Papertrey February Blog Hop Challenge

Since I've been under the weather the past three weeks, I did not get a chance to seriously think about this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop image here and below, but I love the subtle pinks and greens. Today my DH underwent surgery for a right shoulder total replacement, which made for a long day. I'm squeezing in this challenge card and hope to comment tomorrow after I bring him home from the hospital. 

Because you have plenty of great eye candy, I'm going to keep this short. Besides, I need some rest. It's not one of my favorites, but it does qualifies for the Blog Hop challenge. It's difficult to see but I did stamp the leaf veins using Sweet Blush ink, with some green ink blending of Mint Julep and New Leaf. The sentiment, stamped in Black, was fussy cut and edged with Sweet Blush ink and popped up using SU Dimensionals. Some black rhinestones finished it off. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White and Sweet Blush

Ink: Sweet Blush, Mint Julep, New Leaf and VersaFine Black Onyx

Stamps: Harvest Berries and Graceful Greetings 

Dies: Harvest Berries

Other: Black Rhinestones and SU Dimensionals

PTI MIM #239: Customizing Patterned Paper

Think I'm still recuperating from PTI's 9th Anniversary Celebrations. Have been under the weather ever since and patiently waiting for the arrival of my new goodies. However, Lizzie shared her Make It Monday video on Wednesday here with tips for sprucing up patterned papers with stamps. Other than a beautiful, colorful variety of Bitty Dots, my only other PTI patterned paper is the newer Pure Poppy+White Basics. Had a vision and finally felt well enough to push myself to craft. Here's my first Christmas card for 2016.

Even though it looks black, the dark layer of card stock is Pinefeather. To customize my patterned paper, I stamped the sentiment several times from Stylish Sentiments: Holiday in Pinefeather ink on a  die-cut circle, turning it into a Christmas ornament, which I popped up with SU Dimensionals.

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White and Pure Poppy+White Basics

Ink: Pinefeather

Stamps: Stylish Sentiments: Holiday 

Dies: Nesties Standard Circles, Large

Other: Perfect Pearls Mist, Silver Twine, Micro Glue Dot and SU Dimensionals

PTI 9th Anniversary Day 10: Paper Crafting Alphabet

Ever heard of Paper Crafting Alphabet? Well, you have now as explained here by Nichole from Papertrey Ink. The challenge was to use anywhere from the first three to ALL of the letters in your first or last name. Write the letters in a single column on a piece of paper and use the chart on her blog as a reference for each letter. If you have a "double" letter, skip the duplicate letter and move onto the next letter in your name. Use your first or last name, depending on which one has a more interesting array of letters. If you want to keep things simple, use the first three letters of your name. If you want something more complex and challenging, use all of the letters in your name. Doesn't this sound like fun? Well, it was, and I will use this tool for years to come.

My letters worked out like this, and my card is below:

• K = Kraft Card Stock
• A = Add a border
• T = Tie on some twine
• H = Heat Emboss and image or sentiment
• Y = Incorporate a shade of yellow
• M = Mix together two stamp sets

The obvious is my Kraft card stock base. After heat embossing the stems from Botanical Silhouettes in white, I stamped the blooms using Summer Sunrise. Because it didn't show up too well, I restamped a couple times using my MISTI. Wanting them to shine, I also stamped in VersaMark and heat embossed those in clear. They actually appear more brown so my "incorporated yellow" is Harvest Gold for my add a border. To finish the card, I wrapped the front Kraft panel with white crochet thread/twine, attached a little "Thanks" and tied it off in a bow. The two stamp sets I used are: Botanical Silhouettes and Trendy Tree Tops. This wraps up 10 great days of challenges in honor of PTI's 9th Anniversary. What fun! Now I just hope I win one of the many gift certificates because my "want" list is very, very long and expensive. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Kraft and Harvest Gold

Ink: VersaMark and Summer Sunrise

Stamps: Botanical Silhouettes and Trendy Tree Tops

Dies: None

Other: White & Clear Embossing Powders, SU Window Punch & 1/8" Circle Punch and White Crochet Thread

PTI 9th Anniversary Day 9: Saturday Snail Mail

The 9th day of PTI's 9th Anniversary brought another fun challenge here. We were to create a card for the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G warehouse staff at Papertrey Ink and mail it to them. In additon, they just started a new hashtag campaign, #saturdaysnailmail, for social media such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I'll definitely mail the card and hope to post on Twitter as don't have Instagram or Facebook accounts. This will be an ongoing campaign for Saturdays. We'll see if I remember to do this in the future.

My card pretty much says it all as I truly do appreciate the PTI staff more than they know. They are always willing to respond to customer service inquiries and make things right, wrap and package our goodies safely and quickly, restock items as soon as possible and brightens our day when USPS or UPS drops by with a delivery. Thanks for another great year and look forward to many, many more!

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Enchanted Evening and New Leaf

Ink: Enchanted Evening

Stamps: Layered Banner Banter and Boutique Borders: Thanks

Dies: Edger #3 and Layered Banner Banter

Other: New Leaf Bitty Dot Paper, Corner Rounder and SU Dimensionals

PTI 9th Anniversary Day 8: Color Pop Fortune Teller

Day 8 during Papertrey Ink's 9th Anniversary brings us to another fun challenge on Nichole's blog. Our instructions were to print out the Color Pop Fortune Teller square, fold it according to her detailed instructions and create a project using at least three colors selected using this tool. Before flipping back and forth, we were to pick a number between 2-5 and our birth month (April) for our color scheme. My numbers were 4 and 4, and the "flipped" colors were Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf and Ripe Avocado.

I tried something new to me, and not sure I'd do it again. It was it bit more work than I had bargained for making sure not to overlap color or go outside my margin. First, I die cut the butterfly three times on a 4x5.25" piece of white card stock, that would eventually be placed over my white card base. My ink blending tools using Raspberry Fizz and New Leaf ink pads went to work on the card base. Then I stamped Ripe Avocado butterfly highlights, a few dots using a Gelly Roll Glitter Pen, and my sentiment stamped also in Ripe Avocado. The top piece was then adhered to the card base. Another challenge met as I'm pushing myself to finish two more.

Here's my card:

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White

Ink: Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf and Ripe Avocado

Stamps: Beautiful Butterflies Layers and Boutique Borders: Thanks

Dies: Beautiful Butterflies Layers

Other: Ink Blending Tool and Gelly Roll Glitter Pen

PTI's 9th Anniversary Day 5: Sampler Square Challenge

WOW, this was the challenge of all challenges. In fact, several people posted on the PTI Forum for clarification of the rules. This is for Day 5, and here's Nichole's instructions: "…cut nine 1-1/2” squares from white cardstock, then alter all nine of the squares using a variety of techniques, colors, stamps, etc. Be sure to do something different to each square! "

The first challenge was to decide on a color palette, then which stamps would work well in a 1-1/2" square, and which nine techniques to use so each square would be different. My color palette besides Stamper's Select White is: Harvest Gold, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal and Gray/Silver with bits of Black. Here's what my 5-1/2" card looks like:

Techniques & Products Used Per Square: Top Left to Right

Square 1: Smooshing + Sizzix Embosslit Beautiful Wings

Square 2: Emboss Resist + Beautiful Blooms II

Square 3: Dry Embossing + Picnic Plaid Impression Plate & Jolly Holiday Die

Square 4: White Shadowing + Iconic Images

Square 5: Ink Blending + Stylish Sentiments: Birthday and Scene It: Celebration

Square 6: Inlaid Die Cut + Jolly Holiday Die

Square 7: Silver Dipped Die Cut (& heat embossing) + Harvest Berries

Square 8: Two-Step Stamping + Rosie Posie & Rosie Posie Step 2

Square 9: Ombre Stamping + Ruby Reprise

I know just the friend who will be receiving this because she saves all the cards I send her. She will appreciate the hours I spent creating and designing this. Admittedly, it was a fun challenge but not something I'd make on a regular basis because I just don't mail 5-1/2" cards. I'm an A2 kinda gal!

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Hawaiian Shores, Harvest Gold and SU Going Gray

Ink: Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal, Delicata Silvery Shimmer, VersaMark and White Pigment

Stamps: Rosie Posie, Rosie Posie Step 2, Beautiful Blooms II, Iconic Images, Stylish Sentiments: Birthday, Scene It: Celebration, Harvest Berries and Ruby Reprise

Dies: Jolly Holiday and Sizzix Embosslit Beautiful Wings

Other: VersaMarker, Silver and Clear Embossing Powders, SU Ticket Corner Punch, Corner Rounder, Rhinestones/Gems, Gelly Roll Glitter Pen and Patterned Paper (stash)

PTI Create Along With Us Challenge: February 2016

Create Along With Us is PTI's way of encouraging us to select something the design team has created during their release and create our own version. There are so many beautiful projects it's challenging to decide on one. For something a bit different, I chose Ashley's What The Doodle card and chose something other than a butterfly just to be different. Here's Ashley's card:

And here's mine using Rosie Posie:

And now, thanks to Ashley, I have two more card fronts ready to finish with whatever sentiments I so choose. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Dark Chocolate, Berry Sorbet, Hawaiian Shores and Harvest Gold

Ink: Dark Chocolate

Stamps: Rosie Posie, Grunge Me and Stylish Sentiments: Birthday

Dies: None

Other: Vellum, Sequins & Glue Dots (stash) and SU Dimensionals

PTI's 9th Anniversary Day 3: Grab & Craft Challenge

Already on Day 3 of Papertrey Ink's 9th Anniversary festivities as can be seen here. The challenge was to create a project using supplies we could "grab" in 5 minutes. Can you tell I still had birthdays on my mind? Because I used a Kraft card base, I should have used some richer colors so they would stand out a little more. If I had dies for Scribbled Sentiments, I would have die-cut the middle "happy" in Harvest Gold to add dimension. Think it falls in the masculine category though so all is good. It's readable in real life. : ) Here's my card.

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Kraft

Ink: Berry Sorbet, Harvest Gold, Hawaiian Shores and Dark Chocolate

Stamps: Scribbled Sentiments and Stylish Sentiments: Birthday

Dies: None

Other: Corner Chomper

PTI's 9th Anniversary Day 2: Dress Up Inspiration

With the introduction of Dress-Up Dolls during Papertrey Ink's Anniversary Release, Nichole challenged us to go through our closet or online clothing retailer to select a piece of clothing or outfit to use as an inspiration. Saw some beautiful outfits online and was definitely drawn to the colors in this one.

(Women-Outfits)

Adding to my birthday stash, I came up with a design stamping black stripes on Stamper's Select White. Topped that with a thin black strip and Berry Sorbet as the main color popped up for dimension. This is it.

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Berry Sorbet and Black (stash)

Ink: VesaFine Onyx Black

Stamps: Background Basics: Super Stripes and Birthday Cheer

Dies: None

Other: SU Dimensionals and Black Gems (stash)

PTI's 9th Anniversary Day 1: DT Favorites

The challenge for the first day of PTI's Anniverary celebration here was to choose one of the 13 Color Recipe Cards to create a new project. It took me a while to decide on a color combination because they are all gorgeous. PTI's Design Team is amazing! Here's the one I went with for a birthday card:

Even though there is no way I could do justice like Kay Miller did with this color palette, I wanted to use it anyway. Since we have lots of February and March birthdays, at least I'm building my stash. 

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White

Ink: Sweet Blush (sponged) and Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Scene It: Celebration

Dies: Scene It: Celebration

Other: Zig Clean Color Real Brushes (pink/yellow/orange balloons), SU Old Olive Marker (balloon strings), Black/White Twine, Sponge and Fine Black Sharpie (dots)

PTI MIM #238: Valentine Ombre Stamping

Melissa showed us here how to use Gelatos with Papertrey Ink stamps and dies to create a Valentine Ombre Effect. Since I've only used Gelatos one other time, I just had to participate in this challenge. Besides that, I'm getting warmed up to face the challenges of PTI's 9th Anniversary Celebration and praying I win a prize! Here's my Valentine and it's pretty self-explanatory.

Supplies: (all PTI unless noted)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White and Winter Wisteria

Ink: None

Stamps: None

Dies: Wet Paint Cuts and MFT Stitched Rectangles

Other: Gelatos, Rhinestones, Lifestyle Crafts Embossing Folder-Classics, Metallic Pearl Floss (craft stores)