StampinB Friendship Sentiments

I know that summer *officially* arrived on the 21st, but today our summer finally begins! Yesterday was my kids' last day of school for the 2010/2011 school year. Woo-hoo! We are ready for a fun summer. :)

And because it's Thursday, the Stampin' B's DT has a new challenge for you. This week, Joanne is our hostess, and she is challenging us to use a friendship sentiment. Done!
I was going for a freshly-laundered-linens-hanging-on-a-clothesline kind of feel here--you know, summery and clean and simple. My friendship sentiment is all summer-fresh, too: "Plant seeds of kindness and your garden of friends will grow!" Cute, right? The flowers were reverse-masked using the negatives left from a SU Boho Blossoms punch.

I'm playing along with Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday #20 to use reverse masking (along with at least one PTI product, of course!). I'm also playing along with Clear It Out Tuesday's clean and simple challenge.

Well, thanks for checking out my little slice of bliss for today. If you'd like to try your hand at this week's Stampin' B's Challenge, post your project on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

See you soon!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: PTI Blooming Button Bits (flower stems) and PTI Flower Garden Sentiments
Paper: MFP snow storm CS
Ink: SU dye inks: wild wasabi, pretty in pink, so saffron, tangerine tango
Accessories: SU boho blossoms punch, sponge daubers, rhinestones, Peapod baker's twine from The Twinery, silver daisy charm from Stamp and Create
Techniques: reverse masking

Thanks a Bunch

Yup, I'm still cranking out the thank you cards for end-of-year stuff!!
I think those sweet little DeNami carrots, part of the adorable Veggies Petit Four set, are just the cutest. I know, you are probably scratching your head over their purpleness, right? My colors for this project were inspired by the current DeNami Design Color Challenge:
And I was bound and determined to use my Veggies! Oh, I suppose I could have gone with purple cabbage for a similar card, but I just wasn't prepared to settle for ho-hum. Especially when I could go for "WOW!" with healthful beauties like these:

Photo clipped from Sweet Additions

And besides, my "thanks a bunch" sentiment doesn't work nearly as well with cabbages. So, {purple} carrots it had to be!!

This is another card that I may have trouble parting with. I had such fun constructing my miniature scene!!

Thanks for taking a peek at what I've been up to here on Bliss Road!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Size: 4.25" x 4.25"
Stamps: carrot from Veggies Petit Four set by DeNami Design; sentiment from Flower Garden Sentiments by PaperTrey Ink
Paper: SU chocolate chip CS, MFP kraft CS, SU bashful blue textured CS, SU whisper white CS, patterned paper from the BasicGrey Basic Kraft collection
Ink: Versafine vintage sepia, Versafine onyx, Palette lavender sachet
Accessories: SU scallop border punch, MS picket fence border punch, 1" and 1.25" circle punches, precision tip scissors, Prismacolor pencils, purple baker's twine from The Twinery

Papertrey March Blog Hop Challenge

(This is my third post for today. I know, I'm on a roll. Please scroll down for more.)

Today is Papertrey Ink's monthly customer blog hop today! This month the challenge is to use embroidery floss.

Essay
Why I Love Embroidery Floss

I love embroidery floss. I have tons and tons of it in my stash and use it all the time, much as I would use twine. It's great for tying into flat-ish bows, super for stitching on buttons, and awesome for tying on tags and charms. I also make flower stems and string up banners with it. Plus, it's so cheap and comes in so many colors. And that is why I *love* embroidery floss.

The End

Here's my take on the challenge (which you can read all about here.) Let's move on to meeting my challenge card, shall we? The balloon strings and "here to give you a lift" sentiment come from PTI Everyday Button Bits. I used embroidery floss (in green, yellow, and orange) to stitch the button "balloons" to my card and added an orange embroidery floss bow to tie the balloon strings together.

I wanted this encouragement card to be bright and cheery. This week's Tuesday Trigger challenge in the Moxie Fab World inspired me to use those yummy citrus colors. I'm also playing along with these challenges:

• Crafty Creations: in stitches
• Paper Sundaes: Embossing (The green triangles in the background were heat-embossed with dots and flowers in white.)
  

Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog to check out my little slice of bliss for today! I appreciate your visit. :)

Have a super weekend!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Everyday Button Bits
Paper: MFP white storm CS, various CS from The Paper Company
Ink: Marvy LePlume II black marker, Versamark
Accessories: white EP, heat tool, MS loops corner and border PATP punches, assorted embroidery floss, needle, Doodlebug buttons (tropical assortment)
Techniques: hand stitching, embossing

Springy Birthday Wishes

I've been getting projects ready for the new Stampin' B's DT challenge (check back tomorrow for my sample!) and Mark's Finest Papers March Release Blog Hop which will be taking place next week on Tuesday through Friday, March 8-11. Busy, busy!! But I squeezed in a springy birthday card today. Still gathering birthday cards for all those March birthdays we'll be celebrating!
Last week while making this card, I ended up with an extra scallop-framed panel containing a square of text from a vintage book page (it was too big to use on the card I originally made). I've been mulling over how best to use it ever since. Well, today it hit me and I decided to try stamping directly on the text. LOVE how it turned out! Perfect for my 5" x 5" square birthday card.

This week's PTI Make It Monday Challenge #4 is to use fun foam (craft foam). The video tutorial that accompanies the challenge shows cutting sheets of foam into shapes using dies. Well, I'm a simple gal. When I started off down the road on my extended papercrafting journey, I made a conscious decision to avoid investing in expensive tools and equipment. There just isn't money in our budget or space in our house for extras like these. So, no dies, embossing folders, die cutting machines, or Copics for me. I do have some punches (and I make do with colored pencils or watercolor painting for coloring images), but otherwise I look for creative design solutions, make do with what I've got, or do without. Anyway, back to my PTI challenge story. So, die-cutting craft foam was out for me, and I quickly found that sheets of craft foam are too thick to fit in my punches. Not to be deterred, I fished around in my kids' craft supplies and dug up a few pink foam circle shapes--and not a whole lot else. Those reminded me of my PTI Button Bits stamp sets, and the rest of my design fell into place!

In addition to the PTI creating with fun foam challenge, my card was shaped by these challenges:

• My colors were inspired by this week's CR84FN17 color challenge:
• My hot pink flowers were inspired by the photo inspiration for this week's jac-inks Challenge #3:
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge: 1 image (the PTI leaves image), 2 DPs (my text background and my chartreuse gingham), + 3 types of embellishments (foam circles, brads, ribbon)
  
• Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: Frames
• Stamp Something: Flowers
• OneStop Craft Challenge: Spring Flowers
• Critter Sketch Challenge: Use a sentiment
• A Spoon Full of Sugar: Tag (I made my sentiment tag by stamping inside a ticket.)
• Tuesday Throwdown: Tag (I made my sentiment tag by stamping inside a ticket.)
• Papertake Weekly: Anything Goes
• Clear It Out Challenge: Anything Goes {for using up your stash}. I'm using up foam circles, a ticket, ribbon, brads, and hot pink card stock scraps from my stash.
• ABC DT Challenge: Happy Birthday

In other news, over the weekend I spent a bunch of time clearing unneeded stuff out of our attic. Wow, I was amazed by how much baby and little-kid stuff we had accumulated!! Now I am working on getting it ready to donate so we can get it out of the house. There's a {huge} pile waiting to be sorted and itemized for our records, but it feels SO much better acting on this. My kids were a huge help hauling stuff down the attic ladder and then down another flight of stairs. Of course, they were so curious about what was in each bag and box. It probably felt like Christmas to them!! (Especially since so many of the boxes and bags held toys and books--now that's exciting stuff.) It was a blast seeing what items they remembered and what things they had completely forgotten.

