paper is love

CARDS Magazine November 2011

Hi there! Hope you had a great weekend! Mine was pretty darn busy, but I'll be honest - a lot of it was busy with watching the Australian Open Finals. It was the longest Finals match in history - 5 hours and 53 minutes of amazing tennis by two of the best athletes in the sport. It was fascinating to watch and I was so happy to see my favorite player, Novak Djokovic, take home the trophy! 

Today I'm sharing a card I had published in the November issue of CARDS magazine! 

 

 

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: The Girls' Paperie

Chipboard house: My Mind's Eye

Clear stmap: Papertrey Ink

Circle die: Spellbinders

 

You can find this card in the "Chipboard" section of CARDS. And if you want to purchase a copy of the November 2011, click here to go to the Northridge Publishing site.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have an awesome start to the week! See you in February!

Owl Love You Card

Hey there! So I played hookie from my blog here on Wednesday because I was still feeling a little under the weather. But I'm feeling much more like myself, so I'm back! :) As I type this I'm also watching my favorite tennis player, Novak Djokovic play Andy Murray in the Australian Open semifinals (I recorded the match from 3:30 am). I know the results are out, but I'm waiting to watch the whole match to find out if Djokovic makes it to the finals - I'm rooting for him! 

Anyhoo, I've got a Valentine to share with you today. I made this one a little while ago, but it's still one of my favorites.

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: My Mind's Eye

Buttons: Papertrey Ink

Marker: Marvy Uchida

 

Well I hope you have a great weekend (I'll be crafting while watching the Australian Open and hopefully watching Novak win!). Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you back here on Monday!

Sweetheart Valentine

Hey there! I hope you had a great weekend! Did you get any snow where you live? Here on the East Coast we saw about 4 inches or so. It's pretty, but makes me want to stay inside and admire it from the window, which becomes difficult when I have to go outside, scrape off my car and drive in it. Oh well, we're almost through January, so I can't complain (much). :) 

I'm excited to share another Print Candee project with you today and a Valentine's Day project no less! I love creating cards for Valentine's Day, so when the Print Candee team was given an "anything goes" assignment, I went straight to the Valentine's Day products.

Here's what I made using some Made by Janet vintage ticket images:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: Making Memories

Clear stamp: Papertrey Ink

Vintage dessert tickets: Made by Janet via Print Candee

Decorative scissors: craft store

 

I'm such a big fan of all of Made by Janet's vintage imagery and I've just been dying to use these tickets on a project. I printed out one of each and then used my small scalloped deco scissors to trim the ends so they looked ripped off of a strip.  And I can't seem to resist using pinking sheers on just about every project these days, so there you have it. :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to check out projects from my fellow Print Candee teammates who are just so talented it's crazy. You can find their blogs on the sidebar of my blog. Have an awesome Monday!

 

Bloom & Grow Card

Hey there! Happy Friday! I'm definitely still under the weather health-wise, but reading your sweet, well-wishing comments definitely made me feel better. So thank you for that!

Today I'm sharing a springy little card because I like to try and pretend that it's not winter. :) Whatever works, right? 

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper, stickers: BasicGrey

Ribbon: Papertrey Ink

 

It's not often I add a scalloped border sticker to the edge of a card, but when I do, I usually mess it up. Let me explain. I always start with an 8.5" x 5.5" piece of cardstock and then I fold it in half so it creates a stanard sized card. Well, if you want to add a border sticker to hang off the edge of your card (the edge it will sit upon when standing upright), you should trim the amount of excess cardstock off the one edge so the card will still sit evenly after the sticker is affixed. It's simple, really. I just somehow get over excited and forget to do it and end up peeling back the sticker and desperately trying not to ruin the card. Now, I'm sure you wouldn't make this same silly mistake (affixing the sticker first and creating a very lop-sided card), but friends don't let friends craft wrecklessly. And I'm just trying to be the responsible one. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Don't get sick!

Doily Birthday Wishes

Hey there! How's the middle of your week going? My Wednesday has decided to greet me with the beginning of a cold - lovely. I'm still in the sore throat, body ache phase and haven't quite graduated to the stuffy nose phase yet. Lots to look forward to this week. Haha 

On a happier topic, I wanted to share one of the projects I had published in Cool Tools for Paper Crafters. I love this issue and creating for it was such a fun challenge. For this card, I used an edge punch (Martha Stewart Doily Lace punch) to create extra-special accordion flowers for embellishments.

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: Crate Paper

Die cuts: Spellbinders

Ribbon, stamp, buttons: Papertrey Ink

 

To make the doily accordion flowers, I first trimmed the size strip of paper I wanted (a thinner strip makes smaller flowers and a larger makes larger), then punched one edge with the doily lace punch. That's when the accordion part begins and you begin scoring the strip of paper and then fold into the accordion shape.

For tons of other ideas on how to use paper crafting (and even non-paper crafting) tools, make sure to grab Cool Tools at your local bookstore or online.

Well that's it for today! I hope you find some time to get into the craft room this week! I also hope you don't catch the annoying head cold I've started hanging out with. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Cool Tools Giveaway Winner

Hey friends! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who participated in the Paper Crafts magazine Cool Tools Blog Hop. I received so many sweet comments and it truly made my weekend. So, thank you! I wish I had an issue to give away to everyone who left a comment, but alas, I have only one to give away. So let's see who won!

I used random.org to generate a number and chose the comment that corresponded to that number. 

 

And the #85 comment is...

Congratulations to MaryLouH! I'll be contacting you to get your mailing address so Paper Crafts can send you your issue as soon as possible. 

Thanks again to everyone who left a comment on my blog and the other blogs in the hop! And for those who asked, yes, it did take quite a while to glue all of those dots down. I wouldn't recommend hole punch confetti for a "quick and easy" card and certainly not one to mass produce. Haha But I think it's a fun design and definitely worth the trouble for an extra special card. :)

Have a great Monday!

Paper Crafts magazine Presents: Cool Tools Blog Hop

Hey there! I told you I had a fun post coming on Friday and I did not lie. It's another Paper Crafts magazine Blog Hop! This time we're celebrating the new special issue, Cool Tools for Paper Crafters. (But I'm going to call it Cool Tools, for short. 'Cause we're pretty close).

This is definitely one of the most unique special issues I've worked on and maybe one of the most unique issues Paper Crafts has ever put out! It's not just a magazine filled with suggestions for what tools to buy - no way, that would be boring. This issue is filled with 187 projects that use paper crafting (and other) tools in unique and unexpected ways to add a fresh twist to your projects. There are also great photo tutorials on how to use these techniques. 

For this Blog Hop, we're sharing new cards that all feature the use of a punch. Even though I love a good border punch (who doesn't?) and I have an unhealthy obsession with my Martha Stewart butterfly punches, I decided to use a regular run-of-the-mill hole punch on this card. I wanted to give it the look of thrown confetti and I really like the way it turned out! Who knew an office supply could be so much fun?

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: American Crafts

Ribbon, button, "be" stamp: Papertrey Ink

"Happy" stamp: The Girls' Paperie

 

Now here's the part where you come in - leave me a comment on this post (and if you want, let me know what your favorite tool is for crafting) and I'll choose a comment at random to win a copy of Cool Tools! Make sure to leave your comment by midnight Sunday, January 15th. To increase your chances of winning (and to get some serious paper crafting eye candy), check out the blogs of the other hoppers and leave a comment for them too:

Danielle Flanders

Cristina Kowalczyk

Heidi Van Laar

Vanessa Menhorn

Kim Hughes

Amber Daigre

Kalyn Kepner (you are here!)

Emily Branch

Laura Williams

Stephanie Halinski

 

And to finish off the hop completely, be sure to go to the Paper Crafts Connection blog to enter to win a HUGE prize package filled with the awesome tools from the issue.You may even need a tool shed to store all the prizes in that giveaway! Or at least some serious drawers. :) 

Thank you so much for hopping along with me today and definitely go out and grab a copy of Cool Tools! You can find it at your local bookstore or right here online at the Paper Crafts online store.

Have an awesome, crafty weekend!

 

You Rock Card

Hey there! I hope you're in the middle of a great week. It's been fairly warm here on the East Coast (at least for January), so I'm thinking only about 10 more weeks and it will be summer again! Easy! I'm already so focused on the Carribbean cruise I'll be going on in May that I've been shopping for bathing suits and flip flops online non-stop. If I pretend it's summer and just keep buying bathing suits, I'm convinced I can skip winter altogether. :)

Now let's talk cards. So I made this slightly masculine-themed card a little while ago using Crate Paper's School Spirit collection:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper, chipboard: Crate Paper

Ink: Clearsnap

Twine: Westrim

Alphabet stickers: Cosmo Cricket

 

Even though I had Father's Day in mind when creating this card, I think it could work for anyone's birthday or as a "just because" card for a friend. I used my Tim Holtz edge distresser to add a little more rough texture to the edge of the pattnered paper and then inked it using my favorite "Creamy Brown" chalk ink from Clearsnap. It's my go-to ink color for distressing edges. Not sure I could live without it. Do you have a "holy grail" craft supply? Let me know in a comment! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll be back on Friday with a special post!

 

 

Floral Sympathy Card

Hey there! I hope you had a great weekend - and maybe even got some crafting done for the lastest Paper Crafts call for submissions? :) Good luck to everyone who submits!

Today I'm sharing the first and only sympathy card I've ever made. It's definitely a category that I always skip when making submissions for a magazine - only because the subject matter is so...well, depressing. So, I usually steer clear of it. But I've seen such beautiful and thoughtful projects created by other designers in this category, so I thought I'd try my hand at it.

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: Crate Paper

Pearls, rhinestones: Zva Creative

Clear stamp: Papertrey Ink

Scalloped scissors: generic

I used a new layout (for me, at least) on this card and made a "window" of sorts. I cut a curve out of the top layer of patterned paper with scalloped scissors and then added a second curve from silver cardstock underneath it to reveal the cream layer with the sentiment. I like how it turned out and gave the project a little more depth and dimension. Then, I created cardstock flowers and added some gold rhinestones to the center of each.

Well, I hope this Monday starts your week off right! It's my first 5-day week in a little while, so I'm bracing myself for that extra day. It's okay - we'll get through it. :) Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blue Valentine

Hey there! So I realize the title of this blog, "Blue Valentine" is actually a movie starring Ryan Gosling, which looked incredibly good, but incredibly sad, so I never saw it. Maybe I'll give it a shot eventually. After all, it IS a Ryan Gosling movie. :)

Anyhoo, this post is about a card, not a dreamy actor. I made this for the "Winter Blues" section of the January/February issue of Paper Crafts magazine. It didn't get picked up, but I had so much fun with this challenge. I get so sick of the traditional red/pink/white color scheme of Valentines that blue was a welcome change.

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: BasicGrey

Clear stamps: Layers of Color, Making Memories

Scalloped die cut: Spellbinders

Brad: BasicGrey

Edge punch: Fiskars

It's hard to tell from this photo, but I heat embossed a script stamp from "The Love Chapter" from Layers of Color in clear embossing powder. I like the subtle addition of textures it gives the card.

I hope you have a great weekend and thank you so much for stopping by! Maybe you'll watch a Ryan Gosling movie this weekend - because I'm pretty sure I talked myself into it. :)