Maya Road Design Team

Flowers to fluffy clouds

Hey Roadies! Mandy Kay Starner here to share my epiphany moment with you.

So lets start at the beginning...I already had my photo and basic design in mind. Plus, I had been wanting to put some paint on paper for some time, so I got out my paints and mists(White out and  Orange Spice)and created my background...

While that dried, I inked up my chipboard birds from the Birds and Cages set and my Lisa Lowercase alphas for my title. I snipped some chevron shapes from my Chocolate Plum Vintage Tape Measure trim and layered them up under my photo with a Stitched Linen Heart. Once, I laid it all out, I could see that it was missing something... I stared... and stared... Finally, I decided that I wanted to add some fluffy clouds to my layout. I wanted to mimic the clouds in the photo. But how was I going to do it?... and then BAM! It hit me! The Afternoon Tea Blossoms could be cut up into fluffy clouds! So I cut a couple of them apart into cloud shapes...

I layered them up here and there. And this is how it all turned out...

Here's a close-up...

So there you have it. I hope this inspires you to look at your supplies a little differently.

It doesn't have to be so hard

Hi everyone!

This is Karen and I am here to share a quick and pretty tag with you. Sometimes when I am wrapping a present, I like to add a little personal piece to it. These quick tags make it easy to personalize without feeling like a burden.

Here's one:

I covered the background with fabric tape, colored the edges with acrylic paint and then added a little bit of burlap trim. I then added my canvas butterfly (which I painted with acrylic) on top. I used two tall pins to make its antannae. A beautiful white flower on top of my butterfly made it even prettier. I took a wooden tag and stamped "thanks" directly on it. A chipboard star, painted with gesso and glossied up with glossy accents was my last and final step. Even though it's a quick one, doesn't it feel so nice when you see a hand-made tag on a present you receive? 

Sometimes we make things so much harder than they have to be. Looking at this tag still makes me happy and allows me to carve a little creative time without feeling like I have to sit down and spend hours on a layout. 

A win-win if you ask me.

Have you ever made a quick and pretty tag? Do you personalize your presents? If so, please link me up in the comments, I'd love to see them!

The Making of a Canvas

Hello Roadies! Emily here today.

I had the pleasure of making some projects for the recent Maya Road debut on HSN last week. I'm known for my layouts, so it was really fun to break out of that and play with some different mediums. I thought it might be interesting to share how I was thinking as I designed a canvas for the show. Please excuse the poor photos, I didn't think to take them with my good camera, just my cell phone. I was sending the to Caroline throughout the process. I decided to use them because I think it's cool to see how the canvas evolved.

I started out with a quote from Thackery, "A good laugh is like sunshine in a house." I knew the Vintage Wood mini rulers would make a perfect roof. Stained brown with Maya Mist in Expresso, I was ready to go. I painted the Velvet Pleated Trinket Flower in milk a bright sunny yellow and place it behind the house. I painted my background with Blue Slushie and gesso. I think added a strip of green fabric tape, available only for the HSN kit, this was going to be my grass.

I decided to with a little more of the Blue Slushie mist, I wanted a BLUE sky! I took off the fabric tape, it just didn't look good.

I messed around the the Antique Gem Tinket pin and a Kraft ticket in white, trying to make a mailbox. I decided against it. I also put the fabric tape back, this time ruffling it and adding a second layer. I was so much happier with the look this time. I thought about putting the Mini Organza Roses Trim  in the grass, but I bumped the canvas, an accident occurred, and I ended up using them in a different place.

See where they ended up? They made rather delightful fluffy clouds, don't you think? I added my vintage image of a man laughing. I knew this would be a misproportioned piece of work, so it was fun to go really big on the face inside the house. I also rubbed some of the Blue Slushie off parts of the sky to give a more cloudy feel to it. The ticket reappears. I'm wondering if I can fit the quote on it.

I decide against using the ticket, instead printing the quote off and cutting it up. Figuring out placement was my next challenge. You'll notice it's not this way in the final image. I added some flowers in the form of the Antique Gem pins and some Mixed Chipboard Shapes. I also used the chipboard to house my quote source. This gave me a nice balance of three yellow spots on the canvas. I tied off each flower with some Wheatgrass Twine Cording for leaves. The twine cording also became the walls of the house.

I used gel medium to seal everything off and stitched the chipboard down and that was how I went from a blank canvas to this:

Once I got rolling, I had a blast. It was fun to try a different platform, and I think it earned me the assignment of a few more (which I'm OK with).

The Box Previously Known As A Perfume Box

Hello there Roadies!

Ania here with yet another box for ya (it's no secret that I love boxes...).
I'm not sure what it is, but when I get my hands on a sturdy, nicely sized cardboard box, like a perfume-box, it just feels wrong to throw it away (even though it'd go to the recycle/paper bin).

Take this box, previously holding  3.4 oz of lovely Eau De Parfum (She Wood..one of my faves along with Flowerbomb...but I digress).... I figured I'd put this box to good 2nd use, finding some matching patterned paper for the solid pink-peachy color of the cardboard, and a few Maya Road-embellishments to go...

Like creating a small but effective cluster next to a big heart covering almost the whole box. And oh, you can never go wrong with heart shaped linen! In this case a little bit of color was added by spraying some Maya Mist (dragonfruit pink & sunflower yellow washed out w/buttermilk cream).

