The Scrap Yard

September Blog Hop

2009-09-25T20:08:00.007-04:00

This month's challenge is to find a new way to use the things that we normally throw away when we get our brilliant PTI packages. I decided to utilize a few different things: the tissue paper, the box everything comes in, and the bags from the Vintage Buttons. I always keep the tissue paper but I used them differently for my project. I actually did two different projects and am now hoarding boxes, paper, and things that used to be considered "trash".

For my first project, I made some napkin holders by using my Nestabilities to cut the ring and then twisted up my tissue paper to tie it together like ribbon. I had picked up the Christmas bulbs at Michael's in the $1 section for this year's Christmas stuff. I wanted to make the napkin rings so that it could be at anyone's seat so I didn't stamp names but rather phrases from Signature Christmas (LOVE Dawn's handwritting!!!). Also, used the great stocking and flocked the top of each one. These were hard to photograph, that's for sure!

A little closer:

Even closer:

My second project is my favorite and will be such an easy gift to put together for those last-minute gifts that we all know we have to put together two days before Christmas. I used the Nestabilities Labels 1 and the great stamps to make a cover for the button bag. I also made a little card for each set and then an ornament to go inside the bag. I used my Nestabilities to cut the background square and hand-cut around the tree that I stamped from the new PTI set. I decided to get out my embroidery floss and stitch the lines on the tree and added some sweet buttons.

Here are the ones I was able to make. From this order, I now have three little Christmas gifts and I'll know what to do with those bags. I think you could fill them with candy for Halloween or Easter. You could even do a little felted heart for Valentine's Day.

One complete set:

Close up of the embroidery (So fun!):

If I left out any details or you have any questions let me know!

Have a great time at the Blog Hop...I can't wait to go check out what everyone did with their "trash". Check out Papertrey Ink and their message board for the other blogs!

New Blog Look

2009-09-07T21:35:00.002-04:00

I decided to change the look of my blog and with a little help with Photoshop, I'm pretty happy with the results. I got the header and page layout free from Shabby Blogs and then changed the header in Photoshop to make it look a bit more shabby.

I'm wondering what I can do to get more feedback and/or comments on the blog. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd like to start including posts for my other hobbies, as I'm spending a lot more time knitting and finding other crafts that I enjoy. I went to a teddy bear workshop this past weekend and as soon as I make one more addition to my bear, I'll post her. I need help on naming her too so maybe we'll do a little blog candy. Just look for a post in the next few days.

At the teddy bear workshop, I was able to meet some of the most amazing women and had such an inspiring day out in the middle of nowhere. We laughed, stitched, and stuffed bears all day Saturday. It was a brilliant day. I was even able to sell some of my cards and it made me feel good about my cards because all of the ladies were really impressed with them. Sometimes in the blog world, I get caught up with the fact that there aren't any comments but yet I see that people visit. I've decided a long time ago that I know in my heart that I enjoy my hobbies and I appreciate comments but I don't have to have them to make me feel like my work is good.

Well, off to enjoy the last couple of hours of a three day weekend and it's back to teaching Spanish to 125 high schoolers. I can't believe we've already been in school for a full month and that it's my sixth year of teaching.

Milk Made for Friends

2009-08-17T19:37:00.006-04:00

I must say that I have purchased every Timeless Template from PTI. Lauren is so very talented and I admire her creativity and just love to see what she has each month. I've particularly fallen in love with the Milk Made template. I envision a very vintage project with it also in the near future. I was able to get some awesome stamps from Crafty Secrets at CHA to add to my vintage collection and just think of when milk was delivered door-to-door.

Anyway, I made this project using the In Bloom stamp set, which just rocks! I love the saying as well and all of the flowers are great for coloring or to stamp and then just cut out the images. I used Enchanted Evening, Raspberry Fizz, and Kraft. I love the blue and the pink together...such bright colors! I had to add a little something to the lid of each milk carton so I just punched out a little border and added some Martha Stewart punch butterflies after stamping the texting backgrounds onto the butterflies. I really enjoyed making this project and it'll be such a cute gift for lotions, candies, or other great friend gifts. I put a little 1/4 inch base inside of the box to pop up the cartons just a little bit because I wanted more of the flower to be visible. Okay, I think that's enough info...I'll just post the project :)

Here's a picture of one of the milk cartons.

Here's a close-up of part of the saying that comes with the In Bloom set:

I just love the butterfly with the text background stamped on it. I had to add a little Raspberry Fizz colored rhinestone on each butterfly too.

PTI Button Challenge II

2009-08-16T13:36:00.004-04:00

Here's another card I entered for the button challenge for this Guest Star Stamper. I've been focusing on my cards this past week and realized I really missed making cards and papercrafting. I'm glad to be getting back that fire! Yea for CHA!

I also realized that my sewing machine that I won at CHA only had one bobbin with it so I went to Hancock's yesterday and hope that I bought the right size.

I really like the color combinations on today's card. I love the blue, yellow, and white look that seems to be a popular color choice in design. I guess I think especially of kitchens. I'd love a brighter blue also but the Enchanted Evening color is just wonderful too. I love the Everyday Button Bits and used the Lemon Tart buttons for the wheels. I love that these particular buttons have a really pretty sheen. I added some blue rhinestones in the center to bring it all together. I colored in the bike with Copics and added some Spica glitter on the pedals.

Here's the card.

The bike just has to have it's own picture :)

PTI Button Challenge

2009-08-15T00:20:00.007-04:00

I made some cards for this month's Guest Star Stamper contest over at Papertrey Ink. I know there were some problems with the gallery so you can still enter your work until the 16th so get busy :). Anyway, I'll go ahead and start sharing my cards here. I'll start with my favorite of the three button challenge cards. I must say that I just love seeing a rainbow of colors and when you can mix that with a rainbow of buttons and a beautiful flower, it makes me happy :).

I used the wonderful flower and patterned paper that came out last month, I believe, called In Bloom. I used my Copics to color the flower and just love how easy it is to add color to it and to cut out the image.

Remember that you can click on any picture to see the image larger.

Of course, I have to do a close-up too....usually of my favorite part. I had matching rhinestones for all of the buttons except the Ripe Avocado so I got out my Copics and colored a clear rhinestone. Worked perfectly!

Raspberry Suite Challenge #14

2009-08-12T20:50:00.004-04:00

Dawn has the coolest color challenges on her blog and after meeting her and being inspired in general at the CHA Convention, I decided to start participating in the challenge. Plus, Dawn has some of the BEST color combinations!

Here's the challenge for this week:

Before I share the card, I just have to say that the Everyday Button Bits is the coolest stamp set. I worked with it a bit for the PTI Guest Star Stamper Contest for this month so I'll start sharing those cards this weekend. Love it! Nichole is ingenious. Plus, the PTI buttons are so cool and I think I could spend an hour just going through and trying to find the perfect button.

At CHA, I was so happy to find the Fiskar's Upper Crest punch. I know Dawn has used it a lot and I've seen it on other blogs so I've been using it like crazy. I did something a little different with the sentiment because I had punched out the sentiment with the crests on the top and didn't really like it so I added some bling and added it along the bottom. I think it looks pretty neat.

Okay, onto the card :)

And a close up of the flowers with the cool PTI buttons:

CHA 2009

2009-08-03T22:21:00.004-04:00

Wow! What can I say? CHA 2009 was incredible. I went primarily because of PTI....I'm such an addict. I do love the free set and am so glad it's at home with me. Being at the conference inspired me to immediately get back into some ink and stamps. I decided to start with my free PTI set :). School is back in session this Wednesday and I needed a clock. I went to Wal Mart and bought a $3 clock and knew that I'd change it's image. I'd seen others online do it so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. It ended up being really simple...I just stamped my seven just a tad bit too much to the left lol. Guess it gives it character. Anyway, I took the clock apart and just started stamping.

I also won a prize at CHA :). My friend Claudia and I each entered a drawing for a Project Runway Limited Edition Sewing and Embroidery machine. Guess where that machine lives now?

Yep, my house!!! Claudia and I were literally jumping up and down and screaming while everyone around us were staring. We checked out at the booth we were at and ran over to the Brother machine booth. I was so excited!!! I had been saving my pennies for an embroidery machine but knew that it would be a long time before I could buy one. When I won the machine I almost cried with joy. Instead, I had a goofy grin for the rest of the day. The machine is worth more than the cost of the trip and hotel together! I can't wait to really find out what it's capable of and work embroidery into my purse business.

Here's my baby!

Blog....What's That?

2009-06-11T23:50:00.002-04:00

I have truly neglected my blog but I still check the blogs in my blog roll. I forgot how much time was involved in posting to the blog and getting everything as I want it to be. However, now that it's summer, I hope to have the extra time that I didn't have during the school year. I have specific goals for the summer, which I have to do so that the whole summer doesn't pass by and I haven't gotten anything done.

I'm really working on my sewing and getting a store open on Etsy featuring my purses. I am looking for advice though....I'm looking for a good sewing machine. I have a Singer and I like it but I want one with more bells and whistles. I am open to any and all suggestions, especially if it's something that you are already using and you are happy with it. I'm sure this is a pretty generic request and I'm not even sure that I'll get any responses, but I can hope! Thanks everyone in advance.

Another Masculine Good Luck Card

2009-04-02T08:50:00.003-04:00

Good morning everyone! It's spring break and I've been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. I spend this past Monday in Louisville with my sister-in-laws, mother-in-law, and a friend shopping at some craft stores. My favorite stop was at Sophie's Fine Yarn Store. It was incredible! I got some of the softest yarn!!! I also got some really nice cotton that will make nice apple cozies.

I just wanted to post a reminder that I still have my Cricut for sale. It comes with Mini Monograms and 5 packs of mats (10 mats total). I'm now asking $140 for all of that. Please comment or email me if you are interested. It comes with a hand-sewn cover too.

I also have a card today. It's the last card in the good luck series for my students. I go through stages where I post a lot on the blog and then I get discouraged or busy and don't post for a while.

Here's today's card:

Masculine Good Luck Card

2009-03-18T19:16:00.004-04:00

Today's card was for one of the gentleman in the Spanish play. He brought in a DVD copy of the play and it was so nice to watch them and for my other students to be able to watch them. I'm just bursting with pride still! I also had a pretty stressful day....I had to spend an hour of my 90 minute planning watching a Literacy First lesson, then I had a formal observation during my 3rd block and another observation from the Literacy First consultant during my 4th block class. I came home and took a nap :). It was a long day.

Here's today's card:

I used the Wise Owl set by PTI after figuring out that I do not have very many good masculine sets. I loved it though when I gave my students the cards. They couldn't believe that I had actually made them :). I guess they think I live in the school and don't have a life.

And more yummy yarn...today's is a chunky malabrigo called Amoroso.

Second Good Luck Card

2009-03-17T19:13:00.003-04:00

Today was another great day. We went to the Foreign Language Festival today and my students did so well. I was really proud of them. In May, we'll go to the state festival. Today's good luck card was for the other girl in the play. I used the same color schemes for both of the ladies and I'll start showing the boy's cards tomorrow.

Today's card has mostly PTI stuff :). The flower is Martha Stewart and comes in a package of 15 flowers. I love their glittery centers. I also love the Martha Stewart butterfly punches. I added a stripe of black and pink cardstock along the phrase which dresses it up a bit.

Here's some more of the yummy malabrigo yarn. This one is called "Citrus":

Good Luck Card Series

2009-03-16T21:22:00.003-04:00

I am a very proud Spanish teacher tonight! In Kentucky, there's a foreign language festival where the students can do cultural or language assessments. Tonight was cultural night. I had a group that did a play in Spanish (I am SO PROUD of them!), three projects, and two art projects. Of those, all but one art project placed and I will have the drama and two projects going to state competition. Did I mention how proud I am? Also, tomorrow will be the language/grammar assessments so another good day!

