working with dimensional paste and masks...

I have a little tutorial and two new projects up on the Pink Paislee blog today if you'd like to take a peek. I picked up some dimensional paste and played around with some masks, and love the embossed effect which would be fun on any type of project!

My girls had their last day of school here yesterday, so we slept in this morning and are just relaxing today, enjoying the quiet day. The wind is blowing like crazy, but I'll take the wind over the NY rain, humidity and bugs any day *smiles*. Enjoy your day!

Roundabout Card Kit by Studio Calico...

Hi everyone! How was your Memorial Day weekend? We had a nice time with my parents who came to visit and see our new place. Did some sight-seeing around Colorado and one day they helped us get our yard in shape a bit...our home had renters the past 5 years before we purchased it and it needed some TLC outside. We tore out 4 or 5 big shrubs that were dead and just trimmed a few trees and plants in the beds around our deck - looks much better now! It was so nice to see my family again. After sight-seeing during the day, we played cards at night (one of our favorite things to do together) and laughed and laughed! I really needed a good dose of my family, so good for the soul. :) I'm so happy to be closer to them.

Popping in to share my Studio Calico cards from their June Card Kit called Roundabout. These are made with only the main card kit, no add ons. I was only able to make 4 this time....made them all in one day actually. My kit accidentally went to New York and then to another town in Colorado, so I ended up with one day to get them finished before my family came. I hope they aren't TOO simple? Simple is good sometimes too, right?

This card was stamped with the "me" and "you" from the kit! Made my own little banner shape from the cardstock by trimming up the center with scissors and then trimming to each corner, a quick way to make your own banner shapes.

Another stamped card here. This time I stamped the background, the center medallion and the  heart.

Loved the stamps in the kit this month, the cursive font is right up my alley. The aqua is Aqua Mist ink by Papertrey Ink, also used Pure Poppy (red) and Summer Sunrise (orange).

The gray card is so colorful and cute in real life - sorry for the bad photos. I trimmed a piece of the chevron paper down to an arrow and added some pink stamped hearts and some stamped sentiments. I used Sweet Blush and Summer Sunrise inks by Papertrey Ink.

Here's a little better pic, you can see how pretty the colors are from the kit papers.

One more simple one, stamped the top with the "hello" stamp in Harvest Gold ink by Papertrey Ink to match the little "hi" embellie!

Ok, that's it for me today! I haven't set up my scrapbook space yet, but the girls will be done with school in 1 1/2 days, so I hope to get more time to work on it soon! Can't wait for sleeping in and no schedule again...plus that means more crafting time for me. Hee. Have a good day!

Studio Calico's June card kit sneaks...

As promised, I'm back with a few card kit sneaks for you from the June card kit at Studio Calico! These are all made with just the main card kit... had fun with the stamps in the kit creating backgrounds and focal points. I hope you like them. I decided to go simple with them this time.

My parents are here visiting for the long holiday weekend, and my husband and I just celebrated our 14th anniversary together yesterday. I am seriously blessed in my life, things are going so well right now. I hope you are well too, thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great day!

Color til your heart's content...

I'm a little late in getting this posted, but this month on the Pink Paislee blog, we had a fun little blog hop with Faber-Castell and got to work with their awesome Gelatos pens! The Gelatos are kind of like little lip sticks, they go on the Artisan papers by Pink Paislee so smoothly! I simply colored it onto Pink Paislee's Artisan papers randomly and then smoothed it out with my finger. This coloring technique makes you feel like a kid again!

The Gelatos also work on the Pink Paislee chipboard. The chipboard has a raised design that resists color, so you can see the cute dots that stay white on these stars after coloring them! Love that!

Here is one of my finished cards with lots of beautiful Pink Paislee products... a Hope Chest butterfly, Luxe Alphabet stickers, Hope Chest tag and sentiment.

Swing over to the Pink Paislee blog to see another card I made using the Faber-Castell products with Pink Paislee. So much fun to try! You can try other mediums on the Artisan goodies also - paint, mists, etc. They are really versatile to change up to match any project of yours. Have a good one! I'll be back with some Studio Calico sneaks soon.

