Papertrey Ink Make it Monday, Coloring Vellum

I was so excited to see Betsy share her technique with us this week and couldn't wait for my new release goodies to arrive...so I pulled out one of my summertime favorites, Strawberry Patch and Strawberry Patch sentiments sets.  I die cut vellum for the leaves, flowers, and berries using my dies.  Then I used detail white embossing powder (from Michael's) to heat emboss the stamped images on my  die cuts.  I had to use tweezers and be extra careful as the stamp went right up to the edge of the die cut pieces.  I then used spring moss and simply chartreuse with a q-tip to apply on the vellum for the leaves and berry sorbet and raspberry fizz for shading on the strawberries.  For the little flowers I used fresh snow and a little bit of Hero Arts Butter Bar.  I stamped the main focal point image from Strawberry Patch with Dark Chocolate ink on a rustic white base and layered the vellum over it.  I used a Y21 Copic to color little Recollection pearls for the centers of my little flowers and used two strips of paper to ground the image.  My sentiment is from the Strawberry Patch sentiments and is stamped in Dark Chocolate and Berry Sorbet.  My patterned papers are from an older 6 x 6 paper pad from My Minds Eye called "Stella and Rose-Gertie".  Thanks for checking my card out!  I had so much fun experimenting with this technique.

Father's Day Card

I was looking through some photos from a few summers ago and found one of my Dad taking some time with my kids.  It really touched me...maybe it was that in my heart I had missed many of these moments with my Dad myself.  I didn't see him as much as I needed growing up.  Anyway...I can't hold onto that now.  I need to be there for my babies.  I wanted to take my own spin on a card I had seen on Nichole Heady's blog and found some inspiration from a paper pad I picked up by Authentique   called "Strong" the other day at my LSS.  I used my Wonderful Words die "memories" from PTI and die cut a piece of adhesive cork to adhere a frame from Fabulous Frames with my photo matted inside.  I then used a bountiful banners die to cut a banner from the same pattern pack to layer a sentiment onto from the Strong collection.  Voila!  I had a card, super easy!

Hello, I'm Still Here!!

Okay, I know I have a habit of abandoning this...how do people keep up with this and raise a family and have a husband who is seriously on Neptune most of the time?  I try to be actively sharing my work, but between work and uploading on my dinosaur Mac, it is just so hard!  I wanted to share a carefully thought out project that I dreamt about last night.  I have never really had a vacation where I just got to be pampered.  I have always taken the short cuts in everything in my life.  I concede to what other people want, so they are happiest.  I think I was sending this card to myself (ha,ha) and saying..."It is okay to take some time away from your classroom to spend time with your kids and to craft happily."   I used my Watercolor Wonder stamp set to set the waves in motion in an ombre fashion and pulled out my flip flops from Flippin' Out to create my card.  Throw in some Hello, Sunshine and some fabulous Papertrey Ink paper and ink and I was on a creative streak!

Happy Anniversary Baby

So...I am evolving in my understanding of how you can utilize a blog to simply share...

I just want to share how excited I am to be celebrating my tenth wedding anniversary with my one, my only, true love.  You have challenged me to expand my views and pursue my happiness.  You are my joy, my pain, my everything.  I love you so completely.

I am so in love and It just keeps growing stronger.

Make It Monday #110: Collage Elements

This was such a fun inspiring way to build a card.  I followed Dawn's method of figuring out where to place my sentiment.  I have been wanting to use this sentiment since my new Stylish Sentiments: Birthday arrived last month.  I then knew that I wanted to pull out my Rosie Posie set and use my step 2 stamps from the March release.  I chose some spring hues of aqua mist and harvest gold to go with smokey shadow as my neutral against stampers select white.  I used a card front in stampers select white and used background basics farm and barn chicken wire and background basics text style #2 in smokey shadow stamped off once to build my background as well as the frame in aqua mist from pretty peonies to highlight my rosie posie die cut flower focal point that is stamped in harvest gold with aqua mist shadow layers.  The leaves also blend into the background and draw the eye to the sentiment.  They are stamped in aqua mist.  Well, last but not least, I wanted to accent my front panel and help it stand out on the card front, so I stamped a strip of background basics: herringbone in smokey shadow and popped the card front up with dimensional adhesive (which I love using!)  Hope you like my card, can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with for this challenge.  My next step is to use this on a scrapbook layout, which I am way behind on!  Have a great spring day "peeps"!

