Papertrey Ink - 11th Anniversary Challenges Continue - FLORALS!

Good Morning Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by :)  Today I am continuing to play along with the next challenge on Papertrey Ink's blog in celebration of their 11th Anniversary.  Today's post in my entry for their Floral Challenge - Pull out your favorite floral set and use it.  Here is the card I made over the weekend for this challenge:

I used Papertrey Ink's Stemmed Statements stamp/die set for this card - I chose the Poppy because poppies are one of my favorite flowers.  I fell in love with this set when it was released because I know the flowers would be beautiful when colored with Copics.

I matted the flower on 2 Nestabilities plates and embossed the top one with some simple dots.

The patterned paper is from DCWV's Watercolor Garden 12x12 stack - I love the foil highlights on it!

The stamp set gives you the flexibility of putting your choice of over 20 words on the small tag - I chose Celebrate today because I'm sending this card to a good friend for her birthday.

Thanks again for the visit - If you're looking for inspiration, the Papertrey Ink blog is a great place to start.  Have a great day!

About this Card:
Card Base - Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy
Patterned Paper - DCWV Watercolor Garden
Nestabilities - Labels 4
Cuttlebug - Embossing Folder Swiss Dots
Stamp/Die Set - Papertrey Ink Stemmed Statements
Copics - 100, Y38, Y35, G14, G16, G19, R35, R37, R39

Papertrey Ink - 11th Anniversary Party Projects

Good Morning Friends!

Hopefully the next few posts will inspire you, as I will be playing along with Papertrey Ink's 11th Anniversary party challenges.  Their Day 1 Challenge is a sketch challenge - We could pick 1 of 10 sketches from the design team to use as inspiration for our own project.  I needed to use at least 1 Papertrey Stamp/Die set as well.  I LOVE Dawn McVey's work at PTI, so I chose her sketch and came up with the following:

I found the pink woodgrain base paper in a DCWV stack called The All About Girls Stack.  I cut the lacy oval from a Spellbinders Nestabilities set, and used 2 Papertrey Ink sets for the rest - Gran's Garden for the flowers, and Direct Messages for the sentiment.

This was my first time using Gran's Garden - the stamp layers were really easy to line up, and since each flower is only 3 steps including the middle, it's easy to pick great color combinations for the bouquets.

The Direct Messages sentiments are PERFECT for when you need to squeeze some words into a tight space.

You can see the Gran's Garden stamps here, with an assembled picture below - I'll definitely be using this set again soon!  I also used an array of Papertrey inks for my stamping.

If you're craving some inspiration, hop on over to Papertrey's blog and play along with us!

Have a great & crafty weekend!

About This Card:
Card Base: DCWV stack called The All About Girls Stack
Nestabilities Scalloped Oval
Stamps/Dies - Papertrey Ink Gran's Garden
Sentiment - Papertrey Ink Direct Messages
Ink - Papertrey Ink New Leaf, Pale Peony, Hibiscus Burst, Berry Sorbet, Autumn Rose, Scarlet Jewel & Cocoa Bean

Spring is Here!

Good morning!  Is it safe to say that the nasty winter is behind us yet?  One thing that I look forward to once the weather starts to warm up is the FRESH PRODUCE that pops up around here.  I live in 'Amish Country', so farm stands are common and the fruit and veggies sold at them are divine!  Ok, ok... make a card already... :)

 

We will go pick our own blueberries probably sometime in June, but in the meantime I'll have to dream about them by cutting some out of paper :)  I used Cricut's Preserves cartridge for the blueberry cut, and the patterned paper is by Fancy Pants.

Hope you are all enjoying your Spring!

Welcome to Wednesday

Hey There!

Julie here, with another inspiration project for Exploring Cricut.

I don't know about you, but the winter weather always makes me want to create using bright colors.  I grabbed the Recollections 'Citrus' cardstock pack from Michael's, and made this card for an upcoming birthday:

For this card, I used Cricut's "Edge to Edge" cartridge for the lattice mat in lime green.  I was just tickled to find that my spellbinders 'Labels 1' dies fit the center mat JUST PERFECTLY! I used those dies for all of the smaller mats.  At first, I wasn't sure about 'needing' the Edge to Edge cartridge, because I don't make large layouts, but with my gypsy I am able to shrink and alter the sizes of the cuts, and make awesome backgrounds for my cards!  I like to set layers apart by adding different features, and on this card I used my Ice Pearl Pen to 'dot' every other corner.

About this Card:
All paper - Recollections Citrus cardstock pack
Lattice mat - Cricut cut from Edge to Edge cartridge
Cuttlebug Stitched embossing folder
Sentiment - Scrappy Mom's Sweet Somethings
Spellbinders Labels 1 dies
Ice Pearl Pen, Lime Green Glitter Ribbon, 3D pop dots

Birthday Wishes Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my latest card - I created this Birthday card for my boss, whose birthday is this weekend:

There are so many things to love about this card :)

First of all, I made the whole thing using scraps (BONUS!).  Second of all, I LOVE BIRDS... there are so many cute birds on so many different cartridges, but I still think Cricut needs to come out with an ALL BIRDS cartridge (Not like the 3-Birds ones - too cartoon-y).  Thirdly, it had been a while since I used my Bazzill Bling card stock, and now I remember why I loved it so much - it cuts SO nicely in the Cricut - now I have an excuse to go buy more...  and more... and more... :) I mounted the white mat and the bird on 3D foam dots for some depth (and an extra $0.20 to mail).

