A Superstar kind of birthday

I finally picked up the adorable Outlines Alphabet from Papertrey Ink. You know how it goes, a set catches your eye, but you keep putting off getting it. Well, I had to sit down almost right away and put something together with it.

Anyway, it's a pretty basic card. I arranged the letters on a grid block, stamped them, then coloured them in with Copics and Spica markers. I added in a greeting from It's a Jungle Out There (I really, really like that font the Happy Birthday is in). Next I added a mat and some punched out stamped stars. I put that all together on a starry backdrop. The card is 6.5x3.875.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Outline Alphabet, Star Prints, It's a Jungle Out There
• Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, White
• Ink:Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Tuxedo Black
• Accessories, etc.: Copic markers, Spica markers, pop dots

Wild & Crazy

Well, not really... but the card does feature a zebra. I really liked the touch of the Pool Party ribbon with grey and white, so that kind of inspired this card. I stamped the stripes first with black, then stamped over with white pigment ink, and then I cut it out. I like how the white ink subdued the black just a bit.

The card is very basic in design since I wanted the zebra to remain the focus.

Supplies:

• Stamps: It's a Jungle Out There
• Ink: Black Onyx, Fresh Snow
• Paper: White, Smoky Shadow, Pool Party
• Accessories, etc.: Limitless Layers- 1-3/4 circle, Animal Prints Impression Plate, Pool Party ruffled ribbon

Christmas Card Class

This weekend, I decided to put together a Christmas card class for a few friends. It was a lot of fun! The get together started with 4 structured cards, and then afterwards, everyone just did their own thing with the supplies leftover.

The first card was this one. It's super simple, especially with the use of the scor-tape sheets, it makes the process so much faster. Basically, adhere the sheet to a piece of cardstock, die cut your shape, then sprinkle glitter liberally. It's not a good stamp class unless everyone leaves with a bit of glitter on them, ha!

Supplies- Vintage Ornaments die, Big & Bold Holiday Wishes, Silver Ink, Tempting Turquoise Paper, Glitter, Rhinestones

Next up, I wanted to showcase Copic markers. This card doesn't exactly use them to their full potential, but it's nice to do a bit of colouring now and then. I also wanted to show what I call the "sneaky bow" technique, where you use string to make the bow, instead of tying it.

Supplies: Classic Christmas, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Satin Ribbon, Copics, Button, Rich Cocoa Ink

The next card was a bit more fussy, but I think it was the favorite. Most people didn't seem to want to have to give it away! I used the Love Lives Here: Holiday and matching dies to make the little stockings, added a bit of baker's twine for whimsy, applied the woodgrain texture plate to the paper, and also made use of rustic colours. I quite like how it turned out too!

The final planned card made use of embossing. It's always a nice and simple, yet sharp technique that goes over well with all levels of stampers.

I used Snowflake Serenade and Stylish Sentiments: Holiday on Night of Navy paper. I also went with one of my basic, fall to layouts. I use this one all the time.

So, afterwards, there were some leftover components from the card kits, and I had brought out all my holiday stamps, and it was a bit of a chaotic, but fun free for all. I even ended up making a few more cards.

This one, using Classic Christmas and Stylish Sentiments, and a bit more colouring. I quite liked the teal, light aqua, and gold colour combination.

And this super simple one layer card with just a small embellishment pop with the bow, using a Wreath for All Seasons.

It was a lot of fun, everyone left with at least 5 cards, and I think there may just be a birthday card class in the future!

Reach for the Sky!

I saw that I hadn't actually posted anything here in May yet, oops! So here's a "reject" from a recent publication call.

Cut out 2 curved pieces of Pear Pizzazz paper. Stamp background images on each, adhere to Baja Breeze panel. Stamp clouds and kite image to Baja Breeze. Stamp kite image onto white card stock, cut out and adhere with foam tape. Stamp sentiment. Mat main image on Orange Zest, then onto white card.

• Stamps: Up, Up, and Away, Up, Up, and Away sentiments, Background Basics: Petal Power
• Ink: Orange Zest, Certainly Celery, Fresh Snow, Onyx Black
• Paper: White, Orange Zest, Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze

Size: 4.5x5.25

PTI April Blog Hop!

This month's blog hop is dedicated to all the boys and men in our lives! Now is your chance to create Father's Day projects, boy birthday cards and more to build up your stash! Focus on masculine color schemes, fresh pattern combinations, understated embellishments and unique uses of images you may already have in your stash!

I decided to make a technique based card. I'm sure there's an actual name for this technique, but I haven't actually watched any tutorials about it. I started off with a piece of

acetate. I scribbled various colours of Copic markers all over it. Then I spritzed alcohol on it to give it a speckled and blended look. I flipped it over and stamped some images from Leaf Prints on it with Stazon. I attached that to a piece of vanilla cardstock by using a large piece of Scor-Tape. Then everything else kind of fell into place.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Leaf Prints, Masculine Motifs (Papertrey Ink)
• Paper:Vanilla, Dark Chocolate
• Ink: Stazon Timber Brown
• Accessories, etc: Various Copics in the YR Family, Wood button, baker's twine, twill ribbon, acetate

A more complex take on FTL134

So I was just playing around with new stuff, cutting out some dies and doing a bit of stamping, (basically putting together my own embellishments) when I decided I needed to actually make use of them. I tend to put together all sorts of embellishments, but then I end up leaving them in my completed folder for ages. I looked at what I had put together and realized that it would work nicely with my clean and simple fall to layout sketch this week!

Supplies (all supplies by Papertrey Ink):

• Stamps: Love Lives Here, Textstyle I,
• Ink: Scarlet Jewel, Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate
• Paper: White, Dark Chocolate, Scarlet Jewel
• Accessories, etc.: Love Lives Here dies

MIM: Blending Inks

Since I had the day off, I figured I'd have a go at the latest PTI challenge. The challenge was to blend inks. Whenever I think of this technique, I have a hard time not putting together a sunset or sunrise theme. So I really wanted to break out of that box and do something different.

I started by stamping the Chrysanthemums and

leaves on my paper. Next I chose my colour palette (Paris Lights, Summer Sunrise, Orangerie for the flowers; Spring Moss, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado for the leaves; Aqua Mist for the background). I started with the lightest colour in the middle of the stamped images and worked in a circular motion outwards.

Once I was done the flowers and leaves, I added in the Aqua Mist. Next, I wasn't totally satisfied with how it looked so I inked up a text background with Chai Tea ink (I love using these on background stamps, they blend so nicely into the scene.

The final step was to add a greeting on a punched out label and decorate it with a button and a bit of ribbon and string.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Year of Flowers: Mums, Textstyle II, Round and Round (all PTI)
• Ink: Paris Lights, Summer Sunrise, Orangerie, Spring Moss, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado, Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate
• Paper: Orange Zest, Ripe Avocado, White,
• Accessories, etc.: Modern Label punch, ribbon, button, string