My Time to Inspire 05 Challenge - {Bee} Happy

Hey friends! What's the word? What's the BUZZ all about? Well I can think of at least one thing....and that is folks are buzzing about the change to the My Time to Create challenges with Lauren Meader and crew. Lauren will be highlighting favorite challenge projects each week starting with last saturday's challenge! Hooray! Watch for the very first announcement of the My Time To Shine top 5 on Lauren's blog!!! Could be YOU! Or one of your crafty friends...check out the links for last week's challenge on this post from Lauren.

So, are you up for another challenge? This week it's an inspiration challenge so you can use the image to inspire you, may be it inspires you with colors, or maybe layout, or??? you make the call. Be sure and post your project online somewhere and link us up with the Mr Linky that will be on Lauren's blog. Can't wait to see who's in the My Time to Shine Top 5!

the challenge:

my project:

So a little on what inspired me...I liked how the clothesline was full of brightly colored fabrics of all types of patterns, all lined up in a row. And even though each apron was it's own entity, there seemed to be a connecting fabric and/or color as you move your eye down the clothesline. I decided to let the neat clothesline lead me to neat rows of stamped cardstock and the connector be the bees from the Papertrey honey bees stamp set. I let Lauren's choice of highlighted colors be my guide in what color I would stamp each strip with.

I also snuck in two other Papertrey sets: Simply Stationary and Polka dot basics. Here is a closeup of the honey bee within one of the stationary decorative circles. Oh! And stitching since the aprons on the clothesline look handmade.

And finally, some buttons, because who is not loving buttons these days?? I am honestly quite happy to see the button back in vogue in papercrafting. There are just so many ways a button can be the perfect something don't you think??

Ready for MORE inspiration? Check out the My Time design team offerings this week. They are always up to something amazing!

Lauren
Alicia
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristen
Tracey
Jen
Odette
Tamara

Thank you so much for buzzing by! Your visits truly make my day :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies:

Paper: Papertrey Ink

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: SU!

Buttons: Papertrey Ink and Foofala

Other: Scrapper's floss, sewing machine and pinking sheers

Raspberry Suite challenge #13....my {cherry} best

Whew! Made it for Dawn's color challenge. Just in the nick of time! I didn't want to miss this week's challenge because I thought the colors were the PERFECT opportunity for me to join in on the cherry craze out there right now! Yep! It was time :)

the challenge:

my project:

I think I have a new obsession! Cherries, vintage material yo-yos and these fab colors together! Yum! The cherry stamp is from My Cute Stamps (Sweet Chocolate set) and the backgrounds are made with Papertrey (Simply Stationary and Polka dot basics). Quick, simple and cute at a small 2 3/4 x 4 1/4 size.

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies:

Stamps: My Cute Stamps and Papertrey Ink

Paper: Georgia Pacific

Punch: SU

Ink: SU!

Other: vintage material, buttons and paper piercer

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #8....many thanks {a latte} and a GIVEAWAY!

Hey friends! Happy Thursday and happy Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #8! First off, I owe Dawn McVey a THANK YOU....I was so excited and honored to be in the spotlight for Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #7! Wooohoooo! There were amazing projects all around and I have no doubt they will be even more amazing this time around with such a fun color combo. Keep reading for more....this week I thought I would try a gift box template for the challenge.

the challenge:

my project:

This extremely cute triangle box is a template from Kelleigh Ratzlaff at The Digichick Boutique! The box measures 2 1/4 inches tall and 6 3/4 inches long. Is is just high enough to fit a coffee gift card along with a few odds and ends desk supplies for a treasured teacher at my daughter's school. LOOOOOVE this cute box that opens at one end (note the pull ribbon on the right)

The *perfect* coffee cup comes from My Cute Stamps by Holly Brooke Jones as do the jelly beans turned coffee beans from her Easter stamp set. The sentiment, circle stamps and papers are all Papertrey Ink. Some other fun details are the swiss dot embossed raspberry fizz paper that has been swiped with a PTI vintage cream ink pad, the iridescent glitter on the whipped cream topping and a tiny dab of crystal effects on the paper pieced raspberry fizz heart on the cup.

I'm so glad you stopped by today....I have some news to share:) Kelleigh has asked me to join her creative team and I am SO excited! So you will definitely be seeing more digital hybrid projects from me with Kelleigh's fabulous designs! Kelleigh and I have arranged to give away three $5 gift certificates to her store at the Digichick Boutique to the three randomly drawn people who:

1. Leave a comment here on this post, and if you don't already, please sign up to follow my blog with the followers button on my right side bar.

AND

2. Visit Kelleigh's brand spankin new website at http://kelleighratzlaff.com/ and register to receive her newsletter...there is a button on the header bar on her main page that says "newsletter" for you to click. And then you just enter an email address and you are all linked up.

I hope you are excited...I sure am! Don't worry if you don't consider yourself a digi papercrafter....I don't think I am either! LOL Kelleigh's files are saved in several formats (including the free Adobe Acrobat) so they can work for everyone.

The winners will be announced one week from today, Thursday June 11. Good luck! and thanks for participating and spending your time here :)

Supplies:
Template: Triangle box by Kelleigh Ratzlaff
Paper: Papertrey Ink
Stamps: My Cute Stamps (Sweet Chocolate and Jelly Beans) and Papertrey Ink (Polka Dot Basics and Faux Ribbon)
Embossing: Cuttlebug swiss dots
Punch: Martha Stewert border punch
Circle cutter: colluzzle
Scallop circle: Cricut Mini Monograms
Ribbon: American Crafts
Other: bead, eyelets and foam tape

Oh you sweet little {deer}

Happy Tuesday friends! Coming to you today with a sweet little stamp set from the SU! spring mini catalog. The Forest Friends set is too cute for words...so I didn't use any on this card! ;) I just let the stamps tell the story. The little deer was stamped on cardstock and detail cut out. I then adhered it to the front of a folded acetate card with crystal effects and added a layer of crystal effects over the whole image. Makes the deer really shiny and sticker like. The tree, also part of the Forest Friends set, was colored with Zig brush pens and then stamped on the background cardstock. I "painted" ala Elise at mamacow creations with an H20 pen and ink from SU! dye ink pads. Green galore for the grass and ballet blue for the sky. The cloud was stamped with tiny dots from Papertrey Ink, hand cut into a cloud shape and the edges inked.

I am not sure where this little card will go yet but when I do decide who to send it too, I think I will write in white paint pen in the "sky" area (like sky writing) or write on the back of the card. This card is 2.75" x 3.75" and would make a perfect gift tag methinks.

Here is the background by itself when the card is opened. Doesn't the H20 pen do a great job of moving ink around? Trust me, I am no watercolor artist....the pen does most of the work ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you day is filled with sparkle!

Supplies:

acetate: re purposed the backing from a set of PTI stamps (clean acetate with Un-du to remove any stamp residue)

stamps: Stampin Up and Papertrey Ink

Ink: Stampin Up

Pens: Zig scroll and brush, H20 brush

Other: crystal effects (SU!)

Welcome to my Cupcakery.....My Time Technique Challenge and Stampin Out Alzheimer's Exclusive

Well happy weekend everyone! It's time for another challenge from Lauren Meader and the My Time to Create design team! And if you've been following along with me this week, you know that the Stampin Out Alzheimer's week of fundraising, challenges and prizes is wrapping up this sunday, May 31st. You can still get in on the fun by donating a mere $5 to have access to freebie downloads, challenges and a great community (see the donation box on the right). One of the amazing freebies is the totally cute *SOA exclusive* CUPCAKE template I am using today designed by the generous and talented Kellieh Ratzlaff at the Digichick. Check her out!

my project:

The technique challenge this week from Lauren is dry embossed vellum with coloring from the back side for highlights. This is actually very cool and looks like white powder embossing without the mess. I chose to use the technique on the hearts and dots "sprinkles" on my cupcake.
I first stamped my hearts and dots on the backside of the vellum with versamark ink. I then traced the stamped shapes with a stylus and a foam mat underneath. Then colored in the shapes, again from the back side. The light shining through this 3-D shape really illuminates the images. I also couldn't resist a layer of spray adhesive and fine clear glitter from Martha Stewart on the vellum. I do love my sparkle!
The top is held closed with a corsage pin threaded with beads. The green bead was dyed with Tim Holtz Alcohol ink in celery. The wrapper is two pieces of 2" x 12" paper from K&Co that has been scored with a Scor Pal at 1/4" intervals and accordian folded. This was adhered with liquid glue around the template cupcake. I also trimmed the top edge of the wrapper with pinking shears.

A look down inside the cupcake wrapper....

This cupcake is roughly the size of a gourmet large cupcake so plenty of room inside to fill with treats! And, thanks to Grandma D for the gorgeous hunk of vintage glass. The stand is actually the base to a large punch bowl.

Want more dry embossing? Check out these projects from the My time to create team! Can't wait to see what you make. See you soon!

Lauren
Alicia
Maria
Kristen
Tracey
Pam
Tamara
MacKenzie

Thanks so much for stopping by. I love hearing from you!

Supplies:

template: Kelleigh Ratzlaff at the Digichick

vellum

paper: K&Co

pens: Zig scroll and brush

versamark ink

stamps: Papertrey Ink

glitter: Martha Stewert

punch: Stampin Up scallop circle

Tools: stylus, scor pal, fabric tac, scotch liquid adhesive, pinking sheers

alcohol ink: tim holtz in celery

other: ribbon, corsage pin, beads, green twistel

MTTC 02 My Time to Color Challenge and a reminder of an important event

Happy Saturday bloggers! It's time for a new challenge from Lauren Meader and the My Time to Create Design team! This saturday's challenge is to create something using the color scheme below. Are you ready???? It's 6 happy colors of the rainbow! Let's get crafting.....

The Challenge

Looking for some inspiration? Check out the design team links below and then return to Lauren's blog for a Mr Linky and share YOUR project inspired by the yummy colors above....which happen to make me want Popsicles right now in case you wanted to know ;)

Here are the links:

Lauren
Alicia
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristen
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Tamara

and me, Dana Gustafson! No need to click just keep reading ....

My project:

I finally dusted off my Cricut and jumped into die cutting for this one. The flower shaped card is from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cut at the largest setting. I originally cut the card in white with the flower center cut out but I decided later it needed a border for all those colorful dots. So I hand trimmed the white flower down and adhered it to a new blue card base. The circle center was pierced using a piercing tool and a circular embroidery template. Works great! The embossing thread was hand stitched on the pierced circle and then I used the ends to secure a colorful button for accent. The scallop circle was cut at 2" on short stack shift setting from the Alphalicious cartridge to accent the center of the flower and the whole center was popped up on foam tape.
The rainbow dots were hand stamped using the Polka Dot Basics from papertrey Ink. As I illustrated here, stamping something like this is a little easier with grid paper. And a little practice ;)

Before signing off for the day, I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone about the important event coming up organized by my fellow design team member, Jen Tapler. In honor of her dad, she has created and organized a pay to play online forum complete with craft challenges, tutorials and over $1000 in sponsored prizes for a mere $5 donation. Her dad is only 58 years old and he is in late stages of Alzheimer's disease. She is bravely sharing her story and raising money to fight this terrible disease. It is also a story near and dear to my heart as I watched my grandfather slowly slip away to Alzheimer's as well. I have displayed her fundraising ticker that has a direct donation link on the top of my sidebar or please visit Jen's blog for her story and details on the Stampin Out Alzheimer's event. I'll be there for the week of creative fun and celebration of life and I hope you will be too!

Thanks so much for dropping by. I appreciate you!

Supplies:
Paper: CM and Georgia Pacific
Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Diecut MAchine: Cricut with Bags tags boxes and more and Alphalicious cartridges
Ink: SU!
Other: button and embroidery template from Darice

My Time Sketch #30 and #31 and DT call

Happy Saturday everyone! And why celebrate such a wonderful day? It's the My Time saturday sketch with the super talented Lauren Meader! Check her sketch and her blog out...you'll love it! She is also calling for a few new members for her challenge DT. This is my entry and I hope you will make something to submit too! Check it out: Lauren's Challenge DT call post

Today I incorporated sketch 30 and 31 to make a card box and coordinating note card set with one of Lauren Timeless Templates found over at Papertrey Ink. Check out the Captured Card Case, perfect for those A2 size note cards and other goodies. She has a couple of free downloads to try as well so you can see just how easy her templates are.

For the box I stamped tone on tone yellow ink on PTI lemon cardstock and the Friends til the End flower set. Rectangles with the scallop and straight nestabilities were next white white cardstock and PTI bitty dots paper. Next came more white cs edged with the fiskars threading water punch and topped with more lemon cs, this time stamped and embossed n white with a bud image from the friends til the end set. This pairing was popped up on foam tape.

Check out the yummy detail the white embossing gives! The final embellishments were made with buttons sewn on and more bitty dot paper and white cardstock. The butterfly stamp is a cutie and was stamped two times to enable the second layer to show "movement".

Projects should be finished off all around, top to bottom in my little opinion so I stamped more flowers on the craft cs bottom, embossed white dots on the lemon cs and a tiny strip of bitty dots to edge the sides. Yay!

To make the inside interesting, more tone on tone stamping and a cute little punched embellishment designating this as "handmade".

Using the #31 sketch, I made a coordinating card with mostly the same supplies and adding in the adorable butterfly punches from Martha Stewart.

That's it for today gals! This was my first try with the Captured Card Case and I am LOVING it! This will definitely be used over and over for gifts! Thanks Lauren for the inspiration today :)

Supplies:

Captured Card Case

Template: My Timeless Templates by Lauren Meader for Papertrey Ink

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Lemon Tart, Kraft and stampers select white

Printed paper: Papertrey Ink bitty dots

Ink: SU! White pigment, Summer Sun, basic brown and Pumpkin Pie

Embossing Powder: Inkxpressions

Stamps: Stamp Craft (butterfly)Papertrey Ink (Friends til the End, Simply Stationary and Polka Dot Basics)

Dies: Spellbinders nestabilities long rectangle and scallop

Punches: CM corner rounder and circle, Fiskars threading water, SU! Scallop circle

Other: satin ribbon, orange buttons, dmc white floss

Card

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Lemon Tart, Kraft and stampers select white
Printed paper: Papertrey Ink bitty dots
Ink: SU! Summer Sun and Pumpkin Pie

Stamps: Stamp Craft (butterfly)Papertrey Ink (Friends til the End)

Punches: CM corner rounder, Fiskars threading water, Martha Stewart butterfly

Other: satin ribbon, orange buttons, dmc white floss

CPS111 sketch...Cupcakes Forever!

Today's card is inspired by the CPS sketch #111 challenge. Check out all the amazing cards inspired by this sketch here. This sketch was a tough one for me with all the linear and precise angles presented but I worked some randomness in anyway I think!

I decided to use some super cute images by Studio G that I picked up in the Michaels dollar bin area. The cupcakes and the sentiment on the card below are from the same sheet....for a buck! I think this sketch really highlights these small images well.

