Circles and Stars - Red, White, and Blue

Lots of colorful stars and circles.  The circles cover plate gives a unity and structure to the scattered and tilted stars.  After I thought it was finished, it seemed to need more of a playful touch, so I added the small blue stamped circles (imperfect on purpose). 

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) spring rain (light blue), enchanted evening (dark blue), bright buttercup (yellow), pure poppy (red), and stamper's select white.
• Dies are PTI double-ended banners and cover plate: circles.
• Yellow stars are punched with a Fiskars 1/4" hand punch.
• Starry circles (inlaid into the cover plate openings) are stamped with boy basics: simple circles (red open star) and confetti toss (1/8" yellow dot and two sizes of blue circles), using PTI pure poppy, bright buttercup, and enchanted evening ink cubes.
• The sentiment "thinking of you" is from PTI keep it simple: thinking of you, stamped with PTI enchanted evening ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Burgundy Butterfly with Pink and White

A dotted butterfly with leaves, on a card base with dots and embossed leaves.  The white rectangle and banner look fresh and draw attention to the focal point. 

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) lovely lady (medium pink), scarlet jewel (burgundy), stamper's select white, and the bitty dot print from PTI autumn rose pattern pack.
• Dies are PTI double-ended banner and limitless layers: 1-3/4" circles (scalloped).  
• Embossing folder is Elizabeth Craft spring leaves.
• The sentiment "thank you very much" is from PTI fillable frames #2, and the butterfly is from PTI 2009 anniversary set round and round, both stamped with PTI scarlet jewel ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Lattice and Chevron - Embossing with Stencil

A simple layout with angles and curves.  This card looks really nice (and less pink!) in real life.  The melon berry and terra cotta tile colors are difficult for me to capture on screen.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) melon berry (light orange), dark chocolate (brown), and terra cotta tile (deep rusty orange), bitty dot print from PTI dark chocolate pattern pack, and script print from PTI dearest Jane.
• Die is Poppy Stamps lattice edge.  The "thanks" word is cut with Silhouette Cameo.
• Embossing is done with PTI modern background stencil collection, chevron pattern.  The PTI stencil is thicker material than other stencils I have, and it embossed beautifully for me.
• Technique - see warnings below.  For embossing with the PTI stencil, my Big Shot sandwich was:  
• Multipurpose platform, Tab 1 only
• Cutting plate
• Two layers of lightweight card stock (I used label sheets from PTI card stock packages)
• Both PTI embossing pads
• PTI card stock
• PTI stencil
• Cutting plate
•  Warnings:
• The sandwich felt tight but comfortable going through my machine.  (Like cutting with a PTI cover plate.)  But everyone's machine is different, so please be careful if you try it!  
• Make sure your stencil edge doesn't extend past the side of your cutting plate, or it could be damaged going through the Big Shot, as has happened to me with card stock.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Floral on Gray with Gingham and Dot Prints

My second card with Papertrey Ink's new color pop florals kit, this time sponging the kit's preprinted light gray paper with the stencils and adding stamps for detail.  I really like the colorful floral print I made, though I could have lined up my stencils better to avoid the white showing.  But especially with a white banner, I like the white touches.

My floral design looks very nice with two pattern swatches on a medium gray background.  I tried some different ideas for texture on my card base, but simple looked best to me.  Next time I'll aim for a soft effect, with lighter sponging on plain white card stock. 

Card details:

• Card stock is Ellen Hutson white linen, Papertrey Ink (PTI) stormy sea (medium gray), and the bitty dot and gingham prints from PTI enchanted evening (dark blue) and terra cotta tile (deep rusty orange) pattern packs.
• Die is the long wide banner from PTI sketched shapes.
• The floral design is sponged with a round ink blender and PTI color pop florals stencils, using autumn rose, blueberry sky (medium blue), and new leaf (medium green) ink cubes.
• The flower details are from PTI color pop florals and a solid 5/8" circle from bits & buttons, stamped with pinefeather (dark green), tropical teal, pure poppy (red), terra cotta tile, and summer sunrise (yellow) ink cubes.
• The sentiment "thinking of you" is from PTI keep it simple: thinking of you, stamped with PTI stormy sea ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Papertrey February Blog Hop Challenge: Rectangles, Notched Circle, and Leafy Branch

Some offset geometric shapes, soft colors, textures, a leafy branch ...  a dreamy abstract collage.  In real life, the metallic ribbon is a bright sparkly gold, not silvery like my picture.

