a big THANKS to Nichole Heady and the PTI team!

I'm so happy to be part of a "top secret" Blog Hop that was arranged by a couple of the ladies from the PTI forum (yay, Susan and Cathy)! We all wanted to show are heartfelt appreciation for Nichole and all that she, and the whole PTI team, do to give us such wonderful products and amazing inspiration every month! THANK YOU, NICHOLE! PTI rocks, and you all do a wonderful job!

Here is my card, using some of my newest PTI goodies:

It's a little hard to see, but I stamped a Text Style 2 background on the center circle:

The flowers are die-cut from some of my brand new PTI felt. Color combo is Hawaiian Shores, Harvest Gold, and Hibiscus Burst, although the pink flower is Raspberry Fizz felt.

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to look in the PTI forum for the thread that contains links to all the other cards expressing our appreciation!

Supplies (all PTI unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: PTI All About You; Fillable Frames 7; Polka Dot Basics II; Text Style II.
Ink: Fresh Snow, Hibiscus Burst; Memento Black; Versamagic Turquoise Gem
Cardstock: White, Hibiscus Burst, Harvest Gold
Misc: Bitty Dot 2009 patterned paper; Felt (Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz); Beautiful Blooms 2 dies; Hawaiian Shores button; Creative Charms gems; embroidery floss

4-card gift set and holder

Today I've put together a pretty little gift set of 4 cards.  I used a similar design on all four to tie the set together, but created them sort of in two pairs, incorporating some different elements in the focal point images.

I love this large flower stamp from Papertrey Ink's All About You, and it is just perfect for a Creative Charms gradient gem brad center!  I also added the fun fancy polka dot ribbon to give a finished look to the front panel (I really think I need this ribbon in every available color!) and added a little more bling to the sentiment with the gradient gem stickers.  I used Background Basics: Text Style II for the background of the focal point, and the background stamp from the Round & Round anniversary set for the panel.

The other pair of cards features the pretty flower grouping made up of vintage flower brads.  Again I added that adorable ribbon, this time in green, and the gradient gem stickers.  I used PTI Turning a New Leaf for the background panel, and also for the flower stem (by masking off the top and bottom of the stamp).

Finally a pretty little gift set needs some pretty packaging to give it in, don't you think?  So I re-purposed a plastic case that a PTI stamp set came in (perfect for this!) and added some embellishments to coordinate with the card set.  The die and stamp for the "just for you" tag are both from PTI's brand new release!

I love that the cards are visible through the packaging, and I think that pretty little vintage butterfly brad is just the right finishing touch!

I hope you've enjoyed this project and been inspired!  Have a wonderful, crafty and creative day!

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI All About You; Round & Round; Turning a New Leaf; All Booked Up; Text Style II.
Ink: Memento Brown; PTI Fresh Snow, Enchanted Evening, Spring Rain, Simply Chartreuse; Versamark
Cardstock: PTI White, Kraft, Spring Rain, Simply Chartreuse
Misc: Creative Charms gems,  brads,  ribbon; EK Success Border Punch; PTI Mat Stack 3 Die; Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies

a Papertrey Posse Triple Play!

Well, I've been a bit "awol" from the blog here, as life has really gotten in the way of my creative pursuits lately!  So, in order to make the most of the little crafting time I'm able to muster up, I decided to combine three - yes, three - Papertrey Posse challenges on one card!  I must say, I'm pretty darn proud of myself!  :)

The final Petite Challenge that Jessica posted in June was Fabulous Folds - create a card, layout or altered project using unique folding methods.  I even just recently picked up the Martha Stewart Scoring Board, so I was eager to try it out!  I kept it simple though and just did a simple gatefold card this time.

Our main July challenge presented by Amy is a color challenge, using PTI Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, Melon Berry, and Dark Chocolate, or equivalents.  Here is the color scheme:

Finally, Amy's first Petite Challenge for this month is Back to the Beginning - tell us how you discovered PTI, what was your first stamp set, and then dust it off and put it to good use.  Well, I only discovered PTI in early May... and I think I actually stumbled across it purely by chance, when it popped up as a "suggested blog" shortly after I started using Google Reader!  The stamp set I used, from my very first ever PTI order, is Through the Trees.

