Paper Crafter's Library – Page 38 – A world of creativity at your fingertips

Winner of Graphic 45 Give-Away

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

Graphic45AprilPrizePack

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

Congratulations Marlene! 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.

andreasiggypcl

Trendy Tuesday – Sequins Love

By Aliya White

Like a little mouse, I am totally drawn in and attracted to shiny objects. It makes sense that I would do the story on how awesome it is that sequins are back in our crafty fold. I think I still have some packets from grade school. This week, I am going to show you how great they can be on your projects in large numbers or as a specially placed few to shine things up. I might even have you digging through old boxes looking for sequins you may have held on to for just that special project.

Sara highlights the bright color and fun of her lovely banner card with different sized sequins to add fun pops of color in a just a few places on her card.

Card by Sara Zenger photo courtesy of Enjoy the Little Things

I just love Jo’s card. The stenciled sun rays are just fun and the sequins open the card up to the edges of the card by adding another element of sparkle. It definitely makes me happy.

Card by Jo Nevill photo courtesy of Rambling Boots

Lisa’s layout is such a fun way to incorporate texture in this page that has such great flow. She used coordinating colors on each of her waves to make each wave special. This would be a good way to go if you have a mismatched set of sequins.

Layout byLisa photo courtesy of My Life in Pictures

This card combines some of my most favorite things: the vellum and the sparklies on this card are just phenom! By carefully placing her sequins, she can take advantage of the sparkle and highlight her sentiment without losing the loveliness of the vellum layers.

Card by Sarah Gough photo courtesy of Thinking Stamps

Sequins also look great when they are filling in a stamped image. How fitting is it that the brightness of the light bulb is filled with awesome turquoise sequins? Clever.

Card by Lucy Abrams photo courtesy of Lucy’s Cards

Elise totally rocked this rainbow with her colorful sequined interpretation.

Card by Elise C. photo courtesy of Whimsipost

I don’t know about you but I had thought that the holes in the middle of the sequins were only there to show off my over use of glue. It is so clever that Kelly used them as part of her design and strung them through the middle to create movement plus a shimmery look on her card.

Card by Kelly Griglione photo courtesy of Notable Nest

I just adore this look of sequins layered under a die cut image. Nikki used glossy accents and a steady hand and lots of patience to glue all those sequins down so beautifully.

Card by Nikki Foraker photo courtesy of Scrappin Navy Wife

This next sequined awesomeness really pulls you in. Catherine created an eye catching swirl with four colors that is so captivating. I just love it.

Layout by Catherine Davis photo courtesy of Big Picture Classes

Aga didn’t wait to find the perfect sequins to create her project… she made her own with a metal die! This is just fun and the possibilities are plentiful.

Card by Agnieszka Malyszek photo courtesy of Just Made From Paper

I can’t get over how adorable this get well shaker cloud filled with the different types of sequins is. He has such a cute little face. He will be a great inspiration to get well.

Card by Pamela Ho photo courtesy of Miao – a design blog

Sarah used a nice mix of colored sequins to fill up her sequined interpretation of this card. Some sequins have a nice matte finish so they can coordinate with your designs with a softer color pallet.

Card by Sarah Boirin photo courtesy of Studio Calico

The jaw dropping colors on this card are blown out of the water with the shiny addition of the shaker butterfly in the middle. I love how Mayuri spills them out a bit outside of the butterfly for that little something extra.

card by Mayuri photo courtesy of Candles in the Garden

Sequins are a fun inexpensive way to add shiny new sparkle to your paper crafting designs. So whether you use a few of them or go crazy with a whole pack you are sure to brighten someone’s day.

So go ahead…make something pretty.

Mixed Media Monday: “Take Time to Breathe” Video Tutorial

Happy Monday everyone! Welcome to another edition of Art Journal Express brought to you by Andrea from her personal blog The Art of Simple.

Art Journal Express is a video tutorial series she created for her personal blog The Art of Simple. In each video, you will see how she created one of her art journal pages from start to finish. Because a typical art journal page takes between 20 minutes to an hour for her to create – which makes for a super long video to upload to You Tube, and for you to watch – the video clips are sped up, rather than having you watch what she’s doing in real time – hence the word “express” in Art Journal Express. However, what makes these video tutorials different from most of the “sped up” art journaling video tutorials out there is that Andrea narrated for you exactly what she’s doing and what she’s using – that way, even though you’re watching a “fast forward” version, you don’t miss a single detail.

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).

Today’s page is called “Take Time to Breathe” – shown below. You can watch a video tutorial HERE.

Please Welcome New Paper Crafter’s Library Designer/Educator Leigh Penner

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 another Designer/Educator…..Leigh Penner.

Learn More About Leigh

My name is Leigh Penner and I live in Morden, Manitoba, Canada with my husband of 17 years and our three children. I work as a substitute teacher, which I enjoy, because it allows me to work the same hours/days as my children as well as gives me days off to craft! I have been scrapbooking for over ten years now and started cardmaking and stamping about three years ago, when I purchased my first die cutting machine and some clear stamps online. I love both forms of paper crafting evenly and would have a hard time choosing between the two! I would describe my style as CAS & pretty, with stitching 99% of the time. I am currently on the following design teams: Reverse Confetti, Pretty Pink Posh, Chickaniddy Crafts & CAS(E) This Sketch.

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

Please help us to warmly welcome Leigh!

Featured Artist/Designer: Diana Fisher

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 Diana Fisher.

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

Hello! My name is Diana Fisher and I’m an enthusiastic scrapbooker, card maker and crafter. I currently design for Bella Blvd, Fancy Pants, Samantha Walker, and the Avery Elle Challenge Team. I am also one of the Blog Coordinators for Scrapbook Circle kit club.

I have been online scrapbooking since 2009, but I have always loved to be creative. I love stamps and ink just as much as I love to make a layout — I just can’t pick a favorite! My go-to favorites are faux-stitching with white ink, sequins and ink splatters.

I live in New York with my husband, son and german shepherd. By day I am the marketing & brand director for NextStepU, an education company helping students and adults with college and career choices. At night, you are sure to find me in my craft room or online chatting somewhere.

When I make cards, I don’t always know where I am going to end up. Often I let the scene play out as I move pieces around on the page. I think some of the best cards are made when I’m just testing out inks or materials I haven’t used before. Here are some things I find useful for most of my cards:
1. Only have one main focal point and make any other elements secondary.
2. Add soft inked edges to white elements — like the blue around the clouds on the card below.
3. Stamp onto patterned papers for a fun look. You don’t always have to color in your stamped elements. Let the papers do some of the tough work for you.
4. Pop pieces up with foam adhesive for depth and to add an element of interest.
5. Add sequins, buttons, a hint of glitter or enamel dots when you can for a fun sparkle to your cards.

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts (Smooth Cardstock White) Pattern paper: Lawn Fawn (Hello Sunshine: Dawn, Stella) Tools: Fiskars (Medium Cloud Punch) Sequins: Lawn Fawn (Hello Sunshine Mixed Sequins) Stamps: Lawn Fawn (Float My Boat) Ink: Versafine (Onyx) Adhesive: American Crafts (This to That Foam Adhesive), Tombow (Dots Runner)

Supplies:

Cardstock: American Crafts (Smooth Cardstock White) Pattern paper: Lawn Fawn (Hello Sunshine: Stella, Sonny, Dawn) Tools: We R Memory Keeps (3×4 Card Punch) Sequins: Lawn Fawn (Hello Sunshine Mixed Sequins) Stamps: Lawn Fawn (#awesome, penelope’s blossoms) Ink: Versafine (Onyx) Pen: Sakura Gelly Roll (White) Pencils: Pastel Chalk Pencils (Neutral Colors) Adhesive: American Crafts (This to That Foam Adhesive), Tombow (Dots Runner)

All my best!

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

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 Sweet Sentiments 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 just three years ago 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 Design Team Coordinator

“I joined the team a little over three years ago 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 to a workshop or tradeshow 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 Arlene Cuevas

Our Graphic 45 Guest Designer for this week is Arlene Cuevas who is part of the 2013 Graphic 45 Design Team. You can see Arlene’s fabulous project below, but first, here is a little more about Arlene:

My name is Arlene Cuevas and I live in the sunny state of California. I’ve been married for 14 years and have 3 amazing little boys ages 6, 10 and 12. During the day, I’m a Business Operations Manager for an internet company. But at night, I’m known as “MyButterflykisses” on various crafting social networks.

I’ve always had a passion for creating since I can remember. When I was young, one could always find me on the dining room table working on a new project!

I began dabbling in card-making and scrapbook layouts in 1994. Then I discovered the scrapbooking community on YouTube in 2008 and grew quite fond of creating mini albums and altered art. I also enjoy stamping, Copic coloring, art journaling, and mixed media. I am an active member of the YouTube community where I share tutorials and “how to’s” on my YouTube channel “mybutterflykisses12“. I also share projects and tutorials on my blog: butterflykisseswithlove.blogspot.com and you can often find me on Facebook (Arlene Butterflykisses) and Instagram.

Altered Book Box & Mini Tag Album

The Graphic 45 Staples Book boxes are so much fun to work with! For this project, I took the small Staples Book Box, painted it with vintage white acrylic paint and layered on some Graphic 45 Botanical Tea papers. I embellished the box using the coordinating Chipboard, fussy cut elements from the paper collection and Shabby Chic metal staples. Inside the box is a mini tag album adorned with more Botanical Tea papers and elements. I used a stepped binding system to create the pages using the Staples Artist Trading Tags.

Supplies

Botanical Tea paper collection
Botanical Tea Chipboard
Botantical Tea Banners
Botantical Tea Tags & Pockets
Botantical Tea Stickers
Coordinations Graphic 45 Signature Series card stock
Staples: Small Book Box, Shabby Chic Door Pull, Shabby Chic Ornate Metal Key
Ranger Distress Ink – Vintage Photo
Vintage White Acrylic Paint
I Am Roses rose buds
Prima flowers
White Doily
Recollections White Pearls
Lace
Scor Tape
Hot Glue
E6000
Scrapbook Adhesive 3D Foam Squares
Xyron Mega Runner

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

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Hero Arts’s guest designer Kelly Rasmussen for sharing such a wonderful project and to Hero Arts for their generous give-away of their collection shown below.

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

Congratulations Gilda! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Hero Arts 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 – Subway Art

Trendy Tuesday – Subway Art

by Katherine Elliot

For many a paper craft project, sometimes it is all about the sentiment. Want to focus all the attention on the sentiment on your card? Then display your carefully chosen words with a trendsetting “subway art” style. The subway art trend is frequently shown as a block of words with small touches of decorations or flourishes. It may also be viewed as a “word collage” of related words and phrases in fun or artfully selected fonts. Several companies have stamps predesigned with fun, subway art styles ready to use on your spring projects. Check these out…

Card by Carole Burrage featuring Graphic Greetings stamps, image source Taylored Expressions

Graphic Greetings Get Well stamp set from Taylored ExpressionsLove Subway Art Rubber Stamp from Stampabilities, image source Hobby Lobby.com

Card by Taheerah Atchia, featuring Hero Arts Life in Your Years stamp, image source Fill Your Paper with the Breathings of Your Heart

Card by Jody Green, featuring Patriotic Subway Art stamp from Stampabilities, image source Adventures in Paper Crafting

Some of the trendiest projects combine a chalkboard technique with a subway art stamp. The black and white style can be suited to many different occasions and holidays.

Card by Saundra Rega, featuring Scrappy Mom’s Subway Art stamps, image source Luv Scrapping Together

Subway Art Sweets from Scrappy Moms stamps

Coordinated, individual sentiment stamp sets can help you create your own type of subway style designs. Stamplorations and My Favorite Things are two companies that offer perfectly sized stamp sets that let you mix and match words and phrases to customize for your occasion.

Card by Shery Russ, using Mom Subway Art Builders stamps from STAMPlorations, image source STAMPlorations

Bold phrases look great in a variety of colors and can brighten up any subway art inspired project.

Card by Jennifer McGuire featuring My Favorite Things Holiday Subway Art stamps, image source Jennifer McGuire Ink

My Favorite Things Holiday Subway Art stamp

Coordinated sets with a perfectly sized collection of phrases can be a lot of fun, but you can also search your supplies to make your own DIY word collage using stamps or other word tools you already have on hand.

Card by Stacy Croninger, image source Paper Crafts Connections

Rub-ons and stickers can help you create a fun block of words on cards or scrapbook layouts, too. Janet’s card featured next has a chalkboard vibe. It was created with white rub-ons on a black background…

Card by Janet Zeppa , using rub-ons to create subway art, image source Paper Bakery

Nancy’s fun word collage using die cut letters and stickers makes her summer theme page stand out!

Scrapbook page by Tammy Dailor using thickers and stickers, inspired by subway art, image source Scrapbook Update

Of course, to make creating even easier, easy to download digital files can help you print some subway art suitable for any project. Choose a file to print in an easy to frame size and you have some instant home décor!

Subway art printable from eighteen25

Enjoy some of these choices of subway art inspired downloads provided by the fine folks at eighteen25, Simple Crafter, Creating Keepsakes and ‘Lil Luna.

Easter Subway Art printable from Simple Crafter

Subway Art printables by Laina Lamb from Creating Keepsakes

Baby Subway Art printables from Lil’ Luna

So, does this style catch your attention? Play to your fonts’ delight creating your own creative versions or use some of the fun tools featured today to make a bold statement on your next project. Happy crafting, everyone!

Mixed Media Monday: “Change Is A Part Of Life” Video Tutorial

Happy Monday everyone! Welcome to another edition of Art Journal Express brought to you by Andrea from her personal blog The Art of Simple.

Art Journal Express is a weekly video tutorial series she created for her personal blog The Art of Simple. Each week on Monday she posts a video tutorial on how she created one of her art journal pages from start to finish. Because a typical art journal page takes between 20 minutes to an hour for her to create – which makes for a super long video to upload to You Tube, and for you to watch – the video clips are sped up, rather than having you watch what she’s doing in real time – hence the word “express” in Art Journal Express. However, what makes these video tutorials different from most of the “sped up” art journaling video tutorials out there is that Andrea narrated for you exactly what she’s doing and what she’s using – that way, even though you’re watching a “fast forward” version, you don’t miss a single detail.

Today’s page is called “Change Is A Part Of Life” – shown below. You can watch a video tutorial HERE.

Please Welcome New Paper Crafter’s Library Designer/Educator Laurel Beard

It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to another Designer/Educator…..Laurel Beard.

Learn More About Laurel

Hi! My name is Laurel and I live in sunny Florida! I am a Christian, wife and mother of two! I love Coke products, not Pepsi. I am short and love to laugh. I like breakfast for dinner and I am huge fan of the Harry Potter series. I am afraid of heights but am married to a pilot. I was introduced to crafting a few years ago when I went to a friend’s house and saw some weird contraption. I asked her what it was and she said it was a Cuttlebug. I laughed at the name and then asked what it did. Then she started talking about stamps. Stamps? Like postage stamps? Who knew?!? From then on, I took to crafting and never looked back. I am primarily a card maker but every now and then I get daring and create something else. I would define myself as a very clean and simple designer. I LOVE distress inks and gelatos and always try to find more ways to use them. You can find me on my blog at http://www.laurelbeard.org/.

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

Please help us to warmly welcome Laurel!