Forgot to post

I realized today, while going through some pics, that I have a bunch of cards I haven't posted. So here's one -
I used Papertrey Ink's Cutting Garden. Such a pretty stamp set. I stamped all the images and used a brush and water to give it sortofa watercolor look. Then came back in and stamped over the same images again (this time leaving the ink full strength). I stamped the sentiment on vellum and clear embossed it. 
I've been busy today working on some decorations for a cake. I haven't done any cake decorating in years. I used to do quite a bit but the kids are grown up now and we don't have the same kind of cake spectaculars LOL! Some day I should dig out a bunch of cake pictures and post them. I was a little crazy (in a good way) back in the day when it came to cake decorating. I guess it's just more of that "I like to make stuff" thing. Cake, of course, come with a bonus feature - unlike cards, you can EAT what you make! And I do love me some cake! Anyhow this cake is for a Communion on Sunday (I told you... we have Communions aplenty in this family :-) and fortunately this nephew is somewhat local - only a little over an hour away - yay! so we get to go share in the festivities. ). I dug out the picture of the cake I made for my son for his First Communion and I'm recreating that cake - with some updates. Updates being I'm making the decoration ahead of time in Royal Icing (and not in buttercream like I did 18 years ago - which was crazy). Hopefully I'll have some pics to share by the end of the week. I gotta say I'm having a lot of fun. I'd forgotten how much :-)
Alrighty- thanks for stopping by and have a good one!

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop: Tilted

This blog hop challenge had me thinking since it was posted 10 days ago. Tilted could mean just about anything, right? I hadn't gotten a chance to make anything for it either in that time. Last night I had just finished putting some new Papertrey Ink stamps away - I put them in their new home :-) and take a long look at them wondering what I'm going to make with 'em. And one of the new stamp sets is called Sketched Shapes. It has a number of shapes but the one that got me thinking was the triangle. I pull out a clear block and slapped that triangle on it and grabbed the nearest ink pad and started stamping to see if what was in my head would transfer to paper. And it did. I had to go to bed (work comes so early in the morning... ugh) but after I got home I gave my idea a try on some typing paper (my stamping sketch paper LOL!) So here's what I came up with: it's three panels wide. I used that triangle and the arrow from Sketched Shapes. I also used a sentiment from PTI's Mini Blooms that I edited, separating it into three parts. When you open the card this is what you see next:

and when you open the card completely here's what  you get:

Blogger is giving me fits right now so I'm closing this up - I'm sending this card to my amazing daughter who is on the verge of graduating from college (illustration major) and I think she could use a pick-me-up right now - weeks to go and a ton of work. Thanks for coming by - have a good one! Oh  yeah.. sorry about the photos. I had a devil of a time getting pics to do it justice!

Make it Monday #113 Perfect Pearls

Okay so a funny thing happened on the way to this Make it Monday challenge (using Perfect Pearls or some other metallic powder) - I got distracted with cake.
This is not an unusual occurrence in my life.  I love cake. But I digress (as you, dear reader, know I am wont to do).
In this case it wasn't real cake.
(if it ain't real why bother, right?) I shall explain. I was filling the sugar bowl from the bag of sugar and I was about to throw said bag in the trash and I thought well looky there - right on the bag was a big fat piece of cake. See picture :-)

I thought to myself  - gee that looks about card-sized - the piece of cake. And so I cut away the front portion of the bag and set it aside until today and thought I'm makin a card with this. I cut out the cake and realized I was going to have to mount it on some cardstock (which i did). Then I knew I'd have to cover up that bit of red (the 5lb. circle that's on the right hand bottom portion of my slice o'cake). This is when the card was starting to come together in my head. I needed a big fat sentiment for that generous slice. I used the "Celebrate" from PTI's Think Big Favorites #13. I stamped it in Versamark on Dark Chocolate cardstock. I don't own any Perfect Pearls but I do have Pearl Ex - Micropearl (which looks kinda silvery - I'm just not sure how evident it is from my photo) so I brushed that on. I like how that looked and wanted to repeat the same thing in that problem area (the red circle on the cake). I cut out circles using my circle Nestabilities (Dark Chocolate and Fine Linen cardstocks) and stamped the little "Eat cake" from Cupcake Collection onto the dark chocolate cardstock. (I had to do a little masking to stack the words if you're familiar with that particular sentiment.) I diecut the wee stars from the Super Star Border die and finally I cut some Loop De Loop borders out of Fine Linen cardstock and attached those to the top and bottom of the card. 
So that's the story of my little mocha birthday card -it kinda looks like mocha doesn't it.... some kinda chocolate regardless - and in my mind all good birthday cake has some chocolate in it. Thanks for stopping by. Now go eat some chocolate cake for me!

