Sunday, November 23, 2014

Paper Trey Ink's Botanical Blocks II: Hydrangeas

Happy Sunday!! I am soooooo excited that this week is only a three day work week. I am looking forward to the time off and some yummy food. I love Thanksgiving because I get to eat food that I do not eat all year long.

I have not really crafted this week. I am kind of in a funk. I really enjoy doing challenges from the plethora of challenge blogs but have been finding that looking at the design teams examples sometimes hinders my own creativity. I feel like that I won't measure up so I often will not even partake anymore. Am I the only one who feels this way or am I just being a dork?

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE browsing the blogs I have bookmarked and browse all of them a few times a week. I get so inspired by the techniques I see...then try them and do not like my result. Do you experiment often with new techniques? Doe your first try result in a masterpiece or do you often have to try again? I am just curious.

Yesterday my sister came over to use my stamps and dies to make Christmas tags. I wound up stamping while she did the die cutting and then colored in some of the images with my Copics. My sister does not have these markers at home so I helped her out. It was fun visiting for a few hours.

Now on to the two cards I want to share that I created for my friend's birthday present. In my last post I used Botanical Blocks stamp set to create the sunflower cards but the cards I am showing you today were made using the Botanical Blocks II set.

The first card I created I started by layering a white die cut that I cut using Paper Trey's cover plate Twist Die over a purple card base.


I then adhered a doily cut from vellum onto the bottom right hand side of the card.


Over the doily, I layered a stamped and matted hydrangea block that I colored with Copic markers. I tried my blending techniques that I learned in my online Copic class but the leaves didn't blend as well as I wanted them too. However, I do like the colors I chose.


The last step was to adhere different sized clear sequins over the hydrangea. I think this card came out really pretty.

Even though I used the same stamp for the next card, I had to showcase the block in a different way. I am TERRIBLE at making the same card twice. I get bored of the same design!!!


I chose to use layered Royal Velvet card stock and patterned paper from PTI under the hydrangea image. I am not a purple person but I LOVE this color!!


Unlike the first hydrangea card, I left the frame around the stamped block and colored that in with a purple Copic. I also used a darker blue for the background and my leaves blended better. Practice does make perfect!!


I used glossy accents in the darker areas of the hydrangeas to give the flower some dimension. It is hard to see but if you look hard in the above photo, you can make it out. I then layered sequins over the hydrangea in random areas.


My last step was to die cut a butterfly out of vellum and adhere it over the the bottom of the stamp. For an added touch, I glued a sequin to the middle of the butterfly. Out of all the cards I created, this one is my favorite!!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. I hope you have a fabulous day!!


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