Library Card Pocket

Just a quick post today to show the inside of a card I made using the Library Pocket die. Several people on the forum have asked some questions about the pocket die and I wanted to show how I have used it. I cut the pocket with orange zest cardstock and adhered it to the inside of my card. I cut a 2" scallop circle with In Bloom cardstock and a 1.75" circle stamped with one of the Round and Round Flower images. I colored the image with copics and stamped a sentiment with Birthday Bash Sentiments. I think this is really nice way to present a gift card, much nicer than just setting it inside the inside of the card.

Just an FYI about this die: Patterned paper tends to have the fold lines cut through with this die. To prevent that from happening, cut two pieces of paper at once. 1st layer should be cardstock, second layer should be patterned paper. That has worked for me every time. Thanks for taking a look today.

Papertrey Pals and Clean and Simple Challenge

Today I covered two challenges with one card, Papertrey Pals (see the details here:) http://www.papertreypals.blogspot.com/

and Clean and Simple Stamping (See their details here:)http://cleanandsimplestamping.blogspot.com/.

Papertrey Pals Challenge #13 was to create a card using a stamp you have never, ever used before and Clean and Simple Stamping is celebrating their 100th sketch. Whoo Hoo! So, first I dug through my PTI stamps and found the Fruitful set. I just got this in a trade with Lorin (PTI name). I envisioned using it with my jar set, but it is really scaled too large for that. I do love those pretty, colorful fruit images and just had not yet figured out how to work them into a card. I also used two sentiments that I had never inked up yet. The sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping was very easy to picture as a card. Not so eash for me to execute though. Turns out stamping Pure Poppy on white cardstock evenly and without any smudges is not something I am very good at. For a Clean and Simple card, I ended up using up 3 pieces of white cardstock and it is still not "perfect". I used the strawberry images as the scallop in the picture and the Thank You sentiment as the ribbon. After I messed up so many times, I was really worried about running it through my cuttlebug with the linen impression plate. Thank goodness it worked and nothing smeared. I feel good that I finally used my fruitful set, but think it will be a long time before I use it again stamped so many times on one piece of cardstock. Too much opportunity to make a mess.

Details:

Paper: PTI White

Stamps: Fruitful, Fillable Frame #6, Signature Greetings

Ink: Pure Poppy, New Leaf, True Black

Accessories: Backside of the Linen impression plate

Papertrey Paper Dolls Challenge #14

Wow, am I on a roll! This is the third challenge for me in a week, and that is a first. Today I made a card for Papertrey Paper Dolls Challenge #14. The challenge was to create a card using 1) a color you rarely use and 2) a technique you haven't used in a while. I have been wanting to use my new Library Card stamp, so I knew this card would have to have it included somewhere. I chose Berry Sorbet as the color I rarely use. I know it is a beautiful color, but for some reason I have a ton of it and as I scanned through the cards on my blog, I realized I haven't used it more than once. Not sure why. The technique I chose really isn't a technique, but I decided to try using cork on a card. I have been wanting to try cork in my cuttlebug with PTI dies. I bought a roll at Michaels and was surprised that it cut very nicely and didn't tear or wasn't as fragile as I had expected it to. I used almost entirely PTI on this card with the one exception being the little daisy die cut which is from a Martha Stewart paper pack I had. This card turned out just as I pictured it and I plan to give it to my best friend and teacher I work with for the start of the new school year in just a couple of weeks. This was a very fun challenge.

Details:

Paper: Berry Sorbet, In Bloom, Bitty Dot, Bitty Box, Rustic Cream, Martha Stewart print

Stamps: Library Card, Signature Greetings, It's Official, In Bloom

Ink: Dark Chocolate, Ocean Tides

Accessories: Cork, Ric Rac die, Beautiful Blooms Die, Button & Orange Floss

Something new I found

I just wanted to share something I found at Michaels today. I know all of us love the PTI impression plates. I do too. I have nearly all of them, but as we wait each month for a new set to be released, I found something that can be used to make impressions and is really cheap. I mean $4.99 reg price and eligible for the 40% discount. They are actually called Texture Tiles in the cake decorating section made by Buff Goldman. There are about 4 different packages of tiles. There are two very hard plastic plates in each package and they are the exact size of Cuttlebug A/B/C plates. I bought one set, not expecting it to work, but it really did! It probably won't last forever, but until PTI releases more of these, it will really do the trick cheaply. I used a sandwich of A, B, plate (side you want up), Spellbinder tan mat and lastly B plate. I have posted a few pictures of my samples. For the one that looks like boxes, I first ran the lines through and then rotated it. Just an idea in case anyone wants a cheap alternative to texture plates while we wait for PTI's super durable ones.

