Easter is only a week and a half away, so it is a great time to finish up those Easter cards to give family and friends, create a few adorable Easter goodies, and make some decorations for your home. Below is a round-up of some of the cute Easter and Spring themed projects that have caught my eye recently. Put a bird on it! You could make the paper version to use as place cards for Easter dinner or as a tag on an Easter gift/basket. The felt version could be worn as a spring brooch or add a few to a spring wreath for your front door. The possibilities are nearly endless with these adorable birds. For a template, click here. Get crafty with the kids and create Easter décor in the meantime! Look how cute this egg wreath is! The patterned paper paired with the solid makes for an adorable layout, or have your kids decorate solid colored eggs and make a wreath with those. Great variations of this would be to use solid color paper/cardstock and “mix media” it up with distress inks, acrylic paint, Nuvo Crystal dots and more or create one from gelli prints that you make on a gelli plate. Grab your gesso, distress paints, gel medium and stamps to create artistic eggs for décor. For a tutorial on how to make these awesome eggs, click here. Stripes for Spring. Make a cute front for a card or piece of artwork to hang by using strips of paper or washi tape. You can easily create striped backgrounds that can be turned into eggs, bunnies and more. Make a garland to hang. Create an adorable bunny garland to hang and don’t forget the cute fluffy bunny tails! Send some Easter love. We have a great selection of stamps and dies for you to use in your creations. Here is some inspiration using the stamps and dies shown above. Additional inspiration:
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In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day next week, I thought I would share a round-up of some of my favorite “green” products that Palette & Paper carries (to be honest, I love these products in all of the colors they come in!). Product 1: Ink Pads Palette & Paper carries a variety of ink pads and first it can be a little overwhelming as to why someone would need so many different kinds. Here is a quick rundown of some of the properties of the inks and projects they are suitable for. Momento Ink Pads are fast-drying, fade resistant dye ink and is a great ink to use in paper arts. It is a water-based acid free ink that dries on all paper surfaces, including coated papers and vellum. Once it is dry it won’t smear, even when using alcohol markers (i.e. Copics) to color in stamped images. Archival Ink Pads provide lasting stamping results that are permanent on many surfaces. With them you can get a crisp image that doesn’t bleed over water-based inks and markers, acrylic paint and water colors. Archival Ink dries on matte surfaces and can be heat set on glossy surfaces. It is acid free and non toxic. StazOn Ink Pads are solvent based and designed for decorating on-porous surfaces such as glass, metal, shrink plastic, cellophane, aluminum foil, leather and acrylic. It can also be used on paper. Taylored Expression Ink Pads are dye-based, fade-resistant ink that can be used in paper crafting. It is custom formulated to match Taylored Expressions cardstock (also available at Palette & Paper). The mini pads are only $3 making it cost-effective to expand your color inventory of stamp pads and the small size is convenient for packing for crops or creative weekends (have you registered for the next creative weekend at P&P yet? It’s this weekend!). Product 2: Baker’s Twine I absolutely love the extra pop that baker’s twine adds to paper crafts and gift wrapping! Below are just a couple of great examples using this product. Product 3: Ken Oliver’s Color Burst These concentrated micro fine watercolor powders let you create beautiful watercolor techniques like never before! You can use them “free-hand”. Mix them with water and paint with them as you would other watercolors. Make unique flower bouquets with Color Bursts by dyeing white/light colored flowers. Ken shared a lot about this in a recent Facebook video. Use them to paint through a stencil. Product 4: Taylored Expressions Felt Again, I love projects with texture and dimension, so adding felt to a project makes me happy! You can die cut flowers and other shapes to use as embellishment on cards. Use the felt in collage name tags and other fabric art. Die cut an adorable cupcake topper. Product 5: Washi Tape Washi tape, washi tape, my life wasn’t complete until I discovered washi tape! Seriously though, washi tape can be used for SO MANY THINGS! You can use it in card making and decorating envelopes. You can decorate cute goody bags for a party or gift giving. Rip it, layer it and make an awesome tag to use on a gift or as a base which you can stamp, add hand letting to, etc. Embellish a scrapbook layout. Pop into Palette & Paper and pick up some green items this week! Or any color of the rainbow . . . or maybe something gold for a little luck of the Irish!
In the past couple of weeks I’ve shared DIY projects to decorate your home (here and here) and cards to send to loved ones (here) to celebrate Halloween, but today’s post is all about YOU! Or at least decorating yourself for Halloween. Today’s post is about making a Halloween Necklace and Bracelet using items you can find at Palette & Paper (you will be looking at the washi tape in a whole new light!). BraceletDid you know that you can make a bracelet with a water bottle, washi tape (I used Little B's gold foil spider web washi) and gel medium? It’s pretty awesome, let’s take a look! First up, grab a water bottle, one that has a circumference similar to your wrist and is smooth. Cut the bottle open and a strip that is slightly thinner than the washi you are using. I used my heavy paper trimmer to cut a piece of the water bottle ¾ of an inch. Tear off a piece of washi tape longer than your strip of water bottle and lay it sticky side up on your craft mat. Liberally apply gel medium to the sticky side of the washi tape (this will help it really stick to the plastic). Place the water bottle strip on top of the washi tape, apply more gel medium to the back side of the bracelet and wrap the sides and ends with the tape. Next up, cut a piece of washi tape to measure the exact width of your bracelet (in this case ¾ of an inch). Cutting washi tape with a paper trimmer is so easy and such a great way to make “skinny” washi for a multitude of crafts. Add more gel medium to the back side of your bracelet from edge to edge (over the part of the tape that you previously wrapped around). Adhere your skinnier piece of washi to the back of the bracelet. Hold the ends down with whatever “paper weights” you have handy and leave the bracelet to dry. To add to the spider web theme of my bracelet I wanted to add some spiders. I had a pack of Tim Holtz spider charms (available at P&P), so I carefully, with a pair of needle nose pliers, broke off the charm eyelet and colored the spider with some alcohol ink (available at P&P individually or in packs of 3 colors). Once your bracelet has dried, dab on a liberal amount of gel medium (P&P offers a few varieties of gel medium) where you want your spider(s) to be and glue the spider on. I added two spiders to my bracelet so they would counter balance each other weight wise. And lastly, a small piece of sticky Velcro can be added to the bracelet to keep it closed. Viola - - a Halloween bracelet and no one will believe it is a water bottle washi tape! NecklaceFor the necklace, I gathered my supplies – Tim Holtz Spider Charms, Tim Holtz Crypt Cameos, Tim Holtz Typed Tokens – Halloween (all available at P&P) along with some other miscellaneous Halloween charms, bezel and a necklace chain I had. I love adding in purple and green to Halloween décor and jewelry, so I decided to cover the two Crypt Cameos I was using with Alcohol Inks to make one green and one purple. I also covered a few more spiders with alcohol ink. For the Typed Tokens, I painted a quick coat of black gesso and once it dried (in a matter of minutes) coated it with Inka Gold in a gorgeous copper color and in platinum (this product is so versatile, you should a color or two next time you are in the Shoppe). I wanted to make a center bezel for my necklace that tied into the bracelet, so I put some of my scrap washi tape on a piece of paper, coated the back side of the clear cabochon with gel medium and glued it to the washi tape. Once it dried, I cut the cabochon out, painted gel medium inside the silver bezel and glued the washi backed cabochon inside the bezel. Once I had all of my pieces created, I laid out the chain and the charms in the order I wanted. Then with some jump rings and a pair of needle nose pliers I attached the charms to my necklace chain. I love the results and can’t wait to wear my new Halloween Jewels over the next couple of weeks!
