PTI February 2015 Blog Hop

Its the 25th so its Papertrey Blog Hop day! This month there's a gorgeous work of art as inspiration - 

For my card I heat embossed a similar pretty background (Penny Black All Over Pattern Background Cling) in white on white card stock. I added three of my current favorite Papertrey colors in with an ink blending tool - Tropical Teal, Limeade Ice, and Aqua Mist.  I think I'm getting a little better at ink blending but still need lots of practice! I stamped the birthday (KIS:Birthday) sentiment on a strip of Limeade Ice and adhered it to the bottom of a Tropical Teal card base. 

I cut my blended embossed panel into two and added it to the card using foam tape so it floated slightly over the sentiment strip. 

 Hope you will join in on the Hop and check out the other creations. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone made. Thanks for stopping by!

Blocks of Color

Sharing a couple of colorful 'pick-me-up' cards I made in order to pull myself out of these winter blues. Feels like this winter has been WAY too long and I'm sick of shoveling and 1 degree temperatures. Not kidding, it was 1 degree yesterday. 

First card is a bright orange card - like how I wish the sun would make me feel just about now. lol. I used monochromatic colors for the CASology challenge this week. 

 

I was inspired by an older PTI release sketch. I masked off triangles and used an ink blending tool with Terracotta Tile, Orange Zest, and Summer Sunrise. Sentiment is from Thank You Kindly and of course added a couple of orange enamel dots. Love how clean and simple this card design is by keeping all the bright color at the bottom. 

This second card is bright and cheery. Love this color combination from ColourMe....! this week. I stamped some blocks from PTI Building blocks in the challenge colors and added the diecut sentiment from Simon Says Stamp in the bottom corner. I think the blocks being clustered in the center with white space on both sides keeps the card CAS. 

And on the storefront, I made this fabulous Italian Chicken Soup from Pioneer Woman. One good thing about winter...SOUP! This one was a hit with the family, warm and comforting.

Hope all is warm and wonderful for you this weekend. Thanks for stopping by! 

Two Cards, Three Challenges

Hello friends -

Hope you are having a great week. Sharing two quick cards today.

First card uses Fancy That which I haven't been able to put away since PTI Anniversary challenges last week. Love this set. I heat embossed the medallion in white on white yardstick and then masked a triangle around the medallion image. I blended Tropical Teal onto the medallion concentrating the ink in the center and working my way lighter on the outside. Sentiment from Keep It Simple series.

One layer card with blending for the One Layer Simplicity challenge:You Blend this month and I stuck to only one bold color for this week's CASology cue card MONOCHROME.

Second card is for this week's Make It Monday challenge to use a cover plate as a stencil to use with embossing paste. I wanted to use a portion of the Mighty Oak cover plate. I colored white embossing paste with Simply Chartreuse reinker. I opted not to use the leaves as part of a tree as a thought a nice circle sentiment would fit nicely with the leaves. I punched a circle out of Summer Sunrise card stock and heat embossed a circular sentiment from Thank You Kindly in clear for a nice shine and tone-on-tone look. I mounted the panel on kraft card base after cutting it all down to a 4x4 square card. 

I didn't have enough embossing paste colored so I was trying to stretch what I had which made for a less than smooth finish on the leaves. But once it dried I actually liked the texture it left behind. Makes for a really cool and unique background. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Sunday Recap

Sharing a couple of projects I created today while catching up on some shows. It was 14 degrees outside today and WAY too cold to go anywhere. First up is a wine bottle tag inspired by the Tag You're It! inspiration from Donna Mikasa. 

I cut a wine bottle tag out of black card stock and layered a smaller white tag on top. On the white tag I stamped these colorful medallions (from Round Repeats) and layered a die cut sentiment (Wonderful Words Thank You cut in two) on top.

For the next project, I created a one layer card. Card design inspired by CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. I used my new Clear Scraps Spiral stencil on the bottom corner and blended Summer Sunrise ink starting dark in the corner and working my way out. I'm getting the hang of blending inks now and love the effect.  I added a hot air balloon from Up, Up, and Away and colored it with Copics. 

Entering this into this month's One-Layer Simplicity challenge. 

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend! Thanks for stopping by! 

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!

