The Paper Trail

Be Mine!

2012-02-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's almost Valentine's Day and normally I don't make a card for my husband - we aren't really into the whole V-Day thing around here. However, this new paper I got in the store from FabScraps has an awesome Lace pattern and I knew that it would go perfectly with my Dusty Attic Corset pieces and boy does it!!! I first painted the lace and tie sections of the chipboard, let it dry then paper pieced the lace piece over the top and created this simple card that I plan to give him this year! I think he will like it, but just may get the "wrong" idea!!!! LOL!!

The papers and the Dusty Attic chipboard can all be found here.~Karen

Prom Mini Album

2012-02-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh Junior and Senior Prom - I remember when I went - I won't say it was the most fun I ever had, but I do have lots of memories from it!!! Anyway - my youngest daughter is planning to go to her Junior Prom at the beginning of May and I got some papers in the store the other day that I just KNEW what I wanted to do with them so I sat down for the last 2 days and came up with this little mini album that I am going to give her so that once she has her pictures from her special day she can put them in there and finish decorating it the way she wants. I used papers from a company called FabScraps!! I used their line called "Classic" which has beautiful black and cream designs on one side and then the same designs in red and cream on the other. I chose only to use the black and cream for the album since we don't know what color her dress will be yet. I thought this way it would go with whatever!!! I am not much of a mini book maker, but I really like how this turned out and I think she will too!! Of course, you can get these papers over at my store here - just look under FabScraps in the drop down box!!

On the left side of this is a flap so that she can add pictures to the outside of the flap and also under it.

On the final page, I put a little accordian fold out paper for any extra photos she may want to include that wouldn't fit otherwise.

Tag Book made from a Manila Folder!!

2012-02-07T16:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, that is right - you read Manila Folder!! I found a tutorial over on SplitCoast Stampers and had to give it a try and wow - it was so fun and easy!! I will be teaching this as a class over at the store

but had to show you guys how great it turned out!! I used the new line from Little Yellow Bicycle called Paradise! You can find it here. I just dressed up some tags with some stamps and a few pieces of paper and really love how it turned out!!!Front of the book:

Inside pages:

Thanks for stopping by!Happy Trail Makin'~Karen

Hugs and Kisses!

2012-01-23T06:58:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, another fun and easy card! This is the last of the 5 cards we will be making in class on Wednesday the 25th. I have, again, used the Kissing Booth line from Basic Grey and the stickers from Yours Truly by Echo Park. I have added Twine from the Twinery and some miscellaneous chipboard. I used my Cricut and deep cutting blade to cut out the heart from chipboard. I then ran it through my Big Kick with a swirly embossing folder. After that, I covered the chipboard in Malted Mild Paint Dauber by Jenni Bowlin. While the paint was still wet, I spritzed some Tattered Rose Glimmer mist over it. This gave the heart a faint pink color, but mostly made it shiny!!!

All of the products mentioned above can be found in my store here.Happy Trail Makin'~Karen

4 Ever!!!

2012-01-22T07:30:00.000-05:00

This card was probably the easiest of the 5 valentine cards I am showing this week! It was just a matter of cutting 3 strips and notching the end. I then used a chipboard postage stamp from the Basic Grey Kissing Booth line and some twine too! I then put some faux stitching on the card for a bit of extra oomph!!All supplies can be found at my store here.Happy Trail Makin'~Karen

XO XO

2012-01-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

I made this card in more masculine colors and was intending for it to look more masculine, but not sure I succeeded when I put the sparkly butterfly on it!! What do you think? Oh well! For this card I continued with the Basic Grey Kissing Booth line and mixed in some Yours Truly stickers from Echo Park. I added a chipboard butterfly from Dusty Attic and coated it in Black Diamond Stickles. The XO strip is cut from one of the papers and the heart is also fussy cut from one of the papers in the pad. This is actually my favorite of the 5 cards!!! All of the mentioned supplies can be found in my store here.Happy Trail Makin'~Karen

Love!

2012-01-20T07:30:00.000-05:00

Love - is in the air as we get ready to move into February - the month of love and I am just getting a jump on it with this card!!! I used Basic Grey Kissing Booth line from my store, which you can find here.I also used a nestabilities die and an embossing folder for the scalloped circles. For the heart and the word Love, I used chipboard pieces from the line and covered it in Glossy Accents to give it that shine.

