Only one day off...

I had such a short weekend. I signed up to work my Saturday off because with the incentive pay added to the overtime, it was too hard to pass it up.  It will help pay for my last order from PapertreyInk since it was a big one. That only left me with today off.  I'll survive.

I have lots of February birthdays in my family and am starting to run a bit low for cards so I wanted to be sure to make some that would work for males or females.  I then decided that an extra Thank You would be handy, too. Both cards are PTI products except for some PP scraps that I used in the Thank You card. 

 Wishing You a Happy Birthday:  I just love the Turning a New Leaf PP and think it makes for some excellent "neutral" type cards (meaning it can be easily turned into a card for a male or female).  I was very pleased at how well the Terracotta Tile color went with the colors in Turning a New Leaf.  I will certainly pair those colors again.
 
Thank You card: I had a single smallish piece of this green and blue plaid PP sitting in a bag of scraps and it was just enough to punch some circles and match it with some Aqua Mist and Spring Moss scraps.  The tree and sentiment are from Through the Trees stamp set and the ribbon is the new narrow silk ribbon that PTI carries then colored with my Copic Marker color YG93.  It came out spectacular!  I am so excited that I can color this ribbon to match anything in which I have a Copic to match!  It was quick and easy to do, too!

I'd love to hear what you think...

 

Close up of the sentiment banner

  

Copic colored ribbon to match!

You've Come A Long Way, Baby!

 

Lily turned 6 months old on Jan 31st and I thought I would post a quick photo showing how far she has come.  She's smiling!  She has cheek bones!  (We couldn't tell because her cheeks are so fat that we were unable to see the underlying bone structure.)

Isn't she adorable?  She may be small for 6 months but she is HUGE compared to where she started!

CPS Challenge

I have decided to join the challenge over at Card Positioning System (CPS).  The sketch is a simple one and I just used it as a jumping off point.  I wanted the primary focus to be the large black bow.  I just love how striking black is against both pink and red so I incorporated all these colors in my card.  I still wanted there to be a heart on it so I made it a dangling tag with the circular sentiment from Simple Valentine from PTI and included a small stamped heart in the center. I also edged the white heart with black PTI Perfect Match ink.  PP is from PTI Pretty Pastels and the red cardstock was from my scrap pile, edged with the EK Success Scalloped Border punch on the red CS and a Martha Stewart edge punch on the PP.  Can NOT  wait until the PTI border dies are released!  Such a clean looking edge they make!

Hope you enjoy:

Don't you just love that big bow?  I do!

Kiss Me!

Worked on 2 cards today.  One is for my hunny, the other is for a very red headed Irish friend that loves all things St. Patrick!  She also loves to get cards from me and I love to oblige.  My hunny likes to get my cards, too, but somehow, it is even more fun when it is a friend that appreciates it.  Why is that? 

The "lips" paper was found at my LSS. I only bought one sheet (12 x 12") because I knew I could get at least 6 cards from it... more if'n I want to.  All cardstock is PTI.  These are both very simple, straight forward cards to make.  No special techniques required.  I made the clover from 4 punches from my Marvey heart punch, attached a brad to hold it together and placed a PTI button over the brad cause I like buttons better!  Both cards were done in well under an hour. 

So, here they are:

 

  

I just love the Martha Stewart punch on the St.Patricia day card.  Don't you?

So, what did you do today?

I Scrapped!

I haven't made a page in ages.  My rediscovery of my love of paper started with scrapbooking and I have abandoned it for far too long.  I finally sat down, grabbed 3 pictures that I knew I wanted to use on a scrapbook page and just plain ole' made myself do it.  I didn't care if it was brilliant, stunning or a work of art.  I just wanted to MAKE one... and I did. 

Of course, I had to make one of Lily.  She is the only Grandchild I haven't scrapped (that is how long it has been). Background paper is from Stampin' Up, accent papers by K& Company and cardstock by PapertreyInk.  It turned out simple and nice.  Just what I was aiming for.  I even did some journaling, something I seldom do.  It is complete, done and in it's storage case. Ta Daaa!

 

Eveeryone, say Hello to Lily.  She was born at 1 lb 12 ozs and 5 months gestation.  She was 15 weeks early and it was very touch and go for a long time.  She came home at over 4 months of age (2 weeks past her original due date) and she is one cute, sweet little girl.  She is doing great.  She had to have laser eye surgery at 6 weeks of age and may have some periferal vision loss and nearsightedness.  She may or may not even need glasses or not for a long time.  Her lungs are still finalizing in maturity and she is now off the oxygen except at night since these pictures were taken.  So far, there doesn't seem to be any neurological or mental impairments but the final jury isn't out yet.  We are very confident that all is well.  She had almost no brain swelling or bleeding on her brain after delivery which can be common in these micropreemies.  She is now smiling and cooing and is a really good baby.  Those nurses trained her well!

Oh, yeah, we kinda like her, too.

..since you've been gone... all that's left is a...

...tired person!  I have been crafting and working, just NOT posting.  "Bout time I fixed that!  Here are several cards for different occasions.  I find that when my mind is in a wandering mood, my cards reflect it, too.  I can't seem to grab on to a style I love or color scheme that pleases me from one day to the next.  I have decided that until the winter drabs pass on by, I will, instead, try my hand at CASE'ing and sketches.  I have rarely turned to sketches as I am just too much of a literalist.  No, really!  I will see a circle and measure it so my circle is exactly the same size.  I know you are supposed to just use a sketch as a starting point but I wind up making EXACTLY what the sketch shows.  How dull is that? 

Anyway, all of the cardstock, most of the PP and buttons and ribbon, stamps and ink are PTI.  The rest is from my stash. All of these were done on different days, different moods, different styles.  I have no favorites at the moment so you decide!  Any of them speak to you?  Any of them say "blechhh"!  It's OK, one or two are definitely not my best nor my worst.

 

  

  

  

  

  

So, anything worth noting?  I think I like the last one the most.  Maybe it's because it is the most suggestive of spring and I really, really want spring to arrive.  Well, and I really love that button bits stamp.

TTFN,

patty

Ted's Color Challenge

Ted is conducting a fun challenge Here.  Create a Valentine Card using an NFL football team's colors!  Oh, so easy when your favorite team uses the colors of a Colorado sunset.  Of course, I mean the Broncos and the blue and orange that bless Colorado's sunset almost nightly.

A fun card to make.  Used the embossing folder from Cuttlebug with the hearts to emboss some PTI kraft card stock, punched out 2 hearts with the Marvey Heart punch and inked with Enchanted Evening ink.  Orange Zest and Enchanted Evening provide the orange and blue cardstock and finished off with the Simple Valentine stamp set using EE ink.  A quick little knot with some more OZ and EE ribbon and bottom edges punched with the large scallop punch from EK Sucess.  What do you think?

On a final sobering note:  The Broncos started out so well and crashed back to earth so very hard and well, there is always next year.

Children's Birthdays and My First Copics

I took the Copic plunge last week and found a very simple stamp set on sale at Michaels.  I figured it would be a good 1st try of using the Copics and not challenge me into never trying them again.  I have used Prisma Pencils in the past and am comfortable with the blending process used with those type of Pencils. I was very much hoping that the worst of my learning curve was behind me. 

It was.  I felt very comfortable using and blending with the Copics.  I have watched several tutorials on youtube (search for Copic tutorial) and found it a pretty easy transition.  Now, I need to take the next step and go for something that requires a bit more skill and more than 4 colors and a blender!

The nice thing about simple stamps and Copics is that they make wonderful focals for Children's cards.  Since I seem to have an abundance of Grandchildren, I am always in need of Birthday cards.  Ta Daaaaa!

Card Number 1

And here is number 2.  Both simple and sweet. just like my perfectly behaved Grandchildren (insert sarcasm icon here)

So, what do you think?  Pretty basic but I was more concerned with using the Copics than the intracacies of the card.

All cardstock, ink and ribbon by Papertreyink
Stamps by Recollections
Scallop punch by Fiskars

Ted's Challenge

I'm a boxaholic.  I know it and can't help it.  Show me a new box template and I'm there... I'm all over it like white on rice.  So, a fellow PTI'er has a little box challenge going on his blog.  See here: Ted's blog challenge
Now how fortuitous is it that Lauren Meader's new web  site is offering a FREE box template here: Lauren's Web Site

So, new template, holiday's over, I'm itching to use pink again... a match made in heaven!  Time for some Valentine treat boxes!  It is a simple box, kind of reminds me of a card deck box but so fun to do your own colors and embellies!

I tucked the lid into the heart embellishment but it will also tuck into the box itself.

The neatest part of all.... I got it as an SVG file so I cut it on my Cricut!  From someone that can not cut a straight one inch line, I am definitely in heaven now!

Supplies:

PP and card stock: PTI

Stamps: PTI

Ribbon: Offray from Joanns

Heart Punch: Marvy Uchida

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop time.

Our challenge this month was to gain inspiration from something related to the recent holidays.  I decided to be inspired by my own work!  I just love the Home Made templates and wound up making 5 of them.  I still have 3 on my living room table, complete with a few trees and assorted Holiday type statues.  Everyone commented on these cute little houses and my grandchildren loved playing with them, continually re-arranging their placement.  Future housing developers, perhaps?

Here they are.

We have a very active Welcome Committee in my neighborhood and I thought I would create a "Welcome" card for whomever our next newest neighbors will be.  I know I would have been thrilled to receive a homemade card along with all the goodies and information I did receive when I moved in 5 years ago.   Using my Houses for inspiration, I came up with this:

 

I am madly in love with Terracotta Tile with Lemon Tart and Vintage Cream papers from PTI.  Just a tiny splash of Spring Moss in the "leaves".  Stamping ink is Terracotta Tile for the window and sentiment and Summer Sunrise for the curtains.  Stamps are Home Made, Polka Dot Basics 2 and Text Style II.  Buttons and ribbon are Terracotta Tile.  It is very rare that I make a card that is purely from one company but this was an easy match.  The Martha Stewart punch is the lone outlier!  This was so fun.

I hope you enjoy it, too!

Homemade for co-worker

One of my co-workers just loved the little houses made with Lauren Meader and Nichole Heady's Home Made products from PTI.  That is all it took for me to decide what her Christmas gift would be!  This is a hard year for her as her mother, withwhom she was very close, died at this time last year.  This has been a rough year for all of us in the lab and hers was compounded by her mother's death.

I sure hope this will bring a needed smile.  Just in case, I also filled it up with Reese Mini Peanut Butter cups wrapped in holiday colors.  Hey, chocolate works.

Here is the front:

And here is the back:

All card stock is from PTI and the pattern paper is from my stash (I never keep track of PP, I have too much).  Velvet ribbon is from Joanns and glitter domes from Paperwishes.com.  The leaves for the wreath and under the windows is from the Martha Stewart punch that is getting quite a work out lately.

Well, off to finish up another house... yes, I am addicted to making these.  I can complete one in less than 2 hours once I have made up my mind what colors I'm using!  The color decisions take the longest.

Everyone, have a Happiest of Holidays and a safe and healthy New Year.

I am having so much fun with the PTI Home Made template.  Here is my growing village!  Don't they just look cute and like I am some expert crafter!  Ha!  They really are easy, especially after the first one.  Very short learning curve.