Monday, February 24, 2014

PTI Make it Monday #153

Happy Monday fellow crafters! I hope you all had a fabulous start to your week! I am about to head off to bed but I wanted to show you the card that I made for this weeks' Make it Monday Challenge.

Dawn McVey has challenged us to create a project using heat embossed sentiments with a watercolor background. I will be honest, this was actually my 4th attempt at a card tonight. I wouldn't say my first 3 attempts were terrible, but I just wasn't getting the "watercolor" look that I was going for. I finally figured out that the paintbrush I was using was just too fat, so I switched it out for a thinner one and this is my finished card:




I used PTI Pretty Peonies stamp set along with TPC Studios Card Crafting Hello stamp set, stamped in black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I didn't want my water-coloring effect to come out too strong, so I am happy with the way my 4th attempt came out. Glad I didn't give up!

Anybody else having trouble receiving their PTI orders this month? I was really hoping to have my PTI order in by now, but unfortunately it still has not arrived. I don't think I've ever had to wait more than a week for an order to come in, and the UPS tracking number still only says that a shipping label was created, not that a package has been received for mailing out yet. I'm getting worried that something went wrong with my order :( I was looking forward to participating in the Blog Hop tomorrow with the new Bunny Bag die, and now I don't think I will be able to...

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week, until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Friday, February 14, 2014

PTI 7th Anniversary Building Blocks of Design

Good evening fellow crafters! Are you ready for Valentine's Day?! I almost am, still need to finish up the kids' classroom Valentine Treat bags. My oldest daughter's birthday is on Monday, but they do not have school so she also wanted to take cupcakes to celebrate her birthday tomorrow. Still need to bake those, so will be up later than I hoped. I work late tomorrow and won't get out until 10pm, but right after that we are surprising the girls with a weekend trip to Disneyland (neither of them have any idea!). We will leave tomorrow night, stay Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, then leave Tuesday, and be back to school and work on Wednesday! I can't wait to go back, we love it there! We last went in August and are definitely ready for another trip back!

So anywho, since the girls have school in the morning and I work at night, we celebrated Valentine's Day tonight. We had a nice simple dinner, we all opened our gifts and cards, then I went ahead and took a little bit of time out to make a card for today's challenge over at Papertrey Ink. When you visit each blog, each DT member has a different Building Blocks Option list for you to roll the dice to or use random generator to. Here is my list:

Ashley's Color Selection #1 Pure Poppy
Betsy's Color Selection #2 Berry Sorbet
Cristina's Color Selection #3 Aqua Mist
Danielle's Neutral Selection Classic Kraft
Dawn's Sketch Selection #3
Erin's Occasion Selection Birthday Card
Heather's Technique Selection Spray Misting
Laura's Embellishment Selection Rhinestones
Melissa's Fiber Selection Baker's Twine

And my Birthday card:




I used Embossed Resist on my background using Hero Arts Line Dots Cling Stamp. I used some Heidi Swapp Color Shine mists in Gold and Sweet Cherry for my Spray Misting. I used Papertrey Ink's Mat Stack #5 die, and embossed that with some dots, then adhered that to my embossed, spray-misted cardstock. I stamped my flowers using PTI's Ruby Reprise Stamp set, then cut them out by hand. I adhered all my flowers to the card, then added some white Baker's Twine. On top of that, I added a PTI double-ended banner die cut stamped with the "Happy Birthday" sentiment from PTI's Stylish Sentiments: Birthday stamp set. I also added some Glitter to each side of my card, did you spot that? :)

I...love...this...card! I really do. And I love Heidi Swapp's Color Shine spray mists! They are so sparkly! I really was hoping to do at least 2 or 3 cards for this challenge, but I still just have way too much to do! Thanks for stopping by, have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

PTI 7th Anniversary Stripes Challenges

Good evening crafters, hope you all have had a fabulous Wednesday! I am over here with droopy eyes, struggling to stay awake. I am very tired but wanted to get this card up before it was too late. This is for the Papertrey Ink Stripes Challenge.



I used to the same purple cardstock scraps to create my "lattice" stripes on the card front, right on top of some striped embossing. I used Hero Arts Sew Me Flower Jewel Stamp set for the flowers and leaf, along with Papertrey Ink's One-liners Happy Die collection and the Year Round Happiness Stamp set.

