Feature Friday--Flight Plan: Mission 004 and Mission 003 Winner

Hello Peeps!

We hope everyone had a great Fourth of July celebration.  As it is the first Friday of the month it is time for a new Flight Plan mission, but first we'd like to announce that Andrea's card "Oh Happy Day!" was chosen as the Flight Plan: Mission 003 winner. 

Not only did Andrea use the Flight Plan, with a few great modifications, but it also looks like her color palette is similar to our May Color Combo.  Things I love about this card: dictionary paper inked and distressed as a backdrop to the heart and wings, the three gems on the yellow banner ribbon, and the sentiment turned on it's side.  Very clever ideas! Stamps used in this project were from the Milagros and Happy Day sets.

Andrea, please contact Shay at shay@paperwingsproductions.com with the name of your choice of stamp set. Congratulations!

I  like this month's flight plan and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.  The new release stamps are so fun and although you can use any Paper Wings stamps, I'm hoping to see some of the newly released stamps on your designs.  Here is your mission - will you accept the challenge?  We hope you join in!

What is a Flight Plan?
It is a guide of sorts to get your project started by giving you some guidelines to follow, but in our case, we hope your creativity will interpret these plans into amazing and clever new creations. We’d love to see your finished pieces, so we have set up a Flickr gallery where you can share your submissions with us. So, put on those paper wings and get ready to take flight!

Your Mission:
Create a project (card, ATC, tag, scrapbook layout, multi-media piece, etc.) using paper wings productions stamps with the Flight Plan as your guide.

• Share a picture of your project on our Flickr group and/or pin your a picture of your entry on Pinterest.  Make sure to tag it using this code: #FP004 (make sure to include the #). If your picture is not tagged we will not know it has been entered into the challenge and will be unable to find it.
  


• You have until Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. central time to post your entries.
  


• Enter as many times as you wish before the deadline.
  


• We will choose a winner to receive their wings and a stamp set of their choice.

We do have some samples using the Flight Plan: Mission 004.

Shay:

I did a little ode to Texas this time around.  Starting with an A2 white cardstock base (4.25 inches x 5.5 inches or half of a 8.5 inches x 11 inches sheet of paper), I wanted to play around with the boots from Lyrics so I stamped them in a spiral sort of pattern in red ink on a piece of watercolor paper.  I distressed the edges with my handy dandy Tim Holtz distressing tool using some brown ink.

Next I inked up the boot in light brown.  I then inked up the damask design from the Backgrounds stamp set in a dark brown ink and stamped the damask onto the actual boot stamp and then I stamped the boot stamp onto the paper.  The final image turned out really cool I think.  You can do this kissing technique with any solid stamp.  I attached the damasked boots (cutting off the spur) onto a layer of boots I already stamped in dark brown so I could get a solid brown spur.

Because I wanted the brown boot to show up on the red boot background I chose to place a piece of vellum over the red to mute it a bit.  To attach the vellum to the red boot panel I punched out two stars from white cardstock and two stars from kraft glassine from Tim Holtz which I stamped in dark brown with the damask onto each corner using my Tiny Attacher (love that thing to bits).  I adhered the damask boots to the red boot and vellum panel using some dimensional adhesive to let it pop even more.

I embossed the stars on white cardstock using my Cuttlebug using a Cuttlebug embossing folder which I adhered under the boot panel onto the card.

From the damask stamped kraft glassine paper I also punched out a postage edge which I adhered to the bottom of the card.

I cut along thiner strip from a dark blue patterned paper.  I punched the tab and stamped "howdy" from Texas Sayings in dark blue, edging it in dark brown ink before adhering it under the blue patterned paper strip.

I tied some red and white baker's twine over the blue patterned paper and finished the whole card with inking the edges with brown ink.

There you have a pretty literal interpretation of this month's Flight Plan.

