Nichole Heady Appreciation Blog Hop!

The girls over at the PTI forum decided to cook up this little blog hop today. Its in honor of PTI owner, Nichole Heady. She is a wonderfully gifted lady who creates beautiful stamps, cards, and designs constantly! She's also a mom, small business owner, and wife so I imagine her days are very full. I am so inspired by her wonderful designs... especially this year's series of stamp sets called Year of the Flowers. This lovely daffodil makes me happy every time I stamp it. Its gorgeous colored or uncolored. Today I kept it simple. Colored my daffodil with copics, mounted it on bitty dot sunrise paper. Mounted that on some lovely kraft cardstock that I inked with chai ink. The sentiment is stamped in dark chocolate and the whole thing is tied up with a lovely piece of sunrise twill! If you are looking for more places to hop... check out the PTI forum!

More Glads (yes more!)

Hi there! I'm still loving PTI's YOF Gladiolus set. I did something a little different with this one. I stamped the glads on PTI linen vellum. Then I colored and cut out just the flower portion. I stamped the glads again on some spring moss card. I colored the leaves and then adhered the vellum flowers. I mounted it on a plum pudding base. I used some simply chartreuse satin ribbon around the bottom. I added a little inking around the edges. Thanks for stopping by today! Its my last week off! Next week is the beginning of the school year. I just love, love, love the first day of school and the promise of a fresh start. Its the one time I really miss having my own class (I currently teach science to all).

New Post at Waltzingmouse Makers

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What Can I Say...

I like to color! So I have another gladiolus card for you today. This one is done in shades of pink. Glads come in almost every color, my mom used to have pink ones, yellow ones, lavender ones. The overall card is pretty simple. Glads stamped on stampers select white (PTI). I colored with copics and added stickles to the middle. I adhered the whole thing to sweet blush cardstock with a scalloped polka dotted border (sorry no clue where that paper is from) and tied it up with a sheer white polka dotted ribbon (PTI). Thanks for stopping by!

More Glads

Hi y'all! I have some more gladiolus for you today. I am in love with this set from PTI. My mom grew glads in our garden when I was a kid and they remind me of her. I have always loved them. For this card I started with a kraft base. I stamped a few rows of polka dots with versamark and my polkadot stamp set. Next I stamped the glads on my bitty boxes patterned paper. I used smokey shadow ink. I colored the glads with my copics. I cut it out with my nesties (long scalloped rectangles). I added 3 spring rain buttons and some spring rain gingham. I couldnt find a good sentiment so I wrote my own with my uniball signo broad gel pen. Thanks for stopping in today!

PTI Blog Hop

Its time for the Papertrey Ink customer blog hop. You can check out all the details here. This month's challenge involved a brown bag:
In honor of school going back into session everywhere, we thought it would be fun to issue a Brown Bag Challenge. We want to see what you can do to dress up, alter, change an ordinary brown lunch bag into a paper crafting work of art. You could modify it to become a gift bag with handles, create a card base by folding it in half (complete with a slide out tag), add a window to it or whatever else you can dream up. After the hop is though, we should all have plenty of inspiration to help us create amazing projects with inexpensive brown bags! We look forward to seeing your creations!
I broke out my new set, Tiny Treats: Halloween, to create a fun little Halloween gift or treat bag. The first thing I did was cut off a bit of the top and then punch the top with my fiskars threading water punch. Next I used various little images from tiny treats to create a background. I slipped a piece of scratch paper in my bag and then used my copics to color. Next I used my mat stack die to cut out a piece of white card. I stamped it with the coordinating stamp from Tiny Treats and added the little witch's pot. I colored it with my copics and added stickles for detail. I popped it up with dimensionals. Next I added some orange card cut with my scalloped die and added a purple swiss dot ribbon. Thanks for coming by!

Hello Fall

Good morning and Happy Monday to you! Today I have another fall card using stamps from Autumn Abundance and Fall Elegance, both by PTI. Its a pretty simple card. I used Scarlet Jewel for the base, some PTI pp, and some kraft. The acorn stamp was stamped on kraft in brown and colored with copics. After coloring I coated it with some diamond stickles. I stamped the back ground using watermark ink. The sentiment is stamped in fresh snow. I added three little buttons and called it good!

Gladiolus

Hi friends! Today I have some gladiolus for you. These were just released by Papertrey Ink as part of their Year of the Flowers set. I colored them with my copics and I love how they came out! I used a base of plum pudding. I stamped the gladiolus in palette noir on stampers select white. I punched the tag out using my cuttlebug dies and stamped it with a portion of the glad stamp inked with plum pudding. I used mixed messages and black ink for the sentiment. Sorry for the poor lighting... I took the picture late at night as this card was off to my MIL early the next morning!

