Spring Fever Blog Hop at PTI

Here is my second post for this month's PTI blog hop.  Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal, so that made me think of babies.  So I made a spring inspired card for a baby girl.  My roommate from college, whom I still keep in touch with frequently, is having a baby this May.  I don't keep a lot of baby cards on hand so I needed to make one to send with a little gift.  This is her second little girl, and I am so excited for her.   I picked a palette of soft yellow and gray cause they look so pretty together.  What do you think?  Springy enough?

February Blog Hop: Spring Fever

Yes,  I have spring fever.  However, I saw lots of trees starting to bust out with their colorful leaves today as I was driving.  They got me so excited, I almost wrecked the car trying to look out for signs of more trees budding.  We saw a beautiful pink blossomed tree just down the street from us that started the whole thing.  And to top it all off, my mother in law has tons of daffodils starting to bloom at her house.  Oh joy!!  God is so good to provide us with beauty in all seasons, but springtime has to be one of the best.  Just lovely.

Anyway, you didn't come here to hear me wax poetic (maybe not so poetic) about spring.  You want to see my entry for this month's Papertrey Ink blog hop.  We were supposed to make some projects using things that remind us of spring or spring like colors.  Here we go.  I used a spring color palette, this week's Mojo Monday sketch, and some pretty roses, which if you live in the deep south, like here in Alabama, might just start blooming in late spring.

I am also entering this card in the Card Concept challenge.  I would classify this card as clean and layered.  Enjoy.

I used hibiscus burst, sweet blush, lemon tart, and spring moss papers and inks.  I used the woodgrain impression plate for some much needed texture to ground those flowers, The Sweet Life roses, and a nice little sentiment.  It was fun to do two challenges at once.  Trying to stretch my creativity this year and be a little original.

Building Blocks of Design challenge

Here is my entry into today's contest.  We were to randomly pick from the different design team's building blocks for a card.  I got pretty lucky and was able to whip this card up pretty quickly.  I like it when that happens.  I think I only had to repick an element and that was because I had no brads.

Here are my picks:
Ashley's color choice:  #1 Pure poppy
Betsy's color choice:  #3 berry sorbet (or SU! cameo coral)
Cristina's color choice: #6 Aqua mist
Danielle's color choice: #4 kraft (that was the only iffy element as I wasn't sure how the ink colors would show up on it)
Erin's occasion choice: #1 just because
Heather's technique choice: #4 inlaid die cuts
Laura's embellie choice: #3 buttons
Melissa's fiber selection choice: #6

I used Random Number Generator for my numbers.

Here is the card:

I used the color adjustor on my iPhone picture app when I edited the pictures.  It makes the colors more vibrant.    They get kind of washed out where I take my pictures.  

Okay, so I used pure poppy (red) for the card base and on the sentiment and large flowers.  I used berry sorbet on the medium flowers and button.  I used aqua mist for accent, inlaid die cut label, and seam binding ribbon.  I popped the kraft panel up so the aqua mist label sat in the space for a more inlaid look.  What do you think?  I am very pleased.  

Day 1 challenge, used sketch only

I really don't want to break the rules of the Anniversary challenges, but I used one of the sketches from Day 1 but not one of the color schemes.  I was needing to make a card in shades of purple for my donation card set.  I will try to make one in a color combo from Day 1 and add it to this post later tomorrow, but I wanted to get this entry in today.  I think it turned out kind of pretty.  As I stated before, I really don't like the shades of purple SU! or PTI have.  They just don't seem to mix well, and the inks just do not match the papers. They are too dark.  The paper colors are okay, but I don't think they mix very well.  I am not sure how the design team gets them to look good on their cards.  Any tips?  

two more day 1 challenge cards

I was trying to make some more of my purple cards for my card set and thought last night about these beautiful tulips from the Spring Jar Fillers set.  I love tulips, and I thought they would be beautiful in shades of purple.  I am so ready for spring.  Since vellum is hard to adhere on a card, I thought the card sketch from the Day 1 Anniversary challenge would be a great way to go to hide the adhesive.  I was right.  Love the baker's twine wrapped around the stems to hold the flowers together and the sentiment in place.  To stick to the rules of the challenge that we had to use a color scheme from the 7 choices and  a card sketch from the 7 choices, I made another one in one of the color schemes.  I used the one with chartreuse, poppy, orange zest, and summer sunrise.  I left out the aqua mist/hawaiian shores.  

sneaky stripes card

Here is my last entry.  I snuck in a couple of subtle stripes into this card, so it sort of technically can fit this challenge.  The bitty box paper used for the darker butterfly is technically perpendicular stripes.  The Chocolate Remix paper for the hearts has stripes of letters going across it, so that counts.  See sneaky sneaky.

Another try for my purple and green cards to match my gift set.  I will post the completed gift sets as soon as I get them done.

