Papertrey Nov 2017 blog hop

Hello! Its been a while since I posted. I think I muffed a few things along the way too. Anyway, it is time for the November 2017 Papertrey Ink customer blog hop. I really liked the image chosen for inspiration and I keyed into the cream colors, the plaid, the pumpkins and the gold centerpiece for my inspiration.

I've been trying numerous ways to use the tag from the Holiday tags mini kit. I have more pieces that I can't share right now because they're for a gift, but I will have them soon!

Thanks for looking and happy hopping!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Autumn Scarecrow; Dies: tiny tags and Holiday tags; Paper: rustic cream, watercolor; Inks: Ranger distress inks, variety of fall colors; Other: ribbon, copper stickles, sequin assortment

Sketch Saturday #489

Welcome to the weekend! Today there is a new challenge at Sketch Saturday and this week's sponsor is Paper Nest Dolls. We invite you to play along for your chance to win a few digital files of your own. The rest of the design team has done a fabulous job using this week's sketch! Here is my contribution.

This post is a bit short since I am traveling out of town right now. Thanks for looking and happy stamping!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink; Paper: PTI linen, vintage cream, patterned papers, vellum; Ink: Tim Holtz Ranger distress ink in vintage photo; Other: Copic markers, gold stickles, My Favorite Things stitched circle die, sequins

CAS(E) this Sketch #246

Saw a card on Instagram for this week's CAS(E) this sketch and had an idea using another set Dawn McVey designed way back in 2009. Happy, cheerful sentiments like the designer herself. Fall colors are still in full glory in our area although I expect that to change this weekend.

While the sentiment was designed by Dawn, I did pair it up with a few other products to complete the card. The owl is from Lil' Inker Designs, which might not quite fit the sketch but I wanted it to help complete the card. The embossed leaves from from a PTI set called Autumn Scarecrow. I used Distress Ink colors of Mustard, Pumpkin and Candied Apple with the "smoosh" technique for the watercolor background and the woodgrain embossing plate for the main body of the card.

Thanks for looking and wishing you all the best Dawn as you recover!

Blog hop for Dawn...A Joyful Heart

Welcome to Saturday and a special, rather impromptu blog hop to celebrate the designs and the heart of Dawn McVey. She has struggled for ages with health issues and just recently traveled to Washington, D.C. for a special operation that we pray will fix the problem once and for all. You can read more about it here.

We thought it might help provide some cheer and show our support to use some of her lovely stamp designs on cards for a special blog hop, just for her.

I have selected Holiday Greens and A Cheerful Heart, two stamp sets she designed, along with a die I think she created, the Basic Bookmark 2 die. I also used the leaf silhouettes die because it is rather new to me and I was having fun playing with different colors and papers. I also twined silver and gold threads to play along with the Make it Monday challenge, I thought they looked rather nice twisted along the spine of the leaf die. I pulled a stamp set from the "vault," Silent Night, for the sentiment and a wee star to accent my first card.

So if you can find time to play along, please do! And Dawn, we love you!!! Praying for your recovery!

Stamp Set: Holiday Greens, Silent Night (Papertrey Ink); Paper: Kraft, vintage white, gold, red, Pure Poppy patterned paper; Inks: PTI Chocolate, Pure Poppy, Americana, Stormy Seas, Chartreuse; Other: glitter, gold thread, ribbon, gold embossing powder, woodgrain embossing plate (PTI), leaf silhouette die

Stamp sets: (PTI) A Cheerful Heart, Background Basics Botanicals; Paper: Aqua Mist; vintage white, white, silver, sparkle white; Inks: Ranger Distress spun sugar, Grape; PTI Lilac; Dies: Leaf silhouette, Bookmark Basic 2; Other: glitter, woodgrain die, leaf silhouette die, purple and silver ribbon, silver twine

Sketch Saturday #487

Good morning and welcome to week 487 of the Sketch Saturday challenges!

This week features a square card with patterned paper or square shapes in the four corners and a circle at the center. It is high time I got started on some Christmas cards. I thought I'd use red and white, classic Christmas colors, for my creation.

I did cut out squares and have washi tape separating the layers but the washi is a birch pattern and the layers themselves are off white so it is much more visible in person. I did make the red circle a bit large since I wanted to mimic the look of an ornament.

