PTI blog hop & giveaway update.

If you are looking for my "shaping up" blog hop post, click *here.*

Hi peeps!  If you're new here - welcome!

Time for another PTI blog hop!  Here's the color-inspiration photo:

So dreamy, right?  I don't have any of those PTI colors, but I chose copics I thought were a nod in the right direction...

I knew immediately, I wanted to stamp a bouquet of flowers - and this bunch in the "friendship jar: summer fillers" is perfect for a quick note-card.  (Actually, I'm pretty sure I want to go back and make a full set!)  I stamped the jar directly onto the card-base, but stamped, colored, and cut out the bouquet so that I could prop it up on foam squares.  I then added a little bow, from the "bells and boughs" set (can you tell I adore that set?), and added the perfect little sentiment into the jar (from Precious Remembrance's "positive thoughts" set.)  Also, I trimmed the card to 4 inches by 5 1/2 inches.  I love the longer, sleeker look - and the jar 'o flowers fits like a glove across the front.

I don't think you can tell in the photo unless you squint, but I took a water-color brush and a water-color crayon, and added some flecks of light blue over the card-front (before I adhered the flowers.)  I also painted a little strip of blue on the left and right edges of the card.  The spatter and those painted stripes add a softness, and an extra bit of detail that takes this card to a more special place.

Hope you like it!

And now, for the giveaway update:  I got my Gallery Idol prize box yesterday!  Soooo, here's what I will be giving away and mailing out next week to 1 lucky winner:

Woo hoo!  If you want to enter for a chance to win, click over to *this post* and throw your comment in the running :)

Gallery Idol, round 4.

Gallery Idol round 4.  I can't hardly believe that I'm still here!  

And when I read the challenge for this week: to use a household item on the card, I had my first moments of panic in this competition.  For each of the last rounds, I'd gotten an idea in my head within the first few minutes, and the end result was surprisingly close to that initial vision.  I wouldn't be so lucky this time.  

I tried melting plastic spoons.  That was a smelly, bulky-looking, hot mess.

I cut the bottom off of a water bottle and heat-gunned it to look like a plastic flower.  Very cool, actually, but still not the look I was going for...

I couldn't get over the fact that I'd just be plunking a hunk of plastic onto my card.   I was determined to create something that still looked like....me...and still looked like a pretty card, regardless of what the theme was.

Soooo, a stack of coffee filters, some blueberries, food-coloring, and a corrugated cardboard box later, I give you my entry:

(for those of you with an eye for the PTI products I used, yes, I cut my friendship jar die apart.  I used my husband's hardware scissors and snipped the jar away from it's lid.)

I started out by die-cutting stacks of flowers out of our coffee filters.  Next, I created a water-bath of mushed-up blueberries and a tiny bit of green food coloring (the flowers look quite aqua in the pictures, but in real life are more of a very light blue.)  After I dunked the stacks into the color-bath, I worked quickly to peel apart all the layers and lay them out separately.  By the time I peeled the last ones apart, I started stacking them back up, in the order I'd laid them out.  I punched a hole in the stack, put a tiny brad in the middle, and starting fluffing up each layer (which is why you need them to be slightly damp when doing this).  

When I was done, I left the flowers to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.  I found an old cardboard box in our recycling bin, and peeled back the outer-layer to reveal the more weathered corrugated cardboard underneath.  (tip:  once I'd snipped and peeled away more of the outer layer, I used an eraser to get rid of the rest.)

I die-cut the jar into the cardboard, and stamped the coordinating image inside.  The sentiment is computer-generated onto vellum.

I hope you like my entry - and if you do, would you vote for me?  I'd love a chance to make it to the top 5 round!  You have until Thursday to vote - just click on the picture of this card on the right sidebar... it will take you where you need to go :)





supplies
stamps: PTI: friendship jar, daydreamer, text style II
ink: antique linen distress ink, PTI: spring moss, memento black, SU: crumb cake and bashful blue
paper: PTI: white, vellum
misc: red buttons, cardboard, coffee filter, mft leaves die, pti jar die

summertime strawberries.

