Paper Crafter's Library – Page 23 – A world of creativity at your fingertips

Winner of the Graphic 45 Give Away!

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Graphic 45’s guest designer Katie Zoey Ho for sharing such a wonderful project and to Graphic 45 for their generous give-away of their collection shown below.

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

Congratulations Mare! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Graphic 45 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!

Trend Watch – Christmas Cuties

It’s already time to make Christmas cards! Well… I know that some of you are probably already finished but I just can’t find the ‘Christmas card making mood’ when my head (and life) is still in summer mode. But somewhere in November I’ll get the feeling that I want to create something for Christmas. When I was looking for some inspiration I realized that the cute critters trend even continues in the Christmas cards! And I have to admit, those critters are really cute for Christmas!

So let’s spread around some cuteness this week and start with this little fox! I love that his shawl almost looks like a little bow around a present.

Season’s greetings by Francine, image source 1001 cartes

If you want to add a little laughter to your holiday cards, this stamp and die from Sweet ‘n Sassy stamps is great!

Polar Bear card by Sweet ‘n Sassy, image source Sweet ‘n Sassy stamps

Kara doesn’t use the traditional Christmas colors on this card but it does give a real ‘Christmas feeling’. Did you notice the shawl on the bunny? So cute!

Merry Christmas by Kara, image source K and R Designs

And I don’t know how it is in your countries, but here in Holland a lot of people feed the birds in the winter. So a couple of cute birds couldn’t be missing from this post.

Peace on Earth by Anna, image source Creativity Mango

Winter Sparrows by Jenny, image source Make The Day Special

If you don’t want to buy a whole Christmas stamp set you could use the stamp sets you already own. These two projects combine ‘normal’ stamp sets to create a real Christmas scene.

Chicken in a pot by Sandy Allnock, image source Sandy Allnock

Christmas tag by Nichol Magourik, image source blogged by Nichol Magourik

And of course; a little product list to end with so you’ll know where to get these cute little critters!

Winter Penguin by Lawn Fawn

Rockin’ Robin by Clearly Besotted

Winter Woodland by Wplus9

Hello Friend by Janes Doodles

All Wrapped Up by The Alley Way Stamps

Beary Christmas by Sweet ‘n Sassy stamps

That’s all I’ve got to share with you today but if you look around on the blogs these days you’ll find a lot more great inspiration. Have a great time creating! – Lucinde

Keep It CASual #5: Joyful Wishes Card & A Giveaway

Happy Monday everyone! Welcome to another Keep it CASual – our new video tutorial series featuring clean and simple card making. New this week we have decided that with EACH and every Keep it CASual video tutorial posted we will be doing a give-away.

One lucky winner will receive a 3 month subscription to Paper Crafter’s Library – that is a $60 value. As part of the Paper Crafter’s Library membership you can expect 25+ new project tutorials per month as well as any online classes offered during the time period of your membership. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post.

For today’s card I used some brand new stamps from Lawn Fawn called Joy to the Woods along with the coordinating craft dies.

Although a little more time consuming than some of my other cards, I have to say I really enjoyed putting this scene together. I love it when a card can have lots of elements yet still have a clean feel to it’s design, and I think that it’s all the white space and clean lines of the images and elements that contribute to this effect for this card.

Notice the beautiful soft snowy background? It all started with a gorgeous bokeh patterned paper from the Lawn Fawn Snow Day 6×6 petite paper pack. I expanded on the effect by creating a little more dimension using my Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil and my white Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste. I then glitzed it up with some of Wow! Embossing Powder’s Clear Sparkle Embossing glitter.

In addition to the snowfall background paper I also used a couple of other patterns from the paper pack to create the frame and the banner. I LOVE all the patterns the come in the paper pack and can’t wait to use more of them!

Keep it CASual #5 - Joyful Wishes Card detail close up featuring Lawn Fawn Joy To the Woods - by Andrea Walford

You can watch the video of how I created this card below:

Supplies:

Stamps: Joy to the Woods (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); R22, R24, R27, W00, W3, W6, E18, E79, E31, E34 Copic Markers (Copic)
Paper: 120 lb White card stock (Simon Says Stamp); Neenah Solar White 80 LB; Snow Day 6×6 Petite Paper Pack (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Falling Snow Stencil (Simon Says Stamp); Joy to the Woods Craft Dies (Lawn Fawn); Stitched Slopes and Hills (Simon Says Stamp); White Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi), Clear Sparkle Embossing Glitter (Wow! Embossing); Plastic Palette knife (art supply store); Rhinestones Basic Jewels (Stampin’ Up!)

Keep it CASual #5 - Joyful Wishes Card Pic 2 featuring Lawn Fawn Joy To the Woods - by Andrea Walford

Here’s a link to all the products I used to create this card –

Falling Snow Stencil – Simon Says Stamp	White Embossing Paste – Wendy Vecchi	Palette Knife Dina Wakley	Clear Sparkle Embossing Glitter – Wow! Embossing
Ranger Heat It Craft Tool	Joy to the Woods Stamp Set – Lawn Fawn	Joy to The Woods Craft Dies – Lawn Fawn	Snow Day 6×6 Petite Paper Pack – Lawn Fawn
Stitched Slopes and Hills Die – Simon Says Stamp	Memento Tuxedo Black Ink – Tsukineko	R22 Copic Sketch Marker	R24 Copic Sketch Marker
R27 Copic Sketch Marker	E31 Copic Sketch Marker	E34 Copic Sketch Marker	E18 Copic Sketch Marker
E79 Copic Sketch	W00 Copic Sketch Marker	W3 Copic Sketch Marker	W6 Copic Sketch Marker
120 lb White Card Stock – Simon Says Stamp	Neenah 80 Lb Solar White Card Stock

InLinkz.com

*Please note that I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and receive a small commission from any purchases made using the links above.

Featured Artist/Designer: Cristina “Yainea” Nunez

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

Hi! I’m so happy and honored to be featured on Paper Crafter’s Library today! My name is Cristina but I use Yainea as a nickname all the time. I’m from a small city in the northwest of Spain so sorry if my english is not perfect :). I love everything cute and crafty and I especially enjoy stamping and card making. I also love long walks, riding my bike with my boyfriend, animals (I have two dogs and a cat) and, as a software engineer, everything computer related. Oh! And I couldn’t live without coffee! He he I know some of you know what I mean 😉

I started my blog in January 2012 and I first knew about card making in 2011, when I started submitting some cards in challenges (directly from my Flickr account haha). I’m currently a design team member for Lawn Fawn, Lawnscaping challenges and Avery Elle.

I love to try new techniques and tools but I found myself using some favorites all the time: Coloring with Copic markers, stamping, die cutting and heat embossing. Recently, I discovered Prismacolor pencils combined with Gamsol and while it takes longer to finish coloring my images than using Copics, I’m enjoying a lot using these pencils.

Another thing I love to do is stamp my own backgrounds, and if I’m using background stamps I hate when I ruin a piece of cardstock because of the non-stamped areas so I usually place a piece of foam under my card base and them stamp it so the result is an even and totally stamped area 🙂

Hello Friend Card

On my card today I used Prismacolor pencils with Gamsol to color all the scene, I used them for the sky too so I didn’t need to mask the birds and branch. Then I stamped the birds and some leaves again on another piece of cardstock. After coloring and cutting, I adhered the birds and heart with foam adhesive to give some dimension to the scene. For the leaves, I just added a tiny glue dot on the nearest side to the branch and blend them with my fingers, I love how this looks!

For the background, I used a piece of foam under my card base and stamped the woodgrain stamp with kraft ink, then inked the edges with some Antique Linen ink and a foam applicator. Some heat embossing, die cutting and a touch of twine (I LOVE twine!!) finish the card 🙂

I hope you like my project!!

Supplies

Stamps: Feathered Friends from Lawn Fawn (exclusive for Simon Says Stamp), Woodgrain Backdrops
Inks: Tuxedo Black Memento ink, Versamark ink from Tsukineko; Kraft ink from Avery Elle; Antique Linen Distress ink from Ranger
Dies: Stitched Party Banners from Lawn Fawn
Paper: Hello Sunshine from Lawn Fawn
Prismacolor pencils
Hero Arts white embossing powder
Lawn Fawn twine: Orchid

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

Have a great day!

Featured Company: Graphic 45

We are happy to bring you this week’s Featured Company: Graphic 45. We are so excited to be featuring them regularly on Paper Crafter’s Library! And this week we have a “Raining Cats and Dogs” collection prize package give-away valued at $71. WOW!!! Details will be at the end of this post.

