altered printer tray

I've been so excited to share this, but had to wait until I was sure that my brother and his wife had opened their Christmas gifts! I am so happy with how this turned out. They had their first baby in September, my sweet little niece Jessica.  I wanted to make them a gift that represented how their "family story" has taken shape over the past year.

I got the tray from Altered Angel, and was inspired by this similar project from my very talented friend Chris Hertel. I wish I could take credit for the awesome photos, but with the exception of the two wedding pictures in the top row (which I took), the rest of the pictures were taken by my sister-in-law's sister Linda Hoang, a truly gifted photographer!  Big thanks to Linda for allowing me to use them!

Here are a couple of close-ups.

Supplies are listed below... hopefully I didn't forget anything, but I probably did.  :)  Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Papertrey Ink:  
- Dies: Mat Stack 1, Mat Stack 3, Limitless Layers, Butterfly, Signature Series Butterfly.
- Impression Plates: Woodgrain, Diamond, Canvas/Linen. Stamps: Background Basics Text Style 2, Tiny Treats Christmas.
- Misc. buttons.
Other:  Printer Tray (7 Gypsies); Gems (Creative Charms); Bingo Card (Jenni Bowlin); Patterned Paper (Pink Paislee, Echo Park); Bookplate (Tim Holtz); Chipboard word, house stamp (Maya Road); Border punch (Fiskers).

my Top Ten Cards of 2010!

A number of stamping bloggers have been posting their own favorites - their Top Ten Cards of 2010!  I thought this would be fun, even though I really only got into stamping and cardmaking last spring, so I figured I'd join in.  A couple of these are very recent, but it was fun to look back over my blog for the past year and find some of my favorites to re-share!  :)  So, in no particular order, here they are.  Each title links to the original post with that card.  Thanks for looking!

peace within

a special wedding card

 

on your birthday

welcome little one

you're a super dad 

merry little christmas card

many thanks

congratulations 

happy birthday to you 

happy birthday

a very special wedding card

Today I wanted to share this wedding card that I made for some friends of ours who married last week:

This was such a special wedding, and one that I was so happy to be a part of! What made it so special is that this couple were previously married, have a son, and divorced several years ago. But God lead them back to each other! How wonderful - in this day when so many families fall apart - to see one be put back together. Especially during the Christmas season, an extra dose of joy!

I used PTI's YOF: Roses and hand-colored with Copics.  Cardstock colors are Pure Poppy and Kraft.  The gems on the sentiment panel are from Creative Charms.

Thanks for looking! 

musical notes

I was so happy that my December PTI order came so quickly! I was able to use the new Background Basics: Sheet Music set to put together this set of 6 notecards for Ryan's piano teacher.

The colors are Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy and Blueberry Sky, with half on a Kraft base and the other half on a Vintage Cream base.  I used a few of the Fillable Frames, and the sentiment is from Take Three: Fall. The single music note is from the Waltzingmouse Stamps Musical Backgrounds set.

I also re-purposed one of my PTI clear stamp boxes for make a little holder for the whole set!

Thanks for looking!

congratulations card

Recently, we had the pleasure of attending an Eagle Scout Honor Court.  I made this card, letting the Boy Scout color scheme dictate my colors - PTI's Kraft (khaki), Pure Poppy, and Ripe Avacado.  I used the Mat Stack 1 Collection and die, a Limitless Layers die, sentiments from Star Prints and Take Three: Summer. The background Pure Poppy panel is embossed with the Diamonds Impression Plate, and then I swiped Versamark across it to bring out the texture.

I wanted to create a pocket inside for a gift card, so I used Mat Stack 3 and All About You, adding the "you" with Fresh Alphabet.

Thanks for looking!

gobble up these little favor boxes!

I'm so excited to share these fun little Thanksgiving-themed favor boxes that I made!  Some friend invited us over for a day-after-Thanksgiving dinner, so I put these together for each person.

