Papertrey Peeps January Challenge.

I think I made it just under the wire. Rhonda issued the first challenge of this year - to make a thank you card and send it.
I wanted to play with Debbie Olson's design ever since I saw it. I removed the center circle from the Mat Stack 3 and the card front. This was my first time shading on patterned paper. I cut out the carnation and adhered it to the inside of the card and added two sentiments from Big & Bold Wishes.

I want to start by thanking all the sweet members of our Peeps group for their prayers and condolences this past month and for all their support and understanding throughout 2010. I won't bore everyone with all the details. You can read some here.

In particular, gratitude and appreciation are being sent to Terry for keeping us going, and especially to her daughter, Emilia, for sending us each a beautiful cyber cake on our Birthday. Thank you for making the day special. It was so wonderful to see it when we got home. And I promise I will send the card.

I must run now. Be back soon since I understand the next challenge is up and ready. Thank you all!

PTI Blog Hop - Holiday Leftovers

Merry Christmas everyone!

This month's challenge from Nichole is:

Holiday Leftovers

"It's that time again for our annual holiday leftovers challenge! Use scraps of wrapping paper, parts of holiday cards, recycle gift tags or bits of ribbon on a paper crafting project. We all have plenty of it laying around after all the holiday excitement and this is your chance to incorporate some of those pretty little things into an amazing piece of art!"

Not having a super amount of creative time around Christmas, I opted for a note card that did use two leftovers. When I started my Christmas cards, I was going to use the landscape layout, but then changed my mind. So I have a few card bases that are stamped horizontally. And I don't throw anything away.


We had a Christmas Brunch two weeks ago and the gals requested one of the recipes. Two of the three went in their cards, but somehow I forgot the third. When I sealed the envelope (lined, mind you, with paper cut with the PTI Envelope Liner die), there was the recipe sitting on the table. No way I was going to open that baby. So I held it for a few days and made this note card.
Another leftover is the label containing the sentiment. I was using Spellbinders Nestabilities and the paper shifted. I recut it into a rectangle and it didn't look too bad.
Then it was my opportunity to use the new YOF: Pointsettias. It was stamped on another scrap. It's half of an A2 card panel. I colored two of the leaves green and added the upper right green leaf by just inking the tip of one of the other leaves and positioning it between the two reds. That gave it a little more color and balance for a one layer flower stamped directly on the paper. I got the inspiration from Dawn McVey's tag you can view here. The notebook paper on top of the music notes may be a little redundant, but I like layers, and hey you can never have too many notes.

Hope you enjoyed your stop. Thanks for hopping by. Have a Happy New Year!

Supplies
Paper: PTI Rustic Cream, Paper Works white for small label
Stamps: PTI Journaling lines, Signature Christmas, YOF: Pointsettias
KaiserCraft Sheet Music
Ink: PTI Smokey Shadow, True Black, Vintage Touch duo
Other: Copic Pure Poppy and New Leaf trios,Y13 & YG23 in center;
EK Success punch; Spellbinders Nestabilities

For the Family Fashionista - CSC17

I turned the Dress Form die cut into a Christmas Card!

I started with PTI True Black cardstock and the die for Signature Series: Dress Form by Dawn McVey. The Santa hat was made from a tiny scrap of felt (sorry, not PTI), a pompom and a bit of chenille yarn. I added a snippet of tiny roped pearls and some gathered lace. The K&Company patterned paper was cut with the largest Spellbinders Nestabilities Label One, then cut in half and adhered to the PTI Vintage Cream card base. I layered two different ribbons to cover the space, both from Michaels. The Order Form from It's Official was stamped on Vintage Cream with Dark Chocolate and 'Tis the Season from Signature Christmas. I added a gold snowflake using a Martha Stewart punch and a festive bow. Lots of Vintage Touch inks were used to shabby up the edges. I'm really happy with this one so I'm going to submit it to some challenges and see what happens.

Hope you enjoyed your visit. Thanks for stopping by.

PTI November Blog Hop

Welcome. Happy Thanksgiving to all our American Friends. I hope your day is truly enjoyable, filled with people you love and gratitude for all your blessings. It's very quiet here, just the tapping sound of tiny ice pellets hitting the skylight overhead as I write. We are just three today, Mom, Hans and I, but I am happy for the quiet time to reflect on the past year and all that I have to be thankful for. I'll have several Thanksgiving dinners in the next few weeks as work and school allow the boys and their families to visit with us.

To all our International Friends. I hope you're safe and comfortable and still enjoying the gratitude of everyday blessings. Now on to the Hop!

This month's challenge was:

TAG TIME

Recently the design team and I put together a variety of holiday tags that are perfect to keep on hand
for quick wrap options. Now it's your turn to inspire us and the rest of the Papertrey community! Design
a holiday tag or two using all of your favorite goodies and share it with all of us! We will all have plenty
of inspiration to create a large stash and try to get ahead of the hustle and bustle of the season!

I haven't been able to make any to create a stash yet. Mine have been made for specific packages as the need arose. Several weeks ago, Rhonda of our Papertrey Peeps group issued a challenge using tags. You can read about it here. I was so happy with my entry (scroll down to the second photo), that I knew I had to make another. They're for my DGDs, and you know, you can't do for one and not the other. So, here it is.





I am absolutely in love with On Ice and the matching die. I've been using it on cards and tags and found that, if I only applied adhesive around the outer edges, I could create a pocket that could be filled with embellishments. I hoped this angle would give you an idea of how the leaves are inserted into the skate.



I've only scratched the surface of ideas for this application. I have a list of items to fill other skates. Stay tuned.

Supplies - PTI unless stated otherwise
Stamps: On Ice, Friendship Jars Holiday Fillers
Paper: Ocean Tides, Soft Stone
Ink: True Black, Fresh Snow
Other: Copic RV14 to color pompom, T1,4,6 to shade skate, BG75 to color leaf on rose
Silver Paint Pen, Floral supply leaf pick accented with Ranger Tiara Glitz Stickles
Michael's tiny rose, Seam binding, Martha Stewart Fine Glitter, Glimmer Mist Pearl
My Mind's Eye Tinsel Garland, Ribbon from stash

I also wanted to share my CASE of Lisa Johnson's Candy Cane tags you can see here. All my family will get one on a package. I tried to mix them up Using Tiny Treats and Mat Stack Stamps. The solid canes are Gobstoppers by Willy Wonka and the striped one is Hershey's Chocolate Mint.(hence the Dark Chocolate ink and use of Reindeer and Gingerbread boy - not shown.)





I hope you're enjoying the Hop. Have a wonderful day!
Thanks for hopping by.

Papertrey Peeps Challenge #19 & #16

I finally found some time to play with my new sets. Aimes issued the challenge this week to "use a negative (empty aperture) space in a creative way." I thought of using On Ice and this is what I made.



I die cut the skate and filled it with snowflake sprinkle candies. I collect all types of these toppings for when our grandchildren visit. It's an ongoing surprise - what sort of sprinkles I've found for their ice cream or cupcakes. I die cut through both layers and attached the treat bag inside so it can easily be removed. This card is 5x6.5 inches. The patterned paper and tag are from K&Company. Score tape around the outer edges with MS glitter. Snowflakes cut from DCWV Glittered Winter Mat Stack with Cuttlebug Snowflakes #2 die. The ribbon is Hug Snug dyed with Copic Various Ink R29 - Lipstick Red . The jingle bell is from my embellishment stash.

When I was cleaning up, I found I had two die cut skates from the cut out and decided to use one of them for Rhonda's Challenge #16 - "make a tag with an emphasis on sentiments."




The pink patterned paper was a scrap from K&Company Peppermint Twist pad and had pastel colored snowflakes. I stamped, colored and adhered the On Ice image creating a pocket for the glittered pine and berries. ( I hang some old skates on my old sled every year and fill them with Winterberry and pine.) It just followed to add them here. The sentiments "Let it snow" and "Frosty Fun" are from the same set and stamped in Scarlet Jewel and Aqua Mist. The "to & from" is from 2009 Holiday Tag Collection. The wrap of Bakers Twine hides the fact the the tag is pieced from two scraps.

One cut - two projects. I hope you liked them. I'm trying to catch up and hope to fill in the others that I missed very soon. Thanks for all your fun challenges, Peeps!
Thanks for dropping by.

PTI October Blog Hop

It's that time of the month again! Here's this month's challenge: "this month's blog hop is dedicated to those that celebrate winter holidays other than Christmas. Create a project that celebrates Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or some other winter holiday as we embrace everyone's beliefs in a celebration of diversity through paper crafting."

I found myself at somewhat of a loss not knowing how to use any of the stamps I had to complete this challenge. So I turned to my library of graphics that I used before I started stamping. I found the tag graphic that I always thought was very pretty and worked from there.
It is from the Hug Club at pcCrafter.








I used Get a Handle on It from PTI's My Timeless Templates and the beautiful new Blueberry Sky cardstock to form the box. I thought it might be nice to use it to present a small gift during the holiday.

I did a Google search for free Hanukkah graphics and found the dove at Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin and the other three at HubPages. I printed them on white cardstock and cut them out using Nestabilities. They are edged in Spring Rain and backed with scalloped circles of Enchanted Evening.

(ETA: I cannot take any credit for coloring these images. They are full color graphics.)

I hope you enjoyed this stop. Thanks for hopping by.

PS
I'm going to miss the party again this evening. We have a concert to attend, the first in The Community Concert series here in Lancaster. They cover a huge range of interests and are very enjoyable and affordable. I'm disappointed that it conflicts with the hop, but now that we can visit during the day it's much easier. I'll visit what I can this afternoon and then continue tomorrow. I always look forward to all the creative talent found on these hops. Enjoy the fun!

Time for some Stitches

We were away for three weeks visiting my 94 year-old MIL in Florida. Things went well there and my mother did well here on her own. She had visits from church friends, her "I've-fallen-an-I-can't-get-up" pendant, my homemade frozen dinners (AKA glorified leftovers) and daily calls from me. This is when I truly appreciate cell phones.
Before we left I had the opportunity to enter several items in the Southern Lancaster County (Solanco) Community Fair with very good results. If I have any quilters still following, they may be interested.


This is a small wallhanging from a pattern by Cynthia England. This features her "Picture Piecing" technique using freezer paper. (It is not paper or foundation pieced.) I used assorted reproduction fabrics to mimic my stack of rescued antique quilts. Each section is quilted differently as would be various old pieces.


Next is a wool penny-type rug using tongues instead of pennies for the border. PTI followers may recall this from the May Blog Hop. It is completely hand done using felted, overdyed wool and perle cotton buttonhole stitching.


And lastly, a stamped card also from the May Blog Hop.

I also received Red Ribbons (second place) for a punch needle project, tole painted doll house dining room set, and a scrap book layout. I had never entered the punch needle, stamping or scrapbook categories, so this was extremely exciting.

I hope to get back to more sewing and stamping now that we're home and getting back into our regular (somewhat crazy) routine. For those of you that enjoy quilting, I have a new link on the right for Free Quilt Patterns Info. It links you to many great designers who offer free quilt patterns when you visit their blog or web site. There's some big names included and many, many lovely patterns.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to chat again soon.