Papertrey Ink Designer Inspiration

Anniversary celebrations and challenges have been 'popping up' at Papertrey Ink for the last 10 days. All of the Design Team members showcased favourite projects and Nichole challenged us to create something using these as our inspiration. Wow it was hard to get started .... I first had to decide which of the 66 projects (here) I wanted to start with!!!

Inspiration Photo

I was really attracted to Cristina Kowalczyk's card with leaves, die cut and negative die space. I have to admit that I tried this 3 times, and finally settled on this version. My original card started with a horizontal card base, but after some stamping mistakes I ended up making a vertical card. 

Leaves and flower - Embroidered Blooms; Beautiful Blooms #3 dies.

 Sentiment - Mega Mixed Messages. 

Sew Simple Borders - 'cross stitching' on the edge of the card front.

Inks - Simply Chartreuse; Limeade Ice; Blueberry Sky; Golden Harvest; Summer Sunrise
Other Supplies - Aida Cloth Impression Plate;  Stamper's Select White card stock; amber rhinestones; foam dimensional tape.

A sentiment from Half & Half was stamped inside and a small 

leaf image was added with Simply Chartreuse and Limeade Ice.

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.

Payton's Apron

One of my grand nieces celebrated her 4th birthday in January. I made this appliqued apron for her. She likes to bake with her mom, so I thought this would be a fun personalized gift.

McCall's 6476

A variety of fabrics were used for the appliqued designs, and were

stitched with a blanket stitch on my sewing machine to finish the edges.

Machine Appliqued Teapot

Machine Appliqued Tea Cup

A pink button is the cherry on top of  the cupcake!!

Machine Appliqued Cup Cake

CupCakes and Tea Cup

Tea for Two

Along with the apron, I sent Payton 2 books: Mmm, Cookies`  by 
Canadian author Robert Munsch and  Fancy Nancy `Tea For Two`.

(Her mom`s name is Nancy, so I knew she would get a chuckle out of that title!!)

Nancy told me that when the parcel arrived, Payton put the apron 

on and asked if they could have a tea party. She must have liked it, 

because she didn`t take it off until bedtime!!

This is the birthday card I included with her gifts. I made this `Little Emma`card (C.C. Designs) for my stash last fall.  Details for this card can be found here.

I finished the card interior with a few Papertrey Ink stamps and inks:

Card Interior

Inks - Hawaiian Shores, Kraft, Hibiscus Burst; Memento Rich Cocoa

Stamps - Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Natural Beauties, 

 It`s Official, Background Basics: Woodgrain

Other - circle punch,  3D Foam Dots

 

I am linking this to Sew Darn Crafty 

Linky Party Week 101 at Sew Many Ways. 

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.

Workshop Birthday Cards

Several relatives have birthdays in January, but after the holidays I found that I  had little energy for card making. It was a great time to `shop`my card stash and these two cards seemed perfect for my niece and her daughter. (They live in New Zealand, so bright colours  and flowers are good choices for their "summer" birthdays!!).  Both cards were made at a workshop I attended at my local scrap booking store. All I had to do was finish off the interior sentiments!!

This is the card I used for Polly`s birthday - she just turned 2 !! 

* Turquoise textured Bazzill cardstock was used for the 6"x 6" card base. 
* It incorporates several mats (green and pink) along with two patterned fabric pieces, pink dotted ribbon, narrow turquoise ribbon and clear buttons. 
* The focal image (Swiss Pixie Heidi Among the Flowers - C.C. Designs) was coloured with copic markers. The birthday sentiment is from Close To My Heart.

Card Interior

I stamped sentiments from PTI`s Movers & Shakers Sentiments. I also added her age at the bottom near the fence.(Swiss Pixie Butterfly Fence - C.C. Designs stamp)

Kristin`s Card:

* This 6" x 6" card uses a olive green card base and layers of patterned paper and chocolate brown card stock. 
* The focal image (Emma - Lulu Collection: Stamping Bella) is paper pieced and mounted onto a scalloped brown mat. 
* Flowers from my stash were added with a brown brad in the center.

 Card Interior:

* The inside of the card was decorated with vines and flowers that I  drew 
with green and red markers.  

