Workin on Valentines

I'm working on Valentines for the family today and saw some great sketches over at Papertrey Ink's blog and thought that might help :-) I used a few stamps from the Friendship Jar Spring Fillers set and the Background Basics: Gingham set. I didn't have any buttons that worked so I used a Sizzix button die and I think it worked ok. The little kiss is colored using a silver Prismacolor pencil. The piece of cardstock under the gingham is actually grey and ties in the silver kiss but it isn't photographing well.  Regardless I'm pleased. One down... and a whole bunch more to go LOL Have a good one!

Sympathy Card

Unfortunately, I needed a sympathy card.
They are always a tough card to make, don't you think? 
I used the PTI With Sympathy set - it has really lovely sentiments for such an occasion. I also thought I'd like to do some embossing instead of choosing some patterned paper. The embossing would be subtle and the emphasis could stay on the sentiment. I chose a little Cuttlebug embossing folder I really like and would do the trick. I made the base card then embossed the image 3 times across a strip of green cardstock and added that to the base. I used my Nestabilities ovals to cut out the sentiment and mat it.  It's simple but I like the way it turned out. okay....
Now I'm off to get this in the mail - thanks for stopping by.

Sending My Best

As you can see I've been able to get some card making in of late :-) I'm beginning to feel like my old card-making self! Today's is sort of a little hello card - sending my best - I like that sentiment, don't you? Anyway, I used two Papertrey Ink sets: Year of Flowers and Mat Stack 3 Collection. I guess you can say I've been hoarding a few large scraps of some Bazzill cardstock - Crimson (probably my all-time favorite color - not even sure they make it anymore) and thought it would go nicely with the flowers. I put the card together and thought it needed something - I decided to draw in that white line (using a Gelly Roll white pen) - I think that did the trick to finish it off. I wish I could've taken a better photo - with a bit more contrast. I would've scanned it but my scanner is being most uncooperative of late. Oh yes - one last thing - I colored the image using colored pencils. Have a wonderful day!

balloon birthday

We went to birthday party today for my nephew's son (yes, I'm a grand aunt :-)) who is turning 1 year old on Tuesday - so i needed a boy birthday card. Makes me think of primary colors ya know? Anyway I had a bit of the striped paper I used on a birthday card for one of my nephews in December (yes I have many nephews ranging in age from 35 to 6). So I thought I'd used that along with a Papertrey Ink set, Tiny Treats: Birthday. There are so many adorable stamps in this set but I finally chose the balloons cos it seemed to work well with the striped paper. I stamped the large green and white polka dot image with versamark and used white embossing powder. I colored the little balloons with colored pencils and a few markers. I am really looking forward to making a bunch of cards with this set - it has sooo many images for just about anyone on my list.

Sending a Big Thank You

So I needed a Thank You card. I used a new Papertrey Ink set: Celebrations. And PTI also has just the nicest dies that coordinate with stamp sets - makes putting together a card so stinkin easy! I had a Basic Grey Wisteria paper pad calling out to me so I used that along with some cardstock. Then i threw in some stitching and poof - thank you card done. Actually while I was at it, I made two :-)

Butterfly Birthday

So i needed a birthday card for a friend. Something a little collagey, purple and maybe a little shabby chic. I had some lovely diecuts and papers from K&Company - yeah that'll work. Needed to pull it together so a little ink (to a flourishy stamp). ok.
Then I wanted to use a bit of a Noteblock stamp from Purple Onion Designs - the "make a wish" part. Oh and I wanted to stamp that Make a Wish on a piece of acetate so I wouldn't be covering up all the pretty paper underneath. Eek - all that means "masking". Well, she IS a special friend LOL. I don't mask for just anyone.  In retrospect I shoulda found a larger piece of acetate so it covered the entire bottom half but I'm ok with it. Oh yes, I even pulled out my sewing machine and did a little stitching.

snow day

well a wee bit of snow and what seems like more ice than anything. at least on the driveway. Anyhow I took this as my cue (excuse) to have a little day off.  No purging, no usual cleaning - regular day off duties (although we did venture out to the grocery store just to get it out of the way). So what did I do? No, I didn't make anything. (gasp) I probably shoulda given it a try but I just wasn't in the mood. What I was in the mood for was reading. So I did. Read a book I started last night. No One You Know by Michelle Richmond. Very good read. On my Nook (which I love quite a bit). Hope you are having an enjoyable day, snow or otherwise.

A little excursion

Last Thursday nite we went here... no we didn't see an opera. Do you know where this is?

Ah this may give you a clue.... a rather large bust of John F. Kennedy .. Yes! The Kennedy Center in DC

We went to see Billy Elliot-The Musical. It was wonderful

nothing else for today. still working away at "the purge". Did not get much done today - I really need to ignore the phone but every time it rang it was one of those calls I haaaad to take. Tomorrow I swear I'm letting the machine get it.

