Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop

This months blog hop is to use stamps you haven't yet inked up ... oh the horror to have stamps that have never seen ink .... that's like ... well nothing worse I can think of :)

I just got these new ones and decided I couldn't let them even sit for 1 day without getting them a little dirty :)

 I used the new Mat Stack 3 set with my Itty Bitty Birdie set that I just got.  I masked with Post It labels and in honor of Heather Nichols and her passion for kraft and white, used mostly ummm, kraft and white

The blue gives just the right pop of color. I  Love how the branch pretty well fits in the circle and well who can't help but smile at a little blue bird of happiness on a cold dreary Iowa day.

Thanks for stopping.  Enjoy your hopping

Spring Thaw Challenge box

Operation Write Home Spring Thaw Challenge is in full swing and I am sending in my box today (maybe first box depending on how much I can get made in the next few weeks)

The last card I made for this box was an Easter card:

Went back to another fave from the past: Inspired By Nature and made just a simple springy card for this holiday.

I made 10 of these and so included 10 other birthday and general cards I had in my "soldier box".  Sending in a total of 30 - Mother's Day, Easter, birthday and general friendship.  The next box will have a slough of chocolate themed cards ... that could work for Easter too :D

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Wishes

Wanted to make some quick birthday cards for an OWH challenge (Spring Thaw - so everything has to be springy)

I used the Mat Stack 1 stamps I got last month and haven't inked up ... bad me :(  I find its getting that way more and more.

Since these are for OWH, I made both pink and blue so there is a bit of a selection.

Thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Dress Form

... well it didn't start out that way but that's how it ended up

I kept looking at it and decided that it could work as a sort of cameo, so I made the cameo frame, a paper ribbon detail for behind and got out my vintage wallpaper embossing folder

Inside I used a sentiment rorm the stamp set ... 

Thanks for stopping by

{Supplies}
Stamps: Signature Series: Dress Form [PTI]
Paper: Concorde Crush, Basic Black, Whisper White [SU!]
Ink: Concorde Crush [SU!]
Other: Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder [SU!]

Hanging lanterns

I was playing around with colors and saw a color challenge with a really out there color combo: grey, rust, kraft and cream ... oh my

I masked the lanterns and stamped the text background.  I had been looking for the post it labels every where and finally found them, not with post it notes but with mailing labels.  The are sticky all over the whole back of the paper and work great for masking.

Thanks for stopping by!!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Kimono Kids [Stampin’ Up!]; Background Basics: Text Style [Papertrey Ink]
Paper: Basic Gray, Cajun Craze, Whisper White [Stampin’ up!]
Ink: Basic Gray, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake (Kraft) [Stampin’ Up!]
Color Medium: Sketch Markers: E08, E19, C1, T1, 0 (colorless Blender) [Copic]
Other: Round Tab punch [Stampin’ Up!]; Argyle Impression Plate [Papertrey Ink]; Post-It labels [3M]; white gel pen [Signo]

Spring Thaw Challenge (and CPS 201)

Today's card I made for the OWH Spring Thaw Challenge (see the badge on the right for details).  I combined it with the layout on the CPS #201 challenge (oooooooo .... a two-fer)

The challenge is to make spring holiday cards and send them in before 2/28.  This helps OWH by getting those holiday cards in early so the shippers aren't as stressed.  But it helps you too ... prizes for participants :) Join in if you can.  The number of cards doesn't matter.  You just have to have half spring holiday and half whatever you want

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - PTI unless noted}
Stamps: Fillable Frames #4, Tea For Two
Ink: Dark Chocolate, Melon Berry
Paper: Kraft, Tea Leaves patterned, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream
Other: eyelet border punch [SU!]; Tea For Two die

Card Patterns Sketch #98

I've been feeling in a chocolate mood lately apparently :)  I love my new Eat Chocolate set and want to use it all the time ....   here's the latest edition to the chocolate card  family:

I started out going for something manly.  I guess I hit it with the colors, but not so much with the lacy circle and  chocolate friend sentiment.  I'm OK with that tho .... cuz its chocolate :)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Trajan Monogram Alphabet [PTI]; Eat Chocolate [SU!]
Ink: Early Espresso [SU!]
Paper: Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake [SU!]
Tools: Book Print impression plate [PTI]; Lacy Circle, plain circle nestabilities [Spellbinders]; Cropadile
Embellies: Vintage buttons (black and dark chocolate) [PTI]

Thoughts of summer ...

Here is another card I was playing around with.  Couple things I really like about it are that it is vastly different from what I normally make.  I love the stitching detail (been working to perfect my zig zag stitching :)

Notice that ground line ... that's actually hand drawn. a little bit of it was from the stamp then I extended it with a marker

Thanks for stopping

{Supplies}
Stamps: Fillable Frames #8 [Papertrey Ink]; Branch Out [Stampin’ Up!]
Ink: Early Espresso, Old Olive, Bashful Blue [Stampin’ up!]; Brown Artists Marker [Marvy Uchida]
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White {Stampin’ Up!]; Tea Leaves patterned (aqua mist, melon berry) [Papertrey Ink]
Other: Aqua Mist vintage buttons, Natural button twine [Papertrey Ink]; Silver brads, Modern Label punch [Stampin’ Up!]

Connecting dots

I made this card based off a sketch for Paper Crafts magazine.  I was kind of thinking dominoes when I made it

It is pretty basic really, but I love the contrasting colors

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}

Stamps: Polka Dot Basics, Fillable Frames # 11 [Papertrey Ink]

Ink: Pure Poppy, True Black [Papertrey Ink]

Paper: White, True Black, Pure Poppy [Papertrey Ink]

Tools: 1/2" Circle Punch [EK Success]; Scor-Pal [Scor-Pal]; Fillable Frames #11 die [Papertrey Ink]

Better Late Than Never ...

.... This card I made for the CPS Sketch #199 and was due on Saturday.  But the hectic has returned to my schedule and I didn't get this posted in time, but I still like the card and it is going in the soldier box to hopefully make someone else's day happy too

I used the In Color patterned paper mini deck (hostess reward) for both patterned papers.  The sentiment is from Simple Circles, an SU! set that retired a few years back, but is still a staple in my stamping arsenal.  The medallion is from last year's Autumn Tags from PTI.  A few of the images are less fall-ish and this branch worked great paired with a nice spring green.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Autumn Tags [PTI]; Simple Circles (retired) [SU!]
Ink: Dark Chocolate [PTI]
Paper: Dark Chocolate [PTI]; Crumb Cake, White, Pear Pizazz, Poppy Parade patterned [SU!]
Other: Lacy Circle nestie, Circle nestie [Spellbinders]; Corner Rounder, Circle Punches[SU!]

OWH Sunday Sketch

I got to play today so I decided to use the Operation Write Home Sunday Sketch #51

I didn't strictly follow the sketch because I just had to use my teapot die ... it should have been a circle .... oh well :)

I thought this would make a good general/friendship card to put in my next OWH shipment

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - PTI unless noted}
Stamps: Tea For Two
Ink: Aqua Mist, Ripe Avocado
Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla [SU!]; Ripe Avocado, Aqua Mist, Tea Leaves patterned
Other: Tea For Two die, Sketch YG93 [Copic]

Another Stamp Camp Card

I used the SFYTT again and made this card for stamp camp ... since I'm still on vacation I want to spend time in my craft room while I have it ... I'm thinking once I go am back at work, the mojo will not be flowing as much

I also got a great new set that is available in the Occasions mini catalog.

 I used Early Espresso and Melon Mambo color combo ... love the contrast !  I also used my new punch (this set was the reason I bought the Decorative Label punch was because of this set, although I can see lots of uses for it)

I used a retired set called Oh So Sweet for the large bon bon.  I love how it compliments this new set ... makes me happy that I kept it.

Inside I continued the text over a chocolate theme ...

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - SU! unless noted}
Stamps: Eat Chocolate, Oh So Sweet (retired); Background Basics: Text Style [PTI]
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Early Espresso, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Tools: Circle Punches (1", 1.25", 1 3/8"), Decorative Label punch

Stamp Camp Card

Here is a card that my stamping group at work will be making this month.

I was searching through my sets, doing a little organizing for the new year and found this one.  I don't remember buying it, but its got some great sentiments in  it ... I should clean more often :)

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - SU! unless noted}
Stamps: Perfect Punch, Dot Dot Dot
Paper: Concorde Crush, Concorde Crush patterned mini deck (hostess), Whisper White
Other: Melon Mambo dotted ribbon, wide oval punch

Happy Birthday Gramma Annie!

Today is a wonderfully sweet lady's 94th birthday.  We all call her Gramma Annie even though she is one of my good friend's gramma.  I kept trying to make a fancy elegant really cool card for her, but that's not the kind of person she is.  She is a sweet simple lady so I made a sweet simple card

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Silhouette Sentiments [SU!]; Mat Stack 2 [PTI]
Ink:Always Artichoke, Summer Sun markers [SU!]; Dark Chocolate [PTI]
Embellies: rhinestone [Kaisercraft]; Sketch Marker E57 [Copic]

Birthday Banner or Baby Bibs?

