Puppy Pals: Kali and Ryan

Hello! I'm on the Paper Issues blog with the Secret Life of Pets
 is always a fun challenge to capture the cuteness!

My seven year old absolutely adores spending time with our friend's

 mini-petite golden doodle.  They definitely enjoy

 each other's company and all the extra attention that comes along with it!

The Carta Bella Our House woodgrain heart paper was the perfect color to coordinate with the focal point of a pet page--the puppy!  I also love that Carta Bella is such a thick textured paper that I could rough up the edges because what puppy doesn't like to tear stuff up! The rough stitched layered edges also bring in more texture and dimension to the page besides the heart cut file in the center!

If you haven't gotten a Paper Issues swag bag, be sure to check them out each month.

Be warned- they sell out quickly once they hit the shop!

  It made coordinating this page design come together soooo quickly. 

 I adore these monthly kits that are so full of items to use immediately! 

I used the February swag bag kit for the photo paper layers and the embellishments. 

The hearts in the Love You Hearts cut file were watercolored

 to match the variated striped Heidi Swapp Color Fresh paper border.

 I add watercolor, dry it with a heat tool, then reapply lighter

 and darker colors in various spots immediately drying

 to minimize warping. The final step was flicking water onto the paint

 and letting that do its magic of taking away color in those spots.

Have you tried it?  If not, get out those paints and play!!

  It adds such cool colorations and subtle design within the cut file. 

 Next, I used white cardstock that was painted using the packaging technique

 and then backed the cut file with it. I popped the whole cut file with foam dots.

I adore that I could tuck two 3x4 pics on this page and they fit right into the cut file hearts!

I love that the sweet wooden Pinkfresh alphas that are in the

  December Hard Candy PI scrapbook kit, and how they worked so well

 with this design.  I added some white acrylic paint splatters to

 the background and called this design done! 

I think it speaks to the sweetness of these two!

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you're inspired to get creating!

Stop by the Paper Issues Facebook group to play along with the

 Secret Life of Pets and all of the other March challenges!

While you are browsing the Paper Issues store, 

grab all of the new items that were just added and save 20% with code: Stacie

Oh Snow Happy

Today I am up on the Paper Issues blog with their January Sketch and I absolutely LOVE this sketch.  I stayed pretty true to the sketch, but added the patterned Carta Bella woodgrain snow border because it was too good of a paper not to use more of it!
Here's my take on the sketch:

I started off with big drops of white pearl acrylic paint and let that dry while

 I was cutting snowflakes from several Paper Issues free cut files. (Drop Down Stitching, Winter Wisdom, Very Merry Holiday, and Snowflake Grid.)

The beautiful January sketch from Paper Issues:

Have you cut apart Thicker words to create your own?  For this title, if you look closely, I cut the word snow from three different words and it saved me from finding alpha stickers to coordinate!

I love capturing fresh snowfall pictures and printing them in black and white.  

This lended itself to being a neutral monochromatic design.  

The white on white background was a fun change from using lots of color.

 By slightly lifting/lightly gluing the snowflakes, 

they provide depth and texture behind the focus of the photos!

Also, be sure to grab the 3-dimensional snowflakes from Crate Paper FaLaLa collection

 from the PI store, I adore the pop it adds to the snowflakes on the page!

I can't wait to see your take on this month's sketch!  

Swap out the snowflakes for hearts, circles...what else can you add to your background?

Join in on the fun in the PI Facebook group.

The January challenges are sure to spark your creative juices.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Now, onto shopping!!

Stop by the Paper Issues store to check out

 all of the new collections and download free cut files, too!

The best part--everything you purchase is 20% with 

code: Stacie 

Travel- Stick It To Me!

I'm up on the Paper Issues blog today  with the Stick it To Me challenge and it's a super special day, it's my wedding anniversary! Brian and I have been married 19 years today.  He is patient with me and all of my photos (ok, most of them) I stop to take and keeps me laughing.  Here's me hogging the window seat on our Spring Break flight to capture the scenery from the skies!

See the how to on my previous blog post on watercolors with the packaging technique.  This is the project I was creating the background for in the tutorial photos!

Since this was the sticker challenge, I was all about using as many stickers from the Carta Bella Pack your Bags collection and others from an older travel collection, Pink Paislee Atlas. When layering stickers, I prefer to use the tone on tone style so they coordinate and don't end up being messy/distracting from the background layer.

Here's a few more close ups to see the stickers and watercolor background. You can also see how I layered the watercolor stripes to the solid white cardstock and the arrow patterned paper.  This helped to make it lay flat and it wasn't as warped as it had been without the backing!

I added foam ahesive to some of the stickers to add depth and layers. It was a fun challenge to use only stickers as the focus of the design.  I hope you give this one a try before August 5th.  It is a great way to use up your sticker stash and find coordinating pieces to match your paper, photos, or background.

Don't forget to stop by the Paper Issues store for all of your paper crafting needs. 

 We love seeing your awesome designs so tag us on social media!  

Post your projects for July challenges in the Facebook group. 

 Never know when your design entry gets picked to win the monthly gift cards!

You can play along through August 5th.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Which Kraft? Beautifall Moments

Today it's all about a new issue at Paper Issues.  The new theme to play along with: Which Kraft? 

Go check out the Paper Issues blog for all of the details in what this issue is all about! 

 I was inspired to use the cork Thickers and a woodgrain cut file (as close to kraft paper as I got!). This photo of my crew is all about life in October.  

Falling leaves and sunny skies are our favorites in fall!

Here's my take using new Carta Bella Hello Fall and a PI cut file.

Carta Bella Hello Fall paper and woodgrain paper to use for PI cut file were the base to build this fall design. Lots of foam adhesive to pop up the cut file against the Shimmerz mixed media splatters. The wooden leaves were included in a PI swag bag kit from last fall. I was hoarding them for the perfect project. This sure worked!

 The cork-look Thickers worked for the new issue prompts to use cork, kraft, or other natural products. The Hello Fall papers were the perfect mix of patterns for backing the flower cut file.

 I hope your October is full of festive photos and moments that capture this beautiful season of changes!

Save 20% on everything that you purchase on Paper Issues.com

Code: Stacie can be used each time you order.

Together

There's a new issue at Paper Issues and it's called.... "Let's Give Them Pumpkin to Talk About" and that was a go sign to me to bust out the autumn collections for my project. I love this sweet family photo and it was the perfect reason to use the PI Rings of Life cut file.

I stuck with lots of Carta Bella's Hello Fall and grabbed the script gold foil foam Thickers from one canoe two and small gold Thickers from Maggie Holmes Carousel collection.

The Paper Issues free file wood slice cut file background made a great base to layer the photo and title. This photo was each family member's hand and a leaf we had picked-it is truly a family tree!

The small lowercase foam Thickers from Maggie Holmes Carousel collection have a soft green foam layer which picks up the green in the photo background. You can see how some of the tree rings I chose to leave unglued to provide more dimension and shadows. The Carta Bella cardstock stickers and Fall Forest tree paper made this design come together.

I love using the natural outline of the shape to place my longer title. I love using two fonts of Thickers alpha to accentuate certain words in a longer phrase. This soft patterned background paper is the perfect way to look at a background as your light neutral to build layers on!

I hope you'll get in the Fall spirit and join us at Paper Issues for this newest issue.

If you need new Fall collections--check out at Paper Issues for all the latest!  

Save 20% with code: Stacie   This saves you on your entire order.

Toy Box: Sweet Dreams of Dinosaurs

A new product spotlight is on the blog at Paper Issues.  Go check out new Carta Bella Toy Box.  It is in the shop and the colors are bright and fun.  I also combined the new June Swag Bag with this as it had several papers from Toy Box.  I love adding the little bits that coordinated with this collection.  PI Swag bags for the win on embellies!

I added white gesso around the circle center before layering more circles and stitching. This helped to anchor my title onto a busy backgound paper and provided a white space for my journaling.  I used the PI swag bag for June to add the twine, stars, and layers of paper under the photo.  **Grab one now while it is still in stock.  I love a swag bag full of PI awesomeness each month!

Carta Bella has the most amazing paper texture.  It is truly thick and durable to add mixed media onto! The ephemera pieces helped to tell my playful story.

I can't wait to see how you use Carta Bella's new Toy Box collection.  I was happy to use it on a non-playing type of a page.  It worked to tell the story of Ryan's lengthy nap time at school and how he loves this particular spot in the room with the dinosaur protecting him!

Save 20% off Carta Bella Toy Box 

and everything else (including the awesome Swag Bag)!!  

Use my code: Stacie

You Send My Heart Into Orbit Take 5 Tuesday

I love our monthly challenges at Paper Issues, and Take 5 Tuesday is up there as one of my favorites!
I love Mary Ann's challenge list of items to use each month in your project.  

Here's what I picked from the December list:
  1. Blue 2. White 10. mist/paint 12. Alpha Stickers 13. stickers I used the new Carta Bella Space Academy.

 I love the thickness of the paper and how both sides of the paper have fun patterns or text about space!  This journaling cards paper worked fabulous with the free cut file.  I love how it looks like it's bursting right out of the sky!

I used Elle's Studio alpha stickers for my long title.   I used lots of Space Academy ephemera and stickers for my dimension and space details.  I cut the cut file out of this spectacular paper.

Thanks for looking and happy creating!  

We can't wait to see all of your creative designs for Take 5 Tuesday in the Facebook PIFF group and on Instagram.  

Go check out Carta Bella in the Paper Issues store.  Save 20% with code: Stacie 

Paper Issues: Roll the Dice

 Hello, here's a summer title with pictures from December!  What??? Yes, it's all about the "summer" weather when it's 90 degrees for Christmas vacation!  Read below for details on the newest challenge at Paper Issues: Roll the Dice.

  Roll the Dice is on the Paper Issues blog with this month's dice roll being 2 pictures and 5 patterned papers.  I used Carta Bella Beach Day for my layout.  I LOVE how textured and heavy the Carta Bella paper is.  It is perfect for summer and vacation photos you have laying around after a busy summer!

This mega title cut file was from Ashley Horton's class in Big Picture Classes.  It was meant for a mini book, but I was all about hand stitching on it and making it larger for this challenge!

To keep the photos the focus along with the fun title, I kept the 5 patterned papers as a minimalist design element.  See how I snuck in the paper's tear strips?  It worked in well to the layout design without overwhelming it!

Thanks for checking out the details on the PI blog Roll the Dice for September at Paper Issues.  I hope you will try it out and join us by posting your creation in Paper Issues Fans and Friends (PIFF) on Facebook. As always, if you want to shop (you know you do!!) use code: Stacie to save 20% on your purchase.

Magical Memories

Paper Issues offers free cut files in their online shop and this one is their circles and stars file.  The sparkly sequin paper is from Carta Bella.  To make the background varied, I layered various circles cut from Studio Calico kit papers.  The Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Open Book Collection Gold glitter Thickers were used in the title for "Memories" and the hearts to connect the three photos.  Enamel dots and sequins were used to create clusters at different places in the LO.  Journaling fit right along the diecut border.  Sewing around some of the circles on the background die cut added texture and interest to the stars.  Chip and Dale coordinate perfectly with this star-studded LO for our Hollywood Studios trip.