I was so proud of my drama kids that I made good luck cards last night. I don't think they can even begin to realize how proud of them I am. They have memorized a 10minute play and can act it out...all in Spanish :). I'll post a good luck card for the next four days since there are four kids in the drama.

Here's the first one:

This card uses primarily PTI stuff :).

I know the other day I said I was going to share some of my new yummy yarn....here's the first :)
Velvety Grapes Malabrigo yarn

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2009-03-14T21:19:00.004-04:00

Lauren asked us all to make a card to send to Alicia's little boy Ethan who is struggling with his battle with cancer. Just to think about this sweet little boy and his struggles puts me in tears. I'm praying for his return to health and that the cancer will leave his little body.

Here's the weekly sketch:

Onto the card...I decided to use little boy colors of blue and chocolate brown. I had this little monkey sticker in my stash from a 50% off sale at Michael's and thought that it would be help to make a boy card. The stars are American Crafts and I Stickled them to add some glitter. I hope this puts a smile on Ethan's face. If you want to send him or his family a card, please let me or Lauren know and we'll get you their address.

I'll post my new yarn in the next day or two. I ordered Malabrigo and now I'm spoiled. It's just lovely! I've already made two coffee cup cozies for the craft festival in May.

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see which sketch they chose and how they interpreted it:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge--A Day Late Again

2009-03-08T19:18:00.004-04:00

I'm feeling much better today compared to Friday. I was really down and out. I slept on and off all day Friday and most of yesterday but it has really helped me to feel better faster. In the meantime, I've been productive on a baby cardigan for one of my friends who is about to have a baby boy. I even have a picture this time and will post it! It's not my best project but it's also one of my largest projects so far. I've just been knitting since last March but I love it!

I also have my sketch card one day late again :). I promise to not always be such a slacker! I didn't think I'd even make a card this weekend but the sketch was too irresistible!

Here's the sketch:

My card for the sketch:

The rub-on in the corner is one that I bought when we actually had a scrapbook store. It's from Melissa Frances...I covet the package but it was perfect for this card. The black brads, circular Nestabilities cuts, and black rub-on really jump out of the card. The glitter is by Palette and PTI is carrying it...lovely. It's so sparkley. I got more of the "Bride" flowers from Michael's and they match very well with the Lavender Moon ribbon. I also attached some American Crafts flowers to the Bride flowers for some pop. Wow, I just realized that the only stamping was done with the glue ink pad and those stamps are from the Beyond Basic Borders set...just lovely set!

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see which sketch they chose and how they interpreted it:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

Sick

2009-03-06T18:24:00.002-05:00

I probably won't be able to post my sketch card tomorrow. I got the flu last night and feel miserable. I will really try for next week because I know I didn't post last week either. Have a great weekend. I'm going to get very familiar with our couch and my Seinfeld DVDs (my DH bought me the set for Christmas).

Friends 'Til the End Cards

2009-02-23T18:39:00.003-05:00

Hey all! I got some great mail today...yarn! I'm making little baby cardigans for a couple of friends that are having babies soon but I have to work quickly!

Card-wise, I have two more cards that use the "Friends 'til the End" PTI stamp set, which I love! I didn't make either card as a friend card but rather a sympathy card and a birthday card. The sympathy card is already in the envelope and just needs dropped at the post office. They have completely different color schemes as well, but of course, PTI papers :).

The first card is a sympathy card for my husband's aunt who lost a very close friend. The sympathy sayings combined with the Friends 'til the End set made a very appropriate card. I hate having to send sympathy cards but I'm glad to be able to. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and lattice punch. I also ran strips of pearls along the butterfly's body.

The other card is a cheery birthday card. I grabbed a piece of Lavender Moon, used Versamark, and then embossed the whole sheet with white embossing powder. I had forgotten how much I love to emboss! The punch is from Martha Stewart and I just punched both sides so the ribbon would go down the center. I saw something like that on Jen Caputo's blog...very cool!

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge--A Day Late

2009-02-22T17:21:00.001-05:00

Today's card uses one of Lauren's past sketches. It was fun to look back over all of her sketches and choose one for today's challenge. I'm a day late but did get my card finished so wanted to post it!

Here's the sketch that I chose to use:

Here's my new interpretation of the sketch:

I used the new PTI set: Friends 'til the End and I love it! I love it so much that I made two more cards with it last night. The flowers are just very realistic and fun to color with Copics. I used colors YR61 and YR65 for the petals and E59 for the inner parts. I aso used the new Melon Berry cardstock and Polka Dot patterned papers. I found a new punch at Michael's that snaps closed so that it takes up less space. There are so many that I want to get. Yea for 40% off coupons :).

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see which sketch they chose and how they interpreted it:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

Wishing You Well

2009-02-18T21:26:00.004-05:00

Another quick post tonight...I had to work a basketball game and didn't get home until nine and now have to plan for tomorrow's classes. Ah, the day in the life of a teacher :). I love teaching though, so it's worth it!

Tonight's card was part of a gift for one of my husband's great-aunts who is moving to Rhode Island to be near to her daughter. They threw a going-away party since she's moving from Ohio to Rhode Island. She has always enjoyed sewing, quilting, and knitting so I knew that I would use the Quilter's Sampler stamps by PTI.

On another note, I just would like to thank you all for commenting on my blog. I think we all like to get feedback and see the thoughts of crafters and other visitors. I'm trying to be more diligent in leaving comments on other people's blogs because I know how I feel when I see a new comment on my blog. Happy blogging everyone!

Here's the card:

Another Love Card

2009-02-12T22:14:00.003-05:00

Good evening all! Well, the PTI release is just in a couple of sleeps and I'm very excited. I seem to not use anything but PTI anymore even though I have lots of other supplies. Today's card uses primarily PTI products again :). I did use another of my big felt hearts. I did want to mention that I saw these in Michael's again this year if you are interested in finding them in the store. They'll probably go on sale soon also. Back to the card, I also used little heart stickers by KI Memories and the letter L is a glittery letter by Making Memories. The buttons are from stash and the flower is American Crafts. The rest is PTI.

Be Mine Valentine

2009-02-10T19:22:00.002-05:00

Good evening everyone! PTI has another neat contest going on today. They are going to have a new hand-written stamp set with contributions from the design team. You have to guess the handwriting of three of them. I thought it was a pretty tough task :).

On another note, we are to get wind gusts of 50-60 miles an hour tomorrow so I am just crossing my fingers that we keep power. The newscast is already warning to make sure to have a food stock and be prepared to possibly lose power. Normally, this wouldn't be as big of a deal but after the ice storm and the fact that there are still people without power (2 weeks later), this may hinder the clean-up work. I'm just hoping for the best tomorrow.

Well, anyway, on to the card. I actually made this card before making the card for yesterday's challenge on Nichole's blog. I have noticed that since I reorganized my craft room that I'm more efficient, which is good. I have a seven drawer Steralite container in the closet that has 12 X 12 drawers. I just pull out my PTI scraps drawer and I'm ready to go. Not only does it allow me to use up scraps but I can also easily compare colors side by side instead of grabbing a full sheet of paper.

Supplies:
All PTI cardstock
Nestabilities
Rhinestones by Me & My Big Ideas from Michael's
PTI Heart Prints stamp set
Fresh Snow ink
PTI True Black ribbon

Friends 'Til the End Challenge

2009-02-09T22:47:00.003-05:00

Nichole's challenges on PTI are so much fun! I've really enjoyed having the motivation to create something each evening. I can't stay long as I need to prepare for tomorrow's lessons.

I just love the True Black patterned paper and the combination of the Raspberry Fizz and Pure Poppy. I've made two cards tonight using those combinations but I will only share the challenge card tonight.

Supplies: Almost all PTI!
Only thing not PTI is the little rhinestone and the button (Of course, I'll be able to get PTI buttons in a matter of a week :) Woohoo!!!)
Heidi Swapp heart

A Full Work Week

2009-02-08T21:06:00.005-05:00

It'll be nice to be able to get in a full week of work and hopefully get back to the normalcy that we had three weeks ago. The ice storm is just a memory and now we have the windows open and it's in the mid-60s, even at nine in the evening. There are lots of people around town using their chainsaws and tractors to cut and move limbs. This is one of those few times where I am happy to not own a home. When we get a home, I'd love to live in the country where you can only see trees and nature rather than houses all around. There are still some people, two weeks later, who live in the country and still do not have power due to the ice storm.

Anyway, enough of my general rambling...time for a card that I think is just adorable. The adorable factor is totally due to the panda sticker that I found in a pack at Michael's during a 50% sticker sale. They really do have some good stickers, you just have to look though everything.

The rest of the supplies are all from PTI. The stickers, however, are Thickers by American Crafts. Man, I miss having a scrapbook store in town. That's where I could find everything in one place and now, I'd have to drive at least an hour for a scrapbook store. Michael's doesn't count, although they are mingling in some name brand stuff every now and then.

Here are a couple of ice storm pictures too.

The barn across the street that I love.

My car antennae...I decided to label my car "The Ice Beast" and just let the sun and warmer temperatures take care of the ice. We did hammer our Impala out of the ice so we could have a car to drive.

PTI Bitty Dots Card Sketch Challenge

2009-02-07T16:02:00.005-05:00

Another day, another wonderful surprise and challenge at the PTI website. I'm getting so giddy with excitement and it's still a week before the official release! I really enjoyed the sketch challenge and it was so much fun that Nichole did a dot-to-dot to complete in order to know what the sketch is. I used Ocean Tides, Raspberry Fizz, and True Black. I didn't have black rhinestones so I colored them with my Copic markers. It worked really well! Enjoy and make sure you go over to Nichole's blog to participate in the challenge and see all of their yummy releases. I know I am thrilled that there will be polka dot patterned paper and itty bitty polka dot ribbon :). Ahhh....I see a huge PTI box in my near future.

Also, be sure to scroll down to my other post for today. It's the sketch for Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Supplies:
PTI Simply Stationary stamp set, although I have yet to use it to make stationary :)
PTI cardstock
Martha Stewart Lattice Work border punch
PTI Real Black satin ribbon
Buttons from stash
Rhinestones from Michaels
PTI patterned paper

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2009-02-07T15:47:00.003-05:00

The challenge this week was so fun and I was able to use one of the Sarah Kay images that I had colored a few weeks back. I am loving purple right now!

Here's the sketch:

And the card:

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

PTI Color Challenge

2009-02-07T00:17:00.002-05:00

I need to go to bed but wanted to quickly post my card for the PTI color challenge over on Nichole's blog. Today's contest is for lots of yummy PTI cardstock. You can never have enough of it!

I put this together and really liked the ribbon strips idea but then nothing else seemed to come together. I guess it's okay, it does use the four colors for the challenge: Summer Sunset, Pure Poppy, Ocean Tide, and Ripe Avocado.

Supplies:
PTI cardstock
Nestabilities
Simply Stationary PTI stamp set
Random buttons from stash
Twine is from Wal-Mart beading section
Thank you is from Making Memories
Stickles

PTI Bag Challenge

2009-02-05T23:07:00.005-05:00

PTI is celebrating their two year anniversary with a lot of cool prizes and give-aways as well as tons of surprises. I was at B & N tonight until eight o'clock knitting and didn't realize what I was missing on the PTI site and Nichole's blog. Anyway, she has a cool challenge to redecorate, alter, or repurpose some sort of bag. I had bought these pouches on clearance at B & N knowing that I wanted to do something with them. I made this in about 15 minutes so please be kind :).

Supplies:
Pink pouch that is very raspberry fizz :)
Raspberry Fizz patterned paper
PTI kraft paper
Heart Prints stamp set for heart
Button from stash
Elastic cording from Wal-Mart in beading section
Martha Stewart fancy punch
Recollections glittery brads

Yet Another Day Off Work

2009-02-03T15:43:00.003-05:00

No school today either! We've already received the call that there will be no school tomorrow as well and that there will be a one hour delay Thursday but we will return that day. This has been a real winter storm. We also got some snow this morning and hopefully that'll taper off tomorrow. It's beautiful though and I have fun outside in the weather but I did fall on the ice earlier when I went to brush the snow off my car. At least no one saw me...of course, I'm posting it here so lots of people will know.

Card-wise, I'm convinced that if I keep posting spring-like cards, it'll come faster. Anyone know if that works? :)

Here's another Rachelle Ann Miller card. I LOVE these stamps. Of course, I only have a couple but that'll change sometime....I guess I better sell some more purses.

Supplies:
PTI cardstock
American Crafts flowers
Rhinestones from Michael's (I think Darice brand)
My Mind's Eye patterned paper
Bride flowers cut to look like leaves
PTI Berry Sorbet ribbon
Copic markers (of course)

25 Things about Me

2009-02-03T12:59:00.002-05:00

Well, I posted this over on my Facebook account but am going to include it here too for anyone who knows me but isn't on Facebook.

For those of you waiting for a new card, I'll post one later this evening. I just mailed out two cards today and forgot to photograph them. I realized as I was putting them into envelopes that I didn't take pictures...oh well!

I've been tagged to list 25 things about me. I don't usually like to fill these out but I've really enjoyed reading about everyone else so I guess I'll contribute.

1. This is my fifth year teaching and I've had four jobs within those five years: 5th grade, high school Spanish, two years in elementary Spanish, and now back to high school Spanish.

2. I love to travel, especially to Spanish-speaking countries. I've been to Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Mallorca, Costa Rica, and many U.S. states.

3. I love anything craft-related and will not hesitate to try a new craft. Right now, I love to knit with card-making coming in a close second.

4. I want to make a quilt this year.

5. I would love to be able to quit my job and be a full-time crafter. I have a dream of opening a yarn store along with a craft consignment kind of store.

6. I hate going to the dentist. I've had a tooth implant, a dozen cavities because my first dentist didn't do the right x-rays, a root canal, and braces.

7. I'm living in Kentucky but still consider Ohio my home. I miss my family a lot and wish I could find a job there.

8. I have my Master's in Spanish from the University of Louisville.

9. I own a small business and can often be found sewing purses. It's called Plaid Leaf Purses and I have my own website and everything.

10. I miss being around my college friends and how much easier it was in college.

11. I've had several jobs: telesurveyer, babysitter, library assistant, before and after school worker for YMCA, and a teacher.

12. I live in Elizabethtown where the movie Elizabethtown was filmed.

13. When I lived in Spain, they were filming the movie Carmen at the Plaza de España.

14. I never liked my high school and went to a community college during my last two years of college and took Spanish with the best teacher: Señora Wilder.

15. I still miss my Grandpa Brown every day and it's been more than a decade since he passed away.

16. I'm part of a knitting group that meets at a local Barnes & Noble every Thursday night.

17. My best friend all the way through high school was a guy who I miss sometimes and wish I could find a way to contact him.

18. I am left-handed and will never forget my 3rd grade teacher making all of the left-handed students go up to the board so we could show everyone how we slanted our writing and erased our writing as we wrote.

19. I have two cats: Storm and Zoe. They crack me up and I love them like children. Don't worry...I can't be a crazy cat lady I'm already married.

20. We just survivied the worst ice storm I've ever seen. We had to leave E-town for four days before our power came back on.

21. I am completely and totally obsessed with the Twilight series.

22. I traveled to Washington D.C. twice during my sophomore year in high school: I won both trips!

23. I love NCIS!

24. I've always been a very shy person but am breaking out of that shell more and more.

25. Every time I hear the song "Lean on Me" I remember dancing and singing around the car freshman year of college with Crystal, Jane, and Jim after returning from Wal-Mart (I think that's who was there). We also sang it at karaoke at my cousin's graduation party before I went off to Spain.

Happy Monday

2009-02-02T10:12:00.007-05:00

We made it home! What a relief. We got a call from our landlady that our electric came back on Friday so we came back Saturday. It's so nice to have electric, heat, and water again. However, there are many people...think 20,000 or more in my county that do not yet have power. I'm still not back at work because at least four schools in our county are without power. It's been quite an adventure. I do have a few cards saved up from before and have made several more cards that just need to be photographed and Photoshopped :). I have to finish some purses today so I'll be a sewing workhorse.

Here's a card for you:

Close up of ribbon...I think I could swim in ribbon :)

Everything here is from PTI...of course :). I wish I wouldn't have used the Stickles...I'm very perfectionistic and it didn't come out perfectly.

Supplies:
PTI cardstock
PTI Pure Poppy ribbon
PTI Heart Prints stamp set
PTI Fresh Snow ink
Swiss Dots embossing folder for white cardstock
X-Mas Red Stickles
Martha Stewart heart border punch....LOVE this!
Nestabilities circles and scallop circles using my new Wizard...it's such a great embosser!

Quick Update

2009-01-29T18:43:00.002-05:00

EDITED to add: The local newspaper says that power will be restored for most people by next Tuesday or Wednesday. We are planning on going back tomorrow and the weekend is supposed to be warm. However, Monday and Tuesday may bring snow showers. Not sure when I'll go back to work :)

Just a note to say that my dear husband and I are staying with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. We decided that since we didn't have electric, heat, or water that we didn't want to stay home so we left mid-afternoon Wednesday. It's also going to be up to 7 days before there is electric. The water is back but has to be boiled. I won't have my sketch card done this weekend...imagine that! We are hoping to be able to come back home Saturday sometime but it really just depends.

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-27T18:57:00.004-05:00

Well, we are in the midst of a winter wonderland. We got a couple of inches of snow last night but it's all covered by a couple of inches of ice. I'm sure it would have been very funny to see me on video trying to get to my car and then realizing that it was a lost cause. At least I was able to get into the car, with some gentle prying...would you call hitting the car with all of my force with an ice scraper "gentle prying"?

The worst part is that last night and today was just the first round. The ice is supposed to continue all night into the morning and then we are supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow. I love winter!

Here is my favorite picture of the icicles.

I love this tree too in the corner section of the apartment.

I'll share a card tomorrow as long as we have electric. I'm trying to get caught up on purse orders too.

I Really {heart} Stampavie

2009-01-26T19:10:00.005-05:00

Good evening all! Anyone else in for a bunch of wonderful winter weather? Like how I made that sound like a good thing? :) We have heard anything from an inch of ice to a foot of snow. I don't think anyone knows. As my freshman were on their way out the door of class today, one of them said, "See you Friday Profe!" The sad part is, he may be correct.

So, for the sake of pretending it's not cold, here's a cute Stampavie card. I LOVE their stuff! I want to order all of their stamps except that the bank account is a bit dusty with the pennies that are left in it.

Today's card is not really a card and it's not really what I intended. Shall I explain? Well, I wanted to use the Bazzill scallop cardstock so I grabbed it out of my newly organized container. I got out my lovely Scor-Pal (love this thing!) and scored where I had calculated the mid-point. Okay, someone must have blindfolded me because it wasn't the half-way point. Next step, two options: 1)create something else or 2) throw the pretty scallop papers back in the scraps and use it later. I used option one. I decided that it'd be great for a CD of sweet music for my DH for Valentine's Day...now to do the technological part and make the CD :). Anyway, I just made another score mark and now it had a label edge for the information. Influenced by the cool edges by PTI I labeled it as volume 1, number 1 and used my Stickles to make little hearts. I got to color with my Copics again, which is always so wonderful! It's very relaxing and so much fun.

Wow, I'm long-winded today. So for anyone who read through all of this, here's the card!

A close up of the CD edge:

Supplies:
Bazzill scallop cardstock
PTI white cardstock
Stampavie stamp
Copic markers
American Crafts flowers
Random brads, probably Making Memories glitterfied ones
Stickles
PTI ribbon
PTI stamp set: Simple Alphabet
Basic Grey: Urban Prairie cardstock

I {heart} Stampavie

2009-01-25T13:23:00.003-05:00

For Christmas, my DH bought some Stampavie stamps for me. They are all so sweet. I have been using both the Rachelle Ann Miller stamps and the Sarah Kay stamps. I love to color them with my Copics. I'm still trying to find the perfect blend for the skin, so if anyone has any suggestions, please pass them on! Today's card is called "Be Mine" and the two characters are just so sweet! Of course, I used PTI supplies too. They are just so versatile. I have 4 big containers of 12 X 12 paper but keep finding myself drawn to my PTI cardstock and patterned paper...that and Urban Prairie by Basic Grey :).

Here's my card:

Supplies:
Nestabilities die (One of the first made with the Spellbinder's Wizard.)
PTI patterned paper and cardstock
PTI ribbon
PTI stamps ("Be Mine" and the little hearts)
Buttons from stash
Purple rhinestones from Martha Stewart

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2009-01-24T10:08:00.005-05:00

Happy Saturday everyone! The weekends are so welcoming. I'm looking forward to sewing, knitting, reading, and crafting in general. What are all of you doing this weekend?

Here's my card:

Here's a close up of the buttons with rhinestones and Stickles:

I used the new True Black cardstock from PTI and it's incredible! I combined it with some of the patterned paper, some Prima flowers, buttons, and a sweet saying, also from a PTI stamp set. I put Cotton Candy Stickles in the center of each flower on the patterned paper. I think this is the girliest card I've made in a while. At first, it was really hard to get it to come together but I think it ended up working.

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2009-01-17T11:44:00.004-05:00

EDIT: A lot of people have commented on the felt heart. I found those at Michael's last year after Valentine's on clearance. I think they were in a pack of six and they have ribbons at the top to be ornaments but I just cut the ribbon off. They may still be there this year! I haven't looked.

Here's my card for today. I have lots of Valentine's stuff and it's that time of year so I can use up some of my stash. Also, make sure you check out Lauren's blog. She's started to do some video tutorials and they are great! It's going to be a cold weekend so maybe I can hole away in my craft room the whole time. We have a long weekend too so that's always good.

Here's the sketch:

And my card:

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2009-01-10T16:52:00.003-05:00

I just have to say...I love Basic Grey's Urban Prairie. I have been hoarding it since I bought it but decided it'd look prettier if I did something with it :).

The sketch:

My interpretation:

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

Busy day

2009-01-10T11:36:00.001-05:00

I have my card for Lauren's sketch challenge but I've got to run a bunch of errands before I can take a picture of and post the card. I'll be back later!

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2009-01-03T13:31:00.007-05:00

It's the first sketch challenge of the year! I'm going to relax weekend before going back to work on Monday. I've really enjoyed the break but suppose I am ready to get back to work. My students have finals and then the schedule will change Thursday. That'll probably mess up everyone. Oh well, what can you do?

