Easter Wishes...

 Hello!  Happy last day of February!  Look at me... posting three times in the last two days!  What is going on???   Guess the crafting bug got ahold of me, lol.  Today I have a very simple design that I'm sending off to the Sunday Stamps challenge (closes in mere hours, yikes!), Freshly Made Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  Let's have a look.

The Sunday Stamps challenge features a gorgeous color palette designed to get us thinking spring!  The more I looked at the colors the more I wanted to create something that reminded me of the forsythia that grew beside the front porch of the house I grew up in.   It wasn't until I was older that I learned the name of those flowers, but I always loved seeing the bright yellow blooms that started appearing in the spring.  I thought the Birch Press Design Budding Twigs Contour Layers die set was perfect to create my budding forsythia.  There are two sizes in the die set and I went with the smaller of the two.  I used my favorite yellow cardstock (Lemon Tart from PTI) and my favorite dark brown cardstock (Dark Chocolate from PTI) to die cut my pieces.  There are three layers to each twig.  Two of the layers create the little buds.  I left the top bud layer the Lemon Tart color and the bottom layer was inked up with a dark yellow ink to create the contrast.  The pieces were adhered together and set aside to dry.   For the background I blended Speckled Egg distress oxide ink onto white heavy stock cardstock.  Heavy stock is super smooth and perfect for blending.  I arranged the twigs per the FMS sketch and then stamped the sentiments (from the new SSS Bunny Blessings stamp set).   Thought about adding something else, but decided I really liked the simplicity of the design.

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

beach vibes...

 Hello!  I'm popping in today with two simple cards that have a very beachy vibe to them.  I don't often do beachy themed cards, but after these two I think I will try to do more!  Let's have a look at what I made.

This first card is for Color Hues and Freshly Made Sketches.  The colors at CH this time around are white and aqua.  Nothing says "beach" more than white and aqua.  I had just recently picked up Summer Shells and Just Sentiments: Summer from PaperTrey Ink so I just had to use them for the card.  I die cut all the pieces, placed them on my Waffle Flower grip mat and inked them up with Pinkfresh Studio Turquoise ink.  I die cut the center square using a rounded square die from Reverse Confetti and stamped the sentiment in the center.  Then I inked the edges with the turquoise ink that remained on my blender brush.  I adhered all the elements and then as an afterthought decided to add some Rock Candy distress glitter.  I applied Glossy Accents selectively and then added the glitter.  I let it dry fully before shaking off the remaining glitter.   Love the clean and simple beachy vibe!

Now for my next card. 

This card is for Color Throwdown.  Wasn't sure I would get something made, but then I looked through this coastal/beach themed pack of chipboard ephemera from 49th and Market that I got for free (love that!) from Scrapbook.com.   I have never purchased 49th and Market products before, but the chipboard pieces inspired me to take a look at their product line.  I ended up purchasing some washi tape stickers that they make.  Anyway, the pack had several pieces that fit the CTD colors so I arranged them on a kraft cardstock background and I was done.  Love quick and easy cards like that!

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

you are loved...

 Hello!  I'm popping in with a card for several challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Color Throwdown and the Tic Tac Toe challenge.   I don't think I have ever participated in the Tic Tac Toe challenge, but when I saw Lisa from My Paper Tales' card for the challenge I had to play along!  This is what I created:

The CTD colors this week are so bright and pretty.  I mean who doesn't love pink, yellow and green together?  It just says spring and so does the pretty You Are Loved stamp and die set from PaperTrey Ink.  It was one of my purchases when I won a gift certificate during the February release.   I used Pinkfresh Studio inks to do all of the stamping.   For the tic tac toe portion of the challenge I went with the bottom row of foliage, embossing and critter.  My critter is the tiny dragonfly perched on the wreath.  Hope that is sufficient!  I hadn't originally planned to emboss the background, but like I said I was inspired to do it because of Lisa.  I used a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder Blossom Field for the background.   The FMS layout calls for a square, but I rarely do square cards so I went with my usual A2 size.   

Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

bird's nest...

 Hello!   Wishing everyone a very happy Easter!  I'm popping in to share a card that I made using the current Freshly Made Sketches layout.  And since the challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is anything goes I will also be posting the card there.  Take a look at what I made.

