PTI: With Sympathy

Happy Monday!  Hopefully you are off for President's Day today...and not like me and are at work for the day. Popping in with one more card for the PTI anniversary challenges. My card today is inspired by Debbie Olsen's card for 2007. Love the pink and green flowers and the movement the card creates. Playing with two PTI sets for this card: Art with Heart and Graceful Greetings.  Happy Monday and happy creating my friends!  xx

PaperTrey Ink: 2013

Hi there, I've been watching all of the gorgeous cards being posted as inspired by the PTI 10 year anniversary and decided to give it a go and make a couple of cards to enter.  I was also inspired by my friend Moe to make two of each card I made to fill up my stash!  Looking through all the years...I don't have any of the sets, but I loved this sweet little collage card below by Heather Nichols from 2013...so I played along using three different PTI sets for this card:  Wedding Day, Framed Out #12 and Tiny Tags.  Love how all the sweet elements come together. No surprise I'm using varying shades of orange on my flowers :)

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend. The weather here is absolutely gorgeous so we've been enjoying no coats, going for a nice walk and the boys have been fishing in the neighborhood pond. Perfection!

Hey There

Hey there, hi there, ho there.  It's Wednesday...and on Friday we're leaving on vacation so the old blog will probably be a little quiet with only pre-scheduled challenge posts being made.  I'm not sure how strong wifi will be, but I'll be sure to check out what you're all up to while I'm gone.  I get back and then 10 days later we'll be taking Ryan off to college.  Man oh man...I still can't believe this time has come (are you tired of me saying that?!)

Anyways, loved the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and I wasn't done with this new to me PTI set...so off we go with a fun card for my stash!

 

Praying for You

It's been a few months since I've played along with a PTI Blog Hop, but I couldn't stay away from the inspiration photo. These colors are some of my favorites.  I made this card before the Stamp-a-Faire challenges so I was itching to play with my new goodies too. Think you can tell that I took the inspiration pretty literally too. Love these stencil dies!  It also never hurts to have an extra sympathy/get well/praying for you card in the stash.

I hope you have hopping along to see how everyone was inspired!

 

 

Stamp-a-Faire

I am so happy when I get more than an hour to create.  This afternoon I had about two hours to create and got four cards done for the Stamp-a-Faire challenges. The first card is my favorite of the bunch. It was for Kay's Water Color Like a Master challenge.  Best part about this was that I didn't have to worry about the stamps lining up perfectly. Love the soft, soothing feel of this card.

My second card is for Amy's Starry Night challenge. I didn't have any white paint or thick white ink...so I couldn't quite do the whole technique but am pleased with the way it turned out.  Always good to get a bit more use out of my distress inks!

My third card is for the Masterpiece Inspirations Challenge.  I  loved the bold colors in Henri Matisse's picture.  This card will probably go to Ryan when he's off to college.  Only a few weeks to go...and this mama's heart is happy but hurting a bit at the same time.

My last card is for Lizzie's Drips & Splatters challenge.  You can tell I'm a bit of a CAS girl...so I kept the splatters a bit minimal. This card will go to a co-worker whose birthday is in a few days.

I'm hoping to play along with one or two more challenges before Tuesday morning. We'll see how much energy I have when I get home from work tomorrow!

Now I'm off to see Me Before You with my mum. Think we'll need to bring some tissues for sure.

 

Blessings of Your Heart

Post number two for Stamp-a-Faire...this will probably be it for today unless we get back tonight and I have some creative energy...highly unlikely!  The current challenge is the Masters Color Challenge. I was inspired by this Van Gogh picture below.  At first, I thought I'd go with the Monet Poppies color inspiration, but when it was time for the ink to hit the paper I changed my mind!  I love the sentiment from this set.  Thinking I need to make a masculine card for Ryan with this sentiment.  He likes to journal and write music.  For an album he just released click here and you can take a listen :) My favorite song on the album is the third one called "Hope/Doubt".  He is on vacation now and brought his journal with him. In the future, I'll make a card to send off to him with this sentiment while he's away at school.  Hope you are all have a fabulous weekend.

 

Praying for You

Good  morning!  We have an awesome weekend planned. It started off with me sneaking in some crafty time with my long time card club friends. We hadn't gotten together in so long and it was awesome to craft and share a glass of wine together!  Today, we're headed up to the University of Dayton to catch up with Pat's friends from college.  We're going to see people we haven't seen in a really long time. I can't wait.

I'm also going to try and sneak in some crafty time to play along with PTI's Stamp-a-Faire.  First up is the challenge from last night to share one of your favorite PTI cards. This is one I made last night so I thought I would share it today.   Not sure how many challenge I'll get to play along with, but hope to get at least three or four in before the deadline. 

I hope your weekend has lots of fun plans too! 

Always Remember...

Okay...so this picture is not the best, but I think you can tell how I was inspired by this month's PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop.  I decided to go ultra CAS for my card. This card is going to the husband of my good friend's sister who I mentioned yesterday.  I think it is just as important to send cards to the care taker when there is a long recovery period. I have only met him a couple of times, but his sister-in-law was singing the praises of how he is helping her sister (his wife) in her recovery from her stroke.  She has a long road ahead and it is so wonderful that he is by her side.

Hope all of your weeks get off to a great start today.

 

Merry & Bright

Hello friends. For all my US blogging friends, I hope that your travels are safe or that your family is arriving safely and that all of your preparations go smoothly so that you can enjoy time with your family.  We'll have a very full house over at Pat's brother and sister-in-law's house and we're looking forward to lots of time together. 

Over the weekend, I had time to play along with the current PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop. Loved the blue and greens...easy to see how I was inspired to play along!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing You a Merry Little Christmas

Happy Sunday everyone!  Popping in quickly with a card I made for the current PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop.  I just made this and am so pleased with the how it turned out.  I looked at the inspiration photo, went out for a very quick run and came back to make this card.  Love when what is in your head translates to a card!

I'll be make a few more of these for the Christmas card stash!  Hope you are having a fabulous Sunday...off to pick the little guys up from their cousin sleepover.

PS Sentiment is from PTI; pinecones/berries from Uniko

You are appreciated.

Happy Tuesday my friends...it has been a while since I've played along with a PaperTrey Ink Blog Hop. When I got home last night I had a bit of time to get inky and quickly made this one layer card to be sent to a co-worker. The week is off to a busy start...so I'm keeping it short and sweet.  We are enjoying beautiful cool days. Very unusual for August and we're cherishing it!

Happy Birthday

Can't remember the last time I posted twice in one day, but yahoo for long weekends with extra time to create.  My second card today in inspired by the PTI Blog Hop photo below.  This is one of those moments where I wish I could challenge my inner Laura Bassen and creating some wickedly cool card that knocks the spectrum of colors out of the park. This card doesn't rival a Laura card, but I'm happy with the end result :)!  Have to do what a girl has to do!  How you are having fun with your family this Memorial Day weekend!

Jingle All the Way

Happy Friday...I was happy to have time in my craft room yesterday before we headed over a neighbor's to watch football. I've been seeing all the gorgeous cards around blog land using the border stamping technique from Melissa's Make It Monday video.  I decided to play along too. I'm going to keep on keeping on with making Christmas cards all year so that I don't run into a crunch in November/December next year.  The snowflakes are from Verve and the sentiment and edger die are both from PTI.

Susan has been talking about using our hoard.  This certainly doesn't qualify as a CAS; one layer card, but it did make me think about using some more of my ribbon.  I haven't been using much lately. Love the finished touch this ribbon gives t the card.  Added the jingle bells....and would definitely need to use readers if I was going to thread a lot of these!

Happy New Year and happy creating!

Thanks

Happy Boxing Day my friends.  I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas surrounded by family.  We had a wonderful Christmas. My card stash is officially empty (I think I have four cards total in my card box) and I was in need of a thank you card.  I loved the challenge of combining silver and gold so I quickly got out my PTI goodies for today's blog hop.  The silver is a bit hard to see on the thanks but has plenty of shimmer in real life.

Happy hopping!

Thanks

Have I told you I have a serious blogging crush on Laura Bassen?  Well I do.  I love her style...and her videos always make me smile. She's crazy talented and she's real. So yes...she is my blogging crush.  Her use of color is amazing.   This week she's up for Make It Monday showing how to create ombre backgrounds.  My background is no where near as amazing as Laura's, but I'm pleased with the crisp/clean layout.

Happy Friday my friends.  I'm off on a crafty weekend with two of my sister-in-laws and girl friends.  The boys are in charge of Pat for the weekend...making sure he takes it easy!  I'll be checking in regularly to make sure he is okay. Pat was very clear that I should still go away.  "If it was my golf weekend, and you'd had meniscus surgery...I probably wouldn't even call."  Still feeling guilty!  Hope you have fun plans for the weekend too.

Stamp-a-Faire Time After Time Challenge: Thanks for Everything

Happy Sunday my friends.  I'm popping in with a card to share for the SAF:  Time After Time Challenge.  I think this will be the only challenge I'll have time to play along with for this year's SAF.  Such a fun challenge this is to look back at a card you made previously and redo it.  I started my blog five years ago and there is a lot of ribbon on my cards.  I still love ribbon, but am a bigger fan of bows than the knot on the card shown below.  And the poor buttons all by themselves.  I'm sure in another five years I'll look back at the card I created today and see other ways to change it, but for today I'm pleased with it.  I thought it would also be fun to show how the colors were chosen.  The colors were from one of Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Challenge.  How many of you played along with one of those?  I loved them!  Okay...off to get ready for the week.  Hope you all are finding lots of time to craft.

I'm Here for You

Hello there...I'm popping in to share two fun cards inspired by Laurie's Make It Monday challenge.  I don't have an cover plates so I decided to use the Mighty Leaves die.  I also didn't have press and seal so I improvised!  I put removal adhesive on the card base and placed it over the die cuts.  I love how clean and crisp the tone on tone looks.  

Then...I took the cover plate and had fun with distress inks inking up the back of the card.  

Thanks for the inspiration to stretch my supplies Laurie!

I Tried It!

Okay...so I've been watching the embossing paste trend from the sidelines.  Moe has been creating gorgeous mixed media cards, Laura Bassen (whose blog I think I could pin everything under the sun) created a Make It Monday video featuring embossing paste and Lindsey, whose style I adore and family I love hearing about, created a card inspired by Laura's video.  Today I decided it was time to give it a go.  This morning I went to a local stamp store, Simply Said Stamp, and picked up embossing paste and a stencil.  And the rest is history...

Here is my first card inspired by Laura's Make It Monday video. I don't own a single reinker so I used Laura's tip of using distress inks to mix with the embossing paste.

And my second...using the new stencil that I picked up today.

I have to say I'm pretty happy with the end results (don't look closely at a few of the areas that could be smoother.)  Lindsey told me it wouldn't take long for the smaller images to dry and she was right.  I'm sure I'll be giving it ago again soon.  What about you?  Any trends you are or aren't trying right now?  I'd love to hear.

Enjoy This Moment

Hello there...I missed the PTI Blog Hop last month and was itching to play along with gorgeous color combos.   I toyed with the idea of playing along with patterned papers, but stayed true to my inky one layer style (with the exception of my additional enamel elements). 

Looking forward to seeing all your gorgeous creations in the hop today.  This card will be popped into the mail to a friend celebrating a new job.