A home decor project.

Finally, my internet is back up! It's been out all day today. It was actually a good thing to disconnect from the world and work on something else for a bit. My older daughter Taylor who is almost 13 wanted to change her room up a bit and have teal and dark purple in her room, so I made her a little pillow for her bed today to match her teal and purple comforter.

I used to quilt and had a bin of fabrics stashed away in my basement, so I dug through them today and found this pretty black and white check, that from a distance looks gray. I think the gray, yellow and lime green will make nice accents to the teal and purple! I started by sewing four white squares together in the front and adding the gray borders around the outside. (see top photo)
The second step was to add the white circle borders around the front. I needed something to dress up the plain white. I used the Simple Circles Border die by Papertrey Ink to cut these out! The border wasn't quite long enough to go all the way down each side, so I cut multiple borders and overlapped them, sewing as I went and just trimming them off when I got to the end of each side.

I finished decorating the front with some flowers made with Papertrey Ink felt and the Frilly Flowers die, along with the Turning a New Leaf die for the leaves. After cutting the flowers, I just stacked them up and put a quick hand-stitch through the center of each flower to hold them together! The felt is attached to the pillow with Elmer's Fabric Glue. It was so quick and simple.

After the top was finished, I made a back for the pillow and machine stitched them together. I inserted a plain white pillow (that can be taken in and out). I'll be honest, the flowers were the QUICK part, making the pillow cover took the longest! But...I saved probably $25 by not having to buy a cute decorative pillow like this for her room at a department store, and I had all of these supplies on hand!

Would you believe the yellow check is actually fabric that I made her nursery curtains with almost 13 years ago? It was very meaningful for me seeing it again, and putting it to good use!

I'm going to get a pretty body pillow for the back of the day bed, and I think we are going to paint the wall with her bed on it a gray color and hang some colorful lanterns or something fun to add pops of color with silver accents around the room. (Right now her walls are a light lavender and she wants to change that.)

What do you think? Is it "teen" enough so far? :)

Your thoughtfulness touches my heart..

I'm blogging again today - whooo - I'm on a roll! I decided to try and post something little each day. Don't hold me to it though! :) I wanted to work with the new Script Alpha dies from Papertrey Ink again. LOVE these! You can never have enough "thank you cards" handy.

I used some Lily Bee Designs papers from the Handmade collection and cut random patterns out. Gray cardstock makes a pretty background for all of the color.

These dies come on a magnetic sheet, which is handy for keeping them together (and not losing one of the letters!). I cut them apart with my scissors, so I could spell out fun words with them...

I've had some people ask... "how do you get them straight on your project"? I use a ruler to line them up. For adhesive, I use Tombo Mono wet glue, just a dab on each letter. You'll have a few seconds to move them around before they dry.

The ruler also helps me find the center of my card, and that is where I start with attaching the letters. I glued the "A" first and then worked my way out. Same with the next line, I glued the heart first in the center and then the "Y" and "U".

These are the little papers I used for the letters. When you are done, you'll have lots of cute leftovers to use the negatives on another project! I can just see these stitched together like a little quilt.

I used Hibiscus Burst ink and Harvest Gold ink on the hearts. The hearts and sentiment are from Heart-2-Heart #3 (same one I used in my post yesterday). Who knew a $5.00 stamp set could be so much fun?

Flowers made from hearts.

 

Today's card was made with the Front and Center die #1. I first made the pocket by die cutting the Front and Center with vellum, folded it in half, and embossed it with a woodgrain pattern.

Remember the Heart-2-Heart #3 stamps? I stamped them in a circle to form a flower with Harvest Gold ink and did the same with the small heart from the set with Hibuscus Burst ink.

Some new Smash tape that I picked up at Target finished the top of the pocket front nicely!
The flower is made with the Frilly Flower dies, pink flower is Maya Road and the little wooden spool is by Pink Paislee.

I added a little loop of ribbon to easily pull out the card from the pocket. Chipboard is My Mind's Eye "Follow Your Heart"..love this line. Well, enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by. xo

happy birthday to my niece, Rachel!

A quick card today made with the Framed Out #3 stamp set and die cut frame by Papertrey Ink. I added some felt and some new My Mind's Eye chipboard pieces from their "Follow Your Heart" line.

Kraft looks so pretty with these colors, don't you think?

A little bit of stitching was added to the Aqua Mist felt. The date stamp is something I just picked up at Target - it's the Smash Date Stamp by K&Co. The Framed Out #3 die cut frame was cut with Melon Berry felt.

The polka dot paper is Melon Berry... love me some polka dots.(You can buy it with just this pattern, or you can get the whole Melon Berry Pattern Pack here!)

You can use your leftover Papertrey Ink twine spools for little lollipop holders, as place holders at a party, or for a fun little gift. Spools are useful for so many things!!

Fun with techniques.

