Thank heaven for little boys!

I just got my tax return splurge order of Papertrey Ink goodies and couldn't wait to ink up the Hanging Out stamps to create this simple baby boy card:

I die cut the circles border and added the stamped images in the circles. The socks were stamped and Copic colored, the bibs were paper pieced. The blue cardstock was lightly inked around the edges in white, added the sentiment and another card done for my stash.

I love when creativity just "works". I made this card for the challenge I am hosting at Papertrey Playhouse - Babies. Hope you'll join in the fun! For another card I just posted today, check out Moments of Your Heart. Have a wonderful weekend~

Die Cut Negatives at Papertrey Playhouse

I am the hostess this time around for the challenge at Papertrey Playhouse. I'm kicking off the year with a challenge to use a Die Cut Negative on your card front (or, in other words, create an opening on your card front. This is how my creation turned out:

Details are on the Papertrey Playhouse blog. I hope you'll stop by and play along with this challenge!
See you again soon!

Papertrey Playhouse invitation challenge

I am the hostess this time around for the Papertrey Playhouse challenge. I thought since the holidays are a great time for parties and gatherings, invitations would be the perfect theme for the challenge. Here is one I made for a holiday party:

I used a few different Papertrey Ink stamp sets - you can see the list of them at the PTPH blog. I also have another invitation I recently created posted at Moments of Your Heart - I hope you'll stop by there and take a look, too. Then join in the fun and create an invitation to share with us! Be sure to use PTI products. I'm looking forward to seeing what you create!!

I'll be back with more artwork to share soon. The craziness that has been my life lately is starting to calm down and that means more time in the stamp room - YAY!! See you soon!

Dusting off some old stamps

Quick announcement before artwork - I am now blogging with my friend Kathy (and other opinionated gals) over at Are You on the Fence? where we review anything and everything! I hope you'll stop by and check us out (and become a follower while you're there!)

The current challenge at Papertrey Playhouse is to get out your 1st set of PTI stamps, dust them off and put them to use! Well, a few of my first sets are no longer with me but one of my earliest sets are the Guidelines sets. So I decided to create a simple little 4th of July greeting using one of these sets and the Guidelines cardstock:

Really simple but I like the way it turned out. Two stamped images, in Tulip and Pacifica (ink from Close To My Heart). The button was tied with a little black twine and added between the images and then a stamped sentiment. Doesn't get much easier!

Come check out our challenges at Papertrey Playhouse and play along! A new challenge is posted every other Wednesday.

Papertrey Playhouse challenge

I am hosting the next challenge at Papertrey Playhouse and I hope you will join us!

I am calling this the Multi-Mats challenge - add your focal image to a stack of at least 2 mats (use PTI dies or any other die cut mats). Here is my sample:

I used PTI Mat Stack dies 2, 1 and 5 as well as the Mat Stack 2 stamps for the focal image. The paper is from Pacific Vineyard, also from PTI.

If you want to join in the fun, head over to the group blog at http://papertreyplayhouse.blogspot.com/ and while you're there, become a follower.

I have been updating my other blog, Ridiculous Lab, the past week or so and would love to have you stop by for a visit! Until next time -

Sitting next to you....

Shhhh - don't tell but here is my Valentine card for my husband this year:

I based the design off a card from the very talented Betsy Veldman and even created a sketch of the design that is now posted as the newest challenge at the Papertrey Playhouse blog!

I used a few stamp sets including Just the Ticket, On My Couch and the Additions set, and Mat Stack 2 stamps and put the Mat Stack 4 and ticket dies to good use too. Paper is all from the Library Ledger pack (except for the solid brown and cream cardstock). All products from Papertrey Ink. The inside of the card says ...is my favorite thing to do.  And the tickets, tucked into the front of the card, include "coupons" for hubby :)

I hope you will stop by the challenge blog and try out the sketch for yourself. We would love to see what you create!

New PTI Toys!

I am so excited - I just placed an order late Friday night with Papertrey Ink and the goodies showed up today - on my day off! So of course, I had to do a little stamping. Here is a peek:

To see the whole card, please pop on over to Moments of Your Heart. I would love your feedback!

Birthday time!

This time of the year is full of birthdays in my family. It starts with my brother's on Christmas Eve, then my husband's on New Year's Day, my daughter's today!!, and my son-in-law in February as well as my sister and my sister-in-law. Oh and a good friend has her birthday in February too. So to sum that up - you're gonna see a lot of Birthday cards from me in the near future! 

This is the card that is going to my sweet daughter today on her 30th birthday! How did I get to have a 30 year old daughter is what I want to know....

All products are from Papertrey Ink. I used the sketch from this month's SFYTT at i {heart} 2 stamp. Although I am missing one element of the sketch, I stayed pretty close to the design. I also am posting this at Papertrey Playhouse where we are showing creative backgrounds.

I stamped the banners in a row for my background and then added the strings across the tops and little stitches in each corner. The bows were added as ends to each banner row. The cupcake was die cut from the cardstock and patterned paper (Happy Dots) and then layered to look like a chocolate frosted cupcake in a cute liner. Once I was done, I realized that you couldn't see much of the background after all but that's ok...it's there and that's all that matters!

I hope you will check out my post today at Ridiculous Lab - it's all about my wonderful daughter. Happy Birthday, Aimee!

Jar of Candy Canes

Our most recent challenge at Papertrey Playhouse is to create a card with no layers. Yeah, right! Like I can do that? I don't think so! But, after some contemplating, I did come up with a card that is pretty layer-less.

You will find one little spot that is popped out from the card but that's it - I kept everything as flat as can be!

To create this card, I started with a piece cut from a Nestabilities die that I adhered to the front of the card with temporary adhesive. I then stamped the Retro Borders (from Papertrey Ink) around all 4 sides to create a "background" for my image. I removed the temporary mask and then laid the actual die on the front of the card and added small stitching lines around the inner edge of the die to create another faux border.

Inside the main image ares, I stamped the jar from Friendship Jars and the candy canes from the holiday jar fillers set. I colored the candy canes with Copics and highlighted the bands of white in the canes with a clear Spica sparkly pen  - hard to see in this photo but there's a nice little shine to the image. The jar was also colored with the lightest blue Copic marker and a ribbon was added, as if you had tied a piece around the top of the jar to dress it up.

This wasn't too difficult to put together - and would have been even easier if this hadn't happened:

Yeah, that's the signs of a dropped black ink pad onto a card front. Luckily it wasn't completed and it's only paper so the finished card is actually a 2nd attempt. Hate when that happens but what can you do?

Hope your crafting is going well and you would like to try out the single layer challenge at Papertrey Playhouse - we would love to have you!

Anniversary Card

Today my sister and brother-in-law celebrated their 10th anniversary. I created this card using the current tag challenge at Papertrey Playhouse and cased from this card created by the very talented Debbie Olsen.

All products from Papertrey Ink. I embossed the background with the guidelines impression plate, and then sponged a little white ink around the edges. On top I added a piece of DP that was edge punched and scissor distressed and a piece of felt that I die cut and then split in half.

I wrapped a piece of ribbon around the entire piece and tied in a bow and finally added my tag to the card. On the tag is a hand cut image from In Bloom that I stamped on a piece of DP and highlighted with a couple of Copic markers. A few pearls and a sentiment finish off the card just right.

Thanks for stopping by - I hope to be back with one final Halloween card and a couple of spooktacular recipes to share before the weekend is over. Meanwhile, be sure to head to Ridiculous Lab to see my Halloween Rap JibJab "production" starring my family.

Have a creative day!

Black, White and a Green Frankie

The current challenge at Papertrey Playhouse is to create a card that is black and white and incorporates just a pop of color. Great challenge, Deb!! I got an idea last night before going to bed and couldn't wait to make this today - turned out exactly as I pictured, which doesn't always happen.

All products from Papertrey Ink. Isn't Frank just the cutest thing? And a big shout out to Kathy who let me borrow the Tiny Treats Halloween set (I feel guilty breaking in your nice, unused set but SOMEONE has to love these stamps!!  LOL). 

I {heart} this frame stamp and plan on stamping up a few to have on hand but while I had the whole set, I had to put Frankie to good use. Fits the challenge perfectly, if I do say so myself.

Now I am off to see what new Papertrey goodies I want to get from the October release tonight! See you soon -

Papertrey Playhouse - Challenge #1

Today we are kicking off our 1st challenge at the Papertrey Playhouse blog and I am your hostess ;)

I am addicted to 2 things recently - dies and felt! So our 1st challenge is to use felt somewhere on your card, in any way you want. For my sample I combined my 2 new loves and die cut the felt:

All products from Papertrey Ink. I used Mat Stack 1 and Vintage Cream felt to create the mat for my Vintage Ornament image. I stamped the Vintage Ornament with Versamark onto Scarlet Jewel cardstock and cut it out and then stamped the decorative section on the ornament with Vintage Cream ink.

The background cardstock was impressed with the new Diamonds plate and a strip of DP from the Libray Ledger papers was edge punched and added. For the finishing touch, I added a bow to match the paper at the top of my ornament.

If you love Papertrey as much as we do, I hope you will join us at the Papertrey Playhouse and play along with felt! Our challenges last 2 weeks so there is plenty of time to show us your artwork.

And don't forget about the PTI blog hop this Saturday! Until then -