Day Four of the We Love Dawn Blog Hop

For Day Four of the Official We Love Dawn Blog Hop, I am using two of Dawn's Stamp Sets and another one that is also Papertrey Ink.  This card is also for The Paper Players Challenge, Holiday Pines, which you can find here.  I think it was last year that the Holiday Greens Borders Stamp Set  was released.  There is also Holiday Greens and both sets have the coordinating dies found here and here.  I happen to love this row of pine branches and I used it a lot last year.  This is my first time using it this year but with the companion die, it is so easy to create a row of pine across the top of a vertical or horizontal card.

I was going for a Rustic look, so I decided to use a sheet of the wood grain patterned paper pack that I picked up last time I was in Dallas visiting my daughter and my grand kids. Since I was planning to use Pinefeather Cardstock for my greens I chose this wood grain with the green tint to it.  There are several different shades in this paper pad, from grey to brown and a lot of colors in between.  The sheets in this paper pad are 5.5 inches wide by 7.5 inches tall and since I wanted to be able to get two cards out of one sheet, I cut the sheet in half, then put it into my stitched rectangle die which just put the stitch line on it but didn't actually cut anything.  The Pine Border was tall enough to cover the rest of the card panel so that I could get two cards out of it. I attached the wood grain panel with tape runner. 

I needed to heat emboss my sentiment before I could move on to the rest of my card so I chose this greeting from Dawn's A Thrill of Hope Stamp Set.  I think it's a bit hard to read here but it says, "Season Greetings to you and those you love.  May joy dance around you like snowflakes from above."

Today I used the same technique for the pine branch border that I did for yesterday's card which was to stamp, heat emboss and repeat until I had 4 layers.  Let me just say, it took four tries today before I got one right.  Since the border stamp is a bit wider than the background it was very tricky to get it lined up in the exact same place. I didn't have the corner to use in my Misti as I usually do, so my first three attempts were unsuccessful.  Once I had the heat embossing finished, I die cut it using the coordinating die.  I used 3D Foam Tape to mount that to my card base which then covered the rest of the card front.  The ornament is What The Doodle Ornament that was colored previously.

And another card using the leftovers from the wood grain paper.  I used Limitless Layers 2¼" Squares for the gold foil frame and the insert from the same set to die cut the greeting.  I'm sorry you can't really see the gold frame.  As you know, it's hard to photograph. 

There are still three more days in this hop so I will have more projects for you this week. Be sure to stop back by later in the week to check out all of the finished projects. Thanks for stopping today.

Make it Monday #264 - Die Cut Stencil Shapes

This week on Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday, Melissa Phillips showed us how to use die cuts as stencils.  I've done this on occasion previously but a reminder of techniques can always be a good thing.  We have so many little tips and tricks in our arsenals that we sometimes forget some of the classics.

For my card, I die cut a snowflake and used that as my stencil.  Melissa showed how she uses a paper towel to gently sponge on color.  I used a stencil brush with Lavender Moon Ink, moving the stencil around until I had the background pretty full, but still soft.  Lavender Moon Ink and Cardstock, despite the name, is more of a mauve than a lavender.  I hadn't actually realized that until I ordered the card stock for the first time. The stencil brushes give a softness that I don't think could possibly be achieved with a mini ink blending tool.  Melissa is an expert at delicate, vintage and shabby chic projects.  She often incorporates all three of those things into one project. You can find her beautiful projects on her blog here or regularly at the Papertrey Ink Blog.  

Once my stenciling was complete, I set out to create my card.  I wanted to use lavender/pinks and even the softer greens to make this card for a girlfriend. It's just ultra feminine which describes my friend to a "T".  The What The Doodle: Ornament was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder .  I cut it out with the coordinating dies then colored it with Hibiscus Burst Reinker.  I went over the top of the color using a water brush with Interference Red Perfect Pearls which gives it a somewhat deeper color and, depending on the light, a bit of a Sugarplum color. While the ornament finished drying, I stamped the rest of my card front using Holiday Greens Borders which is one of my current favorites.  I love that the border is the entire width of a card so I am not having to stamp a single branch over and over. I do stamp multiple times to get the fullness of an actual Christmas Tree but it is super easy - about three rounds makes it as full as you'd like.  For this card, I inked up the stamp in Versamark first and then also inked it up with Ocean Tides which is a soft green, and then stamped. While the inks were still wet, I sprinkled WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder on the branches and heat set them.  This is what gives the branches their iridescent look.

For the greeting, I used Fancy Pants: Holiday Sentiments with WOW! Metallic Gold Sparkle Embossing Powder.  There are coordinating dies for these stamps, but I did not purchase them. Except for the ones I put on a banner, I mostly do sentiments directly to the card front like I did here.  Everything is attached to a top folding card base that I made with Lavender Moon Cardstock.

Since there's a video tutorial over at the Papertrey Ink Blog, I'm going to spare you all the details. If you have a question, be sure to send a contact me form and I will get back to you right away! Thanks so much for popping in today.

Papertrey Ink's October 2016 Create Along With Us

It's the Create Along With Us Challenge over at Papertrey this week and without even seeing the full release, it was easy to pick the project and colors that inspired me the most. Betsy's project with the new What the Doodle: Snowflake (releasing on October 15th) is easily one of my favorite winter color combinations.  I started by doing some ink blending on a panel of watercolor paper using Amethyst Allure and Hawaiian Shores inks.  I started with Aqua Mist but decided I wanted a bit more color.  I spritzed the panel with shimmer mist and set it aside to dry while I went to work on my ornament.

In order to keep the ornament the same shade of purple as my background, I continued to ink blend on another piece of watercolor paper using Amethyst Allure with my Mini Round Ink Blending Tool. Once I had it colored and shimmer spritzed, I set that aside to dry for a bit while I went back to work on the first panel.

Using several of the snowflakes from the Fab Flakes Stamp Set, I stamped them on the background panel with Versamark and heat embossed them with WOW! Metallic Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder.  Next I used the pine branch from Holiday Greens Borders and stamped it in Pine Feather Ink, then inked it up again and shifted a bit to the right, then stamped it again for really full pine branches. Quickly, while the ink was still damp, I sprinkled it with WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder and heat set it.  You have to move quickly, but your stamped image will have a bit of the moisture from the ink allowing some of the embossing powder to stick to it while you heat set it.

Next I inked up the What The Doodle: Ornament in Versamark and heat embossed it in the same Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder from WOW! The dies for this set have a solid (outline) image and the detailed cut.  Using the solid ornament die, I cut it out so that I could see exactly where to place it then laid it into the detailed die and cut it again.  I really messed up the first one I did, so I had to figure out how to do it better and this was my solution.  It worked great.

For my greeting, I stamped the "Merry & Bright" from Mama Elephant Jingle Greetings first in Versamark and without wiping that off, inked it up in Royal Velvet.  Again, I sprinkled WOW! Neutral Ultra Shimmer Embossing Powder on it and heat set it which gave me a nice bold greeting with a lot of shimmer and shine.  This is one of my favorite tricks for bold greetings on my cards.  Even though I stamped the snowflakes before I stamped the greeting, they appear to be in front of the greeting.  If I would have embossed with the Platinum Embossing Powder, the greeting would have been lost.

I die cut that panel with the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die in the largest size and then attached my ornament using Silver DMC Metallic Thread and slivers of Thin 3D Foam Squares that had been cut in half to make them narrow so they would fit on the back side of the ornament. I secured the string on the back of that panel with a small piece of Washi Tape (you could use any kind of tape) and adhered the panel to a top folding A2 card base made from Royal Velvet Cardstock.  Royal Velvet is decidedly K-State Purple!

I think this will be one of my main Christmas Cards this year although I still have a lot of time to think about it.  I really like the design.  It is a lot of steps, but I think it was worth the effort.  You could make it easier by changing up a few of the elements for mass production like stamping all of the snowflakes at once using MISTI, stamping the ornament onto Amethyst Allure Cardstock and then die cutting it or die cutting all the ornaments out of Amethyst Allure Cardstock and then stamping it using the MISTI and a few more options. I enjoy the stamping process and the unique, one of a kind design so I'm really happy with how this turned out.  Even if you did all of those things to speed along the production, it is still a very unique and beautiful card.  I love all the shimmer and shine!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today and taking time to comment. I'll be back soon with another project and starting this weekend, I'll be designing over at "The Challenge" for Always Playing With Paper.  I hope you come by to check us out!

Turquoise & Lilac

The ladies over at the Less is More Challenge were so very kind about their comments last week and had asked for me to play again this week. They loved my project, but in their case, Clean and Simple also refers to the background and mine was definitely too busy.  Some challenges don't mind the designer paper, but in their case they do, so I wanted to make sure my elements fit with the clean and simple theme.

I stamped two of the "What the Doodle: Ornament" onto Watercolor Paper using Versamark and heat embossed them with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I cut them out with the coordinating dies and used reinkers to paint the color in.  Once that was dry, I went back over with a bit of Perfect Pearls and a touch of water in Turquoise and Berry Twist (a NLA color) to add the shimmer to them. The Turquoise was a perfect match to my ink color but the Berry Twist Perfect Pearls are a significantly deeper color of purple than the original Lilac color that I used.  The challenge called for Turquoise and Lilac together on a card.

For my background, I did a light layer of ink blending on the center of a Watercolor Paper Panel using Hawaiian Shores Ink very lightly with a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool then misted it with Iridescent Gold Shimmer Spritz. Once that was dry, I stamped the Holiday Greens Pine Branch Border using Pine Feather Ink.  Lastly, I added my sentiment from the Mama Elephant Jingle Greetings Stamp Set in Versamark and heat embossed in the same Antique Gold Embossing Powder from Simon Says Stamp.

I assembled my ornaments onto the background panel using some Gold Thread put through the loop and then taped down on the back side of the panel and Thin 3D Foam Squares on the front side for just the smallest hint of dimension.  The panel was adhered to a top folding Blackberry Bliss A2 Card Base using my ATG.  I have kind of a duddy roll of adhesive on there right now, but it's almost gone so I'm just trying to inch through it before I put a new roll on.  I've had a few of these and I'm going to have to pay closer attention to how I store them in the future.  Long after I had gotten mine someone on a forum was saying how you can't store them vertically.  OOPS!  So I changed all mine, but I think the damage was already done.

This is the first Christmas Card I've made this year.  I have many more in my head and "'tis the season" to get moving on those so you'll be seeing many more in the next couple of months.  Have a great Monday and thanks so much for stopping by!

Merry Monday #215

I'm in with a super quick post this morning.  I recently found a new challenge that I want to participate in called Merry Monday.   This is a Christmas Card Challenge Blog and the idea is that by the time you send out your Christmas cards, you will have at least one a week ready to go and a nice little stash built up. And if you don't send quite that many it's still nice to have a little stash to sell (if that's what you do) or for a last minute dinner invitation or that kind of thing because everyone appreciates getting a card.

The challenge for this week is to use light and dark pink with silver or gray.  I did both -- shiny silver and also shimmery gray cardstock.

First I stamped the What the Doodle Ornament from Papertrey Ink in Versamark onto Canson Bristol #140 Watercolor Paper and heat embossed it using Fine Detail Silver Embossing Powder from Judikins. I have had mine forever and it's still nearly full because I use a lot more gold than silver embossing powder.  I used a couple of Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens in Pale Rose and Light Pink with a water brush to color the ornaments. The branches are a Tim Holtz Sizzix Die called Holiday Greens cut from some pearlescent evergreen cardstock that came from my scrap bin.  I cut the pearlescent grey cardstock panel to 4 x 5.25 and dry embossed it using the Musical Flourish Cuttlebug Embossing Folder and mounted that to a card base made from Autumn Rose Cardstock.  The ornaments were given a coat of Clear Wink of Stella once the watercolor was dry.

This card came together really quickly because it is similar to the design I am planning to use for some of my Christmas Cards this year.  The silver details don't photograph all that well and I am planning to use gold accents for the other cards I'll be making in this design.  Y'all know how much I love Pink and Gold, Purple and Gold, or heck, just gold!  Metallic Gold is the perfect neutral to go with everything!  But it was fun to do something that I normally wouldn't choose.
Thanks so much for stopping by today and be sure to check out the What The Doodle Ornament at Papertrey Ink.  There is also a coordinating die set and Papertrey is having trouble keeping it in stock at this point.  I appreciate and treasure all of your kind and encouraging comments.  Have a great weekend everyone!