Sketch Saturday #483 -- free for all!

Good morning! It is time for another Sketch Saturday but because this is the fifth Saturday of the month it is stamper's choice or free for all! Choose whatever sketch you like best and create a card! I did use one of our sponsor's designs from AMB Illustrations and wish I had better skills at coloring metallic objects like the bells. I love this image but need to look up on youtube or something how to color metallics a bit better.

I used sketch 482 and made it my own by using a circle instead of a square and by using the image on a square card.

Thanks for looking and hope you find time to play along!

Stamp: digital from AMB Illustrations, patterned paper PTI, My Favorite Things circle die, prismacolor pencils 

PTI Sept 2017 Customer blog hop

Hello and welcome! Every month Papertrey Ink hosts a blog hop for its customers and usually posts an inspiration photo as a springboard for creativity. I made a few projects and started another but ran out of time/ideas. Thanks for looking and we'll begin.
First, here is the inspiration photo:

Next here is a tag I made where I riffed off of the brown bird, the floral sprays and the black background. I used the new holiday tags mini set Betsy introduced and some older dies and punches I own for the bird (Spellbinders) and the pine sprigs (no idea...Fiskars maybe?) I like this first project the best. You could easily use the die from the PTI set Christmas Faith to replicate the bird, I just don't own it (yet!).

Stamps: New Holiday Tags mini kit, Papertrey Ink; Ink: gold; Paper: PTI black, recollections sparkle red, patterned paper from stash, vellum; Other: Spellbinder dies for bird, Holiday tags kit, snowflake punch, pine branch punch, gold embossing powder, glitter, ribbon, jute twine

Next, I really like the stitched cover plate and I'm always playing with it. I wanted to see what it would look like as the black background, pulling in a lot of the red from the floral spray you see in the inspiration photo. I am very unsure about this card, to me, it is is a classic case of trying to do too much. I think I mixed too many techniques and should have stopped to keep it a bit more simple. Any suggestions on improvements are welcome, please let me know in the comments.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Winter Hills; Ink: black, white and gold; Paper: PTI black, kraft, pure poppy patterned paper; Other: Finetec gold palette watercolor, gold embossing powder, stickles in red and clear, prismacolor pencils, Stitched Cover Plate (PTI)

As you can see one of my latest toys is the gold palette of Finetec watercolors. Yay! What do we do with a new toy? Overuse it! :) I tried three of the different shades in the palette to color in the leaves on the cover plate and I need suggestions for what to put in the center. I actually like this better than the card above with all of the red, but couldn't figure out what else to do in time for the hop. I think perhaps a verse or saying, but I cannot decide what color it should be.

Finally I just chose some of the colors from the inspiration photo to make this last card. The world is in great turmoil now like I haven't seen in my lifetime. My wish is for greater peace. You can't tell in the photo, but the word "peace" is cut out of white glitter paper I bought at Michael's, backed and offset just a bit to bring in the black from the inspiration photo, mounted on kraft brown to represent the bird in the inspiration photo.

Stamps: PTI Stitches & Swirls; Ink: vintage photo; Paper: PTI kraft, black, vellum, pure poppy and simply chartreuse patterned paper, white glitter paper; embellishments from Holiday Tags mini kit, scor-tape and Nuvo gold flakes

Now I can allow myself to look at the other things folks have created and I am sure with all the talent out there, I will be wishing I had more sets in my cart at PTI when I'm through!

Christmas sweater or Halloween? Can't decide...

Hello! The fans of Papertrey Ink can join along and stamp a card inspired by the reveals for this month, to date. My inspiration came from a different source, the sweater that Diana posted in a thread where we were all guessing the theme for the Mini Market kit to be released later this month.

So this combines the sweater, Ursula and the Make it Monday challenge from last week (I'm late, but it was a great layout to copy). Here is the sweater she posted....

And here is my card.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Tiny Treats: Halloween, Paper: Neenah solar white, PTI black, PTI black gingham check, watercolor paper; Ink: Archival black, Ranger distress oxides in Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, Iced Spruce: Other: Silver stickles, sequins

I made a background using distress oxide inks, but the problem was, how to add that glittery dimension in the sweater photo? First I tried inking up a background stamp and embossing in silver, but that didn't work. Then I mixed a bit of pearl colored Perfect Pearls with some water and then flicked it on with a paintbrush. That gives me spots of shimmer placed randomly on the cardstock and also activates the oxide effect of the inks.

I stamped the cauldron on the cardstock chips and then stamped another on plain white cardstock to color, then fussy cut and lay on top of the stamped image on the watercolor paper. Then I used silver Stickles to fill in the miniature stars. There also is a star image in the Halloween set I used that is like a blown up version of the mini stars in the cauldron. I stamped that on the watercolor background also and cut it out, then added a few sequins and paper strips to finish out the card. I also tried to balance the elements in the card by adding a very thin strip of the distress oxide colored paper to the bottom, so you have bottom, middle for the cauldrons and upper right with the star.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Walking on Sunshine

Hello! I discovered Nuvo metallic flakes due to a challenge at Papertrey Ink, very cool when used with a strip of Scor-tape. However I had this image in my mind of using it with a TCW sunflower stencil I had purchased. I tried sticky sheets like one video recommended but then you have blank areas that you need to cover with another form of glitter or beads because in my house if a sticky space is left blank for too long it gets covered in pet hair. :) Also, I really wanted the sunflower image on top of the watercolor background I had made with distress inks, because I was looking for a vivid panel of color with the pop of gold and copper for the flower. 

Finally I tried a spray adhesive. The right kind will stay tacky long enough to put on the Nuvo flakes, although for the two tone look that I wanted for the sunflower, you have to very careful when breathing not to get have the flakes flying around too much and getting onto the wrong part of the stenciled image. 

The actual stencil itself is now gorgeous, I ought to post a picture, because the adhesive stuck to it as well and of course then the flakes themselves, so it is very glittery! 

If you're going to try this, make sure that you tape down the stencil so the adhesive goes where you want it to on your card surface. Also, cover over the portion that you don't want to get sticky. Any normal sheet of paper will do. I used Frog tape so it wouldn't lift up the watercolored background. And then flake at will! 

I used a variety of distress inks for the background and learned that candy apple red really creates a vivid background. I obviously need more practice when embossing letters, it looks a bit sloppy. 

I made one card for my daughter's "golden" birthday when she turned 25 on the 25th, which was one of my main motivating factors for trying to master the technique of using the gold flakes on the sunflower, with the distressed ink background. I didn't master it by any means but it looks close to what I wanted. 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink alphabet, birthday sentiment; Paper: PTI white linen, orange zest, watercolor paper; Ink: Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Inks in pumpkin, peeled paint, mustard seed, marmalade; Other: Nuvo gold and copper flakes, spray adhesive, gold gel pen, PTI button

Thanks for looking. 

Sketch Saturday #479

Good morning and welcome to another Sketch Saturday! This week is sketch #479 and the sponsor is Pink Gem Designs. My printer is low on ink, no digis for me right now, so I chose an image from my stash of a pumpkin, since the temperatures here are in the 60s right now and it feels like Fall is on its way! Fall also means greens and orange and golds so I selected that color palette for my card this week.

I managed to get decent results for the first time with some gold leaf on a scor-tape strip. I'll be looking into that technique again, I like the look it adds to a card!

Thanks for looking and we hope you can play along this week!