A Passion for Papertrey

Challenge: 'Inspired by a book'

2012-01-25T18:41:00.001Z

Welcome to another challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey! One of my New Year's resolutions in January was to read more, if only there were more hours in the day!!

So for all you book fans today's challenge is a literary one... we're asking you to make a card inspired by a book. Any book! Or if you can't think of a book maybe it could be book-related.

This is how I interpreted the challenge - I was looking through my PTI stamps and looking for inspiration but kept on coming back to my All Booked Up set, that hasn't seen much love for a long time. I love this quote and will be sending it to a friend who loves green and loves to read:

Card Deets: (PTI unless stated)

Stamps: All Booked Up/Polka Dot Basics
Card: Stamper's Select White/Simply Chartreuse
Ink: Spring Moss/True Black
Other: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)/Ric-Rac Die/Copic Markers

Over to Aimes:
"At first I thought I'd struggle with this challenge, but when I started to think about my favourite reads it seemed that the hardest part about the challenge was narrowing down which book to choose!

Card Deets
{let your dreams take flight}
Stamps: Happy Trails (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento)/Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Fine and Dandy True Blue Collection (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Twine, Ribbon Scraps, Clouds Die, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug

This card is inspired by the book, The Kite Runner, which was a book that I couldn't put down. (I'm yet to see the film; I always prefer to read the book first!) The kite was made with scraps of patterned paper and a couple pieces of scrap ribbon provided the perfect kite tail combined with a piece of twine :)"

Over to Caryn...

Well, predictable as I am the only book I could use as my inspiration is my beloved Twilight by Stephanie Meyer! I immediately thought of the book cover and out came my Fruit Fusions Apple die. Cue lots of red stickles and voila - a juicy red (and sparkly) apple. The sentiment is actually from a Walzting Mouse set but thought it was perfect for this card! I'm not sure when or why I would send this card but it may be useful around Halloween time!

{Card Deets}
Vampire Bites
Stamps: Midnight Feast (WMS)
Ink: True Black
Tools: Mega Mat Stack 4 die, Fruit Fusion: Apple die, Linen/Canvas Impression plate,
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, True Black, Pure Poppy
Other: Stickles glitter glue.

Here's what the lucky winner will win: PTI's Flower Fusion 1 set.

And here are the challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!! Please leave a link back to this challenge on your entry too :)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, February 6th 2012 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Have fun!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

Our winners!

2012-01-25T00:11:00.002Z

Greetings all, and thank you for joining us to find out who the winners of our last challenge. So we won't keep you waiting!

The winner is....

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2012-01-24 23:45:03 UTC

Challenge - Valentine's!

2012-01-10T08:50:00.000Z

Welcome to our first challenge of 2012 here on A Passion for Papertrey! We hope you can ink up and play along with us :)

For this fortnight's challenge we're looking ahead to the next occasion in our calendars after Christmas: Valentine's Day! That's right, it's never to early to make a card to show someone you care about them:

Card Deets
{Love You}
Stamps: Wonderful Words Additions, Heart - Around and About Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)/Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: White, True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Canvas and Linen Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug, Olivia Alphabet Dies (Provocraft)/Novelty Paper Clip (Office Supply)/Gem (Stash!)

This design was totally inspired by some novelty paper clips I had in my stationary stash and will hopefully suit my guy; he's not one for a huge slush-fest on a piece of card - LOL!

Over to Caryn ...

Hello all and Happy New Year! Hope everyone's creative juices are flowing for our new challenge! I have to say I am in a bit of a lull with my mojo at the minute and really struggled getting this card together! Maybe it's that post-Christmas lull?! My inspiration came from my red polka dot table-cloth (I guess it has to come from somewhere!!).

{Recipe}

Stamps: Heart Prints
Card: Pure Poppy, Hibiscus Burst, Stampers Select WhitInk: Pure Poppy, Fresh Snow
Tools: Woodgrain IP, Scallop edge punch (SU!)
Other: Ribbon from stash

Over to Kate: "Happy 2012 everyone! I'm still loving the new PTI inks and used them to whip up this CAS card, enjoy the challenge!"

Card Details: (All supplies PTI unless stated)

Stamps: Heart Prints
Card: Stamper's Select White
Ink: Raspberry Fizz/Hawai'in Shores/Basic Black
Other: Adhesive gems (Hero Arts)/Corner Chomper

So, are you ready to get loved up and ink along with us? We hope so! Up for grabs for one randomly selected European PTI Peeps is this sweet stamp set:

Flower Fusion #11

Just before you dash to play - take a peek at our challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!! Please leave a link back to this challenge on your entry too :)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, January 23rd 2012 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Have fun!

Aimes, Caryn & Kate
xxx

Winner, winner...

2011-12-28T12:33:00.007Z

I dunno about you but I think I've eaten and drunk enough to last me 'til next Christmas - ha! I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas!

I'm popping by here a bit later, due to not being able to move from the sofa, to announce some winners from our past challenge. Thank you to everyone who joined us on the green Christmas - I hope you had as much fun playing with green as I do :)

So without further ado, the winner of a sweet li'l stamp set is:

Number 3 which is super lucky for Vannessa! Congrats, Vannessa! Email us your postal addy and we'll get that set out to ya.

Now for our Top 3 PTI Passionistas. Well even with the lower turnout for this challenge it was still a super tough decision to make but nevertheless, we decided:

Ingrid embraced not only gorgeous green, but her fabulous PTI dies to come up with this beauty! We love dimension the layering of the dies adds to this gorgeous card!

Steph warmed our hearts with those cute mittens hanging from the sweet holly! The sentiment ties in perfectly too :)

Shannon embraced green in the form of a gorgeous tree contrasting against navy card. The layout and colours really caught our eye and we especially loved the use of vellum for the sentiment.

Congrats, ladies! If you'd like a blinkie to blink with pride then pop us an email too and we'll get that code out to ya!

I hope you can all join us in 2012 when we kick off another year full of fun challenges :)

Aimes, Kate & Caryn
xxx

Happy Happy Happy Holidays

2011-12-22T15:09:00.004Z

Are you ready yet? Can you believe how quickly Christmas is creeping up on us? I hope your preparations are going well!

I'm popping in to wish you all a very happy holidays, whatever you're doing!

Card Deets
{Happy Happy Happy Holidays}
Stamps: Modern Basics, Stocking Prints (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)/Fern (a muse)
Cardstock: White, Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Apron Lace Border Punch (Fiskars)/Cuttlebug, Swiss Dot Embossing Folder (Provocraft)/Chompy! (Corner Chomper)/Gems (Stash!)

Modern Basics has proved to be my saviour with my Christmas cards this year! It's posed as a wreath and now holly! Whatever next.....?

How about a poinsettia?

Yup - Modern Basics has definitely shown me that sometimes there's no need to buy new sets to get the mojo flowing :)

Card Deets
{Happy Holidays}
Stamps: Modern Basics, Stocking Prints (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: White, Pinefeather (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Bling (Zva)/Button (Papertrey Ink)

Wishing you all a fabulous Christmas!

Aimes
x

P.S If you've got a spare moment, why not indulge in a spot of green on your creations and share the inspiration for our current challenge? *wink*

I'm dreaming of a GREEN Christmas!

2011-12-15T00:31:00.002Z

Greetings all and welcome to this, our last challenge of 2011! In keeping with the festive season we're giving you another excuse to make one more Christmas card for this challenge, the only stipulation (at Aimes' insistence!) that you include green in your project.

I do love making monochromatic cards (think quick and easy for mass producing!) so made a card in green....

Card Recipe: (All supplies PTI)
Stamps: 2010 Holiday Tags/Peaceful Poinsietta
Card: New Leaf/Vintage Cream
Ink: Vintage Cream/New Leaf
Other: Mat Stack 3 Die/Vintage Cream grosgrain ribbon

... then made a few others in different colours!

Over to Aimes
"OK, I 'fess up, so I stomped my feet and demanded a challenge with green in it! But you have to admit, that a spot of green on a card is so suited to Christmas:

Card Deets
Stamps: Modern Basics, Stocking Prints, Holiday Tree (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Pure Poppy, Spring Moss (Papertrey Ink)/Fern (AMuse Ink)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cuttlebug/Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Ribbon (from stash coloured with Promarker!)

I had an inky session playing with Modern Basics (it's finally getting some much needed inky love) and came up with a wreath. Admittedly it's a very modern, graphic wreath but I kinda like the tradition juxtaposed with the modern on this design!

I can't wait to see what gorgeous green creations you whip up to inspire us. And remember, a splash of green on a card is not only for Christmas, but for occasions all year round *wink*"

Over to Caryn...
So we thought it only fair to include a "green" touch to our challenge this week seeing how it must've been KILLING Aimes to create a card without it last time!! Not that I'm complaining, it's still a Christmas card and to be totally honest, I could do Christmas all year round!!

{recipe}
Stamps: Peasceful Poinsettia, Big and Bold Holiday Wishes, Background Basics: Music (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Pure Poppy, Spring Moss (Papertrey Ink), Versamark
Cardstock: Rustic Cream, Kraft, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Gingham ribbon, button (PTI)

So do you like my Christmas setting? Cosy isn't it? I thought it set the foliage on the card off too! The sprigs are from the Peaceful Poinsettia set and I've paired that with the fabulous Big and Bold wishes: Holidays set. I used a kraft card base and stamped the musical background from Background Basic: Music on it. Right, off to make a few more before I miss the postal deadlines!! Looking forward to seeing your green-themed cards.

Here is what one lucky randomly drawn winner will win:

And here are our challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Tuesday, December 27th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Have fun!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn

Our winners!

2011-12-13T23:32:00.000Z

Hello everyone! I hope you're not too stressed in the run up to Christmas! So it's time to announce the winner of our Red and White Christmas Challenge, congrats to all the fabulous entries!

Here we go then...

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-12-13 22:54:11 UTC
(Random.org)

Congrats Dawn!! Please email your postal address to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get your prize in the post asap!

And now for our top three PTI Passionistas:

1) Lynn -Lynn's card immediately caught our eye! So elegant and a fabulous design - a CAS card at its best!

2) Beth - Look at the Christmas message Beth spelled out on her card! What a fabulous idea, well done Beth!

3) Cara -We loved Cara's modern snowflake card - such a great idea to die cut the snowflake and then stamp the sentiment, thanks for the inspiration Cara!

Well done ladies! If you would like to grab our blinkie for your blog please email us at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send you the code.

Check back tomorrow for a brand new challenge!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

Polka Dot Snow

2011-12-06T18:03:00.007Z

Hi!

I'm flying by (or should that be sliding along with today's snow and ice!) to share a card with ya:

This card could pretty much qualify for our current challenge with it's red and white combo. It's also a pretty fitting card to share on here today considering the snow and ice we've had here in the heights of the Peak District! I love snow, but I sure don't love driving in it!

Stay safe and warm wherever you are and while you're at it, why not join in this challenge too? :)

Aimes
x

Card Deets
{Happy Holidays}
Stamps: Holiday Tree, Polka Dot Basics II, Holiday Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: London Fog, Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Gems (Craft Supply)/Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

I'm Dreaming of a {Red and White} Christmas Challenge!!

2011-12-01T10:29:00.002Z

Ok, we know - our last challenge was also a "Holiday" based challenge but with Christmas just around the corner and a myriad of cards and gifts still to make we thought another Holiday-inspired challenge wouldn't go amiss!

This time we're putting a colour theme into the mix and are asking you to create a Christmas/Holiday card using red and white {or cream} as your main colours. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

For my card I automatically reached for my Stylish Sentiments:Holidays set. I love this set so much!! The base white card is stamped with snowflakes from the Tag Its #9 set in Pure Poppy and the flourish under the sentiment is from Big and Bold Holiday Wishes stamped in Versamark and then embossed in white filigree powder). I so love this colour combo :0)

Caryn xxx

Over to Kate: "I agree with Caryn, this colour combination is SO fabulous for Christmas! I came across my Rustic Snowflakes set, which sadly has been pushed to the bottom of my pile of PTI sets so grabbed my new Pure Poppy ink and gave it some inky love! It was a long wait for the first batch of new inks but they looking great so far!"

Card Recipe: (All supplies PTI)
Stamps: Rustic Snowflakes/Rustic Branches/Tiny Tags
Ink: Pure Poppy/Basic Black
Card: Vintage Cream/Pure Poppy
Other: Tiny Tags Die/Take Three Die/Pure Poppy Baker's Twine

I'm afraid our poor Aimes is suffering from a badly injured ankle after a tumble playing football (rolls eyes!!) so she will be back soon with her sample when she's able to move again!!

***Edited to add***

"I'm here *waves!* Yup, I may be on the sofa with one foot raised in some considerable pain but I'm here!

Not only am I here, but I'm also here with a red and white themed Christmas card for our super challenge:

Card Deets
Stamps: Stocking Prints (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Stocking Die, Bakers Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Felt (Craft Supply)/Cuttlebug

I decided to play with my Stocking Die for this challenge and added some texture to a very CAS card by cutting my stocking from felt.

Admittedly I did keep having the urge to add green to this combo but luckily Caryn and Kate are so right in thinking that red and white make a fab combo alone for a Christmas project. And anyways, I can also insert this into a green envie, right? *wink*"

One lovely crafty person will win this....

Here are our challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, December 12th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

A winner - at last!!

2011-11-29T14:56:00.000Z

I'm so sorry everyone - we have been having intermittent issues with our broadband and when I went to do the winners post yesterday - disaster - no internet! It (appears) to be running ok now so here I am to get those lucky names posted for our Christmas challenge.

The lucky winner of the Medhi Medallion stamp set is.....

16

Random numbers generated Nov 28 2011 at 14:53:14 by www.psychicscience.org

Which means Steph is the lucky girl this time. Get in touch hun and we'll get your stamps out to you toot sweet!

Steph - This is so elegant, the traditional colour scheme is perfectly festive and the sentiment across the centre is the perfect focal point.

Jen W - We loved the warm and cosy fel we got from this card and the clever stamping on the die-cut tree is fabulous

Cecilie - Cecilies card is just oozing with festive cheer - the ruffled ribbon and cheeky little tag combine together so beautifully.

Well done ladies - pop an email to us if you'd like a Passionista blinkie for your blog.

I'll be back later with a brand new challenge too.

Hugs,

Caryn, Kate and Aimes.

Apologies!

2011-11-29T10:11:00.002Z

Hi all, just to let you know we're having a few internet probems behind the scenes so there will be a delay in posting the winners of our previous challenge and our new one. We'll be up and running asap!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

The girls!

2011-11-28T12:22:00.001Z

Left to right: Kate, Caryn & Aimes

Happy Monday all! I hope you're all set for a brand new challenge tomorrow but in the meantime I just wanted to share a picture of the A Passion for Papertrey girls! It was taken last weekend during a fabulous few days together - here we are getting (just a bit!) excited before the showing of the new Twilight film!

We're so lucky to have become such good friends through our hobby, and love bringing you challenges here on the blog. Thank you so much for supporting us, we really appreciate it and love seeing your wonderful projects!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

Challenge: Christmas

2011-11-15T20:01:00.010Z

Hello!

Welcome to a fabulous new challenge!

So if you didn't guess from my hint in the last post, this fortnight we wanna see you craft with Christmas in mind (or any other type of holiday you have in mind for the season, e.g Hanukkah) Let's face it, Christmas is only 39 days away and so it's time to start whippin' out the cards!

I started well this year; creating a couple of Christmas cards last month, but I'll confess that I've hit a bit of a dry spell right now....but after creating a few different cards, I now know that my final design will feature the following elements:

Firstly, it has to be CAS! Not only to satisfy my CAS lovin' side, but also for the convenience of mass production:
Card Deets
{Merry Christmas}
Stamps: Holiday Tree (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Fine Linen (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cuttlebug (Provocraft)/Linen and Canvas Impression Plate, Pure Poppy Buttons (Papertrey Ink)/Promarkers/Gem (Craft Supply)

It has to have a good ol' traditional colour combo. If red and green don't sum up Christmas, I've no idea what colours do!

Card Deets
{Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year}
Stamps: Holiday Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)/Musical Background (Kaisercraft)
Ink: Versamark/Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Hunter's Green (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Pure Poppy Saddle-Stitch Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)/Gems (Zva)/Promarker (to colour gem!)

...and finally, it has to be a design that uses my existing stash (no new crafty Christmas goodies for this gal this year - not that I've been a bad girl of course, just that my stampy budget had to be spend on a new tyre the other week!)

Card Deets
{Season's Greetings}
Stamps: Holiday Signature Greetings, Background Basics: Chevron Stripes (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento)/Hawaiian Shores (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Tickets from Daily Junque Collection (Pink Paislee)
Accessories: Shimmer Chalks (Dovecraft)/Gems (Zva)/Mat Stack 2 Die (Papertrey Ink)/Grand Calibur (Spellbinders)/Twine from Daily Junque Collection (Pink Paislee)

Those baubles have been cut from Mat Stack 2! When I saw the shape of it, I immediately thought of a bauble. The subtle one in the background is created by using the negative shape of the die-cut as a stencil with my chalks.

Over to Caryn:
I am super-in-love with this challenge - there is no other time of the year I love more than Christmas so making this card was no challenge for me at all!! I am looking forward to your entries more than any other time too - can't wait to see your festive creations!

For our challenge I have cracked open and lavished some inky attention on my new Holiday Lights set as well as the Stylish Sentiments: Holidays set. I just adore both of them – think they’re both going to feature heavily in this years cards!
I LOVE Pure Poppy and for Christmas there just is NO OTHER COLOUR!! I have paired it this time with Hawaiian Shores and Raspberry Fizz – yum!

Here's Kate: "Thank goodness for this challenge to get me kick-started into making some Christmas cards! I have to say it made me want to play with all my Christmas sets but for this card I decided on my Wreath for All Seasons set for a good old CAS card!"

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Wreath for All Seasons/Think Big Favourites 8
Card: Stamper's Select White/Pure Poppy
Ink: Pure Poppy/Ripe Avocado/Basic Black
Other: Scallop Die/Ripe Avocado Twill

So now it's your turn! Just to tempt you some more, up for grabs for one European-based peep is this li'l stamp set:

Mehndi Medallion!

Here are our challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, November 28th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to be inspired by your creations :)

Aimes, Kate & Caryn
xxx

A Winner!

2011-11-14T21:07:00.005Z

Well you certainly got busy with the berry for our challenge! I'm feeling so much more inclined to use that colour I was so petrified of before this challenge! Thank you to everyone who entered and shared the inspiration :)

Time to draw our random winner of a sweet li'l PTI stamp set. Do your thing, Random.Org....

So our randomly selected winner is Antoinette! Congrats, Antoinette! Please email us your postal addy to us at apassionforpapertrey(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk and we'll post that mini-set out to ya!

Now for our Top 3 PTI Passionistas. I have to confess that every single entry inspired me us in some way to embrace the melon berry more so, and you all demonstrated that it can be suited for just about any occasion! But as you know, we have to narrow it down to three and those three are:

Kate - (no, not our Kate!) - embraced the melon berry to produce this beautiful sympathy card. That colour combo is so soothing and warm - just the kind of emotions you want to evoke in such a card for such an occasion.

Sharon proves that no-one is too old for a bit of berry-lovin, even if your age is three digits long! We loved the CAS layout and the way those Melon Berry digits totally steal the spotlight!

Chris produced these gorgeous tags that are bound to make any one's day! Chris may be in the minority by confessing her love for Melon Berry but it's easy to see why she loves it so once you've checked out her work with it!

Congrats ladies! If you'd like a Top 3 Blinkie to blink with pride on your own blogs then pop us an email and we'll give you the code.

Thanks to everyone who played along with our challenge! Stay tuned for tomorrow's shiny new challenge...you could say it'll be as shiny as a bauble...oops! have I said too much?!

Aimes, Kate & Caryn
xxx

A colourful challenge!

2011-11-01T22:28:00.003Z

Hello there! Pinch punch, first of the month... is it November already?! Indeed it is, and with it time for a brand new challenge! This fortnight we're giving you a colour challenge:

Now, don't worry if you don't have any PTI colours - you can use any make of card/ink etc as long as you (loosely!) stick to the colours above.

For my sample I used one of my favourite layouts (or go-to layouts if I'm short of time or mojo!) to make a thank you card. I used my fabulous new Harvest Berries set - great for background stamping - and added some pearls that I coloured green with a Copic marker.

Card Recipe

Stamps: Harvest Berries/Think Big Favourites no 2
Card: Vintage Cream/Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Ink: Melon Berry/Ripe Avocado/Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Other: Corner Chomper/Pearls/Copic Markers

Over to Aimes
"Did you hear me scream when I heard about this challenge? Talk about a challenge with a huge obstacle to tackle; no, not the dark chocolate and most certainly not the green but...melon berry!!! Eeek! Just the name of that colour makes me shudder! OK so I'm over-reacting slightly, but honestly, it's the one colour I really struggle to work with.

But a challenge wouldn't be a challenge if it didn't stretch me in some way, so I learned to love a li'l bit of the berry and got on with it:

Card Deets
{I'm so Grateful for you}
Stamps: Signature Greetings/Background Basics: Chevron Stripes
Ink: Spring Moss (Papertrey Ink)/Rich Cocoa (Memento)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Melon Berry (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Dark Chocolate Buttons, Cream Button Twine, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate, Mat Stack 4 Die, Fillable Frames Die (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug, Distressed Wood Embossing Folder (Provocraft)

Combined with the other two gorgeous colours (and cream!) I may have a tiny soft spot for Melon Berry after all (just don't tell it that though! )

And here's Caryn:
Well I had the same flicker of dread as Aimes when I realised I was going to have to use Melon Berry!! It's not that I hate it - it's just that I NEVER use it! In fact when I went to reach for a sheet of MB card I discovered the pack was still sealed!! This is officially my first ever card using Melon Berry. The thing is - I actually really like the colour combo!! There isn't a "whole lotta stampin" going on on this card but it makes good use of some fabulous dies and the woodgrain impression plate (which I can't stop using at the moment!

I apologise for the poor photo - seeing as we were burgled last weekend (fuming) and the kind thoughtful thieves stole my Canon SLR camera (seethe) my only method of photography at the moment is my iPhone (recently upgraded as they took that too!!).

Here's what one lucky randomly-drawn winner will receive!

Now for the all important challenge guidelines:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, November 14th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

Our winners!

2011-11-01T22:09:00.001Z

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by to see who has won our latest challenge! Firstly, once again a big congrats for all the fabulous entries to our silhouette challenge - there were so many inspiring creations!

So onto our winner.....

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-10-31 23:26:39 UTC

..and the winner is Vannessa ! Congrats Vannessa, please email us your postal address and we'll send your prize asap.

As always it was such a tough job choosing the Top 3 PTI Passionistas but finally these are the lovely cards we chose:

1) Jen - We were wowed by Jen's beautiful use of die cuts and masking - such a unique and elegant card!

2) Paul - Paul's fabulous monochramatic card jumped off the screen at us! Really vibrant and a great shape too!

3) Shannon - We loved Shannon's interpretation of the silhouetted Christmas tree in the forest - a lovely clean design, a mellow wintry colour scheme and some great bling too!

Congrats to you all! If you'd like to grab our blinkie then email us at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send you the code.

Don't forget to check back later on for a colourful new challenge!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

No tricks, just treats!

2011-10-31T20:56:00.004Z

Happy Halloween!

I couldn't resist popping in on this spook-tac-ular night to share some paper-crafted Halloween goodies with you:

Firstly, this li'l tag was sneaked into my guy's lunch today (along with some scrummy treats of course!)

And finally, I managed to whip up seven treat holders for my nieces and nephews after letting my inner-gaming-geek speak to me:

Ahhhh Pac-Man - how I loved that game! Not sure my nieces and nephews will understand the whole Pac-Man concept but I think they're more concerned with the contents of the treat holders to be fair:

Oh and I just so happen to have bought a spare packet of these treats....well it'd be rude not to take advantage of 'em, right?! *wink*

If you're celebrating Halloween have fun and stay safe! :)

Aimes
x

Tag Deets
{My little Pumpkin}
Stamps: Tiny Treats Halloween (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Orange Zest, True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Promarkers/Orange Zest Grosgrain Ribbon, True Black Button, Cream Button Twine, Mat Stack 4 Die, Limitless Layers Die (Papertrey Ink)

Treat Deets
{Boo!}
Cardstock: True Black, Simply Chartreuse, Plum Pudding, Orange Zest (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Halloween Die - 'BOO!', Cuttlebug (Provocraft)/Orange Dotty Ribbon, Simply Chartreuse Ribbon, Lavender Moon Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)

Just a note (and another silhouette!)

2011-10-25T08:00:00.002+01:00

Happy Tuesday!

It's proving to be a very laid back week here: although I had lots planned for the half term, an icky cold has made me rethink those plans and has persuaded me to stay curled up with honey and lemon instead!

Well cold or no cold, one thing I do plan to do is get some stamps inked and created some more cards like this:

I made this a while back and haven't shared it here until now. In fact, this card would totally fit our current challenge, sensational silhouettes!

If you've got a few spare inky moments, why not join in the fun with us? You've got until Oct 31st to enter!

Oooh October 31st - Halloween! That reminds me that I've gotta whip up 7 treats for my li'l ~~monsters~~ nieces and nephews so I best get back to my desk and rustle up something spook-tac-ular *wink*

Aimes
x

Card Deets
All PTI Products Unless Stated
{Just a Note}
Stamps: Peaceful Garden, Happy Trails
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream/Kraft/True Black
Accessories: Rustic Jute Button Twine/True Black Vintage Button, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate, Cuttlebug (Provocraft)

Challenge : Sensational Silhouettes!!

2011-10-18T21:18:00.001+01:00

Hello PI fans and welcome to a new challenge here on A Passion For Papertrey. I don't know about you but I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by! One minute it was the middle of summer and now Christmas feels like it's just around the corner!! Is it just me??

So as another fortnight goes by, we are at the start of the next one and our newest challenge - Sensational Silhouettes. Now don't panic and think "I don't own a PTI set with a silhouette in it"!! Think of flowers, leaves, solid shapes of any kind, dies, etc - all of those could be manipulated in some way to create a silhouette. Let your creative juices run free!!!

My (loose) interpretation of a silhouette is in the form of an aperture made using the Mat Stack 4 die. I cut the aperture from a panel of Simply Chartreuse and then ran it through my Big Shot using the woodgrain impression plate (LOVE!!). This was popped up with foam adhesive and I placed a panel of Pure Poppy underneath it. I am in love with the Stylish Sentiments: Holidays set and used one of the large greetings as my focal point which was stamped in Versamark and embossed with white filigree powder. To give it the country/folky feel (which I love SOO much for Christmas) I added a strip of gingham ribbon and die cut a couple of snowflakes from Kraft and Vintage Cream card using some Sizzlet dies.

{Recipe}

Stamps: Stylish Sentiments: Holidays
Paper: Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, Kraft.
Ink: Versamark with White Filigree Embossing powder
Tools: Woodgrain Impression Plate, Mat stack 4 die, Sizzlit Snowflake dies, Big Shot
Other: Button (Pure Poppy), Gingham ribbon (John Lewis)

Over to Aimes:
"Hmmm well when I thought of silhouettes for this challenge I decided to play with a set that I haven't played with nearly enough:

Card Deets
{A Bird...}
Stamps: Happy Trails (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Pure Poppy Grosgrain Ribbon, Happy Trails Bird Die, Text Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug/Gem (Stash!)

I'm ashamed to admit that Happy Trails is a set that I *had* to have and has hardly seen so much as an inkpad since being introduced to the rest of my stamps! Now I may be bending the rules slightly with that bird but I'm stickin' to my guns and sayin' it's a silhouette: I'm not sure if the lined details mean it's not one...

...oh well seeing as now I'm not sure if that bird counts as a silhouette, I have another card up my sleeve that I created a while back but haven't shared here that definitely features a silhouette:

Card Deets
{Just Because}
Stamps: Iconic Images, Round and Round (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Spring Rain, Kraft, Orange Zest (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cuttlebug (Provocraft)/Mat Stack 2 Die, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Flower Paper Punch (X-Cut)/Pearl (Hero Arts)/Circle Nestabilities

Now I know for sure that this is a silhouette! :)

Sadly poor Kate is suffering from a trapped nerve problem this week (ouch) and has been unable to upload her card today. Hopefully she will be back on form later in the week and will share her creation with us then.

So what's the prize up for grabs this time? The stunning Mehndi Medallion stamp set (lush!)

Now for the all important challenge guidelines:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, October 31st 2011 at 9.00am GMT (oooohhhh!)

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

It's Winner Time!

2011-10-17T16:42:00.000+01:00

Yes, we have a winner for the last challenge (Goin' Geometric) here on A Passion For Papertrey...

3

Random numbers generated Oct 17 2011 at 16:12:52 by www.psychicscience.org
Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic.

And that means our lucky winner of the sweet stamp set is Steph. Well done girly, get your deets emailed over and Aimes will send your prize off to you.

And now onto the Papertrey Top 3 Passionistas. Another difficult choice for us this time but here are the three we finally agreed on.

Shannon - What a great use of one of the Christmas Labels stamps - very geometric and very clever!!

Emma - We loved Emma's fun card and the colour scheme just shouts "happy".

Lorena - We thought Lorena's CAS card was very elegant and perfect for any number of occasions and recipients.

Great job on those cards ladies - if you'd like to sport our Passionista blinkie on your blog then just drop us a line.

Don't forget to return tomorrow for a brand spanking new challenge - hope you'll join us.

Big hugs,
Caryn, Aimes and Kate xxx

Lotsa Circles...

2011-10-15T13:18:00.003+01:00

Well it's a super sunny Saturday here today so I'm zooming by to share a card with you before heading out the door to make the most of this autumn sunshine (I love it but I need to wrap up warm!)

*Shhh!* don't tell Kate or Caryn, but the Kraft strip features a non-PTI stamp but everything else is PTI!

In fact, I could enter this into our current challenge seeing as it's featuring so many circles (Well, that is, if I were allowed to enter and keep the sweet stamp set that's up for grabs and is currently sitting on my desk waiting for its destination to be announced!)

Could you be it's destination? Get your thinking cap on this weekend if you've got any spare inky time and think about geometric shapes in your design. Who knows, it might just win you some more stamps for your stamping pleasure :)

Aimes
x

Card Deets
{Happy Birthday}
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)/For the Love of Dots (Practicing Creativity)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)/Versamark
Cardstock: Soft Stone, Enchanted Evening, Kraft, Blueberry Sky, Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Enchanted Evening Satin Ribbon, Polka Dot Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)/Clear Gems (Zva)/Grand Calibur (Spellbinders)

Challenge - Goin' Geometric

2011-10-04T19:50:00.001+01:00

Welcome to a fabulous new challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey! We hope you're ready to throw some shapes and incorporate some geometric elements to your paper-crafting projects this fortnight; we want to see simple geometric forms such as circles, rectangles, triangles etc...stealing the spotlight of your designs.

For my own project I opted to play with circles. A circular stamp of circles from Daily Designs was my inspiration point:

Card Deets
{for you}
Stamps: Daily Designs, Wonderful Words Additions (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: London Fog, Memento Black (Tuxedo)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Simply Chartreuse (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Simply Chartreuse Buttons (Papertrey Ink)/Twine (Pink Paislee)

I couldn't resist adding some scrummy simply chartreuse buttons to continue the circular theme on this tiny 3x3 card *wink*

Over to Kate:
"I loved making this card - I used my Tranquillity Trilogy set and dies for the first time and loved them. I was going to go for a triangle but ended up going for a hexagon, it was so satisfying fitting it together! I decided to keep it simple and stick to a monochromatic card, can't go wrong with Ripe Avocado for a Christmas card!"

Recipe:
Stamps: Tranquillity Trilogy
Ink: Ripe Avocado, Versafine black
Card: Stamper's Select White/Ripe Avocado
Other: Double Ended Banner Dies/gems

Over to Caryn..

As promised it's another Christmas card from me! I started to look for geometric shapes in my PTI sets and of course the triangle banners from Banner Builder immediately popped out at me! I started with a kraft card base (my favourite kind at the moment) paired it with Pure Poppy card and some patterned paper from the Rustic snowflakes collection. It's not that easy to see in the photo but I added a good sprinkling of red glitter to the flags, the edge of the card and the sentiment (from Big and Bold Holiday sentiments). Another one to tick off my list!

Ready to get jiggy with geometric elements? We hope so! Up for grabs for one randomly selected European peeps is this mini stamp set:

Flower Fusion #6

Be sure to check out our deets before playing along!

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, October 17th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Aimes, Kate & Caryn
xxx

A Winner!

2011-10-03T21:38:00.005+01:00

Thank you so much to everyone who entered our last 'mad for tags' challenge and apologies that we couldn't get our linky thingy to behave for us; hopefully we've managed to include everyone who entered and left a link in our comments section!

So now it's time to draw a winner......

....drum roll please......

Ta-dah!

Mr Random has chosen #1 as our winner which means that Emma is the lucky recipient of a super sweet stamp set! Congrats, Emma! Pop us an email with the subject 'PTI Winner' with your postal addy and we'll get that set out to ya!

And now for our Top 3 PTI Passionistas. I think it's safe to say that you all rocked the idea of using tags (and I've personally picked up a few more inspirational ideas for ways to incorporate 'em) and as always we had the tough job of narrowing it down to our Top 3:

Lynn got us into the Christmas spirit with these super fun retro-lights on her card. We love the way she layered a die-cut circle on top of tag for a fab focal point!

Lynn Put let her gorgeous tag take the centre stage on this beautifully rich and warm autumnal card. We love the cluster of acorns and leaves :)

Cecilie captured our hearts with her sweet mini-tag which is the perfect embellishment to a winter themed card and a super way of adding a sentiment when using busy patterns!

Congrats ladies! If you'd like our Top 3 blinkie to blink with pride on your blogs then feel free to pop us an email (please type 'blinkie' or 'Top 3' as your subject) and we'll email you the code!

Thanks so much to everyone who played along with us! We hope you'll find time to play along with our new challenge tomorrow (and fingers crossed that our linky thingy will behave for us!)

Aimes, Caryn & Kate
xxx

Email alert...

2011-09-27T22:06:00.003+01:00

We've recently been alerted that our A Passion for Papertrey email account has been compromised and is sending potentially nasty emails to people in our address book.

If you receive an email from us (apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk) and it looks unfamiliar and/or contains a link please do not click it and delete it instead! Kate, Caryn and myself will always sign our emails with our name at the end so please bear this in mind when assessing whether an email from us is genuine or not.

We're very sorry for anyone this has caused an inconvenience to and hope the situation is now resolved!

Thank you for your patience!

Aimes, Caryn & Kate
xxx

Challenge: Mad for Tags!

2011-09-21T17:57:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone and thank you for joining us for another challenge! This time we're going mad for tags! Yep, we want you to make and tag and then incorporate it in a card or other papercrafting project. Remember, if you don't have any tag dies or punches you can always cut one yourself!

This is the first of many Christmas cards I'm embarking on - amazing for me in September! I went straight for one of my favourite Christmas colour combos - red, cream and kraft, and used the super-cute Tiny Tags Christmas set. I'm so looking forward to getting a lot of mileage out of this set this year!

Recipe:
Stamps: Tiny Treats Christmas, Fillable Frames 9
Card: Kraft, Vintage Cream
Paper: 2008 Bitty Dot Basics
Ink: Memento black, Vintage Cream
Other: Fillable Frames 9 die, Pure Poppy button, twine, Corner Chomper, Copic markers

Over to Caryn...

As I am now in proper panic mode in the run up to the BIG day - virtually every card that I create from now until December 24th (yes, I am NEVER completely in control) will be a Christmas card of some description. This year I am not putting myself under pressure to make the usual 150 plus that I do every year. I'm not a fan of the mass production approach as I get bored too easily so it's rare I make the same card twice. With that in mind I have set myself a target of 50 cards, all different for those people that I know will appreciate them. For those distant relatives and friends of the family that I don't really "know" but nevertheless exchange cards with every year, there will be a card, just not a special hand-crafted one! I know that's a bit naughty but I would rather put that time into making something for my dearest friends and family members who will feel that little bit more special knowing not every one got one!!

{Recipe}
Stamps: Big and Bold Holiday Wishes, Wreath for All Seasons.
Card: Rustic Cream, Kraft
Others: Bakers Twine (Pure Poppy), vintage button (Ripe avocado)grosgrain ribbon (SU!), gems (Papermania), woodgrain impression plate.

Over to Aimes:
For this tag-tastic challenge I adopted a miniature approach and found this the perfect opportunity to play with my tiny tags die and stamp set :)

Surprise, surprise - I actually used the other side of my linen and canvas impression plate *gasp!* I'm hoping that the plaid will give my card that guy feel as this was made with my nephew in mind who turns 12 soon. I assumed with the whole 'HB 2 U' sentiment it gives it that kinda cool edgy look *wink*

Card Recipe

{For You, Party, HB 2 U}

Stamps: Tiny Tags, Birthday Bash Sentiments

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)/Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)

Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Bakers' Twine, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate, Tiny Tags Die (Papertrey Ink)/Spellbinders Grand Calibur/Nestabilities

Ready to join in the fun? Here's what you can win:

Flower Fusion 1 set

And here are the deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, October 3rd 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.
Have fun!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

Link up for Tag Challenge

2011-09-20T17:36:00.000+01:00

Here's the link for our current challenge (Blogger and Inlinkz is being rather naughty - sorry for the inconvenience!)

Our winners!

2011-09-19T11:58:00.000+01:00

Hello and a big thank you to everyone who entered our Design Team inspired challenge! It was fabulous seeing so many beautiful creations, and your takes on the originals!

So let's announce our winner shall we?! And the winner is...

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-09-19 16:53:03 UTC
(Random.org)

... Victoria! Congratulations Victoria! Please email your postal address to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get your prize shipped out to you asap!

Choosing our Passionistas was (as always!) a difficult choice but in the end we settled on these three fabulous creations:

1) Maureen - We just loved Maureen's take on a Dawn McVey card - she really injected her own style to the project and layered some beautiful elements - lovely!

2) Lee - Lee's project jumped off the page at us! She has used a Nichole Heady to inspire her to craft a beautiful tag book - just look at the work that has gone into every page!

3) Beverley - Bev's card is sure to brighten up anyone's day! Check out the layered butterflies that are stitched onto the card!

Congratulations on your inspiring creation ladies! If you would like to have our Top 3 Passionista blinkie for your blog just email us at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send you the code.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for an all-new challenge!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

Challenge: Design Team Inspiration

2011-09-06T21:43:00.001+01:00

Hello folks and welcome to a brand shiny new challenge here on the A Passion for Papertrey Blog. It was fun to have an anything goes challenge last time and we enjoyed a record number of entries too.

Our new challenge for the next fortnight is to find a card or project created by one of the amazing Papertrey Ink DT members and let it inspire you to create something from it. It doesn't have to a direct case of the card or project but we do want to see how it inspired you. With such awesome talent to choose from I can't wait to see what gems you all come up with.

The hardest part about this challenge is picking just one talented lady to emulate - unles you want to try them all - no limit to how many times you enter!!! I chose the queen of PTI herself, Nichole Heady. She created this card back during the May 2011 release and I loved the simplicity of it.

And here is the card I was inspired to make:

{Recipe}

Stamps: Damask Designs, Butterfly Dreams
Card: White, Kraft
Ink: Versamark, Scarlet Jewel, Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Black fineliner, Gems, Butterfly die

Over to Aimes:
The Papertrey Ink DT member I chose to be inspired by is Lisa Johnson. I've always been a fan of Lisa Johnson's work - in both her creations and the stamps sets she's designed!

After admiring her gallery, I finally decided upon this card as my inspiration point:

I know. I'm a sucker for green :)
And here's my card:

I kinda stuck to the layout and colours but just mixed up the stamp sets a bit (gave me the perfect excuse to ink up some new PTI stash *wink*)

Card Deets
{Thank you for your kindness}
All Papertrey Ink Supplies Unless Stated
Stamps: Peaceful Garden, Iconic Images (Sentiment)
Ink: Versamark/Rich Cocoa (Memento)
Cardstock: Ripe Avocado, Fine Linen
Accessories: Dark Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon, Wooden Buttons, Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)

Over to Kate:..."If I ever need inspiration I head straight for one DT member - Maile Belles. I love everything about her style and she never fails to inspire me. This is the card I chose:

And here is my take on it:

Card Details:
Stamps: Aloha
Card: Vintage Cream/Dark Chocolate
Ink: Memento black, Dark Chocolate
Other: Vine Die, Argyle Impression Plate, Copic Sketch Markers, Corner Chomper

And the prize this time? A cute little Fruit Fusion: Cherries stamp set!

Here are the deets

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!). Please don't link to old posts that might happen to fit the brief of the challenge!!

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, September 19th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with - wonder who the most cased design team member will be!

Caryn, Aimes & Kate

Winners!

2011-09-05T23:02:00.001+01:00

Well, I can't say it's a surprise but boy was that a bumper lot of entries for our last challenge!! Thanks to all who played along.

So without further delay let's see who's won that dinky little PTI stamp set......

35

Random numbers generated Sep 5 2011 at 22:33:44

So that means our winner is Karin! Yay for you hunny! Get in touch with us so we can sort you out with your prize.

Now for our Passionistas. Well I don't think it's ever been harder what with just so many yummy entries to choose from. In the end we all loved these three stunning entries...

Debby - We had to look twice to make sure that flower wasn't printed!! What stunning stamping Debby and a winning colour combination.

Lorena - Those little felt flowers are just gorgeous and what a creative way to make a card that's also a gift!!

Karin - Beautifully arranged and a great combination of stamp sets and dies.

Girls these cards really blew us away so please get in touch if you'd like to sport our blinkie on your blog.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for our brand new "inspiring" challenge.

Hugs,

Caryn, Kate and Aimes xxx

Anything Goes!

2011-08-23T09:00:00.001+01:00

Hello!

Welcome to a fabby new challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey!

We've got only one question to ask you for this fortnight's challenge:

Have you got any PTI supplies?

If the answer to that is 'yes' then it's time to get inky and join in the fun because this fortnight anything goes! Yup, that's right, we're making the most of the summer care-free spirit and asking you just to be creative and create anything! Cards, treat boxes, tags, you name it!

I opted for a card (surprise, surprise!)

I'm not normally one for Berry Sorbet but I do like it paired with Kraft (mind you, I think I could say that about any colour!)

Card Deets
{You make my heart Sing}
Stamps: Bird Watching (Papertrey Ink)/Hearts (Amuse Stamps)
Ink: Dark Chocolate, Berry Sorbet (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Kraft base (craft supply)/Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Chompy! (Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers)/Victorian Lace Border Die (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug

Over to Caryn...
I love this fortnight's theme - can't wait to see the huge variety of cards and creations I expect we're going to get - especially after we had such a bumper number of entries to our last challenge!! Thanks everyone for playing along.
Now to my sample. I recently received my order which I made on 23rd July and which included the Stamp-a-faire exclusive set - Iconic Images. What can I say - I LURVE this set. It's so different from any other set I have from PTI and I just can't put it down!!

{Recipe}

Stamps: Iconic Images, Everyday Classics, Label Basics.
Ink: Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate,
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Sweet Blush
Other: Sweet blush satin ribbon, Angles label die, Score Pal.

I just love the combination of Vintage Cream, Sweet Blush and Dark Chocolate - it gives such a lovely vintagey feel when you put them together.

Over to Kate:
"I was feeling rather mojo-less when I sat down to make my card. So I decided to use a few challenges to try and kick-start it again. I chose two challenges, a Case Study challenge and Play Date challenge (all details are on my blog) - and came up with this. Now I'm not too sure about the pink, but I was trying to stick to the challenge colours! I did, however, really enjoy inking up my Beautiful Blooms set - one of the first PTI sets I ever bought!"

Stamps: Beautiful Blooms/Think Big Favourites 3

So now it's time for you to get your own PTI supplies out and get inky with us :) Need more encouragement? Well one randomly selected European Peeps could get their inky mitts on this:

Fruit Fusion: Apple Stamp Set

Here are the deets

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes it's hard to see :D)

* All entries must be newly created (well, new to Blogland anyways!)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, September 5th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Have fun and create whatever you feel like! We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Aimes, Caryn & Kate
xxx

Winners!

2011-08-22T14:29:00.006+01:00

Wow!!!! Can you believe we had an amazing 34 entries for our past challenge, For the Boys! (Admittedly a huge thanks goes to Margaret C for getting us to that total with an amazing 10 entries - thanks for sharing all that enthusiasm and inspiration with us!) Thanks to everyone who entered; I know we've got our mojo back on track when it comes to the guy cards now :)

But you're not here to talk numbers now, are you? You want to know the winner of course!

Do your stuff random.org:

Number 10 is super lucky for Vannessa! Congrats Vannessa - you've just won yourself a sweet stamp set! Email us your postal addy to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get that set out to you ready for inking!

As you can imagine, with so many entries (all of them fabulous!) it made choosing a top 3 even harder than usual. We're not used to having to work our brains quite so hard for this task! But after much consideration, we've narrowed it down to these three projects:

Lynn wowed us with her fabulous inking technique! Not only on those gorgeous leaves to capture them turning to their gorgeous autumnal colours, but the inking on the impressed woodgrain pattern too which gives so much character to a great card for the guys!

Jen grabbed us with that juicy apple! Catering for the younger guys with this card, we loved the cool colour combo along with the fitting use of those background strips for the overall theme!

Wendy's waves waved to us on her cute card! The way she used a die to create a stencil to ink those waves is a fabby idea and perfectly executed with that super fun wale and sentiment :)

Congrats, ladies! If you'd like the Top 3 blinkie to blink with pride then pop us an email with 'blinkie' as your subject (otherwise you may end up in our spam folder!) and we'll get that code to ya!

Thanks to everyone who entered! I hope you can all stick around for our new challenge tomorrow - I have a feeling it's gonna be a challenge that everyone will be able to play along *wink*

Aimes, Caryn & Kate
xxx

Crafting on a Sunday.

2011-08-21T15:52:00.000+01:00

Yes, for the first time in forever I have had some time to myself to craft. Hubby and the kids are away in Angelsey and poor me is stuck here to run the business. Now as we're closed on a Sunday I was left with two choices as to what to do with my time - clean the house and do the washing OR lock myself in my craft room with an iPod full of uplifting poptastic songs (loving Bruno Mars right now!!) and do something creative. Seeing as the dishes still arent' in the dishwasher I bet you can guess what won!!!

Enjoy your weekend wherever you are.

Hugs,
Caryn xxx

Hello, hello....

2011-08-19T14:18:00.003+01:00

...Aimes here. Reporting from a mountain.....of washing and chores!

As much as I love going on holiday, I always dread the return jobs of unpacking, washing, etc...After I've caught up with it all, I feel like I need another holiday LOL!

So I'm just popping by here to share a couple of 'hello' cards to assure you that I'm still here!

And here's another that proves that I'm on a bit of a sentiment-placement kick too!

Gotta love that Modern Basics set: I find that every time I play with it I can create graphic style cards that totally float my boat :)

Well it's Friday so I'm off to tackle more chores before hoping to have a nice relaxing (and inky) weekend!

Aimes
x

Card Deets
{Hello}
Stamps: Modern Basics (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: London Fog (Memento)/Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink)/Grey (Craft Supply)
Accessories: Pink Vintage Button (Papertrey Ink)

{Hello}
Stamps: Modern Basics (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Orange Zest, Lavender Moon (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: True Black, Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Promarker (Letraset)/Fresh Snow Twill Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)/Chompy! (Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers)

Challenge: For the Boys!

2011-08-10T13:01:00.004+01:00

Hello all and welcome to a new challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey! Now let me ask you - is there one type of card that you find harder to make than any others? One group of people you find it harder to create for? If I was to do a quick straw poll of the answers I'm guessing that the men in our life would be the answer!

So you've guessed it! Yes, the challenge this time round is for you to make a masculine card. Now remember you don't have to stick to traditional male colours, you can go as bright as you like... although maybe not pink?!

The colour scheme for the card I made for my dad's recent birthday came from the carrot and orange cupcakes I made for him. I kept it clean and simple, going for a rosette idea with a matching cuppie topper. I'm afraid I can't take credit for those cute sugar carrots though, I have to thank Lakeland for them!

Card details:
Stamps: Tiny Treats Birthday
Card: Stamper's Select White, Orange Zest, New Leaf
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Copic Sketch Markers, Double Ended Banner dies, Limitless Layers 1 3/4" dies, Arglye Impression Plage

Over to Caryn...

Stamps - Masculine Motifs (the stars), Big Birthday Wishes, Framed.
Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Terracotta Tile, Summer Sunrise.
Cardstock: Hawaiian Shore, Summer Sunrise, Terracotta Tile.
Other: Stars die collection, By The Numbers Die Collection Glossy accents.

This is the card I made for my nephews birthday recently. To be fair I think it could be for a girl or a boy so not sure if I'm not exactly sticking to the brief of a "male card"! (Hey, if Aimes got away with her "Sky's the Limit" card last time - I think I'm ok with this one!! - wink!!). I stamped the square frame from Framed and then found a pen (which matched perfectly!!) and filled in the gap - I couldn't make the gap work!! I then made a mask for the centre so I could randomly stamp the stars from Masculine Motifs around the outside. Although it can't really be seen in the photo the "4" is thick with glossy accents which makes it pop right off the card - shame you can't see it!!

Over to Aimes:
OK so August is the season of guy cards for me - seems like every guy in our family celebrates their special day during it! I've tried really hard to be organised about making the guy cards this year; I normally put it off until the very last minute!

Card Deets
{Happy Happy Birthday}
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Bitty Box Basics - Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cuttlebug (Provocraft)/Linen and Canvas Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Nestabilities (Spellbinders)

Here's a super simple CAS guy card. Ha! Now I look at it, it's very similar to Caryn's! Well I guess we both go to show that CAS can work for the guys and gals!

And here's the super-cute mini PTI stamp set that will go to the randomly drawn winner !

Here are the full challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, August 22nd 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Have fun - we can't wait to see what you come up with!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn
xxxx

Our winners!

2011-08-09T06:52:00.003+01:00

Hi all! Thank you to everyone who entered our Sky's the Limit challenge and very well done on all of your fabulous creations! Shall we see who won?!

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-08-09 05:14:50 UTC

Congratulations Margaret C! Please send your postal address to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll pop you prize in the post!

So onto our Top 3 Passionistas... a difficult job as ever, there were so many great interpretations of the 'sky' theme! But we finally narrowed it down to these three lovely creations:

1) Vannessa: Just look at Vannessa's gorgeous card! We love the way she used the tiled squares to produce her sky theme and how about those super-cute pink kites!!

2) Claire: Claire's card immediately caught our attention - clean and simple with those wonderful bright colours, such a cheery card and we just love it!

3) Dawn: Dawn showed us just how 'vintage' should be done! We loved her inking technique and layout - great job Dawn!

Well done ladies! If you'd like to blink with pride about being a Top 3 Passionista then send us an email and we'll the get the code to you!

Thanks so much for joining in our challenge - check back later for a fab new challenge!

Kate, Aimes & Caryn xxx

Drink in style!

2011-08-03T17:11:00.004+01:00

Well we're officially over half-way through week two of my summer holidays - why do they fly by so fast?!?!

I'm just popping in with an idea that you may want to try out yourself:

Yup - stamping directly on to glass! I love the results so much that my guy is hiding every glass object we have for fear it'll get stamped on LOL!

Just a few pointers to spare you the endless time I spent working out how to get the best results:

I used white Staz-On ink (it gives a nice frosted effect) but from then on gently handwash/rinse the glasses for future use!

Ink your stamp up then stamp on scrap paper a couple of times before attempting to stamp directly on to the glass. Too much ink will make your stamp slip and slide uncontrollably on your glass resulting in a white splodge!

Gently place the glass at one edge of the stamp and roll it across the stamp ensuring the stamp follows the curve of the glass.

If you end up with a splodge - simply wipe away with a wet-wipe straight away, dry with kitchen towel and start again. You don't need to find a new glass!

This glass forms part of a trio of party projects with a butterfly and damask theme for the final round of Gallery Idol (still, have to pinch myself that I'm in it!)

You can check out more about the projects here and check out the fabulous 5 entries for the final round here. Fancy voting? Make your decision soon because voting ends at 7pm tomorrow (Thursday, UK time) and it's a tough decision to make!

Aimes
x

{Drink in Style}
Stamps: Damask Designs, Tiny Tags (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink)/ Versamark/Opaque White (Staz-On)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Spring Rain, Fine Linen (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Butterfly Punches (Tonic & Martha Stewart)/Tiny Tags Die, Ribbon Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug/ Alphabet Transfers (Doodlebug)

Pssst....

2011-07-28T10:38:00.003+01:00

....just poppin in to say that Voting for the Semi-final of Gallery Idol ends today at 7pm (UK time)

I'd love to share my card (with detachable hair clip!) here but it doesn't feature much PTI this time around so you can check it out here if you're interested.....

....and if you wanna, then feel free to vote (I hear that you'd make a gal very happy if you vote for #9 *wink*)

Wouldn't it be cool to see a Brit actually in the final of a competition?! ;P

Whatever happens tomorrow I just want to take the chance to thank you all for your wonderful support so far! The only reason I've made it this far is thanks to YOU!

♥
Aimes
x

Challenge : Sky's the Limit!

2011-07-26T18:46:00.001+01:00

Hello peeps and welcome to a new challenge here at A Passion for Papertrey. Thank you again for your stunning entries into our last summertime challenge - it gets harder and harder to pick a top three every time!

So what's this new challenge all about I hear you ask? Well, this time, the sky's the limit! If you can find it in the sky then you can enter our challenge with it!!! Birds, butterflies, aeroplanes, balloons, clouds, rain, sun, rockets, stars...... the list is endless. So come on and join in the fun - get those stamp sets and dies out and show us what you've got. Here's some inspiration to whet your appetite....

{Recipe}
Stamps: Fly Away, Everyday Classics, A Little Argyle (spot strip). Hero Arts stars background.
Ink: Smokey Shadow, Lemon Tart, Memento black.
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Kraft (PTI); Craem and blue (from stash)
Others: PTI coaster, Fly Away die set, Stars die set

I started with a cream card base and stamped the Hero Arts stars background stamp over it in Lemon Tart to give a subtle background. I die cut and stamped the aeroplane from a PTI coaster and coloured it with ProMarkers. The stars were cut using the Seeing Stars dies and layered up over a strip of kraft card and blue Bazzil from my stash. You may not see it but I stamped the word "Ben" (my nephew) using the Simple Alphabet stamp set onto the plane to personalise a bit for his birthday.

Over to Aimes
"Ok so I'm gonna 'fess up that ~~I cheated~~ I took a pretty loose interpretation of this challenge....forgive me? Well the good news is that if I can get away with this without both Caryn and Kate telling me off then you can too *wink*

Card Deets
{Celebrate Your Day!}
Stamps: Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Versamark
Cardstock: Enchanted Evening, Spring Rain, Blueberry Sky, Vellum Cardstock (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Bling (Hero Arts)/White Gel Pen (Ranger)/Detail White Embossing Powder (Stampendous)

I think at a push I could suggest the bling represents stars that you can find in the night sky, the vellum represents the clouds you can find in the day sky and the different shades of blue represent the sky at different times of the day. Do you think I've dug myself outta this yet? LOL!

Colour blocking is such a big trend right now and that's what inspired this design. I'm thinking of making a set of these in different colours with different sentiments as the design was pretty easy to make and a great way of using up those scraps ..."

Over to Kate
"Our poor Kate was last seen under a mountain of boxes looking for the phone to set up her broadband...LOL! She's recently moved and we're hoping that she'll be settled soon and back to Blogland before we know it :)"

And the prize???

The challenge rules:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, August 8th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Caryn, Kate and Aimes
xxx

A winner!

2011-07-26T18:44:00.000+01:00

Sorry to be a bit late with this post but I've been ~~sunning myself on holiday~~ working very hard and haven't had a spare minute!!!

Now onto the important bit, the winner of the Summertime challenge is......

5

Random numbers generated Jul 26 2011 at 18:18:46 by www.psychicscience.org

That means JENNY is the winner of the Whale Wishes stamp set - woo hoo. Well done hunny, get your postal deets over to us and your prize will be off to you soon.

Now for our Top Three Passionistas. Another tricky one but these are the ones that caught our eye this week.

Jenny - Oh my goodness - that lolly looks good enough to eat. What a creative use of cardstock and glossy accents!!

Shelly - We loved Shelly's array of cards she made using some patterned papers and brads - great for guys AND gals alike!!

Melissa - created a stunning vase of flowers in gorgeous warm colours using the Jar fillers stamps. We loved the shading and simple layout, very pretty.

Now all you girls can wear our Top 3 badge with pride - just pop us an email and we'll get the blinkie off to you.

Thanks for joining in everyone.
Hugs,
Caryn xxx

Stamp-a-Faire Celebrations

2011-07-23T17:59:00.000+01:00

Today a fabulous event is taking place across the pond that all Papertrey Ink fans would sell their first born to be able to attend!! Unfortunately I could not find a buyer in time so I am one of the hundreds of people enviously following the events at home and playing along with the challenges throughout the day as they are posted over on Nichole Heady's blog. Challenge 1 asks for us use decorative strips using our favourite design elements and this is what I came up with.

Hugs,
Caryn xxx

Die-ing for your vote! wink

2011-07-21T07:30:00.000+01:00

Hey!

I'm really not good at this.....

....shamelessly plugging myself and begging for your attention...

....OK I'm just gonna come out with it:

VOTING FOR ROUND 2 OF GALLERY IDOL ENDS TONIGHT AT 7pm!

Have you voted yet?

I'm flying the flag for England with this entry:

With the design brief being to use dies in a creative way I'm sat with fingers and toes crossed that this is creative enough! I used a negative cloud die as a stencil to sponge those sweet clouds onto my spring rain cardstock; used the negative die cut of a heart as a frame for all those buttons and finally used a positive die cut of a li'l heart - with added bling - to compliment the overall theme.

I hope you likey and if you do then you'll consider voting for it. Be sure to check out all the amazing entries - I've really got some tough competition to clinch a spot in the Top 10. That being said, if I don't make it that far I want to express my eteranal gratitude and thanks for all your support. It's still hard to believe I've made it this far and as corny as it sounds I couldn't have done it without you!

So don't delay, vote for your favourite today (and if that just so happens to be #14 then you'd be making this gal happy *wink*)

Aimes
x

Card Deets
{Love is in the air}
Stamps: None!
Ink: Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Concentric Hearts Die (Provocraft)/Fresh Snow Vintage Buttons, Cloud Die, Heart from Tiny Tags Die, White Button Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Red Alphabet stickers (Cosmo Cricket)/Alphabet transfers (Doodlebug Design Inc)

She's an idol...wink

2011-07-19T16:46:00.003+01:00

I am just popping in to say a huge big

congratulations

to our very own Aimes for making it through to Round 2 of Gallery Idol!! I am sooo sooo sooo proud of you hunny. Anyone who knows Aimes will know that it really couldn't happen to a nicer person. You are an inspiration to me and so many others and I am so happy for you. You go girl - knock the competition out of the water.

Please take the time to register and vote for {~~Aime~~s} your favourite in the competition. What a thrill it would be to see her in round 3!!!

Hugs,
Caryn xxx

Edited to add by Aimes: Thank you so, so, so much for your support so far! You're all far too kind with your words and you're making this gal blush! Oooh I would love to have your vote but am just so happy to have made it this far - HUGS!

Hello...

2011-07-14T10:34:00.003+01:00

Happy Friday Eve! (Can't you just tell I'm a weekend kinda gal? LOL!)

I'm popping in with a card made from my new (well, new to me!) Modern Basics stamp set:

I love the endless possibilities this stamp set offers; I think I must have spent a good hour or so simply stamping and creating new pattens on scrap paper with it!

Now just before I leave you, unless you've been hiding under a rock here in Blogland you've probably heard about Gallery Idol 2011. Now I dunno how, but somehow I've made it into the final 20! We were given the task of creating DIY embellishments for round one, and after chopping the end of my pencil crayons, here's my entry:

Voting for the next round ends today at 7pm UK time, and the 15 cards with the most votes go through to the next round. I'd really love it if you could be so kind enough to pop across there, register (it only takes a couple of mins), check out the amazing creations and vote for your favourite (I'd obviously love it if my card - #15 - was your favourite *wink*)

OK that's enough shameless grovelling and plugging from me for one day....LOL!

Aimes
x

Challenge: Sweet, Sweet, Summertime

2011-07-13T23:59:00.007+01:00

Hey Everyone!

Ready for a brand spanking new challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey? I hope so!

For the next fortnight we're thinking of summertime. Whether it's the colours you associate with summer, items associated with summer or anything else that reminds you of the sweet summertime, make a creation out of it and join in the fun!

For me, summer is the sweet long six-week holidays I get from work :) We break up next Thursday and I can't wait! When I was a kid the first week off would involve a trip to the sea-side and that's what inspired my creation:

I went with a very graphic interpretation of the sea with those chevrons LOL! I'll be off to the sea-side in Wales at some point in the holidays - you just can't beat a paddle in the sea :)

Card Deets
{Hello}
All Papertrey Ink Supplies Unless Stated
Stamps: Background Basics: Chevron Strips, Modern Basics (Sentiment)
Ink: Hawaiian Shores/Tuxedo Black (Memento Ink)
Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Stamper's Select White
Accessories: Orange Zest Vintage Buttons/Fine Line Black Pen (Letraset)/Chompy! (Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers)

Over to Kate: "Another CAS card from me - this time a bright invite to a summer party, I'm imagining a fun pool party except I don't have a pool!"

Stamps: A Day at the Beach, Polka Dot Basics
Card: Stamper's Select White, Hawai'in Shores
Ink: Raspberry Fizz, Hawai'in Shores, Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Raspberry Fizz ribbon, nestabilities

Over to Caryn:
Nothing says "Summer" to me more than Wimbledon - it kicks off the season for me and although my beloved Roger Federer didn't do all that well this year I still managed to catch a few matches and enjoyed the tournament immensely. As a wee nod to my favourite sporting even of the year I have made a card using the strawberry die and stamp set (Fruit Fusion: Strawberry). With a touch of lace and the gingham at the bottom (reminds me of pots of jam and picnics!!) this card does make me feel jolly summery.

{Recipe}

Stamps: Fruit Fusion: Strawberry, Background Basics: Gingham, Turning a New Leaf and Round And Round.

Ink: Pure Poppy, Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet

Patterned Paper: Pink Patterns Collection (for the scalloped strip)

Other: Lace trim, Strawberry die, medium scalloped border die, red gingham ribbon.

So are we feeling the summertime vibe? I hope so! Now before you come and jump in the pool of creativity with us - check out what one randomly selected European Peep could win:

Yup this sweet mini set, Whale Wishes could be yours!

Here are those all important deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, July 25th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Aimes, Kate & Caryn
xxx

A Winner!

2011-07-11T14:07:00.005+01:00

Hey everyone! Happy Monday! Super happy here on the blog today because it's time to draw a winner for our 'Make for the Border' challenge!

Do your stuff random.org:

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-07-11 13:24:57 UTC

The winner of the sweet 'Fly Away' stamp set is Shelly! Congats Shelly! Email us your postal addy to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get that stamp set out to ya!

And now for our Top 3 PTI Passionistas! Well like every fortnight, you are making this job harder for us! We were inspired so much by the different ways you incorporated borders into your projects - it had us itching to play with borders all over again!

Although we'd love to have had more than 3, we've narrowed it down to the following:

Vannessa went border crazy and had them stealing the spotlight on this fabulous card. What a fun shape of card to create!

Shobana wowed us with this gorgeous monochromatic use theme for her borders. How cool and soothing do all those blues look?! Simply fabulous!

Sharon used her borders cut from different mediums as fabulous embellishments for a thank you card. I know that as a teacher I would LOVE to receive a card as sweet as this :)

Congrats Top 3! If you'd like to blink with pride about being a Top 3 Passionista then pop us an email and we'll the get the code out to ya!

Thanks so much for joining in our challenge - I hope you'll stay tuned for a fab new challenge tomorrow!

Aimes, Caryn & Kate

xxx

A Wacccky Winner!

2011-07-06T22:53:00.005+01:00

Hey!

We know it's July but our featured stamper for June, Moe, has some very official business to attend to here on the blog. She has the fun task of randomly selecting a winner of her fabulous Wacccky challenge as well as her fave top three projects!

So let's not delay you anymore and draw the winner of a $25 Gift Certificate to PTI:

Number six is super lucky for, Melisa Hunter! Congrats, Melisa! You can pop us an email at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk or email Moe directly at moeplut@shaw.ca to collect your gift certificate - have fun spending it :)

And Moe also got a taste on just how tough it can be to narrow down so many fabulous entries down to three! But after much deliberation the following are PTI Passionistas and totally rocked the Wacccky challenge!

Chupa

Karen

Leigh

Congrats ladies! If you'd like a blinkie to show how fabulous you are then pop us an email and we'll send you the code!

Thanks so much to Moe for being our fabulous featured stamper and for organising such a fab challenge too! As you can probably tell, we've taken a break for our featured stamper feature for July: it's proving to be a very busy month but we hope to be back in August!

If you fancy getting your inky mitts on some more PTI goodies, why not play along with our current challenge (which I'm yet to make a card for - eek!)

Aimes (& Moe!)
xx

Challenge: Make For The Border

2011-06-28T15:29:00.014+01:00

Hello all and welcome to a new challenge!! This time we're thinking about borders and how to incorporate them into our projects. You can use any type of border - stamped, punched, stitched, hand-drawn - let's get creative!

Oh and as luck would have it Moxie Fab World are also having a border challenge at the moment - so head on over there for some inspiration and a chance to enter another challenge!

I went a little crazy with scallop borders for my challenge, layering them up with some white ribbon magically turned black with the help of a Copic marker!

Recipe:

Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments/Make a Wish

Ink: Plum Pudding/Memento Tuxedo Black

Card: Stampers Select White

Paper: Bitty Dot Basics (plum pudding & black)

Other: Medium Scalloped Die/black Copic Sketch Marker

And now over to Caryn...

Well I am trying to get organised this year and so have been busy making my "Thank You Teacher" cards. The new Fruit Fusion: Apple stamp set and die were the obvious choice for this project and as the colour of apples is often red, I am in Pure Poppy heaven too! I used the Simple Alphabet set to create the name of the teacher and and Round and Round for the Thank You sentiment.

{Recipe}

Stamps: Fruit Fusion: Apple, Simple alphabet, Round and Round.

Card: Acetate, coaster (apple die cut)

Ink: Pure Poppy, New Leaf, Smokey Shadow

Other: Apple die, gingham ribbon (SU!)

The "border comes from cutting a chunk out of the card front with pinking shears and replacing the missing bit with acetate to give a wee window effect.

And here is over Featured Stamper, Moe:

"I had to giggle when I saw the title of this challenge...you see, I AM "heading for the border" in 3 weeks...EEK...the U.S. border, bound for the PTI Stamp-a-faire event!! My blog buddy, Lynn, invited me down to stay with her and go to the event. How sweet is that? So with borders, loving thoughts of a dear friend and berry sorbet on my mind, I came up with this sweet little number.

I love layering border punches so I started with the EK Success large scalloped punch and then cut a strip of berry sorbet with the PTI banner borders die. I took my colour choices from the new Cosmo Cricket's Odd 'n Ends paper pad. I love the vintage images in this collection. Say It With Style was the perfect set to add to the vintage feel.

I've had sooooo much fun hopping the pond (did I say that right?) and hanging out with my buddy Aimes and Caryn and Kate. What a fun blog with challenges, inspiration and giggles :) Thanks so much, ladies, for letting me hang out and launching an official challenge!! Hey, you still have a few more days to enter!! Hugs everyone!!"

Aimes is a little snowed under but may be stopping by with a creation soon. So now it's over to you! Wanna see what you could win?! It's this super cute Fly Away set:

Here are the full challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, July 11th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Kate, Aimes, Caryn and Moe xxxx

Our entries:

Our winners!

2011-06-28T14:36:00.004+01:00

Hello lovelies! Are you stopping by to see who won our latest challenge? Well we have a winner:

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-06-28 13:00:54 UTC
(Random.org)

...Emma! Congratulations Emma, please email your postal address to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll pop your prize in the post to you!

We also have three Passionistas to award a blinkie to - a difficult choice as ever! Firstly though a big thank you for all the entries - we loved your interpretation on the elements challenge! So onto the blinkie winners:

1) Antje: We just loved Antje's kite card - especially the polka dot hills! What a colourful, uplifting card and don't you just love those kites!

2) Lisette: Lisette's collage card is just a work of art - take a minute to take in all the elements she's used - just gorgeous!

3) Sandra K: Sandra also used the Postmarks set with a beautiful, clean and simple design on kraft card. What a great one layer card!

Congrats ladies! If you'd like a blinkie to blink with pride on your blog then pop us an email at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send you the code.

Check back later today for a brand new challenge!

Kate, Aimes, Caryn, and Moe xxxx

Reverse Masking - Make It Monday challenge.

2011-06-22T19:02:00.001+01:00

Don't know about you but when Nichole launched her new "Make It Mondays" challenge I was full of good intentions and thought I'd be trying out the techniques every week. Well, it's now at Week #20 and I have entered it a grand total of .....once! So, without further ado, here is my second go at a MIM Challenge. This week it's "Reverse Masking" and all the deets are HERE.

I die cut the middle sized star from the Stars die set and used it to mask an outline into which I stamped one of the paint-splattery-type stamps from Grunge Me in Pure Poppy, Hawaiian Shores and Summer Sunrise. The Happy Birthday is from Enjoy The Ride, the "6" is from Banner Builder and "Today" is selectively stamped from the Celebrate Today stamp in Mega Mixed Messages.

Right, off for a cuppa!
Caryn xxx

Happy Happy Happy...

2011-06-21T08:00:00.000+01:00

...Birthday...

To ME! :)

Yup, today I enter my final year of my twenties. Eeeek! Am I worried? Anxious? Sad? Nah! After all, I've been told that I act closer to my shoe size than I do my actual age and no doubt that will continue for many years to come!

I know you were probably expecting a green-themed card but hey - as a card maker I'm really hoping that this is the one occasion I don't have to make a card for! This card is still one that makes me smile though as you can find it in the special issue of Paper Crafts: Card Creations 9!

I'm also super lucky to be born on the longest day of the year. So what are we doing here - let's go make the most of those hours :)

Aimes
x

A WaCCCky Challenge...

2011-06-20T20:54:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone!!

It's Maureen (aka Moe) here with a fun post and challenge I think you will all enjoy.

Last June, I participated in the PTI Blog Hop on colour. I had been submitting to many many colour challenges and feeling frustrated about several colour combinations that people were coming up with. It almost felt like they were "pulling them out of a hat." That's when the Wild Card Colour Challenge was born (lovingly referred to as the WaCCCky on my blog....see HERE). I wrote all the PTI colour names on little slips of paper and put them in a little box. Whenever I want a new colour challenge, I draw 4 colours out. NO RE-DRAWS!!! It has been a fun and weird experience...some combinations are definitely Wacky!! LOL.

I thought it would be fun to use my time here on A Passion for Papertrey to host a Colour Challenge!! Here are the deets:

Create a card or project using all 4 colours, plus any neutral you like...black, kraft, cream, white (berry sorbet is already in the line up {wink, wink}) Don't have an exact colour? Substitute a close match :)
Add your card or project to the linky thingy below
We will pick our favourite top 3 cards when the challenge closes on Monday July 4th 9am (UK Time)
A random participant will win a $25.00 USD gift certificate to PTI and will have to send me their email address to receive the prize.
Challenge closes on Monday July 4th at 9am (UK time). Participants worldwide are eligible to play along and be in with a chance of winning the gift certificate!!

Here are the colours that I drew last week with my card sample :) Yes, that's a lot of pink and purple...but that's what I drew!!! Now you know it's not fixed!! lol

Sound like fun? I've only even done this challenge by myself (with a few friends participating now and then) so this is a thrill to have a linky thing involved with a prize!! Woot, woot!! Can't wait to see what you all come up with.

Hugs!!

Moe
x

Hello...

2011-06-18T15:24:00.005+01:00

Happy Weekend!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far! We've got families to visit for Fathers' Day but I'm quickly popping by here to say:

Hello!

I forget about the tiny stamps in some of my sets sometimes. This flower is from Around and About Sentiments - it's tiny and so is the tag! Why not have a dig through some of your own older sets and see what you can rustle up? Who knows, it may even fit in well with our current challenge *wink wink*

Now I've just gotta find something nice to attach this tag to...:)

Aimes
x

Tag Deets
{Hello}
Stamps: Around and About Sentiments, Friends 'til the End (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Fresh Snow Twill Ribbon, Rustic Cream Button Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Eyelet (We R Memory Keepers)/Gem (Hero Arts)/Promarkers (to colour twine and eyelet!)/Cuttlebug/Labels Eight (Nestabilities)

CHALLENGE: It's Elementary!

2011-06-14T16:11:00.000+01:00

Hello PTI fans and welcome to a new challenge over here at APFP. We're talking EARTH, WIND, AND FIRE {and water}! Yes, we want to see you include something to do with one of the four elements earth, air, fire and water. This can be incorporated in any way and PTI have TONS of stamp sets and dies that could fit in with this theme - even just a sentiment could be used (as in my example!!).

You Rock (get it? ROCK!!)

Card recipe {You Rock}:
Stamps: Boy Basics: Rock On; Grunge Me, Fillable Frames#4.
Ink: Smokey Shadow, Pure Poppy, Versamark.
Cardstock: Smokey Shadow, Stampers select white.
Other: Saddle Stich ribbon, FF#4 die, Guitar die, staples.

I used an A2 card base of Smokey Shadow card and die cut the Fillable Frame #4 shape from white and stamped it in Smokey Shadow ink. The sentiment is from BB: Rock On and is stamped in Pure Poppy with one of the Grunge Me elements. The guitar from Boy Basics: Rock On was stamped again in Smokey Shadow with a little detail added with a red ProMarker. The card base was stamped with two other elements from Grunge Me to give a bit of interest to the background and a strip of red saddle stitch ribbon was placed across the card and stapled at one end (to emphasize the rocker theme!). The focal point was then popped on to the card to one side using foam pads.
Caryn x

Over to Kate: " As I rummaged through my PTI stamps I stumbled upon my Scattered Showers set, I haven't used it much recently and thought it fitted the bill for this challenge - water! Also very topical given the amount of rain we've had recently! I made a real effort to get away from my normal colour combos, although a touch of Aqua Mist has slipped in there!"

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Scattered Showers
Ink: Ripe Avocado/Memento Tuxedo Black
Card: Kraft/ Ripe Avocado/ Stamper's Select White
Paper: 2008 & 2009 Bitty Dot Basics
Other: Corner Chomper/Ripe Avocado Twill/sewing machine/Tag Sale 2

Over to Aimes:

So which element did I go for? Well as a fiery redhead I had no choice to pick fire, right *wink*

I wanted to reflect my element mainly with my colour scheme but as luck would have it, I DID have a stamp that had a flame on it!

Card Deets
{HB 2 U}
Stamps: Around and About Sentiments, Birthday Bash Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Pure Poppy, Melon Berry, Orange Zest, Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink)/Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: True Black, Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Baker's Twine (Papertrey Ink)/Crystal Stickles (Ranger)/Chompy! (Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers)

It's a very graphic card with gradient stamping to reflect the look of flames. You might not see on the pic, but my flaming candles have added sparkle too :)

And now our lovely June featured stamper, Moe

Hi everyone!! I am so excited to be playing along with the Passion Ladies this month :) I am an ELEMENTary teacher so I had to giggle at the play on words.

The element I've chosen is "air." Maybe that's because we've just finished studying matter in my grade two classroom and one of the favourite experiments was blowing bubbles outside :) I was first thinking hot air balloons, but the Postmarks set has been sitting on my desk waiting to be inked up. It was like it was whispering "air mail" to me. THEN I thought it would make a fun birthday card for any dear friend who lived far away (shhhhh, you don't know anyone like that do you?). I cut the rustic cream panel to the size I wanted to use, then took out some stamps and laid them down to get a feel for size and mix of fonts and images. Then I stamped using a light gray. After, I took the "urgent" stamp and stamped it a few times randomly...love that look. I added the sweet little Love Lives Here butterfly stamped with the coordinating image, added some fun distressed dots paper and, of course, my beloved berry sorbet ribbon. I picked a bold sentiment from Big Birthday Wishes and added some bling.

Now that I think of it, there's a bit of irony with this card...our Canadian Postal workers are on strike right now (ugh!). They are on a rotating strike, though, so mail is moving, just a little more slower than before.

Can't wait to see what you all come up with!!

So what can you win this time around?

A fabulous Fillable Frames#8 stamp set.

Here are the full challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, June 27th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Can't wait to see your elementary creations!

Caryn, Kate, Aimes and Moe
xxxx

A Winner! - Recipe Challenge.

2011-06-13T20:09:00.000+01:00

Thanks to everyone who entered our last challenge - it was lovely seeing all the different colour combinations people used and the creative uses for buttons. They were all just gorgeous.

There can be only one winner though and the lucky lady this time round is.....

10

Random numbers generated Jun 13 2011 at 19:32:46 by www.psychicscience.org

and that means it's.... Sarita.

Well done girly - get your address deets over to us and your prize will be winging it's way to you very soon.

Now onto our Papertrey Passionistas. What a hard job we had this time round - there really were so many amazing creations. Here are the three we all agreed were our favourites.

Rachel - We all loved her choice of colours pairing the gorgeous Melon Berry with Spring Moss - the little pea pod was just too cute too.

Lynn - Lynn has showcased beautifully how elegant and simple the new anniversary set is - gorgeous colours too.

Sarita - Another fabulous card with a stunning layout and gorgeous colour scheme. The little ribbon element was just the perfect touch to this beautiful card.

Well done ladies - if you'd like the blinkie for your blog then please send us your email and we'll get it over to you.
Don't forget to come back tomorrow when we'll be launching our new challenge.

Hugs,
Caryn, Aimes, Kate and Moe.

A little wall art!

2011-06-12T13:05:00.001+01:00

Morning all, just thought I'd share this little project with you that I created for my niece. She asked me ages ago if I would make her some letters for her wall so as it was her 10th birthday last week I thought it was the perfect time to get round to it! I cut the letters from thin chipboard on my Cricut (Plantin Schoolbook) and then cut the letters again in some papers from the Beautiful Blooms paper Pad (my favourite PTI DP ever!).

Each letter has a little design element added and have foam pads on the back to adhere them to the wall. Her favourite colour is red (a girl after my own heart) so it should match the rest of her room pretty well. I have to apologise for the poor photography though - I just couldn't get it right no matter how hard I tried!! I think I need to invest in a lightbox or something!!
Caryn xxx

Summertime Vibes...

2011-06-07T09:00:00.001+01:00

Phew! So I finally get some time to post something here on the blog - sorry it's been so quiet recently; let's just say this time of year is proving to be super busy!

I'm counting down to the summer holidays now I'm back at work for our final seven weeks (or 33 days to be exact *wink*) I can almost taste the summertime: the fresh, juicy strawberries, the ice-cream, the late night drinks during the light nights...bliss!

Here are a couple of cards I've not shared with you here that definitely make me think of summer:

I'm not one to love Berry Sorbet as a colour but I think that could change if the sunshine sticks around. I'm loving this paired with white for that clean, fresh look (makes me think of watermelon - yummy!)

And finally, summer wouldn't be summer without some heat so let's turn it up with a hot, hot, HOT colour combo:

Well I'm in a summertime mood now - how about you?

Aimes
x

Card Deets
{happy happy birthday}
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Versamark
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Orange Zest, Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Detail White EP (Stampendous)/Pink Gem (Hero Arts)/Raspberry Fizz Grosgrain Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)

{Celebrate Your Day!}
Stamps: Friends 'til the End, Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Fresh Snow (Papertrey Ink)/ Versamark
Cardstock: Berry Sorbet, Stamper's Select White, Vellum Cardstock (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Detail White EP (Stampendous)/Bling (Hero Arts)/White Gel Pen (Ranger)

June's Featured Stamper

2011-06-01T07:00:00.002+01:00

Wow! Can you believe it's June already? We're half-way through the year and I'm left wondering where the first half disappeared to!

We're welcoming the new month here on A Passion for Papertrey with a new featured stamper which means we sadly have to say farewell to May's featured stamper; I'm sure you'll join us in thanking Jen Carter for sharing her creativity with us for May (I have to say, I'm still smitten with the home-made puffies she shared with us!) Thank you so much, Jen!

From farewells to happy hellos, wanna know who's joining us for June? Well let us introduce you to...

Maureen!

Maureen is a lovely (and talented!) stamper from across the pond in Canada and she definitely has a passion stamping! Let's grab a cuppa and get to know a little bit more about her:

1)How did you get into papercrafting?
I actually made cards when I was in elementary school! I even had a card making kit that someone gave me. Then in the '90s I got into it again, but all we had was ink, paper, rubber stamps and embossing powder. THEN I got back into it in the early '00's with Stampin' Up! and then about 3 years ago a good friend introduced me to card BLOGS!! Eeek! I've been hooked ever since!

2)How long have you been stamping for?
I would say about 15 years, but seriously for 4 years. I've had my blog for 2 years.

3)How did you get into PTI and why do you love it so much?
I believe it was that good friend that got me into the card blogs. We discovered Dawn McVey's blog and then PTI through her (before she started on the DT). I love it because of the awesome quality of stamps and product AND that they are fresh and creative. All round top notch!

4)What would you say is your stamping style?
Hmm, I've always struggled with this a bit. I took the "What's your Style" quiz in the 2010 Card Style Magazine by Papercrafts and it came out "Fun and Cute." Although, I do Elegant and Classy and have been dabbling in a lot of Shabby/Vintage lately. I'm not a CAS gal, although the odd time I've done it, I've loved it and admire people who have perfected it.

5)Do you have a favourite PTI colour or colour combo that just makes you drool?
Okay, IMHO berry sorbet is a neutral!! LOL I probably would say berry sorbet...with kraft! Oh my!

6)If you had to choose just one PTI stamp set to keep, which one would it be and why?
I don't like to play favourites with my stamps, but right now Button Boutique is not gathering dust...KWIM? However, Hello Friend is a pretty close second. These stamp sets are very "brown."

7)Who is your PTI Idol?
Dawn McVey hands down. I followed her blog before she became a DT member and just love her stamping genius and the person she is. I also love Melissa Phillips work...I could never replicate it, but just love looking at all her eye candy. But really, Nichole has built an A-Team list of stampers with her DT.

8)Where do you get your inspiration from?
All over...mostly other blogs, inspiration challenges, Moxie Fab...I'm really into colour so any fabric with great colour combinations make me swoon.

9)What’s your stamping dream?
Truly? Aimes, our blog buddy Lynn and I making cards in my new studio and then enjoying martinis on the sundeck!! LOL But seriously, I reallyl want to make it to CHA one day and stamp with the PTI ladies...ugh, that would be a fantastic dream!

10)Where can we go to check out more of your wonderful creations?
Oh, yes!! Come visit anytime!!

My Blog: Buttons and Bling

My Splitcoast Gallery (Irishlatte)

My Verve Diva Gallery

The odd time you'll see me in CARDS magazine, and look for me in the July/August edition of Papercrafts!

Thanks so much, Maureen! I know for sure we've spotted a few of Maureen's fabulous projects in a number of issues of CARDS (I recommend signing up for an online version if you don't want to pay for the shipping to the Europe *wink*) and are so happy to have her on board with us. I'm sure you'll welcome Maureen too and look forward to what she has to share with us!

Aimes, Caryn & Kate
xxx

Challenge: A Recipe for Fun...

2011-05-31T10:49:00.000+01:00

Hey!

It's time for a fabby new challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey; I hope you're ready to play along!

We've cooked up a fun challenge this fortnight with a recipe! Nope, we're not actually baking, but asking you to follow a recipe when it comes to your papercrafting. We'd like to see you include the following delicious ingredients:

A dollop of colour (3 colours - plus neutrals if required, e.g black/white)
A sprinkling of buttons (2 buttons)
A pinch of ribbon (1 Ribbon)

I'm no masterchef, but this is my kinda baking *wink* Here's what I cooked up for ya:

Card Deets
{Happy Birthday}
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Stamper's Select White (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Beautiful Blooms (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Simply Chartreuse Vintage Buttons, True Black Grosgrain Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)/Cuttlebug/Circle Nestabilities/Chompy! Corner Chomper/Bling (Zva)/Promarkers to colour clear bling!

Finally getting around to using up some of the yummy PTI DP that I hoard! I think this card would be suitable for any birthday during summer with those blooms. The coordinating bling was originally a clear gem that I coloured with an alcohol marker to coordinate with the colour scheme (I ♥ this trick!)

Over to Kate: "This was a fun challenge!! My (fabulous!) Modern Basics set has been sitting un-inked in it's case for way too long so I quickly inked it up with New Leaf and Aqua Mist for this card. My only gripe is that the New Leaf ink didn't stamp too well.... roll on the new inks from PTI!! Ps. Have you seen that sentiment somewhere before?!

Recipe:
Stamps: Modern Basics (PTI)
Ink: New Leaf(PTI)/Aqua Mist(PTI)/Memento Tuxedo Black
Card: Stampers Select White/ Hawai'in Shore/Aqua Mist (PTI)
Other: Corner Chomper/Beautiful Blooms Dies (PTI)/Buttons - New Leaf & Aqua Mist (PTI)

Caryn will be back soon from her travels to Scotland to add her card!

HERE I AM! Better late than never as they say! Got a bit caught up with work and family but finally managing to get my project photographed and uploaded. So here it is. I made a little wall/door hanging for my niece who is going to be 10 on the 10th June. I have also made her a matching name decoration for her room which I will share later this week. I cut the heart from thin chipboard using the heart nestibilities and the felt using the Beautiful Blooms dies. The "e" for Ellie is a rub on I had lying in my stash for years!!

And finally but by no means least, as our featured stamper for May, here's Jen:
The colors I chose to use for this challenge are Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush & Spring Moss (and I used Kraft as a neutral...I hope that that was still within the rules!!). I ordered a few of the fruit stamps from Papertrey's recent release and I am in LOVE!! I haven't had a lot of time to stamp lately, but when I do, I find myself reaching for these sweet little sets! I really like being able to cut these cute little fruit images out of felt, fabric or paper! I kept the focus of this card very clean & simple. The words from the Tag It's #1 set (LOVE that font so much!!) fit perfectly in the space of the frame!

I also wanted to take a second to thank Kate, Aimes and Caryn for allowing me to play along this month!! I’ve had the best time!! Thank you so much!

Fancy joining us for a this recipe for fun? Well to tempt you a li'l bit more, up for grabs for one randomly selected peep is this super sweet stamp set:

Fruit Fusion: Cherries!

Here are the full challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post (be aware that we've had a few niggles with it!). Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, June 13th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you rustle up with this recipe!

Aimes, Kate, Caryn & Jen
xxxx

A Winner...

2011-05-30T19:52:00.006+01:00

Hey!

So sorry to have kept you on the edge of your seats all day with the news of a winner - I'll 'fess up that I've spent most of my soggy bank holiday Monday ironing. Believe me, once I'd started that chore, the time spent with the iron was time wishing I'd done this post BEFORE rather than after tackling the creased garments LOL!

So without further ado, let's see who's a winner:

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-05-30 18:55:40 UTC

Which means that Margaret C is our winner! Congrats Margaret! Email us your postal addy and we'll get that Signature Series: Cupcake stamp set out to ya!

Now all of you had a fabulous sing-along to our challenge. We loved to see how music inspired your creations! You made it a tough challenge to pick just 3 of your creations for our Top 3 PTI Passionistas, but we finally managed to wax lyrical and narrow it down to the following:

Angélique 'sweetned' us with these scrummy, sparkly cupcakes with the song 'Sweets for my Sweet' as her musical inspiration. Honestly, we were so close to licking our monitors with those cupcakes ;D

Ulina chose the song 'That's what Friends are for' for her fabulous friend-themed CAS card. So on trend with those chevrons right now!

Chris was inspired by the song 'Celebration' and celebrated in style with this super pretty card. We loved that she layered the flower on a Felt Limitless Layer die to add even more texture. Is there anything that doesn't look fabulous layered on those shapes?!

Congrats ladies! If you'd like a blinkie to blink with pride on your blog then pop us an email at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send you the code.

Stay tuned for a new challenge tomorrow; it's gonna be a recipe for fun *wink wink*

Aimes, Caryn, Kate & Jen

xxxx

Home Made Puffies

2011-05-28T16:34:00.003+01:00

***Post courtesy of our fabulous featured stamper, Jen!***

Have you seen one of the new trends...puffies? KI Memories came out with a new felt line of embellishments that are "puffed", which I translate "stuffed", lol! Here is a link to what I am referring to. See, how cute they are!?

The thing is...if you are a PTI fan, you probably have felt and dies in your stamp arsenal, right? :) Well, with those tools paired with a sewing machine or a needle and thread you can create your very own, custom-made puffies (for lots less too!). Want to see an example?

I took the new Fruit Fusion watermelon die and cut the bottom piece with green felt and the top piece with Raspberry Fizz felt. Then, I sewed the pieces about 3/4 of the way together, left the needle in the felt (but released the foot so I had some give) and took some quilt batting and used the pointed end of a paint brush to carefully poke it into the watermelon. Once it was completely in and "puffed" up, I continued to sew the watermelon closed.

After I had them sewn together, I added some black rhinestones to mimic watermelon seeds. So easy! Just think of how many other dies you could do this with! Flowers, fruit, butterflies, clouds, balloons, etc... Get the picture? :) You could even sew a pattern on the watermelon or other fruit!

I hope that this idea inspires you!! I'd LOVE to see your "puffies" if you make some! You can send me an email or leave me a comment on my blog, Jen’s Ink Spot, with a link to your post so I can see what you come up with! I think it could be addicting!! :)

Supplies (all PTI unless noted)
Stamps: Polka Dot Basics, Turning a New Leaf, Fruit Fusion: Melon
Paper: Kraft, Spring Moss, Rustic Cream, White, Spring Rain
Ink: Fresh Snow, True Black, Raspberry Fizz, Champagne VersaMark
Other: Fruit Fusion Melon Die, Picket Fence Die, Turning a New Leaf Die, Raspberry Fizz felt, felt from Material Evidence Shop on Etsy (green), Black Rhinestones, Sewing Machine, Pop Dots, Corner Chomper

Challenge - Inspired by a song!

2011-05-17T09:25:00.001+01:00

Hello folks and welcome to a new challenge for all you PTI fans to play along with. It was lovely seeing all your sketch inspired cards last week and as always we were amazed by the variety of creations it produced.

Our Kate is sunning herself in Spain at the moment (not jealous at all - honest) so is unable to play along this week. Hope you're enjoying yourself hunny!

So what are we challenging you to do for us this fortnight? Well we want to see your creations inspired by a song or piece of music. This doesn't have to be a literal interpretation of a song and doesn't have to have the title on the card - just share with us something that a favourite song or musical piece has inspired you to create. Once I got to thinking about this challenge and started looking at my PTI sets I couldn't stop thinking of songs to create a card from!! I made two different ones in the end but I could have gone on and on.

Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend - Marylin Monroe

{Recipe:}
STAMPS: A Little Argyle, Round and Round.
CARD: Vintage cream, Aqua mist.
INK: Aqua mist, Enchanted Evening.
OTHER: Limitless Layers 1.75" dies, gemstones

I Love Rock and Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

{Recipe:}
STAMPS: Grunge Me, Boy Basics: Rock On.
CARD: Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise.
INK: Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Terracotta Tile, Smokey grey..
OTHER: Guitar die, Glossy Accents

Over to Aimes
For this challenge I thought I'd struggle but actually the hardest part for me was narrowing down my song choice!

I really wanted to pay tribute to one of my favourite songs - Mr Jones by Counting Crows but time beat me once again....(if I ever get the time I'll play along again this fortnight!) so I thought I'd stick with a super cheesy classic, 'Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves' (note: this is not an indication of what is in my music collection!)Card Deets
{Thank you for being so thoughtful}
Stamps: Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Blueberry Sky
Patterned Paper: Distressed Dots - Harvest Gold (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: White Twill Ribbon, White Vintage Button (Papertrey Ink)/Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)

No literal interpretation here - just the title of the song inspiring my colour choices! This song makes me think of summer and beaches hence my sand, sea and sky colour combo. The good thing is that you can create a card based solely on the mood a song puts you in so the possibilities for getting inked up along to a song are endless!

Onto our featured stamper Jen,

The song that just kept coming to my mind and having so much meaning to me was a new one by Chris Tomlin (I LOVE his music!) called "Symphony". Here are a few lines from the song (if you'd like to hear the song and see the entire lyrics, feel free to visit my blog):

Shining wonders, fields of splendor; how they sing Your symphony
The deepest oceans, rising mountains; how they sing Your symphony
Let the earth fear the Lord, and all the people of the world; stand in awe, stand in awe
In symphony with all created things, sing the song that we were made to sing
We stand in awe, we stand in awe
In the skies and in the oceans, everything that's living, breathing
A symphony to You

I live in Kansas , in the United States and right now the fields are full of the splendor of God. I love, LOVE this time of year as the fields begin to grow, the trees are all turning green & flowers are blooming. The other day we were coming home from town and as we turned onto the road that leads to our small town, the fields were literally dancing (it is very windy here a lot!!). It was one of the most beautiful sights and I was very much in awe as I told my husband to slow down and just look! That is what this song says to me. The fields seemed to be dancing for the Lord and in that moment I was able to sing the praises of God and stand in awe. It's amazing what a little wind and some tall grasses/crops can do for my soul! I also love when the wheat begins to turn golden. It is such a beautiful picture and another one that makes me sing a symphony of praise to the Lord. That is how this song inspired me to create this card

Supplies (all PTI unless noted)
Stamps: Spiral Bouquet, Background Basics: Sheet Music, Everyday Blessings
Paper: Rustic Cream, Smokey Shadow
Other: Vineyard Impression Plate, Labels 1 Nestabilities, Ribbon, Pop Dots, White Pearls, Copics, Crop-a-dile

So off you go and start going through your CD collection, iPod or vinyl (for you golden oldies out there - lol) and create something inspired!

Up for grabs this week is....

Signiature Series : Cupcake stamp set.

Here's what you need to know:
* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post (be aware that we've had a few niggles with it!). Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, May 30th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Looking forward to seeing all your fabulous sketch interpretations!
Caryn, Aimes, Kate & Jenxxxx

A Winner!

2011-05-16T22:46:00.001+01:00

I know I'm a little late in the day getting this done but this is honestly the first chance I've had all day!!

Thanks to those girlies who played along with us for the sketch challenge it was lovely seeing such variety. Our lucky winner of the gorgoeus patterned papers is....

Number 8 - Anne (AOK). Well done sweetie, get your deets emailed over to us and your goodies will be winging their way over to you in the swish of a lambs tail!

As it happens Ann's card also appears in our Top 3 Passionistas too! Amazing cards everyone - here's the three that really popped out.

Debby - Your card just typifies the teen grunge look - but not in a greasy, grubby way!! We loved the way you totally rocked this sketch.

Anne - There is such a gorgeous retro feel to this card and the layers and details are so pretty

Rachel - We loved the use of the little rose instead of the "O" and pretty pastel ginghams - looks fab.

Well done ladies, stunning cards. If you want the blinkie for your blog then please just drop us a line.

Celebrate today....

2011-05-07T08:15:00.000+01:00

Celebrate today...

....because it's the weekend!

Hope you all have a super weekend - shame it's not a bank holiday (I was getting a little too used to having Fridays and Mondays off work!) I have nothing planned myself, but sometimes I think that's the nicest kinda weekend to have :D

If you've got nothing planned, why not check out our current challenge? *wink*

Aimes
x

Challenge: A Sketch!

2011-05-03T20:03:00.006+01:00

Hello all, hope you had a fabulous weekend and enjoyed the extra days off - woo hoo! Everything is starting to go back to normal now (humph) so to cheer us all up here is a new challenge to sink your teeth into!

Thanks to Caryn for the first time here on A Passion for Papertrey we are giving you a sketch to follow! It's pretty simple and don't forget you can interpret it in any way you wish. As always you need to use at least one PTI product to be eligible for the prize.

So here is the sketch:

And here is my take on it - I stayed pretty close to the design, using a yummy colour combo of aqua, cream and red :)

Recipe: (PTI unless otherwise stated)
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments/Friends 'Til the End
Ink: Memento black
Card: Pure Poppy/Vintage Cream/ Library Ledger paper
Other: Labels One dies (Spellbinders)/Copic Sketch Markers/Aqua Mist saddle-stitch ribbon/Rustic Twine/Aqua Mist button

Over to Caryn ...

"I used a mix of Spring Moss and Pure Poppy (yum) and the focal point image comes from Blooming Button Bits. The buttons actually came off an old dress belonging to one of my girls!!! I stamped the sentiment from Mega Mixed Messages onto some off-white ribbon I had in my stash and used some off-cuts of paper from the Rustic Snowflakes paper pad."

And here's Aimes:
"Y'know I love a sketch challenge to kick-start the creative mojo - I find I get a little stuck in a rut otherwise, sticking to the same layouts all the time! For this sketch I flipped the stripes and moved the circular shape slightly to create a super-bright (well, it's bright IRL!) birthday card:

Card Deets
{BIG birthday wishes}
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White, True Black, Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Lemon Tart, Simply Chartreuse, Hawaiian Shores, Plum Pudding (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Cuttlebug/Nestabilities/True Black Vintage Buttons and True Black Grosgrain Ribbon (Papertrey Ink)

I'm not sure if you can tell on the pic, but three buttons are peeking from behind the sentiment. :) And the best part about this card? It was created mainly from my scraps of coloured cardstock - bonus!"

And here is our fabulous May Featured Stamper, Jen...

“I really enjoyed working with this sketch and I couldn't resist pulling out one of my favorite color combinations, pure poppy & aqua mist with a neutral mixed in. I also couldn't resist adding a little yellow too. This color combo has always drawn me in and I love working with it! The patterned paper is from one of my favorite PTI pads, Bitty Box Basics (I would LOVE to have this paper in all the PTI colors!!) and the border strips were die cut with the Simple Circles border die which is quickly becoming a favorite die because it is so versatile! Throw in a Parisian Lace doily and some paper flowers and you have a fairly quick and simple card!”

And what is up for grabs this week? A fabulous 'Fly Away' mini PTI set!

Here's the boring bit...

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post (be aware that we've had a few niggles with it!). Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, May 16th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Looking forward to seeing all your fabulous sketch interpretations!
Kate, Aimes, Caryn & Jenxxxx

Our winner!

2011-05-03T19:49:00.004+01:00

So are you all Royal Wedding-ed out yet?! Did you watch it? Did you think she looked stunning?!

Well even if you've had enough of Royal Wedding coverage we still have to draw a winner for our Royal Wedding inspired challenge... so here goes!!

And the winner is:

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-05-03 18:04:43 UTC
(Random.org)

.....Vannessa! Congratulations Vannessa! Email us your postal addy to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get your prize in the post to you!

As usual choosing our Top 3 Passionistas was a hard task but in the end we chose the following fabulous creations: (Don't forget to scroll down to have a look at all the other inspiring entries though!)

1) Ulina - Ulina's gorgeous card is wedding elegance at it's very best - clean and simple, classy with a touch of bling - we love it!

2) Natty - Natty managed to add several layers and embellishments to her card without making it look cluttered - more of a work of art! Any couple would treasure it wouldn't they?!

3) Lorena - Lorena's card immediately jumped out at us! Again, a very elegant and classy card and made extra special by being circular - thanks for the inspiration Lorena!

A big thank you to everyone who entered - don't forget to check back later for our next challenge!

Kate, Aimes, Caryn & Jen xxxx

May's Featured Stamper

2011-05-02T12:25:00.004+01:00

We're in the middle of enjoying our super-sunny extra Bank Holidays and realised it's May already!!! A new month means a new featured stamper here on the blog so it's time for an introduction....

...but just before the introduction, I'm sure you'll join us in thanking Claire for being our featured stamper for April. We've loved having you on board, Claire and thank you for creating some fabulous projects for us!

So now onto May's Featured Stamper....we'd like to introduce to you:

Jen Carter!

Yup - if you don't already know Jen, then we'd like to point out that we're widening the field when it comes to featured stampers. Although our blog is primarily aimed at uniting PTI fans across Europe, inspiration is worldwide to us :)

Time to grab a cuppa and learn a little bit more about Jen:

1)How did you get into papercrafting?
I first started papercrafting in Junior High. I wanted to keep mementos from school and save some of my favorite pictures of me with my friends so I began scrapbooking. During college I didn’t have as much time to work on scrapbooking, but after I got married we had a spare bedroom so we turned that into an office/scrapbook room and I put together several scrapbooks for my Grandparent’s 50^th wedding anniversary. Several years later we had our son and I scrapbooked about everything…for the first 2 years of his life and then I got burnt out. I longed to use pinks and purples and flowers and everything girly! But, how do you do that when you are scrapbooking about all things boy!? That is when I found and fell in love with stamping!

2)How long have you been stamping for?
My mom bought me my first set of stamps when I was in High School. I used stamps off and on in my scrapbooks but didn’t have a large collection at all. It was about 6 years ago that I really got serious about stamping. I was so happy to be able to use color (I LOVE color!!) and lots of it! I wasn’t limited to blues and greens anymore, but could use the pinks and purples I loved and also stamp flowers!

3) How did you get into PTI and why do you love it so much?
After I stamped about a year, I became a demonstrator for a stamping company. During that time PTI opened for business and I instantly loved how well thought out their sets were. I couldn’t believe how each set was so versatile and could be used with punches (and now dies) and how so many of their sets were interchangeable and able to be mixed & matched! I remember when “Green Thumb” came out and how the boot had 3 separate stamps so that you could easily change the color of each piece without masking or using markers. That was LOVE for me! It was just such an ingenious idea! And each month as another set came out, I continued to see that well thought out plan and I was hooked!

4)What would you say is your stamping style?
I like anything simple. I don’t usually want to spend tons of time on one card and I like to keep them clean too.

5)Do you have a favourite PTI colour or colour combo that just makes you drool?
My favorite PTI color is a toss up between Raspberry Fizz and Hawaiian Shores , although I do love so many of them! One of my favorite color combos is Hawaiian Shores (or Aqua Mist) with Pure Poppy and any neutral mixed in. I just LOVE that one so much…drool worthy for sure!

6)If you had to choose just one PTI stamp set to keep, which one would it be and why?
That is a tough question! My all-time favorite is probably Polka Dot Basics, but if I only had one, I would want it to be set that includes sentiments and images so I would go with the CHA 2009 set, Floral Fusion followed in close 2^nd by Spiral Bouquet. Both of those sets offer so many possibilities and can be used as a background or as a focal image and both also include sentiments.

7)Who is your PTI Idol?
Nichole Heady for sure. It was her blog that originally drew me into PTI and where I really & truly saw how versatile PTI sets are! She never ceases to amaze me at her level of creativity both in designing her cards & projects and also in designing her stamp sets!

8)Where do you get your inspiration from?
I get my inspiration all over. I love looking at blogs and magazines as much as possible but I also find inspiration in normal everyday things. Just this morning I noticed that the colors & design on the cover of the book I was reading was a great source of inspiration for a card! Sometimes inspiration comes from clothing that I see in a store or a commercial on TV.

9)What’s your stamping dream?
I would love to have my work published in a popular crafting magazine, but I guess that means I need to actually SUBMIT something! LOL! I would love the opportunity to provide input on a stamp design too!

10)Where can we go to check out more of your wonderful creations?
I have a blog called Jen’s Ink Spot that I would love for you to visit at: www.jensinkspot.blogspot.com.

Thanks, Jen! Be sure to take a visit to Jen's blog for some great inspiration and take a peek at her fabulous button rings - nope, I'm not saying anymore, just check 'em out! I'm sure you'll join us in welcoming Jen here and like us, are really looking forward to her contributions to our blog starting tomorrow with our new challenge!

xxx

Hope your day is Fabulous....

2011-04-29T07:00:00.001+01:00

Whether you're watching the Royal Wedding or not, wishing you all a fabulous day, weekend, and an extra Bank Holiday if you're lucky enough to have one! :)

Card Deets
{Hope Your Day is Fabulous}
Stamps: Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento)
Card: Hawaiian Shores, Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned Paper: Dotty Biscotti (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Dark Chocolate Twill Ribbon, Linen Impression Plate (Papertrey Ink)/Flower Embellishment (Prima)/Border Punch (EK Success)/Chompy! (Corner Chomper - We R Memory Keepers)

Oooh and before I dash, there's still time to enter our current challenge....*wink*

Aimes
x

Challenge: Royal Wedding Celebration

2011-04-19T17:10:00.007+01:00

Hello there and welcome to a new challenge!

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past few months, you'll know that we have a very special royal event on the horizon....the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. We love a good royal shindig here on A Passion for Papertrey (any excuse to have a party!) and so this fortnight's challenge is focusing on the wedding theme.

Now you don't have to go royal for the challenge: anything wedding related will qualify. I, however, went a bit overboard-patriotic with my card:

Card Deets {Congratulations}
Stamps: Love Birds (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Tuxedo Black, London Fog (Memento)/Versamark
Cardstock: Enchanted Evening/Stamper's Select White/Pure Poppy
Accessories: Detail White EP (Stampendous)/ Birdcage Die (Papertrey Ink)

I'm not quite sure who I could send this card to apart from the happy couple to be.....well if Kate bags Prince Harry (is he too young, Kate?!) then I'll send it the them LOL!

And now over to Caryn..
Firstly, sorry for not being able to play along with the last challenge. My life has been just a tad hectic over the past couple of months but I am catching up with myself a wee bit now and managed to get my card made in plenty of time for this new challenge. With the revival of the much loved celebration street parties for the Royal Wedding (I vividly remember the Silver Jubilee one as a child) I thought I'd reflect this in my card so I reached straight for my Banner Builder stamps and dies. I used Pure Poppy and a colorbox chalk eye ink (Azure) for the flags and coloured the car (Enjoy The Ride) stamped in Smokey Shadow with grey ProMarkers. I glazed the window of the car with Crystal Effects and added a few wee gems for glitz.

So have you got plans for the bonus bank holiday? Whatever you're up to hope you have a great time.

Recipe:
Stamps: Enjoy The Ride, Banner Builder (PTI), Star Background (Hero Arts)
Card: Kraft, Spring Rain, Vintage Cream,
Ink: Pure Poppy, Smokey Shadow (PTI), Azure (Colorbox), Versamark
Other: Banner Builder Dies (PTI), Gems, Ribbon

And here's Kate: "So just to be different I've shunned red, white and blue and Royal Wedding influences and instead opted for a simple (and I hope, elegant!) monochromatic card - remember the challenge is for any wedding cards, not just one for Wills and Kate!"

Recipe:
Stamps: Big & Bold Wishes
Ink: Memento Black
Card: Stamper's Select White/Basic Black
Dies: Nestabilities Labels 2
Other: adhesive gems (Hero Arts)/White Grosgrain ribbon

Finally, as our featured stamper for April, Claire has this super pretty wedding card to share with us:

We hope you'll wanna join in the wedding celebrations with us! Up for grabs for one randomly selected peep will be....

One of every design of the Beautiful Blooms DP collection (6 sheets in total)

And....

A foot of ribbon in each of the coordinating colours (Pure Poppy, Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse & True Black)

Ready to party? Here are the deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post (be aware that we've had a few niggles with it!). Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, May 2nd 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Right then, we're off to get our outfits and hats sorted *wink*

Aimes, Caryn, Kate & Claire
xxxx

A Winner!

2011-04-18T11:48:00.006+01:00

Can two weeks have flown by since we set our 'Springing into Spring' challenge?! Where does time fly by to?! We're definitely feeling the springtime after feasting our eyes on your fabulous creations!

But enough babbling from us, it's time to draw a winner.....do your thing Mr. Random.org!

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-04-18 10:57:54 UTC

Which means that Debby is our winner! Congratulations Debby! Email us your postal addy to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get that sweet li'l stamp set out to ya!

And now onto our Top 3 PTI Passionistas. Well you all captured the season of spring in so many different ways that you made our task just about impossible! We even considered having a Top 5 but then that wouldn't be fair on all the other times we've had to just cut it down to three. So without further ado we decided on the following:

Claire truly captured spring with her beautifully stamped blossom falling from the trees. The mix of delicate, pastel colours truly sums up springtime and the added sparkles make this soooooooo pretty!

Wendy wowed us with this fabulous one-layered card: adding dimension through clear embossing. She cleverly uses the same stamp to represent the leaves of springtime as well as the emerging butterflies - fabulous!

And where's no.3 you ask? Well we felt you needed to see this entry in full, so feast your eyes on this fabulous creation:

Now if Daffodils don't represent springtime, we don't know what does! Shobana's clever pop-up card even has the daffodils blooming before your very eyes! What an amazing project!

Congrats ladies! If you'd like our Top 3 blinkie to blink with pride on your blogs then pop us an email at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send you the code.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a truly fabulous challenge fit for a King (or a prince and princess *wink wink*)

Aimes, Kate, Caryn & Claire
xxxx

Challenge: springing into spring!

2011-04-05T22:41:00.010+01:00

Welcome to a new challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey! I bet you're all as glad as me that the clocks have gone forward, the daffodils are brightening our gardens, and the weather is getting a bit warmer...spring is most definitely in the air!! And to celebrate we're making this challenge a 'spring' challenge - think flowers, spring colours, Easter.. in fact anything that says spring to you!

Caryn has had to take a week off but Aimes, Claire - our Featured Stamper for April, and myself have got some springtime projects to share with you :)

For my card I used the Take Three Spring set, teamed with some vibrant colours. This was the first time I've used my Take Three die for the matching stamps... talk about making life easier!!

Recipe:
Stamps: Take Three Spring
Ink: Summer Sunrise/Raspberry Fizz/Memento black
Card: Stamper's Select White
Other: Spring Moss ribbon/Take Three dies/Corner Chomper

Over to Aimes
"Finally! Spring is here! After a winter that seemed to last forever, I'm so grateful that spring has finally arrived. No more de-icing the car, no more freezing in the snow and no more having to wait to take pictures of my projects at the weekend due to running out of daylight hours in the working week: Hooray for spring!

But enough gushing over the joys of spring and onto my spring-themed project:

For my project I think I've accidentally skipped spring and pounced onto summer - eek! But if you imagine these flowers as yellow daffodils, then I think you'd get the impression of spring, right?!Okay, okay, I 'fess up: I made these lil' gift packages for two very special buddies of mine a while before we moved digs and I'm being naughty using them for this challenge. Hope you can forgive me and maybe gimme a li'l sympathy as all my inky supplies are still imprisoned in those darn cardboard boxes. Man, the day they're released I'm gonna ink like I've never inked before! LOL!"

Project Deets
Stamps: Turning a New Leaf, Daily Designs Sentiments - PTI
Ink: Rich Cocoa - Memento/Versamark/Fresh Snow - PTI
Cardstock: Kraft
Patterned Paper: Dotty Biscotti - PTI
Accessories: Raspberry Fizz & Hawaiian Shores Grosgrain Ribbon and Buttons, Beautiful Blooms Die, Tag Sale #1 Die, Twine - PTI/'Chompy' - Corner Chomper/Cuttlebug

And here Claire' fabulous project - made using Tags for Spring. How cute is that Easter basket?!

And this the fun mini set that one lucky, randomly-drawn winner will receive! -

Here are the challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post (be aware that we've had a few niggles with it!). Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, April 18th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

Have fun!

Kate, Aimes, Caryn and Claire xxxx

A Winner!

2011-04-05T22:35:00.004+01:00

So it's time to draw the winner of our baby challenge - thank you to everyone that entered!

Drum roll please....and the winner is...

Here are your random numbers:

15

Timestamp: 2011-04-04 23:12:07 UTC

...Carol! Congratulations Carol, please email your postal address to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send your prize to you!

And now onto our blinkie winners - three more fabulous creations to share with you!

1) Becky - We loved Becky's fabulous use of felt on her baby tag - imagine how tactile that must be! A great colour combination too!

2) Wendy - How about this super-cute card for a baby girl - we loved the layout of Wendy's card with its CAS feel and paper pieced kite - great job!

3) Ryan - Ryan's use of circles for the design of her project really jumped out at us - very eye-catching and perfectly balanced with the stitching!

Congrats ladies! If you'd like to blink with pride on your blogs with our Top 3 blinkie, then pop us an email and we'll give you the code!

Check back very soon for another fun challenge!!

Kate, Aimes, Caryn & Claire xxxx

April's Featured Stamper

2011-04-03T17:07:00.003+01:00

Hey!

Aimes here, reporting from a mountain of cardboard boxes full still yet to be unpacked! Still, I don't need my inky supplies to introduce our featured stamper for April (albeit it a few days later than planned!) So, without further ado, let's give a warm welcome to April's Featured Stamper:

Claire Hamer!

Kate, Caryn and myself have met Claire in person at our previous PTI Make and Take event and she's such a fab lady who's up for a good giggle too! I even managed to spot her at Birmingham NEC last Saturday and had a lovely little catch-up with her! (Honestly, Claire, I promise I wasn't hunting you down to nag you about your interview questions for this blog post LOL!)

So here's a chance for you to get to know her a little better too!

1)How did you get into papercrafting?

I needed a 60th birthday card for my Dad & couldn't find anything I liked, so I decided to make him one instead. When I look back now at the card I made, I might have been better buying one! Although I think he loved it as he still has it.

2)How long have you been stamping for?

I started stamping almost as soon as I started papercrafting, so about 7 years ago.

3)How did you get into PTI and why do you love it so much?

I'm not sure how I found PTI, I think it was through some friends and they now have a lot to answer for. I love the attention to detail and the inspiration that's available on what to do with all the gorgeous PTI products.

4)What would you say is your stamping style?

Ahhh, style! I'm such a flitterbug I don't really have style, I'll be clean & simple one minute and completely grungy the next with a dash of cute in the middle.

5)Do you have a favourite PTI colour or colour combo that just makes you drool?
I love raspberry fizz, especially with a hint of Hawaiian Shore.

6)If you had to choose just one PTI stamp set to keep, which one would it be and why?

Just one, that's torture! I think it would have to be something like everyday button bits, so it covers as many occasions as possible and also contains sentiments. I love a sentiment to finish off a card.

7)Who is your PTI Idol?

Dawn McVey - I just love her style and she's such a sweetie too but then again all the PTI girls that I've met - yep I'm that lucky I've met lots of them at CHA and they are a great bunch of girls.

8)Where do you get your inspiration from?

I love taking inspiration from fashion and media. I'll often look at colour combinations in clothes shops and think that would like great on a card.

9)What’s your stamping dream?

To go to PTI HQ in Ohio and what's even better is that dream may well be coming true. Although Julie & Jane (two thirds of PTI) have warned me I'll have to work while I'm there. Woo hoo that means they'll be letting me into the warehouse!

10)Where can we go to check out more of your wonderful creations?

My slightly unloved blog http://gingerpiedesigns.blogspot.com/ . I promise to be posting regularly again soon, it's just that moving house cuts down on your crafting time for a couple of weeks, but my PTI goodies are now unpacked, so I'm a happy stamping bunny again.

Thanks, Claire! We're sooooooooooooooooo totally jealous that you get to go to CHA and cosy up to the PTI DT - give 'em a hello from us next time :) And I can personally sympathise with the amount of time moving takes from your precious inky time! I'm just waiting for the day my own inky supplies are released from their cardboard boxed prisons!

I'm sure you'll welcome Claire and like us, are looking forward to seeing some of her fabulous creations here on the blog!

Before I dash, Happy Mother's Day to all you peeps celebrating it! Gotta 'fess up that my mum received a store-bought card for the first time in years *gasp*! That's what happens when you don't ink in advance so let that be a lesson to y'all! *wink*

Aimes
x

Hey Baby!!

2011-03-22T09:38:00.000Z

Morning all and welcome to our new challenge. To celebrate the long awaited arrival of spring and all things new and fresh we thought we'd have a baby-themed challenge. It doesn't have to be a card - we love projects of all kinds (as long as we can see our beloved PTI in there somewhere!!).

Our lovely Aimes has gone missing this week. She was last seen under a heap of brown boxes and gaffer tape en route to her new digs. So it's just Kate and I sharing our baby ideas with you this week - and unbeknowns to both of us our colour schemes are somewhat similar!!!!

I've opted to use the gorgeous Baby Button Bits set - LOVE it. I've paper pieced the cupcake with fine linen dotty paper which is stamped in Dark Chocolate ink onto Aqua Mist cardstock. The starry design which I stamped in Aqua Mist onto Fine Linen card is my new Hero Arts purchase (ssshh, don't tell anyone!!).

Caryn

Recipe:
Stamps: Baby Button Bits (PTI), Star background stamp (Hero Arts)
Card: Kraft, Fine Linen, Aqua Mist
Ink: Dark Chocolate
Paper: Dotty
Other: Mat stack 4 die, Fine linen button, SU scalloped edge punch.

Over to Kate: "I recently had to make two baby boy cards so I reached for my Bitty Baby Blessings set. I love paper piecing with this set so paper pieced two cute babygrows! Can you spot a subtle difference between the two cards? No?! Ok, the main panel of the one one the left is popped up on foam dimensionals so has more depth, in real life you can really notice the difference, and I definitely prefer it."

Recipe:
Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings
Card: Stamper's Select White, Spring Rain, Kraft
Ink: Memento Black
Paper: Bitty Dots
Other: 2 1/2 Circle Collection Dies/Argyle Impression Plate

And this is the fabulous PTI stamp set you could win!:

Here are the challenge deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify (please state what is PTI as sometimes for us it's hard to tell :D)

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post (be aware that we've had a few niggles with it!). Please leave the correct URL for your entry post and not just your generic blog address! If you're having problems then just leave a comment with a link to your post featuring the project on your blog or online gallery.

* Worldwide entries are more than welcome to share the inspiration and can be in with a chance of being a Top 3 PTI Passionista, but unfortunately prizes can only be shipped within Europe!

* Challenge closes on Monday, April 4th 2011 at 9.00am GMT

* As well as a randomly picked winner, we'll select the top three creations we like the most and feature them on the Blog. The top three PTI Passionistas will have chance to display a Top 3 Passionista Blinkie on their own blog.

We can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Caryn, Kate and Aimes xxx

Our winners!

2011-03-21T19:45:00.002Z

What a fabulous collection of entries we had to choose from this week. We were really spoiled for choice and saw some great ideas for using our PTI sets with the paper-piecing technique.

Our randomly chosen winner this week and the lucky lady winning the PTI stamp set is...

...14

Which means Vicki is our winner! Yay!!!

Drop us an email Vicki so we can arrange for your prize to wing it's way to you.

And here are our Top 3 Passionistas - well done ladies.

Chupa - We loved the fun vibrant feel to this card and the mix of papers on those butterflies works so well.
Anne - Well what can we say about Anne's field of golden daffodils. I feel happy just thinking about them!!!
Maureen - We all just adore this card - the rainbow of flags on the banner just make you think of summer!

Well done ladies. Drop us an email so we can send you the blinkie for our Top 3 Passionista.

Caryn, Aimes and Kate xxx

A Passion for Papertrey

Challenge: 'Inspired by a book'

Our winners!

Challenge - Valentine's!

Winner, winner...

Happy Happy Happy Holidays

I'm dreaming of a GREEN Christmas!

Our winners!

Polka Dot Snow

I'm Dreaming of a {Red and White} Christmas Challenge!!

A winner - at last!!

Apologies!

The girls!

Challenge: Christmas

A Winner!

A colourful challenge!

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No tricks, just treats!

Just a note (and another silhouette!)

Challenge : Sensational Silhouettes!!

It's Winner Time!

Lotsa Circles...

Challenge - Goin' Geometric

A Winner!

Email alert...

Challenge: Mad for Tags!

Link up for Tag Challenge

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Challenge: Design Team Inspiration

Winners!

Anything Goes!

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Crafting on a Sunday.

Hello, hello....

Challenge: For the Boys!

Our winners!

Drink in style!

Pssst....

Challenge : Sky's the Limit!

A winner!

Stamp-a-Faire Celebrations

Die-ing for your vote! *wink*

She's an idol...*wink*

Hello...

Challenge: Sweet, Sweet, Summertime

A Winner!

A Wacccky Winner!

Challenge: Make For The Border

Our winners!

Reverse Masking - Make It Monday challenge.

Happy Happy Happy...

A WaCCCky Challenge...

Hello...

CHALLENGE: It's Elementary!

A Winner! - Recipe Challenge.

A little wall art!

Summertime Vibes...

June's Featured Stamper

Challenge: A Recipe for Fun...

A Winner...

Home Made Puffies

Challenge - Inspired by a song!

A Winner!

Celebrate today....

Challenge: A Sketch!

Our winner!

May's Featured Stamper

Hope your day is Fabulous....

Challenge: Royal Wedding Celebration

A Winner!

Challenge: springing into spring!

A Winner!

April's Featured Stamper

Hey Baby!!

Our winners!

Die-ing for your vote! wink

She's an idol...wink