Graphic 45 Designer – Katie Zoey Ho

Our Graphic 45 Guest Designer for this week is Katie Zoey Ho who is part of the 2014 Graphic 45 Design Team. You can see Katie’s fabulous project below, but first, here is a little more about her:

Hi Everyone. I’m Katie from Singapore, a tiny red dot along the equator on the map; also known as the Green City where you will be surrounded with lots of greeneries and enjoy summer all year round. I was previously from the biomedical research and healthcare industry. Love coffee and science but my passion inclines towards designing and creating. The combination of science & art always excites me. I enjoy the creating process and love to crack my brain. I’m so excited to be part of the PCL spotlight as a Graphic 45 DT member for today. And I hope what I’ve shared here can be a source of inspiration. Happy crafting and have fun creating!!! Cheers!!!

Altered Match Box and Butterfly Necklace

Here I’m sharing this heartwarming altered matchbox to house the necklace I’ve created using Graphic 45 staples. I like the texture of embossed metal, hence I embossed some of the metal butterflies staples with some floral textured and made this pendant for the necklace.

It’s one such handmade gift that I’d like to gift to a close girlfriend of mine who is currently undergoing some tough times in her marriage and as an actor. I’m not really good at accessory making, but I do hope this will add some sunshine to her. It may not help/improve her situation, but I do hope this butterfly pendant will at least brave her heart up and soar like a butterfly.

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a Garden…”

Tips in creating sentimental gifts: Think of a theme that’s closely related to the person you want to gift to and then choose a color palette to work with.

Supplies

Secret Garden Paper Collection
Graphic 45 Staples Small Matchbook Box
Graphic 45 Staples: Washi Tape Set
Graphic 45 Staples: Stamped Metal Brads
Graphic 45 Staples: Ornate Metal Keys
Graphic 45 Staples: Metal Butterfiles
Mulberry Flowers
Pearl Accents
Bronze Metal Chain

I would like to extend a warm thank you to Katie for sharing her fabulous project with us! Please take a minute to stop by Katie’s blog and of course the Graphic 45 blog to check out all their amazing creations! Be sure to leave a comment on this post to enter to win the Graphic 45 collection listed above.

Winner of the Ribbon Roll Control Give Away!

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Ribbon Roll Control for their generous give-away of three ribbon holders (one original and two petites)!

RRC8

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

Congratulations Miriam! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Ribbon Roll Control 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!

Trend Watch: Bunch of Balloons

I don’t know about you, but as a kid there was nothing more thrilling to me than a huge bunch of helium balloons in different sizes and patterns. At birthday parties I always wanted the balloon guy to come up with a really cool design for me when he was making balloon art. I thought the hats were always the most awesome. So maybe my fascination never really ended. I still love the anticipation of a good party when I see a bunch of balloons and remember fondly the goofy games my brother and sister came up with for the balloons when the helium wound down. Whatever the reason, I am still in love with balloons and am thrilled that they seem to be an evergreen trend in the paper crafting world. I hope you enjoy this journey with me and find some new inspiration within this trend.

Die cuts are always an awesome and quick go to for fun shapes like balloons if you have access to them. You can make them in whatever colors you like and create a theme based on paper you have on hand. The combined look of balloons and the banner in Michelle’s card is just great.

card by Michelle Bala photo courtesy of My Passion for Crafting

With the awesome cloud background paper and the dimension of the balloons, the movement and scene of this next card is just delightful. I can almost feel the sun on my face as I am looking up watching the flight of the balloons.

card by Alanna Moses photo courtesy of Alanna’s Spot in the World

I thought the paper in the background of this card was printed until I read her blog post. Amber has such lovely stamping techniques I thought the balloons were printed!

card by Amber Kroening photo courtesy of Bella Rose Cards

Another great look using balloons is make your own designs on them by double die cutting. You can use a smaller pattern or word die and inlay the patterned die in the negative space you cut out in the balloon. Does that make sense? Just look at the cute striped rainbow stars in the middle of Laura’s card below.

card by Laura photo courtesy of Paper Lulu

Shaped cards are so cute and the balloon is such a fun basic shape, you can create your own template freehand.

card by Barb photo courtesy of Enjoying Life…

Of course I had to share with you my utter devotion to the shaker card and this balloon card is just the cutest. I love how Maile uses the whole card and goes off the edge on the top to create a floaty look.

card by Maile Balles photo courtesy of Simply Stamped by Maile Balles

You don’t even have to limit yourself by using card stock. Vellum looks awesome in this example below and gives the balloons a cool light-as-air look that fits so well with the composition.

card by Daniela Dobson photo courtesy of Emma’s Paperie

If you love stamping, this next card is such a wonderful technique to try. Masking off this colorful bunch of balloons is so inspiring but with the bonus lifted die cut, makes it drool worthy.

card by Laura Bassens photo courtesy of Simon Says Stamp blog

If you like a bit of a challenge, you can try to create a beauty like the one below using stencils and masking off the balloons for color as well as to create the cool pattern on the balloons like Amy did in this gorgeous card.

card by Amy Kolling photo courtesy of Stamp-n-Paradise

Miriam get a super cool ombre effect by stamping her balloons. This reminds me of a beautiful wedding I saw in a magazine once.

Card by Miriam Pranther photo courtesy of Sooner Rather than Later

Sequins are another great way to bring added interest to your balloon design. Here, Chari layers coordinating colors under each of her balloons to show through the holes she cut out of her stamped images. The effect is so colorful and cheery.

Card by Chari Moss photo courtesy of Neat and Tangled Blog

This last card just makes me smile, the movement that Jenny created is so real to me, I can imagine the kid holding the balloons letting each one go and float into the sky. Perfect.

Card by Jenny photo courtesy of Crafting in the Country

I hope you found some new ideas to use as you shop your stash of balloon paraphernalia or you can get inspired by some of the products I found below.

Either way, go ahead… make something pretty.

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 November 3, 2014 and November 14, 2014.

Each week at Paper Crafter’s Library our monthly members can expect to receive access to a minimum of 5 exclusive videos each week. Typcially 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
A scrapbook page
A winter home decor piece
A goodie bag
Stamping with water
MDS – Spreading Photos Over Multiple Panels

Did you also know that Paper Crafter’s Library members also receive free access to our online classes? Right now members are enjoying the Holiday Cards 2014 Class.

Read about all the perks of being a Paper Crafter’s Library member you can visit our Benefits of Membership page HERE.

Art Journal Express #23: Video Tutorial “Focus On The Beauty” Art Journal Page

Welcome to another edition of Art Journal Express brought to you by me, Andrea, from my blog Andrea Walford Designs.

Art Journal Express a free video tutorial series where I show you how I created one of my art journal pages from start to finish.

Today’s art journal page is called Focus On The Beauty. I created today’s art journal page as a reminder to myself to look at and focus on life’s positives – the beauty around me – rather than the negatives. You can watch the video tutorial from HERE.

The videos are hosted on a You Tube Channel that is separate from the Paper Crafter’s Library You Tube Channel, so if you don’t want to miss a single edition of Art Journal Express please subscribe to that You Tube Channel (you can do so from the video tutorial page from today’s post).

Featured Artist/Designer: Meghan McMillan

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

Hi I’m Meghan and I am SO honoured to be featured on Paper Crafter’s Library. I live on beautiful Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

I started my blog in December 2010. It took me a while to find my style but I will always remember my first-ever clean and simple card that I submitted to a challenge. I was totally shocked when it actually won! I knew I had finally found my card making style. I do love and use patterned paper whenever I can but usually in small doses.

I currently work as a design team member for the CASology blog and Scrapbooks by Design in Vancouver BC.

One thing that I definitely struggle with is embossing. Anyone who follows my blog has probably read about my frustration with embossing powder. It just gets everywhere and sticks where I don’t want it to even when I use a powder tool. However, I recently found that it provides a fabulous barrier when colouring with alcohol markers like Copics. If I want to colour an image now I like to stamp it with Versafine Onyx Black ink and quickly pour clear embossing powder on it, heat set it and then pull out my markers to colour. Clear embossing powder is just that…clear! While this isn’t a new technique, I’ve found it really works for me.

Here are some cards I made with the recently released Love You a Latte stamp and die set by Lawn Fawn using this technique:

I stamped and embossed two of the mugs. The other one, I used Memento Tuxedo Black Ink. Can you tell which one is different? Maybe not but I know that the embossed ones were so much easier to colour!

Here are a few other cards stamped using the same set and the same process:

I even stamped and embossed the sentiments so they matched the rest of the card! I was surprised how easy it was!

Supplies

Cardstock: Neenah Solar White
Stamps: Love You a Latte Stamps and Dies by Lawn Fawn
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Clear Embossing Powder: Recollections
Markers: Copic
Other: Anti Static Embossing Bag by Recollections

Here is an example of a card I made by stamping and embossing a larger image before I coloured it:

I hope that you give this technique a try!

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

Have a great day!