One Day Sale Means 40% off at MyGrafico.com!

What is so special about February 27th? It is a one day Customer Appreciation sale at MyGrafico.com. You can save 40% off on your favorite sets of mine or any of the other designers. Here is a direct link to my shop so you can browse all of my designs. Happy shopping! Gotta love a sale!

Amazing blog candy from my friend Melissa!

My friend Melissa has an exciting giveaway...yes, yummy blog candy for those who love to sew! Check out her blog to comment and win. I know that I am entering. I need a new sewing machine so I can stitch on my creations, too! I have posted the details from her post below...

♥ Candy for U! ♥

I appreciate every single one of your special comments that you all leave for me! Paper crafters are the sweetest people! So in return, I like to be able to have these awesome giveaways for you. I know the feeling of winning something, and it feels good! I love to make people happy and smile. So this is for all of you!

How about this!! Woo-Hoo!

~ Brother CP-7500 Computerized Sewing Machine

~ 1 Sew Easy Tool (Love these)

~ Sew Easy Mat

~ Sew Easy Thread in Pinks and Blues

All you have to do is~  (THESE ARE INSTRUCTIONS COPIED FROM HER BLOG)

1. Leave me a comment on this post telling me if you like to sew on your cards and scrapbook pages
2. Tell everyone on your blog about my giveaway. Don't have a blog? Just tell me how you will spread the word.
And for an extra chance! Become a friend/follower of my blog. Already a friend? Then you have 2 chances automatically!

Good luck everyone! I told you this giveaway was gonna be a fun one!! I will leave this open until Friday, March 11th!

YOU MUST COMMENT ON HER BLOG, NOT MINE, FOR A CHANCE TO WIN THIS, 

(but it is always nice to receive comments on my blog from you, too! ;D)

Project 365 Challenge/Days 49-51 What’s Swirly, Sweet & Lovely?

What’s Swirly? Day 49 brings swirly flourishes. This is a collection that I have been working on of flourish brushes and svg files. It always seems that I can never find the right flourish element when creating a card or scrapbook page, so why not create a set of my own where I can have lots of fun ones to choose from. I can’t wait to use these large scale diecut elements on layouts and smaller size on cards. I already have plans to use them on my Glue Arts design team project later this week so be sure to keep an eye on their blog.

The end result of my designing is one of my latest releases on www.mygrafico.com called Swirly QZ’s. Just imagine pairing the svg files with patterned papers, digital or traditional or using the brush art to create flourishes of any color, texture or pattern. Pair these with florals, buttons, brads and more to create your own fun card and page embellishments!

What is Sweet? On Day 50 I paired hand-cut flowers from Crate Paper’s Restoration collection CS along with one of their coordinating chipboard designs and Stampin’ Up’s 5 petal flower punch for leaves to create this Sweet Cup of Friendship card. I chose to use this background patterned paper from Stampin’ Up’s Springtime Vintage collection to compliment the florals and add a soft vintage look to this card. I distressed the edges and dragged old olive ink over them. The verse is an old favorite of mine from a retired SU set. I stamped it in the same color ink, tore the soft vanilla CS and layered over Pear Pizazz seam binding with thin pink ribbon tied over the bow. I used a small chipboard flower over top of the verse and ribbon and finished off this card with a little rhinestone bling added to some of the flowers. I used my Glue Glider Pro with high tac adhesive for adhering most of the layers and used raise 'ns to pop up and add dimension to some of the flower bouquet.



What is lovely? On day 51, I created this Whole Lotta Love Card using paper leftovers from my keepsake box project featuring Fancy Pants Designs Love Birds cardstock. I used some diecut circle leftovers to create the layered paper flower with button. You may recognize the twine I threaded though the button on top of this card. It is from the Twinery. I tied a bow, then snipped the loops and trimmed the ends to create this feathery, bow. For fast card creations, you can use patterned papers like this one to cut out verses, phrases or to use as an overall background. Easy to create in a few minutes and perfect for any occasion you want to send someone you love a card.

Celebrate Life...here and gone

Today is a bittersweet kind of day. It was my Aunt Floss’s birthday, and is now her granddaughter, Brooke’s. I feel a bit of sadness being reminded that my wonderful aunt isn’t here with us, but her spirit and memory lives in my heart. And the joy of the day is that Brooke celebrates her very first birthday. You may have remembered me working on her birthday invitations. Well now that they are all mailed out and her party is this weekend, I can finally share with you the labors of love put in to creating these cards. The final version includes an embossed CS layer, many punched items, rhinestone flames on the candle with glitter glue sprinkles on top of the cupcake. If you scroll down you can see how I coordinated the invitations and envelopes to go with the party goods that Kelly selected.

Happy 1st Birthday, beautiful Brooke!

Project 365 Challenge/Day 48 - A Berry Sweet 16 Card

With so many of my daughters’ friends turning 16, I was inspired to create a slightly different sweet 16 card, concentrating on the "sweet concept". The background paper is from the Citrus specialty cardstock paper pack from K&Company. For this challenge I worked to combine bright colors with bold black as an accent. I used one of my Mod Monogram designs and added the numbers one and six for the focal point of this card. I colorized prior to printing it out. I used a textured green CS from Core'dinations to matt the digi layer on top of the cute bingo card digi element from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff, another shop on http://www.mygrafico.com.

You can check out the b&w artwork from my monogram set, 

re-colorized & used in the card above: