Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I don't usually post pictures of the cards I make because so many of them are just recreations of nice cards that I see. But, this one I made because of a Challenge posed by the head of Papertrey Ink, Nichole Heady:

"Summer is FULL of so many wonderful colors, sights & sounds! This month your challenge is to get inspired by the lazy days of summer and reflect your inspiration in a project of your choice! Whether it be the colors in your favorite summer treats, the pattern on your bathing suit & beach towel or even the texture of the sand between your toes, use any or all of these things as a springboard for your design. Please be sure to share an image found online, in a magazine or a photo you have taken yourself that communicates your point of inspiration within the body of your blog post! With everyone's amazing contributions, this ought to be one of the most colorful Blog Hops yet! We look forward to seeing you there!"

So, the first thing that came to my mind was an article I had recently read in Real Simple magazine about how to wear bright, colorful makeup in the summer. I was particularly drawn to the story about the nail polish. I just love nail polish! In the back of every issue of Real Simple is a sheet of cardstock that has tear-out cards. They may be recipes, tips for removing a stain, a quote or just something fun from the magazine. I immediately tore out the card that showed the colors of polish from the article and put it on my craft table. Not only did I want to buy the polishes, I knew I could incorporate those colors into a card. Here's a scan of the tear-out card and the page from the magazine...



On to the card!


This picture came out so small! You can click on it and it will open up a much bigger version for you!

I loved the circle-blobs of nail polish, so I picked Polka Dot Basics (PTI) for the focal point and it was cut out with the largest Labels One Nestabilities. I love the tone-on-tone look of the damask, so I used Pure Poppy (PTI) over the Hibiscus Burst (PTI) cardstock. I wrapped my True Black (PTI) ribbon around the card intending to make a bow, but I decided it wouldn't look right. Then I thought about stamping my sentiment directly on the ribbon and PTI ink is perfect for that! The buttons (PTI) were the perfect finishing touch.


Supplies:
Stamps: (all PTI) Damask Designs, Polka Dot Basics, Handwritten Notes
Cardstock: White (unknown), Hibiscus Burst (PTI)
Ink: Only Orange and Brocade Blue (SU!); Pure Poppy, Hibiscus Burst, Fresh Snow (PTI), Stazon Black
Accessories: Ribbon (True Black - PTI), Buttons (True Black - PTI), embroidery floss, Labels One Nestabilities

Of Kids and Crafties

Kid first, crafts second.

X-man has finally gotten over his fever (I hope I haven't jinxed it!). He came home from CDO on Wednesday with a fever. I talked to one of his teachers on Wednesday evening and she said she never would have guessed that X-man didn't feel good. In fact, he ate every single bite of his lunch that I sent (that hardly ever happens...but he'll eat all his lunch on pizza day! Smart kid!).

Anyway, he still had an ok appetite on Wednesday night and all day yesterday. I didn't give him any milk yesterday but he drank a little water. And he had uber-wet diapers, so I knew he wasn't dehydrated.

He appears to be back to his smiley, playing self. He's napping right now so hopefully the end of the yuckies will be all gone when he wakes up.

And that means that TC and I can go to our Sunday School Christmas Party tonight! I've been working on a gift basket for our gift exchange. Wanna see? This is the crafy part...



Here's the whole gift basket. Cute, huh?



In the front are two boxes with Hershey's Nuggets in them. I stamped on an address label and wrapped that around the regular nugget wrapper. I made these cute little boxes from a template I found on Splitcoaststampers (by member cdjkssss...she shared the template for almost any arrangement of nuggets imaginable!). They are so cute!



Next is a box of cards. Again, I found the template for the box on SCS (and now I can't find it). And it's more like a wallet than a box. The bow holds it together and when you open it, there is a pocket on either side with the cards and envelopes.



And the cards...The designs are all pretty much similar to ones I've seen on other peoples' blogs or galleries. I'm not good at designing these things myself, so I have to use someone else's ideas. The middle card came from Nichole Heady's design.



Finally, in the back, you'll see two covered Lindt Truffles bags. I saw this here. It's such a simple idea, but I'm glad she thought of it! It really dresses up a bag of candy!

It's all in a green, plastic "tub" I found at Target.

I'm going to wrap it up in some tissue paper and then some clear cellophane. I even stamped on the tissue paper!!

