Halloween in July??

Halloween in July??

You’ve heard of Christmas in July, well what about Halloween? We love Halloween and have already been talking about what we need to do to get ready for this year. I guess that it what made me think of my Halloween stamps for this month’s Papertrey Ink blog hop.

The PTI challenge was to focus on text and use it any way we wanted in a project. The first thing that came to mind was to create a fun text background using my PTI Halloween sets Spooky Sweets and Spooky Sweets II. So here we go!

I love the funky pattern on this first card. Look real close to see how I created this retro looking background. It’s one of the bat stamps from Spooky Sweets! I stamped the bats in a row across a sheet of Guidelines Two cardstock and then turned the bat upside down and stamped it directly underneath the other bat. The result was this really cool pattern. In between the X created by the bats I used the Boo! stamp from the same set. I kept the layout very simple so the focus would be on my background. Just a simple band of orange suede ribbon topped with a scallop circle and a little bat and sentiment on Ripe Avocado cardstock.

Backgrounds for the next two cards were also stamped on Guidelines Two cardstock. I can see that I am going to need more of this cardstock! ;) The cards are basically the same but with a few slightly different embellishments. I started my background by stamping one of the decorative ring stamps from Guidelines Two around the circles. Then I stamped the little spider from Spooky Sweets in the negative space between the circles and alternated sentiments inside the circles. Again I tried to keep the focus on the text since that was the theme for the Blog Hop. :) I cut out the text background using Nestabilities Labels 2 and then added another layer with Smoky Shadow cardstock. In the first sample I edged the panels with silver pen and added black glitter to the little spiders. For the embellishment I stamped the larger spider on PTI white cardstock and added Doodlebug crushed velvet in black. IRL it is so cool looking and fun to touch, unlike real spiders which give me the willies! Why do I like making Halloween cards with spiders when I’m terrified of them? I’m sure Freud would have had something interesting to say about that but I digress. I finished it off by using some thin silver cord as the spider’s web string. I got a little messy with the silver pen. Note to self: Add silver pen BEFORE you glue down the layers. If I had it to do over again I would probably leave that part out.

The second card is just like the first without the silver pen and using some lovely polka- dot ribbon and a big Summer Sunrise button. And I’ve included a shot of the inside of the cards too.

Thanks for stopping by! I can’t wait to see what you all came up with.

Happy Halloween 3 months early!

Kim

Supply lists (All supplies by PTI unless otherwise noted):

Card #1: Stamps: Spooky Sweets, Spooky Sweets II (inside). Cardstock: Guidelines II, Smoky Shadow, Ripe Avocado. Ink: Palette Noir, SU! Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Suede ribbon (stash), circle punches by SU!.

Card #2: Stamps: Guidelines II, Spooky Sweets, Spooky Sweets II (inside). Cardstock: PTI White, Guidelines II, Smoky Shadow, SU! Pumpkin Pie, Heidi Grace dp. Ink: Palette Noir, SU! Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Doodlebug glitter and crushed velvet, Silver Cord (stash), silver pen (Prismacolor), circle punches by SU!

Card #3: Stamps: Guidelines II, Spooky Sweets, Spooky Sweets II (inside). Cardstock: PTI White, Guidelines II, Smoky Shadow, SU! Pumpkin Pie, Heidi Grace dp. Ink: Palette Noir, SU! Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Swiss dot ribbon, Summer Sunrise button, black twine (stash).

ETA: Fixed some spelling errors and put in the title of my post. Geesh, I always forget to do something when I'm prepping for Blog Hop! :)

A GSS submission and babble

I am not so patiently waiting for the PTI July release on the 15th. This month I am really loving most of the sets previewed so far. If only money were no object! Well in the meantime, I uploaded this gift set for the PTI Guest Star Stamper contest this month.

The set contains 4 note cards w/ envelopes, an altered frame and a cute little altered tin. The inspiration for the color scheme and design came from the pretty Daisy D's paper I used on the picture frame. The colors were a great match for PTI's Spring Moss and Melon Berry and I thought the images from Life would make wonderful images for the cards.

I first stamped a foliage image in Spring Moss on Bitty Box paper and then stamped a flower image over it in Spring Moss (stem) and Melon Berry. Before I loaded on the Perfect Match ink I stamped my stamp in Versa Mark. That way I was able to emboss the flower image. It deepened the color of the flowers and gave it a nice finished look. I stamped various sentiments from the Life set on the bottoms of the cards and found lovely coordinating sentiments from Birthday Basics and Mother to go on the inside of the cards.

I used some fun natural cotton trim for accent on some of the cards and around the photo cut out on the frame. When I make cards to give away I make them as flat as I can, while hopefully keeping them interesting, so that the person I give them to can mail them without having to pay extra postage or worry about embellishments punching through the envelopes.