OK, with all of the preliminaries and explanations out of the way, let's get to the card!

I added some patterned paper to the inside panels as well, to cover up the back of the stitching:

This is not my favorite card ever, but I'm happy with it and so glad that I was able to complete some of the great challenges posted by the Posse girls!  Thanks for the great inspiration, ladies!

And, a brief update note to my last post, albeit long overdue!  I'm so proud to share that my card for Mercy's MTSC80 was chosen by her as one of her five favorite - or a Magnificent Musing!  She does such great sketches, and I hope to get to participate in more of them in the future!

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

new PTI and Mercy's sketch challenge!

Lookie lookie lookie! I finished a challenge AND took the photograph AND posted it on my blog before the challenge deadline! LOL! This is Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #80 (MTSC80). I modified the sketch (see below) to create a landscape orientation for the card.

My 9 year old saw me coloring in that new PTI rose image with Copics and said "ooohhh, that looks good Mom... it looks like something on Google images!" LOL! I think that's a compliment, or at least, I'm going to take it as one!  I used a stamp from the new Library Ledger set vertically with Versamark for the stripes on the background panel.  I love how the Creative Charms gems add some fun sparkle to this card!

Here is the sketch:

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI YOF: Rose; Library Ledger; Text Style; Birthday Basics
Ink: Memento Brown; PTI Hibiscus Burst; Versamark
Cardstock: PTI White, Kraft, Spring Rain, Simply Chartreuse
Misc: Creative Charms gems & brad; Fiskars Border Punch; PTI Butterfly Die; PTI Spring Rain ribbon; Copics

Check out Creative Charms July Deal of the Month!

Another great Deal of the Month is available over at Creative Charms!  It is full of beachy, summery fun. Bright oranges and greens with touches of blue will make you believe you are at the beach with the sand between your toes. These great embellisments are perfect for time at the pool, running through the sprinklers and of course the beach.

This great deal would normally sell for $23, but for this month only it is $6.99. That is a 70% discount. Go to http://www.creativecharms.com/ to get yours now. Here is what is included:

• Green & White Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon (18")
• Green Pure Blossoms (9 pcs)
• Green Gradient Gem Stickers (76 pcs)
• Orange Spring Medley (20 pcs)
• Orange Sunburst Daisy (5 pcs)
• Orange Groovy Petals (4 pcs)
• Amber & Green Gem Brads (12 pcs)
• Summer Medley (21 pcs)
• Assorted Beach & Summer Brads (19 pcs)

 Don't miss out! :)

wonderful friend

Just a quickie post today, with another Lily of the Valley card. I think I was following a sketch with this one, but for the life of me, I can't find it now (I've searched and searched through my Google Reader!). If anyone recognizes the design from a recent sketch somewhere, please let me know, LOL!

UPDATED TO ADD: the sketch I used was MTSC79 from Mercy Kerin!  Great sketch, and wonderful inspiration on the Lord Have Mercy blog!  Big thanks to Suzanne for figuring it out for me, LOL!

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI YOF: Lily of the Valley, Take 3: Summer
Ink: Memento Black
Cardstock: PTI White, Summer Sunrise
Patterned Paper: Prima
Misc: buttons; embroidery floss; Copics

happy birthday from a bizzy little bee!

I've been eager to share this card! It's my first one with the new All About You and All About You Additions set from the PTI June release. Ahhhhh, I love this set! I can tell you right now that it will see a lot of ink.

Flowers are colored with Copic, and cardstock is Summer Sunrise and Orange Zest.  I stamped the scalloped border with the grid design from Background Basics: Geometrics.  The sweet little bee is paper pieced and I bent his wings up just a smidge to add some dimension.  The "Happy Birthday to" is stamped between the lines from the new Library Ledger set.  I was so proud of myself for noticing how the words would fit there, and thought I had made a brilliant discovery.  Then I found a card in the DT gallery where one of them had done the same thing, lol... so I might have seen it and then just forgotten about it!  ;)

I hope you enjoy!  Have a wonderful and creative day!