Now for the product info, for anyone that's interested:

Stamps: Santa from Stampfrancisco (he comes in several sizes, of which I have three...and I used all three of them! Isn't he just so sweet?); all other stamps from Papertrey Ink (Snowflake Serenade, Spiral Bouquet, Believe, Holiday Treats)

Paper: Patterned Paper from Hobby Lobby, all other cardstock from SU! (bashful blue, pink passion, green galore, certainly celery, night of navy)

Ink: Also SU! ink, in the same colors as the cardstock

Other: Rectangle Nestabilities, SU! ticket corner punch, corner rounder, brads, ribbon

Fun Thank You Card!

This card was inspired by the creator of Papertrey Ink, Nichole Heady. She posted a background paper made with one of her sets. For some reason, I remembered that particular concept when I decided I needed a thank you card.

I got to work and here's what I came up with.



I had to use an eyelet somewhere because I just bought a crop-a-dile. That thing makes it so easy to set an eyelet...no need to pull out a hole punch, the hammer, the setter and to find the mat to hammer on. Just this one tool! And it did a great job of punching a hole in the ribbon, too.

Yes, I know that it's fall and this card looks super springy, but I don't care! It's still cute!

Project specifics:
Ink: Summer Sun, Ruby Red, Certainly Celery, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Stamp Sets: Little Lady, Green Thumb (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Certainly Celery (SU!), White
Accessories: Crop-a-dile, eyelet (Oriental Trading Co), Word Window Punch (SU!), ribbon (unknown)

Gifties

Today is the last day of the summer session of Children's Day Out, so I made little thank you gifts for X-man's teachers (and the program director because she's really sweet!).




They're big clothespins that I've decorated with paper. And I made a cute little card to match. I don't know if you can see it, but the card is a Z-fold and it makes for a fancy-looking card without much extra work! Of course you have to be careful where you write because a portion of the inside of the card is showing, but that's manageable!

The paper is from DCWV - Retro Stack. And I finally got to use my scallop circle punches! Boy are those noisy...must remember not to use them during X-man's nap time!

And today is water day at CDO, so I sent X-man to church with a swim diaper (he wasn't really sure what was up with the strange diaper) and some swim trunks and a shirt and all slathered up in sunscreen. They're just going to have little water tables and some little sprinklers for the little ones, so I don't think there'll be much of a chance of him getting too much water in his ears...gotta always watch out for those tubes!

Of course, we really messed that up last night. TC decided we'd try to bathe X-man in the tub without putting him inside the toddler seat. Boy did that bathtub look big! X-man had a blast scooting around until one scoot sent him flying backwards. Now, there was just enough water in the tub to cover the tops of his little legs. He bumped his head on the floor of the tub and his ears (!!!) went under water. Of course, daddy scooped him up right away and everything was fine. Except he didn't want me to hold him to dry him off like is our usual custom. He wanted daddy to hold him...and he had great big hugs for daddy, too! That helped to make daddy feel better since the no-kid-seat idea was his.

We have a three-month ear check up for X-man tomorrow and I'm sure all will be fine.

During the morning nap...

Instead of folding the dry laundry (which will bite me in the bo-hiney later; it's pants that will probably be all wrinkly) during X-man's nap this morning, I made some cards.

I saw an ad in one of my baby magazines and I just loved the colors in it so I used that inspiration for the colors of these cards:




Colors: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal
Sets: On the Spot, Riviting, Big Pieces, Little Pieces (all SU!)

The birthday rivet and the gift in the middle are both on dimensionals. Actually, they're on the foam left over from cutting out the stamp sets. I don't have anymore pop-dots and the parts that I cut away from the stamp work perfectly as dimensionals...just pull off the rubber part!



Colors: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal
Sets: Big Pieces, Little Pieces, Background Sampler (all SU!)



Colors: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal
Sets: On the Spot, Big Pieces, Little Pieces, Wonderful Words (all SU!)

The scalloped edge around the white cardstock is actually circles that I punched out and put along the edge. I think I saw this idea on an SU! mini catalog. Anyway, it got me the look of a scallop but it sure was a little time consuming!

Now I have three birthday cards for my stash!

By the way, the design of these cards is in no way my own. I don't usually like layouts I do myself. I prefer to look at someone else's layout and base mine on that. I've been inspired by many of the great ladies over at SplitCoastStampers!

Cards

Here are the cards we made at last night's stamp camp over at my neighbor's.



The card on the left is one that I made this morning. I love the Happy Harmony set!



Ok, cows. Not my favorite card, but it's cute.



I like the puff paint on the foam!



This one is my favorite! I love this Big Pieces set and I love the color combo here.