Make it Monday

Yes, I know it's not Monday. Thank Heavens! But over at Papertrey, they've started a new Make it Monday series of videos. There will be a inspirational/ informational video every Monday. That video will also come with a challenge. In the first video, Erin demonstrated the Go-to Sentiment card. She taught us how to use multiple sentiments to create a pretty nifty focal point for a card.

Before I started this process, I really had no idea how many bazillion versions of "Thank you" I have in my stamp collection! I carefully chose a few of them to use on my card. I like this idea, and definitely think I'll make more of these. I also think this would be a really cool idea to incorporate into my scrapbook.

Supplies:
Paper: Smokey Shadow, Teracotta Tile, Stamper's Select White
Ink: Basic Gray (SU), Versafine Onyx, Teracotta Tile
Stamps: Okay, this is really too many to list -- most are PTI, including Giga Guide Lines, Star Prints, Butterfly Dreams, Signature Greetings, Mixed Messages and Mega Mixed Messages. Some are SU
Other: Harvest Gold felt, Harvest Gold button, Ribbon (Basic Grey, I think??), Rhinestones (PTI), Beautiful Blooms Dies.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Papertrey Color Swatch Challenge

The challenge over at Papertrey for Day 5 of the anniversary challenge is to use one of the color combinations included in the free color swatch download on Nicoles blog. I chose to use the same colors that Lisa Johnson used -- Pure Poppy, Spring Rain, Kraft and Vintage Cream. (Okay, I'll admit -- I switched it up to Rustic Cream because I love that stuff!)

I'm going to let my little guy send this little card to his Grammy and Papa for Valentine's day. Now that I'm looking at the enlarged photo, I think I need to clean some extra glitter off first!

Supplies:
Paper: (all Papertrey) Kraft, Rustic Cream, Spring Rain
Ink: Pure Poppy, Spring Rain, Versafine Onyx
Stamps: Tiny Treats: Valentine
Other: Rik Rak die, Mat Stack 4 die, Nestability scallop circle die, Skor tape, glitter

Thanks for looking!

Papertrey Designer Challenge

I'm back again tonight with some challenge entries.  Today PTI gave its customers a free gift -- a beautiful set of tag stamps in digital format to print out and enjoy some instant gratification.  This set of tags is just wonderful!   I'm printing a lot of these, because I can see myself using them often.  For tonight, I managed to make some small projects -- a few little 3" x 3" enclosure cards.  I think they turned out so great.  I can't wait to find someone to give them to!  (I should go ahead a apologize for the crummy pictures.  It's late.  And I'm not a great photographer, anyway.)

First, my favorite.  The tag on this card is the one designed by my hero Dawn McVey.  I immediately noticed that it coordinated with a digital download she had designed for her Color Couture series.    I noticed because it's one that I actually own!  I was excited to print it out and use it to make a sweet little card.

My second favorite was made with the tag created by Nicole Heady herself.  It's a great tag that I can get a lot of use out of.  It was really hard to get a good picture of this one.  I wanted to show the background I stamped with A Little Argyle.  Yesterday as I was looking through everyone's amazing cards entered in the big contest (No, I didn't win that, but I'm very happy that another "Amy" did!)  I told myself that I do not use that Argyle set enough.  It's really a great set -- it just scares me a little.  (Don't ask.  I really don't know why.)  So I used it on two of my little cards tonight.  :)  Yay me!  I'll work my way up to using it on bigger cards and then (dare I?) scrapbook pages.

Finally, my last card of the night.  I love this little image by Lisa Johnson.   Okay, I love ALL images by Lisa Johnson.  The colors certainly didn't come out great in this picture.   For this one, I printed the "stamp" tag and colored it with Stampin Up markers and a blender pen.  I like how the hearts turned out, but I'd really like a do-over on the ground.  I do think it's better in real life than it looks in the photo, though.  (I really need to hire a new photographer.)  After coloring, I spritzed the whole tag with Glimmer Mist.  Sparkle makes everything better, right?  The Pink Pirouette background is stamped with A Little Argyle in Fresh Snow, but you'd never know that from my picture. 

I can't wait to have some time to create more of these with the other tags.  Honestly, I decide that each one I pick up is my favorite.  I think I have 9 favorites!   Is that possible?  Thanks, PTI and stamp designers, for such a wonderful gift! 

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies:
"Smile"
Paper:  Aqua Mist (PTI), June Color Couture download (PTI), Kraft (PTI)
Ink:  Versafine Onyx
Stamps:  PTI anniversary download, Mega Mixed Messages (PTI)
Other:  Scor Tape, glitter, PTI Harvest Gold button, PTI rhinestones, Hawaiian Shores felt (PTI), Fiskars punch

"Happy Birthday"
Paper:  Kraft (PTI), Aqua Mist (PTI), Hawaiian Shores (PTI), Georgia Pacific White
Ink:  Fresh Snow (PTI)
Stamps:  PTI anniversary download,  A Little Argyle (PTI)
Other:  Hawaiian Shores ribbon, Diamond stickles, PTI Beautiful Blooms II #1 die

"Love"
Paper:  Melon Mambo (SU), Pink Pirouette (SU), Kraft (PTI)
Ink:  Fresh Snow (PTI), Melon Mambo marker (SU), Soft Suede marker (SU)
Stamps:  PTI anniversary download, Mixed Messages (PTI), A Little Argyle
Other:  Scor Tape, glitter, flower rhinestone (probably from Archiver's Hot Spot), Beautiful Blooms II #1 die

Papertrey Favorites

Today is the first contest of the 2011 Papertrey Anniversary festivities, and, boy, is it a big one!  The design team has featured their favorite projects of this past year, and one very, very, very lucky person will win the Ultimate Card Kit -- Everything needed to create all of those projects.  (Give me a moment to catch my breath.  It's really an unbelievable prize.)

One way to win is to post/ re-post my favorite project of the year.  Fortunately, I have a really small blog.  (Okay, a little shameful, really.)   But choosing my favorite was really easy.  This Beautiful Blooms II card is hands-down my favorite card of this year.  I love everything on this card -- the bold colors, the felt flower, the fillable frame, the polka-dotted black and white ribbon...  It just screams "happy" to me. 

Materials used:
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, True black, (The scallop was punched from the cover of the Bitty Dots paper pack)
Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Pure Poppy, Spring Moss, Versafine Black
Felt: Hawaiian Shores
Stamps: Beautiful Blooms II, Fillable Frames 4
Dies: Those wonderful coordinating dies for the 2 stamp sets above!
Ribbon: Basic Grey (I think)
Button: PTI White/Cream (colored with a Sharpie -- must resist the Copics!)

Thanks so much for looking!

Amy

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

It's time again for the Papertrey Blog Hop! This month's challenge was a good one for me:

"With the new year comes a clean slate along with many resolutions. This month's blog hop challenge involves you challenging yourself to use a Papertrey stamp set that has yet to see ink or even one that might be collecting a little dust! Go through your stash and see what little used treasure it might hold."

There are a few (really, truly -- only a very few!) PTI sets that I've "collected" and think are amazing but have had a hard time using on a real project. In addition to Nicole's stamp set challenge, I also challenged myself to use this beautiful October Afternoon paper that I've been hoarding and have barely used. (Honestly, I can't call all of the loving gazes I've spent on it as "using" it.)
So on to the card. I managed to use three under-loved sets on this card: Quilter's Sampler, Quilter's Sampler Additions and Boxes, Bags and Tags. I have to admit that I realized after several reject "quilts" and layout ideas exactly why I so rarely pull this set out. I really love the idea of making my own quilts, but I just don't seem to get it quite right. I was hoping that simplicity would be the answer, but I feel like my result was more "plain" than "simple." I do love the style of the sentiments in Quilter's Sampler and included one on the inside of my card. The other under-loved set, Boxes, Bags and Tags, was much easier to use. I should pull it out more often because it really does have some nice little images in it. I love its little flowers and flourishes.
Here are the products I used:

Stamps: Boxes, Bags and Tags (PTI), Quilter's Sampler (PTI), Quilter's Sampler Additions (PTI), Mixed Messages (PTI)

Paper: Kraft (PTI), Thrift Shop papers and embellishements (October Afternoon), Harvest Gold (PTI)

Ink: Aqua Mist (PTI), Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox Yellow Ochre

Other: Harvest Gold Button (PTI), Rustic Jute Button Twine (PTI)

Thanks so much for looking!

October Blog Hop

It has been a few months since I've had time to participate in the PTI Blog Hop, but I was excited to have time to participate in this one. Our church (Baptist) is just finishing up a common text study of the book of Ruth with a local temple congregation. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting and learning about some of my Jewish neighbors through this study, and I have learned so much through the collaborative teaching of my pastor and the rabbi. As part of these weeks together, we have made an attempt to learn about each other's traditions, rituals and beliefs. It seems only fitting that I get a challenge this month that allows me to create a card for Hanukkah.

On to the card: To create a card for a holiday for which I have no specific stamps was, indeed, a challenge. Honestly, though, that's why I love my PTI stamps. They really are so versatile. I chose to spell Hanukkah with my Fresh Alphabet set. (I LOVE that alphabet set and use it often in my scrapbooking projects and to add names to children's birthday cards.) I also added just the Happy from one of the Happy Birthday sentiments in Birthday Basics to create my own custom sentiment. Here are the details of the supplies (almost all PTI) I used:

Stamps: Fresh Alphabet, Birthday Basics, Background Basics: Text Style
Card Stock: Spring Rain, Stampers Select White
Patterned Paper: Elegant Soiree (SU)
Ink: Enchanted Evening, Chamomile Tea Dye Duo, Crumb Cake (SU)
Accessories: Rustic Jute Button Twine, Enchanted Evening Button,
Tools: Linen and Canvas Impression Plate, Scallop Punch (SU)

Thanks for visiting!

Papertrey Pages July Challenge

It's August 1st and I'm just getting around to posting my page for the Papertrey Pages July Challenge. The challenge this month was to use Kraft (that's a no-brainer for me) and to make at least one of our own embellishments. I chose some pictures from earlier this summer for this challenge.

I started with Kraft 12x12 card stock from Stampin' Up. I added a woodgrain border using PTI's Woodgrain background set and Dark Chocolate ink. On the rest of the page, I added a background using the ferns and dragonflies from SU's Organic Grace set. I love those images and hardly ever use them. They were perfect for this page. I also used the same set to create my embellishments. I stamped the dragonfly image, and glittered him up with some Glimmer Mist. I punched the flower layers from Chocolate Remix patterned paper (PTI) and Dark Chocolate and New Leaf card stock. I added more of the Woodgrain background pattern to the New Leaf card stock center. I popped the dragonfly up with a dimensional (SU).

Supplies Used:
Paper: Kraft (SU), Dark Chocolate (PTI), New Leaf (PTI), Chocolate Remix (PTI), Library Ledger (PTI)
Ink: Dark Chocolate, New Leaf (PTI)
Stamps: Organic Grace (SU), Background Basics Woodgrain (PTI), Library Ledger (PTI)
Other: Rustic Jute Button Twine (PTI), Glimmer Mist, Beautiful Blooms II #1 dies (PTI), Nestabilities Labels One dies (Spellbinders), Cuttlekids Alphabet

Thanks for looking!