Welcome Baby - Masks and Shading

The challenge at Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday this week is to ink blend through die cut masks. Lizzie has a great video that you can watch here. I created this baby card using a mask that I made with a circle die and acetate.

 

I blended the ink one circle at a time, moving my mask and taping it down each time. I then laid the mask over each inked circle and stamped my polka dot stamp with white pigment ink.

Supplies:
Stamps - Polka Dot Basics, Keep It Simple - Baby (PTI)
Dies - Std. Circles Lg, A2 Matting Basics A & B (Spellbinders), Double Ended Banners (PTI)
Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI), Lagoon DP & Vellum (CTMH)
Ink - White Pigment Ink, Gypsy, Lagoon, Pear, Sky & Moonstruck (CTMH), Versamark, silver EP
Other - Fun foam, acetate, Metal flower & brad

Polka Dot Baby Girl - MIM #244 - Score Lines

Had a busy week, but finally had a few moments to put together a card for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge. Laurie has a great video here, reminding us how a few simple score lines can up the interest on our cards. I seem to forget this technique, but I do like how it can add depth to white space on a card. This card is for my great-niece due next month. It started out as a CAS single layer card but a rogue spot of blue ink on my finger changed that up.

I don't normally take pictures on my window sill, but it turned very dark this afternoon and the artificial light in my room wasn't giving me the true essence of this card. I really like how it turned out and it is the first time I have used my new Fresh Snow Linen CS that I received last week.

I used score lines to create a grid on my original one layer card. I was concerned about stamping the polka dots in the right spots so I placed my stamp where I wanted it in the center square, lined up the inside corner of a small picture frame with the side and bottom score lines and then popped my 1" x 1" glass block against that corner picking up the stamp. So after that all I had to do was place my picture frame 'jig' along the score lines of each square and use that as a guide for my glass block getting all of my dots in the same place (well almost, but it worked pretty well). After my ink 'accident' I die cut my polkdots and popped the piece up with a piece of fun foam. A silver embossed sentiment and a pretty little pink bow completed the card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Polka Dot Basics, Keep It Simple Baby (PTI)
Dies - Plain Squares (Spellbinders)
Paper - Fresh Snow Linen CS (PTI)
Ink - Baby Pink, Heavenly Blue, Buttercup (CTMH), VersaMark, Silver EP
Other - stylus, BowEasy, pink ribbon

Papertrey Ink MIM#236 - A La Carte - Watercolour Smooshing

Happy New Year everyone! It has been a while - other obligations have taken precedence but it sure feels good to be back. I needed a new baby card and since this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink offered a plethora of techniques I thought I would play along. The challenge this week is to select one of the many wonderful techniques highlighted throughout 2015's Make It Monday challenges. I chose Betsy Veldman's Watercolour Smooshing, MIM #204.

This was a fun and easy card to complete. I varied Betsy's technique slightly based on the way Laura Bassen creates paper smooshing - you can check that out here. Using a piece of acetate I placed my ink on watercolour paper one colour at a time and allowed each colour to dry before adding the next, it is a little more deliberate than the way Betsy explains it in her video but it is basicly the same idea. I love how this simple one layer card turned out.

Supplies:
Stamps - Mini Blooms, Tiny Tags (PTI)
Dies - Tiny Tags (PTI), Bow (Lil Inkers)
Paper - Watercolour Paper 140lb (Strathmore), Pear CS (CTMH)
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Clear EP, Sky, Pear (CTMH)
Other - bitty rhinestones, Coats metallic thread

MIM Stamping and Mixing Patterns

Danielle Flanders has a great video at Papertrey Ink this week, giving tips on creating your own patterned paper with stamps and mixing those patterns together in a project. This was a fun challenge that highlighted for me that I rarely use a lot of patterned designer paper in my projects anymore.

Here are the three paper designs I created to make a baby congrats card for a dear friend's first grandchild.

  

Supplies:
Stamps - Background Basics: Super Stripes, Polka Dot Basics, Stylish Sentiments: Birthday, Hands of Time (PTI)
Paper - Stampers Select White CS (PTI), Pear, Sky, Buttercup CS (CTMH)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Pear, Sky, Buttercup (CTMH)
Other - mini rhinestones, corner rounder

One Layer - New Beginnings

Less is More has a One Layer challenge this week with the theme 'New Beginnings'. I chose to create a New Baby card for this challenge and pulled out some of my Spellbinders dies, which I find I don't use all that often.

I cut the card base from watercolour paper using the largest die from Decorative Labels 8. I then embossed the front using a Classic Ovals die. I cut the same oval out of acetate and used that as a mask to stamp my image with black StazOn. I used watercolour pencils and a water brush to colour the image and then using the mask again to sponge some soft blue around the outside. Stamped a sentiment and done.

Supplies:
Stamps - Hello Baby (Flourishes)
Dies - Decorative Labels 8, Classic Ovals (Spellbinders)
Ink - Jet Black StazOn, Watercolour pencils, Heavenly Blue ink
Other - waterbrush

Polka Dot Baby - Ombre Backgrounds

The Make It Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink this week is all about ombre backgrounds. You can check out Laura Bassen's great tutorial here. My niece is expecting her second son sometime this month, so I decided to make a baby card for this challenge.

My initial thought was to use my Ombre Builders stamp set for this challenge. To test out possible colour combos I grabbed the largest dot from Polka Dot Basics which just happened to be on my desk. Rather than cleaning the stamp after each colour I stamped off two or three times on a scrap of paper. That scrap of paper covered with all of those different intensity dots had so much depth that I quickly changed plans for my card.

To start I stamped the largest row of polka dots from the Polka Dot Basics stamp set once in each of the four colours I had selected. I then went back with the largest single dot from the set and stamped random 2nd, 3rd & 4th generation dots around the rows of solid dots already stamped. I overlapped a little between colours. I then took the next smallest dot from the set and stamped a few 3rd generation green and blue dots randomly over the entire piece. I trimmed the stamped piece with a rectangle die cut, popped it on my white card base and added the sentiment. Love how this turned out.

Supplies:
Stamps - Polka Dot Basics (PTI), Hello Baby (Flourishes)
Dies - Wet Paint (PTI), A2 Matting Basics (Spellbinders)
Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI), Pear CS, Vellum (CTMH)
Ink - Star Spangled Blue, Dutch Blue, Lagoon, Pear (CTMH), Versa Mark, Blue EP
Other - Rhinestones, 3D Foam