Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop - Celebrate the Season

I hope that all of our American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Today, I am playing along with Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop.

 

  

There are so many directions that you could go with this beautiful holiday photo. I was inspired by the turquoise boxes with gold dots, the shimmery white of the tree and the stocking.

  In the closeup you can better see that I coloured the stockings with a Copic marker, gold pen and Wink of Stella on the toes, heels and cuffs.

Supplies:

Stamps - Wet Paint Holiday, Tremendous Treats Holiday (PTI)

Dies - Birthday Cheer, Building Blocks (PTI)

Paper - Neena Classic Crest Solar White CS, Hawaiian Shores CS, True Black CS (PTI), Gold Foil CS (DCWV)

Inks - Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic - BG13, Gold pen, Wink of Stella, VersaMark, White EP

Other - Gold sequins

Papetrey Ink August Blog Hop - Bold Bloom

Hello all, today is the day of Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop. Nichole gave us an inspiration photo with some beautiful colours and texture.

Here is my card:

and here is the inspiration photo:

I created a few watercolour panels the other night with the intent of using one of them as a background for a card. When this particular panel dried, it looked so much like a flower that I decided to make it the focal point. I drew in some lines for petals and stamens (I feel that I should do more but am afraid of ruining it) and stamped the sentiment in Navy ink (I really do need to get myself a Misti - crooked again).

Supplies:
Stamps - Hands of Time (PTI)
Paper - Watercolour Paper (Strathmore), Stampers Select White CS for base (PTI)
Ink - Peerless Watercolours, Outdoor Denim (CTMH)

Papertrey Ink July Blog Hop - Watercolour Wishes

I didn't think I was going to be able to get a card in for this month's hop at Papertrey Ink, but managed to make a quick watercolour card using Kay Miller's method from this past weekend's Stamp-a-Faire event. I was inspired by the colours and the florals in the pillow.

For the first card I created using this technique I used Distress Inks and for this one I used regular dye inks. I prefer the results with Distress Inks, need to get more colours.

Thanks for visiting!


Supplies:
Stamps - The Sweet Life, Hooray (PTI)
Dies - Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers)
Ink - Lagoon, Tulip, Sunset, Baby Pink (CTMH), Versafine - Onyx Black
Paper - 140 lb. Watercolour Paper (Strathmore), Stampers Select CS (PTI)
Other - raindrops (PTI)

PTI June Blog Hop - Peony Hello

Today is the day of Papertrey Inks Monthly Blog Hop challenge. This month Nichole provided us with a pretty inspiration piece of art from Yellena James. What first struck me in this piece was the largest pink transparent element.

Even though this card isn't remotely like anything I started out with I do like how it turned out. I heat embossed the largest flower from Peonies on Parade with white on vellum and lightly painted it with Picked Raspberry and Antique Linen distress inks from Ranger. I die cut the flower and layered it over a second vellum die cut. I inked up the single leaf image from Meadow Greens with Broken China and Peeled Paint distress inks and spritzed with water before stamping on white CS and fussy cut them out. The two frames were die cut from a couple of failed attempts at sponged backgrounds using Broken China, Cracked Pistachio and Peeled Paint inks and I added some more lightness with the Branching Out vellum die cut.

Supplies:
Stamps - Peonies on Parade, Meadow Greens, What the Doodle Feather (PTI)
Dies - Peonies on Parade, Branching Out, Keep It Simple Frames (PTI)
Paper - Stampers Select White CS, white vellum
Ink - Broken China, Antique Linen, Peeled Paint, Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistachio, Versafine Onyx Black, Versa Mark, White EP, black Copic

Papertrey Ink May Blog Hop - Layered Text Over Images

Good morning, it's time for this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink. Nichole has provided us with another great inspiration, this month from the artwork of Sarah Langtry.

I made a couple of cards for this challenge, the one below being my favourite. I don't have a lot of large sentiment stamps that go well together for this challenge, so I went with a smaller sentiment for this card.