I have a couple of springy cards today made with Lily Bee's Double Dutch stamps and the Victoria Park stamps using a technique that I've been really enjoying lately - embossing and using mist/ink to paint over the images!

To make these, I first used a cute border stamp from the Double Dutch clear stamps and stamped it three times on each card with white ink on white cardstock, then embossed the images with white embossing powder. It looks fab JUST like this with white on white! But I wanted to add color, so you could see the technique better. To add color to the cards, I sprayed some Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels (Turquoise and Key Lime Pie) in a paint palette. I grabbed a paintbrush and brushed over the embossing with the mist! I love how this looks.

Then I stamped a floral border with the small flower image in the Victoria Park stamp set, and a sentiment in black over the top. Stamping layers really creates dimension without a lot of bulk. These would make adorable note cards for a gift set! Don't forget to stamp the envelopes too!

I often get asked on tips for bow tying, so here is how I make them...
I tie the bow, then pull the two ends to make the loops smaller, then I pull the bow tight again and trim off the excess from the tails. To get them to look fluffy like I have here, put a small glue dot in the center and pinch the loops together! This helps them stay nice and "poofy". Ribbon is by Papertrey Ink as well as the Spring Moss, Aqua Mist and True Black ink.

Live Laugh card set supplies:

STAMPS: Victoria Park Clear Stamps, Double Dutch Clear Stamps by Lily Bee Designs

INK: Spring Moss and Aqua Mist by Papertrey Ink

PAPER: white cardstock

DIES: corner rounder

OTHER:  embossing powder, Spring Moss and Hawaiian Shores ribbon by Papertrey Ink,  Key Lime Pie and Turquoise Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels, pearls.

Swing over to Lily Bee to see more fun springy cards by Julia Stainton and Patricia Roebuck!

Pink Paislee's hot products.

Today I have a blog post up at the Pink Paislee blog. We are focusing on some of our "Hot Products" from each line this week. My assignment was to highlight the SHE ART line today by Pink Paislee, specifically the Doily Mask and the Press Ons.

I used the Doily Mask with several mist colors and sprayed the mist over the mask onto white cardstock, then cut the doilies out to form this colorful card set with some "petal" card bases by Cut Cardstock! I used Papertrey Ink ribbon in Soft Stone around the cards. 

I wanted to package up the card set somehow, so I made a little pocket to tuck them into.

I cut a little saying, "Wonderful You", with the Silhouette Cameo machine and formed a pocket from the cardstock, and machine stitched the sides with a zig zag. I cut a little tag with Papertrey Ink's Limitless Layers 2 1/4" Oval Die Collection.

You could wrap up the entire thing with cellophane if you wanted!

Creating card sets are so easy and fun when you keep the same design, just make them in all different colors. Stop over to read more here at the Pink Paislee blog, see more how-to pictures, and find a supply list for this project.

Feel free to pin a project you see here on my blog anytime to Pinterest by simply clicking on the title of the post, and you'll see a pin button at the bottom of each post. Thanks for visiting! :)

Lily Bee Designs.

I have some fun news... I was asked to work with Lily Bee Designs recently! I love, love their papers. One thing that I really like about their papers are, of course the fun colors, and the smaller prints - perfect for cards!

I have a blog post up today on their blog on combining stamps with patterned papers. I'd love it if you would check it out!

A quick and simple card idea.

If you are a scrapbooker, you might have journaling cards left over from your layouts. I wanted to show you a quick idea for them! Here I have layered three journaling cards by Studio Calico on a very quick and easy card.

I simply layered them over the top of one another, added sticker letters to spell, "oh boy", punched two stars with my Fiskars punch and added two brads. Done! This would be a fun card for a baby boy card, a birthday card or even a congratulations.

If you are a card maker only, you might want to grab some of these journaling cards! There are so many fun ones out there.

Oh Boy card:

STAMPS: none

INK: none
PAPER: white cardstock
DIES: Fiskars star punch
OTHER: Autumn Press die cut tags and Autumn Press papers by Studio Calico, green and yellow die cut alpha stickers by Studio Calico, brads by Basic Grey.

April products at Papertrey Ink.

Today the Papertrey Ink team gets to share their projects made with each new April stamp set!  You can buy the new items on the 15th of each month at www.papertreyink.com.

Check out this super cute "notched flower" die! I also love the new Melon Berry Patterned Paper you see here, which is new this month (peach dot). I stamped the yellow hearts and thank you from the new Heart-2-Heart #3 stamp set. The red felt heart is cut with the Heart Border die. I added a bit of machine stitching over the felt leaves (which were cut by hand).

