PTI August Blog Hop

Whew!! What a crazy creative weekend.  I just threw this together in the last 30 min. so I could at least get one entry into the Blog Hop this month.  Got lucky last month by doing all 6 color palettes.  This month, hopefully between the blog hop and Stamp A Faire I might get some of my PTI addiction subsidized.  :)  Mostly just wanted to get one last creative attempt in.

 I love this card!!  I used the last sketch and color scheme.  Totally love my word and line stripes.  The fine linen mat stack die was left over from a Stamp A Faire card, so I put it to good use.  Love the earthy coffee feel of this card.  I know just the person I will be giving it to.

Enjoy.

Papertrey Ink Stamp A Faire 2013 cards

I did it.  I finished all 10 challenges by the end of my time to craft today.  I am listing them all here in one post.  Hopefully the InkList things will let me link from one post on all the different challenges.  I am happy with some of the cards, others not so much.  I wish I could have had more time to really put my all into some of them, but overall, I am just happy I got to do them.

I think my least favorite challenges was the salt one.  I did not really like how that worked.  I guess I need watercolor paper.  My salt didn't speckled much cause my paper dried too fast.  The shrink art challenge was the next least favorite.

Thanks to Nicole and the rest of the design team for such fun challenges and great ideas.  I have inspiration to last a couple of months just with yesterday and today's blog hop color schemes and sketches.


Here are my projects:

Limited supply challenge (used a Bake and Take sketch for this one)

Sugar Coated Embellishments  (The holly is frosted with glitter and this is my attempt at a CAS card.)

Gallon, Quart, Pint Challenge (gallon:harvest gold, quart: terracotta tile, pint: ripe avocado with fine linen as a neutral to anchor it all)  I really liked this challenge and hope to use it again in my card making.  

Shrink Art challenge (could have been great if my stamping had turned out cleaner)

Make your own spray mists challenge.  (sprayed the chevron pattern and splatters)  I think this needs a bow on the that orange strip of ribbon.  

My tea and coffee dyed fabric, felt and ribbons made into flower embellishment and pin.  Got my inspiration for this card and pin from Artful Notions blog.  Love Nancy's cards and projects.  

My failed attempt at the salt sprinkled challenge.  I really had a cool card in mind but I am not great with watercoloring, and I just didn't have time to do this again and get all the other challenges done.  I really wanted to make a sunburst pattern.  Next time I will use the Sunshine stamps and dies.

My most favorite project of the whole day that I wish you could smell.  I embossed the pumpkin with spiced embossing powder and it smells just like a pumpkin spice candle.  Yum.  I am going to fill these with pumpkin spiced caramels from Dove Chocolate Discoveries.

Bake and Take challenge.  I really like the idea of sketches and color palettes.  However, I have trouble modifying sketches and not being so literal to the sketch.  I also have trouble with color palettes that have more than 3 colors.  It is hard to incorporate them all.  I did get all the colors in this card, as the stamping is the last green color.   I guess a color palette is any grouping of those colors would go well together.  You don't have to use them all.  I will have to work with the rest and see what I can come up with.  Maybe combine it with the gallon, quart, pint concept.  

Paperclay challenge.  I glittered my clay like Heather and used her card and modified it to make a Christmas card.  

Thanks for looking.  Everyone created such pretty projects.  

September Childhood Cancer Awareness Auction

EDIT:  just thought I would post that we miraculously raised $563 through my Facebook auction.  Such a wonderful surprise.  The Alabama Children's Blood Disorder and Cancer Foundation sent us a wonderfully sweet letter thanking us for our donation and assuring us that every penny goes towards finding better treatments and a cure.  I can't wait to do another auction and a Cookies For Kid's Cancer Bake Sale this year.



Hi, blog hopping friends.  I wanted to make an announcement on my blog about my ongoing auction on Facebook to raise funds for Childhood Cancer research and treatment.  September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, and I hope to auction off lots of crafty and food items to raise money to go towards finding a cure and better treatments for childhood cancers and brain tumors.  Why am I doing this?

Well, last November my youngest son, John, was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumor after a routine eye exam showed swelling of his optic nerve.  The optomotrist said this was a sign of pressure in his head, so off we went to a neuro opthomologist in Birmingham.  He concurred that there was something wrong and sent us over to Children's Hospital to the ER to get a CT scan since it was late in the day and he didn't want us to have to drive back to Birmingham in the morning.  All the while we are doing this, a brain tumor is never ever on our radar.  Having the doctor come in and tell the boys to leave the room with the nurse was terrifying.  Hearing the words, "Your son has a brain tumor," about made me hit the floor.  To make a long story short, John's brain tumor was mostly removed a week later in a very long surgery.  After pathology did their tests, it was found that he has a type 2 atypical meningioma.  The biggest thing to know is that it was not malignant, so we have never had to look at chemo.  John had a radiation treatment in March called a Gamma Knife treatment and since then his MRI's show that the part of the tumor that could not be taken out and had started to grow back in just 3 months after surgery in November is shrinking.  Praise The Lord!  We are fortunate indeed.  In fact, if you didn't know all this about John, you would never ever know he has been through any of this.  God has been so good to him.

Why are we raising funds for Childhood Cancer then?   Well, we have met several children in our visits to our oncologist who is coordinating our post surgical care and MRI's  and online through Facebook pages who ARE battling cancer and malignant brain tumors.  One close to home already lost his fight just this past spring.  It is heartbreaking to see what the chemo treatments do to these little ones.  Most that we know of are less than 7 years old.  So while we are not going through some of the things they are, our hearts go out to them and we want to help.  I made a goal of raising $400 this year through selling my crafts and Jordan Essentials and Dove Chocolate Discoveries products.  I am no longer a Dove Chocolatier and my JE business is limited to close family, so I have only raised $200 so far.  I am so thankful.  This auction in September is my last push to try to get the last $200 raised.

Just about every day in September I will be posting items on my Facebook event page for friends and you to bid on.  I will be placing a minimum bid price to cover shipping costs.  You will need to bid higher than that to make a donation towards our goal.  When the bidding time frame is over, I will pick the winner from the top bid.  I will contact them to let them know they won and get them to send me payment.  When payment is received and cleared then I will ship out the goodies.   Super easy and fun.

I have lots of things on tap to auction off:  gratitude journals, coffee gift sets that include cookies and coffee, chocolate sets, Jordan Essentials skin care set, card sets, holiday gift packaging and decor, and lots more stuff.  I can't wait.  I just hope I have time to create all the things I want to.   Join me in raising money to help find a cure and better treatments for Childhood Cancer.  All proceeds minus shipping costs will go to Children's Hospital of Birmingham, AL and their research department.

Papertrey Ink Stamp A Faire 2013 Meet and Greet

Hi, fellow Papertrey Ink stampers and fanatics!  Tonight I am gathering a few supplies to try to get ready to participate in PTI's Stamp A Faire 2013 that will be held all day tomorrow.  While I only have a small time frame to craft tomorrow in between some obligations that came up, I hope to finish all the challenges by the end of the weekend.  Even if I have to stay up a wee bit late on Sunday.

I thought I would share a few photos of my craft area, the things I have all ready to start crafting and some projects I have been working on lately.  I share my crafting space with our school room.  As a homeschooling mom to two boys (9 and 12 years old), we spend a lot of time up here in our bonus room/school room.  They have their two desks along a wall and I can sit and craft or surf Pinterest and the PTI design team's blogs while they work at their desks.  Sometimes that works well, other times my crafting is a distraction for them.  Since they like me to be sort of at hand for questions and help, I told them to expect me to be working on something right along with them.    Here are the photos.

My view of the boys' desks from my desk.

A repurposed changing table from my youngest son.

Lots of white storage cubes.  I have been stamping for 11 years.  Believe it or not I continually purge, but alas new purchases take their place.  So much potential so little time.

My new dies and stamp sets ready to go for tomorrow.  I have two coffee sets I want to complete for my Childhood Cancer Awareness auction in September.  Thinking the scratch and sniff technique could be used for a fun tag on the gift set.  

Some pretty projects I made this past week and weekend.  

My paperclay rolled out, molded and ready to dry.  I got the new lightweight Paperclay.  It was a little sticky to roll out, so we will see.  Not sure if it will dry well on the silicone sheet, but I have another day to try tomorrow.  I have muslin dying on the stove (turned off) downstairs for the tea dying technique.  

My new Stamp A Faire stamp sets and my new coffee set ready to go.  Can't wait.  Excuse my messy scratch paper.  Wasn't willing to scrap it just yet.  :)

So anyway, I am ready to go.  Happy Stamping everyone.  I can't wait to see what you all create, what the Design Team cooks up for us, and if I can do all the challenges.