Case This Sketch #255!

I have a quick card today for this week's Case This Sketch Challenge #255. Actually, I have three, but only one follows the sketch so I will start with that one. *Ü* Anytime I get a new layering stamp set, it's good to sit down and stamp several to get the hang of how it lines up and have a bit of practice. There will pretty much always be a few duds so this way, I get them out of the way first thing before I mess something up that is actually on a card front.  I'm pretty sure this is why I nearly always use a card panel to work on rather than a whole card base that might get messed up.  To make things easy for myself, I keep a stash of cards bases and card panels pre-cut so I can just grab a few and go. I take my cardstock to Fed Ex/Kinko's and have them cut.  They can slice through a whole stack and this saves me a ton of time.  For these cards, I did something a bit different so I wanted to share it with you what I did.

Craftsmith Dark Floral

I was sitting on the floor of my studio yesterday, looking through a collection of papers that I have called "Dark Floral" by Craftsmith.  This is one of those Hot Buys that I got at Michaels on Cyber Monday for $5.99.  Every time I glanced at the stamp set sitting on my desk, I thought of those papers so I decided to grab them and see if I could stamp some elements in colors that coordinated. That's why I was sitting on my floor.  Most of my paper is in crates that come up waist high, but I have about 6 or 7 of these collections that wouldn't fit, so I have them in a container on the floor where I keep my Stampin' Up Cardstock.  The thing about these papers is that they are meant for scrapbooking rather than card making, but if I really like something, I will find a way to make it work.  Some of the designs in these packs really aren't the right scale for card making, but they are so nice that I wanted to be able to use them somehow and I don't really scrapbook anymore. I decided to piece them together strategically to get what I wanted.  I've done this one other time to really give a unique twist to something I was working on and you can see that post here. Some of the designs go completely across a page and others are divided into half sheet sizes while yet others are done in 6 by 4 rectangles.  Nothing is sized for card making the way I do it since the cards I make are A2 sized. The colors in these papers are too pretty not to use and some of the elements (a.k.a. the gold foil) are right up my alley.

I love the rich tones and I wanted to stamp in matching colors so I die cut several elements from white cardstock and started practicing using the Rose Builder Stamp and Die Set from WPLUS9 Designs. I also cut some of the blooms from Hibiscus Burst Cardstock and leaves from Ocean Tides Cardstock.  I just love these roses and Dawn designed them with that hand drawn look that I love.  For this first card I mirrored the sketch.  I used the Honey Bee Large Thanks Die cut with Gold foiled cardstock, then matted it with black cardstock so it would show up against the stripes on the background.  To give it a bit more dimension, I cut skinny little strips of black fun foam, added 1/8th inch score tape to the back of it behind the letters and glued that to my card base with Ranger Multi Medium Matte. The black fun foam I have is extra thick, so it really popped that sentiment up and I will need to use a padded envelope for mailing.

I started by stamping all of the white roses first; the base layer in Lovely Lady, the next layer with Hibiscus Burst, the third layer in Autumn Rose and the final detail layer is Scarlet Jewel, all Papertrey Inks. For the Hibiscus Burst roses, I skipped the first layer of ink and stamped the 2nd, 3rd and 4th layers in the same ink colors. I couldn't decide if I wanted the white border or no white border so I did some both ways and I actually used all of the ones I stamped to create a total of four cards. I wanted something eye catching and memorable for a special thank you card I needed to send and when I got to the point of assembling the cards, I didn't want to have to stop and stamp more roses or leaves. The leaves are super easy. I stamped the white leaf die cuts with Stormy Sea Ink and the detail layer in Ocean Tides. For the leaves that were cut from Ocean Tides Cardstock, I stamped the base layer in Ocean Tides for that tone on tone look and the detail layer in Smokey Shadow, again all Papertrey Inks.  Using grey inks is a great way to add in some detail if you don't have the right color.  Since I was trying to match the cardstock, I didn't use the traditional greens that I normally would.

Once I had everything stamped, I started piecing my backgrounds together.  I took a strip from one section and paired it with a strip from another to get a panel slightly larger than the size of an A2 card so that I could die cut it to have those crisp edges. This let me have several different but similar backgrounds for my cards.  I had enough roses to make 4 cards and I have enough left to make at least one more. 

