I used a few really fun and new-to-me sets of wafer dies to create both the book and pages and the fun layered banner on the cover. I love the layers of texture and pattern and topped it off with a stamp from one of my floral stamp sets and a hand written title (I've been a bit more into using my own handwriting lately.) Using the dies to make the book is so easy - everything lines up and you just tie it together! I used some waxed linen thread that I had handy. The cover and pages were both just cut from cardstock weight patterned paper.

I like using patterned paper as a background. For the pages, I chose lightly patterned papers so I could still stamp on top of them. This spread was obviously inspired by all of the birds building their nests right now... we even have a few finches who keep trying to pull from the grapevine base of the wreath on our front door! 

I used the feather and butterfly stamps from my "Nature Study" stamp set to create the background, my upper case alphabet set (EGL16) to do the title, and mixed together a few other sets to get the bird. I also added a few more die-cut pieces from the same die sets I used to make the book for backgrounds and frames. Below you can see a bit of a closeup of both pages.

On to the second spread... the trees that blossom in Spring are all in bud and we should be getting cherry blossoms here in the DC area any day!

And there you go! I still have a few pages left in the book that I'll continue to add to as the season goes on, but I hope you enjoy and are maybe even a bit inspired by the book and the first three spreads!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS
Of course, it wouldn’t be a birthday celebration without prizes! Topflight Stamps is giving four lucky winners $50 Gift Certificates to the store. Two winners will be chosen from commenters on the blog hop and two will be chosen from commenters on the IG hop.

​For a chance to win, make sure to visit the stops on the hop and leave a comment by April 1st. Winners will be announced on the Topflight Stamps blog on Thursday, April 3rd. U.S.A winners only due to shipping issues. Good Luck!

Blogs for the hop:
Topflight main post
Kathi Rerek
Dina Kowal
Esther Asbury
Annette Allen
Rachel Kleinman
Connie Mercer
Lisa Hoel
Gwen Lafleur --> You are here!
Colleen Dietrich
Ericka Strange
Autumn Clark
Natasha Vacca
Mel Pilling (Instagram only)
Colleen Balija
Alanna Moses
Sara Naumann

I'm excited to have two fun announcements to share today!

First up, I'm thrilled to have three more deeply etched rubber stamp sets from PaperArtsy now available... EGL19, EGL20, and EGL21.

EGL19 is my Build-A-Collage - Birds set... I designed this with the idea that you could have all of the elements you need in a single stamp set to create collaged ATCs, cards, tags, or mini journal spreads. Or you have some quick and easy elements that you can mix in with other projects (like my tutorial projects that were part of this release.)

I spent a few hours stamping on a variety of papers and then coloring and cutting them out, and now I have a little container full of pieces that I can draw from and quickly add into my projects. I used those prepped pieces to make three ATCs in just 30 minutes!

My EGL20 set is my "Tribal Patches" set and was inspired by beaded and embroidered Kuchi patches from Central Asia, Banjara patches from India, and Hmong stars from Thailand. I thought it would be wonderful to have those beautiful patterns and the sense of detail without the bulk for when I want to work in a journal or other flat projects.

EGL21 is the last set for this release and it's my Labels & Numbers set. This is the latest addition to what I call my "Gwenified" basics... super versatile shapes and images that can be used in lots of ways but with my own personal flair added in. I love just having a whole bunch of stamped and cut labels at the ready and, as you can see, I went a bit nuts with the samples for this set!

I also have two projects combining all three sets and each of them has a photo tutorial over on the official release post on the PaperArtsy blog.

That's it for the stamp release... I hope you're as excited to use these as I am! And don't forget to head over to the PaperArtsy blog for the full release with more background on each set, more photos, and the two project tutorials.

Next up is the announcement for my latest online workshop, Bits & Pieces. This will be a live online class in partnership with Everything Scrapbook & Stamps, so if you're interested, make sure to sign up in advance... you can watch the class on replay if you can't join live (as often as you want!) but registration will close before the live begins.

Bits & Pieces will be held on Saturday, August 7th at 1pm eastern time. 

It seems like just yesterday that I was typing up the post announcing my last stamp release in February and at the same time, it feels like it's been forever that I've been waiting to share; this round of stamp designs was done and submitted for production in early December of last year. But it's finally time to let this particular cat out of the bag!

This month I'm thrilled to be sharing a few super versatile new sets in my new release with PaperArtsy - an alphabet and vintage transportation tickets and accents along with, at long last, peacocks!

You can see the entire reveal post with more photos of the samples, lots more background information, and a project tutorial over on the PaperArtsy blog. But in the meantime, here are a few of the things I've been working on to prepare for the big reveal.

First up, a few projects using EGL16, my new hand-drawn Art Deco inspired alphabet and number set (with a great frame that works to create a monogram with any of the letters or numbers or that you can use as a design element.) I really wanted to show how you can create with just​ this set and still have some great versatility for making different backgrounds as well as titles.

Next up is a group of stamps that I'm extremely excited about... EGL17 features 12 designs; seven of which are based on vintage or antique tickets from around the world. I pulled some of my favorite vintage and antique tickets from my collection of ephemera, specifically from countries where I've visited and ridden a train, bus, or subway, and drew my own versions. Yes, you read that right - all of the designs, down to the tiniest letters and numbers, are hand-drawn.

I wanted to draw my own versions to customize them and put my own hand in each element of the set. To complement the tickets I included five accent stamps - two are registration type marks that you can layer on your tickets in a different color of ink. I added some floral elements as well which I thought would be fun embellishments on or overlapping the tickets or great elements used on their own.

​Think travel scrapbooking or travel journals, bullet journaling, mixed media, bon voyage cards, and more.

Here you can see just how realistic the tickets look when they're stamped! I also used them to make my own set of jumbo reinforcement-style stickers to create accents for some of the sample projects in this release. Those might be one of my favorite things that I've made so far.

Next up, EGL18 - peacocks! I know those who know me are probably wondering what took me so long... 17 other stamp sets before the peacocks made their appearance! But I wanted to do the idea justice; I'm glad I waited.

This set is based on Indian woodblock designs with my own patterns and twists added in. As you can see here, I've used them for mixed media artwork, an embroidered embellishment (which will likely end up on a journal cover,) and also a heavily embroidered and beaded piece that I turned into a brooch. 

To wrap up the samples for this release I combined all three sets on these two mixed media Art Cards and put together a step-by-step tutorial (which is over on the PaperArtsy blog) to walk you through how you can create this type of project yourselves.

​You can translate the steps and techniques to handmade greeting cards, tags, art journal pages, or even scrapbook layouts.

I'm thrilled with this release and the versatility of the designs as well as how well they mix in with my previous stamp sets and also with my stencil designs. I can't wait to incorporate these into upcoming workshop projects and to continue to create and share. Of course I'm doubly excited to see what you all create with these new stamps! So make sure to tag me with your creations so I can see.

​In the meantime, be sure to hop over to the PaperArtsy blog for my full release post as well as the tutorial for the Art Cards using all three of the new sets.

It's Topflight Stamps 4th birthday! I'm joining in the celebration along with a group of fabulous designers to share handmade birthday cards that showcase many of the unique products available at Topflight Stamps (including my stamps and embossing powders!) I hope you'll enjoy my cards and tutorial and then continue to hop along with us to see the variety of fantastic products from this talented bunch. (And make sure to stick around to the end to find out how you can win a gift card.) Updated... winner is on the bottom of the post!

If you're following in order then you should have arrived here from Rachel Greig's blog, but if not - no worries! Get the full list of participants and links to their blogs at the bottom of this post.

For my contribution I've used my stamps from PaperArtsy and my Boho Blends embossing powders from Emerald Creek to make a pair of mixed media birthday cards.

I put together a little tutorial to show you how I made these and which products I used to achieve the various effects. Ready to get started?

​Step 1: I started out with Neenah Extra Heavy folded cards and used Lavinia Acetate Circle Masks along with Prism dye ink from Hunkydory and a blender brush to put down three circles of ink on the front of my card.

Step 2: I traced the Lavinia masks onto plain copy paper and cut out the circles to create masks for my stamps (the acetate masks will work too, but they're a bit thicker and so it creates a bigger gap between the stamp and the edge of the circle when you stamp over the mask. The thickness of the acetate is perfect for inking, though.)

I laid the paper masks over top and matched them up with the inked areas, then used designs from my different PaperArtsy stamp sets, stamping repeatedly, to fill the inked circles with pattern. (The set in the photo is my EGL10 set - Japanese Patterns. I also used EGL11 - Suzani Florals as well as my new EGL13 set, Botanical Illustrations.) I stamped with a combination of the Prism Dye Ink Pads as well as Hero Arts Ombré pads.

Step 3: I took the Prism Glimmer Mist in Glamour Gold and instead of spraying, I opened the bottle and used the tube for the sprayer as a skewer and drew rough outlines around my circles with the gold ink.

Step 4: I used bits of washi tape along the edges (two of the designs by Tracy Evans for AALL & Create) and then cut circles from the Colorful Circles washi from l'Encre et l'Image and adhered them onto the card (I used a glue stick since handling them during cutting takes away a lot of the stickiness.)

Step 5: For each of the cards, I chose one of the frames from my new EGL14 (Ornate Frames) stamp set and stamped on watercolor paper with embossing ink and then used some of my Boho Blends embossing powders to heat emboss the images. (For this piece I used Kano Green and Moroccan Sun.)

Step 6: I added sentiments to the birthday cards by using a small alphabet set to stamp my words, then I cut out my frames and edged them with more Prism ink (I used Smoked Paprika here) and then adhered them onto the card with Hunkydory Finger Lift Double-Sided tape.

Step 7: To finish, I added some self-adhesive rhinestones (Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles Glitter Gemstones - Gold Sparkles) onto the main frame to highlight my stamped sentiment and then just used a regular pen to scribble borders and add a few marks.

