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 Princess Challenge-Go Vertical

Today's challenge was inspired by Nicole Heady's (of PTI) New Year's Year post about trying to go outside her usual comfort zone this year while stamping. Initially I was going to propose a felt challenge, but decided that I wanted to try something entirely new...I have NEVER made a card with a vertical sentiment. I turned Fillable Frame #11 upright, stamped a sentiment and image from Daily Designs, colored with a little bit of Copics and Stickles and made a loopy ribbon (which on closer inspection looks a little crooked; oh well, it's handmade). So here's my attempt to do something different...something vertical. Can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

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!