Stamps, Paper, and Ink

Gathered Garden for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I'm so glad to see the rain moving on and the sun shining today! We've been watching it rain for a few days in a row now. Good for garden. Good for finding time to craft, too!

I'm playing along with the Blog Hop for May at Papertrey Ink, today using a set I just got called Gathered Garden. One of the features I know I'll love about this set is the ability to bend the leaves and use them to make a wreath, a bouquet, or a floral spray with lots of movement. 

I also couldn't wait to use the Mix & Match Flourish Die, and I love the way it looks with card stock behind it.

Nichole chose this gorgeous photo for our inspiration. I was inspired mostly by the peaches and pinks paired with blue. Using pale gray for my neutral helps these colors pop on my card. I was also intrigued by the soft brushes of white, and added some to my flowers with the white gel pen. 

I can't wait to get his post up so I can go see what everyone else made! Thanks so much for visiting my blog and for your very kind encouraging words, too. 

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Gathered Garden

Paper: PTI - Melon Berry

Ink: PTI - Blueberry Sky, Pale Peony, Berry Sorbet, Soft Stone

Beautiful Berries to Brighten Your Day

 Hello friends, and welcome to my crafty blog today. 

With the gorgeous days we've had recently, I've been doing a bit more fishing on the lake than crafting, and loving it! We also had a wonderful celebration for Mother's Day and our granddaughter's Bday. She has turned 2, can you believe it? 
 

 Today is the special day at Papertrey Ink called Create Along with Us and we're invited to share a card inspired by one of their designs from the new products release. I just had to play along!

The beautiful  card made by Nichole inspired me with it's clean lines of the graphic die cut. I also loved the way she combined a die cut word with a sentiment strip in the photo below. You may find her post HERE.  

Here's my full card using the Beautiful Berries stamps and the Mix & Mat Flourish Die.

I added Wink of Stella to the You die cut. Then I painted Glossy Accents on top to seal in the pretty sparkles, and used it to add a few dewdrops to the berries too. 

This close up shows the textures. I just love the warmth and freshness of yellow and blue together. I only wish you could see the real hues as yellow is a bit hard to photograph. The berries are stamped in layers for more detail. I look forward to stamping them in many color combos. 

Thanks for visiting me today! Hope your day has been brightened too. 

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Beautiful Berries - Spring Stamp Set and Dies ; Scripted Stamp Set and Dies

Paper: SU - White, PTI - Harvest Gold, Blueberry Sky

Ink: PTI - Blueberry Sky, Amethyst Allure, Green Parakeet, New Leaf

Accessories: PTI - Mix & Mat Flourish die. 

 

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It's Your Day

A Million Ways to say it - Happy Birthday

Hello everyone, how are things going for you! 

It's been a great week for me, I can't believe it is Wednesday already! We're going out in the boat for some time on the lake this evening. And yesterday I got to stamp with one of my dearest friends. 

Here's the card all finished to share with you! Following the sample on Make It Monday to use sentiment stamps as a background, I made a birthday card with bunches of birthday wishes. 

I grabbed as many sentiments as I could find and lined them up on my mini Misti to stamp. I only wish I had made multiples of this background, but oh well. The flower, leaf, and vellum leaves are from the Stylized Autumn stamps and dies.

Adding Nuvo drops in clear to the flower center added some texture. 

Except for the twine, all stamps, paper and ink are from Papertrey Ink. 

Hope you enjoyed my card and have a great afternoon!

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

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Coastal Lights

Didn't want to miss playing along with Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink, even though I'm a few days late! 

The technique was to make a Watercolor Wash background and Laurie Schmidlin (whose work I've wildly admired for a very long time!) did a wonderful job of presenting her first video showing two beautiful cards with watercolored backgrounds. 

Here's my take on the technique using the PTI set, Guiding Lights.

I've had this in my stash for a LONG time, glad to ink it up!

I chose colors of the sea and sand for my background, washing them onto watercolor paper using my Peerless Watercolors.

