MFTWSC78 latte love

I'm in love with the a la mode stamps from My Favorite Things and paper piecing, so is it any surprise I paper pieced an a la mode for this week's Wednesday sketch? The details of the challenge can be found here at Splitcoast Stampers.

My sweet card:

You can see I followed the sketch pretty closely:

The papers are all from the Lily Bee Design's Victoria Park Tiny Tablet and the image and sentiment are from the ALM Miss You a Latte stamp set.

The sentiment base was cut using the the Die-namics Fishtail Flag Stax - I often free form these tags, but do love the clean look and embossed edge you get from the die cut. A button (PTI) and baker's twine (MME Lime Twist) add a little detail.

For the bottom border I cut several layers using the new MFT Squiggle Border - I think this border die will be heavily used in the future!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Papertrey June Blog Hop Challenge

I was challenged by the color palette in this month's Papertrey blog hop challenge, but loved the idea of playing around with pleats and ruffles.

Here is the inspiration photo - more details on the challenge are found on Nichole's blog :

And what I finally came up with:

The stack of scrap paper was getting a little high on my desk, so I was sorting it when I came across a piece of older My Mind's Eye paper that had the colors of the challenge. 

I started playing around with the idea of a box pleat and cut a couple of 1.5" strips of this 12" paper. I played with a couple of scraps to figure out my score lines - even scribbled a pattern to follow.

Please note: nothing is to scale on that pattern LOL.

I put a little adhesive on the back of the folds to hold the pleats in place while I worked out the rest of my pattern.

I used a die from the PTI Half & Half Die Collection to create a frame for my sentiment.

The die creates a finished edge on one side and is open on the other, allowing you to make as long or short a cut as you want.

Because I wanted to create a frame, I took the fancy cut end and taped it to the die so I could run the piece through my Big Shot a second time and cut the other end.

Isn't that a cool little option? LOVE versatile dies & stamps!

My sentiment comes from the PTI Mega Mixed Messages stamp set and ribbon & pearls from my stash add the finishing touches.

Here is a closeup of the box pleat - each of the pleated strips is attached to the card base in the middle, with the ribbon covering the seam. I didn't attached the other end, allowing the pleats to open up a bit. All the corners are rounded to help soften the look.

I'm not happy about the way the colors are coming across in these photos - they are much closer to the inspiration colors in real life, but I don't have time to play with them now.

The chore I've been avoiding all day is still waiting for me, so I'm off to work on taxes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

mftwsc77 cheers a la mode

This card was a collaborative effort with my dear daughter. My dear daughter does not have the crafting gene, but she and her friends do appreciate the cards I have made for their birthdays this year, which makes it fun to keep on creating and giving {grin}.

Dear daughter may not want to make the cards, but she does have an opinion on the stamps and paper I use on the ones she gives away.

She needed another birthday card this week, so I decided to use the MFTWSC sketch. Go to either the MFT blog or Splitcoast Stampers to find out about their weekly sketch challenge and join in the fun.

Dear daughter selected the Cheers a la Mode stamp, along with papers from the Basic Grey Kissing Booth pad and the Lily Bee Buttercup Tiny Tablet. I had a hard time with the yellow paper, but think we managed to pull it together.

The panels are cut with my favorite Spellbinders Nestabilities die: Reverse Wonky Rectangle. The brown cardstock and designer papers are cut with the same die - I trim the designer paper along the embossing line so that I can layer the pieces.

For the record, I think this little gal is drinking a pink lemonade.

Or maybe it is a sparkly, raspberry soda? 

The image is paper pieced and colored with Copic markers. A little touch of stickles added glitter to the glass and her earrings.

The flower is cut from crepe paper using the MFT Loopy Bloom die-namic and finished with a gem brad from my stash.

We borrowed a sentiment from the a la Mode Birthday Girl stamp set and just attached it to the card front under the flower. The image panel is adhered with foam tape to pop it up over the velvet ribbon/trim (Maya Road?).

The inside of the card holds a gift certificate under the Papertrey Ink zipper die.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Make It Monday #71 bordered sentiments take two

I told you I would be back with more cards using this week's Make It Monday technique from Papertrey Ink!

Go here to watch Betsy Veldman's great tutorial.

I used the same sentiment from the PTI Movers & Shakers Sentiments set that I used on the last card - I can't say enough how I love a really versatile sentiment!

This masking technique is really easy, but can have such a great visual impact that I know I will be going back to it again and again.

The first step is to decide where you want to put the sentiment and stamp it onto a rectangle of white cardstock.

I penciled a line above and below the sentiment so I could erase this after I finished stamping. This line was inked in on my last card. I've also seen a couple of great examples where the designer scored this line.

The stamped sentiment is then covered with a couple of trimmed pieces of post-it notes along the pencil lines.

I discovered a hole in my stamp collection today - I seriously have no flower stamp sets?! How is that possible? I have a good collection of flower dies and plenty of flowered patterned paper, but no flower stamp sets. I might just have to do something about that in the not too distant future.

