Prairie Paper & Ink

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I never got my Friday Sketch posted yesterday. I had planned on making one with my sample and got the call from my sister - I took her to the hospital (driving her there on the highway to the city (over an hour away) on a Friday afternoon with long weekend traffic was interesting let me tell you!!!) and she ended up giving birth last night to a gorgeous baby girl!!!!

I just got home from the hospital (I stayed there overnight with her) so I'm going on about 2 hours of sleep and am completely exhausted. I will upload a pic of the new little girlie (man I got a serious case of baby fever holding her but being in the labour and delivery ward and hearing what some of the other women were going through cleared that up pretty quickly *wink*) once I actually bring in my camera and upload the pictures LOL!

Till later.......

ETA here's a pic of the new baby (she was named Dawson Rose - the Rose is in tribute to our Aunty Roseanne that passed away this past Christmas Day from ovarian cancer):

I took this one this morning. The little monkey already loves sucking on her fingers and has quite the attitude yet sleeps SO well! And TONS of really dark hair that is oh-so-fuzzy....................mmmm that new baby smell!!!!!!!!! Not to mention she weighed in at EXACTLY the same amount my oldest did when she was born (6lbs14oz) - I forgot how tiny that was..........

ACK!

Good Mail Day TWICE!!

First off I am still waiting along with my sister. Her doctor's appointment went well yesterday (and I was fine for most of the day but SO tired!!) and she was told she was already 2-3 cm and over the course of the afternoon and evening the contractions started. They're pretty sporadic tho and a good 15-20 minutes apart - so we wait! I am really excited about this and I was just on the phone with her and she is hoping it will happen tonight so we'll see! I am getting things ready so that I can go as soon as she calls......

Besides all that I am having a GOOD day today - I got TWO parcels in the mail two days in a row. One of them was my LONG awaited new CC Designs stamps:

YAY!!!!! I can't wait to get them inked up and start creating - these sets are too adorable to resist.

Oh and FYI I have had several people ask me if the size of the Glam Girls are different if you buy them individually versus getting the set - and no they are the same size regardless (all three of them are a little over 3" high).

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And THEN I got another parcel in the mail - something I wasn't expecting and had no clue what was in it - well I opened it up to find THIS!!:

'member me posting not too long ago about me winning some free iTunes music from the Cosmo Cricket blog? Well it turns out they couldn't gift me the music b/c I'm in Canada and they're in the US (iTunes between our countries is totally different and drives me mad.....) so they asked me if I'd like free CC product instead - was that a trick question? Of course I said YES!

So they sent me 2 different Paper Crafting Kits (Cogsmo and Hey Sugar) some Cogsmo Blackboard shapes and a blackboard album!

WOOHOO!! Thanks Cosmo Cricket!!! I can't wait to play!

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Also an FYI - I have heard y'all loud and clear - tons of you want to know exactly how I got the holes lined up on this card. I will show how I did it in a future post K?? :o)

Papertrey May Release Samples

Here are all the samples I made for this month's Papertrey release!!

All of them are pretty straightforward and all the supplies for each project are listed in my PT Gallery HERE.

I will try and come back later to edit/add in any more info about these samples but it's late and I NEED to get to bed - my (VERY) prego sister has a doctor's appointment early tomorrow morning and I am going to drive her there (last thing we need is her going into labor during the hour long drive!!) so I need to be up at 5 am!!

G'night everyone!!

Bonus Sketch!

I was asked to be a guest hostess over on Splitcoast this week for the Sketch Challenge so I made up a sketch and a sample and here it is!

I used GinaK's Owl Always Love You stamp set - stamped them with Brilliance Graphite Black ink then colored them in with Copic Markers. I went over their bodies with my quickie glue pen and covered them with carmel latte tan fun flock - check out how fuzzy they are LOL!!:

The baubles are from Stamping Bella and the ribbon I got some time ago from Michaels (I KNOW isn't it fabulous?? I wish I had bought more of it b/c I haven't seen it there since!)

Here is the sketch:

You can check out the challenge thread I'm hostessing over on SCS here.

The keywords for this one if you decide to play along and upload your card to a public gallery is SC176.

