Double Partial Die Cutting

Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday #207: Double Partial Die Cutting. This was a whopper of a challenge for me because I wanted to stamp on the images I partially cut. There was a color thread at the forum and someone had suggested Melon Berry and Sweet Blush. I am liking it. The larger cut is made with the Spiral Notebook Page die, the beakers are from Love Potion and the sentiments are all from Ad Sense. I used Pumice Stone Distress Ink on the beakers and Black Soot Distress Ink on the sentiments.

I found out my cutting pads added pressure beyond the edge, so I just set it back from the pencil mark and the problem was solved.

Heather Nichols shared a method of die-cutting something AFTER it was stamped by using a mask.  Stamp it, use a mask of the die cut to place the die, tape it in place, run it through the machine. Life changing really.

There is an Anything Goes Challenge at NBUS (Never Been Used Stuff) Everything except the Spiral Notebook Page die and the paper has never been used. Simon Says Pastels, so I'm adding it there. Simon Also says Anything Goes, so it's going there too.

T stands for Tea Cup Coffee Cozy

I'm joining in T Stands for over at Elizabeth's and Bluebeard's. This week I've been stitching like crazy, mostly Scissor Keepers, but I'm also giving my new Coffee Cozy dies from Papertrey Ink a few test drives. I made this one for a family friend who LOVES pink.  You can read all the deets here if you are so inclined.

I had intended to post this last night I also took pictures of my snack (now long done).

It's Jiffy Pop. It's probably an American thing but one never knows. You cook it on the stove top (in the commercial you say "pop pop jiffy pop" but that messes up the shaking in real life (and the popcorn underpops and burns). To get it right it must be shaken and swirled virgously at a very fast tempo. I was sad because I couldn't find it at any shops, but low and behold it's on Amazon (prime).

This isn't the commercial that "sold" me on Jiffy Pop when I was a kid but the idea is there : ).

Very Pink Coffee Cozy

A very pink Coffee Cozy made out of felt die cut with Papertrey Ink's Coffee Cozy die set. The decoration is from Limitless Layers 2 1/4 Oval die set with the tea cup from Tea for Two Additions set.

Two tones of pink for the base.

Simply Jane in Vibrant Pinks

Another Scissor Keeper,this time stitched up as a thank you gift in various shades of pink.

Limitless Layers: 2 1/4 Ovals as a base in light pink. Matching pink embroidery thread used to stitch the oval layers together with a blanket stitch. And french knots in each of the scallops done with gold thread. The cameo is from Simply Jane.

The only pink felts I had were thin, I used two scalloped pieces on each side.

Stamping and Mixing Patterns

Added 3/29/15. This is the amended final project. I added Papertrey Ink Fine Linen Twill ribbon altered with Wild Honey Distress Stain with some pleats add towards the end. The focal point is made with Mat Stack 3  die cut stamped with Background Basics: Circles with Summer Sunrise ink. A second die cut was cut down with scissors, stamped with a heat embossed sentiment from Hello Sunshine and distressed the edges with a pair of scissors.

This week's Make It Monday #206: Stamping and Mixing Patterns is a favorite of mine. The floral is left over from a scrapbook page I made about my grandpig stamped with funky florals with gold embossing powder at the centers. The middle part is stamped with Pond Life. The frogs are stamped with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and painted with water, then doodled with a fine line black pen. The water swirls are stamped with Blueberry Sky. The top of the Summer Sunrise cardbase is stamped with the dotted "ray" from Hello Sunshine in Versamark. The hoppy Hello sentiment is from Pond Life Sentiments.

And because Simon Says Anything Goes it'll go there too : ).

March 2015 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I was working on something else and had die cut the blue and yellow patterned paper from my stash of scraps with the Rustic Wreath die. So when I saw the inspiration for the March 2015 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop and the sun is actually shining it all just came together. The banner is glued flush to the card on the left and popped up with a foam square on the right. The flowers were stamped and then painted with water.

The inspiration.

Materials:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath and Petite Pots.
Dies: Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath and Double Ended Banner.
Inks: Versafine (black), Versamark, Papertrey Ink Simply Chartreuse, Classic Kraft and Blueberry Sky.
Zing Vanilla (Opaque) Embossing Powder
Cardbase: Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White cardstock

WOYWW 303

I'm getting ready to do the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday, which is stamping patterns which is one of my favorite things : D. I'm using a scrap leftover from a scrapbook page I did about my [grand] pig and perusing my choices for the other bits lol.

