June Designer Series with Mama Elephant

Hello crafty friends! Davina here, with a “Spooky Season” gift box that I made using some fun new products from Mama Elephant. I always enjoy make Halloween themed projects the best, so there’s no denying that I love all of the new stamp and die sets from the June release. I especially love the new Market Tote Creative Cuts and the adorable stamp set Boo Crew. 

I have been recently obsessed with making beaded bag charms and pins, and I decided to make some fun crafty gift packaging for a new Spooky Bag Charm. Although the original Market Tote is wonderful, I needed a wider base, so that the weight of my bag charm didn't tip it over. I quickly and easily modified the die set to make more of a gift box sized package. I even used trimmed pieces of the tote bag details to make the sides match the front and back.

I will share the simple process i used to convert the Market Tote Bag into a box. 

1. Cut 2 of the main tote panels from thick patterned paper and trim off the 2nd scored tab portion on the right, making sure to leave the tab closest to the front piece. 

2. Cut a piece of matching cardstock at 2x9 and score and fold every 3 inches. 

3. Use the remaining tabs to glue the tote bag panels to the strip. Liquid glue is far stronger and allows for adjustment when doing this. 

4. Optionally, decorate the sides and interior with more matching paper to cover the tabs and add stability and weight. 

After assembling my Market Tote box, I decorated the front with adorable images from Boo Crew and made a swagged beaded banner across the top with the String of Letters die set. I stamped the letters into each bead using the alphabet from Little Signage Agenda . Once I was done with the box I made a small 3x3 notecard to stuff on the inside with my bag charm and a gift card.  I layered some pattered papers that matched the box and added a die cut sentiment from the Spiderweb Frame Cover plate. 

This came together so quickly and I know that anyone would be so excited to receive this. You could modify the tote bag into a small box for any occasion or season. I love that this wonderful die set is so adaptable and versatile. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope that you try this fun modification/hack, Davina 

March Designer Series with Mama Elephant

Hello Crafty Friends! Davina here, with my March Mama Elephant Designer Series project. The March release is in full swing and I just love all the new photo themed products and playfulness of everything. I especially love the Penguin Park stamp set and the whole amusement park vibe! I decided to make a 2nd card for this release using the fantastic castle image surrounded by the penguins, but to make it a little more special, I chose to make a swinging pendulum style interactive card. 

I stamped and colored my images from the Penguin Park stamp set before diecutting them out, and cut two of the little penguin that would be holding the balloons. When making a pendulum on your project, it’s important to remember that the image needs to be heavier at the bottom, to ensure it swings easily and falls back down to the original placement. I used the Spring in the Air Creative Cuts for my grassy hillside and layered it over an ink blended sky. Because I knew the top would be bulky with my swinging balloons, I mounted the grass with some foam tape to add a little weight to the lower half of my card. 

                                                     

I tucked my castle under the hillside and arranged a few images onto the hillside letting them extend off of my matted background. I prepared the panel using more foam tape, to make room for the Snap n Slide disc (available from PearBlossom Press), and used a hole punch to cut the access for my sliding disc. I snapped the 2 piece disc into place and mounted the whole background onto my card base.   

                                                      

Now that everything was in its place I was able to add a large glue dot to the exposed half of the sliding disc, and adhere my ballon holding penguin (with a second penguin added for weight) In the remaining sky, I added a small speech bubble using a little sentiment from Happy Together Sayings, and a few glittery die cut stars.  

I finished the card off by adding some glitter glue to the castle windows for a little sparkle. I love how swishy this is and how freely my ballon penguin swings. Make sure to check out the fun new products from the March release. Thank you for stopping by, Davina 

February Designer Series with Mama Elephant

Hello Crafty Friends! Davina here with you today, to share my Designer Series project for February. This release is chock full of cozy home “feels” but I wanted to focus on one of the new Creative Cut die sets playfully called the Silly Shaker Frames. I made a sweet full sized slimline card, with 3 shaker frames arranged onto the scene. I especially love that the die set includes 2 different sized dies to create custom faux sequins with your colored paper scraps and that they combine beautifully with actual sequins and shaker beads to fill your frames. 

