Create Along With Us - November 2017

Time for another Create Along with Us challenge with Papertrey Ink.

I used one of Betsy Veldman's cards as my inspiration again this month. Isn't it gorgeous! 

Here's what I made:

I used Birch patterned paper from this year's Wonderland kit, the deer die from Dash Away All, and some patterned paper from last year's kit. My card is kind of a disaster.  In hindsight, I'd use a darker patterned paper for the deer, so it stands out more, add a frame to ground it, I'd use a less busy background, and would remember to stamp a sentiment!   I've been battling a miserable cold for the past week, so it's lucky I accomplished anything at all.  

MAKE IT MONDAY #301: MATTING WITH GLITTER

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged!  I made a card today for Papertrey Ink's make it Monday Challenge.  Lizzie Jones's challenge was to make a card matted with glitter. Here's what Lizzie made:

I decided to use O'Tannembaum & the Christmas Cheer sets for my card:

A close up:

Card Recipe:

Stamps: O'Tannenbaum, Christmas Cheer
Dies: Avery Elle Burst, Christmas Cheer
Paper: Berry Sorbet, Stamper's Select White, taylored Expression's Silver Foil Cardstock
Ink; Hero Arts Field Greens, PTI's Berry Sorbet, SU's Chocolate Chip, silver ink
Misc. Su's Chunky silver glass glitter

Papertrey Ink's September Blog Hop

I loved this month’s inspiration photo, so just had to play along with PTI's monthly blog hop.  Here's the inspiration photo:

Here's my card:

Stamps: PTI’s 2015 Anniversary set - Petite Pots

Ink’s:  PTI’s Pure Poppy, Scarlet Jewel, Terracotta Tile, Orange Zest, Fine Linen, Classic Kraft, Harvest Gold, Smokey Shadow

Dies: Double Ended Banners, Petite Pots

Paper: PTI”s Black, Classic Kraft, Stamper’s Select White, & Fine Linen (card base)

Other: Black Sharpie, foam tape (to pop up the bird)

Also added to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge

MAKE IT MONDAY #297: MIXING FLORALS

For this week's Make it Monday, the challenge was to mix floral sets together on one card.  I used a few different images, the wreath stamp from Twig Wreath, flowers from Gathered Gardens, the tiny flowers and leaves are from the Nest Die cover plate, and the "hello there" sentiment was cut from the Scripted Dies in Dark Chocolate card stock. I also used a scrap of polka dotted patterned paper from my stash.

Create Along With Us - September 2017

For this month's Papertrey Ink's Create Along With Us challenge, I chose this card by  Betsy Veldman to emulate.

I don't have any of the Beautiful Berries sets, so went with Peaceful Pinecones.  I used my stencil brush to coloe the background with Aqua Mist Ink. I also used Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate, and Smokey Shadow inks. The die I used was the Mix & Mat Postal die.  

Kitty in a box

I made this card with some Neat & Tangled products, their Happier Than stamp set, and the box die. I think it turned out pretty cute.  I did some coloring with Zig markers, and added some Taylored Expressions striped paper.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Last week, I attended Taylored Expressions 9th birthday party.
I made a couple of cards for the Taylored Expressions birthday challenge, but didn't get them up in time for the contest.  I only have a few of their products so, went with simple embossed cards. These are Christmas thank you cards, and are stamped with "Thank you for the gift" on the inside.   For the green card, I used the Plaid embossing folder, and for the red card, the  Cable Knit embossing folder. The reindeer die is also from Taylored Expressions.  The cardstock & plaid paper are from Papertrey ink.

MAKE IT MONDAY #296: SMALL IMAGES ON REPEAT

This week's Make it Monday challenge was to use repeated small images on a card to make a clean & simple card.  Here's what I did:

I used PTI's Postmarks for the images.

Taylored Expressions class

I took a day off work a couple of weeks ago and spent a few hours going to a class at Taylored Expressions.  We made four cards, all using the product called Stick-it.  Here's the cards I made.

Stamp-a Faire 2017

Over the weekend, I devoted several hours to play along with Papertrey Ink's online annual celebration, Stamp-a-Faire.  This year's theme was devoted to anniversaries and the traditional gifts associated with them.  There were two challenges with accompanying videos to demonstrate techniques for each challenge.  I only got a few done so far, but hope to continue on my own and do quite a few more in the future.

Here are my cards:

First of all the warm up challenge: Take Ten Warm Up challenge.  There were several inspiration photos to chose from.  I used my Autumn Color pops set and stenciled the background in similar colors to this photo.

 I used Initial Sentiments stamp set to emboss the sentiment in white embossing powder on dark chocolate cardstock.  

 

Next, I tackled Lizzie Jone's challenge: 5th Anniversary Tradition, Wood 

I made two cards.  I happened to have a variety pack of wood paper in my stash, but didn't have any Copic markers so used a stencil brush and dark chocolate ink to color the wood paper.  This one was quite time challenging, because I glued in all those tiny letters from the opposite wood panel.  Next time, I'll definitely use an adhesive sheet, like Stick-It. I used Twig Wreath patterned paper for the background images.

Next Up, Natasha Trupp's 5th Anniversary Tradition, Wood challenge

The goal here was to use an inked impression plate, or embossing folder or stencil.  I went with a non-traditional color and used Aqua Mist ink and cardstock for this one.

The last card I made was for Nichole Heady's 3rd Anniversary, Leather Challenge

This consisted of diecutting something, gluing it onto card stock, then brushing it with a mixture of white glue and water, then applying four layers of tissue paper with the glue mix, letting it dry, then inking up the whole thing.  I used dark chocolate ink again for this challenge.  I'm not thrilled with it, the definition of thee die cut isn't great, but will try it again sometime with a different die cut. I used Garden Garland for the leafy border as well as the flowers.

