Thinking Inking

Jack's World Toddler Cards, Boys Day

I told you about our four upcoming family toddler birthdays a few days ago; tonight I'm sharing the boy cards. For both of these I used Cosmo Cricket's  Jack's World papers, blackboard, and adhesive die cuts.

For Grant (age 1), I chose the monkey blackboard and adhesive covering, along with Animal Friends and Playtime papers. Twill is a natural twill, stamped with PaperTrey Ink's Birthday Basics set. Buttons are Autumn Leaves. This card was a little tough for me--I struggled to get a layout that I was happy with. The next card was my favorite of the four.

This is Alex's (age 2) card. I chose a little dump truck for him, and I even mounted the dumper so that it would pivot on a mini brad and tilt to reveal the happy birthday sentiment. :-) (You can see the sentiment in the top picture.) I chose Playtime, Wake Up, Lessons, and Blanky papers to go with the dump truck blackboard and adhesive covering. The little length of ribbon that lifts the dump truck bed is also from the Jack's World collection.

I don't make many kid-cards, but I have to admit that these were fun. I love Jack's World!

Hey Sugar Meets Eastern Blooms: CPS82

This week's CPS82 Sketch was really a fun one! If you like bling, circles, and symmetry (and I do), what's not to like? I had just gotten a new SU stamp set, Eastern Blooms, a few days ago. Every time I looked at it I thought of my Cosmo Cricket Hey Sugar/Honey paper. They were meant to be together! Not only that, but our CPS sponsor this week was Kandi Corp, with their hot fix tool and crystals. (As much as I love rhinestones, this could be a new addiction.)

I stamped the large flower three times in two colors of Versamagic ink, with the darker color of each pair in the center and the lighter color toward the outside of the flower: Pumpkin Spice/Thatched Straw, Pink Grapefruit/Red Brick, Oasis Green/Aquatic Splash. I pulled these colors  from the Hey Sugar paper, and luckily, they also coordinated with the Caribbean Assortment of crystals. I used the hot fix tool to attach the crystals to the centers of the flowers. I hadn't used a hot-fix tool before; I've normally glued my crystals on (even the hot-fix variety). It wasn't hard to get used to, however. I really liked that there was no oozing glue and no drying time before I could count on the crystals staying in place. When I got a couple of the crystals slightly mis-placed, it was very simple to touch it again with the hot tip and wiggle it over a bit.

The other thing that I tried the hot fix tool and crystals on was glass.  I had made a couple of soldered pieces and wanted to use rhinestones on top of the finished glass; however, I didn't think that glue would be likely to affix them permanently. The hot fix tool worked like a charm for a solid hold with no tell-tale glue residue.

The flowers didn't stand out quite as much as I would have liked, so I used my Spellbinders Nestability Plain Circle dies to make Dark Chocolate backgrounds for them. The "mother" sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink's Mixed Messages set. I used a Fiskars Threading Water punch to cut the scalloped edge that the flowers sit on--very similar to SU's scalloped punch from what I can tell, except that this one punches holes in the centers of the scallops.  Finished size of this card is 6-1/2" x 3-1/4", sized to fit a tag envelope.

Thanks for visiting!

Jack's World Toddler Cards, Girls Day

We have five family birthdays in the next few days--one grandma, and two sets of boy/girl twins! Grandma's card was no problem--I had plenty of birthday cards in my stash. But I didn't have any toddler cards made. Luckily, I had just received a huge box of Cosmo Cricket goodness yesterday. The Jack's World collection looked very promising--patterned papers, ribbon, blackboard, and even adhesive papers die cut to fit the blackboard--way more fun than having to cut paper to fit intricate shapes of chipboard!

I thought I'd share my girl cards tonight and my boy cards another night. For one-year old Addie, I chose the Big Sister paper and the cute little pink elephant blackboard and adhesive paper. I sanded the edges, sewed a curved ground on (from the reverse side of the Big Sister paper), and stamped a length of plain twill with a sentiment from PaperTrey Ink's Birthday Basics set. The eye is a shiny black mini brad.

For two-year old Gracie, I chose the blackboard giraffe and coordinating adhesive paper, along with the Wake Up paper and ribbon from the Jack's World collection . Again I sanded the edges and sewed a curved ground on (from the reverse side of the Wake Up paper). The tag is a Spellbinders Tags Trio die cut, stamped with PaperTrey Ink's Birthday Basics set.

I don't know if these sweet little girls will understand birthday cards very well, but their moms certainly will! Thanks for visiting.

