Friday, September 27, 2013

Make it Monday #133 Creating a Flocked Look with Dimensional Paste

Good afternoon fellow crafters, HAPPY FRIDAY! I am so happy it is Friday, I am beyond ready for the weekend! It has been a crazy, stressful week. I am ready for a quiet, peaceful, hopefully relaxing Saturday tomorrow! I do have to work today, but I wanted to share with you my cards for Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday Challenge #133.

Danielle Flanders is showing us how to use dimensional paste to create a flocked look. When I first saw the challenge, I for sure thought I wasn't going to be able to participate because I do not have any kind of "dimensional paste" whatsoever. I did browse the craft section at Wal-mart earlier this week during a grocery trip, but was unable to find anything that I might be able to use. While I was browsing other crafters projects, I saw that Cornelia actually MADE her own dimensional paste! BRILLIANT! I was so happy she shared this because I wanted to participate in the challenge!

I made my "paste" with flour also, but I didn't use any measurements, I just eyeballed everything. I used about 2 tablespoons or so of flour, then I mixed in some Mod Podge. It wasn't really mixing too well so I added some warm water until it started to form a paste. Last, I added some GLITTER! I used Inkadinkado's Turquoise Glitter powder and mixed it all together. I only have 2 Papertrey Ink Cover plates: The Hexagon Die and the Harlequin Die cover plates. I started off with the Harlequin cover plate, and was so happy with the results, that I decided to repeat the process with the Hexagon die as well.




Everything looked great once I removed the cover plate "stencil", the paste was nice and thick and had a great dimension to it. Once it dried however, the dimension went down a little :( I was really looking forward to the design of the cover plates popping on the cards, but nonetheless, I am extremely happy with the way these 2 cards came out. I love them both! I used the Papertrey Ink Santa Stationary Stamp Set for my Santa, as well as Hero Arts Joy to All Stamp set for the Sentiment. The glitter paper is also from Stampin' Up. The inside of the cards read "May all your Holiday Wishes Come True".





Even if I don't use this technique in the future, it was really fun to try. I can say that I will probably make some more cards with this design using the coordinating Hexagon and Harlequin stamp sets. Thank you for stopping by, I hope you all have a great weekend!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Fall Thanksgiving Card

Good evening fellow crafters! Man, oh man, I just spent the last hour working furiously trying to finish this card to add to Papertrey Ink's September Blog hop and I just missed it! The collection for links to be added just barely closed. There were so many wonderful and creative projects submitted this month, so many different blogs to browse now before heading off to bed! I am so happy to know that there are so many amazing crafters out there!

Although I didn't get to submit my second card in time for the blog hop this month, I wanted to share my card with you anyway. I used Papertrey Ink's Nuts for You Stamp set to create my wreath. I die-cut the leaf several times and then colored them in with my Prismacolor Markers in Light Umber, Dark Olive Green, Raspberry, and Burnt Ochre. I used Light Umber, Cinnamon Toast, and Walnut to color in my little Squirrel. I wasn't sure I wanted to add the squirrel to the card, I thought it might cover up too much of the wreath, but I think it turned out okay.



I also used the Mat stack #5 dies and some patterned paper that I found in the Dollar Spot at Target a year or two ago. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts stamp set, again there is no name on this stamp set, but the number is CL498 and contains a bunch of different holiday sentiments. I am going to head off to bed now, browse some more projects on my tablet before actually going to sleep! I have jury duty tomorrow morning, but I also have the day off and cannot wait to relax! Have a great night, thank you for stopping by!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop

Hello fellow crafters! It is nearing midnight here and I decided to do a quick post before heading off to bed to share my project for this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop! For September, the Challenge is to create a card with a wreath. I've been thinking about this challenge for a couple of weeks now, and I finally got down to making something tonight after the kiddos headed off to bed. This is my card set for this month's Blog Hop:





Once I knew the challenge had to involve wreaths, I wanted to get started on some kind of Christmas card set. I wanted to create a stamped wreath out of a stamped image of Christmas Holly leaves, but all my stamped images of Holly from PTI were either way too tiny or just didn't look right. Then I remembered that I picked up a few $1.00 Christmas stamp sets from Studio G at Walmart last year. There is no name on this stamp set, just the Number on the barcode #WM0745, and it includes several different Holly leaf images. The image I chose to create my "wreath" ended up being the perfect size for the front of my card! I stamped the Holly leaves in Old Olive ink from Stampin' Up. Then, I used the little berries from Papertrey Ink's Boutique Borders: Christmas stamp set that was designed by Dawn McVey. I stamped the little berries in Ruby Red ink around the "wreath". The sentiment is from the Papertrey Ink Think Big Favorites #20 Stamp set. I added some twine from Martha Stewart, and then put my card together. I used Kraft, White, Old Olive, Ruby Red, and White cardstock.

I love the way the set came out, I am definitely in the mood to get started on some more Christmas cards now! I can't wait to see everyone else's projects! Thanks so much for stopping by, Happy Hump day!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Halloween Kraft Treat Bags

Good Morning fellow crafters, I hope you are enjoying the very first day of FALL! I love the fall, it signals the start of the best holidays of the year! I am trying to get back into my posting more often, I haven't posted very many projects at all this year! I finally started working on my Halloween projects! The girls' school has a Fall carnival every year and they allow craft vendors, so I really need to start making some items to put up for sale that teachers and kids would love to pick up! I made these cute little Kraft Halloween Treat bags.





I ordered the Kraft bags from sweetideasbyjanet on Etsy a few months ago and have been dying to try them out! I used mainly Papertrey Ink products to put these together! I used their Mr. Bones Stamp and die set along with the Spider from the Tremendous Treats: Halloween Stamp Set. I also used the medium-sized spider web from their Spider Web die collection. The "trick or treat" is from the Tremendous treats set and is stamped on their banner die.

I can't wait to make different versions of these little bags, they come together so quickly and are just too cute! Not too many people work on Halloween projects, but I just love seeing what other people come up with. I've never actually sent out a Halloween card to anyone, but I do make a few card sets to put up for sale, along with some tag sets as well! I hope to bring you more projects soon with the upcoming holidays! Have a great week everyone, thanks so much for stopping by!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday #132 Layered Border Die Cuts

Hello everyone, happy Thursday! Hope you are all having a fabulous week so far! I am enjoying a wonderful, quiet day off at home! It has been yet another crazy, busy week, so I decided to spend a few hours relaxing in my craft room this morning before I run off to do a few errands. This week over on Nichole's blog Dawn McVey (she is amazing, I can browse her website for hours!) has challenged us to create a project using Layered Bordered Die Cuts for Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday #132.

I am so far behind on my Holiday crafting! I haven't started any Halloween projects yet, and I am dying to get into making Christmas cards already! I just can't seem to find the time! For this challenge, I really wanted to use the Papertrey Ink Nuts for You stamp set again and make a fall-themed card. This card took me forever to make because I do not own any border dies from PTI, so I had to figure out another way to create a layered border using die cuts. I used one of the circle dies from the 1­­ 3/4" circle die set, cut out 4 different fall colors, and then cut those in half.


I layered them all together at the bottom of my Kraft cardstock base, then added a strip of Kraft cardstock with some brown/white twine. I stamped the background with the leaf and acorn image from the stamp set using Stampin' Up's Crumb Cake ink. I used Papertrey Ink's Mat Stack #5 die along with the matching stamp from the Tiny Treats: Birthday stamp set. I die-cut and colored my squirrel using Prismacolor markers in Walnut, Dark Brown, Sienna Brown, and Ballet Pink. Last, I added the "happy fall" sentiment using the PTI banner die.





I am really happy with the way this card turned out, I just love it. The only thing I might change on the card is the colors of my little Squirrel. I think I should have colored him a little lighter to make him stand out a bit more against the Kraft cardstock base. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day, thanks so much for stopping by!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #131

Good morning fellow crafters! Are you glad it is the weekend? I sure am! It has been forever and a day since I was last able to post on my blog, in fact, I haven't been able to spend any time crafting at all in the last couple of months to be honest. We took our family vacation to California at the end of July, then came home and jumped right back into another school year. I am amazed that we are already 2 weeks into September. I feel as though there isn't any time anymore to just sit back and relax, enjoy time with the family you know? So far our days are filled with crazy mornings, then we're all off to work and school. After that we spend a couple of hours doing homework, then it's showers, cleaning, and dinner. Dinner usually is the only time we have to really catch up with what's going on with everyone, and I am sad to say that this is how it has been every day since school started. I feel like the kids don't have any time to themselves any more to just relax either.

So here we are on a Saturday and for the first time in a few months I do not have to work and it feels great! Had a simple breakfast with my oldest daughter and now she is watching some Saturday morning cartoons. My DH is out at school this morning for a Saturday class and my youngest is still actually asleep. She knows not to wake up early on the weekend. The last few days have been cloudy and rainy. I had the day off on Thursday and despite the fact that it was pouring rain, decided to make the trip across town to Michaels because to be honest, I haven't stepped foot inside a Michaels store in over 5 months. Making this trip finally got me feeling creative again and I decided to attempt making a card for this weeks Make it Monday Challenge over on Nichole Heady's blog.

The challenge this week is Striped embossing. I was amazed at how easy Betsy made the technique seem when I was watching the video, and I just loved how bright her colors looked against the Kraft cardstock. My only problem is that my Embossing Powder collection is actually very small. I have a range of about 12 colors, and nothing bright. Aside from neutrals, I've got baby blue, hot pink, red, and green, and I just had no idea how to do striped embossing with these colors without making an ugly mess. So I finally settled on Glam Gold, Copper, and Black, and used Papertrey Ink's Nuts for You Stamp set and the Wonderful Words: Hello stamp set to make my card. I embossed the nuts in the gold and copper embossing powder as well. I colored in my cute little squirrel with Prismacolor Markers in Cocoa Bean, Walnut, and Light Umber.


I have to admit I tried this technique over and over and over. I wasted many Kraft cardstock bases trying to get this just right. My embossing powders were just not sticking! I finally realized I needed to use a different embossing pad. I was trying to use a Stampabilities Embossing ink Pad, but I realized that the ink seeped into the cardstock way too fast before I could get the embossing powders to stick. So I finally decided to switch my embossing pad and used Ranger's Perfect Medium Stamp pad instead, and this worked perfectly. I was able to line up my post-it's without worrying if the embossing ink would dry too quickly. I like the overall look and the colors of the card. I think I will make a couple more cards to make a set, this would be a cute Fall card set!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the upcoming week. I hope to spend a little bit more time here in my craft room in the next few days, I am way behind on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas crafting!