Friends to the End

Hello there! So I've finally done it, it been on my mind for a while to play along with Jessica Witty's 10 Minute Scrap Pile Challenge and Nichole's Scrap-tastic Challenge. Two of my favorite designers in the whole wide world, I mean who doesn't look up to these super talented ladies!

Here is what came up out of my scrap pile... It actually came about out of a necessity to clean my work space, the mess had gotten out of hand and there was no room to create. There were too many good things, so I couldn't just toss everything into the scarp pile and forget about them. I really need to set up a scrap organization system like Ashley's, see her tidy idea here.

I started with the pink strip up top, it was already conveniently attached to a white card base. The kraft polka dot piece was a test piece for this card (to see if I would like the look of stamped polka dots before I actually stamped them onto the card base). The scallops came from an envelope full of unused punched borders.

The buttons on the twine were on my work area as is. The button color just wasn't quite right for the original card, so off it went. The raspberry ribbon is a scrap that I think came off of a gift, but I've had it forever.

Last is the sentiment label, it is actually a new piece made specifically for this card. Since it wasn't an actual scrap, I though it would be neat to cut a portion off and make it look like it originally was a scrap. Fooled ya didn't I! :)

Didn't think to take a before picture. When I started, I didn't know I was going to make a scrappy card. Oh well, it isn't necessary.

Wow, I've been very chatty today! Must be from the excitement of the CHA Super Show coming up! Can't wait to meet you guys! As always, thanks for spending some time with me today and sorry to talk your ear off. :)

Maile

Friends to the End: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II, Background Basics: Diamonds, Vintage Labels & Mixed Messages
• Ink: Summer Sunrise, Versamark & SU Craft White
• Cardstock: Kraft, Raspberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise & White
• Accessories: Raspberry Fizz Vintage Buttons, DMC Floss, Raspberry GG Ribbon, Scalloped Border Punch, Corner Rounder

Butterfly Wishes

Happy Tuesday to you all!

One of my favorite things to do with the butterfly image from With Sympathy is to stamp it onto small punched circles. As done before on this and this card. I love how they can be rotated to flutter by in all directions and then be embellished with glitter, rhinestones or what ever. This time they were stamped in summer sunrise and berry sorbet onto punched kraft cardstock circles, adhered to the left side of a polka dot stamped block, and then embellished with rhinestones. Rounded the corners (another one of my favorite things to do) of the polka dot block to coordinate with the butterfly circles.

Finished the card off with a sentiment (a rhinestone dot for the I) then wrapped with white embroidery floss.

Things are starting to go back to normal again around here, my Mother-in-law left for home today (so sorry to see her go). Well that's all from me today. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Maile

Best Wishes: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: With Sympathy, Polka Dot Baics II & Beyond Basic Borders (Sentiment)
• Ink: Berry Sorbet & Summer Sunrise
• Cardstock: Berry Sorbet, White & Kraft
• Accessories: DMC Embroidery Floss, Hero Arts Rhinestones, Marvy Uchida Circle Punch & Corner Rounder

Card Measures: 7" X 7"

Here To Give You A Lift

Hello all! Hope you are having a great start to your weekend. My sister was kind enough to let me borrow her camera for a bit, so I have a new card to share with you today...I have had this felt cloud idea in my head since I made this card. I created today's card pretty much the same way. I cut cloud templates from cardstock and found it easiest to hold the template against the felt and then cut out the shape. I then laid out and overlapped the clouds, adhered them with Scor-Tape and trimmed the edge. The left side of the card is covered with Scarlet Jewel cardstock and an embossed curves punched edge (stamped with polka dots in Melon Berry) then wrapped with a melon berry bow.

I thought Melon Berry and Scarlet Jewel hot air balloons (from Everyday Button Bits) would be fitting floating among these fluffy clouds.

Thanks to all of you for putting up with me not having my camera and for all of your sweet and encouraging comments. Have a great weekend!

