Maya Road Design Team

Maya Road + Paper Crafter's Library Blog Swap Final Day 5!

Hi there!
Welcome back to the final installation of the Maya Road + Paper Crafter's Library blog swap! This is Ania from Norway, here with yet another different take on the same 10 products as the other MR-girls and the gals at PCL!

Curious yet?
When I signed up for this challenge, I thought; Ooh, a challenge, I love them!
Then I got the list over the products and thought; Uhm right, too late to back out, I can't let them down now.....
THEN I got the products in the mail, making me go; Ooookaaaaaaayletseeee...gosh why do I always have to volunteer for challenges?!

And then, once I found the right papers to accompany the products, it all went like a breeze. Now, while I'm typing this post, I have *no* idea how the other gals final products looks like..so I am quite thrilled and curious on how it went for the others (you can scroll down the blog to find out the other gals' take on this challenge), I'm sort of thinking I can't be alone in creating a minibanner of the banners and tags now, can I...?

I used the Vintage Ornament Butterfly stamp quite a bit here; see the mini kraft tags? On the ones to the right and the left I stamped them with white chalk ink pad and embossed with clear detail embossing powder. Yields a fine, sheer look... on the middle one however, I embossed the butterflies with white detail embossing powder. Next to the photo; a regular stamped butterfly onto a piece of paper that's cut out.

And then - on the chipboard letters that I covered with white paint first; Butterflies randomly stamped onto the letters.

Tah-dah.

It was fun doing this challenge, and extra fun knowing the other gals got exactly the same MR-products as me!

Here's the 10 product list we all got to play with:

• love hangers
• canvas triangle banners
• mini kraft tags
• turquoise twine
• coffee brown mini gingham trim
• leaf zipper trim
• turquoise and yellow ruffle flowers
• jonathan alpha chipboard
• Ornate Vintage Butterflies stamp
• Vintage Lace Mums - Apple

Now, don't forget that you still have a chance to win our giveaway! Make sure to go read the details on this post.

Maya Road + Paper Crafter's Library Blog Swap Day 4

Hi Lisa Pace here.. today, I want to share an inspirational canvas I created for my daughter, Ansley. She graduates High School in a few days and thought this would be a fun piece for her to have filled with lots of inspirational words. 

Once I attached the book pages to the canvas I decided to give the background a slight conservatory feel and used the ornate vintage butterflies stamp set to create the background. Once stamped using markers I colored in each of the butterflies then carefully accented each one with diamond stickles. While the diamond stickles was drying I painted a scallop edge all around the canvas and the Jonathan alpha chipboard letters “fly”. After the paint and stickles dried I completely covered the entire top of the canvas using clear rock candy crackle paint and set it aside to dry.

While the crackle paint was drying I arranged the mini kraft tags as I wanted them to appear on the canvas then decided on which word stickers (always, dream, love, smile, grow, adore, &) to use for each tag. I then inked and distressed the edges of each tag and using a black pen outlined each word sticker. Once I had the mini kraft tags arranged as I liked I applied watercolor to three canvas triangle banner pieces. Once these dried I attached a Jonathan alpha chipboard piece to each banner to spell out “fly”. I then attached the canvas triangle banner pieces to the turquoise twine cording, tied a bow and attached each end of the turquoise twine cording to a love hanger. 

Once everything was completely dry I attached the kraft mini tags, the vintage mum – apple, a bow created from coffee brown mini gingham trim, the love hanger mini “fly” banner and turquoise and yellow ruffle flowers as shown. To accent the edge of the canvas I attached leaf zipper trim all along the outer edge. 

Maya Road Products Used – Love Hangers, Mini Triangle Canvas Banner, Mini Kraft Tags, Turquoise Twine Cording, Coffee Brown Mini Gingham Trim, Leaf Zipper Trim, Turquoise and Yellow Ruffle Flowers, Jonathan Alpha Chipboard, Ornate Vintage Butterflies Stamp, Vintage Lace Mums - Apple 

Don't forget you still have a chance to win our giveaway! Make sure to go read the details on this post.

Hugs!

