NEW Make It Market: Garden Gate kit!

The next Make It Market Kit by Papertrey Ink will be released on August 1st, and it is entitled "Garden Gate". There are so many beautiful basics that will speak to any flower or garden lover!  The colors in the kit are lush and pretty, just like a summer garden in full bloom. Garden Gate is filled with lots of options for creating stunning cards with some fun interactive possibilities. Old-fashioned flower favorites such as wisteria, hollyhocks, and bleeding hearts are included, and will surely make you feel nostalgic as you use them. Pair these up with the coordinating dies to layer them over a garden gate, lattice, or even a wrought iron garden sign. The papers are cleverly designed to allow for gatefold cards, or you can cut them up to use for other design purposes. 

This kit is sure to be legendary, and you won't want to miss out on the chance to add it to your collection!

GARDEN GATE KIT CONTENTS:

Garden Gate stamp collection (2 sheets w/ labels)

Garden Gate die

Garden Gate Details die collection
Garden Gate: Accessories die collection
Garden Gate paper collection, (16) 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" sheets
Garden Gate Brass Gate Latch
Garden Gate Stencil collection (set of 3, 6" x 6")

Total Retail Cost: $96

There will be a limited number of these exclusive kits available, so be sure to get yours on Monday! The "Garden Gate" Kit will be available for sale beginning on August 1st at 10pm ET, only at Papertrey Ink. Read all the details on Nichole's blog or contact Customer Service with any questions.

Now let's get onto the projects! I have 3 cards to share with you. 

The first one is made with the pre-printed papers. I used the dies to trim out the frame and flowers/leaves, then backed it with a pre-printed paper! Super easy! I love how the frame adds the pretty embossed stitches too. (The ribbon is not in the kit.)

The second card utilizes one of the three stencils that you receive in the kit! I stenciled over it with Bright Buttercup ink first, then added a bit darker orange near the top of the stencil with Summer Sunrise ink to give it an ombre look - just like the pre-printed paper I used on the first card!

The next thing I did was use the dies in the kit to cut out the lattice behind the sentiment. I die cut and stamped the flowers and vines. 

The sentiment frame was cut from white cardstock, then I stamped the frame on it with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Next, I used Lovely Lady ink to stencil some pink ink over the white embossing. Last, I added a sentiment in Raspberry Fizz ink in the center. I used a tiny bit of Raspberry Fizz ink to add a darker look to the frame on the top and bottom with the stencil brush to make the white pop a little more.

My last card might be my favorite from the bunch. I just love red and pink. ;) This card is made with just the stamp set and the flower/leaf dies from the Garden Gate kit. I stamped the big swirl on the top and bottom in gray onto white cardstock, then filled it in with flowers and leaves.

Last, I added 3 die cut/stamped flowers and leaves over the top... popped up for dimension...with Raspberry Fizz, Pure Poppy and New Leaf ink. The top 3 leaves that are popped up are stamped with Ripe Avocado ink. I added a sentiment from the stamp set and a red border die cut with the Filigree Border Die (not in kit). The card is backed with Stormy Sea cardstock.

We hope you love the kit and will look for it on August 1st! Visit Betsy, Amy, Heather, Kay and Melissa for more ideas. Enjoy your day!

Make It Monday video tutorial: shading with Copics...

Recently, I purchased a few more Copic Markers to add to my stash and have been having fun with using them in different ways! Today is my day for a Make It Monday video over at Papertrey Ink, so I've made this card with shadowing under the die cut. I'd love if you would stop over to watch the video at Nichole's blog, give it a try, and let me know what you think of this technique!

I've used a Pure Poppy die cut, trimmed from the Framed Friends die by Papertrey Ink, then a light pink R20 Copic marker for the shading under the word. In the video, I will show you other samples of cards I've made recently with the same technique. Word dies work excellent for this, but you can shadow under other die cuts as well!

I've used Tulip Time and Wonderful Words: Friends stamps also.

Swing by Nichole's blog to watch the full Make It Monday video on how to recreate this card! Have a fabulous day, and don't forget to play along in the shadowing challenge for your chance to win a Papertrey Ink gift card!

So Glad We're Friends:

(All Supplies by Papertrey Ink Unless Otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Wonderful Words: Friends, Tulip Time

INK: Melon Berry, Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy, Bright Buttercup, Spring Moss, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado

DIES: Framed Friends, Tulip Time

PAPER: Stamper Select White, Pure Poppy cardstock

OTHER: sequins by Pretty Pink Posh.

Introducing Floral Sketches & Calligraphy Classics...

Today we are previewing two new stamp sets by Papertrey Ink, Floral Sketches and Calligraphy Classics! These will be available for purchase on 5/15 at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink. On my first set of tags, the color scheme was inspired by this pin.

The Floral Sketches stamp set was used for the flowers, and the sentiments are from Calligraphy Classics. I love, love the big font - great for a beautiful focal point for tags and cards! See the branches? Those are actually veins for the larger leaf in the floral set. They reminded me of the branches from the inspiration piece.

The tags are cut out with the Tag Sale: Quilted die.

About the stamping: the flowers are dipped in Lovely Lady ink, then the edges dipped in Pure Poppy, then I stamped the second step of the flower (outline) in Scarlet Jewel. The tiny flowers are stamped in Fine Linen and Classic Kraft (outline) inks. The leaves are Enchanted Evening with white embossed veins and the branches are stamped in Stormy Sea.

Calligraphy Tags:
STAMPS: Floral Sketches, Calligraphy Classics
INK: Lovely Lady, Pure Poppy, Scarlet Jewel, Enchanted Evening, Aqua Mist, Fine Linen, Stormy Sea, Classic Kraft
PAPER: white
DIES: Tag Sale: Quilted
OTHER: twine, sequins.
______

The next card and tag use just the Floral Sketches stamp set. The gingham paper is from the Chicken Scratch Gingham paper pack. Sentiment is from Floral Sketches also! There are many pretty sentiments in this set!

Just a Little Note For You card and tag:
STAMPS: Floral Sketches
INK: Lovely Lady, Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist, Enchanted Evening, Summer Sunrise, Stormy Sea, True Black
PAPER: white, Chicken Scratch Gingham
DIES: Tag Sale: Quilted
OTHER: corner rounder, twine.
______

These new products will be available for purchase on May 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink! Stop by each of the design team blogs to see more projects with these sets!

Amy Sheffer
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Kay Miller
Laurie Willison
Lizzie Jones
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals...

Welcome to day 8 of Papertrey Ink's anniversary festivities! Today we have a new mini kit to show you that will be released on Feb. 15th at 10pm EST called Color Pop Florals by Betsy Veldman. It's gorgeous!

On the first card, I used the background paper from the mini kit (gray linen). The pre-printed papers have white spaces where you place the flowers, so if you need a tiny bit of help figuring out where to place everything, it gives you a design to go by!

You have four different options with these pre-printed papers:
1. You can stamp the flowers directly onto the paper,
2. You can die cut your own flowers and leaves to add over the top with the stamps and dies in the kit,
3. You can die cut the preprinted flowers from the papers in the mini kit, or
4. You can use the stencils in the mini kit over the blank flowers!

On this card, I chose to die cut the preprinted flowers and adhere them to my card over the white spaces -the design has already been done for me, the hard part is just choosing the colors to use for the flowers! The larger flowers are popped up with dimensional adhesive. The "Celebrate Today" is also die cut from the dies in the mini kit.

Gray Celebrate Today card: 

STAMPS: none

INK: none

PAPER: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

DIES: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

OTHER: sequins - Pretty Pink Posh.

-------

The second card also uses the preprinted papers, but this time I stamped the flowers and leaves directly onto the paper with the Color Pop Florals stamps. I used Sweet Blush and Raspberry Fizz inks for the flowers and for the leaves, Stormy Sea and True Black.

The "Celebrate Today" is die cut from Aqua Mist cardstock with the dies in the mini kit. Which card do you prefer? They were both so quick and easy. Love that!

Celebrate Today card:
STAMPS: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

INK: Sweet Blush, Raspberry Fizz, Stormy Sea, True Black

PAPER: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

DIES: Make It Market Mini Kit: Color Pop Florals

OTHER: sequins - Pretty Pink Posh.

-------

Visit the rest of the team to see more with this mini kit! These products will be available on Feb. 15th at 10pm EST at Papertrey Ink!

Amy Sheffer
Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Kay Miller
Laurie Willison
Lizzie Jones
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

On trend: sequins...

