Look! I made a card

It's not my best work, but I completed a weekly challenge card from the PTI forum. It was a challenge from 2 weeks ago, but it was the first time I've been in my craft room in weeks.

It was an inspiration challenge and we were given this photo:

For my card I came up with this.

It was nice to be back in my craft room, even if it was short lived. I miss having time to be creative.

I did make this card a few weeks back for a wedding shower. The photo is not good, but there is glitter on the light pink flowers to add a little sparkle. The color scheme was inspired by the happy couple's wedding colors.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a good one.

I promise...

... that my blog will not become all about my ring, but since I've only had it for a few days I'm still a little obsessed. So you will just have to bear with me until I have time to add some crafty stuff. LOL

I love how this pic captured a little bit of the rainbow sparkles from the sunlight. :-)

Another Ring Pic

We had a little sun so I tried to get a better shot of my ring and this is what I came up with. I still need to work on my photography skills, but that will have to be for another day. It does seem my glass rooster is a perfect ring holder though. :-)

Ring Pics!

At last....I have my ring! I'm having a hard time getting good photos that show how truly sparkly it is, but I'll share a few that I took anyway.

Even without good photos, I am so happy with how it turned out--I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful ring. From every angle I can see so many tiny little rainbows. (I just cant seem to capture that on film right now.) Maybe when we have some sunlight I can try some outside to see how they turn out.

Thanks for stopping by and thank you so much for your well wishes. It really means a lot to me. I hope you have a great day!

*It's hard to see in the photos, but it is a round diamond in a square setting. I had originally wanted a square (princess cut) stone, but there's just nothing that seems to compare with the sparkle you get from a round cut. (IMO). I figured that this way I get the best of both worlds and a more unique ring too. I really have to get some better pics to post. :-)

Today is the day--Finally!!!

This has been the longest week ever, and today in particular is going to be agony. After about 3 months of waiting I am finally getting my engagement ring tonight! I am so excited!

I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I can try to think about other things to help make it through today. I promise to have some photos up within the next few days. :-)

Wedding Flowers

I had my first meeting with the florist on Saturday to get a feel for what I want and how much it's all going to cost me. I was happily surprised that I can get everything I want + delivery (with some room for upgrades) for under $1,000.

The only problem I had was that my wedding is in the Fall and right now they have mostly Spring flowers available, so there were a few that I had to imagine in different colors. One thing I know for sure is that I am having Circus roses as my main flower (for bouquets and boutonnieres) no matter what. You couldn't ask for a more perfect Fall colored rose. I love them and my honey said they were pretty cool too. If you've never seen them before it is the 2-tone rose in my photo below--yellow with reddish edges that seem to blend into a nice orange-ish color once they open up a little.

They sent me home with a bouquet of a few of the flowers and I couldn't be happier with them. I did have a slight change color-wise from what I had originally wanted, but I think that my flowers are going to be beautiful. I took a picture right after I got the flowers home:

And then a second photo the next day, after they had started to open up a little more:

I still plan on adding a few orange spray roses and some dark purple stock flowers to these, but I love all of the colors and I think they will look great with my dark purple bridesmaid dresses. I am going to order some ribbon in the color of the dresses to tie around the bouquets as a finishing touch and to tie everything together (literally and figuratively).

I can wait until closer to the wedding to see some of the other Fall colored flowers and place my order. I am so happy to have one more thing taken care of--one less thing to stress about.

The main thing that I cannot wait for is my ring! I am finally getting it Friday evening--I am so excited!

And we have a winner!

I had 14 entries for the contest. After entering that info into the random number generator at random.org, I have a winner of the 2nd annual Papertrey Ink limited edition anniversary set.

And the winner is #9

Ronna said...
I too just discovered PTI this year, not in time to earn the Anniversary set. I am anxiously awaiting my first order from them placed last week and will definitely be on the list for the set next year. My favorite is the Simply Stationery set, but it is so difficult to pick a favorite, there are so many great ones. I discovered you blog recently and have added it to my favorites to check daily-nice design work. Thanks for the opportunity to win this set.
March 22, 2009 9:48 AM

Congratulations Ronna! Please send me your contact information so I can get your new stamps out to you. (You can click the "email me" link in my profile to send directly to me.)

If you didn't win, be sure to check out the forum on PTI where several ladies have extra anniversary sets that they are willing to sell or trade. Here is the address: http://forum.papertreyink.com/forum/

Thank you for coming by and visiting my blog. I hope you have a great day!

