Alpha-blocks + Train Tracks

Welcome to the first group post this month by the Papertrey team. Today we're showcasing a new alphabet set called Alpha-blocks and I'll be showing you Beth's new set called Train Tracks also. With each project I'll be including a little heat embossing too.

My first project today is a baby boy card. I chose colors of aquas and greens to pull together a scrappy little card. With the Train Tracks stamp set there are also coordinating dies to cut out the sweet little train images.
I used two train die cuts on my card to make easy work of cutting out the detailed images. Using the Alpha-blocks stamp set and it's coordinating dies, I die cut rectangles and heat embossed them with the alphabet stamps. The solid images are perfect for heat embossing. I stacked my letters on the flatbed with wheels to create a cute *it's a boy* sentiment. Machine stitching ties the two train pieces together along with rhinestones for the centers of the wheels. Perfect for a new baby boy!
Here I've used the same concept for stacking letters on the train trailer.
I heat embossed Alpha-blocks once again onto the coordinating die cut rectangles. This time I used a Copic marker to color in the letters. A great way to get multiple colors when heat embossing. More rhinestones finish off the wheels. Scraps of patterned paper (some from Green Boutique + Happy Spots) are pieced together to resemble a train track of sorts. The *birthday boy* sentiment was stamped on scraps and popped up with pop dots.
This next card features another die cut train image which was colored with various grey Copic markers. Little rhinestones were used to make little smoke puffs coming out of the train engine. On the top left, I used a portion of a die cut and stamped image from Lisa's new set Ad Sense.
Die cut rectangles from Alpha-blocks were stamped with green ink then stitched to my card front. Don't be afraid to sew on male themed cards. I think the stitching can resembled stitched blue jeans or baseballs, etc.
And for my last project I added in a little something for the girls. It's obvious that the Alpha-blocks stamp set is gender friendly but images from the Train Tracks set can also be used on girly projects. Girls like trains too, right? I could easily see a pink little train rolling down the tracks. For my birthday card I used the packages from Train Tracks, definitely gender friendly.
At the top of my colorful card, I created a birthday sentiment by piecing together a sentiment from Train Tracks + a number from Alpha-blocks + the word *you* from All About You. All of the embossing powders I used today are from Zing. The butterfly embellishment was pieced together using Papertrey dies along with a tied Vintage Button. The embossed, bright green circles are from another new set being released this month called Simple Circles. I stitched those down with my sewing machine and then scattered orange rhinestones around the butterfly.
Along the bottom of my card I heat embossed a row of presents then added a few layers of patterned paper. A bright Orange Zest ribbon finishes off the card.
I hope you enjoyed my projects today. For even more inspiration, please visit Nichole's blog + the other Design Team blogs here:

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Dawn McVey
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman
• Melissa Phillips
• Maile Belles
• Jessica Witty
• Erin Lincoln
• Danielle Flanders

Favorite Finds: Cubby Love

Hi guys. As the end of school approaches and summer on it's tail, it seems that these are some of the busiest times for my family. There are lots of practices + ballgames and our attention gets drawn to the great outdoors. That means that some of my creative time indoors lessons a bit. But in keeping with entertaining all of my wonderful blog followers, I'm implementing a new feature on my blog called Favorite Finds.

With my Favorite Finds posts, you'll be seeing a glimpse at some of my favorite things. Everything from paper crafting to vintage to sewing to organization to flowers, etc. I'll be sharing some of my own personal finds along with fun photos from my Pinterest site , the web + fun blogs. Lots of eye for sure! I'll try to give proper credit links whenever I can. :)

Today my favorite finds all start with my recent junk venture to Two Days. This is a new shop located in Topeka, Kansas that is open the first Friday and Saturday of the month. The building is absolutely beautiful. Would love to have an artsy studio here. And it's about a block from hubby's work so we could go to lunch all the time!
I never leave a junk shop empty handed and this day didn't fail me. With a new studio on my brain, I always have new storage needs in mind. I got this trio of old, wooden goodies that will be fabulous in my new room. On top is a letter sorter or something of that nature. To the bottom left is a wooden paper tray. Oh how I love these. I've shown you here on the blog how I used these for kitchen storage. (if I find the link I'll post it). My very favorite find was this wooden cubby. The owner told me that the lady that brought the cubby owned a silver shop and it housed silver pieces. I love it when you get the history behind a good find! I'm not sure if I'll hang these two larger pieces together or if they'll sit on a desk. I'll love them either way.

Now for some other cubby love. I've had my eye on these cubby organizers from Pottery Barn from some time. Two of these lovely chippy cubbies will come to live in my new craft room. They'll house my Papertrey CD cases of stamps.

(photo from Pottery Barn)

I also love these larger cubby pieces from Pottery Barn. They remind me of chicken nests we had as kids on the farm. I would love to have a row of these in my dining room.

(photo from Pottery Barn)

How about this chippy white cubby organizer that Heather Bullard spied at a flea market? She finds the best stuff ever. Love her blog.

(photo from Heather Bullard)

This is a fun idea...using glass knobs and dowels to create ribbon storage in an old wood box.

