Tuesday, November 22, 2011

So much to be thankful for!

Hello! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I am in the midst of putting the final touches on my Thanksgiving table decorations. It's so much fun to use the stamping supplies I have to decorate my home. I am thankful to the Lord for so many things this Thanksgiving season. Not the least of which is a new baby granddaughter! We are enjoying her so much.So many changes have taken place in our family this year, and I can think of several more coming up next year. Thanks be to God for His many blessings in our lives!

As I was decorating our table for Thanksgiving, I decided to use my Papertrey wine bottle tag for a chair tag. That was the reason I purchased this tag last month - we don't really drink wine or any alcohol to speak of, but there are many other ways to use this tag to decorate - like on packages, and at the table, on doorknobs, etc. Anyway, as I was making these tags, I decided to use the new PTI Make-it-Monday technique Betsy Veldman demonstrated at PTI this week. It is all about using sentiments in the background of your card (or in my case - tag). So I pulled out a generic "Thanks" stamp for my background, and used the hole punched out from the wine bottle tag top to create a Tag-it's base. I used Tag-it's #7 to stamp the tag and the pumpkin and the sentiment, and a Limitless labels die for the zig-zag mat behind it. I also used the leaf from the same Tag-it's to decorate name tags. Hope you enjoy!


Saturday, October 29, 2011

Making cards for my quilting retreat

Hello! I wanted to share some cards I've been making for sale at a quilting retreat I'm going to next week. I made about 35 cards using a strip of patterned paper stitched onto the card front, then stamped with one of the PTI Think Big Favorite sentiments. Then I pulled out my Quilter's Sampler set and started making some specific quilt cards. Here is one of the simpler sets:
These are all Birthday cards. I used PTI white cardstock, the Quilter's Sampler stamp set, and bakers twine from The Twinery. 

Then I looked on Nicole Heady's blog at the release of the QS set, and fell in love with her miniature quilt she created with the set here. So I had to try my hand at it, given that I am a quilter. I ended up making two different sets, each card different, with 5 cards per set. Here is a sampling of them:




They are addictive! I just love making them, and think my next big project will be to make a larger one that I can frame and hang up in my quilting room. I made the miniature quilt using the directions Nicole gave in her blog. I'm charging $2 each or 6/$10 for the TBF cards, 4/$10 for the simpler quilt cards, and 5/$15 for these last miniature quilt cards. We'll see how they go.

I also took these same quilt blocks from the QS set, and scanned them in my computer to use to digitize them for machine embroidery. I recently purchased two Button-Up machines from Hope Yoder. After stitching out these designs, I made them into flatback buttons and glued them onto scissor zingers. I will sell them at the retreat also (at least I hope I will!). Here's a picture of them:
Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Papertrey Blog Hop October 2011

Hello! I am participating in the Papertrey October 2011 Blog Hop. The photo below is supposed to be our inspiration for our Blog Hop card. You can get all the details over at Nicole's blog here.
I chose to key in on the prints on the fabric in the pumpkins, as well as the pumpkins themselves. Here's my card. I used PTI white cardstock, papers from the Fall Prints patterned paper, Tag Sale #4, sentiment from Take Three Fall, and the pumpkin is a Hero Arts stamp. The ribbon is from my stash. I also inked the edges of the paper with the tea dye duo. Hope you enjoy! Have fun looking at everyone's creation!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Papertrey Make It Monday #35 - Making Washi Tape - Card Three

Ok, this is my last card for this evening - I promise! This is just so much fun! Check out Nicole Heady's tutorial on making your own washi tape here on her blog. It's addicting though, so be forewarned! After making bunches of the tape, I thought maybe it would be fun to take a chunk of tissue (I had some cute polka dot tissue in my wrapping stuff), and cover the back with scor tape, then use some PTI die cuts to make washi flowers. I don't know if that counts as washi tape or not, but they sure turned out cute! Here's a picture of the tissue I started with:
I covered the back with scor tape (I guess you could use your Xyron machine if you have one - I don't). Then run it through your die cutting machine with the dies, just like you would with regular cardstock. Here's what I got:
Then, just use the flowers on your card. Note: it's a little tricky (but doable) to peel the tape off the back of these flowers because it's in pieces some places). So here's my finished card:
I used PTI sweet blush cardstock, Scor tape, the tissue from my stash, the Beautiful Blooms #3 dies, Around & About Sentiments stamps, and some fun pink fiber for my tie. Hope you enjoy! I know I did :)

Papertrey Make It Monday #35 - Making Washi Tape - Card Two

I'm back! And having so much fun making this washi tape for the Papertrey Make It Monday Challenge! Here's a Christmas card using some tape I made. I used red tissue paper stamped with fresh snow ink, and then white tissue paper stamped with Versafine Satin Red ink. The stamp set I used was Background Basics Christmas from last year, and the sentiment is from one of the Fillable Frames - not sure which one. I can't wait to make some more tape - the cards come together so quickly using them! Fun, fun, fun!

Papertrey Make It Monday #35 - Making Washi Tape

Hello! It's been a long while since I've written on my blog. But I have a good reason. I'm a new grandma! My daughter Katie had a little girl on August 23rd, and I've been spending lots of time with her, and making things for her. I'll have to do some blog posts on the cute things I've been making, but for now, I'd like to share a card I made for this week's Papertrey Make It Monday. This challenge to make your own washi tape sounded like fun. I had never heard of washi tape until recently, and really hadn't much an idea what it was. But when I saw how easy Nicole made it seem to make your own, I thought I'd give it a try. All I had in my stash was 1/2" Scor tape, so I found stamps to work with it. I've been hugely in BABY mode lately, and PINK baby mode at that, so it's only natural to have pink washi tape, right? So here's my attempt at it - I just LOVE this technique!!!
I used PTI white cardstock, Scor tape 1/2", Bitty Baby Blessings, Ribbon Tails, and little labels die cut. For the tissue paper, I used regular white on the polka dot ones, and pink tissue paper on the little baby ones.  Hope you enjoy it! I certainly enjoyed making it!  Hint: if you are impatient and want to use the tape as soon as you make it, instead of waiting for it to dry - zap it with your heat gun!  :)

Saturday, August 27, 2011

PTI Bloom Builders #3 flowers

 I've been having fun making flowers with the new Papertrey Bloom Builders #3 die while sitting here at home waiting for a hurricane to make it's way up the east coast. We are on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains out here in Winchester, so we aren't supposed to get much. But better safe than sorry, so we're staying home. Anyway, I've been trying to experiement with some different materials with the BB#3 die.

Glitter fun foam, which cut through wonderful - 1 layer of each petal: (thought these would be really cute on a little baby's headband)

Vellum - 2 layers of each petal: love how the edges curled up all by themselves when I spraying on some glimmer mist
Cotton fabric - 2 layers of each petal: took alot of snipping to get the flowers to come out - used backing, but still wouldn't cut through all the way
Gingham patterened paper (My Mind's Eye) 2 layers of each petal:
PTI sweet blush cardstock 2 layers of each petal:
Set of 6 flowers:
I used the metal shim, standard plates and Big Shot to cut them out. On the fabric and vellum flowers, I also added a layer or two of cardstock underneath. I think I'll try felt next.... LOVE these flowers!

Monday, August 22, 2011

My Grateful/Happy Birthday Journal

Hello! I just knew I had to make a Grateful Journal for my husband's 56th birthday when I saw the one Dawn McVey made for her husband. Anthony is such a hard person to buy for, and I knew this would be better than anything I could purchase. I started by purchasing the new Grateful Journal stamp set and tab dies from Papertrey August 15th. I was very excited when they arrived the next week! I happened to have some chipboard 4 x 6 accordian fold books I'd purchased for $1 each and decided to cut them apart and use them for my journal. I covered each page with patterened paper - Road Trip from PTI - and punched three holes on the side with my Cropadile. I planned to bind it with three rings.

 I used a TON of PTI stamp sets and dies -  hopefully you can spot them here and there. The main set I used was the Grateful Journal set (GJ set).

Front Cover (page 1):
I used the GJ set, the button card, the TNL set & dies, the sunflower set, FF#7, the library card, and the woodgrain impression plate on this page.

Page 2-3:
On these pages, I used the library card, star punch, tiny tags, GJ set, little labels dies, half and half dies, and matt stack 5. The picture is of Anthony as a little boy, dressed up like his dad, who was a plasterer by trade.

Page 4-5:
These pages used the GJ set, the Journaling Lines set (remember & memories),  the simple circles die, the little labels die, and the heartprints dies. The picture on the left is of our kids one Easter when they were young. The pictures on the right are of Anthony when he was little.

Pages 6-7:
These pages use the library card, the GJ set, the heartprints dies, little labels dies, Beautiful Blessings set, Out on a Limb Sentiments set, and tag sale 1 die. The picture on the left is Anthony with our first child, Kelly, and the picture on the right os of Anthony getting ready for church with his Bible in his hands. Anthony's mom was such a good Christian woman, and I'm so thankful she raised him in a Christian home.

Pages 8-9:
These pages use the GJ set, the My Hero, My Dad set, and the library card. The picture on the left is our kids all grown up - pretty current - and the left side is reserved for a picture of Anthony with our first grandbaby, who is due to be born tomorrow! Hopefully I can get a picture of him holding her and get it in the album before his birthday on Saturday. That will be really special!

Pages 10-Happy Birthday:
These pages use the library card (again), the TNL set & dies, the sentiment from the Harvest Berries set, one of the Filliable Frames (can't remember which it is), Signature Greetings, one of the freebie circle tags given out during Feb. 2011, and the NEW Beautiful Blooms #3 die cut out of the new patterned paper - I just LOVE this die!!!  The picture is again of Anthony as a child.

Back cover:
The back cover uses a sentiment from Delightful Dahlia on the tab, a sentiment from Out on a Limb, a little label with "priceless"  from GJ set and the lines from Grunge Me set (thanks to the suggestion of Stephanie!). I used a small glassine envelope to put some extra pictures of Anthony and our kids in.

I tried not to "girly" it up too much - deciding not to put ribbons on the circle rings, and grunging up the edges a bit on the pages and the embellishments. I'm excited to give it to him Saturday! Thanks for sticking with me on the looong post! Hope you enjoyed it.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #26 - Decreasing Apertures Card

Hello! Welcome to my blog! I have finally gotten around to participating in a Papertrey Make It Monday technique. The technique this week was to make a decreasing aperture card. That means cutting windows into your card front with multiple dies - at least that's how I interpreted it. Jennifer Ellefson did a great job demonstrating this technique on Nicole's blog here. Check it out!
Here's my take on this technique:
I used Ripe Avocado, Kraft and Simply Chartreuse PTI cardstock, the Matt Stack 3 die, one of the turning a new leaf dies and the corresponding stamp, a sentiment from Out on a Limb Sentiments, fresh snow ink and rustic jute twine. I really like how this turned out and will use this technique again. Hope you enjoy it too!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Die cut Storage

I find I have amassed alot of Papertrey dies and therefore, have tons of die cuts to store. The best system I have found to do this is this case I found at Michael's. I think it is designed to hold photos, but it works great with die cuts too. The case holds 12 individual boxes. I store the case on the floor right beside my chair I sit in when I stamp. I will reach for it and see if I have the die cut already punched before I'll get up and cut new ones. It's very handy for me. I have a couple plastic tackle box type containers too, because this one got full pretty quick. They are nice for border cuts because I can put the dividers wherever I want. So it's nice to have two alternatives.

Case
 An individual box within the case (has my Tiny Tags in this one)
 All twelve boxes within the case. I combine some of the die cuts within a box. Like I have a box for all the Matt Stacks, all the doilies, all the Fillable Frames, etc.
Hope this helps someone else out!  Thanks for visiting! 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Online Card Camp - week 4

It's hard to believe, but this is the last week of the Online Card Camp! I am going to miss waking up to find wonderful cards, color combos, and techniques waiting in my inbox each day. I have learned so much through this camp - branching out to different color combos, trying different techniques, making sketches for my cards - and gaining so much inspiration from both the teachers in the class, the guests, and the participants.

This weeks color combo is one of my favorites - aqua is my "go to" color right now. I just love the clean look of these colors on a card.
 And here's my take on these colors. I used the Up, Up and Away stamp set and dies from Papertrey, patterned paper from My Mind's Eye, and Papertrey white cardstock, as well as an assortment of Copic markers to color the balloons. Hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Online card camp - week 3 card

Hello friends! I've really been enjoying the student gallery for camp - such fantastic cards and ideas! This week's color combo for the Online Card Camp is much more in my comfort zone. Some neutrals and a pop of red. Here's the combo:

Here's my card for week 3. I used PTI kraft cardstock, impressed with the PTI cane impression plate (reminds me of a quilt), PTI Vintage Picnic stamp set and dies, copic markers, and a scrap of red gingham ribbon. Love this color combo! Hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Online card camp week 2, card 2

Hello friends!
I'm back again with another card for week 2 of the Online Card Camp. This color combo was so much fun! Here's my card
I used PTI Harvest gold and cardstock, PTI All About You stamp set, Buttercup Liquid Pearls by Ranger, and PTI inks Summer Sunrise, Terra Cotta Tile, and Orange zest, as well as Stampin Up Certainly Celery and Old Olive inks. The ribbon was in the $1 bin at Michaels. Hope you enjoy!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Summer card camp week 2 card

Hello - happy fourth of July! I was surprised to find a summer card camp pdf in my inbox this morning with it being a holiday - a nice surprise. This week's color combo is full of color and full of fun! I usually don't use these many bright colors on my cards. These last two color challenges have really challenged me to get out of my comfort zone. They really make up fun cards though! I'm loving trying all these new things.
This is the color combo for week 2:
I interpreted them as PTI harvest gold, orange zest, pure poppy, simply chartreuse and new leaf. Trouble is, I didn't have all those colors, so I substituted with what I had. I originally  made the card in the horizontal layout, but I kind of like it vertical too - see which you prefer.

I used PTI harvest gold and white cardstock, Beautiful Blooms 2 dies and stamps, I/O Birthday stamp set (sentiment), Memento ink in bamboo leaves and pear tart colors, Versafine onyx black ink, and patterned paper from Echo Park - a walk in the park 6x6 paper pad, as well as vintage buttons. Hope you enjoy!