For My Dad

For Father's Day I just had to CASE this card from the April countdown for Grunge Me and My Hero, My Dad.  To make the card a little less funky and a little more "my dad," I took a more outdoorsy, approach since my dad is obsessed with landscaping and his garden.  I absolutely love the blue background behind the silhouette image from Through the Trees.  It was one of those times where it was okay to be messy with the Copics and not worry about the streaks.  And it looks just like watercolours. 

For the inside, I used the same colour palette and combined a few of the sentiments from My Hero, My Dad to finish it off.  The plan was to have say it all in stamps, since I hate trying to come up with the right words to write. 

Overall, I am thrilled with the finished result and I know my dad will be too.  He's a tough guy, who rarely wears his heart on his sleeve, but we all know that he loves his girls.  And I LOVE the fact that he saves every card we give him.

I hope you all have a wonderful day with the men in your life. 

Happy Mother's Day

A quickie post of the card I made for my mom.  I had every intention of using the tulips for the Friendship Jars but realized when I sat down to stamp last night, there was just NO time to fiddle with Copics.  This baby fell together pretty quick and my mom loved it. 

I also spent some time sprucing up the inside using Turning a New Leaf and Mother.

As it turns out, great minds do think alike.  My PTI-loving sister used the exact same sentiment for the inside of the card she made!  LOL  That's the last time I give her free access to my stamp collection.  Now, I better go hide My Dad, My Hero before she sees that one. 

Hope you all had a great weekend. 

Who loves you?

In my feeble attempts to challenge myself, I am trying to use a wider variety of sizes for my card bases.  This tall & slim creation uses a lot of PTI products.  In fact, I think it's almost all PTI.  I have to confess, I am hard pressed to break up with SU Crumb Cake. 



To dress up the interior, I used a little Crystal Effects from SU on the heart balloons.  WOW.  In real life, they have so much shine and dimension that they look like really expensive embellies.  Crystal Effects also makes the pink ink look so incredibly rich.

Thanks for visiting today. 

See you all soon!

Suzanne

Supplies (all PTI unless otherwise noted)

Paper:  crumb cake (SU), stampers select white, dark chocolate, happy spots (printed)

Stamps:  Tiny Treats Valentine, Love Songs

Ink:  rose bud, tuxedo black, rich cocoa (Memento)

Other:  Take Three die, Limitless Layers

vintage valentine

Happy Wednesday, Friends.  I'm trying to get a jump on all of my holiday crafting for 2011, so I'm starting Valentine's Day early.  I was in Michael's on the weekend and found this gorgeous print that I literally fell in love with in the store.  I mean, I bought three 12 x 12 pieces of this.  I have been dying to ink up & create with Love Birds, so I was just messing around in my craft room last night (instead of marking book reports LOL).  This is what I came up with:

Hope you are having a great time.  And for my PTI forum buds, I hope you're working on your Holiday Central goals.  I've got big plans that I'm hoping will come to fruition over the next few weeks.  You may want to follow my blog so you'll know when I start to post my Valentine treat sets.  They're going to be great.

Have a great day!!
Supplies: 
Paper:  white (Neenah), red (Bazzill), print (Anna Griffin)
Stamps:  Love Birds
Ink:  Cranberry (ColorBox), Tuxedo Black, Chamomile Tea Dye
Other:  Large Circle & Petite Scalloped Circle dies (Spellbinders)

Reindeer Games

Happy Thursday!!  When I first saw the peeks of Alli Miles' new set Holiday Sparkle, I thought it wasn't for me.  Until I caught a peek of this sweet little fella.  I think I bought the whole set for this reindeer alone.  LOL  I am loving how all the images in this set are sized perfectly to fit on PTI's Tag Sale 1.  I don't do a lot of gift tags, but think they look fab on cards.  I especially love how this die cuts out the little reinforcement as well.

This little guy could do with a little more colour, but I stamped him in Staz-On which I know should not mix with Copics.  So, here he is, sparkly nosed, googly eyed, and looking like he's in desperate need of some sun.  As the temperature drops and the snow starts to swirl, I think we all could do with a quick sunshine getaway.  Oh well, a girl can dream.

