The images on this card come from the Penny Black clear set called “Wonderful” .  I tried to make it “springy” and paired it with paper from the  Basic Grey Porcelain pad.

The image is cut out with a Spellbinders square layered over the Nestibilities Label 3 die.  I also have a square peeking out behind the Label 3 matte.

And (just in case you need to know) there are a bunch of new spring Penny Black images and sets in the store. 

 There are 3 newl clear sets (here is one – check out the cat with all the goodies!).

And there are also a bunch of new cling stamps – including some cute little kids.  I really like this little boy.  

You can see all the Penny Black here.

I’m still playing with my camera (feel free to skip this part – well, feel free to skip any part actually.  But this part has nothing to do with stamping). 

I went to Longwood Gardens with some friends so I had a chance to practice taking some flower close-ups.  I still need practice (and a steadier hand).  But…here are a few…  Just to give you a little dose of spring.

Don’t forget our Birthday Challenge – link up a b-day card in this post for a chance to win 2 Mo Manning stamps!

Just a quick post to announce the Fourth Friday Challenge winner of the Frosted Winter paper kit.  Using Random.org, the winner was Chrisitna F.   Chrisitna – I sent you an e-mail.

Sorry – I don’t have a card to today.  I got a new camera for my Birthday and I’m trying to learn how to use it (excuses…. excuses…).  Here are a few random images.  I’m still not a very good photographer but I have hopes.

More signs of spring:

My crazy puppy sticking his head in the snow:

Here is what his head looks like (should I have used portrait mode?)

Hope everyone has a marvelous weekend – and don’t forget about our design team call.  We’d love to see your work.

 Its Birthday month here at Paper Garden Projects and we want to party!  So we will be having challenges every Friday all month long!   

For our first challenge we want you to make a Birthday card!  (How easy is that?!).

Link to your card in a comment on this post and you will be entered in a drawing to win not one but 2 Mo Manning clear stamps!  You have until Midnight EST on Friday, March 12.  So come play with us – you know you’ll need to use that Birthday card some day!

For my sample I used Mo Manning’s Mummu clear stamp (one of the prizes).  I hope I’m that spry and happy when I get older. 

 The paper is from the October Afternoon Farm Fresh Paper Pad with Prism cardstock. 

The sentiment is one I picked up at a Stamp convention years ago – sorry I don’t know the maker.  The inside says “Is there any cake left?”

I have some other wonderful samples to share.

Here is Tricia’s beautiful cupcake card.  She used the Cupcake Clear set and more Farm Fresh paper.  Tricia does amazing work and colors images so beautifully.  Check out her blog – you won’t be sorry.

And another sample from Amber using the Penny Black set called Allegro.  Amber is a wizard with embellishments and combines them beautifully.  Make sure to check out her blog too.

We can’t wait to see what you make for the challenge! 

Oh….Here is a picture of the prize.  The stamps are Mummu and Soaking up the Joy. 

Stay tuned… We will be announcing the winner of the Frosted Winter paper kit tomorrow.

I have a few pieces of nice news today. 

My spring house card was chosen as one of the featured cards for the SNR Card Universe card Gallery.  Yay! (this card uses the Crafty Secrets Home Sweet Home set).

I had a wonderful day yesterday – a girlfriend and I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show for the WHOLE DAY.  We left the DH’s home to do all the kiddo shlepping.  So much fun and really got me in a spring mood.

And look what is blooming outside – the Witchhazel

and

Some snowdrops!

See…. spring is coming!

Just a quick reminder – you still have 1 more day to enter the “Say goodbye winter” challenge and get in the drawing for the Frosted Winter Mini Paper kit.

(and on Wednesday yours truly turns forty….er… somethingish…. can we talk about something else??)

We are so grateful to all our wonderful customers and our talented design team members (past and present) who have made it possible to celebrate a second birthday!  We started with about 40 different products and now are offering well over a thousand! 

We are growing a little bit more every day but still staying focused on bringing you quality products that we love using ourselves.  Our goal is for every customer to be thrilled with every purchase. 

As our little Birthday gift to you, we are offering everyone the digital stamp set used in this sample card.  It is available as a  free download in the store here. 

 The set includes the cone flower image and 3 sentiments.  The download includes both transparent PNG files and JPG files. 

 This is our gift to you -  please use the stamp set for your personal use only (but feel free to tell your friends to come get one too!)

