You're the BEST!

Hello everyone! 
I pulled out some spring flowers, inspired to play along with the Create Along With Us Challenge at PTI.  Made my card and alas, missed the chance to share it there. So I'm hopping in to share it as part of the Transformation Tuesday challenge. I hope it's OK with the challenge hosts to make a second card with the leftover part of a first card. It does transform the card layout! 
Here's the first card made with the PTI Seasonal Borders Spring stamps and dies, and Penned Elegance.

For the second card, I incorporated the die cut circle from the first card, and added a sentiment from Bold Basics. 

I used a new to me technique called Floating Die Cut Frames that Jennifer shared on her blog last week, find her great tutorial HERE. 

You can get an idea of how the die cut pieces fit together to make a raised panel on the card with the help of Press N Seal to lay it out. 

Keeping this short today but I must say it feels good to see bright spring colors and flowers here on the page! It's also good to have two encouragement cards ready to go.

Thanks so much for stopping in. Have a great day! I don't tell you often enough how much you encourage me. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas holiday. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Inks used : PTI - Sweet Blush, Pale Peony, Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides and Simply Chartreuse. WPlus9 - Queen Bee.

Papertrey Tuesday: Stitched Stems

Hello, and welcome to a new week.  I'm getting my stamping done on this coolish cloudy day because I have some extra fun happenings coming up at the end of this week. Don't worry, I'll clue you in as the day gets closer. 

Today is my day to make something with my beautiful Papertrey products and again, I'm stamping along with the Make It Monday challenge, hosted by Michelle Leone. Her video showed us the fun technique of stitching with thread or floss along the stem for a lovely textured accent on a floral card. 

I realized that in my frenzy of purging sewing supplies, I had very few options left so gold thread was my best pick. I used it to backstitch along the center of the largest leaves, adding lines drawn along the sides with a gold Spica pen. With the same pen, I added dots to the flower centers. 

In keeping with the gold elements, I also embossed the sentiment and added gold die cut leaves. 

I'm happy to have a Mother's day card ready well in advance of the day. Now I must just manage to get it mailed on TIME, lol! 

Thanks for visiting me, I really love hearing from you! I've listed most of the supplies below. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - Stitching Garden and matching dies, Sentiment SU - retired

Paper: Neenah Solar White, SU - Coastal Cabana (placed inside card back)

INK: PTI - Pale Peony, Berry Sorbet, Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Hawaiian Shores Versamark

Accessories: Gold embossing powder, PTI - Shape Shifters Oval 1 Die used to cut foil die cuts and die cut card front

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Create Along with Us: Lilies of the Field

Hello! Welcome back to my blog! 

I love the invitation at PTI to Create Along With Us each month. 

After the designers have showcased the new products we're invited to CASE their projects and create one of our own, spinning off from one of their designs. This month it was very hard to select just one favorite project from all the beautiful samples.

I chose this gorgeous card from Laurie to CASE. I always want to case what she makes! 

I was inspired by the clean colors, crisp style, delicate embossing and layout of her lovely card. I CASE(D) the layout. My own card uses the Lilies of the Field stamp set, and changed the color palette. 

Of course I wanted to use my Bitty Background papers and so far my choices are limited to two colors. LOVE those polka dots!

I combined the sentiment from the new Penned Elegance stamp set with a small sentiment line from the Scripted Sayings set. I see so many possibilities for using these elegant sentiments in a bold font. 

I used a die to dry emboss the corners of the white panel. It came with the Gemini Jr. from Crafter's Companion that arrived at the post office for me today. Love my new toy! Wheee! 

Thanks for visiting!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Remake with In the Meadow

Hello friends, welcome to a new week. 
I am enjoying the Transformation Tuesday Challenge to remake one of your past cards. 

In this case, I decided to update a card made a few years ago with the In the Meadow stamp set. This is the first set I ordered from Papertrey and I still love it! 

Here's the old card and the original post is HERE. 
And the new card....

I used pretty much the same silhouette image of the girl sledding. I changed the layout and updated the colors and the DSP used. Also included  more current techniques of adding texture by blending inks and using Nuvo drops on the snowflakes. 
I'd love to hear what you think about the changes! Thanks for visiting my blog, come back again soon! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: PTI - In the Meadow and dies

Paper: Neenah Solar White, DSP from Stampin' Up!

INK: PTI - Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist, Distress Oxide - Cracked Pistachio

Accessories: Nuvo Crystal drops, Wink of Stella

A Sketch to Celebrate with PTI

Hello everyone!
Here I am again finding myself in the middle of a week having done no crafting. How does that happen, I wonder?

Today I was given a boost to celebrate along with PTI and their fun Sketch Challenge in honor of their 11th Anniversary. 

I love a good sketch and got right to work, choosing this one from one of Melissa's cards. 

I used the same die and arranged the florals from the Fresh Bouquet stamp set and coordinating dies. This set has some really good sentiments and I used two of them on the banner. There is some light sponging on the white layer at the top left. 

It's rainy and cold today, but I have spring in my mind as you can see by the colors! It was hard to get a good photo, the Peach card stock layer is much brighter IRL. 

I'll list the main supplies below. Thanks for coming by to visit and for your delightful comments! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used are from Papertrey Ink unless noted otherwise

Stamps: Fresh Bouquet Stamps and Dies

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Peekaboo Peach (Stampin' Up!) 

