I’m into color right now. Not sure why. Maybe it is the snow that fell on us in Denver last week and imagining a long winter ahead of us. Earlier this week I checked out our Design Team projects to see what colors of flakes they are, I mean what color flakes they created…Julie Overby made this beautiful Merriest Wishes card with turquoise, white and silver…yummy!

Jennifer Davis‘ layout, I Heart Snow, is outstanding in the color realm. It perfectly matches her daughter’s winter jacket.

I find that once I break out of a mold, it’s easy to keep doing it. Today, I’m sharing a journal with some really hot colors and snowflakes. To begin, I had hot pink printer paper that I printed journal lines on, but I had no idea how I would match colors to it. The Color Wheel is a great place to start and I just happen to have a Color Companion which is really helpful. In this photo you can see the journal pages in the back and the cover just to the left. The other colors are those I used to cut the snowflakes.

I used the S4-222 Create A Flake One to cut/emboss snowflakes from purple, red and pink. I inked them with silver metallic ink and then layered them using Glue Dots by Glue Dots International and 3D Foam Squares, SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L. Here is a close up of one of them.

I adhered them to the journal cover and then felt like a border would bring the whole thing together. I chose the S4-218 Lattice Borderabilities® to coordinate. Since this Borderability® is Petite, I cut it twice from one long strip of paper. After cutting the first side, I carefully lined up the second side and ran it though the Wizard™.

In the same way, I embossed one end and then the other. The place where the two border cuts came together can be left alone as a design element

or covered with a little embellishment like I did.

To finish up the journal, I bound it, added a few more flakes and ribbons.

Ingredients: Wizard, S4-218 Lattice Borderabilities, S4-222 Create A Flake One; Core’dinations Color Core Cardstocks; SCRAPBOOK AHESIVE by 3L, Black 3D adhesive squares; Copic Sketch V09 Violet, Air Brush System; Glue Dots International Scrapbook Glue Dots; Ribbons; Silver ink; Binding System; Purple patterned paper
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you’ve gained some confidence to use color in a new way. Eli

Trick or Treat!  No tricks, just treats for you here!  The first treat is a double on the Tattered Angels Blog Hop!  Design Team Member Lisa Rapp and our very own Eli Harlan are both showcasing some Tattered Angels love today, be sure to visit both of their blogs.  And don’t forget to see what Tattered Angel’s Blog has in store too.

Now on to Halloween.  Halloween is for kids, and kids of all ages dress in costumes!  Super Heros, Princesses, Monsters, Celebrities, Politicians, Ninjas, Ghosts and just about anything else goes when it comes to Halloween.  Some people even wear costumes to work! This picture is the Spellbinders™ crew in Phoenix!  I’m sure they had a lot of fun, and plenty of candy too!

For today’s post I put together a cute Halloween mini book.  I had a sheet of vintage images waiting for the perfefct project, and this is it!  I didn’t take a lot of step shots, but you will see it is a pretty straight forward book.

I started with the largest of the S4-227 Pumpkins and cut 4 chipboard pumpkin shapes as bases for the pages.  In my Wizard™ I cut/embossed 8 more from patterned paper, Fancy Pants Trick or Treat Collection and an orange piece from Daydreams, these covered both sides of the chipboard.  I spritzed the pumpkin die cuts with Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels, and when they were dry I sanded the edges.  I have several colors of Glimmer Mist and tried to match them with the colors of the papers.  Look at the results!

Ohhhhh, glimmery!

I cut a piece of Core’dinations Black Magic Cardstock with the S4-227 Pumpkins Nestabilities, to make pumpkin shaped frames by nesting the die templates.  See how I set them on my Magnetic Spacer Plate.  This gave me 2 frames and 3 full pumpkins.  I cut/embossed then sanded the black side to reveal the orange color underneath.

The rest of the book is just stacking, layering, inking, sanding and having fun.

The book includes a variety of Spellbinders™ die templates, including the following:
S4-227 Pumpkins; S7-014 Classic Lace Border Grand, S5-014 Deckled Mega Rectangles SM; S4-131 Classic Scalloped Rectangles SM; S4-235 Fancy Tags; S4-169 Small Labels; S4-200 Flower Bouquet; S4-161 Labels One; S4-190 Labels Four; S5-019 Labels Eight; S4-233 Labels Nine, S4-134 Classic Paisley.

Other supplies include: Fancy Pants, paper; Tattered Angels, Glimmer Mists; Crafty Secrets, Heartwarming Vintage images; Creative Impressions, Ribbons; Clearsnap, Colorbox Charcoal Fluid Chalk Ink; Copic, Atyou Spica Pitch Black; Cardstock; Alpha rub-ons; adhesives; hole punch; book ring.

Happy Halloween!
Beth

Hi Spellbinders Friends!  Just like the kids write a “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay, I want to share with you what’s going on at Spellbinders Paper Arts this season.

Following a successful show at the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show in Orlando in July, our new Die Templates and Impressabilities have been shipped to retailers and are available now.  But don’t wait, several of our products are limited edition!  They will only be shipping through November 30, 2009.  Don’t miss the chance to get them!  The limited edition products are:

• S4-220 Nested Pine Tree
• S4-228 Nested Maple Leaf
• S4-227 Pumpkins Nestabilities™
• S4-226 Harvest Borderabilities® Petite
• S7-017 On the Vine Borderabilities® Grand
• S4-222 Create A Flake 1
• S4-223 Create A Flake 2
• S4-219 Nested Poinsettia
• S4-225 Holiday Cheer
• S7-016 Poinsettia Borderabilities® Grand
• S7-015 Holiday Lights Borderabilities® Grand
• S4-221 Poinsettia and Stars Borderabilities® Petite
• S4-224 Snowflake Borderabilities® Petite
•  S5-017 Snowflake Frameabilities®
• S5-018 Poinsettia Frameabilities®

Education Director Kim Hupke and Design Team Member Heidi Blankenship were thrilled to meet throngs of ladies and a few gentlemen at Scrapfest 2009 last week!  They had a wonderful time introducing many new customers to Spellbinders™ products through demonstrations and some super cool make and take projects. Thank you for stopping by to say hi, to snag a tote bag, and to participate in the make and takes!

A huge thank you to my wonderful Spellbinders™ staff!  We welcomed our Marketing Team, including Education Director Kim Hupke, Design Team Coordinator Cathy Chlebana, Beth Pingry, and Eli Harlan to join Tobi Hall, Terre Fry and me in Phoenix this week for planning meetings.  We are well on our way to 2010, which will be bringing more of the new and innovative products you’ve come to expect from Spellbinders™ Paper Arts, as well as the fun and creative ways we reveal them to you.  We have some super exciting things in store and I’m sure you will love them, but that’s all I can say right now…

I especially want to send out a big THANK YOU for supporting us on the Great Crafters Tool Hunt on When Creativity Knocks!  We love our Impressabilities™ Templates and we love that you love them too!  Have you enjoyed the month of Impressabilities™ ideas, art and techniques on the blog? 

And we wanted to follow up with, Margarita, the Grand Prize Winner from the Pendant Project Contest. She received her prizes from not only Spellbinders™, but from our generous Coordinating Partners: My Mind’s Eye, JustRite, Core’dinations, SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L, and Clearsnap!  Enjoy those fabulous prizes Margarita, and be sure to show us what you create!

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As you can see, things are always on the move at Spellbinders™!  Thank you again for all of your support!

Love,
Stacey

For most, we are in full swing of “Back to School” mode - the early mornings, the bag lunches and the routine. Here in an empty (and quiet!) house, I was cleaning my closet and found a box of pictures of my boys in their younger years…they were so cute! What happened? They grew up…a little! LOL!

As the theme is ”back to school” today, I am learning something new. I thought I’d try my hand at Karen Taylor’s technique of using the Impressabilities to make a “Back to School” layout of my oldest when he hit first grade. Then add into the mix, my favorite technique of letterpressing.

First I gathered what I needed from my Spellbinders’ stash: I2-1010 Impressabilities™ Pebbles, S4-230 Labels Six die #5 & #6 (#1 being the smallest size) and a retired tag die template.

I had some foam shapes and letters in my sticker binder for awhile so it was a great excuse to use them! After reading how Eli and Beth heated the Impressabilities™ to emboss, I thought what about heating the foam instead?

Before I started my experiment, I had everything for my Wizard™ all set up so I can make that mad dash to the sandwich of (from bottom):

White Master Mat
Favorite Impressability
Foam Shape or Letters
Tan Embossing Mat
White Master Mat

Using my tweezer, I heated the black foam arrow with its white backing intact (I cut the shape from its sticker sheet) and the surface turned into a shiny coat. Quickly I put the heated foam face down, placed the Tan Embossing Mat and White Master Mat on top. Passed the sandwich through the Wizard™. Repeat the process for the foam letters that spelled out “Back To School.”

After heating all that foam, I used the letterpress technique that I had posted last month by using Clearsnap Queue ink (notice the frame behind the journaling box?). The journaling was written on S4-230 Labels Six die #5 and the letterpressed frame, I used S4-230 Labels Six die #6. For more details on how to letterpress, please refer HERE.

With Cosmo Cricket “Boyfriend” collection (papers, ribbon and rub-ons) and chalking the edges with Clearsnap Fluid Chalk Ink - Chestnut Roan, I was able to complete a real fun layout for my first grader of long ago! LOL!

Hey all,

Thanks for your patience in waiting for the Savvy Saturday as it is now Sunday. Our team arrived in Phoenix, AZ on Tax Day, April 15th. We had lots more fun gathering in PHX than the rest of the nation had dropping those envelopes in the mail. Not only ’cause of how much we loathe paying the IRS…but because this group of women is astonishingly creative, funny, caring and more. Here’s a little pic from our arrival at our “home base” for training…

Arrival of Design Team Members

For the next three fun-filled days, Stacey Caron, Kim Hupke, Cathy Chlebana and me, Eli, trained our 15 new Designers every currently invented way to cut, emboss and stencil with the Wizard and our die templates.

Terre learns a new technique

We missed Beth who was doing her duty at a Distributor’s event in California.

As if that weren’t enough, our cadre of special guests included: Tobi Hall, VP of Marketing for Spellbinders™ who gave an amazing look into the world of Marketing. (Several of us wished she had been our college marketing professor…). Katherine “Kat” George presented an amazing session on Design Principal.

Tobi Hall, VP of Marketing and Katherine "Kat" George, Design Consultant

Heidi Blankenship, returning Design Team Member, taught a session on how to condition our new JustRite stamps, donated to the team by JustRite.  Last but not least, Marianne Walker from Copic Markers trained our design team in the lost art of “coloring.”

Marianne Walker, Queen of Copic Markers

As if THAT weren’t enough, we all got to bring home a pile of amazing products, some of Spellbinders™ faves. Our team got products from Copic Markers, Fancy Pants, My Mind’s Eye, Magic Mesh, 7 Gypsies, Taylored Expressions, JustRite Stampers, Glue Dots, 3L, oh gosh…there were more but I must get this post out before the day is over.

Kimberly Crawford shows off some of our Cross Promotional Products

We had a photo shoot with all the Designers and Christy Kerr, new DT member, who is a hair dresser EXTRAORDINAIRE! was our amazing stylist to make sure each member looked perfect.

Christy Kerr adds some final touches to Holly Simoni's "do" for her headshot.

During our free time, we all laughed together as we shared meals and a few moments of relaxation. We even had a swap among the team. Each designer brought something from home that shared a bit of themselves and their home town.

Design Team Swap "bootie"

When all was said and done…I think we would all agree that this week was a total blast, full of learning, sharing, growing and mostly being really thankful to the Carons (Jeff and Stacey) for creating such an amazing line of products and for choosing such a phenomenal group of women to share the next year producing art together…with the BEST product in the business…

Cheers to all…Eli

A good many of us, if we looked around our craft rooms would probably find some brass stencils. At one point, we might have used them to create cards or layout embellishments: get out the light box, choose a stencil, grab the stylus and use it to emboss the whole thing–taking a ton of time to do it. Then, maybe we got adventurous and wanted to dry emboss on dark paper, or even craft foil. Hmmm!?! What to do with that light box.

Well, with the Wizard™, you can emboss a brass stencil in a single bound (you and Superman should be friends), even on paper or foil that you can’t see through.

