Butterfly Kisses Revisited

Happy April and welcome to another Papertrey Senior Team group post. Today we're revisiting Butterfly Kisses. This was a go to set when I first ordered it and now I'm creating more fun projects that pair Butterfly Kisses with heat embossing, Clearly Creative Cardstock, and some new stamps + dies.

I started out by embossing butterfly images with Zing Grapefruit and Powder embossing powders. I embossed both on regular cardstock and the clear cardstock. Just be careful not to over heat on the clear cardstock or it will melt and warp. I also embossed images from Button Boutique and Sending You onto their coordinating dies.
You can see the dimension and shine that the embossing adds.
As a colorful background I punched 1-3/4" circles from Happy Spots patterned paper.
Next up I selected some patterned paper and Vintage Buttons from my stash and arranged my elements onto the die cut images.
I then adhered the butterflies and circles to the dies with Rustic Twine. I carefully bent the clear butterflies up so the wings looked all flittery. The buttons become the bodies for the butterflies.
And here's two of my finished cards that have a green and Aqua Mist color palette. I used sentiments from Sending You on these cards. One is a sympathy card and the other a happy hello card. So soft and serene. On the bottom of the right card I used the small scalloped die and the Label Basics set + coordinating die to create stitched on accents.
And here's the two cards I created with the pink butterflies. More bright and cheery colors on these two. For the card on the left I used Ribbon Tails to create a horizontal border with a sentiment from Sending You. On the card on the right I used another Label Basics stamp image + coordinating die. The large scalloped border die was used on the bottom of the card.
I hope I've inspired you to revisit Butterfly Wishes. As popular as butterflies are right now, it's a great stamp set to add to your collection if you don't have it yet. Perhaps we can add a butterfly die to our wish list for Nichole too? Thanks so much for joining me today. :)

For more inspiration from Nichole and the Senior Design Team, please link to their blogs here:

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Dawn McVey
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman
• 
  

Renewal...

Spring. A time for renewal. A time for all that was laid to rest last Fall to be fresh and new.
It's a time we always look forward to every year, the burning of the pastures. The girls especially love to help but it's not long before Grandpa Wheat yells at them to get away from the fire. They have their rakes and spray can in tow, just waiting to be called in for needed help.
The crackling of the fire. The sweeping wind that rushes the fire along the tall grassy field. The smell of smoke on your clothes.
It's been a part of our lives just as much as Christmas or a birthday. My dad is always the leader, the one in charge. He knows when it's time to burn. He knows when the wind's just right, or if it's too wet yet for the grass to catch on fire.
And before long the entire pasture next to our house is ablaze.
Everything old will become new. The rock bench beside our garden will be surrounded by green grass once again. I love to sit here and watch the grass grow.
I'll soon be shaking my fists at those deer that love to run through my gardens and nibble on the first sprouts of the season. Their tracks always give them away.
The big, flat rocks will become overgrown with vines and will collect rain water for the birds to drink. They'll also be home to snakes that we watch for carefully every summer.
The rock wall that Eric and my dad built last year will become a perfect spot for some new bushes and creeping vines.
All that is old will become new. The black will turn greener every day. The Spring rains will bring new grass and flowers. The budding trees will be full of leaves soon. It's a time I look forward to every year. I am so thankful for this wonderful place we live.
Note: Cathy Zielske has a great post today about taking photos and journaling from our blogs and adding them to scrapbook layouts. That's exactly what I plan to do with today's blog post. Thanks for the reminder Cathy that our blogs are great tools for recording the memories.

Easter wishes card

Hey friends. I've been reading in the Papertrey forums that you'd like to see some Easter inspiration + there was a question as to what the double line image from the Label Basics stamp set was to be used for. I've got both of those covered in today's post. :)

Easter seems to be late on the calendar this year, April 24th. That gives us more time to create a few springy/Easter projects, right? I'm starting off with this colorful card that uses Friendship Jar and Friendship Jar Spring Fillers. Remember that if you want to use the jar image, it does not come with any of the fillers sets.
I decided to use the cute chick in the egg image for my card today. So cute and chubby. I'm also using the tied twine image that is a new addition. I love this look. For perfect placement, stamp it right where the jar starts to curve.

