Papertrey Pages February Challenge

The challenge that Beth gave to forum members this month was to create a layout with these parameters:

1. Your page(s) must celebrate a birthday or anniversary.
2. Your page(s) must use a Papertrey stamp set, preferably a birthday or anniversary set. (Flowers, of course, work on any kind of page!)

Of course, I have had ideas floating around in my head for the whole month, but didn't execute them until the day before the end of the month.  I've got to get more on the ball in March!

My son turned 5 in May and I hadn't scrapped his birthday party yet, so Beth's challenge was perfect for me.  This will be his last page in his Baby Book!  I can't believe it!  I'll have to do another layout for his yearly scrapbook, so this gave me some ideas.

Here's my layout:

Have I told you how much I love Echo Park paper?  I do.  I especially love the Little Boy line which is where the plaid paper comes from.

I started the layout by stamping the baseball images from PTI and stamped the letters in each ball to create the title.  After stepping back to take a look, I decided there was room on the title block for the 5 and love the shape of the number from the die set. Then I did some faux-stitching with a white pen around the edges.

I mimicked the stitching on this panel and then popped it up next to my son's cake pictures.  I love the look on the boys' faces...they just really want some cake, huh?

After adding the smaller pictures on the right and the "Little Boy" sticker, I decided that a few more details were needed.  So, I die cut some stars in cardstock and some more patterned paper from Echo Park, added some buttons and twine and placed them in sort-of a triangle.

I know that Beth will have a fabulous layout, so you should go check her blog out.  She does wonderful work. 

Thanks for dropping by My Happy Place today!

All Papertrey Ink supplies (unless noted):
Stamps:  Have a Ball, Think Big Favorites #1, Big Birthday Wishes, letters from Carved Love (Practicing Creativity)
Ink:  Pure Poppy, True Black
Cardstock:  New Leaf, Stampers Select, Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening
Patterned Paper:  Little Boy (Echo Park)
Dies:  Seeing Stars, Fillable Frame #1, By the Numbers
Other:  New Leaf, Enchanted Evening, & Pure Poppy buttons, Rustic White Twine

Paper Dolls Challenge #32

This card is for the Paper Dolls Challenge #32, issued by Amy.  She challenged us to create a project with these requirements:

The Challenge

1.  Embossing

2.  Use any floral image from PTI

3.  Spring colors

 

"Any floral image from PTI" - sounds easy, right?  No!  That choice is very, very difficult.  There are way too many great floral images, and I only have a few of them.  I don't even own any of the Year of Flowers sets.  Every time I see a project done with them, I turn my head quickly to avert my eyes so as not to be tempted to order all 12 sets at once.  

The spring part of Amy's challenge made me think of tulips, and the obvious choice for that was one of my favorite sets, "Wishing You."  I also included the challenge this week for Make It Monday - to apply glitter using scor-tape.  I created a frame around the edges of the green mat to add some sparkle to the card. 

 

Here's my card:

I started by stamping and embossing the tulip leaves with VersaMark and Zing powder on Vintage Cream  cardstock.  Then I ran the mat through my Big Shot with the Canvas Impression plate.  I used my new favorite edger punch on the sides.  The glitter border is on a piece of Simply Chartreuse cardstock.  I chose some happy, spring colors for the tulips, stamped them, cut them out and popped them up.  After adding a butterfly, I was finished.  

Here's the inside:

 

And since I've learned how to do close-up views pretty well, you get to see this one too!  It really shows the canvas impression plate.

 

Thanks for looking today and visiting My Happy Place.  To play along with this Dolls challenge, click here and have a ton of fun!

 

All Papertrey Ink Supplies (unless noted otherwise):

Stamps:  Wishing You, Make a Wish

Ink:  Orangerie, Hawaiian Shores, Summer Sunrise, Smokey Shadow, Wisteria (Color Box), Versamark

Paper:  Vintage Cream, Simply Chartreuse, Bitty Dot Basics

Tools:  Canvas impression plate, Bracket Edger Punch (EK Success), Butterfly punch (Martha Stewart)

Other:  Zing embossing powder, Hero Arts prisma glitter, 1/4-inch scor tape, rhinestones

Make It Monday 3 - again?!

