Papertrey November Blog Hop challenge: Holiday Tags

A big hello to all the PTI blog hoppers! Thanks for stopping by.

What a wonderful theme this month- holiday tags. So I thought I'd like to share a few quick tag ideas with you, in order of increasing time/technique complexity. First up...

ALL WRAPPED UP IN 60 SECONDS FLAT.


Shipping tags are my gift giving saviours. Cheap, easy to get and so simple.
Stamps: Papertrey Ink 2010 Holiday Tags, Holiday button bits.

NEED SOME WOW RIGHT NOW.


This is all about letting the dies do all the work. The wow comes from the non-traditional colour combo and the gorgeous scallop border with just a touch of glitter.
Stamps: PTI 2010 Holiday Tags
Other: PTI Limitless layers circles die set; cardstock chartreuse, raspberry fizz; Fresh snow pigment ink; prisma glitter; Sakura glue pen.


ELEGANCE WORTHY OF MARTHA.


But no glue gun in sight! The muted palette & tag shape are sophisticated and unisex. The embossed sentiment and acetate window make it a bit more complex and time consuming compared to the first two tags, but worth it don't ya think? Tip: Die cut two tags and cut the window through both layers at the same time so you have an exact match to adhere to the other side (hiding the acetate edges).
Stamps: PTI 2010 Holiday Tags, Holiday Button Bits.
Other: PTI mat stack 3 die, limitless layers circle die set; silver embossing powder; acetate; white Staz On ink; signo white gel pen; PTI silk ribbon.

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop, I'd love a comment if you have the time. Thanks!

My first shawl & the winner is.....

I got bitten bad by the knitting bug after I started this shawl. It was a really enjoyable knit and now I am afraid that I will start knitting several shawls!

All the details about the pattern and yarn can be found on Ravelry here. The pattern is free by the way- Liz Abinante is one awesome knitter.

Speaking of free things....the giveaway winner picked by random number is SHEREE! Love ya Sheree, just contact me with your postal address so I can send an extra package to go under your tree :)

It is that time of year....GIVEAWAY!

Change is in the air over here, and as Christmas is also upon us I think that calls for a giveaway :) It is kinda my way of saying Merry Christmas to those of you who pop by regularly and also high time I spread the love around.

So, here are the giveaway rules- just leave a comment on this post (one per person please) and a winner will be randomly picked next Thursday. AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTS ONLY. The contents of the package will be a surprise...but there will definitely be stamping goodies in there. Make sure there is a way I can contact you- either through a blog link or email address. Good luck!

Supplies
Stamps: Papertrey Ink A Wreath For all Seasons
Ink: Versamark, Distress Ink fired brick, antique paper
Other: Platinum stickles, American Crafts zing embossing powder leaf.

Sylvie's summer dress

Very satisfying to finish a project yesterday- a Christmas present for my niece. The top is knitted and the fabric skirt sewn on.

All the details about the pattern, yarn and fabric can be found on Ravelry here.

Now to tackle the many other things in my queue!

*By the way, I'm going to be doing a giveaway soon, so stay tuned*

Garden layout with pocket

Thanks to the lovely Sheree for the design and pocket idea which I scraplifted for this layout. We've been doing a lot more work trying to grow things in our garden lately.


Supplies
Paper, chipboard: Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety
Stickers, journal cards: Echo Park Summertime
Other: DIY mist (distress ink broken china reinker and mica powder), Prima packaging, sewing thread

A card, just because...

It was pretty exciting cracking open my Crate Paper Snow Day collection pack on the weekend and making something with it. Totally unrelated to snow or Christmas, but in my opinion, versatility is one of the fabulous things about this pack.


TIP You know how Spellbinders circle dies leaves a lightly embossiedinner edge on your die cut cardstock circle? I added some glitter using a glue pen- the embossed border is the perfect guide. It gives the impression of an extra layer without one.

Supplies
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Mega Mixed Messages
Ink: Colorbox chestnut pigment ink
Paper: Crate Paper Snow Day, PTI rustic white cardstock
Other: Spellbinders large circle dies; PTI felt, PTI flower die, Prisma glitter; various buttons

Pink and green pastels

I find it hard to work with pastel colours usually. But they are great for baby cards. Die cut layers and buttons are basically the features of this card. Simple but classic.

