Global Greetings - Day 2

Thank you all for your enthusiasm for the Global Greetings series! I'm so glad you're all enjoying the possibilities of these sentiments. Today I'm sharing two projects that incorporate all of the sets (along with a couple of English sentiments) for a little international flair.

The first card today features all of the "hello" sentiments paired with the globe image from Masculine Motifs. I started by stamping the globe in Spring Moss, Spring Rain, and Ocean Tides (stamped off once to soften the color) onto white cardstock. I punched out the globes with a circle punch and stamped the sentiments in Dark Chocolate ink.

Next, I cut a piece of Ocean Tides cardstock and stamped it with the dashed grid background from Background Basics: Retro using watermark ink. That piece was matted with Spring Moss and wrapped with Rustic Jute Button Twine. That layer was mounted to a white base with foam tape and all of the circles were arranged and mounted with more foam tape.

Today's second project is a set of thank you notes that includes one card for each language. I started by cutting a 3 1/2" x 5" base from each Berry Sorbet, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Simply Chartreuse, Aqua Mist, and Plum Pudding.

I stamped a pattern in watermark ink on each base using the compass image from Father Knows Best and the globe image from Masculine Motifs. Then, I die cut a Photo Finishers Strip for each card and stamped them with a "thank you" sentiment from each set. The strips were adhered to the base and the whole set of colorful thank you notes was finished.

Thank you for stopping by today! Make sure to visit Nichole, Heather, Maile, Lisa, Melissa, and Tiffany for more projects and inspiration. I hope to see you tomorrow!

All products from Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
International Hello Card Recipe:
Stamps: Beyond Basic Borders, Masculine Motifs, Background Basics: Retro, Global Greetings: Dutch, Global Greetings: French, Global Greetings: German, Global Greetings: Italian, Global Greetings: Spanish (Global Greetings sets available on February 15th)
Ink: Spring Moss, Spring Rain, Ocean Tides, Dark Chocolate; Versamark - Tsukineko
Cardstock: Ocean Tides, Spring Moss; generic white
Other: Rustic Jute Button Twine; Foam Tape - Scotch; 1.25" circle punch - EK Success

Global Gratitude Set Recipe:
Stamps: Father Knows Best, Masculine Motifs, Background Basics: Retro, Global Greetings: Dutch, Global Greetings: French, Global Greetings: German, Global Greetings: Italian, Global Greetings: Spanish (Global Greetings sets available on February 15th)
Ink: Smoky Shadow; Versamark - Tsukineko
Cardstock: Berry Sorbet, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Simply Chartreuse, Aqua Mist, Plum Pudding; generic white
Other: Photo Finisher Dies; 3/4" square punch - EK Success

Global Greetings - Day 1

Hello, Blogland! How are you today? Well, here we are - day one of the Papertrey February Anniversary Countdown. Yay! This month I'm introducing a series of five mini sets of international language sentiments. The series includes French, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Italian and they cover several common occasions: birthday, congratulations, baby, hello, and thank you. I truly hope these sets will fill a need for Papertrey's wonderful global community. Let's get to some projects, shall we?

Today I'm focusing on a couple of baby cards and thank you notes made using the Spanish and Dutch sets. When I started playing around with these sets, I knew I wanted to make a baby card or two. Then I thought of putting together coordinating thank you notes - a set of these would be such a thoughtful gift for new parents!

To start with the Spanish version I stamped the onesie with Enchanted Evening ink onto Spring Rain stock and embellished it with the smallest argyle pattern from A Little Argyle and the tiny ship from Bitty Baby Blessings. I trimmed that out and mounted it to a die cut Fillable Frames #1. That whole piece was adhered to a bit of Enchanted Evening cardstock and set aside.

Next, I cut a piece of Linen Vellum with the Small Scalloped Edge die to make it resemble waves. I stamped the sentiment in Enchanted Evening ink and ran the vellum through the Cuttlebug with the Plaid Picnic Impression Plate. I adhered the vellum to my base with vellum tape and wrapped the card with some knotted Pure Poppy Topnotch Twill before mounting the onesie panel with a bit of foam tape.

