January 2016 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

The inspiration piece for this month’s Papertrey Ink Blog Hop was a bit of a challenge. The colors are not ones I would typically gravitate toward, although I find them striking. And there is no clear focal point, just a variety of shapes.

I started with the colors and chose Tropical Teal and Terra Cotta Tile as the closest I could get to the colors above. Then I remembered I’d purchased the dies (but not the stamps) for “Sketched Shapes.” I cut out two sets of the dies and chose the triangles and the circles. I lay them on some black card stock and started moving them around, and this is what I came up with.

Classic Kraft ended up being the best choice for the card base, and matches pretty well the background color on the largest shape in the inspiration piece. I was pretty happy with this card, but then noticed that some of the shapes in the inspiration piece were darker on one half, and thought I’d try stamping the one half of the circles with the corresponding inks. I ended up using one of the pattern blocks in “Bitty Background Blocks.”

And I like this one even better. Here’s a better look at the stamped circles.

The sentiment from “Stylish Sentiments:  Birthday” was embossed with gold. Both cards went in the mail as soon as they were completed since I needed two birthday cards for weekend birthdays. Fortunately, both live locally so I’m pretty sure they arrived on time.