Make it Monday, #34 part 2

Since I really liked how my christmas tag turned out, I decided to create one in a blue and white color scheme. This time I chose to create my thick chipboard accent using the dove die from Peace be Still. I attached the dove to my Fillable Frames #4 die in in white cardstock. The sentiment and frame were stamped in Enchanted Evening. I love the richness of this color. I definitely need to use it more often. I die cut Enchanted Evening cardstock with my Double Ended Banners die and attached it to my Tag Sale #3 die cut. I tried several times to glitter up my dove and wasn't pleased with how any of them turned out. So I decided to add a rhinstone for the eye and 3 largers ones next to the sentiment.

Unfortunately I do not have a side view picture to show you the chipboard accent. Since I used a cereal box, the bottom layer cast a terrible color onto the tag when photographed. You'll also notice that there is no ribbon topper (yet). I've got to put some Enchanted Evening ribbon in my shopping cart asap.

Make it Monday, #34

This week's Make-it-Monday challenge over at Papertrey Ink is to create a project by making your own thick chipboard accents. I was super excited about this one since I had to actually start recycling my cereal boxes because my storage for them is maxed out. I went to work right away. The first thing that came to mind was to create some Christmas gift tags. Thank you PTI for helping me get a jump start on my Christmas crafting!

I love the little snowflake dies from Peace Be Still by Heather Nichols. I ran one of them through my Cuttlebug with the cereal box and adhered 5 layers together using Glossy accents. I then stamped the image onto white cardstock in Versamark and heat embossed it with Stampendous Tinsel Embossing Powder in Red. I love the glittery-ness of the powder! Then I attached it to my stacked die cut image. I die cut Pure Poppy with Limitless layers and heat embossed the wreath image from 2008 Holiday Tags Collection in the same red powder. It is a little difficult to see the image, but  I just wanted to have more of the embossing powder on my tag. I attached this to my Fillable Frames #1 image with foam adhesive and then I heat emossed again. I stamped my sentiment from the 2008 Holiday Tag Collection in True Black ink and flanked it with the smallest snowflake from Peace Be Still in Pure Poppy onto my Double ended banners die cut. This was all attached to my Tag Sale #3 die cut with Stamper's Select White cardstock. I tied some Pure Poppy Satin dots ribbon on top. Now to get ahead on Christmas shopping (wink).

Here is the side view of the tag and thick chipboard. I love it!

Chelsea Andersen top

So this is my first sewing post. I found out about this pattern (McCalls- M613) from my dear sister through an email that came to me after midnight. My crazy sister is looking up patterns and telling me that I must make these adorable tops for my daughter. She even went to JoAnns to buy the patterns on sale and mailed them to me. To return the favor, I went to my local quilt store and bought some beautiful Amy Butler fabric for her. (I am currently working on that top). So now our little girls will have the same top to wear. I guess that is the twin in us.

So, in order to "try out" the pattern, I picked up some quilters fabric, on sale, from JoAnns myself. Since my sister started working on her pattern first, she was able to tell me all of the tricks she learned. This came together for me pretty quickly. A lot of seams are formed by placing raw edges together so there is not a lot of pinning and pressing involved. The buttonholes on the front bodice are one of the last steps; however, I will be making the buttonholes before I work too far into the project next time. This last step was almost disastrous for me despite having made buttonholes in the past. I love the adorable yellow flower buttons and the belt really pulls it all together.

My daughter recently turned 4 years old and despite being on the shorter side for her age, I went ahead and made the pattern in size 4, in the hopes that she will be able to wear it for two seaons. I choose fall fabrics since the top is meant to be long and she will be wearing it with leggings or jeans or even capris. It can be layered with a short or long sleeve top or worn alone as well. The leggings she is wearing I dug out of her closet. They happen to work with the fabric, but I hope to buy her some solid ones.

She wasn't too eager for me to take her photo and there were a lot of cheesy grins and playing with her tea cup. I hope you can see some of the detail in the bodice front and back casing. TFL!

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop

So this is my first opportunity to participate in the PTI Blog Hop. This is our inspirational photo to create our project:

I waited until the last minute to make my card, but I know that God's timing is perfect. I created my card for my daughter to give to her teacher who was just diagnosed with breast cancer. If you can join me in praying for her and her family...

To make my card, I simply cut 1/4 inch cardstock in strips of Smokey Shadow, Aqua Mist, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Moon, Pure Poppy and Raspberry Fizz. For the title, I stamped my sentiment from Mega Mixed Messages onto Stamper's Select White that I die cut using my Double ended Banners die. I seem to be using it a lot lately for my titles. It is the perfect size for smaller titles to help them stand out. I added a Raspberry Fizz button that I tied with twine into a bow. TFL!

An oldie but goodie

Things around the homefront have been busy and my craftroom is seeing a lot of action. Well, actually my sewing machine is cranking. I am working on an adorable little boutique style top for my daughter to wear this Fall. It's not something I can make in a day or two (when time is limited) so I thought I would share a card I made my hubby for Valentine's Day. Yes, it is that old, but he keeps the cards that I make him on his desk at work, so when one of them comes home, it makes me happy to see my creation again.

I was inspired by this card created by Laurie Willison over at soapboxcreations.  This was a great card to CASE. I knew my hubby would not want anything frilly and I liked the simple layout of her card. I chose to keep the center cardstock plain, but used my Linen impression plate from PTI to add some depth. The sentiment is from Fillable frames #10 that I stamped in True Black ink on Pure Poppy cardstock along with the die cut frame.  I added 3 brads underneath to help ground it. I had just received my Heart Prints Collection dies and was eager to use the adorable tiny heart. I used it to die cut True Black cardstock. Heart Prints was one of the first PTI sets I owned and I have always glittered up the swirly flower heart stamp image, even for the boys (wink).

Halloween treats

So, I have had my fun little Lunchbox note die from Papertrey Ink for some time now. I was able to use the die to wrap a Ghirardelli chocolate square for my daughter to give to her classmates for Halloween. It's never too early to get started on making treats, right?

I die cut Orange Zest, Plum Pudding and Simply Chartreuse cardstock and stamped Background Basics: Text Style in True Black ink. I die cut True Black cardstock with my Eyelet lace border die and used my limitless layers to die cut the focal point. The web and little spider are from a Heidi Grace holiday stamp set that I bought 2 years ago on clearance from JoAnns for a mere $3! It is the only Halloween stamp set I own and I have been able to use it for at least 2 seasons!

I stamped the spider in True Black ink and heat embossed him with clear embossing powder. Then I hand cut the image and popped it up with foam adhesive. I made 24 of these altogether.  It didn't take very much time at all.

Pages with Papertrey Sketch Challenge #1

Here is the Pages with Papertrey sketch challenge #1, posted by Leigh over here

Here is my layout for the challenge.

I was limited by the only photos that I actually had printed and laying out on my table. (I hope that doesn't make me a bad scrapper.) The photos I had printed were mostly horizontal so I rotated the sketch. I shifted the title block to the top to sit next to my only vertical photo and I also moved the jornaling block to the bottom of the page. These are the photos I took of my daughter's last day at her daycare when she was 2 years old. All of the products used here are from the Becky Higgins School Expansion Kit. If you look at my journal cards in the pocket, you'll notice they are still blank. I know, I know. I have my notes written on another piece of paper and I have yet to write them on the cards. I will eventually, don't worry.

I added some machine stitching to the title and also to the top right corner of the page to give it some texture.

Create a Critter Birthday

Inspired by Debby over at Limedoodle, I CASED this card. My daughter has a birthday party to attend this weekend and this is the card that I made for her classmate who is turning 6 years old. Debby has done such fabulous work with the Create a Critter cartridge, that I had to have one myself. All of the critters are so adorable. You will get to see many of them in some future posts (so stay tuned).

The Funky Town paper pack has inspired me once again. I just love the pink, green and blue color combo. I cut out the adorable little frog in Spring Moss cardstock, her little belly out of Hawaiian Shores, sprinkled with glitter, and gave her little Raspberry Fizz cheeks. I used googly eyes to finish her off. I used my Double ended banner die to place the title and then stamped and heat embossed with white, the sentiment from Fillable frames #1.

Make-it-Monday, #32

This week's Papertrey Ink  Make-it- Monday Challenge, #32  is stamping with acrylic paint. Well, I have recently accumulated a few new bottles of paint due to some projects that I am working on for my son's and daughter's rooms. (Those projects will be posted on the blog soon). So it was rather quick to make this card. Since I really liked my husband's grunge birthday card, I thought, why not make a girly one. Plus, acrylic paint screams messy and that is exactly what grunge is. Instead of the vellum stamped sentiment, I cut strips of stamper's select white cardstock and applied 1/4inch scor tape on top (that was a little harder than I thought it would be) and sprinkled with Martha Stewart coarse glitter. I popped it up with foam adhesive.

Here is the guitar I die cut and stamped with True Black ink. I popped it up with foam adhesive too.

This was my first attempt at stamping with acrylic paints. It is definitely a challenge to make sure that your stamp is covered evenly with paint. Unfortunately you cannot stamp off an image for a lighter image to get a faded effect. If you are going for the grungy look, then acrylic paints are the way to go. I will definitely use this technique again.

Pages with Papertrey Challenge, 9/1/11

So this is my first submission for the Pages with Papertrey Challenge.

challenge #1: Use a Papertrey Ink stamp set and die on your layout

I am currently working on my daughter's school album. I purchased the Becky Higgins School Kit and Expansion Kit over 5 years ago. The School Kit starts with preschool and goes through 12th grade. Since my daughter was enrolled in daycare and I was accumulating some photos, I had decided that I would use the Expansion Kit to complete these early "school" years.

I used several Papertrey products on my page: cardstock (pure poppy), stamps (Tag its #2, Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger, Mini Scrapbook Series: Tabs, Just the Ticket), dies (Limitless Layers, Tag Sale #3, Double-Ended Banners), ink (Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist) buttons, ribbon and twine.

Here are some close ups of the details. The green paint on the family photo is curtesy  of the two year olds in my daughter's classroom. This photo hung on the family tree wall. And despite not liking my own handwriting, I wrote out my journaling anyway.

 Here is the second page to this layout. I had already completed it prior to the challenge, but I still wanted to share it with you.  Again, I used more Papertrey products: cardstock (Pure Poppy), stamps (Just the Ticket), dies (Just the Ticket, Library Pocket, Eyelet Lace Border and Banner Borders) ink (Pure Poppy, Simply Chartruese, Vintage Cream) button and twine.

 Here is another close up of the library pocket. It hold a Valentine that she had received from a classmate.

Thanks for looking!

Make it Monday, #31 commentary

Last week's Make-it-Monday challenge was my first attempt at participating in any stamping/cardmaking challenge. I knew my entry would be cutting it close to the close of the challenge and I would only have one entry to be randomly selected to win a free Papertrey Ink stamp set of my choice. What a surprise to my eyes when I saw this commentary by Nichole Heady herself! I was in shock! I was truly honored by her kind words.

Thank you Nichole!

Make it Monday, #31

So I realize that I am submitting my entry for the Papertrey Ink  Make-it-Monday Challenge #31 at the last minute, but that is what happens when you are new to blogging. The challenge was to create a project using a non background stamp to create a background. I chose to use a Happy Birthday sentiment from Birthday Basics. I was inspired by the chevron paper from the Funky Town patterned paper sitting on my workspace. I stamped the sentiment in repeating colors and pattern and added a tag as the focal point. I really like how it turned out.

A day of remembrance and a day to celebrate

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy. A day where many of us remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when the day's events unfolded. My husband was in his office, clearing confetti off of his desk. It was also his 24th birthday. Our prayers go out to everyone whose lives were touched that day and a birthday wish to my husband.

I thought it would be fitting to post the card I made for him today. He is an accountant by day and a musician by night. I could not wait to get my hands on this darling little $5 stamp set from Papertrey Ink, Boy Basics: Rock On. I love, love the little guitar image and die. The card base is Smokey Shadow and I used Grunge Me to stamp the background. I stamped the sentiment on vellum (oops it smudged in several places) and used my tiny attacher to secure it in place. I tried to stamp over the smudges in the left lower corner with the splatter image...more smudges. After watching a tutorial by Nichol Magouirk a couple days after making my card, I realized that I had used the wrong ink on vellum. Lesson learned. Anyway, I still like the card despite the smudges. Good thing I was going for the grunge look (wink, wink).

I popped the little guitar up on foam adhesive to give it dimension and embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Happy Birthday Andy!

I did it!

I finally started a blog. A blog to share my little and not so little creations with paper and fabric and whatever else I can find. I must give credit to Papertrey Ink and Nichole Heady. I stumbled upon them 2 years ago and discovered the world of stamping. So with my first post, I will share my first creation. It was a Christmas Tag tin I made for my sister and mother-in-law inspired by this post using my first stamp set, 2008 Holiday Tags Collection. 

Nichole's inspiration

This was my creation

I hope you can find some inspiration as you join me on my journey.