Great Stamp Sets: Papaya Collage

 

Papaya Collage is part of the "Step Outside" collection in the new 2013-2014 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue and is featured on page 62.  

This seven piece stamp set offers a variety of stamp images that can be used singly or as a "collage" in your creations.  

Papaya Collage is one of those classic great value stamp sets and is offered in Wood or Clear Mount versions. It coordinates with the 3/4" Circle Punch on page 182 and will work nicely with some of the new framelit dies.

In the fall of 2011 I had the privilege of being asked by Stampin' Up! to be a featured Guest Artist in their May 2012 Stampin' Success Magazine, and my mission was to try out the brand new Papaya Collage stamp set. 

I needed to create at least 5 projects showcasing this set's versatility.  This was such a surprise and honour for me as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator to be recognized in their demo only magazine and I was really looking forward to it.

To tell the truth, the invitation couldn't have come at a better time as I was planning on making a very special present for my mother's upcoming 90th birthday, and my theme was about "remembering life". 

I chose some old wedding photographs that were in a rich old sepia tone with some hand painted peach tones in the skin colouring. I decided to use neutral card stock and designer papers and add just a pop of colour with Calypso Coral to reflect the vintage look I was trying to capture from the picture.  My gift collection included a scrap book picture, a gift bag with matching gift card, a birthday card and a notebook for writing down all those memories.  Papaya Collage was absolutely perfect for this project because it gave me so many elements to play with.

Vintage Scrap Book Page:

This picture shows the layering of the floral image from the stamp set. To achieve this effect I stamped the floral image several times and then fussy cut the layers and assembled them with dimensionals.  It's not as time consuming as it sounds, but well worth the effort.

I used the Adorning Accents Embossing Folder for the small hearts pattern on the Very Vanilla strip. The sentiment "Remember When" is from the now retired stamp set "Word Play".  The Designer Frames embossing folder was used to cut out the beautiful Calypso Coral frame around the picture. 

The Birthday Card and Gift Tag:

I assembled a window frame design for the Birthday Card and stamped the cute little party hat in each of the boxes.  Love that repetition of images. I added lots of layers of DSP and card stock and a cute little lolly for a very festive look as well as three tiny Vintage Trinket brads.  I loved this card so much I redesigned it for swaps at Convention in 2012, using different card stock and designer paper. Everyone loved it.

Isn't this gift tag just the cutest.  It's a 3 x 3 card with a matching envelope which I made with the Simply Scored tool.  The card and envelope were a little fussy but really took very little time to make.  

I love butterflies and so does my mom, so I fussy cut a couple for the cover of the gift card.  I cut a 2 3/4 x 2 3/4" piece of Very Vanilla card stock and inked up the sentiment and flower image from Papaya Collage with Calypso Coral and Soft Suede markers to colour the edges of the leaves before stamping them and then glued this piece to the front of the small envelope. I really liked the soft look this gave to the leaves.

The Gift Bag:  
 I had fun making the gift bag from matching Designer Series Paper.  

Basically I repeated the gift card envelope design for the front of the gift bag only I used a piece of Very Vanilla card stock that was die cut with the Scallops Die.  Again I added butterflies and stamped the two toned leaves.  A splash of Calypso Coral card stock embossed with the Very Vintage Embossing Folder, made the front of this gift bag pop.  Some beautiful striped ribbon in Very Vanilla and Early Espresso and added for the bag handle. 

 The Note Book:

I used a small notebook from the Dollar Store covered with designer series paper for the base of this project.  There is a small pen housed in the side of the jacket cover.  The base cardstock was Calypso Coral. Absolutely every piece of card stock and stamped image was distressed with a sponge dauber for that aged look.

I stamped the scroll image from Papaya Collage using the Stamp-a-ma-jig along a strip of Soft suede and embossed it with Versa Mark Ink.  Once it was heat set, I took sponge daubers with Calypso Coral and Early Espresso inks and rubbed the surface to get a vintage look.  The brads were from the Antique Brads collection.

I stamped the beautiful butterfly images on Crumb Cake cardstock in Early Espresso ink and then fussy cut them out. Three small basic pearls were added to the centers and I curled the edges of the wings with my bone folder and mounted them with dimensionals.

This view shows the inside of the notebook holder.  I covered the small notebook with DSP and stamped the bird image in Early Espresso.  A strip of Soft Suede cardstock formed a binding on the book, covering the edges of the DSP.  A small piece of Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon was tied around the book before it was mounted to the card base with sticky strip.  In this view you can see the small pen in its holder.  I bought the pens at Staples and they were in a variety of colours.  I lucked out with a brown pen to match the card design. 

I cut two tags with the Two Tags Die Cut in Very Vanilla to add to the notebook. The one on the front has the sentiment "Remember When" stamped on it and the second tag is stamped with the rose image.  Both tags were antiqued with a sponge dauber around the edges using crumb cake ink.

The Two Tag die cut on the inside actually covers the backside of the one used on the front of the notebook jacket and it's layered below the Papaya Collage Frame image.  I hand cut the center of the frame away with an X-acto knife and glued it in place over top of the photo.

I hope you liked this post on my gift set.  Although it's a year after the fact and many of the items used for this gift set have since been retired the one nice thing about vintage is "it's timeless".  Here are the products I would use to re-create this project today:

DSP:  Neutrals Designer Series Paper stacks Item #130132
Card Stock: Baked Sugar, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Cantalope Crisp & Pear Pizazz
Inks:  Baked Sugar, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Cantalope Crisp & Pear Pizazz
Ribbon:  Calypso Coral or Chocolate Chip Chevron Ribbon, and Crisp Cantalope 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Ribbon.
Accessories: Label Collection Framelits, Finishing Touches Edgelits, Butterfly punch, Beautiful Baroque Embossing Folder instead of Vintage one.