Happy Trail Makin'~Karen

You Make the World a Better Place

2012-01-19T15:00:00.000-05:00

This is the first of 5 cards I am teaching at my scrapbooking store and wanted to show these to you. I have used a combination of Yours Truly from Echo Park and Kissing Booth by Basic Grey - both of these can be found in my online store here.I used black cardstock for the base and then used the 6x6 Kissing Booth paper pad along with a border punch that had hearts in it. I matted the stickers (from Yours Truly)on black cardstock and then used a black journaling pen for the faux stitching. Overall a pretty easy card, but I really liked how it turned out!!!Happy Trail Makin'~Karen

Forever

2012-01-18T19:26:00.001-05:00

The title and words on this layout are the first lines of one of my favorite songs from the band "Train". The actual words go like this: "Forever can never be long enough for me to feel like I've had long enough with you." I just love it - but it didn't really fit on the layout so I had to condense it and change me to us!!! I think the point is still there though!!!Anyway, this layout is made using Echo Park's line "Yours Truly". I just love this line - the pinks, reds, grays, and black are so great! I changed my photos into black and white and yes, I used the same photo twice!! I also used some Dusty Attic chipboard. I painted it black with some Jenni Bowlin paint daubers and then while it was wet, sprinkled it with glitter. I laid it across my layout and then cut it so I knew exactly where I wanted it to be on my layout. For the bracket shape I used some Crafters Workshop templates!So, after not visiting my blog for a while, I now have some new projects to share with you all in the upcoming days. I am teaching a card class at my store next week and I have 5 different "love" themed cards I will be showing you over the next few days!! I have missed posting to the blog and intend on doing much better!!!Happy Trail Makin' everyone,~Karen

Christmas Tray

2011-12-02T11:02:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone. I created this tray as a Christmas decoration using the Bo Bunny Blitzen line. I love the colors and how easy it was to design the tray and how little time it really took to put together. In all honesty it took more time to pick the photos than anything else!!! This is me, my husband, our daughters and our sweet little Charlie dog at Christmas time in 2007. Seems like forever ago, and yet not that long too!!!

Supply list:
7 gypsies ATC tray
Bo Bunny Blitzen - papers and embellishments
Ribbon

I hope you take some time to design your own tray. The styles are endless, as well as any theme will go!

Happy Trail Makin'
~Karen

BFF

2011-11-22T08:23:00.001-05:00

This layout is of my daughter and her best friend while they were on their retreat this spring getting ready to make Confirmation for church. They spent the whole weekend together and were still just as close as ever!!! (which if any of you have teenage girls knows - this is not always the case!!!!)

I used Bo Bunny Garden Girl line and one of my Crafter's Workshop templates to create the bracket shapes. For my letters, I painted some bare chipboard a dark brown and then set to finger painting with orange on the letters. Just a bit - only enough to give them some contrasting color. I love doing this with my chipboard shapes and letters. It is the perfect way to get just the colors and look that you want.

Happy Trail Makin'
~Karen

We {heart} Justin - NOT!!!

2011-11-21T08:15:00.001-05:00

So, I made this layout a couple weeks ago and then we hear about Justin Bieber and all his troubles so this layout was pretty timely I guess! We are not fans of this young man, but saw this lifesize cutout at the store while out shopping with my niece and I had to give her a hard time about getting a picture taken with The Bieb!!! She was not thrilled, but gave in to Aunt Karen just the same!!!!

For this layout I used Lily Bee Designs, Memorandum line. I love this line because it is extremely versatile!!! I also pulled out one of my most loved tools - the Sew Easy Tool and created a zigzag border all around it. The flower is made out of cardboard and I used my Tim Holtz tattered flowers die to cut it out. I love using other materials besides just paper with those dies!

Happy Trail Makin'
~Karen

Happy Birthday - Mardi Gras Style!

2011-11-19T08:00:00.003-05:00

My daughter went to a friend's 17th birthday party last night and took a gift of a gift card for her friend's favorite store. The party theme was Mardi Gras and all the kids had to come dressed in either Purple, Green, or Gold. I decided to create a little gift set for her in those colors. To carry the gift card I created a small gift bag. Very simple to do - I cut two pieces of the yellow into 6x6 and then scored at 1/2" on 3 sides. On the top of both papers that did not get scored, I used an edger punch to dress up the top of the bag a bit!!! The two bottoms were cut just up to the one fold to make flaps that would fold in and create a bottom. I then adhered the bottoms and then sandwiched the two pieces into each other to create the bag. (It is so much easier than it sounds!!!) I dressed it up with some strips of green and purple and some purple and gold jewels. Used my Spellbinders to make the scalloped design and popped it up with pop dots and added glittered letters to it for the finishing touches! The card is a 3.5x3.5 size and decorated with stamps and jewels. The twine is from The Twinery and you can find it here.

Have any of you made your own gift bags? I am attempting to make some larger ones using two full sheets of 12x12 papers to teach at a class at my store. I will show you the finished products when I am done - so far they are a lot of fun to do and I just may end up creating all my own gift bags along with greeting cards!!!!

Happy Trail Makin'
~Karen

In honor of my wedding anniversary!

2011-11-18T08:24:00.004-05:00

Today is my 22nd wedding anniversary and I wanted to show you all a page I did a few months ago using our engagement photos. (Boy were we YOUNG!!!) I used some Glimmer Mists from Tattered angels to spray the white background over some 1" squares I punched and used as a mask. I also used one of their chipboard pieces that has a resist pattern and sprayed it with the same blue as on the page. I used some Liquid Pearls and created my own flourish. I did this for a sketch challenge, but cannot remember whose it was now!!

Glad you could join me today and I really hope to get back to posting my projects again! I was going to make this my store blog but decided to keep it as my personal one and want to start posting my personal projects again - I have missed blogging for myself!!!! (now if only I hadn't deleted all my projects that I had here!!! UGH!!!)

Happy trail Makin'
~Karen

Together (and a Tutorial)!!

2011-09-27T08:53:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, I wanted to share a technique with you that I think you will love!

Supply List:
Fancy Pants: It's The Little Things Patterned Paper (found at The Paper Trail)
Dusty Attic: Butterfly chipboard (found at The Paper Trail also!)
KaiserCraft: Wooden Swirl flourish (At The Paper Trail)
Prima: Large flower
Creative Memories: Black and white flower
Michaels: pink flowers
DCWV: Chipboard pieces
Ranger Ink: Glossy Accents glue (found at The Paper Trail)
Clearsnap: Fairy Dust Glitter, Cosmic Pink Smooch Spritz, and black ink pad
Misc: Together stamp

And here is how you can take your plain chipboard to GORGEOUS in a few short steps! This is actually really easy and quick to do so try it next time you want to really say something with your chipboard!

First, gather your supplies. I used the Dusty Attic chipboard piece, Glossy Accents, Clearsnap Glitter, and Clearsnap Smooch Spritz.

You will put the glossy accents all over the chipboard.

Then use some sort of brush to spread out the glue, getting all the areas that you want glitter on.

Sprinkle your glitter over the entire spot you have just glued and then gently pick it up and tap off the excess glitter. It is best to do this on a mat or piece of paper so you can then pour the excess glitter back into your jar so that none goes to waste. When you save your glitter like that be sure you start with a clean mat or piece of paper so that you don't get anything in your glitter jar that shouldn't be there!!!

I started on one side of the butterfly and then did the other. This kept my glue from drying before I could get the glitter on it.

This is your glittered piece - but wait, we aren't done yet!!

Use your Smooch Spritz to immediately spray over the glittered chipboard piece. It is okay if the glue is still wet, the Smooch adheres beautifully to everything!

Spray as much or as little as you want - whatever look you are going for. Subtle color would be less spray - darker color - more spray! Also, make sure you either spray onto a mat that won't discolor and you can wipe right up or you can make your own spray box out of any old cardboard box. Using a spray box keeps you from accidentally spraying something you didn't intend to spray! Although it will be a beautiful shiny color - it may not be something you wanted sprayed!

Once your chipboard has dried completely you can then put it on your project. Here are two samples - one is Cosmic Pink and the other uses Limolicious Smooch Spritz!
You can also use any other type of spray ink as well! Over at the store we have Shimmerz spray inks in several colors!

Happy Trail Makin'
~Karen