Hello, friends! I hope you have all been well. I am back from a bit of a break and am just getting back into my craft room. I decided to ease back in with some fun, clean and simple cards with the Happier Hour Collection from Spellbinders. I used one of the new sets – the Martini Mood BetterPress Plate & Die Set – along with a bunch of patterned paper. This plate is so fun, and I already know exactly who these cards are going to!
If you live outside of the United States/North America, you might want to head over to the Spellbinders UK website.
NOTE: all supplies are linked to multiple sources in the thumbnails at the end of this blog post.
Because Martini Mood is a BetterPress plate, that means it’s great for either inking or foiling. For this first card, I used some new-ish BetterPress ink from Dina Wakley. I used the turquoise ink, along with the BetterPress Letterpress System, to ink up the image on white card stock. I then trimmed the panel down with the Perfect Touch Rectangles. This rectangle set was part of the original Happy Hour collection from last year, and it’s still one of my go-to sets. I set this against some wonky angles of patterned paper. The bold black and white striped paper comes from the Crafty Babe Collection Kit. The background patterned paper comes from an old pack from Honey Bee called Back to Basics. I don’t believe this is available anymore, but any black and white patterned paper would be fun to offset against that bold striped paper.
Isn’t this sentiment hilarious? Listen, it doesn’t take alcohol to make me forget things, so I can relate to this. If it said “Where did I put my scissors?”, that would also resonate with me. This sentiment is one of many that comes in the Martini Mood set, and this time I foiled the plate with white opaque foil. The black dots that I used as embellishments come from the next card!
This second card features foiling the Martini Mood image. I foiled it with pink satin pastel foil on white card stock. I trimmed the panel down to fit on top of this fun frame that comes from the Nested Tree Frame Die Set. And speaking of this frame, all of the little circles that pop out of those openings can come in handy – don’t throw them away! I used the smaller circles as an embellishment on my first card above. This is a great way to add embellishments without adding bulk to your cards. For this card, I did add some sparkly, clear sequins for a bit of bling. The pink floral patterned paper comes from the Just Sayin’ 6 x 6 Paper Pack.
For my third card, I thought I would pair the image with a sentiment from the original Happy Hour collection. This sentiment comes from the Cheers Sentiments Press Plate & Die Set, and I foiled it with white opaque foil on black card stock. There are actually a lot of great sentiments in that set that would be perfect to use with this image. For the Martini Mood image, I inked her up with black pigment ink, and I love the bold look. This time, I did use the matching die to cut her out. I think this would be an easy image to color, but I really love the bold black and white look here.
As for the paper, I love a good red and black buffalo check for holiday cards. This background uses one of my favorite BetterPress plates – the Buffalo Plaid Press Plate. It looks like Spellbinders must have retired this plate, but it is still available from some resellers (linked in the thumbnails below). I used black pigment ink and red card stock with this plate. I decided to pair it with another pattern. The polka dot paper comes from the Doodlebug Hometown USA Petite Prints 12×12 pack, but Doodlebug has a lot of packs that include their petite polka dots. In my opinion, there are no better polka dots than these. These papers always come in handy for anything! To make the transition between the two patterns more interesting, I cut the polka dot paper with one of the dies from the Torn Paper Edges die set. I also cut a piece of black paper with the same die and offset those two in order to ease the transition between the two patterns.
I hope these cards bring a big smile to your face today. As always, I appreciate you visiting my blog.
Wishing you all a crafty day,
Allison
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