Release day...

It's that time again! The Papertrey Ink team is going to be sharing the rest of the projects they made for this month's countdown with the new stamp releases. Grab a coffee and sit a spell! :) Lots of baby cards and things to share with you today.

The first card is made with the new Tiny Triangles stamp set and the Cover Plate: Triangles. The triangles all patched together reminded me of a baby quilt.

When I first sat down to make something with the triangles, I was stamping directly onto my practice cardstock. I am not very good at stamping them all straight and getting them just right, so I used the new Cover Plate: Triangles to cut a bunch of triangles out first and then stamped these little pieces. This way you can adhere them onto your card or project and get them straighter, and you can play around with the patterns and move them around as you'd like before deciding on a design!

"Baby" is cut out with the new Wonderful Words: Baby die. The "congratulations" sentiment came from the new Wonderful Words: Baby stamp set.

New Baby card supplies:
STAMPS: Wonderful Words: Baby, Tiny Triangles
INK: Berry Sorbet, Harvest Gold, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Soft Stone, Hawaiian Shores
PAPER: Rustic White
DIES: Wonderful Words: Baby die
OTHER: Pebbles clothespin, seam binding, washi tape from a Studio Calico kit.
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On the second card, I used Pure Poppy and Sweet Blush ink stamped directly onto Sweet Blush cardstock. It shows up a little better in real life! I love the tone-on-tone of the inks and matching cardstocks by Papertrey Ink.
I used Fresh Snow (white) ink and just rubbed the ink pad onto the cardstock around my sentiments for a soft look. The stamps are new, and they are Side By Side Sentiments and Pedal Pusher stamp set (thank you).
A fun little banner was created with some chipboard I had on hand and a couple of the Tiny Triangles. The frame was die cut with the Mat Stack 4 dies. I cut the larger one first, then laid the smaller one on top of the cardstock that I had just cut, and I cut it again, leaving this outline that I can use as a frame. Fun technique!

With Love. From Me to You. card supplies:
STAMPS: Side By Side Sentiments, Pedal Pusher, Tiny Triangles
INK: Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush, Fresh Snow
PAPER: Sweet Blush, Rustic White, and Aqua Mist cardstock, Harvest Gold Patterned Pack
DIES: Mat Stack 4, Cover Plate: Triangles, Tiny Tags
OTHER: Opaque Gems by Studio Calico, banner chipboard by My Mind's Eye (Boy Crazy line).
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The next one was made with Stitched Sentiments (to spell out "sweet"), the new Boutique Borders: Baby stamps and Ruby Rose (flowers and dots on the butterflies). Oh, and the small "sweet" saying on the butterfly is from Polka Dot Parade #4.

I used the new Butterfly Kisses die and just stamped some fun things on each butterfly, layering them on my card.
Beautiful New Baby card supplies:
STAMPS: Boutique Borders: Baby, Stitched Alphabet, Ruby Rose and Polka Dot Parade #4
INK: Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy, Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, Vintage Cream, Fresh Snow
PAPER: Rustic White, Aqua Mist, Classic Kraft cardstock
DIES: Butterfly Kisses die
OTHER: Rustic Twine, buttons by My Mind's Eye (Boy Crazy line).
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Can you guess what I made these photo corners with? These are the florals that go in the basket of the bicycle from Pedal Pushers! "Sweet, little and baby" are from the Wonderful Words: Baby stamps and dies.

Sweet Little Baby card supplies:
STAMPS: Wonderful Words: Baby, Pedal Pushers
INK: Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, Fresh Snow, True Black 
PAPER: Rustic White, Sweet Blush, Classic Kraft
DIES: Wonderful Words: Baby
OTHER: seam binding. 
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I wanted to go more boy-ish on this one, which was made with the new Polka Dot Parade #4 stamps and dies. A bunch of cute teddy bears in many colors steal the show. :)

A paw print background was stamped with this set and the sentiment is from the set also onto Classic Kraft cardstock with Dark Chocolate.

