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PTI Anniversary Party: Make It Monday-Take 1

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More fun at Papertrey Ink. They’ve started a biweekly challenge with video. This week’s is a Go-To Sentiment card where you stamp multiple sentiments from different stamps sets to create a card. My first one is a birthday card and uses sentiments from six different PTI stamp sets. I used Brilliance inks which have a bit of sparkle to them and colored the cute cake stamp (which has been in my collection for years!) with Copic glitter markers.

MakeItBirthday

Stamp Sets used: Round & Round, Blooming Button Bits, Mat Stack 1 Collection, Make a Wish, Birthday Bash Sentiments, Enjoy the Ride

Project 64 and Sweet Shot Tuesday

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Project 64

It’s time to post photos for last week’s Project 64 color and Sweet Shot Tuesday. Brooke made a comment about the purpose of Project 64 this week that sums up why I enjoy these challenges. “After all,” she said, ” . . . this project is all about having fun, learning and improving though practice!” I took 106 photos one day this week. I probably looked closely at about 30 of them, and edited many fifteen for a variety of projects, but I’m learning more and more about my macro lens and having a good time thinking about composition and struggling (as always) with lighting in my very dark house. In winter, especially, photographic projects are essential or I would only have my camera out to take photos of papercrafting projects.

Wk5 Jan31_feb6_Gray

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Gray Papers

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Spools of Gray

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Gray Ribbon

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Gray Sweater (the photo I chose to submit)

And Sweet Shot Tuesday (as well as Project 52):

    Sweetshotbutton
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I think this is turning out to be the Year of the Flowers. They’re my favorite thing to shoot this time of year. I bought my first paperwhite kit from Target just after Christmas, and they’ve started to bloom this week. Here’s my favorite shot of the week:

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And a different view:

Paperwhites2w

 

 

PTI Anniversary Party: Day 2 with Lisa Johnson

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My favorite tag in today’s download as part of Papertrey Ink’s Anniversary Party was this one by Lisa Johnson. I know I’ll use it again and again. (Scroll down for today’s other posts.)

FriendsForever

All products by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted. Cardstock: True Black, Hawaiian Shores & Pure Poppy; Dies: Limitless Layers & Tag Sale #3; Stamps:  Tiny Treats: Valentines; Ribbon: Summer Sunrise; Copic markers; Doiley: Martha Stewart

PTI Anniversary Party: Day 2 with Maile Belles

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Here’s my second project for today’s anniversary party at Papertrey Ink. Maile Belles is one of my favorite designers and I’m thrilled she’ll be designing stamps as well as projects for Papertrey this year.

CelebrateYouMaile

All products by Papertrey Ink except the gems from my stash. Cardstock: Select White & Enchanted Evening; Patterned paper: Bitty Dots; Dies: Limitless Layers and small rickrack; Copic markers.

 

 

PTI Anniversary Party: Day 2 with Ali Miles

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Papertrey Ink’s at it again today with great challenges. Today nine designers created tags that could be downloaded, printed, and used to create a project. My first project is a notepad which I need for an upcoming blog giveaway.

Notepad

All products by Papertrey unless noted. Tag designed by Ali Miles; Cardstock: Spring Moss, Select White; Stamps: It’s Official, Mat Stack Collection #3; Dies: Limitless Layers; Button: New Leaf; Copic markers; Patterned paper: DeLovely (Cosmo Cricket); DMC floss

Papertrey Ink’s 4th Anniversary Party

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It’s Papertrey Ink’s 4th anniversary, and in typical Papertrey style they’ve started celebrating big-time! You can check out the details of the contest here. Despite the odds against winning this fabulous prize package, I knew I’d find it interesting to go back through the year (February to February) and look at what I created with Papertrey products. I found several I like more than others. This, this (the first card), this, and this. But I finally decided on this thank-you card that I created for all my Christmas thank-you notes. I love the simplicity of it, and the colors. And it uses one of my favorite stamp sets, Love Lives Here, that was released in the last year. Details are here.

HeartHomeThanks

 

Project 64

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I really need motivation to take photos on a daily basis. I’ve started Project 365 twice and made it to about June before I gave it up. It’s much easier for me if I have a prompt of some kind, some kind of muse to keep me focused. Recently I came upon Project 64: Out of the Box which began just five weeks ago, so catching up wasn’t much of a problem, although you can join the group anytime and just start where they are. Here’s the explanation for the project, taken from the website.

Project 64

We are calling this photographic journey Project64: Out of the Box. We are a group of 6 ladies and one official color selector (my hubby) planning on taking a 64 week journey through a box of crayons. We are hoping to take the crayons out of the box for a little inspiration in our photographic work! Each week we will be assigned a color, chosen at random from a box of 64 count crayola crayons. We will then take our color inspiration and search for it in the world around us! You’d be surprised by the colors you miss when you’re not looking! The goal of the project is to challenge us creatively, making us think outside the box, and to hopefully slow down a little bit and notice the world around us! Of course accomplishing a 64 week goal is fun too!

