PTI's Laurie's Fabulous Favorites (Favorite Coloring Technique)

I've been visiting family for Easter this week in Northern MN so squeezing this in before the deadline looms early tomorrow morning. My card is an entry for Laurie's Fabulous Favorites for Papertrey Ink. You can also see more details of her beautiful card on her blog post here. Laurie challenged us to try our hand at our favorite coloring technique. 

There are so many different options these days, but I went with ink blending on card stock and the underside of vellum for this sympathy card. Without further ado (so I can get to bed after being up 20 hours), here's my card.

Thank you for stopping by, and I really do appreciate your comments!

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted):

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White,True Black and Vellum

Ink: Distress Oxide Inks and VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps: Keep It Simple: Sympathy

Dies: Life Is Beautiful and MFT Scalloped Frame

Other: Ink Blending Tool, Nuvo Crystal Drops and Perfect Plaid Stencil

PTI MIM #315: Embossing Enamel Splatters

This week Melissa Phillips is the hostess of Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday. Her current favorite technique is creating embossed enamel splatters. She, of course, used Embossing Enamel, but I don't have any and I'm leaving on vacation today. The challenge said we could use embossing powder to create our splatters and splotches so that's how I did mine. Just how to get splotches and splatters though got me thinking outside the box. I used VersaMark ink refill mixed with a tad bit of water to thin it out and attempted to splatter it on my ink-blended yardstick, sprinkled with embossing powder and heat set it. I like the results, but I'm sure it would be much easier with Embossing Enamel. My sentiment is embossed in the usual way.

A few score lines, a piece of twine and a layered butterfly finished off this get well card. All of a sudden I went from needing multiple birthday cards to needing cards of encouragement...but definitely better than sympathy. 

Thank you for stopping by, and I really do appreciate your comments!

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted):

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Bitty Dots and Clear Vellum

Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal and VersaMark

Stamps: Beautiful Blooms II (dots) and Keep It Simple: Get Well

Dies: To The Point Edgers and Life Is Beautiful 

Other: VersaMark Refill, Zing! Teal Embossing Powder, Glue Dots, Ink Blending Tools, Scoring Board and Twinery Twine

PTI February 2018 Blog Hop

This is what you call really beating the clock with my entry for this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. The idea is to use their inspiration photo to create a project. So cute!

photo source: The Goodwill Gal

Seeing that I don't own an Easter stamp or die or a bunny for that matter, I went with the pastel color scheme. Here's my card. 

Thank you for stopping by, and I really do appreciate your comments!

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted):

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Hibiscus Burst and Harvest Gold

Ink: Green Parakeet, Hibiscus Burst and Harvest Gold

Stamps: Background Basics: Chevron Strips and Tulip Time

Dies: Cover Plate: Pretty Frame, Mix & Mat: Pretty Brackets and Life Is Beautiful

Other: Sizzix Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Make-Up Brush, Foam Tape and Gems

PTI MIM #309: Heat Embossed Stencil Backgrounds

Yes, it’s Sunday night again, and I just finished my card for Melissa's Make It Monday Challenge for Papertrey Ink. Believe it or not, I managed to do some cleaning in my stamping room but I’m not done yet. Had to take time to watch some football today. Did anyone watch the Minnesota Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints today? I’m just a little partial to the Vikings having been born and raised there. What a game! Sorry, I got a little sidetracked...now back to stamping. Without further ado, here's a sympathy card I needed for a dear friend. 

Thanks for stopping by, and I really do appreciate your comments. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, True Black, Hawaiian Shores and Clear Vellum

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark, and Zig Clean Color Real Brushes in Yellow, Light Green and Persian Green

Stamps: Communique Sentiments

Dies: Life Is Beautiful and MFT Stitched Rectangles

Other: Zing! Metallic Green Embossing Powder, Black Nuvo Crystal Drops, Garden Gate Stencil and Canson Mixed Media Paper

PTI MIM #292: Color Blocking Three Ways

This week it was Laurie's turn to share a technique challenging us for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday. Her examples show three different ways to apply color blocking to our projects. 

