March 2015 Papertrey Blog Hop

The following photo is our inspiration for this month's hop.

I focussed on the colours in this photo, and chose to make a card using the turquoise, yellows and white, with a touch of green. And, since it's almost Easter, I made an Easter Egg card, Cas-ing Laura Bassen's wonderful card, found here, changing up only the colours. Loved hers, but I went with the colours in the above photo. I used my water paints on watercolour cardstock, then punched the eggs out with the egg die. I put a layer of plain vellum over top the striped paper, in order to soften it up, a bit. This card will go to my son and his family. One egg for each of them and the kids, plus one spare for the dog! Lol.

Thanks for looking! All materials are PTI.

Stamps and Dies: Etched Easter Eggs

And speaking of Casing, I also copied....er, Cas'd Betsy Veldman's card, shown here.  LOVED her card, using Easter Alleluias and Itty Bitty Bouquets. (Sorry about the poor photo--I took it on my iPad, not realizing at the time that I was going to post this.)  The colours suit this blog hop, too!

Make it Monday #205: Confetti Cluster Stamping

This week's Make it Monday has us stamping an image with a cluster of stamps, rather than a solid or outline image. I had in my head that I wanted to do balloons, so this is what I came up with.

I wanted to try this technique to make my brother-in-law a card for his birthday. He and my sister are vacationing down south, and won't be home until after his birthday, so I added a "belated" (Avery Elle) onto the "Birthday Wishes". I used PTI's "Birthday Style" stamps for the image and sentiment, and "Wet Paint" for the numbers. (He is turning 66 today.)

For the balloons, I used the confetti stamp from "Birthday Style", and the stars and tiny cluster of dots are from "Star Gazer Additions". I covered the one balloon with Glossy Accents. It's not dry yet, in the photo, as I wanted to get this posted online asap. Off to the PO as soon as it's dry!

Inks used: Limeade Ice, New Leaf, Simply Chartruese, Pinefeather, Aqua Mist, Blueberry Sky, Spring Rain, Tropical Teal, Smokey Shadow, and Hero Arts Soft Granite for the balloon strings.

Make it Monday #204: Smooshing with Ink

Ah yes. That highly technical term called "smooshing"...not to to confused with "smooching", as autocorrect would have us believe!

My first effort smooshing turned out quite pretty, but I used too much water and the colours blended seamlessly together, creating an almost sponged-ink look. Nice, but not what the challenge was all about, really.

I wanted to use my new "Scene It" dies, so I cut out a background from the smooshed paper, and built my scene on that. I used the new "Alleluia" stamps, as well as a sentiment from the "Etched Easter Eggs" stamps. Too bad you can't see the Wink of Stella glitter on the sun rays, nor the gold embossing on the "Alleluia" sentiment. It's been foggy all day, here! Love this new vellum from PTI!

My second effort was more what the challenge required, but I wished I would have omitted the Tropical Teal ink--it's too dark! So I tried covering some of it up with the gold embossing, and some flowers from Quilted Spring. I'm not too thrilled with this one...

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday #203: Doodling with Stamps

Ashley showed us a fun technique this week, using doodling over top of stamps, seen here. I used Botanicals Blooms ll. First, I stamped the image, then watercoloured it in. When it was dry, I doodled over top of the paint. Fun! I'll definitely try this again.

 And here is a close up of the detail. (All materials are PTI, except the sequins, paint and Watercolour paper.)

PTI Make it Monday #202: Anchoring with Banner and Border Dies

Well....this was certainly a challenge! I don't think I have a particular style, but I do know that Melissa's soft, vintage, layered creations certainly aren't my style. Hers are beautiful, mine are...well, too much.
But I decided to try it, and this is what I came up with. I used Beautiful Brushstrokes stamps and paper, and the PTI heart border to do the anchoring. I tried putting them over top the Life is Beautiful Butterflies, but it just looked too busy, so I "anchored" the butterflies with the heart borders underneath, all of which is on top of two layers of bookmarks (design paper and vellum). The sentiment is heat embossed, and is from Inside and Out: Birthdays.
I'm squeaking this in just under the time limit--and then get to watch two hours of Downton Abbey :) I'll be sad to see the series end for the season, though. Thanks for looking!