The Twinery + PSA Essentials Blog Hop {Day 5}

Welcome to Day 5 of The Twinery + PSA Essentials Blog Hop! I know that I've been enjoying the amazing projects showcased by both design teams. I hope you've been hopping along all week for inspiration, discounts and great prizes! Today, you should've come from Katrina Hunt's fantastic blog. If not, you can always start at The Twinery's Blog for all the details including the amazing prizes you can win, how to win them, and discounts for The Twinery and PSA Essentials.

PSA Essentials manufactures custom, self-inking stamps (think return address labels.) We have patent-pending Peel & Stick technology which allows you to PEEL away your custom stamp and STICK on a new design. We have thousands of designs - from Holiday, Birthday, Sentiments, and licensed Peanuts, Hello Kitty, U.B.U., Smirk, College & Universities, and Greek Life - making PSA Essentials perfect for crafting! The self-inking stamper (and 22-ink cartridges) give a crisp, clean and consistent impressions every time, the technology allows you to interchange your designs quickly for scrapbooking, cardmaking, creating gift tags, bags, wrap, making favors and decorations.

The Twinery's baker's twine is made from 100% cotton, it's eco-friendly and made in the USA. Whether you're gift wrapping, crafting or tying up baked goods to give to a friend, our baker's twine adds a fresh, yet nostalgic look to any project at hand! Our baker's twine comes in 11 delicious colors and is uniquely twisted against a bright white hue, creating an eye-popping burst of color and a creative embellishment! Our twine has lots of color which lends to a fun, candy-striped look.

Those of you who've been following my blog for a while know that I love to be innovative with my baker's twine and the beautiful, soft texture and outstanding colours of The Twinery's twine makes it easy! I've had several posts using very tiny amounts of baker's twine that still bring a wow factor to the project. Those of you who tend to hoard things you love (me, me, me) will love this idea. ;) As shown in the above video tutorial, I paired up PSA Essentials' Hello Kitty On the Go with The Twinery's baker's twine to create a card and a set of matching notecards using knots of baker's twine as an embellishment equivalent to brads, pearls and rhinestones.

I started by knotting two strands of twine and trimming off the ends as close to the knot as possible. I realized after reviewing the video that this process wasn't actually within the screen shot (oops) but I'm sure you know how I did it! Then I used a liquid adhesive to attach the knots to the cards.

The inking on the front of the card was done using the direct-to-paper technique shown HERE and the frame was debossed with an impression plate. Since the colouring was done on kraft, I used my new watercolour pencils which I'm still getting used to. I love them for their rustic look which nicely matches the inked field that Hello Kitty is galloping through.

And just because it's nearly impossible for me to photograph sets of folded cards, it's quite impossible to get a good shot of a stack of flat cards so I just have a big collage of the details on the cute little notecards! {Simply click on the image below to enlarge it.}

There are a few inaccuracies in my video: (1) I mentioned using a Q-tip but I obviously meant a tweezer. (2) The flat-packaging method I described was not in a video but rather THIS series of photographs. (3) I also forgot to mention the fact that, once dried, the knots don't move at all and are in no danger of falling off. In fact, they are fun to touch, like pussy willows!

I hope you enjoyed your visit and this week's hop! Your last stop is Amber Zimmerman. Have a fabulous weekend!

Sources for TALL CARD: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock; PSA Essentials Hello Kitty On the Go; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Pink Pirouette, Summer Sun, Old Olive & Tempting Turquoise; Derwent Inktense watersoluble ink pencils; Prima chipboard frame; Papertrey Ink Book Print impression plate; QuicKutz Epic Six; The Twinery baker's twine in Blossom, Caribbean, Honeydew & Lemondrop

Sources for MINI SET: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; PSA Essentials Hello Kitty On the Go; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; The Twinery baker's twine in all 11 colours; Ranger Diamond Stickles