Maile

Here To Give You A Lift: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Everyday Button Bits & Polka Dot Basic II
• Ink: Melon Berry, Dark Chocolate & Scarlet Jewel
• Cardstock: White, Spring Rain & Scarlet Jewel
• Accessories: Melon Berry & Scarlet Jewel Vinage Buttons, White DMC Embroidery Floss, White Felt, Melon Berry Satin Ribbon, Marvy Uchida Circle Punch, EK Success Embossed Curves Border Punch & Corner Rounder

Fun With Felt

Happy Wednesday to you all! I have a fun polka dot felt card to share with you today... The polka dots were made using bright pink felt. To create these fun polka dots...first you need to punch circle from cardstock, in the desired sizes, to make templates. Next cut circles from the felt, when cutting the circles I found it easiest to place the template onto the felt then cut around it. Randomly place the felt polka dots onto the cardstock, of your desired size, using extra tacky double sided adhesive tape. Then trim the edges.
For the button and floss detail... all I did was thread the buttons, wrapped the floss around the cardstock a few times, then tied the ends together on the back side. Anyways, just thought I would share a little info with you. Hope you found it helpful!

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you enjoyed your visit!

Maile


Hello: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II & Beyond Basic Borders (Sentiment)
• Ink: Dark Chocolate
• Cardstock: Dark Chocolate, White & Aqua Mist
• Accessories: Bright Pink Felt (Craft Store), Vintage Buttons, Embroidery Floss, Cuttlebug Tag Die, Circle Punches & Corner Rounder.

For A Special Friend

Happy hump day to you my friends! Today I am taking a very special friend out to lunch for her birthday and this is the card I made for her... I stamped four square panels with a flower and leaf image from In Bloom, detailed the flower centers with french knots. Punched the bottom edge of the purple panel with the Fiskers Upper Crest Border Punch, stamped the sentiment and wrapped it with white floss. Stamped white tiny polka dots, from Polka Dot Basics II, on the card base.

I hope she likes it, I know she likes purple and my cards with the square panels are her favorite. Something I like to do when giving cards out is to write out the message on a piece of white computer paper then lightly tack it into place on the inside. That way the message can be easily removed and the receiver can reuse the card.

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday! Thanks so very much for visiting me to day!

Maile

Friend: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: In Bloom, Polka Dot Basics II & Beautiful Blooms (Sentiment)
• Ink: Ripe Avocado, SU Perfectly Plum & SU Craft White
• Cardstock: Kraft, White & SU Perfectly Plum
• Accessories: DMC Floss, Upper Crest Border Punch

PTI September Blog Hop

This is my second post today, so please scroll down to see the first.
Its time again for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. This months challenge is to Go Green: to reuse, repurpose and recycle our packaging from our Papertrey Packages. Here is what I came up with...

I chose to reuse three different packaging materials to create my flower... the corrugated cardboard, the kraft colored packaging paper and the cream colored packaging paper. I cut all three using my Blossom Nestabilities, stamped the cream paper with red polka dots, and tied them all together with a button and a twine knot.

Can't wait to see what everyone else created! Thanks for hopping by, I hope you enjoyed!

Maile

Just Because: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II, Fancy Flourishes & Damask Design
• Ink: Aqua Mist, Dark Chocolate & Pure Poppy
• Cardstock: White, Kraft, Bazzill Red, PTI Packaging
• Accessories: Dark Choc Button, Twine, Aqua Mist Twill Ribbon, Corner Rounder, Blossom Nestabilities

Thining Of You

Hello my friends! Sorry to have left you hanging yesterday. I had an extremely busy day and before I knew it, it was over.

So onto the card...I stamped my favorite tiny polka dots from Polka Dot Basic II and a vine from Beyond Basic Borders, in Ocean Tides ink, onto my 5" X 5" kraft card base. Straight stitched twine across an Upper Crest border and a torn edge. Here are a few tips I found helpful when stitching with hemp twine... It helps to use the thinnest twine you have or can find (like jewelry twine). Pierce your holes but make them a little larger so the twine will fit through (it help to rotate the piercing tool when inserted into the hole). Then thread the twine by hand, it's usually stiff enough to do so, but make sure to keep the end clean (cut off the end if it becomes frayed). So if you give this a try I hope you find this info helpful.

