june papertrey blog hop

 

It is that time of the month again.  And despite my busier schedule, I am happy to be able to participate.  I figure I needed to create a retirement card anyway, so why not use this adorable inspiration photo....
 

 

... along with this sketch....

and this colour combo (well, at least some of the colours).

 

And here is what I came up with... It is for a dear colleague of mine who is retiring from the company after more than 37 years of service.  Yes, 37 years! I am so happy for her and she has fabulous plans of travelling the world on this new phase of her life... hence the airplane!

 

I used various square dies from Papertrey, stamps (Mega Mixed Messages, Framed Out #1 and Little Hot Rod), paper (raspberry fizz, harvest gold and tropical teal), ink (true black, raspberry fizz) and cardstock (true black).  Lately, I find that I cannot create without putting some form of a black accent.  It is not any different with this card.  Love the impact a black colour brings to any project.

Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!
 

may papertrey blog hop: aqua and melon

It's the time of the month again...  Papertrey Ink blog hop.  This month's challenge is a colour challenge using two of my favourites, aqua and melon.  Here is  the inspiration photo...

 
And here is my card...

It had been months since I bought the scribbled circles and this is the first time I am using it.  And now I remember why I love this set so much from the time I first saw it.  It is fun, playful and makes such a statement on cards.  

Aside from that, I also used Papertrey's Leave It Be set and the diagonals cover plate.  I did not yet put a sentiment.  Maybe I will leave it without a sentiment outside and just put one inside.

Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!

 

papertrey ink april blog hop -- embroidered inspiration

It's that time of the month again... Papertrey's monthly blog hop.  This month's challenge is to use colours and design of an embroidery to build our own stamped version.  No stitching required!  And here is the inspiration photo...

I was inspired by the sixth photo above and used the pink and teal colour combo.   Here is my card...

I used Papertrey's Embroidered Blooms set, cardstock (white and hawaiian shores) and ink (raspberry fizz, hibiscus burst, tropical teal, hawaiian shores, simply chartreuse, limeade ice and true black).  The background stamp is from My Creative Time.   I also used my Spellbinders Card Creator dies to cut my front panels.  

Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!

  

daydreamer set

One of my favourite floral sets has got to be Papertrey's Darydreamer set.  I love the various flowers and grass image included in the set.  I had time to play during the last Crop and Create event we attended earlier this month and created this set...

 Aside from Daydreamer, I also used Dawn's sentiment from Boutique Borders.

Here they are together... Something to go to a handmade box again for gift-giving.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

march papertrey blog hop - high gloss

 

It’s that time of the month again…. Papertrey’s Blog Hop!

This time, the challenge is to incorporate anything shiny or high gloss in our paper crafting project.  I was a bit stumped at first since I am not really a “technique” kind of crafter.  All I want is to create clean, simple and pretty projects in as little time as possible.  But thanks to Maile’s inspiration here, I realized I can simply use my glossy accents to create a shiny embellishment.  Here is the photo inspiration for this month…

 And here is my card…

There were 4 things I realized while making this card (which was totally inspired by Dawn’s card here)

-  Leave It Be is a gorgeous and versatile set.  This is the leaf set I have been waiting for!

-  It is my first time trying Fine Linen ink and I love it!  It is a lighter version of kraft and perfect for the non-green leaves I tend to gravitate to.

-  I love open square frames.  They add interest while still leaving a lot of white space.

-  I am okay with CASE-ing or being inspired by other people’s work.  I only have a few hours a week to get crafty so I want to actually spend them creating something rather than being bogged down with coming up with something really original which I may not like in the end.  I prefer to know how my finished work would more or less look like when I’m done.  For me, that is time well spent. 

I used Papertrey’s Leave It Be and Mum’s The Word stamp and die, Slide Frame die, a sentiment from one of the Fillable Frames sets, Hawaiian Shores cardstock and patterned paper and  inks (fine linen, dark chocolate and berry sorbet).

Here is a close up of my glossy frame (tried my best to capture it in the photo). 

I really like how this card turned out.  That card by Dawn was one of the reasons I bought the slide frame die and Leave It Be set.  I cannot wait to try the same design with the other floral sets I have.

Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!

fancy folk art

Time to use one of my NSIB (never seen ink before) sets again.  This time, I pulled out Papertrey's Fancy Folk Art set.  As usual, I made a very clean and simple card set... just some quick stamping and matting and done!

Here they are...  I like  that one image almost completely fills the card base...  makes for a good one layer card. 

Here they are together... As usual, they will go in a handmade box ready for gift giving.

Thanks for stopping by!

another card set

During the Crop and Create event we attended last week (see Aimee's post here), I created a clean and simple set of cards using one of my favourite floral sets, Ruby Rose.  Clean and simple because that is the type of cards I love to do and because there were so many things going on in the event (talking, eating, prize raffle, shopping), that is probably the only kind I could manage to do anyway. 

Here are my cards...  The frame is from Papertrey's Heart Squared die and the stitched rectangle base is from Lil Inker Design.

 
This will be added in my stash of gifts on standby ready for giving.  I just need to make a box to package them.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

pedal pusher

So apparently, I am on a cardmaking roll.  This happened after Craftmates attended a Crop & Create event last weekend (more on that on another post!).  I brought all my neglected sets to the event so I could make something from them.  Pedal Pusher, Papertrey's bike set released months ago, is sadly one of those sets that has never seen ink.  But I changed all that last weekend.  Here is my card set...

Using Hibiscus Burst ink & cardstock

Using Pure Poppy ink & cardstock

Using Hawaiian Shores ink and cardstock

Using Orange Zest ink and cardstock

Here they are together...

Thanks for stopping by! 

garden grace

My Papertrey anniversary order finally arrived last Friday which was perfect as I was able to play with them over the weekend. One of my favourites from the release was the gorgeous Garden Grace set.  I purchased this set because of Dawn's card here.  And so, I made a card set based on that.

Here they are together...

I am more of a scrapbooker than a cardmaker.  But lately, I have been enjoying making cards and realized that:

a) the card style I enjoy making tends to be more of the one layer, clean and simple, white background kind of cards, 

b) I like it more if I make cards as a set (just more fun for me to look at multiples), 

c) I can never have too many floral sets and 

d) the secret to good stamping is a white rubber eraser and a stamp press. 

Thanks for stopping by!

papertrey feb blog hop: sweet spring

 

It's time for Papertrey's blog hop again. This month is all about spring (or the anticipation of spring!). We are challenged to create a spring-themed project.

 When I think of spring, I think of flowers.  So I pulled out my Garden Variety and Year of Flowers sets and my picket fence die to create a set of cards.  Here they are...

I ran the fence through my woodgrain impression plate to give it some texture

And here they are  together...

    
I have been obssessed with the envelope punch lately.  And I came across a tutorial here on how to use it to make a card box.  I used that to package my card set like this...

 
Since the envelope punch board is out, I also tried making smaller sized envelopes which make cute little note holders.  I first die cut my note cards using Lil Inkers' Stitched Rectangle die and stamped them with the little flowers from Tag Its #3.

 Then I created about 20 little envelopes using some double sided patterned papers from my stash.  Such spring-y colours!

The 2.5 x 3.5 note card fits perfectly inside the tiny envelopes.

I used a medium glassine bag to package them up, ready for gift giving.  I used Tag Sale #5 and various blooms and leaves from Rosie Posie, Beautiful Blooms, Embroidered Blooms, Turning a New Leaf and Sending You.

Here they are together...

  Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!