Pretty shoes cure the blues.....

I took a break from my patriotic posts today to show a card that I made for my stash basket. I'm getting very low on my cards...I always love it when I see empty slots because that means I NEED to stamp.

One of my most requested type of cards is the *hang in there* type cards. I think with today's sucky economy and busy life styles in general, things can get a little hectic at times. So I like to keep some good girlfriend type cards handy at all times.

Today I made a shopping themed card using Just Rite Stampers' Girl Time Borders and Centers stamp set. It's got some really fun centers and borders that are just perfect for girly cards. The border sentiment on this particular card reads *pretty shoes sure can cure the blues*. So true! This set would be perfect for creating an entire set of cards for a friend and wrapping them up with pretty packaging and ribbon. I stamped the images onto white cardstock and then used a scalloped square punch to cut out my image. I used a couple Copic markers in the BG tones and some light greys to add just a little color to the image. You'll be seeing lots more images from Just Rite that can be colored, a real bonus for us Copic lovers. And I really loved the layout of the card, it's one that I'll be adding to my sketch book for future reference.

To pretty up my card, I used Papertrey's Polka Dots Basics on my Kraft background, Vintage Buttons tied with ribbon and Rustic Twine, October Afternoon cardstock, EK Success border punches and machine stitching. I like this layout so much, I think I need to go into mass production mode a bit and make some more.

Hope you have a Happy Day!! We're headed out to Washunga Days in downtown historic Council Grove, Kansas. My mother in law has summed up our day pretty good...each year she always says *yep, let's go watch the parade, eat greasy vendor food (I prefer Indian Tacos), sweat our butts off, go home, have diarrhea and take a nap*. Yep, that pretty much sums it up and I love every minute of it!! There's a flea market full of good junk too. Eric sees it as just that....junk. And my dad calls it the Crap Show. But I love my treasures. :)

Note: Looking for the hard to find October Afternoon paper? My cool friend Cindy, from Star Lit Studio, carries a good selection. Get it while ya can, but save me some okay?!

Patriotic Picnic Place Settings

Wow, another Mishie update today! My friend Daisy SPARKS, from Eclectic Paperie, just emailed me. She's another July 4th/patriotic fan.....with a last name like SPARKS, she's gotta love the fireworks too! She's adding to the fun by generously donating TWO $20.00 gift certificates to the Eclectic Paperie online store! Thank you Daisy! So keep guessing.....here's a hint: You're all WRONG! :) Not even close. If I don't get any winners by the time I post my Mason jar reveal, I'll open up a drawing on that day and pick two winners.

Hellooooooo again my friends! Some of you are getting really excited about what's going to happen with those pint sized Mason jars. Let's have some fun....if you can guess what's going in my jars, I'll send you a Mishie original, hand stamped *something* using Vintage Picnic. I'll limit it to two winners.....IF you guess correctly. I might just stump you on this one. You have to be very specific with your answer too, I'll be the judge of your anwers. :) I don't have a date yet for my Mason jar post but it will before July 4th. (insert evil, making you wait anticipation smiley here!)

Welcome! The fun continues with the new Papertrey Vintage Picnic stamp set as my Patriotic Picnic takes shape. Today I want to show you some cute tags I made for my picnic place settings using Guidelines 1 Grid Cardstock, miniature bingo cards and images from the Vintage Picnic set. Come along for some summer fun!

I've really been intrigued by the Guidelines 1 and Guidelines 2 Grid Cardstock and all the possibilities it offers. The cardstock is pre-printed with light grey lines...you can stamp images from the Guidelines 1 & 2 stamp sets but there's sooo much more in store for you. You all know that I love to stitch on my cardstock right? Well what better way to get straight lines than to stitch right over the guidelines provided on the cardstock. I chose to create stitched squares on my cardstock. To do this, you simply stitch the entire length of the cardstock, skipping every other line. Sew both the vertical lines and the horizontal lines and you'll end up with an entire sheet of stitched cardstock.


