Paper Crafter's Library – Page 19 – A world of creativity at your fingertips

PCL Member Highlights

I wanted to show you a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of some of the projects that were released to our members these past two weeks. We’ve put together a sneak peek you of just a few of the video tutorials & pdf handouts our members received during the weeks of December 29 – January 9 .

Each week at Paper Crafter’s Library our monthly members can expect to receive access to a minimum of 5 exclusive videos each week. Typically members receive upwards of 25 exclusive videos each month. In planning for our projects we ensure that we cover a range of project types so that there is something for everyone whatever their interest or preference – whether it be card making, stamping, scrapbooking, altered art, mixed media, 3D items, templates, techniques etc. Projects range in difficulty level – so there will always be projects in library for whatever your paper crafting “level” whether you are a beginning paper crafter, or a more intermediate paper crafter.

Highlights these two weeks:

An art journal page
Using two colors of embossing powder on an image
Using the Craftwell eBrush
Watercoloring
Creating a doodled stamped image
Generation stamping
Cards from our Heartfelt Cards 2015 online class

Did you also know that Paper Crafter’s Library members also receive free access to our online classes? Read about all the perks of being a Paper Crafter’s Library member you can visit our Benefits of Membership page HERE.

Winner of the Cut @ Home Give Away!

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Cut @ Home’s designer Cheryl Harwick for sharing a beautiful winter themed birthday card video tutorial video tutorial and to Cut @ Home for their generous give-away shown below.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…….the winner is……D Idlet!

Congratulations D Idlet! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Cut @ Home Winner” in the subject line of the email, and then in the email itself, be sure to include your full mailing address and phone number.

Happy Crafting!

Featured Artist: Katie Melhus

Welcome to another Featured Artist/Designer Spotlight. Today we’re thrilled to welcome Katie Melhus. Before we show you Katie’s project, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

Hey everyone! I’m Katie, and I live in a small town in Eastern Washington with my amazing husband, my wonderful little girl who is four, and two very spoiled cats. I work part time in a medical laboratory, which just makes it that much more fun to show my creative side through papercrafting. I started making cards with some friends in 2008 and in 2012 I discovered the huge community of online inspiration, challenges and blogging. I decided to try my hand at a blog and I’ve been hooked ever since. My style leans toward CAS with fewer layers and embellishments, and I love to use cute images on my cards, especially critters. We are currently expecting our second daughter who is due to arrive next month, and we can’t wait. If she’s anything like the first one, we will have another little cardmaker and crafter on our hands! I was blown away to be asked to be featured here at Paper Crafter’s Library and I’m absolutely honored, thanks for taking a peek at my goodies!

Hello Baby Cards

It’s safe to say that I have babies on the brain these days and I was inspired to make this duo of baby cards when I saw this adorable elephant cut file. I love using my Silhouette for special occasions, if I don’t have the right stamp set in my stash I can always seem to find an image or even sentiments that will inspire me. I can’t get enough of the color gray lately, so I thought these polka dots would be perfect for pairing with the baby elephants. I love the contrast of the deeper pink and teal, instead of the more traditional pastel shades for baby cards.

Here’s a close up of each of the cards.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride, Bermuda Bay, Pool Party (Stampin’ Up!) Solar White 80lb (Neenah)
Cut File: “Elephant” (by Miss Kate Cuttables at Silhouette Online Store)
Ink: Basic Gray (Stampin’ Up!)
Stamps: So Much to Say (Lawn Fawn)
Patterned Paper: A mix from my scrappy stash, (6×6 pads by Simple Stories & Lawn Fawn)
Misc: Postage Edge Punch (Fiskars), Clear Glitter Pen (Wink of Stella), Sequins, Glossy Accents

We hope you have enjoyed today’s project courtesy of Katie Melhus. Be sure to stop by Katie’s blog to see even more of her beautiful work (and let her know we sent you). You can also find Katie on bloglovin, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Happy Crafting!

Featured Company: Unity Stamp Company

We are happy to bring you this week’s Featured Company: Unity Stamp Company. And this week we are giving away the November 2014 What Lies Within Us Kit of the Month (Details at the end of the post.)

Unity Stamp Company Designer – Lisa Arana

Today we welcome Lisa Arana. We are so excited to have her showcase her work today on Paper Crafter’s Library. You can see Lisa’s fabulous project below, but first, here is a little more about her:

Hi, my name is Lisa Arana, owner of dahlhouse designs. I began this crazy artistic blogging adventure in March 2009.

