Best Fishes

It's July 25 and the monthly PTI Blog Hop Challenge! Yay!

Papertrey recently released several ocean and beach theme stamp

 and die sets. Their photo inspiration for July reflects this focus. 

Yesterday's mail brought the new Salt Air: Fauna and SA: Sentiment sets but alas, no dies. I had planned on using small florals to imitate the colors and movement in the photo for my entry but with the mail decided to jump right onto the sea creatures theme. With VersaMark ink, clear and white embossing powder a one layer panel was created on Ranger watercolor paper and trimmed out with a Noted Scalloped: Vertical die. The watery background was colored using a water brush and Salty Ocean distress ink. Picking up on the blue wavy flora in the photo, I die cut a Scallop Stackers: Large navy piece to frame the water color panel, backing it with foam and taping it on a PTI rustic cream A2 side folding card.  

Time to check out the other entries in the Blog Hop

Thanks for stopping by today.

Two Cards, One Stencil

MIM #329:
Creating Stencils from Die Cuts

Melissa Phillips created the current PTI MIM challenge by stretching her dies

to make a stencil with them. I made a stencil using the inside of the Shape 

Shifters: Oval 1 die which features several tiny flower and leaf sprigs. I cut a

Sweet Blush Bitty Big Mix & Mat: Flourishes panel on which I sponged ink

 through my stencil. A Berry Sorbet stitched rectangle panel provides a colorful 

setting for the stenciled panel with a Beautiful Berries: Spring branch and

a Tag Sale: Quilted banner with a Butterfly Blooms sentiment.  The berries

were stamped with VersaMark ink and gold embossed for more sparkle.

While the stencil was out I made another card using different colors. This time

the stenciling was on a Shape Shifters: Oval 1 die cut which was mounted 

with fun foam on an old pattern paper from my stash and decorated with more

Beautiful Berries: Spring die cuts and a little wooden birdie. The large PTI

word die sentiment is cut from blue shimmer paper and glued directly on the 

stenciled panel. 

                                  

grammylovesherboys

Thanks for thinking of me

Make it Monday #328:
Shadow Backgrounds

When Laurie's MIM challenge was featured on PTI's blog I was excited because stamping background shadow images a lot of fun! I needed a thank you card for a Mexican pottery piece a friend gave me from her Epcot trip. I used Ink It In to design my background. Two panels were die cut from tropical pink pattern paper and white linen using the Noted: Scalloped A2 Vertical die set. I stamped the white panel with the pen outline three times using Soft Stone ink and filled in one pen with tropical colors. The two panels were layered on an orange striped panel covering a side-folded white card. A sentiment from Simple Stems and pink-orange twine completed my thank you note. My next PTI order will include the Ink It In dies which were out of stock during my recent purchase.

P.S. If you click on the photo, you may pick up the shadow pens easier.
I probably should have stamped them twice but in real life it looked
just right. The card was mailed today. 

Linked to: MIM #328

Happy Holidays

Have I ever mentioned that I'm a procrastinator? 

If you judge me by late challenge entries, I would definitely qualify!

But, I'm not going to be late for Christmas cards this
year with this week's card for Make it Monday #327!

Betsy Veldman shared a fun way to create ombre watercolor 
backgrounds and after three attempts I finished my card.

 Card supplies:

PTI: Circle Scribbles die, Spruce & Sprigs, 'Tis the Season Sentiments

SSS Stitched Rectangles, Distress Inks, Strathmore watercolor paper

Yay! It's your birthday

This week it's all about red, white and blue in the USA and red and white in Canada! Happy Birthday to these nations! I seldom use these colors on my cards but in the past week made several July birthday cards and used this trio of colors. This post features two cards and you can scroll down to yesterday's post to see another.

Card Supplies all Papertrey Ink unless noted: 

Stamps: Pen & Ink, Snowflake Flurries;  Great Impression flourishes & stars

Dies: Shape Shifters: Oval 1, Snowflake Flurries

Linked to:  Simon Says: Anything Goes Wednesday challenge

Simon Says: Red,White and/or Blue Monday challenge

 Card Supplies all Papertrey Ink unless noted: 

Stamps: Bitty Bouquets, Songbirds, Stitching Garden, Stylish Sentiments: Birthday; 

Stylized Autumn, Vintage Picnic

Dies: Bitty Bouquets, Cover Plate: Comic Strip, Stitching Garden, Vintage Picnic

Linked to: Simon Says: Red, White and/or Blue Monday Challenge

Thanks for stopping by today.

grammylovesherboys

Celebrate good times

Long ago in my early paper crafting life, I had an adhesive sheet of white inchie squares in my stash. The idea was to stamp a section of the little squares with one large stamp and evenly set the squares in a grid format to recreate that stamp with spacing on a card. My patience for this tedious labor resulted in a couple cards, I think. 

On the recent Make it Monday #326: Inchie Elements challenge, Lexi Daly shared her process for recreating this look. My version uses 4th of July colors, gold military braid and gender neutral images. I raised the gold embossed arrow square with foam tape and edged the sentiment square with VersaMark ink and gold EP. It's a fun idea and terrific samples can be found on the PTI blog.

Card Supplies:

PTI Framed Out #2 and Sketched Shapes stamps

SSS Stitched Rectangle die

Hero Arts Royal Red mid-tone shadow ink

Dark Indigo Bitty Big paper