Then it's up to you and your imagination as to what you can create. I'm starting my project with some punched squares using the Mega Scalloped Square punch. I wanted to get the nice square stitching in my punch out shape..you can get about 12 per page this way or more if you punch randomly and don't mind where the stitching ends up.

My next step was to stamp the little plaid napkin from Vintage Picnic onto scraps of Spring Rain 2008 Bitty Star Basics Patterned Paper for some paper piecing. I cut the top of the napkin with straight scissors and then cut the angled sides of the napkin with pinking shears. Repeat for as many tags as you want to create.
Next up was coloring the fun food topper image from Vintage Picnic. When you get your set, you'll be amazed at how well the toppers stamp on top of the basket images. You'll get images that look like one stamp every single time. Nichole, you did good!

Now. I want to talk a little bit more about the Copics. I get comments all the time like *you choose your colors so well*...or *I would have never chosen those colors but they look great*....and *how do you choose your colors for a project*. I have a tried and true method that works for me. First off, I have a color chart that has the actual marker color for each Copic I own. I created a simple 4 column table in a word document...wrote down every single color of Copics offered...and then fill in the color by the marker number each time I get a new marker. And before you ask, I'm sorry but I lost my word document due to a computer crash so I can't offer it to you here on the blogaroonie.

How I select colors: I take cues from the image I want to color. I know for the food topper image, I want some tans/browns for the bread, some purples for my grapes, blues for my cupcake, reds for the jam jar, etc. I get out my chart and look for colors that look pleasing. I then grab 1-3 colors of each tone...(for example V06, V93 and V95 for the grapes). Before I do any coloring on my actual stamped image, I test my colors by creating a little palette on scrap cardstock. You can see below, that I grouped together my bread colors, my grape colors, my cupcake colors, etc. I know exactly what the colors will look like when paired together before I start to do any coloring. It's just like mixing paint colors together, same concept. Then it's just a matter of coloring each separate little image within the big image. By using 1-3 colors of purple, for example, I can apply the light tone first, then do some shading with the next darker tone, then use the next darker purple if needed. (We'll do more on shading another day). But overall, it's just a matter of *painting by numbers* once you have your color palette selected. Practice, practice, practice...you can do it!

Okay, next up is my finished colored images. I stamped the food topper right onto my punched, stitched squares of Guidelines 1 Cardstock and finished them off with the paper pieced napkins, stamped, punched circles and some Vintage Touch Inks.
I adhered my colored squares to some Jenni Bowlin miniature, patriotic bingo cards and then to some more of the Bitty Stars patterned paper. The edges were cut with pinking sheers.
I couldn't resist some of my favorite dressed up clothes pins, complete with matching Vintage Buttons in Scarlet Jewel and Rustic Button Twine.

And here's my individual place settings. I've used a wicker tray, patriotic cloth napkin, my good plates and glasses....with my little tags clipped onto the empty glasses....

...and here's a little close up shot.......I tied my silverware up with strips of old denim that I ran through the washer and dryer to make them fray. The painted, wooden firecrackers are some that my mom made when she did toll painting years ago....and the pint jars are stuffed with cloth napkins...for now.

I've got something very, very special planned for those pint, canning jars.....but you'll have to wait for another post. (insert bwa-ha-ha torture laughter here) :) Hey, my posts get long winded as it is, it's time for a breather! I hope you liked my little tags, I think they'll be the perfect little center of attention at my place settings. Stay tuned for more of my Patriotic Vintage Picnic...I've got recipes coming and more of my vintage decorations to show you!

Raspberry Cheese Spread Recipe

Edit: The fonts I use for my recipe cards are AFL Font Nonmetric for the typewriter-like print and Becky Higgins' CK Becky font. You can find Becky's font through the Creating Keepsakes website. Come back at 11pm Central Time for my Papertrey newsletter post. See ya soon!

Happy Hotter than Heck Wednesday! Someone turned up the temperature in Kansas that's for sure. It's so hot and muggy outside, ugh! And tonight we have two back to back softball games for the girls. Double UGH!!

I know how you all love my recipes so I wanted to share one that is in my Papertrey gallery for the June release. It's called Raspberry Cheese Spread....kinda funny ingredients but it's SO good. I can't wait to take this to a party!!Of course I had to make a pretty recipe card, you know me!! I used Candice's new release called Fruitful. There's also a coordinating stamp set called Fruitful Sentiments that you'll absolutely love if you're into making jams, jellies and homemade gifts.

I printed my recipe on Kraft Cardstock (4" x 6" finished size...click on Recipe label at the end of the post to scroll through other recipes and to find fonts). I stitched around my recipe card and layered it onto Papertrey Spring Moss Cardstock. The word *raspberry* is stamped in the new Scarlet Jewel ink, soooo pretty! I masked two of the raspberry images and stamped them using the rock and roll technique. I stamped the raspberry in Scarlet Jewel and then used a SU! purple ink to roll the stamp to create a darker purple outline on the raspberries. Stems are Ripe Avocado. Raspberry images are cut and embossed with a Spellbinder's Labels 4 Die Template. Ribbon snippets and Vintage Buttons are Spring Moss and Scarlet Jewel. I absolutely LOVE these colors paired together.

Hope you enjoy the recipe! Here's a little morslet of goodness for your viewing pleasure!

And here's the recipe that you can cut and paste or print. Recipe from Taste of Home.

Raspberry Cheese Spread
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
In small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and mayonnaise until blended. Beat in cheeses and onions. Stir in pecans. Spread into a plastic wrap-lined 9 round dish. Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour. Invert onto a serving plate; spread with preserves. Serve with crackers.

Note: The 1/4 cup of raspberry preserves is a little skimpy......I'd go ahead and add a good 1/2 cup or more to ensure that each little scooplet gets some raspberry goodness. ;)

You're hot...

My sister and I made yet another fun trip to Atchison, Kansas for a Nell Hill visit. It's our most favorite place ever to shop for home decor, decorating ideas, garden and party ideas. This time, we took a home tour of the owner's house and it was simply divine!! We ended back at the shop and boy did we shop! I always feel inspired to redecorate when I leave there.

Here's a few photos I took of some colorful, summer tablescapes. The ladies at Nell Hill sure have a good eye for putting the elements together. The colors in these two vignettes were so fruit punchy and fun!!

When I started to plan my project for today, I knew I wanted to imitate the fun colors on my card. I reached for some Wild Raspberry K & Company patterned paper and then selected my Copic Sketch Marker colors from there. I colored Karen Lockhart's Electric Fan stamp to match my papers......

...then cut and embossed the image with Spellbinder's Circle and Pinking Circle Die Templates. I love the glitter and shimmer and sparkle!
I finished my card off with Papertrey ribbon and Vintage Buttons tied with Rustic Twine.

I have a specific recipient in mind for this card, so I wanted to create a personal sentiment for the inside of the card. My sister (who I went to Nell Hill with and had so much fun), recently hurt her toe big time. She peeled back her big toe nail and had to make a trip to the emergency room to have the nail removed and to stop the bleeding (yes, you can pass out here like I did).....and she lost her prized pumpkin patch due to two hail storms. She had all of her grand kids help plant this huge field of pumpkins and had such fun plans for the Fall. We had a contest going to see who would grow the best pumpkins. Eric said, "We win"......I'm not telling that to Karen though!

So anyway, this card is for her. I just turned 40 this year and she turned 50. She's been experiencing some of the dreaded heat flashes that I call *personal summers*. I tease her all the time and she tells me........just you wait, Sistah!!! My time's coming I'm sure. So for the inside of my card I typed *You're 50....You're HOT (literally)........hope your personal summers are going great!!* I know it will make her laugh.

Do you know someone that could use a good, cheer up card? Or perhaps their own little pocket fan? Snort! Now is the perfect time to send them a card. You'll make their day!

Note: Did you know that Karen Lockhart now has a printable stamp registery that lets you keep track of your Lockhart stamp collection? Just to the link above and follow it back to the home page...you'll see the downloads. Cool, Karen!

Vintage Picnic...birthday flowers

Hey everyone! What a fun release this month at Papertrey!! I want to thank you all for the wonderful response to Vintage Picnic. I thought I'd show you a pretty little card using the flower basket topper to get your creative juices flowing.

There are so many options for Vintage Picnic. Many of you are joining the Copic craze...and all of the stamps in Vintage Picnic can be colored with Copics. I hope to be showing you lots of coloring tips to help you out. You can also paper piece the baskets with patterned paper like I've done here using Wild Raspberry K & Company paper. Here's a great tip for all you Copic users: Use grey colored Copics to add shadows to your paper pieced baskets. The patterned paper looks great by itself but you can add extra pizazz by adding some shading. You want to use light greys that won't overpower the patterned paper. For my project today I used T1. Just a little shading under the lid and basket handles...and a little more down the sides and bottom of the basket......and you're good to go. If the shading is too dark, lighten it up by using your Coloress Blender (0). Zoom in on the photo below to see the shading close up.

As for the other pretty details on my card: I love the greenish/blue of the patterned paper paired with Lemon Tart Satin Ribbon, Vintage Buttons in Lemon Tart and Sweet Blush, both tied with Rustic Twine. And be sure to scroll back up to the first photo. I love to add sentiments to little toppers I create by using a large Spellbinder's Scalloped Square Nestabilities Die Template. Just die cut and emboss a square and then cut off about 1" to use as a topper. Don't you just love the fonts Nichole chose for Vintage Picnic? The vintage looking typewriter font paired with script is so lovely.

I'll be thinking of all you girls staying up late to get your Papertrey goodies. Let me know what ya got, okay?

Vintage Picnic Possibilities

EDIT: Hello everyone, and WOW!!! Wasn't that an awesome group post by the Papertrey girls? I absolutely loved each and every project that I saw using Vintage Picnic!! I had some blog complications with my links last night but hopefully they are fixed now. Just got done with a two day garage sale....and guess what? On our way home, my mom and dad and I were scoping out more garage sales. You gotta go spend some of that money you make, right? Well, we're driving by a garage sale that my folks had already been to and they say there's nothin' there but old junk. Did they forget I like old junk? So we're driving past and I spy an old tin basket!!!! *gasp* I tell my dad to park it, I need out of the vehicle! I run up to the table and find an old picnic basket....actually it had no handles so my dad called it a bread basket. Whatever, I still wanted it! Guess how much? 25 cents!!!!!!!! Yipppppeee Baby, I'm the proud new owner of another vintage tin!! *insert big smiley grin here*.

I'm so excited about this month's Papertrey release of the new stamp set called Vintage Picnic. I sent the concept to Nichole and she designed the images and sentiments just as lovely as I'd imagined them. She did a great job translating my idea into actual stamps!! I'm excited as you are this month to see what all the Papertrey Design Team has done with Vintage Picnic.

I'm going to be showing you a patriotic themed idea using Vintage Picnic. With Josey's birthday on July 4th, my mom's on July 1st and our huge July 4th party we have every year, it's one of my holidays to decorate for. I've pulled some ideas from my Inspiration Notebook(see the label at the end of my post to check out more) to get the juices flowing. Love the flags and red/white/blue color scheme.....
...and the vintage look of my inspiration photos. It makes me so proud to be an American!!

So here's what I'm gonna do....I'm going to show you my Patriotic Porch Picnic Makeover this month. I bought this white picnic grouping at a junk store this Spring...it's just been waiting for something fun to happen.And it's the perfect time to show off the inspiration pieces that inspired the Vintage Picnic stamp set. These are a few of my vintage picnic baskets from my collection. I love them so much. I wouldn't trade them for anything.....and when I find a new one at a junk store or flea market my heart goes pitter patter!!So let's get the picnic started by sending out some fun invitations. Can you spy a new color....of course you can, you guys are like stamping detectives!! LOL! This view shows my invitation tucked into a pocket made by sealing and cutting off the top of an A2 sized envelope. I added a strip of old sheet music along the top with a covered clothespin and a handmade tag from the new Trademarks stamp set coming out this month.

And here's the actual invitation. It's a one layer tag that measures 4.25" x 5.5" with angles cut off to create the look of a tag. I added Bitty Dot ribbon to the top along with stars from Let Freedom Ring. Vintage Buttons tied with Rustic Cream Twine and a punched star create a fun border along the top of the invitation.

And using these Copic colors.......
I colored my picnic basket with the patriotic filler image. There are five basket options to choose from along with fillers for almost every season and occasion you need. There's also cute images that you can stamp onto the blank picnic basket and TONS of versatile sentiments. I'm loving the vintage typewriter looking font paired with the script on the sentiments. Perfection! I cut my image out using Spellbinder's Labels 1 Die Template, then inked all the edges with the Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo inks.

Here's a closeup of the top of my tag.

Be sure to stop by often this month as my Patriotic Porch Picnic takes shape! I've got some fun stuff planned and I'm so excited to share my ideas with you.

Ohhhhhhh, and I can't wait to visit the other girls' blogs to see their creations. Let the picnic begin! And a special thank you to Nichole for inspiring my creative side. She really is the best!!

Nichole Heady

Becky Oehlers

Heather Nichols

Lauren Meader

Lisa Johnson

Dawn McVey

Debbie Olson

Geny Cassady

Betsy Veldman

Melissa Phillips

Niki Estes

I just loved it...thank you cards

Hello everyone, it's a busy, busy week at our house. Lots of family events and stamping projects going on. Before I put away all my supplies for my last project, I decided to make up a few thank you cards for some birthday gifts I received. I used my original Tent Topper design (click on the label at the end of the post for all my Tent Topper related posts) and made quick use out of some leftover Papertrey supplies. My card base measures 4.25" square with the topper finishing off the card length to under 5.5"...so it will still fit into a standard size card envelope.

I used two heart punches to punch out pretty hearts using the Green Tea Leaves patterned paper. The stamped outline heart is from Borders and Corners: Hearts. Sentiment is from Handwritten Notes. I love that saying for a thank you note! Card bases are finished with some Ripe Avocado ribbon and Vintage Buttons tied with Rustic Cream Button Twine.

I fancied up the inside of the cards with some more sentiments and heart punches.

Lots more to come this month but it's back to the drawing board first. See ya soon!!

Summer Days...

Ahhhhhh, the lazy days of summer.....just sittin' in a lawn chair at the beach.....oh wait.....we don't have a beach, we're in Kansas! Well, the thought was nice though and I still love to sit around in my favorite lawn chairs. My favorite is to sit out and visit with my folks in the drive in the evening. We talk about the weather, the gardens, the farming, the ballgames, etc. Fun times!



My girls were coloring some of Karen Lockhart's Beach Chair images the other day so I thought I might as well join in on the fun. I colored the chair stripes in bright colors to match my Cosmo Cricket Snorkel patterned paper. Main image is finished off with some Papertrey Ribbon, buttons, machine stitching and some glitter. The little snippet of cardstock under the main image is adorned with another sentiment stamp from Karen Lockhart.
Here's a close up of my main image.

And here's the Copic Sketch markers that I used.

I hope you're enjoying your summer days......even though it's not officially summer yet for a few more weeks. My sister is coming to stay with us for a few days so I'm scrambling to clean, wash bedding, cook and stamp! By the time the girls' softball games roll around tonight, I am SO GLAD to be able to sit down for the day...in my favorite lawn chair...with a little cooler full of cold drinks that I use for my foot stool. Let the good times roll.