Next I layered on the flower, which was created using my Blossom Nestabilites, then rounded the corners.

I'm sure you all are ready for the weekend, got any big plans? We have two more birthday parties to go to, this has been a very busy birthday month for us but its been fun. My hubby is home today so I better get going and spend some quality time with him and our little man. Hope you have a fun weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Maile

Thinking Of You: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II & Beyond Basic Borders
• Ink: Ocean Tides & Dark Chocolate
• Cardstock: Kraft, White, Aqua Mist & Bazzill Red
• Pattern Paper: Red w/White Polka Dots from Doodle Bug
• Accessories: Blossom Nestabilities, White Vintage Button, Hemp Twine from JoAnn's, Fiskers Upper Crest Border Punch & Corner Rounder

Another Moxie Fab Challenge

Hello all!

This time the challenge was to create something that incorporates some kind of household item as the focal point. My first card uses the bike image from PTI Everyday Button Bits... To create the wheels, I punch circle from grey cardstock and then stitched the blue buttons on top of the circles. "Enjoy" was stamped in grey ink onto an orange punched circle and adhered behind the main image and ribbon. The rest of the sentiment "the ride" was stamped in cream ink at the bottom of the card.

The second card uses a coffee cup from PTI Warm Happiness. This is a new color combo to me. I had scraps of Aqua, burgundy, brown, kraft and cream laying out on my work space and thought they looked very pretty and warm together, perfect to pair with Warm Happiness.

Using my new border punch on this one, Upper Crest by Fiskers. I have been looking and looking for this one, dying to get my hand on it. The day I finally found it I almost didn't see it. It was in the wrong spot and behind other punches, I had been very desperate by this time and decided to look through each and every border punch. Good thing I did, I would have never seen it if I had not.

Anyways, onto the card... Stamped the circle and kraft strip with the tiny polka dots from PTI Polka Dot Basics II (I just love those little guys! He,he!) in burgundy and cream inks. The buttons were strung onto the twine and then I wrapped the twine around the card and the circle, held it in place with tape on the back side of the circle.

Boy am I cutting it close on this one, the deadline is at the end of the hour!

Oh, thank you all for your wonderful comments on my Embellish Challenge card. I really had a lot of fun making that one and it really means so much that you all are enjoying it too! I hope you all have a chance to participate. Thanks for visiting today, hope you enjoyed!

Maile

Enjoy The Ride: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Everyday Button Bits & Background Basics: Retro
• Ink: Summer Sunrise, Vintage Cream (for the sentiment) & SU Going Grey
• Cardstock: White, Summer Sunrise & SU Going Grey
• Accessories: Spring Rain Twill Ribbon and Vintage Buttons, DMC Floss, Fiskers Apron Lace Border Punch & Circle Punches

Coffee: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Warm Happiness & Polka Dot Basics II
• Ink: Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate & Burgundy
• Cardstock: Kraft, Vintage Cream & Core'dinations Burgundy
• Accessories: Dark Choc & Aqua Mist Vintage Buttons, Twine, Fiskers Upper Crest Border Punch & Circle Punch.

Polka Dot Paradise Color Challenge

Hi my friends, hope you had a great weekend!

So I did do some crafting this weekend, just not as much as I though I would have. We got a lot done around the house and took a fun off roading 4X4 trip on Saturday, with my hubby and son. I did have time to create a card for the Embellish Polka Dot Paradise Color Challenge...Aren't these colors fabulous! Love that flower too! Here is what I came up with...

Using burgundy, orange and light orange cardstock, tearing and distressing the edges, then layering, I created a neat gradient color effect. I stamped and heat embossed the cream card base with tiny polka dots, from Polka Dot Basics II, in clear embossing powder. The embossed dots are such an awesome detail, I really LOVE the way it turned out! You have to try it! Click on the photo for a closer look.

