Gifts of Stationery

I worked on a project this afternoon with the new Papertrey Ink Make-It Market Kit called, Don't Forget to Write.  There's only a few hours left to pre-order one so if you want it don't wait.

I confess -- I had to go to Dictionary.com to check and see which spelling was correct for this word since there is also Stationary.  For the note card or writing paper variety, Stationery is correct.  This kit was intended to make beautiful stationery for yourself or as a gift. My sweet friend, Lorie, has a birthday in just a few days and I wanted to make my first set of note cards as a gift for her. She is very thoughtful and always sends thank you notes for the smallest little kindness so I know she will use these.

I made all vertical cards except for this first one. All of the cards bases except the 2nd one are made from Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I buy Invitation Envelopes from a variety of sources as I need them, in packs of 100. If a need a special size, I make my own in a coordinating paper, something I often do for Wedding Cards.

I started this project yesterday afternoon by cutting several of the flower bouquet outlines from white cardstock so that I could kind of mass produce in a variety of colors; all of the leaves and stems first then each layer of color in order of the instructions.  This did take a little bit of practice getting everything lined up but I was super happy with how many of these I could complete and how well.  As usual, I used a negative of one of the die cuts to be my placeholder for my stamping. Because I always sacrifice one die cut to be my visual guide, I was able to stamp the rest of them cleanly.

I think the colors may be difficult to determine in the photographs so I'll tell you what colors I used for each of the cards.  For this first one, on the bouquets I used Lovely Lady, Hibiscus Burst, Sweet Blush, Sahara Sand and Tempting Taupe, the latter two being from Stampin' Up!  I don't have any Kraft inks from Papertrey as of yet and I liked that I could use a darker color and then a lighter one for the second layer of the leaves.  The cardstock I used here is Tempting Taupe with Regal Rose.

This next card uses Berry Sorbet, Sahara Sand, Tempting Taupe, Sweet Blush, Lovely Lady and Hibiscus Burst.  The background panel is cut from Calypso Coral. This card base was made from Tempting Taupe Cardstock.

For this card, I used Tempting Taupe for my background panel and also as one of the leaf colors. In addition to that, I used Sahara Sand, Lovely Lady, Sweet Blush, and Hibiscus Burst.

The final card features New Leaf, Mint Julep, Winter Wisteria, Amethyst Allure, Tropical Teal, Hawaiian Shores, and Autumn Rose.  The background panel is cut from Tropical Teal Cardstock.

So there you have it.  I will be entering one of these cards over on the Word Art Wednesday Challenge Blog as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog which is Flowers this week.  I have discovered that I can actually put my Papertrey White Cardstock in my printer and print on it so I am excited that in the future, I will be able to use some of the word art they provide with each challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I'm off to figure out what my next project will be.  One of the Challenges uses an inspiration photo from a challnge I've participated in before, so I'll be trying to figure out how to make something new and different from the previous project.

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.