Lately I have been trying to make a point of using products that I purchase as soon after I receive them as I can instead of getting and then putting them away.   This card uses one of my my recent purchases, PaperTrey Ink's Into the Blooms:  Nest die set.  In February I was the lucky winner of a $100 gift certificate for commenting on their release day blog post!  I had been eyeing the Into the Blooms: Nest die set and so picked it up along with a few other new items.   When I saw the layout for Freshly Made Sketches I thought a bird's nest would be perfect.  I started by using my Crooked Broom distress mica spray and some old Tsukeniko walnut stain spray on distress heavy stock.  I sprayed the heavy stock with water first and then added the other sprays letting them mix.  Because I wanted to get working on the card I used by heat tool to dry the piece of heavy stock.  Then I die cut out the pieces of the nest.  I had lots of pieces of heavy stock that I had sprayed with a combo of other mica sprays and so I used those for the leaves, eggs and flower.  Once I had everything die cut and assembled I dug through my large supply of 6x6 paper pads and came across this very old Basic Grey Serenade pad.  The colors in the pad were perfect for my little nest.  I die cut two different pieces and layered them on my kraft cardstock base.  I layered on the nest and then finished with a Memory Box pre-foiled sentiment tab.  

That's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

just because...

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick post of a card I made for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.  Still not making any headway on cleaning up my crafty space.  Hopefully that will happen soon, lol!  Here is what I made.

Went very simple with this card.  I used a Poppystamps die called Maple Symphony to die cut my little maple leaves.  I used distress inks in Carved Pumpkin, Aged Mahagony and Festive Berries on white cardstock to get my colors.   The Aged Mahagony is coming across as a bit brown, but in real life it is definitely maroon.  Anyway, I used a very old PTI die that cut this little notebook page as the backdrop for my leaves.  I die cut it from white, a strip from kraft and then glued them together.  I popped the piece up on a white card base with foam tape.  I added the leaves and the sentiment that is from the Simon Says Stamp Happy Hello stamp set.  I cascaded the leaves down the notebook page ending with the gold glitter one that I placed directly on the card base with foam squares.    Took me no time to put together!  Since I did stamp the sentiment I'm going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

sympathy...

Hello!  Hope all is well in your world.  Popping in to share a card that I created for Color Throwdown.  I will also be posting it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   I have been making a half-hearted attempt to get a handle on things in my crafty space.  However, what keeps happening is I'm finding things that I purchased in the past and have never used... Yikes!   Today's card features one of those newly found products.  Take a look at what I made.

I was going to try to make a card that used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and so I thought I would go through my PTI products to find the background die you see.  It is Border Bling:  Blooming Hearts.   As I was going through things, I found PTI's Into the Blooms:  Fun Flowers.  I had purchased it a long time ago, but never used it.  So, I decided to remedy that situation on the spot!   So, I started by die cutting all the piece from white cardstock and then I inked up the flowers in a light pink and a darker more magenta pink.  The leaves and stems were inked in a bright green.  Then everything came to a halt until the next day.  The I layered all the pieces and started figuring out my arrangement.  Then another work stoppage ensued until Saturday afternoon (September 2nd) when I finally finished the darn card, lol!   I finished the card with a sentiment from the PTI Just Sentiments:  With Sympathy set, pink Nuvo drops to the centers of the flowers and the little white twine bow.   

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

you are my sunshine...

 Hello!  Is the sun shining where you live?  It is partly sunny here.  I could have said partly cloudy, but I want to be an optimist, lol!   About a week ago I was digging through my collection of products looking for something and came across my long neglected Blue Skies suite of products from PaperTrey Ink.  Instead of putting them back I kept them out because I really wanted to make something with them.  Thankfully the current JUGs challenge came along because I now have used the products sooner rather than later!   Take a look at what I made.

