PTI August Blog Hop

This is the inspiration photo for the August PTI Blog Hop. I just loved the vintage suitcase with the Damask lining, the books, and the pretty pink flowers. Here is what I came up with:

Stamps: All booked up, PTI; linen background, SU!; Fleur de Lis, Stampabilities.

Ink: old olive, SU!; london fog, rose bud, tuxedo black, Memento

Paper: ivory, and old olive, SU!; Hibiscus burst, PTI

Embellishments: twill tape , JoAnn Fabrics.

Image colored with Copic markers.

Let me know what you think. Have fun getting inspirations from everyone participating.

Here is my custom ribbon (wanted it to mimic the ribbon around the jar). I stamped Fleur de Lis, Stampabilities.

Mouse in Teacup-Thanks...

When I saw this Mouse in a Teacup stamp, I knew I could use it for my card ministry. Isn't he so cute?

School is back here in full swing, so we are trying to get down our schedules, so we have some bit of organization. Still working on placing everything just so in my new craft space, but the trip in July to IKEA has help quite a bit.

Card details:
Stamps: Mouse in a Teacup, Tina Wenke; sentiment, Fiskars
Paper: white cardbase, DCWV; yellow and purple cardstock, The Paper Studio; white cardstock, Wausau
Ink: Dandelion and Tuxedo black, Memento
Tools: Fancy labels, oval and scalloped oval dies, Spellbinders; flower embossing plate, Fiskars
Techniques: reversed embossed the cardbase and inked over image using inking tool to reveal flower image; colored image with Copic markers; used Sakura glaze pen to go over some of the flowers for shine and dimension
This was a fun card to make and I hope it brings a smile to the recipients' face. Let me know what you think. I love to hear from you.

Sunflower trio

Hey everyone, school is about to start so I have been busy making sure all the kids have their "stuff" ready. I just purchased some new Spellbinders dies. So I thought I would "play" in my new crafting space (love it!), still working out some placement issues. Will move things around for a while until I get it right, but overall love it.

Stamps: Sunflower, PTI; French script background, SU!

Ink: Dandelion, Memento; old olive, SU!, close to cocoa, SU!, rich chocolate, Memento

Tools: Spellbinder Contemporary Heart Pendants; paper piercing template, SU!

Paper: harvest gold, PTI; old olive, SU!; white cardstock, Wausau paper

Please check out the paper piercing videos in the video bar below, to see more ways to use this technique to give additional dimension to your card.

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

You're a peach

My family and I went to the county fair and were looking at all the projects in the open class division and we saw this very yummy looking cake. (I am always so sad that they have to leave the lovely creations in the heat for the week to spoil and only the judges got to taste the yummy goodness, but oh well). The cake was the Grand Champion of the Peach bake-off and we knew the winner, so I made her this card in congratulations. I used my Swiss dot Cuttlebug folder for the background, I used Summer Sunrise PTI cardstock (yes, a new color, thought it would match the peach better). The stamp set was a Studio G Soloz set, I colored the peach with Copic markers, as well as the gems.

My cardstock had a gap at the top that did not get embossed in folder so I scored two lines (it was like I meant to do it).

Have a great day.

Stamp-a-faire Re-creations

At the PTI Stamp-a-faire we made 10 make and take card projects. I have becoming very far behind in my card ministry, so I decided to use some of these cards as my "sketch" to recreate the cards. For this card "Sending You Joy" I used most of the same stamp sets as original, except I used Turning a New Leaf for leaves (I believe a different set was used in original card. I also chose a different color scheme, loved the pinks that were used on the original but thought I would go with the traditional yellows for the sunflowers (Very bright and cheery, don't you think?)
I used dandelion and rich cocoa inks by Memento and old olive by Stampin Up!. The cardstock was Harvest Gold, PTI(I found myself reaching for it again, love it) and old olive, SU ( Must say I have always loved this color). I also used some yellow embroidery thread (came in a kit for making those friendship bracelets, lots of pretty colors. I knew they would look great on cards).



This second card I did not have any of the original stamps so I went through my stamps and found a flower center from a SU set that I used in Sea Breeze, Versa Magic ink and rich cocoa, Memento ink. The jar and flowers are from a set called Everyday Jar-gon by Clear Dollar stamps (it has several jar toppers, and images for inside the jar, fish, cookies, candy, and the flowers shown). It also has several sentiments as well, I used a sentiment from Warmest Regards, SU (just because it had a more formal feel)

I colored the image with Copic markers and used the embroidery floss and a button to finish off the card. For my ministry we send a lot of cards by mail and we have been charged extra postage if the card is too bulky, so I have had to limit the embellishments of late. I was inspired by the use of your stamps in a "new" way that we used on several of the cards at Stamp-a-faire. I guess I am a literalist, what ever the image I would use it for its intended purpose, I would never dream of using an image that did not fit the space, but it can really look great. If you are not familiar with the original cards from this event, please check out Nichole Heady's blog, capture the moment, you will find it as a link in my side bar.

Thank you for your comments, I love to hear from you and I want you to know "my fellow cardmakers" how truely inspired I am by your work. Thank you.

Hero Arts, Wreath

I found this Hero Art Stamp set and just thought it would have many uses in my card ministry. It has the wreath stamp and two individual flower stamps, so that you can stamp the flowers and cut them out and pop them up on wreath, as I have done. It also has several sentiments like the ones shown. I recently went to the PTI Stamp-a-faire and purchased some of the PTI papers and I have to say, I love the paper. What was I waiting for, well I know why I didn't buy some sooner and that is I have tons of paper. This paper makes such great cards. I used my Copic markers to color the flowers and wreath, rich cocoa Memento ink for sentiment and Harvest gold PTI cardstock. I also used black pearl pen by Viva for the centers of flowers.

This added a very nice shine and texture to center of the flowers and on the purple card I used Tuxedo black Memento ink for sentiment and the black pearl pen for "pearls" on either side of the sentiment. Please leave me a comment.

Hope you have a great day.

Just a CAS card using this lg bottle stamp I found at JoAnne's a while back.
Colored the flowers with Copic markers. I found it difficult to make the bottles look like they had fluid in them without coloring all the insides. I am getting my "new" craft space organized and I made many cards yesterday, which I will be sharing soon.
I hope you are keeping cool and having a great summer. For me it is coming to a close all too soon. Leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you.