Featured Artist/Designer: Susan Opel 10 15 2015

Welcome to another Featured Artist/Designer Spotlight. Today we’re thrilled to welcome back Susan Opel.

Before we show you Susan’s project, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

SusanProfilePic-250W-07162015When I turned 39, my life changed drastically. After receiving a BA in English from Concordia University in Ann Arbor, MI, I spent 16.5 years teaching English, art, and religion to students in Illinois, Nevada, and Indiana. One day I decided that I wasn’t excited about teaching anymore. I wanted to expand my world.

In a dramatic leap of faith, I took a position at Paper Crafts magazine, quit teaching, and moved across the country to pursue a dream job. For 6 1/2 years I worked (can you really call it that?) as an editor for Paper Crafts, connecting with cool creative people from all over the globe. I forged relationships and friendships with scrapbookers, card makers, and manufacturers.

I reveled in the creativity that surrounded me, and I couldn’t imagine NOT being a part of the industry.

One day that little magazine shut down for good, but God knew what he was doing. I’m now thrilled to be continuing my career in the creative industry as the Creative Ambassador for My Favorite Things, a premiere stamp and die company with some of the CUTEST designs out there, the best product, the most amazing design team, five star customer service, and a group of dedicated and seriously awesome employees. I get to look at pretty designs and cheer people on in their creativity every single day. It’s pretty awesome. Really.

I Love You

Some of my favorite cards come from an inspiration piece. I love the challenge of trying to take what sparked my creativity and turn it into card form.  This card was one of those run-downstairs-and-do-this-right-now situations. The inspiration came from this simple and muted Victoria’s Secret pajama photo in their recent catalog. I have to admit that I tend to go for BOLD colors usually, but there was something so sleek and understated about it.

Print

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The pretty gray patterned paper from My Favorite Things gives this card a soft heather-like feel. I originally had a gold frame around the outside edges of the card, but the more I looked at that design, I felt like the frame took the focus away from the sliver of gold at the top of the heart. I had to keep telling myself to keep it simple. That’s hard for me. 🙂
For more color inspiration, I invite you to participate in the MFT Color Challenges with my design team and me.

Supplies

Stamps: (For the Boys) My Favorite Things
Card stock: (Pink Lemonade, Grout Gray, Gold Foil) My Favorite Things
Patterned paper: (Calm & Cozy Chevron) My Favorite Things
Ink: (Steel Blue) My Favorite Things
Dies: (Stitched Rounded Square STAX, All My Love, Blueprints 21) My        Favorite Things
Finished Size: 4 1/4 square

We hope you have enjoyed today’s project courtesy of Susan Opel.

If you are looking to see more from Susan, she hosts the MFT Challenge & Inspiration blog with a talented design team and at least one challenge every week! http://www.cardchallenges.com/

Happy Crafting!

Winner of the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Give-Away! 10 7 2015

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I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to CAS-ual Fridays Stamps’ guest designer Jennifer Ingle  for sharing such a wonderful project and to CAS-ual Fridays Stamps for their generous give-away of their collection shown below.

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And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…….the 2 lucky winners are…… D.Ann C and Alma Dirpaul!!!

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Congratulations D.Ann C and Alma Dirpaul! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “CAS-ual Fridays Stamps 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 – Butterflies

Butterflies are such a pleasant part of nature. It’s always a treat to see one flying by or visiting the flowers around our house. Butterflies are also very popular in the world of paper crafting, and I think they’re a trend that’s been around for a while and won’t be going anywhere any time soon! They’re very versatile, and make such great focal pieces and accents on cards. So let’s flutter through some gorgeous butterfly cards!

I just love Wanda’s watercolor butterflies. They are so vibrant, and really pop off the page, even though they’re 2-dimensional.

Butterfly Trio by Wanda Guess

Butterfly Trio by Wanda Guess, courtesy A Blog Called Wanda

The die cut butterfly on Kim’s card jumps right off the edge of the page! I really like her coordinating polka dots and how they allow the butterfly to really stand out.

Celebrate by Kim Heggins

Celebrate by Kim Heggins, courtesy Cupcakes, Cards and Kim

Loll created an incredible 3 dimensional flower for her butterfly to visit. She provides a link to her written tutorial on creating 3D daisies at her blog. What an adorable, happy card.

Best Birthday Wishes by Loll Thompson

Best Birthday Wishes by Loll Thompson, courtesy Stamping with Loll

This clean and simple card by JJ features stacked stamping in her card. She double stamped the same card front with the cute butterflies, and die cut her sentiment out of one of the card fronts. I sometimes feel like I’m learning a magician’s secrets when I learn how you all create some of these amazing cards!

Happy Birthday by JJ Bolton

Happy Birthday by JJ Bolton, courtesy handmade cards by jj bolton

Jaydee used a Stampin’ Up die to cut out her butterflies and turned them into monarchs with Distress Inks. They really turned out beautifully. She provides a link to information about planting milkweed to help the Monarchs that require milkweed for their migration journey each year.  (Check out this article recommended by Jaydee to read more about it, too!)  My husband and I saw this Omnimax film about the migration of the Monarchs a few years ago and it was so interesting. Be sure to see if it’s showing anywhere near you!

Monarch Hello by Jaydee

Monarch Hello by Jaydee, courtesy Stampin! with Jaydee

Small butterflies could fill in just about any shape, and Betty used some cute, little die cut butterflies to fill a large heart. Her clean and simple card allows those butterflies to pop off the page, both literally and figuratively

Butterfly Valentine by Betty Keefe

Valentine Butterflies by Betty Keefe, courtesy created by bjk

Sarah has some multicolor butterflies flying through her card. She also allowed them to go beyond the edge of the card, which really gives the sense that they’re just passing through! Her sentiment on vellum really adds to the light, airy feel of the card.

Birthday Butterflies by Sarah Gray

Birthday Butterflies by Sarah Gray, courtesy Funky Fossil Designs

Excited about butterflies, but think you may not have any stamps or dies in your stash? (Which might be surprising – I think they’re probably something we all have!) Linda created butterflies out of the tops of umbrellas for this card. They really do look like butterflies passing through.

You are my Sunshine by Linda Trace

You are my Sunshine by Linda Trace, courtesy A Blog Named Hero

Here are a few butterfly dies and stamps to build your collection.

Life Is Beautiful Stamp Set by Papertrey Ink

Life Is Beautiful Dies by Papertrey Ink

Life is Beautiful Stamp Set and coordinating dies by Papertrey Ink

Butterfly Thinlits Dies by Stampin Up

Butterflies Thinlits Dies by Stampin Up

Check out Memory Box for LOTS of butterfly dies!

Reverse Butterfly Collage Die by Memory Box

Reverse Butterfly Collage by Memory Box at Simon Says Stamp

Stop and watch for butterflies when you have a moment; they really can be so relaxing to follow! If it’s too cold where you are for butterflies outside (or it’s plenty warm), make some butterfly cards to brighten your day!

Featured Company: Graphic 45 – 10 09 2015

 

We are happy to bring you a feature from one of our favorite companies: Graphic 45.

Graphic 45 Designer – Mariusz Gierszewski

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

MariuszGierszewskiProfilePic2-20W-10092015My name is Mariusz Gierszewski and I come from Poland. I’m 24 years old and I’m young men who love papers, flowers and scissors. I live in a small village, Modrzejewo in north Poland. My passions are scrapbooking, and card making. Always I’m looking inspirations in nature. I love to make cards and albums, sometimes LO’s or mixed media projects. I’m a Prima Marketing Inc Educator and Graphic45 Designer. I’m known in Poland and other countries in Europe. I travel and lead classes. I was in Greece, twice in Sweden, Norway, Spain or Latvia. Soon I flight on Jakarta and one more time to Spain. Hope in next year I visit USA with my Graphic45 classes 🙂

Shabby And Soft

Hello everyone. I’m so proud that I can will part of this blog’s. It’s my pleasure to show you my newest projects with awesome Graphic45 products. I’m in love with shabby style and today I created two cards in this style. As always I was inspired by nature. On a lot of my works you can see birds, flowers or butterflies. If want do some in shabby style you should use pastels papers and light embellishments or things in dark colors and next you can add gesso for all your works. In this way your projects to stay shabby and soft.

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It’s not hard. Please try and show me what you created 😉
Greetings from Poland
Mariusz

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Mariusz Gierszewski for his fabulous project and Graphic 45 for sharing their company with us. Be sure to visit Graphic 45 to see more of their products and their blog for some inspiration!

Happy Crafting!

Featured Company: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps – 10 08 2015

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We are happy to bring you this week’s Featured Company: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!

Founded in 2012, CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is a small company with big ideas located in beautiful Colorado.  The stamps are made of the finest clear photopolymer available, and proudly made in the Heartland of America. They love ink and stamp like a dream!  Our new line of Fri-Dies will coordinate with lots of our stamp sets, and are also made right here in the USA.

My designs are based on my love for Clean And Simple design, hence the CAS in our name, but will delight any stamper’s style. Whether you are a CAS enthusiast, or lover of Utterly Adorable Layers, you will have a blast getting inky with them.

New designs are released nearly every month. We’ll always start the party off with amazing sneak peeks from the Girl Fridays, and your chance to win prizes on the store blog.  We’ll continue with inspirations and tips throughout the month for your oohing and aahing pleasure, so be sure to follow our blog or facebook page so you don’t miss anything.  You’ll also want to follow us on Pinterest where each stamp and die set has it’s very own board filled with amazing project inspiration.

This week we drawing two lucky winners and we are giving away our featured products stamps set with the prize value of $52.50 shown below. (Details at the end of the post.)

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CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Designer – Jennifer Ingle

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

JenniferIngleProfilePic-250W-10082015Jennifer started crafting as soon as her tiny fingers could hold a crayon. She loved working with paper and glue and would create mountains of projects that she would then set up on a table as a ‘craft fair’ and sell to her own parents. She entered the world of scrapbooking while in college, wanting to do something creative with the photos she was taking. The love of paper crafting has grown so very much since that moment. She moved from scrapbooking into card making and also dabbles in art doll creation, assemblage pieces, and water color. Jennifer has had the honor of winning a few major crafting contests and has been published many times in leading magazines in the industry. Jennifer lives in the Boston area with her husband Sean. She works full time as a Mobile QA Engineer by day. She loves children’s literature, eating delicious food, telling terrible jokes, laughing, and generally just having fun. She makes stuff. It’s what she does.

The latest release from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is so full of awesome stamps and Fri-dies! I love how versatile they are! I pulled out three favorites from the release to create these two cards to share with you today. The first uses the Autumn Blessings stamps, the Acorn Fri-dies, and the Scalloped Tag Fri-dies in a more traditional way for a warm and cozy Thanksgiving card. I love how easy it is to pull together a beautiful design with stamps and dies that coordinate perfectly! The second card uses the exact same stamps and dies in a much different way. I played with some fun colors for a year round trendy look. I love how the leaves cascade down the center of the card! And the Scallop tag dies were perfect for creating a fun border at the bottom of the card.

Blessings To You

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Thanksgiving Greetings

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Supplies

Stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Autumn Blessings
Dies: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Acorn Fri-Dies and Scallop Tag Fri-dies
Cardstock: Kraft, blue, white, vellum (Bazzill Basics)
Die Cut Machine: Spellbinders Platinum
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Just Rust (Hero Arts), Java Bean (Ranger), Melon, Hollyhock, Blue Jay (Simon Says Stamp), VersaMark (Tsukineko)
Embossing Powder: Pink (Ranger)
String: Gold (May Arts), Silver thread (DMC)

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Jennifer Ingle for her fabulous project and CAS-ual Fridays Stamps for sharing their company with us. Be sure to visit CAS-ual Fridays Stamps to see more of their products and their blog for some inspiration!

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!

Winner of the Power Poppy Give-Away! 09 30 2015

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I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Power Poppy’s guest designer Christine Okken for sharing such a wonderful project and to Power Poppy for their generous give-away of their collection: Power Poppy’s Heaven and Nature Sing polymer stamp set. Let your stamped creations sing with natural beauty using this set of two birds nestled in holly branches and lenten rose blossoms. This 4×6” set was designed and illustrated by Marcella Hawley, with a song in her heart and a holly tree outside her studio window.

