Hi everyone and happy Friday to you all! I've had a truly amazing time here on the SEI lifestyle blog this week, sharing projects and making new friends. Today I have one final project to share with you all. This time, it's a fun birthday card using another of my favorite SEI collections, Field Notes.
Recently, a sweet bloggy friend of mine celebrated a birthday, which of course required a special handmade birthday card. Since my friend lives all the way across the states from me, I wanted the card to be both beautiful AND flat enough for mailing in a regular envelope. Now usually it's not so easy for me to keep my beloved bumpy frills and accents down to a minimum, but with Field Notes' gorgeous patterned papers and amazingly detailed butterflies, creating a "mailable" card was an absolute pleasure.
Started the card with two easy layers of Document and Research patterned papers. I quickly cut a frame from the Vignettes paper and a trio of butterflies for my accent pieces. Wrapped baker's twine from Berry Melody Sundries around the card, and trimmed the bottom of the frame with pleated paper doily. Added a stamped sentiment banner and dusted the flowers and butterflies with a light coating of glitter. Simple and beautiful!
Thanks to everyone for stopping by, and a super huge thanks to the SEI team for letting me hang with them this week, too! Best birthday present evah!
Audrey
The giveaway ends Sunday at 11:59 pm MST. Leave a comment on each post from this week to increase your chances of winning! Make sure to thank Audrey for guest posting. We loved ALL of her projects, how about you? We will announce the winner Monday.
Hi everyone! I'm super happy to be back here on the SEI Lifestyle blog today, sharing another Berry Melody holiday project. Not only do I get the pleasure of hanging out with you all, but today just so happens to also be Thanksgiving AND my birthday! Yippee! I am ready to celebrate this day with a little fun!
Every year around holiday time, I start searching for quick, easy, and inexpensive gift ideas for friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Seems I always have a long list of folks I'd like to remember with a little something without worrying about breaking the bank. Tag sets are one of my favorite go-to gifts for these situations. They don't cost a lot of money or take much time to make, and better yet, gift tags are useful for most everyone on your gift-giving list. And that's a definite plus with me.
When making up sets of tags, I try to simplify the design process by creating the same basic background for each tag. Once I've chosen the papers, and arranged the layers, all the hard work is done. Just repeat the steps a few more times, and then have fun adding detail to each tag with die cuts, dimensional stickers, and elements cut directly from the patterned papers.
For my tags, I used two complementary shades of teal blue papers for the background, and layered each with panels of Shimmering Call and Frosty Peep papers. Added pom pom trim and wrapped the tags with baker's twine from the Sundries Kit. I cut some ornaments from the Sparkling Chitter paper for two of the tags, and decorated all with Berry Melody Dimensional Page Elements and Die Cut Accents. Pearls and tulle from the Sundries kit finish things off.
Thanks so much for stopping by everyone, and wishing all of you in the United States a very happy Thanksgiving holiday! I'll be back tomorrow with one last guest post. This time, a happy birthday card using the adorable Field Notes collection. Hope to see you then!
Hi again everyone! Thanks so much for popping back in for another day of Berry Melody fun with me! Today I have a holiday card to share that I made with some of my most favorite Berry Melody pieces, including those yummy trims from the Silver Trim Kit. Can I just say right now that I cannot get enough of that gorgeous silvery goodness?? Oh. my. word.....
Besides the wonderful spark-a-lay accents, one of my favorite things about Berry Melody is the pretty color palette. I love, love, love a touch of pink at the holidays! For this card, I made sure to use the whole array of color in this sweet collection. Do adore how they all look together!
Started this card with a card base made from the Frosty Peep patterned paper, followed by layers of Gleaming Trill and Shimmering Call. I added a wide band of lace across the top of the card and then had fun accenting with die cuts and images cut from the patterned papers, a button and lots of pretty trims. I edged all the papers and accents with Chrome Chalk Ink for a light frosty look.
The Silver Trim Kit was especially fun to work with here. Love the crepe paper feel to the wide ribbon. To get the ruffled look with it, I folded the crepe ribbon in half, stitched down the center, cut the folded edge, and fluffed the ribbon along the edges to create a ruffle of dimension. Added a string tie, a bit of seam binding, and a disco-ball bow made from the thin trim from the kit. Wow, do I love that shine!
Thanks so much for visiting here with me again! I hope you'll pop back tomorrow and join me as I celebrate Thanksgiving AND my birthday with another fun Berry Melody surprise!
