PaperTrey Ink November Blog Hop

The challenge for PTI's November Blog Hop Challenge was to make festive holiday tags. Since I don't celebrate the holidays, I adjusted the challenge to fit my own circumstances this winter. For the first time I am participating in a soap swap sponsored by www.brambleberry.com. Basically, you make 12 bars of soap using your choice of Bramble Berry products, send the bars to Bramble Berry and then they send you back a mixed dozen of other swap soaps. It's such a great way to see what other creative soaps people are making. I made my famous Jersey Beach Bar...a coconut scented soap with an exfoliating layer of sand in it. I then printed up my tags, die cut them using PTI's Fillable Frames #9 and stamped a few nautical images from Out to Sea and Day at the Beach on both the front and back of the tag. The paper around the soap is a beautiful stripe from PTI's Men of Life patterned paper pack. I just love the way it all came together and I can't wait to get my box of soap!

An idea for PTI's Friendship Jar stamp set

I love the whole concept of PTI's Friendship Jar stamp set series. We have always used Mason jars as drinking glasses in my house (they are rather shatter proof) and there is something especially summer-y, drinking a vodka tonic out of a mason jar filled with ice and lime...I digress! Anyway last September a very dear sweet friend of mine (like a sister) was married and it was a fabulous, mostly home made wedding, under a big white

tent in her husband's family's

backyard. She made all of the paper products (ie: the invitations, placecards, signs, tags on the wedding favors, ect.) from PTI CS and the wedding colors were Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise and lots and lots of polka dots. And on each of the tables we had these great big Mason jars filled with all these beautiful sunflowers that we ordered online from Costco! The wedding was stunning...here are a few pictures from the big day, including one of the bride and groom with 3 of my kiddos, who were all in the wedding.

So when this September rolled around and it was their first anniversary I knew the perfect image for their card-the sunflower and Mason jar combo! But I was thinking and trying to come up with a way to make the jar look more glass-like. I remembered the technique of layering Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) and letting it cool and adding more UTEE to give a nice glossy surface. I colored the image, stamped the jar image around it, then completely covered the jar with a glue pen. I then applied my UTEE and heat set it. Well guess what, it looks just like glass! The pictures don't do it justice, but I was so happy with the results in real life. It really looks like glass. You could do multiple layers, let it cool and crackle the enamel...then rub with a light greenish/blue ink to get the look of the old time Mason jars. The possibilities are endless...For the inside of the card I colored in another sunflower image from the set and punched it out, offset with a small circle punch. I know the pictures are all mixed up, I'm still trying to figure this whole blog thing out ;) Hope you enjoy!

PaperTrey Ink October Blog Hop

Here's the details:

There is always a lot of focus on Christmas in our industry this time of year, as that is what the majority of the population celebrates. However, this month's blog hop is dedicated to those that celebrate winter holidays other than Christmas. Create a project that celebrates Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or some other winter holiday as we embrace everyone's beliefs in a celebration of diversity through paper crafting.

Due to my religious beliefs, I do not celebrate any of the holidays, but do take the time to reflect on the beauty of the season. Snowy winter days mean spending time inside, making yummy food (Pioneer Woman's donuts-OMG they are fantastic!) and reading lots of great books by the fireplace. So I thought I would make bookmarks to give to my children on our first snow day of the season. I used PTI's Tiny Treats:Christmas as the focal image and sentiment which I heat embossed in black. I used the bookmark and new circles die to cut the paper and felt (Ocean Tides and Blueberry Sky). The tassles were made with Enchanted Evening and New Leaf bakers twine. All supplies are from PaperTrey Ink.

Challenges, challenges...

The first card is a happy harvest card that I made for a rather thoughtful person on the PTI Forum...I used Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on the basket which gave it a textured look, which I thought was perfect for the basket image.

The second set of photographs are of a card I made for both Bethie J's 2nd challenge (we could use the cloud dies from Up, Up & Away) and PTI's Princess Cheryl's challenge of creating a card with no sentiment or wording on the front of the card. I used liquid applique on the clouds that I die cut and then sprinkled a little bit of glitter on them while the liquid was still warm. The background paper was made with a Blueberry Sky base which I swirled Fresh Snow ink on a Q-tip to make background clouds.

Thanks to both lovely ladies for great challenges and getting me to ink up a set that I had not had a chance to use!

