Happy Birthday to You with some Pretty Peonies

I just finished this card tonight, drawing inspiration from this lovely card of Laurie's. I really liked her layout, with the patterned block and the layered flowers at the top. I used PTI's Damask patterned paper, and the flowers are from Pretty Peonies, copic-colored and hand-cut. The frame is also handcut, and both it and the sentiment are also from Pretty Peonies.

The leaves are Turning a New Leaf. Leaves, flowers and frame are all popped up on dimensional adhesive. And you can never go wrong with some sweet little pearl gems to finish it off! :)

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday: Step It Up - Layering with Little Bitty Bird

This is my second try at this week's Make It Monday: Step It Up - Layering challenge. I thought that Little Bitty Bird and the new Additions would fit well, so I made two different version of this "Sending You Sunshine" card. 

In the first version, I actually did a one layer card! SHOCKER, that is every unlike me, lol! I combined LBB and Additions with the grass  from Love Lives Here, the "sunburst" from Nativity Silhouettes, the frame from Sweet Spring and a sentiment from Simple Sunflower.

Now, for the "stepped up" version, I popped up the birds and birdhouse on foam adhesive. I cut a "sun center" from Harvest Gold with the Love Lives Here small scalloped circle die, and stamped it with a pattern strip from Half & Half in Summer Sunrise. It is popped up on foam adhesive on the sunburst. I also cut the Sweet Spring frame and Stamped it the same way. Then I put my sentiment on a banner strip, stamped in brown and Summer Sunrise, and popped it up on the frame shape. I used the picnic plaid impression plate on thefocal point panel, and then popped it up on a Summer Sunrise mat, and adhered that to a white card base.

This is a fun challenge - it's interesting to think of different variations on the same card! Thanks for stopping by!

Make it Monday: Layering

Betsy Veldman offered up a great tutorial for today's Make It Monday - layering stamping and elements to create added depth. She showed different "stepped up" levels of applying the technique... so interesting to see essentially the same card design created in 3 different versions! I wanted to make a sympathy card today, so I applied the technique to add several layers of elements to the card.

On the Kraft base, I have a Lemon Tart mat with a strip of Spring Rain that I stamped tone-on-tone with Distressed Stripes. Peeking out is a Canyon Clay heart border die-cut, used as scallops.

Next I created a panel from Vintage Cream, cut one side with the Pinking Shears border die, and then stamped with a Waltzingmouse background text, and layered with different butterflies from Beautiful Butterflies, stamped in Harvest Gold, Spring Rain and Canyon Clay. All of the edges of the various layers are inked with chalk ink.

The sentiment is a Fillable Frame cut from Vintage Cream, stamped with the frame, sentiment and a butterfly. I added 3 little pearls from Creative Charms, and the Fancy Flourishes die cut, all popped up on dimensional adhesive. The inside is stamped with a verse from Beautiful Blessings.

Thanks for the great tutorial, Betsy! And thanks for stopping by!

Some special cards for some special women

I recently had the pleasure of serving as the Music Director for my kids' school's 2nd annual spring musical. This is an amazing, all-volunteer effort that has been spearheaded at the school for the past 2 years by another school mom who has an extensive background in professional theater. She has asked me to be on board each year, and this year was quite an undertaking as we did Seussical Jr! What a great show, and the kids did an AMAZING job, after nearly 8 weeks of rehearsals, at the performance Friday night.

Along with the mom mentioned above, who was our producer/director, an incredible mother/daughter team did all of the choreography for several big ensemble music and dance numbers. The four of us make a great team and love working together, along with the MANY other moms and dads who helped in so many other ways to make the show a success!

I made the 3 cards below and gave them to these 3 awesome women on Friday night. I wish I could have made a card for every parent, and every one of the 30+ kids (YES, I said 30+!!) in the cast.... but alas, I'm neither organized nor productive enough for that! :)  A brief list of stamps and dies follows each card, all products are from Papertrey Ink.

