Popping in with another Make it Monday

I have such a fun time watching Papertrey Ink's Make it Mondays. And this week's teacher is one of my favorites, Melissa Phillips at Lilybean Paperie. She is so sweet and her style is a big ol' slice of homespun goodness. MIM #124 is all about embellishing your envelopes which is usually something I forget about. I spend so much time on the card that I usually don't think about dressing up the packaging that I give it in. *Gasp* I know, just keeping it real here. :)

So this was a lot of fun to make. Here is my take on the challenge:

I made my own envelope out of kraft cardstock. I loved the way Melissa used kraft and how the white popped off of it! So I got out my Martha Stewart scorer and made an envelope with it. Easy Peasy.

I stamped the back like I did the front. I made my own envelope tie closure using some buttons and brads.

Here are the other supplies that I used:
Versamark
Embossing Powder (Zing Red Glitter, Ranger Seafoam White)
Copic Markers
Memento Ink
Distress Ink
Buttons, Twine
Stamps (Strawberry Patch, Postmarks, Mat Stack1, Strawberry Patch Sentiments)


I also made a card to go with the envelope (which is the reverse of my normal process).

Thanks for looking!

Dog Days of Summer

Hello, friend. It seems like I'm in the dog days of summer. It is still really hot during the day and since a cold ran through the whole family this week we've been doing lots of laying around. Not what I had in mind for my Labor day weekend but it's nice to have the chance to recoup! And I don't know if it's just my perception but it seems like summer colds are the pits! Maybe even worse than the winter? I have a feeling that the kids are boosting up their immune systems once again now that school has been in session for two weeks. And, of course, they love to bring it home and share with the rest of us. ;)

I did have a little time this evening to get up into my craft room. The dishes can wait, right? So I made another teensy weensy kit as well as a few projects for some challenges. I started off with Retro Sketch #27 because having a good sketch helps me to get my ideas going when I've been absent on the craft seen for a bit. And I've been wanting to do this week's MIM #80 over at Papertrey Ink. It is a love note to all things bunting and I just adore it! Garlands, fabric bunting, felt, glitter.... just love it all. Since we haven't been well all week I had to use my time wisely when I got a few hours to play with my paper goodies. So my card is kinda simple but I hope you like it.

Here is the sketch that I followed:

I really had to take a bit to get the juices flowing. I was really excited to use up some Pink Paislee (Prairie Hill) paper since it was still laying on my desk. I had forgotten about it in the throws of Kleenex and crackers; it was such a nice surprise!

Here is a close up of the bunting/garland. I used Ashley's technique over at Papertrey to sandwich my twine between two layers of banners. I used Heart 2 Heart #6 to die cut those cute little flags (PTI). Then I used my Tiny Tim to staple the twine onto the fence. The fence die is from PTI and I stamped a light gingham background onto it to give it some pattern but not too much. I also distressed the fence and the bunting with Burlap Distress Ink. The kraft background I came up with out of necessity. It was my way of adding some sun rays to the focal point without having more patterns; I've got a lot going on with the card so I needed a landing place where the eye could rest a bit and yet still draw attention to the picket fence. The sentiment "for you" is from fillable frames and is generic enough to be a birthday card or thank you card.

Thanks for stopping by and I will be posting soon with a shop update and a new Teensy Weensy Kit.
Happy Labor Day for those of us who have the day off!!!!

Under the Weather?

Hello, again. I am going to post a couple of quick things before bed. I have a couple of contests that I'm squeezing in this weekend.

Here is one that I made for Make it Monday #78 over at Papertrey. It is a stamping and stitching challenge. Here is the card that I made:

I really like this Heart 2 Heart Stamp set over at PTI. I hadn't had an opportunity to use it so I thought it was about time! I took some white felt and die cut the clouds. Then I took some DMC floss that matches the aqua mist color and stitched all around 3 clouds (1 large, 2 small). I die cut a sun out of cardstock instead of felt because i really wanted the clouds to stand out.

I don't do a lot of hand stitching and I am kinda sad since embroidery seems like a dying art. My grandmothers both did lots of cross-stitching and other embroidery. They tried to teach it to when I was little and it just never really stuck. But I love the nostalgia of it.

I used this sketch from retro sketches for my card. I just love to have a quick sketch handy since it saves so much time on where to place my elements on my card.

Gotta post one more card before I hit the hay!

MIM #77 - Ink Pads as Watercolors

Hey, friend. I'm back with a challenge over at Papertrey Ink. This week's MIM can be found here. The challenge is a new technique to me: use your ink pads as watercolors. I am not very good at using watercolors to begin with but this was too fun of a challenge to pass up.

I used PTI's Pretty Peonies stamp set along with the coordinating die set. I stamp the image on vintage cream cardstock using memento's brown ink (I find that it dries quickly and doesn't bleed like other inks). I also cut out an extra flower using the die so that i could later pop that up on the card. The inks that I used to "paint" the flower where melon berry and terracotta tile. I used simply chartreuse and ripe avocado to paint the leaves.

I wasn't able to stay completely in the lines but i'm hoping that just adds to the watercolor feel. I then stamped some notebook patterned paper with leaves to paint in with ink. I stamped one of the solid flowers in Pretty Peonies with fine linen ink. The cute frame is also a part of the Peonies stamp set. I stamped it on kraft cardstock using that same memento brown ink.

Thanks for popping in. I'll hopefully be updating my blog more regularly now that the kids are going back to school next week. It's shocking to me that they start before Labor Day but I do enjoy getting a fall break and a week off at Thanksgiving.

And with school starting, you know what that means? More cute back to school style notebooks and teacher gifts. Cheers!!!

