PaperFections

Very Happy Day & Sale!

Hello, Crafty Stampers! I must mention this first today because I wouldn't want you to miss it! Exciting, right?!! Just click the banner above to shop the Stamp Category at Ellen Hutson LLC . . . Shop early, for the best selections, before they sell out! AND new colors of DISTRESS OXIDE inks are also in stock at Ellen Hutson, so do yourself a favor and add a few (or all!) of those to your cart while you are stamp shopping, too! You'll thank me for it -- these inks stamp beautifully and create such fun techniques! Shop them here or click on the banner below: Now on to today's project . . . Valentine's Day may be over for the year, but that doesn't mean you must put away your "Valentine" stamps and dies! They can be great for weddings, anniversaries, or just an everyday "Wishing you a very happy day" card! For this card, I used Memory Box's Wirework Hearts clear stamp set and coordinating Wirework Hearts die set, along with the Heart Rays die: I simply gold heat embossed the beautiful large wirework heart onto 110 Lb. white cardstock, and die cut it. I prefer heavier cardstock... Read more →

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 →

Love You So Much

Happy Friday, Friends! Today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom I'm sharing this cute Valentine card made with Darcie's Heart & Home clear stamp set "Love Hearts" and coordinating Tin Pin embellishment. These sweet little 1-inch dimensional tin embellishments give a fun pop and dimension to their coordinating stamp sets, or can be used alone to create quick and easy one-of-a-kind projects! I hope you'll make it over to this blog post for all the details! And it just so happens that Embellishments are on sale this week thru Sunday at 11:59pm Pacific over in Ellen's store. Click the graphic below to shop . . . You're welcome!! Happy Weekend, Read more →

Tin Pins

Today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom I'm sharing these two cards made with Darcie's Heart & Home Tin Pins: I hope you'll join me there, to find out all about these sweet little dimensional tin embellishments and their coordinating Copic color matches! Hugs & Happy Christmas Eve Eve! :) Read more →

February 2016 Calendar

I hope you all enjoyed my January calendar … I am loving making them again, so I hope you don’t mind another? :) Keep in mind – if calendars are just not your thing, you can also use the same elements and general layout to create a Valentine’s Day or February birthday card. Or use the layout for a scrapbook page, substituting the calendar for your photo(s)! You can find all the details about this calendar today over on the Taylored Expressions blog. I hope the end to your January is going well! Read more →

Love You Roses

With Valentine’s Day less than a month away, love is in the air! I know I was definitely in love at first sight with the latest in Taylored Expressions’ Simply Stamped series – Roses, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this gorgeous stamp and coordinating die set! I hope you'll join me today over on the Taylored Expressions blog for all the details on how to create this card! And good news for you . . . Taylored Expressions is GIVING AWAY a Simply Stamped-Roses stamp set and their fabulous multi-colored pack of envelopes like I used in this project, to one lucky commenter! So head over to this blog post at the Taylored Expressions blog and leave a comment, for your chance to win! Read more →

Happy {Heart} Day!

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I am over in the CLASSroom, showing you how to make this sweet tri-fold Valentine card from a Happy Birthday die, stretching the versatility of your dies . . . I hope you'll join me there for all the details! Read more →

Die Cut Love

I adore dies ... they make any papercrafting project a quick and easy process! I hope you'll join me today over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom for my first project of 2016 -- this sweet Valentine made entirely from die cuts, using some great tips! XOXO, Read more →

Curlicue Heart Art Square

With the holidays almost over and Valentine’s Day / Spring weddings on the horizon, it’s time to start thinking ahead! So today I have a sweet love-themed card to share with you. This is Pink Ink’s generously-sized beautiful Curlicue Heart stamp. It measures approximately 2.75” wide x 2.50” tall. I gold heat embossed it onto a white Inchie Arts 3-inch Art Square and watercolored the image with Peerless Watercolors. This sweet detailed image was so much fun to color! To give the image a homespun quilted look, I used Taylored Expressions Stitched Square die to emboss stitch lines into the Art Square, then layered it onto a pinked-edge square dark pink die cut. I love that the Art Square stands up to heat embossing, watercolor, AND dry embossing, all on one project! The image was then layered onto a white card base embossed with Taylored Expressions Swiss Hearts embossing folder. Gold thread was wrapped up and placed behind the image, to resemble a bird’s nest. :) Wishing you all much love in 2016! Pink Ink Wood Mount Stamp, Curlicue Heart Taylored Expressions Dies, Stitched Square Stacklets Taylored Expressions Embossing Folders, Swiss Hearts Inchie Arts Art Squares, 3" White VersaMark Ink... Read more →

Creative Construction with Blueprints - Frame It In February

I love My Favorite Things Blueprints Die-namics because they take the guesswork out of crafting beautiful cards in quick fashion when I'm short on time or inspiration. I also love them for their versatility and ability to be mixed and matched when I have the time and inspiration to create something truly unique. MFT's Creative Construction Challenge focuses on these attributes each month, challenging the design team to both assemble a card based on one of the provided Blueprints sketches (all of the Blueprint sketches are now conveniently located on the Printable Resources page of the MFT Blog!), as well as design an original card combining elements from the featured Blueprints. This month, we’re framing it in with Blueprints featuring framing elements of all shapes and sizes. The featured Blueprints this month are 2, 16, 17, & 19. My first card uses Blueprints 19 and one of its provided sketches, turned 90-degrees (all bold products are linked below in the supply section): The sweet Love You With All My Heart Pure Innocence girl was stamped with Black Licorice Hybrid ink onto Copic X-Press It Blending Card, then die cut with the scalloped rectangle frame from Blueprints 19. She was colored... Read more →