Wrapped the edge with twine and tied with a button. Layered the leaves, from Beautiful Blooms that were stamped in orange then with cream polka dots, under the button. I chose this sentiment, from Men of Life, for the card because of it's polka dots (after all this is a polka dot challenge too). Then finished the card off with two more buttons and rounded the bottom corner. I am really happy with the way it turned out!

ETA: The latest challenge over at the Moxie Fab World Blog is Gradient Is Radiant, gradient which is achieved by color changing gradually. What a coincidence, a couple of days after I posted this card this new Moxie Fab Challenge was posted and I already had the perfect card to post. Stop on by and check out the other fabulous creations that have been submitted and give it a try your self.

Thanks for stopping in today, I hope you enjoyed your visit with me today.

Maile

Thinking Of You: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Beautiful Blooms, Polka Dot Basics II & Men Of Life
• Ink: Burgundy & orange (from craft supply) & Vintage Cream Ink
• Cardstock: Vintage Cream (PTI), Burgundy, Orange & Light Orange (Core'dinations)
• Accessories: Buttons, Twine, Clear Embossing Powder & Corner Rounder

Polka Dot Happy!

Happy Friday friend!!! The weekend is just about here!

So onto today's card... I don't think I've ever played with this color combo before (Ocean Tides, Raspberry Fizz, Dark Chocolate & Vintage Cream), but I really like it! Playing with a new card size too, this card measures 5" X 5". I was inspired by the new envelope sizes Papertrey Ink is now carrying. I don't have any yet, but plan on ordering some with my next order (when ever that is... he,he).

I was a little polka dot happy on this card, but I think it makes for a fun card. The polka dots on the ocean tides cardstock are stamped in versamark and in dark chocolate on the cream. Added a bright raspberry scalloped border with my Embossed Curves Border Punch and wrapped the card with cream ribbon. Emphasised the sentiment and stitch the buttons, onto the brown balloon baskets, with some cream twine. Rounded the corners of the image panel and card base and called it done.

I'm ready for the weekend, how about you? We are headed to the beach, for a quick day trip, to play and meet up with family. Then we have a fun Princes, Pony and Super Hero (that's a mouth full) birthday party to go to. My little man will get to dress up as Spiderman and ride a pony, it doesn't get any better than that! Fun, fun!

Hope you have a wonderful Friday and a fun weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Maile

I'ts Been Too Long: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Everyday Button Bits & Polka Dot Basics II
• Ink: Dark Choc, Ocean Tides & Versamark
• Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Ocean Tides, Raspberry Fizz
• Accessories: Vintage Buttons, Twine, SU Cream Ribbon, EK Success Embossed Curves Border Punch, Corner Rounder

Third Time's The Charm

Hello all!

I'm back with a card to share with you today. For this card I had played around with some goodies I had received earlier from Lynette, you can see them here.To creat my focal image I stamped the flower stems then punched them out using my circle punch. Instead of adding buttons I used brads as my little flowers. Stamped some polka dots on the green panel in Versamark, stitch a row of white floss and added one last brad.

I am really happy with the way the sentiment came out, it just took me a few tries to get it right. :) I knew I wanted part of the sentiment to pop with white, so the first thing I tried was stamping the first part in green, then the "love" in craft white ink. That didn't stand out enough, so the next option was to heat emboss with white embossing powder. I tried this on a scrap piece of cardstock first to see if it would work and it turned out fine. But when I tried it on the final piece, it of course didn't turn out. So to cover up the mess I stamped "love" in green, on white cardstock, and punched it out with my small circle punch, popped it on with a dimensional, and it was perfect. I love it when mistakes lead you to the perfect solution, I mean... Why did I not think of that first?! Ha,ha!

I guess this card would also work for the latest CAS challenge, to Pop It Up. I think I'll stop by SCS an post it over there too.

I hope you enjoyed your visit with me today and have a wonderful Thursday!

Maile

All Thing Grow With Love: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Everyday Button Bits & Polka Dot Basics II
• Ink: Ripe Avocado & Versamark
• Cardstock: Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado, Kraft & White
• Accessories: DMC Floss, SU Brads, Large & Small Circle Punchs, SU Top Note Dies & Corner Rounder

Hey There, Chickadee!

Hello there my friends! Hope you are having a wonderful day! First off I wanted to thank all of you for the super sweet comments you left for me about my good new! I am so blessed to have made so many new and great friends through my new blog. You guys are the best!!!

So here is today's card...I whipped out the polka dots and heat embosser for this card. It's hard to see in the picture but along the edge of the bird image panel is a border of brown apron lace punched cardstock. The border stands out so nice in my original picture, but here it's really hard to see. For some reason when I post my pictures on the blog they do not look as good as the originals on my computer. Any of you have any suggestions on how to fix this? I'm still learning here and need all the help I can get!

What do you think of my grounding effect, under the birds? This happened totally by accident, but I think it turned out kind of nice. Some of the ink on my stamp block came off onto the image panel as I was stamping the sentiment. I was upset at first (I seam to do this a lot, mess up my cards on the very last step) but then I realized that I could make it work. I just needed to continue the effect all the way across the panel. So I inked up the block (on purpose this time) and stamped the ground under my birdies. Kind of neat, wouldn't you say?! I'm definitely going to have to try this one again!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed your little visit with me today!

Maile

Hey There, Chickadee: (All PTI unless noted)

• Stamps: Everyday Button Bits & Polka Dot Basics II
• Ink: Dark Choc & Versamark
• Cardstock: Aqua Mist, Vintage Cream & Dark Choc.
• Accessories: Raspberry Fizz Vintage Buttons & Twill Ribbon, DMC Floss, KaiserCraft Rhinestones, JoAnn's Clear Embossing Powder, Fiskers Apron Lace Border Punch & Corner Rounder.

All Things Grow With Love & Patience

Happy Monday to you! Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Today I have another Everyday Button Bits card to share with you. This time I used the flower bunch image...

I pulled out the good old needle and embroidery floss again and straight stitched a couple of rows (also stitched on that cute white button flower along the bottom, the flower detail is there its just hard to see in the picture). The polka dots were all embossed in clear embossing powder. Check out these cute button flowers...I really love how they hang over the edge of the circle.

Thanks again for stopping in and visiting me today! Hope you have a wonderful Monday! I've had a pretty crazy day so far, nothing seems to be going right (praying for patience!).

Maile

All thing grow with love:

• Stamps: Everyday Button Bits & Polka Dot Basics II
• Ink: Ripe Avocado, Raspberry Fizz & Versamark
• Cardstosck: Kraft, Spring Moss, Spring Rain & White
• Accessories: Spring Rain, Raspberry Fizz & White Vintage Buttons, DMC Floss, Circle Punch, Embossed Curves Border Punch, Clear Embossing Powder

Button Tread

Happy Friday everyone!

I have some more new goodies to share with you (I promise, I'm rarely this fortunate), my new PTI order came in yesterday. Yeah! :) In Bloom and Everyday Button Bits were on back-order, so as soon as they came in I had to place an order. So today's card was made using Everyday Button Bits (I'll post a card with In Bloom tomorrow)... Using my punches again! :) As soon as I saw these Spring Rain vintage buttons I immediately thought of tire tread. What better way to use them than on a bike! Here is what I am talking about...

See that tread like detail, it's a perfect fit! Did you notice the button threading? Just thought I would try something new (sorry for the glare), I thought it might make the bike look like it's in motion. Not sure if it worked. It is a cute detail though!

If you guys haven't noticed already, I love my corner rounder!!! I use it on almost every card, it just adds a nice subtle detail. Don't get me wrong, I love all my punches but this one just seems to fit every card no matter what the style is. Do any of you have a go-to tool like this?

Anyways, I have a birthday celebration to go to tonight (my niece is turning 5!), but other than that no big plans for the weekend! Hope you all have a wonderful one!

Maile

So Sorry I'm Late:

• Stamps: Everyday Button Bits & Polka Dot Basic II
• Ink: SU Bashful Blue & Grey
• Cardstock: PTI White & SU Basic Grey
• Accessories: Spring Rain Vintage Buttons, Twine, Spring Rain Twill Ribbon, Apron Lace & Embossed Curves Border Punches, Corner Rounder

Cupcake Goodness

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I had a very productive one, finished painting the ceiling in one day! Very glad its done!

So this weeks CAS Challenge is to use stitching, real or faux. I kinda laughed when I first saw this, it's the perfect challenge because I had been working on this technique for the last week. So here is a card I made before the challenge was posted, but fits it perfectly...

I prefer to do my stitching by hand with embroidery floss, I really like the thicker stitches and prefer the look. I'm also too lazy to keep lugging the heavy sewing machine in and out of the closet. :) Here I did a Zig-zag stitch along the seem of the two polka dots. I'm not sure if Zig-zag is the correct term exactly, but that's what it looks like to me... lol. The button is threaded with the same brown floss to match the stitching. Here is a tip I find very handy: Make sure to pierce all the holes, with a paper piercer, before using the needle and thread/floss. Its much easier on the fingers.

I'm really liking this color combo, Chocolate with berry and orange. This combo was made for cupcakes! Polka dots were made for cupcakes too, hope your not tired of them yet.

I pulled out my neglected Stickles for this card and went to town. Here is a close up of the glittery goodness!...

I really like the way this card turned out. It's cute, simple and has lots of fun details! Hope you like it too!

Hope you have a great Monday!

Maile

Eat Cake:

• Stamps: Cupcake Collection & Polka Dot Basic II
• Ink: Summer Sunrise & SU Choc. Chip
• Cardstock: Berry Sorbet, Dark Choc. & White
• Accessories: DMC Floss, Circle Punch, Corner Rounder, Stickles (Stardust) & PTI Berry Sorbet Vintage Button

Beautiful Blossom Fun!

Happy Saturday! I hope you all are having a great weekend. My husband and I plan to paint our ceilings today. Fun, fun, fun, not!. So I need to keep this super short so we can get prepping asap.
Today's card is a fun one for sure. I've been playing around with embroidery floss a lot lately, trying new stitches and incorporating it into cards in different ways. It's been fun! So on today's card I played around with my blossom nestabilities. I stitched around the edges of the blossoms and tide french knots in the center. The leaves were cut by hand and stamped with Polka Dots (again with Polka Dot Basic II, I'm tellin' ya I just cant put it down...lol!). I love the way it turned out!!! So what do you think, have I enticed you to pick up a needle and thread? It's really much easier than it looks!

Hope you guys have a great weekend and I'll try not to have too much fun painting our ceiling!!! lol! Thanks for stopping by today!


Maile


Beautiful:

• Stamps: PT Polka Dot II & Beautiful Blooms (Sentiment)
• Ink: Ripe Avocado & SU Choc. Chip
• Cardstock: PTI White, Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss & Bazzil Red
• Accessories: DMC Floss, Blossom Nestabilities & Corner Rounder

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #13

So today I want to share the card I created for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #13. Dawn is a very talented lady and has an eye for amazing color combos!!! So this weeks challenge is another stunner, such a bright and cheery combo!At first her challenges sometimes throw me for a loop, but once I start playing around and start putting something together, I end up having so much fun! So here is what I came up with...
The polka dots are another one of my new sets from Papertrey Ink, Polka Dot Basics II. They were inked in red and stamped onto berry cardstock. Here is a close up of the ribbon and button detail...

This is such a fun and simple layout. I couldn't just stop at one card, so I went ahead and made two more! Card #2...

Card #3...

This was a good way to increase the number of cards in my stash. Anyways... I hope you enjoyed my cards and thanks to Dawn for another fabulous Color Challenge!

Have a wonderful rest of the day!

Maile

Card #1:

Stamps: Polka Dot Basic II & Damask Design

Ink: Spring Moss & SU Real Red

Cardstock: Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet, White & Bazzill Red

Accessories: Spring Moss & Berry Sorbet Vintage Buttons, Berry Sorbet GG Ribbon, twine, Circle Punch & Corner Rounder.

Card #2 Colors: Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss & SU Choc Chip

Card #3 Colors: Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss & SU Real Red