Creative Cardmaker: Do the Splits...

In my Creative Cardmaker post over at Scrapbook Expo today, I'm talking about splitting your card fronts! I have been noticing this as a trend quite a bit lately...it's not really a new technique, but I really wanted to give it a try! It's a great little spot to house a sentiment and really draws your eye to it!

The card front is actually just cut with a paper trimmer, but Papertrey Ink has these really cute Sentiment Splits dies that are shaped with curves and fun shapes that will cut a little spot for your sentiment also!

The Peonies on Parade were stamped and embossed with white embossing powder, then colored in with Papertrey Ink ink pads: Lovely Lady, Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf and Ripe Avocado inks. I stamped the ink pads onto an acrylic block, then painted them onto my flowers with a tiny bit of water. I used the Big Hugs stamps and dies for the sentiment and Soft Stone cardstock in the background.

Please stop over to Scrapbook Expo's Weekly Scrapper blog to read more!

More stenciled cards...

Today I chose to just sit and play. I haven't done this in ages...just creating for fun, not for work, while listening to audios on things I've been wanting to learn about myself. Feels so good to take time for me and just let out my creativity. Does that make sense?

The Modern Stencils Collection by Papertrey Ink was used for the backgrounds with the same technique I shared in my post over at Scrapbook Expo. The stamps I've used are Bitty Bouquets and Big Birthday Wishes.

On this one, I used Aqua Mist ink in the background with Tropical Teal ink on the "Enjoy". The stencil looks great in a lighter color than your focal point, but in the same color family.

What are you doing today? I hope you have an opportunity to take time for you and get into your happy place! xo We all need that so much, and that's what cardmaking does for me.
Danielle

Stenciled backgrounds...

Recently I've started dabbling in ink blending on my cards! It's such a fun way to add color. You can ink blend directly onto the card or over a stencil like I did here today.  *Note: this card is inspired by Betsy's Sending Love card from her post on the 14th.

Over at the Scrapbook Expo blog, I show a few step-by-step photos with the supplies I used and talk about why I love this technique!

 I've used the Modern Stencil collection, the Bitty Bouquets stamps and dies and the Big Birthday Wishes stamps.

Swing by the Weekly Scrapper blog over at Scrapbook Expo to read more!

Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals...

Welcome to day 8 of Papertrey Ink's anniversary festivities! Today we have a new mini kit to show you that will be released on Feb. 15th at 10pm EST called Color Pop Florals by Betsy Veldman. It's gorgeous!

On the first card, I used the background paper from the mini kit (gray linen). The pre-printed papers have white spaces where you place the flowers, so if you need a tiny bit of help figuring out where to place everything, it gives you a design to go by!

You have four different options with these pre-printed papers:
1. You can stamp the flowers directly onto the paper,
2. You can die cut your own flowers and leaves to add over the top with the stamps and dies in the kit,
3. You can die cut the preprinted flowers from the papers in the mini kit, or
4. You can use the stencils in the mini kit over the blank flowers!

On this card, I chose to die cut the preprinted flowers and adhere them to my card over the white spaces -the design has already been done for me, the hard part is just choosing the colors to use for the flowers! The larger flowers are popped up with dimensional adhesive. The "Celebrate Today" is also die cut from the dies in the mini kit.

Gray Celebrate Today card: 

STAMPS: none

INK: none

PAPER: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

DIES: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

OTHER: sequins - Pretty Pink Posh.

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The second card also uses the preprinted papers, but this time I stamped the flowers and leaves directly onto the paper with the Color Pop Florals stamps. I used Sweet Blush and Raspberry Fizz inks for the flowers and for the leaves, Stormy Sea and True Black.

The "Celebrate Today" is die cut from Aqua Mist cardstock with the dies in the mini kit. Which card do you prefer? They were both so quick and easy. Love that!

Celebrate Today card:
STAMPS: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

INK: Sweet Blush, Raspberry Fizz, Stormy Sea, True Black

PAPER: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

DIES: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

OTHER: sequins - Pretty Pink Posh.

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Visit the rest of the team to see more with this mini kit! These products will be available on Feb. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink!

Amy Sheffer
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Kay Miller
Laurie Willison
Lizzie Jones
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

New Products for Spring & Egg Hunt...