 

I have to admit.  The card I'm submitting today started as a submission for last week's Make It Monday Challenge - to use a vellum sentiment strip.  I could never figure out how to make it work the way I wanted, so most of this card sat - unused - on my desk last week.  When Dawn issued her challenge this week to use scor-tape and glitter, I figured out a way to make the card work.  Since it was mostly done, I was able to finish it up to fit into the challenge this week.  You ca see the details and other submissions if you click over to Nichole's blog here. 

Here's my second card for this week. 

I wish I knew the color of that cardstock mat.  I thought it was Ocean Tides when I first used it, decided I needed more Ocean Tides and ordered some.  It's NOT Ocean Tides.  And it's NOT Aqua Mist.  I have no idea what color it is or where I got it, but I want more!!

Thanks for looking today and visiting My Happy Place!

Papertrey Ink Supplies:
Stamps:  Fly Away
Ink:  Pure Poppy, True Black
Dies:  Small Cloud die, Double Ended Banner Die
Other:  1/4-inch scor-tape, True Black button
Not PTI:  Little Boy paper (Echo Park), silver twine in wheel, Doodle Bug Sugar Coating Glitter

Make It Monday #3

This week the challenge on the Make It Monday series is to add some glitter to a project by using scor-tape as the base for the glitter.  Dawn made a great video and you can get all the details and see the submissions if you click over to Nichole's blog here. 

I've been a bit absent from my crafting table and my blog lately.  I won't bore you with the details, but some reasons are job, son, husband, family, stress, dinner, dishes and laundry.  I haven't been able to comment on my friends blogs either, and that's what really bothers me.  I made a commitment to them to comment, and I haven't been able to.  I'm hoping that things will settle down SOON and I'll be able to comment, craft and blog more.

The challenge that Dawn gave us made it super easy to create a fast card.  I've had this idea in my head since I saw Dawn's video and I dreamt about it last night.  I was finally able to get it down on paper and it came  together pretty quickly when I got home from work today.  Here it is:

Can you make a card for yourself?  I did.  It made me happy to make it; it makes me happy to look at it.  I used scor-tape from PTI and glittered it up with some Sugar Coating Glitter from Doodle Bug Design.  L.O.V.E.  

I'm off to go look at the other submissions.  I haven't even had a chance to see what everyone has done with the challenge yet.  

Have you visited the Paper Dolls blog lately?  We have several challenges up and running and would love for you to play along.  Check our group out here.  I'm on my way back to my desk to start on our current challenge!

Papertrey Ink Supplies:

Stamps:  Up, Up and Away Sentiments, Scattered Showers Additions

Ink:  Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy, Spring Rain (on the cloud)

Cardstock:  Summer Sunrise, Stampers Select

Tools:  Cloud die, Scor Tape

Other:  Sugar Coating Glitter (Doddle Bug Design)

Make It Monday-Card 2

It's my THIRD post today.  I know! I can't believe it either!

Papertrey Ink has a new contest to go along with their new year in business!  They are celebrating their 4th Anniversary and Nichole is having a HUGE party.  You can see all the festivities and play along here!

The new contest is:

 

Each Monday, a design team member will host a video with a new technique to try and the challenge for the week is based on the technique.  This week, Erin Lincoln, hosted and her technique is called "Go To Sentiments".  You can see her video and details of the challenge here. 

Here's my second card for the challenge:

I seem to have created several "pick me up" cards lately.  I have friends going through things right now and they are on my mind quite a lot lately.  That's probably the reason.  Maybe tomorrow I can make a Valentine card with this technique!

Here's a close-up:

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Lee Anne

Make It Monday-Card 1

Papertrey Ink has a new contest to go along with their new year in business!  They are celebrating their 4th Anniversary and Nichole is having a HUGE party.  You can see all the festivities and play along here!