I am not too sure how I feel about this card. You know how sometimes you make a card and you're like "WOW! MAN, I LOVE THIS!" and other times you start, want to quit, but finish anyways, then say to yourself "What the heck was I thinking?". Well, that's how I feel about this card. Maybe it's all the purple, maybe I am just too tired. Maybe I am just too frustrated because I couldn't get good enough lighting to capture a good enough photo.

I should probably go to sleep, I do not work tomorrow, but I have a ton of things to do. Need my rest! Thanks for stopping by, have a great night!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

PTI 7th Anniversary Stripes Challenge

Good evening fellow crafters! I can't believe I have been able to participate so much this month in all these Papertrey Ink challenges! It definitely is exciting! I cannot wait to get my hands on all these new products and start playing around with them!

Today the challenge is to incorporate stripes into our projects. I made a fairly simple Thank you card:



I used Papertrey Ink's Boutique Borders: Thanks stamp set and coordinating die, along with a Recollections cardstock pack called Purple Passion. Each cardstock strip is 1/4" and stuck onto the card with Scor-tape.

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful night!

Monday, February 10, 2014

PTI 7th Anniversary Words Challenge #3

Last post for tonight fellow crafters. The challenge the other day on journaling cards got me inspired to do a little scrapbooking, which I haven't done in a very long time! I made this 8½ x 11" scrapbook page, with of course Kraft cardstock, and some patterned paper scraps.



I used PTI's Double-ended Banner dies to cut out a bunch of banners, then lined them up on the side of my page. Then I used the Super Star Borders Die to add all the stars. I used Wonderful Words: Memories Stamp set and coordinating die to add to the bottom of my page. I left the top left hand corner blank so I can add my journaling later.

Really can't wait for the Monthly Moments series that Papertrey Ink is going to be releasing. I've been focusing so much on card making that I've lost sight of all my journaling and memory-making, and would really like to catch up on it all. I am excited to see what the DT comes up with for this series!

Have a good night!

PTI 7th Anniversary Words Challenge #2

Here is another card I made for today's Papertrey Ink challenge.



For this card, I used PTI's One Liners: Happy Die collection, along with the Pretty Peonies stamps set and coordinating dies. The "mother's day" is from PTI's Year Round Happiness stamp set.

I really wanted to get started on some Mother's Day cards to add to my Etsy shop. In the process of trying to get all these cards made in time for these daily challenges, I realized that I need more floral stamp sets! Hopefully I can add some to my order with this month's release!

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

PTI 7th Anniversary Words Challenge

Good morning fellow crafters! Super quick post this fine Monday morning as we are rushing to head out to work and school and start yet another week!

Today the PTI Anniversary Challenge is to create a project with the focal point on "words" using stamps or word dies. I used the PTI Wonderful Words: Friends stamp set for this card. I really like this color combo!


Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful Monday!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Papertrey Ink Birthday Card

As Nichole states, we can take a picture with our card to earn another entry in today's challenge, so here is my older daughter holding up the first card that I made for today:


Papertrey Ink Birthday Card

Happy Birthday Papertrey Ink! I cannot tell you how thankful I am to have found you over 4 years ago. I placed my very first order with you on December 27, 2010, and have been hooked ever since. I cannot deny that it has been hard to venture outside of my PTI spoiled-ness. While I may not own any of your gorgeous ink colors (yet!) or too many of your stamp sets, I love and cherish everything I have ordered from you and look forward to many, many more years of giving you more of mine (and my DH's) hard-earned money. So, here's to you. "May your birthday bring you as much joy & happiness as you bring into my life." Because seriously, if I didn't have crafting and Papertrey Ink products in my life, I would honestly lose my mind over here.



Thank you for helping me improve my crafting abilities, otherwise, I would still be making cards that looked like this:


Yes, ladies and gentleman, that right there is my very first ever handmade card. So glad I saved it because I thought I was the coolest when I made that card, and while even now I don't think it is a BAD card, I think I have definitely improved on my crafting skills :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

P.S I will take my picture with my card later, as right now it is still very early Sunday morning, and you don't want to see all this, trust me. Have a great day!