Supplies
Stamps: Papertrey Ink mega mixed messages
Dies: PTI fillable frames #1; Spellbinders labels 4
Paper: Basic Grey
Other: distress ink, PTI twill (ripe avocado)

A card in ten minutes

Jennifer McGuire does amazing videos. And she has recently started a new stamping series called Holiday Thinking Inking. Visit her blog to find out more.


I used one of the techniques she showed in the most recent video to create the background for this card. I love how quick and easy it was to get a layered look to this plain white cardstock. The whole thing was done and dusted in less than ten minutes. I will say that I think this works best with heavy weight cardstock or watercolour paper. Mine is 300gsm (about as thick as you can get).

Tip: Use a tiny hole punch to make a notch in the side of the card where you want the twine to wrap around- it sits much more nicely in place on the card.

Finally, a layout

I've been bitten by the knitting bug quite badly in the last couple of weeks, so scrapbooking has taken a bit of a back seat. But it was nice to get a page done "just because" on the weekend.


Supplies
Paper & chipboard: Crate Paper Brook collection
Other: Basic Grey mini mono stickers; Studio Calico chipboard alpha, fabrips; Jillibean Soup corrugated alpha; paint; My Minds Eye Life Stories journal card.

Gate fold card

This was a super quick birthday card for a little boy. I rarely do gate fold cards so I was quite stumped for a while, but turning it 180 degrees and adding some felt and stickers made it pretty fun in the end.

Supplies
Cardstock Papertrey Ink aqua mist
Stamps PTI Everyday button bits
Stickers Echo Park Summertime, Sassafras Lass
Other: PTI cloud dies, felt airplane from fun felt set.

Love is simple

Another World Cardmaking Day challenge at Scrapz.biz, this time a window card theme by Sheree. Dies make easy work of cutting windows in cards and it does jazz up even the most simple design.


I printed the template onto the red cardstock (use the inverted image & print on the back), cut it out and then die cut through all the layers on the card front. The felt heart I just cut freehand.

Supplies
Paper: Basic Grey
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink pure poppy
Tools: Be My Valentine template by Papertrey Ink, felt PTI ocean tides, die Spellbinders.

World Cardmaking Day Challenges

There are some great challenges designed to boost your card stash over at Scrapz.biz. Here is one of my entries so far...more to share later.


So many people are in love with the Restoration collection by Crate Paper and I am no exception. I really like the idea of cutting out individual playing cards from the paper and using them as numerical embellishments- this will be a birthday card for a little girl turning two.

I also explored some of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine- stitching just goes so well with this collection.

Supplies
Paper: Crate Paper Restoration
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Just the Ticket
Other: Distress Ink (vintage photo); American Crafts Zing embossing powder (leaf); sewing machine.

Cup of Thanks Card

A friend of mine is doing me a big favour this Friday so I've made a card and bought a little gift.


If you have small scraps from a patterned paper collection or in my case, left overs from a 6 inch paper pad, this card format of a die cut repeated over and over is a simple but really effective design. It works best with small scale patterns.


I've had this bunch of tiny jewelry tags for ages but never had stamps small enough to use with them...all solved now!

Supplies:
Stamps- Papertrey Ink Tea for Two Additions
Die- Papertrey Ink teacup
Paper- Pink Paislee Queen Bee 6 inch paper pad
Cardstock- Papertrey Ink smokey shadow
Ink- versafine onyx black
Other- jewelry tag

Papertrey September blog hop challenge: Sharing the love

This card is all about THANKS. Thanks to all the crafters out there who gladly share their ideas, knowledge and experience with us just for the love of it.


Actually I found this quite a hard blog hop, just because it was a real challenge to pick something to focus on- I mean, everything I know about stamping I have learnt from a fellow stamper so it was kinda hard to narrow down! In the end I decided to go with my latest favourite PTI set and a technique that I haven't seen used around the traps so much lately, so hopefully it will be useful info for someone out there.

The idea is basically to use household bleach as an ink, but particularly on this card it was used inside the stamped outline to bleach out some of the cardstock, which makes it easier to add colour on top later. I think I learnt about this from a magazine quite a while back. It gives a striking effect on dark cardstock.


