Background III

Okay, I think this is it. This will be the last one from this background for a while. Honestly I'm getting tired of looking at it. :)

And yes, for those of you who know me, I did actually sew that button on the ribbon!!
A different view to see the sparkly stickles. I love sparkly! Could you tell?


Supplies:
Button & thread from my craft supply
Fruit Punch stickles from Ranger
All other supplies from Papertrey Ink: Melon berry & stamper's select white cardstock, melon berry, new leaf, plum pudding & berry sorbet ink, melon berry satin ribbon, Guidelines II & Beautiful Blooms stamps

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Background II

So, I received some requests to post the other cards I made with the background. So here they are.

In this first one, I looked at that green image in the background and thought "Christmas tree", so I used the design to make a tree.
Supplies:
Guidelines II stamps, New Leaf cardstock & ribbon, and Melon berry, New Leaf, Plum pudding, lemon tart, and dark chocolate ink from Papertrey ink
White Daisy cardstock from Close to My Heart
Stickles from Ranger

This second card, well, I don't really like it. But then I know the number of mistakes I made making it, that then required something else added to "correct" the mistake. Sigh. Sometimes it just happens that way.
Supplies:
Guidelines II & Believe stamps, Melon berry & stamper's select white cardstock, plum pudding stitched ribbon, and Melon berry, New Leaf, Plum pudding, lemon tart, and dark chocolate ink from Papertrey ink
White Daisy cardstock from Close to My Heart
Stickles from Ranger

And I still have enough background paper for maybe 2 or 3 cards. So I'm going to work on some spring/Mom's cards with them I think. A small bit might work it's way into a scrapbook page I'm thinking of, but it's still in the brain phase as yet.

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

25th--PTI Blog Hop

The 25th of the month means PTI Blog Hop. Sorry about the absence, but sometimes life gets in the way! :)

This month's blog hop is all about backgrounds, creating your own that is. These are the instructions:

March Blog Hop

Background building sets have rapidly become one of Papertrey's signature traits. For this month's Blog
Hop, we want to see all of your very best backgrounds. They can be multi-colored or monochromatic.
Simple or elegantly detailed. They can be created with a set originated for that purpose or a reinvention
of images that were not. Be sure to include a separate photo of your completed background BEFORE
you add it to your project so we can see it in all its glory!

Let me pause to give some advice when stamping background paper.

First--It takes some time and practice. The better your viewing angle the better you can line everything up. The guidelines 2 stamp set from Papertrey Ink definitely helps, but I find standing up so I can look directly down through the acrylic block to help as well.

Second--Whatever you do, don't, and I really mean DON'T, stamp at the dining room table while your 5 year old and 3 year old munchkins are playing with fun foam and playdoh. Or even while they are stamping. Odds are they will choose just the moment that you put stamp to paper to decide to vigorously clean their stamp by rubbing it furiously over the wet paper towel you gave them for that purpose, in essence creating an earthquake like effect on your background paper. Just think about it before you do it. :)


I decided to create my background using new leaf, melon berry, and plum pudding inks (all from Papertrey Ink) and PTI's new Guide Lines 2 set, created specifically for making backgrounds. I was thinking spring as I was stamping. (Note: I used spring moss to stamp the background grid.) Here is the background (I stamped an entire 12x12 White Daisy sheet with this background).



Yeah. So what do you think when you see that paper? The first thing I though of was "Christmas". Huh. Not quite the look I was going for. But I went with it, making 2 separate Christmas cards with this background paper.



Then I decided I needed to challenge myself to really make a spring/summer card with this paper, after all these were intended as spring colors. Here's what I came up with:



Hopefully you can see the glitter on the flower, ribbon and Bloom sentiment. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. Don't forget you can click on the photo to see the larger image.


Supplies:
CS: White Daisy (Close to my Heart), Melon Berry and Stamper's select White (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Melon berry, New Leaf, Plum Pudding, Berry Sorbet, Ripe Avocado (Papertrey Ink)
Stamps: Guidelines 2, Spiral Bouquet (Papertrey Ink)
Ribbon: Melon Berry satin (Papertrey Ink)
Fruit Punch stickles from Ranger

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Well, can you imagine?

So I came on earlier today to get ready to post this card, only to discover I had a number of hits to my page. Now, unless I've posted a project for a sketch or blog hop, I don't get that many hits. Turns out most of them came from Stampin' When I Can. She apparently puts up a list of newly discovered bloggers on her blog each day. And today mine was listed. I actually was so shocked and rather fearful at that point that I shut down my computer. LOL. I set up this blog to show my cards and other creations, mainly to participate in blog hops and sketches. I never really thought anyone would actually LOOK at my blog. Imagine that.

Anyway, on to why we are really here. Well, it's why I'm on here. I don't actually know why you are visiting. But please feel free to leave me a message and tell me why or how you came to my site!!



