Monday, May 16, 2011

Celebrate

Hello! Somehow it is Monday already! Ugh! I am really dragging today! I hope you had a nice weekend! I did, it just wasn't long enough, as usual! 
In April, Papertrey Ink released a stamp set called Gunge Me. I thought it was really cool and immediately wanted it, but when I placed my order, it was out of stock. I knew I was going to be placing an order on May 15th, but since it was release night, if I waited until then to buy Grunge Me it would be a while before I would get it, and I wanted it sooner rather than later. I was very excited last Wednesday when I saw a very nice forum friend was selling their set. Of course I jumped on it, and she was so nice to go right off to the Post Office to mail it! I was even more excited to find it in my mailbox when I got home from work Friday night! She lives in CA, so I really hadn't expected it quite that quickly! I needed to make a birthday card for a male, so I thought this would be a great way to break in this new set! This is when I came up with:

And the inside:

This is so completely different than any kind of cards I normally make, so I'm not even sure it's nice or how much I like it. I mean, I do think it turned out pretty cool, but I'm just not 100% sure. Anyway, I will hopefully be using this set more in the future and continue getting comfortable with it. I'd appreciate any feedback or suggestions!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jess




Thursday, May 12, 2011

Mother's Day

Hello and Happy Thursday! I am ready for the weekend! How about you? I just wanted to get one of my Mother's Day cards posted. I actually gave out 3, but one of them I forgot to take a picture of, and the other one I have a picture, but for some reason Blogger is giving me a hard time with it. It is a landscape picture, but Blogger will only insert it sideways. I've never had this problem before, so I guess I will assume it is a glitch, and try again tomorrow.
This is the card I mailed off to my mother. I stamped the background of Rustic Cream cardstock with Turning a New Leaf, and added the flowers from Flutterby Friend. I distressed the edges a little with ink.
I really like the way this card turned out and hope my mother liked it as well! 



Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jess

Supplies (All Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted):
Paper: Rustic Cream cardstock, Bity Boxes
Stamps: Turning A New Leaf, Flutterby Friend, Fillable Frames #4
Ink: Simply Chartreuse, Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Touch Tea Dye duo
Misc: Double ended banner die, Butterfly die, Delightful Doilies die, Sweet Blush ribbon, clear rhinestones

Thursday, May 5, 2011

a card and a CASE

Look at me two days in a row! hee hee! I wanted to share a couple cards today. This first one I made a couple weeks ago for my co-worker and friend after she made some delicious cuppy cakes for me and my husband. If I still had it, I would totally retake the picture in the sunlight, but I don't and this is the best I can get the picture after playing around in some editing program. I will definitely be taking all my photos outside from now on...a world of difference! Anyway, my friend's favorite color is purple, so I knew I wanted to use some lovely Royal Velvet. At the time I had just picked up the new Turning A New Leaf die that was released, and since I didn't have the stamp set I picked that up as well. And I think it has been my favorite stamp set so far! I don't know what took me so long to get it! It is so versatile! So, you will be seeing a lot of this stamp set and die for a while, just warning you now! lol. The leaves were die cut from the Royal Velvet cardstock, then I heat embossed them with clear embossing powder, I think you can see a little shine on the leaves.


The next card I wanted to share today is a complete and total CASE! It is so completely copied right from the magazine, that I didn't think it deserved it's own post. But, I love this card and wanted to share. I have had the magazine for a while, and I've always absolutely loved this particular card that was made by the lovely and talented Jessica Witty. Love. That. Jess. So, I was flipping through that old magazine a couple weeks ago, and it jumped out at me again! This time even more so, because now I had the Turning A New Leaf stamp set, and I could actually make this card now!
I wish I could show you the original. It was in A Card A Day, I believe. It's more like a book than a magazine, I guess. Anyway, the only think that I changed was the 3 little dots of circles, she had used more of a splatter looking stamp from Green Thumb, and I don't have that set, so I chose something I thought was similar, which was the little dotty circles from Dot Spot. I don't usually like to completely copy someone else's card like this, but sometimes my mojo runs a little dry, and I need to make something, and I see a card that I like so much, and I just happen to have everything needed to made said card, and you have a replica such as this! I actually like the card so much I gave it to my sister-in-law for her birthday!


Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my rambles! :)
Jessica

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Masculine Birthday

Hello, Blog friends! I am glad I never publicly proclaimed my New Year's Resolution this year was to update my blog more! Well, I can always try sticking to that again starting in May, right?
On Sunday it was my sister-in-law and her son's birthday. Our Nephew, Sam, turned 17, and I made the following card for him!



I was pretty happy with how it turned out! He really enjoyed the card, too, which really made me feel good! He kept touching it and asking me how I made the background, and telling me he kept the cards I'd made him in the passed, and that he was going to hang it up on the wall in his room! Now, how sweet is that!?
All the supplies are Papertrey Ink, except the patterned paper I used to mat the focal point. The paper is October Afternoon, Seaside, and it looks like wood that has been painted grey. I also cut that out by hand, by tracing the Mat Stack 4 die on the back of the paper, and cutting slightly around it. The card base is Soft Stone, and stamped the Newsprint background in Versamark, and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
I recently acquired some beautiful wood buttons that Papertrey Ink used to sell prior to my discovering them. I was asking about them one day on the messageboards, and the sweet and talented Nadine, was so kind and offered to send me some from her stash! Let me just say how genuinely nice the ladies (and Ted) are on the Papertrey Ink Messageboards! So, I really contemplated about adding a few of those buttons to embellish this card, I really thought they looked so cool with the patterned paper, and the rocking chair, and would really tie together the whole rustic wood theme. But, oh I just could not make myself use one of those precious wood buttons, even though she did send me a very generous amount, and would've had plenty left! That's awful, isn't it!? Please tell me you can relate!

Supplies: (all supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted)
Paper: Soft Stone cardstock, October Afternoon patterned
Stamps: Background Basics, Newsprint; Chair-ished; Say It With Style
Ink: Versamark, Dark Chocolate,  Smokey Shadow, Chai and Chamomile vintage inks
Other: Clear embossing powder, Rustic Cream button twine, Mat Stack 4 die

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Have a Fabulous day!
Jess