I diecut the word "merry" from glitter paper and then used paper ribbon to make a bow. Now that isn't a proper bow but a cheat, since it is paper. It is all glued together and the button is popped on with a glue dot. You cannot tie a paper bow. :)

Thanks for looking and hope you can play along.

Stamps: none. Dies: Papertrey Ink Wonderful Words: Holiday die collection, notecard die; My Favorite Things stitched circles; Paper: white, PTI pure poppy patterned paper, rustic white, glitter paper; twine, jingle bells, birch paper ribbon, woodgrain impression plate, red striped paper ribbon, pure poppy button

PTI Customer Blog Hop October 2017

Good evening! Thanks for stopping by. Papertrey sponsors a customer blog hop once a month based on an inspiration photo. The photo is below and I was drawn to the colors and the watercolor look of the various pieces. I added some orange to lend a bit of contrast to the yellow in my watercolor background because my yellows and honey toned yellow stock is a bit sparse. I did struggle with this challenge a bit, nothing immediately came to mind. I don't look at anyone else's creations before working on mine because I don't want the outside influence, so it will be fun to go have a look finally!

I added the thin strip of red patterned paper because of all the reds in the inspiration but also a touch of birch paper ribbon and the die cuts from Gathered Garden, since so many of the inspiration photos featured nature or trees.

Thanks for looking and happy hopping!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Year of Psalms February; Paper: PTI rustic white, watercolor paper, teal, navy and honey nut; Ink: Distress inks and honey nut; sequins, birch paper ribbon, pure poppy patterned paper

Rejoicing when weary

Good afternoon! I had another wreath (actually I have about five more) that I made playing with finetec gold palette watercolors. This is the only one I made using silver on white. I do like how this turned out and I am thinking perhaps a more simple layout would highlight it better? But I like the pop of red behind it too...opinions are welcome!

I stamped the wreath in silver ink first, then painted over it and added stickles and pearlescent glue droplets. I cut the dove out of silver glitter paper and then just started layering. The stars come from a very old square die I own made by provocraft. That's about all I can offer on that one.

The sentiment...I know that reading the news lately makes me very weary. The last several months seem filled with disastrous events that leave people homeless, hurting, grieving and the list goes on.... I have events in my own family that burden my heart; I think we all do. That verse in this stamp set really struck me last night when I was assembling this card; I'd never before noticed the juxtaposition within the phrase. The weary world rejoices. How can someone who is weary rejoice? Weary means tired out, worn, exhausted, spent...yet that is the same world that is rejoicing? What can cause that?

Only one thing...deliverance. Imagine all that weariness being swept away, all the problems and situations causing that weariness solved. Jesus can do that. At Christmas, and many of you are making your Christmas cards, we celebrate the fact that the deliverer came to earth. Hope was born in a stable in Bethlehem. That is the effect that hope has on the weary; they can begin to rejoice.
While earthly problems remain, we can find comfort and rest in Him, by reading the Word and studying and following the life of Jesus.  So last night when my heart was heavy I decided to finish up this card. My problems haven't disappeared, the news worldwide continues to be heavy, but I know where to turn to put my burdens down.

Thanks for looking.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Berry Wreath and Christmas Faith sets; Paper: PTI white and white linen, red gingham and soft stone floral, silver glitter paper; Ink: Archival black, silver; Dies: Tag Sale Quilted die, Christmas Faith die, MFT rectangle and stitched circle dies; Other: red paper ribbon, silver stickles, finetec gold palette watercolors, white glitter

Autumn Wreath...Papertrey Make it Monday 300

Good morning! I have spent quite a bit of time over the last week playing with different color combinations for the Berry Wreath stamp set released by Papertrey Ink. I love fall and pumpkins and was wondering what it might look like using it as part of a card for Autumn.

I've been addicted to using my Finetec gold palette lately too and thought I'd try a no-lines painting job on the wreath stamp. I need a more steady hand and thinner brush but you can hopefully see where I was going with this. Autumn is a blaze of color where we live and I tried to capture that in the wreath and embellishments.

Melissa Phillips made some lovely cards using wreaths in her tutorial for Make it Monday, challenging us to add the extras to really make it pop. Loved her inspiration and always enjoy my PTI products. Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Berry Wreath, Autumn Scarecrow; Ink: PTI Honey nut, summer sunrise, simply chartreuse, Ranger distress inks in mustard and pumpkin; Paper: Kraft, off white, black, patterned paper strip; Other: Finetec gold palette of inks, sequins, Spellbinders fall strip, PTI kraft button, twine, summer sunrise ribbon, gold embossing powder

World Card Making day . . . or tag...

