Papertrey and CPS Challenge

Saturday's Challenge over at Papertrey was to participate in the CPS sketch this week. Ok, says I, I will!! Thing is, it takes me so long to make a card; this one took me 2 days to finish, lol. Well, work and life sure do get in the way!!

Paper is Pure Poppy and Stamper's Select. I am trying tonight to load the camera right into the laptop, see what programs I have there to fix color- then go sit in the car and upload on the wireless signal floating around out there. I am preparing to go to the cabin this week, and contemplate packing all of my PTI supplies to be able to finish out the challenges, so I need to check the photo editing and uploading. At the moment, the Pure Poppy looks too pink, so I may give up on this idea. I'd rather post nothing than post something that looks wonky.

I stamped dots from Polka Dot Basics in white SU Craft on Pure Poppy, the punched the edges. The border punch is Fiskars, the ribbons are PTI Pure Poppy Twill and their new silk. The white satin is from Michael's. The button is from the Pure Poppy stash, I was sad I could not find a little heart in there!

I put the hugs & kisses border from Simple Valentine along the outer edges of the base card, and rounded the edges of the second layer with the small SU corner rounder.

Let me know if you see it as Pure Poppy- I am going to try and download the Kodak program in here, too!

Another Papertrey Challenge!!

Are you all having fun everyday with the Papertrey news and challenges? Even if I decide not to play, I must say it is all fun! Yesterday for the first time I heard Nichole's voice, and today I saw her in video. I can call her up, too, tonight if I want to, lol lol lol.

I slept some of the day after work, but then went right up and started working on an embossed resist card. Lol, not as easy as Nichole made it look- it's definitely best when you use a stamp with a large positive area. I had a terrible event where I brayered on Lemon Tart ink, then went to color over it with Prisma markers, and ruined 2 markers before I realized what was happening. Darn! The thicker ink 'sealed' the tips of the markers. Darn again!!

The valentine is made with Heart Prints smaller hearts, stamped with Versamark on top of Simple Valentine papers, then clear embossed. I used Sweet Blush, Hibiscus Burst and Pure Poppy to ink around. Layers are Pure Poppy and Lavender Moon.

The sentiment is also from Heart Prints, I cut Day off and moved it away from Valentine's a bit to even up the spacing with Happy- make sense??

Had to finish off the inside, of course!

I'm looking forward to news tomorrow- not sure if there will be Nestabilities, or punches, or ways to cut shapes with a Cricut. The latter may leave me out, but I know others will be happy, and that is good! I like doing things by hand, involving machines in my card making just isn't for me right now-

Becky Oehlers Image

So, if you are like me, you know all about Papertrey's Third Anniversary Celebration; I don't need to tell you about it! A couple of days ago there was a challenge issued to download images from the newly announced Stamp Designer Team and create a project from them. Lol, I am not fond of sitting and fiddling in front of a computer, but I did get one image downloaded and printed; Becky's little house, found here. Now, the contest is long over, but I still wanted to finish the card~ and I did!

If you enlarge the photo, I think the true pastel colors will get better. I used the new pink shimmer paper as the background cs, lemon tart as the first layer, and printed the image on Stampers select. then I copied Becky's quilt lawn by cutting and gluing squares to copy paper, and printing the image(s) onto the copy paper. Cut out the lawn and glued it on- halfway done!

I took the sun, house and balloon and colored them with Prisma's and Copics to match the 'quilted' lawn, then popped them upon dimensionals. I covered the clouds with Flower Soft Polar White. The sentiment is from Baby Button Bits, I cut off the 'bee' portion of the sentiment...gasp...!! It's ok to cut things off, because it is really easy to slip it back together if you want to print it together again.

I did not find this terribly enjoyable to do, but it helped solidify my feelings about digital images- I like to stamp!

But I love all things Papertrey; I love the monthly release buildups, and I especially love the anniversary celebrations!

Wash Day

While the DD was in the hospital with the baby, DGD was here and wanted to make a card. I told her to choose a sticker; I had a Martha Stewart paper pad open on the table. Wow! I had her choose some ribbon, and a card was born. When she was done, I did one for myself, lol!

'BaBy' is from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages stamped in Versafine Onyx Black. The ribbon is from Michael's, and is meant to be ruffled by pulling the center string part, but I generally just leave it to 'puff' with glue dots.

Now for the funny baby photo of the week- prepare to laugh when you enlarge the picture: here The DD's BFF's baby...

A Very Pretty Valentine

I know you are all thinking I should be generating tons of Baby Buttons cards, right? Well, me too! Why have I not made a bajillion sweet baby cards with the sweetest baby card set ever? A thread over on the Papertrey forum discussing how you 'work' to create a card made me realize that a new set sits on the desk for weeks before I use it the first time. I need to think about why that is, and what is going on in my brain!

So I am making Valentine's instead, lol! This one uses alcohol inks (Copic refills to be exact!) on a felt 'pouncer', then swirled on Chromekote paper. I wish I'd left a bit more white, but I'm still pleased with this piece of paper. The heart is a rub on made for glass, don't forget to visit the glass decorating section of your craft store- they have lots of rub-ons there!



The heart rub-on is actually very sparkly, but you can't see that here. The pink base card is Papertrey's Hibiscus Burst. The black and gold paper is from my local paper store, All About Paper in North Hampton, NH. Sentiment from Heart Prints Sentiments is stamped with Archival Ink (Black); I find it slips less on the Chromekote paper, and dries well on the alcohol ink.

January Blog Hop: Inside & Out

One of the things that people love most about this hobby is gaining new inspiration. We have taken it upon ourselves to organize an evening to take place once a month that will encourage stampers to try new things and build an inspirational camaraderie within the Papertrey family!


Well! Here we are at the January Blog Hop! If you are here reading this, it is because you love the inspiration you get from the Blog Hop, and all of Papertrey's products! I am so lucky to have been home over the weekend, and also tonight, and don't have to be at work until 9:30 tomorrow morning! How perfect is that??

During this month's release there was a lot of chatter about the interior of cards and how they don't always get the attention they need. This month's challenge is to create a card that has the "total package". Create any style card you can dream up, then take it the next step. Embellish the interior and adorn the envelope. You might even want to add a little something to the back of the card!

I had to make a baby card, of course! I used a sheet of blue and white paper sitting on the desk- but it is not different from Papertrey's Spring Rain Bitty Dots paper. The large image is from Inkadinkado, colored with Prisma pencils and blended with baby oil; it's fun technique I forget about, and love it when I use it! I cut out the moon, and put it on dimensionals. The stars are Papertrey''s Star Prints, stamped on Stamper's Select with the new Lemon Tart ink, then cut out with scissors. They are layered under the moon; A Star Is Born is stamped right on the paper, it's from the Favor It Baby set. The blue paper is layered on Lemon Tart, then onto a base card of Stamper's Select.

Oh dear, I had such a hard time getting the white to photograph well in the rain, sorry! The colors are correct, but somehow that white has a blue hue!
Ahh, here's the cutest sentiment ever! It's a new one from Inside and Out: Baby. The moon is from Out On a Limb, and the single star is from Star Prints, but the little grouping of 3 stars is from It's a Celebration- bet you forgot those little stars were in there, didn't you!?! I used Lemon Tart again, but also a wee bit of Summer Sunrise.

Ah ha! Now for the back and the envelope. Because of the sheer volume and low reimbursement fee I get for the baby cards, I rarely spend any time on the backs or envies, so this was fun to do! On the back of the card I used a sentiment from Star Prints, then stamped the individual star at the end. For the envelope, I used another sentiment from Star Prints, and stamped the same 2 sets of stars in Lemon Tart and Summer Sunrise.

So kind of you to read to the end, lol- now I am off to do as you- off to see the blogs!

Cute Baby and Scrappy Card!

Doesn't that just make you chuckle? He has the same eyes and wide-set eyes as his big sister Savanna, but a tiny little mouth! His biggest sister Olivia has bright red hair, but Westley's will be strawberry, I think. I had lots of baby cuddling last night and today!

But I know you come for the cards, lol!

Believe it or not, this is a card made from the scrap heap! The leaf border background and the strawberry Sweet Baby piece were made last year sometime. They have been sitting a long time! Hibiscus Burst is the pink, New Leaf the green, and those little flowers are some of my favorites from Savvy Stamps. The Sweet Baby center is a case from Nichole Heady.

I just looked for a link to Nichole's card and the original case I did, lol, but I have done a terrible job of labeling my cards on my blog, and can't fine it! suffice to know that the original is hers, and mine just a scrappy case!