paper is love

Paper Crafts November/December 2011

Hi there! Hope your Wednesday is shaping up nicely! I'm especially happy today for a few reasons: after work my girlfriends and I are grabbing dinner and then going to see the latest Twilight movie. Who wouldn't love doing something that makes you feel like you're back in high school? Love it. I'm also happy because my favorite group on The Sing Off (has anyone seen that awesome a cappella show?) won on Monday night.

Anyhoo, today I'm going to share with you a card I had published in the November/December 2011 issue of Paper Crafts magazine! This was featured in the "Get Inspired" section in the very back of the magazine. I was inspired by one of my favorite Christmas stockings that we have and came up with this:

You can get the full supply list and instructions in the November/December 2011 issue as well as see a photo of the stocking I used as inspiration! Also, be sure to check out all of the activity on the Paper Crafts Connection blog and the Moxie Fab World blog this week as they're celebrating the latest special issue, Get Inspired, which is an entire issue built around the Get Inspired column in the monthly issues - pretty cool if you ask me.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope your Wednesday is fabulous!

Christmas Gift Card Holder

Hey there! Happy Monday! So it's officially the holiday season and I'm excited to be sharing more holiday projects here on the blog. Today, I've got a really simple gift card holder/tag that would be great to make for multiple people:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket

Clear stamp, ribbon: Papertrey Ink

Embossing powder: Hampton Arts

 

I still haven't started on my official 2011 Christmas cards yet (yikes!), but I'm hoping to come up with something simple like this that can be easily recreated. Do you have any good holiday card or gift tag ideas? I'd love some inspiration. 

Well, I hope this week starts off great for you and thanks so much for stopping by! See you here on Wednesday!

Print Candee Photoshop Actions & Textures

Hi there! Happy day-after Thanksgiving! If you're in the US and celebrated yesterday, I hope it was full of delicious food and great company. Mine sure was! Any one braving the crowds for Black Friday shopping today? I wish I was going to be out in the trenches (preferably the trenches at Anthropologie), but I'll be working instead. It's probably for the best - no battle wounds.

Anyhoo, I'm super excited to share my first-ever little video tutorial with you! It's a simple tutorial on using Photoshop Actions and background textures from Print Candee. I've never used  a PS action before being a part of the Print Candee team and I absolutely LOVE them now. So here's the "before" and "after" photos that I altered with the Kiwi Candy action and the Postale paper from the Vintage Post Texture Set (links below!).

And here's the video I created showing step-by-step how to achieve this look:

  

Photo Actions: Kiwi Candy by Print Candee

Background Texture: Postale from Vintage Post Texture set by Life N Reflections (available at PrintCandee.com)

So that's my little tutorial! Hope you liked it. It's so odd hearing my own voice recorded like that (and by odd I mean uncomfortable because who loves the sound of their own voice? Not I). But I'm excited that I was able to share this little video and I'm definitely planning on adding more! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and best of luck on any holiday shopping you do this weekend! 

Paris Layout

Hey there! Have you ever had one of those crafting experiences where you're so not into it, so uninspired and unmotivated, but you have to finish a project, that you just want to sit at your craft desk and cry? Well, I had one of those experiences last night. I think it started with hitting my elbow quite swiftly against the top of my desk drawer...things escalated from there. But all is forgotten and hopefully my crafting supplies forgive me for shoving them (and maybe tossing them) around a bit as I did last night. We all have those moments, right? The "crafter gone mad" kind of moments. Anyhoo, no card to share today, but here's a layout!

All supplies from American Crafts

Well, since I won't be back here until Friday, I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy all kinds of delicious food! Thanks for stopping by and I'm so thankful to have such great crafty friends who read Paper is Love and share this great hobby with me. Thank you!

Mr. & Mrs. Card

Hi there! I hope you had a great weekend! Mine was incredibly busy, but all with fun things, so it was a good one. I had a great time at my friend's wedding - it was a really special evening. And I'm pretty sure I'll be raving for weeks about the caramel apple cake that they served. Delicious. 

So I thought I'd share the wedding card that I made for my friend, Laura and her new husband, Chris.

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: BasicGrey

Ribbon: Martha Stewart Crafts

Clear stamps: American Crafts

Label Dies: Spellbinders

 I used silver embossing powder to heat emboss the center flourish as well as the swirl borders on both sides of the card. Then I finished it off with two rhinestones and my favorite Martha Stewart woodgrain ribbon. I wish I had an unlimited supply of that stuff because I just love looking at it - and it's the highest-quality ribbon I've ever worked with to be honest. Okay, I'm done gushing about the ribbon now. :) 

Well I wish you a Happy Monday and I'll be back on Wednesday. There's lots of crafting to be done after work this week, so stay tuned for fun stuff on the blog! Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Tree Gift Box

Hey there! Happy Friday! If I hadn't already said (about a million times) how this week went by so quickly and felt like a blur, I would say it. Because it did. But I'm quite excited for this weekend - I'll get to celebrate at a friend's wedding and then plan on making some pumpkin cinnamon rolls on Sunday! And hopefully a few cards will make their way into my Sunday as well. :) 

Today I wanted to share a gift box I made a little while ago using a pyramid-shaped gift box that I got at Paper Source. I used clear embossing powder to create the tree texture and then added more stamped accents and a little glitter.

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Clear stamps: Inkadinkado, My Mind's Eye, Hero Arts

Pearls: CTMH

Glitter glue: Ranger

 

To assemble this gift box, I actually trimmed three pieces of green cardstock (as close as possible to the color of the green box), stamped and embossed them and then adhere them when I was done. They might be a little time consuming to make for a large party, but I think they'd be great little table settings for a Christmas party.

I hope you have a great weekend! I'll be back here on Monday! Thanks so much for stopping by.

Happy Harvest Card

Hi there! It's been a blur of a week so far already. I swear it's not Wednesday, but the calendar says it is, so I'll go with it. Yesterday brought some great news - I was a Trigger Target on the Moxie Fab World! A total surprise until I got e-mails from sweet crafty friends! So, thanks Moxie Fab World and to everyone who said something sweet on that post. It made my day! And congrats to the other Trigger Targets! 

Today, I'm sharing a fall harvest card that I made using one of my favorite Hambly Screen Prints vellum sheets and a few leaves that I actually bought for my Halloween costume last year! 

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Patterned paper: Kaisercraft, Hambly Screen Prints

Ribbon, buttons: Papertrey Ink

Lace: JoAnn's

Well that's it for today! I'm really in the Thanksgiving spirit lately (still clinging onto Fall here!), so if you see a few more fall-themed projects than usual that's why. :) Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you back here on Friday!

Paper Crafts magazine 365 Cards Winner

Hey there! It's that exciting time - time to announce the winner of the 365 Cards Blog Hop! I used Random.org to generate a number from 1 to 162 and here's what it came up with:

So who was the lucky commenter #106 you ask? Let's find out!

Lori B! Congratulations! I'll be sending you an e-mail to get your mailing address so that Paper Crafts can send you your own copy of 365 Cards!

If you didn't win, you can always grab a copy of 365 Cards at your local bookstore or online here.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this hop and for everyone who left such sweet comments here on my blog. You made my weekend. :) Also thanks to Paper Crafts magazine for letting me participate in this fun event!

Have  a great Monday!

 

Tuesday Trigger: Beads & Baubles

Hi friends! I hope you had a fun weekend! I certainly did because I created yet another card for a challenge. I'm on a roll! :) They're quite addicting, aren't they? I love seeing what everyone comes up with. Here's the inspiration image for the "Beads & Baubles" Tuesday Trigger on the Moxie Fab World:

And here's what I came up with:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper

Ribbon: Offray

Buttons: Papertrey Ink

Felt flower: Maya Road

Flower brad, clear stamp: American Crafts

Jeweled brads: Making Memories

I was really inspired by the variety of colors and textures in the image, so I knew I wanted to focus on recreating those elements as much as possible. So, I threw together a cluster of embellishments and added some sparkly gold ribbon to create a similar "found objects" kind of feeling. If that makes any sense. Anyhoo, I just loved the girliness and femininity of the image, so I couldn't resist making a similarly girly Love You card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the 365 Cards Blog Hop last Friday!

Paper Crafts magazine Presents: 365 Cards Blog Hop

Hey friends! Happy 11.11.11 to you! I hope you have 11 fun things planned today! Or at least one. One would probably suffice, but I'm going to shoot for 11. The first one on my list? Get my blog hop on! Yes, today is the day we're celebrating the new special issue from Paper Crafts magazine - 365 Cards. That's a lot of cards, am I right? This jam-packed issue has a card idea for every day of the year: traditional holidays, wacky holidays and day-to-day card-making occasions. You're not going to find an issue bigger and more packed with inspiration than this. This is the Queen Bee of card magazines. 

So to celebrate the release of this awesome issue, the twelve most-published designers are hopping along with brand new cards to share. And I feel very lucky to be one of them. Each designer was assigned a month and mine was February, so in traditional February fashion, I created a Valentine's Day card.

This issue was so much fun to work on because I researched all different kinds of non-traditional holidays that we don't even think about (or really know about). There were so many unusual holidays (some sweet, some strange) and it just opened up a world of possibilities for card inspiration. Maybe a "just because" card sentiment doesn't excite you? Well, I guarantee there is a wacky holiday out there just waiting to have a card created for it. Give it a try for fun!

But before you sit down at your craft table, be sure to leave me a comment (you can say anything you like or you can tell me your favorite card-making holiday/occasion) for your chance to win your own copy of 365 Cards. You have until midnight (MDT) on Sunday, Nov. 13th to leave your comment. Then stop by the Paper Crafts Connection blog to enter to win an even bigger prize! And you certainly don't want to miss the other 11 designers hopping along to celebrate this issue:

Chan Vuong

Kalyn Kepner (that's me!)

Carly Robertson

Cristina Kowalczyk

Kelley Eubanks

Amber Daigre

Vanessa Menhorn

Windy Robinson

Laura Williams

Betsy Veldman

Teri Anderson

Julia Stainton

In case you're not a lucky winner, you'll want to head on over to the Paper Crafts magazine online shop to order your own copy of 365 Cards. Or head to your local bookstore or craft store. This is one issue you're going to be able to enjoy all year long (literally!).

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a great day!