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday

I'm back and ready to share a special wedding card that I made for an upcoming wedding celebration.

I used the watercolor technique by using Tim Holtz distress ink in Victorian velvet and tattered rose on sweet blush die cut sweet life roses.  I just used my craft mat and applied the ink directly from the pad and then spritzed it with some water to get a subtle watercolor effect.  I then used white detail embossing powder to add the last layer of the roses from Sweet Life to give detail.  I die cut the leaves from stampers select and used weathered wood distress ink in the same fashion.  I used smokey shadow ink to add the detail.  I tied these colors together by adhering the flower sprays to a smokey shadow bitty dot 4" x 5 1/4" piece of patterned paper and layered it on a sweet blush 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" base.  The sentiment was added with bountiful banners and I used some dimensional adhesive for the & to make it stand out as well as one of the flower clusters.  I am so happy with it!

Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop: Sequins!

Here is my card with a few extra sequins to add some bling to this hello card.  I die cut and stamped the hello from the Wonderful Words die and the floral image is from Mini blooms and embossed with zing embossing powder in rouge.  I also add the sentiment on a flag from Mini Blooms (because I love that saying!)  The background is a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 pure poppy that was stamped with super stripes diagonally  in pure poppy for a little something extra, it just didn't photograph well.  Thanks for looking!

Papertrey Ink MIM #108: Inked Backgrounds

Hello all!  I have to say that this week's Make it Monday by Heather Nichols was in my comfort zone.  I have not done much distressing lately, but was really into this cool technique about a year ago.  I think I wore out all my distressing muscle and had needed a break...Lately, I have liked a more modern, clean look in my projects.  I was excited to pair up the Hands of Time set, break out the "trendy" gold embossing powder and get distressed with Broken China, Weathered Wood and Peeled Paint Ranger distress inks and my handy blending tool.  I used a little seam binding ribbon to go with the weathered look and used some ocean tides to complement the distressed background.  I think this turned out pretty well... hope you like it!  Have an awesome Wednesday!

Papertrey Ink: Make it Monday Challenge: Two-toned stamped flowers

Well... I didn't intend on entering this one, but when I started creating this card the two-toned flowers from the mini blooms set just worked!  Here's my little spring card... hope you like it!  Happy Friday!

Marvelous Monograms February PTI blog hop

Framed Art

I broke out my new "Cutting Garden" stamp set and some ink to create this framed art for my daughter's room.  I went with pink, since she adores this color and her room is top to bottom girly pink.  She also loves flowers!  I wanted to try my hand at a watercolor effect, so I misted my stamps before stamping and also wanted to use the rock and roll technique to add some depth to the flowers.  I used hibiscus burst and raspberry fizz.  I also incorporated a vellum strip, so my background wasn't lost. and I die cut a flower and some leaves to make my monogram stand out.     I used the new headline alpha stamps and dies to heat emboss the A initial with some clear ZIng! embossing powder.  I am pretty pleased with how this turned out, but it was super hard to get a good photo!  

