Have a Witchin' Good Halloween

I tried my hand at coloring a black and white digital image. It's not a digital stamp, it's one of the ones I use from kits. She's a good witch with a good wish for a Happy Halloween to you.

Gift Enclosures

Artist's Note: During the first week of September when my two newest baby grands were born I was a quite preoccupied. I created a post for the Paper Temptress Design blog that never seemed to get published. I have finished my design team term with this wonderful company and left the post on their blog to be put in as a "filler." In the meantime--I really loved this post so I'm publishing it here too.

Bold & Bashful Gift Enclosures

Set yourself up for easy gift solutions by creating sets of these cheery and fun gift card holders and explosion boxes. As a demonstration of Paper Temptress card stock versatility, I created the exact same project using two different color schemes.






There are so many gifted and talented paper artists sharing their creations online these days that it’s not hard to find clever templates. Let yourself be delighted and amazed to see how selecting Paper Temptress products can move your projects to the next level of artful presentation.






Gift Card Holders

One of my favorite designers, Eli Harlon, demonstrated the template for this gift card holder on her blog “Firllions.” I’ve been a friend and fan of Eli for about five years now and I’m tickled pink that she now lives near me in the Palm Beach area.

Explosion Gift Boxes

Split Coast Stampers offers a wonderful online community that includes new templates and instructional videos every week of the year. This explosion box from Beate Johns is a fabulous way to package jewelry, candy treats, tea bags, and other tiny treasures.

Paper Tempress Supplies for the Bashful projects:

Graystone Classic Linen Text and Cardstock

Azeala Stardreams Text

Pink Basis

Nero Black Cardstock

Rose Quartz Text



Paper Temptress Supplies for the Bold projects

Kiwi Text

Azeala Stardream text

Sparkle Mangue Text and Cover Weight

Sparkle Orange Cover Weight

Poison Ivory is anything but wrong

I am developing a whole new appreciation for markers, markers, markers....All my work with the Paper Temptress products has renewed my coloring on card stock time. My latest adventure was coloring onto the card stock called Poison Ivory. It's a pale ivory (almost white) sturdy card stock with a smooth surface and luscious gold shimmer.

Of course, like a raccoon, I am a drawn to all things sparkling. I experimented with a couple different styles and coloring techniques. Here's a card with the castle image done on poison ivory. The stamped image from Stamp Affair was stamped in black ink, base colored with Bic Mark-it(TM) pens, blended with Dove Blender pen, shaded and colored more with the Bic-Mark-It pens (including outlining the original stamp lines with the ultra fine tip) and then topped off with Glaze gel pens from Sakura. Finally, yes there's more, I squirted on some instant crackle medium from Ranger.

Can you believe how far I strayed from my normal--"flash" techniques? This process worked for my creative style because I worked in short sessions with multiple images at a time. I'd apply a layer of color, switch to something else, and then return to the project. It must have laid on my desk for over a week before assembling into the card you see above. Click to enlarge all the images--the close-up shots of the castle really show the layers.

All the card stock on this card came from the Paper Temptress. The other stamps are from Dream Impressions, the punch used for ribbon threading was from Martha Stewart.

See More Poison Ivory Designs

Two new designs, a card and a commonplace book went up on the Paper Temptress design team site today. Here's a sneak peak close up to entice you to head over there: