October 2015: PTI Blog Hop

Happy October!  I'm back with this month's PTI blog hop project.  It's my first holiday card of the season.  I typically can't get into the holiday spirit until after Halloween and Thanksgiving, but that leaves me very limited time to work on holiday projects, so it's nice to be working a little ahead.  :-)

This month's inspiration was all about the traditional red and green Christmas colors, greenery, ribbon and shiny ornaments.  All sorts of things to jump start the creativity.  Since my October release order just arrived on Friday, it was an easy decision for me to break out the new Spruce & Sprigs set and dies, along with the Wet Paint Holiday dies.  I found some red metallic card stock in my stash from eons ago.  Sure hope I can find some more, as I only had one sheet.  I liked the effect of stamping the pine sprig in Pinefeather Green on Aqua Mist card stock.  Some Glossy Accents on the berries to give them that natural shine and that pretty much finishes up my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

September 2015 PTI Blog Hop

Happy Fall!  This time of year is my favorite.  I love the cooler temperatures, the changing colors of the leaves, football season, and the anticipation of the coming holidays.  I had to make time to play along with this month's PTI blog hop because the inspiration photo was just so lovely.  It makes me antsy to get my fall home décor out and put up...maybe this weekend.

As for my card, I used two older PTI stamp sets, Wreath For All Seasons and Embellished Elegance (along with the coordinating leaf spray die).

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I look forward to seeing what you made for the hop!

August 2015 PTI Blog Hop

Wow, it's been almost four months since I last posted.  This year is just vanishing.  I carved out some time last weekend to participate in this month's Papertrey Ink blog hop.  You can find the inspiration photo here.

Here is my card inspired by the gorgeous colors of the yarn in the photo.  I will admit that my first take on this card was an absolute flop.  I tried to incorporate multiple colors of twine onto my card and it just didn't work.  So, I salvaged the embossed leaf panel and note card along with the leaf and thankful die cuts and set out to re-do the panel with multiple inks sponged on it.  Take two turned out much better.

Thanks for stopping by!  I look forward to checking out your creation as well!

April 2015 PTI Blog Hop: Navy with Shades of Pink

I'm finally back with a card to share for this month's Papertrey Ink blog hop.  The inspirational photo was lovely and the perfect reason to pull out some of my newer Papertrey supplies and put them to use.  This month's theme was navy with shades of pink.  I love blue, but I have a hard time with Enchanted Evening because it's very dark, so it's not a color I reach for very often.

I was inspired by the lovely bouquet and gold dots on the menu card in the photo.  Bitty Bouquets stamps and dies and the Circles Cover Plate die fit the bill for translating my inspiration to paper.

Thanks for stopping by!  I look forward to checking out what you made for the hop!

Make It Monday: Cover Plate Stencils and Embossing Paste

Happy Weekend!  I just returned from a ski vacation in Colorado.  Perfect ski weather last week and we managed to escape Denver Friday night before the big snow storm hit yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon I was able to spend some time in my craft room making thank you notes for my boyfriend's family who hosted us during the week.  I took the opportunity to incorporate this week's Make It Monday challenge into the first card I made.

I've had embossing paste in my craft stash long before embossing paste became trendy.  Had I used it before?  No.  But I found a jar of gold embossing paste on my shelf and thought it would look nice on Hawaiian Shores with the Mighty Bloom impression plate.  My boyfriend's sister had some art work she'd painted herself in her dining room and one of the prints reminded me of the Mighty Bloom impression plate.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrating PTI's 8th Anniversary: Blue Ombre

Boy I'm glad the Papertrey anniversary festivities occur just once a year.  I've been staying up way too late this entire week trying to keep up with all the challenges.  It's been awhile since I've sat down to create just for the fun of it and I've enjoyed it tremendously.  I just wish my full time job didn't take up so much of my time!

Today's challenge was all about creating a blue ombre card.  Since blue is my favorite color, this was right up my alley.  I broke out my Mighty Bloom cover plate and die cut a stencil out of it, then used the distress ink blender tool to apply four different blue inks to the flower petals of the stencil:  Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Ocean Tides and Tropical Teal.

Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrating PTI's 8th Anniversary: Metallics & Neutrals

It's Hump Day!  I'm back with two cards I made for Papertrey's metallics and neutrals challenge today.  I've been enjoying the gold trend in crafting.  I'm not normally drawn to gold, I much prefer silver tones for jewelry and home decor, but when crafting I've found I prefer gold to silver.  I guess I like the warmth it gives; silver has a much cooler appearance (good for snowflakes!).

Here's my first card. I die cut the Circle cover plate from gold foil card stock and adhered it to a True Black card.  A fun sentiment from We Go Together stamped on a Limitless Layers Circle die cut and finished off with a couple of gold sparkle heart enamel dots.

My second card features a gold foil heart from which I die cut the Wet Paint love word.  Some gold foil heart washi tape adds a nice accent to the bottom of the panel.

Thanks for stopping by!