Hi again everyone! I'm so excited to be back for another fun day of sharing here on the SEI Lifestyle blog! If you all are anything like me, you're probably a little bit shocked by how quickly the holidays are approaching. In just two short days, many of us will be sitting down to a Thanksgiving Day feast with our loved ones, and right after that.....it's time to get ready for Christmas. Starting this weekend, I'll be busy bringing home our tree and breaking out the trimmings, ornaments, and decor. It's a whirlwind time of year, but decorating my home for the holidays is one of my most favorite parts of our Christmas celebration.
It's a bit embarrassing to admit to how many tubs of holiday decorations I actually have packed away in my downstairs storage area, but every year, I seem to add a few more things to my ever-growing collection. I love to mix and match a hodgepodge of family heirlooms and vintage pieces with modern seasonal decorations. And I always throw in hand-crafted items for a homey touch that's unique just to us. This year, I made a beautiful poinsettia bloom from SEI's gorgeous Blaze Velvet Paper to dress up my entryway table.
I absolutely LOVE the rich texture of the velvet papers, and this beautiful red immediately reminded me of the lovely poinsettias that are so reminiscent of this time of year. I'm not so good with the live versions, so this paper blossom is just perfect for us. And although this flower may look fancy, it's really quite simple to create. Start by free-hand drawing two sizes of leaf templates onto chipboard or thick cardstock. If you look closely at my leaves, you will see that I didn't take any special care in drawing my shapes, so don't worry about what they look like. I figured the more willy-wonky the leaves were, the more realistic they would appear. Trace your leaf patterns onto the velvet paper and trim out. Adhere each leaf to Pinkberry Song patterned paper, and machine stitch around the edges and down the center. I cut and adhered an entire 12x12 sheet of velvet leaves and stitched them all at once, trimming each finished leaf out afterwards. Once you have all your leaves cut out, bend them slightly along their center line to create some depth and dimension. Then ink the edges with Bordeaux Chalk Ink and add a light sugar-coating with clear glitter.
To assemble your blossom, cut a 3" circle from chipboard or cardstock for the base. Working in a circular motion, adhere each petal to the base, overlapping the leaves as you go. Continue adding leaves until you have the desired fullness. I used a strong tacky glue at the base of each petal, which allowed me time to shift and manipulate each petal until I was happy with the final shape. Add some glittered floral berries to the center and a big pretty bow, and finish things off with a sweet die cut sentiment from the Songbird Wishes Die Cut Accents.
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope to see you all back here tomorrow for more Berry Holiday fun!
Hi everyone! My name is Audrey Pettit, and I am super excited to be here as a guest designer this week on the SEI Lifestyle blog. This is such an honor for me, as I am a huge fan of SEI! Really love the new lines, and I was especially thrilled when I found out I would work with the new holiday line, Berry Melody. Cause those of you who know me, KNOW I get a wee bit excited about the holidays!
I have been in love with paper crafting for about a dozen years now. I think it pretty much all started when I was invited to one of those home stamping parties where my eyes were opened to a whole new world. I left with a bag full of product and a new-found love for crafting that has never left me since. These days, I don't do quite as much stamping, but I do own waaaaaaaaaay more stamps than I'd like to admit to, along with everything else, of course. I love to make cards, home decor, and altered items, and I make a few scrapbook pages, too. ;)I love to try out new techniques, and I love to share what I've learned with all of you.
When I'm not in my craft studio, I love to go antiquing and thrifting, read, and waste countless hours on Pinterest. I do throw in a little real work once in awhile, too. I am the web director and event coordinator at a local landscape design and garden center, as well as a part-time writer and photographer. I currently live in North Carolina with my two adorable teenage kiddos, a wee hedgehog baby, and our adoptive Golden Retriever pup.
I'm looking forward to sharing fun projects with you all week long. It's going to be a great week. Not only do I get to hang out with you, but it's also Thanksgiving week AND..... my birthday! I can't think of a nicer birthday present than to be here with you!
As I mentioned before, I am a huge fan of the holidays, and one of my favorite things to do this time of year is to create special handmade decor pieces to add some festive flair to our home. So to kick off the week, I made a fun Winter Wishes wall hanging that I just know is going to brighten some little nook or cranny this season.
The base of the wall hanging is a 6x6 panel of recycled corrugated cardboard that I cut from an old shipping box. I gave the cardboard a generous coating of gesso and then added pieces of the music note woven sheet. Scrunched the torn pieces of woven sheet paper as I worked to create a bit of extra texture.
