Paper Crafter's Library – Page 32 – A world of creativity at your fingertips

Featured Artist/Designer: Lisa Addesa

Today we’re thrilled to welcome Lisa Addesa. Before we show you Lisa’s projects, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

I am a wife, mother and card maker. I began making cards when my children were little, but when we chose to homeschool our daughters and son, I gave all my stamping stuff away some fifteen years ago. Since taking up card making again, five years ago, I have become even more passionate about making cards than I was the first time around (and have FAR more stamping stuff than I ever had)! I have a real love of dies and love to incorporate die cuts onto/into almost all my cards! My style of card making is clean and simple…and I love the use of bold colors and textures on cards. You can find me at I’m In Haven…in my haven when I’m creating:)!

I decided to use the Papertrey Ink’s Building Blocks die collection (2 sets of rectangles with 4 rectangle dies of each size), with thoughts of using the dies a bit differently, to make a couple thank you cards!

Thank You Card

On the first card, I die cut various rectangles from white cardstock.

Then I stamped the onto the rectangle die cuts with the coordinating Building Blocks stamp set…

I layered each of the rectangles with a couple extra layers of cardstock for depth, and I added a few enamel dots and a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp. I randomly placed the rectangles at different lengths on the card…

Thanks For Your Kindness Card

The second card, I die cut the rectangles with colored polka dotted patterned papers…

I layered each die cut with 2 layers of white cardstock underneath each polka dotted paper, cutting to fit the card, and added a sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s Thanks All Ways stamp set.

I decided to color in the outlined sentiment with a black marker and coated the “thanks” with Glossy Accents for some added texture and interest…

I had a lot of fun creating for Paper Crafter’s Library, thank you so much for the opportunity to share my work with all your readers!! Hope you have a great rest of your summer:)!

Supplies:
Papertrey Ink Building Blocks die and stamp collection, Papertrey Ink Thanks All Ways stamp set, Simon Says Stamp Friendship Messages, Papertrey Ink white paper, Sn@p Color Vibe 6 x 6 collection, Simon Says Stamp inks: Black, Burnt Orange, Audrey Blue, Apple Green, Khaki. Doodlebug Sprinkles in orange, green and blue. Glossy Accents.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s project courtesy of Lisa Addesa. Be sure to stop by Lisa’s blog to see even more of her beautiful work (and let her know we sent you).

Have a great day!

Karen

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 By The Sea collection prize package give-away. Details will be at the end of this post.

For those of you unfamiliar with Graphic 45, we’d like to take a minute to re-introduce them to you.

Graphic 45 is an award-winning scrapbook and paper crafting company— owned and operated by a mother and her two daughters.

Diane Schultz—Designer and CEO (aka mother)

“I’m passionate about being creative and eager to make it possible for others to find their creative voice. My background includes stints as a designer for, McCalls, Simplicity, Vogue/ Butterick, Mattel Toy Company and a host of other jobs that each, in some way, led me to what I do now. At 45 I went back to school and got my degree in graphic design— I named the company to celebrate that achievement.”

Aimee Filimoehala —Director of Operations

“I wear a lot of hats and love it that way. Business, marketing, operations, etc. have made me a pro at multitasking (aka juggling‑figuratively and literally). When we launched Graphic 45 in 2008 we had no idea what was in store, working together as a family has been an amazing journey that we all feel so grateful to be apart of.”

Charee Filimoehala —Director of Customer Service and Social Media Coordinator

“I joined the team in 2009 and haven’t looked back…what a life-changing experience this has been. I love working with and around creative people and products (not to mention I like my co-workers quite a bit). I spend my days working with our friendly stores and talented design team…the occasional trip somewhere warm is pretty nice too.”

Together we create vintage inspired crafting products that capture the flamboyant style of the 1920’s and 30’s – with vibrant color, irresistible texture and imaginative design to create products with decades-old appeal that’s both fresh and familiar. Let our products inspire your next scrapbook layout, card, album or home decor project.

