New Toys

Happy New Year, everyone!

January has been rough at the Tremper house, but we're making it through. After weeks of battling colds, sickness, and some family stresses, I finally found the time, and the will, to sit down and get crafty.

But first, I have to introduce my new toys. The first of which is my brand new craft room. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Hubba Hubba Hubby and I set off about completely overhauling my craft room. Since we have lived in this house (over 3 years), we have done exactly zero to update my craft room. The walls were marked and dirty, and there were the ever looming dinosaurs on the border wallpaper always looking down and judging my work. Dinosaurs just aren't really my thing, ya know?

So we removed the dinosaur wallpaper, completely repainted the room, installed new baseboards, replaced all the furniture with new, matching pieces, and even hung new curtains. My new room is a little slice of heaven!

The next toy is my new camera! After almost 12 years, I just replaced my digital camera. So hopefully the photos you'll see going forward will be a little better quality.

Lastly, I now am the proud owner of a photo light tent! Pair that with my new camera, and hopefully these card photos will knock your socks off!

So now that the introductions have been made, let me get on to my latest project. I sat down and created a set of 12! (yes, twelve) note cards using PTI's new Lovely Layers stamp set and dies. I know the ombre look is so hot right now, so I busted open my cardstock drawer and pulled out 4 color sets, 3 shades of each color, to create some ombre cards.

I die cut the Lovely Layers from white cardstock and stamped them all in a coordinating color scheme to make a simple but pretty set of cards.

Here you can see the red/pink ombre set. The cards are Hibiscus Burst, Autumn Rose and Scarlet Jewel. I also created a yellow/orange set, a blue set and a purple set. Toghether they are just so pretty, I'm almost hesitant to break them up to use them! They're prettier as a set!

So there you have it! I know it's brief and not terribly interesting, but at least it's the first post of 2013. More to come in the following months!

Pattern Inspiration

Well people, I did it. Quite successfully, too, I think!

What's that, you ask? What did I do?

I used a pattern that I saw on Pinterest and translated it into a papercraft and made it into a card!

Want to see it?

Here's the pattern. I think it's a fabric. If it's not, it should be.

And here's the card:

I loved the color combo and the modern botanical look. O may add a vellum sentiment strip when it gets to be time to use it, but for now, I just think it's pretty. :-)

The leaf image is from PTI'd Friends 'til the End set.

Cheers!

Birthday, by the numbers

The girls at A Passion For Papertrey are at it again; giving me a challenge to put my creativity to work! The current challenge is to make a card featuring numbers.

Well, this came at a great time, as my BFF's daughter is having her 2nd! birthday at the end of the month. If it weren't for this challenge, I probably would have waited until the last minute before whipping together a card for her party. But now that I have this little number, I can coordinate wrapping (once i have a gift!) and make it into a lovely package together.

I busted out several stamp sets for this card, mixing and matching. I stamped the background using the big words from the Celebrations stamp set. Then I used the "HAPPY" from that set, paired with the "happy birthday" from the Birthday Basics collection to complete the sentiment on the main image. My By The Numbers #2 die cut shows loud and proud through the negative image, and a few ScorTape glitter strips break up the mono-chromatic color scheme.

What little girls doesn't love glitter?

I mean, really?

And by "little" girls, I really mean 29 year olds.

OK, I mean me. :-)

APFP Inky Love Challenge; Take 2

OK, folks. I'm back with another card for the A Passion For Papertrey Inky Love challenge. I wasn't too happy with my first card here, as it was a complete CASE as well as a card style that I have made before. While it did fit the challenge of using a stamp set that had been neglected, I feel like a bit of a cheat of making the same card with only a slightly different stamp.

So for today's card, I used not one, but TWO stamp sets that have been feeling a bit jealous of my more used sets. Today's card features Movers and Shakers Sentiments and Dot Spot, both of which I *had* to have, then struggled to use.

I wanted to use my new cloud die, so thought I'd put a little vellum window in the card face partially revealing a happy rainbow inside the card.

You can barely make out the rainbow peeking through the vellum cut out on the front of the card. I though this was perfect to go along with the sentiment, and will hopefully brighten somebody's day.

And here is the dotty rainbow inside the card. I used my SU Stamp and Write markers to color the stamp, but because it took so long to color each dot, the ink kind of blobbed up a bit before I could stamp it. I was disappointed at first with the spotty coverage rather than nice, full circles, but the more I look at this, the more I like it this way. It looks like it was rained on. :-)

Cheers!

an autumnal state of mind

It's probably because this morning I voted, and the view from my craft room is full of nothing short of fall splendor, but I am totally in an autumnal state of mind! The things that catch my eye when we're out and about are fall-inspired centerpieces, cinnamon sticks, the color of leaves turning, dew on the grass. Fall is definitely around us and it's making its mark on my crafting (and my hair, too. Bye-bye blonde! Hello auburn. ;-).

This is the view from my craft room window. The pond across the street has several aldertrees that have all been losing their leaves, making for spooky sounds and whimsical views.

So in the spirit of all things fall, here are a few of the cards that I made this morning. 

I like the inverse embossed image on this one. I stamped the leaf and acorn in VersaMark and embossed with clear powder. Then using my Early Espresso ink and a sponge dauber, I sponged around the embossed image to leave the negative space as the focal point. I used my Simply Jame cardstock as the image backing so that the pretty script font would show through. A sentiment strip and some bling finish it up!

I think this might be my favorite. I wanted to showcase the illusion of falling leaves and acorns in this cascade of falling color. The Autumn Acorns images are die cut and stamped and aligned on Dark Chocolate cardstock stamped with Background Basics: Woodgrain for a woodsy feel. Some gold embroidery floss adds a little shine and pizzazz, and voila!

I have to say that I really like the grid on this card, It reminds me of stained glass. The colors make me feel warm and cozy and reminiscent of the spicy-orange smells of the season. I used a strip of card stock between my panels to ensure a perfect alignment. Gold embossing powder for the sentiment gives this card front a bit of a gilded look.

Thanks for stopping by!

APFP Inky Love Challenge

Howdy, folks! Today I spent the day organizing and destashing my craft room. It's far from perfect, but it's a good start. Hubba hubba hubby and I decided that over the Christmas break this year, we would (finally) renovate my craft room. Dinosaur border wallpaper, you will soon be a thing of the past! I don't know about you, but dinosaurs don't really get me in the creative mood...

So I've picked out my new desk and shelving units, thinking about paint colors, and spending way too much time wandering through Storables and The Container Store figuring out all the bins and crates that I'll need in my new space. It's so exciting! Now only 7 more weeks until we can get this project started!

So once I had fulfilled my organization quota for the day, I got inky and made the little card below. The card I made is similar in style to a card that I've made previously (so I kind of feel like I'm cheating a little bit), but this time I reached for my Beautiful Blooms stamp set that was in my first PTI purchase that I haven't used in years. The APFP challenge was to ink up some neglected stamp sets, so I went through all my sets until I Beautiful Blooms caught my eye and I though to myself, "It's been a long time since I've used that set!"

So here is my card, a simple monochromatic gratitude card that could be used for any occasion. I used my craft knife to partially cut out a few of the outer leaves, then popped them out with some dimensional stickies, making the contrasting card stock matting the card front peek out just a little bit.

I should also mention that this is a CASE of another card, I believe by Debbie Hughes, but at the moment, I can't for the life of me find the link to this card on her blog. I'll keep looking and post it here when I find it.

**EDITED TO INCLUDE: I Found it! The card that I CASE'd! It's by LimeDoodle, and I just ADORE it! To see the original card, click here.**

Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge

It's a bird...

It's a plane...

It's a...card?

I know. Even I'm in shock.

After all these months of radio silence, I finally got my mojo back and spent a little time in my craft room! Maybe it's because it's fall and it's dreary outside and my energy levels are starting to prepare for hibernation, but there was something about getting crafty today that was just callin' to me. I needed some serious crafty time.

So here's Nichole's non-traditional holiday color scheme that I chose to work with.

And here's the sparkly little snowman number I created with those colors:

Hopefully more bloggin' to come soon!