Using my Copics, I stamped the chick image and colored it with my Copics. You can see the fully colored image on the right. I cut the colored image out carefully with scissors and attached pop dots to the back. Next I stamped the image a second time onto a stamped and die cut jar image. Using just 2 of my Copic markers I colored the image, just making sure the very outside parts of the image were colored.
I did this double coloring so that when I adhered my fully colored image, you can see some of the image and coloring beneath. Many times when you purchase a store bought sticker embellishment, you will see this double layering with pop dots in between. Love that dimensional look and so easy to achieve with our own stash of products.
Before I adhered the fully colored chick image, I stamped my jar with the polka dot filler from the original Friendship Jar right over the partially colored chick. I love the pastel background and it doesn't overpower the chick image. Using the Jar Toppers die, I die cut and stamped the coordinating image from the original Friendship Jar set. My completed jar embellishment was adhered to a Dainty Doily that was sewn to a piece of Sassafras patterned paper. The *from the heart* sentiment from the Spring Fillers set was stamped right onto the doily, near the stitching.
The bottom of my card features some Angled Label Basics dies that were stamped with the Label Basics stamps. These labels will be staples in my supplies, I can tell already. To address the question in the PTI forums about what to do with the double line stamp image from Label Basics.....the line image is to stamp over the labels to create divisions. You can stamp the image right in the middle or to the side....you can create journaling lines of sorts. On the larger images, you can stamp a line in the middle to create a postcard looking division. Lots of possibilities. I can't wait to try it with my Project Life album....the date on one side with some journaling on the other.

Today I stamped two of the angled labels first then die cut them with the coordinating die. Erin Lincoln shared that it's easiest to stamp the labels first then die cut. I totally agree. Next I stamped the double line image on both of my labels. On one section I stamped the Easter wishes greeting from the Spring Fillers stamp set. On the other sections, I sewed on buttons. Lots of possibilities with the labels. A very basic set of stamps but oh so many options.
A pretty little card to add to my stash. I'll probably keep this one on my desk for a little Easter decoration for a while though.
Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by! Maybe someday it will actually seem like Spring around here.

Button Card Bliss

Hi everyone. Well our Spring Break (we're referring to it as Winter Break though) is over the the reds are back in school. Back to work for me too. :) I have lots of fun stuff coming on the blog this week.

where's Rosie?

From time to time during the seasons, I like to move my red bicycle named Rosie around the yard. I don't think she's really enjoying this snow and being knocked down all the time. Definitely time for Spring. You can read about how I acquired Rosie here.
blissful button cards:

On a brighter now, how about this new Bliss fabric from Moda? Isn't it splendid? It's by Bonnie and Camille. I have really enjoyed visiting Camille's blog, such pretty things. I purchased my fabrics at a local shop but I have since became acquainted with Chrissy at Sew Lux. You can visit this mother/daughter Etsy shop, online shop or blog to find the Bliss fabrics.

So, over the course of the week I basically hung out with the girls. Lots of downtime and cleaning out in preparation for our rooms swaps this summer. My creative time was spent creating button cards. One here, one there and before I knew it I had a heap of button cards. My button cards were created using mostly the Button Boutique stamp set combined with a few Label Basics additions. I just love looking at my little tray of button cards. I think I could create them all day long. I treated each one as a little piece of artwork, trying to create something unique for each one. I also had 3 pages of button card sketches that I drew inspiration from.
The colors I used were directly inspired by the Bliss fabric. Mostly Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, Pure Poppy, and Simply Chartreuse. Papertrey Vintage Buttons coordinated perfectly. I also used some vintage buttons from my creamy white stash. All of my button cards have two things in common.....I used real buttons and I used Bliss fabric on them all.
Here's just a few up close examples of my button cards. Stay tuned all month long to the blog as I use each button card on a card, gift sack, tag.....or whatever else I dream up.
*sigh*. Total happiness when I look at these fabrics. Later this week I will be giving away an entire collection of fat quarters from the Bliss collection + a few of my button card creations. Chrissy from Sew Lux has generously donated a stack-0-fabric for me to give away here on the blog. Thank you Chrissy! You'll be in heaven, let me tell ya!

