Papertrey Ink Blog Hop January 2011

Bonjour and a very belated bonne année!

Just a quick post to participate in PTI's January blog hop.  The challenge was to use a PTI stamp set that had yet to see ink or one that might be collecting a little dust!  Well this was easy as I am ashamed to say I have quite a few!  I used 4 stamp sets that hadn't seen ink and I even managed to use a coordinating PTI die that I had not used either as well as some PTI patterned paper - do I get bonus points?!!

Recipe
Cardstock/Paper: PTI Plum Pudding, SU Very Vanilla, PTI Bitty Box Basics, PTI Bitty Dot Basics 2009
Stamps: PTI On My Couch, PTI On My Couch Additions, PTI Text Style II, PTI A Little Argyle
Ink: SU Crumb Cake, SU Early Espresso, SU Old Olive, SU PTI Plum Pudding
Tools/Accessories: PTI On My Couch Die, PTI Limitless Layers Die (1¾") , PTI Double Ended Banner Die, SU Stampin Dimensionals

A la prochaine! Amitiés!

Nicole

Celebrating my Top 10 in 2010

One of the blogs I follow (Jen's Ink Spot) is showcasing her top 10 cards from her blog in 2010 and I then discovered that quite a few other crafty bloggers were doing something similar.  I thought this sounded like fun and so I decided to play along too.  As I don't have as many entries on my blog compared to other card makers, my choice was not as difficult as it was for some!  So there's a resolution for 2011 - to blog more than in 2010!

Under each card please click on the title to take you to the original post.

Three of Kind (aka Which Version Do You Prefer?)

Happy Mother's Day 

Inspiration

A quick card. I love this colour combo - one of my favs this year!

Butterfly Birthday Wishes 

Kristina Werener Challenge - another of my favourite colour combos this year!

Tote-ally Cute!  Just love the matching tote I made (please see the original post for that) and yep it's that colour combo again (told you it was a favourite!)

Bird Challenge Card (terrible photo - another resolution for 2011: improve the quality of photos on my blog!)

Forever Friends

Noel - PTI September Blog Hop and Embellish Magazine & A Passion for Papertrey Challenges

I am particularly pleased with this card as it was picked as a Top 3 Passionista for the A Passion for Papertrey "Hip to be Square" Challenge - this was the first time one of my cards had been picked from a challenge that I had entered!

Fred P Bear (aka Happy Christmas!).  Let it snow was certainly appropriate as even we had snow (where I live in the UK we usually manage to avoid the snow but unfortunately not this time!) 

Thanks for having a look and why not visit some other crafty blogs who took part in a 2010 round up blog hop (my blog entry was too late for this - typical!).

A la prochaine! Bonne Année!

Nicole

Happy Christmas!

Ok so it's a little early to wish you a Happy Christmas, but seeing as I have been MIA from blog land for a while, I can't guarantee whether I'll be able to manage another post before the 25th.

I have been busy making cards for a craft fair as well as for my annual Christmas Open House.  This is where I invite friends, neighbours and colleagues into my home one afternoon with the lure of free mulled wine and mince pies and then I won't let them leave unless they buy at least one card they have the opportunity to purchase some handmade cards and papercraft gifts if they wish, with proceeds going to my favourite charity The Eve Appeal.  For the first time I held it on a Sunday afternoon and I think I had the best turn out ever!

I thought I would showcase one of my favourite cards and because I have used a few PTI products this means it should qualify as an entry for the latest A Passion for Papertrey Challenge.

First I took some PTI Aqua Mist cardstock which I cut and then folded to make a standard sized card.  I then stamped the snow globe image and using a craft knife cut out the inside (this was the trickiest part for me as I'm not a fan of craft knives!). 

I then stamped the polar bear image onto PTI Stamper's Select White cardstock and coloured in his scarf and used a Copic Ciao to make the image pop.  Next I punched the image out with a large circle punch and adhered this to the inside of the card making sure it lined up with the snow globe aperture.

Using white opaque Stazon I stamped the snowflake image onto PTI Clearly Creative cardstock.  When the image was dry I cut it out and stuck it to the inside of the front of the card to fill in the snow globe aperture.  Finally I used some Stickles glue to accent the snowflakes on the acetate and on the greeting (by the way I forgot to mention that I stamped this after stamped the snow globe).

