PaperFections

World Card Making Day at Ellen Hutson!

Tomorrow, October 1, is World Card Making Day and over at Ellen Hutson's store and the CLASSroom, there will be some celebrating going on! To kick things off, a special sale starts today ... you can find out all the details of the sale over on the store's homepage or by clicking on the banner above. Then we hope you'll join us in the CLASSroom all day tomorrow, beginning at 8am Pacific / 9am Mountain / 10am Central / 11am Eastern, where challenges will be posted every 2 hours. You'll want to be sure to enter each challenge, for your chance to win some awesome prize packages! You'll also want to be sure to enter for your chance to win this Grand Prize package of each of our favorite products, valued at over $200! I look forward to sharing my WCMD card challenge with you tomorrow! Read more →

JustRite Stampers October Release-Day 3

Today we have two new JustRite Stampers October release stamp sets to show you. They are Grandma's Doilies, a 3-1/4” round JustRite Original ribbed set: And Old Friends, a 2” round JustRite Original ribbed set -- these centers will fit with Grandma’s Doilies borders: And I have also used yesterday’s introduction, Lace Borders JustRite Cling rubber stamp set, on my project today … they all coordinate so well together! If you would like to see more inspiration with the Lace Borders set, start over at THIS JustRite Inspiration blog post to see some amazing projects! My project today is a thank you tag: I stamped a Lace Border across the bottom of a kraft tag with Versamark and heat embossed it with white detail embossing powder -- the details are amazing! It is accented with black flat-backed pearls. Then I used a center from Grandma’s Doilies and stamped it with Versamark all over the rest of the tag. Next, I stamped the coordinating Grandma’s Doily wide border on kraft cardstock and also white embossed it. It was die cut with Spellbinders Big Scalloped Circle Nestabilities and layered onto another black die cut. The center was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento... Read more →

Fall Altered Frame

I'm tring to get into the Fall spirit, but with temps still in the 90's here in Texas, it's a little difficult! Nevertheless, I brought out all of the Fall decorations for my house and decided I would make this 12-inch Fall photo frame with pretty colors of cascading felt leaves: You can find all the details and instructions today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom ... I hope you'll join me! Read more →

JustRite Stampers October Release-Day 1

Welcome to the first day of JustRite Stampers' October release blog hops! Before we get started, I wanted to mention a sale that JustRite is having: All JustRite Original Ribbed Square stamps are now just $10 and the stamper/mount is also on sale! There are lots of pretty holiday and all occasion stamps to choose from -- you can find them all HERE. Now on to my card for today, using JustRite's new cling rubber stamp set, Autumn Labels Twenty-Two: It coordinates with Spellbinders new summer release die set, Labels Twenty-Two ... isn't it gorgeous?!! I made a topper cutout card: Overall, the measurements are the same as a normal A2 sized card: 4.25" x 5.50". The label die cut is mounted on the inside of the card: So when you open up the card, you can still see the beautiful label inside! I added some more patterned paper on the inside, too. Here's a closeup of that gorgeous pumpkin/Give Thanks label, accented with chocolate flat-backed pearls: It was colored with these Copic markers and Gold and Sand Atyou Spica Glitter Pens (colors listed below): The seam binding ribbon started out the bright gold color shown on the left below.... Read more →

Copic Updates

Just an FYI -- ALL the Standard Copic Certification Classes have now been opened up for the remainder of this year. You can find all the current class offerings on my Copic Class page HERE or the Copic website HERE, along with the applications. So if you want to take a Standard class by the end of this year, now's the time! Also, did you know the Copic Blog currently has a "Limited Colors" coloring contest going on (to just use 7 marker colors) and you could win a free marker of your choice? It's easy to enter -- just visit this post to find out the details! You still have by the end of today to enter, and you can see all the challenge entries on the Copic Facebook page HERE ... great entries to browse through and get some different coloring ideas! I also wanted to share a "What Not To Do" experience I had today: Oops! I did what I was NOT supposed to do ... tried to change out this Super Brush Nib from one of my Sketch Colorless Blender markers WITHOUT the tweezers and as you can see, the nib separated and now really can't... Read more →

JustRite Friday Challenge: Fall

A new JustRite Friday Challenge has been posted and is very appropriate for the first day of Fall today -- to make a Fall themed project! Here's my sample card, using a brand new October release cling rubber stamp set, Autumn Labels Twenty-Two, which coordinates with Spellbinders new Labels Twenty-Two Nestabilities: This new stamp set will be officially released next Tuesday, September 27 with a full design team blog hop, but shhhhh ... it's already in stock in the warehouse and ready to ship! This beautiful Fall words label was quick and easy to color, by using my Copic Airbrush System and these Copic Sketch markers: BG11, E31 and YR21 while the cardstock was still in the die. I hope you'll join me in this new Friday Challenge! Stamps: JustRite Cling-Autumn Labels Twenty-Two, Dies: Spellbinders Labels Twenty-Two Nestabilities; Classic Postage, Classic Scalloped, and Classic Triple Scalloped Edgeabilities; Nested Maple Leaf & Nested Lacey Pennants dies; Grand Calibur Paper: Neenah Natural White cardstock, My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found-Sunshine 6x6, Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa Copic Markers: BG11, E31, YR21 + Copic Airbrush System Accessories: KaiserCraft chocolate pearls, corrugated cardboard, The Twinery-Caribbean, sewing machine + thread Read more →

Colorblocked Canvas

Today in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom, I'll show you how to make this custom color blocked canvas home decor piece. Everything is made entirely from canvas, though it resembles blue jeans, I think ... I hope you'll join me! Read more →

Gina K Sept Release Inspiration Hop 3

Welcome to Day 3 of Gina K Designs’ September stamp set release inspiration blog hops! Remember, all of the new September release stamp sets are now available in Gina’s store! Our first stamp set being featured today is: My True Love Gave to Me by Gina K -- Oh my goodness, I know I’ll get a LOT of use out of this set during the holidays … LOVE it! I created quick holiday tags, in a little bit of a non-traditional color … Gina’s Ocean Mist cardstock is one of my favorite colors! I lined up the “On the” and “Day of Christmas…” stamps on my acrylic block and left those stamps in place when stamping each tag -- that made it easy to get a uniform look to my tags. Then I just switched out the numbers each time and stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink onto 3” x 5” tags I made out of Gina’s Ivory Heavy Base Weight cardstock. Each line of text at the bottoms of the tags was added separately -- this made it easy to get centered. Next, each of the bird images was stamped with Rich Cocoa ink onto the Ocean Mist cardstock... Read more →

Gina K Sept Release Inspiration Hop 2!

Welcome to Day 2 of Gina K Designs’ September stamp set release inspiration blog hops! Remember, all of the new September release stamp sets are now available in Gina’s store! I want to thank you all for all of your inspiring comments yesterday … I always love reading them all, they sure do lift my spirits! Our first stamp set being featured today is: Celebrate the Season by Theresa Momber -- such a great all occasion set for any season and any crafting project! Since my girls have already been asking how long it is until the biggest candy day of the year, I thought a Halloween countdown calendar was in order! I printed my full-sized 8.50” x 11” calendar (available as a free download from my Downloads & Tutorials page) onto Gina K’s Ivory Layering Weight Cardstock. The calendar topper is made with some gorgeous new Echo Park-Apothecary 6x6 patterned papers, backed with Gina’s Black Onyx Heavy Base Weight Cardstock, die cut with Spellbinders Classic Postage Stamp Edgeabilities die (I trimmed the edges off to be squared): I stamped the silhouette images all in black onto the patterned paper -- I like the striking look! The 1-inch pumpkin square... Read more →

Gina K Sept Release Inspiration Hop 1!

EDITED: My deepest apologies, this is the first time in over 4-1/2 years this has happened … somehow in preparing my blog post for Thursday’s Gina K hop on Wednesday evening, I accidentally deleted this original post. I’m in the process of reconstructing it, so please bear with the sketchy details for now -- they’ll all be back shortly. Unfortunately, that also means all of your very kind comments were also deleted -- I’m so very sorry! If you still would like to be entered into Gina’s drawing for the free stamp sets, you’ll need to leave another comment. :( Again, my apologies . . . Welcome to Day 1 of Gina K Designs’ September stamp set release inspiration blog hops! We hope you enjoyed the Release Party last night -- Remember, all of the new September release stamp sets are now available in Gina’s store! Our first stamp set being featured today is: Holiday Basket by Melanie Muenchinger -- I love that this set coordinates with Melanie’s A Year of Flowers set and three other “basket” sets! I made this Fall candy jar lid topper, using a canning jar: I used Gina K's Soft Sand Heavy Base Weight Cardstock... Read more →

Gina K Designs September Release Party Sneak Peek!

We are very excited to extend an invitation to Gina K Designs August Release Party. We have a fun evening planned for you tonight -- chatting, prizes, challenges, stamp sets reveal, design team shares, and most importantly, at the end of the party you will be able to go shopping! If you came from Michelle Woerner’s blog, you're in the right place. If not, make sure to head over to StampTV where you will find a list of all those participating in today's hop. Here's a sneak peek of one of the projects I will be sharing at the party tonight: Melanie Muenchinger's new Holiday Basket stamp set (the sentiment and smaller pink poinsettias inside the frame) this month coordinates wonderfully with her previous A Year of Flowers set (larger Copic colored poinsettias on the outside of the frame)! I wanted to show the scale of the two together and how nicely they compliment each other. Hope to see you at the party, here are all the details: When: Today, Tuesday, September 13 Where: StampTV Release Party Forum Time: 7 PM to 9 PM (CST) Head on over to Suzanne Dean’s blog to see what she's sharing with you today... Read more →

2012 Calendars Now Available!

(Click on photo for a larger view) Just a quick note to let you all know that my 2012 calendar downloads are now available (all have the months printed on them), older samples of which can be seen above. You can find download instructions and pricing on my Downloads & Tutorials page. And if you want a little more inspiration, you can view all four years of my previous calendars by scrolling down on the right side of my blog sidebar, to my Galleries & Photo Albums, or click HERE. EDITED: I also have this new 1-page landscape (11" x 8.50") calendar option (shown above), which I designed so it could be used many ways. There is enough room at the top to make this a full 2-page calendar that you attach a decorated page to the top with your choice of bindings. Or the page can be cut into thirds and bound on the left sides and decorated front and back covers attached! Or, if you look closely at the photo above you can see where I've scored the page into thirds (pamphlet fold) and also scored the right side to make a flap and adhered it together to... Read more →

JustRite Frugal Friday Challenge 057

If you are here for the Want2Scrap™, Spellbinders™ Paper Arts and JustRite® Stampers blog hop, please scroll down two posts. Remember, you still have until tomorrow, Saturday, September 10 at midnight to enter for the chance to win these three fabulous companys' gift prizes! Another JustRite Friday Challenge has been posted today and the challenge is Frugal Friday -- to recycle and reuse something from around your house and give it renewed life as a frugal gift idea! Here’s my recycled spice jar, jazzed up and made pretty for gift giving to a friend who loves gourmet French cooking (front and back of jar) -- click on any photo for a larger view: The labels, which match Spellbinders Labels Six (above left) and Labels Four (above right) were airbrushed with Copic markers. I kept seeing a gourmet South of France blend of spices mentioned in some recipes called Herbes de Provence, but could never find the blend in my local grocery store. Online shopping turned up some results, but most were quite expensive. Since I already had most of the individual spices in the blend, I Googled how to create my own and found MANY mixture recipes! I created my... Read more →

Copic Coloring Tutorial: Santa

As promised, here's a stepped-out Copic coloring tutorial for this JustRite Blizzard Bunch Santa image I used on yesterday's holiday ornament, using these Copic marker colors: Here's the step out: 1 - Base color Santa with R24. 2 - Add shadows with deeper R29 towards the back of Santa (on parts that are further away from you), on right shoulder where the tip of his hat casts a shadow and deep on the left side of his hat. Be sure to leave areas that are closer to you (his fat belly right in front!), the ends of his sleeves, or where light would naturally touch (top of his hat) the lighter first red we used, R24. Go back with R24 and blend the edges of R29 so they transition into a smooth blend (no harsh edges). 3 - Deepen the R29 shadows with R39. I also added some R39 right next to the white fur trim on his hat and bottom edge of his suit, where the fur would be casting a shadow over the red suit. This will also make the white fur trim pop more. Go back and use R29 to soften the edges of R39. 4 -... Read more →

Want To Make It Fabulous Blog Hop, Day 2!

This week Want2Scrap™, Spellbinders™ Paper Arts and JustRite® Stampers designers have teamed up to bring you an amazing four day blog hop event filled with fabulous designs that are sure to inspire all! Sept 6-9 we will be sharing work from THREE manufacturers’ design teams to show you how easy it is to make something FABULOUS when you have the right products at your finger tips! And what would a blog hop be without prizes? Yes, we will also be giving away prizes! Want2Scrap will be giving away TWO $25.00 gift certificates. Spellbinders Paper Arts will be giving away TWO die template sets with a value of $24.99 each. JustRite Stampers will be giving away TWO stamp sets of the winner’s choice. The prizes will be hidden on the blogs, so be sure to visit all of the blogs and leave a comment to increase your chances of winning. The contest for the prizes will be open until midnight Saturday, September 10th. Winners will be announced on Monday September 12th on the company blogs. If you are new to Want2Scrap, Spellbinders Paper Arts or JustRite Stampers, here is a little information about all three of these amazing companies. Each company... Read more →