With Appreciation Card & Papertrey Paper Dolls Challenge #1

Today's card is for my boss's boss. Her retirement party is next week, and of course I wanted to make her a card, but . . . "Happy Retirement" just doesn't seem appropriate when 1) she is being forced to retire early and 2) she is battling cancer. "Happy" just doesn't seem the right word for her right now. So I settled on "With Appreciation" because she truly shined at her job, and made things run so much smoother than they would have without her. She is certainly a role model for me, and I want her to know it.

For the card, I used the sketch for the Paper Dolls Challenge #1. I'm not a Doll, but they opened their challenge up to everyone at the PTI forum, so I thought I'd give it a try! It helped that it was a simple sketch and I think I followed the rules this time and it qualifies as my first challenge, LOL! I really enjoyed making it. I used some K&Co PP I've had around for a long time. I liked it so much I wouldn't use it, know what I mean? I'm trying to stop hoarding my favorite supplies so they actually DO get used! I also used some PTI papers, inks, and stamps, as well as a border punch, buttons and flowers. The flowers I colored with Copics to get the shades I wanted (they all started out white). I made a matching envelope, but of course I forgot to snap a picture of it!

Supplies
Stamps: PTI--Boxes, Bags & Tags; PTI--Mega Mixed Messages
Paper: PTI--Scarlet Jewel, Aqua Mist; K&Co. patterned papers
Ink: PTI--Summer Sunrise; Versafine Onyx Black
Embossing Powder: Ranger--Clear
Border Punch: EK Success
Buttons: PTI--Scarlet Jewel & Aqua Mist; stash
Flowers: Prima
Copics: E00 & E50
Ribbon: Offray

Verve Challenge . . . Sort Of

This card was made for a recent Verve challenge. At least it was intended that way. There were five to choose from (I thought) so I chose the color challenge (any shade of aqua, orange, and green). Only after making it and going to upload it did I realize that you had to make all five cards to participate! Oops! So I have yet to enter my first challenge. But I did have fun making this card, and it will definitely get used, since my book group likes to send "sunshine" to each other when someone needs cheering up.

Supplies
Stamps: Verve Plain Jane
Paper: PTI--Rustic White & Orange Zest; stash
Ribbon: PTI--Orange Zest
Flower: Heidi Grace
Brad: Doodlebug Design
Ink: Ranger--Vintage Photo
Embossing Powder: American Crafts--Zing Orange

Casing Debbie Olson

I needed a thank you card for my very nice brother who generously donated his time to getting my new laptop up and running with all my "must haves" transferred from the old desktop. He's an IT guy for a living so to willingly do this for me on his time off was very much appreciated. I knew I wanted to get him a coffee card to say, "thank you," and in the back of my mind, I remembered that Debbie Olson had a fabulous On My Couch card that would easily work for a man and had something coffee-ish on it. Bingo! You can see her original here. As you can see, I followed her example almost exactly, which was great as a time saver, since I wanted to get this in the mail. I just loved paper piecing the chair. I don't do paper piecing very much--I should try it more often. Sorry the lighting isn't so hot, I was experimenting with the natural light in the bathroom for the picture and I don't think there's enough of it! :-)

Supplies
Stamps: On My Couch--PTI
Paper: Stash, plus PTI Rustic White
Ink: Versamark, Copics, Ranger Industries
Ribbon: Michael's
Buttons: Stash

Congratulations Card

Love those shadows, LOL! I made this card for a high school graduation last year. It actually came together pretty fast, which was great because I am a slow crafter and a card usually takes me a minimum of two hours!

Supplies:
Stamps: Star Prints--Papertrey Ink; Round Congrats--Clear Dollar Stamps (I think); Lined Paper Backgrounder--Cornish Heritage Farms
Ribbon: Michaels
Ink: Broken China--Ranger Industries; Pure Poppy--Papertrey Ink; Yellow--VersaMark, I think, Black--VersaFine
Paper: Stash

Wedding Shower Card

(Second post today, scroll down for the first.) Nice shadow, huh? :-D This was a card I made for a wedding shower. The color scheme for the shower, and the whole wedding, was black, white, and red. Really striking, and I wanted to continue the theme with the card. The card was big, at least 6"x6", because it was for a group and we all needed to sign it. I used Dawn McVey's Scattered Showers stamp set from Papertrey Ink and papers, ink, etc. from my stash. I'm afraid I'm not very good at remembering the company names for my supplies if they aren't in their original packaging, so I will be saying, "from my stash," a lot. I am making a much better effort to keep track now that I know I should be doing it! It's a simple card, which is ironic since I usually find simple very hard to do. I was really proud of myself for editing and not going crazy with the frou-frou. :-)

Taking the Plunge!

Here I go! I've been wanting to take the blogging plunge for a long time now, but haven't gotten very far because, frankly, I tend to be a perfectionist and if I didn't have the perfect unique blog design, perfect photographs, all the technical stuff figured out . . . I wouldn't put anything up. Well, enough of that. I'm happy to be a part of a new blogging group of Papertrey Ink fans called Papertrey Pixies, and I am ready to step out into the blog world, imperfections and all! One of my most insecure areas is photographing cards and layouts. I have yet to find the best lighting and way to do the photos, but I'm learning. So bear with me and tips are appreciated!