God Bless You!

I'm popping to to share one more card for the Simon Says Work-it-Wednesday challenge to use stamps on your project.

I have many vintage and antique mason / canning jars and I just love any card made with a mason jar image! Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

How Are You?

Good Saturday morning! Fall is in the air as we woke up to 45 degrees here in Maine this morning! The colors in this card are cooler and fall-ish and I'm posting it to the Simon Says Work-it-Wednesday challenge.

The challenge is all about stamping, so I layered some background and border stamps and simply popped up the flower heads stamped on their coordinating die shape. Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Autumn Blessings

Autumn is just around the corner and I can feel it in the air! I love fall and everything about it!!
Here's a card I made for the RRR Pets and Ribbon Challenge. I dug out my Graphic 45 paper and went to town with this rooster image from Crafty Secrets.

The burlap piece on the back of the ribbons is Natural Jute Ribbon and the Gingham Black 3/8 ribbon is from RRR. The sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink.
I'm also entering this card into the Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge.
Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Feather Your Nest

Hello paper peeps~ I'm here today to post this card, which is also a gift card holder to the Sweet N' Sassy Friday Feature Challenge.

My son just got his first place and thought this gift card might be useful. The challenge is to use a border stamp to create a background. The stamp is one row of circles and I stamped them repeatedly to create a gradient effect. The feathers and bird image are from SNS ~ Nature's Silhouette and the sentiment is from Love Birds.
I'm also entering this card into the Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge.
Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Back To School Wishes

Hello paper peeps! As we near the Labor Day weekend and students are gearing up to get ready to head back to school, I thought I'd make some Back To School cards for my nieces and nephews. Hopefully they're all looking forward to going back with smiles and anticipation. If not, maybe these sweet little cards will change their minds... (wink)

This card has a little envelope that was a freebie from MFT this month for a qualifying order. I tucked a little note inside for my niece to find.

This card is for my little nephew who is just starting Kindergarten this year. He's so excited to start school!

The Trapper Keeper card is from this weekend's PTI Stamp-A-Faire inspired by the amazing and talented Lexi Daly. If you remember the 1980's you might remember these.

Inside each of the cards is a piece of notebook stamped paper so I can write all my good wishes to each of them.

Since there's too many supplies to list, I'll just say that I used items from PaperTrey Ink, My Favorite Things Stamps, Simon Says Stamp and The Craft's Meow, which is no longer in business.
I'm entering these cards into the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Blessings~ Birgit

Simon Says ~ Monday Challenge

Hello paper crafting friends~ Just popping in to post this card to the Simon Says Monday Challenge, Witch Kraft. Since I'm not a big fan of the Halloween part of fall, I opted to just go with the Kraft paper. You can never go wrong with Kraft! I love this stuff!!
Here's my card:

I started with a kraft cardstock base and cut the orange panel out of bazzil using MFT Blueprints #13. The banner was cut using MFT Fishtail Flag Stax, which I then stenciled the checked pattern onto using Tim Holt Black Soot. The black fancy swirl is MFT's Sentimental Flourish with a Hybrid Camellia Flower and leaves cut with PTI's Rosie Posie. The sentiment is an oldie from Primitive Blessings. I don't even think they sell stamps anymore. Some fall colored sequins finish it off. This card is making me feel a little more ready for cooler temps and fall colors.
Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Card Set

Just posting this set of note cards I made using PTI's Topiary Trio set. Love that set!!

This is the card with a coordinating envelope.

Simply wrapped with a tag.
Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ August Blog Hop

Happy Monday paper peeps! I love Monday mornings because there's always new challenges and new things to see here in blog land. Today is also the day for PTI's August Blog Hop. The challenge was to create simple stationery. Here's my card I made for the challenge:

I chose to make a post card style card with a coordinating envelope.

Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ End of the Day

Here's my craft table at the end of the day.

What a fun time I had going through the ages with all the PTI gals. I'm looking forward to creating more with all the super fun kits and spending some time going back through their posts to see everyone's creations. This was my first time joining in the the PTI Stamp-A-Faire and I will definitely do it again. Thanks so Nicole and all the fabulous design team for a well planned day full of fun and creativity! Hugs to you all~ Birgit

PTI ~ 1980's

Lexi Daly brought in the 1980's with such flair! She really captured some amazing things reminiscent of the 1980's. The Trapper Keeper was pure genius!

I might make a couple more of these to send to my nieces and nephews as they start school for the season. What fun! Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ 1960's

Erin Lincoln brought us through the 1960's. This is the era I was born in but towards the end of it so I don't recall any of this style. I was even feeling uncertain about the SAF set that was included in the kit for this era. It's way out of my box, with all it's funky and wild shapes. It turned out that it was one of the most fun cards I had the pleasure of assembling that day!

I loved how everything fit together, including the colors! I really want to explore more with this set. I'm going to have to turn to Pinterest for some inspiration. Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ The 1940's

Betsy Veldman worked the 1940's and she was just perfect for this era! Her retro / vintage style always has me oohing and aahing over everything she creates. Today's projects were no exception!