Attention PTI Fans!!!!

As I'm sure most of you know, the limited edition 2nd Anniversary PTI stamp sets have started going out to all loyal customers who have purchased at least 12 PTI sets in the last year. (Yet another reason PTI rocks!)

Some of you may have found PTI too late in the year, or maybe your budget just didn't allow for you to purchase 12 stamp sets, and now you are sad that you have missed out. I understand that feeling all to well as I was in the exact same situation last year at this time. That is until I was lucky enough to win the 1st Anniversary stamp set from Anya (a generous PTI blogger who offered up her second set as blog candy.)

After feeling so blessed with good fortune I decided that if I earned an extra set this year I would offer it up for blog candy as well. So here I am, extra Anniversary set in hand, ready to offer up the goods.

If you would like to win, leave me a comment on this post telling me what your favorite PTI stamp set or product is. (Be sure to leave me an email address so I can contact you.) The contest will close at 8:00 a.m. Monday (Central Time) and at that time I will pick a winner at random to be announced later in the day. International entries are welcome.

Good luck to you all.

A Few New Cards

Somehow yesterday I was able to stay late at work, stop by the jeweler's, get home, make delicious pork tenderloin w/rosemary red potatoes for dinner, and still have time to make two new cards. Not sure how that happened, but I doubt it will be repeated anytime in the near future. :-)

Anyway, on to crafty stuff....

The first card was inspired by my wedding colors. My girls are wearing Eggplant from Alfred Angelo (a very deep purple) and the flowers are going to be purple and orange.

The second card was in anticipation of my PTI order with the new Guide Lines 2 set. I got out the original Guide Lines set and last year's anniversary set and got to stamping. Then I colored with my white gel pen to add some highlights.

Not exactly masterpieces, but not half bad for stealing away a little time to try to play in my craft room in the middle of so much rushing around.

When I mentioned the jeweler above it's because I am finally getting my ring next weekend! I am so excited I can't stand it. I saw it yesterday and decided that the center diamond was set way too high so I'm going to see what they can do about that and then that baby is finally mine! I'll be sure to post pics as soon as I can.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a good one.

CAS PTI Challenge & More Wedding Stuff

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but things have been crazy lately. Between work, home, wedding planning, etc., I haven't had much time in my craft room. I do have a few cards that I made about 2 weeks ago and never got around to posting. They were for PTI's weekly challenge and the focus was on a CAS (Clean and Simple) card--one layer, very few embellishments. I was on a roll and made two:

I used all PTI supplies for both cards with the exception of the tiny bling--and that's only because PTI doesn't make it's own bling (yet). If you have any questions about colors/stamps used leave me a comment and I'll get back to you with details.

OK, now on to wedding stuff. I have my dress picked out, but I'm not sure I want to post a pic here because I'm afraid my honey might see it. (I'm not sure if he comes here or not, but with my luck he would.) My only dilemma now is white vs. ivory. I am not sure which way I want to go right now. I was almost 99% sure I wanted ivory and now I'm second guessing and thinking about white. I can't seem to make a decision on anything anymore since I've had so many things coming at me at once.

I did make one decision--I bought myself some of the prettiest earrings to wear with my dress. They are at Macy's for about $900, but I went to the location that is closing and paid around $200 for them instead. They are white gold with tiny diamonds and finished off with pearls--they will go so perfectly with my ring too.


I tried to get a good picture this morning, but I was already running late and had to get out the door. I promise they sparkle in person and they are so "me". I can't wait to wear them! :-)

I know I haven't posted my ring yet, but I don't have it yet. We don't want to finance it so we're keeping it at the jewelers until we get it paid off. So as much as it kills me not to have it yet, I know we'll be better off without that debt over our heads once we get married. I hope to have it next month and I promise to post a pic ASAP!

Unfortunately I started biting my fingernails again with all of the stress of the last few weeks, so I'm hoping that getting my ring soon will be enough to help me stop again. I don't want to show off my ring with chewed up hands. I KNOW I can do this.

I'm sorry I don't have more crafty stuff to share, but right now wedding stuff is taking over my life. I plan on decorating my own unity candles so I'll be sure to post a pic of that too once I complete that.
Thanks for stopping by today.

