Prima

The Fall E-Line Give-Away Winner Is...

I love the colors changing in all the leaves!

Posted by: Georgia | November 02, 2009 at 11:44 PM

Georgia is our winner of this nice little bundle of E-Line product:

Georgia, please email to claim your prize: sharon@primamarketinginc.com

Be sure to check out our other give-away still going on from Tips-N-Techniques Day!

A Few AMAZING Spins on our Canvas Album...

 

(sample by Donna Downey)

 The talented Ali Edwards is using our very own 8x8 Donna Downey Canvas Album (920197) as the base for her December Daily 2009 Project! Ali does FABULOUS things with our canvas and clear insert pages. Hop on over to her blog to check our her amazing step-by-step photos and instructions to make yourself a one-of-a-kind Christmas HEIRLOOM album.

Foundation Pages, Cover and Days 1-12

Foundation Pages Days 13-25

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One of our Prima Educators, Nathalie Kalbach, has shared her AMAZING canvas album with us. We hope it's artsy style will inspire you as well!

 

 The whole album is a mix of Prima and Ranger art mediums...so very cool!

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It's Blooming Retro Over Here...

Today we have a beautiful assortment of projects using our one of our newest lines, "Blooming Retro". If you have not tried this paper line you JUST have to! Take a peek at these projects for some GREAT inspiration.

 

"Give Thanks" is a stunning card by Cari Fennell using a flower cut-out from Retro (841072). The actual card base is a Prima package which Cari wrapped ribbon around and then added the paper and Prima bling (850524).

"You Are The Best" is a FUN layout celebrating lots of great colors and our newest Blooming Retro papers (841065, 841096). Caroline Ikeji added her own signature touches to the design, along with her embellishment choices (Stitched words-920418, Parlor Petal flower-531454 and Gossamer butterfly and flowers-533977, 533939)

Here's another fantastically stunning card by Cari Fennell. Again, she let the paper (841096) do the work! Adding simple Homespun Bittles flowers (532871) and a title (531188), while paper cut-outs (841058) add so much style. Simple and gorgeous.

The title on this layout says it all! Jaime Warren also used the Blooming Retro papers (841089) to create this honey of a page. Using the large paper flowers (841041) as accents is not only economical, but it is BEAUTIFUL too! Add an E-Line pearl (300586) here and there to finish the layout off with style.

 

How about one more Retro card to close the post? This one by Cari is SIMPLE, yet stunning. Simply cut the scallops from the paper (841089) to set alongside the beautiful blue patterned paper (841065)... add some ribbon and a GORGEOUS Bonnet Bloom flower (528218)...then tuck some paper leaves in for lots of dimension. Stamp your favorite sentiment and you are DONE!

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TNT: Let's Ignite Some Creativity!

Hi!  My name is Sally Lynn MacDonald and I'm the Director of Special Projects here at Prima.  I'm also one of the Prima Endorsed Artist-Educators; a group of instructors that travel worldwide sharing our love of technique and teaching workshops. Today we are starting a new weekly series featuring Tips and Techniques or TNT.  I call it TNT and Sharon couldn't resist having me share that name with you.  TNT stands for the explosion of creativity that goes on every time I put together a technique post, as well as the fact that my craft area looks like a product bomb has gone off in it, once I'm finished with the project!  As part of this weekly feature - we are going to utilize the chat feature, on the right-hand sidebar of this blog.  Throughout the day, I will be fielding your questions on the topic of the techniques and tips featured here.  If I cannot answer your question, I'll take it to the team to research your question. 

As often as possible we will feature the work of our fabulous design team as well as our artist-educators.

So let's ignite some creativity with TNT today!

To kick off our feature, I'm working with a Stitched Mulberry paper today.  I love that the sewing details are already there for me to work with.  This romantic, feminine print immediatly lends itself to those themes.  But what about a winter page?  The light cream color lends itself to almost any theme.  I'm going to show you how versatile this paper can be!

 

The first thing I want to do is take advantage of the framed design and cut out the center.  I use a craft knife to trace around the printed frame design on the paper. 

Once I've traced the design with my craft knife, I go around once more to cut out the design.  Mulberry paper is resilient, and so I hold onto the detailed designs with my thumb and forefinger while pulling the center away from the edge.  This protects the delicate designs.

 

I printed out a picture on a 12x12 piece of watercolor photo paper.  I love the soft look that this paper creates.  I place my photograph underneath the cut out frame and trim any excess after positioning the subjects within the cutout.  If you have an 8x10 or 8 1/2 x 11 photo, you can adjust the first step accordingly.

This photograph is from a winter's day - but my daughters' sunny dispositions make me think of a lovely quote by Thoreau: "Always maintain a kind of Summer even in the middle of Winter".  So I want to use this inspiration for my design and as a title on my page.

I don't like to waste a scrap of paper, soI took the center cut-out, trimmed off the wavy edge and cut it into strips approximately 1 inch wide.

To enhance the soft, feminine look of the paper and photograph, two of these strips are fan-folded to make a ruffle.  I don't make crisp creases in the paper.  I softly fold it over my fingers as I go.

These are adhered at the corner under the cut edge of the frame with a strong glue and fanned out around this gorgeous jeweled flower.

The same thing on the upper right hand corner.

My kids are always making paper chains.  These are made when you loop one paper inside the other to create links and create an entire chain of these looped circles of paper.  I want to make a paper structure similar to the paper chain, but more of a two-dimensional chain.  Think of attaching the loops together, not through each other, but at the outside of each circle.  In jewelry-making terms, you could think of it a soldering two loops together.  Mulberry paper is very strong and resilient.  It will work great for what I have in mind.

A strong glue is essential to any structural design.  A liquid glue works best with fibrous paper like mulberry.  I prefer Fabritac by Beacon Adhesives, both for it's dimensional abilities and it's quick grip.  

I take the other strips of paper and cut them down to 4 inch lengths, and trim them thinly, to about 1/4" wide.  I sprayed the back side of each with a light blue glimmer spray, to coordinate with my photograph and add a little pop of color.

Take these strips and place them, two at a time with matching sides facing each other.  Use a strong liquid glue and place it at the top and bottom of each strip and glue the two strips together.  You can still open up the inside of these flat 'loops'.  To aid in their drying, I stack these up and use binder clips or paper clips to hold the sealed ends tightly together.

Once these pairs are dry, place a strip of wet glue in the middle of the outside of each pair and glue them together.  Make two sets, making one set with a few more pieces than the other.  Once again, a binder clip or paper clip aids in keeping them together while the glue dries.

Pull them gently from side to side to expose the horizontal paper chains.  These make me think of delicate crystaline structures.  Fan one out and place it under a flower in the bottom-left corner.  A pearl center is placed over the center of the flower.

Place the larger of the two chains tucked underneath the paper fan at lower-right hand side.  We will use this to highlight a word of our title.  I embellished the chipboard letters with more pearl centers, with some cut apart and placed on the edges of the letters, like ice crystals.  Click on this or any other picture for a closer look.

 

I anchored the quote with a pearl center at the beginning and worked my way around the layout with the glittered letter stickers.  And that completes our layout!

Prima Products used today:

• Stitched Mulberry Paper #813253
• Fleur Danseur Adagio jeweled flowers #531928
• Alabaster Flowers Alissa #532055
• Say It In Pearls Centers, Black and Cream #530822
• Times Alpha Chipboard Letters, small cream #810580
• Glittered Alphabet Stickers, #860264

Misc:

Glimmer Mist
Fabritac Adhesive

Even though TNT is new to the Prima blog, there is a whole archive of prior techniques from the Prima Artist-Educator blog that you can view as well.  Take a look!

I'm sure you will love the fun techniques shown today.  And now, to add to the fun...simply leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win this prize, featuring products used in today's post. We will randomly choose a winner on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009. Open to North America only due to shipping costs, but approx. every 5 weeks or so we will host a worldwide drawing.

 
From the entries received on our last technique post, using Random.org's random integer generator -- the winner for our previous technique post drawing is:

Joli!

Please contact me so we can mail out your lovely prize at sallylynn@primamarketinginc.com

Best of luck to each of you!  And I look forward to chatting with you today and every week with TNT.

P.S. Do you want a Prima Endorsed Artist-Educator to teach a workshop at your store or event?  Contact Lu at 909-627-5532, ext. 202 for more information.  The full schedule of upcoming workshops is online too.

Have a great day. 

SL

October's Build-A-Page Winner...

October's sketch had a gorgeous circle accent in the backdrop highlighting a single photo...lots of embellishments, a large title and a centered journaling area. All provide the necessary ingredients for a GORGEOUS design! Let's see what our reader's submitted for the contest!

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WINNER: Teresa Manchas!!

