Introducing Button Stacks dies...

Today I get the pleasure of introducing a new die that will be released on Feb. 15th by Papertrey Ink called Button Stacks. There really is so much you can do with this die! Cut them from paper, felt, any sort of medium to create your own unique stacked embellishments!

I've made a couple of little button stacks with felt here and topped them with resin flowers from Papertrey Ink's Boutique shop. One is attached to a clothespin, which holds this tag onto a small cotton bag. The tag is cut with a new die coming out this month called Phrase Play #1. This die would be so cute in a pocket page for scrapbooking also or on a card! I cut the tag from Lavender Moon cardstock also and stamped it with Circle Scribbles.

I cut a few different colors of felt with the Button Stacks die and just played around with mixing and matching the color stacks. Look at all those cute shapes! The leaves you see above were cut with burlap and another new die called Leave It Be, also available on 2/15.

These dies cut Papertrey Ink's wool felt so nicely, and the felt comes in every color to match the inks and cardstock! I've tried other felt from the craft store, but it's not as dense as this felt, so it doesn't cut as clean as Papertrey Ink's felt.

You Tag and Cotton Bag:
(All supplies can be found at Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Phrase Play #1, Circle Scribbles

INK: Soft Stone

PAPER: Rustic Cream, Lavender Moon cardstock

DIES: Button Stacks, Phrase Play #1, Leave It Be

OTHER: Cotton Bag with Twill Drawstring, Dahlia Resin Flower Collection, 
Autumn Rose/Lavender Moon/Classic Kraft/Summer Sunrise felt, washi tape - unknown.

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On the next card, I used a new stamp set called Circle Scribbles in the background with a Button Stacks butterfly embellishment that I made.

I stamped and heat embossed the Circle Scribbles images with white embossing powder. Then I painted over the top with Lavender Moon, Aqua Mist and Harvest Gold ink refills. I dipped my brush in a little bit of water, then the ink color and painted it on.

To create the butterfly embellishment, first I used the Button Stacks die with Papertrey Ink felt, then added some twine antennae.

Next, I cut two of these felt flowers with the Button Stacks die.

I folded them in 1/2 and trimmed off one of the petals, leaving 4 petals instead of 5. I wanted to create dimension to the felt butterfly, I hot glued it in the crease to help the wings stay together like this. I did this to both flowers. (Each flower is folded in half and glued, creating one side of the butterfly.)

Place the two together in the center, and top with a smaller button from the Button Stack die on top. You have yourself a butterfly!

I added the stamped sentiment on vellum, heat embossed it with gold detail embossing powder. Last, added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. These colors would make a cute Easter card as well!

Happy Birthday card:
(All supplies can be found at Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Circle Scribbles, Keep It Simple: Birthday

INK: Versamark ink

PAPER: White, Lemon Tart

DIES: Button Stacks, Circle Scribbles

OTHER: White and gold detail embossing powder, twine, sequins by Pretty Pink Posh, Autumn Rose/Lavender Moon/Classic Kraft felt, reinkers in Harvest Gold, Aqua Mist and Lavender Moon.

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On the last one, I die cut my Button Stacks with white cardstock, then stamped designs on them! I used Bitty Background Blocks and Bitty Background Blocks II stamp sets to stamp on the buttons.

Aren't they fun? The paper ones are so cute all stamped and stacked. I love this concept!

I used the little leaf stems from a new stamp set called Sweet Speech to stamp around the button stacks, and for the sentiment, I used a new set called Birthday Classics: February coming out this month as well.

May Your February Be Filled card:
(All supplies can be found at Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Birthday Classics: February, Bitty Background Blocks, 
Bitty Background Blocks II, Sweet Speech

INK: Autumn Rose, Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf, Sweet Blush
Simply Chartreuse, Summer Sunrise, Raspberry Fizz, Pure Poppy

PAPER: Rustic White, Lavender Moon

DIES: Button Stacks, Heart Border die

OTHER: floss - craft supply, seam binding - Zipperstop.

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Visit Nichole Heady's blog to see more sneak peeks! All of these new products will be available on Feb. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink. Thanks for swinging by today!

Introducing Doodlie-Do...

(First of all, let me apologize for the construction on my blog - still working on creating a new look, so bear with me, not quite finished yet!) Today the Papertrey Ink girls are sharing projects made with a fun stamp set called Doodlie-Do. This brand new set will be available for purchase on Jan. 15th at 10pm EST at www.papertreyink.com.

What a pretty set, don't you think?

I used the flowers and leaf stamps on vellum, embossed with white embossing powder. The sentiment is from a new set called Words of Comfort. I like how the white on white is very soothing, perfect for a sympathy card. But also elegant, which would work great for a wedding or anniversary card as well!

After embossing the top portion of the vellum (left the bottom portion open for some white space), I cut a white cardstock base and dropped several Fresh Mint sequins by Pretty Pink Posh onto the paper. To get them to look more random, I simply dropped them on and adhered them where they landed! That's my little trick for sequins. Don't think about the placement too much, or it will drive you crazy. :)

Next, I layered the vellum paper over the sequin paper and machine-stitched them together at the top of the card.

Last, I adhered three little white sequins onto the front centers of the flowers.

May You Find Strength card:
STAMPS: Words of Comfort, Doodlie-Do
INK: Versamark
PAPER: white, vellum
DIES: none
OTHER: white embossing powder, sequins by PrettyPinkPosh.com, chipboard stars by Studio Calico.
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On my second card, I embossed onto colored cardstock and trimmed it out with my scissors. 

I did use some of the leftover vellum leaves from the first card. 

(I always practice my designs on another sheet of paper first, so I had some leaves leftover from the first project.)

Another sentiment from Words of Comfort was used on this card.

So Sorry card:
STAMPS: Words of Comfort, Doodlie-Do
INK: Versamark
PAPER: Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Melon Berry, vellum
DIES: none
OTHER: white embossing powder, sequins by PrettyPinkPosh.com, resin flower by Kaisercraft Blossoms.

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Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed this post! 

Visit the rest of the PTI team to see more with Doodlie-Do. You can find this stamp set HERE.

Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Cristina Kowalczyk
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Heather Nichols
Laura Bassen
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

make your own PL cards...

I've been thinking long and hard about my future in crafting, and I've got some big decisions to make, as far as where I'm headed. Now that we are almost all settled in and I'm full force ahead again, I feel like I want to do more with my work. I'm going to give it some serious thought over the next month. You may see changes coming! Anyway, yesterday I felt like making some PL cards. I know, I know...I don't dabble in PL yet, but I've been getting the itch to do so! I love scrapbook pages, I love cards, but sometimes you feel the need to try something new. Right? I do...most definitely. I enjoy working with smaller canvases, so it felt very natural to me.

So here are the handmade cards I created with Pink Paislee's new Hey Kid line! There's no reason we can't make our own little PL cards with our stash. On this one, I folded a piece of vellum and stitched the side and bottom to create a pocket, then filled it with some of the Hey Kid Ephemera and punched circles. You can add a photo, journaling etc in the pocket. (The top is open.) Isn't the texture great on these canvas stickers?

The "shoot for the stars" card is stamped with the new Sentiment Series stamps.  The third card was just trimmed from the 6x6" Hey Kid paper pad.

I added more canvas stickers over the top and to help it blend and coordinate with the other cards, I added a strip of patterned paper to the bottom. The stars saying is Super Stars by Papertrey Ink.

The circle card is my favorite I think! I trimmed it from the 12x12" die cut paper.
The vellum one came just like this (3" x4") in the Hey Kid Ephemera pack. I added more ticket ephemera over the top and some chipboard. Layers, layers, layers!

The last one is trimmed from the 6x6" paper pad and added an ephemera saying with some Luxe arrows. It's backed with vellum.

If you are into Project Life, visit the Pink Paislee blog all this week and next for more ideas. Have a good one!

you can achieve the watercolor look too....

Pink Paislee has a new line out hitting stores called Color Wash. No getting messy, all the work is done for you with the pretty watercolor designs...I love that! Today I am filling in on the blog for my dear friend Leslie (who just had emergency surgery). Sending her best wishes for a quick recovery!

We are working on cards all this week in honor of World Card Making Day this Saturday. So I dug into my Color Wash line - 6x6" paper pad, tags, stamps, vellum banners, etc. and made three different cards/tags for my post over at Pink Paislee.

I love how the "Wish" tag turned out above and used the Color Wash stamps on the top of the tag to add a bit of color. These tags already have the words cut out of them, so if you don't have a cutting machine, they are great to have on hand. The "negative cut out trend" is so hot right now! The 3 pieces are clipped together at the top with a Maggie Holmes gold clothespin.

Stop over to Pink Paislee to read more. I'll be back tomorrow with more card inspiration in honor of World Card Making Day. Both Pink Paislee and Studio Calico have some fun planned for this crafty day. :)

Studio Calico February designs...

