Papertrey Ink September 2017 Create Along With Us Challenge

I don't think anyone will be too surprised or baffled when trying to figure out where the inspiration for my card came for the Papertrey Ink Create Along With Us Challenge this time around. It's release week which means we get to pick a project from the Design Team and create alongside them and share our projects with other customers via the monthly challenge.

On Day One of this release, Nichole's very first project (on the right) inspired me. Isn't it just gorgeous? Nichole used a combination of two new sets, Brilliant Baubles and Beautiful Berries: Winter. I can hardly stand the wait to see the full reveal of the stamps and dies on the 15th. I think I might even be most anxious for the Berries as I have been enjoying my Spring, Summer and Autumn sets. These are intended to be Juniper Berries but, like Nichole, I see lots of possibilities for these as well. I'm super excited to see both of these sets. Since they haven't been released yet, I had to try to recreate the feel of Nichole's card and I decided to do my favorite feminine combination of Pink and Gold for my card.  I will send this card to my best friend for her Christmas Card.

For my card, I started with a SU! set that I've had since way before I started making cards.  I was planning to use it in my scrapbooks, but that never happened.  I'm excited for the new Papertrey sets because I think they will be a better size for card making. Still, I have this SU! ornament stamp set and the coordinating dies, so I've hung on to it. These are cling mounted stamps so I removed the insert and popped some white cardstock into my Mini MISTI.  I wanted to control where the color got put onto the stamp and this was super easy to do with the Mini Ink Cubes. Since I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, the large ink pads don't work for me when I want to take ink to the stamp instead of the stamp to the ink. But the cubes work perfect with this technique. I tried a few different color combinations but this is the one I like best.  The center portion of the ornament is inked with Hibiscus Burst and the top and bottom is Lovely Lady. Since I was using the MISTI, it was easy to add more layers of color to get a saturated look. Once the stamping was done, I gave it a generous spritzing with shimmer spritz then popped some Swarovski Crystals in Aurora Borealis onto the center of the flowers. Normally I use the plain Crystal Color but the Aurora Borealis color works well with Pinks and Purples. This is my favorite way to add bling to my cards, especially to my bling loving girlfriends.

I created a top folding horizontal card base from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I die cut a panel of Pink Shimmer Cardstock for the background. One of my Papertrey Forum Friends, Cindy O, sent me samples of the shimmer cardstock and I used the pink one here. I used the Sparkle & Shine Holiday Additions Mini Stamp Set to heat emboss the word "Holiday" on the background panel. I die cut the "Sparkle" word with the coordinating dies for the Sparkle & Shine Stamp Set.

I used a strip of glitter paper to ground my ornament and some gold cord to tuck the strings behind the background panel.  So that it would stay nice, I did a Jennifer McGuire trick and also covered the back side of the card with plain white cardstock so those leftover strings would not show.  I think I will approach this in a different way next time and just glue the strings down in between the background panel and the card base but I had already done it this way when I had that light bulb moment.  The ornament is popped up on Thin 3D Foam Squares but everything else is adhered directly to the card front.  For the background panel I used Kokuyo Dot Liner but to adhere the crystals, Die Cuts and Glitter Paper strip I used Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I used the Sparkle and Shine Holiday Edition Mini Stamp Set to heat emboss the word "Holiday" on the background panel.

This finishes my card for today!  I hope to see your cards at the link up over on Nichole Heady's Blog.  And while you're there, look around to see all the beautiful holiday products that are being released this week on Friday at 10:00 Eastern Time.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

So Many Challenges, So Little Time

Challenges aren't a bad thing; they are an opportunity for others in the industry to see my work and hopefully like it.  They are also how I create new card designs and color combinations, so they are all good in my opinion. There are lots of them out there, but I try to find challenges that fit my style and I've noticed I pretty much participate in the same ones over and over.  I'll be linking this card up over at Double D Challenges, The Card Concept, Sparkle & Shine and Word Art Wednesday.

I sat down last week and made quite a few bouquets and stamped quite a few butterflies with the Bitty Bouquets Stamp Set and Dies and the Color Pop Butterflies from Papertrey Ink. The Color Pop Butterflies were designed by Betsy Veldman and I am enjoying using many different color combinations when creating my own using the multiple step stamps that are part of the design.

I've started doing these bouquets by cutting several out in Stamper's Select 110# White Cardstock from Papertrey Ink and using the negative as my placeholder for the positive pieces with my MISTI.  This is my favorite White Cardstock and trust me when I tell you I have tried many different ones.

I know that it will most likely take a couple of tries to get the stamps lined up perfectly in my MISTI and I use the same die cut over and over for this purpose. It's fairly easy to tell which layer is the newest by the way the ink looks.  Dye based inks like the ones I use 99% of the time, absorb into the paper (dyeing it) and soften as they dry which makes it easy to tell which one you just stamped to see if it is lined up correctly. I try to do each round of stamping in one shot by moving the positive die cut in and out of the negative place holder. I do all the greenery first, then the larger flowers and if there are smaller flowers I do them last.  Not all of the bouquets have the smaller flowers but the Tulips do and they are my favorites from the four varieties in the set.  

Color Pop Butterflies Kit

I have always liked the look of soft pastels but I have definitely learned to appreciate the more vibrant colors as well and I'm finding that I really like them in card making.  I used a couple of Distress Inks and a couple of Papertrey Inks to stamp the Bitty Bouquets and get these really rich colors.  One of the best things about the MISTI is that you can re-ink and stamp the images a 2nd time to get a more intense and vibrant color.  For the flowers on this card, I used Seedless Preserves with Mowed Lawn and Vintage Jadeite with Hibiscus Burst.  The flowers were all double stamped to increase the color saturation. The butterfly is from the Color Pop Butterflies Kit and is done with one of the printed butterflies from the kit that you can cut out using the coordinating die that comes in the kit.  I just added some Wink of Stella Clear Shimmer over the top.

I die cut the polka dot paper using the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle.  Next I cut an oval from the Stitched Oval Stax by My Favorite Things out of Gold Metallic Poster Board and then a smaller Stitched Oval out of coordinating card stock. The sentiment is from Altenew's Beautiful Day Stamp Set and was heat set using Versamark and Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  This was a scrap of cardstock but I am pretty sure it is Stampin' Up! Melon Mambo.  I like the graceful curve of the oval for flower placement and it makes it easy to adhere the arrangement using Multi Medium Matte.  Everything was adhered to an A2 card base made from Stamper's Select White.

These are the inspiration photos I worked with today.  How can I go wrong when they used my two favorite colors?

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  I hope you enjoy the card I made for my daughter and that perhaps it will inspire you to create one of your own.  I always enjoy reading your comments if you'd like to leave one. Have a great day everyone!