Graphic 45 Designer Andrew Roberts

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

My name is Andrew Roberts, I live in Queensland Australia. I am married to my beautiful wife Jennifer and I have seven beautiful children. I have always enjoyed craft and artistic endeavours. Some of my pursuits have included wildlife water colour drawing and mohair teddy bear making, but I settled in the paper crafting world about 8 or 9 years ago and it has become my favourite artistic outlet. Papercrafting was something I had never really considered until I went to a local craft store and purchased a few resources. I released the scope that it was possible and a paper crafter was born. I love all aspects of this eclectic craft, constantly being surprised by the wonderful range of product to choose from. Graphic 45 is my all time favourite paper craft company and the product range is so varied. I was drawn to Graphic 45 because of three main things: the colour palette used in their wonderful paper, the vintage nature of the imagery and finally the detailed complexity you can achieve with their collections. Having said that, the creative inspiration that is available when you receive a new paper pad is wonderful. Graphic 45 product causes a flood of ideas to come to mind. I appreciate the wonderful themes that I can incorporate in my creations and there is always many inspiring images to embellish with. If had to choose the one collection I love from Graphic 45 that has given me the most joy and inspiration it would be “Little Darlings”. My two key design strengths are colour coordination and attention to detail. I love applying these strengths to every project. I try to come up with projects that will showcase the Graphic 45 products and be inspiring to others and encourage them to use the papers that I love so much.

Sweet Sentiments Bag Mini Album

The inspiration for this album was my love of making mini albums and I have recently started collecting nesting dies. They have so many applications and work wonderfully with weight of Graphic 45 papers. I love the Sweet Sentiment collection and found it very easy to incorporate the images into my mini album.

Paper Crafting Tip: Use nesting dies to create base pages for your mini albums and alternate shapes or use tags to create variation through out the album.

Supplies

Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments collection 12×12 papers: Heart Song, Spring has Sprung, Perfect Petals, Be my Valentine, Sweet Sentiments, Easter Sentiments
Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments 8×8 pad
Graphic 45 Regular Tag Album Ivory
Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments cardstock stickers
Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments Tags and Pockets
Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments Chipboard

Cream colored fabric
Seam binding
Assorted mulberry paper roses
Ribbon
Thin chipboard
Cream cardstock

We hope you have enjoyed this fun creation from Andrew. I would also like to extend a warm thank you to Andrew for sharing his fabulous project with us! Please take a minute to stop by Andrew’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.

Karen

Trend Watch – Ahoy, the Nautical Trend

There is something that happens in the summer that makes most of us want to flock to the water. Just the idea of being on a boat, or letting waves splash your feet or watching fish go by as you snorkel is so appealing. Maybe that is why I am seeing nautical themes everywhere. So until I get my boat, (hint, hint to my husband) I am going to feast off of these cool water themed nautical projects. I hope you are inspired and refreshed by them as well. Spoiler alert: there will be many bad puns in this post.

I love the versatility of the nautical theme. In this first card the realistic darkness of the wood and wear on the port hole make you think you are inside a ship looking out at another passing by. The detail in this card is just gorgeous.

card by Melissa Cochran photo courtesy of Crazy Paper Freak

There is also a cool, dark side of the nautical world. Colleen used cool chalkboard techniques to make this pirate ship look ever so ghoulish and scary. The skeleton eyes just seem to glow.

card by Colleen Dietrich photo courtesy of Dietrich Designs

But, when you decide you want to be sweet, the nautical theme works well too. How sweet is this little boat with the two colored sails. Betty’s use of scalloped edges for the water is clever and adds to the overall cuteness of this sweet card.

card by Betty Wright photo courtesy of The Things I do with Paper

This fun shaped boat card is also a super sweet way to say happy birthday. It is perfect for a young water lover in your life.

card by Katie Gehring photo courtesy of Stamping Lightly

I’m not even sure if it is possible to get any cuter than this little girl from My Favorite things in her little sailor suit. I just love the color and composition for this card. And check out how clever the water is constructed under the boats. A total cuteness winner.

card by Debby photo courtesy of A Scrap Journey

Kara cleverly found another way to use her jar stamp by creating this adorable ship in a bottle/jar. The sentiment with this card is just so sweet. Another great idea for water is a little cloud stamp. Just love this.

card by Kara photo courtesy of K and R Designs

The puns available on some of these nautical sets are plentiful and awesome. And since I just can’t resist a pun, I have a bunch to show you. The first one is a whale of a pun. Get it? Okay, bad pun but super cute card.

card by Kimberly Harris photo courtesy of Kimberly Harris Studio

I think you’ll sea why I think this next card is so awesome. I just love the coral colors and the under-the-sea calm feel of this card.

card by Keisha Campbell photo courtesy of A bit East-Coast

A naughty pun is a good one too. The simplicity of this card really gives this ship a punch!

card by Sherry Eckblad photo courtesy of Button Junkie Designs by Sherry Eckblad

I shore do love the combination of textures and elements in this card. Even the background paper stays on theme.

card by Lisa Henke photo courtesy of My Little Creative Escape

I hope you can preserve your tolerance for me as I show this next cute card. It is so fun when cards can tell a whole story and this one is such a sweet one.

card by Mary J photo courtesy of Where’s my Creativity

I thought I would float this one by you last so it could anchor the whole story. The stamping on cork and the bow are fabulous and completely undeserving of my awful puns.

card by Dawn McVey photo courtesy of Raspberry Suite

Okay, that is it for my terrible puns. But I hope they didn’t detract from the awesomeness of the cards and this fun, trendy theme. Below are a few of the fun supplies I have found to make your own nautical fun.

So go ahead… make something pretty.

by Aliya White

PCL Membership Highlights June 30 – July 11

Today we 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. So the sneak peek you see below is a snapshot of some of the video tutorials & pdf handouts our members received for the weeks of June 30, 2014 – July 11, 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 – totaling around 20 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 advanced paper crafter.

Highlights these two weeks:

Creating backgrounds using Gelatos
Creating an ombre background with stencils and distress inks
A tag
Some cards from our Creative Inspiration Collection this time using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.

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

Featured Artist/Designer: Ardyth Percy-Robb

Today we’re thrilled to welcome Ardyth Percy-Robb. Before we show you Ardyth’s project, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

I started stamping in 2006 after attending a Stampin’ Up party. After a few years of posting my cards at Splitcoaststampers, I started my blog MASKerade and am now designing for CASology, The Card Concept, CAS-ual Fridays, Festive Friday, Muse and One Layer Simplicity. I’m currently at home with my growing kids (15 and 11), but was previously an accountant and VP Communications for a life insurance company. In my spare time, I’m a piano accompanist for 2 children’s choirs, School Council Chair at my daughter’s school, Treasurer of our school’s nutrition program and Treasurer for our in-school child care.

Happy Birthday Card

I love to make cards with bold colours and simple shapes. As I was looking at the shape of the “y” in this Papertrey Ink sentiment, an hourglass came to my mind. I used a tiny Simon Says Stamp dot stamp to create the birthday sprinkles falling through the sentiment into a pile at the bottom of the card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Simon Says Stamp
Inks: Memento Grape Jelly, Papertrey Raspberry Fizz, Stampin’ Up Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Papertrey Raspberry Fizz
Other: Stardust Stickles

We hope you have enjoyed today’s project courtesy of Ardyth. Be sure to stop by Ardyth’s blog to see even more of her beautiful work (and let her know we sent you).

Have a great day!

Karen

Winner of the Avery Elle Give Away!

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Avery Elle’s guest designer Heather Campbell for sharing such a wonderful project and to Avery Elle for their generous give-away of the Bonjour stamp set.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…….the winner is……Mary-Anne V!

Congratulations Mary-Anne V! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Avery Elle 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!

Karen

Trend Watch – Doodling

Officially doodles are unconscious drawings that you make while your attention is otherwise occupied. The most common ‘doodling time’ is when you’re having a long telephone conversation. Most of the drawings are really simple but sometimes it can grow into a complete pattern. Little flowers, circles, squares, arrows, eyes and geometric shapes are very popular for doodle drawings.

Well, that was a bit of theory about doodling but… doodles are great to use in paper crafting! That’s why they’re here on this trend watch. Lately we’ve seen more craft companies that incorporate doodles in their products, so you don’t have to draw them yourself anymore. Let’s see what you can do with them!

I want to start with this lovely card from Craftybit Creations, it’s completely made out of doodle stamps with a matching sentiment. You can give the doodles every color you want and they will look great!

You are my favorite by Mika, image source Craftybit Creations

This card from Laurie uses a stencil with doodle circles. She used a round blending tool to create the background which gives it even more ‘doodle feelings’.

Hello card from Laurie, image source Soapboxcreations

You can also combine doodles with smooth images as you can see in the combination from the doodle tree in the background and the smooth bike on this card from Rachel.

Find joy everyday by Rachel Kleinman, image source Unity Stamp Blog

The doodle stamps are perfect for CAS / one layer cards like this card from Debbie. Circles are very popular for doodling and you could use them for every kind of card. If you would give them masculine colors you’d have a great male card!

Happy Birthday from Debbie Olson, image source Thinking Inking

You can get as creative as you want, like Michelle who created these awesome artsy doodle tags.

Artsy Doodles by Michelle, image source Pinch your Chic

Last but not least I want to show you a doodle design that’s a bit more intricate. Most cards I’ve showed use pretty simple doodling images but the next one has a doodle flower design. Flowers are great to doodle and they look so wonderful! You could give them any color you want but I love this peaceful look from Lisa.

You are simply wonderful by Lisa Arana, image source Dahlhouse Designs

After all those pretty examples I would like to share a couple of products you could use for this trend:

Bubbles & Bars Stencil, Simon Says Stamp, image source Simon Says Stamp

They even have doodle dies! Like this one from Papertrey Ink which has a matching stampset.

Papertrey Ink – circle scribbles die collection, image source Papertrey Ink

These whimsical clouds are cute for doodles!

Paper Smooches Cut loose stamp, image source Paper Smooches

If you’re looking for some cute animals, this is a great stamp set.

Could I be any cuter, Unity Stamp co., image source Unity Stamp Company

Tip: The Paper Artsy Jofy series has a lot of pretty doodle stamps!

Paper Artsy Jofy collection 09, image source Paper Artsy

I hope you’ve got some inspiration to get creative! — Lucinde

Featured Artist/Designer: Amber Hight

Today we’re thrilled to welcome Amber Hight to our blog. Let’s get to know her a little more…

My name is Amber Hight and I have been papercrafting since 2005. It started with scrapbooking and then a few years later I found stamping and was immediately hooked! I think what I love most about stamping is the smaller canvas and the ability to complete a couple cards in a seating instead of one layout a week like I was doing before, ha! I have had the privilege to design for a few of my favorite stamp companies over the years and every year fall more and more in love with all things paper! Quite recently I started art journaling and mixed media, so some of that is starting to bleed over into my stamping as you can see with my two samples today.

I currently live in Phoenix Arizona but in about a month will be moving to the Seattle area of Washington! I am so excited about this change, and can’t wait to see what stampy fun I can get into in Washington:) I am very humbled and honored to have been asked to be featured on the Paper Crafter’s Library and thank you all for stopping by to visit!

Amazing Birthday

Supplies:
Cardstock/Vellum: Papertrey Ink; watercolor paper (Tim Holtz for Ranger)
Ink: White embossing powder (Ranger), Tuxedo Black (Memento), Dylusions Spray Mists (Ranger)
Stamps: Poppy Birthday, Die Sidekicks (Verve Stamps)
Accessories: Sprightly Sprigs/Vintage Oval dies (Verve Stamps), black pearls/twine (Recollections) button (Papertrey Ink)

Rockstar Birthday

Supplies:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink; watercolor paper (Tim Holtz for Ranger)
Ink: black embossing powder (Ranger), Kiwi Kiss (Stampin’ Up!), Tuxedo Black (Memento), Dylusions Spray Mists (Ranger)
Stamps: Inner Rockstar, Arrows ‘n Elements (Reverse Confetti)
Accessories: Twine (May Arts), enamel dots (Recollections)

We hope you have enjoyed today’s projects courtesy of Amber Hight. Be sure to stop by Amber’s blog to see even more of her beautiful work (and let her know we sent you).

Have a great day!

Karen

Featured Company: Avery Elle

This week we are thrilled to welcome Avery Elle! In today’s spotlight you’ll learn more about Avery Elle, see a fantastic project by Heather Campbell and have the opportunity to win the Bonjour stamp set (details at the end of this post).

About Avery Elle

Avery Elle is a small corporation located in Southern California. We launched our first set of clear photopolymer stamps in June 2012. We offer fun and fresh clear stamps, custom steel dies, and premium pigment ink pads. All of our stamps and dies are proudly made right here in the USA. We have plans for some exciting new product lines in the future so stay tuned!

Avery Elle’s Designer

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

My name is Heather Campbell. I have been blessed in my life with a loving husband who I’ve been married to for just over 6 years now and two children, Parker & Molly. I’m also a full-time Manufacturing Engineer for one the world’s top aerospace manufacturing companies. I absolutely love my job but needed a creative outlet and something for myself, aside from the cooking, cleaning, bathing children, etc… Somewhere along the line, I stumbled into stamping. It’s been the perfect compliment to my life and I have absolutely loved the friendships gained.

Designer Project

We have a new french bakery at the bottom of the hill we live on. My husband and I go whenever we have an opportunity in the morning to take the beautiful walk down the hill. On our last trip there, I saw they have the prettiest macarons and I knew I wanted to create this project, which will make the greatest coworker gift next week! (I will have to buy new macarons however because they were devoured as soon as the pictures were uploaded!)

I stamped the macarons from the Bonjour clear stamp set in various Avery Elle ink colors and then colored them in with my coloring pencils and gamsol. Then, I stamped a sentiment (from Cupcakes clear stamp set) and finished the panel on each one with the new Avery Elle Dotted Elle-ments die. I love how this gives the perfect finishing touch! Since I couldn’t stop, I ended up coming up with a sweet card set – a great gift! Then, I stamped a tag and die cut it out and added some macaroons, this time using the coordinating dies. Perfect gift tag for a yummy macaron treat bag!

Here’s a close up of some of the cards I created.

Avery Elle Pigment Inks: Aquamarine, Sea Glass, Pixie, Sugar Plum, Orchid, Raspberry, Fizz, Mimosa, Lemon Grass, Fog.
Stamps: Gift Tags, Bonjour, Cupcakes
Dies: Dotted, Bonjour, Gift Tags

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Heather Campbell for her fabulous project and Avery Elle for sharing their company with us. Be sure to visit Avery Elle to see more of their products and their blog for some inspiration!

In order to enter the give-away to win the Bonjour stamp set, shown above, please leave us a comment in the comments section of this post. One winner will be announced next Wednesday on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog!

Karen

Winner of Maya Road Give Away!

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Maya Road’s designer Caroline Lau for sharing such a wonderful project and to Maya Road for their generous give-away of a kit to create the Amazing Things 6″ Mini Album (shown below). This kit has over $40 of product included.

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

Congratulations Vicki! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Maya Road 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.

Karen