The Card Concept {Parisian Postale}

Welcome to a new challenge at The Card Concept!  This will be our last challenge for this year but we'll be back on January 10, 2018 with a new challenge for you.  This week's challenge is entitled "Parisian Postale" seen in our inspiration image.

As you can see, I did not take all of my color cues from the inspiration image but it immediately made me think of a stamp set I got recently from Papertrey Ink called Quoted: Favorite Things.

I love the soft blue and brown color combination so that is what I wanted to use for my card along with the stamps and dies from Papertrey's Enclosed: Present.  The Kraft Cardstock is from Papertrey Ink.  The Blue Cardstock is from Simon Says Stamp and the color is Surf Blue.  The ink I used for this card is from Altenew and the color is Sea Breeze.  It is a gorgeous color of blue and a perfect match for the cardstock.  It is one of the four colors in the Deep Blue Seas Ink Collection and is available in either the set of four Cube Inks or Four Ovals or you can get the individual oval ink pad.  All of the cube inks come in sets of 4 and Reinkers are available for all of the Altenew ink pads at the Altenew Store.  Simon offers Surf Blue Ink but I don't have that one.

The other products I used for this card are the Spellbinders Hemstitched Rectangles for my background panel and this oldie (NLA) Spellbinders Bookplate Label die. It is getting a lot of use since I got my Gemini Die Cutting Machine because of the phenomenal job it does of embossing. Those machines are somewhat hard to find right now but will be coming to Simon Says Stamp this week.  I have the full size machine rather than the junior as I wanted to be able to do multiple die cuts at one time.  For most of my die cutting I am still using my Cuttlebug.

To assemble the card basic structure, I always use Kokuyo Dot Runner Adhesive as my tape runner.  I used it years ago in my scrapbooking but it became impossible to find refills eventually.  I had one left in my supplies and I was really happy when it became available this year again and there was a longer refill available.

For the sentiment that is stamped on the outside of the card, I stamped it 3 times in Sea Breeze Ink and then stamped it in Versamark and used Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder over the top. The label and package are adhered with Foam Tape. The rest of the sentiment was stamped on the inside of the card in Sea Breeze Ink.  For the bow on the package, I die cut 3 layers of white cardstock and glued them together with Multi Medium Matte, then stamped them using my negative as a placeholder.

This was a fun card to put together with my less than typical color choices, but I like it and I'm actually saving it for my daughter and her family.  She will love it and think it is cute plus, it isn't too girly for all of her boys.

Thank you so much for spending a bit of time here today.  The supplies I've used are linked below for your convenience.

Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS
Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink Kraft Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Spellbinders Hemstitch Lace Dies Shop at: SSS
Gemini Full Size Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Scotch 3M Faom Tape Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Enclosed: Present Stamp Set Shop at: PTI
Enclosed: Present Dies Shop at: PTI	Quoted: Favorite Things Shop at: PTI	Simon Says Stamp Surf Blue #100 Cardstock Shop at: SSS	Altenew Sea Breeze Ink Pad Shop at: SSS | ALT
Deep Blue Seas Mini Cube Set Shop at: SSS | ALT	Deep Blue Seas Oval Ink Pad Set Shop at: SSS | ALT	Deep Blue Seas Reinker Set Shop at: ALT	Sea Breeze Reinker Shop at: ALT
Simon Says Stamp Fine Detail Clear Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS

Simon Says Anything Goes

Today I am joining in a few challenges.  I wanted to take one of my favorite background stamps and use it to make a Christmas Card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge. I'll also be linking up at the Muse: Christmas Visions Challenge Blog and the CAS on Friday Challenge Blog. The Muse Christmas Visions current challenge lasts until December 23rd, so I have lots of time to still join in there, and still a few days to join in the others.
I've done so many holiday cards in every sort of variety so I wanted to take an older (but not very old) non-Christmas Stamp and make it into a very Clean and Simple Christmas Card. I like both styles of card making - lots of layers or clean and simple and everything in between.  These are very simple.  I stamped three backgrounds in Versamark onto Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper using my MISTI and heat set them with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

Next I used a variety of inks with a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool to ink blend the background.  The red card is done in Gina K Designs Cherry Red, the Green is Simon Says Stamp Lucky, and the mocha colored card is done with Brilliance ink in Pearlescent Beige.  I then misted the Mocha and Green backgrounds with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Iridescent Gold.  For the Red background, I left it plain red.  I die cut these panels with the WPLUS9 Stitched Rectangle from the Gift Card Layers Dies.

