Papertrey Ink Rewind

Hi - My girls have been a little under the weather this weekend so I've gotten some crafty time in. Unfortunately the weather here in NJ is gorgeous and they've spent most of the time in bed. So glad that I got to play along with the pre-anniversary celebration at Papertrey AND continued building up my birthday card stash.

First card uses Tulip Time from 2016 which is a gorgeous but often forgotten set in my stash. Love the layered detail on the tulips which are my favorite flower. Must bust this set out more often!
I stamped the base of the flower in the new Lilac Grace ink (a new favorite!) and the detail in Royal Velvet. I added a strip of matching washi tape along the bottom and rounded the corners of the card panel.

Next up is a card using the Life is Beautiful butterfly set from 2014. Another set I adore but forget I have. I stamped a row of butterflies in Dark Indigo, Ocean Tides, and Aqua Mist interchanging the insides. Love how these three colors work together. Added a strip of Dark Indigo paper at the bottom as a grounding element. 

Brushed Blooms from 2015 is the focus of my next card. I sound like a broken record but I LOVE this set too! I stamped a pattern of flowers in Raspberry Fizz with Pure Poppy on top. Leaves stamped in Soft Stone with Smokey Shadow for the detail. I used a Simon Says Stamp die to cut the panel on a rounded diagonal. Sentiment from Perfect Pairing stamped on a banner. 

2011 brought this cute little guy from Winter Penguin. Kept to the birthday theme instead of the winter-themed sentiments in the set. I stamped a Swoosh from the Mini Blooms set and added the penguin. (Oops just realized I forgot to color in his nose and toes! Gonna do that after this post but can't take another picture since the natural light is quickly fading) Balloons are from Heart-2-Heart set #2 and sentiment from Keep It Simple. 

I didn't have any of the featured sets from 2010 so I used Tulip Time again for my card inspired by THIS fabulous card from Erin Lincoln. I love her monochromatic blue and white scheme and kept my card relatively simple. Stamped tulip in Fresh Snow and added Dark Indigo on top for the detail. Sentiment again from Keep It Simple:Birthday (though there are 3 of them so not sure which since I mixed all the sets together). I added a simple MFT Wonky Stitches border for some added interest. 

And last but not least is my throwback to 2007 with Out to Sea. My husband is a Coast Guard Reservist so made this card for him. I stamped the anchor in Fresh Snow and sentiments in Dark Indigo on Kraft panel which I die cut a stitched border around and then matted it with another stitched border panel in Dark Indigo and then adhered to a white card base also with a stitched border. Love the simplicity of this one. 

Ok, that's it for me for the PTI Anniversary throwback celebration! Can't wait to check out all the new creations. Definitely gave my stash a whirl and reminded me of all the great sets I have. Thanks for popping in! 

Birthday Bonanza

Happy Saturday! Been trying to build up my birthday card stash. The weather is gorgeous here in NJ today so gonna make this post quick so I can get outside. 

First card is inspired by this month's Heart Desires Challenge. The inspiration photos seem perfect for my new PTI Country Fair Quilt Block die which I paired with various Echo Park papers.  I adhered the two blocks at a diagonal and stamped the KIS:Birthday sentiment in the middle. I did put together another card with the remaining pieces I cut and I'll post that later.

Next card is inspired by my friend Tracey's card at the MUSE challenge this week. I was inspired by the multiple colors of Tracey's card so I stamped the Clearly Besotted Sunbursts on a white card panel like she did. I also nestled my black sentiment in the middle but added a black matting to the panel to make it stand out a little (like Tracey's sentiment panel does among her rainbow medicine bottles). 

Last card is for PTI's 2013 challenge to use the Ruby Rose set. Ruby Rose is one of my favorite floral sets and I used it along with its companion set Ruby Rose Reprise to create this card below. 

I stamped a perimeter of flowers from Ruby Rose and Ruby Rose Reprise around a white card base in a fabulous color combo featured in one of PTI's downloadable inspirational color combos - Blueberry Sky, Aqua Mist, and Lavender Moon with leaves in Green Parakeet. I stamped the sentiment from PTI Scripted in the middle, added a diagonal striped Aqua Mist matting around it before mounting on Blueberry Sky card base. Love how feminine it looks despite its unusual color combo. 

