MIM: Using Borders to Make Flowers

I am using the Make-It-Monday projects as a way to jump back into card making. I was so busy with work and trying to keep up with things at home that I wasn't making time to papercraft. The MIM projects are inspiring and do-able so I'm a happy camper. I ended up going a bit vintage with this card with the background paper from My Mind's Eye, the tinsel glitter, and the tea-dyed edges. I loved making the tiny tag. I used elements from Garden Variety Two to put together the stamped images on the tag. I think I could just make hundreds of little tags, I love the detail-oriented parts of projects. For MIM, I had to use a border die to create a floral accent. I used the Eyelet Lace Die for my flowers. The cool thing about this die is that there are the circles that cut from the centers. I die cut three strips of felt and then adhered the opposite color inside of each of the rolled flowers. I was pretty happy with this card; it might have to stay in my craft room :) I'll at least have to make more flowers with all of the border dies.

A close up of the tag and the border die flower.

The edges of the flowers look extra pretty too because of how it overlaps.

I {heart} Tiny Tags!

MIM: Using Those Scraps

Happy Mother's Day! I was just thinking about how my scrap bin is becoming an overwhelming mountain of lovely PTI paper. I can barely close the lid to the bin. Making one card isn't going to make that much of a difference in my pile but it's inspired me to pull out my scraps first before grabbing a fresh sheet of paper. I have ten tags to make for my seniors that are getting ready to graduate so I know that I will empty those bins out a little more. Okay, let's get to the card for this week's MIM over on Nichole's blog. Dawn had the most amazing and helpful video full of tips. I grabbed five different patterned papers from my stash and layered them like the rainbow. I find that I do this with almost everything, even when I eat M & Ms. There is a very special young lady who is graduating this year and I'm going to miss her a lot so this card is for her. She's had a lot of hardships but is a very strong individual. Also, I teach Spanish and have had her in Spanish three of her four years of high school. Plus, she studied Spanish over the summer at NYU and is going there in the fall to study linguistics. Okay, back to the card. After laying the papers, I die cut a star at an angle at the top of the paper. I was going to use the PTI star but it was too big so I pulled out my Spellbinders. I stamped "Girlie, You Rock" in the center of the star and added a few purple rhinestones. I added three clear butterflies and put rhinestones in the center. I also used my glue pen to trace around the edge of the star and added some super sparkly Palette glitter.

I couldn't bring myself to throw away the star so I put it on the envelope, cut out Skylar's name and used Stardust Stickles the letters. The button in the center of the star is layered and then tied together with twine. I hope she likes the card, now just to write a note inside.

Inspired Color Challenge

This is going to be a quick post since it's so late. The evening got away from me, as usual, and it's back to work tomorrow. Anyway, my Weight Watcher's leader is relocating to Alabama so I thought I'd make her a card to express how helpful she has been in my journey so far. I never paid attention to how many of one color I had on a card before so this gave me a chance to really pay attention to the color and elements of my card. I found that it was really hard to get three items of each color on the card but I'm pretty happy with the finished product. Everything, except the rhinestones, are from PTI (of course) :) The stamp sets I used were: Beautiful Butterflies and Background: Houndstooth. I can't believe I've not used either set until this card. What was I thinking??? Here's the card. I may come back later to edit the post to add details, if anyone has any questions. My eyes are getting heavy and I have 100 teenagers to work with tomorrow that are ready for summer break. (Me too....eight days left!)

April Blog Hop

It's been a LONG time since I've added anything to my blog. I have been busy raising a toddler, teaching Spanish to a lovely group of teens, and letting life take me where it leads. I couldn't resist joining the April Blog Hop after I saw the inspirational picture on Nichole's blog. Plus, I keep accumulating all of these great PTI supplies; I need to prove that I'm using them...not just collecting them, although that's fun too :) I have worked at the same high school for four years and it's quite a bittersweet year. I am watching an amazing group of students getting ready to graduate that I first knew as freshman. They have spent most of their high school careers molding themselves into fine individuals. Today was our last Spanish Club meeting of the year so I made a card for the club president, a young lady who I've known since her freshman year. I used the inspirational picture to decide the color scheme and also allowed that to influence me to use the Pretty Peonies butterfly.

I used the Cane Print plate as the background and then layered the mat stack dies in the center of the card. A few buttons around the die, rhinestones and sewing down the center of the butterfly, and a strip of Hawaiian Shores finished up the card. I hope it is well-received. I really enjoyed participating this month and really hope to become more active on my blog again. I miss it!

September Blog Hop

This month's challenge is to find a new way to use the things that we normally throw away when we get our brilliant PTI packages. I decided to utilize a few different things: the tissue paper, the box everything comes in, and the bags from the Vintage Buttons. I always keep the tissue paper but I used them differently for my project. I actually did two different projects and am now hoarding boxes, paper, and things that used to be considered "trash".