Papertrey Ink's MIM# 64- Using Color Inspiration

Can I just say that I {LOVE} this week's MIM over at Papertrey???!!! I am one of those people who look at color challenges and say, "Huh?". It is a great tutorial on how to look at color inspiration and incorporate that into a project. I really had a fun time with this card. So let's dive right in, shall we?

Here is the inspiration color palette that I used:

I wanted to use some colors that I wouldn't have paired together since that seems to be where my greatest problem lies. I look at those colors and just don't have anything that comes to mind and I just sit there and stare at the screen with that look. You know which one I'm speaking of. :)

So here is my take on the challenge:

Now, I am not really sure how well I incorporated these colors but I feel like I'm moving in the right direction and that is success for me! I wanted to play with my new Strawberry Patch stamp set (PTI) but everyone and their mothers have used the typical green and red combo for the strawberries. I thought I could take this in a different direction and the result reminds me of some vintage pillowcases that I saw at a thrift store recently.

Totally out of the ordinary for me but it was a fun challenge. If I have time I think I am going to try some of the other color inspiration photos and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for stopping by!

Papertrey Ink- MIM #61

Hello, hello! I have some new posts to get out so I decided to dive right in. I really like the challenge over at Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday. The goal is to make flowers using leaf dies. I decided to take it a step further and see what I could come up with using other dies as well.

Here is the card that I came up with:

I used several dies to make this flower and let me show you how:

I used three different die sets from Papertrey Ink. I used "Sending You" (SY), "Love Lives Here: Holidays"(LLH:H), and "Simply Jane" (SJ). The cardstock colors are different in the break down so that you can see what the dies looked like before assembly and they are grouped by set. I cut 4 sets of leaves from SY in Harvest Gold (PTI), one set of wings from the angel in LLH:H, and one set of silhouettes from SJ.

I didn't have anything that I could use for the leaves so I had to cut those out by hand (I think it was Simply Chartreuse cardstock from PTI; either that or New Leaf).

Once I cut the cardstock for the petals in harvest gold, I used my copics to color them. Here are the colors I used:

I got out my Tag-It #3 die (PTI) and then used BB: Text style stamp on it. I also used my Garden Variety set to stamp various images on the tag and used the sentiment "Your smile is planted in my heart" in the upper right hand corner.

I am pleased with the flower I came up with. I can't tell if it looks like a daffodil or a daylily but either way it is cheery. :)
Thanks for looking!

MIM #53- Creative Coasters

It has been some time since I posted here on the blog and Papertrey had so much fun inspiration going on during their 5th anniversary that it gave me a good incentive to post something.With Valentine's Day being this week I was busy with lots of school events. But I did manage to squeeze in some time to make something for PTI's MIM #53 - Creative Coasters.

The challenge was to use PTI's coasters in a project and I decided to use it for spring themed cards. I will be entering them in the MIM contest and be sure to check out my etsy shop where I will be selling a group of them.

I used an oval die on the coaster to make an Easter egg and then embossed it with a Basic Grey folder. Using a craft mat I splattered distress stains and sprayed some glitter mist on it and then swiped the egg through the puddles. I also added some Stickles to give it a little glam. As extra accents I used dies from the Love Lives Here collection as well as some vintage buttons (all from PTI).

Thanks for stopping by!

Old Fashioned Christmas Carol

Blame it on the tea that I had this afternoon -- it's almost 1 am locally and I am still up! Which means that I had plenty of energy to work on my first Christmas card of the season. I really wanted to do something old fashioned and vintage looking while keep the card simple. And while I was at it I could play along with Card Patterns and get my submission in with a little time to spare. Oh, and I was able to try a new technique thanks to Papertrey's Make it Monday. So let me show you what I made while I was on my caffeine fix!

I had so much fun making this card and I really liked the way it turned out. I followed the sketch over at Card Patterns that you can see if you click here. It was a nice, clean and simple layout and I wanted to try something that had lots of pizzaz while still maintaining my less is more feel for the card. I made my own background for this card by using lots of Tim Holtz distress ink in various colors and several different stamps. I also inked up the edges of the layers underneath the background to keep the worn look consistent. The next thing that I did was to get my Papertrey inks and stamps out to make my own washi tape. This was the new technique that I was referring to earlier. I love watching the Make it Monday tutorials on their site and the one for this week is titled Make it Monday #35: Custom Stamped Washi Tape. I like the look of washi tape and I found it super simple to make my own thanks to their tut. I used some double sided tape (I don't have Scortape on hand but used something similar in Martha Stewart's line) and some tissue paper. I pulled out Simply Chartreuse ink (PTI) and a houndstooth background stamp (also PTI), stamped the image onto the tissue paper that I already adhered to the tape and voila! Washi tape! sooooo coool. ;O)
I dusted off my cricut and cut out those cute little ornaments using the Joy of Seasons cartridge. I stamped those with distress inks and used some background stamps on them to add some interest. To add a sentiment without taking away too much from the ornaments I stamped the phrase "Fa-la-la-la-la" in a light distress ink to the lower right hand corner.

So, there you have it! Now, I've got to get my hiney in bed so that I can get up at the crack of dawn. Ouch!!! oh, and Happy Friday.

Card details:
Inks- distress inks (TH), Close to Cocoa (SU), Simply Chartreuse (PTI)
Stamps - Background Basics: Text Style, Background Basics: Houndstooth, Bitty Backgrounds (PTI), small alphabet letters (Studio G), some random stamps that I have in my stash that are not labeled anymore
Cricut Cartridge - Joy of Seasons
Other - floss, hand stained lace, machine stitching