Recipe
Cardstock/Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, PTI Stamper's Select White cardstock, PTI Clearly Creative cardstock
Stamps: Memory Box Fred P Bear (C1409), Memory Box Plain Snowglobe (D1407), Memory Box Snowflake Ball (D933), Printworks Let It Snow! (B2788)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stazon Opaque Cotton White
Tools/Accessories: Tombow 847, Copic Ciao B60, Atyou Spica Clear glitter pen, Stickles Stardust, SU 1¾" circle punch

What do you think?  I must say I think the polar bear is super cute - Memory Box have even given him a name: Fred!

A la prochaine! Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

Nicole x

Cased Christmas Card

Just a quick post to show the card I have made for the latest A Passion for Papertrey Challenge which is to CASE one of the fabulous PTI Design Team ladies!

It was quite a hard choice as they all come up with some fab inspirational designs.  However, in the end I based my card on this recent card by Maile Belles which I simply adored!  I decided to put a Christmas spin on my version of it!

Recipe
Cardstock/Paper: PTI Enchanted Evening, PTI Spring Rain
Stamps: PTI Fillable Frames No 4, PTI Peace Be Still
Ink: PTI Enchanted Evening, Encore Silver
Tools/Accessories: PTI Fillable Frames No 4 Die, PTI Enchanted Evening Grosgrain Ribbon, Blue & silver ribbon from stash, clear gemstones from stash

A la prochaine! Amitiés!

Nicole

Apple Day

It was a gorgeous sunny October afternoon here on Sunday and I went to Apple Day at nearby Bromham Mill.  So what is Apple Day I hear you ask?  It is an annual celebration of the British apple and events take place up and down the country each year in mid-October.  My local event is held in the grounds of a late 18th/early 19th century restored flour mill.

The aim is to taste, eat, drink, try and buy apples in one form or another!  So amongst other things you could buy apple juice, drink real cider & perry (I had ½ pint of the deliciously named "Double Vision" which was dangerously quaffable at 7.4%!), and eat the truly unique Bedfordshire Clanger - this was originally the food of farm labourers and is a suet crust dumpling filled with meat at one end and apple at the other.  It is made by a local bakery and there are always huge queues on Apple Day to wait for the hot, freshly baked deliveries to arrive!

It is really an event for all ages and there were loads of activities: ferret racing, Morris dancers, sheep dog display (with geese instead of sheep and children instead of pens!), circus skills workshop, apple bobbing and an owl display!  I forgot to take my camera, so only had my phone and as the battery was low I only managed to take a couple of photos of the Morris dancers (so apologies for the poor quality but this was the best one)!

Apple Day did inspire me to make an autumnal card ... albeit with a difference as its not really in the usual autumn colours but I have given thanks! With this card I had a go at Heather Nichol's letterpress technique with PTI impression plates for the first time.  It should have been for the A Passion for Papertrey Autumnal Challenge, but by the time I completed the card and photographed it, it was too late.

Receipe
Cardstock/Paper: PTI Kraft, PTI Dotti Biscotti, PTI New Leaf, SU Whisper White
Stamps: PTI Just For You, PTI Take Note, WMS Framed (sentiment)
Ink: PTI New Leaf, PTI Fresh Snow, Brilliance Pearlescent Poppy
Tools/Accessories: SU Whisper White Satin Ribbon, SU Modern Label Punch, SU Circle Punch, SU Stampin Dimensionals, PTI In Bloom Impression Plate, PTI Mat Stack 3 

A la prochaine!  Amitiés
 
Nicole

Papertrey September Blog Hop Challenge

This is the first time I have participated in PTI's blog hop challenge.  The task set by Nichole was:

"One of the most fun things about this hobby is the people you meet, whether in person or online, and the things you learn from them.  Now is your chance to show off any skills you might have learned from a fellow stamper, and perhaps even give them a little shout out to thank them for the inspiration they have provided.  Create a project using one of your favorite learned skills and perhaps after a little blog hopping, we will ALL learn some new tips and tricks and continue to pass on the love of this hobby!"

