Some Paptertrey ink news.

Hi, Everyone. I just wanted to put a little plug in here for the Papertreyink set Father Knows Best for your upcoming Father's day cards. There are so many sweet and special sentiments in this stamp set for your Father's Day cards, that you just have to get this set. I also love the Pond Life set they just came out with in April too. It is great for masculine and boy cards. Lots of frogs, fishes, caterpillars, ants, ducks, dragonflys, and cute sentiments for those images. There is even a Happy Mother's day stamp in there too. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us on May 15th with their new stamp releases.

I know I am a Stampin' UP! demonstrator, and it may seem weird for me to talk on and on about a competing company's stamps, but PTI's images and stamps are so different from Stampin' UP! I am loving their two step images in the photopolymer form (aka clear stamps) as they are so much easier to line up. PTI's quality is sooo good too. They don't rip and tear easy when you mount and unmount them on the acrylic blocks. They store well in CD cases (which are part of what you get when you order them) and are so great. I invite you to check out their site and see for yourself. I have bought so many of their stamps (great value over there too) here in the last 9 months or so. I can't seem to stop. That would account for the reason I don't have too many new or current Stampin' Up! stamps these days. I have been weeding out what I know I won't use, haven't used at all and what just isn't my style anymore. I have to quit buying what I see other people use so creatively, and just use what I do have. Anyway, check out Papertrey ink. Their site is on my crafting site list and I have a lot of blogs listed with notes about who uses the stamps a lot. They are really cute. They have some very nice sentiment sets that would totally complement your SU! stuff.

Please know that I still love Stampin' UP! for all their great colors, papers, ribbons, and accessories. I find that these items are what I am really buying these days. Love the double sided papers, ribbons, rhinestone brads, hodgepodge hardware kits, pretties kits, glitter, dry embossing, punches, and such. They can't be beat in style and value. I just have ventured into a few other stamp styles that we don't seem to be going into. We'll see what the new catalog brings. Oh and don't you just love this year's IN COLORS? I am totally stocking up on the papers and ribbons before I can't get them anymore. So soft and pretty and bright this year. Next year's IN COLORs are super bright (think Bold Brights revamped in red, orange, lime green and such). Not sure if I'll be into those or not. We'll see. New catalog comes out August 11th. I should have mine in hand by the end of July. You can preorder yours from me by emailing me. $5 is all they cost. Great for ideas and just browsing through on a daily basis.

So I thought I would share with you some stamping musings, a new stamp venue to get you hooked on, and some thoughts about SU! products these days. Hopefully Stampin' UP! will have some awesome Holiday things to get us all excited about.

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!!

Now that I have that old annoying song from the 80's going through your mind, I have to share my awesome news. I won the May Demo contest from Stampin' UP! for a dry embossed card I made. I took a very poor scan of the card before I popped it in the mail, so that will have to do to show you the card, but it was so much prettier in real life. I am so psyched. Ask my husband and he will tell you the total happy dance I did when I got the message off my phone. I get to pick 3 stamps sets of my choice from the current catalogs. Hmmm. Alphabet sets, Live your dream, and ABC accessories maybe. I'll have to think hard and long about this one. Anyway, I know it's not super nice to toot your own horn too much, but I had to share something that made my day. I am going stir crazy in my house getting it ready to sell, and this was a welcome little pick me up.

Supplies I used:
Pick a petal classy brass, pretties kit, berry bliss paper, pretty in pink and chocolate chip paper, and chocolate satin ribbon from the Tapestry ribbon originals, paper piercer, and the nursery necessities and god's blessings sets. Oh, and I used the pretty in pink and close to cocoa inks.

I cut two card fronts, lined up the classy brass template on both to get the circle scalloped edge and dry embossed it. Then I carefully cut it out, and then like a crisscross card, glued the two card bases together to get a gate fold style card. Lined the inside with designer paper, put my greeting in, and then tied it up with ribbon, added the pretties flower (I colored it with pastels), added the hatpin, and voila. I am running a little low on current SU! stamps so I made this a baby card, but it would be awesome as a wedding day card. Just didn't have a current Mr. and Mrs. stamp that was from SU!.