DPK Creations

Week in the Life 7.25-7.31.2011

2011-07-25T15:24:00.000-05:00

I've decided to try and participate along with Ali Edwards on her project, "A Week in the Life". There is a button to link on the left side if you want to find out more information or even participate too!

Today is Day 1 for me: Monday. I may try and summarize the day here along with using the printouts Ali provided. I was afraid I would find it too challenging because everyday seems the same & boring to me but what pushed me to try this was: that's the point of this project. Capturing the everyday. I look at the albums that Ali has completed and I can't wait to look back and see what a "normal" week was for us.

Start here: Ali Edward's blog for more information.

Monkey Diaper Cake

2010-09-28T22:55:00.000-05:00

My husband requested a diaper cake for a shower at work for one of his co-workers. I've done so many of these but realized that I'd never posted about them. I found the instructions several years ago here. After the first few I stopped using the exact numbers in the instructions and started eyeballing the amount of diapers needed to get the size I needed.

Don't you love the monkey ribbon! Total score from Michael's!

These cakes are great for showers because they can serve double duty as a centerpiece and as a gift. And the diapers are easily taken apart vs. unrolling them in the rolled diaper version. I find that the key to making it look good are finding toys that work well as toppers. I'll try and go through my pictures and put together a post of all the ones I've made.

Just a quick post! Have a great day!

Papertrey September Blog Hop!

2010-09-25T09:02:00.000-05:00

Today is PTI's Blog Hop! Check here for details and to post you own link.

So this month's challenge was to post a technique or skill you have learned from a fellow stamper and to even send a shout out to that person(s). I've learned so much from other people in terms of stretching my comfort zone yet being comfortable with my personal style.

I really couldn't pinpoint a particular skill to show but I did use this card as inspiration (3rd one down). I loved the simple design and that it could basically be used for any occasion. Her bow-tying skills are definitely more advanced than mine! Thanks Dawn for the "sketch" and for always inspiring! She's pretty nice too... I've met her twice!

The card is for a wedding I'm attending today. Sometimes I try to keep in line with the color scheme that's on the invitation. I know the thought and care that went into picking it so I try and show my appreciation by reflecting their color choice. This couple's invite was cream with pink accents and grey text. So I'm not totally in-line because of the orange ribbon... I said sometimes, ok? :) Anyways... I am loving the "Mr. & Mrs" sentiment from Big & Bold Wishes, it definitely is my go-to for wedding cards.

I guess I could talk about one of my favorite things to do. I love adding a bit of shine to my images using the Sakura stardust gel pen... so easy too.. LOVE-EET!!

Here's a close-up for you blingy-viewing pleasure!
Have a great weekend! And have fun hoppin'!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Big & Bold Wishes
Paper: SU! Cameo Coral, PTI Vintage Cream
Ink: Pallette Charcoal
Accessories: Mini-Rhinestones, PTI Summer sunrise grossgrain ribbon, EK Scallop punch, Fiskars corner rounder

Photography Tuesday: A Day in Chicago

2010-09-21T08:00:00.031-05:00

I had a random day off on a Wednesday a few months ago and the hubs and I decided to head downtown. I suggested going on the Architecture Boat Cruise because we'd never gone. Then we decided to invite our friends who recently got married. The bride is a transplant from Atlanta and so it was a great opportunity for her to see and do things in her new city!

We started the morning off at the Bongo Room in the South Loop for breakfast. It was DECADENT. We ordered 3 dishes to share among the 4 of us and that was plenty!

Red Velvet Pancakes

White Chocolate Pretzel Pancakes

Architecture Boat Tour: After Breakfast we drove & parked near North Pier Docks. We went with Chicago Line Cruises because they had the longest tour (about 90 minutes) and the reviews on yelp seemed to be the best. Our docent was very knowledgeable and fairly entertaining. My dad was an architect and though we never had gone on a tour, I thought of him often during the cruise. Our friend, who's an engineer, really enjoyed it too but my hubs & his wife were not quite as excited. I also personally LOVE any history of Chicago so I was totally in my nerdy element :). It also helped that it was a GORGEOUS day! It's very photo intense from this point onward but I promise there is a "sweet treat" at the end!

See the beautiful blue sky?

Thought this reflection was interesting


This is an example of all the condos around the city that were remodeled from older buildings. You can tell because of the balconies kind of "tacked" onto the exterior

Thought the pop of red was cool!

Dear old Sears... I mean Willis Tower

I love Sears Tower... quintessentially Chicago. Sigh... Willis Tower. I haven't gone up yet to see the clear balconies where you can step into "mid-air." I went to undergrad in the city and from my dorm room I could see these two buildings every night. Very awesome, I miss you tall friends...

The Marina Towers, lovingly known as the Corncobs

This structure in particular brings the memories flooding back. My dad was the one who taught me that they were nicknamed the Corncobs.

Looks so stark, yet beautiful

I photoshopped this picture with Maggie Holmes Urban Action.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. I thought it was educational and I learned a thing or two about the basics of architectural styles in Chicago. I've heard of walking tours in the city, kind of doing the same thing... I think I'll have to do some convincing... maybe next summer :).

Now our next stop was what my husband was excited about...Morton's Steakhouse. I'd never been and I love me some steak. We went for an early dinner so we were able to get the lunch special. So for the price, I think the food definitely lived up to the hype... enough that I didn't get any good pictures! This is from my friend Yane.

Delicious looking, isn't it. This was hub's surf 'n turf.

So, now, here's your reward for reading down all the way to the bottom! They opened a Sprinkles Cupcake in Chicago! On the way out of the city we picked up 1/2 a dozen. Ginger Lemon, Strawberry, Red Velvet & Chocolate. So GOOD! Again, I think they lived up to the hype... hubby just doesn't get the whole cupcake craze... oh well.

Yummy!!

It was a really fun, being outside on a rare beautiful August day... with adults, that was a bonus :). I love my in-laws...

I know there isn't much photography talk in the post, other than photos. I will say that this was a rare time when I was shooting outdoors - using ISO 200. I'm usually at ISO 800, aperture wide open taking pictures of the little guy. So it was fun playing around with the settings. Let me know if you have any specific questions!!
Have a great day!

Dino-mite!!

2010-09-20T16:15:00.002-05:00

Since getting PTI's Tiny Treats: Valentine I have been dying to use the little dinosaur image. As you well know, I love "punny" sayings and this stamp set is CHOCK full of them. I really wanted to incorporate the dino image for T's first birthday but ended up going another direction. This set is not only good for making Valentine's cards but can be used for pretty much any occassion.

So here's my card... well cards... I figured since I had pulled out my supplies, I should make at least 5. :)

I started out by stamping the "label" image that comes with the set with PTI New Leaf ink. The dotted line is part of the image. Then stamped the dino image and sentiment with black ink. Then I took Copics and colored the dino in. It's such a small image so coloring in 5 of them didn't take too long. I took care to shade a little bit with a darker green. I punched the image out with my pink Marvy Mega Circle punch. I matted the circle with a scallop circle shape in Aqua Mist (Marvy Mega Scallop punch). I went back I outlined the dino image with a very light blue copic color after I had matted the white circle. I think it pulled everything together with the blue & green.

For the kraft paper matte layer I stamped Polka Dot Basics II background on the bottom half, again with New Leaf. Then used scor-tape & glitter to create a border of some sorts. The main image was adhered with foam dots for some dimension.

To finish things off, I added a little loop of swiss dots aqua mist ribbon next to the sentiment that was stamped then cut out. For some visual interest, I rounded the corners of one end of the sentiment using my Fiskars 1/4" corner rounder sqeeze punch. I did the same to all 4 corners of the kraft layer. I used sentiments from my other sets, Shapes by Design & Fillable Frames #1. Either mini-rhinestones or regular rhinestones were added then "colorized" with a matching copic marker.

I decided to make a few of the cards birthday cards and the rest thank you cards. I also love adding a little preview of the card on the envelope. So now they are all ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Aqua Mist Wedding(s)

2010-09-01T08:00:00.004-05:00

Wow! It's September already! I'm kinda ready for the cooler fall weather- it's been a pretty warm summer even by Chicago standards!

Well today's project is a card, actually 2 cards, that I made for 2 weddings. I've been trying to be productive and if I'm going to pull out supplies, I might as well make more than one card. And you guessed it! I used Aqua Mist CS. As inspiration I used this card.

Using PTI's Big & Bold Wishes I stamped the focal image. This stamp set makes it super easy to create a bold, yet elegant statement. Then with Background Basics: Petal Power, I stamped a background onto another piece of Vintage Cream CS. To add a little bit of dimension to the cream cardstock I swiped neatly around the focal image with the darker color of the Tea Dye Duo. On the background piece I distressed the edges and then swiped not so neatly with both colors of the duo. Since both the focal image and background piece are the same color, adding the distressed edging allows the focal image to standout but ties everything together.

Lately, Nichole of Papertrey Ink has been using double loops of ribbon as embellishement and I wanted to give it a try. So I used the swiss dot ribbon to loop behind the focal image which I popped up on dimensionals. To give the whole thing some bling-bling I added clear rhinestones to the corners but if you look closely, I colored them with a matching Copic marker to make them look like aqua mist. This is cool because you don't necessarily have to buy supplies in EVERY color... sometimes you can alter it to match!

The overall effect was a pretty, vintage card, perfect for any wedding.

Have a great day!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Big & Bold Wishes, Background Basics: Petal Power
Ink: PTI Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate; Tea Dye Duo
Cardstock: PTI Aqua Mist, Vintage Cream
Accessories: PTI Aqua Mist Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon, Clear rhinestones, Copic marker

Birthday Hoot

2010-08-25T08:00:00.003-05:00

I'm not a huge fan of this card because I made it in a rush but thought I would still post it. The picture isn't that great either 'cuz I took at work in nasty flourescent light. It uses PTI's Wise Owl set combined with Out on a Limb. Both owls are popped up on foam dimensionals. I colored them in with Copics. I was a true Copic newbie... you can see I tried shading but didn't really do a good job... not that I'm any better now :)... a little bit better.

I do love the sentiments... ha ha ha... because they're punny... I love punny. The green mat, I think, is a SU! color. New Leaf wasn't out yet. The leaves on the branches are colored in with a marker, SU! as well. The buttons & ribbon are from my miscellaneous stash.

Just thought you'd enjoy seeing a slightly different, non-baby, non-wedding card :)!
Have a great day!

Sam's baby shower

2010-08-23T08:00:00.006-05:00

So remember this wedding card? Well a year or 2 later... it's time for... then comes baby in the baby carriage! Gosh 2 years go so fast!

If you notice a theme with me, I always have blue in stock. I love blue. And for this card it was Aqua mist baby! We were in a little bit of a time crunch so I made it postcard style. I printed the shower details onto ivory pearlescent paper (Paper Source). I stamped the little peapod from Green Thumbs in New Leaf and the inner peas with Spring Moss. Then I added the little baby face from Bitty Baby Blessings. The sentiment was curved a little bit to fit alongside the peapod. If you want to know the fonts I used... let me know, I forgot which ones exactly.

I matted the ivory onto a piece of lemon tart CS. Then for the base, I ran aqua mist through my cuttlebug with an embossing folder and attached both layers onto it. I felt that the embossing was enough to not warrant an more embellishments.

One thing to note is that on shimmery paper like that, the Pallette/original PTI ink dries but just takes awhile. Also when stamping you have to be a little more careful to prevent smudging.