For my first project, I made some napkin holders by using my Nestabilities to cut the ring and then twisted up my tissue paper to tie it together like ribbon. I had picked up the Christmas bulbs at Michael's in the $1 section for this year's Christmas stuff. I wanted to make the napkin rings so that it could be at anyone's seat so I didn't stamp names but rather phrases from Signature Christmas (LOVE Dawn's handwritting!!!). Also, used the great stocking and flocked the top of each one. These were hard to photograph, that's for sure!

A little closer:

Even closer:


My second project is my favorite and will be such an easy gift to put together for those last-minute gifts that we all know we have to put together two days before Christmas. I used the Nestabilities Labels 1 and the great stamps to make a cover for the button bag. I also made a little card for each set and then an ornament to go inside the bag. I used my Nestabilities to cut the background square and hand-cut around the tree that I stamped from the new PTI set. I decided to get out my embroidery floss and stitch the lines on the tree and added some sweet buttons.

Here are the ones I was able to make. From this order, I now have three little Christmas gifts and I'll know what to do with those bags. I think you could fill them with candy for Halloween or Easter. You could even do a little felted heart for Valentine's Day.


One complete set:

Close up of the embroidery (So fun!):


If I left out any details or you have any questions let me know!

Have a great time at the Blog Hop...I can't wait to go check out what everyone did with their "trash". Check out Papertrey Ink and their message board for the other blogs!

New Blog Look

I decided to change the look of my blog and with a little help with Photoshop, I'm pretty happy with the results. I got the header and page layout free from Shabby Blogs and then changed the header in Photoshop to make it look a bit more shabby.

I'm wondering what I can do to get more feedback and/or comments on the blog. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd like to start including posts for my other hobbies, as I'm spending a lot more time knitting and finding other crafts that I enjoy. I went to a teddy bear workshop this past weekend and as soon as I make one more addition to my bear, I'll post her. I need help on naming her too so maybe we'll do a little blog candy. Just look for a post in the next few days.

At the teddy bear workshop, I was able to meet some of the most amazing women and had such an inspiring day out in the middle of nowhere. We laughed, stitched, and stuffed bears all day Saturday. It was a brilliant day. I was even able to sell some of my cards and it made me feel good about my cards because all of the ladies were really impressed with them. Sometimes in the blog world, I get caught up with the fact that there aren't any comments but yet I see that people visit. I've decided a long time ago that I know in my heart that I enjoy my hobbies and I appreciate comments but I don't have to have them to make me feel like my work is good.

Well, off to enjoy the last couple of hours of a three day weekend and it's back to teaching Spanish to 125 high schoolers. I can't believe we've already been in school for a full month and that it's my sixth year of teaching.

Milk Made for Friends

I must say that I have purchased every Timeless Template from PTI. Lauren is so very talented and I admire her creativity and just love to see what she has each month. I've particularly fallen in love with the Milk Made template. I envision a very vintage project with it also in the near future. I was able to get some awesome stamps from Crafty Secrets at CHA to add to my vintage collection and just think of when milk was delivered door-to-door.

Anyway, I made this project using the In Bloom stamp set, which just rocks! I love the saying as well and all of the flowers are great for coloring or to stamp and then just cut out the images. I used Enchanted Evening, Raspberry Fizz, and Kraft. I love the blue and the pink together...such bright colors! I had to add a little something to the lid of each milk carton so I just punched out a little border and added some Martha Stewart punch butterflies after stamping the texting backgrounds onto the butterflies. I really enjoyed making this project and it'll be such a cute gift for lotions, candies, or other great friend gifts. I put a little 1/4 inch base inside of the box to pop up the cartons just a little bit because I wanted more of the flower to be visible. Okay, I think that's enough info...I'll just post the project :)



Here's a picture of one of the milk cartons.


Here's a close-up of part of the saying that comes with the In Bloom set:


I just love the butterfly with the text background stamped on it. I had to add a little Raspberry Fizz colored rhinestone on each butterfly too.

PTI Button Challenge II

Here's another card I entered for the button challenge for this Guest Star Stamper. I've been focusing on my cards this past week and realized I really missed making cards and papercrafting. I'm glad to be getting back that fire! Yea for CHA!

I also realized that my sewing machine that I won at CHA only had one bobbin with it so I went to Hancock's yesterday and hope that I bought the right size.

I really like the color combinations on today's card. I love the blue, yellow, and white look that seems to be a popular color choice in design. I guess I think especially of kitchens. I'd love a brighter blue also but the Enchanted Evening color is just wonderful too. I love the Everyday Button Bits and used the Lemon Tart buttons for the wheels. I love that these particular buttons have a really pretty sheen. I added some blue rhinestones in the center to bring it all together. I colored in the bike with Copics and added some Spica glitter on the pedals.

