Make It Monday: Cracked Glass technique

This week's Make It Monday challenge is to use the cracked glass technique as demonstrated by Heather Nichols and the great video tutorial. I have to admit that I struggled a bit with this one and pitched my first couple of attempts, but I'm finally happy with this result, using the new Year of Flowers stamp collection:

The "many thanks" sentiment is from Fillable Frames #1. I used the Take Three die, first to cut the "windows" from the kraft panel, and then to cut the squares from Vintage Cream, which I stamped with the YOF images, colored with Copics, and then applied the cracked glass technique to. I stamped the sentiment on the kraft panel, and then use the woodgrain impression plate, inked with a lighter brown ink for a letterpress effect. It is popped up on foam adhesive, on the Bella Blvd. patterned paper panel.

The Tiny Tags set and die always seems to be perfect for that missing finishing touch. I tied it on with some PTI twine, after applying the cracked glass technique to the tag as well.

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday: Sympathy Cards

The latest Make it Monday challenge from Nichole Heady is to make a sympathy card. This challenge is a great one, since many people struggle with (or avoid altogether!) making sympathy cards. I think it is one of the "must have" card types for my stash, though.

I took the challenge as an opportunity to put my new 2010 PTI anniversary set to use as well. The Botanical Silhouettes set is so classic and timeless, and I thought the soft, sweet images and lovely font would work well for a sympathy card.

I added a little "ribbon" of Modern Basics behind the focal point panel, and some twine and a button.

Thanks for looking!

Papertrey Ink May Blog Hop: Flowers!

If you are looking for an astounding amount of floral inspiration, just check out the links for the May PTI Blog Hop! The theme for the month is flowers. PTI has some amazing flower sets, but I decided to take a little bit of a different direction, and make a flower out of a Delightful Doily - especially fun since I just recently purchased the coordinating dies!

I sponged my background using Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest and Pure Poppy inks, working from the center outward. I colored my doily with Copics, using shades of orange and Hawaiian Shores, and then created a center using the frame and sentiment from Tag-Its #1.

I "double-stamped" the stem from Flower Fusion #1, added the bee from Tag-Its 3, the flight trail from Boy Basics: Frog Hop, the "friend" from Flutterby Friends and grass from Love Lives Here.

Both the flower and the flower center are popped up on dimensional adhesive for added fun! :)

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Merry - Blog Hop!

This is special Blog Hop post to wish a very happy birthday to a sweet friend from the Papertrey Ink forum, Merry. She has been through a rough patch lately so another forum friend, Taheerah organized this little surprise to lift Merry's spirits and brighten her day a bit!

So here is my card, posted in honor of Merry! I recently got the Label Basics set and dies and was eager to try them out. I've also had Modern Basics for about a month and have not put it to very good use. I also used two different Floral Fusion sets for the flower, and the sentiment is from Tag-Its #1. PTI colors are Hawaiian Shores and Orange Zest.

The flower is popped up on foam adhesive, and the tag it is on is also popped up.

Thanks Taheerah for putting this hop together, and Merry, I hope that you have been able to find a little bit of joy and sunshine today!

congrats to you card

This is a card I made for a friend and colleague who recently got a promotion! I didn't have any "job" themed stamps, so I went with a general congratuations card.

The patterned papers are Pink Paislee (orange) and Echo Park (green). I used Papertrey Ink's Alpha Blocks, Fillable Frame #4 and the Additions set, All About You, and BB: Text Style 2. 

The block letters are on foam adhesive, and the layered on the Frame tag and doily die-cut, and again popped up for dimension.

Thanks for looking!

still Making it Monday! another boy birthday card

Can you tell that I've been getting in more time than usual at my craft table lately? Ahhh, how I love May! Spring semester is over so I'm not teaching until I start a summer course in July... the boys are still in school. That means mama has a quiet house to herself! :) So I'm still working on inking up some of my newest stamps, and my nephew's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. So I used the MIM: Selective Inking technique again on this card, with the new Boy Basics: Out of this World stamps and die:

I inked the countdown number strip only down to the 4, and then used the larger "3-2-1- blast off!"sentiment to finish the countdown. The "it's your day" is from Fillable Frames #8 and is stamped on a banner die-cut. I loved coloring that cute little rocket ship and flame tail with Copics!