 

 

 

Maya Road + Paper Crafter's Library Blog Swap Day 3

Hi Roadies, Sarah here from Sunny Townsville. I am excited to share my challenge project with you all. It was a great challenge with fantastic items!

So this is my creation  :

I used the Scallop Basic Album, which I love, as it has both chipboard pages and craft.

These are the 10 items we had to use:

the ten items you'll be getting are:

1. love hangers

2. canvas triangle banners

3. mini kraft tags

4. turquoise twine

5. coffee brown mini gingham trim

6. leaf zipper trim

7. turquoise and yellow ruffle flowers

8. jonathan alpha chipboard

9.  Ornate Vintage Butterflies stamp

10. Vintage Lace Mums - Apple

 

I used the zipper trim to create leaves, i used the same principles used in the Zipper Trim Mini Butterfly Tutorial 1 They turned out great!

 

I have a secret love of mini kraft tags.....LOVE THEM!!! I wanted to try something a little different so I thought it would look fantastic all layered over each other.

Above I have used the stamp, blossom flower and kraft tag (which I have cut to form a leaf. The stamped Butterflies also have extra ink and glossy accent.

 

And below is a collage of all the pages I created

 

Don't forget that you still have a chance to win our giveaway! Make sure 
to go read the details on this post.

 

 

 

Maya Road + Paper Crafter's Library Blog Swap Day 2

Welcome to day two of the Maya Road + Paper Crafter's Library Blog Swap! It's Julia here today with three cards to share with you featuring the same products that you'll be seeing all week. I always find it so inspiring to see how many different designers use the exact same product for such unique results.

The challenge was to use 10 assigned Maya Road products (check out the list by scrolling down to the previous couple posts) and the rules...

1. You must use all 10 Maya Road products
2. You can make a layout, 3 cards, or a minibook
3. You cannot use any other Maya Road products

Doesn't sound too tricky does it? It's actually a little easier said than done. I have a crazy addiction for Maya Road and it was so hard to restrain myself from adding in extras.

Here's what I created...

I've used each product at least once in the card trio and you'll find that I've used many of them in more than one card design. My favorite  was the Butterfly Stamp set and you'll find that I've used it on each of the designs. Why? Well...I love stamping and with the myriad of techniques that you can stamp with, a stamp set is one of the best crafting investments I can think of. Think almost endless possibilities.

This first card uses the smallest of the butterfly stamps on a little kraft tag. Maya Road has a variety of sweet little tags that make a great place to stamp an accent or a sentiment.

Chipboard is another one of those staple products that I just can't get enough of. An easy way to add color and texture to plain chipboard is to cover it with a crackle paint finish.

The Zipper Trims can be used to add texture and interest to a design. They can be stapled on, stitched  or adhered with a strong adhesive.

My second card design uses the larger butterfly images stamped onto a manila tag in different colors of ink. Sometimes simple stamping is all you need.

The tag on this card is also stamped. Stamping on canvas is as simple as stamping on paper. I like to test my ink on a scrap of canvas first to make sure I'll get a crisp and clean impression.

To get a more soft and shabby look to the beautiful Apple Mums, they were inked with a white ink stain. The zipper trim makes some abstract leaves by folding the trim in half and then stapling.

For my final design, I've used another simple stamping technique. Heat embossing is easy and adds dimension and shine to your stamping. If you emboss clear embossing powder over a clear embossing or watermark ink you end up with a beautiful tone on tone effect. As you can see the kraft looks beautiful embossed and the stamping will be a lovely warm brown.

Since I first saw the sweet little Metal Vintage Trinket Love Hangers, I've been dying to hang tags from them. The stamped and embossed tags are each tied with twine.

The Paper Crafts Library team has been busy creating for this blog swap as well. Visit the Paper Crafter's Library girls to see their take on this challenge!

 

Don't forget that you still have a chance to win our giveaway! Make sure to go read the details on this post.

 

Maya Road + Paper Crafter's Library Blog Swap Day 1!

For this project we were challenged to used only 10 Maya Road products. Now normally this would be very hard for me to do! I love Maya Road and limiting myself period would be a struggle. But for the sake of the challenge 10 it is! Visit the Paper Crafter's Library girls to see their take on this challenge!