To make my trio of shakers, I cut multiple frames from an assortment of papers. I used a pretty variety of patterned papers for the base, and beautiful glitter cardstock for the top frame. I stamped some of the house images from Little Agenda House and chose to add very faint and minimal coloring to them, before adhering them to each of the shaker bases. I put a little pile of sequins on each base before carefully topping with my foam tape backed frame. 

I arranged all 3 frames to my long slimline panel onto the available space. Then stamped and colored 3 different pairs of animals for the 3 frames. I used the larger animal images from the Stackable Cuties stamp set as well as a little speech bubble from the same set for each pair. Then, I found a teeny version of each cutie in my “Agenda” sets. I used Little Monkey Agenda, Little Unicorn Agenda, and Little Pig Agenda stamp sets. 

I placed a sentiment from the new Home Sweet Home set in the center, then arranged the images onto the frames, making sure to leave some of each house visible, and also making sure my long scene would feel balanced. I really love that I was able to find some floating/flying critters to fill my shaker frames and kind of make a “moving” themed card. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and make sure to check out the new Mama Elephant February release, Davina 

Mama Elephant January Designer Series

Hello crafty friends! I feel like it’s been a while since I shared a blog post for my beloved Mama Elephant projects, but I'm back, with a glittered sparkly birthday card featuring the new Birthday Celebrations Stamps and CC dies. During last weeks Stamp Highlights, you may have noticed that I made all of my cards using matching colors and papers, and I continued the theme to this project as well. I find it easier and quicker to reduce the choices for markers and papers when I match my cards into little collections, especially when i need multiple projects at the same time for releases. Bonus, everything is cohesive and looks beautiful when shared together too.

As always, I made my marker choices for coloring by matching my patterned paper pack. I know that all of the papers with match each other, and the colors will coordinate seamlessly since I'm sticking to a palette that a professional has compiled. After stamping and coloring all of my images I ran them through the die cutting machine using the Birthday Celebration CC dies. I built an arched centerpiece for my scene using the B2B Arches CC die set and adding an additional popped up layer of coppery glitter cardstock for the “floor”. Before assembling I gently inked the edges of my arch with oxide inks and added a splattering of coppery paint. 

I centered my arch onto a stitched panel cut using the largest layer from the Combo Rectangle CC die set then added one more hand cut layer of coppery glitter to layer that upon (I may have cut my little floor layer from the middle of this panel). Wink wink. I adhered my images and the birthday banner to this panel when I decided I would make an additional swag of cardstock circles to layer over top. I had the circles on my desk already from a previous card, so I just glued them to some black thread and taped the thread behind the panel. 

I love stripes and use them all the time, so there are always tons of striped paper scraps at my disposal. I trimmed one to fit along the side of my card back and centered my decorated card panel on top. I really love that the little circle swag moves a little bit. It will lay flat in the envelope but have movement when the card is handled. I also really love the subdued glam that the glittery copper cardstock adds to these cards. It’s all cute enough for a young person but “grown up” for an adult, and to me that’s exactly what I strive for when planning my cards.

I hope you like this card and check out the Birthday Celebration set if you haven’t already added it to your collection.  Thank you so much for stopping by, Davina 

Rock On! Designer Series Project

Hello crafty friends! Davina here with a “Rockin” box card I made using new stamps and dies from the November Mama Elephant release. I just adore the whole music themed collection and all the possibilities that are waiting to be created. I made several K Pop themed cards for the release but for my Designer Series project I really wanted to make something that felt more like a blast from my past. No Doubt has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager and I was determined to make a little scene.

I began by drawing a drum set ,and although it took me a couple hours, I felt like it was so worth it. I drew a basic drum set on my iPad and printed it out in a size that would basically extend the width of a card. After I gave it a quick coloring I spent a few minutes fussy cutting it out. I actually used a small paintbrush and black acrylic paint to write the words “No Doubt” in the center drum. It looked the old Rock Steady cover art to me. 

Next, I needed a drummer. I used a character from the Boy Band stamp set, and carefully masked off the extended arm that was holding a microphone. That way I could draw an arm holding a drum set. I sketched it in pencil before outlining with a Multiliner. I decided it needed two drumsticks, so I just drew one over the other palm and put a gel pen highlight down the length to cover the hand. In the end, it turned out much better than I thought it would. Finally, I stamped and colored a few other images from the Boy Band and Girl Group stamp sets. 

