August 7, 2015

A July Update and a PPA Challenge




Wow, July was a crazy month. My son and I flew out on July 3rd for a trip to England. We flew in to London, spent 5 days there then took a train to Liverpool for 3 days, back to London and home. My son was able to meet two of the friends he's been gaming with for several years. It was fun for me to put live versus virtual faces to them. We also took in some of the historic sites and saw "Jersey Boys" at Picadilly Theater. I had prepared Michael for the West End interval when ice cream is available for purchase - a bit of something that Broadway doesn't offer. We had a great week and a long day of travelling to get home.

The Friday after we returned, Michael has his wisdom teeth extracted - oh what a good time. He actually did very well, a bit of swelling the first day or so, but no bruising, so that was good. The week after that he started his first job and I left for the Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City!




I went to convention last year and had so much fun meeting the Pals that I decided to go again. I joined Stampin' Up! under Mary Fish and her group is called the Pals. What a great bunch of people! I roomed with Janet, my roomie from last year and it was great catching up with her. We met through the Pals facebook chat last year prior to convention when we were both seeking a roommate. Amazing friendships are made because of paper, ink and a bit of glue!


The photo above was taken prior to the first session. We all received our convention bags and card swapping was in full swing!

And here's Janet! We were waiting for our make and take class to begin.

We saw hundreds of beautiful card samples, swapped dozens of cards, received many new stamp sets, DSP and accessories and brought home so many memories. One of the definite highlights of the trip was getting my hands on the new holiday catalog that will be effective September 1. Contact me if you would like to be on my mailing list to receive a catalog. You're going to LOVE it!

So, after all of that, I finally worked a five day week last week and have been playing in my craft room. It's been a while since I've done a PPA challenge and I thought I better get back at it. Luckily, this week is a color challenge and I think they are a bit easier to do than the layout challenges. 
Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge PPA 262


For this challenge, I cased a card from the annual catalog's page 129. I knew the Watercolor Wash and Tip Top Taupe would be a great match. 




I used a couple different techniques when creating the butterflies. The top element is simply
Mint Macaron run through the Big Shot with the Bold Butterflies framelits, finished off with a snippet of Pool Party Bakers Twine I had in my stash. The middle butterfly was made with Pool Party cartdstock and the Butterflies Thinlits. The fact that you can coordinate these two sets of thinlits and create fabulous projects is a great justification for HAVING to have both sets;) No, really, you do need both sets! On this Pool Party butterfly, I used a stamp from Sheltering Trees, versamark ink and white embossing powder to give a bit of texture, top it off with bling and I was good to go! Hello You Thinlits were used for the sentiment. The holiday catalog has a new adhesive that is a MUST HAVE for small, detailed items like this. The tip is teeny tiny, made just for small spaces. For the bottom butterfly, I sponged cardstock with Mint Macaron and Pool Party and ran it through the Big Shot for my base and then created a Mint Macaron butterfly for an overlay. That was topped with a Pool Party candy dot and we have come to the end of the story!
Last, but not least, I stamped the inside of the card to add a bit of interest. This was a fun
card to create, used several different techniques, although you could easily keep it simple. TIP: This would be a great card to make with friends. Start with a simple version and then make one stepped up using the different techniques for the butterflies. Be sure to check out the other creations at http://www.palspaperarts.com/. Get inspired and join the fun! 
Don't forget my upcoming class on August 18th.
Check out the details here.




Thanks for stopping!



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3 comments:

  1. Wow you have been on the move! Sounds,like a great trip to England and Convention is always fun! Your card is beautiful.....so glad you had time for PPA!

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  2. What an awesome July you had, Sue! Lots of wonderful memories (hope you are using Project Life). Glad to see that you included the PPA color challenge in your stamping fun this week... such a pretty card inside and out. Love the butterflies and hello thinlit!

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  3. Glad you had such fun! Such a lovely card!

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