PWP Sketch Challenge #13

I'm just popping in today to post this month's sketch for Pages With Papertrey, which I designed myself.
Here's the sketch:

And here's the layout I made with it. I know, it's a Christmas layout, but with the colours of Jonah's & Sage's clothes, I decided to go with some non-Christmas patterned paper.

I used PTI cardstock (rustic white), stamps (alpha-blocks, tremendous treats Christmas), button and dies (alpha-blocks, seeing stars, tag sale #5). The patterned paper is Echo Park, the two pre-printed tags are Crate Paper and the twine is My Mind's Eye.

Here are a few close-ups:

The "Christmas" stamp is from Tremendous Treats: Christmas, which I cut off from the "merry" for this week's Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink: Cutting Stamps. They were just too close together to successfully selectively ink.

I just wanted to share how I made the pocket for my tag. I'd adhered my photo collage (matted with white cardstock) to my layout. Then I removed the photo of Sage and drew two lines, one above and one below the tag.

Then I sewed over the two lines with my sewing machine. I didn't care that I was sewing down the one tag, since it's stationary anyway.

Then, I can slip my tag in and out of it's pocket to read the journaling.

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!

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. So, I started back to work yesterday. I had a fairly good day. Most of my classes were grade nine, so it was interesting to see what they'd try to get past me. It's funny because they think I'm new... but it's them that are new! LOL!

2. I got some happy mail yesterday: 4 of my cards got requested for publication in the February 2013 issue of Cards and 3 of my cards and 4 layouts got requested for the Create: Stamping issue. Then, I got an email from Susan Opel at Papercrafts Magazine, requesting two of my cards for the March/April 2013 issue! I was quite over the moon (& quite busy, too, packaging everything up to send away!)

3. Speaking of Papercrafts, this was posted on Facebook this week:

I'm not sure when it will be released, but there's my card on the cover!

Here's a close-up of it:

I'd used Papertrey Ink cardstock (pure poppy, rustic cream), stamps (happy day, bb: chevron stripes), buttons, twine and die (happy day).

4. I've been trying to squeeze in some time in my craft room this week, getting ready for my fundraising crop next weekend. I usually put water bottles out at each place, so I borrowed my friend, Mandy's wine bottle tag, thinking that I could dress them up a little and say thank you for coming at the same time. I decided to go with a fall theme, for the latest Papertrey Princess that Lauren posted. Here are the first three that I made:

I also used Papertrey Ink cardstock (classic kraft), patterned paper (dearest jane), stamps (leaf prints, counting my blessings) and dies (counting my blessings).

Here are some close-ups:

For this last one, I selectively inked part of a sentence from Wonderful Words Additions and then I cut apart my "I'm here for you" sentiment from Think Big Favorites #4 for this week's Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink: Cutting Stamps.

5. Well, tomorrow is Sage's birthday party, so I need to work on making a banner for her party and making her a cake shaped like a sewing machine.

Thanks for looking!

Baking & stamping

We have an apple tree in our backyard, so lately, I've been busy making different apple recipes: apple crisps, apple sauce, three apple pies, some apple pie pockets (that I made combining this recipe and this recipe. I made some shaped like apples and others rectangular) and apple nut muffins.

I've got to say, though, I used to enjoy baking a lot more when I could eat it! LOL!

I also made a couple more batches of butter crunch. These are for the secretaries at the school where I substitute teach. I start back on Thursday, so I thought I'd make some tags to "pretty them up" a little...

For the tags, I used this week's Make it Monday at Papertrey Ink: Cutting Stamps.

Here are close-ups of each one:

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (delightful doilies, wonderful words, happy day) and die (tag sale #3). For the MIM technique, I cut out the "year" from the "New Year's" stamp in Happy Day. I also cut apart some of my Wonderful Words sentences to make it easier to stamp just these words.



I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (fancy flourishes, movers & shakers sentiments, wonderful words, happy day) and die (tag sale #3). Again, I used  the "year" that I'd cut out from the "New Year's" stamp in Happy Day & some of my Wonderful Words sentences.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (leaf prints, happy trails, fillable frames #9) and die (tag sale #3).  I'd actually cut apart my stamp from Fillable Frames #9 last week to make some gift tags for my kids' teachers (see this post), so I decided to use it again, but this time, I paired it with the sentiment from happy trails that says "just a note" (I didn't cut that stamp apart though, since it was easy to selectively ink.)

Thanks for looking!

It's that time of year...

Not only does September mean back to school, but it also means Sage's birthday. And while her birthday isn't until the 19th, she doesn't want to have her party on a Wednesday, so it's either the weekend before (so, this next weekend) or two weekends after, because I'm busy with my Crop for the Congo on the weekend after her birthday.

Not being a patient girl, she picked next weekend. ;)

We went down into my craft area yesterday afternoon to make some invitations. I let her pick the colours (pink, pink and more pink!). We were originally going to have a sewing theme, but have now changed it to a crafting party: we'll be making felt flowers for headbands and some door-hangers. But, in the theme of sewing/crafting, we decided to incorporate some of these elements into our invitations.

Here they are:

We used Papertrey Ink cardstock (vintage cream, raspberry fizz), stamps (button boutique, simple sentiments) and dies (button boutique, button-up). The patterned paper is Echo Park.

We made five in all, but they're all pretty similar. Sage did the diecutting and the stamping of the buttons, as well as poking out the holes in the diecuts. I did the trimming, adhering, stamping of sentiment/frame) and sewing. It was a good team effort!

Thanks for looking!

Five for Friday

1. Austin got baptized on Sunday.

I meant to take a photo in the sanctuary afterwards, but after visiting with well-wishers and then being hurried home to get lunch ready for our guests, I quickly set Austin up in front of a tree and took this one.