I made a large boxcard using a 12x12 piece of kraft cardstock.  I trimmed it to 5.5 inches tall and 11.5 inches long. Then scored it at 4.25, 1.25, 4.25, and again at 1.25 inches.  This left a 1/2 inch tab that I eventually used to close the box. I cut out a window on the first large section using the Placemat Set CC and then crafted a frame for the scalloped oval with the B2B Arches CC

I used bold red and black grungy paper that reminded me of their old style of dress, and decorated the front with a layered bow and stage equipment using the new On Stage CC and Take A Bow CC. After adhering a variety of trimmed patterned papers on the exterior and interior panels, I inserted the drum set on a short insert and some die cut words across the very back. 

Once it was full and bursting with images, I closed it up using the last little 1/2 tab and some glue.  I hope this inspires you to be a little creative and recreate your favorite music group. Thank you for stopping by,

Davina 

October Designer Series

Hello crafty friends! Davina here, with some cheerful holiday inspiration. I made a winter wonderland of a scene, using the new Docket Lil Flap Taggies  Creative Cuts and individual words, selectively stamped, from new Holiday Reading stamp set. I really love how the past couple of releases have built upon the Little Docket series of products, so I wanted to make sure to showcase the new die set. 

I stamped, die cut, and assembled 6 different Lil Docket Taggies, using images from Lil Christmas Docket, and finished each tag with a colorful stamped layered label and a striped twine knot. I loved the size of the text from the Holiday Reading set, and masked off individual words to stamp onto each layer. 

Next, I die cut a winter background using the Magic Snow Cover from Bristol smooth cardstock and ink blended an ombré aqua that I splattered with white and teal ink. I stamped images from an older set that matched the characters from Lil Christmas Docket, called Snow Friends. I adhered them onto a snow bank at the bottom of the scene then arranged the “Taggies” in the space above. 

I finished this card off by layering some pretty candy cane striped patterned paper under my scene, and adding a small spattering of sequins around the edges. Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you are inspired to use the new “Taggies” in a different way. 

Davina 

Designer Series with Davina

Hello crafty friends! Davina here with a fun winter scene using new products from the Big Mama Elephant Anniversary release.  I combined elements from several stamp sets to bring the card to life, and i also converted some dies from an older release to make a mini slimline card.  

I love making mini-slimline cards. Not those teeny “personal check” sized things, but a good 3.5 X 6.5 card (basically the size of your iPhone). Technically these cards are a slimline card with 2 inches trimmed off the length. I’ve been making them for many years and was tickled pink last month, when I realized that the large base die for the Slim Scenescape Builder Box Card set, was the size I make my slimline cards. So don’t be surprised when you see me making these all the time for my Mama Elephant projects. 

I wanted to make a slider card using that adorable reindeer card from the new Santas Friends stamp set, and wanted that longer length of the slimline for my card to drive across. I cut the background layer and the tabbed boxcard strip intended for the front of the boxcard, from red heavy colored cardstock. Then I cut the stitched panel from white Bristol Smooth card since I intended to ink blend. I wanted to make a small pop out layer for the slinging channel so I modified the tab by making two little folding brackets. From each tabbed score mark, I scored again at 1/2 inch, then trimmed at the next 1/2. 

After carefully snipping the corners off of my new tabs I used the stitched layer a second time, to cut a glittery snowdrift, then removed a sliding channel from the center. I added a PearBlossom Press sliding disc into the channel, then adhered the tabs to the back of the stitched layer, before glueing that to the red background. Next, I adhered my glittery snowdrift to make my pop out hillside.  

I stamped the cute mushroom house from Candy Cane Lane and several of the tall trees from Busy Elves. I also stamped several of the characters from Santas Friends and gave everything a bright copic coloring, before using the coordinating dies to cut everything out. I adhered all of my images to the card and snowy hillside, then finished it off by using a glue dot to adhere my reindeer car to the sliding disc. 

I cut a card base from heavy 110 lb cardstock and used an old corner rounding punch to match the card shape up top. I really love how cute this turned out and how wonderfully the car slides since there’s nothing behind it haha. I hope you have already shopped the new release and try to combine it with great products from your stash. Thank you for stopping by, Davina