This shows the letters bleached on the left and unbleached on the right. I stamped the letters using Versafine and heat embossed them with clear powder- this makes it much easier to keep within the outline with both the bleach and the colour. I just used a fine paintbrush dipped in regular household bleach and coloured pencils with dimensional medium over the top (see photo below). The stitching is pure Nichole Heady (I always admire her use of stitching) and the simple use of bold patterned papers is inspired by Kristina Werner.


Thanks for hopping by, and thanks again for taking the time and effort to do tutorials, answer questions, share ideas and give encouragement. You know who you are.

Kaisercraft desk organiser 'Restored"

I've been away on holidays ignoring the blog. BUT it hasn't been a complete papercraft disaster, because it did give me a chance assemble and decorate the Kaiserkraft large desk organiser. I love it, it has completely transformed the top of my telephone cabinet (seriously, I'm too embarrassed to show you before and after photos!)


This is my favourite part of the project, the three small drawers in the center. The knobs are by Tim Holtz. *swoon*. All the papers & die cuts are from Crate Paper Restoration collection.

If you are thinking of making one for yourself, my tips are:
- Assemble all the parts before starting and mark with a pencil the surfaces you want to cover and the edges that will be visible.
- I used a few coats of varnish on undecorated areas that are likely to collect dust.
- Adhesive fabric is fantastic for the thin edges if you don't want to bother with paint.
- I inked the edges of my paper before adhering with Vintage Photo distress ink.
- I found it necessary to use some glue to keep the whole thing together. I find dimensional medium great for this because it has an easy to control tip. I suggest you apply it where needed and lie the organiser on one side, with a small amount of folded newspaper supporting the main side (b/c of the border around the base, it will not lie completely flat on its side). Place some heavy books on top of it and let it dry.

If you have had a go at transforming this desk organiser, I'd love to see it- leave me a link in the comments.

One day wishes

Back online after our internet went down for a few days and a couple of things to share:


My entry for the last round of Scrap That Ad. This one really put me to the test. Especially the traditional fairytale element, all I could think of was princess stuff and since I have no little princesses, it was tough! Loved working with the new Restoration collection from Crate Paper though.

And if you are in the mood for a giveaway, you should pop over to the Paislee Press blog. There is a fantastic $150 voucher up for grabs.

Scrap that Ad round 5

So the challenge this week was based on the Evolution ad by Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, so I decided to a do a digital layout featuring my very own "beauty product ad" so to speak.

Supplies: Katie Pertiet (designer digitals), Paislee Press, In the Making Designs, Songbird Avenue. Layout designed using Gimp 2.

Blooming baby card

This card underwent an interesting evolution- initially I stamped the leaves and masked them off before stamping the dot background, but it just looked not right and off balance. So I ended up stamping more leaves, cutting them out and adding them on. Should have just done that in the first place!

By the way, see that ruffle along the base? I lifted that from Diane's blog hop post here. It is brilliant- it looks like kraft (which I love) but is SO much easier than using thick cardstock. And that my friends, is the perfect example of sharing making the crafty world go round. Thanks Diane :)

Supplies
Stamps: Papertrey Ink mega mixed messages, polka dot basics, turning a new leaf.
Ink: Papertrey Ink spring moss, Hero Arts soft pool shadow ink, versafine black
Paper: Papertrey Ink spring moss, aqua mist; Echo Park sweet summertime
Tools: Papertrey Ink flower die

Scrap That Ad round 4

Be in it today, live more of your life. Be. In. It. Yeah!
Words to live by people. Those of you who watched TV in Australia during the 80's can add the jingle music. Here is my layout inspired by it

Paper and stickers Echo Park Sweet Summertime.
Stamp Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday.

Hope you have a great day living life :)

Papertrey Ink August Blog Hop: brown bag garland

A big hello to hopping Papertrey Inkers- thanks for visiting :) For anyone else out there, the challenge this month was to get creative with brown paper lunch bags. I have to admit I was quite stumped. But eventually got inspired by the classic kids craft activity of making strings of paper dolls holding hands. Here is what I did:


Trim off the sides and top of the bag, but NOT the bottom. Cut into strips as wide as you need (mine were about 2.5 inches). Flatten out the bottom bag fold so you have one long strip. Stamp the image you want to use at one end of the paper strip. You want to choose an image that is symmetrical and has an outline shape that is easy to recognise.


Accordian fold along the strip, making sure that the edges of your image are very close to the folds.


Cut out your shape, but leave a few points along the folds where you do not cut.


Unfold your strip- you now have a brown paper garland! You can leave it like this for something super quick, or go a bit more fancy and stamp along all the shapes and even add some extra decoration like I did in the middle of this flower garland.

Thanks for visiting, if you have time I'd really appreciate a comment!
Supplies
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Holiday Button Bits, Blooming Button Bits, In Bloom II
Paper: brown paper lunch bags, aqua cardstock
Ink: Papertrey Ink berry sorbet, fresh snow; Colorbox cranberry, chestnut; Hero Arts soft pool shadow ink.
Other: circle punch

Felt baby booties

I love the internet. It allows me to find things like this for free. And then I can make things like this for friends.

It took me longer than I expected (all that blanket stitch!) and if I had just sewn the bottom with the machine as instructed I'm sure it would have been a lot simpler. I used more Papertrey Ink felt for this- I just love the quality of it for projects like this, no fraying and the wool will be great for little baby feet.

Felt hair clips

I've been having a great time with the Papertrey Ink wool felt. This time I made some hair clips for Elena and a card to go with them using Tim Holtz tissue tape and hearts cut out from Basic Grey Olivia Ashlyn paper.

The hair clips were based on the instructions from the tutorial at The Purl Bee here. I'm planning to do the rose ones for Christmas presents. Supplies: plain hair clips (barrettes), Papertrey Ink wool felt (chartreuse & cream), Papertrey Ink flower die & cuttlebug machine, pink embroidery floss, pink buttons.

A couple of layouts

*sigh* I've fallen behind with the blogging again. I'll blame life (yet again). This time I have a couple of layouts to share- they have been completed for the competition going on at Scrapz.biz.


Inspired by the "Happy Little Vegemites" famous series of ads. The diamonds in the corner were created by sanding the paper over a cuttlebug embossing folder and then inking the folder and carefully using it as a sort of stamp over the top. It's nice to be able to use them in a layout and not just on cards :)


Inspired by the "Not Happy Jan" Yellow Pages ad. Loved getting a chance to play with the Basic Grey Oliver collection. Great quality rub-ons. My tip when using rub-ons is lots of waxed paper (or baking paper) over everything else to protect the rest of the sheet from accidentally rubbing off onto your photos. It saves you from having the cut the sheet.

Scrap that Ad round 1

My entry for the first round of Scrap That Ad happening over at Scrapz.biz. Can I just say I am very excited about exploring more uses for the Tim Holtz tissue tape!

Supplies:
Paper Basic Grey, My Minds Eye journal block, Pink Paislee die cut.
Alpha unknown- painted black and coated with Doodlebug black glitter
Other: Tim Holtz tissue tape, old postage stamps

Organising cardstock

I spent some time on the weekend trying to get my cardstock more organised. I have ended up with quite a lot of cardstock from Papertrey Ink (and it is terrific quality- thick and smooth for stamping) and needed to get it sorted. Enter some wooden file holders from IKEA, designed as magazine holders I guess. While I was at it I decided to make a large swatch of my PTI cardstock for helping my choose colours for projects. Isn't it a beautiful sight?

Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge: office supplies

This is my first PTI blog hop, so an extra special welcome to any hopping visitors! I was very taken with the theme of using office supplies this month, and really tried to rack my brains to come up with interesting things to use.

In the end my supply list included paperclips, a staple, a shipping tag, a price tag and masking tape. And here they all are:


My favourite part of this card is the embossed background. I'm sure you can work out what I used! If you are keen to give this a go yourself, here is how I did it...


I scattered paperclips on a magnetic sheet which I have backed with grip mat. I used the magnetic sheet to combat any sliding around of the paperclips, but it would probably work just as well on a piece of chipboard. I used a Cuttlebug to do the embossing, sandwhich as follows (bottom up): A plate, B plate, magnetic sheet with paperclips on it, cardstock, polymer embossing mat, B plate.


Voila! Just be careful that you don't force anything through your machine that doesn't want to go- you'll break your plates. Got any other ideas for embossing with 'ordinary' items? I'd love to hear them!

My other tip is to try stamping on masking tape. It's kinda like DIY decorative tissue tape!


