Paper Girl

365 Cards: Stripes and Bold Colors

Hello!  This week at 365 Cards, we're playing with SRM Stickers.  I'm featuring 2 of their Birthday stickers on my card today.  For our challenge today, we're reaching back to a year ago and using last year's challenge of stripes and bold colors.  Pam is adding a little twist to things for this year's version and she's limiting us to only 4 different colors!  I didn't really think that was going to be a challenge until I pulled out my various papers with bold colored stripes and realized they all had more than 4 colors.  Grrr...now I have to MAKE my own striped paper!  (not that I really minded...I love to make my own patterned paper!).

I used two different PTI sets to create the stripes - Distressed Stripes and Faux Ribbon.  I just alternated colors and then trimmed down the paper to the size I needed.  I used the same colored cardstocks throughout the rest of the card to really tie it all together. 

The SRM stickers are the round "Birthday Girl" label and the strip of "make a wish".  I placed the round sticker on white cardstock, then used a circle punch the same diameter as the sticker (1-1/4") to punch it out, which makes it not really appear like a sticker.  I followed suit with the strip of "make a wish" and placed that on some Raspberry Fizz.  I trimmed that down to the edge of the sticker to lose it's edge.  Pretty cool, huh?

I have to admit, I'm not really a sticker girl.  I feel like I'm cheating!  BUT, I also have to admit....I LOVE these stickers!  SRM was very generous in what they sent us DT members and I'm really grateful.  These stickers don't feel like "typical" stickers.  These are some high quality stickers and if you are like me and don't lean towards using stickers...give these a try.  I promise you'll like them!  It's very easy to do like I did and place them on your cardstock (any color, since they're clear, which I LOVE) and just trim down to the edge...no one will realize they're stickers!  I also love that they're matte - they're not shiny at all.  Very classy. 

That's it for me today!  I'm looking forward to the weekend - it's supposed to be really nice here in Connecticut.  I'm taking tomorrow off from work and the boyfriend and I are heading into NYC to visit the Botanical Gardens and to meet up with one of his college friends for dinner.  Neither of us has ever been to the Botanical Gardens so I'm really glad the weather is going to be nice!  Hope you have a nice weekend as well!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Hawaiian Shores, Stamper's Select White, Raspberry Fizz, True Black  (Papertrey Ink); Crushed Curry (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Stamps: Faux Ribbon, Distressed Stripes (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, True Black (Papertrey Ink); Crushed Curry (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Accessories: Stickers (SRM Stickers)
  
• Tools:  1-1/4" circle punch (Marvy); Scalloped Circle punch, 1-3/8" circle punch (Stampin' Up!)
  

Happy Birthday!

Today is my boyfriend's birthday, so of course I had to make a card for him!  And now, I'm going to share it with all of you :). 

I don't know about you, but creating manly cards is not that easy!  No bows?  No frilly ribbons?  No FLOWERS!?  So, I spent awhile trying to think about what to do, but when I started working on it, it sort of just came together for me really quickly.  I am usually not that crazy about the masculine cards I come up with, but I have to admit, I'm really liking this one!! 

I used a piece of natural cardstock from Stampin' Up! for the base.  I'm not really sure if they still sell that, I bought it years ago and love to pull it out every now and then.  I like the slight pattern the natural cardstock creates...almost like specks of vanilla beans in vanilla ice cream.  I used a scrap piece of light blue cardstock and stamped, in Dark Chocolate, the diamond pattern from PTI's Argyle stamp set.  I layered that on some Dark Chocolate cardstock for my main layer. 

I then used a scrap piece of Kraft, ran it through my Big Shot with PTI's woodgrain impression plate, then inked up the edges and top with both tea inks (from PTI).  I rounded 2 of the corners for a little something-something.

Prior to attaching my layers, I added a couple of leaf images (since we love the outdoors and hiking) to the top portion.  To make them subtle, I first stamped them off on a scrap piece of paper before stamping on my cardbase.  Finally, I added the "Happy Birthday" to round it off.

After attaching the woodgrain piece to the blue diamond layer, I wrapped twine around the left side.  I attached that to my card base and finished off with some rustic woodgrain buttons.  I love those buttons.  Seriously, what other buttons can you get away with on a guy's card!?

I also dressed up the inside just a bit, so here's a peek inside and at the coordinating envelope:

The sentiment stamp came from PTI's Birthday Basics set.  I was going to put a layer of some of the coordinating paper from the front of the card, but then I realized that wouldn't leave me any room to right anything, so I left that off and just added some more leaf stamps.  I can write over those if I need to!

Well, that's it for me!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Dark Chocolate, Kraft  (Papertrey Ink); Sky Blue (Stampin' Up! - retired), Natural Cream (Stampin' Up! - possibly retired)
  
• Stamps: Masculine Motifs, A Little Argyle, Birthday Basics (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Ink: Dark Chocolate, Tea Inks - Chai and Chamomile (Papertrey Ink); Old Olive (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Accessories: Twine, Buttons (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Tools:  Woodgrain Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink); Round Corner Punch (Fiskars)
  

365 Cards: Repetition is Key

Hello!  Are you ready for today's 365 Cards challenge?  I hope so!  It's a fun one!  Since we're dealing with repetition today, you need to use a word and an image at least 3 times on your card.  I got to play around with the Birthday Fun set from Cutting Cafe and this is what I came up with:

This was fairly easy to put together, thanks to the ease of using the Birthday Fun set!  I printed the Happy Birthday image onto yellow and white cardstock.  For the white one, I colored in the letters for "Birthday" and trimmed those out.  I layered those on the yellow copy and set that as my main layer on the card front.  Next I printed out the hat border, colored it in with Copics and layered that on top of some scallop borders.  From there, I just added a strip of DSP in coordinating colors and put it all together!  Makes for a festive birthday card, I think!

Are you ready for the weekend!?  Speaking of birthdays, it's my guy's birthday this weekend, so I'll be busy with birthday activities!  I'll be posting this birthday card on Saturday, so hop back by for a little visit!

Have a great weekend!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Real Red, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf, Lemon Tart, Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
• Designer Series Paper:  Beautiful Blooms (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Digital Stamps: Birthday Fun (The Cutting Cafe)
  
• Ink: N/A
  
• Accessories: Copics
• Tools:  Small Scallop Border die (Papertrey Ink)
  

365 Cards: It's So You

Hello!  I'm back today with my 365 Cards Thursday challenge card.  Today's challenge is all about YOU!  Make a card that reflects your personality.  We're still having fun with KLM Design images this week, so I decided to use the flower image since I love flowers!  Here's my card:

I love color, so that was the main thing I wanted to use on this card and that worked perfectly with the flower image.  I like to wear color - not black or other neutrals (well, I do wear black pants, but I'll pair it with a colorful top!), so I wanted to get that across in the card.  I also love to wear accessories - necklaces, earrings, cute purses, etc.  That drove the decision to use a button & ribbon to add on that extra bit of 'something, something'.  The tone on tone dots are to show that I'm usually rather quiet (especially in crowds) and would rather listen and observe than be the chatty center of attention.  The red grid is for two characteristics - red is my favorite color and I tend to be fairly organized, so the grid seemed a good representation for that trait!

This is a fun challenge!  I can't wait to see what you come up with as representative of your personality!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Stamper's Select White, Kraft, Sweet Blush, Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Stamps: Background Basics: Geometrics, Polka Dot Basics II (Papertrey Ink); Flower (KLM Designs)
  
• Ink: Pure Poppy, True Black (Papertrey Ink); Versamark
  
• Accessories: Ribbon, Button, Twine (Papertrey Ink)

365 Cards: Insect Frenzy

Oops....I'm just a wee bit late in getting this posted!  My apologies!  This week has just slipped by and since I'm taking tomorrow off from work, last night I kept thinking it was Thursday and it just didn't occur to me to get this written.

But, better late than never, right!?

Today's 365 Cards challenge is a little buggy!  Pam wants you to put 3 different kinds of insects on your card and you must have at least 10 insects in total!!  Here's my buggy creation using this oh-so-lovely Ippity stamp:

 

Now, you guys know that Pam's challenges are just that...this is no cupcake challenge site!  And yes, she even stumps us on the DT from time to time. 

This one, however, had me almost emailing her telling her that it just wasn't going to happen (and I've NEVER done that for a challenge!).  Talk about last minute sheer panic!  My panic stemmed from the fact that I don't have that much insect themed stuff.  Of the stamps I do have, they were all of various sizes, so trying to do some kind of scene with that just wasn't going to happen.  That's why I finally settled on creating a background designer paper, using the few insects stamps I have on hand.  That way, it wouldn't matter if they were of different sizes. 

Whew!  Disaster averted!

Let's talk about this Ippity stamp for a second...can I just say I LOVE it!  When I opened the envelope Pam sent me, I was thrilled with this stamp!  I love how it's a flower, but.....it's also a bunch of little butterflies!  How fun!

I initially stamped the flower part in Red, then lightly stamped it on a post-it note.  Then I took a Red Stampin' Up! marker and colored in the center and slightly up the "petals".  Then I just used a green marker to color the stem. 

For the background paper, I just randomly stamped my 3 different insects on my cardstock using Versamark so it's subtle and not too overpowering. 

I used 2 PTI border dies - the new eyelet border and the large scallop border.  Prior to using the scallop border, I stamped my woodgrain stamp onto Kraft paper using Tea Ink for a subtle woodsy look.  For the eyelet border, I threaded some ribbon through the holes to tie in some of the green color (and just because it's kinda fun!).

