Papertrey 10-year Anniversary Challenges

It has been a walk down memory lane this month at Papertrey, and I've had a great time creating my way through the years.

The first day welcomed the design team for the coming year and invited us to look back and choose a favorite project.  It's so hard to choose a favorite, but one project that makes me smile several times a week is my checkbook cover.   I created it with my Rosie Posie set last year to match my planner.

The next day, we went back to 2007.   Really, that doesn't seem like very long ago!   I do not own one of the featured sets from that year, but I do have Turning a New Leaf, which, if I remember correctly, was an expansion of the leaves in Beautiful Blooms.   I loved the card featured that day by Taylor VanBruggen, so mine is a pretty close CASE of hers.  I love those colors!

As we moved along to 2008,  I chose to work with Bitty Baby Blessings.   I love this set and have used it a lot, but I've never thought to use the tiny images to create patterned paper.    I had to try to re-create Maile Belles' card.  

For 2009, I thought I was going to try Laurie Schmidlin's gorgeous black, white and gold card, but then I went to her blog and saw the one with the black and white with bold colors.  What a fun way to use those designs!  

2010 for sure was going to be Wreath for All Seasons.  This is such a sweet set.  I decided to go simple for these cards, but created several while I had the supplies out.  Here are three of them.

I'm pretty sure I have a lot of 2011 sets.  Funny, though, I don't have any of the featured sets for that year.  I loved Wanda Guess's "Pucker Up" card using Tremendous Treats: Valentine.  Since I do not have that set, I decided to make some mini-versions of her card with the Tiny Treats set.    These little 3" x 3" cards were fun to make!

For 2012, Betsy's Hello Sunshine card was begging for me to give it a try!  Here is my card:

For 2013, again I found that I didn't have any of the featured sets.  Go figure!  But I loved Dawn's card with the Amethyst Allure, Lilac Grace and Pure Poppy colors.  I am just not as bold as Dawn is, though -- she's the color queen.  I have a be a little more reserved, so I used my Friendly Flowers set with some purples (a combination of Stampin' Up and Papertrey colors) and Berry Sorbet to create my card.  

Could I choose any other set than Life is Beautiful for 2014?  It's such a beautiful set.  I was inspired by one of Nichole's cards for this one.  (Though, she actually did her awesome card with colored embossing powders.  Mine is just ink!)

I did not have Brushed Blooms to do my 2015 card, so I decided to use my new Beautiful Brushstrokes stamps and dies.   I was inspired by Laurie Schmidlin's card.   I wouldn't say I nailed this one -- and I'll probably go back and do something else to it -- but it's on its way.  :)

I'm pretty sure that today's 2016 card is just not going to happen -- not enough hours in the day.  But what a nice way to add some new cards into my stash!  

Stamp-a-faire 2016

This weekend I participated in Papertrey's Stamp-a-faire as much as I could squeeze time in.  On Saturday, I managed to pull of the "Starry Night" card that Amy Sheffer demonstrated.   I really loved her card, but I was not convinced I could do it.  You wouldn't believe how many times I watched portions of the video to make sure I was on track.  I was pleased with my result:

I had some time this afternoon to try a couple more challenges.  I started with the Master Color recipe challenge.  I chose  the Date in the Park inspiration:

Finally. I created some tags that were Guilded With Gold as inspired by Danielle Flanders.  This stuff was fun to play with.  Now I'm looking for other things to turn gold!

 I look forward to spending so time during the crazy-hot North Carolina afternoons this week working through some other challenges.

Thanks for looking!

Papertrey Birthday Celebration

I am in really good company with a February birthday.  I celebrate the same month as Abe Lincoln, George Washington, my Grandma Shepard... and Papertrey Ink!  I have the say, Papertrey has the best celebration.  They celebrate with fun contests and challenges.   I've been having fun creating cards this weekend for those challenges.

The first one I created was a color recipe challenge inspired by the design team's favorite projects.  I chose Erin's color recipe and created this card.  I used the Happy Harlequin stamp set and cover plate, Lemon Tart paper, Kraft and Stamper's Select White card stock, and berry sorbet, aqua mist and Versafine black ink.  And that wonderful Layered Banner Banter stamp set and die.  I could use that banner on every card I make.  

