Prairie Paper & Ink

Papertrey July Release Samples - Floral Frenzy

OK here are my last samples for this release - using the new Floral Frenzy stamp set.

For this card I stamped the flower heads with Dark Chocolate ink, then colored them in with Copic markers. I stamped the stem and leaves with Spring Moss ink, rounded the edges with a corner rounder punch, then sponged the edges with Summer Sunrise ink.

I made the scalloped mat using a Nestabilities die and Dark Chocolate CS. The card base is vellum CS (inked with Dark Chocolate ink) and I attached Summer Sunrise CS to the inside of the card for writing on.

I LOVE the dotted flower center stamps that come in this set - they just have a really cool look to them!

After stamping all the flowers (Dark Chocolate, Lemon Tart and Berry Sorbet Ink with Spring Moss centers) I used my SU! color spritzer w/ SU!'s Chocolate Chip marker and spritzed the cardstock. I then rounded the 2 edges and sponged them before attaching the sentiment (the tag was made with the CuttleBug Tiny Tags die) with a bit of Berry Sorbet Satin ribbon attached with a piece of string.

Papertrey July Release Samples - Wise Owl

I nearly fell off my chair when I saw the Wise Owl and Wise Owl Bellies set by Alli Miles - how CUTE is this set??? Owls are still really popular in papercrafting right now and this set is like THE must-have owl set!!

This card is pretty simple - I assembled my owl then colored him in with Copic markers and cut him out.

The circles were made with my Marvy Mega and Giga Circle Punches, and the scalloped edge was made with Fiskars cloud scissors.

With this card I was trying to simulate a night sky - so I stamped the branch, leaves and moon from PT's Out On a Limb set onto SU! Not Quite Navy CS with Making Memories Scrapbook paints (you can use paint with clear stamps - just make sure you clean them off ASAP!!).

The "pre-made" owls from the set were stamped onto PT Kraft CS, colored with Copics then cut out and adhered with dimensionals.

The tag was made with a CuttleBug Tiny Tags die.

It's hard to tell but the card base is vellum cardstock.

Papertrey July Release Samples - Quilter's Sampler

I'm posting all my samples for this month's release by stamp set (I did this last month and it makes it a little easier on me instead of having to do one REALLY long post LOL!) - starting off with Quilter's Sampler (there's also the add-on Quilter's Sampler Sentiments - aren't they awesome??!).

I made this frame for my mom - I used colors she has in her house. I haven't given it to her yet but I hope she likes it.

I stamped all the blocks onto Papertrey Kraft cardstock and colored them in with Copic markers, punched them out with my 3/4" square punch, then sponged all the edges with Dark Chocolate ink (OMG are you as excited as I am that this was the new color!!!??? I have been wanting a Papertrey dark brown color for MONTHS now and am so glad to finally have it!). The sentiment was stamped, edges sponged then the brads were added when I matted the sentiment.

This frame is actually a pine one from the dollar store - I used a sponge and Dark Chocolate ink and just rubbed on the ink along the grain and it turned out SO nice! The frame will go SO well with my mom's home as she has a lot of antiques and whatnot and this frame just looks "old" now (to me anyway...)

For this card I stamped the blocks onto a piece of Plum Pudding CS with VersaMark ink, then embossed them with clear embossing powder. I used a brush dipped in bleach to "color" (more like remove the color) parts of the blocks, then matted it with a scalloped rectangle cut from Vintage Cream CS.

The polkadots were made using PT's Polka Dot Basics set and Stampin' Up!'s Very Vanilla Craft Pad.

I Got Inked!!!!

That's right - on Friday I got a tattoo!!

I've been wanting one for years and for the longest time I wanted to get 2 butterflies (one for each of the girls) and in a moment of weakness I went and booked the appointment and paid the (NON refundable!) deposit - so there was no backing out!

It was SO painful (everyone told me it's a "good" kind of pain and not that bad - yeah right!) as it's in the middle of my upper back (right below my neck) where there's no fat to "cushion" the needle. The artist did an awesome job as all of this was free handed - he did a rough outline with a marker just to guage the size and placement and that was it!

