Does My Blog Still Hop if I'm a Day Late?

Well, here I am just having missed Papertrey's April Blog Hop. My very dear friend Liz comes to my nest on Wednesdays, and we make cards together, and TALK about everything! Lately though, we've missed all but one Wednesday of merry making in the last two months. There was just way too much catching up (including talking about our favorite blog {capture the moment}, so we were late to post...as in a day late.

We learned a great deal from our card making though. Until Liz and I started entering 'hops' and 'challenges', our design furrows were well enough dug, that just like a good pot-hole, we didn't know we were in one until we got out. (If your not from a northern state, pot-holes are irregular shaped abysses in the street that will easily seat 100 or more people. When it rains, think swimming pool with an inconvenient location.)

Liz's cheery card is a get well for a friend who just had brain surgery. Sounds harrowing, doesn't it? Sometimes medicine seems to mess up life as much as it helps, but in this case, medicine 'rocks'! Nancy had increasing difficulties finding words and reading; it was really beginning to interfere with her enjoyment of life. In the morning, Nancy had a cyst removed from her brain and fluid drained, and by dinner time that evening, we talked on the phone with nary a missed word. My friend didn't even have a good headache to show for her trials. It truly is a miracle to have help that can make such a difference in the quality of our lives.

Back to Liz's card (the one beeing held), all but the polka dots are from Papertrey's Mat Stack 5 stamp set and die.

I just received my first Papertrey dye stamp pads. I love the colors and even the look of less-than-perfect coverage on clear stamps. For the challenge, I decided to create patterns by stamping off, stamping over, and keeping the pinks, blues and greens 'segregated'. Using several different stamp sets to make the textile-like patterns was a hoot. I toyed with adding a little brown trunk to the tree tops (oh, that's what those round balls at the bottom are!), and using an other color for the 'fly away with me'. (I needed to darken the 'fly' with a pen so it could be seen.) What would you have done? Please leave me a comment so I can learn from all you great artists out there.

The dye inks are a revelation to me. They allow for so much depth and layering I just haven't been able to achieve with pigments and chalks. I cheated and used Mehndi Medallions (not a dot, flower or damask) for two of the trees. The mid size medallion  fits exactly on the tree tops, but my favorite look was using a part of the largest medallion on the middle tree.

If you leave Liz and me a comment, we'll hop over to your blog and see what you are up to. Thanks for visiting!

Papertrey Supplies (for my card): Up, Up & Away Stamp Set, Mega Mehndi Medallion, Trendy Tree Tops Die Collection, Heart Prints Stamp Set, Beautiful Butterflies Stamp Set, Beautiful Butterflies Die Set, Guide Lines Two Stamp Set, Iconic Images Stamp Set (special set no longer available), Flower Fusion #7 Mini Stamp Set, Flower Fusion #9 Mini Stamp Set, Hibiscus Burst Ink, Aqua Mist Ink, Berry Sorbet Ink, New Leaf Ink
Other Supplies: Tumbled Glass Ink - Tim Holtz, Swirls - Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps