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.