Retro - Designing with Papertrey

It's PTI AnniversaryDay 2! Today they introduced all the fabulous stamp designers and I'm totally stoked for this year. They have a fabulous free download of images created by the designers to use for today's contest. My younger brother is turning 30 in a couple of weeks and Erin Lincoln's cassette tape seemed perfect for his card.


This would have been a super quick and easy card if my kids had been asleep, but they weren't so it took all day. You can't see in this picture but I ran the grey strip through the woodgrain impression plate so it has some manly texture. So happy to have his card out of the way!

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: Stamps - PTI Simple Alphabet
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - PTI white, New Leaf, Smokey Shadow
Other - Free download, Sunshine Impression Plate, Woodgrain Impression plate, pop dots, Copics - C1, YG23, YG06

PTI Anniversary Day 1 Part Deux

Like I said, might even be two posts. ;) Squeezed in a second card tonight, this one inspired by Ashley Cannon Newell's project. I'm so excited she's on the design team! Her work is amazing!

I used an unusal color combo for me: Soft Stone, Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist, and Smoky Shadow (except it's really SU Basic Gray ribbon and Memento London Fog ink because I haven't bought the grey collections from PTI yet. But I will. That Smoky Shadow satin has me swooning.) I used several sets for this one, which is nice. Makes me feel all mix and matchy. Background Basics: Hearts, Text Style, and Polka Dot Basics 2 and the new Simply Jane. I cut a felt rose from the closest thing I have to Lemon Tart. No idea who makes this felt. I picked it up in Austin at The Stitch Lab. Great store. You should go if you're in Austin and like sewing. I digress.

I saw another poster made a top 5 PTI products list of her own and loved it so I'm stealing it. I'm hideously bad at this kind of thing but here goes.

1. Woodgrain Impression Plate. - I. Love. It.
2. Cloud Dies - Because they make every card cuter. Except this one. Well, maybe this one, too, I didn't try it.
3. Simple Alphabet - Used it a bazillion times.
4. Cardstock - Especially white, kraft, Soft Stone, and Lemon Tart.
5. Buttons - I love digging through the bag and looking at every single one. Oh, and using them. That's fun, too.

Thanks for looking! See all the awesomeness here. Can't wait to see what Nichole's got in store tomorrow!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Simply Jane, Background Basics: Hearts, Background Basics: Polka Dot Basics 2, Background Basics: Text Style
Ink - Papertrey Aqua Mist; Memento Dandelion, London Fog
Paper - Papertrey Soft Stone, Aqua Mist, Lemon Tart
Other - Papertrey Simply Jane dies; yellow felt; Stampin' Up! Basic Gray taffeta

PTI Anniversary Contests!

So, yeah, big surprise, I posted about posting more often and then let a whole month go by. Distracted is in the title of the blog for a reason, folks! About the time I start to recover from the madness that is December, I remember I have a birthday party to plan for my oldest! Panic ensues. Etc. The party was super cute so I will try to post about it after the madness that is early February, Papertrey anniversary time. 'Cause nothing gets me posting like ginormous prizes. There might even be two posts in one day. Ya never know.

Today's contest is to choose one of the Design Team's favorite projects as inspiration. I chose Melissa Phillips fantastically gorgeous baby card. I absolutely love Melissa's vintage style although it is nothing like mine. Melissa makes masterpieces and she makes them with love. Every piece is a treasure.

I don't have the sweet little stork set (but I'm thinking of getting it now - these designers make me buy things I never even glanced at before all the time!) so I poked around my table, where apparently I'm storing everything I own, and found the Fruit Fusion: Apple set. I paired it with the sweet baby sentiment from Mixed Messages. Ran the onesie through the Linen and Canvas impression plate to give it a little texture. I faked a Peter Pan collar with the ric-rac and trimmed the arm and legs with it, too. Mine is sort of the poor country cousin to Melissa's card, but it is very much made with love and going to an adorable new baby.

Thanks PTI for the inspiration, the kick in the pants to post, and for stealing all my money! I kid, I kid. Sort of. Happy anniversary!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Fruit Fusion: Apple, Mixed Messages

Ink - Memento Bamboo Leaves, Ladybug; Tim Holtz Distress Ink Old Paper

Paper - Papertrey Soft Stone

Other - white ric-rac; Scor-tape; sponge; Papertrey Pure Poppy button, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate, Onesie die

Present

Oh hello. It's been a while, hasn't it?

It's a whole new year. A new calendar. Lots of lists of things we did and things we hope to do. Introspection. And there was a three day weekend. All things I love.

I've decided to participate in One Little Word this year and my word is "present". As in, be present, be in the present, present a good example (yes, technically that's a different word entirely, but it's spelled the same so there), each day is a present (and I like presents!), all the things in my life that are presents from above, and I'm sure tons of things I haven't thought of yet. I will try to be present more here, as well. I missed my own blogaversary for Pete's sake.

