PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

 

Hello...it's time for another PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop.  It's been a couple of months since I played along and I loved this month's theme:  tilted.  I've been making several tilted cards so this was great to make some CAS cards.

 For my cards, I pulled out the PTI stripes set.  I've tried it several times, but never could get the stripes just right.  However, I ordered these grid blocks a few weeks ago and they are fabulous!  Helps line up the long stamps perfectly straight because of the grid lines.   The end result makes me happy :)!

These were so easy to make that I decided to make a set of them.

And while I was had my PTI sets out, I decided to make another card using some PTI sets that hadn't scene ink in a while!  Hope you like both cards and that you have fun checking out all the blogs!  My card below is being entered in the Passion for PaperTrey Challenge to make a card that is celebrating an occasion.

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

Hi there!  It's the 25th and you know what that means!  It's time for another PTI Blog Hop.  I kept my design very simple and monochromatic like the inspiration photo.  The pumpkin in the background of the inspiration photo below reminded me of one of my all time favorite PTI sets, Fancy Flourishes.  I decide to use that and create panels on my card similar to the fabric panels on the pumpkins.  Hope you like my card...and happy blog hopping!

Thank You for Your Kindness - PTI Blog Hop

 

It's the 25th of the month and you know what that means...time for the PTI Blog Hop.  This month's inspiration photo had so many wonderful possibilities.  It is gorgeous.  I love the pops of color along with the neutrals.

In honor of my CAS week on my blog, I made another very CAS card for this month's challenge.  The top of the suitcase reminded me so much of SU Sahara Sand...and I loved the damask type image so I recreated this on the bottom.  The floral images are from Botanical Images using SU Red Riding Hood and stamping off on the second image.  Added a few gems to balance it all out. Hope you have fun blog hopping today!

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

 

Good morning!  I'm still on cloud nine from attending Stamp-a-Faire this weekend and Maureen being here to visit.  Stamp-a-Faire was fabulous and I'll definitely be back later this week to share photos. It was wonderful to not only meet the design team but also so many amazing ladies who love stamping as much as I do.  Just perfect. 

Now onto my cards for this month's PTI Blog Hop.  I loved the colors from the inspiration photo. The first one is using my new Mehndi Medallions set.  This is going to get a lot of use! 



The second card was a card I gave to Maureen to welcome her here when she arrived on Thursday!  Hope you like them both and that your week is off to a fabulous start!

Ingredients:  Cardstock:  Stampin' Up; Patterned Paper: October Afternoon Five & Dime; Stamps:  PTI Daily Design Sentiments and Simply Stationery

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

Good morning, it's the 25th and you know what that means! Time for the PTI Blog Hop!  I am on a serious CAS kick these days and I have two cards to share.  My first one PTI's Botanical Silhouettes anniversary set.   I absolutely loved the colors in the inspiration photo below and used them as an inspiration for my cards. 

My second card is also inspired by the colors, but I pulled out just the top portion of the rainbow.  I love how the PTI Simply Stationery set can be used to create a medallion of sorts. Lots of different options with this set.  This set gets lots of use for making teacher gifts.

PS How many of your are going to the PTI event?  Maureen and I are.  I'd loved to meet you there...to say we're excited probably is the understatement of the year!

Celebrate

Ingredients:  PTI Kraft Paper; Stampin' Up Pretty in Pink Paper/Ink, Whisper White Paper; Regal Rose Ink/Ribbon; PTI Beautiful Blossom and Mega Mixed Messages; Kaiser Kraft Pearls

Hello and happy Friday!  Hope you all have a wonderful start to your weekend plans.  I'm popping in with a card for this week's PTI Make It Monday Technique.  I love how this technique works.  I read the directions several times and was pleased with how easy it was to do!

This card is to congratulate a co-worker that recently past a certification exam.  

We were at baseball until 10 pm last night..so I'm making this a very quick post.  Have a wonderful day!

A Set of Anniversary Cards

Happy weekend...I am popping in to share a set of anniversary cards. I have three co-workers who all have their five year work anniversary tomorrow.  So, I was looking for some quick ideas for anniversary cards for them to thank them for their hard work and dedication.

This week's PTI Make It Monday Technique made me happy!  I keep thinking about buying the set that has the outline built but now feel like maybe I don't need to buy it. (At least that is one thing I didn't add to my cart :)!!)

Here's a sample of the three very simple cards using all PTI supplies.

 And...look at my little helper...a little blurry, but he wanted to be in the photo!

PTI Blog Hop

Hi there...I'm popping in later than I expected with my blog hop post.  In my head, tomorrow is the 25th!  So...really quickly here are two cards to share.  Both very clean and simple, quick!  This month's theme was to create a card with a boy/man theme. 

First one up is a thank you card for a co-worker.  He and his team spent Saturday at work testing a fairly big software deployment.  I delivered the card this morning along with some muffins as a big thank you for their extra hard work on a holiday weekend.

The second one is to add to the birthday card stash.  After using this paper, I decided I needed Maile's new set!

Hope you like them both...have fun hopping!  I'm off to card club with my girl friends tonight.  Looking forward to a night of creating!

Let the Season Begin...

Ingredients:  SU Whisper White Paper, Pear Pizzazz Paper/Ink; Kraft Ink; Clear Embossing Powder: Hero Arts Stamps; PTI Fillable Frames; Creative Imaginations Birch Paper

Happy Monday...I'm popping in with a card that fits the bill for two challenges:  The Play Date Cafe and PaperTrey PlayHouse Monochromatic Challenge.  This is one of my all time favorite Hero Art stamps - I stamped in white craft ink and then clear embossed it.  I just purchased this wood paper...yummy.  I had stayed away from it for a while thinking it wouldn't be easy to work with in my Sizzix.  Boy was I wrong...it cut so easily.  I used it for a few other projects this weekend and will be going back to buy more.

Now...onto our weekend.  Saturday was rainy so we were 0-3 on the baseball game front.  Collin's game was the only one that got rescheduled on Sunday.  It was his first "official" baseball game and I took tons of pictures...so hold tight!  First up...playing catcher...

 Throwing the ball back to the pitcher...

 At bat...my lefty.  He had great at bats...a nice hit down the third base line and two walks.

 On first...ready to run.

 Running to second...

 Getting a high five from his coach for making it to third...

 At third...look at that tiny little behind...he is so skinny...and adorable in his uniform.

 He made it home...

 And then he needed a drink...it was only 60 degrees :)...but it took a lot of work to get around those bases? :)

 Back on second again...I love the second baseman with his hat turned around backwards....

And the last inning, playing second!

A great start to the year!

Inspired By Nana

For this week's PaperTrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge, I was inspired by one of my nana's paintings.  This oil painting is in our kitchen.  I love the bright vibrant colors.  This picture was painted based on her memories of India.  Her father was in the British Military so she was born in India prior to moving back to England with her family. 

I tried to pick up the colors using a variety of Ranger Distress Inks.  I obviously didn't do it justice, but gave it a good try!  Collin came by and saw me taking pictures of both the card and painted and declared, "Mommy, you did a very good job!" I'm a little more critical on myself, but I'll certainly take the compliment.  I have a long way to go in mastering all of the ink techniques.  I love the PTI Make It Monday challenges.  I haven't played along with too many, but have watched them and like how they are challenging us to use our various supplies.

Ingredients:  Ranger Distress Inks and PTI Stamps

Hope you have a wonderful Friday.  The baseball season officially started yesterday for our hometown team...and they came home with a dramatic win yesterday - a grand slam walk off home run in the bottom of the 9th. Doesn't get much more exciting than that!  Go Cincinnati Reds!

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

Happy Weekend to everyone....this month's PTI blog challenge is to create using embroidery floss.  Wow....I have a lot of embroidery floss from my cross stitching days.  It has been a long time since I have used it.  I went very simple with the idea that I would create a very springy card.  I liked coordinating the polka dot border with the embossed larger polka dot pannel with all of the colors of the embroidery floss complimenting the fun colors in the stick pin flowers.

And...with spring coming...I get to take pictures outside of my cards...that makes life so much easier!  I have been having a really hard time getting good pictures inside! 

Happy blog hopping!