Recently my friend, Greta, asked if I wanted to share in an order from Simon Says Stamp.  She lives in Oregon and I live in Washington, but I said yes, because she would be placing the order and Oregon has no sales tax!   Plus, I think she had a free shipping code and so I would only have to pay for her to mail the products to me from Oregon.  A win-win in my book.  As part of the order we split a package of Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Velvet Luxury cardstock in snow white.  I had used a tiny amount of one sheet, but when I saw the Blue Skies cover plate that creates a cloud filled background I knew I had to use the velvet cardstock.   The cover plate creates a lot of embossing so I was a little worried that the embossing wouldn't show up on the thinner velvet cardstock, but it turned out amazing!   I didn't want the entire piece to be white so I took a small scrap to see how it would take ink.  As you can see it work pretty darn well!   I used distress ink in Broken China for the inking.  I die cut the sun rays from white cardstock and then ink blended on Squeezed Lemonade and Scattered Straw distress inks.   Things were moving along smoothly until I decided to add foam squares to the back of my cloud/sun panel.  I hadn't stamped the sentiment that you see on one of the rays.  Thankfully everything stamped perfectly!  I finished with a scattering of sparkling clear sequins.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Guest Designing for PaperTrey Ink!

 Hello!  Hope everyone here in the US had a great Thanksgiving!  As my blog title indicates I'm guest designing for PaperTrey Ink this month using products from the November release.  I was so excited when I was contacted by Melissa Phillips back in October about guest designing.  I immediately said yes!   I have several cards to share with you today.  

This first card is very clean and simple.  I used the new PTI Adorned Trees stamps and dies along with a sentiment from an older PTI stamp set called Botanical Blocks IV.  The colors I used for the tree are from Color Throwdown and the layout is from Freshly Made Sketches.  I die cut the tree and the zig-zag garland from white cardstock.  I left them in place so I could stamp the images without a lot of trouble.  This was actually my second time stamping the images the first time I stamped and then die cut... that didn't work so well, lol!  Lesson learned!   The little stars and the snowflake are also in the set.  They were stamped and then die cut... that was much easier!  I trimmed down a strip of silver glitter cardstock for some additional sparkle, adhered it to my white panel and then stamped the sentiment.  The tree was popped up with thin foam strips.  I added the garland and the stars.  Morning Dew Nuvo crystal drops were added to the stars for shine and a little gem to the star.  

The second card uses the new Corner It:  Festive Holiday.  I used the inspiration photo from the current Fusion challenge for the color scheme.  I also sort of used the Fusion sketch.  The background was created with an older PTI cover plate die called Bold Border: Yuletide (no longer available) that I die cut from light gray cardstock and adhered to my white cardstock base.  I used PTI's Pinefeather ink for the pine boughs and Altenew inks in shades of gray for the poinsettia and pinecones.  The bow was die cut from white cardstock and a little bit of shading was added with a Cool Gray Copic marker.  I die cut the white panel, stamped the sentiment from the Just Sentiments: Heaven & Nature Sing mini stamp set in a gray ink and then added all my elements.  That panel was then popped up on my background.  I did add a little gem to the center of the bow and some Nuvo drops in a silvery color to the poinsettia.  I really love how this card turned out!  Will be adding this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

The next two cards I had already shared on Instagram, but thought I would share them here, as well.  The first one uses the Joyful Floral stamps and dies along with another older (no longer available) PTI die.  I stamped all the various images and then die cut.  I die cut some woodgrain vellum that I had along with the piece of white cardstock and adhered those together to give the vellum more stability.  I used the larger background die to cut some woodgrained patterned paper and adhered that to a red cardstock rectangle.  I then layered up all the elements on the card front.  The sentiment is in the Joyful Florals.  I die cut that, left it in place, stamped it and then adhered it to my card. 

The final card was created with the Feather Friends 17 die set.  This one happens to be a turkey!  I used distress oxide inks for my Tom Turkey.  I first die cut all the elements from bristol smooth cardstock and then left them in place.  I then inked everything with various distress inks.  Once the inking was done I removed all the pieces and assembled my turkey.  I created a little scene for him by using the fence die and what is supposed to be a little puddle of water from the Joyful Snowman stamps and dies, also part of the November release.  The sentiments are from the older PTI Color Pop: Autumn stamp, die and stencil set.  

I will have more projects to share using the November release so stay tuned!  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

wishing you sunshine...