I also came across a few boxes of books that were mine when I was growing up. We found an old Pink Panther comic digest that my 8YO son claimed (along with some Encyclopedia Brown books) and this book of paper dolls that my 12YO daughter snagged. She has been having a ball clipping out the movie star paper dolls and their elaborate costumes and dresses, working a little bit on it each day before school and again before bedtime. She's getting quite an education in 1930s fashion--and loving it. :)

Well, thanks for stopping by for my little slice of bliss today. I hope you'll come back later to check out the new StampinB challenge!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: PTI Blooming Button Bits, PTI Everyday Button Bits (sentiment)
Paper: SU chocolate chip CS, SU pretty in pink CS, Jillibean Soup DP, various unknown scraps, book page ripped from a vintage history book
Ink: Marvy LePlume II black marker, Ranger tea dye distress ink, Palette chartreuse
Accessories: SU 1/2" circle punch, foam tape, sponge dauber, pink foam circles from my stash, pink brads, satin-edged sheer ribbon, ticket, sewing machine
Techniques: machine stitching, ink distressing

Papertrey February Blog Hop Challenge

I'm thrilled to be taking part in my very first Papertrey Ink customer blog hop today! This month's theme is "Scallops." So fun! Here's my take on the challenge (which you can read all about here).
I made my scalloped frame by punching 1/2" circles and individually adhering them to the back of my main panel. I also used a scalloped border punch along the bottom of my long panel. My birthday wishes sentiment (from the Papertrey Ink set Everyday Button Bits) is stamped on an adorable blank ticket that I won in some blog candy from Paper Crafts Go-To Gal Teri Anderson. How cute is that?? And that yummy layered flower? It's a Frosty Pink Lollipop by Prima. I thought it might make a fantastic focal point.

I'm also playing along with Papertrey's Make It Monday Challenge #3: Glitter Strips with Scor-Tape. Such a cool idea! I laid down two strips of 1/4" Scor-Tape side-by-side and piled on some Pink Paislee Chocolate Pixie Stix glitter. Love how this turned out!

I incorporated these additional challenges into the making of this card.

• Mojo Monday: Sketch #179 (My first Mojo sketch. I've always been too intimidated to try, but finally screwed up my courage and dove right in!)
• Simon Says Stamp: Coffee and Cream, to add the colors brown and cream to your creation.
• The Shabby Tea Room: Buttons and Bows
  
• A Spoon Full of Sugar: Birthday Wishes
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday: Birthday Card
• Delightful Challenges: Use scraps (except for my background DP, all other paper portions were created from scraps!)
• Stamptacular Sunday: #99, S.O.S., to make a card for SomeOne Special. This birthday card will go to one of the special gals in my book group who will be celebrating her birthday next week!
• Tuesday Throwdown: 3D, pull out your 3-D tape/supplies and pop it up. (I used foam tape to pop up my main panel.)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog today! I appreciate your visit. :)

Have a super weekend!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Everyday Button Bits
Paper: BasicGrey Kraft DP, SU chocolate chip CS, We R Memory Keepers Tiffany's DP, various unknown scraps, book page ripped from a vintage history book
Ink: Marvy LePlume II black marker, Ranger tea dye distress ink
Accessories: SU 1/2" circle punch, SU scallop border punch, foam tape, Scor-Tape, Pink Paislee Chocolate Pixie Stix glitter, sponge dauber, buttons from my stash, brown burlap string, Prima Frosty Pink Lollipops flower, ticket, sewing machine, salvaged ribbon from whoopie pie packaging
Techniques: machine stitching, ink distressing

My Favorite PTI Project

Papertrey Ink is celebrating its fourth anniversary with a huge giveaway! To enter, all you need to do is post your own very favorite PTI project from the past year. Here is my own very favorite from July 2010, using PTI's Everyday Button Bits:

Details about the card may be found here.

You may enter the giveaway drawing by checking out this blog post.

Thanks for taking a look--and thanks to Nichole Heady for the chance to win!!

