PaperFections

Taylored Expressions 10th Birthday Party!

Hello, Crafty Peeps! Today I am BEYOND excited to help my dear, sweet friend Taylor VanBruggen celebrate her awesome stamp company, Taylored Expressions, 10th birthday!! I can not believe it was "just" 10 years ago that Taylor invited me to be part of her first design team to help open her company adventure! You can find her inaugural blog post here! You can see and read about my very first project and post here, or view all of my Taylored Expressions projects/posts here (or click on "Taylored Expressions" over in my right sidebar, under Categories - over there) ---> Today's celebration involves almost 50 designers in a special birthday bash blog hop! You can find a full list of participants over at Taylor’s blog and hop along with us! You will also find a bunch of fabulous new products that were released last night, especially for this birthday bash, over in the TE store here. Today I am highlighting some fun previously-released birthday products because TE LOVES birthdays and has a ton of ways to celebrate them! Another thing I have always loved about Taylored Expressions is their Share Joy Campaign. It is very simple for you to participate in... Read more →

Rainbow Birthday

Hello and happy Monday, Friends ... Today I have a bright rainbow full of birthday cheer for you! This wonderful cupcake image is included in the adorable Memory Box Spring Bunnies stamp set. I love stamp sets that have a ton of versatility, and this one sure does! It's not only great for Easter and Spring, but also babies, love, anniversaries, and birthdays! I stamped the fabulous cupcake image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto X-Press It Blending Card, then colored it up with these Copic markers: Then I die cut the cupcakes with their coordinating Spring Bunnies die set and glittered them with Nuvo Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer. Next, I die cut Sentimental Happy Birthday from X-Press It Blending Card and colored it with the same markers, with an ombre effect. To complete the card, I anchored the birthday die cut with a piece of washi tape, and stamped the Sweetest sentiment (also from the Spring Bunnies stamp set). I also wanted to let you know about this great sale happening over at Ellen Hutson LLC on EVERYTHING ! ! Shop early, for the best in-stock selections! Thanks so much for joining me today! SUPPLIES: CL5220 Spring Bunnies clear... Read more →

Beginner Simple Watercolor: Mondo Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Hello, Friends ... Happy Sunday! Today I have a simple 2 or 3-color watercolor technique to share with you, using the GORGEOUS new Mondo Sakura stamp set from Julie Ebersole for Essentials by Ellen, available NOW! Tip for beginners: To color this beautiful floral image, first I heat embossed the image with gold detail embossing powder onto watercolor cardstock. The embossing helps to hold your colors within the lines and not bleed into other areas! Then I used Daniel Smith PrimaTek watercolors: Rhodonite (pink) and Jadeite (green). I simply watered down the pink color until it was very light and applied it to all of the flower petals, leaving some white space around the upper edges of each of the petals. Then I just gradually mixed in a little more of the pink color, to deepen the centers and lower edges of the petals. By gradually deepening the color, you can achieve wonderful shading with just one pigment! I did the same thing with the leaves and stems. Once the flowers were colored, I used Dandelion Kirarina WiNK pen to fill in the centers of the stamen. Optional: Add a third color to fill in the background. I used my... Read more →

Pattern Happy Paper Piecing

Happy Friday, Friends! Today Ellen Hutson designers are joining the Pattern Happy designers for a blog hop celebrating Pattern Happy products arriving at the Ellen Hutson shop! You will love these fun and playful clear stamps and coordinating dies, as well as their awesome 6x6 patterned paper packs! Today I'm using the whimsical Coolest Ever stamp set and coordinating Coolest Ever dies: To create the popsicles, I stamped them with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto delicious patterns of paper from the Rainbows 6x6 patterned paper pad, then cut them out and glued the pieces onto an additional stamped and die cut white cardstock popsicle. The far right popsicle's stamped dots were colored in using the rainbow Copic markers shown below in the supply section. The popsicles were popped up with foam tape onto a white panel die cut with stitched scallops. The wonderful sentiments were stamped with Hero Arts Bold Ink Cubes (Orchid and Rose Madder), and Black -- aren't those fonts fresh and fun?!! To finish the card, I popped up the white panel on top of a white top-folding card base that has a bold black and white patterned strip of paper from the Pattern Happy 6x6 Color... Read more →

Circle Stamping

Spring has sprung, friends, and I've been in a very floral mood recently! From planting flowers in my yard, to "planting" them on paper, too! I spent a few evenings of Spring Break in our hotel room stamping and coloring, and these were some results: I've been wanting to try my hand at circle (or wreath) stamping and came up with a template similar to an awesome idea and tool Gina K created with her wreath builder kit and template. Until such time as her template is back in stock and I can get my hands on it, here's a look at the template I created: I used a 6" square piece of X-Press It Stencil Sheet (made of thick vinyl with repositionable adhesive on the back). Or another great product to make the template with would have been Ellen Hutson's Art Magnetic Masking Material -- especially with use in the magnetic MISTI! Note: You will need to use the original MISTI if using a 6-inch square template, as the 6-inch template will not fit into the Mini MISTI. Then I cut two 4-inch squares in the stencil material, using my paper trimmer (I used a 4-inch cut piece of... Read more →

Floral Butterfly Birthday

Happy Saturday, crafty friends! Today I'm sharing a birthday card made for my dear, sweet husband's aunt who turned 94 years young this week (and it happens to be MY birthday today)! :) It came together quickly and easily, by using these fabulous Memory Box dies: Fresh Picked Flowers, Primavera Butterfly, Adora Butterfly, and Sentimental Happy Birthday. I started by die cutting the solid Primavera Butterfly from white cardstock, then the Adora Butterfly die cut from gold metallic cardstock and placed on top. I love that this gives the look of gold metallic embossing, but a lot easier and less mess! The butterfly was mounted to a kraft card base with foam tape on the top right wing, to give it some dimension. The beautiful Fresh Picked Flowers die was cut from white cardstock and then colored with Copic markers G20, G21, and R20. It was also mounted to the card using foam tape behind the leaves and glue dots behind the flower centers, to create more dimension. The flower that was originally behind the butterfly was cut off the stem and added with foam tape to the top of the lower right flower. Finally, the pretty Sentimental Happy Birthday... Read more →

United We Flourish: Ellen Hutson & Concord & 9th

Happy Sunday, Friends! Are you in need of a little sweet treat today? If so, the Ellen Hutson and Concord & 9th teams have you covered today! We've both teamed up for another United We Flourish campaign to bring you this oh-so-sweet stamp and die combo set, available exclusively at EllenHutson.com! Here's a look at the awesome Sweet Sprinkles stamp and die set: And here's a card I created with it: The cupcake's frosting was die cut from another one of my Copic Various Ink background making sessions << Full details can be found on that blog post). It was created with Copic RV14 & RV17, with Gold Metallic Mixative added: Then I used the smaller sprinkles stamp to add some glittery gold goodness (aka metallic gold sparkle embossing powder) to the top of the frosting! The cupcake liner was die cut from gold foil cardstock, then run through my paper crimper. The cupcake was popped up on foam tape on the white card base. Another scattering of sprinkles was heat embossed down the left side and the cute sentiment added along the bottom in Rose Bud Memento ink, to match the frosting. :) BLOG HOP & PRIZES! To celebrate... Read more →

Happy 8th Birthday Taylored Expressions!

Happy Monday to you, friends! Did you know Taylored Expressions is celebrating its 8th birthday this month with some fun party favors for YOU! These include everything from the exclusive WISH BIG stamp & die combo set I’ve used today, to patterned paper packs, ink, and more! GIVEAWAY ALERT! Visit the TE Blog to see all their special offers and for your chance to win a fun prize! I was so very honored to be a part of the first Baker's Dozen Design Team when Taylor started the company 8 years ago (remember Cuppie?!!), and just as honored to be asked to help them celebrate their birthday this month! Here's a peek at the adorable Wish Big stamp set, which you can receive FREE with your purchase over $50 this month! (Click on any photo for a larger view. Bold products are linked below in the supply section) This set is SO MUCH fun! I used every stamp and DIE in this exclusive set, except for the two balloon strings -- I used different colors of embroidery thread in their place. Here's how this card came together: I used a variety of rainbow colored Distress Inks to ink up the... Read more →

Shooting Stars

Are you like me and always have good intentions on mailing out birthday cards on time, but life gets in the way? Then I have the perfect card for you today and this sweet Taylored Expressions Shooting Stars stamp set has the perfect sentiments! I hope you'll join me today over on the Taylored Expressions blog for all the details! Read more →

Wish Big!

Do you have a BIG birthday coming up soon? Maybe this card using the Wish Big Essentials by Ellen stamp set will help! Details are over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom today ... I hope you'll join me there! Happy Good Friday! Read more →

Deconstructed Birthday

Hi, everyone and happy Friday! This week, My Favorite Things is sponsoring the Deconstructed Sketch 160: You'll want to play along for your chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the MFT Boutique! I thought I would play along, too (not eligible to win prize!), since sketches are one of my favorite challenges! Here's the card I created: I didn't get a chance to color this cute Birdie Brown Sweet Birthday Wishes during MFT's July release last week, so I was determined to color her up and get her to work with this sketch ... so I turned the sketch on its side! She was stamped with Chocolate Brown Hybrid ink onto Copic X-Press It Blending Card (die cut with her coordinating Die-namics) and colored with these Copic Sketch markers: E00, E21, R20 (skin); Y21, Y26, E23 (hair); R81, R83, R85 (dress & cupcake liner); Y21, Y26 (frosting & balloons); E21, E23 (cupcake & shoes) W2 (ruffle shading) The Pink Lemonade panel was stamped with MFT's awesome new Confetti Background stamp in Pink Lemonade Premium Dye ink. The Pink Lemonade panel and the Primitive White one behind it were both die cut with the stitched die from Blueprints 13... Read more →

MFT Wednesday Stamp Club 184

Hi, everyone -- I hope you enjoyed the past week of My Favorite Things' July Release Countdown! Don't forget to enter your comment on my July New Product Launch blog post below this one, for your chance to win a MFT gift certificate! All of the new products are now available in the MFT Boutique HERE. As I was cleaning up my creating frenzy from the past week, once again I found a bunch of unused scraps and decided to put them all together and play along with this week's new Wednesday Stamp Club sketch #184 to create this card: I adore these new Happy Die-namics! I couldn't decide which color to put on the Banana Split Pierced Fishtail Flag, so I stacked both Blu Raspberry and OrangeFizz together! (Since I'm still hooked on and enjoying using the current MFT Color Palette Challenge!). That delectible sweet cupcake is from Birdie Brown's new Sweet Birthday Wishes. It was stamped on its coordinating Die-namics and colored with the Copic markers listed below. Then I topped it with MFT's Glitter Glaze. It is popped up on Copic X-Press It Foam Tape over a Pinking Edge Circle stamped with the new Confetti Background in... Read more →

MFT July New Product Launch!

The time has come . . . Welcome to the July New Product Launch with My Favorite Things! This is the design team's chance to highlight and share more of the new release products that are NOW AVAILABLE for purchase at the MFT Store! Check out the MFT Blog for complete NPL details and be sure to leave a comment here on this blog post, to be entered for your chance at winning a $100 gift voucher (see last paragraph below for details)! Tonight I'm focusing on the awesome new Cupcake Stand Die-namics. You'll find a fabulous instructional video on how to assemble your Cupcake Stand on the MFT website HERE. First, I made a sweet cupcake pincushion jar topper with the large scalloped circle, which measures almost 3.75" in diameter, out of MFT's fabulous Felt and a 4oz jelly canning jar! Here are the steps to create the pincushion: 1. Die cut Blu Raspberry felt with large scalloped circle die from Cupcake Stand Die-namics. Also die cut felt using dies from Blueprints 12: flower (Sweet Tooth), leaves (Jellybean Green), and flower center circle (Cotton Candy). 2. Stitch die cut felt pieces to large scalloped circle. 3. Next, you can... Read more →

MFT July Release Countdown-Day 1

Welcome to the 7th day of My Favorite Things July Release Countdown – just 1 day left until the new products are available at 10pm EST tomorrow night, July 8! Be sure to head over to the MFT Blog to see today’s full product reveals AND enter for your chance to win a $75 gift voucher on each of the 7 countdown day blog posts! My project uses today's featured Happy Die-namics (LOVE this font!), Happy Everything stamp set and the new Free with $60 Tag Talk Die-namics: We have a big 12th birthday coming up at the end of this month in our house (my youngest daughter!), and I thought these stamps and Die-namics would be perfect for her card. I used her three favorite colors to die cut the Happy sentiments (Razzle Berry, Blu Raspberry & Grape Jelly), Big Numbers and candle (from the new Bring on the Cake Die-namics). All the die cuts were glued to a Smooth White panel measuring 4" x 5.50". The Happy Everything bold "Birthday" sentiment was stamped with Black Licorice Premium Dye ink, with the die cut candle placed over the "i". This colorful panel was popped up on foam tape over... Read more →

MFT July Release Countdown-Day 3

Welcome to the 5th day of My Favorite Things July Release Countdown – just 2 days left until the new products are available on July 8! Be sure to head over to the MFT Blog to see today’s full product reveals AND enter for your chance to win a $75 gift voucher on each of the 7 countdown day blog posts! My project today is one I've been meaning to create for a few months now. Since I've started doing a lot more die cutting, my cardstock scrap pile has gotten out of control! To help get the pile under control, I started trying to keep the scraps separated in this photo storage box. But there weren't enough dividers that came with the box, so I was just tossing the scraps anywhere ... ugh! I finally took the time to get things under control, with the help of this month's new File Folder Edges Die-namics: YAY! Did you hear that huge sigh of peaceful organized bliss? :) Usually whenever a piece of cardstock ends up 1/4 sheet or less, it will go into this box. The box sits right next to my Big Shot, so it's easy to reach in... Read more →