I do apologize for photographing this against a white backdrop.  The border left on the white card base completely disappears.  If I wasn't so lazy, I would reshoot the pic.  But, I know that means re-editing, re-uploading ... let's just chalk this up to lessons learned & I promise not to do this again.  Okay?

Have a great weekend friends & I'll see you all next week!

Supplies:
Paper - solar white (Neenah), true black (PTI), kraft (SU), print (Echo Park or Girl's Paperie)
Stamps - Holiday Sparkle (PTI)
Ink - black (Staz-On), VersaMark
Other - green metallic EP, Tag Sale 1 (PTI), googly eyes, ribbon, & red rhinestone (unknown)

Peace on Earth

I really love the prints in PTI's Holiday Vintage Prints and wanted to create a set of cards using the gorgeous avocado stripe. A few weeks ago I showed you the first card in the set here. These are the other two:



The other card in the set used a PTI forum favorite, Turning a New Leaf, to add a little interest behind the sentiment. I love how the curve of the leaves mirrors the scripty font.



Thanks for sharing part of your day with me! And a special thanks to those who follow & comment on my little blog. You all make my day!

Details:
Paper - white (Neenah), red (Bazzill), stripe (PTI)
Stamps - dove & Peace (Recollections), Jesus sentiment (Stampabilities)
Ink - tuxedo black, pear tart, Encore gold metallic (Tsukineko)
Other - ribbon, gold tinsel EP (Stampendous)

a non-traditional Christmas

Sometimes it's nice to get away from the traditional reds and greens for the holidays and really shake it up. The card base is a turquoise from SU that perfectly matched the lime & teal print I found at my LSS. The Pure Poppy oval was die cut and embossed using one of the newest Nestabilities, Lacey Ovals.  This is another card I made for a fundraiser sale at my sister's office to benefit the United Way.

The two stamps were cheapie bin finds at Michael's. And the sentiment is going in the trash pretty soon. That baby's got a mind of it's own. And it does not like to stay put on a block. Not to mention, it does NOT stamp evenly.  I had to touch up the "y" in happy with a gel pen (bless you signo). 

Thankfully, my PTI Christmas order showed up so I have plenty of holiday sentiments to choose from that stamp like a dream.

Not much else to say so ... see ya later!!

scary siblings + OTWC #31

 

Aren't they so stinkin' cute?!? This is the final Hallowe'en card I made for my niece and nephews. They totally remind me of the boys. When they aren't fighting that is. The youngest loves to tag along with his older brother. And he'll swear up and down that he's not scared of something. But, we all know he is. We just let the little guy keep his game face on. LOL

The paper is from the Toil & Trouble collection by girls' paperie and the digital stamp is from Pink Cat Studios. I can't take credit for this in it's entirety as the road was CASE'd from a sample card on the Pink Cat website. The tension on my sewing machine was a little off (okay, a lot), so please forgive the wonky stitches. I think that this card is gonna be the hardest one to give away.

Happy Hallowe'en, boys and ghouls!!

Details
Paper - midnight flight (tgp), true black & SS white
Stamps - scary siblings (PCS), tt: hallowe'en
Ink - tuxedo black
Other - copics, modern label punch

PTI October Hop

It's been a while since I've hopped with my PTI forum friends, and I'm glad to be back this month. The challenge for October was to create a card that celebrates an upcoming winter holiday, not including Christmas.

For me, this was a challenge as I have few Christmas stamps and even fewer (okay, no) stamps for any other winter holiday. But, I took the challenge as an opportunity to try out my new Copics on a Pink Cat Studios digital image from their Hanukkah collection.



I've learned a couple of valuable lessons. First of all, I totally understand why people love PTI's Stamper's Select White and why they have SO MANY COPICS. It's really hard to blend, when you don't have the right shades. I also realized that I need to practise. A LOT! LOL Hopefully, my next attempts at Copic-ing will go better. I don't think it could go any worse.

Thanks for taking time to visit my little stop on the hop. And if you like what you see, feel free to follow my blog. I've got a few more Copic-coloured surprises in store that look WAAAAAY better than this.


