Three thank you cards

I've mentioned earlier this week that I have some thank you cards to make.... so I decided to tackle all of these using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Making Garland, as well as my My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline 6x6 paper pack. Here are the cards that I made:

In addition to the MME patterned paper, I used PTI stamps (iconic images) and dies (tag sale #5, heart border). The little pearls are Hero Arts.

On this card, I used PTI cardstock (aqua mist), stamps (botanical silhouettes) and dies (love lives here, heart border die -- the negative left over from my first card.)

And for this card, I used PTI cardstock (harvest gold), stamps (communique sentiments) and dies (beautiful butterflies).

Thanks for looking!

It started out as a thank you card...

I have several thank you cards that I need to make, so I decided to make one using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Making Garland.

I'd chosen some papers and then decided to make the garland with my PTI text patterned paper, when I got the idea to use my alphabet dies to cut out the negative from the banners. I could only fit four across.... and the word "love" popped into my head, so I decided to go with that.

Here's my card: 

I used Papertrey Ink text patterned paper (Dearest Jane), stamps (love & marriage), button and dies (tag sale #5, modern uppercase alphabet). The other patterned papers are Crate Paper and the baker's twine is SU!

Thanks for looking!

Making garland

Thanks for all of your kind comments on my herringbone, supersized layout and card. Several people requested a tutorial for how I did it, so I'll see if I can get something done this week for it.

In the meantime, I have several thank you cards that I need to make, so I decided to make some using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Making Garland.

I started with a Crate Paper tag I cut out of a sheet of patterned paper and went from there...

I used Crate Paper patterned paper and Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white, new leaf), stamps (framed out #1, turning a new leaf, botanical silhouettes) and dies (buttoned up, tiny tags).

Thanks for looking!

Herringbone, supersized

I was catching up on my favourite blogs yesterday and noticed that the Crate Paper blog had a new challenge up: a patterned paper challenge. I thought this would be a great chance to try out an idea I've been thinking about lately -- herringbone, supersized.

What do you think?

I used Crate Paper patterned paper and decorative brad. I also used Papertrey Ink felt & dies (notched flower, tag sale #5, modern uppercase alphabet). The letter stamps are Studio Calico. I used some fabric to make one of my flower diecuts for this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Fabric Die Cuts.

Here's a close-up of my journaling & flower:

And, when I was done, I decided to get creative with my scraps and make a thank you card, again for  this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Fabric Die Cuts.

In addition to the Crate Paper patterned paper and decorative brad, I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (sweet strawberry sentiments) and dies (tag sale #5, beautiful blooms II #1).

Thanks for looking!

PTI August Blog Hop

Well, I apologize for being MIA on my blog for the last week & a half... Cameron & I took a little road trip with the kids.... to Nanaimo, B.C.! This was our first time visiting Vancouver Island-- my brother lives there with his wife and we went to celebrate our 40th birthdays together and had a wonderful time!

We got home late Thursday evening, but I was able to carve out some crafty time in the evening last night to make a couple of projects for this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink.

This month's challenge was a photo, along with this description:  This month's inspiration is all about autumn patterns, textures & textiles.  Think warm & cozy woolens, houndstooth, tweed, burlap, felt, corduroy. herringbone and even argyle. 

As much as I love summer and am in no way anxious for it to end, I can't help but look forward to fall, just a tiny little bit, when it means dressing in these wonderful textures! But you know, I can totally wait.... ;)

So, for the blog hop, I decided to make a card using several of these yummy textures. I also decided to go with a beige, grey and soft white colour scheme. Here it is:

I used PTI cardstock (fine finen, smokey shadow), felt (smokey shadow), stamps (happy trails), dies (lovely layers, fabulous frames) and impression plate (simply stripes). I also used some Studio Calico patterned paper and a Crate Paper fabric brad. The one flower die was made with a scrap of fabric, for this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Fabric Die Cuts.

With a few patterned paper scraps leftover from the card, I decided to make a layout, too:

I used PTI cardstock (stamper's select white), stamps (happy trails), dies (edgers #5, Block Alphabet upper and lowercase) and impression plate (simply stripes). I added some texture to the diecut letters by running the cardstock through my Big Shot with the Simple Stripes IP before diecutting them. I also added some Echo Park patterned paper and cut some of the arrows out by hand. They point to where my son is standing in the choir:

And the tab gets pulled to reveal the journaling:

Thanks for looking!

A couple of things to share...

I have a couple of things to share today...

First up is my Pages With Papertrey sketch for August. This month, I chose Sketch #146 from Got Sketch? Unfortunately, I can't post the sketch here on my blog, but if you click on the link, you'll get to see it, along with several fabulous layout by their DT.

(I realize that this is a one photo sketch, but I think it would be really easy to make it a two or three photo layout, just by putting several photos in the space of the large one.)

I decided to scale down the sketch and create a 8.5x11" layout using one 4x6 photo:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (classic kraft, stamper's select white), stamps (think big favourites #17, star prints) and dies (mat stack 4, layerz mat stack 4, seeing stars). I also used My Mind's Eye patterned paper, diecut and brads.

Here's my journaling: "Austin came home from school in May (2012) with the bad news that he had failed a French test on “passé compose.” I talked to his teacher about redoing the test and spent a couple of weeks going over worksheets to help him understand the material and prepare him for the retest. He finally took it on a Thursday in June, after school. When he came home, he acted sad, and asked what I thought he’d gotten on it. I guessed “80%?” because that had been his goal. “No,” he replied, “an 82%!” I was so proud of him!! 

And, as an extra note of good news, he’d also found out that he’d gotten a spot in the Jazz Choir for Grade Eight! A very good day!"

Here are some close-ups:

This layout will go in Austin's 8.5x11 album, right beside the text.

If you make a layout using this sketch, please link it up here in the comments or here on the PTI forum, so I can come and check it out!

And before I go, I wanted to share a card that I'd made that was published in September/October issue of Papercrafts magazine.

Here's my card:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white, spring moss, vintage cream, classic kraft), stamps (Think Big Favorites #3, Background Basics: Woodgrain, Label Basics), felt, button, twine and dies (leaf prints). 

Thanks for looking!

More watercolouring

I love it when a challenge gets me thinking of how I can use my stamps in a new way. This happened to me this week's with Dawn's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Ink Pads as Watercolours.

Because I don't colour with Copics, I tend to buy solid stamps over outline ones. So, I didn't have a lot of options for making projects for this watercolouring challenge. But, as I flipped through my stamp sets, the large tree image in Love & Marriage got me wondering if I could watercolour with it.

Now, I have to say that I was very much inspired by this sneak peek that Nichole posted earlier this week on her blog.

I really liked the tree and loved the little apple added to it. I wondered if I could do something similar with the tree image from Love & Marriage..... and did I have a little apple stamp? Oh, yes, I did, in Tag It's #6. Perfect!

So, here's my card:

I stamped the apple in PTI pure poppy and simply chartreuse on to my cardstock and then I stamped over it with Versamark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then, I inked up my large tree stamp with Versamark and then Hawaiian Shores and stamped it over my apple image. Again, I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then, I trimmed it out, using my PTI pinking shears die along the bottom. After that, I watercoloured it with PTI ink (classic kraft, dark chocolate, spring moss, simply chartreuse). I stamped my sentiment on my background and then ran it through my Big Shot with my Simple Stripes IP. I added the stitching, the baker's twine and adhered my tree image with SU! dimensional adhesive.

We were watching the Closing Ceremonies this afternoon for the Olympics and they played this commercial, which always makes me tear up. I decided that I needed to scrapbook the quote at the end of it, so I chose a photo from Mother's Day last year and made this layout:

I used PTI cardstock (rustic cream), twine and dies (script alphabet). I also used Crate Paper patterned paper, chipboard and fabric brad.

Here's a close-up of my journaling:

For my flower, I stamped it twice with a Basic Grey Hero Arts stamp and Versamark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I used PTI Sweet Blush, Hibiscus Burst and Raspberry Fizz inks to watercolour it. I trimmed them out, one with the full image and the other with just the centre. I layered them and added the brad in the middle. The leaves were stamped with a stamp from the same set and PTI New Leaf Ink.

Thanks for looking!

Flippin' Fabulous...

Well, yesterday, we celebrated my upcoming fortieth birthday (the big day is Tuesday!) I thought I'd share a few photos:

I made a banner for the drinks table in the sunroom. I used PTI cardstock (simply chartreuse, raspberry fizz, hawaiian shores), stamps (wonderful words) and dies (edger's #3, bloom builder's #3, limitess layers squares, modern numbers, flipping out.) I also used Fancy Pants patterned paper.

We took this photo of my friends and me. I'm so thankful for each of them! Left to right: Marlo, Kathy, me, Mandy, Val, Joy & Darlene. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Susan, who came later.

My cake. I made the banners using Fancy Pants patterned paper and my PTI Sunshine dies, which I also used to make some flags for my cupcake toppers:

I also used my Flipping Out dies, along with some punches to make some of the toppers.

And I wanted to share some of the homemade cards I received...

This first one is from Val and I actually made it (you can see my orginal post here.) I had given it to Val, along with 9 other cards, for her birthday (she likes giving away my cards.) I was quite thrilled to get it back, as it's one of my favourites!

My daughter, Sage, gave me this one. I'd stamped the original scene for my birthday invitations, but for my birthday invitations, I'd stamped off the pink for the sky to lighten it. I'd forgotten to stamp it off for this one, but had held onto it... so when Sage said she wanted to make my card, I passed it onto her. I like how she used the Chevron Stripes stamps along the side and those flip flops are diecut from one of my favourite pieces of Crate Paper patterned paper.

