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

{embellish magazine} color challenge w/ribbon

Hello! I wanted to quickly post a card for the recent Embellish magazine challenge. I am having all sorts of camera issues this week. I can't seem to find the battery charger to my camera and it has finally died, just before I could photograph my card. Anyway, to make a long story short, I almost didn't get this up in time and I've just about got my house torn apart! I still haven't found the charger, but fortunately I hung on to my old camera. The picture quality isn't as good, but it will have to do!
So, here are the details for this challenge:




I lined a piece of cardstock with Terrifically Tacky tape and placed my ribbon strips at a diagonal across the cardstock. After the ribbon was secure, I cut the cardstock with my trimmer to the size I wanted. Fortunately, I had just replaced the blade, so it cut through it pretty well! I first saw this technique on a blog somewhere...I'll try to find the link. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to give it a try! It's a good way to use up those ribbon scraps, too! Edited to add: I found the link...here. I knew it had to be one of the PTI girls!! lol
Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Hibiscus Burst, Dark Chocolate-all PaperTrey Ink
Stamps: Say it with Style-PTI
Ink: Dark Chocolate-PTI
Other: all ribbon-PTI except the teal (unknown from my stash), EK Success paper edger, Cricut Storybook cartridge, Copic Markers, gems-unknown, Terrifically Tacky tape-Provocraft

The Pink Elephant Birthday Blog Hop

Happy Birthday Ella!!
Welcome to my stop on The Pink Elephant birthday blog hop! Hopefully, you started at the The Pink Elephant Blog....If not, click on the link above and get on over there!! {You don't want to miss anything!} For our participation, we were able to choose any of the challenges from the first year for our project. I went back to the beginning and picked the very first challenge, which was to create card using the colors Pink, Black and White. In honor of Ella!
Here is my card:


Your next stop on the hop is BJ Owens-DiCandia.....Have fun!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies (all supplies from Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise indicated)
Cardstock: True Black, Raspberry Fizz
PP: Bitty Box
Stamps: Heart Prints
Other: Cricut & Accent Essentials cartridge, EK Success border punch, Marvy heart punch, button and True Black saddle-stitch ribbon-PTI

CPS 153

The sponsor for the CPS #153 is Papertrey Ink, so of course I had to play along!


While I had the supplies out from the last 2 sketch challenges, I made this for the CPS challenge. I'm still loving this cupcake...but I'm ready to move on!! There are so many cute images in this set that I can't wait to ink up!
I'm keeping this short and sweet as it's almost 2 am here. School has already been called off for tomorrow, so I will get to sleep in a little. I'm kinda excited about that! I do have my post ready to go for tomorrow's blog hop celebrating one year of The Pink Elephant challenges. I can't wait!
Hope to see you then! ;)
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise stated)
Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Stampers Select White, Hibiscus Burst, Dark Chocolate
PP: Making Memories Cheeky Collection-Abby
Stamps: Baby Button Bits, Mixed Messages
Ink: Dark Chocolate
Other: Button, Rustic twine, Marvy Punch, Copic markers, Cuttlebug tag die. Melon Berry twill ribbon, safety pin

"Just Us Girls" Challenge #19

Here is a super fun sketch from "Just Us Girls" for their 19th challenge:




Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise stated)
Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Stampers Select White
PP: Making Memories Cheeky Collection-Abby
Stamps: Baby Button Bits, Say It With Style, Vintage Labels
Ink: Dark Chocolate
Other: Buttons, Rustic twine, Marvy Punch, Copic markers

Card Patterns #50

It's been awhile since I have participated over at Card Patterns...I had almost forgot how much I love their sketches! This week they are being sponsored by a digi stamp company called Inktegrity. Cute stuff! I haven't dipped my toe in the digi world yet, but these images may give me a push to give 'em a try.

This adorable cupcake is from the Baby Button Bits stamp set from Papertrey Ink. I don't have much need for another baby themed set, but I *needed* this cupcake...Isn't it sweet!?! Don't get me wrong there are plenty of other cute images in the set...but this one is my favorite. Love it!
Anyway, I will be back tomorrow with a card for The Pink Elephant Blog Hop. I also have more challenge cards to post from this week...I know, I can't believe it myself!! ha! Hope to see you then! ;)
Thanks for stopping by!
Melanie

Supplies
Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Hibiscus Burst, Stampers Select White
PP: Making Memories Cheeky Collection-Abby
Stamps: Baby Button Bits, Mega Mixed Messages
Ink: Dark Chocolate
Other: Melon Berry ribbon, button, Rustic twine, Marvy Punch, Cuttlebug tag die, Copic markers

Compose a Card Challenge #2

Hello everyone! Just a quick post with a card for Becky Oehler's 2nd Compose a Card Challenge.


Here is my card:

Dawn McVey has a great tutorial on how to make these fun little flowers on her blog...here.
I'm going to keep this short and sweet, so I can take care of my kiddos. They have been bitten by the bug...and I'm not talking about any ProvoCraft tool! One has Strep throat and the other two are complaining of stomach aches...Ugh! I was just bragging that they have all been so healthy...I'm eating those words now!
Have a good night!
Melanie

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise stated)
Cardstock: Stampers Select White, Aqua Mist, Hibiscus Burst
PP: Summer Sunrise Bitty Box
Stamps: Everyday Classics
Ink: True Black
Other: Buttons, Rustic Twine, Nestibilites die