Photo Expressions

Creative Corner with My Mind's Eye

 

 Here's another great layout from My Mind's Eye, using their Penny Lane collection. Click on the image to go to a pdf with full instructions that you can print out!

Creative Corner with Marilee

When Marilee brought this gorgeous advent calendar into the store last week....well, I was simply blown away! Her attention to detail and her perfectly placed embellishments absolutely blew me away!

She used the advent calendar box by Kaisercraft and then painted, embellished, blinged, glittered, layered, and anything else you can imagine...she did it! Can you imagine receiving something like this for a gift?! Simply fabulous :-)

I asked Marilee for a quick blurb of her process and here's what she had to share...

"This was the kit from Kaisercraft.  It came as a flat pack that had to be separated and the edges sanded to remove the “blips” from the way they were cut.  I did not use acrylic paints on the wood as I thought that the liquid might cause the MDF to swell and not fit in the pre-cut slots, so I bought some spray enamel paint to use and then sanded between coats to give it a nicer finish.  The little boxes were made of chipboard and also came flat, unassembled which made painting the insides easier.I made up one of the small boxes and then wrapped it like a Christmas gift and then used the creases to design a template for my Silhouette so that every box would be cut and covered the exact same way – it was easier than trying to cut each one by hand.

I don’t really remember what the papers were other than they were what you had in store that was foil and shiny and a couple of scrap pieces that I had in my stash. I glued in a piece of flocked snowflake vellum because I didn’t like the blank section behind the picture frame and I thought that it would just have a more finished look.  I also glued a full 12 x 12 piece of Christmas paper to the back to cover up the slots that the shelves etc were glued into.

I bought an acrylic picture frame with a magnet on the back and glued in a metal disc so that the picture could be changed out each year.  The stars were just from the dollar store I think and the Fa-la-la I found at Michael’s and then cut and glued a couple brackets on the back so that it would stand up.

The numbers(chipboard) came with the kit and I spray-painted them with the same paint that I used on the MDF frame but I also bought some silver glitter Thickers because the red numbers didn’t show up well on some of the papers with red backgrounds. Then I put some decorations on each of the boxes to glitz them up a bit and added pearl around the frame. I probably made it a whole lot more work than needed to be done but you know me...a little over the top!"

Wouldn't this make a wonderful gift as a baby's first Christmas present?! Or a stunning display on your side board in the dining room.These advent calendars are currently out of stock, but if you email me at kate@photoexpressions.ca and let me know that you want one, I'll be sure to call you as soon as they're back in stock.

Thank you so much for sharing, Marilee!

Creative Corner with Kate

Looking for a unique Christmas card? Here's Kate's idea! The perfect way to remind people to focus on the real 'reason for the season'. Or use it as an invitation for an afternoon tea to celebrate friendship during this crazy time of year.

And remember, we're here to help you out with the stress of the season! We have tons of different gift ideas for everyone in your life, from kids to grandparents. We can set up a wish list for you, take care of shopping orders over the phone, and we'll even gift wrap your order for free!

Mantel Magic for the Holidays

via www.bhg.com

Saw this on BHG. This would be so cute using the snowflake die cuts in our Accucut center. You could cut them from the sparkly glitter paper, or chipboard and paper to make a pretty, inexpensive decoration for your home. Instructions here. Take this idea also and do the same things with a mitten die, or Christmas tree die etc etc.

Creative Corner with Tanya

I have been flipping through a couple of magazines lately and have found myself looking at some of the layouts and thinking “You know, I wish I could get more people to realize that they too can create the same layouts that are published, in their own scrapbooks!”  So I have decided to prove to you guys that page maps are really easy to follow and more importantly … “scrap lifting” is perfectly legal and such an easy and inspirational way to get your pages done!

This first installment is taken from a page that Ali Edwards just had published in the November 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes.  For the most part, her layout is all white with a hint of blue in her title. I liked how really simple her page was but at the same time it packed a visual punch.  I decided that I wanted to re-create it. 

So I recruited Renee and, using the silver glitter paper from Best Creations, she cut the giant snowflake for my first page using the Silhouette.  I used the stores snowflake dies and our die cut center to cut the smaller snowflakes for my second page.  I used the “Storybook” alphabet for “SNOW” and the “Stardust” alphabet for “Angels” (both alphabets from QuickKutz), added a little pink bling and some gorgeous pictures of my two girls and my nieces and DONE!

See, now wasn't that easy?! Stay tuned for more scraplifting ideas soon!

~ Tanya ~

Creative Corner with Hero Arts

Here's another great video from Hero Arts showing you Laura Griffiin's assembly-line Christmas card idea. This card involves stamping, embossing and Spellbinders.

Creative Corner with Hero Arts

You've got to check this video out!! Hero Arts shows you some great stamping techniques including a super cute Christmas Tree card using Metallic Decor stickers, the QuickStik pen from QuicKutz, and Copic Markers. Take a look!

Creative Corner with QuicKutz

QuicKutz' website has tons of fabulous ideas for using their brand new Santa's Workshop Gift Set, including their accessory dies. Here's just a sampling of what you'll find on their site:

Creative Corner with Hero Arts

Vendor blogs and websites are a wonderful way to gather ideas and inspiration for your upcoming projects. Hero Arts' website and blog are always full of wonderful ideas! Here are 3 cards posted on their blog that I think you're gonna love!

Created by Leslie Lightfoot, this card uses a totally unique colour scheme to celebrate the season. I love her multi layers and variety of techniques including border punching, layering and stamping.

 

This card was designed by Tami Hartley and instructions can be found here.

 

And I love this lil' one from teamwarner:

Liquid Appliqué

We just brought in a new shipment of White Liquid Appliqué for your Christmas cards. Here's a blog entry that I came across with a super tutorial on how to use it!

by Cheryl Bosarge ~  lennydavinci.blogspot.com
(thank you, Cheryl, for permission to use this article!)

Liquid Applique is really so easy I probably don't need to give you directions here, but since it might be helpful to see before and after photos, just in case you've never used it, here's a brief tutorial.

For my moo card, I first stamped some snow people onto white card stock. That tube of Liquid Applique in the photo below doesn't appear to be white, but I remembered buying white, so I went ahead and tried it anyway.

Next, I simply added the tiniest bit of Liquid Applique to the snowflakes and along the bottoms of the snow people.

Here's what it looks like (below) when it's still wet. Now, the package says you can heat set it right away to puff it up, or for best results you can let it dry overnight before heating it. I decided to let it dry overnight so I could move on to some other things.

The next day, I heated it with my heat embossing tool until it was puffy. You don't want to do this too long, because I've heard that it will scorch. I was pleased to see the Liquid Applique become much whiter after drying and heating.

To complete my gift tag, I added some color with Prismacolor pencils, and put some color into the background with a blender pen and blue ink. If you intend to do much coloring with pencils, you might want to do that before you add Liquid Applique, because it's hard to color around lumpy stuff.

To complete the tag/moo card, I trimmed the piece down and glued it to red card stock, then added a tiny eyelet and a silver cord (as pictured in the photo at the top)

S T A M P I N '   T I P S

• Use liquid applique to add dimension and realism to your artwork, such as icing for a cake, puffy fur on bears, bunnies and other animals, snow covered pines, realistic sunflower centers and cattails, or black "hairy" spiders and bugs.

• Extra fine glitter can be added to liquid applique before or after heating to add sparkle.

• Add color to puffed up white liquid applique by dampening it slightly with water and a brush Dab off excess water with a paper towel, and paint on diluted pigment ink or Marvy marker ink. Or rub dry finished applique with metallic rubons or chalk for soft shading.

• Create a background of leather-like consistency which can be stamped. Apply liquid applique in one or more colors to the card and roll it out into a thin layer with a rubber brayer. Cover the whole surface of the card. Heat evenly. Use for layers, punched shapes, or an entire card background.

Creative Corner with Hero Arts

Here's a great video from Hero Arts on paper tearing techniques. This is such a simple and yet effective technique for adding depth and dimension to your papercrafting projects.

Creative Corner with Stampendous

I came across this card sample on the Stampendous website and thought it was a great idea for using the plethora of flourish stamps I seem to have accumulated over the last year! Here are some basic instructions:

1.  Fold an 8 1/2" X 5 1/2" panel of Lemonade card stock in half to form card base.
2. Stamp small flower image over top half of card with VersaMark ink to form background.
3. Stamp Flower Swirl in VersaMark ink on a 5 1/2" X 3" panel of Atlantic and emboss with Midnight Black Embossing Powder.
4. Cut off top of blue panel along edge of swirl and flowers. Adhere to front of folded card.
5. Emboss center flower again in black on lemonade card stock and on white card stock. Cut flower out of Lemonade and center of flower out of white. Glue together
6. Apply yellow flower to center of blue flower with dimensional foam adhesive.
7. Stamp small flower and greeting on yellow area of card with Versafine ink.

Creative Corner with Paper Craft Planet

Another great idea gratefully borrowed from Paper Craft Planet. For easiest viewing, click on the 'fullscreen' button just below this paragraph and then use the scroll button down the side of the panel and the controls at the bottom of the screen to move through the tutorial. Enjoy!

 

Creative Corner with Gail

One of our regular customers, Gail, brought in this gorgeous sample of a Christmas card she made using one of the Thomas Kinkade stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms. Often people will shy away from these stamps because they look too intricate and intimidating. But Gail created this stunning card in just a matter of a few steps!!

• She stamped the image on cream cardstock using a dark brown ink. She distressed the edges of her cardstock with the same ink pad.
• Then she used a variety of coloured pencils to add colour to various areas of the image such as the windows, the woman's skirt, the present, lampost, etc.
• As a finishing touch, Gail added just a touch of glitter to the edges of the house and along some of the tree branches (not visible in this scan, but definitely worth the extra minute of work!)

Once the image was complete, Gail mounted it onto a cardstock card and added a bit of twine and accent pieces in the top left corner to finish it off.

Thanks so much Gail for sharing with us!

Creative Corner with Kate

Oh my goodness! I am in love with this technique so I simply had to share it with you! It's a tutorial on creating fall leaves for your papercrafting projects, by Paper Craft Planet. If you're a stamper, you'll probably have all the supplies needed already. And this technique could be applied to lots of different stamps. Take a look!

For easiest viewing, click on the 'fullscreen' button just below this paragraph and then use the controls at the bottom of the screen to move through the tutorial. Enjoy!