Papertrey May Release Countdown - 2

Have y'all been enjoying the sneak peeks so far? I know I have!! This month's sets are fabulous (as they are every month) and I have been having a blast creating samples with them!

For my sneak peek I thought I'd show y'all a card I made using the soon-to-be-released Favor It Baby set (it's not just for making baby shower favors and whatnot you know!) - like the Favor It Weddings set this one is only going to be $5 (for 12 sentiments!!) and the play on words is so cute - it's such a fun little set!

I started with a 3 3/4" square piece of PT's Aqua Mist cardstock and punched 4 holes in it with my 1 1/4" circle punch.

I then took my Polka Dot Basics set and stamped the smalled polka dots onto the cardstock with white pigment ink.

I next took a piece of Lemon Tart CS (it looks green in this picture but it really is yellow!) and cut it just slightly smaller than the Aqua Mist CS.

I placed the Aqua Mist CS over the Lemon Tart piece and used the punched holes as guides for where to stamp the bee image (from the new Honey Bees set) using black ink.

I made sure to leave one circle blank.

I stamped the "Mommy to bee" sentiment onto a scrap of PT White cardstock and punched it out with my 1" circle punch.

I then adhered the Lemon Tart CS to a card base made from Summer Sunrise CS (the card measures 4.25" square). Once that was attached I attached the Aqua Mist piece using dimensionals and then the stamped sentiment was attached with yet another dimensional.

By stamping the sentiment onto white CS and punching it out as opposed to just stamping it onto the Lemon Tart it really makes it POP don't you think?

I finished off the card with a bit of Summer Sunrise ribbon and that was it!

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Favor It Baby and Honey Bees.

CS: Stampers Select White, Aqua Mist, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise.

INK: Versafine Onyx Black, White Pigment.

ACCESSORIES: 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1" Circle Punch, Summer Sunrise Luxe Satin, Dimensionals.

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Don't forget to head on over to Nichole's blog to see what the Design Team did with the Favor It Baby set!!

Dreams Come True

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a happy Mother's Day! Those flowers in the picture below are actually on a little plant I bought for myself for my Mother's Day gift lol - aren't they pretty?

I am absolutely BURIED right now under cardstock and stamps and ribbon (I know y'all feel SO sorry for me *wink*) trying to get all my samples done for Papertrey's release on Thursday (stay tuned for midnight when my sneak peek post goes live) but I wanted to hop on here real quick and share another Bella card I made recently.

This card uses imeldabella - and the sentiment from MFT's Essential Sentiments was too perfect for it.

I used Copic markers to color in the image then added some stickles to a couple of the boxes.

The patterned paper is from a slab I got at Michael's, ribbon is from RABOM, and I added a Prima Sprite and Bazzill Bitty Blossom with a Making Memories Pebble Brad.

The baubles are from Stamping Bella and I've been asked how I attach them - I used to use mini glue dots but now I just use a tiny dot of my Tombow Mono Multi and it works like a charm!

Have a great evening everyone!

Recipe Tags

I had a lady here in town call me the other day asking if I could make up some recipe tags for her. Since I got Kim Hughes Baked With Love set and it hadn't seen ink this seemed like the perfect use for it!! *grin*

I just printed out the directions onto Vanilla cardstock, then stamped some of the images from the set using various inks. I matted them with a scalloped rectangle (cut with my Nestabilities dies) and punched a hole in the corner for the ribbon to thread through when they're attached to the jars.

The recipe given to me is more or less just directions as the tags are going to be attached to jars that have all the dry ingredients already layered inside - so all they have to do is follow the directions to make yummy brownies! I was told that these will all be given to moms in her church on Sunday for Mother's Day - so I hope they like them! :o)

A STICKY Sale

Jody is doing a "STICKY" sale on her blog - check it out here. I LOVE redline products - I have their sticky strip (SU! sells it) and the full sheets from ATS and that stuff is AWESOME - so I jumped all over this sale! I never knew they made dimensionals! And the stars are too cool too (had to get me a pack of those!).

Don't forget to check out this post that Jody did showing some neat things using these sticky items - as soon as I saw the Crop-a-dile picture in the beginning of her post I had my order ready!

I've participated in Jody's ribbon and Prima shares in the past and she is FABULOUS to deal with - I always get my stuff in great condition and she ships out as soon as she gets the stuff in! So shop with confidence!

