Paper, Scissors and Superheroes

Birds & Blooms...

At long last, the team is here to share projects using this year's Papertrey Ink anniversary stamp set - Birds & Blooms.  Coordinating dies are being released this month as well!  yay!  This set is only available for "purchase" using reward points, from now until February 14, 2014.  For more details on the Papertrey Ink Rewards policy, click HERE.

My card today is quite simple.  I used the wreath image from Birds & Blooms to create this springy wreath.  The individual stamps with everything in just the right spot makes it so quick and easy to make this multi-color image.  The stamps even have little "tab" sort of things on them that make it super easy to line everything up.  I love that - so smart!  

I love the senitments in this set as well - the font is so beautiful.  The only thing I added that is not from the Birds & Blooms set is the bow, which is from Happy Hydrangea.  After doing the stamping, I used the Simple Stripes Impression plate to add impress the stripes into the background.   A strip of patterned paper finishes off the bottom edge.

 

Supplies not linked, but available from Papertrey Ink as of 10pm EST on March 15, 2013:  Birds & Blooms die collection

 

Be sure to check out the rest of the Birds & Blooms creations by the rest of the DT!

• Cristina Kowalozyk
• Ashley Cannon Newell
• Danielle Flanders
• Jess Witty
• Erin Lincoln
• Maile Belles
• Nichole Heady
• Dawn McVey
• Debbie Olson
• Heather Nichols
• Melissa Phillilps

 

Spring Fling...

Welcome to the annual Papertrey Ink Scavenger Hunt!  Hop to each DT blog and look for bunny graphics in the photo at the top of each post.  There might be one, there might be none, there might be more than one.  Visit Nichole's blog for all of the details on how to play along and comment to win.  

Today is the first group post of the countdown/anniversary celebration.  The team today is featuring a collection of fun and springy new products...

Polka Dot Parade by Melissa Bickford is a new series.  The first installment features a cute dotted bunny, some spring/easter sentiments and a coordinating bunny die.  

Mini Blooms by Maile is an awesome floral set filled with large clusters of mini blooms as well as individual blooms...all done in a small scale, perfect for embellishing sentiments and more.  There are coordinating dies for several of the small individual flowers.  

Favor it #9 die collection -- This is a super fun set of dies that will allow you to create two different sized baskets, perfect for small gifts.

All of these new products will be available from purchase from the Papertrey Ink website as of 10pm EST time on February 15th.  You can read more details about each product on Nichole's blog.  

Nichole challenged the team to find some inspiration from Pinterest or another sourse and create some projects based on that inspiration using the new products I mentioned above...'

I sort of have a weakness for soft, pastel-y Easter trees.  I've never actually put one up in my house (yet), but they are so pretty to look at...

(image credit)

I adore this fresh, colorful card and the little flowers clustered around the sentiment totally reminded me of Maile's new Mini Blooms set and I knew I wanted to try to re-create this look using her stamps.  

(image credit)

So, on to the projects.  Up first is a cute little Easter basket which was created with the new Favor it #9 die collection.    I used the larger basket for my project today.  I diecut it from Sweet Blush cardstock and stamped on it with BB: Super Stripes.  I chose to hold the basket pieces together with brads, but you could use buttons or any other fasterner of your choice.  

My basket is filled with felt ornaments (for the Easter tree I might actually put up one of these years!) which were diecut from Papertrey felt using the bunny die from the new Polka Dot Parade set (more on that in a bit).  The eggs were cut with the Egg die, which was released last year.  I also tucked a stamped tag in the basket which was stamped using flowers from the new Mini Blooms set, inspired by the pretty card above.  The sentiment is from Polka Dot Parade #1.  The tiny flower and leaf dies from the Mini Blooms set were perfect for embellishing my bunnies and eggs.  

 

Next up is a funny little card using Polka Dot Parade #1.  I used a scallop scissors to munch away on the bunnies until just his tie and tail were left. :-)

The flowers along the top are from Mini Blooms and the "Happy Easter" sentiment is from Polka Dot Parade #1. 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my projects today.  Don't forget to hop around to the other DT girls to check out their springy projects and hunt for bunnies!

• Ashley Cannon Newell
• Danielle Flanders
• Jess Witty
• Maile Belles
• Nichole Heady
• Dawn McVey
• Melissa Phillips
• Cristina Kowalozyk

 

Papertrey Ink Watercolor Challenge...

Once again Nichole has another challenge up on her blog, in honor of the Papertrey Ink anniversary celebration!  Today's challenge is all about watercolor and incorporating some form of it into a project.  I love to play around with different watercolor techniques, so I couldn't resist playing along.  