* Two flowers were cut from patterned paper with a circle punch and mounted 
onto red card stock on top right corner.  
* Flowers (Flower Fusion #1 & #3) were stamped on either side of  the sentiments  (Flower Fusion #1 & #9)

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.

Polly's Birthday Purse

One of my grand nieces turned two in January. I decided to make a little quilted purse for her. I started with the ladybug fabric and then found some 'swirly' red and white fabric at Fabricland that was a good match.

I had a purse pattern for a larger version, using 6 'wedges' of 
fabric, but I tweaked it to make this mini purse with 5 pieces!! 

The red button is 'decorative' ... Velcro was used to hold the purse closed.

I started by cutting 3 wedges from each of the two fabrics so that I 

could play around with the placement of the colours. Here's the first 

combination using two ladybug panels and three of the swirly fabrics.

I finally decided on this arrangement, since I wanted the ladybugs 

to stand out and the darker fabric was planned for the handles.

I used more of the red/white swirls for the back of the purse. 

(the inside was lined with ladybugs)

I used a thin layer of quilt batting and used the  'stitch in the ditch' method between the wedges to hold the layers together. I also stitched in the center 
of each wedge, using white thread on the ladybugs and red thread on the 
swirls. The extra stitching holds everything together very neatly.

On the back of the purse I used the same 

stitching design to hold the layers together.

Polly's Birthday Purse

Polly has been busy 'shopping' with her purse and this little fabric pouch that I made as part of her gift at Christmas. (Details about the pouch here.) 

 

Christmas Fabric Pouch

      

 It's so nice to hear when the little ones love something that I make for them.

 

I am linking this to Sew Darn Crafty Party Week 100 at Sew Many Ways. 

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.

Pillow Box Stamping: MIM #102

When I first saw the new "Make It Monday" Challenge" (Pillow Box Stamping) 
at Papertrey Ink, I wasn't sure if I would play along -  I don't have the 
Pillow Box die or a Silhouette/Cameo machine to cut the design.   But ... 
I found a ready made pillow box in my stash and took it apart so I could 
use it as a template.  After making several of the boxes with white card 
stock, this die has gone to the top of my wishlist!! 

I had so much fun stamping the rainbow of stripes onto the card stock and decorating them to co-ordinate with some cards I already had in my stash.  
I used Distressed Stripes for all of theses, but varied the colours of ink.


#1:  Birthday Wishes

I made this card for the 2012 Stamp-A-Faire Challenge (view card details here) 

The same colour scheme was used to stamp diagonal stripes on the Pillow Box - Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold & Simply Chartreuse. 

I also added stripes in  Raspberry Fizz and Berry Sorbet for some extra pizzazz!! 

In order to co-ordinate the card and gift packaging I stamped a  

Tremendous Tags die cut with the flowers from Botanical Silhouettes 

and added a sentiment from Year of the Flowers Collection. 

A green satin ribbon and bow finishes the package. 

My sister-in-law's birthday is coming up, so this set will be perfect for her!!

#2. Rainbow Wishes

When I stamped these stripes, the colours totally reminded 
me of Skittles or Tutti Frutti gum!!  I'm going to use this 
box to hold a sweet treat for my son on Valentine's Day!!

Inks: Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, Harvest Gold, 

  Summer Sunrise, New Leaf, Spring Moss

Other: Just for You stamps; 1 3/4" circle punch; yellow grosgrain ribbon 

#3.  Red - Black - White Valentine Wishes

Here's another variation of the pillow box using red and black 

stripes and images. I'm going to add some Valentine candies to 

this package for my husband. It will co-ordinate with the card 

and card holder that I made for the January 2013 Blog Hop. (here)

Inks: Pure Poppy, Soft Stone, Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Distressed Stripes; Heart-2-Heart #11; Tag- Its #11; Love Potion

Other: Tremendous Tags die; Pure Poppy Baker's Twine; red satin ribbon 

Stamping Tip:

Ashley's tip in the video was very helpful in creating 
a continuous look from the front to the back of the box. I stamped the box while it was flat and made sure that the colours matched at the folds. I used a piece of paper to mask one side at a time.... creating a 'chevron' effect on the sides of the pillow box. It took a little extra effort but I was pleased with the final results.  I can see lots of these in my future!!
Making these pillow boxes was so addictive!! 


Thanks for visiting today. 
Karen C.