MFT Color Challenge #99 & The Birthday Project

The former youth pastor at my church and I happen to have the same birthday, and he was so ecstatic when he found out that he shared a birthday with someone that ever since I’ve made a point of giving him a card every year. He’s something of a comic, so this sentiment from My Favorite Things seemed quite suitable.

I’m playing along with the MFT Color Challenge #99—I jumped at the chance to use persimmon again—and I’m also entering MFT’s Birthday Project. This month’s theme is Clean and Simple, which perfectly suits my style.

Supplies
Stamps:  My Favorite Things “Hog Heaven” (sentiment);  Mama Elephant “Little Cat Agenda”
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics:  W00, W1, W3, E43, E34, R27;  Bic Marking Sunset Orange, Moonstone Yellow
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape; Mama Elephant “Little Cat Agenda” dies

Dimensions
3.5” x 4.75”

MFT Summer School: Focal Point & MFT Sketch Challenge #398

This week, I’m playing along with the second session of My Favorite Things Summer School 2018. For the focal point challenge, I’m using sketch #398, since those circles provide great little windows to highlight the focal point of the card.

I backed the windows with paper I colored with the chisel end of a Copic to create subtle texture, then I popped up the front panel to create a dimensional shadow that emphasizes the focal images. Since I don’t have a realism-accurate color for the bluejay, I layered four different pigment and dye inks, using both second-generation stamping and double stamping, to get a blue that was neither too dark and bold (as it would have been if I had used only Mediterranean Blue), nor too unsaturated and grey (as it would have been if I had used only Atlantic). The birds are elevated from the front panel as well as the card base, and to create depth and visual interest I adhered the cardinal’s branch to the base but the bluejay’s branch to the front panel.

Supplies
Stamps:  Papertrey Ink “Winter Woods” (birds);  Hero Arts “Stamp and Cut: Thanks” (sentiment)
Dies:  Papertrey Ink “Winter Woods” (birds, branch), “Double-Ended Banners”;  Hero Arts “Nesting Circle Infinity Dies” (1.25” circle)
Ink:  Brilliance Rocket Red, Mediterranean Blue, Graphite Black;   VersaColor Atlantic, Cyan;  Memento Teal Zeal
Copics:  BG000
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White, copy paper
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape, liquid glue, Elmer’s foam mounting squares

Dimensions
4.25” x 5.5”

PTI’s “Create Along With Us” Challenge, August 2018

My favorite card from this month’s PTI release was Lizzie’s using the “Frame It Out: Many Blessings” wreath. I was particularly smitten with the color scheme she used—I have recently discovered a fondness for persimmon, even though I don’t tend to care for oranges in general.

For my entry into the August Create Along with Us challenge, I wove together six dogwood branches from PTI’s “Spring Woods” set to create my own wreath, which ended up being a little more sprayed and star-shaped than rounded. However, I managed to get the circle even, so I’m content with it for a first attempt at a wreath.

Since I don’t have a suitable orange shade of ink, I layered a second-generation impression of Memento’s Love Letter with two first-generation impressions of Memento’s Morocco, with satisfactory results. The brown I incorporated into the branches, but since I don’t have anything resembling PTI’s Ocean Tides (such a lovely color), I opted to leave that out. I did test a branch with leaves in VersaColor Celadon, but I preferred the look of the cream leaves—more subtle, less visually distracting. Since the wreath is already so busy, I forwent a sentiment. I only glued down the center of the wreath, leaving the ends of the branches free and able to be curled up slightly for dimension and visual interest.


Supplies
Stamps & Dies:  Papertrey Ink “Spring Woods”
Ink:  Memento Morocco, Love Letter;  VersaFine Vintage Sepia
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream
Miscellanea:  liquid glue, paintbrush, Press’n Seal

Dimensions
5.5” x 5.5”

MFT Sketch Challenge #393 & Color Challenge #97

For this week’s sketch challenge, I created a simple one-layer card with the sentiment and image forming the horizontal line across the center of the sketch.

Since the color palette was so pastel, black ink was too stark for the cupcake outline; the Copic-friendly Memento Toffee Crunch worked well instead and played as a darker shade of the tan included in the palette. My inks have less shade variation between them than the peach and coral in the palette do, but the hearts are a darker coral than the sentiment, although the shimmer makes the difference harder to distinguish.