The Papertrey Ink team has a ton of new spring products to show you today, including the Bunny Basket stamps & dies, Cover Plate: Basket die, Easter Grass die, Shaped Sayings: Easter and the Simply Spring Borders stamps & dies!  Everything you see that is new here today will be available for purchase at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink.

Be sure to start at Nichole Heady's blog for the annual "scavenger egg hunt" as you hop through the design team's blogs to locate all of the egg icons for your chance to win! Click on the above official egg hunt photo to see it larger.

First, I have a treat wrap made with the Cover Plate: Basket die. Basically my treat wrap is a card that I placed glassine bags inside, then wrapped the seam binding around it like a little package. The glassine bags hold candy and a note.
The basket die is cut from Aqua Mist cardstock and placed over Mint Julep cardstock. I also couldn't help but to work with the Tulip Time stamps and dies again! I don't think I did them justice yesterday, gah! I love them SO!

The tag is stamped with Tulip Time, Bunny Basket and Simply Spring Borders. The Easter grass is cut with the Easter Grass die out of vellum.

Spring is in the Air Treat Wrap:

STAMPS: Bunny Basket, Tulip Time, Simply Spring Borders

INK: Bright Buttercup, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado, Lovely Lady, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise inks

PAPER: White, Aqua Mist, Mint Julip, vellum

DIES: Cover Plate: Basket die, Easter Grass die, Tulip Time dies

OTHER: seam binding - Zipperstop, glassine bags, candy.

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On the next card, I began with the Bunny Basket stamps to create a colorful egg background.
The Limitless Layers 2.5" Circles scalloped die was cut to place behind the Shaped Sayings: Easter die cut, then a few enamel dots were sprinkled around to finish out the "colorful" look!

Colorful Easter card: 

STAMPS: Bunny Basket, Simply Spring Borders  

INK: True Black, Sweet Blush, Summer Sunrise, Bright Buttercup, Raspberry Fizz, Aqua Mist, Lavender Moon

PAPER: Aqua Mist, white

DIES: Shaped Sayings: Easter, Limitless Layers 2.5" Circles

OTHER: seam binding- Zipperstop, enamel dots.

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Visit the rest of the team to see more Spring/Easter ideas! These products will be available on Feb. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink!

Amy Sheffer
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Kay Miller
Laurie Willison
Lizzie Jones
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

Creative Cardmaker: Stitched Banners...

Want a quick and easy way to add a focal point to your card? Create a stitched banner! If you have a sewing machine at home, you can make a stitched banner in a FLASH!

The papers I used were from an older Studio Calico card kit, but you can use any scraps you have on hand! The butterfly punch is by Martha Stewart and the stamped saying is from the Make It Market mini kit: Lovely Laurels by Papertrey Ink.

The center butterfly is punched out to create a negative look, and the front panel of the card is popped up slightly. I always like the balance of something being centered on the card, yet the randomly placed butterflies add a little bit of unexpectedness to it as well.

You can read more info about this card and the stitched banner technique over at the Weekly Scrapper blog! See you again tomorrow with another Papertrey countdown post! 

Introducing Dress Up Dolls...

Today we have a sneak peek of a new ongoing series by Betsy Veldman for Papertrey Ink called Dress Up Dolls. I have made a quick Easter card with the new Dress Up Dolls: Basics stamps and dies and the Dress Up Dolls: Easter stamps and dies.

I've used a Fabulous Frame die with gray cardstock, the Limitless Layers 1.5" Squares dies to trim out the smaller square, the Sweet Life rose and the Bold Blossoms stamps and dies for the leaf. The butterflies are trimmed from the Beautiful Butterfly dies from vellum. And of course, I used the new Dress Up Dolls products on the bunny. Excuse my Copic coloring, I'm not very good at it!

Happy Easter card:
STAMPS: Dress Up Dolls: Basics, Dress Up Dolls: Easter, Sweet Life, Bold Blossoms
INK: Tropical Teal, Lovely Lady, Raspberry Fizz, True Black, Stormy Sea, Vintage Jadeite, New Leaf
PAPER: white, gray, vellum
DIES: Dress Up Dolls: Basics, Dress Up Dolls: Easter, Fabulous Frames, Limitless Layers 1.5" Square, Sweet Life, Bold Blossoms, Beautiful Butterflies
OTHER: Copic markers, mica flakes, sequins, seam binding.
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Visit the rest of the team to see more ideas with Dress Up Dolls. These products will be available on Feb. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink!

Amy Sheffer
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Kay Miller
Laurie Willison
Lizzie Jones
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

Creative Cardmaker: Liquid Gold Gilding...

Happy Tuesday! Today over at Scrapbook Expo's Weekly Scrapper blog, I have a step-by-step tutorial for you on using Liquid Gold Gilding paint on cards with a quick and easy design. These cards literally took me only a few minutes and don't use many supplies at all...one sentiment stamp, paint, paintbrush, an old pencil and a black ink pad. Stop over to read more!

We have a snow day today, so I'm getting started on my Papertrey Ink goodies for this month that will be released on February 15th! Check out these pics of Kati with our neighbors! :) The girls are thrilled to get a day off today! We've gotten over a foot of snow, and it's still coming down. Enjoy your day!

Pedal Pusher revisited...

Happy Monday! The senior design team for Papertrey Ink is revisiting an older stamp set today called Pedal Pusher to share a few more ideas of what you can do with it! I had SO much fun with it! The layering possibilities are amazing with this set of stamps and dies!

First, I made this card and used the leaves from the stamp set to stamp around the edges of a white piece of cardstock. I added some tiny flowers from the Quilted: Summer stamp set. The bottom striped piece of cardstock was created by stamping with Background Basics: Super Stripes stamps with Raspberry Fizz ink onto Lovely Lady cardstock.

The bicycle die cuts are so much fun, because they have several layers you can stamp, so the bike pieces are in different colors, such as the wheels and basket. I cut a seat separately and trimmed it off the bicycle die, so I could stamp it in aqua and add it over the top of the orange bike.

The vellum butterflies were die cut with the Cover Plate: Bitty Butterflies. You can find the vellum HERE. Some of them are folded in half to just show the profile of the butterfly!

Life Is a Beautiful Ride card:

STAMPS: Pedal Pusher, Quilted: Summer

NK: Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, New Leaf, Aqua Mist, Ripe Avocado, Lovely Lady

PAPER: white, Lovely Lady

DIES: Pedal Pusher, Cover Plate: Bitty Butterflies

OTHER: enamel hearts.

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Next, I used gray cardstock in the background (just one from my crafty stash) and layered a Cover Plate: Bitty Butterflies die cut over the top trimmed in vellum.

The banner was made to set over the top of the empty space on the butterfly cover plate. I like how it grounds the bicycle, so it's not "floating" on the card.

Here you can see the dimension a bit better. I love this cute bicycle die! It has special meaning to me now, as my new guy talked me into buying a road bike and bicycling with him, his favorite past time. THIS is the one I got, and it has aqua on it, my favorite, so I had to stamp this bicycle with aqua!

Just Keep On Pedaling card:

STAMPS: Pedal Pusher, Quilted: Summer

INK: Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, New Leaf, Aqua Mist, True Black

PAPER: white cardstock and Sheer Basics Vellum by PTI, gray cardstock-craft supply

DIES: Pedal Pusher, Cover Plate: Bitty Butterflies

OTHER: clear sequins - Pretty Pink Posh.

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Visit Betsy, Dawn, Melissa and Heather to see more ideas with Pedal Pusher. 

Have a great day!

Design Team Tips: Black, White, Gold, and Stormy Sea...

Hello! Lately I've been noticing a trend in black and white backgrounds! I decided to create some stamped backgrounds, combine them with a touch of gold, and add a bit of Stormy Sea cardstock as well. These are so fast to make, and using a black and white combo really takes the guess work out of creating a color palette! Easy peasy!

Both of these cards were stamped with Bold Blossoms stamps in the background. On this card, I used the Enclosed: Leaf die to cut two items: one (outline) from the Luxe Gold Adhesive paper and one solid piece for the background from Stormy Sea cardstock. I placed the gold paper over the top.
The vellum butterfly is cut out of the Sheer Basics Vellum with the Cover Plate: Bitty Butterflies die.  The saying was stamped with Bitty Butterflies.

The Love card also uses the Bold Blossoms stamps in the background of the card with the Framed Love die cut from the Luxe Gold Adhesive paper again, like the first card. The sentiment is stamped again with Bitty Butterflies stamps (link above).