Have a great day!!

Red Flowery First Birthday Card

2010-08-20T08:00:00.010-05:00

Hey y'all!

Today's card is one I made to match a really, really cute dress for my friend's daughter's first birthday... yeah... she's 2 now. But remember? I'm catching up! On to the details...

The card utilized a set of 2 peony stamps that I had gotten a long, long time ago based on this post, back when I was researching wedding ideas. The stamp itself is acrylic but it is mounted on a wooden block and it is SUPER CRAZY detailed. I love how it stamps... hmm... makes me wanna take it out and stamp something...

Anyways... I first randomly stamped the smaller peony image onto Pure Poppy CS with SU! white craft inks. I also used my exacto knife to distress the edges of the red layer before I matted it onto a piece of kraft CS. I added some double-stiched Pure Poppy ribbon, embellishing it with a little sentiment tag (from Bitty Baby Blessings & my cuttlebug) and a random button. I matted both layers onto a vintage cream CS base that I had stamped with the larger peony image with Pure Poppy ink.

Instead of centering the matted portion, I offset it to the left so that more of the larger peony image would show. Overall it was a little darker than I had intended but it matched the outfit I had gotten. I don't have a picture but I stamped a kraft colored gift bag using the same large peony stamp using pure poppy ink. That pulled the whole gift package together nicely!

Now that I look at this, I think this would be great for an adult's birthday... maybe it's time to make some more with different colors???

Thanks for lookin'!!

Lisa Leonard Birthday Giveaway!

2010-08-19T09:40:00.007-05:00

Lisa Leonard is giving away a $100 gift card to her store AND $100 Target gift card on behalf of her birthday. I love her designs! I have the tiny square tags necklace and rarely EVER take it off. Her style is so simple & elegant. Stop by her store to see what she has to offer! And go here for a chance to win!

Quickie Wedding Card

2010-08-18T08:00:00.009-05:00

And I mean the card was a quickie, NOT the wedding :)

This card came together relatively pain-free, no stamping required. I had bought a stack of really pretty wedding paper I thought I would use for a wedding scrapbook (separate from our wedding album from our photographer)... yeah, that didn't happen. So it turned out it could be great for wedding cards. I adhered a striped ribbon down the middle of the card base. Then tore the patterned paper and glued that on. For the brown satin ribbon - I actually re-purposed ribbon from a gift! I just cut it using pinking shears to get the zig-zag edges. I used really pretty glittery alpha stickers for the bride & groom's intials and ta-da! A pretty wedding card worthy of a pretty wedding. I think the paper & stickers are from K&Company, everything else were miscellaneous supplies I had laying around my office.

Thanks for stoppin' by!!

Photography Tuesday: Project 365 fail... sort of

2010-08-17T15:00:00.001-05:00

Alrighty!! For my inaugural Photography Tuesday post I will tell you about what was going on at the beginning of this year!

In my post introducing Photography Tuesdays, I told you that there was this "perfect storm" of sorts going on where I started an online class, found out about Project 365, and purchased Photoshop Elements. As part of the online class, I also purchased a 50mm lens. This type of lens is a fixed lens, in the sense that it does not zoom in & out. From what I learned, people like these kinds of fixed lenses for the fact that you can "open them up" or have a wide aperture to let a lot of light in. And if you need to zoom in & out you move your feet as opposed to the lens. I am NO expert so I'll leave it to the experts to answer any questions but if you have any feel free to ask me and I can refer you to where I go to find answers :).

Getting the 50mm lens CHANGED my photography. Well the class helped a lot too :). It focused on basics and eventually the end goal was to get you to shoot in Manual mode where you, the photographer, choose the ISO (film speed), the aperture (amount of light) & the shutter speed instead of letting the camera do it. By having full control, you could control the kind of images you capture.

This scrapbook page is my first week of pictures for Project 365. It is also a good sampling of the first photos I took with my new 50mm. This was when I had high hopes for taking all the new stuff I learned and taking a picture everyday! This is also where you read my title and realize that it didn't happen, hahaha! But I don't think of it as a total fail, at least I tried, right? And I do have pages for the whole month of January & February. I even did a special layout to document Tyler's surgery - I can share that at a later time. So you see how everything came together?

Here are a few more pictures from February. I picked them because I wanted to highlight "bokeh." Here's wiki page that explains it better but here's my attempt. Bokeh is the blurry quality of an image that is not in focus. When you control the aperture, you are controlling the amount of light you will capture but it also affects how much or how little it's in focus. By changing the aperture you can change how much or how little you want the background to be in focus.

The wider the opening the blurrier the backgroud. I love taking pictures this way because your subject is in focus but the laundry that's folded but not put away is not. So to say that in January & February I took tons of pics of Tyler with a blurry background is an understatement. Just to note, the 50mm lens I purchased was a great lens but it didn't autofocus with my D40 and though it was easy enough practicing on inanimate object, it was crazy hard using it with a squiggly child. So, I ended up selling the 50mm and got a 35mm that autofocuses... best of both worlds.

So how's that for my first Photography Tuesday? What do you think? Interesting? At least there are cute pictures!
Ok! Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the day!

Photography Tuesdays

2010-08-17T08:00:00.015-05:00

So in the past year a so, I discovered Google Reader. It's awesome in the sense that I don't have to go clicking on to each blog link that I'd saved to see if there is anything new - it just shows up in your reader and you read it! You do lose a little bit of the personality of each blog because you don't see the title and decoration that people have up. But it's nice because it's sorta like my daily newspaper except that it reports on people's craftiness or "mom-ness." I'm subscribed to mostly crafty & mommy blogs :).

One thing I've noticed that people do a weekly feature, whether it's a particular manufacturer, project or open forum. So I've decided to focus on photography on Tuesdays. I feel like photography & scrapbooking go hand in hand. If you love scrapbooking, you want to have great pictures to scrap. If you love photography, you want to somehow document the great pictures you take. So I will try and take Tuesdays to focus on what I've done with my photography.

I've always been interested in photography. My dad was an avid hobbyist, I have pictures of me as a toddler playing with tripods and lens brushes :). And I took photography in high school - even learned how to develop my own film and prints! I remember vaguely learning about f-stops and aperture but it never stuck. Most of high school and into college I had a point & shoot that I toted around everywhere. My interest sorta started petering out, when I became busy with pharmacy school and residency. But I always had a few key pictures and/or scrapbooks to commemorate important moments. I used my dad's old digital camera for a few years, especially once I started dating and then during the first year of marriage. I forget the exact impetus for wanting to upgrade but I bought a digital SLR in 2007. It probably was the start of reading people's blogs that made me want to buy one - most likely... actually, I think that's why - I wanted to take nice pictures of my cards and scrapbooks - hahaha!

And when I got my Nikon D40 SLR, like most people, I shot my SLR in Auto mode... sometimes in "P" mode based on what I read on Ken Rockwell's site while researching which SLR to get. I started taking pictures of my cards and immediately posting them onto my then-new blog and on forums... this is all obviously my A.T. (before Tyler) period. I took the D40 on a few vacations and made a few digital scrapbooks (wow... that's a whole 'nother topic, I might need to do Digital Thursdays) and was generally happy with the results.

But to get to where I am currently with this hobby/passion of mine I have to explain a few more things. Like I just mentioned, I was generally happy with how my pictures were turning out. I knew that I was not utilizing the full potential of my camera but I was ok with that. I didn't carry it around with me too much, I ended up getting a new P&S Canon that was easier to carry around. So that became my default camera. The "big one" only came out around holidays or family gatherings/trips.

The biggest turning point - as I'm sure it is for most people - is having a child. When you have a child and if you have even the slightest inclincation towards photography - you WILL take pictures. I was even taking pictures of ultrasound pictures! But the first few months it was easier to use the Canon P&S. That thing basically lived on the coffee table and captured everything... every burp, spit up & smile -we even documented those sleepless nights when he would still be up at 2am. So the first 3-4 months I rarely used the D40. Then around the 4 month mark I started using the D40 to take "portraits" and I think this is also when my Google Reader reading was kicking into high gear.

I started reading Maggie Holmes' blog because other people were talking about her and also about her photography class. I decided that I should take a class and see if I could unlock some more potential out of my camera and I did! The husband even agreed, which was surprising - he's VERY supportive and usually ignores the amount of money & time that goes into my hobbies - but the cost was kinda high, so I was surprised at how easily he said yes. It could have been because I really hadn't done anything for myself in a really long time :). So I took the online class, re-introduced myself to the basics and started taking pictures more often. I also found out about Project 365 around the time of taking the class - it's where you take a picture a day to document your year. (I started but haven't kept up... details in another post :)). I even tried carrying my D40 around everyday but that didn't last long - though I do carry it around more than I did before. It's really true that practice makes perfect.

With the combination of new baby, reading blogs with gorgeous pictures, getting Photoshop Elements, taking an online photo class, and hearing about & starting project 365 - it was the perfect storm for me to start trying to get into photography again, with the key word being "trying." :)

So hopefully you'll join me for Photography Tuesdays and see what I've been shootin'!

Baby Shower of a Greek Nature

2010-08-16T08:00:00.003-05:00

Hi All!

What does the title mean? Heh, this card & gift basket set was for my dear, dear friend who is Greek. There's nothing that really made the gift Greek, just wanted to distinguish this baby shower from the other ones! And actually this is a P.T. (post-tyler) Card! I remember making it during a nap & shrink wrapping after he woke up. :)

So here is the card. I used a combination of PTI's Bitty Baby Blessings and their 2008 anniversary set - Everyday Classics. I stamped the star image from Everyday Classics in Versamark Champagne Dazzle - it really does dazzle. Then used aqua mist CS to paper piece the baby stroller. To balance the image, add color and hold the sentiment, I added a star brad from SU! with bits of new leaf DS, random aqua grossgrain & summer sunrise satin (reversed) ribbon. The patterned paper is from SU! and the blue border is punched with the EK Success dotted scallop edger punch. I also added a bit of green to the stroller to finish things off.

For the basket, I got a cute blue gingham covered basket from Michael's and filled it with all the cute stuff from the registry. Covered it with shrink wrap and used a hair dryer to shrinky-dink that thing. Who remembers shrinky dinks?

I made the bow using wired ribbon I had at home and looping and twisting until it was nice and floofy (puffy+fluffy). Taped the card on and I was set to go!

Stay tuned for pictures related to this little one's first birthday party! I was able to help my friend out and photograph his party!

New profile picture

2010-08-13T23:17:00.003-05:00

I updated my profile picture to more accurately represent what I look like :P And I updated the header. I've been getting into digi-scrapbooking so this is an early attempt, be nice!

That beautiful blue water in the background is none other than the Chicago River!

Baby Shower of Mine

2010-08-13T08:00:00.015-05:00

Ok, don't laugh... but I made my own baby shower invites. Well, alright, let's say that I designed them and used husband- & friend-labor to assemble them. But that happens when you're the go-to-gal for pretty cards among your friends. :) And you know I loved every minute of it!

Here's the front.