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI All About You & Additions, Library Ledger
Ink: Memento Black, PTI Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest
Cardstock: PTI White, Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest
Misc: Creative Charms Gradient Gems; Copics

my FIRST PTI blog hop!!

Woohoo! I'm excited - this is my first time to participate in the monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop! The June Blog Hop challenge is to work with a favorite Papertrey Ink color combination. I came up with a lot of different fun color combos - in fact, the birthday card for my dad that was in my last post was originally a potential blog hop project. ;) Soooo, here is the color combo that I will highlight tonight:

I love the richness of the brown and orange, and the simply chartreuse is just the perfect green to work with them!  So, here is my card:

I used my new Outlines Alphabet and colored the letters with Copics from the Terracotta Tile and Simply Chartreuse trios.  I also tried a tip from Nichole's blog and colored some white ribbon with Copics, but then I ended up almost completely covering it up, LOL!  I found some brads in my stash that also coordinated well with this color combo, and thought they made a nice addition.

By the way, just to share it - here is the color combo from Dad's birthday card, in my last post:

I'm off to hop to some blogs!!  Be sure to check out everyone's great projects that will be linked up on Nichole's Blog tonight, starting at 8:00pm Eastern!

Happy Birthday to my daddy!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday, and now that I know he has seen his card I can share it! :)  I've been inking up A Little Argyle from PTI and am starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with it.  Also used Polka Dot Basics 2 on this one, and one of my new faves, Outline Alphabet, which I colored with Copics.

The sentiment is from Birthday Basics, but I cut it apart to align it the way I wanted it. The sentiment circle is popped up with foam adhesive.

Added a few brads, and good to go!  I LOVE YOU DADDY!  Happy Birthday!  ♥


Supplies:
Stamps: PTI A Little Argyle, Polka Dot Basics 2, Birthday Basics, Outline Alphabet
Ink: Memento Tangelo, PTI Fresh Snow, Enchanted Evening, Orange Zest
Cardstock: PTI Simply Chartreuse, white, Orange Zest, Enchanted Evening
Misc: Stampin Up border punch; Fiskars border punch; brads; Copics

still lovin' Lily of the Valley

I can't wait to get my hands on PTI's newest set in the Year of Flowers series, but until my June release order arrives, I'm still having plenty of fun with Lily of the Valley!  I just loving coloring this image in with Copics.  Here is a card I made a few days ago:

The base cardstock is orange, not quite as "coral" as it looks in this photo (it's a Bazzill smoothie).  Cutting the focal point so that the image would extend past the edges was inspired by something I saw on someone's blog, but I'm sorry to say that I can't remember where I saw it!  Once the image was colored in, this card came together very quickly.  And of course, the little Creative Charms Gradient Gems are always a perfect finishing touch!

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI YOF: Lily of the Valley, Background Basics Geometrics
Ink: Memento Black, PTI Fresh Snow
Cardstock: PTI Simply Chartreuse, white; Bazzill orange
Misc: Creative Charms gems, Copics, ribbon, button,  embroidery floss

Creative Charms projects: a layout and card

Creative Charms gave me such fun boyish embellishments to play with this month, from the Playtime Boy embellishment pack.  I knew these would be perfect for a layout of the biggest boy in my house ;) playing with his new Lionel trains, on the train table that he recently built.

I used the felt words in the pack to create the title, after brushing just a bit of ink around the edges.  That's a page from a Maya Road chipboard album, which I covered in the Bo Bunny Mamarazzi patterned paper to create a fun focal point "base" for my title work.  I also used October Afternoon letter stickers and vinyl Thickers.

Now, I know what you're thinking...  the Mamarazzi line did not exactly "scream" to me "TRAIN LAYOUT" when I first saw it, either!  But I just loved the slightly grungy, distressed feel of these papers, and I thought the colors worked well for these pictures!

The train made a fun little accent for the bottom of the page.  You can also see here, and in the photo above, the background stamping with PTI's Round & Round set. I think it adds just the right little something to the page... and don't those circles remind you of train wheels??

I also made a fun little card to share this month:

I accented my card with a couple of the sweet little felt butterflies from Blooming Garden, added a blue Gradient Gem Brad to the center of my flower/sentiment, three Gradient Gem Stickers along the bottom scallop, and some blue Polka Dot ribbon.  I love how quickly these fun embellishments made this card come together!

I hope you enjoy these projects!  Be sure to check out the Creative Charms website for more great products, and the June Deal of the Month!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! I wanted to share the two cards I made this year for the two greatest dads in my life!

This is the one I made for my daddy:

I dragged my brown chalk ink (which I also used on the paper edges) over the twine to rough it up a bit.

Here is the card I made for my hubby: 

I just recently got the PTI Outlines Alphabet and I love it!  I stamped the word "dad" and then colored in with Copics, with just a tad of shading to give it sort of a gradient effect.  The "you're a super" is from PTI Star Prints.

Thanks for looking, and I hope that you and all the special dads in your life have a wonderful day!

Supplies - 1st card:
Stamps: PTI Through the Trees, A Little Argyle, Fillable Frames 4
Ink: Memento Brown, Versamark, dark brown chalk ink
Cardstock: PTI Simply Chartreuse; Bazzill cream
Misc: button, twine, Fiskars border punch

Supplies - 2nd card:
Stamps: PTI A Little Argyle, Outline alphabet, Star prints, Polka Dot Basics 2
Ink: PTI Summer Sunrise, Terracotta Tile, Ocean Tides, Fresh Snow; Memento brown
Cardstock: PTI white, Dark Chocolate, Summer Sunrise, Terracotta Tile, Ocean Tides
Misc: Copics, brads, Fiskars border punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder

better late than never...?

Here's a fun little card that was inspired by the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #1.  The only problem is, by the time I got the card done, the deadline for the challenge had passed, LOL!  But I loved the sketch and had an idea for it, using PTI's Up, Up and Away set, the minute I saw it! The white panel here is popped up, and I stamped the clouds on the blue panel underneath.  For a bit of texture on the clouds, I stamped against the inked up cloud stamp with Polka Dot Basics 2 before I stamped the cloud, to remove some of the ink. I am still having fun with my Copics, which I used to color the balloon.  Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Stamps: PTI Up, Up & Away; Polka Dot Basics 2
Ink: PTI Fresh Snow, Memento Black, Misc chalk inks
Cardstock: PTI white; Bazzill blue, orange
Misc: CM Circle Cutter, Copics

Papertrey Posse Challenge #1 - Jessica's Sketch

I'm so excited to get to share what I came up with for our first Papertrey Posse challenge! Jessica is our June Posse challenge hostess, and she came up with this lovely sketch for us to work with:

SO many possibilities! I ended up making two very different cards.  First is this sympathy card.  I thought the large, 3-tree image from Through the Trees would be perfect in that circle as a focal point. Then just lots of matting and layering.

The next card has a whole different look, from the same sketch. 

How cute is that little fox??  That's an Imaginesce stamp that I picked up ages ago, but it was still unopened!  Until I discovered Copics, I just never found a way to use it.  I colored him and cut him out (tip: after I carefully cut him out, I inked around the edges, which covered up the little bits of white here and there from my imperfect cutting job).  The background yellow grid paper was from my stash, and the blue is Bazzill smoothie cardstock stamped with Background Basics: Geometrics. Now, see that scalloped circle? I punched it from tan cardstock, but it felt like it needed a little something. So, I stamped around the edge in each scallop using a small leaf from Beautiful Blooms 2. It doesn't look at all like a leaf; I just liked how the rounded end of the leaf fit nicely into each scallop!

I hope you've enjoyed these, and be sure to check out the rest of the Posse gals' creations! A link to each of their blogs can be found in my sidebar, or go to our group blog here. Have a wonderful day!

4 card simple set: PTI Turning a New Leaf

So I'm still working on that "production line" style stamping, to put together some nice matching sets. I think I'm getting better at it! These are pretty simple but I like how they turned out.

Used PTI's Turning a New Leaf, and Round & Round (the anniversary set) for the background strip of dots. The inks are Simply Chartreuse and Hawaiian Shores, and the green cardstock is also PTI SC. The blue is a Bazzill Smoothie.





Thanks for looking, and have a wonderful day!