But now it's done and I love it and that's that! I never thought I'd actually go through with getting one but I did it :o)

EDITED TO ADD: The tattoo is about 4 1/2" tall by 4" wide - a decent size but not too big or too small - but WAY bigger than I had originally planned!! I had only meant to get something like 1 1/2" - 2" at the most - then ended up with this LOL!

I don't know why it hurt so bad - after giving birth to two children (and with Josie I didn't have an epidural or anything...) I still consider this to be AS painful - seriously!! It was all the black (the really black detail lines and whatnot - the black shading wasn't that bad) that hurt terribly - there was a fair bit of blood from it too (he went really deep with the black). but anyway it's healing up good from the looks of it (SO itchy!! But I'm being good and not touching it and cleaning it regularily!!)

AND - I took the girls to their swimming lesson this morning - they didn't participate in the actual class but they DID get in the pool by themselves and played in the shallow end!!! That such a HUGE improvement from last week!!! YAY! I was practically doing a little happy dance as there were NO tears and lots of splashing. I'm thinking they're finally "getting" it - this week's lessons should go a lot more smoothly.......

OK I hafta run - don't forget tonight is Papertrey's July release party - the new sets are AWESOME - I am going to be pulling them out more as once I started creating the ideas started rolling and I didn't have the time to make anything extra!!

Papertrey July Release Countdown - 2

Ask and you shall receive - with Papertrey that is!! They got a TON of requests from customers asking for MORE sentiments to go with the Honey Bees stamp set. I'm happy to say that on the 15th your requests have been heard loud and clear and the Honey Bee Sentiments set will be available for purchase! With 17 stamps for $15 me thinks it's a must have add-on set for Honey Bees.

My project is super easy to make - I was thinking baby showers, party favors, whatever you might have going on that has a "bee theme".

I used the 3 stamps from the set that just say "bee" (notice each one is different - gives you more options when choosing which one you want to add with any of the other Papertrey sentiments) and stamped them onto a strip of Lemon Tart cardstock that I cut to 3/8" by approx 9".

The tin is one of Papertrey's 2.5 oz clear topped tins (that are 3 for $3 - PERFECT for party favors!).

After stamping the strip of CS I adhered it around the base of the tin with sticky strip adhesive.

I used a punched mega scalloped circle and and super jumbo plain circle to decorate the tin lid, and stamped images from both the Honey Bees and Honey Bee Sentiments set onto the white circle.

And here is my decorated tin!! I attached the scalloped circle to the lid with Mono Multi glue, then attached the white circle with dimensionals.

I accented the bee and the flower centers with Star Dust stickles for a little added bling.

FYI the cookies were from Costco (they came in a container with several other styles - flowers, butterflies etc - I just picked out all the bee ones for this project) - but I think that it would be SO much better to make your own sugar cookies and decorate them yourself as these ones are hard as rock and don't have much flavor - they are cute tho!

Here's a close-up of the lid - don't you just love the font of these sentiments?

I doubt y'all need reminding but don't forget to check out Nichole's blog to see what she's come up with today for her sneak peek!

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Honey Bees and Honey Bee Sentiments by Papertrey Ink.

CS: Lemon Tart and Select White by Papertrey Ink.

INK: Black, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise and Spring Moss (PT), Yellow Copic marker.

ACCESSORIES: Papertrey Clear Top 2.5 Oz Round Tin, Marvy Mega Scalloped Circle and Super Jumbo Circle Punches, Star Dust Stickles, Dimensionals.

Friday Sketch! #22

Hey everyone! I had this post all typed up and ready to go late last night then a storm hit, the power went out and I lost the whole thing!! So frustrating........so here it all is again!!

First off thanks to everyone for the advice and encouragement in regards to the girls swimming lessons. Today was one of the worst lessons - Josie absolutely refused to go in the pool, and Veronica just stood in the shallowest spot and glared at everyone and refused to participate. Ah well - I took then to the pool for fun yesterday afternoon and near the end Veronica was running around and splashing and having a blast (Josie still just clung to me and cried) - so it's only a matter of time. We still have a week's worth of lessons to go through and I'm praying next week will go better than this week LOL!!

Anywho on to the card!!:

This was a card I made some time ago using savvyshoppabella and the sentiment from MFT's Essential Sentiments set (a MUST have set IMO!).

I used Copic markers to color in the Bella, and accented her shopping bags and headband with Stickles. The baubles are also from Stamping Bella (pink grapefruit).

The sentiment was punched out with my SU Word Window punch and attached to the Prima daisy with a jumbo brad.

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Savvyshoppabella by Stamping Bella, Sentiment from Essential Sentiments by My Favorite Things.

CS: White, Chocolate Chip (SU!), Prism (Spring Willow Light), Patterned Paper by Me & My Big Ideas.

INK: Black, Copic Markers.

ACCESSORIES: Prima Daisies, Jumbo Brad, Word Window and Corner Rounder Punch (SU!), Baubles, Stickles, Ribbon.

And here's the sketch!:

If you upload your card using this sketch to any public galleries please use the keyword AMYRS31 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!

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Gotta run - have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Last One For Now...

OK here's the last card I've made using the monkey image this time from CCD's Summertime Fun set (and of course more Flair Hit the Beach patterned papers...).

I colored the monkey with Copic markers then cut him out and adhered him to the card with dimensionals.

The sentiment is another one from A Muse, the brads are by DoodleBug, and the photo corners were made with the CuttleBug Tiny Bubbles embossing folder and my SU Photo Corner punch.

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Another update on the girl's swimming lessons - today was no different. Josie clung to me and cried the whole time. Veronica tried a little bit (then got splashed in the face by one of the other kids and promptly started bawling) then refused to do anything.

Ah well we're going to keep going back and now my mom is joining the bribery wagon to see what it will take to get them to go in the water and have FUN! So we'll see how this all goes.........you'd think I was doing something terrible to torture them the way they act - but I'm hopin' that once they get used to the idea they'll have a blast (me - I LOVE to swim - I could have been a lifeguard but life circumstances got in the way of me finishing the last couple of required courses. If I didn't have my kids practically choking me during the lesson it actually feels so GOOD being in the pool with them - I didn't realize how much I missed it!!).

Have a fabulous night everyone :o)

Surfer Dude Lucky

I told y'all I wasn't ready to stop playing with CC Designs new Summertime Fun set. I had to make at least one more card with it along with the Flair Hit the Beach patterned papers (they are just too perfect when using a stamp set like this!)

I stamped Lucky onto white cardstock then colored him in with my Copic markers and cut him out (omitting the wave that was part of the stamp). I then took the piece of patterned paper and tore out the center before matting it with blue CS and adhering Lucky with dimensionals.

Ribbon is May Arts, brads are DoodleBug, colored CS is SU.

You can now see the full Summertime Fun stamp set here, along with the rest of the CC Designs July release here.

Jody's July Sticky Sale

That's right - Jody of Confessions of a Ribbon Addict is doing yet another sticky sale - and this time there's some fun new products added to the mix - those square and circle shaker sets are too cool to pass up (I HAVE to get some of those - I hate making shaker cards b/c it takes too long to line the edges with the dimensionals and whatnot - but with those making shaker's would be a snap eh?). Check out all the info on her sale HERE.

She's also doing a May Arts ribbon share - you can check that out here.

I *heart* Jody - I've participated in several of her shares and always get fabulous service and my stuff arrives in perfect condition in record time. I highly recommend participating in her shares! :o)

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Side note - the girls first swimming lesson went....well lets just say they both pretty much had a death grip on me the entire time (I HAD to get in the pool with them - which I kind of assumed would happen so I had brought my bathing suit with me) and Josie cried for most of it. It was pretty frustrating but we're going back every morning for the next 2 weeks so I'm really hoping that they realize just how fun it really is LOL!!

Inspired by....

Happy Monday everyone! This has to be a quick post as it's nearly midnight here and I need to get some sleep (the girls have their first swimming lesson in the morning!).

I was really inspired by this card <------click! that Lauren made for the Papertrey gallery using the Flower Garden stamp set, so I made a couple for my card stash but changed them up a little bit so that they weren't exactly the same:

I stamped the flower image from the Flower Garden set onto punched circles of cardstock - using the same color of ink as each color CS (all PT colors).

