Paper Crafter's Library

I love to get the most out of my stamp sets and I think layering your stamps gives you a lot of extra options for your stamps. You can build little scenes and add a lot more interest to your stamp.

While talking about stretching your stamps I couldn’t skip this great card from Julia. She made a collage of butterflies by layering her… umbrella stamps! If you didn’t know it, you would never guess that these butterflies are made out of umbrella’s, but they are.

Wishing you sunny days by Julia, image source Just one more card

Some stamp sets are made for layering. Altenew has a lot of them, mostly flowers but they made some birds too. These stamp sets take the hard work out of adding shadows and immediately add color and depth to your images.

I love you by Sveta Fotinia, image source Altenew

If you would like to build a scene with your stamps, you can mask of your stamped images with masking paper (I’ll add a link in my supplies list). The image you stamp first will be on top, and everything you stamp over the masked image will look like it’s behind your other images.

Jenny did that with the little gnomes on the right. It’s just a little part of the gnome that has been stamped behind the other gnome but it adds a dimensional effect right away.

A gnome for your new home by Jenny, image source Crafting in the Country

In the next card from Heather you can see a cute scene with polar bears. She made the scene by masking of the polar bears and adding the ice beneath their feet after that. She even stamped a very subtle background on top of everything (after masking the stamped images of course).

You warm my heart by Heather Campbell, image source Ellen Hutson

Amy stamped a beautiful wreath with pinecones by layering the pinecones and the branches. This card involves even more layering while the stamp set is already layered on it’s own, just like the bird. The pinecone is made out of three different stamps from the set, which gives it a real natural look.

Seaons greetings by Amy Sheffer, image source Taylored Expressions

Another wreath image to finish this trend watch and to show you don’t always have to mask of your previously stamped images. Cristina made a wreath with little circle stamps, some circles have a little bit of overlap on each other but that doesn’t matter for this wreath. The colors she used, the wreath form she made and the messages on the stamps turn this card into a beautiful Christmas card.

Good Tidings by Cristina, image source My Paper Secret

Suggested supplies:

masking paper from Inkadinkadoo at scrapbook.com

Polar Pals stamp set by Avery Elle

Winter Cardinal by Altenew

Pinecones by Taylored Expressions

I hope this gives you new inspiration!
– Lucinde

When you drive into a new city, it is always fun to look for and compare the skyline to what you know in your hometown. Where I live, Minneapolis, our skyline is growing and we are becoming a big, mid-sized city.  It is cool to see the new stadiums and downtown apartments coming into being. In the paper crafting world, I didn’t realize there were so many options we have for creating our own skylines for our paper projects. I have a few examples for you today for some cool ideas to incorporate them in your projects or you can just admire the beautiful work of your crafty peers. So joing me in checking out the big and some small city skylines.

The first is a little village with colorful buildings by the talented Yoonsun.  Her watercolor and masking make this look like a fun place to live.

card by Yoonsun Hur photo courtesy of Rejoicing Crafts

I just love how Stephanie got such a cool look of a city microcosm  in slate grey.  The contrast with the red makes such a striking Christmas tag.

tag by  Stephanie Severin photo courtesy of Ingenious Inkling

Yoonsun shows us how to use the skyline technique in a shaker version of a card.  It looks so festive.  The skyline hanging over the shaker a bit is a nice touch.

card by Yoonsun Hur photo courtesy of Rejoicing Crafts

Skylines give you such a neat way to create a scene.  How fun is this New York scene?  Great color combination.

card by Vickie Z photo courtesy of Smitten with all Things Stamping

Another iconic New York image is the statue of liberty.  Amy created a ombre effect by layering several die cuts of different shades of blue.

card by Amy Rysavy photo courtesy of My Favorite Things Blog

I love how Melania uses the bottom third of the card with the sunset and a small skyline.

card by Melania Deasy photo courtesy of Melania Deasy

I would say that Kay’s focal point in her card are the fabulous hot air balloons.  By using scale, she created an awesome skyline background for her balloons.  Beautiful.

card by Kay Miller photo courtesy of Taylored Expressions blog

Leigh coordinates her happy neighborhood with matching buttons.  How pretty.  I think I’d like to live in the orange building.

card by Leigh Penner photo courtesy of To the Full

Joanna’s card looks like a cool diarama.  There are so many layers and things to look at in her card.  I like how the lights are on in some buildings.

card by Joanna Harty photo courtesy of Harty by Heart

Polaroids are still so popular.  Wanda putting her skyline in a polaroid is just perfect.

card by Wanda Guess photo courtesy of the Taylored Expressions blog

London looks lovely in Ardyth’s take on her miss you card.  The sunset is a perfect touch.

card by Ardyth Percy-Robb photo courtesy of Maskerade 8

From sunsets to shakers, to tags, skylines are a flexible element you can use in your paper projects to create a unique look.  So choose a technique you have been meaning to try and experiment a bit.  I have found a few products to start your journey to the town of your choice.

So go ahead… make something pretty.

City Skyline die from Taylored Expressions

New York Skyline die from My Favorite Things

Hero arts rubber stamp from Simon Says Stamp

Paper House scrapbook paper from Scrapbook.com

I should warn you right off the bat – I am NOT a coffee drinker. This means I don’t often get excited about cards that are coffee-themed. However, I am a tea drinker and just love to see one of my favorite beverages featured on paper crafting projects. The projects I’m sharing today all give a nod to tea, and some are even punny!

Lori’s card has a great sentiment and uses a tag to highlight the cup of tea. What a cheerful card for someone to receive.

My Cup of Tea by Lori Tecler, courtesy inking aloud

Claire colored these vibrant teacups with Copic markers. The stack is so endearing, and the sentiment tag looks just like one from a tea bag.

A Cup of Thanks by Claire Broadwater, courtesy Claire Creates Cards

This card by Elise is punny and so much fun. I love the “tea-riffic” sentiment and the multi-colored teapots. They make such a great background for the card.

You’re Tea-riffic! by Elise C., courtesy Lawn Fawn Blog

Debby’s card has a sentiment that is just perfect. My dad always likes to say that most of the world’s problems could be solved if world leaders would just take the time to sit down and chat over a cup of tea. The patterned, die-cut tea cup at the top of the card are a great contrast to the sentiment at the bottom.

A Cup of Tea by Debby Yates, courtesy A Scrapjourney

This card by Lexa would be great for Mother’s day, or any day you want to remind your mom how “tea-riffic” she is! The teapot and cups remind me of Mrs. Potts and Chip from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The little teabag tag she has hanging out of the top of the teapot is such an adorable touch, too.

You’re a Tea-riffic Mom by Lexa Lavana, courtesy Lexa’s Artsy Corner

Debbie created these fun Teabag Holder Cards to include teabags as gifts. She includes a step-by-step instruction for the card dimensions on her blog. This would be a great gift for a friend you haven’t seen in a while or for someone feeling a little under the weather.

Teabag Holder Cards by Debbie Seyer, courtesy A Peek Into My Stamping Room

There are lots of different products out there that will allow you to feature tea in your papercrafting. I used this stamp set to make the thank-you notes for my tea party bridal shower. If you’re a coffee drinker or have coffee-drinking friends, it will serve both purposes!

Latte Love Clear Stamps by Fiskars

These are the stamps Debby used on her A Cup of Tea card that was featured above:

Warm Solutions Clear Stamps by Clearly Besotted

I hope this post has made you a little warmer and ready to make a cup of tea and then some tea-drinker friendly cards! Remember-“A cup of tea solves everything!”

A few months, I wrote a Trend Watch article about banners and paper party supplies that you can DIY for your parties and get togethers.  There are so many fun ways that continue to come out to make that more elaborate and more fun.  Now I want to share how that same fun look can come together for your cards.

While card banners aren’t new; we have seen clever crafters create banners with washi, scrap paper, twine and other papers.  I have been impressed lately with metal dies  that incorporate words and that awesome tissue paper look that is popular now.   There are some great stamps too that duplicate that same look.

Let me show you a few examples of this cool way to showcase your banner skills.

I just love how happy and colorful Kimberly’s card is.  She uses letters and colored tulle to create her awesome banner.

card by Kimberly Crawford photo courtesy of Kimberly Stamps

Banners are great for tags and journaling cards.  Look how nice the banners look on Amy’s piece.  Inspiring and beautiful.

card by Amy Sheffer photo courtesy of Reverse Confetti

Tell me you can’t hear the party music in the background of this card.  It is so festive.  And look how cool the tassel banner is.  You can alternate color to create a custom look.  The twisted crepe paper is such a nice touch and super easy with a metal die.

card by Taylor Van Bruggen photo courtesy of Taylored Expression Blog

I just love how sweet this card is.  Plus, it also reminds me that I can keep the scraps of those papers I just love and make banners out of them.

card by Lisa Henke photo courtesy of My Little Creative Escape

This card is so funny to me.  I often feel like the only way to use a banner is across the width of a card.  I just think it is so creative that Michelle gave one of her adorable monsters the banner to hold.  Super cute card.

card by Michelle Bala photo courtesy of Paper Smooches Blog

Another great example of small banners in bigger spaces is this sweet card by Kathy.  I love the decorative edge design she creates with her coordinating banners.

card by Kathy Martin photo courtesy of Card-Blanc

Lisa’s card is so eye catching.  It’s colorful and captures so many fun colors.  The die she used allowed perfect semi circle cutting to fill in the colors as you need.

card by Lisa photo courtesy of I’m in Haven

This card is so lovely.  I just love the Top dog die set that Michelle uses for this card.  This would also be really cute on the back of a car as a congratulations to the new bride and groom card.  The sparkle is wonderful.

card by Michelle Bala photo courtesy of My Passion for Crafting

Another great idea for this type of die is the negatives.   I love it when you can get double duty out of your supplies and when they turn out this lovely, it’s just a win.  Another gorgeous card by Amy.

card by Amy Sheffer photo courtesy Pickled Paper Designs

Gayatri created a shaker card and I love the way it turned out.  It is just the perfect thing for a festive birthday card.

card by Gayatri Murali photo courtesy of Handmade by G3

Another great holiday look is this gorgeous card by Isha.  She used a sentiment banner stamp to create this look.  The shiny embossing and bits of color look great together.

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

I love how Debby used her striped piece with the sentiment to ground the heart banners.  It all comes together beautifully.

card by Debby Hughes photo courtesy of Lime Doodle Design

The stamp set Clare used is actually a holiday set but is versatile enough to create a birthday card and look this awesome.  The vellum is a nice touch as well.

 

card by Clare Prezzia photo courtesy of Berydo Paperie

You can use stamps, dies, alphabet letters, decorative pieces and any string you have to make a banner.  I hope you are inspired to make your own and to try something new.

So go ahead… make something pretty.

Banner die from Taylored Expressions

Heart die banner from Simon Says Stamp

party borders from Taylored Expressions

rubber stamps from Paper Smooches

Hero Arts rubber stamps from Scrapbook.com

Cas-ual Fridays stamps from Simon Says Stamp

If you’re making mixed media journaling pages you’re probably pretty familiar with layering. When I think of a lot of layers my first thoughts are about mixed media artwork, but there’s a lot that you can do with layers on cards too! Layering is very versatile, you can use papers, ink, embossing etc. this means that I had a lot of great projects to choose from this week. And I can say it was hard to make a good selection, but let’s start with some cards that use papers!

I really love the layers Joni used on her card, it just feels like the bunnies are in the middle of a beautiful field full of colorful flowers.

Thankful for you by Joni Nina Andaya, image source Ellen Hutson

Maike added a lot of dimension to her cards with different layers of paper. The scene she created with the pumpkins gives a lot of depth and looks really beautiful.

A Halloween Hello by Maike, image source Maikreations

You can use your layers to create a focal point too, like Nakaba did on her card. She even embossed the background with the little frames which makes it feel like an extra layer.

Treasure by Nakaba Rager, image source Notes from Naki

Carissa made a great layered focal point too. I love the little piece of greenery she added on top of her tags.

Merry by Carissa Wiley, image source Sprinkled with Glitter

Last, but not least, I want to share a card that uses a couple of different media. As I said before, layering is not limited to papers only. Yoonsun used a combination of ink, embossing, papers, diecuts and stamps to make her card.

We go together card by Yoonsun Hur, image source Rejoicing Crafts

I have a couple of products to share with you too. In this trend watch most of the cards use dies to add more interest to the layers so I have chosen a couple of dies for you.

Landscape trio by Mama Elephant

Stitched Borders 3 by Pretty Pink Posh

Stitched Oval wafer dies by Simon Says Stamp

But if you don’t have a die cutting machine you could also add doilies to add a little bit more interest to your layers.

White doilies from Bo Bunny at Simon Says Stamp

I hope you’re inspired to make some new projects!
– Lucinde

If you have been crafting for a while, it is likely that at some point during a shopping session you have experienced some sticker shock on the price of a perfect embellishment that would add so much to whatever you are working on (or just your stash if you like to collect 😀  ).  What I typically do is pine for the perfect embellishment and either wait for a sale or coupon or shop my existing over flowing stash for something that I might already have.  To be completely honest, I probably just buy it anyway and feel bad for a little while about how much I spent.  I would like to redeem myself.  I have found another way.  I can make some embellishments myself with a little time and know how and come out the winner with my pocket book as well as in my paper craft.  Feel free to join me if you are so inclined.

I have gathered a few ideas that you might want to consider as you are looking at what you already have and what you might be able to add to these ideas to make them your own.

“That’s made out of what?!?”  These next cards and pages are great just so you could tell the story of what they are made of.  This first one is not so odd,  but a great look Ally made with layered paper, water and a stamp she already had.  I love how she used colors that match her page to make it perfect for her page.  She has the technique on her blog you can check out in the link below.

card and casting closeup by Ally photos courtesy of Your Memories with Ally

Don’t throw out your used dryer sheets.  You can make custom flowers with them.  I have also found that you can add a lot of layers and because they are so thin, they don’t add bulk or extra shipping costs to your cards.   Of course the custom colors and the bling you can add are endless.  Gabrielle shows us a couple of versions of these pretty flowers.

page and flower close up by Gabrielle Pollaco photo courtesy of Such a Pretty Mess

TP!  Yup, the kind that is sitting on a roll in your bathrooms right now.  I shouldn’t even have to mention that  I am talking about unused toilet paper, right?  A few layers and some drying patience and you have a cool mold from a favorite stamp of yours.   I am sure this would look good colored too.  A quick tutorial is connected to the link below.

cast and card by Ally photo courtesy of Scrapbook and Cards Today

Cracker boxes, cereal boxes, shipping boxes are all potential kitties, horses and foxes you can paint or decoupage for a cool look.  Bar has included the patterns you can use to create your own creatures in any color or pattern you’d like.

animals by Bar Rucci photo courtesy of Art Bar Blog

This pretty mosaic was created out of egg shells!  Get out!  They are so lovely.  Gabrielle has also provided a tutorial so you can make sure you clean them and color them properly.

tiles and scrapbook page by Gabrielle Pollaco photo courtesy of Such a Pretty Mess

I have a tendency to hang onto small pieces of paper that I think are pretty but are too small to use on my cards.  I just keep thinking that one day, I might have the perfect thing to use them on.  Well, how about this?  How cute are these little clips.  You can use words, twine, stickers, flowers and other little small pieces for interest to create a textured collage look.

clips by Michelle Jackson photo courtesy of Vintage Street Market

I love the quote bubble shape that Pamela used as her base on these little embellishments.  I am always trying to figure out what to do with that little extra piece of banner I don’t use on a card.  How cute they look stapled on the bubbles.

embellishments by Pamela photo courtesy of Cosmic Girl Scrapper

Sewing adds such a cool finished look.  I sigh with jealously as I have never learned to sew, but I can admire how pretty these are.  You could use cork or foam sheets for these as well.

embellishments by Mira photo courtesy of All That Scrapbooking

When I don’t have a button in the right color and right size, I am going to try to to make my own.  Stamping on the buttons also adds such a customized look too.

buttons by Lindsay photo courtesy of The Frugal Crafter

Amy created these adorable flowers for the fridge but they would also look super cute on a scrapbook page.  I can also imagine including cool travel pictures in the centers too.

photo magnets by Amy photo courtesy of Positively Splendid

Make your own tags to use as embellishments or for presents.  This shape is ever so trendy right now and it looks so festive in Christmas papers.  Kelly has a template she is sharing on her blog.

tags by Kelly photo courtesy of Simply Kelly Designs

Lindsay used molds and a product called Plasty-Craft to make those adorable flowers.  She has a tutorial via the link below.

decorative box by Lindsay photo courtesy of The Frugal Crafter

I love the idea of reinventing something out of my existing stash and using odds and ends to create a perfect finishing touch.  I also love that I didn’t have to pay additional money for them.  Are there any ideas you use to create embellishments for your paper projects?  What do you find yourself saving the most of in your craft stash.  Let me know what you think.  I’m always looking for new ideas.

So go ahead, … make something pretty.

Moldable plastic from Plasty-Craft from Amazon.com

Perler bead for enamel dots from Amazon.com