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Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-faire: Make & Take

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I was hoping I'd had lots of crafting time today, but it hasn't turned out that way. Today is the Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-faire with loads of inspiration and videos for projects. Fortunately we have until Monday to get projects completed and uploaded. Although we'll be at a baptism and luncheon tomorrow, I'm hoping to get some serious crafting time in the late afternoon and evening. But I did get the Make & Take project done this morning. The card Nichole posted used Raspberry Fizz ink and cardstock—one of my favorites, but my ink pad is no longer making good impressions, even with reinking, so I had to go to another pink. I don't have the new floral set (yet) so I went to one I haven't used in a long time: Beautiful Blooms II.

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Creating a background isn't something I do often either. It took me awhile to figure out placement, but I'm happy with it. The vellum strip is scored at the top and bottom, and the sentiment is from In Bloom. I'm off to see if I can get another project done before I need to finish up the dinner plans for company tonight.

Take Twelve: July

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A very quick post before we leave to go camping for the weekend. The forecast for the next three days says temps in the 90's so I don't think we'll get cold. Hopefully our camp site will have some shade!

Here's this month's Take Twelve layout. The teal patterned paper is a bit dull in the photo, but nothing I could do in PSE quickly seemed to help it much. 

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The journaling reads:

My day started a bit later than usual and one of the first jobs was to make a new To Do List. I love these Knock Knock pads with the four quadrants. I had an early appointment for my first complete opthamology appointment in several years. I got a great report and don’t need to go back for two years.

The big tasks for the day involved getting ready to host our three-table duplicate bridge group. Some of us have been playing together for 39 years. It’s a fun, social bridge group which is a good thing for us since we don’t play very often.

When I brought some fresh oregano in to chop for the tortilla roll-ups a little ladybug came along. Once I rescued her, I got it all chopped with my Ulu, certainly the most useful souvenir I bought last summer in Alaska. 

The pile of books are this week’s haul from the library. I read The World Without You in just two days—the perfect summer read. I’ve started Gold, and we used the national parks books to help plan our time at Rocky Mountain National Park in August with Matt. 

I thought I’d capture our typical lunches for this month’s layout. Tracy has toast with crunchy peanut butter, yogurt, and milk every day for lunch. I’m not quite so predictable, but usually make a nice salad, and today had unsweetened iced tea.

Here's  a close-up of the bottom border. I cut out the cameras from a border on a 12X12 piece of Amy Tangerine scrapbook paper that I used on a layout previously.

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Once again, nearly all the supplies came from the last one or two Studio Calico kits. 

Have a great weekend! Hope yours is a cool one.

 

 

Ten on the Tenth: Summer Scavenger Hunt

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We were away over the Fourth and attended two weddings in two days! The tenth of July has snuck up on me once again, but thanks to the brides I have ten of Rinda's 21 items for this summer's scavenger hunt. I love this project, and hope I'll be able to find the other 11 before summer's end.

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#1 The Charlotte Pier on Lake Ontario

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#2 The clothesline off my brother's deck

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#4 A roadside stand on the way to my friend, Mary's house.

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#5 A train. We had just walked across the tracks on our way to the marina to watch the fireworks when the passenger train roared by!

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#8 A statue of an angel in Mt. Hope Cemetery

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#9 A fountain at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY

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#10 Horse(s)–both shots taken at Mendon Ponds Park

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#15 Someone dancing. The first photo is the bride and groom at Saturday's wedding. The second is of my brother and his daughter during the Father and Daughter dance. Both weddings were just perfect events!

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#16 Bride #1 (the daughter of my husband's best friend)

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Bride #2 (My niece, Stephanie and her husband, Kevin)

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#17 The outside of the chapel where my niece was married

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The inside of the chapel (this photo does not do justice to the stunning interior of this church.)

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I'm linking this to Shimelle's Ten on the Tenth. You can find other lists here.

 

Capture Your 365 Blog Hop

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Welcome to a Capture Your 365 blog hop. A group of photographers have put together a little blog hop today to celebrate our half-way mark. Here are the participants:

 Kathleen – Taking Pictures, Enjoying Life

Kelly – but for the Grace of God

Karen – Random Reflections

Janine – The Sweetest Dreams

Katrina – Capture Your 365

 Most of my blogging friends know I’m participating in a “photo-a-day” project this year. I’ve attempted this project several times in the past and once, I think, I made it to April. This year I’ve made it half way through the year. For me the difference is definitely due to finding a community of women who are also embarked on this project. Capture Your 365 was created by Katrina Kennedy, and she provides a monthly checklist of prompts (which you can use or not) as well as a daily email with a prompt and links to one or more articles on photography. There is a gallery for posting our photos and a forum for talking about any aspect of photography with others.