How fun it was to build this bright and cheery background using her vintage set from the SAF kit. I love anything old and vintage so this was right up my alley. It really did make me think of a vintage table cloth. While I didn't have time to finish my posie project, it's close to being done. I'll have to share that at a later date. Well done Betsy and thanks for the vintage visit! Thanks for looking. Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ Exploring 1920

Heather Nichols visited the 1920's with us. Her projects were awesome however, I only had time to complete one card.

The vellum embellishment took me forever to stick all those little rhinestones on. It is incredibly beautiful and looks like something you would spend lots of money on. I would definitely try making another one in a different shape. Be sure to have lots of gems on hand though, as it uses a lot!! Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ Regency Era

Melissa Phillips took us to the Regency era. Everything is soft and romantic and who doesn't love Jane Austen? Melissa's first card had me swooning over the gold embossed vellum frame!

While my first card was a duplication of her lovely card (simply because I had to make one!), my second card is a variation of her second card. I'm not good at hand stitching and thought I'd use the rest of my day trying to create the pretty stitched embellishment that Melissa made. So, I opted for another stamped image, since that pretty stamped stitched rose is so lovely!

This card could be used for a birthday, anniversary, wedding... any special occasion.
I enjoy Melissa's soft and delicate style. It was a great joy crafting like she would craft. Thanks Melissa!!
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ Renaissance ~ Wax Seals

Nicole's wax seal tutorials were fun and different than anything I would have ever done in paper crafting. I like the gold and black mottled look of the real wax seal.

I used one of the printed canvas papers from the kit for this card and added the faux wax seal to the bottom. Since I was on a roll for Christmas I used a sentiment from Happiest of Holidays. I've got a little head start for this upcoming Christmas season.
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ Renaissance

Spending time in the Renaissance era with Nicole put me out of my comfort zone but in a good way! Deep, rich colors, gold and velvet are so not me but when I saw her first card using an iron and velvet, I immediately saw a Christmas card, of all crazy things!

My first attempt with the iron, velvet and image from the SAF kit ended up in the trash as the image hadn't completely impressed itself to the velvet. When I tried lining it up and reheating it, it came out blurred and awful. I was going to pass on this challenge but decided I would give it another go using the snowflake image from Snowflake Medley. I was so happy to see that it worked on my first try! Here's a close up of the snowflake on velvet:

I think this Christmas card is pretty awesome! Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ Ancient Rome ~ Mock Mosaics

Mock Mosaics with Lizzie is another one I need to spend a little more time on.

My image just didn't look like it should have without the entire mosaic plate so I adhered it all onto my card. I used my favorite go to flower set, Rosie Pose and the sentiment is from Over, Under, Easy. Thanks Lizzie for great tutorials and inspiration! It was fun hanging out in Ancient Rome with you.
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI ~ Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome with Lizzie was such a great learning experience for me! I had tried using embossing paste once and it ended in disaster and I had almost vowed to never use it again. Lizzie gave us a technique that gives the card base an appearance of plaster. I found that I absolutely love this technique and the look that it gives. Even though I copied her card almost to the "T", it is a technique that I really want to use again, and soon! Here are my cards:

The sentiment is from Boutique Borders ~ Father. The card definitely took on a manly look and now I'm ready for next year's Father's Day!

I found the little "S" tile image a bit hard to line up so I only did one row of stamping because I was afraid to ruin my hard work. I had already tossed one failed attempt and didn't want to risk the chance of another. I really enjoyed coloring on the faux plaster and love, love, love the texture!
Be back soon with the mosaic tile! Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

PTI Morning Challenge

Good morning PTI pals. Here's my first card for PTI's Stamp-A-Faire celebration. I used Renaissance, Birthday Basics and Button Stacks. Thanks for looking. 

PTI Stamp-A-Faire

Hello friends~ I'm getting ready for PTI's Stamp-a-Faire on Saturday. Ive been playing with "Filled with Joy", the free set you get when you order the SAF kit or a $100 order. The sentiment is from "Fancy Folk Art". The colors I used are Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush and Smokey Shadow. I'm also posting from my new iPad that my kids got me for my birthday. Thought I'd try to figure this all out before Saturday rolls around. Here's my card:

Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Using Negative Space

Hello PTI friends~ It's time for Make-it-Monday! I look forward to Monday's each week and this week Laurie Willison challenged us to use the negative space from a cover plate die. Great challenge and one I can do without getting too messy. I chose to use the Hexagon Cover Plate. I'm also entering my card into the Simon Says "Anything Goes challenge.
Here's my card:

I die cut the cover plate from Kraft, pink and cream colored cardstock and randomly attached them to my card. I then added some random polka dot pattern pieces using sweet blush and the little flower image from Happy Hexagons using aqua mist. I used the Everyday Treats to create the centerpiece and topped it with one of the free printables from PTI. Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Summer Dreams

Hello paper crafting friends~ Here's a card I made for the challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room. I'm also entering my card into the Simon Says "Anything Goes challenge.
My card uses an embossed vellum piece that was salvaged from a vintage Mother's Day card. Since it started as a Mother's Day card, I decided to run with it and keep it the same. I'm a step ahead for next Mother's Day!

Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

SO HAPPY!