Pink Toile and Bows, Just Rite Style

Tonight I'm sharing one more card from my mom's card stash that I made for her while she was visiting.  I knew that I needed to make her some more monogrammed cards since she had specifically mentioned hoarding her last monogrammed notecard. (Hmmmm. . .  Maybe I should just give her a monogram stamper for Christmas?)

I started with a Times New Roman Alphabet and one of the borders from the Ten Designer Centers and Borders set by Just Rite Stampers, paired with some Pink Petunia Versamagic ink. I also used some Melissa Frances patterned paper (Robin and Lindsay) and some Neenah Natural White cardstock. Ribbon is SU's pink taffeta, and head pin is an aged copper one from JoAnn Fabrics.  I used Spellbinders Plain and Petite Scalloped circle dies to enclose my monogram, and a bit of Antique Linen ink to age the edges. This card fits my mom!

Traditions: Simple Ornament

How about a very simple ornament tonight? When Nichole asked us to create something that would fit into our family Christmas traditions, I chose an ornament for grandparents because it's one of the things that Rick  and I like to give family members.  I used PaperTrey Ink's new Merry and Bright set by Melissa Bickford, and one of the sheer lucite snowflake frames. I also used the Simple Alphabet to put the date on the bottom right corner. Pure poppy grosgrain and gold tinsel ribbon finished it off, along with my favorite photo of my son and one of his Grandpas sledding down the hill behind our house together. I called this piece Eight and Eighty in my gallery because B. is eight,  and Grandpa is eighty. Still, don't they look like best buds here? :-)

For the tree I used Pure Poppy and Summer Sunshine ink (PTI), as well as Tea Leaves and Jumbo Java Versamagic (Tsukinko). I stamped plain trees directly on the photo then added one cut-out tree to the outside of the frame. When I sized the picture so that the main parts of both Grandpa and B. were in the center window, the photo was a bit narrow on the sides. Stamping the trees on the sides helped fill that gap. To fill it at the bottom, I tore a couple of strips of Stamper's Select White cardstock and made a snowbank. That also gave me a very white surface on which to stamp the date .  This is an easily mass-producible ornament--quick to make, and inexpensive. Since you can choose a different photo for each ornament, it's simple to personalize as well.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have a lovely day.

PaperTrey Ink September Releases

It's been quite the busy week! Since this is PaperTrey Ink release day, I thought I'd pick just a couple of my projects to share with you here. (They can all be found in my PaperTrey Gallery here, complete with supply lists.)

First, a snowman with Made of Snow--a clean, fresh, fun, and versatile set!  I also used Heather's Rustic Snowflakes set in the background of this one. I used Spellbinders dies to make the window, then stamped on the layer that I had cut out of the base for the window and mounted it on the inside. Why two layers there? I wanted to pierce the edges, but I didn't want holes in the back of my card.  (Piercing template was a piece of plastic canvas. It had larger holes than my piercer, but I stayed consistent around the circle, punching in the upper right quadrant of each hole.)

Next I have a Rustic Snowflakes card to share. Heather's sets just seem to want to be used with kraft cardstock, right? I added some Pure Poppy accents to this one, as well as some red Swarovski crystals to the centers of the snowflakes. I know that red isn't a typical snowflake color, but it seemed to fit the personality of this set--a warm, "homey" personality!

Finally, I have one Mazel Tov card to share--gold embossing powder, Shimmery Gold cardstock,  gold ribbon, and even a gold head pin and bead.  I used a Spellbinders ribbon tag die for the Shalom sentiment. The new Mazel Tov stamp set fills a stamping niche in such an elegant way!

Tomorrow night I'll share a very simple, fun ornament made with Merry and Bright--no soldering, I promise!  Have a lovely day!

Posted on the CLASSroom: Snowman Inchie Ornament Card

I posted this little inchie ornament card on  the CLASSroom blog today. We'd love to have you visit!

Image Credit: Itty Bitty Snow Buddy by Lockhart Stamp Company

Christmas Fudge Tin: Merry and Bright

Tonight I'd like to share a little Christmas gift with you; my father-in-law is hard to buy gifts for in that he has pretty much whatever he will wear (enough sweaters and socks already). But one thing that I know he looks forward to every Christmas season is fresh, homemade fudge.  This is a pretty small container, but trust me, he gets refills! Dad is a fudge purist--no pecans allowed.  My first batch of fudge every year has to be the plain variety--the recipe from the back of the Kraft Marshmallow Cream jar. I've never had it flop, even when I didn't bother getting my candy thermometer out. :-)

This year I'm using a PaperTrey's Nugget Tins, as well as Melissa Bickford's new Merry and Bright set (coming out on September 15). I love the little mix and match tree parts and the clean, fresh font on the sentiments.  Here I paired the trees with this month's Holiday Vintage Prints paper, Pure Poppy cardstock, and Dark Chocolate Dotted Satin ribbon. I made a tag using a Spellbinders Tags Trio die and Simple Alphabet. I think Dad will approve!

Be sure to check out the other gift posts--you might find a perfect gift idea: Nichole, Lisa Johnson, Lauren Meader, Heather Nichols, Mish Wooderson, Melissa Phillips, Niki Estes, Geny Cassady,  Becky Oehlers, and Dawn McVey. Next month Betsy Veldman will play too! Thanks for visiting.

About the Future: CPS 81

I'm late getting my CPS card done this week; between starting school with a new curriculum, and several stamping deadlines, it's been a busy week!

Our sponsor for CPS this week was a new one to me: ScraPerfect with their Perfect Printing Pouch. I have no idea what's in that little pouch, but it certainly seemed to improve the detail and color on my inkjet-printed digital papers. After I wiped the pouch across cardstock before printing on it, the ink dried quickly, and the paper (inexpensive Georgia-Pacific cardstock that I printed the digital papers on) held detail well.  I'd give it a thumbs up, and I'm quite sure that I'll use it again. (By the way, it's not that I have a great printer either--it's a $29.95 inkjet!)

Digital paper here is from Shabby Miss Jenn's Love Shack Collection, and the stamp is a Wordsworth stamp--Wordsworth Remembering, Abraham Lincoln Set. This is a a super-simple sketch if you have time to play this week. Thanks for visiting!

The Fine Print
Stamps: Wordsworth Remembering: Abraham Lincoln Set
Papers: Shabby Miss Jenn's Love Shack--printed using Scraperfect on the plain white cardstock
Cardstock: Spring Willow Medium (Prism), Stampers Select White for stamped image (PaperTrey Ink), Georgia Pacific white cardstock for digital papers
Ink: Adirondack Meadow, Antique Linen Distress ink
Accessories: mini brads, pink taffeta (Stampin' Up)

P.S. I almost forgot! Nichole, Lauren, Pine, and Melissa all have some cool new PaperTrey images up!

Trick or Sweet comes to da U.P.

Taylor's cupcakes made it to "da U. P.!"  I have three small cards to share with you tonight. For all of them I used Cosmo Cricket's Haunted collection of papers as well as Trick or Sweet.

On the mummy cupcake, I couldn't resist making my own sentiment with my Just Rite Times New Roman alphabet. I stamped "Who's your mummy?" then clipped down to the baseline (as shown in a previous post here) to curve my sentiment around the circle top.  I also added a patterned circle from the Harmony Classic Circle set around my mummy since he wasn't quite as colorful as my other two cupcakes. Copic markers that I used were W1, W3, C1, C3, o, R20, R24, and R29. The green border is stamped with Versamagic Tea Leaves ink, and the circle is cut and embossed with a Spellbinders Plain Circle die. Background paper is Cosmo Cricket Gothic.

For the pumpkin cuppy, I chose Eerie paper and the following Copic markers: YR12, YR04, and YR18 for the pumpkin, and YG03 and YG17 for the cherry-stem. The base is RV91, RV93, RV 95, and just a touch of RV99. I used a Sakura Black Gelly Roll pen to color the mouth and eyes for added dimension. Buttons are from a neutrals pack from Buttons Galore. The Trick or Sweet sentiment is die cut with a Spellbinders tags trio die.

For Dracula I chose Nevermore paper and a square format--a square worked better for me than the circle because of his billowing cape. I used black flocking on the cape and black Gelly Roll pen on his hair. For the rest of him, I used these Copic markers: R20, R22, R24, YR21, YR38, C2, W2 0, and Booo.  (I think that when I color the image again, I might try a pallor for a skin tone.) I love Taylor's cupcakes!

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Finally, a couple of announcements:

Ellen is having a Back to School sale from Wednesday September 10 through Friday, September 12; for more information, check out this post.

Also, the Just Rite Stampers Stampin' Champion contest is in its final stages with over $3400 in prizes up for grabs. If you have a chance, go VOTE for your favorite piece before 9pm on Friday. Thanks!