Make It Monday # Pattern Frames

         Just a quick post for PTI's Make It Monday  Ashley suggested that one make a frame using pattern paper. Glad I decided to join in because I think this suggestion really added to my card.
(sorry for the blurry photo)

     I used the Bold Border Foliage Die to create my frame in Orange Zest Damask Design pattern Paper. The pumpkin & sentiment is from Autumn Pumpkins.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Blog Hop: September 2018

   It's been about 6 months since I participated in PTI's Blog Hop.  I just happened to have time to make a Thanksgiving card even though I am in the midst of Halloween craft making and birthday cards too.  (always birthday cards!)

   I loved the inspiration photo (as always) and focused on the pumpkins and canyon clay color.

Of course, I had to use my new Many Blessings die. My card,

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

MAKE IT MONDAY # 336 Faux Gilded Leaves

The Make it Monday challenge at PTI this week is to create faux gilded leaves. You can learn more about it Here.  I used gold, bronze and claret embossing powders. I think my claret was a little too old and didn't emboss as well as I would have liked.I stuck with the Kraft paper the way Laurie used it in her sample.Over all it turned out pretty nice.

   Thanks for taking a peek.

Make It Monday #335 : Pop Up Slider Cards

     This week the PTI Make it Monday is all about a pop up slider card. Betsy Veldman has asked people on the PTI forum what they would like to see. A couple responses were pop up cards. Since I was one who also requested this I thought I should play along. You can view Betsy's tutorial here.
     So when I started to create my card using a version of Laurie Schmidlin's card, I forgot that Betsy suggested it be a one layer card.  Here's my card.

     Despite being a layered card, the slider still works. I just taped the corners. I also used 4 layers for the balloon's string to make it sturdier.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Stamp-a-Faire 2018 Water Your Flowers

I'm not into water colors.However, after attending Betsy"s session Water Your Flowers at PTI's 2018 Stamp-a-Faire, I think I will dabble in this some more. In fact I even ordered the water color paper Betsy recommended (Bee at Amazon)
Despite being my first time, I am happy with my creation.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Stamp-A-Faire 2018

PTI's Stamp-a-Faire was a great experience. Dawn's project Planting Your Garden was the only project I was able to complete at the event.  Here's my copy of Dawn's card.  I do  love the leaf stencils. they are awesome!

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Stamp-A-Faire 2018 Crafting a Felt Flower Wreath

Well, It took me several days after PTI's Stamp-a-Faire to finish my wreath. I just loved this. Making the flowers was so much fun. They do look beautiful.

 I bought the flower dies and can't wait to make more.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Make-It-Monday #332 Petite PatternPlay

    Just realized my grand niece is turning three in almost two weeks. I needed to make a quick card so I can get back on track for my granddaughters' party decorations. When I saw Lexi Daly's Make-It-Monday idea, I thought I'd give it a try.

I wasn't too happy with the color combination I picked: Berry Sorbet & Lovely Lady. I think the sentiment grounds the image.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Make-It Monday #331 Creating Mix Background Texture

     It's been awhile since my last post. I've been busy doing an on line scrapbook of my trip to Portugal & Spain. At this point I am only half done. In between, I'm making invitations and party decorations for my granddaughters' birthdays in August & September.

     However, when I saw this week's Make-It-Monday by Stephanie Gold, I knew I had to make time to play along. Surprise of all surprises, I've made it in time too.

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     I really like how this card turned out. I need to remember this for future cards.
     Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Blog Hop: March 2018

Good afternoon. It is the 25th of the month. Time for PTI's Blog Hop.  This month's inspiration photo screams spring & Easter.

 Since my stash of stamps is devoid of tulips and birds, I decided to focus on Easter and use my stamps from the February release.

I decided to combine Bunny Blessings with Betsy's Seasonal Borders: Spring.  That stamp set is my favorite (currently). Can't wait to see the release for the other seasons.

Hope everyone has a great Spring and a Happy Easter.  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI: Create With Us March 2018

  I think this is the first time I am playing along with PTI' Create along with us challenge.  I was inspired by the background and color combination of  Melissa's card.  Needless to say, I have  been working on this card for a number of days in between some other projects and I am just getting it submitted with a few hours to spare.

I used the quatrefoil cover plate to create my stencil.
I really wanted to use a different flower in the upper right hand corner.  However, I seemed to have misplaced my Floral Sketches Stamp set.
Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Blog Hop: February 2018

It's the 25th of the month. That means PTI is hosting their monthly blog hop. I'm on a roll.  My 2nd PTI Blog Hop this year.  February was a fabulous release month at PTI. Of course, I bought all of their Easter products and then some.  The photo inspiration this month is an opportunity to use these wonderful products.

I couldn't resist using the newly released Shape Shifter for my background. Love the bunny image too. I combined the flowers from Bitty Bouquet with those in Bunny Blessing.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI MIM Challenge: Framing Sentiments

 I love this week's  MIM at PTI.  The challenge this week is Framing Sentiments.  I'm on an Easter kick.  I used all old products, nothing from recent releases. I think Bitty Bouquet is a perfect stamp set for Easter.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Color Challenge: PTI Anniversary

I'm just getting in under the wire to submit this for PTI's 11th anniversary: color challenge.  This is the color combination I chose.

Here's the birthday card I made for my son's birthday later next month.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Anniversary challenge: No stamps used

    The PTI anniversary challenge for release day #2 is to create a project using no stamps. For me the initial starting point was finding a die sentiment. I chose Birthday Wishes. Since I need a masculine card for a friend's birthday next month, I decided to use Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores & Tropical Teal.

     I couldn't believe how fast this card came together. I used the tip Dawn McVey shared about Press & Seal awhile back. Love that tip. For those of you who don't remember, you lay your die cuts on your card. Place a sheet of press & seal over the die cuts, press, then flip it over, apply adhesive and lay it back on the card front. Voila!
Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Anniversary Challenge: Transform a Former Card

PTI just announced a new feature with their design team. It is called Transformation Tuesday. If I understand it correctly, every Tuesday, a stamp set will be used to create a simple card. Then there will be two more progressive samples showcasing how a card can be transformed adding layers and embellishments.  So with that in mind the challenge today is to transform a card that one previously made.
There is a card I made in 2012 that haunts me to this day. It is hideous. In fact I still have it since I would never send it to anyone. So today I decided to transform that card.

Here is the transformation. I kept the colors the same, added a mix & mat background and tweeked the butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Anniversary Challenge Day 4: Florals

     Back with another entry for PTI's anniversary challenge.  Today it's day 4 and its all about florals.  PTI has so many beautiful floral sets. I chose one of my favorite sets: Floral Sketches. I also used one of the Mix & Mat dies. I absolutely love all of the ones I have. It is so fast and easy to make a card with these dies.

 For my floral color combination, I was inspired by Betsy's card featuring the new anniversary set.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek.

PTI Anniversary Challenge: Day 1 Sketches

February 6th, 2018

         Yesterday was day 1 of PTI's 11th anniversary celebration. To kick off the celebration, the design team was introduced. Each member of the design team picked one of their favorite projects from last year and created a sketch to go with it, Of course, the challenge was to create a project using one of the sketches provided.

      I just love the work of Melissa Phillips. She is one of my favorite designers. I try to replicate her work at times, but I don't do her justice.  Here is her favorite pick.

  This is her sketch, followed by my creation.

  I pretty much used her color combinations. I added diagonal score lines on the Aqua Mat; however, they are not visible in the photo. They really added some texture and depth to the card. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Make It Monday Challenge: Using Different Papers.

I must say the challenge this week at PTI's Make It Monday is really pushing me out of my comfort zone. The challenge is to use different types of papers. Since I am not very creative and didn't want to use a pattern paper as one of my papers, I pretty much followed Stephanie's card.

 I had found some left over Christmas note pad paper and did some cutting to fit my needs. I used die cuts from Holiday greens and  just a tad of tissue paper.  The card looks a bit vintage in real life. Not sure if I like it since it's not my style. Definitely different.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Merry Monday #275 Pastel Colors

        It's the start of a new week. I kept putting off Merry Monday's challenge last week and guess what? Never did participate. So today I made it a priority to  create a Christmas card for the Merry Monday challenge this week.

     I am loving the mix & mat dies from PTI. I decided to use my new confetti die. Thought it resembled snow with a stretch of my imagination.  The colors in the inspiration photo are some of my favorites for creating an up beat Christmas card. This card came together pretty quickly. I fussy cut the penguin. (He's from an old Hero Arts Christmas set.. You know the time before dies were popular. lol)

     Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Balloon Bash:

  My niece had a birthday earlier this month. Her favorite color is yellow. Here's the card I made for her..

I'm entering it into the very popular Addicted to Stamps challenge this week.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI Blog Hop January 2018

I can't remember when the last time I participated in one of  PTI"s Blog Hops. Since one of my New Year resolutions was to try to keep my blog active this year I decided to participate this month. Besides who could resist the gorgeous inspiration photo.

My card was inspired by the soft shades of pink. 

I used my new balloon template to sponge the balloon on the Confetti Mix and Mat in Pale Peony.

I used one of Melissa Philip's trick of using one edge of the Mix and Mat to ground my focal point.

I just loved the January release of PTI.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Merry Monday #273 Red & Turquoise

Still having cold, snowy weather which continues to encourage me to work on my Christmas stash for 2018.  The challenge this week at Merry Monday is to create a card using the colors red & turquoise which I happen to think is a very pretty combination.
I pulled out my old Polka Dot tree stamp fro PTI to create this card. the sentiment is from Peaceful Poinsettia. i wanted to accent the top area around the tree with a mini stamp from rustic wreath, but somehow I have misplaced it. Hopefully, I'll locate it before December.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Merry Monday #272 Glasses

Good Afternoon. With the snowy weather we are about to receive later this evening, it seems fit to be making a Christmas card. So I have decided to play along with this week's challenge at Merry Monday.

 If this card seems familiar to you my card is a muse of one of Melissa Phillips' card.

Just have to stamp a sentiment inside and I'll have card #6 done for 2018.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Make-It -Monday # 308 2017 Ala Carte

Happy New Year. Once again, I'm making a resolution to keep my blog up for 2018.  The same resolution as last year. Looking over my posts, it only lasted until March. Hopefully, I'll do better this year.
My first post of 2018 is for Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday which is to pick one of the challenges from 2017 that one didn't participate in.  Seems like there were several for me to chose from.  I picked #296 which was done by Lexi Daly (Small images on repeat).
I chose to do a Christmas card because I don't want to be making 50 of them in November.
 (I already have 5 done.)

I used the small holly stamp from Holly Jolly (an oldie but goodie stamp set. The die is from Ways to Say Merry Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.