My favorite stamps from PaperTrey Ink.

I got this stamp set as a freebie in December 2013 for having a large order.  I never would have purchased it because flowers just aren't my focus.  I do like touches of flowers but not ALL flowers.  WELL-that has changed with the beautiful little set.  It is called Ruby Reprise by Dawn McVey.   I initially stamped 2 clean and simple cards using orange and yellow flowers.  My daughters really liked those cards so I purchased inks that were pink because these flowers look tropical to me and pinks just seemed to go better with the vibe of the stamps.  I stamped several more pink clean and simple cards, then added a few gems to dress them up.  I loved the pink way more than the orange and yellow cards so I decided to cut up the orange and yellow cards and use just portions of them on two different cards.  I like all three designs.  Today I noticed a border challenge at Splitcoast Stampers so I stamped the flowers all around the outside of a square card.  My border card for the challenge is the last one shown here.  This seems to be my "go-to" stamp set for now.  I just can't seem to go wrong with it.  THANK YOU PAPERTREY INK!  I LOVE YOU!

Organizing my craft room

     Last night I took round clothespins (called "doll pins" - found the wooden crafts section of JoAnns online store) and organized my ribbons.  I should have taken a "before" picture because the difference is totally AMAZING.  After winding each roll of ribbon onto the spool, I put small rubber bands (from the hair accessories department of the dollar store) around the ribbon to secure it. I found this technique several places on Pinterest.

Side view of the open drawer of ribbons

     Originally the ribbons were in the same drawer pictured below (set of 3 stacking bins by Sterlite) but the drawer was extended out, completely filled and spilling out, and the yellow basket was on the floor in front of it completely filled with ribbon spools plus I had clear containers of ribbons on the floor filled with ribbons.  I only bought a bag of 30 clothespins, but I should have bought 2 bags because I had too many spools of ribbon and had to wind two identical spools of a few ribbons onto 1 clothespin to get them all on the 30 spools.  I really would like to buy more ribbon now that I can easily see which ribbons I have.  I had a few stray long strands of ribbon that I just rolled around my finger then secured with a rubber band.

     Here are the benefits that I have found with this organizational method and some additional details of the photo.

-I can easily see my options.

-The ribbons take up practically NO ROOM.

-A rolled up bag of rubber bands is in the lower left side of picture.

-Bakers twine is in the upper right corner of picture.

-Plastic containers of embroidery floss and etc are on the right, which is actually the back of the drawer.

     My daughter is concerned that the ribbon will be curled when I decide to use it but if it is and doesn't stay straight once glued to the front of a card, I will iron it.  Seriously.  It's worth it to be able to save so much space and easily see ALL my options at once.

Operation Write Home Super Bowl 2014 Weekend Challenges

     Operation Write home is having a 3 part Super Bowl challenge this weekend.  The first challenge was to make a masculine card inspired by either the Denver Broncos or Seattle Sea-hawks logo.  I chose to use the colors from the Seahawks and a stamped bird design (which isn't an eagle, but you get the idea).

Inkadinkado Winter Birds

     I used sketch #89 which seemed to fit into the masculine theme along with the colors I chose.  I will be attempting the other two challenges this weekend as well.

     Here is the card from the second challenge.  

Papertrey Ink Ruby Reprise sentiment (free gift with purchase)

     I was suppose to create a masculine card using the color brown.  I accidentally got an ink smudge on the inside of the card on the lower right corner so I cut out another football to cover it.  No one will ever know.  (Us card makers are sneaky like that.)

I used sketch #109.

     Here's my third card in this challenge.  

Fiskars Birthday Bash

It Feels Good to get Crafty.

I needed a sympathy card and decided to make two.  It felt so good to get crafty, even if it wasn't for a good reason.  It has been WAY too long since I've been able to make anything.  The cards went to the same family, but the one with the leaf went to a teenage girl and the one with the trees went to a teenage boy.

It's been a long time since I posted.

     Aside from the other post from today (my daughter's birthday card), I haven't posted in a long time.  I broke my leg several months ago because I slipped on the ice and fell.  I had changed my craft room around just prior to that and was only about 75% set up.  I still have a few boxes of things stacked in front of my supplies and it was hard today to move things around enough to get just the basics. 
     I could have done more with today's card and would have had some Valentines and Easter cards in there if my craft room were totally set up and/or if my leg was healed enough to move things around easily and finish setting up my craft room.  It sure was nice to get a project done today though.  I couldn't bring myself to purchasing a store bought card or giving my daughter one of the cards from my stash.  It may be a few more months before I am back in the swing again.

My second daughter's 15th birthday card.

This is the card I made for my youngest daughter's 15th birthday.  The colors match her wrapping paper from  her gifts.  I used Georgia Pacific cardstock.  The bakers twine is in two separate colors to match the two shades of blue in the coloring of the stamped image.  The digital image is from Bugaboo stamps and was colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol ink markers.  Blue sheer ribbon was added to the side.  Gina K's black Pure Luxury cardstock was used behind the image.  An orange gem was added to the left of the image.  I used the "Make a Wish" sentiment and I can't find where it came from.  (I made a bunch of them up ahead of time.)   The papers are DCWV Mango Frost Mat Stack.  After I took the picture I noticed that the Elephant wasn't colored smoothly so I filled it in and smoothed it out.  I used a Mojo Monday sketch from May of 2010.

My Ten Favorite Cards from 2012

 I like the stitching I did on this one, the coordinating papers and how well the dimensional sticker matches the papers. 

 I love this little Asian Girl and the sketch I used to create this design. 

 

 I was playing with my alcohol markers and loved how this Graduation Girl turned out. 

 My daughter loves animals and bright colors.  I had the pretty and bright scrap that I used to pull this card together.  The scrap is much brighter in person and is hot pink, orange and lime green.

 I had this design in mind for years and finally figured out how to create it on my Silhouette Cameo.

 This birds on a wire design was a purchased design from the Silhouette store.  I love the matching ink, paper and ribbon I used from PaperTrey Ink and I love the sentiment which says "God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage."  I think it is a great sentiment for someone going through tough times.  I gave a set of these to my sister who is very active in her church.

 

I loved this bright Get Well card.

 You can't get any cuter than House Mouse stamps.  I like the ribbon like papers stuck out horizontally from the image.

 

This is the cutest little image.  I colored her with alcohol markers and wanted to keep the background rather plain to keep the focus on the image.

I loved coloring the roses with my alcohol markers.  It is the primary focus on this card and I like how well it coordinates with the background paper.

If you have any questions about manufacturers of stamps or papers used in these designs feel free to contact me.  I mentioned most of them on the original posts but I'm happy to look them up for you if you are interested.  I'm not a very active blogger so I only have about 5 or 6 pages of posts for all of 2012.