This project brought to you by the letter V ...

...as in Vacation, which I am on:)  This time vacation is a stay-cation as I'm just trying to use up vacay days so I don't lose them at the end of the year....yeah I know, tough spot to be in :)

Last week I went to a women's time talk at my church.  The topic was clutter - all kinds, emotional baggage, physical clutter etc.  It was a very good talk given by a good friend of mine.  One of the suggestions she had was to have a mail sorting system - baskets or something so the junk mail and the important stuff get separated.  That way you can deal with the important stuff right away and the ads etc can sit around a few days.  My old method of mail sorting was to pile it on the kitchen table and hope nothing got lost when it was moved to the counter at dinner time.  I think this new method will work much better

I found these adorable baskets at Target for only about $6.  

I made the tags using SU! Framelits Labels collections and white, Pear Pizzazz, and Midnight Muse paper.
I stamped the largest dots from Polka Dot Basics on the second layer and sponged the matching color around the edge (Cherry Cobbler and Baja Breeze)

 I used my Fresh Alphabet to stamp JUNK and selectively inked a stamp from Postmarks for the MAIL.  I colored in the MAIL letters with a Copic Sketch Marker (B95), then I just played with the images in Postmarks to create a collage effect.

I love the stamp image itself so used that on both tags.  I pretty much left the "good mail" tag alone after that.  The sentiment says it all :)  I added a "special delivery" cancellation mark to the Junk Mail tag using Not Quite Navy ink.

And in other decluttering news, I went through all my patterned paper and am getting rid of this big pile ... get ready "stamp camp" girls.  I'm bringing presents :)

Thanks for stopping!

Make It Monday Sunday Sketch

I had an idea for this week's OWH Sunday Sketch and when I saw the PTI MIM video I thought ... hmm ... I bet you could combine those.

It took a little more work than I had anticipated because I didn't think through the whole design before starting, but in the end I like how it turned out

 I'll focus first on the sketch.  You can see the pocket insert beneath the card in this picture

I used my new Summer Camp DSP and my Postmarks stamp set as Ashley Cannon Newell did for  a release project (scroll down it's the last project in the post).  This combination is honestly what tipped me over the edge for buying this patterned paper.

For the vertical piece, I added a strip to the back of the pocket as well as the front.  With the insert removed it looks like 1 piece but with it in, there's a break, but a visual line between them.

I stamped the Special Delivery wings in River Rock ink on white CS then cut them out using a hobby blade. I really don't like doing that (too tedious) but  think the result was well worth the effort.  I used the postage stamp die and then stamped the outer frame in Always Artichoke, the inner frame in Always Artichoke (2nd gen), the bee in River Rock and the post mark in Early Espresso.  The sentiment is from Men Of Life.

 Here is the card with the pocket insert in place.  The airmail strip is also from the Postmarks set and I stamped it in Early Espresso (1st and 2nd gen)

The pocket card base I stapled together.  Tried sewing but, well, yeah I stapled :)

Thanks for stopping!!


Supplies:
Stamps: (PTI) Postmarks, Men Of Life
Ink: (SU!) Early Espresso, River Rick, Always Artichoke
Patterned Paper(PTI) Summer Camp
Card Stock:(SU!) River Rock, Early Espresso, Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: Postage Stamp die (PTI)

Miss You - Double

Well not miss you double but this card is a two-fer - this weeks CPS sketch challenge as well as PTI's May blog hop.  I love the colors in the inspiration photo and although I tend to shy away from too much pattern mixing, I really latched on to this one because its really just different size squares ...

So the layout is totally from CPS ... I didn't fiddle with it at all..  For the inspiration blog hop challenge, I keyed off both the colors and the patterns.

Lets start with colors shall we ... I used Black, White and Orange Zest from PTI and Lucky Limeade from SU!  I didn't have the Simply Chartreuse and the New leaf wasn't the green I was looking for so I had to cross companies a little.

I created the large check pattern using a 1.25" square punch and trimming the edges off.  The large scale (focal layer) and small scale (flower center) gingham is from Background Basics:Gingham.  I created the brad using the Build A Brad set from SU!.  The flower is Bloom Builders cut from Orange Zest CS.  The grass and sentiment are from Peaceful Garden (PTI)

Thanks for stopping!!

Sunday Sketch

This week's sketch at Operation Write Home is another great one.  Since I just got a new pack of patterned paper I thought this would be a good one to mix patterns and use minimal stamping

 I started with a spring moss base.  I textured the card base with Tim Holtz's Rays embossing folder.  I used the trees, dots and map patterns from the Summer Camp patterned paper pack (PTI).  I backed the trees with ripe avocado, the dots with midnight muse (new SU In Color), and the map with chocolate chip.

I added a quick sentiment from Flippin' Out and voila

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A Non Traditional Grad Card

Most of the grad cards I do are at least focused on a graduation theme - cap and gown, school colors, etc.  I do a few that are geared toward the person and this is one of those

For whatever reason I see my niece as a beach girl.  She lives in New York State, but my sister's family would always go spend parts of the summer on the Jersey Shore playing on the beach.  My sister is also a sun lover and her eldest certainly takes after her.  I also have a rep for awesome with my niece (well for cards anyway :).  Hopefully this one maintains the trend

So here is my niece (and god daughter)'s graduation card ...

I used baby wipes and re-inkers in Island Indigo, Pool Party and Soft Suede on water color paper to create the beach and water scene.  Really just playing around.  The only tip I'd give to to lighten the ink on some scrap paper first  Even wet from the baby wipe the Soft Suede would have been too dark without doing that first.  I also used a dry brush technique and added white ink to where I thought waves might be.

This card was a CASE from Debbie Olson's release card

I used the Background Basics: Farm & Barn set with that wonderful worn barn wood stamp to create a dock.  That part was inspired by Heather Nichols.  The flip flops (which I adore in stamps but not as footwear) are made from the new SU in color Summer Starfruit.  I'm not a huge yellow fan but this yellow is growing on me such that I think I will really like it.  The flowers are another new In Color Primrose Petals.  Both of these colors will be available June 1 (yes new SU catalog goes live June 1 this year!)

The sentiment is from For the Graduate.  Its not a traditional graduation sentiment but fits so perfectly with this card.

And with that, I think I've maintained my reputation for awesomeness with my niece - phew, I was worried there for a minute :)

Thanks for stopping!

Graduation Card

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I have a lot of grad cards to make this year - fewer than years past, but still pushing towards 10 or so.  One is for a friend of my eldest.  Her mom also happens to be a dear friend of mine

 As with my daughter, Sarah is very into anime' and Japanese culture, so I used Kimono Kids (SU!) for the card.  I didn't want to make it her school colors because she didn't even want her school colors as the theme for the grad party.   I did manage to sneak the green and gold in though (pssst .. that "gold" card stock is one of SU!'s new In Colors Summer Starfruit.)

I colored the lanterns with Copics ( YR15, YR18, E19, E8) and a white gel pen

Along the bottom I used my old Kanji set (SU! retired) to put Japanese symbols for Harmony Tranquility and Wisdom.  That seemed like a good send off for a young person heading off into the world

Thanks for stopping
Maureen

Another OWH Sunday Sketch Card

I know I made the samples for this weeks OWH Sunday Sketch but as I said in that post I LOVE this sketch.  Since I have a whole passel of graduation cards to make I thought I'd use this week's sketch to get started on those.

I used my niece's school colors for the vertical stripes and some satin Swiss dot ribbon as the horizontal piece.  For the focal layer I die cut Mat Stack 2 Layers and Mat Stack 2 then stamped the dotted border from the Mat Stack 2 Collection stamp set.

The cap is from For The Graduate and the sentiment is from Mat Stack 2 Collection.

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OWH Sunday Sketch

Hi ho ... here are the samples and deets on this weeks OWH Sunday Sketch.

Thanks Julie at OWH for sharing your amazing sketch skills!

The sketch itself is gorgeous ... so many possibilities!

And I thought of  A LOT of possibilities

First up is a coffee card ... I love me some coffee cards :)

I started with an Early Espresso card base and added some Fancy Flourishes in Early Espresso.  I wanted it to look like steam.  Since every to-go coffee cup known to man has a corrugated sleeve, I used Crumb Cake card stock and ran it through my crimper to get this same effect.  To get the look of the strips on the bottom I scored some white CS every inch.  I punched out some Lucky Limeade CS with a scalloped circle punch and added the coffee cup from Heart To Heart #1.  The sleeve on the tiny cup is Simply Chartreuse wool felt.

For the next card I stepped it up a notch.

The card base is Crumb Cake (Kaft) card stock.  I used some DSP from Stampin' Up!(Sale-A-Bration pack) for the vertical strips and zigzag stitched over them with a dark brown thread. For the horizontal piece I used a large stitched grosgrain ribbon in Chocolate Chip.  For the medallion I used my new Happiest Birthday Wishes set.  I inked the stamp with markers and then punched it out with a wide oval punch.  I re-inked and re-stamped then cut the presents out and popped then up on foam tape

For my final sample, I turned the sketch on its ear

Its a little hard to see in this picture but I scored a diamond pattern on a 45° angle.  (the large diamonds are an inch wide)  I added half pearls to some of the intersections points.  For the horizontal part I used a satin organdy ribbon and for the focal piece I used Fillable Frames

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Inspired by ...

... a print ad in Martha Stewart Living while I was waiting to pick up the kid car after getting new brakes.  The most beautiful colors of a light aqua and a light beige/tan.  There was a feather in the ad too

Here's what it inspired me to make

 I used Pool Party and Soft Suede reinkers on a baby wipe and carefully played around the edges of some water color paper.  The Soft Suede was too dark initially, so I wiped down some scrap paper until I got about the right hue ... then I went after the WC paper :)

I stamped everything else in Early Espresso and mounted the focal layer on Early Espresso CS.

All paper and ink is from SU!.  All the stamps are from Happy Trails [PTI]

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Birthday SFYTT

Today the May Sketch For You To Try comes out.  After all the heavy lifting this week moving my eldest back home after her first year of college, I needed a crafty break

Here's what I did:

 I used a lot of stamp sets on this one: On My Couch and OMC Additions, Lighten Up, and Happiest Birthday Wishes (a new one I just got in my Stampin's Up order)

 I loved the font used on "Birthday" in this stamp.  I also colored in the letters to set them off a bit using YG93 Copic sketch marker.  I also did a little ombre look with the baby wipe technique.  Only used one color and allowed it to go from dark to light .

Colors are Real Red, Island Indigo, Pool Party and Ripe Avocado

Thanks for stopping!