On your Confirmation

okay so my last post was for a First Communion card. Now we're on to the Confirmation card for the brother of the recipient of that card.... did you get all that? LOL Now that lovely set I used on the Communion card has a sentiment "Confirmation" which is nice. But the images don't really reflect Confirmation. So... what to do. Gotta make my own. So here's what I came up with - the Holy Spirit :-). I just drew a dove and cut it out.

 I knew I wanted to try a few different things with that shape. I tried watercoloring with watercolor crayons then went back to the shape alone. Then tried using a little Pearl Ex to give that shape some shimmer. Finally I just came back to the shape itself (oh yeah just the dove not the haloed area). I ended up using a circle Nestabilities die to cut the circle in PTI Lemon Tart cardstock and mounted that on some PTI Spring Rain cardstock(and then a card base of white). I used some 3M foam tape to pop that dove up a bit. I added the "on your" with a Micron pen. And voila. Confirmation card done. Which is a good thing cos that little event is this week - I'd mixed it up with the Communion (which is the week after.)  I kept my original drawn cut out dove - he's tacked to my bulletin board so I can use him again next Confirmation LOL! (unless somebody comes out with a die I can use in the meantime. Wouldn't that be fine :-))
Okay thanks for visiting - have a good one!

First Communion

I have been looking for years - really - for a First Communion stamp set. I've seen some ok ones but nothing I was willing to spend some money on. So every time I had another First Communion in the family to celebrate (and there have been mmmmmmaaaaaannnnny) it pretty much killed me to go to the card store - but go I did. As recently as last month - a nephew celebrating First Communion and Confirmation all together. Right after that I happened to be looking at Marybeth's Time for Paper blog and saw her post of a Communion card. The stamp (from Serendipity Stamps)was perfect and I said "sold"! So here's my card (as there's another Communion coming up next week :-))
I colored using Copics for everything but the chalice. I tried a number of gold pencils to color in that chalice but I couldn't get the gold I wanted - so I finally used a silver Prismacolor pencil and mineral spirits. I used a Nestabilities die to cut out the image and stamped the "First Communion" sentiment from the set. The "on your" is just my handwriting with a Micron pen. I stamped out a bunch more of these images needless to say - so I could make more cards for the next First Communion. (After I hit the stamp store to get a refill on my one butter Copic pen........LOL) Thanks for stopping by. Have a good one!

Make it Monday #111 Take 2!

I know - another challenge card... yay for me!Yesterday afternoon I was trying out PTI's Beautiful Butterflies - finally. Life has been busy and I had to put it aside for a little while. Regardless I have a birthday card to make for a particular girl - and I thought the butterflies would make her smile. I had embossing powder still on my drawing table (with a million other things.... but I digress...) so I started stamping and embossing. For the butterfly panel - I initially stamped a few butterflies in Versamark then watercolored using the Sweet Blush reinker - leaving the white butterflies. I set that aside until this morning. Then I stamped again in Versamark and watercolored using the Hibiscus Burst reinker - leaving some sweet blush colored butterflies. I think you'll have to click on the photo to see the detail. I diecut the one large butterfly using cardstock and vellum and stamped on the vellum (with Raspberry Fizz ink) then clear embossed it. (The polka dots are from Polka Dot Basics.) I glued the two butterflies together added a button with some embroidery floss and the little attenae are some paper jewelry cord. I grabbed 2 more buttons, added floss and attached them to the sentiment - which is from Stylish Sentiments: Birthday. I originally planned to stitch on both sides of the panel - but my sewing machine had other ideas (rrrrr). However, my recipient won't be any the wiser :-)
Have a good one!