The Great Craft Room Purge 2012

i have to date this purge because,, as we all know, this happens juuuuuuuust about this time every year. I am trying to be a bit more ruthless this time round. I'm just at my wits end with the mess. I can't even think in this clutter. So wish me well. I've thrown out 3 bags of trash so far.

happy hello

well clearly not my best effort but i'm posting regardless. this is what often happens. i start with elements i love and the result isn't what i hoped for. I was trying to use that heart stamp, which i love but hasn't gotten any love from me. Do you have stamps you've bought and never used? or stamps you love, used them a few times, and they are now sitting unloved, uninked? Well i'm gonna try and rectify that in 2012. if i'm not using them then i have to consider finding them a new home cos they're taking up valuable real estate!

Since I'm on a roll

I thought I'd just check in...
Last night we watched The Help - such a good movie. I really loved the book - was one of my "beach" books this past summer. Right now I'm reading  In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. It's really quite good.  I'd read another of his books The Devil in the White City - also a good one. Neither are light reading but fascinating and worth the time in my opinion :-)
Wondering if anyone is watching the Project Runway All-Stars? I only saw part of it the other night and am planning on watching the rest tonight.
Ok... gotta run !

Religious Conversion

So I needed a card - thinking of you kinda card. But I needed it kinda quick. Get it done Tracy - no obsessing allowed.
If you know me, this is practically a foreign language - no obsessing? I mean it's like another religion.

But I think I may be ready to convert!

 I did not allow myself time to think.. much. And of course the first card you see here is my 2nd thought. (already a sinner... )
But actually here's how it went. I took my favorite "thinking of you" stamp (StampinUp long since retired I'm sure) and decided I'd go with Versamark and white embossing powder on that paper I already had out of my drawing table.  I stamped twice and pulled out the heat tool (amazing I could even find the thing its been so long since I embossed). I pulled out my Nestabilities and quickly (really!) chose the oval ... cut cut. Hey let's add the white scallop to that I said.  Approximately 5minutes have elapsed (seriously.. a new world record!)

I figured why not go with that other paper - the patterned one - also still on my drawing table. Cut that twice (I'm already making one card why not go for two).  So now I'm thinking I have everything cut - I'll go make dinner (I know... the family really enjoys food in the evening so why fight it?) and come back and assemble.
So I return to the drawing table and start thinking.
This thinking thing is what always gets me into trouble.
What would some kraft cardstock look like with that blue. I'm thinking good...
So I decide to make one card with a card base that's kraft and instead of ribbon I'll make some faux ribbon with the leftover kraft cardstock. Cut cut. Tape tape.
One card done.
I then turn to the other pieces and decide to go with the original plan - pull out some white grosgrain (which is a bit smooshed in this scan but you can imagine right?) Cut Cut. Tape tape. 2nd card done.
Total elapsed time probably about 10 minutes.
Really! I think I'm a total convert.
Have a wonderful day kids!

Outta this world

One of my nephews is having a birthday on Sunday so I made him a card (to go with the gift that I sent a month ago - hey you gotta take advantage of the free shipping when you can right?).
I used a Papertrey Ink stamp set, prismacolors to color most of the little rocket (yeah- they have metallic prismacolors) - also used a Copic and a StampinUp marker. The little stars as well as the rocket and flame were cut using the coordinating die from Papertrey (I love those coordinating dies!). Decided those stars needed something so I added Ranger Glossy Accents to give them a little shine and dimension. The sentiment is also from the same PTI stamp set but I personalized it with my nephew's name using Purple Onion Designs Garamouche Small.   Have a wonderful day - I'm hoping it's a little warmer day than yesterday!

A thank you

I needed to make a thank you note for a very special person. I decided I'd use these tulips from the PTI stamp set "Friendship Jar Spring Fillers" - coloring them with my prismacolors. And I also used the PTI jar die to cut the jar out of some transparency film i had hanging around. I cut the little label using the Nestablilities label die #8 and hand wrote my "thank you" using a Pitt Pen. I don't think the scan is really doing it justice but I am happy with the result. I did toy with the idea of a little stitching around the top portion but ultimately decided I'd better leave well enough alone.
Have a wonderful day!
PTI MIM#47 - Colored Pencils #30

Paper Cookies

okay so it's an illustration of a cookie. A gingerbread man to be exact. I did two of these for some special friends - it's a little recipe card (around 5x7 so I guess it's not so little).
I used a Pitt Pen for all the lettering and the outlining. And prismacolors to color things in.













And I did one slightly different for Geri (of Geri's Gingerbread fame.... my sister). It's frosted ;-)  The background didn't scan well - it's a light green just for the record.   I'll post some non-Christmas related items soon.....           

I baked

a lot - did you? I did a round of cookies for home and another round for our 2nd Christmas celebration with my husbands family. Here's a pic before I closed the box on the sugar cookies. Of course I had to decorate them. It wouldn't be Christmas without painted sugar cookies. If you look closely you can see a snowman peeking out from underneath a layer of trees and stars. When my kids were little they'd help me decorate them but nowadays I get to paint them all by myself. I love using the gold dust (and lemon extract) to paint the stars. Back oh say maybe 20 years ago that gold dust was hard to find locally. We didn't have such things when I was a kid but we did have food coloring. My mom would sit us down at a table filled with cookies, gave us painbrushes and we'd go to town painting away!
Hope you're enjoying 2012 so far while i recap the end of my 2011.

