It is that time again – the monthly PTI Blog Hop! This month’s challenge was to use the color yellow. I love PTI’s Lemon Tart color – it is so bright and cheery; I always smile with that color.

I played with my swatches and came up with a bright summery color combo – Hibiscus Burst, Lemon Tart, and Spring Rain. The layout is from the DD sketch challenge for May over on SCS. The clouds were cut out after using a template to draw them. I had tried to use Bitty Dot paper for the clouds, but once I did the faux stitching it was way too many dots! The yellow panel has the ornamental image from the Bird Watching set repetitively stamped in Lemon ink, but it is hard to see.

Here is a picture of the inside. I really liked the bitty dot clouds, so I had to use one! I think the dot pattern paper complements the faux stitching on the front. And since there is no sentiment on the front, I added one here.

Don’t forget to check out the other blogs too! List of Participants

Today is Memorial Day. I want to not only express my appreciation to those who died in service, but also to those currently serving – and all military families.

I’m still playing with my PTI Umbrella set. This is such a fun set!

This first card is an idea I’ve had since I saw the set. Ya know it’s gonna be one of those days when your umbrella doesn’t cooperate The sentiment is from Verve (they have such cool sentiments!). The ‘wind’ is using one of the flourishes from the new PTI set (another awesome set). PTI has a dark grey paper, but it was too dark, so I used SU’s Basic Grey. PTI’s Soft Stone color though is very nice.

This second card was my first attempt at a card for the PTI Blog Hop (the challenge is to use yellow). I wanted the umbrella to be a parasol – so I stamped the flourish from With Sympathy and clear embossed it; then, on the back, I stamped the smaller umbrella and cut it out. Click the image to see the detail. I love how that part turned out, but the rest of the card just isn’t cutting it for me. I hope to work in another parasol in a future card because I think it is pretty.

Earlier this week a new Clean and Simple challenge was posted on SCS (CAS15). The challenge was a color challenge – Black, White, and one Bold Bright color. I just received the PTI Scattered Showers set in the mail yesterday, so I decided to use that. I kept the layout simple so the pop of color would be the focal.

Inside I stamped the Wellie from Green Thumb in turquoise ink.

Today’s card was done for the Moxie Fab Color Challenge (blog post). The colors felt summery to me. I just received my PTI Bird Watching sets, so it didn’t take long to figure out how to get started. The layout is from PageMaps (March 2009).

I didn’t bother with a photo, but I did stamp the birdhouse stack on the inside.

Time for another challenge over on the PTI forums. This week I decided to do a color challenge, hence the disparity in post title and card image See my other options were Pure Moss, Poppy Moss, or Mossy Poppies – none of which made sense and were actually a little scary sounding! Anywho, the challenge is to create a card using Pure Poppy, Spring Moss, and Kraft.

This is the card I created for the challenge. I used the new Green Tea Leaves pattern paper and Tea for Two stamp set. I also used the sketch from a PTI challenge a couple weeks ago.

I added a design to the tea pot using a little ornamental stamp from the Borders & Corners Rectangle set. And I colored the lid and base of the teapot to help finish it off.

It is time for a challenge over on the PTI forums. This time I opted for a simple challenge – use buttons. PTI recently began selling buttons that match their colors, can you say *yummy*

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and as usual, I am running behind. This card is for one of 3 women in my life. The one that doesn’t check my blog

This is a very simple card. I cased the sentiment treatment from Gretchen’s card that I found in the PTI gallery. I added buttons, um, because that is the challenge. The background was done with Faux Ribbon – I *love* that set! This turned out pretty good, eh?

I even did the inside. This one was inspired because I didn’t want the ribbon to feel lonely inside. I try really hard to not have anything from the front be on the inside – ya know, brad prongs, splayed eyelets, and the like. Ribbon, for me, is ok though – because it is pretty I continued the background on the inside and added a popped flower too.

They say that some things are worth waiting for. This card is like that! I originally started this card almost a month ago to enter it into the PTI monthly contest (using Guidelines stamp set). I folded the white card base and stamped the Ocean Tides/Kraft Guidelines background panel. But then, I was stumped. I wanted to use Lemon Tart (one of my favorite PTI colors), but it was too light be a focal color. Since the contest is long over, I was able to do it unhindered by the desire to “win” something.

I *love* how this card turned out! I used Melon Berry (another of my fav colors) along with Butterfly Kisses (a definite go-to caliber set). I embellished with my white gel pen and a few strategically placed rhinestones.

Over at SCS, there will be another VSN mini on Saturday. But on Friday – there was a surprise challenge! The challenge was to embellish a card with at least 3 things (from a list).

So, my card isn’t highly embellished, but I made up for it by eating a couple cookies whilst I created the card The first requirement was to use a favorite stamp set. Well, for me, my favorite set is always the one I most recently got – that would be Wishing You by Dawn for PTI. Then my “bar” selections were ribbon, buttons, and the piercing template.

I’m hosting the Casual Mid-Week Challenge over on the Papertrey Ink forum (cmwc51). I found a cool lap desk for inspiration. Here is a link to the product on the Room Service Home website.

Back when Nicole introduced the Chocolate Remix paper she showed how you could color in the images and give the paper a whole new look. I’ve been wanting to try it, and now I have! When I saw the inspiration piece, the lap desk in the back really reminded me of that technique – so I had to do it!