Monday, April 30, 2012

Make-It-Monday Color Challenge

Hi everyone!  I've missed you!  I have actually been really crafty lately, and have about 10 projects to share with you, but guess what???  I live in Louisville, KY and it is the week before the first Saturday in May...anyone know what that means?? (No fair shouting out the answer all you fellow Louisvillians!) It's DERBY WEEK!!  There is so much going on around the city this week, and sadly I'm not participating in any of those events, however I AM getting my house ready for the big day this coming Saturday.  We have a huge party every year (I invited 90 people this year...gasp! Luckily no more than half will actually come) and I have lots to do to spruce up the house.  I just love hosting parties because they force me to turn all of those want-to-do projects into finished projects!

Aside from all the Derby excitement, we are in full swing (pardon the pun) with baseball season around here.  I would love to tell you that baseball is my sons' favorite sport since that's the case for my husband and I, however their favorite sport is always the one they are currently playing.  With three boys, there are lots of sports being played around here all the time...most of them in my living room!!  John and I really love baseball.  I can remember many an evening while pregnant with our first kiddo, sitting around with John, beating him at cards and listening to a baseball game in the background.  Those were such great times.  I can totally see us all wrinkled and gray watching baseball and sipping lemonade.  It is just such a great All-American game!

Anyway, I digress...today's crafty project was a result of the A-MAZ-ING video by Nichole Heady for this week's edition of her Make-It-Monday series.  This week she spent a whopping 22 minutes demonstrating her creative process.  She created a card from start to finish using the colors from a great image as her inspiration.  In addition to this great video, she also provided us with some awesome color combination suggestions to start us off on our own creation.  The combo I chose was this:


I love these colors, but I don't know that I would necessarily have put them all together (especially the Berry Sorbet with the other ones), but I'm loving how my project turned out.   What do you think?



One great point that Nichole reminded me of in her video, was the use of the rule of threes.  This design "rule" suggests that things (colors in this case) should be repeated or used in "threes".  You may notice that I tried very hard to follow this rule when making this card.  I think that I succeeded with most of the colors, except for the Aqua Mist.  I had to cheat with that one a little bit and lined the inside of the card with this color to get it on there a third time...not sure this really counts with the rule of threes, but I just couldn't figure out how to get it on the front of the card one more time and make it make sense.

Here are some more pics of my project:



Thanks for visiting with me!  I think that I'll have another entry for this challenge later in the week, but....no promises! 

Kate


INGREDIENTS:
Paper: PTI's Vintage Cream, Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse, Berry Sorbet, and Aqua Mist
Stamps: PTI's Mat Stack 3, Mat Stack 5, and Background Basics: Medallions
Ink: PTI's Classic Kraft and Dark Chocolate, and VersaMark
Dies: PTI's Mat Stack 3, Mat Stack 3 Layerz, Super Stars Border, Signature Series Butterfly, Butterfly
Other: Button from stash, button twine, and flower punch (no idea what brand)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

Hi everyone!  I'm in a hurry today because I have an hour before I have to pick up my little guy from school and I have a TON to get done before then!  So, I'll make this short and sweet.  Today's project is for  Papertrey's April Blog Hop Challenge.  We were asked to make a project inspired by this photo:


Isn't it gorge???  I loved it immediately!  Anyway, here's my card inspired by this gorgeous photo!





Hope you like it!

Thanks for visiting!

Kate

INGREDIENTS:
Paper:  PTI's White, Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, and Hawaiian Shores
Stamps: PTI's Rosie Posie, Background Basics: Houndstooth, Mat Stack 5 and Beyond Basic Borders
Ink: PTI's Pure Poppy, Berry Sorbet, Raspberry Fizz, Simply Chartreuse and New Leaf and VersaMark
Dies: PTI's Rosie Posie
Other: Corner Chomper, wite embossing powder, colored pencils

Thursday, April 19, 2012

PTI Make-It-Monday

Hi there!  Well the kiddos are back in school, and it's funny because mommy is both thrilled and a little sad.  I really enjoyed having the boys home for the week.  We had some really fun times and I feel that I was able to really reconnect with each one individually.  However, it sure is a lot of work to have them all demanding your attention at the same time!  My oldest, Jake is making his First Communion this weekend and we're having a big party on Saturday after the mass.  I have lots to do, so I'm kind of glad everyone is back to school so that I have some time to prepare!  Tomorrow is major cleaning day.  It may sound weird, but I'm really looking forward to it.  After having everyone home, the house is a wreck and I can't wait to get everything back in order.  What the heck am I going to do all summer withe the guys around ALL the time????  Deep breaths...one day at a time!

This week's Make-it-Monday challenge on Nichole Heady's blog was to make a series of cards that "Step Up" in terms of layering.  The cards made by Betsy Veldman in this week's video are amazing!  I think I may have to copy that design sometime!!  You should check it out.  Betsy made three cards, but I only had time for two tonight...ok, let's be honest...I only had enough attention span for two cards tonight. 


The first card is a simple one layer card.  I just love that Lace Bouquet image and adding the color to it really added some dimension. 




The second card steps up the layering with a few flowers that I cut by hand to place over the ones on the bottom layer.  I also added a little bling to these beauties!  I then used the Happy Day die to frame out my sentiment and added a little extra color with some strips of paper.



It's really amazing how a little layering can change a card!!  I hope to make another entry for this challenge later in the week...fingers crossed!

Thanks for visiting!

Kate

INGREDIENTS (Card #1):
Paper: PTI's Vintage Cream, Aqua Mist (inside)
Stamps: PTI's Lace Bouquet and Think Big Favorites #2
Ink: PTI's Classic Kraft, Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, Summer Sunrise, and Dark Chocolate
Other: Corner Rounder
INGREDIENTS (Card #2):
Paper: PTI's Kraft, Vintage Cream, Berry Sorbet, Summer Sunrise, and Aqua Mist
Stamps: PTI's Lace Bouquet and Think Big Favorites #2
Ink: PTI's Classic Kraft, Berry Sorbet, Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist, and Dark Chocolate
Dies: PTI's Happy Day
Other: Rhinestones

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

PTI Make-it-Monday

Hi friends!  Well, we're on Spring Break here and I couldn't be happier!  I really love getting to sleep in and have some lazy days.  All this free time also means that I got a chance to participate in PTI's Make-it-Monday challenge this week.  The challenge was to create a flower using a non-flower die.  I chose to use PTI's butterfly dies for my flower.  I simply cut the butterflies in half and arranged them in a tulip sort of fashion.  I think it turned out kinda' pretty!  This was a fun one! 




We're off to the movies this morning!  Hope you have a great day!

Thanks for visiting!

Kate

INGREDIENTS:
Paper: PTI's Raspberry Fizz, Dark Chocolate, Berry Sorbet, and White and Sella and Rose's Hazel Papers patterned paper
Stamps: PTI's Signature Greetings (my fav!!)
Ink: PTI's Dark Chocolate
Dies: PTI's Signature Butterfly, Butterfly, Heart Border Die, and Half and Half
Other: Rhinestone