"Bee" Fabulous

I am participating in two challenges today - one for Stamps, Ink, Paper Challenge and the other is the Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenge featuring Essentials by Ellen and Honey Bee Stamps.

I was so excited when I saw the Ellen Hutson, LLC Facebook post yesterday because I knew it would give me a chance to use the adorable Build-A-Bee stamp and die set that I was finally able to get.  I've been wanting to get it mostly so I can make an interactive card for my littlest grandson, Xander, who started kindergarten a few weeks ago.  I don't have too many products from Ellen Hutson, but I thought I could figure out a way to make this work for their challenge.

I was putting some patterned papers away in a different container the other day and stumbled upon a few sheets of forgotten patterns that were in my pile.  Many of them only 1/4th sheet sized. One of them was the soft grey pattern you see in the background on this card. Originally, that background was Vintage Cream colored but with a little Lemon Tart Ink and a mini ink blending tool I could make the yellow a little more noticeable pretty easily.  I am not a big fan of bright yellow like many people are.  I like mine in a soft butter kind of color.

I am also really learning to like my copic markers now that I've found a cardstock I like for coloring.  I'm using X-press It Blending Card which is specifically made to use with copic markers.  I love it mainly because it takes a lot less work to get the colors blended and it is smooth as silk and takes a lot less of the alcohol inks to do the job. In the end, it's a pretty big time and cost savings along with also being less frustration. The normal #110 paper is so thick that I think it takes a whole lot of effort and ink to get a good looking result.  Before I gave up coloring completely, I wanted to give the specialty paper a try. I still don't use it often, but I am glad I tried it. I found mine on Amazon.  I cut each sheet into 4 pieces and stamp one piece at a time.

For this card and pretty much any image I stamp for coloring anymore, I used Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and double stamped in the Mini MISTI to get a really crisp black edge.  I have very few yellow Copic Markers, so the bees were done with Y00, Y02, Y06 and Y08.  The grey stripes were done with a bit of Black 100, then C7, C5 and blended out with C-1.  I have actually used my cool grey markers enough that I need to replace or refill C1. For the wings, I added some B000 and BG01 with some flicking motions at the base of the wings and then used Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen in Clear all over just the wings. Given my penchant for shimmer, this shows great restraint. *wink*  I also added a dot of white gel pen to the eye and made all the little tongues red with R39.

The top folding card base is made with Lemon Tart while the grey background panel was cut from Smokey Shadow Cardstock and the aqua is cut from Hawaiian Shores Cardstock using my regular stitched rectangle dies from Simon Says Stamp and MFT. I put a piece of fun foam under the patterned paper panel to add some dimension and also die cut and stacked three of the fabulous word dies from True Black Cardstock, one of top of the other, using Ranger Multi Medium Matte. That finishes up this card for the Stamps, Ink Paper and Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenges.

I colored a few extra bees for my grandson's card but I'm saving this to send to one of my "Fabulous" girlfriends for an encouragement card. After all, we can all use a little encouragement once in a while.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Gold IS The New Black!

I don't often buy patterned paper because I mostly use solid color cardstock. Recently I went looking for some patterned paper at Hobby Lobby while they were having a 50% off sale.  I found so many cool papers to add to my stash and a lot of them have themes that will work great for guys.  Many of the papers in this collection (more than half) have gold foil accents and you know how much I love that!  For me, Gold is as basic a color as black and is also the perfect neutral.  I wouldn't be without black cardstock in my supplies and the same is true of gold for me.  It adds an instant touch of class and elegance to any card.

I picked up two paper pads from The Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby's Brand) in the 4.5 x 6.5 size pads.  One is called "The Getaway" and has lots of maps and travel themed papers all done in black & white with half of them having gold foil accents. The other is called "Black Tie Optional", again with many gold foiled accents. I split these out when I get them home and store them in a big 12 x 12 Cropper Hopper Paper Holder.  The plain Black and White patterns (without gold) go in one section of the Paper Holder and the ones that do have gold accents go in another pocket in the same Paper Holder. These particular paper holders have three pockets; a full 12 inch pocket in the middle with half pockets on the front and back.  These work well for the smaller sized papers.  I have extra folders from my scrapbooking days so I haven't had to buy any new ones although I could really use a better way to store them.  The ones I use all the time are sitting upright on the floor next to my desk.  I have to walk around them constantly. Eventually, I hope to be in a place where I can get better organized and geared more toward card making than scrapbooking.

Now, on to my card for the Stamps, Ink, Paper Challenge #112.  The map paper is one from "The Getaway" paper pad.  Cutting narrow strips from another sheet of paper so that the words "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" could be repeated a few times down the front of my card.  I made my card base quite a bit larger than A2 Sized so that I didn't have to waste any of the paper.  I actually had a couple of this size card bases laying around from when I was working on a Wedding Card for my niece so I am planning to make another card in this size. I ended up using a specialty cardstock for my niece's card but not wanting to waste my good cardstock, I kept these to use another time.  I just didn't know that would happen so soon.

The sentiment came from a different 12 x 12 paper pad from Die Cuts With a View Gold & White Premium Stack.  There's a full sheet of sentiments that can be cut up for cards like I did on this one.  The rest of the card was adhered directly to the card base but I mounted the sentiment strip with Foam Tape. Even though the gold doesn't photograph all that well, this is a really striking card and I will definitely use all of these papers again.  Have a great day and I'll be back soon.

This card was chosen as a Winner at Stamps Ink Paper!