A Layout For...

Papertrey Pages Monthly Challenge!

Beth (babiestwo) over on the PTI forum started challenging the members to create scrapbooking layouts using our PTI stamps, dies and anything else around.  She gave me the opportunity in March to challenge everyone, but we didn't get around to finishing our projects.  So, this month we are continuing our challenge by USING STITCHING ON OUR LAYOUTS!  The stitching can be by machine, hand or even faux-stitching.

I live in Texas where Spring wildflowers bloom like crazy.  It is not uncommon to see cars parked on the side of a major highway, kids climbing out and plopping themselves amongst the flowers so their parents can take pictures.   We do it every year. 

Here's my layout for this adventure from LAST year.  (I'm a year behind in my scrapbooking.) 

I cut some Echo Park Little Boy paper, Orange Zest and Simply Chartreuse cardstock into 3x3 squares, then secured them with a little adhesive to a 12x12 piece of cardstock.  After fighting with my machine for about an hour, I finally figured out that I hadn't threaded the needle correctly.  I don't know where my mind was.  (Actually I do, but that's another topic.) 

I sewed a zig-zag stitch to mimic a quilt.  Love the look!

I matted the pictures with white cardstock to help them stand out a little.  Otherwise, in front of the awesome patterned paper, they kind of blended in.

The tag was cut from the Tag Sale #3 die, and I stamped the title with Practicing Creativity's Carved Loved letters (small but super-easy to line up.)  I masked it when I finished and then stamped some flowers from Life in Orange Zest, Enchanted Evening and Color Box's Sky Blue.  Adding a knot with two ribbons was a final touch to the title tag. 

The subtitle was cut from the Double Ended Banner die and again stamped with the same letters in Enchanted Evening.  I had to use a little bundle of wildflowers cut from Larger Than Life and stamped from stamps in the set.  The green twine is from Martha Stewart, and is pretty sweet!

I hope you like the layout!  You can join us over on the PTI forum if you want to participate.  We just have fun together and "force" each other to get busy on our layouts!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

P.S. Here's a picture from THIS year's adventure.  Hopefully, I'll it in a layout before this time next year!

OTWC - Easter

This week at Off the Wall Craftiness, Kim gave us just this Easter photo inspiration with no specific colors.  Look at her beautiful collage:

How could you choose just one color scheme from this?  I couldn't, so I focused on the rabbits at the bottom and tied in several Easter-y colors.  (Yes, I made up another word.)

Here's my card:

The rabbits are from Hero Arts Happy Day Animals.  I tried to mimic the colors of the Peeps in the picture.  I added a green one so that I would have 5 rabbits  instead of 4.  The tree branches are from Little Bitty Bird and the sentiment is from Tag Its #1, both from Papertrey Ink.  I die-cut the clouds in Vintage Cream felt using both cloud dies from PTI. 

Yes, that's my grass border punch from Fiskars I love so much.  I've seen several in the stores now.  I guess they are seasonal.  You should pick one up if you don't have one yet.  I got mine at Joann's and I've seen them at Hobby Lobby too. 

I added a few more details by securing the pearls in the tree to represent buds and the crocheted flowers on the ground.  What a fun card this was to make!

You should play along with Kim's challenge.  You can see all the details by clicking here. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Play Date Cafe 77

ETA:  Thanks to the girls at Play Date Cafe for choosing this card as a Fab 4 for the week.  See the announcement here.

I love, Love, LOVE the colors over at the Play Date Cafe this week!  Does it get any better than this?

 I know...beautiful, right!?

Here's what I came up with:

I used my Scor Buddy to create a frame on the Kraft panel for my new favorite find - CANVAS!!  I cut a rectangle to fit in the frame and used some tea dye duo on it.  After die-cutting the leaves and stamping them, I added them to the canvas.  The green twine is from Martha Stewart and goes perfectly with New Leaf.  I used Tiny Tags again (kind of addictive) and added some rhinestones to the bottom portion.  Threading some Rustic White twine through the New Leaf buttons and securing them was the last detail.  I mounted everything on a New Leaf mat and then to the Kraft base.

Here are a few close up shots:

 

I hope you can play along with the challenge!  It's a good one!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Make It Monday - Masking - Card 2

 

I know...another one?  Yeah, I got busy tonight with Lisa's challenge this week.  Two cards in one night is a record.  Add the fact that my child was fed, played with, homework helped, bathed, read to and put to put with snuggles and I think I'm in line for Mother of the Year - or at least Mother of the Day. I may just go upstairs and make another one.

Oh, wait.  There are bills to be paid.  Maybe tomorrow.

Here's my second card using the masking technique and PTI's Take Three die:

I love Lisa's set, Life.  So when Larger Than Life came along (with a die!), it immediately jumped into my cart.  I haven't used it much lately, and wanted to pull it out for this card.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place...again!