Who Am I?
I’m a wife in love with her husband, an adoring ‘mom’ to my 3 furry girls, a hiker, a baker, a computer/science nerd, a full time worker and weekend crafter. I’m obsessive yet lazy, a procrastinator with lists and one sarcastic lady who loves to laugh.

Why dahlhouse designs?
It all started at a young age. I used to make cards using those uber cool (at the time) computer card programs for friends and family. My hallmark was dahlhouse cards based on my maiden name – Dahl. Clever right? So to carry on my legacy, I now have dahlhouse designs.

This is my paper crafted world full of cards, projects, challenges and friends. Since beginning this wonderful blogging adventure, I have taken on some design team assignments, been published (Paper Crafts Magazine and CARDS), started making videos, became a stamp illustrator and found a fabulous community of friends in fellow paper crafting addicts!

What Lies Within Us Card

I decided that the flowers needed to be water colored first. I stamped them off the edge of the card and then added the sentiment. Came in with some simple water coloring and finished off with a bit of a splash of green color over it all.

Supplies

Memorable 6X6 Paper Pad (My Mind’s Eye)
Mixed Media Pad 140# (Strathmore)
What Lies Within us KOM 11/14 (Unity Stamp Co)
Tsukineko MEMENTO Full Size Ink Pad TUXEDO BLACK
Pelikan 24 Color Opaque Watercolor Set
Loew-Cornell 1024939 Studio Elements White Nylon Long Handle Mixed Small Brush Set
Lil’ Inker Designs STITCHED MATS: RECTANGLES DIE Set LILD123
Avery ELLE-ments Dies, Custom Panels
Sizzix Big Shot Cutting and Embossing Roller Style Scrapbooking Die-Cut Machine, Powder Blue and Tea
Unity Handle {b}
Martha Stewart Crafts Mini Scoring Board
Fiskars 199080 Portable Scrapbooking Rotary Paper Trimmer, 12-Inch
Swingline ClassicCut Pro Guillotine Trimmer
Scotch ATG – Adhesive Applicator Gun
3M Scotch 1/2-Inch by 36-Yard Double-Sided Foam Tape
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig tool
EK Success 1 inch square punch

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Lisa Arana for her fabulous project and Unity Stamp Company for sharing their company with us. Be sure to visit Unity Stamp Company to see more of their products and their blog for some inspiration! You can also follow Unity Stamp Company on Facebook and their Facebook Show & Tell page.

In order to enter the give-away to win the prize shown above, please leave us a comment in the comments section of this post. The winner will be announced next Wednesday.

Happy Crafting!

Trend Watch – It’s Written in the Stars

I remember wishing on a star as a kid and really really hoping that whatever I wished for came true. The only wish I can truly recall now is for long hair and nails. Outside of making really bad wishes, I still believe there is something magical about stars and something about the new year and stars that just symbolizes hopefulness and promise. If you hadn’t guessed before now, this week I am going to show you lots of ideas with stars. They are perfect for the holidays and still make sense throughout the year. This is another evergreen trend in paper crafting that is fun to utilize because there are fun products you can use and you can DIY as well to create cool new looks.

I love this scrapbook page’s usage of both positive and negative die cuts to create a wonderful background for the page. Justem even incorporates a chipboard star on the page as an adorable finisher.

Page by Justem photo courtesy of Justem: Scrapbooking and other Creative Things

Mercedes use of the gold glitter stars is just awesome. How fun to use the middle as another place for a sentiment for your project.

card by Mercedes Weber photo courtesy of Paper Paradise

Another awesome look is to give your starts movement by incorporating a paper “tail” on them to make them explode off the page.

page by Robyn Werlich photo courtesy of Studio Calico blog

Embossing looks so good with stars as the focus. You can create your own background paper or create a focal point.

card by Heather photo courtesy of Houses Built of Cards

Cindy’s use of cork to create her stars just rocks this card-plus-tag creation.

Card by Cindy Lawrence photo courtesy of The Creative Closet

In another project Cindy shows us how cool dimensional stars can look on our paper projects.

card by Cindy Lawrence photo courtesy of Creative Closet

I wanted to make sure I included a tutorial on the dimensional paper stars as well so click on the link below for Victoria’s tutorial on getting more dimensional paper star action in your life.

stars courtesy of Victoria photo courtesy of A Subtle Revelry

I am still in love with the sequins trend and I like seeing it strung together. This cool trend combined with the dimensional star is just perfect.

card by Sandi MacIver photo courtesy of Stamping with Sandi

The stars can still be the star of the show when you use carefully placed stars in the die cut negative to show off the super cool ink blending job you do behind them like Natasha did in this next card.

card by Natasha photo courtesy of Clean and Simple Stamping

My obsession with the shaker card continues with a new twist from Audrey. She used packing tape adhered die cut stars to the paper to create the look of a shaker whose confetti never falls. I just love this look and the inlaid star.

card by Audrey photo courtesy of Pink Ink Originals

How many stars can you count on this next card? Jan really took advantage of this trend by using stars in the background paper, she made her own for a focal point and she created a cool tape look with a sheet of star negative paper lifted and layered over gold glitter. Gold star for Jan!

card by Janine Tinklenberg photo courtesy of Stamps Paper Scissors

I love the clean and simple look of this project with rainbow stars cascading down the center of the card. You can create your own color effect by rubbing ink over white paper for a color combination of your choice.

card by Ange Kelly photo courtesy of Creative Inspirations

While the evergreen trend of using stars continues I hope I have showed you a few new ways to use them in your projects. I just have to say I am restraining myself not to include a pun about reaching for the stars but it is really difficult. So I will just say this.. Go ahead, … make something pretty.

I found a few products that you may find to help you in your star exploration (whoops, there is the pun, I just couldn’t hold it in)

Winners of the Heartfelt Cards 2015 Online Class From Our Instagram Followers

We recently announced that we would be giving away two spots to our Heartfelt Cards 2015 to two lucky Instagram followers.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…….the winners are……debfortin and gramnoreen!

Congratulations! Please contact us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com so that we can set you up to access the class.

Bonus Tutorial from Cut@Home Design Team Member Cheryl Harwick and a Give Away!

This week we have a bonus tutorial for you, brought to you by one of Cut At Home‘s designers Cheryl Harwick. Before we show you Cheryl’s project, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

Cut At Home Designer – Cheryl Harwick

Hi! I’m Cheryl Harwick from Toledo, Ohio, and I’m so excited to be featured on the Paper Crafter’s Library Blog. As long as I can remember, I’ve loved crafts of all kinds. At an early age I learned to sew, to knit and crochet, to embroider, etc. I’ve always had a project (or two or three) that I’m working on. I also enjoy sharing my love of crafting with others, and for a number of years have taught classes. Currently I teach at Michaels (paper crafting and knitting) and at Bayer’s Pampered Stampers, my local paper crafting shop. For the past year and a half, I’ve had so much fun as a member of the Cut @ Home design team. I’ve been blessed to meet so many wonderful people through all of this.

Happy Birthday Card

My project today is a winter birthday card. I just love all of the dies that are available – how fun is it to create something beautiful and dimensional from a flat piece of paper and a small piece of metal? For this project I selected some of my favorite dies – “Snowflake Trio” by Penny Black to make a snowflake wreath, “Mini Petals” by Susan’s Garden (Sizzix) to make the flowers, “Winter Florals” by Tattered Lace to add some greens, and “Handwritten” by Little B to add the sentiment. I love how they all came together.

My video includes instructions for completing a similar card.

Supplies
Brushed silver and light blue metallic cardstock; white metallic vellum
Snowflake Trio die set by Penny Black
Mini Petals die set by Susan’s Garden (Sizzix)
Winter Florals die set by Tattered Lace
Handwritten die set by Little B
Die cutting machine – I used my Sizzix Big Shot
Susan’s Garden Tool Kit (includes all tools and mats used on the video)
Silver Wink of Stella
Ribbon
Small Pearls

We hope you have enjoyed today’s project courtesy of Cheryl Harwick a Cut@Home design team member. Be sure to stop by Cheryls blog to see even more of her beautiful work (and let her know we sent you).

And now for a give away…Cut@Home is graciously offering a give away which includes a variety of stamps, dies and embossing folders from all your favorite brands, including Spellbinders, Avery Elle, Darice, Cottage Cutz, Heartfelt Creations, Hero Arts and Magnolia. As an added bonus, Cut@Home has included two sizes of Angel Craft double-sided adhesive craft tape, which will be making its debut early next week! This value of this package is $150.00!! (Sorry – Give away is only open to residents of the continental United States.)

In order to enter the give-away, please leave a comment in the comments section of this post. The winner will be announced next Friday.

Heartfelt Cards 2015 Online Class Starts Monday!

To see a sneak peek of the cards in this class please watch the video below:

Only a few more days until the Paper Crafter’s Heartfelt Cards 2015 online class! Will you join us for our most technique-focused class yet?

Over the course of two (and a bit) weeks we’ll be making 30 different cards EACH with a video tutorial and a beautifully designed PDF handout. The theme of the cards will be love, friendship, wedding and/or anniversary and “for you” cards. While many will be perfect for Valentine’s day – there will be many more that will carry you throughout the year whenever you just want to show someone that you care.

This class is filled with LOADS of different techniques including:

techniques using framelits
creating a shaped shaker card
patterned paper techniques
4 different stencil techniques
combining dry embossing and heat embossing
emboss resist
multi-colored heat embossing
watercolor techniques with dye ink refills
coloring paint with dye ink refills
creating a custom marbled ink pad using dye ink refills
masking
repurposing stamp sets to a different theme
and more!

Although you’ll be making 30 different cards – the cards are created in sets in order to help you maximize your stamp sets. Each set is centred around a Stampin’ Up! product or cluster of Stampin’ Up! products (including stamp sets, stencils, framelits and patterned paper). There will be 6 sets of four cards each and one set of 6 cards. Cards will range from clean and simple to arty.

Please note that although this class uses Stampin’ Up! product, the card designs and techniques are pretty EASILY adapted to stamp sets from your other favorite companies.

*** Online classes are FREE to Paper Crafter’s Library members (click here for details about membership) ***

Your registration comes with LIFETIME access to all Heartfelt Cards 2015 videos & PDFs.

Class Type	Class Dates	Price
Self-paced	Jan.5, 2015 to Jan. 19, 2015	$30

Supply List

In order to fully enjoy and participate in this class you will need access to a computer and high speed internet. A full supply list will be emailed to you prior to the start of the class once you are registered. The main products used for each set of cards is listed below:

Set 1 (4 cards): Around the World, Just Sayin’ and Groovy Love stamp sets. Optional: World Map stamp set, Word Bubbles Framelits
Set 2 (4 cards): Hearts Framelits, Sweet Taffy DP
Set 3 (4 cards): Work of Art stamp set
Set 4 (6 cards): You Plus Me stamp set, Stacked With Love DSP Paper Pack (from Occasions 2015 mini catalog); Optional: #Hello (also used in Set 7)
Set 5 (4 cards): Cheers to Love, Bouquet Toss stamp sets, Gold Embossing Powder. Optional: Apothecary Accents framelits, Modern Mosaic embossing folder
Set 6 (4 cards): Confetti Celebration DSP; Optional: A Dozen Thoughts Stamp Set
Set 7 (4 cards): Hearts and Stars Decorative Masks. Optional: #hello (also used in Set 4)

Please note that in many cases substitutions can be made and supplies adapted if you don’t have the exact thing we used. So please DO NOT feel like you need to purchase everything used to be able to participate in the class.

Class Content

Please note that all lessons, PDF handouts, and videos are provided in English. At this time, videos are not subtitled or captioned. You will need high-speed internet access in order to properly view the videos.

Refund Policy

Because this is digital content – in most cases class fees are non-refundable. If however you have paid for the class and are unable to access the classroom, please notify us within 7 days of registering for a full refund.

*** If you are a Paper Crafter’s Library member please do NOT sign up for this class as the projects are included in your membership ***

Once you have registered please keep your eye on your email inbox for an email for us with further details on how you will access the class information. You should receive this email within 24 hours of your purchase. If you do not see an email in your inbox please check your spam folder. For questions please email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com

Happy New Year 2015!

All of us at Paper Crafter’s Library would like to wish you and your family a safe & prosperous New Year!

Winner of the Lawn Fawn Give Away

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Lawn Fawn’s guest designer Chari Moss for sharing such a wonderful project and to Lawn Fawn for their generous give-away of the Snow Day stamp set and coordinating die below.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…….the winner is……Kim Weatherholt!

Congratulations Kim! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Lawn Fawn Winner” in the subject line of the email, and then in the email itself, be sure to include your full mailing address and phone number.

Join us next week when we feature another great company!