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

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Congratulations Rene Stansell! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Power Poppy 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 – We are all part of the Tribe: Tribal prints

I am sure you have seen the tribal influence pop up all over the place.  Colorful prints in purses, wall hangings, furniture and in clothes.  We also get to experience how cool the prints can look on paper with stamps and papers that allow us to create cool looks.  Even though the trends is tribal, I am surprised by universal the prints.  When they are deconstructed you can see how familiar shapes like arrows and triangles have a slightly different look and in combinations communicate the look we identify as tribal.    I have some beautiful examples to show you what I mean.  So let’s get inspired.

My first card features just the one shape but by its random positioning creates such a cool distinguished look.  The blue wash of color across the length of the panel is so cool.

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card by Marcie Sharp photo courtesy of Sharp Designs

The colors of this next card are considered traditionally tribal as well.  They look like earth colors.  The random gathering of patterns also contributes to its distinctive look.

 

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card by Cindy Schuster photo courtesy of Nutmeg Creations

Vicky used a washed out effect for her colors that works really well with the shapes she gathers together at two corners of her card.

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card by Vicky Hayes photo courtesy of Clare’s Paper Moments

Patterned repetition can create an ethnic look without the shape being particularly ethnic.  I love how sophisticated this design looks by stamping one image in two different ways across several rows of the card.  The occasional color is also beautiful.

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card by Geralyn Sy photo courtesy of Mama Elephant Blog

I just love how simple the pattern is for this card and how awesome it looks together.  The idea of lines and x’s gets a super cool treatment with the stamp and watercolor technique Lisa uses (and created for Hero Arts by the way).

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card by Lisa Spangler photo courtesy of Hero Arts blog

Striking is such an appropriate word to describe this next card.  The black in the card give an extra punch to the lovely blues, oranges, greens and greys.

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card by Sarah Moerman photo courtesy of My Impressions

Tessa’s card was also made with a cover plate die and given gorgeous color by laying colorful strips behind the tribal inspired patterns.

Hola Friend Card

card by Tessa Wise photo courtesy of Crafty Girl Designs

Mayuri created this gorgeous pattern from a stamp set I’ve included at the bottom of this post.  Look how intricate it looks and it only uses different triangle shapes.

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card by Mayuri photo courtesy of Winnie and Walter blog

In Vanessa’s card we see the random grouping of a the triangle in different patterns in lovely earth colors.  She creates such a lovely clean look.


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card by Vanessa Menhorn photo courtesy of Winnie and Walter blog

Nichol’s card is so beautiful and fun.  You can see the influence of tribal by her use of triangles and patterns but she uses bright colors for a more universal look.

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card by Nichol Magourik photo courtesy of Mama Elephant blog

I found a few products you can use to continue your exploration of the tribal look in your own projects below.

So go ahead… make something pretty.

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Tribal Bear Stamp set from Waffle Flower

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Tribal Pattern Die from Waffle Flower 

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Scenery:  Rectangled and Triangled stamp set from Winnie and Walter

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Trifecta stampset from Mama Elephant

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Scrapbook Customs paper pack from Scrapbook.com

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Heidi Swapp Foil rub on from Scrapbook.com

Trend Watch – Beautiful Backgrounds

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of amazing backgrounds. Sometimes they’re so good it’s a shame to cover them with other products. So for this trend watch I’m focusing on the backgrounds, and a couple of different ways to make them. You’re not limited to background stamps!

When you don’t own a lot of background stamps but do own beautiful image stamps you can create your own background with those stamps. Gayatri used this cute critter from Hero Arts to make her own background.

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Happy by Gayatri Murali, image source Handmade by G3

heroartsBaby animals Stamp & Cut by Hero Arts

If you don’t want to cover up to much of your background, vellum is a great addition to your card. It shows your background but you can also add a little extra dimension. I love the white paper Thordis used on her vellum, it makes the colors in the background pop really well. She made the background with an ink blender and distress ink.

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oh happy day by Thordis, image source The Create Corner

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Distress Inks at Simon Says Stamp

You can use embossing folders in a lot of die cutting machines. This can create beautiful ‘dry embossed’ effects on your cards. It has a different look and feel than the heat embossing and it’s a really nice touch to your cards. Theresa used an embossing folder for her birthday card.

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Happy birthday by Theresa, image source Theresa’s Studio

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Wood Grain embossing folder from We R Memory keepers at scrapbook.com

There are a lot of die cuts for backgrounds too. You can use every type of paper for them. Patterns, plain white paper or color blocking like Alice did on her card.

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Wish big by Alice Wertz, image source Allice’s little wonderland

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Die-namics Triangle Screen by My Favorite Things

Stencils are another great way to create a custom background. I especially love the ombre backgrounds you can create with them. Monika made a beautiful yellow background with her stencil and used a vellum overlay too.

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The happiest birthday by Monika A. Davis, image source M.A.D. Stamper

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Moroccan Tiles stencil by My Favorite Things

I couldn’t completely leave out the background stamps. Some of them are just too beautiful. A great way to make a quick background that’s completely your style. I love the bright color choice from Kymona, especially in contrast with the white embossing.

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Amazing by Kymona Tracey, image source Kreative Kymona

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Peony Garden background stamp by The Ton Stamps

I hope these cards will inspire you to create something new 🙂

Lucinde

Featured Company: Power Poppy 09 30 2015

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We are happy to bring you this week’s Featured Company: Power Poppy.

Looking for a stamp company that’s unabashedly upbeat and thoroughly original? That’s the spirit at Power Poppy. Illustrator, graphic designer, and gardener Marcella Hawley’s irresistible stamp line is inspired by her somewhat starry-eyed take on life, with designs that boost positivity and delight in life’s small moments. Based in the Midwest, Power Poppy stamps feature whimsical botanicals, nostalgic vignettes, hand lettering, and snappy sentiments. Visit the Power Poppy shop at powerpoppy.com, on Pinterest at pinterest.com/powerpoppyrocks or check out their idea-filled blog at powerpoppy.blogspot.com.

One lucky commenter will walk away with Power Poppy’s Heaven and Nature Sing polymer stamp set! Let your stamped creations sing with natural beauty using this set of two birds nestled in holly branches and lenten rose blossoms. This 4×6” set was designed and illustrated by Marcella Hawley, with a song in her heart and a holly tree outside her studio window.

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Power Poppy’s Designer – Christine Okken

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

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I am a designer who loves to colour, create and capture those little bits of beauty in my world.  I’ve been card making for about 12 years and love the creative outlet.  I’ve been married to my beloved for 21 years and we have three great kids, a junior high-er, a high-schooler and a University student.  We make our home in sunny Alberta, Canada.  I’ve been a Pastor for a number of years with 15 years in youth ministry and more recently in pastoral care.  I love speaking, writing, photography and growing flowers in my garden.

Blog:  http://christinecreations.blogspot.ca
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/christinecreate/

Be Joyful

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This lovely pair of winter birds placed in this scene of lenten roses, holly and berries is perfect for upcoming Christmas season.  I began by stamping the scene onto XPress It Blending Cardstock in Espresso Truffle Memento ink to soften the feel of the image.  Then I coloured it all up with Copic Markers, carefully trimming around the image with a small border and then placing onto an oval frame.  The lovely musical score makes the perfect backdrop for the image, which is sewn in layers onto the design.  A simple seam-binding bow finishes it off.

Supplies

Power Poppy – Heaven & Nature Sing Stamp set
Memento Espresso Truffle Ink
XPress It Blending Cardstock
Stampin’ Up! Rich Razzleberry Cardstock (Textured)
Early Espresso Cardstock (Textured)
Glitz designer paper – Pretty in Pink
Spellbinders – Deckled Ovals, Standard Ovals Dies
Big Shot Die Cutting Machine
Sewing Machine
Seam Binding – Chocolate Brown
Copic Markers:  RV00, RV63, RV55, RV66, RV69, RV99, G82, G85, G94, G99, YG21, YG23, YG25, YG17, Y11, E71, E74, E77, E79, W2, W5, W7

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Christine Okken for her fabulous project and Power Poppy for sharing their company with us. Be sure to visit Power Poppy to see more of their products and their blog for some inspiration or check out on pinterest.

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!

Winner of the Verve Give-Away! 09 23 2015

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I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Verve’s guest designer Julee Tilman for sharing such a wonderful project and to Verve Stamps for their generous give-away of their collection shown below.

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

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Congratulations Lisa Peronto! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Verve Stamps 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!