My Crafty Week

I played along with several of the PTI Anniversary challenges this week.  Here goes...

I made this card for the PTI Day 4 Floral Challenge and was inspired by the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch #258.  I'll also enter it at Seize the Birthday, without the toppings option.  I used Sweet Spring--and old set but one of my favorites.  Masked the center image to add more flowers on either side and colored with Copic markers.

My next card is for the PTI Transformation Tuesday challenge on Day 3.  I started with a card I made a while ago--I wasn't happy with it and never posted or sent it.  It seemed a little 'blah' to me.

Original Card

This card was one layer.  I cut the front to a 4 by 5 1/4 size, inlaid the die cut in a darker shade of green, and added one more hand cut piece of the sentiment.

Transformed Card

I am much happier with the new design.  I am also entering this card at CAS on Friday #126: Dies.

My next 2 cards were inspired by the PTI Retirement Challenge from Day 5.  It looks like they are retiring most of the Boy Basics stamps, so I pulled mine out and made a couple of valentines.

I used Boy Basic Frog Hop and Heart Squared to create this valentine.  After stamping the frame of hearts, I cut it out, stacked it 3 high, and then inlaid the stack back into the negative space.  The partial frog is peeking into the window and the full frog is stuck on top.

 I am also entering this card at CAS-ual Fridays #192: Hearts, Inkspirational #154: Aperture, and AAA Cards #108: All You Need is Love.

Another Valentine using a soon-to-be-retired stamp, Hello Foxy.  I am entering this card at Cupcake Inspirations #439: Love, Happy Little Stampers February CAS challenge: Hearts, and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: It Must Be Love.

Last up is my 3rd Valentine with the same design.  I had to make them similar as they are going to 3 sisters and they like getting the same things.

I am entering this card at Addicted to Stamps and More #278: Holiday, Happy Little Stampers February Anything Goes with Dies challenge, and Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Love is in the Air.

That's it for me today.  I hope to have some more for tomorrow.

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Muse #51 and Simon Says Wednesday

Happy First Anniversary Muse.  First off, I would like to thank my crafty friends who voted for this card from last week's Muse Challenge.  I am so honored to have my card selected as a Featured Member.  I have a quick post today, with a card for Muse #51.  Our Muse this week is Jackie Rockwell, the creator of the Muse Challenge Blog.  Here is our inspiration for the week:

Muse Inspiration Card

I was inspired by the layout and the three images going across the card.  I made a valentines day card to send to a sweet little boy, Jonah, who is fighting for his life.  You can read more about it on Susan Raihala's blog. I made my own sentiment using Paper Smooches alphabet stamps for the 'hoppy' and Heart Prints for the 'Valentine's Day' portion of the sentiment.  I hope this card can make Jonah smile.  I am also entering  this card at Simon Says Wednesday Let's Have a Laugh Challenge.

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CAS-ology #

You are witnessing a first for me:  I am the Guest Designer for CASology this week, and I couldn't be happier.   

This week's word is 'POND'.  The first thing that popped into my head when I saw 'pond' was frog, so I put this little green cutie on a lily pad, nestled amidst the bamboo.  I used this frog as my focal point, and balanced him out with a sentiment in the opposite corner.  There is still room for lots of textured white space.

I hope you will play along this week.  What do you think of when you think about ponds?

Here are some guidelines you may find helpful:

Supplies Used (PTI):

Stamps:  Frog Hop, Peaceful Garden

Paper:  White, Kraft, Ripe Avocado, Simply Chartreuese

Ink:  Kraft, Ripe Avocado, Memento Tuxedo Black

Other:  Frog Hop, Fillable Frames Dies, Canvas/Linen IP, Twine, Google Eyes

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Hopping and Springing into Spring

I've got a couple of cards for you today, using Frog Hop and my new Poppers die.

This first card is for a little boy named Larry, who was recently diagnosed with pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Laurie Winterton emailed some of us to let us know that she's collecting cards for Larry; he has nearly 4 years of treatment ahead of him, but the prognosis for his type of leukemia is good. If anyone is interested in sending him cards, I've included the mailing address below. You can read more about him on his blog, here. Consistent with rules for other card drives, I would like to recommend that there be no get well cards, or mention of anything that reminds him of being sick. Please send cards to:

Larry R.
9772 E Paseo Del Tornasol
Tucson, AZ 85747

Laurie said her goal was 100 cards...and I think we can get way more than that! What do you think?

Leap for the Sky

I thought a frog with big googlie eyes might be fun for a little boy.  And, a couple more frogs chasing flies to pop out at him when he opens up the card:

My next frog card is for this month's St. Luke's Charity Card Challenge Spring into Spring.  This card will be donated to raise money for their hospice.

Celebrate Your Day

Here is a peek at the inside:

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Spinner Cards

Today's challenge was to make an interactive card.  I think that the challenge was probably designed to make me see how fun an interactive card could be, and how much I need those new dies.  I am totally convinced.  I used this tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers to make a couple of spinner cards using Frog Hop and Its a Jungle Out There.  I used a SU Word Window punch to create the path for these spinner cards.  It worked pretty well, but my placement was limited to where the punch could reach.  Dies are much better, because I could put them anywhere on the paper.  My mind is spinning (ha ha) with all the possibilities the new PTI dies would create.

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Make it Monday: Frogs

I have a quick post to show how I wrapped a baby gift, using die cuts from Frog Hop.  I used MIM #46 to turn one of the frogs into a tag.  I had actually done a project with this MIM when it was first released, but had to re-do the frog for this gift wrapping, since I didn't want him to be a hanging tag and my original frog had a hole in his head.  However, I am counting this as playing along with this week's MIM #74:  2011 A la Carte, since I am trying to either do, redo, or at least watch them all.

I was inspired by this post from the Simplicity blog, where Susan explains her philosophy of wrapping gifts using plain white paper, dressed up with ribbons or tags.  I took a stack of board books, wrapped them in plain white paper (a big roll at Staples in the teaching section cost about $7) and made a belly band of kraft and some patterned paper.  I die cut a Mat Stack 5, ran it through the numbers impression plate, and then adhered the frogs.  The middle frog opens to a tag.

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