Papertrey Ink May Blog Hop Challenge

I had so much fun my first time participating in the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop last month that I decided I had to join in the fun this month too, especially when I saw May’s cute inspiration photo.  You can check out my April blog hop post here.  The blog hop is a day-long event held each month for crafters to share their creative projects made using Papertrey Ink products on their blogs.  Each month there is a different image presented by Papertrey Ink which serves as the inspiration for the project.

May Challenge Description and Image: 

“Do you love to go camping? Or maybe “glamping” (where stunning nature meets modern luxury) is more your style? From the gingham print, to the flower bouquets, to the cute camper, to the pink lanterns… there’s so many pieces of inspiration in this photo. We can’t wait to see what you create!”

I love so many things about this photo that I wasn’t sure where to start.  I adore the camper, the lanterns and light bulbs, and the whole outdoor party ambiance.  My initial thought was to use the camper motif, but I kept coming back to the picnic tables, and the decorations and tablecloth covering them. I was inspired to go with a picnic theme, and thought the Vintage Picnic stamp set from Papertrey Ink would be perfect.  I love the retro vibes of the picnic basket stamps and all the different basket filler options it contains for customizing cards.

I chose the black gingham from the tablecloths, the pale pink color from the lanterns, and the deep jewel tones of the flowers in the photo as the color scheme for my card.

First I stamped the picnic basket on Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink and then cut it out with the Vintage Picnic Basket Die.  I stamped the picnic blanket  on white cardstock with black ink to match the gingham tablecloth in the photo, then cut it out with the die.  The fillers don’t have corresponding dies, so I stamped them directly on my white cardstock card front, then colored in the flowers with Prismacolor colored pencils using the flower colors in the photo as my inspiration.  I stamped Happy Birthday and then I started assembling the card.  The picnic blanket triangles were adhered with foam mounting tape to give them some dimension so they look like they are coming out of the basket. I used Sweet Blush cardstock from Papertrey Ink as my border color for the card; this pale pink matches the lanterns in the inspiration photo.  Finally I tied a piece of True Black Party Plaid 3/8″ ribbon from Papertrey Ink around the edge of the card.  The ribbon is a perfect match to the tablecloths in the inspiration photo.

For more information about this month’s challenge and to see all of the projects bloggers created for it, visit the Papertrey Ink blog, where crafters’ project links are shared at the end of the post.  It’s so fun checking out how others used elements from the challenge photo as their crafting inspiration.