Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Papertrey Ink July Blog Hop

Good morning fellow crafters, how are you doing today? I'm having a great day so far, my mother came by for a little while this morning and decided to take my girls for the day, so I am here at home alone until I go to work. So this gave me a little bit of time to finish my project for this months Blog Hop over at Papertrey Ink!



This month's inspiration is all about pairing up beautiful summer colors as this wonderful season begins to come to a close. Put together some citrusy hues along with some pretty floral images to create the perfect project that embodies everything summer. We look forward to seeing your creations!

What beautiful, summer colors! I decided to use my Pretty Peonies stamp set again. I love this floral set, there are so many ways to use it, especially since there is also a die set for it! I made a set of 5 Happy Birthday Cards. I stamped a 4" x 5¼" sheet of white cardstock with the large floral image and outline to create a background pattern. I used Stampin' Up inks in Barely Banana, So Saffron, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, and Soft Suede. I attached some white grosgrain ribbon to that and then adhered it to a Kraft card base.



I used the Mat Stack #5 die and cut out 5 of those in Kraft cardstock, then used the large image stamp from Tiny Treats Birthday and stamped that in Soft Suede as well. I took some dark brown and cream cardstock and used 2 dies from the 1¾" Limitless layers Circle Set. I then die-cut the butterfly 5 times from the Pretty Peonies die cut set, and stamped the butterfly once in each of the 5 colors. I used the double-ended banner die for my sentiment, which I took out of the TPC Studio's Card Crafting Happy Birthday stamp set. I layered everything together and then attached to my card using foam dimensionals.











So that's my project for this month's blog hop challenge. If you were lucky enough to participate in PTI Stamp-a-Faire event, you might recognize the design of this card from Dawn McVey's example in the Ribbon Techniques Challenge. I loved the layout and card design she used, I definitely knew I wanted to try it out on a card.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week!

Monday, July 23, 2012

PTI Stamp-a-faire 2012

Holy cow, I don't think I've ever crafted so much in one day! It's almost 3:00am and I am finally getting a chance to post up my projects for the first Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-faire Summer Camp! I definitely had a blast, and there are soooo many projects to look at, it's unbelievable! I hope you all had as much fun with these challenges as I did! I had originally thought that this event was only limited to the customers that bought the Stamp-a-faire Tote bag and supplies. When I realized that anybody could participate, I got started right away! I've decided to roll all the events into one post, so there are lots of pictures!

The first project of the day was the morning Make-n-Take with Nichole Heady. She made such a gorgeous, simple card! So for my card, I used Pretty Peonies, Movers and Shakers Sentiments, and Framed Out #3 stamp sets.





The next event was to earn the Knots Badge with the Ribbon Techniques Challenge. For this card, I used the Happy Hexagons and Pretty Peonies stamp sets, and tried to knot my ribbon like Dawn McVey did hers:









The next event was to earn the Memory Preservation Badge with the Mini Book Challenge. I mod-podged some patterned paper onto 6 chipboard cutouts, each measuring about 7" x 5". I added some ribbon and the chipboard cutouts which are from K&Company that I have had for a long time! I am going to add the pictures and journaling later.













The next event was to earn the Craft Conservation Badge with the Limited Supply Challenge. For my card I used the new Floral Foliage stamp set, along with a couple of simple buttons to match my Stampin' Up ink Soft Suede and Crumb Cake.





This next event was my favorite. I started making jewelry before I got into card making and scrapbooking. This event was for the Friendship Badge with a Beaded Friendship Bracelet using paper beads. While I have been making jewelry for over 10 years now, I've never attempted making papers beads. And since I did not buy the Stamp-a-faire tote, I did not have the supplied Nichole used in her video, I had to improvise! So I cut strips of paper to 5½ x ¾" inch each. I drew a diagonal line from corner to corner on each strip, then cut out my triangles. I used a metal rod from my polymer clay tools to wrap the beads and to allow them to dry with nail polish. Then I added some Swarovski Crystal bicone beads and some spacers, and put my bracelet together! I think I will be making lots more paper beads in my future!











I opted out of the Tye-Dye challenge, one because I couldn't find a sponge anywhere under my craft room mess, and two, I was running out of time and energy. So the next challenge was to earn the Correspondence Badge with a Camp Card Set. I wanted to make a really fast, really simple, friendship Thank you card. I simply used white cardstock along with the Floral Foliage stamp set. The inside sentiment is from TPC studios and the little squirrel is from Hero Arts.









The last event for the day was to earn the DIY Badge with some homemade Embellishments. I used some Kraft cardstock, dictionary page cutouts, and the Pretty Peonies stamp set to create these Butterfly and Peony embellishments. I layered dictionary cutouts on top of each other for the butterfly embellishments to make a flower, then topped that with a stamped butterfly die cut. I added rhinestones to each embellishment.







Whew, what a day! I really hope that Nichole and the rest of the team decide to do this again next year, it was definitely fun! So it has taken me nearly 40 minutes to complete this blog spot, and I am now falling asleep! So I leave you all with my farewell pictures, to include a now very messy craft room! Thanks for stopping by!



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

PTI Make it Monday #75: Roll the Die!

Have you seen this week's Make-It-Monday challenge over at PTI?! This week it is hosted by Erin Lincoln, and the challenge is so fun and creative! You have to download the PDF file, fill it out, then roll a die to determine how you will make your project! While this is definitely a challenge, I have to admit it is a very clever way to make a project, especially since we all get stumped sometimes!

So I downloaded and printed out the PDF file, then filled it out randomly. I immediately knew my biggest challenge for this week was going to be the color combos, only because I do not own any PTI cardstock or ink pads! I found most of my color combos from ideas over at the Just Dandy blog by Melissa Bickford. She always posts her color combos along with examples of her projects.



Okay, so my next challenge was to find a ROLLING DIE! Out of all the board games here in the house, NOT ONE had a die in it! So I had to do the old-fashioned pick a number out of a hat routine. I numbered 6 pieces of paper, folded them equally, and placed them into a hat to draw out my numbers. This is the outcome of my "rolling die":

Orientation: #3 Horizontal
Layout: #2
Stamp Sets Image: #1 Year of Flowers Collection
Stamp Sets Sentiment/Supporting: #1 Fillable Frames Set 1
Color Combos: #5 Kraft-Summer Sunrise-Ripe Avocado-Orange Zest-Dark Chocolate
Embellishments: #3 Buttons

So the next biggest challenge? Finding cardstock, ink, and my button embellishments to match the colors of PTI as closely as possible! Kraft and Chocolate chip cardstock were easy, it was the other 3 that I was having a hard time on! I finally settled on Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie cardstock from Stampin' Up, and a yellow that I have no idea where it is from! The end result: A bunch of fall colors! I was genuinely happy with the combo, so then I had to figure out to incorporate fall colors with the Year of Flowers stamp set. Here is what I came up with:







Overall, I love the card! Except for the buttons. It kinda just looks like I threw them on there with no purpose whatsoever. But I cannot change the design of the layout, therefore, this is my final result! The yellow button is definitely brighter then the cardstock, but it was either that or a highlighter-bright yellow button.

I definitely am going to give this challenge another shot, it is fun! Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Bridesmaid Gift

Hey everyone! Just a quick post to show you real quick some bridesmaid's gifts I made for a wonderful Etsy buyer.

I made these amethyst cat's eye and Swarovski crystal bracelets, and packaged them inside these handmade gifts bags. I used Kraft cardstock and Elegant Eggplant cardstock from Stampin' Up and cut out the layers with PTI Limitless Layers. I printed the saying out and punched the circle out, then stamped each one with an image from PTI Year of Flowers Collection in Elegant Eggplant ink by Stampin' Up! I attached each one to the front of a small white favor gift bag. I hope to make more of these little bags, they are so cute and would great in all kinds of colors!











Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Christmas in July!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend, I cannot wait for this week to be over! My sister and nieces are in town from Denver, I have not seen them in over 2 years! I took Thursday through Sunday off this week so the girls and I could spend some time with them. So today before I get started on all the important stuff, I decided to start on some Christmas cards.

My favorite stamp sets over at Papertrey Ink include all of the Tiny and Tremendous Treats series. I had not yet ordered the Tremendous Treats Christmas set, so I added that to my order this month. I was so excited when it came in the mail on Saturday! I absolutely love, more than anything, to craft for the holidays, especially Halloween and Christmas. (I do hope PTI comes out with a Tremendous treats Halloween this year!) I originally wanted to submit this to the challenge this week over at PTI, but the card just didn't turn out the way I wanted.











I am ashamed to say that I only own ONE, yes, only one...embossing folder, the Swiss Dots folder, and I already knew that it would be a challenge to stamp anything on all those raised dots. I do have 3 of the Sizzix Texturz Plate kits, and I decided to use the Snowflake plate from kit #5. I added a couple of pieces of cardstock amongst the Sizzix plates in order to try and get the image raised a bit more like the embossing folders. It worked, the snowflakes looked great! Until of course I decided to stamp a bunch of "snowflake" dots on them. Didn't look so great anymore :( But I stamped the cardstock anyway, using an almost dry White Stazon ink pad. I used the PTI limitless layers square dies and the Snowman from the Tremendous treats set. I clear embossed the snowman and the sentiment, colored in the snowman with my Prismacolor markers and added some glitter and rhinestone detail, then put it all together. So this is my entry this week!

I like the overall look of the card, but I might try and re-do it with a different stamping technique, you cannot really see the stamping detail among the embossed snowflakes. The dots stamped inside the debossed areas which was not supposed to happen! This was the first time I tried this technique, I need to get more embossing folders so I can try this again!

Have a great week everyone, thanks for stopping by!

Friday, July 6, 2012

PTI Make It Monday #73...Second entry!

Hey guys, happy Friday! Are you ready for the weekend? I know I sure am, even though I do work again tomorrow, I am looking forward to having Sunday off! Right now I am alone here in my craft room, the girls are spending time with their grandparents and my DH is outside pulling weeds! So I am lucky enough to get in a little more crafting time tonight. It is beautiful outside right now, it has been raining off and on here for a few days now. We are used to it being sunny and hot, usually over 100 degrees, but this weather right now is just perfect.

We got a few pictures outside right now of the weather, and a DOUBLE RAINBOW! HeeHee....



I am also loving all this rain because my sunflowers are getting lots and lots of free water!





Anywho, I am going to do another entry here for this weeks' Make It Monday Challenge over at . My entry this time is very simple. I used some patterned paper from My Minds Eye and attached them to some Kraft cardstock. I used the PTI Year of Flowers Collection for the image, stamped in black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I also added some clear rhinestones. The sentiment is from TPC Studio Card Crafting Hello Cling Stamps. I got the sketch of this card from Maile Belles here.








Have a great weekend everyone, thanks for stopping by!