PaperTrey Ink's January Blog Hop 2011

New Year's Resolution

With the new year comes a clean slate along with many resolutions. 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. If you are in need of inspiration for your chosen set, feel free to utilize the gallery posted in the side bar of each set's sale page on our website, or go to the Previous Countdown page on Nichole's blog where each set is organized by month of release. 2011 is the year where what's old is new again!

I went down to my crafting cave and found this gorgeous set (Four of a Kind, last year's CHA set), with no ink on it! I also pulled out another crafting supply that had not been used before, purple flock, which I applied to the thistle image. I double stamped the image with 2 different color purples and used 3 different greens to get the multi-colored leaves and stems. I finished the card up with a small banner and a sentiment from Simple Sentiments. I am so glad I finally showed this set some love...think I have a new favorite flower set!

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!

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.

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!