Happy Birthday {Papertrey Ink}!

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their third birthday and we get the presents!! How cool is that?! Nichole Heady introduced the designers for PTI for 2010 and each of them designed an image for us to download.....Free! And it gets even better......you can link up a card (or seven!) with the birthday images the designers have given us and be entered for a drawing for a hot giveaway of seven PTI stamp sets! Its like a papercrafters stamping heaven with inspiration and oodles of goodies every day...definitely worth checking out (IF you are not already addicted, like so many of us are and ran there when the festivities started yesterday!).

I used the image from Beth Silaika of Freckled and Fun for a quick CAS birthday card. A little color from my trusty Sharpies, lots of sparkle from my favorite Spica glitter pens (the entire WISH is glitterfied....you may have to click on the photo to see the sparkle), and whole lotta Raspberry Fizz love make up this card. My favorite part about this card is that it is flat! Its nice to have some cards that easily go in the mail without tag board to pad it, packing tape to keep any bling from punching through, OR any increase in postage! I love my ribbon, bows, and multi dimensional bling, but I also really love having options. :>

Supplies:
Image: Beth Silaika for Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz & Plum Pudding - Papertrey Ink; White - Georgia Pacific
DP: Bitty Dot Basics - Papertrey Ink
Pens: Sharpies; Spica glitter pens - Copic

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #13 & CPS 126

Having just about run out of Berry Sorbet, I was scrambling thinking how I could still participate in Dawn's latest Color Challenge. Then I thought to pull out my pad of Papertrey Ink's Bitty Dots. It is the only PTI patterned paper that I own and I'm oh so glad I do!

I was attempting to complete CPS's sketch 126 in time as well, but I hopped on here just moments too late. Oh well, it provided a great road map for me to create my card with and the absolute perfect excuse to pull out some of my PTI buttons (not that I need an excuse for that, right?!).

With the colors and the layout already decided for me, the whole card came together quite quickly. I think what I loved most was just how happy these colors are. I can't help but smile when I look at them!

Since this was the first time I have stamped and played with this little birdie, I was figuring out how she ticks. When I cut her out, I left the part of the body where the wing would go intact, but the white of the cardstock was glaring, so I simply inked up a sponge and lightly sponged in some red ink. I adhered her cute little polka dot wing with 1/16" foam dots to the body and again used foam dots to adhere the body to the card. I punched the circles with 1 1/8" and 1 3/8" circle punches, layered them, and adhered the tied off buttons with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. I drew in the birdies legs and feet to complete her.

A fun, happy little card was born from a little inspiration from Dawn McVey and CPS. I'm looking forward to see how one or the other, or both, inspired everyone else who played along! A great big thank you to all who stop by here and of course, I just love hearing from you! Your comments tickle me as pink as this birdie's wing!!! Have a fantastic weekend!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy - PTI

Patterned Paper: Bitty Dot - PTI

Stamps: Everyday Classics - PTI

Ink: Real Red, Regal Rose - Stampin' Up!

Other: Embroidery Floss - Making Memories; Rub Ons - Stampin' Up!; Pen - Zig; Vintage Buttons - Papertrey Ink

Happy Birthday to You, Elise!

Easter was a religious holiday, a bunny hopping egg finding day, and a friend's birthday! I met Elise through the wonderful world of scrapbook retreats and she became my 'friendly Stampin' Up! gal' as well. She is a sweet woman who is incredibly artistically talented. I am inspired everytime I get to watch her work! And now that she has her own blog, I do not have to wait for the next retreat to see what crafty & artsy goodness she is up to! Lately, she has been playing with Tim Holtz's fun fragments and giving me all kinds of ideas. By the way.....that workshop that Tim is talking about on his blog?? That's where Elise is right now...today!!! How Awesome is that?!! I am So looking forward to seeing what she's learning from Tim, the man, today!!



Rummaging through my stamp collection with Elise's birthday card in mind, I wanted to pull stamps that she may have not seen before. She is a stamp-addict, like most of us in this stampy blogosphere, so she's seen a lot. Then I came accross Marilyn, by Stampsmith, and thought she would be perfect! Since this card was going in the mail, I didn't want it to be too lumpy and bumpy, so I kept my design fairly flat. Something that I really liked was that the ribbon points on the card fold flat in the envelope, but pops up a bit when taken out. On the inside of the card is a piece of PTI's vintage cream cardstock with a strip of Bitty Dot paper to coordinate with the front of the card. I'm horrible about remembering to decorate the insides of the cards, so I was really glad that I did this time! :>

Here's a little mailing TIP: If you have brads, bling, or bumps that do not make your envelope thicker than the 1/4" max, put clear packing tape on the back of the envelope so that the post office machines do not get caught on your embellishment and you do not have to put additional postage on it for hand proccessing! Someone from the Stamp Shack sent me a birthday card this way and I thought it was ingenious! I even went to the post office to ask about it and they said, yup, it will keep your postage down to a single first class stamp as long as you do not exceed the size or weight limits. Too cool! (oh yea.....Elise, apologies for the lint and whatnot that was on the first piece of tape I put down....I didn't realize the packing tape had been sitting out so long!! :>)


Supplies:
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Plum Pudding - PTI
Patterned Paper: Bitty Dot Basics - PTI
Stamps: Marilyn - Stampsmith
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Sweet Blush Satin - PTI
Embellishments: Flowers - Prima; Light Pink Flower Rhinestones - KaiserCraft

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!!

Dyed eggs, plastic eggs, and of course, some Easter egg shaped cards for my kidlets!



You would never believe where I got the inspiration for these cards! A piece of cardboard, the packaging from a potty training Disney Princess toilet insert (you know, the kind so that little tushes don't fall in :>), was just about to make its way to the recycling bin when I turned my head to the side and saw it....the perfect egg shape to make a card with!

I cannot freehand cut shapes out, but by tracing the inside 'egg' onto cardstock, I was able to make egg shaped cards! A little Tip....if hand cutting layers is troublesome for you, put a little bit of removable adhesive in between the layers (I used a Hermafix Dotto that just rubs off) and then cut them out.

These both are very simple cards, but I had fun putting them together and enjoyed the smiles on the kids' faces when they got to see them completed on Sunday morning. And because they know Mama's supplies so well, the cards were from Mom and Dad and not the big Bunny! :>

For my son's I cut circles with my Coluzzle from PTI's Bitty Dot paper. At first I layered the circle evenly, but later moved them off center. Looking at it now, I realize it kind of looks like a bunch of eggs.....while it works with the theme, it definitely was not my intention! He loves bunnies, so it was an easy pick to grab this oldie but goody out of the stamp stash. (The block, rubber, and foam all look like PSX, but it isn't marked.) I punched holes on the side and laced it up to put the front and back together.

For my daughter's, I tied each set of holes individually for a series of lilac bows. The rest of her card is simple as well....more Bitty Dot papers, flowers, Dew Drops, and some Pearl Ex interference, violet, for sparkle.


Supplies:
Cardstock: Blue & Pink eggs - Pacon (inexpensive Costco pack from a few years ago); Vintage Cream - PTI
Patterned Papers: Bitty Dot - PTI
Stamps: Bunny - Unknown (maybe PSX??)
Ink: Close to Cocoa - SU
Ribbon: Blue - Offray; Light Orchid - SU
Flowers: Prima
Bling: Orchid Dew Drops - Robin's Nest; Violet Interference Pearl Ex - Jacquard for SU; Pink Spica pen - Copic