Nature Spotlight

It is definitely time to be spending as much time as possible outdoors!  We have the spotlight on all things outdoors on the Paper Issues blog.  Here's my favorite time outdside in summer--being on the lake!

I used the new Photo Play Paper Lakeside to document a sunset boat cruise at my parent's lake home.
Lakeside is definitely a fun collection mixed with Campfire to make summer adventures come to life!

The cut file title Lake Life was cut on white and I used gesso to help it with not getting warped with mixed media.  I next mixed watercolors-blues and black to get a blue that coordinated with the lake color. You can find the cut file here for free.

I love this fun lake map paper called Hidden Lakes.  I also cut the layered circles out of the badges Campfire grid paper to use as an embellishment.

I hope you'll check out the Paper Issue store for both of Photo Play's new outdoor collections and so many more outdoor papers such as woodgrain that could be the perfect way to document outdoor adventures!

Stash Busters

It's a new year and we are up on the blog at Paper Issues with a new issue: Stash Busters!

It's time to bust through your stash and create something new with it all.  I loved this LEGO paper from Photo Play, My Imagination papers and had never used it.

I went with stash busting my new pack of My Imagination papers from Photo Play Paper.  I also have a Thicker obsession and found that these coordinated well!  I had wanted to use the Photo Play Awesome sticker and this was perfecct opportunity to tie it into my title.

I ran out of e's, but that didn't stop me from using these!  The @ sign made a great makeshift e and told everyone where we were at!  Stashbusting makes you stretch what you'd normally do!

I definitely put a dent in my stash of foam adhesive too, I wanted the layers of Photo Play papers and stickers to appear stacked like Legos would look when you are building! This paper that has the 6x6 squares of PP works so well for building layers as you get 5 patterns on a page!

My youngest two loved this trip to Legoland FL as we had been to the CA location and they loved comparing the two parks.  Having the Lego Movie characters there was a hightlight!

I love the Amy Tangerine round Thickers for this LO as the color worked great, but also it ties in the Lego block circles into the title.

Thanks for taking a peek into my stashbusting LO process.  I hope you will dig into something you have sitting around and make it work!  Also, use up those alpha and Thickers you have sitting around.  Get creative with how you use them!

Save 20% on all the new things at the Paper Issues Store with my code: Stacie

You know, reward yourself for being a stashbuster!!

Photo Play Snowball Fight

Today we are showcasing the fun Photo Play collections on the Paper Issues blog.  The newest lines are so full of color and fun prints!  I went with Snowball Fight for my layout today.  The green color is beautiful to work with and it's close to the new Pantone color of the year for design!  Also, grab this free cut file from Paper Issues.  It is great for snowy pictures or so many other ideas as shown on the Cut It Up challenge this month.

I chose Snowball Fight for this fun winter memory of my daughter just wanting enough snow to build a snowman.  Instead, there wasn't enough so we snapped pictures and she headed out to play on the pond.  Isn't life always about the photo op?

Here are some close ups:

  I used vellum and some pop dots to lift the picture off of the patterned paper and messy circles free cut file background.  It gives it a softer edge and makes it feel like the snow is carried right off of the picture. Also, hello punny stickers from Photo Play!

   I wanted a bit of color on the white background cut file, so I scattered blue watercolor splatters all over it to coordinate with the snowmen paper peeking through the openings.

I love watercolor droplets and enamel dots/puffy stickers.  These are from Fancy Pants Designs and they coordinate so well with Photo Play!

I hope you stocked up during the last few sales and have Photo Play in your stash to create with this winter!  This collection makes winter and snow pictures come to life with all of the bright colors!

Thanks so much for looking!  I hope you are having an amazing week.

If you'd like to shop at Paper Issues--my code is always a great one to use:  Stacie

Cards

I loved the tree stamps and made the paper take on a vintage look by dragging the edge of a inked paper from an ink pad over the card.

I double stamped the title in red and black.

Using Photo Play paper to make a 40th birthday card.

More 40th birthday card images.