Pretty Pink Posh: Halloween Plaid

Good morning!  I've been anxious all week to share this card with you. I had so much fun creating it last weekend, and I'm super excited because this card could be recreated for oodles of other occasions.  Simply swap out the sentiment and change up the color scheme.

Another great thing is that you need very few supplies to make it, just the Simple Strips dies and Boo stamp set from Pretty Pink Posh.  Now, I'll tell you right up front that you are going to want to cut more strips of paper than you would think you need.  Having multiples in every size makes it much easier to create your design.  I believe I ran each of the four colors through at least 3 or 4 times. I then took that giant pile of paper strips and sorted them into sizes.  

It's best to lay your largest strips down first.  I started with orange and roughly made a box.  Then, I added in the purple, gray, and finally the black.  I had a pattern in mind, but partially through I just abandoned ship and started sticking strips here and there until I was satisfied.  I did try to maintain some repeating elements. 

I ended up with three layers of strips.  To keep them all together, I covered the whole thing with press 'n seal, then flipped it over and used strips of double sided tape to hold it all together.  Because the pattern overlaps so much, it was actually easy to do.  I would recommend the strips of tape over liquid adhesive because the tape provided some extra stability.  Once everything was secured I adhered the strips to a square piece of cardstock and trimmed off all the overhanging edges.  

The pattern was bold enough that I knew I needed to keep the sentiment simple, so I inked up just the beginning of the sentiment in the Boo stamp set. 

And done!  Minus the slight panic I felt when initially I wasn't sure how to adhere everything together, this card was extremely satisfying to make...almost therapeutic actually.  I hope you'll give it a try.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend.

Pretty Pink Posh - Halloween Backgrounds

Hello, friends!  Fall is officially here and my children are asking to decorate for Halloween, so I figure that it is time that my cardmaking reflects the season change, too.  I love Halloween, but the cute, fun parts - pumpkins, the changing leaves, the joy of a child dressing up.  This card embodies all of those things. 

Another thing I love is stamping backgrounds, so why not combine all the things I love onto one card?  I pulled images from Pretty Pink Posh's Boo and Autumn Wreath stamp sets and stamped away starting with the largest images first and filling in with the smaller ones.  

I love how freeing this kind of stamping is.  No precision needed. :)  This is also a classic autumn color combo that I come back to year after year.  I used inks from a variety of companies: marmalade (Concord & 9th), really rust (Stampin' Up), onyx black (Versafine), honey drizzle and silver stone (Altenew).

I finished the card off by die cutting the smaller rectangle in Pretty Pink Posh's Storybook 5 die and embossing a sentiment from their Boo stamp set.  I did mask the sentiment a bit to use just "Happy Halloween".  It makes me happy when I think to do things like that.  Such a simple way to stretch your stamps. 

Happy sigh.  I'm smiling big here.  I have a few more cards using these stamp sets made, so stay tuned. Have a happy week, friends!

Pretty Pink Posh Pond Life

Hello!  Today's card just makes me smile.  Pretty Pink Posh stamps seem to have that effect on me, and their Pond Life Stamp Set is one of my favorites.  I almost always create my cards with a specific recipient in mind, and today's card is for one of my kiddos, so that makes it a little extra special.  

To create my card, I stamped, die cut, and colored several images from Pretty Pink Posh's Pond Life Stamp Set with Prismacolor pencils. I wanted the pond water to be more subtle, so I decided to blend the ink onto the background.  I created a stencil by flipping the cloud die cut from Pretty Pink Posh's Nature Essentials upside down.  Then, I blended on The Stamp Market's Sea Glass Ink.  It created gentle waves all across the background.

I used the Storybook 5 Die, building the scene on the top half and stamping a sentiment from PPP's Simple Sentiments Stamp Set on the lower half.  The Storybook 5 Die only cuts the windows and embosses the outside stitching, so in order to create a frame with the colored cardstock, I trimmed just outside the embossed lines after I cut it.  

Finally, I wanted a little more dimension on the card base, so I used Pretty Pink Posh's Simple Strips dies to cut several strips of varying widths.  Then I adhered them to the card base with the narrowest strips at the top and widest strips at the bottom.

Though still clean and simple, this card has a lot more going on than my typical cards.  And yet I love that this sweet frog still remains the clear focus.  Isn't he just the cutest?  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!