Almost forgot to give Dawn McVey some love for her original card inspiration for this card.  Hers are always prettier than my attempts to recreate/case her.  

Chevron stripes card

Here is my second entry for today's contest.  I used chevron stripes and striped ribbon and striped flip flops.  I didn't even realize those last two striped items would count.  Snap!  Soft Stone card base and layer, white chevron die cuts, white limitless layer circle, Flippin' Out stamps, and some cute clear sequins to bedeck the flip flops.  Fun.  This card is going in a set of cards I am making to go with a Jordan Essentials pedi kit for an auction I am donating to.  Fun times.

Credit is due to the lovely Maile Belles for the card design.

Using Stripes Challenge

I am trying to make some cards using purples for a gift set to go along with some Jordan Essentials Lavender and Eucalyptus scented body wash, lotion, lotion bar and spa socks I am donating to a local Christian Counseling center for their fundraiser next weekend.  Can I just admit that purple and I do not mix?  First of all, I am not happy with the Stampin' UP! or Papertrey Ink purple color choices.  They are just blah.  The ink colors are dull and they need a brighter purple in the mix.  Anyway, I used Smokey Shadow striped paper for my stripe element.  I added some purple bling to the mix of notched flowers, buttons and linen vellum leaves.  I took the picture at night so the lighting is pretty dark on my photo too.  

Credit is due to the lovely Dawn McVey for the card design I CAS'd.  

Last Word Play card

Here is my last entry into today's anniversary challenge.  Love framed die, white, red, and smoky shadow card stocks.

Word Play Anniversary Challenge

2nd entry to today's PTI anniversary challenge.  I love these word dies.  So fun.  I need some help on how to "randomly" place my sequins and dots so they look more balanced.  Maybe I should have just stuck with no extra dots.  

I used PTI white card stock, Wonderful Words: Hello stamp and die, Pretty Pink Posh sequins, SU! Daffodil Delight paper and candy dots.  

Word Up! PTI Anniversary Challenge

Here is my entry for today's contest.  It just so happens I made this card on Friday, so I think it still counts as a "new" card.  I based it off a card Dawn McVey did, as she usually rocks the word dies and wonderful word stamps out of the park.  I love her bold color combos and her use of the words multiple times.  I hope to make some baby cards using a monochromatic scheme or pastel color scheme soon.

Make It Monday 2/3/14 challenge

Well, with all the PTI 7th Anniversary contests, I think this week's Make It Monday challenge has gotten pushed in the background.  While the prize for this contest doesn't compare to the goodies given away at Anniversary celebration time, the chances of winning are greater, so I thought I would throw in my hat.  Have you noticed too that usually with Make It Monday and Blog Hop challenges, more people stop to leave you nice little comments, but during the Anniversary contests, hardly anyone comments.  Either we are all too busy trying to make stuff and enter and WIN, or there are just too many great projects to look at from everyone that we can't comment much and look at them all.  Hopefully, the latter applies and not the former.  Wink… wink!  I just observed the lack of comments on others' blogs as well and just wondered about it.  I know we are all so supportive of each other and try to encourage each other in this crafty hobby.  It is awesome.

Enough chatting.  Here is my entry card.  I busted  out my new Four Square set (love) without the matching die (cause I had to cut the shopping cart total somewhere) and made a CAS card.  Wish you could see the pretty and subtle Summer Sunrise (aka Marigold Morning) homemade shimmer spritz I made and sprayed onto the background of the card.  It was just what all that white space needed and the missing 3rd use of that color my card needed to make sure I was following the rule of 3's.  I was going for masculine for this card, but my son, John,  informed me I blew it with the added sequins.  :)  I love his honesty.  He said it needed a video game element or something to make it for boys.  He is the one who is always raiding my crafty stash for his super hero costumes, homemade weapons, and super decoder rings.  Love, love, love his heroic mind and creativity.  Anyway, I digress.

My drop shadow die cut is my balloon element which I embossed to give it some shine and texture.  I went very simple but I didn't think a double up of the frame would work because I don't have the die, but also the prints are busy enough themselves without a pattern shadow.  Thanks for looking and making it to this point in my ramblings.  Sometimes I get chatty online.  Not necessarily a great thing.

Stamps: Birthday bash, Four Square

Inks: midnight muse and marigold morning, pumpkin pie (SU!)

Papers: PTI white, SU! white, pumpkin pie and marigold morning/summer sunrise

Accessories: clear sequins (Pretty Pink Posh), baker's twine (Doodlebug), circle punch, spritzer bottle, glue dots, embossing powder (clear)

17 minute card challenge entry

Here is my entry into today's challenge for the 7th Anniversary festivities over at Papertrey Ink.  I am loving all the contests.  It is hard to fit them all in with homeschooling my boys.  Fortunately after our morning group teaching time is over, they have independent work for the most part, so I can bust out the crafty supplies while they are working. 

