PaperFections

Valentine Pampering

Could you use a little pampering today, to get ready for Valentine's Day? I'm here to help! I'm also very excited to announce that I'm the newest member of the Memory Box design team and I couldn't be more thrilled! I've loved and used Memory Box products for MANY years and I am very grateful and excited to begin this journey with them! I recently hosted my neighborhood ladies Bunco game night and wanted these wonderful women to feel special and pampered, so I came up with these relaxing bath salts gifts for them! An internet search for homemade bath salts will yield dozens of recipes for you to try ... I settled on Lavender and Rose Petal. Here's the easy recipe I used (I made a full recipe for each fragrance. Each recipe filled approximately 6-7 frappuccino bottles): 5 cups Epsom Salts (be sure they have no added fragrance) 3 cups sea salt (Mediterranean or pink Himalayan) 1 cup baking soda (helps to soften water & skin) Food coloring (about 8-12 drops, depending on depth of color you'd like) Essential Oil (about 10+ drops, depending on how fragrant you want them, keeping in mind the fragrance will dissipate a... Read more →

2016 Peace, Joy, and Love!

I have one last project to share with you this year . . . A fun 8" x 10" custom canvas: I used some of my favorite colors, along with glittery gold and silver accents and some fun new products! Here are the easy steps (all bold products are linked below in the supply section): 1. I started with a blank 8" x 10" white canvas and started planning my layout, using Essentials by Ellen Brushstroke Peace, Joy, and Love dies, along with a Heidi Swapp 6x6 stencil: 2. Next, I airbrushed over the stencil with Copic RV55 for the rose and YG25 for the leaves: I added some shading to the rose with deeper RV66 and YG17 to the leaves. 3. Next, I die cut the Brushstroke Peace, Joy and Love words from Tim Holtz Deco Sheets (gold and silver glitter paper), which are adhesive-backed, so I didn't have to worry about how to adhere them to the canvas! 4. Now for the fun ribbon accents -- I used Imagination International's new Hot Ribbon in Silver (which is glittery metallic!) and Honey (which is a pretty bright golden satin!). This ribbon has a heat-activated adhesive on the back that... Read more →

Gobble Til You Wobble!

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away ... are you ready? Maybe this little guy will help: He is a generously-sized 7-3/4" tall x 7-1/4" felt hot pad or coaster for your holiday table! You can get the full tutorial on how to make him today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom. I hope to see you there! Sharon Read more →

Essentials by Ellen Holiday Release 2 & Giveaway!

Hello, and welcome to the Holiday II Essentials by Ellen Release Hop! I’ll be showcasing several of the new stamp sets and dies on my post today (and so will a lot of very talented designers!) ... AND there's a giveaway, so keep reading! GIVEAWAY I get to give away an Essentials by Ellen stamp set -- the winner may chose ANY Essentials by Ellen brand stamp set (maximum value $15) currently in stock at Ellen Hutson.com! To enter my giveaway, please leave a comment on today’s post with a valid email address by October 27th! (This giveaway is now closed and the winner will be announced Friday, Oct 30 over at the CLASSroom blog). Thank you so much for your very kind comments and for entering! There is also a crazy good Grand Giveaway in the CLASSroom! To enter, be sure to leave a comment there, also by October 27th with a valid email address. Winners will be announced at the CLASSroom on Friday, October 30th! PROJECT #1 (All bold products are linked below in the supply section. Click on any photo for a larger view.) My first project uses Julie's fun new Advent stamps with her new Santa's... Read more →

Blessing Mix

Today I am looking ahead to next month and the start of the holiday season -- Thanksgiving! I have this fun "Blessing Mix" recipe and gift, with custom tag over on Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom blog . . . I hope you'll join me there to get all the details on how you can spread some Fall cheer (including the recipe)! Read more →

MFT September New Product Launch!

The time has come . . . Welcome to the September New Product Launch from 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! Be sure to leave a comment here on my 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 MFT's awesome newest illustrator, Miss Tiina's, adorable new Cute Critters stamp set and coordinating Cute Critters Die-namics! The first project I have for you is a cute fox pencil box (say that fast three times!): Isn't he adorable?!! Mr. Fox was stamped with Black Licorice Hybrid Ink onto Copic X-Press It Blending Card and die cut with his coordinating Die-namics. He was colored with Copic Sketch markers (colors listed below in Supply section) and popped up on foam tape on his tree stump (stamped with Chocolate Brown Hybrid Ink onto Kraft cardstock and shaded with E42 Copic marker). The pencil sentiment is from Birdie Brown's Class Act stamp set. It was stamped with Chocolate Brown Hybrid Ink onto Primitive Cream cardstock, die cut... Read more →

MFT August Release Rewind

Hello and welcome to the My Favorite Things August Release Rewind - Day 2! I hope to inspire you with more ideas for those new August products you've purchased and are patiently waiting on to be delivered, or to help you finish up your shopping, if you are still on the fence about anything! I didn't get a chance during the release to play with the adorable new Birdie Brown Witch Way is the Candy and her coordinating Die-namics or the Witch's Cauldron, so I have two projects using those products for you tonight! (All products used are linked at this bottom of the post). My first project is a candy jar that is currently hiding my stash of Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds Nuggets (shhh, don't tell my kids!) -- yum!! I think it would also make a great teacher's gift, for their desk: I used a piece of MFT's Translucent Vellum to cover a 6-inch tall recycled olive jar (2.50" diameter), to give the jar a frosted look. The Spooky Scene Die-namics ghosts were die cut from the vellum before adhering it to the jar. Here's a little closer look at those cute ghosts -- you can see... Read more →

Gina K September Release Inspiration Blog Hop 2

The Design Team for Gina K Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas and as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of Gina K Designs products! To see the full list of winners check the Big News Forum at StampTV a few days after the hops. Today’s featured stamp sets are Poster Board Christmas by Becky Oehlers and Lots Of Lines by Beth Silaika. Here’s the rest of the sneak peek project I shared last Thursday: I altered a wine bottle by spray painting it ivory and then made a chalkboard label by first stamping the pretty leaf wreath with Versamark and heat embossing it with white powder on Black Onyx Color Companions Cardstock. Next, I stamped the gorgeous sentiment with white chalk ink and die cut it. I finished the label by smudging a little of the white chalk ink around the edges of the label, accented the wreath with red gemstones and finished it with Cherry Red Wide... Read more →

JustRite Stampers November Release-Day 1

Welcome to JustRite Stampers’ November stamp set release! Before we start the release previews, JustRite would like to say thank you to all of their loyal blog and Facebook fans! JustRite appreciates each and every one who visits and reads our blog posts. As their way of saying thank you, the design team has an exclusive coupon code for our blog readers and Facebook fans. Simply use this code: JRBLOGTEAM (use all CAPS) during check out to receive 20% off your entire order including sale items! Coupon code expires October 31st and can not be combined with any other coupon code offers. We’re starting off the week of inspirational blog hops with one of my favorite stamp sets of this release, Botanical Butterflies -- isn’t it gorgeous?!! This is another set in JustRite’s clear line of stamps and consists of 14 clear stamps, compatible with Spellbinders S4-114 Standard Circles-LG, S4-116 Standard Circles-SM: I altered an 8” x 5.50” journal cover with this set: I stamped one of the pretty large circular butterfly images onto Neenah Natural White cardstock with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored it with these Copic markers: The image was die cut with Spellbinders Floral Doily Motifs... Read more →

Faux Dry Embossing With Die Cuts

Hello, friends! Today I have a faux dry embossing technique tutorial over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom. I hope you'll join me and find out how to make this wine bottle gift tag! 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 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 →

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 →

Gina K Design Team Masculine Blog Hop!

Members of Gina K's Design Team have come together to host a hop with cards and projects featuring a masculine theme … just in time for Father’s Day! If you came from Melanie Muenchinger’s blog, you're at the right place. If not, make sure to head over to StampTV, where you will find a complete list of all those participating in today's hop. I made a tumbled tile coaster for a Father’s Day gift –- I thought one of the lighthouses and seagulls from Theresa Momber’s By The Sea set would be perfect for a masculine themed occasion! Stamping and coloring with your Copic markers onto tiles is quite easy. Just follow these general guidelines: - Before stamping, clean the tile with a damp cloth and let dry thoroughly. Tiles will usually have a white chalky dust on them. - Choose a stamp with not too much detail to it – i.e. not a lot of stamped lines. - The best stamping ink I’ve found to work well, be permanent and moisture-resistant when using the tile as a coaster, is StazOn. - After stamping, heat set the StazOn with your heat embossing tool/gun. - Yes, you can use Copic markers... Read more →

Gina K May Release Blog Hop 3!

Welcome to Day 3 of Gina K Designs’ May release stamp set inspiration blog hops! Our first stamp set being introduced today is: The new One Free with 3 - Elegant Elements: I made a monogrammed notecard: The center element was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto GKD Pure Luxury Heavy Base Weight Cardstock-White cardstock and die cut/embossed. The center monogram was computer generated, punched, and popped up on foam tape over the element. The monogram was framed with a pretty Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Accents die cut from Black Onyx cardstock. The rest is all a pre-printed notecard! Our second stamp set today is a second stamp set this month by Theresa Momber, By The Sea: I made an 8-inch framed beachy artwork piece for my husband for Father’s Day using By The Sea (shh, don’t tell him!): (Click on any photo for a larger view) We love the beach/sea and I thought this would be a perfect gift for him. I wanted the pelican to be facing inward towards the other images, so I stamped him with Timber Brown StazOn ink onto a piece of acetate and flipped him over! I adore this sentiment from this set... Read more →