The holiday weekend is upon us along with an array of activities and cookouts to attend. We thought we would share a quick round-up of some of our favorite 4th of July Hostess Gifts. Remember, hostess gifts don't have to be elaborate or expensive, but a little something to show your appreciation for the event coordinator's hospitality and hard work is always a nice touch. Picture 1 - Make a S'mores pack with graham crackers, chocolate bars and marshmallows. Bonus points for using decorative paper to wrap them (we've got you cover with that!). Picture 2 - Buy a potted succulent or plant and add a festive tag with your appreciation (see below for tag idea). Picture 3 - Fill up an empty bottle with patriotic candies like M&M's and add a tag. Picture 4 - Put some goodies in a plain brown lunch sack and decorate with punches from patriotic paper and red and blue washi tape. This idea is especially good if you are headed to an event with lots of kids and want to take them some goodies. Picture 5 - Fill a clear container with popcorn or another treat and decorate with patriotic paper and washi tape. Picture 6 - It doesn't get any easier than this, dress up a watermelon with some ribbon or washi tape and add a decorative tag. Picture 7 - Buy a bucket of Red Vines or similar licorice and decorate with a patriotic theme. Picture 8 - Create a little bucket of goodies including sparklers, pop-its and candy in a red, white and blue theme. All of these hostess gifts would look great decorated with paper from Photoplay's Main Street Parade Collection or Little B's foiled flag washi tape (both are available at Palette & Paper). The sheet of Photoplay paper pictured above makes great tags for all of these ideas shown. Simply cut it apart (10 tags for a $1!), punch a hole in the corner and tie on to the hostess gift with a message on the back.
We are open today and tomorrow and hope to see you soon! Wishing you a fun and safe 4th of July weekend! Below Creative Team Member, Kimberly, is sharing her love of Traveler's Notebooks and how she records vacation memories in them. Check back tomorrow for Part 2. ![]() With every trip I take I like to create an album of some sort to house pictures and memories in. I absolutely love revisiting the album and walking down memory lane for years to come afterwards. The type of albums I have made have differed over the years – everything from chipboard albums to Project Life type binders and more. The past couple of years though I have been using the “Travelers Notebook” system to keep track of everything from grocery lists to expenses to to-do lists and so much more. I have also started creating a Traveler’s Notebook insert for each trip. It ends up being a great size and very “manageable” when it comes to getting it complete. That is a big factor for me – the easier it is to complete the more apt I am to getting it completed. These types of inserts are also great for kids to record their travels and summertime adventures in.
![]() Step 2: While on vacation take pictures. Lots of pictures and don’t forget to ask a stranger to take a picture of you/your group or use the selfie method. This is a no-brainer because pictures really are worth a 1,000 words and even more words with your smiling face in them! With so many cell phones having good cameras nowadays there’s no excuse to not take a lot of pictures. Tip 1: Before heading out on your vacation be sure to have lots of storage space on your phone or memory card in your phone. Tip 2: Find something “cool” about the place you are traveling to and take repetitive type pictures. For example, take pictures of front doors on houses if the city you are visiting has interesting architecture or do a series of pictures featuring “round” things (i.e. man hole covers, tile designs, anything and everything that has a circle on it). This will make you look at everything through a new set of eyes. Recently, I toured the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. The whole estate was amazing, and I took pictures of a lot of things, but one thing I focused on was the ceilings. On the first floor of the house each room had a different ceiling. I love the little “series” of pictures that this provided. Step 3: Collect ephemera. I always pick up a variety of those “free publications” you can find while on vacation and business cards. I use pictures from brochures, snippets about restaurants and places to go, along with postcards and bookmarks I buy in my Traveler’s Notebook insert. Also, I keep receipts from everything, including the fast food place we lunched at while on the road. Not everything will make it in the final album, but it helps me remember places and locations. Step 4: Take notes. Use the notes section in your phone or a little notebook to document little things – a funny saying that keeps coming up during the vacation, list the songs in your road trip play list or the podcasts you listened to, what everyone ate at dinner, historic facts or fun tidbits about the locale, etc. Spending a few minutes a day keeping track of things like this will help greatly when putting your album together. Step 5: Within the first couple of days of being home revisit your notes and try to “round them out”. Add information to your notes, google for information you can’t quite remember. If you didn’t get a picture of something or place you really would like to include, google it! Collaborate with others that you vacationed with and share pictures or tidbits. Tip 1: Make an A to Z list capturing memories from the trip. I learned this tip from Amy Tan (aka Amy Tangerine) and have loved incorporating it into my albums. It is a good way to include random snippets or memories. Check back tomorrow for Steps 6 - 10! A look at a couple of the pages in my Traveler's Notebook from a long-weekend trip Asheville, NC.
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