And that was pretty much it! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Stamper's Select White, Kraft, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Old Olive (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Stamps: Background Basics: Woodgrain, Honey Bees, Masculine Motifs (Papertrey Ink); Flower (Ippity Stamps)
  
• Ink: Pure Poppy, Tea Ink (Papertrey Ink); Versamark
  
• Accessories: Stampin' Write Marker - Real Red and Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)
• Tools:  Eyelet Border die, Large Scallop Border die (Papertrey Ink)
  

365 Cards: Setting the Scene

Hello!  It's Some Odd Girl week at 365 Cards! Are you loving all the sponsors lately?  I hope so!  The DT has certainly been having fun.  We have even more in store for you over the next several weeks - Pam has been a busy girl :).  But..onto today's challenge.  The challenge is to "Set the Scene" and the scene is "Go on a Picnic"!

 

This is Some Odd Girl's Lounging Caylee...isn't she a cutie!?  I printed her on my cardstock, colored her with Copics, then trimmed her out.  For the blanket, I hand drew and cut it out of some scrap cardstock.  The trick to making this work is that you can't just use a regular rectangle.  You have to work in a little perspective (i.e. the back edge of the blanket isn't as wide as the front edge).  This gives it some depth.  After cutting that out, I created the plaid pattern with PTI's Distressed Stripes and aged the edges a little.  For the grass, I just tore off the edges of 2 pieces, then inked it up with the same color ink.  I dragged the surface of the inkpad across the cardstock to make it a little "grassy".  And finally, for the picnic basket, I used PTI's Vintage Picnic for her little snack.

With the weather getting nice, a picnic in the park might not be a bad idea!  Enjoy your day & thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery, Kraft (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Stamps: Distressed Stripes, Vintage Picnic (Papertrey Ink); Lounging Caylee (Some Odd Girl)
  
• Ink: Rich Cocoa (Tsukineko); Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!); Hibiscus Burst (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Copics
  

Anyone want Ice Cream?

Happy Friday!  When I first saw the Ice Cream stamp set in the new Stampin' Up! Summer Mini, I knew I had to have it.  I know it's one I probably won't use on a regular basis, but I just really loved it, so it'll get some love from time to time. 

I put this card together the other night, for no other reason than I wanted to give this set a try.  I'll hang onto it, though.  I have a few friends with summer birthdays, so they might just get this sweet birthday card.

 

I stamped my ice cream cone onto my white cardstock.  I also stamped on the ice cream scoop, but without any detailing.  I stamped the scoop onto a piece of scrap cardstock, only this time I used the "ripple" stamp that comes in the set to add a little dimension to the ice cream.  To do this, I stamped my ice cream scoop on my ink pad, then lightly stamped it onto a post it note.  Then, I inked up the "ripple" stamp and without re-inking the ice cream stamp, I stamped the ripple directly onto the rubber of the ice cream scoop.  Finally, I stamped the ice cream scoop onto my scrap piece.  This gave it the ripple effect (you may have to click on the picture to see it larger if you're curious about the "ripple")!  I cut that out and topped it on my ice cream cone with a dimensional.

The yellow piece was embossed with the Lattice impression die from PTI using my Big Shot.  And finally, the pink card base was spruced up with some giant polka dots in the same color ink as the cardstock.  You gotta love a little tone-on-tone action!

Now, who's ready for some ice cream?  We've recently discovered a fantastic homemade ice cream place near me!  They have some really creative flavors (I tried Cookie Monster...and yes, it was blue!).  Two of their flavors that I just want to sample, is avocado and butter popcorn!  I don't want to order them because I really can't imagine liking them, but I am curious as to how they taste! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink); Pretty in Pink, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II (Papertrey Ink); Sweet Scoops (Stampin' Up! - Summer Mini)
  
• Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Tools:  Lattice Impression die (Papertrey Ink)

365 Cards: Buttons & Bows

Is it really Thursday already?!  I, for one, am very glad...it's been a loonnnngggg week!  Bring on the weekend!!  This week, you may have noticed the DT at 365 Cards has been playing with some fabulous images from Digi Doodle Shop.  For today's challenge, it's all about the buttons & bows, which goes perfectly with my vintage hat image!  Your challenge today is to use 4 buttons and 4 bows on your card.

 

My buttons are a little hard to see since I used black buttons on top of black cardstock, but I did that on purpose.  I really wanted the hat to take center stage and I felt introducing 4 colored buttons would detract from the image.  The black buttons add a little something, but don't take away from the overall card. 

