Cards Made Fresh: A Simple Card to Make

Thanks again for joining me in me as we end our Cards Made Fresh Series! I am so excited you're back for one more card. I hope that this series has helped you dust off your tired 2012 paper crafting techniques, and has shown you fresh ideas for your card-making featuring paper from GCD Studios new 2013 collections. Today's card uses the modern and trendy paper found in Charleston and combines the fresh color combination of this collection to create a card that's fresh in it's simplicity, because sometimes you just need to make a simple card.

Simple cards don't need to have lots of white space or devoid of embellishment. You can use simple techniques to make a card in minutes. This card was made by trimming patterned paper strips and adhering them to a card. Then, you just fussy cut the flower, stamp a sentiment on some scrap cardstock and tie to the card with twine! This card took me about ten minutes to make, just from using paper, cardstock and embellishments found on my desk!

Thank you for taking the time to check out this series! Playing with these collections was a lot of fun. Stay tuned for more tutorials filled with ideas that will help you branch out in your paper crafting.

Cards Made Fresh: Using Collage in Your Paper-Crafting

Thanks again for joining me in me as we head into day four of Cards Made Fresh Series! I am so excited you're back for more fun cards. This series is designed to help you dust off your tired 2012 paper crafting techniques, and show you fresh ideas for your card-making featuring paper from GCD Studios new 2013 collections. Today, I'll be sharing a  card with you that showcase the lovely collection of Sunkissed. This collection is filled with fun, summery images and a fresh color scheme of blues, peaches and greens

Today's card explores the style of collage in your card making. Collage is the layering and overlapping of images to create a cohesive design and composition. Layering products is a fresh new style in paper crafting. Often seemingly unrelated paper, trims, embellishes and stamps can work together beautifully, by layering them one on top of the other!

|1| Start by embossing your cardstock base with embossing folders. Experiment with collage by trimming patterned paper blocks, punching patterned paper with starburst circle punches, fussy cutting images and trimming patterned paper strips.

|2| Assemble your components by layering them together so that you have a strong focal point. Consider adding texture by incorporating ribbon or twine, like I've done here. I rolled some twine into a circle and then clipped it to the center of the flower.

One of my favorite ways to use collage in my card making is too simply pull patterned paper from different collections, ribbon and alpha stickers along with my favorite punches and experiment with layering one on top of the other until I find a composition I like. What can you use from your stash to create a collaged card?

materials

|GCD Studios Sunkissed Collection|Basic Grey Green at Heart Alpha Stickers|

Provo Craft Border Embossing Folder

The Top Ten....It's coming

You've heard of Top Ten lists. You know-those cute, albeit brief, lists? These lists tell you the top ten things to carry in your purse when you go grocery shopping, the top ten things to not say to your boss before asking for raise, those kinda lists.

But, are you prepared for the Top Ten: Paper Crafting lists? 

Get your booty to this blog, and check out fun, exciting and talk-worthy Paper Crafting Top Ten lists. Agree with me! Disagree with me! Heck, tell me something I left off the list! 

This new series will be a blast! First list goes live, February 4th on the blog! Be here peeps for the debuting list, sure to get you talkin'.

Cards Made Fresh: Tool Technique

Having fun yet? Thanks for joining me in me in day three of Cards Made Fresh Series! I am so excited you're back. This series is designed to help you dust off your tired 2012 paper crafting techniques, and show you fresh ideas for your card-making featuring paper from GCD Studios new 2013 collections.

Today's project features  a fresh idea for using a favorite project found in every paper crafter's stash; a punch, specifically a decorative photo corner punch. Featuring paper from Indian Summer, I'm going to show you a fun way to use this punch to create a card that is full of bright and happy sunshine. Indian Summer has a beautiful muted color scheme with some fantastic prints that are perfect for any occasion. For today's card I wanted to make a sun-shiney card to brighten someone's day. 

Although, yellow is the main color, your don't want the card to appear flat by using too much color. After I trimmed sun and rays from Happiness and Ethnic Folk, and stitched them to the card. I used my photo corner punch to add depth to the card.

|1| Punch photo corners from Happiness and Ethnic Folk.

|2| Affix photo corners to the sunshine rays with foam tape, alternating patterned paper.

|3| Stamp sentiment on cardstock, trim and adhere to card with foam tape. Affix twine to card.

Don't be afraid to look at your favorite standard in a new, fresh way! Experiment and play around with your tools, trying to find different ways you can use it.

materials

GCD Studios Indian Summer collection|PTI Aqua Mist cardstock|Hey Day Stamps Sentiment|EK Success Scalloped Photo Corner

Come back tomorrow for another fresh ideas for your cards. Until then, think about what could you do with a photo corner and all the GCD Studios paper you could get your hands on!

Cards Made Fresh: Make it Manly!

Thanks again for joining me in me in day three of Cards Made Fresh Series! I am so excited you're back. This series is designed to help you dust off your tired 2012 paper crafting techniques, and show you fresh ideas for your card-making featuring paper from GCD Studios new 2013 collections. Today, I have not one but TWO cards featuring a new release! Special Delivery is full of bright colors, bold patterns and trendy motifs, all my favorite things. Now, onto the 

The bright cerulean blue patterned paper and adorable tv die cut work great together to make a fun L-O-V-E card that you can give to that hot man in your life! Oooh, a man--there's a fresh idea! Lots of projects feature ideas for girlfriends and kiddos, but the men in our lives need masculine handmade cards too! One tip that I find helpful when making masculine cards is to choose patterned paper that has a gender neutral print or predominately male colors--even better is when it has images that are typically male, like this T.V. This is a really simple card to make that will requires only two steps!

|1| Cover your card with patterned paper and trim strips of patterned paper as shown, using corner rounder for the top edges. Add die cuts as shown, using foam tape for the sentiment.

|2| Punch hearts from patterned paper and affix twine to create power plug!

Now, for the BONUS PROJECT that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago--Yep, that's me--full of crafty surprises! This project didn't make it into the booth, but it was my absolute FAVORITE card that I made using Special Delivery. 

This card is comes to you freshly squeezed with happines!  Combining seemingly unrelated patterns is a fresh new idea in the design and paper crafting world, an idea that I love, and use in many of my projects. Special Delivery all about mixing up patterns, using nostalgic motifs and combining bright, cheerful colors perfectly so that your projects stand out! Another fresh idea is challenging yourself to make your own embellishments. The GCD DT is really good at this, so I decided to make my own die cut to embellish this bonus card.

|1| Make card from patterned paper, trimming strips as shown. Trim journaling card in half and adhere both halves to the edges of the card. Affix tape as shown.

|2| Trim triangle banners from patterned paper. Arrange the triangles to form a hexagon and adhere to the card. Punch happy from patterned paper and adhere with foam tape.

I hope you enjoyed these two fun and fresh cards that use patterned paper from Special Delivery. Stop by tomorrow for another card that uses a favorite paper crafting tool in a fresh new way!

materials

Paper from Sun Kissed collection|Smash Black Dots tape|Echo Park Alpha Stickers

You know what I love about this collection, what do you love about it? 

Cards Made Fresh: Chic and Modern

With a new year comes new things in blog land, and Branch Out Designs is no exception when it comes to starting new. This year you're going to find great new series, full of fresh ideas and content. Even better you'll be able to learn tips, techniques and ideas to jumpstart your creative juices and branch out from the same ol same ol.

Today's post is the first day of a series that focuses on fresh ideas for your card-making featuring paper from GCD Studios new 2013 collections. Four of the cards that you'll see were featured at CHA, and I have two bonus projects to also share with you. I have never seen my projects at CHA, so it was really fun seeing them display beautifully at the booth.

This card is chic and modern and super simple to make. The use of blue and orange is striking, taking a homespun collection like Pure Bliss and giving it a fresh, clean and chic look. Two steps and you have pure bliss in a card.

|1| Cover your card with patterned paper and tape on the edges.

|2| Die cut letters from cardstock, and adhere pieces to letter openings to give a pop of patterned paper.

Now wasn't that easy? Have fun playing with this collection on your own. You're going to love the soft colors, muted patterns and totally adorable embroidery hoops! Join me again tomorrow for another fresh card, delivered straight to you.

materials

GCD Studios Pure bliss collection|My Mind's Eye tape

DIY Winter Home Decor: Snow Globes

Okay, so maybe in other states they have weather. Seven degrees, layers of clothing type of weather. But, here in California, when it turns 60 degrees, we put on our Uggs and tie our scarves around our necks! What can I say? It doesn't snow and were pretty wimpy when it comes to cold! That's why we live in California. So, I'll pretend that it's super winter.

But, the dream of cold, snowy and wintery fun inspired today's project, which I gave to my husband for his desk at work.

This project is super easy to make! All you need is:

|SNOWGLOBE| I got my snow globe at Urban Outfitters. Look for a snow globe that has a screw-on bottom that can be taken off. You also want to make sure it has a slit to insert the photos. A foam insert came with mine which made the photo stand up nicely.

|PHOTO| Choose a nice photo that is okay to display anywhere. My husband and I had our photos taken by our sweet friend, Rahel Menig , an incredibly talented photographer. Choose a photo with out too much detail, which you won't see too much of.

|PATTERNED PAPER| I love the Mirelle collection from SEI. It combines the deep colors of teal, green and eggplant with bold graphics, which work perfectly for this project! I also included some of the fabulous Mirelle die cuts.

This is super duper simple to make, a perfect gift for a wedding attendant, a friend or something crafty to decorate your desk with.

|1| Open globe and twist off bottom cap. Remove the inside packaging to use as a template.

|2| Trace shape of the globe using the template around the parts of the photo that you want to include. Trace template onto Trinkets paper and trim photo and patterned paper.

|3| Embellish the front and back of snow globe as you like. Screw bottom back on!

I hope you give this project a try! Who would you give your snow globe gift to?

Stamp Techniques: Gift-Making with Stamps

I love the idea of making gifts that people can use, that's why I like I stamping and paper crafting. No matter what the event you're crafting for, you can make an adorable project that's not only adorable but usable in a fun and sentimental way. 

Today, I am going to show how to create a coupon book gift with stamps from Avocado Arts. Coupon books are fun little gifts where the recipient can tear out the coupon and redeem what's on it! You'll want to consider size, and not make it too big. The overall dimensions of mine are 3.5" x 5".

An easy to open format is key, so that the recipient can easily view the coupons that they can redeem. I bound my coupon book together with twine. so it can lay flat and the pages won't bend.

 Each page includes a vellum coupon that I printed on with my home printer. Avocado Arts stamps are the perfect choice for this gift because they're a great size to work with and provide a fun and graphic image to complement the coupon.

 The coupons included in this book can be redeemed for a birthday treat, a free long distance phone call and a caffeinated beverage. This is a great project for combining stamps from different sets. Plus, there's a space under "from" to personalize your gift by handwriting your name.

Even better, you can make your own perforated coupons that are easy to tear off with a simple machine that you may already have! This coupon book is very simple to make. Check out the six easy steps below.

|1| Cut coupon pages from cardstock.

|2| Print your coupons on vellum. Trim to fit cardstock page.

|3| Stamp cake, cake stand, telephone and coffee cup offset so that only part of the image is showing on the coupon page.

|4| Trim vellum with decorative edge scissors and position on coupon page.

|5| To make perforated coupon, stitch vellum coupon to page with sewing machine.

|6| Mat coupon page with patterned paper.

How simple was that!? Fun, huh! This would make a great gift to give that friend who has everything or you could give it to your valentine for Valentine's day! What coupons would you include?

Stop by to see what other lovely projects the Pit Crew has come up with today!

Teri Anderson

Kelley Eubanks

Emily Leiphart

Julie Masse

materials

|Avocado Arts Perfect Blend set|Avocado Arts Hello Friend set|Avocado Arts Bold Celebrations set|Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection|PTI Aqua Mist

Branch Out Designs Reader Survey

Well it's here! As promised on my Facebook page, a survey designed just for you to tell me all the nitty gritty things that I can do to make this page serve you better! Do you want video tutorials? TELL ME! Do you want expert advice on a technique? LET ME KNOW!  I want Branch Out Designs to serve YOU the reader with content that you like, and will keep you coming back for more. 

Please fill out this short survey (seriously, it's only nine questions! Your bank's customer service surveys are longer). You participation is valued, and because I value it I'll do a giveaway at the end of the week!

Comment below letting me know that you participated in the survey and you'll be entered in the giveaway.

Thank you so much for your support! I value your feedback and don't forget to share this page with your friends!

CHA Giveaway Winners!

Did you play along in the CHA Giveaway this week? If so, check below to see if you're a winner!! Thank you so much for playing along. Make sure to visit again to find out the theme for February! I'll have fun paper crafting and home decor projects to share with you all month long showcasing a variety of techniques! Plus, make sure to take the poll that will be up soon to choose the content you want to see!

Did you win? Email your address to me so I can get your prize to you! Thank you everyone for playing along! Can't wait to share what's in store for you this year at Branch Out Designs.

CHA Giveaway Day 5

Hey there friends! It's the final day of my CHA giveaway, and I have one lovely prize left to give. Today's prize is special because it includes a project of mine featured in a brand new copy of Paper Craft Magazine's special issue, Stamp It! 3 Ways, which you can get your hands on before it even hits stores! Stay tuned later for the winners of my week long giveaway both here on my blog, and on my Facebook page.

Make sure to head over to Branch Out Designs  fan page on Facebook, and click like. Already a follower? Comment on today's full size giveaway picture for a chance to win on Facebook. Remember, there is another giveaway collection when we reach 300 fans on Facebook.

While you're at the fan page, tag a friend in the comment box, or share this post on Facebook and Twitter.

After you have liked Branch Out Designs on Facebook, shared with your friends by tagging them in the full size giveaway picture or shared this post on Facebook and Twitter, then comment below and be entered in the giveaway as well.

CHA Giveaway Day 4

Hey there friends! Were at day four of my CHA giveaway, and I still have lovely prizes to give. Before we get to today's sneak, let me share with you another product that I am excited to get my hands on and play with. As you can tell, I am a ribbon lover and hoarder, so Maya Road's newest trims are something I am drooling over, awaiting the day they arrive at my local scrapbook store.

Beaded trims, lush pink crocheted trim and scalloped lace with netting nestled among the layers. Could this trim be any more luscious? I do think that beaded trim is an amazing little invention. So, that's my last product that I fell in love with at this CHA 2013. What do you think? Which trim is your favorite?

Make sure to head over to Branch Out Designs  fan page on Facebook, and click like. Already a follower? Comment on today's full size giveaway picture for a chance to win on Facebook. Remember, there is another giveaway collection when we reach 300 fans on Facebook.

While you're at the fan page, tag a friend in the comment box, or share this post on Facebook and Twitter.

After you have liked Branch Out Designs on Facebook, shared with your friends by tagging them in the full size giveaway picture or shared this post on Facebook and Twitter, then comment below and be entered in the giveaway as well.