So do a little spring green dance, grab those brass stencils before they go to the bottomless pit of your supply drawer–or worse, the landfill–and use them again.

Sandwich:

• Master Mat
• Brass stencil
• Paper
• Embossing Mat
• Master Mat

Cathy Chlebana created this card featuring a gorgeous embossed brass stencil, several layers of cardstock and a bar on the top and bottom. After she ran the dark blue paper through the Wizard™, she sanded off the top layer of dark cardstock to show off the inner, lighter core. Elegant!!

For something a little extra, I created a painted card that featured a brass stencil.

To create this subtle effect, simply paint a contrasting, thin layer over cardstock. Allow it to dry to the touch but not all the way through (this will give you a deeper emboss). Run it through the Wizard™ with a brass stencil in an embossing sandwich. Let it dry completely and sand off the top layer of paint. Add embellishments and Viola!

So, dig out those brass stencils and have some fun!  Eli

Today’s Spellbinders™ Spotlight is on the one, the only Eli Harlan!  Eli started with Spellbinders™ three years ago as a Design Team Member, and has worn a few hats since then.  Moving from Designer to Writer, she spends more time at the computer than at the craft table. Eli is my blogging partner in crime here at Spellbinders™, lets give her a warm welcome!

So, Eli, How did you start crafting?
I was always creating something when I was little but I do remember vividly when I was five or so, adding my birthday cards to one of those old, yucky gray paper scrapbooks. Every so often I would rip them out and put in new ones. It’s laughable now. I never really stopped but did get much more involved when I got married 12 years ago.

What inspires you?
One: I think it is in my blood. Several years ago, I was given a scrapbook that my grandmother created when she was young. It included amazing little snippets such as bridge tallies, articles in the paper about some party that Mrs So-n-So was having, etc. She even cropped her photos. Then, more recently, when my mom moved out of her house of 25 years, I took a bunch of boxes of family “ephemera” and found scads of pictures that my dad had taken throughout his life. I love photography…I come by it honestly.

Two: my family. My husband and daughter are amazing people and I want to capture, through photography, scrapbooking, writing, etc, moments that matter.

Three: Designers around me…Spellbinders™ team, my favorite blogs…whenever I lose my mojo, I look to them and the inspiration usually comes back.

What do you like to make?
I started out as a scrapbooker, became a writer, fell in love with photography and journeyed into card making and altered arts. Occasionally, I sew, knit and cook.  My greatest creation is my daughter.

Tell us about your family.
I love my life with my husband, James, and my baby, she is now 9 (“and a half, mom”).  We also have a Himalayan cat named Triscuit. If you know anything about Himalayan cats, they are fiercely loyal and she’s on my lap right now as I type…she usually is.

Describe your style.
I’m not sure about scrapbooking style but I call my writing “Fluffy, Technical Writing”. So in writing, I’m trying to balance the information that crafters need to get artwork done with the fun and light-hearted inspiration that they want. I write like I talk and give instructions along the way.

What are two craft tools that you could not live without?
Tweezers, Crop-a-Dile and Tonic trimmer (oops, that was three…)

What has been the hardest thing to learn?
Accounting! Oh, paper craft-wise…um, image transfer…which is an awesome technique to do in the Wizard but I have NEVER been able to really make it work.

Do you teach classes?
Not as often as I’d like. I’m a teacher at heart and have taught dancing, singing, paper crafts, youth ministry, etc, so it’s something I dearly love. Hopefully, more opportunities will continue in this field.

What kind of craft space do you have?
Messy is an understatement. It’s a strange space…it has a loft bed with my desk/computer under it. Then on the side of the room is a section of shelves with storage baskets and a counter that I craft on. The shelves above hold paper and other supplies. Most things are within reach…that is, if I can step over all the stuff on the floor…lol.

What else do you like to do?
I love our church. I sing in the choir. I love to get Starbucks coffee. I knit. Hang with the family and friends. We enjoy entertaining and right now, we are preparing for an incredible Europeon adventure this summer.  I’m developing an online shop to sell specialized journals and other paper crafts,  but while we are planning to leave for most of the summer, I will really get it going in the fall.

Below are a few of Eli’s favorite projects.

Thanks for sharing, Eli!