Papertrey Ink April 2011 Blog Hop or The One Where I'm In Love With Boy Basics: Frog Hop

It's the 25th of the month again, and that means it's time for another PTI Blog Hop!

The Challenge

This month's blog hop is dedicated to all the boys and men in our lives! Now's your chance to create Father's Day projects, boy birthday cards and more to build up your stash! Focus on masculine color schemes, fresh pattern combinations, understated embellishments and unique uses of images you may already have in your stash!

I sat down at my craft desk last night and just started playing, and I had so much fun cutting out little frogs and rocket ships. I pulled out some bits of paper that I had used to test out some embossing plates, some scraps from my scrap files, and even my iRock tool, and here's what I came up with.

Supplies: Stamps - Boy Basics: Frog Hop, Scattered Showers Additions; Cartstock - Dark Chocolate, Spring Rain, Simply Chartreuse, Spring Moss, Rustic White, Stamper's Select White; Patterned Paper - Scenic Route Paper Co.; Ink - Archival Ink Jet Black and Versamark; PTI Impression Plates Woodgrain and Bookprint; PTI Dies Frog Hop, Tiny Tags, Limitless Layers 2 1/2"; PTI Rustic Jute Twine; iRock tool and iRock and Hot Rocks from Imaginisce; Black Sharpie; Zig journaling pen.

I love the iRock Hot Rocks as eyes on this little hopper! Also, the Bookprint Impression Plate added some really nice texture to the frog in an unexpected way. And I couldn't resist fussy cutting out some flies to add to the card - see how little hopper is keeping his eyes on his lunch?! And imagine my delight when I discovered the little "hip hop hooray" sentiment fit perfectly on the little die cut tag from Tiny Tags. I used the Woodgrain Impression Plate on the background, it kind of reminded me of a log floating down river. The blue circle felt a little naked, so I stamped it with the raindrops from Scattered Showers Additions and Versamark. To finish my card off, I had to use that fly one more time and so added him and the larger sentiment from Frog Hop to the inside of the card.

I am completely and hopelessly in love with Boy Basics: Frog Hop. I guess this is not surprising, considering I collect frogs. But still, I could just stamp that little hopper all day long, and that lily pad too. *sigh*

And, I didn't think to take pictures, but I came up with another use for my die cut frogs and rockets. I took popsicle sticks and glued the shapes to the ends, making fun little paper puppets for Madeline. We had fun making our frogs hop around and blasting off with our rocket. Yup, I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of those little sets!

Thanks for hopping by, and enjoy the rest of the blog hop! You can find more information on Nichole Heady's blog HERE.

Make It Mondays - Die Cut Masking

Cardstock: Rustic White and Simply Chartreuse; Ink: Dark Chocolate and Ripe Avocado; All other supplies as listed below.

It's Monday, and that means Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink. Today, the challenge is to create a card using masks, but not just any masks - the masks for this project should be created using one of PTI's dies.

As soon as I saw the MIM video, I knew what I wanted to do - create a mask where I could combine both the positive and negative cuts together to create the base of my card.

I cut a piece of Masking Magic that I've had in my stash since the late 90's and cut a 5.5" x 4.25" rectangle. I placed the Fillable Frames #4 die in the lower right hand corner, tacking it in place with repositionable adhesive, and ran it through the Cuttlebug. I then took a 5.25" x 4" piece of rustic white cardstock and adhered the larger rectangle mask to it, lining up the bottom right corner. The overlap on the top and left side held my project to the table while I did my stamping with Background Basics: Text Style and inking with a bit of sponge. After stamping and inking the FF cutout section, I removed the mask and then adhered the FF cut to the cardstock, covering up the area I had just stamped. Next, I stamped my "background" using Background Basics: Woodgrain. I dressed it up with a banner cut using the Double Ended Banner die and stamped with Ribbon Tails. The sentiment is from Fillable Frames #2. I popped the banner ribbon with foam adhesive and added buttons from the Autumn Mix and rustic cream twine.

Thanks for stopping by!