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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Papertrey Posse June Petite Challenge-Something Trendy

This is my first time hosting a Papertrey Posse challenge and lately I have become very aware of "trends" in the world of cardmaking. Almost every month we see something released by Papertrey Ink that falls into the catagory of the latest trends. This month, I thought it would be fun to focus a challenge on creating something using something "trendy". The first thing that came to mind as being trendy is pinwheels. I have been seeing them pop up all over the place, so of course I had to take a stab at making a card using handmade pinwheels. Here is my example of something trendy:
This is a long card, measuring 4 x 8. The red, white and blue swirls are from Little Bitty Bird. The Friendship jar has three sizes of foil stars glued inside and the pinwheels have lollipop sticks supporting them. There is an clear cardstock jar layered over the sticks which was adhered with spray glue. I have found that as long as you only stick it once and don't lift or move the clear cardstock, none of the glue residue shows. Not at all. Just make sure to get it right the first try! The pinwheels were made using Bitty Dot paper and a small star brad holds it all together. The finishing touch was a little star tag with the sentiment on it and some red/white twine. This will be a perfect card for one of my friends whose birthday is on July 4th.
My challenge to you, my Posse friends and anyone else who would like to play, is to create a card using something "trendy". I can't wait to see what you all create.  To play along, just create your card and link it using Mr. Linky on the Papertrey Posse blog.

Friday, May 27, 2011

CPS #117 & Papertrey Ink MIM #16



I am so excited  to be one of the guest designers for CPS #117.  The sketch this week is such a good one and I hope you all like my take on it!  I'm a CAS kind of crafter and you won't see too many layers, lace or bows on my cards.   I used a PTI Rustic White cardbase, Royal Velvet layer impressed with the Pacific Vinyard impression plate.  The polka dot patterned paper is from Pacific Vinyard too.  Don't those colors look so nice with the beautiful purple of the Royal Velvet?  The stamp sets I used were Larger than Life, a set I seem to be using quite often these days and the sentiment is from Birds of a Feather.  I layered the circle onto a Ripe Avocado Doily Details diecut and added some Simply Chartreuse Turning a New Leaf diecut leaves to take the place of the bows in the sketch.  Some twine wrapped around the card was the finishing touch.  I was so happy to get the chance to design a card for this sketch. 

How lucky for me that Papertrey Ink's MIM challenge this week was sympathy cards.  Here are the details of this weeks challenge: http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2011/05/make-it-monday-16-sympathy-cards.html.

Thanks for taking a look at my creation.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Larger than Life Flower Pot with a little bit of Bling

Today I made a very CAS card for the CAS-ual Friday challenge that also fits nicely with Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop theme which is flowers.  I thought I was so smart when I realized the little piece of cardstock that is left over when you cut a Garden Variety frame resembled a clay flower pot.  I realize I am not as smart as I thought because there are several others who saw the same thing and made a card using this little left over piece.  For my card I used Hawaiian Shore cardstock and some yellow polka dot paper, source unknown.  The clay pot is cut from melon berry cardstock which looks absolutely identical to the color of a clay pot.  I scored a few lines on the pot to make it look a bit more realistic and tied some rustic jute twine around it.  CAS-ual Friday's challenge is to make a CAS card and add a little bling.  You will notice there are some tiny little rhinestones on the Larger than Life Flower diecuts which are popped up with some dimensionals.  I was so pleased I could make one card that fit two challenges.  One of these days I will have an original idea, looks like it just not today!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Papertrey Ink May Blog Hop: Flowers

To say I love the new Papertrey Ink stamp set, Garden Variety is an understatement.  I think it is the most creative, happy, welcoming stamp set around.  Today I made a card for Papertrey Ink's May blog hop and the theme just happens to be Flowers.  I could not wait to try my new Garden Variety stamp set along with another new set, Year of Flowers Collection.  With these two sets I can make as many adorable flower seed packet cards as I want, with any type of flower that I want too!  This card's inspiration was the release card made by Nichole Heady using YOF Mums.  Here is a link to Nichole's card.

Here is my card:
For my take on the mum stamp image, I colored the mums with Red/Violet copic markers and had an absolute ball creating the seed packet.  There are so many different combinations that can be made with the seed packet stamps.  I used a Kraft Parisian doily and some hibiscus burst cardstock stamped with the Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card Gingham stamp.  One stamp and my entire card had a beautiful gingham pattern stamped in Versamark.  I used the sentiment from the new PTI anniversary set, Botanical Silhouettes and zigzag stitched a little underneat the word "friend", just to make it stand out a bit.  Three pearls underneat the stitching for a little interest and just because I wanted to use my new Honey Bees stamp set, I stamped a cute little honeybee and glittered him up for absolutely no reason at all other than I liked it.  Thanks for taking a look at my card.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Papertrey Hello Friend Address Book

This is my second  post for today.  For the Amber Ink Passing the Torch post, please scroll down.

This is a long post, so I hope you will bear with me.  Since I discovered PTI a year and a half ago, I have been lucky enough to have received quite a few cards from some of my PTI friends.  I started saving their addresses and realized I had quite a little baggy full of scraps of paper with them just begging to be organized.  I had one PTI kraft binder to use for this.  Those binders are hard to come by and I knew I only had one chance to make one the way I wanted to.  I have always loved the card Maile Belles made for the April PTI release using Chevron Stripes and the embossed Hello Friend sentiment.  I  knew I wanted to re-create this card for the cover of my PTI Friends Address Book.  Here is Maile's original card:


Since I had only one shot at the embossing on the Kraft binder, I was very nervous to attempt it.  I debated long and hard about whether I should try it on the kraft binder.  I was afraid the notebook would be too porous or the stamp would not go on evenly.  I worried for nothing,  it was so easy!  The binder took the embossing powder so nicely and turned out just exactly how I had pictured it in my head.  I made an svg of the PTI diecut Simple Circles and made it a little longer to fit the Kraft binder.  I stamped the Chevron Stripes onto white cardstock and layered some buttons, just like in Maile's card.  Here is my binder front:


Now, onto the address pages themselves.  I wanted a single page for each PTI friend and I wanted to be able to color on them with copics while still using them back to back, therefore they could not bleed through to the other side.  I ordered some Gina K Luxury White 120lb cardstock because it is the only paper I know of  that you can color on and it won't bleed through.  I printed all of the "Friend details" this nice, heavy paper and punched out the holes.  These pages have no rhyme or reason and are just a mixture of stamps that mean something only to me. They are bits and pieces of things that remind me in some way of the friend the page is dedicated to.   I would like to share a few of the individual pages with you and explain why I chose the images for each person.

1)  This page is for my sweet friend Renee Lynch.  I met Renee when I sold her some stamps and we have become very good friends.  Renee and I have shared lots of stamp sets with each other, and the YOF gladiolus is one of those sets.  There are not a lot of people who I would trust with my PTI stamps, so that should tell you how good a friend I consider Renee to be.  Renee has also shown me how to color those gigantic YOF rose images with step by step instructions.  She also loves to read and sent me a beautiful card using All Booked Up and the Mark Twain sentiment along with the first book in a series that I became hooked on, The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning.  Those 5 books occupied all of my reading time for nearly four months.  One thing I will be adding to Renee's page is a few of the new Fruit Fusion images.  She and I whipped outselves into a frenzy over those fruit stamps this month, and I am certain a strawberry and some grapes are soon to be on her page along with the gladiolus.

2)  This page is for a new friend of mine, Joyce Mehrberg.  I had seen Joyce's avatar many times and it always stood out in my mind.  It is of a great big realistic looking owl.  I didn't understand the meaning behind the owl, but now I do.  Joyce's daughter drew the owl and became a finalist in a huge art contest with it.  Joyce has lots of owl stamps and that is why I used my one and only owl as an image on her PTI address page.  Joyce and I split the Honey Bees stamp set and that is why there are lots of bees on her page, even though she "hates" bees!  She did, however love the grass image in the set and that is how we became friends.  She lives in CA, not that far from where I live and I think we may actually get to meet in person one day.  The Sending You flower on her page is because Joyce is the first person that I know of who liked one of my cards enough to case it.  I was very touched and excited that she has used one of my cards for inspiration.

3)  This page is for my friend Susan Russo.  Susan is the first PTI friend I made quite some time ago.  We met when we split the stamp set All Booked Up.  I just had to have the Mat Stack 1 image in that set and Susan was nice enough to split it with me.  You will notice the purple butterflies on her page too.  Susan sent me a really pretty card once with the friendship jar and a whole bunch of beautiful purple butterflies flying out of it.  It sits in front of me on my window ledge where I can see it every single day.  You are probably asking why I would have a stamp image of a camera on Susans page.  Susan had been wanting a new camera ever since I have known her.  She wanted the camera to capture memories of her two little girls before they got much older.  She scrimped and saved and even sold a lot of her precious PTI stamps in order to earn her camera.  Susan finally got that camera and just this week posted a picture she took with it of her daughters baking cookies.  She finally has the tool she needed to document all those everyday memories she never wants to forget.  Isn't that a great story?

4)  This page is for my very talented friend Jen Carter.  I am a huge fan of Jen's CAS style.  I have cased many of her cards and it is because of her talent that I have the stamp set Cupcake Collection.  She has made so many cute cards with this set, it was a very easy decision for me to use it on her address page in my book.  You will notice there is a little bit of twine on the button cherry on the one of the cupcakes.  That twine is also something I think of when I think of Jen.  No one uses twine as well as her, in my opinion and she was very sweet to do some color comparisons for me recently.  I would not have half the twine collection I do if not for her inspiration.

5)  This page is for my friend Diane Jaquay.  I made this page for Diane using YOF Daffodils because Diane had a beautiful daffodil on the title of her blog for as long as I have known her.  Wouldn't you know it, right after I spent a while coloring her page with copics, she changed her blog!  No more daffodils, just cute little houses resembling her title, Peaceful Lane.  One day I will probably add a few houses to her page, but for now, it is all about the daffodils.  I also want to find a way to incorporate some Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card stamp images on her page as she got me started collecting those stamps as well.  Lastly, I am looking for an image of an old trunk to add to her page.  It was after reading about Diane's postive reviews of her Vagabond that I used all my birthday money and bought one.  She was right, it really is a great machine and there will bean image of one on her page as soon as I can find a stamp that looks like it.

6)  This page is for Audrey Tokach.  Everyone on the PTI forum knows Audrey.  We all know she love, love, loves Little Bitty Bird and the Tiny Treat series of stamps.  For that reason, her page has the cute little tree and the TT kitten and plane up in the air.  You will notice I had to have some felt on her page.  Audrey organizes a felt share every month so the felt birds and flower are very fitting for her address page.  I also know Audrey is a huge fan of gingham, so of course a little gingham square with a button was just the right touch for her page.

I have made so many friends here on the PTI forum.  I am planning on making a decorated page for lots more of my friends and will be sure to share each page as I make it.  I have to say I got a little choked up typing this blog post.  I am so grateful to the friends I have made through my love of stamping and PTI.  You all are a huge part of my life and talking with you is something to look forward to every single day.

To be continued...

Passing the Torch

Today I am passing the Blue Amber Ink torch to a very talented cardmaker and an even better friend, Renee Lynch.  I have enjoyed this past month as I created projects with Amber Ink digital stamps and paper and learned a lot about creating cards using digital images.  Here is a little recap of the 6 projects I made this month.





I hope you all will make sure to check out Renee's blog, It's a Patchwork Life.   I know she is going to create some wonderful cards during the next month using Amber Ink products.  There are several other torches being passed today as well.  Here are links to the next group of torchbearers:

            Pink Torch: Nancy @ http://nancyskortblogg.blogspot.com/ 
 Brown Torch: Laura @ http://paperiini.blogspot.com/
                                              Purple Torch: Siobhan Kline  @ http://the-monkey-hut.blogspot.com
                                           

Friday, May 20, 2011

For the Graduate in Black and White

Today I made a card for my daughter-in law, Katie.  She is graduating next week with a master's degree.  I am so proud of her. She worked so hard for this and Katie and my son, Matt made a lot of sacrifices while she was working on this degree.  The card is made for the Impression Obsession "Things are not always Black and White" challenge.  I thought Papertrey Inks For the Graduate was the perfect stamp set to use for this challenge.  I used the IO Roses Cover-A-Card stamp set and stamped it on the front panel.  The front of the card is cut to just a little under 3".  The polka dot pattern is stamped on the inside of the card with a small strip of black glittered scortape.  Here is a pic of the inside:
It is hard to see in the picture, but the Mat Stack 1 frame is embossed and very shiny.  The Limitless Layers diecut is cut from black felt and the cap and stars image is embossed and stands up a bit on top of the felt.  The sentiments are from For the Graduate and Signature Greetings.  This was a fun challenge to participate in, I rarely do anything in just black and white.  Thanks for taking a look!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Happy 27th Birthday Andy-Let's Hear it for the Boys IO Challenge

This card was made for my 27 year old baby.  My middle son.  The child who gave me the biggest headaches.  The one who tested every single rule we ever gave him.  The one who I always tried to be one step ahead of, yet never quite was able to.  The one who is the reason I know so much about emergency medicine.  I read nearly every textbook he had, made more flashcards than you can imagine, had my blood pressure and pulse taken so many times it went up just looking at him come into the room. Thank goodness you can't do CPR or intubate someone who is actually breathing or else I would have really been in trouble.  In the end, all of this paid off, after many years of training, testing, interviewing and 4 different academies, Andy became the firefighter/paramedic he had wanted to become since he was 16.  He tells us stories about the fires he's fought and the people he's saved, events I can not believe my Andy could have been part of.  I am so proud of the man he has become.  Today my baby is 27.  I won't tell you how old that makes me, but I can say all of the work was worth it.  This card is for Andy:

I used several Impression Obsession stamps for this card today.  IO Screen is stamped on the kraft cardstock base and Distressed Corduroy is stamped on the orange mat behind the sentiment.  I absolutely love these stamps for a beautiful, subtle background.  I have entered this card in the Impression Obsession Challenge, Let's Hear it for the Boys

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Amber Ink Project #6


Today I am posting my last project for Amber Ink.  This time I used both a digital stamp and coordinating digital sentiment.  I added the image "Wee Bee-Pollinatin" and the sentiment "Just Bumbling Along" to a Photoshop Elements document.  After I had it arranged the way I wanted, I printed it and colored it with copics.  I always use PTI paper for my cards, with one exception.  When I make a single layer card that I plan to color with copics, I always use Gina K Luxury White 120lb cardstock.  Copic markers do not bleed through this.  I have colored with reds and purples and it still stays nice and clean on the opposite side.  After I colored the card, I impressed it with the Linen impression plate, added some black stickles to the bee and tied some Divine twine for just a bit more interest and color.  I have had lots of fun creating with Amber Ink products this month.  Thanks for taking a look and make sure to check out the digital stamps and paper available in the Amber Ink store.

Friday, May 13, 2011

CPS #114


Today it is right in the middle of the Papertrey Ink May Release week and all I can think about is fruit.  All kinds, cherries, apples, strawberries and grapes.  Until I can get my hands on all those cheery fruit stamps, I have a flowery get well card to share with you all.  This card is for the CPS # 114 sketch challenge.  I loved the sketch this week.  I started my card with a Rustic White cardbase, aqua mist layer embossed with a really nice Sizzix embossing folder called Country Foliage.  Doesn't it give the nicest impression and texture to the card?  I stamped some patterned paper using Sending You flowers and a Berry Sorbet gingham strip cut with my pinking scissors on the bottom.  The little border under the patterned paper strip is a eyelet lace diecut  in Hawaiian Shores cardstock.  The cute flower, leaves and sentiment are also from Sending You and stamped with Hawaiian Shores and Berry Sorbet ink.  The scalloped circle behind the flower is from Beautiful Blooms II and embossed with the cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder.  The finishing touch were a few rhinestones on the flower and gingham strip.  I am so pleased with how this card turned out.  Thanks for taking a look at my cheery get well card.  I'm back to thinking about fruit.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Amber Ink Project #5


Another project for Amber Ink today.  This card came together really quickly and has a very "summery" type feel to it.  This time I used all three colors of blossom paper.  The papers I used are:  http://www.amberink.com/products/nokaoi-orange-blossom,  and http://www.amberink.com/products/nokaoi-green-blossom, http://www.amberink.com/products/nokaoi-pink-blossom.  I punched out three scallop squares and adhered them to a piece of spring moss cardstock impressed with the Pacific Vinyard impression plate.  I stamped a scalloped square from that piece so a cute sentiment from Flower Fusion #1 stamped on the Summer Sunrise card base would peek out.  This is one of my favorite sentiments.  I used a few clear pearls inside the square to sparkle it up a bit.  Last touch was some twine wrapped around the impressed layer.  Thanks for taking a look at this project.  Be sure to check out the Amber Ink store, lots of cute digital stamps and paper there to choose from.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Lots of Pink

I really hit the jackpot today.  I was able to make one card that fits THREE different challenges.  That's a first for me!  Let me give you the details of the three challenges first. 
(Texting Skills)  This is the first ever challenge for this new blog group dedicated to Clean and Simple designs.  My favorite!

Here is the card I made:                               

Lots of pink, isn't there?  I used Hibiscus Burst cardstock stamped in Versamark with an Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card stamp called distressed corduroy.  Don't you think that is a beautiful subtle stamp?  I also used another IO Cover-A-Card stamp called Birthday Words for the text panel.    It is so great to stamp one time and have all those words lined up just perfectly.  I used the new PTI stamp set, Chevron Stripes stamped in Fresh Snow ink to separate the two panels and cut out the zig-zags.  The Raspberry Fizz panel is impressed with the Polka Dot impression plate and it is all mounted on a Smokey Shadow panel.  This card was quick and easy.  Made it in about 15 minutes and I love how it turned out. 

Friday, May 6, 2011

Amber Ink Project #4

This is the fourth project this month using Amber Ink products.  Todays project was a surprise for me and it has a little bit of a story to go with it.   It started off being one thing and ended up being another.  What am I talking about?  Circus Balls.  As I was skimming though the many digital images in the Amber Ink store, I came upon these circus balls officially called The Little Top-Circus Ball Line
I thought they were cute and I liked the sentiment that goes with them, "Life is a Circus".  I planned to make a card with those images.  I downloaded the circus balls first and couldn't decide if I wanted them joined together or a few of them scattered around.  All of a sudden it dawned on me that those balls in the large and small sizes looked an awful like the circles in the new Papertrey Ink Simple Circles Border Die.  I measured the balls and resized them just a bit so they were the same size as the die cut.  This is what I love about these digital stamps.  They can be any size I want them to be.  I planned to color them lots of bright colors and adhere them to a similar colored diecut.  I happened to have a black diecut on my craft table and I laid the sized balls onto it just to get a feel for how they fit.  I LOVED  the look of black and white balls on the black diecut.  That combination had never occurred to me. My card design changed again. 

Here is the card I made:  
 I chose a cardbase of Hawaiian Shores and added some Polka Dot Basics stamped in black along the bottom.  Here is where my card changed again.  Out went the circus sentiment and in came a Think Big Favorite, Hello Friend with the beautiful swirl.  I needed a little something else to finish the card so I added a Little Bitty Bird with a Hawaiian Shore wing.  I honestly love how this card turned out.  I am thrilled that those circus balls fit so nicely onto the diecut.  I can see myself using them with this diecut both colored with copics or with another combination of black and white.  Maybe Raspberry Fizz and black and white?  Wouldn't that look great? Thanks for sticking with my very long story today.  Make sure to check out all the fabulous digital images available in the Amber Ink store.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Amber Ink Project #3

You brighten my day!

This is the third of six projects I am making for Amber Ink this month.  Today I decided to use some of Amber Inks digital  paper and one of their digital sentiment stamps. Can you tell pink is my favorite colors?  I love to wear it and it is one of the colors I turn to the most when I make a card.  For me, it is so bright, upbeat  and cheerful.   Who wouldn't like to receive a card with beautiful pink blossoms on it to brighten their day?  Or butterflies.  Always a symbol of happiness in my book.  So, here is the card I made:
To make this card, I used Amber Ink NoKaOi-Pink Blossom digital paper.  I love that you can purchase this paper in both 8.5 x 11 or 12 x 12 inch sizes.   Don't you think the pink blossom paper looks nice paired with the kraft cardbase?  I cut a scallop border using Berry Sorbet cardstock and punched some holes in each scallop.  I printed the sweet and cheery sentiment, You Brighten My Day onto rustic white cardstock and die cut it with Mat Stack #4.  I embossed it with the PTI Woodgrain impression plate.  Like I said, butterflies are cheery, so I cut three of them.  One from cork, one from Berry Sorbet cardstock embossed with a polka dot cuttlebug folder and the last one from the NoKaOi pink blossom paper.  I spread the wings a bit and added two Boutique Fleur Mini Round Gems I received as a gift from my sweet PTI friend, Renee.  Thanks Renee, they were the perfect touch for my butterfly!  The last touch on this card was a ribbon tied with Berry Sorbet saddle stitch ribbon.  Hope my card brightens your day just a little!