Papertrey Ink July 2013 Blog Hop

Nichole Heady has given us a great challenge for the July 2013 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop: to find inspiration from one of the Fruits of Summer color schemes.

This was the color scheme that I started with, but I found the Pure Poppy & Scarlet Jewel were darker than I wanted for my design so subsituted Hibiscus Burst and Raspberry Fizz. I also used Simply Chartreuse instead of New Leaf ink.

I really wanted to play around with this watercolor/embossing technique I learned last week. The flowers are from Happiness in Bloom, the banner from In Stitches Die set and the sentiment from Mega Mixed Messages.

Once the flowers were masked and stamped on watercolor paper, the entire bouquet was stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.

The background was then painted over the embossed image using a water brush and Aqua Mist ink. 

I can't wait to see what everyone has done with these gorgeous color schemes!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Summer Card Camp 2: Week 3 Day 2

I seem to be running about a day behind with the homework assignments for the Summer Card Camp 2 class, but that is just fine with me. I am playing with techniques, expecially stamping techniques, that I haven't tried before.

I only have one card to share today - I used the Week 3 colors and Sketch #3, along with Jennifer McGuire's embossed die cuts technique. It was Jennifer's use of Ranger's Holographic embossing powder and the color palette that led me to a winter themed card.

I cut a Taylored Expressions snowflake border die and colored it with a couple of violet/purple Copic markers. It was then stamped with Versamark ink and embossed using Ranger's Holographic embossing powder.

I cut the MFT Memories word die, stamped and embossed it the same way. This word is tucked on the diagonal under the white panel.

In the end I only used part of the snowflake border die - these three fit perfectly along the curve of the panel and under the word "memories". My masked stamping of the word "winter" wasn't perfect, so a line of Stickles helps hide the stray bit of ink.

As much as I am enjoying the techniques that are demonstrated, it is the little tips that make a class like this priceless!

Jacquie

Summer Card Camp: Week 3 Day 1

After watching the video tutorials from the Summer Card Camp 2 this morning, I played around quite a bit with creating a layered stamped background. This is something I've always shied away from - I'm pretty confident when stamping sentiments and images, but find creating an even background pattern a huge challenge.

Not surprising, I didn't have many stamps to work with - in the end I do have one card to share with you. Using the color palette for this week, I copied a ghost stamping technique that Jennifer McGuire uses. I first stamped the pattern in a white pigment ink, heat set it and then stamped again with a very soft lilac dye ink. The lilac stamped image is slightly offset from the white image giving a little depth of color. Another shade of purple ink is used to stamp the small image.

I didn't like the look of the negative banner with the "Hello" die cut, so used the word on a piece of purple vellum.

Taking a tip from Kristina Werner today, I painted a light layer of Stickles on the die cut and a few touches in the centers of the small stamped image.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

TT: A Little Romance + PS Cool Shades & SSS By the Sea & CCIC Feeling Nautical

There are a few challenges that I wanted to participate in this week, so worked to fit in bits & pieces of crafting time today. The house is now quiet, but I am "on call" to pick up my daughter & friends, so will post this as quick as I can.

This first card is for the Tuesday Trigger: A Little Romance at Moxie Fab World. Cath has done it again with another fantastic inspiration image.

My mind immediately went to vellum, buttons & lace trim. The sentiment is created with a few Technique Tuesday stamps and heat embossed on the soft green vellum. This vellum overlay is only adhered to the card base along the left edge.

A soft dandelion image is stamped & embossed on the card base and peeks through the vellum.

A mix of white, cream and MFT Sno Cone buttons were placed first and pearls filled in the blank space.

My second card has a completely different feel to it. The Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge is Cool Shades this week.

I paired this with the Simon Says . . . By the Sea and a new challenge, Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge -  Feeling Nautical.

The Curtain Call straw hat in the inspiration photo gave me the idea to use fabric for the kraft color on the card, so a little burlap backs the sailboat.

My favortie inks right now are from My Favorite Things - the coverage is truly amazing!

I'm heading back to the office to play until family duties call again.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Summer Card Camp Week 2: Day 2 & 4

I have a couple more cards to share from this week's Summer Card Camp 2 tutorials. The first one is based on Week 2 Day 2 Guest Artist Donna Mikasa's card using die cuts and stamps with clear heat embossing.

I used the color palette for this week and based my design on sketch 3.

I love the extra layer of color from clear Versamark ink and clear embossing powder.

My second card is for the Week 2 Day 4 challenge to use a holiday stamp for a non-holiday card. I LOVE this challenge!

I have a couple of other ideas brewing, but this is the first one that came to mind. I paired a Technique Tuesday holiday sentiment with a Memory Box party grill die.

I masked the sentiment to get the two colors and layered a couple cuts of the die.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Summer Card Camp Week 2

I finally had time late last night and early this morning to play around with the techniques and challenges for the Summer Card Camp 2 class.

For this first card I combined a few resist embossing techniques demonstrated by Kristina and Tammy. The woodgrain ring is embossed and inked and the bird embossed and watercolored. I did ink the edges to help it stand out a bit from the background.

Looking at it now, I regret not embossing the sentiment, but was in a "get it done" mode.

This second card is as close to a CASE as I could get of Jennifer's card. In my rush to get it done, I completely forgot to start with watercolor paper. The bouquet is stamped and masked and then restamped with the largest size stamps in Versamark.

The heat embossing protects the stamping and allows you to watercolor a background. The cardstock can pill and warp easily, so I took care not to get it too wet.

In my rush to "get it done" I ended up making two floral panels. See the one on the left? Why yes, I did use my white embossing powder instead of the clear - at least I had a panel to test my paint color. I almost walked away at this point, but the second bouquet came together much quicker.

Lots to do today - hoping to get a little more crafty time later tonight!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CASology # 52 Neon + Summer Card Camp 2 Reflections

I have a nice big mess in the office, working on a few different projects. It is one of those days when I can't decide what I want to do, so work on bits & pieces of everything and finish nothing.

I'm taking a break to post these cards. The deadline is rapidly approaching for the CASology Neon challenge. I don't really have neon inks or paper, but a couple of packs of brightly colored crepe paper come very close.

I love the texture the crepe paper gives to the balloons - the strings are hand drawn and a simple sentiment finishes everything off.

This second card is my attempt to CASE (sort of) a mini-window technique from Cristina Kowalczyk  for the Summer Card Camp 2 online class.

This Wplus9 Quilt Prints stamp is the only stamp in my collection that could work for this technique - the result isn't what I wanted but I am glad I played around with it and have added a couple more stamps sets to my ever growing wish list.

As I made these cards, I kept thinking about the 10 Minute Card Challenge that was part of the online class. The birthday card above was a 5 minute or less card - three runs through the Big Shot to cut the balloons and a single stamp. The second card took WAY longer to make as a I agonized over which pieces to cut and which to color.  For me the 10 Minute Card Challenge really became a 10 minute assemble a heavily preplanned card challenge and I think that is why I didn't enjoy it very much. Given the fact I had just watched Jen Rzasa's overlapping die cut technique and was determined to use it didn't help the frantic race against the clock feeling I had.

I am the kind of crafter that usually starts with a reasonable idea of what I want to create and often ends up in a very different place - know what I mean? I am leaving the 2-4-6-8 card as is (because everything is glued down LOL), but if I didn't have the stop watch on, I know I would have cut some more stars in different colors or maybe rearranged the colors in the numbers (I really don't like the big orange star close to the orange 2). I would probably have tested a couple of different colors for the embossed sentiment. I know I would have taken way more than 10 minutes to make this card (and I really did if we count the planning).

It was definitely an interesting challenge, but I really enjoy puttering around in my office and rarely (fortunately) have to make something under pressure.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Muse #25 + Summer Card Camp 2: Week 1 Day 4

The Muse Challenge Card this week is from Therese Calvird and absolutey delightful.

I love her blue flamingo, but went in a different direction with my card. All my flamingos are pink, with one a darker, more vibrant color. To make her stand out even more, I coated her with a layer of stickles.

I am really enjoying Summer Card Camp 2. Today Kristine Werner issued a 10 Minute Card Challenge. I usually take more than 10 minutes to decide on stamps or dies and then go onto ink and paper - we haven't even taked about design yet LOL. Thankfully, the rules allowed us to gather our supplies before starting the timer and I used one of the sketches we were given use this week.

Jennifer Rzasa is one of the Guest Artists today and I absolutely fell in love with her overlapping die cuts. I spent way too long working on another card - you won't see it, because it is only half done and I wasn't even finished die cutting when my 10 minutes were up, but working on it helped me practice the technique.

I wanted my overlapping "2-4-6-8" to be flat on the panel, so nestled the pieces together and attached a piece of washi to hold them in place. I could easily & quickly flip the whole set of numbers over and add my glue. It was also quick & easy to place them on the embossed panel with everything staying tight together.

As you can see, I completed the challenge with a few seconds to spare!

There is no question, the time limit forced me to make a design plan AND stick to it, which is probably a good thing.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

CAS-ual Fridays + SCC2 Day 2 & Paper Smooches

I have a couple of cards to share today. This first one is for the Summer Card Camp 2 and demonstrates the Stamping Technique: Multi-Inking with Masking from Day 2. This is a technique I have used before, but usually only to highlight one word - it was fun to use multiple colors.

The sentiment is one of the Vertical Greetings from My Favorite Things. I copied Day 3 Guest Artist Laura Bassen and created a flag panel with scraps of patterned paper & cardstock.

I adhered burlap to a piece of vellum to make the heart embellishment (easier to cut and doesn't fray). This PTI Framed Out die cuts the heart in two pieces, so I layered them - the small one popped up with foam adhesive and burlap side up, and the larger frame heart vellum side up. The vellum was a very pale pink and I wanted to see if I could customize it with a Copic Marker (as Laura had customized her gem) - love the deeper color!

With the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays to use fabric, this card is also being linked up over there.

CFC108: Create a CAS project that has some sort of a material, i.e. fabric, felt, canvas etc

My second card is for the Paper Smooches Sparks blog Designer Drafts challenge.

I used the a couple of stamps from Get Outta Town to make this sweet little card.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Make It Monday #124 + MFW Birthday Challenge & Summer Card Camp Day 1

I have a couple of cards and an envelope to share with you today. First up is the card I made based on the Day 1 video tutorial from Jennifer McGuire at Summer Card Camp 2.

Jennifer had a couple of great tips for layering intricate die cuts that I have used to add dimension to "happy" and I followed her instructions to create a background word chevron on the banner panel. Finding the perfect stamp was the biggest challenge and I finally settled on one from My Favorite Things - all other dies and stamp are from Papertrey Ink.

Did you notice that the banner is the card front?

Cath at Moxie Fab World is issuing a challenge a day this week to celebrate the release of a Paper Crafts special issue magazine: Birthday Celebrations. The first challenge is to create a birthday card based on this sketch.

In addition to the sketch, the card must either be made only using all stamps OR no stamps.

The word "birthday" was already sitting on my desk, leftover from the card above, so I rotated the sketch and made this "no stamps" card.

The Headline Alphabet and Birthday Style dies are from Papertrey Ink. A Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder adds a little more dimension and a few word stickers and gems add to the party feel.

I cut a few more of the streamers/banners to decorate the envelope after watching the Make It Monday #124: Dressed Up Envelopes video from Melissa. I ran the die cuts all the way across the front of the envelope, not worrying about leaving space for a stamp or return address - this card will be hand delivered.

I love how the back looks, with another set of dies hanging over the flap edge!

I will be back with more Summer Card Camp 2 projects.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Fusion Sketch #13 + Make It Monday #123 Take Two

Saturday nights have definitely changed over the years - this is one of those nights I am going to be in and out chauffeuring kids around, so between runs I am taking a few minutes to post a card I made earlier this week.

For this card, I paired the Fusion Hypotheses #13 Sketch Challenge with the PTI Make It Monday #123: Making Your Own Paint challenge. The Fusion challenge is going on for a whole month, so there is plenty of time to play along, but time is running down to participate in the MIM challenge.

I used gesso and Blueberry Sky ink to create a custom paint color and ran it along the edges of the music patterned paper panel - the color came out more like Spring Rain which was fine with me.

The Bountiful Banner die cut was painted with a dry brush - I wanted a color close to the Vintage Cream card base, so added the tiniest touch of Dark Chocolate to the white gesso. Once the paint dried the sentiment was stamped in Blueberry Sky ink.

All the designer papers are from the Authentique Glory paper pad.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Muse #24 + MFT Weekly Sketch

I absolutely love the Muse card from Laurie Willison this week - it took me a few days to be inspired because I was mesmerized by the green woodgrain base!

In the end, I used a PTI cover plate to emboss the card panel (and yes, I stayed with a green base). The same cover plate is used to die cut a strip of black paper and overlaid on the embossed panel to create a border. 

Scraps of kraft paper  created the diamond & triangle pieces I filled in on the border. This nice bold sentiment is from Technique Tuesday and I really don't know why it doesn't get used more often.

This second card is for the My Favorite Things Weekly Stamp Club sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers. I started out the year with the goal of participating every week, but things fell apart a few weeks ago.

This week's sketch was too much resist when it was posted the same day I received my new Chalkboard Frame Builder die-namics. The sentiment is made by combining and masking three stamps from Birthday Sentiments. 

My little daisy is made with cardstock and tissue paper diecut and layered.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie