Whimsy Stamps ~ St Patrick's Day Shenanigans

Hey crafty friends, I'm popping in to share a card which will be part of a hop that's happening tomorrow on Instagram, starting at the Whimsy Stamps IG page. The fabulous Whimsy Stamps teams are coming together to share their fantastic creations created either for St Patrick's Day or using St Patrick's Day inspired products from Whimsy Stamps. I will share my second card tomorrow when the hop kicks off. But this is a little sneaky peek of what we'll be getting up to. I encourage you to check out my teamies creations because they have made some really fun ones. I love seeing the St Patrick's Day stash used in different ways too. It's great for good luck cards, cheeky birthday cards and for lovers of green like me! 

I started my project with a whole bunch of hexagons cut with the Nested Hexagon Die Set from Whimsy Stamps. The third smallest die was a good fit to create a fun patchwork style pattern for this card base. I used a top folding white notecard and glued the hexagons in the pattern I'd measured out. I used a T-Square ruler to line up where the first hexagon should go and laid out the pattern from there. I went of the darker tile under the word die, so it would anchor the design. I had initially thought the central tile which had fun leprechaun hats over it, would be a feature, but really wanted to use the word die and this was the best placement for it, so you only see a peek of the hat paper in the corners now, but I'm happy with how it came out. You might remember this earlier card I made using this quilted hexagon design. 

I diecut the Shenanigans Word Die, from Parsley Green Cardstock from Concord and 9th and then took a little Forest Moss Oxide ink and ink blended to about half way up the word die for an ombré effect. I then decided to add a little shine to the bottom quarter by adding some Bramley Apple Nuvo Mousse just with my finger tips. I didn't think the contrast was striking enough however, so I opted to add a little golden detail with some Ranger Lunar Paste in Refined Copper. I'm becoming quite a fan of these Lunar Pastes, they're lovely to work with. I just went over the Nuvo Mousse I'd already laid down with a little Lunar Paste on my finger tip and worked it over the other layer. It covered it beautifully and I felt one layer was enough. I like the uneven staggered edge finish too and you can just see a little hint of the Bramley Apple Nuvo Mousse I'd laid down first. 

I wanted the sentiment to read 'Bring on the Shenanigans'. So I found a sentiment strip in the Simple Sentiment Strips Clear Stamp Set from Whimsy that has a whole range of fabulous strip sentiments that can work as sub-sentiments or add ons to other sentiments, or quite honestly as smaller stand alone sentiments, this is a really versatile set. I used the Parsley Cardstock again to stamp the sentiment onto. I then pulled out some Pearled Gold Tonic Studios Craft Perfect Vellum Paper and trimmed a mat for the smaller sentiment and a shadow layer for the Shenanigans Word Die. I diecut the shenanigans word twice more from a thick copper coloured cardstock and adhered those two layers together with liquid glue then added them behind the vellum layer to lift the word die up off the paper a little for a fun dimensional shadow effect. I adhered the ink blended top layer directly over the vellum in line with the base layers already adhered, so no glue showed anywhere on the vellum. 

I toyed with the idea of adding an image in the bottom right corner, but I really didn't want the patchwork base to be covered over completely, and felt the sentiment was enough to complete the card. I did however gold emboss a little green shamrock I had in some very old bling in my stash to complete the strip sentiment. I used Brutus Monroe Gilded Embossing Powder to emboss the shamrock and adhered it with a glue dot. I tried adding some gold pearls and tried a couple of different sequins, but there's so much going on already with the different papers, that I felt in the end, it was better left without any extra bling. 

Whimsy is now doing its big product release mid month so they've just had a gorgeous selection of new product hit the shelves. I'm loving the stunning Quick Cards this month, they are dreamy, so I've got my order in already! I really like the new puzzle piece die set too, how cool is that?! There are lots of lovely new additions, so if you like what you see in the teams example pic above, you can click through on that and have a closer look in store at all the gorgeous example creations the team have made. 

I'll be back tomorrow morning with the Whimsy Stamps St Patrick's Day Pub Instagram Crawl, we'd love you to join us! We have some fun stuff planned and I'm excited to see the makes from the rest of the team. I hope you're able to join the fun with us too xoxo

(If you like any of the elements I've created with, I've added thumbnails to make your shopping easier. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever, though more importantly it helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

Challenge Entries:

Cardz For Galz: Use Some Green

The Sisterhood of Crafters: March - Green

Simon Says Monday Challenge: A Bit o' Green

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: A Bit o' Green

Aud Sentiments: #311 ~ Use Glitter/Bling and/or Green/St Patrick's + a Sentiment

As You Like It: Monochrome or Colourful. I would normally say I love a colourful creation, however, it's St Patrick's Day and green is my favourite colour, so I can't help but love a little monochrome at this time of year! 

I've also noticed there are some amazing sales going on at Spellbinders right now. I'm slowly collecting a few of their lovely Betterpress plates, so I'm keeping my eye out for deals and thought I'd share. The left banner is for the US site, right banner for UK, now if only they'd set one for NZ! Hehe.