Dynamic Duos #76

Here's a card inspired by the purple monochromatic colors at Dynamic Duos. I don't often create things in purple but I kinda like how this turned out.

I stamped a light crackled background in Soft Stone ink. The mums are done in PTI Winter Wisteria and Plum Pudding, sentiment is one of the Think Big Favorites. Finished it off with a few black pearls to compliment the black stems and leaves. I mounted the soft stone layer on some dark purple Memory Box cardstock.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Bokeh Stamping

When I saw THIS card on the Hero Arts blog, I knew I had to give it a try. I've long admired the look of bokeh (means 'blur') in photography. The monochromatic purple colors at Dynamic Duos this week would be perfect for this technique. I stamped the circles from PTI Bits & Buttons in both Plum Pudding and Winter Wisteria. I never wiped off the stamp, just keep stamping on the paper until the was no more ink each time. I was contemplating adding some scattered rhinestones but restrained myself because it might be too much. I think I might have already gone overboard with the number of circles but hopefully still looks ok.
Think I'll try this in other monochromatic colors to make a set of cards....

Thanks for stopping by! Have a good week!

Burst of Inspiration

You know sometimes when you make something and its just eh? Just ok, not great, not how you pictured it to be, just eh? Or even worse is when you make something and its so horrible that you can't even post it because its just THAT bad. Some days are like that for me so I walk away and take a break.

Then there are other days when you spend your idle time at a traffic light thinking about a challenge, sketch or color or both. And you get an Ah-Ha moment, a burst of inspiration that has you running to your craft space. Yesterday I had that burst and am excited to share it with you.

I was thinking about this week's ColourQ challenge and my lack of Halloween stamps to make it work. Then as I was browsing my newsfeed on facebook, I saw a pictures of my niece who is a senior at Clemson wearing her school colors - purple and orange. BAM, there was my ah-ha moment. I wanted to make a card for her to let her know that we are thinking about her. So that led me to think about hearts in my stash and I came across this heart in a circle image from a very old Pink Paislee stamp set (Sweet Cakes) that I honestly don't remember ever having inked up. Then it all came together so easily. And the best part is that I think she will love it and hearing from us via something other than text or email.

This second card is a card I made for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. I have to admit this week's sketch is HARD. I don't have any airplanes or other vehicles in my stash that could make the sketch work literally. So after some thinking and digging around I came up with this baby card for my brother and sister-in-law expecting their baby girl next year. Patterned paper is from Echo Park This & That collection and baby carriage is PTI Bitty Baby Blessings (I knew those dies would come in handy one day!). Even made a little trail using PTI's Sew Simple Borders. Can't wait to send it to them!

Wishing you a happy burst of inspiration! Thanks for taking the time to check out my cards!

PTI October 2013 Blog Hop

Happy October Friends!

This month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop Challenge is a holiday tag challenge. What could be more timely? And efficient! We'll all need some tags in the next few months so this was a great jump start!

Since I plan on giving wine to friends and neighbors over the holidays, I decided to make a set of wine bottle gift tags. The extra challenge for me is that I have very few holiday stamps & dies so I really had to stretch my stash for these five different tags.

First up is my gingerbread tag which uses my new Tremendous Treats Christmas dies. I cut the tag using the PTI Wine Bottle Tag die (probably my most used PTI die after the double ended banners) from a sheet of old AMuse cardstock in my stash. I diecut the gingerbread men from another piece of old AMuse cardstock and embossed the men in white AC Zing powder. I love how the embossing looks like real icing. I finished it off with a heat embossed sentiment from the same Tremendous Treats Christmas set on a banner cut from Pinefeather. I kinda like how it hangs off the edge.

Second wine tag has a more modern feel thanks to the Snowflake Flurries stamps and the unconventional holiday colors (Blueberry Sky, Winter Wisteria, Plum Pudding, and Lavender Moon). I also decided to keep stamping even on the top part of the hanging tag. The tag is cut in Soft Stone and I heat embossed the sentiment in silver and finished it off with a few rhinestones.

This next tag is my most traditional tag in terms of colors. I used Kraft cardstock for the tag itself and stamped PTI Snowflake Medley in Hero Arts Snow ink. I finished it off with red rhinestones to match the Pure Poppy sentiment.

Next up is my City tag which uses the new City Scene Sentiments I just got. I didn't get the City Scene stamps but I had this old AMuse wooden stamp in my stash that worked just as well for me. I just LOVE the Santa flying over the City. I filled in the windows with a Copic marker and stamped the sentiment in nice contrasting Pure Poppy. Finally, I used my Versamark pen and diamond dust glitter to create a snowfall over the city with more snow at the top and less toward the bottom. Unfortunately it was a little hard to photograph the sparkle but trust me, its pretty glittery! You should see the mess on my desk!

And last but not least my favorite tag features Winter Penguin which has never been inked until now. I think I need to use this little cute guy more often! I tried to use non-traditional holiday colors so I used Ocean Tides and Aqua Mist with the black and red. The scalloped oval was embossed with the linen impression plate and I added a few snowflakes in Hawaiian Shores and Soft Stone to keep the penguin company.

Whew! 5 different tags all in one sitting. It feels so good when I can get a lot of crafting in.
Thanks so much for stopping by on my little blog. I can't wait to see what you all created this month!

ColourQ #211

The fun colors at ColourQ this week are a very interesting combination. Its another color palette that lends itself to Halloween. Since I don't have any Halloween stamps, I put this old Hero Arts monster set to good use. I paired it up with the PTI chevron coverplate to act as the wall for the silly monsters to be popping out of.

I'm also linking this card to the Seize the Birthday anything goes challenge.

Thanks for taking a peek!

CASology #67

So this week's CASology cue is Country. There's such a wide interpretation for that word. For me, my first thought was my country, the place I live in. Good old USA. And then it got me to think about my dear husband who is currently serving our country on active duty with the Coast Guard and I just knew I had to make a card for him.

I made a mask of a heart and stamped the sentiment repeatedly within the heart. I wanted to personalize it further by adding the banner across the heart.

Figured I'd stamp the inside while I had my supplies out too.

I love the way the CASology challenge works...can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with. Thanks for stopping by.

Let's Try Orange and Black Again!

Another post tonight. This one is quick since its late. Here's attempt number 2 at an orange and black card for the Dynamic Duos challenge. My card is inspired by a pretty black and pink Lisa Johnson card I saw online a long time ago.

Thanks for taking a look. Nighty Nite!

Supplies:
Paper: PTI Vintage Cream and Canyon Clay
Stamps: PTI Sketched Shapes and MFT sentiment
Ink: PTI Canyon Clay and Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: PTI Double Ended Banner die and Keizercraft bling

Dynamic Duos #75

So it seems that with Halloween next week and pumpkins in season, the crafting blogsphere is filled with orange and black. I wanted to play along with Dynamic Duo's challenge this week which features a deep orange and black with an option of Halloween. This would be great and easy if I had any pumpkins or Halloween stamps in my stash. Truly I have none. I never make Halloween cards but I thought I would have SOMETHING. Guess I've never even bought a Halloween stamp on sale. Seriously, nothing! Makes challenges this month a bit harder than usual! Lol.

Here's a card I made with my new PTI Center Stage coverplate. I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it used during this month's countdown projects. I think I even convinced my friend Joyce to get it. But now that its my hands, I realize its a lot harder to use than I thought (Don't kill me Joyce!) Its not hard to cut with - it actually cuts like butter. Just hard to find an interesting card designs that works with it.

I lifted the sentiment frame off the card front which gives it some dimension. I like how the shimmery die cut word hangs off too. And I cut up my first stamp for this one (GASP! I know!) - the sentiment was just too long and I wanted to fit it onto the frame but in two lines. I'm kinda liking how it turned out. Maybe this cover plate won't be so bad afterall....

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies all PTI except where noted:
Paper: Canyon Clay and Black, Shimmer Black
Stamps: Wonderful Words Birthday
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Center Stage coverplate, Birthday Trio die, Fillable Frames die

ColourQ #211

The ColourQ challenge this week has some bright colors that seem very Halloween to me so I challenged myself to make a different type of card because I don't send Halloween cards. 

I stamped some mums from PTI's Mums The Word in the bright pink and orange. I grounded the flowers with two banners and stamped the birthday sentiment on one of them. I finished it off with a few My Mind's Eye enamel dots.

I'm liking this happy little card. Hope you do too. Thanks for stopping by!

CAS(E) This Sketch # 50

Its happy #50 for the CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.

I built a wreath for my focal point using a stamp from PTI's Turning a New Leaf. I added in some die cut and stamped flowers from PTI Ruby Rose and topped it all of with a tilted banner from Simon Says Stamp. I mounted it on a black card base for some contrast against the bright colors.

Color inspiration is from the ColourQ challenge #211.

Thanks for taking a peek! Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

Thanks Stacy and Becky!

My oldest daughter turned 10 last week and honestly, it hit me like a truck, much harder for me than turning 40 last year did. How could my little chubby baby be 10 yrs old? How could I have a kid who's been around for a decade? How could I be that old? My little baby is gone and is replaced by a very tall, curious, amazing kid.

In celebration of her birthday, I made her favorite red velvet pancakes in the shape of the number 10 (our family tradition) and handmade 55 chocolate covered strawberries for her birthday celebration at school. I had planned a fabulous party for her and her friends at our local roller rink that weekend. But somehow all this fanfare still did not seem enough to celebrate this milestone in my little girl's life. I still needed her to know how much she means to me, show her how proud I am of her in a way that no card could convey.

Then it hit me. I'd make her a scrapbook. So that afternoon before she came home from school on her birthday, I made her an album which highlighted pictures of she and I from her birth until now. Pictures of us on vacation, playing together, everyday sort of pictures. It literally took me less than an hour to put together thanks to Stacy Julian and Becky Higgins. Seriously, less than an hour. Thanks to my category drawers (Stacy's Library of Memories) I was able to pull together pictures of us from the last 10 years. And thanks to Becky Higgins' Project Life mini albums and kits I had on hand, I created this beautiful album for her. Simple, clean design. Just slipped the cards and photos in.



On the first few pages, I wrote her a letter about how I felt when she came into our lives, how's she's changed me, how much she's grown, and how special she is. Since this was so intensely personal, I replaced those cards with blank ones for these photos. Just wanted you to get the idea of what it looks like from these pictures.



The other 'journaling' part of the album included "Things I Want You To Know" which is a collection of quotes and advice I want to share with her. The kind of stuff I want her to know about life and people as she gets older but hard to talk about in just everyday conversation.





And the best part of this album is that it still has plenty of room for additional journaling and photos that I will add each year on her birthday.



I loved how it turned out!

So I gave it to her that afternoon before her sisters got home from school. I wasn't sure what she'd think of it. I asked her to open it up in her room. She was up there for such a long time, I thought she got involved with something else. But when she came down she had tears in her eyes and she just hugged me and said it was the best present she's ever gotten. I did it. I let her know what I was feeling and thinking in my own special way.

So THANKS Stacy for giving me the tools so many years ago that enabled me to get my hands on exactly what I wanted when I needed it once my inspiration hit. THANKS to Becky for your fabulous kits and albums that made my idea look so fabulous.

I hadn't scrapbooked in months and I think this is just the jump start I needed to get going again.

Thanks for sharing my excitement with me!

Getting Back in the Groove

I made a couple of cards today trying to get back in the groove after almost a week of various little celebrations in honor of my eldest daughter's 10th birthday. I'm hoping to do a post this weekend on the album I made for her birthday.

This card is for this week's Dynamic Duos challenge. I doctored up a white embossed card with the modern dots from PTI's Sketched Shapes set. Love the square card - I definitely like the look but don't make them often. Love these two colors together, especially the teal color.

This next card for the ColourQ challenge also uses the Sketched Shapes set. Definitely one of my favorites!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Rainbow Card

The bright and fun colors at ColourQ were perfect for my new Dream in Color set from Reverse Confetti. And I couldn't help adding a touch of sparkle to the card as a border. I've never used lines of scor-tape for glitter before but I've seen it done all over the internet. Amazing! The glitter sticks to it so well with very little flaking.

Sketch was inspired by this week's great challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch.

BIG thanks to all of you who have stopped by my blog in the past couple of weeks. My life has been very stressful recently and your comments have lifted my heart and brightened my days. Thanks so much.

Hope you all had a good week. Thanks again for taking a peek!

Supplies:
Paper: PTI Pure Poppy and Orange Zest, Neenah White
Stamps: PTI Up, Up, & Away, Reverse Confetti Dream in Color
Ink: Brilliance Sunflower, PTI Pure Poppy & Orange Zest, Versamagic Sea Breeze
Other: Making Memories Yellow glitter

Freshly Made Sketches #106

Its been a while since I played with the sketches at Freshly Made Sketches. Time is just not on my side lately - too many things going on. But this week's challenge brought to mind an item in my stash that I have been wanting to use again - Maya Road Doilies. So I made a simple thank you card with this sketch.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Paper: PTI Enchanted Evening & Simply Chartreuse, Neenah White
Stamps: Think Big Favorties #4
Ink: PTI Enchanted Evening
Other: Maya Road Doily, My Mind's Eye Cut & Paste Enamel Dots