City Scene revisited...

It's the first of the month (yay for May!), and that means we are bringing you some fresh inspiration with an older Papertrey Ink set.  Today we are working with the City Scene stamps!

I've used the Tag Sale #4 die, one of my very favorite tag shapes, an added some buildings from City Scene. I've mixed in City Scene Christmas Sentiments stamps also and the Christmas Cheer dies over the top!

On each of the tags, I've sprinkled on some Faux Snow!

These are so quick to make and would be a cute set to give away to someone, or to use on gift bags or boxes.

Visit Betsy, Dawn, Heather and Melissa to see more fun ideas with these sets! I can't wait to see what they've made! Thanks for swinging by today, have a happy and creative day!

Gossamer Blue: December kits...

How was your Thanksgiving? I had a very nice time with my family, my parents and grandma. It felt so good to take a break and just spend good quality time with loved ones! I just finished filming an online class with Craftsy this month, which will be available early January, so I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when that was finished. I'm excited to share more info about the class soon!

Popping in quick to share the amazing December kits that are now available at Gossamer Blue. You must swing by and see the loveliness in these kits! Gorgeous as always!!

Here is a "Hello" card created with the main kit! I loved the mix of papers and the pretty die cuts!

The gold in the die cuts is gorgeous, hard to photograph, but amazing in real life!

Then I've got some holiday tags made with the December "Life Pages Themed Add On" kit by Gossamer Blue, these were all made with the Pink Paislee Merry & Bright line and the cute little chipboard sayings in the kit!

Oh, I just adore how these turned out! This is a beautiful line, not much needed to be done to jazz the tags up. I simply used the preprinted tags and added Ephemera and such over the top, popping up the elements with pop dots for dimension and some twine from my stash.

These will be fun to use to dress up my gifts this year!

Thank you so much for reading and leaving me a note today (and every time you stop by)! My Thanksgiving company is still here but are leaving tomorrow, so I will be back with more projects soon. It was so nice to take a break, but I do miss creating and can't wait to get back into my groove. :) Have a sweet day, crafting friends!
Danielle

Holiday Tags...

We are in the midst of the Papertrey Ink countdown once again to give you a peek into the new products that are coming out on the 15th of this month! This new stamp set is called 2012 Holiday Tags. I chose to work with the "joy explosion" stamp!

To make a quick set of tags, I used the Doily Details dies as the tag bases. The tinsel is made by Melissa Frances, great for hanging the tags. (The doilies work awesome as tags, since they have little holes built in for hanging!)

On the pink/red tags, I first stamped with the new Framed Out #9 circle in Sweet Blush ink, then the JOY explosion stamp over the top with Pure Poppy ink, and a sentiment from 2012 Holiday Tags in True Black. Before it dried, I sprinkled clear embossing powder over all of it. It really brought out the beautiful color in the inks!

The second set of tags were made with the 2012 Holiday Tags stamps also using Limeade Ice ink and Hawaiian Shores ink. I stamped the wreath in Limeade Ice and then the JOY over the top with Hawaiian Shores and embossed them just like I did with the others with clear embossing powder.

You can stamp the to/from on the backs of the tags! (Or you could also hang them on a tree for ornaments, that would be adorable.)

Joy tags:
STAMPS: 2012 Holiday  Tags, Framed Out #9
INK: Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy, Limeade Ice, Hawaiian Shores, True Black
PAPER: white cardstock
DIES: Doily Details
OTHER: Tinsel by Melissa Frances.
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Here is a card made with the JOY explosion stamp also!

I used a sentiment from the new Beautiful Blessings: Holiday stamp set in black and trimmed 2 slices in my card with a craft knife for the ribbon to slide through. I used Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist and Hawaiian Shores inks.

Joy of the Lord card:
STAMPS: 2012 Holiday Tags, Beautiful Blessings: Holiday
INK: Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, True Black
PAPER: white cardstock, Candy Cane Prints
DIES: none
OTHER: crystal -unknown, ribbon - Morex, craft knife.
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Visit the other gals to see what stamp they used from this fun tag set!
Ashley Cannon Newell 

Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk

Dawn McVey

Erin Lincoln

Jessica Witty  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips

Nichole Heady

2011 Holiday Tags...

Today the Papertrey Ink girls are showing projects created with the new 2011 Holiday Tags and  the new Wonderful Words: Holiday stamps and dies, which will all be available on the 15th.

Since I've gotten older, the holidays are now more about gift giving for me instead of receiving, which is why I love to dress up my packages all pretty for the recipients! Here I've sewn 2 pieces of 6x6" paper together on 3 sides, inserted the gift, then stitched up the last side, and added some fun embellishments on top. The holiday wishes tag is from the new 2011 Holiday Tags set, and the "a gift 4 you" stamp is in the set as well!

Lots of layers here. I just starting mixing and matching to see what combination I liked!

Holiday Wishes gift wrap:

Stamps: 2011 Holiday Tags

Ink: Pure Poppy, True Black

Paper: Crate Paper -Portrait (black), October Afternoon (brown)

Dies/punches: Damask Snowflake dies

Other: pinking shears, Papertrey Ink felt and twine, Melissa Frances resin frame and pearl, Crate Paper sticker.

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Next, I wanted to play with the Holiday Wishes stamp in another way. It created a totally different look with the same stamp!

Step 1. First, I masked off the bottom portion of the stamp with a piece of cardstock and used the top portion of the Holiday Wishes stamp on my background patterned paper.

Step 2. The word "merry" was die cut with the Wonderful Words: Holiday dies.

Step 3. I punched 3 stars and decided where the sentiment will be stamped.

Here is the finished card...