For my card, I started out by heat embossing some flowers and leaves from Dawn's new Cutting Garden set with white embossing powder.  Then I took a few drops of re-inker and created a couple of "palettes" on two pieces of acetate (I keep the acetate sheets that the stamps come on and use them for this sort of thing).  The first had drops of Summer Sunrise and Hibiscus Burst inks and the second had drops of Aqua Mist and Simply Chartreuse inks.  I then misted them with a spray bottle full of water and used the end of a paintbrush to swirl them together (don't mix too much...allow the colors to remain somewhat separate).  

Then I took the same stamps that I had already heat embossed onto the card, pressed them into the "palettes" of ink I had created and stamped over the embossed images, shifting the images slightly to allow more of the color to be visibile.  It's kind of messy, but that's the look I was going for.  The embossed portion gives it just enough definition so you can tell they are leaves and flowers, but the watercolor stamping gives the softness of a watercolor painting.  I also incorporated a few "brushstrokes" in the upper right corner by using an image from Maile's new Watercolor Wonder stamp set being released this month.  The sentiment is from a set you'll be seeing more of soon!  I also stamped some BB: Text style along the bottom edge - this was done by using my palette of Summer Sunrise and Hibiscus inks as well.

I had fun playing in the water today.  I hope you'll find some time to play along with the challenge as well.  You can see all the details on Nichole's blog!

Papertrey Ink Color Inspirations...

Happy Monday!  We're well in to our Papertrey Ink 6th Anniversary Celebration, but there's still tons more fun to come!  Today's challenge on Nichole's blog is all about color.  She put together a collection of amazing images and Papertrey Ink color combos that were inspired by those images.  Be sure to visit her blog to see all of the color palettes and read all the details about how you can play along too.There are, of course, more giveaways with this challenge as well!  

I chose to work with the color scheme in the image below.  I was tempted to choose a few of the others which were totally more "me", but I decided to challenge myself a little.  This color combo is defnitely not something I would have come up with on my own, but it's so warm and pretty.  

Here is the card I created using this color combo.  Lots of new stamps here!  I used Maile's new Irresistably Ikat set to create the pattern.  This is a set that is going to be so much fun to play with.  I've created a few cards with it already and I feel like I've just touched the tip of the iceberg.  I'm excited to see what Maile does with it...she always has such a unique way of arranging images and building patterns.  

That super fun jumbo "hello" image and smaller "just a note to say" sentiments are from the first installment of Heather's year-long Wonderful Words series.  I think I'm more excited about this series than any ever before in the history of Papertrey.  hee.  You all know how I love typographical elements and if this first set is any indication of what's to come, consider me hooked!

Thanks for joining me today, I'm excited to see what you all do with the color inspirations that Nichole has put together...so hop on over to her blog, check it out, and play along!

Products not linked, but available on February 15th, 2013 from Papertrey Ink:  Irresistably Ikat stamp set, Wonderful Words: Hello stamp set

Introducing Cutting Garden and Boutique Borders: Mother

The party's been going on for a while now for Papertrey Ink's 6th anniversary, but today marks the official start of the countdown where we get to start showing you projects using the new stamps and dies being released this month!  You'll also get to see the first installment of each of the new year-long series being released.  I always think February is such an exciting month!

The two sets I get to help debut today are both designed by Dawn McVey.  There is a gorgeous floral set called Cutting Garden...I am in love with this set!  It's definitely going to be my new go-to floral set.  I told Dawn about a million times this week that I just love, love, love her new set!  She's probably sick of me by now.  :-)  There are also dies for almost every piece in this set.

The other little set I'm previewing today is the first in Dawn's year longs series called Boutique Borders.  Each month there will be a $5 mini set containing an ornate border and some coordinating sentiments.  There will also be a coordinating die for the border.  This month's set is called Boutique Borders: Mothers...and you guessed it, all of the pretty sentiments included in the set are Mother's Day related. 

So let me show you some projects that put these new stamps and dies to use.  

My first card uses floral images and a sentiment from the Cutting Garden set.  The flowers are so pretty and different than anything in my collection.  I love that they are all individual flowers, so I can play around with lots of different arrangements.  The leaves are also separate, which lets me position those anywhere as well.

I inked the flowers with both Summer Sunrise and Hibiscus Burst inks, rolling the bottom portion of the flowers in the Hibiscus ink.  The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed on a strip of vellum.  I rolled the edges of my front panel with a brayer and some Hibiscus and Summer Sunrise inks....the same method I used on this card from a few weeks ago.  I also added a bit of Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist in the background.  

Supplies not linked, but available on February 15th, 2013 from Papertrey Ink:  Cutting Garden stamp set and coordinating dies

Up next is a card using one of the sketches Nichole is featuring on her blog today.  To see the rest of the sketches and play along with today's challenge, but sure to hop over to her blog!

I used Sketch #1 and turned it into a horizontal card.  I diecut the Take Three die from a panel of Autumn Rose cardstock and backed it with some white cardstock.  I added some diecut Cutting Garden flowers stamped in Hibiscus, Autumn Rose and Scarlet Jewel inks.  I also added some tone-on-tone stamping to the Autumn Rose panel.  The Cutting Garden set is so perfect for both focal images and creating gorgeous backgrounds.  

The sentiment on this card uses the other new set I'm introducing today - Boutique Borders: Mother.  The frame is such a pretty shape and the fonts on the sentiment are so detailed and gorgeous.  The strip of patterned paper under the label is one of the new pattern packs for February....Hibiscus Burst. yay!

Supplies not linked, but available on February 15th, 2013 from Papertrey Ink:  Cutting Garden stamp set and coordinating dies, Boutique Borders: Mother stamp set and coordinating die, Hibiscus Burst Pattern Pack paper

My next card takes the Cutting Garden set and goes vintage.  I created the background by stamping several different flowers and leaf images from the set onto Kraft cardstock using Classic Kraft it. I then added some diecut flowers over the top, stamped in Sweet Blush and Ripe Avocado inks.  

I once again used the pretty frame from Boutique Borders: Mother for my sentiment.  This time I paired it with one of the sentiments from the Cutting Garden set.  I also did a bit of layering by stamping the image onto some Sweet Blush patterned paper, cutting out the center and layering it over my diecut frame.  I added some vintage buttons as well.  The patterned paper along the bottom edge is from Pink Paislee's new Hope Chest collection (coming soon to a store near you!).

Supplies not linked, but available on February 15th, 2013 from Papertrey Ink:  Cutting Garden stamp set and coordinating dies, Boutique Borders: Mother stamp set and coordinating die

For my last card today I went a little funky with the two open-style flowers from the Cutting Garden set.  They are just so pretty and full looking!  I decided to go with a bright, summery color scheme.  The larger flowers were inked up using Summer Sunrise and Raspberry Fizz inks, then the edges were rolled in Orange Zest and Scarlet Jewel inks to create some depth of color around the edges.  

The smaller flowers were inked with Plum Pudding (edges rolled in Scarlet Jewel) and Hawaiian Shores (edges rolled in Ocean Tides).  The "hi" portion of the sentiment was stamped with a brand new trendy alphabet set being released this month called Headline Alphabet.  Everything is layered over some Hawaiian Shores Polka Dot paper.  

Supplies not linked, but available on February 15th, 2013 from Papertrey Ink:  Cutting Garden stamp set and coordinating dies, Headline Alphabet stamp set, Hibiscus Burst Pattern Pack paper

Well, that's all from me today, thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll head on over to Nichole's blog to see more sneaks of the new products along with lots more links to check out from the other team memebers.  Oh, and don't forget the sketch challenge today as well!  

Boutique Bargains at Papertrey Ink...

Hello again!  

It's another fun Papertrey Ink Anniversary day.  Today Nichole is announcing a brand new section of the store - Boutique Bargains!  This section of the store will contain a fun assortment of goodies and will change frequently with all sorts of fun things Nichole finds to stock it with.  

The first batch of products includes a nice selection of cloth bags in various styles and sizes.  Nichole challenged us to embellish one of the bags to feature on her blog today.  I chose to play around with this small muslin draw-string bag.  It's the perfect way to wrap up a small gift...and the Papertrey stamps and dies make it easy to coordinate the bag with a matching tag and even a card.  

Now, I could have stamped directly onto the bag, but that makes me a little nervous.  I just know I'd mess it up!  So here's my little secret for getting beautiful, crisp, clear images on fabric -- iron-on transfer paper like this HP paper.  I diecut the large flower cluster from Fancy Folkart out of transfer paper, then stamped my images just like usual.  I then used my iron to transfer the design to my bag.  Super simple!  A cute little coordinating tag finishes it off.  It's one of those wraps that you really could whip up at the last minute...which is what I always seem to be doing.  :-)

Edited to add:  I've had quite a few questions about this process, so let me see if I can clarify just a bit.  Everything was stamped onto the transfer paper BEFORE ironing it onto the fabric...just as if it was normal cardstock or paper.  All of the color on the flowers was added by stamping the bits and pieces from the Fancy Folk Art set, using my regular Papertrey inks.  I didn't do anything after I ironed the image onto the bag -- no coloring, etc.  That being said, you CAN color on the transfer paper with Copics before ironing it onto the fabric - I've used that method as well and it works too!  I'll definitely try to incorporate this into a future Make-it-Monday...sounds fun to me!  :-)

Just one more note about the transfer paper - keep in mind that your image is reversed after ironing it on to your project, so it won't work for sentiments, but it's great for images!  

Be sure to check out Nichole's blog for the rest of the details on the Boutique Bargains announcement.  There's also a new contest up again today, so head on over, check out the details and play along!  The weekend is officially here!  

Flower Favorites...

The Papertrey Ink Anniversary festivities continue!  Today Nichole has some fun announcements on her blog.  She's also debuting the release of dies to coordinate with the entire Year of Flowers series!  Yay!  The dies open a whole new world with these sets.  I for one, am hesitant to fussy cut them...they're just so detailed!  I know lots of you were lobbying for these, so it's exciting to see that happen.  

Nichole challenged each of the team to choose our favorite Year of Flowers set and create a project with it.  I chose to use the Violets set.  I also snuck in a little Lily of the Valley.  

I couldn't resist pulling out the Violet set again -- Violets are always special to me.  My grandma's name is Violet, as well as my daughter's middle name (after her great-grandma).  My grandma is one of my favorite people -- she's such an example of grace and strong faith...so even the sentiment included in this set is perfect!

I really wanted to try to create a realistic look with the violets.  They are so light and airy looking in real life.  To try to duplicate that, I diecut them from vellem, stamped the image and heat embossed with white powder.  I then took a q-tip and some Winter Wisteria and Royal Velvet inks and blending the ink until I has happy with the color.  Then I took a purple pen and added some "veins" in the center.    

I added a few small flowers from the Embroidered Blooms set to the background.  I just love the way the dies made it possible to overlap and layer my flowers.  This card would have taken me much, much longer if I would have had to cut them all by hand!  I'm so spoiled.  :-)  

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you're finding some time to play along with the fun challenges Nichole is posting each day on her blog.  Today's challenge is to pull out YOUR favorite Year of Flowers set and create a project with it, then link it up on the appropriate post on Nichole's blog.  Have fun!  

Papertrey & Project Favorites...

Hello all!  The party is starting!  Papertrey Ink is celebrating their 6th anniversary with a whole 10 days of giveaways and challenges.  Today is Day #1!  I am excited to be joining the Papertrey team for another year of new products, monthly releases, DT challenges, etc.  Each month is something new and exciting and I can't wait to see what's in store for 2013.  Nichole continually inspires me with all that she does....and she does it all with grace and style!  

Today Nichole is featuring each DT member on her blog along with our six favorite Papertrey projects ever -- you'll see mine in the image at the top of this post, but I wanted to share a little about why these projects fell into my favorites category.  

1.  All My Heart Chalkboard card.  I love the chalkboard trend and just had so much fun playing with it.  This was a card I created for a Make it Monday video, and juding by the number of entries, I'm guessing you all had fun with it too.  And that makes me a little giddy.  I love feeling like I inspired others to get up and make something.  To me, that's what it's all about.  

 

2.  Flip-flop Card.  What's not to love about summer?  Right now I'm freezing my buns off, dreaming of summer, and this card just screams summer....maybe that's why I'm loving it at the moment.  Or maybe it's becuase I feel like I sort of nailed it on the execution of this card...it's exactly what I had envisioned when I started out.  And it's clean and crisp and fresh...something I strive for, but feel I often fall short of.  Plus those flip-flops are just fun and happy.  

3.  Love Potion Card.   You know the A Ha! moment when the right products come together to create something fun and clever?  That's how I felt with my Love Potion card.  I had fun turning the sweater die into a lab coat...I kind of giggled the whole time as I was making this card.  

4.  Sunshine Card.  I don't really know if I have a good reason for this one falling into my favorites category...it just makes me kind of happy.  I love the bright, cheery rainbow color scheme, the sunrise background, and how everything works together.  

5.  In the Meadow Pop-up Card.  This was another one of those times when I just had fun creating.  This card came out just like I had envisioned.  I had fun building the scene with elements from In the Meadow and adding lots of little details.  

6.  Thankful Word Art Card.  You probably all know by now that typography gets my heart beating just a little faster.  That's probably why this card falls into my favorites.  I love playing around with words and sentiments, so the Counting My Blessings dies were one of my favorite products released this year.  

I hope you enjoyed my parade of favorite Papertrey projects.  I enjoyed looking through all of my past projects...it's funny how certain projects reminded me of events that were going on in my life at the time that I created them.  Crazy how things like that can trigger memories.  Sometimes I even remember what the weather was like while I was creating a certain project!  ha!  I know...I'm weird.  :-)  Thanks for joining me though...I hope you enjoy the anniversary celebration and can find some time to play along!  

Anniversary set: Pretty Peonies...

Welcome to the last day of the Papertrey 5th Anniversary celebration!  Today the team is featuring projects using the anniversary set.  This year's set is called Pretty Peonies and it is SO pretty!  (Visit the Papertrey Ink website or Nichole's blog to see if you qualified for this year's set or how you can begin working towards earning next year's.)  

I created two cards with this new set.  First up is a very soft card using a technique I've been playing around with a bit.  You've probably noticed that lately I've been having fun playing with my inks and getting different intensities of color by "stamping off" onto scrap paper before stamping onto my project.  I used a variation of that technique on this first card.  I used Berry Sorbet ink and inked up that pretty poeny stamp, then stamped off onto scrap paper.  I then went back and rolled the edges in the ink again before stamping it onto my project. The effect is a pretty shaded look.

I love that big "happy" stamp from the set as well as the coordinating smaller sentiments.  Everything on this card is from the new Pretty Peonies set.  

My second card is also done up in pinks, but it's a ltitle more vibrant than the first.  I just can't help but think pink when I think of peonies.  

For this card, I used some Dearest Jane patterned paper and stamped the peonies in shades of pink, then stamped the coordinating outline image using with Versamark, and heat embossed it with white powder.  It gives a pretty, lacey look.  After the embossing was complete, I want back and used my ink blending tool to add some Sweet Blush ink to the background.  That pretty label is also from the new Peony set.  

I hope you enjoyed today's peek at the new anniversary set!  You can check out the rest of the team's creations using the links below...

• Ashley Cannon Newell
• Danielle Flanders
• Jess Witty
• Erin Lincoln
• Maile Belles
• Nichole Heady
• Lisa Johnson
• Dawn McVey
• Debbie Olson
• Heather Nichols
• Melissa Phillilps
• Michelle Wooderson

Supplies not linked:  Pretty Peonies stamp set

InLinkz.com

Sweet Spring...

Welcome to the annual Papertrey scavenger hunt!  There may or may not be eggs hidden in the image above - can you find them?  There may be one, there may be more than one, there may be none!  Count them up and mark them down, then make your way around to the other Papertrey designers...count their eggs too and then be sure to return to Nichole's blog to leave a comment stating the number of eggs you found.  One random winner with the correct answer will receive an awesome prize!  (click on the photo above to enlarge it if necessary - you only need to look for hidden eggs in the photo at the top of this post).  Here are links to the other designers participating in today's scavenger hunt....

• Ashley Cannon Newell
• Danielle Flanders
• Jess Witty
• Erin Lincoln
• Maile Belles
• Nichole Heady
• Lisa Johnson
• Dawn McVey
• Heather Nichols
• Melissa Phillilps

Now if you're done hunting and counting, are you ready to hear more about today's products and projects?  The sets the team is featuring tonight are Scrambled Eggs by Heather Nichols and Sweet Spring by Lisa Johnson.  Both sets are perfect for spring and Easter crafting and even beyond.  

I created a little Easter ensemble using these two new sets.  

The little felt treat bag was created with the Favor-it #4 die.  I modified it a bit by only cutting the front and back panels (trimming away the portion that make up the sides and bottom) to create a flat bag that I could stitch together.  

I embellished that adorable bunny egg from the new Scrambled Eggs set with a diecut bow from the Bells & Boughs die collection and I diecut the ears from some fur fabric.

And here is the coordinating card.  The floral background was created by stamping the smaller floral bouquet image from the new Sweet Spring set in Aqua Mist, Hibiscus, Chartreuse, and Autumn Rose inks onto Rustic Cream cardstock. The sentiment label is also from the new Sweet Spring set and it coordinates with the previously released Christmas Label die, also from Lisa Johnson.  I love that I now have more options for that label, since I love the shape of it!

For my card, I put that cute bunny in the spotlight by placing him in the center of the frilly frame from last month's Simply Jane set and die.

Thanks for hopping by today!  Supplies are linked below...but my apologies...many of my Papertrey Ink links are not working.  They are revamping the website and things are a little wonky right now.  Hopefully everything will be up and running smoothly soon and I can fix whatever links need to be fixed at that time.  Thanks for your patience!  

In the mean time, happy hopping!  :-)  

Supplies not linked but available as of February 15th from Papertrey Ink:  Sweet Spring stamp set, Scrambled Eggs stamp set and coordinating die collection

InLinkz.com