(photo from allendesigns.typepad.com)

Here's more wooden box storage that's been mounted to a wall. Would love this in my closet for all my shoes and sweatshirts. Definitely putting these on the list.

(photo from baileyhomeandgarden.com)

I'm thinking one of these old crates would look stellar next to a leather chair. And look at that pretty pillow. swoon.

(photo from blogg.aftonbladet.se)

Okay, that's it for today. I am in cubby love, how about you? Have any favorite cubby photos or links? Add them to my comment section so I can see. :)

you've got mail..

Edit: Several of you asked about the size of my cards in my Mother's Day post. I've edited that post with the information and packaging tips here.

Hey everyone, you've got mail. :) Today I have a card to show you that I made using Friendship Jar + Friendship Jar Spring Fillers. I thought it would be fun to place the jar lying down so that all the mail goodies could spill out.
I love the look of paper piecing and I think it's even more cute when you stamp on patterned paper and then cut out the paper pieced image. Here I stamped the envelope images twice, one on Rustic White cardstock and then on my patterned paper. I colored the airmail stripes with the YR16 Copic marker. Then on the white cardstock I colored the bottom envelopes with the new E81 Ivory marker.
When the colored envelope gets placed on the white cardstock, the Ivory colored part becomes shadows.
I attached this to my jar image that was stamped with the polka dot filler with pop dots. I added a mini clothespin tied with twine for a fun accent.
The side of the card is fancied up with the little label image from the original Friendship Jar + a die cut and stamped label from Label Basics + a postage stamp from Postmarks. Machine stitching and a tiny staple hold everything in place. Patterned paper is from The Girls Paperie (from my local shop: Scrapbooks, Etc).
Hope you enjoy! Be sure to check out Nichole's blog for the latest sneaks of this month's Papertrey releases. She's got great projects featured today + links to the other stamp designers' blogs.

Project Life Week of Feb 27 + Week of March 6

*sigh*..still loving my Project Life photo album. It's so do-able and fits perfectly into what I want to accomplish with my scrapbooking.

Week of February 27th

This week of my PL album is my very favorite. Not so much because of any design elements but because of the story this week told. Each of the photos and the corresponding journaling pieces all came together to make one big *layout* this week. I reflected a lot about my girls going to a new school + Josey going to high school next year + the girls growing up in general. I also included some page inserts that tied in with my PL elements.

Here's the left side of my Project Life layout this week.
And the right side of my Project Life layout for this week.
I added lots of papers from My Mind's Eye this week. Love pulling out little scraps from here and there. Still using my vintage typewriter too for the journaling cards.
Here's a label punch + coordinating stamp I used for a date block.
Lots of machine sewing and I typed some journaling on a medium manila tag.
Here I used some Papertrey stamps(All About You) and number dies on a journaling card + some punches and scalloped die cut scraps.
One day after dropping the girls off at the bus stop, I went home right away and typed my thoughts on the computer. It made for some great journaling that was very heartfelt. There wasn't much space left over for design elements so I used scraps, another manila tag, some sticker letters....and I also played around with my Mr. Huey spray mists + Papertrey Vintage Buttons.
And a few pages with extra photos + school papers, etc.
Week of March 6

This week was a busy week so I used mostly journaling cards that came with the kit. I fancied up the main date insert a bit with cut out flowers + a Dainty Doily + machine stitching.
Just a few snippets of stickers + sticker alphabet letters here and there.
And one more thing.....I went back to the week of Eric's birthday and added in a few of his birthday cards. I just punched holes with my Crop-A-Dile and stuck them in.
Note: Lately I've been taking lots of photos with my iPhone. I'm able to capture photos of events and places when I don't have my bigger camera. Love + highly suggest. Hope you're keeping up with your PL album. Anything new you've been trying? I'd love to hear!

Mother's Day {meets} Mass Production..

Edit: The size of my cards is A2, 4.25" x 5.5".......since my leaves hang over the card, I will be using my brown paper sacks for packaging. If I mail them, they'll go in a small bubble mailer. :)

Hi there friends. Around this time of year I have to do a lot of pre-planning due to our busy schedules with the girls. That's when mass production comes in to full swing for me. Today I'm using my mass production mode to create all of the Mother's Day cards I need this year. And can you believe I used seven different dies and 5 different stamp on my cards today? Seems like a lot of product but I don't think my finished cards looks overdone. Come take a look as I walk you through my process today.

