Make It Monday on Tuesday!

With all that's going on this week at Papertrey Ink, my friend Amy and I were texting about the first PTI stamp sets we purchased.  PTI's first release was in February of 2007.  Do you remember their first stamp set?  It was Paper Tray!  And I bought it!  That same year I also purchased the Borders and Corners Circles and the Ambassodor Monogram Edition.  Little Lady is still on my Wish List, but she seems to keep getting pushed aside. 

In 2008, I added Mixed Messages, Everyday Blessings and Remember to my collection.  Would you believe I just used Remember last month?!  Shame on me!  Still on my Wish List from 08?  Honey Bees and sentiments. 

Most of my stamping budget went to PTI in 2009 as there were so many incredible sets to choose from!  I purchased On My Couch, In Bloom, Take Note, Signature Greetings and Turning a New Leaf.  When finances permit, I still hope to add Damask, Tea for Two, Vintage Picnic, Autumn Abundance and Signature Christmas.

2010 was the Year of Stamps and I was blessed to increase my collection of PTI as I never imagined!  My favorite freebies from this year:  Year of Flowers; Studio Style; Delightful Dahlias; Chair-ished; It's Official; Up, Up and Away; Flutterby Friend; Tea for Two Additions; Love Birds; and Sheet Music.

It was fun to reminisce about the past releases.  Even more fun:  Make it Monday!  Papertrey Radio!  And...the BIG Giveaway!  PTI sure knows how to host a celebration!

Here's my take on Make It Monday!  For me, this card became all about the buttons!  Once I decided on the layout, I knew it needed them.  Not only did it need them, but they had to be sewn on.  Do you know how hard it is to stitch threw 3 layers of paper/cardstock?!  It was so worth it though.  I heart those PTI Razzberry Fizz buttons!  

Hope you're having as much fun as I am with PTI's Anniversary celebration!  Thanks for stopping by~ Patti

PTI Brightens My Day

Another day of anniversary festivities at Papertrey Ink!  How exciting that Maile Belles is going to be designing stamps now too!  Maile has such a fresh, clean style.  I thought I'd try my hand at the look for today's challenge. 
This is so not my usual style, that when my husband saw the card laying on the counter, he said "Who made that card?"  After I told him I had, he said it was too "minimalist" for me.  Perhaps, but it was fun to try something different. 

I'm so excited about the sneek peeks that have been featured this past week on Nichole's blog!  Mat Stack 4 stamps!  The "newsprint" background!  Doillies!  My Wish List just keeps growing!!!  Maybe I'll get lucky and win another year of stamps.  That's probably too much to hope for!  ;)  Hope you're playing along for your chance to win! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week! ~Patti

Papertrey Favorite(s) of 2010

Happy Anniversary Papertrey Ink!  Having been the winner of their 2010 Year of Stamps, it was my hope to be able to highlight all of the amazing stamp sets I recieved throughout the year on my blog.  Afterall, it seemed the least I could do having recieved such an amazing gift!  Alas, life got in the way and blogging was pushed aside by things like college applications, band concerts and family gatherings.  Sorry, but I wouldn't trade them.

The good news is, while I was busy working full-time, coordinating a mentoring program at an elementary school, acting as VP in the local Music Boosters and juggling the schedules of our four children (ages 12-19), I still found time to enjoy the stamps.  :)  And, the finished product made it into the hands of family and friends who were celebrating milestones or needed to be thanked or cheered. 

So what did I do with all of those stamps (over 120 sets!).  I shared them...with a couple of my dearest friends.  Each month, I would pick my faves and let them pick theirs.  As we each have different styles, it worked out well.  I'm really hoping one of the two of them wins this years prize, so we can continue sharing the joy of free stamps.  lol

What was my favorite PTI item they ask?  The Mat Stack 4 die!  I reach for it time and time again.  Dawn McVey's Sheet Music background!  I have four musicians in my house, so it's a perfect addition to my collection.   The Year of Flowers sets!  Each one is so beautiful and has lovely sentiments.  The felt!  I bought way too much at CHA this summer.  That was more than one wasn't it?!  Well, it's just too hard to choose.

Today I'm sharing a card that features some of my PTI favorites of 2010. 

I can't thank Nichole, Jane and Julie enough for the wonderful gift of stamps I've received this year.  They have been a blessing that I (and my friends) will enjoy for years to come!

Congratulations PTI on another year of success!  It's well deserved.  All the best! ~Patti

Vintage Friends

Nothing like the gift of time off to get the creativity flowing.  We have been under a mound of snow here in Illinois for the past couple of days.  Both school and work have been closed.  I've cooked, cleaned, enjoyed time with my family and even stamped!  It's been very therapeutic!

