enjoy the ride

today's pti challenge is to incorporate buttons into your project...i feel certain that we will be seeing a lot of their "everyday button bits" stamps coming alive again in everyone's posts today. it's such a lovely stamp set, and one of the very first that i purchased from papertrey ink.

quite some time ago, i had created a card, also with the same bicycle image, but i was not happy with the layout i came up with, and just had the card tucked away into a box...so i peeled everything off, and recycled the stamped woodgrain kraft card, the peach buttons and the twine...everything else was newly stamed and cut and added...i like it much better this time around! sometimes that works out for the best! something that was ehhh...just ok, turned into something that i'm very happy with :)

hope you enjoy.

xoxo andie librandi...

pti color challenge

papertrey ink has another challenge today, celebrating their 4th anniversary. all you have to do is create a card using one of the featured color combinations and post to your blog, then register your link. there is another fabulous prize up for grabs of course! and you can enter up to 10 times today, ifyou have the time to create a card for each color combo...wish i didn't have a job so i could do just that...but i do, so only could squeeze in one card
.

i used this combo: hibiscus burst, sweet blush, ripe avacado and spring moss - this was the color set that melissa phillips presented. all of the combos are fantastic though. don't worry, if you don't have pti paper, you can use whatever you have that fits the colors closest, which is what i always do. i would love to own all of their fabulous paper, but alas, i'm on a tight budget most of the time! so just make do with what you have! all of the stamps on this card are papertrey ink.

it's very cold here...i'm about to go bundle up! xoxo andie librandi...

thank you

happy friday, ya'll!

i'm busy painting the trim on the bathroom window but while it's drying, i wanted to share this card i made for embellishmagazine.com's color challenge with butterflies.

now i love my martha stewart butterfly punch, but this time i chose to use a much larger butterfly for my focal point. this is a butterfly that i drew in adobe illustrator some time ago when i wanted a big butterfly but did not have a die-cut for one...so i created my own little template. i do that a lot...trying to save money and since i am a graphic designer... :0)

so anyhow,this was an easy card...just traced the butterflies and cut them out, cutting inside the lines on the polka-dotted paper so it would be slightly smaller. i found some great big sparkly glitter at wal-mart a couple weeks ago, so i added that onto the wings for a little glitz! the scalloped edge behind the kraft card is actually fiscars treading water punch (i think it's called that) but i just hid the portion with the little dots. love how it turned out!

hope you all have a fantasic weekend. i will be doing more painting and organizing the loft and getting things ready for a yard sale in a couple of weeks hopefully! ooooh and playing with my new baby kitties!

xoxo andie...

a thank you card

hello!

kristina werner has posted a new color inspiration ...it's been awhile since she's had one, so i know lots of us papercrafters are excited! and we got to vote on the color scheme. it was very clever how she set it up. so that's why it's called the "readers choice" color combo.

i do not have any supplies that are light gray...but this ink that i used to stamp the sentiment dries as a nice gray color, so that works for me! i redid the middle of the card a couple of times because i stitched the ribbon loop to the side and the first time it was totally askew and the 2nd time i just didnt like it because it made my sentiment look off-center. haha! so the third time was a charm with no sewing! do you ever have problems like that...or is it just me?

the pink paper in the background was stamped with papertrey ink's background basics: woodgrain stamp set and then i sanded down the entire thing with sandpaper and inked the edges with their tea touch ink in chamomile.

xoxo andie...

you've been so kind

happy monday.

last night i put together a cute card for the embellish magazine.com color challenge with dimension. there's not a lot to say, it was a pretty quick and easy card. it is the second idea though, as the first one wasn't doing it for me as i was piecing it together. on this card, the whole green middle section is raised from the rest of the card with 3d foam & my stiching is getting better! and straighter! wooot woooot! hah!

features the following: cardstock: dcwv, the paper company. patterned paper: my mind's eye. stamp: papertrey ink. butterfly punch: martha stewart crafts. ribbon: offray. other: 3d foam and thread.

xoxo andie...

sweet cupcakes

morning!

sorry for my absense lately. i've been busy the past couple of weeks going through container after container of junk! i have basically every notebook from every grade of school from every subject plus a folder full of papers from each class too. it's pretty ridiculous why i saved all of that stuff. guess i thought i would make a super ginormous scrapbook with that stuff? yeah......right. so i've been filling trash bags and only saving out a couple of things here and there. and i have quite the collection of yard sale items going on too. lots and lots of clothes! eeeek! except the last time i had a yard sale a total of about 6 people came and mostly they were wondering if i had any tools to sell (because mr michael has a huge garage and those men wanted to get ahold of some good stuff and weren't interested in my gap and banana republic collection). hehe! i'll have to advertise in the newspaper this time.

anyhow. here are a couple of cards i've made recently, featuring stamps from papertreyink. one was for my friend sara's birthday and the other for my boss.

xoxo andie...

Papertrey Fun!

today's challenge with nichole of papertrey ink is to use one of the color combos that each designer has picked out. i decided to go with heather's color choice, but after i finished my card and went back to the website, it seems like my colors might be a little brighter than what they are suppose to be. but that is ok. it's a cute card anyhow. the little birdie and also the bee are both stamps from The Paper Company Studio and the sentiment is Papertrey Ink. i am really lovin' how it turned out! and isn't this bee just the sweetest thing you've ever seen?!

xoxo andie...

CPS Sketch No 153

let's talk about snow. it's everywhere. and its not stopping. it's pretty but makes it a little harder to go about your everyday life. we have maybe 10 inches total, so i feel for those of you who live farther north who are just up to your heads in it. bbrrrr!

papertrey ink is the sponsor of the month over at card positioning systems. if you play along with this week's sketch, you can be entered to win a fabulous pti prize! so without any more rambling, here is the sketch i went by and my completed card. i had to use bright fun colors to chase away some winter blues.

xoxo andie...

A Wedding Card (No 2) : bride & groom

Hi again!

I just decided to make another card to enter, just because I have all of my supplies out. As you can see, this card features the same color scheme, but has more of a modern feel (to me anyhow).

Hope you enjoy!

xoxo andie...

supply list:

cardstock, rhinestones: the paper company

patterned paper: my mind's eye, chatterbox, the paper company

stamps: making memories

stick pins: dritz

ribbon: offray

A Wedding Card : Mr. & Mrs.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I am torn with which team to root for...when I worked at Fox59 In Indianpolis, I designed graphics for the Colts' Bill Polian Show (which was a weekly show about the Colts, hosted by the owner of the team, Bill Polian). And because I went to Purdue University, Drew Brees is pretty cool too. Ha! So good luck to both the Colts and the Saints!

Caardvarks is doing a currently hosting a challenge that might get you published in CARDS magazine! I would really love to start getting some of my cards published...what fun! You are challenged to create your very best "wedding" card, with the winner being published in their July 2010 issue.

When the scrapbook store went out of business in my hometown, I snatched up a set of wedding themed clear stamps from Making Memories. I think it was only $4 or something like that. So this is the first time I've used them, as I haven't had any wedding to attend lately. The Mr. & Mrs. stamp actually has a double-lined border going around it, but because I waned to stamp on this gold ribbon tag, I just inked up the stamp and wiped off the ink on the border, so that it would fit nicely where I wanted it to. Going through my paper, I also found this great damask design that went perfectly with the damask stamp! How lucky! I really love this color combo; I think the card looks very elegant.

I also want to say thank you to the ladies who gave me tips on how to create a link. I think I've got it working properly now! It was sweet of you to help me out!

xoxo andie...

Supply List

Cardstock: Paper Studio

Patterned Paper: BasicGrey, My Mind's Eye

Ribbon-Styled Tag: Martha Stewart

Stamps: Making Memories

Rhinestones: Paper Studio

sweet Valentine ( & parakeet hair)

hello!

so. today's challenge with nichole (http://www.nicholeheady.typepad.com/) of papertrey ink is challenging us to try the "emboss resist" technique. well, i had an embossing ink pad, and a thing of embossing powder that i picked up on sale one time at hobby lobby. so this morning i stamped up my image and tried to heat it up with my blowdryer. ha. i tried, but did not succeed. i guess it does not get hot enough but so much for being thrifty and innovative. embarred to say, but i even plugged up the iron thinking that might blow some steam off of it. you can figure out how that went.

but my mr. came to the rescue. he gave me some "hobby lobby money" (as he calls it) last week or the week before and little 'ole me hadn't spent it yet. so after work tonight i bought a heat embossing gun. it's purple and so cute. and it works!

so here is my first attempt with my heat gun. i used a paper towel to smudge the pink ink around the hearts. and my very best attempt to sew in a straight line. someday i will learn.

happy weekend.

xoxo andie...

p.s. does anyone know how to create a correct link in blogger? everytime i do it with the link button, it somehow adds www.blogger/ to the beginning of whatever url i type in, so then it won't actually go to the website i want it to. wtf? it's aggrevating me.

p.s.s. i saw someone do a scrapbook page titled "12 months of me" which i thought was a cute idea...so i'm going to try it too. this is my february photo...i decided that i look like a parakeet when i wear my hair like this. hehe. but whatever. it's easy and i'm not that hair saavy. but i do like having short hair now!

Quick Card

hello!

it's been a busy day so far. i was lazy yesterday so i've got a lot on my agenda today. i have already painted the last coat on the middle room, cooked breakfast, done dishes, cleaned the fridge, done 2 loads of laundry and taken out the compost.

still more to do, but i wanted to share a quick card. this one has a sweet little deer stamp on it that i made for the "female art collective", which is a group of female artists from louisville (but now they are adding more from around the country). they have a website where lots of great handmade stuff gets sold. femaleartcollective.com

tatah!

xoxo andie...

color challenge no.21

well it's been quite some time, huh!? hope everyone had a very special holiday season and is getting back into the swing of things. i know i am.

i stayed up way too late last night to make a card for dawn's challenge this week. it's been on my to-do list for several days but time is getting away from me. other things keep popping up lately and i haven't had time to do a whole lot of scrapping.

can i just say how much i love dawn's challenges? she seems like the sweetest gal. her colors this week are chocolate, light yellow, cream and light teal. hope you like my card! (ps we had to buy a new computer over the holidays - ug i know right...both my desktop and michael's laptop went kaput at the same time - so! this is the first time i've used this version of Paint so i hope my picture cropping isnt' too crazy! haha!)

xoxo andie...

handmade christmas cards

morning!

i wanted to share the christmas cards that i made this year. the stamp set is from american crafts...isn't that ornament so sweet?! although i still have not worked myself up to making everyone on the list a handmade card, i did about half of them this year, so 16 total were handmade by me. that is a lot of trimming and gluing!

xoxo andie...

color challenge no.20

hiya!

this week i remembered to check the deadline for dawn's raspberry suite color challenge. last week i missed it by a couple of days! haha...so goes life. the challenge colors this time are soooo cute and cozy and i just loved working on this one. i decided to make a cute little tag this time, as i am getting quite the collection of cards.

but if you've got time, check out the card drives that jennifer mcquire (jennifermcquire has been promoting...it makes you feel so good to create something cute to send to a special little child. i sent some around halloween time, one for a girl named kate & one for a little boy named eric. she's added a lot more kids this time around so go make some cards!!!

do you have your christmas shopping completed yet? i sure do not! i have barely started...i've just been busy with stuff around the house. and both the laptop and desktop computers died this weekend...so we had to go buy a new one over the weekend. talk about an unexpected expense...especially around the holidays!

hope your week is fantastic!

xoxo andie...

cute new owl

morning!

my birthday was a couple of weeks ago and i told my mom all that i wanted was this cute little owl die-cut. of course, she sent that one thing along with a package of other fun scrapbooking stuff, which i love love love! i made a couple of cards to share using my cute new owl. the only hard thing is gluing down the eyes and beak because the pieces are soooo tiny.

it's just starting to get cold where i live and i'm already ready for springtime! once christmas is over, just bring back that warm summer sun, mother nature. i can skip all of the cold stuff!

xoxo andie...

Color Challenge No.19

well hello there...hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving. mine was good! the mr. and i stayed home this year and i cooked thanksgiving dinner for us, plus his 2nd cousin and his son ended up joining us. everything went well...& the turkey was delicious. only mishap was the dinner rolls got a little too done but they were still edible, so no complaints. i only started to panic at the very end when everything was getting done at the same time...i was trying to stir the gravy and mash the potatoes at one time, while the corn casserole timer was buzzing and i needed to put in the buns in the oven all at once!

anyhow, i made this card for dawn's raspberry suite color challenge no. 19. i just clicked over to her blog only to find out that this challenge ended 2 days ago. nothing wrong with being a little late, right? but alas, i thought i would share this card anyhow.

have a great evening!

p.s. i'm putting up the christmas tree tomorrow! can't wait!

xoxo andie...

a new challenge

hello all...it's sure been awhile...i've been busy at home & have hardly had time for scrapping! plus i started reading twilight (i succumbed finally! eeek it's so good!) my mr. is finishing up the living room remodel and then i decided to start painting the sunroom. you can see what it is looking like in the background of my pic. it was a knotty wood room, and i decided it needed to be brightened up! but it's sure been a lot of work...and it's not even done yet!

anyhow! i've been noticing challenges some of you have been doing for embellish magazine and decided to join in this week...especially because owls are my favorite thing in the whole world. if i could, i'd decorate my whole house in owls...but that might not go over well with the mr. so i will just have to settle with a couple here and there + having fun with them on my cards and scrapbooking! so this is what i came up with for embellish magazine.com's color challenge with owls!