the card yard

Freshly Made Sketches #22

2012-02-17T15:37:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick card this Friday afternoon for the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge! I am about to wrap up some work so I can take the dog for a walk and head out to dinner before my husband leaves for a work trip.

I really enjoyed playing with PTI's Rosie Posie; I held off on buying this for the longest time. At first I wasn't sure that I liked it, but then I kept seeing so many beautiful cards with it that I decided it had to come home to me. I was going for a folk-art inspried theme on this card.

That beautiful sentiment is from WPlus9's Folk Art Florals set. It seemed like the perfect fit for this card!

What do you all have planned for the weekend? I may do some work, but I may also go looking a new cameras since mine seems to be on the fritz; I've also got a Best Buy gift card that I've been itching to use. Any recommendations for cameras?

Another Valentine's Day Card

2012-02-13T10:59:00.000-05:00

Just before dinner last night I was able to sneak away to make this card...I was really itching to use my heart background stamps from WPlus9 with my A Muse Studio inks! I also used some dark pink seam binding ribbon and a Sparklet to embellish the panel of hearts.

Then it all hit me: Valentine's Day is TOMORROW and I haven't even mailed any of these yet! Eek! Part of me wants to bring them all to my grandmother...she loves them. Before she moved to assisted living, she would call to thank me each and every time I sent her a card. Sweet memories...

Have a great Monday, everyone!

Papertrey Ink: Day 6 Sketches, Take 2

2012-02-10T15:44:00.001-05:00

LOL! This card is more "my speed"....so this is my second attempt at the Papertrey Day 6 Sketch Challenge:

And here's my version!

Don't you just love those sparkly Sparklets!? I want them in every color!

Have a great night!

Papertrey Ink Anniversary: Day 6 Sketches

2012-02-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

I'm back with a quick Friday post about my take on this sketch from the PTI contest today. Having just ordered some Ocean Tides cardstock, I was okay with using up my last piece...and I combined it with Spring Moss and Raspberry Fizz, as well as Vintage Cream, to come up with this card:

I had some trouble die cutting the cursive "you" from Wonderful Words because my Cuttlebug is on its way out, but I love how well the mum was cut from Bitty Box Basics paper. And I just love that mum image in the background!

Thanks for stopping by! If there's time later today, I may make another card...but I've got some major cleaning to do around here first!

Ribbon Carousel & Market Street Blog Hop - RCC39

2012-02-08T00:01:00.016-05:00

It's another first at the Ribbon Carousel! We have a special surprise for you this week. We have partnered up with the amazing Market Street Stamps for our weekly challenge AND a 2 day Blog Hop Extravaganza! First let's get to the amazing Blog Hop!

For the next two days, the Market Street Stamps and Ribbon Carousel Designers will be showcasing the amazing stamps from Market Street Stamps and the beautiful ribbons from RibbonCarousel.com. And of course, we're giving away some AMAZING prizes!

Here are all the Blog Hop details:

What: Market Street Stamps and Ribbon Carousel Blog Hop!
When: Tuesday, February 7 through Monday, February 13 11:59pm EST
Where: Market Street Stamps Blog and Ribbon Carousel Blog
How: Start the blog hop at either the Market Street Stamps blog or Ribbon Carousel blog. Visit each of the designers blogs featured on both days, Tuesday and Wednesday. When you have completed the Blog Hop, leave your name on the Inlinkz on either the Market Street Stamps Blog or the Ribbon Carousel Blog. You have until NEXT MONDAY, February 13 at 11:59pm EST to complete the entire hop.

3 Prizes for 3 winners: We’re giving away Two $25 Gift Certificates to the Market Street Stamps store and a brand new Ribbon Carousel!

Now, with all of this going on, we thought we better make this week’s challenge an easy one, so..Anything Goes!

You know the drill to enter our challenges, right?! Make a creation using anything that comes on a spool somewhere on your project, and enter for a chance to be one of our TOP SPOOLS!

Here is my card using the fantastic Birds of a Feather stamp set from Market Street Stamps, which I am loving for paper piecing and coloring these days:

I stamped the images in Memento black ink and colored the hearts with a Copic marker before cutting the image out from some Echo Park patterned paper. The ribbon is the dark pink seam binding ribbon from the RCC store, where you can also find those Sparklets.

Be sure to hop on over to the rest of today’s blog hop participants!

Ahhh...nice change from all the CAS lately...getting back to my old self! Have a great day!

My D.C. Getaway

2012-02-07T20:22:00.000-05:00

Warning! This is a LONG post gushing with craftiness!

Last week I went to D.C. to attend a meeting for work, but I extended the trip to visit several crafty friends while I was there. I lived in D.C. after grad school at an apartment building that was adjacent to an AC Moore...I was in there all the time looking for ideas for my wedding and one very lucky night I got "picked up" by two women...

I stopped them in the aisle because they looked like they knew what they were doing, and I was clueless and wanted more info on heat embossing. They told me all about it: that if I didn't want to buy a heat gun I could go home and try it out over the toaster...and then they gave me their phone number and an invitation to join them at their stamping get-togethers on Tuesday nights.

I went home and heat embossed for the first time over the toaster and was hooked immediately! I also tried the hair dryer but that didn't work as well. I knew right away that I would be going to meet them the next Tuesday; Eric thought I was crazy and kept asking, "How do you know they're not mass murderers?" The rest is history...

When I moved back to Massachusetts, I didn't have any crafty friends and eventually that led me to the online crafty world of Papertrey Ink and blogging; lucky for me, I was able to mix in some PTI fun on my trip as well. I'll start with that since it happened first.

On Thursday night, I had the great fortune of meeting up with Melissa, Jenn, Sue Ann, and Cheryl (right to left) in D.C. at a fabulous tapas restaurant named Jaleo. I had met both Melissa and Cheryl at Stamp-A-Faire last summer, but it was my first time meeting Jenn and Sue Ann. I had the BEST time! They're all such amazing people and I am touched that they made the effort to join me for dinner, especially on a weeknight. Melissa was so sweet to plan this get-together:

After my meeting on Friday (still reeling from my dinner with these ladies the night before), Peggy picked me up at the hotel and we drive to her house. (Peggy is one of the two women that I met in AC Moore that day.) When I tell you that her house was chock full of crafty eye candy, I am not kidding. The whole house was decorated for Valentine's Day, including the bathrooms and the kitchen! I snapped some shots of some of the fun stuff that I saw while I was there. I didn't want to get carried away and risk scaring Peggy with my obsession:

We spent Friday night packing for the BIG day on Saturday, when we would travel to Diane's house, the location of our famous Tuesday night stamping. Diane is the other woman who was with Peggy in AC Moore; together they are responsible for this addiction I have! LOL!

Diane's house was also decorated beautifully for Valentine's Day. Here is a quilt that she made:

And here is the adorable tablescape she made for our lunch:

We stamped in Diane's new stamp room, which is just awesome. It was my first time seeing it and it's amazing. It had so much space for us spread out and work all day...nearly 12 hours! Here's a photo of me with Peggy and Diane (many thanks to Leslie for sharing these!):

Here we are hard at work! From left to right we have Peggy, Kay, Diane, Chris and me...Leslie took the photo.

I'm not bragging but when you can score 36 yards of redline tape for $5, it's worth celebrating! :) Here's Kay with her roll:

I caught Peggy off guard but she was hard at work...she means business and stamped WAY many more projects than any of us that day!

And here is Leslie...she is new to this and sat in awe of everything. She really made me laugh...she reminds me SO much of myself during my early visits to Diane's house!

You're probably wondering what I made all day! There were about 12 things by the time we wrapped up around 10:30PM, but here are some shots of my favorite projects that day. I kept things CAS and colored a LOT with Tombow markers, using lots of SU! stamps. It was really fun being there and getting to use so many products that I don't own myself!

Phew! I am tired just writing it all up, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat! I just love my crafty friends and am so thankful for them and for the memory of this awesome weekend!
If you're curious to know about any of the products I used on these cards, please feel free to email me at cardyard77 at gmail dot com.

Have a GREAT night!

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Day 2: Free Downloads

2012-02-06T22:47:00.000-05:00

I am back with a super quick post for Day 2 of Papertrey Ink's Anniversary Celebration. Today we received a free dowload containing several digi images, so I printed some of them directly onto some cardstock that was available at the office and did my best with some CAS designs. The one above was stamped with an A Muse Studio sentiment and glittered slightly before adding some twine, and the one below was colored with Copics and Prisma pencils before adding more glitter:

This one was SUPER easy, using the Wonderful Words diecut:

And lastly we have one that was colored with Prismacolor pencils and glittered before stamping the grass from Hanging Out in Grass ink from A Muse Studio and adding the twine:

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great night!

PTI anniversary day 1: favorite things

2012-02-05T19:42:00.000-05:00

I am back from my trip to D.C. with a card that I made for the Papertrey Ink 5th Anniversary celebration. The task was to create a new project inspired by one of the design team's favorites, as described in this post by Nichole Heady.

I chose Lisa Johnson's favorite project for inspiration because when I think back on my crafty year, the absolute highlight for me was my trip to PTI's Stamp-a-faire in Ohio, where I had the chance to meet Lisa and talk to her in great length. Her optimism, strength and encouragement know no bounds, and her inspirational joie de vivre was the absolute highlight of the day.

I used the layout of her card as my inspiration because I wanted to make something using two of my favorite PTI colors: summer sunrise and raspberry fizz. The Life stamp set was designed by Lisa and seemed like a natural choice for a card dedicated to her:

I heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing power, and added the glitter stripes using two different widths of redline tape. I also glittered the flowers in the focal point for maximum bling effect! :) I wish I could have taken a photo of this during the day so you could see it better, but this entry is due by 7am tomorrow!

Lisa (if by some fat chance you are reading this), know that this Boston girl missed a chunk of the Superbowl to make this card...that's how much you've impacted me!

If there's anything my crafty weekend in D.C. made me realize, it's that the endless creativity of the DT has inspired an army of stampers to bond and make friendships based on the fun we have using our goodies...and for that I can't thank you enough!
Happy Superbowl!

12 kits of christmas: january with renee

2012-01-31T00:01:00.020-05:00

I am really excited to be telling you about a new group some of us formed just before Christmas. I was emailing with Renee about how sad I was that I didn't get to use all my new Christmas supplies this year. We came up with "The 12 Kits of Christmas" as a way of being better prepared for Christmas next year by making holiday cards year-round. Actually, the "strategy" was all Renee's idea because she is in another group with a similar game-plan.

Here's how it works: There are 12 of us, and each person takes turn hosting the challenge each month by mailing to each of the other group members a kit full of supplies - stamped images, patterned papers, bling, ribbon, etc. Any company, any style...it's all up to the hostess that month. Everybody in the group receives the SAME kit of ingredients, and each of us makes a card (or several cards) in secret using those supplies. On the last day of the month, we all post our creations...the fun is seeing what everyone else made with the same ingredients. We are allowed to supplement the kits with supplies from our own stash, but when I do that I will point it out to you.

This month's hostess is Renee Lynch, and here is a shot of the haul we were sent...her arm must have been killing her from having to crank so many diecuts! Honestly, the amount of stuff she sent us was amazing:

I'm off to a great start for next Christmas. I made a total of five cards with Renee's kit and I could have made more if I hadn't gotten so tired! I'll start with my two favorites; one is totally "my style," and the other is more CAS:

On the next card, I added the sparkle paper from SU! as well as the sentiment from A Muse Studio, which was stamped in PTI Pure Poppy:

I don't know where Renee got the mirror paper, but is awesome!

