Very Vintage for The Paper Player's 400th Challenge

Well, I'm really going back to my stamping roots for today's sample! When I started stamping, I took up the hobby because I fell in love with the vintage style of cards that were all the rage back then. I thought that style might just be appropriate for my card today for two reasons. Reason one is because I am entering it in The Paper Player's current challenge, which just happens to be their 400th Challenge!! How amazing is that?? Here's the banner:

 You can see that it is a theme challenge with Celebration as the theme, so I chose birthday as the celebration I was going to feature in my card. Reason two is that I just got a new Host Stamp Set with some of my Stampin' Rewards, called Very Vintage, and I wanted to take it out for a test stamp. So here is what I was able to throw together with it - sponged and distressed edges and all!

• The essence of the vintage style is muted colours, lots of sponging around the edges with Soft Suede or Crumb Cake ink, using Very Vanilla card stock instead of Whisper White, distressing and curling the edges, and choosing images that are realistic with a lot of hatch mark shading.
• The colours I chose to use were Mint Macaron and So Saffron along with Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla. They are very muted and work perfectly with this style.
• The background paper is from the Share What You Love Specialty DSP. It has the perfect qualities for vintage cards, small repetitive patterns, dulled neutral colour, almost monotone, and looks good when sponged with Soft Suede ink.
• I used the Hexagon Dynamic Embossing Folder to make the Honeycomb design in the background. I also sponged it to make the design show up better, and dull the colour a little more. I tore pieces from it to look like a piece of honeycomb torn from a hive.
• All the stamped images and the sentiment are from the Very Vintage. There are no matching dies, so I fussy cut the bees and the panel that the one bee is stamped in.

• I just happened to still have my old distressing tool that I used for all the edges of the panels on the card front.
• The pieces of ribbon are the 1/2" Lace Trim, also sponged with a bit of Soft Suede, and a short piece of Crumb Cake 3/8" Classic Weave Ribbon, and that about does it!

Join my team, get 10 FREE Ink Pads (worth $102.50) along with $165 worth of your choice of any Stampin' Up! products for only $135, no shipping free!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Very Vintage Clear-Mount Stamp Set [146801] $18.00	Very Vintage Wood-Mount Stamp Set [146798] $24.00	Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper [146926] $36.75	Mint Macaron 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [138337] $11.50	So Saffron 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [105118] $11.50
Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650] $13.25	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [147115] $10.25	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [147106] $10.25	Very Vanilla 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Lace Trim [141672] $9.50	Crumb Cake 3/8" Classic Weave Ribbon [144162] $9.50
Stampin' Distress Tool [127562] $6.95	Stamping Sponges [141337] $4.75	Classic Label Punch [141491] $24.00	Bone Folder [102300] $9.00	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50
Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [143231] $12.25	Big Shot [143263] $150.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	Glue Dots [103683] $7.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.25

'Tis the Season to be Sparkly for Freshly Made Sketches

I'm never happy unless I can get some sparkle into the holiday season so I was glad to finally order some products in the Fancy Frost Suite from the Holiday Catalogue. I think they were intended for New Years, but I can see them being used in a variety of celebrations year round so I didn't mind investing in them. I used one of the Suite's colours - Sweet Sugarplum and matched it with a festive silver to get all the sparkle I could out of this one. I used the It's a Celebration stamp set, the Fancy Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper and the 3/8" Glitter Ribbon Combo Pack. Woohoo!

The sketch from Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #259 worked perfectly with what I had in mind:

So let's get our glitter on:

• I've always wanted a fireworks stamp set and the It's a Celebration set is just that, with different sized starbursts. Alternatively, it has a sparkler handle and could also be a sparkler on a cake or just on its own. For this card, I embossed several starbursts in Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder and then stamped some starbursts over them in Sweet Sugarplum and Pink Pirouette.
• I used the Layering Circles Framelits to die cut the sized circle I wanted to properly fit the card, with a backing of Sweet Sugarplum to frame it.
• The background DSP is the Fancy Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper. It is dry embossed already in 6 different designs and you can add any colour you like in many different ways. I used a very light touch with a brayer, and I do mean light! I used Pink Pirouette Ink and got the best results when I fastened the paper with temporary adhesive to my work surface and then lightly rolled the brayed over it evenly. By not having to press at all to keep the paper in place, I was able to avoid places where I got too much ink on the page trying to get the traction to start without the paper moving.
• Silver Glimmer Paper and the Sweet Sugarplum Glitter Ribbon form the background for the main image. A few sequins in Sweet Sugarplum and Silver add a finishing touch.

Have a great weekend!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

It's A Celebration Wood-Mount Stamp Set [142192]	It's A Celebration Clear-Mount Stamp Set [142880]	Silver Glimmer Paper [135314]	Fancy Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper [142014]	Sweet Sugarplum 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [141418]
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad [141395]	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad [126956]	3/8" (1 Cm) Glitter Ribbon Combo Pack [142015]
Fancy Frost Sequins [142519]	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder [109131]	Heat Tool [129053]	Embossing Buddy [103083]	Layering Circle Framelits Dies [141705]
Big Shot [143263]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]