Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

It's the 25th! Time for The Papertrey Blog Hop Challenge!!

Here is the inspiration picture:

I decided to use Stitched and Swirls and combine it with the MIM challenge, Watercolor Splats.

I also need to beef up my teacher card stash for Teacher Appreciation Week coming up!

Supplies:  Stitches and Swirls Stamps, Fresh Snow & Pure Poppy Inks. WW:Teacher die. Pure Poppy 

CS. The Twinery Twine, misc. button. Tim Holtz ink in Black Soot. Clear Embossing Powder.

Lil Inkers Designs:Stitched Rectangles, TH Mini Blending tool.

Enjoy the hop!!

Make It Monday #158: Stamping With Watercolor Mediums

So, here is my second creation for the Make It Monday challenge you can find here:

Heather showed us how to use Gelatos which I had never used before. For this card, I wet my watercolor paper first. I then, inked up my butterfly border(The Paper Studio) stamp with the gelatos and spritzed with water before stamping. I did that with each color to make a rainbow. Adhered it to some Plum Pudding CS and stamped my WW: Friends sentiment in Plum Pudding as well.

For some reason the one blue gelato was much drier than the rest so I had some trouble getting it on the stamp. Otherwise, I was happy with the results. Thanks for stopping by today!

Make it Monday #158: Stamping With Watercolor Mediums

The MIM is a fabulous challenge this week over at PTI. Heather showes us how to do this using gelatos. I began this process on Monday! I started with my watercolor paper and my gelatos that have now been released from their package. I just swiped some rainbow colors over my paper and spritzed them with water. I then blended them a little with my finger. I decided to use some dies and get a couple projects from the one piece of watercolor. Here is my first card:

 I used my Cricut for the Pure Poppy card base and the balloons. Wonderful Words: Birthday Die that I cut from my watercolored paper. I heat embossed wishes(The Paper Studio-Sentiments) with Zing EP in Wave and stamped around the window with Stamped Stitches from Hot Off The Press.

On the inside I tied the balloons with red twine and stamped a sentiment from Inside Out: Birthday II.

I wanted to leave the balloons plain since I may want to put a # on them when the time comes to give this away.   That's about all for now.     Only took me 4 1/2 days to complete!! I'm on a roll!

See ya later and thanks for stopping by today.

Make it Monday # 157: DIY Cover Plates-Take Two & DIe Storage at LAST!!

I first must say that I love to partake in the MIM challenges found here because, it not only gets me to think out of the box, but I also do things that I would never think to try. Thank you PTI for that!! It is always so much fun and I love to see what others come up with and draw so much inspiration from all the other crafty people out there! Thanks to you as well!

This weeks MIM was a challenge for me because I do like things symmetrical. My card did NOT
turn out perfect but it'll do. Sometimes it's not worth shooting for perfection when it's not such a big issue and I can live with it.

I chose to use the Tranquility Trilogy and I didn't get the spacing exactly how I wanted it-Oh well.
Here is my card:

I also used Blueberry PP, Melon Berry CS and ink, Double ended Banner Die and Simple Sentiments.

As for my NEW and IMPROVED Die storage. I always used the CD sleeves but hated when there

was more than one die in the collection and they swam around together in the pocket. I decided to try and figure this out. This is a small sample of the dies I have figured out a new way to store them but still using the CD sleeve:

I just stitched the sleeve to make pockets within the sleeve. 

A closer look:

and the back where I can store extra cuts:

I really like this for the Limitless Layers that I have(the smaller size). I have not figured out the larger size yet.

Sorry about the sideways picture. For the shapes on the bottom, after I stitched, I just used an exacto knife to slice a place where the die could slip in.  So far, this is an answer for me. I am also keeping these with the stamp set by adhering it to the back of the storage folder that I keep the coordinating stamp set in.

Any questions?? Don't hesitate to ask, have a great day!!

My next challenge is color coding with these:

Any suggestions are welcome, thanks and have a super day!!

Papertrey March Blog Hop Challenge and Button Storage

First things first:

Today I am joining the Blog Hop over at Papertrey Ink.

Here is the Challenge Photo:

Here is what I came up with for today:

This card is for the Blog Hop as well as the Make It Monday

 Betsy Veldman does a great tutorial on how to make your own cover plate of sorts, just by using the dies you already have.  I knew I wanted to use my tea cup and emboss them(high gloss for the HOP) but just wasn't sure how.

I followed what she said to do and made my coverplate by moving my tea cup around the paper and passing it through my Vagabond a gazillion times! No, not that many, it actually went pretty fast.  

I used the post it note to hold my die in place. The stickiness from the post it note took the coating off my die, weird. It chipped off just like paint would. It doesn't matter to me. I just thought I'd mention it incase anyone might have an issue with this. It's all shiny now.   

So, then I secured my cut up paper into place with removable adhesive so I could stamp my tea cups. After I stamped them in the PTI colors I wanted, I restamped over everything with Versamark. I then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.  I tried to get a better shot of this here, it looks so much better than the picture.     

After this step I decided the "cover plate" was a bit too white so I stamped it with Background Basic: Twinkle in Aqua Mist which seemed to finish it off a little more.

I also wanted to share my button storage with you today. I have been working on what works for me in the storage department and this is how I store my buttons and I LOVE it!!
Thanks to the White Cow Dairy, for the jars, awesome yogurt by the way!!

The lids of the jars are screwed into the bottom of my shelf. These yogurt jars are the perfect size for a bag of buttons. Sometimes I have to really shake the jar to make them fit, or take out a large button or two.

I am currently working on storage of my dies and stamps and I hope to post some of these pictures soon. Stamp Storage Folders from Hobby Lobby is the route I took but that's all I will say for now.

HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE!!

Make It Monday #156: 3D Stamp Paint Techniques #6

Make It Monday #156: 3D Stamp Paint Techniques

You can find the MIM video here.

I really wasn't sure I wanted to try this MIM. After watching Melissa, and as much as Ilike to get inky myself, I just didn't want to get paint on my precious Vagabond. I decided I would do all the impressions in one shot and clean everything quickly.

This worked out well and everything washed up nicely with soap and water.

I decided to make one more card tonight:

I used the Cane Print IP, WW: hello die, twine, stickles, texture magic paint,

White and hibiscus Burst CS.

 Night night!!

Make It Monday #156: 3D Stamp Paint Techniques #5

Make It Monday #156: 3D Stamp Paint Techniques

You can find the MIM video here.

Earlier this week I made a gift card holder for my nephew using this technique.

I wasn't sure I liked the outcome but in the end I got it to where I wanted it.

I went away for the weekend so I am just posting it now. I used the Paper Effects

by DecoArt for dimension and a Sizzix Embossing Folder after I die cut the Gift Card

holder out:

 This product gave it a shabby worn and tattered look that I really didn't like at first. I then used some Viva rub on color in Red and it came out looking like this:

much better! I then added the birthday die and glittered it in spots to continue with

the distressed look. Added a little twine and felt thickers and I was done!