Papertrey January 2012 Blog Hop

Well, it's been awhile since I've been able to participate in a Papertrey blog hop...and I'm barely fitting it in today! Wow, it sure is hard to find the time to do all the things I want to do in life. I find myself combining challenges all the time to try to kill two birds with one stone.

The challenge today is to post a favorite project from 2011 and then make something new that is inspired by the previous one. When I read that assignment, I immediately thought of the following card I made last year:



I loved the way this one turned out...I made it as part of another PTI challenge to use buttons on a card. I had this really fun resist paper from Stampin' Up that I used to ink up in various colors and add the coordinating butterflies.

So today, I wanted to use the same resist paper, and I wanted to use the Love Birds stamp set because of the sentiment, "Nothing's the same when you're gone"...my husband is leaving tomorrow for two weeks for a mission trip to Africa and I'm not looking forward to him being gone so far away for so long...hence the card to put into his luggage.

My hubby got me a Copic Airbrush system for Christmas, and I haven't had much time to play with it, so I thought I'd pull it out and see if it works on this resist paper. I found out that using the system is going to take some practice. It doesn't entirely create the effect I was going for because it doesn't go on "hard" enough to make the resist stand out. This whole card was an exercise in trial & error. I'm not entirely thrilled with the way it turned out, but when that happens, I try to chalk it up as a learning experience rather than feeling like I wasted my precious crafting time by making something that didn't turn out as well as I'd envisioned in my head.

Adding...in case you're wondering what the little blue blobs are next to the little bird cages, those are supposed to be the little hearts emanating from the birds...(that stamp is also in the Love Birds set)...they don't show up in the way that I'd like them to, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what to do to them to make them stand out more...I tried glitter pens, going over them with markers, tossed around the idea of adding glitter glue (but then they'd really look like blobs...those little hearts aren't a defined-enough heart shape), tried stamping on separate paper and popping them up with foam tape (too hard to cut them out and make them look good, they are too small), punching out different little hearts to layer over those (all my punches & dies were too big), stamping over them and adding embossing powder...everything....in the end I gave up because I had run out of time and nothing had worked. So they just look like little blue blobs. Oh well. ;)

Allrighty then, enough blabbing...here's today's card, a somewhat of a spin-off from my previous card...



On another note, I'm using a brand new camera for which I haven't had the time to read the manual to figure out how it works, so I'm not entirely excited about how the photo turned out either...but hey, just more learning curve going on there! :)

Supply list:

Cardstock: Smokey Shadow (PTI);
Patterned Paper: Presto Patterns Specialty DSP (SU)
Stamp Set(s): Love Birds (PTI)
Ink/Colorants: Black, Moonstruck, Grey Wool (CTMH); Copic Markers B91, B93, B95, B97; Broken China, Faded Denim Distress Inks
Embellishments: Black grosgrain ribbon, Rhinestones (CTMH)
Tools: Ribbon Tags 2 die (Spellbinders); Love Birds bird cage die (PTI)

Scripture collage

With the busyness of the holidays, there were several projects that I just didn't have time to post. I thought I'd throw one of them on here now, as I enjoyed making them and liked the way they turned out. The first is a scripture collage that I made for my mom for Christmas. I just bought an inexpensive frame with 8 4x6 openings and filled each with a scripture. The My Mind's Eye Lost & Found line was perfect for this as several of their pages are already glittered with beautiful frames on them, which were perfect to stamp my scriptures in! The verses all came from Verve Stamps (their "plain jane" scripture stamps are so beautiful!) note: I apologize for the ugly white packaging showing up in several of the photos...I had already gotten it in there before I took photos and was too lazy to take it out again! ;)























The above photo I created with PTI's Outlines Alphabet, Fresh Alphabet + Copic markers plus a couple flourish stamps.

And here are some other things I made...a little note card set for my Grandma:



...and just some packaging for a couple of jewelry sets I got for my mom & sister...





I guess that oughta do it for today!

MIM #48 + WMSC79

I've had a rough time this week trying to get pictures...my lovely little point-n-shoot Casio that I've had for over six years is finally dying. It takes very nice pictures even though it's only 6MP and I've been happy with the results (plus a little editing in Photoshop) for my card photos. Now it's time for something new. I already missed one challenge because I couldn't get to taking pictures of the card I made (I'll include that one at the bottom just for fun) This post's card combines the Waltzingmouse Sketch for this week with Papertrey's Make It Monday challenge of using border dies to create backgrounds.

Here's the WM sketch (edited to add: which I  just realized that I missed the deadline for also!!!! I thought that their deadline was Friday evening, and I went to add my link only to find out it closes Friday at 9am my time!! Wow, bad luck for me this week for making cards and not getting them posted in time...drag):

And my card:



Clean & simple. Using Papertrey's Large Ricrack dies to create that partial background. I also created a card for last week's Casual Friday challenge, to use chipboard, but didn't get it posted in time. Here it is, just because I made it and I like it and I'm bummed that I got to busy to get it posted!



