Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop 5

It's the 25th of the month, so it's time for another Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. These Blog Hops are so much fun--it's amazing to spend time looking at all of the creative ways that different people approach the challenges. This month's challenge was to use vellum in some form in your project. I'm looking forward to seeing some new and creative uses for this stuff as I visit the participating blogs.

I thought about this challenge for a while before coming up with my project idea. I decided to use the Guide Lines set to create a faux stained glass piece for the focal point of my card.

To create the "stained glass," I stamped the grid lines and one of the interior images on a piece of white vellum using Versamark, then heat embossed the piece using black embossing powder. Then, I used Copic markers in shades of blues and greens to color in the image. Initially, I colored the back side (opposite of the embossing). When I looked at it closely, the color wasn't as vivid as I would have liked. I ended up flipping over the vellum and carefully coloring the embossed side. I say carefully because the alcohol ink in the markers makes the embossed lines smear a little bit.

I used oval Nestabilities dies to make a window opening in the cardfront and to create a frame for the stained glass piece. I added tiny self-adhesive blue-green pearls to the center of the stamped images.

I stamped one of the elegant sentiments from PTI's Mixed Messages stamp sets directly on the cardfront in Dark Chocolate ink. I added a trio of pearls under the sentiment, then tied a coordinating piece of dotted ribbon around the cardfront. I think the blue/brown combo is so elegant!

Materials Used:
Guide Lines and Mixed Messages stamp sets, Aqua Mist and Dark Chocolate cardstock, Dark Chocolate Palette ink, Dark Chocolate Swiss dot satin ribbon (Papertrey Ink); markers (Copic Ciao); oval dies (Nestabilities); Versamark, black embossing powder, white vellum (Stampin' Up); self-adhesive pearls