Merry card:

Stamps: 2011 Holiday Tags, Wonderful Words: Holiday

Ink: True Black by PTI, Weather Vane by JBS

Paper: Memoir by Studio Calico (circle and purple), Crate Paper (creme)

Dies/punches: Wonderful Words: Holiday dies (merry), star punch

Other: Autumn Rose button by PTI

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Last I chose another image from the 2011 Holiday Tags set...the "for you" image... to work with. This image doesn't even have to be used for a holiday gift...could just be for someone as a thank you or birthday.

I was inspired by the leaves on the tag image and decided to stitch leaves just like the tag onto felt to make coasters, then wrapped them up with twine and added a tag for gift giving.

Here are the two coasters unwrapped. I die cut the shape with a new die called Mega Mat Stack 3. After stitching the leaves on these with white floss, the strings were showing on the back, so I cut another Mega Mat Stack 3 image and machine stitched them together to create each coaster!

For You Felt Coasters:

Stamps: 2011 Holiday Tags

Ink: Pure Poppy

Paper: Crate Paper - Portrait

Dies/punches: Mega Mat Stack 3 die

Other: floss, PTI felt and twine, pinking shears.

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I hope you'll visit the other Papertrey Ink girls to see what they have made with these stamps and dies as well:

Betsy Veldman  

Dawn McVey  

Erin Lincoln  

Heather Nichols  

Jessica Witty  

Lisa Johnson  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips
Michelle Wooderson
Nichole Heady

Love Lives Here for the Holidays...

Melissa Phillips is back at it again and she created the MOST adorable stamp set for the holidays at Papertrey Ink! From stockings to mittens to trees and angels, this set has everything you need for a homespun Christmas. The pine bough image is perfect for creating backgrounds or hanging ornaments from!

Speaking of homespun, I was inspired to make a little gift set including a  homemade picture frame made of wooden spools/twine/clothespins,  a set of gift tags and some cards with this stamp set and dies. :) I have LOTS to show you today.

First, I'll tell you a bit about the wooden spool picture frame in case you'd like to replicate this as a gift!

I started with a popsicle stick for the base of the frame (5 3/4" x 3/4" in size). I also gathered 41 wooden spools that are 1" x 3/4". On half of the wooden spools, I wrapped Papertrey Ink twine around them and hot glued the ends on the back of the spools. The spools are then hot glued onto the popsicle stick in a pattern - twine spool, plain spool, twine spool, plain spool, etc. I was able to fit 8 spools across the popsicle stick. Keep hot gluing the spools to each other until you reach 4 stacks high. On the 5th stack, I staggered the height of the spools, so my clothespins would be at different heights. This way, different sizes of photos would work in the clips. Makes it look a little more unique too! Continue hot gluing spools until you get the height of the frame you'd like. (My frame is about 7" high x 6" wide finished.)

Finish by hot gluing clothes pins to the frame for hanging photos -- or little stitched banners like I've made here!

Of course, you can brush some white paint over the spools for a shabby look if you wish.

Now, I'll show you some gift tags I made...

I used Spring Moss ink with the stamped boughs, then added a few boughs of a darker green over the top, Ripe Avocado ink, to add more depth. A loop of Melissa Frances tinsel is stitched to each tag for hanging on a gift.

Notice the different sayings and cute ornaments in the set....

On this tag, I've used the mittens...

This one's just slightly different in how I decorate the little mittens and I added a darker holly and berries to the tag...

 Love Lives Here Gift set:

Stamps: Love Lives Here: Holiday

Ink: Pure Poppy, Lavender Moon, Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado, brown by Ranger, pink by Jenni Bowlin

Paper: white and kraft cardstock

Dies: Love Lives Here: Holiday

Other: wooden spools 1" x 3/4", clothespins from craft supply, Melissa Frances tinsel, Papertrey Ink twine (brown), Twinery twine (red), snowflakes are by Target (Holiday Table Scatter).

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Another card here, I wanted to try a little mitten wreath... this would work with the stockings too, or stars. Pretty much any Christmas icon! To make this wreath, start by stamping 4 mittens in the lightest color first, then 4 mittens with the medium ink color and lastly the darkest ink color on top with 3 mittens. Finish with a few hearts, a wreath in the center (from Tag-its #8) and the sentiment in black.

Deck the Halls card:

Stamps: Love Lives Here: Holiday, Tag-its #8 (frame inside wreath)

Ink: Lavender Moon, Pure Poppy, Raspberry Fizz - all by PTI, Chewing Gum by Jenni Bowlin, brown by Ranger

Paper: kraft and white cardstock

Dies: Love Lives Here: Holiday

Other: none.

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And one more simple card on kraft... 

The white border sticker is a Basic Grey sticker, button is the new Autumn Rose buttons by Papertrey Ink and I misted the seam binding ribbon myself to get the color you see here.

Sending You Christmas Joy & Cheer card:

 Stamps: Love Lives Here Holiday by PTI, Stylish Sentiments: Holiday by PTI

Ink: Fresh Snow, Dark Chocolate, True Black by PTI

Paper: Kraft cardstock by PTI

Dies: Love Lives Here Holiday by PTI

Other: sticker - Basic Grey, button - NEW Autumn Rose buttons by PTI, seam binding, white snowflake - Target "Holiday Table Scatter".

Phew! That is one LONG blog post! If I forgot anything, or if you have any questions, please let me know. Now please visit the other Papertrey Ink gals for more inspiration using these stamps and dies (which will be available on the 15th of September):

Betsy Veldman  

Dawn McVey  

Erin Lincoln  

Heather Nichols  

Jessica Witty  

Lisa Johnson  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips
Michelle Wooderson
Nichole Heady