PaperFections

Cyber Monday Shopping

Today is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, Cyber Monday! I just wanted to remind you about a few great deals that you can still take advantage of today ... Ellen Hutson LLC: Special savings of 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% on over 500 specially discounted items throughout the store ... check out the Black Friday section! JustRite Stampers: 20% off everything in the store (excluding the new November Release), including an additional 20% off the Super Sale section. Taylored Expressions: 15% off everything in the store, use promotional code TEBlackFriday upon checkout to receive the discount. And at 8am CST today, be sure to check the Taylored Expressions blog for a fabulous announcement pertaining to the annual Craft & Hobby Show in Anaheim, CA this January! Have fun shopping ... I'm sure you'll be having MUCH more fun doing that than I will be having at the dentist, LOL! Read more →

WSC108: JustRite Card Set

Here is the set of cards inside that great Perfect Package Card Box (one post below this one) from Taylored Expressions -- a quick set of all occasion cards, using this week's Weekend Sketch Challenge #108 and JustRite Stampers Just A Note Centers & Borders -- this sketch was perfect for it! By keeping the same format and just changing the sentiment element and patterned papers, I had a very quick and easy set of cards for a Christmas gift! These same JustRite centers and borders are also offered in a Custom Design Cardmaking Kit, which includes the 1-5/8" Round Wood Stamper and Times New Roman Font Set (which I used to spell out CARDS on the box) ... if you don't already have them yourself, or they make a perfect Christmas gift, to get anyone started on their way to making their own greeting cards! With TEN different centers and borders in this cardmaking kit, you'll have every card giving occasion covered! I stamped the different borders with Memento Rose Bud ink onto TE Choice Buttercream cardstock and punched them out with a 1.75" circle punch. Then I stamped the center sentiments separately with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and... Read more →

Taylored Expressions Black Friday Blog Hop!

In honor of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (two of the biggest shopping days of the year!) Taylored Expressions is offering 15% off EVERYTHING in the store today through Monday, so you don't want to miss saving on some great GIFTS for others, supplies to help YOU make gifts, or just a little shopping for YOURSELF!! Just use promotional code TEBlackFriday upon checkout to receive the discount. You also won't want to miss 50% off all JustRite products, buy 2 get one free on Tiny Twinkles, and the new TE shirts and aprons! One featured item in the store is this great Perfect Package Card Box. It ships to you plain white and flat (pops open easily), ready for whatever kind of decorating you'd like to give it. I decided to make mine to hold an all-occasion card set for my Mom as a Christmas gift, so I decorated it "every day'ish", so it would be pretty sitting out on her desk or counter. To cover my box, I used Taylored Expressions' November Key Ingredients Kit with yummy Basic Grey Indian Summer patterned paper and Prism cardstock, adhered with my favorite Zip Dry glue. I used wine rick-rack and pink... Read more →

Glittery Bird Holiday

A very happy Thanksgiving holiday to all my US friends out there! Since today officially begins the holiday season (can you believe it's here already?!!), I thought I'd share a holiday decoration I made for my home. You can find all the details on how to create this door hanger/wall hanging over at the CLASSroom today. While you are there, be sure to check out the post directly below mine, for a holiday treat for yourself! Ms. Ellen has a special store 3rd anniversary blog giveaway going on and you won't want to miss it! Also, you'll want to get some rest today so you can gear up for Ellen's Black Friday through Cyber Monday specials that begin at midnight PST TONIGHT!! You can read all about that sale and specials on the home page of the store! I hope you are enjoying the holiday with family and/or friends ... I am! And I'm truly thankful for each and every one of you who visit here! Happy Thanksgiving! Read more →

TE November Key Ingredient Kit Challenge

Let me tell you what a joy it is to receive Taylored Expressions' Key Ingredients Kits each month! These kits make it SO easy to have all the perfectly coordinated ... well, KEY ingredients!, at your fingertips for quick and easy crafting! Cardstock, the latest and greatest patterned paper, beautiful ribbon, and color-coordinated embellishments. And for just $21.95 per month (6-month subscription) you can, too! This month, half of Taylored Expressions' Baker's Dozen designers were challenged to create Thanksgiving themed projects with family traditions in mind, with the November Kit. Here's what I came up with -- a photo frame! I don't know a family that doesn't take a lot of photos when everyone is gathered during the holidays. I'm usually the one taking photos of everyone else and it's been way too long since we had a photo taken together as a whole family. So this Thanksgiving I'm going to make it a point that someone take our picture together and then it will be placed in this frame! I adore the rich jewel tones in these papers (although my camera seems to be having some difficulty showing you just how pretty these colors REALLY are together!) included in... Read more →

WSC107: Teacher Birthday

It's Weekend Sketch Challenge time again! Our 4th grade teacher's birthday is over Thanksgiving break next week, so we're sending this card to her today. This great new Report Card 8" paper pad by October Afternoon was the perfect choice for her card, I thought! (And I see StarLitStudio has it on sale right now!). I combined the paper with sentiments from Papertrey Ink and Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty Apple and Itty Bitty Ruler. I combined the Itty Bitty images together onto an Inchie Arts Ivory Inchie Square. I'm LOVING these new neutral Inchie Squares and the ivory matched the patterned papers perfectly! I colored the Inchie Square with the Copic markers pictured above. The strangely labeled YR31 is my custom lighter marker that I made by diluting Copic YR31Various Ink Refill (one part) with two parts Colorless Blender solution. One corner of the Inchie Square was rounded with Zutter's Round-It-All corner rounder -- this thing chomps through the Inchie Square matboard like butter! The Inchie was then layered onto a scalloped punch and popped up on foam tape. You can find more samples using this sketch today by visiting the sketch team's blogs: Beate, Cambria, Charmaine, Jenn, Lori and... Read more →

Thankful Tag Book

This month Ellen Hutson LLC is celebrating 3 years in business and over at her CLASSroom blog we are focusing on simplifying life; celebrating our gifts, strengths and family; and gratitude for all those things. Today over at the CLASSroom, I've made a thankful tag book that will become a family treasure to share year after year ... I hope you'll join me there to find out how to make it! And don't forget about the celebratory anniversary sale Ellen has going on at the store this week -- 15% off everything until this Saturday, November 21. You can find all the details on the home page ... happy shopping! Read more →

Taylored Expressions December Calendar

Here's my December 6-inch calendar page a little early! I adore this sweet bird image from Taylored Expressions' Wings of Joy stamp set, so I paired it with Cosmo Cricket's cute mitten and hat paper that compliment it perfectly! It was stamped directly onto Taylored Expressions' Calendar page. Did you know Taylored Expressions' 2010 calendar is all ready to go and available as a download for you now? So you can choose what cardstock (or patterned paper?) to print it on! You can find it here. The calendar prints out 6-inches square -- I just trimmed it down a little so I could place it on the piece of patterned paper. I colored the image with these Copic markers: I cut a Spellbinders snowflake out of Prism Intense Pink (available in Taylored Expressions' Christmas Key Ingredients Kit) and white cardstocks, stacked them together on foam tape and then glitterfied it! A Zva crystal adorns the center. A piece of red-stitched pink ribbon (again, from the Christmas Key Ingredients Kit) and tiny pink snowflakes made with a Martha Stewart edger punch finishes it off! Thanks for visiting today ... Are YOU looking forward to December?!! Supplies -- Stamps: Taylored Expressions Wings... Read more →

JustRite Hip to be Square Blog Hop!

Welcome to JustRite Stampers' - November release Blog Hop! JustRite has some fantastic new monogramming options for you, as well as a great new Custom Design Cardmaking Kit! This 1-5/8" round sentiment set is perfect for any kind of cardmaking occasion you might have and all these new stamp sets are now available for ordering from the JustRite site! I chose to use the new Decorative Frames Borders-Square to frame letters to spell out a whole word, instead of just framing a single monogram. So think outside the box with these pretty new frames -- they can be used for a number of things besides just monogramming! These frames and 2-inch Square Wood Stamper can be purchased separately and used with any fonts you may already have OR purchased as the Deluxe Square Monogram Kit, with the Special Occasions font set included. For my project, I found some 3-inch wood blocks (on which the J and Y monograms are attached) at Hobby Lobby on half-price clearance (gotta love those sales!). There were 7 blocks in fall colors that originally spelled out HARVEST. I just used two of the blocks, repainted them, and decoupaged some of my favorite older BasicGrey papers... Read more →

Copic Giveaway Winner & PSA's

Before I announce the winner of my Copic giveaway, I totally forgot to give you all some good news last week (if you haven't already seen it): Those fabulous new JustRite SQUARE stampers and 8 other new products in the November release are now shipping! You can find them all at the JustRite site, HERE. And there's a big JustRite sale going on ... 20% off every Christmas stamp set!! You can find all the sets listed HERE at the JustRite site. There have also been some new items added to the Super Sale Section of the website HERE. Whole stamp sets and supplies priced from just $2 to $5 ... What wonderful Christmas presents these will make! Be sure to mark your calendar for this Tuesday, November 17 when the JustRite Design Team will be showcasing the new November release with a blog hop. I'll see you then! Now on to our Copic winner . . . Random.org chose this number: True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 199 Powered by RANDOM.ORG Who is: Robyn said ... I have just started using copics and I really love the rich, vibrant colors. I enjoy learning new techniques. Now, I just... Read more →

WSC106: Inchies!

This week's Weekend Sketch Challenge is perfect for Inchies, isn't it?!! I'll go ahead and wait a moment while you take a second look around to make sure you are visiting the blog you think you are! I don't know if you've ever noticed, but I don't do a lot of simple WHITE ... it just scares me, LOL! I love clean and simple white cards I see other people make but somehow I just never pull it off. But it seemed right for my idea for this card, so I went with it! I also went back to my basic white Inchie Arts Inchie Squares ... lined four of them up and stamped Karen Lockhart's Millinery Holiday Ribbon across them with Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and then colored them with these Copic markers: YG95, YG95, G24, R37 and Copic Spica Glitter Pens in Melon (on the holly leaves) and Olive (greenery). The first White Inchie Square was stamped with Karen Lockhart's new Noel sentiment in Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink and the Inchie Square outlined with the Copic R37 marker. Those pretty glittery chipboard numbers (covered with Candy Cane Stickles) were left over from my Advent Calendar project (one post... Read more →

Vintage Countdown Calendar

Today over at the CLASSroom I have a holiday project to share with you ... are you ready for the countdown to Christmas?!! My house now is! I wanted to make an advent calendar last year but ran out of time before the holiday season hit, so I'm glad I started early this year and got it done! I hope you'll join me there to get the full details. If you are looking for my Copic giveaway post (<= you can click right there) or it is located right after this one. You have until this Saturday night to enter for the chance to win the Copic product of your choice (shown below)! Tomorrow is Weekend Sketch time and I'll be back with a project for it! Read more →

Copic Announcements and Giveaways!!

Here are those Copic announcements I promised you last week! Let me begin by saying that if you are a newcomer to my blog, you can find all the information I've compiled about Copic products, including links to tutorials, chart downloads and my favorite color combinations, on my Copic Info page (link is directly under my blog banner). It is with great excitement Copic is announcing the addition of some fabulous new designers and instructors in 2010 to the Copic Team! New team members will be effective as of December 1, 2009. Copic Blog Team now includes: Debbie Olson Michelle Wooderson Sharon Harnist Sherrie Siemens Sally Lynn MacDonald Copic Certification Regional Instructors-US: Northwest: Sherrie Siemens / Marianne Walker Southwest: Marianne Walker Northern Midwest / Chicago: Kathy Sanders Central Midwest: Lori Craig Southern Midwest: Sharon Harnist South: Colleen Schaan Northeast: Sally Lynn MacDonald Copic Certification Regional Instructors- Canada: Western Canada: Sherrie Siemens Eastern Canada: Sally Lynn MacDonald Floaters: Debbie Olson & Marianne Walker So yes, this means I’ll finally be teaching some Copic Certification classes, mainly close to home in Texas. I’ll be assisting Sally Lynn in San Antonio on December 13-14, so I look forward to seeing you there, if... Read more →

Creative Cuts & More Blog Hop-Treasured Family Recipes

Welcome to the first day of the Creative Cuts & More Mega Recipe Blog Hop, which will feature the 8”x8” Treasured Family Recipes Kit. There will be 24 designers who will be creating wonderful pages to inspire you today. Plus, we all will be sharing some of our own delicious treasured family recipes with you! I've been meaning for years to put all of my family's favorite holiday recipes into one cookbook so when the holidays roll around, all I need to do is grab that one book, to make it easier for me to compile my shopping list and for recipe prep! That's where this great kit comes in ... it makes such an easy job of putting all my recipes together into one {pretty} spot! Here's everything you'll get in this kit, featuring Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird papers and chipboard stickers, die cut words & images, 8-inch black chipboard mini album, and Bazzill textured cardstock: This is the cover I created for my album: I covered the front of the black chipboard album with patterned paper and solid Bazzill textured cardstock (that I punched) from the kit. To make the black chipboard letters match the paper I chose... Read more →

WSC105: Snowy Good Friends

I've been a bad blogger this week and have neglected to mention some wonderful blog candy that's up for grabs over at the JustRite blog. They are introducing the November release of new stamps AND have daily blog candy prize drawings! You still have time to enter into a few of the drawings, so be sure not to miss that! On to Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #105 (sorry I'm a little bit late today!) ... I was feeling a bit in the Christmas spirit and hadn't used these darling JustRite snowpeople from the Old Fashioned Christmas Set yet, so I decided to give them some inky love! What started out as a card ended up as a holiday door hanger for my girls ...thus, all the pink I have going on here! Who can resist these sweet snowpeople put under a bubble clear party favor, filled with chunky glass glitter and made into a shaker?!! You can see a little better view of the bubble holder in this photo, along with the Copic markers I used to color: I used Craft-a-Board for a 6-inch base behind the Basic Grey paper, to give some sturdiness, and cut a hole in it... Read more →