How time flies…

I’m not quite sure how this happened, but this week my son turned 36. My firstborn. The boy who made me a mommy; the man who made me a grandma. Amazing. It is; he is.

And so of course I had to make him a card. Because that’s what I do. I make lots of cards. Unfortunately most of them never see the inside of an envelope. This one did. And it actually got mailed, too.

This card made me smile like crazy before it got mailed. I really liked the way it came out, but mostly it made me smile because it’s the first card in a long time that I just made. I didn’t (consciously) CASE anybody’s work, I didn’t follow a sketch challenge, I just made it. And it was good.

What I used:
Stamps: Big Birthday Wishes (PTI)
Paper: Teresa Collins Everyday Moments
Dies: By the Numbers, Hexagon Cover Plate (PTI)

This makes me smile, too: my son as a baby, and my son as a daddy.

How time flies…

IHP October DT Challenge: Birthday Colors

While browsing Pinterest, our Challenge Coordinator Deb came upon a fabulous website with all kinds of party treats (see photo below) that just happened to be in the i {heart} papers logo colors! What better way to celebrate our birthday than with a color challenge inspired by these lovely photos. 

Since IHP is turning 4 years old this month, I just had to make some party goodies for the occasion! 

For the goodie bag, I found some super-cute pastel-colored marshmallows at a local grocery store (they’re made in Guatemala – I know little else about them) and put them into a little zip-lock snack bag (that I bought by accident thinking they were sandwich bags). I made a topper using Nestabilities Labels 8 and paper from the gorgeous Hopscotch 6x6 pad by Fancy Pants. I used the uber-versatile I’ve Got Your Number stamp set by Mint Motif, airbrushed and colored with Copic markers, and for the requisite bling, filled in the number “4” with some Icicle Stickles. The whole thing is held together with i {stick} papers redline tape.

But what’s a birthday party without some cake? For a little party favor, how about some tiny little birthday cakes using battery-powered tealights (available just about everywhere, but I got mine at Walgreen). I got the idea from Jill George here. The directions are really easy to follow. For this one, I used more paper from the Hopscotch 6x6 pad, and punched the scalloped circles out with an old SU! punch.

Here’s another one I made when I realized that washi tape was just about the perfect width to do these! For this one I used Nestabilities scalloped circles instead of a punch, and used some glitter paper to decorate the top. The sky really is the limit with these cuties. You can match the colors of any party theme, and they’re cheap and easy!

AND NOW FOR SOME EXCITING NEWS:

i {heart} papers is thrilled to be celebrating our 4^th birthday this month! We know there’s no way we could have made it this far without each and every one of our loyal customers sharing their IHP love with their friends or following us on Facebook, Twitter, our blog or through our newsletter. So, our celebration is really a celebration of YOU and our gift to you is a 25% off coupon for the whole store, valid 10/16 through 10/20 (valid on in-stock items, not valid on gift certificates or prior orders). Use code: 4bdayDT

NOTE: Shop early! Once seasonal items are sold out, they will most likely not be restocked. Also, the store will be closed from Oct 18-25th and there will be no shipping during this time. Orders will resume shipping on 10/26.

We will also have a giveaways on the blog and on Twitter during these days (they’ll be linked from Facebook too but since giveaways aren’t technically allowed on Facebook we have to do it on the blog!) so be sure to check in daily to see how to enter.

But wait! There’s more! Long time customers know that Kate is a huge dog rescue advocate, volunteering for a local dog rescue, transporting dogs in need and doing rescue work on Facebook. October happens to also be Adopt A Shelter Dog month, as well as the birthday of one of Kate’s dogs and the Gotcha/Adoption day of the other. So, in honor of all of that, IHP will be donating 10% of all sales during the birthday sale to Home For Good Dog Rescue, Eleventh Hour Rescue and Pilots ‘n Paws. And if you make your own donation to any of these organizations, we will send you a gift certificate to IHP for 50% of your donation amount (these will be sent at the end of the month). Just email us a copy of your donation receipt and we’ll email you a gift certificate!

OK, now it’s time for you to check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this challenge.

• Carole (October IHP Guest Designer)
• Carolyn (you are here)
• Deb
• Gretchen
• Judy
• Lori
• Taylor
• Tracy
• Kate

If you’d like to play along, just use the keyword ihp1012 when you post it to the SCS or PCP galleries. And don’t forget to post them to our Facebook page to be entered into our weekly WOW Wednesday contest!

Put Your {Heart} Into It

Happy Friday!

This week the CAS-ual Fridays challenge is being sponsored by i {heart} papers as part of our 4th Birthday Celebration, and appropriately, the challenge is to make a clean & simple card with a heart in it. How could I not play along?

My card uses various sizes of hearts cut out with Nestabilities and mounted with foam dots on a dot-embossed layer. The dotted paper is from the Jillybean Soup Staples 2 collection, and the white heart is stamped with one of the lovely stamps from the Tag Lines set by Flourishes.

Won’t you play along? I hear there may be a coupon on their page that you just might be interested in…

World Card Making Day (Part 3!)

Wow, I’m on a roll! Nothing like a good excuse to stay in and play with paper all day!

This is another take on the IHP Color Challenge in honor of today’s holiday. Check out all the details on the IHP blog.

For this one I went with more of a light blue than an aqua color. And because I wanted to use the Tessatina border die, I needed to make it larger than a standard A2 size – this one is A6 (roughly 4 1/2” x 6 1/2”). This was NOT a quick card to make because of what I wanted to do with that die. I had to cut out the space in the kraft layer so the design would show through – that was the easy part. In order to get the inside lattice part to adhere, I ran my ATG adhesive down it a couple of times on the back, and then once it was adhered, I had to go over the whole thing with a gum eraser to pick up all the adhesive that was showing through. Tedious at best. I need to find a better way to do that if I want to try this again. Or maybe pick up the Piestra Tile die, which will not give me the same issues.

Anyhow. I used the Memory Box Vivienne butterfly die twice, once in kraft and once in brown, and adhered them together only down the middle so I could pull the top wings up. The body is cut in brown and glued on top. The sentiment, from the Hero Arts set Good Friends, is stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink.

OK, now I really need to get dressed so I can at least go down and check the mail – I think there’s a goodie package from IHP waiting for me!

World Card Making Day (Part 2)

I’m back again with my take on the Color Challenge part of the i {heart} papers WCMD festivities. For my Sketch Challenge card, you can scroll down or click here. And make sure you check out the IHP Blog for all the details on the challenges (which can win you a gift certificate!) and the SALE!

I love making holiday cards in non-traditional colors, and when I won this Peace & Joy set from Flourishes, my first thought was how awesome it would look embossed in gold. So I figured I would use today’s color challenge to make a lovely, beachy-colored card suitable for the holidays. This is the color inspiration that our fearless Challenge Coordinator, Deb, came up with:

As I said, I gold-embossed the stamp on cream cardstock, and then I randomly colored the letters with blotches of E31, W4, and BG02 Copic markers. I used BG93 for the leaves. I mounted it onto a piece of aqua cardstock that I had embossed with one of the folders from the Whimsy set from Lifestyle Crafts. I mounted it all onto a kraft card base, and wrapped some of this gorgeous satin reversible ribbon around it. Then I made a bow with my Bow Easy (seriously, the only way I can make a bow any more) and stuck it on.

The stamps, ribbon, embossing folder, and more, are all available at i {heart} papers, and for 20% OFF right now if you use the code WCMD2012IHP through Tuesday, 10/9.

I suppose I should get dressed and enjoy what might be one of the last warm days of the year (almost 80 degrees!) instead of staying inside and playing. We’ll see…

Happy World Card Making Day!

Isn’t it nice that we paper crafters get our own holiday?

i {heart} papers is celebrating World Card Making Day 2012 with 2 chances to win a gift certificate and a 20% off storewide coupon code. Use code WCMD2012DT through Tuesday 10/9 for 20% off EVERYTHING in the store. And, yes, you still qualify for free US shipping with your order of $60 or more.

Participate in our challenges - one sketch and one color - for your chance to win! A $10 gift certificate will be awarded for each category. Upload your projects to our Facebook page or add them to the Mr. Linky on the IHP blog. You can play along with one or both and can enter as many times as you'd like!

The card above uses the Sketch Challenge layout, except I rotated it counterclockwise to have a horizontal orientation. That’s one of the things I love about sketches – they give you a starting point to let your own creativity take flight.

The focal point of the card is this adorable stamp from the Happy Halloween set by Chicken Girl Design. It’s stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic markers. After I mounted it on black cardstock and put the whole card together, the white background just looked a little too plain, so I took my Copic Multiliner and doodled some dots and lines around the edge. The patterned paper is from the Doodlebug Haunted Manor collection.

