Paper Crafter's Library

The great thing about handmade cards is that the recipient receives exciting snail mail in their mailbox! In today’s world of electronic mail, it can be awfully nice to receive a cheery card in that mailbox that often only contains junk or bills. Most of the cards we create get sent off in the mail, (which can be a nerve wracking experience all on its own – Recently I about died when the post office worker started mashing the envelope containing one of my slightly bulgy handmade cards that I was mailing abroad. Didn’t she know I had a work of art in there!? Has anyone else had this experience?).

Sending a card in the mail requires the use of envelopes, which is the topic of today’s Trend Report. We’re going to look at cute envelopes ON cards and cute envelopes to put your cards IN!

I love how Becky made envelopes the theme of her card. The envelope stamp is just great, and I love the bright colors she chose.

Good Wishes by Becky Roberts, courtesy Inking Idaho

Virginia’s card is a great reminder of how happy mail can be! Her mailbox with the envelopes and flag that’s up would make anyone smile. The textures on the card are awesome.

Happy Mail by Virginia Lu, courtesy Yes, Virginia…

The little envelope on Lori’s card with the heart seal is a great focal point for the card. I like her red, white, and blue theme that coordinates with the colors of air mail or the USPS.

Hello by Lori Tecler, courtesy inking aloud

Cheiron added a tiny 3D envelope with little notebook paper that is adorable! The scripty sentiment and tiny pink hearts are a great addition and coordinate so well with the envelope.

Sending Happy Mail by Cheiron Brandon, courtesy Cheiron Brandon: my crafty life

This card from Nicole has so many neat elements. The Lawn Fawn Gleeful Gardens set is adorable (look at that little snail delivering mail!) She also used that cute mail stripe border that adds a lot to the card, and if you look closely, you can see little slime trails behind her snails!

Snail Mail by Nicole Gavaldon, courtesy Lawn Fawn

Melissa’s clean and simple card is just perfect. I love the little hearts around the mail zooming out of the mailbox. It’s just so cute!

CAS Mail by Melissa Chipperfield, courtesy Oh, Smudge!

Let’s take a minute and also address (pun intended!) the envelopes that we use to deliver our paper creations. Jennifer McGuire highlighted this pale pink envelope with the cherry blossom flowers that she stamped on her card. How exciting for the recipient to get a hint of the pretty card that’s about to come out of that envelope!

Just a Note and matching envelope by Jennifer McGuire, courtesy Jennifer McGuire ink

Mary used Stampin’ Up’s Envelope Liners die to cut out the cute green polka dot liner that fit inside her envelope and coordinates so well with her card. It really finishes off her project well.

Good Wishes and matching envelope by Mary Fish, courtesy Stampin’ Pretty

You can find a few product links near the cards that feature them above. Simon Says Stamp also has some great projects to create or enhance envelopes.

These sentiments by Simon Says Stamp would be a great way to start enhancing your envelopes.

Envelope Sentiments by Simon Says Stamp

If you want to add a tiny envelope to your card, consider this die – you could use any kind of paper you want to coordinate with your card!

Tiny Rectangle Envelope Die by Simon Says Stamp

My Partner-In-Crafting-Crime says this envelope punch board is a must-have. (Guilty admission: mine hasn’t made it out of the package yet!) She makes fun envelopes out of patterned paper that coordinate with the cards she sends, and they make the mail so bright and cheery!

Envelope Punch Board at Simon Says Stamp

I hope you’ve been inspired to add a few envelopes to your cards, or to dress up the envelopes your cards are being sent in! I’m going to go see about getting that envelope punch board out of its package!

My next trend watch is a bit of a prickly subject.  Yet, it can be succulent too.  Because this trend report is about cacti and succulent plants!  Right now the stamp sets are crazy with options you can experiment with.  I have even seen a few folks carve their own cactus and succulent stamps out of rubber.  As with all of our subjects, there are so many ways paper crafters use the same stimulus that looking at a small sample can send your creativity soaring.  So you can create lovely cards and pages of your own.

This first set of cards uses watercolor techniques.  Because all cacti are capable of blooming at some point in their long life with the proper conditions;  when they do, they are even lovlier to color.  The contrast in the hot pink and the the green shadowing of the cactus and flower is just gorgeous.

card by Dina Kowal photo courtesy of Mama Dini’s Stamparia

Another sample of Dina’s coloring skills gives us this wonderful card below.  I love how she creates her own background paper for each of her stamps so that they coordinate and add another level to her cactus.

card by Dina Kowal photo courtesy of Mama Dini’s Stamparia

In this next card, Debby shares a cool no edge water color technique with her potted beauties.  She uses white embossing powder and water colors to give the cool washed look.  She created a video for this technique that she share here.

card by Debby Hughes photo courtesy of Lime Doodle Design

Of course you can use traditional stamping as well for a cool effect.  Cacti and succulents come in some of the most fantastic colors.  Dawn captured a few of the lovely mint and ice blue colors in her card.

card by Dawn McVey photo courtesy of Raspberry Suite

With cactus stamps it is so natural to create a scene showing them at different dimensions.  I love the sunset look and the sweet stamped flowers on Donna’s card.

card by Donna Bowman photo courtesy of Donna’s Crafty Place

I thought Isha’s treatment of her cactus plants was so clever.  Most of the stamp sets I have seen have the cacti and pots separate so you can add dimension with your pots.  Isha takes it one step further by overlaying her die cut negative over her inset stamped images.  Very pretty.

card by Isha Gupta photo courtesy of New Ideas by Isha Gupta

JJ used her cactus as a shadow for her bold and rich sky treatment.  She used a die cut and this look is so nice.

card by JJ Bolton photo courtesy of Handmade Cards by JJ Bolton

Lysa created a different look by using kraft colored paper and Copic markers for the succulents and the tea cup.  These colors capture the soft look of the plants I love.

card by Lysa Rohrer photo courtesy of Lysa’s Crafty Creations

I fell in love with this next card because the colors are just so awesome.  There are actually colors in nature this lovely too.  It is captured so well with this card.

card by Nina Yang photo courtesy of Waffle Flower Blog

Paper Smooches also has a stamp set of Southwest images and it includes faces.  Jocelyn created a fiesta girl animated cactus with margarita in tow.  This is a super fun card.

 

card by Jocelyn Olson photo courtesy of Red Balloon Cards

You may have noticed by now that I love a good pun.  I couldn’t resist adding one to this post.  Misty’s so stuck on you cactus is such a cute love card and punny too.

card by Misty Buck photo courtesy of Lil Buck’s Creations

I am totally digging the texture of my final card this week.  I think adding the felt die cuts with stitching for the thorns is just great and adds a lot to the card.  The baker’s twine is awesome too.

card by Chari Moss photo courtesy of MossyMade

Cactus stamping doesn’t need to be prickly, you can start with succulents!  Seriously though, I hope you have seen something that inspires you to try this fun stamping trend.    I am showing a few of the stamp sets the creative ladies I have featured used in case you would like to expand your collection.  I would also love to see your finished product if you try stamp carving a succulent or two as well.

So go ahead… make something pretty.

Simon Says succulents and saucers stamp set on Simon Says Stamp

Hero Arts Your own succulents stamp set at Simon Says Stamp

Mama Elephant Potted Pretties Stamp set at Simon Says Stamp

Planted Stamp set at Waffle Flower

Potted Plant stamp set at Waffle Flower

I’m not really a planner girl. Most of the time I’ll just forget to take it with me. And that’s not so useful when you need to make an appointment. So for me the digital planners on your phone are a great solution. I’ve got it with me and I can sync it with my computer etc.

I have to admit though, that lately… I’ve been thinking about getting a ‘paper planner’ again. I’m finding myself so drawn to all those amazingly beautiful planners that are out these days, with so much room for personalization.

So today I’m going to take a look at some of the latest planner trends. In comparison with these planners, my digital one seems so boring.

You might know Christy Tomlinson for her amazing mixed media work, but she has some beautiful planner ideas too. She adds lovely colorful images that just brighten up the planner.

Planner inserts, image source Christy Tomlinson

Planners are becoming a way to document your life. You can incorporate your personal memories next to your appointments. And… never a dull moment when you have so much inspiration at hand ;).

Papertrey ink has a really extensive planner with lots of extra’s. Like pages to keep your goals and activities. With great colorful details.

Planner from Papertrey Ink, image source Freshly Noted

Teddi made a ‘love’ themed page next to her february schedule.

Love themed page by Teddi, image source StudioL2e

They are a great place to add journaling cards (another great way to use project life cards)

Page by Nancy Damiano, image source Simple Stories

Or add motivational quotes, like Filoeyecandi did on this page. (She has an awesome Instagram account too).

Page by Candi, image source Cocoa Daisy

There are a lot of new stamp sets with the most important tasks already on the stamps and of course beautiful tags and icons.

Planner stamps, image source Lime Doodle Designs

And of course I’ve made a little selection of products to share with you!

Life planning stamp set by Simon Says Stamp

Plan it stamp set by Studio L2e

Stay focused stamp set by Waffle Flower

Small ink cubes by Simon Says Stamp

Or check out the beautiful planner kits from Cocoa Daisy with lots of planner goodies.

April planner kit by Cocoa Daisy

I hope these beautiful products can reduce the stress level of planning 😉
– Lucinde