PTI May Blog Hop Challenge

I am so happy to participate in PTI's May Blog Hop. This month the challenge was to show how we have been using felt in our card or scrapbook projects. The same day as I read about the challenge, I was scanning though some of Heather Nichols' blog posts that I had somehow overlooked during release week. I was excited to find a sketch and a sample scrapbook page she created. (I have posted a picture of her sketch and the link for you to check out http://pinefeather.typepad.com/pine_is_here/2010/05 get-to-the-point-more-fillable-frames-4.html) I decided to use her sketch and some of my PTI felt to scrap some old pictures of my two sons, and I mean really old. 1990, 1992 & 1993. My sons are now 26 and 28 and the best of friends, but that wasn't always the way it went. Most of the time they fought all the time. I decided to scrap three of the few pictures of them getting along and enjoying summer trips to Zion, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. I had to juggle Heather's sketch a bit to make it fit a 12 x 12 layout and also the three pictures I wanted to use could not be cropped any smaller, but all in all I followed her sketch pretty closely. As Heather suggested, I stamped my own background paper using some of the stamps from last month and used the PTI felt for the title letters. PTI felt cuts so nicely with my sizzix dies in the cuttlebug. I think the felt adds a nice texture to the layout. I can't wait for PTI to come out with more colors.

Details

Paper: Bazzil 12 x 12 paper close to Ripe Avocado color, Bazzil cream

Stamps: Masculine Motif, Background Basics Woodgrain, Vintage Labels, Mini-Scrapbook Series Tabs

Ink: Ripe Avocado and Dark Chocolate

Accessories: PTI Dark Chocolate Felt, Mini Scrapbook Series Tab Die, Spellbinder Label Die

Celebrate Your Day Birthday

Today I made a birthday card for my adult son Andy. I had seen a really cute card made by Heather (Witty Title Here). Here's a link to her card that inspired me: http://heatherpulvirenti.blogspot.com/2010/05/digital-doodles-little-birdie.html Her card had a really cute digital image of a cat and bird that reminded me of our sweet gray cat, Ally who loves to stare out the window at birds. The digital image is called "Meowy Messenger" and is designed by Kathy Martin sold by Two Peas in a Bucket. Since this is a card for a grown man, although still my baby, I decided to use what is becoming my favorite background stamp, Background Basics Woodgrain to "man up" the cute cat and bird image. I printed the digital image, colored it with copics and sized it to fit my card that had been stamped with the woodgrain background. I cut it out and popped it up on the card base with dimensional tape. My first reaction is to add some kind of border element, but ribbon was too girly for this card. I ended up using red twine wrapped around the card front a few times. I remember that you are supposed to use color accents in "threes" so I added a little red pearl collar to the cat image. Again, since I love the woodgrain background which is such fun to stamp and I was recently inspired by Nichole Heady to line my envelopes, I cut an envelope liner stamped with the woodgrain background. I love how this card turned out.

Details:

Paper: PTI White and Ripe Avocado

Stamps: PTI Background Basics Woodgrain, Signature Greetings and Digital Doodles Meowy Messenger

Ink: Ripe Avocado

Accessories: Copics, Red Martha Stewart twine, mini-pearls

Papertrey Pages May Challenge

I was really excited to participate in our first Papertrey Pages Scrapbook Challenge. I have really enjoyed using my PTI products to make scrapbook pages in addition to the cards we all love to make. This month, Beth was nice enough to get the challenges started. For this first challenge, we were to create a page with at least one PTI stamped image and watercoloring of some kind. I have to admit I was really stumped on how to include the watercoloring onto my page. I really like a sharp, clean image and that is just not what comes to mind when I think about watercoloring. So, what I finally decided to do was to start creating my page and hope that I could find a place to add some watercoloring. The pictures I used are recent and won't help me catch up on my backlog of old photos to scrap, but I love the looks on my daughter"s face. I really do hope to remember her this way. More importantly, I want her to look back and remember her expressions to me when her own daughter does the same thing to her. I used lots of PTI stuff on this page as well as some digital paper I printed and even some PTI dies and felt. The picture doesn't show it very well, but the flowers are all stamped three times and popped up on dimensional dots. For the watercoloring, I have to admit only the large centers of the flowers are colored with some chalk that I mixed with water and brushed on. I am not a fan of this technique. I much prefer to stamp or use copics. I would like to thank Beth (Babiestwo) for getting this challenge going and I look forward to future challenges.

Details:

Paper: 12 x 12 Designer Digital Large Dot by Katie Pertiet, PTI white, raspberry fizz, enchanted evening, hawaiian shore and green boutique

Ink: Hawaiian Shore, Raspberry Fizz, Sweet Blush, orange zest, lemon tart and new leaf

Stamps: Background Basic Tin Type, Beautiful Blooms II, Rustic Branches

Accessories: Hawaiian shore felt, PTI large scallop died, Beautiful Blooms II dies, sizzix lowercase fun serif alphabet dies and stickles.

Mother's Day Card

Today I got to use a bunch of stamp sets I just had to have but never have used yet. I know I'm not the only one who does that! I really love our anniversary set. The swirl images are such pretty focal points. My favorite part of this card is the vellum butterfly. I can't believe how easy it was to line up. It's hard to see in the picture, but I got to use my picnic plaid impression plate on the white layer. Worked like a charm. I also discovered that the PTI felt really does cut like buttah, just as promised.

Supplies:

Paper: Green boutique, hawaiian shores, white from PTI and vellum from Michaels

Stamps: Round and Round, Butterfly Dreams, Signature Greetings, Women of Life, Baby Button Bits

Ink: Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf

Dies: Butterfly and Mat Stack, ric rac

Accessories: Picnic Plaid impression plate, PTI Hawaiian Shores felt, pearls, dimensional foam

Page 10 Babygirl/Boy First Year Scrapbook

This is page 10 of the baby book project. It is called Baby's First. I am learning to create my own digital paper and this is an example. I downloaded the gingham papers and edited them in photoshop elements. I added some digital zig zag stitching and one of Ali Edwards brush stamp quotes at the bottom. I love that I can colorize her stamps to match my layout. For the pictures I cut (6) 3.5 x 3.5 mats and drew on some white stitching along the perimeter. I used scortape on three side to create a pocket for each. In each pocket I added some journal cards which I again downloaded from Jesse Edwards purchased at Designer Digitals. Designer Digitals is a really neat company with tons of digital elements and papers that are downloadable for a very inexpensive price. I'm printing my own papers now for my 12 x 12 layouts on my Epson Stylus 1400. I have found the ink lasts a very long time and I love that I can print as many pages as I want. That has helped a lot in the making of this baby book series. I finished off the pages with the cute bear from Baby Button bits and added some buttons and pearls to coordinate with the colors I have been using on all the other pages. I am now officially 1/2 done. YaY!

Pages 6,7 & 8 Baby Boy/Girl Scrapbook

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in a whole month. That doesn't mean I quit using my stamps and scrapbook equipment. Actually, I had the month off as our school was off-track (year-round school) and during this time I concentrated solely on getting at least 1/2 of my baby book project completed. I didn't quite get to half, but I did get a lot accomplished. Pages 6 & 7 are a two page spread titled We Are Family with the hopes that it eventually will hold pictures of the baby with lots of the family members. I used some digital paper (girl background) and made the background for the boy layout with PTI polka dot basics. That sure was a lot of polka dots to stamp and color, although I love how it turned out. The boy book is actually my favorite because of the warm brown and blue colors. I cut out the title on my cricut after welding the words together.

Page 8 is a single page spread titled Cute as a Button. I used solid card stock for these pages and scored the perimeter with my scor-bug. This was my first time using it and I think it added a little extra something to the very plain solid paper. I used my outline alphabet stamp for the title, again my first time using this stamp set. I colored in one letter of each word with stickles for some sparkle and texture. I also fit in the Cute as a Button sentiment from Baby Button Bits.

So, 8 pages down, 11 to go before the end of June. I only made one card this whole month and it was a total case of Debbie Olson's Dragonfly card. I hope to soon be back making cards again once I finish all my baby books.

Baby Girl/Boy Mommy & Me Scrapbook Page

I am super proud of these pages because I started with a plain sheet of white paper and using my PTI things, turned it into a cute Mommy & Me page for my First Year Baby Book Project. This is Page 4 of this baby book series. To take a peak at the first three pages, scroll down on the blog to see how this book got started. I had never used my new Beautiful Blooms II stamp and die set and have been anxious to give it a try. I stamped the largest daisy randomly all over the white paper in either sweet blush or spring rain. I then stamped the smallest daisy outline all over the rest of the page. Using aqua mist or chai ink I stamped a solid flower center. Using copic markers, I made little dots in the middle of the small daisies. I can't believe how fun it was to build this patterned paper from plain white. Next I cut a 3" strip of paper and used PTI's large scallop to punch a border along the bottom. I die cut 3 large daisies from the strip and put a complimentary color of aqua mist or tan underneath. Three mini buttons dotted each flower. I love the new Fillable Frame #1 and punched, stamped it and popped it up with dimensional tape. The sentiment title is from Cute as A Button by Technique Tues. I made a small journaling box with PTI Journaling Lines and added little parenthesis marks from another set I had. I matted three picture spots for 1 3x5 and 2 2x3 pictures. I stamped a large daisy and popped it up in the upper left corner of the 3 x 5 frame and topped it with a rhinestone. All in all I used at least 95% PTI products for these pages which just goes to show the versatility of PTI and the great things they make. These are so great for scrapbooking as well as making cards.

Details:

Papers: 12 x 12 white, aqua mist, sweet blush, spring rain, tan bazzill

Stamps: PTI Beautiful Blooms II, Journaling Lines, Cute as a Button (Technique Tues)

Dies: Fillable Frames #1, Large Daisy Beautiful Bloom II, PTI Large Scallop

Accessories: PTI Sweet Blush, Spring Rain buttons, rhinestones