Look who got her first Papertrey Ink order!

I'm a bad girl and I went ahead and spent my whole Ohio tax refund on a Papertrey Ink order. I've been wanting to place a Papertrey order for months but I kept putting it off because I could never decide what to get because I wanted soooo many things. They finally released a sampler pack of their FABULOUS card stock and a collection of tiny polka dot patterned paper in all of their signature colors. Plus they released a kit that included a selection of card stock, ribbon, and inks all for $16! So I knew I had to get each of those things to get me started. Then I somehow narrowed down a few stamp sets that I've had my eye on forever and got those too. I also got several ink spots because they are only $2 and they come in the signature PTI colors. I must say all of my Papertrey Ink products are as good as I expected them to be. So here are the things I've been working on with my new Papertrey loves... First I used the brand new Friends till the End set. I just love the gorgeous flower. It's soooo pretty! Plus it has a ton of versatile sentiments in a very cute little font. I LOVE IT! I used some very springy color combos because I can not wait for SPRING! OMG I neeeeeed some sunshine! I also used the brand new Beyond Basic Borders set which I love, but I'm still trying to get good at stamping with it. The border stamp I used wasn't the easiest stamp to work with...just need to practice.The CS colors used on those two cards are PTI Spring Rain, Raspberry Fizz, Lemon Yellow, and Spring Moss. I used Ripe Avacado Ribbon on the 1st card and SU! Old Olive Ribbon on the 2nd one. Next I used the Bitty Baby Blessings stamp set to make a baby card for my cousin who is expecting. I've seen this color combo used recently and I've been meaning to try it and I finally got around to it. The colors are Spring Rain, Lemon Yellow, and Bitty Dots Pattern paper in Pure Poppy. I also used my SU! So Saffron Ribbon. I love how fresh and crisp the colors look with each other. And finally, of course I have another altered box to show you. This one had a yummy smelling candle in it and I found it on the cheap at TJ Maxx (I LOVE that store!) It already had the fancy little plastic diamond on the top and was a simple black and white color scheme. I decided to use the PTI Raspberry Fizz and Aqua Mist cardstock with the True Black patterened paper to jazz it up. I also used Raspberry Fizz grograin ribbon. I chose those colors because if and when I ever have a craft room, that would be the color scheme. Can you tell I've put some thought in to my imaginary craft room? I also went ahead and monogramed my initial on the front since afterall it will be going in MY craft room someday :) But for now I'm using it to store my PTI ink spots. So there you have it, my first(of many) PTI post.

I'm way behind on my blogging!

Oops! It's been a while since I've updated this ol' thing. As you'll see from all of the stuff I have to show you, I've been BUSY! First of all, I finally got my Sale-a-bration order from Stampin Up! I got sooo many new stamps and accessories AND my BIG SHOT! Woo Hoo!!! The best part of this particular order was how many of the things I got were FREE! Then I had some projects and swap cards to make for my monthly SU! Demo group meeting. This is a project I made for our monthy challenge. I had to use a Raspberry Tart scallop envelope (from the Big Shot) , a piece of silver hodge podge hardware, a little piece of wide pink pirouette ribbon, and some chip board flowers. I came up with the idea to make an emergency card kit for those times that you realize that you need a card NOW and have no time. The kit includes some versatile any occasion cards and envelopes as well as pens and stamps so that you don't have to run around looking for those things when you have to send a card on the quick! And this is the swap card that I made...Shocker, it's pink! I used the Sweet Stems and Warm Words Stamp sets from SU!, Pretty in Pink CS, Basic Black CS, Rose Red Grosgrain Ribbon, and Black brads. I think it's cute and simple. There were so many wonderful swap cards this time around and I'm going to have a hard time giving any of them away! Here is one more little project I did. I am constantly saving any cute boxes or packaging that I get and then I jazz them up with my Stampin stuff. This one was a box that contained some NARS makeup that I got a few weeks ago. It was a great plain black box with an acetate window and a magnetic closure...and then I just gave it some more personality...who knows what I will actually do with it or what I will put in it, but at least it's snazzy! OK, I actually have more stuff to post but this will have to do for today....stay tuned :)

Friends til the End

Papertrey Ink is one of my FAVORITE stamp companies. I can't even find the words to describe how fantastic all of their stamps, papers, and supplies are. Their stamps have a distinct style that is super classy and timeless and their papers are of the highest quality and most vibrant delicious colors...Another cool thing about Papertrey is that they are located here in Cincinnati...not that it makes a difference because the only way to purchase in online...but I thought it was cool that they are based here. (I may have even gone stalking one day trying to find their building...I didn't have any luck finding it and gave up because I felt like a creepster) ANYWAY...Papertrey is having their 2 year anniversary right now and they've been doing lots of contests, challenges, and sneak peeks of their brand new products on Nichole's (the owner) Blog. Today's challenge was to make a card for a dear friend inspired by their new Friends Til the End stamp set which is releasing on Feb 15th. I thought I would give it a shot...so here it is... I'll be sending it to my best friend Beth who lives in Seattle, WA. We went to high school and college together and it's been really hard since her husband whisked her off to the west coast. We don't talk or hang out nearly as much as we used to and I'm sure that she'll appreciate getting a little reminder of how much I miss her and care about her. Now don't go getting ideas that I've lost my Stampin Up! loyalty...I'm placing a $430 order tomorrow! I'm so excited because I will finally be getting my Big Shot and as a bonus I will be getting tons of free stamps and accessories from the Sale-a-bration promotion! Oh boy, it's gonna be like Christmas all over again!

