parfait).  The scalloped background panel is from the WPLUS9 Sunshine Layers Designer Dies and is cut from Berry Sorbet Cardstock.  Everything has been misted with a coat of Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz (of course).  The card base is made from Sahara Sand Cardstock from SU!

I still need some practice at getting each layer of stamping lined up perfectly, but this bouquet turned out pretty well.  I was not as successful with the smaller bouquets on my first attempt so more practice will be needed but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make. *Ü*   I really love how the Kraft color in the bouquet and the card match and tie everything together.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  I'm sure this is just one of many cards you will see me creating from this kit.  There are so many possible ideas and I plan to make a few more before today is over.  Please feel free to leave a comment if you like.  I read and treasure each one.

April 2016 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Today is the Monthly Blog Hop for Papertrey Ink and I spent a considerable amount of time figuring out my project for today.  Nichole always has the most interesting inspiration photos for us to launch our projects from and this month is no exception!

Inspiration Photo

Astronomy Chart

The image on the left is our inspiration photo. It made my head spin with all the different possibilities I can see in it. Do you see pulley's and gears, clock faces, medallions, kaleidoscopes, astronomy charts or something else entirely? It could be the center of the universe, the center of an eye or probably a hundred other things.  There's no wrong or right answer it's all about perspective.

For me, as soon as I saw the inspiration image, I thought of Mehndi Medallions and Hands of Time.  Ultimately, I couldn't choose between them so I incorporated both into this card along with the Mehndi Medallions Mini Stamp Set.

For this card I started by doing ink blending using Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tools on a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper with Lavender Moon, Hibiscus Burst and Plum Pudding.  Once I had the color applied, I misted it with Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz which has quite a bit of moisture in it and helps the inks to blend and move on the watercolor paper, giving a softer blended line where the color changes not to mention that gorgeous sparkle. Twinkling Paper is my trademark afterall. *Ü*

Once the ink blended panel was completely dry, I used both clock faces from Hands of Time Stamp Set and some of the smaller medallions from the Mehndi Medallions Set.  I stamped with Versamark and heat set using Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder.  This embossing powder has gold glitter in it so no matter what you are using it on, it looks rich and regal.

I also misted a piece of Lavender Moon Cardstock for the mat to the watercolor panel. Funny thing about the Lavender Moon Cardstock --  It's more pink than purple.  Both of these were die cut with the largest of the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies.  To get the smaller frame, I carefully realign the paper into the die and cut again making it just slightly smaller than the original frame but bigger than the next size die.

I cut the "Awesome" word from a Waffle Flower Die using gold foil poster board which is all I ever use anymore because it is so cost effective.  I talked about this in a previous post here.

Like many before me, Heat Embossing was my "aha" moment in Stamping and Card Making and I try to incorporate that as often as possible into my cards.  You can find embossing powder in a vast array of colors but I use Gold most often.  I like both Gold and Gold Sparkle Embossing Powders followed by Platinum and Platinum Sparkle.

I'll be adding this image over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for their theme of "Show Us Your Metal" and their Wednesday Challenge Blog for "Make It Girly".

Thanks for joining me on the Papertrey Ink Monthly Blog Hop.  I love reading your comments if you'd like to leave one and I hope you'll come back soon to see another project.