Poppy Paperie

Thinking Outside the Tin challenge

Quiet Time + Ella (5) + Magnetic flowers and Faeries = Happy Mom! Heehee! Yes... I know... I AM a silly girl!  But when Nichole's challenge to the Papertrey Ink Senior Design Team came, to think out side of the "tin" with Papertrey Ink's Nugget tins...this project popped straight into my head.

Magnetic Flower & Fairy Dress up kit.

The flower can also be used as her dress up clothes!

I knew I needed simple. Honestly... this project is going to be played with to the end of time. I knew if I decorated the outside with anything removable... she would peel it off. Let's face it... ALL of my crayons are peeled... trust me, I know what I'm talkin' about. LOL! My answer to make it still cute was to simply personalize it with her name in white ink with Stickles Glitter. Trajan Monogram Edition is the perfect alphabet for her right now since there are no curves. (they learn Ball & Stick in Kindergarten here so we concentrate on straight lines in teaching her letter skills) I used a crop-a-dile to attach the ribbon handle. Honestly, cant you see a sweet 5 year old girl walking into church carrying this!

I played off this Fairy card, using The Garden of Life , Father Knows Best, Faux Ribbon and Pond Life sets as well as my Pebbles Inc. Shimmer chalks again, to create a shimmer to the ensemble. The magnetic sheet was recycled from an old magnetic calender from the middle school from last year. Very cost effective and "green". I used the small hinged tin to hold all of the magnetic pieces while in transit. This also will help during her play time. See how the lid drops down and creates a tray for lap play! She is SO excited to play with it... but she will only get to at church or other special times... this will help it keep it's magic in her heart! A few years ago I crafted a felt doll kit and she still loves playing with it... these are playthings that will revisit her memory when she is a Mother.

Tips and Variations-

• Stamp your image and slightly trim BEFORE adhering it to the magnetic sheet. Then cut the details. This give you more maneuverability with your scissors.
• Seal the chalked images with a fixative if you are concerned with maintaining the chalk. (I skipped this step)
• Create an Animal set with Pond Life for the little man or tomboy in your life!

Make sure to check out the other Senior DT member's blogs... they really out did themselves!

• Heather- Great minds thought alike as she created an elegant magnetic poetry set. *so peaceful*
• Amy- Tie Tin
• Taylor- Wedding Favor
• Debbie- Yummy Card Candy Tin
• Nichole

Laptop Lament

My Laptop is at the Note Book Hospital and I'm having a struggle keeping up with all I usually do on a PC! Trying to share a desktop with my DH is really hard... for one because it's stationary... believe it or not I roam a TON with my laptop... watching Little Mermaid with Ella on the couch wile I write a blog post or Write up a supply list for a publication while I'm waiting for Ballet lessons to finish. I've really intertwined my professional life with my personal life in how I multi task...and stationary just isn't a part of it. Chris (DH) also really likes his own space with HIS desktop. Hey... who can blame him huh! I've taken over the house with glitter, stamps... ink... can't the man just have ONE place to call his own? He is being very understanding... but it's been a bit of a dance! Anyhow.... this too will pass.....on with the post!

This past week has had many turn of events. Some great... some not so great. I've been doing a bit of professional house keeping... writing up supply lists, cleaning up accepted cards to be sent in to publications and working on some packaging for my stamps *eek*! This past week was also filled with service... to my family as well as some church members here. I went over to a new VERY young mommy's home and helped show her how to wash her little mans hair in the sink. He was just a week old and the cord wasn't quite gone. that sweet new baby smell was contagious... those mommy instincts just fly when I get a whiff of that sweet smell. I also woke up early a few days and filled in for early morning Seminary for our church. *groggy*. Alex (15) is in the class so I was able to get constructive criticism...sort of. LOL! For those of you who read/study the Bible... Isaiah 53 is amazing. really short chapter too... read it!

Oh, OH! I received a FANTASTIC surprise yesterday... but will wait to tell you about it at a later date so as to not spoil any surprises for YOU! (Although I did spend several hours stamping after I opened the box and squealed!) 

Finally... Cardmaker Magazine has revamped their website a bit and Tanya Fox (Editor) has linked over to my blog feed. How fun... and there are some other crafters on there too that you may know or may be new. ALSO ... there is a web download for a sketch section that they have in the magazine with one of my cards.... Check it out... maybe you will find something that inspires you!

Well... off to work on my Newsletter project for Papertrey Ink. Glad you stopped by... see you soon!

Lisa

Dream Big

I'm not sure if I shared this card before.... but I thought I would risk sharing it again even if I had....because Graduation is quickly approaching and you just might need a card idea! :D

This is a tall card that measures 4x8 and fits into a standard business size envelope. I wanted to play off the swirls in the pattern paper (by 7G) as if it was party streamers and confetti. The transparency window adds just a tad of sophistication (to me at least).  Hampton Art has a great clear set just for graduation! I also used Marvy's punches to spotlight and frame up certain areas of the card. Here is a perfect example of being able to use a scalloped punch in a gender neutral card...even thought this card was intended for and published in You Go Girl!

