June PTI Blog Hop

Welcome to the June Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. This month's challenge was to use a photo as inspiration. Here's the trigger photo:

And here's my card:

There's something about the photo that reminded me of the patterned paper which I matted on Dark Chocolate cardstock. I stamped the main image on a piece of cardstock that I had cut with PTI's Mat Stack 3 die. To get the two-toned berries, I stamped my image, turned my stamp about 90 degrees and stamped again without reinking. I love the depth that this technique gives the wreath. Finally, I used distress ink around the edges, tied the ribbon and adhered the mat with foam adhesive.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream; Dark Chocolate);

Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket (Honey Pie):

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Wreath for All Seasons):

Inks: Ranger (Coffee); Stampin' Up! (Regal Rose); Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen;

Tools: Papertrey Ink Die (Mat Stack 3);

Ribbon: EK Success

Tuesday Trigger: Rainbow Bright

The inspiration for today's card came from the Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger.

When I saw the trigger, I was immediately drawn to the colors and created this:

This was pretty simple to create. I cut a standard size card out of red card stock and rounded the opposite corners. Then I cut Stampin' Up! Naturals Ivory 1/4-inch shorter on each side. I stamped the various medallions in the inspiration colors, stamped the sentiment, rounded the corners and adhered to the card base. I added a few gem stones for texture. This card should be easy enough to reproduce since I need five "thank you" notes.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Pure Poppy); Stampin' Up! (Naturals Ivory);

Stamps: My Mind's Eye (Stella & Rose);

Ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink;

Tools: EK Success Corner Rounder;

Embellishments: Recollections Rhinestones

Happy Father's Day

I was running low on time and had seven cards that had to be made and mailed by Friday so I took the liberty of casing a clean and simple card designed by Ginger Williams. I made two variations. Here's the one I made for Sal:

With the exception of the card base, all of the papers used on these cards were scraps from a layout I was working on. Here's the design I made for Mark and Melissa to send to their godfathers:

Sometimes clean and simple is the way to go and this was certainly one of those times. I will have lots more cards to share with you this week. Like I said, I made seven cards on Friday and I need to make about ten more this week between birthdays, graduations and thank yous. Yikes! I better get stamping!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! (kraft; Dusty Durango);

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon (Rocket Age); My Mind's Eye (Alphabet Soup);

Stamps: Inkadinkadoo (Happy Everything);

Ink: Stampin' Up! (Blue Bayou);

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities;

Stickers: American Crafts Thickers (Meadow);

Button: Walmart

Thomas the Tank Engine

My great-nephew Thomas is aptly named. At age two, he has developed a love for Thomas the Tank Engine. He pours through the Thomas catalog and books naming every engine and pushes the trains around the track with delight. When designing his birthday card, it was a no-brainer. I had to make a train card. Here it is:

I die cut the train using the Cricut Joys of the Season cartridge. I just love getting double duty out of my supplies and cutting a design for a birthday card from a Christmas cartridge made me feel like I was getting my moneys worth out of this cartridge. I cut the train twice so that I would have two extra cars -- one for each letter of his name. I then cut out letters and adhered them to punched circles. To finish off the cars, I die cut a flourish for the smoke coming out of the locomotive and used silver brads on the wheels. I cut out some clouds from the Graphically Speaking cartridge, stamped the sentiment and then dry embossed them with a Cuttlebug folder. Here is a close-up:

Since the track for this die cut was an oval and I wanted my track to go straight, I improvised and stamped my track using Papertrey Ink's Just the Ticket stamp set.

The card was a big hit with Thomas. Upon opening it, Thomas studied the card then surprised us all by reading the letters of his name. Here he is reading his name:

and posing with his card:

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Supplies

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink;

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce (Scooter's Vacation); Jilllibean Soup (Monster Stew); October Afternoon (Farm Fresh);

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Just the TIcket)

Ink: Ranger (Jet Black):

Tools: Cricut by Provo Craft (Joys of the Season; George and Basic Shapes; Graphically Speaking); Cuttlebug (Swiss Dot Embossing folder);

Embelishments: brads by Making Memories.

Gone Are The Days

I was talking with a friend recently about how I wish there were digital cameras when Mark and Melissa were small. In hindsight, I realize how after the first few years of their lives, the camera mostly came out on special occasions and I rarely took pictures of everyday moments. Today's layout tries to capture some of those everyday moments that my camera didn't. Here it is:

The inspiration for this layout came from this layout by Kelly Purkey:

There are several things that drew me to this layout. First, I loved the aysmmetrical placement of the photo. And I love how she created her title with different fonts. But, I think the thing I loved most was the tone-on-tone scallops that created spots for Kelly's journaling. As you can see, I kept the overall design intact. While I loved the scallops, I felt that they were too feminine for a layout about Mark so I swapped out the scallops for randomly placed punched circles. I stamped the lines on the journaling circles and edged them all with distress ink. I added some circles punched out of corrugated paper for even more texture. I also replaced the pleated ruffle with a Basic Grey border strip which I customized with Perfect Pearls. Here's a close-up:

The journaling reads: Gone are the days

...of Pajama Sam and computer games.

...of playing with Lego and firetrucks.

...of reading Harry Potter together.

...of riding the school bus.

...of not liking chocolate.

...of swimming lessons at the town pool.

...of collecting Pokemon cards

...of watching 101 Dalmations 101 times.

...of Happy Meals and single-scoop ice-cream cones.

...of taking karate classes at CAPE.

To finish off the layout, I added a stamped frame around the top half.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill; Creative Imaginations (Kraft Corrugated Paper);

Patterned Paper and Sticker: Basic Grey (Pyrus);

Tools: Stampin' Up punches (1 3/4 Circle, 1 1/4 Circle, 1/2 Circle, Spiral); Martha Stewart Punch (Scallop 3 Dot Punch Around the Page); McGill (File Tab);

Stamps: Technique Tuesday (Bits & Pieces by Ali Edwards,Everyday Words by Ali Edwards); Papertrey Ink (Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger, All About You);

Letters: Cosmo Cricket Ready Set Chipboard (Licorice); Making Memories (Tiny Alphas);

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Pumice Stone); Ranger (Jet Black); Stampin' Up! marker (Basic Grey);

Misc.: Adirondack Dimensional Pearls (Mushroom)

Hello!

So I thought I would dust off the blog today and actually post a project. I know it's been a long time -- too long in fact -- but sometimes life gets in the way of doing all the things you want to do. That and the weather. Can I just tell you how hard it was to take a decent picture of my projects in May with all the gloomy, grey, rainy days we had here in New York. And then there was the problem with the Internet. Hard for me to live without for a week but nearly impossible for the kids! They felt like they were living in the Stone Ages! Anyway, I am back and although I haven't been posting, I have been creating so I will have a lot to share in the coming weeks.

Today's layout was inspired by a sketch Jen Gallacher created for the March Stretch Your Sketch class over at Two Peas. Here's the sketch:

Here's my layout:

As you can see, I stretched the sketch by using one 4x6 photo (which I trimmed slightly smaller) at the top in place of the two smaller photos. Because the paper was so busy, I converted my photos to black and white, matted the smaller ones and kept my embellishments to a minimum.

I stamped lines directly on my background paper and worked the title right into the journaling. The journaling reads: Melissa, from a very early age, you loved the phone. You would talk on your play phone or ask to say hello! to whoever called. You even pretended to shop by catalog. That's why you were so excited to get your first cell phone in June 2009. Here's a close-up of the journaling block:

Here's the cute phone I cut with my Cricut. I also stamped the dot on the tan piece to give it more texture.

Finally, I added a few heart brads to the layout.

Okay, so in rereading this post, I realize just how much things have changed in Melissa's lifetime. Who shops by catalog anymore? Not me. I am an Internet shopper and proud of it! LOL!

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts;

Patterned Paper: American Crafts (I Heart You); KI Memories Lace Cardstock (Fruit Punch Streamers;

Chipboard: American Crafts Thickers;

Stamps: Hero Arts (Raindrop Background); Papertrey Ink (Mini Scrapbook Series: Library Ledger);

Ink: Versamark;

Embellishments: Martha Stewart baker's twine; Making Memories brads (Mini Hearts);

Tools: Cricut cartridge (From My Kitchen); Fiskars border punch (Scallop Sentiment); Stampin' UP! punch (Photo Corner); McGill punch (File Tab);