Make it Monday #111: Watercoloring Embossed Images

So this week the Make it Monday Challenge is to watercolor embossed images. I thought that would be some fun since I seem to be embossing everything I get my hands on lately. The hard part was to decide what I wanted to watercolor. Then I realized it wasn't so hard to decide after all - I can't seem to get enough of the Year of Flowers: Morning Glories stamp set from PTI. I stamped the flowers in Versamark then embossed with White embossing powder. I used reinkers to color in the the flower and leaves with a water pen I had on hand. There was a point where I thought I had those leaves dark enough - left it to dry and when I came back it had dried a lot lighter. But I decided against going back in and trying to get a little more definition. I really liked the way the flowers came out and decided to quit while I was ahead ;-) On to the rest of the card! I took the sentiment that comes with the set and did some masking so that I could have one line at the top of the card and the remaining line at the bottom. I stamped both in PTI Fresh snow and embossed with White EP - at the bottom you'll note I stamped on vellum that I'd diecut with PTI's Small Scallop Border Die.  Now for that Lemon Tart (yellow) center area - I decided to use the Polka Dot Basics stamp set. I wanted a subtle background so I stamped in Fresh Snow then used Clear Embossing Powder.  I did try Versamark - Clear embossed but that created a dark dot which is not what I was going for - the white clear embossed polka was just right.  Finally I used foam tape to pop up the image.
Alrighty- I'm off to make the most of this beautiful Saturday. Hoping to get in some more stamping for sure! Have a wonderful day!

Birthday Fox

You wouldn't know it but I've been making all kinds of cards but haven't had a chance to post. But today, before I get back to it (the card-making), I thought I'd post one quick. I used Papertrey Ink's Hello, Foxy stamp set (and die) for that ridiculously cute fox,  along with the Wonderful Words: Birthday die and sentiment stamps ("Happy" and "To You. From Me. With Love.") from Mini Blooms. Oh yeah - also the leaves from Turning a New Leaf stamp set. Those leaves are either clear embossed or embossed with white EP. The fox was colored with Copics.
Okay - I need to get back to making stuff.  :-)
Thanks for stopping by!
edited to add: I forgot to mention I used the PTI Woodgrain Impression plate on the "bIRthDaY" 

It's all about the carrots

well... and the bunny. he's cute isn't he? I was (an am still) in need of a few more Easter cards. I pulled out a set - Easter Bunny by Impression Obsession - I bought a few years ago and set out to make something with it.

I don't know about you but I find I buy stamps, hoping to get a lot of use out of them - I try not to impulse buy - and not a lot that's trendy... not to say that I don't have some "trendy" things in my collection but I'd say it's more classic.. stuff I know that when I bring it out again it doesn't look dated. (of course this is debatable ... depending on who you're talkin too ... but I digress....)
So I pull out these Easter bunny stamps and this is what I came up with. I really like those carrots. There are 2 carrot stamps in the set and I used them both and I think they make such a cute little border! I used Copics to color Mr. Bunny and carrots etc. The polka dot patterned paper is from Papertrey Ink's Polka Dot Parade pack. I used a rickrack die from PTI as well as Oval Nestabilities (with accompanying scalloped oval). The bakers twine is WeRMemory Keepers. Oh the little Happy Easter sentiment is from PTI's Polka Dot Parade #1 stamp set. Have I left anything out? Oh yeah... the little tag. I didn't have what I was looking for so I used the Double Ended Tag Trio from Nestabilities that I've had for a few years - and cut off one end and rounded it off.
Ok. I need to make another Easter card and a few birthday cards too. Thanks for stopping by!