I used Papertrey Ink's Gobble, Gobble stamp set and coordinating dies for the turkeys and the sentiment.  Also used the new Mat Stack 1 collection set and Mat Stack 1 die for the focal point panel, and I used different impression plates to texture each of the panels (woodgrain, diamond, canvas/linen).  The cardstock colors are Kraft, Fine Linen, Dark Chocolate and Orange zest, and I used a variety of bits of patterned papers to cut the tailfeathers.  Each box if filled with a baggie that has some Andes Mints and Hershey Kisses in it, and tied with PTI ribbon.

I created the favor box itself by designing a cutting file for my Pazzles!  It's designed to cut from one 8.5"x11" piece of cardstock, but could certainly be resized.  The wpc cutting file for the box can be downloaded here.  (Edited to add: there was a problem with the download link, and I've concluded that it was because I was trying to host the file on Google Docs, which apparently only allows certain file types.  I've moved the file to Mediafire, and am hopeful that it will work now!)  Here are close-ups of a few of the boxes:

And here is the back of the box, just to show the shape of the cutting file:

Thanks for looking!

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop!

The challenge for Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop Challenge is "Tag Time: Design a holiday tag or two using all of your favorite goodies and share it with all of us!  We will all have plenty of inspiration to create a large stash and try to get ahead of the hustle and bustle of the season!"  PERFECT!  I was already enjoying making some pretty holiday tags to really dress up the gifts this year.  Here are the ones I created just for the hop:

I used Tiny Treats: Christmas (oh, how I ADORE these little images, and coloring them with Copics!), Background Basic: Christmas (the Christmas text background is SO SWEET!), the postmark from 2010 Holiday Tags, and of course Tag Sale 1 & 2 dies and Limitless Layers.  Colors included are Pure Poppy, Pinefeather, Kraft and Blueberry Sky, and ribbons are also PTI.  I can't wait to make some more of these!

Thanks for looking!

a Merry Little Christmas card!

I finally got a chance to ink up PTI's Merry Little Christmas set, and made my first Christmas card!  Once I stamped the tree, I pondered for a bit about what image I wanted to hang from the branch - and then I pulled out Holiday Spirit Sentiments and had the stroke of pure genius (lol) to hang the "merry" letters, like little blocks!  I love how it turned out.

The background paper is from the Echo Park Merry Christmas line (ooooh, how love this line!), and the "to you" are from the Verve Merry Wishes set.  I used the canvas/linen impression plate on the Vintage Cream focal point panel (linen) and also on the Kraft mat panel (canvas). I decided not to be lazy on this one and finished the inside too, with a sentiment from Verve Richly Blessed:

Thanks for looking!

it's beginning to look a lot like........

I have been having some fun with my new goodies from Papertrey Ink's October Release! I spent a good couple of afternoons making these super-fun and pretty Christmas tags, but I think if I make some more it will go much more quickly (now that I have a "feel" for them!). I just love how they turned out, and it will be fun to use them to pretty up some gifts this year!

I started by using Tiny Treats: Christmas (be still my heart!) to stamp a few of the sweet little images and colored them with Copics, and also did a few images from 2010 Holiday Tags. I cut a bunch of tags with with Tag Sale 1 & 2 dies from PTI cardstock (kraft, Blueberry Sky, Pure Poppy and Pinefeather), then a bunch of mats with the Limitless Layers dies, some border strips with punches - all from the same group of colors.  Then I started to assemble the tags, using a variety of background stamps (can you tell how much I LOVE that text background in Background Basics: Christmas??) and added some patterned paper from a Bo Bunny Christmas line (wish I had more of it - the colors match beautifully with the PTI colors!).  Added ribbons, and a "to/from" stamp on the back of the tag, and here they are!

Oh my gosh, how STINKIN' CUTE are those Tiny Treats images?? I want to go color some more RIGHT NOW! :) Thanks for looking! :)

may the Lord bless you

Just a quick post to share a card that I did a while back, but hasn't made it to the blog yet!  I used PTI Up, Up and Away, Everyday Blessings for the sentiment, and for the sun I used a flower center from All About You, just for a fun and different look from the stamp that comes in Up, Up and Away.  The "grass" is cut with a border punch and stamped with Background Basics: Geometrics, then the front layer (as well as the clouds) are popped up with foam adhesive.

Thanks for looking!

a sweet baby girl minibook for a sweet baby girl!

