Year of Thinking of You - July

Hello friends! Back again with a "Year of Thinking of You" card. I decided some butterflies would make a cheery card for a friend so I used Papertrey Ink's Beautiful Butterflies. The sentiment - PTI's Wet Paint. A quick, easy and colorful card! Thanks for stopping by!

Year of Thinking of You - May

Hello friends! I've been working along on my "Year of Thinking of You" cards for my sister-in-law (she's sending cards to a friend who she'd like to give monthly support in the form of cards). Here's one I made for May (I guess it could be for June as well - up to her to make that call.)
I wanted to use the Strawberry Patch stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I diecut and stamped out a bunch of strawberries. Then I cut out the basket using a cut file from Silhouette. It was actually a 3D basket but a little trimming then adding a hand cut band across the top - and I had a basket. I added a little brown chalk to add a little depth. I added the strawberries and I was all set to add it to my card. For the sentiment (PTI Think Big Favorites #22) I cut out the frame using a PTI Keep It Simple Frames (cut one from some regular PTI cardstock and another layer from a PTI coaster for some more dimension). I sewed the background Aqua Mist gingham paper to the cardstock and attached all the elements and then added that last strawberry. I like how it came out and think it will be a cheery note for my sil's friend to receive. Thanks for stopping by!

Why, hello there....

and how are you on this fine day? Well, here in the burg it is snowy. We had a few inches and I just came in from shoveling the slushy mess and decided I'd post this little card I made.
When I was watercoloring up a storm the other day for the PTI blog hop I tried one page of smooshing (that funny word again) a background for this little guy - Tucker, the snail from Purple Onion Designs . I just love this little guy. I defy anyone to look at him and not get a little grin on their face. I stamped him separately on a scrap of watercolor paper, colored him in and when he was dry I added a Wink Of Stella then cut him out with scissors and placed him on this card. I added that sentiment (from a PTI  Anniversary set that is no longer available). Then mounted the whole thing on a card. Quick and easy and I think pretty darned cute. Okay. That's all for today friends. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop Challenge

Hi Friends! It's been a couple of days but I was determined I was going to post today for PTI's blog hop challenge. The inspiration photo was so beautiful and I've been mulling what I'd do over in my mind for a while. I know we're only allowed to enter the challenge with one card but I've made two so I'm posting them both.
 I knew I wanted to play around with a watercolor look and one of my PTI cover plates. I finally decided on the hexagon cover plate. I tried my hand at "smooshing" with a range of PTI reinkers on watercolor paper (PTI colors: Aqua Mist, Spring Rain, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Harvest Gold, Fine Linen; Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Antique Linen and Faded Jeans). It was a lot of fun and when I was done I had lots of watercolor-like sheets of paper - it looked like Easter all over my drawing table.
Then I ran each one through my Big Shot (the watercolor paper is nice and thick and while the pieces were all cut none of them moved til I pushed them out with my fingers which was very handy!) Then I started arranging them in what i thought was a pleasing mix. You'll note I didn't use the framework from the coverplate die - I just pieced it all together. I know it sounds crazy but it wasn't a lot of work. And the sans-framework was the look I was going for.  I finished off the blue/green card by cutting around the finished piece and mounting it on an Aqua Mist base. (The color isn't showing up as beautiful as it is in real life - I just couldn't get a better photo this morning.) I added the piece of vellum that I stamped in Versamark and embossed with white Filigree Embossing powder (Sentiment from Think Big Favorites #22). I used some pinking shears to cut off the ends of the vellum.
For the pink/green card, I trimmed the watercolor base and mounted it on Sweet Blush cardstock. The sentiment, stamped in Smokey Shadow, is from Bundle of Love.
I'm so happy I got to play this blog hop. It's been a while! Now I'm off to get some chores done so I can look at everyone else's entries this afternoon! Thanks for stopping by!

