Lots of goodness from Jenn Biederman

Morning, Jenn here, and today I am sharing a traditional layout and a tag using the Sunny Skies and Wanderlust set. I think Sunny Skies is such a happy set and am really drawn to the hot air balloon. I apologize for the darker photos...it has been non-stop clouds and rain around here for a week.

I stitched a 3x4 photo pocket on the background prior to adding my layers and photos. This allowed me to tuck a journal card inside behind them.

I enhanced the stamped balloons by shading them using PrismaColor colored pencils and then blending the colors with oil thinner. I also added shine to the balloons with Diamond Stickles.

I made use of the circles in the Sunny Skies set too...love that ME provided various sizes/styles of them. Wondering where the pull tab on the journaling card came from? It's the "Just Go Find Your Bliss" circle/arrow stamp from the Wanderlust set. I punched it out with my 1" circle punch. Fun!

My next project is a tag using the same Sunny Skies set. I clear embossed the clouds on the background and then filled in with distress ink. The balloon was shaded in the same way as I mentioned in the layout above.

A closeup to show the shine of the embossed clouds...

The hot air balloon opens up so that a secret message can be written inside.

I hope you enjoyed today's samples using the newest stamp sets from ME! Catch you later!

NYC LAYOUT BY GERALYN SY!

Hi everyone! Geralyn here, and I'm back today to share with you a new layout I made. I'm a huge fan of travel themed products, so the new Wanderlust stamp set was an instant favorite! I paired it with the Sunny Skies stamp set for this layout about adventures in New York.

Love the bold speech bubble included in the Wanderlust set! I added foam adhesive behind it for more dimension. You can also spot some of the cute stamps from Sunny Skies; they were perfect for this layout.

I stamped the cool compass stamp from Wanderlust directly on my layers of patterned papers & photo. The subway map stamp is awesome and I added it to both sides of my layout as a graphic element. I really love how it turned out.

I finished the layout off with the 'epic adventure' sentiment stamp from Wanderlust. Love this phrase and I know I'll be getting lots of use out of this stamp!

Hope this inspires to pull out your stamps for some layouts!

Say HELLO to Samantha Mann

We've got the super sweet Samantha Mann here on the blog today. Samantha has been supporting Mama Elephant since day 1, we love turning the tables around and being able to feature our fans and customers. Not only is she sweet, she is damn talented as well! Just check for yourself! Be sure to hit up Samantha's blog and show her some ME love! 

 http://samsscrapcandy.blogspot.com/ 

------------------------------------------------------------------

 I am over the moon excited to show off some Mama Elephant stamps! (I actually had to pinch myself a few times to make sure i wasn't dreaming when I saw I won a guest designer spot!) the stamps are so super trendy, high quality and FUN! honestly, I can't say enough nice things about the stamps (or Kryssi!)! My first project features the new sunny skies stamp set! and it's fabulous!! I LOVE all of the images and there are so many possibilities with this stamp set! as soon as I saw it, I fell in love! My first thought was to create this happy, fun and bright shaker card! The background paper was created with the rays from the stamp set and I used my craft knife to cut out along the clouds and add some glitter and sequins! 

Stamps used: Sunny Skies

I made a mini scene for my second card! And sprayed it with some shine to really add to the sunshine-ness of the card! I love the 'happy' that this card gives off! The sunny skies stamp set is just too much fun to play around with!! I LOVE it! 

Stamps used: Sunny Skies

Thank you Kryssi, and the whole Mama Elephant team, for letting me guest design and be a part of your family for a month!

Guest designer: Iwona Palamountain

Hey peeps, Happy Memorial Day!

We've got the super adorable Iwona Palamountain here today! This girl is somewhat of a stamping genius, she's one of those rare designers who can tackle any style. I have found myself drawn to her CAS beauties as well as the layered stuff that I am terrible at! :) We are so fortunate to have her join us this month!

Be sure to visit her blog here:

http://www.ipalamountain.com/

--------------------------------------------

I'm very happy to join the Mama Elephant Design Team this month, for the brand new stamp release, and today I'm placing their lovely Soiree stamp set in the spotlight. Perfect for birthdays and all sorts of celebrations, this set has many awesome images that can be mixed and matched to your heart's content. I created the fun little tag below, stamping the hearts from the set in a variety of inks, and highlighting some of them with a white Signo pen and dabs of Glossy Accents. The sentiment is borrowed from the Smitten set.

   

 How about this birthday card? I created the stripes by stamping the back of a long strip stamp from a different set, then added the layered cake and wording. Who says you can't have a green cake icing?? :)  

 

Lastly, there's this card, using my favourite stamps from the set - banner with inserts, and spruced up with some texture and dimension.

   

There you go, I hope you'll like them :) See you again soon!

Amazing PL spreads from Jenn Biederman!

Morning! It's Jenn and today I am sharing a Project Life spread I created using the new Sunny Skies and Wanderlust sets. I absolutely love the hot air balloon from the Sunny Skies set, so decided to continue using it throughout the entire spread.

A great photo to include in your Project Life pages is a "then & now" photo. All I did was create a 4x6 photo layer in Photoshop, then added in cropped 3x4 photos to the base layer. Save as a jpeg, then print. Ta-da...you now have a comparison photo that fits perfectly into your 4x6 photo pocket.

I wanted to add another pop of red on the second page, so the "we came, we saw, we conquered" stamp from Wanderlust worked perfectly to do just that. Incorporating see-through pockets works well for pages with lots of photos or that moment where you don't have anything else to go in there. This one is fun with the hot air balloon taking center stage.

Love the compass from the Wanderlust set!

The base of this 4x6 card was a good place to stamp the sun rays from the Sunny Skies set. I then added the interactive "you make me so happy" 3x4 card (from the May Studio Calico PL kit) embellished with the Sunny Skies stamps and the cityscape from the Central Park set. Adding "open me" promotes onlookers to flip the card to see the journaling/photo inside.

I think my favorite part about this PL spread is the following 4x6 card. I embossed the hot air balloons & clouds with white embossing powder onto the calendar card (also from the May Studio Calico PL kit). The balloons were masked off prior to embossing the clouds so that they appeared partially hidden behind the balloon. I then used distress ink to blend in a deeper blue for the sky.

I'll be back soon with more design inspiration! Catch you later!

A Gorgeous Layout with Geralyn Sy!

Hi everyone! Geralyn here, and I have a 6x8 layout to share today that I made for my ongoing personal mini-book. I used the new Filigree and Sunny Skies stamp sets, as well as my favorite alpha stamps - Midnight Letters.

I wanted the doilies from Filigree to be subtle in the background, so I heat embossed them with white embossing powder and painted them using watercolors.

Midnight Letters was the perfect size for my layout. I love that both negative and positive alphas are included in the set!

That's all from me today. I'll be back soon with another project! Have a great day

Please welcome Jennifer McGuire!

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed all the inspiration from our Design team's Stamp highlights this past week. Today, we begin another phase of inspiration with individual designers and their spectacular projects. What better way to start than introducing one of our esteemed guests this month? We always seek out the top talents to showcase our stamps and I think we hit the jackpot this time. :) We all know her, love her, and have learned lots from her -- please welcome my immensely talented friend, Jennifer McGuire!

---------------------------------------------- 

Hello, it’s Jennifer here! I am honestly so happy to be joining Mama Elephant this month. I adore Kryssi, her stamps and her very talented design team.

Today I am talking about sherbets! I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite treats in this upcoming hot weather is sherbet ice cream. Well, a big bowl of that is what inspired me to make today’s cards… in happy sherbet colors.

I just adore the new Mama Elephant Sunny Skies set. Those sunrays? Awesome! I decided to break the tradition of yellow and orange rays and instead go with a rainbow of sherbet colors.

To get the multi-colored greeting (from the Wanderlust set), I masked off all of the stamp except “wonderful” and inked it with teal ink before stamping it on a circle. I then cleaned the stamp and inked the rest of the words in black and lined it up to stamp it also. Easy… thanks to the stamps being clear!

Finally, to make everything shine a bit, I painted on some glitter pen to the word “wonderful” and part of each ray.

And don’t those sherbet colors scream summer and happiness? Yay!

My next card uses a lot of the same colors and a bit of shine, but with touches of grey to tone it down a bit…

And here is a secret: I love tiny stamp images that can be used to scattered along a card. They are so versatile - they can be used for just accents or to build an entire card as I did here. And the Sunny Skies set? It has the perfect small circles and hearts for just this. Yay! These little images are perfect around the Soiree greetings.

I covered some of the images with Glossy Accents and some with a glitter pen. Oh, and a few sequins were necessary…

And there you have it - two card ideas using fun sherbet colors and some awesome new Mama Elephant stamp sets.

Thanks for having me and see you soon!

Stamp Highlight: Filigree

Today's Stamp Highlight is Filigree and it looks like you are all loving it as much as I do! I love that it is a versatile doily image that works both complete or incomplete or just using the center image works great too (scroll down!). I love the sentiment treatment which is perfect for this delicate looking design. This one is going down as one of my all time faves. What about you?

Filigree

Our designers are back to show you their gorgeous cards using this set! They really knocked it out of the ballpark!

Alice Wertz clear embossed the doilies and created a watercolor background to showcase the intricacy of the doily design.

Cheiron Brandon created this stunning gem using white embossing and pearl accents. Kraft + white is always lovely!

Wow! JJ Bolton used pearlescent gold pigment powder to create an image that glows.

Mariana Grigsby used only the center of the doily to create this pretty card. Looks like little medallions and love the accents.



Lea Lawson created this rainbow ombre effect card. We love the little touches like the glitter border and pretty sequins.

Savannah O'Gwynnwas inspired by a Japanese soda drink for this card-- she used the scalloped filigree stamp for the bottom design. Great color combo!





Before I go, I wanna announce the Stampede winners...

Congratulations

Kim Heggins

Gilu J

Angeline Tan

Please contact us within 48 hours to claim your prizes, ladies! :)

Stamp Highlight: Soiree

We have Soiree as today's Stamp Highlight. Soiree is a staple stamp set that I absolutely will need to keep on hand for the many birthday celebrations year round. I don't know about you, but as a card designer, I don't always create birthday cards since we carry so many different designs and themes. So, usually when a birthday rolls around I am like a crazy person digging and digging through my stash of cards. I have to weed through a couple hundred cards before I find something appropriate! Isn't that odd? So, we created Soiree because I think the images are simple and versatile that you can easily make a card in under 5 minutes. Of course it lends itself to layering and more labor intensive styles as well!

Soiree

Let's move onto the Design Team and see what they created!

Jenn Biederman created this card by stamping the banner on a variety of patterned papers. She stitched the banners and left loose ends of thread to give it a homespun feel. What a beauty!

Alice Wertz used the banner images to create the colorful and fun background.

Cheiron Brandon's card is sooo cute! She embossed the images and did some teeny tiny paper piercing. LOL, isn't it too, too cute?!

JJ Bolton paper pieced the banner and curved the sentiment to match the banner. This card just looks so scrumptious!

Mariana Grigsby created this super pretty card along with some cute cake decorations. I especially love the candles!



Lea Lawson

Savannah O'Gwynn created a CAS card using some fun patterned paper (I love stripes!) and three stamps from the set.