The sketch:
My card:

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Kendra: http://apigonfire.blogspot.com/

Happy New Year Sales

2009-01-01T09:18:00.005-05:00

I'm still crafting but can't find the motivation to post my projects on my blog. It's been a busy time, as I've been working on some gifts for Christmas over the past couple of months. I feel like I can breathe again :). I'm sure many of you understand the feeling. Anyway, I've also had a chance to go through my craft room since my DH got some organization carts for my craft room. I have some things for sale. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Cricut machine (the original bug) with Mini Monograms and 5 packs of mats (10 mats total) for $175
*I'm keeping the George cartridge which is why Mini Monograms is included
Hanna Stamps: Spring Time set (http://www.hannastamps.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=69_91&products_id=457) black ink stains on 3 images the others haven't been used and it doesn't affect how they stamp)$10
Cornish Heritage Farms Cutie Pet-Tootie stamp set (http://www.cornishheritagefarms.com/product_info.php/cPath/376_395/products_id/7332) (never used) $6
SOLD: Inkadinkado whimsical birds (http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=pc1369&channelid=) it's the 3rd set on the right(never used) $6
SOLD My Favorite Things: Punny Farm (http://www.mftstamps.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=7&products_id=162) (used only once or twice, very slight staining) $10
SOLD My Favorite Things: Eggstra Special Easter (http://www.mftstamps.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=7&products_id=188)
(very slight staining) $10
Both of the My Favorite Sets for: $15

We can determine shipping later that way it can be more accurate.

York Peppermint Patty Containers

2008-11-10T21:22:00.003-05:00

These are the peppermint patty containers that I made for the craft fair. Since not all of them sold, I put the rest up on my Etsy site. It's www.kristyscraps.etsy.com, if anyone is interested.

Here are my pictures:

I used mostly PTI to decorate the jars. I did find the most adorable miniature bells at Michael's though that I had to tie to the ribbon that goes around the containers. I did two different color schemes; the traditional red and green and then brown and blue.

Winter Frames

2008-11-04T21:29:00.009-05:00

I made frames last year using these frames that I found. Boy do I wish I could find more because they are perfect! I am actually going to start an Esty shop which I've been thinking about doing for a while but didn't really have enough stuff to post at the same time. Well, since I didn't sell out at the craft fair, I figured this would be the perfect time. That said, I have an Etsy shop :). I feel so special hehehe. I'm also trying to make some Christmas gifts, including hand-knit scarf, hats, and neck warmers along with wool felt table runners with hand-sewn pictures, stocking stuffers for family members, and a few other gifts. I can't be too specific because I don't want to give anything away. I'm going to post some of the frames that I had displayed at the craft fair. They are all on sale in my Etsy shop. There are also close up shots of all of the mini-frames on Etsy too. My store is called KristyScraps and the link is here.
Fall Frame

Holiday Wishes Frame

Merry and Bright Frame

Warm Winter Wishes

Grateful Frame

I'm Still Alive!

2008-10-31T22:22:00.003-04:00

Wow! I feel like I've neglected by blog in a way but in another way it has been nice to have a break from it. I was getting caught up in blogworld and not taking the time to enjoy all of my hobbies. I have been getting prepared for a craft fair that is tomorrow but I just wanted to post a few things quickly. First of all, thanks to those of you who left a response in my last post. I appreciate your kind words. I won't be back home until Sunday night because of the craft fair that's at the school where my brother-in-law is principal. We are spending the weekend with them. Secondly, if I have a chance to photograph my craft fair booth and items, I will share the pictures here. I think that catches me up!

Update

2008-10-01T17:47:00.003-04:00

I just am not having time to make cards or projects right now. I'm staying pretty busy with work and other projects, not to mention trying to stay caught up with purse orders. I have also been a bit discouraged lately with my work so I don't feel very enthused or motivated.

Anyway, I'm knitting a lot lately so I'm working on some fall decorations and some Christmas gifts. That's taking a lot of my time also. I have also found a new hobby that I want to try. If it works out, I'll post it on here.

Thanks to everyone who comes and checks out my site. I will continue with Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge, but there probably won't be much else than that for a bit while I try to figure things out. I may start posting all of my crafty stuff though...I am still being crafty :).

Thanksgiving Frame

2008-09-15T18:03:00.002-04:00

Another PTI release has come and gone. I enjoyed making my projects since I know exactly what I want to use them for. All of the projects looked so nice. I placed my order last night at 12:08 a.m. and am so excited to get my stuff.

My project today is for Thanksgiving. I had this frame that I found at the Everything's a Dollar Store. It comes with three different colored frames but I liked the olive green against the black so I traded out the little frames. I found some coordinating buttons from my stash and used the First Fruits set. I love the pineapple and I just popped up the greenery. It looks nice on the entertainment stand.

Close up

Side view (my favorite view)

Supplies:
Dollar store frame
PTI First Fruits
PTI cardstock
PTI Perfect Match ink
Rhonna Farrer buttons
Twine from Wal-mart beading section

GSS Submission: Spooky Treats Vials and Containers

2008-09-14T19:54:00.007-04:00

Here's one of the GSS submissions that I entered for this month. I made two other projects that you can see over in the gallery at PTI and I'll also post them for the next couple of days. I had a specific purpose for every project I made for this month and I felt like it was easier to create a project when I already knew what I wanted to make. The first project is for a girl's night that I'll host in October. I get together each month with a group of gal pals. The past two years we played Bunco but now that our group is smaller, we just get together and play a game. I wanted to create some centerpieces that could hold some candy treats for my guests. Of course, I had to use Spooky Treats and Spooky Treats II. I actually used both of the stamp sets for this project.

First, I got out the wooden containers and painted them with black Making Memories paint. I created an insert that would hold the vials upright. I measured the height and width of the paper then used my Scor-Pal for my lines. I put the corks on the top to determine where to cut the circles. I used Shrinky Dinks for the first time and LOVE them! I just want to play with these all the time now and my friends can't believe I didn't play with Shrinky Dinks growing up (I'm an '80s child.)

I coordinated each container because I'm a perfectionist :). I also put my Essential Glue Pad to use to stamp the saying on the front. I stamped onto the paper with the glue pad and then covered it with Martha Stewart Onyx glitter. It's amazing how well the glue pad works.

I used the circular labels from Spooky Secrets I to attach to the top of the cork and tied the Shrinky Dinks around the vials with a bit of ribbon.

Here are the pictures of my project. Just bear with me because there are a lot of pictures:

Spring Moss and Summer Sunset tops of the vials:

Close ups of the front with the glitter:

The Shrinky Dinks (Not just for kids!):

Supplies:
Wooden boxes from Michael's
PTI cardstock
PTI ribbon in Aqua Mist and Summer Sunset
PTI Perfect Match Palette Ink
PTI Spooky Sweets and Spooky Sweets II stamp sets
Shrinky Dinks
Black ribbon from stash
Bazzill black paper
Nestabilities
Essential Glue pad
Martha Stewart Onyx glitter
Vials are from Martha Stewart but I bought them last year in Halloween clearance section

On another subject, my DH and I went to the hospital yesterday to see our new nephew. He's just adorable and he's such a good baby. I can't wait to see him again. My sister-in-law had a C-Section so she's in a bit of pain but she said it's so worth it. My brother-in-law is just so happy he can't stop smiling, actually both of them are so very happy. It's also the first baby in the family so it's extra special. We love them so much and they are going to be such great parents.

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2008-09-13T08:40:00.001-04:00

Good Saturday morning! My husband and I are headed to Lexington to see our little nephew. I'm an aunt for the first time. He was born Friday morning at 9:21 and we are so excited to be go see him.

Today is also Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge. The sketch for this week was challenging for me but I was able to come up with something tonight. I used PTI products, of course! I haven't used kraft paper as the base in a while so I got that out and then used the Remember stamp set. I love the poppies and the 2-step stamping turns out so well. I added some sparkles with Spica atYou glitter markers. I love combining buttons with brads or other things so I put the prongs of the brads through some green buttons. I think it's my favorite part of the card. For the flower part of the sketch, I stamped a poppy onto vellum and then cut it out and popped it up.

Without further ado, here's the sketch! It's so fun to participate and it gets you to work outside of your comfort zone sometimes. It really sparks my creativity.

Here's my interpretation of the sketch.

Close up of the vellum flower

Supplies:
PTI cardstock
PTI Remember stamp set
PTI ribbon
Brads from Joann Fabrics
Spica atYou marker in black
Rhonna Farrer buttons
velvet brads

Join in the fun! Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2008-09-05T23:11:00.010-04:00

It's that time of the week again and honestly it's about all I have time for right now. With the school year in full swing, I'm staying really busy and since it's a new job, I am planning, grading, and doing more than ever. Oh well, I enjoy teaching and my job so it's worth it. I just wish I had more time for being crafty.

I was able to get Photoshop Elements 6.0 with a great teacher discount at Best Buy last weekend and I'm still trying to figure out how in the world it works so I don't know that my pictures will be the best. I got the "Missing Manual for Photoshop 6.0" so we'll see if that helps. If anyone has any suggestions or places online that I go for tips, please let me know. Thanks!

The sketch for this week is:

I used the new PTI set, First Fruits, which is great! Coordinating patterned paper is available too and it's just beautiful. I overlapped the Chocolate Brown and Summer Sunset. I love how PTI coordinated their monthly colors but all of the colors can be worked together to make a beautiful combination. On a different note, I tried the rocking method for the first time with the chocolate brown and spring moss. I'm not sure that it turned out the best or that I even did it the right way but I'll learn. I used my Essential Glue pad for the leaves on the background to glitterfy them with some Martha Stewart glitter. Then, I stamped the individual leaves throughout. When I was making this, I wished that I had smaller versions of these things. I think that's about it!

A close up of the glittery leaves:

Join in the fun! Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2008-08-29T17:54:00.010-04:00

I LOVED this sketch! I am also feeling so ready for the fall, Halloween, yummy apples, and falling leaves. I had to use the Spooky Sweets stamp set by PTI. Of course, I thought I'd use the new set but I also bought the old set at the same time and I ended up using the first set. I love them both and can't wait to play with the second set.

My card today has lots of glitter, slime, and Halloweeny things....what a great mix :). I pulled at the edges of the ribbon to give it a spookier less put together look. I used the Essential Glue pad for the first time and it is definitely essential! I got the Essential Glue pad from Papertrey Ink. It's $10 and you get a blank pad which you apply the glue to. Once it's applied, there are a certain number of uses for which it will be good for. I used it for the spider and the bat and it turned out great. I used Martha Stewart glitter glue for the name plate because I wasn't sure about the smooth surface. I popped up the green stem to make it stand out. I think it turned out well.

Some close ups of the glitter:

Supplies:
PTI white and Summer Sunset cardstock
PTI Spooky Sweets stamp set
PTI Summer Sunset ribbon
Heidi Swapp black brads and name plate
Martha Stewart slime punch
Martha Stewart glitter
Essential Glue (which really is essential; I love this and it turns out perfect every time)

Join in the fun! Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

August Blog Hop

2008-08-25T20:21:00.008-04:00

First of all, this post is late tonight because we've had a plumber here working for the past two hours. We had three problems so the landlord arranged for this plumber to come and fix everything. I was frantic trying to get my project done because I had it visualized in my head but I had to put it to work. I hope I can still post my blog and participate :)

It's time for another Blog Hop with Papertrey Ink! This month's challenge was to use a CD case. I have always had people who said that they can't make cards; it's just too hard or they don't have time so I decided to make it easier. I created a card-making kit. I also decided to make the three cards so that you can see what it will create. I included all of the ribbons, stamped images, shapes, card bases; the only thing someone will need is adhesive. I think that it turned out pretty well.
All of the cards and the kit

The outside of the kit

Inside of the kit

Individual cards

Supplies:
All PTI :), if you want more specifics, let me know

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2008-08-23T00:09:00.007-04:00

It's that time of the week again! Another great sketch challenge. I just had a blast with this sketch and I hadn't been able to craft all week so I made three cards. They are all three very different and have different degrees of difficulty. The first card is my rocker chick card, which my husband called "funky" but I don't think he meant it in a good way :). I used the Love, Elsie line which I forgot how much I love, especially those rubber stickers. The second card has the most work in it as far as coloring and placement goes. The third was a quick card and I just love the owl's green sparkly belly!

Here's the sketch for this week. It's so great and it's easy to get great cards out of such a great sketch!

Here are my interpretations of the sketch:

Supplies:
Love, Elsie rub-ons and rubber sticker
KI Memories wave paper
Around the Block heart brad
PTI white cardstock
Bazzill cardstock
Me & My Big Ideas rhinestones
Maya Road opaque flower

Close up of the pop up fence

Supplies:
PTI Boards and Beams stamp set
Copic markers
PTI cardstock in Spring Moss and the white
Nestabilities
PTI chocolate brown ribbon
Round corner punch

A close up of his glittery belly:

Supplies:
PTI Wise Owl stamp set
Spica AtYou glitter markers
Heidi Swapp brad
Bazzill brad that has the two holes
PTI chocolate brown ribbon with coordinating patterned paper
Stampin' Up word window punch
PTI brown and cream cardstock

Join in the fun! Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2008-08-16T09:33:00.005-04:00

Wow! Another great sketch. I did find it more challenging this week because of school being back in the swing of things. I love working at my new job but it's just constant planning for the next day, especially since we are on the block schedule and I have kids for an hour and a half at a time. At first, it was really hard to gauge how much to have and what kinds of activities to do. I think I'm getting better.

Anyway, onto the sketch challenge. Here is this week's sketch:

I made two cards again; one that is simple and one that is not so much. I'm not sure about the card that isn't so simple. I feel like I am missing something or did something that didn't make the overall card turn out like I wanted it to. I do love the little butterflies that are all over the card. The Martha Stewart punches are great! Which card do you like better?

Close up of the itty bitty butterfly. I put four of them on the card and then the larger one on the stamped flower.

Supplies:
Basic Grey patterned paper
PTI cardstock and vellum
Nestabilities
PTI Garden of Life stamp set
Buttons
Stickles
Martha Stewart punch

Supplies:
Rhonna Farrer rub-on
Martha Stewart punch
PTI cardstock
Nestabilities

Join in the fun! The sketch is awesome. Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

So Bummed

2008-08-13T17:59:00.001-04:00

I'm so bummed that I haven't had a chance to play with the new Papertrey Ink stamps. I don't think I'll have even one project to submit for the monthly GSS submissions. My DH said, "That's what happens when you go back to work!". Isn't that the truth? Maybe I can still squeeze one out tonight...probably not though considering my huge stack of papers to grade lol. Okay, just had to whine a little.

Blog Award

2008-08-11T19:50:00.002-04:00

Thanks to One Creative Life for the blog award. I appreciate it very much especially at such a busy time of the year with school starting up again. It makes me remember to take some time to create and not stress so much about work.

Here are the rules of the nomination and award acceptance: 1) The winner can post the logo on her blog 2) Link the person you received your award from. 3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (I chose eight :)) 4) Put links of those blogs on yours. 5) Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.

I'm going to nominate all of the ladies that I work with on Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge. It's only been a couple of weeks but I find myself so excited when I get the sketch from Lauren in my inbox and then I can't wait to see what everyone else has created! Check out their work if you have a chance.

Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2008-08-08T23:23:00.007-04:00

It's time for another Saturday Sketch Challenge and this one is awesome! Thanks Lauren. I got so excited that I made two cards. The first card is pretty busy so I wanted to make a simpler, softer card too.

Here's the sketch:

It's such a fun idea to have five embellishments right in a row. Of course, this is a busier collection but it could be simpler, like in my next card.
I just love putting things inside of buttons. For the blue button, I put a green button and red rhinestone inside. It just looks snazzy to me!

Supplies:
American Crafts pattern paper
Rub-ons, big brad from Creative Imaginations
PTI cardstock
Heidi Swapp ghost heart
Diamond Stickles
Random buttons and other embellishments, sorry I don't remember which brand

Just a close up.

Supplies:
American Crafts patterned paper
Random buttons
PTI cardstock and vellum
PTI Flower Garden stamp set
Making Memories glitter bracket
PTI ribbon

Join in the fun! The sketch is awesome. Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

School's In

2008-08-06T21:00:00.002-04:00

I may be a bit scarce for the next couple of weeks. I'm a high school Spanish teacher at a different school this year so I am doing a tremendous amount of planning and preparing. I will definitely get Lauren's sketch done for Saturday, it's a great one! I also need to make a gift for my sister-in-law's shower. I hope to be back soon.

Same Bella on Three Cards

2008-08-03T19:45:00.004-04:00

After I got my new set of Copic markers, I decided to pull out my Bellas since they are my favorite thing to color right now. There are some new stamps that I want but my monthly craft money goes to PTI (which I love!). Anyway, I decided to take the same Bella image, color it in three different color schemes, and create three different types of cards.

I used my precious Copic markers for coloring with the Spica atYou glitter markers on a few things. I used lots of PTI cardstock, BoBunny patterned paper, and KI Memories patterned paper. I used buttons, hearts, PTI stamps and ribbon, brads, and other random embellishments. Too many to list but if you have any questions, please let me know! I love comments!

I love you Bella

Happy birthday Bella

Love Bella

Lauren's Saturday Sketch Challenge

2008-08-02T00:05:00.005-04:00

Lauren Meader asked for volunteers last Saturday for her weekly Saturday Sketch Challenge. Of course, I volunteered and when Lauren e-mailed me to make sure I still wanted to participate, I jumped at the chance! I'm so excited to see what all of the other gals have created that are part of the Saturday Sketch Challenge have made.

I have a new page element along the side with links to all of the other ladies. Make sure you go check out their great work too! Thanks Lauren for asking me to be part of the Saturday Sketch.

Here's the sketch that we were asked to use for this week.

This the card that I put together from the sketch:

Close up of yummy cupcakes:

Supplies:
Bazzill cardstock
PTI cardstock in white, Chocolate Brown, and Sweet Blush
Cotton Candy Stickles
Cupcake flannel fabric (I found it at Hancock Fabric's)
PTI chocolate brown satin ribbon
Me & My Big Ideas rhinestones
PTI It's a Celebration
Long rectangles and small squares Nestabilities

Thanks for looking and you can go look at the other ladies' blogs too to see what they did with the sketch:
Lauren Meader: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Tamara Harder: http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine: http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton: http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque: www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper: http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
Alicia Weimen: http://www.happystamp.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler: http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Bitten By the Bug Submission

2008-07-31T16:01:00.003-04:00

I made this card for the Bitten by the Bug contest. I think the contest ends on August 3rd, so you still have time to go check it out! For the challenge, we had to find inspiration from a magazine picture. I used the colors and then created a sketch from the picture, which really did end up being inspirational. I used black, kraft, and spring moss as my main colors and who couldn't use a little pink, especially since the ad is for bras. I zigzag stitched on the card and used the three lines of kraft along the bottom because it reminded me of the fence in the card. If I knew how to create a sketch, I would put my sketch in here but you may be able to see it just from the card. Sorry, I'm not more savvy.

Supplies:
Bazzill black cardstock (PTI, I need black cardstock :)) and scalloped paper
PTI Spring Moss cardstock and ribbon
PTI kraft paper
PTI Simple Things stamp set for saying
Heidi Swapp pink brads
Happily Ever After cartridge--tree with pink flowers
Nestabilities square

"Just Because" Says Bella

2008-07-26T23:24:00.004-04:00

I made this card using Lauren's sketch. It's such a fun sketch and you can go check it out here: Lauren's blog. I've been going to Lauren's blog every single day from Taylor's blog but I go there so often I've got to add her to my blog roll.

Anyway, aren't you all surprised? I really do own things that aren't PTI.

I know that's all that I've been using lately but I just got my new Copic markers so I have a big stack of stamped Bella images to color because they are just so much fun to color. I actually got the inspiration for these colors from the funky patterned paper on the card. This paper is from KI Memories and I bought it at Target a while back. I also used: Bazzill cardstock, PTI white cardstock, Palette ink, Copic markers (a few hints of the Spica Atyou glitter markers too), Me & My Big Ideas rhinestones, and the Bookworm Bella stamp.

Here's the card!

Up close of Bookworm Bella

The buttons that I used are stacked on top of each other. I couldn't decide which color to use, so I used pink, blue, and green since all of those colors are in the funky shimmery paper.

Thanks for looking!

PTI Blog Hop

2008-07-25T17:37:00.010-04:00

Just bear with me....it's summertime and I have a bit more free time than normal. Onle a week left though and it's back to work. Well, tonight is the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop! Yippee! Make sure you come chat it up with everyone at the forum: Blog Hop Chat. Tonight's challenge was to use vellum. I got addicted to the vellum and couldn't stop making projects. I even made a gift set for my sister-in-law who was so very helpful today in my new classroom. Thanks for checking out my projects and for commenting!

I love, love, love the Floral Frenzy stamp set. I stamped the two sizes of flowers and then added buttons to the centers. I wanted ribbon in the buttons but it wouldn't fit so I cut long-ways down the twill ribbon. I love how it turned out so whispy like some flowers in real life. The background is vellum and so is the butterfly which is Stickled around the edges. I attached a Making Memories (MM) metal tag with a MM fuzzy brad over the saddle stitch Lemon Tart ribbon.

Just a close up of the ribbon, button, and butterfly.

I used the Floral Frenzy set and just LOVE these flowers. They stamp so beautifully on the vellum and I love how the chocolate brown centers stand out. I used the chocolate brown polka dot ribbon. I decided that this card needed some glitter. I ran the Nestability through the Cuttlebug and then put a square of the nesting size on the scalloped square. I went over the scallop with Martha Stewart glue and then sprinkled Martha Stewart amythest glitter over the Lavender Moon cardstock. It sparkles so nice :).

Close up of the glittered frame around the flowers.

Just loving the flowers from Flower Garden. I put dots of Crystal Effect in the center of each flower and used a Making Memories metal tag.

I made this gift set for my sister-in-law who volunteered to help me organize my new classroom that was a disaster. I made the card, bookmark, and stamped on the tissue paper. The bookmark uses the lovely vellum.

I made this bookmark for my sister-in-law for helping me out. I stamped the same three quilt squares and then colored them in with coordinating Copic markers. I used the three colors of ribbon and then put the spool over top because it looked like it was missing something. I finished it up with a saying.

Close up of tissue paper with stamped spool (I stamped the image with Sweet Blush on the pink tissue paper so it's very subtle.)

Business Card Holder

2008-07-23T11:41:00.003-04:00

I've recently started offering Plaid Parties for my purse business. My first party went very well and every person in attendance bought a purse and then the hostess called that night for two more orders. I was thrilled! Of course, I just finished sewing them all up this morning but had delivered the majority of them on Monday. I wanted a container to hold my business cards in so I went to my drawer of "Things to Alter" and found an Altoid tin. It was the perfect size so it got transformed. This was also an entry into the PTI GSS submissions for this month. I used the Piece of Cake and Simple Alphabet stamp sets. I also put some black Stickles in the centers of the flowers. I chose pink, white, and black because those are my signature business colors.

Embrace Happiness

2008-07-19T13:16:00.003-04:00

Summer is winding down and it's about time to start really thinking about the next school year. I will be in a new position teaching high school Spanish again (I taught a year of high school Spanish three years ago.) and I'm ready to take on this challenge. There will be a lot of things that I miss about the elementary school but there will be so many more things that I won't miss.

The card for today is entitled "Embrace Happiness". I just love that phrase and the Sweet Blush and Spring Moss together are so soft against the white cardstock. This was an entry I made for the GSS stamp sets released before 2008 submission. I decided to create a scalloped border with the largest solid polka dot in the Polka Dot Basics set. In the center I used three stamp sets within the scalloped circle: Mixed Messages for the phrase, the scalloped circle from Boxes, Bags, and Tags, and the bird circle from Wedding Day. The papers are all PTI.On the inside of the card, I added two strips of the Sweet Blush cardstock.

Life Card

2008-07-16T08:51:00.003-04:00

Good morning everyone! This is an entry I created for PTI's GSS submission and it was chosen as an honorable mention on Nichole's blog. My little birdie card was also honorable mention, just scroll down a couple of posts to see it. What a great feeling to have two honorable mentions. For this card, I wanted to keep it simple so I used the branch from Out on a Limb. I added extra pieces to the branch by masking off the parts of the branch that I didn't want to use. I highlighted the Summer Sunrise color, which looks so good with white and the Burnt Umber. I added a few mini butterflies from Butterfly Kisses and Stickled them with Lemon. I took a square of the picture and popped it up with a Nestabilitie. I also used a phrase from Out on a Limb.

Thanks for looking!

Butterfly Garden

2008-07-15T12:32:00.004-04:00

This is another project I made for this month's GSS submissions.

I used all PTI products. I had received a photo cube as a gift a long time ago and just put it in my "Things to Alter" drawer. I looked at it and immediately thought about how neat it'd be to make a butterfly garden out of it. I used PTI's Beautiful Blooms, Butterfly Kisses, Mixed Messages, and Out on a Limb. I used the last two sets just for the sayings. I cut out all of the flowers and some are popped up with dimensionals. I cut out some smaller butterflies and decorated them with Stickles before affixing them to the walls. I used the big butterfly in the center which is on a spring. I hid the bottom of the spring under a flower so it wasn't so noticeable. I embossed the butterfly in the center too. I finished the project by covering the outsides with Sweet Blush cardstock and tied it all with a Berry Sorbet ribbon.

Boards and Beams Entry

2008-07-14T16:19:00.005-04:00

I love all of the releases made by PTI and Boards and Beams is no exception. The house is so much fun to color. I used my Copics and was inspired by a purple house that I saw when I was visiting my family in Marietta, Ohio. It was the coolest house and even had lime green accents. It could be very ugly but it was the opposite: awesome!

I am always roaming around in the Dollar Store where everything's a dollar and I especially love the frame aisle. It's such an easy way to create a unique gift. I found these really cool black frames with a nice thick mat. It also had a black frame on the inside but I took that out so that my picture would fit. I colored in the house with my Copics, added the saying, and then put a line of PTI twill ribbon along the bottom. I added Heidi Swapp brads on the ends since they match the Copic color "Putty" perfectly.

Thanks for looking! Make sure you go over to PTI tonight since it's their release night. There's always a fun conversation going on at the forums.

Close up of the house

A few of my favorite parts

PTI GSS Submission

2008-07-13T21:44:00.006-04:00

Wow, it's so nice for it to be the summer and I actually have time to make multiple projects for the GSS Submission. I could finish out the month with just entries for the month. I am going to start with the entries I made for the Birds of a Feather section. I just love all of the little birds and there are so many possibilities with them. Ummm...yeah, everything is PTI unless otherwise noted. Come on, you all know me by now :). I used my Nestabilities too.

A Little Birdie Told Me

Special Note: I think that making the word "birdie" a different color adds a little something.

Just Hatched

Close ups

It was hard to get the ribbon through the button but it was so worth it!

Hello Friend

Inside of the Card

Peek

I wanted to be able to peek inside the card so I used my Nestabilities to cut through the card, used the circle that was cut out, and affixed this to the inside of the card for a perfect fit.

Thanks for looking and check back each day for more entries!

Blog Candy Winner!

2008-07-07T19:02:00.002-04:00

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

60

Timestamp: 2008-07-07 23:02:13 UTC

I counted several times to make sure that I have the right person and that person is....Kathy H who loves Walt Disney World and Mall of America!

Please send an email to let me know which $15 set you would like as well as which color of cardstock.

Thanks to everyone who played along! It was fun to read where everyone likes to vacation.

Don't Forget...

2008-07-07T09:13:00.001-04:00

today is the last day to enter for blog candy. I will choose a winner at 7:00 p.m. randomly. Good luck to everyone!

10,000 Hits!!!

2008-06-27T09:46:00.005-04:00

I've passed 10,000 hits and that can only mean blog candy!

Just post a comment with your favorite vacation spot and you'll be entered in the drawing. Please be fair and just make one comment.

I am going on vacation this Saturday and won't be back until July 5th so I will choose a winner on July 7th.

What does the winner get? Well, since I so enjoy PTI stamps, I'm going to offer that to the winner too. The winner can choose a $15 stamp set, a perfect match cardstock (12 sheets), and I will also include the coordinating 6 X 6 patterned paper.

June PTI Blog Hop

2008-06-25T10:01:00.006-04:00

It's time for another Blog Hop with Papertrey Ink! This month's challenge is to use acetate in the project. This was a very fun challenge and I found three different ways to use acetate in my projects. They are not new techniques but they do turn out nicely. The three ways I used acetate were: stamped on already formed acetate (i.e. the letters), emboss the acetate with my Cuttlebug, and make the card base out of acetate.

I'm just going to put all three of my cards in the same post. Have a great time hopping from blog to blog to see how everyone used acetate. You can also go on the PTI forum to chat it up with a bunch of great people: http://forum.papertreyink.com/forum/

These are also the first pictures I have taken using my new photo light tent kit
(That's a mouthful!). I need to work on making sure the cards don't look crooked. I love the kit though!

Supplies:
PTI Honeybee Stamp Set
PTI Lavender Moon and White cardstock
Palette Inks: Berry Sorbet, Lemon Tart, Lavender Moon, Spring Moss, Noir Black
Lemon Stickles
Transparency sheet
Rhinestones by Me & My Big Ideas

Supplies:
PTI Bitty Baby Blessings Stamp Set
PTI cardstock: white, Lavender Moon, Lemon Tart, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush
Copic markers
Heidi Swapp acetate letters
Cotton Candy Stickles
Martha Stewart Punch

Supplies:
PTI Wedding Day Stamp Set
PTI cardstock: Lavender Moon and white
PTI Lavender Moon ribbon
Nestabilities
Rhinestones by Me & My Big Ideas
Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots embossing folder
Transparency sheet

I Got Tagged!

2008-06-20T16:04:00.003-04:00

Julia at Create with Me (http://createwithjulia.blogspot.com/) tagged me after we'd found each other's blogs through Papertrey Ink. So much good comes from PTI.

Okay, now for the random facts about me.

1. I can't get puns and phrases right when I say them. It's as if my brain is working faster than my mouth.

2. When I first learned to knit, I was twisting all of my stitches and then even when I thought I was doing it right, I was moving my needle in the wrong way.

3. I love to speak Spanish and travel to Spanish-speaking countries. I've lived in Spain and Costa Rica.

4. When the school year starts in August, I will have been at 4 different schools in 5 years as a teacher.

5. Not really about me, but our cat Zoe loves to lick and suck on ears and our other cat Storm loves to lick deodorant, Listerine, toothpaste.

6. I talk in my sleep, a lot.

7. I don't know what it means to do too much: I work full time, make purses as a small business full time, I'm trying to get a job at the local community college as a part time Spanish instructor, I volunteer to do a lot. I love being busy though.

Okay, well I'm supposed to tag 7 people but I'm going to let anyone that wants to answer to go ahead. Please let me know if you tagged yourself so I can read about you too.

Sophistocated Baby Food Jars

2008-06-17T20:48:00.005-04:00

These are not just regular baby food jars, these baby food jars are now sophisticated after being dressed up with PTI products. This was my favorite project of the four that I entered into the GSS Contest. If you want to see all of the winners and honorable mentions, go to Nichole's blog: http://nicholeheady.typepad.com/capture_the_moment/2008/06/june-honorable.html. I am proud to receive an honorable mention for the set of three toiletry canisters for my sister-in-law. There is a lot of great work over there.

Here are the tops of the lids. I just love the itty bitty images and coloring them with the Copics was wonderful. I especially love the purple elephant.

Here are a couple of close ups of one of the jars of baby food. I realized that I could get really anal and coordinate the food color with the PTI supplies. I thought it was so neat to be able to do that. Thank you Gerber!

Supplies:
baby food jars
PTI cardstock
PTI Bitty Baby Blessings patterned paper
PTI Bitty Baby Blessings
Me & My Big Ideas rhinestones
Palette Ink
Copic markers
PTI ribbon

Diaper Raffle

2008-06-15T16:21:00.003-04:00

I was at my dentist a month or so ago, sitting back in my chair, listening intently to the dental hygenist go on about a baby shower she went to when she mentioned the idea of a diaper raffle. Each person who came to the shower contributed $1 for a raffle ticket and got their name in a drawing for a door prize. She was telling me about the website where I could buy the raffle tickets but I knew I could make my own :).

Here's the finished product!
I made the diaper on the front of the pail with the largest Nestability circle. I made 30 raffle tickets and colored all of the ducks with my Copic markers.

Close up of the diaper:

Supplies:
random pail that just happens to be Lemon Tart
Bitty Baby Blessings and Simple Alphabet stamp sets
White and Lemon Tart cardstock
Copic markers
yellow Spica AtYou glitter pens for duck's bill

Bottle-Fed Advice

2008-06-14T21:34:00.005-04:00

I wanted to use the Bitty Baby Blessings to decorate this project for the baby shower. I know that giving words of advice is very popular at wedding and baby showers so I wanted to create something unique. I decided to buy some bottles and decorate the bottles so the guests could give the mom "bottle-fed advice". I wanted to make covers that would come off easily and these do; they just slide off and stay in-tact. It was a bit difficult to hold everything in place but in the end, I really like how it turned out.

Close up of front of the bottle decoration (I LOVE the sailboat!):

Just so you can see the cover off of the bottle:

Everything is PTI :)
patterned paper
Summer Sunrise, Spring Moss, Lemon Tart
ribbons
white cardstock
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder
Nestabilities
Simple Alphabet stamp set
Bitty Baby Blessings stamp set

BTW, the graduation party was really great! We had such a nice time hanging out. The girls spent the afternoon crafting: my sister-in-laws were working on a blue jean quilt, my mother-in-law was working on a rag rug, and I was knitting an afghan. The guys were playing euchre. Then, we went to the Japanese steakhouse for dinner which was yummy. We came home and played Apples to Apples. Then, my day was made because I realized the party for PTI is tonight! I was thinking it was tomorrow because tomorrow is the 15th but it was such a great surprise to know that it is tonight. Such a great ending to the day.

PTI GSS Submission

2008-06-13T23:56:00.002-04:00

Well, most of my craziness has calmed down and summer is here. I have had such a great day, just creating things. Everything I made today is for my sister-in-law's baby shower. Some are gifts and others are for games to be played. I still need to make the invitations, a picture frame gift, and a few other things I can't think of right now.

I'll share one of my projects here tonight and then I need to get to bed. My husband's family is coming over tomorrow for a graduation party for me so I have to get up early in the morning and cut up veggies and fruit for the trays. Why didn't I just buy them premade.... :)

The project I'll share tonight is a gift. I got cotton balls, Q-Tips, and baby washcloths. I found these great glass containers at Michael's. I put every single one of those Q-Tips into the jar too! My fingers were sore after that. I used Bitty Baby Blessings, which I love! Everything was Papertrey Ink, of course. I used their new kraft paper, mixed with Aqua Mist since the baby's room is going to be pale blue and chocolate brown. I thought this would coordinate. I chose the duck, baby onesie, and the boat. I also used my beloved tools: ScorPal, Copic markers, and Nestabilities. These are my staple items.

