Masculine Get Well Slippers

I needed a masculine get well card for my Uncle Bob so I decided to make a few extra for my stash. It seems that male cards are always a challenge for us card makers, right? There's an abundance of pretty girly papers and floral stamps, but when it comes to the fellas our choices are a little more limited.

Karen Lockhart has a nice line of get well stamps that I like to pull out of my stash when making masculine cards. The slippers and the get comfy sentiment are some of my favorites. And the slippers are very versatile, they can be used for male or female cards. Below you can see my finished focal image pieces that will be attached to card fronts. I stamped the slippers onto Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper and then paper pieced them, using fine tip scissors. I shaded the slippers using a Copic E43 marker and a colorless blender. I stamped my sentiment in black and stamped some leaf images from Papertrey's Turning A New Leaf set using Versamark ink. I added two snippets of Ripe Avocado and Terracotta Tile ribbon to the main image pieces using my messy stitches.....3 lines of back and forth stitching using my sewing machine.
For the card fronts, I used a leafy patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle(from a local scrapbook store). And here's a tip for you: If the paper is double sided, cut the paper to fit the card front and then trim 1" of the paper off. Turn it over and use that paper as a coordinating pattern. I like to use tiny strips of patterned paper to seal the two edges.

A nice little pile of cards....makes me a happy camper. :)

And I did it.....I made some masculine cards. Hope you are inspired!

And don't forget.....you can use ribbon on manly cards. I usually don't tie a bow but if you use the ribbon flat or sewn on like I did, it's totally man worthy!

Office Supply Kit Samples

Update on the hot cocoa recipe: I haven't made it yet. :) I'll be sure to keep you posted whenever I get around to making it though.

Hey there. If you ordered one of my office supply kits, you should have it by now. I thought I'd give you a little inspiration using some of the supplies from the kit. Below is a notepad using a Papertrey lined notepad, a giant clothespin to hold notes, and a libary card with slip in note. For the notepad and giant paperclip, these stamped images were included in your kit contents. Both are sentiments from my Papertrey Take Note set that Nichole and I worked on together. Don't you just love that little pencil? These sentiments look great paired up with grid patterned paper. I also used the alphabet paper from the Chocolate Remix patterned paper collection. Tied Sweet Blush Vintage Buttons sit on top of brown twill ribbon. To adhere the chipboard pieces to the giant paper clip, I like to use my hot glue gun or E6000 glue.

The pink floral fabric pieces were also included in the kit. Here's the library card paired up with a little file folder accent and some twill ribbon.

Hope you're having fun with your goodies! I have another kit in the works that I've been collecting supplies for. Lots of brown in this kit....any guesses to the theme?

Gingerbread Treat Sacks

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is to give out little gifts......just a little something that doesn't cost much but shows that I thought of someone. Homemade candies or paper crafted goodies usually do the trick.

Today I have some cute treat sacks to show you that would be perfect for the candy varieties. I used Papertrey sacks and Nichole's Holiday Button Bits to fancy up some goodies. The closure for the sacks is a 1" wide strip of Mary Engelbreit fabric from Moda, that is tied around the sack. I notched the ends with sharp scissors. I then stamped strips of cardstock with the *sweetest holiday wishes* sentiment from Holiday Button Bits. I tied this to my fabric strip using Martha Stewart striped twine. A red, glittery piece of holly leaf and a small jingle bell finish off the wrapping.

For the gingerbread image, I stamped him with Fresh Snow ink onto a Kraft punched scalloped square. Pure Poppy buttons finish him off. The squares attach to the sack with pop dots on both sides of the ribbon.

I went to work assembly line fashion and baked up lots of gingerbread images in the crafty kitchen.

And stamped lots of the sentiments onto Kraft cardstock.....notching the ends and punching holes with my Crop-A-Dile.

And used my rotary cutter and cutting board to make quick work of the red fabric strips.

