Make it Monday #24 - Dry Brushing

Edited on 7-18 at 9:18pm to add two pictures and:  ....  Back at my desk this evening I looked at the card with fresh eyes and decided to make the bow smaller so the dress form would show more fully and balance the card better.  I still think something is off - probably because the pink items aren't in a triangle but not sure how I will fix that yet....maybe a heart on the dress form and change the color of the button flower?.....here is a fresh pic tonight of how the card looks now.....always learning and tweaking my designs....

ORIGINAL POST FROM A.M.:
Wow it is Monday again and this summer is flying by and we still haven't had any "hot" weather to speak of here in the Seattle area.  To all of you suffering through the heat waves elsewhere we wish you some of our cooler weather!  Hope you are all drinking some ice cold lemonade as you read this.

This morning my husband had a rare day with no medical appointments so I decided to spend an hour making a card for this week's "Make it Monday" over at Papertrey Ink.

 I loved the dry brushing technique though it was the first time I have ever painted on a card before and I think I will do a better job next time.  But for today I went ahead and finished the card with my "original" take on the dry brushing teqhnique as for me these challenges are all about learning to make cards in new ways.  (edited to add:  I used PTI's Background Builders Twinkle on the PTI cardstock)  I am finding that as I make more and more cards I am slowly improving my skills.  I still bungle things frequently! For example it took me 3 tries to complete my sentiment piece today because I was trying to stamp the sentiment with two colors of ink and each time I tried to stamp the second color I ran into a problem!  Ugh!  I finally ran out of time and stuck with black for the entire sentiment and added a couple of pink hearts around it instead. 

Here are some additional pictures:

I made the dress form and butterfly "wings" from the "Signature Series Dressform and Signature Series Butterfly" stamp sets designed by Dawn McVey for PTI.  I just love these sets of hers and I loved combining the dress form with the butterfly and adding a little pair of silk wings that I got from Memrie Mare on Etsy - HERE

Here is a close up of the sentiment.  

And one last shot of the card overall! 

Supplies:  Cardstock, button, dies stamps - background builder twinkle; Signature Series Butterfly; Signature Series Dress Form:  Papertrey Ink; Paint Dabber:  Adirondack from Ranger:  Pearl (this is gorgeous in person - not sure pictures did it justice!)  Ribbon; pearls from my stash. Ink: Adirondcak Jet Black; and Versamagic: Thatched Straw.  Stickles: Diamond (edge of butterfly)

Additional entries into PTI Challenge #8

Friday night turned out to have some crafting time in it this week.  My hubbie went to his friends house for some gaming and my son was playing some computer games so I broke out some PTI stamps to play with and came up with a couple of simple cards.  I used three Papertrey Stamp sets:  Tiny Tags; Love Lives Here and Year of Flowers - Roses. 
Here are the cards I made:

I added some copic coloring to the rose on this yellow card but I really need to take a class to learn proper techniques.   After I was done I was getting ready to do this entry and looked up some of the design team cards for this set (Year of Flowers - Roses) and Nichole and others do such an incredible job with their copics that I think I will be watching some how to videos this weekend.  It is fun coloring.  I really like it but I also want to do a better job at creating depth with the markers. 

My second card is even more simple and just has the rose stamped in the corner with a tiny "thank you" tag tied on with some baby heart tassels.  I did go over the outlines of the stamped rose with a marker in a tonal color to make it stand out more but that is it.  The backgrounds of the spellbinders label die cuts on both cards were blended with both distress and versamagic inks and an ink blending tool.  They started as white cardstock and I had fun mixing ink colors to create the backgrounds.  I needed another color of yellow or an entirely different color on the first card.  I wish now that I had used some distress old paper ink around the edges of the die cut for added dimesion.  I already glued everything down so I won't fix it this time....there is always next time and I am learning with each card I make.  By the by these two cards are going to be mailed so I made them fairly "thin" and non-dimensional so that mailing won't be a problem...

Here are a couple of close up shots of the tiny tags - made with PTI sets "Love Lives Here"  and  "Tiny Tags":

I had fun making the little heart tassels to add dimension to this card.

Happy Weekend everyone!  Make each moment count! 

Jill

A card with a "BIG" element for a PTI contest...

Hello friends...today is Saturday and my husband and I took our son on a special adventure for having had a very positive and lovely week at school - just because!  We spent a lovely few hours together out and about which only happens now about every 4 weeks just before my husband starts his next round of chemotherapy.  Just before treatment starts again he always has a few days where he feels almost himself again and has the energy to get up and go places.  Today was a beautiful day and we spent a great morning together while my hubbies energy lasted.  Then we came home and are now spending the afternoon  relaxing.  This means that my sweet hubbie is asleep upstairs and my son and I are down in the basement doing laundry, crafting, and in his case playing some fun games. 

Today on Nichole's blog for PTI the contest is to put something BIG on a project.  Well I needed to make a thank you card for a lovely helping hand gift that was just given to us so I decided to incorporate something BIG into the thank you note.  I don't have very many Papertrey Ink products but I always try to use as many as I can on projects I do for contest entries.  Today I pulled out my favorite go-to stamp set for Thank You cards called "Love Lives Here" designed by Melissa Phillips.  I love this stamp set and the dies that go with it!  Which you know if you have looked at many of my blog posts in the past months.  Anyway here are some pics of the card I made:

The card base is made with PTI Aqua Mist cardstock and is covered in patterned papers from SEI and Memory Box.  I rounded the corners with my corner chomper from WERMemoryKeepers using the 1/2 inch side which I just love!

The sentiment is from the Love Lives here stamp set and says "Thank You for giving me a hand".  I love this saying especially for all the wonderful people that are currently helping my family!

Aren't those hands just precious!  Love them, love them, love them! All the new dies at PTI that coordinate with their stamps are so lovely!  Plus they make it easy to create a very nice looking card! 

My large element is a "corner" decorative element die made by Heartfelt Creations via Spellbinders. The cardstock diecuts are all from DCWV papers that I have in my stash.  Well that is it so far for today.   I have one more card I would like to make for the PTI "Make it Monday" challenge but I hear my hubby stirring so it may not get made today.  We shall see!  Either way it has been a lovely crafting 2 hours this afternoon - so rejuvenating and fun!  Happy Saturday night everyone!  Have fun!  : )

Card Supplies:
Stamps:   Love Lives Here - PTI
Ink: PTI Fresh Snow (edges of die cuts, card, hands, and scalloped border punch)  Anna Griffin - chocolate pigment ink
Paper:   Cardstock:  Aqua Mist - PTI; Patterned papers:  SEI, Memory Box, additional diecuts cardstock: DCWV
Other:   Bling: recollections/Michael's, EK Success border punch, Dies: PTI, Spellbinders and Heartfelt Creations. DMC floss, Glue Dots, Ad tech adhesive, Foam "Pop-UP" Tape - dollar store. Sanding block for card edge distressing.
Finished Size:   4.25 x 5.5

Happy Anniversary to Papertrey Ink! Love, love, love your company and design team!

Today I am going to repost one of my favorite cards using papertrey ink products.  This is my first year using Papertrey Ink products.  I saw a card in a magazine using their stamps and decided to check them out online one day and I fell in love!  I love their stamps, their ink, their cardstock (which I just ordered for the first time a week or so ago and am just starting to use) and most of all their dies!  I am impressed with their service and the way they package their high-quality stamps!  I know I will be a customer for life!

This year my favorite product has to be the stamp set "Love Lives Here".  I love the verstility of this set!  There are so many uses for the stamps and the sentiments and the dies which have already made it onto several of my scrapbook pages too.  While I am still learning how to "design" and have a long way to go before I will feel that I am 'good' I still enjoy trying my hand at being creative.  It takes my mind off of my husband's illness and also allows me to make thank you notes for all of the people that are helping us out in our time of need.  This stamp set from papertrey ink along with the Crafty Secrets "Little Blessings" Creative Scraps which I also found this year have allowed me to send off some lovely thank you's to all the special people in our lives who are helping us right now.  So thank you Papertrey Ink and Crafty Secrets!  I love your products! 

Here are some of the cards I have made this year using Papertrey Ink's products...

I think the first card is my favorite of all because it seemed to turn out the best though I also like the last one.  I am still learning how to make cards so each one helps me grow a little.  The important thing is that I have fun making them and I get to send them to all my family and friends that are helping me out!  What could be a better reason to sit down and play with some ink, stamps and cardstock!  Again - thanks Papertrey Ink!  What a wonderful company full of amazing people doing what they love!  I am blessed to have found you this year!  Happy Anniversary!

Some Thank You cards...

Gratitude! Gratitude and Thankfulness!  That is my theme of the day today!  And I have some new cards to show for it too!

Wow - it has been quite some time since I posted!  I have been busy with lots of financial and insurance issues for our family over the past couple weeks since the New Year!  Today, though, I had time to make some cards to send as Thank You notes to some very special people who have been helping my family out during a difficult time.  I am so very grateful for my friends and family!  Here are the cards:

The sentiment on the front is "From my heart to your home" and on the inside:  "Thanks for giving me a helping hand".  Both sentiments are from a new set from Papertrey Ink which I will like too in my next card.  My son wanted to emboss the other night with the heat gun and embossing powder so I had him emboss the birdhouse stamp  in white and the sentiment too so it would match.  It turned out quite well for a 6 year old doing it!  Embossing can be a little bit tricky! LOL!

Here are some additional shots of the same card....

I colored in the birdhouse with my water-color pencils to add a touch of light color to it.

This next card uses the same sentiments and the small house diecut which are both from Papertrey Ink's December 2010 release titled "Love Lives Here".  Love Lives Here Stamp Set - with concepts by Melissa Phillips.  This is my current very favorite stamp set and I am using it a lot!!!

It has matching dies which you can see here:  Dies: Love Lives Here Collection.  I adore the butterfly and the hand too!  So cute and versatile! I love it!

I added the chimney with a piece of the same paper I die cut the house with and made "glitter" smoke coming out of it....a nice touch I think and makes it feel all snuggly and warm!

This card I made twice - once for my friend Julie and Skip and Family as Skip just lost his Father recently and once for my friend Leanna who just lost her husband Jerry.  Jerry and Leanne are Tim's adopted Aunt and Uncle and always send him the most adorable Hannah Anderson Christmas Pajamas each year along with lots of other goodies.  They are very generous and giving and sweet people and all I know is that heaven just received a wonderful new angel in Uncle Jerry!

 This last card uses an Inkadinkado set which is where the adorable polka dot heart and sentiment come from.  The die is from My Favorite Stamps and can be found here: Dienamics Decorative Doily Die


                                     
I just love the soft purple colors of this card....so fun to have something cheerful on a dreary morning...
This one uses a die from My Favorite Stamps:  Die-namics Decorative Doily Die.  I just love how this one die can totally dress up a card!  They have wonderful stamps too! 
Well that is it for cards today.  I have 3 more thank you cards still to make but this is all I am going to post for now.  I am still learning how to make good cards but each one I make allows me to get a little bit better at this fun craft!  Plus I get to send homemade cards to all my family and friends for different occasions.  Thanks for looking at my little blog!

:) Jill