The color scheme incorporated Soft Sky (SU!) & Summer Sunrise (PTI)- not too different from the color theme for this party, but I already had a lot of the paper & supplies. I was on a "gotta save" kick, especially with buying all sorts of baby stuff. The bedding that I had gotten for the baby's room was sort of a jungle animals theme so that's what we went with for the shower theme as well. Don't worry, after the invites, I stepped back from any sort of planning :).
For the main image I stamped the giraffe image onto white cardstock and colored it in with Copics. I went on a hunt for the PERFECT match to the blue & yellow at my local Dick Blick's and I totally scored. Then not too long after, Nichole & Debbie from PTI came up with a color chart! Talk about bad timing or... great minds think alike(?). Anyways, the "Join Us" was stamped at the bottom with Simple Alphabet in black. I used a ticket corner punch then matted the giraffe onto Dark Chocolate CS. It's hard to see but on the card base I stamped a border image at the top and bottom using Soft Sky ink. You can click on the image for a larger picture. Before adhering the image, I added a strip of patterned paper.

The wording, for mass production sake, was printed from my laser printer onto a textured linen resume paper - chosen for the fact that I had a lot of it :). That's is also why the "Join Us" on the front was in black ink. I would have liked to have done it in brown but I didn't have a color printer. So black it was. For the fonts, I used Century Gothic, which is the same font as Simple Alphabet - that took some time to figure out but I'm so glad I did! The cursive font is Little Days. Nichole featured it in a project long ago and I think it really matches baby items. I also rounded all the outside corners.

For some reason, I really wanted to make a pop-up card. I must of seen it somewhere. I do have a card book that I bought when we went to Japan but I made it simple so that there would be no cutting. Basically you cut a small strip of paper and score it so that when folded, you have a box. You adhere one end to the top of the card and the other to the bottom. Then on the flat piece you can add what you want to "pop-up." I realize this explanation really doesn't explain anything... I'll try and put up a better one later :). To decorate the pop-up piece, I die cut animals using my Cuttlebug and colored in parts of them with marker. It was easier than paper piecing, especially since the hubby ended up helping out with the coloring and adhering. I used a border punch to get the moon & stars edge, so cute!

Fine Print:
Stamps: SU! Bundle of Joy, PTI Simple Alphabet
Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate SS white, Father Knows Best PP, misc. resume paper
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, Black Noir
Accessories: Copics(B14, B12, Y19, Y32E31), Summer Sunrise Grossgrain, Misc square brad, Cuttlebug Zoo Animals die, SU! ticket corner punch, Fiskars corner rounder punch, EK Succes Moon 'n Stars edger punch

Thank You Berry Much

2010-08-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

This card was pretty simple to put together. I added paper from my Stampin' Up collection to the bottom of the plain white card base (PTI Stamper's Select White of course!). I first stamped the larger strawberry PTI's Green Thumb, cut it out and placed a foam dimensional on the back. But before adhering the large berry, I started stamping the little berries, using some masking to get a layered look, across the top. That way I could move the larger berry around to see how much I wanted the little ones to peek out. I also purposely stamped off some ink on a few of the berries to get variation in color. I honestly don't remember what colors I used... I think the red is Pure Poppy ink just not at "full strength." It matches the paper, pretty darn well, if I do say so myself! :)

I then added the little curlicue-leafy-things around the berries. For a more finished look, I added the black gingham ribbon (SU!). It kinda adds a little country charm, no? Then finished the whole thing off with a 'punny' sentiment. I love punny sentiments!! If you noticed, I added some sparkle to the large strawberry with my Sakura stardust pen - love that thing!

Alrighty, I'm moving right along in my catching up!
Thanks for stoppin' by!

Christmas Cards 2008

2010-08-09T08:00:00.010-05:00

It's a little early to be thinking of Christmas but... oh well...

I don't know if I've ever posted Christmas Cards here. In 2007 I handmade 4 different kinds of pretty elaborate cards. But for 2008, I decided to mass produce a simple design since I was preggo and just getting over being really nauseous.

I started out with a simple white base using PTI Stampers Select White. Then I stamped a frame from SU!'s Frames with a Flourish using Pallete Ink Charcoal. Then using a negative mask- basically a piece of paper with the Frame cut out- I stamped a Stamps by Judith Pine bough over & over until I got the "branch" to look the way I wanted. Then stamped the sentiment from a miscellaneous holiday set I have. I love the modern look of the gray ink on white paper

I stamped a little dot from PTI Beautiful Blooms to make the "ornament." then drew in the "hook" with a black gel pen. The Ornament was then colored over with a Sakura stardust pen for some sparkle, then some liquid crystal over it all to make it shine!

Then on the back of each flat card, I stamped another sentiment:
If the front said "Merry Christmas," the back said, "& Happy holidays" and if the front said "Happy Holidays" the back said, "& Winter wishes" to be a little politically correct for co-workers. The "&" and the greeting with our names were stamped using PTI Simple Alphabet, SUCH a versatile set! The tiny heart is from PTI My Punny Valentine.

Here's a note on mass producting things. I try and do all the stamping of one color all at once. So all the gray stamping was done first, then the green, then the red, then all the other elements added in. This helps to keep your work area somewhat organized since you only have out what you need for that particular step. And if you are making a lot of cards, the repetition helps you zone out a little and it becomes relaxing... at least it does for me :).

Hope you enjoyed this little piece of Christmas in August!
Thanks for comin' by!

New home Card Set

2010-08-05T10:15:00.000-05:00

I have been meaning to post this for a very long time. I made a set of cards to give a co-worker/fellow crafter because she was moving out of state. I used the Boards & Beams set from Papertrey Ink. Sorry that the picture quality isn't so great. I've gotten better at taking pictures but lately they're of my cutie son.

I made a set of 10 flat cards featuring the bigger house from the B&B set. I stamped them on kraft paper in black ink. Then went and colored in the roof, windows, railing & door with copics. I liked the fact that by stamping on kraft paper, I didn't have the urge to color in the whole house, which saved me time because I made 10 of them. I cut out each house using my cutter-bee scissors.

Then for the card bases, I stamped the fence image twice onto a piece of vintage cream CS, knowing that the house would cover the middle. I masked the fence on the left side and stamped the tree image. Did I mention I made 10 of them? I matted the cream CS onto Pure Poppy CS then the whole thing onto a kraft 4.25 x 5.5 base. I added a strip of Aqua Mist paper for a little more color, since everything was so kraft-y. I stamped the sentiment "Our New Home" at the bottom, perfect for sending people your new address. I kept the overall design flat and simple to make mailing them easy and it made it easier to mass produce. 10 of them. :)

Now the piece de resistance for me was the box I made to house, haha house, the cards. I used a template I had found somewhere by prchvs (Renée), I think from SCS or internet searching. It's easy to make, you need 1-12x12 sheet and 1-6x6 piece. I used a piece of green CS I had from my stash and a 6x6 sheet from Everyday Blessings PP. I tied a piece of Pure Poppy double stich ribbon around it and added another house I had colored & cut. The top cover has a little velcro closure to keep everything in. All 10 cards & 10 envelopes fit neatly and made for a great presentation when I gave it to my co-worker. The box is meant to hold 5 or 6 folded cards but since these were flat I was able to fit more in. And the box could be used for storing other things afterwards!

Cool, huh?
Thanks for comin' by and let me know if you have any questions about supplies or tools.

Aaaaand... I'm Back (I think)

2010-08-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

Well... I've decided to pick up this blogging thing again. I went to the CHA Super Show last weekend and after meeting fellow bloggers, PTI forum members and of course PTI superstars and Nichole (!) (see picture below), I felt the need to contribute to the blogging world again. :) It also helped being crafty, just to be crafty. I went with 2 of my co-workers/scrappy/crafty friends and we had a blast slowly meandering from booth to booth doing some make-&-takes and checking things out.

From L-R: Debbie Olson, Heather Nichols, Nichole Heady, me, Dawn McVey, Jennifer Ellefson, Michelle Wooderson
Why do I look so nervous and short? Cuz I am.

So you may be asking, "where the heck have you been?" And I would answer, "right here, reading and absorbing everything, just not posting!" Then naturally you would ask, "Why not?" And instead of a smarty-pants answer, I would launch into a long summary of where I've been. But since you are not physically in front of me to hear that long summary, I will give you the bulleted list version. And hopefully I'll start elaborating as I get back to blogging.

August of 2008: Pregnant & VERY nauseous
January 2009: Discovered heart anomaly on ultrasound
April 21, 2009: Baby Tyler is born
April 24, 2009: Tyler's first surgery (crazy, I know)
July 2009: Back to work
January 2010: Tyler's second surgery
February 2010: Tyler's first birthday preparation underway
April 2010: Tyler's first birthday party

Now, of course, you're probably thinking, "oh no! She's gonna post an abnoxious amout of gratuitously cute baby pictures." And because you thought it - I will! Just kidding... I'll just put up a small smattering here & there for fun. There's plenty of time for that, plus- that's what Facebook is for.

A somewhat recent picture from this summer. He looks sheepish to convey my feelings for the lack of posting

On the crafty side of things, I did craft up until the baby was born, we will call that period: A.T. (ante tyler) - my Latin is very limited and mostly only to medical terminology. But just did not have the energy to post. Then with the disconcerting news we received in January, I started blogging about that experience separately. Ask if ya wanna read about it. I'm sure pieces of it will start to flow into this blog. Then all you mommies know, it is hard to carve out time to sit and do anything. I've been able to do some stuff here & there but only in sort of an "as needed" basis - in a "oh wedding today?" whip something up kind of way.

So I am calling this time in my crafty life: P.T. (post tyler) and hopefully it will provide some reading fun for you all!

I have a lot of catching up to do so come along on the ride with me!

From This Day Forward...

2008-09-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yet another wedding card! This was wedding #3 this year, with 2 more to go... eesh :) But then it's an excuse to make pretty cards!

I had a hard time coming up with something so I just started stamping! I was FINALLY able to order Guidelines from PTI when it came back in stock but didn't play with it until a few weeks later. I did have one boo-boo side but that's ok, you just flip it over and try again. I will say that it does take a little practice to get the hang of it but WOW, the finished product is maximum effect with minimum effort

I was initally going to have one more layer but it seemed like a travesty to cover up the pattern :) so I kept it simple by just adding a "tag" with a monogram & ribbon.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Guidelines, Flower Garden, Birthday Basics ("H")
Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Sweet Blush
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Sweet Blush
Accessories: PTI Sweet Blush Satin Ribbon, Sakura Clear Glitter Pen, Making Memories Slot Punch

Thanks for looking!

Pretty in Pink

2008-09-18T09:00:00.001-05:00

Another one of my good friends got married recently and I wanted to make sure I kept the standard for gift baskets high :). I first made the card and chose pink & brown to go with her colors.

Before I wrote on the insert for the card, I lightly traced the pocket onto it with pencil so I knew where not to write. This way, once inserted, you don't see the writing. I blocked all the writing, it's personal people! :) I'm really, really happy for my friend but sad cuz she's moving to Boston because of her husband's job - but hopefully they'll be back in a few years!! YAY!

So then I wanted to wrap the gifts creatively... I usually try and make it a theme but SOMEONE, who will remain nameless, bought up all the baking supplies on the registry. Making it hard for me to make a baking themed basket. And there wasn't anything thing else "theme-y" so I ended up buying up all her pop-up tupperware things and another boxed set of storage items. In addition I had to buy something extra for the honeymoon!! :)

I went to Michael's to see what baskets were available and found this flat one with brown lining - perfect! Then I carefully folded the unmentionables into 2 of the containers so they showed through and a jewlery box in another. For the 2 empty cannisters I just used pretty paper to line them. I tied pink ribbon on the ones that had something inside and dark chocolate ribbon on the empty ones. so the bride would know which ones to open. Then I stuffed extra wrapping paper around them so there wouldn't be too much shifting. The big box is just the boxed set wrapped up.

Here you can see more detail of how one of the unmentionables shows through :). I also shrink wrapped the basket for a professional finish then tied it together to the gift wrapped box with pink tulle and taped the card to the front. I love tulle.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Boxes, Bags, & Tags, Shapes by Design ("Celebrate")
Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate, White; SU! Purely Pomegranate & DP
Ink: PTI Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Dark Chocolate
Accessories: PTI Sweet Blush Satin Ribbon, random button, Scor-Pal, Corner Rounder punch, SU! File Folder Tab punch

Thanks for Looking!!

Mr. & Mrs.

2008-09-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here is a gate-fold card I made as a wedding card. It's a 5x5 card and I used the tutorial from SCS. I also made an envelope using a template I had from Paper Source out of a 12x12 sheet of Vellum. The oval "Mr. & Mrs." helps hold the card closed.

The designer paper is sponged in Dark Chocolate and the white square is sponged with Spring Moss. The only thing that did not show up in the picture was the background I stamped in Aqua Mist behind the Mr. & Mrs.

I covered the flowers with my Stardust pen to add a little sparkle. The close up kinda shows it :).

I also stamped the branch image inside and outlined it again with my stardust pen. I used my Making Memories slot punch to punch out slots to hold the gift (check). While leaving some room to write something.

Fine Print:
Stamps: SU! Artfully Asian; PTI B&C Monogram Edition, Mixed Messages
Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, White, Dark Chocolate; PTI Everyday Blessing DP
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss
Accessories: Sakura Stardust Clear Pen, Copic Markers, Making Memories slot punch

Thanks for Looking!!

Thank You Card for being 30

2008-09-12T08:00:00.004-05:00

Not much to say with today's post. Just wanted to share the thank you cards I made to go along with the birthday theme from my last post. The hard part was getting my husband to write them. Anyone else have trouble with this? I even wrote out an outline for him to use but that totally backfired! I figured that since I had written the ~150 thank you's for our wedding, he at least owed me 8 of them for his own birthday?? Oh well, at least they'll go out soon, I hope!!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Beautiful Blooms, Flower Garden
Paper: PTI White, Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate, PTI Father Knows Best DP
Ink: PTI Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate
Accessories: Making Memories Square Brads

Thanks for Looking!!

Who's turning 30???

2008-09-09T09:00:00.007-05:00

Hahaha... my husband finally turned thirty in August, he's 9 months younger than me. I know, I know, "gasp! younger man?!" What can I say? heh heh heh just kidding. He hates large groups and noise (already acts older than he really is) so we just had a handful of friends over for Korean BBQ. But I wanted to make it a little special.

Sooo... I made this pennant banner to liven things up.

Here's detail of one of the pennants. The letters are also from Archiver's die cut letters, also from the "Chunky" font but I used the capital letters with the shadows. Also if you notice, I use a lot of sheer navy blue ribbon - um... I have a lot, I mean A LOT of it leftover from my wedding (from 2 years ago!!) so whenever I can I try and use it and I mean WHENEVER.

So now you may now wonder where I got the color scheme? Well I got the idea from Amy Rysavy. She had posted a gift she made for her husband using the Father Knows Best paper and set and I filed it away for later. When I was thinking of a theme for the party, this came to mind. I thought the color scheme was nice, boyish but not typically so. Therefore I take ZERO credit for the idea, I only changed the main image and the sentiment. Then I made the pennants to match.

Oh and I used SU! Soft Sky instead of Aqua Mist just cuz I had bought a bunch of it along with the ribbon. But I used it with PTI Summer Sun.

I filled nugget tins with matching Jelly Belly's. Don't they match the color scheme exactly?? I got Berry Blue, Pink Grapefruit, and Peach flavors

The flower from Flower Garden and the sentiment from SU! Simply Said are embossed with White EP.

Also to make it even more special, I ordered a cake from Cake Girls, in Chicago. If you can't tell, my husband likes golf. He has moments when he is obsessed but I have moments when I'm obsessed with crafting so we always consider ourselves even :).

His reaction was so funny cuz he kept asking "what are you supposed to do with it? Do we eat it? Do we eat it? What is that? What is that?" And I had to keep responding with, "yes, yes, we can eat it, it's a cake!" It took some convincing for him to cut the cake but don't worry, we cut that sucker and ate it! It was really good!

So even though we don't have any kids, that doesn't mean you can't have themed parties for adults, right? And without the cheesy kinds you get at a party favor store. After I had spent so much time on my friends' 1st birthday party & baby shower, I felt I had to step it up for that special person in my life - just didn't seem fair to not spend my time on him :). Overall it went well, my friends sorta made fun of me for it but I don't care! :P

Thanks for looking and be sure to send any questions my way!

All wrapped up!

2008-09-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

So for the presents that go with the card in my last post... I made my own wrapping paper for cuttlebug dies that I bought my friend, Heidi, for her birthday.

I used regular printer paper because I was in a pinch and PTI Beautiful Blooms randomly all over. I used almost every PTI ink color! Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Lemon Tart & Summer Sun. Sorry that the colors don't show up in the pic, I was using early morning sunlight before work.

Then as the baby shower gift, the group of crafty girls at work decided to make scrapbook pages so she'd have a head start by the time the baby came . Here are my pages.

This one is a total scraplift from the page I took a picture of at the Jolee sticker booth at CHA. I changed the writing to be like a birth announcement. It was pretty simple and I like how the hand drawn borders give it a whimsical look. I'll post a similar one I did in blue later.

Here's a close-up. I'd never thought to layer the stickers from Jolee but it adds so much more! I'm gonna try and do it more often.

Let me know if there's anything you'd like to know about the stuff I've used.

Thanks for looking!!

Birthday AND a Baby?!?

2008-09-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

We threw a surprise Baby Shower/Birthday Lunch for one of my scrappy friends at work and I made this card for everyone to sign. I used the CMWC15 sketch from the PTI forum, kinda. I had just gotten the Green Thumbs set from Papertrey Ink and was itching to try it. I used the rock & roll method for the flowers, I'm still workin' on it :P.

The neat thing with this card was making a slot for a gift card. I saw this on someone's site but I don't remember where- I'll be sure to post where when I do. Before you adhere the layer to the card base you cut a slit just a little larger than the gift card and use a circle punch to punch a half circle. Then stick your layer on but be sure to leave the middle adhesive free.

Fine Print:
Stamps: Green Thumbs, Bitty Baby Blessings, Women of Life additions (&), B&C Monogram Edition
Paper: SU! Kraft, PTI White, Spring Moss, Misc. Lavender CS, Bitty Baby Blessings DP
Ink: SU! Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, PTI Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Palette Charcoal
Accessories: PTI Spring moss Grossgrain ribbon, Sakura Glitter Pen, circle punch, foam adhesive, markers (for stems & pitcher).

Thanks for looking!

Baby Shower Galore

2008-09-01T09:35:00.001-05:00

So to continue my baby shower theme, here is what I came up with for a gift. I got my friend a diaper bag from her registry and filled it with some goodies. I made a last-minute gift using fabric and stamps to make some unique onsies. I got the idea from Taylor of Taylored Expressions. The fabrics are from something I picked up in Japan last September. I realized I only had very floral fabrics and so I picked the most "boy-y" looking one to make these :).

Three onsies fit inside one of the larger PTI boxes (the ones that the stamps come wrapped in). I made a belly band to match the card I made.

Here's the diaper bag filled with everything and ready to go. I stuffed some paper on the bottom so that things would stick out and tied up the handles with some ribbon.

I also made a banner for the shower (one that I could keep and re-use :) ). I tried to make them look like baby blocks but don't know if I accomplished the look.

Here's a close-up. I used PTI cardstock, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss and Dark Chocolate. The letters were die cut at my local Archiver's using the "Chunky" font. I randomly punched scallops with my SU!, scored lines and rounded the corners.

Thanks for looking!!

My Scor-Pal & Awards

2008-08-30T08:40:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile since I've updated, no? I've been so busy crafting and creating that I haven't had a chance to sit and go through pics and to blog. I apologize - to all 5 of you :) - my faithful readers. But stay tuned! I'm working on a bunch of new entries with lots of projects and pictures! First things first - I was awarded some awards!!!! How neat-o is that?

Erica from One Creative Life gave me the Brillante Bog award.

And Mary K awarded me the "I Love Your Blog" award.

Thanks so much ladies... I'm gonna be a rebel and just say to check out my blog roll for my most commmonly read/most inspiring blogs!

In other news... I finally was able to get a Scor-Pal. I'll admit I opted to wait for a coupon from Archiver's. It makes me feel better when I get a bargain. So once I got it home and unwrapped - it was off to the web to discover all the cool things you can do with it.

One of my first creations with the Scor-Pal ws to make a lattice pattern to dress up a card base. I used SU! Very Vanilla. Then all I did was attach as a focal point, an ATC from our PTI ATC Swap. I used one from Regandags, perfect for a baby card for one of my husband's co-workers. So easy-peasy!

Fine Print: (From Regandags)
Stamps: PTI Mixed Messages, My Punny Valentine, Polka Dot basics
Paper: PTI White, Lemon Tart
Ink: PTI Lemon Tart, Dark Chocolate
Accessories: Offray Ribbon, Oval nestabilites, Swiss Dots folder, Tiny Tags

Thanks for looking!!

Oh Baby!

2008-08-06T12:00:00.003-05:00

Gosh my friend has gotten a ton of "air" time on my blog. I made her a card when we found out she was pregnant, then another card b/c she was so sick early in her pregnancy, I made her baby shower invites, and now a card for her present!

I used a sketch from Amy Rysavy, for some reason I really like her sketches... I got the idea to paper piece the baby buggy from our PTI Baby ATC swap... Thanks Charlene (Willow01)!

Stay tuned for a baby shower banner... kekeke, I made that too. Just forgot to take pictures before I gave it to my friend who's hosting. I'll take some this weekend to share with y'all!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Bitty Baby Blessings, Polka Dot Basics, Borders & Corners Monogram Edition
Paper: PTI Spring moss, DarkChocolate; SU Bordering Blue, So Saffron; Autumn Leaves Shangri-La DP
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Versamark
Accessories: SU! Wild Wasabi DS Grossgrain, SU! Scallop Punch, Marvy Jumbo Circle punch

Thanks for looking!

Sew Pretty!

2008-08-05T21:18:00.004-05:00

If you didn't know... I'm famous :). Hahahaha... just kidding... but check this and this out!! Ain't that SO cool?? It's cool too cuz I got like 100 hits in ONE day. I know that's chump change for some of you but for someone where 1/2 the hits are from yourself... that's a BIG deal :).

Anyways, if you check out that first link, it's to Lisa Johnson's blog and you can see that she was at the Marvy booth at CHA the whole time. She was showcasing their new Fabric Paint Pens and we got to decorate canvas bags with them using her Flower Garden set. That inspired me to do something similar.

TADA!