Stamps: Backgrounds, Lyrics and Texas Sayings

Ink: Jenni Bowlin by Ranger in spice tin, cough syrup, malted milk and brown sugar

Paper: Seasonal-Easy Green by Cherry Arte (older); kraft glassine by Tim Holtz; vellum

Cardstock: Neenah Papers in solar white

Tools: Tiny Attacher by Tim Holtz; Cuttlebug; star embossing folder by Cuttlebug (Provo Craft); Tim Holtz Distressing Tool by Ranger; dimensional adhesive by Scotch; liquid adhesive by Scotch; tab punch by Jenni Bowlin for Fiskars; postage border punch by Fiskars; star punch by Stampin' Up!

Embellishments:  red and white baker's twine by Martha Stewart Crafts 

Julie:

I chose to work in my art journal because I wanted to play a little today.  I tried to think outside the box on this one.  Can you pick out the paper wings stamps?  I was a little sneaky with them this time.  Take a closer look...

Here I have used the sun stamp from the Earth and Sky set and embossed it using Scattered Straw Distress Ink and JudiKins Egyptian Gold embossing powder. Although this picture doesn't do it justice, the sun looks so sparkly - love it!!  The "circle" strip was created by stamping the Dots background from Backgrounds in Broken China on pink paper, and then cutting around the circles in a scallop shape.

On the yellow paper, I used two stamps from the Art Textures set.  The little dots were stamped in Scattered Straw and the white circles were stamped with gesso that I dabbed on the stamp with a makeup sponge.  As soon as I was finished, I made sure to clean the stamp with soap and water so that the paint would come off quick and easy.  I added a little Waterfall Stickles to the bottom of the clouds, and also shaded beneath with a copic marker.

Did you notice this triangle border at the bottom? I bet you would never guess what stamp I used.  I took the new phonograph stamp from the Lyrics set, and turned it upside down, stamping it in Broken China along the bottom to create a zig zag triangle border.  Finally, I used the Solid Whimsical Alphabet to stamp the word "shades". I also used Thickers and my trusty sharpie to complete the sentiment.

Stamps: Earth and Sky, Backgrounds, Art Textures, Lyrics and Solid Whimsical Alphabet

Ink: Memento in tuxedo black by Tsukineko, Distress Inks by Tim Holtz/Ranger, Sprays by Tattered Angels (Electric Blue and Trunk Bay).  Pink is mixed.
Paper: Basic Grey

Cardstock: Stampin' Up!

Tools: Sharpie, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Stencil, charcoal pencil, glue stick and Mod Podge

Embellishments:  Thickers, Stickles, sunglasses by Betsy Johnson from Oprah Magazine, Egyptian Gold EP by JudiKins

We hope you try the new Flight Plan and look forward to seeing you creations!

Stay cool,

Paper Wings Gals

What's Up Wednesday! - Happy Independence Day!

Hey Peeps!

Happy Independence Day everyone!  Today on What's Up Wednesday, I thought I'd share some fun techniques that I used on this sparkly card.  Embossing with specialty embossing powders and using sprays for fun backgrounds. I couldn't resist borrowing this sentiment from Ms. Katy Perry.

The background was spritzed with some of my ink sprays.  I was careful to keep the red to the outer edges so my sentiment would stand out better. I wanted to use the lines and stars from the Hanging Stars set by Liz Allen, to create the look of sparklers. I stamped the lines in black, lining them up along the bottom edge of the card, and I used the line stamp twice to continue the sparklers the length of the card.

I knew I wanted this card to be sparkly and I wanted to use glitter, but then I remembered that I had these great sparkle embossing powders in my stash in red, gold and silver.  Glitter would also be a great choice.  You could stamp the stars in a colored ink, and then trace the stars with glue and add glitter.  Another option would be to use the star stamp with a glue ink pad, or an embossing ink with a heat and stick powder (then heat with a heat tool), and finally add the glitter.

 

I used red distress ink with a red sparkly embossing powder for the letters, stamped with the Solid Whimsical Alphabet set.  I like how clean the letters in this stamp set come out.  They would be great to use on so many projects.  I wanted to intensify the red of the letters and since distress ink is "embossable", I was able to use it with the red and gold sparkle embossing powder.