I did find an unlabeled butterfly stamp set in the back reaches of my stamp collection that worked really nicely with my color palette and this technique.

I stamped the butterflies off all the edges except the left side, knowing I would be adding a strip of designer paper down that side.

When the stamping was done, I removed the post-it notes and erased my pencil lines.

A scrap of paper from the Echo Park Victoria Gardens pad and a pink lace trim finish off the card.

True confession time - I first stamped the sentiment in black ink, but decided to try it with the Memento Rose Bud. I thought my stamp was clean, but obviously based on the little flecks of black showing through, it wasn't. I decided I liked the look - that's my story & I'm sticking to it!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

Make It Monday #71 bordered sentiments

This week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink is great for those of us who mail a lot of cards. I love making something lumpy, but worry about the card cutting through the envelope as it travels to the final destination. Often I pay more for hand franking the card or a bubble envelope or both.

The technique demonstrated by Betsy Veldman gives the illusion of layered panels, but allows you to put together a very flat card.

I followed Betsy's technique closely. First I stamped a sentiment from the PTI Movers & Shakers Sentiments set with Memento Bahama Blue ink in the middle of a rectangle of white cardstock. Then I used an ancient Marvy Uchida marker (do they still sell these?) in Sapphire to make a line above and below the sentiment.

A couple of post-it notes are adhered  on the lines, covering the sentiment completely.

Several flourishes are inked - I am sure they are from a couple of different Autumn Leaves sets, but have them stored without any brand information. The inks used are Versa Magic Turqouise Gem, Adirondack Lights Aqua and Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue.

The flourishes are stamped over the post-it masked area, so they flow above and below the sentiment.

The mask is removed and the bordered sentiment area is nice and clean.

A small piece of patterned paper from the Authentique Fresh Collection and a piece of silvery/blue rickrack ribbon finish the card off.

How great is this card? I mean, that sentiment can be used for so many events - birthday, thank you, congratulations - I love having a few cards like this in the stash that I can pull out at a moments notice!

I plan to play with a few more stamp sets using this technique later today.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

URGR8 MFTWSC76

So, were you able to read the post title? I came home to a very nice package sitting at the door this afternoon. I don't think I've ever used a stamp & die set as quickly as I used the My Favorite Things Vanity License Plate Die & Stamp Set that was waiting inside the envelope!

I'd already made a summer celebration card for my dear daughter, so decided I needed to make one for my dear son too. He's already been off school for a week and a half, but won't complain.

I used the MFTWSC76 sketch for my card again - remember it looks like this.

The card for my dear son:

The license plate has a double meaning - "you are great" of course, but technically he is also in 8th Grade, or (as we would say in Canada) "you are Grade 8". The ink is Memento Bahama Blue and the brads from my stash.

I used the leaf die from the brand new Hibiscus Die-namic (and yes, it was also in the envelope today) to create a bed of leaves for the license plate to sit on.

The "Let's Celebrate" is from the a la mode Cheers stamp set and anchored with a little baker's twine and a shell brad.

Most of the papers are from the Echo Park Paradise Beach paper pad, although the yellow came from my scrap pile.

We are all ready for Father's Day here - I was hoping to find a nice fire table for the patio, but had to settle with a selection of goodies from REI.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

enjoy the ride mftwsc76

I wanted to make a card for my dear daughter - she finished her finals today and is FINALLY on summer vacation. It is really tough when your younger brother has been out more than a week already and you still have to study.

We always battle a bit over summer academic activity, but for the next week at least she can sleep in and play to her hearts content.

I love the Enjoy The Ride stamp set from My Favorite Things - doesn't it just make you think of lazy, summer days?

The My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club sketch this week is perfect for this image.

My card.

I didn't use any of the sentiments from the set on the card front - instead I used Lily Bee letter stickers to spell "summer" and attached the flag with a Basic Grey brad from my stash. 

The papers are mostly from the MME On the Bright Side designer paper pad, with the light blue coming from the Authentique Fresh collection.

A few Copics on the image, MME baker's twine and the Faux Crochet Border Dienamic from MFT round out the supply list.

Here's a close up of the brad & sentiment banner - you can see how it is popped up over the other panels with a foam tape.

The summer sleepovers are beginning at our house, so I expect to have a few quiet, crafty hours tomorrow morning.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

fast & easy boy's birthday card

Dear son is off to a friend's birthday party this afternoon and teen boys are NOT into anything frilly, flowery, glittery or cute for birthday cards. Nothing in the stack was appropriate, so I pulled out my Simple Stories Happy Birthday paper pad and went to work.

I cut the striped paper a little wide, so just wrapper it around the back of the card - I kind of like the look.

The sentiment is from the Movers & Shakers Sentiments stamp set from Papertrey Ink and stamped onto a scrap of patterned paper from an My Mind's Eye pad (On The Bright Side).

Our gift is (once again) a giftcard, so I hid the answer to the question under the zipper pull that frees the gift card. Clear as mud LOL?

Hopefully the birthday boy tears open the zipper carefully so that he see the answer to "what goes up and never comes down?"

Unfortunately my "pull here" smudged a bit - the Versa Magic Chalk Ink I used is very juicy and the stamp is tiny. Fortunately, teen boys will not notice the smudge, especially once the gift card is revealed.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie 

just my type MFTWSC75

We are on our second wave of summer visitors - can we call them that when, technically, it is not summer yet?

The visits are short and sweet, but it is hard to sneak away & create and even harder to sneak away for a few minutes on the computer. Right now I am typing (keyboarding?) as quietly as I can while a teen or two sleeps a couple of feet away.

This is the sketch for MFTWSC75 at Splitcoast Stampers:

And here is my card:

I used the Just My Type stamp & die set from My Favorite Things and Lily Bee designer paper along with Archival black ink for the sentiment and stamped image and a little Memento London Fog on the edges.

The "paper" with the sentiment is popped up with a foam adhesive.

It took me a while to figure out the embellishment I wanted for the bottom left corner. This morning I woke up and wondered if I still had a sheet of old typewriter alphabet stickers. As you can see I did!

I inked the edges of the chipboard circles, added the number stickers and layered them in the corner.

Our guests have priority for the next couple of days, dear daughter has finals at the end of the week, and then we are all on vacation!

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

gingham rainbow

My dear son started his summer vacation yesterday and suddenly I feel like I have a ton of free time on my hands. Windows are open, laundry is on and I am playing with my crafty toys.

Moxie Fab World has extended a couple of challenges, which made me very happy because I have had an idea ever since I saw the Gingham Challenge, but just haven't had the time to put a card together.

Then, when I saw this sketch on the Make It Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink it was just a matter of precision cutting my paper.

So, have I successfully incorporated gingham in an innovative way?

Let's just say I love gingham so much that I have the Gingham Signature Collection paper pad from Creative Imaginations.

The "you" is also cut from a black/grey gingham, but almost impossible to tell with the thin font. This die is from PTI's Wonderful Words die collection and the "thank" is from the PTI Daily Designs Sentiments stamp set (the "s" was masked out).

Did you notice the really brave thing I did? LOL I held my breath and stamped the "thank" right onto the card front - something I rarely do, because it rarely works for me.

I have a bag of black gingham ribbon strips - I'm thinking this collection goes way back to CKU Vancouver, where I was a Teacher's Assistant for a day. Teacher's did not want to ship product home at the end of the event, so I was given a box load of product like this ribbon, a 6 years supply of glue dots, glitter, brads, etc.

I'm pretty proud of this little bow. A friend turned me onto the Bow-Easy available from Really Reasonable Ribbon and I am no longer fumbling & fighting the ribbon to make bows.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

from hearts to hot air balloons

The Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday challenge this week is to use punches in your design. Check out their blog and play along for great prizes!

I will admit I go to dies more often than punches these days, but have a couple baskets full of punches that like to come out and play.

Splitcoast Stampers recently had a tutorial on what they called a "honeycomb shapes" technique and I decided to use my heart punch to create a hot air balloon.

The smaller balloons are made with a Fiscars heart punch.

I folded the hearts in half with the pattern I wanted to show on the inside.

I then snipped off the bottom of the hearts and started adhering them together.

I put 7 or 8 hearts together to create my dimensional hot air balloon and then adhered the finished balloon to the card front panel.

The balloons will always be open when the card is out, but will close flat for mailing.

The largest basket is made from a heart I freeformed - I didn't have a punch or die the size I wanted (hmm, do I need to go shopping?).

The baskets are also freeformed from scraps and the ropes are just pen lines.

The front sentiment is yet another one from the PTI Mega Mixed Media stamp set and the sentiment inside the card is from the My Favorite Things Vertical Greetings stamp & die set.

All the designer papers are from the MME Indie Chic collections - either Nutmeg or Ginger.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

absolutely fabulous

When I saw the Make It Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink this week, I knew immediately what I was going to do.

The challenge is to use inspiration from everyday life to create sketches: you need to use one of the sketches on their blog post and at least one PTI product to play along.

This is the sketch that caught my eye first, although there are a couple of others I hope to play with before the week is out.

How did I do?

I will admit, it took a bit longer than I thought to execute my idea, but I am happy with the final results. The "absolutely fabulous" sentiment is from the Papertrey Ink Mega Mixed Messages stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie

thank you Love My Tapes

Just a quick post to say thank you to Love My Tapes - I won a challenge on their blog and received a very generous package in the mail a couple of days ago.

I can't wait to dive in and use that green lace tape! They also included a pink/white dot fabric tape, the cloud & hearts washi tape and an adhesive tape runner.

Check out their blog for challenges and inspiration!

thanks for stopping by,

Jacquie