I cut a couple of different banners and a label for the sentiments and stamped them in Versamark and heat set in the Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  "Merry & Bright" is from the Gina K Designs Merry & Bright Stamp TV Kit and the other sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Beautiful Berries: Winter Stamp Set.

I ran some gold foiled cardstock through my Xyron to make it have a sticky back and then die cut the Tim Holtz Woodland trees to have one behind each banner or label. These dies are very intricate and it was much easier to have a neat looking card by using the Xyron instead of my usual Multi Medium Matte.

I adhered those two panels to card bases made from Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White Cardstock.

For the Red Card, I used a little bit of  the Pearlescent Beige Ink applied lightly to the bookplate label which gave it a more ivory appearance so I made a card base for that one from Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream Cardstock.  I attached all three sentiments using Scotch Foam Tape.  Since the rest of the cards were flat, I wanted that little touch of dimension.

These three cards went together super fast and the Gina K Designs Inks blended like a dream as did the others.  Since it was my first time using Gina K Inks in this way, I didn't know in advance how it was going to work out.  Again, I am so impressed with the Gina K Designs Inks. I made room in my cabinet to add several of those by moving my Distress Inks to another location in my studio.  I'll get a few at a time until I have the colors I want.

Thank you so much for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me today.  The supplies I've used are linked below for your convenience.

Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Lucky Ink Shop at: SSS
WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Designer Dies Shop at: SSS	Gina K Designs Stamp TV Kit - Merry & Bright Shop at: GKD	Papertrey Ink Beautiful Berries: Winter Shop at: PTI	Papertrey Ink Keep it Simple Frames Shop at: PTI
Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS
Scotch 3M Faom Tape Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Mini Round Ink Blending Tool Shop at: SSS	Gina K Designs Cherry Red Ink Cube Shop at: GKD	Tim Holtz Woodlands Thinlits Shop at: SSS
Simon Says Stamp Rebecca Lace Background Stamp Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS

Color Throwdown #471

Today's card is for The Color Throwdown Challenge #471 where we are to use Grey, Gold, Black, and White for this challenge. Normally, I wouldn't think to put these colors together but when I saw the inspiration photo it reminded me (for a still unknown reason) of this really unusual Christmas paper that I have which has gold foil on a grey background.  I thought it would work great for this challenge!  The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes This Week and they are featuring Tim Holtz Products so I will also be linking up over there.  I keep thinking of a few more folks that I would like to send a holiday card to and that is what most of the challenges are right now, so it's working great for me to keep making them.


I always enjoy doing techniques but right now I am  focusing on making my cards using some of the beautiful foiled papers I have in my supplies.  I do love my gold and they make it so easy to pull a card together quickly for the most part.


For this card, I selected the foiled background paper and built the design around that for this challenge.  The color of the paper is a perfect match to Papertrey Ink Soft Stone Cardstock but I wanted more contrast that that without being too dark so I also cut a mat for that paper from SU! Smoky Slate Cardstock which is a medium grey color.  My card base is made from Papertrey Ink True Black Cardstock.

I wanted to give the impression that one of the trees was in front of (or closer) than the other so I used the Tim Holtz Woodland Dies and cut 4 layers from True Black Cardstock and glued them one on top of the other, then ran a 4.25 inch piece of gold cardstock through my Xyron 5" Creation Station Sticker Maker.  I die cut the sticky paper using the same Woodlands Dies.  This was a lot easier that trying to add dots of glue and is more affordable than using Stick-It adhesive sheets.  I personally don't have that much success with Stick It because I can't seem to get the release paper off.  I still have some Xyron Refills on hand and I'm thinking I might start using it more again.  I used to use it all the time for scrapbooking.  It definitely works better if you make your paper sticky and then die cut it.  Most of the time, Ranger Multi Medium Matte is okay, but it was easier to do it this way for so many layers and such intricate die cuts.  I used glue for the black ones but I was happy that I had done the Xyron for the gold layers.

The sentiment was stamped in Versamark onto a scrap of white cardstock and heat set with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder three times to make it really stand out and pop.  I adhered it with Thin 3D Foam Squares.

This is a clean and simple card with a lot of visual impact and the colors would make it a great choice for a masculine Christmas Card.  It is elegant without being too fussy.  This paper came from the DCWV Cranberry Christmas Mat Stack found at Michaels.  You can see it all online here but it is only available in stores at this time.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  The supplies I used are linked below for your convenience.

Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Maliblue Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Dies Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS
Papertrey Ink Keep it Simple Frames Shop at: PTI	Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
Papertrey Ink True Black Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Tim Holtz Woodlands Thinlits Shop at: SSS