Supplies
Stamps:  My Favorite Things “Hog Heaven” (cupcake);  Papertrey Ink “Just Desserts Sentiments” (sentiment);  Lawn Fawn “Winter Alpaca” (hearts)
Ink:  Memento Toffee Crunch;  Hero Arts Soft Cantaloupe (sentiment), Fresh Peach (hearts)
Copics:  R22, Y00, E30
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White
Miscellanea:  Spectrum Noir Sparkle clear

Dimensions
4.25” x 5.5”

MFT Summer School: White Space

For the first challenge of My Favorite Things Summer School, white space, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Last Christmas, the cards I made with the word die from the Hero Arts “Stamp and Cut: Joy” set left me with a bunch of petal-shaped gold pieces from cutting the negative space inside the loops of the letters, and I’d been meaning to make a flower with them. My grandmother’s birthday is in a few weeks, and a simple, gold-and-cream flower card seemed just the thing.

It took me a few iterations to figure out how to arrange the petals in the most appealing way, and the layout feels a little too empty, but there weren’t enough leftover pieces to make a second, smaller flower. I probably would have been better off making the design symmetrical on a vertical layout, but I really liked the notion of having the flower in the lower right. A scattering of sequins might help balance the layout, but I haven’t a sequin or rhinestone to my name, so spare and simple it shall be.

With this, my fifth project, I have completed all of the challenges from the first session of My Favorite Things Summer School 2018.

Supplies
Stamps:  Papertrey Ink “Keep It Simple: Birthday II” (sentiment)
Ink:  Brilliance Galaxy Gold
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream (base), Recollections “Paper Flowers” cardstock pack (gold cardstock)
Miscellanea:  liquid adhesive

Dimensions
4.25” x 5.5”

MFT Summer School: Symmetry

I love super simple cards like this one by Ellenor Emilsson, so for the fifth challenge of My Favorite Things Summer School, symmetry, I went about as simple as possible. Since I was going to color with Copics and anticipated bleed-through, I stamped the image on a panel that I adhered to my card base after coloring. However, the tiny size of the flowers meant that the markers barely bled at all, so I could have made this a true one-layer card.

Since the card was so simple, it only seemed right to add a touch of shimmer.

Supplies
Stamps:  My Favorite Things “Hog Heaven” (flowers), Hero Arts “Stamp and Cut: Hello” (sentiment)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics:  R22, G12, YG45
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape, Spectrum Noir Sparkle clear

Dimensions
4.25” x 5.5”

MFT Summer School: Primary Colors

For the second challenge of the My Favorite Things Summer School, I used varied shades of primary colors to give the image more visual interest than it would have had if I had used markers with the same bright saturation. A lighter red value helped keep the color scheme from seeming juvenile, and a dark yellow took the place of orange for the beaks.

Since Memento Tuxedo Black ink isn’t an intense black and I was using a wood-mounted rubber stamp and couldn’t ink the image twice, after I colored the birds I went over the lines again with fineliners to darken the outlines and give the image more definition. To finish off the card, I added a bit of shimmer to the heart.

In addition to submitting this to the MFT Summer School: Primary Colors category, I’m linking up to Simon Says Stamp’s Wednesday challenge “Red, White, and/or Blue.”

Supplies
Stamps:  Stampin’ Up “For the Birds” (image), Hero Arts “Stamp and Cut: Hello” (sentiment)
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics:  R22, R27; Bic Yellow Blaze, Moonstone Yellow, Blue Skies Blue
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape, Pigma Micron 0.45 and 0.25, Spectrum Noir Sparkle clear

Dimensions
Card: 4.25” x 5.5”
Panel: 2” x 3”

MFT Summer School: Repetition

I’d seen these two cards on Pinterest recently, so when I was sifting through my supplies to determine what I’d do for the My Favorite Things Summer School challenges, the simple bird silhouettes came to mind as something that would work well for the third challenge, repetition.

I couldn’t decide which color I liked better for the birds, a row of just turquoise or a row of alternating red and blue, so I did both. For dimension, I stacked three die-cuts on the turquoise card, but only two on the red-and-blue card, since the hearts added a tiny third layer.

The hearts on the red and blue birds are partially inspired by a clock that used to hang in my parents’ nursery once upon a time: it had a border of hearts in these exact shades of red and blue, so when I saw the paper colors together, the heart motif immediately sprang to mind. I had already been thinking about die-cutting hearts in the turquoise birds, however, so the design choice isn’t entirely attributable to the clock. The heart die that comes with Lawn Fawn’s “Hedgehugs” mini set is the perfect tiny size for this sort of thing; I’ve used it even more than I have the adorable hedgehogs.

In addition to submitting these cards to the MFT Summer School: Repetition category, I’m linking up to Simon Says Stamp’s Wednesday challenge “Red, White, and/or Blue” and their June “Work It Wednesday” challenge.

Supplies
Stamps:  My Favorite Things “Hog Heaven” (sentiment)
Dies:  Papertrey Ink “Spring Woods” (indeterminate finch/sparrow), Lawn Fawn “Hedgehugs” (heart)
Ink:  Memento Gray Flannel
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White, cheap layering-weight turquoise, dusty blue, and dark red from stash
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape, liquid glue

Dimensions
4.25” x 5.5”

MFT Summer School: Complementary Colors & MFT Sketch Challenge #392

This week, I’m participating in the My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge #392 as well as the first 2018 session of MFT Summer School.

The fourth Summer School challenge is to use complementary colors. Everyone else seemed to be using bright primary and secondary colors for their complementary pair, but the range of complementary colors covers so much more than just those six, and I wanted to do something different. I gravitate towards tertiary and quaternary colors, earth tones, and desaturated colors, so I tackled the project with those in mind. I pulled up a color wheel and messed around with combinations, tones, and shades for a while, then narrowed down my options.

My ink and marker selection is fairly limited still and tends towards the brighter end of the spectrum, which didn’t suit the vibe I was going for, and the sketch seemed like a good way to use a bit of my profusion of 12x12 patterned paper. I bought several pads online years ago and only realized when they arrived that the reason stores sell 6x6 pads is because 12x12 patterns are enormous and don’t usually fit on A2 card fronts. Online, there was no indication that the pattern scale differed; I thought I was just getting more paper! Now I don’t know if I shall ever use it up.

In flipping through my paper pads, I was smitten with the notion of pairing a dark, desaturated red floral pattern with the green as well, so I went ahead and made two cards, using the patterned paper first as a prototype to figure out what I wanted to do with the sketch.

For the second card and my main complementary color pair, I chose dark red-violet and light yellow-green, then threw in a bit of gold since the papers read more purple and green together. I broke out my VersaMark cube and created my own tone-on-tone floral pattern, and since I had a better idea of what I wanted out of the layout, I was able to simplify things more to my tastes.

Supplies
Stamps:  Papertrey Ink “Happy Trails” (“just a note”), WPlus9 “Fresh Cut Florals” (“thinking of you”), Stampin’ Up “I Like You” (flowers)
Ink:  Brilliance Galaxy Gold, VersaMark
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream (bases), The Paper Studio “Affinity” pattern paper pack and “Affinity” textured paper pack, Stampin’ Up Blackberry Bliss, Recollections “Paper Flowers” cardstock pack (gold cardstock), cheap layering-weight cream and dark red from stash
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape, Papertrey Ink “Double-Ended Banners” die

Dimensions
4.25” x 5.5”

Sweet Birthday Florals

A friend of mine has a birthday this week, and this card is already on its way to her.

I took inspiration for the color scheme from her Tumblr and her artwork, and I chose these clustered blooms since they were the closest thing I had to hydrangeas, which are some of her favorite flowers. Since I don’t have the dies for this set (yet!), I had to mask the flowers. I’m not very good at arranging florals yet, and it’s particularly difficult without die-cuts, so I kept things simple. The masking left a white halo around some of the images, so I used a cotton swab cut down to a point and smushed on my ink pad to dab color into the gaps.

The pitcher is from an entirely different floral set by Clearly Besotted. I stamped it once in Simon Says Stamp Fog ink, which isn’t Copic-friendly, so the outline blurred a little when I colored in the pitcher with the lightest warm gray Copic. Once I finished coloring, I stamped over the outline twice with the Fog ink to give the pitcher a crisp edge again. (Huzzah for the invention of the stamp platform, which makes such things possible!)

I used a quilting ruler, a mechanical pencil, and a paper trimmer to measure and cut the panels on the front of the card so the floral arrangement would be perfectly centered without being too cramped and without having too much white space and so the matte would have a quarter-inch border. For a focal panel that large, a smaller matte would have looked a bit odd unless I had used two mattes, both large and small, and there just wasn’t enough room on the card base for that.

Of course, I had to make a matching envelope. I’m not entirely pleased with how the arrangement of the leaves turned out, but you can only fuss for so long before you have to commit.

Serendipitously, this week’s Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is “Anything Goes” featuring WPlus9. I had planned out this card back in May, but I only had the time to make it this past weekend — which makes it eligible to enter in the challenge.


Supplies
Stamps:  WPlus9 “Fresh Cut Florals” (all florals);  Clearly Besotted “Simple Silhouettes” (pitcher);  Papertrey Ink “Just Desserts Sentiments” (sentiment)
Ink:  VersaColor Smoke Blue, Atlantic, Celadon;  Hero Arts Cotton Candy, Pale Tomato;  Memento Toffee Crunch;  Simon Says Stamp Fog
Copics:  W00
Paper:  Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select White
Miscellanea:  Scotch Permanent Double-Sided Tape, Post-It Labeling Tape (for masking), cotton swab


Dimensions
base:  4 ¹/₄”  x  5 ¹/₂”
focal panel:  2 ⁹/₁₆”  x  4”
matte:  3 ¹/₈”  x  4 ¹/₂”