Monday, April 25, 2011

Papertrey April Bloghop

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a good weekend. It has been cold and rainy here. I hope the weather is better where you are. Today is the 25th of the month so that means it is time for another Papertrey Bloghop.
This month the theme is Boys To Men which means we were to to make a masculine project. That is definitely a challenge for me because I love pink and making girly things but after giving it some thought this is what I came up with.

I started by using the Onesie from the PTI Click Simple Rock A Bye Baby Templates and Cardstock from Echo Parks Little Boy Paper Pack. Next I stamped the sailboat image from Bitty Baby Blessings then paper pieced it. After that I punched it out with a 1.75" circle punch then sewed around it with my sewing machine. When I was done with that I layered it on another circle cut from Enchanted Evening Cardstock then covered the image in Liquid Glass. I also trimmed the leg openings, sleeves and collar with more enchanted evening cardstock as well. To finish the card off I personalized the onesie by adding the name Jack with letters I cut with my Cricut then finished them off with more Liquid Glass. I think these would make great baby cards. I just need to find someone having a baby boy named Jack to give this one to. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with now. The full list of participants is on Nicole's Blog. I can definitely use the inspiration for making more masculine cards since they are such a challenge for me. As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week!

Monday, April 18, 2011

April Peeps Challenge And Another SFYTT Sample

I hope your week has started off well. Not much new to report here. The weather has been pretty good but we are in desperate need for some rain though. I just hope it does not hit us all at once.
Today I wanted to share another sample for this months SFYTT. There is still plenty of time to for you to play along.

I am continuing on with the challenge to myself to use my Papertrey Ink Year Of Flowers stamps. This month's flower is the Sweet Pea. I also incorporated the current Peeps Challenge hosted by Peggy Sue to use black as a bold accent or main color. This is what I came up with.

I started by stamping the Sweet Pea image on Neenah White Cardstock with Momento Ink. Then I colored it with Copics R30, R32 and R35. The leaves were colored with YG93 and YG95. After I was done with that I swiped the edges to give it a distressed look with Chamomile Ink then matted it on Simply Chartreuse and Black Cardstock. Next I added a piece of floral patterned paper from October Afternoons Thrift Shop Paper Pack and matted it on Simply Chartreuse cardstock as well. The black polka dot strips are also from the Thrift Shop Paper pack. The background piece is Berry Sorbet Cardstock that I embossed with tiny dots. 3 Simply Chartreuse buttons threaded with linen twine and some machine stitching finishes it off. I kept feeling like it was missing something but finally decided to leave it as is. What do you think do you like it as is or do you think it needs something else?
That's all for now, I will be back soon with more to share in the meantime I hope the rest of your week is a great one and as always thanks for stopping by.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Tea Time

Happy Monday! I can't believe it has been over a week since I last posted. Time seems to have gotten away from me again. Thanks for all the sweet comments in my last post about being made an SFYTT sister. They really meant a lot to me.
Emilia's birthday ended up being a great day. This was the year of Twilight. Rich and I got her all the books and movies and Rich even found her a great game called Scene It Twilight which she loves too. We were able to go play mini golf as planned with my niece and that was a lot of fun. It turned out to be a wonderful day weather wise too. Later that night that we had a family dinner. My In-Laws came from Texas for her birthday and my mom, sister and niece also came over. Emilia's menu of choice this year was steak, my garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. She also requested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake this year as well which she loved! Here are a few photos to share with you.

I was working on a custom order most of last week but got some time at the end of the week to start something new and finally finished it today so I wanted to share it with you today.

I started with the teapot template from the Cutting Cafe, resized it in SCAL to make it bigger then I cut it out using Sweet Blush Cardstock. After that I embossed the spout, handle and lid with Swiss Dots. Next I cut the mat for the front and pieced squares from the new Girls' Paperie Vintage Wimsy Line. After that I trimmed around the edges then machine stitched it. When I was done with that I created a postage stamp frame in SCAL then cut it out and added MS white glitter. While it was drying I stamped the inside piece with the Sentiment from the PTI Tea for Two set with Versamark ink and embossed it with black embossing powder. To finish it off I added some Vintage Seam binding tied it in a bow then added a silk daisy.
Inside I added a pocket using the PTI Library Pocket die and attached some more patterned paper. As you can see is the perfect place to add a gift card or a package of tea.