Once a month I create a monthly scrapbook page with my photos for the month, but I don’t post them individually. For this hop I thought it would be fun to pick a few of my favorites, some when I used a prompt, and others where I captured something more personal. I did a little survey and discovered the number of prompts I use varies widely. One month I used just six prompts and another I used 22 of the prompts. In May I was able to combine lots of the prompts with personal events in our life.

 The first set of favorites are photos where I did not use the prompts:

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Our new grandson–can't believe how tiny he was in early January!

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Skylar Rose–we've been blessed with two grandchildren this year.

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Benches at the Pentagon Memorial in Washington, D.C. I don't often try to do night photography, but I was really happy with the way this photo turned out. I used a tiny tabletop tripod, and took a LOT of photos.

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A photo from this week. I'm so excited to finally have lots of blooms on my hydrangeas after many years of waiting.

I probably would have taken all of the photos above even if I weren’t participating in this project. The next set of photos I might have missed, so many thanks to Katrina and her crew for the daily prompts and push to improve our photography skills.

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Prompt:  Ring It In

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Prompt:  Eyes. I love this photo of my husband!

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Prompt:  Isolate the Subject (Taken at Oregon Dunes State Park)

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Prompt:  Friend. How lucky to find a ladybug in my perennial garden the day of this prompt!

If you’re following the hop, your next stop is Janine at The Sweetest Dream. Enjoy the inspiration!

 

 

Papertrey June Blog Hop Challenge

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It's already the 25th of June, and time for the Papertrey Ink blog hop. Here's the inspiration photo:

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My first thought when I saw this photo was to use Papertrey's "Stitches and Swirls" which hasn't seen enough use. I kept true to the colors, using aqua mist, new leaf, and lemon tart cardstocks. I added a ruffled gingham ribbon to mimic the ruffles on the pillows, and a sentiment from Everyday Classics. One of my best friends just retired, so this card is for her.

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And then, because my June order had just arrived I had to give "Lovely Layers" a try. This stamp set is going to get a workout, I'm quite sure. This time I stuck to the same color combinations, but stamped on Select White. The sentiment is from "We Go Together." I love cards like this that can be used for so many occasions.

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Runway Inspired Challenge #14

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I took a break from scrapbooking today to get a few cards made. I'll be back later with some more, but I wanted to post my card for the Runway Inspired Challenge. This is the first time I've ever participated in it, but I was so inspired by all the designers' creations, I decided to give it a go.

Here's the inspiration:

Max-Kibardin-Fall-2012-4 (from fashionologie)

What stunning shoes! I'd barely make it across the room in heels that high, but I sure do like them. Here's my card based on the colors.

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I love these colors together:  Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chartreuse, and Hibiscus Burst. I used the Papertrey Ink chevron dies to cut both a large and small chevron of each color and decided two small and one large looked best. The sentiment (stamped in Simply Chartreuse) is Think Big Favorites #3, also by Papertrey Ink. I added three tiny gems since the inside sentiment is a continuation of the sentiment on the front:  it's going to be your best birthday yet!

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The chevron dies are long enough that I was able to make two cards, so now I have two more summer birthday cards ready to send.

Take Twelve: June

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It's actually taken longer to find the time to blog than to get the photos taken (on the 12th) and the layout made (on the 13th). The weekend was wonderful, but very busy. I attended a two-day workshop with groups from nine urban Presbyterian churches who have committed to working together to improve congregational life and health and mission in the city. Our church, the largest and most metropolitan of the group, is not declining, but has been holding steady in membership for the last 10 or so years. Most of the other churches, however, are experiencing decline and have some hard decisions to make. It's hoped that a communal effort will open some options up for renewal. The presenter from the PCUSA was articulate and well-organized. There was a lot of information to digest, and I think it will be bringing new volunteer commitments to my life.

But, here is the Take Twelve layout:

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Patterned paper: Neapolitan (American Crafts); Banner: Resort (Cloud 9); doily (Martha Stewart); alpha (Paper Studio); Sticker: Garden Variety (Cosmo Cricket); photo template (Ella Publishing)

Journaling reads: 

One thing I love about the Take 12 project is seeing how different each month is. Last month we were in Oregon. Taking photos was so easy. Today it was raining most of the day, so thank goodness Betsy and Skylar came to dinner. Otherwise the photos would be a bit mundane. The rain stopped long enough for me to get a photo of the garden which I finally finished planting and mulching this week. Best photo: water droplets on the lupine. Tracy’s been busy reglazing a windows. I included a photo of my iPad which I was reading as I was getting my hair done. I like that you can see the title of the current book–Imagine: How Creativity Works. Great read! There are also photos of the new Subaru, and my very first Kichen Aid mixer which I just love.                                      

Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge

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It's time once again for the monthly blog hop at Paptertrey Ink. As soon as I saw the inspiration photo, I knew I wanted to participate. I love this color combination.

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Although I had a vague idea of what I might want to create, it wasn't until late last night that it all came together. Luckily my May order with the On The Farm stamps arrived the day before so I had the perfect checked border for the cards. After I finished the first card, I had some reject pieces laying on my desk and reconfigured the card to make use of them. That's good because I have two June 1st events for which I need cards. These will be perfect.

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Both cards use Select White cardstock, Simply Chartruese ink, the Rosie Posie stamps and dies, a circle punch, and the On The Farm checked border.

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This card uses Simply Chartruese cardstock, a sentiment from the Fillable Frames Additions: 2 and two tiny gems from KaiserCraft

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Here I used True Black cardstock and a sentiment from Round and Round. 

You can find more inspiration here.

Back to the Crafting Table

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It's taken us a few days to adjust to the new time zone and get settled in on our routines at home. It was a fabulous two weeks in Oregon, and there'll be more to share here soon. But almost as soon as we got home I needed a "quick recovery" card for my sister-in-law who suddenly needed a pacemaker implanted. The surgery was yesterday, and she's due home today. I took the opportunity to combine two challenges:  The Embellish Bicycle Color Challenge, and the most recent Retro Sketch Challenge. I rotated the sketch to fit my image.

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And here's my take on them. The inside message reads: Hope the road to recovery is short.

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Supplies:  Memory Box card; patterned paper:  Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky (MME); stamps: bicycle (Hero Arts), sentiment (Papertrey Ink); twine (Divine Twine); cloud die (Papertrey Ink); washi tape (Studio Calico kit)

April Papertrey Blog Hop & More from A Cut Above

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Today's the monthy PTI Blog Hop, and as soon as I saw the inspiration photo . . .

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I immediately thought of the Rosy Posy stamp set. I had just watched Nichol Magouirk's video on A Cut Above about stamping within an embossed frame, and thought the two would go together nicely. I reversed Nichol's process and masked off the area for the frame first, did my stamping, and then embossed the frame around the image. It's been a long time since I used masking to create an image, and I was surprised at how easily it went. I wanted to incorporate some polka dots as well, but couldn't think of any way to do it without the potential of ruining what I had, so here's another pretty CAS design. The sentiment is from Inside and Out: Birthdays. The frame was embossed with the largest of the Spellbinders Small Labels dies.

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Then in my desire to use the polka dots I went in search of some quilt-like patterns as seen in the photo. I found several, but the colors aren't as true to the inspiration photo as the first card. But that's OK, it's the patterns and polka-dots I'm focusing on here. I tried a whole variety of layouts, but finally ended up with two CAS cards:

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In keeping with the focus on die cuts and embossing folders, I used the Beautiful Blooms 2 dies to cut the flowers and an old favorite Cuttlebug embossing folder, Swiss Dots. The brads are Basic Grey and the sentiment is again from Inside and Out: Birthday. I think I have all the cards I need now for the May birthdays. Just two more anniversary cards needed.

A Cut Above: Lesson 5 Other Than Paper & Retro Sketches

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Recently I've seen the Retro Sketch site show up on some of my favorite card-making blogs. This week's sketch appealed to me and was perfect for trying out the lesson on cutting materials other than paper in the Cut Above Class.

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I used some Magenta Adhesive-backed cork and some Papertrey Ink felt to die cut the banner.

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The cardstock is Classic Kraft by Papertrey Ink and the patterned paper from the new Neopolitan line by American Craft. The twine is from Paper Source and the brad is an old Making Memories one.