Okay, I'm off to do some paperwork + a post office run. Hope your day is a lot more sun-shiney than it is here. Let me know what you think of the Bliss fabric and be sure to include a link to any projects you've made with Button Boutique or Label Basics. Have a crafty day!

vintage style tag

Hey everyone. We're in the midst of Spring Break....which by the sounds of our forecast we might call it Winter Break by the time it's over.......but we're having fun and I've taken a little bloggo break to enjoy the reds.

The other day I headed to my crafty room to work on my Project Life album. Jordy had taken over and piles of stuff everywhere. She was cutting felt flowers with dies to create adorable little head bands for her and Josey + all her little friends. So while she was die cutting I decided to join in on the fun.

I ended up creating this double layered tag + a ledger pocket envelope. So pretty and purply, a perfect little ensemble for tucking in a card or fabric or handmade gift.
For the ledger paper pocket I used two sheets of old ledger paper from my stash, sewing up the edges. I've got some samplings of ledger paper here.
And here's my colorful tags. I used papers from Sassafras, a large manila parcel tag, a medium purple parcel tag, and a die cut label from Label Basics. Words on label are from Button Boutique. Label was cut with an Angled Labels Die. A small clothespin attaches the tags to the ribbon.
For my die cut flower, I used lots of layers of Papertrey flowers. Bottom layer is PTI felt, then vintage lace, then sheet music, then sewing pattern scraps, then a crocheted flower then a vintage button. Scrunch up all the layers for a worn look. Love.
Here's a closeup of my vintage looking label that I stitched onto my tag. Oh golly how I love these labels. Such a basic concept but oh-so-versatile.

A tip I learned from Erin Lincoln: Stamp the labels first, THEN die cut. Simply layer the die cut over the stamped image, centering the best you can, then run through your die cutting machine. Backwards from the way we usually die cut but it works great for these dies. Thanks Erin!
Okay now, back to some more Spring Break fun! Eric got the full series of Grizzly Adams for his birthday so there's a Grizzly Adams marathon going on here. Remember Ben? NaKoma? Mad Jack? Oh ya, good stuff.

Stay tuned to my blog for more goodies to come.......updated Project Life pages, more super duper cute button cards and a fabulous prize drawing for some Moda Bliss fabric. Hope you'll join me. :)

project life week of feb 20th

Hey everyone, what a beautiful day it's shaping up to be. I think I'll head out to the flower beds today to clean off the old stuff....there's lots of new greenery peeking through. We're back from a weekend away and it's always good to be home. The girls had SIX softball games over the weekend and took 2nd in their tournament. Good times. Today I have another Project Life week to share.