Make It Monday - Masking

For those that don't know - Lisa Johnson is one of my craft idols, so that fact that she is hosting this week's Make It Monday is not only awe-inspiring, but craft-inspiring too.  You can see her video HERE on Nichole's blog.  She's showing us how to use dies for masking.  I've had this card in my head since I saw her video and couldn't wait to get home to work on it.  I almost left early, faking illness, but then common sense prevailed.

 I masked the cloud dies for this one and sponged the cut out with Fresh Snow ink.  After it dried (with the help of my heat gun) I stamped the large Gingham pattern in Spring Rain.

I'm loving the Leaf Zing embossing powder and used it again today with Floral Fusion 1 and 2.  I already had those cute flowers cut and grabbed some buttons to attach for centers.  After using my Fiskars border punch on some Spring Moss cardstock, I wrapped some Rustic White twine around it, used a die cut and sentiments from Tiny Tags.  After matting it and throwing on some bling, I was finished!

Thanks to Lisa for wonderful inspiration day after day, and thanks to you for visiting My Happy Place!

Make It Monday-Embossing Card 2!

This is my second post for today, so please scroll down for the first one too!

I loved this challenge and this is the card I had in mind when I first saw Dawn's video last week.  It just took me awhile to get it executed.  Here it is:

I used Scattered Showers and heat embossed the umbrella and sentiment with Zing Leaf embossing powder. The raindrops were embossed with Zing Metallic Silver powder.  I added the border die, some silver beads and silver twine.

Here's a close-up:

This has been a fun PTI week with a great challenge, fun sneaks and the projects starting today!  It'll be a very inspirational week, I'm sure! Can't wait to see everything!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Make It Monday-Embossing

I finally got around to creating something for this week's Make It Mondays challenge on Nichole blog.  You can see Dawn's video and participate by clicking HERE.  It's all about heat embossing - which I was dragged into kicking and screaming a few years ago.  Now, I can't imagine life without a heat gun.  I know - sad.

Sue Ann (yankeefan on the PTI forum) sold me the In Bloom stamp set which has been on my list for a looooonnnng time. (Thanks Sue Ann - waving!)  The first thing I wanted to do was heat emboss the large image on Pure Poppy.  I knew it would be pretty!  So excited to finally have this set - now I need the die, paper and impression plate.  Geez!

Here's my card:

Can you tell I popped up the center part of the flower?  I also heat-embossed the sentiment from Tiny Tags on the die.  This was a fun card to make and I may be making many of these in a wonderful rainbow of PTI colors!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Pink, Green and Yellow!

Kim Wilson has done it again with a fabulous color challenge!  Check out this week's inspiration and play along by clicking HERE:

Seriously pretty, right?  I love pink and green together already, now throw in a little yellow, and it's pure springy-ness.  Yes, I just made up that word.  Here's my card:

 
I used Kim's set from Wilson Designs called Everything's Owlright for the flowers, and I added some stickles to the center for some sparkle.  The little tag and sentiment are from a new die Papertrey Ink, Tiny Tags, that my blog group, The Paper Dolls, sent me a couple of weeks ago.  Still can't get over their generosity.

Speaking of them, I'm going to submit this to this week's challenge brought to us by Katie.  Use your scraps!  You can get the details and play along with us by clicking HERE.  The white panel, yellow and pink pieces were all in my scrap pile! Glad to get some use out of little pieces of paper.  You don't want to let any usable piece get away - (it's made of gold, you know!)

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Everything's Owlright (Wilson Designs), Flower Garden, Tiny Tags(PTI)
Ink:  Hibiscus, Spring Moss (PTI)
Paper:  Hibiscus, Spring Moss, Harvest Gold, Stampers Select (PTI)
Tools:  Tiny Tags die (PTI), Fiskars border punch, Spring Moss Twill (PTI)
Other:  Stickles, twine

Paper Smooches Wedding Hop

Kim Hughes, former PTI Design Team Member and Former Paper Crafts Go-To-Gal was married yesterday! (This, I suppose, also makes her the former Kim Hughes.) Her design team from her new stamp company threw her a Wedding Card Blog Hop using her own fabulous stamps she designed.  The hop started on the Paper Smooches blog here.  There you can see the details of the contest and join in on the fun!

I recently purchased 2 sets of Paper Smooches stamp sets - Giddy Bugs and Vegtastic.  It's been so recent that I still haven't received them in the mail yet, so I decided to use one of Kim's digital stamps instead.  The Flowery Bird image is free on the Paper Smooches site and you can edit it any way you want.  I enlarged it, and flipped it so that I could have 2 birds facing each other.  Here's my card:

I colored the birds with Aquacolor pencils and blended with my Dove Blender pen.  I outlined some of the lines with my Sakura Stardust pen. I've been on the search for the grass punch from Fiskars or Martha Stewart, and finally found it.  It may be the best border punch...ever. (And I love border punches!)

Congratulations to Kim on her wedding day!  Can't wait to hear details!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!

Supplies: (finished size 5x7)
Stamps:  Paper Smooches digi, Big and Bold Wishes (PTI)
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Spring Rain, Summer Sunrise, New Leaf (PTI)
Tools:  Cloud dies, Tiny Tags die (PTI), Fiskars border punch
Other:  Clear embossing powder, Aquacolor pencils, Dove blender, Sakura pen, twine

Card Aisle Challenge

Laurie Beth, over at Soap Box Creations, challenged her blog readers to roam the card aisle to find inspiration. Then we were to go home and use the inspiration card to create one of our own.  Of course, it turns out that the cards in the aisle are way overpriced, and this just makes you feel better about all the money you spend on crafting supplies.  Well, it makes ME feel better.   You can find all the information about Laurie Beth's challenge  here and play along!  You have until Sunday. 

I didn't technically go to the card aisle to find a card.  I have received a lot of cards recently, and this one just today.

It's beautiful, I think.  I love the Ocean Tides color, the embossing look and the little bit of bling in the center of the flowers.  I would have never put this color combination together either.  It's so pretty.  I love this card.

Here's my take on it:

I heat embossed some leaves from Turning a New Leaf on the Ocean Tides cardstock, die-cut a couple of strips from the Eyelet Lace border die, and added some bling in the centers.  After stamping the sentiment on a Spellbinders die and adding some twine, I was finished.  Easy peasy.  It's not quite as fancy as the store bought card, but I love this one too. 

This was a great challenge, Laurie Beth!  Thanks for the wonderful inspiration!

And thank you for visiting My Happy Place!

Make It Monday!

Hi, everyone!  Guess what!  I made something!  And boy, did it feel good!  How can one not be inspired by Betsy Veldman's color blending technique she used in this week's video?  Have you seen it?  If not, go to Nichole's blog here, check it out and be inspired!

I'm also linking this card to my blog group, The Paper Dolls, challenge for this week too, which is to create a card to express gratitude.  I have a lot of gratitude for so many people right now.  I could send this card to over 200 people!

Here it is:

I splurged recently and ordered some PTI stamps that have been on my wish list for too long.  Two of the sets were On My Couch and its additions.  I stamped the couch on Fine Linen felt that I die-cut with the matching die.  I blended the wall with Spring Rain, Color Box's Sky Blue, and Enchanted Evening.  The floor was blended with Dark Chocolate and VersaMagic's Sahara Sand.

I also used Betsy's technique on the sentiment panel.  I die-cut a piece of Vintage Cream cardstock with the new Sending You die, stamped the sentiments from Inside and Out: Thank You and On My Couch, tied some Martha Stewart twine around it after blending the Dark Chocolate ink again.  I folded the bottom portion of the panel under - just like Betsy.  Normally, I would cut it off, but I like the look of the fold.

I have made a deal with my son that on Wednesdays and Thursdays after school, we will have craft time.  We pinkie-swore on it, so hopefully the deal will stick.  I hope to get something else done today...anything!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!

New Die Storage

I still don't have a project to share with you, but I do have a new organizational system for my dies.  I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but never got around to it.  No time like the present, I suppose.

Here it is:

It's a magnetic white board!  I have little round magnets on the back of each die, and now I can see all my dies at once.  This way, I won't forget about what I have and can use them more!  The only ones not up here are my Nestabilities. 

I think that if I move them closer to each other, I'll be able to squeeze on many, many more.  And if I need another white board, they are only $24 at Michaels!  I had two coupons to use - a 40% off one item and a 25% off the entire order!  So, I got the board, some magnets and stuff my little one "had to have" for the regular price of the white board. (By the way, the white board is 22x35 inches.)

Thanks for looking!

I'm here...

Well, not really.  I'm out of bed on a daily basis, and I have taken my little one to school every day this week.  I am back in the classroom as of today, and here I am - updating my blog.  That's what happens at my school...my teacher friends all graded my work, entered the grades, made my lesson plans, created the activities, gathered supplies and made my copies.  All I had to do was show up today.  So, here I am. I even have a little make-up on.  Wouldn't want to scare the children, now would I?

People tell you to take it one day at a time.  That's too long for me.  I'm minute by minute here, with a wonderful support group of friends and family.  Our little one seems to be doing fine.  He's listening, following directions and is being very well-mannered.  I'm a little worried - {wink}  He has always been a good boy, but never this good.  He has a few moments of stubbornness, but not nearly as many as before.  He probably knows I'm on the edge.  Family is scheduled to visit me the next three weekends, so I am not short on company...or food.   Good gravy, I have food...and GOOD food!

I have no card or layout to share with you.  I'm hoping to...soon. That requires energy, you know.  Of course you know. 

I received a box of goodies from my blog group, the Paper Dolls.  That should help to kick in some creativity, I hope! They ordered me new things from the last release.  We've never all met personally, but they know me so well anyway.  Everything in my box was on my wish list.  Those gals are mind-readers.  I appreciate the love, cards, food and PTI goodies they have sent.

Speaking of cards...wow!  My PTI forum friends have sent me beautiful, and I mean breath-taking cards.  Each one is so unique, but carries the same message of love.  I feel so blessed to have found such a wonderful community of people. Thank you all so much. 

So, I'm here.  Kind of.  I'll be back soon with something scrappy...and probably crappy. 

In the meantime, this is what I have to look forward to...AWESOME!

Papertrey Paper Dolls Blog Hop

Hi there!  Are you having fun hopping along with the Dolls?  We are happy to have this hop so that we can get to know each other better, learn about favorite styles, colors, techniques and to share a little something that we made in honor of what brought us together last year - Papertrey Ink - PTI.

Our theme for the Blog Hop is PTI.  In each project you see, we have used something that starts with a P, something that starts with a T and something that starts with an I.

I was able to get two of my ideas completed and ready for our hop.  Here's my first one:

 

How does this fit into the theme?

P = Patterned Paper (Turning a New Leaf from PTI)

T = Turning a New Leaf stamp set, Twine, Tea Dye Duo

I = Inside and Out: Thank You stamp set and Impression Plate (Woodgrain)

My second card is a little more Spring-y:
 

How does this fit into the theme?

P = Plum Pudding cardstock, ribbon and ink

T = Tags for Spring

I = Impression Plate (Linen)

Here's a little bit more about me:
-My PTI forum name is - Lee Anne (I got lucky!)

-Where am I - I live in Texas.

-My day job - I'm a middle school science teacher.  (There are several teachers in our group!)

-My family - I just celebrated my 10-year anniversary with my wonderful husband, and we have a 5-year old son who keeps us running around. I grew up the youngest of 3 girls.  My older sisters still try to boss me around, even though I'm 40 years old now.

-When I discovered PTI - I discovered PTI between the February and March releases in 2009 and made my first purchase in March.  I purchased Wishing You and Flower Garden in my first purchase and they are still some of my favorite sets. In fact, last summer I did a tribute to both sets.  I want everyone to love both of these sets!

- How long I've been a Doll - Last year, about this time, the forum was really busy and several blog groups were forming.  I decided to join with this one, and I filled the last spot available.  Again, I got lucky! It's a great group.

-Favorite PTI products (besides stamps) - I'm loving the dies that PTI comes out with, and the cardstock is like no other!

-Favorite PTI stamp sets - That's tough!  I love Every Day Button bits for it's whimsical nature, Flower Garden for its versatility, Turning a New Leaf for its background building ability, and Tiny Treats Valentines because it can be used for almost anything!

-Favorite PTI color - Pure Poppy

-Favorite PTI color combo - Hibiscus Burst and Spring Moss

That's all from me today!  Make sure you leave a comment here before you leave so that you can be in the drawing for the stamp set we are giving away.  You are on your way to Laurie Beth now.  What a treat!

If a link doesn't work or you get lost along the way, click HERE to retun to the Dolls Blog!

Are you going to play along and link up a project with our PTI theme?  We'd love to see what you do. Link up on the Dolls blog for a chance to win a gift certificate.   

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  Come back soon!

Paper Dolls Challenge #31

This card is for my blog group's challenge from a couple of weeks ago.  I'm trying to catch up!  Laurie challenged us with:

1.  Use a flower set, if you have it Papertrey Ink, Year of the Flowers set.
2.  Use a designer paper.  If you don't have any, make your own. 
3.  Use at least three different colors.

I love to paper-piece the flowers from PTI's Flower Garden set, so I knew that was the set I was going to use.  I don't own any of the Year of Flowers sets, and quickly turn my head away when I see someone create something fabulous.  And I scream, "No, No, NO...I don't want that set!"  We'll see how long I can keep it up.  

Here's my card:

I love that patterned paper.  All of it is from Bo Bunny and was part of a free pad I received at Archivers.  I've never used it, because I have a problem using my patterned paper. (I'm on Step 2 of the 12 Step program for this.)

I cut out the flowers and leaves by hand but would not mind a die set for Flower Garden!  (LISA JOHNSON- are you reading this?) Who am I kidding...she's not.

Here's the inside:

Come along and play with the Dolls on our challenges.  We'll have a new one this week AND we have a big BLOG HOP planned to start on March 9th.  Fun!  Click here for our blog and join the fun!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!