PaperFections

Sweet Friends

On Tuesday my sweet friends, Lori & Jenn, sent me this beautiful bouquet of get-well flowers . . . isn't it gorgeous? The eucalyptus branches are bent into the shape of a heart! Thanks again for your wonderful friendships and for thinking of me girls . . . these really did cheer me up on a very bad pain day! Check back in a bit later today, when I'll start 7 days of celebrating my one year anniversary of blogging! To show my appreciation of all your support over the past year, I'll be giving away a gift prize each day for a whole week!! There'll be lots of wonderful product from some of my favorite vendors and manufacturers for whom I design . . . you don't want to miss it!! Read more →

Meet My New Boyfriend!

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my lack of artwork being posted recently. I've been busy creating samples for the upcoming Craft & Hobby Association show which is Feb 10-13 (what fun!) and will be able to share those with you, once the show is over on February 14. Another reason is that I've been moving very slowly this week is that I spent 4 hours Saturday night in the emergency room finding out I have a superficial blood clot in my leg. Thank goodness, if you're going to have a blood clot the superficial kind is the "better" one to have (no medical danger), but extremely painful nonetheless. So until it gets better (which I'm told could be 2-6 weeks), you may not see as much artwork from me. I still hope to have some fun later this week, celebrating my one year anniversary of blogging though! So in the meantime, I thought I'd introduce you to my new boyfriend I brought back from my Phoenix Spellbinders training trip: The Wizard Embossing and Die Cutting System. I've named him Harry (as in Harry Potter, who is a wizard -- get it?) He may not Cuttle, but he's... Read more →

Spellbinders CHA Preview News!!

I'd love to share with you all, an exciting news release I was just authorized to post . . . . (scroll down for photo): "Spellbinders has been very busy designing new products to be released at CHA-Winter 2008! We are now introducing.... The first motorized die cutting and embossing machine, Xcalibur(TM)! Spellbinders Paper Arts, continuing in their tradition of innovation, introduces the first motorized die cutting and embossing system. A touch of the button gently feeds and slowly releases mats for cutting and embossing. The mats used in Xcalibur will be the same mats currently used in the Wizard, Universal Craft Tool. Xcalibur will cut, emboss and texturize virtually every consumer die from leading manufacturers making it the universal system of choice. Xalibur will revolutionize the die cutting world... Please be assured that this is not a replacement for the Wizard. The machines can share the same mats, pads and dies but Xcalibur's main features are to cut and emboss. The Wizard, Universal Craft Tool, continues to provide many additional functions such as cutting chipboard, replicating charms and transferring images, just to name a few. Be the Ruler of your Creative Kingdom!!" How cool is that?!! As stated, the... Read more →

Spellbinders Nestabilities Oval Comparison

I've had several questions regarding Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Ovals and the newest Petite Ovals, so I thought I'd show you a quick comparison. First of all, this is how I store my dies that have multiple parts in the sets -- in a jewel CD case, with strips of adhesive-backed magnet. I have the small sets to each of these large sets of dies stored on the left side of the open CD cases shown below: The top set of dies is the newest Petite Scalloped Ovals (large set); the bottom set is the Classic set of Scalloped Ovals (also large set). The Petite set's largest die is a tad over 4.75" wide and almost 3.75" tall. The Classic set's largest die is 4" wide and 3-1/16" tall. As you can see, the shapes are totally different and give you a wide range of flexibility for your crafting needs. But since the shapes ARE totally different, you will need each of the coordinating straight ovals to layer with them -- the Classic's straight Ovals won't layer exactly with the Petite's Scallops -- you might get an interesting look, though! Also, the Petite's scallops are smaller and there are more of... Read more →

SplitcoastStampers Member?

Are you a SplitcoastStampers.com member? If so, and if you are interested in providing some helpful feedback, please check out this survey. Just click on the link below to get started . . . and thank you for your time! Link: Splitcoaststampers News. Read more →

WSC32-Soft Bouquet

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenges always provide a nice excuse for me during the week to put aside any work-related stamping and just stamp to my heart's content. So yes, you saw me use this beautiful Bouquet stamp by Lockhart Stamp Co. last week, but I wanted to show you how versatile it is. Last week, I went with a more bold, birthday-celebration look but this week this stamp makes a softer, more romantic appearance: This was Beate's sketch to follow: I stamped the bouquet with Brilliance Graphite Black on my favorite white shimmer cardstock and colored it with Copic Sketch markers. This image was my very first attempt at using Copic's Airbrush System at my Spellbinders training, I mentioned here and promised to share with you. I started with Y00-Barium Yellow around the bouquet and then faded into B21-Baby Blue around the edges. So, of course, in the cross-over I was also left with the yellow fading into a pretty green, then the blue: The image was cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Rectangles and matted with Prism Intense Pink cardstock, then a Scalloped Rectangle was cut from the same Sugar Plum (soft pink) card base. Copic Spica Glitter pens accent... Read more →

CHF Backgrounders Now Available . . .

. . . at Ellen Hutson's store! Yes, you heard that correctly -- Ellen will be carrying Cornish Heritage Farms' wonderful backgrounder stamps that you've seen me use, so now you can do a lot of one-stop shopping with Ellen! Check out Ellen's announcement on her blog and you can start browsing her online store to see what's available. You can also check the CHF Gallery on each of the newer backgrounders to see fabulous samples of their use. I'll be back a little later with those photos I promised you of all the goodies I got on my Spellbinders training trip from all the product suppliers, so check back in! Read more →

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

It's time for another SplitcoastStampers Dirty Dozen/Alumni "reunion day" (I liked Jami's wording!). We've been getting together on the 20th of the month for a few months now and it's always fun to see what each of us comes up with, using the same parameters. This month's requirement is to use a girl image and make it "something sweet". The restriction is no standard 4.25" x 5.50" card, so my mind immediately went to my monthly calendar that I hadn't made a February page for yet! Since it's a 6"x6" page, that fit the bill perfectly! Here's what I came up with: For a girl image, I used Elzybells' Peace, Dream & Wishes (those are the labels on this sweet little angel's bottles of hearts she is doling out)! The original image is stars she is scattering from her cloud, but I changed them to candy hearts for February Valentines -- does that fit the "sweet" part of the challenge?!! Her little hearts are cut out from the patterned paper I used here, which are notecards from the Target Dollar Spot! I stamped Elzy in Brilliance Graphite Black on Curious Iridescent Cryogen White cardstock, colored her with Copic markers and... Read more →

Copic Coloring Tutorial

Here's a Copic tutorial on how I colored this bouquet (click on any photo to view it larger): These Copic Sketch markers were used for the entire bouquet: If you don't know about these markers already, what you first need to understand is the numbering system. The first letters represent a color family: YG is for yellow-green, G for green, R for red, E for earths and so on. The last digit of the numbering system is the lightness/darkness within that color family -- this is the reason R81 is a light pink within the red spectrum and R08 is a darker red within the red family. The middle digit is the color tone or brightness/dullness, so R08 is actually on the lighter, more orange end of the red spectrum, while something like R59 is on the other end of the red spectrum, containing more red/violet tint. To achieve the variegated roses, I used the lighter red/rose Copic marker R81-Rose Pink to lift off some color from a darker red R08-Vermilion: Then when you first touch the lighter marker to paper, you'll have the darker red color fading into the lighter color. You can see this shading technique a little... Read more →

WSC31-Celebrate Bouquet

It's Friday and time for another one of Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenges! Here's this week's sketch for you to work with: And here's my sample: For the focal image, I used Karen Lockhart's Bouquet and stamped it in Brilliance Graphite Black on Curious Iridescent Cryogen White cardstock, using Copic markers (more exact coloring details will follow in the next post, with a Copic coloring tutorial). Here are the colors I used: Here's a closeup of the bouquet and that lovely shimmery cardstock: I accented the bow with Copic's Red Spica glitter pen and the baby's breath is Ranger's White Opal Liquid Pearls. The image was cut and matted with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic & Scalloped Rectangles and is popped up on dimensional foam tape. The card base is Stampin' Up's Chocolate and these beautiful variegated papers are from Memory Box's Flirt collection. I distressed all the edges of the patterned papers with Tonic's Edge Distresser and inked them with ColorBox Chestnut Roan Liquid Chalk cat eye pad. On the right vertical strip, I used Ornare's Small Scalloped Edge Border piercing template: PaperTrey Ink's sentiment from Borders & Corners-Oval set was stamped in Stampin' Up's Classic Regal Rose and cut using Spellbinders... Read more →

Spellbinders Training Trip

I was away the end of last week, in Phoenix at our Spellbinders design team training and what fun we had! Jeff & Stacey Caron, Spellbinders owners, were the most gracious hosts and the most fabulous people you'd ever want to meet! My deepest thanks to them, once again, for inviting me into their family, for all they've done for the team so far and what I know is yet to come . . . hang on to your seats, folks, because Spellbinders is going to be rocking the papercrafting industry this year! It so much fun to get to know all the other designers and staff members and I wanted to share a few photos. First, my roommates for the trip: L-R: Fabulous scrapbooker, Sally Lynn MacDonald * My Paper Salon & Paper Crafts stamping idol, Jennifer Ellefson * Fellow Splitcoast Dirty Girl Alumni, Linda Duke <== Click on their names to visit their blogs. Me and Stacey Caron: What a pleasure it was to meet Stacy (and Jeff!) -- It was amazing to see how similar our styles are, not only in stamping & papercrafting, but also in wardrobe and home decorating! An amazing bonus to our Spellbinders... Read more →

Inlaid Heart Tutorial

Since I showed you all THIS card a few months ago with the inlaid rectangle, many of you have been asking how to make that insert that lays flat on the surface of the card, so here's the tutorial for you! First, start by cutting a shape out of your cardfront and cut another of the same shape out of a different color of cardstock. Here, I've used Spellbinders' new Nestabilities Scalloped Heart: Next, turn the cardfront over and adhere a piece of cardstock, that's been trimmed just a little bit smaller than the cardfront, to the inside of the card, covering the cut-out shape. This will give the other color of shape inlay something to adhere to. You want to be sure and put plenty of adhesive around the cut-out shape, so the edges won't lift: Next, turn the card over and adhere your other color of cut out shape to the outside of the cardfront, nesting it back within the original cut-out: I finished the card by placing a tiny scalloped heart that had been glittered on a pop-up glue dot. The tag was cut with Spellbinders Standard Tag (S3-028) and stamped with Karen Lockhart's new sentiment. A... Read more →

Rose Open Gate

Who needs patterned paper with a backgrounder stamp as gorgeous as this! This is my favorite out of the 16 Winter releases this past November from Cornish Heritage Farms -- Geometric Flowers II. You can see all 16 of those backgrounders and beautiful samples in this CHF gallery. I stamped the backgrounder flowers with Versafine Spanish Moss on Prism's Spring Willow Medium textured cardstock -- it really makes for an interesting background: The corners of the background were clipped with Ticket Corner punch and mounted to a standard A2-sized card base of Prism Blush Red Medium. The focal image was masked (did not include the rectangle frame) and just the oval vignette stamped in Spanish Moss ink on Neenah Classic Cream cardstock. Just the roses and gate were colored with Copic markers (R11-Pale Cherry Pink & R22-Light Prawn). The image was cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Oval and matted with Scalloped Oval Nestabilities in the same Prism Blush Red Medium cardstock as the card base. This piece is popped up on foam dimensional tape. The sentiment is another new Kinkade release, "A Birthday Rose". It's stamped in Spanish Moss on Classic Cream and tag shape cut and mounted to more... Read more →

Blissful Gate

If you can't tell by now, I REALLY like stamping these Thomas Kinkade images monochromatically and black/white is my favorite combo! Plus, they make for a really quick & easy card with a lot of pop. This is the vignette size of The Open Gate that I posted yesterday -- which is just a smaller section of the stamp that has been reduced in size a bit and put into an oval shape with a rectangle frame. Now, if you don't like that rectangle frame (and maybe think you'll never use it that way), then you can certainly just cut that part off your rubber stamp OR mask it before inking it. In tomorrow's sample, I just masked it off. The image was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black -- I've found the Versafine line of inks to the best at retaining all the fine details of these stamps. It is stamped onto Neenah Classic Crest-Solar White cardstock and cut with just a paper trimmer. The black scalloped rectangle frame around the focal image is Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangles. The image is popped up on dimensional foam tape and accented with clear crystal stickers. The sentiment is also a new Thomas... Read more →

Framed Spring Open Gate

5" x 7" framed art. Thomas Kinkade's The Open Gate was stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia ink on Neenah Clasic Cream cardstock and colored with the following Copic markers (click on photo for a larger view): 5" x 7" mat is Weathered Wood backgrounder stamped in Adirondack Slate dye ink on Neenah Clasic Cream cardstock and then more of the Slate ink sponged on the edges and randomly on the wood. 4.50" x 2.50" rectangle was cut in the center of the mat and the edges distressed & inked. 'Each Day...' sentiment was selectively inked and stamped onto Prism Frosted Orange cardstock, to fit within the metal frame. Gray satin ribbon ties off one side of the frame: All stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms: Thomas Kinkade 'The Open Gate' & 'Each Day...', SonLight Impressions Weathered Wood backgrounder. Paper: Neenah Classic Crest-Classic Cream, Prismatics Frosted Orange. Ink: Ranger Adirondack Slate dye ink, Tsukineko Versafine Vintage Sepia, Copic Markers. Accessories: WeRMemoryKeepers pewter metal bookplate, May Arts ribbon, Tonic Edge Distresser, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, 9.25" x 7.25" silver frame. Check back in tomorrow for another Kinkade sample & Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge! Read more →