Voilà! Completed mixed media birthday cards. I love the look of layering ink, stamping, embossing, and washi tape all mixed together to highlight the celebratory sentiments and I'm excited to have these ready and waiting for the next time I need a birthday card :)

I hope you enjoyed both the cards and the tutorial... here are a few more close-ups so you can see both of the completed cards.

I'm excited to share that today I'm releasing three new rubber stamp sets with PaperArtsy. This release includes EGL13 (Botanical Illustrations,) EGL14 (Ornate Frames,) and EGL15 (Tribal Fish.) Flowers, Frames, and Fish!

All of the stamps in these collections came from my sketchbook and were inspired by my travels, a few treasured items in my apartment, and my love of flowers and foliage.

​Below you can check out my samples with each of the new collections and then head over to the official release post on the PaperArtsy blog to get more details and background for each set.

There's also a tutorial for a project that features all three stamp sets - although these may not seem like they go together, I had this concept in my head from the moment I began designing them and I'm thrilled with how well it worked in practice.

You can head over to the PaperArtsy blog to see more details for each project and to get the full tutorial.

Things have been busy lately with lots of new product announcements, new online classes, and other goings on, so today is a quick combo post to share info on two of my upcoming live online workshops along with a new free mixed media tutorial.

​First up... I'm up today with my quarterly Paint & Texture column on the StencilGirl blog and this month I'm sharing a few ways that you can make and use acrylic skins with stencils in your art journal (or mixed media, scrapbook layouts, and lots more.)

I'll share the steps for creating the bulk of the art journal page shown here. Head on over and check it out!

I've been incredibly busy putting together and teaching live online workshops all year, and I still have a few more coming before we close out 2020.

And save the date! I have a second class with Artistic Artifacts, "Ornaments & Amulets," which will be held on Saturday, December 5th. More details and registration coming soon.

One last quick note... my latest stamp release from PaperArtsy is now in stock and available in the shop!

I'm super excited to announce the release of my three latest stamp collections with PaperArtsy: EGL10, EGL11, and EGL12. I love to incorporate floral and other ethnic patterns that I've discovered in my travels - both in real life, such as the Suzani patterns from Uzbekistan, and the travels in my mind like the ones to Japan (someday I'll get there!)

You can head over to the PaperArtsy blog for the full release post with all of the details and even more project photos, but here's a quick overview of some of the samples and inspiration for each set.

EGL10 is the set I call Japanese Patterns - it's entirely inspired by designs I found in an antique Japanese design book. Each hand drawn element is designed to be able to work on its own, or you can repeat them to make backgrounds and collage or patterned papers.

For my samples using this collection, I made a bunch of different patterned papers and collaged them to create patchwork backgrounds with stamped butterflies and medallions in the foreground.

EGL11 is my Suzani Florals set - this was inspired by traditional embroidered Suzani designs from Uzbekistan. (This may look familiar to some of you as these are smaller and more detailed versions of the designs that came in the 9" x 12" stencil in my July 2020 Suzani StencilClub collection.)

I used the small stamps in this set to make some collage papers for a mixed media piece and card. The large floral stamp was stamped on some scrap paper with white paint on it, colored with colored pencils, and then cut out and adhered to create the focal point.

EGL12 is my Suzani Motifs section - flowers and medallions that are great for cards, tags, art journal pages, scrapbooking, and lots more. 

My samples with this stamp set included a card and a handbound Concertina book with patterns and hand painting inspired by Ajrak block printing from India. You can read a bit more about the inspiration behind the background papers on this pieces in the announcement blog post.

If you head over to my post today on the PaperArtsy blog, you'll find a short tutorial showing how I made a set of ATCs using all three stamp sets, including how I made my own patterned faux washi tape.

I'm thrilled to finally be able to share these designs and some of the projects I've been making with them... I hope you like them as much as I do, and I can't wait to see what you all make with them!

My newest online workshop, Interactive ATCs, is now up and open for registration! This live 2-hour online class, held in partnership with Scrapbooking Fairies in Alberta, Canada, will take place live in a private Facebook group on Saturday, August 22.

We'll turn your traditional Artist Trading Cards into interactive artwork that can also be used in art journals and more as we mix stamps and stencils with paint, collage, and mark marking for a layered background and embellishments. The class also includes downloadable patterns and hand-drawn labels.

(Or go straight to registration)

I'm excited to share that my latest online class, Patchwork Pages, is now open for registration! 

In this 2-hour class, being held in partnership with The Artistic Stamper in the UK, we'll mix collage, stamping, and mark making to create patched-up layers of texture, pattern, and color. Our project will be an art journal page or mixed media piece, like the ones in the samples, with a few page components left over for use in future projects.

It's time to tap into your inner child... mixed media style. My latest workshop, "Mixed Media Menagerie," brings whimsical creatures, layers and texture, mark making, and more together into a fun and interactive handmade art journal.

The class is being held in partnership with Everything Scrapbook & Stamps in West Palm Beach, Florida and the live portion of the workshop will be held on June 27th from 1-3:30pm eastern time. In addition to the scheduled live, there will be one more video in the group for a total of more than 4 hours of video. Plus tutorials, patterns, a fun marbled paper technique, and more.