Papertrey Ink October 2012 Blog Hop #3

"This month it is all about breaking out of your comfort zone and trying out some non-traditional color schemes for a holiday card or tag!  Six non-traditional holiday color schemes are provided. Pick one that inspires you and try your hand at using it as a starting point for a special holiday themed project!"

This is my third blog hop card!! You can see the other two entries for October 2012 here and here.

I had lots of fun creating another Christmas card for this colour challenge. It`s a great start on my card making for the holiday season! 

* The various baubles in the challenge picture wreath inspired me to use the round light bulb in the Holiday Lights stamp set. Each of the 4 colours was stamped several times along the string of lights.  (I did use Raspberry Fizz and Hibiscus Burst, but they tend to look very similar in colour.)

* In order to make the `glow` around each of the bulbs, I used one of the small flower stamps from Natural Beauties (Lemon Tart ink) and masked the lower half of it so that the image appears to radiate from the top of the light bulb.

* The card front was impressed with the Linen IP after stamping the images. 
* The Heart Border die was cut from Hibiscus Burst card stock, then attached to one side of the card front.
* Several rhinestones (1 pink & 2 aqua) were added to the top left corner. The sentiment was stamped with Smokey Shadow ink. 
* This panel was then mounted onto an Hawaiian Shores card base.

Card Details (PTI unless noted)
Stamps - Holiday Lights, Natural Beauties
Inks - Smokey Shadow, Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus, Raspberry Fizz, Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, Lemon Tarrt
Papers - Stamper's Select White, Hawaiian Shores, Hibiscus Burst
Dies - Heart Border die
Other Supplies - Linen Impression Plate, My Mind`s Eye rhinestones

Thanks for visiting today.  Have fun hopping!!
Karen C.

Papertrey Ink October 2012 Blog Hop #2

 

"This month it is all about breaking out of your comfort zone and trying some non-traditional color schemes for a holiday card or tag! There are six non-traditional holiday color schemes provided. Pick one that inspires you and try your hand at using it as a starting point for a special holiday themed project!" 
 
 I decided to make a second card for this month`s challenge; this time using the colour scheme above. I don't have all of the new Papertrey ink colours, so I used Close To My Heart Olive and Vineyard Berry which are good matches for PTI`s Avocado and Scarlet Jewel. In order to create a light pink (Blush) I used Hibiscus Burst and stamped it off before I stamped the image.

Love Lives Here: Holiday dies were used to cut four stockings and trim from Rustic Cream. These were stamped in the various challenge colours.  Another set of trims were cut from Stamper`s Select White and then layered with the stamped trims to create contrast. 
 (The 3 darker stockings represent my husband and two sons; the lighter pink stocking is mine!!)  
Dark brown brads were positioned under the pine branches and then the stocking dies were placed so they appear to be attached to the brads.

Vineyard Berry and light pink hearts were stamped along the pine branches and then Gold Stickles were added throughout the branches. The sentiment was stamped in Vineyard Berry. Foam tape was used to attach the card front to the Scarlet Jewel card base.

I finished the inside of the card with some 

of the same features used on the card front. 

Card Details (PTI unless noted)
Stamps - Love Lives Here: Holiday
Inks - Hibiscus Burst;  CTMH: Vineyard Berry, Olive
Papers - Scarlet Jewel, Rustic Cream, Stamper's Select White
Dies - Love Lives Here: Holiday die collection
Other Supplies - Ranger Gold Stickles; brown brads;

Thanks for visiting today. Enjoy the rest of the Blog Hop.
Karen C.

Papertrey Ink October 2012 Blog Hop #1

"This month it is all about breaking out of your comfort zone and trying out some non-traditional color schemes for a holiday card or tag!  There are six non-traditional holiday color schemes to work with.  Pick one that inspires you and try your hand at using it as a starting point for a special holiday themed project!"


 

I chose the above colour combo for my  card: 

The wreath was stamped with Smokey Shadow and then Aqua Mist 

and Twilight (Close To My Heart) were used to stamp the berries. 

A gold embossed sentiment (Holiday Lights), gold stickles around 

the wreath and a gold ribbon add a little extra colour and contrast.  

The card front (Soft Stone) was impressed with the Wood grain Impression Plate, mounted onto an Aqua Mist panel and then Ocean Tides card base. This same combination was used on the sentiment panel.

Card interior: Gold embossed sentiment and wreath image.

 Card Details  (PTI, unless noted) 
Stamps - Wreath for All Seasons, Holiday Lights
Inks - Aqua Mist, Smokey Shadow:  Versamark;  CTMH: Twilight
Paper - Soft Stone, Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides,
Other Supplies - Wood grain Impression Plate; Stampendous Gold Detail Embossing Powder; 
Ranger Gold Stickles;  gold glitter ribbon (from my stash)

Thanks for visiting. 
Enjoy the rest of the Blog Hop.
Karen C.