Even though this is the simplest card, I think it is my favorite of the group.  I had to do some really creative piecing to get just the word beautiful on the card but it came out perfectly.

The basic supplies I've used are linked below for your convenience (affiliate links may be used). 

Cuttlebug Shop at: SSS	Hero Arts Hello Stamp & Cut Shop at: SSS	Honey Bee Stamps Large Thanks Die Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS
PTI Hibiscus Burst Cardstock Shop at: PTI	PTI Ocean Tides Cardstock Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Autumn Rose Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Hibiscus Burst Ink Shop at: PTI
PTI Perfect Match Lovely Lady Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Ocean Tides Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Scarlet Jewel Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Smokey Shadow Ink Shop at: PTI
PTI Perfect Match Stormy Sea Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI	PTI True Black Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Tonic 6 Inch Personal Trimmer Shop at: SSS	WPLUS9 Rose Builder Coordinating Stamp & Die Set Shop at: SSS	WPLUS9 Rose Builder Dies Shop at: SSS
WPLUS9 Rose Builder Stamp Set Shop at: SSS

"Bee" Fabulous

I am participating in two challenges today - one for Stamps, Ink, Paper Challenge and the other is the Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenge featuring Essentials by Ellen and Honey Bee Stamps.

I was so excited when I saw the Ellen Hutson, LLC Facebook post yesterday because I knew it would give me a chance to use the adorable Build-A-Bee stamp and die set that I was finally able to get.  I've been wanting to get it mostly so I can make an interactive card for my littlest grandson, Xander, who started kindergarten a few weeks ago.  I don't have too many products from Ellen Hutson, but I thought I could figure out a way to make this work for their challenge.

I was putting some patterned papers away in a different container the other day and stumbled upon a few sheets of forgotten patterns that were in my pile.  Many of them only 1/4th sheet sized. One of them was the soft grey pattern you see in the background on this card. Originally, that background was Vintage Cream colored but with a little Lemon Tart Ink and a mini ink blending tool I could make the yellow a little more noticeable pretty easily.  I am not a big fan of bright yellow like many people are.  I like mine in a soft butter kind of color.

I am also really learning to like my copic markers now that I've found a cardstock I like for coloring.  I'm using X-press It Blending Card which is specifically made to use with copic markers.  I love it mainly because it takes a lot less work to get the colors blended and it is smooth as silk and takes a lot less of the alcohol inks to do the job. In the end, it's a pretty big time and cost savings along with also being less frustration. The normal #110 paper is so thick that I think it takes a whole lot of effort and ink to get a good looking result.  Before I gave up coloring completely, I wanted to give the specialty paper a try. I still don't use it often, but I am glad I tried it. I found mine on Amazon.  I cut each sheet into 4 pieces and stamp one piece at a time.

For this card and pretty much any image I stamp for coloring anymore, I used Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and double stamped in the Mini MISTI to get a really crisp black edge.  I have very few yellow Copic Markers, so the bees were done with Y00, Y02, Y06 and Y08.  The grey stripes were done with a bit of Black 100, then C7, C5 and blended out with C-1.  I have actually used my cool grey markers enough that I need to replace or refill C1. For the wings, I added some B000 and BG01 with some flicking motions at the base of the wings and then used Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen in Clear all over just the wings. Given my penchant for shimmer, this shows great restraint. *wink*  I also added a dot of white gel pen to the eye and made all the little tongues red with R39.

The top folding card base is made with Lemon Tart while the grey background panel was cut from Smokey Shadow Cardstock and the aqua is cut from Hawaiian Shores Cardstock using my regular stitched rectangle dies from Simon Says Stamp and MFT. I put a piece of fun foam under the patterned paper panel to add some dimension and also die cut and stacked three of the fabulous word dies from True Black Cardstock, one of top of the other, using Ranger Multi Medium Matte. That finishes up this card for the Stamps, Ink Paper and Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenges.

I colored a few extra bees for my grandson's card but I'm saving this to send to one of my "Fabulous" girlfriends for an encouragement card. After all, we can all use a little encouragement once in a while.  Thanks for stopping by today!