Introducing Winter Woods

This is my second post today. 

For Reverse Confetti's Crazy For Christmas project, scroll down or click HERE.

Papertrey Ink's November release countdown has begun. The senior DT kicked things off Tuesday and yesterday, so if you missed those introductions, head to Nichole's blog to catch up.

Today, the whole team will be showcasing the Winter Woods stamp set and dies, Winter Woods Cover Plate, and Winter Woods paper collection, designed by Nichole Heady, as well as Fab Flakes stamps and dies, designed by Dawn McVey.

I'm really excited about today's products. Winter Woods is one of those sets you look at and just gasp. It's that beautiful! But before I get too far ahead of myself, a reminder ...

Today's featured products, along with the rest of the November release, will be available at 10 pm EST November 15 in the Papertrey Ink store.

Surely one of the most welcome parts of winter is looking out across a snowy white landscape and seeing a cardinal or some other colorful winter bird. Assurance that yes, there is life out there, and yes, there is color, too. Inspired by that notion of brightly colored birds against a snowy landscape, I created a bright and colorful grouping for my card and placed it on a solid white background. 

The yellow/orange ombre background strip is done with ink blenders, Summer Sunrise ink and Orange Zest ink. I splattered on Canyon Clay ink and white paint, plus a tiny bit of black spritz. That panel is layered onto some torn Linen Vellum, then adhered to the Fresh Snow Linen card base.

Everything else is stamped die-cuts. The two-step bird images are so gorgeous and quick to stamp! I used a stamp positioner to help make sure the second layer was aligned correctly.

Dawn's Fab Flakes is filled with gorgeous snowflake images. Many of them easily double as flowers, too, for added versatility. I added a few Rainstones here and there. I didn't even know about these until Laura Bassen used them during Stamp-A-Faire in August. Love them!

STAMPS: Winter Woods, Fab Flakes

DIES: Winter woods, Fab Flakes

INK: Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Canyon Clay, Pure Poppy, True Black, Simply Chartreuse, Tropical Teal

PAPER: Fresh Snow linen card stock; Linen Vellum, Stamper's Select white card stock

OTHER: Rainstones, white mist, black Copic and air spritzing tool

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The Winter Woods Cover Plate is quite striking. Stamp birch bark details on them or leave them plain like I have here. If my first card was all about bright and colorful, this one is serene and neutral.

For this layered background look, I used three Winter Woods Cover Plate die-cuts. The Smokey Shadow top layer stayed intact. The Soft Stone and Stormy Sea layers were cut apart and offset. The chickadee is stamped in Soft Stone and Smokey Shadow. To get the golden breast color, I inked up the image in Soft Stone, then sponged Harvest Gold ink onto the stamp before stamping. The sentiment, which you'll see more of on Saturday, is heat embossed in white on Linen Vellum.

I sponged some Harvest Gold in the upper right corner for the look of moonlight (or sunlight). You can't see it in this photo, but I sponged on some of the new Stormy Sea ink along the bottom, too.

STAMPS: Winter Woods, Keep It Simple: Birthday II

DIES: Winter woods Cover Plate, Winter Woods

INK: Harvest Gold, Soft Stone, Stormy Sea, Smokey Shadow, Versamark

PAPER: Stamper's Select white card stock, Soft Stone, Smokey Shadow, Stormy Sea card stock

OTHER: white embossing powder

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I tried something a little different with this last card. Here, I've used the chickadee image and the birch bark lines to create a fun stamped background pattern. Reminds me of wallpaper or fabric.

The Soft Stone body shows up lighter on-screen than it is in real life, so on the actual card, the body does stand out quite a bit more! I used the birch tree detail image (the lines) for an abstract pop of color.

To keep the focus on the background pattern, I kept the sentiment small and placed it in a corner. The sentiment is from Winter Woods, and is stamped and heat embossed onto a Smokey Shadow Tag Sale #8 die-cut, which I trimmed down to fit the card. 

STAMPS: Winter Woods

DIES: Tag Sale #8

INK: Soft Stone, Smokey Shadow, Limeade Ice, Versamark

PAPER: Stamper's Select white card stock, Soft Stone and Smokey Shadowcard stock

OTHER: white embossing powder, Limeade Ice satin ribbon, True Black baker's twine

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Thanks so much for stopping by! Visit the Papertrey team for lots more kit inspiration:

Nichole Heady

Ashley Newell

Betsy Veldman

Danielle Flanders

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Kay Miller

Laurie Willison

Lizzie Jones

Melissa Phillips