Ink:  Harvest Gold, Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Vintage Jadeite; From WPlus9 - Old Gold

Accessories: Mix & Mat Flourish dies, white embossing powder, white gel pen, sequins

Brushed Birds Collage

Good morning crafty friends!

I have certainly been enjoying challenges and I'm jumping right in with a card to share for the Make It Monday challenge at PTI where Stephanie inspired us with her lovely card using different types of papers.  I went searching for my papers and combined a polka dotted page from last year's planner and a corrugated textured panel for the card base.

 I pulled out mulberry paper from my stash, and added a sentiment embossed on a piece cut from a shiny gold envelope. Adding a touch of gold embossing at the top of the panel and gold thread tied the elements together. Making this collage was so fun! I stamped the Brushed Bird in Aqua Mist and Blueberry Sky inks. 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Warm Winter Wishes for Make It Monday

There's nothing warm where I am right now. Like the northeastern US, we were blanketed with snow and cold temps this week. I'm nice and warm though in my flannel shirt with my cup of hot tea nearby. The cold is a good reason to stamp up a storm, and I've been doing that! Will have quite a few cards to post next week. 

Today's card is for the Make It Monday 2017 A la Carte which allows us to pick any challenge from the past year. 

I'm happy to play along and chose to make a watercolor wash background as shared by Laurie Schmidlin. 

I used Distress inks to watercolor the background for this winter birthday card using the In the Meadow stamp set. That was on my very first order from PTI and I just don't use it enough! I loved the sentiment and can't think of anything more appropriate for this card. I also blended inks on the tree and the sentiment tag, before embossing the greeting in gold. The two deer had sparkles added with WOS. 

I was inspired by this beautiful card sample of Laurie's. 

Thanks so very much for your visit! Hope your New Year is off to a good start, stay warm! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Playing along with challenges at:
CAS Watercolor (Birthday)  
Seize the Birthday

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Fresh Bouquets and Butterflies

Hello everyone! 
I'm sure you've been as busy and can relate to the overfull days and hectic hours of the holiday preparations that have been going on around here. Craziness! 

I was challenged by Laurie's terrific Faux Stained Glass technique at Make It Monday and had to sneak in a few minutes to give this a try. 

A card with airy colors and the freshness of spring. Ahhh! I needed that break.  

I used the PTI Bitty Butterflies Cover Plate Die for the background. I colored the vellum using Distress Inks in Broken China and Shaded Lilac. For the focal point, I cut a butterfly from the PTI Butterflies Cover Plate Die, and trimmed out one of the butterflies with scissors. I cut it from white card stock and blended ink to color it. Afterwards I added droplets of the ink, splattered, and a few spritzes of Perfect Pearls added to water for texture and shine.

Wrapping a bit of tulle (with a teeny bit of glitter in it) behind the butterfly and adding sequins made me happy!
I used stamps from the Fresh Bouquet set.  
Hope this finds you thinking that, whatever is going on, "You've got this!" 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

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Holiday Wishes

Hello everyone! I'm getting my post up early since our weather is gorgeous and going to be warm today! I will be out in the boat this afternoon for sure. 

In my craft room I'm still humming along on the Christmas card theme. 

The Make It Monday Challenge hosted by Laurie at Papertrey Ink featured tips for using lots of layers. I got a bit carried away but had fun adding colors of ink and die cut layers. Have a look! 

I combined die cut images from Holiday Greens and Spruce and Sprigs. They were stamped multiple times using shades of Parakeet Green, New Leaf and Hawaiian Shores. I just love these colors! 

I cut an ornate square and a circle die from the Don't Forget to Write Basics Collection, and used those as bases for tucking in and layering my bouquet of holly and blooms.  The stamped and die cut sentiments are from the Christmas Cheer stamp set. 

This card will make it's way to someone special on my list, either delivered by hand or in a specially made envelope.

You are so special too, hope your day is wonderful! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used are PTI unless noted

Stamps: Holiday Greens, Christmas Cheer, Spruce & Sprigs

Paper: SU - whisper white, Crumb Cake; PTI - Hawaiian Shores

Inks: Hawaiian Shores, Green Parakeet, New Leaf, SU - Crumb Cake

Accessories: Sequins, Dies, sponges, MISTI

I'm also adding this to these challenges. 
Merry Monday who posted these fun colors!

Sparkly Warm Wishes

Hi stamping friends, 
I had a bit of time to relax in my stamp room on this sunny breezy Saturday afternoon. It's a day just perfect for sitting on the screened in back porch to edit photos and type this post. I'm surrounded by fall colors, the sounds of crickets. Feeling thankful and cozy in my hoodie. 

I'm happy to share another Christmas card! 
This time joining in with Papertrey Ink after their new release. 

The new products and samples from the DT were amazing! The card that caught my eye was this beautiful design by Michelle Leone. 

I admired the classic lines of her card, the layers of papers and plaid to create texture, and a sparkling die cut focal point.

I knew that I'd need to come up with different dies and colors using what I had on hand. 

I'm pretty pleased with the result and it's great having one more card done that will be easy to mail too. 

Hope you are having a good good day. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used are from PTI 

Stamps: Christmas Cheer, Spruce and Sprigs (dies)

Paper: Aqua Mist, Plaid DSP (retired)

Accessories: Mix & Mat Flourishes Die