Muse Challenge #213

Today's card is for the Muse Challenge #213 this week featuring my extremely talented and crafty friend, Kay Miller. Kay's work is always so inspiring but what I particularly loved about this card is the bright pops of color.

I don't know about you, but here in Northeastern Oklahoma, we have had rain for days and days and days. Everything is lush and green (including the skies) and I am ready for some bright pops of color.

I am totally smitten with Papertrey Ink's Tulip Time Stamp Set and chose to do these in the bright Coral and Red tones as well.  I started by die cutting the tulips from Stamper's Select White Cardstock so I could use the negative as my placeholder in the MISTI tool for stamping.  I have found this to be a mostly fool proof way of stamping any of the layering stamps.  Another method I've been using a lot lately is stamping my initial layer of color on the blooms using Brilliance Pearlescent Pigment Ink. For these tulips I used "Pearlescent Coral".  I keep all of my pigment inks in the same container, so while I had them out, I used Pearlescent Thyme and Pearlescent Ivy for the leaves. The 2nd and 3rd colors for the blooms were Berry Sorbet and Pure Poppy, both from Papertrey Ink.  With the base layer (a.k.a. the most solid image) being done in the pearlescent ink, it makes the whole bloom pearlescent.

During the latest release from Papertrey Ink, there was this sentiment about "paper hugs" that I loved in the stamp set "Pen & Ink".  I asked on the forum if anyone was interested in doing a "split" since I only wanted this one sentiment. To my surprise, someone was all in for that and I was able to get this sentiment. I'm a hugger, as are many crafters, so this sentiment was perfect for many of the cards I send.  In fact, most of the cards I send are signed "Hugs" so again this is perfect and what I think a "Thinking of You" sentiment always makes me think of.  As always, I used a lot of powder tool on my cardstock before stamping it with Versamark.

The note card is made using the Noted: A2 Die Set, also from Papertrey Ink.  I don't make many side folding cards, but it's what I felt like making today.  I also wanted to check out my new Cuttlebug Magnetic Mat for the extended plates.  In case you didn't know, Anna Griffin came out with these magnetic mats for the Cuttlebug and you can buy the set of 2 (one regular and one for the extended plates) at HSN.com.  I am over the moon. I am still really careful and sometimes use a bit of delicate surface masking tape, but the dies do not shift around.  Let me qualify that by saying that my largest and second largest stitched rectangles have been used so much that they are bowed, so they don't lay flat on the magnetic mat and are the ones I'm using the masking tape with.  The sandwich order is A Plate, Magnetic Mat, B Plate, cardstock, die and another B plate. There is pretty much no need for the C Plate unless you are not using the magnetic mat. You do have to remove the Magnetic Mat for Embossing Folders, and I'm guessing that I will also need to remove it for some of the Cover Plate Dies, but it's really easy and has been a fantastic solution for how much die cutting I do.

I started making cards just about 2 years ago now and I've made more than 500 cards, so my stitched rectangle dies get quite the workout.  In fact, I've wondered if they will need to be replaced because I use them so much, but so far, they still work perfectly.

Thank you for spending a bit of time here on my blog today.  I'm sorry I am not putting in many products links right now since I am having computer issues but I'll get back to doing it soon.  Be sure to stop over at the Muse Challenge to see the inspiration and the entries as there are always so many great takes.

Curtain Call and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Hello everyone!  Today I have a card for the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge with this week's theme of "Tulips" and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with their theme of "Showers or Flowers".  You know how much I love Papertrey's "Tulip Time" Stamps and Dies so it was no problem deciding which stamp set to choose for these challenges.
 
I started by die cutting 4 of each die cut from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I always cut and stamp extras in case of a goof.  I wanted some pretty vibrant color so I decided to use my Brilliance Dew Drop Pigment Inks for most of the stamping.  I did the first layer of leaves in Pearlescent Thyme and the second layer of leaves in Pearlescent Ivy.  I allowed a few minutes between the stamping of each step. Although these inks are fast drying pigment inks, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't get any blending where I didn't want it. For the blooms, I started by using the Brilliance Pearlescent Coral (a fairly new shade in the Brilliance line up) on the most solid image. This color isn't yet being offered in a Dew Drop Ink Pad. It's okay as I have a few colors in the larger pads so I can keep it with those. For the other two layers of the bloom I used Papertrey Ink's Berry Sorbet and Pure Poppy inks. Since the base layer was stamped with the pearlescent ink, it makes the dye inks shimmery as well.

While I set those aside to dry, I started thinking about what kind of background I wanted for my card. Grabbing a piece of watercolor paper, I put a drop of Berry Sorbet Re-inker on my round acrylic block and gave it a couple of drops of water. Then I flicked the water off the edge of my acrylic block using a #2 Silver Black Velvet Round Brush which makes a very fine splatter on your cardstock below. The smaller the brush, the finer the splatter. Because this is a somewhat messy process, I have a shallow box that I lay the panels into when I am doing this with a paper towel underneath.  I used the same method with a slightly larger brush for the gold spatter.  I like to have a bit of both sizes in the gold spatter for the added texture.  There are a lot of ways to get texture in your background panel, from dry embossing to embossing paste to paint to watercolor, but I like this way because you can customize it to go with the inks you used to do your stamping and it is fast and easy.

I created a top folding card base from Berry Sorbet Cardstock and adhered my background panel to it once it had dried.  I arranged my tulips how I wanted and finished off with the greeting stamped from Altenew's Beautiful Day Stamp Set. You could change the greeting to be "Birthday", "Just a Note", or any type of card you like to suit whatever the occasion.  The tulips do take a bit of time to stamp but the effort is always worth it.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I'll be back soon with a new card and I hope you'll come back as well!