MIM Papertrey Ink Pinwheel Challenge

So, after winning the make-it monday gift certificate for the last card that I entered I have some new-found confidence.  I create so many cards and layouts and need to get better at posting and commenting on all the inspiration I find on the papertrey ink forum and the talented people who share their work.  It is so wonderful to have a community of people to share our creativity with.  On that note, I just loved the simple fun spring look of these pinwheel embellishments on Ashley's video.  She has such a great delivery with her clear and specific directions.  This was a fun card to make, but it gave me a bit of a headache in the layout of it.  The pinwheel was easy...I just could not pull it altogether.  I went with Raspberry Fizz, Harvest Gold and Stamper's Select White for my colors.  I embossed the layer of Raspberry Fizz cardstock with the diagonal stripe impression plate (my first impression plate from PTI and I LOVE IT).  I used Fabulous Frames in Harvest Gold and die cut the frame and stamped in the coordinating ink.  I used Simply You sentiment set and embossed in detail white the YOU and the "are pretty amazing" is from the same set in raspberry fizz ink.  I used the raspberry fizz gingham paper and a harvest gold button threaded with bakers twine to finish off the pinwheel embellishment.  To ground my card I stamped polka dot basics 2 with harvest gold on a strip of white cardstock.  Hope you like it, I wanted to work with a bright color combo!

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday Take 2!

Wow, I haven't posted in months and now I am on a roll.  I craft nearly every day, but oh how I love these three day weekends.  A day off from teaching to rejuvenate and get crafty is what I desperately needed!  I am trying to finish my December Daily album and am having trouble and since it is way to cold to go out, I decided to make another entry for this week's Papertrey Ink Make-it Monday contest.  This is a floral birthday card, again with Embroidered Blooms, but this time I used a two-step embossing with clear and ebony embossing powder for the leaves and then clear and white to add my flower blooms on a raspberry fizz background.  I die cut the ovals and used limitless layers to make it POP on my base.  The happy birthday sentiment is also from Embroidered Blooms, isn't such a simple and pretty font????  I also added some black rhinestone accents to the center of my flowers to keep with my color theme and give them some sparkle.  Hope you like it!

Papertrey Ink MIM # 101

I decided to try out Heather Nichol's two step embossing with my new Papertrey Ink stamp set, "Embroidered Blooms".  I used Zing clear embossing for the flowers and leaves, then white detail embossing powder over it on pure poppy cardstock.  I layered the sentiment strip on a strip of smokey shadow cardstock and used a thin strip of 1/4 inch score tape to add some fine white glitter as a way to accent my flowers and sentiment.  All this was placed on a 4 x 5 1/4 inch piece of smokey shadow patterned paper and adhered to a white cardstock base after rounding the corners.  crossing my fingers that I win the gift card this week!

Happy Birthday cards with Papertrey Ink Tremendous Treats!

Okay, so my son gets invited to a birthday party and I get so excited to pull out my cutie patootie tremendous treats stamps!  I had to double my fun, because he was invited to a party for twin six year old girls.  The party was at the Wisconsin Humane Society, but gratefully(?) I did not take home a new friend for my doggie Daphne!   Even though my sweet three year old thought it was a great idea for Father's Day!  Here are my two cards,  I used the same basic layout, but different color schemes.  I also used the Background Basics: Medallions set (because I just LOVE it!) to add a background pattern to ground my images.  Let me know what you think of these cards...hope I made the girls smile:)

Papertrey ink MIM post

So, there is always time to restart a blog...right?  I have had a busy school year teaching my 3rd and 4th graders.  I also have such a beautiful family that has needed my strength over this year.  That's what I have been up to, but I have not stopped crafting.  Here's my latest creation, just hoping to tap into Betsy Veldman's amazing talent for her Make it Monday Challenge for Papertrey Ink.  I used some score tape to create the borders that separate the card sentiment visually from the pretty peonies.  I used winter wisteria to stamp the peonies and the sentiment.  The word happy was cut from Winter Wisteria cardstock with the Pretty Peonies die set.  I can't wait to play with the pretty peonies dies again, so much fun!  I had to add some pizzazz with the aqua glitter...too much fun!

Life...and the new Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge

Can I say I am so far "In love with" my new cricut art philosophy bundle!  This cartridge has everything!  It has 3D images, borders, nice simple shapes and frames, 2 fonts, cards, and tags.  Not only that it has stamp sets from Close to My Heart that coordinate to fit the shapes perfectly.  I had never purchased any Close to My Heart products before I bought this set from Melanie at Courtney Lane Designs.  She is amazing and showed so many great projects with this cartridge.  I am so glad I took the leap!!  SO...hopefully now that I am getting well again after two serious colds and the start of a new school year, I will start blogging again.  I love you crafty friends!!!!!

