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.

"American Girl" Friendship Jar

This year my husband and I will not be home for the 4th of July. I want my daughter to know we are thinking of her on the 4th, so I got her some flowers and made a cute tag with the new PTI Friendship Jar set. The tag is stamped in Enchanted Evening ink and filled in with the polka dot filler stamped in a royal blue ink. I used one of the dies to make a little ruffled collar and stamped it with stars. The little tag from the set is stamped with a cheap little stamp from Michaels and says "American Girl". My daughter Carly used to love the American Girl song by Carrie Underwood, so this sentiment was perfect for her. I added a few stars, some silver glitter and two mini flags and the tag was complete. I made a simple band to go around the quart jars I bought for less than $1 each. The band is attached with scoretape and a 12" strip just goes around the jar exactly, not a sliver to spare. I think next time I will at a little more paper to be able to wrap it around with a little overlap. One detail I added was the red, white and blue ponytail band stars that fit around the jar. They made a really easy embellishment to simple jar. I gave the flowers to my daughter today right before we left along with some mini-cupcakes with little flags in them. I think she gets it that we will be thinking of her while we are gone. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July holiday!

First Jar Card Attempt

I finally got my Friendship Jar set and made a card I think I will keep just for me! I love the colors on this card. I was drawn to the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine this month. I love the colors of the beautiful summery tablecloth. I decided to try to duplicate the tablecloth with stamps I already own. Background Basics Tin type and raspberry fizz ink was the first paper I stamped. Next I used some Lemon Tart paper with fresh snow polka dot basics. Third, I used Lemon tart paper again and stamped some flowers from Beautiful Blooms II in Hibiscus Burst and Orange Zest. I embossed a white flower onto the pink one so that the white would pop out. A Simply Chartruese leaf shaded with copics finished this layer. Lastly, I used Summer Sunrise paper and the smallest flower from In Bloom in Orange Zest and shaded it with copics and a black marker. I cut small squares from each pattern, adhered it to a white panel and stitched around the edges. At this point, the card sat in my craft room waiting for the jar set to arrive. Waiting. Waiting. Finally it arrived and I cut the jar in Clear cardstock, used black stazon to stamp it and die cut it with the new die. The ruffle is from the yellow polka dot paper and the stems are just little strips of ripe avocado paper. I used some Martha Stewart Zinnia stickers for the flowers and the small label that comes with the jar set to cover up the adhesive on the jar. Wow, that was a lot of steps for a card I plan to keep myself. I really love the jar set cut out in clear cardstock. It really does look like a real jar when you can see through it.

Details:

Paper: Raspberry Fizz, White, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Ripe Avocado, Clear Cardstock

Ink: Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst, Simply Chartruese, Fresh Snow, Orange Zest, Black Stazon

Stamps: Friendship Jars, Background Basics, Tin Type, Beautiful Blooms II, Polka Dot Basics, In Bloom

Accessories: Stitching, Friendship Jar Dies, Copics, Martha Stewart Zinnia Stickers

PTI June Blog Hop "Color"

Dark Chocolate, Kraft, Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest

The challenge for June's PTI blog hop is color. I was flipping through a magazine and fell in love with this cute, summery dress, necklace, purse and sandals. The color combinations jumped out to me and said " PTI". I began with a dark chocolate base just like in the dress. I loved the layers of ruffles on the bottom of the dress so I cut two layers from Dotti Biscotti paper with PTI's large scallop die. I used a strip of ric rac in raspberry fizz and orange zest as an accent. I love using that ric rac die. The woven purse in the picture was more than an accessory to me and I tried to capture the feel of it by using a Spellbinder Nestability Label #3 stamped with the sentiment, run through the linen impression plate and folded over the top of the card. It doesn't show up too well in the picture, but in person it looks a little woven like the purse. I used some tea dye around the edges. Wow, that kraft paper sucks up the tea dye. I had to use at least 3 layers to get it to show. The finishing touch was an orange brad and some little beads left over from a pair of earrings to mimic the necklace. All in all, I think this card is a good take on the cute dress in the magazine and also highlights some of PTI's fabulous colors.

Details:

Paper: Dark Chocolate, kraft, dotti biscotti, raspberry fizz and orange zest

Stamps: PTI Round and Round

Ink: Dark Chocolate and tea dye

Accessories: Large scallop die, Ric rac die, Linen Impression Plate, Spellbinder Labels #3, brad and beads

Quickie Father's Day

Hope everyone has finished up their Father's Day cards. I just made mine and I admit I didn't put too much thought or time into it. I am happy that I could whip up a masculine card without running out to Michaels for some ingredient I just had to have for it though. For this card I used a kraft base with an ocean tides layer impressed with the PTI woodgrain plate. I just love this plate and am always amazed how much a little texture can enhance a simple card. When A Little Argyle came out, I didn't think it was a stamp set I had to have. As I was digging through my box of $1 stamps from Michaels, I came across a tiny argyle stamp with only 3 little images. I gave it a try and realized how much I loved to make that kind of pattern. I am going to add A Little Argyle to my next order as I kept imagining how nice it would have been to stamp in more than one color. I even stamped a little pattern on the inside of the card and the envelope. I will say I usually like the things I stamp to be crisp & perfect with no smears, but this time I purposely (gasp) distressed the edges with ink. I loved the way it turned out kind of messy, but still fit with the card. This was also the first time I have used my Fillable Frames #4 with the Father's Day sentiment. Of all the dies I have from PTI, this one was the most easy to line up the first time, without any practice. I know I am going to be using this stamp and die a lot. I love my dad dearly, but I know he will whip open this card and not even pay the slightest bit of attention to any of the details, but at least I know how many different items I used to make it. I hope everyone has a great Father's Day and enjoys spending time with the men in your life.

Details:

Paper: PTI Kraft, Ocean Tides & Vintage Cream

Stamps: PTI Fillable Frames #4 and an unknown argyle stamp

Ink: PTI Ocean Tides

Accessories: PTI Fillable Frame #4 Die and Woodgrain Impression Plate

Papertrey Pages June Scrapbook Page Challenge

This month our challenge was to create our own patterned paper. For my layout, I used a template from Designer Digitals called Ad Challenge 4/18/10 by Katie Pertiet. This is a free digital layout and I chose to only use the picture template and create all the other elements myself. I started by stamping a polka dot pattern from Round and Round all over the 12 x 12 page. It actually went together quickly; the pattern is very easy to line up. Then I cut and tore the top and bottom of a mat made from Scarlet Jewel and stamped it with two different stamps from Giga Guide Lines in Versamark. I stitched some white zig-zags on the top and bottom, cut a tag and positioned it under the series of five pictures of my daughter, husband and great-niece, Hayley. I love the progression of pictures as she goes from bored to full out belly laugh. You probably can't read the journaling I wrote, but I wrote that this is the first time it totally, straight up hit me that my husband would one day be a great grandpa and my daughter, Carly would be a wonderful mother. I always knew it, but it was demonstrated to me on that day in April. This layout is the third in an album I am slowly making, all using the words "I Want to Remember" somewhere on the layout, either in the caption or the journaling. I have more than enough pictures from years past to fill up at least several albums using that theme.

Details:

Paper: Unknown White 12 x 12, PTI Scarlet Jewel & Kraft

Stamps: Round and Round, Giga Guide Lines

Ink: Scarlet Jewel and Versamark

Accessories: Sparkly paperclip, white stitching, Fillable Frame #1 die and several sparkly beads