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

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

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 

pti september blog hop...

Hello!!  Can't believe September is almost over and that it is time for PTI's monthly blog hop.  This month Nichole provided a clean and simple photo as inspiration for our projects.   When I saw the photo I knew immediately that I was going to use my Rustic Wreath stamps and the matching die.  I was finally able to get Rustic Wreath earlier this year.  It was so popular that every time I went to purchase it I couldn't because it was sold out!!  I started out by die cutting the wreath from kraft and green cardstock.  I then stamped the wreaths with the matching wreath stamp.  Once that was done I matched them up with my light grey cardstock to see which I liked better.  In the end I decided to go with the green wreath.  I used a tiny kraft tag that was die cut using the Tiny Tags die, masked off the Joyeux in the Joyeux Noel sentiment, inked up the noel with the same espresso ink I used to stamp the wreath and then stamped it on the tag.  The wreath was adhered to my light grey cardstock panel and then I added the tag and a simple bow tied from off white hemp twine.   I added a bit of sparkle with some Diamond Stickles.  Clean and simple and I absolutely love it!!

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


Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, SU! Old Olive, PTI kraft, white; Stamps:  PTI Rustic Wreath; Dies:  PTI Rustic Wreath, AJVD Stitched Dot Rectangles; Inks:  SU! Early Espress; Diamond Stickles; Hemp twine

bountiful blessings... pti august blog hop

Hello!!! Playing along today with this month's PTI blog hop.  Nichole provided a lovely inspiration piece that had my thoughts going in all kinds of directions.  I really wanted to play off of the way the paint palette looked and so tried an idea that unfortunately totally bombed, lol!  But that is why we try things, right?  Since I had to take my little guy (seriously I think I have to stop saying that... he isn't that little anymore, lol!) to swim lessons on Wednesday (the day before the hop)evening and I still had to make dinner my crafting time was limited.  So I went with an idea that I think turned out nicely.  When I looked at the inspiration photo I saw the colors of coral, dark yellow and navy blue.  I used Abandoned Coral and, Fossilized Amber distress inks and navy blue cardstock.  The PTI stamps I used are from the Brushed Off stamp set and the new Color Pop Autumn mini make it market kit.  The brushed off image was stamped in Abandoned color on watercolor cardstock and then blended out with water.  I did that to provide some of the depth of color that you see in the inspiration photo.   I added some additional color by stamping several of the detail leaf images from the Color Pop Autumn and blending them out with water.  The word "bountiful" was die cut from navy cardstock three times and adhered together.  The watercolor panel was then die cut with the largest die from the Inside Out die set and a second was die cut from kraft cardstock to provide a little bit of a mat.  I wanted to bring in the silver from the paintbrushes and so I added a coil of silver thread to the panel and then adhered the die cut word on top.  Finished off by adding the sentiment "blessings" in black ink. 

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock: PTI kraft and Fine Linen, Ranger watercolor, Simon Says Stamp navy; Stamps and dies:  PaperTrey Ink; Inks:  Ranger and VersaFine; Silver Thread:  Coates & Clark

PTI July Blog Hop

Hey friends!!  Stopping in on this lovely morning with a card for this month's PTI blog hop.  I only got one card made for Stamp-a-faire as the weather has been so nice and my boys wanted to get out and do some things.  I did manage to get a card made for the blog hop.  The inspiration photo is so pretty and I had a definite idea in mind, but I just could not make it happen with the first two stamp sets I tried!  I finally pulled out Garden Grace and was able to make my idea happen.   I die cut some Soft Stone cardstock with my Quatrefoil coverplate and then cut away about 2/3 of it to create a lattice looking corner piece.  The white panel was die cut with the largest Double Ups die and the lattice adhered to that.  I die cut the floral image and then stamped it using two shades of orange and two shades of green.  Unfortunately it didn't stamp very well in the center of the floral image, but at that point I had been trying to make a card for about 2 hours so I embraced the less than perfect look and went with it, lol!  I stamped the sentiment, also from Garden Grace, and then adhered the floral image in place.  Some bright blue sequins were added to bring in that little pop of bright blue you see in the inspiration photo.  I also sprinkled some tiny clear sequins around on top of the image.  I'm going to post this to the current Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge to add texture.

 

Thanks for stopping by today... would love to hear your thoughts!!


Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Soft Stone, white; Stamps:  Garden Grace; Dies:  Garden Grace, Double Ups, AJVD; Inks:  Hero Arts Orange Soda, Soft Cantaloupe, SU! Pear Pizzazz, PTI Simply Chartreuse, VersaFine Onyx Black; Hero Arts sequins; Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins

June PTI Blog Hop...

Hey friends!!  Stopping in with a card for this month's PTI blog hop.  Nicole provided us with another intriguing inspiration piece.  As I looked at this lovely work of art I originally thought that I would use the Friendly Flowers stamp set, but my order from this month's PTI release came yesterday and I decided to use the Splits:  Thank You mini stamp set and the matching die and do some watercoloring.  I embossed the die on to my watercolor cardstock and then stamped the image with VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink using my mini MISTI.  Then I picked some colors from the inspiration piece, found corresponding colors in my Gansai Tambi watercolor palette and colored up the flowers and leaves.  Once I had the look I wanted I let the piece dry and then stamped the sentiment (from the PTI set Garden Grace) in VersaFine Onyx Black.  I would have used the sentiment from the Splits:  Thank You set, but I'm trying to get a little stash of birthday cards so I used the sentiment from Garden Grace instead.  Die cut the piece, added some Pretty Pink Posh sparkly clear sequins and then adhered the panel to a light grey card base.  Simple, but I really like how it turned out.

 

Thanks for stopping by...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  light grey, Ranger watercolor cardstock; Stamps:  PaperTrey Ink; Dies:  PaperTrey Ink and AJVD; Inks:  VersaFine;  Watercolors:  Kuretake Gansai Tambi; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh 

pti may blog hop... so happy..

{if you want to see my AJVD post, please click here}

Hey friends!! I'm so happy to be popping in with a card for the current PTI blog hop.  I'm still not 100% with my shoulder so I went the easy route and used some of the die cuts that come in the PTI Mini Make It Market kit Color Pop:  Butterflies.  I took my inspiration from the overall design and pulled out some of the colors, blue, yellow and teal.  A quick wash of light yellow was brushed onto some watercolor cardstock.  Once that was dry I die cut the piece and then added my butterflies.  The die cut sentiment from Color Pop: Butterflies was die cut from a light grey cardstock twice, adhered together and then adhered over the top of the middle row of the butterflies.   The panel was then adhered to a card base made from the same light grey cardstock.  I also going to post this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by my blog to let me know they were thinking of me as I recover from my shoulder surgery and a special thank you to my sweet bloggy friend, Lisa.  I received one of Lisa's beautiful shaker cards in the mail shortly after my surgery and it brought a huge smile to my face and really brightened my day!  Thanks, Lisa!! You are awesome!!

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS fog; Dies and die cut:  PaperTrey Ink; Ranger watercolor cardstock; Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors

celebrate today... pti april blog hop

Hey friends!!  Popping in to share the card I made for PTI's April blog hop.  I have to admit that when I saw the inspiration piece I was pretty darn stumped as to what I would be able to make.  Last night I tried an idea, but it didn't work so I went to bed and slept on it.   When I was doing my experimenting last night I had used my distress inks so when I got up this morning I realized that I could use them with one of the Color Pop kits.  I decided to go with the Color Pop Florals kit as the flowers are closer to the circular design of the piece.  I used the Soft Stone panel that was covered with the flowers that came with the kit.   As I stenciled the flowers I tried to create the lightest color values in the inspiration piece and then stamp the darker values with the companion stamps.  I left the leaves unstamped as I liked that look.  I know I said this before, but I really love the stencils that come in the kits.  They are nice and sturdy which makes it so much easier to stencil!  I die cut the "celebrate today" three times from Fresh Snow linen cardstock and then stacked them.  The panel was die cut and adhered to a Soft Stone card base.  Finished it with the die cut sentiment.  Super simple, but I like how it turned out.  I used a ton of distress inks... will try to list all of them down below!

 Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy the hop...

Supplies:  PTI Color Pop Florals kit - stamps, dies, cardstock panel and stencils; AJVD polka dot rectangle die; Cardstock:  PTI Soft Stone and Fresh Snow linen; Inks:  Distress Inks:  Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick, Iced Spruce, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Ripe Persimmon

PTI February Blog Hop...

Hey friends!!   It's time for PTI's February blog hop and this month we were given a beautiful inspiration photo to work with.   The new PTI products I bought this month arrived today so I was able to put together a card for the hop.  I used the new Tulip Time stamps and dies, as well as the new Inspired:  Savior mini stamp set and the Savior die.   The layout is based on this week's Freshly Made Sketches layout so I will be posting my card there, as well.  I die cut three of the smaller tulips and then stamped them with two shades of pink and green inks.  Lining every thing up to stamp was super easy and each tulip turned out absolutely perfect!! They were arranged on a square that I die cut from white cardstock.  After die cutting the word Savior from pink cardstock I placed it on the square where I wanted it so I could get the right placement to stamp the words "Our" and "Lives!".  Once that was done I adhered Savior to the piece.  Some green patterned paper was cut, adhered to my die cut panel, the square was adhered and then the entire piece was adhered to a light pink cardstock base.   I absolutely love the Tulip Time set and I cannot wait to make something else using this gorgeous set!  I'm adding this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoy the hop...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, SU! Blushing Bride, PTI Sweet Blush; Patterned paper:  Stampin Up!; Stamps:  PTI; Dies:  PTI, Spellbinders and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks: Stampin Up! and Memento 

November PTI Blog Hop!

Hey friends!!  Wow... time for another PTI blog hop!! That means that November is almost over and Christmas will soon be here... YIKES!!   Nichole gave us a beautiful inspiration photo to work with for this hop.  I had to do a bit of "outside the box" thinking for this one.  I don't own many PTI Christmas stamps and the ones that I do are all rather old and not well suited for the current challenge.  I had thought about using the Twig Wreath set, but when I started to figure out a design the other day it just wasn't working.  Then I had a stroke of inspiration last night... use my never been used Brushed Off stamp set!  So, this morning I got out Brushed Off and came up with this little card.  I used the second generation stamping technique to create my ornaments.  I stamped the smaller circle image and then turned the stamp around and then stamped again.  I like that the second stamping is very light and just gives the hint of a round ornament.  After all the ornaments were stamped I then overstamped them with VersaMark watermark ink, applied Judikins Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder.   To finish things off I added the ornament strings and the bows using DMC silver metallic and little silver sequins.  The sentiment is from the PTI set Winterberry.  I am so very pleased with how this turned out and may just have to make a few more in different color schemes to send out this year!   I also going to add this to the new to me challenge Can You Case It.  This week it is a sketch challenge and I think this card fits the sketch fairly well.  Adding this to the new Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by today...
 

PTI October Blog Hop...

Hey friends!!  Popping in with a card that I have made for this month's PTI blog hop.  Nichole provided a photo of holiday trimmings to give us some inspiration.  I kept things very simple since this past week has been a struggle.  Migraines every single day makes for a very long week and drains me of my creativity!  Anywhoo... I did get this done along with several other projects that I will be sharing in a few days.  When I saw the inspiration photo I immediately thought of making a little wreath so I pulled out my Lovely Laurels Make It Market mini kit and went to work.  I had to cut a lot of those little tiny bits and only ended up using 6 of them.  I think one is supposed to be a flower, but stamped in brown it looks like a tiny pinecone so I'm going with that, lol!   I used one of the Lovely Laurels 4x6 papers included in the kit since it was a light grey background and reminded me of the tray that everything is placed on.  That panel, as well as the white panel were die cut using my A Jillian Vance Design rectangle dies... absolutely love them!!  I also learned a very valuable lesson about the using the Lovely Laurels wreath stamp and die together.  When you remove the stamp from the sheet done place it immediately on your acrylic block, but drop it onto your craft mat face down and pick it up with your block.  That way it assumes its natural shape and fits perfectly within the die cut.   The sentiment is from the PTI set Winterberry.  I used the current Freshly Made Sketches layout so I will be posting my card there, as well.
 

 

Thanks for stopping by today... happy hopping!!

 

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SU! crumb cake; PTI white linen; PTI Lovely Laurels patterned paper; Stamps:  PTI Lovely Laurels and Winterberry; Dies:  PTI and AJVD; Inks:  Stampin Up!