Popping in to say hello and share my Studio Calico projects for this month! How are you? I miss blogging ... I haven't been the best blogger lately. Truth is: I haven't really been crafting! We are getting ready to put our house up for sale and move to another state for my husband's job (Colorado), so we've been busy finishing up little house projects and cleaning/purging. I am excited for the big move, but it's definitely scary to uproot. If you have any moving tips, please do share with me! :)

Anyway, the first five cards from the Studio Calico kits were made with the MAIN CARD KIT only! Here is the link to purchase the main card kit products that I used here today.

This one was made with the cute little 6x6" paper pad. Studio Calico always has beautiful papers and colors (and they are exclusive, not found anywhere else, one thing I love about these kits)! I angled some strips of papers and tucked in the little labels. I used the Hello stamp in the kit on the bigger label. I just love these enamel dots!!

This one shows the fun telephone dial stamp. I stamped it onto the vellum in the kit and embossed with white Zing. Then it's layered over one of the patterned papers. The frame is cut with Fabulous Frames die by Papertrey Ink.

I added a few of the colorful enamel dots to the dial for a fun look. The frame is popped up for a bit of dimension.

Here I am playing with my reinkers again. I stamped and embossed the Hello all over the white cardstock and then painted over the top with a bit of ink and water. Use more water on your paintbrush than ink. You can always add more color if it's not dark enough for you. If you go heavy on the ink and light on the water, you'll get very dark streaks. You want it to blend a bit...

I used Aqua Mist, Spring Moss and Harvest Gold die ink refills by Papertrey Ink to paint with. (Mainly I chose these colors because I thought they matched the rest of the card kit nicely!)

Here I wanted to use the fun "let's stay connected" stamp...

I tucked a little stamped label under the patterned paper.

On this one, I used Studio Calico's Opaque White Mist on the kraft cardstock first and let dry. I cut the papers from the Fabulous Frames dies again and stamped into the center.

The flower was made by punching about five pieces from the vellum in the kit. I used Martha Stewart's Double Craft Embroidery punch, then stacked all of the flowers up in the center and stitched them so they would stay together. I scrunched up the flower with my fingers to add dimension and pulled the little flowers apart a bit while scrunching each layer. A little enamel dot finishes out the center and adds color!

Last, I wanted to play around with the vellum again. I guess you could say I'm a little addicted to working with it these days! So many fun things you can do with it, and I like how the papers and embellishments can peek through. Here I stamped the vellum and then layered it over some of the journaling cards.

That's it for me today. Thank you for swinging by and saying hi!

Using journal cards to create pockets.

I have been totally in love with these Lily Bee Designs journaling cards since the day I received them and just can't stop using them on projects. I love the patterns and pretty designs on each one. They come in each line - Handmade, Victoria Park, Double Dutch and Buttercup - and I sure hope they continue making these in their new lines too.

On the cover, I used some various pieces from all the lines "Bag of Bits" and stitched them together to create a little hanging banner, which dresses up the front cover just a "bit"! (No pun intended- ha.)

To create the pages, I cut pieces of vellum for the pages 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" (single sheets, not folded) and then stitched the journaling cards onto the bottoms as pockets to hold photos of our recent trip to Maine.

You can tuck photos into the pockets or simply add the photo over the top of the journaling cards and journal next to the photo like I did on this page. I decorated the page with the Victoria Park Cardstock Sticker banners. Quick, easy, and adds a bit of color pop!

What is so fun about the journaling cards is that they mix and match so effortlessly when put together, even though they are from all of the different Lily Bee lines! I used one to make the pocket here and another one to tuck inside behind the photo.

I really love the numbered journaling cards from the Handmade line! Perfect for an age, a special date, a number of people in the photo, etc. So many uses for them.

Don't forget that pockets can be used to hold memorabilia also, tickets, stubs, letters, etc!

This album only took me about an hour to finish. (It actually took me longer to take all of these pictures and blog it!) My fastest one yet, but I hope to add many more pages to it! Would you believe that I took 750 photos in Maine. It's very hard to widdle it down to my favorites!! You can punch photos and add them in between the pages too, instead of making a pocket for every photo.

Vellum is so pretty for a mini album, because of the transparency - you can see all of the pretty colors from the other pages peeking through- enticing you to want to see more. Thanks so much for visiting. Stop over to the Lily Bee blog to see more ideas with Lily Bee products!

Smile Mini Album supplies:
STAMPS: Victoria Park Clear Stamps by Lily Bee Designs
INK: white paint
PAPER: Buttercup Bag of Bits, Double Dutch Bag of Bits, Victoria Park Index Journal Cards, Victoria Park Mixed Card Stickers, Victoria Park Bag of Bits by Lily Bee Designs
DIES: corner rounder
OTHER: Twinery twine, ring, vellum, white paint, machine stitching, white button, Papertrey Ink True Black ribbon, pearl.