Building my Holiday Stash

Hello there!  Today I have another card for you using Papertrey, The Greetery and Memory Box Dies.  I will be entering this into a few of my favorite challenges and one that is new to me;  Outside the Box (Memory Box Frame It Up Challenge), The Paper Players (Marvelous Metallics), the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (Bling It On). 


I had one last piece of this musical Gold Foiled Cardstock that I've been meaning to use with these particular dies, so I grabbed it with a few other supplies and started working to create my card.

I made a 5.5 x 4.25 inch top folding card base from Stardream Metallic Gold Cardstock.  This is a #105 Cover Weight, shimmer cardstock.  I wanted to die cut the music score and treble clef from Gold Glitter Cardstock, so I matched the cardstock to the glitter paper.  I have several different shades of Gold Shimmer Cardstock, so it was important to choose the right one.

I love specialty cardstock so I've built my supply slowly and most of my specialty card stocks come from PaperPapers.com.  I have found them to be the most reasonably priced and I can purchase in 25 sheet packs.  You get free shipping with a $50.00 order in the US and I don't seem to have any trouble placing a fifty dollar order. Ü

Next, I pulled a piece of White Satin Cardstock and die cut the largest Pierced Feature Frames: Rectangle from that.  Next, I die cut the Musical Interlude and Treble Clef (Memory Box) dies from Gold Glitter Cardstock.  These dies are very delicate, so I had to think a bit about how I was going to get the effect I wanted.  I wanted the die cuts to go across the top of the frame to be the focal point.  First, I attached the right side of the musical score with Multi Medium Matte, lining it up along the pierced detail line in the frame and let it dry for a few minutes. Then I glued the musical score to the treble clef and let that dry.  I laid them upside down on my glass mat to let them dry with an acrylic block on top to keep them from moving.  Once they were dry, I adhered them to the white frame so that the three die cuts adhered to each other.  Turning them face down, I added a double layer of foam tape on the backside.  I cut the music paper slightly smaller than the frame to fit behind it without showing outside of the frame.  Then I adhered that to the card base.

With the Glitter Paper, the foiled paper, and the shimmer metallic cardstock, there is a lot of shimmer, shine, and bling on this card.

I cut a couple of different tags/labels and stamped some Holiday sentiments on them to add to my Christmas Card Stash. Both of the sentiments came from Papertrey Ink stamp sets.  

    

While I had the dies out, I cut an extra set to make another card.  I don't have any more of the music sheet paper, so I just used some Peacock Shimmer Cardstock and added some sequins and gems in the background.  That way, if you are like me and rarely buy patterned paper, you can see that it still makes a beautiful card, while being what most would consider clean and simple. 

It's been fun having time to get back into doing some challenges.  I'd better get busy posting these in the challenges before I run out of time.  The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge will change tomorrow, so I need to get cracking!  

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope to share a few more cards before next week's Keeping Christmas Blog Hop on the 25th.  I have my projects completed for that, but I still need to write the post.  See you soon!  

Bountiful Thanks

My card today is for The Paper Players #368 - a Tic Tac Toe Challenge and The Fusion Card Challenge, Autumn Leaves. This card came out nothing like what I had intended when I started it.  I've been experimenting with Alcohol Inks and Alcohol Blending Solution on Yupo Paper (I got mine from Amazon) a bit this weekend and the particular one I used here didn't come out how I wanted it to.  It turned kind of reddish orange with my combination of inks (Gold Mixative with Red Pepper) which definitely felt more Fall than Christmas or holiday.  So I rolled with it and die cut the paper with Romantic Leaves from Spellbinders.

