Friday, June 20, 2008

Things to come...

Hi All,


I've been busy helping a friend for her son's first birthday party so I haven't had time to post. But the party is tommorow so I'll be sure to post a bunch of pictures afterwards. They go along with this placecard's theme. I helped make placecards, photo cubes for the centerpiece and table numbers. I also made a label to put on bubbles for the kiddie goody bags and the bands to go around all the goody bags. Things at work have been busy too, but in a good way. :)

Hope all is well with you fellow bloggers!

Friday, June 13, 2008

My First ATC!!

This is my first ATC (Artist Trading Card) Swap. It's where you make 9 of the same thing, mail it to the host of the swap, then wait for your 8 to come in the mail. The size is only 2.5 x 3.5 inches and it was really challenging for me to come up with something in that small space. Hopefully I've done it some justice :). The theme was "Baby". I haven't mailed them out yet - need to get a padded envelope - but am excited to see what everyone else came up with.

I kept it relatively simple. I decided to make one geared more towards a boy, since sometimes I lean more to the pink side when I think baby. I also wanted to play with my new copic markers - hee hee. I went to town blending and seeing how the colorless blender works- I think it's kinda cool, it's like those markers when you were a kid where they changed colors!

Well here it is:The colors are a little darker in the picture than in real life - it's really overall soft & pastel-y. The hardest part was coloring and cutting out the elephant :). And just as a preemptive apology, some of them are missing tails... I had some unintentional amputations occur.

Here's a close-up to show the dimension.
Here they are all together ready to go!
Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Bitty Baby Blessings
Paper: Misc. DP, PTI Lemon Tart, Stamper's White, DCWV Textured CS
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber
Accessories: Copic Markers (B12, B14, 0)


Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Office Baby

This card is for a co-worker's surprise baby shower. I had to make something on short notice and with enough room for a lot of people to sign. I cut a 81/2x11 sheet of PTI Lemon Tart in half lengthwise and glued so there was one long sheet. Then scored & folded so that the final size of the card was 3x4.25 in. She's not finding out the sex of the baby so I kept everything yellow.

I initially had a hard time figuring out the ribbon but the only spot it's attached is under the paper, the rest wraps around and ties the "accordion" together.

Here it is all opened up. I covered up the middle "seam" with the designer paper. Sorry for the lighting but I took the picture at work cuz I forgot to do it at home :).
This leaves room for people to sign the front and the back. I also couldn't resist putting the little baby in the stroller. SO cute!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Bitty Baby Blessings, Simple Alphabet
Paper: PTI Bitty Baby Blessings DP, Lemon Tart CS, Stamper's Select White
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber
Accessories: PTI Summer sunrise Grossgrain Ribbon, Dew Drops, Copic & SU! Markers, dimensionals


Thanks for looking!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Dum dum da dum...

I made this card for dear friends of ours who got married a few weeks ago. I needed inspiration and so I turned to the trusty PTI Gallery and this card by Lauren Meader caught my eye. It initially caught my eye cuz of the color, sorta what I was looking for since I try and match the card to the wedding colors.

The colors for the wedding were platinum and ivory. So I started with SU! Very Vanilla. Then I found this really pretty designer paper and followed Lauren's general design. I couldn't figure out how to make the cutout so I just used my punches.

I wanted to accentuate some of the pattern so I used my Versamark pen, and traced parts of the paper I wanted highlighted. Then used Silver Moon/Mistletoe Moonglow embossing powder - w/o embossing- to give it all a very soft glow.






Here's a close-up of the effect:
I'm a big fan of subtle accents I've noticed. :).
Here's a close-up of the "seal" that I embossed with regular silver embossing powder
I also wanted to thank everyone who stops by and comments (and even if you don't)... I wish I could give each of you a HUG!

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI B&C Monogram Edition
Paper: SU! Very Vanilla CS, Deja Views Wedding Cream Paisley DP
Ink: Palette Charcoal
Accessories: Versamark Pen, Silver & Silver Moonglow embossing powders, Marvy Giga Scallop Punch, Marvy Mega Circle Punch, Marvy Jumbo Circle Punch, Misc. gray Satin ribbon


Thanks for Looking!!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Finally Caved...

I've finally caved and got a bunch of Copic Sketch markers. I had gotten 3 of them awhile back but I had already decided to get 3 of the 4 sets from SU! thinking that the Copics weren't worth the investment. I still think you can get a decent amount of shading and blending with water-based markers. BUT...then there is all this talk of them on the PTI forum and I saw the potential and the advantages of alcohol markers vs. water-based markers. I'm helping a friend do some of the decorating for her son's birthday party, so I thought I'd start with ones that go with the project, see how I like them and go from there.

Here's my humble collection. Notice I've re-purposed a box from PTI? I've done my part for being green!
Here's one of my coloring attempts... this is only a sample so it's not perfect, especially the stamping part, but I do like how the colors go on the paper. So we'll see. I'll probably just add as I go along, buying as I need. I did also make a color chart so I may already be past the point of debate.
I really wanted to go to the Copic Certification Class in Chicago but couldn't justify taking a day off for it. I AM glad though that Marianne from Copic started a blog, so hopefully I can glean enough information from that.
I used the Copics for my first ATC swap, so I'll be posting that soon too.


**Edited to add: In case People want to know how I made my Color Chart, here's my word document: Copic Color Chart

Thanks for reading!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Belated, again!

If you can't tell, I've had a rash of missing birthdays - or being late for them. Here is another card I made with the PTI Pond Life turtle. It's a pocket card


Here's the inside:

I like how the Bitty Baby Blessings paper can be used for non-baby cards. I popped this little guy up like my previous card, except I popped his head out too. Don't you love when mistakes turn into genius? Sometimes to make layers or mattes to stand out a little w/o sponging, I run the edges along the ink pad and it gives it a subtle outline. I did this to the white square that the turtle is on.

Fine Print:
Stamps: PTI Pond Life, Pond Life sentiments
Paper: PTI Stamper's Select White; SU! Pale Plum & Perfect Plum; PTI Bitty Baby Blessings DP
Ink: PTI Spring Moss; SU Perfect Plum, Old Olive
Accessories: PTI Spring Moss Grossgrain ribbon; Bazzil flower brad, Rhinestone; Making memories slot punch.


Thanks for looking!