We've had a fabulous weekend despite cold, rainy weather. Yesterday afternoon I attended a three hour workshop with Cole Thompson on Black & White Photography. If I had paid double or triple what I did, I would have thought it worth the money. An excellent speaker, very well-prepared, adn wonderful content.  I've been reading some books by David DuChemin (Within the Frame and Vision and Voice), and Cole's workshop was a perfect accompaniment to what I've been reading. The lessons from my current online course, A Sense of Place, also fall right in line. I could easily immerse myself all day in this material!

Today was the birthday brunch and later this week, I'll have several posts heavy on photography. The egg boats were fabulous (thanks, Deb!) as was the cinnamon French toast, and Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake. My sister-in-laws brought wonderful fruit salads. It was great to have the family together. Most of them had not seen Matt since January, or Skylar since October. 

Easter Cards

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Well, I know I'm not too late for this challenge, but I wasn't planning on posting these until Sunday. But since The Scrapbook Trends CREATE blog is looking for Easter cards, I thought I'd get them up today.

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I actualy made the pink card a year ago for a Scrap-Mart post but I recently found it and realized that unlike last year, I have two cute grandchildren to whom I can send cute bunny cards. Both cards use Jillibean patterned paper, Papertrey Select White cardstock, doilies cut with the Lacy Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder) and a bunny cut with my Silhouette and scraps from the scrap folder. Skylar's tag was cut with a Papertrey Tag Sale die, and Caleb's is a tag I bought years ago from Impress. Both sentiments are from Papertrey, and both bunnies are embellished with some Fun Flock. (I knew I kept that around for a reason!)

ColorQ Challenge

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ColorQ has another bright and cheerful palette. As soon as I saw it in my Reader I knew I'd be playing along. 

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Here's my card. I ended up with two cards (nearly identical) since I cut each star border out of the four different papers.

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Nothing but cardstock (all Papertrey except for the green which came from my scrap folder). The star borders are also Papertrey Ink as is the sentiment from the "Fillable Frames Additions 2" set. Now I have a start on the many May birthdays on my calendar.

Well, it turns out I was a day late to post this for the challenge. Too bad as I had it done in plenty of time!

Card Patterns Challenge

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In my effort to finish the April birthday cards, I decided to play along with the Card Patterns challenge. Here's the sketch:

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I don't often follow along with sketch challenges, and I think I know why. I enjoy creating a card for them, but often the final product is not really me. This one falls into that category. Although I'm pleased with it, it's not a card I would create on my own. 

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I chose the papers first, both from a 6X6 paper pad, Random by Crate Paper. Papertrey's Raspberry Fizz and Vintage Cream cardstock were good matches, and I thought the Pretty Peony stamps worked well. The sentiment is from Delightful Dahlias, and the tiny butterfly from Butterfly Dreams. I used both Spellbinder's Lacy Circles and the Double Ended Banner dies from PTI, and finished it off with a Simply Chartreuse ribbon. The pearls are from Michaels.

Lots going on this weekend. On Friday I'm going to a lecture by the All Rochester Reads author, Debra Dean, who wrote The Madonnas of Leningrad which our book group read several years ago.  Everyone in the book group liked it, which is a good recommendation since we're a couples book group, and pretty diverse. Then we're having company for dinner later that night.

Saturday, I'm off with friends to a baby shower in Buffalo. Since we're all crafters, we're leaving early so we can spend some time at Buffalo Stamps & Stuff beforehand. It will be an all day event. When we get home, Tracy and I are going to friend's for dinner. I'm providing dessert, and will get it made so I can serve it on Friday as well. If it turns out well, I'll take photos and post it here. My friend made it for us last month, and it was fabulous! Hope you have some fun planned for the weekend as well.

CAS-ual Friday Challenge

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This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays was to create a card using pastels and blacks. This finishes my stash of birthday cards for April. You'll see the rest of them in the next day or so.

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This gave me a chance to play with a couple more new purchases from Papertrey Ink:  the 2012 Birthday Tags (which I'm sure will get lots of use) and the new Tag Sale #6 die which I love. I stamped the image on Aqua Mist cardstock and cut the tag from Bitty Box, using the Aqua Mist pattern. I love the way so many of the Papertrey products are color coordinated. The card itself was created from paper I purchased at the very first stamp store in Rochester so it must be at least 15 years old. The store closed years ago. Since then we've had two other lovely stores, but they are no longer in business either. The other die is the Vine Border, and the ribbon and pearls are from Michaels.