PTI Anniversary 3x4 Card Challenge #3

Okay, looks like this will be my last post for tonight. I was hoping to make a lot more journaling cards today, because they are fairly simple and quick to put together, but time just got the better of me and it is already after midnight. Unfortunately, I do have to work tomorrow, so I need to try and get some sleep tonight because last night I only sleep 3 hours after trying to catch up on my final Etsy orders.

These cards are simple, came together quickly. Used Papertrey Ink's Wonderful Words Friends, Together, Hello, and Memories stamp sets and dies for these, along with Kraft cardstock. The patterned paper is from Recollections Garden Florals paper pack.



If this is your 3rd time stopping by today, I appreciate you taking the time to come and check out my projects, your comments and advise mean a lot! Good night!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

PTI Anniversary 3x4 Card Challenge #2

Good evening crafters, hope you are all enjoying your Saturday! I just wanted to share with you real quick another set of 3x4 cards I made for today's Card Challenge for Papertrey Ink's 7th Anniversary!






For this set of 3x4 cards, I made Monthly journal calendar cards using Papertrey Ink's Beautiful Butterflies Stamp set and the Framed Out #4 stamp set. And guess what? Those aren't printed calendar dates. I stamped those using Damask Love's Let's Make a Date Stamp set. I ordered this set immediately after I saw her little tutorial on how the set works last month, and I just received it a few days ago because she was waiting to get some more sets in stock. This stamp set is amazing, just the way it works to make each month is such a brilliant idea, I am so glad I ordered a set while she still had them in stock and I just love it!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great night!

PTI Anniversary 3x4 Card Challenge

Good morning and Happy Weekend Fellow crafters! Is it just me, or are you going to go deeply into debt with this month's Papertrey Ink Release? Did you see what Nichole showed today?! They are releasing their own project memories line called Monthly Moments! I literally spent a good hour or so really reading over and over the details of this line, I love it and I cannot wait for it to come out next week! I want it ALL!

So of course today's challenge is so fitting because we are asked to make a 3x4 journaling card, either for our memories albums or journals, or to place on TOP of a card. I was BEYOND exciting when I turned on my tablet this morning, still in bed, half asleep, and read through all the details. I immediately hopped out of bed and got to work!

Last month, I went to Michaels to scope out what kind of Valentines products they had in stock, and came across Heidi Swapp's line of products. There were stickers, stencils, cling stamps, spray mists, and much more. But what caught my eye, and what I fell in love with and just had to have ALL of, were these 9 mini stamp sets:


These stamp sets are BRILLIANT for Project Journaling, I cannot tell you how easy it is to create your own journaling cards. You can find all the stamp sets here, but I recommend you head over to your local Michaels or craft store and see if they have these, because at Michaels, they were only $3.99 each! And the best part? I got them during a 50% off stamp sale week, making them an awesome $1.99. Granted, the quality of the stamps is not the greatest, they are a little flimsy, but I still love them! (Guess I am spoiled by Papertrey Ink's great photo-polymer quality!)

So, back to today's challenge. I love to use index cards for my journaling cards, I don't often post anything Project Life or otherwise, because sometimes the journaling is too personal for me to share, but I can share these "before" cards with you at least. I used white Index Cards for these, cut down to 3x4, rounded the corners, added a 2" Kraft circle on top stamped with the Peony flower from PTI Pretty Peonies stamp set, along with various stamps from the Heidi Swapp stamp sets. Here are my cards:







I cannot wait to see the full release next month! The Monthly Moments is definitely my favorite part of the release so far! Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, February 7, 2014

PTI Anniversary Timed Challenge

Today over on Nichole's blog, the challenge is to create a project in 17 minutes or less AFTER grabbing 7 supplies in 7 minutes! At least we were given 17 minutes and not 7! I've never timed myself making a project, but this was definitely a challenge! I will have to admit it was fun, a bit crazy, but fun. I definitely had to make sure I had my sketch book handy so that I didn't waste any time on a Card Sketch or measurements as I was putting together my project today. I used this online stopwatch to time myself.