Bethie J's PTI Stamp Challenge #1

Bethie over on PTI's Forum came up with a great idea of a weekly challenge using one of the 3 designated PTI stamp sets...each week the stamps change. This week we could use Wreath for all Seasons, Tiny Treats:Halloween or Vintage Picnic. My 6 1/2 year old son (we call him Buddy) and I made hot sauce and used TT:Halloween to make the labels. We also used PTI's Tiny Alphabet to personalize them. The images were stamped on PTI's adhesive paper and then punched out. We also used a bit of Japanese Washi tape to wrap around the bottle. Not only did the bottle look great but the hot sauce tasted really good too!

Hello, hello...

Hello, hello all...I know it's been a really long time...it's been a super busy summer and I haven't had much time for crafting. But here are some pictures ofwhat we have been doing...lots of time at the beach, did my first triathlon, made lots of hot sauce with Buddy and more time at the beach. I was able to do some crafting...not very much, but here are a few cards. I will post in more detail about the hot sauce...it was a great project for me and my 6 year old hot sauce lovin' son!

Teacher's gift and a new soap!

This year I wanted to give a "homemade" gift to my children's teachers. Between the 3 children in school, there were 7 very special teachers I wanted to give a gift to, so the gift needed to be something that I could mass produce. I came up with something that was summer-themed and relatively easy to make.

The card is a PTI Kraft CS base and a really cute paper from October Afternoon. The sentiment is one of PTI's Fillable Frames...inside the card I modified an idea I saw on Dawn McVey's blog for a money holder and made mine out of a strip of Ocean Tides die cut with the eyelet die. I then adhered only the edges so that my gift card could slip in...

I also made "Jersey Shore Beach Soap" for each teacher. I got the idea from a fantastic bar of Bobbi Brown's Beach Soap I got as a present last year. My soap has a layer of sand (from beautiful Cape May) embedded in it as an exfoliant and is colored with green mica which makes it look like ocean water. I scented it with a beach-y scent I got from Bath Time in Cape May and packaged it all up using PTI's Just for You set. The pictures show the front and back views of the soap. I thought that the teachers could use the Barnes and Noble gift card for a beach read and the soap was for after a day in the sun. I hope they enjoyed it!

Papertrey Princess Challenge #10...Make it Pop!

Hello fellow Princesses! Hope this blog post finds you and your families all healthy and happy!

My challenge for this week is to show me how you use foam dimensionals (Pop-Dots, 3Ds). It can either be a card or scrapbook page, but make it *Pop*...I always seem to get in a rut and pop up the sentiment, but with this card I decided to do things a little different. I stamped my floral images onto a kraft CS base and then stamped the images again onto extra kraft CS. I colored the flowers with my Copics, cut them out and then adhered them with foam dimensionals. The dimensionals made this fairly simple card into something a little more special. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Color Throwdown, PTI Princess Challenge #8 and a scrapbook page...

Color Challenge #94 from www.colorthrowdown.blogspot.com

I saw this challenge posted on I {Heart} Papers blog and wanted to play along.

Next is my card for Melissa's Papertrey Princess Challenge #8...we were to come up with something inspired by the following picture. The base is PTI Kraft CS stamped with SU's Chocolate Chip ink. The patterned paper is from PTI's Turning a New Leaf, mounted on Spring Moss. The center sentiment is from Daily Designs, mounted on Ripe Avocado.

Lastly...here's a scrapbook page that I finally photographed. The patterned paper is from BoBunny, the ribbon is PTI's Terracotta Tile. It's hard to tell, but I stitched and inked around the edge of the paper.

Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge

This month's challenge for Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop was to come up with projects using their gorgeous new felt. With 2 little girls and hundreds of hair clips I thought I would give making my own clips a try. The felt cuts so easy with the new dies and with coordinating ribbons, was easy to come up with lots of combinations. My favorite is the "cloud" clip. I sewed little seed beads to give the clip some dimension. It would be a great clip to wear on a cloudy, rainy day! I also really like the way the black gingham clip came out. It's amazing how little time they all took. I just made all the little embellishments at

one time and then hot glued them onto a ribbon covered hair clip. I can't wait for more felt colors to be released...I was a bit limited by the few colors available. But here's to hoping for next release!

The last picture is of my goofy little models...trying to get them to hold still is near impossible!