Supplies used:

1. love hangers

2. canvas triangle banners

3. mini kraft tags

4. turquoise twine

5. coffee brown mini gingham trim

6. leaf zipper trim

7. turquoise and yellow ruffle flowers

8. jonathan alpha chipboard

9.  Ornate Vintage Butterflies stamp

10. Vintage Lace Mums

Miscellaneous items: Vintage sheet music, burlap, adhesive, Faber-Castell markers, pop dots.

I decided to do an altered project. I found this little beauty at a flea market and knew it would be just perfect for this project. It is a wooden drawer with a metal back. Perfect for using Maya Road goodies and some magnets.

I simply hand cut some of my vintage music paper, canvas, and burlap a bit wider then my  Maya Road Lace Mum and stacked them to make my flowers. I attached a piece of the brown gingham ribbon to act as the stems! The butterflies were stamped twice, colored, and then one pop dotted on top of the other to give the butterflies some dimension. I used the twine to string my canvas triangles and then hung that by the metal hangers. I covered my nails holding the wire hangers with the cute ruffle flowers.The kraft tags were used as leaves.  At the bottom I just layered the zipper trim to create my “grass”.I used the chipboard alphabet to spell grow. I then added magnets to  all the items on the drawer  so I could move them around and rearrange them.

 

Don't forget to leave a comment for your chance at the awesome giveaway that will be announced on Friday! 

And, for even more fun, we will be giving this awesome Maya Road prize  to one lucky winner! 

The winner will recieve 5 rolls of twine (new colors!!) plus 8 wooden spools!

In order to enter yourself in the giveaway you can do one of the following three things:

1. Head over to the Maya Road Facebook fan page and what your favorite project you've seen on the blog this month was and make sure you've hit "Like" to become a fan.
2. "Like" and leave a comment on PaperCrafter's Library Facebook fan page tell them Maya Road sent you.
3. Leave one comment on this post.

Do all three to enter yourself into the drawing three times!

Winner will be posted on Sunday once our whole week of sneaks is over!

Please be sure to come back here every day this week to see more inspiration. 

-Shelley Haganman

 

Maya Road & Paper Crafter's Library Giveaways!

We are about to kick off  a great week this week pairing with Paper Crafter's Library. This time we decided to do something different, so we created a fun challenge for the designers. Each designer was sent the same ten items:

1. Love hangers
2. mini triangle banner canvas pieces
3. kraft mini tags
4. Slushie Blue twine 
5. Mini gingham trim - coffee brown
6. Zipper trim - leaf
7. Ruffle Blossoms - turqoise and yellow
8. Jonathan chipboard alphabet
9. Ornate Vintage Butterflies stamp
10. Vintage Lace Mums - Apple

And were given the following rules:

1. You must use all 10 Maya Road products
2. You can make a layout, 3 cards, or a minibook
3. You cannot use any other Maya Road products

Aren't you excited to see what the designers created?

And, for even more fun, we will be giving this awesome Maya Road prize  to one lucky winner! 

The winner will recieve 5 rolls of twine (new colors!!) plus 8 wooden spools!

In order to enter yourself in the giveaway you can do one of the following three things:

1. Head over to the Maya Road Facebook fan page and what your favorite project you've seen on the blog this month was and make sure you've hit "Like" to become a fan.
2. "Like" and leave a comment on PaperCrafter's Library Facebook fan page tell them Maya Road sent you.
3. Leave one comment on this post.

Do all three to enter yourself into the drawing three times!

Winner will be posted on Sunday once our whole week of sneaks is over!

Please be sure to come back here every day this week to see more inspiration. 

 

 

My Vintage Inspired Coin Purse

Hello Roadies!  It's Melissa here again to share a quick project using one of the new Canvas items just released this past winter (can you believe that was only a few months ago?!)  As soon as I saw the new Alterable Canvas Coin Purse, I knew I HAD to have it and I HAD to make it my own...something monochramatic, something with trim, and something with bling!

Here is the blank canvas, literally!

And here is my finished project!  I took 4 different trims, and adhered them all the way around the purse...you want a finished look all around!  I started from the bottom up with the Soft Vintage Scallop Lace Trim in Cream.  It truly is as dreamy soft as the picture depicts. Just heavenly!  The next one up was the Single Ruffle Crochet Trim, followed by the Mini Oval Crochet Trim, and finally the Ecru Crochet Trim.  I loved pairing the whites and creams together, it's just one of my absolute favorites! 

I couldn't let along with just the trim though.  Maya Road has WAY too many beautiful trinket flowers that musn't be neglected.  So, in staying with my monochromatics, I chose this gorgeous Antique Pearl Center Flower to top with.  It's hard to see, but I also use the Vintage Alterable Trinkets in Large and Small as my "leaves" for my flower.  I swear, it looks fantastic in person!! :)

There really are no limits with how you could alter this...I didn't even touch the mists!  Now I bet that could be fun. :)  I hope you get yourself one to play with and be sure to share what you've created on the Maya Road Facebook page!

Thanks for looking!

Ship A'hoy!

Hi Roadies, Angella here from across the seas to bring you my  banner book boat !

True to style,  I just had to jump out of the box with the banner book to create this cute boat.

I - I Matey

 

It is as easy as 1. 2. 3.  Grab a Mixed Scallop triangle banner Album and wood mini skinny spools .

 

      

1. Firstly lay your pages down to form the boat shape, you can tape the peices together to make secure.

2. Glue spools down onto the base of your boat, then glue another layer of pages
on top of the spools to give the 3D effect of your project ! fill in your sides with  strips of paper or ribbon .

3. Cover with pattern paper and decorate!

See so easy, perfect for party table decoration, or leave a opening at top and fill with lollies

So next time you pick up a Maya Road banner book, take a twist and see what you can create.

Candy Stripe blossoms, Velvet pleats Medallion flowers, vintage paper posies, Mixed Scallop triangle banner Album , trinket buttons, Vintage wood ruler, Wood Die cut dollies, Wood Skinny spools, Kraft Die Cut dollies, Small organza rose ribbon, Love chipboard banner set

Ahoy Roadies !

The Canvas Cuff Needle Case

Hi Roadies! It's Julia here with an altered project and a few thoughts on thinking creatively.I'm always on the lookout for more creative ideas and I'm sure you are too.

Being creative means having an open mind to possibilities. Products can be used as they were created to be used but there is always so much more you can do with them. Keep an open mind while creating and you'll find you have a wealth of ideas to draw from. Think outside the box.

Enter the Canvas Cuff Needle Case...

 

Today's project is one that I've had in my head for a couple months and was excited the other day to try it out. I like to keep a notebook with me to jot down my ideas. If you're like me, there's never enough time in the day and keeping that running list of ideas means that you don't forget them or run out of creative inspiration.

As you can see, instead of using the Alterable Canvas Cuff as an apparel accessory, flattened it makes a very pretty needle case.

 

To make the case I first started out by masking and misting the outside of the canvas. I've used two of my favorite Maya Mists, Pomegranate Pink and Sunburst Orange. Heat set the mist on the canvas after applying to make it permanent.

 

Inside my canvas cuff/needle case, I added some Milk Daisies Vintage Lace Trim. To keep my needles safe,  I've folded a piece of felt in half and then cut the edges with pinking sheers. Both the trim and the felt adhere well with a hot glue gun.

My favorite part of any project is adding on the embellishments. Heart Trinket Pins, Pink Country Gingham Posies, Vintage Denim Rose, Pumpkin Orange Zipper Trim, Orange Small Organza Roses Ribbon and a Velvet Resin Blossom finish off the design. The mixture of felt with trims and fabric flowers is perfect for the sewing theme.

Look at your supplies in a new way and you'll be amazed at what you can create. Hope I've inspired you...

A, B, C... is easy as 1, 2, 3

I just had to use that as the title of my post because I made a fun and colorful ABC learning Flip Book a while ago that I am sharing here today.  Was it really easy to make?  Easy as... well... you know!!  ;-)

All it took was a fun collection of Maya Road products and some simple crafting techniques and I think that it would make any little learner happy to turn the pages that are mounted on the acrylic stand.

I wanted to used different textures for the pages so that it was sort of a touch and feel book too.  Every page has a canvas button that I machine stitched on with red thread and there are also lots of chipboard pieces.  All of them were painted then either coated with crackle paint, Diamond Glaze or glitter.


There are some of the Maya Road Wood pieces added to the pages too, like the snowflakes shown above.


I think that it's fun to make something out of the ordinary with my scrap and paper crafting supplies.  I love a family album, but something like this is just as unique and interesting and it's even a bit of a challenge to create with something besides photos... and it's useful too!



Another fun texture is the zipper!  Especially since there really aren't a lot of "Z" words that I thought would be fitting in an ABC learning book... now how did you know, Maya Road?!?! :-)

I started by adding vintage alphabet pictures to the tabbed chipboard pages that I covered with patterned papers.  The tabs were stamped with the cute "Just My Type" Clear stamp set and the alphas are the" Jonathan Mini Alphabet" set.


After the basics, it was just a matter of adding all of the fun texturized elements.  There are so many choices in the Maya Road product line and I was amazed at how easy it was to find something for each letter of the alphabet! 

Here is a link to all of the Maya road products that I used:
Jonathan Mini Alphabet set
Just My Type Clear Stamp set
Canvas Button Pieces
Mini Kraft Jotter Tags- white
Kraft Large ticket strips- white
Mini Gingham Trims
Love Chipboard Banner set
Home Tweet Home Mini chipboard set
Autumn Mini Chipboard set
When Skies Are Grey Chipboard set
Zipper Trim- Bubblegum Pink
Vintage Wood Snowflakes 
Vintage Paper Posies
Motifs Chipboard 
Super Nova Chipboard 
Twine Cording- Tomato Red

Happy creating!

Making your own background stamps

Hi Bloggers, Lisa Pace here. Today, I'm going to share a little tip/secret. One thing I love to do with my Maya Road stamp sets is use them as background stamps. How do I do this you ask? Well, I leave the stamps on the backing as they come packaged, shown below.

I peel back the cover, ink all the stamps then press the stamps onto my project. If I feel I might not be getting solid pressure on all the stamps I carefully place a large clear acrylic block on top of the stamp set and continue to press down. Adding the acrylic block on top guarantees even pressure on all the stamps. 

I think the Ornate Vintage Butterflies stamp set makes a gorgeous conservatory background. You can leave the stamped images simply as they are or color them in with inks or markers.

The banner page above shows how I used the You've Been Framed stamp set as a background stamp. Oh and here is another little tip, once you stamp the background rotate the stamp set to create an entirely different backgound for another background image. This banner has four pages and all the backgrounds look different from simply rotating the stamp set. 

This altered page from the Scallop Square Basic Album has the Ornate Vintage Butterflies stamped on top to create a background. On the ATC Coaster page I used the Art Journaling Words stamp set to create a background image that works perfectly for my altered butterfly.

I hope this gives you new ideas for your Maya Road stamp sets. Using them as a background is like an added bonus to your stamp sets.

Hugs!

 

Fairy Girls

So I have a confession to make, after even 12 years of scrapbooking, I had never been to a retreat. That changed this past NSD when a good friend of mine, Carolyn, who owns The Crafty Scrapper invited me to a retreat.

I got a lot of projects done during the 3 days I was there. I kept my head down and loved to be entertained by everyone around me. At the same time, I got to try my hand at some things which I normally do not do at home in a short period of time due to the lack of time and space  (the kids running around might also contribute to it too)

I created these Fairy Girl canvases of my baby girl.

Each is a mix of some fun things that makes it so easy to do! Here are some tips on creating your own:

1. Create a background - do so by mixing a tiny bit of gesso with some Maya Mists. I used bubblegum pink and sunflower yellow, green apple and popcicle blue. Along with that I used some gel medium to make blending easier on the canvas and tissue paper. When you are allowing that to dry, go ahead and work on your fairy girls. The gesso, gel medium, Maya Mist mix is the perfect adhesive to glue your tissue paper down onto your canvas.

2. While your canvas is drying start creating your fairies. I used a stamp set to create the bodies and then added lots of Maya Road goodies including wood doilies, organza trim, paper roses, zipper trim and more. There are also a couple of new goodies which Maya Road will release next week and we will just have to see if you can spot them.