I figured I needed to keep the card CAS for this 17 minute challenge.  I gathered supplies and made the card in about 15 min.  It took a couple of extra seconds to figure out what blue/aqua inks I wanted to use and worked best.  I finally settled on Pool Party and Hawaiian Shores.  I tied them together with Lucky Limeade dots.  I scattered some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and a sweet sentiment.  Done.  

Supplies:

1.  white card stock (fortunately I had a 1/2 sheet already cut)

2. Feather Finery stamp set

3.  Hawaiian shores ink

4.  Pool Party ink

5.  Lucky Limeade ink

6. Clear sequins

7. glue dots (even though adhesive is not supposed to count)

I will see if I can do a little more elaborate card with the challenge parameters too.  

PTI Day 1 sketch and color challenge

I made another card for the Day 1 Anniversary festivities.  I like this sketch and thought it would work with a non-floral set and still keep to the dimensions of the sketch.  I have always liked this card by Dawn McVey that she made for the release of this stamp set.  She used Aqua mist, Terracotta Tile, and Chocolate.  I switched it up for this color combo on the challenge.   I think it worked.  

I am trying to dig out older stamps that I haven't inked up in a long long time.  I have too many of the gorgeous stamps PTI makes (been buying since 2007), as I just think I need them all to make projects, but alas there are always more ideas than time.  I am trying to curb my buying of stamps this year and use what I have more.   I am trying to be a better steward of our finances and it is shameful how much money I spend each year on stamps, which we could use on fun family stuff or in giving to others.   So I hope to bust out the older sets this year and have fun with all the great challenges, MIM techniques, color challenges and sketch challenges.  I am super excited by Nicole's announcement of sketch and color combo recipe cards for each release.  She has promised things like that in the past at anniversary release announcement time and it never materialized.  I hope this will be a reality.   I love the recipe cards.  They help a lot.

Card with Tiffany Pastor's free digital image

I think this will be my last attempt for the day.  I used a color scheme from yesterday's Day 1 challenge and a sketch from Stamp A Fair 2013.  It turned out clean and kind of good for a masculine card.  I added some colored candy dots from SU! to add just a touch more zing to the image I cut out.  

design team day 2 challenge PTI

Not sure about this design or using this graphic, but I attempted something with it anyway.  The colors Melissa Bickford usually chooses are out of my comfort zone to pair up.  They are very bold and contrasting.  I used Enchanted Evening, Summer Sunrise, and Marina Mist (SU!) card stocks, parisian lace doily die, and large limitless layers circle die.  I added a few rhinestone and candy dots to the flower centers for some extra pop, and embossed my paper with a generic embossing folder.  The card needed some texture to its "white" space.  

sketch and design team challenge

Keeping this short and sweet for this post.  Using the sketch from yesterday's challenge, and today's graphic by Dawn McVey.  Not sure if this works, but I think it is still pretty.  

Hawaiian Shores prints paper, true black CS, white CS, limitless layers ovals dies.

Day 2 Anniversary Challenge

I combined two challenges into one today.  I am always stumped on how to use the free digital downloads that the designers put out each year for us to use.  Maybe it is the colors they come in or their shapes, I just struggle.  Today that is different.  I love this graphic by Heather Nichols.  It is clean and graphic and didn't need much to transform into a beautiful CAS card.  I dressed it up with a few silver pearls, some pink tri-toned twine, and a light gray border.  I used the card sketch from yesterday's challenge, so I can enter it in both contests.  Score!!!  

I made my card 3 3/4 inch by 5 inch to get the focal point balanced.  Love it.  I am finding it is fun to make cards a slightly different size.  

Papertrey Ink 7th Anniversary Day 1 Challenge

I am so excited about the PTI 7th Anniversary celebration.  I just hope I can work on all the challenges Nicole throws out to us.  This is a quick card I came up with using this color scheme and sketch from the Day 1 sketch and color play challenge.   I wanted to make a little Valentine's Day card for my sweet nephew, Andrew, to send along with his little Matchbox truck I bought for him.  I love sending him little cards and gifts, although I don't do it quite often enough.  Andrew is only three, but it is thrilling to see him interested in the same types of thing my older boys (12 and 10) like or have liked to play with.   He also loves rockets, a common love with my older son, so I thought this card and sentiment were perfect for him.  Our weather and lighting are dreary today, so I didn't get the best picture.  I think I did okay on keeping true to the sketch and color scheme.  It is hard for me to customize a sketch.  I didn't do the little flower at the edge of the bottom of the circle, but put my rocket there instead.  I focused on the colors of smoky slate, orange zest, simply chartreuse, and red.  The patterned paper is from a space related pack I bought a couple of years ago.  

Enjoy the festivities.  My goal is to make at least one card each day until Saturday using the sketches and color combos.  Wish me luck.