Here's the card.


The bike just has to have it's own picture :)

PTI Button Challenge

I made some cards for this month's Guest Star Stamper contest over at Papertrey Ink. I know there were some problems with the gallery so you can still enter your work until the 16th so get busy :). Anyway, I'll go ahead and start sharing my cards here. I'll start with my favorite of the three button challenge cards. I must say that I just love seeing a rainbow of colors and when you can mix that with a rainbow of buttons and a beautiful flower, it makes me happy :).

I used the wonderful flower and patterned paper that came out last month, I believe, called In Bloom. I used my Copics to color the flower and just love how easy it is to add color to it and to cut out the image.

Remember that you can click on any picture to see the image larger.


Of course, I have to do a close-up too....usually of my favorite part. I had matching rhinestones for all of the buttons except the Ripe Avocado so I got out my Copics and colored a clear rhinestone. Worked perfectly!

Raspberry Suite Challenge #14

Dawn has the coolest color challenges on her blog and after meeting her and being inspired in general at the CHA Convention, I decided to start participating in the challenge. Plus, Dawn has some of the BEST color combinations!

Here's the challenge for this week:


Before I share the card, I just have to say that the Everyday Button Bits is the coolest stamp set. I worked with it a bit for the PTI Guest Star Stamper Contest for this month so I'll start sharing those cards this weekend. Love it! Nichole is ingenious. Plus, the PTI buttons are so cool and I think I could spend an hour just going through and trying to find the perfect button.

At CHA, I was so happy to find the Fiskar's Upper Crest punch. I know Dawn has used it a lot and I've seen it on other blogs so I've been using it like crazy. I did something a little different with the sentiment because I had punched out the sentiment with the crests on the top and didn't really like it so I added some bling and added it along the bottom. I think it looks pretty neat.

Okay, onto the card :)


And a close up of the flowers with the cool PTI buttons:

CHA 2009

Wow! What can I say? CHA 2009 was incredible. I went primarily because of PTI....I'm such an addict. I do love the free set and am so glad it's at home with me. Being at the conference inspired me to immediately get back into some ink and stamps. I decided to start with my free PTI set :). School is back in session this Wednesday and I needed a clock. I went to Wal Mart and bought a $3 clock and knew that I'd change it's image. I'd seen others online do it so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. It ended up being really simple...I just stamped my seven just a tad bit too much to the left lol. Guess it gives it character. Anyway, I took the clock apart and just started stamping.








I also won a prize at CHA :). My friend Claudia and I each entered a drawing for a Project Runway Limited Edition Sewing and Embroidery machine. Guess where that machine lives now?

Yep, my house!!! Claudia and I were literally jumping up and down and screaming while everyone around us were staring. We checked out at the booth we were at and ran over to the Brother machine booth. I was so excited!!! I had been saving my pennies for an embroidery machine but knew that it would be a long time before I could buy one. When I won the machine I almost cried with joy. Instead, I had a goofy grin for the rest of the day. The machine is worth more than the cost of the trip and hotel together! I can't wait to really find out what it's capable of and work embroidery into my purse business.

Here's my baby!

Blog....What's That?

I have truly neglected my blog but I still check the blogs in my blog roll. I forgot how much time was involved in posting to the blog and getting everything as I want it to be. However, now that it's summer, I hope to have the extra time that I didn't have during the school year. I have specific goals for the summer, which I have to do so that the whole summer doesn't pass by and I haven't gotten anything done.

I'm really working on my sewing and getting a store open on Etsy featuring my purses. I am looking for advice though....I'm looking for a good sewing machine. I have a Singer and I like it but I want one with more bells and whistles. I am open to any and all suggestions, especially if it's something that you are already using and you are happy with it. I'm sure this is a pretty generic request and I'm not even sure that I'll get any responses, but I can hope! Thanks everyone in advance.

Another Masculine Good Luck Card

Good morning everyone! It's spring break and I've been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. I spend this past Monday in Louisville with my sister-in-laws, mother-in-law, and a friend shopping at some craft stores. My favorite stop was at Sophie's Fine Yarn Store. It was incredible! I got some of the softest yarn!!! I also got some really nice cotton that will make nice apple cozies.

I just wanted to post a reminder that I still have my Cricut for sale. It comes with Mini Monograms and 5 packs of mats (10 mats total). I'm now asking $140 for all of that. Please comment or email me if you are interested. It comes with a hand-sewn cover too.

I also have a card today. It's the last card in the good luck series for my students. I go through stages where I post a lot on the blog and then I get discouraged or busy and don't post for a while.

Here's today's card: