It is the 8th Anniversary of Papertrey Ink and they have all sorts of challenges for us followers/lovers!  To start with is the sketch/color scheme challenge.

To be honest, I pick color schemes based on if I can find the color cardstock in my messy craft room.  I had these handy.  But to honest with you, all the color schemes are great!!!!

I went with a wine theme.  I used the Celebrate die from the uncorked words die set and make it the background, almost an embossed look.  Then I made a pattern on the tag using the two smaller wine glasses.    I made the small wine glass dies as the “charms” “tags” hanging from the gold cord.   I also stamped the words “wine” and “cork” on the glasses to ass a little something something!!!

Instead of a button on top of the tag I made a cork!!!  LOL.   Got to love that cork paper pack I got!!!

I found little O-rings to make the glasses look like wine charms.   Also you can see the close-up of the word background.

The inside of the card was using summer sunrise!!!

Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Cardstock from Papertrey Ink – Ripe Avocado, Summer Sunrise, Plum Pudding, Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chartruese
Ink from Papertrey Ink  – Ripe Avocado
Papertrey Ink Uncorked Stamp Set
Papertrey Ink Uncorked Die Set
Papertrey Ink Uncorked Word Die Set
Cork Paper
Gold Cord
O-rings

Continuing on with Day Five of the Clean and Simple Online Card Class…I took on the challenge of the Laura Bassen card.  Laura always does an awesome job of blending colors to make awesome jobs!!!!

I actually took her class on Craftsy and would highly recommend it to those who want more of those type of techniques.

It warmed my heart to hear her say that sometimes she does a card over and over again.  I feel so rushed to finish a card that I let it go with all the messy stuff.  Funny how we perceive that all cards they make as being perfect every single time.

The first thing I did was pull out my baby wipes to notice the little clouds on the sheets.  Oh dear why did I not have plain old cheap ones.   LOL   I did find some handiwipes to use on top of the nice cloud laced puffy baby wipes to make the card.

I have a confession.  I rarely get re-inkers.   So I was stuck, then I remembered that I had a ton of the Stampin Up! re-inkers from the old consultant days.  Yeah, most of them worked.  Sadly some had dried out!

I was going to punch a hole in the middle of the card but since there was a lot of white space, I thought the print would get lost.  So I decided to add a tag like sentiment.  At first it was going to be a strip across the card, but dang, that sentiment is large!!!

Finally settled on a velum tag and the green tag with some cording.  I love how this stamp is suppose to look like a written note made with a calligraphy pen.

Supplies:

Neenah Solar White Card Stock
My Favorite Things Card Stock – Lush Lagoon, Green Room
Stampin Up Reinkers:  Wild Wasabi, Bermuda Bay, Blue Bayou, Baja Breeze
Avery Elle Wood Grain and More Stamp Set
Avery Elle Write It Stamp Set
Ranger Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder
Gold Cord
Simon Says Sparkle and Shine Sequins

For Day Five of the Clean and Simple Online Card Class, Jennifer Rzasa showed us the ink patterns technique using washi tape to make a geometric design.  She had did some research online to find a muse to start her inspiration.  So I went out to Pinterest and searched for Geometric Designs.  This one caught my eye.    This was an art print from Etsy and I loved the shading of different colors in separated sections.  Since I had the washi tape, and the distress Inks I said Let’s Go!!!!!

This was my interpretation of the print.

If you look closely enough, it is the same design in the print of the circle on the lower right.

I thought a circle card was a different look for me and decided to use different colors in the “Color Wheel” instead of similar colors.  Next time I might stick to one color family and blend to create different tones.

Supplies:

Distress Inks ( in my vain attempt to keep my workspace clean I put them away before writing down the color names)
Nennah Solar White Cardstock
Think Little B Washi Tape
Simon Says Stamp Hello You Stamp Set
Memento Ink Black Tuxedo Ink

Also posted in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Day Three Continues on the Clean and Simple Online Card Class.  At first I was going to do a sailboat like Kristina, but I kept looking at the sky and thought it would be cool to do a nighttime sky with a sailboat.  I pulled out my sailboat and it was one of those kind that were separate pieces,  nope.  Then I thought it would be cool to do a silhouette of an animal in black looking at the stars.  Well none of the animals I had were looking up, and if they did, the die looked like a blob.   LOL…. so I decided to do a horse.  Yes a horse.  A wonderful majestic horse running wild against the night sky.   Ok, so he was trotting, but can you just picture the scene.  Just play along with me!!!

What was so interesting about this technique is that it took a long time for the stars to come out….sort of like real life…waiting for those stars to come out.   LOL

Finding the sentiment was a tough one until I found a stamp set from Ali Edwards called Get Outside.  Not sure what you would use this card for, except for a party….calling all wild people.   LOL

thanks for looking!!!!

Supplies:

Galloping Horse Die by PoppyStamps
Black Cardstock
Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Simon Says Blue Violet Inkpad
Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger
Versa Mark Inkpad
Constellation Background Stamp Set by Hero Arts
Get Outside by Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday Stamps

Also Posted in the Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

Still plugging away on my cards from the Clean and Simple Online Card Class.

Ladies I admire those of you who have posted all  your cards….Not sure how you do it!   Still on day three and the class is over with

Well this one was inspired by Julie Ebersole Gesso Resist card… Oh by the way, I am ordering that deer die.  I cannot get enough deers and antlers.

When I saw her card I was struck by the colors and how they looked like fruit, from fruit came lemons, from lemons came lemonade.  Aha!!!  I have some lemonade stamps somewhere!

In fact I had two!!!