Half & Half die, Seeing Stars, Fancy Flourishes & die, Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Seeing Stars Border die.

 

Wonderful Words Additions, Block Alpha dies, Daydreamer, Flutterby Friend, Heart border die.

Pretty Peonies, Beautiful Butterflies, Mat Stack 4 + Mat Stack 4 Layerz dies, Daydreamer, Heart Border die, Faux Ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!

One more Easter card: Little Bitty Bird rejoices!

I wasn't nearly as good as I wanted to be this year about getting Easter cards made, but I did manage to put this one together for my husband. I'm so happy with how it turned out, and I think it could be used with other sentiments for lots of occasions! I created this sweet little spring scene using a lot of images from a bunch of different PTI sets: Little Bitty Bird (tree branches, bird and music notes) + Additions (birdhouse), Up Up and Away (sun), Distressed Stripes (the birdhouse "post"), Sweet Spring (the butterflies), Love Lives Here (the grass), and Tag-Its 3 (flowers). The sentiment is from Verve's Everlasting Life.

The color combo is mostly Summer Sunrise and Hawaiian Shores. The leaves, bird, butterflies and birdhouse are all colored with Copics.

Thanks for looking!

RCIA Easter Cards

Happy Easter! In the Catholic church, each year at the Easter vigil Mass (the night before Easter), new members are welcomed into the church, following a months-long preparation course called "RCIA" (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). In our church, each organization is asked to provide a card for each of the new members. This year I decided to make the cards from two of the organizations that I'm part of - it was doable, since there were only two new members (and they are both people who I know, so that made it that much more meaningful!).

From the choir/music ministry, I incorporated a music theme, both in the patterned paper and in the sentiment verse I used (which is from Verve). These are 5x7 cards, so that they could be signed by all the people involved in the music ministry - about 40 choir members, children's choir members, and cantors! We had one man and one woman, so the first card is the more masculine version, and below it the feminine version.

The pink paper in this one is from Echo Park. I really like how the verse looks, stamped on the die-cut with the bit of the rose, which is part of the paper (I carefully placed my die on the paper, positioning it to include the rose at the corner). After I had finished both of these, I decided that I really like the focal point panel popped up and "matted" on the card base, as on the first card, better. So I actually re-did the pink one in the same way, just by trimming down the card front and then putting it on a new card base... but I didn't re-take the picture.

The other set I made were from our Cub Scout Pack. These are also 5x7 cards, but unfortunately, these ones did not get signed by all the scouts as I had intended. I had these with me the night of our last Pack meeting, but it was so busy that I forgot to call the kids over to sign them - and it would have been tricky, since both of the card recipients are scout parents and were there! LOL! So I just wrote "from Cub Scout Pack 40" inside them myself. :) The first one went to the male, and the second one to the female.

I varied the designs on these two a bit more than on the first ones. It was so fun to make each card unique and special, and to be thinking of my two friends, and their joyous occasion, as I made them!

Thanks for looking, and have a lovely Easter day!

So HOPPY for you!

A friend and colleague recently accepted a position at a different university, so I wanted to make her a "congratulations" card. She has quite an affinity for rabbits and owns a couple as pets, so I decided to incorporate that theme into the card. I used the bunny image from Tremendous Treats: Valentine, and computer-generated the sentiment "So HOPPY for you". 

I used the Sending You die and frame image, masking off the line in the middle of the frame. The bunny's ears and nose are colored with Copics, and I added a fluffy little mini-pom-pom tail. The pink paper is from Echo Park, and the green stripes are from the Simply Chartreuse Pattern Paper Pack. The teeny scallops are the Heart Border die (I love using it for teeny scallops!), and I finished things off with a Simply Chartreuse button and pink Twinery twine.