Happy New Year!

it's been a little while but i've been busy as I'm sure you all have been!Over the next few days I thought I'd  show you a little of what i've been up to. First up - a birthday card for my nephew at the beginning of December. I really like the combo of red and blue and i love Papertrey Ink's stamps and dies. A fast and easy card - i forgot to take a pic of the envelope but I used another plane to decorate it.

a little thank you

hey there...
thought i'd post a little thank you card i made today. I don't get many opps to make anything these days so I thought i'd share. I have a lovely wonderful friend, Mary who brought me a gift of bread 2 weeks ago (actually she does this every halloween - its bread that's orange and round - with a jack o'lantern face drawn on it - i think i posted about this another year). Anyway I wanted to send her a thank you. The bread came in a bag that I just loved. It had this image you see here (brown with wheat) and I thought why not cut it out and use it for her card. I stitched on the image to some cardstock and stamped the many thanks from a tag in my stash. voila.. card :-)
I have to run now... hope to be back in the not tooooo distant future!

Deja Vu

Again I'm posting a card after a long absence - this card was made a few weeks ago for a family member and I just have not had time to post it (or anything else) and I haven't made a thing since.
It's just the way things are right now. Between work and home I don't have a lot of free time to make stuff.
I do make things to eat :-) but that benefits everyone and I gotta do that anyway so I'm whipping up all manner of culinary delights LOL. But paper delights? not so much.

It's funny just looking at this card - I'd bought that Tim Holtz mini-rosette die and knew I'd have zero time to play with it. I did manage to make this card with it. So that's something right? :-)

Till next time....

so out of practice

yes thats what i said - I'm outta practice!
I had to make a card for my F-i-l's birthday which is Friday and i sat down to make a card yesterday and pulled out a few things I thought would work. Now of course the masculine card is always difficult LOL - i mean seriously - we girls like to buy cute stamps and flower stamps and while I occasionally pick up something more masculine those stamps don't dominate my collection, kwim? Well, I think I stared at the stamps for like a half hour - nothing was coming to me. I finally managed to crank out the card you're seeing here. He won't care what it looks like or know its not my best - but gosh - it kills me to send something I don't really love. make sense? I do like it but not in love with it....
Anyway, things in my life have changed a good bit in the last month - it seems its the year of changes for me... sigh. (I'm hoping things improve soon cos they can't get much worse LOL.) However I'm trying to embrace the changes - and making a vow I will set aside time to make something each day. Make a card or work on my scrapbooks (I started this on Sunday and got a number of photos and memorabilia stuck down on Sunday LOL... now gotta go back and get that pesky journaling done!). I have a very bad habit of putting my needs (like making things) at the bottom of the list - hence not a happy T.
And more practice will hopefully welcome in the return of my cardmakin mojo!
Oh - on the card I used a Stampin Up! set called Classic Backgrounds - stamped the background in Versamark and clear EP'd. I stamped the star with Chocolate Chip SU! ink then covered it in Versamark then clear EP'd. I used a star punch to cut out the star then used some pop dots to pop it up. The sentiment (from Papertrey Ink set - Enjoy the Ride) stamped in Versamark (i swear it IS my favorite ink!) and used white EP.
Now I need to get after that aforementioned journaling (and maybe play with the Tim Holtz Mini Paper Rosette die I recently acquired... interesting to use with a cuttlebug... )

Happy Mother's Day

wanted to try using this adorable little chick from Purple Onion Designs for my card (for my mom). Colored the cage and the bird with copics and the sentiment is from StampinUp! (long retired but a nice one).
Hope you're all enjoying your Mother's Day. I am - both my little chicks are home :-) having picked up my daughter from college yesterday.

Happy Birthday Banner

I got some A-dorable new stamps from Purple Onion Designs - the Build-A-Banner set - you can see all the new stamps here. I had a couple of special people (i needed to make cards for) in mind when I got them.
Today is my niece-in-law's birthday - and here's the card. I should mention it's a folding card - 3 panels - seemed to work when one is going to have a big old banner across the whole darned card! I wanted to take a picture of it but it was too dark (AND late) when i finished gluing it all down so you'll have to imagine okay?
I used some Hippie Chick paper from SEI (yes it's double-sided). I colored the banner pieces using prismacolors. I added embroidery floss and some flower brads to finish it off. I think she'll like it :-)
Edited to add: I totally forgot to mention that I used versamark to stamp on the letters - Alpha stamps are Purple Onion Designs Garamouche Small - then used clear embossing powder; followed by coloring the banner pieces with prismacolor pencils - then I used the MCPT technique - voila - white letters!) i really must stop trying to write up these posts when I'm tired..... oy!