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Time to Celebrate

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I've got another post scheduled for later on today, but since I've been crafting up a storm lately, I thought I'd share this little gift ensemble I made. I've been so busy that for the last couple months I haven't had much time to stamp. This weekend, I finally got some quality stamping time in and made about 6 cards. Then I was just so bored with cardmaking (eek, say it's not so!) and Mark was still X-Box-ing, so I decided to do a hybrid project. I downloaded this fabulous little Pointy Treat Bag template from Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs back in January, and I haven't had a spare moment to play until now.


I used a gorgeous digi paper pack by Sugarplum Paperie called Le Petit Oiseau. I loved the flowery paper so much, that I shrunk it down to a little accent size and printed two in the margins of the template, so I wasn't wasting any paper! I think being able to scale a pattern like that is my favorite part of using digital papers.

A little side note about printing: several of you have asked what type of printer I print my digi projects on. I have an Epson R1900 printer. I absolutely love it. It does print wide format up to 13x19", and although I rarely print anything larger than 8.5 x 11", I purchased it with the idea that I'd do some 11 x 17 brochure printing (which hasn't happened...yet! LOL) Ink usage is always a big question, too. And just like with Copics and cardstock, the paper is a big factor in ink usage. I use Epson Ultra Premium Matte Presentation Paper for almost all of my hybrid projects. I've had the printer over a year and only just had to replace the yellow and cyan cartridges last week. (I print more aqua than anything else - go figure! LOL) I also always adjust the print properties each time I print to let the printer know exactly what paper I'm using so it will automatically use the right amount of ink for the paper type. I don't print a whole lot of digi papers, just a couple pages a week, so I would categorize myself as a moderate ink user.

Okay, on with the making of... after printing out the template and accents, I trimmed them out, and scored all the lines. The pointy flaps fold down, so they're actually the back side of the paper. You could easily print the template on double-sided paper for a different effect, but I actually wanted the white to show for my card, to give me a little home for the Happy Birthday sentiment from Big Wish. I simply traced the pointy flap onto black cardstock and then cut slightly larger to adhere a black map under the flap. I inked up the edges of the flap, as well as the square paper accent with some Crushed Olive Distress ink, then just added a big May Arts ribbon and a couple brads. The handle is black cardstock, punched on both edges with an SU! loop edge border punch.
And since it never feels right to make a little gift packaging by itself, I had to make a little 3x3" coordinating notecard. For this, I simply used the other paper I had resized and printed with my template and some black scraps from cutting my flaps and handle. I embossed the white panel with the script embossing folder for cuttlebug and stamped the Time to celebrate sentiment from Big Wish onto a tag die cut from SU!, then hand cut a thin black mat, and finished off with a prima flower, some Kaisercraft pearls and a little polka dot ribbon.

5 comments

Julia Aston said...

I LOVE the blue and green combo here Julee! and the wonderful bg stamping - not to mention the GORGEOUS coloring on the image! yikes - a great card all around! thanks so much for participating in our blog hop today!!! have fun out to dinner tonight! and be sure to flash that green bracelet so people know you are seriously Irish!!!! Hey - you could just pin this card to your blouse - that should do it!!!! LOL!!

Marisa said...

These are fabulous, Julee!! Love the DP and colour combo along with the splash of black.

Vickie Z said...

Gorgeous paper!! You used it perfectly!!

Janelle Stollfus said...

Beautiful hybrid project! I was just eyeing that Sugarplum Paperie pack two days ago. It's gorgeous on this project.

Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs said...

So elegant!! I love the way this set turned out, Julee! You make everything look so good!