Make it Monday: monochrome color pop

This week's make it Monday challenged us to use a monochromatic color scheme and add a pop of color.

I stamped some green parakeet ink with the tiny sprig stamp from Stitched Sentimnents.  Most of the time, I used the ink full strength, but here and there I stamped a second time without re-inking.  I also used a die cut that I made with some spring moss paper.  I snipped the middle out so the sentiment would stand out better.  The pop of color comes in with the Shaped Sayings Birthday die I cut out of Pale Peony & Berry Sorbet papers.

Just a quick clean & simple card to share

I made this card last night, it's quite simple, but I thought it turned out nicely. I used the WPlus9
Milk & Cookies set.

The banner is a little hard to read in the photo, but it says "Like milk & cookies".

I also used some Lawn Fawn patterned paper,, an Avery Elle background die, and PTI inks.
I'm going to try embossing the milk image onto vellum next time.

Color Blocking

I'm playing along with another Make it Monday challenge.  This one is # 292, Color Blocking Three Ways. Laurie demonstrated three different techniques, two using ink, and one with strips of colored cardstock.

I tried two different ink methods, but didn't like my results, so went with the colored card stock method.

I started with a Berry Sorbet card base, and found some pieces melon berry and harvest gold  cardstock in my scrap pile.  The butterflies were lying on my desk already, as well as the white lacey panel.  The Scripted stamp set on my desk too (yes, it's a mess!) and I had previously die cut the "You" out of Smokey Shadow cardstock. I stamped the "Brighten my days in Smokey Shadow ink on the white panel.  I glued everything together, but then noticed some ink on my panel, so strategically added some sequins.  This is what I ended up with:

 It's a bit too busy for my taste, but it will have to do for now as I don't have time to redo it before the deadline.

Laurie's examples:

Emboss resist shadow sentiment baby card

Ashley demonstrated this week's Make it Monday Challenge (#291),  Using an embossing technique to create a drop shadow sentiment.  One of my friends had a baby girl a few days ago, so I decided to use this technique to create a card for her and her husband.

I used my favorite baby stamp set, Wee Folk.

Here's my take on this:

Madelyn's baby card

Embossed diamond thank you card set

One of my favorite things to do with cards is make card sets.  It's how I've spent the last couple of Fridays.  I made this simple set a couple of days ago using PTI's Cover Ups: Diamonds stamp and white embossing powder:

(Click on image to enlarge)

I used the same sentiment on each card, just changing out the color of the cardstock. A close up of the sentiment:

 Earlier this month, I made my mom a set of cards using my current favorite multi-step floral set,  Gran's Garden:  I made different 9 cards with a set of polka dotted notecards that I had had for several years. I played around with different color combinations. This set took quite a bit more time because of all the stamping involved. 

Four of the nine cards

One of my favorites

Here's the card I made for Mom's birthday this year.

Mom's birthday card

  

Quilted cards

About 20 years ago, I got on a quilting kick.  I took a class and started cutting out fabric squares.

I never got around to doing much sewing though.  I made an eyeglass case, and a pouch that I keep my sewing kit in.  I think that's it!  I started cutting squares out for a quilt for my son.  My dad joked that he'd probably graduate and be out of the house before I finished it.  Well, Dad was right as usual. I really didn't enjoy the sewing part, just the choosing patterns and colors part.

A couple of years ago, I made a card using a faux qilted background technique, and it's still one of my favorite techniques.  I made 9 card fronts yesterday using various patterned papers.  Here's a few:

Create Along With Us : July 2017

Every month, Papertrey Ink has a Create Along With Us challenge during their new release.  This is the first time I've joined in.  There were so many inspirational cards that I loved, but I decided to make a tag that was inspired my one of  Michelle Leone's tags.

This is what I came up with:

(Click on photo for better look)

I loved the graphic black and white background with the bold pop

of color from the floral image.  I don't have a diamond background stamp, so used an embossing folder that I inked up with with Smokey Shadow ink, then placed a piece of white cardstock on it and ran it through the machine. I then die cut a tag from the Tag Sale # 10 die, and than used some Raspberry colored twineI had in my stash to make a loop.

I used one of the Floral Fusion flower images, and inked it in Raspberry Fizz, Lemon Tart, and Green Parakeet inks. I fussy cut the flower head, since I couldn't figure out which one of the dies went with that particular image.  Time to do more organizing.  Ha ha.   The banner came from Tag Sale 10 as well.

Here's my inspiration photo:

Combining stenciling with masking

I made another card for this week's Make it Monday challenge.  Betsy showed us how to make a one layer card with using both stencils and masks.   Here's my card:

This was my second attempt, because I didn't realize I had used the wrong side of the mask until I
tried to stamp the images.  I really likes using this technique and will be sure to try it again.
I made my own stencil from a Cricut mat.    The stamps are from Flower Favorites.  I used PTI inks as well: Aqua Mist, Raspberry Fizz, Harvest Gold, Green Parakeet, and New Leaf.

Here's Betsy's gorgeous card:

I want to be her when I grow up!

Happy Mail

Welcome to my new blog!  Today I'm playing along with Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday #289: Building wreaths with small images.

I just love the little birds from the Post and Parcel kit, so built my wreath around them.
I used images from Parcel & Post, Bitty Bouquet, Graceful Greetings, and a sentiment from Keep it Simple: Happy Mail.  The striped paper is also from the parcel & Post kit.

(click on the photo for a clearer view)

Here's Lizzie's beautiful card: