PTI February 2014 Blog Hop Challenge

Greetings, my friends!

Today we are all meeting up at Nichole's place for the once-a-month blog hop held to showcase our Papertrey Ink (PTI) products.

This fun hop is held on the 25th of each month and the contest ants are given a photo inspiration board to get their creative juices flowing. This is the beautiful spring inspiration board provided for us to use in this Papertrey Ink February 2014 Blog Hop Challenge:

Ah, spring . . . 

Here is my card:

I played with my patterned paper the other day and this time I played with some of the handmade papers in my collection which I'm pretty sure haven't seen the light of day since the Playhouse went up 2 1/2 years ago and possibly even years before that. Sigh. As I went through the folder, this wispy dried grass adhered to beautifully textured paper really spoke to me for this challenge. 

I saw tree branches, the hamster yelled nest, and I countered with eggs. We go back and forth like a well-oiled machete and then we collapse in design delirium, so proud! In this case, nothing says spring design like newly laid eggs in a nest.

Using my PTI egg die and another sheet of pretty dotted handmade paper, I cut nine eggs. I then glued the cutouts together to make three-ply eggs so they weren't so, well, paper thin. I outlined each egg with a brown marker.

The card base and the ribbon are both PTI "Spring Rain." The wee branch I stamped on the sky portion to carry the nest above the ribbon is from SU. I didn't add a sediment to the front, thinking it would be too much, and it would draw the eye away from the little scene of spring rebirth.

Nothing NBUS today, but the paper is so old it might as well be NBUS. Like the patterned paper, hopefully you will be seeing more of this type of lovely handmade paper used in my cards in the weeks to come now that I've sprung it from the dark recesses of the cabinet. Handmade paper is a lot more challenging for me to use on a card and just generally a lot harder for me to cut into. Still, with resolve, a little wodka, and a good candy bar, I can do it.

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My card was also inspired by the current sketch challenge at Fab Friday, a fun challenge that I haven't played in for quite a while. If it's new to you, or you haven't played yet this week, check it out and join in!! Here is the sketch:

This is the part of my post where I provide you with exercise. For those of you reading this on your mobile devices, no fair cheating by simply turning your device upside down! No, Siree Saraw, I want you up and out of that chair, car, or bed. I'll pause for a second while you ... oh, geez, that's gotta hurt.

New Friends Corner

It's my pleasure to introduce you to a new friend today!

Please give a warm welcome to Nancy Thomas of the Creative Palette. Nancy has been blogging since the end of 2009, so there's a lotta goodies to gander at and add to your inspiration folders and boards! Nancy is an award-winner and design-team-member whose style is very often whimsical and always clean and sharp!

Welcome, Nancy, and thank you for joining us!!
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It's a hop, so hop along ... and enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS!* 

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor! 

  

 

*Life Is Too Short!

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Mwah!