So let's catch up.

Our new baby is almost 3 months old and has a stack of outgrown clothes! The oldest is almost 4 and, by "almost", I mean that I have 2-3 weeks to throw together a birthday party (top theme contenders are an art party or a Mario Bros party). Yes, I will be spending copious amounts of time on Pinterest. And, lest I have leave out the other boy thereby fostering his inevitable middle child syndrome, he has a huge vocabulary for a 2 year old, recognizes several letters, counts, sings songs, and adores his little sister.

We had a great holiday season if you ignore the stomach bug, the ER trip for the busted gum (no stitches needed!), the crazy melt-down I had trying to get everything ready for extended family Christmas Eve morning, and that the suitable for 5 yr+ transformer I bought the boy took my extremely handy husband 30 minutes to turn from a robot to a car. But it really was nice. There was a lot of good family time and that's what it's really about, isn't it?


I have been crafting and cooking so I should have a post with pictures next time. I'm going to try my hand at Project Life this year and take Ali Edwards One Little Word class. Through the magic of Pinterest I've discovered embroidery. This baby season is just about over (waiting on 2 last babies) but the next cycle has begun! So I won't just gab next time, but if I wait until I get pictures to get started it might be February or 2013! So best to just get this awkward first post back out of the way. And there's no time like the present.

PTI Blog Hop and a New Arrival

I cannot believe I'm actually doing the PTI blog hop! It's been months since I've managed to hop! I loved, loved, loved the pumpkin picture with all the fun patterns and was all set to do something like that.

And then, totally didn't. I noticed the acorns and thought, "hey, I have a rockin' acorn set from PTI that hasn't seen enough ink." And then, "hey, I need to make a baby card for my friend who might come visit tomorrow." So I made this instead. :)

I used the onesie die, the canvas and linen impression plate, and the Autumn Acorns set and acorn die. The felt is not pti and I promise the dark one is green not black! I don't know what's up with that, but it's a very pretty dark olive green that I got at Joann's for an abandoned project a few months ago. Super simple, but I don't have much time to stamp lately.

Our own new arrival showed up earlier this month and I'm pretty nuts about her, too. Her brothers are over the moon and her dad is already in abject terror of her dating. She's pretty and sweet and took a nice little snooze so I could make this card tonight. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI Autumn Acorns

Ink - A Muse French Roast

Paper - PTI Orange Zest, GinaK Ivory, Stampin' Up! Close to Cocoa

Other - PTI Autumn Acorns die, PTI Onesie die, A Muse light green felt, dark green felt from JoAnn's, PTI Canvas and Linen impression plate, scor-tape

Apples!

It's finally fall! Hooray! It's still 90 degrees here, but we'll just ignore that for the moment. I made a few fall apple crafts to celebrate the demise of summer. I promise to work on my blog photography skills in the coming months, but for now these will have to do.

Apple specimen art using the Martha Stewart apple punch and a ton of paper scraps. I do want to frame it but haven't found an 8x10 cheap enough yet.

These were extremely fun! I saw this awesome Everything Etsy link on pinterest (one of my favorite hangouts lately) which takes you to The Purl Bee's Apple Coaster tutorial. I love projects that you can do while watching tv with your family in the living room. And the only thing I had to buy for the coasters was some green embroidery floss. I love that, too. :) There are three more plain apple coasters in yellow, green, and red, but my horrible photo skills didn't let them all be in the shot. So hooray fall, hooray felt, hooray scraps, hooray apples!

Dino Birthday

Well, I am just not keeping up with things! It's been a month since my last post. I didn't think it had been that long. Baby girl will be here in three weeks and that's the excuse I'm going with. ;)

A very sweet little boy belonging to a very dear and sweet friend is having a birthday tomorrow. We are going to do everything we can to get to his birthday party this weekend since we'll be staying close to home once Little Miss gets here. It's dino themed. I love this retired My Favorite Things dinosaur set (that another dear friend sent me) and pulled it out for his card. FYI: I did make *my* sweet little boy a birthday card and might actually blog it some decade soon. Also, I used the MFT sketch challenge sketch for this but didn't realize the upload deadline was today at noon. Oops! It's a really cute sketch so don't be thinking it was my idea or anything. ;)

I colored the dino body with copics - um, green ones - and then dotted all over it with the colorless blender to give it some texture/not have to blend so much. The paper is Basic Grey Life of the Party that I got half off at Hobby Lobby today because they have finally started carrying some 6x6 pads! Whoohoo!

Supplies: Stamps - My Favorite Things dino set

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peeled Paint

Paper - PTI white, SU certainly celery, Basic Grey Life of the Party 6x6 pad

Other - sponge, copics, pop dots