For texture, I added droplets with my brush in blue and then white acrylic paint. I'd like to try this again because to make the composition work I ended up cutting away a good portion of the background.

My colored inks and card stock are from Stampin' Up!:  Riding Hood Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Coastal Cabana.

EDITED TO ADD

After posting earlier today, I went and did make another card using the same supplies. Not only do I really like this card better, the photo is also improved. I like showing more of the background with this layout.I really enjoyed getting to try this technique again. 

Hope you enjoy it too! 

Thanks for visiting!

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Pretty Patterns for Make It Monday

Hello to you, are you having a good week so far? 

Our weekend was wonderful, we had almost all the family here for Easter! Our grands always make the gatherings more fun, they are 15 months and 23 months now. I loved having them! Getting the house back in order and the laundry done today is also good. 

Had a little time to stamp something for Make It Monday today, using the Don't Forget to Write kit. The technique is using or creating  a pattern behind a window. 

I combined patterned paper and die cut flowers for my card from the kit, stamping the sentiment on the striped paper. 

I drew a rectangular border around the card. It was one of Nichole's tips from the new release at Papertrey, and I wanted to try it while it was still fresh in my mind. (You can find it HERE)

I just could NOT stop until I flecked some gold from my Gansai Tambi watercolors on the panel and added Nuvo drops. I just had to dirty it up, if you know what I mean?  All that white was entirely too clean for this girl, lol!

Have a wonderful day and I'm so thankful you came by to visit. Come back again!

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

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A Rainbow of Bitty Butterflies

Every month fans of Papertrey Ink have a chance to CASE the designers with their Create Along with Us feature. I pulled out the Bitty Butterflies dies and stamps to create a BOLD and colorful card for spring. 

I die cut the butterlies from a rainbow of shades of Papertrey Ink card stock and then stamped the butterfly details over each image in matching inks. Click to enlarge the photo to see them better. 

Next I arranged the butterflies and placed each into the negative space of die cut white card stock using the inlaid die technique. IRL the colors are bright and jazzy! I added a black sentiment die cut, hand drawn accents (antlers), stamped dot clusters and added a black twine bow. I was inspired by the card by Laurie Schmidlin. She used a bold black sentiment with a wash of color and black accents, including striped paper. You can see Laurie's beautiful card HERE.  I've been a fan of Laurie's since I started posting cards over 13 years ago. So happy to see her designs on the Papertrey blog! 

If you ever see a rainbow of butterflies, make sure to look for the black dots. I just know they will be there! 

Just kidding. 

Thanks to you for visiting and spending time here on my blog, even putting up with my silly jokes. What's really funny is that I. laugh. out. loud. at. them.

Have a great day, friends!

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Quilted Summer for Fab Friday Color Challenge

 Hey, hey! It's F-ri-i-day! I had summer on my mind today, and I whipped up a flowery quilt. Out of paper, of course. 

 The color challenge at Fab Friday this week is fun and reminds me of sunshine and flowers!

I admit I got a little carried away with the quilt theme, once I'd decided to use the Quilted Summer set from Papertrey Ink. Another one of my sets I've not used yet - or at least I don't remember using this one. The photo below gives the truest hues of the colors. 

If you click to enlarge the photos you may see the deeply embossed stitched squares on the white background panel. 

I made it look like patterned paper by stamping the small pinwheel image in So Saffron on each square. It does remind me of a homey fluffy comforter. Continuing with the sewing theme, I added a clear button and gold thread for embellishments to the popped up floral spray. 

For more great projects, check out the blogs of the Design Team. Come stamp with us at this week's Fab Friday challenge.

Mindy Backes
Heather Heroldt
Amy Koenders
Brian King
Justin Krieger
Amanda Mertz
Brenda Myers
Janine Tinklenberg
Wendy Weixler

 Thanks so much for visiting, I hope you will come again. Have a great weekend.

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink: Quilted Autumn (and dies), Mama Elephant: Charmed and die (banner)

Paper: Whisper White, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, In Colors Envelope Paper

Ink: Peek-A-Boo Peach, Calypso Coral, Mint Macaron

Accessories: We R Memory Keepers Next Level Embossing Folder: Quilted, Simon Says Stamp Stitched Square Dies, Stampin' Up! - button and taffeta ribbon; gold thread

 

Transformation - a card makeover for Papertrey Ink

I love games. Card games, board games. Kid's games or party games. My husband's sister said she never knew the real me until we played the friendly family card game. I guess the word I am looking for, is competitive. Yep, that would be me! 

So when the kind folks at Papertrey Ink give us an opportunity to win our $300 wish list of their stamps and wonderful products, I say, count me in!

For this contest (you can read about it HERE), we are to pick a card we weren't totally pleased with, and using tips from the fabulous projects they posted today, we are to remake our card. 

Here's my transformed card for the contest. A random drawing, btw, so everyone can have a chance to win just by trying. Don't you love that? Don't you hope I win? (giggle)

I made a little list of the tips I gleaned from the designers. Michelle used black paper behind a dotted die to add a great accent to her focal point. I added a black circle behind the die to add interest to the focal point, and used a twine bow to adorn it at the top. That was another tip. Lastly, I die cut the group of flowers in the cluster, and then die cut the two largest flowers to layer on top for dimension.

Here's the card I originally made. It always bothered me that the sentiments were a bit out of balance, although I did it intentionally to take part in a sketch challenge.

 I think the extra details really do add something special to the makeover card. I also added pearls and the sparkle of Wink of Stella on the sentiment die cut. The stamps and die cuts used are from the Don't Forget to Write Kit from Papertrey Ink.

I love learning from other designers and trying to improve at this craft is always a fun challenge. Thanks to you for visiting today. I hope you've been inspired.

I'd love to hear from you!

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

On Your Special Day

Do you have a favorite flower stamps set? I have too many to pick a favorite! But I'm continuing using my newest unlinked items and the Peonies on Parade set from Papertrey Ink was just waiting.

Now those are three of my favorite things - flowers, ink, and coloring!  Here they are combined on today's card. 

 

And a wee bit o' gold, I might add. Sorry, I wish the photo was just a bit brighter, but it's rainy today. ETA: in  moment of sunshine I got another shot that's much better. 

I heat embossed the peonies in white onto Ranger Distress Watercolor Paper, colored them with Zig Clean Real Brush Markers and cut them out. I brushed a bit of Spun Sugar Distress Ink onto the note card, and flecked gold shimmer spray into the bottom corner. Adding sequins, thread, and a gold embossed sentiment round out the embellishments. 

The 10th anniversary festivities  at Papertrey Ink continue until tomorrow! I'll be adding this to the contest for Day 3 to use our favorite flower set. 

 Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!

 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink -  Peonies on Parade, Banner Sentiments Stamp Set

Accessories: Zig Clean Real Brush Markers, Die for notecard is from Papertrey Ink Don't Forget to Write Basics Collection

 

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Hi everyone, welcome to a brand new week! As much of the northeastern US is gearing up for snow, in my little neck of the woods we awoke to flakes falling yesterday morning. It was strange seeing the frosting of snow on all the redbuds and other trees already in bloom here in the south. I hope the delicious peach and strawberry harvest won't be affected. 

The snow was gone by noon when the sun came out (a lovely advantage of southern living.) But you may still see a mix of winter and spring in today's card. 

I'm still on a roll to do some coloring ever day as seen in the sponged clouds in my background. The parade of NBUS (never-before-used-schtuff) continues with the Winter Woods stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink. I love this stately cardinal but since he looked so glum I sparkled him up a bit with Wink of Stella. 

At Papertrey Ink they're having a new release and fun contests in honor of their 10 year anniversary. 

I'm linking to Today's challenge  which was to use multiple shapes on your card. I kept to my style and sponged on multiple cloud shapes and punched some spring flowers. 

I'm sitting by a warm fire as I type at the kitchen table this morning, and sipping my favorite cuppa tea. I appreciate your visit here on my blog. Thanks, have a great day!

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

          Make something beautiful!