3. One of the most important parts of creating the canvases is picking the perfect photo for the head. I had some photos of my baby girl which were in themselves so-so but when I cropped her face to create into these funny fairies, they were perfect. 

4. Then assemble everything together! Use foam dots to make the fairies "pop" off the canvas. Add some glitter glaze to decorate the gals and enjoy them!

I was so grateful for the chance to do something that is a bit outside the range of my normal style and I totally loved how they turned out!

 Enjoy your fairies!

To the confirmand

Hello there!

This is Ania with a little altered tin for you! May and spring is here, which means season for confirmation here in Norway.

Now, I find creating cards and such for boys, especially young adults, pretty difficult. I mean - it's not supposed to be too cutesy, preferrably no flowers unless it's really funky ones, and so on...and let's face it, there's not a whole lot of possibilities in the premade embellishment-department compared as the possibilities and variety there is for girls. Very well.

If ever in doubt. Roadsigns are cool. Period.
Oh, especially when placed on top of an altered mini tin.

Not to mention kraft journaling tags (scroll ones, like the one used here, or the the deco ones),  or chipboard-men (from the same box of roadsign chipboard). Very cool.

And what better than room for money for the young adult, here held in place by a strip of transparent mini tickets in black? (I know...money... - how materialistic, shallow and boring :p But that's how it is! Besides, we also got him a Diablo III mousepad in addition. I want one for myself now too! Mothers Day gift, anyone?? =))

Until next time, enjoy!

Being True to You

Hi everyone! 

A few years ago, I did a layout a day for 31 consecutive days. During the process, I learned a lot about what I like and dislike when creating a layout. As the month unfolded I found my personal voice and style. And one of the things I discoved is my love for white space.

White space is defined as: "portions of a page left unmarked." While white space can be kraft, red, pink, blue or any color you use for your background, in my case it's actually white. Because I use white cardstock in almost every layout. Here's a layout I made for Winter CHA:

You see all that white? To many people, this might look unfinished. Too white. Too empty. But, to me, it looks just right. Especially since, in this photo, my son looks a little lonely, so I love how the whiteness of the page adds to that feeling. I love how the lack of busy-ness makes you  focus that much more on him and the title. And how it makes the few embellishments I used that much more powerful.

I know that it's "in" to use a lot of stuff on your pages. I know it's "in" to mist your backgrounds. But, for me, especially for this page, this is what felt right. And I think what matters most when creating a layout is being true to yourself.

At the end of the day, you're the one who's going to look at this page again and again over the years. Long after the trends have come and gone, you'll have this 12x12 and so it matters that you like it again and again.

Here is a little detail of the layers on the top left:

This is something else I like to do because my pages are white. I want to draw your eyes back into my page so I tend to put elements along the edges to keep your eyes from wandering off the page.

And since journaling is really important to me, here's my journaling from this page:

I snapped this photo of you while you were watching TV. You're holding a tissue cause you like to imitate blowing your nose since I have allergies and do it often. I love how totally engrossed you are and how cute your tiny fingers look in this photo. I just adore you so much.

As you can see, it's not exceptionally pithy. But still, I like to remember why I scrapped this photo. Why I wanted to preserve it. The journaling helps me do that.

I want to emphasize that there's nothing wrong with using very little white space. Nothing wrong with a lot of product or huge photos, or no journaling, or any other combination you like. What matters most, in my opinion, is just that you be true to yourself. To what you like. To what makes you happy. 

As long as you are true to yourself, your page will be a gift both to you and your loved ones because it will have a piece of you in it.

Thank you for letting me share!

Accessorizing with Maya Road

Happy Friday Roadies! My daughter discovered Pinterest and her wardrobe hasn't been the same since. She refers to clothing and accessory combinations as "Pinteresty." She decides to buy a sweater shrug because it would match her yellow flats perfectly and she'll have a "Pinterest" outfit. She loves the coordinated, put together looks that she finds on Pinterest and she's really good at translating the same looks into her own wardrobe, without running out and buying all new clothes.

