Monthly Archives: April 2012

simple & sunny

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 5 comments

Have you ever stamped on Kraft? One of the reasons I love it so much is that it is a mid-tone color. You can add white or dark to it, and both look lovely.

Today’s card features the latest Avocado Arts stamp set, Thoughts and Smiles. This is a sweet and cheery set, perfect for this time or year. The flowers are stamped and then colored in with watercolor pencils. Yes, these pencils color really well and you only have to add water if you want to. Super flexible. I like that.

I’ve also added in some white highlights to make the design pop. A white gel pen makes adding a wavy hand-drawn border easy and groups of three white dots around the flowers fill in the design.

Some of the Avocado Arts Design Team have a little inspiration to share with you today. These girls never fail to inspire me so take a peek…

Supplies:

Happy stamping!

5 Comments

Posted in Avocado Arts, Card Designs

for mom

Posted on April 27, 2012 | 3 comments

Mother’s Day is just a couple short weeks away. My Mother-in-Law is very special and I wanted to create a unique card for her. I think she’ll like the fact that I designed the paper as well as the card.

Today in the CLASSroom I’m sharing how I created this card design. It features an Index Journaling card used to create a belly band for the design. I hope you’ll join me here for the photos, instructions and step outs.

Have a fabulous weekend!

3 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Ellen Hutson LLC projects, Hero Arts, Lily Bee

canvas collage

Posted on April 26, 2012 | 11 comments

Exploring creativity and trying something outside your comfort zone is always a bit nerve-racking but always worth the effort. Without trying new things our designs can get boring and stale. If I’m honest, I feel guilty of that many times. I think we all do. It’s really hard to jump outside that box at times.

Today’s project is an altered canvas. It’s one of my Maya Road CHA projects and I was a little stymied with what to do with it. For the most part I work on smaller sized designs such as cards and tags.

My solution came with dividing up the canvas into smaller sections…sizes that I was much more comfortable with. The Maya Road Chipboard Foundations set came to my rescue and made dividing up the canvas easy. Each of the chipboard pieces was stitched, painted or covered with patterned paper and then filled with some pretty embellishments.

The Art Journaling Words Stamp set is one of my absolute favorites and it is perfect for adding inspirational words to canvas and also sections of my design.

When adding stitching detail to my chipboard, I stitch it with my sewing machine and just stitch very slowly.

This canvas is going to hang in my craft room. It’s a reminder to try new things and enjoy creativity.

Supplies:

Happy creating!

11 Comments

Posted in Maya Road, Papercraft projects

a quick hello

Posted on April 25, 2012 | 3 comments

Wow. Wednesday.

This week seems to be going by at the speed of light. I’m running out the door for a grade four field trip today. I’ll be making sure that I’m well fortified with Advil. Something tells me that I just may end up with a headache.

Here’s a super quick card for today. It’s a sweet and simple card that focuses on the rule of thirds.

Supplies:

Enjoy your day!

3 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Lily Bee

in the sunshine

Posted on April 23, 2012 | 6 comments

Ready for another sunshine inspired card? I’m really into yellow these days. Don’t you love spring?

Today I’m back with a spring themed card design. Sorry for the little blog break over the past few days. It’s a busy time here in my household and over the weekend we moved my daughter back home for the summer. It’s so wonderful to have all seven of us under one roof again. I’m such a happy mama.

I’ve really been enjoying the Buttercup line from Lily Bee Design lately. It’s so delicate and pretty and the color combo is gorgeous. This card uses the Tiny Tablet with its smaller scaled prints.

I’ve also used the Victoria Park stamp set to stamp on these pretty wood butterfly accents.

Today on the Lily Bee Design blog we’re focusing on card designs. I’m sharing this card and another one and there is other beautiful inspiration from other designers as well. Stop by here and check it out!

Supplies:

Have a lovely day!

6 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Lily Bee

soft and pretty

Posted on April 19, 2012 | 6 comments

It’s a beautiful day here. I have laundry hung in the sunshine and lemon loaf in the oven. Sure feels like a wonderful spring day to me.

Inspired by all the sunshine, yellow seems like the theme for today. I thought I’d share this soft and pretty lemony color combo card. It’s another sympathy card that’s still here on my desk. I must confess that I’m so bad at mailing things. It’s definitely on my to do list for today.

This card was designed as a sympathy card but you could use it for many different occasions. I love the little Maya Road Banner Chipboards and they are a perfect place for adding in a sentiment. If you use clear stamps, it’s really easy to bend  your sentiment as you place it on the acrylic block so that it will stamp perfectly on the banner.

I’ve also discovered that I have a recent Stickles addiction. I like glitter but hate the mess. Stickles makes it so easy to add a little shine just where you want it. That way I don’t have to go through the day with glitter on my hands, clothes and face. I hate that.  Bye-bye glitter girl!

Supplies:

 

Enjoy your day!

6 Comments

Posted in Hero Arts, Maya Road

a beautiful pair

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 2 comments

Pairing up beautiful products is always a joy. This week at Maya Road we’ve been having a fun product swap with Authentique Papers. I was excited to use the Gathering line with it’s gorgeous soft colors, prints and nature theme.  Combining it with my Maya Road goodies made the projects a dream to create. I love it when cards just seem to make themselves. No hard thinking involved.

Maya Road envelopes make a great base for clusters of embellishments. I’ve also color blocked the background with some of the sweet Authentique patterned papers.

Today you can find a couple of my projects on the Maya Road blog. I hope you’ll join me. Make sure you don’t miss this giveaway chance as well. Good luck!

Have a beautiful day!

2 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Maya Road