For today's Papertrey Ink February blog hop.  The challenge photo below (from Nichole's Capture the Moment blog) inspired me with its colors, shapes, and overlapping layers.  I enjoyed creating my card, and I'm happy with how it captured my inspiration themes.  Thank you, PTI, for the challenge!

Original source: Real Simple Magazine

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) classic kraft, spring moss (light green), simply chartreuse (medium green), and ripe avocado (dark green), and the leaf print from PTI sweet blush (pink) pattern pack. 
• I embossed the kraft card stock with Dreamweavers stencil screen for a woven texture.  See my post here for the technique I used.
• Dies are PTI branching out (top section) and notched flowers (largest size).
• Gold tinsel weave ribbon (3/8") came from PTI but is no longer available.
• Thread is DMC #5 perle cotton in ecru (cream).

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Brown with Flowers

Today's card from a new kit by Papertrey Ink - color pop florals.  I die cut some of the kit's preprinted flowers and leaves, then glued them to one of the brown and white A2 papers.  Embroidery floss and a matted sentiment finish the card.

It was fun to play with the kit.  I didn't really expect to enjoy using the preprinted elements, but they look very nice when die cut and layered.  It felt a bit like cheating ... did I really create this card, or did I just assemble it?  But I did add my own touch with the floss and sentiment.  And I'm happy with the results. 

Card details:

• Card stock is Ellen Hutson white linen, Papertrey Ink (PTI) harvest gold (yellow), and printed papers from PTI color pop florals kit.
• Embroidery floss is DMC 372 and 744.
• Dies are from PTI color pop florals kit (flower and leaf shapes) and PTI my mother, my friend (label shapes).
• The sentiment "thank you" is from PTI keep it simple: thank you, stamped with PTI blueberry sky (medium blue) ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Leaves with Cream and Kraft

A trio of leaf prints on cream.  The simple kraft frame seems to be all it needs.  I tried other card bases - different colors and prints, embossed textures - and chose the cream for its peaceful serenity.  This design would also make a lovely sympathy card.

Note: the gray is background, not part of the card.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) rustic cream and classic kraft. 
• Die is PTI take three.  It cuts the three windows; the outer edges can be any size.
• Frame corners are rounded with Crop-a-Dile 1/4" corner chomper.
• The frame and leaves are popped up with Essentials by Ellen craft-a-board (similar to PTI coaster material) for some dimension.
• The sentiment "thinking of you" is from PTI keep it simple: thinking of you and the leaves are from PTI peaceful garden, all stamped with PTI simply chartreuse (medium green) and ripe avocado (dark green) ink cubes.  

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Red Polka Dots with Yellow and Teal

Today's card is for this week's Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge: customizing patterned paper.  I like the red and white polka dot paper with the extra pops of yellow and teal stamping.  With some embossed dots for the card base, striped twine, and a diagonal "hello," it makes a bright and cheerful card.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) summer sunrise (yellow), tropical teal, and aqua mist, and the polka dot print from PTI pure poppy (red) "+ white basics" patterned paper.
• Embossing folder is Darice dot point. 
• Die is PTI wonderful words: hello, with two colors layered and offset a bit for a shadow effect.
• Twine is marigold (yellow) and Caribbean (turquoise) stripe from The Twinery.
• Yellow and teal circles are stamped onto the red and white patterned paper.  I used large dots from PTI confetti toss, stamped with summer sunrise and tropical teal ink cubes.  
• Technique:  Since there's no individual stamp for the open circle (teal), I used a cluster stamp and tried to ink just the one circle.  To catch any stray ink, I made a mask by punching a 1/2" circle in scrap paper to lay on top of the red patterned paper. 

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Yellow with Blue, Pink, and Leaves

For today's Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary paper crafting alphabet challenge.  Using my first name and the alphabet list, my challenge was to make a card with at least five colors, dry embossing of some kind, and a new product that I had purchased but not yet used.  It didn't work as I planned, but I'm happy with the end result.

My five colors are yellow, two shades of green, blue, and pink.  After I tried in vain to stencil with my new product (a Dreamweaver stencil screen), I thought of dry embossing my yellow card base with it.  I love the crisp, fine woven texture it gave me!

And later, after I finished my card, I found the problem with my stenciling efforts ...  But I'm glad it didn't work for me at first, because then I tried an "off label" technique with the screen, and now I have a new embossing look that I'll enjoy using.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) lemon tart (yellow), berry sorbet (pink), limeade ice (light green), simply chartreuse (medium green), and stripes print from PTI spring rain (light blue) pattern pack.
• Dies are PTI branching out (I used partial cuts) and Elizabeth Craft hello. 
• Technique: To emboss my card stock with the Dreamweaver faux cross-stitch stencil screen, I used this sandwich on my Big Shot (starting from the bottom): Multipurpose platform (all tabs), cutting plate, PTI card stock, screen, thin PTI embossing pad, cutting plate.  It felt tight going through my machine, but not overly so.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Bird on Teal Wreath - Two Versions

A soft and pretty card, sending my thanks to everyone behind the scenes at Papertrey Ink, for all their hard work to bring us the beautiful PTI products.  For today's PTI 9th Anniversary challenge "to create a thank you card and mail it to our warehouse staff."

Edited February 15 to add a second version with a dark base.  I like them both!

 
Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) stamper's select white, vintage cream, melon berry (light orange), and tropical teal (dark turquoise), the leaf print from PTI melon berry pattern pack, and the pale aqua print from PTI pretty pastels 8x8" paper pad.
  Note: for the cream card, the light gray is background, not part of the card.
• The second card is the same, except I used PTI smokey shadow (dark gray) instead of vintage cream.
• Dies are PTI rustic wreath and winter woods.
• Small dots are punched with EK Success 3/16" circle punch.
• Corner rounder is Crop-a-Dile 1/2" corner chomper.
• Embossing folder is Darice honeycomb. I used the debossed side.
• The chickadee from PTI winter woods is stamped with tropical teal and Hawaiian shores (medium turquoise) ink cubes.
• The sentiment "thank you" is from PTI botanical silhouettes, stamped with PTI tropical teal ink cube.

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Yellow, Orange, and Red Flower - Thank You

For today's Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary challenge.  My folded "fortune teller" gave me three very bright colors, perfect for a simple flower design. 

Card details:

• Card stock Papertrey Ink (PTI) orange zest, summer sunrise (yellow), and pure poppy (red), with the damask print from PTI summer sunrise pattern pack.
• Dies are PTI wonderful words: thank you, PTI beautiful blooms II #3 (largest flower), and Avery Elle icon fill in the blank (star).
• I used my very old 1/4" circle punch for the red dot.
• The flower is popped up with Tombow power tabs - not as thick as foam tape.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Leafy Sampler Square

My leafy sampler card was created for yesterday's Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary challenge.  Here's the challenge:  "In honor of our 9th Anniversary, you are challenged to cut nine 1-1/2” squares from white cardstock, then alter all nine of the squares using a variety of techniques, colors, stamps, etc. Be sure to do something different to each square!  ..... adhere the nine squares to a 5-1/2” x 5-1/2” square card front ..."

So I decided to use 9 different ink techniques, all of them new to me.  I'm not a "get inky" kind of crafter.  Even the inky basics of blending, smooshing, and splattering were new experiments for me.  I was surprised at the nice results I got on my first try, which will encourage me to do more with these techniques, and my squares even look pretty good together!