 

I created a mask from acetate and stamped the feathers with a combination of stamping off, rock and roll and spritzing the stamps with water before stamping to get a watercolour look. Some of the inky water slipped under the mask in a few spots so I die cut the round frame to cover up. After stamping the sentiment I didn't like the space I had left between the two words so added the grey rhinestones.

The card below is actually the first card I made. Even though I like it, it didn't have the feel I was looking for.

 

Supplies:

Stamps - Card 1 - What the Doodle - Feather, Thank You Kindly, Botanical Silhouettes (PTI)

               Card 2 - The Sweet Life, Birthday Cheer, Filled With Joy, Botanical Silhouettes,

                             Background Basics - Super Stripes (PTI)

Dies - Std. Circles (Spellbinders)

Paper - Stampers Select White CS, Lemon Tart CS

Ink - Various (CTMH)

Other - Rhinestones

Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop - Stacked Circles

Good Morning! Today is the day of Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop. This month Nichole has given us a very interesting photo as our jumping off point. The stacked concentric circles and subtle linear elements inspired me to create this card:

Here is the inspiration photo:

A lot of different ideas popped into my head the first time I saw this picture. After a few failed attempts at different designs I finally came up with one that I liked.

I created a set of masks using full sticky backed post-it notes and my Spellbinders Standard Circle dies. Using these masks I sponged the concentric circles in shades of blue, inking only half to create an invisible line down the center. I used a stitched rectangle die to mimic the dashed lines in the photo, added a die cut silver foil and white heat embossed sentiment.

Supplies:
Stamps - Thank You Kindly (PTI)
Dies - Wet Paint (PTI), Standard Circles Sm (Spellbinders), Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers)
Paper - Stampers Select White CS, True Black CS (PTI), Silver Foil
Ink - Sky, Dutch Blue, Pacifica, Outdoor Denim (CTMH), Versa Mark, White EP

Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop - Embroidery Stitching on Paper

The Papertrey Ink Blog Hop challenge this month is to incorporate embroidery stitching on your paper project. The first stamp set that came to mind for this was Doodlie-do - it has simple images and lines that almost suggest the type of stitches to use. Here is what I came up with- (no sun today so not the greatest picture)

I stamped the image that I wanted to embroider in Soft Stone ink and the rest with Versafine Onyx Black. The sentiment was heat embossed - I did this before I started stitching in case it didn't turn out. Using a straight pin I pierced the holes for the section of the image I wanted to embroider first being careful not to put the holes too close together. I used three strands of floss and worked my way through the image, piercing and stitching each section as I went. I used mainly an outline stitch, french knots and a modified satin stitch. Stitching on paper has it's own unique challenges, you are handling your paper a lot more than usual so you have to be careful, your thread starts to shred a bit after being pulled repeatedly through the paper, so keep your thread fairly short and if you work the paper too much and put too many holes in it you essentially perforate it and your work can fall apart.

I have embroidered on scrapbook pages in the past, and when I first saw this challenge I wondered why I hadn't carried that over onto my cards. After spending I don't know how many hours embroidering on this card I remembered why - it is a huge time investment. This card is going to a very special someone, so it was worth it. I enjoyed the challenge of embroidering on paper, but after doing all of the stitching I was really worried that I would mess up the card in some way I was almost afraid to put it together.

Supplies:
Stamps - Doodlie-Do, Birthday Cheer (PTI)
Paper - Stampers Select White, Soft Stone, Enchanted Evening CS (PTI)
Ink - Soft Stone (PTI), Versafine - Onyx Black, Versamark, Blue EP
Other - embroidery floss (DMC), bitty rhinestones

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop - Merry Christmas Sparkle

Good Morning! Today is the day of Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop. For this month's challenge we had this gorgeous inspiration photo to play with.

 I could have gone in so many different directions and actually started out with a different card in mind but ended up with this design. The photo does not do it justice, I do love how this card turned out.

I first stamped the wreath shape from Rustic Wreath in a dark green - I tried with lighter inks first, but it looks better if you can see the shape of the wreath through the dots. I then evenly spaced the largest dot from Polka Dot basics in a dark teal around the wreath. Next I stamped the light green and light blue with the next smallest dot and using Versa Mark I randomly stamped a smaller dot and heat embossed in silver. Since my light blue ink was stamped last some of the embossing powder stuck to the blue dots but not the green, it is a nice effect. After embossing the sentiment in silver I stamped over the large teal dots with versa mark ink and then rubbed Perfect Pearls over them. Topped it off with a silver foil bow and mat and a scattering of tiny rhinestones.

Supplies:
Stamps - Rustic Wreath, Polka Dot Basics (PTI)
Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI), Silver Foil CS
Ink - Lagoon, Topiary, Pear, Sky (CMTH), Versa Mark, silver EP, Perfect Pearls
Dies - Lil Inkers Bow Die
Other - bitty rhinestones

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop - Christmas Joy

Good Morning all! Today I am participating in Papertrey Ink's October Blog Hop. This month we are challenged to take inspiration from the photo below:

I was inspired of course by the colours red, green and kraft and also by the twine wrapped sprigs of greenery. I had in mind to create a swag of magnolia leaves including some painted silver, however I only had one leaf die that even remotely resembled a magnolia leaf and it was too large to do what I wanted to do. I am happy with the results of my first Christmas card for this season.

I die cut five leaves using the Leaf Silhouettes die, scored them down the middle and inked the edges and center spine with dark green. I glued them down to a narrow strip of brown cardstock and added the jingle bells and twine. I only had natural twine, so I added a few drops of red re-inker to some water in a mister and sprayed the twine. For the jingle bells I took silver bells, painted them with white acrylic paint and sprinkled with prisma glitter. For the background I sponged some white pigment ink onto the edges of the kraft paper and on the left and upper sections of the piece. I spattered some white pigment ink, heat embossed the sentiment and also stamped a few snowflakes.

Supplies:
Stamps - Filled With Joy (PTI), Snow Flurries (CTMH)
Dies - Leaf Silhouettes (PTI)
Paper - Classic Kraft CS, Pinefeather CS, Stampers Select White CS (PTI), DP (CTMH)
Ink - Versa Mark, White EP, White Pigment Ink, Ponderosa Pine, White Acrylic paint, Tulip re-inker
Other - Twine, jingle bells

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop - Chalkboard Technique

Good Morning! Today I have a card for Papertrey Ink's September Blog Hop which you can find here. The challenge is to use the chalkboard technique and the inspiration photo below.

I am not really happy with my results but I have run out of time to try again. So here it is:

Supplies:
Stamps - The Sweet Life, Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Inside & Out - Well Wishes, Stacked Sentiments, Wonderful Words: Birthday (PTI)
Paper - Fine Linen CS, Terracota Tile CS, True Black CS (PTI)
Ink - Fine Linen (PTI), Sorbet (CTMH), Versa Mark, White EP, White pencil, White Pigment ink
Other - twine, wood stars

Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop - Weaving

Hello all. It has been a while. Today is Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop. Here is the inspiration photo:

Rather than the colours, what spoke to me in this photo was 'texture'. I wanted to include wool in some way in my project and ended up finding this fabulous tutorial on weaving wall hangings, so decided to try to create a miniature wall hanging for my card.

I do love how this turned out. This was actually my test piece, I ran out of time to create another. It was a lot of fun and I plan to do more of it, but probably on a larger scale. The warp strings (vertical) are supposed to be worked into the back of the piece, but on this scale I found hiding the ends a little challenging so I just trimmed them and then glued the piece to heavy cardstock. You can see that the weaving is starting to loosen a bit, so hiding the fibres is probably a better option.

Here is a shot of the frame and work in progress:

Thanks for looking, hope you are enjoying the blog hop.

Supplies: Rustic White CS (PTI), Stylish Sentiments: Birthday (PTI), Stitched Rectangle die (Lil Inkers), various yarns and fibres

Papertrey Ink May Blog Hop - Watercolor Blocks

Good Morning All! It has been a while since I have posted. Today is Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop. The challenge - to create a project inspired by the photo below.

Here is what I came up with.

I used one of the stamps from PTI's Ombre Builders stamp set - love this set. I tried to replicate the variation in colour on the wood blocks, I ended up with more of a marble look, but I am happy with the results. I inked up the stamp with a light version of each colour first and then added a darker shade here and there by either direct to stamp pad or with a sponge dauber.

I made a second card with more random placement of squares.

Supplies:
Stamps - Ombre Builders, Boutique Borders Birthday, Thank You Kindly (PTI)
Dies - Small Sketched Stars, Building Blocks (PTI), Stitched Rectangles (Lil Inkers)
Paper - Stampers Select White CS, True Black CS, Raspberry Fizz CS (PTI), Silver Foil CS (DCWV)
Ink - various dye inks (CTMH), Versa Mark, Silver EP, Black EP
Other - Rhinestones

PTI March Blog Hop

Good Morning all. I didn't think I would get the chance to participate in this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink, but I did manage to find some time this morning to put together a card.

The colours and patterns spoke to me in the inspiration photo above.

 

I used this week's sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch! for my card design. 

Supplies:

Stamps - Wet Paint (PTI)

Dies - Wet Paint, Birthday Style (PTI)

Paper - Stampers Select White CS, Sheer Basics Vellum (PTI), Baja Breeze CS (SU), DP - Teresa Collins

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Other - Silver twine

Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop Take 2 - Hearts and a Retro Sketch

Here is my second card for the blog hop at Papertrey Ink today. For this card I used the sketch at Retro Sketches this week.

For this card I created another heart accent using a die cut heart, liquid glass (I think this product is similar to Crystal Effects) and alcohol ink. I created a Bokeh effect panel for the center of my card - for this I randomly sponged pink and grey ink onto my CS and then with the tiny heart stamp from Boutique Borders: Love, I randomly stamped first, second and third generation hearts using a white pigment ink. I then die cut my panel with a square die and die cut two small hearts out of the bottom right corner. The tags were die cut from CS and vellum and topped off with some ribbons and fibers tied together. I really like how this turned out.

Supplies:
Stamps - Boutique Borders: Love (PTI)
Dies - Heart Prints, Tag Sale #5, (PTI), Classic Square (Spellbinders)
Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI), Vellum (CTMH), coaster
Ink - Versafine Black Onyx, Clear EP, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Liquid Glass (CTMH), Watermelon ink, Grey Wool ink, White Daisy Pigment ink (CTMH)
Other - ribbons and fibers

Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop - Hearts and a LIM Sketch

For some reason I was a day behind today and thought this hop was tomorrow. Thank goodness I had both my posts ready to go.

 The theme for the monthly blog hop at Papertrey Ink is all about love - more specifically hearts. For this card I am also playing along with Less Is More utilizing their sketch this week.

Using my Heart Prints Dies, I cut out several hearts from a coaster. I then generously applied Scotch clear liquid glue over the surface of the die cut and then dropped 2 -3 drops of Ranger's alcohol ink onto the glue and let these dry. I have used this technique before, heating the tinted glue with a heat gun which will give you a darker and more textured finished product. I stamped the scrolled frame onto my card base and then die cut the hearts out of the center of each. I then popped my glue/inked hearts into the negative space. The sentiment was heat embossed onto black CS with white EP and popped up on 3D foam.