Before I move on, I want to talk about what I've learned with the Yupo Paper and the Alcohol Inks.  Initially, when I tried Alcohol inks, I didn't have any Yupo Paper so I used some of my SU! Glossy White Cardstock. I was pretty satisfied with those results but everyone talks about how you're supposed to use it with Yupo Paper.  Honestly, I didn't care too much for the Yupo Paper.  It's somewhat expensive, it's thin like vellum, and I didn't think it moved or worked very well with the alcohol inks. I purchased a single 11 x 14 pad with 12 sheets that I can cut down into 6 panels, but I would not use it again for this technique. I thought maybe I was using the wrong side, but there doesn't seem to be a right or wrong side and I tried both sides.  Also, I think it takes a lot of Alcohol Blending Solution to achieve good results and that is pretty pricey as well. So while I like having this tool in my tool belt, it isn't one I will use very often and when I do use it, I plan to stick with Glossy Cardstock. The best results I got by far were by smooshing the paper into the ink which I did on aluminum foil rather than dropping the ink directly onto the paper and adding blending solution to it.  I have several other backgrounds (including the ones I made with Glossy Cardstock last week) to use in a variety of colors that you'll see on upcoming projects and I used one here.

For this card, I wanted something that would work with the color of my leaves and I happened to have some paper out that would work perfectly.  I found this great 8.5 x 11 paper pad by Momenta at Hobby Lobby.  All of the prints in this pad are watercolor look and many of them have gold or silver paint splatters on them.  Since I have the touches of gold in the leaves, I chose this soft yellow/coral print for my background.  I die cut it with MFT Blueprints 15 Stitched Rectangle Die and gave it some healthy mists Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist.  I arranged the leaves on that panel then adhered them with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  To keep everything simple, flat and easily mailable, I cut a strip of vellum with the largest MFT Horizontal Stitched Strips and then stamped the sentiment from the Color Pop Autumn Stamp Set using Versamark and heat setting it with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I used my powder tool first so that my embossing would stay clean.

To adhere the vellum strip, I put a skinny little line of sticky dot adhesive (Kokuyo) on the stitch line of the background panel and then gently pressed the vellum onto that.  The adhesive is light blue and if you put it directly onto the vellum, it shows through.

I die cut one of the Impression Obsession Butterflies that I use all the time from Gold Foiled Cardstock and put skinny strips of Scotch 3M Foam Tape under the body and a glue dot under the back end to make it seem as if the butterfly was about to be in flight.  I added a few Nuvo Drops in Copper Penny for a bit of contrast and let them dry overnight. 

I hope you enjoyed my card and will take time to stop by The Paper Players Challenge Blog and the Fusion Card Challenge Blog. 

Papertrey Ink July 2017 Create Along With Us

It's release time at Papertrey Ink and that means we have another "Create Along With Us Challenge".  Sometimes I like to see all of the projects before I decide what I'm going to do for the challenge, but this month Michelle Leone's card caught my attention right away so I decided to go for something along these lines.  I love the soft shades she used with the super fun florals, leaves and sprigs. Those are from a new set releasing this month designed by Nichole Heady. I chose to use brighter colors for my card but I hope I achieved some of the same feeling that Michelle's card conveys.

Michelle Leone's Card

Of course, this month's release is in the pre-release stage as of this post and hasn't yet been available for purchase; that happens on the 15th of every month at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time. So, I grabbed a set from last month that I've been meaning to sit down and create with called Garden Party designed by Dawn McVey.

I started by cutting several of each shape from the Garden Party Coordinating Dies from Stamper's Select White Cardstock. It always takes me a bit of practice to see how things line up since the images are not perfectly symmetrical.

This particular stamp set has a few choices in how you stamp it from full solid color image on the bottom to one that stamps with white space left for the 2nd and 3rd layers. The leaves are all just a single layer and I originally stamped them in New Leaf Ink.  That didn't give me quite the look I was going for so I stamped some more using Smokey Shadow Ink.  The neutral color gave a lot of balance for the monochromatic look and the backgrounds I had chosen.

For the front panel, I used a die cut panel of Lavender Moon Stripe that had been cut first from the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and then with the Concord & 9th Select-A-Size Edge Dies.  The background panel of Smokey Shadow Cardstock was cut with a slightly larger Stitched Rectangle Die from the My Favorite Things Blueprints 15 Die Set. I adhered both of the background layers to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.