First up, I spent the biggest portion of this card making session stamping and die cutting my images. Once this part was done, the assembling of my cards came together lickety split. The stamps and coordinating dies I used are as follows: Beautiful Blooms II + dies, Turning a New Leaf + dies, Label Basics + dies, and Polka Dot Basics + the medium scalloped die.
Using Vintage Cream felt, I die cut large flowers and then tried something new by tea staining the felt. It definitely gave a more vintage, shabby feel. The pink flowers were stamped, the polka dot flowers from Library Ledger paper were die cut + scrunched + edged with the tea dye ink, and the leaves were stamped with green ink.
All of the die cut elements from above were then layered together and tied with Rustic Cream Twine. These layered flowers take a little time to die cut and assemble but they sure pack a pretty punch. Love them.
Next I switched gears and worked on my card bases. I used Rustic White cardstock for the card bases, layered with some patterned paper from The Girls Paperie (from Scrapbooks, Etc in Topeka, Ks). The bottom strip is Fine Linen cardstock, die cut with the medium scalloped die and then stamped with polka dots in Fresh Snow ink. Tip: Leave die cut strips long, then adhere to the card, then trim off the excess. This helps to center the scallops on the card and makes sure the strips are wide enough to cover the card base.
And here are my card bases after I trimmed the scalloped strips and added Fine Linen Satin ribbon. Usually I don't tie on the ribbon til the very last but for these cards I needed to make sure that the bows didn't cover up my Mother's Day sentiment label.
Next, I took my small and large labels that I stamped and die cut and just placed them on my card front without adhering them. I layered on my flower embellishment and leaf die cut just to get a feel for the placement of all the card elements. I call this *staging*....just piddling around, moving elements here and there to make sure everything looks balanced. Tip: When you get all the elements just right on cards and scrapbook pages, snap a photo if you need help remembering the final arrangement. I do this all the time with my iPhone when there are a lot of little pieces to adhere.
When I thought my card layout looked good, I went to work adhering my flower embellishments to the large, die cut labels with Scor-Tape (those were inked with the Chamomile Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo ink). Tip: No need to use scissors with Scor-Tape, it tears easily with your fingers.
Here's my embellishments, all layered + adhered and ready to add to my card fronts.
Here's all my cards, ready for the final adhering of the label pieces. Note: The Mother's Day sentiment is from Blooming Button Bits.
And one final step was to add a mini glue dot under each ribbon knot. This helps the ribbon from sliding around.
And here's my finished Mother's Day cards. I took a little extra time assembling all the pieces but these are very special cards for very special ladies in my life. I know many of you only create one card at a time but I really enjoy the mass production method when I have several of the same type of card to make. I hope you give it a try!
It's a great way to create use those hard earned supplies and in the end you'll save time by using one grouping of products that you've selected for your project. I think my cards came out pretty good....a little shabby, a little vintage....I know they'll be greatly appreciated.
Have a great day everyone and I hope you get some crafty time this weekend!

birthday in orange

Hey everyone. Life around here gets really busy this time of year....lots of outside work to do, flowers to dig up, track meets, etc. I have a quickie post for today featuring Papertrey Ink's Cupcake Collection stamp set and coordinating dies. Jordan has a birthday party to attend this weekend and I was beyond happy to make a birthday card and matching tag for the birthday girl. It's few and far between that the girls and their friends have little parties anymore, so I'm tickled that Jordy has an event to go to.
We haven't purchased a gift yet but Jordan knew that her little friend likes the color orange. So orange it is. I got the beautiful damask and plaid paper at Scrapbooks, Etc in Topeka, Kansas. They got the mother load shipment of goodies, including brand new The Girls Paperie. I got at least one of each they had. Soooo pretty. And as I was looking up Margie's blog for a link to the paper, I read here that The Girls Paperie will be no more. No details but looks like we better snatch up the paper and embellishments while we can, perhaps. Dang.

Back to my card, I love that this set now has coordinating dies. I embossed the bottom parts with a metallic orange Zing powder and the frosting was die cut from patterned paper then heat embossed with orange opaque Zing. I find my Zing at Studio Calico.
More embossing was done for the sentiments on the double ended banner die and the happy birthday sentiment piece of cardstock. Birthday candles from the cupcake set were stamped onto a punched circle accent. Orange Zest Bitty Dot Satin Ribbon finishes off the card along with some pink rhinestones.
I can't wait to take Jordy shopping for a little birthday present. I think all orange colored gifts would be fun: 2 liter of Orange Crush, bag of Cheetos, Reese's PB cups, maybe some hair accessories, etc. It will be fun to see what Jordan picks out.

Okay, back to dividing iris and relocating them everywhere in the yard. Eric's just gonna love that. Not. He hates to weed eat around all my *stuff*.

Coming soon: more Project Life pages, more button card creations and some new blog features. :)

butterfly on brown

Feels good to get back to my paper + ink + stamps today. Today I have another card to share with you that I created with a button card I made using Button Boutique and the coordinating Button Card die.
For the button card I stamped the little curved topper and then cut it out with sharp scissors. Polka dot fabric is from Moda Bliss. The layered cork and ledger paper butterfly was cut from a butterfly punch I purchased at Two Peas. Cork and ledger paper are from my Mixed Media kit I recently had in my shop. Punches work great with the cork paper.
For the card base, I used Rustic White cardstock and new Crate Paper patterned paper (Portrait Collection) along with a leftover snippet of ledger paper from my stash.

Well, it's back to work for me today. I'm predicting a very busy summer so stay tuned for some new features on my blog. I'm hoping a little pre-planning will enable me to spend a lot of quality time with my reds this summer.