After printing my image, I colored it in with my beloved Copics.  I was really seeing the green on black, so I layered the hat piece onto black cardstock.  For the green layer, I used a new embossing folder from Stampin' Up! called Square Lattice.  I LOVE this pattern!  The pattern on the back is slightly different, so you really get 2 in 1!  For the scallops, I used PTI's large scallop border and my new favorite background stamp by Impression Obession for the mini leaves.  I really wanted to use green embroidery floss for the bows in the buttons, but alas, I didn't have any that color.  So, I pulled the pink out from one of the flowers in the hat and used that for my bows.

I have been able to get a few other projects done lately, so I'll be sharing a few more things over the next week.  Tomorrow, I have a card to share that uses another new stamp set from Stampin' Up! and it's just in time for summer! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, True Black (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Stamps: Hat (Digital Stamp by Digi Doodle Stamps); Greenery Background Stamp (Impression Obsession); Vintage Picnic Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Ink: True Black (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Accessories: Ribbon, Buttons (Papertrey Ink); Embroidery Floss (DMC)
  
• Tools:  Large Scallop Border die (Papertrey Ink); Copics; Square Lattice Impression Folder (Stampin' Up!)
  

365 Cards: The 3 L's

Hello friends!  Today's 365 Cards challenge is continuing Pam's theme this week of picking 3 words beginning with the same letter to add as elements on your card.  My letter is "L" and the three words she selected are: Love, Leaf, and Lace.  Here's what I came up with:

 

Do you see my 3 L's?!

• Love:  The sentiment in the bottom right corner says "Live Laugh Love", so there's my Love (and I thought it played along with Pam's theme of 3 L's!).
• Leaf:  There are leaves galore on this card!  I wasn't sure if I was only supposed to use one leaf or if I was free to go with many leaves.  I embraced my inner Gloria & Rose and went with lots and lots of leaves! 
• Lace:  This part initially concerned me because I didn't think I had any lace!  Since it was 10:00 in the evening and I was close the deadline, I was thinking I might have to make some lace! (from paper, not actually knitting/crocheting it!)  Fortunately, I spied a small bit of this in my ribbon stash and sighed with relief. :)

Here are the details on how I made this card...

I started out with some scrap green cardstock.  I used this great background stamp I recently bought from Impression Obsession called Greenery.  It's huge so it covers an entire card front in one swoop!  I rounded off the corners then moved on to the Kraft piece.  Since the lace can make the card pretty frilly/girly, I used the Kraft piece to balance it out.  I dragged my dark chocolate ink across the card to give it a little bit of a rustic effect.  I thought this also worked well with the leaf/nature aspect of the card.  I stamped my sentiment in the bottom corner.  The center shape is from one of PTI's latest dies - Mat Stack 1.  I added a stamp of scrolls using one of the stamps from their Anniversary set and heat embossed it in white.  The center leaf circle was stamped in green and punched out with a 1-3/4" circle punch.  Finally, I cinched up the lace by threading some embroidery floss through the top and pulling it until it ruffled slightly.  I secured that to my card layer with strong tape, then topped it off with some Dark Chocolate grosgrain ribbon.

That's it for me today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Hawaiian Shores, Stamper's Select White, Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Stamps: Round & Round - Anniversary Set (Papertrey Ink); Greenery Background Stamp (Impression Obsession)
  
• Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Dark Chocolate, Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Accessories: Ribbon, White Embossing Powder (Papertrey Ink); Lace (unknown); Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Tools:  Mat Stack I die (Papertrey Ink); 1-3/4" circle punch (Marvy)
  

Birthday Boy!

The other day I actually had some spare time to get crafty - that's become a rare indulgence these last few months!  I had a few new sets from the recent PTI release that was just calling to me, so I decided to play with one of my favorites - Enjoy the Ride.

 

I just love that car!!  I stamped the outline first, then filled it in with the solid stamp included in the set.  I then stamped the "Birthday Boy" sentiment in the license plate and added some clear rhinestone brads for headlights.  I used the new Argyle background set (love, love, love this set!) to create the first patterend background and polka dot basics II to create the second piece of patterned paper.  I threw in some scallops and roughed up edges. 

I'm planning to give this card to my friend's son who turns 1 year old at the end of May (so I'm really early on this one!).  So, even though I've used some jewel brads and scallops, the fact that he's only 1 means he won't be too offended by the 'girly' touches (hey, the card is more for mom at this age, right!? ;) ).

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm hoping to carve out a little more crafty time over the next week (who needs a clean house anyway!?), so maybe, just maybe I'll have another post or two before my Thursday card next week!

Have a great weekend...

Supplies:

• Cardstock: Hawaiian Shores, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Kraft, Melon Berry (Papertrey Ink)
• Stamps: A Little Argyle, Enjoy the Ride, Polka Dot Basics II (Papertrey Ink)
  
• Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Melon Berry, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink); Espresso (Tsukineko Memento)
  
• Accessories: Rhinestone Brads - Pretties Kit, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)
  
• Tools:  Medium Scallop Border die (Papertrey Ink)