This one was meant to be a birthday card, but as I put it together the rounded banner flags look like bibs to me, so it could work for a new baby or baby birthday too

I used a simple black and white color scheme and used the B/W patterned paper from PTI for the banners.

 Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies}
Stamps: Banner Builder, Birthday Bash Sentiments, Holiday Tree [PTI]
Ink: Sahara Sand, Real Red, Basic Black [SU!]
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black [SU!]; Black and White Patterned [PTI]
Other: Banner Builder Collection dies [PTI]

Stars & Stamps Sketch #50

More stamp therapy for me .... only a little more vacation then its back to work so I squeezed in more time today, and made a few cards using the S&S sketch

This card is my fave - but I love all my a la mode stamps from MFT ....

The Key To My Heart is one of my newer a la modes ... they are just such great sets to color!

and my brand newest set is called Whats Cooking .... this just reminds me of making brownies with my girls!

Here they are all together (all stamped on the back and tucked into envelopes - ready for my next box to go out for OWH)

Thanks for stopping by!!

SFYTT - January Sketch

The Sketch For You To Try is going from weekly to monthly this year.  I'm sad because I love seeing a lot of Jen Del Muro's talent, but I'm glad because with a monthly challenge, I'll be able to play along a lot more regularly.  This months sketch is amazing {again}

I needed to make a birthday card for my dad so I used this sketch, turned it on its side and pulled out an old nature themed SU set - Natural Beauty.  I love the images in this set, but haven't used it for a while.

To make it a little more masculine I used the wood grain impression plate.  Its not only manly but gives a great texture element to the card.

I stamped the larger text background in Rich Razzleberry repeatedly to make the background layer.  I stamped the leaf on a scrap of watercolor paper and then did a wash over it (little ink lots of water).  after I got the wash look I wanted I went back in with more ink on my aqua painter and created the leaf vein details.

The sentiment layer was made using Fillable Frames #10 (die and frame image) and #8 (sentiment). I love how those sets are so mix and matchy .... any sentiment goes with any frame!  Awesome!  I finished it with randomly stamping the leaf image on the sentiment layer.  I stamped off twice before stamping on the die cut so it would be a very light silhouette.

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies - unless noted}
Stamps: Natural Beauty (retired); Fillable Frames #8, Fillable Frames #10 [PTI]
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Watercolor
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Early Espresso
Tools: Circle nestabilities [Spellbinders]; Fillable Frames #10 die, Wood Grain impression plate [PTI]; aqua painter

2010: The Year In Review

Way back in January I set a goal ....  1-2 cards per week all the year through.  I wanted to challenge myself to be making cards all the time and blog about it.  I wanted to end the year looking back to see how I did.

Blog Posts:
At 2 cards per week, I would have made 104 posts plus a few holiday posts.  Looking back I hit that goal sometime in September (nothing like being an over achiever :).  I made over 170+ posts this year!  That was way beyond what I ever would have thought possible 11 months ago.  So now I'm wondering what the stretch goal should be for 2011 :)

Publication/Contests:
I submitted my first card for publication.  I've sent in several this year, and while none have been selected, it took a lot of courage to put myself out there so breaking that barrier means a lot.   I'll keep submitting in 2011 and maybe at next years review I can say I had my first card published!

I also screwed up my courage to enter the Gallery Idol contest.  Again didn't get past round 1, but I tried!

I entered a lot of online contests.  Most were random winner, but Go-to Gal Betsy Veldman had a contest on her blog that she selected the winners.  I got in the top 3 on that with this card  That was awesome!!

Operation Write Home
I wanted to continue to support this wonderful organization.  I sent in a lot of boxes, though they were smaller but got sent more often.  Last year I sent in 300+ cards due in large part to donations from fellow demonstrators.  Not sure what the total is this year, but I'm still happy that I supported them. 

Also was in on one of the blog hops they had and got a friend to join in, so slowly but surely the word is spreading :)

Plus they won second place in the Joannes Crafting for A Cause contest (and $25000!!!)  Yay OWH!

That's enough "year in review" I think, but it is good to think back on all the things you've done in a year.  Sometimes the accomplishments fade and what ever the current struggle or failure is fills your thoughts making you think you didn't get anything accomplished.

Wishing you and yours the all happiness and paper crafting joy in the coming year!

Maureen