Papertrey Ink Design Team Tips: Monochromatic Jewel Inspired Holiday Cards

Welcome! I'm so excited to be sharing my first Design Team Tips for Papertrey Ink!  I'm sharing what I am calling "Monochromatic Jewel Inspired Holiday cards". The holidays have a tendency of bringing on all of the sparkle and shine and women dripping in jewels at fancy parties, so I thought it would be fun to try and create some "paper jewels"! Monochromatic or tone on tone stamping can lead to a soft and subtle feel, but I knew that with some glitter and embossing powder, I could turn things around and get some dramatic results!  When the idea popped into my brain for these cards, I had originally thought of using traditional jewel tones; ruby, sapphire, and Emerald. Believe me, I know these would be stunning, {and I think I'll give them a try}, but I opted instead to create some Aquamarine, Peridot {my birthstone}, and Pink Tourmaline for a softer winter palette. I also added in some mixed metallics on the snowflakes and sentiments to balance the warm and cool colors. I'm also sharing some tips and tricks for using intricate dies, like these Bold Borders dies. Thanks for joining me and let's get started!

To begin, I chose the three most intricate of the Bold Borders dies; Bold Borders: Prism, Bold Borders: Flurries, and Bold Borders: Yuletide. I knew that these three would provide stunning seasonal results. Because these dies are so intricate, my Cuttlebug requires a metal shim to be used in addition to my regular die cutting sandwich. I have found that this alone does not solve all of the issues that can arise when using these intricate dies. I will try and explain my troubleshooting process to the best of my ability, but if you have any additional questions, please feel free to leave me a comment at the end of this post, or send me an email and I will respond promptly. When preparing to die cut the Bold Borders, I cut a piece of cardstock slightly larger than the die. I adhere a piece of Washi tape that won't damage the cardstock along the inside of the border; the portion that will be removed to reveal the frame, making sure it is connected to the metal of the die on each side. My process requires shifting the die multiple times so it needs to be secure. To begin, I lay it in my Cuttlebug horizontally and run it through twice. Then, I rotate it and place it on one of the side edges and run it through again. Finally, I move it to the other side and run it through one last time. Once this is done, I use a  paper piercer to remove the pieces. I find that this gives me crisp, clean cuts and they are able to be easily removed. If you have any dies that are stubborn, simply move them to the furthest edges of your die cutting machine. My plates have a tendency to bow, so the edges give a good, clean cut. Also, turning your die upside down can get a good cut as well. Play around with these tips I have given and see what works best for you and your machine. 

I die cut each of the Bold Borders twice and adhered them together using Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue. I like using liquid glue because it helps me get into the tiny places that a regular tape gun wouldn't allow. Once they were stacked together, I pressed my Versamark Ink pad all over the top of the frame. I sprinkled a sparkly embossing powder all over the top and heat set it. I did one side of the frame and then the other so that I had someplace to hold onto. The pink frame is Pale Peony cardstock, the green frame is Simply Chartreuse cardstock and the Aqua frame is Aqua Mist cardstock. I opted to have a darker color as the frame with a softer color underneath . Each card uses three different shades of the same color, with the exception of the Aquamarine card because there isn't a shade softer than Aqua Mist, but because of the embossing, it gives the illusion of it being lighter underneath. That is another tip I want to share; using any type of clear or glitter embossing powder over your carsdstock will darken it a shade or  2, so make sure you experiment on a scrap before committing to it and risk ruining all of that hard work! Some of you may have noticed that my color choices in correlation to their frame aren't what you would expect. I opted to shake things up a bit and provide a bit of the unexpected. Normally one would most likely make the snowflake frame blue, the foliage frame green, and the prism frame pink. I just couldn't resist pink snowflakes and blue, icy branches and foliage!

 Once all of the frames were die cut, I added some sparkling clear gems here and there to enhance the jewel feeling of each card. I spritzed some Shimmer Spray as well for added sparkle. I wish you could all see these cards in real life, because the shine is AMAZING!! I also added some glitter over the top of the blue card because I just couldn't resist and it is SO sparkly. I opted not to add any snowflakes to this card because of the glitter.

I also die cut an additional smaller frame using the Pierced Feature Frames: Rectangle dies. These frames were all cut using the softer shade of cardstock; Spring Moss cardstock for the Peridot card, Sweet Blush cardstock for the Pink Tourmaline card, and of course just Aqua Mist again for the Aquamarine card, as I mentioned earlier. These frames are also embossed using the same powder as the frames using the same technique with the Versamark pad. I adhered the Bold Borders onto their lighter shade using liquid glue and then added the smaller frame using foam squares.

The sentiments are all from the beautiful Penned Elegance: Christmas stamp set and then die cut using the coordinating Penned Elegance Dies. Each sentiment is embossed in gold onto a shade of darker cardstock than the frames. I used Pinefeather cardstock, Autumn Rose cardstock, and Ocean Tides cardstock. I absolutely LOVE that these sentiments have the coordinating dies because you can use them as a focal point in ways that would other wise be impossible without the die cuts. I used foam squares to adhere them to the center  of each card. I love the warmth that the gold embossing adds to these cards.

The snowflakes on the pink and green card add that little extra detail of holiday magic. The images are from the Seasonal Borders: Winter stamp set and are heat embossed in silver on the same color cardstock as the frames. You can tell how much darker the embossing makes the paper when you compare it to the snowflakes!  I added a gem to the center of each snowflake because I just couldn't resist! LOL! Each card front is mounted onto an A2 cardbase in the lightest color of cardstock. I was so thrilled with how these turned out. They really did turn out as I had envisioned and I can't wait to send them to family and friends this holiday season! I hope that you have found this post inspiring and informative! Thanks for fluttering by!