This counts, right? I was creating and stamping and I was having fun. Plus, you could mount a tag on a card front, add a sentiment and call it good so if you're REALLY strict in your interpretation of world card making day, just imagine after posting this that I ran off and adhered the tags to a card front.

I have decided distress inks make just the perfect color palettes to complement Autumn. I love walking through the woods and picking up brightly colored leaves and often there is a mixture of colors from a bright pop of red to muted greens. Mix up some distress inks and voila! You've got a leaf! Now I admit that the pumpkins are a bit of a stretch since the real ones I have sitting on my porch are pretty much monotone orange, but I like the mixture of mustard seed, marigold and pumpkin to make the pumpkins more colorful.

The project all started with the black tag since I had one left over after last month's Papertrey customer blog hop. I had started something and then never finished and thought it looked awful and was going to toss the tag when I wondered if I could cover the gold circle on the front with a large enough object to hide most of it. I had stamped one of the circle sentiments from the holiday mini kit onto the tag, but smudged it. Over a week later it was way too late to emboss, the ink had dried. So I put some pumpkins atop the tag and painted around it with finetec gold and a tag was born. Then I decided to make two more tags using kraft and cream to figure out which color scheme I liked best and decided I like all three for different reasons.

Thanks for looking and hope you had time to play with ink and paper on world card making day!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Autumn Scarecrow; Ink: adirondack snow white plus white embossing powder, Tim Holtz Ranger Distress oxide inks in twisted citron and salty ocean (background) pumpkins and leaves in distress ink colors mustard seed, pumpkin, marigold, candied apple for color, outlines in vintage photo; cutting die from Papertrey Ink Make it Market mini kit; Holiday Tag Along; Papertrey button in chartreuse; ribbon in summer sunrise and random bit of orange, twine, finetec gold paint set for circle background and shimmer on leaves

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Autumn Scarecrow, same distress inks
die cut out of kraft instead of black cardstock 

Same as at left, photographed with flash
to show shiny bits

Same as above, different ribbon on each and using cream cardstock for base

And the trio of tags. Which background do you like best? 

Sketch Saturday #483 -- free for all!

Good morning! It is time for another Sketch Saturday but because this is the fifth Saturday of the month it is stamper's choice or free for all! Choose whatever sketch you like best and create a card! I did use one of our sponsor's designs from AMB Illustrations and wish I had better skills at coloring metallic objects like the bells. I love this image but need to look up on youtube or something how to color metallics a bit better.

I used sketch 482 and made it my own by using a circle instead of a square and by using the image on a square card.

Thanks for looking and hope you find time to play along!

Stamp: digital from AMB Illustrations, patterned paper PTI, My Favorite Things circle die, prismacolor pencils 

PTI Sept 2017 Customer blog hop

Hello and welcome! Every month Papertrey Ink hosts a blog hop for its customers and usually posts an inspiration photo as a springboard for creativity. I made a few projects and started another but ran out of time/ideas. Thanks for looking and we'll begin.
First, here is the inspiration photo:

Next here is a tag I made where I riffed off of the brown bird, the floral sprays and the black background. I used the new holiday tags mini set Betsy introduced and some older dies and punches I own for the bird (Spellbinders) and the pine sprigs (no idea...Fiskars maybe?) I like this first project the best. You could easily use the die from the PTI set Christmas Faith to replicate the bird, I just don't own it (yet!).

Stamps: New Holiday Tags mini kit, Papertrey Ink; Ink: gold; Paper: PTI black, recollections sparkle red, patterned paper from stash, vellum; Other: Spellbinder dies for bird, Holiday tags kit, snowflake punch, pine branch punch, gold embossing powder, glitter, ribbon, jute twine

Next, I really like the stitched cover plate and I'm always playing with it. I wanted to see what it would look like as the black background, pulling in a lot of the red from the floral spray you see in the inspiration photo. I am very unsure about this card, to me, it is is a classic case of trying to do too much. I think I mixed too many techniques and should have stopped to keep it a bit more simple. Any suggestions on improvements are welcome, please let me know in the comments.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Winter Hills; Ink: black, white and gold; Paper: PTI black, kraft, pure poppy patterned paper; Other: Finetec gold palette watercolor, gold embossing powder, stickles in red and clear, prismacolor pencils, Stitched Cover Plate (PTI)

As you can see one of my latest toys is the gold palette of Finetec watercolors. Yay! What do we do with a new toy? Overuse it! :) I tried three of the different shades in the palette to color in the leaves on the cover plate and I need suggestions for what to put in the center. I actually like this better than the card above with all of the red, but couldn't figure out what else to do in time for the hop. I think perhaps a verse or saying, but I cannot decide what color it should be.