Sequins are HOT right now! They can add so much to a card!

Have you been looking for new ways to use sequins, or aren't sure what to do with all those sequins you have? I've written a blog post for Gossamer Blue today that explains why I love sequins, what they do for your design and different ways you can use them! Follow the link above for the story on sequins!

On this card, I've used the On Trend: Sequins from My Mind's Eye from the Gossamer Blue Bits & Pieces kit from March. They come in cute colors and shapes (triangles!), so I made little flowers out of them to add over this gorgeous floral Life Pages card.

Here are a couple of other cards made with sequins lately, in case you missed them, a sequin banner and gold foil heart with random sequins.

Swing over to the Gossamer Blue blog for a list of ways sequins add to your design and how you can use them creatively in your next design----> On Trend: Sequins!

new Make It Monday video tutorial...

Today it is my turn for a Make It Monday video tutorial at Papertrey Ink! One of the lessons I taught in my online Craftsy class is using patterned papers on cards: arranging them, how to choose certain papers, etc., so I thought it would be fun to give you a little sneak peek into that. In today's video, I'll show you my inspiration photo and how I will pull five colors from the photo to use in my paper designs, and then I'll show you how to make your own set of patterned papers that all coordinate with these colors and how to scale them appropriately. And finally, I'll show you a few ways to use those papers you just created and how to arrange them on a card!

When creating a set of stamped patterned papers or using pre-made papers on a card, you'll need to make sure you create at least one that is a large scale pattern, at least one medium scale pattern, and at least one small scale pattern. You can create/use more than that on your card, of course, but as long as you have one of each on your card, it will be very pleasing to the eye as far as the scale goes!

Here, the die cut flowers from Cutting Garden create the large scale on the card, the dots and stitches are medium scale (made with Polkadot Basics III and Chicken Scratch), and the plaid is more of a small scale (stamped with the line stamp in Note Niblets).

One more thing to think about is to create a stamped patterned paper that has ALL of the colors in it from your inspiration piece. Then when creating other papers to coordinate with this main paper, you'll pull colors from that main paper to use for the supporting papers.

There are really an unlimited number of ways you can use patterns on a card! You can place them horizontally, vertically, or horizontal AND vertical like I did on the "Thanks for all you do" card. Or you can use punches and dies to cut shapes out of them. If you'd like to play along, pop over to Nichole's blog to enter a card to win a $25 Papertrey Ink gift certificate! I can't wait to see what beautiful patterns you'll make!

Supplies:

(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)

STAMPS: Chicken Scratch, Background Basics: Super Gingham, Cutting Garden, 
Note Niblets, Polkadot Basics III, Mat Stack 2, Mat Stack 4

INK: Sweet Blush, Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise, 
Orange Zest, New Leaf, True Black; Soft Granite by Hero Arts

PAPER: White cardstock

DIES: Cutting Garden

OTHER: sequins by Pretty Pink Posh, twine by The Twinery.

Introducing Cuppa Love...

Welcome back to another group post by Papertrey Ink! Today we are previewing a new stamp set and die called Cuppa Love! You are SURE to love these pretty patterns you'll see today. I know I do, can't wait to play with them more to create backgrounds and such.

The first card is unique in that I cut out the front of the card in the shape of the cup with the Cuppa Love die, and at the same time, embossed the back of the card. To do this, I folded the card in half and placed the die on top, just ABOVE the fold, so it won't cut on top of the fold.

What happens is it will cut the top piece out (the card front), but just emboss the bottom piece of cardstock (the back of your card). Sort of happened as a happy accident! Used the Cuppa Love stamps and dies to adorn the front of the card. Kept it simple, because when I looked up Fire King mugs, most of them were white with colorful flowers on the front center.

Here is the inside, stamped with Keep It Simple: Get Well.

The second card is simply embossed on the front with the cup die. To do this, I add a scrap piece of cardstock over my folded card and then run it through. It will cut the top cardstock out (scrap), but not the second piece underneath (your card front)! I made a pocket with the Cuppa Love die and stamped some of the florals on it from the set.

This is the stamping I did before assembling the second card. I decided to do the pocket after playing around with the stamps, so some of it was covered up. Cute just like that, isn't it? But you know me, I have to add, add, add...

