"Make It Monday" Challenge....

...on a Friday. This week's PTI's "Make It Monday Challenge" was to use a vellum sentiment strip. Sounds easy, right? I've discovered that I'm not a fan of vellum. Don't get me wrong, I would love your card with vellum....just not mine. It's kind of like salad for me. I love eating salad as long as someone else makes it, but if I make one it never tastes as good. Does that happen to anyone else!!?!? So, anyway, here is my attempt at a card with a vellum sentiment strip:

This is for my nephew's birthday next month. I am loving these weekly PTI challenges...I might actually make a few cards before I need them!



Thanks for stopping by,
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted)
Cardstock: Harvest Gold, Pure Poppy, Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse, True Black
Ink: True Black
Dies: Banner Borders, By the Numbers, Seeing Stars, Double Ended Banner
Impression Plate: By the Numbers
Other: Lemon Tart button, DMC black floss

"Make It Monday" challenge

Have you seen all of the exciting things going on over at Papertrey Ink? This is my absolute favorite company related to this hobby I love so much! February is their anniversary month and it's one big celebration! I'm sure if you are reading this you have gotten here from their new facebook page, but if not here is a link to Nichole's blog (one of the owners of PTI) to see what I'm talking about!
Here is my entry for the very first challenge in the new Make It Monday series:


Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise indicated)
card stock: Rustic white, berry sorbet, sweet blush
Stamps: My Punny Valentine, Heart Prints, Around and About Sentiments, Everyday Button Bits, Mega Mixed Messages, Say It with Style
Ink: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate
Other: Fiskars border punch

Welcome, little baby bee

Hello! Hope everyone out there is keeping warm. Here in St. Louis, we are hunkering (is that a real word?) down for what the meteorologists are calling a historic winter storm. Great. We have already had 8 snow days and if we get what they are predicting, this whole week could be a wash. The kids are going to be going to school until July at this rate! Hopefully, there will be a few clear hours tomorrow before it all starts....I really need to get to the bank and post office. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
This is a card that I made for a friend of mine to donate for a fundraiser. (I'll have to update with more information on that later!) I made two sets of cards and I will post them over the next week or so. I have to mention that this was kind of tricky for me, because they had to be mailable. So, no ribbon bows or too much extra stuff that makes a card so cute! I did sneak in a few buttons and some flatter ribbon treatments on some of the cards, but that's about all.

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies- both cards (all Papertrey Ink unless otherwise indicated)
Cardstock: Harvest Gold, Vellum (wings)
PP: Bitty Dot Basics
Stamps: Baby Button Bits
Ink: True Black, Chamomile-vintage touch tea dye duo
Other: Medium Scallop die, black button, button twine

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

Gosh, where to begin....It's been a long time. Wow! Nine months to be exact...and no I did NOT have a baby! Get it? Nine months....okay, that's probably only funny to me!
I wish I had some great reason for my absence, but fortunately it's just been life. Everyone is healthy and happy and, well, busy! I think I've been gone so long, I need to update my profile picture! Those kids look cute and little, mine are bigger and still pretty cute, but definitely older!
This month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things.

This month's blog hop challenge involves you challenging yourself to use a Papertrey stamp set that has yet to see ink or even one that might be collecting a little dust! Go through your stash and see what little used treasure it might hold.

Okay, so this is just speaking to me. I just might have a stamp set (or ten!) that has never seen ink!! The real challenge here is deciding which one to would use! :) I finally decided on Up, Up and Away. I loved this set from the minute I saw the sneak peeks....


First let me just say, I love PTI's dies and Impression Plates!! Those little cloud dies are to die for!! (pun intended!) Love them. I also used the Sunshine Impression Plate on this card and I just love how it gives the card a sense of movement under those balloons. Surprisingly, it even photographed well... Bonus!


On this next card, I used the Fancy Flourishes set in addition the the Up, Up and Away. FF has always been one of my favorites and it has definitely seen plenty of ink!



Now that I'm back, I hope to continue posting. I love it and just wish there were more hours in the day or maybe a few less extra-curricular activities for my kids. Either way, I have several more cards to post over the next few days, so please come back!
Thanks for stopping by,
Melanie

Supplies- both cards (all Papertrey Ink unless otherwise indicated)
Cardstock: Spring Rain, Stampers Select white
PP: Bitty Box Basics
Stamps: Up, Up and Away, Fancy Flourishes
Ink: True Black, Pure Poppy and Simply Chartruese all PTI , and Sunflower (CTMH)
Other: Sunshine Impression Plate; Cloud, Hot Air Balloon and Ric Rac dies; Simply Chartruese felt; gems (other)

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

This month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink is all about incorporation tissue paper into your project. I decided to make a couple of tags for my project. I have been wanting to try these flowers for awhile and it didn't seem practical to put them on a card as I don't see how you would fit it into an envelope! If I need a card to go with them, I can always make something that coordinates without all of the puffiness of tissue paper!






On this second tag I also used tissue paper for the border along with the felt. I intentionally left off the sentiments on these tags, so that I could use them for whatever need comes up.
Thanks for stopping by and have fun tonight!
Melanie

Is everyone keeping warm?? We were teased with a touch of spring only to be shocked back to winter this weekend! Hopefully this is it for the winter-like weather...now here comes the rain every other day. But, I'll take it and I'll try not to complain too much!

This is a card for the Paper Crafts Gallery challenge featuring babies and brides. One of my favorite new Papertrey Ink stamp sets is their baby button bits which I used on this card. The striped pattern was created with the Faux Ribbon stamp set.

I am supposed to be working, so I better get off here. Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink unless otherwise indicated)
Cardstock: Ripe Avocado, Spring Rain, Stampers Select white
Stamps: Baby Button Bits, Background Basics: Tin Types, Faux Ribbon
Ink: Ripe Avocado, Spring Rain
Other: Ripe Avocado button, Spring Rain ribbon, twine, Nestabilities Label 3, Copic markers

Moxie Fab World's Olympics of Stamping challenge

I read that today was the deadline for the Moxie Fab World's Olympics of Stamping challenge so I thought I would enter the few Christmas cards I made into the Season's Greetings category. Thanks for looking...

Tis the Season:


Supplies {all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise indicated}:
Cardstock: Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Raspberry Fizz, Vintage Cream
Ink: New Leaf, Dark Chocolate
Stamps: Tree Trimming Trio, Signature Christmas, Text Style
Other: EK Success edge punch, Queen and Co. gems, sewing machine


We Wish You a Merry Christmas:


Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless indicated otherwise)
Cardstock: Kraft, Dark Chocolate
Stamps: Vintage Ornaments, Signature Christmas, Polka Dot Basics 2
Ink: Pure Poppy, Fresh Snow, Dark Chocolate
Other: glitter-Martha Stewart, ribbon- unknown, button and twine-Papertrey Ink


Love Peace Joy:


Card Supplies
paper: Smokey Shadow, Pure Poppy (PTI)
stamps: Tree Trimming Trio, Holiday Button Bits (PTI)
Ink: True Black (PTI), Versamark
Other: Stickles, Spellbinders label 1 die, EK Success paper edger, embellishment (Michaels), clear embossing powder

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

This month's Papertrey Ink blog hop is a fun one! As soon as I read the details, I knew I wanted to participate.
From the Papertrey Ink website:

Since we just finished up our 3rd Anniversary Festivities, we thought we would do something extra special for this month's Blog Hop! Design Team Appreciation Day! Your challenge is to go through the Design Team gallery or any of the Design Team Members' blogs and find a project that is especially inspirational to you! Then recreate the project with your own spin, making it unique! Be sure to share a link and photo of the original project that inspired you! And you can also use this opportunity to thank the team for all their contributions this past year! I know they inspire ME daily and I never seem to thank them enough! We look forward to seeing your projects!

I have always said that I think Papertrey Ink has some of the most talented designers in the industry. They are each so unique and inspiring in their own way. I'm excited for them to get a lot of *love* tonight!! So, the agonizing decision of who/what to showcase was extremely difficult!!! I ended up choosing something that when I first saw it...It was one of those WOW! moments for me. It was on Mish's blog and it is something she calls rib-n-strips. Here is the blog post where she introduced this very clever idea.
Here is Mish's card featuring her rib-n-strips:

Such a clever idea...and a great reason to hang on to those ribbon scraps!

Here is my card featuring Mish's rib-n-strips:


This was such a fun blog hop idea and I truly can't wait to visit everyone's blog. Thank you to Mish and all of the design team members for their daily inspiration! I seriously could of picked any one of them for this blog hop. They are ALL truly awesome!!

'til next time!
Melanie

Supplies (All Papertrey Ink, unless indicated otherwise)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select white, Spring Morning, Raspberry Fizz
Stamps: Turning a New Leaf, Baby Button Bits, Everyday Classics (annv. set)
Ink: True Black, Spring Morning
Other: Ribbon (all PTI), EK Success edge punch, Nestabilities Label One die, Copic markers, buttons from stash

"I'm in pieces..."

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great week so far! We spent last weekend in Kansas City with some family and came home to a few inches of snow on the ground. The kids were already off for Presidents day on Monday, but I'm sure they would of been anyway. So, with the short week I feel like it's flying by! Normally a good thing, but we are celebrating my middle son's birthday this weekend and I'm not even close to being ready!
Anyway, on to the card! I made this for Betsy's challenge "I'm in pieces" Basically, she challenged us to do some paper piecing. The umbrella card she made with this technique is amazing...No surprise that this girl is the sole reason I have purchased so many Papertrey Ink stamp sets! In fact I've added Scattered Showers to my cart just because of this card! I love it!! So, I don't think if I've ever paper pieced anything before....so I dusted off my Cricut that I gave myself for Christmas *wink* and got busy!

I'm totally new to the whole Cricut thing, but I have to tell you, I'm hooked! I pieced together this cute little snail from a cartridge FULL of cute little critters called Paisley. I only have a few cartridges that I picked up on Black Friday last year, but I can see that I'm gonna have to do something about that... very soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies
Cardstock: Smokey Shadow, Summer Sunrise-Papertrey Ink
PP: all from DCWV 'the Spring stack'
Stamps: Turning a New Leaf, Pond Life
Ink: Smokey Shadow, Spring Moss
Other: Spring Rain button-PTI, Cricut and Paisley cartridge, sewing machine