Home for Christmas

Just a really quick post before I go off to work. This is my entry for the Papertrey Guest Star Stamper contest for December using the Timeless Template Home Made.

I had recently finished making gingerbread houses and I still had them in mind when I made this house. The roof and sidewalk are made using Cosmo Cricket ' By Golly' paper. The walk is lined with pure poppy buttons. The roof and ground are glittered with an assortment of Martha Stewart glitters to make it really sparkle. I wanted trees but I didn't have any that were the right scale and then I decided I could make my own using the tree image from Holiday Tree. I stamped several and glued them together so they would stand up on the base and then I decorated them with Class-A-Peels stickers.

I hope you like it! I will come back later and post the full list of supplies.

Kim

Gingerbread Dreams

One of my very favorite images from Holiday Button Bits is the little Gingerbread boy. I finally got my hands on some Cosmo Cricket By Golly paper and I thought that the peppermint paper would be the perfect addition to my Gingerbread and I love it!

The card layout is very simple. To vary it a little bit I punched 3/4 inch squares from the pepperminut paper and some ornament paper from SU! and placed those along the bottom edge of my card. In between the border the the image I tied a big fat bow with Pure Poppy ribbon topped off with a lovely vintage cream button. Not exactly flat for mailing like my other cards this year but I could not resist buttons on this card!

Less than 2 weeks until Christmas can you believe it! I have a few things to finish up in the gift giving department and oh yeah, one little small thing like decorating the house! I was sick Thanksgiving weekend and that put us seriously behind. My daughter likes to tell everyone that we don't have our tree up so we are fixing that today! And I only have a few Christmas cards done. I'm going to have to put in some late nights to get some more done asap and tomorrow is candy making day. I love making candy and giving away treats for the holidays. Recently I have enjoyed this more than making Christmas cookies but we may have to make a small batch for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Here is another of my favorite treats for the holidays. I am making some this weekend!

White Chocolate Party Mix

1 lb. white chocolate (I use Ghirardelli)

3 c. crispy rice cereal squares

3 c. crispy corn cereal squares

3 c. toasted oat cereal

2 c. think pretzel sticks

2 c. peanuts

1 (12oz) bag m&m's

Combine all ingredients except chocolate in a large bowl. Melt the white chocolate by your preferred method. Pour over cereal mix and stir to coat evenly. Spread the mix on wax paper to cool. Break in small pieces. Store in an airtight container. Refrigerate to keep fresh.

I am not a fan of white chocolate but I cannot get enough of this stuff. It has the perfect combination of sweet and salty!

Card supplies by Papertrey Ink unless noted: Stamps: Holiday Button Bits; Vintage Labels. Ink: Dark Chocolate, Close to Cocoa (SU!), Tea Dye Duo, Pure Poppy. Cardstock: Ripe Avocado, vintage cream, dp by SU! and Cosmo Cricket. Accessories: Pure Poppy double-stitched ribon, vintage buttons, rustick twine, copic markers, Labels One dies by Spellbinder.

Roll Out the Holly

The weeks are zipping by and as usual I am way behind on all of my crafting goals for the holidays. Here is another Christmas card using Holiday Button Bits.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm trying to keep the cards relatively simple and flat this year to avoid having to use extra postage. Instead of buttons on this card I stamped the largest single polka dot stamp from Polka Dot Basics in Pure Poppy ink to make the holly berries and then I covered them with red stickles for some sparkle. The holly leaves were stamped an extra time, cut out and then popped up on dimensionals.

Since some expressed an interest in candy recipes, here is one for homemade Clark Bars. This is one of my favorites, passed down to me from my Mom, who always makes yummy candy at the holidays. Love you Mom! Yummmm!

Judy's Homemade Clark Bars

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup white Karo syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups peanut butter
• milk chocolate candy melts. A couple of bags will do you.

Directions:

Combine sugar, Karo syrup and water in a pan and place on stovetop. Heat to 290 degrees. While this is heating up spread your 2 cups of peanut butter into a black iron skillet. When the sugar mix reaches 290 degrees pour it over the peanut butter in your iron skillet and stir quickly. (I emphasize "quickly"). Spread it immediately onto a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan and score it with a pizza cutter. Let it harden for approximately 1 hour and then dip in melted chocolate. Place on wax paper to let the chocolate set and then store in an airtight container in a cool location. These keep very well. You can make them a couple of weeks before the holidays.

