This is my second post today. Scroll down for a post on Exploring with Your Camera.

This week’s challenge was to use some fun foam and create your own stamp with a die cut. I had to go buy a piece of fun foam as it’s not something I’ve ever used. I decided to buy white, thinking I might eventually color it with mist or paint. But I knew right away that for this challenge, I’d use the white for clouds. Several years ago, I bought two sheets of paper by Autumn Leaves called “Wellies and Umbrellas, and I’ve always wanted to use the images on a card. With the introduction of “Healing Touch Sentiments” (PTI) a couple of months ago, I had the perfect sentiment for the card.

I’m really pleased with the card, and was amused to have Matt come into the studio and tell me he thought it was one of my best cards. He spent quite a bit of time examining it and asking about the challenge. I used the fun foam to stamp the clouds with Fresh Snow ink (PTI), hand cut the wellies and umbrella, and added the foam clouds. The sentiment is stamped with Pearlescent Rust by Brilliance. They’ve recently become my favorite inks although I’ve owned most of them for years.

This is my second Papertrey Ink post of the day—a bit unexpected. Maybe it’s this:

Or perhaps I’ve just lost track of time, but today is the Papertrey Blog Hop, and I nearly missed it. Fortunately we’re snowed in so I had time to get my card made. The photo above was taken about 9:00 this morning and it has yet to stop snowing. Matt’s been plowing since 7:00 am and says there’s no end in sight.

Here’s this month’s challenge:  

This month we decided to dedicate the Blog Hop to scallops!  We want to see your best use of scallops, of any sort, on a project!  This can include scalloped borders, offset-scallops, stamped scallops,  scalloped mats, scalloped frames, layered scallops, scalloped tags or anything else you can dream up! You can use dies, patterned scissors or even circle punches in a row to achieve your special look.

Here’s my take on it:

I made a shaped card with the large scalloped Nestability dies, then used a piece of MME’s Stella & Rosa patterned paper pad that I picked up yesterday for the mat. It was cut with a square Nestability and then punched on the corners. The checked scalloped (Papertrey small scallop die) border is also from the MME’s collection. I die cut a Fillable Frame #4, stamped the border and message with Brilliance ink, and added the butterfuly from Love Lives Here with a bit of the Harvest Gold twill taped behind the heart. The rhinestones are from Hero Arts.

I’m a bit more timely this week with the Papertrey Make-it Monday challenge which called for using Scor-Tape to create glitter strips on the card.

Select White cardstock (PTI); Stamps: Make a Wish and Make a Wish Additions (PTI); Brilliance inks; rhinestones by Kaiser Craft.

My intention is to make a card for Papertrey’s Make-It Monday challenge each week. We’ve been so busy finishing the work on the dining room and living room that I didn’t even start the card until after dinner tonight. I wanted to try Nicole’s technique of shadowing with the Copic markers as well as using the vellum sentiment strip. I’m happy with the shadow technique but only mildly satisfied with the overall card, but that’s not a surprise since I’m doing this at the last minute! I scored a frame around the Raspberry Fizz cardstock with my Martha Stewart Scoreboard and used a piece of striped vellum from my stash for the sentiment. The pearls are Memory Box, but all the other supplies are from Papertrey Ink.

I’m enjoying these Papertrey challenges. Today’s was to create a card with a BIG sentiment, focal point . . . I don’t have a lot of large stamps but I do have Big and Bold Wishes and used a similar repetition from an earlier challenge. I find I’m wanting to stamp in bright and cheerful colors to counteract the dreary snow and cold here.

Cardstock:  Select White & Hawaiian Shores (PTI) and Romani (Basic Grey); Stamps: Big and Bold Wishes (PTI), Ribbon: Celebrate It (Michaels) and dotted from stash; Birthday candle (unknown).

Today Papertrey Ink introduced new tag and frame stamps designed to coordinate with products they already have on the market. I love the versality of stamps like these. The challenge was to combine a tag with a frame. It’s been a very busy day so, fortunately, I had a tag and a frame already die-cut as well as a cute Teresa Collins star. It didn’t take too long to stamp and put it altogether. Eventually, I’ll probably put this on a birthday card.

Except for the star and ribbon from my stash, all Papertrey Ink:  Pure Poppy and Select White cardstock, Fillable Frame #5, twine, Pure Poppy button.

Today was the first day of the new release at Papertrey Ink. I absolutely love buttons and use them all the time in both cardmaking and scrapbooking, so the stamps and dies really appealed to me. The challenge today, then, was to use buttons. Betsy Veldman’s project this morning used fabric which inspired me to go buy some interfacing and try fabric with the Love Lives Here dies. I’m very happy with the way it worked out.

Along with the Love Lives Here dies, I used a sentiment from the same set, a small kraft card by Paper Source and three heart buttons from my stash. I scored two lines between the die cuts and the sentiment. The fabric came from a fat quarter I picked up at JoAnne’s since years ago I got rid of almost all the fabric I had when I gave up sewing on a regular basis.

This is my third post of the day since each challenge card for the PTI Anniversary Party requires a separate post. Today’s challenge is a color challenge. I wanted to get the card done right away since I’ll be out this afternoon. If I’m lucky I’ll have time to get another one done before the deadline. All these challenges are adding to my card collection so I should be well prepared when birthdays and other occasions come along. I chose Erin Lincoln’s colors: Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides, Vintage Cream, & Dark Chocolate. Sadly, I seem to need a lot of get-well cards recently so I went to one of my favorite sets for this–“Chair-ished.” The sentiment comes from the “On My Couch Additions” set, and the papers are all from the Green Tea Leaves collection.