I chose just a few stamps and colors to give my design some unity.  My nine different techniques were ...
Top row: Doodling on a stamped image (with white gel pen and Copic olive 0.3 multiliner), ink splattering, sponging on a stencil
Middle row: Emboss resist, ink smooshing, watercolored background with reinkers and a stencil
Bottom row: Ink blended background, multicolor stamping (reinkers dabbed onto the stamp), and shadow stamping with two colors of ink.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) mint julep and stamper's select white.
• Twine is shore (light blue) stripe from The Twinery.
• Stencil is by Crafter's Workshop.
• Inks are PTI blueberry sky (medium blue), new leaf (medium green), and pinefeather (dark green).
• Stamps are from PTI turning a new leaf.

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Circles with Aqua and Rust

A simple design with some details that I really like - the 2 different rust-colored borders, the embossed and printed circles, the dark marker edging on the patterned paper, and a touch of embroidery floss.  I'm glad I placed the banner a bit to the right of the circle-patterned paper's left edge; it adds to the illusion that the dark marker edging is a narrow layer.  

Card details:

• Card stock is Paper Source pool (aqua), Papertrey Ink (PTI) stamper's select white, terra cotta tile (deep rusty orange - less red than my picture), the stripes print from PTI terra cotta tile pattern pack, and Carta Bella 12 x 12" all bundled up/ snowflake swirl.  I almost never buy 12 x 12" paper, but the circle pattern is a nice scale for cards. 
• The circles print is edged with Copic marker BG75.
• Embossing folder is Sizzix retro cirque.
• Dies are PTI double-ended banners and My Favorite Things wavy edge (retired).
• Embroidery floss is DMC #920.
• The sentiment "thinking of you" is from PTI keep it simple: thinking of you, stamped with PTI terra cotta tile ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Turquoise, Aqua, and Gray Stars

This week's Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge is to "create along with us," choosing a February release project created by the PTI design team for inspiration.

My card started from Amy's lovely butterfly card.  I thought her color scheme - nearly monochromatic - and variety of patterns would work well in a starry design.  Thanks, Amy, for a beautiful project to inspire me!

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) stormy sea (medium gray), mint julep (light green), tropical teal (deep turquoise), and several prints from PTI pattern packs: aqua mist (pale aqua) bitty dot, Hawaiian shores (medium turquoise) damask, tropical teal gingham, and smokey shadow (dark gray) leaf.
• Silver tinsel weave ribbon (3/8") came from PTI but is no longer available.
• Dies are PTI cover plate: stars and photo finish strips.  The stars are inlaid into the stormy sea background.
• The sentiment "thinking of you" is from PTI keep it simple: thinking of you, stamped with PTI tropical teal ink cube. 
• The two tiny stars were punched with a 1/4" Fiskars hand punch.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Blue and Green Confetti with Green Eyelet Lace

Today's card is for a Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary Celebration grab and craft challenge.  Using a kitchen timer, I took five minutes to gather a "grab bag" of supplies.  (See photo below.)  To meet the challenge, I needed to make a card with all of the supplies, and no others.

I chose a confetti stamp (new to me) for my background.  It made me think of the bubble-patterned sentiment stamp.  Then the eyelet lace die seemed to go well with the confetti circles.  Six colors of ink and four of card stock, with some metallic gold thread tossed in for fun.

Then "all I needed to do" was design a card.  This is not the way I normally work!  Normally, I would be going back and forth, choosing and changing elements as I go along.  The thread was the hardest for me to use.  Without the challenge, I would have skipped it, but I like the sparkly touch it adds.  My little dark green and dark blue stars look very similar, even in real life, so I didn't really need both colors.  The stamped confetti background was fun to make.  All in all, I'm happy with the card, and I'm glad I gave this challenge a try.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) rustic white, blueberry sky (medium blue), vintage jadeite (light green), and new leaf (medium green).
• Metallic thread is "or" (gold) by DMC.
• Die is PTI eyelet lace.
• The sentiment "thank you" is from PTI wonderful words: thank you, stamped with PTI blueberry sky ink cube. 
• The background pattern is PTI confetti toss, stamped with PTI spring rain (light blue), blueberry sky, enchanted evening (dark blue), vintage jadeite, new leaf, and pinefeather (dark green) ink cubes.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Multicolor Tweed Patchwork

Today's challenge for the Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary celebration is to use a favorite piece of clothing as inspiration.  My multicolored cotton jacket, below, has been in my wardrobe for years, and I really enjoy wearing it.  It goes with everything, fits me beautifully, and gets many compliments.

I thought it would be fun to create a card with bright tweedy patchwork and colorful thread slubs.  My jacket looks great with khaki pants, so I chose kraft for my card base.  I was happily surprised with the finished card.  I like it a lot.  And it makes me smile, just like the jacket does!

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) classic kraft, tropical teal, fine linen (tan), lemon tart (yellow), melon berry (light orange), and aqua mist.
• Embroidery floss is DMC #721, 3281, and 3804.
• I stamped my tweedy squares with the stripes and banners from PTI bitty background blocks II, using PTI raspberry fizz (pink), orange zest, and tropical teal ink cubes.
• The sentiment "hello" is from PTI polka dot parade #2, stamped with PTI tropical teal ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Brown Branch on Kraft

Edited February 10, 2017 to add: For the Papertrey Ink (PTI) 10th anniversary, we were asked to pick a PTI project from the past 10 years that we are most proud of.  This is one of my top favorites, and I chose it today because it shows many of the things I love about PTI.  Great inspiration and interesting challenges - dies that play so nicely together - gorgeous rich card stock colors - versatile tone on tone patterned paper - stamps in simple but lovely fonts - ink that truly matches the card stock colors.  And I'm proud of it because it's beautiful! and it stretched my creativity to make it.  

It's the Papertrey Ink (PTI) 9th Anniversary celebration with ten days of challenges on Nichole's Capture the Moment blog.  PTI is, by far, my favorite source for papers, dies, inks, and stamps for my card making.  Classic designs, great quality, and beautiful inspiration.

My card is for the Feb. 5 challenge with Design Team Favorites color inspiration.  It's Danielle's color scheme of Dark Chocolate, Classic Kraft, Melon Berry, Scarlet Jewel and Summer Sunrise.   I love the rich deep colors with the bright starry accents.  

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) dark chocolate (brown), classic kraft, summer sunrise (yellow), melon berry (light orange - less pink than my image), scarlet jewel (burgundy), and the stripes print from PTI scarlet jewel pattern pack.
• Dies are PTI tipped tops (smallest size), branching out, and star gazer (button shapes).  The buttonholes are covered with little stars that I punched with a Fiskars hand punch.
• I inlaid the kraft shape into the stripes, making a flat surface for the branch.
• The sentiment "hello" is from PTI winter woods, stamped with PTI scarlet jewel ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Red Diagonal Stripes with Blue Stars

The red and white diagonal striped paper took center stage for this design.  I like the narrow gold stripe (shiny in real life) and diagonal stamped sentiment. 

Card details:

• Card stock is My Favorite Things red hot (red), Papertrey Ink (PTI) enchanted evening (dark blue) and luxe gold, and PTI pure poppy (red) "+ white basics" patterned paper.
• Embossing folder is The Paper Studio tiny stars.
• The sentiment "thank you" is from PTI keep it simple: thank you, and "very much" is from PTI wonderful words: thank you, stamped with PTI enchanted evening ink cube.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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Blue Stars with Ombre Stripes

A chain of blue stars on ombre stripes.  I tried several different background colors before choosing this light kraft.  

Card details:

• Card stock is Neenah desert storm (light kraft), Papertrey Ink (PTI) scarlet jewel (burgundy), enchanted evening (dark blue), and the scarlet jewel print from PTI ombre stripes A2 patterned paper.
• Dies are PTI super star borders and Elizabeth Craft hello.  The small stars with the "hello" are leftovers from the star border die. 
• Top and bottom right corners are rounded with Crop-a-Dile 1/2" corner chomper.

Created for Operation: Quiet Comfort.

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