Inspired by Fashion

For Day 2 of the Papertrey Ink Anniversary Celebration and in honor of the release of some Dress Up Paper Dolls by Betsy Veldman on February 15th, we are to take our inspiration for today's challenge from our closet or some online fashion.  In my current quest to start using my Kraft Cardstock, I selected this image as my inspiration photo.  It doesn't hurt that I also love Pink & Gold as well.

Starting with a Kraft card base in A2 size, I gathered some additional pink and white card stock. I was thinking along the lines of a doily for the background so I cut one from Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  The doily die I have came from Stampin' Up.  Using the Papertrey Ink Mehndi Medallions Stamp Set, I stamped the largest image from that set on Stamper's Select White Cardstock and heat embossed it using Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder. Using a smaller image from that set I stamped 5 of them in a line across a piece of pink cardstock measuring 2.25 x 5.5 inches so that I could have a pink & gold band behind the gold and white embossed medallion.  I trimmed a bit off the top and bottom making the strip 1.75 x 5.5 wide.

Using the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle I cut a panel from the Stamper's Select White then repositioned that in the same die to cut a narrow strip that had the stitching on it.  I have tried to think of a better way to describe that, but so far, I haven't thought of it.  I wanted the stitching all the way around but there isn't a die for that, so I improvised.  The finished size of the white strip is .75 x 5.25 inches. Since I wanted to stamp my "Hello" greeting using the same Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder, I didn't want the strip of white to have anything distracting on it.  This also helps draw the eye to the greeting making it the focal point. I used the "Hello" sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Graceful Greetings and stamped that on a scrap of pink card stock then die cut it with the coordinating dies.  These dies cut so nicely, leaving just a narrow border all the way around while the white of the decorative strip makes the pink and gold sentiment pop.

I finished up with a few hearts cut from a scrap of glitter card stock adhered with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I'll be back soon with another project but in the meantime, you can check out Nichole Heady's Blog here.

More "Krafty" Goodness

Today marks the 9th Anniversary Celebration commencing over at Papertrey Ink!  Having discovered them only fairly recently I was surprised to learn last month that they were coming up on 9 years.  There is a whole flurry of activity over on Nichole Heady's Blog and at the Papertrey Ink Forum.

Yesterday, I was asking around on their forum where I am a member, for some of the ladies to give me some ideas or suggestions for using my Kraft Card Stock which I have in 3 different shades.  Kraft is the stuff that is the color of a brown paper bag. Why I needed three when I had trouble using even one is beyond me but y'all know how those things go, *grin*.   I've tried a few times to use Kraft with masculine cards but have never liked the results.  Well those ladies told me to go check out Heather Nichols' Blog, so I did.  I totally understand now why she has been dubbed the "Queen of Kraft".  Last night I made the first project I've ever liked using Kraft and got it posted on my blog. I also discovered that I like Kraft with White or Pastels like soft pinks or soft blues.

Heather Nichols' Color Recipe for Papertrey Ink

This morning, the first challenge of the Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary Celebration was to create a new card or project using inspiration from one of of the Design Team's favorites of 2015.   I chose Heather Nichols' card and Color Recipe.  The "recipe" uses Kraft with Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Raspberry Fizz and Ripe Avocado. Since I don't have any Papertrey Inks at this time, I did my best to duplicate those colors in my water colored image.  

First I stamped and heat embossed this Impression Obsession Wild Rose image using Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder on Arches 140# Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper. The Hot Pressed is very nice because it is much smoother and it's not hard to get a good, clean image.  The more heavily textured watercolor papers can be difficult.  

To get the colors for my images, I used Tim Holtz Distress Markers and scribbled some Festive Berries onto an acrylic block along with some Abandoned Coral. Using a water brush, I picked up the Abandoned Coral and filled the full petal as my base color.  For the second layer I mixed the two colors for the medium color and filled all but the outer third of the petals.  For the final color I picked up some of the Festive Berries and dropped that at the base of the petals and pulled it out about halfway up the petal with my brush.  This gave me a beautiful color with lots of variation in tone. For the calyx, sepals and stem I used Forest Moss Distress Marker.  I created the background color using some Antique Linen scribbled on top of the same acrylic block and it mixed with the hint of color still left on there from painting the petals.  This gave it a bit of a rosy glow.  

I stamped my sentiment using my current all time favorite called Graceful Greetings from Papertrey Ink in Chocolate Chip and heat set it using Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder.  The ink doesn't stay wet for very long so you have to be quick, but it does work.  I had my embossing powder out and ready to sprinkle right on the sentiment as soon as it was stamped.  This also makes the image nice and crisp.

After everything was dry, I cut the water colored panel down with about 1/4 inch trim all the way around (approximately 3.5 x 4.75) then mounted that to a Stitched Rectangle of Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet Cardstock and then attached that to a top folding Kraft Card Base.  I love Papertrey Ink's Cardstock.  It is 110# solid core and the price is hard to beat.  

Although I am sure Heather's was a much deeper and richer color, I'm pretty happy with my outcome on this card.  I feel much more comfortable using Kraft Cardstock now. As a side note, has anyone else ever noticed that Scrapbookers and Card Makers call it Cardstock (1 word) and the rest of the world along with Spell Check calls it Card Stock (2 words).  It's driving me crazy....

Thanks for stopping by and I really appreciate any comments you'd like to leave. I'll be back many times in the next 10 days with many projects celebrating Papertrey Ink's Anniversary and February Release!  Have a great weekend everyone!