Won’t you play along to win? The deadline to enter is Sunday 10/7 9PM EST. The winners will be announced on Tuesday! And, as a bonus, WCMD projects will also be counted as entries for our WOW Wednesday! Every Wednesday we pick someone who has shared a project on our Facebook page during the week that uses supplies purchased from IHP. Share your project and be entered to win a $5 gift certificate!

I’m going to attempt the Color Challenge in a little while, so I’ll probably be back later today. Maybe even more than once, since I fully intend to celebrate this day to the max!

Bring on the Bling!

Do you LOVE bling? So do we! This month the i {heart} papers design team and the team from Zva Creative are celebrating the love of beautiful bling! Since each of our teams have designers who are also Paper Craft Planet Super Novas, we asked the PCP team to host some special challenges throughout the week. There will be lots of beautiful, blingy inspiration!

You should have arrived from Robin Shakoor’s blog...if you missed the beginning, head straight to Kate's blog so you won't miss a single gorgeous project!

i {heart} papers retails the industry's best paper crafting supplies from your favorite manufacturers while offering stellar customer service and super fast and FREE US shipping with any $60 order. (We also ship internationally.) We are proud to offer our exclusive i {stick} papers redline tape, which is manufactured just for us in long-lasting 60 yard rolls, at an amazing price! We also provide a publication incentive for our three private stamp lines, Mint Motif, The Petal Press and Chicken Girl. Visit our website and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and our blog for news, sales, coupons and more!

Zva Creative produces many beautiful color groupings of high quality pearls, flowers and crystal embellishments that can be used on scrapbooking, card making and mixed media projects. Visit Zva’s gallery or blog for great project ideas and to find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva click HERE.

Zva Creative will be selecting one lucky winner who comments along the blog hop to win a Zva prize package worth $30. All comments must be received by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 19th. Winners will be announced on Zva’s blog on Thursday, September 20th.

My card above reflects the definite feel of autumn in the air these days. I used the gorgeous Garden Picks set from Flourishes, and paired it up with some fall-colored paper from the Harvest Lane 6x6 pad (Simple Stories). The image, of course, is colored with Copic Markers, and for a little extra oomph on the Queen Anne’s Lace flower, I dotted it with a bit of white Liquid Pearls. The Zva bling I used, the pearl flourish, was originally white, but to tie it in with the colors of the card, I gently swiped over the tops of the pearls with my E55 Copic marker. I love that – you can always have just the right color of bling!

For the layout of my card, I used this week’s Sketch Challenge over at Paper Craft Planet.

From here, you're visiting Andrea Ewen. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the hop! We hope to see you and your creations this week on Paper Craft Planet!

Boo!

It’s only the middle of September, but already the stores are full of Halloween stuff. I just got some new goodies from i {heart} papers, and among them were some fun Halloween papers and embellishments, so I couldn’t help getting into the spirit of things! LOL – spirit – get it?

This is a re-take on another card I made back in the spring. Yeah, I totally CASEd myself – not sure if that counts as inspiration or laziness.

Anyhow, this card uses paper from the totally adorable Doodlebug Haunted Manor pad, and one of the cute little Mini Doodlepops – Ghosties stickers. The window was cut with the Small Madison Window die and popped up on Dimensional Dots. I sponged a little white ink in the corner for moonlight. The sentiment is from the Chicken Girl Design set Silly Monsters.

In case you’re wondering, the card base is black. I cut away the orange paper so it would show through the window. And you can’t really see it with my inferior photography and photo editing skills, but the chair rail is scored twice on the Scor-Pal to give it a bit of dimension. And yes, the orange paper is a bit “distressed” because I had to pull it off after I mis-aligned it when I was adhering it the first time. And the second time. Let’s just say it adds a little character.

I am thoroughly enjoying my Monday off (and will also enjoy my Tuesday off tomorrow) by indulging in a little extra crafting time. Hope you find something fun to do today, too!

Summer Strawberries

I know, two posts in one day – go figure. I should have my blogging license revoked, because I sure don’t follow the rules! It seems it’s either feast or famine with me.

Today we’re feasting -- on strawberries. Speaking of which, I will share an embarrassing little secret: There was a summer day, very long ago when my kids were small, that I dropped them all off with a friend so I could indulge in a basket of strawberries all by myself, no sharing! Shameful, huh?

When I saw the Flourishes Any Which Way Sketch Challenge this week, I couldn't wait to pull out my Strawberries set and get to work on it. Technically, it is still summer, and I’m not letting go of it too easily. There are still strawberries at the fruit store. OK, with today’s global shipping they’re there all year, but still… 

The image is colored with Copic markers (duh), matted on Garden Green cardstock, and popped up on foam dots. I punched a hole on the left side to thread some red herringbone twill ribbon through and tied a bow (haven’t done that in a while!). The card base is covered with red gingham paper from the Simple Stories Summer Fresh pad, and a strip of blue calico print paper (from the same pad) finishes it off. Very summer-in-the-country looking, huh?