In addition to timing myself, I also wanted to challenge myself even more by making a simple card set. So I got all my supplies in 7 minutes:

1.) Inks (SU Elegant Eggplant, Cherry Cobler, Night of Navy, More Mustard, Crumb Cake, and Early Espresso)
2.) Cardstock (Kraft, White, and Early Espresso)
3.) Corner Chomper
4.) EK Success Punch
5.) Twine
6.) Brads
7.) Stamp Sets (Papertrey Ink's Year of Flowers, Hero Arts Solid Dots Cling Stamp and Hero Arts CL498 Stamp Set)

Like I said before, I needed to make this as easy as possible. In my sketch book I make sure to include the measurements needed for anything that needs to be cut out, that way I didn't need to waste time guessing. I also chose to use only one flower, the Daffodil, from the PTI stamp set, so I wouldn't waste time cleaning and repositioning stamps for each card. I made this Mother's Day Card set:






I can't believe I finished! How exciting and what a rush to finish a project while being timed! Think of how many projects we would finish timing ourselves! Just kidding, this was too much work, I like to take my time.



The craftermath:


I didn't make too much of a mess, the card design itself is pretty simple, so it was easy to put together. What took me the longest was adding the brads, the twine, and the dimensional adhesive, otherwise I think I could have finished earlier.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

PTI Anniversary Color and Sketch Recipe #1

Good evening fellow crafters! If this is your 3rd time stopping in today, THANK YOU! I truly appreciate you taking some time to check out my projects, especially since I don't post too often. But who would resist all the great things going on over at Papertrey Ink for their 7th Anniversary?!

While I promised myself this year that I would try to explore the products of other companies, I cannot stress enough how much I love Papertrey Ink! Their products are just amazing, the quality of the stamps is wonderful, I've never had any problems with them! And their Design Team is so amazingly talented, I cannot wait to see what they have in store for us this year!

For the 7th Anniversay, PTI is giving away $300 worth of their products based off of our Wishlist on their website. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! That is a TON of stuff! The challenge going on up until the 15th is to create a project using a Sketch Recipe AND a Color Recipe. This is what I chose for my first card:


Using the Ruby Reprise Stamp set, I created my card using a Kraft cardstock base. I am not a big, big fan of the Fine Linen color, so I snuck that in as a scalloped "border" along the side of my card. For my stripes, I used a stamp from the My Favorite Things Lollipop Additions Love Stamp set. I do not have the matching dies for the Ruby Stamp set, so I hand-cut my flowers and leaves, then adhered them to my card, popping up one of the flowers with dimensionals.



I love this card! Don't you just love Color and Sketch challenges? They take all the hard work out of creating for you, and all you need to do it sit back and create something wonderful! I absolutely love the color combo! Of course Kraft is my all-time FAVORITE go-to when it comes to most of my cards, but adding any type of red ink really makes it stand out.

Can't wait to try another combination, I have a feeling I won't be going to sleep any time soon! Thanks for stopping by, have a great night!

PTI 7 year Anniversary Card #2

Hello again fellow crafters! Here is another card for the Papertrey Ink Anniversary celebration today using the Free Printable images! This time, I used Heather Nichol's design image, which does not need a whole lot more added to it, it is such a great design just by itself!



I used The Paper Studios A2 Medium Polka Dots embossing folder on the front, and added a piece of black cardstock behind Heather's design image to try and make it pop a little more. I added a little glitter to the hearts, and that's it! This card came together super fast!

Thanks for stopping by again!

Papertrey Ink 7 year Anniversary!

Wow! Can you believe all the amazing things going on over at Papertrey Ink this month?! They are celebrating their 7th Anniversary, and this month's release is filled with tons of new products and give-aways! The design team has created such wonderful inspiration projects, as well as everyone participating out there in blog land, I can't keep up with all the entries that keep getting added!

Today Nichole has posted the 2014 Free Printables PDF, and it has some amazing Digital images designed by the PTI Design team. Today the challenge over on Nichole's Blog is to create a project using one of the images!



I used Erin Lincoln's "Love You" Image for my card. I really liked the colors she chose as well as the plaid design. I cut out each letter individually and popped it up on the bottom of my card with some dimensionals. I also used the PTI Framed Out #11 Stamp set and the inside of my card includes a sentiment from the Happy Hearts Stamp set.

I am trying to get some Etsy orders shipped out by tomorrow, I still have 4 big orders that I am working on, and I should really be doing that right now, but I am dying to just continue playing along with the challenges so far, I can't wait to create another card with some of the other images! Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!