Button Trees for All Seasons

Hi friends! I've got a cute little treat for you today! I think you are really going to like this. I call it button trees for all seasons. I used the little tree from Beyond Basics Borders. I got the idea for a button tree here, on this post from Heather (Pine). The first one I did looked like a fall tree, which gave me the idea to make one for each season. My kids and I had fun picking out the colors and the buttons.
This is our summer tree. Don't you just love the mix of blue and purple? The colors here are new leaf, plum pudding, and aqua mist.
This was the original. This is the fall card. Here the colors are: ripe avocado, terracotta tile, and harvest gold.
Here we have our spring tree. Its all pastel and Easter like. The colors are melon berry, spring moss, and sweet blush.
And last we have our Winter tree. Oh the debate on the colors for this one! In the end we went with spring rain, enchanted evening, and ocean mist. I think it looks nice and icy!
Other things used on these cards: kraft paper, dark chocolate ink, fillable frames stamps, and satin ribbon (except for Spring- that one has twill.) Thanks for stopping in!

Fall Blessings

Hi! I've got another fall card for you today. I made this by combining a couple of different PTI sets. I used Out on a Limb, Fall Elegance, and Fillable Frames. I used terracotta tile and dark chocolate ink from PTI and Versamagic Pumpkin Spice. The base is Terracotta tile. The ribbon and button are also terracotta. I bought this fall elegance set last year and then promptly forgot I had it. I am so glad I pulled it out a few days ago because I have found I really like it! I guess the motto here is, use what you have! Thanks for stopping by!

More Wise Owl for Fall

A little more Wise Owl love. I made this the same day that I made the double owl card I showed a few days ago. The base is Terracotta tile. The owl and background are stamped on cream. I used Out on a Limb and Additions for the background. I used several inks: Versamagic pumpkin, PTI lemon tart, orange zest, and terracotta tile. I used copics to color the owl. The sentiment is also from Wise Owl. Thanks for stopping by!

Quick and Easy Gift!

Hi all! I think you are going to like today's project! I got the idea from this wonderful post by Jennifer McGuire on the Hero Arts blog. Watch the video it explains how to get that wonderful personalized portion just right everytime. These are quick too! I made a set for each of my kids' teachers and this set for my stepmom (I'm thinking Christmas!) in under two hours. That's 12 cards in under two hours.
I started off with a Vintage Cream base. I followed the Hero Arts tutorial to get the personalized part printed on the front of each card. Next I took my nesties Label one and embossed each card. Then I got my PTI Vintage Label stamp set and stamped the outline. I then die cut four butterflies with my PTI butterfly die. I stamped them with my butterfly dreams stamp set and then colored them with my copics.
Here it is with a blue butterfly!
A pretty orange butterfly!
And last, but not least, a gorgeous green butterfly! Now I just need to order up some cream envies and I am in business for Christmas gifts. Thanks for coming by today!

Wise Owl is Ready for Fall

Good morning friends! I have been stamping my little heart out this past week. I have been using lots of older sets too! Whats the use of keeping them if they dont get used? Today features stamps from Papertrey Ink (surprise, surprise...LOL). The sets are Wise Owl, Out on a Limb, and Birthday Basics. I started with a base of cream cardstock. I stamped the branch in dark chocolate and the leaves in a variety of inks including: versamagic pumpkin spice and mango, pti orange zest and terracotta tile. I stamped my owls on a scrap piece of cream and colored and cut them out with my copics. I added some pp (PTI) and summer sunrise card and a strip of dark chocolate twill.
Before I go I have to give a little shout out to my first baby. My little girl turns 10 today! Where does the time go?

Inspired by... (Part 2)

If you read yesterday's post you know that I fell in love with a card by Nichole Heady that overlapped a tree image with a fillable frame. You can see the card on this post. Well I took that same idea and utilized it with completely different stamps. I liked it so much I ended up making a set of cards.
I used the flowers from the Honey Bees set. I was inspired to get it out after talking about unloved sets on the message board. I have always loved these flowers but for some reason never get them out. I also used fillable frames and their sentiments. A lot of different inks, most of them are versamagic chalk and the green one is colorbox lime pastel.
I lined and stamped up the envies too. I used doodlebug and the envie liner die from papertrey ink.
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Inspired by...

In case you didn't know its PTI Release week, which means Nichole Heady's blog is filled with awesome goodness. Every morning I look at her stuff and just feel inspired to create. So today's card was inspired by this little beauty. I love the idea of the tree overlapping the frame. I really love that little tree too, but I'm pretty sure its not in the cards for me this month, so I went through my stamps searching for something that might work. I settled on the limb from Out on a Limb and the leaves from Fall Elegance. I rather like the way it came out. I used a little bit of copper stickles to jazz up the leaves.

Tea Box

Hi there! I have a little tea box here for you today. These little boxes are perfect to hold one or two tea bags. I made a little template for it and you can find that here on an older post. I made my box out of Kraft cardstock. I cut it out and scored it but did not put it together. First I determined where the front of the box would be and stamped the large circle from Borders and Corners Circles (PTI). Then I masked the circle and went to town with Polka Dot basics. Next I die cut and stamped a tea pot on cream. I added a cream sentiment, a snip of chiffon ribbon, a button and a twine bow. A little satin ribbon makes the top pretty. I put the box together with scortape. All supplies PTI except the ink which is colorbox lime pastel.

With Gratitude

I have been on a patterned paper kick lately. I bought this particular paper well over two years ago and then hoarded it because I loved it so. Now its time to use it up! Today we have mat stack 3 (PTI) stamped with colorbox lime pastel using a stamp from All Booked Up. Inside the mat die I have an image from Round and Round. I double inked the bird to get the color variation. I used a sentiment from Round and Round as well. Its stamped in versamagic turquoise gem. The base is made from Simply Chartreuse cardstock and is tied with Hawaiian shores ribbon. Thanks for stopping by!

Doilies... part deux!

Did you see yesterday's doily making post? Well here is more of the same. I'm addicted to stamping doilies! You can see Betsy Veldman's original post here for more doily making information. The most fun part of doily building is breaking out all those old stamp sets. For this doily I used a few. From Papertrey ink I used: Wedding Day, Boxes, bags and Tags, and Borders and Corners circles. From Waltzingmouse I used: Very Vintage Labels 4.
Here is a close up shot. I used some Ocean Tides buttons and some chiffon ribbon that I picked up for a steal at Tuesday morning. The mat is some old Tres Jolie paper, I have had it forever. The base is Dark Chocolate cardstock. The doily was made on Rustic cream.

Here's an inside shot. Clean and simple. This is going to be the anniversary card for my husband. We will be celebrating 15 years in a few short weeks. Thanks for stopping by!

If I Can Make a Doily....

so can you! Have you seen this fabulous tutorial by Betsy Veldman? She tells you everything you need to stamp your own fabby little doily. Its kind of addicting once you get started. For my doily I used these stamp sets: Spooky Sweets 2 (biggest circle), Wedding Day (inner circle), Guidelines two ( middle portion under and around the button), Borders and Corners circle (scallop), the little design inbetween the scallops is from Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Labels. The little dottie stamp is from Wedding Day. Love making all those stamps work together! I stamped them in dark chocolate on rustic cream paper. The pp are really old My Minds Eye papers. The ribbon was a buck from Tuesday Morning. So what are you waiting for? Go read Betsy's tutorial and give doily making a try!

Another Owl

Good morning friends! Today I have a card using the mat stack 3 die and stamp (from PTI All Booked Up) and Wise Owl. If you have been here before then you probably now how much I love Wise Owl. Today's card uses an Aquamist base (PTI) and some super yummy patterned paper from Echo Park. The mat stack is cut out of Vintage cream (PTI) Some of my pp was cut using the XL rick rack die from PTI. The owl was stamped on Kraft and shaded with my copics. The bow is orange zest satin ribbon.

Owls Like Books!

Good Morning! I have a couple of new things to show you today. I hope you like them. I was a busy little bee at my craft table yesterday. I am making bookmarks for the first day of school. I am hoping that my fellow teachers will like them as much as I do. These bookmarks are so easy too, with a little help from the PTI bookmark die.I cut the bookmark out of Aquamist cardstock. The patterned paper is brand new and from a company called EchoPark. I had never heard of them before. I picked it up at my LSS. The owl on the bookmark is from Hero Arts. The sentiment is from PTI All Booked Up. The scalloped circle is from PTI Boxes, Bags, and Tags.
Here I have a little card you could give away with the Bookmark. I have a variety of stamps on here as well. The owl is from PTI Wise Owl. The little flower is from With Sympathy. One sentiment is from All Booked Up and the other is from Wise Owl. I have more pp from Echo Park and an aquamist base. Its double sided paper. The trees have that wavy brown on the back and the flowers have the green polka dot. Thanks for stopping in today!

Larkspurs

I made this card using PTI's Year of the Flowers: Larkspurs. I'm not sure how I feel about these Larkspurs. I bought them because I have all of the other YOF series but I dont feel the love for them that I have for the violets or the daffodils or the roses. Maybe they will grow on me. This card utilizes an Enchanted Evening base. The mat and ribbon are scarlet jewel. I used scarlet jewel ink on the sentiment as well. The sentiment is from one of the Fillable Frames sets. The larkspurs were colored with my copics.

You Did It!

Hi there! I apologize for the extended absence. We were out of town for a bit, visiting my mom and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. But now we are home and I have three new sets of Waltzingmouse stamps that need my attention and a bunch of PTI stamps that still need to see ink so hopefully I will have more cards up this week.
Today I have another Penny Black Card. The image is from the Toadily set. I just love these frogs, they are so fun to color. The rest of the card is very basic: Spring Rain cardstock, K and Co. patterned paper (old!), some spring rain ink. I have a nice lined envie courtesy of my PTI envie die. Thats all there is to it! Thanks for stopping by.