Personalize Your Pages

Hello!  I am excited to have my first blog post up today on the Paper Issues blog.  I love to find new ways to use the things I buy and today I am sharing how to personalize your projects with title details and background ideas!

It is sometimes hard to use up all of the ephemera pieces that come with a collection.  I wanted to use several pieces from the new Amy Tangerine Oh Happy Life collection to add details and interest throughout my layout.  Since my daughter was looking over the top of her glasses at the newly fallen hail after a summer storm, I put the glasses from the ephemera in the word 'Look'.  I also used the acetate word crazy as it still allows you to see the hand stitched cloud below it.

I bought the Amy Tangerine stamps and wanted to use the cloud as a background paper design.  I used her 11AM patterned paper as a guide to picking my ink colors and making the white on white stitched clouds as a texture and fun design element to mix up the stamping.  I stamped a cloud on a scrap and cut it out to create my template for where to poke holes for stitching.  I use the Amy Tangerine Embroidery kit to poke the holes and love the foam pad that goes under the paper I am working on.

Stitching is great to do while catching up on your favorite tv series or movie!  It does take a bit of time, but I love the added look they give a layout.

I used the die cut tag as a layer under my photo as a pop of white to draw the eye into the photo detail of the hail.  I added several clear stickers throughout the page from the sticker booklet. I also added a little bitty puffy cloud sticker up at the top to draw attention to the top of the title.  Using a mix of fonts, textures, and alpha stickers can bring colors from the layout together and create a unique look.

Thanks for taking a peek today at how I add to my pages and use my supplies to personalize my page to my photos!  Get all of these Amy Tangerine products and more at Paper Issues with my 20% off code: Stacie

Scraplift Sunday

Today we are on the PIFF group scraplifting Elodie's beautiful stitched heart and fussy cut heart layout.  I decided to cut into my Amy Tangerine Oh Happy Life stash and created this version.

I used the embroidery kit from Amy Tangerine to poke the holes in a flower shape similar to the paper.  I then stitched the flowers with white thread.  I love the white on white look!   I filled it with flower and leaf cut outs from the Good Morning patterned paper.  

I added the Oh Happy Life clear sticker title and Amy Tangerine paper tag die cut.

I added drops of India ink, stamped the date, and called this layout done.

Thanks for checking it out!  Don't forget to add your creation to the Facebook group:  Paper Issues Friends & Fans or tag Paper Issues on Instagram or Twitter.  If you are shopping at Paper Issues don't forget to go for 20% off with code: Stacie

Pawsitively Pets at Paper Issues

Thank you for stopping by to check out Pawsitively Pets at Paper Issues. For anyone that knows me, you know we do not have pets! However, we have many family and friends who give us plenty of animal loving time so we aren't left out!  For this challenge, I stuck with our giraffe pictures from the Naples, FL Zoo.  We loved watching the kids feed the giraffes their lettuce!

For this challenge, you are to use something you've been hoarding in your stash, and something new to you!  I used the new Amy Tangerine Oh Happy Life collection for the paper elements and the coordinating stamp to do an embossing technique with a gold watercolor wash.  This enabled me to create my own patterned paper to mimic the look of giraffe spots.

After stamping and embossing the giraffes on the white cardstock, I flipped over the cardstock and added gesso in the area of the stamped giraffes.  *Important this is added on the backside of the paper not over the top of your stamped images! This helps to create a barrier for the paper and decreases the warping of the paper.  Next, was adding the watercoloring:  

I love how the water beads up over the embossed image giving the giraffe spots!  I stitched down the bold chevron/angled paper next.

I also added the foam Thickers, ephemera, stickers, and even the packaging flap for the sticker booklet became a layer for my picture.  The "Remember" is from an Amy Tangerine Better Together transparency that I finally cut into and used!  Also, the roller stamp is the cutest with the rows of hearts!

I hope you'll check out the Paper Issues blog post and play along at Paper Issues Fans and Friends on Facebook.  We would love to see your pet or animal inspired layouts mixed with the challenge details!

If you want to try a project using Amy Tangerine's new collection Oh Happy Life, Cassie has it in the Paper Issues store.  You can get it for 20% off using my code: Stacie