I'll share some more close-ups tomorrow. I'm sleepy...

Life Has Been Crazy!

2008-06-07T11:41:00.002-04:00

I'm sure everyone can say that their life is crazy but I've never had so much going on at the same time. Here's my list of craziness:

1. I just accepted a new job with a local high school
2. FedEx lost my photo light tent kit and I've talked to a dozen representatives in probably a dozen states (I'm supposed to meet the driver on Tuesday and he's going to give me the money for the lost package)
3. I found out Thursday night that there is an additional person that we don't know on our auto insurance and we are trying to figure out if the company has our records messed up or if it's a case of identity theft
4. When I went out to the mailbox yesterday, there was a vacant form in the box. Our neighbor moved out so I suppose it was put in the wrong box. I went to the post office and sure enough, our mail was there.
5. I have my first Plaid Party today and I have seven more covers to finish within the next hour and a half.
6. I've been meeting with my knitting group and I've been really into knitting lately. I just bought 18 skeins of yarn to make an afghan, my first big project.
7. We just finished up our school year yesterday.
8. Just the other regular stuff.

Needless to say, life has been slightly busy :). I hope to get some projects put together for the next PTI Guest Star Stamper Contest.

Blog Hop Entry

2008-05-28T19:25:00.002-04:00

Well, I haven't had time to make a new card for the blog hop but I do have a Scor-Pal and love it. I am going to re-post a card I made before and I think that the use of the Scor-Pal was good. I made a frame around the center items and then made holes in the front so that I could run ribbon through the holes.

Thanks for looking! This is a short post but I'm super busy with a lot of other things going on around here. I'm supposed to be getting a light tent soon. Thanks Niki Estes for the suggestion! The FedEx website says that it's been on a truck for delivery since last Friday....hmmmm. Strange.

Supplies:
All PTI stuff

Father's Day Card

2008-05-21T21:39:00.004-04:00

Well, I wasn't going to post this until after Father's Day but I realized my dad and my FIL don't look at my blog so it's okay!

I have ordered a light tent and am so excited. I bought it for my purse business but am also going to use it for my cards and paper products.

I need to get started on some purses because I'm going to start having Plaid Parties. They are similar to Stampin' Up parties where the hostess can earn benefits for merchandise sold at their party. Oh, and I just got a really cool design for some new business cards. I ordered my design from nbcreative on etsy.com. If you haven't been to etsy yet, you should check it out. Everything sold there is handmade and I could literally spend all day just surfing around. It really inspires and encourages me to expand my own purse business.

I've been busy with a knitting project. I've been meeting with a great group of ladies at the local B & N where we sit and knit on Thursday nights. I'm getting ready to start my second big project. I just am about finished with a drop knit scarf. I will post pictures when I have the last stitches bound off.

This past weekend I went to Nashville with my Bunco friends. We rode on the General Jackson, saw the Peking Acrobats on ship which was cool!, got my first pedicure, played at Dave & Busters, and watched Made of Honor (cute). On Sunday we ate at the Aquarium restaurant which is such a cool experience. It feels like you are eating underwater.

Okay, now onto the card. I submitted this card for the PTI GSS contest but did not win with this card. I still really like the vibrant colors. I'm really looking forward to next month's GSS because my SIL is pregnant and I'm going to make a goodie basket for her. (cover your eyes April :)).

This card uses only Papertrey Ink supplies. Race over to the site because their products rock :).

Close up...I just love close ups:

Hoppy Birthday

2008-05-15T20:01:00.005-04:00

Edited to add: This ensemble was highlighted as an honorable mention on Nichole's blog. I feel so honored and the other projects are great. Go check them out here: Capture the Moment.

This is another entry I had for this month's PTI submissions. Today's project was a gift bag set for a boy's birthday. The project was supposed to be a boy's birthday card...there's where I went wrong :). However, once I thought of stamping on the tissue paper my mind was on a gift bag. I did make a little card though. I just got out a kraft bag and put the front decoration on. I stamped the frog from Pond Life stamp set all over the place...on the tissue paper, on the card, and on the front of the bag. I used the Spring Moss ribbon, ink, and paper along with the white cardstock. I had some Me & My Big Ideas rhinestones that coordinated very well with the colors.

Close up of tissue paper

Kraft bag

Little card

Mother's Day Shadow Boxes

2008-05-14T17:40:00.004-04:00

Here are the shadowboxes that I made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. I think that she liked them. I used all PTI products, which is now my staple product even though I have a ton of other great stuff that I need to start using! I highlighted Garden of Life and just love these flowers! Alli and her designs rock! I used Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, and Summer Sunrise. I used Lemon Tart on all of the shadowboxes. I have been meaning to find a way to reuse the acrylic cases that the stamps arrive in from PTI. I looked at them and immediately thought of home decor and the shadowboxes seemed to fit. I put a band around the case and stamped the polka dots with Polka Dot Basics in Lemon Tart. I used my lovely Nestabilities that I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have them. All of the products are PTI so I won't include a supply list.

Close-ups of each box...which one do you like best?

It's Been Too Long

2008-05-12T20:19:00.004-04:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted a card or any project. I am going to post a few peeks of the Guest Star Stamper entry that I've submitted this month. I'll post all of the pictures once the entries are shown on the Papertrey Ink site.

Knitting

2008-04-26T21:30:00.001-04:00

I am getting back into knitting after making a scarf and then not taking it any farther. I've seen so many cool patterns and there are so many things that I want to make that I am back into it. A few other ladies and myself have started to meet at the local Barnes & Noble...Starbucks, chattering, and knitting is a great combination. If anyone that reads this lives in or near Elizabethtown and wants to come to the knitting group, please let me know. We are trying to grow our group. We will be meeting this coming Thursday for some more fun.

April Blog Hop

2008-04-25T17:00:00.008-04:00

Well, tonight is the night for the Blog Hop and I hope everyone is ready for a lot of fun. Paper Trey Ink has been one of my new loves when it comes to stamping and card making products. The Blog Hop is a fantastic way to share inspiration with other crafters. Go check out the Blog Hop and chat it up with everyone tonight on the Paper Trey Ink forums: www.papertreyink.com and just click on the forum & gallery link at the top of the page. If you like my projects, you can also vote on the forum starting at 8 tonight.

I couldn't stop once I got started with the small squares. I would have made more but it got to be too late last night. I'm so excited about how many possibilities there are with these squares.

Here are my projects:
Fatherly Tree

PTI circles
PTI white cardstock
acrylic sheet
brown felt
Frosted Lace Stickles
Father stamp is from PTI Mixed Messages stamps
Palette Ink Burnt Umber
Blocked pattern

Supplies:
PTI squares
Liquid Applique
PTI Paper Tray stamp set
PTI white cardstock
Happy Life
Palette Ink Burnt Umber

MIA

2008-04-19T22:40:00.003-04:00

Sorry I haven't been around for the past few days. I've actually been working hard on getting up to date with some purse orders. I also went to a knitting group on Thursday night. That was a blast but I have so far to go! I basically relearned how to cast on with the help with two of the ladies that are in the group. I am hoping to make a card or two tomorrow but I'm still working on the purses and I really need to finalize my thesis project. I have already turned in my thesis but I have to be ready for my 10 minute presentation for Tuesday evening. I hope it all goes well. I will be walking on air to my car when it's over.

Note Card Set

2008-04-15T20:27:00.006-04:00

Well, I didn't win the GSS contest. I was terribly bummed out this morning but I'm getting over it...I'm going to share with you the second project that I made for the contest. This one is for Mother's Day but shhhh....don't tell my mom or MIL. First of all, the clear containers are from Easter. My DH bought chocolate eggs for his students, they came in these containers, and I snatched them up...convincing him that I could do something with them. Recycling is good, huh? I also used my brand new square Nestabilities which I have fallen in love with. I now have the whole set of squares and the whole set of circles. I bought both of them at www.ucutathome.com because you get a 40% monthly coupon so I treat myself each month to a new set of Nestabilities. Anyway, the rest of the set is somewhat self-explanatory but I would like to do a tutorial sometime soon. Maybe for the next release if I can afford to make a purchase. I made 12 stickers (two sets of 6) to go with the set and tied Berry Sorbet twill around each set of 6 stickers. I used a notepad that was already sitting on the desk and just revamped it to match the rest of the kit. I had bought the little wooden containers at Michael's for 50 cents...yeah, I totally have about 20 of them :). I decorated a pen, made 6 mini-cards to put inside the decorated container, and used my Scor-Pal to make levels for the different parts of the kit. There are going to be quite a few pictures so please bear with me.

On the college front, I took my exam tonight and I think I aced it. It started at 4:30 and I was out of there at 5:03. It was cake. Just to turn in a paper tomorrow and present my thesis next Tuesday.

Stickers

Decorated Pen

Notepad

Wooden Box

6 Mini Cards

Supplies:
wooden container
PTI cardstock
Palette ink pads
PTI patterned paper
Scor-Pal
Acrylic box
PTI ribbons
PTI Bags, Boxes & Tags stamp set, Wedding Day set, Papertray set
Nestabilities

PTI GSS Submission

2008-04-14T17:45:00.004-04:00

How about them acronyms? :) I actually entered two projects into the Paper Trey Ink Guest Star Stamper contest for the month. Last month, I entered a card but I realized that I wanted to do something bigger and better. With Mother's Day and a Wedding not too far off, I decided to focus on those projects. The first project I made was a wedding gift set. I had bought $ frames from the Dollar Tree and then I painted each of the individual frames white. Then, I used Wedding Day by Alli Miles. I chose three different stamps: the butterfly, the square image, and the swirl fern image. I used my new wonderful square Nestabilities and made three pictures using the Wedding Day set. I popped up the center image all together. You can really see the detail of what's behind of each popped up image. You can see what I did by looking at the card because I used the same images. I did add Spring Moss and the fern. Hope you like them! I will share the note set tomorrow.

Close up of the card, I like how the ribbon turned out:

Supplies:
All supplies are PTI unless otherwise noted...
square Nestabilities
Palette Ink in Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss, and Aqua Mist
Frame from The Dollar Tree
White acrylic paint

Personal Ramblings

2008-04-13T21:28:00.002-04:00

No card or project for today but I have a couple of things that I'm excited to share. However, they are for the PTI Guest Star Stamper submission and I don't want to share them until they are all released in the gallery over on the PTI forum. I'm just going to share a few personal things and then call it a night. This weekend, I've finished my 25 page thesis and an eight page paper for another class. I had turned in another ten page paper last Tuesday so I have a huge sense of accomplishment right now. I do have a final exam on Tuesday in my linguistics class, but I am in no way concerned about it. The professor gave us the exact questions and it's just a matter of reviewing the materials. My final project will be presented on April 22nd and I do need to get my Powerpoint and eight minute talk ready along with a handout. Since the paper is already done, I will just have to pick an interesting aspect. I feel like these past two and a half years have crawled by, but now it seems like it went quickly. I am thrilled that my Master's degree is almost finished and I can start to really focus on some other things.

Okay, enough rambling for today...I promise to share the big project I've been working on either Tuesday or Wednesday. I may also try to make a card to post for tomorrow as well. I am so excited to start creating even more than I already am. Also, I'm going to my first knitting group on Thursday and am excited about that as well.