That red polka dot paper was mine, too. It's from October Afternoon's Holiday Style line. I also added the embossed Santa image from Memory Box through the window:

Here you can see some of my coloring on that cute bird from Memory Box. I used Prismacolor pencils with gamsol:

Here is a list of everyone else in our group. Have fun hopping around and seeing our creations!

Cathy: Empty Nest Crafter

Joyce: Cards-by-the-Sea

Kim: Cupcakes Cards and Kim

Amy: Stamp-n-Paradise

Kara: K and R Designs

Sharron: On Papillion Wings

Marybeth: Marybeth's Time for Paper

Jeanne: A Kept Life

Jessica: The Paper Parade

Christina: Sea Glass & Sentiments

Renee: It's A Patchwork Life

As for me? You may not hear from me for a little while. I am going to be traveling for a few days for work, but I'll also be catching up with a couple groups of crafty friends while I'm there. Hopefully I get some fun pics to share when I return!

Have a great week!

freshly made sketches & a muse studio peeks

2012-01-28T13:16:00.000-05:00

I love playing along with Freshly Made Sketches, and today's card is one that I made for tomorrow's local gathering of A Muse Studio Creative Consultants. I am really looking forward to this because it'll give me a much needed break from work and because I really am hoping to get some great ideas from these talented ladies!

This card features two new products from A Muse Studio: the new color called Burano and the new stamp set called Floral Duet. I love them both!

I added glitter to the flowers and mounted everything on Bermuda blue cardstock, also from A Muse. Those sparklers are from Kaiser and they can be found online at Ribbon Carousel.

The new A Muse Studio catalog is being released on February 1, and I am excited to see what other goodies they have in store for us since I haven't gotten mine in the mail yet. If you ever have any questions about A Muse, please feel free to contact me anytime. :)

Happy Saturday!

introducing the amazing new ribbon carousel!

2012-01-27T20:38:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! Today is a big day at RibbonCarousel.com. They are debuting the brand new Ribbon Carousel© today and, of course, doing a giveaway on their Blog too! Here are the details:

The Ribbon Carousel© is made out of white marine board plastic (high density polyethylene), giving it a textured top with smooth scrolled edges. Each Carousel comes with 8 clear acrylic rods allowing for many different configurations. You can use it as a 4, 5, 6 or 8 post Carousel, depending upon your individual needs.

The Ribbon Carousel© holds up to 60 rolls of 3/8" ribbon using 4 rods, 40 Wooden Spools or 16 spools of your favorite Baker's Twine using 8 rods. It SPINS around on a lazy susan, allowing you to access your ribbon and twine easily! This easy-to-use organizer is compact, with a footprint less than 7" square on your workspace. The Ribbon Carousel© holds ribbon spools of any size up to a 4" diameter. Minimal assembly required.

To use: Simply unscrew the knob on top of the Ribbon Carousel©. Remove the top and place your spools on the posts as desired. Replace the top by lining up the rods to the holes in the underside of the top. Replace the knob to secure the Ribbon Carousel.

Specifications: Each Ribbon Carousel© is approximately 6.85" square and 13.5" tall. The manufacturing and assembly of each Ribbon Carousel© is in Washington State, USA.

Now head on over to the Ribbon Carousel Blog or Facebook page to be entered in our Giveaway!

I'm hosting this week's ribbon carousel challenge!

2012-01-24T00:01:00.004-05:00

This week, we’re changing things up in a non-traditional kinda way! I challenged everyone to use non-traditional colors for their creations. Making a valentine card? How about NOT using red or pink, or not too much of it anyways? Creating a gorgeous winter scene? Try it with creams instead of whites. Whatever you’re making….try a non-traditional palate!

So, what else can we do in a non-traditional manner this week? How about a JOINT challenge (one challenge, two sponsors on two challenge sites = twice as many chances to win) with our amazing sponsor this week, the fabulous Paper and Such!

Paper and Such will be giving one lucky randomly drawn participant a $15 gift certificate to their store, which sells their own line of stamps as well as patterned papers and other fabulous crafting goodies...fun fun fun!

RibbonCarousel.com is sponsoring their challenge this week, so there is twice as much inspiration and twice as many chances to win! And yes, you can enter your creation here AND at the Paper and Such challenge.

I decided to make a non-traditional Valentine's Day card this week:

There are boatloads of goodies on here from Ribbon Carousel, including the lace ribbon, the twine and the stick pins {{swoon}}! Please see below for a list of the other supplies... and have a great day!

Supplies: Stamps: WPlus9 (Love You More); Paper: Jillibean Soup; Ink: A Muse Studio (French Roast); Other: PTI felt, heart dies from PTI and WPlus9, ribbon, twine, stick pins from Ribbon Carousel.

freshly made sketches #18

2012-01-21T11:29:00.000-05:00

I've got a fresh and clean card for the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge this week. Here is the inspiration photo:

And here is my take on the challenge:

I used A Muse Studio inks in Currant and Eucalyptus on these WPlus9 stamps, and the patterened paper is from Echo Park. That fantastic shimmer cardstock is from SU!; it was trimmed with a rik rac die from A Muse. It all came together pretty quickly with the help of that sketch - you've gotta check this challenge blog out.

The truth is that this card almost "didn't make it!" I had a huge collapse of my photo setup last night that left a few dents in the wood floor and in the card...so I gave up and got up this morning to try again. Now it's snowing and I am about to head back to work...have a fun day!

2012 Valentine's Day Card Drive

2012-01-19T11:09:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to let you all know about a really awesome card drive that is going on through the end of this month. Winter Sims is collecting cards for St. Jude Hospital, Vanderbilt, Texas Children's Hospital, and St. Louis Children's Hospital.

I stamped a stack last weekend and I am hoping to mail them off by Saturday:

It would be great if you could participate too! Please be sure to read the list of guidelines found in this post, which is also where you can find the mailing address. Winter is giving away prizes that have been generously donated by many companies; if you would like to donate too, please contact her at wintersims1 at aol dot com.

mojo monday #224

2012-01-18T10:04:00.000-05:00

I whipped a card up in a jiffy last night before bed for the Mojo Monday Challenge this week:

Using my Crate Paper designer paper, and a Jenni Bowlin stamp that I picked up at my LSS a while ago, here's what I came up with:

The image was stamped in black ink from A Muse Studio; that's also where I got the sentiment stamp...in their Essential Sentiment collection. I love the font on that one. The seam binding ribbon is from my friend, Renee, and the button is from SU!. Those awesome star stickpins are made by Maya Road, but I bought them from Ribbon Carousel. The bling is from Hero Arts.

I love the colors of these papers! My paper pack is nearly gone now. Hope you are having a great week! We're halfway through!

an intermission of sorts

2012-01-15T21:47:00.001-05:00

It has been a little bit of an overwhelming week, mostly because we lost heat for a couple of days, it snowed, and my husband has been away for over 2 weeks. I am still trying to catch up, so I just wanted to pop in and say hi and share a few happy photos from the last few days. They're all of Teddy, of course:

"Why all the confusion around here?"

"I'm just gonna sit here and do this until you figure it out."

"I liked it better before I had static electricity problems."

Hope you're having a fun weekend! I hope to be back with some crafty stuff soon. Many thanks to my little buddy for keeping me company and making me smile when I needed it most this week. I showered him with a couple extra treats tonight as a thank you. :)

ribbon carousel challenge #35

2012-01-10T00:01:00.006-05:00

It's time for another Ribbon Carousel Challenge! This week's hostess is the fabulous Laurel Seabrook, who issued this photo inspiration challenge:

Our sponsor this week is Whimsie Doodles, who is so excited to be sponsoring the new challenge! In March of 2009 Melyssa Connolly, artist and owner, began turning her whimsical hand-drawn images into digital files for sale online. Whimsie Doodles' digital stamp line features images that range from cute little boys and girls, to punny stuff, and everything in-between. We enjoy sharing lots of samples on our company blog, where we also post challenges and tutorials.

We are huge fans of Melyssa at the RCC because she is the designer of the carousel in our logo! The prize this week is One (1) winner will receive a $10 Gift Certificate to the Whimsie Doodles Online Store.

I decided to use the colors from the inspiration photo paired with their Cut Out for You digi image to make a Valentine's Day card:

That amazing ribbon is the brown sheer two-tone ribbon, which can be found in the Ribbon Carousel store. It is so beautiful! I love how it pairs with their cream jute twine, too.

Hopefully, Laurel's photo inspires you to play along with us this week...And just for participating, Whimsie Doodles is giving a special offer to you! Use the discount code (Ribbonrocks) at the Whimsie Doodles online store and receive 10% off your next order! Code is good until February 8, 2012. Your creation can be anything from cards, quilts, sewn items, paper crafts, paintings! Just be sure to have ribbon, bakers twine, jute twine, lace, thread (basically anything that comes on a spool).

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps: Whimsie Doodle; Paper: SU! (crumb cake), PTI (vintage cream), PP by October Afternoon (Farmhouse Collection); Ink: PTI chamomile ink; Other: SU! corduroy button, ribbon from Ribbon Carousel, corner chomper, mini clothespins, Copics

Lucy's sketch week: day 5 & inspiration

2012-01-08T20:09:00.001-05:00

I am back (a little bit late) with a quick post for the final day of Lucy's Sketch Week...and here it is:

And here's my card, using Crate Paper papers, a sentiment from A Muse Studio and two Jenni Bowlin butterflies...I chose the butterflies because they were inspired by Lucy's Inspiration Week Day 2 photo...I am posting this too late for the Day 5 sketch, which is very similar to one earlier this week:

That's all! Off to make some more fun stuff. Hope you had a great weekend!

Lucy's sketch week: day 4

2012-01-05T09:43:00.002-05:00

YAY for Day 4 of Lucy's Sketch Week! I think this sketch is my favorite of them all:

I started off with some patterned paper from October Afternoon's Farmhouse collection, as well as the Love Birds and A Pocketful stamp sets from WPlus9 to come up with this card for today:

The house was created using the small pocket stamp and die from WPlus9, and the sentiment was created using letter stickers from Echo Park's A Walk in the Park collection. All the edges were distressed with PTI's Chamomile Tea Dye ink, but the bird was stamped in A Muse Studio Cranberry; the house was stamped in a dark brown SU! color that I borrowed from Jessica (thank you, Jessica!). The cork paper was trimmed with my paper trimmer and handcut to make the upside down pocket look like a house:

Lastly, I used a small circle punch from SU! to punch out the brown cardstock piece to make a "door" for the birdhouse. Cute, I think!

Well, off to do more work now! Have a great day!

lucy's sketch week: day 3

2012-01-03T09:12:00.001-05:00

Here is another card for Lucy's Sketch Week: Day 3! Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on this sketch, using more Crate Paper Papers and a sentiment stamp from WPlus9's Sweet Nothings set, as well as their cloud dies and stamps from Heartfelt Mix:

I used A Muse Studio inks in latte and cranberry on this card, in addition to the crumb cake cardstock base from SU!.

So far, this is my favorite of all the sketches! Can't wait to make something for Days 4 and 5. :)

Lucy's sketch week: day 2

2012-01-02T21:49:00.001-05:00

I am back with another card for Lucy Abram's Sketch Week; this time for Day #2. Here is the sketch:

And here is what I came up with using some WPlus9 stamps, which are quickly becoming my favorite!

