Repeating Designs with Papertrey Ink

This week's Make It Monday #296 with Lexi Daly shows us how to use the small filler images included in many stamps sets to create repeat designs.  I love the whole concept because I love clean lines and graphics.  In fact, because of this I chose to use a stamp set that was designed to use on repeat.  I checked and this particular set is no longer available but there are many other sets that can be used to create a repeating or image card. Here are just a few of the sets that have all small images if you like this look.

For my card, I starting by making a card base from True Black Cardstock.  Next I cut a panel of patterned paper that I had from a pad I picked up at Hobby Lobby recently.  The entire pad is Black and White and many of the designs have Gold Foil.  Next I treated a piece of Stamper's Select White Cardstock with my powder tool and stamped several of the little images leaving space in between to cut them out.  I sprinkled on Gold Embossing Powder and heat set the images.  Once that was done, I used a .75" square punch to cut them out.  Because this is a birthday card for my youngest brother I wanted to mat the squares onto black cardstock for that really bold graphic look. I used a 1" punch to cut those out and attached them with tape runner.   I also really like diamonds vs. squares so of course, I had to attach them in that way.  

I die cut the Big Basics: Wish Big from Gold Foiled Cardstock.  I really love Papertrey's Gold Luxe Cardstock with this Patterned Paper but I didn't think to check the color until after I had assembled the card.  Then I started assembling my card.  I cut a second rectangle of paper for the inside of the card.  Whenever I use a dark cardstock, I try to remember to do this but occasionally, I do forget.  I also cut a stitched square to put another "diamond" behind the Sentiment to help it really pop.

I wanted to create another card in this design using dimensional foam tape and I had enough of the small heat embossed design pieces left to do it.  I used the "Happy" from the Tipped Top Dies and the "Birthday" from the Birthday Cheer Dies. I cut two of the MFT Horizontal Strips Dies using the two largest sizes to put the sentiments on this card. Again, it helps the gold to pop off the background.  This time I used a Stamper's Select White to create my top folding card base.

It is always incredibly hard to capture this much gold on a card accurately so I did a close up for you where the lights were not directly on the card and I do think that is slightly better.  I promise -- I did not use yellow! I love this style and design for masculine cards in particular.

Be sure to hop over to Nichole's Blog and check out all the entries in this week's Make It Monday. Thanks for stopping by today.  For those of you who have asked, I am finally finished with my class so I can get back to blogging regularly with all the details that folks seem to really want.

Color Throwdown & Muse Challenges

It's been a busy week and I'm kind of slow getting around this week but finally got my project done for these two challenges which I combined. The Color Throwdown Challenge #413 has this graphic for us to use as well as the designated colors of Navy Blue, Kraft, Orange and White as well as any neutrals we want to use.

Often in my card making I see certain colors in metallics as is the case this time with the Copper colored paper I used here.  Copper is my perfect "Orange" just as Gold is my perfect "Yellow". This particular copper is a handmade paper and it already had the tons of shimmer in it.  I didn't add any shimmer to it at all.  I die cut the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die from it and added that to my Kraft card base.

With the inspiration image from The Muse Challenge #186, Anita's color choices were Kraft and White but I really love leaves of all kinds and wanted to incorporate some into my project which I feel is an easy way to create a less "girlie" and more masculine looking card.  I cut just one each from Gold Cardstock using the Fancy Foliage Details Die from Papertrey Ink and arranged them on a panel of Bazzill Whirlypop Cardstock cut from the second largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die.  The banner die is from Tag Sale: Quilted and the Grateful die was a Stamptember Release from Simon Says Stamp.  I wanted to use the white banner to help the sentiment stand out from the other gold elements in the background and I definitely achieved that here. There is also a shadow to go along with the word die, but I didn't use it here.

Since I didn't do any stamping on this card, it came together very quickly. It was simply a matter of selecting what elements I wanted and pulling them into my design.  When I first started making cards, this was how I did them all.  Stamping was not a part of card making for me back then.  I never dreamed I would grow to love stamping as much as I do.

I've got several other projects I want to work on this weekend but I really do appreciate you stopping by my blog today.  I hope to be back tomorrow with another project.

Make It Monday #261

This week over at Papertrey Ink Blog, Betsy Veldman gave us some tips for using our floral stamps to create a masculine card in her Make It Monday #261 Video.  For the card I created, I used Friendly Flowers Stamp Set in addition to a sentiment from Mums the Word, some of the stamps, stencils and die cuts from the Color Pop: Autumn Kit and even the acorns from the Give Thanks Stamp Set.

I selected a piece of patterned paper in a stripe from some of the samples that have been sent to me in cards from Papertrey Forum Members. I don't have any wood grain paper like Betsy used so I had to find a substitute and felt the colors would work great for my project.  I should probably tell you up front that I did try to use cream cardstock for my stamped and die cut pieces but the one I have is not from Papertrey Ink and I felt that it was too yellow to work here so I opted to go for the white.  I cut about a third of the striped paper off so that I would have an area that naturally drew the eye.  I attached the striped paper to a top folding card base made from Ocean Tides Card Stock.