Tagged by Choice

2008-04-10T19:25:00.003-04:00

Niki Estes was tagged and offered for anyone to be tagged. Since I have never been tagged before, I figured I would play. I'm not saying I'm terribly interested and that my seven random facts are interesting but you can learn more about me.

1. I will finish my Master's degree in Spanish on April 22nd with a final presentation of my thesis at University of Louisville, where I've been attending for two and a half years.
2. I'm from Ohio and all of my family lives there. I live the farthest away of even the extended family and 90% of me wants to move back there.
3. I teach Spanish at the elementary level to students in K-6 although I taught high school for a year and 5th grade for a year. This is my third school within four years.
4. I have lived in Costa Rica (summer of 2007) and Spain (Aug. 2002-Dec.2002) and loved living abroad, especially in Spain.
5. I love most any type of craft...I enjoy cardmaking, scrapbooking, cross stitching, knitting, crocheting, altering, beading, sewing, quilting, punchneedling, I will try most anything.
6. Oh, it gets tough toward the end...The best vacation I have ever been on was when I was still an undergrad in college. My mom, dad, brother, and I traveled to New Mexico to visit my great aunt and uncle. We went through almost twenty states, visited Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse in progress, Pike's Peak, White Desert in New Mexico, and just saw a lot of scenery and states.
7. I have my own business called Plaid Leaf Purses. I am self-taught and was given the business. I want to start having Plaid Parties...sort of like Stampin-Up or Tupperware parties except with purses.

Happy Birthday!

2008-04-10T19:12:00.002-04:00

Well, it's no one's birthday but I have a card ready for the next one. I just love PTI...I know...I'm a broken record. I don't have much to say tonight as I want to work on a project that's taking a lot of my time. I'll just share the card and not ramble!

Supplies:
PTI white cardstock
PTI Sweet Blush paper, ribbon, and ink
PTI It's a Celebration and Simple Alphabet stamp sets
Palette Noir ink
Diamond Stickles

Light, Tunnel, Life

2008-04-09T19:53:00.002-04:00

Okay, you say, what in the world are you thinking with your title? I am thinking the original title was way too long so I condensed it. It really just has to do with a major achievement that is coming up soon. I will present the thesis for my Master's degree in Spanish on April 22nd. I just finished revising my final paper after my mentoring professor reviewed it. I have to make a few more minor changes as far as citations go and then it will be turned in next Tuesday, a week early. I just have to finish a small paper and then get my presentation ready. That's it! I know I talk about it all the time but in a few weeks...I won't be :). Woohoo.

This is the last card that I have photographed and actually I think the last one that I've made in a few days. I'm working on a larger project right now when I have time. I'll have to work on some cards too. I really want to post them on the PTI gallery so I can have all PTI stuff at one place. I'll have to work on that in a few weeks.

Supplies:
PTI cardstock
PTI patterned paper
PTI Boxes, Bags, and Tags and Favor It Weddings
PTI Berry Sorbet ribbon
Me & My Big Ideas rhinestones
Palette inks
Scor-it for Sweet Blush paper

Simple and Fresh

2008-04-07T18:18:00.003-04:00

I just love PTI and according to the forums, the anniversary sets are on their way! I am so thrilled and can't wait to get my set! You can actually go take a sneak peek on the message boards but I'm going to wait and let it be a surprise...then I can join all of the other excited PTI addicts!

Today's card is a very simple birthday card that I wasn't even sure I wanted to post.
It's just not like anything I have really made and the colors are not true. My favorite part is using all four of the colors on the "Happy Birthday". I just kept masking it off and inked up all of the letters at the same time then just moved down the line of letters.

Once my Master's is done, I want to take a photography class more than anything and get Adobe Photoshop. Too bad my DH doesn't check my blog, this could be the perfect hint as to a graduation gift :). Oh well, I can save my pennies.

Here's the card:

Supplies:
All PTI...cardstock, It's a Celebration and Simple Alphabet stamp sets, Palette ink

Back to Work

2008-04-06T20:08:00.003-04:00

Spring break is officially over! School starts back tomorrow but I'm okay with it because it means just 9 more weeks of school and it also means that there are just 3 more weeks until my Master's is completely done! It is actually close to being over and I feel like this is so doable. I have about 3 more pages to write for one paper, and then to just get my presentation ready for my thesis. I know I have had zero creativity so I'm hoping that will kick back in too.

Here's a card for today. I made this last weekend, I think.

Supplies:
PTI cardstock--white and Sweet Blush
Palette Ink in Sweet Blush that I ran over the embossing
Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots folder
Melissa Frances heart and ribbon
Martha Stewart white velvet ribbon
Cotton Candy Stickles
Martha Stewart glue and glitter for the butterfly
Heidi Swapp ghost butterfly
Button from stash...probably Rhonna Farrer
Heidi Swapp chipboard alphabet letters
Rub on...I can't remember where it came from

Birthday Bliss

2008-04-03T21:50:00.002-04:00

I am so enjoying spring break but I don't seem to have any creative juices flowing at all. The bad thing is that I actually have a good amount of time but I can't come up with anything. I've thrown away three projects becuase I just wasn't happy with them. Maybe something will come to me this weekend before we go back to work. I haven't been home today since I was in Cincinnati giving a presentation. It went pretty well and I'm just glad it's over.

Here's hoping for a few days of creativeness. Maybe it's because I know I have three purses to make...maybe if I were to get that done then I could focus on some other projects.

Supplies:
PTI cardstock
PTI Birthday Basics stamp set
PTI Wedding stamp set
PTI Sweet Blush satin ribbon
Making Memories velvet brad
Maya Road flowers
Palette ink

PTI

2008-04-02T19:29:00.003-04:00

Well, I was gone for a day or two more than I meant to be. I am on spring break from work and I'm trying to take it easy. It's so nice not to have a specific schedule and go into work. After our spring break, we have nine weeks of school left. Speaking of school, my Master's classes are almost over! With just three more classes total and the presentation night, it's really almost over. I so look forward to just driving home and not worrying about reading X amount of chapters, answering X amount of questions, and worrying about writing final papers of 10 or more pages. Did I mention that I was excited? :)

Well, my card today is using my awesome PTI stuff. I'm bummed about this month's releases though, which won't even be coming out until the 15th but I haven't made enough purse sales to have spending money on the new stuff. {Big sigh} I have been spoiled and have had money in my account to spend it on my personal stamping stuff but it looks like this month's stash will have to wait. Oh well, the anniversary sets are supposed to coming out soon and because I bought 12 sets last year, I should receive that before too long.

Here's the card today! I'm still trying to work on photographing. This card is more true-color but it's a bit dark. I'm working on it.

Supplies:
PTI everything :)...ribbon, cardstock, stamps, Palette ink bought from PTI
the rhinestone is Me & My Big Ideas

Breathing a Sigh of Relief

2008-03-31T20:55:00.002-04:00

Well, I never thought I would be done but I finished my thesis this evening. I have a 25 page paper to turn into my mentor professor who will then review it and I will probably have some corrections to make but there's nothing like having that behind me. I just have about 3 and a half or so pages left on one more paper for the semester and an exam in my linguistics class before I can call it done! My final presentation of my thesis is on April 22nd but I feel so much better now that I have those 25 pages done.

I feel like I haven't been able to look at all of my regular blogs in a few days nor have I had a chance to post. I truly have been keeping my nose to the grindstone. Now, I have to prepare for a conference this Thursday where I am a workshop presenter...what did I get myself into?

Anyway, I should be able to post a card tomorrow. I have to photograph the three that are done and I want to do it in good lighting...not the dark.

Thanks all who stop by even if I haven't added a card in the past couple of days.

Just a Little Something

2008-03-29T18:55:00.002-04:00

I actually have a post that is not using PTI products. I really do have a lot of different products from a variety of companies but since PTI is my favorite, I tend to just work with it and ignore my other supplies at times. Today's card highlights the Cotton Scraps available through Crafty Secrets. I really love this company and their completely vintage feel with their products. I went a bit button crazy on this card but I love how they look. My green button container is now depleted though! I also used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder which is awesome.

Supplies:
Rhonna Farrer buttons
Bazzill cardstock
Crafty Secrets Cotton Scrap
Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder
Crafty Secrets medium bird stamp set for saying
PTI white cardstock for stamping on the saying
giant ric rac from Joann Fabrics

Thanks!

2008-03-27T18:52:00.003-04:00

First of all, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that commented and visited my blog for the Blog Hop hosted by Papertrey Ink. It was such a blast to participate, visit everyone's blogs, and work on a great challenge. I am looking forward to next month's challenge too.

The card for today uses PTI stuff again...it's hard for me not to use it because it just comes together.

Supplies:
PTI white cardstock
PTI Aqua Mist cardstock
Palette ink in Aqua Mist and Waterlily Green
PTI Aqua Mist grossgrain ribbon
PTI Polka Dot Basics stamp set
PTI Spiral Bouquet stamp set
PTI Green Thumb stamp set
Making Memories white brads
Random rhinestone from stash which matches really well

Blog Hop: Ways to Use Ribbon

2008-03-24T21:58:00.006-04:00

Well, I must say that this was a true challenge for me. We were supposed to use ribbon in a unique way and I had a picture in my mind. It sort of looks like the card...doesn't that happen a lot? Anyway, I got up close and personal with my sewing machine. Now, I have a business sewing purses so I should be familiar with my machine but it's different when you are zig-zagging on a piece of cardstock and trying to ruffle ribbon with sparkly thread at the same time. Needless to say, I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. It's not perfect but I like it as is. Then, I used Polka Dot Basics in the background. I stamped the smallest dots with Versamark and then applied clear embossing powder. It just gives it a little something. Along the bottom of the card I used more of the Aqua Mist ribbon and added a Making Memories "congrats" tag.
I hope the colors come out right...I have such a hard time photographing this color.

I think the colors look better on this card.

Close up of one of the ruffled letters:

Supplies:
PTI white cardstock
PTI aqua mist cardstock
PTI Polka Dot Basics stamp set
PTI aqua mist ribbon
Versamark ink
Tsunsinki embossing powder
Sewing machine with shiny thread

PTI...Need I Say More!

2008-03-24T19:13:00.002-04:00

Here's yet another PTI card. I saw something similar done, I believe it was on Debbie Olson's blog and thought it was a great use of the Cuttlebug. I can't find the link now though...bummer.

On a good note, I got one of my Master's papers done last night...printed and research books ready to go back to the library kind of done. It was a sense of relief but I have two more to finish. I can do this though! One page at a time will get it done.

Supplies:
Bazzill cardstock
PTI white cardstock
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Cuttlebug flowers die
Palette ink
Rhinestones from Michael's $ section
PTI Beautiful Blooms stamp set
Martha Stewart ribbon

Celebrate with Cake

2008-03-23T20:05:00.002-04:00

I have another PTI card. I don't think there are any of their products that I don't love! I can't wait to get out of my Master's program so I can make more money with my purse business and keep myself well-stocked in PTI supplies. The good news is that I just finished one of my papers tonight. It was 10 pages or a bit longer and it felt good to print it out. Just to finish my dual language education paper and my final paper then give my presentation. I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel!

We also learned some rockin' news this past weekend when we went to my brother and sister-in-law's house. My sister-in-law is three months pregnant! We are all so excited for her and her husband.

Well, the card for today could be used for a few different things. I took the picture in natural lighting and it turned out a bit dark when I went to edit the picture on my computer. When I tried to edit it, the colors turned out all wonky so I left it as is so it's a bit dark overall but the colors are more real.

Supplies:
PTI cardstock
PTI patterned paper
PTI Piece of Cake stamp set
PTI ribbon
Palette Ink in Aqua Mist and Water Lily Green