He is by no means perfect (and he'd probably drive me nuts if he was!), but I'm so proud of the young man he's becoming. He's making some great choices and so far, the teen years are looking pretty good!

2. It's back to school this week....  so we had our 2nd Annual Back-to-School feast on Tuesday evening, complete with make-your-own-pizza, baked doritos, watermelon and a chocolate cake for dessert.

To get off on the right foot with their new teachers, we made some butter crunch to hand out. Between the three of them, they have 11 teachers. Crazy! Here are a few of the treat bags...

I used Papertrey Ink stamps (Happy Trails, fillable frames #9) and dies (spiral notebook, happy trails.) The ribbon is Offray & the patterned paper is Scenic Route.

Jonah and Austin started back to school with their staggered entrances on Wednesday afternoon and Sage on Thursday. Usually, I've taken a shot on the front steps of the three of the, but this year, I decided to take some individual shots to change things up a little.

Here's my new fifth grader:

My new eighth grader:

And my new third grader:

So, we've met the teachers and are off to a great new school year! I start back on Thursday, where I'll be subbing choir at the high school that morning.

3. In getting ready for school, we've made a few online orders from Old Navy and Children's Place for some new clothes for the kids. I also went shopping the other day and picked up a few new things at Reitman's... I got this top (which I also got in solid red and solid black-- they had them buy one get one half price), as well as $40 black cardigan with the same length of sleeves for $12.50 and a fabulous red, black, grey and white scarf.... I love it so much, it almost makes me want to go back to work! LOL!

4. I've been getting ready for a fundraising crop I'm hosting later this month. It's to raise funds for my upcoming mission trip to the Congo with a team from my church. I serve as the team translator for French.

If you're local and interested in coming to my crop, the dates are Friday, Sept. 21 & Saturday, Sept. 22 and the cost is $40, which includes snacks, door prizes and lunch on Saturday. Feel free to email me for more details at pennercl@mymts.net.

5. And I have been able to carve out some crafty time in my scrap area. I don't have anything to share right now, but I'm hoping to get a tutorial made for the supersized herringbone technique that I posted last week, as per several requests and post that soon.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for looking!

A few more garlands...

I have a few more projects that I made using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Making Garland to share with you this evening...

The first one is a layout that I made, using some Crate Paper goodness:

I used Crate Paper patterned paper, tags and chipboard. I also used Papertrey Ink twine, stamps (bb:herringbone, framed out #1) & dies (modern alphabet uppercase, chevron stripes border, seeing stars). The alphabet stamps are Studio Calico.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And, with the kids starting school this week (Wednesday afternoon for the boys, Thursday morning for Sage and then they all go all day on Friday), I thought I should make some tags for the treat bags I'll be sending along.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (stamper's select white), stamps (tag it's #6), twine and dies (tag sale #3, chevron stripes border). The patterned paper is Basic Grey (banners) and Crate Paper.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (stamper's select white), stamps (happy trails, fillable frames #9) and dies (tag sale #3, happy trails). The patterned paper is Scenic Route.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (aqua mist, stamper's select white), stamps (happy trails, framed out #1) and dies (tag sale #3, happy trails, tiny tags).

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (stamper's select white), stamps (happy trails, framed out #1, fillable frames #9) , twine and dies (tag sale #3, chevron stripes border, tiny tags). The patterned paper is Basic Grey (banners) and Crate Paper.

And lastly...

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (stamper's select white), stamps (happy trails, fillable frames #9) and dies (spiral note book, happy trails). The patterned paper is Scenic Route.

Thanks for looking!

A special day

This morning, my oldest son, Austin, is getting baptized. I'm so very excited for him!

I still remember the first time I brought him to church. He was one week old and I remember holding him during the praise and worship and feeling so overwhelmingly thankful that Jesus had died not only for me, but also for him, my son.

It's been very cool to watch and encourage Austin's faith journey and now, today, he's taking another step.

In our church, after the person being baptized has shared, we can go up to a microphone and speak to them. I thought it would be best to write out what I wanted to say (otherwise, I might ramble ;) ), so I decided to make him a card and write in it. Then he can always have it.

I made the card using this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Making Garland. For my banner pieces, I'd found a scrap of patterned paper that I had cut with the chevron border dies. So I trimmed off some of the points to make the banners. (I need to remember this in the future-- it was much quicker than cutting out each one with a tag sale #5 die and then trimming them down.)

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white), stamps (beautiful blessings), twine and dies (chevron stripes border). The patterned papers are Basic Grey (banners) and Authentique.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Anniversary PWP!

I can't believe that Pages with Papertrey is a year old! This past year has just flown by! I've really enjoyed posting scrapbooking challenges for my PTI forum friends and have appreciated their participation!

Okay, that was a lot of exclamation points....

So, here's Challenge #13 for PWP: create a layout without using purchased patterned paper.

This is a particularly difficult challenge for me, because I love using patterned paper (& have a large stash to prove it!) However, I've found that it's quite difficult to find purple patterned paper that I like and Sage has a few purple shirts that she likes to wear.... so for this layout, it was easier for me to stamp my own patterned paper for my layout.

I used Bazzill cardstock (kraft, white), Papertrey Ink cardstock (stamper's select white, true black), stamps (on the farm, stitches & swirls, framed out #1), twine and dies (tag sale #5, script alphabet, framed out #1).

Here are a couple of close-ups:

So, if you create a layout for this month's challenge, please leave a comment here with the link or here on the PTI forum, because I'd love to see what you make!

Thanks for looking!

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!