I used the stamp as a template to embroider a few things. I've NEVER done this before, cross sticth, yes, but embroider, no. Lisa's design TOTALLY lends itself to it though.
I first embroidered my digital camera case. I liked the case but didn't like the lettering on it so I thought I'd cover it up. I stamped the flower with white craft ink and the threads eventually covered it all up. What do you think? Not bad for my first time, no? It was kinda hard b/c the fabric was stretchy and if you pulled to hard, you squished the design. You can tell I'm not that consistent but I got the hang of it for the next project.

This was for a canvas bag for my MIL for her to take to doctor's visits. See, I improved!! :) I was going to do a lot more but my hand started hurting so I figured simple was better :P.

Thanks for looking!

CHA Day 2

2008-07-30T01:02:00.000-05:00

Oh Man! Sorry everyone for leaving you hanging for so long! :) Here are some more pictures from CHA - that are SUPER DUPER late.

These are from the McGill Punch Booth. They had LOTS of ideas but I really liked this one of a placecard. I would probably never have a party nice enough to make these for but aren't they SUPER cute?

This was from the EK Success Booth, near all the Jolee's Boutique stickers. I really liked the layout, so I took a picture. You may be seeing a similar page by me soon! :)

This one and the next one are from the Doodlebug booth. Such cute cards!

These 2 are from the Just Rite Stamper Booth. And I swear, I think the Kraft paper is from Papertrey. Who knows, maybe the designer is a PTI designer too.

Ok, now that that's all done... on to crafting!

CHA!

2008-07-25T00:39:00.000-05:00

Hi People! I am still sorta in a daze. I had an AWESOME opportunity to attend CHA (a.k.a., Craft & Hobby Association Convention & Trade Show). My PTI forum friend Lynn generously offered passes to anyone who was able to go. I jumped at the chance to go but had NO idea what I what to expect. I had always heard about this convention, especially since I live close to Rosemont, where's it's been held for several years.

This is a picture of Me, Lynn & Debbie at the Mrs. Grossman booth, posing with the Ace of Cakes cake.

I'm totally behind in the posting seeing that everyone else has already posted...but here it goes! And just to warn you, this is a very long post but it has lots of pictures!

My first day I got there and met up with Lynn and her friend Debbie (side note: there are a lot of crafters out there named Debbie!). They were SUPER nice to have let me tag along with them. I had so much fun hanging out with them and seeing all the things that had to be seen. Thanks Lynn & Debbie!!!!!!!!

One of our stops included the Marvy booth and guess who's there demo-ing their new fabric markers? None other than Lisa Johnson of Poppy Paperie & PTI Stamp Designer extraordinaire! I kinda geeked out but she was so nice to me - even took a picture of me in action! Check out her site. We used her stamp set, Flower Garden from PTI, to create designs and color them onto canvas bags. Incidentally, I was due to get an order from PTI that day and Flower Garden was in the box when I got home!

Here we are at the Provo Craft Booth - it was HUGE! They were doing a raffle when we happened to walk by and guess who made an appearance! The Cricut and purple thing (?)!! I had to have a picture... too bad my eyes were closed!

The one cool thing was that not only did all the companies have out all their wares, they also had tons of completed projects on display. Here is a wall of scrapbook pages (sorry, don't know where from). I was again, overwhelmed and didn't know what to take pictures of or who or even what to stop & see. Kinda just followed Lynn & Debbie around. :)

We stopped at the Ranger booth, another HUGE one and they had like a ton of well-known crafters doing demos. This is Claudine Hellmuth doing a demo on sticky backed canvas. I didn't even KNOW she was famous until I saw the sign over her head. This is what I'm talking about... how clueless I was :).

Here of course is Tim Holtz, the rockstar of the crafting world. It was so funny because when he came up to start his demo, ladies came out of nowhere and surrounded the table. If you look really closely at the blond lady behind Tim, that's Ali Edwards!!

After spending close to 8 hours on the floor, we still hadn't seen everything! But there was still dinner! "What!" you say, there's more?!? Oh yes, there's more! Kimberly Crawford, also from the PTI forum, organized a dinner. At first it was going to only be Lynn, Debbie, Kim & myself. Then we kept hearing that Nichole Heady and some others were coming. Little did we know that 4 would soon become 12! But what a 12 it was!

Here we are post dinner... there was Jennifer Buck, Lisa Johnson, Dawn McVey, Nichole Heady, Heather Nichols, Michelle Wooderson, Kimberly, me and two of Heather's friends. Lynn & Debbie missed the group pic!! I wish there was more time to sit and talk to each of these ladies. The surprising thing was not only were they NICE, they were so REAL :). That's a compliment, I swear! I felt like I knew these ladies but only through the blogging world, it was beyond AWESOME to not only meet them but HANG out with them.

Here's a picture from Dawn McVey's camera, thanks for sending it my way - I may need to frame it :P, dorky, I know! You can tell by my smile just how dorky I am :).

I have just a few more pictures to post from the Day 2 so stay tuned... and I will start posting some crafty things too, I promise.
Thanks for reading!

Helloooo!

2008-07-23T08:42:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. This weekend was busy and I haven't had time to sit down & post. So do you like my new banner? Just thought I'd try something new. It's acutally a picture I took while I was stopped at a red light. :). Every morning I pass these really pretty blue-purple flowers and one day I happened to stop right in front of them. I opened my passenger side window and snapped a few. I have no idea what kind of flowers these are but they grow along the road everywhere around where I live (suburbs of Chicago). Anyone know what they're called?

I had a chance this past weekend (thanks to Lynn) to attend CHA! I just downloaded pictures last night so I'll try posting some of the things I saw. I also go to meet a lot of people from Papertrey, including NICHOLE HEADY herself! It was SO cool!!!! So stay tuned for pictures. I'll also be posting some crafty projects soon too :).

Thanks!
Debbie

Out on a Limb

2008-07-13T09:00:00.002-05:00

Here's another birthday card. I hadn't used Out on a Limb by PTI in awhile so I brought it out. It really is effortless to get a beautiful and elegant focal image with this set.

It's hard to tell but I embossed the "Happy Birthday" for a little something extra!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Out on a Limb, Birthday Basics
Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate, PTI Stamper's select white
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, PTI Perfect Match Spring moss, Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet
Accessories: SU! Ticket punch, Rhinestones, clear embossing powder

Thanks for looking!

Cutesy & Fun Baby Shower Invite

2008-07-11T08:00:00.014-05:00

So I got a call from a friend who wanted to know if I had time to make baby shower invites. Of course I said yes. Then she said, "Uh, I need 36 by next week." I then said it would end up being pretty simple and she was ok with that. :) I also asked what kind of theme she wanted and I gave her the choice between elegant or cutesy & fun. She chose cutesy and fun. :)

Here's what I came up with... a pocket invite, where the pocket is held by the ribbon so there is no gluing and I can get three 4" pockets from a 12x12 sheet of paper. Easy AND economical. I also chose a paper with pattern all over so there would be minimal decoration needed for the pocket. I actually tried to find a double sided paper but nothing seemed to fit what I was looking for.

Here is the insert with the shower information. I printed the information onto vellum and then layered it over green cardstock. I stamped a border using the itty bitty animals from Bitty Baby Blesssings and stamped the onesie so it showed through the vellum. Sorry, had to blur out some personal info. Then the two layers are held together by the eyelets. I also stamped a border along the "fold" of the pocket.

Here's a closeup of the stamped details:
Obviously, or I hope obviously, she's having a boy. So the colors are in the boy palette range, she's actually the same person I made this for and she is doing MUCH better.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Bitty Baby Blessing, Stampendous little star
Paper: DCWV Glitter Boy Stars DP, Vellum, Archiver's Apple (?) CS
Ink: SU! Mellow Moss, Apricot Appeal
Accesories: SU! Bashful Blue grossgrain ribbon, Making memories eyelets, Fiskars small corner rounder

Thanks for looking!

First Attempt at Iron on's

2008-07-06T09:00:00.003-05:00

I really wanted to try what everyone seems to be doing - playing with iron-on transfers. I found out that you can stamp and color on the kind you would use for ink jet printers. So I decided to make a few gifts. I followed instructions that Ali Miles and Niki Estes posted on their blogs.

This first attempt was for the same birthday boy who loves monkeys. I thought I'd make him a T-shirt that matched the theme. Sorry about the picture but I thought of taking a picture only AFTER I had wrapped it. I created my own box too using a transparency sheet and following directions from Niki (again) :)

Coloring is trickier than I thought it would be because the marker can start to pull away the transfer material and leave spots - as you can see. The key is going slow and blotting the color in more than brushing the color on.

Thanks for looking!

Happy 1st Birthday - Goody bags

2008-07-05T12:00:00.002-05:00

The goody bags for the first birthday party - I decided to keep simple. I googled an image of a bunch of bananas and printed them out with the pun below them - keeping with the monkey theme - get it? :)

I punched them with my Mega circle punch, then punched scallops with my Giga scallop circle punch. I glued them to a band that went around the bag.

Here are the bags for the adults, we filled them with traditional Korean rice cakes or "dduk." The kids got the same bag but filled with CANDY, some small toys and bubbles from a party supply store. I customized the bubbles by ripping the labels off and creating my own.

I printed the saying and colored the monkey in with Copics.

Thanks for looking!

Happy 1st Birthday - Table Numbers

2008-07-04T14:30:00.013-05:00

Alrighty, finally here is the summary of what I did for my friend's son's (we'll call him "M") first birthday party. They kinda "hired" me :), they were my first "clients"!! I would love to do stuff like this as a side business but with a full time job, time is the biggest issue. I think of it as a good way to justify all the money I spend on all my supplies. But I always wonder what the demand is. I'm sorta hoping that by word of mouth I could get a few jobs here and there :). Let me know if you're interested, we can talk!

I'll post about the table numbers first. I also did the place cards, photo centerpieces and goody bags.

We picked this theme because M's favorite stuffed animal is a monkey - So cute when he hugs that thing!

I used PTI's Polka Dot Basics on SU! Soft Sky with Craft White ink to create the background paper. I added patterned paper by My Mind's Eye appropriately called "Birthday Boy Plaid/Brown" :). I used Lollipop die cut numbers from my local Archiver's and created a shadow effect by using 2 different colors. My Mind's Eye "Birthday Girl Dots/Aqua" and SU! Chocolate Chip. Glued them down and then stamped my monkey scenes. I used both monkeys from Stampendous and CC designs. I colored with mostly Copic markers but supplemented with SU! Markers when needed. After I finished I thought I might have gone a bit overboard but my friends really liked them.

Here's how the final product looked on the table.

For the photo cubes, we took pictures from each month of M's life and put them with the matching table number. So month 1's pictures went on table 1, etc. All in all, I think it turned out pretty welll!

I'll post the goody bag idea tomorrow, I carried the monkey theme out. I've posted the place cards previously.

Thanks for looking!

July?

2008-07-01T22:09:00.003-05:00

Wow! It's July already? Where did the time go? I know I said I was gonna post pics from the 1st birthday party but I still need to go through and edit the pictures. So to tide you over, here is something I put together for a birthday at work. I even made a matching envelope using my Paper Source templates and by using double sided DP, I didn't need to make a liner!

What do you think of my coloring? Getting better? :)

Fine Print:
Stamps: CC designs It's my birthday
Paper: SU! Jersey Shore DP, PTI Stamper's Select White, SU! Old Olive
Ink: Palette Ink Burnt Umber, SU! Not so Navy & Old Olive
Accessories: SU! Makers, Copic Markers, Queen & Co Ultra Mini Brads Blues

Thanks for Looking!

