Papertrey February Blog Hop Challenge

Papertrey Ink is holding a Blog Hop that instead of based on going to all their design team posts and commenting, the hop consists of patrons posting their cards, with encouragement for us to visit each other's blogs and comment.  I love this  idea!

 The challenge is to use this picture as an inspiration:

This is what I came up with:

I love black, but that was the theme of the last blog hop challenge, so I let the pink dominate.   I used the  thanks die  ... but not as a die! I made a die cut with craft foam, then mounted that  on an acrylic block with temporary stick tape, and stamped the image with versamark ink.  The foil flakes that I used match the card perfectly, though it's a little hard to tell with the picture.  I backed the panel with gold mica cardstock. I originally planned to tie a matching piece of ribbon at the center where the two pieces cross, but I liked the look just as it was, so left it.  I'd love to know if anyone thinks I should put a ribbon or button or some kind of embellishment in the center?

Outside the box!

Impression Obsession's current challenge is for a project featuring Easter (or bunnies, but I'm not into those!).  Problem: no Easter stamps!  In fact, I own only one text stamp from IO, and all others, save one lovely image stamp, are from the amazing and wonderful Cover-a-Card stamps.  Anyway, when I saw what the challenge was, I knew it was impossible for me to participate.  But evidently the wheels in the back of my mind were turning, because I came up with the idea you see below.

The cross was created by taking the CC148 Diagonal Stripes stamp (Journaling Lines of course would accomplish the same thing) and stamping it with versamark ink, then rotating the cardstock 90 degrees and stamping again, then embossing the image with copper embossing powder.  Then I simply cut out a cross image. I used an ancient off-brand of paint cakes to paint the squares.  While this was not a wise choice to use with the copper embossing, and I would go another route in the future, I felt the job was adequate (translation: I ran out of time to redo it all!)

I then embossed the CC043 Cover-a-Card Roses and embossed with vanilla embossing powder (unfortunately, the photo makes the roses appear white, not vanilla).  I then embossed the image again, with gold embossing powder, then cut out a single rose to affix to the cross, using markers to color.

Finale! (But not Grande!)

It's fun to finish with a bang, but honestly, I was worn out!  This has been a terrific experience to make cards this way ... having a specific selection of cards to find inspiration from ... and I'm so glad I participated!  But, wow, I think it will take a week to clean up the amazing mess I created in the process!  For the final challenge, 2016, this card, casing this design, was going to be more complex, with all four sizes of the paisely stamps and dies, but when I began to lay it out, simple was best.  I also made it a bit "3D," the layered paisleys made the text seem "flat," so I bumped it out. The swirls come from the Quilted: Winter stamp set.

Hexagons Again!

Coming to the end!  For the 2015 challenge, I chose to use the Hexagon stamps, Hexagon die, and New Every Morning, once again!  I was casing this card, which features an entirely different set of hexagons!

Forever Faithful

For the Papertrey Ink 2014 challenge, I cased this card, using elements from the Quilted: Winter stamp set, and the set New Every Morning, this time able to come closer to the original design than my last submission had.

Birthday Snowflakes

The 2013 Challenge  with Papertrey was ... a challenge!  There just didn't seem to be any cards that I felt I could truly case, so I ended up going with this card, though I definitely personalized this one far more than some others I have cased with this challenge.  First, I did not have the large image used in the sample, so I chose snowflakes from the Quilted:Winter stamp set, but instead of doing them in straight lines, I curved them to give more of a "blowing snow" look. I cut the snowflake from the coordinating Quilted: Winter die set to add a bit more draw to the card, and also layered for more dimension.  The light grey snowflakes disappear in the photo, but they actually show up as well as the other colored flakes do.

Hold on to Hope

Papertrey Ink continues to provide great inspiration for me!  This entry is based on this card, posted as inspiration for the 2012 challenge, and is definitely a step outside my comfort zone in both design and technique.  I like things nice and neat, and this definitely does not qualify!  I also am not especially good with paint, so that was another discomfort level for me! This image is from the set New Every Morning,  stamped with versamark ink and embossing with white embossing powder, then painted over with various colors.  The card I cased this from had paint splatters, but I could not do that with my source, so just dabbed the paintbrush for a similar effect.

In the News!

