Hello crafty friends!  I am so excited to be guest designing today for My Favorite Things.  I absolutely love their products and am honored to be up on their blog today with this post.

I’d love to share with you a few examples that I made using the newly released “In Paris” Stamp Set.

When I first saw this set, I immediately knew that I wanted to make a shadow box card.  I wanted to keep it on the smaller side, so I worked on some measurements (listed below) until I found something that would work and still fit into a pre-made envelope.  This card fits perfectly into a 5″x5″ square envelope when folded flat.

For my images, I first stamped them onto smooth white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, colored them with Copic Sketch Markers and then diecut them with their coordinating dies.  I also added one smaller sized hot-air balloon from the BB Up In The Air stamp set.  For my background, I used the MFT Stencil Cloud with some distress inks (Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean).  For the frame around my card, I used the MFT Die-namics Single Stitch Line Rectangle Frames.

• Cut 2 pieces of card stock to 5″ x 6 1/4″ and score along the long side at 1 1/4″ & 5″
• Cut your window in one of these pieces  (I used the MFT Die-namics A2 Rectangle STAX)
• Cut the inside strips to 4 3/8″ long and however high they need to be to just reach the bottom of  your window.  Score these pieces at 3/8″ & 4″

I wanted to go a completely different route for my second set of cards.  The Eiffel Tower is such an elegant structure and makes for great photographs.  I wanted these cards to showcase mainly the silhouette of the tower standing majestically over the city skyline and/or landscape.

I love black and white photographs.  Especially the ones that have a bright pop of red that really contrasts well against the subtle shades of gray.  For my first and second card, I first stamped the Eiffel Tower and then lightly drew in a treeline with a pencil

I then colored in the treeline with a black Copic Sketch Marker following the silhouette stamping technique showed by Jennifer McGuire (wonderful tutorial HERE) a few months back.  For my first card, I wanted to let the intricate structure of the tower be seen, so I only colored the treeline.  For the other, I colored in both the treeline and the tower.  I then embossed anything that I had colored with clear embossing powder.

For the shading on my first card, I blended MFT Grout Gray, Cement Gray and Gravel Gray Inks.  I colored the balloons with Copics R14, R46, R59 and RV99.

For my second card, I blended MFT Grout Gray Ink along with Pumice Stone Distress Ink.  I colored the red hearts with the same Copic colors as listed above.

For my final silhouette card,  I blended MFT Pink Lemonade and Bubblegum Inks along with Spun Sugar, and Seedless Preserves Distress Inks.  For the skyline, I used the city skyline stamp that is included in the BB You’re Super Stamp Set that was released last month using the same technique as above.  I added a few Pretty Pink Posh 4mm Clear Droplets for some added interest.

Lastly, I made two cards inspired by the French Par Avion Envelopes.  I wanted to create that red, white and blue striped border around the outside of my cards.

To start, I cut two pieces of white cardstock to 4 3/4″ x 6″.  I then cut blue and red strips using MFT Blueberry and Wild Cherry Card Stock.  For the one card, I cut the strips at 1/4″ wide and for the other, 1/8″ wide.  I then glued them onto my pieces of white card stock and then trimmed both pieces to 4.25″ x 5.5″ once the glue had dried.  It may sound like a lot, but it was actually pretty easy to do.  I do recommend using a guillotine-style paper trimmer for this technique.

For my first card, I used the cute little dog from the In Paris Stamp Set.  I reverse-stamped him and added a little black and white striped shirt with a black marker.  For the other dog, I used the same stamp but masked the hat and drew in some hair and a bow.  I used both the MFT Die-namics Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX and the MFT Die-namics A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 2 for my card mats.

Lastly, for my second card, I simply added a few of the images (stamped and colored to match) from the In Paris Stamp Set to the front of the card with foam adhesive squares to compliment the border.

I hope you all enjoyed these ideas today!  I will be sharing another guest design post on the 19th with some other fun projects.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Rachel