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday #108: Inked Backgrounds

The MIM challenge this week was Inked Backgrounds. I love stamping backgrounds and inking backgrounds. I played around all week long in stolen moments. I have some backgrounds I'm actually saving because I haven't formulated the rest of the card in my head LOL! In the meantime, on Friday afternoon I got home from work and my box from PTI had arrived and I really wanted to try out the Year of Flowers: Morning Glories set. I have had that set on my little wish list for forever. I love morning glories. A few years I had them growing up around my mailbox - they are just so beautiful. Anyway - I did have a dilemma - I didn't have the Copics I needed to color them (gasp!). I did have some prismacolor pencils but I had my mind set on markers. I decided to hit Michaels as they've recently been carrying them. Well - they didn't have what I needed. I noticed American Crafts Chromatix - the colors looked right so I gave them a try. I stamped out the image a few times and dove in. I'm not sure I'm a complete fan - but I think they worked ok. The greens are Copics. But let me tell you about the background. It's simple but I kinda like it. I used Background Basics: Tin Types. I stamped it with Versamark on white cardstock and then clear embossed it. I applied Fine Linen ink first then I went back in and layered on some Kraft Ink. The sentiment is from Fillable Frames Sentiments stamped on the Double Ended Banners die. Then I decided to add a little butterfly from Beautiful Butterflies stamped in Versamark and clear embossed. (I originally considered doing another background instead of the butterfly but I was afraid it was going to get too busy).  Alrighty - that's all from me right now. The kitties are begging for dinner and the people food is about to come out of the oven! Have a good one!

Still too busy for my likin

Yes things seem to get in the way of my card making. Work, laundry, cooking blah blah blah. We did go away last weekend to visit my eldest nephew and his wife. That was so fun - you know how it is sometimes - nothing will do but to just get on the road and getaway! We did a lot in a short little visit: went to see their new house they'll be closing on at the end of the month; went out to lunch; went bowling (I haven't done that in yearsssss and we had a ball... a bowling ball LOL), went to the movies (saw Silver Linings Playbook - so good!),went out to dinner. I'd always wanted to go to this fondue place - The Melting Pot (have you been?) and when they suggested it I was so in. Yum. (yes it was a fattening weekend but that's all I shall say on that subject.)

Anyway - you go away and then you need to catch up with everything you put aside for the weekend. (Laundry, grocery shopping... did I say laundry? ugh). I've been so busy I haven't even stamped with some new Papertrey Ink stamps I bought in February - unheard of for me. I find a way to get ink on stamps within days of receipt. And heck - Santa bought me a Silhouette Portrait for Christmas I'm still trying to get a handle on. So the other day I said I'm pulling out something and I'm stamping and I'm Silhouetting.
On the first card I used some burlap I had hanging around for years combined with the green burlap I picked up in Michaels a week or two ago. I diecut the letters with some Sizzix dies (Funky Brush) out of PTI Hibiscus Burst Bitty Dot patterned paper. I think I love those diecut letters alot all polkadotted up. The little bunny is stamped and diecut from PTI's Polka Dot Parade #1. The word Happy is from PTI's Stylish Sentiments. The buttons are also PTI. And the Bakers Twine is from WeRMemory Keepers. I love that little bunny so much I decided to pair him up with a card I cut using my Silhouette Portrait. The patterned paper is again PTI but this time Bitty Dot  Spring Moss. It's a simple card but I like it and I was happy to actually produce something using the Silhouette. I had gotten a bit frustrated with the Silhouette - it's not the Silhouette that's the problem - it's me. I need more time to play with it and finally getting something made was encouraging.
SSo that's all for now. I'm determined to get some more cards made on Sunday (yes tomorrow is already spoken for - ugh!). Thanks for stopping by and have a good one!

