Getting the most out of your kits...

I have a little tutorial up over at Gossamer Blue! When playing with the September kit, I discovered something fun you can do with these pretty Solstice stickers.

Of course you can use them as is, and they are gorgeous! But I had started a project that had a lot of gold on it already, and when I went to add more gold stickers, I felt like they were getting lost in the design. So...I discovered that you can flip them over, peel off the backing and add color to the back of them! You can watercolor them, paint them, or even add embossing powder and heat emboss them!

The background of my card was watercolored with gray paint splashes, and then I began assembling my card with the main Sept. kit contents. I layered a polkadot clear tag over the Crate Paper peach sticker and added the "And" ephemera piece. The gold medallion was tucked under the "And" piece.

Last, I added some sewing machine thread, one of my watercolor heart stickers I made and a cork heart. The striped tab was tucked under the left edge.

You can send this as a card, or even use it in your project life pages as a decorative card with your photos.  Stop over to Gossamer Blue to see the finished result!

more Monthly Moments: August...

I don't know why, but I've been designing many things on the diagonal lately. I'm loving it! My last project with Papertrey Ink's Monthly Moments: August collection is inspired by cards on the diagonal, like these by Maile and this one. I always love to use scrapbook ideas on cards, so I thought why can't I do the opposite and use a card idea on a scrapbook page? I love the cut out panel idea.

I'll share a little bit about how I made this...

First, I started with a large 11" x 11" piece of watercolor paper. (Since my watercolor pad is 11" x 15", I just trimmed it into a square). I cut a section of it out on the diagonal and backed it with Soft Stone cardstock, so the gray would show through the cut out. Then I watercolor painted the top and the bottom panels. I didn't adhere anything down yet. You can see the paper is a little warped from the water, but I want to be able to lay everything out first and decide where the items will go, so I'll attach it down completely later and flatten it out.

Next, I had an idea to fill the center cut out with large-scale flowers. Bold Bouquet came to mind. I also used a few of the Embellished Elegance die cut leafy stems. A few of the smaller bouquets were stamped and embossed onto vellum.

The ink colors I used were pulled from some of the colors in the Monthly Moments: August Journal Card collection. I also die cut a Monthly Moments: August die from white cardstock and a Monthly Moments: Spiral Notebook die from one of the Monthly Moments: August Journal cards.

Now I'm going to layer a couple of 2x2" pics that I printed out of my daughter Taylor from this month and layer them over the journal card. These are going to go in the open space on my layout. I stamped a "today" from the MM: August stamps and made some banners from the MM: August Journal Cards. I'll start adding in the flowers around the focal point, the photos. Notice how the black draws your eye to the pictures and creates contrast to the lighter colors.

You'll want to spread out the colored flowers and the white ones to make sure they are evenly distributed.

Adhere everything down when you are happy with the placement.

Next, the journaling. I am always afraid to write directly on my layouts after I went through all that work to make it pretty. So, I used a piece of vellum to write the journaling and placed it on the layout to see how it would look. I decided to keep it and stuck it on. "A day in the life" was stamped with the Monthly Moments: August stamps and "this is me" was stamped above the photos.

That's it! I know at first glance it looks like a difficult page to create, but I hope it helps to see the breakdown of the steps. Not hard at all. I love large scale stamps, they work great for scrapbook layouts. A few larger things look better to me on a page than a lot of smaller items. Look through your stamps to see which ones would work great as a background or to layer around your photos, and don't be afraid to mix and match them with the Monthly Moments line. Also, if you want to use stamps on your layouts but are afraid of stamping directly onto your page, stamp on die cuts...that way you can move them around on your page freely to decide where you want them go.

Visit Ashley, Melissa and Heather for more Monthly Moments inspiration.

August scrapbook layout:

(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Monthly Moments: August

INK: Hibiscus Burst, Orange Zest, Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal, Sweet Blush, True Black; Versamark - craft supply; Soft Granite - Hero Arts

PAPER: Monthly Moments: August Journal Card Collection, Stampers Select White and Soft Stone cardstock, vellum

DIES: Monthly Moments: August die, Monthly Moments: Spiral Notebook die, Embellished Elegance dies, Bold Bouquet dies

OTHER: watercolor paints by Reeves, clothespin by Crate Paper (The Pier).

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Case Study #180...

Well, hello! I have one last card for Case Study Challenge this month. I'm sad that it has come to an end, I had such fun. So far we've done Case Study #177, #178, #179, and here is #180. We're going to use this card for inspiration this week. When you look at it, what about this card inspires you? (If anything, haha)  

What inspires me about this card is definitely the layering. HERE is the original blog post if you'd like to read more about that particular card. I love to layer! Keeping everything touching or connecting on your card helps make it feel more cohesive.

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Here's the card I made today from above inspiration piece:

Instead of using the stamped flowers in the background, I did a watercolor technique with one of the cover plates by Papertrey Ink, the Cover Plate: Center Stage. I die cut the cover plate from cardstock, placed it over my watercolor paper...

(Just noticed that I decided to turn the paper vertically instead, as you can see in my next photo!) The negative lines of the stencil were painted in with black watercolor paint and water (to make gray). I dabbed it with a paper towel if I felt I had to much water, as I didn't want the color to leak under the stencil. When you remove the stencil, you get this look! To make the splashes, I grabbed some darker black onto my brush and flicked the tip of the brush with my finger onto the paper to create the dots.

When dry, I stamped "Grateful" with the Basket of Blessings stamps. I used Mum's the Word stamps and dies to create the flowers, leaves and stems with Melon Berry, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist and Limeade Ice inks.

Would love to see what you do with this inspiration as well! Have a great day!

Grateful card:
(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Mum's the Word, Basket of Blessings

INK: watercolors - craft supply, Melon Berry, Sweet Blush, Aqua  Mist, Limeade Ice, True Black

PAPER: watercolor paper, white, Aqua Mist and Limeade Ice cardstock

DIES: Cover Plate: Center Stage die, Mum's the Word dies

OTHER: none.

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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Introducing Feather Finery...

The Papertrey Ink team is back to share ideas with a new stamp set called Feather Finery. This set has the prettiest feathers I've ever seen! First, we were to choose an inspiration photo to inspire us. I chose this one that I found on Pinterest:

(source)

First, I created a simple card with similar colors, inspired by the oranges and pinks.

The feathers are 2-step, so the feather is stamped first and then the dots are stamped after. So fun!

Tickled Pink card:

STAMPS: Feather Finery

INK: Raspberry Fizz, True Black, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise
PAPER: white
DIES: none
OTHER: seam binding, chipboard stars by Studio Calico.

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Next, I wanted to step up the look to resemble the inspiration photo a little bit more, so I painted my feather stamp with ink refills to create that watercolor look. I used a drop of Raspberry Fizz, a drop of Sweet Blush, a drop of Summer Sunrise and a drop of Harvest Gold refill ink in my paint palette.

Using a paintbrush, I dipped the brush in a drop of Raspberry Fizz ink refill and painted the top of the feather, then Sweet Blush, Summer Sunrise and Harvest Gold - just randomly painted them all over the feather.

I flipped it over and stamped it onto my white cardstock at an angle.

Voila! And here is the finished product. Now you can't see all of the super fine detail of the feather with this technique, but still a cool one to try! Love the effect! It turns out different every time. Wouldn't a set of matching cards be really cute with all different sayings?

After they were dry, I used the dotty stamp over the top with Versamark Ink and heat embossed the dots with gold embossing powder. 

A sequin and a sentiment finishes the look. Sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh!

Just a note: the reinkers may stain your stamps, but I've found that fingernail polish remover works great to get some of it off. Keep a wipe handy to clean your stamps right away to prevent most staining.

Watercolor Feathers card set:

STAMPS: Feather Finery

INK: Raspberry Fizz, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Sweet Blush, True Black by PTI, Soft Granite by Hero Arts
PAPER: white
DIES: none
OTHER: sequins by Pretty Pink Posh, gold embossing powder by Ranger Industries.

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Feather Finery will be available for purchase on Jan. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink. 

Visit the rest of the PTI team to see more samples made with this set!

Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols
Laura Bassen
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady