Paper Crafter's Library – Page 36 – A world of creativity at your fingertips

Featured Artist/Designer: Charmaine Ikach

Today on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog, we’re continuing our weekly featured artist spotlight whereby each week we spotlight a different artist/designer in the paper crafting & mixed media world and introduce you to their fabulous work. Today we’re thrilled to welcome Charmaine Ikach.

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

Charmaine lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband and four children…Savannah, 10, Arwen, 7, Isaac, 6, and Isabelle, 4. She spent her life as a musical theater performer, which is how she met her husband of 12 years. They met while performing in a show together, though she hasn’t done much performing since having children. She does keep active in the field through choreographing, teaching dance and singing locally from time to time. Stamping has filled that creative void. Charmaine currently designs for Taylored Expressions and Verve Stamps and absolutely LOVES it. She loves being able to share her work on her blog Oodabug Alley and is thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to share her work with you here at The Paper Crafter’s Library.

Love Comforts Like Sunshine Card

I have been loving the “inlaid” die cut look lately, so my card uses that technique. I created the card using a sentiment from Verve Stamps along with some dies from Papertrey Ink.

Once I decided on my layout, I started by die cutting the sun first since it would be the furthest back in the scene. I die cut the sun again out of yellow cardstock and nestled it into the sun die cut from the blue cardstock. Next, I worked on the clouds by placing the largest cloud die over a bit of the sun and die cutting it from the blue cardstock, then again from white cardstock and nestling the white cloud into the blue die cut space. I die cut the two small clouds the same way. I stamped the sentiment and then matted the blue cardstock onto yellow cardstock and finally attached the whole panel to the card base with foam tape.

Supplies:

Stamps: Stronger Love (Verve Stamps)
Ink: Onyx Black VersaFine ink (Tsukineko)
Paper: Aqua Mist, Harvest Gold (Papertrey Ink); Choice Snow White (Taylored Expressions)
Dies: Heart to Heart #6 (Papertrey Ink)

Thanks for stopping by today and thank you, Paper Crafter’s Library for inviting me to be here today!!

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

Featured Company: Reverse Confetti

This week we are thrilled to welcome Reverse Confetti! In today’s spotlight you’ll learn more about Reverse Confetti, see a fantastic project by Jen del Muro and have the opportunity to win the Petals ‘n Posies stamp set and Petals ‘n Posies Confetti Cuts (details at the end of this post).

About Reverse Confetti

Reverse Confetti opened its virtual doors in May of 2013. That’s right, we just celebrated our first birthday! Our product lines include original hand drawn and graphic style stamps and Confetti Cuts dies that are fun and versatile. Whatever your paper crafting style is, Reverse Confetti has something for you!

Reverse Confetti’s Owner/Designer

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

Hi, it’s me, Jen del Muro. Before REVERSE CONFETTI’s inception, I worked as a design team member for many boutique stamping companies, taught variety of paper crafting classes, and published many of my creations in several trade magazines. All of these experiences led me to something I swore I would never do…start my own company. Today you’ll find me in the Reverse Confetti office (currently a “spare” room in our home) doing everything from creating projects to packing orders, answering customer emails and designing Reverse Confetti stamps and Confetti Cuts. It’s been quite an adventure so far and I look forward to what the future holds for Reverse Confetti and all the ‘Fetti Fans out there!

Clean and Simple Thank You Card

I find myself in need of thank you cards a lot. Whether it’s a neighbor that went out of their way to help or just a note to the teacher thanking them for their hard work, there is always a reason to let someone know that you appreciate them.

Supplies:

Stamps: Petals ‘n Posies
Confetti Cuts: Petals ‘n Posies
Cardstock: White (Neenah), Black, Kraft
Ink: Teal (Heidi Swapp), Graphite Black (Brilliance), Pumpkin Pie (SU!)
Other: Corner Rounder Punch, Dimensional Adhesive

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Jen del Muro for her fabulous project and for sharing Reverse Confetti with us. Be sure to visit Reverse Confetti 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. One winner will be announced next Wednesday on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog!

Winner of the Fancy Pants Designs Give Away!

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Fancy Pants Designs owner Jodi Sanford for sharing such a wonderful project and for their generous give-away of a variety of items from the Burlap and Bouquets collection (Brag Cards shown below).

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

Congratulations marylouh! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Fancy Pants Designs 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.

andreasiggypcl

Trendy Tuesday – See What’s Coming Out of the Shadows

My obsession with die cuts is still going strong. There are so many intricate designs you can feature in your paper crafting projects without cutting them by hand. Plus, there is always that handwriting thing I have. I have seen this cool new way to use the die cuts that I just had to share with all of you. Crafters are layering the die cuts, to create a shadowed or a dimensional look for words and designs. I found the following fabulous projects for you to be inspired by.

I thought it only appropriate to start this post by saying hello with this lovely Hello card in its pretty shades of blue and white. This is such a beautiful card for such a simple sentiment.

card by Holly Walker photo courtesy of Holly Walker Inspirations

And still another way to greet those you love with a friendly yellow hello. I love the way Amy used the same color card stock to create a cascade of shadow hellos for her card. The yellow hello was cut out several times and layered together carefully to make it pop. I have to figure out what glue she is using to stay so neat!

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

Shadowing also lends itself well to shabby chic projects too. How lovely is this card? Melisa choose to layer the off white underneath her die cut sentiment to the bottom right to create a softer dimension for her card.

card by Melisa Phillips photo courtesy of Lily Bean Paperie

I just loved the look of this glittered touch from Alice. Shine on, lady!

card by Alice photo courtesy of Alice’s Little Wonderland

Another great way to lift your card is in this cool technique Wanda used. She stamped her card stock and cut her sentiment out with the die then layered several cuts from the same die underneath it. How awesome is this shadowed stamped look?

card by Wanda photo courtesy of A Blog Called Wanda

I just adore the angle this card took. The cool stenciled texture and the little bit of the white shadow sticking out from the back of the white is just phenomenal.

card by Jackie Pedro photo courtesy of The Scalloped Edge

The shadows created by Erin are totally next level. She stamped the sentiment she die cut in two different colors to give her shadow an ombre effect. So cool.

card by Erin Taylor photo courtesy of Erin Taylor Designs

Another clever technique Taheerah used is to keep the white on white look by die cutting each layer several times but to edge each letter with neon ink. The letters just glow. Such a cool effect.

card by Taheerah Atchia photo courtesy of Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart

Text block dies look so cool layered as well. Don’t forget them. Lizzie used two colors and created this ever so cool shadowed look for a card to appeal to younger folks. She used a Xyron machine to keep her edges clean from the mess of glue.

card by Lizzie Jones photo courtesy of Don’t Forget to Write

I think this next crafty lady actually created the first shadowing technique. The talented Betsy layered her sentiment over the negative space of another die cut for a different take on the shadow. She gives us a new way to think about the negatives of our die cuts as well. Endless possibilities.

card by Betsy Veldman photo courtesy of Paper Scissors Superheroes

The color pallet options are also endless. The unexpected neon pink and ice blue combination is just fabulous in this card.

card by Ashley Harris photo courtesy of Technique Tuesday

The die on die action on this card is a great way to finish this roundup of awesome cards. Barb created shadows with her rounded edge as well as her die cut. What a great way to end…a big smile.

card by Barb photo courtesy of Enjoying Life

I found several dies that are on my wish list that you might want to check out.

So go ahead… make something pretty.

Aliya

Please Welcome New Paper Crafter’s Library Designer/Educator Kari Webster

A few months back we decided to add to the Paper Crafter’s Library team. We sent out a number of invitations and selected several ladies to join our team as Designer/Educators. They have been hard at work, creating some paper crafting projects to share with our Paper Crafter’s Library members.

It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to Kari Webster.

Learn More About Kari Webster

Hello! My name is Kari, and I live in South Central Missouri. I am originally from Central Arkansas where I was born and raised. I am happily married to my best friend, and we have two cats that we absolutely love. By day, I work at my local hospital where for 6 years I worked in medical records as the Release of Information/Legal Correspondent or in simpler terms, I release medical records to various entities such as attorney’s, insurance companies, Disability claims, and of course patients. My passion though is card making primarily, but I do enjoy making other paper craft projects. My start and love for crafting started in August of 2009 where I was invited to a Stampin’ Up workshop, and fell in love! It quickly grew from there, and soon I was taking over my husband’s computer room, where I turned it into my craft room and then soon after I created my blog to document my journey. I love card making because it is instant creative gratification, and I get to share that with family and friends.

If you are interested in seeing more of Kari’s work, we encourage you to check out and bookmark her blog.

Please help us to warmly welcome Kari!

Featured Artist/Designer: Michelle Lupton

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

Hi, my name is Michelle Lupton. I’ve been crafty for many years (including painting, bead jewellery making, calligraphy, toy making and sewing), but only really got serious about stamps, inks and papers for cards about 4 years ago. I started my blog, www.handmade-by-michelle.blogspot.com in 2011. I post many of my cards on Pinterest, and I also have albums on my Facebook Page, Handmade by Michelle. I am very lucky to be on three challenge blog design teams – A Blog Named Hero, FUSION and Addicted to CAS. I live in Melbourne, Australia and I work as a university Biology tutor and a Science Education Officer, and I also sing in numerous choirs.

I’m so very happy and honoured to be here with you at Paper Crafter’s Library today. I have 3 cards to share with you today, all using the same technique with watercolour paper and Distress Inks, some Hero Arts image stamps and sentiments from Avery Elle. This is not a new technique, but it is one of my favourites.

For You Card

This is the first card I made.

With Sympathy Card

For this card, I took some pics as I went so you could see what I did to make the coloured panel.

I wanted some solid images as well as outlines, but I didn’t have a matching stamp (like I did for the first card), so I just turned the clear stamp over and mounted it on my acrylic block upside down! Ready made solid image!

I flicked some Perfect Pearls Mist onto the finished panel to give it some shimmer.

Thank You Card

Just because I felt like it, I made a 3rd card!

Thanks so much for having me as your guest at Paper Crafter’s Library!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Paper Basics in white.
Stamps: Hero Arts “Small Solid Flower”, “Small Open Flower”, “Antique Engravings”,”Flower Flourish”; Avery Elle “Oh Happy Day”.
Inks: Hero Arts Hero Hues in Black, Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Wet Cement; Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Worn Lipstick; Perfect Pearls mists in Perfect Pearl.
Other: Stampin’ Up Stampin Dimensionals; Balune Glue Tape; Ranger Inkssentials mister bottle with water; The Stampers Heat Tool; Ranger Inkssentials Non-Stick Craft Sheet; Fiskars Surecut paper trimmer.

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

Featured Company: Fancy Pants Designs

This week we welcome back Fancy Pants Designs! In today’s spotlight you’ll learn more about Fancy Pants Designs, see a fantastic project by Jodi Sanford, the owner, and have the opportunity to win a variety of products from the Burlap and Bouquets collection.

About Fancy Pants Designs

Fancy Pants Designs was founded almost 10 years ago by Jared and Jodi Sanford. With Jodi’s love of scrapbooking and the support of many creative people, Fancy Pants Designs quickly grew into a must-have product line in the paper crafting industry and continues to produce fabulous designs and unique embellishments today. Jared directs the day to day business and warehouse management of the office, while Jodi directs all art and product development and marketing. She also teaches her love of scrapbooking and crafting to many dedicated scrapbookers and is honored to have been given this opportunity. They know that their business is a success because of devoted fans who use their products and hope to continue developing even more products that meet the needs of all crafters!

Fancy Pants Designer

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

Jodi Sanford is the founder and owner of Fancy Pants Designs, Inc. She is a wife to a wonderful husband and the mother of four busy kids and considers being a Mom the greatest job she has—with designing and teaching being a close second!

Jodi has enjoyed stationary, stickers and crafting since she was very young, and began to focus more specifically on her scrapbooking and paper crafting hobby over 20 years ago. She is regularly published in national magazines and online, has developed magazine articles and concepts and taught classes worldwide!

Along with her husband, Jared, she started Fancy Pants Designs, in 2004, as a way to offer new and innovative products to this creative market and their company has been blessed with wonderful fans ever since!

Jodi enjoys spending time with her family hanging out in the backyard, watching her kids play sports, running, and hitting a movie now and then—not to mention traveling and teaching her love of scrapbooking throughout the world!

Burlap and Bouquets Collection

Hello, friends! I’m happy to be back visiting the Paper Crafter’s Library blog today! We just released 3 NEW lines and I’m sharing one with you today! It’s a new line called Burlap and Bouquets! It’s a gorgeous line with pretty colors, texture and paper—you can see our blog post about the complete collection HERE!

Today, I created a new layout using our Brag Cards from this collection! Normally, we use the Brag Cards in our fabulous Brag Books or Mini Brag Books, but we have just loved experimenting more and more with them for mini albums, cards and layouts—they are so fun to use!!

And, we’re giving away a pack of these fabulous Brag Cards, along with embellishments and paper from this line that you see on the layout!! Yay for awesome prizes!

So, here’s the layout I made…of course, the main product used on this layout are the Brag Cards, but you’ll see the buttons, flair, sequins and stickers in there, too! The Brag Cards come with a good mix of patterned designs, journaling spots AND awesome titles and quotes so they can easily create your page in just a few steps…then, add some embellishments on top to finish it off…easy, cute and complete in minutes!

Here are some close up shots of the product! (The sequins are coming soon!)

So, not only will the fabulous Brag Cards (below) be part of our prize package, we’ll also be including the items you see on the layout so you can create your very own (flair, buttons, sequins, stickers and more)!

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Jodi Sanford for her fabulous project and Fancy Pants Designs for sharing their company with us. Be sure to visit Fancy Pants Designs to see more of their great products and their blog for daily inspiration. You can also find Fancy Pants Designs on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram (@fancypantsdesigns).

In order to enter the give-away to win a variety of products in the Burlap and Bouquets collection, please leave us a comment in the comments section of this post. Winner will be announced next Wednesday on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog!

Winner of the Paper Smooches Give Away!

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Paper Smooches owner Kim Hughes for sharing such a wonderful project and to Paper Smooches for their generous give-away of their collection shown below.

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

Congratulations Nadine! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Paper Smooches 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!

andreasiggypcl

Trend Watch – All Tied Up with Fibers

By Aliya White

I have a well stocked craft room. My husband may even argue, it’s a bit overstocked. I sometimes like buying new craft goodies more than I actually craft. It could be that I don’t have as much time as I’d like to craft, but sometimes I think I just need to be inspired. I am very attracted to the fun colors and options of bakers twine but outside of tying bows or wrapping it around cards, I don’t do much with it. It just takes a few creative people to show me new ways to use things I have and to create a new addiction. Like with twine!

I just love the way Kallan used the twine as the focus of the card. It takes center stage in the “lollipop” formation she created. The rough texture makes it gender neutral which is always a plus when you are making masculine cards.

Card by Kallan Quinn photo courtesy of Inspired by Hue

This next cards shows off the bold colors you can get with embroidery floss. Perfect for the rainbow inspired card Kasia created.

Card by Kasia Curry photo courtesy of Nature of Crafty Things

Another fun trend I have noticed is this idea of “nesting” the fibers in a loose circle to create, well, a little nest behind a feature of your paper creation. I just love the casual look it brings to cards. Betty used some yarn she had in her stash to make her nest. Behind the butterfly, it looks like an extension of the wings of the butterfly.