I just happened to have a brand new box of 64 crayons in my craft closet.

64Crayonsw

Here are the first five colors for the project.

5weeksw

Week 1 was Yellow Green. There’s not much in my house that’s yellow green, but while I was holding the crayon I looked up on my bookshelf and found Bill Bryson’s “Dictionary for Writers and Editors.” It’s almost a perfect match.

YellowGreenBookw

Week 2 was Carnation Pink. I’ve had these tulips on my table for nearly a week. Another perfect match–even though they’re not carnations.

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Week 3 was Chesnut. This basket holds my 8X8 pads of paper.

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Last week’s search was for Robin’s Egg Blue. I didn’t think there’d be much of that around here either, but was delighted to find some twine I just received from The Twinery that was Robin’s Egg Blue.

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As it turns out, I didn’t need to leave my studio to find any of these colors!

This week’s color is gray, and I’ll post it next week when the link goes up at Project 64. One of the things I think I’ll enjoy about these challenges is another chance to put the 60mm macro lens to use.

 

One Little Word–January

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Rinda threw down a challenge earlier this month to create an art journal, book, or some method of keeping a record of your progress with your One Little Word. My word for 2011 is FINISH, and I am well aware that having some method of accountabilty helps me in any endeavor. Typically I made a book or a layout to document my One Little Word, but I’ve never done a monthly accounting. I’ve decided to join her, and created a tag book to record my progress.

I had a set of chipboard tags from The Paper Source that I purchased for a project that was never finished. (Hah, thus my word for 2011!) I decided this was a perfect format for this project. I painted the tags with Making Memories Manila paint, and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Walnut Stain ink. Then I chose some papers for the project. I decided to stick with Papertrey Ink papers since their colors remain consistent from one paper collection to the next. I chose a kraft cardstock and shades of brown, kraft, & cream with a bit of green mixed in for the patterned papers.

Supplies

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My second decision was to utilize my stamp collection rather than letter stickers. For the cover I stamped Papertrey’s Fillable Frame #9 and the word “finish” with the Fresh Alphabet. The 2011 came from Calendar Basics which I used to stamp all of the months as well as the little star detail (more about that later.) The tab and hanging tag are both from Basic Grey.

CoverClosew

There are seven tags total. I’ll journal for each month on one side. For the back of the cover I typed up a list of projects I’d like to finish this year, cut them in strips and distressed the edges. Do I think I can complete all 12 projects? Probably not, but I think the list will help keep me focused this year. You can see one star next to JYC 2010 because I have finished that project. As I complete each project, a small star will be added next to the title.

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For the journaling I’ve decided to use Papertrey’s Spiral Notebook Page die and paper from their Library Ledger collection. It seems to be just the right size, and I’m trying to streamline this project as much as possible so it doesn’t become an unfinished project in the end. I also decided to change the color of my ink whenever I use the word “finish” as a way to accent the accomplishments. You can see I chose to add a comment about another activity as well as my papercraft projects.

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I found the perfect spot to display the tag book—on my table under my printer’s drawer that holds many of my wooden stamps. I’ll see it every day and will have a visual reminder of my focus for 2011. Thanks, Rinda! I’m not sure I would have done this without your prompting, and I’m glad I did.

 

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I’m linking this post to Creative Every Day.

 

Moxie Fab Bold and Sweet Shot Tuesday

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I have two challenges to share today. The first is the Moxie Fab Bright and Bold Color challenge. I’d like to get all of the color challenges completed by the end of the month if I can.Here are the colors:

ColorComboBB3

And here’s my card:

MoxieFabBold

I had these white flowers left over from another project and decided they’d be perfect for the card. Everything is from Papertrey Ink except for the two orange buttons.

One of my goals this year is to develop a daily practice of taking photos. I’m not trying to do a Project 365 since I’ve failed twice at that already. I’ve joined Darcy’s Flickr group for Project 52, and I’m planning on playing along at Darcy’s Sweet Shot Tuesday when I can. Here’s my favorite shot from last week. Tracy’s growing some Christmas cactus under lights in the basement. When they bloom, he brings them upstairs for us to enjoy. I’m trying to learn to use my new macro lens, so this was a good subject.

ChristmasCactus1w

 

 

Sweet Baby Card

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Our niece, Alyssa, just had a baby girl. I used the new Clean & Simple Sketch 123 as a starting place for the card. I had thought might also meet the monochromatic pink challenge on Moxie Fab, but decided my pink was too bright and the patterned paper probably disqualified it.