If you've been following the PTI countdown, you should know exactly how I was inspired *wink*

And how lucky was I that I already made some paper berries and had them lying around (seriously, I dug them out of a box of other hand-made boxes/etc that I just haven't given away yet...).  My crafty-"keep-it-all"-tendencies (as opposed to my real-life-non-hoarder-leanings) come in handy for staging photos...

In the spirit of using what I already have (for now), I made this card with the playdate colors of the week:

I stamped the "summer fillers" berries into the "friendship jar" image and colored them in with copics.  They got glazed with a layer of glossy accents - but I was careful to work around the berry leaves.  Very cool effect, no?

And I love the little bit fabric that I cut to go under the lid of the jar.... so homey and dressed up :)

I silver-embossed the lid image, and stamped the sentiment onto a tiny tag.

Hope you like it!  Have a great weekend!

ps, huge congratulations to the new CAS-ual Fridays team - you are all so talented and I can't wait to see all the eye-candy you'll make for us to gawk at :)

lawnscaping blog hop: spring edition!

Hi peeps!

Welcome to the *spring* edition of the lawnscaping blog hop!  You should have arrived here via Christy Rueling.

With it being Easter weekend and all, I thought I'd whip up a bunny-in-a-jar:

 I even staged it with a chick-in-a-jar, for your viewing pleasure :)

I stamped my kraft card-base with a woodgrain pattern, and layered a white felt banner over that before adding my focal image.  I stamped a jar image, and then went in with the grass from "critters in the 'burbs" and the bunny from "silly valentine."  I stamped the banner on either side of the jar, to make it look longer, and used "sally's abcs" to spell out "happy 4 you."

The blog hop runs until April 8th, and we have many talented designers with projects to inspire you!  So grab a cup 'o coffee, and enjoy the browsing!  Comment along the way for a chance to win prizes.  Check out the lawnscaping blog for all the details.

Next, bunny-hop over to Brandi's blog!

ps, I'm also entering this card into this week's colourQ challenge, since I was inspired by their spring-time color palette.

Happy Easter, all!

Spring in a jar.

When my daughter came walking home from the bus-stop yesterday, holding her jacket, and smiling that she wasn't cold at all - it was glorious... I cannot wait for spring to officially be here!

Most of my cards lately have been in soft, spring colors (since I just stamp it like I feel it)... and this one continues the trend:

A little rosette, and some love-notes in a jar... just because.

A few details: I stamped the jar, then masked it, to be able to stamp a text image on top.  The letters were colored in with copics and them mounted on foam squares.



Thanks for peeking!




Supplies:
stamps - PTI: friendship jar, friendship jar spring fillers, simple sentiments, text-style II
ink: memento black, SU basic grey
paper: PTI white, spring moss, SU pp
etc: mft rosette die, misc pearl

First snow!

Happy Thanksgiving, American peeps!

Yesterday morning, we woke up to the first snow of the season - it's so beautiful, so magical!  (Until I bundled up my youngest and found myself sweating, trying to get her to keep her toes uncurled so they'd slide into her boots.)  Just kidding - we had a fun playtime outside:

This mama didn't want to get her camera wet, so the pics were snapped on our backyard deck before we ran around downstairs... btw, did you notice Thomas' scarf already all wet?  I couldn't resist - I shot him a little snowball! haha - he thought it was hilarious (lucky for me!)

Thomas turned at one point and said: "I wish we could always have snow - maybe we could put it in a box or something."  Hmmmm....

How about in a jar?  I stamped the main image from "friendship jar" onto a die-cut jar shape, and also stamped the snowman from the "holiday fillers" set.  I then created a mask for the snowman, and lightly sponged blue ink around him.  I just wanted a hint of blue haze... His hat was colored in with copics, but his scarf was paper-pieced.  I used some SU "dazzling details" to create the shiney blizzard-in-a-jar.  The large bow at the top was also paper-pieced, and from the "summer fillers" set.  The candy cane background on the larger white mat was created by stamping rows of the stripes from "candy cane christmas" - they didn't line up seamlessly, but I think it's still very festive and cute :)

Thanks for looking!  Come back tomorrow for the PTI blog hop!

summer in a jar.

It's PTI blog hop time!  The inspiration photo was summer-in-a-jar for me... her cute gingham dress, the jar of preserves, the garden flowers, and the books!  What a lazy, perfect day she will have... all by herself (I'm pretty sure that's the appeal right now, with my 3 little ones screaming at me even more than usual lately... I could use some of that quiet - hee!)

Here's my take:

A gingham-dress-turned-sky, and a jar full of garden-freshness.

I loved the ribbon that was tied around the neck of her jar, so I stamped onto my seam-binding to mimic the look.

Thanks for looking!

jar-o-love

New camp week, new colors!

Vanilla, browns, and red!  I'm in my element with this one!

I actually had a clear plan for that jar and the sentiment - and was able to create this card while my older kids were doing some crafting of their own.  Sofia even made her own jar of love, but you know hers is full of glitter.  My craft table is full of glitter.  The floor is covered in glitter.  But she had fun, so I digress...

I stamped the jar and the hearts (from PTI's friendship jar and spring fillers sets) onto SU's very vanilla and colored in the hearts with copics.  The jar lid was silver-heat-embossed.  After the kraft layer was stamped with PTI's woodgrain background, I ran it through my Big Shot and cut a 2.5inch circle right into it.  On my vintage cream layer (beneath it), I stamped lines from lawn fawn's schoolhouse backdrops and created my custom sentiment using smitty's abcs.  The frame around the sentiment was created by die-cutting the pinking-edged circle (from PTI's limitless layers, 2.5in collection) and then punching a 2.5in circle in the middle.  Fun!

The whole thing was then mounted on an early espresso base (SU!), which had also been stamped with schoolhouse backdrops (the ledger image).

Thanks for looking!

happy easter, peeps!

I just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a happy easter.  Hope you enjoy a meaningful day with family and loved ones, some good eats and lots of chocolate...  I have a song in my heart, as we celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour!

 We whipped up (by that I mean, I forgot I had bought the peeps until 15 minutes before we were leaving for church when I spied them in the pantry) some treats to give out to our friends this morning.  To our favorite peeps! ha ha - I crack myself up.

The kids and I popped a few peeps and some chocolate eggs into each cello bag... that sugar stuff is crazy - it got everywhere!  We stamped (I did let them help this time!) the chick image from PTI's friendship jar spring filler set and they carefully dotted some pastel colors into the polka dots with their markers... I hand-wrote the sentiment and we stapled it all together just in time to spread the luv to our favorite peeps.

animals in a jar!

I was just playing around with the "friendship jar" set and seeing what I could put inside.  Thomas, taking a break from his game of Wii bowling, suggested I throw in some pirates.  I thought the sight of pirate heads floating around in a jar would be kind of morbid, so I re-directed him to some of the animals from "tiny treats: birthday."

I can't believe my snaggle-toothed baby (he had a little accident last week - it's all I can see when I look at him, lol) will be 4 next month!  He liked the animals so much, that I decided to really make his day and slap a "4" on there.  For Thomas, in honor of his special day - albeit a little early :)

friendship jar

I resisted for so long... but those tulips sent me over the edge - I had to have this set!  And by the way, I WAITED for it - I don't know what Canadian customs was doing with my package for, like 3 weeks, but whatever.

It's a really, super-simple-I-just-want-to-stamp-this-already design.  Hee!  And I decided against coloring the tulips for 2 reasons:

1- my copic skills are laughable (although in the privacy of my own home I'm a rockstar, they don't compare to what I've seen on other blogs)
2- I don't trust keeping copics on the table when my 3-year-old Thomas is crafting beside me.  He doesn't get the whole "those are your markers, these are mine" bit :)

So, we decided to use scissors.  He likes cutting into things better anyways - appeals to his boyish desire to destroy things... I paper-pieced the tulips and leaves while he destroyed the image I stamped for him.  He doesn't care for "too-wips," apparently... (When I first showed the set to my daughter, she was over the moon for the tulips - but Thomas kept thinking we were saying something about "2 lips."  He was confused when he couldn't spot a set of lips in the set - lol!)

Here's a close-up so you could see how I popped up the paper-pieced tulips (but not the leaves).  I thought it gave a bit of dimension to an otherwise simple card.

Thanks for looking!