I started by die cutting the different elements I was planning to use.  I cut the two largest leaves from the Color Pop Autumn Kit and then I used the stencils from the kit to sponge on color in Melon Berry and Ocean Tides.  The detail layer was stamped on the die cuts in Americana and Pine Feather Inks.  I really love the way these colors worked with the sponged color.

Next, I cut several circles with the My Favorite Things Stitched Circles Stax Dies and stamped them with one of the flower stamps from Friendly Flowers. Since I used a circle instead of the flower shaped die cut, they just look like spokes and not really like flowers at all.  It's just another way to stretch your your stamps. The colors I used for this are Dark Chocolate and Ocean Tides. I tried several colors such as Kraft, Cocoa Bean and Fine Linen but I felt the Dark Chocolate looked the best with my other color choices.

For the last two elements, I stamped the acorns from the Give Thanks Stamp Set, also in Dark Chocolate, and the greeting from Mums the Word in Pine Feather Ink.  I used an acrylic block for all of the stamping except the sentiment and I did that in the MISTI so that I could double stamp it for extra crispness with no problems lining it up. I love having the option to use either but for things that don't need to be exact I still like using an acrylic block. I used the Number the Stars Banner Die to cut the sentiment out. I attached both of these elements with Foam Squares.

I really like the font from the Mums the Word Stamp Set.  The more scroll-y or flourish-y looking fonts just don't look as masculine as this classic one. I used one of these sentiments for my brother's birthday card and was happy with that result as well.

Thanks so much for coming by to check out my project.  I hope you enjoy my take on the challenge and will be inspired to create something of your own.

Happy Father's Day

Today's card is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog for Father's Day/For a Guy and is inspired in part by a card I saw at another challenge and is also for the Color Throwdown Challenge #396.  I only have one stamp set specific to Father's Day so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make. Especially when it comes to masculine cards, I love to use really bold graphics with very clean lines.

For this first card I started with a panel of watercolor paper that I cut into triangles. I first cut a 4.25 inch tall rectangle and then cut that piece again from corner to corner. I turned my paper a quarter turn and I cut a second rectangle then cut that from corner to corner and so on until all of the triangles were cut. I didn't measure, I just eyeballed it. This makes enough for two cards with five triangles for each card. For my second card I used scraps of cardstock and just cut random triangles instead of ink blending them.  Either method is super easy and looks great.  It's a bonus to be able to use some of the many paper scraps we create as cardmakers.

Since this first card is for a Color Throwdown Challenge of raspberry, plum and peach with white, I ink blended dark and light versions of the raspberry and plum colors to create the extra colors so that each triangle on the card would be different. The darker ones just have more layers of color.  I used SU! Raspberry Ripple & Crisp Cantaloupe, with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink. There is no rhyme or reason at all to the design of these graphic pieces.  I just laid them down one by one until I liked the arrangement on the card front, then laid a piece of Press 'N Seal over the top to keep the arrangement in place, pulled that off of the card base and flipped it over so I could add the glue (Ranger Multi Medium Matte) to the back of those pieces and laid it back down. This particular card base is made from Rustic White Cardstock by Papertrey Ink. Once I had it down and in place, I held it there for a few minutes to let the glue set a bit, then peeled the Press 'N Seal away.  This is also how I arrange the Tulips from Tulip Time or any other floral arrangement. This is not my idea; it is Laurie Willison's.  However, it just so happens that Jennifer McGuire's husband invented Press 'N Seal.

For the "Happy" part of the greeting, I used some Stick-It Adhesive and sandwiched that between a layer of fun foam and gold card stock to cut the dimensional element.  The dies are PTI's One Liners: Happy Die Set.  There are 4 different versions of the word "Happy".   The fun foam temporarily squishes down when you die cut it, but pops right back out a minute or so after die cutting. The banner is from the Tag Sale: Quilted Die and the "Father's Day" is from Boutique Borders: Father Mini Stamp Set.  I performed a bit of stamp surgery to separate the "Happy" stamp word from the "Father's Day".   This is a super easy card to duplicate and make multiples of.

For this second card I used a less "clean" looking die cut but I still like how it looks.  There are 4 to choose from in this set.  For the card base, I used Papertrey Ink's Enchanted Evening Cardstock.  The other cardstock colors that I know are Papertrey Ink's Tropical Teal & Vintage Jadeite, Simon Says Stamp's Mint Cardstock, SU's Night of Navy and Creative Memories Sea Glass.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I hope you enjoyed my card and can join me again sometime. I'll be back with another project soon.

Bold Graphics

This week, Kara Vrabel is the Guest Designer at Inspired By All The Little Things.  The challenge has a more graphic look this time. I didn't know it when I started making cards last year, but I like really bold graphics and they are perfect for masculine cards.

The inspiration image has a very neutral and subtle background with bright pops of color that I wanted to mimic in my design. But I'm going rogue as no one else has changed up the colors yet!  I started with a piece of SU! Smoky Slate Cardstock for my background panel and a black top folding note card made from SU! Basic Black Cardstock.  I don't have a triangle die, so I opted for Diamonds (an old QK die set).