Papertrey Pages July Challenge

This month our challenge was to use kraft in our layouts. As you can see, the kraft paper I used is 12 x 12 and since PTI doesn't have that size paper, I used digital paper from Katie Pertiet of Designer Digital (Krafty Ledger Paper Pack). It prints out so nicely and has a very subtle graph type background. Several of the pictures I used this month are 26 years old and have faded a bit. The proud dads are my husband and brother who were both police officers for the same police department. We both had babies on the same day, same hospital, just hours apart. What are the odds of that? My sister-in-law and I shared a hospital room and we had such fun with all of our visitors coming to just one room. Since that day my son Andy and his cousin Michael were almost as close as brothers. Actually they were like brothers without the fighting that comes with it. To this day, 26 years later they are still very close and coincidentally both chose careers in public service. Most cops don't like firefighters and vice-versa, so there is a lot of mutual teasing with each other about that topic. I didn't make my own embellishments which was a part of the challenge, but I am pretty sure any fire truck or police car I could make would look quite awful. One thing I really love about this layout is the small circle blow up of their faces. You can see that my nephew Michael devilishly held up his fingers behind Andy's head just as the picture was snapped. That is a perfect example of the trouble those two got into. I always want to remember that look on his face.

Details:

Paper: Bazzil White, orange peel texture, Pti Library Ledger, Dark Chocolate

Stamps: PTI Women of Life (Cousin)

Ink: Dark Chocolate

Accessories: Police/Fire Truck, unkown source, Sizzix dies for title

EBTKS #19 Challenge

I have been having a cardmaking version of "writer's block" for several weeks now and although I have been making lots of cards, I don't blog about them because they have been "cased" from others. Diane from Peaceful Lane http://dianejaquay.blogspot.com/ who I think makes really great cards daily, suggested I try a few challenges to help me gain some inspiration. Today I took her up on her suggestion and made a card for the EBTKS #19 Challenge . http://ebtkschallenge.blogspot.com/2010/07/everything-but-kitchen-sink-challenge.html As soon as I saw the picture the cute border from Night, Night Moon popped into my head. I love the sweet images in that set and how beautiful they look stamped on white cardstock. I used a baby boy color scheme as I have a baby shower to attend next month. I am really concentrating on using as many of my PTI tools as possible, so I used a fillable frame stamp and die as well as the new Just the Ticket and ticket die. Wow, I can't believe I almost passed on that ticket set. The tickets are so easy to stamp. They line up so easily. For this card the ticket served as the sentiment and I used the PTI Linen impression plate to add texture to the plain white cardstock. I find myself using that linen plate more than any other one I own. I also colored some of the sparkly rhinestones with copics for the first time and added a few dabs of stickles. I love how this card turned out. Thanks for taking a look!

Details:

Paper: PTI White, Spring Rain

Stamps: Just the Ticket, Fillable Frames #5, Night, Night Moon

Ink: Spring Rain, Enchanted Evening

Accessories: PTI Fillable Frame Die #5, Linen Impression Plate, Just the Ticket Die, rhinestones, copics, stickles

Argyle Birthday

Just a very quick post today of a card I made for my son's birthday using A Little Argyle. I got this as a trade and wanted to give it a quick test. It is actually very easy to line up. I used my woodgrain impression plate, Spellbinder label #8, clear embossing powder and a few silver dots. My poor son, I didn't give his card much attention as I am having a hard time concentrating this week. I keep going back and forth with what to purchase on release night tonight. Like I need more stamps.

Details:

Paper: Kraft, Vintage cream and Enchanted Evening

Stamps: A Little Argyle, Fillable Frame #1

Ink: Enchanted Evening, Dark Chocolate

Accessories: Spellbinder Die #8, Clear Embossing Powder, Silver dots, Woodgrain impression plate, dimensional dots

Friendship Jar Color Board

I wonder if this happens to everyone. I have noticed that lately my cards always seem to use the same colors. Even though I have every color of PTI's cardstock, I seem to forget to use the full array. When I got my Friendship Jar set and saw the cute little button holders that Dawn McVey made, http://dawnmcvey.typepad.com/ (6/22/10), I immediately thought I could make a white board display of all of the PTI cardstock colors and display them in my craft room. Hopefully I can be reminded of the wide variety of cardstock I have to use. I cut a white jar for each color and stamped each jar with a PTI color ink. I added the small tag from the set in the actual cardstock color and stamped the little border in fresh snow ink. I used the Bitty Dot patterned paper to make a decorative collar for the jars. I am so glad that the new PTI Bitty Dot paper came out so I had every single color to use. Even Kraft! I added a few of the buttons from each color to every jar. I have to admit I don't have every single color of buttons, but PTI's buttons have such a variety of colors, I was able to come up with a few that blended with of each color. Each jar has a little magnetic dot on the back and they are lined up just as I have them in my cardstock file cabinet. I even have enough room to add future colors. I am going to hang this right over my desk so that hopefully, it will inspire me to use all of the fabulous colors of cardstock that PTI has created. Even if it doesn't though, I smile every time I look at those cute little jars in all of the cheerful colors.