On the first card I used Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, Lavender Moon and Plum Pudding inks and cardstock, along with Papertrey White cardstock, black (SU) CS and the sentiment from the Faux Ribbon stamp set stamped in black.

On this card I used Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet CS and inks, and the sentiment on this one is from Papertrey's Paper Tray stamp set.

Both cards were SUPER fast to make, and would be great for a mass-production effort if needed. I love being inspired by other people creations but putting my own twist on it and not copying them outright (and I still like to give credit where it is due since this idea came from someone else's creation!)

Thanks for the inspiration Lauren!

Yet Another Quick Update

All I can do is shake my head and grin as I type this. Yup my teeth still hurt and yup I've got a cold and yup my computer crashed overnight. I spent a good part of my morning in tears (I thought I had lost everything - my life for the past 2 years - photos, documents, EVERYTHING is on this computer) and the rest of the morning on the phone with Dell.

Since I'm typing this on the same computer yup that means it's fixed. I have to say right now I LOVE Dell!! My computer guru (Charles) spent a TON of time helping me out, got my computer fixed AND everything is still on here. He even went the extra mile and fiddled with my computer settings to make my external hard drive (NOT a Dell brand as I bought it some time ago and installed it myself (aka plugged it in!! *wink*) to hopefully transfer everything onto on the off (ha!) chance something happened to this computer) work properly - so I am good to go!

Needless to say my day is looking much better - I'm still a million years behind on housework, have done NO stamping whatsoever, and I promised the girls I'd take them camping overnight and go fishing tomorrow (and don't have the heart to not take them now as they are way too excited to go)........

Really life could be a lot worse - I was feeling pretty devastated this morning over the whole computer thing (as in sick to my stomach - mostly b/c of the fear of losing over 2 years worth of pictures.....) but now I can just shrug my shoulders and pick up where I left off.

PSA for everyone - BACK UP ALL FILES, BURN THEM TO DISCS, MAKE SURE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES ARE WORKING PROPERLY WHEN YOU INSTALL THEM!!!!!! **A BIG hug** goes out to my Dell support guy for having the patience with a chick that literally had NO clue what she was doing (and he even thanked ME for being so patient as it was taking so long ROFLOL!!!!).

Oh and thank you to everyone for the dental advice LOL. So far so good - I'm swishing and brushing and cleaning and doing everything my dentist told me to do (plus popping the pain meds regularly!!). I was given antiseptic mouthwash packs too that I'll be trying out (was told they'll hurt a lot but they really help keep everything CLEAN) that should help. It sucks not being able to eat normally but I can stand to lose a few pounds (that's my mantra right now!!!) and really - life could be a lot worse.

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And if you are still reading this since I don't have any more samples to share of the soon-to-be-released CC Designs stamps make sure to check out the ATS blog to see what the Design Team has been up to - they have been ROCKIN' these stamps and on each post you have the chance to enter a comment and be picked to win the set being featured. I will definitely be posting more samples just a little later on when I actually get caught up with LIFE!!!

Now I'm off to go and ENJOY my weekend - make sure you all do the same!

Quick tooth (well non-tooth!) update!

So I ended up having to travel to the city to see my dentist as the local dentist's office is closed to the 14th of July (they're all on vacation!) - I couldn't take the pain anymore and this was the only time I could get away as I am going to be INSANELY busy next week plus the girls are starting swimming lessons on Monday------------- ANYWHO - turns out I DON'T have dry socket (thank goodness!) but my gums are so inflamed bordering on infected that if I don't see improvement by Monday I may have to make yet another trip into the city for them to work on my mouth.

I am already on antibiotics (otherwise they were going to start me on them again) and basically all I can do is keep cleaning my mouth through the pain (and blood - I guess that's a GOOD thing if it bleeds - yikes) - blah. I did ask them for something stronger than ibuprofen as I've been pumping that like crazy just to get through the day and they wouldn't give it to me (this office is very anti-heavy meds - which is great since I'm not into that either but my mouth HURTS!!!!)- basically I'm just supposed to keep up with the  ibuprofen and add extra-strength Tylenol to the mix (I'm sure my liver is gonna love me when I'm done with this.........).

