Thursday, July 25, 2013

Papertrey July 2013 Blog Hop

Papertrey's July Blog Hop is all about the fruits of summer - and their colors!  While looking through my stamps I came across these vegetable stamps that I bought at some point but have never used.  And I mean never.  I don't know where they came from or why I had to have them, but there they were asking to be inked up.  I went back and looked at the color combos and chose this as my favorite.

Fruits-of-Summer-5

From it I made this cute little card.


And when I was done I thought if I was going to give this to a hostess, then why not make her a few cards too.  So I went back and made these as well.


Each of these was also pulled from one of the color combos on the Blog Hop today. 
Fruits-of-Summer-3
Tomato inspiration
Fruits-of-Summer-2
Corn inspiration
Fruits-of-Summer-4
Pepper inspiration
Fruits-of-Summer-6
Carrot inspiration

Thanks for stopping by and looking.  Let me know what you think.

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI
Stamps from stash and PTI
Ink from Ranger
Embossing Powder from Stampendous

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wow! That's fast.

This week I thought I try my hand at the 10 Minute Craft Dash.  Well, let me just say, 10 minutes goes a lot faster than I realized.  I had this idea and though it seemed so easy surely it could be done in 10 minutes.  No problem!  Except, well, it didn't get done in 10 minutes...more like 20ish, though to be honest I'm sure I slowed the pace when I saw I was past 10 on the timer.  The first attempt ended up here.


The problem came when I tried to cut around the "y."  Had I had a better idea on that one little word, but alas I didn't.

So, like any stubborn woman, I got those things out of the way and went at it again.  This time I pulled out a stamp I bought forever ago, and am sorry to say I have never used.  This time I managed to squeeze it in...9 minutes and 48 seconds!


Thanks for looking.

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI, Stampin Up, and stash
Stamps from OnyxXpressions
Ink from Ranger

Monday, July 22, 2013

Party Time!

It's no secret around here, birthdays are a big deal.  I love to celebrate the day each of my little people came to me.  July is a birthday month here, though the birthday is so close to Independence Day we have found the party usually has to be postponed.  Of course, that really means we end up having a family party and a friends party, but I'm ok with that.  This weekend was the party weekend.  The not so little little picked a treasure hunt theme.  Here is the party fare I made for said event.


Here we have the invitation, goody bag, and sign for the cake and other sugary goodness.  These invitations were being mailed so they had to be flat.  I also needed 12 of them so they couldn't be overly involved.  Here is a glimpse of what was inside.


I took Rustic Cream cardstock ran it through the printer using a free font from dafont.com that looked like it might be from a pirate and printed the information.  Then I trimmed it down and added it to a piece of Stardream Cardstock in Copper to give it a treasure feel.  It slid in the treasure chest as though the chest were and envelope.  The treasure chest part was just a half sheet of 8.5X11 cardstock with the folds placed in the right places.  The cardstock is stamped, it didn't come that way.  Then I added a lock (bronze Stardream cardstock), cut with a file on my Pazzles backed with black and all sanded to look old.  Finally, I added dark chocolate strips that were inked and sanded to look like leather straps. 

The goody bags (or boxes) were treasure chests made with a template from My Time Made Easy that was altered before cutting.  They were filled with a pirate bandana, pirate and treasure temporary tattoos, and chocolate (only kinds wrapped in gold and silver). 

Which brings us to the "Treasure Cove" banner.  This was never meant to be a pirate party, but a treasure hunt.  As such I went to great pains to bring a little and only a little pirate into it keeping the central focus about the treasure and the hunt.  Here is the treasure cove that went with the cake.


The party was a huge hit!  Everything turned out as I had hoped and the birthday kid was over the moon.  Now that it's done I'm entering this in the birthday ensemble challenge over at Moxie Fab World.

Thanks for taking the time to look!

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI, Core'dinations, Stardream (not sure the company)
Stamps from PTI
Template from My Time Made Easy
Die from Sizzix
Ink from Ranger
Fonts from Dafont.com
Other stuff...sandpaper, craft sticks

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Thinking of you in a beautiful way

I'm new to the Moxie Fab World.  I just learned about it in the last few weeks.  I know, I know I must be hiding in a cave, or perhaps I have a life ruled by little people.  Last week I went to check out the Tuesday Trigger and fell in love with the inspiration photo. 



It is so soft and beautiful.  I immediately thought of vellum and PTI's Aqua Mist.  So between little people demands I put this together.


I stamped and heat embossed flourishes on vellum and attached the sheet to an Aqua Mist card base.  Then I made this big flower from vellum and added an Aqua Mist button.  Finally I added an Aqua Mist Tag stamped and heat embossed with the sentiment. 

Let me know what you think!

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI
Vellum from stash
Button from PTI
Ink from Ranger
Embossing Powder from ranger
Stamps from PTI
Die from PTI
Embroidery Floss from stash

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Overgrown thank you

The latest challenge is up over at Papercraft Star.  Here is this week's inspiration picture.



When I first saw this picture it reminded me of the first time we went to see our piano teacher.  When we got to the house the directions were to walk around to the back to enter the piano studio.  As we were walking along the path to the back of the house, I was ducking and twisting and wondering why these people hadn't trimmed all this stuff, especially since students are walking along this path all week, every week.  Then I wondered if it's like this in January, what is it going to be like when things actually start blooming?  Well, as expected spring came and we were ducking lower, twisting more, and at times we actually have to lift or push things out of the way.  She is a wonderful piano teacher.  I just wish I could take some clippers with me. 

So I went pretty literal with this challenge because it was so fitting.


Enjoy!

Supplies
Cardstock from PTI
Stamps from TAC (long gone), PTI and OnyxXpressions
Versamark and Brilliance Ink, Embossing Ink from Ranger
Embossing Powder from Stampendous
Tombow Pens
Flowers and Brads from Stash

Monday, July 15, 2013

Sweet Summertime

Truth be told, I hate summer.  I know, I know, there are many wonderful things about summer.  I, however, hate the heat that comes with it.  I like a lot of things about summer - getting outside, pretty toes, open shoes, long days, but when I think of it I just feel miserable thinking of the heat and humidity.  Ugh! 

Summer does, however, bring out the lemonade.  I love a good lemonade, especially with actual fruit so this picture from the Pinspired Challenge really made me want a glass of strawberry lemonade.



 I don't happen to have any lemons in the house, but I could try lemon juice with frozen strawberries - no?  The worst thing would be I dumping it down the drain and the little are always up for making lemonade...

Until then, here is the card that I made. 


Thanks for looking!

Supplies
Rustic Cream Cardstock, Stamps from PTI
Blue Cardstock from Bazzill
Momento and Brilliance Ink
Copics
Paper from stash
Twine from The Twinery

Sunday, July 14, 2013

You bring me joy!

The Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week is called "Pin It" which made me rummage through my stash since I wasn't sure I had anything that qualified as a pin.  Then I remembered I bought these adorable stick pins on trip to the local craft store in Germany...a few years ago, and figured it was time to use them and stop storing them.  I have really adopted the "use it up and move it on" idea in my art room, so while it was initially hard to think about actually using them, I got over it. 

Now what was I going to do with these little beauties?  Then it came to me, combine the pins with the polka dot challenge over at Cas-ual Fridays.  I contemplated a lot of polka dots before remembering the "you" in Papertrey's All About You set.  I love the sentiments in that set, but often forget about it.  In the end, I think it all came together quite nicely.  The actual work was pretty quick and easy.  The thought process getting there, not so much. 

Here's the result.

Let me know what you think.

Supplies:
Cardstock and Stamps from PTI
Pins from Stash
Brilliance Ink, Momento Ink
Ribbon from Stash

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Good-bye and Good Luck

I love a good inspiration photo.  These are my favorite challenges, especially when people say what their inspiration from the photo was.  It is always fun to see how many different ways one photo can be taken in.  Over at Papercraft Star it's is all about photo challenges.  This week's photo is all about travel, or at least that's all I saw.



I love the color combo in the suitcases.  Off I went to make a card for a traveler...but who do I know that travels??  A dear, dear friend has a daughter who is about to leave for Africa for an entire year.  Well, of course, that sounds like travel.  She used to babysit for me back when the big one wasn't so big.  So this is how we will be sending her off.


She's going on a mission trip so Good Luck seemed right.

Thanks for looking.
Amanda

Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI, Core'dinations
Ink: Ranger
Stamps: PTI, Ma Vinci's Reliqary
Brad: Stash
Dies: PTI

Monday, July 8, 2013

Sketch inpired Halloween

We love Halloween in this house!  LOVE it!!  So when I saw the sketch challenge over at JUGS this week I immediately saw a spider web in the corner.  Here's the sketch that brought Halloween out even earlier than usual.  I was especially happy to be able to use the stamps my children picked out for me as gifts because, honestly, they were so off season I had forgotten about them.



You can't have a spider web without spiders.  It all fit together as it should. 

I hope you enjoy a little fall in the midst of the heat.

Supplies:  Cardstock from PTI, Stamps from Michaels (I don't remember the brand as my children gave them to me for my birthday), and Stampin' Up, Ink from Ranger, Embossing Powder from Stampendous

Sunday, July 7, 2013

My very own stencils!

Hi there.  This post is for Papertrey's Make it Monday series.  I saw Ashley's challenge about making your own paint and her adorable little bags and, well, I wanted to make some too.  I come across these little fabric bags from time to time and think how fun it would be to personalize them but it never seems to make it to the top of my list of things to do.  However, this challenge screamed it was time to get to it.  Now I wasn't exactly sure if I had anything in my stash that would work, but then I found that lonely little bag that came to me from somewhere unknown and we were in business.  I didn't have any painters tape on hand, though hubby says we have some somewhere, so I thought Duck Tape should work, right?  And I didn't really want stripes...could dies help me?  Could I use my delightful dies to cut a stencil out of Duck Tape?  The answer, ABSOLUTELY!  Stars were calling my name and so here you have my bag, painted with Gesso colored with Distress Reinkers.


Both sides have the same stars.  I am also entering this in the CAS-ual Friday Material Girl Challenge because it's really all about the fabric.  While I considered adding more stars, I didn't want to overdo it.  Now all it's missing is a tag, but for that I have to figure out who to give it to.  I hope you like this first project on my brand new blog!

Supplies:  Dies from PTI, Gesso, Reinkers from Ranger