Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge

Well, too little too late, I guess.  I was barely able to finish in time, and it took too long to upload, and the challenge closed before my file finished. Boo hoo!  This card seemed good in the idea stage, but the putting together of it ended up with a result that I am not so happy with.  I think it needs editing - too many patterns going on.  But the exercise was fun and I used both old and new components!  Suggestions are welcome!

PTI - Make It Monday #69

Make It Monday #69 - Inspiration into Unique Sketches
There was just enough time this week to make another card, this time for the Papertrey Ink Make-It-Monday challenge.  I chose one of the six sketches in the challenge for this sympathy card.  While I did not intend it, this does look a bit like a hat, and the stamped image across the center (Background Basics: Tin Types) sort of resembles netting you might have found on a hat in the early 1900's.

Key to my Heart Fathers Day Card

Tim Holtz has posted his June Tag Challenge, and I actually had time to "play along"!  Tim's technique this month featured coloring in a black and white vintage photo with distress markers, and his usual collage of trinkets, etc.  Now while my admiration of Tim and collection of most of his products is HUGE, I actually have very few of the trinkets.  I'm on a Father's Day kick, trying to make cards (yes, NOT at the last minute!) for the Gallery, and I did a little google search for vintage photos and came up with this one of Fred Astaire and his sister, Adelle (I think that was her name), doing a little dance step.  I did the background using Tim's Picket Fence marbleing technique, mixed with tea stain and pumice stone.  I have some of the music tissue paper and that seemed perfect to layer over top, attached with some modge podge, then given a coat of Golden's Gold Opal Acrylic Glaze, creating a nice textured/subtly colored background.  The photo was printed on glossy paper, and I used the distress markers - Honestly , it was amazing how easy this was and how great it looked!!! Naturally I had to use some Smooch Spritz (silver) and that put the final "vintage" touch on it.  PTI had the perfect sentiment stamps, and I finished it off with Tim's Idea-ology lock and key trinkets (I just couldn't resist the crown!) I think the die-cut label is MFT.  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Poppy Parade paper/ink is Stampin' Up.

Die Domain

I confess, I am a DIE-A-HOLIC!!!!  I am lovin' life when I can use a DIE to cut around my stamp image instead of the teeeny tiiiiny pooooointy scissors!  ..and I am a GOOOD  little cutter too!  But my time is valuable, so to save time by using a die?  PRICELESS!

Now, there are MANY kinds of dies.  I have a Big Shot and a Cuttlebug (fondly known as Mr. Cuttle), and own dies ranging from the Sizzix BIGZ XL  to the smallest Sizzlits.  Then I discovered Papertrey Ink, and my die collection went KEEE-RAZY!  Papertrey dies are shallow steel plates with a very thin and shallow cutting edge.  They are wonderful - and the PTI design team comes up with tons of inspiring ideas on how to use them. 

Here is a sample of a few PTI Doily dies and the resulting paper This is a vellum scrap that I had tried to cut with a new sizzlet die, which did not cut at ALL, so I tried this die and voila'! ze perfect doily!

These 2 are also Papertrey, and with some shimmer paper - a perfect cut!

This amazing heart is Memory Box - the tiny cuts in red glimmer paper are so intricate!  All of these dies have tiny holes that you can poke through to push paper bits out if they get stuck in the die.  This is a real time saver, too.  The Papertray doily with the pink paper even has a companion die to push the little bits out of the paper part.  This is a well-thought-out option, I tell you!  Maybe poking 100 or so tiny bits out with your dental pick is no big deal, but after you have done it once, I say you are an expert and can move on to the quickie method, especially if you are making several of these at a time.

The only disadvantage to these dies, is that you are limited to thinner things to cut out.  You can cut paper, fabric and felt with these, but chipboard is out.

Peaceful Garden

A Shout out and BIG get well to one of my Aberdeen High School Buddies, Dave Riddle.

The need for this get well card coincided with the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday Challenge.  This week we were let loose on ALL the Make It Monday Techniques to choose our muse!  I was so glad of the chance to look them over once again, because I sure missed this one!  Thanks to Lisa for her AWESOME Frosted Images technique.  I was pretty skeptical that this would work, and I had to go MANLY on top of that.  Well, at first stamp, this was a WOW!  You may say Blue Bamboo???, but it really works in person, more of a gray, misty color than the blue it appears in the photo, and it looks sooo 3D.  I actually got one of the Photo Finish dies to emboss instead of cut, too - Love it! 

Love You Forever

Love the December Papertrey release - and with too much to do and too little time, I am a bit late with my post for the Blog Hop Contest.  To explain - the Contest was to use something left over from Christmas - so my messy bench was covered with the leftovers from my Peace On Earth projects.  I had scraps of the acetate which I just didn't want to throw away - they were sooo cool, and with the contest in mind, I cut the lastest PTI border die out of the Red acetate, and used it as an embellishment on my EARLY valentines card ---->see there it is on the bottom!  I think it is a START for a card, and although I finished this one, it does lack something.....

Pictured here is what I had on the bench to work with...aren't those strips coooool?????

The Herald Angels

While searching for xmas gift ideas, I came across this AWESOME blog post:

Peace On Earth

and madly began an attempt at SIX of these. Weeeellll a week later I came to my senses and did manage 3! I was just chomping at the bit to use Tim Holtz's reverse stamping technique on acetate, which is how I created my backgrounds (see Tim's post HERE). I even made my own frames using lattice from Home Depot - so impressed MYSELF!! LOL!


I tried 3 different colored backgrounds, and I do like how they came out.  I was not as happy with the letters, which for some reason did NOT look much like the original, but the WINGS are fabulous!  I swapped out the vial of seeds for a little padded ultrasuede heart and pearl.

 

I used soooo many tools, supplies and techniques to make these - and learned a lot along the way.  The base is masonite, with 2 Liquitex "unbleached titanium" acrylic coats, then the acetate was inked and stamped a la' Tim Holtz.  That was adhered to the masonite with Golden Gel Topcoat semigloss, and then painted over with 2 coats of the same gel medium.  The result was a lightly textured matte surface - with the background color and pattern showing through perfectly.  To make the letters and wings, I used Corel Draw and one of the fonts, and drew the wing layers freehand.  I set them up on 8 1/2 x 11 page, exported to a pdf that I could then use in my cutting software and electronic cutter.  A little extra work up front, but the cutting went perfectly on some cardboard I had scavenged (that was 8 1/2x11).  Soooo much easier than trying to cut multiples of these with scissors or an exacto knife!  (AGAIN, I impressed myself! hehehee)  The letters were embellished per the instructions for the original, glued on and then I made the frayed padded squares from an even-weave cotton, and sewed on the gold beads, lace and pearls.  Pulled the hot glue gun out of mothballs and put the wing layers together and then on the "pillow".  Finally, I cut two ultrasuede hearts with a Papertrey Heart die, padded it and sewed it together with white embroidery floss in a blanket stitch, and then added one more freshwater pearl.  Another dab of hot glue and DONE!  The lattice frame went together with amazing ease (although I had to measure and saw each frame separately, since Homey Depot did not manage to cut ANY of the 10x12 pieces of masonite EXACTLY 10x12!!!) [sheesh!!!]

Hope the recipients will like these!  What do you think???