Bella Bella Bella Rose Cont...

Woo Hoo! I have more stuff to post today...My post yesterday got a little long so I saved some stuff for today. A few more Bellas and another Bella Rose card... I've mentioned before that I joined a yahoo group for Stamping Bella called Bellahollics Anonymous...it's a cool group that keeps stamping interesting with challenges, contests, and swaps etc. The coolest thing they do though is the Bella Sistah Swap. You basically get paired up with another Bella addict and you chat with each other and send each other Bellas, cards, goodies etc. I'm participating in my first one, and I got paired up with a great gal named Ellen. So here is a fabulous card she sent me including some awesome stamped images of Bellas that I don't have. I LOVE the colors she used! Pink and Green are my favorite color combo! And I love the glitter too! A Bella can never have too much glitter! And this is a card I made a while ago for Ellen. I had to wait to post it until she received it though...Did I mention I love pink and green? Finally a cute lil card using my fave DSP...I used my 1/2 circle punch to make some DIY polka dot paper. I also used the Say it with Scalops stamp set from SU! I found the cute lil easel and decided to try photographing a card on it...trying to decide if I like using it...I wish I could find something similar to what Dawn McVey (my other stamping idol) uses to prop up her cards for photos.

Bella Bella Bella Rose

So this weekend I had a whole Saturday with nothing to do but stamp! It was glorious! AND THEN yesterday I had a snow day...I don't really get to have snow days because I'm a nanny for two doctors that HAVE to go to work, but I started driving in to work and I just had a BAD feeling that I was gonna crash so I turned around and came home...and once again I stamped ALL day...So here are my creations First I made a few Valentiney (I decided that is a word) Bellas for the Bellaholics Anonymous Yahoo Group homepage contest. If I win this month it means a free new Bella stamp for me, so keep your fingers crossed! This is a box that one of my Origins gift sets came in...It's almost exactly the same color as Kiwi Kiss from SU! So I just had to jazz it up with my favorite Bella Rose designer series paper. I wanted to give it sort of a weathered shabby chic look...I'm pretty pleased with it. While I had my Bella Rose paper out I went ahead and fancied up this cute little recipe box which will go just perfectly in my pink kitchen! I got the box from Sephora...it was a Philosophy gift set which contained some yummy yummy body washes...obviously the box was the best part though! The original colors on the box are almost spot on matching to SU Pink Pirouette and Riding Hood Red...so I just jazzed it up and personalized it with my JustRite monogram stamper. Now if I could just get around to making all of the recipe cards to put in it. Last but not least I made this precious little stationary set holder using the All Boxed Up template from Papertrey Ink. Lauren Meader (one of my stamping idols) designs these templates that you download, print, cut, and assemble...and they are just so awesome! For the design on the front I cased a design I saw on the Stampin Up! Demo website. I changed the design a bit but I just love love loved the color combo and the cute lil paper flower.

One more Bella

I made this card for my Bella Sistah, Ellen because she just had a birthday last week. She got the card in the mail so I can post it on my blog now :) Happy Birthday Ellen!

Look what I made :)

I did a major organizational overhaul of my "craft area" this weekend and got down to business on making some new stuff. I say "craft area" because I'm not one of the fortunate few who have a whole Craft room. Frank and I have a two bedroom apartment but I gave him the 2nd bedroom to be his sanctuary in exchange for letting me have control of the decor of the rest of the apartment (i.e. pink kitchen, pink and green guest bathroom, and what he refers to as "easter egg" colored bedroom) So I commandeered a wall/corner in our bedroom to be my craft area. :) And now for my creations... My cousin (along with like 546572 other people) got engaged over the holidays...so I made her a card :) I actually made her two cards because in exchange for supporting my habit my mom occasionally commissions me to make cards for her to give. So I made one from me and one for my mom to give her. For the one from me I used Blingabella from Stamping Bella. For both of the cards I also used the "bling" stamp from the new level three hostess set Goody Goody Gumdrops from the brand new Stampin Up! catalog...did I mention there's a NEW Stampin Up! catalog!!! Oh boy...gooooood stuff...my wishlist is ridiculous! It's hard to tell in the picture but the card base is metallic silver CS from SU! It's also hard to tell that I added some sparkles to the ring on the bella and the SU ring. I colored Ms. Bella with my Bic Mark-it markers as well as my Stampin Write markers For this card I used Baja Breeze CS and metallic silver CS from SU! I also used my Brocade Motifs stamp set and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. The picture doesn't do it justice. ...Speaking of the new catalog, Mom also commissioned me to make her one of the example projects from the new catalog. I always feel kind of bad blatantly copying another card...but that's what she wanted...I at least changed up the colors a little bit. I used the old classic stamp set Loads of Love. It's a great little set and is soooo versatile!