I also finished the inside, using a stamp from Birthday Tags. I liked that the stars tied in with the stars on the card front, and added some more stars from Out of this World (ok, maybe I went a little overboard... I don't think my nephew will notice, lol!).

Of course, the rocket & flames are popped up on the front, which I think really adds movement. I also embossed the Enchanted Evening front panel and added a border-punched strip along the bottom.

Thanks for looking!

Another Make It Monday - Selective Inking (TOP SECRET Birthday Card!)

I did another card for this week's Make It Monday Challenge, but shhhhhhhhh this is highly top secret since this card is for Tyler's birthday which is still nearly 2 months away! I didn't set out to make his birthday card, I just wanted to play with my new Train Tracks stamps and dies. But as the idea for the card came together, I just LOVED it so much that I decided to make it for Tyler!

The selective inking is on the "happy birthday" sentiment from Make A Wish, so that I could "balance" the sentiment on the train's crate cargo by splitting up the two words. I added the image from Ribbon Tails to create the "track" for the train, after inking it with black ink but then stamping it off once for a lighter, distressed effect. I used the "8" from Outline Alphabet, and colored it (along with the train cars, smoke puffs, and crates) with Copics.

The train is popped up on foam, of course. :) After completing the front panel, I felt that it was too "bottom heavy" and needed something for balance, to I reached for my Tiny Tags, and added a couple of sweet little sentiments. The circle tag is stamped with a Bitty Background Blocks image, and the star with the coordinating image from Tiny Tags.

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday + Happily Ever Challenged = a card for the troops

This is definitely a personal record for me! I started and finished this card within a couple of hours of the posting of the newest Make it Monday challenge on Nichole's blog! I was planning some crafty time today anyway, and I also wanted to complete Ted's challenge to use red, white, blue and yellow to make a card suitable for Operation Write Home, which could be sent to the project that gives handmade cards to troops overseas so that they can use them to write home to loved ones. It's such a great cause to support, and although I've often heard of it, I've never actually sent them any cards. So thanks, Ted, for the "push" and for the link-ups to the info! I'm going to send this card and pull some others from my stash as well!

So, here is my card. The MIM technique is "selective inking", so I used Think Big Favories #2, and followed Erin's technique to ink just the "you". It was pretty much impossible to NOT get any ink on the last couple of letters in the word "thank", but I just used a baby wipe to carefully wipe off that stray ink before stamping. Then I combined the you with the new Alpha-Blocks set (quickly becoming a favorite!) to complete the sentiment. 

I added the frame from Tag-it's #2 and a Doily Details die-cut, along with a border-punched strip and some Bella Blvd. patterned paper. The block letters and the doily are all popped up on foam adhesive.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Mothers Day

Just a quick post to share the Mother's Day card I made for my mother-in-law. The papers are all from Bella Blvd's Hello Beautiful line. I love the patterns, and thought that the leafy/botanical print would look beautiful paired with the bird and birdhouse from PTI's newest set in the Tag-It's series and the die and stamp from Little Bitty Bird. I also included Mat Stack 4, Tiny Tags, and the Turning a New Leaf die (which is quickly becoming a favorite go-to accent!).

The Mat Stack panel is popped up on dimensional adhesive.

Thanks for looking, and I hope all my blog-world friends had a very happy Mother's Day! :)

Make it Monday: Impression Plate Tricks

The MIM challenge this week on Nichole's blog is so cool! I finished this card earlier this week, but just finally got around to photographing it so I could post today. :) The gist of the technique is to combine dies and an impression plate to emboss your card while leaving the shape of the die impressed into the embossing.

Since the Sunshine IP is one of my favorites, I thought it would go great with the cloud dies and balloons from Up, Up & Away (and I was itchy to do some Copic coloring, anyway... oh how I love to color those sweet little balloons!).

After applying the technique to my Harvest Gold panel, I stamped the clouds over the impressed area in Fresh Snow, and inked around the edges with a yellowy-orange chalk ink. I added the sentiment (also from Up, Up & Away) on a "label" that I cut using the new skateboard die from Skater Dude, with lines from the banner in Banner Builder.

The balloons and sentiment panel are all popped up on foam adhesive for added dimension.

Thanks for looking!