For the next card, I could spend 5 minutes choosing the supplies I would use for a card.  The catch was that I had to use everything I chose.  That catch made me much more selective.  I chose the Beautiful Butterflies stamps and dies, the Coverplate waves die, and Aqua Mist and Stamper's Select White cardstock, Versafine Black ink, and my Wink of Stella brush pen.  My simple, but oh-so-peaceful, result is above!

  

For the sampler card, I really didn't think I'd like the results, but I really do!  The challenge was to create nine 1.5" x 1.5" squares and do a different technique on each.  Line them on a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" card base to create a card.  My techniques (from left to right, starting at the top) are ink smooshing, ink blending with water droplets, emboss resist, stencil, embossing, watercolor, stamp "kissing," ink blending, texture paste.  I decided not to trim the card to 5 1/2" vertically because I really liked the border I had at the bottom.  

I was crafting with friends from church yesterday (We have so much fun!), so I adapted one challenge to my situation.  One challenge was to take an article of clothing to use as inspiration for a card.  Our group of crafters was made up of both paper crafters and quilters.   One friend was making a baby quilt for a new nephew.  I decided to make a card she could give along with her quilt gift.  I even incorporated a piece of her scrap fabric onto the card.  Here you see my card at the top and the fabric she was stitching together to make the quilt squares on the bottom.  I can't wait to see the photo of her finished quilt!

Today's challenge was an alphabet challenge.  I took the letters of my first name and incorporated the elements listed beside each letter.  A = Add a border, M = Mix 2 stamp sets, Y = Incorporate a shade of yellow.  Whew -- this one wasn't bad!  My border is a strip of paper from the Mod Mix pack from Stamp-a-faire.  I mixed the Hugs set and Doodlie-Do.  The yellow is in the patterned paper and in the coloring.  This one came together pretty quickly.  

There is at least one more card-making challenge.  We'll see it that one happens before I go to bed tonight!

Wrapping up SAF 2015

I have a few more Stamp-a-faire projects to share tonight.  

First, I have the bangle bracelet I made using Maile's tutorial.  What a really cute idea!  It was so simple (after they dried) and came out looking great!

Next, I wanted to use the color combos in the runway challenge.   First, I chose Betsy's inspiration card.

The pattern in the dress reminded me both of the blue floral pattern in the kit and of the Life stamp set.  I decided to use both, as well as Danielle's pattern from the patterns challenge.

I cut my scallop rectangle with my Silhouette since I don't have the Nostalgic Notions kit.  (I know, Gasp!)

Finally, I had to pull out my Stamped & Stitched set to try Heather's technique with the shadow stamping.  It doesn't show as well in the pictures, but this turned out with the look of a lot of dimension.  Love this set and this technique!   I used the Runway inspiration card from Lexi:

And ended up with this card:

And, yes, that may be a little of that silver thread nesting behind the sentiment.  That's good stuff!

Pins and Needles

This challenge was much less stressful.  I even enjoyed using the 2 patterns of paper.

I popped my tag up with fun foam, so that served as a great (safe) place to stick the pointy ends of the pins.  

Mix and Match Challenge

This challenge was to combine 3 patterns on a project.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  I'm not so sure about this one.  I can mix 2 patterns just fine, but no combination of 3 was working for me tonight.  This is the best I came up with.  I promise it's not as slanted as it looks with my wonderful photography, but I'm not happy with the chevrons.  I want that part to be a solid... or I feel like it's missing something.  Anyway, what I do know is that I just love that floral pattern.   

Challenge #4: Accessories Challenge

I have to admit, I was a little unsure about this one.  I'm not afraid of sewing.  That's not it.  I'm not exactly sure why it scared me.  Maybe I just know that fashion design is not my arena, and this was a little too close.  But those nice little stitching dies were in my kit.  And the felt.  And the beads.  I just had to do it.  So here's my necklace:

I may even wear it to church tomorrow!  Maybe.