Papertrey Ink Make it Monday 272

Hello there everyone,

Melissa Phillips did a fantastic technique for Papertrey Ink Make it Monday which was a Masked Heart Wreath. I loved it. I am playing along.

I used a Spellbinders heart to create my mask. At first I thought I would do a lovely soft pastel coloured card like Melissa had done. At that point I realized that I actually have very few pastel coloured inks. Rats!

I therefore decided to go bold and bright. This card will be for very dear friends who will be celebrating their anniversary next month. 

I used the stamps from the Papertrey Ink sets Stitched Sentiments and Ruby Reprise to stamp all around the heart. I used all the red shades of Memento inks that I own. It would appear that I have quite a few of those! I added greenery here and there and then added the teeny weeny little blossoms from Stitched Sentiments. These were done in more pastel colours as I wanted to balance the boldness of the reds with something a little softer. I also added a few swirls from Stitches & Swirls. All the inks used are Memento. 

The sentiment is from Think Big Favorites #16. I only used the "anniversary" part.

The final stamping touch is the lovely little stitched heart at the bottom, in red of course! 

Since I was using the stitching stamps I decided to use a My Favorite Things Homespun Stitch Lines die along the side to create a stitching line. 

The focal point in the heart is the die from Papertrey Ink One Big Happy. I cut it out three times to give it some depth.

Popped it onto a white 5 x 7 card with a red mat and all done.

This was a really fun technique and I plan to give it a try with some other shapes.

Thank you for visiting with me and leaving me your questions or  comments. 
I truly appreciate it. Cheers.

  ~ Melanie ~

The Start of a Tradition

Hello there to you all...

I had meant to post these photos AGES ago and never did.

My sister-in-law and her two amazing daughters and I had made a decision this past Christmas that we would try to exchange some hand-made gifts. I knew immediately what I wanted to do. 

I love all things vintage...from furniture to clothes and most especially anything to do with Christmas. 

I decided to try to make those amazing little houses that were so popular ages ago. I have always loved them but although I have seen lots of photos of them, I have never had an opportunity to buy one. So I have made them.

To accomplish this I have used the Papertrey Ink Tiny Town dies. I also decided that this would be the start of an annual tradition so that everyone will get a new building each year until I think we all have enough houses and then that will be that. :)

This year I made the basic house dwelling. 7 of my friends and family got these little houses and I made one for myself as well as you will see here.

My dear sister Mary and a couple of my friends got houses all in white. I have mounted them on artist board and I signed and dated each one along with recipients name. The entire house is covered in glitter and I adhered a couple wee trees purchased at Michaels along with some cotton batten snow.

After making the white ones I thought perhaps I should try some in different colours. I first tried just changing the colour of the glitter but that did not really work well. Back to the drawing board and I eventually watercoloured the houses before adding the clear glitter. I should mention that for more stability I used heavy watercolour paper for all the house construction.

This next one for my sweet niece Hannah was done is blues and pinks.

This next one for my wonderful niece and fellow dog lover Charlotte done is golds and soft reds.

After I had made this lot I began to get a bit more adventurous and decided to try to make my little houses look like the actual houses my friends lived in.

A wonderful woman who is the mom of one of my very dear friends and who actually shares the same birth date as my own mother (and she lets me call her Mumsy) lives is a lovely white house with blue shutters and black roof so this became her little house.

And the daughter of Mumsy and her family live in a log home that her hubby built all by himself. He is an amazing craftsman. Here is their home, complete with red front door and green metal roof. I must confess that it was a good bit of work cutting out and sticking on all those little logs.

And lastly we have the little house that I made for myself. Mine is all in white. Mine also has different coloured trees as I had to go with what I could find at Michaels. I bought up all that they had in green trees but will need more for next year. I thought I would show you all four sides of the house so you can see that there are windows all the way round. The other change to my house is it occurred to me to put something in the windows. I used a piece of acetate which I coloured up with a deep yellow Copic so it will look like the warm glow inside a house on a Winters eve. Too late now for the other ones as I did not think of that in time.

So there you have it. I absolutely adore the Tiny Town and hope to purchase some more of the building additions to make more little houses to continue this tradition next year.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

  ~  Melanie  ~

MFTWSC 315

Hello again everybody,

The grey day continues and amazingly enough...so does my productivity.  :)

I am participating in the My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch Challenge #315 and you can see the sketch here.

I began with the basic white A2 card and found this red heart paper in my stash that seemed perfect to use as I had decided to make a Valentines card.

I have used a Spellbinders Page Maps die, namely On The Edge, along the edge of the card in white.

I know that the sketch shows the bunting on the left but I did not want to detract at all from that lovely heart border so I put it on the other side. I again used a Spellbinders die, this time called Baby Bunting.

The adorable focal image I have used is from My Favorite Things Ewe Are The Best. How can you not just adore those little munchkins?!

I used the coordinating die to cut out the image, stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured it up with the Copics shown below. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

I have been fairly faithful to the sketch and kept it quite simple to let that cute wee sheep carry the show.

Thanks for visiting and leaving your amazing comments. They make my day. Cheers.

   ~ Melanie ~

SSS Wednesday Challenge Winter Birthday

Good morning to you all...

After yesterdays beautiful sunshine we are faced with a dull and grey day. Good time to work on a card. :)

I am playing along with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge this week and the theme is Winter Birthday with the use of Lawn Fawn stamps if possible.

I do not have very many Lawn Fawn stamps but I do have a few and managed to use one that worked.

Started with a basic white A2 card. Found this pattern paper from an old paper pack in my stash (you never know what you will find as rarely is anything thrown out) and that seemed to work nicely.

I have used the cute wee penguin from the Lawn Fawn Toboggan Together stamp set with the coordinating die, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured up with the grand total of three Copic markers. :)

The snowflakes are cut using Spellbinders dies and I have added some Stickles to make them sparkle which I hope you can see in this photo.

The "happy birthday" portion of the sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn die Happy Birthday Border. I simply cut off the end of it and then used the sentiment from the Toboggan Together stamp set.

That is all from me for the moment. Thanks a lot for stopping by and most especially for leaving me your comments. I really appreciate it. Cheers.

  ~  Melanie  ~

Power Poppy Power and Spark Challenge January

And hello once again. :)

It is a glorious day here in eastern Ontario with brilliant sunshine reflecting off the snow. We had a huge storm yesterday that dumped about another 6" of snow on us. If you stand in the field beside my house it is about up to your knees now. So after a walk in the sun and a visit to my chickens to let them have their turn in the sun I headed back to make another card.

This one is another for the Power Poppy Power and Spark Challenge for January. I watched a video on Jennifer McGuire's blog the other day and have used her technique for this card. Thank you for the idea Jennifer. :)

I chose to use that beautiful spray of blossom and pussy willows from the Bloomin' Wonderful stamp set. I stamped on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then coloured in the image with the Copics shown below.

In her video Jennifer used a coordinating die to cut out the aperture in the two gate fold flaps on the front of her card. Since I did not have a die to use and being the sort of person who occasionally likes to make things as difficult as possible for herself... I chose to fussy cut the opening. 

After tweaking it to my liking several times I passed the two pieces through a lovely swirly embossing folder and adhered to the card. I felt that something was missing so I edged all around the two front flaps with a silver Pilot marker. 

And finally, in order to close it, I added a vellum belly band stamped and embossed in white with the sentiment from Potted Primroses. I did not make the belly band very tight as it would be too difficult to get it past all those little cut out bits. The card more or less stays closed, certainly enough to pop it into an envelope.

Here is a close up of the floral spray inside the card. I do love the look of pale coloured flowers so kept the crocus a pale yellow and the snowdrops have just a tiniest touch of green.

And there you have it. Quite chuffed with the way this turned out and I know just who will be getting this for her birthday.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and of course leaving your comments. It means so much to me. Cheers.

  ~  Melanie  ~

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday 2016 a la Carte

Hello everyone,

I have a simple card, only one layer even... for the Papertrey Ink Make it Monday 2016 a la Carte. I have chosen to use Betsy Veldman's Reverse Stenciling technique. 

I used one of the stencils that came with that fantastic Make It Market kit Garden Gate. 

Over that I layered the leafy branch and the birds from the Songbirds stamp set. The branch and the larger bird were cut with the coordinating dies.

Memento inks were used for everything.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I would love it if you left me your comments. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

  ~ Melanie ~

Power Poppy Winter Blooms Challenge

Hello everyone,

I have a very simple card that I did today for a dear friend of mine who is not feeling all that well. I decided to use the theme of the Power Poppy Winter Blooms challenge as my design.

I have used two Power Poppy stamp sets for the card. The focal image is one of the smaller little crabapples from the Happy Crabapple set and all the sentiments are from Daffodils. 

Basic 5 x 7 white card base over which I layered some very old pattern paper from my stash.

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured it up with Copics as shown below.

I cut out the crabapples and the mat with Spellbinders Labels 16 dies and popped up the focal image for a bit of dimension.

 A little bit of ribbon and a scattering of pale green pearls and it is done and I can pop it into the mail tomorrow morning.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great day. Cheers.

  ~ Melanie ~