I can't wait to package up some of my goodies in these bags. Do you have a favorite candy you give out this year? I haven't made that decision yet, too many goodies to choose from. :)

If you like my little treat sacks, I've made up some extras for my Etsy shop as kits of 3. Enjoy! I know sometimes, we all need a little help in getting all the packaging and wrapping done during the holidays. Have a great day!

JustRite November Release

This month, JustRite Stampers has a new release of products. To celebrate, JustRite is doing a little blog hop to showcase some of the new products. And be sure to check the JustRite website for some big sales on Christmas themed stamps.

Today I'm using the Just A Note Centers and Borders stamp set to make some simple notecards. I started out by stamping my *just a note* and *just because* sentiments and circle borders onto cardstock. I really like these types of generic sentiments for notecards. They can be used for thank you notes, birthday cards, get well cards, etc. I then cut out the sentiments with a Spellbinder's Circle Nestabilities die template. I used a scallop punch to cut the bottom layer circles.
My paper that I used today is Nook and Pantry from Basic Grey. I love the fresh colors. I paired the yellow up with Papertrey Lemon Tart ribbon and the green is complimented by Papertrey New Leaf ribbon. For the *just because* notecards, I colored the tiny flowers in with Copic markers. Here's my green versions...

I love the scripty fonts on these stamps, so fresh and fun! Lots of different combinations you can make with the sentiments and circle border stamps.

And if you love the butterflies, here's what I did: Using my new Martha Stewart butterfly punch(I found mine at Michael's), I punched butterflies from Papertrey Spring Moss cardstock. Then I used scraps from the Basic Grey Nook and Pantry paper collection to punch more butterflies. I adhered two butterflies together just in the center. Then I flipped up the butterfly wings a little to make them 3-D. Green sequins finish off the butterfly bodies. Sooooooo pretty, don't you think?

Okay, be sure to do a little flitting around of your own and visit the other designers' blogs. I'm sure you'll be inspired:

JustRite Blog

Barb Schram

Debbie Olson

Heidi Blankenship

Kathy Jones

Kellie Fortin

Angela Barkhouse

Lauren Meader

Lisa Somerville

Michele Kovack

Sharon Harnist

Sharon Johnson

Copic Winner Announced!

Good morning everyone. I'm a little late announcing the winner of the Copic prize drawing. I was at a scrapbook retreat all weekend....but without further delay, the winner of the Copic prize is:

Stefanie Staniak said...
I've been hooked on Copic's since my 2009 retreat where I had the opportunity to try all the colors and just play. I took a certification class and haven't looked back since. Marianne's blog has taught me so much that now I too feel like an artist!

Congratulations Stefanie!! Please contact me at stamplady@satelephone.com and I will let Marianne know which prize you prefer....the set of markers or the airbrush system!

Home Made

This month's Timeless Template was so special that Nichole asked the entire Papertrey Design Team to join in on the fun. The template is called Home Made and is just the most adorable little house ever. The roof comes off to turn this into a box to use as gift wrap, a special place for treasures, treats and more. Jordan helped me assemble my little Christmas box and we're going to use it as our advent countdown box this year. The template will available with the regular Papertrey release on November 15th.

For my box, I used Ripe Avocado cardstock for the roof and Kraft cardstock for the house base. Pine's Rustic Snowflake patterned paper was used for the sides of the house and to stamp all the little doors and windows from the Home Made stamp set. Ribbon striped with an R29 Copic red marker ties up the rooftop, along with a glittery chipboard tag from K and Company that reads *Santa's on his way*. Just adorable and I can't wait to display this for the girls this holiday season.

The Home Made stamp set can also be useful when creating cards. I paired the door image with a sentiment from the Home for the Holidays stamp set to create a whimsical holiday greeting card. I used a new paper from Basic Grey to tie in the *homey* feel of the card.

Sweet Blush Luxe Satin ribbon and pink sequins finish off the card, along with some shimmery Stickles to create frosty door panels.

If you're looking to do some Christmas crafting this holiday season, the Home Made Timeless Template and accompanying Home Made stamp set is just the ticket! Have fun!!