Tips: You do want to use an iron skillet. This stuff sets up very quickly so you have to stir FAST and then spread it FAST onto your cookie sheet. An extra set of hands will be invaluable. My husband helps me stir and he holds the skillet while I spread it onto the cookie sheet. If you score it with your pizza cutter it will break apart easily for dipping.

I hope you enjoyed the card and if you try the recipe I'd love to know how they turn out!

Thanks for stopping by,

Kim

Supplies (By PTI unless noted): Stamps: Holiday Button Bits, Polka Dot Basics, Signature Christmas, Vintage Labels. Ink: Dark Chocolate, New Leaf, Pure Poppy, Vintage Tea Dye Duo. Cardstock: Vintage Cream, New Leaf, Dark Chocolate, decorate paper by SU! Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 1 dies, glitter glue (Ranger), Border Punch (Martha Stewart), Cotton Trim (Joanns), Rustic Twine.

Time to Deck the Halls!

I have another Christmas card to share tonight. In contrast to my last post, this card has a much more rustic feel.

I kept the embellishments light so it would not be too lumpy and require extra postage. Instead of using buttons with the ornament toppers I used the lovely ornament (or bell) from Communique Curves and it fits beautifully! Instead of a big bow I just cinched up the ribbon with a little rustic twine. I will definitely be using that trick again. And I LOVE Dawn McVey's Signature Christmas sentiments!

I am very excited for Christmas this year. Having a 2 and 1/2 year old has definitely restored some of the wonder of Christmas. I need to start cranking out the Christmas cards and I'm starting my candy making this weekend. Maybe I will share some of my favorite candy recipes. If that interests you let me know.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kim

Stamps: Holiday Button Bits, Communique Curves, Signature Christmas. Ink: Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Plum Pudding, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Tea Dye Duo. Cardstock: Rustic White, Ripe Avocado, Wassail dp (Basic Grey). Accessories: Ripe Avocado double-stitch ribbon, rustic twine. All supplies are by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.

Deck the Halls!

It's time to get a move on designing my Christmas cards. I finally started playing around with my Papertrey Christmas stamps and had a wonderful time! Here is a 3 card series using the same colors and design elements but changed up just a little bit.

I think this last card is my favorite but I'd love to know what you think! Each card uses a color scheme of Kraft, Sweet Blush and Aqua Mist and Linen vellum cardstock. Thetrees and snowflake images were stamped in Fresh Snow and then embossed with filigree white powder. Two of the cards include sewing on the vellum. Additional details for each card are included below. I am trying (key word is "trying") to make my cards not too lumpy this year so they can be mailed with a single stamp. The half pearls add a little bump but not as much as a big bow. It's hard for this girl not to have any bling on her cards so I added glitter. At the holidays I always bust out the glitter because it makes me so happy!

I am usually very traditional when it comes to my Christmas cards but for some reason I was drawn to create these using Aqua Mist and Sweet Blush. I really like the look but don't fret, there are plenty of cards with traditional colors and images coming to my blog soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kim

Supply lists (All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless noted):

Card #1: For this card I stamped the trees in Fresh Snow and then traced over each one with a glue pen and dusted it with crystal glitter. Stamps: Holiday Tree. Cardstock: Kraft, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Linen vellum. Ink: Fresh Snow. Accessories: Art Institute crystal glitter, Filigree White embossing powder, sewing machine (Brother).

Card #2: Stamps: Holiday Tree, Holiday Treats, Polka Dot Basics. Ink: Fresh Snow, Palette Noir. Cardstock: Kraft, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Linen vellum. Accessories: Art Institute crystal glitter, Filigree White embossing powder, circle punch (EK success), half pearls (stash).

Card #3: Stamps: Holiday Tree, Holiday Button Bits, Polka Dot Basics. Ink: Palette Noir, Fresh Snow. Cardstock: Kraft, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist. Accessories: Scor-Tape, Filigree white embossing powder, half pearls (stash), Art Institute Crystal glitter and narrow oval punch (SU!); Sewing machine (Brother)

Ho Ho Holiday

Hello and thanks for stopping by my little blog this evening. I bet you're here for the Papertrey Ink blog hop. I couldn't resist this month's challenge. Here is the description:

"The holidays are going to be here before you know it! No matter how much planning you do, there always seems to be last minute gifts and wrapping to do! This month's Blog Hop Challenge is to create a quick & inexpensive wrap or tag that can be the perfect solution for "grab & go" gifts! We can't wait to see what you create!!!"

I had several ideas but decided to go with my first one, which was to make a stamped muslin bag to hold some little gifts for Christmas. I won't show you what's inside just in case any of my friends and family are reading this! ;)

I estimated the size of bag that I would need and cut out two pieces of muslin and sewed them together. I turned the bag right side out and used two ribbon stamps from Faux Ribbon to make a Candy Cane stripe for the bag. I think I first saw this candy cane stripe done by Niki Estes but Mish Wooderson has also done it I think. I find both of their blogs so inspiring! I didn't come up with the idea of the stripe but I haven't seen any little bags like these. After I had the bag stamped I popped my gifts inside and tied it up with a nice bit of Pure Poppy satin ribbon. I made a little tag using the Santa from Holiday Button Bits with some snowflakes from Holiday Tree. I have lots of ideas for more bags. I might tweak the size a little bit so I have more fabric at the top and I"d love to try a drawstring bag but this was supposed to be quick and simple so I didn't do a lot of fiddling. I hope you enjoyed my post. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Kim

Time Gets Away From Me

There is only so much I can do. I need to learn to embrace this concept. LOL! I have way more plans than I realistically have time to complete in between work and family. But I did manage to squeeze in a few projects. As promised, here are a couple more photos of what I've been up to. Regrettably I did not take more individual photos of the notebooks and they are all gone. But I have more supplies and I'm getting ready to make another batch and I'll try to do better with photos.

I made two styles of notebooks. The tall skinny ones are very popular lately especially among the Papertrey Ink crowd thanks to the new set Take Note. Add a little embellishment and a pen and it's a wonderful gift. The second style was a little more labor intensive but I really liked the results. I covered pieces of chipboard with decorative paper and then spiral bound them with my Bind-it-All. One of my favorite things about this style is that I created a little cardstock pocket on the back flap by stitching a piece of cardstock to my decorative paper before I glued it to the chipboard. The back of the notepad slides down inside it. This way the notepad can be replaced and you can use the cover over and over.

And here is the ever popular "Snowman Poop" gag gift for anyone you know who's been a little naughty this year. :)

Thanks for stopping by! I am starting on Christmas cards and gifts this weekend and will be sharing more soon.

Supplies Photo #1: All products by Paper Trey Ink with exception of the pens, binding coils and some decorative paper. Stamps: Take Note and Teacher's Apple are shown in the photos.

Photo #2: Stamps: SU! Thanks Snow Much. Cardstock: White and Brocade Blue. Accessories: punches and copic markers.

Happy Saturday!

Whew, I am tired! I have been making tons of stuff so keep checking back and I will share more pictures as I get them loaded. I have been making lots of altered notebooks using Papertrey's brand new set called Take Note. I had these jr. legal pads started so once I got the stamps it was really easy to finish them off.

I haven't tried Nichole's template yet but I want to make some with the little pocket on the inside of the folder. I have some other style of notebooks to share using my bind-it-all. I will load some pics of those soon. Right now I have more ideas and plans than I have time to do it in. Last night I was up until 4:00 a.m. and I had to make myself go to bed because I had to be up by 8:00 a.m. LOL!!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

Supplies: Stamps: Papertrey Ink Take Note, Guidelines II and Polka Dot Basics. Cardstock: Papertrey Kraft, Vintage Cream, Scarlet Jewel, Spring Moss, Plum Pudding, Orange Zest. Ink: Dark Chocolate, Plum Pudding, Chai, Versa Mark. Accessories: PTI ribbons, buttons, rustic twine.

Happy Halloween!

We had Trick or Treat in our neighborhood tonight. Usually I keep the blog limited to my crafty things but I couldn't resist showing off a picture of my little Tinkerbell (Isabella). :) She had a great time at Trick or Treating this year, even though she was still too shy to say "Trick or Treat" at most of the houses. And here are a couple of photos of our decorations.

Last but not least, some photos of little treat boxes I made for the ladies at work using Lauren Meader's Tucked Away template. It's a cute little box and so easy to put together, thanks to Lauren's genius talents! :)

Supplies: Stamps: Paper Trey Ink Spooky Sweets , Polka Dot Basics II, Retro Backgrounds. Ink: Palette Noir, Orange Zest. Cardstock: Black, Orange Zest, White. Accessories: Black grosgrain ribbon, decorative paper by DCWV, circle punch.

Have a safe and spooky Halloween!

Holiday Hoopla with Papertrey

Welcome to my blog tonight. I am a little late getting this posted. We went to Boo at the Zoo today and got home a little later than planned, which threw everything off schedule and I totally forgot about posting to my blog for the Papertrey blog hop.

So, forgive me how short my post is but you're here to look at the goodies anyway! For the holidays I have been making some bookmarks using Jumbo paperclips and lots of Papertrey images. Here is one of my favorites using the new gingerbread man from Holiday Button Bits.

And here is a photo of my bookmarks all packaged up and ready to go.

The stamps are assorted PTI stamps. The little kraft bookmark holders were stamped with Polka Dot Basics II in Fresh Snow ink and so was the little bag topper but the For You sentiment is from Waltzing Mouse stamps, and was stamped inside a border from Borders and Corners Rectangles. I hope you enjoy these little treats! Stop by again soon.

Kim

And a Cherry on top!

Usually I post only stamping things here but I am learning to sew and wanted to show off my project. Pity my poor sewing teacher. I am taking classes once a month from Trish (check out her Two Peas blog and Etsy store) and I am probably the least knowledgeable of anyone in the class. Trish is extremely talented and soooo patient! This month we made a cute little swing skirt and an applique t-shirt. I was not able to finish my skirt and applique in class but I got it done over the weekend and I'm so happy with it! The pattern is the Girly Skirt by Pink Fig. I added a Pure Poppy button from PaperTrey Ink and some SU! ric-rac to my cupcake for fun. Sorry, I can't remember who made the fabrics but if you want to know I can check and see if I have a piece left with the manufacturer's name on it.

I made a 3t size (I know it looks huge in the photo) and it is a bit long for my little girl so she may even be able to wear it next Spring. I bought some yummy new fabric that is a bit more Fall-looking and I plan to make another skirt soon before I forget all the tips of putting it together.

Have a good one and thanks for stopping by!

Spooky Greetings!

Well, it's an exciting night in our house. Papertrey release night! I am stalking the website to participate in all of the fun. I hope I win the big package tonight so I can get all of the wonderful goodies. In case I don't win I have my list ready to place an order but I had to make some hard decisions and some things will just have to wait for another month. While I'm waiting I thought I'd share a couple more Halloween cards with you. These also use the new Papertrey Halloween Tags set that was released last month.

Although it looks black in the photo I actually used Smoky Shadow ink for the card base and the graveyard border punch. I stamped the decorative circle from Spooky Sweets II onto Spring Moss cardstock and then cut it out with my Nestabilities and distressed it a little. Then I stamped the Boo tag onto the plaid paper from the Autumn Abundance collection and layered it over a ribbon on top.

This card came together very quickly. I find that having a small child in the house and very limited time to create, I want to get as much accomplished in my time as possible so I am going for simpler cards when I have to mass produce for holidays but I still want them to have some pizazz. For low fuss but a nice impact I have been trying to use up more of my decorative papers. Plus I can clean out some of the giant stacks I've accumulated and make way for more Papertrey stuff! I simply layered some cute K& Co web paper onto my orange zest cardstock and then topped it off with one of the holiday tags and embellished with some ribbon, buttons and rhinestones. Easy peasy! I hope you enjoyed my projects. :)

Supplies Card #1: Stamps: Halloween Tags 2009, Spooky Sweets 2. Paper: Smoky Shadow, Spring Moss, Autumn Abundance. Ink: Palette Noir and Smoky Shadow. Accessories: photo corner punch, Martha Stewart border punch, circle punches, Nestabilities, Orange Zest ribbon and button, vintage twine, white gel pen.

Supplies Card #2: Stamps: Halloween Tags 2009. Paper: Orange Zest, Smoky Shadow and K&CO dp. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: corner punch, rhinestones, Plum Pudding buttons, black ribbon, black twine.

Ghouls and Goblins Time!

I just love Halloween! To me this holiday is pure FUN! Lots of fun decorations, candy to eat, cute costumes, and no juggling which family to visit when, etc. :) Every year we get a few more decorations. My DH loves to do up the outside of the house. That's his "thing". He could really care less about the inside decorations. Honestly, with a 2 and 1/2 year old in the house we don't do a lot of "decorating" right now, unless you count the assortment of toys all over the carpet. LOL! This weekend we started putting out the Halloween decorations and I even came up with a few displays indoors in places where little hands can't reach.

Tonight I'm sharing with you a card made with the new Papertrey Ink Halloween Tags set. It has so many wonderful images in it and I am just beginning to explore all of the possibilities.

This card is my favorite of the ones I've made I think.

I started with an orange card base and layered on some cute K&Co paper that I"ve been hoarding since last year. I keep meaning to do more of this layering with all of the paper I've accumulated but it is so much fun to create my own backgrounds with PTI stamps that I usually forget. :) Any way, after I put on the dp I layered several scalloped circles cut out with my Nestabilities and then the Black cat image was stamped in Black on Spring Moss. For a little "bling" I used my quickie glue pen on the cat and then doused him with some Doodlebug black glitter. It's so sparkly! I added some lovely Black dotted ribbon and Plum Pudding button from Papertrey. I felt that the bottom of the card needed something so I used this fun new border punch from Martha Stewart. It's a little graveyard. How spooky! Then I framed a sentiment from the Halloween Tags set and colored my hodgepodge hardware Black by using a Copic marker. Those markers a da bomb! Held the hardware in place with some rhinestone brads and I'm done!

Supplies: All supplies by PTI unless otherwise noted.

Stamps: Halloween Tags 2009. Ink: Palette Noir. Cardstock: Orange Zest, Smoky Shadow, Spring Moss, Plum Pudding bitty box paper and pumpkin paper by K&Co. Accessories: Martha Stewart graveyard border punch, hardware (SU!), rhinestone brads (stash) and Vintage button in Plum Pudding and polka dot ribbon.

Happily Ever After....

Recently my husband and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. I am a very lucky woman to have found such a fabulous man I am proud to call my husband and my best friend, not to mention THE best Dad to our little girl! We have been a part of each other's lives for 20 years now and I can't imagine my life without him! I actually made him 2 cards for our special day. I momentarily considered making him 1 card for every year we've been married but I got started way too late to come up with 9 cards. This is one of the cards and I used many beautiful Papertrey Ink stamp sets ( Heart Prints, Wedding Day, Vintage Labels and Retro Backgrounds) to get the look I wanted. The heart was stamped and punched out 3 big hearts and 1 little heart and then adhered only in the center and then fanned out to make it dimensional. (I should have taken a photo from the side so you could see the layers better. Sorry!)

Our anniversary was on a weekday this year and unfortunately I had to travel out of town that day for work. I flew to Detroit but as luck would have it, while I was en route the event I was traveling for was cancelled. I found out when I was in my taxi on the way to the hotel. I was NOT too happy about that, let me tell you! But there is a silver lining in every cloud and I was able to get a quick return flight back home. I arrived home around 9:00, just about the time I usually call and check in if I'm on the road, but this time I was calling from the front porch! ;) I was talking to my hubby like I was still on the road but then I rang the doorbell and boy did he get a surprise! I'm so glad we got to spend our anniversary together after all. :)

I hope you enjoy my card today. Supplies are listed below. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. Stop back by soon. I have another anniversary card and several Halloween cards to share in the coming days.

Go and hug your special someone!

Supplies - All by Papertrey Ink unless noted: Stamps - Wedding Day, Retro Backgrounds, Vintage Labels, Heart Prints; Cardstock - Kraft, Aqua Mist, Sweet Blush, White; Ink - Vintage Cream, Pure Poppy. Accessories - Pure Poppy ribbon, vintage twine and button, border punch by Fiskars, Nestabilities Labels 1.

What should I do first?

Do you ever feel like you never have enough time for your hobbies? :) Boy I sure do and then when I get a little free time, I can't decide what to work on first. I have been learning to sew and I've been spending some time with my machine and making fun sewing things like a little wallet, a cover for a little pack of tissues, a table runner with pumpkins appliqued to it, and other assorted happy little things! Stamping cards has taken a backseat lately while I explore my sewing machine and prepare things for the season's craft shows.

I did sew and stamp some sweet little lavender sachets using an assortment of Papertrey stamps. Here are a couple of photos but you can find several more in my Splitcoast gallery

Well, I have to run - already late to pick up my DH! I will come back and describe the process of creating these and add a supply list later. The inspiration for these sweet little numbers came from Heather Nichol's blog. You can see the tutorial on Nichole Heady's blog under the Introducing Rustic Branches post here.

Edited to add supplies:
Assorted Papertrey sets and inks, Perfect Match ribbons and buttons and coffee stained muslin cut using Nestabilities.

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! :)