Get in the Green with Mygrafico 1 Day Sale

Feel like saving a little green on St. Patrick’s Day? Well you’re in luck! Today only, you can save 40% off everything at www.mygrafico.com. You can preview the latest sets from designers on the home page, and then click on individual designer’s names to see their shops or even shop by categories by clicking the links in the sidebar. I just released 4 new sets in the past couple weeks. Be sure to check out these out while they are priced on sale!!!

Get in the true Spirit of St. Patty’ Day with Lovin’ Da Shamrocks Collection

Check out these great layering clip art graphics in 2 different colored sets...

Color Pizazz Layerz

Melon Pow Layerz

Gettin’ Grungey

Happy St. Patrick’s Day...add a little green to whatever project you work on today!

Get Ready for Spring with Dollar Off Sale on my Digi Designs

Everyone loves a sale. So I have marked select sets $1 off...that is 17 - 50% off their original price. Check out all of my digital designs in my shop. Here are a few fun sets for spring that are on sale right now! If you like to design with brushes, there are plenty to choose from. I am also adding new digi stamps and svg sets, so keep checking back! Don’t see what you are looking for, leave me a comment with your requests.

Spring Chicks

Something Springy

Easter Tweets

Stylish Butterflies

Ladybug Garden

“Sew” Bright Stems

Spotsy Dotsy Floral Collection

And if you are looking for ideas of projects made with these sets, 

check out my mygrafico gallery of sample albums.

Hurry, the sale runs now through March 20th!

Project 365/ Days 58 to 67 -Nine Days of Creativity

When I started this challenge, I knew that being creative daily would not be the biggest part of the challenge. Photographing, formatting and posting the results is far more time consuming. So pardon me for not sharing these past 10 days of creativity sooner. Catching you up on inspiration...

Day 58 - Heart Sketch

Many digi stamps and art start out as a pen or pencil sketch that leads to something more. Who knows where this idea will go. Possibly a digi stamp or a paper design. You will have to check back to see!

Day 59- Family Tree Layout

Here is a digital layout created using some of my digi designs: The Loving Tree and Swirly QZ’s sets. Now I just have to round up my crew...along with the dog & hamster to take photos for the photo frames! With everyone’s schedules on the go, go, go, this is a task easier said than done. I may have to search through some candid photos to use them instead of posed ones. Oh, and then I will add the journaling.

Day 60 - Treasured Friend Card

Sometimes inspiration comes from a stashed stamped verse or a paper scrap. For this card, it was a little of both. I love the colors and designs in this scrap of cardstock from Crate Paper’s Restorations collection. I pulled from other paper and supply scraps to create this friendship card. To add a fun border to the top edge, I used a pencil eraser dipped into River Rock ink to make the dots, then added white dots in the center using a gel pen. For texture, I used floss in the buttons and to add blue to the top bow.

Day 61 - Cinnamon Twist Floral Card

For my Mother-in-law’s birthday, I combined embossing, a metallic colored ribbon, a collage of my Mod Twist Garden digi stamps with a strip of Bo Bunny Olivia Stripe cardstock mounted on burgandy cardstock to make her card. The colors in the stripes were incorporated in the hand coloring of the flowers to tie everything together. Try this idea on the next card you make using a digi stamp image.

Day 62 - Border Wow Collection

Some days I spend creating tangible projects like home crafts, scrapbook pages or cards. Other days, like this, are spent finalizing new sets for my shop at www.mygrafico.com. If you love using borders on projects, you are gonna love playing with the brush & svg files in this collection.

                               

Day 63 - Belated Birthday Card

When it comes to being behind on cards, what image is more perfect than a cute little turtle?

This clear digi stamp and verse are from Inkadinkado. The striped border strip is from Cosmo Crickets DeLovely collection. Stamp a belated birthday card this week...it is a great thing to have in your card stash for that birthday that just got away from you!

Day 64 - A Mother’s Love Card

When it is the end of the day and I haven’t finished my project for the day, I love it when I can create something lovely in minutes. That was the case for this card creation. I paired a cut out from Bo Bunny’s Olivia collection with a coordinating sticker, some U-Cut-It foam adhesive from Glue arts and a pretty brown ribbon recycled from a gift I received. Design Tip: Store ribbon scraps in a decorative glass jar to add a splash of color to your space and have instant accents available to dress up craft projects!

Another fun technique used on this card is using the scoring blade on your paper trimmer to add lines to your card front. This adds texture and interest without being a visual distraction.

Day 65 - Lovin’ Da Shamrocks Collection

This girl is anything but Irish (all Polish, in fact!), but who doesn’t like a cute shamrock? This set of clip art shamrocks comes in 4 different colors, 144 files in all: jpeg, png and scaleable eps files that will have you “lovin’ da shamrocks!” Perfect for your St. Patrick’s Day Creations...

