Paper Crafter's Library – Page 56 – A world of creativity at your fingertips

Trendy Tuesday – Cowboy & Western Motifs

Trendy Tuesday – Cowboy & Western Motifs
by Katherine Elliot

Let”s take a quick trip back to the thrilling days yesteryear… With a hearty “Hi-Yo, Silver!”, here are some fun projects inspired by images from the Old West that are perfect for a boot stomping good time. Western theme images and sentiments are great for masculine projects or for any young cowboy or girl.

Card by Karen Giron, image source kgiron.blogspot

The wild western theme projects shared today have many common bonds. Most projects have images of boots or horses and are decorated with wood grain patterns, rustic metal, and twine accents. Several great stamp sets offer a variety of options with these images from companies like My Favorite Things, Kitchen Sink Stamps, Stampin” Up! and Unity Stamp Company.

Inspired by the Wild Wild West stamp set, My Favorite Things

Card by Jodi Collins, image source Stamping a Latte

Howdy stamp set, My Favorite Things

Kitchen Sink stamps are known for their highly detailed and realistic multi layered stamped images. In the stamp set shown below, layered boot shapes stamped in sequence with different shades of progressively darker ink will give you amazing results.

Multi Step Cowboy Boots, Kitchen Sink Stamps

Card by Lisa Somerville, Kitchen Sink Stamps gallery

Monica Weaver shares her unique & attractive style and talent with metal sheets that were embossed and layered on her card featuring the majestic horse from Stampin” Up!”s set, Horse Frontier.

Card by Monica Weaver, featuring Horse Frontier stamp set from Stampin” Up!, image source Add a Little Dazzle

Stampin” Up Horse Frontier stamp set

As many Paper Crafter”s Library members are likely practicing their brayer skills with the on-line brayer class, I hope they”ll enjoy seeing this beautifully brayered and sponged landscape gracing Michelle Zindorf”s Horse Frontier card. Check the link on her project to see how she created this custom silhouette image from the same Stampin” Up! set featured above.

Horse Silhouette card by Michelle Zindorf, detailed instructions and image source, Freedom in Creating

A little encouragement is all you may need to bring out your inner cowgirl (or cowboy). Unity Stamp Company”s Brave Girl Boots stamp set includes some uplifting sentiments that may even temp those folks not always feeling the cow-town spirit.

Card featuring Unity Stamps, image source Unity Stamp Company

Brave Girl Boots stamp set from Unity Stamp Company

Images of boots or a horse are NOT required to create a card with a western motif. The western style thank you card Nikki Bond created below shows a way to capture the spirit of the trend with other stamps not specifically designed around a western theme. A lovely earth tone color scheme, distressed edges, and twine lasso embellishment provide a beautiful dusty, western look.

Card by Nikki Bond, image source etsy.com

And now for something a bit different, something PINK! Yes, country girls can still enjoy pink on their projects with Carta Bella”s Giddy Up! Collection. There is a Giddy Up! collection intended for boys, too, in more traditional cowboy colors, but the pink stands out on the fun home decor & 3D projects the company designers are sharing on their blogs. Check these out…

Country Girl frame project by Patricia Roebuck, featuring Carta Bella Giddy Up, image source Carta Bella Paper

3-D boot by Tamara Tripodi, image source Happy Life Crafty Wife

Keep reading to find out where you can find the 3D boot template… As a plus for digital crafters, Carta Bella offers both traditional scrapbook papers and digital versions of some of their collections.

Carta Bella Digital Kit, Giddy Up Girl Collection, image source Carta Bella Paper

Cosmo Cricket”s Honky Tonk collection was used in the next decorative frame project. The Honky Tonk Collection includes stamps, papers, and embellishments with trendy colors, patterns, and fun sentiments .

Cosmo Cricket Honky Tonky collection, stamps and stickers, image source Cosmo Cricket

Country Girl frame, image source Cosmo Cricket blog

Stickers can make quick work of adding a western theme element to a project like the cowboy stickers from Karen Foster Designs and Jolee”s Boutique.

