Release day...

Tonight is the night when all of the new releases (stamps, dies and such) are available for purchase at www.papertreyink.com! I have a few new sets to share with you.

Here I've used the new Dress Up Dolls: Winter Fun (snowflakes, snowman, mittens, scarf and snowballs) and the new Fill in the Blank stamp set (thank you background).

The background stitching die is cut with Noted: Scalloped A2 Vertical dies. "Warm Winter Wishes" was stamped with an older set, Two Feet Deep. I thought the saying would be cute with the snowman.

Warm Winter Wishes card:

STAMPS: Dress Up Dolls: Winter Fun, Fill In the Blank, Two Feet Deep

INK: Enchanted Evening, Hawaiian Shores, 

PAPER: Hawaiian Shores, white

DIES: Noted A2 Vertical 

OTHER: twine, dimensional adhesive.

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Next is the new What the Doodle: Piece of Cake and Keep It Simple: Birthday III stamps!

I've tucked the little cake inside the Window Cut Tag die.

Happy Birthday card:

STAMPS: What the Doodle: Piece of Cake, Keep It Simple: Birthday III

INK: Pure Poppy, Versamark

PAPER: Lavender Moon, New Leaf pattern pack

DIES: What the Doodle: Piece of Cake, Basic Cut Tag, Window Cut Tag

OTHER: white embossing powder, Copic markers.

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Also, I have some news to share with you all...

With great sadness, and after 6 years with Papertrey Ink, 10 full years of blogging and 1295 posts, I've decided to step down from crafting and all of my design teams. 

As some of you might know, I went through a horrible, unexpected divorce last year. It was the roughest year of my life. Since then, I've hung on to crafting, as it was one of the things I enjoyed the most, and although it was very difficult to craft many days when I had to come up with my monthly projects...it did get me through some very hard times.

Since then, I've been picking up the pieces one day at a time. I bought my home and refinanced it in my name. I paid off my car. I met a wonderful guy who showed me that I'm worthy of being loved as I am. An unexpected opportunity came to me a couple of months ago, working with breast cancer patients. This past weekend, they asked me to become full time, working with these patients, scheduling their surgeries and following them for months as they go through their mastectomies and reconstructions. I love my patients! I feel as though my situation, having changed, is driving me with this desire to help others get through their difficult times! I hope to still have time here and there to make things when the inspiration strikes me, and will continue to post my projects when I'm able. I don't want to give up crafting all together. I hope you will continue to stop by now and then to say hello. I will miss my Papertrey Ink family tremendously! Papertrey Ink has been my life the past 6 years!

Paper crafters are the most kind and amazing people, and I'm so thankful for the friendships I've made over the past 10 years through this hobby.

Visit the amazing design team to see more projects with the November release! Love this group of girls!!

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

Creative Cardmaker: holiday cards...

Are you getting a jump start on your holiday cards yet? I went to the Scrapbook Expo last Friday with my friends Claudia and Laura and picked up the super cute Claus & Co. line by Simple Stories. I couldn't wait to make some fun cards with it.

So today on the Scrapbook Expo blog, I have a tutorial up to show you how to make FIVE holiday cards! CLICK HERE for the tutorial link. I'm also going to be putting these five cards up for sale in a little card set soon. Be looking for these and more on the "shop" tab at the top of my blog.

Supplies: Simple Stories – Claus & Co. 31 Chipboard Stickers, Chipboard Frames, Wood Veneer, Washi Paper Tape, Interactive Elements. Other: Super Star Borders die by Papertrey Ink, Wet Paint Holiday stamps and dies by Papertrey Ink, twine by the Twinery, clear 6 MM sequins by Pretty Pink Posh and gray cardstock from the craft store. 

Thanks for swinging by! The next Papertrey Ink countdown will begin soon, and we have LOTS to show you, so stay tuned!

Made of Snow Mini...

You can't help but smile when you see a snowman, right? There's something so fun and enchanting about them that brings you back to childhood. I have a few projects to share with you made with a new stamp set and dies by Papertrey Ink called Made of Snow Mini, which will be available on the 15th.

Bear with me, I have a lot of ideas to show you! :)

The first thing I tried with the set is stamping a little background. I wanted to try out all of the different scarves, hats, mittens, faces and button choices! So many fun options...

I used Aqua Mist ink for the snowmen, and I placed all 3 of the snowmen on my stamping block, then created a pattern with them. I kept the 3 snowmen on the block, and stamped the image again below the first image. Then I filled in the corners of the background with one of the snowmen.

After stamping all the snowmen, I had fun filling in the hats, faces, etc. with Spring Moss ink, Aqua Mist ink and Pure Poppy ink!

You can see I also wrapped a little tag around the front of the card with felt and stitched it on. (The heart is die cut with a new border die by PTI coming out this month! I just trimmed one of the hearts out of the border!)

Here's a peek at the inside. I thought these would be fun as thank you cards after the holidays! The "Thanks so Much" is from an older set called Think Big Favorites #1.

Now, after having fun with the stamps, I wanted to try out the cute dies that go with these!

I imagined 2 cute friends holding hands...

"Hello, friend!" is a sentiment that is coming out this month from another set (and the tiny stamped hearts)! I die cut them, their scarves and hats, and then filled in any empty spaces with chalk, like the hats. I had to add some pink cheeks as well. A little die cut tab was stitched to the side.

After I die cut the snowmen out of white cardstock, I had this negative piece leftover and thought I could put it to good use, hence the next card!

Here you are seeing a peek at the new heart border die again. :) I used it with red felt. I backed the snowmen with an older October Afternoon Detours paper from my stash.

Last, I wanted to show you how fun these little guys can be on a layout! We had a dusting of snow the other day and I had to take pictures of our view from the front of our house! It was so pretty, just enough to cover the ground for Christmas.

I used a large Papertrey Ink calendar page as the base of my layout. The little stamped bubbles/circles are from the 2008 Holiday Tags collection.

The stickers and snow day chipboard are by Pink Paislee, and the number 8 and houndstooth paper are by a new company I recently discovered called Pretty Little Studio! "Happy" is from the Birthday By the Numbers set.

I hope you enjoyed the projects!

Please also visit Nicole, Betsy, Beth, Heather, Melissa B.,  Lisa, and Dawn for more peeks at some other new things this month at PTI!