Finally I just chose some of the colors from the inspiration photo to make this last card. The world is in great turmoil now like I haven't seen in my lifetime. My wish is for greater peace. You can't tell in the photo, but the word "peace" is cut out of white glitter paper I bought at Michael's, backed and offset just a bit to bring in the black from the inspiration photo, mounted on kraft brown to represent the bird in the inspiration photo.

Stamps: PTI Stitches & Swirls; Ink: vintage photo; Paper: PTI kraft, black, vellum, pure poppy and simply chartreuse patterned paper, white glitter paper; embellishments from Holiday Tags mini kit, scor-tape and Nuvo gold flakes

Now I can allow myself to look at the other things folks have created and I am sure with all the talent out there, I will be wishing I had more sets in my cart at PTI when I'm through!

Christmas sweater or Halloween? Can't decide...

Hello! The fans of Papertrey Ink can join along and stamp a card inspired by the reveals for this month, to date. My inspiration came from a different source, the sweater that Diana posted in a thread where we were all guessing the theme for the Mini Market kit to be released later this month.

So this combines the sweater, Ursula and the Make it Monday challenge from last week (I'm late, but it was a great layout to copy). Here is the sweater she posted....

And here is my card.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Tiny Treats: Halloween, Paper: Neenah solar white, PTI black, PTI black gingham check, watercolor paper; Ink: Archival black, Ranger distress oxides in Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean, Iced Spruce: Other: Silver stickles, sequins

I made a background using distress oxide inks, but the problem was, how to add that glittery dimension in the sweater photo? First I tried inking up a background stamp and embossing in silver, but that didn't work. Then I mixed a bit of pearl colored Perfect Pearls with some water and then flicked it on with a paintbrush. That gives me spots of shimmer placed randomly on the cardstock and also activates the oxide effect of the inks.

I stamped the cauldron on the cardstock chips and then stamped another on plain white cardstock to color, then fussy cut and lay on top of the stamped image on the watercolor paper. Then I used silver Stickles to fill in the miniature stars. There also is a star image in the Halloween set I used that is like a blown up version of the mini stars in the cauldron. I stamped that on the watercolor background also and cut it out, then added a few sequins and paper strips to finish out the card. I also tried to balance the elements in the card by adding a very thin strip of the distress oxide colored paper to the bottom, so you have bottom, middle for the cauldrons and upper right with the star.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Walking on Sunshine

Hello! I discovered Nuvo metallic flakes due to a challenge at Papertrey Ink, very cool when used with a strip of Scor-tape. However I had this image in my mind of using it with a TCW sunflower stencil I had purchased. I tried sticky sheets like one video recommended but then you have blank areas that you need to cover with another form of glitter or beads because in my house if a sticky space is left blank for too long it gets covered in pet hair. :) Also, I really wanted the sunflower image on top of the watercolor background I had made with distress inks, because I was looking for a vivid panel of color with the pop of gold and copper for the flower. 

Finally I tried a spray adhesive. The right kind will stay tacky long enough to put on the Nuvo flakes, although for the two tone look that I wanted for the sunflower, you have to very careful when breathing not to get have the flakes flying around too much and getting onto the wrong part of the stenciled image. 

The actual stencil itself is now gorgeous, I ought to post a picture, because the adhesive stuck to it as well and of course then the flakes themselves, so it is very glittery! 

If you're going to try this, make sure that you tape down the stencil so the adhesive goes where you want it to on your card surface. Also, cover over the portion that you don't want to get sticky. Any normal sheet of paper will do. I used Frog tape so it wouldn't lift up the watercolored background. And then flake at will! 

I used a variety of distress inks for the background and learned that candy apple red really creates a vivid background. I obviously need more practice when embossing letters, it looks a bit sloppy. 