For the frame I stamped my sentiment on the paper and then adhered the paper to the frame with Perfect Paper Adhesive. This is my favorite product for attaching paper. It's not as wet as ModPodge, doesn't leave my hands as sticky and I have less problems with bubbles. When that was on I adhered the trim, buttons and ribbon.

The tin was super easy. It already had those cute embossed flower

designs on it so all I had to do was punch holes in it and thread on my buttons

and ribbon. Easy Peasy! I think the set turned out super cute!

Supplies: Stamps: PTI Life, Birthday Basics, Mother. Ink: Melon Berry, Spring Moss,

Vintage Tea Dye Duo, Versa Mark, Ranger Walnut Stain. Cardstock: Rustic Cream,

Melon Berry, Kraft, Accessories: Bitty Box paper, Daisy D's paper, border punch,

PTI vintage buttons, ribbon and twine, cotton trim (stash) tin box - Target.

Welcome to PTI blog hop! A quick post because I'm late for dinner. Here's my inspiration photo and a couple of cards. How could I not choose 4th of July for my summer inspiration with all of the fabulous new stamps from PTI?

I will come back later and edit to add supply lists. Thanks for stopping by, I can't wait to see all of your blogs!

ETA Supplies: Stamps- Let Freedom Ring, Star Prints, All Star Team. Cardstock- Kraft, Guidelines 2 paper, Pure Poppy, White, SU Buckaroo Blue, and Bitty Box paper. Ink: Fresh Snow, Pure Poppy, SU Buckaroo Blue. Accessories: Filigree white ep, scallop edge punch, PTI vintage buttons and twine, ribbon (stash), circle punches.

ETA again: Forgot to say that my inspiration photo is from CountryLiving.com. They had wonderful inspiration photos and ideas!

Dad's Day #3

Well Father's Day is upon us so I want to share the card I made for my DH. I hope it's not too "girly" but it is a card from our daughter to him, so I designed it as a card a little girl would give her Daddy. She's only 2 so I will probably let her scribble on another stamped image and make a second card but I wanted to make one also. I must admit I really love the way it turned out. I love the Magnolia images, except I'm not wild about the wings on some of the Tildas so I colored them brown and hopefully it blends in with her hair.
I started with a base of PTI Ripe Avocado and added some Plum Pudding bitty dot paper. I love these two colors together. Next, I stamped some stripes from Let Freedom Ring onto Vintage Cream cardstock for a subtle background. The box image was stamped on Kraft cardstock and colored with copic markers. Finally, Tilda was stamped onto a piece of white cardstock, colored with Copic markers and then cut out and layered onto the box. Some of the lilacs were also cut out and layered on for more dimension. For finishing touches I added some vintage looking trim, some lovely PTI buttons and ribbon and a cute sentiment from SU! Family Phrases set. The little gift I got my DH is backordered :( but today when I went to pick up my new iphone (jumping up and down happy) I bought DH an ipod Nano that he's been wanting. Shhhhh.... I know he'll be psyched on Father's Day.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I hope to get to play with my new Vintage Picnic set this weekend if I'm not too tired from working in the garden.

Supplies: Stamps: Magnolia, PTI Let Freedom Ring, Su! Family Phrases, Stampington (crate). Cardstock: PTI Ripe Avocado, Vintage Cream, Plum Pudding Bitty dots. Ink: Palette Noir, Ranger Old Paper, Tea Dye, SU! Chocolate Chip. Accessories: PTI ribbon, buttons and vintage twine, trim (stash) and Copic markers.

Dad's Day Part 2

It all started innocently enough when I asked my DH to give me an idea for a Father's Day card for his Stepfather. Then he said, either something do with Italy (he's Italian and my in-laws visit Italy often) or something to do with metal because he's a materials engineer. Say what????? Oh boy, now I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do!! After a couple of failed attempts to draw (not my strong suit) the Tuscan countryside and use watercolors (also not my best medium), I chucked that in the trash and ended up with this card, that I hope (vaguely) resembles a scene from the Amalfi Coast of Italy.

I have to thank Michelle Zindorf for her wonderful inspiration and tips on building scenes. I still need lots of practice with how to tear my paper to mask off areas and use my brayer but I'm getting better. One day I hope to attend one of her brayer workshops.

About the card. The arch, the vine and the stone path (hard to see) are from Art Impressions. They have amazing stamps for scene building and some really funny stamps called Golden Oldies and much more. The small flower is from the PTI set Honey Bees. The rock cliff on the right was really hard for me. I had a moment of panic when I realized that I have absolutely no grey inks. How on earth will I create a cliff without grey ink? The closest I could get was to use Pebble and Mushroom inks from Adirondack. Not my first choice but the arch was already done and I didn't hate it so I didn't want to throw away the project. When it was done I wanted to add a button, a ribbon or some kind of sentiment or embellishment. My DH said "leave it alone it's perfect". So, I mustered all of my willpower and put down my embellishments. I think he was right, anything else would have detracted from the scene. Inside I stamped one of the great sentiments from PTI's set "Mother". The sentiments in that set are very versatile and can be used for lots of people besides Mothers.

Tomorrow I will post the card that I made my DH from our daughter Isabella. Hope you stop by to see!

Supplies: Stamps: Art Impressions, Papertrey Ink; Cardstock: PTI Kraft, Classic White and Ocean Tides. Ink: Palette Noir, SU! (Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Night of Navy), Adirondack (Pebble, Mushroom, Aqua), PTI (Hibiscus Burst), Memories (Sand). Accessories: tan Marvy Marker and Aqua pen, White gel pen. I think that's it! :)

Preparing for Dad's Day

Thanks for stopping by. Over the next few days I will share cards I made for Father's Day this year. They all have a very different look about them. The card I'm sharing today is for my Dad. It's "all male", which suits my Dad perfectly. I started with Buckaroo Blue cs by SU! for my base and then added a background layer on Kraft cardstock. I created the background by first stamping the strip of stars from Let Freedom Ring in Antique Linen. Then I stamped the plaid using stamps from Let Freedom Ring and Faux Ribbon. I distressed all of the edges with ink to grunge it up a bit. For my focal panel I used PTI's new set Star Prints and the swirl from Let Freedom Ring. They work perfectly together. I love the way you can mix and match words in the Star Prints set. Instead of Dad there are other words you can use to complete this sentiment. To top it all off I used some lovely felt ribbon from SU! paired with a vintage button and twine from PTI. It's not an intricate card (I like to do lots of coloring) but I like it. My DH thought it was so/so until I told him I stamped the background. He thought it was plaid dp that I bought. Then he was impressed! :)

Now I just have to get this in the mail and think about what I might send along with it. My Dad is impossible to shop for. Do you have that same problem? I should buy him a tie just for laughs. He's retired but you know we bought him gobs of ties when we were kids. :)

Have a great one! Stop back by later this week to see the cards I made for my DH and my father-in-law.

Supplies: Stamps: PTI Let Freedom Ring, Star Prints, Faux Ribbon. Ink: Antique Linen, Faded Jeans, Walnut Stain and Brushed Corduroy (Ranger), Chocolate Chip (SU!), Fresh Snow (PTI). Cardstock: SU! Buckaroo Blue; PTI Vintage Cream and Kraft. Accessories: SU! felt ribbon, PTI vintage button and twine.

PTI May Blog Hop

Welcome to the PTI May blog hop. Thanks for stopping by to see my projects! The challenge this month was to use the color yellow. Here's what Nichole had to say about the challenge:

"Spring and summer tend to be the most colorful out of the four seasons. One color in particular that
evokes the warmer weather is yellow!!! Your challenge this month is to use this trendsetting color to the
best of it's potential! You can use it in small pieces as an accent or as the main color. Experiment &
play, discovering new color combos that perhaps you hadn't thought of before. No matter what, just
have fun and enjoy the feeling of happiness that this cheerful color evokes!"

Today I managed to steal a few minutes during my darling daughter's nap time to make 2 cards. I already had 2 yellow bases started so then I just had to figure out the rest.


One of the first things I did after getting my goodies from the last PTI release was to try making some plaid backgrounds using Let Freedom Ring and Faux Ribbon. I thought this red and yellow plaid reminded me of a vintage table cloth so I tried to create a card to evoke warm thoughts of home. I liked the bird houses from Bird Watching with this sentiment from Boards and Beams. I wanted to include a button and a little bird so I decided to combine the two by punching out my bird and adhering him onto one of the big chocolate buttons from PTI's vintage buttons collection.


My second card is ultra-simple and uses the beautiful set Friends Til the End set, which I stamped on Lemon Tart bitty dots paper. I love the combination of Lemon Tart, Berry Sorbet and Spring Moss. So summery. Like a big bowl of Sherbert, mmmmmm! I also got to use some of my buttons and ribbon stash and some of the wonderful new Vintage twine. It was very hard to photograph this card. It kept turning out looking kind of green and in real life it's such a pretty sunny yellow. I took it outside and that improved it some.

All supplies are posted below. If you want to know any details of the projects let me know. I'm trying to keep the post short since I know you all have a lot of blogs to visit tonight. Thanks for stopping by to see me, I get such a kick out of the visits!

Card #1: Stamps: Bird Watching, Boards & Beams, Faux Ribbon, Let Freedom Ring; Ink: Pure Poppy, Palette Noir, Walnut Stain, Faded Jeans. Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Pure Poppy, Kraft. Accessories: Vintage Buttons, Nestabilities, Copics, Pebbles chalks, punches.

Card #2: Stamps: Friends Til the End; Everyday Classics. Cardstock: White; Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet and Lemon Tart Bitty Dots paper. Ink: Lemon Tart; Berry Sorbet. Accessories: Spring Moss ribbon, Vintage buttons; vintage twine.