{capture the moment}

Senior Design Team Challenge: Scattered Showers Revisited

It's one of my favorite times of the month, a day dedicated to bringing a previously released stamp set back to the forefront with renewed inspiration!  This month we are actually focusing on pair of sets: Scattered Showers & Scattered Showers Additions by Dawn McVey.

Scattered Showers provides everything you need to create a beautiful array of stylish umbrellas.  They can be made to look masculine or feminine, modern or vintage...it's all about the colors you choose and what you pair them with!

To complement the original set, Dawn also created Scattered Showers Additions which has all kinds of wonderful images to use in conjunction with the original umbrellas.  And even more appropriate sentiments!

For my project today, I opted to create a little card that would wish someone well and bring a little cheer when they are sick.

I wanted to create a background that resembled large-scale raindrops and thought these shapes from Modern Basics would do just the trick.  I used Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse & Ripe Avocado to stamp my own custom pattern.

I didn't use the traditional handle included in Scattered Showers to use with the umbrella top, I instead bent one of the long sentiments from Around & About Sentiments.  The little flower is from Scattered Showers Additions.

I adhered a strip of Simply Chartreuse cardstock to the side of the card that was stamped with a few butterflies from Butterfly Dreams in VersaMark ink.  The sentiment was layered across the bottom of the card using True Black ink.

Now that I've shown you my fresh take on Scattered Showers, let me show you the AMAZING things that the Design Team has created!

CLICK HERE to read more from Betsy Veldman.

CLICK HERE to read more from Dawn McVey.

CLICK HERE to read more from Heather Nichols.

CLICK HERE to read more from Lisa Johnson.

CLICK HERE to read more from Michelle Wooderson.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you enjoyed all the projects that myself and the rest of the team assembled just for you today!  Now, go take some time for yourself and get creative!

Want to see a few more projects using Scattered Showers & Scattered Showers Additions?

You can see my original countdown post HERE, which shows one of my favorite projects of all time using paint!

You can see Dawn's original countdown posts HERE (scroll towards the bottom of the archive pages).

And as always, you can check out our store galleries HERE and HERE.

UNDER THE WEATHER CARD

• STAMPS: Scattered Showers, Scattered Showers Additions, Modern Basics, Butterfly Dreams, Around & About Sentiments
• INK: Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado, True Black, VersaMark
• PAPER: Simply Chartreuse, Stamper's Select White
• OTHER: rhinestone (KaiserCraft)
• FINISHED SIZE: 5.5" square

Make It Monday #17: Cracked Glass Technique

Heather Nichols has put together this fantastic project featuring a cracked glass embossing techinque. Watch the tutorial to learn how and then join us for this week's challenge.

Some still shots of Heather's project:

 

If you are joining along this week, here are the details concerning the Make It Monday Challenge.

--A new Make It Monday Challenge & video will go up every Monday morning at 9am EST.

--Create a project utilizing your take on the challenge.  Your project must use at least one Papertrey product and use the cracked glass technique.

--Post your project on your blog, in your gallery or on any other photo-hosting site (such as photobucket or flickr).

--Add your link to our --->InLinkz List<---

--You will have until 7am, Monday, June 6th, to add your link to the list to be eligible to win.  And you can enter as many times as you like.

--We will be tweeting and posting on our Facebook page every night (between 5-9pm EST) highlighting a Featured Project.  These tweets/Facebook postings will just be a shout-out regarding projects that caught our eye.  The tweets/Facebook postings no longer have any special merit regarding the actual contest.

--One randomly selected winner will be chosen from ALL the entries on Monday, June 6th, after 7am.  The winner will be posted here on this blog post, on Twitter and Facebook.  The randomly selected winner will get to select a FREE Papertrey stamp set of their choice!

 Good luck to everyone and we look forward to seeing your projects!

EDITED TO ADD RANDOMLY SELECTED WINNER:

Congrats to Denise J for being randomly selected to recieve a free stamp set of her choice!  Please be sure to email customer service with your shipping information and stamp selection so we can get your package out to you!  And thank you so much to all of the other participants as well.  Everyone did such amazing work and truly left me inspired!

**SPOILER ALERT** 2010 Anniversary Set

***The following post showcases some projects I created with the 2010 Anniversary set as well as a full reveal of the images.***

Many of you have eagerly been awaiting the arrival of the 2010 Anniversary sets.  These sets are earned by loyal customers for every 12 qualifying stamp sets they purchased between February 2010 and February 2011.

If you are not familiar with our FREE Anniversary set program from last year, you can read about it HERE.

This new process for earning next year's set is outlined HERE (scroll all the way to the bottom of the post).  

The 2010 Anniversary sets began shipping out with the May release packages and will continue through the June release orders, with ongoing shipments continuing into the summer.  So, if you haven't received your set yet, we ask for your patience as we work through our lists as quickly as we can.

The 2010 Anniversary set is entitled Botanical Silhouettes.  It is an elegant floral building set that allows you all kinds of custom options, mixing & matching.  The large size of the images makes it quick and easy to fill and entire card front. And I am also totally smitten with the font combination for the sentiments.

The details.

• Botanical Silhouettes is a FREE Limited Edition stamp set circulated to loyal customers who purchased 12 qualifying stamp sets between February 2010 and February 2011. (Read HERE for more details.)
• You do nothing to "order" this set, it is automatically shipped to you either by itself or along with an order.
• Botanical Silhouettes will never be something we make available for sale.
• You will not receive tracking information or confirmation of your Anniversary Set shipment.  It is intended to arrive as a "surprise" in your mailbox! :)

Here are a few things I have created with this set that will hopefully leave you inspired!

This is one of my favorite projects from the bunch I created.  Lots of bright colors and sunshine!

I thought I would show you a bit of the building process I used to created my focal image for this project.  I stamped the stem bunch with Simply Chartreuse and then added some splatter images from Grunge Me using Lemon Tart.

I layered dandelion images from Botanical Silhouettes on top of the splatters using Orange Zest ink.

These large flowers were added with Hawaiian Shores, with the centers being stamped with Aqua Mist.

Finally, I added the "circular" flowers in layers using Plum Pudding and then Elegant Eggplant (SU!).  The little dot trio buds were stamped in Pure Poppy.

To finish, added small dots to the centers of some of the flowers with a black pen and added the sentiment with black ink.

Before adhering the focal panel to my card front, I drew a series of stripes across my card front with a variety of black pens and a ruler.

I rounded the corners of the focal point and adhered it in place with foam dimensionals.

I wish you could see this card in person!  The Vintage Cream & Raspberry Fizz together is just fabulous!  You'll have to give it a try yourself!

The focal point of this project started with this stem bunch, stamped in New Leaf. I added the poppies in Hibiscus Burst and then stamped dots in Raspberry Fizz. The sentiment was stamped next in True Black to the side of the bouquet.

I used a black pen to draw a frame around the card cover and add small dots to the flower centers.

This is an example of a monochromatic card you could create with this set. Think of this same design in pinks or purples or greens!

I stamped the stem bunch in Spring Rain and the poppies in Enchanted Evening.  I also added some of the paint splatters from Grunge Me with Spring Rain to help balance everything out.

Finally, the sentiment was stamped in Smokey Shadow.

I have one last project for you today.  I decided to try stamping on Sweet Blush cardstock for my focal point and I was really pleased with the results.

I stamped the stems in Ripe Avocado and the flowers in Berry Sorbet.  The flower centers and some of the accents were added in Pure Poppy.

I added adhesive pearls to a few centers to add texture and detail.

I hope you enjoyed my projects today.  I loved having the opportunity to work with these images.  They truly make everything so easy!  Thank you so much for stopping by and happy stamping!

JUST A NOTE CARD

• STAMPS: Botanical Silhouettes, Grunge Me
• INK: Simply Chartreuse, Lemon Tart, Orange Zest, Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, Plum Pudding, Pure Poppy, True Black, Elegant Eggplant (SU!)
• PAPER: Stamper's Select White, Simply Chartreuse
• OTHER: black pens (American Crafts), corner chomper (We R Memory Keepers)
• FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"

LOVE YOU CARD

• STAMPS: Botanical Silhouettes
• INK: New Leaf, Hibiscus Birst, Raspberry Fizz, True Black
• PAPER: Vintage Cream, Raspberry Fizz
• OTHER: black pens (American Crafts)
• FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"

THINKING OF YOU CARD

• STAMPS: Botanical Silhouettes, Grunge Me
• INK: Enchanted Evening, Spring Rain, Smokey Shadow
• PAPER: Stamper's Select White, Smokey Shadow
• FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"

THANK YOU CARD

• STAMPS: Botanical Silhouettes
• INK: Ripe Avocado, Berry Sorbet, Pure Poppy, True Black
• PAPER: Sweet Blush, Pure Poppy
• OTHER: adhesive pearls (KaiserCraft)
• FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"

A note about FeedBurner & Subscriptions...

Hello everyone, and happy Thursday!

Every month I get many emails from people commenting on how they receive my blog posts via email a day late, especially after the Blog Hop and Release Night festivities.  I thought I would do a quick little blog post regarding this inquiry so it will hopefully inform everyone about how the subscription service works.

FeedBurner is a separate third party that I have linked my blog through to send email updates to folks who have registered in the sidebar for this service.  FeedBurner only sends out updates once a day, usually around 11:00pm EST. 

So if I post the Blog Hop at 10am on the 25th of the month, as I am scheduled to do, FeedBurner does not email that update out until that night during their once-daily rotation, with most people receiving the email on the morning of the 26th...

Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to control this feature of their system, but I am actively shopping around to see if I can work with a different subscription service that might possibly send out updates on a real-time basis.

In the meantime, Google Reader is a fantastic resource for those who would like real-time updates.  You can read all about this service and how to get started using it HERE.

Or, you can permanently mark your calendars for our monthly events.   The dates have been the same every month for 4 years, and they won't be changing anytime soon, which makes them super easy to remember. Here is a run down of some monthly dates to remember!

• 1st: Senior Design Team Challenge
• 5th-9th: Sneak Peeks
• 10th-14th: Countdown & Release Festivities
• 15th: The Morning After Summary
• 25th: Blog Hop

 

 

As another note, the Blog Hop theme is announced every month on our homepage on release night (the night of the 14th), that way you have a full 10 days to prepare for the challenge and play along!

Thank you SO much for all of your enthusiasm for all of our monthly events and we hope to see many of you participate in something in the near future!

May 2011 Blog Hop

Welcome everyone to the May Papertrey Blog Hop!  We are so thrilled to see you here!  First, the challenge...

May is the month when many flowers finally go into full bloom after a long winter's sleep.  For the blog hop this month we want to see your favorite take on flowers.  You can stamp backgrounds, create custom floral embellishments, showcase unique flower center additions (buttons, rhinestones, beads, etc...), flowers die-cut from different materials (like fabric, felt, vellum, etc...) or anything else you can dream up!  We are looking forward to seeing all of your amazing creations!I have included an inlinkz list below for you to add your link to your blog hop project.  This new type of link list will allow you to select a thumbnail to go along with your link, making it easy to go back and find a project later that might have perked your interest.  

Here's a little something I whipped up for the challenge.

I thought I would pull out my Bloom Builders #1 dies and create a beautiful dimensional flower with one of my favorite patterned paper collections, Pretty Pastels.

I stamped the frame from Label Basics onto my Kraft card base with Fresh Snow ink.  I then added a second layer of Kraft which I stamped with Year of Flowers Collection (the violets image specifically).  The sentiment is from Everyday Button Bits and it was stamped in True Black.

The flowers were created with the pink paper from the Pretty Pastels and some vintage book print from an old book.  I love the detail and dimension the Bloom Builders dies can add to a project.  I also think these little Beautiful Blooms #3 shapes complement the Bloom Builders #1 quite well.

We've had lots of questions over the last few months about seeing the Bloom Builders dies in action, so I've thrown together a short video for you showcasing this truly incredible product that was an amazing conception by Betsy Veldman.  Enjoy the show!

Now it's your turn to share your floral wonders with us!

I have included an inlinkz list below for you to add your link to your blog hop project.  This new type of link list will allow you to select a thumbnail to go along with your link, making it easy to go back and find a project later that might have perked your interest.  

You have until 11:00pm EST tonight (May 25th) to add your link to this list.  THREE random participants will be selected to win a FREE Papertrey Ink stamp set of their choice.  They will be announced and highlighted here, on my blog, tomorrow morning.  We look forward to seeing all of your creations!

EDITED TO ADD RANDOMLY SELECTED WINNERS:

Susan W used Friendship Jar and Friendship Jar Spring Fillers on this elegant project.  I loved to see the addition of the real ribbon and tulle to her bouquet!  A perfect card to celebrate a wedding or shower!

Jamie Greene created a beautifully layered felt flower that complements her tag perfectly.  Her color scheme is bright and cheerful and the simplicity of the tag is wonderfully executed!

Andrea used nearly every flower in the new Year of Flowers Collection on this beautiful project.  The colors are just delightful and the layout is so pleasing to the eye.  Just a wonderful, wonderful project!

Congratulations to all the winners!  Be sure to email Customer Service with your selected free stamp set and your shipping information so we can get your prize packages out to you!  Thank you to everyone who contributed to this amazingly successful Blog Hop.  You have all inspired me and I hope yo have been inspired as well!

SO KIND CARD

• STAMPS: Year of Flowers Collection, Everyday Button Bits, Label Basics
• INK: Fresh Snow, True Black
• PAPER: Kraft, Pretty Pastels pad, vintage book print from old book
• OTHER: Bloom Builders #1 die collection, Beautiful Blooms #3 die collection, cream buttons, 1/8" silk ribbon, glue dots
• FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"

May Blog Hop Tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are excited to present the BIG monthly Blog Hop that Papertrey Ink hosts for all of it's talented customers to show off their skills! 

The Blog Hop is an ALL DAY EVENT!  A new link list will be posted here on my blog at 10am EST and you can add your link anytime up until 11:30pm EST.  And don't worry if you aren't going to get a chance to make a project and play along, there will be a contest for non-participants as well over in our forum in the designated thread. I hope that I will see many of your familiar faces over here tomorrow! I look forward to seeing all of your creativity!

 
All of our customers who enjoy sharing inspiration & artwork with their peers through their personal blogs.

 
The actual Blog Hop will take place tomorrow, May 25th, beginning @ 10am EST. 

 
You will explore individual blogs through a thread here, on my blog, beginning at 10am EST tomorrow. 

 A day dedicated to seeking inspiration through projects utilizing Papertrey Ink products. 

 

May is the month when many flowers finally go into full bloom after a long winter's sleep.  For the blog hop this month we want to see your favorite take on flowers.  You can stamp backgrounds, create custom floral embellishments, showcase unique flower center additions (buttons, rhinestones, beads, etc...), flowers die-cut from different materials (like fabric, felt, vellum, etc...) or anything else you can dream up!  We are looking forward to seeing all of your amazing creations!

 

 -Participating bloggers can add their link to the appropriate list here anytime between 10am EST and 11pm EST on May 25th within the link list that will be posted.The title of your post should be "Papertrey May Blog Hop Challenge".

-Customers & participants alike can peruse all of the links and absorb all of the amazing inspiration that will be shared!

-After you have made your way through the list, simply return to our forum and participate in all of the fun!

-You can chit chat with everyone in the Blog Hop forum! Take this time to praise your peers efforts, discuss anything new you might have learned and which projects really offered something unique!

-The three random blogger participant winners will be announced Thursday morning on our forum and highlighted here on my blog!

-You can enter our Blog Hop Forum contest. There will be a special thread posted in our forum specifically for this purpose asking a question. Please only post once, as the winner will be picked via the Random Number Generator. The forum contest will end at midnight EST and the winner announced in the morning within the thread.

-Create a project while you are here, using the new inspiration you have gathered from the Blog Hop. You can post your projects in the gallery, even if you do not have a blog! We are looking forward to all the fun tomorrow and we hope to see you there!

Store Front Down for Repairs

The Papertrey Ink store front will be down for repairs for a short time this morning.  Thank you for having patience with us and please be sure to stop by later this afternoon.  

5/23 4:30pm EST Update:  The store is now back up but we have had to do some additional maintenance to the forum, which is now down.  We hope to have it back up as soon as possible.  Thanks so much for your patience with us today!

5/24 9:00am EST Update:  Everything is now up and running as it should be.  Thank you to everyone for their understanding and patience as we completed this unexpected maintenance.

Make It Monday #16: Sympathy Cards

Sympathy cards are nobody's favorite to make. But with care and kindness, they can touch deeply the receipients with the thought put into making them. Follow Dawn McVey's lead and learn some helpful tips when it comes to making your own.

If you are joining along this week, here are the details concerning the Make It Monday Challenge.

--A new Make It Monday Challenge & video will go up every Monday morning at 9am EST.

--Create a project utilizing your take on the challenge.  Your project must use at least one Papertrey product and have a "with sympathy" type sentiment.

--Post your project on your blog, in your gallery or on any other photo-hosting site (such as photobucket or flickr).

--Add your link to our --->InLinkz List<---

--You will have until 7am, Monday, May 30th, to add your link to the list to be eligible to win.  And you can enter as many times as you like.

--We will be tweeting and posting on our Facebook page every night (between 5-9pm EST) highlighting a Featured Project.  These tweets/Facebook postings will just be a shout-out regarding projects that caught our eye.  The tweets/Facebook postings no longer have any special merit regarding the actual contest.

--One randomly selected winner will be chosen from ALL the entries on Monday, May 30th, after 7am.  The winner will be posted here on this blog post, on Twitter and Facebook.  The randomly selected winner will get to select a FREE Papertrey stamp set of their choice!

 Good luck to everyone and we look forward to seeing your projects!

Congrats to Colleen for being randomly selected as the winner of a free stamp set of her choice!  Please be sure to contact customer service with your set selection and shipping information!  And thanks to everyone else who shared their beautiful creations with us!  The collection of projects will certainly be used as a reference for month's to come!

Papertrey Radio #8

Enjoy our latest podcast this weekend!

Papertrey Radio - Episode 8

or you can download the mp3 file below to save it to your iPod or mp3 player

-for Mac, right click on link below, select "download linked file"

-for PC, right click on link below, select "save target as"

Download Papertrey Radio 8

 

Call into our Google Voice account (301)-799-8338 to answer our discussion question or ask a question for our Q&A segment.  If Erin Lincoln includes you in the podcast, you'll be entered into a drawing to win a stamp set of your choice.

This week's question from Erin:

Time for our discussion question for the next podcast, which airs on June 4th. On the topic of summer again. My favorite season, so I have it a bit on the brain right now. Vacations are coming up. I'm in the process of getting ready for one. Looking forward to having some time to do some of my favorite activities like reading that stack of novels I haven't gotten to yet and having the time to do that for a few hours in the evening without other pressing concerns or momma duties. I'm wondering if any of you take your stamp supplies or other papercrafting projects with you on your vacations. Really just thinking about how the freedom from the normal day to day chores and obligations frees you up to do. If so, got any tips for taking things along? And what types of projects do you do? I'm tossing around bringing some prestamped cards and my Copics for a relaxing coloring session. Brings back memories of having a new box of crayons and a fresh coloring book on vacation as a little girl.

Important CHA Announcement

 It is with a heavy heart that Papertrey Ink must inform you of an important change to our summer event plans.

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We have made the decision not to attend the CHA Supershow, as previously announced.

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This very difficult decision was based on a variety of issues, primarily the changes in the show format as recently announced by the event organizers. The show has been taken in a direction which we feel is vastly different from previous years and unfortunately, the timing of their decision was quite limited in notice.

 

It is our hope to organize an event in Cincinnati that weekend that will enable us to spend more time with our customers.

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Preliminary plans are in the works, and we will be sure to keep you updated as those plans fall into place. We know this is an inconvenience to many of you whom may already have plans in place, and for that we are truly sorry. It is our hope that Cincinnati will be a central location for many of our customers, including those already going to Chicago. 

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Our goal is create an event where we can spend more time together, learning from each other and getting to know each other a bit better on a more personal level.

 

Please understand that this was an extremely difficult decision to make. It is not our intention to create problems in your travel plans, which is in large part why we are telling you as soon as we made the decision. We think that our customers are the best thing about Papertrey Ink, and it's our hope to create an event that shows that without a doubt! We will be sure to keep you up-to-date as the plans get set, but in the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to email us at:  

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customerservice@papertreyink.com