happy friday!

Hello and happy Friday!   I'm popping in with two cards that I made the other day.  First up is a card that I made using the gorgeous So Loved stamp set from the new Simon Says Stamp You Are Loved release.  SSS was so kind to send me a set before the release and I shared a card on Instagram and my flickr that I made using the set.   The card I'm sharing today was made for the current Color Throwdown challenge, as well as the current CAS(E) this Sketch challenge.  I started by stamping the outline images I wanted to use in red and green inks from Stampin Up!.  I then used the solid images to complete the stamping.  Second generation stamping was used for the flowers.  I then filled in with additional images from the set.   The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Diecember release and is called Big For You.  Again, Simon Says Stamp generously sent me this die and I shared a card I made with it on Instagram and flickr.   I die cut the sentiment from kraft cardstock and then twice more from white and adhered them together.  I trimmed the panel per the CTS layout and then adhered it to a kraft cardstock base.  The sentiment was then adhered on top.

The second card is for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge:  Christmas.   I have had the Concord & 9th Snow Flurries stamp set and matching dies for ages and I have wanted to make something with them, but unfortunately never found the time.   When I went on my second shopping trip to Impress Rubber Stamps I picked up this pad of specialty papers from DCWV.  All the papers are in the Rose Gold family so I used several from the set for the card.   The big snowflake from the set was stamped using Memento Desert Sand ink as it turned out to be a pretty close match to the rose gold... who knew?!    After stamping the panel with the snowflake it was die cut with a rectangle die.  I die cut the small snowflake from glitter and mirror cardstocks from the pad and layered then together.  Another piece was die cut with a larger rectangle as a mat for the sentiment panel.  I turned the sketch on its side because my sentiment looked better that way.  I placed the snowflake on the panel, arranged where I wanted the sentiment, removed the snowflake and then stamped the sentiment in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne.   Everything was adhered to the card base and I finished with some Pretty Pink Posh rose gold sequins.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card 1:  Cardstock:  PTI kraft, MFT white; Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp; Dies:  Simon Says Stamp; Inks:  Stampin Up!

Card 2:  Cardstock:  PTI rustic white; DCWV rose gold specialty papers; Stamps:  Concord & 9th; Dies:  Concord & 9th; A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Memento, VersaFine CLAIR; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh

25 Days of Christmas Tags - bonus day!

Hey everyone!  I'm popping in with a couple of tags that I made for Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags event bonus day!   If you head over to Tracey's blog you can see all of the tags made by the A Jillian Vance Design team for this event and to play along by creating a tag based on tags created for any of the event days.  There are tons of prizes to be won so get creating and get your tags posted by December 3rd in order to be in the running for a prize.  All the information can be found here.    For my tags today I used the Minnie Pearl Tag die set along with the Jingle Bells die set and the Stately Stag die set.   The sentiments are from the Christmas Blessings and the Let It Snow stamp set.   You can also see all the tags on the A Jillian Vance Design blog.

I had a lot of fun making these two tags and as you can see I used lots of fun glitter paper!   If I had to pick a favorite it would be the one with the Stately Stag on it as I just love the his Christmas lights wrapped antlers!   Below are photos of each of the tags as well as a photo showing all the different sponsors of this event.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my tags and that you take the time to participate in this fun event!  Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI rustic white; Ranger woodgrain (white); Hero Arts woodgrain (dark brown); Stampin Up! green, white and blue glitter paper; Lawn Fawn orange, purple glitter paper; Ink:  VersaMark watermark ink; Catherine Pooler Icing on the Cake; Ellen Hutson green and blue ribbon; Stampin Up! white baker's twine; dark brown hemp twine

february pti blog hop...

Hey there!!  Wow... it seems like forever since I last posted, but it has only been a few days!  I have been making things, but nothing I could share yet.  In between those projects I did manage to make something for the PTI blog hop.  I don't have any of the newer PTI releases, but when I saw the inspiration photo I zeroed in on the little jars of flower that sort of look like lily of the valley.  I have PTI's Year of Flowers:  Lily of the Valley so I got that out along with an the Notched Banner:  Hearts die set to create my card.   I die cut the lily of the valley and then stamped it using my mini MISTI using VersaFine Smoky Gray ink.  I then colored the flowers with a light pink Prisma pencil and the leaves with two green Prisma pencils.  I die cut the banners from PTI's Spring Moss and white cardstock to layer them together.  I die cut a white cardstock panel and adhered it to a Spring Moss cardstock base.   Then I layered on the banner and the flower.  The sentiment was stamped on PTI vellum with VersaMark and heat embossed in white.  I trimmed it down and adhered it.  Finished things off with some little pink heart shaped enamel dots.  I used the current layout from Freshly Made Sketches so I will be posting my card there, as well.

Have a wonderful day and happy hopping!!

Supplies:   Cardstock:  PTI Spring Moss and vellum, MFT white; Stamps:   PTI ; Dies:  PTI and AJVD; Inks:  VersaFine and VersaMark; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts; Enamel hearts; Prisma color pencils  

PTI May Blog Hop...

Hello!!  Stopping in with a card for today's PTI blog hop.  The inspiration photo is beautiful but I must admit that I really struggled with this one.  Tried several ideas last night, but came up with nothing.  After looking through the cards that have been posted I was finally able to come up with my card.  It is interesting to me how differently everyone sees the colors in the inspiration piece.  Me... I see blues and gray/greens in the leaves, as well as peach and a ruby red.  After trying a few different sets I finally went with PTI's Friendly Flowers.  I used PTI's Ocean Tides and MFT Cornflower for the leaves and Hero Arts Soft Cantaloupe for the large flower and a Hero Arts red for the small flowers.  After stamping everything with my MISTI I added in the little dots with a small acrylic block and a little stamp that came with the set.  The sentiment was stamped in black and then I added dots of Nuvo Crystal Drops in Morning Dew.  The panel was adhered to an Ocean Tides cardstock base.  Super simple and now I have another birthday card to add to my stash!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI white and Ocean Tides; Stamps: PTI; Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  PTI, Hero Arts and VersaFine; Nuvo Crystal Drops

Two More Easter Cards...

Happy day before Easter everyone!!  Popping in with two more Easter cards to share.  The first card is another take on the Reverse Confetti Sketch for You to Try.  Ellen Hutson recently started carrying Reverse Confetti (YAY!!) and had everything on sale so I took advantage of the sale and got the Easter Blessings stamp set and the Tall Stripe Panel Confetti Cut.   I really wanted to use both so I took a bit of liberty with the sketch to create my card.  The paper is once, again, from the Bo Bunny Believe line.  A lot of the colors are similar to those in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge inspiration photo so I will link my card up there, as well.  Stamped the sentiment on a scrap of watercolor paper with VersaFine Onyx Black, scribbled on some blue using a ZIG and then loosely blended it out with water.  Die cut the sentiment and the mat using AJVD circle dies.  The panel was die cut from a fun piece of paper covered in little hearts.  I thought it was a bit plain by itself on the card front so I die cut another Tall Stripe Panel from dark pink cardstock and then offset the two.  Adhered everything and then added a few enamel dots in the same blue as the watercolor background.

This second card uses the color combor from Color Throwdown, as well as the layout from Freshly Made Sketches. Love the simplicity of the FMS layout and just had to make something else with it!  I pulled out my PTI Tulip Time stamp set and using my mini MISTI created my tulip bunch.  The Color Throwdown palette includes coral and I know it is hard to tell that I used a coral ink, but I did.  In fact I used two different coral colored inks.  The tulip bunch in the front uses SU!'s Flirty Flamingo which is a lighter coral and the bunch in back uses Calypso Coral.  Combined with the yellow they read a bit orange.   The sloping piece was die cut with an AJVD Slippery Slope die and then adhered to the light gray card base.  I stamped the word happy (from the Simon Says Stamp Happy & Smile set) using Onyx Black ink.  Then I adhered the tulips.  The word Easter was die cut from some shimmery white paper.  The paper was rather thin so I die cut it again from a scrap of cardstock and adhered the two together.  The word was adhered using some rolled up glue dots and I was done.  This time I got the sentiment on the right side per the FMS layout!!

Wishing you a wonderful and relaxed Easter!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, light gray, dark pink, watercolor paper; Patterned paper:  Bo Bunny, Shimmer white; Stamps: Reverse Confetti and PTI; Dies:  Reverse Confetti, PTI and AJVD; Inks:  VersaFine, Stampin Up! So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Flirty Flamingo, Pear Pizzazz and Gumball Green; My Mind's Eye enamel dots; ZIG Clean Color marker

pti february blog hop...

Hello!!  Hopping along today with the PTI February blog hop.  Initially I didn't think I would play along as I really struggled with the inspiration photo, but the gold embossed laurel wreath in the photo just kept saying "use Lovely Laurels mini make it market kit" to me so here I am, lol!!  This card is pretty simple looking but boy oh boy did it give me a lot of trouble!!   I started by stamping the wreath in watermark ink and them embossing with gold embossing powder.  Then the image was die cut with the matching die.  Then I stamped the sentiments with watermark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder for that tone on tone look.  Because I am a crazy perfectionist I actually die cut the bow then stamped the image on some cardstock that is similar to PTI's Autumn Rose with watermark ink and clear embossed it.  That was a bit of a trick because the bow is so tiny and my heat tool kept blowing it around!  Anyway... got it done!!  I die cut the panel down and then adhered the bow and some clear rhinestones.  I didn't want to use a white cardstock base as the contrast is too stark to me, but honestly I was kinda over making the card (just being real, lol!!) and just wanted to finish the card and get it posted.   Also going to add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy the hop!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Smoky Shadow; SU!; white; Stamps:  PTI; Dies:  PTI, AJVD; Ink:  VeraMark watermark ink; Gold and Clear embossing powders; clear rhinestones

wishing you..

Hello!!  Popping in with another card for the PTI past, present and future challenges that have been going on all this week.  This card uses one of the stamp sets that was featured for 2010... Year of Flowers: Sweet Peas.  I fell in love with YoF: Sweet Peas the minute I saw it and I still love it today!!  I stamped the image on watercolor paper using VersaFine Smoky Gray ink.  I used my mini MISTI so I could get a good impression.  I then colored it with my trusty ZIG clean color markers.  I used to shades of light pink and a yellow for the flowers and then two shades of a green for the leaves.  Once the image had dried I die cut it with the large scalloped die from the Nostalgic Notions Make it Market kit.  The sentiment also from YoF:  Sweet Peas was stamped on PTI's vellum using VersaMark and then embossed with white embossing powder.  I die cut the sentiment with a fishtail banner die and then adhered it to the image along with a PTI Sweet Blush button and twine embellishment.  Layered the piece on a die cut piece of pink cardstock and then adhered to a light gray cardstock base.    I'm going to add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use flowers.

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI vellum, watercolor paper; SSS Fog, SU! pink; Stamps:  PaperTrey Ink; Dies:  PaperTrey Ink and AJVD; Filigree white embossing powder; Inks:  VersaFine, VersaMark; Watercolor ink:  ZIG Clean Color markers; PTI button; white twine

three card post...

Hello!!  As many of you know PTI is now 10 years old!!  I can't believe it!  Seems just like yesterday when I discovered PTI and really fell in love with stamping!  Right now they are in the midst of a fun series of challenges celebrating the past, the present and the future.   Today I'm sharing three cards that I made for the first three years (2007, 2008 and 2009).  First up is a card made with one of the sets they featured from 2007... Green Thumb.   Love the hollyhocks image from the set and teamed it up with the little pot that also comes in the set.  I colored the images with Ranger distress markers, stamped them on watercolor paper and then blended out the color.  The grass was just created by scribbling on some Mown Lawn distress marker and then blending it out.  I also added some light blue for the sky.  Once the panel was dry I stamped the sentiment in VersaFine Onyx Black ink.  A little red bow was tied with some twine to finish off the card.

Next up is a card I made using one of the stamp sets from 2008... Floral Frenzy.  This card was inspired by Michelle's card that uses the same stamp set.  I stamped the flowers using a medium pink and a light purple ink.  The centers were stamped in yellow except for the final one that was stamped using Onyx Black ink.  The panel was then die cut with a PTI  Double Ups die.  A tiny clear sequin was added to each flower and then the panel mounted on a bright green cardstock base.

The final card uses one of the featured sets from 2009... On My Couch.  The chair was die cut and then stamped with the chair outline image in red and the pattern using pink ink.  The legs were added using a brown ink.  I stamped the picture in brown and then colored it with distress markers.  I added the rug using a teal color ink.  The rug image is from On My Couch Additions as is the sentiment.  The panel was die cut using another one of the Inside Out dies.  The layout follows the current CTS layout so I will add my card to that gallery.

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white; PTI kraft; bright green; watercolor paper; Stamps and Dies: PaperTrey Ink; Inks:  PTI, Hero Arts and VersaFine; Clean sequins; red hemp twine

Christmas Holly...

Hello!!  Stopping in with a Christmas card for the current Merry Monday Christmas challenge to create a clean and simple card.  I paired the MM challenge with the current Freshly Made Sketches layout to create my card.  The other day I decided to play around with watercoloring with the one package of Distress Crayons that I own and decided to use an older Hero Arts Holly cling stamp.  I don't recall the name of the stamp because I threw the packaging away so if someone out there does... please let me know.  I haven't played along with Merry Monday since early December because I needed a break from Christmas cards, but when my sweet bloggy friend, Linda, gave me a lovely shout out on her blog I just had to play along!  Please make sure you head to Linda's blog to check out her amazing CAS Christmas card!!  I stamped the holly on some watercolor paper with VersaFine Onyx Black ink and then colored it up with Peeled Paint and Festive Berries distress crayons.  When the panel was dry I die cut it down with an AJVD Stitched Dot rectangle die, added some additional Peel Paint crayon and then applied Nuvo Glitter Drops White Blizzard to the berries.   Because the panel is rather small I needed a small sentiment and found that in the PTI stamp set Merry Little Christmas.  To add a little something to the light gray card base I stamped it with the holly image twice using a light gray ink.  the panel was matted with red cardstock and adhered using foam dots.  To little buttons in a shade similar to the holly leaves finished off the card.

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS fog and dark red, Ranger watercolor paper; Stamps:  Hero Arts and PaperTrey Ink; Ink:  VersaFine Onyx Black; Watercolor medium:  Ranger Distress crayons; Nuvo Glitter Drops; PTI green buttons

PTI January blog hop...

Hello!!  Stopping in with a card for this month's PTI blog hop.  Nichole provided a beautiful and yummy inspiration photo and this is what I came up with.  I was inspired by the colors and used the PTI set Fresh Floral Wrap Ups. I have had this stamp set for ages and this is the first time using it!!  I die cut the images and then stamped them as you see.  To bring in the black background I used the PTI notebook die.  One of the cookie has a notebook paper look to it and so I thought using that die would be a nice touch.  Even though there aren't any polka dots in the inspiration photo I went with the tiny polka dot wrapper image and then echoed that with the polka dot background paper.  Finished off the card with the little tag and a bow tied using red twine. Super simple, but that it about all I can manage right now.    I will be adding this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Hope you have a wonderful day and happy hopping!!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, PTI black; Teresa Collins patterned paper; Stamps and dies:  PaperTrey Ink; Inks:  Hero Arts, PTI and VersaFine; Hemptique hemp twine

PTI December blog hop...

Hello!!  Hope everyone had a really wonderful Christmas!  I know I did!!  Stopping in today with my card for this month's PTI blog hop.   Once, again, Nichole gave us a really lovely inspiration photo.  I decided to use all of the bright pretty colors found in the photo.  Because during this time of the year things can get a little bit hectic and time gets tight I decided to use one of my Make It Market Mini Color Pop kits since all the components needed to create a beautiful card are found within each kit.  Originally I was going to use the Color Pop butterfly kit, but soon realized that the colors in the Color Pop Florals kit were a better fit.  I used the die cuts that come with the kit along with one of the pre-made panels. I die cut the panel down a bit and then arranged all the flowers and then adhered them at different heights.  The celebrate today die cut was cut three times, adhered together using spray adhesive, adhered to the panel and the panel to a white cardstock base.  As a final touch I added some Nuvo Glitter Drops in White Blizzard to the centers of all the flowers.  Can't wait to see how everyone else was inspired by the photo!

Hope you have a wonderful day...

Supplies:  PTI Make It Market Mini kit Color Pop:  Florals; white cardstock; Nuvo Glitter Drops

PTI November Blog Hop

Hello!!  Hope everyone here in the US had a lovely Thanksgiving!  We had a really wet one, but that is the Pacific Northwest in the winter!  Stopping in with my card for this month's PTI blog hop.  Nichole provided a lovely inspiration photo with lots of different directions you could go in.  I decided to focus on the two packages that were done in blue with gold polka dots.  It made me think of Tiffany Blue so the hunt was on to find a light robin's egg blue in my collection.  I finally hit on one with some very old Close to My Heart cardstock that I have.  I used PTI's What the Doodle: Snowflake, as well as a sentiment from Rustic Wreath.  I stamped the large snowflake on the light blue cardstock using VersaMark ink, applied gold embossing powder and heat set.  Once I had that done I die cut the snowflake using the matching die.  The swirl image from the set was stamped twice using Delicata Golden Glitz on a panel of white cardstock that I die cut and then the sentiment was stamped using a light blue similar to the cardstock. The sentiment is hard to read, but I didn't want to use a really dark ink like black so I went with the light blue. The layout for the card is based on the current Freshly Made Sketches so I will be posting it there, as well.   Also posting this to the current SSS Wednesday challenge of Christmas to die for.

Hope you have a wonderful day and happy hopping...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, Close to My Heart light blue; Stamps:  PaperTrey Ink; Dies:  PaperTrey Ink and AJVD; Inks:  VersaMark watermark, Delicata Golden Glitz, Hero Arts Soft Pool

PTI October Blog Hop...

Hello!! Hope your week is off to a good start!  Stopping in with my card for this month's PTI blog hop.  We got another beautiful inspiration photo from Nichole which you can see below.  When I saw the photo I immediately thought of my Turning a New Leaf stamp set.  I did use that set, but only to stamp the little branches you see behind the die cut branch.  I also used Background Basics: Text Style, Fall Elegance and a little berry image from Rustic Wreath.  The leafy branch was die cut using the PTI Branching Out die.  I first colored up some water color paper using Scattered Straw and Ripe Persimmon distress markers.  When the paper was dry I die cut it and then colored the leaves and branch further using Scattered Straw and Ripe Persimmon markers, as well as some brown ZIG markers.  Once everything was dry I added a bit of Ice Stickles to some of the leaves on the branch, as well as to the stem.  I cut a piece of woodgrain patterned paper and then stamped it with one of the Text Style images using light gray ink.  The small branch from Turning a New Leaf using SU! Always Artichoke ink.   The little berries were added using a SU!'s Ruby Red ink.  Once the stamping was finished I adhered the branch and the little bow tied from some dark brown twine.  I'm also going to add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge of Autumn.

Hope you have a wonderful day... happy hopping!!


Supplies:  Cardstock: dark brown, watercolor paper; Patterned paper:  My Mind's Eye; Stamps: PaperTrey Ink; Die:  PaperTrey Ink; Ink:  Ranger Distress inks, VersaFine Vintage Sepia; Ranger Icy Stickles 

orange feather...

Hello!!  Hope your weekend is going well.  Our crazy Washington fall weather is here and if I had the time to make something I would, but unfortunately I don't... boo hoo!!  I did squeeze in a little crafty time on Friday afternoon and created this funky little card.   When I saw the layout for CAS(E) this Sketch I just had to play along and yep... I used a feather!! I have had PTI's What the Doodle: Feather for ages and finally got to ink it up.  I stamped in on watercolor paper using VersaMark ink, applied white embossing powder and then heat set.  My colors come from this week's Color Throwdown.  I pulled out my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors to get the vibrant orange I wanted, as well as the dark navy.   I applied some clean water to my feather before mixing the orange paint with water and covering the embossed feather.  Once it was dry I die cut it with the matching die.  Along one side of a panel of watercolor paper I stamped a small feather from the same set using VersaMark, applied white embossing powder and heat set.  Then I did the same process using the dark blue color.  Once the panel was dry I trimmed it down to fit my kraft cardstock base and stamped it with the sentiment from the set.  Because the panel warped a little I used sticky back fun foam to adhere it to the card base.  A little bow was tied from some orange hemp twine, adhered and I was down.

Hope you have a wonderful day...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI kraft, Ranger watercolor; Stamps and dies:  PTI; Inks:  VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark watermark; Watercolors:  Kuretake Gansai Tambi; Hemptique twine