I am really liking the Shabby Chic style that I have been seeing around blog land lately so this is my attempt to create that. I think this has a touch of whimsy in it too though.
I am also entering this in the Moxie Fab World Gift Card Holder Challenge
That's all for now. I will be back soon with more to share. Until then thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great night.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

April SFYTT and Happy Birthday Emilia

First off I would like to share some exciting news with you. As most of you know I have been participating in Jen Del Muro's monthly sketch challenges since the first of the year. A few weeks ago I received an email from her asking me to join the SFYTT design team. I often feel like a small fish in a big pond in the stamping world so I was very honored to be asked and have said yes so today is my first post as a SFYTT sister.

This month our sponsor is Unity Stamps.

This is the sketch

Today also happens to be Emilia's birthday. I can't believe it has been 13 yrs since she was born. Where does the time go?? I am so grateful to have her for my daughter. She is the best gift I have ever been given and means the world to me. Even though she is 13 today she will always be my baby no matter how hold she gets so this card is for her!

The image I chose to work with was Sweet Treat I started by stamping it with Dark Chocolate Ink then I stamped it again cut out the bottom and fan folded it. After that I attached it with some score tape on the sides and popped it up to give it the look of a real cupcake wrapper. The top was colored with Copics then I added different colored Stickles to the sprinkles. Finally I added some Crystal Effects to the cherry to make it pop. Emilia's favorite color is purple so I used that for the base. The background is actually the wrapping paper I used to wrap her presents. I embossed the other pieces with the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday Folder. The sentiment is from the PTI Cupcake Collection set. The buttons were handmade with chipboard and the PTI Button Boutique stamps and dies.
Be sure to check out Jen's blog for how to play along and what you can win this month. Also be sure to check out what the other SFYTT sisters have done with this sketch as well
Amber Hight
Amy Sheffer
Carol Burrage
Jodi Collins
Kelly Lunceford
Megan Lock
Kerry Johnson
Sonny Christoph
Susan Liles
and this months Guest Designer Jen Shultz
I hope you will play along with us. You have all month. I will still be continuing with my challenge to myself to use my PTI YOF sets with these sketches too so be sure to check back later in the month for that.
I also wanted to share some real cupcakes with you today too since I used one on my card. These are the cupcakes I made for Emilia's birthday. You can find the recipe here. I left the marshmallow cream off. They are still scrumptious though.

To celebrate we are planning to go play mini golf since it is such a beautiful day here and then we will have a family dinner tonight. I hope to take a lot of photos and will share them with you in my next post. Until then I hope your day is a great one and as always thanks for stopping by.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Happy April

Happy April! So glad we made it through March without a major storm! We still need some moisture though but hopefully that will be in the form of rain rather than snow. It is hard to believe it has been a week since I last posted. Thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes that were left on my last post. My birthday ended up being a pretty good day. We only got to 3 antique stores because the weather started to get cold. I didn't buy anything because everything was to expensive but it was still fun to look though. We hope to go back another day when it is warmer and look at some more stores. The best part of the day was eating the Pinkberry Sundae Rich and Emilia bought me. Tomorrow is Emilia's birthday so we are getting ready to celebrate that. Today I wanted to quickly share something I made for a crafty friend of mine with the flower button cards in my last post.

Her birthday is the day after mine and we always do something special for each other. I could not share it here until now because she likes to be surprised and I didn't want her to see it. She should have gotten it by now though. It is pretty self explanatory but I made a paper bag pocket to hold them. I have been wanting to make on of these for awhile now and this was the perfect opportunity. I think it came out really cute and hope to make more in the future now. I will be back tomorrow with some exciting news to share with you and to celebrate Emilia's birthday then too! Until then I hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by.