PTI Create Along With Us Challenge

Papertrey Ink has a challenge called Create Along with Us, where you create a project that was inspired by a card that the design team made for the release. There is sure a lot of inspiration this month...but I think my favorite is the fox card that Nichole created from the set Warmest Wishes.  I can't wait to order the set tonite.

I love foxes, and was able to find a YouTube video that contained a free tutorial for sketching and watercoloring a fox, so that is what I did first. Next, I snapped a photo of the art (the iPhone 6 does a great job). Then I pulled the fox photo into Photoshop, resized it and duplicated it twice, giving me 3 foxes which I arranged so that when printed, I could cut 3 cards measuring 8.5 x 3.5, with half an inch of paper left over. 

I then stamped the trees from PTI Spring Hills, using the MISTI to get my alignment right, and masking parts of the fox as needed. The third tree is stamped without re-inking. The sentiment is also PTI, the WinterBerry set. Paper is PTI Rustic Cream. A single rhinestone was affixed. I used a sewing tracing wheel (ala Anna Wight) to do some faux stitching along the edges. 

Here is my card:

Here is what the fox looked like at original size. He was fun to sketch and watercolor, but I would not want to do create him more than once! So it is great to be able to take a photo and print it as many times as I need.

A Few Cards....

I have not updated this blog for awhile. I do have a few cards to show.

I have needed a few sympathy cards unfortunately. The first one is a PTI butterfly die, layered over some vellum that has been embossed with the SU Flower Garden embossing folder, and an older SU sentiment.

The second card was also embossed with SU Flower Garden folder, and stamped with, hmm, a set I can't recall, but is SU as well.

These cards are similar. I used the Poppystamps brevilla house dies, and the Papertrey Ink Spring Hills stamp set.Stamp sets are PTI Congrats All Ways, and an old SU set for the "Welcome to the Neighborhood."

I have 3 grandchildren that were born within 2 days of each other..a set of twins (boy/girl) and a girl. So I made them matching birthday cards for their second birthday. The little girl lives here in town, so we hosted a birthday party for her. The cake design is inspired by a drawing by Junelle Jacobsen (I have taken several of her classes and love her loose, airy style.) The font is a computer font. 

And a few birthday cards, for birthdays that occurred over the summer months, as well as a couple of anniversary cards, a "hello" notecard, and a baby shower card.

The Whimsical Face

I purchased a video tutorial by Jane Davenport entitled The Whimsical Face. I love her teaching style; her art is so wonderful, especially the faces. This was my first attempt. I needed a better quality of paper...I was using a cheap journal, and I know that a nice watercolor paper would have made this easier, if not better.

soapbox

I saw these soapbox hand soaps at our new HyVee store. Since I had not embroidered any dishtowels for Easter gifts, I thought these might be a nice little gift. What is great about these soaps is that when you buy one, Raincatcher organization will provide one month of clean water to a child in need. The pumps are, of course, more expensive than your average pump soap, but it is for a good cause. And, the pump is 11 oz., so that is bigger than a regular liquid soap pump. And, it is made in the USA. 

And here is one packaged up for a friend. I used Bitty Bouquet stamps by PTI.

Easter Card

These little cards measure 3.25 x 4.25. Very simple to make. The diecuts are made using Papertrey Ink, Scene It: Skyscapes Die Collection; and the little church is cut using the Petite Places church die.

Easter Cards for Grandkids

These little cards vary in size, but most are 3.25 x 4.25. I used the Hippity Hop stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink for the rabbits. The backgrounds are the square image from PTI's On the Farm set. The little pennant flags are from the Make it Market Mini: Clipsters kit. I used a stamp from this kit to emboss a little pennant onto the dotted vellum overlay on one card. These cards are quite simple, but I think the grandkids will like them. My MISTI made it easy to get the bunny images placed perfectly onto the diecut!

Chicken Scratch Apron

Chicken scratch seems to be popular these days. Here is an apron that I stitched over 50 years ago! The chicken scratch stitch at the waist band actually goes through 3 layers, to create pleats and therefore "cinch-in" the top of the apron. My Aunt Helen showed my sister and I how to do this stitch, and then supervised us while we stitched our aprons. I think we were not happy girls, because we wanted to be playing in the summertime, and not spending our time stitching aprons!

Doodling with Stamps Project

This is my project for the Papertrey Make it Monday Doodling with Stamps. First let me say that I CASE'd a pretty card made by Laura Bassen, for inspiration to make the center of my card.

For the doodling, I used the Rosie Posie stamp set. I don't have the Step 2 stamps for the shading, so I just used a brush and some darker ink to add shading. The doodling was done with a Micron Pigma pen that was about out of ink, but I made it through. I added a few filler sketchy dandelions. The sky is the new PTI vellum and I popped up the finished panel in order to let the transparency of the vellum show up nicely. 

The center uses the new Scene It:Skyscapes, and the little pop up tree, as well as the church diecut. 

Hodgepodge of Cards!

This post will include some of the cards I have made in November, December and January. Also, a bit of embroidery. For Christmas this year, I embroidered kind of a painterly snowman onto floursack dishtowels; for the little kids I embroidered the design onto barmop towels and then made those into pullover bibs. The snowman design is by Urban Threads. The American Eagle embroidery is a design by Strawberry Stitch. My son-in-law became an American citizen in December, and so I made him a card along with the embroidered towel to commemorate the occasion. 

The die cut on a couple of the birthday cards is called Birthday Stack, by Poppystamps. The watercolored birds are from a new stamp set called Scribbly Birds by Dina Wakely. I used Twinkling H2O's to paint them, and CASE'd this card by mdferri. The doily diecuts are from the Papertrey die, Parisian Lace. And the houses diecuts are from the Brevilla House die, also by Poppystamps. Cloud diecuts are from Papertrey..the whales are Stampin Up. The flag stamp is from Papertrey's Friendship Jar Summer Fillers.

Valentine's Gift

I had in mind to sew an assortment of fun gifts for my friend for Valentine's Day. I went to Hobby Lobby, and they had the perfect group of fabrics...prints consisting of cream, a cherry/apricot color, pale dusty pink, etc. I made a couple of drawstring bags, some "cord keepers" (tutorial from Made by Me & Shared with You blog). The cord keepers' tutorial is for a small keeper, which would work fine for something like the iPhone cord, but I also made several keepers in larger sizes for the heftier cords. I have made these string block quilted coasters before, directions coming from bari j blog.

To round out the gift, I included a couple of eos items...the lip balm in red container and the hand lotion in pink. I bought a stamp today at Michael's, and that is what I used to stamp the gift tag. I love using my new MISTI....it allows for such sharp images! 

The finished gift, prior to attaching the gift tag:

 The drawstring bags:

 The various items....I love how these fabrics coordinate with each other.

 The Michael's stamp, stamped onto PTI pink blush.