Winners!

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.

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....

...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!

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!

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:

5

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!

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)