project life....week of february 20th

Here's the full two page spread. Pretty simple this week as I had no additional pages to add in as inserts.
The left page...
The right page....
I needed some additional journaling space so I used the main monthly date insert to add another journaling card. Sticker is from Cosmo Cricket. I'm finding that I like to add a vertical embellishment of some sort to these main date inserts. Here I used a few long stickers and a scalloped die cut piece of patterned paper.
During this week, I spent a lot of time with my mom. My dad was on a trip to Africa for 21 days so I was *momsitting* quite a bit. We sewed a lot which I loved. Here I a tag to add a little journaling to this photo of my mom's hands.
On the *here & there* journaling insert, I used a folded card to add more journaling inside. I made a few comparisons of what it was like here at home and what it was like in Africa during the same time....like time, temperatures, what we were doing, etc. The insert on the right has some vintage wallpaper and a label sticker that I stamped on. Machine stitching is finding it's way into most of my layouts lately.
On the left insert I used a full piece of vintage wallpaper with some patterned paper added to the top. Stamp is from Ali Edwards @ Technique Tuesday. On the right insert I used typewriter journaling along with a leftover butterfly embellishment I used on crafty projects that particular week. I just dug it out of my stash basket.
Here I used a softball sticker on the left. On the right I used the cloud stamps from Studio Calico.
On the right insert I used a patterned paper topper + circle punch of cardstock + Cosmo Cricket coffee cup sticker + machine stitching. On the right side I used a car sticker. Love the date stamp that comes with the Project Life kits.
How's your Project Life album coming along? I've been really busy with stuff the last few weeks so I'm two weeks behind on journaling. I'm going to take some time today to fill in all those cards. Anything new you've been trying in your albums with photo ideas, journaling cards, inserts, etc? I'd love to hear your ideas. Thanks for stopping by today. :)

etsy tag + fun tag storage idea

Hey there, we're officially on Spring Break, woohoo! Today we're headed out for some softball fun + Dear Hubster offered to take me to my favorite shopping stop, Nell Hills. Yay!

I'll leave you with another project from the March Papertrey release. I'm always using tags for my Etsy business, adding them as little thank you's on wrapped tissue packages. Pine's new Tag-its #2 set is perfect for mass producing tags. I stamped the polka dotty circle image first then added in a flower and thank you sentiment.
Using a 1.75" circle punch I punched out all the circle tags. Next, using Maile's Modern Basics stamp set, I stamped a colorful border along the bottom of some Medium White Parcel Tags. I stitched around my tags with green thread.
Lastly, I adhered the circles to my tags with pop dots then added red baker's twine. Cute little additions to my Etsy packaging. Love. :)
Here's a fun tidbit that I'd like to share. I've been finding these vintage receipt holders or receipt spikes as they're sometimes called. I love the green ones. I use them to hold all my decorative masking tapes(from Etsy).
And also to hold my completed tags. Each time I create a little stash of tags I just add them to a receipt holder. Keeps them nice and neat + I love the vintage look.
Hope you enjoy! Have a fun weekend everyone!

craftworthy day cards...

Hi guys. Today I have some cards to share that were inspired by this colorful fabric from Amy Butler (I think....my fat quarter didn't have any of the edge on it). I love picking up fat quarters of fabric because they're just the right size to work with. In case you didn't know, a fat quarter is a 1/4 of a yard of fabric but it's cut differently. Usually with a 1/4 of a yard of fabric, you'll get 9" x by whatever width the fabric is. That's a pretty long and narrow piece of fabric to work with. So now shops offer fat quarters....still 1/4 yard of fabric but it's cut 18" x 22". They're usually priced $2.50-$2.75. Love 'em. Look for them in little baskets right near the full bolts that are of the same pattern.

When I picked up this fat quarter, I loved how bright and tropical the pattern was. Sometimes those patterns are hard to work with though because the colors are hard to match. No fear because I knew I'd have plenty of Papertrey Vintage Buttons to work with. I chose Hawaiian Shores, Hibiscus Burst, Simply Chartreuse and Orange Zest.
The pink in this fabric is extremely bright, almost neon pink. I remembered I have a few of these envelopes left in the shop. Perfect color match for the pink.
I whipped up some button cards using the Button Card die and coordinating Button Boutique stamps. I placed a Martha Stewart paper doily under a snippet of pinked fabric then stitched around twice with orange thread and my sewing machine. I placed an Orange Parcel Tag on the background of the card. Sentiment was stamped on a Double Ended Banner die and adhered with pop dots.
A perfect little stash of cards to mail out to some crafty friends.
Hope you enjoy! Yesterday I was parked on the couch most of the day with a head cold. I kept my sketch book nearby and sketched up 4 pages of button card ideas. You'll be seeing lots more button cards. :)