My good friend, Marlo, made me this gorgeous card! I love how she used the Striped Impression plate on the aqua mist background., her beautiful flowers she stamped with The Sweet Life and how she used Turning a New Leaf for the stems, and of course, that fabulous vase! She said she stamped it first and then masked it to add the polka dots! Gorgeous!

Mandy made me this elegant card, using the MIM bleach technique a couple of weeks ago! I love how she used the Fabulous Frames die for the sentiment and those Botanical Silhouette blooms look so striking in black!

Susan made me this lovely card using Daydreamer blooms tucked into Mega Gracious Vases diecuts-- I especially love how she used a large stamp from Modern Wood Mats to decorate the vases! So pretty!

And last, but certainly not least, my friend, Kathy, made me this card. She stamped a large flower on the white cardstock, cut it out by hand and layered the negative image over the patterned paper (another Crate Paper favourite of mine!) Because she made the card out of the patterned paper, the yellow gingham on the reverse side is what's on the inside of the card! And that sentiment is great, too!

After all the anticipation and planning for my party, I was so thrilled that it turned out so well! We had such a great time visiting-- it was so relaxed and fun-- lots of laughing, good food and just connecting with my friends!

Thanks for looking!

Pink floral cards

Yesterday afternoon, I went to my friend, Susan's, house, where we sat on her deck in the backyard and stamped while the kids played. It was great!

I'd brought along a few stamp sets and my ink, determined to attempt this week's  Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Ink Pads as Watercolours. Because I didn't have the black ink that Dawn had stamped her images with, I stamped mine in Versamark and then heat embossed them with black embossing powder. I managed to get two card fronts stamped, embossed and watercoloured at Susan's (as well as a third card stamped with The Sweet Life) and then I just made them into cards last night at home.

I used PTI cardstock (rustic white, spring moss), stamps (pretty peonies), buttons, twine and dies (pretty peonies).

On my second card, I used PTI cardstock (rustic white, sweet blush, vellum), stamps (year of flowers: roses (Susan's), Think Big Favourites #12).

And this third card, I stamped at Susan's. It's for my friend's daughter who had a baby. Our church is throwing her a shower, and I offered to make the card.

Seemed like the perfect sentiment to welcome a new baby girl!

I used PTI cardstock (rustic white, hibiscus burst) & stamps (the sweet life.)

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. On Sunday, we took the kids for a walk in the Pembina Valley.

2. I love how creative Sage is! Earlier this week, she decided to make some clothes for her stuffies out of white cardstock and markers-- so cute!

3. In preparation for their taekwondo promotion test, Jonah and Sage got to break some boards in class on Tuesday evening. It was a first for both of them-- and they both broke them using back kicks.

4. On Wednesday evening, they both did super well at their promotion test!

Jonah struggled with breaking with the back kick and ended up switching to an axe kick, where he was successful! So proud of how hard they tried!

5. And on the crafty side...

I wanted to share the card that I made for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger this week:

I was inspired by the different coloured keys, as well as the old fashioned feel of the typewriter. Here's the card I created:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (true black, soft stone, stamper's select white, aqua mist, harvest gold, pure poppy, hawaiian shores), stamps (shutterbug special), impression plate (simple stripes) and dies (modern uppercase alphabet, half & half).

The left over letter diecuts were sitting on my desk, so I decide to make another card with them, using the same stamp set:

I also used PTI banner builder dies & mega mat stack #5, some My Mind's Eye decorative brads and Echo Park patterned paper.

Thanks for looking!

Success!

Jonah's party yesterday was a success! We had fabulous weather at the pool and everyone had a great time!

We came back to our house for cake and ice cream before the guests' parents came to pick them up. In keeping with the fact that Jonah loves dinosaurs, he requested a triceratops cake. Here it is...

And a close-up:

I was pleased with how it turned out. To tell you the truth, it was a little painful to have to cut it up so the kids could eat it! I guess this is why I love stamping and scrapbooking-- my projects all stay intact! LOL!

And now, with Jonah's birthday done, I can get ready for my birthday party this weekend. ;)

I decided that I wanted to have some treat bags to give to my guests, so I made up some Butter Crunch for each family. The theme is "Flippin' Fabulous Forty" -- you can check out my invitations here (it's the second one in that post)--- so I wanted to continue the theme for my thank you tags:

I used PTI cardstock (stamper's select white, raspberry fizz), stamps (think big favourites #5) and dies (flipping out, tag sale #5). The patterned paper is Fancy Pants and the ribbon is Offray.

I ran my Tag Sale #5 die through my machine, but didn't run it right through to the end, so I could make a slightly longer tag without the banner edge on it.

Thanks for looking!