This layout is about her love of outfits inspired by the site. I thought the dressform from the Sew Cute chipboard set would be perfect as an embellishment on this page. Topped off with a couple of the Yellow Star pins, a Crystal Trinket pin, and a bit of twine to mimic jewelry and a scarf, my mannequin is all dressed up, just like Annie. I completed the outfit with a gingham point blossom. 

 

To ground my photos, I set them on strips of Mega Ric Rac trim and the small organza roses trim in yellow. 

I used a transparency ledger to house my journaling, which once that was in place, things did not feel right. I felt like I needed a little more black, so I slid a kraft scroll frame journaling tag behind the mannequin and voila, the layout felt balanced!

I love that Maya Road has so many fun little embellishments to choose from, it's like accessories for your layouts!

Now, when Annie discovers Polyvore...

Mini Butterfly Tag

Hello Roadies, Ronda here.  I am back with more Zipper Trim.  Do you remember this post with all the Zipper trim including the Butterfly Tags? Today i am back with something similar but on a smaller scale.  A much smaller scale. 

They say good things come in small packages, well here is proof.  These tiny butterflies werer created with our zipper trims.  The are the perfect size for cards, layouts, tags, and more.  Would you like to know how to create them?  Check out the video below to see how you can create these butterflies in 7 minutes.

You find this and more videos on our Maya Road Youtube Channel.  Thanks for joining me today on another zipper trim adventure.  We have more videos in the the works so make sure you check out the channel often.

• Bubblegum Pink
• Sunshine Yellow
• Sea Blue
• Popscicle Mist
• Green Apple Mist
• Sunflower Mist

Mini Album Love

Hi roadies, its Sarah here from hot and sunny North Queensland and I wanted to share a mini album that I have LOVED making!! In fact I just love mini albums! I love all the Maya Road Coaster Albums as they are so easy to use and can mix and match.

This mini album features pictures from our recent trip, I got index pictures made up cause I took so many and have put them to use in this album. So of the Maya Road products I have used include; Scroll frame coaster album, Butterflies mini chipboard set, Butterfly chipboard set, Wooden spools, Trinket pins antique gem and tiny Banner chipboard bits, and the mini canvas tag pieces.

I also have a few items that you can hardly see, but I like layers so you will also find vintage doilies and kraft doilies.

The Softer Side of Maya Road

Along with all of the amazing wood & metal collections and the Trinket Pins & Chipboards that Maya Road provides to crafters and scrapbookers there is a perfectly sweet, soft side.  Some of my favorite products are the pleated, ruffled and textured Trims that come in an assortment of textiles which include tulle, velvet, satin, denim, gingham and more!  They also provide  coordinating blossoms and flowers in many shapes and sizes.

I love to create with paper and the Maya Road Trims and Flowers are great for those projects, but I also enjoy fabrics and other textiles so my project today is all about trimming up something soft and pretty.

I cut up some natural Osnaburg fabric to stitch up a hand towel, but you could use a pre-made purchased towel also.  To begin, I used a hot iron to flatten the Maya Road Frayed Edge Pleated Trims.  This just helps to make it easier to stitch onto the bottom edge of the towel.  I remember when I was in highschool that my Home Economics teacher told us, "When it comes to sewing with fabric, your iron is your friend."  She was right!  I never sew fabric without using my iron to make things nice and smooth.  Seams always match up better if you iron as you sew.



Next, pin on the trims... one at a time, working from bottom to top.  I sewed directly over the stitching that was already on the Pleated Trim.  When I added the 2nd trim color, I made sure to have the bottom edge of that trim cover the stitching on the 1st trim.  I also used a zig zag stitch at the top edge of each trim to prevent furthur raveling and fraying.  I left the bottom edge of the trim as it is because that is the charm of the Frayed Edge Pleated Trim... it's perfectly imperfect!


Next I added some ric rac trim, being sure to have the bottom edge meet the stitched line on the 3rd trim.  There is no need to sew a zig zag stitch as it will be covered with the Mini Gingham Trim.


I then made a flower embellishment using a 12" length of the Frayed Edge Pleated Trim in Faded Cherry which I coiled and layered into a circle, big enough to place one of the Vintage Denim  Roses in the center.  I tacked the trim down in a few spots, hiding the stitches inside some of the pleats and did the same to sew on the Denim Flower.