Here’s the sketch:

FTL123

And the card for Alyssa:

SweetLittleBaby

Cardstock: BoBunny Dotted & pink from scrap drawer; patterned paper: Happy Spots & Bitty Dots (Papertrey Ink); Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings; ribbon: Paper Source

There’s still time to leave a comment here if you’re interested in reading The Book of Inspiration. I’ll be back tonight with the winner of the next Pass the Book recipient.

 

 

CASE Study #18

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I needed to get several cards made for upcoming birthdays and decided I’d try the CASE Study challenge again for one of them. Frankly, I found this one very challenging. The two circles really caused me pause, and perhaps I should have gone with other elements of the card to case. Nonetheless, here is the card to case:

CaseStudy

You don’t really have to case the layout, but that’s what I chose to do. I’m not unhappy with the result, but it isn’t one of my favorites. I tried a lot of different things, paper flowers, felt flowers . . . but couldn’t seem to come up with anything that seemed to be balanced until I went with stamped images.

CaseBD

Cardstock: Pure Poppy (Papertrey); Patterned paper and cardstock border stickers: Circa 1934 (Cosmo Cricket); Stamps: Giga Guidelines, Guidelines two, Round and About Sentiments (Papertrey); Circle punches, plain and scalloped, ribbon (Michaels)

 

Caardvarks Final Challenge

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Although I haven’t participated in as many challenges this year, the Caardvarks challenge site was always one of my favorites. They’ve posted their final challenge to create a monochromatic card. I needed an anniversary card at the end of the month and think this fits the bill:

3Hearts

Cardstock: Shimmer cardstock; Patterned Paper: Wisteria (Basic Grey); Heart punch (EK Success) and corner rounder (Creative Memories); Silk ribbon (Papertrey Ink)

Papertrey November Blog Hop Challenge

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I wasn’t sure I’d have a project ready for this blog hop, but the last afternoon before we left for California I managed to get a tag created. Here’s this month’s challenge:

  TAG TIME

Recently the design team and I put together a variety of holiday tags that are perfect to keep on hand for quick wrap options.  Now it’s your turn to inspire us and the rest of the Papertrey community!  Design a holiday tag or two using all of your favorite goodies and share it with all of us!  We will all have plenty of inspiration to create a large stash and try to get ahead of the hustle and bustle of the season!

Here’s my contribution to the hop:

  PTINovBlogHop

I had this pretty red box from Talbots in my cupboard and tied a Pure Poppy Swiss Dotted ribbon around it. That dictated the colors for my tag. I started by die cutting a Tag Sale 1 die with Select White cardstock. Then I die cut a piece of Pure Poppy felt with a Limitless Layers die. I stamped on of my favorite images from the 2008 Holiday Tag set on Pure Poppy cardstock and embossed it with white embossing powder. I created the black cardstock frame but using two circle punches one inside the other. To finish off the tag, I gathered another piece of Pure Poppy Swiss Dotted ribbon and adhered it with Scor-Tape. Now I just need to find the right gift to put inside the box!

This is my second post for today, so be sure to scroll down for Thanksgiving wishes!

 

CASE 14

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I’ve been following along with this challenge site for a few weeks now, but this is the first time I’ve played along. Here’s the card to case by Heather Pulvirenti:

CASE14
I loved the ruffled ribbons along the bottom, and stayed with the general orientation and layout of her card, but used one of my Zva Creative designs that I won several months ago for the focal image. I made the flower by tightly winding the ribbon and attaching it to a punched cardstock circle. The card will soon be off to good friends of ours who will be celebrating their anniversary next weekend.

       Love2 copy
Cardstock: Green textured (unknown), Fine Linen and Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink); Ribbon (from stash); Stamp (Hero Arts); Scalloped Oval Nestability (Spellbinders)

 

The Sunday Creative: Nostalgia

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I’ve only played along with Sunday Creative once before, although I enjoy going through all the wonderful entries each week. This week’s prompt was “nostalgia,” and I had the perfect object to photograph. Just a week or so ago, I found a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera at an antique shop in Corning. This is the fourth vintage camera I’ve picked up, but this one is the first that has any meaning to me. My very first camera was a Kodak Brownie. How I wish I still had it! The first roll of film I ever remember taking was of Niagara Falls on a family trip. It was black & white film (of course) and even as a kid, I was dismayed when the film was developed to discover that nearly all the photographs looked exactly the same. It was many years before I learned to vary the composition of a subject. So here’s a look at my cute “new” Brownie, although regular blog readers will recognize it from yesterday’s post on ISO.

KodakBrownie 

Once again I played around with some textures in PSE. I used Kim Klassen’s Light Paper 4 at Soft Light, then Cinnamon at Soft Light, and finally decreased the saturation to -32.