PTI Blog Hop - June 2011 - My Play Garden

Here we are at another Blog Hop for Papertrey Ink. This month Nicole Heady gave us an inspiration photo to work with. You can read all the details here

The hanging dresses in this playroom look like princess costumes - something a little girl would use to play dress-up - with layers and layers of ruffly tulle. When I first saw this photo, I immediately thought of flowers. So I set out to make some.

I started with a six inch length of sheer, white polka dot  ribbon from Michaels and ran a gathering stitch down the middle - pulled tightly and doubled it up around a silk ribbon flower in colors of PTI - Harvest Gold, Sweet Blush, Spring Rain and Raspberry Fizz. Okay, but it needed more color. So out came the Copics and I colored the ribbon to match. The stems and leaves are from Flower Fusion #2 and remind me of the storage boxes on the floor in the photo.
The background was inspired by Jessica Witty and her "You Color My World" project from the PTI June release. The inspiration was - use watercolors. It doesn't look anything like her gorgeous work of art. I used Crayola watercolor paints that I have here for our grandchildren and just made stripes of the various colors, trying to blend colors to match the photo as best as possible. At first I had tried Copics in PTI trio colors, but the result was dark and almost muddy in comparison. My paints were more pastel. I inverted the order of the colors so that the greens are at the bottom and the blue is at the top - grass and sky in my little Play Garden.

The Sentiment is from Happy Trails and the tiny dragon fly is from Places, Please. I thought it more in proportion with this project. There's also a pretty one in Wishing You which I may use with the trails for other designs. White cardstock, True Black and Ripe Avocado inks by PTI.
I'm sure this will go to one of the dear granddaughters.

Hope you enjoyed your stop. I'm off to see all your incredible interpretations of this inspiration photo.
Thanks for hopping by.

Papertrey Peeps June Challenge.

This is my masculine card for our Papertrey Peeps Challenge this month. Cammie asked us to celebrate the guys in our lives. I had already shared my Father's Day card I made here, so I thought I would give you a guy's Birthday card straight out of Ad Sense. I love this set for our friends (we're in that over the hill category) who love nostalgia.

I started with a Soft Stone card base and an Enchanted Evening panel tipped in Fresh Snow. The striped paper is from DCWV Linen Closet. The focal image is Ad Sense cut with the co-ordinating dies and stamped in EE, Spring Rain and Pure Poppy. The ribbon is a scrap from my stash that matches EE and was stamped with Background Basics: Geometrics in Fresh Snow.

Inside, I added several more sentiments from Ad Sense. The lines with dots are from Grunge Me. It just seemed to need that little extra. Just a little pop of some of the front elements made this a great card to slip in the mail for a dear friend.

Hope you enjoyed your stop. Thanks for dropping by.

PTI Make It Monday #18 - Tissue Paper Texture

This week's Make It Monday technique was brought to us by Betsy Veldman. You can read all the info and watch the video here.

My background is Pink Gingham tissue by International Greetings USA. I couldn't get it to adhere well, so I finally ran the cardstock panel through my Xyron machine and then placed the crinkled paper on it. The little wrinkles after running it through my Cuttlebug are quite pretty but did not photograph well. The bottom strip is Hybiscus Burst Bitty Dot covered with white tissue. It muted the color and made a great match with my little fabric flowers.

The watering can was cut with the Garden Variety die out of a scrap of 12x12 paper that has a texture that reminds me of brushed aluminum. I didn't attempt to stamp it, just colored it with Copics and adhered with pop dots. I also used the new Picket Fence die. My rose bush is made with PTI Leaf Ribbon and flowers snipped from trim purchased from Christopher Pines on Etsy. The butterfly is from Butterfly Dreams and colored with Copics. The sentiment is from Garden Variety. The sprinkles of water are Martha Stewart Carrara Marble Coarse glitter sprinkled on dots of Zig 2 Way Glue.

I hope you enjoyed your visit. Thanks for stopping by. Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Papertrey Ink - Make It Monday #17

This weeks Make it Monday technique - Cracked Glass - was demonstrated by Heather Nichols. You can view the information here.

This was certainly a new one for me. It looked so interesting, I visited my favorite craft store and bought a container of triple thick embossing powder. It took me a couple tries, but I was quite happy with my first attempt at this technique and want to do more. Thanks Heather, for introducing it to me.

The card base is PTI Kraft cardstock with a panel from Postmarks, edged with Chamomile Vintage Touch ink. The road is a stripe of Smokey Shadow stamped with the dashed line from Faux Ribbon. The map, frame, compass and sentiment are from Road Trip. Inside is Are We There Yet from the same set and Happy Father's Day from Fillable Frames #4. It's for DGS to give his Dad. He loves to get us all going by asking said phrase before we even leave the driveway. Hope our son gets it!

Thanks for stopping by.

PTI May Blog Hop

Flowers

May is the month when many flowers finally go into full bloom after a long winter's sleep.  For the blog
hop this month we want to see your favorite take on flowers.  You can stamp backgrounds, create
custom floral embellishments, showcase unique flower center additions (buttons, rhinestones, beads,
etc...), flowers die-cut from different materials (like fabric, felt, vellum, etc...) or anything else you can
dream up!  We are looking forward to seeing all of your amazing creations!
You can read all the information here.

Welcome! I hope you're enjoying the hop.

When I first saw the theme for this month's Blog Hop, I immediately wanted to do something with the seed packet. Several of us enjoy sharing seeds (no, I really don't need anymore Morning Glories, thank you). And I'm dying to color the new mini Flowers of the Year. But, sadly no package yet.

So on to Plan B. What to do, what to do? You might have seen some of the tissue flowers I've been playing with of late. If not, see here or here. I've been picking up some interesting tissue packs when I see them on clearance and decided to try some of that stash. This flower is made with blue and white gingham.

At first I was going to do a baby card even though there are no babies anywhere on my radar. A dozen layers of each of two sizes were cut at once just by folding the tissue and using the two smaller dies from Beautiful Blooms II #1. I punched a small hole in the center and held them together with a tiny blue brad. Uh, so-so. It needed something. So I added a light blue pom-pom to the center. Cute, but still lacking something. So I added another layer of vintage lace that I purchased at a local thrift shop. Now that I like. But for a little boy?

On to Plan C. How about a hair clip for one of the girls? These flowers are fantastic. The more you squish them and mush them, the fuller and better they look. But for a six year old? After all, they are only paper.

Okay, Plan D (and if this doesn't work, I give up). If I only had one of those alligator clips.  How about a clothespin? I bought these fabulous minis from Michelle Wooderson's Etsy shop. I had tiny ones, but too tiny. Sort of like Goldilocks - the one I used would be Mama Bear size. Okay. now what? Stick it on a tag! I picked up a paperback for a dear friend who last week broke a bone in her foot - off her feet for a while. Light bulb! Gift package. Yes, yes, yes. I love it when a plan comes together. (Even if it is the fourth in a series.) I slipped the book into a sack from Michelle Phillipi. Tied it with some tea dyed twine and there you have it. The evolution of a simple (uh, yeah, sure) project.

I gave it to her on Monday. And you know, with a really good friend, it's all worth it. She loved it and hobbled into the kitchen to clip it on a wire framed message board - tag and all.  Oh . . . and she liked the book, too.

Thanks for hopping by. If you read all of this, thank you so much! Any comments are truly appreciated.

Enjoy the rest of the hop!!

Supplies:

Paper: PTI Rustic Cream, Kraft

Stamps: PTI Green Thumb

Ink: PTI True Black, Vintage Touch Chamomile

Dies: PTI Beautiful Blooms II #1, Tag Sale #3

Other: Spare Parts ribbon by Paper Studio; Timeless Twine - overdyed with tea solution; Tissue paper by International Greetings

Papertrey Ink - Make it Monday #14 - Selective Inking

This week's technique was selective inking. You can view the video and information here.

This card involved a lot of trial and error. I used the technique twice. The first was on the sentiment stamp. Part is stamped on the front panel and the rest is on the inside on the Rustic Cream card base. That was easy. I've done that before. The second is the thread coming off the spool and through the needle. (You might want to click on the photo to see the detail better.) I wanted the longer, looped thread that is used on the "Handmade by" needle stamp. I inked part of the thread on the spool stamp and then part on the needle stamp. I practiced lining them up quite a few times and then stamped on the PP panel using Smokey Shadow. Didn't like that because the thread disappeared in the background. So I stamped the whole thing on Neenah white, colored it and cut it out. Yuck, that looked terrible. So back to the drawing, er stamping board and stamped in two parts -- Lavender Moon on the Pretty Pastels panel and Smokey Shadow on the white. I colored just the spool and cut that out. The needle was now lavender, so redid that and embossed with silver powder, cut out and adhered over the original on the panel. I used a craft knife to cut around the curve of the thread and slipped the Kraft Button Card under. By the time I was finished, I'd gotten pretty good at selective inking. I guess that's the point of this whole thing. Thanks Erin Lincoln!

All supplies, except lace trim from a fabric store, are PTI. The stamps are from Quilter's Sampler and Button Boutique.

Papertrey Peeps May Challenge -April Showers Bring May Flowers

May is all about the blooms. Terri brought us this months challenge. Check it out and you'll see her take on some fun dimensional blossoms. And now I'm trying to plan what to do with this month's PTI Blog Hop which is also about flowers.
One of the reasons I haven't been creating much lately, is that we've been spending every available minute in our gardens - weeding, mulching, separating, dividing, planting, and on and on and on. It's been wonderful when it isn't raining. The temperatures have been cool with low humidity. We want to get as much done as possible before the heat and humidity set in.
Here's two little posies I made for our granddaughters.

The felt (just the inexpensive kind from Joanns) flowers are made in a style I first saw by Betsy Veldman with six Beautiful Blooms II #1 die cuts, each folded in quarters and adhered to a covered hair clip. (already wrapped and purchased from Michaels ) The centers are fabric covered brads using the I-top tool from Imaginese. I cut two slits in each Button Card stamped with Raspberry Fizz and Spring Moss. I am anxiously awaiting the new inks. I only had the cubes and they are getting so-o-o dry.
Well, that's it for now. I hope to be back later with my Make It Monday card. Waiting for my battery to charge on the camera so I can download. Thanks for stopping by.