Karen Foster Cowboy Collection cardstock stickers, image source Scrapbook.com

Jolee”s Boutique Rodeo Stickers, image source eksuccessbrands.com

Sizzix brand dies offer even more western shapes that would be fun to use. Are you familiar with the road runner cartoons from Looney Tunes? Take some of these shapes and combine them with a color scheme from the cartoons and create a fresh look to your next western theme project.

Sizzix Bigz Coyote, Cactus and Roadrunner

Another one of my favorite scrapbook paper collections with a western motif is October Afternoon”s Sasparilla collection. The graphic designs and fantastic colors make this collection look fresh and fun, too.

October Afternoon Big Sky scrapbook paper and Miscellany embellishments from October Afternoon Sasparilla Collection

The Sasparilla papers were used in part on the last projects shared here today. SVG Cuts offers digital files to help you cut and create dimensional projects with your digital cutter. If you have a digital cutter, like a Silhouette Cameo, Sizzix eClips, Pazzle, or other, check out this company”s selection of different shapes and projects. These last western theme projects are from the Happy Trails collection. The boot shown in this collection is a boy-like version of the pink boot Tamara Tripodi created for Carta Bella shown earlier.

Happy Trails SVG cuts

Did you know how hard it is to research a trend and not immediately go shopping for each and every fun project I see? Well, let me tell you I often cave in to my own trendy desires. I hope you”ve found something inspiring to create this week or are ready to save up for the next fun trend or theme. Kick your boots off and enjoy some crafting today!

Free Project of the Week: Happy Birthday – 07 12 2013

Welcome to this week’s Free Project of the Week.

Today’s project is this Happy Birthday card. In this card we show you how you can cut out portions of your patterned paper to create visual depth and dimension. You can watch a video on how this card was made and download a pdf handout below.

Download the pdf handout here

If you enjoyed today’s project, you enjoy our style of teaching and would like to learn even more I encourage you to check out the benefits of becoming a Paper Crafter’s Library member.

Featured Artist/Designer: Maureen Plut

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 – Maureen Plut

Before we show you Maureen’s fabulous projects, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

I’m a St. Patrick’s day baby, the youngest of 6 children and live in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada. When I’m not in the studio indulging in my passion for making cards, I’m a Grade One/Two elementary teacher to joyful, energetic 6 and 7 year olds, new wife to Tony, and proud mom to Jake who just graduated from Civil Engineering.

Card making is food for my soul. The process of having an idea in my head and then taking plain paper, ink, stamps, ribbon, buttons, etc and creating something beautiful brings me great joy. And there’s nothing like seeing others smile when they buy or receive one of my cards.

I’ve been lucky enough to have my projects published in magazines such as Paper Crafts and CARDS and serve on design teams. I currently design for Verve Stamps, Clearly Besotted Stamps, and the challenge sites, CASE Study and the new Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge.

I’m honoured to be featured here on Paper Crafter’s Library and hope you’ll like my projects.

Project Description/Tips

This first card is one I mass produced for the generous parents and students in my class this year. I spend the first week of summer vacation making and sending out some fun thank you notes. This is the last batch of 8 cards I made. I’m using the apple from Verve’s Teachers Count set, one that I inspired and pleaded to Julee, the owner of Verve, to create. I gathered all my supplies, cut and scored my card bases and die cut the apples.

Tip #1: don’t fold your scored card bases right away. They will lay flat and therefore be easier to stamp on.

Tip #2: Since both apple dies are attached, I used both sizes of apples for my cards, only having to feed them through the die cutter 4 times instead of 8.

Then I stamped my apples, then the lined paper image. I lined the stamp up on my large acrylic block (it’s 4.25 x 5.5) for perfect placement every time.

Tip #3: Use a light gray (or blue) for lined paper images. Your sentiment will be easier to read.

Here is the card set showing the 2 different sized apples.

My next card is a fun birthday card using several sentiments from the newly released set, A Little Sentimental, from Clearly Besotted Stamps. It’s fun to group similar occasion sentiments onto various banners.