This is a birthday card for my 12 year old niece. Since they don't live anywhere close to us, I have a hard time knowing what is appropriate for a 12 year old. So I compromised. I made a wonderfully elegant card on the outside; then let my 5 year old daughter decorate the inside. :) It's pretty simple, the only thing that might be difficult to see is that the main panel is shimmery white cardstock, and I stamped a butterfly with gold on vellum, cut it out, and popped it up on the solid raspberry fizz butterfly.

Supplies:
Ink: Raspberry Fizz & Ripe Avocado from PTI, Ulimate Metallic Gold from Tsukineko
Paper: Shimmery White, Stamper's Select White, Vellum, and Raspberry Fizz from PTI
Stamps: Butterfly Kisses, With Sympathy, and Birthday Basics from PTI
Ribbon: Gold from PTI
Gold Pen: Sharpie

Thanks for visiting! And please tell me how you came to my site, I'd love to know!

Cindy

Card Patterns Sketch #5

The sketch is the 5th for Card Patterns:



And I loved it. I decided I need to send more cards out just to surprise people. I even belong to a group to do just that. However, I haven't been doing it. This is a card that will be going out to a wonderful lady I know through the blog world. She is truly the nicest person. I hope she likes it.



Supplies:
White Cardstock & Silhouette stamp (Treasure Life) from Close to My Heart
Spring Rain Cardstock, ink, twill ribbon, Enjoy the Moment stamp from Papertrey Ink
Patterned Paper from Die Cuts with a View
Blue glittery ribbon and blue gem brads from my stash.

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

Scrapbooking vs. Card making

I've had some interesting conversations and received some interesting emails from people concerning scrapbookers vs card makers.

I did create this blog primarily for sharing my card making. But making cards is a relatively new thing to me, I began about 2 years ago in early 2007. I have however been scrapbooking since late 1999/early 2000.

Scrapbookers can fall into many categories. The most common, I think, is the "get the story" scrapbooker. These are the ones that want to have their scrapbooks looked at, talked about, and in general pass on stories to distant relatives and future generations. They want their pictures protected for years to come, slap the pictures on some pretty paper and there you go, page finished.

Then there is another type of scrapbooker more focused on their creative journey and the process of scrapbooking. I call them the "artsy scrapbooker". (Please, no insults are implied, neither is "better" than the other, this is just how I classify scrapbookers.)

But these are what I consider 2 extremes on a continuum. Where am I? Somewhere in the middle. I'm not big on scrapbooking the birthdays/Christmases/big events (matter of fact, daughter's 5 year old birthday layout was the first birthday layout I have done for her since her 1st), but I LOVE scrapbooking the little stories that I might forget. Like my son's "tribicycle" layout. Those are so much more precious to me. And I like all the embellishments and pretty paper and things that go along with an embellished page, nothing wrong with making it "artsy".

Classes? I've only once taken classes, at Creative Escape 2008 last September in Arizona. If you can afford to go, then please go! I had the most fun and did some great stuff there. Most of my layouts and ideas come from magazines and online blogs. I think the hardest and yet most important part is to have a good layout. Sketches are great for this. And often card sketches can be adapted and used for scrapbook pages as well. Some people can just move things around until they mesh, but they are rare I think. 99% of the time I start a page with a sketch of where the photos and journaling will be.

Some good sites to visit. Well most of my sites are cardmaking sites. But Creating Keepsakes is one. Other scrapbooking magazines have their own sites as well: Scrapbooks, etc., Scrapbook trends. Also Close to My Heart and Stampin Up! have examples on their websites. I'm a bit more biased toward Close to My Heart, in addition to being a consultant, I think CTMH is more oriented toward scrapbooking than Stampin Up! is. Also, Close to My Heart has these wonderful idea/sketch books: Cherish, Imagine, Reflections, and Originals (for cards). These have so many sketches and can serve as a great starting point for your layouts.

To Do...

I saw at Creating Keepsakes they had a file to download from Becky Higgins where you can write all your layouts to do, as well as keep track of photos printed, journaling done, etc. The file wasn't really my style, but it got me to thinking about a little notebook I could put in my purse and take with me to doctor's appts etc.

So this is what I came up with.


The front and back covers are chipboard (5 1/4" x 7 1/2"), covered in Basic Grey's Scarlet Letter paper and the "to do" are the letter stickers from that line. The bird is a ghost shape from Close to My Heart, I once again covered the back with Christmas red stickles and popped it up on foam tape. I love the look of that.


The back cover also has a strip of Papertrey Ink's poppy red satin ribbon, distressed with ink to match the look of the BG paper.


I created my own table in word, then inserted a digital file for the background. (The digi file came from ScrapGirls) I included several pages printed front and back with the table on it.

Then I included LOTS of blank pages with just the digi file on it, printed front and back again, for ideas sketches, other to do lists, challenge sketches etc.


And then bound it with my Bind It All, 3/4" wire.

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy

More Scrapbooking

It's hard for me to believe, but my daughter recently turned 5. This is the layout for her 5th birthday. Amazing how they grow in the blink of an eye....

All supplies are from Close to My Heart except the glittery chipboard 5 that is from die cuts with a view. You can click on the picture to see a larger image.

Thanks for visiting!
Cindy