Go Green Classroom Decoration and Project

So, up until today I was so full of energy to start my new school year, then I went to get my work laptop computer from my car in the garage this morning (I know I shouldn't have left it there!) when I discovered that it was gone, as in stolen!  Next I find out that my employer doesn't insure against theft even though my school said we had to take our work computers home for the summer.  I am now the one liable for what happened and had to claim it on my home owner's insurance.  I am devestated and don't know where I will come up with the money for this!  Anyone who is a teacher at a small school (not a public school), can share my pain.  So....how do I come up with classroom bulletin boards and some easy ideas that don't break the bank in my current situation you ask?  I turn to my cricut and my scrap stash for some support and much needed creative outlet for this stress!!!!!

Here is what I came up with, I hope it inspires you to "Paint the Earth Green, the Woodland's Way" and try to use up your scraps!  I used some older paper that I had on hand, but it coordinated perfectly with the Go Green theme (DCWV The Green Stack which is made from 70% recycled paper!!!!)  and the Give a Hoot Cricut Cartridge.  If you have a gypsy it makes it super easy to plan out your project and make multiple cuts a cinch!  I had 17 different pages in my project (not all of this are seen here).  Enjoy!
This will be a neat back to school project for my students.  I made the earth is a gift image from the Give a Hoot cart at fit to page and layered it up.  I cut the matching phrase at fit to page as well and shadowed it.  These will go on my classroom door... then I cut from the Cricut sweet treats cartridge a present at 5" and then on my gypsy flipped the image and welded it to make a small present card.  I cut the matching bow layer and then the matching tag on kraft paper at 2.75".  I cut the layer for the tag in white and inked it with Tim Holtz Broken China distress ink (love this cool blue color!) Then I stamped the To: and From: with Memento Rich Cocoa ink from My Pink Stamper's Christmas set from last season.  I wrote in with a Dk Brown Bic Marker that the gift is To: Earth.  Each child will have their name on one of the gifts where it is stamped "From:".  Inside, they will write about the gifts they appreciate from Earth (sunshine, plants, clean water, mountains, forests, snowflakes,etc....whatever inspires them from the natural world and tell one thing they will do to help better our planet and protect these gifts....So hope my third and fourth graders are ready to think when we start next week, because I like to dig deep into who they are and help them develop a sense of who they will become.... now to get some sleep and forget about my nightmare of a day with the theft of my work computer!!!!

Always,
Danielle

My Mind's Eye Hazel Layout, Flower Shoppe Cricut Cartridge

Oh wow, I forgot how exhausting it can be to set up my classroom and get ready for a new school year!  I had to get crafty this week and reminisce about summer.  I had posted a few weeks ago about a moment at the zoo when my two little ones put their jealousy and constant squabbles aside to talk, walk and share all their experiences while in separate classes at the zoo.  It really was a moment where I stepped back and saw two people who really care for one another; as any mother I was so humbled and felt the promise of a lasting bond between my kids.  I know they love each other, despite the daily fights.  It is these moments, the little things in life that matter to me...

Recipe for my layout:

Bazzill 2 sheets candlelight textured cardstock (base)
My Minds Eye Hazel Collection (assorted 12x12 and 6x6 paper pad)
Cricut Flower Shoppe and Cricut Teresa Collins Sophisticated cartridge
Pearls from Reminisce
Ink: Distress Ink from Tim Holtz (Ranger) in Wild Honey and Antique Linen, Jenny Bowlin Spiced Tin and Malted Milk
Stamps:  Papertrey Ink Background Basics Textile I and Polka Dot Basics II and Fancy Flourishes
Ribbon: Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening Twill
Other tools:  Tonic distress tool, ATG pink adhesive gun, large glue dots, hot glue gun for flowers, cutterbee tweezers, Tim Holtz scissors, ink blending tool

I am still playing with the Flower Shoppe cartridge and am learning as I go!  I like the layered look, but still need to work on measuring my layers.  I had a lot of fun playing off the flowers in the patterned paper for inspiration and inked all my flowers.  I love how the background stamps from Papertrey ink dipped in wild honey distress ink make the flower border pop (I cut the ruffle flower # 4 at different sizes from 2.5 to 3.5 inches)!  I can't wait to play more with this cartridge!  My sentiment is from another new one for me, the Teresa Collins Sophisticated cartridge.   Now off to drool about the new Chic and Spooky Halloween release for Hello Thursday and to try to figure out how I can get the new Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cartridge, I need this one!!!!!!


Oh well.....


Here is my layout....

The Journey Awakens the Soul mini album

Hello all!!!!

I posted awhile ago about my younger brother battling cancer... so here is an update...

My brother and I have had our differences in the past, but it is amazing how as I have become the mother of a boy and a girl and watch them develop their relationship I have been given a new understanding of sibling love.  I worked on a mini album for my brother, not really knowing how this project would turn out, but having a sense of purpose and drive to complete it as he began his chemo treatments.  I wanted to create a place for his photography passion to be a new focus for him and a welcome distraction.  I also added lots of space to journal and some inspirational quotes.  I ended up with a mini album that I am proud of for its distressed feel and "steampunk" influences.  It wasn't perfect, but I poured my soul into it!

I have to thank Judy Ann from JAnnBdesigns and her video tutorials for inspiring much of my mini.  I used her basic page designs to create this album and her support, help and encouragement motivated me to complete my tricky binding!  Thank you Judy!!!!!


My daughter is lucky to have such an amazing godfather!  Keep up the fight, little brother!
Danielle

Little Mermaid Birthday Party!

We are getting so excited to celebrate Amelie's third birthday and I have been so inspired by the Little Mermaid theme!  My main project has been a large vase, I bought this one at Michael's with my 40% off coupon:)  I also found the pink sand on clearance for $1.49/bag.  I had to get 4 bags though!!!!  I didn't realize how big the vase was!  I also got a bag of seashells on clearance there a few weeks back and got a really good deal.  Next, I cut out Ami's name using my favorite new font on the Expression 2 american alphabet preloaded cartridge...so elegant!!!  I used it for my last banner for a friend's wedding shower and it was spectacular and classy!  I used cricut vinyl in white for this at 2.5" using a kiss cut (pressure 3, blade 3, speed 3).  I may go back and add a princess crown, not sure yet:)   I then filled my vase and figured out that I could add volume by using those great clear vase gems, so I didn't really need as much sand as I thought.  Then I used my titanium white acrylic paint and some craft dowels from my favorite local Joann's as craft picks.  I wanted the effect of a bouquet of Little Mermaid Under the Sea life.  I then cut my images from the Disney cricut cartridge, Dreams Come True, assorted Little Mermaid at 1.5 to 5"( I cut Ariel at 5". Flounder at 3.5" and Sebastian at 2.5", the rest are between 2-3" each:).   I used some chiffon ribbon tied to each and adhered with a glue gun.  I did use the shadow feature of each image to sandwich the dowel between.  I used Martha Stewart glitter in Aquamarine and some crystal stickles as well as Michael's brand pearls to accent.  On the seahorse I used Ranger perfect pearls, I like the 3D effect!   I added a purple satin ribbon around the vase to tie it all together and used a large glue dot to adhere, it is really secure!!!  I am thinking of adding some floral picks from my local craft store, not sure....  My other picture is a sneak peek of my traditional birthday banner that I create  for my kids' parties!  hope you like it and are inspired to create your own decorations,  I use all the party store colors and then just let the project come together with color inspiration!  My daughter is excited and that really just means EVERYTHING!!!!!!Have a happy Monday!!!!