The card base is an amazing shade of gray from American Crafts. I used the Love Birds dies to mask the birds images when I was stamping the BB: Hearts images in Winter Sky A Muse Studio ink, then the birds and sentiment were stamped in Cranberry ink, also from A Muse Studio. The clothesline image, from Heartfelt Mix, was stamped in Slate (a|s studio), and the twine is from The Twinery.

All in all, a pretty easy and FUN card to make!

Hope you all enjoyed your day. I go back to work tomorrow...I am certainly going to miss all the days off, yummy foods, and family time. {sigh.}

Lucy's sketch week: day 1

2012-01-02T10:25:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend! I found lots of time to craft this weekend, among other things, so I am here today to share with you the first of a few cards that I have made for Lucy Abram's Sketch Week. I really admire Lucy's work, and her sketches are very clean and simple, which is a little out of my comfort zone; therefore, I thought it would make for the perfect start to the new year, trying something new. Here is the Day 1 Sketch:

Here is my take on the sketch...I used patterned papers from the Crate Paper "Paper Heart" collection, along with this really adorable image from Memory Box. I have actually had him for months and months but it was a stroke of luck that led me to finding the coordinating die in my LSS this past weekend! The sentiment is from WPlus9's collection called "Love You More," and I tinted parts of the elephant's body using a Copic marker.

That's all for today! I am off to take down the Christmas decorations and to do some laundry. Enjoy the day!

a year in review: 2011

2011-12-30T10:46:00.002-05:00

ETA: Adding some text to explain why I chose each card...thought it would be a nice touch. :)

2011 has been a very fun year in papercrafting for me. I have made some amazing new friends and I was able to post a lot more often here on the blog. I am still thinking about goals for 2012, but posting even more here on the blog is surely one of them.

I decided to play along in the Year in Review Blog Hop that's going on right now, featuring my favorite projects of each month over the last year:

January
This card was made using flowers that I cut out from someone else's Christmas card. It was a pretty swanky card that was sent from one of my husband's political colleagues; I chose this card because of the joy I feel knowing those political days are behind us now.

February

I cased this card by Melissa Phillips, so I can't take credit for the design, but I chose it because I *love* the patterned paper and because it was one of the first cards I made using my sewing machine, this year's Valentine's Day gift from my husband. 2011 will be remembered as the year I truly fell head over heels for patterned paper and for sewing on cards.

March
This card stood out because of the message of "HOPE" in the patterned paper and because I love those stick pins.

April
The card I made for my Dad for Father's Day...I love my dad...so why not choose this one?

May
I was so touched when Christina MacLaren gave me a set of crocheted flowers that she made herself. They're beautiful, aren't they?!

June
I never would have thought I could come up with something CAS, but I just loved how this one turned out.

July
I chose this card as a reminder of the awesome online Summer Card Camp that I took this year.

August
So pretty and feminine...I don't use pastel colors often, but with the pinwheel die from Lil' Inkers, it just seemed right.

September
This card stood out mostly because of my love for the Jenni Bowlin ivory flower embellishments, but also because it was my first time trying Verve stamps. The Crate Paper paper looks awesome too.

October
I had to feature a card using A Muse Studio products, to mark 2011 as the year I joined A Muse Studio as a consultant. It has been a lot of fun, and I am still trying to figure out how far I can grow with that in 2012.

November
I love Lisa Johnson and I love this stamp set that she designed. And I love the colors in the patterned paper. I had high hopes for papercrafting this Christmas, and those were thwarted around Thanksgiving when my grandmother had some medical issues. This made it tough for me to use so much of what I had bought for Christmas projects this year, but everything is now neatly packed away for the 2012 holiday season.

December
I love this card for so many reasons. Dawn at WPlus9 featured it on her blog, which was an exciting honor for me, and it was the card I gave my mom this year. I love the entire In the Meadow set from Papertrey probably more than any other stamp set I own, but paired with Winter Wishes from WPlus9 this card came together so well, I can only atribute it to pure magic. My mom loved it so much that she turned around and requested 75 of them for her holiday card for next year...I am still hunting for more of those rhinestone snowflakes, but Two Peas received quite the order from me for Basic Grey Nordic Holiday papers last week. LOL!

This was really fun for me to do. I enjoyed seeing how my style has differed over the last year, and how my photography skills improved, if ever so slightly. Maybe that's something to work on even more in 2012.
What are your plans for New Year's Eve? Eric and I are going out for dinner, and I will probably go to see my grandmother with Teddy.

Happy New Year, everyone!

wplus9 winter card

2011-12-22T10:02:00.001-05:00

I admit to using a Valentine's stamp set to make this holiday card! If you look closely you'll see that the trees are the hearts found in WPlus9's Heartfelt Mix stamp set...and the ground and the stumps are the clothesline and clothespin images, respectively, from the same set! The sentiment comes from their Winter Wishes collection.

I stamped the images using A Muse Studio inks in Grass and Nutmeg; the sentiment was stamped using Raspberry Fizz from PTI. The patterned papers are from October Afternoon's Holiday Style line and Bitty Box Basics from PTI (top pink edge). I added the rhinestones and twine and called it a night!

As Christmas gets closer I am kind of sad that I will have to put away all my holiday stuff, but happy that my Heartfelt Mix will still be used as we get closer to Valentine's Day.

I hope all your holiday preparations are coming together smoothly and that you have a wonderful time this weekend with your family and friends!

Merry Christmas, crafty friends!

2011-12-19T10:37:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to share a card that I made with all of my crafty friends in mind, and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year! I can't tell you how happy it makes me that you visit this blog and leave me such sweet notes, and for that I thank you! You're all so good to me!

Special thanks to all the members of the Ribbon Carousel DT, who have warmly welcomed me with open arms this year... You're all an inspiration and you make me laugh each and every day. To Jessica, Christina, Renee and all the other Paper Dolls: you're all the BEST and I'm so glad I have met you! Love you all and wish you all the best in 2012!

For this card, I used Cosmo Cricket's Mitten Weather paper and SU!'s new set called Bright Hopes, as well as a gorgeous flourish die from MFT. The ribbon is the Red/Ivory Check ribbon by May Arts, sold at Ribbon Carousel:

The red rhinestones are Swarovski Jolee's Jewels and they have to be attached with glue, which is kind of a pain, but the extra sparkle is SO worth the effort. And I have to find more of those snowflake rhinestones from Memory Box because I love them! There is no such thing as too much bling.

Pretty much all of the cards have been mailed and now I am entering cookie baking mode, so if you have any recipes you'd love to share, I'd love to have 'em. :)

Supplies: Stamps: SU! (Bright Hopes); Paper: Bazzill (Red), Cosmo Cricket (Mitten Weather), PTI (Vintage Cream); Ink: A Muse Studio (Cherry & Evergreen), PTI (chammomile tea dye); Other: Jolees Jewels (red Swarovskis), Memory Box snowflake rhinestone, PTI Mat Stack & banner dies, sewing machine, Gingham Ribbon, MFT (Flourish die)

ribbon carousel sale!

2011-12-16T22:44:00.000-05:00

Big news!

The 8-Post Ribbon Carousel is on sale BIGTIME this weekend for $47.95...normally it's priced at $80 so I just placed my order. I've convinced myself that it's my Christmas gift to me from the dog. LOL!

What is the Ribbon Carousel? Check it out:

Maybe your New Year's resolution is to clean up all the loose ribbon you've collected over the years or to organize your craft room so you can actually see all of your supplies. Then this is perfect! I can't wait to wrap all my twine on it. I love that it's fairly narrow at about 7 inches square, so it won't take up much space. You'll probably want to pick up some wooden spools as well as some Valentine's ribbon while you're at it.

Corinna swears that this is the lowest she'll ever price these Carousels... ;) and the sale ends Sunday night.

I'll post pics of mine after I set it up. :)

Ok. Back to making my Christmas cards. I've been going for nearly 8 hours today...

RCC #33

2011-12-13T00:01:00.005-05:00

Danielle Daws, one of our resident CAS geniuses, is challenging you to use some twine on your creation this week! Any kind of twine is fine, just be sure to add some to your creation!

Who better to sponsor a twine challenge than Whisker Graphics Divine Twine?! One lucky random participant in this week's challenge, which will run for 2 weeks, will win their choice of 2 spools of twine.
Here is what I came up with this week, using Oyster Baker's Twine from Whisker Graphics, sold here at Ribbon Carousel:

I {LoVe} this Nordic Holiday paper from Basic Grey! I paired it with images from two different stamps sets: In the Meadow from Papertrey Ink (tree, sled) and Winter Wishes (medallion, sentiment) from WPlus9. I stamped the medallion from Winter Wishes in VersaMark without masking the tree because I wanted it to look like the tree itself was glowing rather than having the medallion look like a sunrise or sunset behind the tree. Plus, I really wanted the detail of the stamp to be seen.

The Swiss dots embossing folder from Cuttlebug is one of my favorite crafting supplies and it really helped to give some dimension to the vellum on this card. The remaining images were stamped using A Muse Studio inks in Cranberry and Eucalyptus.

Hopefully you can find some time to relax and make something twiney for this week's challenge - we'd love to have you! For all the details, please visit the Ribbon Carousel Challenge Blog here.

Supplies: Stamps: In the Meadow (PTI), Winter Wishes (WPlus9); Paper: Nordic Holiday (Basic Greay), red cardstock (SU!); Ink: Versamark, Cranberry & Eucalyptus (A Muse Studio); Other: Oyster Twine, Mat Stack, In the Meadow, and Snow Drift Dies (PTI), snowflake rhinestone (Memory Box), Janome Sew Mini

WMSC #77

2011-12-10T12:19:00.000-05:00

Today I am playing along in the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge using a WMS image from their 2011 Holiday Ornaments stamp set.

I diecut the tree from some Crate Paper holiday paper using an A Muse Studio die, and then I layered the tree over a piece of vellum that was embossed with Papertrey's polka dot impression plate and then attached it all to a piece of Sugar shimmer cardstock from A Muse Studio.

I wrapped some red baker's twine at the top and then stamped and embossed the sentiment at the bottom. Lastly, added some Swarovski rhinestones for maximum *bling* effect!

I might be making more of these - it was so easy! Thanks for stopping by my blog - I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

shadow box decoration

2011-12-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting any Three for Thursday yesterday. I have been busy working on this project for my grandmother, who we call Nonna Nina. She has Alzheimer's and is moving to assisted living this weekend. My mom found some old photos at her house and asked me to make something for the 8x10" shadow box that hangs outside her new place, so I got to work. :)

This is first scrapbook-like thing I have ever worked on, and it took a tremendous amount of time. Choosing the photos alone was difficult because I didn't want to cut them up too much, but I also wanted to display a good balance of the people in Nonna's life. And thus, I have a new respect for scrapbookers. I swear I could have made all my Christmas cards in the time it took me to do this...but it was so worth it. I love how this came out.

All of the papers are from Echo Park's Country Drive collection, with some add-ons (like the corner stickers) from A Walk in the Park. Their papers are so beautiful. I chose them because the color scheme is bright and cheery, and because my Nonna loves these colors.

All the stamping for this project was done using Papertrey Ink's Love Lives Here set, along with the coordinating die cuts. The houses were stamped using Pebble and Blush ink from A Muse Studio. I think glittered some Raspberry Fizz cardstock and attached it to the back of each house so the hearts would show through the little windows. I cut some extra hearts for the top of the page as well; I love how the glitter tones down the boldness of the Raspberry Fizz cardstock. I also diecut some clouds using PTI's cloud dies; I used their Vintage Cream cardstock and dry embossed them with the Linen impression plate.

In case your wondering, I chose these three photos because the top photo is a picture of Nonna with my grandfather, Nonno. The photo on the bottom right is a shot of her with my mom and her two brothers. The photo on the bottom left is a photo of Nonna (back row, in the middle) with her mom and sisters and a niece - and that's me in my great-grandmother's, Nonna Santa's, lap. :)

christmas decorating at home

2011-12-05T08:53:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of quick shots of my Christmas decorating at home this weekend. If you've seen these on Facebook already, sorry to overload you...but I am just so happy about how it all came out this year.

It's the first time I have decorated the stairs. I made these using supplies from Michael's; I got the idea for these from Pinterest:

We put up a real Christmas tree this year. I think part of me needed the extra Christmas "boost" of the scent of a tree when I get home at night; my heart can be heavy after visiting Nonna after work.

Every year I buy more ornaments for the tree; this year I was able to add the CUTEST knit wool sweater ornaments in a variety of colors and I just love them. If you look closely you might be able to see them. The fake tree is too tall for the star topper, which was a gift from my mom, and we don't use the garland because it's embellished with pine cones and berries...so I love how this real tree came out this year because I could use some things we haven't seen in a while. And it smells so wonderful!

If only I could be as productive making my Christmas cards...

waltzingmouse christmas tag challenge

2011-12-03T22:27:00.001-05:00

I am back from my very fun crafty get-together with Jessica Davis and Christina MacLaren where I made a tag for the Waltzingmouse Christmas Tag Challenge....cross your fingers that I am the randomly selected winner of the awesome prize for this one {{pretty please}}!

I used some prestamped ornament die cuts that Renee Lynch made for me using Santa's Coming to Town...isn't this such a gorgeous stamp? I normally don't go for vintage-style images, but this really is beautiful. I am glad it pairs well with the October Afternoon Holiday Style paper too:

I mounted everything on a pink tag diecute from A Muse Studio paper, which was then dry embossed with a snowflake Cuttlebug folder. I finished it all off with some A Muse Studio rhinestones, SU! hat pins, this beautiful ribbon and this twine from Ribbon Carousel...and if you haven't tried the Bow Easy for making your bows, you should. It saves me so much time because I don't have to fuss with the ribbon at all.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend so far...tomorrow my goal is to put up the Christmas tree!

three for thursday

2011-12-01T10:03:00.000-05:00

I am getting the hang of making cards with chipboard and stickers after last night's crafting session, so here are three of my creations using Echo Park's Season's Greetings Collection:

The cardstock bases are Vintage Cream from Papertrey Ink and the bells and seam binding ribbon were a wonderful present from Renee, but you can find the bells at pretty much any craft store and Ribbon Carousel sells seam binding ribbon as well. The red bling is from Recollections and the red twine is from Ribbon Carousel.

The red and green plaid is one of my most favorite papers ever! I added some gold Martha Stewart glitter to the stars on top of the trees on this next card:

That's it for today! How are your Christmas cards coming along? I am hoping to get way more done this Saturday at a get-together with Jessica Davis and Christina MacLaren...I absolutely cannot wait!

ribbon carousel challenge #31

2011-11-29T00:01:00.003-05:00

For this week's Ribbon Carousel Challenge, Stephanie Muzzulin is challenging you to Color our World! Neutrals can always be used, but be sure to keep with Stephanie’s palette of Kraft, Red and Brown as your inspiration.

This week we are honored to have The Greeting Farm back as our sponsor! The Greeting Farm will be giving one lucky random winner a choice of 4x6 rubber stamp set or one of their fabulous new clear acrylic stamp sets!

For my card this week, I used one of the Greeting Farm's digi images - they really are so very adorable. I tried my hand at coloring this cutie with watercolor pencils, which has left me wondering if I should add Copics (and a coloring class!) to my Christmas wish list:

That gorgeous ribbon can be found in a variety of colors in the Ribbon Carousel store here. The patterned paper is from Echo Park (Season's Greetings) and the corduroy button is from SU!. I finished the button off with some red twine, also from Ribbon Carousel here.

ribbon carousel sale!

2011-11-25T22:57:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know about a great sale going on at The Ribbon Carousel this weekend, as a way of saying thank you to all their customers and supporters over the past 6 months. Be sure to check out the RC Blog or Facebook page to get all the latest info on new products and other sales!

I know what you're thinking: what do I do with all that ribbon? Well, just about everything at the holidays! Here are my top 5 things:

1. Cards!

2. Hanging stockings

3. Decorating your Christmas tree with either a big bow on top, small bows tied all over, or as garland (Same applies for your wreaths!)
4. Wrapping gifts, especially homemade food items
5. Tying jingle bells to door knobs around the house

How can you not love ribbon at Christmas?

three for thursday: thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you had a great day with your family and friends. Here's Three for Thursday this week; I made a small batch of cards last night, though they're CASE'd from Nichole Heady...I wasn't feeling very creative last night but I do love how these cards came out:

I got up this morning and made homemade pasta to take to my sister's house for dinner. Here's a shot of the uncooked fettucine in my fridge - I used a dozen eggs and 3 pounds of flour...it's a LOT of pasta. For 15 people half as much as this would have been enough - each tray has several layers of pasta separated by wax paper sheets. I could eat pasta every day.

I also used Instagram for the first time today. My sister's cat was resting on top of the hutch in the dining room while we all were eating. She just looked so cute up there and I couldn't resist taking this photo of her:

Those are my three things for today! I know they aren't all crafty projects but the holiday kinda made it hard to do much more. I usually spend this upcoming weekend making cards though - I am not one for Black Friday shopping. Have a fun night!

a time for thanks

2011-11-22T11:16:00.000-05:00

Why didn't I pick up the wine tag die for myself? Luckily, Jessica was kind enough to diecut two for me in a jiffy last weekend. I love how fast it was to whip these two tags up for a couple of thank-you gifts:

The ribbon is perfect for these tags! It's the Antique Gold Sheer Ruffled Edge Ribbon from Ribbon Carousel. You can find it here ... and be sure you use code NEWBLOG to get 15% off your purchase! ;)

The patterned papers are from Crate Paper and PTI; the sentiment stickers are from SRM.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so I am getting really excited for Thursday. How about you?

three for thursday

2011-11-17T11:21:00.000-05:00

Jessica and I got together again last night, as we have been doing on Wednesdays. I always struggle with what to pack with me when it's my turn to go to her house. Last night I tossed all my Echo Park Season's Greetings into a bag with some scissors and adhesive and headed out knowing that I would plan what I was going to make once I got there.

After I was done with my cards, I realized that this may be a great way for me to start using up my paper packs...afterall, how else could I justify buying more? LOL! So Three for Thursday is going to be my attempt to share what I make on our Wednesday nights and to motivate me to use more of my supplies.

But I must say I am a bit disappointed that today is the day my camera didn't want to cooperate, so these pics were taken with my phone... :(

Here are three of my cards from last night...I gotta say, not using any stamps was sorta challenging, but I do love the ease of using chipboard and stickers!

The ribbons on these cards are both from Ribbon Carousel. They're the Olive Satin Center Band Ribbon and the Red Grosgrain Satin Edge Ribbon. They're also celebrating their new website with a 15% off coupon code: NEWBLOG. :)

Hope you enjoyed these!

inspired layout

2011-11-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a ton of fun playing with the new holiday papers from My Minds Eye... The layout here was insprired by a card in a very old stamping catalog - I am glad I keep some of those around because they help me when I am in a pinch and not feeling particularly innovative.

The snowflakes were diecut using dies from MFT and I used Stardream Metallics Opal text weight paper that was leftover from my wedding many years ago. They sell this paper at Paper Source, but you can also find it online at EnvelopeMall.com - they are great and I suggest you check them out!

I sewed a bunch on these cards, and finished everything off with a sentiment from Christmas Labels (Papertrey) and pearls from SU!. I used cherry and evergreen inks from A Muse Studio on these cards.

I think I am partial to the ornament paper over the tree paper - what about you? :)

RCC29: get sketchy with laura!

2011-11-15T00:01:00.003-05:00

I'm finally back from a work trip to Florida with a card for Ribbon Carousel Challenge #29, which is being sponsored this week by Heather from thirty-one!

I had a ton of fun making this card because it's my first Christmas card of the season. On my way home from the airport, I heard tons of Christmas carols on the radio and I was totally inspired to get crafty. I decided that I would try to make different Christmas cards for everyone this year, so hopefully that means you will start to hear a lot more from me here. :)

I used the Dark Pink Vintage Seam Binding Ribbon from Ribbon Carousel on this card because I {love} using non-traditional holiday colors on my Christmas cards. This shade of pink matches Echo Park's Holly Jolly Christmas collection, which was easy to pair with Laura's clean sketch this week. The sentiment comes from PTI's Stylish Sentiments: Holiday set and was inked up with Memento's Rich Cocoa ink and the smaller mat was laid over MFT's flourish diecuts in Raspberry Fizz. The tiny star rhinestone was colored with a Copic and comes from Amuse Studio, and the snowflake and brad come from Echo Park's Seasons' Greetings collection.

Hope you'll play along in the challenge this week!

"bookoodles" of thanks

2011-11-07T09:03:00.000-05:00

I ended my weekend with a super fun conversation with the lovely Renee, who makes me laugh...a lot. Last night she used this word that I had never heard: bookoodles. I thought she made it up, but I googled it and found that it is "a Southern adjective meaning a large amount of something."

Renee asked what type of crafty things I had made over the weekend. At that point, I really had nothing to show for myself, so after we got off the phone I went up to my crafty room to make some Thanksgiving cards. I needed them to be super easy since I didn't have much time before bed, so I used some old Hero Arts and SU! catalogs for layout inspiration. Here's what I came up with:

The card above features PTI's Mehndi Medallion and a sentiment from Amuse Studio in an assortment of Amuse ink colors: onyx, french roast, squash and pumpkin.

This card features a beautiful Fall tree image from SU! with green-tinted crystals from Jolee's. The ribbon is the 1.5" Center Band Satin Ribbon in Olive from RibbonCarousel.com - beautiful!

And here we are again with a sentiment from Verve, paired with Bounty of the Season stamped in Squash ink from Amuse Studio, as well as their polka dot and woodgrain papers in french roast.

I am loving that I got so many cute cards cranked out for Thanksgiving because I am super excited to start my Christmas cards this year. For the first time, I am going to make small batches of different cards instead of making the same card for everyone.

Have a great Monday! I am looking forward to it - starting new projects at work today...a couple of years in the making.

home sweet home

2011-11-02T22:23:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to write a quick update - until today we had been without power/heat/phone/internet for 4 days in the wake of Saturday's snowstorm...schools have been closed and Halloween trick-or-treating was rescheduled for this Sunday. This is great because Teddy gets to wear this costume a few more times:

This morning when we woke up the house was cold - in the 40s and he was shivering, which I had never seen him do before, not even after playing in the snow. My heart absolutely sank and I felt so badly all day. When we got home tonight, I cried a few tears of joy and relief upon feeling the heat in the house. This was suprising to me because I am not touchy-feely, really. (I didn't cry at my wedding, or anybody else's for that matter.)

Now I am a little behind on everything from laundry to cleaning to food shopping to crafting, but I am making a strong comeback! There's no card to share today, but I did want to let you know that Ribbon Carousel is having a sale this week - you can get 15% off your purchase with code TURKEY11. Also checkout the new Ribbon Club Kit for November here.

Hope you're all staying warm and enjoying your week!

New to the Crew!

