Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop - Katrina's card

My daughter Katrina, age 13, decided to play along with the blog hop this month, too. Here's the inspiration that she chose to use:

She chose to use the tea-dyed flower that I brought home from Stamp-a-faire on her card. Grosgrain ribbon made quick work of the diagonal stripes. She's a natural!

Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop

This month's blog hop theme is Fast Food. A color scheme plus an inspiration photo equals a fairly quick card. Here's the inspiration:

And here's what I came up with. I love the way the banners from Sketched Shapes blend to make a cool plaid design.

Details: stamps - Sketched Shapes; paper - stampers select white, pure poppy, kraft; ink - Memento Pear Tart, Stampin' Up Ruby Red, Amuse Buttercup, Fresh Ink Ginger, Versafine Onyx Black

Scent-sational Cards - Stamp-a-faire 2013

For this challenge, we created scratch-and-sniff cards by mixing scented powders - in this case, sugar-free cherry Jello - with clear embossing powder. When I brought my embossed cherry back to the table after embossing, the red gingham paper happened to catch my eye, and it was the perfect thing to finish the card. Love it!

Details: stamps - Scent-imentals; paper - stampers select white, true black, patterned paper in Pure Poppy; ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Ruby Red (Stampin' Up), Basil (Fresh Ink) dies - Sketched Shapes, Mat Stack 3, Mat Stack 3 Layerz; other - clear detail embossing powder, sugar free Jello

Custom Accents From the Oven - Stamp-a-faire 2013

For this challenge, we used shrink plastic to create an embellishment for our project. I used my beloved Simple Sunflower set to create this card, including a sweet tiny sunflower tag made by shrinking the larger sunflower.

Details: stamps - Simple Sunflower, Delightful Dahlia Additions; paper - stampers select white, patterned paper in Hawaiian Shores; ink - Lido (Amuse), Basil (Fresh Ink); Dark Chocolate; dies - Simple Sunflower, Fabulous Frames; other - shrink plastic, baker's twine

Gallon Quart Pint - Stamp-a-faire 2013

For this challenge, we used the "gallon quart pint" method of achieving color balance - a lot of the main color, a smaller amount of a second color, and just a bit of a third. I chose to use Mighty Oak, which is well on its way to becoming one of my all-time favorite sets, and limited myself to just one color for the leaves (gallon), a dark chocolate trunk (quart), and a navy sentiment (pint).

Details: stamps - Mighty Oak, Mum's the Word; paper - soft stone, dark chocolate; ink - Lemonaid Ice, Navy (Amuse); dies - Might Oak

Sweet Sugar-Coated Embellishments - Stamp-a-faire 2013

This challenge involved using glitter to embellish our project. I used the giant daisy from Rosie Posie and glittered the center by die cutting a circle from a piece of wide double sided tape and putting that onto my stamped flower to glitter. I stuck the double sided tape onto a piece of waxed paper before die cutting - an improvisation that worked out really well!

Details: stamps - Rosie Posie, Boutique Borders Birthday; paper - stampers select white, patterned paper in Summer Sunrise and Ripe Avocado; ink - Fuchsia (Fresh Ink), Basil (Fresh Ink), Buttercup (Amuse); other - circle die from Sketched Shapes, double-sided tape

Limited Ingredients - Stamp-a-faire 2013

For this challenge, we were given a limited list of supplies that we could use. The list included Aqua Mist, Melon Berry, and Harvest Gold cardstock and ink, as well as a 1" strip of Soft Stone cardstock. I had a lot of difficulty figuring out how I could use all of the colors together, as this particular combination just wasn't my cup of tea. Fortunately, one of my crafty companions reminded me that I didn't have to use them all!

Details: stamps - Sketched Shapes, Think Big Favorites 12; paper - stampers select white, soft stone, aqua mist; ink - Versafine Onyx Black, aqua mist

Sprinkle of salt - Stamp-a-faire 2013

For this challenge, we used salt on our project to interact with the ink. I brushed Enchanted Evening ink onto watercolor paper to create a background. Then I sprinkled it with plenty of salt and mixed in more water. As it dried, the ink created this beautiful stormy night kind of background, so I used an extra die cut tree from Mighty Oak to complete the scene. I love the way this turned out!

Details: stamps - Mighty Oak; paper - watercolor paper, brushed silver, stampers select white, soft stone; ink - Enchanted Evening; dies - Mighty Oak, In the Meadow; other - white detail embossing powder

Mixing Mists to Match - Stamp-a-faire 2013

For this challenge, we created our own spray mists using reinkers and rubbing alcohol. I used three different colors of mist and sprayed them through a stencil. I didn't want to cover up the design, so I embossed the sentiment on vellum and mounted it over the misted piece.

Details: stamps - Grunge (Skipping Stones Designs); paper - stampers select white, vellum, Scarlet Jewel; dies - Half and Half; stencil - Mini Flying Bird Doily (thecraftersworkshop.com); other - Zing copper embossing powder

Tea Staining Techniques - Stamp-a-faire 2013

This flower was made from some tea-dyed fabric cut with the Lovely Layers dies, a cork die cut, and a big brad. I was going to create a card with it, but my daughter loved the flower and wanted to make something with it, so I passed it on to her!