Have a little cake with your candles

is another way of saying - you're old! Considering the card-ee (recipient of said card) - I can say this - I'm older than her. My little sister shall be celebrating a big birthday in another month and since I'm the older sister I can say this kinda thing, right?
What precipitated this card? Well I was looking at the Moxie Fab blog (which I've been so enjoying! Love all the fun posting of images etc) and Cath Edvalson has been showing the 11th edition of Card Creations - and along with it - posting challenges all week. The Speech Bubble Challenge caught my eye. The little sentiment I came up with is a derivation of many things we used to say in our house growing up. For example: there'd be a LOT of whipped cream plopped on a piece of pumpkin pie and someone would say - "hey, have a little pie with your whipped cream". Or maybe a lotta of hot fudge on the ice cream "hey, have a little ice cream with that hot fudge". See what I mean? 
Of course I don't have a stamp for that little sentiment, and I didn't have a birthday cake stamp with a whole mess of candles.... so I made my own. I drew my card - probably not kosher ? for the challenge but I did use some Copics to color it in and mounted it on some Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet cardstock. Maybe that'll count. I don't know if there are rules for such things. Heck I'm entering it for the challenge anyway!
It's the first card I've been able to make in a week. I've been busy. First addressing wedding invitations for an old friend of mine. Her daughter is getting married and she wanted my handwriting on the envelopes (go fig. She hates her handwriting and loves mine.) That took a week. Lots of envelopes - inner and outer. Oyvey! I've addressed "Save the Dates" for a niece (she also likes my handwriting :-)) but wedding invitations were a whole 'nother level yaknow?
We also bought me a new car the other night. Yes! I have had my van for 13 years and now that we've made our last college tuition payment - time for Tracy to get a new car. To say I'm a happy girl is a bit of an understatement.
Okay. I need to get on making dinner. Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a good one!

a couple of birthday cards

I forgot to post. Amidst the flurry of valentines, I realized I never got around to these two cards. I really wish I had taken better pics. I admire all the fine photography on others blogs. Improvement on my picture taking was at the top of the list for this year - that and learning Photoshop. But I still struggle with sneaking in time for card making. Well - it's early - we're only at the end of February right? Okay I've got two cards.
First one I used Papertrey Ink's 2012 Birthday Tags and Giga Guidelines stamp sets. I also used PTI's Limitless Layers Ovals and Tag Sale #3 dies and an embossing folder from StampinUp!.
The next card I used a Papertrey Ink stamp set called Cupcake Collection for the cupcake and sentiment as well as the background candles. (I lined up the little candles on my acrylic block and just kept on stamping to create the background.) The polka dot background was stamped with PTI's Polka Dot Basics stamp set. The cupcake was cut with the coordinating dies. And the frame as well as the little banner are dies from PTI's Fabulous Frames die set. I finished it off with some ultrafine glitter.
Okay that's all from me right now. Gotta run! Thanks for stopping by.

Make It Monday #104 : Handmade Pinwheels

On Sunday I was playing around with some Papertrey Ink stamps - stamping on a sheet of Guidelines I Grid cardstock with my Giga Guidelines Stamp set. It's been a while since I played with this set and I wanted to make a birthday card. I stamped the entire sheet with one of the stamps from the set using Melon Berry ink. I played a bit with another color and tried adding in another stamp to the mix - then I had to call it a night.
On Monday I got home from work and viewed the Make It Monday this week and I thought - this sheet of stamped images is the perfect starting off point for making a pinwheel (and my birthday card). Here's the card I came up with - I added a square of Aqua Mist Gingham patterned paper behind my pinwheel and an aqua button with some floss. The sentiment is from Think Big Favorites #7.  I did make another pinwheel using some more images from the sheet and I'm hoping to make another card using it.
Oh I forgot to say I clipped my card to a cute little stand my sister made me for Christmas - so that's what you're seeing in the photo of my card. I've been using this little stand since Christmas to clip recipes up while I'm cooking and cards I want to look at after I've made them. Okay... thanks for coming by!

9th Annual Valentine Rakarama!

 So it took me a little longer to get back here to post these but I wanted to wait until the recipients had their Valentines.  Every Valentine's Day, I like to make valentines for my crafty girlfriends. For the past few years I've challenged myself to make every one different. Well - the basic layout is the same but I think you'll see they're kinda like snowflakes - not one is the same ;-) So on with the show...