Gold, gray, black and white really makes for an elegant color palette, with not much thinking involved when it comes to choosing colors that go well together. I hope you'll give this color combo a try! Have a great weekend!

Creative Cardmaker: Drawing Inspiration from Scrapbooking Layouts...

Good morning! This week has FLOWN by, hasn't it? I can't believe it's almost the weekend again. Last weekend I had the chance to attend an amazing summit for Craftsy Instructors in Denver, CO! I really want the chance to tell you more about it, so I'll have to plan to write a little blog post about a few things I took away from it. It was so inspiring to be in the same room with hundreds of creative, like-minded people!! You can see a few pics from the 2016 Crafty Instructor Summit HERE on my Facebook page or HERE on my Instagram page.

Until then, I have a new card to share with you that I made for the Weekly Scrapper blog over at Scrapbook Expo. Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out where to get inspiration...especially when life takes over and seems to get in the way of creative time. Ever feel that way?

One of the biggest things that inspire me are scrapbooking layouts! I used to scrapbook before I was a card maker, so I always seem to find inspiration and creativity in scrapbooking...whether it's a color palette, or a cool technique, or an overall design, or even just a little section of layering that looks amazing! There are so many ways scrapbooking layouts can give you ideas for your cards!

Pop over to the Scrapbook Expo blog to read more about what inspired this card - which layout I loved and how I drew inspiration from it - and to get more info on the supplies I used. Thank you for swinging by and saying hello! I hope you're having a great week!!! Happy creating!

Watercolor pencils: a video tutorial...

Happy Wednesday! Will you get any crafting time in today? Perhaps some watercoloring? If so, hop over to Scrapbook Expo's Weekly Scrapper blog to watch a new video tutorial I filmed yesterday using the new Bold Blossoms Watercolor Sheets by Papertrey Ink and watercolor pencils. You can view the video HERE.

There is also a Bold Blossoms stamp set and some Bold Blossom coloring sheets available at Papertrey Ink, if you are more of a stamper or prefer to color with Copics and other coloring mediums. I hope you enjoy seeing the process with the watercolor pencils, and let me know if you have any questions! Have a great day!

Stitched Sentiments Revisited...

Today the senior design team members at Papertrey Ink are revisiting an older stamp set today to give you new ideas for using it! The stamp set we are using today is called Stitched Sentiments, which you can find HERE in the Papertrey Ink shop! Do you have this set? It's one of my absolute favorites!

I've paired Stitched Sentiments stamps with the Life Is Beautiful dies for these cards today.

To create each of these cards, I've cut a panel of white cardstock, stamped the stem, flowers and sentiments with Stitched Sentiments, then wrapped the panel with twine. I used the Life Is Beautiful dies to cut out the back panel of the butterfly in patterned paper, then the front of the butterfly in vellum.

The stamped panels are then backed with patterned paper. On this teal card, I used paper from the Vintage Linens Patterned Paper Collection.  I actually started with the patterned paper in mind that I wanted to use first, then pulled my colors for the stamping from the papers to get a cohesive design. A few gold sequins add a little sparkle and finish off the card.

Here is a different color combo, but same design. I used the Vintage Linens Patterned Paper Collection again for the back of the butterfly and the floral background paper.

The vellum butterflies are just adhered in the centers.

Last, a soft gray one made with the Stormy Sea + White Patterned Paper Collection and Stormy Sea cardstock and inks. I also used a new ink color called Lovely Lady. This time I stamped the stem above the butterfly instead of below it. Which do you like better?

The Stitched Sentiments stamp set comes with other sentiments also, so you could easily use this design and change out the sentiments to create birthday cards, love and thank you's as well. I think I may make a few card sets with other sentiments and put them up in my shop!

Be sure to visit the other ladies to see more with Stitched Sentiments: Betsy, Dawn, Heather and Melissa. Happy New Year!!!

You card set:

STAMPS: Stitched Sentiments

INK: Lovely Lady, Stormy Sea, Pure Poppy, True Black, New Leaf, 

Melon Berry, Tropical Teal, Aqua Mist

PAPER: Stormy Sea cardstock and patterned paper, Vintage Linen Patterned Paper, 

vellum, Tropical Teal Patterned Paper

DIES: Life Is Beautiful

OTHER: twine, sequins.

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