Hello!  Popping in with a rainbow inspired card for a couple of challenges:  the Paper Players and Fab Friday.  The were no rainbows today in my part of the world even though there was a lot of rain!  But, that didn't stop me from creating this fun rainbow card!  I had made a card the other day and decided to use a stencil on it.  I went through all my stencils and found some rainbow themed stencils from PaperTrey Ink's Make it Market mini kits.  I paired a stencil with a heart in the center and the rays coming out from it with a stamp and die from the mini kit.   I started my card by masking off the rays on the stencil and inking up the heart with Candied Apple distress oxide ink.  I then determined how many rays I wanted to be each color and inked them up in rainbow order starting with orange.  I used the following distress oxide inks:  Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Lucky Clover, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, and Wilted Violet.  When I was finished with the main rays I inked up the smaller rays in the same order.  I then die cut the piece with an AJVD basic rectangle and some dark gray cardstock with the same die so I could layer the two per the Fab Friday sketch.  I then die cut the word sunshine from patterned paper that is part of the mini kit four times and layering them together.  The rest of the sentiment was stamped in VersaMark watermark ink on vellum and embossed with black embossing powder from WOW!   I adhered the vellum strip to the main panel and then adhered the die cut word.   Popped everything up on a white cardstock base. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wondeful day!

you are a treasure...

Hello!  I got some crafty time in the other day and made this card for the Paper Players and CAS(E) this Sketch challenges.  I love me a opportunity to do some collaging (either with stamped images or a combination of stamping and die cut images) and when I saw the current CTS layout I had to make something for the challenge.   When I initially saw the PP challenge to create something fashion related I didn't think I had anything that would fit until I remembered that I had this fun little stamp set from PTI designed by Dawn McVey that included a dressmakers form.   I also used another stamp set designed by Dawn McVey from her Boutique Borders line to create the little sign (for lack of a better description) element.  I think I have almost all the Boutique Borders sets and now that they are more readily available to me I am going to try to use them more.  The flourish image is from a favorite Stampin Up! set called Timeless Textures.  My color combo was take from some patterned paper from PTI that has bright pink, light blue, green and teal in it.   You can't tell in the photo, but the dress form was die cut first from silver cardstock and then from the polka dot patterned paper that was trimmed down.  I layered another die cut to give the little dress form more stability.  The sign was die cut and then stamped with the border.  I arranged the dress form and the sign so I could determine where to stamp the flourishes and then layered everything up.  The sentiment was stamped on a little banner using green ink and adhered along with some iridescent sequins for a bit of sparkle.  I really like how my card turned out. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

be happy!

Hello!!  I'm popping in on this beautiful Pacific Northwest day with a card that I made with the Spellbinders small die kit for March.  I think this is the first time that I have actually gotten the kit and made something with it before the end of the month!  Yay me, lol!  Anyway... there is absolutely no stamping on this card... all die cutting.  I am going to post this one to the following challenges:  JUGs (colors), Less is More (use 3 of something) and Fab Friday (sketch).   For the colors I went with a darker purple and so in the photo it is reading as more of a navy, but it is purple... honest!  My three things for the LIM challenge are three flowers and three colors.  My friend Greta has been guest designing for JUGs this month and I just had to play along at least once!  The March small die kit is loaded with dies two of which are bunnies and I can. not. wait. to use them!   They are stinkin' adorable.  For this card I used two of the flower dies and the flower stem die, as well as the word dies.    I created my flowers, adhered them together and then added the little twine bow.  I die cut the small rectangle from woodgrain cardstock and matted it with another rectangle die cut from the purple cardstock.   I die cut plain white cardstock with a rectangle die and then adhered the two rectangles to my card base along with the flowers.  Finished with the die cut sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, PTI white and Lemon Tart, Tim Holtz distress woodgrain, SU! Taken with Teal, Grape; Dies:  Spellbinders and A Jillian Vance Design; yellow baker's twine

joyful holiday greetings...

Hello there!  Popping in with a card for a couple of challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.   Twice this week I got the chance to do a little shopping at one of my favorite places Impress Rubber Stamps.  During my first shopping trip I picked up a Memory Box die set called Delicate Pine Frame.  I used that die set to create my card.  Another thing I picked up was a paper pad from American Crafts that has lots of fun Christmas/holiday themed papers as well as glitter paper and mirror cardstock.  I used a piece of patterned paper that had a gray background with snowflakes on it to die cut the larger frame.  The frame with the tree was die cut from the green glitter paper in the pad.  The birds were die cut from red and coral card stock.  I die cut a piece of white cardstock and then adhered the snowflake frame.  The tree frame was adhered with foam tape and then I added the little birds.  The sentiment is from the PaperTrey Ink Make It Market Holiday Folk mini kit and was stamped with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.   Super simple, but that what I need right now to get the last few Christmas cards I need done!  My sweet friend Greta reminded me about the monthly Memory Box challenge so I will be adding my card there, as well.   Thanks, Greta!  Realized that this will work for the new Time Out challenge so I'm sending it off for a visit there!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies: Cardstock:  MFT white, SU! coral and red; American Crafts glitter and patterned paper; Stamps:  PTI; Dies:  Memory Box and A Jillian Vance Design

PTI November Blog Hop...

Hey friends!  Hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Mine was awesome!  My great nephew Max was born on Thanksgiving day and I got to meet him that afternoon!  He is ADORABLE!!   Anyway... a quick post of a card for this month's PTI blog hop.  It is a fun inspiration photo featuring candy canes and lollipops.  I don't have anything remotely like that in my PTI stash so I focused on the red, white and light blue colors from the photo.  There is absolutely no stamping on this card... all die cutting!  I used the Bold Borders Yuletide die for the card.  I simply die cut the main die from red and white cardstock and adhered them together.  The Be Merry was die cut from Spring Rain cardstock three times and adhered together.  I adhered the frame to my cardstock base with glue, popped up the red panel with foam tape and then adhered the sentiment.  Super simple, but I like it!  Think I will also add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

Hope you have a wonderful day and happy hopping!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SU! Real Red, MFT white, PTI Spring Rain; Dies:  PaperTrey Ink

October PTI Blog Hop

Hey there!!  Today is the 25th and that means it is time for PTI's monthly blog hop.  I didn't think I was going to get something made for the blog hop as I have been working on other things, but this morning after I dropped my kiddo off at school I remembered that about a year ago I got a bee in my bonnet and decided to die cut all the pieces in the Make It Market Color Pop: Autumn mini kit.  Once I had everything die cut (and that took awhile, lol!) I decided to create some card fronts with them.  I'm glad that I remembered I had those ready made card fronts because once I found then I was able to put
together my card very quickly by simply pulling out one that had colors similar to those in the inspiration photo, added my sentiment (from the Bigger Blooms stamp set) and adhere the piece to a Weathervane cardstock.   I didn't focus on the obvious colors of the pumpkins, but decided to pull out colors that aren't so obvious like the red berries and the greens, blues and greys in the photo.  So now I have another birthday card that will work perfectly for a guy.  Yay for quick and easy cardmaking!

Hope you have a wonderful day and happy hopping!

Supplies:  All supplies from PaperTrey ink except ink (VersaFine CLAIR Acorn) and rectangle die: A Jillian Vance Design

september pti blog hop...

Hey there!  Feels like ages since I last posted, but it has only been a week, lol!  It is the 25th of September and that means it is time for PTI's monthly blog hop.  With fall now here the inspiration for this month's hop is a beautifully appointed fall table.  I decided to draw my inspiration from all the beautiful fall colors.  I have had PTI's Text and Texture: Roses for a long time and sadly had not used it so I decided to get it out to use to make my card.   I cut a piece of Harvest Gold and then stamped the roses images using a mustard yellow ink and a pumpkin orange ink.  I then die cut the image with a rectangle die.  Using the smallest die in the PTI Double Ups die set I die cut a piece of Harvest Gold and stamped the words Harvest and Blessings from the Color Pop: Autumn set in VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink.  The word Bountiful (from the Color Pop: Autumn die set) was die cut from Ripe Avocado paper three times and adhered together.   Additional Ripe Avocado was die cut with a larger rectangle die as a mat for the stamped piece.  I layered up everything and then added a few sequins in rust and yellow to finish up the card.   With the addition of the sequins I'm going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge and I will be adding this to the Time Out challenge as the colors I used for my card are similar to those found in their inspiration photo.

Hope you have a wonderful day and happy hopping!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Harvest Gold, Ripe Avocado, Rustic White; Stamps:  PaperTrey Ink; Dies:  PaperTrey Ink and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Stampin Up! and VersaFine CLAIR; Sequins:  Simon Says Stamp