Day 66 - Girly Fluffy Bunny Sketch

I am really getting into the spring state of mind so why not sketch a fun, fluffy girl bunny?

If you recall, I did some other bunny sketches earlier. Could this be a new set in the making?!!!

Day 67 - Flower Sketches

And what else says spring, but flowers! I am really into the sketch mode, can you tell?

I would love to hear what you think of all these new illustrations.

Project 365/ Days 56 & 57/ The Shady & Flowery Side to Crafting

Being on a design team, you get to inspire others with your creations...the same as what I attempt to do here on my blog. Many don’t realize that the people doing the inspiring search for inspiration themselves. This next project was inspired by an idea I saw a number of years ago on Better Homes and Gardens website, a way to give an old lampshade a new look. So, I paired up some buttons with my favorite adhesives and revamped Kylie's lampshade. For more details you can check the Glue Arts blog for instructions and supplies. To purchase Glue Arts adhesives, go to their website.

Day 56/ Kylie’s Lamp Shade Makeover

Day 57/ Paper and Pencil Flower Bouquet

This was a project that I made along with a tutorial for reapplying to the Glue Arts design team.

The flowers are made from Marvy punches, some small flowers, pearls, ribbon, #2 pencils, lime green cardstock, patterned CS from Cosmo Cricket’s DeLovely collection, adhesive squares , hot glue and gun and fringing scissors from Martha Stewart Crafts. The vase was made from a upcycled salsa jar using May Arts ribbon for the fancy bow and rhinestones for bling! You can see it in the photo above, too!

Here is a closer up view of the flower buds...

And an overhead view of the vase...

I hope this inspires some creativity in your home crafting today and gives you some ideas for recycling, upcycling or creating your next altered work of art!

Project 365/Days 52-55 Sketching, Scrapbooking & Designing

Living Life Creatively makes for a nice variety in my life...one day, I may be sketching, the next scrapbooking and the next, designing. Life is full of variety and so is this post. I am trying to play catch up on showing you my daily challenges.

Day 52/Fluffy Bunny Sketches

Hey, you wanna help me decide on which of these bunnies to turn into my next digi stamp?

I have an idea in mind as to which one works best, but wanna hear your opinion!!!

Day 53/ Love These Girls Layout

When it comes to friends, both of our daughters have lucked out in finding the very best.

Kylie's group of friends requested a photo shoot at the beach in January. I have lots of great pictures to scrap. In this layout I used the svg files to cut out the flouishes from my new Swirly QZ’s digital set and add them to this layout. Just one other way to bring digital into your scrapbooking/crafting! For instructions and a supply list go to the Glue Arts blog at this link to the post.

Here is what the Swirly QZ's set looks like...

Day 54/ Peek-A-Boo Bug Digi Stamp

You may remember a while back that I gave you a sneak peek at part of this stamp when it was back in the sketching phase. Now the digi stamp is up for sale in my shop at www.mygrafico.com.

It includes 5 bonus verses to use to create light-hearted greeting cards. And it is only $2!!!!

Day 55 - Peek-A-Boo Bug Card Sample

Just wanted to give you a digital card example to show how you can color in this

stamp on your computer and pair it with one of my Framing Shapz 1 designs to create a faux layered card. I added a digital bow, one of the verses and have a cheery get-well card.

http://www.mygrafico.com/digi-tools-brushes-styles-/framing-shapz-1/prod_2884.html

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:

I've Been Published - a hybrid card in S&SA April 2011 issue

If you aren’t a regular subscriber of Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine, you will have to head to Barnes & Noble to pick up the April 2011 issue. Although I have taken a hiatus from writing due to being a bit swamped right now, one of my teal & black cards was included in a challenge section. This is a hybrid card which means it contains digital graphics combined with traditional cardmaking techniques and supplies. One really cool thing I did with one of the designs was to reverse part of it out repeatedly on a block of black. I printed it out and punched a decorative border punch down the side of it and added it to my card front...just one of the many fun ways to used digi designs and brushes. The main floral design is outlined b&w art in that set. I added the light grey shading on computer before printing it out so I didn't have to color within the lines. The pinstripe paper is from Doodlebug Designs and the verse is from a retired Stampin’ Up!® set.

Here is what fun items are included in the Hip & Happy set:

This still remains one of the favorite sets that I have designed because it is lighthearted

 and fun. I would love to see what you can create with this set of digi stamps. 

Also, check out these two companion sets, 

Hip & Happy Frames Brushes and Hip & Happy Frames