Melissa Frances

A C'est la Vie mini album

(Supply List: GN551 - C'est la Vie 6x6 Paper Pad, C'est la Vie - Sticker book, Lula Paper (PA367), 5th Avenue - Ebony (PA362),  5th Avenue - Octavia (PA368), 5th Avenue - Hattie (PA365))

We love seeing the things our customers make with our product line, and we knew as soon as we saw this sweet mini album from Russian scrapbooker Alena Savinova that our blog readers would love it as much as we did!

Alena combined our C'est la Vie and 5th Avenue paper collections in her album, which she designed for a little girl.

To see more of this adorable project, please click on the link above to visit Alena's blog.

If you have a project that you'd like to share with our readers, we invite you to email it to us at: [email protected] (Please note, this is a new email address as we'd been having problems with our previous server. Thank you.)

Copic Markers and Pearl Stamp Tutorial

Our very talented design team member Sherrie Siemens has a great tutorial up on the Copic blog showing her step by step process of coloring our Pearl stamp on the card shown above. Sherrie used her Copics, along with the "Just a Little Something" Pearl stamp by Melissa Frances. (A little birdie told me that the Pearl stamps are currently on sale on the Melissa Frances site, so if you've been wanting to purchase them, now would be a great time!)

Click here to check out Sherrie's coloring tutorial.

Coming soon...

Here's a little peek at what Melissa's been cooking up:

Meet Melissa Frances THIS weekend!

Melissa Frances will be joining our team at the Grapevine, Texas Scrapbook Expo this weekend, Feb. 22 &23. If you are coming to the show, be sure to stop by to meet her. And, if you're lucky, there may still be a spot or two available in one of her workshops!

My favorite Person

Today's inspiring layout comes to us from Design team member Emeline Seet. She uses papers from our C'est la Vie Collection to design this page. Emeline loves to add dimensional embellishments to her layouts, and this one is no exception. She uses our tissue paper garland, resin embellishment and satin flower to do this.

If you have a project that you'd like to share with our readers, we invite you to email it to us at: [email protected] (Please note, this is a new email address as we'd been having problems with our previous server. Thank you.)

Come see us in Portland

In a few short weeks, our team will be in Portland for the Creating Keepsakes Convention. We will be offering some great workshops, and have a booth with our products for sale.

We hope to see you there!

Valentines Tag Tutorial

Hi everyone!  Today we have a Valentines tutorial for you from Design Team member Karin Aguirre. We hope that you each have a fabulous Valentines.

Supply List: Various Papers for the tag and background of tag (I used Attic Treasures and 5^th Avenue), Corrugated paper, Vintage book page, Melissa Frances crepe paper, MF  Organza Pouf/Pink, MF pom pom trim, MF Resin Key, MF Pearl Embellishments, MF Crystal Drop, Tulle, Letter Stamps, Adhesive, Glue pen

I’m currently obsessed with both kraft and corrugated paper.  So I decided to keep my obsession going with this quick and easy valentine tag.  First thing I did was cut a tag using some kraft paper.  Next I glued down some Melissa Frances Attic Treasures paper as a base and some 5^th Avenue torn up on the sides. 

I like to use a wash of paint on my projects. So here I just dry brushed the sides of the tag with a cream acrylic paint.

Next, I cut a heart out of corrugated paper measuring just to the width of the tag.  Because I like
the look of a “non-perfect” heart, I just folded the paper and cut to size. 

I love painting on corrugated paper.  I just adore the look.  Because I was using the beige and blue paper for my base I decided to paint the heart pink with some cream accents.  I didn’t layer the paint on too heavy because I wanted some of the paper to show through. 

I still felt it needed a bit of something else.  I was going to put some of my old stand by glitter on it when I spied my Glimmer Glam out of the corner of my eye…..perfect. Once the paint was dry, I just put a coat of that on top of the heart to give it just a bit of shimmer and gloss.  

Now, for the all important glitter…..  I used my glue pen to trace a thin line around the edge of the paper and then sprinkled the antique silver glitter on top.

I next made a little banner out of some vintage French book pages.  I thought it looked romantic…. although I have no idea what the words said.  I simply cut the paper into a banner shape and then gave it a quick coat of cream paint. I also traced the edges with my glue pen and sprinkled some glitter on it.

I glued some crepe paper that I ruffled with my sewing machine to the bottom back of the tag.  I then
glued the Organza trim to the top of it.  Since this was for Valentine’s Day I decided to keep the layers going by topping it off with some pom pom trim and a black and cream ribbon.

I then glued my heart in place on top of the tag.  I placed the banner on a slight angle and then glued it along with the key into place.  I embellished the ends of the banner with the pearls. 

I kept toying with the phrase “you have the key to my heart.”  But no matter how I maneuvered the words around there was no way it was going to work.  So I finally decided on the simplicity of “Love.” 

I then topped the tag off with a bow of tulle and a little crystal at the top.  Now you are ready to
give to your favorite Valentine.

I'll be there to hold your hand - Valentine's Gift combo

Design team member Anne Kristine make gift giving easy this Valentine's Day with this sweet gift bag and tag combo. She says: "I love to give small gifts to my dearest and I made this little giftbag to present them in. "

She combines papers and embellishments from our new "Classic Elegance" line with pieces from our "C'est la Vie" collection.

Will you be making a home made Valentine card for your loved ones this holiday?

Valentine's Greetings

(Supply List: Patterned paper: Strictly Business (PA406), Adopted Ancestors (PA408), Red Chevron from the Countdown to Christmas 6x6 paper pad. All patterned papers by Melissa Frances • Charcoal, White, Pink and Kraft cardstock by Bazill • Vintage ledger page and paper • Sewing machine and white thread, Silhouette Cameo Electronic Die cutting machine)

We have another Valentine's Day card to share with you today. This one is from Sr. Creative Director Carolyn Peeler. Here's what she has to say about it:

I wanted to make something that was still vintage and pretty, but that I could also get away with giving to my sweet heart for the holiday. I don't know that he will particularly care for the little Victorian boy - in fact, originally I didn't have him on the card. But at the last moment - after everything else was glued down in fact, I just couldn't resist adding him. The beautiful "February" is from an antique ledger that I have in my stash. I just tore out one of the pages that had a Feb. date on it.

I have always had a love affair with paper. I love combining patterns from different collections and juxtaposing very modern and clean design with vintage. This card is a pretty good example of that. It was inexpensive to make, because the supplies are all paper. But by adding the stitching it does give it depth so that it is not 'flat'.

I hope you enjoyed my Valentine greeting.

New Alphabet Stickers

To coordinate with our Classic Elegance collection we introduced 2 new alphabet sticker sheets. You can see the letters in use on this card by team member Sherrie Siemens. Here's the description for this new product from the catalog:

Words are what take a layout from a pretty way to display a photo to something meaningful that tells your thoughts and captures details from a memory. Our "Words Matter" sticker sheet is a 6" wide x 5" high sheet containing 294 stickers, with a combination of letters and words.

The stickers are available in white as seen here, and a teal colored set.
(Red lines are the die lines and will not be on the final product.)