Prairie Paper & Ink

Flowers From a Friend

Aren't these GORGEOUS?? My friend Dawn had them delivered to me yesterday to cheer me up - it definitely worked! I've never seen a Gerber daisy like this one before (and it's huge - a good 5" wide) - and of course there's lots of pink (who knew she knew me so well...*wink*).

I don't have anything creative to share at the moment - my Papertrey stuff just arrived and the release is TONIGHT! I definitely won't be able to finish my projects in time (there will be a couple to see that use Lisa's Remember set and Heather's Rustic Branches set) but that's what I'll be working on for the next couple of days.

Update on my dad - they removed the breathing tube successfully and then transferred him to another hospital as they needed the bed in the ICU - he's still being monitored a lot but him not needing to be in the ICU is a huge improvement in itself. The road to recovery will be pretty long but I won't know much more till I get to see him tomorrow. I was told he's talking more and whatnot so I am really looking forward to seeing him and seeing for myself how he is.

Papertrey August Release Countdown - 2

Y'all have NO idea how good it felt to create this project - even though I am so stressed out at the moment over what's going on with my Dad (see post below this one) it really helps to just stamp and create and focus on something totally unrelated!

My stamps and whatnot for this August release haven't arrived yet (*sniff!*) however I have both Lisa's Remember set and Heather's fabulous Rustic Branches set here (it was so hard to choose which one to feature!). I decided to feature the Remember set as I have had this idea in my head ever since I saw the set in full and HAD to make this project - so keep reading to see what I made:

I love the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. When I was in elementary school we recited that poem on every Remembrance Day, and I remember using it for an art piece I drew (and won first place for!) when I was in grade 4 or 5.

You can read the full poem along with the story behind it here.

So I typed up the poem (using the Honey Script font - one of my favorites) and printed it off onto Papertrey's Vintage Cream cardstock. I made sure that each stanza was spaced far enough apart so that they could fit nicely on a 4x4" square.

I used lightweight coasters and traced them over the stanza's with a pencil then cut them out.

I stamped the images from the Remember set onto the CS using various Palette inks (L'Amour Red, Moulin Rouge, Cognac, Noir, Papertrey Spring Moss). I love how detailed and classic all these images are - and yet it's simple 2-step stamping. They just LOOK like a lot more work went into them :o)

I adhered each piece of cardstock to a coaster using my Tombow Mono Multi, then sanded all the edges with my Basic Grey file (a nail file or a sanding block can do the same thing!) so that they were smooth and even with the coasters.

In the picture above you can see where I had marked the holes with a pencil - I used my Crop-a-dile to punch all the holes.

To really finish the pieces off I sponged all the edges with PT Dark Chocolate ink.

I took a good long length of Pure Poppy Grosgrain ribbon, and starting with the bottom coaster I threaded the ribbon through the holes and attached them all together, tied a bow at the top and hung it on the wall.

You can scroll down to the bottom of this post and check out individual shots of each coaster (all the pictures in this post can be clicked on to get a pop-up window with a larger image).

I hope you all liked my project and don't forget to check out Lisa's blog for all her sneak peeks with this set!!

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Remember by Papertrey Ink.

CS: Papertrey Vintage Cream.

INK: PT Spring Moss and Dark Chocolate, Palette Hybrid Moulin Rouge, L'Amour Red, Cognac, Noir.

ACCESSORIES: Pure Poppy Grosgrain Ribbon, Lightweight Chipboard Coasters.

A Little Stressed

I don't have anything creative to post at the moment. I wasn't home for most of the day yesterday - my sister called to tell me my dad was in a motorcycle accident Saturday night. I went in to see him but only got a couple of minutes with him as he's in the ICU (several broken ribs, smashed collar bone, road rash, collapsed lungs) and pretty drugged up. The outlook appears to be good (he had to be resuscitated before I got there but he's improved a lot since then) and now I just have to hope that the family members that are there (he's in a hospital in the city over an hour away) will keep me updated before I can go in and see him again.

It was really hard to see my dad like that - I didn't sleep much last night and spent most of this morning and early afternoon running errands and trying to keep busy so that I don't sit and dwell on it all too much.

I'll still be posting and whatnot here and there - Papertrey's release is in a couple of days so I'll be working on my projects (but can't share them till the 15th), plus I have some other half-finished cards and whatnot that I will be working on (stamping at times is a good stress reliever!).

Don't forget to check out my stamps for sale in the post below (and for all my local peeps I will be e-mailing out info maybe sometime this week regarding all the other supplies and whatnot that I have for sale. Right now I have everything spread all over my studio floor (I just left it all when I got the call from my sister) and I need to organize everything first).

ETA (monday evening) - I just called the ICU and they informed me that Dad's doing OK. They told me depending on how he does tonight they are going to attempt to remove the breathing tube tomorrow. So we'll see what happens. At least I can find out pretty quickly how he's doing from home as they have someone that man's the desk in the ICU 24/7. That is helping a LOT as I can just call and make sure when it all starts to really get to me and I want to freak out. Thanks to you all for the well wishes and prayers - I haven't been much of a praying person these past few years but you can bet that I am praying like never before that Dad pulls out of all of this OK!!

Friday Sketch! #25

I'm a day late with this sample (the sneak peeks for this set were shown yesterday on the ATS blog) but I HAD to use these stamps for today's Sketch card! Aren't they adorable?

The bear, bee and sentiment are from the soon-to-be-released CC Designs Bear Hugs set - you can see more samples of it here. The clouds and grass are from another upcoming set called Sugarplum Scenery Set. Both of these sets are being released on the 11th at All That Scraps.

I masked the bear before stamping the clouds and grass, then colored everything in with my Copics. I added highlights with my white gel pen.

The bee was colored with Copics, punched out, then I added Star Dust Stickles to his wings.

The sentiment was punched out with my SU! Key Tag punch.

The flowers are Primas attached with DoodleBug brads, ribbon is from RABOM, and the pink cardstock is Papertrey Sweet Blush.

And here is the sketch:

If you upload your card using this sketch to any public galleries please use the keyword AMYRS34 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!

There is no rush to participate - you can play whenever you feel like. Obviously if you want your card to be linked with the next week's sketch post you would want it to be done before the following Friday as I now link to all of last week's participants so that everyone else can check them out! It's not a requirement tho - I just want y'all to have FUN!

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So here are all the cards from the previous sketch (2 week's ago since I missed last Friday's Sketch b/c of my family emergency) Friday Sketch! #24:

Tamara's Many Thanks Card

Belated Birthday Cards by Tina

Maureen W's Bitty Baby Blessings Card

Always Card by Becky

Cupcakes and Sprinkles Card by Rebecca

Just bee-cuz Card by Erica

Debbie's Oh Baby! Card

A Scrapbook Page Papertrey Style

I don't consider myself to be a scrapbooker - but rather a stamper/cardmaker. However I do dabble with making scrapbook pages here and there (with two little girls it's something I feel like I NEED to do at times! I have to capture the memories somehow!) and lately I have really been enjoying making pages using Papertrey products.

The other day I pulled out a few different items (PT Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding and Vintage Cream cardstocks, cardstock vellum, Guidelines stamp set, Trajan Monogram Edition set, Guide Lines 6x6 patterned paper) along with a couple of black and white pictures and set out to make a page.

First off - something I have learned to make scrapbooking easier is to use BLACK & WHITE (or sepia toned!) pictures - that way you can use any colors, patterned papers etc that you want and none will clash with the pics!

Second - I scrapbook in 8x8" layouts - I really like this size as I don't have to stock a bunch of 12x12 papers plus they're less intimidating to work with than a 12x12 layout.

I started off by stamping the Lavender Moon cardstock with the Guidelines stamps using Lavender Moon ink. After that was done I dotted the centers of each image with my white gel pen.

The vellum was cut about 1/4" smaller than the Lavender moon CS, and about 2" shorter. I used a 1 3/8" circle punch on the Lavender Moon CS, and a 1 1/4" Circle punch on the vellum (you'll see why I did that in a moment).

I used my sewing machine to attach the vellum to the CS, going over it twice and switching the stitches between straight and zig-zag (doing it messy "on purpose" is a LOT easier than trying to keep all the stitches straight!).

I stamped my title (using the Trajan Monogram Edition) onto two strips of Guidelines patterned paper (another tip - stamping the title separately then attaching it to the page is a lot easier than stamping directly on the page (and a lot easier to fix if you screw up!)).

I then adhered the title and pictures and embellished the cardstock as I wanted.

Now - this Lavender Moon CS that I was working with I had cut to 7 3/4" square - and for a reason - I wanted to mat it on the 8x8 piece of Vintage Cream CS, PLUS I wanted it to serve another purpose - which you'll see here:

I applied adhesive (red liner tape - SUPER sticky stuff) to the sides and bottom of the page - making sure to leave the top free of any adhesive.

(That green ruler is from Creative Memories - it was given to me some time ago so I don't know if you can get it anymore or not. I just traced the scallops onto the CS with a pencil then cut them out with scissors)

So here is the finished page. I added Plum Pudding Swiss Dot Ribbon, and sewed on various buttons with string.

And THIS was why I punched the half-circles out of the CS and vellum, and didn't put any adhesive on the top part of the CS:

I had a lot of journalling to go with these pictures, and I really HATE my handwriting (but I think my girls will appreciate seeing things written by me some day) so I made a separate little page that slips behind the scrapbook page.

I used a sheet of the Guidelines patterned paper, drew light lines with a pencil, wrote my "story", then erased the lines. I attached that to a piece of Plum Pudding CS (and it might be hard to see but I stitched around that paper as well), then created a "tab" with a circle of Vintage Cream CS, some ribbon and another button.

I hope you all enjoyed this peek into my creative process while scrapbooking and I encourage you to give it a shot if you haven't! Even though I LOVE making cards and whatnot I get a real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from scrapping a page or two - I may be YEARS behind with all my pages - but I enjoy the process and would rather not stress over where I think I should be with it - and just have FUN!!

{SUPPLIES}

STAMPS: Guidelines and Trajan Monogram Edition Stamp Sets (Papertrey Ink)

CS: Vintage Cream, Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, Cardstock Vellum, Guidelines 6x6 Patterned Paper.

INK: Lavender Moon, Versafine Onyx Black.

ACCESSORIES: Sewing Machine, Plum Pudding Swiss Dot Ribbon, Buttons, String, Creative Memories Scallop Ruler, Circle Punches, Ranger White Gel Pen.

Mom's Birthday Card

Today is my mom's 50th birthday - so I've been rushing all morning trying to get her card done and the other things I made for her LOL!

I got this bikahbabeabella stamp (along with the sentiment!) ESPECIALLY to make this card for my mom. She got her bike licence a few years ago and owns her own motorcicycle (and LOOKS like this Bella!! I still can't figure out how she can stay super-thin and I can't!! *sniff*) so this stamp was a must have for her b-day card.

I used Copic markers to color in the image, then added bling to her jeans and bike via some A Muse micro twinkle stickers.

The patterned paper is from SEI's Poppy 6x6 pack (you can see the metallic shimmer on the paper - so cool!). I cut the sentiment out with my Circle Nestabilities (matted with a scalloped circle) and used it as the flower center for the Prima.

I finished off the card with some May Arts velvet ric rac, more Primas, and some DoodleBug Brads.

I'm happy to report she loved the card - totally cracked up when she looked at it!!

I'll share the other cards I made for her another day. Josie needs to go for her nap NOW (major meltdown happening here) and I can't think straight!!

ATS Sneak Peeks Starting

Ooohhhh head on over to the All That Scraps Blog ASAP - the first of several sneak peeks is up (and the set is ADORABLE!!) - plus you can enter for your chance to win some free stamps!! Details are HERE <----click!

The new CC Designs stamps are going to be released on the 11th (Monday!!).

Hey everyone :o) Hopefully later today I'll have something creative to share - I wasn't home at all yesterday (my Grandma's funeral was in the early afternoon and then we had a get-together at my mom's house - I saw family that I haven't seen in YEARS so it was really nice to catch up!) and I have a TON of dishes, laundry etc etc etc to catch up on. And of course I need to clean up my stamping area so that I can actually stamp!

Till later.......

Happily Ever After

A friend of mine came over for the afternoon on Saturday, it was so nice to be able to chat, watch the girls play (her daughter is the same age as Josie) and she helped me put together the table and chairs I got from IKEA weeks ago (LOVE going to IKEA when I get the chance, LOVE their stuff....but HATE having to put it all together when I get home! I still have boxes sitting here b/c I can't get anyone to help me put it all together) - so now me and the girls are finally sitting at a table to eat instead of using trays on the floor (we've been so ghetto lately LOL!! The girls thought it was fun tho - my butt was too sore to keep it up for much longer - lovin' having a table and chairs!).

Anywho while she was here she told me she wanted to buy a card from me for her sister's wedding that's this weekend. I don't keep many wedding cards on hand - so I made this one for her to give, using their wedding colors (red, black and white).

I stamped hitchedafellabella onto white cardstock then used my heart nestabilities to cut them out (matting them with a scalloped red heart nestability), then colored them in with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

The flowers are Prima Sprites, centered with a glitter dot, ribbon is SU!, patterned paper is DoodleBug, and the sentiment is from A Muse (punched out with SU!'S Word Window Punch).

Well it's actually 11:30 Sunday night here and I need to head to bed! Have a great Monday everyone :o)