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Early Birthday to my Boss!

If you like what you've been seeing from me, please consider becoming a follower!

Don't forget about the challenge going on over at Exploring Cricut!

About this Card:
White Base & Eyelet Mat - Gina K luxury white card stock
Pattern Paper - My Mind's Eye "Penny Lane"
Solid Card Stock - Bazzill Bling
Ribbon - American Crafts
Bird - Cut from Cricut Cartridge "Give a Hoot" in Bazzill Bling
Sentiment - Stampin' Up "Watercolor Trio" set
Mat - Spellbinders Eyelet Circle
Ink - Memento "Bahama Blue"
Fiskars Eyelet Punch, 3D Foam Dots, Primas, Pearls & Gems

Happy Holidays!

Good Morning Blogger Friends!  I hope the Holidays are going well for everyone, and that lots of crafty goodies found their way under each of your trees!  I have been neglecting this blog in a BIG way lately, and I apologize for that!  It's been an exciting few months since I last posted.  Hubby and I found out that we are expecting #2 at the end of March - we're so excited - We're having a BOY!  He came with his own set of symptoms, namely the 2 months I was down with all-day sickness and nausea.  Thank goodness that went away, and everything has been great since.  I just started my 3rd trimester and I'm getting huge :)  I can't wait to meet him!

My Mom's birthday is today.  She loves the homemade cards that I make for her, and she just gave me the new Teresa Collins December 25th Cricut cartridge for Christmas, so I wanted her to see what pretties I could make with it - Here's how it turned out:

I really like how this card turned out - it's the perfect wintery card.  We're meeting her for dinner tonight - I hope she likes it!  I hope to upload more projects over the next couple of days - wish me luck!  If you don't see much of me come Spring, you'll know why... My OTHER hobby will have taken over for a while :)  HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

About This Card:

Card Base - Blueberry Sky Papertrey Ink

Navy & White Mats - Stash

Embossing Folder - Cuttlebug from Winter Wonderland 6-Pack

Snowflake Flourish - Teresa Collins December 25th - Cut at 4"
Sentiment - My Pink Stamper Winter Wishes on Spellbinders Labels 4
Pearls, Stardust Stickles, Midnight Stickles - Stash

Thanks for looking!

Challenge Time!

Hi Everyone!  I have some good news :)  I was accepted into the Focus Group for Crop Chocolate, the one I told you about in my previous post!  I am very excited to be a part of this group!  We were already given a challenge to participate in, so I wanted to share my entry with you, and wanted to show you how YOU can play too!  We were given this photo:

We were asked to design a project using this photo collage for inspiration, that contained 75% of materials purchased from Crop Chocolate (see sidebar).  Here's what I came up with:

As you can see, I focused on layout and basic elements for this card I entered.  Here's what I used:

All of the cardstock came from a Crop Chocolate (CC) grab bag (with the exception of the white base & the white tag I stamped/colored).  Here's what I used:

1.) Upper left corner - Bo Bunny a gift of Love/Coral Dot mounted on Basic Grey Indian Summer plum wine.  I used Gina K luxury white for the tag/stamp base - the stamps (inkadinkado & KI & Co.) and copics I used to color were mine. I cut the tag from Spellbinders Labels 4.

2.) Upper right corner - American Crafts City Park/Hyde Park mounted on Echo Park Be Mine/Lipgloss Stone. I ran the top layer through my cuttlebug using my swiss dots folder.  I mounted on them a Sassafras Paper Whimsy/Flower Child and put glossy accents on all of the petals & stem.  The button in the center is a Making Memories paperie button from the poolside collection. - All CC :)

3.) Lower left corner American Crafts City Park/Lakeside park mounted on the reverse side of itself.  The twine was from my stash, and the brad is from Making Memories Paper Reverie Noir collection.

4.) Lower right corner - American Crafts City Park Fairmont Gardens mounted on the reverse side of itself.  I ran the top layer through my cuttlebug using the d'vine swirls folder, then mounted Making Memories Metal Butterflies to it. - All CC again :)

NOW - Here's how you can play along... My friend Paula at Scrap Addict's Attic is using the same photo collage as inspiration for a challenge on her blog - please click through to her blog and play along... you'll be amazed what you come up with!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Nesting!

So this is the first time I ever entered something I made into a challenge.  It was actually a challenge that I hosted on the Cricut Message Board, so I HAD to enter, right?  The challenge was to make something that had a Bird, a Button and Blue on it, and here's what I came up with:

I'm going to send this card to a friend of mine who just got married and moved into her new house - Hope she likes it!

About this card:

Kraft Cardstock 5x5 base
Patterned Cardstock - My Minds Eye Laundry Line Collection
Cricut Cuts - Straight from the Nest Cut at 2"
Solid Cardstock Chocolate Brown & Ocean Tides - Papertrey Inc.
Spellbinders - Lacey Ovals
Crystal Flourish - Recollections
Sentiment - Hampton Ink
Stickles - Turquoise & Cinnamon
Border Punch - Martha Stewart
Buttons - Stash

Pool Party!

As I mentioned in my last post, my Mom watched my daughter, my niece and my nephew one day last week. Being the WONDERFUL Grandma that she is, she threw a little pool party (for a 4-yr. old & 2 2-yr. olds) complete with baby pool, sprinkler and popsicles!  I made this card to send to her to thank her for her wonderful hospitality last week:

I recently cleaned and organized my craft room, and it has made it so much easier to throw together these little cards.  Now, can I keep it that way...?

About this card:
Card Base - Papertrey Ink Cardstock in Hawaiian Shores (5x5)
Patterned Paper - Echo Park's Splash Collection
Spellbinders - Labels One
Cricut Cut from Pack Your Bags at 2.5"
Sentiment - Pink by Design Summer Vacation
Ribbon - American Crafts
Stickles - Orange, Lime Green, Black Diamond, Magenta, Pink & Turquoise
Stash - White Cardstock, Bling & Googlie Eyes

Playing With Some of My New Things

I hope everyone is having a great week!  In the not too distant past, I've received various summer-themed elements, and I've been so anxious to put some of them together into cards.  Here's one that I came up with tonight using a new cartridge, new paper and a new stamp set:

 So sorry my pictures aren't good... Maybe I'll get a nice digital for Christmas - I just use my cell phone right now.  Anyway... I scraplifted the layered background idea from a friend (If you recognize it, Thanks!) I like that I can use this card for a pick-me-up or a birthday... but for now, into my stash it goes!  Have a sunshiney day everyone!

About this card:
5x5 Card Base - Kraft Cardstock (stash)
Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye "Fine & Dandy"
Sun - Cricut Cut from "Pack Your Bags" cut at 3" using Bazzill Bling cardstock
Sentiment - Pink By Design stamp set "Summer Vacation" on Bazzill Bling
Spellbinders - Label 4
Stickles - Yellow & Orange Peel
Stash Bling

Thanks for looking!

Happy Father's Day!

Yeah - A post without a robot!

In already posted my hubby's Father's Day card from me, but I made this card to give to him from our Daughter.  I'm excited because, while it's VERY simple, it's my first easel card.  Here's the outside of the card:

And when you open it and stand it up, it looks like this:

Hubby recently got a new job, and needs some 'personal touches' for his desk, so with that in mind, I made this for him.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE DADS TODAY!

About this card:
Card Base & Layers: Papertrey Ink
Nestabilities: Labels 1
Star Brad & Blue Button - Making Memories
Twine, Silver Brads, Blue Ink & Silver Stickles - Stash
Stamp Sentiments - Studio G

Preparing for Birthday Week

Happy Friday Everyone!

I hope everyone has a fun weekend planned, and that The Easter Bunny brings everyone their favorite goodies!  This week is big for me - My Hubby's birthday is Thursday and my Daughter turns 2 on Friday.  This being a Holiday weekend has forced me to start their goodies a little early, so that's exactly what I did last night.  Here's the card I made for my Husband's upcoming birthday.

He thinks Cricut cuts are so neat, so while I needed to keep this masculine, I also was 'allowed' to put some cute into it since it is for him.  Right now, I am totally loving the look of Baker's Twine on cards - My twine order hasn't arrived yet, so I found some Sugar 'N Spice crocheting yarn at Michael's that looks like the twine, and used that for the bow and background on this card.  The inside of the card reads Hap-Bee Birthday, the saying that came with this cut from Birthday Bash.

Thanks for looking - Have a Blessed Easter Weekend Everyone!

About this card:
Card Base - StudioG
Scalloped Circle - Spellbinders Nesties/Papertrey Inc. Patterned Paper Distressed with Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Cricut Cut - Bee from Birthday Bash cut at 4" on Bazzill Bling cardstock
Sugar 'N Spice Crocheting Yarn
Stickles - Black Diamond, Lime Green, Waterfall & Yellow

Just Peachy!

Today I'm sharing a card I made a while ago, but I never posted so here it is:

I think this would make a cute Thank You card.  My favorite part about this one is the use of the Peachy Keen Stamps - Peachy Keen makes 'Face Stamps' that have become very popular - they bring anything to life and give them personality!  My peach would be so plain without them...  Now wouldn't this just brighten your day?  I hope it just did :)

About this Card:
Paper - Girl's Nursery by DCWV
Peach - Cricut cut from "Preserves" at 2.5"
Tag - Spellbinders Nestabilities 'Labels 4'
Ribbon - Target
Primas - Got Milk Collection
Distress Ink - Spicy Marmalade & Tea Stain
Stickles - Orange & Lime Green
Peachy Keen Face Stamps
Sentiment - My Pink Stamper "Fruity Puns" collection