Challenge: A Recipe for Fun...

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...

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:

5

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

***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!

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!

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....

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!

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!

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:

4

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

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