2011-11-01T00:01:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, I received an exciting e-mail from the super-talented Corinna McGregor asking me to join the Ribbon Carousel Design Team. I am still reeling with excitement - you all know how much I love ribbon!

Throughout the upcoming months, you'll see me and others feature projects using many of the gorgeous ribbons being sold in the Ribbon Carousel Store in projects for the Ribbon Carousel Challenge Blog. To welcome the new crew, this week’s challenge (RCC27) is an easy one: ANYTHING GOES!

Ribbon Carousel is introducing gorgeous solid maple 2” hour-glass spools that fit on the dowels of both Carousels. For a chance to win a sampling of 5 spools filled with 25 yards of gorgeous twine in fabulous seasonal colors, just play along in this week's challenge. Here's my card:

Can I tell you how much fun I had making this? It's the first time I've worked with wide ribbon and I love it! Here's a close up of the ribbons, the plaid Prima flower, and the turkey sticker on the wooden maple tag:

If you'd like to know more about the ribbons I used, you can find them here:

Ruffled edge ribbon in turquoise

Looped edge grosgrain in antique gold

Natural jute/twine

Lastly, I'd love to introduce you to all the members of the Ribbon Carousel Crew...I am completely starstruck and honored to be working with this group of amazing talent!

Andrea Ewen

Savannah O'Gwynn
Stephanie Muzzulin

Suzanne Dahlberg <-you're here!

Wendy Ramlakhan

Please be sure to stop by their blogs and check out their amazing work!

Supplies: Stamps: sentiment by Verve; Paper: kraft, rustic cream by PTI, Happy Harvest Patterned Paper by Imaginisce; Ink: Rich cocoa by Memento; Other: turkey sticker by SRM, maple wood tag by Amuse Studio, corner rounder, Prima flower, Hero Hues pearls, double ended banner die by PTI, labels Nestie, scalloped border die by Memory Box, sheer ruffled edge ribbon, looped edge grosgrain, and natural twine by May Arts from Ribbon Carousel

harvest

2011-10-28T10:16:00.000-04:00

With about one month to go before Thanksgiving, I am trying my best to make my Turkey Day cards, but the snow tonight made it a little difficult - how on earth can it be snowing when all the leaves haven't even fallen off the trees yet?

I decided to play along in the ColourQ Challenge as well as the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge this week. The cQc colors were a little bit tough for me, mostly because of the two shades of yellow. This is my first time playing along in Freshly Made; I love the idea of this blog because the sketches aren't too CAS nor are they too complicated for my style. Here are the two challenge photos...hope you'll play along too:

My card uses lots of A Muse Studio goodies. I am really loving this Bounty of the Season stamp set because it stamps so beautifully, and because it's not a pumpkin set...I am pretty much pumpkin'd out until next year.

The A Muse Studio (a|s) ink color used to stamp the wheat image is Apricot. I used some Bazzill papers for the lighter yellow and peach tones, then added some a|s diamond glitter strips to the banner diecut (PTI). I tied black DMC floss "around" the wheat and finished it off with a clear heart-shaped button (SU!). The gingham paper is from a|s as well.

Thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned next Tuesday when I'll have some fun crafty news I've been dying to share!

october papertrey blog hop

2011-10-25T09:55:00.001-04:00

Yay for the Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge! This month's inspiration photo is this beautiful shot:

I decided to make another pumpkin using the same Nesties technique that I used on my post from last week, but this time I stamped white and orange zest cardstock with Polka Dot Basics II and a flower from Peaceful Poinsettia in Orange Zest and Fresh Snow inks, respectively:

I used In Bloom and Bitty Box Basics patterned papers from PTI, as well as Spring Rain which was die cut with a nestie and stamped with Vintage Labels, then embossed with the Woodgrain IP. The sentiment is from Fall Elegance and stamped on a double-ended banner die cut. I decided to add twine and sewing to add to the rustic feel I picked up from the fabric and quilts in the inspiration photo:

Happy Blog Hoppin'! I can't wait to see your creations!

boo! for colourq challenge #107

2011-10-19T11:28:00.000-04:00

It has been too long since I've played along with the ColourQ Challenge! This week's colors struck me just right, mostly because I've got little bits of Rich Razzleberry (RR) stockpiled in my craft room and various scraps of all the others colors are strewn across the room right now.

I started off with a RR base and added some of Amuse Studio's woodgrain paper as a background and then stitched along the edge after adding the strip of lime green patterned paper from Echo Park.

I got a little fancy with the Plum Divine Twine, RR ribbon and PTI button with small BOO! tag, as well as some leaf pins from My Little Yellow Bicycle:

Have you started your holiday cards yet? Have a fun day!

Supplies: Stamps: Tiny Tags(SU!); Paper: French roast & French roast woodgrain (Amuse Studio), orange from Bazzil, PP from Echo Park A Walk in the Park, RR (SU!);Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa; Other: pins (My Little Yellow Bicycle), oval Nesties, rhinestones (Hero Arts), Divine Twine, RR ribbon (SU!), picket fence die (Papertrey), Sew Mini.

market street special edition block party

2011-10-18T11:58:00.001-04:00

The Market Street Stamp Company is celebrating their 1st Anniversary with a Special Edition Block Party and there is a WICKED AWESOME prize at stake. You can read all about it here!

It's not everyday that you get the chance to enter a contest like this one! I am soooo excited! So excited, in fact, that I ordered the same background stamp twice ... {oops}.

I used two different collections on my card for this contest: Autumn Greetings and the Bit of Burlap background stamp. The cardstock base is French Roast cardstock from Amuse Studio, and I combined that with Vintage Cream cardstock from PTI and patterned papers from Crate Paper's Farmhouse Collection:

Everything was stamped using Memento's Rich Cocoa ink. I used a paper punch to cut out the hearts and strung them up on a piece of cream twine to make it look like the cute little scarecrow was holding a banner:

Then I finished the card off with the sentiment stamped on the die-cut banner, which was stitched at one end and layered in between the two pieces of cream cardstock.

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I enjoyed making it!

Holiday Madness: wee memories #72

2011-10-17T12:21:00.001-04:00

Today I've got a batch of Halloween cards to share with you for the Wee Memories Challenge, which was to make a card for any holiday.

The theme of their contest is "Holiday Madness," which fits perfectly for these cards because I went truly mad die-cutting all of these spider webs (Memory Box) and bats (Amuse Studio)...and then glittering all the bats:

I made 20 cards in total and they'll be going in the mail soon! As you can see, I used many different patterned papers on this set of cards. Most of the papers are from the Echo Park Apothecary line. I chose the one above to enter into the contest because I love the light gray tone of this polka dot paper...plus, who doesn't like polka dots?!

And that's all for today, folks!

christmas tag funtime

2011-10-16T08:48:00.001-04:00

This morning I am getting ready for our 2nd PTI gathering, with a group of 12 other women from all over New England. We're doing a shoebox swap of Christmas tags and I wanted to share my tag before I leave today:

The design centered around using 1.5" maple tags from Amuse Studio, which I stamped and embossed with the snowflake image from PTI's 2010 Holiday Tags set; I also really wanted to use the fun holiday papers from American Crafts. The maple tags are surprisingly thick and easy to work with. I love them!

It's a two-layer tag, so the wooden circle is actually attached to the bottom layer, and the top layer was die cut with a Nestie so that the wooden tag could pop through the top. The inside is decorated with patterned paper similarly to the outside. I finished the big tag off with the "very merry" sentiment from Tiny Tags and the tiny tag punch from SU!. I also added a Berry Sorbet button to the center of the snowflake after threading it with some rustic twine.

If I had some silver jingle bells, I would have added some to the twine bow at the top...{sigh}. :)

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

MIM: homemade washi tape

2011-10-09T19:25:00.000-04:00

Hello....homemade washi tape!

That's the theme of this week's Make It Monday Challenge at Papertrey...and I went several rounds with the tape before I got the hang of it, ultimately having to emboss the ink on my tape to keep it from smudging:

I layered the summer sunrise cardstock after embossing the top layer with the Linen IP and then I added the sentiment strip, which was stamped with images from the Half and Half set.

That's pretty much it! Pretty simple and fun!

halloween's coming!

2011-10-07T17:55:00.001-04:00

I have actually gotten an early start on my Halloween cards this year, thanks to some motivation from my bud, Jessica. This is so great because it's allowing me to enter a couple of challenges this week!

First up is an opportunity to win a fantastic Halloween stamp set from WPlus9 over at the incredible Lea Lawson's blog! I'm also sending this off to CARDS magazine blog for this week's challenge! Both challenges called for Halloween cards, plain and simple, so here we have it:

The sentiment on this card is from the 2009 Halloween tags set from Papertrey. Yes, you read that right: 2009...which is why I would SO love to win the new fabulous Halloween set from WPlus9! ;)

Here's a closeup of the adorable Hero Arts felt pumpkin stickers, the Amuse Studio gingham paper and ribbon, Recollections rhinestones and my perfect PTI button. The polka dotted Halloween paper is from Echo Park - I love it!

And here's Teddy, fresh from the groomer's today...sporting his Halloween scarf. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

moxie fab world tuesday trigger

2011-10-06T10:39:00.000-04:00

This week's Tuesday Trigger in the Moxie Fab World is "Treat Yourself!"...

I was inspired by the colors and all the layers of yumminess in this photo to make this card:

I also made this with a special friend in mind - I can't wait to pop this in the mail for her!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Verve sentiment; Paper: rustic cream, harvest gold, brown (SU!); Ink: dark chocolate; Other: JBS flower, twine, harvest gold button, tab punch (SU!), rhinestones (Recollections), corner rounder

my first attempt at 10MSPC

2011-10-04T09:11:00.000-04:00

Every now and then Jessica Witty makes a 10 Minute Scrap Pile Card and I decided to play along for the first time last night. After I made the card that I posted last night, I didn't feel done in my craft room...I was itching to play some more.

I first snagged some PTI soft stone cardstock and started stamping flowery images (from a|s) in grass, orange, bubble gum, shell, and blackberry (a|s inks)...then added the twine from the Twinery, some glitter and mounted it all to some paper from SU!...

I probably could have conditioned the stamps first, but I was in a rush to meet my 10 minute deadline! They inked up pretty well regardless. This is one of the few cards I have ever made that consisted of mostly stamping. I loved it!

moxie fab world card play challenge

2011-10-03T21:23:00.001-04:00

Here's a quick card that was inspired by one of the pins over in the Moxie Fab World Card Play Challenge post this week...using more gingham paper from A Muse Studio, some Sizzix die cut letters, Verve die cut hearts, alpha stickers, and some fabulous black saddle stitch ribbon!

Thanks for looking! Have a great night!

world card making day blog hop

2011-09-30T23:59:00.009-04:00

Time for a blog hop!

A little while ago I signed up with A Muse Studio and I finally got around to unpacking my new supplies the other night. (The box sat on the floor for about a week while I was prepping for the lung cancer walk.) This blog hop was the perfect opportunity for me to play with my goodies for the first time, plus I needed to make my hubby an anniversary card! We're celebrating 5 years!

I colored the heart-shaped rhinestone with a Copic marker, and the rocket was colored using a blender pen and my Ocean ink pad. Oh yeah, and about the inks: believe all the hype! They're magnificent if you love pigment inks. :)

The next stop on this blog hop is Dana Vincent, but please be sure to visit all these other great blogs along the way!

Amber Smith
Veronica Zalis

Suzanne Dahlberg <----- You are here!

