Some Unposted Makes of 2025

This is a little archive of some of the things I've made since the end of last year.  For the most part, this blog was set up back in 2010 as a means to enter challenges when they were much more prevalent, and to showcase makes for the design teams I was on.  Since then I've been making cards for all of the holidays and special occasions and giving them to their recipients without photos being taken for posterity.  A bummer, I know.  Here is what I did manage to take photos of.

Birthday Wishes

Birthday Wishes was made for my youngest grandson who, when asked what he wants for Christmas, his birthday or any other special occasion, consistently replies "Rainbow Birthday Cake".  The Birthday Candles are by Pretty Pink Posh, the frosting is Grassy Knoll by Hello Bluebird and then we have Line It Up: Birthday by Papertrey Ink

Christmas Biscornu

This is my first biscornu and I love how this turned out.  The pattern is Christmas Biscornu by Erin Elizabeth Designs and is stitched on 30 count Portobello linen by Studio Line.

I stitched this with my own overdyed floss.  I'm telling ya, the photos do not do this justice.  

Stitched Graduation Cap

My sister received her master's degree this year and for the ceremony her daughter decorated her graduation cap with flowers.  That and my love of stitching were the inspiration for this card that opens up with a surprise to get the party started.

All of the dies for this project are by Poshta Design, the felt is Benzie Design and the floss is DMC, including the tassel.  The pattern paper on the inside is by American Crafts.

Stitched Birthday Cake

This June, my mother-in-law turned 93 and we went to Arizona to celebrate with lots of family.  Silly me, didn't take a picture of the inside of this card that I decorated up almost as much as the outside.  I feel so honored that her and dad display every card that I give them and never take them down.

All of the stamps and dies are by Papertrey Ink including; Border Bling: Lotty Dotty, In Stitches: Cake Builder and This Is Big Sentiments: Birthday

Mother's Day Needle Minder

I was inspired by Nichol Spohr to make this project, as a gift to my mom, and did the front cover almost identical to hers only I used the three hearts instead of the xoxo in the lower right hand corner.  I also chose a different color pallet and granny stitched the edges of the covers instead of straight stitched.

I did change up the inside and added some extras.  I use a lot of needles for each stitching project I do.  I don't want to waste time changing thread colors so I preload as many needles as I have color changes and therefore added six needle holders to this book.

Here I've left the center of the book white and without embellishment because I wanted to be able to store and then easily pick out any larger scraps of floss I might be able to use from a previous project.

I really wanted a place to keep my little scissors and the "label" from Eerie Apothecary worked out really well.  All Dies are from Poshta Design (with the exception of letter L which is by Lawn Fawn) including; Sewing Kit Essentials Needle Book, Eerie Apothecary, Love Potion Details, Basic Heart, and Floral Heart Details.  Felt is Benzie Design.

Happy Birthday Pops-icle

(This was a bit of a last minute make as I remembered dad's birthday at the last moment and even had to FedEx this for him to get it on time).  Every time I greet my dad, I have to do a little add-on like daddy-o, pop tart, rad dad, pop corn...  So this is what he got for his birthday.  I didn't use any dies or stamps for this one.  I did the sentiments on the computer, hand drew the popsicles, inked them and then lined them with a Gelly Roll pen.

Easter Egg and Dish Towel Set

I wanted some Easter decor for my refrigerator and made these eggs to match my dish towels.  The egg shapes are Poshta's Basic Egg Die and the three eggs at the top are embellished using their Egg Detail Dies.  For the lower egg, I used various dies by Hello Bluebird.

An 80th Celebration

Another great celebration to make a card for.  The 80 is cut from an old Sizzix die and everything else is by The Greetery including; Pinwheel Party Dies, Stamps & Stencils and Twisted Crepe Dies, 

Christmas Cards 2024

I love to make Christmas cards!  I usually start in August so that it isn't so daunting, but I'm a little behind this year.  This one, with all of it's little pieces and sparkly paper, is one of my all time favorites.  I love the colors, especially with that pop of gold; sort of shabby chic.  I made 50 of these and used up pretty much all of the 4 months I gave myself to make them.  This year, I want to break up the monotony of a single card design and make them all different.  I don't know which will be more difficult; the structure and tedium of the assembly line or what I imagine to be the chaos of 50 completely different cards.

Blooming With Joy

Hello Crafty Friends!  I am so excited to share with you, a card for just about any occasion featuring oodles of products by Papertrey Ink.  Right now, PTI is having a Summer 2025 Challenge that I could not pass up the opportunity to participate in.  You can find all of the details on their blog page HERE if you would like to join in on the fun.

I wanted my card to be as bright and cheerful as possible and I believe I have accomplished just that.  Seeing as how my card is pretty straight forward, I won't get into any lengthy details but I will list all of the supplies I used at the bottom of this post.  If you should have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section.  Thank you so much and have a joyful day!

SUPPLIES

Blooming Beauties Stamps and Dies (Sentiment)

Border Bling Scalloped Frame Die

Bring Home The Holidays Dies (Grassy Hills)

Into The Blooms Dies

Picket Fence Die

Playful Dots Stencils

Playful Patterns Dies (Sun and Clouds)

Tag Creations: Modern Gift Dies (Small Tag)

Watercolor Plaid Stencils

Perfect Match Cardstock: Harvest Gold, Classic Kraft, New Leaf, Winter Wisteria, Hibiscus Burst, Autumn Rose, Stampers Select White

Premium Dye Inks: Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, New Leaf, Aqua Mist, Spring Rain, Royal Velvet, Hibiscus Burst, Dark Chocolate

Christmas Baubles

Since it's been such a long while that I've put some effort into a card, I thought I would participate in a couple of blog challenges to get the creative juices flowing again.  This one was challenging for several reasons, including not wanting to stick to the foam I have it mounted on using my tried and true tape runner. So I decided to use gel glue to hold things in place and that changed the colors of the inks on my stitched panel and ornaments which I then had to go back and touch up. I'm still relatively happy with how it turned out.

I started by stenciling and then stitching the Taylored Expressions Beautiful Baubles. I poked the stitching holes with a needle, trying to mimic the spacing of my background die. This set did not originally come with matching dies so I fussy cut them along with the little hanger/toppers that I heat embossed and then finished off with jump rings and baker's twine.

Next, I ran my A2 white panel trough my die cut machine with the PaperTrey Ink Cover Plate: Stitched Florals die.  I then inked my background, stitched with 2 strands of DMC floss and then spattered with water and bleed proof white.  

The vellum banner was stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed with black powder.  The lower left bauble and panel are bumped up on foam and mounted to coordinating background paper from my stash.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmaker Group: Sketch #50

Fans of Taylored Expressions FB Group: Colors: Jalepeno, Cherry Pop + Your Choice

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Christmas

A Pair of Anniversaries

I've made two anniversary cards for two very special couples this month; my in-laws, Bill and Jean's 72nd and my dear friends, Arthur and Donna's 40th.

I'm very much out of practice making cards, much less coming up with ideas for them and so I decided to case a card made by someone who's beautiful creations speak to my imagination like no other's.  I'm using what I have on hand though, so really, the only thing that's similar is the flower arrangement.

Firstly, I cut turquoise cardstock using the PTI Border Bling: Blooming Hearts large die, used my corner rounder and then sponged a light layer of Picket Fence Distress Ink right at the cut design.

Next, I cut a small panel of white cardstock to fit within the dotted design of the diecut.  I then stenciled vertical stripes using Salty Ocean Distress Ink and PTI's Watercolor Plaid stencils.  The sentiment is an old, wooden Hampton Art stamp.

The florals were made by cutting watercolor paper with PTI's Into The Blooms: Dahlia, Birthday Bouquet and Sizzix: Branch w/Leaves, sponged with Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Twisted Citron, Mustard Seed and Wild Honey Distress Inks.  All were spattered with water and Vintage Photo DI.

Lastly, I mounted my card front to a 4.25 x 5.50 inch card base, added a button and bow using PTI's Festive Birds dies and then some yellow sequins for a bit of bling.

PTI Designer's Challenge: Birthday Tag

Hello Crafty Friends and thank you for stopping by.  Today I have a little project that I made for the Papertrey Ink Designer's Challenge with the theme of Birthday Tag.

I adore this Sweet Celebrations cupcake that I have framed with one of the Love To Layer: Ovals dies. I added some stitching and used part of a sentiment from the Dandelion Wishes Sentiments stamp set.  Isn't the strawberry just so cute?

A little bit of glitter and some trims to finish and, boom, done.

Hope you're having a great day.  See you again soon!

♥ Laura

Joyful Holiday Wishes

Hello Crafty Friends and Welcome to my Blog.  It's been quite a while since I've posted and I decided to take the opportunity of Papertrey Ink rebooting one of their challenges to jump back into it.  It's been a busy year of working on our Arizona house to sell it and move back to Wisconsin.  We're still working on getting the new place to feel like home but we are so glad to be back.

I made this card for the PTI challenge, "Melissa's Fab Friday Feature".  The challenge is to "recreate Melissa's card with your own personality" using Papertrey Ink products.  

So here is my spin on it, using the same color pallet and papers that I've been using to make this year's Christmas Cards.  This year I'm all about the pinks, bluey greens and gold with lots of shine and sparkle.

PTI products used: 

Dies - Border Bling: Snowflakes, Joyful Florals, Love To Layer: Torn Edges, Snowfall Style, Words To Live By: Joyful

Stamps - Joyful Florals, Words To Live By: Joyful

Inks - Harvest Gold, Lovely Lady, Ocean Tides, Scarlet Jewel

TE 13th Birthday Challenge

Good Morning My Creative Friends and HAPPY FRIDAY!  Welcome to my little corner of the crafting universe, I hope you've had a great week.

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY TAYLORED EXPRESSIONS!

Today I'm sharing my entry for the Taylored Expressions 13th Birthday challenge.  Of the four challenges taking place, I chose to enter challenge #1 which is a Toffee (kraft) & Rainbow combo.  I know that most people will go with the ROYGBP, bright and cheery colors (which I LOVE) but I decided to change it up a little and include the toffee color in my rainbow.

I started out with the TE Over The Rainbow dies, choosing a pallet of soothing colors that I would like to use for a future baby card.

With the TE Over The Rainbow sentiments stamps, I added "You make me happy when skies are grey" to the edge of the sun and heat embossed with white powder.

The sentiment "Hello, friend" is from the TE  Butterfly Sweet Sentiments set.  For some simple finishing touches, I sewed around the card edges and added Star Dust Stickles to the edges of the white clouds.  I had thought about adding sequins or raindrops but after playing with them for a while, it took away from the sweet simplicity I was looking for.  Oh well...

Thank You so much for stopping by and taking a look.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I look forward to our next visit.

♥ Laura

Taylored Expressions: 13th Birthday FB Entry