Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop Challenge

Last Tuesday when Papertrey Ink posted the inspiration photo for their blog hop, my first thought was that I had no tea-related stamps — oh well! But after I moved on, I recalled that I did, in fact, have one tea image: an old Stampin’ Up wood-block stamp from the very first set I ever got, a Christmas gift about fifteen years ago. I rarely use the set anymore since the sentiments are wrapped around the images, limiting their versatility, but when I pulled out the stamp I realized it wouldn’t be hard to fussy-cut the image.

I wanted to follow the color palette of the inspiration piece as closely as possible, but once I began swatching colors I realized that the simplicity of my image required more flexibility. Magenta and aqua were just too stark when paired together, so I ended up going with one image in cream and rose and another in white and soft aqua.

When sifting through my sentiments to find ones to pair with my focal images, I almost settled on “You’re as sweet as can be” from PTI’s “Just Desserts Sentiments” set — a current favorite — but then I spotted “Find beauty in each day” from PTI’s “Spring Hills” set, and that was perfect to go with a tranquil cup of tea. Equally ideal was “His mercies are new every morning” from Stamp Simply, which I’d been wanting to use on a card for my mother.

In an attempt to match the Copic color R22 that I had used for the flowers on the cream-and-rose image, I layered several Hero Arts inks for the sentiment, starting with a double-stamped base layer of Fresh Peach, then a layer of second-generation Pale Tomato, followed by a final layer of Cotton Candy.

I gave the “mercies” card to my mother for World Juggler’s Day — I don’t know how she manages to do all that she does, but her success amazes me — and I’ll be sending the aqua card to my paternal grandmother soon.

Supplies
Stamps:  Stampin’ Up “Nice & Easy Notes” (image);  Papertrey Ink “Spring Hills” (“find beauty...”);  Stamp Simply “Farmhouse Scriptural Thoughts” (“His mercies...”)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black;  Hero Arts Fresh Peach, Pale Tomato, Cotton Candy;  VersaColor Celadon
Copics:  E0000, E30, R22, YG45, G12, BG000, W00, W1, and the colorless blender;  Stampin’ Up Stampin’ Blendabilities: Costal Cabana Light
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape, Uni-ball Signo UM-100 0.8 mm in gold, Sakura Pigma Micron 0.25 mm in black

Dimensions
Aqua card:  4.25” x 4.25”
Rosy card:  4.75” x 3.5”