Hello paper peeps! Today's card is made for the Fusion Challenge. Here's their challenge:

Aren't these the sweetest colors?
And here's my card:

I used Lovely Layers and Boutique Borders, Love from PTI. The sentiment is from Together Forever from MFT Stamps. I'm also adding this card to the Simon Says "Anything Goes" challenge.
Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Good morning crafty friends~ Here's a couple of cards I made using Crafty Secrets Garden Creative Scraps for their August Linky Party.

I enjoy anything that has to do with gardening and their Creative Scraps are just filled with oodles of lovely vintage images! Thanks so much for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit

Summer Lovin

What speaks most about summer to me is seeing beautiful flowers in the garden. This card makes me think of our clematis vine growing up the trellis and the bright yellow flowers are so happy!

I'm entering this card into the Simon Says Summer challenge. Thanks for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Backgrounds using Embossing Paste

I had an opportunity to get down and dirty with this weeks PTI challenge, to create a background using embossing paste. I've seen this done on so many people's blogs and love the results they achieve. What I discovered, is that this technique is so outside of my box!
This was my first time trying embossing paste. I'll confess that I've had a jar of it sitting in my craft cupboard for many, many months and have never used it! So, when I opened it up I felt like a kid getting ready to make mud pies. And that's exactly what I did! Let me explain... I don't have any re-inkers but I do have some Tim Holtz distress bottles with the sponge on top. You know, the kind you squeeze and a little bit comes out on your craft mat? Well, I squoze and squoze that bottle and no ink was dropping onto my craft mat. So I squoze harder and yep! The top popped right off the bottle spilling almost the entire bottle onto my craft mat and everywhere else! I was about ready to call it quits and skip the challenge but decided to give it one more try, this time being very careful how hard I squeezed the bottle.
Here's my completed card:

Not the best card on the block but it will have to suffice. I'm not so sure I'm going to jump back in to this technique any time soon. I might just keep admiring other peoples creations using embossing paste. Thanks so much for looking! Blessings~ Birgit

Falling into Fall

Hello paper crafting friends! I've been enjoying blog hopping lately and My Favorite Things just recently had their monthly release festivities and it was filled with lots of fall goodness! It really got me in the mood to make some fall cards, so this card is meeting both of their challenges. MFT's Sketch Challenge as well as their Color Palette Challenge.
Here's my card:

I love the pop of navy blue with the fall colors in the color challenge.
I used MFT's Thankful Leaves and coordinating Fall Leaves Die-namics to create this. The Happy Thanksgiving sentiment is an oldie from SU! Thanks so much for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit

My Own Rendition

Good morning paper peeps! Anyone who visits my blog probably knows that I am a big, I mean B-I-G fan of Papertrey Ink products. They've recently started coming out with kits called "Make-it Market". I believe they're released monthly and are just filled with paper-playing, awesome goodness! I've yet to purchase a kit as they are a bit above my budget though I drool and ooh and aah at every release. Betsy Veldman is a paper crafting genius when it comes to putting these kits together. You can find her kits HERE on the PTI website.
At any rate, one of the kits that Betsy came out with was called Beautiful Brushstrokes. It is all about achieving a water color look using stamps. Let me add here that once the kits are sold, they're gone. And let me tell you, they sell out quick! So, I loved the inspiration from Betsy's Beautiful Brushstrokes kit and sat down one day to create my own version of some of her inspired cards from the kit. You can find all of her cards Here on her blog. I'm not claiming these designs as my own, they are complete copy cats of hers but I still wanted to share them with you so that if you are on a tight budget like me, you can see that you can still achieve similar looks using the supplies you already have. That being said, here's my cards.

This card was stamped in a water color fashion using Ruby Rose and Happiness In Bloom. The border was hand cut and a light watercolor wash was added to the background. I found a sheet of scrapbooking paper that had a bit of a watercolor look to it that coordinated perfectly, so you'll see that used in a couple of cards. A strip of washi tape was added to the bottom and since I didn't have any "Rainstones" that are included in the kit, I used clear Glossy Accents instead to create the look of dew drops.

Not bad, I think!

My next card was fun to create because I got to make my own stamped background paper. The kit comes with pre-printed papers that coordinate with everything in the set. The striped background paper is simply done using one of the brush strokes from Watercolor Wonder.

This card uses a set from Simon Says Stamp called "Favorite Flowers". A hand stamped border along the bottom with a strip of washi tape finish it off perfectly!

This is one of my favorite cards of the bunch! The base of the card is hand stamped using Watercolor Wonder. The roses are from a Mother's Day set from SSS. Washi tape, a button and string finish this card off.

This pretty card was made using the Daydreamer set from PTI. Here you can see the pre-printed scrapbooking paper I used. I sprayed a very light spray of homemade cherry glimmer mist to give it more interest. Some Glossy Accents dew drops finish this card off nicely.

This last card uses a set called Morning Glory from Sweet N' Sassy stamps that I colored using a water coloring technique. A piece of jute string adds a nice finishing touch!

So that's it for my Make-it Market "Beautiful Brushstrokes" inspired cards. See what you can find in your stash to create some pretty water colored cards today! Thanks for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit