Card Patterns #12

I finally got a chance to play with the Papertrey Ink stamp set, Life. I LOVE this set!... and to think I almost didn't get it!
I used it on Card Patterns sketch #12.


I don't know why, but I am stuck on these purples, Plum Pudding and Lavender Moon from Papertrey Ink. I am normally not a *purple* kind of girl, but I'm going to have to quit saying that as I think I have used these colors on the last several cards I have made!


Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies
{all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted}
Stamps: Life
Paper: Kraft, White, Plum Pudding
Ink: Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon, Fresh Snow
Ribbon: Lavender Moon twill
Other: brads-unknown, sewing machine, Nestibilities Label One die
I distressed the edges of the Plum Pudding with a pair of scissors

Lovin' my crafty little girl!

I was putting my new PTI stamps in the cases, when Avery brought her stamping stuff into my scrapbook room and pulled up a chair. It was a proud moment!! This is something Grandma gave to one of the boys, but it is her favorite thing at the moment. It's a book and inks for making fingerprint art. Notice her little ink cubes look like mom's Palette cubes. She loves that!


The finished product:

She said this was just practice and didn't want to waste the *good* paper!!

Backyard Update

I promised my mom I would post some pictures on the progress of the landscaping and waterfall. We had a few rain-free days last week, so they were able to get some things done. Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain 4 days this week. Ugh!!!


The new {larger} pond


The boys vacuuming the bottom of the pool. They finished the pool and filled it on Friday. Yes, it was that dirty. Can you see the dirt line?!?! Sadly, the dirt resettled an hour after they finished! It has been so windy, I feel like I'm in Kansas! {That's for my Aunts who live in Kansas with that awful wind!} So, the dirt from the yard just blows right in. I imagine we will be dealing with that until we get grass back there!



The four Spruce trees on the left are a few of the trees they got planted. They are still all tied up, but hopefully will give the backyard some privacy. There are still lots more plants that go where those trees are.


This is the front where they are building a rock wall outlined by the gravel in the picture. Then there is a bed in front of the wall where they put in two of the trees.



This is the only picture I have taken of that other tree. You can also see where the wall will continue on the other side of the walkway.

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

April PTI Blog Hop

It is that time again!

Lauren has already built an amazing array of printable templates in our store. Almost a reference library of sorts. Thousands of you have downloaded these amazing resources and have expressed how much you love them! Now's your chance to show us what you can do with them! Your challenge is to create a project using one of the Timeless Templates, any one of your choice. If you haven't tried them yet, there are some available for free HERE. Get really creative and put a new spin on one of the more basic designs. Use this as an opportunity to make a gift for someone special, just because. This would be the perfect opportunity to get out one of those new stamp sets that have yet to see ink! Have fun and play! We look forward to seeing your results!
{From Papertrey Ink website}

Sadly, I haven't used Lauren's templates much, but the ones I have gotten to play with are amazing! They are so easy to put together and so fun to make! So, I was excited to see this months blog hop challenge was to use one of these templates. It was the push I needed to make something for my favorite room! I choose the Filed with Flair template for my project tonight.



It fits perfectly on the shelves that are on one wall of the room. I used some of the My Mind's Eye papers that I based this room off of. I love these papers and have used them for several projects for this room.

Originally, I was making this to hold mail, but maybe I'll get an idea tonight for a different purpose!

I'm off to blog hop!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

I'm a Winner!!

Yeah!!! I won a Lizzie Anne Designs stamp set and one of their new digital paper packs. No talent was necessary, purely luck of the draw!! LOL! I am so excited!!! I only recently discovered their stamps and haven't had much of a chance to play with the couple of sets I have purchased. I hope to change that soon! Anyway, I wanted to share my good news. You can see the new sets on their blog --here--. Thanks Lizzie Anne Designs!

Card Patterns #11

I didn't participate in the Card Patterns sketch last week, but it wasn't for lack of trying!!! I stared at that sketch for days and just couldn't pull anything together. For whatever reason, that was a hard one for me! In my defense, I was severely distracted with all of the stuff going on in the backyard...That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!

Here is Card Patterns sketch #11:


My take on the sketch:


I cut some of the petals of the flowers with my craft knife and then lifted them slightly for a little dimension. I used the back side of Papertrey's satin ribbon for a less shiny look. It's like getting two ribbons for the price of one! {wink} I tapped the New Canvas ink pad on top of the pink flower to tone down the brightness of the pink and give it a little texture. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory!

What I like about this card is that with this sentiment (from Heartfelt Basics-PTI) this card can be used in a pinch for many different occasions. At the last minute, I can stamp a 'happy birthday' sentiment or 'Happy Mother's Day' or even a 'Congratulations' on the inside of the card and use it for whatever purpose I need at the time. So, that's a bonus!

Well, I better get busy.... I have a stack of mail staring at me as I am typing this.

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies
Cardstock: Vintage Cream-PTI
Patterned Paper: DCWV
Stamps: Everyday Classics and Heartfelt Basics-PTI
Ink: Hibiscus-PTI, New Canvas-Pallette
Other: Ribbon-PTI, Buttons-PTI, edge distresser-Heidi Swapp, Nestabilities Label One die, sewing machine

Backyard Plans

We have been very busy this last week finalizing plans for our backyard. We had always envisioned some sort of water feature on our back hill, but were always unsure how or when to embark on this project. Well, this is the year!!! We found a company that puts in the most amazing waterfalls and, after taking some things into consideration, decided to move forward with the project. So, they started on Thursday putting in this waterfall and pond. We also have a ton of landscaping that will be going in over the next two weeks.

I took a few pictures of the process. So far, they have dug out the placement of the water fall and poured the concrete footing and then shaped the walls of the waterfall and pond.










This is where we are today. It rained all weekend so as soon as it dries out this week they will be back to cover all of the concrete with boulders so that you won't see any of it on the waterfall.

It doesn't look much like the end result now, but I did take a picture of their waterfall at the nursery to give you an idea of what it is suppose to look like in the end:
Again, this is a picture of the waterfall at Frisella's Nursery. Ours is a much smaller scale.

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

A couple of cards...

Here are the two cards I made for the April GSS at Papertrey Ink. Purple is not normally a color I reach for, but my mom recently came home from Kansas with these really pretty dishes from my Grandma Kazmaier. She used them for brunch on Easter, and they inspired my color scheme for these two cards.




Here is a picture I took of the dishes. Not the best picture, but you get the idea. Right? They are really pretty IRL!!


Thanks for stopping by!

Melanie

You're Too Kind

Stamps: Guidelines Two, Mega Mixed Messages
Ink: Plum Pudding, New Leaf, New Canvas
Paper: Kraft, Plum Pudding
Ribbon: New Leaf
Other: Marvy Scallop circle punch, CM circle cutter, Fiskars border punch, Prima flower, Queen and Co. pearls, Martha Stewart punch, Nestibilities tag die, The Paper Studio button, hemp cord, Inkssentials opaque pen

Thanks So Much

Stamps: Guidelines Two, Mega Mixed Messages, Background Basics: Retro
Ink: Plum Pudding, New Leaf, New Canvas
Paper: Kraft, Plum Pudding
Ribbon: New Leaf
Other: Prima flower, Martha Stewart punch, Nestibilities tag die, DaisyD's buttons, hemp cord, Inkssentials opaque pen

Easter 2009

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter yesterday. Our weather was rather dreary, but aside from that we had a great day! We spent the day with my family at my parent's house. We had a really nice brunch and then played some cards after our Easter egg hunt.

I made these little baskets for each of the kids.

Fortunately, the rain held off long enough to get in the egg hunt. There were 85 eggs hidden for the kids to find. They only found 84 of them! We never did find that last egg.

{Click on any picture for a closer look!}







One last picture before they all changed clothes to play!


Thanks for stopping by!

Melanie

Celebrating 11 years!!

Today my husband and I are celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. Wow! I can't believe how time flies!
I can't believe how young we look! We actually got married on the Saturday before Easter in 1998 and I think this is the first year since that it falls on the same weekend again. At least in recent years anyway. We have Grandma Joanie coming over to stay with the kids this evening and we are off to The Melting Pot for dinner. We haven't been there before, so we are looking forward to a nice quiet evening away. My mom offered to have them spend the night out at her house, but I was afraid it would get to complicated with the Easter Bunny coming in the morning!

Oh, and I won a ten dollar gift certificate to Cornish Heritage Farms in their monthly online referral program for linking this card back to their website. Yeah!! It's shaping up to be a pretty good day!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for stopping by,
Melanie

Better late than never....

I finally had time to participate in another sketch challenge over at 2Sketches4You. I studied this sketch for a looong time and almost didn't give it a go! This one was definitely a challenge for me!
Here is the sketch:



...and my take on Laura's Sketch 23:


It says "Happy Belated Birthday" on the inside.


I flipped the sketch on its side and this is what I came up with. I used all new stuff I bought at CKC last weekend. Including the cutest mushroom cutting die from Quick Kutz. I used it with my Cuttlebug and it worked like a charm! This opens up a whole new world of die cuts for me because QK has several I *need*!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie


Supplies
PP: Imaginisce
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Stampers Select white (PTI), green (Bazzill) blue, orange (DCVW)
stamps: Inkadinkadoo
Ink: True Black (PTI)
Other: Prismacolor pencils and baby oil, EK Success edge punch, Quickutz 'mushrooms' cutting die, Labels 1 Nestibilities, Glossy Accents on snail's shell

CP Sketch #9

I am having the laziest day today! It's so cold and icky outside and I just can't seem to get inspired to do anything productive. I just finished up my Card Patterns Sketch #9 and I desperately need to clean my 'room', so I guess I will get started on that.
Here is Sketch #9:







Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies:
Cardstock: Kraft, white, Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate (PTI)
stamps: Spriral Bouquet (PTI)
Ink: Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Other: Ribbon (PTI), brads (unknown), gems (The Paper Studio), sewing machine, thread

CKC and a card

I've been on a little stamping hiatus! Finishing up on taxes the first part of the week and CKC on Friday and Saturday. I so look forward to CKC every year. I missed it last year because I had my back surgery on the first day of the convention. This year I took 3 classes, which were all wonderful! All three are acrylic mini-books and when I finish them I will post. I have been sort of intimidated by acrylic type books so I am very excited to actually complete one and of course I had to buy stuff for several other projects while I was there! Always a good time!
Here is my birthday card entry from CKC. I didn't win (duh!) but I thought it was at least worthy of a blog post!



Notice I didn't stamp anywhere on this card... That's a first for me!! Oh wait, I stamped a sentiment from Birthday Basics (PTI) on the inside. I didn't take a picture of it, but it's there!!

I'm off to work on a card for Card Patterns #9 and I still haven't inked my new PTI goodies!! Maybe I will combine the two!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies:
All Paper: DCWV
Stamp: Birthday Basics -Papertrey Ink (inside sentiment)
Other: butterfly-Spellbinders, Fun Serif alphabet-Sizzix, Martha Stewart punch (branch), Fiskars border punch, Glitter-Martha Stewart (on butterfly), decorative accents (from Michaels), button (PTI), hemp cord