My Favorite Things February Release Countdown-2

Just two days left of the My Favorite Things February release countdown ... All the new products will be available on Tuesday night, February 3. 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 5 countdown day blog posts there! Today features some awesome new stamps and Die-namics for candy lovers ... or for any sweet person on your cardmaking or gift-giving list! (All bold products are linked below in the supply section): Squeeeaaalll . . . How adorable are these peeps?!!! I knew I had to use them on cards for my girls the minute I saw them, as they LOVE Easter bunny peeps! This sweet little bunny is included in the Candy Jars Die-namics set. I die cut it from Cotton Candy, Blu Raspberry, and Wild Wisteria cardstock, then adhered them inside their Banana Split peep box die cut with the fabulous new Stitched Rectangle Frames. To create the popped-up sentiment piece, I silver heat embossed the pretty sentiment from the Candy Jar Companions stamp set onto Sno Cone cardstock die cut with the awesome new Free... Read more →

Love & Adore You!

Happy Hump Day, everyone! I can't believe the month is almost over, too -- can you? Before you know it, the Day of Love will be here and I needed another Valentine card, so My Favorite Things' Wednesday Sketch Challenge made this one quick and easy to create: You can play along with this week's challenge, too, for the possibility of winning a fantastic prize! You can find all the details of the challenge here. I couldn't resist coloring up this sweet Pure Innocence Heart Banner girl again. She was stamped with MFT's Copic-friendly Black Licorice Hybrid Ink onto Copic's X-Press It Blending Card and colored with these Copic Sketch markers: She was then die cut with an Oval STAX 1 Die-namics and layered onto a rectangle (from Blueprints 8) die cut Steel Grey mat. She was then popped up on Copic X-Press It Foam Tape onto a layer of Primitive White cardstock stamped with the Typewriter Text Background in Steel Grey Premium Dye Ink. The scalloped trim (from Blueprints 8) was die cut from a scrap piece of Primitive White cardstock stamped in Delicata Gold metallic ink and the Snowfall Background. To make it coordinate with the greys in... Read more →

MFT January Creative Challenge: Hearts!

Card makers are a pretty sentimental bunch overall and that is a great thing. We spend our time showing family and friends (and sometimes strangers!) that we care deeply for them. This month, the My Favorite Things design team embraces this season of love full-force by creating projects that feature love in the most literally way: with lots of hearts! Any color, any material – hearts will stand strong as a dominant design element that simply can’t be missed. I have three cards for you today! The first two are similar because I couldn't make up my mind which color scheme I liked better, so you'll have to let me know which is your favorite! (All bold products are linked below in the supply section) #1 - Gold: For this gold option, I used metallic gold cardstock for the card base, then a Blueprints 20 scalloped Pink Lemonade layer. The Ripe Raspberry panel was Die cut with the Heart Puzzle in the top center, then a Straight to my Heart arrow in the lower right. Next, I stamped the panel with the All My Love stamp set, in Versamark ink and popped it up with Copic Foam Tape. Another heart... Read more →

MFT January 2015 Release Rewind

Hello and welcome to My Favorite Things January Release Rewind! The design team hopes to inspire you with more ideas for those new January products you've purchased and are patiently awaiting to be delivered, or to help you finish up your shopping if you are still on the fence about anything! :) My first project today uses the awesome new Tag Builder Blueprints 3 to make four sweet Valentines! (All bold products are linked below in the supply section): I began by stamping the beautiful new Damask Background with Sweet Tooth Pigment ink onto the new Cherry Crisp and Black Licorice cardstock with the new Sweet Tooth Pigment ink, then die cut the damask cardstock with the large scalloped and rounded rectangle dies. Next, I cut four more scalloped and rounded rectangle bases out of Smooth White cardstock. Next, The white pieces were adhered behind the Damask pieces, to serve as a base to adhere the other colors of die cuts back into. This die cutting technique is called Inlaid Die Cutting and you can find a full tutorial for it that I did many moons (7 years!) ago, here. I LOVE all the possibilities this new Tag Builders set... Read more →

MFT January 2015 New Product Launch!

The time has come . . . Welcome to the January 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 fun new Heart Puzzle Die-namics and Friend Die-namics (all bold products are linked below in the supply section)! My first project is a 5-inch square card using the Friend Die-namics. The pretty background is the gorgeous Damask Background stamped with Tropical Teal Pigment ink onto Blu Raspberry cardstock, then die cut with the stitched square from Blueprints 14: The Friend Die-namics was cut from Tropical Teal cardstock, then the row of dots from BP14 cut into the top and the scalloped piece (BP14) added to the bottom. The friend piece is popped up on Copic X-Press It Foam Tape and topped with a strip of silver glitter paper. The flower (also from BP14) was cut from Berrylicious carstock and accented with a... Read more →