Dana Vincent

Julie Dylingowski

Thanks for stopping by! Later today I am going to a Stamp Out Breast Cancer event, which should be fun. What are you doing for WCMD?

Supplies {by a|s unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Quick & Cute Valentines; Paper: Ocean, Gingham Onyx, Polka dot Buttercup; Ink: Memento black, Ocean, Copic marker; Other: Ocean grosgrain stitch, Heart rhinestone, corner rounder, label punch, border punch

5 years!

2011-09-30T18:08:00.001-04:00

It was such a great day - this is my favorite photo of me and Eric that day since it captures my cracking up at something he said...this is so "us."

I know I don't normally post personal things, but I'm pretty excited about anniversary #5 for some reason and just wanted to share! Have a wonderful weekend!

time for fun and relaxation!

2011-09-26T21:36:00.000-04:00

I laugh when I look at this photo because the psychotically exhausted look on my face says it all: another year of Free to Breathe Lung Cancer 5K planning is over! To me the event was a huge success with roughly 460 participants and over 60 volunteers; we raised over $50,000 for National Lung Cancer Partnership's research and awareness programs. Lucy Schultz took this photo as well as many others, so take a peek!

There are many other Free to Breathe events taking place nationwide throughout the year, so please consider joining one in your area!

October: Cincinnati, Central Iowa, Milwaukee, Omaha, Providence

November: Augusta, Austin, Dayton, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Philadelphia, Athens (GA), Greensboro, Southwest Florida, Lexington, Orlando

I'll be back to crafting soon...promise!

Moxie fab world sketch challenge

2011-09-14T13:22:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone!

I made two cards for the Moxie Fab World's Horizontal Sketch Challenge, which features my dear friend Christina MacLaren! Run on over and take a look and join in on the fun!

Here are my takes on this sketch using patterned papers from Crate Paper, a beautiful plastic die cut flower from Jenni Bowlin, a wooden button from Pebbles, and two different Verve sentiements:

I love how these turned out, and how they're increasing my stockpile of Fall cards! Sorry to be slacking in the blog department lately, but my lung cancer 5K is on the 25th and we're in crunch time getting everything prepped. I will be back soon with lots more fun stuff to share! Have a great day!

Rolled Roses

2011-09-06T09:23:00.000-04:00

Yup! Two posts in one day!

I visited my favorite local stamp shop this weekend and spent more than I had intended, partly because I found these fabulous rolled rose dies and partly because the place is just awesome. They hold a special place in my heart for being the only place that carried Cuttlebug C plates on this side of the Mississippi River during Christmas last year. They are called Absolutely Everything in Topfiled, MA and they even sell things online now. You should check them out!

I made a set of rolled roses to make a card for the lovely Renee's Papertrey Paper Dolls Challenge #42, also incorporating new patterned paper from Hero Arts and a sentiment from Verve. The blue and purple tones are blueberry and plum pudding from PTI:

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Make It Monday #31

2011-09-06T09:10:00.000-04:00

It has been ages since I have played along with Papertrey's Make It Monday, but I found this week's challenge particularly hard to resist. We were tasked to create a background with a non-background stamp.

I knew I wanted to make a simple card so the background would stand out. I used Fall Elegance because I love the medium to small sized leaves in this set, as well as the beautiful script font of the sentiments. Then I got a little fancy with some twine and buttons... :)

My favorite thing about this card is the color combination: Ocean Tides, Terracotta Tile and Vintage Cream. Definitely a keeper for me!

Lovely Labor Day

2011-09-04T21:12:00.001-04:00

A quick weekend post for a card that I made last week (sorry for a not-so-hot photo) ... All of the papers are from American Crafts - these are gorgeous colors together and perfect for end of summer, I think.

My Labor Day has been very relaxing. All of the sponsor logos and forms for the Free to Breathe were due on Friday, so Complete Panic Mode has ended as I enter the last 3 weeks of planning. I made a HUGE homemade yard sign to advertise the event - I guess it is good to take advantage of living on a busy street! I also tried yoga class again; it makes me feel better in a way that running or walking doesn't. I think I may just keep up with it! Some other highlights have been a trip to my favorite local stamp store, some great walks with my dog, and some very yummy dinners with my husband. Tomorrow I will clean and craft since I heard that the weather isn't supposed to be so great.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend, too!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: My Minds Eye; Paper: Vintage Cream, American Crafts Patterned Papers;Ink: SU! Soft Suede (I think); Other: twine, pearls from Hero Arts, Sizzix letter dies, Mat Stack die, sewing machine

passing the torch

2011-08-29T06:00:00.001-04:00

I had a great time during my month as a torch bearer for Amber Ink's Blue Team! Thanks again to Amber and Pam for such a fun month!

The great news is that I am excited to announce that I am passing the torch to my great friend, Jessica at The Paper Parade! I can't wait to see what she makes with all the great digi-papers and stamps - she loves bright bold colors and perfectly layered cards, so please give her a visit and say hello!

Lastly, thanks to Lee Anne at My Happy Place who was so kind to pass this blue torch to me. She is just one of the absolute sweetest people ever!

market street stamps block party

2011-08-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo for block parties, especially during a hurricane!

I have a card to share today for the Market Street Stamps Block Party, and think you should play along too! The prizes are awesome: you could win a slot as a DT guest for a month or a prize pack of their adorable stamps and accessories.

Recently, my friend Jessica and her husband bought a camper and I have been meaning to make a card for them using the Gone Campin set from Market Street, and the weather this weekend finally afforded me the time to do just that. I paired all the images from the set with a really cute postcard stamp that I picked up at a stamp show several years ago to make this card:

I have never paper pieced so much in my life, but honestly these stamps made it SO easy to do. I pieced with patterned papers from Papertrey Ink and Echo Park and adhered all the pieces with a glue stick since I thought that was the best way to make sure all the edges stuck down to the card base.

The clouds were stamped with the Market Street Bit of Burlap background stamp and die cut before being coated with some Distress Stickles for a slight shimmer effect. The same stickles were also added to the mosquito's wings.

I can't wait to send this to them!

Supplies {by Market Street unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Gone Campin', Bit of Burlap, postcard template (Just for Fun Stamps); Paper: White & Raspberry Fizz (PTI), Bitty Dot, Distrssed Dots, Raspberry Fizz Mix, Green Boutique PP (PTI), Walk in the Park (Echo Park); Ink: Dark Chocolate & Aqua Mist (PTI); Other: Raspberry Crystals (PTI), Ranger Distress Stickles, cloud dies (PTI), Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch

lazy saturday

2011-08-27T09:12:00.001-04:00

Just a quickie card to share this morning - I made it a little while ago but took my time getting uploaded online. I love this sentiment from Verve and the colorfully fun paper is from American Crafts.

We're getting ready for Irene here - I am not going camping, but my husband is still going to go. So Teddy Doggy and I are flying solo, which means more time for crafting (and work).

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Verve; Paper: American Crafts, SS White; Ink: Dark Chococale; Other: flower dies, twine, button, ribbon & clip (SU!)

Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop Challenge

2011-08-25T08:42:00.000-04:00

Welcome to this month's Blog Hop Challenge with Papertrey Ink! Our task this month was to make a card inspired by this beautiful photo:

I was really inspired by the pattern inside the suitcase and by the flowers, as well as by the shape of the suitcase top & bottom. So I immediately knew I had to use a certain patterned paper from Echo Park and my new mum die; I also used the Half and Half dies to add shape above and below the focal point, inspired by the lid and base of the suitcase:

Happy Blog Hoppin', everyone!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Simple Sunflower; Paper: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Hibiscus Burst, New Leaf, Bitty Dot Basics, Echo Park; Ink: Dark Chocolate; Other: Bloom Builder #3, Half & Half dies, Harvest Gold buttons, cream twine, Mat Stack dies

happy fall

2011-08-22T06:00:00.002-04:00

I really can't wait for the Fall. The heat and humidity of the summer are somewhat pointless unless I am on a beach with palm trees surrounding me. And the fact that there are so many yummy crafting goodies that are released for the fall and winter only makes me love those seasons even more.

This card has similar paper to the one from yesterday, including the Amber Ink digi-paper, but I had the chance to use my new PTI Simple Sunflower and Verve sentiment:

I love how this turned out. To be honest, I have had a hard time finding ways to use PTI's fine linen paper and ribbon and I think it paired so nicely with the other colors here. Sometimes it looks greenish to me, other times it looks bleh to me. Here, not so much. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this color too. Have a great day!

a card for my doggy

2011-08-21T17:08:00.000-04:00

The card doesn't have a doggy theme to it, because I decided this card is for my very cute and very sneaky dog just as I was about it finish it. I originally wanted those chipboard letters to read, "HELLO!" - I popped all the letters out of the set and lined them up on the floor, ready for placement on my card.

Then Teddy came into the room and left suddenly. I thought, "That's weird..." And then he did it again...and that was my proof that he was up to something. I looked at the floor and one of the L's from HELLO was missing. The little bugger had stolen it! I ran downstairs only to find the peel-off backing on the floor and Teddy licking his chops. Yep, the little sucker ate the chipboard and left only the white wrapper behind. :(

And since the chipboard letter set only came with 2 L's, this quickly turned into a THANKS! card:

Thanks for eating my letter L, Teddy!

And this is my second to last project using Amber Ink's digi-paper. My last project will post for you tomorrow!

Hope you had a fun weekend!

happy birthday, jessica!

2011-08-16T21:17:00.000-04:00

I am back with my second post of the day in honor of my wonderful friend, Jessica, whose birthday is today!

We are going out tonight to celebrate, and I made her this card last night. I was inspired by a card that Kara made recently, but I wasn't about to fuss with glitter in the {awesome} way that she did. ;) Instead, I opted for fabric, and a side-tie since that is a trademark of Jessica's:

I used the most awesome background stamp from Market Street Stamps on this card - it's the full size of the card front and to me that makes for perfection. :)

Happy Birthday, Jessica!

Ribbon Carousel Challenge with Amber Ink

2011-08-16T07:56:00.000-04:00

I am back today with a card for the latest Ribbon Carousel Challenge using my fun Amber Ink digi paper and digi image! And LOOK! I colored with pencils and I kinda liked it!

I had a lot of fun making this Halloween card! Looking forward to the fall, that's for sure. Have a great day!

Warm Thoughts

2011-08-12T13:32:00.001-04:00

A super quick card for my most recent Amber Ink project, again using their awesome digi paper!

I wanted to do more detailing on the ribbon, so I layered the ginham green ribbon under the dark peach ribbon before adding the buttons, and I stamped off the Paper Smooches sentiment in Enchanted Evening a few times to come up with this:

Looking forward to a great weekend? I've got lots to do for work and preparing for the lung cancer fundraiser in September. So I am thinking "warm thoughts," pretending I am on a tropical island until it's over. I even wore my raspberry linen dress today -- maybe I'll order a Bahama Mama tonight at dinner too. :)

Have a fun day!

lovey dovey

2011-08-10T12:12:00.000-04:00

The other day I entered some cards into a challenge hosted by Market Street Stamps and was feeling a little bit badly about not having any of their real stamps to use on the challenge - I just discovered them!

So...I placed an order, they arrived (super quickly, I might add) and they are CUTE! Here are two cards I made last night with their Compass stamp set:

On this card, I die cut the heart out in the center and placed a piece of matching melon berry paper behind the heart before filling it with glue and adding the glitter.

For this second one, I knew I wanted to incorporate the saying "You are my true north" somehow, so I masked the N, S, E, W with tape before inking the stamp to make the image more like the letter O. Then I embossed it with white embossing powder...