Supply list:

Birthday Wishes:

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Perfect Plum, Real Red, More Mustard (SU)
Stamp Set(s): Dainty Doilies LG, Fancy Phrases (WMS)
Ink/Colorants: Chocolate Chip, Perfect Plum (SU)
Embellishments: Lg Button, Purple rickrack (SU); Jewels (Queen & Co)
Tools: Doily Details die (PTI)

The Sweet Life:

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White (PTI); Pink Shimmer (Colorbok)
Stamp Set(s): Tiny Tags (PTI)
Ink/Colorants: Chocolate (CTMH)
Embellishments: Chipboard focal point from the SWEET collection (DCWV); Pink organdy ribbon, safety pin (CTMH)
Tools: Tiny Tags die, Polka Dot impression plate (PTI)

Mojo Monday #222 + PDCC113

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted...the holidays were wonderful, but now it's time to get back to crafting!! My time is also taken up with lots of craft room cleaning and reorganizing and selling of unloved items...with limited time, it's hard to fit in the actual crafting and posting with all the extra other "meta-cardmaking" tasks! ;)

Ok, enough blah blah...getting right to the cards for this month's Mojo Monday contest...here's the sketch:

I combined it with this weeks Play Date Cafe challenge...

I had a really hard time finding just the right colors for the Play Date challenge...amazing that with all the massive amount of cardstock and patterned paper I have, I had a hard time matching these colors! They are quite unusual, I've decided...but very pretty. I finally found the colors I was looking for in my October Afternoon 8x8 paper packs, Thrift Shop & Fly a Kite. Once I had the patterned papers chosen, I decided to just use cream cardstock (I mean, "vanilla") to complete the sketch. I feel a little bit rusty after not crafting at all over the holidays (we were gone this year for the entire vacation)...but for my first try of the new year, I'm fairly happy with the way these turned out.



...and a variation of the first...



If by chance anyone happens to comment on these, I'd love to know which one of these cards you like better and why...thanks for looking! :)

Supply list:


Cardstock: Very Vanilla textured (SU!)
Patterned Paper: from Thrift Shop collection - "Collector's Item", from Fly a Kite collection - "Sprinklers" (October Afternoon)
Stamp Set(s): Love Deepens (Verve); Fillable Frames #4, Beautiful Blooms #2 (PTI)
Ink/Colorants: Sage Shadow (SU!); Crystal Blue, Black, Juniper (CTMH)
Embellishments: Pearls (CTMH); Flower, brads (Making Memories)
Tools: Fillable Frames #4 die, Beautiful Blooms #1 dies, Tag Sale #5 die (PTI)

Natasha's 8th Birthday Party invitations

Since we just celebrated Natasha's 8th birthday yesterday with a fun and "awesome" party...I realized that I had not posted the birthday invitations that I made a month ago...so real quickly, I just thought I'd put up the pictures here...

I used Papertrey's Cupcake Collection stamp set & dies, as well as their Doily Details and Mat Stack 3 dies. I also used a die from Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Accents die set. The paper is from DCWV's Sweet paper pad (I've had this for a few years now because I'm hoarding it for special occasions given that it is SO cute!) I also used shimmer paper from a Colorbok paper pad (got it at Walmart) and a corner punch from EK Success (to punch the "tuck in" corners on the mat layer)

The "You're Invited" stamp comes from the Friendship Jar set by Papertrey.

Everyday Button Bits set...

Everyday Button Bits is one of the first Papertrey sets I ever bought...it was just the beginning of the obsession!! ;) I wanted to make some cute & simple cards for a craft bazaar, so I pulled out this set and went to work. These stamps paired with buttons is still so adorable! A timeless classic.








Whoops, this one turned out blurry, but by the time I figured it out, the card was already gone...too late to retake the photo...oh well..I've had two blurry photos recently, which hasn't happened in a long time...this must reflect the Christmas rush I'm in! :)


Just a quick nod to the supplies (in lieu of an "official" supply list) ~ All stamps (except for "Big birthday wishes", which is from Birthday Bash Sentiments) are from Everyday Button Bits; dies are all Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels dies; embossing folders are from Sizzix.

..and even MORE Christmas cards!

I can almost say that these are the last Christmas cards that I'll be making for this season...but alas, there are still new sets I haven't even used yet! Gah! What to do when gorgeous new sets haven't even seen ink yet? Well, I must make more! (That is, if I can squeeze it in among all the other projects that are now upon me) In any case, these aren't the last (probably...) ;)

This is a set of cards that I was inspired to make from a card made by the fabulous Jessica Witty...I altered it in a number of ways and put my own spin on it...I love how they turned out! (except that I DON'T love how one of the pictures is blurry, and I didn't realize it until it was too late to correct it...)







This set was inspired by a beautiful and simple card from Maile Belles...as always, I changed it up somewhat, but I really liked the simplicity of the original so that feel is there...but I really had fun playing with color combos for the "ornaments"!







And here are just a couple larger cards I pulled together, just because I was wanting use a new background stamp I got this year from Stampin' Up...and I was really wanting to use up some We R Memory Makers papers that I've had for awhile...they're bright & festive & fun!





Well, that's it until the next Christmas card post!