Finally - A Bow Tutorial!

Happy Friday!!!! Typical that these weeks start to zoom by so fast when I'm on my summer holidays from work *sigh*!

Just poppin' a quick post today to let you know that I've finally done something I thought I'd never get around to doing; I've created a little video tutorial to show you how I create individual bows for my projects. Some of you had requested if I could show you how I do some of my bows so here it is! HUGE credit goes to my very own mum for suggesting this technique btw!
(FYI if I'm tying my ribbon around a project I always refer to the tutorial produced by Dawn McVey, here)

Now before you laugh, this was filmed at night whilst Chris was out (I just couldn't do this in front of him without cracking up!) and with my bog-standard digital camera, nothing fancy! But I hope you like it anyways and you too don't feel fear rising when wanting to make a bow for a future project!

Enjoy!



If you can't see the video, trying clicking here

Now I had to put that bow to good use didn't I?Oh and now I can line them all up *happy sigh* I hope I'm allowed to like my own cards because these make my heart skip a beat ;D

Have a super weekend! If you're not busy, you know there's plenty of time to enter our current challenge to win a mini-stamp set. Don't do what I do and leave it all to the last minute LOL!

Aimes
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Challenge - Forever Friends

So it's time to set another challenge here on A Passion for Papertrey - it comes round quickly doesn't it?!

Before we get to the challenge I wanted to share a photo with you. It's not often that Aimes and I get to meet up in person, but this past weekend was one such occasion! We met up with our blogging buddies (and fellow PTI fans!) Steph and Caryn for a girlie weekend - shopping, cocktails, and Eclipse.... such a fun weekend!

So here we are, the two Passion for Papertrey gals, in matching outfits no less!! (We were trying the same top on!)



With our weekend in mind, we thought we'd ask you to think about your special friends and make a card for one of them. There is something so special about receiving a card from a friend for no other reason than they are thinking of you! So our challenge is to create a friendship card, using at least one Papertrey Ink product.
For mine I used the super adorable Enjoy the Ride set, and matching die. I paper pieced part of the cars (very flower power don't you think!) with the gorgeous Beautiful Blooms papers, and coloured the rest with Copics. I'm in love with these cars!!


Recipe:

Stamps: Enjoy the Ride, Friends til the End
Ink: Memento black
Card: Stamper's Select White/Hawaiin Shores/Pure PoppyPapers: Beautiful Blooms
Other: Enjoy the Ride die/Rik Rack die/Copic Sketch markers


Over to Aimes:
"Seemed kinda fitting to have a friendship theme for our challenge this fortnight seeing as Kate and I had spent a fabulous girlie weekend together along with our other fabulous crafty friends, Caryn and Steph! For my sample, I decided to get comfy with my On My Couch set and On My Couch Additions. I just luuuuuurve those sets to play with; in fact I had so much fun that I made not one card, but two!Before you think I have some XL size stamps, these cards are a sweet lil' 2.5 x 4.25 inches big! I went for a subtle chair this time, stamped with Versamark which allowed me to stamp my sentiment over the top. The sentiment was orginally a long line of text but I just inked up each word at a time to create the lines of text.

I love these little cards - you use way less supplies on 'em with the added bonus that if you chop a PTI envie in half and stitch/glue the open sides together you'll create an envie for each card outta just the one envie! Just gotta love that!"

Once again our randomly drawn winner will receive this fabulous stamp set, Fly Away:




Are you ready to play along?! Here's the deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. 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 9th 2010 at 9.00am GMT

* A winner will be chosen at random to receive some PTI goodies! In addition to this, 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 xx

A winner!

Happy Monday!!!

This Monday means we get to start a new challenge here on the blog, but not before announcing the winner of our last challenge!! Thank you so much to all who entered our last challenge - we were so happy to see so many of you play along with us! So who will be winning that sweet little stamp set, Fly Away? We won't keep you in suspense any longer:

Here are your random numbers:

24

Timestamp: 2010-07-26 10:21:39 UTC

Ann!

Congratulations, Ann! If you could send us your postal addy to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get that sweet lil' stamp set out to you asap!

Now for our Top 3 PTI Passionistas. Well it was kinda cool that we were both together in person, drooling over playing on the new iPads in the apple store at the weekend to discuss the entries! It was a real toughie with so many fabulous entries but without further ado, we decided on the following:

Katie - We both loved Katie's bold and graphic design on her card. That die cut really takes the centre stage on this creation, contrasting against the bold, gorgeous, raspberry fizz panel. Simply super!

Mandy - How can you not resist such warm homely colours, along with a comfy chair and fabulous pun to go with it?! We agreed that this card was so sweet along with a fabulous layout and a great use of DPs!

Rosanne - This whimsical design made our heart's really skip a beat! We loved the the fun use of DPs for different elements of the card and the non-traditional kraft coloured clouds really add to the fun, whimsical theme!

Congrats ladies! If you would like a blinkie to blink with pride on your blog, email us at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll email the code right back to ya!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the challenge - we really appreciate your enthusiasm and support! I hope you can all play along with our next challenge which we'll be introducing very soon!

Aimes & Kate
xx

Birthday cupcake

Happy Friday everyone! Apologies for my absence from the blog but life has just got in the way recently - thank you Aimes for holding the fort while I've been away!!

I've just got back from staying with friends in London - it was my best friend's birthday and as she has her own cake-making business I thought the fab cuppie from Baby Button Bits would suit the occasion (plus I got to indulge my love of Hawai'in Shores!)

This is the first time I've cut into my Beautiful Blooms papers - aren't they delicious?!



Recipe: (all PTI unless stated)
Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings/Vintage Picnic (sentiment)
Ink: Memento black
Card: Stamper's Select White/Pure Poppy/Hawai'in Shores
Paper: Beautiful Blooms
Other: Copic Sketch Markers/ Circle Nestabilities/Hawaiin Shores ribbon & button

I'll be back in the next few days with my card for our current challenge (better late than never right?!)

Hugs, Kate xx

A little 'Die' crazy!

Happy Wednesday! Half-way to the weekend and it can't come soon enough! These last two weeks of term are seriously dragging by for me; I'm ready to break up, the students are ready to break up and I even think my stamps are ready for me to break up; I'm sure I can hear them calling me to go play with them. Either that, or the stresses of work are sending me crazy LOL!

So as promised, I've found time to take a pic of the second card I created for our current challenge. I'll warn you, it's a completely different style of card from my first card and it's gone a little 'die' crazy:

Card Recipe
Stamps: Background Basics: Text Style/Turning a New Leaf/Butterfly Dreams
Ink: Momento London Fog/Spring Moss/Versamark
Card: Hawaiian Shores/Stamper's Select White/Plum Pudding/Grey (from stash!)
Accessories: Simply Chartreuse Felt/Purple Felt/Medium Scallop Die/Butterfly Die/Nestabilities/Cuttlebug/Detail White EP/Glitter/Rustic Twine/Hawaiian Shores Vintage Button

Y'see I wasn't lying; this card features a total of three different dies, two of them being PTI ones! Just goes to show that you can enter our challenge no-matter what style of cardmaker you are *wink*

I'm going to be honest and say that I'm still not 100% about whether I like this card or not...but still, it's bright and summery and that's more than can be said for the miserable weather outside my window at the moment. Rain and thunderstorms...it's starting to look more like the typical British summer by the minute!

Aimes
x

Challenge: To 'Die' for!

Ready for a new challenge? I thought so!

Don't be confused by the title of our new challenge; it's just me being a fan of a cheesy play on words! For our latest challenge we want to see creations that feature the use of Dies. So many of us now own die-cutting machines, and it seems that so many companies (including Papertrey Ink) have released their own dies to co-ordinate with stamp sets, (and in some cases stamp sets that co-ordinate with dies from other companies) that it seemed appropriate to set a challenge based on 'em!

Now don't feel that you've gotta use a PTI die on your creation - remember that your creation only needs to use a single PTI product to qualify for entry to our challenge! Oh and you're not limited to cards either ;D

Now it's my turn to host alone this fortnight for now as my partner in PTI crime, Kate is kinda busy! If she finds time, I'm sure she'll provide a fabulous creation later. Seems like July is a rather busy month for both of us!

Anyways here's my example for the challenge:

Card Recipe
Stamps: Star Prints/Background Basics: Text Style/Fancy Flourishes/Daily Design Sentiments/Vintage Labels
Ink: Dark Chocolate/Versamark
Card: Vintage Cream/Kraft/New Leaf
Accessories: New Leaf Twill Ribbon/Clear EP/Cuttlebug/Nestabilities

This card was made for my very own honey's birthday last Friday, hence the super simple design! And as you can see I used a load of stamps sets on what seems like a very CAS card, along with my Nestabilites rather than a PTI die. I do however have another example to share with y'all later this week that features many PTI dies on one card - stay tuned for that when I find time to photograph it LOL!

Here's Kate: " I'm really leaning towards vibrant summer colours this week - no doubt an antidote to the pouring rain! I used my On my Couch set and matching die for the cute polka dot chair":



Recipe:
Stamps: On my Couch
Card: Stamper's Select White/Raspberry Fizz
Ink: Raspberry Fizz/Summer Sunrise/Aqua Mist/True Black
Papers: Bitty Dot Basics 2009 - Summer Sunrise
Other: Raspberry Fizz ribbon/Labels One dies

Wanna play along but wondering what to do if you haven't got a die-cutting machine?! How about finding a crafty peep to post you a few die-cut shapes to help you out?

So what's in it for you if you play along? How about a super sweet PTI stamp set?


Yup, the winner will receive the sweet stamp set, Fly Away!

So, you ready to play? Here's the deets:

* All entries must contain at least one PTI product to qualify

* To enter, use our inlinkz thingy at the bottom of this post. 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 26th 2010 at 9.00am GMT

* A winner will be chosen at random to receive some PTI goodies! In addition to this, 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.

OK crafty peeps, go get die cutting!

Aimes & Kate
xx

A Winner!

Happy Monday! Hope y'all had a good weekend!

Today it's time for a new challenge which means we get a draw a winner for our past, summertime challenge! What a fabulous response we had to the challenge - I'm definitely ready for summer now and loved every one's interpretation of summer!

OK I won't hold you any longer - time to draw a winner......

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

Here are your random numbers:

13

Timestamp: 2010-07-12 20:22:41 UTC

Number 13. Unlucky for some, but very lucky for Claire who's just bagged herself some PTI goodies! Congrats Claire! Could you please email us at apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll get some goodies out to you!

Here's Claire's fabulous card - you just can't beat juicy cherries in the summer (well, maybe with strawberries but cherries definitely come a close second LOL!)

And now for the tough task of picking our Top 3 PTI Passionistas....this was extra tough because I had no Kate to help me, she's trusting all judgement to me this week but I'm sure she'd agree on the following 3 cards:

Helen - Well what's summer without a beach, eh?! I love the way Helen created this beach scene and what really impressed me is the way she used Scattered Showers to create the scene - genius!

Monica - Oh what a clever idea! I love this shaped card! The use of buttons for seeds is fabulous but check out the awesome use of embossing to create the different textures of the watermelon; I mean who would have thought a halloween embossing folder could be used for a watermelon?!?!? A totally mouthwatering card!

Sarita - The inspiration may have come from a gorgeous hanging basket but this card reminds me of sultry, Arabian nights with that colour combo! Simply divine!

Congrats ladies - if you fancy a Top 3 blinkie to blink with pride on your blogs then pop us an email and I'll email you the code!

Thanks so much to everyone who joined in this challenge. I really hope you can play along with our new challenge which I'm about to publish very soon.....

Aimes
x

A Winner!

I'm back again! Why so soon, you ask? Well to draw a winner for the fabulous circular card challenge set by Chris of course!

So who will be the winner of these fabulous Papertrey Ink papers?

Drumroll, please....

Here are your random numbers:

11

Timestamp: 2010-07-08 14:49:35 UTC

That means that Anja is our winner! Congrats, Anja! Send us your postal address to apassionforpapertrey@yahoo.co.uk and we'll forward your address to Chris to send you those lovely papers!

I'm sure you'll join us in thanking Chris not only for her generosity of the challenge and prize, but for being a fabulous featured stamper for June too! As you can tell, life has distracted us from featuring a stamper for July, but we'll be back on track next month!

Oooh and before I go, yes, I will feature a tutorial on the butterfly I made for this card if you really want one! Just gimme some time to work out how to record from my camera LOL!


Aimes
x

Normality...

...I'm nearly back to it!

I'm so sorry that I've been too busy to blog/create recently. As you may or may not know my family and I have had a couple of stressful weeks with my dad going in for major heart surgery. The good news is that although there were some scary times, he's now home safe and sound. It's a long recovery process but things are starting to get back to normal around here...

...so what does normal mean for me?! Well getting inky of course! So I've managed to create a card for our current challenge - big hugs and thanks to my PTI partner in crime, Kate for holding the fort whilst I was MIA!

I couldn't resist indulging in some Hawaiian Shores for my summertime creation - I love it! I only wish the weather was more in the spirit of summer when I took this pic LOL!

That butterfly was cut using a PTI die and my Cuttlebug from a sheet of thin metal. It cut like buttah! The embossing was done after, and glossy accents proved a fab glue to fix it to the ribbon. I love how I can bend the wings into shape to add that extra dimension; I don't think this will be the last metal butterfly you see from me *wink*

Card Recipe
PTI Supplies
Stamps: Friends 'til the End/Background Basics: Text Style
Ink: Hawaiian Shores/Spring Moss
Card: Hawaiian Shores/Stamper's Select White/New Leaf
Papers: Green Boutique
Accessories: Metal Sheet/Cuttlebug/PTI Butterfly Die/Swiss Dot Embossing Folder/Hawaiian Shores Ribbon/EK Success Border Punch

So that's my sample for our current challenge - I hope you can play along too! Oh and if you're reading this very soon after me publishing it, there's still a few hours to play along with Chris' fantastic challenge in which you can win some fab PTI DPs!

Aimes
x

Featured Stamper Post

This is my last post as the featured stamper for June (just a little late too!) - where did the month go?

I am just loving aperture cards that I am seeing all over and so this is my take on them.

I used Plum Pudding, Pure Poppy and Hibiscus Burst as my pallet, and coloured in the violets with Copic markers in the same colour range.


It's great to be able to mix and match the sentiments from the Year of Flowers sets; the sets are so versatile so you can colour to your heart's content or paper piece them too using patterned papers.

Many thanks to Kate and Aimes for the invitation this month!

Chris
x