The new contest is:

 

Each Monday, a design team member will host a video with a new technique to try and the challenge for the week is based on the technique.  This week, Erin Lincoln, hosted and her technique is called "Go To Sentiments".  You can see her video and details of the challenge here.  I had the pleasure of talking to Erin on the phone the other day, and I am still sky-high!  She's one of my favorite DT members, so it was very hard not to gush.

Here's my first card for the challenge:

You can't go wrong with Ocean Tides and Dark Chocolate, can you?

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place tonight!

Birthday card

Yesterday was my brother-in-law's birthday, so of course, I had to make him a card.  He's older than I am, so I also felt the need to rub it in a little!

Here's his card:

What do you think?  Too mean? 

Nah!

The inside is stamped with the sentiment..."looks good on you!" from Big Birthday Wishes!  Is that nicer?

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

PTI Anniversary and OTWC

Today is the second day of Papertrey Ink's 4th Anniversary!  Nichole has an awesome free download of nine designer tags and an incredible - mouth-dropping - prize up for grabs.  You can get all the details here. 

Here's the free download:

Here's one of three (!) cards I managed to create.  I used Lisa's tag on this one, and the color combination inspiration at Off the Wall Craftiness. 

I loved the hill the hearts were sitting!  I colored the image with my Aquacolor pencils and blended them with a Dove blender.  The red panel is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.  It didn't come out very well in the photo.

Here's the inspiration from Kim at Off the Wall Craftiness.  Come play along by clicking here.  She has great prizes!

Thanks for visiting me today!

PTI Anniversary - Day 2 - Card 2

Today is the second day of Papertrey Ink's 4th Anniversary!  Nichole has an awesome free download of nine designer tags and an incredible - mouth-dropping - prize up for grabs.  You can get all the details here. 

Here's the free download:

Here's one of two cards I managed to create.  I used Dawn's tag on this one.

When I first saw Dawn's image this morning, I immediately thought of a flower center.  It took me way too long to make this card.  Again, I used Turning a New Leaf, but stamped it in VersaMark and embossed it with some Zing powder.  I found the perfect color to match PTI's Simply Chartreuse.  Prepare to see more and more of that!


Thanks for dropping by! 

(Go Packers!)

PTI Anniversary - Day 2 - Card 1

Today is the second day of Papertrey Ink's 4th Anniversary!  Nichole has an awesome free download of nine designer tags and an incredible - mouth-dropping - prize up for grabs.  You can get all the details here. 

Here's the free download:

I know.  Cool!  My problem with this challenge is the pressure.  Once I printed them and got into my office to create, I couldn't do anything.  Too much going on I guess!  I finally came up with a couple of cards, and many of the tags you see above are still on my desk, half-colored, half-mounted, just still sitting there.

Here's one of two cards I managed to create.  I used Heather's tag on this one.

I loved the hint of Ripe Avocado on the tag and used the same color to stamp Turning a New Leaf, cut it out and mounted it behind the focal point.  Thanks, Heather and Nichole for a GREAT image!  Love it! 

PTI Anniversary - Day 1

Wow!  Did you see Nichole Heady's post this morning?  Before you click over and read it, grab some Kleenex.  You'll need it to wipe away the tears as you read how she feels about each of her team members.  Wow.  I'm so glad I shop at a company that values relationships.  Such a good feeling.

In celebrating Papertrey Ink's 4th Anniversary, Nichole went through each of her DT's blogs and picked her favorite project from their blogs for 2010.  Then she had them do the same thing.  So much inspiration in one place is a very, wonderful thing.  THEN - she challenged us to do the same thing - find our favorite PTI project of the year.  

At the end of December, I visited a blog from a forum member.  She was participating in a Top 10 of 2010 contest and picked her favorite projects to highlight.  I thought it was a great idea, and did the same thing.  You can see my post here.  Boy, am I glad I did that because it made finding a PTI project that I loved very easy this morning.  I just had to decide which card to use from that post. 

Here's the one I came up with:

Original Post is here.

I chose this one because so many of my forum friends have been looking out their windows at snow on the ground since Christmas.  I know they are longing for Spring to arrive, so I thought I'd give them a little bit today.  I made this card last summer when I posted "Seven Days of Wishing You."  I made 7 cards with this awesome set by Melissa Bickford.  I want everyone to love it as much as I do. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  Have fun seeing everyone's favorites!

GYSO #5

This week's sketch at Get Your Sketch On was perfect for last year's February layout!  I had just a couple of pictures for this month, and most of them were focused on Valentine's Day.  Here's the sketch and my layout:

 

The bottom right picture had to be included.  My son was working on addressing his Valentine's and was a little irritated at my picture taking.  Luckily, I caught that one just in time.

Remember, my goals for the year are to use more patterned paper (on cards and layouts) and to use more stamping in my layouts.  This one fits into those two goals!  The larger heart is from Practicing Creativity's "Carved Love" set and all the other stamps are from Papertrey Ink's Tiny Treat Valentines!  I colored in the images with my Bic Mark It Markers!  The striped paper is from Echo Park's "Little Boy" line.

Here's a detail shot:

Come play along at the Get Your Sketch On challenge - all the details are here.  The prize this week is from The Pink Cat Studio.

I'm submitting this to my blog group's, The Paper Dolls,  challenge from a couple of weeks ago.  Laurie Beth challenged us to use felt and a die-cut.  Even though this isn't a card, I think it fits the challenge.  You can play along with us by seeing the details of the challenge here.

Papertrey Pages January Challenge

Beth challenged the forum at Papertrey Ink to a layout challenge that goes like this:

Christmas is over, and I have been doing baby pages in primary and fall colors, so...
You must use 3 items in Spring Rain on these pages- that means
paper, ink, buttons, ribbons, brads, glitter, etc etc etc.

 

As usual, I waited until the end of the month to complete the layout.  I kept changing my mind about which pictures I wanted to use.  I finally settled on my family's kite adventure from last March.  My son finally got the hang of flying a kite with the help of Daddy, and he was really pretty good at it.

Here's my layout:

All the patterned paper is from Echo Park's Walk in the Park.  {love}

The title is cut from Mat Stack 5 die and matted with Spring Rain paper.  Then I stamped the title with letters from "Carved in Love" from Practicing Creativity.  I embossed some kites from Up, Up and Away (PTI) and attached Rustic White twine for tails.  I popped those on the mat and popped the mat as well for some dimension. 

The three Spring Rain products are:  cardstock, buttons and brads.  I was going to use ribbon, but GUESS WHAT!?  I don't have any Spring Rain ribbon.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit that.  

Here's a detail shot:

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!  I hope to have more to post this week, but it's not looking too good. 

GYSO #4

This week's sketch at Get Your Sketch On was great!  I'm so thankful for this new challenge site - it sure is inspiring me to get some layouts done.  I feel like I'm in a groove now and can hopefully finish my son's pre-K scrapbook soon!  I missed my self-imposed deadline.  

Here's the sketch Bree gave us:

If you remember, two of my goals for this  year were to use more patterned paper and to stamp more on my layouts.  I only achieved one of those on this layout, but don't worry, I have another idea I'm hoping to work on this weekend, and it involves stamps AND paper!

Here's my layout:

My son has a long-standing love affair with DINOSAURS, so you can imagine his excitement when his class went on a dinosaur field trip last March.  One of the other mothers that went on the field trip snapped this picture and emailed it to me.  His face is priceless.  (You can click on the picture for a larger view.)

You can play along with this week's challenge at Get Your Sketch On by clicking here!

Thanks for dropping by My Happy Place!  I hope I have more to post soon!

Happy Anniversary!

So, today is my TENTH Wedding Anniversary.  Wow! Can't believe I just wrote that.  How the world and our lives have changed in the last 10 years! 

Here's a picture from the big day!

We were married in a traditional Catholic Mass in the Cathedral downtown.  It was a beautiful wedding.  Then we had a FUN, FUN party afterward.  It rained, which I hear is good luck.  We've been lucky so far.  A couple of months later we bought our house; a few years later we had our son.  We are blessed.

So, with jobs, parenthood and sinus infections, I'm not really sure we will be having an official celebration.  Last weekend we purchased great tickets to a favorite band's summer concert, so I think that is our present to ourselves.  I wonder if I can somehow order scrapbooking supplies to celebrate the occasion.  Hmmm.

Here's my card for my sweet husband:

I love the new number dies and Big Birthday Wishes stamp set from PTI.  Several sentiments work for anniversaries as well.  The two larger ones are from that set, and the Happy Anniversary is Hero Arts.  On the outside of the card, I used a cuttlebug folder to deboss the mat.  I didn't fold the cardstock into the folder, but left it open, so that it wouldn't be so deep.  I like how it turned out.

I'm entering this card into my Blog Group, The Papertrey Paper Dolls, challenge from Cecilia. There are several entries already, so I know it was a needed challenge.  Time to refocus!  You can get the details of her challenge here.  She challenged us to ease back into our crafting after the holidays by doing a simple card.  You should come and join us in our challenges.  Click here and come play!  No pressure, just fun!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Papertrey Ink's January Blog Hop!

Woo Hoo!  It's that time again - Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop!  This month Nichole challenged us with this:

This month's blog hop challenge involves you challenging yourself to use a Papertrey stamp set that has yet to see ink or even one that might be collecting a little dust!  Go through your stash and see what little used treasure it might hold.

I have not used the "Falling Leaves" stamp set nearly as much as I would like, so I picked it as my theme for the project. I wanted to make a cheerful card for a friend who has had a rough week. I thought of her as I was making it, and I hope I'm sending good vibes. It is already on its way to her. I hope it cheers her up a bit!

I combined some sets on the card.  The sun is from Scattered Showers Additions and the sentiment and grass are both from Hero Arts.  

Here's the inside:

You can see other participants in the blog hop by going to Nichole's blog here.  Enjoy!.  I'm sure there will be a lot of inspiration, and I will be digging out some neglected sets after I'm finished hopping.  

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Falling Leaves, Scattered Showers Additions (PTI), Stamp Garden, Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)

Paper:  Hibiscus Burst, Stampers Select (PTI), Summertime by Echo Park

Ink:  Dark Chocolate, New Leaf, Summer Sunrise, Hibiscus Burst (PTI)

Other:  Hibiscus Buttons, Rustic White Twine (PTI), Sakura Stardust Pen

Fishy Birthday

Hero Arts has a great challenge this month.  There are three parts to it:

1. Find inspiration in the 2011 Hero Arts Catalog

2.  Use the masking technique

3.  Decorate the inside of the cards 

I've submitted three cards already; this makes my fourth:

This is the front.

I used a die to cut out the windows from the patterned paper and the cardstock, then stamped the fish in the windows. I stamped the sentiment onto the banner die and added bling to either side.

Here's the inside:

I stamped the seaweed and starfish, colored everything, and shaded along the sides and bottoms of the images with a Copic marker. After stamping the sentiment on the inside, I added a couple of rhinestones & some glitter pen  for some bling. I love how it turned out.

Here it is from the side:

I'm entering this card into Jenny's wee Memories challenge.  You can get all the details here.  Below is the theme for the week!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Oceans Of Joy (Hero Arts)
Paper: Vintage Cream cardstock (Papertrey Ink), Snorkel (Cosmo Cricket)
Ink:  New Leaf, Ocean Tides (PTI)
Tools:  Double Ended Banner Die, Take Three Die (PTI)
Other:  Bic Mark It Markers, Copic Marker, Rhinestones, Sakura Stardust pen