Supply wise I used the My Minds Eye Love Me 6x6 paper pad, Papertrey Ink Framed Out #11 Die, as well as PTI's Limitless Layers 2-1/4 Heart dies and Heart and XOXO Border dies and my sewing machine. Alrighty that's it for today. I still have some family/friend valentines to show and a few other cards I haven't posted yet. Have a good one!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's the card I made for my husband. I did a little masking of the sentiment - it's from the Papertrey Ink set Sending My Love. I also used the Limitless Layers 2-1/4 Heart Dies. The little strip of text patterned paper is from Martha Stewart.
I hope to be back a little later with a whole bunch of other Valentines I made for family. And then of course there is the 9th Annual Valentine Rakarama (I think that will need to be tomorrow... it's a bunch of Valentines ;-))

Papertrey Anniversary Challenge - Watercolors

I saw the challenge this afternoon - create a project with a watercolor technique or look and I thought I'd really like to give that a go. I've been working on a lot of Valentines and I wanted to do something a little less structured.I used a palette stamp from my stash and inked it with PTI Aqua Mist. I stamped it onto some watercolor paper to create a background. I took a paintbrush and blended the background a bit. Then I stamped some leaves (from PTI's Turning a New Leaf set) onto the background. I took a fine paintbrush and went over those leaves to soften them up. Then I took a little of the Aqua Mist reinker and some water on one my acrylic blocks and went back into the background to darken up some of the areas.  Finally I stamped my sentiment (from Fillable Frames Sentiments). I wish my photo did the finished piece justice because I really love the way it came out. Regardless, it was a fun little project and I thoroughly enjoyed doing something different! Loving these challenges!

sweet birthday wishes

I've been on a card making binge the last week and a half or so. With a need for some birthday cards and Valentine's Day coming up I've been a card makin fool.... and taking pictures was the last thing on my mind. But as I like to share what I've been doing and so I can remember what I did LOL... well I took pics but they're not exactly the best quality. With that said - I made a few birthday cards with Papertrey's The Sweet Life stamp set (and dies) as well as Think Big Favorites 16. I should note I did a little masking with the TBF#16 (stacking the words instead of the way the stamp is actually) - it was the sentiment I wanted to use but I needed to make it fit the space. I also used PTI's Half & Half dies and the Polka Dot Parade Patterned Paper Pack.
Okay that's all for now. I'm going to be back with a LOT of Valentines. Cos you KNOW I love to make Valentines! Have a good one!

PTI Challenge

Papertrey Ink is celebrating its 6th Anniversary with lots of challenges and contests. I decided to join in today. The challenge was to create some kind of wrap, tag or packaging based upon inspiration found on Pinterest (or another source). Well I took a look around Pinterest (I gave myself a time limit or I never would have made a thing). I don't know about you but sometimes when I look around Pinterest I feel as if my head will explode - tooooo many ideas LOL! However, I came upon this tag - I loved the colors. Me and color have a love/hate relationship.  I love it but I'm not always successful using it. But I decided this was supposed to be a challenge so I'd give it a go. I knew already I wanted to make wrapping paper and thought I'd like to also create a coordinating tag. I had a roll of white kraft paper. I cut off a large piece and got to work after a number of rounds of stamping on scrap paper to get just the right mix of colors, flowers etc. I used a number of Papertrey Ink stamp sets: Tagged Sentimentss, Flower Fusion #2 & 7, and Heart-2-Heart #7 & 12. I also used the Tag Sale #6 die. It's been a long time since I've made wrapping paper but I really had a lot of fun and I do believe I'll be making a whole bunch more!

Sending Birthday Wishes

Hey there - today I'm sharing a card I made for my brother-in-law who has a birthday today. Masculine cards can be hard - but I had a particular stamp in mind to use - which of course makes it a whole lot easier. The stamp in question - World Map from Papertrey Ink. As soon as I saw it I said to myself - that stamp is mine. (given that my husband loves a map - any map- I knew the stamp would see a lot of use.)  I also used some Fine Linen patterned paper  and the sentiment (Fillable Frames Sentiments) from Papertrey.  The black chevron pieces and the ticket were cut using my Silhouette Portrait. :-) I had used the Portrait once since receiving it for Christmas and I really wanted to try it again. I gotta say I'm a little in love with that Portrait and have all kinds of projects in mind for it in the coming months.  Anyway, I finished the card off with a star brad I had on hand - and while I was at it, I made two cards. That's all for today - have a good one!