April Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

This month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is dedicated to the boys and men in our lives. Focusing on "masculine color schemes, fresh pattern combinations, understated embellishments and unique uses of images you may already have in your stash!"

I didn't have Up Up and Away, so I had to use two stamps from Club Scrap.  The It's Your Day sentiment comes from Papertrey Ink's Star Prints. The card base is Vintage Cream and the stamped mat is Simply Chartreuse.

The winner of the handspun embroidery thread from last month's blog candy is Monica K.

Shaped Cards with the Botanicals Lite cartridge

The first two cards are made with the Botanicals Lite Cricut cartridge and K&Co. double sided paper. Two pieces, easy peasy. The shaped edges are really fun. I used clear embossing powder on the bird and branch and one of the flowers.

This tulip is also two pieces. I used my new favorite clear Decorative Accents for embellishment, this time I used the Copper Ranger Alcohol Ink. The alcohol ink slid off a little bit adding a distressed texture I really liked.

There are also phrases on the cart. The two Get Well Cards were made from the same sheet of paper cut in half and put on the Cricut mat with one half of each side facing up. I used Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream cardstock to make the back of the card (so loving my ATG gun for this sort of attachment btw). When the card was closed, I traced the flower lightly with a pencil then colored to the edge with watercolor crayons.

The second one I put the flower slightly off the edge and embellished the from with dots of Antique Linen Distress Stickles.

There really is a lot that can be done with this cart, so I'm giving one away soon in a future post :D.



Flowery Heart Card

The cutout is from the Botanicals Lite cartridge, cut out on Core'dinations cardstock (sanded with the Tim Holtz sander). The card base is Simply Chartreuse from Papertrey Ink with a matching Papertrey Ink button.

The cutout is matted on some K&Co paper and black paper. I used a craft knife to make slits in the mat and put ribbon in so it's wrapped through all the layers of the mat. Then I threaded the ribbon through the two holes of the button and tied a bow. The ribbon is also Papertrey Ink (comes on a spool) and is the very essence of gossamer :D.

updated: It just felt incomplete and I finally decided to add some of the clear decorative accents I've been using as eyes, only this time I put a drop of Pearl Ranger Alcohol Ink on them.

Out of This World Party Layout

I started by cutting out the silhouette planet from the Cricut Life's a Party cartridge. Then I cut a new monster like the one I did for TheBugBytes from the B is for Boys Cricut Lite cartridge skewing the image for the shadow.

This time I added a party hat from Straight from the Nest (trimming off the scallops) and I made a rainbow of eye colors. Rather than find paper for each color, I used markers to color white cardstock the color I wanted just big enough for a hole punch.

Then I made the title mat, and photo/journal mats. The rocket is from Paperdolls for Everyday cut twice and layered. I used a red Copic marker to color the rocket rather than gluing on layers. And I also used the marker to color the edges of the red mats.

The banner is hand cut and I used some Cosmos Cricket letters for the "out of this world party". I also put it on some pop-dots to keep it the same height as the rocket. It started out white but I changed it with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I outlined just about everything with a fine line black pen and used Crystal Stickles to make stars.

WOYWW 98, What?!? Wednesday Again?!

Oh my gosh, now it can't possibly be Wednesday again? But I'm still looking for Tuesday! I'm up to my ears in projects I'm trying to catch up on. As you can see, things are getting back to normal lol. The large Tinkerbell mug is full of Red Rose tea, since I am sadly out of Scottish Blend. The paper in the middle is from Sassafras Bungle Jungle (as opposed to Jethro Tull's Bungle in the Jungle). The stack to the right is all about ideas to try before gravity rears it's ugly head.

A quick recap to the week so far:

Sunday: won an Imagine from Everyday Cricut. An Imagine is basically a Cricut that prints and cuts out. So I can just print out a sheet of pretty patterned paper at 3 am if I need to do so.

Monday: found out I made the Design Team at Club Ruby Designers.

Tuesday: Tried to do some work on another contest, but my lungs and nose decided I had better do more lying down. Hence the reason I'm still looking for Tuesday even though it's Wednesday.

Among the other things on my list to do this week is sit down and do some serious stamping. Honestly it's been weeks since I've done some proper stamping and I'm starting to get the shakes. No one's fault but my own, but still serious pining going on lol.

So if you are wondering what this WOYWW is all about, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a gander. Better yet, snap a picture of your work desk and join in the fun :D

Wow!

Sunday I found out I won an Imagine from Everyday Cricut (if you like Cricuts, this is an awesome source of information and inspiration). Monday I found out I made the Design Team at Club Ruby Designers (An online gathering place for paper crafters with two levels of membership, one free and one for $7/month. There a lot of tutorials and videos from the Design Team and there's a gallery and a forum as well). I'm just pleased as punch and can't wait to get started :D.

WOYW?W 97 - John Henry was a papercutting man

Today my workdesk has a contradiction lol. Like that's a stretch? It's handmade vs. machine, or using a machine to make different handmade or where does machine made differ from hand made lol.

I love my Cricut (this is the Champaign [sic] Expression Cricut. For those of you unfamiliar with it, an electronic Die Cutting Machine. While I usually use the 12 x 12 inch mat, there is a 12 x 24 inch mat available too. It's kinda wonderful :D. I bought it for making titles to scrapbook pages and now I'm doing scrapbook pages, making cards, home decor, boxes, tags... well you get the idea. But I also make projects without it. And I made projects that give me some hand making time supplemented by machine cut things.

Add to that my Gypsy which is sort of a design studio in a handheld device which allows me to weld images, hide cut lines, design in my car, waiting for DD in various after school events, skew images. This is 4 of the same image welded into one new image from my new favorite cartridge Paper Lace.

I've also been having a lot of fun with these two books: Zentangle Basics and the Doodle Formula. Zentangled is a bit too structured for regular usage by me, the Doodle Formula is more my style. But both are very informative.

So I cut the image in the Gypsy on kraft cardstock, but not all the way through. Then I cut off the edge with a craft knife (lots of time for reflecting whilst I did that lol) and opened some of it up. Then I put the kraft cardstock frame on a piece of vintage Anna Griffin paper. And I used some Distress Crackle Paint (need to use Tim Holtz products lol) and lightly brushed it over all the cuts and when the paint dried I glued it to a piece of black cardstock. The kraft cardstock frame was decorated using a Fine Line Sharpie. The black cardstock was decorated using a Signo Uniball Gel Pen. I haven't decided what to do with the papers yet, still mulling over some ideas.

Now if you are wondering, "What's all this WOYWW then?", head over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a gander. Better yet, take a picture and join in the fun :D.