Stamp A Faire closing ceremony

We stamped and laughed past midnight. It was a very long day, but we were so productive. When we arrived, we thought we'd never catch up with the challenges, much less complete all of them. But we all came very close to finishing everything. Christianne actually got all ten challenges done before we left Joy's house! Here we are with all of our projects; tired, but still having a great time.

Rolled Dough Designs challenge

Here is my card for the Rolled Dough Designs challenge at Stamp A Faire:

Details: stamps - Background Basics: Sheet Music, Birthday Bash Sentiments; paper - stampers select white, Enchanted Evening, Spring Rain patterned paper; dies- Seeing Stars; other - Creative Paperclay

SAF Bake and Take challenge

Here's my entry for the Bake and Take challenge for Stamp A Faire:

Details: stamps - Lovely Layers, Boutique Borders Birthday; paper - stampers select white, Smokey Shadow, patterned paper in Hawaiian Shores and Aqua Mist; corner chomper

Stamp A Faire weekend

Here we are arriving at Joy's house for SAF. Christianne, Josiane, and me. Can you tell that we're only here for the day? Looks like we're moving in! Time to go inside and play!

Mighty Oak

Hello, is this thing on? I really dropped off the face of the blogging world, didn't I? No promises, but I'll try to post more often. New toys arrived the other day from Papertrey Ink. Here's my first card made with the new Mighty Oak stamp set and coverplate die. These are so much fun. There are 27 different leaf stamps to choose from - almost too much for my poor flighty brain to handle. I managed to contain myself and only used four different leaf colors and four different leaf stamps for this one. I can't wait to make some more cards with this set.

Details (all supplies PTI unless noted): stamps - Mighty Oak, Birthday Bash Sentiments; paper - soft stone, new leaf striped pattern paper, SU soft suede; ink - Versafine Onyx Black, SU Ruby Red, SU Summer Sunrise, SU Wild Wasabi, SU Pumpkin Pie; dies - Mighty Oak, In the Meadow

Got scraps? Make bookmarks!

Do you have loads of patterned paper scraps that you can't bear to throw away? Here's a fun way to use some of them. I make bookmarks with all kinds of crazy combinations. The librarian at my daughter's school loves them. My mom has taken them to the ladies in her quilting club. My kids run off with them as fast as I can make them. And I always have at least a few in books that I'm reading. So let's get that pretty paper out of the dark and make something useful and beautiful!

I have two of Papertrey's bookmark dies - I had one, but I made so many bookmarks that I decided to add another one to speed up the process a bit. As you can see below, the two of them together measure about 3.5 inches wide and 5.5 inches tall.

This is ordinary white Contact paper. It comes in a roll 18 inches wide and 24 feet long. I've found that it's a very economical alternative to using my Xyron for this project. A roll of Contact paper only costs a few dollars and will make - get this - over 500 bookmarks!

I use my scissors to cut an 11 inch piece from the roll of Contact paper - it's the height of two bookmark dies, and conveniently, small enough now to put in my paper cutter.

Next, I take my 11 inch piece of Contact paper and cut it into 3.5 inch strips. Each strip will make four bookmarks. So this one piece that I cut from the roll is enough for 20 bookmarks.

 Now it's time for the pretty paper! Get out your scraps and dig around for the ones that are strips, preferably with a nice square end. I find that good 90 degree corners at the ends of my strips make this process the easiest it can be (less trimming as you go).

Okay, I've got a bunch of strips to play with. Now I peel the backing part way off of one of my Contact paper strips. Then I start laying strips on the sticky paper as close together as possible. One of the great things about using Contact paper for this is that the bond is not permanent yet - if you mess up the placement, you can pull up your paper and fix it. After it's been through your die cutter and had some time to set, the bond will be strong.

Just keep sticking scraps onto the Contact paper. Let the ends hang off for now - we'll trim them soon. I switch directions sometimes. This is where the 90 degree corners come in handy. I don't get too concerned with what kind of patterns I'm mixing on these. Some of the craziest combinations have been my favorites once the bookmarks are finished.

Here you can see the front and back of a strip that is completely covered in scraps.

Here's my strip after I've trimmed off the excess length of the scraps. Beside it are the pieces that I trimmed off. Keep those smaller pieces - you can still use them on another bookmark!

Here you can see how the two bookmark dies fit nicely on the strip that I just made. I'll run it through my Big Shot with the two on one end of the strip, then again with them on the other end, resulting in four bookmarks.

Here are the four bookmarks after die cutting. The bookmarks are a little bit floppy at this point. The Contact paper alone isn't really sturdy enough. So I cut cheap white cardstock with the bookmark dies and glue them to the back of the patterned bookmarks.

 Frugal note - I use cheap white cardstock in my Tim Holtz folders that hold my stamps. For that, I use 6 by 8.5 inch pieces. This means that I have tons of 5 by 8.5 inch pieces leftover. Each of these will yield three bookmark die cuts.

Here are the bookmarks all glued together, with their holes punched out at the top. I've found that the hole in the die cut is pretty hard to push out of the Contact paper, so I use my Cropadile to punch a hole in the completed bookmarks. 

Here are a few other bookmarks I've made. As you can see, sometimes I place the first strip of patterned paper at an angle and work from there. Again, the 90 degree corners at the ends of the strips make placement easier. These are really fun to make. Have fun with your scraps!

OLW135 - Tall and thin

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to create a clean and simple card that is also tall and thin. Hmm. Off to the stamp stash to look at tall skinny stamps! Here's the result:

This card is 3x6 inches. I've had this Eiffel Tower stamp for quite awhile, but never found a reason to use it before. I just love the style of it.

Details: stamps - Eiffel Tower by Impress Rubber Stamps, unknown sentiment; paper - Rustic White (PTI); ink - Onyx Black (Versafine), Pure Poppy (PTI), red rhinestone

A special congrats card

I don't often make a special card for a particular person and occasion - I'm more of a "grab a card from the stash on the way out the door" kind of person. This card is an exception. My Weight Watchers meeting buddy, Jeanette, is about to reach a big milestone - 50 pounds lost. So I made a congratulations card just for her.

Details: stamps - Think Big Favorites #5 (PTI), Congrats All Ways (PTI); dies - Fishtail Banner (Your Next Stamp); cardstock - stampers select white (PTI), Tangerine Tango (SU), Hawaiian Shores (PTI), patterned paper from stash; ink - Chocolate Chip (SU), Pool (Fresh Ink)

CAS97 - chevrons and flowers

I'm starting to get back in the groove of playing some of the challenges. This week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to create a clean and simple project using both chevrons and flowers. This one was fun! Here's my card.

Details: stamps - Simple Sunflower (PTI), Floral Frenzy (PTI); dies - Fabulous Frames (PTI); cardstock - stampers select white (PTI), patterned paper from stash (unknown)

Less is More Week 114 Colour Challenge - birthday card

Here's another card for the Less is More colour challenge using lime and black. I really enjoyed using these colors together!

Details: stamps - vine from Borderlines (Stampin' Up), tiny flower from Love Lives Here (PTI), sentiment from Wishful Elegance (Verve); ink - Basil (Fresh Ink), Onyx Black (Versafine); cardstock - stampers select white (PTI)

Less is More Week 114 Colour Challenge - thank you card

I've decided to try a few more challenges as a way to motivate myself to post more. This week's challenge at Less is More looked like fun. This week's colour challenge is to create a clean and simple card using lime and black. Here's my first card. I had fun with these colors, so I'll post another card shortly.

Details: stamps - Background Basics: Retro (Papertrey Ink), tiny dot stamp from Merry & Bright (PTI); ink - Basil (Fresh Ink), Onyx Black (Versafine); cardstock - stampers select white (PTI)

Ugly card blog hop

To celebrate April Fool's Day, I'm joining Suzanne Dahlberg's Ugliest Card Ever blog hop. We all have cards that we once thought were oh so cute that didn't stand the test of time, don't we? I sure do! I couldn't even narrow it down to one card, so I'll post my ugliest plus a few runners up.

I think that I'll have to call this one my ugliest:

Wow, these colors are kind of blinding, aren't they? And paper tearing as an embellishment - I'm totally over that!

Here are a few others that stood out to me as great examples of ugly cards:

An example of fussy cutting for no good reason!

Too busy, and the colors are so not pretty to me now.

A beginner attempt to use some pretty awful patterned paper.

Thanks, Suzanne, for the opportunity to remind ourselves just how far we've come!

Pattern Play Day 3

 I'm having a great time in the Pattern Play class from Online Card Classes. Day 3 was all about using those hard-to-use patterned papers. There was great advice for using those bigger, busier patterns especially. Here's my first card for Day 3.

When I finished, I liked these two papers together so much that I decided to make another card with them. Here it is.

Details: stamps - Verve, Papertrey Ink; dies - Spellbinders, Papertrey Ink, various patterned papers

Pattern Play Day 1

I've been taking a class called Pattern Play from Online Card Classes. It's all about learning new tricks and tips for using patterned papers for cards. Since I feel compelled to buy all of the pretty papers that I find, I knew that the class would be worthwhile for me. And it has certainly exceeded my expectations! I've gotten so many great ideas, and have spent the week making lots of new cards. Of course, I waited until the last day to start photographing and uploading them, so there will be a flurry of posts all at once. I guess that's one way to end the long drought of posts here!

These cards were inspired by Jennifer McGuire's Day 1 tips. She showed four different ideas for using multiple patterns in the same card. Each of these four cards used slightly different treatments for the papers.

Details: stamps - Papertrey Ink, dies - Papertrey Ink, Spellbinders, paper - Papertrey Ink, various patterned papers