The missing die is still missing. On the plus side things are being thoroughly sorted to the ground lol. My newest addiction is making Scissor Keepers made by cutting felt with some very clever dies from Papertrey Ink.There are also dies for needlebooks and floss bobbins. They make a fabulous base for just about anything.

The snow is still here, just condensed into a more icy thing that holds the dog's weight for a few seconds, then she sinks a inch or two. Poor thing has had a really rough winter for bathroom breaks.

For more crafty workdesks around the world, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Beyond the clouds

A friend of mine is going through a tough time for a while now. She's really strong, but sometimes we can all use a little boost. The zip box can hold a gift card after the tab is pulled back. I'm hoping the sentiment lined up to show after the the zip is pulled lol. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Movers & Shakers Sentiments set: "Beyond the Clouds, behind the rain, there are a thousand rainbows".

The inside sentiment is stamped on the Papertrey Ink Spiral Notebook die cut, the first part of the sentiment is stamped with Blueberry Sky, the lower part is colored with a rainbow assortment of Distress Markers.  The inside sentiments are from Inside & Out: Well Wishes set. The corners are rounded with my trusty Corner Chompers.

Regency Style Scissor Keeper

The first Scissor Keeper I made all the die cuts were made with Papertrey Ink felt. This one was made from felt I had in my stash. It pains me that Papertrey Ink is so much better for this sort of  sewing it's a heavier, denser, tighter felt (and 100% wool). The pain coming from the fact I have a lot of felt on hand that is wonderful for other projects, but looks like I'll be ordering felt from PTI for these. I'll have to make another one out of Papertrey Ink felt for my very pointy scissors as they caught on the inside of the looser felt. The Scissor Keeper was stitched with commercial embroidery thread from my stash.

The Regency Rose is stitched on Vintage Cream Papertrey Ink felt after having the holes cut out with the Regency Era mini kit and then fussy cut.  All the stitching of the Rose is with handspun silk embroidery thread and then painted with inks smooshed on the craft mat and spritzed with water. The inks used were Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and Sweet Blush and Simply Chartreuse Papertrey Ink inks.

Paper Baby Booties

I made this totally nonfunctional baby bootie out of Papertrey Ink Spring Moss cardstock and 2 layers of Glassine from my Dad's stamp collection supplies and stitched together with some handspun 2 ply silk embroidery thread.

It's translucent in certain light.

WOYWW 302

This is my desk this morning.

This was my desk yesterday for Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T stands for post. What happened in between? I found out I've misplaced a die. I can work in complete chaos, but not when things are misplaced lol.

So my fancrafting has ground to a standstill. (Fancrafting is when fangirling happens in a crafty context). And I've been going hard. During the last week I learned how to stamp backwards, turn a spinner card into a 3D Dome, stitched a Scissor Keeper with handspun, and got to use my favorite terrible pun stamp : D.

The card in the background is from Kara who writes kandrdesigns blog, she had made it as an example of a card for boys, and I told her I (an old woman) loved it too, so she sent it to me : D.

Want to see more crafty desks? Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground

T Stands for Tiki Grumpy : )

I love Tiki and I love Grumpy, so it makes sense that I love this mug :). I also have a shirt that matches. Julia has a lot of china, I have a lot of Grumpy lol. On my desk is a card that the ohsotalented Kara of KandR Designs sent me. She had made the card as an example of a card for little boys, and I told her I'm an old woman and I love it too lol.

 The desk is momentarily cleared but it's been a crafting blitz lately.

I put a spinning sheep in a dome.

 I made a card with one of my all time favorite stamps (Time flies like the wind, fruit flies like bananas).

I also made this Scissor Keeper stitched completely with 2 ply handspun embroidery thread.

For more Tuesday goings on, head over to Elizabeth and Bleubeard's blog. Let me know if word verification is popping up with the "I am not a robot" button. I'm not sure how to turn it off  if it is but at least I'll know. Regular word verification is turned off, but I think this might be something different.

Happy Birthday

I'm taking the Stretch Your Dies class and this card is based on the technique taught today by Julie Ebersole. The "happy" die cut and birthday are from Papertrey Ink's Pretty Peonies. The butterlies are from the Make It Market kit: You're A Masterpiece.

Sheep Spinner Dome

It's a sheep spinner dome.I had a vision of putting little sheep in a dome with Papertrey Ink's Make It Market kit: Tinsel & Tags Trimmings house. And originally they were going to be fixed in place, but I wanted it to move.

