Design team tips...

For today's "Design Team Tips", I wanted to revisit the new Monthly Moments stamps and dies by Papertrey Ink to show you how you can use these products to create your own BACKGROUNDS. Whether it's a background on a layout, a card, or a pocket page, you can use these stamps to create a fun look! I was a scrapbooker before I became a card maker, so many of my card techniques and ideas come from scrapbooking. ANYTHING you can do on a layout, you can do on a card and vice versa. Use scrapbook layouts for inspiration if you are a card maker. Or use cards as inspiration if you are a scrapbooker! (Remember, it's just paper! Techniques can be used on any sort of project, big or small!)

Watercolors are so trendy right now. They are everywhere. If you read my "feather" post, you'll remember the technique I used, painting the feather stamp directly with reinkers. Why not try it on a larger page? So, I pulled out my watercolors, watercolor paper (Artist's Loft from Michaels) and the Monthly Moments stamp sets...and just played around with different combinations of stamping and watercoloring.

Ready? Let me show you how to get this look!
First, you'll grab some watercolor paper, watercolors, a paintbrush, little cup of water and the Monthly Moments: February stamps. I'm using the heart image from this set. Grab some red on your paintbrush with a tiny bit of water.

Paint the heart stamp. (There's no right or wrong way to do this! Each time you'll get a different look, and that's what is so fun.)

Stamp it two or three times without getting more paint. It will be a loose watercolor effect, not perfect. Don't worry! That's part of the charm.

Now using your Pure Poppy stamping ink, add a red heart at the top.

Continue with oranges, yellows, and greens, flowing them down your layout or card with the watercolors. Add in some stamped ones with Papertrey Ink stamp pads to add contrast and definition.

Inks I used to add some stamped hearts in were Pure Poppy, Melon Berry, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Limeade Ice and New Leaf by Papertrey Ink.

The finished look...
a card made with this technique, so you could see that this process can work on cards as well.

Always Remember This Day card:

STAMPS: Monthly Moments: February
INK: Pure Poppy, Melon Berry, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, New Leaf, Limeade Ice
PAPER: watercolor paper, Lemon Tart cardstock
DIES: none
OTHER: watercolors, paintbrush, water.
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Here's the finished layout using this same technique (the one I started at the beginning of the post). Sometimes I love making layouts with journaling only that either tell the highlights of the month, or sometimes I'll just write a letter about how I feel. After watercoloring and stamping all the hearts, I added the lines by stamping the Monthly Moments: Library card stamps and journaled about the highlights of our month so far (swimming lessons, bought grandma and grandpa tickets to come visit us for a month this spring, my husband turned 37, Valentine's Day happenings, Taylor's 14 year check up, and Kati's 8th annual cardiology appointment.) Often times I feel like I don't have enough photos to document everything, but I love to write it down, so we remember!

The February die cuts were just stapled to the layout.

Heart This layout:

STAMPS: Monthly Moments: February, Monthly Moments: Library card
INK: Pure Poppy, Melon Berry, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, New Leaf, Limeade Ice, Enchanted Evening, Hawaiian Shores, Lavender Moon inks by Papertrey Ink, Soft Granite by Hero Arts
PAPER: watercolor paper, Summer Sunrise/Melon Berry/and Harvest Gold Pattern Pack paper
DIES: Monthly Moments: February die
OTHER: watercolors, paintbrush, water, enamel dots by MME.
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On the last layout, I used sort of the same technique, but I first stamped the frames with Papertrey Ink's inks with the Monthly Moments: Slide Frame stamps as a background onto watercolor paper, then painted over the top of the frames with watercolors to blend the ink a bit. I also painted inside each frame with a coordinating color. Love how each frame looks like a little window! I messed up on the red one a little bit, so that one received a photograph over the top! No biggie! I didn't stamp the frames perfectly, because I wanted it to look more artsy and random. (Sorry- my camera is doing this fish eye thing, and I'm not sure why. The frames are actually square on my page, I promise.)

All these cute little sayings are from the Monthly Moments: Slide Frame stamp set. I used the Monthly Moments: February die to die cut the title. Papertrey Ink colors used on the frames were Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Lavender Moon, Hawaiian Shores and New Leaf. I chose these mostly because they would match my watercolors the best. The Hawaiian Shores was a little tricky, I had to blend blue and green watercolors a bit to get the right shade, but the others were right on!

The flowers were stamped onto vellum with the Bold Bouquet stamp set. "This" hearts were stamped with Monthly Moments: February stamps and cut out.

Here you can see the neat watercoloring effect up close. Start off with a darker color in the upper corner (to match the frame) and work with more water as you go down to lighten it. I love this!

Hope I've inspired you to get inky and painty...and to make something just for fun! Nourish that creative side of you! Wishing you a super-awesome-creative day!
Danielle

February Framed layout:

STAMPS: Monthly Moments: February stamps, Monthly Moments: Slide Frame stamps, Special Delivery Sentiments stamps (slanted lines), Bold Bouquet stamps
INK: Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, New Leaf, Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado, Lavender Moon, Sweet Blush, Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist inks, Soft Granite by Hero Arts
PAPER: watercolor paper, Smokey Shadow Pattern Pack, vellum
DIES: Monthly Moments: February die
OTHER: watercolors, paintbrush, water, enamel dots by MME.

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