PTI Birthday Bash Challenge

In between cleaning my mother's rooms, I managed to put together not one, but two cards using the embellishments from the PTI design team. The first one features the Happy Birthday from Lisa Johnson.

I printed the sentiment on vellum and colored with Copics. I didn't realize the first image on the page didn't have the bow, so I colored and cut out the bow from the third image. (also, the two bows are different) I scored a frame aroung the image using the Scor-Pal. I mounted this over a white card base on which I had stamped the carnation and greens from Life. It shows through much better than the photo shows.
I'll be back later to share the other one. Thanks for stopping by.

Compose a Card with Becky Oehlers

Since I became involved with the Papertrey Peeps, I've wanted to try my hand at some other challenges to get ready for their big kickoff, February 1. Becky Oehlers issued this one on her blog.

This seemed within my ability and I had most of the supplies. So today after the housework was done and several loads of laundry out of the way, I grabbed some time to create. This was super easy because Becky had picked out the colors and given all the measurements for cutting. However, the only heart punch I own is an old, small, primitive style from about eight years ago. So I tried my hand at making a flower ( a la Dawn McVey) and used six of the hearts as petals in the center. Most everything else was as described.

Supplies
Cardstock: PTI Kraft, Vintage Cream, and Melon Berry
Stamps: Background Basics Hearts, Polka Dot Basics, Sign Language
Ink: PTI Melon Berry and True Black
Button: PTI Vintage Holiday Mix (it doesn't match, but it blends)
Twine: PTI Rustic Cream
Ribbon: American Crafts Valentine Cherry Cordial
Punches: heart unknown, Martha Stewart Tag
Mini pop dots

Thanks for dropping by.

A Challenge by a fellow PTI stamper

Fellow PTI stamper Ted has issued a challenge to create a Valentine project using non-traditional colors. You can view the instructions here. I can't believe almost three weeks have passed since it was issued. In between something called life happened. Our two sons and their families visited on the first two weekends to celebrate Christmas. They are both in the foods industry and find it so difficult to get time off around the holidays. But it's all fun.
Then on Jan. 10, my 88 year old mother fell and broke her hip. Since then it's been a blur of surgery, hospital visits, doctors and now a rehab facility. She has been living with us for the past four years since we moved to PA. I am the only child and this has been really stressful. I know it could be worse. I'm trying to stay connected, but losing ground quickly.
Enough of my troubles and on to the challenge. I make sugar spiced pecans with any leftovers from making holiday cookies and pies. I thought I would turn some of them into a Valentine gift for my dear sons and husband. The boys took them home early.

I used My Punny Valentine stamp set, Orange Zest and Dark Chocolate inks, all by PTI and the colors of the Cleveland Browns. I used the rock and roll technique (hope that's the correct term) to stamp the squirrel so that he's orange in the center and brown around the edges. The tag punch is by Martha Stewart. Jute and button from my stash. The decorating cones are by Wilton. I use them a lot! Simple but special for the special guys in my life.

You still have time to join this challenge. It was lots of fun! Thanks Ted.

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.

September Guest Star Stamper

I thought I would take this opportunity to share my GSS entries at Papertrey Ink. I am so honored and excited that Nichole Heady chose my Creepy Cap as this month's winner in the Halloween Project category.

I used a Wilton Disposable Decorating Bag filled with Halloween candy. Then made the brim from True Black cardstock and embellished with stamps from Spooky Treats II. The little spiders are from the end of the "best if eaten before..." stamp. The spider charm was stamped on acetate and embossed with black embossing powder. I finished off with Ripe Avocado Swiss Dots ribbon.

The brim is also stamped with the web design and heat embossed using Versamark Ink and clear embossing powder.

My other entry was for the Timeless Templates category to use for sharing seeds with a friend. It holds a small sunflower that when dried will provide the seeds for her garden. They're really pretty - multi-flowered, rusty red & gold.

The template is Get a Handle On It cut from Rustic Cream. The scalloped circle was cut from Summer Sunrise with Spellbinders Nestibilities. Lots of different stamp sets were used for this one. The main image is from Autumn Abundance, stamped with True Black and colored with Copics. The wavy flowers and sentiment are from Around and About Sentiments, stamped in Summer Sunrise. The sentiments on the side and label and the bee are from Flower Garden Sentiments. The little dot trail on the bee is from Wishing You. Flower and ribbon from my stash.

I hope you enjoyed my projects as much as I enjoyed making them. I hope to be back with something for the Blog Hop. See you then.