Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sorry Folks
I apologize, but I'm going to need to turn the word verification back on now that the blog hop is over. I was going to leave it off, but I've been spammed several times in the past few days. Frankly, I don't want to have to police the blog for ED medication ads, so I'm afraid we all lose. I know word verification is sometimes tricky and can act as a deterrent to those of you that are on the fence about commenting, but the switch back needs to happen. I'm sorry, folks. I tried. Thanks for understanding.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
February Blog Hop: Design Team Appreciation Day!
Greetings Blog Hoppers! The challenge for tonight's Blog Hop was to choose a project from one of the design team members and use it as inspiration for your own unique project. I decided to welcome two of the newest design team members, Maile Belles and Erin Lincoln, with my cards for tonight.
Let's start with Maile. Maile created this super-cool card using the Fillable Frames set to stamp her background as well as her focal image. I loved her layout and concept, so I used those as my starting point.
I used one of the larger polka dotted circles from Borders & Corners: Circle to create the pattern on my background as well as the frame for my image panel. I stamped the cupcake and sentiment before mounting the image panel over the Lemon Tart ribbon; similar to Maile's panel and ribbon detail on the inspiration card.
Next up is my card inspired by one of Erin's amazing design team projects. Erin showcased the new Luck of the Irish set with this jazzy little number. I'm apparently in a birthday mood, so the St. Patty's day theme didn't carry over, but the layout was like striking (a pot of) gold!
I used the square set-up and the stamped frame as the starting point for my project (I didn't emboss my center like Erin did because I don't have the required tools, but I loved that detail). I stamped my butterflies on cardstock as well as vellum to give them dimensional flare and used my Fillable Frame die and stamp to get the same effect as Erin did with the frame from Luck of the Irish.
I love how both cards turned out! Thanks so much for the inspiration, Maile and Erin!
Take care and happy hopping!
Recipe (cupcake card):
Cardstock: Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink; white
Stamps: Cupcake Collection, Borders & Corners: Circle - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink; Versamark - Tsukineko; Burnt Umber - Palette
Ribbon: Lemon Tart Saddle Stitched - Papertrey Ink
Tools: Nesting Circles Dies - Quickutz
Other: Foam Tape - Scotch
Recipe (butterflies card):
Cardstock: Spring Moss, Linen Vellum - Papertrey Ink; white
Stamps: Fillable Frames #1, Polka Dot Basics, Butterfly Kisses - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss, Fresh Snow - Papertrey Ink
Ribbon: Berry Sorbet Twill - Papertrey Ink
Tools: Fillable Frames Die - Papertrey Ink
Other: White Embroidery Floss - DMC; pink buttons; Foam Tape - Scotch
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Glitterati Cupcake
Hello, Blogland! I hope you've been having a lovely week. I got a special request for a very special baby card and I thought I'd share that card today. So, Miss Randi, if you're reading...this one's for you.
I started by stamping the cupcake from Baby Button Bits onto white cardstock (twice) and Berry Sorbet Bitty Box Basics patterned paper. I trimmed the bottom half of the cupcake out of the patterned paper and adhered it directly on top of one of the two white cupcakes. Next, I colored the other cupcake using colored pencils and mineral spirits and trimmed out just the top part. Now here's where I lose my mind just a little and temporarily forget how much I hate loose glitter. I coated the pink part of the cupcake with dimensional glaze and dumped on the glitter. It was everywhere within moments. It's a darn good thing I didn't have to sneeze or I would be finding glitter for ages.
Well, eventually I got the glitter cleaned up sufficiently and put the cupcake under a button container to allow the glaze to dry and to secure the glitter into the glaze as much as possible. I think it worked because I messed with the cupcake this morning before popping the card in the mail and I came away nearly glitter-free. Anyway, after the glaze was dry I stitched on a button and mounted my cupcake top to the main panel with foam tape. The entire main panel was then matted with Sweet Blush cardstock and set aside for a moment.
Next I worked on the ruffle. I cut a piece of saddle stitched ribbon about twice the width of my main panel and pulled one string until the ribbon rusched the way I wanted. I wrapped that around a piece of cardstock just narrower than my main panel and adhered the ends to the back. I first saw this technique from the über talented Lisa Johnson. It adds such awesome texture!
I realized that I needed a base to pull this whole thing together, so I cut a piece of Berry Sorbet and got busy. I started by stamping the largest polka dots from Polka Dot Basics 1 in Fresh Snow ink. I then went back through with the next size polka dot and filled in the spaces between large dots. It's a fun pattern and I feel like I should use it more often.
Anyway, I finished the card by adhering the ruffle panel directly to the base and mounting the cupcake panel over the ruffles with foam tape. I love how the card turned out, but I may lay off the loose glitter for awhile. They make glue suspended glitter just for people like me.
I hope you've enjoyed today's post. Take care and I'll see you soon!
Recipe:
Cardstock: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush - Papertrey Ink; white
Stamps: Baby Button Bits, Polka Dot Basics 1 - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Fresh Snow - Papertrey Ink; Burnt Umber - Palette
Ribbon: Lemon Tart Saddle Stitched - Papertrey Ink
Other: Colored Pencils - Prismacolor; Embroidery Floss - DMC; Foam Tape - Scotch; Glossy Accents - Ranger; button; mineral spirits; loose glitter
I started by stamping the cupcake from Baby Button Bits onto white cardstock (twice) and Berry Sorbet Bitty Box Basics patterned paper. I trimmed the bottom half of the cupcake out of the patterned paper and adhered it directly on top of one of the two white cupcakes. Next, I colored the other cupcake using colored pencils and mineral spirits and trimmed out just the top part. Now here's where I lose my mind just a little and temporarily forget how much I hate loose glitter. I coated the pink part of the cupcake with dimensional glaze and dumped on the glitter. It was everywhere within moments. It's a darn good thing I didn't have to sneeze or I would be finding glitter for ages.
Well, eventually I got the glitter cleaned up sufficiently and put the cupcake under a button container to allow the glaze to dry and to secure the glitter into the glaze as much as possible. I think it worked because I messed with the cupcake this morning before popping the card in the mail and I came away nearly glitter-free. Anyway, after the glaze was dry I stitched on a button and mounted my cupcake top to the main panel with foam tape. The entire main panel was then matted with Sweet Blush cardstock and set aside for a moment.
Next I worked on the ruffle. I cut a piece of saddle stitched ribbon about twice the width of my main panel and pulled one string until the ribbon rusched the way I wanted. I wrapped that around a piece of cardstock just narrower than my main panel and adhered the ends to the back. I first saw this technique from the über talented Lisa Johnson. It adds such awesome texture!
I realized that I needed a base to pull this whole thing together, so I cut a piece of Berry Sorbet and got busy. I started by stamping the largest polka dots from Polka Dot Basics 1 in Fresh Snow ink. I then went back through with the next size polka dot and filled in the spaces between large dots. It's a fun pattern and I feel like I should use it more often.
Anyway, I finished the card by adhering the ruffle panel directly to the base and mounting the cupcake panel over the ruffles with foam tape. I love how the card turned out, but I may lay off the loose glitter for awhile. They make glue suspended glitter just for people like me.
I hope you've enjoyed today's post. Take care and I'll see you soon!
Recipe:
Cardstock: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush - Papertrey Ink; white
Stamps: Baby Button Bits, Polka Dot Basics 1 - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Fresh Snow - Papertrey Ink; Burnt Umber - Palette
Ribbon: Lemon Tart Saddle Stitched - Papertrey Ink
Other: Colored Pencils - Prismacolor; Embroidery Floss - DMC; Foam Tape - Scotch; Glossy Accents - Ranger; button; mineral spirits; loose glitter
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Party Continues
Happy Valentine's Day, Blogland! Well, I'm back home after spending most of last week with family. It was nice, but I missed being home. I also missed being able to participate in the Papertrey anniversary challenges. So today I made sure to get my craft on!
Today's challenge was to make a sheet of handmade floral embellishments and incorporate them into a card. I chose to bust out some poppies thanks to Lisa Johnson's Remember set. I'll start by showing you the embellishments (please pardon the glare).
I stamped the large and small poppies and the poppy bud in charcoal ink. Then I used Terracotta Tile, Pure Poppy, and Sweet Blush for the solid images. I cut out the flowers and embellished them with all sorts of things. The larger poppies have buttons and Fun Flock. The smaller poppies have buttons, Fun Flock, and black rhinestones. Next, I stamped the leaves in Ripe Avocado and Spring Moss inks before cutting them out and attaching a small strip of foam tape to the back of all the images. I used Scor-Tape to attach all the bits & pieces to a sheet of acetate and then slipped the sheet into a greeting card sleeve. I created my topper in Illustrator and adhered that to the sleeve using Scor-Tape.
My card for today features the Blush poppy. The center of this one is the Fun Flock. I stamped the stem (though you could draw one if you were in a rush or didn't have your stamp handy) and sentiment onto white cardstock and layered that with a thin mat of Smoky Shadow. I attached the bloom and the leaves before mounting the focal panel to the Spring Moss base (already stamped with polka dots and tied with Sweet Blush twill).
I hope you've enjoyed today's project! Until next time, I wish you all a day filled with love. Ta-ta!
Recipe (for everything):
Cardstock: Spring Moss, Smoky Shadow - Papertrey Ink; white
Stamps: Remember, Polka Dot Basics 2 - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Terracotta Tile, Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush, Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss, Fresh Snow - Papertrey Ink; Charcoal, Noir - Palette
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Twill - Papertrey Ink
Other: black buttons; black embroidery floss - DMC; Foam Tape - Scotch; Black Fun Flock - Stampendous; Clear Rhinestone (colored with a Sharpie) - Darice; acetate; greeting card sleeve; Adobe Illustrator; glue pen
Today's challenge was to make a sheet of handmade floral embellishments and incorporate them into a card. I chose to bust out some poppies thanks to Lisa Johnson's Remember set. I'll start by showing you the embellishments (please pardon the glare).
I stamped the large and small poppies and the poppy bud in charcoal ink. Then I used Terracotta Tile, Pure Poppy, and Sweet Blush for the solid images. I cut out the flowers and embellished them with all sorts of things. The larger poppies have buttons and Fun Flock. The smaller poppies have buttons, Fun Flock, and black rhinestones. Next, I stamped the leaves in Ripe Avocado and Spring Moss inks before cutting them out and attaching a small strip of foam tape to the back of all the images. I used Scor-Tape to attach all the bits & pieces to a sheet of acetate and then slipped the sheet into a greeting card sleeve. I created my topper in Illustrator and adhered that to the sleeve using Scor-Tape.
My card for today features the Blush poppy. The center of this one is the Fun Flock. I stamped the stem (though you could draw one if you were in a rush or didn't have your stamp handy) and sentiment onto white cardstock and layered that with a thin mat of Smoky Shadow. I attached the bloom and the leaves before mounting the focal panel to the Spring Moss base (already stamped with polka dots and tied with Sweet Blush twill).
I hope you've enjoyed today's project! Until next time, I wish you all a day filled with love. Ta-ta!
Recipe (for everything):
Cardstock: Spring Moss, Smoky Shadow - Papertrey Ink; white
Stamps: Remember, Polka Dot Basics 2 - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Terracotta Tile, Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush, Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss, Fresh Snow - Papertrey Ink; Charcoal, Noir - Palette
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Twill - Papertrey Ink
Other: black buttons; black embroidery floss - DMC; Foam Tape - Scotch; Black Fun Flock - Stampendous; Clear Rhinestone (colored with a Sharpie) - Darice; acetate; greeting card sleeve; Adobe Illustrator; glue pen
Friday, February 5, 2010
A New Technique
The Papertrey birthday festivities are fully underway and today's announcement (How-To Videos and weekly challenges!) included a challenge to use the emboss resist technique in one's project. I had never tried this particular technique and it was fun to try something new and step outside my comfort zone a little.
I started by stamping tiny Aqua Mist polka dots and Water Lily Green flower clusters onto white cardstock. It's important to remember that anything you eventually want layered on your embossed image has to be stamped first because once that embossing powder is set there's really no stamping on top of it. After my dots and flowers had fully dried (you can speed the process with a heat gun) I stamped the cake with VersaMark and embossed it with clear powder. Next, I sponged Aqua Mist ink over the entire image and matted it to a layer of Aqua Mist cardstock that had been sponged with Water Lily Green ink (I didn't really have anything on hand that was the right color otherwise). I added a die cut cake plate and a few punched flowers embellished with rhinestones before setting the focal image aside for a moment.
Next, I repeatedly stamped an image from Giga Guidelines onto Aqua Mist cardstock using white ink. Once the ink was dry, I stamped the sentiment in silver ink and heat embossed again using clear powder. I mounted that patterned layer to a white base and wrapped the entire card with knotted white ribbon. Finally, I mounted the cake image to the base with foam adhesive.
It's relatively simple, but I had fun trying a new technique. Enjoy the rest of the birthday bash and I'll see you again soon!
Recipe:
Cardstock: Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink, Silver - Paper Source; White
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics 2, Scattered Showers, Piece of Cake, Giga Guidelines - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Fresh Snow, Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink; Water Lily Green - Palette; Starlite Silver - Brilliance
Tools: Flower Punch - EK Success; Floral Corner Punch - Fiskars; Cake Plate Die (discontinued)- Quickutz
Other: Rhinestones - Darice; White ribbon - May Arts; Foam tape - Scotch; Clear Embossing Powder
I started by stamping tiny Aqua Mist polka dots and Water Lily Green flower clusters onto white cardstock. It's important to remember that anything you eventually want layered on your embossed image has to be stamped first because once that embossing powder is set there's really no stamping on top of it. After my dots and flowers had fully dried (you can speed the process with a heat gun) I stamped the cake with VersaMark and embossed it with clear powder. Next, I sponged Aqua Mist ink over the entire image and matted it to a layer of Aqua Mist cardstock that had been sponged with Water Lily Green ink (I didn't really have anything on hand that was the right color otherwise). I added a die cut cake plate and a few punched flowers embellished with rhinestones before setting the focal image aside for a moment.