Supplies:
Stamps - Boutique Borders: Love, Wet Paint (PTI)
Dies - Heart Prints, Building Blocks (PTI)
Paper - Stampers Select White (PTI), Black CS (SU), coaster
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Versa Mark, White EP, Ranger Alcohol ink, Scotch Clear glue

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop - Christmas Joy!

Good Morning everyone. The theme for this month's Blog Hop Challenge at Papertrey Ink is 'Snow'. I am also entering this card into this week's Less Is More challenge which is 'Jingle All The Way'.

I don't have a lot of winter themed stamps from PTI so I went with their beautiful snow flake die 'Fancy Flakes' and topped them off with little silver jingle bells.

I layered a plain white card stock snowflake with one cut from vellum. I touched a bit of glue to the tips of the vellum snowflake and sprinkled it with silver glitter and the smallest snowflake was die cut from silver foil cardstock. A bit of silver foil was added to one edge of my designer paper and the sentiment was embossed with silver.

Supplies:
Stamps - Rustic Wreath (PTI)
Dies - Fancy Flakes (PTI)
Paper - Summer Stories DP (Teresa Collins), White CS, Vellum, Silver Foil CS
Other - Silver jingle bells, silver cord, silver glitter

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop Take 3 - Christmas Tree Duo

This is my 3rd and final card for today's blog hop at Papertrey Ink. I used Holiday Colour Recipe #6 again.

I created a mask for this card from transparency the same as I did for card #2 - I just made my triangle a little bigger for this card. Using the mask and one of the stamps from Ombre Builders I stamped the light blue tree onto my card front. I masked this tree with the triangle that I cut out of the transparency and stamped the darker tree off to the left. I was having some trouble with my light blue ink pad, I can't tell you how many attempts I made to create this card, so even though the ink is a little splotchy I couldn't waste any more paper and just went with this one. The star and sentiment are heat embossed with silver and the sequins are dark pink and purple.

Supplies:
Stamps - Ombre Builders, Rustic Wreath (PTI), A Twinkle (CTMH)
Paper - Stampers Select White CS (PTI), transparency film (3M)
Ink - Sky, Pacifica inks (CTMH), Versa Mark, Silver EP
Other - bitty rhinestones, sequins

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop Take 2 - Polka Dot Christmas

Here is my second card for today's blog hop at Papertrey Ink. For this card I used Colour Recipe #5.

I created a mask for my tree by cutting a triangle from a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" sheet of transparency (thin acetate). I stamped my tree using the mask with the polka dot stamp from the Ombre Builders stamp set - love this set. The star at the top of my tree is cut from Smoky Shadow CS using the Phrase Play #4 die. The Santa stamp from the Tremendous Treats Christmas set has a star outline on it which just happens to fit perfectly on the die cut star, so I heat embossed that with silver. I trimmed and split my card front and layered it with 3D foam over my sentiment which was heat embossed with silver on a strip of Smoky Shadow CS.

Supplies:
Stamps - Ombre Builders, Tremendous Treats Christmas (PTI)
Dies - Phrase Play #4 (PTI)
Paper - Soft Stone CS, Smoky Shadow CS (PTI)
Ink - Pear, Lagoon, Dutch Blue inks (CTMH), Versa Mark, Silver EP

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop - Cozy Colours

Thought I would take a few moments today to participate in this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink. Nichole has provided a beautiful inspiration photo for this month's hop. I chose to be inspired by the colours in the photo and created a birthday card for my mom.

 

Maile Belles posted a technique on her blog last month using cutout panels on her card front to reveal the paper underneath. I did the same here revealing a piece of Smokey Shadow CS that has been textured with the Linen texture plate from PTI - it is difficult to see in the photo.

Supplies:

Stamps - The Sweet Life, Botanical Silhouettes (PTI)

Paper - Neena Solar White CS, Smokey Shakow CS (PTI)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Blush, Hollyhock, Vineyard Berry, Garden Green, Olive (CTMH)

Other - Linen Texture Plate (PTI), rhinestones, 3D foam