Papertrey Make It Monday: White on White Challenge

I've been so busy lately, I haven't really had a chance to even go into my craft room, let alone actually make something.  But today was the perfect rainy day to make a few cards.  For this challenge, I chose Papertrey's Hello Foxy stamp and die sets.

Shelly

Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

I can't believe April is almost over.  Soon we will be enjoying the long summer days full of sunshine, warmth, fresh garden vegetables and some fun day trips to the lake.  For now, it's still a bit chilly.  In fact, it's been raining off and on all day...a good day for sipping tea and making cards.  For the card I made for this challenge, I used Papertrey's Year of Flowers: Mums and Reasons to Smile stamp sets.

Papertrey's Inspiration Photo

My Smile Card

Shelly

Language and Literacy for Little Learners

Recently I presented at an early childhood conference on the subjects of language and literacy for early learners.  I came up with and copied some really cool ideas for helping to teach young children about literacy and ways to increase language acquisition.  Below are some of the things I presented.  My favorite of all is the cute little "puppets" made simply from gloves, googly eye rings and some homemade hair (made from tying ribbon, string, rick-rack, etc. to simple ponytail holders).  Put all the gloves, eyes and hair in a plastic jar and let children come up with their own puppets.  Then encourage them to tell stories, etc. with their puppet. 



Jar of Puppets...sounds like an awesome rock band or something *wink*

The "hair" is made from a ponytail holder I found.



Ribbon and sparkly trim just tied onto a ponytail holder.  I also glued snowflake sequins to the ends of the ribbon.

My husband said this is Elsa from Frozen...can't you just see her singing "Let it Go"?

I call this one Neon-y...she's always very tired (yawns a lot)



Mother Nature (notice leaf sequins glued on to ribbon)

If this were a green glove, it could be a frog.  I made a cool one from a camouflage glove that looked like a giraffe.  The possibilities are endless! 

Alphabet Pizza: Glue red paper to a pizza pan and let children use magnetic letters on it.

Peeps Carrot and Letter Hunt: Make Peeps and carrots from felt.  Glue a magnet between two peeps and paint on eyes.  Glue two carrots together with a paperclip partially tucked inside.  Add another paperclip to the first one.  Place magnetic letters/numbers and carrots in a basket filled with shredded paper or Easter grass.  Let the Peep search for letters and carrots.



I Spy Game: throw a bunch of toys, nuts, bolts, Barbie shoes (always missing one from a pair!), and any smaller item you can find into a non-breakable jar.  Dump on the floor and play I Spy.  The fun part of this game is that it can continue to grow as you find more objects to add.  You can use this game to teach categorizing (by color, type, etc.), language building, and concentration.

Shelly

Papertrey Build a Bouquet Challenge

Ugh...it's getting late but I wanted to get one more entry in.  For this card, I used the Birds & Blooms set along with the Reasons to Smile set.  I inked the stems and flowers then added a touch of sparkle with some embossing powder.

Shelly

PTI Maile Belles Inspiration Challenge

Maile Belles has a clean and sophisticated style.  I typically don't go running towards that style, but Maile does a fine job showcasing it with Papertrey products.  I found one card I liked in particular for Valentine's Day, then I made my own from her inspirational piece.

Maile's Card

My Card

Shelly

Papertrey Ink Bagged & Tagged Challenge

I created this gift bag made from one sheet of 12x12 cardstock.  It's all in the way it's folded!  I think it looks great paired with the Sending Love tag and I like that it's masculine...not enough of that going around!

Shelly

Papertrey's Heavy Metal Challenge

So Bloggers, as you can see, I'm going backwards a bit in the Papertrey Ink anniversary challenges.  I made a few of the projects during the week, but am just getting to photographing and posting them, so there you go!

Here is my entry for the Heavy Metal challenge.  I have been making some of these sweet tealight cakes for friends and family when they have birthdays...cute huh?

Shelly

Papertrey Ink Blue Ombre Challenge

Papertrey Ink is celebrating the company's 8th anniversary.  Part of the festivities include daily challenges and/or contests.  Day 8 is the Blue Ombre challenge.  I made this card using a paint chip card from the hardware store.

Shelly

Simon Says Stamp Blog Birthday Celebration Challenge

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog is hosting a fifth year birthday challenge for this week's Wednesday's Challenge.  I have a perfect birthday card to share for the celebration.  I love the ombre look of the rick-rack...I can't believe I actually have that many colors of pink cardstock!

Thanks for looking!
Shelly

Papertrey Ink March Blog Hop

Papertrey Ink is hosting another monthly blog hop.  March's blog hop is all about shine and high gloss.  On my card, I used some great papers and embellishments from Crate Paper Styleboard by Maggie Holmes.  I just love that cute little telephone!  I added a few vellum embellishments and used Papertrey's Wet Paint stamp set for the sentiment embossed in shiny mint on a vellum Sweet Speech die cut speech bubble.  I really like how the mint and gold look together...might have to try more of this color combo.

Shelly

One More Papertrey Make it Monday Submission

Here's another attempt at using paint in an embossing folder for the Papertrey Make it Monday Stamp Paint Technique.    Recently at work, a gal that provides in-home care for seniors brought in a huge box of stamping supplies from one of her clients who recently decided to get rid of ALL of her hobby supplies.  The box mostly consisted of embossing powders and glitter.  Well, I manage about 32 staff at a federally funded preschool center.  It's pretty difficult for 3-4 year old children do heat embossing, AND I am the designated card-maker for staff celebrations (birthdays, weddings, etc.), SO, many staff agreed that I should get first pick of the embossing powders since many of them would get thrown out (the glittery ones can likely still be used as glitter).  To my surprise, I ended up bring home 82 jars of embossing powder...and only 3 are duplicate colors (white...a girl can never have too much white embossing powder)!  One of the colors is sheer gold.  It can be seen on my card below.  It's very pretty and bright.

On a side note, I started to think about what my children/grandchildren would do with all my crafting supplies when I'm too old or fragile to use them?  Hopefully they will use them, but the way things are going, my supplies will be outdated and new styles, techniques and products will replace them.  So I guess I better just try to use them all up...even those new 82 jars of embossing powders *smile*!

Shelly

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday: Stamp Paint Techniques

This week's Papertrey Make it Monday series is about stamp paint techniques.  Melissa Phillips made a beautiful card (photo below) using paint on a Papertrey Ink impression plate.  I did something similar using paint on an embossing folder.  See my attempt at stamp painting below.  With spring in the air, I chose some new product from Crate Paper (designed by Maggie Holmes) called Styleboard.

Melissa's beautiful card

My card

Happy Spring!
Shelly

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday: Confetti from PTI Dies

Happy Tuesday everyone!  It's time for another post or two for this week's PTI Make it Monday challenge.  This week is all about making confetti using PTI dies.  Now I got so excited to make a card, that I truly forgot to read through all the instructions for the challenge.  So, my first card is not using PTI dies but rather a cool butterfly punch I have.

After reading the instructions all the way through to the end, I realized I needed to use a PTI die for the confetti, so here is the second card I made along with a close up of the pretty pearlized paper I used.

Shelly

More PTI Layering Inks for Make it Monday

Here's another card I made for this week's challenge at Papertrey Ink.  I used white pigment ink with a swirly stamp in the background, then layered different green dye inks for the leaves and brown dye ink for the tree trunk.

Thanks!
Shelly

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday: Layering Pigment & Dye Inks

I'm a bit late posting this even though I made the cards like on Tuesday this week...oh well, life goes on, right.  Anyway, Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday this week is all about layering pigment and dye inks to make for some great results.  On this card, I first laid down some zigzag stripes in creamy pigment ink, then used various dye inks in pinks and purples for the flowers, and a touch of green on the leaves.

Thanks for looking!

Shelly

Papertrey Ink Word Challenge Final Entry

My poor husband probably feels abandoned with all this time I've been spending making, photographing and posting cards for PTI challenges!  But, it only happens like this once a year, right *wink*.

Anyway, here's my FINAL word challenge card of the night:

Thankful for YOU for stopping by and taking a look!
Shelly

Another Card for Papertrey's Word Challenge

Papertrey Ink word challenge card #4:

Be MERRY my friends!
Shelly

PTI Word Challenge #3

I absolutely LOVE participating in PTI's challenges, especially during February, their anniversary month!  Here's a photo of card #3 for the word challenge:

Thanks for looking!
Shelly

Papertrey Ink Word Challenge #2

Here's my second submission for the Papertrey Ink word challenge:

Peace to you!
Shelly

Papertrey Anniversary Continues: The Word Challenge

Today's challenge from Papertrey Ink is to use a large word as a focal point on a card.  I made a card, and I found a couple "word" cards I submitted into a magazine a few months ago, but they were never chosen and I never posted them on the blog.

Here's one of my cards for the word challenge:

 Hello to you!

 Shelly

Papertrey Ink's 7th Anniversary

I wish I may, I wish I might...I wish I win my wishlist stuff!  That's right, Papertrey Ink is awarding one person everything from their special anniversary wishlist (up to $300) for submitting a card for the Color Recipe/Sketch Challenge.

Happy Birthday PTI!
Shelly

PTI Challenge Day 4...FINAL Entry!

Alrighty friends, here's my last entry of the day:

YOU are AWESOME!
Shelly

PTI Anniversary Day 4, Trading Card #6

Phew, I'm getting tired of all this posting!  But I LOVE the challenge of making trading cards.  Here's another one I made:

YOU are my favorite!
Shelly

Day 4 for Papertrey Ink...Trading Card #5

Here's the 5th card I made...just 2 more to go:

Have a great day!
Shelly

Papertrey Ink Day 4, Number 4

There's even more, but for now, here's number 4:

Hello...anyone out there?
Shelly

PTI...Some More for Day 4

And here's number 3:

Goodbye Friend!
Shelly

PTI Day 4 Cont'd.

Here's number 2 for today:

Spring is ALMOST here!
Shelly