PTI June Blog Hop - Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate, Kraft, Cream

Welcome! I'm so glad we can all be here tonight. I wasn't sure I would make it. Many of you know that my Mom lives with us and has been recuperating from a broken hip since January. Just when we thought she was about to regain some semblance of independence, she broke the other one last Thursday. Well, I guess it could be worse (but don't mention that to her). In between emergency room, surgery, hospital visits, etc., I was able to color the new Year of the Flowers: Rose, literally one petal at a time. IMHO this is the most beautiful image Nicole has designed. It was so exciting to see it come to life. I'm in love!



I love the soft pink of SB with DC. I added the new 2009 Bitty Dot Basics in Kraft and cream. I had to substitute another cream cardstock in order to use the Martha Stewart border punch. ( I would have preferred Rustic Cream, but the fabulous quality of PTI cardstock makes it difficult to punch a design like this.) Color Box Sand ink complemented the Kraft nicely and was subtle enough for the Fancy Flourishes. The Sentiment, from Damask Designs, is stamped with DC.

I tried a little different approach to the rose. This is not a quick technique. It was first stamped on Neenah white with a combination of first Versa Mark and Sweet Blush (the newer formula). I then embossed it with Filigree clear embossing powder. This gave outlines to each petal, but almost disappeared when colored. (Don't color over the embossing. The Copics will dissolve it.) Copics used were R0000, 20, 22, 24. The first layer of pastel (Pink Beryl) allowed me to shade and blend for a very realistic image. I finished off with some strokes of a white Uni-ball Signo and a dew drop of Star Dust Stickles topped with Ranger Glossy Accents for dimension.

I'm hoping the recipient is going to enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making it. I hope you liked it.
Thanks for hopping by.

(Oh, and if you are so inclined, prayers and understanding would be greatly appreciated during the coming months. Thank you.)

Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge

Hi. I'm Linda and I'm a Papertrey Fan-addict. But I must confess, I am a member of that oh-so-small group that does not own any felt! There, I've said it. I hope I can still participate in this Hop tonight. If you've exiled me from the group, you can stop reading now.

The reason for not purchasing the PTI felt is that I have a humungous, ginormous investment in felted wool. This rather similar product is achieved by laundering (eeeek!!) 100% wool fabric and then tossing it in a hot dryer (double eeeek!!) When I was a teenager my mother did this to one of my beloved sweaters, she felted it, and it didn't cost $64 a yard! Have you seen the felted purses? They're made from knitted wool yarn and are really yummy. The end result is that the fabric is thicker and tighter and will not ravel. Most of mine are over-dyed. You can find plaids, tweeds and textures which are not available in felt. I have made candle mats, table runners, pin cushions and make-do's. I have appliqued small motifs and I just ordered a pattern for a small crazy quilt. Wool felt can always be used in any of these patterns. Here are some pictures I could find of things I have made.



I made this card following the requirements for tonight's Blog Hop. It was inspired by this card by katielawton. Thank you Katie and if you're hopping, I'm so glad you posted your beautiful card to the gallery.



You may notice the PTI die cut the felted wool quite nicely. I had to pass it through my Cuttlebug several times. A thicker piece would have been a bear to cut.

My love affair with the Delightful Dahlia continues. I think one of my best investments this year was the set of Pastel Copic sketch markers. They're mostly the ones with four 0's. Here I colored the entire flower with Y0000 and then went back and shaded with Y21. The dahlia was stamped with VersaMark and embossed with white embossing powder.

I hope you enjoyed your stop here. I hope I'm off somewhere enjoying your project. Thanks for hopping by.

Supplies
stamps: PTI Delightful Dahlia, Life, Floral Frenzy
ink: PTI Simply Chartreuse,True Black; VersaMark
paper: PTI Berry Sorbet, 2008 Bitty Box Basics;Neenah white
ribbon: PTI Sweet Blush Swiss Dot Satin, Leaf Ribbon
other: pearls, Martha Stewart border punch, Copic markers, white embossing powder, PTI Butterfly die

PTI December Blog Hop

Welcome everyone. I hope, for all who celebrate, you had a very Merry Christmas surrounded by family and friends.

I'm sure you are all anxious to get on with the hop, so on to the reason we're here. Nichole challenged us to find an inspirational piece among our holiday decorations and design a project around it. Here's what I chose.

It's actually a Boyds Bears Tree Topper. Her outfit is cream velvet with white fur and touches of metallic gold. I used that palatte to design this card.

I used PTI Vintage Cream cardstock and white Pearlescent Cover by Worldwin layered on a white cardstock base. The stamps are by PTI - Snowflake Serenade and Star Prints. Gold ink by Colorbox, Ranger Queen's Gold embossing powder, and metallic gold paint pen by DecoArt. The star is adhered with 3D-Dots.

I hope you like it. Now I'm off to admire and be inspired by all the other participants. I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year. Thanks for hoppin' by.

PTI October Blog Hop

This is the card I am going to send to friends that we left back in NJ when we moved to PA. I hope someone will believe that I had a card very similar to this sketched out using the Sign Language image on a Cuttlebug folder from last year - Winter House. But when I saw Lauren Meader's sneak peak for her Fold and Go back in August, I had to run and order Boards and Beams and make it a true PTI card. This is how it turned out.

I hope I did her work proud. I love it and I apologize for not having something really creative this month. The colors are non-traditional and are representative of our home. I found the ribbon at Michaels - it's Chocolate with almost Spring Rain lined trees and red stars - and the color palate developed from there. I started with a base of Rustic Cream (my personal favorite PTI color-VBG) and layered Dark Chocolate and Spring Rain. The house is stamped in VersaMark and is very crisp in actuality. I topped the flag holder with the solid star in Pure Poppy and added some red Stickles glitter. Each little blue tree on the ribbon is topped with a red glitter star. Everything went fine until I tried to stamp the tree in Spring Rain. So I went with Enchanted Evening. One of these days, with the help of the Forum, I am going to understand these different inks. The flag is adhered to the panel with pop dots. For the sentiment, I typed out the wording in PrintShop using a font similar to Boards and Beams. Then I stamped the word house from that set into the phrase. (I have to work on positioning it better.)

I hope you enjoyed it. Please give me a good grade for effort and not for originality.
Now I'm off to love all the other entries. Thanks for hopping by.

September Blog Hop

This was a very interesting challenge. Nichole asked that we "focus this month on reusing & recycling portions of your newly arrived Papertrey order in an earth-friendly way." I had several ideas, but the more I worked, the less I came up with. I didn't have much to work with, mostly the empty stampboxes from previous months, some acetate that the stamps come on, the thank you cards, and the tissue paper. So here goes number one.

I started with the thank you card and pictured a frame. Then it became a window with the acetate as the glass and the tissue for curtains. The wallpaper inside is PTI Green Tea Leaves in Aqua Mist. The flowers are from Vintage Picnic and the clapboards on the Ocean Tides cardstock are made with Journaling Lines using Versamark ink.

The second uses the wrapper from Poppy Prints by Lisa Johnson. I had found these Balli's Best Tea Candies at a local candy & nut outlet. I thought they were quite different and would work nicely for Autumn. The wrappers are green, orange, and brown. I made a pillow box out of a transparency (no time to order PTI Clearly Creative but it's on my list) and covered up the logo - so sorry Lisa - with a Nestabilities label stamped with Tea for Two. I added the acorns and leaves from Autumn Abundance to keep with the theme. Tied with a ribbon from Michaels and little tags stamped with words from Tea for Two. Ink: Spring Moss, Orange Zest, Dark Chocolate. Colored with Copics.

I hope you found these interesting and I'm off lovin' all of yours.
Thanks for hoppin' in.

Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop

Our challenge this month was "to create a project inspired by any aspect of fall." Nicole's suggestions included texture found in fabrics and stitching. There is nothing that speaks to me of fall more than my quilts. Those first crisp Autumn evenings, with the smell of that first fire in the fireplace and being able to snuggle under a warm quilt, are heaven to me. While browsing through my fabrics ( and in a quilter's stash that could take days!), I came across a remnant from one of my projects that immediately said fall and the card evolved from there.

In a perfect world, it would be wonderful to go pumpkin or apple picking and then spread out a quilt on the ground for a picnic lunch. This is my interpretation.
I cut a rectangle of the fabric and fringed the edges. I started with a base of PTI Rustic Cream, then Dark Chocolate and 2008 Bitty Box Basics in Summer Sunrise. The upper portion presented a problem with my limited supplies, so I stamped Background Basics: Text Style on a piece of Rustic Cream. The ribbon is a piece of green twill from my stash. For the basket I stamped Vintage Picnic on PTI Kraft and shaded with Copics and adhered with pop dots. The pumpkins are stamped on PTI Cream with Smokey Shadow and also colored with Copics. (I had so much fun with the leaves.) The sentiment is from Autumn Abundance. Click on the photo to see a little more of the detail. I hope it made you feel like fall and that you liked it.

Here's another Autumn inspired card I finished before the Blog Hop deadline. I've found a new love in coloring with Copics. I studied tole and decorative painting for several years and I am using some of the principles of shading, etc. on my cards.

I tried to emulate rust colored mums from our garden and a yellow ware pitcher. This is the first time I've used a sketch from CPS and I went all the way back to #5 for this one.
The stamps are Autumn Abundance. Edging and pearls from my stash. And a huge thank you to Lauren Meader for sharing her tip of coloring embellishments with our Copics (April 2, 2009). I toned down the pearls from Michaels with the lightest color from my flowers. Big difference! True Black and Vintage Cream inks by PTI.
PP is by K&Company, Rust CS by DCWV, PTI Cream and Rustic Cream cardstock.

Enjoy the Hop and thanks for stopping by.

My first PTI Blog Hop

I've followed the Blog Hop for several months, but this is the first time I've been able to participate. My blog is quite new and I'm learning with every post. I created it just so I could be a part of the PTI Hop. I love sharing my projects and hope you enjoy them too.
I was having so much fun preparing for this that I made two cards using Background Basics: Text. It was really difficult choosing one, but here goes:

I had this vision of old love letters. I have samples from my Grandfather from the early 1900's and I wanted to get that faded, muted, sepia toned writing made with an old dip pen. I stamped BB: Text on velum using a combination of Chai and Chamomile. (I know they aren't intended for stamping, but they're great colors. I hope I didn't harm my stamp.) The ink doesn't get absorbed into the velum like regular paper and I got the effect - sort of fuzzy. The edges were distressed with Chamomile. The flourish and flowers are from With Sympathy. Sentiment is computer generated. (not as pretty as PTI) Card base is Kraft, layered with Pure Poppy and Rustic Cream. The string wrapped around the letters is DMC Perle Cotton #8. It's another great fiber to work with. It's twisted so that it doesn't unravel like floss. Not as many colors, though. It's all in what you want your look to be. Try it in your buttons!

Thanks for visiting. Hope you like my contribution. I'll share the other card tomorrow.