I made one card for my daughter's "golden" birthday when she turned 25 on the 25th, which was one of my main motivating factors for trying to master the technique of using the gold flakes on the sunflower, with the distressed ink background. I didn't master it by any means but it looks close to what I wanted. 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink alphabet, birthday sentiment; Paper: PTI white linen, orange zest, watercolor paper; Ink: Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Inks in pumpkin, peeled paint, mustard seed, marmalade; Other: Nuvo gold and copper flakes, spray adhesive, gold gel pen, PTI button

Thanks for looking. 

Sketch Saturday #479

Good morning and welcome to another Sketch Saturday! This week is sketch #479 and the sponsor is Pink Gem Designs. My printer is low on ink, no digis for me right now, so I chose an image from my stash of a pumpkin, since the temperatures here are in the 60s right now and it feels like Fall is on its way! Fall also means greens and orange and golds so I selected that color palette for my card this week.

I managed to get decent results for the first time with some gold leaf on a scor-tape strip. I'll be looking into that technique again, I like the look it adds to a card!

Thanks for looking and we hope you can play along this week!

SAF 2017 10th Anniversary, Tin & Aluminum with Laurie Schmidlin

Hello again! Squeaked in one last card before the deadline for entries into Stampafaire 2017. The nice thing is I have lots of cool techniques to try in the weeks ahead when I get a chance. Always amazed at the folks who  manage to work their way through all of them. I'm poky.

Anyway, this was one of the last challenges for tin and aluminum. I used tin foil although I can see why a tin crafting sheet would work much better; you need the stiffness. I quadrupled my sheet but had to be careful rubbing on the black ink, and looking at the photo I think it could use a bit more black on mine. You can find the video in youtube or the link on Nicole's blog. But thanks Laurie, I had fun with it!

I framed mine in kraft and sort of thought of the old west, with saloons and abandoned mirrors in ghost towns or the tin ceilings and accessories so common then. I was shooting for that sort of look with my card, which is why I framed it in the Stitched Die. I painted the petals on the die in champagne and gold inks; they're a bit translucent so depending on how the light hits it, only some of the leaves look like they're painted, but they all are.

I also liked the way she gilded the bottom half of her die cut sentiment so I tried that too. Cool technique once again.

Thanks for looking and have fun stamping!

SAF First Anniversary Tradition of Paper Hostess: Lauren Bassen

Hello again. Thought I would post this separately as my last one was getting rather long.

I also got a chance to play along with Lauren Bassen's challenge for the first anniversary of paper. She took a cover plate and then paper scraps and using multiple colors, laid out a pretty grid and then selected a few of the cut outs for a vellum overlay. She sewed on the vellum.

I don't have a sewing machine for paper purposes and I realized I don't have a cover plate that does cut outs either. So I cut out separate hearts from paper scraps. Who doesn't have a ton of paper scraps? Then I cut out a few vellum hearts as well. Instead of a sewing machine I put a very thin line of glue in the center of each vellum heart, then when I adhered the hearts and they dried, I used a white gel pen to make faux stitches to mimic the sewing on Lauren's project. I tried to take one shot from an angle that would show the edges of the vellum. They're turned up a bit like a butterfly wing.

Thanks for looking!

Some late SAF projects for take ten and Paper challenges

The best laid plans of mice and stampers. I intended to play along with Stamp a Faire but we just got busy. Things we can handle even if eventually though. Prayers going out to Houston and all those still battling with flood waters.

So I did get a chance to play some with a few challenges and I might try one more tonight.

The first is for a take ten warm up challenge. We had ten minutes to look and pick a picture for inspiration, ten minutes to gather our supplies, etc. So not the same as a ten minute card, but broken into ten minute segments!

I selected this inspiration photo although I didn't use all of the colors:

And here is my card. I case'd a technique Melissa Phillips had shared a while back with the cut out heart. I liked her card quite a bit better though!:

Next up was a challenge from Rebecca Luminarias to dye paper in hot water with dye inks mixed in. The paper comes out a delicate sort of pastel color. My next few cards are going to look quite a bit similar because I used the same dies and images I already had out...some very similar colors too.

Here are my dyed die cuts:

And here is the card I made using them. Very similar color scheme to the card above, same basic shapes really. I think it should have had a bit more yellow. Not feeling it really but hey, it is good practice to make something better in the future. Blog post is long enough, think I'll put the next card in a separate post. Thanks for looking!