There's my public service announcement for the day *wink*

Friday Sketch! #17

Howdy!

Here's the layout for Friday and I hope y'all can play along!

Like the card I posted yesterday this one uses The Cat's Pajamas clear and swanky It's a Western Thing stamp set and patterned paper from daisyd's Autumn collection.

I stamped the kitty onto white cardstock and used my Copic markers to color her in.

The sentiment is stamped onto a punched out giga circle that I punched from one of the more solid colored patterned papers.

The black strip isn't paper but rather grosgrain ribbon I attached with sticky strip adhesive.

The stitched ribbon is from Michaels.

It's insanely early right now and I need to get to bed as I'm heading for the city (over an hour away) tomorrow morning with Veronica b/c we both have dentist appointments and I am DREADING them both. I am going to need a ton of work done and Veronica might need to have a tooth pulled and I am trying to be brave for her! WAH! I hate dentist appointments........

ANYWHO here is the sketch for today:

If you upload your card using this sketch to any public galleries please use the keyword AMYRS25 to make it easier to find.

And don't forget to link directly to your creation in the comment section of this post so that I can see it too!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Much Obliged!

I made this for one of The Cat's Pajama's weekly challenges and then promptly forgot to take a picture of it and post it!

Anywho here it is - I used TCP's clear and swanky It's a Western Thing stamp set and stamped each penguin separately. I colored them in with Copic markers then punched them out with a square punch and matted them with a scalloped piece of red cardstock.

The patterned paper is from this daisyd's Autumn collection, and I don't know if you can tell but the black strip isn't paper it's actually 2 pieces of grosgrain ribbon. :o)

The card base is one of SU!'s (retired) Cool Caribbean long notes - it measures 3 1/4 x 6 1/2".

Cupcake Bella

I love this cupcakeabella from Stamping Bella - she's so darn cute!

I stamped her onto white cardstock then used my Copic markers to color her in, and added Fruit Punch stickles to the icing of the cupcake. It's rather hard to tell but I also added a little rain dot to the cherry so that it's all dimensional and shiny.

The sentiment is from A Muse (too perfect for this Bella of course!).

That paper on the card base is Lace cardstock by KI Memories - this stuff is SO cool! I just cut a piece from the sheet and used a few dots of glue here and there to adhere it to the card base and that was it!

I finished off the card with a couple of Prima flowers (attached with a Making Memories brad), and some ribbon from my stash.

Does anyone else crave a cupcake slathered in pink icing??????

"Guilty" Owls??

LOL I am in LOVE with GinaK's Owl Always Love You set (see? Owls are so IN right now!! They're everywhere!!) - to me the expressions they have look almost guilty - it just makes me grin.

I had a LOT of fun making these cards - I pulled out some fun patterned paper, Stickles, Fun Flock, ribbon and baubles and went to town and this was the result!

I stamped this one onto white cardstock then colored him in with Copic markers. I then went over the owl's body with my Quickie Glue pen and pressed Carmel Latte Tan Fun Flock all over and now he's fuzzy!

I then took Grape Ice Ice stickles and filled in the flowers so they're all sparkly :o)

The patterned paper us a K&Company Amy Butler Pack, the ribbon is May Arts and the baubles are form Stamping Bella.

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Owl Always Love You set by GinaK Designs.

CS: Papertrey White, Prism (purple), K&Co Patterned Paper, Chocolate Chip (SU!).

INK: Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Baubles, Ribbon, Fun Flock, Stickles, Dimensionals, Corner Rounder Punch.

I used all the same supplies for this card except I used the other owl stamp from the set and different May Arts ribbon.

I also only applied the fun flock to the edges of the owl images - you can click on the picture to get a better idea of what I mean.

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Owl Always Love You set by GinaK Designs.

CS: Papertrey White, Prism (purple), K&Co Patterned Paper, Chocolate Chip (SU!).

INK: Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Baubles, Ribbon, Fun Flock, Dimensionals.