Weekly PTI Challenge Card

This week I was hosting the weekly challenge at PTI and decided to "Think Spring." PTI has some lovely pastel colors that are perfect for a Spring color challenge. There was no sketch or theme, you just have to use the colors: Spring Moss, Lemon Tart, Sweet Blush, and Spring Rain.

I used all PTI stamps for this including some from Honey Bees, Little Lady, and Simple Little Things. The inks I used were VersaMark and PTI's True Black. I accented with part of a long shiny gold/glittery sticker from Stampendous. I also colored the bee with my Spica glitter pen, but the photo doesn't capture the subtle sparkle there.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I hope you're having a great day.

Wedding Update

Today I had a very productive day of wedding details. :-)

I started out at one bridal shop that was very busy, but I was able to look at a few bridesmaid dresses and see what colors were available. Over the last week I was starting to get a little panicky about making sure I found the shade of purple that I wanted. (It's so hard to tell on a computer if the colors are accurate.) Since I have to decide on a color before I can do invitations, flowers, the cake, etc. it was stressing me out a little bit.

I looked to my left and saw a girl holding a dress that was THE absolute perfect purple color. It's a deep purple shade that is more blue than plum and it looks very elegant. The saleslady was sweet enough to give me a small swatch of the fabric so that I can use it for the rest of my planning.

Next I picked up my Mom and we went to the bakery to check them out. They had 3 delicious samples of their flavors for tasting, and had so many beautiful cakes that it was almost overwhelming--but I found one that I really like. Now I just have to take my honey up there so we can make our final decisions on flavor, style, etc. and we can get that ordered.

Next Mom and I went out and grabbed some dinner and walked around the mall to work off the Chevy's we had just eaten. When I took her home she showed me the headpiece that she wore for her wedding 42 yrs ago and offered it to me to wear for my big day. I've never seen anything like it, and at first I wasn't sure if I really liked it, but once I put it on I loved it. I'll have to see once I decide on a dress, but I think it may be perfect.

All in all it was a VERY productive day and I'm feeling much better about the whole wedding planning process. Thanks for stopping by today and listening to me babble.

PTI Mid Week Challenge

I finished up the latest PTI casual mid week challenge card this weekend and finally got a chance to get a pic and get it online. Lynn provided the sketch this week and it was a lot of fun to work with.

I got a chance to use some buttons and ribbon that I've had for quite some time now. Speaking of buttons--did you hear that Papertrey is going to have buttons in their exclusive colors? Too fun. Anyway, here's my take on the sketch:

My main colors were Spring Moss and True Black but I added a little touch of Spring Rain as an accent.

Thanks for stopping by--I hope you're having a great day.

PTI Over the Rainbow Challenge

I have another PTI contest card today. Nichole turned us loose with a color scheme and one lucky winner is going to win 510 sheets ($100+ value) of their awesome cardstock in all of the colors they have released so far. Who wouldn't love that?! Again it's not the best photo, but here goes.

The colors look a little off since I'm at home again, but I promise I did use the required colors of Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado, and Ocean Tides. I used my EK success heart punches and PTI's True Black ink for the sentiment (from the Heart Prints set).

Thanks for stopping by today. Wish me luck on winning all of that yummy PTI paper.

PTI It's in the Bag Challenge

PTI is having yet another awesome contest to celebrate their 2nd anniversary. To enter this one all you have to do is create or alter a bag and link it to Nichole's blog and you can win a cool one-of-a-kind embroidered PTI tote bag with a $100 gift card inside. Can you believe it? I just finished mine and took a picture, but my good lighting and photoshop are at the office and I'm at home, so it's not my best.

I used stamps from PTI's Warm Happiness set and my colors were kraft, Ripe Avocado, Vintage Cream, and Dark Chocolate. These colors were inspired by the ribbon I found in the $1 bin at Michael's. I filled the bag with some (decaf) Folger's singles since most of my friends have made the switch to decaf. :-)

Thanks for stopping by my blog and wish me luck on the PTI contest! My fingers are crossed.

It's (officially) official now and a quick card

We met with the priest and now have an official wedding date. We were hoping for Oct. 17th, but the church was already booked so instead of trying to squeeze two weddings into one day we decided to go with the 24th. Our hall is available and so is our DJ (the only other weekend he had open in October) so we feel like it's all falling into place. We still have some family issues to work through, but I'm going to be optimistic about that.

We made our first official wedding purchase last night--Love & Romance Waterford crystal champagne flutes for our toast. They are absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to find a box that had never been opened at the Macy's that is closing by us. Waterford NEVER goes on sale, but since this store is closing we got them for 40% off. It was our lucky day for sure.

I have a quick card that I made a few days ago using a new add-on to Papertrey's With Sympathy Set. They released the main set along with two add ons, Loss of Pet and Loss of Child so they've got you covered for almost any sympathy card you could ever need. It's a set that you hope you don't have to use, but is very nice to have on hand.

I had hoped to never have to send this card, but it may have already have a recipient. A friend is struggling with the idea of euthanizing her 16-yr old Yorkie. She has had a good long life but her health is declining rapidly. I can completely understand how she feels. It's been almost 2 yrs since my 20-yr old kitty died and I still miss him terribly. It is like losing a family member when they have spent so many years with you. Anyway, here's my card before I start getting all emotional (too late).

I kept this one fairly simple using Ocean Tides (a nice calming blue/grey color from PTI), Vintage Cream, and Dark Chocolate. I used an embossing folder from ProvoCraft that came in a pack of 5 different borders. Sometimes it's nice to just have a touch of embossing instead of the whole card and this set is perfect for that.

If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post all I can say is "Thank You"! I have a feeling my blog is going to be a combo of cards and wedding blabber so I won't be offended if you just skip to the pictures. LOL :-)

Snow!

When I looked out my window this morning this was what greeted me:

I know it's not the best photo, but I wasn't going out in that until I had to so a quick shot through the window and screen will have do. Mine's the car in the middle. My honey had cleaned a lot of the snow off for me, but I still had a ways to go before I was getting out of there. It seemed like all of the snow had drifted up around my car for some reason.

The good news is that I finally got to work (3 hours late) and was able to get a couple of photos of cards that I've made over the last few days. The first is the weekly challenge from the PTI forum. Jen provided the sketch and I threw the rest together.

I used PTI colors-Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, Raspberry Fizz, and Fresh Snow. I combined a few different stamp sets for my patterned paper and focal point-Garden of Life, Polka Dot Basics, and Honey Bees. My little white flowers are centered with Diamond Dots stickers from Stampendous and they are pretty sparkly in person.

The next card I is one I made over the weekend. I decided that my Penny Black stamp really needed to see some ink so I stamped and colored and put together this fun card. I really like the combo of PTI's True Black and Raspberry Fizz. I am SO happy that PTI finally released a black cardstock!

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope everyone stays safe if they're out in this lovely weather system that has been hitting so many of us. If you can, stay warm and snuggly at home--but if you do have to drive, slow down please. It's not worth risking an accident to get somewhere a few minutes earlier. Take care.

Now I understand

why some people decide to run away and get married in Las Vegas!

After our second official day of wedding planning we're almost ready to have Elvis preside over the ceremony.

Hopefully it gets better. :-)

*Edited to add: The actual wedding planning part is fun. My honey and I are happy with our choices so far. It's the other people who seem to think that it's their wedding not ours who are telling us who, what, where, when, etc. that are bothering me.*

Last Week's Challenge Card

Better late than never, right? I've been trying to keep up with the weekly challenges at the PTI forum and I'm always happy if I complete my card within the next week.

Last week's challenge was from Mary, our quilt card crafter (say that 10 times fast). We were to make a Valentine's quilt card and she had three examples ready for us. I cased her first example, changed a few things and came up with this card:

Of course I used one of my favorite color combos: Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, and Vintage Cream (PTI). The stamps are from Quilter's Sampler Additions, Heart Prints (PTI), and Anytime Messages (Hero Arts). The pp is from a pad from Crafty Secrets. I used my Double Ended Tags die from Spellbinders--it has to be a tie between those and the Ribbon Slide dies over which one I like best. They are both great.

Organizing my craft room must have sparked something in me because I've been on a roll ever since. Hopefully I can keep up the pace, or at least something close to it.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

Weekly Challenge Card

This is the 4th card that I made Saturday night. I used the sketch as this week's challenge over at the Papertrey Ink forum, and to make it a little more challenging I added that it should be a masculine card. I have no problems with flowers, bows, butterflies, etc., but when it comes to a manly card I usually have to work a little harder for ideas. Here is what I came up with.

Paper: Classic Kraft, Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate, Spring Rain (PTI)

Ink: Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate, Spring Rain (PTI), Tea Dye (Distress)

Stamps: Men on Life, Women of Life (PTI)

Thanks for stopping by--I hope you have a great day.