Blog Hoppin' with Graphic 45 and Petaloo!

It's a great week on the Graphic 45 blog because we're doing a blog hop with Petaloo. and they make the most gorgeous flowers  that coordinate perfectly with Graphic 45's colors!  I made this sweet little box with Graphic 45's new line, Children's Hour and my favorite Petaloo blooms.  Be sure to check by Graphic 45's blog  and Petaloo's Blog every day for inspiration from all the designers and chances to win some fabulous prizes!

My box holds Valentine's coupons and a gift cards.  The coupons are great to give someone a gift that they can "cash in" later like a movie date, or for a parent, a delivered home cooked meal.  A child would love a coupon they could cash in for an ice cream date or a trip to the toy store.  I've also included a couple pockets so that I can tuck in some gift cards.

I added a hinged lid to the box that opens to reveal the message, "Will you be my Valentine?"  Of course, nothing is complete for me without lots of flowers and I've used Petaloo's gorgeous Botanica and Chantilly blooms on the lid.  They compliment  my February Love's Month box so well and add the perfect finishing touch!

Lot's of room inside the box for coupons and even some special choclates.

 I love the Graphic 45 Staples Claw Feet and lion's head Door Knocker.  Speaking of Staples, have you seen the new Staples release?  WOW, take a look here.

Gift card pockets and a fun tag.

Coupons that you create yourself.

Supplies:

Graphic 45 Children's Hour 8 x 8:

February Collective

February Montage

May Collective

Graphic 45 Children's Hour 12 x 12:

February Collective

February Montage

May Montage

Graphic 45 Children's Hour 6 x 6 Patterns and Solids

Decorative Chipboard

Graphic 45 Staples Ivory Mixed Media Box

Graphic 45 Staples Claw Feet

Graphic 45 Staples Door Knockers

Graphic 45 Staples Metal Hinges

Other:

Bazzill red cardstock Red Rock

Petaloo Botanica Blooms Coral

Petaloo Chantilly Velvet Hydrangeas

Petaloo Velvet Dogwood Ivory

Petaloo Fancy Trims Crochet Lace -Paprika

American Crafts ribbon

Red seam binding

Baker's twine

Prima Chantilly Metal Knobs

BasicGrey Small Magnetic Disks

A non-traditional Valentine card with Creative Embellishments and the Flying Unicorn!

Hi!  I think it's so fun to mix it up and go non-traditional when making Valentine's cards.  I've used Graphic 45's Typography collection for this card that I think would be great for that special guy in your life.  The Typography line is still available at the Flying Unicorn Store!

This is a step card and here's a link to a template  for cutting the card base.  

I've used Creative Embellishments' Flourish Heart Frame 1 and finished it with Lindy's Golden Lump o' Coal Starburst Mist.  I cut pieces from the Showered with Love Border and added on the sides of my card.  Cutting apart your chippies is allowed,  :-) because, sometimes you need to do that to get the look you want!

I have a step by step video to show you how to make this card:

Closeup of the chippie I cut apart.

Supplies from the Flying Unicorn Store:

Graphic 45 Typography 12 x 12 collection:

Dream

Create

Inspire

Celebrate

Creative Embellishments Showered With Love

Flying Unicorn Metal Adornments flowers

Other:

Creative Embellishments Flourish Heart Frame

Lindy's Midnight Gold Embossing Powder

Lindy's Golden Lump of Coal Moonshadow Mist

Prima SIIC Cartographer

Beads from Hobby Lobby

The Flying Unicorn Store carries many hard to find paper lines, be sure to stop by and check it out!

There's still time to to enter Creative Embellishments' January challenge.  You could win a $50 gift certificate so don't pass this opportunity by!

It's a Mardi Gras Party with Graphic 45!

Short days and cold weather can surely lead to the winter blues so I think a fun party is in order!  There are lots of things to celebrate in the winter, Super Bowl, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, March Madness,  Mardi Gras, I'm sure there are others.

I've designed these simple but fun invitations and favors for a Mardi Gras party.  You could change up the colors and adapt for any party theme.  Since mason jars are the "thing" these days,  I thought it would be fun to incorporate them into my design for hand delivered party invitations.  I've attached the invites to a mason jelly jar that I've filled with beads; a must for proper Mardi Gras attire!  I used the pillow box template on the Graphic 45 8 x 8 pad to make pillow box favors that I'll fill with more beads and candies.

I designed a simple party invitation and found a fun graphic you can download to use with your invitations and favors.  Download here:  http://bit.ly/1J28omU

The assembly process will go faster if you gather all your supplies and then cut out as many pieces as you will need for all your invitations.  Then you can quickly assemble all you invitations at once.  

Here's a Snapguide tutorial to show you how to make and assemble the party invitations and favors.

Check out How to Make Mardi Gras Invitations and Favors by Maggi HARDING on Snapguide.

There are many options in the various Graphic 45 collections.  You want to use papers in purple, green and gold.  Here are some suggestions:

• Rare Oddities Collection:

Brews and Potions - purple

Articles of Antquity - green

Random Relics - purple print

• Nutcracker Sweet Collection:  Nutcracker Sweet - purple
• An Eerie Tale Collection:  Gone Batty - green
• Bohemian Bazaar Collection:  Bohemian Bazaar - green
• Mother Goose Collection:  Pocketful of Posies - gold/yellow

Graphic 45 Staples ATC Tags

Pillow Box template from back of 8 x 8 paper pad

Other supplies:

8 oz jelly jars with lids

Yellow cardstock

Graphics and invitation template:  http://bit.ly/1J28omU

Spellbinders Fleur de Lis 2nd largest die

EK Success Fleur de Lis border punch

Here's to a successful party and remember you can easily change the color scheme and graphics and use this idea for any kind of party.

