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!

Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop

It's that time of the month again, time for the Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop.


The Challenge: "For the March Blog Hop we are challenging you to use embroidery floss in a fun and inventive way on your project. This could include stitching, wrapping it around and tying it like ribbon, braiding, accenting tags, embroidered patterns or anything else you can dream up! We look forward to seeing your creations!"


It just so happened that we needed a birthday card for my mother-in-law, and I thought this challenge was a perfect opportunity to make something special for her. I used floss to stitch a frame around my patterened paper and to attach buttons to the button card. If you look closely, you'll see that I've tied a special heart shaped button with contrasting floss to help it stand out. I also used a little twine, just to add to the vintage feel of the card. I'm pretty happy with the end result! Thanks for hopping by, and if you want to check out all of the wonderful cards people created, check out the InLinkz via Nichole Heady's blog.

All Supplies from Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted:

Button Boutique and Ribbon Tails stamp sets; Kraft and Rustic White cardstock; Bitty Dot Basics green dot patterned paper and LilyBee Designs green floral paper; Enchanted Evening, Tim Holtz Distress Brushed Corduroy and Old Paper, and Archival Ink Jet Black ink pads; Button Twine and DMC floss; Double Ended Banners, Button Card Collection, and Parisian Lace Doily dies; Tim Holtz sanding grip.

PTI February Blog Hop Time!

My mojo seems to have taken a vacation, so I wasn't sure if I was going to have a card ready for this month's blog hop. But, the need for a birthday card to give tomorrow helped encourage me along, and I managed to come up with something I like.



This month we decided to dedicate the Blog Hop to scallops! We want to see your best use of scallops, of any sort, on a project! This can include scalloped borders, offset-scallops, stamped scallops, scalloped mats, scalloped frames, layered scallops, scalloped tags or anything else you can dream up! You can use dies, patterned scissors or even circle punches in a row to achieve your special look. We are looking forward to seeing all of your amazing creations!

And here's my scalloped little ditty!

Supplies: Cardstock - PTI Raspberry Fizz & Stampers Select White; Patterned Paper - PTI Bitty Dot Basics Simply Chartreuse & Hawaiian Shores; Ribbon - Hug Snug white seam binding tape; PTI Sweet Blush button; White embroidery floss; Hero Arts pink rhinestones; Die Cuts - PTI medium scallop, Limitless Layers, & Delightful Doily.

Thanks for hopping by!

Happy Birthday, PTI!

Happy 4th Birthday, Papertrey Ink!

I discovered PTI last March after a friend told me about their amazing stamp sets. Once I got my first set, I was hooked. The quality of their products is second to none, and I love how everything works so well together.

One of my many favorite sets is "A Little Argyle". I love that I can use it to create a beautiful background for my cards, and since each element is separate, I can use more than one color to create a patterned paper effect. And I adore PTI's like of dies. PTI has everything I need to make beautiful cards for my friends and family.

Here is one of my favorite cards I have created since finding PTI. I hope you like it too!

Supplies: A Little Argyle, Love Birds, Mat Stack 1, 2010 Love Tags stamp sets; Ripe Avocado, Fine Linen, Stampers Select White cardstock; Bitty Dot Basics patterned paper; Dark Chocolate twill ribbon; Limitless Layers, Mat Stack 1, Mat Stack 2 dies, Ripe Avocado, True Black inks; Copic markers.

Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop

January Blog Hop Challenge: New Year's Resolution

With the new year comes a clean slate along with many resolutions. This month's blog hop challenge
involves you challenging yourself to use a Papertrey stamp set that has yet to see ink or even one that
might be collecting a little dust! Go through your stash and see what little used treasure it might hold. If
you are in need of inspiration for your chosen set, feel free to utilize the gallery posted in the side bar of
each set's sale page on our website, or go to the Previous Countdown page on Nichole's blog where
each set is organized by month of release. 2011 is the year where what's old is new again!

I decided to go crazy and try to use every set I own that hasn't seen ink before. So I sat down on the Saturday after the January release and knocked out 14 cards and I'm only a handful of sets away from inking everything! I picked one of my favorite of the cards I made to share today. I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies: PTI Plum Pudding and Fine Linen Cardstock, PTI Tiny Treats: Halloween and Up, Up and Away stamp sets; PTI Dark Chocolate ink, Tsukineko Tuxedo Black ink; PTI Dark Chocolate twine; PTI impression plate; Copic Markers

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop

Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for stopping by! We've had our turkey and our tummies are full at my house, and now I'd like to share with you what I made for the PTI November Blog Hop. Here's the challenge:

TAG TIME
Design a holiday tag or two using all of your favorite goodies and share it with all of us! We will all have plenty
of inspiration to create a large stash and try to get ahead of the hustle and bustle of the season!

Well, once I got started making tags, I couldn't stop! Tiny Treats Christmas and the wonderful Fillable Frames #10 were so much fun to work with together. I hope you like what I put together.


Cardstock: PTI Stampers Select White; Ink: Tim Holtz
Distress Ink in Fired Brick and Pine Needles,
Adirondack Pitch Black; Copic Markers and
Spica Glitter Pen; Divine Twine.