Details:
Cardstock - Stamper's Select (PTI), blue (Bazzill),
Patterned Paper - Winter Wonderful (Best Creation Inc)
Stamps - Star of David bird (PCS)
Other - ribbon, Copics, Labels 14

A PTI Christmas

Just a quickie post of some more Christmas cheer. Even though Hallowe'en is just around the corner, I'm having so much fun using the gorgeous prints from Papertrey Ink's Holiday Vintage Prints paper pad.



I'm trying to wait patiently for my October release goodies to arrive. As much as I love this tree, it would be nice to have a few more Christmas sets to choose from. Although, I am kicking myself for forgetting to add Signature Christmas to my last cart. Oh well. Now I've got a reason to order in November.

Have a great day!!

Details:Paper: solar white (Neenah), pure poppy, lemon tart
Stamps: tree trimming trio (PTI), dove & sentiment (Recollections), teeny tiny wishes (su)
Ink: metallic gold, tuxedo black, bamboo leaves
Tools: tree die, XL ric rac die, label punch (su), 1/2" circle punch (EK)
Other: gold & red embossing powders, buttons, ribbon

Christmas Pt. 1

Today's card is doing double duty. Since I'm putting together cards for an upcoming fundraiser and spending all of my "free" time making Christmas cards, my time to play along with challenges is seriously limited. But, lucky for me, the set I inked up for this past weekend's card-making blitz, just so happens to be a choice for BethieJ's challenge of the week. The flourish tree in Tree Trimming Trio is absolutely stunning when cut out using the handy-dandy die released last month.



I am absolutely loving the new papers from echo park paper co. at my LSS. This background is from their Merry Christmas collection. Now if only PTI would put out a good music background building set, I'd be on cloud nine.

Thanks for taking the time to swing by for a visit! And drop by any time. I love having company.

Spooky Thanks

Well, between getting Christmas cards ready for an upcoming fundraiser and life in general, I did find time to break out one of my newest (okay, my only) Hallowe'en set for Bethie's stamp challenge. Thank heavens for long weekends.

Each week over on the Papertrey Forum, we're given a choice of three PTI stamp sets to get the mojo flowing. Since my last PTI order included Hocus Pocus paper, I naturally chose Tiny Treats: Hallowe'en .



I realized after the fact that I forgot to colour Frankenstein, so I added a bit of green for hair and a sickly beige for the skin before Frankie went postal.

The inside and envie got almost as much love and attention as the outside.



I can't wait to see which sets are chosen for next week's challenge. Sketch challenges are great, but having to work from a short list of stamps was awesome. The focus really helped. Thanks for the inspiration & motivation.

Have a spooktacular day friends!!

Details:
Stamps: Tiny Treats: Hallowe'en, All Booked Up (PTI)
Paper: true black & Hocus Pocus (PTI), white (Neenah)
Inks: tuxedo black & tangelo (Memento), fresh snow (PTI)
Other: Mat Stack 3, Corner Chomper, ribbon (Offray)

Give Thanks ...

This started out as my card for last month's Petite Challenge. But, when I finally found a sentiment that didn't cover up too much of the background, I realized that my card was better suited for the holiday. So, Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! This one's for you! Enjoy your time with family and friends.



Details:
Paper - white (Neenah), terracotta tile (PTI), certainly celery (SU)
Stamps - French Foliage (SU), Verse (Verve)
Ink - all Memento
Other - Labels 14 (Nesties), Corner Chomper, ribbon (unknown)

Oh, Canada!!

It's been a few days since I've gotten crafty, but some birthday's shouldn't be overlooked. This card uses one of my favorite combinations, kraft, white, and pure poppy and forced me to finally ink up SU's Glorious & Free.



For anyone who has yet to visit Canada, it's truly a glorious country. I've always been proud to be Canadian, but since February, even more so. Hopefully the same patriotism and pride that Canadians displayed from sea to shining sea during the Vancouver 2010 Games will be on display today.

Happy Canada Day!!!

Supplies:
Paper - pure poppy (PTI) kraft, white (Bazzill)
Stamps - Glorious & Free (SU)
Inks - Chestnut Roan (ColorBox), Red Magic (VersaMagic), Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other - 3/4" punch (EK), white gel pen (Sakura), Stamp-a-ma-jig