Say What + Modern Borders with Laura Bassen

http://laurafadora.wordpress.com

Laura Bassen is back again today with the rest of her projects for us! Yesterday she showed us her oh-so-lovely side, today she is going edgy and funky on us, and we love it! I've come to associate Laura with brilliant colorful cards and am so thrilled she used our stamps to put her talent on full display! Check out this stunning card she created! A little masking and some perfect gradient goodness! (Pin this card now!!!)

Stamps used: Say What

And now more color from Laura! Her cards are always precise as well. Look at her perfectly aligned design, from the stamping to the circles. We love how the patterned chevron stamp from Modern Borders adds just the right amount of subtle color to the card. That's why I love that image so much, it is textural beauty and Laura really showcased it well here!

Stamps used: Modern Borders, Say What

Big thanks to Laura for joining us this month and providing so much inspiration!  You haven't seen the last of her yet! Be sure to check out her blog HERE, you don't want to miss any of the details how she created these stunning cards!

Who's ready for a challenge?! 

Rustic Spring + So Breezy with Laura Bassen

We are so excited to have Laura Bassen joining us today! I'm sure you've seen her beautiful work splashed all over the blogosphere! Laura consistently pounds out beautiful cards, every single one of them are always Pinterest-ready and as lovely as she is! :) Let's sit tight and meet Laura, you're in for a real treat! 

http://laurafadora.wordpress.com

I'm a wife and a mother to five busy kids living in central Illinois. I studied graphic design in college, but now card making has become my passion. I'm so excited to be joining Mama Elephant as a guest designer this month. I love their trendy designs so much! 

So simple but so perfect! From the choice is serene soft colored blue cardstock to the ivory colored eggs to the addition of the natural white twine. I think this would be great for a Spring baby!

Stamps used: Rustic Spring

This bag would be suitable as favors for any party! Edible favors are my absolute favorite! I love the addition of the doily and this overall design speaks to my heart because I did something similar for the last shower I threw. Those look like Oreos inside, yum!

Stamps used: Rustic Spring

This card is just pure happiness to me. What evokes a happier feeling than a carefree child running across the field flying his kite? I love Laura's color choices here, so vibrant and balanced!

Stamps used: So Breezy

Laura will be back tomorrow! Be sure to check out her blog HERE and leave her lots of love!

Design Inspiration: Pearl Lui

We've got Miss Pearl Lui here for today's Design Inspiration! Pearl is always clever and always inspiring! Heck, she is the very reason why I started stamping over 4 years ago!

Pearl: "Hey, I scrapbook. I stamp."

Me: "What is that? What is this? Har har har."

Okay, so that's not exactly how it went down but that's the gist of it more or less. Me, being ignorant and all, made fun of her and all her "stash". I reckon she's pretty proud of the stash I've accumulated now! :) ❤ you, Pea! I'm so happy to have one of my best friends on our Design Team! I think you will come to be inspired by her as much as I have!

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Hi there! Pearl here to share a layout made using So Breezy set. First, let me say this set is truly perfect for both card-making and scrapbooking. Here's a layout created to highlight and store my wooden heart magnet wedding favors.

As you can see, the awesome open sentiments from the So Breezy set are perfect for any layout. Since I wanted to create a rather light airy layout to match the sky in the photo and clouds on the pattern paper, the open letters of the sentiments were perfect. I used gold embossing powder for the sentiments and the kites to give it a clean and light metallic touch to match the details of my wedding day.

One of my favorite ways of keeping a layout rather clean and simple is to layer elements in pockets or envelopes. Here, I tucked away my wedding favors in a long policy envelope. To hold the envelope, I used foam tape to raise the mat leaving a cavity that would allow the envelope to slide through.

It's a clean and simple way of storing memories and providing an interactive layout. If you're a card making scrapbooker like me, make sure you get your hands on these super versatile Mama Elephant stamps. They really are perfect for all kinds of paper crafting projects!

Design Inspiration: Jenn Biederman (day 2)

It's Jenn Biederman's second Design Inspiration feature and she's got some Project Life spreads for you.

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Good morning! It's Jenn again and today I will be showcasing a couple Project Life spreads I have done using the February release stamp sets.

Project Life (PL) is about documenting daily life, but if that's not your thing, you can customize it to meet your needs. For me, it sometimes is difficult to keep up with daily photos/journaling, so I tend to use PL for recording special events or monthly highlights. This first spread is of my daughter, Emma, and her Halloween Costume. I love that her Queen of Hearts costume allowed me to use a Valentine/Heart theme. I especially loved using the circular "Heart This" stamp from the Say What set.

The 6x12 insert is a template from Ali Edwards.

This pocket includes a printout of the pin from Pinterest where I found the costume pattern:

And for my next spread I focused on an afternoon of family Scrabble:

This photo of me is not my best, but hey...it's the real stuff. This is me going crazy since I couldn't find a place for my last letter. A little dramatic, but this is serious business. :)

I had so much fun creating this little scene from the So Breezy set. I stamped & cut the little boy out so that he could be running in front of the hill.

I hope you enjoyed these pages as much as I enjoyed making them. If you're a Project Lifer, be sure to stock up on ME stamp sets! They are so versatile for this type of scrapbooking.

Catch you later!

Design Inspiration: Jenn Biederman (day 1)

We're chugging along with our Design Inspiration features and today's designer is none other than Jenn Biederman! I've been a fan of Jenn's work since I started this hobby in 2008 and am so pleased she agreed to join our team. Her work is always so detailed and clever. And she really knows how to work those distress inks! I am sure you will fall in love with her work like I did!

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Hi everyone, my name is Jenn and I'm so excited as this is my first post as one of the newest Mama Elephant Design Team members! I have been stamping since 2008, but my love for scrapbooking started way back in 1999 with the birth of my first daughter. That seems like such a long time ago. Time flies by & what better way to document it than with pictures, paper and of course, ME stamps?!?! I feel so blessed to share my love of stamping & scrapbooking with you. Here's a look at a couple of my projects:

My first layout focuses on my parents' love using the Modern Borders, Say What & So Breezy sets.

I loved using the chevron from the Modern Borders set as an accent on the chipboard bird…so fun!

Here's a close-up:

The other layout I'm sharing today is of my daughter, Haley. This photo was taken almost a year ago, so it was time to print it out & add it to the background I made using the honeycomb border from Modern Borders.

Here's a few close-ups:

I also want to say a huge thank you to Kryssi & Angela for this amazing opportunity to work with ME stamps. I'm having a great time!

Well that is it for today, but I'll be back tomorrow to show you some project life pages I've created. Catch you later!

Design Inspiration: Geralyn Sy (day 2)

Our very own Geralyn Sy is back again today for her second feature of Design Inspiration! And it's a gorgeous layout celebrating Chinese New Year! I love all the reds and golds she incorporated. Really fun layout!

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Hi everyone! I'm back again today to share a new layout with you all. Since Chinese New Year has just recently passed, I decided to make a layout using an old photo I found in my albums. I decided to go with a traditional red and gold theme and I used some of the new Mama Elephant stamp sets.

I really wanted to use the cool chevron border stamps in the Modern Borders stamp set, so I started off by stamping them in grey ink on kraft paper for the background of my page. After that, I started layering papers, embellishments and photos.

The new stamp sets have lots of great words and phrases. I used a bunch of them to further embellish my page. I also altered the 'wishing you' stamp in So Breezy to say 'wishing for' so that it would with the topic of my layout.

I hope to see you use the new Mama Elephant stamp sets on layouts of your own! Please link us up if you do or upload them to Mama Elephant's flickr page HERE. 

Design Inspiration: Geralyn Sy (day 1)

Now that we've gone through our Stamp Highlights, I want to introduce a new feature we're trying out here on the ME blog called Design Inspiration. These will be hosted by our super Design Team to help you use your ME stamps on projects other than cards. The first designer up to bat is the talented Geralyn Sy. Geralyn's design aesthetics are spot on. I said this to her before via email "so young and so talented"! I am positive you will agree with me over the course of the next few months when you see her layouts and Project Life spreads. They are always beautiful, bright, and perfect! 

Now, I am pleased to pass the mic to Geralyn!

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Hey everyone! I love the versatility of Mama Elephant's stamps and today, I wanted to share with you a Project Life spread I made. In particular, the new Say What and So Breezy sets have some awesome phrases that are perfect for Project Life. Can you spot how I used them in my spread below?

I just wanted to point out a few ways I used the new stamp sets. For the bottom left slot, I wanted to have a pocket to include some hidden journaling. The pocket only took up half of the slot, so I used one of the stamps from Say What and stamped it repeatedly on kraft paper to decorate the right side.

I also used the outlined 'Happiness' stamp and the airplane stamp to embellish this journaling card.

Thanks for coming by today! 

Stamp Highlight: Rustic Spring

Today we're highlighting Rustic Spring, a set full of sweet little images.

Rustic Spring

If you like smaller scaled stamps, you will love this! The stamps may be small, but you can mix and match to build larger images. I created a little tip sheet to help you visualize all the possibilities. 

Rustic Spring card set by Alice Wertz



Alice created this sweet trio of cards. It has that charming woodsy feel to it. So simple and beautiful coloring as always!

Home card card by Cheiron Brandon



Love this little cottage wintry scene Cheiron created. The double stamped trees creates a deeper forest effect. 

Singing bird card card by JJ Bolton



JJ pulled out a few sets to make her card work! She used the little musical notes from Good Times and the sentiment is from Smitten. 

With Love card by Mariana Grigsby



Mariana created a beautiful Spring card, so bright and cheerful! Love the extra sparkles in the flowers!

Heart bird house card by Lea Lawson



Lea is a master at pairing the perfect patterned paper in her projects as it's quite evident here as well! 

Bless This Nest card by Pearl Lui



Pearl is at it again with her cleverness! We love the family of birds, she flipped the nest over to stamp grass! 

Welcome Little One card by Savannah O'Gwynn



Savannah created this beautiful soft toned card. We love mama bird sitting on top of her little eggs, just waiting for them to hatch! The sentiment is from Nursery Deco.

Stamp Highlight: Modern Borders

Following the heels of Basic Borders, our first border building set, we're pleased to introduce Modern Borders! Chevrons, honeycombs, and scallops all in one set? We try to bring you the best in each set we design and this is no different! The solid chevron and honeycomb pattern both have a distressed pattern within - we all know how difficult it is to get 100% even ink coverage sometimes, especially with repeating pattern stamps. The added distressing makes it okay to be imperfect! And how about that complimenting chevron pattern to go with the solid? Combine them, use it alone for an impressive letterpressed look! And scallops are always in style!

Modern Borders

Now check out what our designers did!

Thanks So Much card by Alice Wertz 

Alice kept it clean and stylish just stamping on the top of her card.

Smile card by Cheiron Brandon



Cheiron shows you how awesome the chevrons look stacked together! 

Thanks So Much card by JJ Bolton



JJ's card looks like pure candy!! That color combo is gorgeous!

Always Keep It Real card by Mariana Grigsby



Mariana created some pretty honeycomb flowers out of the pattern. So smart!

All You Need is Love card by Lea Lawson



Isn't this card by Lea just drop dead gorgeous? Love the rainbow! Let's all swoon together now! 

Thanks So Much card by Pearl Lui



Pearl created a chic little card with matching envelope. So pretty with the heart popped up.