PTI Round 4 Regular Card 1

Ugh! Sorry for the terrible pic! IRL this card is adorable if I do say so myself! I just love this PTI set by Lisa Johnson, On My Couch and On My Couch Additions, and I think I finally figured out why! When I was younger (before I discovered stamping), my hobby was dollhouse miniatures. My mom and I were both totally into it, and I have every intention of going back to it someday. But with this set, it's like having a paper dollhouse, you can move furniture around, create little scenes...it really is just so fun. I bet people who like to decorate would love this set too. This is a variation on a card I did for an earlier post, seen here. BG is stamped with Versamark ink on Aquamist CS using Journaling Lines by PTI; I was going for a wallpaper sort of effect. Sofa is stamped on Green Tea DP, cushion is stamped on Ripe Avocado. I used Borders and Corners Oval around the sentiment and Nesties to cut it out. Mini library clip is from SU. Books and picture are colored using SU inks and blender pens. Hope you get some relaxing time today--whether it is reading, stamping or just vegging out in front of the tube!

PTI Round 4 Swap CAS card 2

This is my for my second spot in the CAS category over at our regular PTI swap. It is the FTL #56. When I saw it I immediately knew what I wanted to do, so this card went together super fast. CS, DP, ink and ribbon are all PTI, ribbon slide is Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware by SU. Colors are Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides, and Green Tea DP. Ribbon is Ripe Avocado. Set is Life by Lisa Johnson. Like the one from yesterday, this is a great go-to sketch. Hope whoever gets one likes it! Thanks for stopping by--have a great day!

PTI Round 4 CAS Swap

This is my first CAS card. A lot of my PTI swap buddies over on SCS like the Clean and Simple Blog, so Stephanie, our hostess for this round, added a CAS category to our swap. I had never tried this, but I really liked it! They have some great sketches, and you can knock out a card pretty quickly. These sketches would be good if you were mass-producing cards.

This is the Fall-To sketch #2. This one just really appealed to me. I used SU Soft Sky CS, Western Sky DP, River Rock and Blue Bayou ink, River Rock ribbon and Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware. Sent and flourish is from the PTI anniversary set Everyday Classics. DP is distressed and sponged with RR ink. This pic doesn't do the card justice; it was cloudy when I took it. Sorry! I really liked this sketch and think I will be using it alot in the future. I hope you enjoyed it, and I can't wait to see what my fellow swappers come up with. I tell you, I just love this group. They are VERY talented and also a lot of fun!

Gourds

My dad is what we in our family politely refer to as a "gourd enthusiast". In other words he is crazy about gourds! Gourds are (as you may know) relatives of squash and pumpkins. Lots of people like to use the small brightly colored gourds as fall table decorations. Not my dad! These days he mostly grows them for size. He can get them HUGE! He enters them in the fair every year and nearly always wins. Not this year unfortunately, as he and Mom came up here for a week this summer to stay with me and Emily while I was on call and Brad and Matt were away at Scout camp. All the gourd vines (they take over the entire yard) died of thirst. Sorry, Dad! This particular gourd is an African storage gourd (I left my card easel in the pic so you could see the size). They are lovely, round and smooth. While Dad and Mom were up here, I tried something I'd been wondering about for a long time--rub-ons on a gourd. Here I used some old SU ones. After I'd applied them I sprayed it with Matte Acrylic Spray. I think it turned out really cool! He also grows a couple of other varieties, dipper gourds (really long neck) and figure 8 gourds (I think they're called). They have a head, neck, and body, so you can tie a lanyard or something around the neck and carry stuff in the gourd. There is also a little wild gourd that grows near where he lives that is round and a bit smaller than a baseball. I think one reason my dad likes gourds so much is that he is a historian (retired) and gourds have played a big role in the way people live for centuries. My brothers and I used to be sort of embarrassed by the gourd thing, but then we found out that there are a LOT of "gourd enthusiasts" out there--some of them extremely artistic!

Keep in mind if you decide to decorate a gourd, the smaller they are, the more curvature they have. Less curvature makes it easier to apply the rub-ons, although if you use a vine type as I did here, it works pretty well. Hope you've enjoyed today's somewhat different post!

August PTI Blog Hop

Well, it's August 25th and time for another PTI blog hop! This month's challenge was what autumn means to you. Autumn just happens to be my favorite season. Every year when spring rolls around, I waver a bit, but when it's autumn again, I'm sure: definitely autumn! We have a book of poems and paintings by Douglas Florian titled Autumnblings. It is a wonderful book. Here is a poem from it that tells my favorite part of autumn.


AWE-TUMN

When summer's seams have come undone,
then greens to reds and purples run.
A palette falls to forest floor,
And autumn leaves leave me in awe.

So of course I had to make a card celebrating the changing colors of fall.

Here I used Father Knows Best. I stamped the trunk and outline leaves on PTI Vintage Cream CS in Palette Burnt Umber ink. I used SU More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, and Ruby Red ink pads and blender pen to color the leaves and sponge the focal piece. I embossed the sent from Out on a Limb Sents and the two little leaves from Father in gold on PTI Dark Chocolate CS. Nesties were used to cut out pieces of Autumn Abundance patterned paper, which I downloaded samples of for free from PTI--a nice service that they offer. This is possibly the prettiest DP they have ever come out with! I added PTI's wooden buttons, tied with gold cord. I used my eyelet border punch from SU on the Pumpkin Pie layer. This card just glows IRL.






Another thing about autumn is Thanksgiving. Autumn is a time for reflecting on our abundant blessings: family, friends, home. So I used the Gratitude sentiment from Spiral Bouquet. The BG DP and eyelets are retired SU. Leaves are punched out of Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate, and Autumn Abundance from PTI, Pumpkin Pie from SU.

Well, I hope you enjoy autumn as much as I do, and that you've enjoyed these cards as much as I enjoyed creating them. Can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with!

Elzybells B-day card for my Sis

Here is another b-day card, this time for my sister. It's from a clear set by Elzybells, and I thought it would be perfect for this type of card. Images colored with Stampin' Pastels. Dazzling Diamonds glitter on polka dots on package. CS is Gable Green, Taken With Teal, and Whisper White by SU. DP is Junkitz. No embellies other than the glitter. These images are so cute they don't need embellishing!











Here's how it looks open. I hope she likes it!

Hope you have a great day, thanks for stopping by!

Elzybells Birthday card for my SIL

My sister sent me some money to by EB stamps for my b-day and I finally got around to ordering them. Thanks Lin! These little bears are just the cutest! This sketch is from the SCS sketch challenge 239. It was a couple of weeks ago, I never got it uploaded. Bears are colored with SU Stampin' Pastels. DP is old Junkitz (Salsa I think). CS is Taken with Teal, Gable Green, and white by SU. Ric rac is SU Pig Tails, retired. Sent is from Mixed Messages by PTI. Rhinestone brads are SU. This is for my SIL. Unfortunately it is about a week late! Luckily she has been on vac the last several weeks so she wouldn't have gotten it on her birthday even if I had gotten it mailed on time. I hope she likes it--she is a SU demo so she may not LOL! Just kidding. Hope you all are having a great day--thanks for stopping by!

Boxed Birthday

This card was made using my new Out of the Box and OOB Additions, again by Lisa Johnson. CS is GKD white, PTI Enchanted Evening (also ink and ribbon). DP is Summer Sunrise Bitty Boxes, and flower is stamped in Summer Sunrise and cut out. I stamped happy in SS and birthday in SU white craft and embossed with white EP. Rhinestone in center of flower is SU. This card is very plain, I'm at a loss to know what to add. Any suggestions? Maybe some buttons...Hmm.

Don't forget to stamp today! Thanks for looking.

Friends to the End

Here is another card from the PaperCrafts sketch. Cardstock is Summer Sunrise, Plum Pudding, and Ripe Avocado by PTI, white by Gina K. DP is Plum Pudding Bitty Boxes. I stamped the small flower from Friends To The End by PTI on white, colored with SU inks. Stamped leaves on the avocado. Cut out, popped up. Focal piece is made with Nesties, jute twine is from PTI. You know, I wasn't crazy about the flower in this set at first, but I like it now. But the main reason I ordered this set is because it has a lot of really great sentiments for friends. You can never have too many sentiments in my humble opinion! Have a great day!

Chairs to You!

Here's another card from the On My Couch set. I used a sketch from the most recent (Halloween) issue of PaperCrafts--it's a great sketch! This card measures 4.25 " square--I decided to try a different size for a change. It seemed to fit the chair. Again I used Bitty Baby Blessings DP. I just love the colors and patterns in that. CS: Lavender Moon by PTI, Certainly Celery by SU. Brads are Making Memories. This sketch has some cute little pillows; I stamped one onto the dotted paper, cut out and popped up.

Hope you have a great day--try to get into some stamping time. It's good for what ails ya!

On My Couch

Well, I finally caved and got Lisa Johnson's sets On My Couch and On My Couch Additions from PTI. These sets are chock full of adorable images and sentiments. I have been having a blast playing with them! Here I stamped the outline couch on Bitty Baby Blessings DP and cut out. Stamped the rug in SU Pumpkin Pie, table in Palette Burnt Umber, vase in SU Certainly Celery, framed picture in Palette Noir and colored with SU markers. BG is also from Bitty Baby Blessings, CS is Pumpkin Pie and Certainly Celery. Sent is from Birthday Basics by PTI. Scallop border punch, ribbon, and library clip are all SU. I just love how this came out. Thanks for stopping by!

The apples of my eye go BACK TO SCHOOL!

Well, the Y camp finished last Fri, and school doesn't start until Thurs. I had today off from work with the kids, and while I was happily playing in my stamp room, Ems came in and wanted me to make a card for her new teacher. I don't have the teacher set from PTI, but I've been meaning to try something. On scrapbooking pages you always see these neat shapes for journalling. I decided to combine Borders and Corners Circles with Journalling Lines from PTI to make one of my own. I used my Nesties to make a reverse mask, stamped the circle, covered with the mask, and stamped the lines. The apple is from SU's Tart and Tangy, sentiment is from Vintage Picnic. CS: Confetti Tan (SU retired), Pure Poppy and Dark Chocolate (PTI), DP is Chocolate Remix. Ribbon is PTI, eyelets are ret. SU. The focal point is cut out with Nesties. Have a great back to school!

My Time to Create Challenge

Well, anyone who looks at my blog (thank you!) knows I am a huge fan of Lauren Meader. Not only is she an amazingly talented stamper and template designer for PTI, she is a funny blogger too! Every Sat. she hosts a challenge. This was for last Sat's challenge, you can see it HERE. I loved the colors in this particular challenge and decided to play along. I chose the Recipe Wrap-Up template, which is one of the two free ones, although I have several of them. Not sure what I will use this for. The colors are SU Basic Gray, Kiwi Kiss, and Baja Breeze, DP is Urban Garden and A Walk in The Park. Stamp set is Boutique Grunge by Inque Boutique. I cut out a flower from the DP and layered it. I used the photo corner punch and the Textile CB embossing folder, and I made diagonal pockets for the inside instead of following the pocket pattern included with the template. Pearls are from K & Co.

First flip open.

2nd flip open.

Fully open--diagonal pockets. Sorry about the terrible pix, wrong time of day outside but if I didn't get it done while DH and DD were out, it wasn't going to get done!

Hope you enjoyed this project--have a great weekend.