Did you see Sharon Johnson's fabulous monogrammed cards yesterday? I had recently gotten a Just Rite round monogram stamper as well, and Sharon's cards, combined with Taylor's amazing stationery set from last week, convinced me that I needed to make time to play with it! (Guess I'll have to work on taxes later tonight. . .)
This is a very easily reproducible gift set. Although you could use any patterned paper that you have on hand, I started with a digital paper file, Scalloped Mask from the French Linens kit by Denise Zavagno. I downloaded this paper as part of a digital freebie kit when Little Dreamer Designs was having an apprentice contest a few weeks ago. At the moment, it is still up on the Little Dreamers site here, BUT you must register as a user to access the gallery/download. If you want it later and this link no longer works, try e-mailing Denise at that point.
The original Scalloped Mask color scheme is shown on the left. I manipulated the colors in Photoshop Elements to get a soft blue, pink, and green. I then used a fairly heavy matte paper to print on, and printed at an 8" x 8" size. This gave me enough paper to cut my card front from the center of the design and have strips left over to glue to the envelopes. (You could print directly on the envelopes too.)
I next inked my empty stamp cartridges with blue (SU Soft Sky), pink (mixture of SU Pretty in Pink and Blush Blossom), and green (SU Certainly Celery) re-inkers. These worked much better after sitting for a couple of hours; I think that it gave the ink time to spread out. (If you don't get good coverage, add more ink. If it gets too juicy around the edges, again, letting it sit will help to spread the ink evenly, and stamping on a scrap paper will help as well.)
It was super-simple to create the monogram; I used only four pieces--a circle and three letters, which fit into a track that made getting them evenly spaced foolproof. (Track pictured in this post by Kellie Fortin.) I stamped them on Cryogen White/Shimmery White cardstock and cut and embossed them with my Spellbinders Nestability plain circle dies. I then cut scalloped mats from SU Soft Sky, and PaperTrey Ink's Spring Moss and Sweet Blush. The wide satin ivory ribbon was from Jacksonbelle Embellishments, and the rhinestones are A Muse Micro Dot Twinkle Stickers, except for the green ones, which are clear Hero Arts rhinestones that I used my Copic YG03 to tint the right green shade.
I made two cards of each color, as well as coordinating envelopes. Tying these in a bundle with a length of the satin ribbon and adding a tag will finish off the set. I think that my Mom will enjoy these! If you make a set, I'd love to see what you come up with! Thanks for visiting.