For the coordinating thank you note I stamped the larger ship image onto Spring Rain cardstock in Enchanted Evening ink and did a little coloring with my Prismacolor pencils. The sail was stamped a second time onto Linen Vellum and then trimmed out and adhered to the note with vellum tape. It would be super easy to put together a set of these in no time!

For the Dutch cards, I stamped the bunny from Tremendous Treats: Valentine in Dark Chocolate ink and colored her with my pencils. Her little heart-shaped tail was embellished with a pom-pom (tip: trim the back of the pom-pom a smidgen and it will sit flat against your cardstock).

I die cut a decorative edge onto a piece of Lavender Moon Bitty Boxes paper and stamped the sentiment with Dark Chocolate ink. I adhered that to the base (already textured with the Canvas/Linen Impression Plate) and embellished with a Lemon Tart ribbon/white floss bow treatment. The bunny was matted with Dark Chocolate cardstock and mounted over the ribbon with foam tape.

The coordinating thank you note features the bunny and the thank you sentiment from Global Greetings: Dutch. The bunny is highlighted with colored pencils and her tail is embellished with white flocking to give her a little texture. Another super simple design that would allow you to make a batch of these in a snap.

Nichole and Jess Witty are showing more of Global Greetings over on their blogs today, so make sure to check out their posts. For more amazing projects featuring this month's releases make sure to visit Heather, Maile, Lisa, Melissa, and Tiffany.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you'll be back tomorrow when I share more of the versatility of these mini sets. Have a great day!

All materials from Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted
Spanish Baby Boy Set Recipe:
Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings, A Little Argyle, Fillable Frames #1, Global Greetings: Spanish (releasing on February 15th)
Cardstock: Spring Rain, Kraft, Enchanted Evening, Linen Vellum; generic white
Ink: Enchanted Evening, Pure Poppy; Versamark - Tsukineko
Tools: Fillable Frames #1 die, Picnic Plaid Impression Plate, Small Scalloped edge die
Other: Pure Poppy Topnotch Twill; Foam tape - Scotch; colored pencils - Prismacolor

Dutch Baby Girl Set Recipe:
Stamps: Tremendous Treats: Valentine, Global Greetings: Dutch (releasing on February 15th)
Cardstock: Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Lavender Moon Bitty Boxes Patterned Paper; generic white
Ink: Dark Chocolate
Tools: Canvas & Linen Impression Plate, Small Scalloped edge die; Circle Dies - Quickutz; Corner Chomper - We Are Memory Keepers
Other: Lemon Tart Saddle Stitch Ribbon; white pom-pom - Darice; white floss - DMC; colored pencils - Prismacolor; Fun Flock - Stampendous; Foam Tape - Scotch

Papertrey Pride Gear & A Sneak Peek

First and foremost I want to thank all of you that have left such warm, encouraging comments over the last few days. I am so excited about this new creative chapter! I can't tell you all how much your enthusiasm means to me. I'm all full of warm fuzzies up in here.

If you've been following along with the Papertrey Ink anniversary festivities you may have seen a fun announcement this morning. Papertrey has teamed up with Cafe Press to offer logo gear designed by Nichole and a few of the stamp designers. You can see the the PTIgear storefront here.

You may also have noticed the sneak peek of my small collection of mini sets debuting this month. The sets feature commonly used card maker sentiments in a series of international languages. I'll be showing the versatility of these sets from the 10th until release day, so make sure to check back!

Thanks for checking in today! Now I'd better get back to work so I have something to share come countdown time. Bye-bye!

Designing With Papertrey

Greetings, Blogland! May I ask you a question? Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep your trap shut when you have huge news? Like HUGE news? Tis a tricky position, my friends, but today I finally get to share my secret. I have, by some crazy-amazing stroke of luck, been given the opportunity to design a line of stamps for Papertrey Ink. I've been a fan and customer since the beginning, so this is more than I could have ever hoped for (at least out loud).

You can see Nichole's lovely post about this year's stamp designer line-up on her blog. I want to thank Nichole, Julie, and Jane for giving me this opportunity. Their confidence in me means so very much. I also want to welcome and offer congratulations to the other new stamp designers, Erin and Lexi. Hooray, ladies!

