SAF 2015: Patterns Challenge, Less is More Challenge-Sprays/Mists and CAS on Sunday-Splash! Challenge

It is Sunday here in blog land. It was a long week, with the start of school and me going back to work. I also got some bad news but I am hoping that there will be a better outcome this week.

Today I had time to play with Papertrey Ink's "Project Stamp-a-faire" at Nichole Heady's blog. It was a day long affair of fun challenges that were played off of the show Project Runway. I did not participate all that much but had fun glancing at the blog and browsing the forum as everyone was playing along.

I did manage to create a card for the "Patterns Challenge," though. It was to choose one of the designers "patterns" (sketches) and create a card. I chose to use Dawn McVey's pattern for my card below.

Here is Dawn's pattern:

The first thing I did was die cut and stamp the three flowers and the leaves from Papertrey's "Friendly Flowers" set. I used Hawaiian Shores to stamp the flowers and a mixture of New Leaf, Hawaiian Shores and some water for the leaves.

While the flowers and leaves were drying, I created the background. First I stamped dots with the bottom of a pencil with New Leaf and Hawaiian Shores ink. I then used a tiny stamp from the "Friendly Flowers" set to stamp some tiny dots in Tropical Teal ink. The background still looked blah so I decided to use "Picket Fence" Distress Spray and "Teal" Color Shine Mist onto the background as well.

When that was dry, I die cut the bottom of the edge with Papertrey's "Edgers #3" die. I trimmed the top as well and adhered it to a Tropical Teal A2 top folding card. I then stamped the sentiment in Smokey Shadow ink.

Next I adhered the leaves and then the flowers. Two of the flowers I used foam adhesive to give them a little bit of dimension. I decided the flowers needed something more. I adhered teal sequins, as well as Pretty Pink Posh "Sparkling Clear"sequins over the teal and topped them off with some Diamond Stickles to create the flower centers.

My finishing touch was to add three tiny Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins around the flowers.

Things I learned making this card:

• I enjoy using sketches or patterns for my cards. It lets me use the colors I want, as well as stamp sets of my choosing.
• I had a difficult time using this stamp set, even with my MISTI. For some reason, I could not stamp these darn flowers straight!! I cannot tell you how many I wound up throwing out. 
• I think that next time I use these stamps I might use watercolor paper. I think that it will have a better effect when I mix the ink with water. 

I thought I would share a few photos from Charlotte's first day of Sophomore year. She fought me on these. Notice the socks? She refused to put on shoes until right before we left!!

I am also entering this into:

•  Less is More Challenge-Sprays or Mists
• Clean and Simple on Sunday-theme Splash! I think the splattering of the mist spray counts, right?

That is all for today. I hope you all have a great day!!

Supplies:

Teal Sequins

InLinkz.com

A Shaker Card

Today I had time to practice making a shaker card. As many of you know, I LOVE sequins but HATE making shaker cards. I thought today that I would try to get over my dislike of making them. I was going to use the FUSE tool that I have in a pile with other unopened supplies on my floor but I got nervous and just created one using the foam method.

Here is the card I created:

I know it is simple but it took me a darn long time!! I decided to use dies and patterned paper rather then stamping anything on this card.

The sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh. Aren't they pretty? They go perfectly with the polka dot paper!

I am not going to go through a step by step because there are tons of videos you can watch versus me putting things into words. Besides, I would not recommend anyone copying my method. I am great up until I have to put the back on. I wound up putting  a second piece of acetate in back of the butterfly to enclose the sequins. Then I adhered it to the pink paper.

Things I learned making this card:

• I am still not a huge fan of this method of making shaker cards. I prefer creating "Faux" shakers where I glue the sequins down in strategic places.
• I think that I am going to pull out my FUSE tool for the next shaker card I create.
• I like the simple die cut filled with sequins in the middle. It can make a very dramatic effect on a card.
• I need to practice using the adhesive on the foam. It was sticking to everything!

That is all for today. I thank you for stopping by and looking. Have a great night!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Paper Trey Ink August 2015 Blog Hop Challenge

Hello!! I hope you are all enjoying your last week of August. I am back to work. Cannot say that I do not miss summer already, though.

Today I am sharing the card I created for the Paper Trey Ink August 2015 Blog Hop Challenge.

It was to use the photo below as inspiration to create a card.

(Original Photo Source)

I chose to use the colors as my inspiration, and mostly the yellow, orange and brown colors. If you look at the photo on an angle, you almost can see "stripes." This was the inspiration for my striped background on my card.

I chose to use Paper Trey Ink's "Watercolor Wonder" stamp set to stamp the background stripes. I used PTI ink in Lemon Tart, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Canyon Clay and Terra-cotta Tile. I chose to stamp on Fabriano hot press watercolor paper. It is thinner and smoother then cold press. I chose to use watercolor paper because after I inked the stamp, I spritzed it with water so the stripes would be a bit drippy looking. I did not want the paper to warp. The hot press paper dried flat, which does not always happen with cold press.

While the paper was drying, I die cut and stamped Paper Trey Ink's "Simple Sunflower" stamps. First I stamped the flower in Harvest Gold and then stamped over it in Summer Sunrise. I then used a water brush to go over the flowers with a little bit of Vintage Photo Distress ink.

I wanted to bring some of the fiber from the photo into the card so I used some Bazzill Jute as an anchor under my flowers. I layered the flowers over the jute using glue dots. 

I then stamped and embossed a sentiment using Paper Trey Ink's "Year Round Puns" stamp set and adhered it to the card using foam adhesive. The last step was to adhere a few "rainstones" on the front.

I thank you for stopping by my blog. Have a wonderful day!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com