Ode to Maile ~ PTI Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my humble yet passionate blog :)  This is my first ever PTI blog hop post so I am a little nervous and excited! I like meeting new friends with the same love for paper and hope you will leave a constructive comment for me. This months challenge was to recreate a project made by one of the several wonderful and talented PTI design team members.  I chose Maile Belles.  I've been following her blog since I started my blog this past summer. At the time she only had 28 followers and she wasn't apart of any design team. She's come a long way in such a short time.  Congrats Maile!!!  I have always admired her graceful style, her french knots and I have been awed by what she can do with a stamp! Just call her the Grace Kelly of stamping.

During the  PTI anniversary celebrations and February's stamp unveiling she showed off a really cute crafty kit with a matching card to give to a friend. I really loved the concept, mainly because I would love to be given such a gift and love things to be 'matchy'. I decided to recreate it as a gift for my six year old daughter.  She loves to do crafty things so I thought wouldn't it be great for her to have her own little kit to make Valentines cards next year?  It's got everything I think I little girl would want; beads, buttons, felt, flowers, stamps, ribbon, and paper! (Pictured at the top)

The challenging part of this project, I found, was not to mimic Maile's style too closely and to put in my own touches. I think I did that using one of my favourite bright colours (Red) and adding some pattern paper to my card.  Maile doesn't use a lot of designer paper, mainly because she's so good at stamping her own designs.  But me, I like to collect all kinds of paper.  If I'm inspired by it, I buy it!  I have boxes of it and would feel guilty if I didn't use it.

Some hand stitching was added to the top of the border punched edge for another personal touch. I also took the time to decorate the inside, incorporating the polkadots and taking the opportunity to tell my lovely little girl how much I love her.  For a closer look just click on the pictures. I hope that I've done justice to Maile's inspiration and made her proud :)

Thanks so much for popping by and helping me to share my passion 4 paper!  Be sure to check out the rest of the PTI design team.  They all have their own unique style and I'm so thankful to have been introduced to them this past September!  I also have a list of inspiring blogs on my sidebar.  Happy crafting!

Paper:  Real Red, Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Sending Love dsp
Ink: Choclate Chip, Real Red
Accessories:  Making memories paper flowers, Pure Poppy buttons (PTI), Pink cord buttons, linen thread, pink cotton floss, red rhinestones, scallop trim border punch, ticket corner punch, large corner rounder punch.
Stamps (All PTI):  Mixed messages (LOVE), Everyday button bits (All things grow), Signature Greetings, Polka dot basics.