one more Make it Monday - hand drawn line frame

I have one more card to share for this week's Make it Monday challenge from Nichole Heady's blog, which was to incorporate a hand-drawn line frame. I thought the frame worked nicely on this sympathy card that I made for a sweet friend of mine who recently lost her mother. The colors in the photo came out a little bit wonky, but I used Summer Sunrise, Terracotta Tile and Fine Linen for the base.

I used Turning a New Leaf for a soft background, "thinking of you" from Fillable Frames Additions, and the new With Sympathy from Think Big #3. The double-layered butterfly is cute with the die for Love Lives Here, and stamped with Text Style 2. The smaller sentiment is on a Charming Oval die-cut from Verve. 

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday: Hand Drawn Line Frame, Nichole Heady style!

I loved the tutorial that Nichole Heady made for us for this week's Make it Monday! I think of the hand-drawn line frame as sort of a "trademark" of hers, and have always been so impressed at how perfect her frames look - completely even, with the corners perfectly lined up. Now that she has shared her technique, I felt ready to try it myself, and I'm so happy with the result!

I needed to make a card for Tyler's First Holy Communion coming up this Sunday. I wanted it to reflect the very special nature of the day and what an important part of his journey of faith this is, but I also wanted it to be fun and cute for a sweet 7 year old boy! So I used the Think Big #2 sentiment "it's your day", along with some of the fun images from Grunge Me, and that sweet little "proud of you" Tiny Tag for the card front:

I added my frame to the Ocean Tides square panel with a white gel pen, letting some of the images go "through" the frame, and others stay "nested" inside the frame, thanks to a Post-It Note mask. :) I thought that the little long-legged bird from Grunge Me was a cute addition to the sentiment panel, which is popped up with foam adhesive for extra dimension.

I wanted to include this bible verse (a Plain Jane stamp from Verve) on the inside, so I carried through the line frame and that cute birdie to the inside panel was well, using Ocean Tides ink and a closely-matching green Sharpie for the frame. 

I'm so proud of my little guy, and can hardly wait for his big day on Sunday! Thanks for looking!

First Holy Communion invitations

I've been kind of AWOL from the blog lately, what with the Spring semester nearing the end, Easter just around the corner, and Tyler's First Holy Communion just around the next corner! I haven't had a chance to sit down and play at my craft table in a couple of weeks. So I thought I'd post these invitations that I made for Tyler's First Communion celebration.

There is a common design scheme but I made them all a little bit different, by doing two in each main color (Blueberry Sky, Orange Zest, Lemon Tart and Terracotta Tile), and mixing up the verses (each is a Plain Jane from Verve), the PTI Impression Plate (I used Sunshine, Polka Dot Basics, Tin Types and Woodgrain), and the dies that I used to cut the panel for the verses (Fillable Frames #1 and Mat Stack 4). Added some ribbon and a branch of leaves stamped and die cut with the Turning a New Leaf collection to finish them off.  I think they came out very nice, and came together pretty quickly!

Thanks for looking, and have a wonderful and blessed Easter!

another Make it Monday - masking butterflies

I completed another card for this week's Make it Monday challenge on Nichole Heady's blog. I just love how this turned out!

I used the Signature Series: Butterfly die, and created 3 masks from Post-it notes, saving the butterfly cut-out part as well. First I used the negative space mask and lined them up vertically on my Vintage Cream panel. I sponged and blended two colors per butterfly, using Orange Zest, Hibiscus Burst and Summer Sunrise. Then I stamped over each butterfly with different background stamps: Twinkle Twinkle, Polka Dot Basics 2, and Text Style 2.

Then I removed the masks, and covered the butterfly images with the butterfly that was cut from the post-its, and stamped leaves from Turning a New Leaf, and added a few little flowers from Beautiful Blooms 2 as accents.

After inking the edges, I adhered the focal point panel to a Dark Chocolate mat, added twine, a Simply Chartreuse button, and a Tiny Tag with the sentiment. After stamping part of my Hibiscus Burst card base with the Polka Dot 2 pattern in Vintage Cream ink, I popped the matted panel up on dimensional adhesive.

Thanks for looking! :)

Make It Monday x2 - new Posse Challenge!

I just posted the new April Challenge on the Papertrey Posse blog. The challenge is to revisit the Make it Monday videos (you can find them all here!) and pick at least two MIM techniques to incorporate into your card. This is a great opportunity to revisit a favorite, or maybe complete a MIM challenge that you didn't get to the first time around. And of course, feel free to make the current MIM one of your two techniques, so that you can also link it up to Nichole's blog! And, since you have until the end of April to post it here, there will be additional MIM's to use as well! :)

So for my card, I used today's MIM #10 - Masking with Die-Cuts along with #8 - Ink Blending Techniques. I soooo love that soft, blended look and really wanted to try the MIM that week, but time got away from me and I never got to try it. So for my card, I first sponged a PTI white cardstock panel with Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest and a bit of Pure Poppy ink. Then I masked with the negative space from the Fillable Frame #4 die, one of my favorite shapes in the series, and sponged over the Summer Sunrise with blue ink.

I stamped the sentiment from my new (to me) Signature Greetings set. The tree is from Merry Little Christmas, and the bird, birdhouse and little pure poppy flowers are from Tag-Its #2.

I love how soft and pretty this card came out, and I already have a couple of other ideas floating around for revisiting some old MIM techniques, so I'll probably play along again!

Thanks for another awesome Make it Monday video, PTI!

Papertrey Posse April Petite Challenge

Just a quick post to share the challenge that I just posted on the Papertrey Posse group blog! April is my month to host, and for our Petite Challenge this month, I decided to do (what else?) a sketch challenge! :) The Posse loves to have others play along, so check out our challenge blog and link us up to your creation!

So here is the sketch for April's Petite Challenge:

And here is my card as a sample:

I heat-emblossed the harvest gold base with Polka Dot Basics 2. I used the Birthday Tags set for the "it's your day" tag, and paper-pieced the hat so that I could use several layers in different colors. Also used Mat Stack 1, Limitless Layers dies, the scalloped border die, and PTI ribbon and buttons.

I will be back within a day or two to post the regular April Challenge, so check back!