Why is it that even though I manage to enter these challenges, I never seem to have the right cards on hand for the occasion? Perhaps it's because I can't keep up with all the sympathy cards needed lately.   Sad but true. Therefore, I made two different cards using color blocking.

Card #1 (using card stock)

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Soft Stone, Spring Rain, Enchanted Evening, Comic Strip Patterned Paper Collection and Vellum

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black and Delicata Silvery Shimmer

Stamps: Beautiful Butterflies and Jolly Holiday

Dies: Life Is Beautiful

Other: Nuvo Crystal Drops Gloss Black and Foam Tape

* * * * * * *

Card #2 (using inks on acrylic block & misted)

Thanks for stopping by, and I really do appreciate your comments. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Amethyst Allure+White Basics and SU Elegant Eggplant

Ink: Bright Buttercup, Amethyst Allure, Royal Velvet and VersaMark

Stamps: Inspired: Prayer

Dies: Inspired: Prayer and Cover Plate: Pretty Frame

Other: White Embossing Powder, White Crochet Thread, Foam Tape, Water Mister, Ink Blending Tool, Silver Pen and Sequins

Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge 2017

Can you believe it's already the 25th of April, which means we're almost one-third of the way through 2017? It's time once again for another Blog Hop Challenge at Papertrey Ink using the image below. You can read all the details here. 

print designed by the talented Megan Carter

Rather than use flowers like I usually do, I opted to layer Life Is Beautiful butterfly dies colored using my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens.

Thanks for stopping by, and I really do appreciate your comments. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White and SU Going Gray

Ink: Hibiscus Burst, Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade and Delicata Silvery Shimmer

Stamps: Big Birthday Wishes and Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

Dies: Life Is Beautiful, Wonderful Words: Birthday and Noted: Scalloped A2 Vertical

Other: Ink Blending Tool, Zigs, WOS Shimmer, Waterbrush and Rhinestones

Happy Birthday Butterfly

Just finishing in time for the approaching deadline of Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Splash It On. Anyway one can incorporate water into a project qualifies for this challenge. I did some brown and white watercolored splatters on my yellow card base. I think this one qualifies for a masculine birthday card, which can be a bit more difficult than the usual floral creations. The brown rectangle, popped up using foam tape, is woodgrain embossed with an oval cut out of the center. A vellum butterfly adorns the corner of the frame, to which I added four yellow Nuvo drops to hide my foam tape. Here's my card.

Thanks for stopping by, and I really do appreciate your comments. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Harvest Gold, Dark Chocolate and Vellum

Ink: Dark Chocolate

Stamps: Sketched Shapes

Dies: Woodgrain Impression Plate and Oval Nestabilities

Other: Paintbrush, Watercolors, Foam Tape and Nuvo Crystal Drops

Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

This month's inspiration photo is so technical it will be very interesting to see how each person interpreted what they saw. Hopefully, some of the fabulous DT members will find time to join in with their take on the challenge on Nichole's blog. Look at this beautiful design!

artwork from the New York Times featured artist Chad Hagen <-----check out his AMAZING flickr account!

I will be really curious to see the amazing creations because even though several Forum posts indicated this was a rough one, I know they will rock it. My ink blending using the negatives of Large Circles Nestabilities was done on Vintage Cream card stock. Here's my take. 

The Vintage Cream layer is popped up using Foam Tape onto the Kraft card base. I almost left the "bulls-eye" plain but just had to dress it up a bit with that beautiful Vellum butterfly. To tie the sentiment together, I layered Pure Poppy under the Kraft "birthday" Swoosh die-cut. The red on Kraft "Happy" was traced with my Gelly Roll Glitter Pen, even though it's difficult to see here. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Kraft, Vintage Cream, Pure Poppy and Vellum

Ink: Hibiscus Burst, Autumn Rose, Raspberry Fizz, Pure Poppy and Scarlet Jewel

Stamps: Swoosh

Dies: Life Is Beautiful, Swoosh and Large Circles Nestabilities

Other: Pearls (SU), Gelly Roll Glitter Pen and Foam Tape

* * * * *

Actually, I salvaged my first attempt at ink blending multicolored circles, one color blended on top of the other. Hence, I decided to make a second card using my circle inlaid die after stacking three white layers beneath the colored. The top white layer popped up using SU Dimensionals was dry embossed using Linen/Canvas Impression Plate. With the sentiment stamped in Black, I had to add some paint splatters that Kay Miller does so well. The small, loopy pink flower die cut is one I got from Sandy when she did a Forum giveaway. Thanks, Sandy!

We're heading to the Ocean this morning for the week with friends so it might be several days before I get a chance to comment on other blogs. Happy hopping and have an awesome week!

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White

Ink: Lovely Lady, Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, Pure Poppy, Scarlet Jewel and VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps: Painted Petals

Dies: Linen/Canvas Impression Plate and Large Circles Nestabilities

Other: Black Watercolor & Water, Paintbrush and SU Dimensionals

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

Seems like it was just the 1st day of 2016, and here we are at the 25th of January already. Nichole challenged us here to create a project using this colorful inspiration photo.

photo source: Rex Ray

I love the colors but the design was a bit intimidating. Just had to try the challenge though. Being in desperate need of sympathy cards, I went with the card below. The colors might be a bit bold for comfort, but I think the layered butterfly helps soften it some. At least I'm convinced.

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Rustic Cream

Ink: Tropical Teal and Orange Zest

Stamps: Brushed Off and Keep It Simple: Sympathy

Dies: Life Is Beautiful

Other: Clear Vellum, Micro Glue Dots and Orange Enamel Dot (stash)

PTI Create Along With Us Challenge: January 2016

This challenge allows us to select something the PTI Design Team created that inspired us and create our own version. There were so many beautiful projects it was difficult to pick just one. Since I'm in need of a sympathy card, I used that to help narrow down my options. My selected card is this one created by Betsy Veldman. Isn't she amazing? Not only did it put me out of my comfort zone with all the blending and watercoloring, but I don't have the supplies Betsy used so I had to get creative with what I own. She obviously practiced a whole lot more than I have. Don't you just love her colors and details? I do!

My sympathy card came together using two sizes of Stitched Rectangles by MFT to get my border. The three butterflies were die-cut from Life Is Beautiful. All of these were cut from watercolor paper and colored using blending tools and the same ink colors as Betsy…only less (Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, Enchanted Evening and Black). That explains why my card looks so different and also why I'm not on any Design Team. Here's my reveal:

Think I should have left off the watercoloring underneath the butterflies, but it's too late now for me to fix that. I'll just go with it and hope the recipient appreciates my not-so-perfect-artsy card. Oh, and I must confess I actually cut the sentiment in two from Keep It Simple: Sympathy and stamped it in Enchanted Evening. My sparkling clear sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White

Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, Enchanted Evening and Black (Jo-Ann)

Stamps: Keep It Simple: Sympathy

Dies: Life Is Beautiful and MFT Stitched Rectangles

Other: Canson Mixed Media Paper, Watcolors, Paintbrush, Blending Tools, PPP Sparkling Clear Sequins and SU Dimensionals (all from my stash)

PTI Create Along with Us: September 2015

There was so much inspiration this month from the DT, but isn't that the truth every month? It was hard to decide which card to choose for creating along with them, but I've always admired Maile's ability to cut any angle and make it work. This post by Maile shows several different designs. Here's mine.

Here's Maile's card I'm referring to:

Even though we can only enter one card for this challenge, I just had to attempt one like Dawn's last card in this post. 

Edited to Add: Entering my "Celebrate" card above in Wednesday's SSS Challenge: Die Crazy. 

Here's Dawn's card I'm referring to:

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

In The Meadow:

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps: In The Meadow

Dies: None

Other: MME Winter Wonderland Paper Pad, Red Sequins, Red Twine and SU dimensionals (all from stash)

Celebrate:

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White and Kraft

Ink: Classic Kraft

Stamps: Wet Paint III

Dies: Life Is Beautiful

Other: Twine, Glossy Accents, Watercolors and SU Dimensionals (from stash)