Melissa Frances

Thankful for you Card

(Supply List: Jewell Patterned paper (PA363), C'est la Vie Cardstock Stickers (GN544),  Cream Pearls (GN297), Other, non Melissa Frances supplies: Vintage ledger paper, old white and cream buttons, sewing machine and white thread, kraft shipping tag, pink seam binding and scalloped chipboard trim.)

This card was made by Melissa Frances Sr. Creative Director, Carolyn Peeler for her mom on Mother's Day. She combined products from 2 of our classic collections, 5th Avenue and C'est la Vie with vintage findings to create something soft, romantic and beautiful.

Have a great weekend!

New Video - Jewels Fit for a Queen

After attending the Spring Art camp 2013 hosted by Terri Brush in April of this year, Melissa has become enamoured with jewellery making. Join her in this "Timeless Creations with Melissa Frances" episode on My Craft Channel, as she talks about turning brooches from the Melissa Frances scrapbooking line into beautiful focal pieces for necklaces.

Click here to watch the episode! - updated link which now works.
And scroll down for some inspiring links.





Here's a list of some jewelry artists whose work inspires us here at Melissa Frances:

Terri Brush - hosts the wonderful Art Camp retreats and sells online workshops where you can learn her techniques in the comfort of your home.

Amy Hanna - has written an educational how-to, and inspiration packed book called "Rejuvenated Jewels: New Designs from Vintage Treasures" and sells her designs in her etsy store

Christine Wallace - She makes very inspirational jewelry from antique pieces. You can find beautiful images on her blog and sells her jewelry in her etsy store

Carolyn Peeler's Jewelry Board on pinterest - here you can find some seriously inspiring jewelry, along with links to several online workshops and tutorials.

To learn more about how to join your beads together, we recommend you search 'wire wrapping' and/or 'bead stringing' in your favorite internet browser.

Today Layout

Today's blog share comes to us from design team member Emeline Seet. Here's what she has to say about this gorgeous layout, which features our Attic Treasures and C'est la Vie patterned papers.

My layout "Today" was inspired by Melissa France's pattern papers (First Class Mail (PA395) & Hope Chest (PA391)) and Floppy Blossom Ribbon (GN 575). The ephemera collage on these pattern papers were truly gorgeous and I wanted to showcase and mix the motifs in a seamless manner. I used tissue tape to piece two segments from the individual pattern papers together.

I liked the idea of making my own bloom from Floppy Blossom Ribbon and made use of 8" of the ruffles to create one. Simply twirl it in a clockwise manner and affix the ends with liquid glue. Embellish with Melissa France's Pearls (GN297) and a piece of organza for texture. Typically, when I create with Melissa France's pattern papers, I use white and beige color as my "anchor" to enhance my layout. For me, this usually takes the form of white paper doilies or card stock.

In the kitchen with Veda

Today we have a lovely home decor/paper crafting project from Russian Scrapbooker Veda. She lives in St. Petersburg, Russia and has been paper crafting for three years. She said that she felt like she was given a gift when she discovered the Shabby paper crafting style. And her love of shabby chic began, she told us, with the paper of Melissa Frances. She looks forward to each new collection we release and she shares that "It is always so much better than my expectations and more interesting and gives a lot of inspiration."

Thank you for your kind words Veda. Your altered recipe holder and recipe cards are so beautiful and we know that many of our readers will find them inspirational!

New Video - Wall Hanging, Part 2

This is a continuation of a tutorial on making a wall hanging, to find the first part of the tutorial, click on this link.

To finish our wall hanging, episode 2 will focus on the removable mini album which mounts onto the wall hanging.

Click here to watch part 2 of this tutorial.

Design Team Challenge - Treat Cups, Day 6

As we wrap up our design team challenge, we hope that you feel inspired by the awesome projects our team shared. The girls on our team bring our staff so much joy as they interperet the products we design in such fresh and inspiring ways.

The final contribution to the team challenge comes to us from our Russian team member (who is now lives in South Africa) Evgenia Petzer.

Unlike some of our other team members, Evgenia did not use the handle that comes with the treat cup. Instead, she chose to imagine it as a storage box to hold odds and ends. She decorated her project with our Angels Among Us Resin (CX864), and paper from our new Classic Elegance Collection. The pink and white tissue paper garland, and the white flower are sold out from the Melissa Frances shop, but you may be lucky enough to find them from your local scrapbooking store, or an online retailer.

If you feel inspired to try your hand at embellishing a Melissa Frances treat cup, we have put together two kits which are available for sale in the Melissa Frances etsy shop. The first kit contains treat cups, along with a few of the trims and embellishments that our design team used on their projects. And the second kit is a larger bundle of treat cups, perfect for those of you who would like to use the cups for a table setting, or even packaging for small gifts. You can see the two kits, by clicking here.