Thank You Notched Flower card:

STAMPS: Heart-2-Heart #3

INK: Harvest Gold, True Black

PAPER: Melon Berry Pattern Pack, Raspberry Fizz Pattern Pack, Harvest Gold cardstock

DIES: Notched Flowers die set

OTHER: Papertrey Ink felt, circle punch to notch corners.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I had a lot of fun on this card set! First, I stamped the Think Big Favorites #15 words in Fresh Snow ink and embossed them with white embossing powder. Next, I mixed up just a DROP of the ink from some of the stamp pad re-inkers with a drop or two of water on a plastic paint palette. I used Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold and Ocean Tides. I painted the ink/water mixture over the words with a paintbrush just like watercolor. Love how these turned out!

Think Big card set:

STAMPS: Think Big Favorites #15, Heart-2-Heart #3

INK: Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, Harvest Gold, Ocean Tides, Fresh Snow, True Black

PAPER: white and kraft cardstock

DIES: Heart-2-Heart #3

OTHER: white embossing powder.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

On the Sweet Baby card, I stitched on a vellum die cut frame into a moon shape with my sewing machine and used the Super Stars borders to sprinkle lots of fun stars over the top kind of like confetti. I added the borders under the vellum. I also turned the "Frilly Flowers" die into a heart by cutting into the center of the flower into a V shape. You can get 3 hearts out of one of these flowers!

Sweet Baby Dreams congratulations:

STAMPS: Baby Face

INK: True Black, Vintage Cream

PAPER: Canyon Clay, white, Aqua Mist, Spring Rain, Enchanted Evening cardstock

DIES: Limitless Layers 3.5 Oval, Super Stars Borders, Frilly Flower

OTHER: Harvest Gold felt, machine stitching (moon).

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This heart border die is really long, great for scrapbook pages! But here I only used half of it. This was done by inserting a metal shim in half way under the die, so it will only cut the first half of the long border. I used the heart border here as a little corner. Placing it at an angle adds whimsy and something a little bit more interesting than placing it straight! The new Background Basics: Postmarks is stamped on the bottom, and the sentiment and circles are from the Trendy Tree Tops.

I layered two Trendy Tree Tops die cuts on top of one another - offset them just a bit so the red shows through more and popped up the Lavender Moon one with pop dots! I punched a hole for hanging and used some floss to tie it on. This little circle moves around on the card and is just dangling there for a fun element.

Hello You:

STAMPS: Trendy Tree Tops, Background Basics: Postmarks

INK: True Black, Lavender Moon

PAPER: Pure Poppy and Harvest Gold cardstock, Aqua Mist Pattern Pack, Smokey Shadow Pattern Pack, gray - Lilybee Designs

DIES: Trendy Tree Tops, Heart Border die

OTHER: embroidery floss.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This card uses the new Trendy Tree Tops stamps and dies! I wanted to put the tree sideways like it was a limb and have the heart falling out as if it were a leaf. I thought of using the Happy Trails stamps for the swirls - they worked just great to make the heart leaf look like it's falling from the tree.

Trendy Tree Tops would be super cute for any season! You could make trees for fall, spring, etc. Many possibilities...

Thanks card:

STAMPS: Trendy Tree Tops, Happy Trails (swirl)

INK: Classic Kraft, True Black

PAPER: white, kraft, and Pure Poppy cardstock, grey - Little Yellow Bicycle, 

pink -Raspberry Fizz Pattern Pack

DIES: Trendy Tree Tops die set, Heart Border Die

OTHER: Fiskars circle punch.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I had to try out these sweet script alphabet dies! I immediately thought of a teacher card when I saw this alphabet, so I used one of Pink Paislee's "blackboard" stickers with the die cut alphas. The heart is from Heart-2-Heart #3 and the star is cut from the Super Stars Border.

Thank You, Teacher card:

STAMPS: Heart-2-Heart #3, Happy Trails
INK: Pure Poppy and True Black
PAPER: Aqua Mist Pattern Pack, Damask Designs, gray- LilyBee Designs
DIES: Heart-2-Heart #3, Script Alphabet, Super Stars Borders die
OTHER: Pure Poppy ribbon, Basic Grey brad.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This little birdie card uses the Framed Out #3 dies and stamps and the new Tweet Talk stamps. I cut one of the frames in felt and stitched on it. I love adding little frames with different kinds of bits and bobs in each frame, like buttons, stamped images, chipboard pieces, etc. Everything is in a similar color palette so it all works together nicely.

These kraft buttons are so cute!

Little Birdie Told Me card:

STAMPS: Tweet Talk, Framed Out #3
INK: Classic Kraft, Fine Linen, True Black
PAPER: white, kraft and Raspberry Fizz cardstock, red - It's Official patterned paper, pink - Victoria Park by Lilybee Designs
DIES: Tweet Talk, Love Lives Here, Framed Out #3
OTHER: My Mind's Eye chipboard, kraft button, PTI ribbon.

I hope you'll visit the rest of the team to see their creations for the month!

Ashley Cannon Newell

Betsy Veldman  

Dawn McVey  

Erin Lincoln  

Heather Nichols  

Jessica Witty  

Lisa Johnson  

Maile Belles

Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady