Clean and Simple Baby

Today I decided to make a clean and simple baby card. To me, clean and simple means minimal colors, layers and "extras". I chose enchanted evening and hibiscus burst as my colors for both ink and paper. I love the little bee with the dotted trail from baby button bits. I stamped the bee directly onto a hibiscus burst paper layer and adhered it to the enchanted evening card base. I stamped a few stars around the bee and added the button and some small blue rhinestones to the antennae. For the sentiment strip, I matted a piece of the pink paper which had been stamped with the small bitty dots from Polka Dot Basics. The "Congratulations" sentiment is from Inside/Out Baby. The inside of the card also has a sentiment from Inside/Out baby. I absolutely love that I don't have to try and think up what to say on the inside of the card with this stamp set. I hope PTI makes more sets like this for other special occasions.

PTI Blog Hop Baby Bear Inside and Out

This is my first blog hop for Papertreyink (actually anywhere) and the challenge was to make a card decorated inside, out and on the envelope. I just got my new Baby Button Bits and Inside and Out Baby two days ago, so that was my obvious choice for stamp sets. As my pictures show, I started with a base of Aqua Mist cardstock. I cut a rounded square of melon berry and stamped it with a moon, star and dots pattern using melon berry, aqua mist and spring moss ink. I adhered it to the card front and added a spring moss scalloped border with a fiskars punch and added a strip of scorpal tape with prisma glitter. I cut a small scalloped square of aqua mist and stamped it lightly with the polka dot background. I stamped and cut out a cute little bear from some ocean tides bitty dot basics with dark chocolate ink. A melon berry button and some white twine was added to the bears belly. I cut a mat of spring moss and aqua mist, added the bundle of joy stamp and colored it in with a copic marker. Some stickles and blue mini pearls were added in the "o" spots. A few more stars and dots finished off the front. For the inside, I added a strip of the left over melon berry patterned paper and another spring moss border with some more prisma glitter. I added the sentiment from Inside and Out Baby with Melon Berry ink. For the backside of the card, I repeated a stamped bear in melon berry, orange stickles nose, some more stars and dots with diamond stickles on them. I extended the scorpal strip of prisma glitter that was started on the front of the card. The card has aqua mist stars and a dot of orange stickles with some more spring moss dots. The only thing I added that was new to me was the cute polka dot trio. It is a really cute mini stamp on a stick that I got at the CHA consumer show. It is from stamps by Judith, costs only $2 and if you check out the web site, http://www.stampsbyjudith.com, you can see some of her sticks and stubbies. I don't like rubber stamps because I have a hard time lining them up, but these sticks and stubbies are just the exact size of the stamp and there is a square side so you always know right where it is going to stamp. I got several sticks that have really super cute images that fit will fit perfectly within the circles of the Limitless labels stamp. I think the little dots really add a little subtle something to the card (ok, I got carried away and used them all over the place this time, next time I'll be more discriminating!) I had a lot of fun with my first blog hop and look forward to hearing what you think. I hope someone else will become a "Follower". It looks so pathetic to only have one! Details: Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Melon Berry and Ocean Tides Bitty Dots Ink: PTI Melon Berry, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss and dark chocolate Stamps: Baby Bitty Dots, Inside and Out Baby, Dot trio stick from Stamps by Judith, Moon and Star from Technique Tuesday Clear Stamps (Cute as a Button) Extras: Prisma Glitter, button, blue mini pearls and diamond and orange stickles, corner round chomper, scalloped square nestability, fiskars border punch

CHA pic with Debbie Olson

I got to go to the CHA consumer show on Sat. in Anaheim, CA. I was super lucky and got to meet Debbie Olson who was working in the Splitcoaststampers booth. She was really gracious as I gushed about how much I love her cards, looked at them in the latest copy of Card Creation Magazine, on and on. Here is a picture I grabbed a perfect stranger to take of us. The show was really good. I didn't really see anything new because that part of the show didn't start until Sun. I never got to see Lisa Johnson and her demo of the new Marvy pens for clear stamps. I found the Marvy pens, but the new ones were not out. Honestly, meeting Debbie and telling her how much I love PTI was worth the admission in itself. I did manage to spend $100 on "stuff". I bought some "My favorite Things" stamps and a couple from Technique Tuesday. They are nice, but PTI is still my favorite.

Turning a New Leaf Thank You (Inside & Out)

This is the outside and inside of one card. I just loved the card Geny Cassady made for the latest release. http://madisonavenue.typepad.com/ I love the combination of Turning a New Leaf in Ripe Avocado and a small flower in Raspberry Fizz. I decided to try to make some for myself and use it in my own card design. It is really fun to stamp and I actually probably stamped more

leaves than I really needed. I also stamped some polka dot basics onto some Ripe Avocado cardstock and filled in some of the circles with raspberry fizz and vintage cream. I used a

1 1/2 inch scalloped square punch to cut out the little squares. I put a little prisma glitter on a few of the circles. The outside sentiment is from Giga Guidelines and the inside sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages. I did a little stitching and added a few buttons and pink rhinestones. I really like the way the card turned out.

Details:

Stamps: Turning a New Leaf, Polka Dot Basics, Mega Mixed Messages and Giga Guidelines

Ink: Ripe Avocado, Raspberry Fizz, Vintage Cream

Paper: Kraft and Ripe Avocado

Extras: Buttons and pink rhinestones, prisma glitter

Sweet Girl Baby Dear

Today I needed a baby card for my daughter's coworker who just became a grandma to a new baby girl. I wish I had my new Papertreyink Baby Button Bits Set, but since it has not yet arrived, I made do with some things I had on hand at home. I am making a real conscious effort to make the inside of my cards prettier and I love the pink footprint vellum layered over the pink cardstock. Who doesn't love baby girl cards?

Details:

Cardstock: Bazzil Pink, Pink shimmer, Pink footprint vellum from Michaels

Stamps: Baby Dear and Congratulations from Inkadoo (Chelsea)

Ink: Raspberry Fizz, PTI

Tools: Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder, Spellbinder Labels One, vellum tape

Embellishment: Pink rhinestone, Pink twine from wedding section of Michaels

30th Anniversary

My husband and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary on the most romantic of days, Feb. 2nd, Ground Hogs Day. I started off making him a small tin of nuggets using the Damask Design and Limitless Labels sets. That got me thinking and I expanded the project by making a box which would hold 30 nuggets for 30 years. Then I thought it would be nice to attach a mini envelope to each nugget with a short memory or reason why I love him. I found a really cute mini envelope punch by Marvy. The completed envelope fits perfectly on the bottom of a nugget. I then realized I had to have a pretty tag to add to the nugget box and a card to go with it. All in all this project took a week to complete, but I think my husband will smile every time he sneaks a piece of chocolate as he remembers some of our special times together.

Details

Paper: Dark Chocolate, White, PTI

Stamps: Damask Designs, Limitless Labels, Vintage Labels, Polka Dot Basics

Tools: Marvy Mini Envelope Punch, Ribbon, Pearls, Prisma Glitter, Cricut Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge for the numbers

Valentine Nugget Tin

Hey Everybody: I have been hearing about Nugget Tins and finally ordered the Limitless Labels set from PTI. This is the easiest set to use and I think I will use it a lot for many different occasions. For my first attempt I stamped 6 labels with Background basic Hearts. I then stamped 6 other labels with Raspberry Fizz and Pure Poppy. I stamped a little red heart that comes with the set in the middle of the circle and put a very small heart-shaped rhinestone in the middle. The belly band is made from Bazzil textured red and some raspberry fizz. I tied a bow with some heart ribbon from Michaels. Next I attached a small 3 x 3 card made with a really cute image from My Favorite Things called How Sweet. The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with copics and a little stickles on the flowers. The sentiment is a combination of MFT How Sweet and Our Craft Lounge Granny's Truffles. I ran 3 small lines of repositional tape in the bottom of the tin to keep the Hershey's nuggets secure, yet loose enough to take out easily. This project was actually really quick. I can not believe how easy those labels stamp. I plan to make a few more for Valentine gifts for my friends at work.

Coffee and Friends Post-It Cover

This is another post-it cover I made for myself because I have given everyone I know one already. I used My Favorite Things Hot Stuff and I paper pieced Bittle Dot Basics paper from PTI for the dress. I wish I had more people to make these for because they are really fast and fun to make using my scor-pal. Found the tutorial from Dawn at Dawn's Stamping Studio. http://dawnstampingthoughts.typepad.com/dawns_sampin_studio/2008/05/post-it-note-pe

Baby Dear

I made this card for a friend who is a first time grandma. I used mostly PTI products. Spring Rain paper and ink, dark chocolate paper, white paper and some textured blue Bazzil. I used PTI Polka Dot Basics and stamped in some of the circles with dark chocolate. A few circles have prisma glitter and I also put some prisma glitter on the outside of the stripped ribbon. Blue rhinestones for interest on the Baby Dear sentiment. Don't remember where I got this stamp. It was one of my first.

First Post

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to learn more about technology as it applies to crafting. That is why I am learning how to construct a blog to show the cards I make. I have been slowly learning not only how to make cards, but how to photograph and display them. So far, I rely so much on the work of others and hope that throughout the year I get more creative on my own. Today I am going to post the cards I have made for Christmas Gifts and my most recent Valentine's Day card.