Lastly, I hand cut a banner strip in white and used my own writing to add the beginning of my sentiment.  This is a great card to send not only on Independence Day, but it could also be used for New Year's Day or even for a Graduation card. It would work well with a variety of color combos too.

I hope this quick card ignites your desire to create something awesome of your own.  Have a fantastic 4th of July!

Julie

Stamps: Hanging Stars and Solid Whimsical Alphabet
Ink: Memento in tuxedo black by Tsukineko, Distress Inks by Tim Holtz/Ranger
Cardstock: Stampin' Up!
Other:
Dylusions Sprays - London Blue and Postbox Red by Ranger
Embossing Powders - Aegean Silver, Egyptian Gold and Rockin' Red from Judikens
Pen - Stampin' Up! Journaling Pen

dropped the ball

Hey there peeps!

It looks like I dropped the ball here at the Aviary.  It was my turn to post yesterday and I totally forgot!  In case we have given the illusion of being a big, professional business (ha!  not likely!), then we have certainly misled you.  I mostly work from home, which means I have to kick out the hubby and two small children to get anything done.  Stamps get packaged and ready for shipping out of my very small studio, which is now so cramped with product you can barely move.  My awesome design team members work incredibly hard too, finding little bits of time here and there, mostly late at night, to help this small business out.  We are real people, folks, just like all of you out there.  Working in spare minutes instead of full work days to make our dreams come true.  I just want you to know how much we value you as blog readers, customers, friends, and support team.  YOU are what keeps us moving and motivated.

When I am dead tired and wondering what in the world I'm doing, the universe will usually throw me a bone.  This happened last night when I received a comment on Friday's blog post.

"Great tags, they're all beautiful! I recently purchased some of your stamps and I'm having so much fun playing with them. So far I've used a stamp from Melnage 3 Gypsy and Melange 1 Women. I'm a new follower and would love to show you what I did with your products :D

Norma G.
www.lilhoneybeestudios.blogspot.com"


Today I checked out Norma's blog and literally gasped when I saw her amazing art.

This post on Norma's blog, Little Honey Bee Studios, features a mixed media canvas collage featuring a stamp from our Women Melange set.  It's sooo gorgeous, I can't stop looking at it!

Then I found another amazing collage using the Melange 3 set.  Please take the time to go check out Norma's blog.  There are lots of goodies on there, scrapbooking layouts, mixed media collage, art journal pages, cards, and photography.  

Norma, you have truly made my day.  I realize that people are starting to "find" us and that you guys actually GET us.  We are artist who make products because we want to USE them!  I know that you have lots of choices with rubber stamps.  There are tons of companies and you can get them dirt cheap at the hobby stores, but you are choosing to buy OUR stamps.  Stamps made completely in the USA with the finest materials.  Made by people with families they are trying to support.  You choose to buy our stamps and that makes me proud, and understood, and so ready to go make some more stamps!

Seriously, we are currently working on our next release of new designs that will come be available in September.  Our design team members are already having to think fall, winter, and Christmas.  Actually to me that seems a lot more appealing that admitting that it's 100 degrees outside.

A couple of more things before I fly the coop, I want to let you know about some upcoming events.  Here's what paper wings productions has on the horizon, I hope we will see you at one of these events!

Saturday July 7 at Stamp Antonio.
Paper Wings Productions Monthly Workshop- Making Cards with Unique Materials:
This month in the Paper Wings Productions sponsored workshop, students will create cards and tags using materials that you might not think of for cardmaking.  This includes Sticky Back Canvas, Metal Foil Tape, and Resin Paper.  These products can be used for so much more than greeting cards too!  Come and learn some fantastic techniques that you can use in any of your mixed media projects!   Please bring a craft mat, distress inks, adhesive (such as 3 in 1), X-acto knife and cutting mat, scissors, and a bone folder if you have them.  

I am also teaching this class on Saturday at Stamp Antonio.  It features a LOT of PWP stamps!

Up-cycled Altered Book-

We continue the series of taking an existing book and creating a new artful book/album/journal.  This month we will replace the book's binding with a ring binder and the pages with a variety of decorative papers.  We will also hand dye and create our own bookcloth.  There will be non-Christmas options available.  Please bring a craft mat, distress inks, adhesive (such as 3 in 1), X-acto knife and cutting mat, scissors, and a bone folder if you have them.  

Call 210-764-7900 to register.

Saturday July 28 at Scrapbooks N' More

Paper Wings Productions Trunk Show and FREE Make & Takes!

Come by and see us at this great scrapbook store in New Braunfels!  Shop, visit, make something for FREE!  We would love to see you there!

September 21-22 CKC San Marcos

We will have a booth at the Creating Keepsakes show in San Marcos.  Visit their site for more details.

Enjoy the flight!
Carrie

Feature Friday

Hello peeps!

This week I want to feature a couple of tags recently made by some of my friends.  First up is the lovie Ms. Liz Allen.  I have had the pleasure of calling Liz my friend for the past 14 years (holy cow, has it really been that long?!?).  Liz makes awesome samples that are heavy on the embellishing and the bling.  

 Liz's tag features our Mermaid, Art Textures, and Flower Power sets.   The background was created by stamping images from Art Textures and Flower Power in a soft aqua color.  All the other images were stamped separately, cut out, and then mounted onto the tag.

 Liz adhered the stamped images in a manner that left the edges slightly raised off the surface of the tag.  She gently curled the edges of the sun and the waves to give extra dimension.  She also used foam tape where needed to layer the images on top of one another.  Of course, the final touch included a glazing of Rock Candy Distress Stickles for that extra little bit of bling.  Too cute Liz, thanks so much!

This week I also had the pleasure of having an artist night out with a few friends, including my pal Jason, who was in town visiting.  Jason made this AWESOME tag while we were hanging out.  I just love it.  I begged to keep it but settled for taking pics to share with you.

Jason used our Wings set with a metal pen nib from Tim Holtz. Jason just so happens to sell on those cool little nibs on his online store.  He also used the Banner Day set for the Celebrate Banner.

The Celebrate banner and ruffled edge at the bottom of the tag were done with Kraft Glassine paper also from Tim Holtz.

I hope you enjoy these tags as much as I have.  I feel blessed to have such amazing and talented friends.  If you're out there creating something this weekend with our stamps, we sure would LOVE to see!  We hope you'll share with us!

Enjoy the flight!
Carrie

What's Up Wednesday: Art Textures and more!!

What's Up Peeps ?!?!

I'll tell you what's up at my house - it's a new little puppy named Walter!  And he is the star of my What's Up Wednesday project I'm sharing with you today.  I know you will get a kick out of this.

When I went to the CKC convention in Houston, I was able to attend a class on Smashbook (you tube video here).  Have you caught on to this latest craze?  It is fun fun fun!  I like to scrapbook, but don't always have time to do a full layout and a Smashbook is scrapbooking but it can be anything you want it to be.  I like it because I can still use it to record memories in a quick / less formal way, and yet, I can do so much more.  People are using them for recording daily life, ideas, thoughts, quotes, magazine finds, you name it.  So, without any further ado, I introduce Walter!

I love the way I can document Walter joining out family in this Smashbook journal. And, unlike my typical scrapbooking methods, I felt so much freedom in how it turned out, and the process was so fast, and with a little puppy, or anyone with little children or little time, fast is VERY important!!! 

Something else that made this process so fast was, of course, the stamping.  I pulled out my Art Textures stamps, and several colors of Jenni Bowlin ink, and started layering the stamps.  Also, in this image, you can see the use of one of the Scriptures stamps in the top left hand corner created by Liz Allen, and the Solid Whimsical Alphabet used to spell out Walter's name. 

I wanted to show pictures of the TV characters Walter is named after, so I used the Window set to stamp the window frame on patterned paper, and added the images to the frame for a perfect mat.  I grabbed a good writing pen, and started writing and "lickity split", I was done!


If you don't have a Smashbook, no problem.  Think about creating a mini book on any theme you like.  They are small, fun, fast, and like a Smashbook, can be anything you want them to be.


That's What's Up this Wednesday.  I hope you find time to put on your paper wings and get creative!

Julie


Stamps: Art Textures, Solid Whimsical Alphabet, Scriptures and Window
Ink: Memento in tuxedo black by Tsukineko, Jenni Bowlin inks in Spiced Tin, Stick Candy, Chicken Feed, and Cough Syrup
Cardstock: Stampin' Up! in Basic Black
Patterned Paper: stash
Other: Journaling Pen by Stampin' Up!

Mixed Media Monday: Mermaid

Happy Monday peeps,

Today, I have a cute little mixed media piece for you using the mermaid from the Mermaid set as the focal image.  Liz Balderas of handmade by Lissie girl drew all of the adorable stamps found in the Mermaid set and the Mermaid is a real treat to play with.  I simply stamped her on a piece of white cardstock with Memento ink, cut her out and colored her in with Distress markers and colored in with a water brush.  Just a word of warning Memento ink does bleed/separates a bit with water so if that bothers you will want to use a waterproof ink like Archival Ink by Ranger...I happen to like that the ink has a softened look.  I added some stickles to the mermaid's tail for a little needed shimmer.  I edged my mermaid in black marker to cover any messy cutting and give her a finished look.  The mermaid is adhered to the background using dimensional tape so she pops off the rest of the piece.

The background...oh how I love those circles from the Backgrounds set by Rag & Bone Studio!  I stamped the background times with VersaMark ink and then embossed it in white on a piece of book paper adhered to watercolor paper.  I then sprayed the back with mists and over sprayed it all with some shimmer spray to produce a night sky.

See the waves?  You can stamp the wave image over and over in a continuous line as shown below which is great when using it on a scrapbook layout or larger canvas.  I stamped the wave onto patterned paper and colored it in with a Distress Marker spreading some of the color with my water brush before cutting it out.  When I adhered the two lines of waves to the background I only put a strip of adhesive on the bottom and curled up the top to give them more dimension.  To ensure they stayed down I also stapled them on the left and right hand edges using Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher.

On a piece of book paper I stamped the sentiment from Sea Melange and then tore it out before edging it with a Distress Marker.

For even more impact I added star sequins with mini brads to the background.  Lastly I added some white photo corners.

This mini piece (measuring approximately 4.5 inches by 5 inches) could be kept as is or added to a journal, handmade book, card, layout, canvas or anything else you can imagine.

What would you make with the mermaid?  Made anything with her we would love to see!  Share a picture on our flickr group, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter (@PaperWingsProd) or comment here with a link.

By the way, did you see Julie's video?  If not, you really should.

Take flight,
Shay.

Stamps: Backgrounds, Mermaid and Sea Melange
Ink: Memento in tuxedo black by Tsukineko and VersaMark by Tsukineko
Cardstock: Solar White by Neenah Papers; 140 lbs. cold press watercolor paper by Strathmore
Patterned Paper: Destination by Studio Calico
Other: White embossing powder, Judi-kins; Tim Holtz Distress Markers; Stickles by Ranger; Dylusions Ink Spray in London Blue by Ranger; Mister Huey's Color Mists in atmosphere and shine by Studio Calico; book paper; star sequins from stash; mini brads from stash; white photo corners from stash; white Uniball pen; Memory Marker in black by American Crafts; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher

Feature Friday finally!!! {on Saturday}

Hi Peeps! 

I'm so excited to post today.  We have our very first paper wings productions video for you!!!  This video takes a closer look at the new Window clear stamp set that was released just last week.  You just gotta check it out! 



I'm so excited and we hope you are too.  Please spread the word to all of your friends and feel free to share it on your favorite social network!  Here are some close ups of the finished cards.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Julie