Other fun techniques and tools here are a nestabilities scallop oval die for the turquoise shape highlighting the folded paper pinwheel and fun sentiment. I have discovered that if you are using a 12 inch piece of paper for your pinwheel, using a one inch width by 12 inch length works well. I, so far, have escaped scoring the strip before accordion folding it...I just eyeball and fold back and forth at about 1/4 of an inch for the above look. Lots of scallops here between the die cut oval, the border punch and the ends on the sentiment banner. I also gave shadowing a whirl with my zig brush pens when coloring the cupcake wrappers. I am no whiz when it comes to color layering but I think the overall effect was good. I'll keep practicing... :)

This closeup illustrates the sparkle and shine well. The lime background is a glitter cardstock which matches well with the lime pen and stickles edging around the sentiment. I also applied crystal effects to the "frosting" on all the cupcakes for shine. The white dots have been stamped on the turquoise cardstock with white pigment ink but not embossed, just air dried.

Supplies:

Stamps: Studio G and Papertrey Ink Polka Dot Basics

Paper: Target dollar spot, DCWV (glitter), SU! cardstock

Pens: Zig scroll and brush

Ink: SU! basic black and whisper white

Scissors: FIskars Scallop

Border Punch: SU!

scallop oval die: Spellbinders Nestabilities

other: Stickles and Crystal Effects

So honored!

So if you've visited me before you know I am totally hooked on Papertrey Ink. I have become quite the slobbering fan of all things PTI and recently started entering their monthly Guest Star Stamper contests. There was some stiff competition for March and I was *truly honored* with an Honorable Mention mention this month in the best use of a previous stamp set category! Oh my! Am I ever excited??? Thank you Nichole Heady!! Can you say "jumping up and down" excited? hee hee! The card that was selected by Nichole was none other than the birthday card I made for my friend, Karen, that I talked about here.


And tonight, I thought I'd share another card that I had entered for the GSS contest. I just love the way it came together and the fact that I remembered to step outside the A2 box and try a different size. This card fits a business envelope size and conceals a pull out insert to hold a coffee or other gift card.

I used lots of dots and stitching to complete this card. I love the way the white embossed dots show up on the PTI kraft cardstock.

I also stitched the pocket by first pre punching the sewing holes with a paper piercer and then sewed with a coordinating embroidery floss. The *thick* PTI cardstock withstood all of the poking and paper manipulation to get this pocket sewed on. A lesser cardstock would not have been a candidate for this hand stitching project

The paper bow is a version of PTI designer Lisa Johnson's great style. I ended up trimming the middle on an angle which suited my needs perfectly. I also punched up a few of the appearances of red on my card with first red stickles and then, after they had dried, a layer of crystal effects to give it more of a 3-D look. Me likey the shiny stuff ;)

So the receiver of this card would pull on the scalloped edge of the card insert and then the magic happens! A coffee card to my favorite local coffee place!

If you know Johnny's coffee then you KNOW that you would be feeling the love to find this gift tucked inside this card :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Paper: Papertrey Ink

Ink: SU! and Papertrey Ink

Embossing powder: SU!

Scalloped punch: Fiskars

DMC Embroidery Floss, Stickles by Ranger and Crystal effects from SU!

Dawn's Favorite color challenge from PTI

EDITED: I feel like the luckiest girl! THank you Papertrey Ink and Dawn for the amazing Damask set and for all the opportunities to enter and win during your anniversary celebration! You gals are amazing!!!

I was inspired by Dawn McVey's pink and orange card for this challenge. While those colors are not much of a departure from my usual style...I did venture out to try a more shabby approach to these bright colors. I aspire to be better at shabby and vintage and I was happy with the way this card combined a little of me and hopefully a little shabby too! What do you think? I started with Sizzix diecut flowers from a vintage book I have for just this purpose. The pages are nice and thin and make nice fluffy flower layers. I stamped them with Only Orange, Pink Passion and Creamy Caramel SU! inks. The stamp sets are from PTI...polka dot basics and simply stationary. The little bee and the "happy" are from PTI Honey bee set and the "birthday" is from SU! I inked and layered the die cut flowers and topped them off with a button. The leaves are white cs and then stamped with the simply stationary detail stamp and then inked as well. The flower stem was first paper pierced and then sewn with hot pink twistel. The scallop edge punch is from SU!

Thanks for looking!

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!!