Next, I repeatedly stamped an image from Giga Guidelines onto Aqua Mist cardstock using white ink. Once the ink was dry, I stamped the sentiment in silver ink and heat embossed again using clear powder. I mounted that patterned layer to a white base and wrapped the entire card with knotted white ribbon. Finally, I mounted the cake image to the base with foam adhesive.
It's relatively simple, but I had fun trying a new technique. Enjoy the rest of the birthday bash and I'll see you again soon!
Recipe:
Cardstock: Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink, Silver - Paper Source; White
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics 2, Scattered Showers, Piece of Cake, Giga Guidelines - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Fresh Snow, Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink; Water Lily Green - Palette; Starlite Silver - Brilliance
Tools: Flower Punch - EK Success; Floral Corner Punch - Fiskars; Cake Plate Die (discontinued)- Quickutz
Other: Rhinestones - Darice; White ribbon - May Arts; Foam tape - Scotch; Clear Embossing Powder
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Papertrey Ink Turns Three!
Hello Blogland! Did you know that Papertrey Ink turns three this year?! I am so excited and totally looking forward to the birthday festivities over the next couple of weeks. Today Nichole announced the stamp design team and issued a challenge to use one (or more) of a series of graphics created by this year's stamp designers to make a card. I would have loved to play along with each and every designer, but alas, time was not on my side toady. I chose the image that I was most pumped about at first sight to create my card. This cupcake image was designed by Heather Nichols and I am absolutely smitten. She always seems to design images that really get me ready to create something. I love that!
So to start today's card I downloaded the image from Heather's blog and printed it once on copy paper to get an idea of the size. I wanted the cupcake to have a little more weight on my card so I placed it in Illustrator and made it about twice the size it was in the original download (to be honest, I just eyeballed it - nothing fancy). I printed my cardstock with two images on a sheet (you could fit several more though) because I knew I wanted to die cut one into a circle and trim one out to pop with foam tape. I stamped the sentiment onto the circle with the cuppie and mounted the loose cupcake with aforementioned foam tape.
The focal panel was adhered to a scalloped circle and foam mounted to a 5 1/2" square base that had been stamped with polka dots and tied with ribbon. Finally, I bedazzled the heck out of the cupcake with glitter and called it good. Quick and easy and so much fun! I love it when a card comes together faster than I expect (especially when I love the finished result). Hope you're all enjoying the Papertrey festivities. Have a great time and I'll see you soon!
Recipe:
Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides - Papertrey Ink; Ultimate White - Strathmore
Digital Image: Cupcake - Heather Nichols (for Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics 2, Everyday Button Bits - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Fresh Snow - Papertrey Ink; Burnt Umber - Palette
Ribbon: Lemon Tart Saddle Stitched Ribbon - Papertrey Ink
Tools: Nesting Flowers, Nesting Circles Dies - Quickutz; Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers
Other: Frosted Lace Stickles - Ranger; Foam Tape - Scotch
So to start today's card I downloaded the image from Heather's blog and printed it once on copy paper to get an idea of the size. I wanted the cupcake to have a little more weight on my card so I placed it in Illustrator and made it about twice the size it was in the original download (to be honest, I just eyeballed it - nothing fancy). I printed my cardstock with two images on a sheet (you could fit several more though) because I knew I wanted to die cut one into a circle and trim one out to pop with foam tape. I stamped the sentiment onto the circle with the cuppie and mounted the loose cupcake with aforementioned foam tape.
The focal panel was adhered to a scalloped circle and foam mounted to a 5 1/2" square base that had been stamped with polka dots and tied with ribbon. Finally, I bedazzled the heck out of the cupcake with glitter and called it good. Quick and easy and so much fun! I love it when a card comes together faster than I expect (especially when I love the finished result). Hope you're all enjoying the Papertrey festivities. Have a great time and I'll see you soon!
Recipe:
Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides - Papertrey Ink; Ultimate White - Strathmore
Digital Image: Cupcake - Heather Nichols (for Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics 2, Everyday Button Bits - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Fresh Snow - Papertrey Ink; Burnt Umber - Palette
Ribbon: Lemon Tart Saddle Stitched Ribbon - Papertrey Ink
Tools: Nesting Flowers, Nesting Circles Dies - Quickutz; Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers
Other: Frosted Lace Stickles - Ranger; Foam Tape - Scotch