Paper Smooches January Challenge - Card 2

The challenge for January 2016 is any four colour combination (neutrals are "free"!).   Click HERE to visit the challenge page!  It runs all month long so join in the fun!  You only need to use at least one PS die or stamp.  Click HERE to visit the Paper Smooches web page.

I had the idea of using some of the paper pads and sets of DSP from the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue which was released on 5 Jan.  I chose the It's My Party paper pad this time.

Paper Smooches products I used were the stamp sets Super and Party Posse along with the dies Super 2 and Bam Bubble.

My colours for this challenge were pink (Melon Mambo), pale green (Mint Macaron), Yellow (Crushed Curry) and silver and black, grey and white for neutrals.

 The alternative name for this project could be "What Not To Do" and it's a card I'll definitely come back to and improve on at some point. :-/  So why blog it?  I find that learning from mistakes and the error part of "trial and error" are just as important as when things do go right.  Often art and craft involve experimentation and you can't grow and develop if you don't try new things.  So here's what I learned and I look forward to trying again and again until it looks the way I imagine.

I had some ideas using a superhero bursting out of the bam bubble, in a night sky over a city.  I liked the look of the confetti print on black for the sky and plain grey cardstock buildings using patterned yellow paper inside the windows was fine too.  Even the bubble looked OK.  That's when things went downhill.

Firstly, I wanted to switch out the head of the hero.  Sounds like an odd thing to do, but the retro, slightly old school face of the hero just wasn't doing it for me and when I thought about a suitable substitute, naturally a CAT came to mind.  The pretty kitty from the Party Posse set was probably the best option.  After I cut out the head and body. they just didn't look right together, but I was determined to make them work.

My first mistake was to stamp them with archival ink instead of memento since I wanted to colour with Copic markers.  I didn't notice my mistake til I started to colour and the ink started to run.  I figured I'd switch to Inktense pencils which aren't ideal on X-Press It Blending Card.  Head/Desk.

See by now most people would have seen the big flashing light telling them to re-stamp the image and figure out an alternative to the hybrid hero cat.  Not this Crafty Mama.

I did the best I could with the colouring and started putting things together.  Once again, I forgot I was using archival ink and managed to smudge the sentiment a bit due to the longer drying time.

The silver sequin stars were entirely unnecessary and can barely be seen.  Next time I'd either omit the stars or choose something more subtle for the sky.

Well, thanks for looking at my card and I hope if you try it, you learn from my mistakes and do a better job.

If you missed my first challenge entry for January, you can see it HERE

Paper Smooches January Challenge - Card 1

I had so much fun playing along with the Paper Smooches challenge last month, that I couldn't wait to do it again!  Click on the Paper Smooches graphic to visit their site.

The challenge for January 2016 is any four colour combination (neutrals are "free"!).   Click on the cute retro telephone graphic above to visit the challenge page!  It runs all month long so join in the fun!  You only need to use at least one PS die or stamp.

I had the idea of using some of the paper pads and sets of DSP from the new Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue which was released on 5 Jan.

Paper Smooches products I used were the bow, dollar sign and "a gift for you" sentiment from the stamp set Retail Therapy and the starts in the background were from the PS Stars Dies set.

So this begs the question: "what do tea sets, nail polishes and gift cards have in common?  A perfectly logical connection in my mind.

I was commissioned to make another gift voucher.  It's for a nail supply store where we buy reasonably priced (by Australian standards anyway) nail polish in some of our favourite brands.  This store has an actual name but my sisters and I refer to it simply as "the nail shop" so that's what I put on the voucher.

I wanted lovely bright colours and out of the two paper pads I had pre-ordered, the Have a Cuppa was the better option.  My 4 colours were going to be pink (Melon Mambo), Turquoise (Bermuda Bay), Yellow (Crushed Curry) and Purple (Wisteria Wonder) and black and white for neutrals.  OK so the glitter paper on the nail polish bottle is a different shade of pink but it's still pink!

I layered a diagonal stripe from the paper pad on curry cardstock and splattered various spray inks over it.

I used the rotary stamp for the wording and hand cut it for a slightly messy look and the whole card had an 80s, retro vibe which kind of tied in with the retro telephones.  I love a happy co-incidence!

After inking the edges on the word strips and gluing them down, I decided I wanted the stars in the background.  After choosing a tone-on-tone, small scale print from the DSP pad in each of my four colours, I die cut the stars and adding them meant my word strips had to come up.  This is pretty much how I always work.

