MIM #90 - take 4

Here's another high 5 and another MIM challenge. From my card in my previous post (below) I had this striped "5" that I wanted to do something with so why not make another card while I had everything out.



I made a few more passes with my Big Shot using the ticket die, heart die, and eyelet lace border die. Stitched them on the card, a little stamping, and voila, all done.

There are a few stars stamped rather lightly. I used Amuse's Pebble ink which is kind of a taupey gray. Quite nice but it is light and you might not be able to see it in the pictures. My apologies.

Supplies:
Cardstock: white, Raspberry Fizz, Hawaiian Shores, Harvest Gold (all PTI)
PP: Happy Day (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Versafine Onyx, Fuchsia (Fresh Ink), Pebble (Amuse)
Stamps: Up, Up, and Away (sentiment), All Star (larger star), Halloween Tags (star cluster) (all PTI)
Other: ticket die, eyelet lace border die, heart border die (all PTI)

MIM #90 - take 3

Welcome back! Here's my third card I did for this weeks Make It Monday challenge. I just adore how this card turned out.



I perused my "Cards" board on Pinterest for a bit hoping to gain some inspiration. I already knew I wanted to use patterned paper and a negative die cut for the "5" in place of the word "five", but I couldn't figure out how to place the rest of the sentiment. Then I saw a card using the ticket die and a light bulb went off.



And here's an oops that turned into a good thing. I originally planned for the card to be in the vertical position and had already cut my striped paper. But then the sentiment wouldn't fit on the tickets. Boo. So I then turned it horizontal but didn't want to waste the PP I had already cut. Hmmm...what's on the other side of this striped paper? Cute turquoise polka dots? Sold! Let's use both PP on the card, then place the tickets over both of them. And let's add a little trim to the bottom to introduce a third color and tie all the pieces together. And how about one pretty bow to finish it off.



Thanks for sticking with me through all that. ;) Hope you like it!

Supplies:
Cardstock: white, Harvest Gold (PTI)
PP: Happy Day (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Hawaiian Shores (PTI), Provincial Gray (Fresh Ink)
Stamps: Just the Ticket, Up, Up, and Away, and All Star (all by PTI)
Other: By The Numbers die, ticket die, heart die (for the yellow trim) (all by PTI)

MIM #90 - take 2

I'm back with my second card for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday #90 challenge. You can see my first one in the post just below.



In this one I used the same stickers as my "You are awesome" card in the post below to spell out "THANK YOU" and added my stamped sentiment, from Big & Bold Wishes, just above it.



Supplies:
Cardstock: white (PTI)
Ink: Enchanted Evening (PTI)
Stamps: Big & Bold Wishes (PTI)
Stickers: Pebbles Inc.

Retro Sketches #36

I was intrigued by this week's sketch over at Retro Sketches and decided to play around with it a bit.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:




I moved a few things around on the sketch and switched out the frills and bows for something a little more masculine for my dad's birthday (hence the reason for the number 64). On the inside, which I totally forgot to take a photo of, it says "amazing years".



The numbers looked a little stark so I muted them by stamping a text stamp on them with a gray ink. That helped to tie it in a little better.

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies:
Cardstock: kraft, Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink)
PP: Note To Self (Echo Park)
Ink: Slate (Fresh Ink)
Stamps: BB: Text Style (PTI)
Other: By The Numbers dies, Mat Stack 1 die, Mat Stack Layerz die, Coluzzle (for cutting the partial circle on my PP)

You Are Awesome - MIM #90

Thanks so much for dropping by today. Today's post is for the latest Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge and also for the Alphabet Stickers Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. The current challenge is to create a focal point sentiment using dies/stickers along with your stamp set. I really loved this one and have created five cards already.



I have stickers coming out my ears and thought this particular sticker design lent a fun and casual air to an otherwise white and modern card.

Stick around...there's more coming. ;)

Supplies:
Cardstock: white (PTI)
Ink: Versafine Onyx
Stamps: Simply You (PTI)
Stickers: Pebbles Inkc.

Celebrate

Another one for the PTI challenge. Not quite an all-occasion card but close.



Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:
Cardstock: white (Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Think Big Favorites, Get To The Point, BB: Retro (all PTI)
Ink: Hibiscus Burst, Pure Poppy, Spring Rain, Limeade Ice (PTI), Tangelo (Memento)

Christmas Stripes

Another card for the challenge over at PTI. Very simplistic card even though it took a bit of effort to get the lines all straight - just a little nick with a pencil at 1/2" increments. Then erased all the bitty pencil marks.

I think if I were to do this one again I would heat emboss the sentiment. That would add some texture with the pattern. I think I'd like that very much. :)



Supplies:
Cardstock: white (PTI)
Stamps: Faux Ribbon, Wreath For All Seasons (PTI)
Ink: Island and Strawberry (Fresh Ink)

Sending Holiday Joy - CAS 213

On the PTI forum Danielle Flanders has challenged us to create a holiday card every day in November. I know I won't get one done every day - just keepin' it real - but I do hope to do more than I have in recent months. The kids' activities have slowed considerably so there's a little more time for fun time for mom! Also, I already have my Christmas card planned out - I do just one style and make 50-60 of them in factory line style. So, you'll get to see a few Christmas cards plus whatever else I happen to make.

The layout for this card is from the sketch for Clean & Simple sketch 213. I'm way past for joining the challenge but I liked the sketch anyway. :)

Here's a close up shot of today's card.


Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Framed Out #8 (PTI)
Other: red tape (7 Gypsies), teal and green Washi tape (Target), Framed Out #8 die (PTI)

PTI Blog Hop

This month's challenge was to try a nontraditional color scheme for a card or tag. Nichole put together six different color schemes and I picked this one:

The pinks and turquoises are so happy together! :)

I created a couple cards using this scheme. Here's the first one.


I adhered strips of cardstock to my card base - Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst, Hawaiian Shores, and Aqua Mist. Then, I die cut a banner out of white cardstock and stamped "be merry." on it. I got the stamp a long time ago and not sure who the manufacturer is but I thought the modern sans serif font was a good match for the minimalist look of the card.

Here's another card I did following this same scheme and layout - just moved around the cardstock strips and changed the sentiment.


And here they are together.


Do you prefer one over the other? I think I like the first one best. Maybe because of the font of the sentiment, or maybe it's because of the order of the cardstock strips. Can't quite pin it down.

Also, I should note that the layout of this card was completely inspired by a piece of stationery I saw on Pinterest. Isn't it a great layout?!

Source: papercrave.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Enjoy the rest of your hopping.
.jsk

Supplies:
Cardstock: White, Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst, Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist (all Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Hibiscus Burst, Hawaiian Shores (PTI)
Stamps: unknown mfr for the sentiment stamps, I think the star is from All Star (PTI)
Other: banner die (PTI)

Birthday wishes for Dad

I tried a few things on this card - stamping a pattern (argyle) over other images (the tags), and stamping a bunch of smaller images to form a pattern. I kept the colors "manly" and "fallish" since it's for my dad's birthday, which is in the fall. :)

.jsk

Supplies:
Cardstock: Fine Linen, Ripe Avocado (PTI)
Stamps: Tiny Tags, A Little Argyle, For The Graduate (PTI)

Missed challenge

I made this card for a challenge several months ago but didn't get it posted in time before the challenge ended. But I like it and want to share it with you all, so I'm posting it now. I love how it's one layer. I love how it's "unisex". I love how it's "universal." This could go to anybody - friend of my young son, co-worker of my husband, female teacher, acquaintance, good friend. It just seems to fit the bill for all those situations, at least in my eyes.

The box was drawn by hand, the arrow stamped and then the sentiment stamped. Then the white layer was adhered to a black cardbase. Sooo super fast to pull together. Could make a great gift set for somebody!

Supplies:
Cardstock: white and black (both from Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Get To The Point (PTI)
Ink: black (?), Pure Poppy (PTI)

Happily Ever After

We're headed to a wedding today and this is the card I'll be giving to the bride and groom (with a little cash-ola in it.)



I had this idea in my head to use white and cream together. Not common but yet, I think it works. I kept things quite simple here. It's a square white card base with a Vintage Cream layer. The two rings are an obvious symbol of a marriage and I have had these in my stash for.ev.er. I think they're from the old Scrapworks company. Anyone else remember them? It was a scrapbooking company from many moons ago. It's nice to use some of this stuff. The ribbon is wrapped around the card and stitched in place. The rings are glued. I tried to get them to interlock with the ribbon but whatever I was doing, it wasn't working. So, glue it is. LOL.

Here's a closer shot.


Enjoy your weekend!

Supplies:
Cardstock: white, Vintage Cream (PTI)
Stamps: Botanical Silhouettes (PTI)
Other: ribbon and rings from my stash

Sentiment stems

I've let too much time slip since my last post. Sorry about that. With the start of school, soccer (for both kids), volleyball, football, increased workload for me at work, well, blogging kind of took a back seat. I have lots of cards that I haven't shown yet and several more that I have yet to take pictures of. Such a process! Anyway, on to the card...



I used a variety of sentiments as the stems of the flowers - kind of a fun look!

Do you want to see my first attempt at this concept? It's not pretty but I worked through the trouble spots and came up with a good one so it's all okay, right? There's always some stinkers along the way.



Ick! The patterned paper was too tall on this card, the flowers were a little too different, and everything was a little too squished. For my "final" card, I used fewer distracting elements (patterned paper, variety of blooms) so the focus would stay more on the flower stem sentiments.

Even though that was a stinker of a card and I'm not proud to post it I like to see these sorts of things on others' blogs. It's a good reminder that everyone creates projects that are destined for the circular file, and also it helps me learn the design rules - why one thing worked better than another choice.

Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream (PTI)
PP: Dotty Biscotti (PTI)
Ink: Hawaiian Shores (PTI), Basil (Fresh Ink)
Stamps: Cupcake Collection, Four Of A Kind, Big & Bold Wishes, Birthday Basics, Just The Ticket (all PTI)
Other: jar label die (PTI), corner rounder

Flowers + Stars = Fun

Don't you just love happy accidents? This card was one of them. I had lots of miscellaneous scraps and die cuts on my table and I put them all together and voila! Ha. I really love the sparkly star as the center of my flower. Don't know that I would have done that if it hadn't been sitting on my table. I think I'll do it on purpose another time.



The "you" is cut from patterned paper. I like how it adds a bit of texture to it while still leaving it readable. The flower is a die cut from a MME sheet of die cuts (I didn't use my dies to make it.)

Do you have plans for the upcoming weekend? Friends have invited us to a block party in their neighborhood. We went last year and we ran into all kinds of people that we knew. Should be a fun time. They're excited about serving "chicken and dressing sandwiches" but Matt and I aren't really sure what those are. Apparently they're a big deal from their home town. Guess I'll have to try one for myself.

Make it a great one! :)

Supplies:
CS: White and Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink)
PP: green/white polka dot (PTI bitty dot), yellow polka dot (MME?), pink for "you" (MME?)
Stamps: Wonderful Words additions (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Fuschia (Fresh Ink)
Other: Turning a New Leaf die (PTI), star die, glitter, Wonderful Words die (PTI), Linen/Canvas impression plate (PTO)

Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop

I love herringbone and tweed and burlap and felt and all that good textural stuff. So, when this month's Papertrey Ink blog hop was announced to use autumn patterns and textures I was all over it. I've had the herringbone Cuttlebug folder for ages and don't use it nearly enough. I just love it. And then then my son received a thank you card in the mail and it was so incredibly simple and graphic I just knew I wanted to try to recreate it.

My first step here was to cut the letters first out of the Rustic Cream layer. I measured the middle of the card, drew lines, and set my alphabet dies very carefully so that it would look right. After I cut the letters out, I ran the cardstock (with the negative die cut word) through my Big Shot using the impression folder. I was holding my breath the whole time and it came out perfect. Whew!

I then backed the negative letters with some Ripe Avocado cardstock. I matted this all on a Kraft cardbase. It looked a little plain and the orange (Terracotta Tile) was calling out to me so I punched a leaf, stamped it with a burlap pattern I have from an old red rubber stamp, and adhered it to the card front. Now, as I look at it, I'm thinking I went too far. I should have stopped with just the letters and the texture and skipped the orange leaf. Oh well. It's there now! Maybe I'll make another one...

I won't keep you. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your blog hop.

Supplies:

Stamps: country burlap pattern from an old, no-name red rubber stamp

Ink: Versamark for the pattern on the leaf

CS: Rustic Cream, Ripe Avocado, Kraft, Terracotta Tile (all PTI)

Other: alphabet dies (PTI), herringbone folder (Provo Craft), leaf punch

Make-It-Monday #77

I know this was from a couple weeks ago but I still wanted to post what I made. I had a lot of fun with this technique and felt quite artsy. The challenge was to use your ink pads as watercolors. Here's the link to the post with the video on Nichole Heady's blog.

You can see a little better in the photo below where I stamped the wreath from Wreath For All Seasons (Papertrey Ink) and then used my Sweet Blush ink pad to color over it rather loosely. I then stamped a few berries and flowers over top the wreath in a dark pink and a green (the dark pink berries are rather hard to see, especially in the picture but they're there.)

The sentiment is stamped in Strawberry (Fresh Ink) on a double ended banner die (PTI). The PP is from MME.

Thanks for visiting. Make it a great week.

Retro Sketches #25

I haven't been able to post lately because my desktop has been getting the blue screen of death and that's where my photos are stored and my PSE is loaded. I've been making do a little bit by directly uploading from my phone to Flickr but it's not the best. Today I'm using the laptop and the mediocre editing software that's on it because I wanted to play along with this week's Retro Sketches #25.



I've had a few friends lately have surgery or having some physical setbacks so I thought a "get well soon" card was in order.

I used some paper from MME and the stamp set is Everyday Classics from Papertrey Ink. It was an anniversary set from several years ago. A little bit of lace ribbon (American Crafts) and Ocean Tides ribbon (Papertrey Ink) finishes it off. It's all set on a Sweet Blush card base.

If you look closely you'll see a couple scored lines at the top of the white cardstock. It was just too much white space but I didn't want to stamp anything else in that space so I scalloped the edge and then added those two scored lines. It gave it some interest without taking away from the main image.

Thanks for stopping by.

Card Makeover Candidate

Ugh. I'm so embarrassed to even post this card but I'd love the chance to see it made over by someone on the PTI design team (for the SAF Stampers First Aid submission) so here it is in all its ugliness. Or should I say fugliness.

My DS is 8 and so I've had to make several boy cards over the years. One of my favorite sets to do this is All Star, All Star Additions, and Have a Ball. So, when the Movers & Shakers dies came out earlier this year I thought it was a match made in Heaven. One of my son's friends is really into basketball and I had this great idea in my head but, as you can see, it didn't work out AT ALL. It just doesn't work for me. There just seems to be multiple elements on the card but they're not working together.



I still love the idea of the moving basketball and the pennant but boy, do I ever have a hard time making that pennant look right on cards. I don't know what it is. Love the concept of it but it's always hard for me to place it so it doesn't look awkward or floating.

You can also see I attempted to make my own background design with the star strip from All Star along with an overlay of A Little Argyle. Doesn't appear to be helping the design of the card.



Here's one more parting shot of the card. If anyone has ideas on how to make this better I'm all ears. And please tell me you've made cards that are better suited for the circular file. I hate to think I'm the only one that has doozies like this.

Make it a great day! :)

Supplies:
CS: Orange Zest, white (Papertrey Ink), blue by Making Memories (I think)
Stamps: All Star, All Star Additions, Have A Ball, A Little Argyle (all Papertrey Ink)
Other: Movers & Shakers Spinners die (Papertrey Ink)

CFC-61

I was able to play along with this week's challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays. The challenge was to use strips of color or pattern in your Clean and Simple creation. This one came together so easily. The strips were inspired by this card from Cristina.



It all started with the bitty strip of black and white striped paper. It was a scrap left over from a previous card and it was just sitting on my desk. It was too cute not to use so I found some other (s)crap laying on my table to go with it. The red strip was cut with my pinking shears.



I'm not sure if you can see it but there is a very subtle polka dot pattern on the tea pot. You look at it and you think it's just plain but then you look again and you notice the subtle pattern. Tricky! lol

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Supplies:
CS: Vintage Cream, Pure Poppy, Soft Stone, and Smokey Shadow (all PTI)
PP: black/white stripe (October Afternoon, Cakewalk collection)
Ink: Pebble (Amuse), Black (Memories)
Stamps: Tea for Two (PTI)
Other: Teapot die (PTI), pinking shears

PTI MIM #73

By the hair of my chinny chin chin I made a card for this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink. The challenge was to stamp on patterned paper. I made a pocket card using some PP from October Afternoon and the file card die from PTI. Love this and am definitely going to do it again.



Then I cut a small piece of PP and stamped a cupcake on it using Versamark and some white embossing powder. I hope this counts as stamping on PP. A little ribbon ties it all up! (pun intended *lol*)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Fine Linen (PTI)
PP: Cakewalk papers (October Afternoon)
Other: file die (PTI), ribbon from my stash (maybe old CTMH?)

CAS-ual Friday challenge #58

I don't often have the time to keep up with current challenges but for some reason this one was really calling to me and I made time to play a bit today in my craft room.



I started with a Vintage Cream card base (PTI) and then added this awesome pink ledger paper from Vintage Marketplace paper pad (Bazzill). I adore every single paper in this pack and am so tempted to buy another pack - I don't want to run out! :)

I then heat embossed the banners using Heart-2-Heart #5 (PTI) and added the sentiment  from Think Big Favorites (PTI) using Island ink (Fresh Ink). I almost always use black or brown ink for a sentiment but I thought that would be a bit too much contrast. So teal it is.

It looked really good just like that (nice and simple) but then I saw that cutie little heart staring at me and decided to add it to the open banner flag. Uh-oh. I wasn't too keen on it. Have you ever done that? Taken a perfectly good card and then added "one more thing" to it and it went down the tubes? Well, I guess this one wasn't too bad but it looked a little "off". KWIM? So, I added some additional patterned paper from this same paper pack. The polka dots make it look like a party! Wahoo! lol



And then I don't know what wild and crazy hair I got because I've never done it before but I decided to tie the card closed using some rustic twine (PTI). I like it. Kind of plays into the whole banners hanging from a string thing.

That's it from me today. Hope you enjoyed my little card!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream (PTI)
PP: Vintage Marketplace (Bazzill)
Stamps: Heart-2-Heart #5, and Think Big Favorites #? (both from PTI)
Ink: Versamark, Island (Fresh Ink)
Other: embossing powder, rustic cream twine (PTI)