I love me some Flourishes stamps when I feel like coloring (which is almost all the time), and I’m so glad that Kate is now carrying them at i {heart} papers.

And I think I’m gonna head out to the fruit store right now!

Sunflowers

On vacation this summer, while taking a bus tour through  Romania on the way to the Danube Delta, we passed several seemingly endless fields of sunflowers. Apparently sunflower oil is one of their major products. Anyway, when I recently got the coordinating dies to the PTI Autumn Abundance set, I couldn’t wait to pull out the sunflower image and play with it. And this week’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge was just the way to use it.

The blue printed papers are from the Teresa Collins Every Day Moments pad, and the golden print is from Studio Calico’s Memoir pad. The greeting is from the PTI Communique Curves Sentiments set. The white self-adhesive lace trim finishes it off perfectly. And of course, the image is colored with Copic markers.

Here’s another one I made last week using the same image (I cut and colored both at the same time).

I know I used another card or sketch as inspiration for this one, but darned if I can remember where I saw it! If I find it, I’ll be sure and come back to give credit. Anyhow, same golden paper from the Studio Calico’s Memoir pad. The greeting, I’m pretty sure, is from another PTI set, and the satin ribbon is also PTI. I really need to tack those ribbon strips down so they stay in place!

Enjoy your Sunday!

August IHP Design Team Challenge: Inspired by…

This month’s i {heart} papers Design Team challenge was create something inspired by this lovely photo. These corals and oranges seem to be very popular for the coming season.

I decided to use these colors to design a scrapbook page about my favorite subject: my sweet little granddaughter, Lilia. Fortunately, my son and daughter-in-law keep me well supplied with pictures, and this little triptych is among my current favorites.

It was VERY hard to get a good picture of this page. My scanner does not handle 12x12, and just about every photo I took showed either glare or shadow.

All of the patterned papers I used were from the Tangerine 6x6 pad from My Mind’s Eye – even the little word pieces are cut from one of the papers. It’s part of their The Sweetest Thing line, and it’s just gorgeous! I die-cut the letters from the paper, too.  I used two strips of 5/8” pink twill ribbon along the top of the bottom strip.

Those of you with a keen eye will notice that I used 6x6 paper on a 12x12 page. Yeah, that was a bit of a challenge in itself, and I can’t say I’m thrilled with the results. The seams are not invisible, and even my lame attempt to repair the bottom one in Photoshop didn’t help much. Oh well…don’t look at the faults, just look at the adorable baby!

Now go check out what the rest of the design team did with this inspiration challenge.

• Deb
• Gretchen
• Loretta
• Lori
• Tracy
• Kate

Happy hopping!

Balloon Boy

Just a quickie. Coloring again. A week ago or so, Amy Rysavy posted this card and video and I was smitten with it! It’s possible I ordered this stamp from Kate simply so I could try the techniques myself. Just saying.

What I used:
Stamps: Balloon Kiddo (Stampendous), Think Big Favorites #14 (PTI)
Ink: Memento Black, Copic markers
Other: Eclipse masking tape

Off to the movies today. Have a good one!

Long time, no see…

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to the blog. I sort of have an excuse, though. I’ve been on an amazing Black Sea cruise and was away for almost two weeks! I suppose I could have planned and pre-loaded posts for while I was gone, but frankly, I’m just not that organized. Anyhow, more on my trip in another post; most of you are here to see either cards or cakes!

Today it’s cards. I just got an order from i {heart} papers and couldn’t wait to play with these new stamps from Flourishes. I love Marcella Hawley’s designs, and I’m so glad Kate is carrying these stamps! I decided to use all three of the flower images in the set to make a trio of coordinating cards.

Here’s the first one, and here’s a closeup of the flowers:

Here’s the second one:
and a closeup: 

And the third:
and the closeup:
I had a lot of fun coloring these. I’m not pretending I have mad coloring skills, but I think I’ve gotten better with practice. As you can see, the layout I used was quite simple. I rummaged through my gazillion paper pads and found coordinating, simple patterns to layer them on, and embellished each with a strip of white lace from my stash. Each image is colored with 6 billion Copic markers, and cut out with a different Nestabilities die.

I do have more things to show you. I’ve actually done quite a bit of creating in the week or so since I’ve been back. Maybe I’ll post another couple of cards tomorrow.

Until then, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

IHP DT Challenge: Pile it on, use it up!

This month our challenge was pretty much a free-for-all: use as many IHP products as we could pile onto our project without it looking garish. I know that Kate is trying to clear up space for the new stuff she’s ordering from this summer’s CHA releases (I’ll talk more about that further down), so I took that to mean we should try to use up some of our stash. As if I could even begin to…

I started by selecting a sketch that had lots of layers – what better way to pile on the paper! The Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge this week fit the bill perfectly. I decided to turn it on its side, since I wanted to do a horizontal arrangement of the stamps.

My son and his family are moving to Boston this month (yaaaayyy!!!! Closer to grandma!), so I was inspired to use this Paper Smooches set, Vogue Abode, to celebrate the occasion. I used Basic Grey’s PB&J paper pad (5 different patterns from it), since it seemed to go with the retro look of the furniture. I paper-pieced the chairs and used Copic markers to finish them off. You can’t really tell, but the dark color in the papers is navy blue (as is the card base), making for a very cool, retro look. The vase in the center is coated with Crackle Accents (although I think the item was a little too small to really take advantage of the crackling effect).

The flower, which picks up the design in the base print, was made by punching out a 1” circle of Scor-Tape sheet, peeling the backing off one side, and starting at the outer edge, pressing this ruffled lace on, winding around to the middle. I stuck a cool square olive green button onto the middle with a clear pop-dot. Because the flower was built on a double-sided adhesive base, I just had to peel off the other side of the backing to stick it on!

Here’s a list of all the IHP products I used:
Stamps: Vogue Abode (Paper Smooches)
Ink: Memento black, Copic Markers 
Paper: PB&J 6x6 pad (Basic Grey)
Other: Scor-Tape 6x6 tiles, 5/8" Picnic Ruffles Aqua Blue, Crackle Accents

You should really head over to i {heart} papers right now, you know, because Kate is having a super-duper sale to clear out space for the new CHA stuff she’s ordering. Seriously, a really good sale from July 11-21.

• 25% off your order of $50 or more!
• Coupon code: CHA2012DT
• Storewide sale! Paper, Copics & refills, stamps, ribbon, everything!
• And still, as always, free US shipping with your $60 order!

But before you go shopping, check out the rest of the design team’s projects for a little added inspiration (to add to your shopping list?). Check ‘em out:

• Carolyn (you are here)
• Deb
• Gretchen
• Loretta
• Lori
• Tracy
• Kate

Happy hoppin’ and shoppin’!

A couple of cards (and an awesome SALE)

Oh, my poor neglected blog! It’s been so hot here in NYC lately that I haven’t felt much like doing anything besides sitting in front of my fan. I am too cheap to run my A/C except when I have to bake. I do have a couple of cards to show you, though. You’ll notice that they are very minimalist in style, reflecting my desire to do as little as possible due to the weather.

First up is this Hop-py Birthday bunny, inspired by a card by Clare Pretzzia in the recent issue of Stamp It! Cards. I used the Chicken Girl Design set Birthday Wishes (exclusive to i {heart} papers), fussy-cutting the bunny and balloon and popping them up with foam dots. The bunny is colored with Copic markers, and the balloon is paper-pieced with a scrap from the Pixie paper pack by Memory Box. I split the greeting up on either side of the bunny. You can see that I just used some very simple layering for the card design.

Here’s some more simple layering. I truly need to keep better track of my inspirations; I know I got the idea of creating a cake out of words from somewhere, and I can’t remember where. The cake is made with the Birthday stamp (which I could have lined up a little better) from the Technique Tuesday set Swanky Sentiments, and the cake plate and candles are from the Mint Motif sets Cake Shoppe and Cake Shoppe, Too (both exclusive to i {heart} papers as well). Some Copic markers and Stickles finish it off. I scallop-punched the bottom of the main panel to mimic the scallops under the cake.

You’ll notice that all of the supplies I’ve mentioned are available from i {heart} papers. Kate has some of the BESTEST stuff around, and starting today, for a limited time, she’s making it especially rewarding for you to stash some of it away for yourself. She’s having a HUGE Pre-CHA clearance sale from July 11-21.

• 25% off your order of $50 or more!
• Coupon code: CHA2012DT
• Storewide sale! Paper, Copics & refills, stamps, ribbon, everything!
• And still, as always, free US shipping with your $60 order!

OK folks. Go do a little shopping, and keep COOL!