Sketch Saturday #487

Good morning and welcome to week 487 of the Sketch Saturday challenges!

This week features a square card with patterned paper or square shapes in the four corners and a circle at the center. It is high time I got started on some Christmas cards. I thought I'd use red and white, classic Christmas colors, for my creation.

I did cut out squares and have washi tape separating the layers but the washi is a birch pattern and the layers themselves are off white so it is much more visible in person. I did make the red circle a bit large since I wanted to mimic the look of an ornament.

I diecut the word "merry" from glitter paper and then used paper ribbon to make a bow. Now that isn't a proper bow but a cheat, since it is paper. It is all glued together and the button is popped on with a glue dot. You cannot tie a paper bow. :)

Thanks for looking and hope you can play along.

Stamps: none. Dies: Papertrey Ink Wonderful Words: Holiday die collection, notecard die; My Favorite Things stitched circles; Paper: white, PTI pure poppy patterned paper, rustic white, glitter paper; twine, jingle bells, birch paper ribbon, woodgrain impression plate, red striped paper ribbon, pure poppy button

PTI Customer Blog Hop October 2017

Good evening! Thanks for stopping by. Papertrey sponsors a customer blog hop once a month based on an inspiration photo. The photo is below and I was drawn to the colors and the watercolor look of the various pieces. I added some orange to lend a bit of contrast to the yellow in my watercolor background because my yellows and honey toned yellow stock is a bit sparse. I did struggle with this challenge a bit, nothing immediately came to mind. I don't look at anyone else's creations before working on mine because I don't want the outside influence, so it will be fun to go have a look finally!

I added the thin strip of red patterned paper because of all the reds in the inspiration but also a touch of birch paper ribbon and the die cuts from Gathered Garden, since so many of the inspiration photos featured nature or trees.

Thanks for looking and happy hopping!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Year of Psalms February; Paper: PTI rustic white, watercolor paper, teal, navy and honey nut; Ink: Distress inks and honey nut; sequins, birch paper ribbon, pure poppy patterned paper

Rejoicing when weary

Good afternoon! I had another wreath (actually I have about five more) that I made playing with finetec gold palette watercolors. This is the only one I made using silver on white. I do like how this turned out and I am thinking perhaps a more simple layout would highlight it better? But I like the pop of red behind it too...opinions are welcome!

I stamped the wreath in silver ink first, then painted over it and added stickles and pearlescent glue droplets. I cut the dove out of silver glitter paper and then just started layering. The stars come from a very old square die I own made by provocraft. That's about all I can offer on that one.

The sentiment...I know that reading the news lately makes me very weary. The last several months seem filled with disastrous events that leave people homeless, hurting, grieving and the list goes on.... I have events in my own family that burden my heart; I think we all do. That verse in this stamp set really struck me last night when I was assembling this card; I'd never before noticed the juxtaposition within the phrase. The weary world rejoices. How can someone who is weary rejoice? Weary means tired out, worn, exhausted, spent...yet that is the same world that is rejoicing? What can cause that?

Only one thing...deliverance. Imagine all that weariness being swept away, all the problems and situations causing that weariness solved. Jesus can do that. At Christmas, and many of you are making your Christmas cards, we celebrate the fact that the deliverer came to earth. Hope was born in a stable in Bethlehem. That is the effect that hope has on the weary; they can begin to rejoice.
While earthly problems remain, we can find comfort and rest in Him, by reading the Word and studying and following the life of Jesus.  So last night when my heart was heavy I decided to finish up this card. My problems haven't disappeared, the news worldwide continues to be heavy, but I know where to turn to put my burdens down.

Thanks for looking.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Berry Wreath and Christmas Faith sets; Paper: PTI white and white linen, red gingham and soft stone floral, silver glitter paper; Ink: Archival black, silver; Dies: Tag Sale Quilted die, Christmas Faith die, MFT rectangle and stitched circle dies; Other: red paper ribbon, silver stickles, finetec gold palette watercolors, white glitter

Autumn Wreath...Papertrey Make it Monday 300

Good morning! I have spent quite a bit of time over the last week playing with different color combinations for the Berry Wreath stamp set released by Papertrey Ink. I love fall and pumpkins and was wondering what it might look like using it as part of a card for Autumn.

I've been addicted to using my Finetec gold palette lately too and thought I'd try a no-lines painting job on the wreath stamp. I need a more steady hand and thinner brush but you can hopefully see where I was going with this. Autumn is a blaze of color where we live and I tried to capture that in the wreath and embellishments.

Melissa Phillips made some lovely cards using wreaths in her tutorial for Make it Monday, challenging us to add the extras to really make it pop. Loved her inspiration and always enjoy my PTI products. Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Berry Wreath, Autumn Scarecrow; Ink: PTI Honey nut, summer sunrise, simply chartreuse, Ranger distress inks in mustard and pumpkin; Paper: Kraft, off white, black, patterned paper strip; Other: Finetec gold palette of inks, sequins, Spellbinders fall strip, PTI kraft button, twine, summer sunrise ribbon, gold embossing powder

World Card Making day . . . or tag...

This counts, right? I was creating and stamping and I was having fun. Plus, you could mount a tag on a card front, add a sentiment and call it good so if you're REALLY strict in your interpretation of world card making day, just imagine after posting this that I ran off and adhered the tags to a card front.

I have decided distress inks make just the perfect color palettes to complement Autumn. I love walking through the woods and picking up brightly colored leaves and often there is a mixture of colors from a bright pop of red to muted greens. Mix up some distress inks and voila! You've got a leaf! Now I admit that the pumpkins are a bit of a stretch since the real ones I have sitting on my porch are pretty much monotone orange, but I like the mixture of mustard seed, marigold and pumpkin to make the pumpkins more colorful.

The project all started with the black tag since I had one left over after last month's Papertrey customer blog hop. I had started something and then never finished and thought it looked awful and was going to toss the tag when I wondered if I could cover the gold circle on the front with a large enough object to hide most of it. I had stamped one of the circle sentiments from the holiday mini kit onto the tag, but smudged it. Over a week later it was way too late to emboss, the ink had dried. So I put some pumpkins atop the tag and painted around it with finetec gold and a tag was born. Then I decided to make two more tags using kraft and cream to figure out which color scheme I liked best and decided I like all three for different reasons.

Thanks for looking and hope you had time to play with ink and paper on world card making day!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Autumn Scarecrow; Ink: adirondack snow white plus white embossing powder, Tim Holtz Ranger Distress oxide inks in twisted citron and salty ocean (background) pumpkins and leaves in distress ink colors mustard seed, pumpkin, marigold, candied apple for color, outlines in vintage photo; cutting die from Papertrey Ink Make it Market mini kit; Holiday Tag Along; Papertrey button in chartreuse; ribbon in summer sunrise and random bit of orange, twine, finetec gold paint set for circle background and shimmer on leaves

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Autumn Scarecrow, same distress inks
die cut out of kraft instead of black cardstock 

Same as at left, photographed with flash
to show shiny bits

Same as above, different ribbon on each and using cream cardstock for base

And the trio of tags. Which background do you like best?