Ingredients:  PTI Polka Dots; Mega Mixed Messages; SU Whispher White and Pretty in Pink Cardstock; Kaiser Kraft Gems; SU Certainly Celery and Basic Black Ink; Jillibean Soup Stick Pins

A Great Coach

I've been reflecting a bit on Jonathon's black belt testing and great coaches.  Mr. Patten is Jonathon's karate coach.  There are so many qualities that I admire about him and I think they are qualities of coaches/friends/mentors for children and adults.  Here are my favorite traits that I think make a great coach and that are qualities Mr. Patten definitely possesses:

• The success of the person or team they are coaching is more important than their own personal success.
• The coach pushes the person/team to work hard, but at the same time doesn't take themselves to seriously.  They work hard and have fun!
• The coach shares some of themselves.  It's real...they share their experiences, not just the goals/instruction.
• They notice the little things that make a difference in taking the person or team they are coaching to the next level.

Sometimes we have coaches or mentors in our lives that are very visible...other times they quietly encourage us when we need it.  In my children's life and in my own life, I am thankful for coaches both personally and professionally.  Take time to thank a coach that has been important in your life! (and remember your coach may not technically be a coach...they could be a co-worker, boss or friend too)! 

Today, I'll be sending this card to Mr. Patten to thank him yet again for the important role he has played in Jonathon's life.

My sketch layout for this was inspired by this week's Inkspiration Challenge.  Also...I embossed the white panel following the Make It Monday challenge.  You can't see it very well...but the top image is embossed with a vine similar to the stamp!

Ingredients:  PTI DSP, Beyond Background Basics Stamps; SU Real Red Paper, Old Olive Paper/Ribbon/Ink and Whisper White Paper;

I also wanted to share this card for this week's Stampin' 411 Challenge...using several distress inks.  I had fun with this one...but everything looks a bit crooked in this picture!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  SU and Hero Arts; Inks:  Ranger Distress Inks; Cardstock:  SU Whisper White, Real Red and Bazzill Yellow

Band Concert

Last night was Ryan's band concert.  Sadly, I'm thinking this will be his last year of band.  He switched from clarinet to saxophone this year.  He enjoys band...but really more because his friends are in there with him.  He loves music, but not necessarily the practicing that goes with it!  A couple pictures from last night.  After the concert, Ryan was thoroughly embarassed to have his picture taken with me.  This is blurry, but I'm sharing it just to show how much taller he is than me.  And I have heels on!

He's a little more relaxed with his friend Kevin!  Note the purple ties...apparently purple is the color of choice.  Kevin's mom said Kevin was very unhappy that they couldn't find his older brother's purple tie right away.  Cracks me up that the boys are worried about their clothes!

After the concert...we were running to baseball practice at the batting cage.  This is where Ryan would practice all day long! 

After baseball, I needed a masculine thank you card for a co-worker...thus introducing my card for the CASE Study card and PTI's Make It Monday! 

Ingredients:  PTI Text Backgrounds and Signature Greetings; Ranger Distress Inks Broken China and Pumice Stone; Stampin' Up Crumb Cake Ribbon; PTI Buttons; My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose DSP; Stampin' UP Very Vanilla and Basic Black Paper


Here's the inspiration photo for this week's CASE study....loved the sketch so I tried to mirror it a bit...look at all those fabulous layers!

PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop

Happy Friday!  Popping in to share my card inspired by this month's PTI blog hop.  I'm a little bit later than normal joining the blog hop, but life is a little busy this week.  I was super happy to come home and squeeze in a little card making time.  This month's challenge was to use scallops.  I decided to pull out a scrap scallop circle that I had in my stash and add the Larger than Life flowers along with a sweet sentiment.  I like to have Just Because cards in my card box.

Ingredients:  Stamps:  PTI Larger than Life and Mega Mixed Messages; Ribbon: SU Crumb Cake; Paper:  My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose; Ink:  SU Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip and Pretty In Pink; Pearls:  Kaiser Kraft

Hope your weekend is getting off to a great start.  My brother and sister-in-law are out of town this week so I'm taking my niece to college orientation tomorrow morning at the University of Cincinnati's design college.  It should be a fun morning...I keep thinking though...how did this sweet little chubby cheeked girl become this beautiful teenager almost ready to graduate from high school?

And how lucky am I that I get to share these wonderful new times with her?