Wonderful Neighbors

Hello there - how's the weather where you are? Here it's a little cold. Not near as cold as earlier in the week for which I am quite grateful. It had been quite bitter.
Anyway, I mentioned yesterday that I had snow to shovel. It was around 5 inches - not so bad at all. And before I had the chance to get outside to begin clearing it all away, our neighbor had shoveled our sidewalk. I had to smile. We do this with these neighbors. We shovel each others sidewalks. It's sort of an unspoken thing. One storm we do it for them and the next storm we find ours done. It's fun to do something for someone right? Just a little thing to let them know you appreciate them, you're happy they're your neighbor. A little random act of kindness.
I did go out and shovel that and while I was shoveling I decided I was going to bring something by just to say thank you - just because they wouldn't expect it.  I baked up some cookies today (a new recipe my nephew's wife told me I needed to try) and threw a dozen or so in a little plastic bowl, wrapped with some cellophane and attached this tag I made last night.
I'd found a shovel in the Silhouette store and cut that out. I attached it to a Papertrey Ink tag (Journal Card #6). Then I cut out a few "Thank You"'s using a WPlus9 die (Hand Lettered Thanks).and glued them together.
I just ran next door with my cookies and my neighbor kept saying "You didn't have to do that". And of course I know I didn't but it was fun and made her smile - so mission accomplished..
Hope you're having a good one. Thanks for stopping by.

Thinking Spring

Good morning friends. Thought I'd throw a little spring into our lives with a little tag I made for a gift not too long ago. (okay I'm stalling going outside and shoveling last night's winter offering... that four letter word: snow. I know June and Amy - you like it! Me - it's not like I hate it. Not at all. But sometimes it's, how shall we say it... hmmm... incovenient? yeah. that's it!)
I used some Papertrey Ink products (quelle suprise!): Tag Sale #1, Tiny Tags, Year of Flowers Collection dies; Tiny Tags, Year of Flowers Collection, Background Basics: Twinkle. For the background I added in those wee dots of white with a white gel pen and I colored in the leaves with Prismacolor Pencils. Now the little flowers could be left white obviously but I wanted them to stand out so I used a Copic marker (that matches the cardstock) to color in the area surrounding the entire diecut (you know that white area).
I don't know about your garden but mine has bulb coming up all over - now covered in snow. But it won't be long now and I cannot wait.
Have a wonderful day! (yes... it's now time to stop stalling and commence with the shoveling).

More Valentines - I love you more than.....

Hi there friends. I said I'd be back with a few more Valentines. These were for my husband and two kids. "I love you more than...." seemed to be my theme for this year.
First one - for the husband - lover of maps, stars, space etc. I couldn't find a sentiment I wanted so I just wrote it myself. I just stamped the PTI Star Gazer Additions stamp with Versamark, clear embossed it and went to town with four different inks.
He liked it.

Next up - the card for my son. I was here in my craft room, looking for something (and I honestly can't remember what that was now....) and I came upon a box filled with diecuts (the premade kind available way back when...). I saw this pizza die cut that I'd originally purchased to put on a scrapbook page about this very same child. I decided why not just use it already! So I glued all those pieces together, embossed some white cardstock with a stylus- to create a napkin - and put that on a cardbase covered in some PTI Pure Poppy gingham patterned paper.  I just printed out the sentiment on my computer.
Suffice it to say this child loves his pizza - he comes by it honestly - pizza is in our blood.


And finally, a valentine for my daughter. This kid was not originally a coffee fan - but somewhere along the line, in high school as I recall, she decided she liked coffee. And often times we both can be found, oh around 4pm, gathered around our Keurig, brewing ourselves a cup. I have been on a Silhouette kick lately - trying to use it as much as possible - learning still what it can do after 2 years. I saw this print & cut coffee cup in the Silhouette store. Printed & cut same, added a computer generated sentiment (inside it says "and that's a lot"). She laughed when she saw it - saying something to the effect - well that IS  alot. Everyone knows I love my coffee.
But I love these three more (more than the stars in the sky, more than pizza and more than coffee).
Hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day. My husband and I had just the nicest time - went to the movies (The Imitation Game - such a good movie!) and out to dinner. This was our 33rd Valentine's Day together. I think it's fair to say it was our best ever. :-)
Thanks for stopping by.

The 11th Annual Valentine Rakarama

Good Morning Friends. Yes it is that time of year - time for my 11th Annual Valentine Rakarama. What is that you say? Well it's when I send Valentines to my crafty friends (and a few non-crafty ones). I heard the term "Gal-en-tines" recently and that sums it up nicely. Valentines for girlfriends. Honestly I need very little excuse to send a card - but Valentine's Day is probably my favorite. I've got most of my previous Rakarama's tagged in the column to your right if you're interested in years previous. In past years, I have challenged myself to make each Valentine different. Last year I made them all the same and this is what I chose to do gain this year. I made 25 of these. Yes, I think I need my head examined some days. The initial idea came to me when Papertrey Ink introduced a stamp set in December. It's called Love You To Pieces. While that main set is quite nice, it was the Additions version that caught my eye. It had that sentiment - love you to pieces - in it. And I thought of pieces as puzzle pieces. I have some Quickutz puzzle piece dies I thought I would use for the cards. Fast forward to middle/end of January and I decided I really wanted entire puzzles to be included in the card. (this is how these simple ideas evolve into a little bit of crazy).

Life got busy and I wasn't able to begin my valentines until Monday... yes.. this week. I worked on them on Monday and Tuesday and had them all in the mail on Wednesday. I created the puzzles on my Silhouette Portrait. I used the print & cut feature - printing out hearts that I filled with a pattern. I stamped them all with an old sentiment stamp from StampinUp that I love. Then I returned the whole thing to my Silhouette to cut out the puzzles. (The pic I've included here shows the first go around when I stamped after I cut the puzzles.) It worked like a charm. I'd never used the print & cut feature before but it couldn't have been easier.

I put the puzzle pieces in glassine envelopes I'd gotten from PTI. I sealed those envelopes with stickers I also made on my Silhouette. I used PTI Sticker Paper and did that print & cut again - just created small hearts with the words "open here" - printed and cut them out. I did stamp the wee chevron patterns on each one using PTI's Bitty Blocks II. I tied on some PTI Rustic Cream twine (that took longer than anything I did on ese cards!).The rest of the card was a bit simpler. I stamped and embossed (PTI White Filigree EP) the tiny hearts onto vellum using PTI's Background Basics: Hearts. Attached that to the background cardstock and topped it with a heart doily I bought at Michaels. The bag o'puzzle pieces was attached then and finally I added the heart (also cut on the Silhouette) which I stamped with that cute sentiment (love you to pieces) which started this whole thing!

I'm really pleaseD with how they came out if I do say so myself. It's very "Valentine" and that's what I was shooting for. 

I'll share some other valentine's I made in the next day or so. Until then, have a lovely Valentine's Day with the ones you love. Thanks for stopping by.

when you want to make stuff

but life gets in the way!
It just seems like I have too many things pulling at me to get any time at my drawing table. Over the weekend we went to a family birthday party. Not in town. Unfortunately all our family is all over the map. And today - actually any minute now - overnight guests will be arriving. I've been cleaning, baking and cooking. I'm hoping to get to play along with some of the challenges at Papertrey Ink's Anniversary celebration maybe tomorrow. I've also got to seriously get on with the Valentine makin. Hope you're having a good one!

Papertrey 8th Anniversary Challenge

Hi friends. I've been gone for a short bit I know. The husband and I took a little trip up to NYC last weekend and since then I've been playing catchup (ketchup? yea that too). I have also been doing a bit of scrapbooking. Perhaps I'll share that soon.
Anyway it's that time of year again - Papertrey Ink's Anniversary celebration and that always includes tons of challenges which are always great fun, don't you agree?
As I said I've been scrapbooking and playing with all manner of supplies and techniques I hadn't done in years. Which brings me to my entry into the first challenge over at the PTI blog. (You were wondering when I'd get to that huh?) The challenge is to use inspiration cards (sketches and color schemes) to come up with a card.  My card is loosely based on this sketch. My colors are loosely based on two of the color schemes. I think the inspiration cards are just that right? Used for inspiration. okay....

I decided on using the Friendship Jar Spring Fillers stamp set - I wanted to use those conversation hearts. But first I wanted to create a bit of a background - using the Background Basics: Hearts. I created a mask  & a template using the PTI jar die. I adhered the mask then stamped in the BB: Hearts with Versamark. I peeled up my mask then used the template to mark off where the jar would go. Then inside that area I stamped the conversation hearts. I colored those with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. Then went back in and stamped the words. Then I took a Copic Marker (Dull Ivory E43) and colored in my jar. I went back over that with a line drawing (since I don't have the Jar Stamp) using probably my new favorite pen - a Pilot G-TEC-C4.
Then I went back to those background hearts and used some chalk to color those in (the chalk sticks to the Versamark - an old technique but a fun one!)
Finally I cut a tag using the Tiny Tags die and stamped it with one of those little conversation stamps. Then I poked some holes into my card to tie the tag on with some Rustic Cream twine.
I gotta say I had such a good time with this. I hadn't been drawing in way too long and as much as I love my Copics I adore my Prismacolor pencils.
Okay I'll shut up now. I need to start looking for some inspiration for the challenge posted today. Hope you're having a good one.