Papertrey's post for 2/15 was exciting in seeing that they have newspaper images! How fun!  I have long had a bunch of scans of our local newspaper that someone found in their attic and passed on to me.  As you can see by the card, the papers were in horrible condition.  Moisture had gotten in, so there was water damage, and they were all just crammed together in a corner.  I'd love to someday find a place that can scan and clean them up for me ... the stash is from a few days leading up to the declaration of war on Germany in 1917.  Fascinating stuff.  I had scanned a few pages on my pathetic scanner years ago, but never actually used any.  This challenge gave me the impetus to finally make a card with one of the scans.

This one is of a Wellsville Daily reporter paper published in March of 1917.  I chose the text “Happy Days” because Americans by and large were very isolationist, and therefore, were determined to stay out of the war,  and happily focused on local concerns.  Just weeks after this publication, however, Woodrow Wilson made the declaration that America was declaring war on Germany.

This was a difficult card to design because of the condition of the paper; I could not clean it up any better than this. I also wanted to feature as much of the text as possible because of the historical and cultural relevance for our small community.

The stamped text is from "Happy Hexagons."

Simple Thanks

Once again posting with Papertrey Ink's anniversary series.  These are very challenging for me, as I own so few Papertrey sets, but today, hurrah, I have a small order arriving that should help me out at least for a day or two!  This post I took inspiration from this card.  I used a Spellbinders label, and featured Papertrey's Big Basics: Thanks die.

Choose Joy!

Continuing with the 10 year celebration at Papertrey Ink this card comes from inspiration of this card, one of the many cards featuring images made in 2009 for the February 13th post.

By the way, if you like cultural history, each post in this series is a very well written description of primary cultural events of the year features, complete with pictures and relevant videos.  A lot of fun to see each year encapsulated this way.

This card uses the stamp set, New Every Morning, and the Joy die from the One Liners set. I made two of the joy dies so that I could have a 3D effect as well as bring the colors all together.

Hexagon joy!

I never get tired of the theme of Joy.  I believe it is an under-discussed aspect of being a believer that God longs for us to walk in!

Anyway, still working on cards for Papertrey Ink's 10 year anniversary celebration.  For this day's challenge, I chose a card to replicate with my own style and Papertrey supplies, which are fairly limited.  This makes the challenge of finding new designs all the more fun!  I chose this card for this purpose. It uses the Hexagon stamps, Hexagon die, and the Wonderful Words: Joy die.

New Mercies

Papertrey Ink is hosting yet another amazing giveaway, with ten chances to make cards that might be randomly selected.  I work best with deadlines, and have needed to build up my card stash, but just have not been motivated. So, this is great for me!  Each day has featured stamp sets from the ten years Papertrey has been in business, with the challenge to use the set if owned, or take inspiration from the examples, which is what I have done. This card follows after the "Text Box" set featured on February 11th, using two of my papertrey sets: New Every Morning, and Happy Hexagons.  The focal image is not a text box, but I "converted" it by (after first stamping a few hexagons in a different shade), stamping it with versamark and embossing with clear embossing powder, then framing it with decoratively cut post it notes, then sponged pink all over the space. I then removed the post-its, then ironed off the embossing powder.

Roses, Roses!

This card was made for another challenge from Impression Obsession, Think Pink.  As I did with the last contest, I used Impression Obsession's CC043 Cover-a-Card Roses.   I am having so much fun with this stamp!  I love taking a single stamp and finding multiple ways to use it.  So, while I have other Cover-a-Card stamps, I might just continue posting with this one.  We'll see! This time, I embossed the image with clear embossing powder onto ivory cardstock, then sponged several shades of pink over the panel, then ironed away the embossing powder. I then stamped my one text stamp from Impression Obsession, the D4115 Thank You image.

Wonderful the matchless grace!

This week's "Make it Monday" challenge over at PaperTrey Ink is "Pattern play with die cut silhouettes."  I forgot to note the design was to be clear and simple ... mine tend to lean that way in general, both because of style preference and skill level!  But, I might  have omitted punching the two corners had I read that. :-) Anyway, the point was to use a die cut with patterned paper.  I don't have any shapes at this point from PaperTrey, but I was very happy to use my "grace" die cut with one of the coordinating stamps.  I love how this method really emphasizes the word grace ... something so wonderful that Jesus freely gives us!