Pocketful of Balloons

Where has this month gone?? I've been busy with various projects, but have let my blog posts slide ... I'm back today with a birthday card I made last month for my youngest son.  I combined stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink and a set from Close to My Heart to make this card:

* I started with a Rustic White card base and then added a 3" strip of Summer Sunrise cardstock (impressed with the Canvas Impression Plate) onto the left side of the base. I wanted to create a pocket that resembled the dark denim look with the contrast stitching. To do this I stamped the stitching lines (Rugged Dude) with Versamark, onto Summer Sunrise card stock and then used clear embossing powder. This allowed me to stamp the coordinating 'denim texture' (CTMH Moonstruck ink) leaving the embossed stitching the original colour. I really like how this turned out and will definitely try it again.
* Six balloons were die cut with Heart-2-Heart #2 die and then stamped with red, green and blue polka dots, attached to the card front with foam dots and finished with Linen thread and a little bow.
* The sentiment is a combination of Back Pocket Basics and  "birthday wishes" from Vintage Picnic Sentiments. Three amber coloured stars from my stash were added to the top right corner.

Card Details:  (PTI, unless noted)
Stamps - Back Pocket Basics, Heart-2-Heat #2, Vintage Picnic Sentiments; CTMH: Rugged Dude
Inks - Soft Moss, Blueberry Sky, Pure Poppy; CTMH: Moonstruck;  Versamark;
Papers - Summer Sunrise; SU: Rustic White
Dies - Heart-2-Heart #2
Other Supplies - Canvas Impression Plate; Clear embossing powder; SU Linen Thread; Amber rhinestone star adhesives; 3D dots;

Racing Car Birthday

My niece's son celebrated his 2nd birthday this summer with a "racing car" theme. I didn't have a racing car stamp, but decided to do a search for free images on the internet. 

* I found a racing car on a site for free colouring book images; re-sized it and then printed it on white Bella card stock so that I could use my copic markers.

* The image was fussy cut and mounted on the Label Basics Angled die cut. The frame was stamped with Pure Poppy and the panel was embossed with the Wood grain Impression Plate for a bit of dimension.
* The fire image (Boy Basics: Out of This World) was stamped and then coloured with copic markers, before being tucked underneath the back of the racing car. The sentiment is from the same set.
* The card base (Stamper's Select White) was stamped with Sunny Yellow (Close To My Heart). Yellow stitching creates a frame along the outside edge. 
* The stamped black and white checker board strip (Waltzingmouse Stamps) makes me think of an image you would see at a race track. I stitched around this panel with black thread before mounting it onto the front of the card.
* Two red buttons with yellow embroidery floss are the finishing details.

I did a lot of experimenting with colours and details and I'm really pleased with the final results. Definitely a fun boy's card!!

 Inside

I always like to add some fun details to the inside of the card. I carried through the colour scheme by stamping the sentiments in red and black and adding the yellow stamped stars and the larger yellow die cut. The green "2" celebrates the birthday boy's age!!

Card Details: (PTI, unless noted)
Stamps -  Polka Dot Basics, Boy Basics: Out of This World, Label Basics, Big Birthday Wishes; Fillable Frames #1, Love Lives Here: Holiday , Waltzingmouse: Off Beat Backgrounds
Inks -  Pure Poppy, Memento Tuxedo Black; CTMH:  Sunny Yellow
Papers - Stamper's Select White;  Bella: White; yellow and green scrap card stock
Dies - Boy Basics: Out of This World die collection,  Seeing Stars, Label Basics Angled Die collection, Block Alphabet Numbers
Other Supplies - copic markers; red buttons; sewing machine; yellow embroidery floss;  3-D Dots

Thanks for visiting today.
Karen C.

My Little Crafting Corner

It's always fun to see how others design a crafting space and storage solutions. Along with card making and crafty projects, I have to find ways to organize my supplies so that I can easily access them when needed.

I have a portion of a bedroom as my crafting space, and I have used the bedroom drawers and a desk that were purchased years ago for my son. 

Here's one little corner of my space. 

 Lots of Drawers for Storage

White Set of 6 drawers sits close to my desk with a variety of supplies:
Top Drawer - supplies for heat embossing; glitter; stamp press; stamp-a-ma-jig
2nd - extra inks; SU Stamping wheels and stamps
3rd - Embellishments: brads, adhesive pearls and rhinestones; 
4th - Extra rulers; Scissors; Creative Memories Cutting System; blades
5th - Copic Markers; Water colour pencils; Pastels; small paper pads
Bottom - Heat Gun; Refill bottles of stamp cleaner; distressing tools

White Bin - holds all of my paper scraps organized by colour families. 
I usually look through this bin for scraps of patterned paper or card stock, 
before I cut into any new or full sheets.

