Sunday Stamps Challenge

Today I have a card for the Sunday Stamps Challenge #144 - Seeing Stars.  My hubby's twin brother and his wife have a classic car that they take around the country to various car shows and this past weekend they won 4 of the awards at a car show in Wichita, Kansas for their car.  That meant a "Congratulations" card was in order so this is what I came up with to send to them.

I used True Black Cardstock to make my card base.  The background panel is made from a designer paper that I found a few months ago at Michaels while we were visiting our daughter and her family in Dallas.  I wish I had gotten a couple more sheets as this is a great one for men.  It doesn't photograph all that well, but it's not terrible either.  This paper is printed with the grey scale triangle pattern but is also a gold shimmer cardstock.  So I pulled in the gold stars and banner for a really classic look.  It's not too feminine but not too manly either; it's just a nice balance.

The stars are cut using an old Cookie Cutter Die set from Quickutz, the Banner is from Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale: Quilted and the Congrats is from Winnie and Walter's The Big, The Bold & You Die Cuts.  

This was a very fast and easy card to make and the Black White & Gold make a very striking combination. Anytime I use a dark colored card base, I always cut a Stitched Rectangle Panel to to go on the inside of the card so I don't have to try to find a white pen that works to write a note.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'm still trying to get back in the groove and catch up from a 2 week vacation.  There were a few blog posts that went live while I was at CHA so be sure to check out those blog posts for my projects.  

Papertrey Ink January 2017 Blog Hop

I am jumping on with a card for the Papertrey Ink January 2017 Blog Hop this afternoon. Because I've been on vacation with my husband, I completely forgot about it until late this morning when I went to catch up on all of my regular stops. The thing about vacation is that you lose track of what day of the month it is.  We are home a couple of days earlier than expected but until I saw Nichole's post, I completely forgot about it.

Nichole asked everyone to start with a black background and work from there trying favorite florals, colors, textures and bold sentiments.

For my card, I started with a Stamper's Select White Card Base cut using the Noted: A2 Scalloped Notecard and a black label cut from True Black Cardstock and an older die set I have. I cut all of the Fancy Foliage Details Dies from Gold Cardstock as my start. I also cut the same size label from Gold Cardstock so that I could cut it in half and put it behind the black label.

I don't know about you all, but I have a ton of Prima Flowers in my studio from my scrapbooking days and I try hard to use all of the tools I have at my disposal. I tried stamping some of the various Papertrey Ink Florals I have but I just wasn't getting the look I wanted for my card. So I got out several styles of small Prima Flowers and misted them using color sprays I made with Reinkers and Shimmer Mist.  These particular flowers were sprayed in a combination I like to call Sugarplum which is made from a combination of Pure Poppy and Royal Velvet Reinkers.  I just keep adding drops of Pure Poppy until it is the color I want, so I don't have a "recipe". I like purple that still has a lot of pink in it still so I just play until the color sprays out how I like it.  It's never the same two times in a row.  You can use a Mini Mister or any kind of empty spray bottle that you might have around. I have saved all my Tattered Angels Shimmer Mist bottles and I label them with "my" color name.  I use the same shimmer mist for this purpose all the time which is Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Mist.  I misted most of the flowers in the Sugarplum color and some White Hydrangeas with some green mist I made using Pine Feather Reinker. I cut the green hydrangeas apart to make them seem like leaves tucked under the flower blooms.

My card wasn't difficult to make, only a little time consuming because you have to wait for the color mist to dry so you can layer up a few blooms and add the pearls on top.  Then just arrange them how you like.  I also used the Papertrey Ink Wonderful Word: Love Die by cutting the heart "o" out of the center and using a flower for the "o".

I hope you enjoy my interpretation of the inspiration image! Be sure to hop over to the Papertrey Ink Blog and have a look around at all of the lovely projects. They are all beautiful!  Have a great day everyone.  Thank you so much for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me today.  I always appreciate it when you take time to leave an encouraging comment for me. I read and treasure each one.

Papertrey's August 2016 Create Along With Us

This week the Challenge over at Papertrey Ink is for their monthly Create Along With Us Challenge. Using inspiration from the Design Team, we are to create a project inspired by one of them.  I had so many projects that I loved but of course, they were all using products from the newest release that went live last night at 10 p.m. Eastern Time. Ultimately, Betsy Veldman inspired me the most with her Thanksgiving themed Hostess gift and card that you see on the left. If you have ever been to my blog before, you know that I love using Gold on my projects so I think it is easy to see what the initial appeal was for me.  I also really liked the fact that her project was done in neutral tones because it is something I'm working hard to incorporate into my own projects.  

I started by cutting a card base from True Black Cardstock using the Noted: Scalloped A2 Dies. I wanted to keep the look ultra chic and elegant so I looked for elements similar to some of what we've seen in this release and decide to use Embroidered Blooms Stamp Set and Turning a New Leaf Dies.  I started by looking through my vellum and cutting a piece of this gold metallic printed vellum to put over the black card base. I used just the smallest amount of Vellum Adhesive on each of the four corners of that piece and attached it to my card base.  Next I carefully heat embossed "Amazing Grace" from the Inspired: Grace Stamp Set, making sure not to stay too long in one area with the heat gun to prevent warping of my vellum.  By the way, the vellum is from a pack that I've had for a few years that came from Stampin' Up! There are about 6 different patterns in the pack including some diagonal stripes and big polka dots.

Next I cut several of the large leafy stems from Turning a New Leaf Dies and stamped them using the stamps from Embroidered Blooms. This can be a one or two step stamp but I liked just the 1 step leaves so I could leave quite a bit of white showing for some contrast.  I had a few leaves cut in Fresh Snow Linen Cardstock and some in Stamper's Select White Cardstock but ultimately I liked the added texture of the Linen Cardstock and used those.  I adhered them using Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

I actually messed up the first time I stamped the leaves because I used Encore Gold Ink and then put clear Embossing Powder over the top.  Well that didn't work because then my golds didn't match.  So I cut a few more leafy clusters and stamped in Versamark this time.  I heat set them using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder which is the same as I used for the greeting stamped on the vellum.

I cut a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle in the largest size from Spicy Yogurt Cardstock (from Altenew) for the inside of the card so there would be a place for a handwritten note.  That finishes off my clean and simple card.