Added the pocket and the little tag. I just adore this little card set, so cute!

Take Care/Feel Better Soon cards:
(All supplies by Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.)
STAMPS: Cuppa Love
INK: Tropical Teal, Pure Poppy, Simply Chartreuse, Sweet Blush inks
PAPER: white, Aqua Mist cardstock; Aqua Mist Pattern Pack
DIES: Cuppa Love

OTHER: twine.

______

The other gals have more to show you with Cuppa Love, don't miss it!

Ashley Cannon Newell
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Erin Lincoln
Laura Bassen
Lauri Willison
Maile Belles
Melissa Phillips
Nichole Heady

burlap and bouquets...

Just a couple of cards for fun today made with Fancy Pants' new Burlap and Bouquets line...isn't it lovely? I just layered some of the Large Decorative Tags in the background, some of the Brag Cards on top of that, and then a few of the Ephemera pieces (florals).

On the Thanks card, I stamped the sentiment with Papertrey Ink's Thank You Kindly stamp set and added some gold twine. The "And" is from the Button Set. It's chipboard, and I love the dimension it gives!

I'm loving the color black lately. Not sure why, but I think it may be the contrast it lends with the other colors, just makes everything pop!

Well, I'm very glad you stopped by and hope you are having a great weekend! I'm getting my house all spiffy for my friend Claudia to come over and visit tomorrow. Can't wait to see her again. What are you currently working on? I'll be back soon with some Gossamer Blue cards, the next Make It Market kit called Tinsel & Tags, and another Monthly Moments project, so lots coming!

Spring Fling ...

Papertrey Ink will be releasing its new products for February on the 15th at 10 pm EST. Here are a few more fun things coming out this month...today it's all about SPRING! See Nichole's blog for the Scavenger Hunt information if you want to play along!

This card was made with the new Garden Grace stamps and dies. I first die cut the big floral piece, then stamped the leaves, which is all one stamp. I used Harvest Gold and Sweet Blush ink for the flowers, Aqua Mist ink on the leaves, and Fine Linen around the edges of the flowers. To create the flowers all different colors, I stamped them individually onto the die cut.

The new Cover Plate: Stripes Horizontal die was cut from white cardstock, and I wrapped the seam binding around it before attaching it to the white card base. To adhere the the cover plate, I used 1/8" Scrappy Tape, which is just like Scor-Tape. Worked like a charm to hold all of the strips down!

Every card looks naked without sequins now to me...I've got a problem. :) Sentiment is stamped on vellum with the Garden Grace stamp set. Vellum, another addiction of mine!

Happy Mother's Day card:

STAMPS: Garden Grace

INK: True Black, Harvest Gold, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Fine Linen

PAPER: White, Sweet Blush Pattern Pack

DIES: Bunny Bag die (heart), Garden Grace, Cover Plate: Stripes Horizontal

OTHER:  sequins by Pretty Pink Posh, vellum, clothespin by Pebbles, seam binding by Zipperstop.

______

Next is the Bunny Bag die, which makes a cute little favor/gift bag!

The bunny bag when put together is roughly 4" high (with the ears about 6 1/2" high) and about 2 1/2" wide. I cut this one from Sweet Blush Patterned Paper and added Classic Kraft felt for the nose and inner ears and twine for the whiskers. (Holes are already cut for you when you cut the bag! All you have to do is slide in 3 pieces of twine, wire or pipe cleaners for the whiskers!) There are also dies included to stitch the ears and nose if you'd like to add stitching. I bent one of her ears over for a floppy ear.

You can position the arms, so that the bunny can hold something. I randomly stamped some flowers with the new Garden Grace stamp set, trimmed around them and tucked them under the bunny's arms. Then I made a little sign to hang over her arm. To hang it, I made a loop with twine and taped it onto the back of the sign with washi tape. Sentiment is from the new Hippity Hoppity stamp set.

Some Bunny Loves You gift bag:
STAMPS: Hippity Hoppity, Garden Grace
INK: True Black, Harvest Gold, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Fine Linen
PAPER: Sweet Blush Pattern Pack
DIES: Bunny Bag die
OTHER:  twine and Classic Kraft felt by Papertrey Ink, pearls by Melissa Frances.
______

Visit the rest of the PTI team to see more with these fun spring products, available on 2/15 at Papertrey Ink.

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