{capture the moment}

Senior DT Challenge: Rustic Branches Revisited

Hello everyone!  I have an amazing treat in store for you today and I think you will really enjoy everything that myself and the team have prepared for you!

Today we are revisiting Rustic Branches designed by Heather Nichols.  Originally released in 2008, this amazingly versatile set.  All of the layering possibilities with both the solid and outline version of the images are so FUN to experiment and play with!  It even has all sorts of amazing holiday applications!

Here is a little something new that I created with Rustic Branches, one of my all-time favorite sets!

I love how this set can be used for either complex or simple projects.  I chose to go the simple route today.

I stamped the solid wreath image twice with a single inking to get a second "shadow" impression using Spring Moss.  I then added the berry overlay with Ocean TIdes ink.  I carefully cut the tips of all the leaves with a craft knife and curled the ends up for dimension (I call this the clip & curl technique which I originally talked about HERE)

The sentiment (from Through the Trees) is stamped in Smokey Shadow.  I also added some stitching to the side of the focal point and adhered Ocean Tides buttons with a few glue dots.

 

I stamped some of the outline branches on the Kraft base in Fresh Snow ink to act as a bit of a border.  It's a really simple card, but I love the classic elegance that it achieved.

Now, let me show you a few of the fabulous things the design team has created with this set!

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.

I hope you have enjoyed this little re-visit with Rustic Branches and perhaps have found a bit of inspiration here!  Enjoy the rest of your week and thanks so much for stopping by!

You can see my original countdown post for Rustic Branches HERE.

You can view the Rustic Branches Design Team Gallery HERE.

• STAMPS: Rustic Branches, Through the Trees
• INK: Spring Moss, Ocean TIdes, Smokey Shadow, Fresh Snow
• PAPER: Kraft, Ocean Tides, Stamper's Select White
• OTHER: Ocean Tides buttons, craft knife, pinking shears, sewing machine,
• FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"

Make It Monday #21: Polaroid 2-Step Masking

Welcome to another addition of Make It Monday!  Today I am bringing you a fun technique that I used earlier this month during June countdown festivities on THIS CARD that was part of THIS POST.  I'm calling it the Polaroid 2-Step Masking technique.  Without further ado, here's the video.

And a few still photos of the 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 Polaroid 2-Step Masking 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, July 4th, 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, July 4th, 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!

 

The Make It Monday #21 winner is #68 - Gwen.  Congratulations, Gwen! Please make sure to email Customer Service with your choice of stamp set and your shipping information so we can get your prize package out to you! Thank you to all the participants for the fantastic inspiration.

June 2011 Blog Hop

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

{photo credit}

We thought we would start a short inspirational series with the Blog Hops for the next few months as a fun way to spice things up!  This month we are providing you with a beautiful photo to help trigger some creative ideas with color!  This inspirational photo is just dreamy and it's the perfect thing to give you a creative jumpstart that will lead to nothing but fabulous results!  We look forward to seeing everyone's interpretations using this inspiration!  

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 decided to focus on the colors and the way they graduate down the length of the photo.

I interpreted the colors to be Simply Chartreuse, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Melon Berry, Berry Sorbet & Raspberry Fizz.

I cut 3/4" strips of cardstock in each of those colors and adhered them next to each other on a scrap of cardstock.  I trimmed it to a rectangle and then rotated the block and cut it into strips again, creating these cool color-blocked strips.

The strips are what I used to apply my sentiment.  The sentiments (from Simple Sentiments stamp set) were stamped with True Black ink.  

 

I stamped Mehndi Medallion in Versamark onto the Kraft background and heat embossed it with Filigree White Embossing Powder.  I also inked the edges of the Kraft block with Fresh Snow ink to help achieve the "softness" that the inspiration photo has.

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 (June 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 afternoon.  We look forward to seeing all of your creations!

EDITED TO ADD RANDOMLY SELECTED WINNERS:

Tracie C. created a subtle rainbow background by utilizing a sponging technique on strips of paper.  Her darling embellishments made with the Love Lives Here stamp set really "pop" and the sentiment grounds the embellishments and pulls everything together so nicely! 

Tammy Butz created a beautiful multi-colored background by incorporating various patterned papers and card stock.  The varying sizes of paper strips keep the background interesting and the three little stitching details keep the eye moving around the card and are such a perfect finishing touch!

Maureen L. used a simple line here to ground her focal point and created the clever "table" for her vases the rest on!  Beautiful masking on the vases and a re-inker technique on her background make this card such a delight and her choice of sentiments (from Happy Trails) couldn't be more fitting!

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 you have been inspired as well!

 

• STAMPS: Simple Sentiments, Mehndi Medallion
• INK: Fresh Snow, True Black, VersaMark
• PAPER: Kraft, Stamper's Select White, Simply Chartreuse, Spring Moss, Sweet Blush, Melon Berry, Berry Sorbet, Raspberry Fizz
• OTHER: Filigree White Embossing Powder, Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers)
• FINISHED SIZE: 4.25" x 5.5"

June 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, June 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. 

 

{photo credit}

We thought we would start a short inspirational series with the Blog Hops for the next few months as a fun way to spice things up!  This month we are providing you with a beautiful photo to help trigger some creative ideas with color!  This inspirational photo is just dreamy and it's the perfect thing to give you a creative jumpstart that will lead to nothing but fabulous results!  We look forward to seeing everyone's interpretations using this inspiration!

 

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

Summer Card Camp!

There are a few paper crafters in this world that I hold in very high-esteem, not only for their amazing talents, but also for their genuine hearts and kindness.  Two of the gals from my VIP list have teamed together to bring you an AMAZING paper-crafting experience that you won't want to miss out on!

Get ready for a summer full of colorful cardmaking fun with Summer Card Camp 2011. Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner have teamed up to bring you a 4-week workshop loaded with fresh color combos, cutting edge techniques, and versatile sketches that will leave you feeling inspired to create! Summer Card Camp is your all-access pass to 48 new card ideas, daily PDFs, twice weekly videos, guest designers (including me!), huge prizes and access to a private blog where you can share your own creations.  I know I just LOVED going to Girl Scout Camp as a kid and I bet Card Camp will be even better! No mosquitos, just paper & glue sprinkled with creativity!

Here is a little video with further details and you can also get more information and register by visiting their website OnlineCardClasses.com.

And I am giving away three spots in the class! Just leave a comment letting me know how you feel about a summer camp JUST FOR YOU!  You probably indulge the kids every summer, so why not yourself for a change! If you are picked as a winner and have already signed up, you will be given a refund!  

You have until 7am EST, Thursday, June 24th to leave a comment here to be eligible to win.  Only one comment per person please.  Three randomly selected winners will be announced here on this blog post by noon the same day.  Thanks for stopping by today and good luck with the contest!

Here are the winners!

Congratulations to Gena C, Nana 4 and Debbie Gaydos!  You are ALL going to Card Camp for FREE!!!!!  I have provided your email addresses to Jennifer and someone should be in touch with you soon!  And if you weren't one of the lucky winners, there's still time to register!  Class begins in just a few days, so be sure to stop by and sign-up!

Make It Monday #20: Reverse Masking

Join Erin Lincoln today for a reverse masking tutorial and see your stamps and their possibly combinations in a whole new light. Talk about expanding the possibilities.

A still shot of her project. Take note of the tone-on-tone look of the hearts.

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 reverse masking 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 27th, 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 27th, 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!

 

 

The Make It Monday #20 winner is #39 - Audrey T.  Congratulations, Audrey! Please make sure to email Customer Service with your choice of stamp set and your shipping information so we can get your prize package out to you! Thank you to all the participants for the fantastic inspiration.

Papertrey Radio #10

 

Enjoy our bimonthly podcast episode today. Because of the long length of our Lizzie Jones interview and an extended Q&A segment, we are postponing the discussion question from Episode #9 until July 2nd. Talk to you then.

Papertrey Radio - Episode 10

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 10

 

And if you think of a great question for our stamp designers, Nichole, design team members, or Jenn, please be sure to call us at (301)799-8338. If chosen, you could be a participant in a future podcast and have a chance of winning a stamp set of your choice!

Here are some links to things you may find of interest after listening to today's podcast...

CLICK HERE to visit Lizzie Jones' blog!

CLICK HERE to see the original Paper Tray stamp set, our very first release!

CLICK HERE and scroll all the way to the bottom of the list to see the very first ten day countdown from February 2007!

CLICK HERE to see the original stationery collection that Papertrey released in 2006.

Father's Day

It's just around the corner!  And if any of you are like me, you've waited until the last minute to put a little something special together for the dads in your like, hoping to come up with the perfect, meaningful gift!

I was browsing around online the other day and stumbled upon THIS amazing project.  I knew immediately that it would be the perfect thing to put together for David this year.

(click on the photo below for a larger view)

I executed my version just a bit differently since I didn't have as many kids as the artist of the original piece.  

I had my three kids spell out "DAD" at the top of the frame and had them hold up a blank sign in a photo where I was able to add text with Photoshop.  