Welcome Baby card supplies:
STAMPS: Polka Dot Parade #4
INK: Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Pure Poppy, Hawaiian Shores, Classic Kraft, Dark Chocolate
PAPER: Classic Kraft, Rustic White, Aqua Mist
DIES: Polka Dot Parade #4 dies
OTHER: Rustic Twine.
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Last but not least, a patriotic card. I used Papertrey Ink's new shimmer cardstock (black) and stamped the fireworks in Fresh Snow ink. I stamped the circle stamp in Pure Poppy, cut it out and layered it with some chipboard stars by Pink Paislee from their Artisan line. The stars were rubbed with Hawaiian Shores ink to add some color.

The star border was die cut with Aqua Mist cardstock. I stamped some of the stars in red at the bottom. If you want a brighter look to the background, you could emboss the fireworks with white embossing powder as well.

Land of the Free card supplies:
STAMPS: Red, White & Blue
INK: Fresh Snow, Hawaiian Shores, Pure Poppy
PAPER: Shimmer Cardstock, Aqua Mist, Rustic White
DIES: Star Border
OTHER: Rustic Twine by Papertrey Ink, Artisan Chipboard by Pink Paislee.
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That's it for me! For more ideas, visit the other team members to see what they've made with these same sets. All of these products will be available on May 15th at www.papertreyink.com.
Betsy Veldman

Cristina Kowalczyk

Dawn McVey

Debbie Olson

Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols

Jessica Witty  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips

Nichole Heady

Ruby Rose...

The Papertrey Ink team is back with a group post today to share ideas using a new stamp set coming out May 15th called Ruby Rose. If you love all things floral, you won't want to miss this one! Our assignment was to choose something that inspired us and create two things using that inspiration piece.

(inspiration piece)

I chose a patterned paper by Studio Calico that I wanted to replicate from their "Darling Dear" collection. I loved how the blue teal floral was surrounded by dark brown leaves and then the background looked as if it were painted in between the flowers with yellow paint, and I thought "Oooh! that would be pretty with stamps!"

First, using the new Ruby Rose stamp set, I stamped several of the flowers- large and small- in Aqua Mist ink and the leaves in Dark Chocolate ink. (See below.)

Next, I used a Harvest Gold reinker and just put a few drops of the ink onto a stamping block. I didn't have a paintbrush with me here in my temporary apartment, so I grabbed a paper towel, got it wet, and dipped a wet corner into the ink. Carefully, I painted in between the flowers with the corner of the paper towel. You'll want it to be wet, so it blends the ink, giving you that watercolor look. If you have a paintbrush on hand, you can just use that! :) I love the effect, isn't it pretty with the white around the flowers?

Last I added a sentiment from Ruby Rose, which is stamped onto the Limitless Layers 2.25" Oval die cuts and edged the side of the card with more of the Darling Dear paper.

Thank You Ever So Much card supplies:
STAMPS: Ruby Rose
INK: Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate, Hawaiian Shores
PAPER: Rustic White cardstock, patterned paper (stripe) by Studio Calico
DIES: Limitless Layers 2.25" Oval Dies
OTHER: seam binding, button my My Mind's Eye (Boy Crazy line).
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The next card was also made with Ruby Rose stamps and dies, except this time I chose to focus on the die cuts as the focal point.

I wanted to play on the angle of the sentiment, so I stamped several of the flowers in Aqua Mist at an angle and leaves in Classic Kraft to mimic the inspiration piece above. Then I die cut some of the flowers with the Ruby Rose dies. I added a strip of Classic Kraft cardstock to mimic the angle of the sentiment and stamped a border onto the strip with the new Boutique Borders: Baby stamp set.The colors on this card took a different turn from the inspiration piece, but I love the Sweet Blush and Pure Poppy inks with the Aqua Mist and Classic Kraft.A Very Happy Birthday card supplies:
STAMPS: Ruby Rose, Boutique Borders: Baby
INK: Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream around edges
PAPER: Rustic White, Classic Kraft, other floral background- Studio Calico (Darling Dear Collection)
DIES: Ruby Rose
OTHER: seam binding, dimensional adhesive.
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Stop by the team blogs to see more with the Ruby Rose stamps:
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols
Jessica Witty
Maile Belles
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

Pedal Pusher...