The banner is the Papertrey Ink Number The Stars Banner Die but I use it often with the sentiment from Altenew's Beautiful Day set because it's a perfect fit. I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder.

I arranged my flowers and leaves and then used the "Press-N-Seal" method to lift the entire arrangement and put glue on the back side then laid the arrangement back down and pressed again.  This held everything in place while the glue had time to set and I could peel the Press-N-Seal away.  You can use a little piece of the Press-N-Seal for many times until it completely loses its tackiness.  It always gives me a little smile when I remember that Simon Says Stamp carries this item!

The challenge for this week over at The Paper Players is a monochromatic color scheme in these lovely shades of Pink and Rose so I used the Rose Petals Collection of inks from Altenew to stamp my blooms.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you enjoy my card.  Be sure to head over to Nichole Heady's Blog to see all of the submissions for the Create Along With Us Challenge this month.

The Paper Players #350

Today is a quick, no frills post for you because I am about to run out of time to post an entry to The Paper Players Challenge #350 which is a sketch challenge this week.

Yesterday's mail brought my Bouquet of Thanks Bundle from the most recent Simon Says Stamp Release and I knew right away that I wanted to use it for this sketch.  That particular bundle came with the Thanks Die, the Bouquet Die and the stamp set.

I've been practicing this week with my Copic Markers and I wanted to continue with that trend as I am getting a little more comfortable with them each time I use them. At this time, I think my issue is with the paper I'm using.  

For the style of this image, I stamped it using Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink.  I used a single color marker on the stems (G24).  For the blooms, I used 4 colors; RV00, RV52, RV63, and V12. As in my other projects this week, this is very simple Copic coloring.  I'm trying to get more comfortable with the way the markers move and feel on the paper, so I just wanted to keep it simple. To that end, I ordered some X-Press It Paper made specifically for Copic Markers. I've used some super silky paper at CHA this year in the Spectrum Noir Booth and I'm looking for something that feels similar. I'll have to let you know later if it worked out or not.  Once I had it all colored, I went over all of the flowers with Wink of Stella Clear Shimmer then die cut it with the coordinating die.

To assemble my card, I started with a Top Folding Card Base made from Lavender Moon Cardstock. I die cut the MFT Striped Sentiment Cover Plate from True Black Cardstock and popped out the cut outs so the Lavender Moon could show through.  I adhered the flowers with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  I cut the "Thanks" from a scrap of iridescent white cardstock and a few sparkling confetti and iridescent black sequins finished off my card.

I'm going to link this card up over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for a second entry this week as well.  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you'll come back soon.

This card won A Cut Above at The Paper Players

The Paper Players & Fusion Challenges

My card today is for not just one, but two challenges; The Paper Players Challenge #337 which is a sketch and The Fusion Challenge - "Paris Rain".   We can be inspired by the colors, the imagery, or the sketch or we can combine all of them at the Fusion Challenge.  I was inspired by the color palette but used the sketch from The Paper Players Sketch Challenge to make my card.  This card is for my hubby and will be a little surprise that he finds somewhere -- his lunchbox, or his closet or laying on his keyboard in his home office; everyone likes to feel appreciated and he is no exception although I think he would deny it if you asked him.

This card uses SU! Smoky Slate Cardstock for the background panel on top of a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  The circle and banners are cut from True Black Cardstock.  The Silver and Red piece was made by stamping the Simon Says Stamp Emma Background on Stamper's Select White Cardstock, heat embossing with Silver Embossing Powder and then ink blending with Festive Berries and then Pure Poppy on top. I think Ink Blending is my 2nd favorite technique after heat embossing.  I cut a 2 inch strip down the center of the panel and then punched it with a Stampin' Up Banner Ends Punch. I cut two of the shorter banners from the Doubled Ended Banner Die, one from Smoky Slate and the other in True Black. I cut the Smoky Slate banner in half and then put that on the back of the black banner so that just a bit was showing on each end to help it pop. I used Thin 3D Foam Squares to mount it.  For the sentiment, I used "you are my favorite" from the Hero Arts Hello Stamp & Cut Set.  He is, after all, my favorite husband! *Ü*

The supplies I used are linked in the post or you can find links for the Simon Says Stamp Store and Papertrey Ink Store on the right hand sidebar. Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll come back soon.

Will You Be My Valentine?

Over at The Paper Players Challenge #330 this week they have a theme challenge for Valentine's Day.  I was thinking I was finished making Valentine's Day cards but I got something I had ordered yesterday and had to make just a couple more.  I've already been thinking of all the pretty cards I can make using this die in the future.  One of my nieces is getting married in August and I already have in mind the card I'll make for her. Have you seen this new Caprice Heart Die from Birch Press Designs? They have several layered dies where you just stack the layers to make these beautiful designs but most of them are card sized and just too expensive for me to buy many of.  Even this one was kind of a splurge but I know I will use it many times.

I made the shaped card using the Little B Hearts Dies in the same way as I did for this post. The Caprice Heart Die is not quite the same proportions as the Little B Dies, but you can't really tell once you get everything assembled. For my card I used all Papertrey Cardstock in Pure Poppy, Hibiscus Burst and Lovely Lady.  The die layers are done in the same bottom to top and the top layer is cut from gold foiled cardstock.

The sentiment banner is from the Enclosed: Heart Mini Stamp Set from Papertrey Ink and is cut with the Tag Sale: Quilted Die. So far, this is the only smaller sized layered die from Birch Press Designs but I will be anxious to see what the future holds with them.  The Prismatic Heart is kind of lacey and pretty like this one, but it isn't a layered die.

I still have a few cards to write out to get all my Valentines mailed and today is about the latest I want to do that so I'm going to skate off of here for now to finish those up.  Have a great day and I hope you'll come back very soon.  

The Paper Players Challenge #317

This week over at The Paper Players, they have a Clean & Simple Leaf Challenge.  One of my favorite color combinations for Fall this year is Scarlet Jewel and Dark Chocolate so I created my card using those two reinkers.

I started by stamping a couple of the WPLUS9 Autumn Leaves outline stamps onto Canson  #140 Watercolor Paper using Versamark and heat embossing with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  Since I was coloring in the leaves all the way it didn't matter that the paper was a little more cream colored than white.  Putting a few drops of reinker onto an acrylic block and picking it up with a waterbrush, I colored in the leaves. I wasn't going for a "watercolored" look, just a colored look but I wanted the paper to stand up to the water without pilling. There's some variation in the color just where the paper was more or less wet. Once I had those colored I set them aside for a little while.

While I was waiting, I made a top folding card base from Dark Chocolate Cardstock and cut a stitched rectangle panel from Rustic White Cardstock using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Dies.  I stamped the sentiment from WPLUS9's Grateful Greetings Stamp Set  in Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder. This is a small stamp set with three different sentiments in it for $6.00 and it pairs well with the Autumn Leaves Stamps & Dies. In fact, last year, Dawn made some gorgeous place cards with both of these sets as you can see in these photos on the right. These were all created by Dawn Woleslagle, owner and designer of WPLUS9.

Next, I went back to the colored pieces while they were still a bit damp to do a trick I learned from my friend, Yana Smakula. She shapes her leaves, petals or what-have-you while they are a little damp and then lets them dry the rest of the way.  If you wait until the paper is completely dry, it can tear or mess up the heat embossing, but not if you do it while they are still damp. Be sure to stop by and check out Yana's blog.  She always has great projcts there and does awesome videos as well.

Before I started assembling my card but after the die cut pieces were dry, I went back to them and did a bit more shaping.  I didn't change the shape of anything, only intensified the gentle creasing I had done in the centers of the stems.

I attached the Rustic White background panel to my card base using my ATG Gun and then attached the leaves down the center using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.  Once the glue was dry, I selectively placed a few Thin 3D Foam Squares to add a little bit of dimension without making the whole thing popped up and too thick for easy mailing.  

Thank you so much for stopping by to see my project.  I have several more finished for this week and just need to get the blog posts written.  I am wishing you all a beautiful fall week!