Thai one on with Creative Embellishments!

I whipped up this fun little project one day 'cause  I needed somewhere to put my treasured Thai recipes.  Yum,  I seriously  love Thai food,  it is my favorite.   I think these Creative Embellishments chipboard pieces add a great oriental flair to my project that I created with Graphic 45's Birdsong collection.  Be sure to stop by the store and check it all out!

I used a butterfly from our Butterfly Set in the center that I heat embossed with Stampendous Aged Gold embossing powder.

Love these Pumpkin Vine Flourishes!  I simply misted them with Prima Color Bloom mist in Empress Gold.

Have you joined in our January challenge at Creative Embellishments?   You could win a $50 gift certificate to the store so don't pass that opportunity by!  Our challenges are fun and easy and you don't have to use CE products to enter BUT you do get an extra entry for using one of our products on your entry..  Check it out here.

Valentine chippies with Creative Embellishments

Happy New Year everyone!  Today, I am sharing a layout I did for Creative Embellishments.  I am so thrilled to be staying on at Creative Embellishments for another term!  Nicolle is the best and I LOVE her chippies, stamps and flair!

I used some of our great love themed chipboard pieces paired with some things from the Flying Unicorn January kit for this layout.  There are some great heart themed chippies in the store, be sure to stop by and take a look!

I love this title from the Love Birds Set.  I painted all the chippies I used today with  white gesso and then sprayed with mist.

Love Birds Set

I seriously love the dangles chippies that Nicolle created and this is a favorite!

Heart Dangle 2

This is from our Heart Flourish set, perfect for placing under your photos to give them emphasis.

Heart Flourish

Be sure to check out the January challenge, you could win a $50 gift certificate to the store.  How awesome is that?

Maggi

Creative Inspiration with Graphic 45's World's Fair!

Ever wonder how the design team assignments work for Graphic 45?  Fortunately, we have a lot of artistic freeedom to make whatever moves us.  Usually we are just given an idea, so for January we were tasked with designing a project that would remind and inspire us to grow creatively in 2016. Immediately I knew that I would design something with the World's Fair collection as it has so many great inspirational words, quotes and images.

My mind sort of wandered over to the "Think Outside the Box" idea with words and quotes sticking out, i.e. thinking outside,  of a Staples  Matchbook box in the wagon.  There really is a box in there and you can see it in the photo I took from the back.  I took the drawer out of the box and covered both pieces with design paper and used as anchors for my words and images that I glued onto wooden skewers.  Well, I really wanted the words to be "jumping" out of the box but as you know, creations take on their own life and the boxes got lost amidst all the fussy cutting and embellies.  Must say, this is so me, I just can't seem to stop embellishing until a page or project is jam packed with goodness!

I named this piece, "Think Outside the Box, Use a Wagon" for no other reason than it is whimsical, just like the project!  My crafty goals for 2016 are simply to always think creatively and  try to stay true to my own individuality.

Supplies List  -

Graphic 45 World's Fair Collection 12 x 12 collection:

Flower Power

Mind Over Matter

Balloon Bouquet

Inspiration Station

Wonder Works

Ticket to Ride

Tags & Pockets

Decorative Chipboard

Stickers

Graphic 45 Typography 12 x 12 collection:  Imagine

Graphic 45 Home Sweet Home Stickers

Graphic 45 Bohemian Bazaar 12 x 12 collection:  Mystical Masterpiece

Staples Small Matchbook Box

Other supplies:

Wood skewers

Wire

Styrofoam

Petaloo Botanica Royal Blue Sugared Blooms

Petaloo Botanica Pistachio Blooms

I am Roses daisies, carnations, lilies, apple blossoms

Claudine Hellmuth Studio semi-gloss acrylic paint:  landscape green, dab of yellow, altered orange

Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Banners die

Metal wagon from Michael's

Thanks so much for stopping by, leave me a comment, I'd love to know what your crafty goals are for 2016 and what do you do to stay inspired and creative.

Graphic 45's A Ladies' Diary is back!!

I am just so thrilled that Graphic 45 has released A Ladies' Diary as a Deluxe Collector's Edition!  This is such a pretty feminine collection and I love the vintage images  with the gorgeous vintage rose and teal tones.

Here's a card I made especially for G45's CHA booth.  I fussy cut the lovely lady image and some flowers.  I added a Spellbinders frame behind the lady to draw the eye to the focal point of my card.  Then I layered on the fussy cut flowers and nestled in some beautiful Petaloo Botanicas and velvet dogwoods.

Here you can see how I've popped up the layers to give my card a 3D appearance.

I used Martha Stewart's Deco Shells punch around the page punches on my my first paper layer.

Love Petaloo blooms, they match so perfectly with Graphic 45 papers!

Supplies:

Graphic 45 A Ladies Diary Deluxe Collector's Edition:

La Gazette

Moment in Time

Ageless Beauty

Other:

Bazzill French Vanilla cardstock

Petaloo Vintage Velvet Dogwood Ivory flowers

Petaloo Botanica Blooms Coral

Martha Stewart Deco Shells punches

Spellbinders Nestabilities Opulent Ovals

Here's a tag mini that I did a while back with the original A Ladies' Diary. The Deluxe Collector's Edition will be the same BUT with the addition of chipboard pieces and stickers.

Be sure to stop by the Graphic 45 blog to see all the new releases!  There are 3 new paper collections, and 2 Deluxe Collector Editions, and some AMAZING new Staples to drool over.

Thanks so much for visiting, have a great day and get your scrap on!