Hi there Papertrey Ink fans!
The design team is back today with a group post to show you another new stamp and die set, this one is called Pedal Pusher, and... you guessed it! The long awaited bike images and dies are here. Aren't they so cute?

First, I stamped the tires onto patterned paper. The bicycle was die cut from Aqua Mist cardstock and the bike image stamped over the die. Love the dimension of the die cut! Now I would totally put little brads in the centers of the tires...IF I could find them! We just moved into our house in Colorado 2 days ago and everything is a mess at the moment! Some little brads would finish it off nicely.

My assignment was to use the holly image, so I made a little Christmas card with this stamp set. :) All of the images you see here are in this set. My little sentiment was housed in a banner that I just cut myself. I like how it grounds the bike image. I added a little red one underneath also to make the sentiment stand out from the polka dot paper a bit.

Happy Holidays card supplies:
STAMPS: Pedal Pusher
INK: New Leaf, Pure Poppy, Hawaiian Shores
PAPER: Studio Calico (dot), Pure Poppy and Aqua Mist cardstock
DIES: Pedal Pusher dies
OTHER: Rustic Twine.
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On the second card, I kept it simpler- just stamping the bike, wheels, basket, leaves and hearts for the flowers, and not using the die cuts. Then I added a piece of washi tape to the top of the card with a small strip of Papertrey Ink ribbon.

Vintage bikes are so cute. Love them! There are so many sentiments in this set, wedding/thank you/ birthday/ congratulations/ teacher/ encouragement! The font is sweet also, I love it a lot.

Just Keep on Pedaling card supplies:
STAMPS: Pedal Pusher
INK: True Black, Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy, New Leaf inks
PAPER: Rustic White
DIES: none
OTHER: Hawaiian Shores ribbon, washi tape.
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Stop by the team blogs to see more ideas using the Pedal Pusher stamps! These stamps and dies will be available on May 15th at www.papertreyink.com.
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols
Jessica Witty
Maile Belles
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

Planetarium card kit reveal...

Hi there! Popping in to post the cards from Studio Calico's May card kit, Planetarium. :) I loved the patterns in the main card kit and really wanted to use that kit solely to show you some fun things you can do with it.

On the first card, I just angled the 6x6" papers and added some star embellies - all from the kit. The "love you to the moon and back" was already printed onto the gray and white striped paper.

Here I backed the big chipboard star with the darker patterned paper for contrast and to add a sentiment, since the paper was already printed with sayings! The doily was cut with Papertrey Ink's Doily Details die. 

On the third one, I wanted to use the "love you to pieces" sentiment. In the 6x6" paper pad now, there is an index paper in the front that shows you all of the patterns in the paper pad! So much fun! Well, I LOVED the stripe of this index paper and had to incorporate it into a card! I just cut 2 little strips of it and thought the "pieces" of paper went well with the saying. It was a great way to infuse lots of color.

Here I used the cute stamps in the kit to create a background filled with frames. I added some paper in some of the frames and then rubbed my Vintage Cream ink pad over the top to soften the whole look. The XOXO is stamped with a 2 step stamp from the kit. (I think this one is my favorite!) HERE'S another card that I made with the stamp set from my Studio Calico gallery.

The last one was made with the North Star Card Kit Add-On.

The patterns were really cute, so I just cut them very randomly and tore the edges for a shabby look. The ribbon was pleated in the center and turned into a flower. You can't see it very well in this picture, but I edged the left side with the eyelet ribbon as well.

Sign up today for these fun card kits from Studio Calico!

I am going to start working on my Papertrey Ink countdown projects today. The box is here and after taking a month off, I'm anxious to get started again! How I missed my Papertrey Ink stamps! We are in temp housing and moving into our new house in about 8 days, so I better get as much done as I can for this month before moving again. Take care, and stop back again soon!! Hope your day is going well! xo