Sketch Saturday with Crafty Sentiments

Hello and welcome to a new sketch challenge from Sketch Saturday! This is challenge #477 and the sponsor this week is Crafty Sentiments! I chose Mia who is all cozy in her fall jacket, boots and tights because Fall is my favorite season and I'm looking forward to its beginning!

I chose the blue section of paper behind the image to highlight the beautiful shade of blue in the sky when September and October come. The plaid strip I imagine to line her jacket, and the red strip of course is to link back to the color I chose for the jacket itself.

Thanks for looking! I had fun with this image and hope you find some time to get crafty and have a little fun this week as well.

Stamps: Crafty Sentiments digital "Mia" ; Paper Neenah solar white, blue panel, scrap of patterned paper, Bazill red, scraps of green and teal; Dies: Gathered Garden from Papertrey Ink, MFT stitched rectangle, punch from Stampin' UP; Other: PTI button, twine, Prismacolor pencils and gamsol, twine, button

Sketch Saturday #475 ... New Designer

Good morning and thanks for stopping by! I am so pleased to announce that I am a new team member at Sketch Saturday, which has a fabulous team of international designers. I always enjoy a good sketch as a way to get the creative juices going. This first one was a lot of fun to put together.

The sponsor for this particular sketch is MMedel Illustrations on etsy. I selected this cute kitten from the Kitten Bundles who seems to have a bit of a self-satisfied look on her face. That's what prompted me to use the die for the wee birds (Memory Box) as the embellishments, and the sentiment (from a Papertrey Ink set). There might or might not have been five birds when I started this card. :) Ask the kitty.

Thanks so much for looking and have a great day. Hope you can play along!

Stamps: Digital from MMedel Illustrations, Sentiment from Papertrey Ink; Ink: Soft stone, raspberry PTI; Dies by Spellbinder and Memory Box (resting birds); Paper: PTI soft stone, black, blush and white; Coloring medium Copics, white gel pen

Challenge #10 Mustard Seed Faith

Good morning and welcome to another challenge from Mustard Seed Faith. Diane Noble has written our devotional for this challenge and her writing is always inspiring and biblically centered. Please go there to read her thoughts on the virtue of planning and what the bible has to say about that.

Her challenge was to create anything to do with summer so I chose a beachy theme and did a layout of swimsuits. I made a background using some of the new distress oxide inks from Ranger and chose yellow and blue which also, when spritzed with water, created a green shade as well. When I was little we had a backyard pool and the main colors I associated with it were the blue of the sky and water, the green grass we would run on to get to the pool and the bright yellow sun in the sky.

I know it took a lot of planning on my parents' part to put up that pool. It was an above ground pool and my dad would have to level the ground first, then put up the pool and each year check for and patch any leaks in the liner. He would have to fill it with water and use chlorine to keep the water clean, skim out bugs and leaves. He put in a lot of planning and a lot of work so we could enjoy our summers.

There are a lot of things we have to plan way in advance to try to ensure life will run smoothly. And there are times those plans fly out the window because God pulls us in a different direction. I recall a summer exactly five years ago, almost to the day, when our plans took a radical turn. My husband was hospitalized and had three stents put in his heart. The summer changed, eventually our residence changed, relationships changed and his habits changed. My husband had always been very focused on trying to discern God's will for his life but after that event it became an even higher priority. He spent a lot of time in prayer before but even more now. Because as Diane says in her devotional, our ultimate goal in all of our planning should be to try to give God the glory. That is our hope with our blog. We would love it if you would stop by and participate in our challenge. Wishing you a blessed week.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink. Ink: Ranger distress oxide inks, archival black; Paper: Neenah solar white, PTI white linen, watercolor; Other: patterned paper scraps, copic markers, glitter, MFT pierced rectangle dies, glossy accents. 

Papertrey Customer blog hop June 2017

One last post for the day to squeak in before the blog hop ends. I admit I was short on inspiration this time. I tried to create a gradient with blue-green inks for the background, the shaker card uses clear acetate of course, as a nod to the glass jars in the photo. I like the other shaker card I made this week a bit better but some days are better than others!

Here is the inspiration photo:

And here is my card:

Stamps: What the Doodle, Waves Mini; Cardstock: Neenah solar white, teal, watercolor; INk: Ranger distress inks, variethy of blues, PTI fresh snow; acetate, beads, sequins, white embossing powder, buttons and stickles. 

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Choose Joy ... New Challenge at Mustard Seed Faith

Good morning! It is time for a new challenge at Mustard Seed Faith and this week's hostess is Nancy, who has selected the theme of Choose Joy for her devotional. The point of her thoughts is that we have a choice, we can take action to choose joy.

That is true, isn't it? We may not be able to control our circumstances, but we can control our response to them. And the response is always or can be guided by the fact that our joy is found in our position as a child of God. There is joy in our salvation, joy in the fact that Jesus Christ paid it all on the cross for our sins. I don't always outwardly express joy, but it is always buried deep in my heart and I can lean on that when circumstances wouldn't warrant happiness. But joy is separate from happiness, because while happiness is circumstantial and fleeting, joy transcends circumstance.

It can for me however, be a challenge to remember that I can choose joy and that I have that assurance of salvation which brings joy. I am thankful for Nancy's devotional as a reminder that I need to make joy my choice.

For our challenge this week we can create anything that brings us joy. I just find great joy in creating or papercrafting so making anything usually provokes happiness or joy. I thought I would go with bright colors, playful images and sequins in a shaker card, to send to someone to bring a bit of joy into their life.

Thanks for looking and please visit our blog so you can play along in our current challenge.

Sstamps: Poppy stamps narwhal set; Ink: PTI snow white, soft stone; Paper: Orange Zest, blue scrap, teal, watercolor; Dies: My Favorite Things square stitched frame, PTI double ended banner; Other: sequins, glitter, prismacolor pencils, acetate, white embossing powder

Peonies for Pantone

Too many ideas, too little time! There are so many ways you could go with this. I decided to dress it up just a bit more than my last card and make another Pantone chip card for Make it Monday using a peony because...pink!!!

Thanks for looking and have a great time stamping! 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Pretty Peonies, Scripted; Paper: PTI soft stone, white, raspberry, watercolor, scrap of patterned paper; Ink: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow, Fresh Snow; Tim Holtz Ranger distress inks of Spun Sugar, Forest Moss, Peeling Paint, Worn Lipstick; Other: white embossing powder, sequins, Spellbinders square die

Pantones Under the Sea

Always enjoy a good challenge and I found the one at Papertrey Ink intriguing for Make it Monday. I hadn't heard of the Pantone chip inspiration. You're supposed to take a single color chip and match the stamp color or decorative accents to that chip. I am fond of the color blue and fond of this whale stamp so I paired them up. I watercolored some cardstock and deliberately chose a spotty part for the whale because the whales I've been privileged to see on rare occasions have plenty of mottled color. Needed a few sequins, in my mind, for the sun reflecting off the water.

Thanks for looking. In case you come directly to this post and not the home page, I made another pantone chip inspired card using the peonies anniversary set with a pink chip, because...pink!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Keep Swimming, Dies: PTI Keep Swimming; Paper: Neenah solar white, scrap of blue, watercolor; Inks: Ranger distress Tumbled Glass, Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans, archival black; Other: sequins, wink of stella

I did find a few other challenges where this will fit, new blogs to me and some intriguing challenges and fine design team examples.

This would qualify for the following:

Deep Ocean Challenge #157: Die Cuts, Chipboards and/or Punches ... the whale is diecut
Crafty Critter Crazies...Just use a critter...my whale
Monochrome Magic ...Anything goes as long as it is monochrome
CAS on Friday ... Animals

Colourful Creations

Good day! I found a design team call based on a color challenge and I immediately tuned into the challenge itself and THEN went and looked at the design team they already have...looks like it  is for scrapbook pages. I make cards...hmmmm....
But seems like a fun team and they are open to applicants until June 20th. Here are the colors for their design team call at Colourful Creations:

The deadline has arrived and I haven't heard anything. So here are the cards I had submitted based on the color scheme. On different devices the last color on the right alternately looks either pink or red, so I used a bright pink on one card and red on the next. I did have fun coloring the owl in non traditional colors.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Paper: Neenah Solar white, PTI soft stone, blue, gold, scraps of patterned paper; Die: Papertrey Ink Gathered Garden, Hello, My Favorite Things stitched rectangle

Stamps: Lil Inker Designs, patterned paper, Kraft, Tim Holtz Ranger distress inks, ribbon

Back to card creating! Have a great day!