Masculine Cards class

Here are the samples for my Masculine Cards class on Saturday 6/5 from 1 - 3 pm. We will be making 6 masculine cards great for giving to all the guys in your life. This would also make a terrific gift set for someone that needs to send out masculine cards as all the cards are color coordinated. We will be getting inky as 2 of the cards feature techniques using Distress inks. And as I mentioned previously, I will have some other sentiments on hand in case you want to stamp something different from what I have stamped on my samples. I hope you can join me!

Butterfly Tote & Cards class

Samples for this class are in the store now and if I can say so myself, they turned out pretty nicely! I neglected to take pics with my own camera to post here, but Tracy took pics of the samples, and we all know she is a much better photographer than me, and I'm sure she'll be posting them soon.  There they are.


I should also have samples up later today for my Masculine Cards class. I will be teaching that class on Saturday 6/5 from 1-3 pm. The cards are perfect for Father's Day or for the guys in your life that you need to send cards to. I will have several different sentiments with me so that if you want to stamp a sentiment different from mine you will be able to. Keep watching here and don't forget to look at all the fabulous class samples from our different teachers when you walk in the store!

Cindy

Two new Hero Arts cards from Laura

Hi Everyone


I had to show these new cards that Laura brought in. She used all Hero Arts stamps for her projects.   The papers are Basic Grey Kioshi.  She stamped the big flower on the lavender Kioshi paper and shaded with Copic markers.   As a nice finishing touch, she made the envelope from a paper bag and stamped it too!





Laura first stamped the background of this card with a large word block stamp and then stamped the flowers.  For dimension, she stamped the flowers a second time on another piece of paper and cut them out.  Notice the ribbon.  She hand colored a cream colored ribbon with her Copic markers.  To get the spotting effect, after she colored the ribbon, she put it in a baggie with some Copic blending solution which lifted some of the color off the ribbon.   

Medalion Flowers

This technique was used by Pam on a Demo Day and I have been asked how the flowers were made.  I found this over on the Hero Arts Blog by Tami Hartley.


Cut a strip of paper measuring 11″ long and 1 1/4″ wide. (Lightweight paper is recommended; most cardstocks are too thick.)

Score the entire strip at 1/4″ increments and accordion fold.

Bring the ends together to form a pleated circle. It will look kind of like a cupcake liner at this point. Secure ends with glue or tape.

Push down to flatten into a circle. Adhere stamped circle on top, applying pressure until glue is dry. Glossy Accents works great for this and dries quickly.

Maryland Sings layouts!

My daughter was involved with a great organization last year called Maryland Sings and these 2 layouts are from that period. I love all colors--black, red, yellow.....so festive! On the white layout, I used one of the plastic papers from KI Memories--too cool! The words on it were perfect for this design. On the black layout, I cut those stars out of the red glitter paper, out of necessity to complete the layout. Hope you like them! Lisa H.

Class sneak peek

I am currently working on samples for my upcoming class Butterfly Cards and Tote on May 30th. We will be making 4 cards along with an adorable paper tote. This class would be great to give as a gift or keep for yourself, and as always I will include directions on how to make the cards and the tote so that you can recreate them. Just a hint that this tote would be a wonderful way to give a card set as gifts for teachers, at holiday time, etc. Think of the possibilites you can do by changing up colors and background paper. And its really simple to make! And if I say that it must be true...remember, I am box-challenged. Onto the sneak peek...

We will be using gorgeous papers from My Mind's Eye's Lush line along with a variety a butterflies and stamps to make the cards. We will even be using a stamp or 2 from one of our brand new Companies, Clear and Simple Stamps. I must say that I just stamped one of their stamps for the first time yesterday and I love it! High quality photopolymer that stamps beautifully. I hope you can join me!

Cindy

New Basic Grey!!!! Max & Whiskers

Don't let the name fool 'ya! Max  & Whiskers is not just for pets. I loved the colors for a layout of my teenage son and his friends at a Bonfire party. I layered three of the prints as they all worked together beautifully atop Basic Grey's solid cardstock. A few borders trimmed from the black LASERCUT DOILIES served to frame my layout. Don't you just love an alphabet that is sooo perfect it actually makes the layout? That's how I felt about the ALPHA CHIP STICKERS from the line. The BASICS LABEL STICKERS in kraft were used for journaling spots as well as mats for my titles. Haven't seen Basic Grey's new Basics line? The possibilities are endless!!

Bird In a Gilded Cage

Here is another card using our awesome DT papers this month from Basic Grey. Again, my choice was Capella because it just speaks to my soul. For this card I used the Tim Holtz Caged Bird die and cut the cage from gold cardstock (hence the "gilded"). I cut the bird from blue and used brown for the bird's branch. I stamped my Capella paper with Hero Arts's Old Writing background in Adirondack Hazelnut ink because I wanted my image to be there but be subtle at the same time, and the Hazelnut ink gave it a great softness. I edged my bird, Capella paper, and cream paper in Memento Summer Sky ink, and added gold Dew Drops to the open areas on the birdcage. Last but not least was some ribbon. Hey, it wouldn't be a card from me without ribbon, right?

All in all this card came together very quickly. I could probably keep going overboard by adding some flowers and some Stickles and I even thought about a hat pin and some beads too but can't remember where I buried them in my stash (who doesn't do that??), however I decided to stop here and not overwhelm the card any further.

Some cards call for lots of added "foo-foo" and some call for being clean and simple. I felt like this was a foo-foo card. One of the great things about cardmaking is that you don't have to keep yourself in one creative "box" so to speak. I like making cards in all different styles, from very artsy to cute to elegant to clean and simple. Let the images and the paper speak to you and see where they take you. You might just surprise yourself!

Hope you like it!

Cindy

The Good Life

Yes, I agree that the new line by Basic Grey, Max & Whiskers, is too flippin' cute for words. I just had to do a layout of my hounds, because as you all know, I am one of THOSE people who scrap their pets!! I came up with the title of The Good Life after looking at the pictures that I had to work with....my dogs sure do have it good. No suffering from them! Just to make things a little more interesting, I put my journaling strip on vertically rather than horizontally to shake it up! I love to use different colors of ink when I journal on the computer--here I used brown, but it gives it a little more pop! See you soon! Lisa H.

(Tracy merged the two layouts backwards, opps)

Autumn in Maryland

This new line by Basic Grey, called Max & Whiskers, obviously has adorable pet papers in it, but when I looked at it, I was struck by how awesome the papers would be for a fall layout! I have been holding on to these pictures of the family raking leaves in Oct.'08 and knew the BG papers would be perfect for it!! I love the fall tones to the papers and used just a few rubons by Heidi Swapp to complete the layout. See you at the store soon! Lisa H.

Capella cards

Oh my, I just love our DT paper this month!! Of all the wonderful BG paper, Capella spoke to my soul. I love the colors and the elegance, how you can make it look so different...sophisticated, shabby chic, masculine. I've made 3 cards so far using a variety of stamps (Stampendous and Hero Arts), pearls by Memory Box and Kaiser, butterflies by Spellbinders and Martha Stewart, and inks like Distress and Memento. I hope to make a few more today but the laundry machine beckons me...

Cindy

BASIC GREY is in the HOUSE!

Hi everyone! Lisa Hetrick here. So, this month...the design team is showcasing the NEW BASIC GREY. Um... HELLO! Can you say WAHOO! I'm loving the new lines. BASICS White and Manilla and CAPPELLA Simple, clean, blacks, browns, journal bit and baubles. AND... the CAPPELLA LINE. LOVE IT. Lots and LOTS of uses for these vintage-italian inspired papers and embellishments.

So... most of you all know how much I LOVE KRAFT. In fact, I LOVE it so much I tend to use it ALOT in classes, etc. These new lines are full of my favorite KRAFT.

This month's project share just kind of took on a life of it's own. I went all CAPELLA and created this mini album for Mother's Day. Just a little mini album to capture this Mother's Day memories with my family. Just me and my kiddies... and of course the hubs.

This album is LOADED with Capella papers and embellishments. AND... true to paying homage to TIM HOLTZ, I used a lot of the new Distress inks and perfect pearls. YUMMO! New HERO ARTS Artist Proofs stamps and Hero and Unity butterfly stamps, Stampendous birdcage stamps, New SIZZIX die to create the flowers on the front. LOVE THIS DIE. You can create 3-D flowers with it. It's FABBY!

Sizzix 3-D Flower die:And, of course, some Unity and Hero Arts sentiments to finish it off. BUT.... I have to share my new favorite TOY. A must have for all papercrafters who LOVE to make their own books... THIS is the absolute BEST! As always, you can get all these goodies and MORE in the STORE.

Ok, so here's my project share. My "they call me MOM" mini album. ENJOY! If you have questions about the project, feel free to email me at lhddesign@comcast.net

Here's the cover:
Here are the inside pages:

Happy CREATING! Lisa :)

What rhymes with May?

What rhymes with May? Basic Grey! And that is what we get to play with this month for Design Team. BG came out with 3 great releases as Tracy already mentioned, and we should have some great projects coming your way over the next week. Keep watching and be sure to visit the Design Team wall in the store!

Cindy

New Design Team wall of inspiration May 2010

Hi Everyone,

We received a huge BasicGrey shipment in this week.  Three new lines, Capella, Max & Whiskars and Basics.  We love them so much we couldn't decide on just one line.  I predict lots of BasicGrey inspiration in your future.