This stamp was taken from a pencil drawing of coneflowers from my garden.  The bottle in the drawing is hand blown green glass from Jamestown (If you have never been to the Williamsburg area, you really should go.  Its an amazing way to experience history).  Of course you can color it any color you wish!

 I colored printed the image and Birthday sentiment and colored with Copics.  The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Porcelain paper pad and the cardstock is Prism Herbal Dark.  The sentiment is cut out with Spellbinders dies.

This is just the start of our Birthday celebration – so check back throughout the month.  We have fun challenges, great prizes and more freebies planned.

And don’t forget to enter our Fourth Friday Fun Challenge –  ”farewell to winter” to with the wonderful Frosted Winter paper kit.

We are conducting a design team call for the next 5 months and we would love to see your work.  All the details are listed below. 

Paper Garden Projects is looking for enthusiastic stampers who love to color and enjoy sharing their work and knowledge with others. 

You must have an active blog and the ability to take and post good quality photographs of your work.  Right now, this call is open only to artists in the US or Canada.   This call is for 5 months, from May 1 through September 31.

What we’d like from you:

• At least 4 lovely projects per month to be posted on your blog, the Paper Garden Projects Gallery on Splitcoast Stampers, The gallery on Paper Craft Planet, and any other stamping boards where you are active.   The blog posts must contain information on what was used to create the project with links back to the store to help people find the products. Preferably, the posts would be spread out through the month (1 per week).
  • Create a project or tutorial for a themed blog hop once per month. Participate in and promote the monthly blog hop (project can be one of the 4 required).
  • Promote the 4^th Friday Fun Challenge once per month with a challenge sample  (project can be one of the 4 required).
  • Complete 2 other projects and post them on your blog. 
• Actively promote the Paper Garden Projects store on your blog and in other places when it is appropriate to do so.

What you can expect from us:

• A package of paper crafting goodies (stamps, cardstock, embellishments or possibly a paper crafting kit) worth at least $20 every month.
• Access to any digital stamps created during your tenure as a designer.
• An additional 20% off regular and sale prices in the Paper Garden Projects Store
• Free shipping once per month (to coincide with your DT material shipment).
• In most cases, you can keep your actual creations and provide only high quality photographs.   If we need the physical project for a convention we will compensate you for them.
• A cute design team button for your blog (and lots of gratitude for being such an awesome designer!)

If this sounds like fun, please send the following information to cathy@papergardenprojects.com  by Monday, March 29. 

• Your Name, Email, mailing address and phone number.
• Just a little about yourself.   What are your favorite techniques or projects or products?   Any particular likes or dislikes?  Are you willing to work with digital stamps?  Why would you like to be part of the design team?  Are you currently on any design teams or have you been on any in the past (although past experience is not necessary). 
• A link to your blog and any galleries you maintain.
• A link to a blog post where you created a tutorial, template, or detailed description of how you created a project.

ETA:  Note:  the tutorial does not have to be a video, or extremely elaborate.  I just want an example of how you describe creating a project to an audience.

• Please attach pictures of 3 projects.  All 3 must have stamping of some kind and at least one of the three needs to be created specifically for this DT call.  In the three please include:
  • One non-card project
  • One card or non-card project featuring some technique of your choice (piecing, stitching, any special stamping or background technique, etc.  (Just a technique you like to use.  Please describe the technique briefly in your cover letter.)
  • A third project (card or non-card) of your choice.

And don’t forget about our 4th Friday Fun Challenge this month.  You can get the details here.

Here is the challenge prize:

Its time for another 4th Friday Fun Challenge! 

I don’t know about you, but I am ready to say farewell to winter!  We have had snow, snow and more snow.

So your challenge for this month is to make a “farewell to winter” project.  Either one last “snowy” card to send winter on its way.  Or maybe a fresh “spring-y” project to usher in a new season.

You have until midnight Thursday, March 4 to comment on this post with a link to your card to be entered into the random prize drawing.

 For my sample, I used the Lets Go Skating Cling set with images from Eat Cake Graphics  (I skate like this – but I don’t look nearly so cute!). 

 I colored the skater  with Copic Markers and cut out the image and the matte with the Spellbinder Labels 3 dies.

The sentiment is from the Anytime Sentiments clear setand it is cut out with one of  the Spellbinders Ribbon Slide Trio 2 dies.  These are nice because they are a little bigger than the other tag dies and can fit larger sentiments.  I made the white portion by embossing the die on white cardstockand then cutting around the inside of the die with a craft knife.  Then I just mounted that on top of a blue die cut.

So there is my good-bye to winter card…

 Oh, in case you are wondering about the challenge prize?  How about a whole pile of frosty papers, cardstock and embellishments?

It is a Frosted Winter Mini Kit with 32 6″x6″ pieces of Frosted Winter patterned paper,8 sheets of cardstock, 2 yards of ribbon and a collection of embellies.   Fun huh?

Speaking of fun…. be sure to check back next week as we start our Birthday Celebration.

Thats right – Paper Garden Projects is turning 2 (and its terrific – not terrible!). 

We have fun challenges, prizes and special store deals planned for the whole month of March.  Come join us for the party!

This is the original idea I had in mind when I saw the stamp.  I wanted to use it to make an embellishment for boxes by layering the image.  Its very easy, but you have to like cutting things out!

I just embossed Fiesta Flower with Zing white embossing powder on 6 different shades of Prism cardstock:  Spring Willow Medium and dark; Dessert Coral light, medium and dark; and Sunflowers light. 

Then I just cut out different sections of the image and layered them together with foam tape to give dimension.  I added a little Mango adhesive pearl to the middle.

My gift box is the 1″ thick clear card box.

To adhere the flower to the box, I cut a strip of Spring Willow Medium 2″ wide by 11″ long and folded it around the box.  It is not quite long enough to go all the way around, so I kept the space in the front where is would be covered by the flower.

I cut the largest Spellbinders Labels 4 die in Dessert Coral Dark as a background for the flower and just adhered both to the box.

So…  What’s in the box? Cinnamon Roasted Pecans!!

( This is a gift for a friend who is allergic to wheat, so cookies are out…).   These little guys are so yummy – they are addictive!  Its like eating the best, crunchy top bit of a pecan pie. 

Because they are best kept fresh, I sealed them in a zip lock bag before I tucked them into my gift box.

Here is the receipe in case you would like to try them yourself.

Roasted pecans

• 2 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups pecan halves
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F (105 degrees C). Lightly grease a rimmed baking pan.
2. Combine the egg white and vanilla in a mixing bowl; beat until fluffy. Fold in the pecans to coat evenly. Combine the sugars, salt, and ground cinnamon. Fold the sugar mixture in to coat pecans evenly. Spread the nuts over the prepared pan in a single layer.
3. Bake in preheated oven until toasted and fragrant, stirring every 15 minutes, about 1 hour. Cool on pan, and store in an airtight container.

Trust me – they are YUMMY.  Speaking of yummy….  I thought I’d share a few new additions to the Paper garden Projects store…

Hope everyone has a wonderful day.  They are predicting ANOTHER snow storm for us.  Yikes – will spring ever come?

Well the snow is  melting – and I’m hoping we don’t get more!  Things have been soooo busy here, but I finally found some time to stamp.

I decided to play around with the Impression Obsession Fiesta Flower cling stamp.  I just wanted to see what I could make with 1 stamp and one selection of papers.    I have one other project I’ll share tomorrow – but I thought I’d share my little “experiments” today.

For all of the cards, I used the Basic Grey Marrakech 6″x6″ paper pad and Prism card stock.

For my first card, I stamped the image in Memento Rich Cocoa and colored the image with Copic Markers.  Here are the colors I used. 

I added a little Mango Adhesive Pearl the the center.

For the second card, I played with layering embossed sections of the image to create a flower in different colors. 

 I chose 3 coordinating cardstock colors and embossed the image in the new Zing white embossing powder (I like that powder!)

I cut out portions of the image and layered them with foam tape, then added a little pearl to the middle. 

 I cut out a matte with the Spellbinders Labels 4 die and embossed the sentiment.  Then just layered everything on the card (along with the Marrakech paper).

For the last one, I was trying to make a quicker, simpler card. 

So I just embossed the image and sentiment.  The I used the ticket corner punch before I layered everything.  Then just added some self adhesive rhinestones. 

There are my 3 “experiments”.  It was nice to finally stamp again!

Make sure to stop back for the 4th Friday Challenge – its a great prize!

The kids ended up with a 6 day weekend and are getting a little stir crazy.  But today we are throwing the Birthday party for the twins that got cancelled last Saturday due to the snow.  That should add some excitement (for all of us!)

Also just want to give everyone a little heads up…. 

The Paper Garden Projects store turns 2 in March – and we have big plans to celebrate!   Stay tuned for awesome challenges, prizes and sales!