Card by Betty Keefe photo courtesy of Created by BJK

For a little colorful whimsy, you can use baker’s twine to create the strings for balloons you create. How cute is this?

Card by Shellye McDaniel photo courtesy of Papered Cottage

I am not sure I am coordinated enough to attempt the next layout but I just loved how Karola really used the twine to focus your eyes on her project. Just lovely.

Layout by Karola Witczak photo courtesy of The Twinery

Another fun way to use strings and twine is to use it to stitch letter and words and symbols. Corrie did all of the above with this next love card. It turned out awesome.

Card by Corrie Jones photo courtesy of American Crafts

Danielle used a die to guide her as she stitched her words in this adorable card. I just love the way this turned out.

Card by Danielle Flanders photo courtesy of Homespun from the Heart

The pun on this next card is just classic. I love how Yaniea used a needle to punch holes in the card and strung through the rainbow colors of twine to really emphasize the pun. Well played.

Card by Yainea photo courtesy of My Paper Journey

Stringing the corset with pink and white baker’s twine is just perfect for this next card. Eyelets on each of the holes is another awesome touch for this fun shaped card.

Card by Stacy Cohen photo courtesy of Queen and Co

JJ really hit a home run with this next card. She used a couple of techniques to really top herself with this fun dedication to twine.

Card by JJ Bolton photo courtesy of Ribbon Girls

You can also use baker’s twine to “color in” a background from a die cut in this lift and layer technique Lindsay used. It’s super cool how she layered another die cut over the negative image of her butterfly.

Card by Lindsay Amrhei photo courtesy of Note to Self: Where all crafty thoughts go

So hopefully, I have showed you a few new techniques to try and some new materials for you to use in your paper projects. So do some more raiding of your stash or craft stores and start experimenting with something that inspires you.

Go ahead,… make something pretty.

Call for Paper Crafter’s Library Trend Reporters

As you have seen each week, one of our primary goals for the Paper Crafter’s Library Blog is to keep our readers up to date on the latest information in the paper crafting industry through our Trendy Tuesday weekly articles. In order to keep this feature on a weekly basis, we are looking to fill a Trend Reporter position. If you think you’d be interested in being a Paper Crafter’s Library Trend Reporter then read below on how you can apply!

Trend Reporter

What we are looking for:
Paper crafters of all types and calibers. You don’t need to be on any design teams and you don’t need to create samples. We’re looking for someone who loves working with a variety of different products from a variety of different manufacturers. You should be comfortable on the computer and on the internet – if you already spend time browsing the internet and checking out blogs and company websites for ideas and inspiration, then this would be perfect for you! You should be comfortable with blogging – a familiarity with WordPress is helpful but not essential. Good English writing skills are a must as you will be creating your own content for the trends articles you’ll be sharing with our readers.

What will a Trend Reporter do?
Write one to two articles a month spotlighting a current trend in the paper crafting industry – this could be a color, a pattern (i.e. chevrons) or a product (baker’s twine, doilies, banners, etc). Each trend article should include a brief description of the trend, photos of that trend incorporated into a variety of different projects (you don’t have to create the projects – you’d find pictures on Pinterest, Flickr and Google Images) and then 4-6 different products each from different manufacturers that incorporate that trend. CLICK HERE to see a sample of what type of article we are looking for.

How to apply:
Research and create a trend article focusing on ONE trend. The article should be as outlined above. Send your article to customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com as an attachment to an email (please do not embed the article or photos in the email itself). You can send your attachment as an Word document or as a pdf. In the email please include your full name, email address, phone number, location, links to your blog and other online platforms. Please also let us know any other online commitments you already have.

We will evaluate all the submitted articles – if your article is chosen to be published on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog, it will be published under your name with links to your website. We’ll also give your article a shout out on our Facebook Page. As we have a huge readership this will give you lots of traffic and exposure!

We are looking for 1-2 additional permanent Trend Reporters, each willing to write 1-2 trend articles a month.