Enjoy your day!

love makes the whirl go 'round

2011-08-04T10:38:00.001-04:00

Last night I made this card with this Market Street Stamps Color Cue challenge in mind:

I was itching to use this new Echo Park patterned paper, and Mom needed a card for a bridal shower, so I ended up with this:

I love how the rhinestones look on this card. I even decorated the inside and the envelope for this project, so I am practically giddy about the whole thing. The pinwheel die is adorable!

Have a great day! Weekend is almost here!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Polka Dot Basics, sentiment from Lil Inker; Paper: Sweet Blush, Kraft, SS white, PP from Echo Park; Ink: Dark Chocolate, Snow White; Other: pinwheel die (Lil Linker), rhinestone swirls from Recollections, rhinestone brad (SU!), corner rounder, sewing machine, double ended banner die,

Fire and ash plaid

2011-08-04T10:19:00.001-04:00

Today I am back with another project for Amber Ink, this time using their Fire and Ash plaid digi-paper, which went perfectly so many goodies in my stash... I have to admit that I am loving these digital papers! They are super easy to work with and they print beautifully!

I just think that the bird sticker is so darn funny and cute. I might have to go back and buy more of those.

I think you should try out digi-papers...and lemme know what you think!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Paper: Fire & Ash Plaid (Amber Ink), Red dotted PP (My Minds Eye), Black and white PP (Fancy Pants), soft stone cardstock; Other: Recollections Bird sticker, Martha Stewart Doily, SU! scalled border punch, sewing machine, houndstooth embossing folder by Cuttlebug, circle punch, white glitter stickers (American Crafts ?), Signo white gel pen

laurie, you'll always be our idol!

2011-08-01T06:55:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our surprise blog hop for our fellow Papertrey Paper Doll, Laurie Willison, who made it to the Top Ten of the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol competition. SO AMAZING, right!?

I am not gonna lie. I am crushed she didn't win the whole thing! I asked myself, is this thing RIGGED? We were BAMBOOZLED! How on earth could this happen? She's my FAVE!

Plus, I was in love with the idea of being able to send her on a cruise. :)

In celebration of her success, our group decided to have a blog hop in her honor. Lee Anne came up with the great idea that we each should CASE one of Laurie's cards, so here the card I chose from Laurie's Flickr gallery:

And here's my mono-chromatic version:

You're the BEST, Laurie!
And thanks to everyone for hopping along with us! Next up, is Katie!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Forever Young (SU!), Tiny Tags; Paper: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, PP by Memory Box; Ink: Dark Chocolate; Other: Fine Linen ribbon, button, cream twine, tiny tags die, edger #3 die

amber ink project #1

2011-07-27T09:30:00.013-04:00

I am here today with my first project this month for Amber Ink, and I decided to use some of their really fun Schoolgirl Plaid Picnic Gingham paper, since I am such a sucker for gingham. I needed to make a thank you card for a co-worker who invited me for the most delicious dinner tonight, and I wanted it to look summery; I also thought the picnic paper went with the whole dinner theme.

Because of Jen's Papertrey Paper Dolls Challenge #41 to use twine on a project, I was also inspired to add some of my yellow twine in a little tiny yellow bow to the inside of the card, using a sentiment that I thought paired well with the dried flowers on the front of the card, as well as with my friend's love for gardening! I know I didn't go too wild and crazy with the twine, but being clever with wrapping it a million ways really isn't my strong suit...I promise to try to work on that, Jen!

Before I go, I have to admit that I was channeling my inner Laurie Willison when making this card since TWO of her recent projects (here and here) have been etched in my brain since I saw them. Thank you, Laurie, for the inspiration!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Inside & Out: Thank You; Paper: kraft, SS white, vellum, digi-paper from Amber Ink; Ink: True black, So Saffron (SU!); Other: mat stack die, circle punch, corner rounder, circle Nestie, dried flowers from Recollections, yellow baker's twine (Local Stamp Shop), linen IP

photo booth fun

2011-07-26T23:42:00.000-04:00

As promised, our shots (Jessica, me, and Christina) from the photo booth at Stamp-A-Faire!

I still can't stop laughing and smiling about it all!

Carrying the torch!

2011-07-26T10:55:00.000-04:00

Yeah! That's me!

Thanks so much to my dear friend, Lee Anne, for passing the Amber Ink torch to me this month. I can't wait to use some of their digital papers and stamps on my projects for you this month. My first project will be posted for you tomorrow.

I have already downloaded oodles of their patterned papers and a stamp - printed them out on my own and they look fantastic! I have never used digi-anything before, but now I am a believer.

And please let me introduce you to the other members of the team this month:

Adrian
Mel

Paula

Ramona

That's all for now! See you tomorrow!

stamp-a-faire: just how awesome was it!?

2011-07-25T07:19:00.003-04:00

"WICKED AWESOME!"

I am still gushing from the most amazing and fun trip I have had in a while, so I will do my best to give you a summary of my weekend! This is a much longer post than normal, only because I want to describe everything in as full detail as possible (but without making you fall asleep, of course).

I think I should start by acknowledging that I have never been to anything like PTI's Stamp-A-Faire before, so I didn't really know what to expect. In fact, if I hadn't been able to use frequent flier miles for my plane ticket or had been able to convince Jessica to come with me, I doubt I would have attended...but I sure am glad that I did! Here we are leaving on a jet plane:

Here's another that Jessica took at the Lexington, KY airport, where I was asked by someone if I was from America (because of my accent):

We arrived at the hotel and walked into a hotel lobby filled with TV cameras...they were interviewing Rand Paul, who is a US Senator from Kentucky. This vehicle was parked in the parking lot:

That night, before SAF, we had a chance to meet up for dinner with Christina MacLaren, who also stayed in the hotel with us, Sara Mac and her friend, Chere. Sara is a fellow Papertrey Paper Doll, and it was exciting to finally meet her, though bittersweet that none of our other blog group members could join us. Jessica was so sweet to take this shot of us:

Here we are car pooling in an attempt to find Graeter's ice cream. The store was closed for renovation when we got there:

Okay, so let's cut to the chase! We then got up bright and early the next morning for Stamp-A-Faire. We made a pit stop at Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, true to form for anyone from the Boston area, to energize and eat some yummies to keep our stamping strength up:

And here is one of my favorite pictures from the entire weekend. It's one I took of the three of us on the escalator, making our way toward the ballroom where the event was being held:

When you arrived at Stamp-A-Faire, you were given a cute SAF bag filled with goodies, a SAF lanyard for your name tag, a SAF passport that would be "stamped" upon completion of each of the 10 make-n-take projects, and a SAF placemat. It's clear how extremely well thought out the day was! Our goodie bags contained 3 PTI stamp sets, including the exclusive SAF set, coasters, buttons, 2 paper packs, brads, and other embellishments. AMAZING! I love the PTI paper pad as well. Here is a photo of the map, which each of us pinned with our name onto our hometowns, and the suitcases that decorated each table, which were named after cities across the world. These suitcases would later be used to hold all the prizes given away at the Dessert Reception:

I was really excited to meet Maureen Plut, whose blog I have followed for a while; she later joined us for dinner:

Here we all are at Betsy Veldman's table, having fun!

And here is a shot of Lisa Johnson and her table. If she isn't a sweet dynamo, I don't know who is! I have to say that even though I loved meeting all of the DT members (especially Nichole, that goes without saying), I {LOVED} meeting Lisa. She was high energy all day and all night and just overhwhelmingly sweet. And I'm not just saying that cuz she hooked me up. She made me promise not to tell. :)

I love this shot of several of the PTI Forum members working at Dawn McVey's table. From left to right we have Rose, Amy, Melissa, and Denise...CUTE!!!

One thing that I thought was hilarious is that a lot of the workers who were assisting the DT members at their tables had no idea what any of the supplies were until last Saturday. One of them said, "I had no idea what those acrylic blocks were for until today!" LOL!

Next up was our dinner break. A larger group of us went out for dinner and a successful outing to Graeter's. It was so fun talking to everyone!

In the above photo from left to right are Christina, Lizzie Jones, Sara, Jessica, Taheerah Atchia, Lynn, Maureen, me, and Chere.

There was a concert going on in this plaza, and we decided it was too loud for us to talk so we headed over to a hotel lobby where a little bit of wackiness ensued with Lizzie's husband, Shawn, and us ... with a group of guys celebrating a bachelor party. They asked if we were in town for a family tree convention. They were very funny and I am nearly certain that one of them had to have gotten into some kind of trouble later that night:

Then we headed back to the convention center for the Dessert Reception. All the while I was thinking about the day and how much more beautiful each and every card that gets posted on the DT blogs is in real life. It's overwhelming how gorgeous all the samples were.

The night before I couldn't sleep because Christina asked us if we thought we would be sampling the new ink at the make-n-take tables...and I got too excited about that. She must have ESP because sure enough, the new dye inks were in-da-house and they were fantastic. *HERE* is a video that Nichole Heady took of me and another woman commenting on the new ink! This video makes me giggle. I was just giddy and silly all day. In fact, I still am as I type this.

More giddiness: here is a shot of the envelope that Nichole featured in this month's release post, when she highlighted my question about whether or not the edger dies can be used to decorate envelopes:

And you know I had to get a picture of me with the new envelope! Thanks, Jessica, for capturing the excitement so well! This is now my new go-to avatar. :)

And here I am talking to Nichole, who was signing my passport book for me. I am bright red, blushing! She was so so sweet! I will remember it forever!

The last thing I want to post is our photo from the photo booth and those will be made available online sometime soon so I can download it. Christina, Jessica and I had so much fun doing that. It was the perfect touch to the evening reception! I will add that here on the blog later.

At the end of the day, the WHOLE trip was fantastic and I feel so lucky to have met so many wonderful people. I am over-the-moon about having met all the DT members and Julie and Jane as well. And I know I must be forgetting so many details, but it's all still flurrying around in my brain like a snow globe! I will edit the post later if there's anything I forgot.

Have a great week!

where am i?

2011-07-20T22:49:00.000-04:00

I know I am behind. On laundry. Cleaning. Errands. Paper Dolls Challenges. Card Camp. Commenting on other blog posts (which I feel quite badly about). Pretty much everything...

Because I am leaving soon for Cincinatti! I've been prepping a project to bring, getting packed, working extra to make up for the missed day in the office. And then I get anxious and do pointless things, like decide I should wash my makeup brushes before I go (?!)...cuz I am kooky like that.

But somehow I am loving every second of it! I can't wait!

summer card camp: week 3

2011-07-14T20:21:00.000-04:00

Nearing the end of Card Camp and I almost didn't make the Thursday night deadline! I am a bad student!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Paper: Kraft, Vintage Cream, PP by Echo Park; Stamps: Tiny Tags with Dies, Ink: Real Red (SU!); Other: Turning a New Leaf Die, cream twine, rhinestones (Recollections), Woodgrain IP, stickers from Echo Park

CAS-ual Fridays 10: shaped cards

2011-07-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

For this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge, I didn't have any templates for a real shaped card so I used my Nesties to make this shape:

I ran it through with the Picnic Plaid IP and then inked the edges with chamomile ink:

It was a lot easier than it looks, only because of the detail in the Prima flower! YAY for easy!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Tiny Tags; Paper: SS White, Ocean Tides, PP by Memory Box; Ink: Dark Chocolate, Chamomile; Other: Tiny Tags Die, nesties, twine, Prima Flower, Picnic Plaid IP

my favorite place is home

2011-07-09T16:07:00.000-04:00

This week I went back to work after one of my famous staycations, which involve me hanging around the house...actually feeling like I live in this house...for a week at a time. After each staycation I really do appreciate living here more and more; we recently have taken on a lot of yard work mostly on our own, and I made this card for husband as a way of saying thanks for all of his help.

All the papers are by October Afternoon except for the card base which is Very Vanilla from SU! I inked the edges with chamomile ink:

Have a great weekend!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Paper: October Afternoon; Ink: chamomile; Other: button from OA, Ocean Tides felt cut with Bloom dies

summer card camp: week 2

2011-07-06T13:54:00.000-04:00

Here's my entry for this week's color challenge at my Summer Card Camp! I went CAS for this one, since I really struggled with all the colors this week:

I just love that butterfly die!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler; Paper: Select White, Berry Sorbet, Orange Zest, Harvest Gold, Spring Moss, New Leaf; Ink: True Black; Other: Curly Label punch (SU!), Butterfly Delights die (Memory Box)

Paper Dolls + CAS-ual Fridays Challenges = fun

2011-07-05T11:18:00.001-04:00

I've got a card today that combines the latest Papertrey Paper Dolls challenge with the latest CAS-ual Fridays challenge:

I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use a background stamp and make a manly card, and was also inspired by a card that I saw in the new Stampin' Up! catalog (which you should check out, since I think there are lots of great new things in there):

Manly, but fun? Right?

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: BB: Retro, Star Prints, sentiment from SU!; Paper: Kraft, Orange Zest, Very Vanilla (SU!); Ink: Spring Moss, Blue Bayou (SU!), ; Other: Woodgrain IP, brads from SU!, Limitless Layers dies, circle punch, banner stickers from Echo Park Walk in the Park Collection, ribbon from May Arts

welcoming summer

2011-07-02T18:01:00.000-04:00

It has been quite the weekend here already! Tomorrow we're having a BBQ for all the family, and nothing says summer, besides a BBQ, like watermelon and bicycles... :) Just a quick card to wind down from all the yard work I did today. I was itching to use my Paper Smooches stamp set...I LoVe them! I also used some stickers here, and though they are cute I really do prefer a sturdier sticker since these cellophane ones aren't the easiest in the world to place perfectly.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Paper Smooches; Paper: Simply Chartreuse, White, PP from My Little Yellow Bicycle; Ink: True Black; Other: EK Success Border Punch, Stickers from Martha Stewart

trying new things...

2011-06-30T16:23:00.000-04:00

Ok. So I cut something out by hand. And used stickers. And made a boy card for some imaginary boy out there...all because I liked the paper and this alligator stamp!

Look! I even paper pieced the yellow scales in his back. Ha!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Recollections; Paper: Under the Big Top by Imaginisce, teracotta tile, kraft, white, harvest gold; Ink: true black; Other: stickers from Echo Park Walk in the Park, mat stack die, circle punch, brown baker's twine

cr84fn #32

2011-06-29T10:20:00.001-04:00

The latest CR84FN Color Challenge was to make a card using green, yellow, and aqua and here's what I drummed up late last night...my blingiest creation to date, I think:

Have a fun day! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Think Big Favorites #2; Paper: white, yellow PP from My Little Yellow Bicycle Sweet Summertime collection, green and aqua PP from Echo Park Little Boy & A Walk in the Park collections; Ink: True Black; Other: green bling frame from Making Memories, aqua rhinestones from A Muse, Yellow Lemon slice from My Little Yellow Bicycle, grosgrain ribbon, sewing machine, scalloped oval Nestabilities

summer card camp: week 1

2011-06-28T09:46:00.000-04:00

I never went to camp as a kid. Ever. It wasn't something people from around here did...so I indulged with an online summer card camp class, and our first project was to make a card using the colors above. I decided to make a card using one of my favorite layouts, with the scalloped edging at the top:

Hope you're having a great day!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Star Prints, Tag Its 2; Paper: KI Memories Citrus Calendar, Echo Park, white, plum pudding; Ink: plum pudding, soft sky (SU!); Other: May Arts ribbon, Recollections flowers, tag die, large scalloped border die

papertrey june blog hop challenge

2011-06-25T09:47:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Papertrey Ink June Blog Hop Challenge! This month's challenge was to make a card inspired by the Pinterest photo Nichole posted in this link, which in brief was chock full o' rainbow delight!

It has been over a month since I have made anything and I was really happy to be crafting again. I've rekindled my love of raspberry fizz after making this card!

The raspberry fizz card base was run through the Cuttelbug with the linen impression pate, and the rainbow strips of In Bloom patterned paper were glued to cardstock before die cutting them with the Mat Stack:

Happy Blog Hoppin'!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Wonderful Words (& die); Paper: white & raspberry fizz, In Bloom PP; Ink: rich razzleberry (SU!); Other: raspberry rhinestones, Mat Stack die, banner die, corner rounder, linen impression plate

day trip: rockport, ma

2011-05-30T21:52:00.001-04:00

Today we took a day trip to Rockport, MA...when we left we thought we were only going to hit up the beach, but later found ourselves walking the really cute streets in the town center. Wishing I had my camera with me, I realized it would be great to blog about this adorable place. Then I realized that I could pin some pics of the key highlights to give you a feel for the day:

Source: google.co.uk via Jeanne on Pinterest

This is Motif No. 1...it is a famous fishing shack in the wharf along Bearskin Neck and has been called the most often painted building in America. It is famous because it survived "The Perfect Storm," the famous storm which the movie was based on.

Source: google.com via Laura on Pinterest

This is a photo of Bearskin Neck, probably in the off-season. Today all of these shops had their doors open and people were strolling everywhere. It was very "New England." There are lots of art galleries, jewelry shops, candy stores, and seafood restaurants...and a fabulous streudel shop that cannot be missed!

Today I got a cinnamon chip scone and it was fabulous!

Source: thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com via Tara on Pinterest

And nearly all of the stores have beautiful plantings in their window boxes and wine barrels outside their storefronts. I could walk around all day just staring at the flowers!

These last shots are from the Town of Rockport's website. The last two are pictures at the beach we visited today... It was a great trip. We were gone from the house for only 5 hours or so, and sneaking away for such a short time was worth it.

papertrey may blog hop challenge

2011-05-25T09:36:00.000-04:00

The theme for this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink is anything flowers, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to showcase my friend Christina MacLaren's talents, as she crocheted this beautiful flower embellishment for me:

I stamped BB Text Style in Versamark on the bird, and ran the Nesties frame through with the Woodgrain IP:

I am also entering this card in this week's CR84FN Challenge:

Happy Blog Hoppin'!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps:Background Basics Text Style, Wonderful Words (w/die); Paper: patterned paper by Echo Park (For the Record & Springtime collections), lavender moon, kraft, white; Ink: Rich Razzleberry (SU!), versamark; Other: Martha Stewart doily, Maya Road chipboard bird, woodgrain IP, grosgrain, pearl stick on & pins (Michael's), sewing machine, Sending You leaf die for bird wing, Label Nesties.

pdcc82

2011-05-23T11:38:00.002-04:00

I thought I would play along in this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge, and came up with this card late yesterday afternoon:

ETA: I was notified that this card also qualifies for the CAS-ual Friday Challenge this week, so I have entered it there as well!

I {LOVE} that yellow button from October Afternoon - makes my bow look like a daisy!
Have a great day!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Mixed Messages; Paper: Jillibean Soup, yellow shade from SU!, kraft, white, brown trim from KI memories; Ink: Dark Chocalate; Other: yellow button from October Afternoon, twill ribbon, crystals from Michael's, sewing machine, Memory Box doily die

for merry

2011-05-22T08:35:00.000-04:00

We are all thinking of you today, Merry!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps:Inside & Out Birthdays; Paper: white, kraft, PP by Jillibean Soup; Ink: Dark Chocolate; Other: May Arts ribbon, mat stack die, orange buttons, sewing machine, border punch

paperdolls challenge #37

2011-05-20T22:22:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone!

I am hosting the current challenge over at the Papertrey Paper Dolls blog. This time around I challenged everyone to make a card using patterned paper everywhere, except as the card base. I hope you will stop on over and join us!

Here's my card:

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

XOXO,
Suzanne

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Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: My Minds Eye; Paper: In Bloom PP, Distressed Dots PP, Bitty Box Basics PP, white; Ink: true black; Other: EK success border punch, white shimmer stickers, pearl stick ons (Michael's)

a little bit of country

2011-05-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

Last week on the Create Blog, there was a fabric flower tutorial that I wanted to try out, and this week's CARDS challange was to make a project using a flower made in this style.

I don't have lots of scrappy fabrics around here, so I cut up some old maroon hospital nursing scrubs that were hand-me-downs from my sister. The color of this fabric matched perfectly with some fun patterned paper that I picked up the other day:

I also used my new Memory Box die to cut the doily out of ocean tides paper:

And I heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder:

Try it out! It's a lot easier than it looks!

Supplies {by PTI unless otherwise noted}: Stamps: Signature Greetings; Paper: Jillibean Soup patterned paper, In Bloom paper, white, ocean tides; Ink: Fresh Snow; Other: twine by May Arts, button from SU!, cloth, candy dots, EK Success border punch, Memory Box doily die

the card yard

Freshly Made Sketches #22

Another Valentine's Day Card

Papertrey Ink: Day 6 Sketches, Take 2

Papertrey Ink Anniversary: Day 6 Sketches

Ribbon Carousel & Market Street Blog Hop - RCC39

My D.C. Getaway

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Day 2: Free Downloads

PTI anniversary day 1: favorite things

12 kits of christmas: january with renee

freshly made sketches & a muse studio peeks

introducing the *amazing* new ribbon carousel!

I'm hosting this week's ribbon carousel challenge!

freshly made sketches #18

2012 Valentine's Day Card Drive

mojo monday #224

an intermission of sorts

ribbon carousel challenge #35

Lucy's sketch week: day 5 & inspiration

Lucy's sketch week: day 4

lucy's sketch week: day 3

Lucy's sketch week: day 2

Lucy's sketch week: day 1

a year in review: 2011

wplus9 winter card

Merry Christmas, crafty friends!

ribbon carousel sale!

RCC #33

WMSC #77

shadow box decoration

christmas decorating at home

waltzingmouse christmas tag challenge

three for thursday

ribbon carousel challenge #31

ribbon carousel sale!

three for thursday: thanksgiving!

a time for thanks

three for thursday

inspired layout

RCC29: get sketchy with laura!

"bookoodles" of thanks

home sweet home

New to the Crew!

harvest

october papertrey blog hop

boo! for colourq challenge #107

market street special edition block party

Holiday Madness: wee memories #72

christmas tag funtime

MIM: homemade washi tape

halloween's coming!

moxie fab world tuesday trigger

my first attempt at 10MSPC

moxie fab world card play challenge

world card making day blog hop

5 years!

time for fun and relaxation!

Moxie fab world sketch challenge

Rolled Roses

Make It Monday #31

Lovely Labor Day

passing the torch

market street stamps block party

lazy saturday

Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop Challenge

happy fall

a card for my doggy

happy birthday, jessica!

Ribbon Carousel Challenge with Amber Ink

Warm Thoughts

lovey dovey

love makes the whirl go 'round

Fire and ash plaid

laurie, you'll always be our idol!

amber ink project #1

photo booth fun

Carrying the torch!

stamp-a-faire: just how awesome was it!?

where am i?

summer card camp: week 3

introducing the amazing new ribbon carousel!