I briefly considered making it moved by magnet, but since it'll be auctioned off I decided to make it a spinner. (Magnets can be very dangerous for small children and can be lost which would make it a fumbling sheep). You can see another Dome Scene with moveable deer (with a magnet) here, there's even a little video of it in action.

The house is cut from Vintage Cream. The house is stamped with Fine Linen, and painted with Fine Linen smooshed on the craft mat and spritzed with water. The same is done for the roof except with Classic Kraft ink. After it was assembled I put Glossy Accents on the roof.

After getting some great advice from the PTI forum about stamping backwards, I was able to stamp a sheep in each direction. I used Versafine ink, stamped the image on a solid stamp and then stamped that onto cardstock. (the reverse stamp is the one on the right). I went over it with an ultra fine line Sharpie.

I folded a small strip of plastic packaging (cut from the bit that folds in in a Papertrey Ink box) and glued a sheep on each side. Then I bent open the two ends like a brad. The space under the sheep was colored with a green marker. After this picture was taken I colored in all the white edges with a Black Soot Distress Marker. 

Here it is attached to the button with score tape. The plastic was trimmed along the edges of the button.  Because of the width of the plastic I used, the sheep travels in a straight line.

Originally I used 2 layers of foam tape, however the plastic stand for the sheep added more height than I anticipated, so a third layer had to be added. Note to self: test height after the sheep is attached.

The testing phase.

The foam tape needed to be covered. The Martha Stewart Icicle Punch can make great grass by moving it every 1/4" - 1/3" instead of following the repeat pattern marks.  I put a 1/4 length of score tape right under the grass and then cut off any paper under that, peeled off the tape backing and wrapped it around the outer circle. (The doodles are "Time Flies" from a previous project).

Here's the other side of the sheep and all the Stickles flowers.

Simon Says "B is for" and I'm saying Building : ).

Time flies like the wind, fruit fies like bananas

CASology's Cue Card is Tropical (banana and the background stamped with Papertrey Ink's Limeade Ice). Simon Says Fly (so I drew a little Time Fly on the card). The stamps are from Club Scrap's Fossil kit.

The banana is cut with Cricut and painted with Papertrey Ink's Summer Sunrise and Wild Honey Distress Ink and then folded a little bit.

Scissor Keeper

Using Papertrey Ink's Quick Stitch Kit: Sewing Staples, I put together this Scissor Keeper using Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream and Fine Linen felt. The decoration is a primitive heart and sheep. (The little sheep on the left are the result of stamping and stamping backwards).

All the thread is 2-ply handspun embroidery thread. The sheep is stitched with naturally colored brown corriedale wool, the heart is stitched with a grey wool and white corriedale plied together. The Scissor Keeper is stitched with two strands of silk (2 ply).

WOYWW 301

It's been a pretty busy week. The rosette is made with glassine paper. If you want to believe you have sausage fingers, make rosettes with glassine lol. Actually I'm thinking that with string and tiny hole punches it could be roped into compliance more easily. It's for a scrapbook layout I'm not sure if I've finished, all about being cantankerous  as #$@& when I grow up when I want to be : D.

The snowflake was on the floor, discovered when I was looking for one of the letters that drifted off last night. I even turned out the trash bag. On the plus side I did find a tiny transparent stamp on the floor that I had given up on finding months ago. I've also resolved to only use very tiny trash bags next to my workdesk (lest I wind up on hoarders due to fear of accidentally throwing out stamps).

Which ties into my latest obsession. Putting ttransparent stamp sets into Avery Elle bags. One of the benefits when the little ones fall off, they are still in the bag. I have a lot of Papertrey Ink stamps in CD cases. The envelopes take up a lot less space and the CD cases have a little gap where little stamps can easily fall out.

Next project on the agenda, put spring into a jar topper (clear half dome at the back). So the little sheep in the stamp set need to be reverse stamped to make a two-sided image.The snow is finally melting. I can actually see asphalt in 1/4 of the driveway. Only after an ubersnowy winter, am I so excited to see asphalt.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more crafty fun : ).

When I grow up, I will be . . .

When I was a child, I was frequently stuffed into tight dresses that didn't allow me to lift my arms. I was frequently told I wasn't allowed to be mad. So now I am grown I am as cantankerous as #$@& when I want to be : D.

The base paper is Anna Griffin the mat is vellum, the "#$@&" and "cantankerous" are  glassine. And there is a lot of stitching with handspun silk embroidery thread. I used the Cricut Explore but there is no way to identify cuts after they are put into a project... so.

Simon Says special lady/girly which is perfect : ).

Meow Spring Meow

My take on today's Make It Monday #204: Watercolor Smooshing. I was channeling Daniel Tiger from Mister Roger's Neighborhood. I "smooshed" Melon Berry, Hibiscus Burst and Harvest Gold inks. Then colored a little Weathered Wood Distress ink as the shadow. The cat and meow sentiment are from the Cat's Meow set. "Spring" is handwritten. The sequins are adhered to the card with a drop of Stickles.Smooshing is easy peasy after watching the video. Still yearning for some serious spring here. The card base is Spring Moss.

A Corny Card

Easter basket?

No.

April Fool's card.

The basket is from Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cartridge stained with Wild Honey Distress Stain. The bunny ears are from 3 Birds on parade.painted with Spun Sugar Distress Ink. The giggle sentiment is from Sandy Lion's Giggle set. And the acorn is from Papertrey Ink's (stamped with Limeade Ice and Simply Chartreuse) Autumn Acorns with the face drawn on.  CASology's cue card this week is basket. : ).

Green for a Birthday

Simon says A Touch of Clover. So it's a birthday card for my sister who loves green. The cardbase is Papertrey Ink's Spring Moss. The "ribbon" is Vintage Cream stamped with Background Basics: Woodgrain with Limeade Ice. The oval background is Simply Chartreuse cut from Limitless Layers 2 1/4 Oval with Stickles Lime Green on each of the tips. The image is from 2012 Birthday Tags stamped with Spring Moss.

Umbrella Card

Make It Monday #203: Doodling with Stamps. On the smooth side of a piece of Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper, I stamped the solid large umbrella from Scattered Showers with Harvest Gold, Hibiscus Burst and Limeade Ice, then went over them with an aqua brush. After they had dried I painted the sky with Stormy Sky smooshed on my craft mat and spritzed with water.

When everything had dried I doodled over the umbrellas a couple of times, stamped the handles and sentiment. This is such a fabulous technique.

Simon Says is having a "special lady/girly" challenge so I'm entering it there as well.

WOYWW 300

Happy 300 WOYWW! (Will Gerard Butler be making a cameo?). I treated myself to a Distress Paint Sale, and interesting fact about Distress Paint... it seems I can color directly on the lid, no labels needed. The wrapping around the Distress Paint is ultra crinkly and can be used in making great cat toys. We are still under attack by winter (which is why I have big ass snowflakes on my desk).

That's me today. Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more desk peeking happiness.

that is SOME [grand] PIG Scrapbook Layout

There was a challenge issued a while back by Leigh at to the full to create patterned paper. And Simon Says Anything Goes. I'm not the best at getting challenges done with deadlines, but I sure do get a lot of inspiration from them : ).

This is my grandpig. The journal tag is also a pocket because I often forget to write down something. If I have a pocket I can just write it on a tag and pop it in. Now I almost always add them. The title is a nod to Charlotte's Web.

I recently realized I can use my camera to store layout ideas. This is the majority of the components just before I bagged them up.

I also realized that I can use a top loading scrapbook to hold pages in progress.

I keep a small box of leftovers and experimental embellishments and mats within arm's reach of my work desk. For this layout I pulled 4 of the box.The crafting cuppie ephemera represents me (grandma). I didn't need all those pillows, so I stamped it on the other side.

To minimize mistakes, I write the journaling out in pencil (which allows me to erase the wonkiest lines, adjust for size, etc). Then I write over the pencil and finally erase it after the marker has had time to really dry.

The Details.
Stamped Patterned Paper:
White cardstock. Large flower from Papertrey Ink's Funky Florals stamp set. Petals stamped with Berry Sorbet, centers stamped with Pure Poppy, details stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Ranger Ink gold embossing powder.

Hibiscus Burst cardstock stamped with all three stamps from Background Basics: Woodgrain set in Versamark.

Picked Raspberry cardstock stamped with Mod Squad set and Black Soot Distress Ink

Journal Tag
Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge., Sharpie Fine Line marker, Funky Florals stamped with Versamark

Embellishments:
We R Memory Keepers Extra Large Grommets
White Organza Ribbon
Title Cricut Fonts: A Frightful Night cartridge, Calligraphy Collection cartridge. "[grand]" is run through the little Xyron sticker maker.
Ephemera: Stamping and coloring experiment done a few years ago with Taylored Expressions Crafty Cuppie colored with Distress Ink and Stickles.