Card Patterns Sketch #34

Hi there! I'm so happy that things finally go the "normal" route again. All term papers handed it, all exams taken for this semester. Just go to work and see what the next seminars bring. My laptop also works again like it should be plus I updated to the latest Mac OS yesterday and everything seems to work so much faster. Wheww!

Well, I did some blog hopping today to find some inspiration and have to say I just love the current sketch over at the Card Patterns blog. Happily, I could manage to make a quick card based on it today :-) It's a wedding card for a former colleague.

I'm not 100 % sure about it so pleeease help me - your feedback is very welcome! Is it too rustic? Would you change the bow color (to say cream?), add some bling or half pearls? I just don't know... Anyways, hope you have a good time!

Supplies

Stamps: PTI Damask Designs, custom sentiment stamp

Ink: Colorbox chestnut, Versacolor white with Versamark dazzle frost

Paper: PTI cardstock in kraft and cream, patterned paper from Pink Paislee

Other: Depot satin ribbon chocolat, sewing machine/thread, foam dimensionals, Fiskars scallop sentiment punch

Ha!!

... so much for the last butterfly of the year! I did it again - 'cause I couldn't give that cute recycled gift wrap away without a little note, right?!? So in the very last minute, I took out my little file folder that holds all my patterned paper and found a perfectly matching piece of designer paper from Sassafras Lass ... but see for yourself, here's my little tag-y:

However, the clue on here is on the back! I found a cool tutorial in forum from a very talented German scrapper, Jazzica. She explained how to make your own scratch off cards with acrylic paint and I just *had* to give this a try!

Actually, I couldn't stop and made a clean & simple birthday card for my brother with another "scratch message" inside (sorry, I forgot to photograph the inside and "scratched" message so you see the effect).

Hee, it was so much fun to give the tag and card away and see the recipients smiling all the way :-) On another note, Saturday is not only The Day of German Unity but also (my first) World Card Making Day!! If you are (or understand) German it's worth visiting the Dani Peuss Forum for the World Card Making Day online crop - I'll be there :-)

Have great week everybody and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

{Butterfly Tag}
Paper: Sassafras Lass Secret Garden, blue and white from stash
Other: Dymo label writer, silver acrylic paint mixed with dish washing liquid, clear packaging tape, MM Slice (Spring DC), Fiskars scallop sentiment punch


{Clean & Simple Masculine Card}

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Background Basics Retro

Ink: Colorbox chestnut

Paper: Basic Grey Offbeat, cardbase recycled from store-bought card

Other: Fiskars star punch, silver acrylic paint mixed with dish washing liquid, clear packaging tape

PTI September Blog Hop

Hi there, I'm so glad this Blog Hop Night happens to be on a weekend and I can take the time to participate! This month theme is about recycling the packaging material from our PTI package(s). Here's what I came up with: gift wraps!

First, I want to show you this little number:

As fall is making its way, I wanted to incorporate my (probably) last butterfly of the season. I took one of the packaging papers and folded it in half, than took the book I wanted to wrap and draw its contour on the paper. Next, I inked the largest stamp of the Fancy Flourishes stamps and stamped it on top of the paper. I put the paper aside to let the ink dry a bit and took one of the clear sheets on which the stamps were mounted and handcut a "ghost butterfly". Next up, I inked the tissue paper that is wraped around the stamp sets and stamped polka dots in Enchanted Evening: During this process, I noticed that there's enough space to stamp another row of dots inbetween and gave this idea a go with Summer Sunrise ink. Learn from my mistake: the paper is very thin and you should put some copy paper or else underneath... After letting the ink dry a bit, I folded it approximately the size of the ghost shape, layered the ghost butterfly on top and than handcut all around. I have about ten layers - to add some dimension to the layers, I inked the edges with more of the Enchanted Evening ink.

Did you notice, how the "ghost shape" lifts the tissue paper layers? However, I went back to the packaging wrap with the flourish on top and sewed around the contour and also adhered the butterfly with zig-zag stitch. Finally, for a little finishing touch, I took my new Versamark Dazzle ink pad to add some glitter.

Still here with me? Now, my next gift wrap was more like ruminant, repetitive stamping and it was made to match this little card. I used my favourite stamp set, Everyday Button Bits, and created a wrap with another sheet of packaging paper. The hot-air ballons are stamped with stamps from Polka Dot Basics I and Simply Stationary. Sorry for the imperfections - I should have ironed the paper before stamping - the wrinkels just made it impossible not to have any unwanted spots. Well, let's just call it natural distressing, okay? ;o)

I hope you enjoyed my contributions a little. I wish you a wonderful blog hop night!

Supplies

{Butterfly gift wrap}

Stamps: PTI Fancy Flourishes, PTI Polka Dot Basics I

Ink: PTI Enchanted Evening and Summer Sunrise, Versamark Dazzle (frost)

Paper: all from PTI package

Other: sewing machine & thread

{Hot-air Balloon gift wrap}

Stamps: PTI Polka Dot Basics I, PTI Simply Stationary, PTI Everyday Button Bits

Ink: PTI Melon Berry and Hibiscus Burst, Heyda turquoise, Colorbox Chestnut

Paper: from PTI package

A Passion for Papertrey Challenge #13

Hello everyone! I couldn't resist to participate in the current A Passion for Papertrey Challenge "Cherished Colour". Hop over to the website, you have until tomorrow to participate! Unfortunately, I started to paint my cardbase before my wonderful prize package from Kate arrived but I used some of my new buttons :) Without further ado, here is my card:

You can see, I still do my best to go clean and simple and obviously, my favourite colour at the moment is turquoise! I wonder when Nichole, one of the Papertrey Ink owners, will answer my dream about a new ink colour... but then, when I opened Kate's package, I instantly fell in love with Raspberry Fizz on each and every item, especially the buttons. Guess, I'm helplessly addicted... but I'm in good company, right? ;o)

Have a wonderful Sunday! Dana


Supplies
Stamps: PTI Everday Button Bits
Paper: cream-ish cardstock (recycled from a store bought card)
Ink: Colorbox chestnut, PTI vintage cream, Heyda turquoise and lime
Other: acrylic paint in white and turquoise, PTI vintage buttons in hibiscus burst, aqua mist and melon berry, hemp twine, eyelet setter, foam dimensionals, clear rhinestone from stash

I got mail :-)

Hi there, I hope you are fine and enjoy your weekend! While I should keep learning for my last semester exams, I just had to show you all the cute stuff that was delivered to my mailbox during the last time :-) First, I wanted to show you a sweet card from my blogging friend Nina:

So, so pretty and she even handstiched the pinked line, wow!! Next up a card from my colleagues (oh, I didn't mention it before but it was my birthday on Wednesday)...

... and today, just like a belated birthday present, the postman delivered my prize from the A Passion for Papertrey challenge I won! :-) When I opend the mail, I did not only find these wonderful PTI goodies (all thoughtfully put together to match)...

...but also a cute card from Kate:

Seriously, I'm in Papertrey Ink heaven :-) A BIG THANK YOU to Aimes and Kate for doing the challenges and of course for their gratitude to share their precious Papertrey stash!!

I'm off to create... and of course to go back to my economcis stuff... ack! Have a faboulous weekend!!

I've been published :-)

I have two cards to share today :) I told you in an earlier post that there's a chance that one of my wedding cards will be published - and I am happy to announce that this was the case :-D As their rules only permit publishing your card before they sell the magazine, I can now safely share it with you:

The style of my next card is totally different. It's a "masculine" card for a friend who recently turned thirty. He bought himself a "new" oldtimer car for his special birthday and since it's a convertible, we got him an old-style (à la Howard Hughes) leather pilot helmet including matching goggles. Soooo cute - the helmet and goggles of course :-) Anyways, I wanted to make him a "road traffic" themed card and here it is:

Road sign meanings from bottom to top: "(Speed limited) Zone 30" - "Dead-end Street" - "No U-Turn"... hee hee. I guess, when you turn thirty you just have to deal with stuff like that ;o)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies

{Happily Ever After card}

Stamps: PTI Heart Prints and Wishing You

Paper: Bazzill Smoothies

Ink: Colorbox (Chestnut), PTI Hibiscus Burst, Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Plum Pudding, Summer Sunrise, Ocean Tides, New Leaf, Berry Sorbet, Ranger Distress Ink (Tea Dye)

Other: PTI top-notch twill (Vintage Cream); foam dimensionals, Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Scalloped Squares Large; EK Success square punch 1 ¼ ", sewing machine & thread

{Zone 30 card}

Paper: PTI kraft, white copy paper, black/blue/red light cardstock from stash

Other: printer, foam dimensionals, Dymo embossing label maker, MM Slice

Customer Service... really?

Today, I got a phone call. It was my health insurance company. Customer Service. After some blabla and telling me what kind of new service homepage they have on offer...


CS: Is there anything we can do for you?
Me: Actually, yes. You send me your xxx customer magazine. I don't read it. I don't need it. Please could you arange for an unsubscription?
CS: No, I'm sorry.
Me: Umh,... why not? This is a customer service line, right?
CS: That's because we cannot be 100 % sure that the person on the phone really is our customer.
Me: You mean, you cannot ensure that I am me?
CS: Yes, exactly.
Me: Okay, how can I unsubscribe - to a magazine I never subscribed actually?
CS: You need to call your personal agent in this matter.
Me: So, can you give me his or her name and contact details, please?
CS: No, I'm afraid but I am not allowed to do that.
Me: Umh... what?
CS: Yes, I cannot provide you with this information BUT I'll send you information about the new service pages to your mailing adresse which includes the persons contact details. Your mailing address is xxx yyy zzz. Is that correct?
Me (only slightly annoyed, thinking about The Dilbert Principle): Why on earth are you telling me my personal address - when you are not sure that I am ME? Is that how you treat confidential customer data?
CS: Umh... hum... I know this is kind of hard to explain... One last question, madam. Would you say you are satisfied with our service?
Me: Huh?? Since the beginning of this phone call I started to worry about it...


... I know it is not easy to work in a call center with all of these company policies. I had to do such a job for some month during my time as a trainee... but honestly, is this what one calls a S-E-R-V-I-C-E line??? I'm much in doubt about it.


Sorry to kind of "spam" you with this... but I just had to let off some steam... Just an fyi, I will post some cards over the weekend, so stay tuned :-)

Here Comes the Bride

Hi there, how are you today? I just wanted to share the card I made for my best friend's (who I call KD = Katie from now on because that's her brand new initials LOL) wedding. You may remember the cute card from Melissa Bickford during the release of her "Bird Watching" stamp set for Papertrey Ink. I just loved and now CASEd it with some minor changes:

Such an adorable idea by Melissa and oooh so cute in the happy couple's wedding day colors cream and dark red :-)

Thanks for looking!

Supplies

Stamps: PTI bird watching

Ink: PTI scarlet jewel and vintage tea dye duo, Colorbox chestnut, Versamark,

Paper: Dani Peuss dark brown cardstock, PTI vintage cream and scarlet jewel

Other: Rico pearl brad, silver brad from stash, Depot white organdy and cream satin ribbon, Ranger perfect pearls, Cuttlebug & Nestablilities, Sakura quicky glue, foam dimensionals, Hero Arts clear embossing powder

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

... makes a girl happy, scrappy and... umh... at least happy and scrappy :-)

Why happy you may ask? Because I won! I won a little something over at "A Passion for Papertrey" and honestly I don't know what exactly and that makes me not only happy but all jumpy, too :-) Thanks again, Kate & Amy, for your generosity and your wonderful card inspirations!

So, that leaves the scrappy part to explain. As you may read, it was my BFF's marriage the last weekend and I (and many others, too) was in a hurry to have everything ready for the big day. Not to mention, I forgot to make a birthday card for a colleague - and Tuesday is one of my office days at the moment so... ups, I was definitly late on that task! This is, why I was out for an early morning scrap today with the help of the latest 2sketches4U sketch #34. Here's the result:

Now, I need to work on getting wise... oh, well... ;-) Have a good week!

Supplies

Stamps: PTI Whishing You

Ink: Colorbox Chestnut, PTI vintage tea dye duo

Paper: Cosmo Cricket Early Bird, yellow cardstock from stash

Other: Jenni Bowlin ticket, PTI pure poppy saddle stich, PTI new leaf vintage button, sewing machine & thread, hemp twine, Sizzix BigZ card scallop