Birthday Blossoms

I have been so busy making cards for upcoming holidays the next few months, that I completely forgot that I have birthdays and anniversaries to get ready for, too!! So I checked my calendar this morning and made a list of five birthdays/anniversaries that require cards in the next month. My goal for today was to make a birthday card for my sister-in-law's birthday next month.

When I saw that the Splitcoast Ways to Use It challenge today was Fabric, I knew I *had* to play today!! I just love fabric. I have an extensive fabric collection (along with a large stash of buttons) and I love using it on cards. One of the easiest ways to use it is my favorite: stitching on swatches in place of DP. Here's what I came up with:
The colors, so perfect for a feminine birthday card, were inspired by the new Play Date Cafe challenge. I searched through my fabrics until I found this great swirly "pink lemonade" fabric, a favorite design left from my Sew Sweet Bags days of sewing fabric totes and handbags.

The card was super easy (and quick) to put together, partly because I already had a 5" x 5" card ready and waiting with this so saffron designer paper already attached. The no-coloring-required stamped image, from Papertrey Ink's Blooming Button Bits, was super quick. All I had to do was find my favorite buttons and glue them on!! After stitching down the fabric, I frayed all the edges, attached a bow and sentiment, and I was done. Yay!

Challenges:

• Splitcoast Ways to Use It: WT293, Fabric
• The Play Date Cafe: PDCC52
• Card Patterns: Sketch 86 (I created my three background panels with zig-zag stitching on the fabric.)
• Tuesday Taggers: Nursery Rhymes. I was inspired by the line in Strawberry Fair that goes "Singing, singing, buttercups and daisies"
• Tuesday Throwdown: Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting me today :) !!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Blooming Button Bits
Paper: SU whisper white, SU so saffron DP, MFP sparkle finish pink CS, The Paper Company peach CS
Ink: Palette noir black, Palette water lily green
Accessories: SU modern label punch, CM corner roudner punch, sewing machine, Bow-Easy, satin ribbon, foam tape, buttons from my stash, cotton decorator fabric
Techniques: fabric, machine stitching

Stampin' B's Piercing Challenge

Hi, all!! It's Thursday, and that means another challenge from the Stampin' B's DT. This week Vicki Dutcher is challenging us to use piercing on our cards. How fun!! I think that piercing is such an easy way to add subtle design and texture to paper projects.

I am hosting the September Gallery Comment Contest over on Splitcoast Stampers this month. At the end of the month, I'll be awarding prizes and mailing them out to randomly drawn contestants. And, of course, I'll need enclosure cards to send along with the prizes!! So, I'm getting a start on my stash of tiny cards. I bought a couple of packs of studio g mini cards and envelopes at A.C. Moore recently during a Midnight Madness sale. They were already die cut; all I had to do was decorate them! I loved the scalloped edge on these green mini cards and thought the scallops would be perfect for piercing. I think I was right!!

I had such fun finding just the right images to feature in the circle windows of these cards. My Button Bits sets from PapertreyInk were perfect! The flower was inked in Versamark and daubed with Cameo Coral chalk. The strip of striped DP is paper pleated. Both sentiments come from Mark's Finest Papers stamp sets.
Challenges for this project:

• Stampin' B's DT Challenge 76, piercing,
• Tuesday Taggers, It takes all sorts,
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday FTTC85, celebration cards (if a congrats card for winning a prize isn't a celebration card, I don't know what is!!),
• Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #18, paper pleating,
• A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge 122, anything goes.
  

I hope you've been inspired to play along with the Stampin' B's!! If you do make a card, post it on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! Thanks for dropping by to check out my little slice of bliss today!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: PTI Everyday Button Bits (apple), PTI Blooming Button Bits (flower), MFP Tweet Blessings (sentiment), MFP Regal & Proud (sentiment)
Paper: studio g mini cards & envelopes, SU DP scrap, SU rose red CS
Ink: Marvy LePlume II brown marker, SU certainly celery, Versamark
Accessories: SU word window punch, SU modern label punch, piercing tool, Stampin' Pastels, sponge dauber, buttons, scoring tool (for paper pleats), dimensionals, alphabet spiral clip
Techniques: piercing, Poppin' Pastels

A Pair of Masculine Cards (and a SNEAK PEEK)

Up until about four months ago, I had never done any watercolor painting. Oh, sure, I had those cheap-o little eight-pot watercolor sets in elementary school, but in retrospect I hardly think that counts. So in March I did my first post-grade-school watercoloring for (what else?) a card challenge. This challenge was for using any kind of paint. Well, aside from poster paint, which hardly belongs on a card, the only kind of paint I had in the house, was--guess what?--a cheap eight-pot watercolor set that belongs to one of my kids. So I used it and rather liked the result, but noticed that the cheap kid watercolor paints are--surprise!--not that great. Plus, painting on regular cardstock is the pits: water soaks in too quickly, the color doesn't soak in uniformly, the paper warps horribly, and the colors don't mix well. So I started asking some questions and two SCS friends with lots of watercolor painting experience came to my aid. I discovered that there actually is paper designed specifically for watercolor painting (watercolor paper, who knew??) and that you could watercolor paint using dye inks (which is great because that I already have, in abundance, and wouldn't require yet another cash outlay for stocking up on all my must-have colors in yet another medium). So I bought a pad of good quality watercolor paper and some sable brushes, and ever since I've been dabbling in the joys of watercoloring.

And I truly mean dabble--I have absolutely no training in this art; I'm just making it up as I go along. I do try to pick up technique tips, mostly by studying the (accomplished) work of others. I need lots of practice, and I'm learning through trial and error. But I've never had such joy in figuring something out as I go along. I am addicted to watercolor painting! It is so relaxing and calming. Every time I watercolor an image, everything else melts away, and I have this deep feeling of satisfaction. Because watercoloring is sort of inexact, it's also rather forgiving. Going "outside the lines" and leaving gaps in the color are part its charm. It goes quickly, looks so artsy, and gives me such a sense of accomplishment. I am in love!

One drawback that I've found with watercolor painting on stamped images, though, is that because good-quality watercolor paper is often highly textured, it can be difficult to get a clean impression on watercolor paper. I've found that deeply etched rubber images usually work best. It's not as easy to get a decent impression with clear photopolymer stamps. It's possible, but sometimes it takes me several stampings to get one that looks good (and I hate to waste expensive watercolor paper!). So I don't watercolor as often as I'd like, but today I figured I was due some watercoloring bliss and indulged in two cards. Woo-hoo!

With my first card, I used a wonderful Repeat Impressions image that I bought recently with a $25 gift certificate I won in the RI What If? Wednesday sketch challenge in May. It shows the Portland Head Light in Maine. We visited this lighthouse two summers ago, and I have a bunch of photos of my parents and kids standing in front of it. I knew this image would be perfect for watercoloring, and since we've actually seen it in person, I had to have it! Recently one of my best friends suggested that if I needed an idea for a birthday card for her son's upcoming ninth birthday, he loves lighthouses. Perfect! So today's card will go to him. I used the current RI What If? Wednesday sketch for this card. I also used this Embellish Magazine challenge:

Now for my second card, I am sneak peeking a Mark's Finest Papers set called Regal & Proud, which will be released in August. Both the mountain image and sentiment come from the Regal & Proud set. I made this masculine congratulations card for today's SCS sketch challenge. Can you believe that I used only one challenge in the making of this card? I know, so very uncharacteristic of me. But I seem to have gotten so wrapped up in making the sketch work with this mountain image I wanted to use, that I forgot about all other possible challenges that I could possibly work in!

I had so much fun with my watercolor painting today. I love how both cards turned out!! My mom loves all things lighthouse, so I'm thinking of [MOM SPOILER ALERT!!] making her a set of lighthouse note cards for Christmas using this RI stamp. I think that will be a lot of fun, and I know it's something she would love, especially if it features a lighthouse she's seen in person!!

Thanks for dropping by today and reading this looooooooooooooooooooong post of mine! If you would like more details about the supplies I used in these cards, please click here for the lighthouse card and here for the Mark's Finest Papers card. See you back here again soon!

Ticket to Summer

Today my DD and DS were so helpful on our trip to the grocery store. They were fabulous about taking turns pushing the grocery cart; they were helpful with adding necessities to our cart; they were polite to one another; they were invaluable when it came time to unload the cart at the checkout counter; and most of all, they were pleasant the entire time! During the school year, I do our grocery shopping while they are both at gymnastics, so they have been out of practice for shopping. After having some issues last week, I was just thrilled with today's improvements. As a treat, I let them pick out a special dessert for just the two of them to share at supper. They chose a tiny (4-inch diameter) decorated cake at the bakery. It was on the day-old rack and rang up at just $1.90. I think they were a little surprised that I agreed! They decided to make it last for two days with half of it for tonight and half of it for tomorrow. It was my turn to be surprised in the car on the way home when they both remembered, out of the blue, to thank me profusely for letting them get the cake. That made my heart sing!!

Later, as I was checking today's daily SCS challenge (Yellow Sunshine), my DD peeked over my shoulder and asked if she could make a card for the challenge, too. She said she knew JUST what she would do with it. Of course, I said sure. Then she asked if she could start her own account on SCS so she could upload it. DS immediately got in on the act, too! So, long story, short: both of my crafting kiddos now have their very own SCS accounts. We spent the afternoon making cards together, and they both posted their very first challenge cards. Consequently, it took me way longer to finish my card and post it, and longer still to get around to my blog post, but we had fun. They were over-the-moon excited to get their first comments! It was the sweetest ever to watch. I'm not sure how they managed to fall asleep tonight. If you want to take a peek at their first SCS uploads, you can click here for DD's card and here for DS's card.

OK, now on to my little slice of happy for the day! I was inspired by the colors in this photo, and used a heavy dose of yellow for the SCS Yellow Sunshine challenge.
I used a Taylored Expressions sketch (#107) from several months ago. I had used it once before, loved it, and saved a copy of the sketch in my stack of "keeper" layouts.

As you can see, I couldn't resist adding another pennant banner to my card! Making these is so fun, and they have a lot of impact. My DD helped me cut out the pennants this time while I was assembling the rest of the card. I'm also having a blast playing around with the raffle tickets I picked up in five different colors at our local Dollar Tree. What a cool addition!

For the supplies used in this card project, please click here. Thanks for sharing in my bliss today!

Soaring By

We're havin' a heat wave {OK, sing along with me now}, a tropical heat wave . . . While I do not enjoy the high temperatures we've been having, I do get a secret little kick out of extreme weather conditions and setting new records and such. Our little digital indoor/outdoor thermometer has a sensor in the shade on our north-facing front porch, and a little while ago it read 101F. That's the first time since we've had this thermometer that it's registered a three-digit temperature reading! It's not an official record or anything but it gives me a good excuse to stay inside in the cool air-conditioning and do a little something that makes me happy.

After the bustle of end-of-school-year activities and "honeymoon" period of summer vacation with the kids, I'm trying to settle back into a routine that includes the Splitcoaststampers daily challenges and others whenever possible. I enjoy them so much and it allows me a little bit of happy time each day! One of today's challenges was a color challenge to use these three colors.

It struck me as an odd combination at first, but I'm glad I tried it because I love the result! I also used this sketch challenge from Card Patterns.

And finally, I needed to decide on a theme for my card. Last month, I won a $25 gift certificate to Repeat Impressions in their WHAT IF? Wednesday sketch challenge. I had so much fun picking out and buying new rubber stamps from their website with my winnings and couldn't wait to use one of my new RI stamps, a cute kite stamp. Using a little pennant banner in cards or scrapbook layouts is really hot right now, and I challenged myself to try one those today, too. Here's the final result. I love how it turned out!

For supplies in this card project, please click here.