Tip #4: Vary banner lengths and shapes for more interest.

Tip #5: Stamp only the words you need. The word “wish” was actually part of “make a wish.”

What’s in them?

{thanks ever so much}

Stamps: verve teachers count, treasured words, making a statement

Ink: versafine onyx, stampin’ up going gray, gumball green, real red

Paper: papertrey ink white

Accessories: verve apples die

{happy birthday}

Stamps: clearly besotted stamps a little sentimental

Ink: versafine onyx

Paper: papertrey ink rustic white, soft stone, kraft, fancy pants country boutique

Accessories: verve stormy skies ribbon, papertrey ink tiny tag and double banner dies, rustic twine, daric star embossing folder, heidi swapp chipboard star, my favourite things fishtail banner die

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

Featured Company: May Arts

Today we are excited to welcome back this week’s Featured Company May Arts and to share a beautiful creation from one of their designers using some gorgeous May Arts Ribbon.

Here at Paper Crafter’s Library we’re ribbon lovers – you’ll find ribbon on almost all of our projects – which is why we’re so thrilled to bring you another fabulous May Arts project. You haven’t seen ribbon until you’ve seen May Arts Ribbon – they offer a multitude of different colors and styles of ribbon to suit any preference and taste – and all of it, top quality!

And, we also have a give-a-way for you!! Two lucky winners will receive a “winners choice” of 2 spools of Ribbon from May Arts. One winner will be drawn from all the comments left here on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog to win AND one winner will be drawn from all the comments left on the May Arts Blog to win. You certainly have a lot to choose from

Remember, each comment you leave is one entry, so be sure to visit today not only for the great project idea, but also to enter your name into our give-away.

About May Arts

May Arts Ribbon was founded in the early 1980’s in Riverside, Connecticut. The original products were high-end silk flowers imported from Taiwan, which were decorated using quality ribbons. The decorative ribbons proved so popular among customers that the business gradually evolved into a dedicated ribbon wholesaler.

As a family-owned and operated business, May Arts began a long-standing tradition of quality, affordability and exceptional customer service. We are dedicated to carrying on this same tradition by offering high quality products at competitive prices. Our friendly, knowledgeable staff is always happy to answer your questions or to assist you in placing your order.

May Arts carries a wide selection of quality ribbons to choose from; such as grosgrain, silk, satin, burlap and a variety of prints and patterns. All inventory is held in stock, so we can ship orders out right away—typically the same day.

Where to Buy May Arts Ribbons

The May Arts website is their wholesale site for online and brink and mortar retailers. We’ve linked to it so that you can easily view their entire product line in one place. There are numerous places where you can purchase May Arts Ribbons including many local scrapbook stores as well as online stores. Two of the online stores that carry the biggest selections that we are aware of include Amazon, who carry the complete May Arts Ribbon Line (plus you can qualify for free shipping). Click on the link we provided and it will take you to our May Arts Ribbon Search Results. To find a particular ribbon, go to the May Arts website, find the name of the ribbon and color and then enter that into your Amazon search results. Please note that through Amazon you’re buying by the roll. Most other online and local scrapbook stores sell May Arts Ribbon by the yard. One of the online stores that carries a great selection is Stamp Simply Ribbon Store.

Special May Arts Guest Designer

Today we a special project for you created by May Arts Guest Designer Gini Williams Cagle. You can see Gini’s fabulous project below, but first, here is a little more about Gini:

My name is Gini Williams Cagle, and I am so excited to share a project for May Arts Ribbon. I have always loved everything vintage – and that has really influenced my work. Even as a little girl, I collected beaded purses and antique clothes, and had boxes of old photos and ephemera. And yeah, this was all by the time I was 9 years old. So I guess I was that quirky kid that everyone just kind of thought marched to her own drum.

That early sense of style lead to someone who has a passion to create, who is confident in her own designs, but who also appreciates the historic influences of the past. Getting to play with paper and May Arts Ribbons is the perfect creative fit for me!

May Arts Designer Project
I’m going to show you how to create a nostalgic tag, covered with May Arts lace. This technique could be used on cards and die cuts as well.

Run a black tag through Xyron Creative Station to coat the entire surface with adhesive.

Lay strips of May Arts lace across the tag, press down and trim.

Dust over the tag with Perfect Pearls. This will color the black tag, as well as keeping the adhesive from being sticky in the exposed areas.

Cut a strip of patterned paper and adhere to the lower third of the tag. Cut away the wired edges of the Faux Burlap and glue to the center of the patterned paper. Make paper flowers/leaves and arrange as shown.

Take a longer strip of the Faux Burlap ribbon, cut both wires away, fray the edges, and tie a bow at the top of the tag.

Save the wires, and tie a small bow to go beneath the paper flowers. Thanks for letting me share my love for May Arts Ribbons with you!

Supplies:
May Arts 1 ½” Faux Burlap (445-15-32)
May Arts 3/8” Lace (390-38-09)
Graphic 45 Patterned Paper (Secret Garden)
WorldWin Cardstock – Petallics (Gold Ore)
Perfect Pearls ( Forever Green)
Cheery Lynn Designs dies
Want2Scrap Pearls
Xyron 5” Creative Station with Permanent Adhesive
Fiskars Fuse

We hope you have enjoyed today’s feature. We want to extend a sincere thank you to Gini Williams Cagle for her fabulous projects and May Arts for sharing their company with us. Be sure to visit May Arts to see more of their great products and to enter the fabulous give-away.

In order to enter the give-away to win the ribbon rolls, please leave us a comment in the comments section of this post and visit May Arts to leave a comment on their blog as well. If you do not check the blog regularly, please leave an email address to contact you. Winners will be announced next week on the Paper Crafter’s Library blog!

Trendy Tuesday – Flip Flops

Trendy Tuesday – Flip Flops
by Katherine Elliot

Summer time around my part of the world brings warm weather, vacation travel, and casual attire. Why not celebrate the season in your paper crafts with the trendiest casual footwear of the season, flip flops! Enjoy checking out some of these summer theme projects with silent versions of these fun sandals. Flip flop shapes and stamp sets make it easy to add these to your projects.

Mini Album featuring Spellbinders Surfs Up dies, image source Spellbinders Paper Arts.com

Spellbinders” Surf”s Up dies have all the beach theme shapes you may need including surf board, beach ball, umbrella and flip flops.

Surf”s Up Spellbinders dies

Pair fun, summer time shapes with the perfect sentiment and image stamps from companies like Papertrey Ink, My Creative Time and Great Impressions stamps.

Card by Debbie Olson featuring stamps from Papertrey Ink, Flipping Out, image source Thinking Inking

Card by Katie Jones, featuring sentiment stamp from My Creative Time, image source Crafting with Katie

Card by Irene Rhodes, featuring stamps from Great Impressions, image source Splitcoast Stampers

Lil” Inkers Designs has coordinating flip flop dies and stamps. Decorate your sandals and your project any way you choose and match a fun greeting using their Flip Flop stamps.

Lil” Inker Designs Flip Flop steel rule dies

Lil Inker Designs Flip Flop Stamps

Show off bright, colorful sandals on a clean and simple white card to make these signature signs of summer really stand out…

Card by Kim Singdahlsen featuring Lil” Inkers Designs, image source Joyful Creations

Glam it up with the sparkle of glitter paper sandals…

Card by Sarah Jay featuring Lil” Inkers Designs, image source Criminal Grace

More beach theme stamp sets offer you additional choices for your summer projects, like Flourishes” set, Beach Life, featured next…

Card by Cindy Lawrence, image source The Creative Closet

Beach Life stamp set, image source Flourishes

Craft your own beach scene with torn paper, bright summer colors, and fun dimensional sticker flip flops like Jeanette Cloyd created in her card below…

Card by , image source Splitcoast Stampers

Jolee”s Boutique stickers, image source A Cherry on Top

Simply color the straps of your sandals for a subtle touch and easy coordination with any choice of patterned paper, like Lisa Henke”s card demonstrates featuring stamps from Unity Stamp Company.

Card by Lisa Henke, image source Unity Stamp Company

Flip Flop Happy stamp, Unity Stamp Company

Brads and embellishments can customize your project and add more dimension.

Card by Lisa Swift, image source Two Peas in a Bucket

Sometimes bigger is better. A template flip flop shape used in the next project features larger embellishments on a larger flip flop shape that could be lots of fun to use for that next luau theme party invitation or other summer celebration.

Flip Flop shape card and digital cutting file, image source A Cherry on Top

So do you flip for these shapes, or do you flop for something else? I”d love to hear what”s on your mind.
Enjoy the summer and happy crafting, everyone!

Featured Artist/Designer: Lorena Canto

Today we’re thrilled to welcome – Lorena Canto

Before we show you Lorena’s fabulous projects, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

Hi! My name is Lorena Canto and I’m delighted to be here today. I’m a Spanish journalist posted in Bolivia, mother of a wonderful son, and passionate paper crafter. Most crafters have been so since their childhood. Well, not me! Before discovering all things paper, I never thought I had an ounce of creativity in body. After that, I’ve come to the conclusion that we are all creative, but we just need to find our creative outlet.

Cardmaking is my favorite paper craft, and stamping and die cutting, my go-to techniques. I am really proud of having been published several times in Paper Crafts Magazine regular and special issues, and also of being part of the CAS_ual Fridays Design Team.

You can find me at my blog: http://paperella.typepad.com

Featured Projects

I don’t know about you, but scraps and little bits seem to take over my crafting desk every single time I turn away! So in my everlasting battle with scraps, I challenged myself to create a few things using only what was on my desk: left over die cut shapes, tags, pieces of felt, twine, a rhinestone and some stamps. Here’s what I came up with:

Welcome Sweet Baby Tag:
I started with a die cut tag which was stamped with a scattered dots image that has been sitting on my desk for a couple of months. I chose the color of the ink based in two leftover diet birdies I also had on my desk. The birdies are sitting on a stamped branch that was watercolored with an Inktense pencil. I used the lonely rhinestone to embellish the branches and finished with a baby sentiment and a bit of baker’s twine.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Canson;
Stamps: (dots) Impress Rubber Stamps, (branch) Hero Arts, (sentiment) Technique Tuesday;
Ink: (yellow) Impress Rubber Stamps, (brown) Tsukineko Versafine;
Dies: (birds) WPlus9, (tag) Papertrey Ink;
Felt: Papertrey Ink;
Twine: The Twinery;
Other: Rhinestone

Welcome Little One tag:
The gorgeous linen cardstock tag I used as my base has also been on my desk for some time now. The first thing was stamping a background (the color scheme came from Pinterest). The sentiment banner and baby carriage die cuts were also leftovers from other projects. I just stamped them to match the floral background and adhered both with foam tape. Another scrappy bit of baker’s twine finishes this tag. Can you sense a theme going here? 😉

Supplies:
Cardstock: Canson;
Stamps: (flowers, carriage, bow) Papertrey Ink, (sentiments) Avery Elle;
Ink: (assorted blues and greens) Impress Rubber Stamps, (kraft, linen) Papertrey Ink;
Dies: (tag) Hero Arts, (banner) Simon Says Stamp, (carriage, bow) Papertrey Ink;
Twine: The Twinery

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

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 again on Paper Crafter’s Library. Many of you may remember that back in April we hosted a Graphic 45 Week on the Paper Crafter’s Library Blog. It was week filled with projects and inspiration using Graphic 45’s Tropical Travelogue Collection. I will take just a minute to re-introduce Graphic 45 for those of you that may not be familiar with the company.

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 Clare Charvill

Our Graphic 45 Guest Designer for this week is Clare Charvill who is part of the 2013 Graphic 45 Design Team. Clare has two beautiful projects to share with us today.

You can see Clare’s fabulous projects below, but first, here is a little more about Clare:

“I’m a working mum of two great teenage boys, have a very supportive partner and am a craft–a-holic in my spare time lol!!! Since I was very small I’ve had an interest in all things crafty, something I inherited from my mum. In my 20’s I took up cake decorating, inspired by a friend who made my 21st birthday cake and went on to teach basic and advanced sugar craft for 10 years at my local college. I had great fun teaching others and sharing my inspiration. Seeing people discover hidden talents they never new they had is really rewarding.

My interest in scrap booking started about 7 years ago, when I made two 12 x 12 keepsake albums for my boys capturing their best childhood moments for them to look back on in years to come. Hooked, I joined the You Tube crafting community in Jan 2011 where I found and fell in love with Graphic 45 collections and have been making albums and altered art with them ever since. In 2012 I was lucky enough to join the design team and am over the moon to have been selected back onto the team for 2013. I’m looking forward to another really creative year with this amazing company and their truly vintage paper collections.

Grahpic 45 Designer Projects

For my projects today I used the two new collections from Graphic 45, Steampunk Spells and Bohemian Bazaar. One is an altered art piece and the other is a project that combines the Cor’Dinations signature papers (lights) by Graphic 45 with the Bohemian Bazaar collection in a slightly different way to the Graphic 45 projects you’re used to seeing.

The Clock

703CHA & Papercrafters Library Clare Charvill Steampunk Spells Altered Art Pic 7

I absolutely love the new Steampunk Spells papers and thought I’d use the signature sheet of paper from the collection to make this 3d Clock. It’s made using a template from House of Zandra (you can purchase here). It can hold a small triangular album with spooky pictures taken at Halloween.

PCL is not affiliated with House of Zander in any way nor do we receive any benefits from the purchase of the template.

703CHA & Papercrafters Library Clare Charvill Steampunk Spells Altered Art Pic 6

703CHA & Papercrafters Library Clare Charvill Steampunk Spells Altered Art Pic 5

703CHA & Papercrafters Library Clare Charvill Steampunk Spells Altered Art Pic 4

703CHA & Papercrafters Library Clare Charvill Steampunk Spells Altered Art Pic 3

703CHA & Papercrafters Library Clare Charvill Steampunk Spells Altered Art Pic 2

703CHA & Papercrafters Library Clare Charvill Steampunk Spells Altered Art Pic 1

My Boys layout

Have you ever tried to take a nice picture of your children without them pulling faces at the camera, boys especially. We nearly managed it with this one which is one of my favourites of them when they were 4 and 9. I used Graphic 45 fuchsia pink Cor’dinations paper as the base for this Bohemian Bazaar layout, sanded a brick wall effect onto it and then built up the detail with papers and fussy cut elements. I added a few Petaloo flowers into the spray as and used an arch to give a bohemian feel to the design. I love the bright and cheery colours in this new collection and had great fun putting this layout together

Sisters 12 x 12 Layout

703Clare Charvill Ladies Diary Layout Pic 1

I used the timeless Ladies Diary collection for this layout. The colours in this collection are so subtle I never tire of working with them. The picture is of my mum aged 12 (left) and her two sisters aged 14 and 8 and was taken during their time at a farm in Shropshire, where they were evacuated to with my Grandma during the 2nd world war. There are lots of elements cut out from various, tucked around the paper layers to give a vintage feel to the layout which I loved putting together. I used walnut stain ink to give a darker edge to the pieces too.

703Clare Charvill A Ladies Diary Layout Pic 2

703Clare Charvill A ladies Diary layout Pic 3

703Clare Charvill A ladies Diary layout Pic 4

703Clare Charvill A Ladies Diary Layout Pic 5

703Clare Charvill A Ladies Diary Layout Pic 6

We hope you have enjoyed this fun creation from Clare. I would also like to extend a warm thank you to Clare for sharing her fabulous gift idea with us! Please take a minute to stop by Clare’s Blog and of course the Graphic 45 blog to check out all their amazing creations!