Wooden 5 Drawer Unit - pictures for scrapbook layouts; Extra Supplies (adhesives, glue dots etc); Cricut cartridges and supplies; Wooden Stamp sets (mostly SU);

  
3 Drawers in Desk:
Top - Scor-tape, adhsives; glue dots; re-inkers; glue sticks; pens; post it notes; etc
2nd & bottom drawers - Papertrey Ink stamp sets stored in CD and DVD cases

On my Desk - files for cling stamps (C.C. Designs; Stamping Bells etc); extra scrap paper; Ott Lamp; glue pens; inks; ATG tape runner; markers; pens; pencils and rulers in containers.

White Wall Unit - inks; ribbons; Stickles; Flowers; buttons; eyelets

Ink Storage and Stamping

When I started collecting the new PTI inks, I realized I needed a different system to store them. So I designed a small unit that sits under the white wall shelf unit and my husband made this for me. It will hold 25 ink pads. (Unfortunately, I'm almost at capacity now!! I'm going to have to re think this one!!)

When I first got my ink pads I wanted a quick and easy way to 

identify them. I stamped the colour on the bottom of each pad.

I added a label to the edge of the lid. Each ink pad sits 

in the shelf so that it is stored upside down. These labels 

take all the guess work out of finding the right colour.

Here's a view of all of my ink storage. The wall unit houses my 

inks from Close To My Heart (the first inks that I bought when I started 

stamping) and a few Stampin'Up inks. The smaller unit that my 

husband built sits underneath the wall unit for easy access.

My "stamping" area has a cutting pad and a pull out drawer.  
(This was originally my son's computer desk.)   The drawer holds my 
paper cutter, Scor-board, acrylic blocks and a stamp cleaning pad.

 More Drawers = More Storage

The set of drawers to the right of my desk have other items that I use every day. The drawers are rather deep for the type of items stored. I would love to have some of the units that have 2" deep drawers so that I could more easily store these items: Paper punches; border punches; extra ribbon; embroidery floss; Baker's Twine;

Jet Maxx Storage and Die Cutting Area

 I bought 4 of these cube units when they were on sale at Micheal's.

The drawers under the Cuttlebug hold: 

* All of my embossing folders and impression plates

* A few of the larger dies that don't fit into the box

* Extra paper die cuts  

(I store them in some of the clear plastic boxes that the stamps come in)

* Stamps in CD and/or DVD cases (SU; Clear Dollar Stamps)

There are 3 empty drawers. I originally had planned on storing my PTI stamps in this unit, but found that I liked them close to my desk for easier access.

The drawers on the right side hold:

* Cuttlebug Plates, embossing pads, shims for my Cuttlebug

* Coaster board; magnetic sheets and tape; extra supplies

* Felt

The two boxes below the drawers hold:

* Christmas stamps and punches

* Christmas embellishments, papers and extra cards

On the side of the unit, 2 magnet sheets were adhered, so that I could store border dies. I also find that when I'm die cutting small pieces (letters/ numbers etc) I will pop them onto the top edge of the magnet sheets to store them in a safe place until I'm ready to put them back into their pouches. So far I haven't lost or misplaced any dies, so it's one thing that really works for me!!

 Main Die Storage

This is my third attempt at finding a storage solution for my PTI dies. I took a box and cut it down to allow access to the 'pouches'. I covered the box in a vinyl adhesive  to give it some additional stability. 
As you can see, it is getting very full. I have some Spellbinder dies at the back of the box, so I may move them out to one of the smaller drawers to free up space - I have a "few" more dies on their way to me from my latest PTI order!!

Orignally I stored my dies in these photo albums, by mounting them on card stock and adding a bit of magnetic tape. However, before long this system was not working - I had several binders and never seemed to be able to find what I wanted.

I didn't want to re-do all of the work for each of these pages, so I found that I could adapt the photo album pages to my new system. The pages were top loading, so I closed the top off (sewing or scor-tape works) and them slit an opening so that I could remove the card stock/die from the same side as the punched holes.

Each page is labelled with the appropriate die 

and then filed into the box in various categories.

If you look back at the box of dies, you can see the colour coded labels 

and how they are stored. This makes it very easy to find what I need.

I also created an inventory of all of my dies using the same categories. (see the outline of these, with a few examples, at the bottom of this post) 

I can take this list to my desk and check out what might work for my project, then go back to the storage box and quickly pull out my die. When I get a new die I hand print the name of it into the appropriate category. At some point I will probably update this on the computer.











Closet and Shelf Storage

I store paper, magazines, scrapbooks, my Cricut, envelopes, Close To My Heart Stamps and other odds and ends in the closet.

 Papertrey Ink Card Stock

 12" x 12" Paper Storage

This post has been very long; if you're still with me .... thanks for visiting!!!
If you have any questions about the various items I described, you can leave a comment below or e-mail me for further explanation. 

Have a Great Day!
Karen C.


Categories and Sub Categories for My Dies

NATURE
1. Flowers (Flower Fusion dies, Pretty Peonies)
2. Leaves (Leaf Prints; Sending You)
3. Trees (Floral Foliage; Trendy Trees)
4. Garden (Garden Variety; picket fence)
5. Butterflies & Birds (Little Bitty Birds; Butterfly Dreams)

HOME
1. Food & Beverage (Table Setting; Fruit Fusion)
2. Friendship Jars
3. Handmade/Clothes  (Loves Lives Here; Dress form; Buttons; Flip Flops; Pocket)
4. Heart-2-Heart Series
5. Star & Hearts (die collections)
6. Home Office/ Library ( Spiral note Book die; Edgers #5; Library Card  pocket)
7. Alphabets/ numbers

SPECIALTY THEMES
1. Boy Basics (Out of This World)
2. In the Sky (Up, Up & Away, Clouds, Airplane)
3. Animals (It's a Jungle; Sweet Baby)
4. Movers & Shakers ( Spinners; Zippers)

TAGS 
(Tag Sale; Library Card Tag; Tiny Tags)

FRAMES 
1. General Use (Ad Sense; Label Basics)
2. Framed Out Series
3. Fillable Frames
4. Banners & Borders ( Photo Finihers; Double ended Border die)
5 Doilies & Limitless Layers
6. Mat Stack Collections

CHRISTMAS/WINTER
 (I don't have sub-categories for this section).

SPELLBINDERS
1. Ovals
2. Circles
3. Squares/Rectangles
4. Labels

Papertrey Ink September 2012 Blog Hop

  
It's time for another Papertrey Ink Blog Hop.

 

This month we were challenged to make a packaging project using fabric or felt and PTI dies. The inspiration photo and Nichole's  outline provided me with a few ideas:

It's all about wrapping it up.  Whether you are preparing early for the holidays or have an upcoming birthday or two, try experimenting with fabric & felt packaging ideas.  Use any of our Favor It dies with felt and a little hot glue gun action or stitching.  Use a pretty piece of fabric like you would wrapping paper and make a custom tag to coordinate with it.  Not into sewing or gluing?  Wrap a kitchen towel or cloth napkin around a special bottle of wine and top it off with a hand-stamped gift label.  Or rip a strip of fabric to use in  place of ribbon and finish it with a pretty handmade gift card. 

 

 I loved the idea of creating a little "pouch" to hold a small piece of jewellery. Since I just finished making several Friendship Bracelets (based on Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire Challenge)  I thought it would be fun to see if I could use a variety of PTI dies to create a felt pouch. The bracelets that I made here  used Raspberry Fizz ink, so I knew I wanted to use it here for an accent colour.

 

 I started by cutting two pieces of white felt using the Library Card Tag die. One of the felt pieces was cut so that it would become the front pouch. I decorated it with Raspberry Fizz felt snowflakes, cut from the Winter Penguin Die collection. The smaller of the two snowflakes looks more like a little flower, but I decided to 'go with it'!! Each of these pieces was glued to the white felt with a liquid adhesive and then a mini pearl was added.

Here's the 'back' of the pouch, showing the full size of the Library Card Tag. The two pieces were stitched together using a bright pink embroidery floss with a blanket stitch. You can see the white reinforcement around the hole at the top of the tag. I wanted to thread a ribbon through this, but I was concerned that the felt would stretch out. I cut two card stock circles from the Tag Sale #1 die and glued them on the front and back of the felt opening.

Here are the Papertrey Ink dies that I used:

Tag Sale #1;    Winter Penguin Snowflake dies;    Library Card Tag

A small ribbon was added to the front (handed stitched in place) so that it can be pulled through and tied on the top flap of the pouch. 

You can see a small semicircle that was cut out of this portion ... I thought I would need this to make it easier to retrieve the bracelet inside  (originally I was going to mount the bracelet onto a piece of card stock). If I were to make this again, I wouldn't make this cut. 

You could used Velcro to create a closure for this pouch and then decorate the front of the pouch with a button or flowers.

Thanks for visiting today. Enjoy the rest of the Blog Hop.

Karen C.