Glitter Nails

People have commented and e-mailed me asking how my whole venture into doing gel nails is going - it's been slow but I am LOVING doing them - check out what I did the other day to my own nails:

 

Instead of doing my typical french white tip I mixed Stampin' Up!'s Fine Cosmo Orchid glitter with gel and gave myself purple glitter tips!! I am REALLY pleased with how they turned out (and stoked that I can incorporate some of my stamping supplies into my gel nail stuff *wink*) - I already want to file them off and do another color - the Rose Pink glitter would look SO cool (and the Dazzling Diamonds, heck any fine glitter would look fabulous!!).

I'll be back later with an actual card-related post but I thought I'd share this with y'all!! :o)

EDITED TO ADD:

OK so I've had several people ask me how I have NO hagnails in these pics (trust me there's no fancy editing - my nails look just like that!!)

I used to get hagnails all the time - and they were nasty. I'm talking split and bleeding really GROSS fingers - it was awful and painful. But then I got gel nails put on and the hangnails stopped!! I now very rarely get hangnails (and when I do it's usually on my right (dominant) hand) and I don't wear gloves for anything (washing dishes, yardwork, any of that stuff - mostly b/c I can never find them and am too lazy to hunt for them.....).

However if gel nails aren't an option for you (lots of you have asked but sadly I can't afford to travel to do them *wink* even tho it'd prolly be tons of fun!) what you can do is get yourself a vitamin enriched cuticle oil and apply it to your cuticles and skin surrounding your nails twice a day. Also using a good moisturizing lotion at least once a day on your hands will help as well.

So there's my advice for the day - I hope it helps those who were wondering!! 

CC Designs Stamps Now Available!

Sadly my new sets haven't arrived yet so I have no samples to share but I WILL when they finally get here! I can't wait to get them inked up!

Introducing Glam Girls:

Aren't they FABULOUS???? So stinkin' cute and their glasses are so funky :o)

You can buy the set like this or you can buy them all individually - check them out here.

Hootin' Good Time:

Owls are so IN right now - remember my shoes in this post? I love this set - these guys just crack me up.

  Christine also made a couple of extra sentiments that you can get that go with the Monkey Love stamp set. Don't forget there's also a bananas set of 2 stamps that match as well :o)

Are YOU Interested??

Last November I went on a weekend stamping retreat to Kamp Kadesh with Julie - you can see some of the pics I took here.

We're doing it again during the last weekend of October/first 2 days of November and you really should come! Julie started a facebook group that anyone can join to find out more info (joining the group does NOT guarantee you a spot - you have to register and pay the deposit to hold your spot as it's being limited to 40 people!).

It is SERIOUSLY more than worth every penny (I think the price is cheap for 2 nights and catered meals and yes the food is fabulous!).

Hope to see you there!! :)

EDITED TO ADD (May 10) - Julie posted more info on her blog here with more details!

Papertrey - It's A Celebration Samples

Here are the other 2 cards I've created using Papertrey's It's A Celebration set.

I really love all the little cupcake topper images in this set - they're so cute! I stamped the bottom part 4 times onto white cardstock, then stamped the different tops using Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet ink.

I used a 1 1/4" circle punch to punch out the cupcakes, then added a 1 3/8" mat to them (made with dark brown CS).

I finished off the front of the card by adding a strip of Sweet Blush Saddle Stitch ribbon with brown brads, and scalloping the edge using a corner rounder punch (video tutorial on how I do that here).

On the inside of the card I stamped another cupcake and the happy birthday sentiment (I LOVE the font of this one!) from the Birthday Basics stamp set.

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: It's A Celebration and Birthday Basics by Papertrey.

CS: Papertrey Stamper's Select White, Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip (SU!).

INK: Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet (PT), Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip (SU).

ACCESSORIES: Circle Punches, Ribbon, Brads, Corner Rounder Punch.

When the It's a Celebraiton set first came out a lot of people were asking what the long line stamp was for. It is meant to be used with the tag stamp in the set (it's the string) but I thought it would make a great balloon string!

When I placed the stamp onto the acrylic block I changed the shape of it a bit (one of the cool benefits of clear stamps) before stamping it. I stamped it 3 times then added the balloons.

I made the balloons by pressing VersaMark ink onto Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet CS and embossing clear embossing powder over it. I did 2 or 3 layers of EP to get it good and thick, then when it cooled I used a circle punch to make balloons.

I punched a hole in the main image using my MM Ribbon Slot Punch to slip the ribbon through, and added another sentiment from the Birthday Basics set.

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: It's A Celebration and Birthday Basics by Papertrey.

CS: Papertrey Stamper's Select White, Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet, Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip (SU!).

INK: VersaMark and Chocolate Chip (SU).

ACCESSORIES: Clear EP, Circle Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, Ribbon Slot Punch, Ribbon, Dimensionals.

Friday Sketch! #16

Wow it's hard to believe I'm on #16 already! I have really been enjoying coming up with these sketches for y'all and enjoy seeing what everyone comes up with when using them! :o)

So here's the one for this week!:

This is another of my "catch up" cards from last month's Papertrey release - tomorrow I'll post 2 more cards I made with this set and color combo :o)

I used the It's a Celebration set and stamped the banners onto the one panel, then added the word "happy" to it using the Simple Alphabet.

After stamping the gift I added the word birthday with the alphabet set.

The polka dots were stamped with Chocolate Chip ink (Polka Dot Basics set) onto the Blush cardstock then I added the ribbon.

STAMPS: It's a Celebration, Polka Dot Basics and Simple Alphabet by Papertrey Ink.

CS: Stamper's Select White, Sweet Blush, SU! Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip.

INK: Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, SU! Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip.

ACCESSORIES: Brads, Dimensionals, Ribbon.

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Here's the sketch:

If you upload your card using this sketch to any public galleries please use the keyword AMYRS24 to make it easier to find.

And don't forget to link directly to your creation in the comment section of this post so that I can see it too!

Thinking Outside the Tin Challenge

ETA: First off I want to sincerely apologize to my readers who showing up looking for this post and it not being here! I had it automatically set to post at midnight but like a moron I accidentally I clicked on the 2nd instead of the 1st!! :( *note to self to double check times when setting timers on posts!!*

Back to the post:

This month the challenge for the senior design team at Papertrey Ink was to see what we could do with their nugget tins. With Father's Day coming up my thoughts turned towards gift ideas and this was what I came up with!

I know that giving your dad a tie on father's day is rather cliche - but I thought with a simple twist on packaging along with a handmade card and heartfelt message you could give that tie to someone who is SO hard to find gifts for in the first place! *wink*

I started with the nugget tin, then cut a small card to fit over the clear top out of Spring Moss cardstock.

I stamped a strip of white cardstock with the fish images from the Pond Life stamp set (using Spring Moss and SU! Bashful Blue ink) and sponged the edges with Aqua Mist ink.

I used my ribbon slot punch to punch a hole in the card that I threaded the Aqua Mist Saddle Stitch ribbon through. The ribbon not only holds the card closed but the tin as well as the tie *just* fits!

I lined the card with white cardstock and stamped the sentiment (also from the Pond Life stamp set) in black and added a couple of the fish as well. I sponged the edges with more Aqua Mist ink before adhering the cardstock to the card.

And here's the tie - when I first got it to me all I could think of is fish thus the fish theme LOL!

I hope you enjoyed my project and don't forget to check out everyone else's!!:

Debbie

Taylor

Heather

Lisa

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SUPPLIES:

STAMPS: Pond Life Set by Papertrey Ink.

CS: Spring Moss, Aqua Mist and Stamper's Select White by Papertrey.

INK: Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, Black, Bashful Blue (SU!).

ACCESSORIES: Papertrey Nugget Tin, Aqua Mist Ribbon, Corner Rounder Punch, Sponges, Ribbon Slot Punch.

Birthday Fun

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE CC Designs It's Your Birthday set?? I'm pretty sure I have......*grin*

Both of these cards were made during my Autumn Leaves Techno Pop phase (I TOLD y'all I made a ton of cards with this paper - and I still have tons of it left!) and were pretty quick and easy.

Lulu and her gifts were colored in with Copic Markers and I added Stickles to the cupcake and the top of her party hat.

I added some ribbon (WalMart) along with a Bazzill flower (the felt one is from Target) and a jumbo brad.

This one is a 4.25" square card. I stmaped the cupcake from the set several times in a row, colored them in with Copic Markers then added Stickles to the icing and the flame.

The sentiment is from A Muse, card base is Prism and the brads are DoodleBug.

:o)