Papertrey March Blog Hop Challenge

It's time for another Papertrey Ink blog hop challenge. This month's inspiration comes from Victoria Johnson Design. I loved the bold floral images and colour palettes.

Originally, I had planned to make a pattern similar to the one on the right. I didn't end up having as much free time as expected, so I went in a different direction. 

I brought out Spring Woods and got to work. This is a set that I've barely used, so it was nice to put ink to it.

 I wanted a softer, blender background, so I started with that. I blended distress oxide inks. Next, I die cut a few of the branches and stamped them with Sweet Blush for the flowers, Mint Julep for the leaves, and Dark Chocolate for the branches. I liked the yellow and blue for the bird, so I used Harvest Gold (stamped twice) and Enchanted Evening. I need to build my stash of mother's day cards, so I added a greeting from Fillable Frames #4 (love this one!).

I still want to make some patterns similar to the image on the right, but need to assess my floral stamp stash first. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Spring Woods, Fillable Frame #4

Ink: Sweet Blush, Mint Julep, Dark Chocolate, Harvest Gold, Enchanted Evening, Versafine Black Onyx, Distress Oxide- Broken China, Faded Jeans

Paper: Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate, White

Accessories, etc.: Blending Tool, Spring Woods Dies

Transformation Challenge

Today's Papertrey Ink anniversary challenge was a fun one- "Create a new project based on improving a card you were not happy with."

Here is the card from my stash that I was less than thrilled with.I think it one I had done for one of my clean and simple sketches. It's not awful, it's just not terribly exciting. 

So for my first re-do, I decided to keep with the purple theme, but I switched up the main purple to Amethyst Allure. I decided to keep the sentiment, lose the ombre inking, and keep the polka dots. I changed the layout completely. 

Again, it's not awful, but I don't love it, and it still seemed boring. Even the curved stitched edges couldn't make this exciting. Originally I had a third popsicle on here, but the more popsicles, the more it began to look like a weird treed purple landscape!

So next, I decided to just do what came naturally.

And today that meant, lose the all purple theme, go back to my standard layout, and get a rainbow palette. I also used the little cute droplet stamp to help make it seem more "melty" I have to say even though this one really looks nothing like the original, I am much happier with it!

Supplies:

Stamps: Summer Sweetness, Polka Dot Basics II

Inks: Amethyst Allure, Cocoa Bean, Lovely Lady, Raspberry Fizz, Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, Blueberry Sky, Harvest Gold, Bright Buttercup, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy, Green Parakeet, Limeade Ice, Fresh Snow

Paper: White, Amethyst Allure, Bitty Dots patterned paper, Lavender Moon

A few birthdays

I made a few birthday cards for some of the Papertrey Ink anniversary challenges.

The first one was to use at least 3 of a repeated shape. At first I wasn't sure what I should use, but then I remember the Cover Plates. I hadn't used the hexagon one in some time, so I thought that'd be a fun one to use with this challenge. I die cut strips from Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, and Tropical Teal and mounted those on foam dots. I added a simple greeting from Keep it Simple: Happy Birthday 3 and that was it. 

 Supplies:
Stamps: Keep It Simple: Happy Birthday III
Ink: True Black
Paper: Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, White, Smokey Shadow
Accessories, etc.: Coverplate: Hexagon, foam dots


Today's challenge was to use a favorite floral set. It's hard to pick just one, but I tend to use the Beautiful Blooms II a lot. So I figured I'd use it some more! I was inspired to use Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Smokey Shadow and Soft Stone.

I like cards like this, where it's really just some simple stamping in a pleasing colour palette. I finished it off with a greeting from Winter Woods and also added some white Nuvo drops to the flower centres. The main panel is Soft Stone, instead of white, just to change things up. To ensure that I got bold images, I used the MISTI and stamped each flower twice. That wasn't necessary for the Smokey Shadow leaves, as that ink is quite dark already.

Supplies:

Stamps Beautiful Blooms II, Winter Woods

Ink: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Smokey Shadow

Paper: Smokey Shadown, Berry Sorbet, Soft Stone

Accessories, etc.: white Nuvo drops

Kraft & Coloured Pencils

In an effort to post more regularly the blog, I've found challenges to be particularly motivating. I saw this week's Papertrey Ink Make It Monday featuring Pencil Crayons and Kraft Cardstock and the first challenge was to find my pencil crayons... I hadn't unpacked them with the rest of the craft room boxes for some reason.

Next, to find a stamp set that worked with colouring. I know I could highlight a solid image, but I wanted to use some line art. I really like the Daffodil from the Year of Flowers collection, and with spring almost around the corner, it seemed appropriate.

I stamped the larger flower image onto Kraft and got to work colouring. I stamped a second image and coloured the middle part only and cut that out and popped it up with foam tape. I didn't want to do my standard layout, so I changes things up ever so slightly and put it on an angle (if you know me, you know this is so not what I normally do!). But it's good to try different things- I ended up really liking it!

The greeting comes from Out on a Limb Sentiments and I jazzed up the background by stamping one of the polka dot backgrounds in white onto the yellow card base.

Finishing touches included a slight layer of Wink of Stella on the flower, white satin ribbon, kraft baker's twine, and a wooden button.

Supplies: (all by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise stated)

Stamps: Year of Flowers: Daffodil, Polka Dot Basics, Out on a Limb Sentiments
Paper:Harvest Gold, Kraft, New Leaf
Ink: Black, Fresh Snow
Accessories, etc.: Pencil Crayons (Prismacolor), Satin Ribbon, Baker's Twine (Michaels), Wooden button, Wink of Stella