Apologies in advance for this looong post... hehe!  I have had soooo much fun working on this minibook project, and now I can share it since my brother and his wife have received it.  My original plan was to leave places for them to add the photos themselves, but I quickly decided that just wasn't going to work very well.  It's so much easier to put the page together when the photos are there to inspire the page design!  So I had them email me some of their favorite pictures, without telling them why (though I suspect that they were probably onto me, at least a little bit, lol ;).

With two boys of my own, it was such fun to get to work with this completely adorable line, Snuggle Bug Girl from My Little Yellow Bicycle.  It's such a cute line, and had everything I needed - paper, chipboard, rub-ons, cardstock stickers.  I used 7 Gypsies Book Boards as the base of my pages, and finally got to use my Zutter Bind-it-all for the first time!  I also used several Papertrey Ink stamps and dies throughout.

Here is the front cover (remember you can click on any image to see it larger).  The chipboard frame made a perfect focal point for the title.  I used the PTI eyelet lace border die to dress up the strip of patterned paper, and also stamped the paper behind the title with Fancy Flourishes.

The first pages are all about sweet baby Jessica's arrival!  My brother and his wife will fill in the journaling card (which is only adhered with temporary adhesive, so that they can remove it to fill it in).  I used more of the rub-ons here, that cute chipboard buggy-heart, and epoxy stickers.  Also PTI Sweet Blush ribbon and button.

Special time with Mommy and Daddy!  I cut the letters for "cuddle time" and "mommy" with my Pazzles.  Recognize some more PTI dies?  I used the new Limitless Layers eyelet circle (oh my gosh, I'm soooo glad I got those dies!) for a fun border on the "with daddy" title.  And Fillable Frames #5 and #7 really dressed up the "hugs & kisses" sticker to mat the other title - along with Polka Dot Basics 2 (just fyi - tricky to stamp in Versamark, lol, but I think it worked out!) and Fresh Alpha for the word "from".

Did you notice a few of those little bitty rub-ons, incorporated into the circles on the patterned paper on these pages?

Bathtime!  How cute is that little ducky?  That's a Creative Charms item, as are all of the little sparkly gems that you see here and there on these pages.  Also used the newest Fillable Frames die for the title tag, and the fun circle die again, layered with the MLYB circle, for the duck embellie.

 And the last page is just sort of a catch-all page, for some additional sweet, sweet pictures of that sweet little baby girl!  (reaching through my computer monitor now to HUG HER! :)  More rub-ons, stickers and chipboard from the line here.

The back cover, and some tied-on ribbons (mostly PTI), and the book is finished!

Enjoy it, sweet baby Jessica (oh, and her mommy and daddy too, hehe).  Aunt Debbie LOVES YOU! ♥

new baby card and fun gift card holder

I made this sweet little card for my brother and his wife, who just had their first baby - a beautiful little girl!  I love that flower border from PTI's All About You Additions, and I think the little butterfly from Baby Button Bits pairs with it so nicely.  I used the XL ric-rac border die to cut the "grass" from a scrap of WRMK (I think?) patterned paper.

With the card, I sent them a gift card in this fun little holder.  The papers are Bella Blvd., and all stamps are PTI (of course :).  The sentiment is from All About You, and the tag uses Fancy Flourishes to dress up the background, and is cut with Fillable Frames #4 Die.

It was fun to "engineer" how the holder would open/close.  I sewed the Sweet Blush button and the scallops (cut from Beautiful Blooms dies) directly to the white cardstock, which I punched with a circle punch to create the "notch" that fit perfectly under the button attachment.

Open it up, and there is a pocket attached to the inside with the gift card.  So cute!  I'll definitely be using this design again!

happy fall

Just a quick post to share a cute "happy fall" card I made for a fall themed card swap on the PTI forum recently.

I used the new PTI Fine Linen cardstock for the panel, and the Terracotta Tile felt with the Fillable Frames #5 die to mat the sentiment block.  I really love this adorable set, Falling Leaves. It's so easy to stamp a pretty little fall tree, and the quote was perfect to add a little pizazz to the inside of the card: