June Inspiration Station Blog Hop Challenge

This month's inspiration photo! To join the blog hop challenge, click the link below:

Inspiration Station

I was so excited for this month's inspiration photo because I actually had a strawberry stencil and die set! Dynamic Duo Fruitful Fun.

I was inspired by the range of red hues in the inspiration photo, so I wanted to do a layered card face. The card base is an A2 size from bright red cardstock. I chose a darker red layer, embossed with the Altenew 3D embossing folder Organic Linen for the background layer.

To simulate a basket, I used a scrap of kraft cardstock and alternated stenciling on it with the Altenew Classy Stripes stencil. Pro tip: using brown ink to stencil on the brown cardstock would be way too dark as the basket in this project is not the center of attention. I used shades of dull pink to get the right shade of "basket weave" look: Altenew Fresh Dye ink in Dusty Rose and Pale Mauve.

I cut the "basket" background out with an oval die on the off-se so the oval had the cross-hatch pattern. and of course I edged it in a darker tone.

I used a right red ink for stenciling the base of the strawberries. I made a bunch because I wasn't sure how many I would end up using. Pro tip: always make more than you think you will need.

 

The green tops were stenciled in Altenew Fresh Dye Ink Just Green. The berry dots and top stems were stamped with Altenew Fresh Dye ink in Amethyst and Hunter Green. Pro tip: when I was done stenciling and stamping the berries, I went over them all with the Coral Red ink. This was for two reasons: first, so when I die cut them, they wouldn't have a white boarder, and the red toned down the bright green of the tips.

To get strawberry flowers I used the die set from the Altenew Mini Delight set Apothecary Garden. These were simply cut from just white and yellow cardstock.

The Fruitful Fun set does not have leaves, so I looked through my stash for Stamps with leaves similar to a strawberry plant. I chose the leaves from the Altenew set Botanical Illustrations. Using the Just Green ink to stamp the leaves, and Mossy Meadow to color them-again, giving them a final do-over for no white edges when I die cut them. 

Finally, I pieced it all together. I used an Anna Griffin sentiment from my stash and built my scene around it.

I used various thicknesses of adhesive foam dots to give lift to the leaves and berries.

I hope you enjoyed this project! Remember, if you try any of my tips, tag me on social media @scrappystapthefunup! I'd love to see your work! Good luck on the hop challenge and I'll see you next month!

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May Inspiration Station Blog Challenge!

 

Inspiration Station

Happy May crafty friends! Welcome to another monthly blog hop challenge from Inspiration Station! Above is this month's inspiration photo. Click the link below it to follow and join the challenge!

I was inspired more by the colors of this month's photo, rather than the the me, as I have no need for graduation cards this year. But that didn't stop me from doing a "Congrats!" card that could be for any occasion. I started with color selection. I wanted to use patterned reds and blues.

My idea was going onto a top folding A2 easel card from bright yellow cardstock with a pane on top to build the fun.

I chose a subtle red textured cardstock. unfortunately, it wasn't big enough to fill to the sides of my white panel, but since I had the idea to place a central piece of cardstock down the center of the panel, I just split the red scrap in two and butted the edges up to the sides of the panel
 

I found the perfect piece of celebratory cardstock on dark blue paper in my stash and laid it over the reds.

Using a simple "congrats" die I cut out the sentiment from a navy blue wood grain cardstock scrap.

I used retired Stampin' Up! label dies to lift the sentiment off the card face. This particular die was just a little too wide for the A2 card face width, so I did have to do some discrete trimming.

No worries on the label trimming. I think this project came out great for what it's future purpose will be. I hope you liked this simple way to make any "congrats" card fit to ant particular color patterned event or theme, just y using cardstock scraps. Good luck on the hop challenge and I'll see you next month!

Inspiration Station April Blog Hop Challenge

 

Click here to join the hop challenge!

My take on this month's inspiration photo. I was inspired by the soft colors in the inspiration photo. I wanted to do my best to reproduce this photo with what I had.

I started with a sheet of cardstock patterned like white-washed wood. I ink blended over it in brown.

I then took a grey ink pad directly to the brown tinted cardstock to give it more color and depth.

My project started life as a 5 x 7" card. I used a soft grey piece of cardstock to which I roughed up the edges. Over that I attached the wood cardstock at an angle, so it was more like the table in the inspiration photo. However, the embellishments I wanted to use were smaller than I expected, way too small to create good composition on a 5 x 7 base. So, I cut the card down to an A2 size. I had to rip off the grey background and instead went with this grey/brown mottled piece.

Now for the embellishments! I used the flower and leaf die-cuts from Altenew mini-delight sets "Apothecary Garden" and "Gardener's Corner." 

To bring in a yellow element, since I didn't have any rain-boot embellishments, I cut the crate from the Gardners' Corner set out of yellow wood grain cardstock.

Pro tip: I only glued it together on the sides so it would be open on the inside so I could put flowers in it.

I used a pale pink ink to stamp the vases from the Apothecary Garden set on pink ombre cardstock. I did have to fussy cut these out.

I applied white pigment ink over the vases to give them that milk paint finish.

Unfortunately, I lost the photos of cutting and assembling the watering can, but I used the Altenew mini delight set "Watering Daisies" and cut the watering can from some grungy metal cardstock scraps.

I used a dark Teal blue ink to stamp the sentiment on a scrap of the wood cardstock.

I hope this month's photo inspired you! If you do any of these techniques, please remember to tag me on social media @scrappystampthefunup I'd love to see your work! See you next month!

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Inspiration Station March Monthly Blog Hop Challenge

 This month's inspiration photo!!

Click here to join the challenge!

My take on the inspiration photo-I'm a cat person :)

I wanted an easy interactive card to showcase my Lepraucats so I headed over Sam Calcott's Mixed-Up Craft You Tube channel and found this one, which I modified by omitting the inside "hammock".

click here to check out Sam Calcott's tutorial

As in her tutorial, I started with two pieces of cardstock cut to 10 1/5" x 8". Each panel was then scored at 1 1/5" and 4 1/5" from down from the long side and attached to each other. The finished project in her video is 6" x 8" but I cut down my finished card base to 6" x 6".

Now for the fun part: auditioning all kinds of green scraps for all the panels.

Time to bring my characters to life. I auditioned some Tim Holtz Paper dolls, then hit my stash of cat stickers to find the right heads. To ground them I cut some large ovals from different tones of green glitter paper because I wanted to have options depending on how the characters came out.

I chose these little guys. I removed the cloth bow ties they had and cut green glitter bows with a die. I used Altenew Artist Markers to tint their socks and boots green-my favorite pro tip for adding vintage color to these black and white paper dolls.

For some festive fun, I used a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set-my absolute favorite:  Brewed for You. I did have to fussy cut the stein out. And of course it's filled with green beer.

I chose the green glitter oval that set off my characters the best and attached them to it,

Used more scraps and stickers to make a belly band for the card.

I used the sentiments from the same stamp set and chose Altenew's Obsidian Black pigment ink for a bold stamping.

I hope you enjoyed this project! It's fun to create stories with your embellishments in cards. If you try any of these tips, or this project, be sure to tag me on social media @scrappystampthefunup I'd love to see your take on this project. And don't forget to hop along and join the challenge! See you next month!