Summer OSW challenge

This is the fifth week of the Cornish Heritage Farms' summer design challenge. This was a one sheet wonder. First of all, let me say it really was a stretch. This is the first time I've tried it and it was actually a lot of work, but I needed a lot of cards for various people and this was a great way to get that. 

It took me a while to make these because I wanted each card to have an individual look and each one is for a specific person with a specific need. It took me less time this way to make a group of cards then it does when I make one card at a time, because I'm so poky. :)

So at the top you have the group of seven cards that I made and then two individual shots for a bit of a closeup. I stamped the sunflower background in chocolate chip craft ink on a confetti white sheet four times to cover the entire sheet, covered with embossing powder and embossed. Then I sponged with Ranger distress inks in mustard seed, dried marigold, spiced marmalade and vintage photo in the centers. 

For the sentiments and images I used a variety of sets from all different companies. The color scheme all involved paper colors of Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze, Kiwi, Summer Sun and Pumpkin and confetti white. Thanks for looking. 

PTI July blog hop

A month rolls past so swiftly! It is time for the July Papertrey Ink blog hop. I always come away so inspired by the creativity of the other participants. This month I personally wasn't feeling very inspired! Ah well, it is what it is. This month we were supposed to play with text.

I don't have a lot of stamps with text on them, but did dredge up a CHristmas background stamp with a lot of words on it, so I used it both on the Santa in Poppy and on the white strip in white craft embossed with iridescent ice EP. I didn't use a sentiment on this card because using the clear stamps you can see where you place it and I centered the word 'joy' in the middle of Santa's image. 

I used the text also on the crinkle flower in the corner left hand. The card has punches of snowflakes in glittery white paper and new leaf branches using Martha Stewart punches. And that bit of swirly vellum always reminds me of swirling snow and winter. Thanks for looking. 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Believe, random BG stamp

Ink: Poppy!, black, white craft

Cardstock: kraft, white, new leaf, vellum

Other: Martha Stewart snowflake and branch punches, II EP, new leaf button

Magnolia paper bag

There is a monthly challenge on a magnolia blog to create a sort of 3-D item. Last month it was a cute little post it note holder bag, this month it is a brown paper bag mini booklet or album. 

  

I like my magnolias, its like playing with paper dolls! This did take a while to put together though, each magnolia takes a bit to color and then to figure out a layout for each page. 

The first scene is the front of the booklet, the theme for the entire booklet is tea. Tilda is sitting on a tea cup (not sure if you can tell, but that's what it is). I found an image of a teacup I liked online, plain white, printed it out to use as a template, cut out a paper cup and then embossed and colored the rim and colored in shadows to hopefully give it some definition. 


On the inside front page and I used the Papertrey Ink teapot raining down some flowers with Tilda on the side. I have to thank Traci for a lovely RAK containing the flowers and the pink pearls. 

The third page, as you can see, I sewed in half, when you fold the brown paper bag that's the opening and by sewing it in half lengthwise I have two long pockets to insert tea bags as a little gift inside. 

Then the last page shows my newest Tilda, the one holding the bird cage against a backdrop of one of the pendant nestabilities. 

The set uses a packet of SU designer paper to help coordinate colors. Thanks for looking. 

You can find the other entries to this monthly challenge here. 

Blog candy from Japan!

Look at what came in the mail yesterday! I waited until everyone was home from work to open it and as you might be able to tell, the kids dove into the pocky and chocolate right away. We are saving the non-alcoholic jello shots for the weekend. 

Mamamonkey (insert real name here! :)) had a little blog contest a few weeks ago and surprisingly I made a good enough guess at her little quiz to win. I hope she had as much fun putting this together as we did taking it apart. Look at that washi paper! It is gorgeous, I cannot think yet of a stamp I have worthy of pairing with it, but I'll work through that anxiety. 

The chocolate is delicious. There is green tea in there, a Kodomo rubber stamp, the first for my collection! Bling (always close to a girl's heart!) and Japanese popcorn! Its so much fun just even looking at the packaging! Thanks Mamamonkey, we are enjoying this candy so much!

Light up my Life

This is week four of the summer challenges at Cornish Heritage Farms. I already saw the card on there that I think will be the winner, it is gorgeous. Mine started out goofy and got a little bit more tame this morning. 

We had to create a scene for week four. Now, I mainly own background stamps from CHF, so this truly made it challenging for me. 

I had been playing with the Cracked Montana Earth and wanted to see what it would look like on black. It made a very interesting effect, I thought, in versamark and embossed with iridescent ice EP. I really like the way it shines. We had a bit of sun this afternoon so I could take the pic outside and show you the shimmer. 

I used the sunflower background stamp with a Kaleidacolor blue pad stamped on blue to imitate a sunflower field at night or at late, late dusk, cutting around the petals.  See the bit of sunset just finishing? That's from my highly coveted remainder of a roll of SU wide rainbow organdy ribbon. I think the colors in it really mimic the colors of a sunset and make a nice foil to my 'fireflies.' Okay, we all know they're dragonflies, but pretend here with me! I used twinkling H20s on all of them, in different colors, and found that the lemonade color really reminds me of firefly tails, that bit on the end. 

One of my favorite summertime sights is fireflies lighting up the night sky. So here they are, lighting up the sunflower field with the night sky in the background as the sun slowly makes its way to bed. The sentiment is computer generated. Thanks so much for looking.

Stamps: CHF sunflower and cracked montana earth backgrounds, SU Unfrogettable

Ink: SU black, Kaleidacolor blue breeze, versamark

Cardstock: Bordering Blue, black, Elegant Eggplant, white. 

Other: SU organdy rainbow ribbon, twinklig H20s, bling, iridescent ice EP

A blog award

This is from my sweet friend Beth. Although I think in the beginning when I got the lemonade stand award from Dell, this might have been part of it too. I have to claim blog etiquette ignorance, I'm still learning! But thank you Beth! Please visit her blog to see her fabulous creations, they are listed on the right under my dork sisters' blog Hartley Handcrafted at Home. She has such a way with 3-D projects, simply amazing!

  I believe the next thing I have to do is say ten honest things about myself:

1. I love the Lord and cannot thank Him enough for ensuring my eternity in heaven through the precious sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ. When life here on earth gets me down I can remember this is not my permanent home. 

2. I love my family and my friends, they help me when I'm down as well and celebrate with me when I'm up! 

3. I have a very cluttered house and once at a former job a coworker put up yellow caution tape on my office door as a joke, that's how bad I am!  But unless someone else moves things without telling me, I always know where to find what I need. 

4. Chocolate is the fifth food group . . . I'm a food writer, I should know! :)

5. Hello my name is peggysue and I'm a scrapaholic . . . I am addicted to paper, stamps, ink, embellishments and tools! 

6. My name is not peggysue in real life. 

7. I'm shy and nervous when I meet folks in person, its different than talking online. 

8. Despite that, I think I hold the honor of having met the most dorks in person! Beth, her mom, Laurie, Jackie, Karen (whose middle name is Lynn, did you know that?), Cathi, Lois, Traci, our honorary Motherdork, new honorary dork Jojot, Vikki Jo and Crystal. 

9. As a writer by trade, I have to hold myself back from correcting people's spelling in their posts, aren't you proud of me? I don't do it unless someone asks! 

10. I think my husband is one of the most handsome men I've ever met and I love him to pieces!

I need to pass this along to other bloggers, but I think almost everyone I know has this award already! I will search around as I visit other blogs because I don't want anyone to feel left out. 

P.S. Stephanie, thanks for the great suggestion! The blogger formerly known as 'peggysue' will now be known as a symbol, as soon as I find one I like! :) Ha! 

I picked peggysue as a sign on name when I first started using online services because if I used my real name or initials they always seemed to be taken and then I had to use my name plus a series of numbers that I'd always forget! Peggysue always worked, I seemed to always be the first one to log onto a site with that name, so it stuck. All my online friends know me by that name, doesn't seem logical to use my 'real' identity . . . plus you'd all want to borrow my superhero cape and it would get all dirty . . . :)

Virtual Stamp Night Salted Tilda

See the pink background behind Tilda on the bottom panel? This is a salted background, I had never tried it before, but it was the challenge posed for number four this evening for VSN. 

  There is a great tutorial on SCS for this technique written by Beth Warner. You should try it! 

Thanks for looking. 

Virtual Stamp Night Wilted Lettuce

For this VSN challenge we are to do that cute little crinkled flower you see in the lower right hand corner. This is such a great technique, look for a tutorial by Ashley Newell in the resource section of SCS. 

   The little flower comes together so quickly really. I had colored the bunny while on a camping trip, so that's the trick sometimes to completing a VSN challenge within the 45 minute timeframe, use things you have lying on your craft table. The blue flower in the corner I also had lying about as I did the blue scalloped background. I had cut it out for a different card and it didn't suit. Thanks for looking. 

Virtual Stamp Night Dragonfruit

For the second virtual stamp night challenge, we were to be inspired by the colors within a dragonfruit, pink, green, white and black. 

  I had need of a thank you card and this served very well and put together quickly too. Thanks for looking. 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Green Thumb

Ink: Raspberry, Avocado, black

Paper: PTI bitty dot paper, random DP, Neenah solar white, raspberry

Other: petite scalloped nestability, green spotted ribbon, corner punch

Virtual Stamp Night Swiss Cheese challenge

There are four VSN challenges being posted tonight on SCS, if you get a chance, hop on over and check them out. I will be a hostess in August, but tonight there are four other lovely ladies with cool stamping challenges for you to try. 

  This first challenge was by schirmcat and it is a swiss cheese challenge . . . you had to put holes in your card. I made the bird card first and then just couldn't help myself, the image of froggie in a little holey boat entered my head and I couldn't get it out. Getting it done in 45 minutes was the real challenge, but I think you get the picture. . . and here is my little poem to go along with it:

Little froggie went to sea within a leaky boat.

"Oh no!" cried he and tried to bail, alas! It will not float!

 

The dragonfly smiles on the sly, he knows what frog forgot!

An amphibian knows how to swim and find land on the spot.

 

Next time dear little froggie, should you play VSN,

Avoid the schirmcat's challenge or you'll meet an early end.

 

No boat had a chance to sail and the passengers to please

When the challenge that you entered was holey like Swiss cheese! 

Tea pockets

This little tea holder was made courtesy of the idea posted on Betsy Veldman's blog a few months ago using half of the Recipe Wrap Up template designed by Lauren Meader. This actually is one of two free templates folks can try out on the Papertrey Ink web site. 

  I made three of these in the past but didn't take a photo of them, I gave them as gifts to some friends, which is the intended purpose of this tea holder as well. I really have to thank Betsy for this idea, I love it and can picture making more of these close to Christmas time for relatives or teacher gifts. 

  Almost the entire creation is actually a sleeve that slips over the blue insert on the inside, which folds out to reveal six pockets that hold tea bags. So the very interior blue portion is one sheet of cardstock, cut in half the long way, glued together and scored so it folds in upon itself. If you look at the template on the PTI web site you'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about. Thanks for looking. 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Tea for Two

Joseph's Coat flower

Here is number three for the summer challenge at Cornish Heritage Farms. This challenge had to involve some sort of resist technique, this is Joseph's Coat, a sort of emboss resist. The purple paper in the background does really match one of the purple tones in the flower, I just cannot get it right in the photo. 

Directions are pretty simple. Take a piece of glossy cardstock, use a brayer and a kaleidacolor pad and makes some bands of color. Let it dry. Swipe it with that little bag that reminds me of the bags bowlers use on their hands . . . anti static or something.  Then stamp your image with versamark and emboss with clear EP. Rub over the page with either a black craft ink (which I used) or you can use Brilliance black. 

Let it dry for a good hour, then pat the black ink off of your embossed image. This was the tricky part. I think next time I try this I might use regular cardstock because the glossy paper resists the black ink too, and it is easy to rub off too much.  Thanks for looking! Hope you had a good weekend!

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms grunge flower, Clear Dollar Stamps Christian sympathy (sentiment)

Ink: Kaleidacolor Berry Blaze, Silver craft, black craft

Paper: SU black, PTI Raspberry Fizz, silver, Bazill purple, glossy

Other: Martha Stewart edge punch, butterfly punch, silver cord, silver EP, brayer, tissue

Paper Pieced Poppy and a blog award

First I have to say thank you to my friend Traci for giving me a blog award, which appears on the right hand column. Thank you so much, you are so sweet! Please visit Traci's blog 'Major Moments' also listed on the right, she has lovely work and some pretty photography from Colorado. (There, I think I did that right . . . I feel I'm getting this blog etiquette down a bit better.)

  Secondly, I have been an absent blogger and commenter for a bit here. Took my mom on a short camping trip to Duluth, Minnesota with the hubby and youngest DD. Duluth is so very pretty, there is lots there to see and do. We enjoyed the fireworks and the symphony and scenery immensely. 

  The next day after coming home I had a wee operation. The pain medication knocked me for a loop for a bit, but I'm feeling so much better today! 

  So I had to get in my card for the second week of the Cornish Heritage Farms challenge, to get that 25% off certificate! LOL! Who wants to miss a week because of a silly operation? Unfortunately, other than a few backgrounders, the poppy is one of the few CHF images I own, so you'll be seeing it a lot . . . although I think I have a different one available for next week's challenge. This challenge was paper piecing and I made myself use my PTI dotted DP . . . agh the agony, what if I run out? I'd have to use one of the hundreds of other sheets of DP in my stash, oh no! :) I really like my cutterbee scissors for this, the tips are so sharp and the scissors just the right size. And so as not to waste a single jot of that patterned paper I punched out circles after the paper piecing to ring the oval and carry some continuity with the color scheme. The chocolate ribbon on the side is the same shade basically as the poppy center, and then I got to use some PTI buttons . . . my new crafting obsession next to patterned paper. Thanks for looking. 

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Poppy, SU Dots and Daisies background, Sweet and Sassy stamps for sentiment

Ink: Black, white craft

Paper: Kraft, white, Marigold Morning, PTI Melon Berry, Spring Moss, and assorted PTI dotted DP shades in melon, lemon tart, avocado, etc. 

Other: ribbon, PTI buttons, white EP, oval nesties and oval punch, circle punch