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday: Computer Generated Sentiments on Die-Cuts

For this week's Make it Monday, Erin Lincoln demonstrates how to incorporated computer-generated sentiments onto die cut elements. Fun! It's always nice to have new ways to customize cards. Since Easter is just around the corner and I haven't made any Easter cards yet, I thought I would use the technique to create an Easter sentiment that fit perfectly into the Celebrations frame. I used Microsoft Word, but used Word Art for the sentiment. This allowed me to easily space the two lines so that they were exactly the same width, and also made it easy to have the word "risen" as outline letters, which I colored in with Copics in a gradient style. I thought that the light-to-dark shading sort of echoed the idea of "risen". :)

My color scheme is Summer Sunrise and Hawaiian Shores, with a bit of Orange Zest and Spring Moss thrown in. I used flower images primarily from Daydreamer with one from Rosie Posie added in. The butterfly and "Easter Wishes" sentiment are from Sweet Spring, and I made the little tab with a Half-and-Half die.

The focal point panel is impressed with the Canvas impression plate, although it doesn't show very well in the pictures. The card base is stamped with the new wrought iron fence background at the top and bottom.

Thanks for looking, and thanks for another great technique, PTI! :)

Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop

For this month's blog hop, Nichole Heady provided a fun inspiration photo (from Katherine Marie Photography) on which to base a project:

I was immediately drawn to the happy, bright, yellow and aqua color combo, and the fun mix of patterns - especially the stripes, because I ♥ stripes! I got Distressed Stripes not too long ago and had not really put it to much use, so I thought this was the perfect time to make my own custom striped paper, alternating Harvest Gold and Aqua Mist ink.

For the focal point I used the new Birthday Tags, along with Mat Stack 5. I added a ribbon an a couple of Harvest Gold buttons, a teeny Aqua Mist scallop using the heart border die, and added sentiment along the bottom from Big & Bold Wishes. (Here's a tip: I wanted that sentiment to match the Aqua Mist, but when I stamped with AM ink, it turned out looking green on the bold yellow cardstock base! I tried Hawaiian Shores - still green. Finally I tried Blueberry Sky and it gave me a much better match to the colors in the card!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hopping for Janelle + Make it Monday: Graduated Backgrounds

Today a number of Papertrey Ink fans are participating in a Blog Hop, put together by Laurie, to show our support for our forum friend and amazing woman, Janelle. I have been following her story on her blog and keeping her family in my prayers. Janelle (and Ken), you are such a model of grace and faithfulness as you endure this unimaginable battle. I hope that this hop has put a smile on your face, and reinforced what you hopefully already know: there are many, many people who care about you and are praying for you every day.

Since I was already starting to work on a card for this week's Make it Monday: Graduated Backgrounds, I decided to combine that challenge into my card for Janelle. I also just for my March PTI order, and couldn't wait to play with the Little Bitty Birds Additions. I thought the little birdie helped to set a sweet, serene and peaceful scene, just what I was looking for with this card.

 

I used Copics in the color families for Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart, New Leaf and Simply Chartreuse for the graduated background on the Mega Mat Stack 4 panel. I added the sentiment from Beautiful Blessings and then stamped the "Praying for you" in Summer Sunrise for a light, almost watermark effect (inspired by Heather Nichols' prayer card project about halfway down this post). I built the scene using elements from Little Bitty Bird and Additions, Peaceful Garden, and Sweet Spring.

The Blueberry Sky mat is stamped with the branch and tree from Little Bitty Bird for a subtle background. The bird is popped up on the focal point panel, which is also popped up on he blue, on a Summer Sunrise card base.

Thank you Laurie for putting together this very meaningful blog hop. Although I don't know Janelle as well as some of the PTI-ers, I have been touched and moved by her and Ken's blog posts, chronicling her difficult journey.

And to all, thanks for stopping by.

5th Birthday Sliding Froggie card

I needed a card last week for my nephew's fifth birthday. I had been wanting to use my new PTI Sliders dies, and I thought they would pair nicely with Boy Basics: Frog Hop (one of those sets that I've owned for a long time, and hasn't gotten much use!). I also used Big Birthday Wishes, By the Numbers die collection, Bitty Dots paper, and the heart border die (for the small scallops).