Well, as I'm sure you've come to realize, Anniversary week announcements tend to mean contests. Today's contest is a challenge. Each of the stamp designers has put together a little freebie image for y'all to use on your own project (the download is available on Nichole's blog). Simply print the Stamp Designer Freebies Sheet and create a project with one of the images, adding your link to InLinkz list. Easy as pie! The winner will receive a collection of the stamp designers' favorite stamp sets (I've chosen Rhythm & Soul to be included).

The image I've designed for you to use is a little award ribbon and I'm going to share a couple of projects I put together as inspiration.

The first card uses the ribbon image exactly as it's shown on the download. I laser printed the image onto white cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits. I die cut the center of the ribbon (it's 3/4" so it will work with a circle punch or die) and mounted it with foam tape. I die cut the Photo Finishers strip and stamped the sentiment in black ink. The strip was adhered directly to an Aqua Mist base that I'd corner rounded and stamped with polka dots. A little more foam tape to mount the ribbon and this card was all set.

On the second card, I wanted to use an image inside the ribbon center, so I just die cut a plain white circle and stamped away. I colored the ribbon with pencils again and embellished the star with a bit of glitter. Next, I die cut Fillable Frames #1 and stamped the frame and sentiment before adding the ribbon with foam tape. I stamped the largest dot burst from Dot Spot onto the base with Versamark and then wrapped Saddle Stitched ribbon and baker's twine around the whole she-bang. I mounted the frame/ribbon piece with foam tape and then stood back and patted myself on the back for a job well done (not really on that last part).

So there it is. Thank you for sharing in my excitement! Make sure to stop by the other stamp designers' blogs and welcome them to (or back to) the team:

Nichole Heady
Beth Silaka
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols
Lexi Daly
Lisa Johnson
Maile Belles
Melissa Bickford
Tiffany Pastor

Have a great day and I'll see you all again soon!

Absolutely Fabulous Recipe:
Stamps: Digital Freebie, Polka Dot Basics, Everyday Classics - Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Aqua Mist - Papertrey Ink; white
Ink: Fresh Snow Pigment - Papertrey Ink; black pigment
Other: Photo Finishers Dies - Papertrey Ink; Corner Chomper - We Are Memory Keepers; foam tape - Scotch; circle die - Quickutz; Prismacolor Pencils; mineral spirits

You Did It Recipe:
Stamps: Digital Freebie, Dot Spot, Simple Little Things, Fillable Frames #1, Text Boxed - Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Pure Poppy - Papertrey Ink; white
Ink: Spring Rain Pigment - Papertrey Ink; Versamark - Tsukineko; black pigment
Other: Fillable Frames #1 Die, Spring Rain Saddle Stitched Ribbon - Papertrey Ink; glitter glue; circle die - Quickutz; Cherry baker's twine - Divine Twine; Prismacolor Pencils; mineral spirits

A Li'l Banner

Greetings, Blogland! I hope everyone is having a lovely week. I wanted to share a card that I made today using Nichole Heady's paper banner technique. I love the little paper banners. Seriously. Love them. And I wanted to try my hand at putting one together.

I started by cutting a 5 1/2" square Rustic White base (the closest you'll see me coming to cream cardstock). Then I stamped the leaves and filled in with a few flowers. I die cut a Mat Stack 5 shape from Kraft cardstock and stamped the woodgrain image before adhering it straight to my base. Next I took a strip of Sweet Blush cardstock and stamped one side with the small houndstooth background and stamped the front side with my sentiment. You can see Nichole's "how-to" video on her blog. I finished the card by adhering the banner in place. Super simple and such a fun, new technique to pull me out of my typical rut.

Speaking of ruts...did anyone notice something missing? Foam tape. That's right. Nary a piece of foam tape to be found. Watch out, Chicken Little. The sky just might be falling.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. See you again soon!

Recipe:
Stamps: Beautiful Blooms (sentiment), Turning A New Leaf, Everyday Classics (Anniversary Set), Modern Wood Mats, Background Basics: Houndstooth - Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Rustic White, Kraft, Sweet Blush - Papertrey Ink
Ink: Versamark - Tsukineko; Dark Green Pigment, Dark Brown Pigment - Studio G
Tools: Mat Stack 5 die - Papertrey Ink