Cards and More

Easy baby cards and jewelry from stamps

2012-01-22T12:00:00.006-05:00

They might not be qualifiers for CAS, but man, they were easy!!

More of the heidi grace designs pink paper; this one has fuzzy words on it. All I did was cut a piece, tie on a faux silk ribbon, layer it on Papertrey's Pink Shimmer paper...

...make a bow with the Bow Easy, and tie on a charm.

Not sure who the paper is from, but the blue base is DCWV. The tag is a Cuttlebug die, the sentiment is from Amuse (I think!). I just raided my ribbon scraps stash and there it is, another very quick and easy baby card!!

Another thing I did today was finish a necklace and earring set. I made the pendant and earring dangles from Premo, following Gina K's video from a few months ago- here's a link-

I used a SU red rubber stamp, but other than that I followed her original design exactly- until I got to the making the necklace part, lol.

I love new things to wear, lol!!

Two Sweet Peas

2012-01-19T21:58:00.003-05:00

10 pm here, and as I sat down to post these I realize I am exhausted, and need to leave for work at 0730 in the morning. I'll be back later to post product details...

Wes's Day

2012-01-15T18:59:00.016-05:00

We had a lovely day today! Look!!!!

It was so cold ice was on the inside of the windows when we got up, but all in all, it seemed like a good day for a party!

Nick came over-
Livvy was here of course,

And Vanna,

Sam's mommy drove him all the way up from Massachusetts-

Jay liked his party hat~

Billy flew in a Birthday Card~

Look out, Kaleb!

We had cake

And piggy cookies
balloons ,

and presents!

Hello, Hedgies!

I blew out my candles...

Yay! Wes is two!!!!

2 Baby Cards and New Found Austerity

2012-01-14T14:53:00.003-05:00

I confess, I envy Melissa Phillips, and her ability to make all things look vintage- all here and there and sparkly and wrinkled and pouffy and quaint and lovely. I buy the same products...and make flat cards. I make un-vintagy cards, all flat and discordant and well, flat.

Today I tried again, lol. I used the R. S. Tapestry's Baby stampset and lots of different inks, a doily picked up at some party or another, along with Basic Grey Capella papers and paper ribbons. Fake silk ribbon- I will say I got a very nice bow!

I ran some pink paper through the sticky paper maker both ways to make both sides sticky. That is Martha Stewart glitter on top, and some random buttons on the bottom right corner.

I have a bunch of pieces of this pink heidi grace designs paper, and need to use some up- our new found austerity (see below) needs to kick in now! That's a SU carriage stamp from Fun and Fast Notes, paper pieced and colored a bit with Copics. Bling came from a dollar bin at a Scrapbooking show. The diecut is with Papertrey's Filigree Border Die.

Stop here if you get squeamish. Squeamish about poverty, or squeamish about mice.

I have decided I don't want to go to work anymore. How's that for an epiphany? We have lived our lives such that we have no debt- none, zero, zilch. I have been developing a new sense of myself over the past year, and knew I wanted to try poverty as a lifestyle. Now, that may sound really odd to some, but let me tell you, I believe if you all think about it, the race for acquisition is not so healthy- for us or mother nature.

The DH thinks this is a wonderful idea (he has been a stay at home dad for as long as he's been a dad). He has already developed habits that will help keep us warm and fed and happy with Very Little Income. I so appreciate all he does to allow me to not have to go off to work anymore.

Ok, so we have mice. We have mousetraps to trap and kill the mice. It is not something I like to do, but well, food is food and mice will ruin it. Imagine my surprise when I came out to the kitchen the other morning to find this-

'What is this all about?' I asked.

'It's to make sure we don't lose the cheese!' he said.

Yes boys and girls, if you run low on money, rubber band that cheese to the mousetrap, so nobody walks away with it. You'll save millions.

Spring on a grim New England day

2012-01-12T11:20:00.007-05:00

What a grim , rainy snowy gray winter day it is today. On the other hand, we are essentially halfway thorough winter, and have not had many days like today, so that is fine! Spring, though, is always welcome.

Whenever the Papertrey countdown days start, I am inspired and want the new sets like, well... TODAY, please! Lol. Instead, I have to go find a set that is similar enough and get the card close enough...

Here is a link to Nicholes card that I think is near perfection- She used a new set available on January 15th- Lace Bouquet. I thought maybe it was time to ink up Botanical Silhouettes.

I stamped in Smokey Shadow, but colored with Prisma pencils and blended with baby oil. I also put some glitter on the flowers, just because lately I cannot stop my hand from grabbing that glitter pen. The stems are stamped in Spring Moss, and the sentiment with Onyx Black.

It is hard to see the Text Style stamped background; I did it pretty light. It looks very soft and wonderful in real life. I put the twine on vertically, since the floral stamp is more horizontal than vertical, and the text stamp did not go all of the way to the edge of the layer

Not bad, eh?

The Fix- and a Baby Boy card

2012-01-11T10:11:00.004-05:00

I received some suggestions as to what to do to stack the PTI cubes so they wouldn't fall, and I thought this was the best; especially since it cost me nothing! I had the bag of Bazzill chips, and can easily cut them from cardboard when I run out. A bit of craft glue and here it is!

Yay for little cubes showing off their color to me just to my right on my table.

Here is a small Baby Boy card, only 3 x 4.5. Is that a 'Bar' measurement? It started as a pack of RSVP inserts I picked up off a sale table somewhere; a pack of small single layers and matching envies. I made a card from PTI's Stampers Select, and layered on a Martha Stewart print. The blue card was stamped with some flourishes from Inladinkado's Sketchy Flourishes in Versa Mark. The Onsie is SU By Ones and By Twos, colored in Copics by my DD which I then stole from her pile of discards. The sentiment is from Memory Box. Lol, since I didn't stamp and color the onsie, this card took all of 10 minutes to put together. One of those cards that takes longer to think about then to do-

Wait, I think that is always true of the cards I make!

Cubism

2012-01-04T12:11:00.002-05:00

Not that cubism, silly, this kind!

Although I bet Picasso would love this picture of color, ha!

So here is the dilemma. I now love cubes, and lots of little bits of color on my black shelves on my desk.

Except that with the PTI new cubes, here is what invariably happens. They don't latch together in any way, so they fall over. I was thinking they might sit more firmly on each other if I removed the label. But oh la la, that label is so colorful!

I got these little desk accessories at Job Lots, and I can get 8 cubes in each one, and they stack well enough on top of the tops of the cubes...

But I can only grow so much in this direction, the little spaces will get more and more empty as my PTI collection grows in the cubism direction, and dang it, those Job Lots containers are brown, lol lol lol.

What I really want is for the PTI cubes to go in each section of the black shelf, and not fall over. I was thinking of some kind of tray with sides, maybe made from cardboard and long coffee stirrers.

This is where I need the collective imagination from my PTI friends!

prototype

2011-12-31T14:32:00.003-05:00

couple of things-

I promise they will be layered straight, lol

the 'you're invited' should be the same color as the bottom layer

under the horses neck needs to be trimmed, not sure what happened there

the bunny is a punch; not sure how better to dress it up, unless I use patterned paper-

off to get coffee and chocolate; call me and let me know!

Outlines!

2011-12-14T07:22:00.002-05:00

Where have I been you say? Right here, of course! Just coming out after a long period of time doing without (as much as possible) technology. We don't have a TV or cell phone, of course, but the computer takes away so much of my time that I went through a period of using it just as a resource, not as a method of communication and whatever else people say it is.

I hope to do an early retirement the first quarter of 2012, so we have been practising a 'vow of poverty'. Fun! But here is a card that was still on the camera, so I decided to get it onto the blog.

I find Outlines stamps beautiful to look at when others do them, but hard to do myself. I did a boy and a girl, and used printed papers so I wouldn't have to do so much intricate coloring.

Some doodads also helped the visual, rather than lots of glitter.

Some day I'll do an Outlines card as beautiful as the designers do, lol, but in the meantime these will have to suffice!

For Alex

2011-11-04T14:14:00.002-04:00

Quick stamp, cut, and color. Will have to be an A-6. Will look best on a printed background, so for 15 will need 4 pices of 12 x 12. I'll play around with that tomorrow. If we do 15 with finer coloring and some more detail, their payment will need to be to take Wes for the day, since it will take us that long, I bet, to put them together. I can cut and stamp here, then bring them to you to color and glue. Next weekend or a day this week ok with me.

Waiting for Snow

2011-10-29T15:10:00.002-04:00

I have been participating in the Halloween challenges over at www.limabeads.com. Well, actually, that just means I have been buying lots of beads from Lima, lol. This is my Halloween entry, a Spooky necklace.

The Hemp is tied in knots, and look like spider legs when it is hanging around my neck.

That's an Earthenwood pendant, with one lonely fall colored leaf- all of the other leaves on there are C Koop enameled black or gray leaves.

Halloween isn't over, it's one of my fav times of year. But with 10 inches of snow projected for tonight, I went Christmas shopping today, lol... my all time favorite time of year!!!

I am going to put some treats out this evening for the chipmunks and squirrels, and have my own Trick or Treat party. Hopefull the bears have gone to bed, and won't bother us for chocolate. Then I will sit back for the wintry show that is coming to my big screen TV overnight (think sliding glass doors looking into the woods!) and watch while I drink my morning coffee. Better than any TV you have, I bet!

My only concern? I'm by myself, and will I be able to get the car out to go home Sunday night- well, if not, lol, they can find me in the Spring!

Inside Out cards

2011-10-27T11:25:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure if someone else has already coined the phrase 'Inside Out Cards', but I am having fun doing it! I have been putting the phrase on the outside, and the embellishments on the inside, lol, just for fun.

The outside sticker is from a million years ago, I had to put glue on the back since it was no longer sticky. The paper is from a Recollections Halloween pad. Martha Stewart glittery bats finish the outside-

Inside, an alcohol inked background with an Inkadinkadoo witch stamped on it- and some Memory Box papers with some more of Martha's bats.

Fun!

Finally!! Papertrey Ink!!

2011-10-25T10:52:00.003-04:00

Oh dear, the colors are off- but I hope you get the point.

PTI ink is finally here!!! Yay!!! It is working perfectly for me, and I am so happy!!

A little close-up of some mottling, but that is the nature of the beast, so I expect it. This was the first use of Sweet Baby, and the third impression with the new stamps.

The other color ink is Momento Desert Sand. Other than that, it's all PTI products.

I have to go fast and cheap on the baby cards- I tipped up the Aqua Mist button bottle and look what rolled out~ today is definitely my day!

Bouncing Bears

2011-10-10T08:07:00.005-04:00

Isn't it lovely when you get all kinds of pieces to match? Look how the ribbon and the stamp are the same; Suzy's Zoo. I'm just a sucker for images like this!

I used PTI's Lavender Moon as the base, then layered with white and a polka dotted paper. The stamped dots came out black of course, so I went over them with some Spica pens, and actually added more dots so it looked more like the paper.

I ran the dotted paper through the polka dot CB folder, just to add some more dimension- sweet!

A PTI Baby

2011-10-07T07:58:00.003-04:00

I want to be using some of my Papertrey papers, lol, but since Everyday Blessings is still being sold as 6 x 6, I want to wait to buy it again until it is 8 x 8. They need to hurry, I don't have much left!

Some Quick and Easy Baby Cards

2011-10-05T20:28:00.002-04:00

I know I have been AWOL, but the baby card making has gone on, lol, and I keep photographing them just waiting for a moment to put some on the blog. Tonight I decided enough is enough; maybe I'll start showing a couple at a time-

The first is the easiest- I used a Memory Box card and envie, a CB embossing folder that stopped near the bottom of the white layer, then stamped 'adorable' on the bottom right edge. Knot of ribbon and done!

These are a little more involved, but really, the most time was spent on finding 2 designs in the same color, lol. The bunny is an older SU stamp, just paper pieced over Spellbinders labels. I used a bit of glitter glue on the bows to make them stand out a little- Bingo!

Quick and Easy!

I haven't had troubles...

2011-09-11T18:56:00.003-04:00

...I just don't know where the time goes... The days are getting shorter, in more ways than one, lol!!

The rest of my list for tonight includes finishing the day with a beer and a little fire in the fire ring outside, finish a load of laundry, make 3 more baby cards, and post something to the blog. It's 7 pm, lol, and I want to be in bed by 8. What are the chances,lol lol lol??

Here's a quick boy card with my lovely new stork (The Stork Report by Whipper Snapper) that looks like a mailman. Hey wait! I guess he is supposed to be a Wall Street Stork (The Stock Report, get it? Sheesh...)

Waiting for Irene at the cabin

2011-08-27T17:02:00.003-04:00

I 'evacuated' myself to the cabin in New Hampshire, lol, to play and wait for Mother Nature's wrath further away from the coast. Craig stayed home- one half mile from the coast. We will see if either cabin needs a new roof Monday morning!

I had this necklace waiting to be made, so that's what I did today- Acorns and Fall Leaves!

All of the pieces came from Michael's, Joann's or Walmart, except for the bead caps for the acorns. They came from Anita's Beads.

I know it's hard to see the clasp- it is a set of Vintage Leaves I got at the show in Manchester, NH a couple of weeks ago. If you click on the picture you might be able to see it closer.

Thanks for looking, and good luck Sunday if you are near Irene!

Sweet Peas Growing in Vines

2011-08-22T09:27:00.003-04:00

Not so long ago my Mother needed a sympathy card, so we got PTI's With Sympathy out, and started working with it. I, of course, needed baby cards, not sympathy cards, so here is what my cards looked like, lol!!

Those are older SU felt flowers with little gold half pearls in the center. The sweet pea baby is a Lockhart stamp.

Blue bunnies- or is that white?

2011-08-11T18:35:00.002-04:00

I've had these bunnies sitting around for a while; believe it or not they are stamped with PTI's 'new' Spring Rain ink. It worked perfectly for me this time, I could just never get a card to work that week and put them aside until now.

I am so loving Memory Box papers, and have been buying whatever packs I can get my hands on, especially if they are pastel colors. The card base is a Memory Box card, I have a bunch of those, too, lol, and need to use them up!

The 'baby' is cut with a Boss Cut alphabet with Blueberry Sky paper. this car went together so easily I can't believe I didn't think of it before!

May Papertrey Pages- Finally!

2011-08-05T09:16:00.006-04:00

I finally finished my May Papertrey Pages, lol... and they aren't quite done yet since I have to investigate what the date was, which means going back to the store machine that can read the bigger card these are on.

The challenge was to use a recent set from PTI, so I took photos of the little boys being space men on top of the car one morning, and teamed it up with Boy Basics: Out Of This World .

There is a die for the rocket ship of course, but not for the flames...curses!! There are a total of 8 sets of flames on the pages, lol, and they are not so easy to cut!!!

The Space Monkeys paper is by Reminisce, and matches the PTI Rocket just perfectly. I used some of the stickers and embellies as well from the set.

I colored the 8 ships with Copics and Spica glitter pens. The background paper is a green 12 x 12 from SU, and I took a little dotted wood backed stamp and went all around with Versamark, then embossed with clear embossing powder. The background photo layers are Harvest Gold and Summer Sunrise.

Aren't they the sweetest? Laser guns and all!!

Another Dangler and a Bear in the Yard!

2011-07-30T08:46:00.007-04:00

Just to show you can dangle these dear babies from something other than a branch, lol, here he is just hanging from ribbon!

The background is a sticker layer I got for $1.00 at a Scrapbook Show in April, a vendor who does all discount stuff. It is all glittery and sparkly, not caught in the photo. Papers are Enchanted Evening and Spring Rain, plus a bit of the green print from one of the pads-

Little Story:

So last evening in the dusk- I am all alone at the cabin, the DH won[t be in from a hike until midnight. I am sitting inside at the sliders, and look up to see a rather large brown bear ambling up the drive, just like he is Craig coming in from a swim in the lake. Gasp! I jumped up and dragged two chairs to the door and locked it, ran around and closed and locked all of the windows, then got a pan lid and big spoon and stood in the living room banging. It occurred to me that I must look like a scene from Where the Wild things Are. After my heart rate slowed down a little, and 10 minutes passed, I got the camera out and started peering out the windows, but alas, no photos for the blog today. That's ok, he was just a 'wittle bit too close last night. Besides, I think I would have had a heart attack if I had looked out of the window to see him peering in at the cinnamon rolls on the counter.

Darling Dangling Babies

2011-07-28T09:38:00.003-04:00

It is easy to say that the new set, Bundle of Love, is by far my favorite! I haven't even inked up the other baby sets in weeks!! I've been dangling that little baby in all kinds of places, lol!! I combined him with Out of a Limb in this one.

I am loving the $1.50 roses from Michael's, paired with a Spring Moss fern punch using the Martha Stewart punch.

Here he is just dangling from the image printed on the Japanese imported paper. I also recently got Simple Phrases- you can see how perfect it is with the baby!

I am not forgetting the girls, of course! More of the Japanese paper and a Martha Stewart branch sticker for the baby to dangle from. Mounted on Sweet Blush, with a Sweet Blush bow and button!

I love that little baby!!

Neck Deep!

2011-07-23T19:17:00.003-04:00

I haven't forgotten I have a blog, lol, it's just that I had to escape the heat and head to the mountains and the lake! I have been sitting neck deep in Conway Lake for the past three days...lol! At almost 100 degrees in New England, we think the world must be coming to an end, lol!! I went and looked for window screens today, and saw a wee little air conditioner-lol, that was tempting! Came home with no screens and no air conditioner- but the lake is just a few steps away so all is good!

I have the camera with me, with pictures of cards on it, so will work at getting something uploaded tonight or early tomorrow... before all the Grands come and the world goes from just hot to hot and chaotic!

Good thoughts to all of you bearing the heat!

Bundle of Love

2011-07-09T05:57:00.004-04:00

At the time Papertrey released the Bundle of Love set, they released a die for the picnic basket from Vintage Picnic. Nichole put the baby face in the basket, lol, and I wanted to hug her when I saw it!

Here is my version- on kraft, with a score line anchoring the stork and basket. Stork is outlined with a white pen, and there is Chamomile around the edges (hard to see in this exposure). The blue basket liner is the smaller print from Men of Life-

Enjoy!

Pink Inside and Out Baby

2011-07-08T10:40:00.005-04:00

I broke one of my own cardinal rules of baby card making here- the nurses have taught me that (at least for them!) just adding 'sweet baby' to the front of a card does not make it a baby card. Color is of particular importance to them, so I think I am ok here- a nice soft baby pink should make it feel like a baby card even though there is nothing other than the sentiment that makes it a welcome baby card.

This is so much prettier IRL then it looks here. The Memory Box paper is a soft pink, and the silk ribbon is so so so pretty! Those little paper roses are from the dollar bins at Michael's- except the dollar bins are now $1.50, lol!! The green layer is an old Anna Griffin print, and the base card is Papertrey's Sweet Blush.

The label is a Cuttlebug embossing and die cut at once set; this is my first use although I have had if for a few months. It's hard to cut just one at a time; there are several in the folder. The edges did not come out perfectly smooth, but a teensy bit of sanding took care of that- for a very pretty result!

It's a large label, which is why I bought the set- to accommodate some of the bigger sentiments from the PTI Inside and Out set. This way, I can layer them on the fronts of cards.

I'm also playing around today with a new photo editing program. Our PC has done the 'Critical Error! screen, and none of the programs are accessible. That leaves me with the laptop until the back to college sales come out. In addition, I took the photos outside- lol, when you live in the woods this is not such an easy task!

Baby Boy Basket

2011-07-03T09:42:00.004-04:00

No lie, the boy:girl ratio of births continues to be off, there are way more boys being born than girls. I really need to google around and see if it is a trend others are reporting! It means I struggle some days to get just boy cards made, lol!

The image is from Stamp of Excellence, a very sweet image that looks wonderful when you do it up vintage. this time, though, I did it up citrus! The paper is DCWV Citrus, and the little pom-pom ribbon is from Wrights. The layers are PTI's Lemon Tart and Enchanted Evening- very citrusy!

2011-06-29T21:36:00.002-04:00

3 pretty easy baby boy cards here-All with PTI's Spring Rain put through the older Cuttlebug baby emboss and dies set. The 'Welcome Baby' die comes with the set. The 'happy' die is from PTI's new words dies. 'New Baby' is a PTI stamp as well. Welcome, Little Baby is from their Baby Button Bits set, it has the word 'bee' on the end, but I cut that off, lol. Just little bits of leftovers here and there... and a wee bit of glue put on those die cuts very carefully!!

Another Sweet Pea

2011-06-29T09:27:00.006-04:00

I had great plans of showing 4 cards today, lol. but Blogger is being a Booger- and says my photos can't load... well, I guess I won't complain about a free service, lol!

So here is a sweet little pea, one of my favorite images from Lockhart Stamps; I use it a lot! Just colored with Copics, layer on a New Leaf scalloped oval, place on some pea looking paper, tie a retired SU ribbon that matches New Leaf along the edge, add a PTI pea green button... and well... there you have it!

July Birthday

2011-06-26T18:59:00.003-04:00

I don't have all of Papertrey's Year of Flowers series, but some day I will- I think I have all but 4, and recently I got the set of smaller ones. Unfortunately, that set arrived after I sent this card to the buyer- it would have been great with a little Larkspur in Versamark under the Birthday sentiment inside. Next time!

I put the Larkspur image on Stamper's Select in Memento Onyx Black, then rubbed on Plum Pudding and Lavender Moon ink with a Q-tip. The green stem was done with a Copic, just a single color, no blending. I also stamped the word 'July' from the set off to the side.

I cut the image out with a Spellbinders Label die, and added some matching rhinestones on the die cut.

I layered the image on a piece of Memory Box paper with colors that match Plum Pudding and Lavender Moon, then stamped Birthday on a Spellbinders label and set that on two layered ribbons, and wrapped it around the patterned paper. I placed all of that onto a square of Plum Pudding paper.

Lastly I cut the word 'happy' from the new Wonderful Words dies. The words are very narrow, but I used the blue glue pen with the tiny tip to anchor it down. It needed more depth, so I added just a wee bit of sparkle to the centers of the flowers; a matching butterfly finished it off- Really pretty~ and I am so glad I got out these flowers again for birthday cards this month!!

Take Three: Spring Boy Bunnies

2011-06-14T19:25:00.002-04:00

Isn't it sweet? That is New Leaf paper cut with a new punch. the bunnies, beleive it or not, are stamped with Ppaertrey's non-functioning Spring Rain ink. It functioned fine this time, lol!! It did seem to look better with Blueberry Sky paper, go figure- and that's a Michael's ribbon that matches New Leaf well enough.

Just got a punch in the gut- my brothers son who has multiple handicaps (and is 24 hour care) has just been denied funding for the rest of the year. That means he will be turned out of his 'school' on Friday, and must come home- with no care providers. He is over 18, and Social Security should be covering him, but who knows how these things work- not me. Apparently the money is funneled through the state, and the State of Maine has said no, sorry, we have no moeny. My brother is too shocked to explain to me how that works. My first response was 'let's go put him on the governor's steps with a sign that says 'homeless' and see how fast they send him back to school, since we have no legal obligation to care for him (since he is over 18). Ok, other than that, let's all gather our calendars and see how many days we can each give without losing our jobs. Monday, July 1, we will sit down together and figure out what the options are, and which of us will have to quit their job to care for him.

If any of you are going through this, or have been through this, can you let me know what the options are??

The hard CAS

2011-06-09T08:02:00.002-04:00

Is it just me,or do you, too, find CAS cards some of the hardest to do? Seems like CAS is a misnomer, actually.

There's just two stamps on this card, but lining them up straight, and getting a good relationship is not easy! Not to mention getting a good coverage with embossing powder, lol lol lol!!

CS is PTI's Spring Rain and Lemon Tart. Ribbon (wide gingham is some of my favorite ribbon!) is from Joanns. The duck stamp is by Inkadinkado, the sentiment is from SU's Bursting With Joy.

The bow, by the way, was done with the Bow Easy I got from Gina K. I used her tip to tie a thread around the ribbon then put the bow on top to make it look like the bow was tied with the ribbon all in one move. Lol, it looks impressive even to me!

Finally!

2011-06-08T07:19:00.005-04:00

I keep checking my blog every day, and when there's no new post on it, I think I must be sick or away, lol... Ok, since I haven't posted in almost a month, I'm not sure what I am thinking I should see. So, I haven't been sick and I haven't been away- just can't get the time to photograph and edit and post and edit the post. Now that's a lame excuse, so here goes...

I bought the Art Impressions fat ladies stamp at the May Scrapbooking getaway, and have been waiting for the chance to use it. A birthday in July is just the thing!

I confess I colored it just like the picture that came with it, since I needed to color by numbers the first time. Now I have done that, I can do it differently next time. That's the way I work, usually an exact copy of something I have seen the first time, just to get the juices flowing.

How funny is that? The sentiment ends 'friend.', but I was able to make a little s pove the period and change friends to plural- phew! I drew the little martini glass freehand to get it the size I wanted. It was a bit nerve wracking to draw it, but it came out just fine! The red retired SU paper has some glitter on it, and is just so fun!

Papertrey May Blog Hop: Flowers!

2011-05-25T10:07:00.002-04:00

Flowers! I love flowers! I often put flowers on cards, so I can't wait to see what others have done...

I had very little time today, so went with an almost instant card- a rose rub-0n. I framed it with Framed, then put some Primas down the side (I love Prima flowers, too!!), and Papertrey's leaf ribbon. It's set on a Papertrey die cut doily, both the doily and the rose frame were edged with New Leaf ink. After that they got layered on a piece of rose flowers from Basic Grey. The base card and the doily are Berry Sorbet, as is the ribbon. Three matching pearls, and voila! Done!

Looking at it through the lens, I think I will add a wee butterfly on the upper right edge of the rose- do you think??

The Next Quilt

2011-05-11T17:27:00.004-04:00

Thought you might like to see what I have been working on~ other than cards and sweaters, lol! The star blocks are 4.5 inches, and after I took the photos I decided I need another 21, plus 22 ore of the print blocks.

I was trying to decide what I should use as a border. Not sure I like this one, lol, so I need to trial a few others. I am working on this at the cabin, so I had to come home and gather up some more fabrics to try~ will head back up to the mountains this coming weekend to put a few more hours in! Ha! What fun!!

Nothing Original Here

2011-05-09T17:32:00.003-04:00

I claim nothing about this card, lol- see the one I copied here.

Her's was a boy card, mine is a girl... that's about the biggest change, lol. I say when you see perfection, leave it alone!

Baby Scraps!

2011-05-03T09:09:00.003-04:00

I'd like to call this a CAS card, since I made it from scraps in the pink scraps pile on the desk-

The background piece is done with PTI's Simple Valentine. The day I made this is probably the first and last time I played with this set. No reason, other than I moved on to another set and never went back. I am not sure who made the pink dotted paper, but it is not PTI. PTI's Sweet Blush matched really well, though, so I am sad to not know where it came from.

That's a retired SU baby, one of my favoritest images ever!! The alphabet is a MS punch. The layered circles are from PTI's Limitless layers 1 3/4 inch dies, if you do not own this set you need to. One of my next purchases will be the larger 2.5 inch dies.

See! CAS!!

CKC Goodies~

2011-05-01T17:11:00.003-04:00

I love going to the CKC shows; the DD always goes with me and we have so much fun! For the past 2 years Westley (now 15 months) has gone with us, lol, and he is such a joyful little boy that it makes it all that much more fun!

While I don't have a video camera, I thought you might like to see some of the gobs of things I bought over the past 2 days.

First is this Rubber Stamp Pad from Darice. It is 11 x 17 inches, and .5 inches thick. it may well become my favoritest thing from this show. I've already stamped lots of things on it today, and it works perfectly! Yay! I just wish it had a grid on it, lol.

Alex took 2 Copic classes, I did not take any. Since she doesn't have many Copics, after her classes we went right to the vendor that I knew had all of the colors. I think I bought 13 at the show. Unfortunately, as we made our way around the vendor floor, we found cheaper Copics, but those vendors didn't have all of the colors. Once we found cheaper ones, she bought more.

I took a great class with Strictly Scrapbooking using My Mind's Eye papers. For $28.00 we made 5 single pages, using all different line. After the class I went to their booth and bought a prepackaged kit to make a second page for each of the single pages we had done. The kit was $25.00, so all told I have 10 pages for $52.00. Not sure if that is an ok price or not, but there are leftovers, and the papers and pages are soooo pretty!

These pages use Stella & Rose, papers in mint and soft orange- so pretty! I know I have used a couple of these photos already in Wes's baby book, but the colors matched the Stella & Rose papers so well I just had to use them again.

The matching embellishments indicate these papers were meant to be feminine, but the colors are actually neutral, so I just left off the girly sentiments and made baby pages.

I'll try and get more done this week, and show you more things I bought!

April Papertrey Pages challenge

2011-05-01T08:58:00.004-04:00

I am behind in scrapping some of our matching sweaters- maybe 5 years behind?? This book is 8.5 x 11; you'd think with less space it would be easier- not so for me! It does make the background stamped papers a bit easier to do, though. I stamped the new PTI Chevron Stripes set in Memento Black then colored in between the lines with different blue Copics. I sliced the 8.5 x 11 inch sheet in made down the line where the stamps met since I hadn't taken the time to make them line up perfectly. That gave me two pieces of different sizes to use.

Since the challenge was to sew on your pages, I went wild last night sewing away!! I tried to be clever and see how freehand 'quilting' worked on paper. Let's just say it's not quite the same hand motion, but like quilting, should get better with practice! Also, I couldn't find a size 14 needle, so I used a 16. Even though I was sewing through layers when I did the photos, I think the 16 made too big of a hole- lesson learned!!

Those are PTI buttons from Blueberry Sky and Enchanted Evening mixes.

The year numbers are cut from Basic Black with By the Numbers Dies. A Mat Stack 4 diecut from Stampers Select sits on a diecut from one of the Nestability Labels. A couple pieces of the yarn we used is wrapped around with another button on top.

I was excited to have sun today to take photos, but lol, that means shadows when you live in the trees!!!

I spent most of the weekend at a CKC Scrapbooking show and took classes- how inspiring that is!!! Why don't cardmaking magazines do this with different stamp vendors and paper and ribbon and button sellers????

Just paper, Baby!

2011-04-28T06:51:00.003-04:00

Needing to make quick baby cards today- and this piece of paper has been sitting on the desk for weeks! Lol, I was going so fast~ I should have trimmed off that tiny bit of the upper row!

The background layer is Papertrey's Pacific Vineyard ; the card stock is Fine Linen.

Ribbon is Fine Linen Swiss Dot Satin, and the little charm is from a pack from Michael's. If you don't have the paper I used, you could just take a more subtle piece of patterned paper and stamp BABY on it for the same effect.

Die Case Tutorial

2011-04-27T18:40:00.005-04:00

Any follower of Nichole Heady knows she showed us devotees how to store Papertrey dies in CD sleeves inside of CD boxes. Well! What a great way to organize my gaggle of dies that were spread all over!!

So off I went to get the boxes and sleeves, and last night and this morning I started. I had bought colored sleeves, so it made sense to me to put series of dies all in the same color. Uh oh- I put the Dies To Match in yellow sleeves, one die per sleeve, and soon ran out of yellow. I was going to go buy more, and thinking about the gas to get there, when it occurred to me: Hey! They are just paper and an acrylic window. Well darn! I've got all of that (and more!) right here!!

I started out by cutting the paper 6 inches wide, but now I think you should cut it just under 6 inches, because they are pretty tight in the boxes. I used 12 x 12 paper, and got two sleeves per sheet.

So cut the 12 x 12 just under 6 inches wide by 10.75 inches long. Put the paper on the right side of your score board, and score at one inch and at the 6 inch mark. Darn, it is so hard to show score lines in a photo!

Turn the paper, and put it on the left side of the board- score at .5 inch. Turn the paper and score the other side at one half inch. You want each side flap to end up one half inch, and the middle section to be just under 5 inches wide. I think, lol, I actually didn't measure my middle, but the math says so.

Using a circle Nestability, cut a circle in the 'square' section with the one inch flap. This is the front.

Cut 4 .25 x 4..25 inch acrylic 'windows. Apply 1/8 inch Scor-Tape close to the edges.

Use an Xacto to put a semi-circle flap holder in the center of the opposite side, just about .5 inches from the edge. The flap holder is on the opposite side of the one inch flap.

Apply the window, making sure it is on the side with the bumps of the scores, since the flaps will fold in to the bumps. Hope that makes sense!!

Here's the hardest part: with scissors, cut down the score line (to the inside of the score line) on the side not with the window. Cut just past the score line that makes the sleeve fold in half. Then cut in from each side to cut off that 'flap' that you don't need. Use the scissors to round the corners of all three flaps- each side flap and the top flap.

Apply Scor-Tape to the side flaps, watching that you don't apply it where it might stick to the inside of the sleeve instead of the outside.

Fold along all score lines, and stick the side flaps to the back. Now I realize I didn't take a photo of the back side.

This sounds confusing, but really, it's pretty easy! Except now I need to order another package of acrylic card stock. lol lol lol~~

Here they all are in their boxes- Mat Stacks and Fillable Frames are in the holder with their stamp sets.

Enjoy! Ask questions! Let me know if you make some!! Show me patterned papers!!

Pink and Blue Peas

2011-04-14T20:21:00.002-04:00

Sometimes the easiest is best. lol, I guess that is what CASis all about, eh?

Dollar stamp from Michaels, stamped in Memento Black, clopicsw over the words and colored in the peas, bit of ribbon to top it off.

Sigh- don't they look so springlike??

Flower Fusion #1

2011-04-10T05:19:00.005-04:00

Last weeks Papertrey Radio question was 'Do you copy an inspirational card exactly? My answer is: 'Yes, exactly, then I make another one a little differently, then the third one usually is quite different. Sometimes I show the second one, sometimes I only show the third. I need the exact CASE, though, to help me figure out how to best use the stamps; but also to remind me what it was that was so moving about the set. I didn't see this card of Maille's until after I submitted my first February order. Flower Fusion #1 went right into the cart after I saw it. I was good, though, I waited a week before I hit submit. Silly me, I thought I could not get the matching die. Silly, silly, me. Third February order, lol lol lol. This is my second card done after I first CASE'd Maille's card.

I made my flowers from felt, using the matching die but also one of the Cuttlebug tiny scalloped circle dies for the middle. That's one of the retired small wooden buttons from PTI. My A-2 opens from the side, and I used a background layer from one of DCWV stacks- Citrus, as I recall. New Leaf matches the glittery layer perfectly! I used one of the Memento inks, Pear Tart

These CASE cards are always quick, and I can see my stamping is a little off, and it might be better if I had done something with the edges of the sentiment layer. See? That will be the next card!

What was that supply??

2011-04-07T20:59:00.002-04:00

So... we are now at the cabin for a week or so. i came now so I could see if the daffodils I planted last fall are going to come up. They were a school benefit, so you never know about the quality. My daffs at home (100 miles away) are up about 8 inches, even popping through the snow in places, with buds on the tops. Um yeah, pulled in here to 12 inches of fresh snow on the ground, and not a spot of ground in site. Not to mention the waist high pile of plowed snow blocking the driveway. Ahh, spring!! And now I discover I did not load the list of supplies for this card... Sorry!!

I made the paper with spray mists on watercolor paper. I know I see the butterfly from Butterfly Dreams on there, lol. Rub-on flowers, and butterfly stickers. Let me know if you need to know the details, and I'll pm you when I get home- my apologies again for being a bad blogger, lol lol lol!!

CASED from Paper Crafts

2011-04-03T20:36:00.004-04:00

I made this for the Papertrey Make It Monday's Challenge to sponge and blend away! Now, I've made lots of 'scene' cards and can blend with the best, but this one took a life of it's own!

I started with the card from the front of the March/April 2010 Paper Crafts magazine, made by Heidi Van Laar. What a great card that is! I've been eyeing it all year, since my Mother is an artist and has a series of paintings with sticks attached to them, and she has an April birthday.

I wanted the blending to bring a setting sun to the scene, but as I started to sponge on the Enchanted Evening ink I could see that if I blended too much more it would be too dark- so I just ended early, lol.

Products are

Paper: Stampers Select, unknown polka dotted green

Ink: Enchanted Evening and Summer Sunrise, Spring rain, yellow from Studio g

Stamps: sentiment from Mixed Messages, Background Background Basics: Stars

Other things: Nestability label die, Cuttlebug tiny tag (I hand cut the layer under it), Butterfly sticker unknown, Twine from SU, leaf punch unknown, little twig from Mother Nature on a snowy day!

It's Your Bird-day!

2011-04-01T10:50:00.002-04:00

Can't get a correct exposure here, lol, it's just snow and flash... neither very good for the white image layer, darn. Isn't this the cutest image? Not my general style, but it just made me smile, so I couldn't not buy it, as my MIL used to say. It's Hero Arts. I stole the layout form this card on Splitcoast. The patterned paper is Summer Dream, a DCWV mat stack. The doily is cut from Sweet Blush using PTI's big doily die. Can you see the Fresh Snow sewing along the sides? That's a small die from Waltzingmouse. Ocean Tides Satin ribbon and a Prima flower finish off the outside. Ha! Makes me laugh when I flip it open!! It's a Stampendous stamp; not terribly versatile, but so funny!

Ooobleck

2011-04-01T07:05:00.002-04:00

Lol, it does occur to me that I think I post this very same picture and thought every spring- even sometimes as late as April. So goes living in Maine. At least this morning we still have power, so I still have coffee, and the world seems to be controlling themselves this morning, too.

Make It Mondays: Color on Color

2011-03-27T12:10:00.007-04:00

I have been thinking that the 'Make It Mondays' challenges have been fun, and I like the challenge. It's not just a challenge, though, I have been learning and assimilating lots! Take a look at all of the previous challenges in one card, lol!!

Lol, maybe they aren't all in here, but it must be close!

That's the Guidelines Impression plate inked up with the old Lavender Moon ink, and run through the Sizzix with a nesty oval cut from cardboard- leaving the unembossed space. (Well, ok, some of the embossing came through, but we won't tell!).

Next came a onsie from Bitty Baby Blessings stamped and cut from the Guidelines paper- then colored with a Copic and a Prisma, trying to get depth but not a new color.

Last, some Lavender Moon ribbon tied with some matching organdy, and a Lavender Moon button tied on with crochet cotton! I punched out a wheensy circle, and stamped the word baby from one of the BBB sentiments, and sponged around with Lavender Moon and stuck it on the button with a glue dot.

Then, just for fun, a few teensy flowers for balance. Mounted on a Lavender Moon card.

Enjoy!

Papertrey March Blog Hop

2011-03-25T19:12:00.004-04:00

Nothing like being late to the game, eh? But hey, it's the right day and the stars aren't out yet, so who's being picky??

Just got a call from work, and I need to get there ASAP. I'll fix the post later. In case that turns out to be tomorrow, here's the quick deets:

Qulter's Sampler Sentiments

A nesty die

DMC floss that matches Aqua Mist- DMC 3811

knit on size 1 needles, then slid onto 2 toothpicks, then toothpicks cut shorter

Bitty Blessings paper, Spring Moss and Stamper's Select

Guidelines Grid Impression plate
Copic marker making striped ribbon on Fresh Snow satin ribbon

Here's a close up of the Impression plate making quilting lines. Hard to see, it's very subtle but really perfect for a 'quilted' feel.

One just like the last!

2011-03-20T18:39:00.003-04:00

Using up this pack of cards that came with the pink and white layers. I think this was the last one, now to open the blue and white ones, lol!!

Please please please, make me promise to stop buying packs of premade cards~I never reach for them. Well, except for the Memory Box ones, lol lol lol!!! I know I can never stop buying them!

Decluttering

2011-03-18T00:15:00.002-04:00

I'm still trying to use up-and not replace- some of the stuff I have...

Unknown brand of premade cards, unknown ribbon, and a SU corduroy button.

But isn't that stamp the cutest thing? Penny Black, Bundle of Joy.

Make It Mondays- Impression Plates

2011-03-16T19:17:00.004-04:00

I love the Impression Plates, but the impression is so soft it's hard to photograph-

I needed a Birthday card that had a biblical quote, and someone suggested I look at Everyday Blessings. I did, and remembered how nice this set is. I went back to Nicholes release post, and sure enough...!...there was a perfect card there! This is almost a perfect CASE, but I thought the bottom layer would look good with the Giga Guidelines Impression plates, and then there was the Make It Monday post...so here we are!

Here's a close-up- hope you can see that impression!! I usually use my Cuttlebug, but decided to give my CB away to someone who doesn't have one and doesn't have money to get one- I have a Sizzix, so now I need to figure out all of my sandwiches again, lol.

Oh no, lol, I just reread the 'rules', and discovered that I was supposed to only impress part of a layer, lol... oh dear... I'll try again this weekend, lol!! Leave it to me to flaunt the rules!!

Distressingly Different!

2011-03-12T14:20:00.005-05:00

Oh my, I like this one so much better!!! So let's call this my real Make It Monday(s) challenge card! The idea came in a flash, and it was done in a flash! Good thing, since the party is at noon tomorrow!

That's a kraft card base, scrunched up in my hands, then edged with Chai ink. I thought that was too light, so added Distress Ink (Frayed burlap) not only around the edges but just all over- plop plop- the front of the card.

Took a piece of Library Ledger paper and used Trajan Monogram alphabet to spell out my message. I then lit a candle and had some fun with smoke and flame around the edges, lol!!

Inside, I used another piece of the Library Ledger paper and stamped a Word Search backkground from SU upside down. Can you see Happy Birthday is pretty easy to see? I'm sure he'll get it- but there are a bunch of words in that word search puzzle! A bit of soot around those edges for fun, too!

What I didn't photograph is the combination for the cute safe that is the basis of this gift. I enclosed it in a tiny envelope stuck to the inside of the card, with warning messages all over it. Inside the safe are 2 different gift certificates, plus a fart'machine. ha! Perfect for a new 9 year old, right??

The safe is done up in newspaper and tied with Dark Chocolate Baker's Twine . The bag is stamped with more Trajan messages, also some warnings I did by hand. In addition there are some fingerprints all over the bag, but for some reason you can't see them-

Fun!

Distressed Over Distressing?

2011-03-12T10:44:00.003-05:00

It's true, I generally do not use distressing in my baby cards. Truth be told, I collect antiques, and I sort of roll my eyes at attempts to make modern things look old and aged. Meaning, when I buy antiques, I don't want them torn, rolled, brown and dirty, kwim? Lol, lol, lol...

In addition, since you often do the distressing towards the end of your creating, you can really mess up big time if you don't like the tear or ink you added at the edges....

So, I'll stop whining- here's my addition to the distressing challenge; I tried to add as much distressing as I could bear!

There's the carriage from Bitty Baby Blessings, colored with Copics to match Blueberry Sky paper. I left it in the nesty die, and sponged on some yellow ink from Studio G. Next I sponged Chai along the edges.

The finished carriage was layered on a scalloped oval which I tried to curl a little. Note that when you layer the oval on, the distressing you do to the scallops can't be seen!

I stamped one of the polka dot basics backgrounds onto more Blueberry Sky with Versamark ink, then stamped the sentiment from Baby Button Bits in Dark Chocolate ink. Tore along the edges, then inked those torn edges with Chai.

Both were placed on a layer of Dark Chocolate stamped with bigger polka dot basics in Fresh Snow. Did the edges of that layer with a sharp edge, curled them up a little, and put on 2 brads that hold ribbon. That's the thinnest Papertrey silk ribbon, and a wheensy organdy bow.

Just thought there was too much empty space at the bottom, so added a little peek!

Fun Foam!

2011-03-05T18:21:00.003-05:00

I've been having lots of fun with the make It Monday challenges; I think the timing is perfect for me! Watch it on Monday evening after I get up or home, think about it until Friday, shop Friday day or evening, then create all day Saturday to have the idea come alive. Then I still have Sunday if Saturday falls apart. It's working for me, anyway- thanks Nichole and Papertrey!!

So, okay, I did not find fun foam fun or fulfilling. So nice to try a technique and not feel like I need to go out and spend $100.00 on everything in that aisle. OTOH, I like what I made! So here is my entry:

I took a dollar frame, painted the edges red, then glued on a sheet of the red print from Men Of Life. Next I put some Chai and Chamomile Vintage Touch ink around the edges.

I bought only one piece of fun foam, and got white because I thought it would give me the most options. Papertrey dies cut it just like butter. I liked the Tree Trimming Trio die best with the photo. For the life of me I could not get a stamp to look good in any ink, so I just smooshed 3 different colors of Memento ink all over the cut out, then applied some red rhinestones.

I ran a strip of Pure Poppy Saddle Stitch ribbon up the side, and anchored it with Scor-Tape. Scor-Tape anchored the tree, too. I am thinking I will either get or make some metal numbers (2010) and put them on the top somewhere.

2011-03-05T09:03:00.004-05:00

Do you ever get lost in your own blog? I do! I made this card last year, and when I went to clean out my pictures I couldn't find it on my blog... if this is a repeat, please accept my apologies...lol...lol...

The background was created with alcohol inks of course, then I cut an x in the middle of the piece with an xacto knife and just tore around the paper in a circle. Some Papertrey Enchanted Evening ink turned the white torn edges a nice shade of blue.

The sun is from SU's Stardust set, colored very softly with Copics~ stamped in Memento black, so the ink wouldn't smear.

Layered on a textured blue paper, then layered on to the Lemon Tart (Papertrey) square card. I had clear tiny stars, but not gold or yellow, so I just colored them with Cpopics. As I was coloring I wasn't really sure they were turning yellow, but when I put them down on the blue...they sure were!

Finished size is 5.5 inches square.

Wrapping Paper Cards

2011-03-01T06:41:00.004-05:00

I often use wrapping paper for cards and pages, but am not sure I've ever posted one- so here you go!

The card is 5.5 inches square, and is made from Papertrey's Aqua Mist. SU's Brocade Blue is
layered on top, then the lovely wrapping paper square on top of that. There are some stickers from Cloud 9 Design on them, and then various and sundry add-on's like Swiss Dots Aqua Mist ribbon and little hanging feet from Wilton. The blue hearts were once buttons, lol.

That's a QuickKutz die for the sentiment cut from brocade blue-

Not sure I've ever shown you some of the jewelry I make, either, lol... I can never get it to photograph well, so you never see it- but here goes!

There are lamp worked black and jade colored beads with plain black rounds and jade flats in between. The bracelet is a close match, but doesn't use the same beads- just some cheap-o's I found along the way.

February Papertrey Pages

2011-02-27T20:26:00.006-05:00

Our challenge this month was to help celebrate Papertrey's Birthday/Anniversary by making Birthday or Anniversary pages, and use a Papertrey birthday set if you could.

Now, during all of the February festivities there were challenges I would like to have participated in, but couldn't. I decided to try and get some of those inspiring ideas in these pages.
Look familiar? One of the new challenges from Papertrey will happen every Monday- make It Monday's, to be exact. MIM #1 was to use sentiments all lined up- well, just go see it here. I wasn't able to participate in the challenge, but the idea was rumbling around in my brain!

There are sentiments from 9 different sets on the page, lol. I used a 4 x 4 acrylic block, so it fit on a 12 x 12 sheet perfectly.

Here it is not quite done. I filled in with some small sentiments, and had to go in with a black pen and darken up some of the missing letters.

I made 2, of course. Here they are as my pages!!

'Wes is one' is cut with the Cricut Cartridge Base Camp and glittery paper- it sure is fun!!

Remember the glitter challenge? How about glitter icicles? I didn't use Scor-Tape, I bought a Xyron machine and ran punched out icicles through for sticky, and used Martha Stewart snow glitter.

The journaling spot is done with a plastic template thing that you sponge ink over- the bottom portion is blank so the DD can fill in whatever she wants.

The birthday hats are made with the Cricute cartridge Birthday Bash and 2009 Bitty Polka Dots. The penguins are done with Create a Critter. The tiny blue glitter letters are Making Memories.

There is a ton going on in these pages, so if you have questions, just ask, lol!!

Papertrey February Blog Hop!

2011-02-25T13:59:00.003-05:00

So how is everyone on this rainy, snowy, sleety, ucky day?

But then, a great day to create, lol!!!

This months challenge was to use scallops- and I got my new Papertrey items yesterday (came USPS, thank goodness!) so I had lots of new scallopy looking things to choose from!

Used the medium scallop border die, plus a die from the new Doily Details collection. Cut two doileys apart and put the pieces between the scallops. Then stamped a small image from Simply Stationery in the scallop portion.

See the center image? That's from Simply Stationery, stamped in Spring Rain- isn't it a great fit?? The center doily is layered on some of the new Pacific Vineyard paper, then raised on dimentionals. The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages.

Spring Rain Swiss Dots finishes it off!

Make It Mondays- Glitter and Scor-Tape

2011-02-23T11:12:00.003-05:00

This week the challenge has to do with glitter and score-tape; you can see the MIM video by Dawn McVey here

Yes, it's baby card day, so the challenge this week was to use glitter on a baby card, lol... not something I like to do, since the cards are going in and out of the envelopes multiple times during the baby's hospital stay, and also sits on a clipboard under lots of chart papers. Not an ideal environment for glitter. But then, a challenge is a challenge, lol!

I chose to use 1/8th inch tape, and just did stripes of pink glitter. Added some ribbons (hey MaryK, there is the sweet pink bears you sent me!!). Various ribbons made more 'stripes'.

The card base is pink shimmer cardstock, it's a beautiful pink color, I don't often reach for it- but it seemed ideal for a glitter card!

That's Mat Stack 2, cut with the die, then stamped in Memento Angel Pink. The sentiment is from Mega Mixed Messages. I sponged on Versamark and added glitter to the edges. Very pretty IRL!

LOL, ok, here's the out-take! I've often wondered how many not so good cards the DT's crank out before they get one that is worthy of publication??

Sooo.... the glitter frame is not a bad thing, but golly, that bear looks downright creepy!!!!

The medallion

2011-02-22T08:34:00.003-05:00

Hope you can see the wonderful color in this card! The background layer is with alcohol inks, but the SU medallion was stamped with all kinds of inks just sitting on the table. Gold around the edges of the PTI Stamper's Select. Sentiment came from Papertrey's Year of Flowers Daffodils. Tons of paper layers make for a visually stimulating but quiet lead up to the medallion.

Papertrey's Make It Monday~

2011-02-20T08:49:00.005-05:00

Papertrey has a new method of issuing challenges- but I know you know that!

Last Monday, the challenge was to use a vellum strip. You know, vellum is not so easy to work with; it doesn't absorb ink well, and you can see through it.

My card is made with Papertrey's Stamper's Select, Blueberry Sky, and the Spring Rain paper from the bitty Stars collection. Each of those is cut with the smaller Edger's #1 die, then sponged with both Chamomile and Chai ink.

Papertrey sells two kinds of vellum, I used the linen here. It has a visible little square pattern to it. I stamped my sentiment with Stazon ink, and the rest of the forum was correct- it dried fairly quickly and isn't going to smear- I hope!

The image was stamped with Fresh Snow, then outlined with a Versamark pen, similar to how Nichole outlined with a Copic- I just wanted a softer version. I distressed the edges of each layer a bit, then applied a silk bow in a blue that is close enough. The little star over the wee babe has a teensy bit of glitter on it just for fun~

Enjoy!

Why I hate ordering on line, and why I hate UPS (today, anyway)

2011-02-18T20:18:00.005-05:00

Anger is generally a worthless emotion, I try not to do it. Unfortunately, sometimes I fall into severe frustration instead, which is nomore helpful than anger.

I was too sick to order Monday night, but felt well enough to sit at the computer Tuesday am to do a PTI release order...yay for tummy for giving me a short break!!!

Can you weep with me?

I know my PTI order won't be here fast, it comes USPS and they won't deliver on the weekend, and won't deliver to the house anyway.

I did, though, want to reorganize this weekend. I ordered 8.5 x 11 ziplock bags to put the cardstock in, instead of leaving it in the flimsier plastic covers. Scheduled for UPS delivery Wednesday.

I ordered 50 calendar cases, I'm behind putting sets in cases, and have more sets on the way! Scheduled for UPS delivery Friday.

Ordered 2 of the cubbies for my copics, and plan a big marker purge this weekend... can't wait! Scheduled for delivery thursday.

So where am I on this Friday evening??

1. Have not even had a PTI shipping notice yet. It might come without one. The mail driver will putthe box in his car, drive to the mailbox, leave me a note that I can come to the PO once he gets back to the PO, except that is after closing hours. It's crazy, I tell you! He won't take the time to come the house.

2. Checked Wednesday delivery. Was an emergency, has gone back to the UPS hub, they will send me a postcard and I can go pick it up (30 minutes away) once I recieve the postcard. Ok, no bags... can't reorganize paper. This just means they didn't want to take the time to drive to the house. If the post card comes on Tuesday, I might be able to get the by Friday.

3. Calendar cases? Found them propped on the mailbox half a mile away... yay!! Guess he didn't want to drive down to the house

4. Cubbies? Says they were delivered to 'customer man', same as the calendar cases says. Must have been left at the mailbox at the same time... ah, no, not there, no cubbies. No lie, I drove down there having already been there, and stared at the mailbox again, lol. Just in case I didn't notice a huge box on top, or in the snow.

5. I wanna know how you guys call your local shipping hub, anyway. I call the 800 number, get a nice lady in Texas (remember, I'm in Maine and I just wanna talk to the dang driver!!) who says, ah gee, sorry, call the shipper and they'll start a claim. I bet I won't have cubbies for a month, unless I want to order 2 more, pay for them, and have them shipped USPS.

Going to go hide my head under the pillows now. Blah and double blah.

Kaleb's Birthday Banner

2011-02-18T05:46:00.002-05:00

Kaleb likes to stamp and make scenes. We have some knight and castle stamps for him to create with. He usually uses the back of the SU big paper pad to create his pictures on. I decided to make him a Birthday card using his stamps.

It started as a Birthday Card. It ended up in a frame. The castle, henchmen, and Templar knights are red rubber stamps. The trees and banners with alphabet are all Papertrey. Background is colored with Prisma pencils. Cut a series of curves from cardstock, then sponged on some blue ink for sky over the edge of the paper, making pretty white fluffy clouds. King and Queen, dragon and little frog with a crown are stickers.

He turned ten, he was very impressed.

Papertrey'sJanuary Blog Hop Case

2011-02-16T08:21:00.004-05:00

The Papertrey Blog Hops are always inspiring. Actually, incredible might be a better word! I always bookmark multiple cards, then, lol, rarely go back and make them. This past weekend I needed to make 10-20 baby cards, so I needed ideas to CASE.

I breezed through my bookmarks... and found this ... isn't it an incredible card??

Here's my version-

I used Spring Rain as the card base, so you can see the colors are a little bit off. Martha Stewart provided the patterned paper and the background doily. Well, actually, Kellijo sent me the MS doilies!

I must say, sometimes the Spring Rain ink works well, sometimes not. This time it did. The image from Mat Stack 2 stamps was stamped in Spring Rain then cut out with the matching >Mat Stack 2 die. I stamped the sentiment from Signature Greetings in Versafine Onyx Black. I know, I know, a bit crooked! The 1 3/4 inch Limitless layers Circle collection provided the perfect back layer scalloped circle, cut from Spring Rain cs. I sponged a bit of Spring Rain ink on the doily, just to help it stand out a bit. Lastly, the ribbon is Harvest Gold Twill.

Thanks, Jean for such an inspiring card!

Papertrey Ink Year of Flowers Roses

2011-02-12T16:43:00.004-05:00

Being fast here, and downstairs with nothing written down. YOF Roses, of course; also Pure Poppy paper. A Spellbinder ribbon slider. Old SU organdy ribbon. The sentiment comes from Communique Curves Sentiments. The teensy little raised dots are the fingernail paint I got at a yarn show- great stuff! Basic Grey patterned paper, or it could be Memory Box?

I used three Copics in the red family, then removed some here and there with the blender. Lastly I placed some drops of dew on the petals with crystal glaze-

Papertrey Baby Tag!

2011-02-06T15:52:00.003-05:00

I have always had lots of good muse during the Papertrey Anniversary weeks, lol... wish I could keep it going!

I can count on one hand the times I have downloaded a digital file for cards, and this one had color, and by golly, it worked!! What fun I have had today!

Lol, I sure hope it was ok with Maile to change up the sweet image~ but I had to make a baby card!

This card is essentially the same as the Valentine card (see the previous post below), but this time I used a doily for one of the layers. The doilies came to me from KelliJo (hello!!), the sweetest person you have ever met! She mailed them to me all of the way from Washington State, believe it or not, since I have not been able to find any around here. I am just in love with them!

2 of the tiniest pearls you have ever seen dress up the center of the wind mill fans. No lie, I had only four inches of a silk ribbon that matches Sweet Blush perfectly, but I can't tie something that small. DH to the rescue!!

4 pm here, and I have made 6 cards over the past 24 hours...with a house full of company, no less! I think I will have some coffee and chocolate and see if I can do some more before dark sets in!

Playing with Papertrey!

2011-02-06T14:24:00.006-05:00

Lisa Johnson's tag- with Pure Poppy and Hibiscus Burst. Lol, I need 10 Valentines by the 12th, and 10 baby cards this week, so I couldn't splurge and just do a tag- it had to be a card!

The tag is layered on a Pure Poppy circle, then popped up onto a scalloped Nesty circle. That's all layered on a Pure Poppy Spellbinder die cut.

Don't so much believe the colors, here- I just wanted to get a clear closeup of the glitter and the fingernail paint. That's a SU red glitter. I used the Pure Poppy and Hibiscus Burst Copic trios to color. 'Love' is from the original Mixed Messages; it's just a perfect size to fit into the empty space beside the hearts. Finished size is 5 inches square.

But hey! I can't sit here typing, lol, I have to go see what kind of baby card I can make with those tags!!!

Too Much!

2011-02-05T18:37:00.005-05:00

Too much of this...

...and too much of this...

Leads to much silliness...

Conquering Everest...

...and Jeannie hugging bears!!!

Is it Spring, Yet?

2011-02-03T21:36:00.004-05:00

It's almost Valentine's Day. I should be making red shiny heart cards. Instead, I'm dreaming of tulips and flowers and trying to pretend there isn't 5 feet of snow outside the door. I'm needing Spring cards!!

In my bid to use up all premade cards, I opened this pack of 2 cards and envelopes. They are from Colorbok, and were Joanns very first $1.00 items I think. Eons ago!

SEI paper, from half an eon ago. My 2009 goal was to make my images match my paper, and I think I am getting much better at it!

That's a Hero Arts stamp, colored with Copics and Prisma markers. Watercolor crayons for the grass and sky, and 2 Colorbok flowers that match the cards.

Here's the boy version, using a Lockhart stamp. SET ribbon that matches the paper, with a weensy piece of SU 1/4 inch grosgrain tied into the bow.

Valentine #2

2011-02-01T07:57:00.003-05:00

Isn't it cute? that's Papertrey's Simple Valentine paper layered on Pure Poppy. I did the white dots with the white Signo pen. The alphabet stamps are from Art Warehouse, then colored in with a glue pen and glitter applied. I hand drew the little box, did red dots with a Copic glitter pen, and added some bling and a glittery heart. The ribbon is a piece of Pure Poppy, of course.

I am just so loving the MS punches, and any brand that goes around the corner! Takes some skill to get the dimensions right, lol, as you can seein the upper left hand corner. The Love You stamp is from an old SU set named Big on Spring. I paper pieced the letters with more Simple Valentine paper, then made a Pure Poppy heart and covered it with glitter. More little red glitter dots tie it all together.

Waiting for the snow, here, 2 more feet expected. Gonna have to do something about the roof one of these days... I mean, get the 4 feet of snow off of it... not sure how you do that without killing yourself as you pull the snow off!

Valentine #1

2011-01-31T12:27:00.005-05:00

Bear with me, I am working just on the laptop, with the whatever photo editor that is in here... and it's awful, lol... so this week's Valentines might not have the photo quality I am used to. Will go back to the Microsoft editor!

I just love these two stamps by A Muse. My all time favorite Valentine stamps!

Background paper by Carolee's Creations, layered on an unknown card (still working on using up all of the premade cards I have!). The little Piggy is colored with Copics.

That's a MS punch along the edges, with the matching A Muse sentiment stamp Fun!!

January Papertrey Pages: Spring Rain

2011-01-28T21:42:00.005-05:00

Our challenge this month was to use three different Spring Rain items. Lol, of course, PTI has buttons, ribbons and paper... but that's it! I went shopping and found Spring Rain brads (Core-dinations) and close enough Stickles, but lol, never used them!

One more set of pages for DD #2's Baby Westley album. Lol, I gave her the album for Christmas, with lots of empty pages!!

The papers are from Best Creations, the Transportation line. Lots of circles, and lots of sparkle!!

The photos are mounted on Spring Rain, then I punched the corners with the SU tag punch and added brads from SU's Bold Brights.

I used a 12 x 12 sheet of Bazzill paper that was close enough to Spring Rain in small amounts for the clouds. The clouds were die cut with Papertrey's medium scallop die, then sponged with some Enchanted Evening ink.

The title is done with Thickers brown felt letters (where are the alphabet dies, Papertrey???). The letters are sitting on a double ribbon layer- SU's Bashful Blue wide stitched and Papertrey's Spring Rain gingham. Man, I wish I had that gingham in Sweet Blush!! Another request!

Those cute little cars and tractors are buttons from the craft aisle in Joann's.

PTI has never offered Dark Chocolate Saddle Stitch ribbon; this is an Offray version- the white stitches are colored blue with a Prisma marker, Sky Blue Light #202. To my weary eyes, the Prisma is a better Spring Rain match than any of the Copics.

Layered on top of the Offray ribbon is Papertrey's Black and White Stripes, I colored the white lines with the Prisma as well.

Buttons are from the Spring Rain, Enchanted Evening, and Blueberry Sky collections, but I also tossed in some odds and ends of buttons. The DMC floss I tied some of the buttons with is number 800, a perfect Spring Rain match!

I forgot I have a journaling piece to add, dang nab it! I just was too excited and took the photos too early!

So! I used Spring Rain paper, gingham ribbon, and buttons. I used the Prisma marker #202 to create Spring rain matching ribbons.

My goal is to inspire you to get creative with your photos (well, and inspire myself to finish some pages), but if the baby pictures just make you smile or laugh, that's a good thing, too!

January Papertrey Blog Hop

2011-01-25T10:00:00.001-05:00

Here's the challenge, issued just 10 days ago:

'This month's blog hop challenge involves you challenging yourself to use a Papertrey stamp set that has yet to see ink or even one that might be collecting a little dust!'

Lol, I started the challenge on the 16th, but only got two of them done. Then I failed in the photographing of one of them (Snow days are no different than rain days for photographing near as I can tell. It has snowed off an on for the past, well, 77 years, I think.). Today I will show you one that is done, and one still being worked on!

This is a pretty momentous card- does it look clean and simple? I used 2 sets never used before, one sentiment never used before, and stamped directly on to a card from a box of cards never used before! How's that?

It is, of course, Banner Builder, with BABY spelled out with Fresh Alphabet, and the sentiment from Inside and Out Baby. I stamped directly onto the card with Versafine Onyx Black, and the banners are in Memento inks. One try, and I got this perfect card!

Here's the one that is not quite done: Lily of the Valley. The paper is shimmery, but without any sun today, I couldn't get the glitter to show without glare from the flash. The green layer is Leaf Green, a color I have not been using much- but am so happy to have when the right moment comes along! Cut with Nesties, I hand cut the bottom of the stem first, then put it over the edge of the nesty to finish the cut and have the stem stick off the edge. Colored with Copics, and glitter applied to the bottom of the flower cups. Sentiment comes from another unused Year of Flowers set: Sweet Peas.

It's snowing big flakes out there. The radio says we are just going to get 'about' and inch during the day. There is at least an inch and a half on the porch, with no signs of letting up. Craig says life is all about contradictions, I say I need a ticket to somewhere sunny and warm. He says it is warm, it's above 0 F for the first time in days.

CAS with Alcohol Inks

2011-01-24T08:15:00.003-05:00

Maybe it's a contradiction to use 'Clean and Simple' in the same sentence as 'alcohol inks'. Ha! I find alcohol inks easy-albeit messy- to use, and always come up with some beautiful papers.

The inks used are blue and purple with just a tiny bit of gold, I then edged the piece with a gold pen, and layered it on black and purple. The purple paper is textured; you can see little 'strings' of paper in it. It's a bright joyous purple, not an easy color to find.

The sentiment was embossed in gold on Papertrey's Enchanted Evening, edged in gold, then layered on a piece of purple.

Easy!

Happy Birthday!

2011-01-16T18:13:00.006-05:00

Today is my birthday! I want to remind you of my birthday present last year- see it here- Ha! Wasn't that the sweetest thing?

Now it is a year later... and it's a Penguin party!!!!

I made the card with the Cricut Create a Critter Cartridge, the penguin was made in the 4 inch setting. The sentiment is from the Opposites Attract cartridge, with a 1.5 inch setting. The '1' is a Penny Black stamp, colored with a Copic and blinged up with white glitter. The little guy's hat is a purchased embellishment, from K&Co, but a few years ago.

The card base is 5.25 inches square, made from green Amuse tiny check cardstock. it's great paper for cards since it is plain white on the back, and a heavy stock, so it makes into a perfect printed front card,

Inside-the sentiment is from Opposites Attract, with Liquid Applique (to replicate icing).

See the bag behind the Penguin gift holder? I glued on a new copy of the movie, 'March of the Penguins', then added a few more 1's around on the bag. The Penguin gift holder is an After Christmas special purchase, lol, .99 cents at Hallmark yesterday!!!

I gave Alex the cake pops book for Christmas, and look what she came up with! I didn't get any great close up pics, but if you click on it to enlarge, I think you will get a better view.

She was so sweet to make Wes and I both cakes!

Lol, he hasn't had much in the way of sweet things in his short life!!

As soon as he brought his head up from the first lick, he laughed loud and long!! So did the rest of us!!

He definitely loved the cake, and was quite the ham!

It was a fun, fun, day; it will make me smile on my birthday for years to come to share it with such a happy little boy!!

New Year's Baby Card

2011-01-13T16:17:00.003-05:00

I was cleaning out the camera and realized I did not share the New Year's Baby card with you- shame on me!!

I used Mrs. Grossman stickers and a Studio G. $1.00 stamp. It's on a silver shiny card, but the Nesty scalloped oval is from a more sparkly silver paper. the 'oh baby' is done in detail silver embossing powder.

The ribbon is silver from Papertrey, and I tied on a while tiny baby rattle.

I did the inside on the computer- I don't generally do that, but it seemed the easiest way to do a sentiment that is so wordy.

Twins!

2011-01-09T21:23:00.004-05:00

A colleague of mine had 2 wee baby girls on Friday morning, so I needed a special baby card for her! I took the Great Impressions duckie stamp and made a second duck on a tube using a Stamp-a-ma-jig. I only had to do it once; that's a record for me for this kind of alteration!! I drew in the missing line to link it to the first tube.

I used Copics to match the papers (Pebbles, Inc.) and used a funny edged Nesty to make the first layer using Papertrey's hibiscus Burst as my background solid.

The sun is a Boss Cut die with a cute little face drawn on and some 'glitter glue around the edges. Truth be told, that little sun is hiding a blip from a Copic when I pulled the lid off over the colored image- lesson learned- those Copics can have juice in the caps- beware!!

Some glitter glue on the tubes flowers, then some Papertrey Silk 1/4 inch ribbon colored with the matching Copic of the ducks to tie two bows.

Jess has a youngster at home, and I thought I might add the three little girls names to the bottom of the ducks. Will have to think about that!

The finished card us a business size, I think it came out to be 3.75 x 9.0 inches.

December Papertrey Pages challenge!

2010-12-30T19:19:00.004-05:00

So, the challenge was to create a page the size of which you do your layouts. I do 12 x 12, so this is what I made. I needed a one page layout to 'match' a page I made before, this is the one I mean.

I drew a grid with a Limepeel Prisma marker, then stamped Overall Sam from the Quilter's Sampler Addition set in Memento black.

Colored with all of the Prisma and Copics I had that I thought would match the first all over page I did. Lastly I stamped all along the edges of the Limepeel grid with the 'stitched' stamp from Faux Ribbon; it helped to make the page pop a bit more.

When I was done, I didn't like how the photo got lost on the page, so I filled in around the edges with pieces from 2008 Bitty Dot papers.

When I had it done and in the sleeve next to the other page, I realized I needed to cut it down and mat it the same~ so now the little edge squares are a funny shape, but lol, that's ok!

The layered title is cut in Blueberry Sky from the Cricut cartridge New Arrival...

... and the finish of the sentiment is from the Quilter's Sampler Sentiments.

Christmas is over, and I was so happy to have both of the scrapbooks I have been working on finished enough that I was not embarrassed to wrap them up as 'just a wee bit unfinished' gifts. My childreen accept that of me. Some of the last pages I never photographed. One I even finished at 2 am December 23rd, lol, and wrapped them both at 5 am Christmas morning. I bought matching photograph holders, and loaded in all of the photos I had sitting on the desk that I hadn't used in layouts. There are at least 5 more sets of pages I want to do, and will continue on my monthly challenge pages!

December Papertrey Blog Hop

2010-12-26T13:43:00.005-05:00

Goodness, I forgot that today was the 26th, and we are on for a blog hop! Yay!

Here's the paper I started with- not sure where it came from, it has been in the wrapping paper box for ages. It's fabulous colors, very heavy, and very antiquey looking!

I took the Papertrey Christmas tree die and just plopped it down and cut a tree-

Whops, that won't work! Angel faces on the tree probably will look funny!

Had to fussy cut the tree, but it looks wonderful! I made a 'Strathmore' kind of card by cutting watercolor paper to an A-2 size, tearing off the right edge, then running a gold Pilot pen down the tear. Rejoice comes from this years Holiday Spirit Sentiments and I finished it off with a tiny star at the top. Lovely!

The tags are a little different; they are made with chocolate wrappers! You can get the chocolates at discount stores (mine came from Marshalls) at Christmas time. The chocolate isn't to rave about, but the vintage wrappers are!!! I used a Hampton Arts red rubber stamp to do the background, then aged the Pure Poppy layer, and put the trimmed wrapper right on top. Added some Making Memories poinsettias, made some snowflakes from brads and punches, and that's a little K&C folded paper doo dad on the lower tag.

Hope you are resting up if you had a busy weekend, and hope you are all safe if you are int he middle of a blizzard. We are waiting for the snow to start; supposed to get 18 inches tonight and another 6 tomorrow. Snow is fun while it falls and we are all snug with lanterns and a wood fire, but the wonder lasts for about 15 minutes when I think about going to work tomorrow, and all of my family who are out and about and need to get home. Sheesh.

Another 3-D baby card

2010-12-26T10:36:00.004-05:00

I really do love the 3 D paper cuts, and they are much easier to find then they used to be. If there are only 3 layers, they mail pretty well, and with only 3 layers the nurses don't tear them apart putting them in and out of envelopes. I wobble back and forth between liking the punch out kind and the cut out kinds. Today I like the cut out kinds because the punch out ones you have to cut the teensy tabs left from the perforations.

The card is a premade one; ones that I am trying to use up and promise myself never to buy again (they fade too quickly).

I wish I hadn't cut such a big hole for the ribbon on the front, at least it isn't so visible when the card is shut. Next time, I'll stamp the sentiment a little bit closer to the image; it looks a little low to me in the photo!

Just a Sticker

2010-12-22T08:30:00.003-05:00

I've always wondered if people with Birthday's around holiday's like getting holiday themed birthday cards or not. I made this card for a person with a close to Christmas birthday.

Believe it or not, this image started life as a sticker. I dressed it up with a litle bit of glam (glitter, actually), paired it with a wrap of green and purple, then put a coat around it of Basic Grey floral paper that matched the print of the sticker well. You can see I was tempted to use Plum Pudding ribbon, but decided the glitter was enough.

So New, So Loved

2010-12-14T04:06:00.004-05:00

Are you ready for the cutest smooshed baby face you have ever seen?

Taa Daa! I think it is so cute, yet so funny!

The words are a Sizzix alphabet and Papertrey's Vintage Cream card stock. I used the Big Kick machine to cut them out since the Cuttlebug was not so successful cutting the narrow font. The 'loved' word is a foam alphabet stamp, done with acrylic paint.

That's a chipboard heart, layered with a piece of Papertrey's Chocolate Remix paper, then edged with Sweet Blush ink, and layered with a button.

Start to finish, 30 minutes. No lie! Was up drinking coffee at midnight ready to get to work at 1 am, the phone rang on the second sip and they told me to stay home. Now what???? I knew the next scrapbooking task was a Title page, and I had a photo but no ideas. Upstairs with coffee. Bam. 30 minutes. Done. I love it when it happens!

Thought you might like to see the tree- I see lots of beautiful photos of lit trees at night, but I have no idea how to take a picture like that! So you get my washed out nighttime photo where you can't see the flickering candle lights.

Fine Linen Baby

2010-12-12T10:35:00.004-05:00

I write this post with the laptop balanced on my knee, and no mouse since there isn't anywhere to put it. The Christmas tree is in the window, so there is no table to put the laptop on to get wireless. lol, probably the only bad part of Christmas...other than the credit card bills mid January.

I love glittery, sparkly, embossed and flocked papers- but how to make them into baby cards?

Pearls and a sentiment and a lucious label- that's all it takes! Well, some Papertrey Fine Linen ribbons and an EK Success border punch too, lol!

Cleaning Out!

2010-12-09T09:54:00.006-05:00

A few weeks back I was trying to work at the table and had the incredible sensation that I needed to Get Rid Of things I don't use- hence, the ribbon post a couple of posts back, and today, a set of small cards that I got from who knows where.

They are smaller than an A-2 (the nurses like smaller), and pretty flimsy. There were a total of 4 to work with.

My first step is always stamp right on it and see what happens! Just have to be careful of the thinness of the paper, but this water colored bear worked out ok. Stamping directly onto the card can be fraught with problems, though...

Don't you hate it when that happens?

Easily fixed by cutting it off and making a slightly bigger card. 2 down, 2 to go!

Here's where messing up the bird and balloons was ok; after I cut the card apart I had half of a card to use as a layer! Thinner paper works well with embossing, and I just love the polka dots EF! Thing is, you have to be careful when anchoring to embossing.

That's why debossing is so good- the layers anchor better. Say! See that frame??? Sitting on the desk after a Papertrey order got put away... that's the front of the paper label, cut out and fiddled with a little bit!

All told, about 3 hours, and I felt so good about it! I think another one of those little ribbon spools paired with a set of pre-made cards is next!

2010-12-04T06:50:00.002-05:00

I know I stole this card from someone somewhere- but can't remember... probably a magazine...

A Sizzix die, I think. Papertrey's kraft paper as well as a piece of Pretty Pastels. Border punch, some very light Copic on the ears, a bunch of glitter...

Done.

I'm not sure, but I think Christmas is at the end of the month. I need 125-150 cards. I have 28.

Not done.

Papertrey Pages November

2010-11-30T09:15:00.002-05:00

Ha! This month the challenge was to use either Thanksgiving or Halloween photos, or to at least use Dark Chocolate, Black, Terracotta Tile and/or Orange Zest card stock.

Since I have had this idea in my mind for a baby page, I opted for the latter.

Not much more to say than that, other than... turns out his hair isn't red like his big sister's, it's now very blond like his big brother's.

Flower Soft Hedgehog

2010-11-28T14:20:00.002-05:00

Not at all original, lol, I pretty much copied the Flower Soft ad. I used the fine soft this time, I do like it better, I think. Papertrey's Dark Chocolate and Terracotta Tile worked well with the leaf colors. Terracotta Tile ribbon layered with some Michael's ribbon, and an edge punch with an EK Success punch.

Papertrey November Blog Hop

2010-11-25T10:56:00.006-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Can you believe we are having a Blog Hop today? As usual, I am thinking about this 10 minutes before the start, and trying to fit it in with other things I need to produce today- Ha!

10 minute tags- I made the Kraft ones first, then realized I needed them silver, so I did 2 more. No lie, less than 10 minutes.

Cut the paper with the Christmas Tree die, stamp with the smaller Text Style in SU's Handsome Hunter, punch out little balls in Pure Poppy, and anchor the Pure Poppy Bakers Twine with a little star button and glue dots.

So want to see the rest of the story??

Here are the two silver tags on their bags...

Here's what's inside the bags- our annual Holiday Planners. I got the RSVP pens and put matching paper inside, then glued the pen tops on the fronts with Crystal Effects. These planners were a $4.00 bargain mid-July at a Hallmark store.

Inside- stamped their names with Trajan Monogram Edition.

There are envelopes inside the planners, but I added the one on the inside cover- I wanted a place to stash that cute Santa Chocolate bar-

Ah, yes... what the girls are really looking for, of course, is the stash in the chocolate bar wrapper- ha! Black Friday is one of the most fun days of the year for me!

Fingernail Ink!

2010-11-24T20:29:00.002-05:00

I know, what do these wraps have to do with fingernail ink? Every year the mom and I make sweaters to wear to the Stitches yarn event; this year in Hartford Ct. We have fun making them, and she loves to have people comment on how we match. This year we made wraps instead of sweaters- fun, but I think we will make sweaters next year!

Now, the mom is over 80 years old, and I'm not telling how old I am (but she was way young when she had me, ha!). When I see pictures of her, I am thankful I came from some youthful looking genes!

I also think it is funny that we cut our own hair, and it looks so 'good' in this photo! Actually, she cuts her own, and Craig cuts mine...

So, at Stitches, there was a vendor selling fingernail paint to put decorations on buttons. Yes, indeedy, I can find card making supplies anywhere I go! They had a set in pastels, too!!

Not sure if you can see in the close up how tiny the polka dots can be, and the dimension, they give.

It might not look like it, but that circle behind the image is Papertrey's Fine Linen felt, cut with one of the new Limitless Layers dies.

Ahh yes, and I did delve into the world of sewing on card stock, lol. My Pfaff did perfectly, I had no thread or tension problems like others have reported. I have a walking foot which moves the top layer along with the bottom layer, and I did not even use tape to hold the layers together as I sewed. Looks ok, but this was probably not the right card to do it on-

Here's another one, girly this time.

Papertrey's Bitty Baby Blessings stamp, Pretty Pastels paper, Pink Shimmer cardstock, Guidelines paper and the scalloped oval cut from Plum Pudding.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, I wish for you a winter of all things to be thankful for!

A new to me technique and a Very Smart Little Boy!

2010-11-10T21:25:00.004-05:00

Most of the time I make cards and I think- gosh, that's nice! Or more often 'Well, that's pretty cute'. Every once in a while, though, I can stun myself with something I make. This is one of those times.

I wanted to make a clear card, like Nichole did in her video here.

I started with PTI's clear card stock, and cut and folded as per Nichole's instructions. Rather than stamp and color, I wanted to see through the card, so I used a large rub-on directly onto the front of the card. Since there is no glue to see from the back, I didn't need to put a layer on the inside.

Next I took a piece of Stamper's Select white cut just a bit larger than the front image, and put a matching rub-on rose on the bottom left corner. I put Tombow on the back, and stuck it to the inside. Next I put the Happy Birthday rub-on directly under the big rose, so you can't see the sentiment from the outside. Of course, now there was glue to be seen from the back, so just like Nichole, I put a layer of Berry Sorbet on the very back, and it forms a mat for the front as well.

How cool is that?

You can exit now, or read my little story that follows~

All of my grandchildren are very, very, intelligent, and by golly, they can be pretty smart, too! Every once in a while I can be startled by how smart they are- like yesterday, for instance.

This is Jay, he is four. He's learnig to read and write and is very proud of himself for that. Yesterday he decided to stay with Poppy and I when his momma went shopping. After an hour of playing Candy Land, we decided to go next door to his house.

When we got to his house, there on the front door was taped a 4 x 6 card, with lots of letters and numbers written on it.

'Why Jay! What's this say?' I asked.

He kneeled down in front of the door, and ran his fingers over the letters, tracing over them slowly. 'It says, I love my Grandma!'

My heart melt. I got all warm and fuzzy. I hugged him and told him I loved him too. He grinned his little sheepish grin.

30 seconds later, his Grandpa came up to the door. He too, saw the card with letters and numbers taped to the door 'Hey Jay! What's this say?'

I couldn't wait to hear that little voice say 'I love my Grandma' once again. He went down on his knees, put his little fingers on those sweetly written letters and numbers and traced them out once again.

'It says, I love my Poppy!'

Such a smart boy!!!

Oh Thank Heaven for Little Spools of Ribbon

2010-11-06T21:16:00.002-04:00

Have you all bought some of the littlest spools of ribbon in the big craft stores? The 99 cent ones? Yes, I know you have. Have you liked them? Have you used them? I bet no on both questions. Sigh. I have more than just a couple of rolls. I have waaayyy too many, actually. So when I was sorting things out to send to the yard sale, I pulled a bunch of them out to recycle- but I just couldn't do it, lol! So here they sit beside the table in a big container... waiting for inspiration. I opened one the other day, determined to not only use it, but use it up in one card making session!

First up: Oh Thank Heaven for Little Boys. Single sided- double sigh.

Tried to go quick and easy; this is a card I have done before. I love the little train from SU- put a score line about one inch up from the bottom of the card and you have a 'ground' for the train. The sentiment is from PTI's Baby Button Bits. The ribbon made a nice big bow, but I lost some of the sentiment because i was too cheap to move it more to the left- I would have lost a lot of the ribbon when I trimmed up the bow. I know, I know, the goal was to get rid of it- but still, I couldn't bring myself to cut so much off!

The second card is another quick and easy. Hard to tell, maybe, but the blue Nesty oval under the image is PTI's new Blueberry Sky- it just happened to match the ribbon! Used Copics on the Lockhart image. Tied the ribbon into a knot because I could see the end coming, but I didn't want to waste too much!

Here's what was left after 2 cards, lol... just about 6 inches! See the tape, though? I hate it when I need the last eeny weeny bit of ribbon and there is sticky tape residue on it!

Last up- just wrap the ribbon around some card stock and call it done!! Lol, I let the ribbon be the sentiment, and gosh, no stamping here!! That is a MS punch, and the darker blue is Enchanted Evening. My MS punches don't all work on PTI paper, but this one did ok since it is a bigger image punch, I think. The white carriage is a big plastic one I got from the dollar store (like a hundred of them for a dollar, lol, guess that should be my next challenge to self!!

Blue ribbon on the carriage is an old SU organdy- wish PTI had some organdy!!

October Papertrey Pages

2010-10-30T22:06:00.001-04:00

Wow, these pages photographed very light, they are much more primary then they look!

This month's challenge was to use 3 ribbons and 3 buttons on your pages... I figured I'd do more than that, but guess what?!? Just 3! I used New Leaf and Blueberry Sky paper for the photograph layers, the Title, and the frogs. the shadow of the frogs (from Cricut's Create a Creature) is True black. The buttons are in the title, o's and the exclamation point dot. Ribbons are from New Leaf and Blueberry Sky line as well.

The hanging clothesline is the actual one from the shower cake, I've saved it all of these years! The grandchild is four, do you think it's time I made his album? The cake said 'Little Baby Lotta Laundry! and I had baby clothes hanging all over the room. Back then, though I did not have a great camera, so have no really good pictures of the shower.

In this close up you can see I did not think ahead to give me enough string to wrap around the back of the pages, when I cut it it just pulled towards the poles. I need to think about that, lol, and fix it with glue dots or something.

In addition, I printed off some of the photos and they are really grainy- so i caved and sent some to Snapfish to print. those are on the way but didn't make it in time. so much of the page is put together with removable glue, lol, and couldn't' be photographed standing up!

Halloween Goodies

2010-10-27T21:31:00.003-04:00

I really do love the images from Tiny Treats: Halloween. Actually, I just love the tiny images of all of the Tiny Treats sets! Fingers crossed for a Tiny Treats Easter or Spring, think of all of the baby cards with chickies and bunnies!!!!

My tins are full of Halloween candies- the tins are from the dollar bin at Joanns. The label fits perfectly on top, and the images are decorated with a sparkly gel pen and little bows.

The vampire test tube Trendy Tubes are filled with Pear flavored Jelly Bellies- a perfect green color! Lisa Johnson did the tubes with Frank, she used M & M's~ either way, they are so cute!!!

You can counjt to 6, right?!? Please note that Grandchild #6 is 9 months old and is not yet eating candy- poor guy! At Easter when he was about 3 months old I was not going to make him a basket and his Momma was horrified... and who ate the chocoalte bunny, I ask? Yeah, I think his momma just wants this tin of chocolate eyeballs, too!

October PTI Blog Hop

2010-10-25T12:48:00.005-04:00

Eeek! I almost forgot the Blog Hop format changes again, lol!!

So, gee whiz, two blog or website lessons:
1. Don't talk politics
2. Don't talk religion

Uh oh, I think I am going to break that rule in this post.

One of the things I love about the PTI forum is how happy and accepting it is. Every once in a while something erupts, of course. Religion this time, I think. I am sorry about that. I think this month we were to make a winter season card, and I interpreted it to mean we were to think outside of the Christmas box. Easy for me, hard for some, I guess.

I used Mozel Tov and MT Additions to make this Hanukkah card for a co-worker. Woo Hoo! One card down 149 to go!

I first made the background paper with alcohol inks, using both the direct to ink and the tapped on method. I stamped the menorah in Versafine Onyx black and heat dried. Layered on True Black, the card base is silver shimmer. There's a wee bit of yellow Pearl Pen in the flames. the sentiment is done in silver detail EP. 9 SU brads finish off the right hand edge.

Forgot the inside when IU first put up the post...

Next up is a different kind of 'winter holiday' card. Since we are atheist's, we recognize and celebrate each solstice during the lunar/calendar year. We celebrate Mother Earth and Father Time, so to speak, and the changing of the season is way important for us. Gee, how would we know when to start chopping wood and when we can stop? Ok, no more politic or religion, lol!!

Inside and Out Holiday works great for the thought of the Winter solstice. The center yellow and red alcohol ink represents both the fire on the hearth that must burn from now until the Spring solstice, but also the light at the end of the dark winter months. The magic is, of course, that Spring will come again! The image is edged with a gold pilot pen, layered onto Smokey Shadow CS then put on the card base of Shimmer Gold.

The date was done on my computer, and printed out on Stamper's Select CS Vellum
I had to make the glitter brads with glue and glitter. Not terribly successful; I am hopping the glue will be dry by December 21st!

Thanks for reading to the end on this long Blog Hop evening!

The Halloween Lineup

2010-10-18T06:08:00.003-04:00

Sometimes it is best to just let the paper carry the card- this is a fine example! When I saw the paper, I saw little eyes peeking out at me from between the lines on the paper. I used little red rhinestones to highlight the eyes. You may need to enlarge the photo to see the creepiness of those eyes!

Martha Stewart's bat fence was punched from text weight black paper; a new to me Quick Kutz Halloween die made the moon and bats. A little bit of PTI's Smokey Shadow edged on the PTI Orange Zest card, and it's done~ a big 'punch' in person for not a lot of work.

The moon is cut from a piece of alcohol inked paper, but then I took 2 colors- Orange Zest and Memento Potter's Clay and sponged on to the inked image. I had to let it sit for an hour before I touched it since the ink needed to dry on top of the alcohol ink. Then some Smokey Shadow across the moon forming sort of a cloud look- again, waiting until the next morning to turn it over to glue it down. It did finally dry, though, so all is good!

Cherish

2010-10-13T14:57:00.003-04:00

I don't know exactly what my style is, but I do know that I don't do vintage, I don't do shabby, and i certainly can't do chic. ha!

So I am not sure what this one is, or where it came from, lol.

Well, the sticker came from Jolee's, that I do know. I made the lace border from a Martha Stewart punch, and stuck some pearls on it. I tried making the double looped bow with PTI satin ribbon, but the loops just want to hang together. I need to figure out how to get or make that scrunched ribbon if I want to go vintage shabby, right?

I don't know about you, but I have been mesmerized by the rescue(s) in Chile- what an example of pride, perseverance courage and skill. My oh my-

Now, back to the live feed via The Lede...

CASE of Nichole's card today~

2010-10-10T11:22:00.004-04:00

ETA: I forgot to say I hand drew that little nest, just a really fine tipped brown marker, and looking at the bigger nest from Birds of a Feather to follow the form.

I realize the photo is hard to see the little blue birds- it might do better if you click on it to enlarge it~

Sometimes I get a little sad when I see wonderful cards with products I don't have, can't have, can't afford, or whatever. I am sure others are in the same boat as me, and probably more often.

Today Nichole showed a perfect (for me!) card (here) but the products to make it aren't available until later next week, and then it's a 2 week wait for them to arrive... and that is if they make it onto my ever growing shopping list!

So I decided to head up to the stamp room and try and create the same 'feeling' card with the supplies I have~ Voila!

I used Through the Trees and Birds of a Feather stamp sets; Fine Linen and Spring Rain paper; plus Turning a New Leaf patterned paper cut with the smallest scallop die. Inks are Spring Rain, Chamomile, plus some Memento Rich Cocoa. I used the Woodgrain Impression plate just for some texture, and a dark brown paper twine instead of Nichole's Linen twine. I also added a bit of Fine Linen twill ribbon, for what reason I do not know...lol... but it looks ok to me!

PTI vs. Gina K.

2010-10-06T12:39:00.002-04:00

I confess, I just love any pastel baby kinda paper. I am a sucker for matchy matchy, which is one of the reasons I love PTI so much. Then again, I love the Gina K Stamp TV videos- I mean, she can whip out a card in 4 minutes flat, by golly! How I envy that!! Since Gina K. also sells pastels, i thought I owed her a thanks for all that video watching, and bought her Spring pack of papers...and some inks to match.

I borrowed the design-ok, it's a direct copy- from somewhere. Maybe on SCS for the stamp set? I made one with PTI papers (the left) and one with Gina K. (the right). Same embossing folders on the blue strip and the pink backgrounds. Different Copics and Prisma markers for the coloring so each image would match it's papers.

I like the PTI better. Gina K.'s blue is a wee bit green, which is ok. Her pink is deeper, which I can use for baby cards. The yellow, though, is much too bright for my taste; I would not call it a pastel. That's ok, of course, just not for my average every day baby card. I love the Gina K. green, though! A good match for SU's Certainly Celery- but it is much heavier, of course. PTI does not have a green such as this, so it is a great addition to my pastel rainbow on the table!

Hope you enjoyed this comparison!

September Papertrey Pages

2010-10-01T14:32:00.005-04:00

This months Papertrey Pages Challenge was to use only paper on your page(s). Lol, as the person who issued the challenge, I wasn't even sure I could stay to the rules. So, I did say that if you were 'forced' by the page, we would all understand if a button or brad ended up there!

My page is a single one this month; it is the first page of one of the grandbaby books- and yes, I am only 4 years late for getting this done, lol- hence the challenges for me!

All of the scrapbooks for my DD #2 have been titled like this: 2004: The Year of the Train (when one of the grands loved Thomas, 2005: the year of the house- when there was a new house for them. Since this really is one of a series of books for them, it drives the title page for this album!!

The paper I used is purchased from a person who sells digital papers, but I did not download them- she did. She sells kits with names and dates that you want, in the colors you want. I have lost the tag that came with these pages, but I can search harder if anyone is desparate to know- let me know, lol!!

I decided I wanted to try and only use paper and words- no paper buttons, or paper ribbon, or any other embellishment- just plain old paper and ink!!

I needed to get everything pretty straight, since the paper is printed with a very straight font. So here's how I did that:

First I anchored the page to my Making Memories magnetic mat, then I took some of Papertrey's Bakers Twine and achored it with magnets down the center line of the page as well as across the point where I wanted the stamped words to be.

Lol, then I stopped and did the math for how many letters I would have, and the spaces, and where the center of the sentiment would fall. I also did some math for where the words would start and stop on the paper, but I had such a hard time with this one I can't show you the scratch paper I worked that out on, lol lol lol!!

Next I laid out Outlines Alphabet along the bakers twine, then picked the letters up with the acrylic block. Obviously, I had to move the bakers twine to work the center letter.

Once I had the letters on the block, I checked for straightness and auditioned different inks, and ultimately used Enchanted Evening- the teensy bit of blue paper under the photo is Enchanted Evening as well. By the way, the light blue paper came with the kit, so I do not know who makes it.

I cut the twine when I actually stamped the words, since I needed to have a visual clue both left and right to line up with.

I didn't like how the letters looked just stamped, so I colored some of the words with a Dark Green Prisma marker- they have a really fine point, so that worked well. I stamped the word year on Enchanted Evening paper and cut it out and glued the letters over the word I had stamped.

2006 and Baby are cut out with a Cricut Calligraphy cartridge, using Enchanted Evening and the light blue paper.

I used a Martha Stewart baby themed punch to add a bit of color to the sides of the photo- punched from Enchanted Evening paper.

I'm happy with how this came out- lots for the eyes to look at, even though there is only one photo. I think a flat page will work well as the first page of the album.

Thanks for stopping by!!