I used both scales of the Background Basics: Medallions. On the sliders panel, I cut a 2nd panel from Hawaiian Shores and trimmed it down to just the bottom half, then stamped with the small-scale pattern. I adhered that over the Lemon Tart slider panel. I used a Limitless Layers circle to mat the number (I couldn't decide whether to use yellow or blue, so you see how I handled that... lol), and popped both the circle and the number up on foam adhesive.

I used the "hoppy day" sentiment inside the slider, and added lots of little flies to buzz around.

I don't usually do so much to the inside of my cards, but this one was a fun design to carry over to the inside. I wanted something to tuck down into the grass, and that little snail from Flutterby Friend was just perfect!

I was really pleased with how the card turned out.... and slightly panicked when my nephew opened it and started to pull/yank at the "pull here" and I was afraid he was about to rip the whole slider apparatus off the card! LOL! But I was able to show him how to gently pull it up before that happened. The slider dies are awesome - it's so easy to put together the mechanism, and it slides out just perfectly smoothly!

Thanks for stopping by!

Make it Monday: Colored Kissing & Color Throwdown 183

I finally got some stamping time in today, so I decided to use it uber-efficiently and kill two challenges with one stone, so to speak! :) The Make it Monday challenge this week is "colored kissing", kiss-stamping a pattern onto a solid stamp to add a colored overlay. I'm also using the color scheme for Color Throwdown 183, which I translated into PTI colors as Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, Kraft and Canyon Clay.

For the kissing technique, I added the small line pattern (in Aqua Mist) from A Little Argyle to a car (in Spring Moss) from Enjoy the Ride. I layered Mat Stack 3 and Layerz for the focal point, and used Think Big Favorites for the "celebrate". The edges are all inked up for a more rustic, masculine look.

The Mat Stacks are popped up on dimensional adhesive, and I finished it all off with a Spring Moss button and some rustic twine.

Here is a close-up to better see how the "kissed" pattern worked out.

And here is the Color Throwdown inspiration:

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Make It Monday: Die Cutting Partial Images AND ColourQ #127

Yes, you read that right! I completed a card for this week's MIM: Die Cutting Partial Images, and I also managed to incorporate the color scheme for the current ColourQ Challenge #127! I translated the color palette into PTI's Dark Chocolate, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Melon Berry, and Stampers Select White.

Now, I had this idea in my head for the MIM, to cut some of the Turning a New Leaf dies out of a square to make a "frame" of sorts. But I was having problems trying to do it as per Betsy's video (the little bits that I needed to use to shim the die were so small that I was having a lot of trouble getting them to stay in the die; and I also had no idea how I could position the dies just right for my square frame cut). So, I came up with an alternative method (after lots of trial and error) which I'll explain below the card. But here is the card (5 1/4" square), using the TANL dies and stamps, Pretty Peonies, Text Style 2, Tiny Tags, sentiment from Tag Its #1, and the woodgrain impression plate:

I stamped and hand-cut the peony twice, and shaded it with Copics (using techniques from this MIM from waaay back!). The frame is popped up on dimensional adhesive, and then the top peony is also popped up again on the frame. After spending a LONG time (and several rejects, lol) getting that leaf-frame panel just how I wanted it, I wasn't sure what to do about a sentiment. I didn't want anything to cover up much of the panel! Enter: Tiny Tags! Along with a Simply Chartreuse button and a bit of Dark Chocolate twine... problem solved!

A close-up of the peonies, and you can also see the woodgrain texture nicely:

So, if you're interested, here is how I created the partially-cut frame panel. It was definitely inspired by Betsy's video, but I just had to use a variation on the technique to make it work for me. First I used a square Spellbinders die to die-cut 3 layers of thin chipboard, which I adhered together. I also cut the same square from a piece of craft foam. This would be the eventual size of the inside of my frame.

Now I put the following sandwich on my BigKick cutting plate. Clear cutting plate, cardstock (larger than necessary, as I will cut it down to size later - easier than trying to cut it perfectly "squared up"), and then the negative space from the foam cut square.

Next, I laid the dies, cutting side down, placing them how I want them to cut in my frame. Remember, the open square in the middle is to be the inside of the frame, with the leaves running through it.

Next I placed my triple-chipboard-square carefully on top, so that is lined up with the open square in the craft foam. It helps to use a bit of scotch tape to hold this in position; it's going to want to shift when you crank the sandwich through.

Last, to add some extra "shimming" thickness and also just help hold the sandwich together, I put about 6 layers of acetate (just the pieces that the stamp sets come on - I knew there was a good reason to save them!) on top. NO top cutting plate - this is it! Then I held the whole thing together (again, that chipboard shim is going to try to move - you want it to stay right on top of that open square, because it is taking the place of your top cutting plate, to apply pressure to the dies to cut the paper) and cranked 'er through!

It worked just like I thought it would: the craft foam was just nicked a bit at the edges by the dies, but not cut through. The dies only cut the paper where the chipboard square was, hence cutting away from the INSIDE of the frame. I then used the negative space from cutting the chipboard as a guide to use a craft knife to cut out the inside frame. Then trimmed the edges uniformly, stamped the leaves, and ran through with the impression plate. 

Thanks so much for the inspiration, Betsy! This is definitely a cool technique, and one I am glad to have tried and hope to use again!

Here is the ColourQ inspiration:

I am going to try to incorporate more color challenges into my crafting, as I notice that I tend to use the same colors again and again. I need to get out of my comfort zone and be a bit more colorfully-adventurous! :)

sorry - that was a long post! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet invitations

I wanted to share the invitations I made for some special guests that we invite each year to our Cub Scout Pack's Blue & Gold Banquet. This is a pot-luck style dinner where we award a lot of badges and our oldest scouts will formally "cross over" to join Boy Scouts. We also invite a few people associated with the church that charters our Pack, and I made 3 of these invitation to send to them.

The color combo is PTI's Enchanted Evening, Harvest Gold and Kraft - a perfect Cub Scout color scheme! The Fleur de Lis is from the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Accents set. The circle and pinked circle are PTI's Limitless Layers. Then I used Mat Stack 5 and Argyle Socks Patterned Paper, matted with Mat Stack 5 Layerz. 

I added a tone-on-tone pattern to the small circle with the smallest diamond lined pattern from A Little Argyle, and impressed the large yellow panel with the Picnic Plaid impression plate, after stamping the sentiment from Autumn Acorns. The pinking shears border die cuts set off the main panel, and tie together with the pinked circle mat.

We are looking forward to our banquet later this week, and my oldest Ryan *sniff* will become a Boy Scout! Hopefully mama won't get all teary-eyed! :)

Thanks for looking!

Make It Monday: Customized Frames

Today I managed to finish the Make It Monday card that I started 2 days ago, lol! The challenge this week, coming from Dawn McVey, was to use multiple stampings of a frame image to create a larger frame. This is such a great technique - it's always nice to find ways to get more "mileage" out of your stamps! I love the frames in the Celebrations set. I used the one that is in two completely separate parts, selectively inking one side of it in Raspberry Fizz, and then stamped it 4 times, rotating a quarter-turn each time. It was fairly easy (ok, I confess - there may have been a couple of botched attempts! ;) to create this fun, large frame shape:

 

I love how the outside ended up looking almost circular, with the inside is a perfectly square frame. The word "celebrate" fit so perfectly four times, so I stamped it in Summer Sunrise, Hawaiian Shores, Spring Moss and Orange Zest, and ran the panel through with the picnic plaid impression plate.

The white panel is popped up on the Summer Sunrise panel, which is adhered to the Hawaiian Shores 5.25" square card base. I added the sentiment (also from Celebrations) on a banner die-cut, tied on twine and a Hawaiian Shores button.

Thanks for the great technique and fun challenge, Dawn & PTI!

And as always, thanks for stopping by!