For even more inspiration, check out the other Papertrey Designers' creations:
Nichole Heady
Becky Oehlers
Heather Nichols
Lauren Meader
Lisa Johnson
Dawn McVey
Debbie Olson
Geny Cassady
Betsy Veldman
Melissa Phillips
Niki Estes

Communique Curves Inspiration

Hi everyone! It's group post time again for the Papertrey team and today we're working with a new set by Alli Miles called Communique Curves. This set will be released on November 15th.

While mass production is my usual style for holiday cards, sometimes I need a few extra cards here and there during these hustle and bustle months. By using sets like Communique Curves & Sentiments you can easily double up and produce holiday cards as well as general greeting cards. Just keep your cards simple and repeat the design elements.

As you can see with my two cards below, I kept the design of the cards the same.....I used patterned paper (Rustic Snowflakes) that can easily work for holiday cards and non holiday cards......I kept my ink colors to just two.....and switched out embellishment colors like the ribbons and buttons.
This first card is a Christmas card that features one the very pretty sentiments from Communique Curves. I love the combination of fonts. I also took a little polka dot border stamp from the set and repeated that to make a polka dot line underneath the patterned paper. This repeats the dots in the patterned paper and the dots in the sentiment. I did the same thing on my second card.
For this card, I switched things up and did a birthday card using the additional sentiment set that coordinates with Communique Curves. Both cards feature the leafy wreath stamp image also, I just switched up the ink colors and the buttons that are inside.

So if you're looking to make both Christmas cards and keep up with your regular greeting cards, try stamping with papers and stamps that help you keep it versatile, simple yet very unique.

For even more inspiration, visit the other Papertrey Designers' blogs below. Enjoy!

Nichole Heady
Becky Oehlers
Heather Nichols
Lauren Meader
Lisa Johnson
Dawn McVey
Debbie Olson
Geny Cassady
Betsy Veldman
Melissa Phillips
Niki Estes

Copic Fun!!

How about a little Copic fun today? First I have a fun new card to show you, then I have some Copic prizes to talk about. Let's get to the card first. Today I've used Karen Lockhart's new Candy Wreath stamp to create a whimsical holiday card. This image is chock full of wrapped peppermint candies. I colored the candy stripes with a Copic Sketch R29 red color and then finished up the twisted wrappers with a Copic Sketch BG11 color. To make the candies shiney, I added Ranger Glossy Accents. My image is cut and layered with Spellbinders Square and Scalloped Square Nesties die templates.

For some fun finishing touches, I cut Papertrey Rustic Snowflake patterned paper into strips and adhered them to my card front at a diagonal....keeping with my peppermint stripes theme. Finally, I took my same R29 Sketch marker and drew a red line down a long strip of white satin ribbon. It looks just like peppermint candy, don't you think? Love that look!

Now for the prizes. Copic has added some new regional certification instructors and is celebrating by giving away prizes on each of the blogs listed below!

Winner gets their choice of either an ABS-1 or any 12 Sketch Colors.

Please leave us a comment letting us know either how you use Copics/which Copic products you use/why you love them or why you wish you had Copics. One winner will be chosen randomly from each blog. In addition, Copic will be reading through the comments as well. From those comments, a few other winners will be selected based on a testimonial that we really like. That person will be contacted to use their story for our CHA booth and they would then be given an equal prize to the random winners. Make your comments good! There will probably be 2 or 3 winners chosen total. These will not be announced right away. The drawing begins on Wednesday, November 11, and ends on Saturday, November 14 at 9pm, CST. Good luck!

You can enter for the prizes by visiting and leaving comments at the following blogs:

Marianne Walker http://www.ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/
Debbie Olson http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/muse_and_amuse/
Sherrie Siemens http://sherrie-cardcreme.blogspot.com/
Sally Lynn MacDonald http://www.inkyheart.typepad.com/
Sharon Harnist http://paperfections.typepad.com/paperfections/
Lori Craig http://loricraig.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Colleen Schaan http://www.distinctivetouches.com/

me......right here :)

Note: If you left comments on my previous Candy Bar Wrapper post, I will make sure that those get to Marianne also. :)