WOW! Thanks blog hoppers and Papertrey

Just wanted to say thanks a million to all who left comments during the blog hop last night. That was so nice of you! Also, I already loved PTI but I have to give an extra thanks to them as I am the overjoyed recipient of a free stamp set! Nothing like beginner's luck!! Thank you everyone and have a creative week :)

PS: alot of you complimented the ribbon "cakes" I did. I have seen various versions of this technique around the web. I wish I remembered where so I can give credit but I don't :( So wherever you are ribbon cake gals, I say THANKS for the inspiration! :)

Happy January PTI Blog Hop

Happy blog hop everyone! Thanks for visiting my blog :)

For the birthday card theme I have come up with a couple things. First up the cupcake card!

Using stamps from the Love Songs set, I created a cupcake with the stack of heart cookies stamp and hand drawing the cupcake "wrapper" with a Zig writer. The candles are also from Love songs and I think is meant to be the spoon handle that pokes out of the ice cream. Also from PTI, the raspberry fizz paper. The punched scallop edge is from Martha Stewart, the white pen is a Signo gel pen and the cute orange ribbon is from the $1 bin at Michaels, and of course a little Stickles to the hearts, the flames and the wrapper.

The next two cards are cakes made from ribbon scraps. I can't bear to toss any piece of ribbon unless it is sooo small. I keep a clear zip bag full of ribbon pieces too small to wrap around my ribbon card storage system and from time to time, will pull them out and make "cakes".

The above card uses PTI Ocean Tides cardstock and the Guidelines set for the stamped yellow background. The cake plate is from a SU! set and the celebrate stamp is a studio G stamp. Silver glitter dresses this cake up a little.

This card uses the PTI Raspberry Fizz cardstock, Love Songs cookie tray as a cake plate, and the polka dot basics for the background. THe MS scallop punch again, redline tape to hold the strip of orange glitter, prima paper flower and a clear gem that has been colored with alcohol inks to take on an orangey hue. In case anyone is wondering, I use either the Scotch quick dry glue or Aleene's tacky glue to adhere the ribbons to a separate piece of cardstock and then I cut it out in cake form to even up the sides of the cake. All ink is SU! classic.

With all of these cute cards, how about a way to dress up a gift card? I thought Lauren's Purse-onality Clutch would be a great way to make a gift card more exciting. I based my packaging on the cute flower themed gift card I got at target.
The flowers are peeking through a window I cut in the front of Lauren's template and covered with the acetate I peeled from a new PTI stamp set. Never waste good acetate I say ;)

Here is the template before adhering the sides. I stamped the sides with different patterns using a sticky note to mask the areas that were not to be stamped. I used Polka Dot Basics and Guidelines and a little sun mini stamp from my collection. The stamped flowers to the right of the window are the motifs from Guidelines and the flower stems are the balloon string from Love Songs. I LOVED the flowers I got from turning the motif a little and using light/dark shades of ink! The yellow cardstock scalloped edge was made using the SU! scallop punch. I also ran my ink pad down the edge of the flap and purse sides to mess it up a little.
Above is a shot into the purse. I attached a cardstock tab and wrote pull on it so the recipient wouldn't miss that the gift card was meant to be taken out and used! Also tucked a mini emery board and mini nail polish trio from the target dollar area.

Some gold glitter to dress things up, a scallop punch tag from SU! and also large yellow eyelets on either side of the box to put the ribbon handle through. The butterfly punches are from MS and I colored some details on them with a white Signo pen and then put iridescent stickles over the top. Very cool effect IRL. Finally, a little reminder of an old tip but still a useful one...my ribbon for the handle was a light baby pink but I easily fixed that by running this dollar section ribbon over my dye ink pad.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for visiting my birthday blog hop post!!

January GSS entries

EDITED: for KWerner's Challenge:


Sooooo, I am wishing and hoping to be one of PTI's GSS this month. Wishful thinking as there are lots of talented ladies in that forum. Due to technical difficulties, the entries could not be judged tonight but because I want to see them somewhere... here goes

The first, the last, my everything

This little bucket was bought at Target two Christmasas ago...there are actually snowflakes under that brown strip of paper. I thought the pink would be perfect for a valentines day treat holder.

I thought I would make some cheapo plain white tissue look a little more custom by stamping a matching border and then detail cutting around the circles to make a scalloped edge. A little time consuming but for my special someone, totally worth it!

And finally a detail shot of the chunky white glitter on the negative space of the heart.


Next up....the P.S. I love you note set

This inexpensive little plain paper note pad has been kicking around the house for a while. I covered it with PTI dark chocolate paper (which by the way is some THICK cardstock! WOW!) See the inside where the pink scallop detail is? THat marks the edge of a little pocket to tuck an important slip of paper, a receipt whatever. PTI sets on this one are Love SOngs, Polka dot basics and corners and borders {scallops}. Also used my nestabilities scallop oval to die cut the PTI Raspberry fizz paper. THe border punches are SU! and Martha Stewert. The matching pen is a freebie that I recovered with plain paper stamped with PTI's Love songs border.

I Love You card

Ths little card was my first attempt at using PTI's guidelines. The red background print is handstamped at it was EASY and, gorgeous! The square grid included inspired me to double up the gridlines to make it more crossword size. The "xo"'s are PTI's Love SOngs and te red paper lace at the bottom are MS again.

And finally, a dress up of an old fave treat....the Sweethearts!

Again with the PTI Love Song set..this set has tons more that I didn't use but oh, I PLAN too! I should mention that all ink in the above projects are Classic SU! In case you are wondering if they will work well with the PTI clear stamps... they do! I had the best results holding my stamp down an extra beat longer than I would normally...especially with the images that have a larger solid image.

Well, that's it for tonight! The PTI release party was fun and went by fast. I have a wish list going for sure! :) nighty-night kids!

For the love of Papertrey

Hellllooooooo blog world! hee hee... I have a confession....I've been a blog lurker! And for a long time I've thought about having an amazing blog created by little ol me. Never did it. What can I say? I'm a thinker but not much of a doer sometimes. Well, this is finally happening thanks to Papertrey Ink at http://www.papertreyink.com/ My newest crafty obsession has inspired me to get some crafty goodness out in the world. Thanks to all of the inspiring creations and frequent postings of the designers at PTI! Can't wait for the release party tonight and I am hoping to participate in the blog hop when that comes around. For now, though, Here's a little taste of what I was making in December...

The annual handmade photo ornament of my girls for our tree and the trees of their grandarents and aunt and uncle has been a tradition for the past 6 or so years. This year I was inspired by the bird pattern at Scarlet Lime and came up with a similiar design and changed it around to suit my needs.

Simple little school photo folders made out of cardstock. They open up and have two pockets inside full of current photos of the family.

Teacher and co worker gifts! Inside these little paper cups are coffee gift cards and homemade peppermint bark. The container was inspired by PTI's Lauren Meader at http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/ and her Timeless Templates. I downloaded her free stocking template (thankyou Lauren!) and just changed it a bit and voila! it's a coffee cup! These were fun to deliver.



More peppermint bark for all of those people who touch our lives on a weekly basis. Just a simple way to say thanks and to satisfy my need to stamp something once in a while :)

And finally a non christmas card for a special graduate we know. I stamped the flowers in white pigment ink and then colored it in with SU! watercolor wonder crayons. My good friend and SU! demonstrator, Elise, sent me a card a while back with this technique and it was fun to try. My favorite part of this card though was the definition of "achievement" that I took out of a vintage webster's dictionary. Somehow these teeny little strips of words made me smile!

Soooo, anywhoo, that's it for now. If you are reading this, thanks! and questions are always welcome :) PS: I have NO idea how to do this blog thing so please forgive my learning curve if I mess something up. thanks!