I tore a strip of tape and put it on some acetate so I could remove it after stamping, then used Papertrey Ink Background Basics text style and black StazOn ink. When it is dry, just remove it gently from the acetate and add it to your project.

Thanks so much for stopping by- I hope you found something fun, useful or inspirational to take with you. If you have the time, I'd really appreciate a comment :)

Card supplies
Paper: Papertrey Ink ripe avocado, kraft; Roman Print white cardstock 300gsm.
Stamps: Papertrey Ink background basics text style, fillable frames #1; Hero Arts galaxy of stars; postal stamps unknown.
Ink: Colorbox chestnut pigment ink, burnt sienna fluid chalk; Hero Arts soft pool shadow ink; Papertrey Ink vintage cream; StazOn black.
Tools: Cuttlebug; Papertrey Ink die fillable frames #1; Tim Holtz tiny attacher.
Other: shipping tag, masking tape, jute string, small price tag, foam adhesive

Welcome Poppy

My favourite cards are the ones I personalise for the recipients. Some friends had their first baby recently, and she is named Poppy. What a perfect opportunity to use this poppy image from Hero Arts!


First I stamped Papertrey Ink Background Basics:text style on rustic white cardstock using Distress Ink (tattered rose). Over this I stamped Poppy Background using versafine ink (sepia). The background has been stamped using PTI polka dot basics, versamark ink and Pearl Ex (pearl) powder added. The sentiment is also PTI- fillable frames #5.

More felt goodness

Still in love with the Papertrey Ink felt. Another card, this time with a die cut felt flower.


For this card I stamped some leaves on rustic white cardstock with spring moss ink, trimmed the piece to a rectangle but cut around the leaves on the edge. I inked the edges with antique linen Distress Ink. The flower is made of a base layer of die cut ocean tides felt, topped with a die cut layer of rustic white cardstock stamped with Background Basics: text style using tattered rose Distress Ink. The edges were inked and a button applied to the middle.

Add a sentiment, some ribbon and some faux stitching with a uniball signo white gel pen.

Felt, wonderful felt

I think I get extra excited when two different hobbies come together in some way, and for this reason I am having a real thing for felt at the moment. This felt from Papertrey Ink is 100% wool, absolutely gorgeous stuff!



I'm torn between making a million and one different things with it and hoarding it in my stash forever! This is the first project it has gone towards- a baby card for some friends expecting soon. I drew the peapod shape on some tissue paper and used it as a pattern to cut the shape from the felt, then backstitched the detail by hand with cotton embroidery floss.



The sentiment and frame is more PTI goodness- Fillable Frames #5. I used the co-ordinating die to deboss the shape that the frame is stamped in. The cuttlebug sandwhich was (bottom up) A plate, B plate, thick cardstock shim, die cutting side down, cardstock centered over die, polymer embossing mat, B plate.

Flying banner birthday wishes

Created with some of my newly arrived Papertrey Ink goodies combined with some favourite existing supplies. It is flying off to a birthday party very soon. This is the full set :


When I showed it to my 5 yr old son the first thing he said was "Look Mum, that one (the top plane) has a radial cooled engine, and the bottom one doesn't." I have to admit, that particular detail had passed me by!

PTI: Fly Away mini stamp set, poppy cardstock
Hero Arts cloud background and soft pool shadow ink
Sassafras Lass flag banner stickers.

Vintage layered flower tutorial

So this is how I made the flower for the card in the last post:

Die cut three flower shapes of various sizes from grungepaper and text (I used Donna Salazar's Crafty Chronicle). The grungepaper is important, because it is very robust and sturdy but also pliable. I used Papertrey Ink dies to cut my shapes.



Use gel medium to glue the text flowers onto the corresponding grungepaper flowers & let dry. I use gel medium for this because it has great adhesion and not much moisture and dries quickly. Spray with the pearlised spray of your choice and set with fixative if required. Ink the edges with the distress inks of your choice.



Shape your flower layers (this is why the grungepaper is so important.) For the bottom layer I curled the petals up and then outwards. For the upper layers I shaped the petals more upwards and towards the center. Use adhesive foam to adhere the layers on top of each other and add a button to the flower center.



I attached mine to the card using more adhesive foam and put some Prima leaves around the base.