The leaves were cut from a natural color canvas fabric then misted with Green Apple Maya Mist.  I heat set the mist to the canvas with a hot iron then machine stitched the leaves to the towel near the layered flower. 


Don't forget to use those Maya Road Trims for all of your crafting projects... they are  a simple & easy addition that will add a lot of pretty! 

 
Here is a list of links to the Maya Road products used:
Green Apple Maya Mist 
Frayed Edge Pleated Trim- Denim
Frayed Edge Pleated Trim- Faded Cherry
Frayed Edge Pleated Trim- Khaki
Vintage Denim Rose
Mini Gingham Trim- Apple Red
Small Organza Roses Trim

A Crafty Mini Album

Hey Roadies!  It's Melissa here, and I am so excited to be sharing with you, one of the last (but not least!), projects I created for this past Winter CHA.  I wanted to create a mini-album just for me...something to represent my love of crafting in its so many different forms.  I'm sure you can relate!

Now, I love being creative artistically, just never mind the fact I'm not too terribly creative verbally, as represented by my title, "heart to craft."  Haha!  I used the 4" Canvas Binder, which was so cool, because it also came with canvas pages!  I also went crazy with my cover...grabbing different Maya Road chipboard alphabets, a cut piece from the Scallop Frames Chipboard (to make my large "C"), a selection of some Trinket Blossoms, the new Large Ric Rac, Vintage Wood Tiny Ruler, Pink Vintage Tape Measure Trim, and finally, fun Maya Road trims from the ribbon collection.

I jam packed my album with goodies, so much so, it couldn't stay closed.  Aren't those kinds of mini-albums just the best?!

But I'm sure you're ready to some of the inside, right?!

My "homemade" page on the inside cover...because everything is better homemade.  I used one of my favorite Maya Road stamp sets, Cute as a Button.  I love this stamp set! (You've seen me make a card with this one before ;))

The next page representing my trinkets nearest and dearest to me...love my ever-growing vintage stash.

And I could NOT go without including one of the new Vintage Burlap Treasure Bags here.  Just dressed it up a bit and it's ready to tuck away the savory-est of treasures. :)

And on the backside, my other love of cameos.  I swear, I fall hook, line, and sinker into any trend flung at me...but cameos have really stuck.

LOVE that new Vintage Wood Bird stamped with the new Houndstooth Singleton stamp.  It came out sooo beautifully!

And finally, a very distant hobby, but still so near to my crafting, is sewing.  Ok, I mainly do sewing on my projects, but it's still sewing!! :)

And that is it....so far. Always more room to add on.

So what would you include in your Craft album?  I bet there is much more to be included in something so near and dear to you too!  Please feel free to share your creations on the Maya Road Facebook page, I would love to see. :)

Less is more!

Hello there!

This is Ania with a card-special for you!

You see, I'll freely admit...when you're on a design team, and you get access to a lot of amazing embellishments, it's way too tempting to want to use everything on your projects...to want to add more and more....I adore the clean and simple style, but have a hard time sticking to it myself when I want to add a little variation to my style (at least that's how I myself see it).

So.

I challenged myself to just stick to three main embellishments for my cards. I like to do that - issue myself random challenges every now and then.

Here's the first card I made; as you can see there's three main components on this card: The yellow zipper trim adding a splash of color and life, the kraft journaling tag, and the oversized numbers.

Very simple, yet I daresay it's sort of striking. Oh, and it's for a male, and I always have a hard time creating masculine cards. I think the colorscheme and the zippers really does it for the card!

The next card is for a girl. Just dress up the lovely Coffee or Tea Mini Chipboard set w/a piece of cute patterned paper, add iridescent glitter to the surface, and if you have the time - seal the whole thing with glossy accent for more glossiness...add to a piece of background (here: Scallop frames chipboard set), top off with a name banner and you're all set! Again; three main components - the teapot-chipboard (made more interesting by adding glitter and glossiness), a solid yet fun background and finally, the banner with the name of the recipient across..

 

See? You don't really have to have "everything" (although that's quite nice I admit, haha) to create something nice. Hope you liked the projects, thanks for watching!