I supposed if I begged I could have gotten a prescription for some good meds but that's not my way and really I don't like taking pills in the first place (they originally gave me T3's for the pain but it turns out that codeine gives me AWFUL nightmares so I won't take another one no matter how bad the pain is!!). Oh and sorry if I'm scaring anyone who's supposed to get their wisdom teeth out in the near future - even tho my experience has been pretty cruddy so far I needed them out b/c I'd be having much worse issues than this down the road if I'd left them!! :o(

Oh and on top of all this fun stuff I'm getting a cold. So I sadly can't guarantee I'll have any new eye candy to share over the weekend as this unplanned trip tired me out and I NEED to try and get some sleep (not to mention clean my house as I never got the chance to do that before I had to run in to see the dentist)......

I am off to bed - it's late and hot out still and I am beyond tired - to all the rest of you have a FABULOUS weekend!!!! :o)

CC Designs Sneak Peek! Summertime Fun

Sorry I'm so late with this post - I had a rough day yesterday. The girls were being monsters (and then after they got it all out of their system they were cute as can be ------ kids!!) and I discovered I got dry socket on one side of my mouth from the removal of the one wisdom tooth!! I followed the instructions to the letter after I had them all removed and the one side hurt SO much more than the other - so I took a good look yesterday and yup - dry socket. It HURTS!! I just called my dentist and all they can do is pack it for me - and since I'm an hour away I can't just drive in and get that done - so I may have to get it done at the local dentist's office. BLAH! I'll have to do something tho b/c it's pretty painful.....

Anywho I finally got a card done using another new CC Designs set that will be released on the 7th called Summertime Fun:

This set is SO cute - just check out all the other samples the rest of the DT came up with (and don't forget to enter your comment at the end of that post for your chance to win this set for free!).

I stamped LuLu onto white cardstock then colored her in with my Copic markers and cut her out.

The patterned paper is by Flair Designs and the ribbon is May Arts. Sentiment is from A Muse.

The photo corners were made by running a piece of blue cardstock through my CuttleBug with the Tiny Bubbles embossing folder, then punching out the photo corners with my SU! punch.

OK I'm off to get my house cleaned up and to hopefully make a couple more samples with this set - I'm not ready to put it down yet!!

Till later!!....

CC Designs Sneak Peek! Pretty Kitty

Yay!! Time for NEW stamps! CC Designs is having a release on July 7th at 10pm and this is one of the new sets - Pretty Kitty. I think this set is uber-cute (as do my girls - they love anything that has "meows" on it LOL!).

On this first sample I used circle punches, Mod patterned paper, May Arts ribbon, my Copic markers, and flowers I got from Michaels (wedding section) that I colored pink with my Copics.

On this card I used more Mod patterned paper, ribbon from Michales, more of those flowers (colored red with a Copic marker) and SU!'s key tag punch to round the edge of the cardstock that the sentiment is stamped on.

And last but not least here's my third sample using this set. This card turned out to be the simplest and my favorite of the three!

The little crown is a Heidi Swapp ghost shape (covered with Fruit Punch Stickles), and the sentiment is from A Muse.

Don't forget to head over to the ATS blog to see what all the other samples the DT members made with this set (FABULOUS!!), AND to keep checking back as there will be new sneak peeks posted every day leading up to the 7th using all the soon-to-be-released sets!!!

ATS Challenge

Every week the All That Scraps Design Team has a challenge issued to them by Jen (she's our challenge guru). I then post all the DT member's cards on the ATS blog each Wednesday, and up till now haven't had a chance to participate myself. But this morning I had a bit of time and thought I'd play along!

This color challenge was easy for me as I have all SU! cardstock, and I knew exactly what stamps I wanted to use:

This monkey stamp from CC Designs It's My Birthday set is one of my favorites - he just cracks me up!

I stamped him onto white cardstock then colored him in with my Copic markers, and filled in the balloon with Fruit Punch Stickles.

I used 2 CCD Backgrounds on the card - Polka Dots (stamped with white pigment ink) and Plaid (stamped onto the Blue Bayou CS).

I cut a slit in the spine of the card to run the ribbon through, attached the main image with dimensionals, and did a bit of paper piercing on the 2 corners and that was it!

Check the ATS blog a little later to see what the other DT members came up with for this challenge!! :o)