Papertrey Anniversary Part 2

I'm sharing a few projects today for the PTI Anniversary festivities. First up is the Day 3 Bagged and Tagged Challenge.   For my tag, I die cut part of one of the tag dies (can't tell which is which anymore since I just have them all in one basket) and used a couple of the sketched shapes circles to match the gift bag. The tag is for one of my daughter's friends next week and I wanted to glitter it up with a number 9 glittered American Crafts Thicker.  The Happy and the 'TH' are from Big Birthday Wishes. 

This next project is a card for the Day 4: Build a Bouquet Challenge. I used flowers & leaves from a variety of sets - Ruby Rose, Ruby Rose Reprise, Mini Blooms, Oopsie Daisy, and Friendly Flowers. Wow, who knew I had that many floral sets. Sentiment is from Keep It Simple - Thank You. I added a bit of Smokey Shadow striped paper on one side and finished with a couple of enamel dots. 

And finally this last project is for the Day 5: Spring Into Action Challenge where we are challenged to use a stamp set that we haven't used before. I chose to use Wet Paint II which I think is primarily for scrapbooking and since I haven't scrapbooked in ages this set has just been collecting dust. From this set I used "This Moment Documented" to introduce my journaling block for this great photo I have of my daughter. The page design is inspired by one of the May 2014 monthly sketches with my Simple Scrapper membership. Been a long time since I've made a page and I'm loving this one. 

Have a good week. Thanks for stopping by! 

Papertrey Anniversary Part 1

February is one of my favorite times in the crafting world because its Papertrey Ink's anniversary month which means they are unveiling their plans for the coming year, unveiling new goodies, and have lots of contests going on.  You can check out all the fun HERE.

My first two cards were inspired by Maile Belles who is coming back to PTI as a stamp designer this year. Her cards are some of my favorites and always inspiring. I had so much fun looking back at her creations on Pinterest that I couldn't narrow it down to 1 so I made two cards.

I made a top fold card like she did and found that I really like this style of card. My card are usually side folded. Anyway, I heat embossed Mendhi Medallion in gold on a Tropical Teal strip. Before adhering the teal strip, I lay a strip of gold washi on the white card base and stamped the elegant sentiment from Thank You Kindly. My gold washi was very wide so I covered part of it with the teal panel. I really love how this turned out! And I must get more gold washi because its so beautiful.  You can find Maile's card that inspired me HERE. 

Next card is inspired by THIS Maile card. I guess I never saw this particular blog post but she has step by step photos in how to make this card with the cut out panel. Instead of using orange I went back to Tropical Teal. Looks so much better in real life because the white panel is on foam strips so its all raised above the bitty dot pattern. Finished it off with some black rhinestones. 

This card just reminded me how much I love this Life Is Beautiful set. No wonder its one of the top 8 best selling sets in PTI history. 

This last card is for the Day 1 challenge using this sketch and color inspiration:

For my card I used Ruby Rose flowers and added a strip of Simply Chartreuse bitty dot paper for the gap. 

Hope you are enjoying the PTI anniversary festivities. So much fun stuff going on over there. 

What A Little Coffee Can Do

Don't know about you but I'm absolutely addicted to coffee and not ashamed to admit it. Not the fancy lattes or espresso drinks with syrup (though those are yummy on occasion) you can get at Starbucks. Just a plain old cup of coffee with sugar and a few of drops of milk for me. So two cups of coffee this morning are what inspired and energized me to makes these cards in less than two hours this morning.  So any fellow coffee fans out there??

First card uses the often forgotten Latte Love set which I was inspired to take out for this week's CASology cue word HOT.  I used the technique Tasnim Ahmed shared in the Clean & Simple class day 6 - masked stripe background. I stamped the image of the stacked cups and colored them in with Copics. I love this technique because even with the striped background there feels like there's still a lot of white space left.

For my second card I used a discarded chevron coverlet piece from my experimenting the other day with various cover plates for the Make It Monday challenge. I layered the Limeade Ice chevron over a white card base. For the center panel, I used a card from one of the Monthly Moments sets, stamped a candle in Limeade Ice, sentiment from Wet Paint, and added a touch of Stickles on the candle flame. Design inspired by CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. 

Last card today was inspired by the pretty colors at ColourQ which I wanted to pair with the Big Hugs set I haven't used very much. 

I stamped the scripted HUGS in Hibiscus Burst, Orange Zest, and Sweet Blush and the sentiment in Pure Poppy. I wanted the red card base to be showing at the top and bottom of the card so to emphasize I scored a line on the white panel for added interest and added a few enamel dots to finish. 

Thanks for stopping today. Hope your having a great week!