So today I'm frantically working to get a project out the door for Hampton Art. The cool thing about this particular project is that YOU will get a chance to create it at your local Joann's store sometime in Aug. I won't have the exact date... but check their stores in the beginning of Aug. to see when they might be hosting some Make and Takes. :)

Thanks for stopping by... I hope your week is going well!

Lisa

Simple Little Things

Today I get to share my samples of PapertreyInk’s 2007 Anniversary stamp set. This set is not available for purchase but is a gift given by PTI to those who participated in the Come Grow With Us program. Click Here to read all about it.

I created 3 different cards for the Simple Little Things gallery that I wanted to share here today.

The first thing I wanted to do was pull out my Kraft paper. A few of the images have a natural feel to them and really wanted to play with some Copics I had. (Need to hone up on my coloring skills)

This card in a mini card... about 2x3inches. It's a perfect size to sneak into a gift bag or with some flowers. I used 2 different green copics and a brown and Grey one.

The next thing that came to my mind was to use this fun flower like image to create a border. I trimmed around the one edge and repeated the element under the sentiment to tie it all together. I stamped Polka dots onto the twill to add a little extra fun!

For some reason I felt like creating something quilt like and bright.I have a friend that LOVES bright colors and I know she would love this card. I'm not one that likes Kelly green... but it seemed to work with this card.

I hope you will take the time to visit the Simple Little Things Gallery to see the other DT members progects... they did an awesome job!

Thanks for poppin' in today...hope you have a happy monday!

Lisa

Some Fun Links

Some fun links and projects...

You may have seen this before... but here is the full project on Hampton's website.

Amy's Papertrey Tutorial is SO smart! I have yet to  purchase a cuttlebug and it's got my really wanting one now!

Here is a fun SU! card that I made for Crafts 'n Things... just found it on the web!

Have you ever heard of Scrapbooking.com Magazine? Check it out... some fun stuff for FREE over there!

Hope these links lead you to something fun today!

thanks for popping by,

Lisa

Dino-mite day!

Kim over at MFT stamps emailed me and let me know of a special fundraiser that they are doing to help a friend in need... please see this blog post over at MFT for the details.

I love Kim... she is sweet, kind and genuine. I was able to meet her via email then IRL at CHA in Feb. I LOVE their stamps... fun and thoughtful in my opinion...and a blast to color in! So I thought I would share something today that uses some MFT stamps!

Here is a card that I created using their Dino-mite set. I really like this dino.. isn't he a doll! so cheery and smiling. I can't remember the colors of the copic markers I used when I created it...it's been a little while...but I really liked the green on him...more bright and cheery!

I have a few MFT publications coming out soon too... One card that I love in particular is coming out soon in Cardmaker and uses the cake from this set... so fun to color in. :) It's a really clean lined card with a fun hing on it... it will be neat to see it in print!

Be sure to check out their gallery (if you haven't already)... they have a FAB design team... really talented. Im sure you'll be inspired.

Thanks for popping in!

Lisa

Papertrey Ink April release!

No matter how many times I try, a flower just doesn't look good on a Man card. Nichole and the team over at Papertrey Ink have come up with the funnest sets this month. I now have masculine stamps that I can use to create for any occasion! Now... don't get me wrong... Alli did have a fantastic flower set released this month that was a blast to create with too. It's been a wonderful last few weeks of creating with these sets. I will share a little about each project ... feel free to post questions about anything I might have missed. (sleep deprivation has caught up to me today. LOL!)

Pond Life

This simple card might just be my favorite this month. Why? well I think card making is like wearing clothes. The clothes should bring out the best features in whom are wearing them...loud patterns sometimes distract from the natural beauty of a person... so it is with stamps for me. I love when the paper and embellishments draw out the beauty of an image! Ok... on to some details....The Duck image can be interpreted as a loon! We have loons here and they are so beautiful and full of grace. The sakura gel pen really adds to the feel of the card IRL. a little fleck of red is markered in the eye because loons have red eyes.. I used white ink for the wing.

My first thought on this set was to pair it with Swedish fish! Might be because I fell off the diet wagon and they are on my naughty list.. that I've been eating... Might just be a cool thought? I thought this would be a great present or even party favor for a little boy! Whats fun is that the Swedish fish are really part of the color scheme when paired with this nugget tin (PTI)

Garden of Life

I've been on a bit of a button kick as of late.   Alli's set made it easy to incorporate.

Simple and quick notch pocket card. This could be a traditional card OR a save the date type card!

Father Knows Best

I wanted to create a piece of artwork for the walls at my DH's office for father's day. I know... again with the buttons... but Hey.... I like them!

I wanted to show a tall grown up tree with a young childlike tree...like the father is looking over the child. I wanted to have it feel soft so I used chalk ti color everything in!

Yes... this is a masculine version of the last tutorial that I did. :) I used a glassine envelope to hold the gift card instead though. You could also sneak in a note instead...with some private sentiments.

I hope you will take the time, if you haven't already, to check out the other Papertrey Ink DT samples. They will truly inspire you! (all my supply lists can be found in there too!)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy stamping... or napping as will be my case today! LOL!

Lisa

Papertrey April Countdown!

April 15th is not a dreaded day anymore...April 15th this year marks the release of some really incredible stamps offered by Papertrey Ink. Both Alli and Candice have stamp sets to offer this month and they are both very unique and show so much of their uniue styles. Nichole has one of the most loving masculine sets that I have seen for years! It's going to be a really neat release this month.

So , today is my day to show a little extra sneak peek  of one of these wonderful sets. After yesterday's post I thought I had better put my money where my mouth is so to speak and create something for you that's out of the box. I looked at all the sets... rotated them then the light bulb went on when I picked up Alli's Garden of Life set...It might have been the Barbie movie in the background combined with the set though... since it was a fairy movie! LOL! One of Ella's (5) favorite movies is Fairytopia. I was never into faeries as a child and its neat to see her explore that part of her imagination...It gives me a chance to do that too. Hannah (13) likes to fashion flower faeries from clothes pins and silk flower petals...Here is the card I came up with from that inspiration!

Yes... it's a Flower Fairy! Ella has already claimed this as her own card too! LOL! Doesn't she just make you smile!

So here is what I did... first of all I used the masking technique a lot for this card. The first thing I did was to stamp (in VersaMark) the rose image upside down..then add, by pouncing, the chalk color that I wanted.

I used my Pebbles Inc. Shimmer chalks because I wanted this fairy to sparkle and shine.(Ive found that they coordinate really wel so far with the Papertrey Cardstock... Especially the newest Summer Sunrise and Lemon Tart.)

I then masked the rose and stamped the stem image to get the arms and legs in place.I do masking a little differently sometimes. I generally will try to use a piece of scrap paper (printer weight) and use the curves. this is great for really non specific masking...like these stem appendages.

You can see where I have the overlapping stamped stem images...as this was the paper I used for masking over the rose. I did use a more specific masking for the hair though. I stamped the Mum image onto the scrap paper and lightly chalked it so I could see what I was doing. I stamped the circle that I used for the head in the center. I then trimmed out the hair... this left me with two parts of the mask I will use.

(I'm going to cheat a little and just back track to show what I did on the finished project.) you can see that the first part of the mask is used to bock out the face then to stamp the mum flower that has been chalked orange.

Here I show how the hair mask and the face mask (covering up the arm) can work together to mask preparatory to stamping the large leaf for the wing! I just rotated the paper a bit for the other side. This saved me time. I didn't have to trim out every little bitty piece to achieve what I wanted!

The last things I did were to add two dots for eyes, add some light brown to the face, neck and feet for some shading and finish the card off with the teeny yellow prima flower with the gem in the center!

This was a fun project to create... I created out of the box and I was able to think of someone I love dearly while I was doing it! Stamping couldn't get much better that that for me. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Lisa

Stamps- Garden of Life
Ink- VersaMark, Noir black
Cardstock- Lemon Tart, Summer sunrise, Spring Moss, Stampers select white.
Other- Summer Sunrise Swiss Dot ribbon, Shimmer Chalk (Pebbles Inc), Gem, small yellow prima flower

Proud Mama

I wanted to share with you some of the amazing things my Daughter's have been up to. Hannah was recently elected to the the Soroptomist Student of the month at her middle school and also was elected to attend the young authors conference with a few other selected children from her middle school.

Hannah is pictured far right in this photo that appeared on the middle school website. She also made the honor role!

Alex was just honored with the rest of the honor role students at the high school. She achieved a 3.8 this last semester. She is 100% independent in doing her homework and I know that when she earns those A's she feels a true sense of accomplishments. Alex also started Driver's Ed. this week and yesterday I took her for her first drive. :) There is something special when your daughter looks at you in awe after she has driven for the first time. "MOM, you make it look so easy... you're amazing!" That was a cool Mom moment.

We had a sit down with Peppers teacher and it was most interesting.  Seems that Pepper is at the top of her 3rd grade class! Her teacher says that she is getting the highest scores in her class. I'm not sharing this to brag... I'm just awfully excited for her! She is a bit shy and it seems that this year she has found a group in her class with the same quirky and fun sense of humor. I think this has been key in helping her excell... her comfort and ease among her peers. Its so neat to see her bloom this year! All of my girls are strong readers... but Pepper burns holes in books... she reads them so fast!

Ella has been learning how to read. I'm one of those parents that try to get them started reading as soon as I can. She has shown interest these last few months and we checked out these books at the library... these are truly the BEST if you are helping a pre-reader learn. She is hysterical as she reads the story back to me... she even uses special voices! LOL! Ella starts Kindergarten next year. it will be interesting how we both adjust. For now I will just savor her reading and ballet.

You may have noticed that I mentioned reading a lot when it comes to my girls. I was a terrible reader and student. I even had to take some reading classes. Early education was hard for me so I have done everything possible to facilitate their early education. Looking back I can see that its paid off for them and also re-iterated that our weaknesses can become our strengths! Now... what does this have to do with stamping and papercrafting? I'm a strong believer that when we try to improve on our weaknesses in stamping... practice and step out of the box... we can accomplish so much more... we grow and become strong, we become more confident and better crafters!

Thanks for stoping by... for some eye candy check out Nichole's and Taylor's Blogs as they WOW you with their sneak peek count downs for Papertrey Ink's April 15th release!

Birthday Boy!

We are often asked as designers to create masculine cards. I actually enjoy creating masculine cards so that works great for me. I was actually talking to my friend Joan the other day and she was telling me how she can pick my stuff out in a magazine in a minute... and she can! I inquired as to what it was... because I cant see my "style" in things at all. She mentioned that my work isn't froofy or frilly ...maybe that's why man cards don't stress me out. :) Candice created this great birthday set... It's a Celebration that works wonderfully for creating boy birthday cards. Here is a boy card I came up with recently and thought I would share it with you!

I use We R Memory Keepers pattern paper and embellishments that had a masculine feel to complement the masculine sentiment. I think we sometimes forget that we can use trims and even scallops when we are creating for men to... Hey... they work great for any occasion in my book! you will see a scalloped edge on the party hat, trim and the punched out layer. Marvy has their super cool metallic pearl ink pads that worked great with the pattern paper I used. I chose to add a wave trim at the top to give a little extra roughness to the card. I really like Candice's little confetti image too... it adds that little extra tie in touch! the other thing that I've found that adds that masculine touch is to sponge the edges a bit.

You will see this card somewhere soon... you'll have to let me know when and where you see it. :)

I would love to see your Man Cards! feel free to leave a link to your card so we can hop on by and check it out!

Thanks for stopping by,

Lisa

Spring Break

It's been a lovely week! Spring break with my four daughters has been really nice. I've been enjoying just being with them... not rushing... just hanging. We've spent a TON of hours on the Wii too! LOL! We are extremely strict when it comes to the time we allow them to spend on the Wii... we prefer them to play outside or read... or play the piano etc. But lets face it... we live in a small town that gets a fair share of rain and has limited entertainment during the winter/spring months. We've been veggin' and trying to beat a game... its been COOL!

However...Wednesday I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Pepper (9) decided to take Ella (5) on what I thought was going to be a picnic on the front lawn but ended up being an away picnic... without telling me where she went... needless to say that at the 90 minute mark of searching for them I was getting ready to dial 911. Seems that Pepper just assumed that I knew she went to this certain area with her baby sister. A good LONG talking to and grounding her for life has awoken her to the reality of the dangers that she put herself and her baby sister into. It's tough to be grounded during spring break (for both of us!) and it's particularly hitting home to her when her friends all come over every day to see if she, the great mudhopper, isn't grounded any more! Don't they understand the concept of FOREVER! I'm sure she will get saved from her sentence next week... but this week it's not happening'!

On the topic of Stamping and Papercrafting...well... been doing some of that too. I'm working numerous deadlines right now. You know... when it rains. LOL! The most urgent one gets in the mail today, thank goodness and the others are due to be emailed on Monday. My mojo took a little break but I tried something new and it seemed to spark a few unique concepts. Yippee!!! Oh... and if you havn't seen Pine's PTI tutorial... its faintastic! Nope that's not a typo... I fainted!

POPPYprints update: Today I cemented the finishing touches on my first set! The band that goes around the box is all designed, the labels are created... even the web view for your eyes is complete! (it's incredibly hard not to share that right now!) I'm anxious to stamp with it...It's like no other stamp set that PTI carries...quite the opposite in many ways. I'm going to have to break out some of my under used supplies and practice some of my artistic skills. *grin*

I'm also working on my stamp sets for next year... and let me tell ya... I've got some fun twists that are emerging! Let me ask you... what do you wish was available in a stamp set? do you like solid or line drawn images? or a mix of both? What is it about a stamp set that screams to you... "take me know or loose me forever!" LOL! Just wondering... I may have already hit the nail on the head for you this year... who knows? *SMILE*

Make sure to come back on Monday... I have great card that I've been holding out for just that day! Can you say Masculine?