Well I found this quite hard!  The reason I say it was hard is that there are loads of people I can think of that I have learned from - so to pick one is really difficult and unfair on all the others!  It also made me think about how I found out about PTI.  This finished card was totally not what I planned to make at the start of the process, but as so often happens it evolved as I was making it.  It does, however, reflect various elements/tips/techniques that I have picked up along the way!

Recipe
Stamps: PTI Background Basics: Retro, Hero Arts Bird Branch Alphabet
Cardstock/Paper: PTI Smokey Shadow, SU Whisper White
Ink: Versafine Black, Versamark
Tools/Accessories: PTI Harvest Gold satin ribbon, White filigree embossing powder, Clear embossing powder, Tattered Angels Glimmer Chips Frosty Memories, Self-adhesive gems from stash, black 3D foam pads (shock horror not SU Stampin Dimensionals - only cos they don't do them in black!)

As this is a square card I thought I would also enter it into A Passion for Papertrey's challenge: Hip to be Square. Additionally, it also meets the requirements of Embellish Magazine's latest colour and stamped background challenge. So this is a first for me - a card that fits 3 challenges!

And who are all those people that have inspired this card? 

• Dawn Bibby, QVC UK: It's her fault (LOL!) that I got into paper crafting at all!
• Susie Candlin's workshops at Coleman's Craft Warehouse: Don't use black embossing powder but stamp in black ink & use clear embossing powder (you avoid getting nasty unwanted black specks on your card)
• Michelle Last: Getting a blog; Taking part in challenges
• Kristina Werner: Colour Combos & Challenges; How to secure ribbon to a card by making a slit on the spine of the card; How to get good clear images from clear acrylic stamps by using Versamark before adding the ink you wish to stamp with
• Dawn McVey: Colour Combos; How to tie bows/knots in ribbon; How to create stamped backgrounds with PTI stamps
• Nichole Heady: PTI products & design elements in general

Merci beaucoup to you all!

A la prochaine!  Amitiés.

Nicole

Which Version Do You Prefer?

Hi there!  Thought I would get interactive today and wondered if you could let me know which of these three versions of a similar card do you prefer?

I started off with this one (let's call this version 1 - original huh?!):

I really loved the simplicity of this but wondered whether it would be better to add a sentiment, so added this SU modern label and ended up with this revised card (let's call this version 2):

However, wasn't sure I really liked it - think I preferred the original version, but I really wanted to have a sentiment.  So decided to come up with a variation and this is what I ended up with (version 3):

Recipes
Stamps: PTI CHA Set 2010 Four of a Kind, PTI Anniversary Set Round and Round
Cardstock/Paper: PTI Aqua Mist, PTI Hawaiian Shores
Ink: PTI Simply Chartreuse, Versamark
Tools/Accessories: PTI Hawaiian Shores grosgrain ribbon, Stickles patina, SU modern label punch, SU stampin dimensionals, White filigree embossing powder, clear embossing powder

So how did I do the last card?  Well I stamped the large leaf image from the stamp set using PTI Simply Chartreuse ink onto PTI Aqua Mist cardstock.  Then using the single matching leaf image I stamped this (again using the same ink) where the fourth flower should have been.  Next I stamped the 3 flower images with Versamark and then heat embossed them with white Filigree embossing powder, adding Patina Stickles to accent the flower centres.  Using a scrap of PTI Hawaiian Shores cardstock I made a strip of card to cover the join of the stamped leaf images.  Onto this strip I then stamped my greeting in Versamark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  Finally I added the knotted ribbon round the card.  Et voilà!

By the way I know the colours look slightly different on the last version, but they are the same (despite my best efforts to adjust in Picassa) - just shows what a difference it makes when a photo is taken on a different day (despite being taken in the same place about the same time of day and with (seemingly) similar light conditions!).

No doubt those of you who are PTI aficionados will have spotted that I used PTI’s exclusive CHA Four of a Kind stamp set (only available to those who attended CHA in Chicago this July). Unfortunately I was not one of those lucky people (sigh) – but I did manage to acquire this set from someone who had been and had got at least 2 (and probably more!) and was kind enough to share one of her extra sets!

So which version do you prefer?  Let me know in the comments section!  I thought I liked the last version best but now I'm not so sure (whoever came up with the phrase "I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure" must have been thinking of me!).

A la prochaine! Amitiés.

Nicole