February 2015 PTI Blog Hop and More

Hallo and Welcome to the 25th of Another Month!

That means it is time for the monthly blog hop at Nicole Heady's Papertrey Ink blog and it's time for the monthly Christmas card Rudolph Day hookup at Maureen's Scraps of Life by Scrappy Mo blog.

So using PTI products and my own Twofer Campaign, I made these:

Nicole suggested that we use the quatrefoil die (or the like) over a watercolored background, like this, smooshed or otherwise:

photo credit: Micklyn via society6

I was curious to see if I could apply Versamark ink directly to a die in the same way that I would with a stamp and then heat emboss the image. I'll be darned if it didn't work! Here are the two dies I used. The large one is the PTI quatrefoil cover plate die and the small one is the PTI text block Christmas die.

Details

For this first one I used the faux watercolor technique that you've seen me use often of late, where you ink your stamp or your acrylic block, mist it, and then stamp it to paper. I am currently sorting through my Mt. NBUS and labeling schtuff and I had just come across the PTI "Birthday Style" set, so I thought I would juezz up my card by adding a sexy corner squiggle. Then I cut a fishtail flag, walked the edges around a marker, and stamped the sediment from SU. Wallah!

Wait. What? It turns out that the PTI Birthday Style die makes three squiggles if you don't break the die apart, and so naturally Hammy started fiddling around with adding another squiggle in the corner ... or maybe in the other corner ... or on top ... or hey! I cut another set and made a mirror squiggle because to me it looks like a giant holly leaf. Yes? In an arty-farty way? If you squint at the squiggles?, she asks, cocking her head to the side.

In addition to the PTI Blog Hop and Rudolph Day Challenge, I'm also entering my card in these challenges:

• Retrosketch: Sketch below.
• Addicted to Stamps and More: Holiday

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For my twofer card, I wet a piece of watercolor paper and swirled on my cheap dime-store watercolor paints. I don't like that the pattern looks a bit like a map of the world, exspecially because of all that ocean turquoise blue, but that's where the colors wandered, so that's what I went with. It's very unlike a map of the world close-up IRL.

Also, the embossed Christmas text script is hard to read in photos, but is very clear and pretty IRL. I thought I would be arty-farty with this one, too, in the use of my colors. And also, the middle raindrop is light pink IRL, but it looks lavender on screen. The raindrops are from Crafty Notions.

The card base is embossed with a Craft Concepts e/f called "Stately." True story: I saw this folder on my friend Cathy's blog, so I asked her who made it and she told me. I was able to find it online, but only via Amazon UK and it could not be shipped to America. So I emailed my friend Di and asked her if she would buy it for me and mail it to me, which she promptly did.

Are we a cool supportive community of friends or what?!

Challenges

• Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge: Nontraditional Christmas colors.
• Christmas Card Challenges: Anything Goes.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Anything Goes.

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