I die cut the Smoky Slate panel using the largest of the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles then I began to die cut a few of each color of diamonds for my pops of color; one large and 2 small in each color.  I wanted the most vibrant turquoise in my color selection so I chose this paper which is an old Creative Memories Cardstock in the color Teal.  The white is Stamper's Select White from Papertrey Ink.  I just arranged them by eyeballing where they should be and attaching them using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

The banner is from a SU! Bitty Banners set of thinlits I have and the die cut "wishes" is from Impression Obsession.  I cut three of them and stacked them one on top of the other to get the thicker element. The "Birthday" stamp is one that says "Birthday Wishes" from the Papertrey Ink 2016 Anniversary Set.  It comes with both words on the stamp so I masked off the Wishes part of the sentiment, inked up the "Birthday" in Black Versafine, pulled the masking tape off the "wishes" part of the stamp and put clear embossing powder over the top, heat setting it.  This is by far the way to go vs. black embossing powder.  In fact, I'm not sure I will ever use my black again.  I did use my powder tool to treat my paper before embossing.

I hope you enjoy my card for the challenge and thank you so much for stopping by.  I appreciate each and every comment that is made!

Color Throwdown #392 & Fusion Port of Call

This afternoon I am working on a couple of Challenges that I wanted to combine. This first image is from the Color Throwdown Challenge #392 and I think must have been photographed somewhere in Greece. When I saw the colors I immediately thought it would be good for a more masculine card.  That ocean, those blues... where else could it possibly be?

Then over at The Fusion Challenge they gave us this image for our inspiration.  While I didn't use the same color scheme, I tried to create elements that followed the same shapes as in the photograph, all the way down to the life preserver by using square, rectangle and circle die cuts.

To begin this card, I started with a Smoky Slate Top Folding Card Base, a 4.25 x 5.5 Kraft panel cut down with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle, a square frame, a circle frame and the sentiment in Stamper's Select White. Both frame dies were included in the Don't Forget to Write Kit by Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is from Color Pop Butterflies Kit. I used Sahara Sand and Pacific Point Stampin' Up! Inks for my stamping.

The cobalt paper is a shimmer cardstock from Recollections.  I love the color and I don't have much of it, so I tend to use it pretty sparingly.  I wanted to frame the Cobalt rectangle using the square die, so after stamping the corner flourishes in Pacific Point Ink, I cut the square in half and then lined it up and adhered the top and bottom pieces to the blue rectangle.  For the circle frame, I stamped the flourishes in Pacific Point and the inner striped circle using Sahara Sand.  The circle frame hides where the middle section of the square frame is missing. This was really fast to pull together once I had my design figured out.  

Everything is attached using my ATG Gun except for the sentiment and the tiny banner.  For the sentiment, I used Multi Medium Matte and for the Banner I used some Thin 3D Foam Adhesive Squares.

I think the colors and bold graphic style of this card would be great to give to a graduate.  In have a graduation invitation sitting on my desk for a cousin so I'm thinking I might just send this to him.  

I hope you enjoyed this card.  I have many projects on my desk right now, so be sure to stop back by or subscribe to get e-mail alerts when new projects are up. Have a great weekend everyone!  

The Challenge #62 & Color Q #331

Today I wanted to combine a couple of Challenges into one card so I could play over on two different challenges.  The first is at Always Playing With Paper and is Challenge #62 - Masculine.  

The second is the challenge over at Color Q #331 which has the colors Going Grey, Brilliant Blue, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo and White.  I thought these colors would work great for a guy and I was right. The white is represented on my card via the twinkling paper (Sheer Shimmer Spritz) and glittery stars. Instead of Going Gray, I used some gray/silver shimmer paper to cut the Tim Holtz Globe. I ran it through with the embossing mat the second time to get a good impression.  I backed the globe with the Bermuda Bay Card Stock and after adhering the two layers together, ran it through my die cut machine with the die and an embossing pad which really made the dimension pop out.  I have two different embossing mats.  One is grey and one is tan silicone.  The silicone mat is a little thicker so if I want a particularly well embossed image, I use that one.

The Sentiment is from the Celebrate Stamp and Die set by Tim Holtz.  It's pretty much the most masculine birthday greeting I have so I stamped and heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Silver Embossing Powder then used the coordinating die to cut it out.  To give the globe it's kind of rounded appearance, I put about five foam squares in a circle in the center area of the globe and then I adhered that to the A2 card made from Simon Says Stamp Blue Violet Cardstock (a.k.a. Brilliant Blue) using Ranger Multi Medium Matte all the way around the edge and stacked some acrylic blocks on it while it dried. The foam squares will pop back out and it gives the globe that kind of rounded appearance.  I used some shimmer mist on the card front and added some sparkling stars using the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes Die and Mini Stars Die.  This has turned out to be a favorite masculine card and I would totally use this design again. It's important to note here that the globe is large and takes up the entire width of the 4.25 inch card.

I really enjoy reading your comments if you'd like to leave one and thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'll be back soon with my next project.