Trendy Tuesday – Spectacular Glasses

Trendy Tuesday – Spectacular Glasses
by Katherine Elliot

Are you blessed with perfect vision or are you near or far sighted? Have no worries, we”ve got you covered this week with trendy glasses for your summer time paper crafts. Check out these fun shapes and great ideas using spectacles of all kinds including hip retro styles and cool shades for the hot weeks of summer.

Card by Sankari Wegman, image source Sankari”s Sunshine Corner

Fun glasses look great with vellum or clear cardstock lens accents, like the custom lenses Sankari Wegman created for her card above. These glasses look too hip to be square, surely that must be why she used a corner rounder on a couple edges?! 😎

You can find several stamp sets that favor the bespectacled, too. Stamps from Stampin” Up, Close to My heart, and Lawn Fawn are featured in the projects below.

Card by Mary Fish, featuring Stampin” Up single stamp, Spec-tacular, image source Stampin Pretty.com

Card by Denita Parra, featuring stamps from Close to My Heart, image source Stamping, Crafting & Having Fun

Card featuring Lawn Fawn stamp set, Clear to See, card by Lynnette Kauffman, image source Lawn Fawn.com

Tickle your funny bone or celebrate a hipster vibe with glasses theme embellishments from Jolee”s Boutique and Basic Grey.

Jolee”s Boutique dimensional stickers, image source Scrapbook.com

Basic Grey Hipster wood veneer embellishments, image source Two Peas in a Bucket

Hipster collection from Basic Grey, image source Basic Grey blog

Nerd alert – it”s very cool to look stylish and smart in a pair of lenses, no matter your age. Eyewear is a fashion statement as well as a necessity for many people and often what”s trendy in the fashion world fits right in with stylish scrapbooking and other paper crafts.

Bright future scrapbook page, image source Basic Grey blog

Steel rule dies make customizing trendy shapes easy. A variety of styles in glasses shaped dies are available from brands like Lifestyle Crafts, The Cats Pajamas and Impression Obsession.

Nerdy Valentines featuring Lifestyle Crafts glasses dies, printable images & image source from No Biggie

Send a greeting incognito with a funny pair of decorated glasses like Wendy McGaffrey shares in her clean and simple card…

Card by Wendy McGaffey featuring Cut Ups Glasses die, image source Wake Up with Wendy

Cut Ups Glasses die from The Cat”s Pajamas

Combining dies and bright colors, Kimberly Gajewski and Kittie Caracciolo created very attractive sunglasses cards that are perfect for summer time projects.

Card by Kimberly Gajewski featuring Cat”s Pajamas Cut Up die, image source It”s So Pretty! It”s So Cute!

Impression Obsession Sunglasses dies, image source Ellen Hutson.com

Sunglasses card by Kittie Caracciolo, image source and tutorial at Kittie Kraft

Stop by Kittie”s blog to see close up photos of her fancy shades, all the materials she used, and step by step instructions on how to make them.

No need to feel down about getting a little older and needing a new pair of specs. It”s just the chance to send or receive this cheerful greeting…

Card by Julie Ebersole, featuing Impression Obession sunglasses die, image source ellenhutson.com

Seeing clearly now all the creative ways to use these fun shapes on a project? I sure hope you do. Enjoy and happy crafting!

Featured Artist/Designer: Christina Heeren

Today we’re thrilled to welcome – Christina Heeren

Before we show you Chris’ fabulous projects, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

My name is Christina Heeren and I live in Des Moines, IA with my wonderful husband of 19 years and our four children. I have been paper crafting for over 15 years. I love creating cards, scrapbook pages, mini albums, and 3D projects. When I’m not playing with paper you can find me tending my garden or spending time outdoors with my family, volunteering, and photographing my surroundings.

I currently serve on the Xyron, Epiphany Crafts, and CAS(E) this Sketch Design Teams. I have also been fortunate enough to have had my work published in Simple Scrapbooks Magazine, Stamping, Stationery, and Scrapbooking Magazine, and PaperHaus Magazine.

I have created two projects to share with you today- my Hello, Friend Card and a Travel Case Mini Album. I am thrilled and honored to be a Featured Designer for Paper Crafter’s Library. Thank you for this opportunity!

Featured Projects

Travel Case Mini Album Description:

In the Summer we love to travel as a family whether we are making a trip to spend time with family or exploring someplace new. The travel album will be a great way to house photos and journaling from our Summer adventures on the road. I used the Travel Girl collection from October Afternoon. I love working with collections that have coordinating papers and embellishments. It makes putting projects together quick and easy. I kept the cover simple and made it look like a case with a handle.

The handle is connected to the album with binder rings which also hold the pages on the inside of the album. I added a couple of tags and a charm to the front of the album for a bit of decoration. When I create mini albums I love to make the pages interactive. Using the Martha Stewart scoring board I was able to quickly add pockets or flaps to each page of the album.

Most of the patterned paper I used for the pages was from the 8×8 paper pad. The smaller scale prints are perfect for mini albums and cards. I particularly love the travel log paper from the 8×8 paper pad. It works great for journaling and adding trip details.

Travel Case Mini Album Supplies:

October Afternoon Travel Girl Guide Book 12×12 Patterned Paper

October Afternoon Travel Girl Journaling Cards

October Afternoon Travel Girl Word Stickers

October Afternoon Travel Girl 8×8 Paper Pad

October Afternoon Travel Girl Tidbits

Bazzill Lagoon Cardstock

Bazzill Walnut Cream Cardstock

American Crafts Shadow Cardstock

ANW Crestwood Rain Adhesive Backed Cardstock

Two Peas in a Bucket Photo Frames Digital Cut File

Silhouette Cameo

Epiphany Crafts Round 25 Studio Shape Tool

Epiphany Crafts Round 25 Bubble Caps

Epiphany Crafts Round 25 Charm Setting

Epiphany Crafts Round 14 Studio Shape Tool

Epiphany Crafts Round 14 Bubble Caps

Epiphany Crafts Round 14 Brad Settings

Xyron 5″ Creative Station

Xyron 1.5″ Sticker Maker

Xyron Mega Runner

Martha Stewart Scoring Board

We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile

Tim Holtz File Tab Die

Basic Grey Magnetic Discs

Binder Rings

Silver Chain

Silver Jump Rings

Hello, Friend Card

While I had my supplies out I decided to make a quick and simple card to send to an out of state friend. To make this card start by creating a standard size card base from Bazzill Walnut Cream cardstock. Cut a 1/4 inch strip of the Subway Tokens paper from the 8×8 paper pad and adhere to the left side of the card. Die cut the map shape from American Crafts Shadow cardstock and adhere to the card with dimensional adhesive (I used the map digital cut file from Two Peas and trimmed the frame from the die cut leaving the map portion for my card). Stamp the Hello, Friend sentiment with Hero Arts Wet Cement ink and the card is complete.

Hello, Friend Card Supplies:

October Afternoon Travel Girl 8×8 Paper Pad

Hero Arts/ Studio Calico Oh Snap Stamp Set

Bazzill Walnut Cream Cardstock

American Crafts Shadow Cardstock

Hero Arts Wet Cement Ink

Silhouette Cameo

Two Peas in a Bucket Maps Digital Cut File

Xyron 1.5″ Sticker Maker

Dimensional Adhesive

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

Winner of Splash of Color Give-Away

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to Splash of Color and their guest designer Jodi Ohl for sharing such a wonderful project and for their generous give-away of their prize package shown below.

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

Congratulations Ruby!! Be sure to email us at customerservice@papercrafterslibrary.com to claim your prize. Please be sure to put “Splash of Color” in the subject line of the email, and then in the email itself, be sure to include your full mailing address and phone number.

For those of you that didn’t win, each week on PCL we feature a different company, and each of those companies generously sponsors a prize. Join us next week for our next feature.