February PTI blog hop

Good morning! Thank you for stopping by. My, the time goes by quickly! Already time for another monthly Papertrey Ink customer blog hop. I always enjoy the blog hop challenge posted by Papertrey Ink and had fun with this month's cards. I did find the inspiration photo a true challenge. I generally find myself using white or cream as a base and ignoring my colors, so it stretched my creativity, but once I got started I had more and more ideas pop up. Only had time to make two; we had to go out of town.
Here is the inspiration photo:

Here is the first card I made. I was keyed into the pink jewelry boxes that made a curve alongside the photo, the bling, the rich purple tones in some of the fruit and the embossing. So I chose the feather to represent the curve of the pink boxes, some sequins to represent the bling and used gold embossing to highlight the feather and emphasize the sentiment. The purple or mulberry tones in the photo were difficult to duplicate but I found a sheet of glittery paper at Michael's that looks like a lot closer match in real life than it does in the photo below. I really like how the sentiment from the Praise set matches the feather.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Feathered Finery, Walk by Faith. Ink: Raspberry Fizz, black and gold. Paper: Smoky Shadow, another gray, PTI patterned paper in...Blueberry maybe? purple and smoky shadow patterned paper. Other: gold emobssing powder, ricrac ribbon, sequins. 

For my second card I tried to introduce some of the other colors in the photo, the yellow and red tones inside the cut fig, for example. There is that curious shade of yellow on the plate too, which has green tones, and the fancy filigreed embossed image at the top. So for this card I used Ranger distress inks to make a watercolor background that peeps through the die cut image of the flowers. I embossed the side to represent the filigree at the top of the photo, stamped the sentiment in gold and my bling is pink (the sequins) to represent the jewelry boxes. The plate is represented by the bird in chartreuse, perched atop one of the flower's leaves. Thanks for looking and happy hopping.

Papertrey Ink stamp set Walk by Faith, Memory Box dies, embossing folder, gold embossing powder, pink sequins

Planted 2011

Good afternoon! I don't think I'm going to make it through all the challenges, but here is one more. This is for the year 2011 and I love the soft images in this set. I have grand visions of having a lovely garden but never enough time to devote to it, so stamped gardens sort of replace the ideal of the real thing. Those spots at the top of the card that look like measles? They're not. They're stamped images of the flowers as a background, in spun sugar Ranger distress ink, so they're really, really light. But they're there.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Garden Variety. Paper: Neenah Solar white, PTI Soft Stone. Ink: PTI Smoky Shadow, Raspberry Fizz,  Hibiscus Burst, New Leaf; Ranger Spun Sugar. Dies: PTI Tiny Tags, My Favorite Things Square Frame; Other: sequins, twine

FMS275 and 2010

Good morning! I had fun coloring as this stamp set just lends itself to bold colors! I have realized that I'm a marker junkie with no talent. I see others color fabulous images with their markers and for me its generally a fail. Let's see, I've purchased copics, spectrum and distress markers...and I go back to my pencils. Its a sign...I need more pencils. Anyway, after I finished putting this card together I noticed there is a double impression up by one of the leaves, but I'm going to go ahead and send it anyway to its recipient. I've learned I'm more of a perfectionist about my work as the creator than the people who receive the finished objects. Do you find that's true of your work? Are you more critical than outsiders? Anyway, this fits the sketch for Freshly Made Sketches 275 and I'm submitting it for the 2010 PTI anniversary. I don't own the five sets they're featuring, but I think you could substitute Beautiful Blooms II if you had it, to recreate this card. Thanks for looking. Time for a walk now, the weather is absolutely gorgeous!  (Also, I have to admit, I had to stamp the flower's center twice to get a color combination that satisfied me...I initially tried to make the spots darker and it looked like the flower had a chocolate chip cookie for its center...not the look I wanted!)

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Doodlie Do, Paper: Kraft, blue scrap and PTI patterned paper, also Doodle Design Kraft in color paper (love that paper pad!) velvet ribbon, Ranger distress ink, my trusty prismacolor pencils and MFT rectangle Stax die. 

Giga Guidelines

Good morning! Had a chance to get inky last night and this post uses a Papertrey Ink set from 2009, Giga Guidelines. I was trying to make a gradient and this card did not wind up at all the way I had envisioned when I started out. I was not going to make a square card at all and I was going to use a different complementary image...oh well. The best laid plans. When I trimmed the panel with the Giga Guidelines and smaller guidelines image I trimmed it way too much so it had to be a square card. I did a close up so you could see the lighter stamped image, it doesn't show up too well otherwise.

Stamps: Giga Guidelines, Guide Lines, Autumn Abundance, Trendy Treetops (sentiment); Inks: Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst, Smoky Shadow, black, Ranger Spun Sugar; Paper: Chartreuse, Avocado, Raspberry Fizz, Neenah solar white; Other: prismacolor pencils, sequins. 

Birds in Bloom

Hello! I am slowly working my way (very slowly) through the anniversary challenges at Papertrey Ink. In 2008, they introduced a set called Out on a Limb, which I don't own, but I do have an anniversary set from a later year, Birds & Blooms, which has a limb with foliage. Not as interactive for the limb as the 2008 set, but I made it work. I had an unused watercolor square that I made with Ranger distress inks. I used Ranger distress markers to ink up the stamp since the leaves are attached to the branch. More than a few of the projects use ribbon and I found a scrap of aqua colored velvet ribbon that finished off the card at the top. I mounted the card on rustic cream cardstock to symbolize the nest the bird is resting in (is she resting if she's standing on her feet? probably not).
Thanks for looking.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Birds & Blooms, Walk by Faith; Ink: Ranger distress inks and black; Paper: PTI and scraps, watercolor; Dies: Tag Sale: Quilted,  Basic Bookmark 2 (PTI); sequins, ribbon

Anniversary flowers

Welcome! I had fun making this card to go along with the 10th anniversary celebrations at Papertrey Ink. I DO own one of the sets from 2007 but I don't have it with me so I had to substitute. This is loosely based off of one of the sample cards shown from their 2007 release. Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Petite Pots; Ink: chocolate, raspberry fizz, lemon, summer sunrise, spring rain, Ranger distress greens, Limeade Ice. Paper: Vintage cream, kraft, chartreuse, patterned paper from one of the kits, sequins, butterfly unch, glitter, SU punch, twine

Birthday cupcake

Hello again! I had to make a birthday card for a boy, age 12, and I realized I have lots of flowers and cute little animals...but very little that would be appropriate for a boy that age! So I made a cupcake...cupcakes are rather universal right? My daughter was skeptical. I don't think I sold her on it!! Thanks for looking.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Baker's Dozen...random birthday stamp I found on my work table but I'm pretty sure its PTI. My Favorite Things stitched square dies, some sort of equally random embossing strip and scraps of patterned paper. Prismacolor pencils in brite violet and lavendar, warm grey 30%, lemon yellow. Glitter, sequins. 

Pink Peony...or blue?

I thought I'd play with the prismacolor pencils a bit again and colored in a peony image from Papertrey Ink in a few different color schemes, purple, blue and pink. In the end I chose the pink image because it seemed to pop on the card, but I'm partial to the purple/blue one as well and will probably make another card using it so it doesn't go to waste.

Thanks for looking. Happy stamping!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Pretty Peonies, Don't Forget to Write (MIM kit); Paper: Papertrey Ink white linen, white, patterned paper, Soft Stone (used on the die, although it looks white); Ink: Papertrey Raspberry, black, Ranger Shabby Shutters; Coloring Medium Prismacolor Pencils with gamsol; Other: Note die from Don't Forget to Write, sequins, Fiskars corner punch/embosser