More to come! Hope you are having a good weekend! Thanks for stopping by! 

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Celebrating Papertrey 2008, 2009, & 2012

Hello friends -

Checking in today with a few cards I made over the last couple of days to celebrate Papertrey's 10 year anniversary. Each day this week, they highlighted each year they've been in business and challenged us to make a card by one of the sets they highlighted or a card inspired by one of the DT creations.

I don't own any of the featured stamps for 2012 but was inspired by Keeway's amazing card made with Sentiment Signs. I used Ombre Sentiments instead of Sentiment Signs and hear embossed the birthday sentiment on watercolor paper and carefully watercolored over each word. I also splattered over the rest of the paper, though it ended up a tad bit more than the original card. 

My second card celebrates a fabulous set from 2009 - Giga Guidelines. I love the medallions in this set. On my card, I stamped the medallion in Pinefeather on Aqua Mist cardstock. I nestled the sentiment from Banner Sentiments in between the medallions. I finished it off with some a few colored pearls for the centers. 

Last card for tonight highlights Bitty Baby Blessings from 2008. My twin daughters' PE teacher left this week on maternity leave. She's having twin boys so I made this card for her to go along with a couple of Dr. Seuss books. I die cut two onesies in masculine patterned paper. I embossed MFT Wonky Stitches around the perimeter of the white card base and added a few enamel dots. 

Have a couple more cards to share but gonna wait until tomorrow for some natural light to take the photos. Be back soon. Thanks for stopping by! 

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Fortune Teller Card

So I let my girls loose in my craft area to make a card for the Color Fortune Teller challenge.  I armed them with a binder of PTI sketches and set them free. 

I shared Sierra's card in THIS previous post and wanted to share Sydney's:

Her color fortune teller colors were Spring Rain, Aqua Mist, and Blueberry Sky. Tough colors to create with but since they were monochromatic she wanted to do an overlapping stamp design. She used small medallions from the old PTI set Guide Lines. She picked out the sentiment and die cut the banner herself. They had a blast and since they cleaned up EVERYTHING they used, I might just let them play around with my stuff again! 

Here's Sydney and I on New Years - 

Thanks for looking! 

PTI Anniversary Part 2

Cold weekend here in NJ! Popping in quick to share a couple of cards.

First card I made for the PTI Anniversary Sampler Square challenge. To make this easier, I used my favorite colors for my 9 different techniques. The whole idea was intimidating quite honestly but it was a lot of fun and reminded me of some of the techniques to use.

Closeups of the squares:

Bottom row (L to R): Stamping & Perfect Pearls, Heat embossing and ink blending, stamping white then color

Middle row (L to R): Texture kissing, heat embossing in color, dry embossing

Top row (L to R): Die cut, tone on tone stamping, water coloring over heat embossed image

While I was working on my squares, my daughters were making cards of their own using the Color Pop Fortune Teller. How fun was that! They absolutely couldn't resist playing along. And I was kinda scared to let them loose with all my craft supplies but they had a blast. Once they picked out their colors, they flipped through my binder of PTI card sketches to get them inspired and off they went searching through my stamp sets and dies.

This card was made by my daughter Sierra -

She selected Royal Velvet, Summer Sunrise, and Melon Berry with the Fortune Teller. She used Snowflake Flurries and the Swoosh die to make her card. Pretty cute right! So proud of her. 

Stay warm. Check out my post HERE featuring my daughter Sydney's card. 

Thanks for popping in. 

Three for Tuesday

Hi friends! Lots of fun stuff going on with Papertrey's anniversary bash this week. 

My first card is for the clothing inspiration challenge from Day 2. I'm currently searching for a gown for a formal event I'm attending in a couple of months. Pinterest and online stores are a rabbit hole that's hard to climb out of. I was inspired to make a card by this dress from a favorite designer of mine - Monique Lhuillier. Of course, none of her dresses are within my budget but they are wonderful to look at! 

I used Stitches and Swirls in Hawaiian shores on Harvest Gold card stock to mimic the design of the dress. A few enamel dots topped it off. 

Second card here is for the Day 3 Grab and Craft challenge. Challenge was to make a card using items grabbed in 5 minutes. Surprising 5 minutes is long enough to be more methodically about what I picked. I grabbed my favorite go-to inks - Simply Chartreuse, Raspberry Fizz, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Harvest Gold in black. I picked a stamp set from my NBUS bin - the SAF 2014 Joy set - as well as a a scrap piece of black paper and an Aqua Mist half sheet. 

Last card to share today is inspired by this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. 

I used birthday candles for the 3 strips along with a large sentiment collage from PTI In The Bag. I also scattered some stars along the bottom of the cluster to coordinate the stars in the sentiment. 

That's it for me today. Now off to work on crunching some numbers for taxes....ugh. Hope you are having a great week. Thanks for stopping by! 

Loving The Aquas

I recently just created a Pinterest board for all my card creations (check out my Pinterest link on the right) and realized that I often create with colors in the aqua family.....think Papertrey colors Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal, Hawaiian Shores. Reminds me of the ocean and the sky. So versatile - can be happy or toned down when paired with certain other colors. These colors make me happy.

So when the Papertrey anniversary bash kicked off with a color challenge, in's no surprise that the palette I was drawn to the most was Amy's gorgeous combination -

The aquas look fabulous with various shades of grey. Plus this color palette used the two new Papertrey colors that I have not yet had a chance to play with. So here's what I came up with - 

I just got Stitches & Swirls which is stamped in Smokey Sea, Tropical Teal and Aqua Mist. Panel put on a card base of Smokey Shadow. I stamped the sentiment in Smokey Shadow on a strip of Mint Julep matted on Smokey Sea. Sentiment strip was adhered with foam tape. 

I continued the design on the inside with a sentiment fro Healing Touch. 

Got another card to share using the aquas inspired by the Pinterest Inspired Challenge this month - 

I used the Winnie & Walter 'Do You See What I See' stamp again but this time heat embossed it in white on an angle. I inked the background with Tim Holtz Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade. 

I added a nest of white thread under the sentiment from Altenew Label Love. Panel added to a Hawaiian Shores card base. 

Now that I am more conscious that I use these colors so often, I'm going to TRY to use other color families....let's see how well that turns out! :)

Enjoy the weekend! Thanks for popping in! 

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day friends! Popping in to share a few cards with you before I head out tonight. DH and I are going out without the kids tonight - dinner and comedy show - for the first time alone in ages (except for work events). YAY! 

First card is for the Papertrey Anniversary Day 8: Blue Ombre Challenge. Love blues....

I heat embossed a background of medallions from Fancy That on white card stock. I applied Enchanted Evening with an ink blending tool, darker in the middle of each medallion and blending lighter outward. I think Laura Bassen created a gorgeous card with this technique but she used wonderful rainbow colors. I heat embossed the sentiment on vellum and wrapped it around the medallion patterned panel. I mounted it on white card stock for some contrast against the Enchanted Evening card panel. 

Next card is for the Day 7: Heavy Metal Challenge where we were challenged to use only metallic gold and silver with neutral colors. I masked off part of a black panel diagonally and heat embossed some images from Mehndi Medallion on the bottom portion. I stamped the sentiment from Thank You Kindly along the invisible diagonal line. The finished panel was adhered with foam tape on top of black card base. The black on black popped up looks really cool. 

 This next card is for the CASology cue card LOVE. I adhered a small envelope from my scrapbooking stash and stamped it with a sentiment from Clearly Besotted stamps. I die cut a bunch of small hearts in a rainbow of colors and added them floating out of the envelope.

This last card uses a new Hero Arts stencil I recently got. LOVE it! I blended Pure Poppy on one floral image in the corner and Sweet Blush in the bottom flower. Sentiment from Keep It Simple is heat embossed in black and whole panel is mounted on Pure Poppy card stock. Color inspiration is from Colour Me Striking challenge this week. 

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! Thanks so much for taking a peek!