Thinking Happy Thoughts of You/Year of Thinking of You - June

Hi Friends!
I had that little bird from Purple Onion Designs out last week and decided to make another card using him. He's just so darned cute. I stamped him a few times on cardstock, colored him with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut him (and his friends for a little dimension) out.  I decided to sit him on that little branch (also from POD) and situate him on some diecuts (Mat Stack 3 and Mat Stack 3 Layerz from PTI) and sponge in some sunshine. I also used the Herringbone Impression Plate from PTI for the background. And I finished it off with a sentiment from PTI from the Heart-2-Heart #12 stamp set.
That's all for today. I am off today on a little excursion with my husband. I'll have to tell you all about it when we return. Til then - have a good one!
editing to add - my sister-in-law is using this one for our "Year of Thinking of You" cards for June.

Dear Ones cards for January/Year of Thinking of You August

Hi friends! Here's a Dear Ones card I made for this month. (Dear Ones cards are those I send to special friends/family members who I rarely get to see - they live so far away - and they're all seniors - some get out - some don't - but they all appreciate a handmade card and a little note to let them know I'm thinking of them.) I made 8 of these cards very quickly.
I used Papertrey Ink stamps (Flower Fusion #'s 4 & 7), the Linen & Canvas Impression Plate, the die from Wonderful Words: Hello and those stitched rectangles from Lil' Inker.
It's been cold and snowy here in the 'berg and I am trying to think "Spring" - hence the color palette.
That's all for today kids - stay warm where you are!
I'm editing to add that my sister-in-law liked this card so she'll be using it for the "Year of Thinking of You" cards - August edition.

It didn't work for the challenge but I like it anyway

Hi friends. Did you ever see a challenge on a "challenge" blog and decide you're going to give that a go and realize... no, that's not gonna work. Well, maybe you haven't. Maybe you kept trying and you made something you liked and yay for you! :-)  This time I don't think it worked out for me for the challenge but I like that I still made something.
The challenge I saw was for paper piecing which I happen to enjoy so I thought great - I'll try that. Then I realized the stamps I had really don't lend themselves to paper piecing (you needed to use a particular company's stamps) - they're not line stamps - more flat image. I thought about it some more and said I'm making something with the stamps I have anyway - they haven't seen ink in a while. So I set off making this card. I went to my patterned paper scrap box and chose that plaid piece. Then I found another piece of patterned paper with polka dots and stamped my image on it with a similar but darker color pink. I liked how that came out and clear embossed it. I like that you can still see the polka dots right through the stamping. I found yet another piece of patterned paper - this time the green paper I cut the leaves from - it had a very subtle pattern and texture too. I stamped the leaf image from the set on the paper with a similar but darker ink - it picked up the texture which I really liked. I finished the card using one of the sentiments in the set and I had a card. Not the card that I set out to make but it worked out fine in the end.
Hope you're having a good day - it was lightly snowing earlier here but has stopped. I think we're dodging the "blizzard" bullet here in northern Virginia. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Michele

Today's card is for my friend Michele. And, as she is the owner of Purple Onion Designs, I thought I'd use some of her Stacey Yacula stamps for her card.
I'd wanted to use these guys for a while and had such fun making this card. First is Robin - the cute little birdie with the striped shirt. Then there's that cute branch (its actually got blossoms but I opted to color them as leaves - that's the wonderful thing about stamps- and especially the kind you can color with Copics - that's what I used to color all the images - you can make it anyway you wanna!) I also used the cute butterfly buddies, Flit & Flutter. I decided to stamp them several times, colored them, then fussy cut them. I used some Glossy Accents to attach the layers of each butterfly as I wanted to pop up their wings a bit - Glossy Accents is great for that. I also added a bit of Wink of Stella to give them a little sparkle. I cut the kraft cardstock with a Circle Nestabilities then embossed it with the Woodgrain Impression plate from Papertrey Ink. I popped the whole card up on some adhesived backed foam (I cut a piece using the same circle die which made it so easy). The sentiment was printed on my computer and cut with the Double-Ended banners die from PTI. Oh and one last thing - I did take some kraft ink to the kraft cardstock- the area surrounding the circle opening just to define it a little more - darken up those edges.
I think it came out pretty cute.
Happy Birthday Michele!

Celebrate, Good Times, Come On!

Sometimes when I'm making cards, I'm totally thinking about the person I'm making the card for and... I start singing as I work. My bff is having an extra special day this week - and this card is to mark the occasion. I started pulling out stamps, finding the "Celebrate" word first (from Papertrey Ink - Think Big Favorites #13) and it got me singing that Kool & The Gang song. I know... i'm a little nuts. But it is a happy occasion and I just got all happy thinking about it so I started singin! The "Good Times" and "Come On" were created using Papertrey Ink alphabet dies (Polka Dot Parade and Smooth, respectively). And that last line - well that's computer generated and printed out on some cardstock.  I think it will make her crack up and that's what I'm going for - so mission accomplished. Thanks for stopping by.

Year of Thinking of You - probably April

I say probably April cos I'm not sure if that's the month she'll use it. It seems like it might be better suited to May or June. Regardless, I made two cards: one with a red bike and one with a pink bike. The red one is going to my s-i-l and the pink one is going to a friend.
I used two stamp sets from Papertrey Ink: the bike image and sentiment come from Pedal Pusher. The flowers come from Just Smile. For both cards I drew my own banner, cut it out, then stamped on the sentiment. For the pink card, I drew in lines tying the banner to the bike. On the red card, I used some bakers twine to tie on the banner to the red die cut bike.

You can probably see that on both cards I used some foam tape to pop up those banners a little.
I added some brads to the red bike's wheels.

Oh and did you notice the envelopes underneath the bikes?  I found some old Making Memories long (business sized) envelopes in my stash. I had some cute washi tape my sister had sent me a while ago that had a very similar color scheme to those flowers on the cards - so I added some washi to the envelopes. I should've taken photos of those envelopes too - but suffice it to say it looks cute.
okay that's it for today. thanks for stopping by.

Year of Thinking of you - March

Hi there - had some stuff to take care of last week but I'm back now. Today I'm sharing one of my Year of Thinking of You cards for my sister-in-law.  While I was at it I made 3 - she's taking the yellow background one and the rest will go to my stash.
I used the Hello Sunshine stamp set from Papertrey Ink. It has such lovely sentiments. I made a similar card once before but I changed things up a little this go round. And for the three cards I used different inks and cardstocks. And I also used the Lil' Inker Designs Stitched Mats: Rectangles.
Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back a few more times this week. I've got a bunch of cards to show you!

Year of Thinking of You - February

So here's another for the "Year of Thinking of You" cards - February edition. I figured I might as well make February and mail it in the same envelope with January to my sister-in-law.
This was a pretty quick one. I'm also trying not to get toooo dimensional - this will cost one first class stamp - it's flat :-)
I used PTI's Birds & Blooms stamp set. I hadn't brought this stamp set out in a while - good to play with it again. It has just the prettiest sentiments as well as the cute bird and branch. I used the little heart in the set to embellish the branch with a bunch of hearts (it's for February right?).
That's all for today. Have a good one!

A Year of Thinking of You - January

Well those Year of Cards gifts went over well - so much so that one sister-in-law asked me to help her out with a little project of her own. She's got a friend who she'd like to send a card to every month - a Thinking of You kinda card. She asked if I'd come up with a monthly card - and why not? It's one of my favorite things to do - make (and send) cards. Let's share the "sending cards" love! What my sister-in-law really liked the most about my YOC's (which I'll remind you were all birthday cards)  was their seasonality. So, with that in mind, here's what I made for the January.
The sweater was created with the Sweater die from Papertrey Ink. The sentiment (from PTI's Keep It Simple: Thinking of You stamp set) was stamped on white cardstock cut with the Double Ended Banner die (also PTI). The patterned paper? - I created using my Silhouette. I used the Snowflake Fair Isle Background - filled it in with red - set it to No Cut and just printed it off. I think it makes a really cute sweater!
Okay - that's all for today! Have a good one

Birthday Tag

One of my nephews has a birthday this week. This nephew being my sister's #2 son who shall be 11, which seems impossible but it is so. As my sister lives on the other side of the country (insert sad face here) it is our practice for me to purchase his gift online (this year it's Legos... actually it's Legos most of the time LOL!) and have it sent to my sister. She wraps the gift and I mail along a card and a tag for the present. It works out rather well - except the part where I miss seeing his adorable face as he opens the package. But I digress...
So here's his tag for this year. I used all Papertrey Ink products: the Smooth alphabet dies for his name; Shaker Shapes: Star die; Herringbone Impression plate; Tag Sale #7 die; and the ball is from the Have a Ball stamp set. The red & white twine is from Doodlebug.
Alrighty - that's all for today. Have a good one!