pti blog hop - office

Yippee!  I'm really excited about today's project!  I've always been obsessed with office supplies and organizing - I'm a teacher and a Capricorn, so it's a double-whammy.

One thing I Really love is a rainbow of 'things'.  My class periods are organized by rainbow color, I use a rainbow of dry-erase pens on my white board, I have a rainbow of categorized hanging file folders, and, of course, my craft room is FULL of supplies displayed in rainbow order.

The moment I saw Dawn's Color Couture download - with the little file folder cards, I knew I would have to make the entire PTI rainbow.  And I did.

 I needed little files to hold all my colored, punched shapes - this is what I do with my small paper scraps.  I printed the download, enlarged the image by 108%, then trimmed about an inch off the bottom and taped the templates in order to fit into the egg box.

And because it's for MOI, I was free to decorate however I wished!  I see a little of my whimsy-gothy came out :) But I love it.

All right - I'm looking forward to tonight's inspiration!!! 
xoxo,
ChrisTea™

SUPPLIES:

stamps - PTI Damask Designs, Recipe Label, Big & Bold Wishes
paper - every PTI CS except rustic cream and harvest gold
ink - PTI true black, pure poppy
accents - PTI black twill & swiss dot ribbon; pure poppy twine; white and black vintage buttons; black rhinestones
template - PTI July Color Couture Download
tools - Scor-It Mini; Cricut 'A Child's Year' cartridge
other - PTI egg box

graduation card

Oh boy, another post of cards past.  I made this card in May and sent it in July (hate when that happens).  It's a CASEd card from Debbie Olsen on p. 126 of PaperCrafts 'Go-To Sketches' - with a masculine spin & I "PTI-ified" it.  I've never put buttons on a guy card, but it does look real classy.

It's perfectly timed with the 8th grade graduating class from the school I teach at - this Tuesday!  What a wonderful class they are...  I've never seen a group of kids this amazing and they will be dearly missed :)

SUPPLIES:

stamps - PTI Background Basics: Retro, Fresh Alphabet, Around & About Sentiments
paper - PTI white, enchanted evening, true black; PTI PP Black & White Basics
ink - PTI enchanted evening, true black
accents - PTI vintage black buttons

tools - Marvy circle punch

birthday season tags

Whew - this post has been molding in my saved folder for far too long.  Summer's here, but I'm still teaching for 9 more work days.  Just gotta hang in there!

Summer's one of those birthday season times of year.  To simplify the card making, I had three large manila tags sitting in my paper drawer, and voila!  I used Dawn McVey's Dotty Biscotti papers to inspire the color theme (which only ended up as a patch on the back) - C. picked the pink, orange and green.  Of course, I only photographed the first of the set. *bummed*  I never seem to get to b'day gifts in time.

The same swiss cheese border is on all three, and but the scalloped scissors used to cut the pink trim I substituted for dragon back with the boys' orange and green tags.  I stamped the koi from PTI's Masculine Motifs - in Tsukineko Pearl Orchid ink for a shiny, girly effect.  The sentiment is PTI Birthday Basics, letters are from a $1 alphabet set, and swirls are from the Basic Grey gamma series.  Cardstock is PTI Raspberry Fizz, along with the other ink.

The other two boy tags were a purple & green owl tag, and a red & orange robot tag.  Very fun stuff!  I think I love making tags - instant gratification!

spring break

Spring Vacation - we all had a full 2 weeks off and decided to take a FABulous roadtrip.

First stop - the beautiful desert in bloom!

The pond behind the Compton's high desert home always attracts birds and wildlife.  On the horizon you can see where the shuttle lands when weather's bad in Florida.

Caitlyn, Grandma and Grandpa - scouting potential hiding places for snipes.

Our half-way point from CA coast to Oregon coast - Anderson, CA.  This is a luxury eco-hotel, Gaia.  In the background is a salt-water pool! (We didn't try it.)

The rooms are set around 'pod' units, each with private patio and lounge chairs.  Our pod featured a swan nest (behind that lattice).  Here's the daddy protecting his territory.

After two full days on the road, we arrive on the Oregon coast, at the Compton's pad in Netarts (not far from Tillamook).  This is the view from the upper porch - stunning.  The house backs up to an alder forest but you can still hear the surf over the wind in the trees.

The second the sun peeks out - we hit the trail!  Not far from the house is this scenic ocean hike.

After seeing that, you just have to get down on the sand.

Spring time was gorgeous, but we'll be back this summer.  Adding a little backpacking on to the adventure when the weather's better will balance things out nicely :)


Life is sweet!


xoxo,
Christy

button cherries

Welcome PTI blog hoppers!

Tomorrow's my last day of teaching before a 3-week spring break!  (I must say, I LOVE year-round schedule.)  So, hours after my last class we'll be on the road for an up-the-coast trip, San Diego to Seattle.  I haven't had much time to craft, but inspiration came from the blogs this Sunday morning!

I made a set of thank you's - inspired by Mish's cherry card post (here) and a CPS sketch (here).  I love that this sketch made me think to try new ways of cropping papers, which now I'll try again!  First I made this card:

But I really wanted to use some chartreuse ink so I made this one, stamping the sentiment in hibiscus:

At that point, I had to have a trio, so naturally there would have to be hibiscus - back to scarlet jewel ink for the sentiment:

Inside  is a strip of coordinating paper with a thank you sentiment from Big & Bold Wishes, along with a little cherry stamp.  The card front sentiment is from the Basic Grey gamma series.  I discovered you don't need the die to cut this label - just trim the frame and use a ticket-corner punch.  I also fell in LOVE with the rustic white PTI CS - that is THE best new neutral for me!

Enjoy your night, cherry bombs!

SUPPLIES:

stamps - PTI Everyday Button Bits, Fillable Frames #1, Big & Bold Wishes (not pictured, inside card), Paper Tray (not pictured, back of card); Basic Grey gamma series
paper - PTI kraft, new leaf, aqua mist, hibiscus, rustic white; Basic Grey lemonade series
ink - PTI chartreause, aqua mist, hibiscus, scarlet jewel; linen Distress Ink
accents - PTI vintage scarlet jewel buttons, cream twine

tools - Glue dots, adhesive

party thanks

These cute little teapot thank you cards were the perfect end to our Alice-inspired 'tea' party birthday (see previous post, here).  I just had to bust out the Cricut again.  They coordinate with the teacup invitations (here).  I white embossed the image onto PTI cardstock.  The swirly vellum is Michaels circa 2004 (leftovers from wedding invites.  I wrote on the insides in most of them with white in.  

 I have 3 Cricut cartridges but everything I cut is from A Child's Year - for this party there were red roses with green leaves, purple & green Mad Hatter's hats, and a banner in pink, mint, blue and purple.  

We decorated the back patio with crepe paper, balloons - half of them polka dot with big white spots, and mixy-matchy dinnerware, all in the same fun colors.  We hung a few strands of white star lights and put out some pretty tulips.

The HIT for the four-year old crowd were the cake pops.  Bakerella of course (here).  These were definitely red velvet yummi-ness.  They stand in a foam rectangle covered in a sheer ribbon.  I used sewing pins to push in a few buttons I've had lying around from making an Alice costume years ago.   

(HOW does Bakerella make the pops look so perfect???  I tried two batches - one with melted white choc. chips and another with Wilton candy melts - both times it was very gloppy).  

Here's a little gift set for Caitlyn from us - CASEd from Nichole (here).  I LOOOVE this beauty she made! (Nice how I didn't take the time to iron the recycled ribbon ;)


Alas, for more photos.  Before I knew it, the day was simply,

going...

 going...

GONE! 


CAKE POPS HINT: after you've coated the cake pops for use in the display you'll have 40-something cake pops left in a typical batch. TOO many to coat (at least, for me).  Instead I chilled the cake pops, then melted white chocolate chip, put the chocolate in a baggie, cut off the tip, and drizzled them on the cake balls.  I did the same with dark chocolate chips.  Deeelicious, easy and yummy for the adults too.

xoxo,
cch

caitlyn's tea party

4 years old - wham!  It sneaks up on you.  Suddenly your baby is gone and there's this fun little kid in her place.  We had a tea party - with Alice-y touches here & there.  The favors are one of the new templates at PTI and designed to compliment the invitations (here).

 The polka dots are white filigree embossed and the buttons are tied with 1/4" white silk ribbon.  The handles are cute, cheap-o Michael's ribbons, where I picked up the color-coordinated M&Ms (NOT cheap).  They only had dark green chocolates, which would not do, but I found green gums balls in the wedding area.  Perfect.  Gum is relatively new to most 4 year olds, so it was fun to watch them run around the backyard with their bags of candy *bad Waldorf mom* 

 

I put the Cricut to use with a sign taped to the side of our house (and not the best morning light).  There's also a little peak of the red roses & Mad Hatter hats I cut out in the upper corner of this shot (I meant to stick a little 10/6 tag in the hat but, you know, ran out of time).  Check out that amazing homemade hat gift.

The kids decorated paper bag hats - of course I took no photos.  We had a good playset sesh, a borrowed jumpy-jump, and an easy finger-food buffet.  There were pitchers on the side of Iced Cookie Tea & Peppermint Candy Iced Tea.  Everything went off well :)

More photos are coming - I just can't remember which Mac I downloaded them on to...

xoxo,