Things to come...

2008-06-20T15:47:00.004-05:00

Hi All,

I've been busy helping a friend for her son's first birthday party so I haven't had time to post. But the party is tommorow so I'll be sure to post a bunch of pictures afterwards. They go along with this placecard's theme. I helped make placecards, photo cubes for the centerpiece and table numbers. I also made a label to put on bubbles for the kiddie goody bags and the bands to go around all the goody bags. Things at work have been busy too, but in a good way. :)

Hope all is well with you fellow bloggers!

My First ATC!!

2008-06-13T23:17:00.003-05:00

This is my first ATC (Artist Trading Card) Swap. It's where you make 9 of the same thing, mail it to the host of the swap, then wait for your 8 to come in the mail. The size is only 2.5 x 3.5 inches and it was really challenging for me to come up with something in that small space. Hopefully I've done it some justice :). The theme was "Baby". I haven't mailed them out yet - need to get a padded envelope - but am excited to see what everyone else came up with.

I kept it relatively simple. I decided to make one geared more towards a boy, since sometimes I lean more to the pink side when I think baby. I also wanted to play with my new copic markers - hee hee. I went to town blending and seeing how the colorless blender works- I think it's kinda cool, it's like those markers when you were a kid where they changed colors!

Well here it is:The colors are a little darker in the picture than in real life - it's really overall soft & pastel-y. The hardest part was coloring and cutting out the elephant :). And just as a preemptive apology, some of them are missing tails... I had some unintentional amputations occur.

Here's a close-up to show the dimension.
Here they are all together ready to go!
Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper: Misc. DP, PTI Lemon Tart, Stamper's White, DCWV Textured CS
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber
Accessories: Copic Markers (B12, B14, 0)

Thanks for looking!

Office Baby

2008-06-10T19:34:00.003-05:00

This card is for a co-worker's surprise baby shower. I had to make something on short notice and with enough room for a lot of people to sign. I cut a 81/2x11 sheet of PTI Lemon Tart in half lengthwise and glued so there was one long sheet. Then scored & folded so that the final size of the card was 3x4.25 in. She's not finding out the sex of the baby so I kept everything yellow.

I initially had a hard time figuring out the ribbon but the only spot it's attached is under the paper, the rest wraps around and ties the "accordion" together.

Here it is all opened up. I covered up the middle "seam" with the designer paper. Sorry for the lighting but I took the picture at work cuz I forgot to do it at home :).
This leaves room for people to sign the front and the back. I also couldn't resist putting the little baby in the stroller. SO cute!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Bitty Baby Blessings, Simple Alphabet
Paper: PTI Bitty Baby Blessings DP, Lemon Tart CS, Stamper's Select White
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber
Accessories: PTI Summer sunrise Grossgrain Ribbon, Dew Drops, Copic & SU! Markers, dimensionals

Thanks for looking!

Dum dum da dum...

2008-06-09T19:34:00.010-05:00

I made this card for dear friends of ours who got married a few weeks ago. I needed inspiration and so I turned to the trusty PTI Gallery and this card by Lauren Meader caught my eye. It initially caught my eye cuz of the color, sorta what I was looking for since I try and match the card to the wedding colors.

The colors for the wedding were platinum and ivory. So I started with SU! Very Vanilla. Then I found this really pretty designer paper and followed Lauren's general design. I couldn't figure out how to make the cutout so I just used my punches.

I wanted to accentuate some of the pattern so I used my Versamark pen, and traced parts of the paper I wanted highlighted. Then used Silver Moon/Mistletoe Moonglow embossing powder - w/o embossing- to give it all a very soft glow.

Here's a close-up of the effect:
I'm a big fan of subtle accents I've noticed. :).
Here's a close-up of the "seal" that I embossed with regular silver embossing powder
I also wanted to thank everyone who stops by and comments (and even if you don't)... I wish I could give each of you a HUG!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI B&C Monogram Edition
Paper: SU! Very Vanilla CS, Deja Views Wedding Cream Paisley DP
Ink: Palette Charcoal
Accessories: Versamark Pen, Silver & Silver Moonglow embossing powders, Marvy Giga Scallop Punch, Marvy Mega Circle Punch, Marvy Jumbo Circle Punch, Misc. gray Satin ribbon

Thanks for Looking!!

Finally Caved...

2008-06-08T15:30:00.005-05:00

I've finally caved and got a bunch of Copic Sketch markers. I had gotten 3 of them awhile back but I had already decided to get 3 of the 4 sets from SU! thinking that the Copics weren't worth the investment. I still think you can get a decent amount of shading and blending with water-based markers. BUT...then there is all this talk of them on the PTI forum and I saw the potential and the advantages of alcohol markers vs. water-based markers. I'm helping a friend do some of the decorating for her son's birthday party, so I thought I'd start with ones that go with the project, see how I like them and go from there.

Here's my humble collection. Notice I've re-purposed a box from PTI? I've done my part for being green!
Here's one of my coloring attempts... this is only a sample so it's not perfect, especially the stamping part, but I do like how the colors go on the paper. So we'll see. I'll probably just add as I go along, buying as I need. I did also make a color chart so I may already be past the point of debate.
I really wanted to go to the Copic Certification Class in Chicago but couldn't justify taking a day off for it. I AM glad though that Marianne from Copic started a blog, so hopefully I can glean enough information from that.
I used the Copics for my first ATC swap, so I'll be posting that soon too.

**Edited to add: In case People want to know how I made my Color Chart, here's my word document: Copic Color Chart

Thanks for reading!

Belated, again!

2008-06-05T23:49:00.005-05:00

If you can't tell, I've had a rash of missing birthdays - or being late for them. Here is another card I made with the PTI Pond Life turtle. It's a pocket card

Here's the inside:

I like how the Bitty Baby Blessings paper can be used for non-baby cards. I popped this little guy up like my previous card, except I popped his head out too. Don't you love when mistakes turn into genius? Sometimes to make layers or mattes to stand out a little w/o sponging, I run the edges along the ink pad and it gives it a subtle outline. I did this to the white square that the turtle is on.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Pond Life, Pond Life sentiments
Paper: PTI Stamper's Select White; SU! Pale Plum & Perfect Plum; PTI Bitty Baby Blessings DP
Ink: PTI Spring Moss; SU Perfect Plum, Old Olive
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss Grossgrain ribbon; Bazzil flower brad, Rhinestone; Making memories slot punch.

Thanks for looking!

2008-05-30T09:23:00.004-05:00

It's been awhile since my last post - sorry to my few faithful readers. With the Memorial Day weekend and lots of family events, I haven't had much time for crafting. BUT... I did make a quick belated birthday card using the Pond Life turtle. I LOVE this turtle - so cute and easy to stamp! I also LOVE the Bitty Baby DP from PTI.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Pond Life, Pond Life Sentiments
Paper: PTI Spring Moss, Misc. Purple, PTI Bitty Baby Blessing DP
Ink: PTI Spring Moss; Pallette Ink Burnt Umber; SU! Old Olive
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss Twill Tape,Sakura glitter pen, Queen & Co Brads, dimensionals

Thanks for Looking!

Hang in There!

2008-05-18T23:18:00.007-05:00

Heya! I made this card tonight using a new set I got that was not (gasp!!) Papertrey! I know! But this monkey was so cute, I couldn't resist. I have friend who's suffering through her pregnancy with lots of N&V and I felt inspired to send this to encourage her :).

For the top leaves, I used the 2nd stamped image to get a lighter stamp for dimension. For the bottom leaves, I used masking with a post-it note for dimension. I colored in the images with SU! markers. For a little ZING! I used my Sakura glitter pen for the bananas.

Fine Print:
Stamps: Changito by Stampendous
Paper: PTI Stamper's Select White, Lemon Tart; SU! Kraft
Ink: Pallette Noir Black, Burnt Umber; Versamark, SU! Green Garden, Old Olive
Accessories: Pop up dots, Sakura glitter pen, SU! Markers

Thanks for Looking!

Tee Hee!!

2008-05-16T10:45:00.004-05:00

I'm so excited AGAIN!!! I got another honorable mention at Nichole's blog!! Click here to see!! It's almost as nice as winning something!!

Simple Alter

2008-05-16T09:00:00.004-05:00

Being in the field I am, sometimes you get stuff for free. Usually it has company logos, drug names, etc., emblazoned all over said stuff. A few years back I got this clock that was BEGGING to be altered. It wasn't until after I got married, after I set up a craft room and after I cleaned up some stuff from my mom's house (which incidentally still has a lot of stuff still there- my bro can attest to this), that I found this again. I thought it would be perfect in our office/craft room 'cuz I tend to lose track of time. It was pretty simple - I popped the plastic cover off and used the existing paper insert to trace a circle onto patterned paper. Don't you just love the paper? It's from 'My Mind's Eye.' The hard part was lining up the hour marks. Actually the hardest part was feeding the clock hands back through the hole - I bent the second hand a little but no one can tell :).

I wanted to keep it elegant, so instead of searching for numbers to use, I decided to use brads. I used silver square brads, angled onto their points like a diamond, and green rhinestone brads to mark each quarter hour.
So not much to altering this but I am SO happy with the result - especially since it's pretty AND practical.

Thanks for looking!!

My Humble Craft Room

2008-05-15T21:18:00.010-05:00

Hey all, there was a thread on how people store their cardstock on the PTI forum and I said I'd post some pictures :). I recently tried to re-vamp my craft closet/desk with the adage that "if I can see it, I'll use it," running in my head. I really, really tried to not buy anything extra, but use stuff that I had and make it work for me. So for this current re-vamp, I only bought the cropper hopper paper holders and dividers. (This excludes all the stuff you see in the closet that was already there!!) So here it goes!

Please ignore the general mess - but this is as organized as I can get.

Etha, this is for you - Here's how I store my cardstock & papers:

Here's where my Stampin'Up! Designer Paper is organized by design. Then all other patterned paper is organized by color - all reds together, all yellows, all blues, etc.

This set of trays are 12x12 that I set horizontally. I use it for solid 8 1/2x11 cardstock.

It's worked so far. I do need to come up with better system for scraps - for now I just throw them into a drawer. I go to the drawer first before I take out a new sheet but I do have to dig. I have been trying to put back larger sheets back where I got them.

Here's a shot of my desk - it's right next to the closet - it looks messy, but that's clean people! :)

It's definitely not perfect, just felt like sharing! If I had unlimited funds, I'd totally re-do EVERYTHING, a la Nichole Heady, but alas, it not to be....YET!!! :) :)
Debbie

Birthday Boy!

2008-05-13T23:12:00.005-05:00

I wanted to participate in this month's GSS, especially since I didn't quite follow the directions a few months back :). So I decided to make a Boy Birthday Card. I combined a sketch from Amy Rysavy's blog with a color challenge from Kristina Werner's site. I was too late to partcipate in their actual blog challenges.

I used Pond Life & Pond Life sentiments... I am SUCH a sucker for anything "Punny." I combined 2 phrases for the sentiment section. To make the fishies more interesting, I used my versamark marker to make them able to hold on to chalk. Chalked them with pearlescent chalk, THEN I added liquid crystal over that. I wasn't sure how that would turn out but the fishies are now shimmery AND shiny :). Also, I don't have Wild Wasabi ink, so I used my SU! Green Garden and stamped the ink off once before stamping on my paper - I think it turned out as a pretty close match! To make a subtle background on one of the cardstock components I used the bubbles from Pond Life to create a background piece... I like how that turned out too. The colors were really outside of my comfort zone but in the end, I think came together pretty well.

I used Birthday Basics to finish off the inside with an extra fishy.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Pond Life, Pone Life Sentiments, Birthday Basics
Paper: SU! Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue CS; PTI Stamper's Select White CS; SU! Jersey Shore DP
Ink: SU! Pumpkin Pie, Green Garden, Bashful Blue; Pallette Noir Black
Accessories: Pearlescent Chalk, Liquid Crystal, Marvy Mega Circle Punch, Versamark marker & stamp pad.

Thanks for Looking!

Clearly a Birthday

2008-05-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

I needed to make a birthday card for my mom - her birthday and Mother's day are really close together and the least I could do was make her 2 cards! :). I'd never used acetate or transparencies for cards and I've been wanting to try Nichole's challenge. I got transparencies made for copiers and they were thinner than I wanted... I'm may need to go and get a different brand to see if they're any thicker.

The Front

The Inside

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Boxes, Bags, & Tags, Birthday Basics
Paper: PTI Stamper's Select White; PTI Pink Patterns DP
Ink: PTI Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss
Accessories: Making Memories square brads, Transparency sheet, Sweet Blush Grossgrain Ribbon

Thanks again for looking!!

It's All Gone!

2008-05-10T16:15:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post about my haircut for a bit, just didn't have the pictures. I've had long hair for a few years now... the last time I had really short hair was in 2003. Actually since I've known my husband, I've had long hair. He was a little sad to see it all go, but he likes it (like he had a choice :) ). Well, it had gotten to the point where I needed a haircut, but then I thought, "Hey, if I grow it out a little longer, I can donate it!" So I waited a little longer, then a little longer, until it was reeeaaally long. To the point where I couldn't WAIT to get it cut. I don't have any good before pictures...

But, here's a before, not the best picture but you can see how long it was:

Then I got it CUT! Here are my self portraits:

This is from the same day

This is today, I know it looks like I'm gonna attack you, but really, I'm not.

I've decided to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. It was hilarious when my hair dresser cut the ponytail, then plopped it onto the counter. How much you ask, was cut off? 12 inches!!!! Can you believe it? I feel very light and am totally loving the new 'do, it's really easy to maintain and I think I look younger - which is PLUS now that I am of the 30+ set. :)
Just wanted to share! :)

Jumpin' to Say Hi!

2008-05-10T08:30:00.000-05:00

A good friend moved to Atlanta a while back and I wanted to send her a quick hello. I wanted to use the "hoppy hello" from PTI's Pond Life... and once I got going a little scene developed.

I wanted to draw attention to the little froggy, so I used liquid crystal to highlight him and the water drops.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Pond Life, Pond Life Sentiments
Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Stamper's Select White CS
Ink: PTI Aquat Mist, Spring Moss; Pallette Burnt Umber; SU! Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Fiskars Large & Med. Oval punch; SU! Ticket Punch; Making Memories Slot Punch; PTI Aqua Mist Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon; Liquid Crystal; Rain Dots

Thanks for Looking!

More Patterned Backgrounds

2008-05-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

I made one piece of patterned background paper and used it to make 2 cards. These will be for some co-workers whose birthdays are coming up.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Beautiful Blooms, b&c monogram edition, Birthday Basics, Polka Dot Basics
Paper: PTI Sweet Blush, Stamper's Select White CS; PTI Pink Patterns DP
Ink: PTI Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet
Accessories: Misc. White Brads, White embossing powder, EK Success Corner Rounder punch, dimensional foam, rhinestones stickers, Misc. stiched Ribbon, Making Memories Slot Punch

Thanks for Looking!

Beary Baby Girl

2008-05-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

One of our church members welcomed a baby girl and so I wanted to make a card for some of us to sign. I decided to use a sketch from Amy Rysavy's blog.

I don't have Copic marker- doing my best to resist - but I have SU! markers and a few Tombow markers. I think having a grey marker is key to creating shadows and outlines. I got the idea from Judy from "Stamps by Judith," she works magic with markers!

Fine Print:
Stamps: SU! Bundle of Joy; PTI Beautiful Blooms, Mixed Messages
Paper: SU! Close to Cocoa, Purely Pomegranate; PTI Sweet Blush, Stamper's Select White; SU! Berry Bliss DP
Ink: SU! Close to Cocoa; PTI Sweet Blush; Pallette Burnt Umber
Accessories: SU! Ticket corner punch, markers; Sakura clear glitter pen

Thanks for Looking!

For Mom: Part 2

2008-05-07T19:24:00.006-05:00

Based on Nichole's challenge a few weeks back, I went on a patterned paper making binge and I made a card for my mother-in-law. Nothing too complicated but I like the outcome!

Here's a close-up of the word window.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Beautiful Blooms, Women of Life
Paper: SU! Chocolate Chip CS; PTI Aqua Mist, Stamper's Select
Ink: PTI Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Lemon Tart; SU! Summer Sun
Accessories: PTI Aqua Mist dotted satin ribbon; SU! Word Window punch; EK Success Corner rounder punch

Thanks for Looking!

For Mom: Part 1

2008-05-07T19:17:00.006-05:00

I had stamped the Out on a Limb panel a while back but hadn't attached it to a card yet. Can you tell I recently got a ticket corner punch? I think it's in almost every card!! :) I decided to use the stamped image for a card for my mom- for Mother's day. I hadn't gotten Polka Dot Basics yet so I used the itty bitty dot from Little Lady to create a polka dot background on the Spring Moss. Now that I have Polka Dot Basics - MUCH easier making backgrounds. I was never a polka-dotty person but I think I'm coming around to really liking them. It's much nicer than a plain piece of cardstock, yet not overwhelming.

Here's a close up of the window.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Out on a Limb, Women of Life
Paper: PTI Select White, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Pink Patterns DP
Ink: PTI Perfect Match Spring Moss, Sweet Blush; Pallete Burnt Umber
Accessories: SU! Rose Red marker; Clear Sakura stardust pen; Making Memories Rhinestone brads; SU! Word window punch; PTI Sweet Blush Satin ribbon

Thanks for looking!

Little Lady Birthday

2008-05-03T14:38:00.005-05:00

I made this birthday card for a good friend of mine. I decided to use a sketch from Taylor VanBruggen's site (Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge 12). I don't have anything cupcake related but liked the sketch :). I'm kinda new to sketches but I like how they guide you but still let you be creative!

I also decided to decorate the gift bag to match. She loved the whole package!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Little Lady, Birthday Basics
Paper: SU! Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, River Rock CS, Ginger Blossoms DP; PTI Stamper's Select White
Ink: Pallette Noir Black; SU! Ruby Red; PTI Spring Moss
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss stiched ribbon; Making Memories Slot punch; Rhinestone stickers; Pebbles Pearlescent Chalk, SU! Sage Shadow marker, Versamark marker

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Scraps

2008-04-30T20:45:00.003-05:00

For this card, I tried to limit myself to paper scraps, not that I think any less of the person I'm giving the card too!! :) For some reason I already had a card base folded in Soft Sky and so I tried using paper in my scrap drawer to come up with something original. I also wanted to use my new Making Memories Slot punch -hehehe. Now that I think about it, I should have used the chocolate chip rub-ons to draw out the chocolate chip mat more but I think it turned out ok. Sometimes my color combos just don't look right and sometimes, they're great... Just takes more practice, I guess.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Birthday Basics
Paper: SU! Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip CS; SU! Ginger Blossom DP; PTI Spring Moss CS
Ink: Pallette Burnt Umber
Accessories: SU! Rub-on's, Hodgepodge hardware, Ticket Punch; Misc. Ribbon; Making Memories Slot punch; Rain Dots

Inchin' by...

2008-04-30T20:31:00.005-05:00

Though it was a week late, I decided to to the Casual Weekly Challenge #3 that Em posts on the PTI fourm. I really liked the sketch for it's simplicity and really didn't take very long to make.

I wanted the caterpillar to "inch" across the four panels so I stamped first, then cut. Just had to make sure I measured to take into account all the borders. I kept everything plain, except for adding a background with Polka Dot Basics to my card base.

I also gave the caterpillar some sparkle with my pearlescent chalk. This picture shows the sparkliness... I'm really liking my new chalks! Click on the photo to enlarge.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Pond Life, Pond Life sentiments, Polka Dot Basics
Paper: PTI Lemon Tart, Stampers Select White CS; SU! Summer Sun CS; Misc Orange CS
Ink: PTI Lemon Tart; SU Summer Sun; Pallette Burnt Umber
Accessories: PTI Lemon Tart Satin ribbon; SU! Pewter Brad; sponge; Pebbles Pearlescent Chalk; Versamark marker

Thanks for looking!!

Blogs I Read

2008-04-30T15:44:00.000-05:00

I'm slowly asking people if I can add them to my 'blog roll'. I'm not sure about the ettiquette, but I figure, it might be nicer to ask first. :)

***EDITED to Add***
My Blog Roll is up and running, if you see yourself and don't want to be on my site, please let me know and I will remove you. THANKS!

First Birthday

2008-04-29T21:38:00.004-05:00

I made this card for a friend's daughter who celebrated her first birthday. I don't totally love the color combination but it was mainly an original concept, except for the fact that it's a "file folder" card. Sorry that I had to white-out some of the personal information. The peony stamp is from Stampworx 2000, which was featured a long time ago on Martha Stewart and then subsequently featured on Weddingbee.com. So of course I had to get them! I used the small peony for this project.

PTI's Simple Alphabet is awesome for personalizing anything. The letters are definitely small but relatively easy to line up, especially if you have a grid-linded acrylic block. It was a cloudy day so the pics didn't turn out that great. I'm debating if I should get a photo box or not... I tried making my own with 5 sheets of white cardstock - LOL. It kinda worked...

Fine Print:
Stamps: Peony Stamps (Stampworx2000); PTI Women of Life, Simpe Alphabet, Birthday Basics, Out on a Limb
Paper: SU! Old Olive CS; PTI Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Stampers Select White CS
Ink: SU! Old Olive; PTI Perfect Match Spring Moss, Sweet Blush; Palette Burnt Umber
Accessories: PTI Sweet Blush Satin ribbon; Rhinestone stickers, ProvoCraft Large scallop scissors; Crop-o-dile; SU! Tab punch

Thanks for looking!

Birthday Fishes

2008-04-28T19:58:00.004-05:00

I CASE'd this card from Heather Nichols. I LOVED the color combo for a masculine card, so I only changed the size and the sentiment. I did make it into a pocket card so that it would be easy to put in $$ or a gift card. I kinda wing'ed the pocket and added the extra panel to keep money from falling out. This is also my first time using Hodgepodge hardware! I've had the box for awhile but always kept saving it (a.k.a. hoarding it). Speaking of Heather Nichols, I love, love, love what she does with Kraft cardstock, so much so, that I bought a pack for myself. I like how colors look a little washed out with it, hopefully I can come up with just as many uses for it!

I added a few Rain Dots to the bubbles to make them stand out a little.

Here's the inside, where I used a sentiment from Birthday Basics. I also cut one of the fishies out and popped him up

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Pond Life, Pond Life sentiments, Birthday Basics
Paper: SU! Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Kraft Cardstock; Misc. Vellum
Ink: SU! Old Olive, Whisper White; Pallette Pallet Noir; PTI Perfect Match Aqua Mist
Accessories: SU! Hodgepode Hardware, Wild Wasabi DS ribbon; Rain Dots

Don't know who the lucky person will be who gets this card!!
Thanks for looking!

Stay tuned...

2008-04-27T22:05:00.005-05:00

Sorry for not posting in a long time... I was out of town and busy in general. Enough time to MAKE cards, just not enough time to post about them :). Stay tuned for a bunch of cards - Mother's day and birthdays galore! Thanks to my readers (if any :))!!

I've also been busy trying to organize (again)... I decided to follow Nichole's lead and wind all my ribbon onto clothespins. The only issue is that I have lots of very wide ribbon I use for making diaper cakes and for decorating around the holidays. I also have LOTS of thin satin ribbon, 10yds or more, so it was better to leave those on spools. I was able to cut down on some space. I definitely do not have enough to put them into color specific storage (yet!) so they fit into one box.

Here is the before: (haha, ignore the tv show in the background)

Here is the after:

It kinda works out 'cuz the ribbon in the boxes, I only need for specific reasons. The ones on the clothespins and in the ribbon organizer, I tend to use more so they are more easily accessible. We'll see how this method works.

The ladies at the PTI forum have been discussing ribbon organization - which sorta got me goin'. So thanks!

Earthquake?!?

2008-04-18T11:26:00.002-05:00

Ok, I live in the NW suburbs of Chicago – earthquakes are not a part of life around here. Yet at 4:36am this morning, I was shaken awake in my bed and heard the walls creaking. At first I panicked because I thought someONE was shaking my bed… but then I realized in a sleep daze, “Oh, an earthquake, interesting.” One might ask how I would have known it was an earthquake being a hard-core Midwesterner?
Well, back in October 2006 while we were on our honeymoon on Maui, there was a 6.7 magnitude quake the morning of the 15th. Well actually it was off the shore of the Big Island, you can read about it here. Of course we were a bit unsettled but there were a bunch of Californians there reassuring us that it was no big deal. It totally felt like a train was running under the building. Luckily there wasn’t that much damage where we were, other than the electricity being out for a few hours.
So back to this morning… the bed was shaking pretty heavily for about 10-15 seconds, then there was sort of a constant light shaking for another 30 seconds or so. It obviously felt like a lot longer at 4:30 in the morning. This is significant because I am a pretty heavy sleeper so it was enough to wake me up. I was contemplating getting up and seeing if everything was ok but, people, it was 4:30 AM. Apparently the quake’s epicenter was in West Salem, IL, near the southern tip of Illinois. I didn’t even know there were fault line in the Midwest! According to the news, it was a 5.2 on the richter scale. And here at work, around 10:15am, a bunch of us felt a tremor, which is being reported as a 4.5 or something, with two other aftershocks measured at 2.6 and 2.5. Just wanted to record this “momentous” event, since things like this don’t happen much around here.
The best quote from today is from my brother who lives nearby, “Man, someone’s shaking the house...I think I’m getting robbed. So I went back to sleep.”

Guest Star Stamper- March Entry

2008-04-17T20:59:00.020-05:00

Though I did not win :) I thought I'd post some details about my entry. This card is a bit outside my "typical" style... though I'm not sure what my typical style is - generally a little more simple but the PTI stuff just makes you wanna keep going :). Also, I don't think I followed the directions for the challenge correctly... Oh well... :P

Well here it is...

Close up of the card... please excuse my finger! hehehe...
I made the inside a pop-up. I got this really cool book in Japan that has all sorts of pop-up cards... from simple to very complicated. The only problem is that it's all in Japanese, and nope, not Japanese :). I guesstimated and used the pictures and examples to get it to work. This one was not too hard to do, PTI cardstock is so thick that you have to make sure to cut and score very well. I freehanded the fruit... Doesn't the Chocolate chip Carstock make the cake look like chocolate cake?? YUM!
I also made a matching tin full of sour-patch kids - my friend likes sour candy. I altered a cookie tin to match.
Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Birthday Basics, Boxes, Bags & Tags, Women of Life, Simple Alphabet
Paper: PTI Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Stamper's Select White; SU! Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip, PTI Pink Patterns DP
Ink: PTI Spring Moss, Sweet Blush; Pallette Ink Burnt Umber; SU! Rose Red, Whisper White
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss & Sweet Blush Grossgrain, satin & stiched ribbon, making memories brad, SU! mellow moss grossgrain ribbon; Marvy Giga Scallop Punch, Mega Circle Punch, Jumbo circle punch; Fiskars border punch, scallop scissors

I also wanted to thank Nichole from PTI for giving me a mention awhile back - never got around to posting about it here. As you can see I only blog in spurts :). Aaaannnnddd... do you guys notice that the colors from April's release are strangely similar to my project... a coincidence?? I think not!! JUST kidding! I was ridiculously happy that day... it was really nice to be put in the same category as such talented people!

Thanks for looking!!
Debbie

Card-Scrapbook/Scrapbook-Card!

2008-04-17T20:26:00.005-05:00

The ladies at the PTI Forum started a scrapbooking forum... awesome! It will definitely get me going on finishing my honeymoon album and get started on one for our 1st year. Just wanted to post something I thought was interesting. At my first SU! demo, the demo-lady mentioned that basically any card could be "exploded" into a scrapbook page and any scrapbook page could be, I guess, "imploded" (?) into a card.

A bunch of my crafty co-workers and I decided to get another co-worker started on her baby album - she had a new baby girl in January- and make her some pages. Sorta like a card, but bigger! So for my idea, I took a card from Melissa Bickford's blog and "exploded" into a scrapbook page. Hope she doesn't mind!!! Loved the color combo... Just thought I'd share this little tid-bit, it was actually my first time doing this.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Out on a Limb, Beautiful blooms; SU! Because of You
Paper: PTI Spring Moss, Sweet Blush; SU! Bashful Blue; Misc. DP
Ink: PTI Spring Moss & Sweet Blush; Pallette Ink Burnt Umber
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss double-stitched ribbon, Making Memories paper flower & brad, pretty in pink SU! marker to color paper flower

Thanks for looking!!

Anywhere Inspiration

2008-04-07T19:29:00.007-05:00

Hello! You know you can get inspiration from anywhere! I had a really good friends Bridal shower and bachlorette party last Saturday and I created a gift basket. I bought a basket (on sale, no less from Michael's) and filled it with things from her registry. As I was putting things in, I realized that it needed a little something extra. I found these really beautiful embroidered dishtowels from Crate & Barrel. I took the motif and expanded it into a card!

I used Papertrey's Out on a Limb & the flower from Little Lady to replicate the flower design. SU! Pumpkin Pie & Summer Sun were pretty close matches to the flower colors. Cardstock is SU! Chocolate chip & Summer Sun w/PTI Spring Moss & White. To highlight the flower centers, I used markers in pumpkin pie & summer sun then went in with my Sakura Stardust pens to make them sparkly. I also carried the theme on the inside, this picture shows the "sparkliness."

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Out on a Limb, Little Lady, Mixed Messages
Paper: PTI Spring Moss, Stampers Select white; SU! Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun
Ink: PTI Spring Moss, Palette Burnt Umber, SU! Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Old Olive
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss saddle stiched ribbon, Fiskars Large & med oval punches, Sakura stardust gel pens, SU! Ticket Corner punch, MM Rhinestone brads

Here is the final product if you'd like to see!

Thanks for looking!

Babies, Babies, Babies...

2008-03-30T18:51:00.011-05:00

Apparently I am at that age where people are having babies... if you can't tell by the cards I've been making lately! I combined the giraffe from SU!'s Bundle of Joy with Papertrey's Mixed Messages.

For the Pink version - I used the flower centers of Women of Life (PTI) to match the polka dots from the ribbon ($1 ribbon from Michael's)

For the Blue Version, I kept it pretty simple.

Notice the coloring on the giraffes? You can definitely tell the difference between PTI Select Cardstock and regular white cardstock. It's hard to tell in the pictures... if you click on them, I think you get the super large version. I only have SU! Markers, that I find pretty easy to use to create shading and color variations but the PTI cardstock seems more vibrant.

Thanks for looking!

Fine Print:
Pink:
Stamps: SU! Bundle of Joy, PTI Women of Life, Mixed Messages; Paper: PTI Stampers Select White Cardstock, SU! Pretty in Pink, Rose Red CS; Ink: Pallete Ink (Burnt Umber), SU! Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Ballet Blue; Accessories: Marvy Giga Scallop Oval punch, Mega Oval punch, Fiskars Large & Med Oval punches, Making memories button Brads, Scallop scissors, Misc. Ribbon, SU! Markers.
Blue:
Stamps: SU! Bundle of Joy, PTI Mixed Messages; Paper: PTI Stampers Select White Cardstock, SU! Bordering Blue CS, Home Again DP; Ink: Pallete Ink (Burnt Umber); Accessories: Marvy Giga Scallop Circle punch, Mega circle punch, Fiskars Large & Med Oval punches, SU! Markers.

Congrats!

2008-03-28T10:17:00.003-05:00

I discovered that one of our friends was pregnant... kekeke and I just had to send a card to congratulate her! I know she's battling the nausea & vomiting that comes with the 1st trimester, so I'm trying to keep her in my prayers.

I also case'd this from SCS but HAD to use my new PTI sets, ribbon and cardstock . When I say new, I mean new to me. I recently discovered PTI, and I feel like I have a ton of catching up to do. I used the ribbon around the whole card and tied it closed. I don't know if the baby stamp was the best choice but it was my only choice. :)

I had to cut out the circle w/ an exacto knife b/c my punch wouldn't reach and I used the blush blossom marker to outline & highlight the circle. For the message across the top, I used sentiments from Mixed Messages, masked the pieces I needed w/scotch tape and was able to come up with one long message. "ON" is from "ONE"!! :)

Thanks for looking!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI (Beautiful Blooms, Mixed Messages); SU! (Very Punny)
Paper: Spring Moss (PTI); Blush Blossom, Pale Plum (SU!); Misc. White Cardstock
Ink: Burnt Umber (Pallete Hybrid), Spring Moss (PTI Perfect Match)
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss grossgrain ribbon, SU! Markers, Making Memories button brads

Thank You

2008-03-27T19:58:00.014-05:00

I thought I'd start out with something I made awhile back but still love... the picture quality & lighting aren't the best but you get the idea...

I made thank you cards for my co-workers who took me out to lunch for my birthday last November. I still see them up in some of their cubes and my eye is still drawn to the shape & color. I used "Oh, So Lovely " from Stampin Up! but the layout was case'd from SCS.

Fine Print:
Stamps: Oh, So Lovely, Unknown Thank you
Paper: Cardstock: Soft Sky, DCWV Stack Brights, White; DCWV Blue Raspberry DP
Ink: Black, Old Olive
Accessories: SU! Markers, Marvy Giga Scallop & Mega Circle Punches

Newbie

2008-03-27T13:43:00.008-05:00

I've been inspired by all the creative people that I've been reading the past few months. I'm addicted to Papertrey Ink and Splitcoast Stampers and all these women have 'blogs'. So I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and give it a go. I take a bazillion pitures of the my 'creations,' might as well post them, no?

Hopefully I can get some readers but maybe this is more for me to keep track of everything I work on.