Design Team Challenge - Treat Cups, Day 5

(Supply List (all Melissa Frances unless otherwise mentioned): Treat Cup (WB030), Bits of Paper (PA403), A Night at the Theater (PA407), Attic Treasures Sticker Banner (GN561), White Pearls (GN278), Hearts, Set of 3 (CX835), Layer Silk, Ribbon White  (GN572))

We hope that each of you had a lovely weekend. We are back with two more days of our design team challenge. For those of you who did not check in with the blog last week, we challenged the Melissa Frances team to take our treat cups and decorate them however they were lead. There were very few rules...they were simply asked to let their creative muse take them where it would.

Today's treat cup was made by our Norwegian team member Anne Kristine. Here's what she shares about it:

I decided to turn Treat Cup WB030 into a "flower box". I found a small jar that fit perfectly inside the box, filled the glass with water and put a flower in it.

I painted the edges of the treat cup with white dabber paint by Ranger, then glued some patterned paper on the outside of the treat cup. The edges are distressed with Distress ink Pad - Brushed Corduroy.

Here's a photo step out of my process:

If you feel inspired to try your hand at embellishing a Melissa Frances treat cup, we have put together two kits which are available for sale in the Melissa Frances etsy shop. The first kit contains treat cups, along with a few of the trims and embellishments that our design team used on their projects. And the second kit is a larger bundle of treat cups, perfect for those of you who would like to use the cups for a table setting, or even packaging for small gifts. You can see the two kits, by clicking here.

Design Team Challenge - Treat Cups, Day 4

(Supplies - All Melissa Frances unless otherwise noted: Scalloped Oval Treat Cup (WB031), Glass Bottles (GN570), Mini Rose Sprig, White Pearls (GN278), Patterned paper - all from Classic Elegance :Adopted Ancestors (PA408), Strictly Business (PA406), At First Blush (PA404))

As we come to the end of our week, we have another treat cup project to share with you. This one was made by Rachel McAffee and is absolutely darling with the antique photo which she cut from our Adopted Ancestors patterned paper.

Here are Rachel's thoughts on her project:

This mini gift basket is a fun and unique way to present a gift for a baby shower. Tucked inside is a gift card for the mother as well as a  mini glass bottle  that has a sweet message inside for the new baby. 

Be sure to come back on Monday for more projects from our design team challenge!

If you feel inspired to try your hand at embellishing a Melissa Frances treat cup, we have put together two kits which are available for sale in the Melissa Frances etsy shop. The first kit contains treat cups, along with a few of the trims and embellishments that our design team used on their projects. And the second kit is a larger bundle of treat cups, perfect for those of you who would like to use the cups for a table setting, or even packaging for small gifts. You can see the two kits, by clicking here.

Design Team Challenge - Treat Cups, Day 3

After the break for the "Timeless Creations with Melissa Frances" video yesterday, we're back today with another installment into our design team challenge. We challenged our design team to decorate our treat cups. There were very few rules - simply create what came naturally using our product line. The results, as you've already seen, have been quite amazing, and you've only seen half of them so far!

Today we have Sherrie Siemens' treat box to share with you. She envisioned her box as a desk sitter that would be filled with candy so that she (or those who came by her desk) could take a sweet during the day. Sherrie used our Scalloped Rounded shape treat cup as her base (WB030), and covered it with our Bits of Paper (PA408) patterned paper. To embellish it, she used two die cuts. One from our Classic Elegance Journalling Die cuts (GN608), and one from our Classic Elegance Die Cuts (GN609). To add a little demension, she used our petite frames assortment resin accent (CX869) to frame the subject of the box. To top it off, she glued White pom pom trim (GN532) to the box's handle.

Sherri also made a beautiful coordinating card that matched the treat box.

If you feel inspired to try your hand at embellishing a Melissa Frances treat cup, we have put together two kits which are available for sale in the Melissa Frances etsy shop. The first kit contains treat cups, along with a few of the trims and embellishments that our design team used on their projects. And the second kit is a larger bundle of treat cups, perfect for those of you who would like to use the cups for a table setting, or even packaging for small gifts. You can see the two kits, by clicking here.

New Video - Wall Hanging Part 1

Today, we're taking a break from our design team challenge to share the latest episode of Melissa's show on My Craft Channel.

In this first, of a split episode tutorial, we will begin to work on this stunning wall hanging project. We will cover the Melissa Frances backdrop boards and using Melissa's crepe paper and zipper ribbons, learn two different techniques to create handmade flowers.

Click here to watch the episode!