April PTI Blog Hop – Tissue Paper

This month’s theme for the PTI Blog Hop was to use tissue paper. Well, PTI stamp sets come wrapped in tissue paper, and I just so happened to have the paper from my latest order handy. I knew I wanted to make a flower from it, and I wanted to use some the new Dotty Biscotti paper. I almost never use Kraft cardstock, and I think I bought that paper to force myself to use it more.

I folded a piece of the tissue paper up to get a bunch of layers (10-12) and ran it through my Big Shot with the larger PTI Dahlia die. Then I took my Copic airbrush and RV25 marker and tinted the pieces, concentrating on the outer edges and leaving the centers lighter. I poked a hole in the center and held them together with a rhinestone brad, and then scrunched and fluffed them up a layer at a time, from the top downward. Here’s a closeup:

Of course I had to add some more bling to complement the flower center, so I punched out a few butterflies with a Martha punch and added some rhinestones to them.

The layout was inspired by one of the sketches in the new PaperCrafts Go-to Sketches magazine (p.144), but specifically by Kimberly Crawford’s card on p. 145. What a treasure that issue is—so full of inspiration!

What I used: (All PTI unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Signature Greetings
Ink: True Black
Paper: Kraft, Raspberry Fizz, Dotty Biscotti
Other: Rhinestone brad (SU!), clear rhinestones (Hero Arts), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart)

The Hop starts at 8:00 tonight, and I can’t wait to hop around and see what all the other fabulous stampers did with this month’s challenge!

Wedding Invites

I just finished up an order of wedding invitations for a super-sweet couple whose guest list kept growing and growing! We started out at 150 and ended up at 190. That’s 190 invitations, folks — not guests. So yeah, I’ve been busy! I do love working with couples on their invitations, though. There’s something really special about making their vision come to life and having a small part in such a special occasion.

Anyhow, here’s the outside. I used Vertico pocket folds from cardsandpockets.com in Champagne. This is the equivalent of Stardream Opal, if you’re familiar with that. The monogram seal was done with circle punches. TIP: I printed the monograms in the cutting borders of the invitation panels to cut down on waste.

This is the invitation opened up. All printing was done on 80# Creamery Felt cardstock, so it has a lovely texture  that contrasts nicely with the smooth shimmer of the pocket fold.

The flourish is stamped with Papertrey’s Fancy Flourishes stamps in Brilliance Platinum Planet, which is a shimmery pigment ink that matches the outside of the invitation perfectly. Here’s a close-up:

In case anyone is wondering, I do my invitation layouts with Adobe InDesign. If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer.

I hope Christine and William don’t end up spending this whole beautiful day inside addressing and stuffing envelopes. Tomorrow it’s gonna rain!

April Showers Bring…

This month’s challenge for the i {heart} papers Design Team was to use flowers. Well, that’s an easy one for me! So I decided to combine it with this week’s sketch challenge from Our Craft Lounge. I must say that it did turn out to be an unusual color combination for me.

I started with the beautiful bouquet image from the Flowers For You set (an oldie by goodie that Kate happens to have on sale!). I colored it with my Copic markers (see below for the colors), and then went about figuring out how to give it some texture and dimension. 

The first thing I thought of was Flower Soft, so after I cut it out with my Nestabilities, I used some of the new Ultra Fine stuff and tiny little dabs of their glue on the flowers that appear towards the back of the bouquet. Then I remembered that I had some adorable tiny wired roses in my stash. I punched two small holes at the sides of the stems where I wanted them to be tied together, and ran some narrow golden yellow silk ribbon through, catching the stems in it and tying it off tightly on the back. I made a small bow using the same ribbon and my Bow Easy, and attached it with a couple of mini glue dots, hiding the holes I had punched.

I had chosen my colors with the plan of using this paper from the Basic Grey Green at Heart 6x6 pad. I think the “grandma’s wallpaper” feel of this piece complements the bouquet nicely. I have no idea what made me use the yellow, but I think it just makes the card look so sunny and happy!

What I used:
Stamps: Flowers for You
Ink: Memento Black; Copic markers (YG93, G94, G99, RV19, RV29, R21, R22)
Paper: Green at Heart; Old Olive, Summer Sun (SU!); Berry Sorbet (PTI)
Other: Golden Yellow 1/4” Silk Ribbon, Bow Easy, Circle and Petite Circle Nestabilities, wired roses, Flower Soft, SU! circle punch, PTI twill ribbon 

We’d love to have you play along with the IHP challenge. Surely you can think of a way to use flowers! If you post it to one of the galleries (SCS or PCP), use the tag/keyword ihp0410 so we can find it. Check out what the rest of the design team did, and then make your own. 

• Cathleen
• Deb
• Gretchen
• Kendra
• Loretta
• Lori
• Lynn
• Megan
• Tracy
• Kate

Happy stamping!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my son and daughter-in-law’s first wedding anniversary. I’m gonna assume that this card will be getting there on time today, so I’ll go ahead and post it here. My kids seem to have a talent for adding awesome people to our family, and I feel so blessed that they are all so happy.

Anyhow, these two lovebirds (on the card, I mean) were made with the SU! punch and my SEI Claire 6x6 paper pad. The card is full of texture – the cream center piece, cut with the Labels 4 Nestabilities, is some of the luscious velvet paper from the matching Claire Velvet Paper assortment. See, it cuts like a dream, and you can stamp on it! And the Claire patterned paper has some gorgeous foiled designs in it, adding even more texture. The anniversary greeting is from the oh-so-versatile Hero Arts set Everyday Sayings.

And because I can’t help revisiting that wonderful day a year ago, here’s a picture of the real lovebirds cutting their Chicken Wedding Cake. (If you want to see more about the cake, go back and see this entry.)

I can’t believe it was a whole year ago, and I’m so excited that I’ll be visiting them next month for Mother’s Day. I miss them since they moved to Michigan!

Oh, and happy Tax Day, everybody!

Just Sailing By…

When I finally got my hands on the new Paper Crafts Go-to Sketches magazine last week and saw the sketch on p. 68, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it! This super-adorable digi-stamp from Chicken Girl Design was just made for this sketch!

I printed it out on some of the new medium-weight Copic cardstock that Kate is carrying at i {heart} papers, as well as on some Brocade Blue. With digital stamps and MS Word (or most any other program that handles graphics files), it’s easy to use the cropping function to print only selected parts of the images.

The little scene is colored with Copic markers, which I unfortunately put away before writing down the colors I used, and the background is airbrushed with Copics. The waves are the reverse cut made with my Big Scalloped Petite Nestabilities, the added bonus being that I now have a pretty scalloped piece of Brocade Blue waiting for another project.

I cut this card shorter than usual to accommodate the sun sticking up on top, so it’s actually 3-3/4” x 5-1/2”, and it will fit in a regular A2 envelope.

There are so many great sketches in that magazine – it’s sure to jumpstart anybody’s flagging mojo! Can’t wait to play more with it…