Good News!

Greetings, friends! I'm popping in here quickly to share a bit of good news: I just got word that I've been selected to be a member of this year's holiday design team for Purple Onion Designs! Over the next two months I'll be sharing holiday projects featuring Purple Onion Designs' fabulous rubber stamps. I have some fun decorations, gifts, and packaging all planned out and I can't wait to share them with all of you. I'm so excited to be part of it all!

Not familiar with Purple Onion Designs? I first discovered POD's unmounted rubber stamps a few years ago and have loved working with them. In fact, I've been published several times with POD stamps. Here are two projects featuring POD stamps that I had published in Northridge Publishing's Simply Handmade: Holidays 2012 issue last year:

Stamps:  USA map, star circle, and airplane from Road Trippin’ set by Purple Onion Designs

Stamps:  Vintage Journal Label by Purple Onion Designs

Purple Onion has tons of fabulous alphabet stamp sets, trendy subway-style noteblock stamps, cool vintage elements, and ultra-handy scrapbooking-themed stamps. Lots of variety! Sound intriguing? Be sure to head over to the POD website to take a look.

Right now Purple Onion Designs is promoting the release of a new line of holiday stamps from the very talented illustrator Stacey Yacula. Between them, Purple Onion Designs and Stacey Yacula are giving away two sets of her Winter Wishes collection and you can be a part of it! Check out the details on the Purple Onion Designs blog and Stacey's blog. The giveaway ends tomorrow (that's October 31, 2013) at midnight EDT. Be sure to swing by for your chances to win, and if you do, let them know that I sent you {wink}.

It's time for me to get back to work, so that's it for now. I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!!

Thanks for stopping by and take care!
Emily

A Valentine for my boy

He's nine, a third grader. He's sweet: loves his mom, dad, and sister, snuggles with his stuffed animals, thinks baby chicks and puppies are soooooooo cute, likes being hugged and kissed, thinks pink is fun. But he's definitely got his hard-core boy side, too: loves getting sweaty, playing computer and video games, exploring science, being sporty, taking pratfalls, telling jokes, making rude noises. He'll love getting a Valentine (and a handmade one, at that!) from his mom, but this year I thought it's probably time to move away from the cutesy and lean more toward something "cool," something that says "boy."

I saw my DeNami Rocketship rubber stamp and thought that would be a fun angle to take, especially because he studied our solar system in school earlier this year. I started thinking "moon," headed off to look at some photos for inspiration, and stumbled across this stunning photo:

I had exactly the inspiration I needed to make a Valentine for my boy:

As I mentioned before, the rocket is DeNami--and so is the Solid Decorative Crest that I used as the rocket's blast-off flames. The sentiment, "You're out of this world, Valentine!," was computer generated, trimmed into a flag, and adhered to a stickpin from Maya Road. I think this moon was claimed in the name of love!

I'm entering this card in two challenges over at the Moxie Fab World. This is my third entry in The Map to Your Heart Challenge, to incorporate maps in innovative ways. What can I say? I just can't get maps off my mind :). I'm getting lots of use out of that freebie world map from Doctors Without Borders. This time I circle-punched the tip of South America to play the role of Earth in my Earthrise scene. I did some trimming and shading to give it the correct perspective.

I'm also entering this in the Around the House Challenge, to incorporate an element that was created from a "tool" that you have around your house in an innovative way. My household "tool?" Buttons! I used rimmed buttons to "stamp" the craters on my lunar surface. I simply adhered a button to my finger with a glue dot, inked the button with some charcoal gray ink, and went to town "stamping" moon craters!
This one was a fun one to make! I'm hoping that my son will like it as much as I liked making it. :)

Thanks for spending some time with me for a wee slice o' bliss on this snowy Saturday morning!
Emily

Masculine Valentine

I've had Moxie Fab World's The Map to Your Heart Challenge in the back of my mind ever since it was issued on January 4. I do indeed love maps, and I think that re-using them in fun ways is rather satisfying. I've been mulling over the best way(s) to approach this challenge, which is to incorporate maps with a papercrafted project in an innovative way, and today was the day to tackle it.

Behold, my entry for The Map to Your Heart Challenge:


(To give you a sense of scale, this circle card measures 4 1/8" in diameter.)

Every couple of months I get a solicitation mailing from Doctors Without Borders that contains a scaled-down fold-up world map. I keep every single one! For this card, I trimmed a section of the map between latitude 60N and 75N, from the Bering Strait to Finland, and turned it into a pleated paper medallion. I turned the resulting card into a clean & simple and nicely masculine Valentine for my husband by adding heart brads, a non-Valentine-colored heart, and the "You make my world go round" sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Admit One stamp set, stamped and embossed on a vellum banner. Why vellum? I didn't want to hide too much of the map!! Anyway, we took a fabulous camping trip of nearly 9000 miles last summer and used maps every day, so I know my hubby will "get" the connection and is sure to love it!

This card was a lot of fun! But I have a couple more map ideas kicking around in my head, so don't be surprised if this isn't the last Map to Your Heart entry you see from me ;).

Do a little something that makes you happy today--I'm glad I did!
Emily