I also added a kraft block that reads "Happy Father's Day 2011" and had the kids sign their names around the sentiment.  I always LOVE preserving the kids signatures every year.  They change so much and it is fun to go back and look at the differences from year to year.  For example, in Kindergarten, Owen was insistent on always making his "n" backwards!  And this year, Hannah is doing what she calls "fairy letters", complete with lots of curls and flourishes.  

This was a super quick project, the kids had a blast helping to form all the "letters" and it was inexpensive.  Most importantly though, I know David will absolutely adore it!

Here are a few more projects you may possibly be interested in for inspiration if you are a last minute kind of person like me!

CLICK HERE for another Dad's day gift I made for David a few years ago that you might enjoy where I created silhouettes of each of the kids.

CLICK HERE for a special mini album I created dedicated to David and to honor him as a father.  (The photos are kind of small in the post, so be sure to click on each of them to enlarge)

Enjoy your Father's Day weekend!

The Day After...

As tradition holds, I like to share some of my favorite DT projects from this release the morning after.  I hope some of the art I selected leaves you as inspired as it did me!

Betsy Veldman made me weak in the knees with this project using Mehndi Medallion.  I love all of the layering she did with the images...and the color scheme?  LOVE!  The large Think Big Favorites #5 sentiments across the middle is the perfect finishing touch!

Danielle Flanders used It's a Jungle Out There to make this super girly card.  You goota love the black stripes paired up with that beautiful Raspberry Fizz & Pure Poppy Damask Designs paper!  I adore how she has the zebra coming out of the decorative frame...such a clever use!

Dawn McVey created this simple pocket card with more of the Damask Designs paper and Gracious Vases.  I thought it was so clever the way she cut the top of the pocket with the Edgers #1 die.  Such a classy touch.  

Debbie Olson made her own version of a onesie card with the new Shape Up Series: Onesie die.  I love how she added the adorable little giraffe from Sweet Baby to the front.  The cute little tag she added with the Tiny Tags die is the perfect accent for the little guy!

Erin Lincoln wowed me with this flashcard style project pairing up It's a Jungle Out There and Fruit Fusion: Apple.  As she has shown here, it is totally appropriate for a child's birthday, but it would also work nicely as a teacher's thank you!

Heather Nichols went flashcard style as well for this series of projects which I immediately fell head over heels about!  They look so realistic and effortless!  The simple design would make it easy to mass produce them as a gift or to keep on hand for last minute notes.

Jessica Witty and the clever girl that she is used the Alphablocks die to create a window for Gracious Vases to peek through.  I love how she creates a "window box" to hold the sentiment!  And the watercoloring she did on the flowers is so beautiful, making the flowers just pop from the page!

Lisa Johnson made this fantastic card with Daydreamer.  I love how she split the sentiment to create visual balance.  Not to mention, her color scheme happens to be one of my all time favorites right now!

Maile Belles amazed me with the way she paired Think Big Favorites #5 with Gracious Vases on this project.  Such a simple concept to layer them like this, but so striking!

Melissa Phillips paired the Picket Fence die with the flowers and sentiments from Tag-its #5 on this amazing project.  Her felt flowers cut with the Buttoned-up #2 die are just stunning and I love the way she added the adhesive pearls to the cloud die-cuts as well.

Michelle Wooderson made this ultra-feminine guitar using Rhythm & Soul.  I just LOVE the floral paper used to paper piece the guitar!  So clever!  The "U Rock" sentiment from Say it with Style was just the perfect complement to all of the other elements on the card!

All of these girls manage to *wow* me time and time again with each and everything they create!  I am so incredibly thankful for them and all the hard work that they dedicate each month!  Now, go through the projects above one more time and pick a small attribute, a technique, a color scheme, a layout and go into your stamping space and create something fabulous!  Go on!  You know you want to!  And be sure to link your creation in the comments section so I can see!  Or, be sure to throw the rock-n-roll technique in there somewhere and enter your creation into our Make It Monday contest for this week!

Have a fantastic rest of the week!

*Official* June 2011 Release Party Contest

I am absolutely smitten with all of this month's new releases and I can tell by the excitement that some of you have shared with me that you are too!  A big thank you to each and every one of you who have joined us tonight during release festivities as well as the last five days of countdown fun!  

To finish up this exciting celebration, we're giving away a fabulous prize package tonight!  Practically the entire June release!  All you need to do to have your chance to win is post an answer to the following question in the comments section below.

Congrats to Laura for being the BIG winner tonight!  And thank you again to everyone else who stopped by tonight to celebrate along with us!

Also, don't forget to check out our June Release Winners Page to see if you've won the Day 5 prize package from the countdown!