Now I want lemonade!!!  LOL

Supplies:
White Gesso
Distress Ink: Squeezed Lemonade, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade
Lemonade by Simon Says Stamps
Lemonade2drink by The Stamps of Life
Tangy Orange Card Stock by My Favorite Things
Neenah Solar White Card Stock
Vellum
Hero Arts White Embossing Powder

Also posted in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes!!!

I liked the faux embossing look of the cards on day 4.   It really got me thinking.  I have so many dies that would make an interesting background.

I decided that I wanted to use my maze dies.

I ended up altering the location of each die so that it gave a diamond look on the background.   I looked for a stamp that had the word AMAZING, but alas I did not have one.  This one came from a stamp set with glasses… hence the looking for you statement.  I figured with the maze, you could be looking for someone.  It was a stretch, but it worked.

Supplies:

A-Mazing Dies from Papertrey Ink
Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Red Cherry Cardstock from My FAvorite Things
Geek if Check Stamp Set from My Favorite Things
Hero Arts White Embossing Powder

Also posted in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

I really liked Debbie Hughes card and did indeed check out Pinterest for examples, and WOW, such great paper cutting items.  Many way too complicated for a girl like me, but I did take some inspiration.

I wanted to make something more than a heart shape and decided to do an animal shape.  Since I volunteer at an Animal Rescue, I decided to make a Labrador dog.   I found a silhoutte on line and printed it up and used it to make an outline on my card.  Well it was a little more complicated than I thought.  Besides moving parts around, and cutting more and more shapes the glueing was very tricky and got a blob on the top.  It dried pretty good, but kinda ruined the background.   As you can tell I used a lot of hearts, tools, utensils, a bird, Santa and his sleigh, apple, coffee mugs, a bird, a banana, and two puppies!  You name it.  Small stars for his toes. a knife for his tail.

He still looked somewhat hard to figure out, so I ended up adding a bunch of dots to fill in the blank space.     If I look hard enough, it looks like a dog with Botox lips wearing a turleneck and sunglasses.   Or as my sister said, looks like a dog or an ugly cow.   LOL

I normally would list all the supplies here, but I pulled so many dies out I could not figure out which ones I ended up using.   But a lot of them were Memory Box for those who care.

My lamp made it a little bright but I used Kraft cardstock and black cardstock.   I also used a Pico Embellisher in a dark dark navy color for the dots.

Thanks for looking!!!

Posted in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes

I really wanted to use my new Avery Elle stamp set.  I am crocheter and wanna be knitter, so this set appealed to me.   It was a bit wider than I wanted to I set the card the opposite direction.

All was going well until the inking.   I used the wrong ink on the middle layer, it was suppose to be the bottom layer, so now I needed a darker color on the bottom.   Then when I put the layers on the card I did not line up the pieces carefully.  So there is a slight zig on the bottom piece.   I guess the card is correctly named…. Darn It.   But despite the errors, I like the card.  I highlighted the yarn with colored pencils so it popped a little bit more.

Supplies:

Neenah White Card Stock
Avery Elle Made with Love Stamp Set
Avery Elle Dotted Borders Die
Distress Ink: Spun Sugar, Pickled Raspberries, Festive Berries
Stampin Up! Colored Pencils

Thanks for looking!!!!

Lordy,   I tried, I really did!  I had this vision in my head.  I could see a wonderful blending of blue embossing powders, giving the illusion of rain.   I pictured, the umbrella as a 2nd color.  I did.  I could see it in my mind.

However the crafting Gods would not let me accomplish it!   First of all, nobody, and I mean nobody sells packs of colored embossing powders.   Michaels is love struck on micro beads and glitter, and woefully short of embossing powders.  I picked thru their pathetic selection of embossing powders.   Ended up with green and blue shades.    Some pearl (which I think are pretty) and some glossy, some flat, certainly someone sells beautiful colors of embossing powders that are no glitter…. sigh!

Then because the background stamp had too much white space, I could not get the umbrella to show up…. then I used distress ink to highlight it.   It looked horrible.  Tossed it away (I did take it out of the trash to use the back side to test ink colors….so not a total waste)

Then I decided to make the umbrella by embossing with the matching colors.   Since I used the foam sheets to raise up the card, I could need to drop the shapes down into the opening.  Just slightly off.  No big deal.  Can hardly tell.

But what sticks out as a sore thumb to me, is the darn glue debacle when putting the word on the card.  Have I mentioned that I am not a fan of Tombo Mono Multi Liquid Glue.   It either never comes out, or squirts everywhere.  Today it was everywhere.   I got glue all over the card.  There are glue noogies all over the bottom.  But what the heck, we must move on.  And must find my matte finish to glue with in the future.

Close up of the umbrella

Supplies:

Neenah White Cardstock
Hero Arts Fresh Cut Raindrops Background Stamp
My Favorite Things Die-namics Layered Umbrella Die
Versamark Ink
WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello Die
Zing Green Embossing Powder
Recollections Pearl Embossing Powder Tourmaline
Recollections Citron Opaque Embossing Powder
Recollections Pearl Embossing Powder Sapphire
Recollections Opaque Embossing Powder Glacier

Thanks for looking!!!!!

Well here we are at another Online Card Class.  To be honest with you, they do not come our fast enough.  Was all excited all month long waiting for this to start.

Here is my attempt at masking and heat embossing.  WOW!  I never knew you could cover up the versamark and have it still work.  Learned something new!

I hope you enjoy!!!

Supplies:

Flourishes Background Stamp
Versa Mark Ink
Stampin Up Embossing Powders:  Wild Wasbi, Melon Mambo, Pool Party
Ranger Silver Embossing Powder
Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Melon Mambo card stock by Stampin Up!
My Favorite Things Die-Namics Thank You Die set
Corner Chomper