Mini Snowflake Notebook

Hello stamping friends! Today I have a simple gift idea for you that is perfect for the big and littles in your life. Sometimes it's nice to have some quick gifts on hand and this one is just that. I also appreciate useful gifts and love stationary, so a pairing with beautiful stamps from Inspired By Stamping was just the thing. Let's get started!

The supplies that you'll need are stamp sets of your choice, I ended up loving the snowflakes so much I just used Snowflake Wonder but had also pulled out Festive Greetings just in case, some cardstock, copy paper, a needle, some embroidery thread, embossing powder and ink and a paper piercer.

For the mini notebook size I made you will cut the copy paper, which will be the pages, to 4x6". Cut the cover just slightly larger.The first step is to stamp and emboss your mini notebook cover and card front. I used silver embossing powder.

To bind the notebook place the pages onto the back of the cover and use small binder clips to hold them in place. Using a paper piercer pierce holes along the center spine. Using embroidery thread use a simple saddle stitch to sew the binding of the notebook. Once done, gently bend in half and use a bone folder to reinforce the crease.

Once you have your notebook bound assemble the card and embellish! I used some more embroidery thread for my bows and sequins. A nice pen completes this little gift ensemble.

This gift is also suitable to slip into an envelope and mail, though you may want to omit the pen in that case ;)

I hope this inspired you for an easy gift idea. I plan on making several of these to give out this year and I just love that the snowflakes are Christmasy but winter themed too! Thanks for stopping by!

Snowflake Wonder

Versamark ink

Zing! Embossing Silver Glitter powder

Copy Paper

Blue Cardstock

Ranger Heat It Tool

Embroidery Thread

Needle

Paper Piercer

Sequins

Mini Snowflake Garland

Hello! With Christmas quickly approaching it's time to start decorating our homes to celebrate the season. Today I have a simple but pretty home decor idea that could easily be added to containers you already have. 

I pulled out the brand new Snowflake Wonder set and first stamped the two bigger snowflakes several times and under one stamped the "Noel" sentiment. I stamped in Versamark ink so I could heat emboss with silver glitter embossing powder.

I then trimmed them each out and punched a small hole in the top of each one and threaded some baker's twine through each of them to create a mini garland. Then I tied it onto a decorative pitcher that is filled with some Christmas foliage.

I love how it dresses up any type of container you have. I hope you'll try making your own mini garland to enjoy this season with!

Snowflake Wonder

Versamark Ink

White Cardstock

Zing! Silver Glitter Embossing Powder

Turquoise Baker's Twine

Thanksgiving Place Setting

Hello! Today I have a project up on the Chameleon blog with full instructions on how to make a pretty Thanksgiving table setting. Please go check it out HERE.

For the Guys

Hi!  Today and I'm here to give you an idea for cards for the guys in your life! Those can be some of the most challenging ones we create for, but I think a few tips and ideas may help, so let's get started!

I think the first thing to keep in mind for most masculine cards is a very neutral palette. Kraft color, browns, dark blues and greens, and maybe touches of some brighter colors could be worked in but overall more earthy. For my card today I chose to stay very neutral in colors. I also decided that instead of an image as a focal point to use a sentiment. I used the Words of Inspiration II stamp set. I first stamped my sentiment in the middle of the card in a dark blue ink. Then I chose the simple leaf shape from the set and chose a very dark brown to stamp a repeating pattern with it across the bottom. Stamping this cute little leaf this way transforms into into a more geometric and non-girly image.

I just continued stamping the entire bottom section of the card alternating which way my leaf went.

You could potentially leave the card as is and be done, but for some more visual interest and staying away from girly embellishments, some splatter is always a good choice! I just dabbed some of the same dark brown ink color onto my non-stick mat, added a bit of water and used a paint brush to flick it on.

Once the splatter was dry I mounted it onto a white card base and added some jute twine and tied a knot. No bows! :)

I hope this gives you some ideas about cards for the guys in our lives. I know this one is going to my husband soon :) Thanks for joining me!

Words of Inspiration II

Kraft cardstock

Brown and Blue dye ink

Jute Twine

#4 paint brush

white cardstock

Ombre Autumn

Hello there! I hope you are enjoying the season's changing wherever you are in the world. In my neck of the woods it's been a nice gradual ease into some cooler weather and some leaves are starting to put on their autumn dress. Today I have a card to share with you in the spirit of Autumn and thought it would be fun to make an ombre background in autumnal colors. Let's get started!

I like to try and use all the different fun mediums I have, so for today's card I pulled out some watercolor pencils. I find this a quick and easy way to create an ombre background. I started by stamping my images all from Autumn Blessings in Versafine Onyx Black. This is my favorite waterproof black ink. I wanted all the images to be a silhouette so that the ombre background can shine.

Next I used the colors I'd chose and using the side of the watercolor pencil colored in swatches across my watercolor paper being sure to blend the pencils into each other.

The next step is super easy as all you do is get a clean brush wet with clean water and apply it to your colored paper. All the watercolor pencil pigment will activate and turn to watercolor. Let it air dry completely before finishing your card.

And here is my completed Autumn ombre card. I embellished it with a twine bow and some white sequins. 

I hope you enjoyed today's card! Thanks for joining me.

Autumn Blessings

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Canson XL Watercolor paper pad

Rembrandt Watercolor Pencils

#6 paint brush

White Cardstock

Sequins

Natural twine

Heartfelt Project

Hi! Today I am sharing a project I made using some beautiful Heartfelt products and Chameleon Pens. Go check out the full post with instructions HERE.

Inspirational Frame Gift

Hello! Leah from Paper Blossoms here today to share a gift giving idea. I love inspirational sayings and quotes so what better way to pair some beautiful images up with a lovely inspirational saying and put it in a frame ready to gift to someone special. Let's get started!

Gather your supplies which include stamp sets of your choice, I'm going to use Fresh Bouquet and Words of Inspiration II, a picture frame (the one I'm using is 4x6" ), some white cardstock to stamp on, a die cut label to stamp the sentiment onto, some ink and coloring tools, I'll be using Copic markers.

The first step I did was to stamp all my elements. I stamped the large flower bouquet twice onto my cardstock panel in Memento ink. I then stamped the sentiment onto a Fancy Labels 2 die cut. Set the sentiment aside and let's start coloring!

I always tend to start coloring my leaves first. I chose four different green and varied the leaf colors. I always start with the lightest color and then go over the top of it with my darker color. For the veins in the leaves I used a flicking motion to add in dark shadows. Can you see the leaf I missed? It's okay, it happens and once you start coloring the flowers the missing leaf will pop out to you.

Next, I colored the large hydrangea flowers. I chose the above colors again starting with the lightest color and going toward the darkest. The middles I left for the end.

Finally I colored the peonies in a bright pink. I again started with a light color and flicked on darker pink. This contrast was a lot higher than on my hydrangeas so to tone it down and blend it I went back over the dark pink with the light pink and it softens it out. Now attach your sentiment and place your completed image into the picture frame.

And here is the finished project all ready to give to someone special. I added a few stamped images for the Words of Inspiration II set and chose colors that tied in with my background.

I hope you enjoyed today's gift idea! Thanks for joining me :)

Fresh Bouquet

Words of Inspiration II

Fancy Labels 2

White Cardstock

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

MISTI stamping tool

4x6" picture frame

Copic markers: G24, YG91, YG03, YG95, BV0000, BV01, RV10, RV14

Highlighting with Gelatos

Hello! Leah from Paper Blossoms here today to show you a fun way you can dress up your solid stamps with Gelatos. Let's get started!

The supplies you'll need are a stamp set with solid images, I chose the beautiful new set Words of Inspiration II, black ink, a few colors of Gelatos and a sponge dauber. I first started by doing all my stamping. I stamped my sentiment on to a die cut using Fancy Labels 2 and I stamped all my flowers and leaves in black ink. You can set aside the sentiment and layer panel for now.

To highlight with your Gelatos simply load your sponge dauber with some Gelato color and using circluar motions "highlight" the image you want to be that color. I started with the leaves using a green. 

Once all my leaves were done I moved onto the light aqua color for the berry sprigs and then the pink for the flowers. The idea is to just highlight the image so  you will have white paper still showing. And that's it! I think it renders a pretty effect.

Here is my card all assembled and done. I added the sentiment panel and layering to the front. I die cut those panels using Fancy Label 2 dies. I added some machine stitching and a little twine bow.

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial and will give it a try if you haven't already. Thanks so much for joining me!

Words of Inspiration II

Fancy Labels 2 die set

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Gelatos in: Iced Pear, Bubble Gum and Aqua Dolce

Sponge Dauber

MISTI

White Cardstock

Turquoise cardstock

Sewing machine

Natural Twine

Artful Journaling Wednesday

Hello! I've got another post for you today that shows some ideas of how to draw some cute birds, a few techniques on blending watercolors and how an easy change to your normal handwriting can create a new font. If you haven't already be sure to find and join the Journal Me Joyful closed group on Facebook!

Remember how I've said drawing is really about shapes? So for our cute, whimsical birds start with some basic shapes. They don't have to be perfect!

Now take those same basic shapes and add an eye, a beak, some legs and feathers and you've got several different cute birds. You can get as elaborate or simple as you want.

So getting to the watercolor, here are some basic blending techniques. If you want a lighter color you add more water as in box 1. If you want a more concentrated color use less water. Box one and two are the same blue. See the big difference you can get just with water :) Then you can get some neat effects by putting down wet color, the blue in this case, first and then right away dropping in another color that is also wet. For the little splotches that was just using the tip of my paint brush and dotting the red into the blue. For the bottom left corner I smoothed the red around a bit. It will dry with a very soft look. For a more clear color blending look the 4th box is technically called glazing. You first lay down your base color, blue and then let it DRY COMPLETELY. Then you can layer a new color on top of it. See how the red gave a purple and the yellow green? Neat huh!?

And now putting it all together you can create a quick, cute little scene. For the lettering I just used my regular handwriting but made all the letters capital and tall and skinny. See if you can see all the different blending techniques I used in my birds and flowers. I used all four! If you decide to create something using this post as inspiration please let me know, I'd love to come see!

Supplies:

*Strathmore Mixed Media Sketchbook

*Gansai Tambi watercolors

*Waterproof fine tip pen, such as a Sharpie pen

*#4 round paint brush