(#4734)

 

Teresa hit this one out of the ballpark! We love how she followed the basic sketch, but added her own little variations...like using packaging as one of her background pieces. The Animal Bash paper fits so well with her CUTE boy and dog photo, while framing it with lace adds a soft, vintage feel. 

CONGRATS, Teresa. Please email Prima to claim your BAP prize! sharon@primamarketinginc.com

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Here are a few other entries for you to peek at (and there were WAY TOO MANY fab entries AGAIN!)

 

by Heather Derbecker (look at that sweet photo!)

by Hetty Hall (Love the clustered embellies that are perfectly placed!)

by Mandysea (STUNNING and so divine!)

by Morag (Including a vintage piece of jewelry makes it even more special.)

by Rachel Wright (Adorable with a capital A!)

 

by Sonia Thomason (All around AMAZING! Loving the tape on the edges.)

 

by Stacy Cohen (Check out the cool borders and hand-colored alabaster flowers!)

by Steph Devlin (BEAUTIFUL colors and very creative circle element!)

 

by Tomoko  Tamakashi (Absolutely fantastic! Look at the gate keyhole!)

 

by Toni Kelly (LOVE the contrast and color combo chosen!)

 

by Vanessa Waller (BEAUTIFUL color scheme that works so well with the photo!)

by isa-scrap (LOVE the feeling of "beachy carefree-ness" on this design!)

 

by Julie Dandy (Vintage touches make this a GORGEOUS layout!)

by Heidi Barclay (Check out the very cool circle effect Heidi created with paper!)

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Be sure to check out November's sketch! There is still time to enter!

AMAZING Fall E-Line Give-Away...

Today we have chosen nine of our FAVORITE beautiful flowers and lovely pearls & crystals from our new affordable E-Line to give-away to one lucky winner!

The colors chosen are PERFECT for FALL projects! Just take a peek at those RICH oranges, browns and purples (we even threw in some blacks and whites for good measure.) And the E-Line flowers?...there are 30 flowers in each scrumptious package! Each flower is embossed to add extra pizazz to your projects!

Just leave a note on this post about your favorite thing about FALL for your chance to win all nine packets! Open to all countries. Drawing will close on Friday, November 6th, at 4 pm EST.

Build-A-Page November

This months sketch is a WHOPPING two-pager! 

Fabulous doesn't even begin to describe the options available when using this sketch as a base for your projects. Our sketch artist, Anam, included both vertical and horizontal photos, as well as a GREAT place for a long title...a special journaling area, and lots of swirl areas for accents.

WOW! That's a lot of inspiration right there. If you want to join us in playing around with this month's BAP just enter your creation in our CONTEST Gallery! (See full details below.)

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This sketch is perfect for those events that you have taken a thousands photos at...or for a layout where you just have to show off your special little bundle...or for a series of shots! Some of our team created this two-pager side by side just like the sketch shows...and a few really put a FUN twist on it! Be sure to scroll down to see ALL of the creations!

Janine Koczwara used this month's Build-a-Page as the base for her precious new baby photos! Using lots of sweet photos, accented by just a handful of well-chosen embellishments, really keeps the focus on her precious bundle of joy! (Accents include: Camelot Roses, Alabaster Flowers, Devine Felt Stems, Parlor Petals, Leaves.)

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  Caroline Ikeji used our newest papers (Blooming Retro) on her sweet design! Adjusting the sketch to fit her photos, Caroline then added strips of patterned paper and bunches of brightly-colored flowers to add lots of perkiness!

Signs of Spring papers lend LOADS of sunshine to this fab layout by Anam Stubbington. Notice the cute frames on the focal photos and how they lead your eye across the page? Adding flower bouquets and a crystal swirl raises the adorable factor sky high!

Cool Tropics papers really give this layout a FAB BEACHY look when accented with Caboodle Flowers! Amy Parker added a FUN row of summer sequence shots in various sizes and orientation to mix things up a bit. Add an interesting design to your whole layout edge with a simple punch or with deco scissors.

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Blooming Retro papers never looked so good until Julie Fei Fan Balzer got a hold of them! Julie loves to paint on her layouts by adding a touch of gesso and acrylic paint to the bottom of her papers...outlining the flower pattern with black pen as soon as the paint dried really makes them pop. Painting not only helps you match your papers to your photos, but it brings out your hidden artsy side too!

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Ever wonder how to scrap those ultrasound photos? Sharon Laakkonen shows us a FUN way to include a bunch of them on your layout by placing them alongside a photo of the "mom & dad to be"! Scan in your ultrasound photos and then re-size the photos to about 2x2.5 each. Next-use lots of fun embellishments (Moulin Rouge flowers, Jewel Box leaves, collage flowers) on your Blooming Retro papers for a very LOVELY look.

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  Joei Lau used the sketch as the inspiration behind a LAYOUT calendar for 2010! Using Stitched papers as the base, Joei then flipped the sketch to a vertical position so she could include a calendar for each month. Adding photos alongside the months really personalizes this project (and makes a FABULOUS idea for a gift!)

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For those who love doing single pages, this sketch is easy to adapt! Christiane Muller created this gorgeous page using the sketch as a basic guideline...then added a few fancy edges on her Blooming Retro and Tropics papers! Perfectly placed Pebbles and some fab black crystal swirls finish the piece off with GREAT style!

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Let's see what you can do with this fab sketch! You have until November 25th to upload any project to our CONTEST Gallery based on this design. PLEASE remember: all uploads MUST be Prima-based. We cannot showcase other manufacturer's products. The size of the file uploading must be smaller than 150 kb. The winner will be featured right here on the blog after December 1st, 2009.

The Beauty of Art Journals

 

Many people love to keep journals...they can help you collect your thoughts...help you plan ahead with inspiring goals, quotes and ideas...and sometimes they just help you relax while being creative!

Our very own Joei Lau often creates art journals that are filled with her personal artsy touches. Her journals go beyond simple words on a page. Joei often records what is going on in her life through her art.

Joei used our Prima paper and clear Paintables as the base for each page on this beautiful page.

Joei chose colors and patterns that inspired her as she created this 2010 journal.

When making an art journal there are no rules. Just create whatever you like!
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Here's an example of a romantic, feminine journal Joei made using Prima stitched mulberry papers, flowering vines and gorgeous pearls.

This book could be filled with lots of fun pages with your favorite quotes or ideas for the upcoming days!

 

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This journal is a mini-album that Joei covered with lots of pretty Prima papers and flowers...the pearls add a delightful touch!

Can you imagine filling this beautiful book with your own handwritten entries? It would create a BEAUTIFUL keepsake for sure.

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For some wonderful ideas on how to start art journaling check out this amazing site!

And the Mini-Album Winner Is...

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What beautiful designs! Please enter me :)

Posted by: Gianna | October 27, 2009 at 01:16 AM

Gianna-please email to claim your mini-album! sharon@primamarketinginc.com

A few of you asked questions about the album:

Use a fabric glue to attach paper and embellishments to the canvas pages (Fabri-Tac by Beacon works really well)...for the clear pages we like to use Zip-Dry.

You can paint the canvas pages with Gesso first, then add acrylic paint on top...or just paint right on the canvas like Cari did. Either method works. Use foam brushes for a fast and easy painting job. The canvas curls slightly when wet from paint so be sure to paint both sides to straighten them back out.

The pages are 6x6. The album is slightly larger.

The clear pages work wonderfully as page inserts or as holders for memorabilia. You can stamp on them for an artsy look through-out the album.

Boo!

Today we have a FEW scary projects for you card makers out there! (And a bonus project to make with your left-over scraps.)

Using a black cardstock base the talented Cari Fennell then added embossed Life In Colors paper (910082)...a Rebellious shaped note-card (840570) ...a few black Prima Fancies...E-Line pearl centers (300379)...and the scariest SPIDER made out of black diamond crystals (525156) to make this phenomenal card! Don't you just love the way Mr. Spider just hangs there? Finish off the fantastically scary card with some of our new alphas in lime green! (531126)

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This GREAT pocket-card features our very own say it in crystals witch. Cari did a fantastic job showcasing the crystal witch (525156) by placing her on a golden moon (see that adorable broom?) Also note the shaped edge on the pocket-card (Life in Colors die-cut paper-910112)...the cute little sentiment area (which is super easy to do), and the antiqued look of the finished card (created with Antique Gold Glimmer Mist.) Simply slip a gift card or small treat inside to complete the card. 

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Why not use your left-over supplies to create a fun little banner for your Halloween party? Cari cut basic triangles out of our Little Boo paper (860172, 860202)...added an orange Frilly flower (527310) to each banner piece (which adds lots of dimension)...while Pulse chipboard letters (812454) perfectly spell out the greeting! Dangle a PEARL center from each piece and then top them off with a scalloped edge and some poofy black tulle. Fabulously easy and so FUN to look at.