Valentine's Day always makes me mindful of the blessings of friendship, so I set out to make some cards for my dearest friends.  In going through my stash of supplies, I came across some vintage friendship stickers from Cloud 9.  I think I bought them a few years ago.  (I know, I know)  At any rate, they were a perfect match for the Basic Grey Wisteria paper that I've been hoarding.  ;)  

Achieving the perfect vintage look has always been a challenge for me.  I absolutely love it and I am totally drawn to it, but creating it is another story.  I'm certainly no Julia Stainton or Betsy Veldman,  but I feel like I'm making progress.  I think I'll keep at it and see what else I can come up with today.

Until next time, stay warm and be safe! ~Patti

CHA: A Slice of Crafty Girl Heaven!

I was fortunate enough to spend the day with four great friends at the CHA Supershow in Rosemont yesterday!   Wow!  I mean, WOW!!!

As we waited in line to enter, you could feel the excitement.  We were definitely in for some serious crafty goodness and fun!

First stop was the PTI booth.  We decided to start with a make and take...a pretty little felt flower pin.  On to shopping where Nichole greeted everyone with a warm smile.  The entire crew was so friendly and helpful.  It was pure joy to be able to thank them for the amazing gift of stamps I've been receiving each month.  Seeing all of those beautiful colors and products was amazing too.  I treated myself to buttons (lots of buttons), felt, felt and more felt, a handful of dies and even a stamp set. 

Highlights of my day at CHA: 

Kaisercraft booth-  Got a ginormous bag of goodies for free!!!  Clear stamps, paper, rub-ons and embellishments!  Oh my!

MFT booth- The rolled flower die turned out to be my favorite find of the day!!! 

Taylored Expressions booth-  Hands down the cutest booth there!   Adorable make and takes!  And Taylor and Jon were so sweet.

PTI booth- Loved being able to see their product up close and personal!  Met Debbie, Dawn, Mish, Jennifer, Jane and Nichole.  Fantastic make and takes!  Beautiful CHA only stamp set!

Of course, it was all made even better by sharing the day with friends.  We had lots of laughs and enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner before we took our goodies and our aching feet home. 

I'm already looking forward to next year's CHA experience!!!  If you get the chance-GO!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Enjoy your weekend! ~Patti

What's Your Style?

I spent the better part of  my morning perusing the Paper Crafts STYLE blog hop.  From Clean and Simple, Cute and Fun, Classy and Elegant to Shabby Vintage, there was a plethura of  styles to behold.  With the focus on style, it got me thinking about my own personal style. 

The Shabby Vintage look is beautiful and I always admire it, but I can't seem to perfect it.  Although the Clean and Simple look is fresh, it doesn't have enough going on in the way of embellishments for me.  I don't do super cutesy and I don't think my cards are elegant. 

So, where does that leave me?   Hmm.  I think my cards are a combination of clean, fun and classy.  They seem to have all the right elements, for my liking anyway.   The right color combo, some layering, a little dimension and the perfect embellishments.  A "classic" style! 

Hope you're enjoying stamping your style today! ~Patti

Blast from the Past Blog Hop

It's time for another Blast from the Past Blog Hop with Taylor!  It's always fun to break out Cuppie and give him a little color.  This is Love is Sweet and Cuppie is all decked out in Bo Bunny's Sun Kissed paper.  He's a ray of sunshine and sending smooches to a very special girl.  

My daughter Sarah and I say "smooches" daily, whether it be an off to school smooch, a have fun at your friend's smooch or a good night smooch.  Sarah's going away for a week this summer and I don't want her to miss our smooches, so I'm going to hide this smooch in her suitcase.  Shhhh! 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy hopping! ~Patti

Sew Nice!

Last weekend I had the chance to visit my favorite Archiver's store.  It had been a while and I had a gift card burning in a whole in my purse.  You can imagine how dangerous that was.  ;)

Turns out, they had all kinds of new gorgeous patterned paper.  I was in heaven!  And the real  excitement...I actually came home and used it!!!  I am such a hoarder when it comes to patterened paper.  I love it!  All the different patterns and colors and textures...  What if I run out?  And I can't find it again?  Ugh! 

Determined to break my hoarding habit, I got my paper cutter out and got busy!  This is from Bo Bunny's Peacock Lane collection.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  I've used it here with Papertrey's Studio Style.  Studio Style is perfect for us crafty girls to make cards for our crafty friends. 

Found another great crafty set at Archivers.  (But I had a coupon honey!)  This is Hero Art's Sew Artsy set.  It's adorable and sew versatile!  I'm looking forward to finding more time to play with it in the week ahead.  But for now, I'm off to tackle some laundry and cleaning.  Now, there's some fun.  LOL  Have a terrific day!  ~ Patti

The Sky Is The Limit

Today, we celebrate the graduation of Justin's girlfriend, B.  B has been an important part of Justin's life for nearly two years.  She's energetic, light hearted, easy going, a natural beauty and pretty special to him.  B's off to St. Olaf in the fall to study science and will no doubt be missed here.  I'm not sure what the future holds for "them", but I'm sure each will have a brilliant future.

It's interesting to look back on my own life when these milestones pass for my children and their friends.  I lived in California when I graduated high school.  I loved Berkley and was going to be a lawyer.  Makes me giggle now.  ;)

It is exciting though to see a young person dreaming about their future, making their plans and then working to make those dreams a reality.  Papertrey's Up, Up and Away seemed the perfect set to celebrate B's new journey in life.  Coupled with Bo Bunny's  Sun Kissed paper, this card totally fits Bs delightful personality.  I hope she likes it. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Wherever you are, enjoy this beautiful day! ~Patti

No Stamping Required

I've been a lazy paper crafter. ;)   Got out some paper packs with punch out images and played.  I have to admit...it was loads of fun!  No stamping, just designing- playing with paper and embellishments.  Good times! 

This pack is from Crate Paper.  I've had it for a while, so it was good to put it to use. 

It's been a good weekend.  A little work, a little rest and lots of fun just being at home with my hubby and the kids.  It's been so relaxing and just what I needed! 

I hope you're enjoying your weekend too!  Thanks for stopping by! ~Patti

More Mo...

Just two more days and school will be done for the year.  My kids are so excited and I'm excited for them, but my lazy days will be few and far between as I tackle some projects here at home and look for a new job. 

Job hunting can be so intimidating.  Sprucing up the resume, submitting applications, then interviewing and waiting. I hope I'm up for the challenge!

This card features another image from Mo's Digital Pencil Shop.  This girl is adorable.  She looks so content lounging barefoot in the flowers.   I'm jealous!  ;) 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a good one! ~Patti

Level Up!

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know that I have three sons and a daughter.  My youngest son, Jacob, and many of his friends are total gamers.  From board games, to D&D to Wii, they're hooked.  When I saw this image at Mo's Digital Pencil Shop I had to have it! 

This boy looks like my Jacob, especially when he's working on "just one more level, mom".  This card's going into my stash of birthday cards.  I'm sure it will be put to good use for a friend's birthday this summer. 

As for Mo's, I suggest you check it out.  She's got some great images...that would cost a pretty penny in the form of stamps, but are so reasonably priced as digital images.  She sure sold me on them!  ;) 

Sweeeeet! Blog Hop!

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by today for Taylor's Blast from the Past Blog Hop!  I chose Love Is Sweet! for my card design because it's absolutely adorable and so fun to play with.

My daughter and I used this set for our Valentine cards last year.  I've also used it for birthday cards, thank you cards and of course, love notes.  It's a very sweet set!

I've been trying to replenish my supply of hand stamped cards, so this one's going into my stash for an upcoming birthday. 

Keeping it short and sweet today. ;)   Enjoy your day of blog hopping!  ~Patti

Teacher Appreciation

It's been a rough year at Chesebro Elementary.  We started the year off with a new Principal, moved classrooms and teachers around for about 3 months before finally settling in.  We had H1N1 to deal with and then one of our precious little students passed away. 

We came back in January to announcements of budget cuts and then many of our teachers were told they were being let go.  We've dealt with some serious family illnesses, including pnemonia and cancer and experienced loved ones lost.  

Then, interviews began this week for those re-applying for teaching postitions.  It's been an emotional and stressful year at Chesebro and yet we've helped each other through it all.  I'm so proud to be a part of such an amazing staff.

This week at Chesebro, we are showing our teachers how much we appreciate them.  They certainly deserve to be celebrated!

We have some special treats in store for them, including several power point presentations by students, lots of heartfelt notes and pictures from students and a little gift bag of goodies.  I was asked to make the tags for the bags and had a great time with it!  I made 22 tags and each one is different. This is a small sample of my favorites. 

I used stamps and paper from the Imaginisce Teacher's Pet line that I was fortunate enough to win from Papercrafts several months back.  I knew they would be put to good use one day! 

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you're having a super week!  Blessings~ Patti

Owl-ways Thinkin'

We've been on the go here, so there hasn't been much time for posting, but I have found a little time to play here and there.

My daughter, Sarah and I like owls, especially cute ones on t-shirts, bags and stationary. Even though there are some very nice owl stamp sets out there, they weren't quite what we were looking for. After searching stamp stores and sites for several months, I started sketching out what I had in mind. The sketch sat in my notebook for a few more months.

In the meantime, a co-worker started a home-based engraving business. She shares my joy of papercrafting and we got to talking (wondering) if her little machine could cut stamps. To our delight, it can! Thus, my first stamp design was born!!!

It's not much, but it sure has been fun to see this little owl come to life! I've enjoyed coloring him with my Copics and paper piecing him with a variety of patterned paper. He's so cute and just what Sarah and I were looking for!

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend~Patti

Hello Monday!

Whew! What a weekend! Lots of laundry, errands and cleaning coupled with a percussion concert and a spaghetti dinner fundraiser.

Justin is part of a new A Cappella group at school named Enharmonic Fusion. They are going to New York in a couple of weeks for a national competition. It's a bit pricey to send 21 students to NY for 4 days, so we threw together a fundraiser. It was loads of fun with all the parents pitching in to cook and serve and the students performing. They sound amazing!

I'm really excited about this trip because I get to go along as a chaperone. Justin has a solo in the competition so I'm looking forward to being able to share in this experience with him.

In spite of the busyness of the weekend, I did find a few minutes to stamp. This is Delightful Dahlia from PTI's March release. So much fun to color!

I have a confession to make, I'm addicted to patterned paper. So, I'm prone to keeping the smallest of scraps. Silly, I know. But in this case it was worth it! Basic Grey Euphoria is perfect for flowers.

Looking forward to a quiet evening tonight. Definitely an early to bed night. Thanks for popping in! Take care~ Patti

Butterfly Thank You

TGIF! It's been such a full week. I am so thankful that the weekend is upon us! I'm looking forward to some quality time with my hubby, my kiddos and my stamps. ;)

Just stopping in for a quick post to share one of my favorite PTI sets from the February release. Butterfly Dreams. I'm a huge fan of butterflies and this set is so pretty. It has a great variety of butterflies and there's also a matching die cut.

Stamping is proof that it's the little things that make us happy. :) Hope it's a happy Friday for you! Enjoy your weekend too! ~Patti

Thanks...for Everything

I'm trying to get in the swing of things after spring break. I thought I might catch up on things over break; finish painting the trim in two of the kids' bedroooms, clean the kitchen appliances, maybe relax a bit, visit with friends, spend a day at Starved Rock or go to a movie.

Instead, we took Justin up to Northfield, Minnesota to visit St. Olaf College. They had a Junior Preview Day. Since we were driving 6 hours each way, we decided to take in as much of the college as we could and also attended a band concert, 3 choir rehearsals, orchestra rehearsal, jazz band rehearsal, percussion ensemble rehearsal and a music theory class. We also toured the campus and music building and ate lunch in the caf. Three days later, we arrived home. :)

Needless to say, the appliances still need a good cleaning and the paint trim isn't done. Maybe I'll get to them over summer break. lol

I did find a couple of hours to stamp. Yeah! This simple thank you is for the gals at Paper Trey Ink. It hardly seems like enough for the wonderful gift they have given me in "a year of free stamps", but it's from the heart.

The Violet stamp set is beautiful! I so enjoy coloring the big blooms and leaves with my Copics! Looking forward to spending more time with it soon!

Blessings~ Patti

Lucky

Some call it luck, some fortune; I call it a blessing. I was chosen the random winner of "Free Stamps for a Year" from Paper Trey Ink. I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be receiving such an awesome gift! I certainly didn't do anything extraordinary to earn it. Yet, my little box of 10 stamp sets arrived on my door step this past week. Lucky me! Fortunate me! Blessed me!!!

I feel compelled to share my blessing, so I'm going to try to make it a priority to post some of the cards I make each month with these lovely Paper Trey gems!

Since I'm Norwegian, I haven't ever purchased St. Patrick's Day or Irish stamps, but I have to admit that Luck of the Irish is one of my favorite sets from PTI's January release. With phrases like "You're my pot of gold and Lucky to count you as a friend", it makes for some very sweet friendship cards. And those are my favorite type of cards to make.

This one's off to Texas! One of my dearest friends, Priscilla, moved there in November. My daughter and I went to visit her and her family last month. It was such a treat to be able to chat with her face to face and to see her new home and community, but I am missing her again already.

It feels good to be back to blogging. I look forward to sharing more PTI designs as well as what's new with my family in the weeks ahead. Thanks for visiting! ~Patti

Copic Coloring Fun!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I had a terrific time sharing Copic coloring tips at my first Copic Class yesterday at the Peddler's Den! Tonya has a lovely store with lots of fun goodies including Copics, Nestabilities, Great Impressions stamps and lots more!

This first class was all about the basics of coloring, blending and shading.
It's been quite a while since I've taught a stamping class, but I really enjoyed sharing about Copics, meeting new people and teaching again. Thought I'd share my cards from the class. I tried to keep things simple as to focus on the coloring, but wanted everyone to take home some finished cards.

I'll be teaching my Copics 102 Class on August 8th at the Peddler's Den, where I'll share about coloring images black and white, coloring skin and hair, stamping with Copic ink and doodling with Copics. I think I've got a lot to do in the next month. ;) Thanks for visiting today! Warmly~ Patti