May 2016 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Hello everyone!  It's time for the Monthly Blog Hop over at Papertrey Ink. Nichole provided us with this as our inspiration image and it has been interesting trying to figure out what I was going to do for this challenge.  These colors are just delicious and make me think of ice cream and popsicles and all the other Ice Cream Truck treats of my childhood.

Remember how when you were little (if you lived in town) you could follow the ice cream truck on foot or on your bike to get an instant cool down from a Popsicle?  My husband didn't know that feeling as he grew up on a farm 12 miles outside of town.

To begin, I stamped the image onto watercolor paper with Encore Silver Ink then sprinkled it with Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder and heat set it.

Part of participating in the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is using at least one of their products for the challenge.  I'll admit I am stretching that a little bit today because I didn't use one of their stamp sets but most everything else is from Papertrey Ink.

From the moment I saw the inspiration image, I could only think of this particular stamp set, Ice Cream Dream, that I got a year or two ago from Close To My Heart. So I decided to watercolor it using Papertrey Ink Cubes; Raspberry Fizz, Vintage Jadeite, Melon Berry, Spring Rain, Hawaiian Shores, Berry Sorbet, and Pure Poppy for the Cherry.  A little distress ink in Gathered Twigs was used for the syrup on the top of the sundae. I wanted to use Kraft Ink from Papertrey but mine hasn't been delivered yet. Some of the colors I used aren't exactly what you might find in real life, but it's okay.  I just smooshed a bit of ink from the corner of the ink cube onto a 3.5 inch round acrylic block and then used a water brush to pick it up and "paint". Since the block was large I could just rotate it to have access to the color I wanted much like a paint palette.

The watercolor panel was spritzed with Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Mist and the ice cream treats were given a coat of Clear Wink of Stella.  When that dried, I die cut it using the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle and adhered it to my top folding A2 card base made from Papertrey Ink's Hawaiian Shores Cardstock.  For the very last step, I put Glossy Accents on the ice cream for the added dimension and to give it the wet look.

Be sure to check out all of the projects over at the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop today! Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to leave a comment if you like!

Christmas Cheer

Every time I see this image, the thing that pops into my head is "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loudly for all to hear!"  These sweet little birdies just look like they are singing!

I used this Stampendous Winter Birds Stamp for yesterday's card, so I'll just tell you the supplies I used to create it without going in to too many technical details. For the branches I used Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Pine Needles and a Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen in Green so I could get the super fine lines in my coloring of the branches.  For the Birds I used another combination of Distress Marker in Pumice Stone and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen in Black.  For the winter gear I used Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen in Persian Blue along with Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Wilted Violet. I also used a tiny bit of Zig Clean Color in Light Pink for the cheeks.

After I had finished water coloring the image, I put Wink of Stella Clear Pen on the snowy parts then let that dry for a few minutes.  Next I added the Glossy Accents to all the snow and to the pom-poms on the birds' winter gear.  While that was still wet, I put a pinch of Elizabeth Craft Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter on top then set it aside to dry overnight.  I love the extra bit of dimension this adds to the card and it sparkles and shines like real fresh snow does.  It's hard to tell it's there in the photo, but if you try it you'll see that it does.

I created a card base with a piece of leftover Green Shimmer Card Stock so I also cut a white panel to go on the inside of the card for my message.  This was a quick blog post but if you have any questions, just put them in the comments below and I'll send you a reply.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll be entering this card over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and I hope to see some of you over there.

Share Handmade Kindness

I'm participating in a month long event that was developed by and started yesterday over at the Jennifer McGuire, Ink blog.  I've mentioned before that she is my absolute favorite paper crafter to follow.  There are several bloggers that I like and follow, but Jennifer's style more closely matches my own and I also relate to her because, like me, she doesn't come from an art background.  Also like me, she started when she was making scrapbooks for her family.

The challenge is to make something (anything) by hand with love.  It could be dinner, dessert, cookies, taking photos, creating a scrapbook page or a card or just a handwritten note.  People just love to get "real" mail and for some of us, the joy is in creating those things.  I know I groan every time I see how much junk is in the mailbox and what a delight it is anytime I get something besides a bill or junk.

I have someone special that I want to reach out to for this challenge.  This person makes an impact on so many lives but she has no idea just how much!  I'm sending a card that I made to say thanks and to try and tell her how much she has impacted my life in a positive way.

I made this card with the same technique that I used to make the Audrey Blue Ornament Card. Using a piece of chipboard that came in a package of paper, I cut the heart out for my mask this time.  First I used a Mini Ink Blending Tool and Simon Says Stamp Thistle Ink to color in the heart.  I stamped the flourish in the heart and heat embossed it using WOW! White Pearl Embossing Powder. Since my ink was already down, it gave the flourish a tone on tone look.  I applied Versamark using a Mini Sponge Dauber all over the heart, then I used Interference Red Perfect Pearls over that.  A very light misting of water helps to set the Perfect Pearls. As you blend in the Perfect Pearls, the color looks different depending on what light is shining on it.  The Interference Red gets a beautiful kind of rose colored shimmer in the right light and I like that it changes as the light does. I wanted to make the heart seem like an ornament, so I used the ornament topper die from another set.  I wasn't sure it would work, but it was perfect.  I ran the rose colored ribbon through that ornament topper to make it look like it was hanging.

I used the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles in the largest size to cut the background panel and then the next largest for the card front panel and tucked the ribbon behind the background panel with a couple of glue dots.  Then I cut and added my sentiment.  This is my favorite "thanks" die from Mama Elephant cut from the same Bazzill Marshmallow as the front panel for a perfect match.  I cut all the little hearts in some Creative Memories Thistle colored paper that I had also added the Interference Red Perfect Pearls to using the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes Hearts and Stars die and the Simon Says Stamp Large Holiday Shapes Hearts and Stars die.  Those two die sets give you 8 different sizes of each shape and are something I use frequently.   Once I had everything assembled I added the hearts to my card front using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  For my final touch I gave all of the hearts a coat of Ranger Glossy Accents to give the hearts a little dimension, then set it aside to dry for a couple of hours.

I hope some of you who are reading this will go check out Jennifer McGuire Ink (link on the right hand side) and join in the Share Handmade Kindness Challenge.