The nail polish bottle was pieced using a stamp from The Alley Way who sadly are closing their doors.  I covered the whole thing with Crystal Effects to give the impression of a glass bottle!  A bow and bling are essential for any worthy cosmetic.

Lastly a custom envelope (OK it was a bit of an afterthought since the voucher was a bit too long for the standard one) and leftover stars.  You can never have too many stars, right?  RIGHT?

Thanks for visiting and I hope to make a few more entries with different papers from the Occasions Catalogue,

Please check out my second challenge entry HERE

Paper Smooches December Challenge - Card 2

Paper Smooches - www.papersmoochesstamps.com has a monthly challenge and here is my second entry.  I thought I'd also use the opportunity to sneak in some peeks at the upcoming Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue which starts on 5 Jan.

The main guidelines are to use flowers somewhere on the project and include at least one Paper Smooches die or stamp.

I didn't intend to make 2 cards but I really REALLY wanted to sneak a cat among the flowers and it just wasn't right for the first card.

I loved the colours in the soon-to-come Love Blossoms DSP stack.  The flowers came from the Circle of Spring set in the Annual Catalogue which naturally I bought without the die thinking I wouldn't use it til I got around to buying the die.  Wrong.  Hello fussy cutting,  Have you tried fussy cutting tiny flowers and vines inside a circle?  My advice is...don't!

The cat came from the MFT I Knead You stamp set.  I also fussy cut her since I didn't want a white outline.  The whiskers do have a little one and I initially thought of colouring them black, but I coloured the the kitty to look like our very own Chubby Bubby Crafty Cat and she actually has both white and black whiskers.

 Since the images were smaller, I used Inktense to colour it and just washed over the white areas of the wreath with leftover Gansai Tambi.  The awesome thing is that the Inktense becomes permanent once it dries so it doesn't run when re-wet.

My initial thought was a blank Paper Smooches banner from the streamers stamp set but it felt too big so a stamp from the soon-to-come Bloomin Love set was used.  I wanted to cover up the leaves which stamp on either side of the banner.  They'd go with the card, but it needed more pink and more bling (doesn't everything??).

I felt hearts would go well with the sentiment but the hearts in the Hearts dies set were either too small or too big (Goldilocks much?) but the heart from the set of Bandaids Dies was just right - well near enough.

The sentiment came from the Good Gab stamp set and the bows on the wreath and Miss CC's hair came from the Retail Therapy stamp set.  Lots of small touches, but I used one die and two stamp sets from Paper Smooches on this one.

The card base has layers of DSP either square or die cut and corners rounded which I'm not so sure about now that I've done it!

Oh and lets not forget the touches of Wink of Stella, which while I've had in my stash for a long time, may or may not have something to do with the upcoming catalogue. ;-P

 And bling. I added a few gems but could happily add about 20 more.  LOL

I'm counting SIX items I've sneaked from the Occasions Catty between the two cards!
I'm happy overall with these two cards which usually doesn't happen so there you go.

If you havent already seem my first card, please check it out here

Paper Smooches December Challenge - Card 1

Paper Smooches - www.papersmoochesstamps.com has a monthly challenge and here is my first entry.  I thought I'd also use the opportunity to sneak in some peeks at the upcoming Stampin' Up! Occasions Catalogue which starts on 5 Jan.

The main guidelines are to use flowers somewhere on the project and include at least one Paper Smooches die or stamp.

Anyway...the Paper Smooches items I used for my first card are the Blissful Banners stamp set and co-ordinating Streamers dies.

I struggled a bit to find a way of lining up a stamp with a solid die and I found that cutting first then using a (not too strong) runner adhesive to stick it to my MISTI in order to stamp it worked best.  The adhesive rubs off afterwards if you no longer want it.  I didn't since I was using vellum and wanted the centre of the banner to come out from the card.

I started by stamping using the soon-to-be-released Rose Garden stamp set and watercolouring with my Gansai Tambi paints.  They're so rich and creamy that it took a bit of practise after being used to the traditional cake watercolours.  I felt more comfortable by the time I got to the leaves and background.

Next, I used the co-ordinating die and cut out of black glitter paper.  Oooh shiny!

The vellum banner was stamped with archival ink.  I tried embossing in black which was just TOO black and many other options.  I matted on soon-to-come PINK glitter paper onto a black card base and sprinkled iridescent tiny sequins for that finishing touch.

The only things I'd consider adding are gems or something else to cover the dots of adhesive holding the banner in place since it's more visible than I'd like.   :-/

Please check out my second card here