The cluster started with a tucked in kraft snowflake behind the new Afternoon Tea blossoms in carnation... which in turn was embellished with a scrap of Scallop Chiffon & Tulle Trim and Antique Jeweled Pearl Pendant and a piece of celery green Twine Cording.

On the other side: The lucky number seven (which's this years big birthday number) labeled with the help of some trim adorning a bottle cap and a starburst of different slices of patterned papers...

You see...the kids keep coming home with messages like: "oh by the way, I think I'm attending a birthdayparty in....20 minutes". It happens more often than I like (sigh), which's why I have a bag full of backup-pressies (well ok, only 2 left atm) and well, I also try to keep the handmade cards stocked up so all I need to do is either to add the correct number or the kids name onto the card...

This box will go to the backup-bag, it's like a card and a pressie in one...I just need to figure out what items to fit inside this box :)

Wreath Inspiration: denim and gingham

Hi, Roadies! Leah checking in with a little bit of wreath inspiration for you today!

I have loved yellow for a long time, and it's so fun to have lots of products available to use in this sunny, mood boosting color! I know a lot of you are experiencing an extra long and cold winter and could use a bit of extra sun!

Start by wrapping a styrofoam wreath from the craft supply store in sun yellow gingham fabric tape.

To alter the canvas butterflies, just give them a coating a gesso, shape them a bit to bend and "float", allow to dry  and then spritz with Summer Sun Yellow  maya mist.

The paper twine cording can be a fun to add a bit of dimension to your projects when you untwist and fluff into loops or a bow.

Frayed Edge Pleated denim trim gathers well for the perfect accent to all of our yellow.

And I couldn't resist leading one stray butterfly off the edge touching the pretty yellow velvet pleated flower.

Hope your day is bright and sunny!

Bottle Cap Mini

Hey Roadies! Mandy Kay Starner here, to share one of my CHA Winter projects with you.

One of my favorite Maya Road products is the bottle caps. I have quite a stash, especially of the Jumbo caps; I love to use them for all different kinds of projects. For one, they make fantastic mini book covers.

For this mini, I started off by spray painting the outsides of my bottle caps black. I die-cut several 3 1/2" circles to cover the caps, and to use for the interior pages. (I adhered two circles back to back to make stronger pages.) And to mix it up a bit, I threw a page from one of the Canvas Star Coaster Albums in there.

To embellish my pages, I used my favorite stamps, kraft doilies and tickets, trinket pins, tulle and zipper trims. Do you see the new Varsity Letter stamps? LOVE.THEM.

That fuschia colored metal flower is one of my absolute favorite products from the Winter release. Can you spy it in the cluster below? They are so much fun and I can't wait to get my hands on more of them. For me, they are the perfect size for clustering.

And I am certain that I will be NEEDING quite a bit of yardage of that new Vintage Tape Measure Trim.

And If you have been wondering how to get those adorable little houses adhered to you projects, a few little staples seem to do the trick.

Thanks for stopping by the Maya Road Design Team Blog, I hope you've enjoyed my project.

Supplies used:

Jumbo Vintage Metal Bottle Caps

Canvas Star Coaster Album

Star Shaped Metal Bottle Cap

Shot Through The Heart Chipboard Set

Kraft Doilies

Transparent Cameras

Blackberry Twine

Tutu Tulle

Crystal Stars Trinket Pins

Flower Pins

Licorice Tulle Pleat Trim

Ocean Turquoise Double Stitch Velvet Ribbon

Just my type Stamps

Vintage Camera Singleton Stamp

Varsity Uppercase Stamps

Large Kraft Ticket Strips

Kraft Scroll Frame Labels

Love Words Mini Chipboard Set

Kraft Butterflies

Black Zipper Trim

Sea Blue Zipper Trim

Vintage Tape Measure Trim

White Small Organza Rose Trim

 

Our Home Metal

 

 

Make Mine a Mini

Hey Roadies! It's almost the weekend!

One of the great things about working for Maya Road (besides getting to work with all the awesome products!) is working with Caroline. She loves to give the DT assignments for CHA that push us out of our creative comfort zone. While I hate it at the time, she's always right on with the request. I think she has a crystal ball or some such.

For me, that means doing minis. And not just one mini, I got to do multiple minis for this last show. I whined and complained mightily to Ronda--aside: did you know we live just 2.4 miles from each other? I did a layout about that for the show too, I'll share that at the end of this post!

But by the time I was done, I had a couple of minis I was really proud of. I'm going to share one with you today. It's for my daughter, Annie, who will be graduating from high school this year. I put together this mini using the linen 4x6 Art Journal Album from this Winter's new releases. It uses a bunch of quotes that I felt would be good reminders for her of who she really is, once she heads off to college and I'm not around everyday to remind her.

Because I don't really go messy and painty, I needed to find a way to make this album work for me. I do stitch and stamp a lot so I took a bunch of the kraft envelopes (white polka dots, squares, and rectangles) and stitched them into the journal to use as extra pages. I stamped a lot as well using a permanent black ink (worked great on the linen!) and two of our alphabets, the new Varsity Uppercase Letters and a great standby, the Just My Type set. 

To help the viewer move through the album, I used our new Perfect Shot Arrow set. When there's an arrow, you lift the flap to read more.

I misted our Vintage Wood Mini Butterflies with our Maya Mists in Green Apple, Fig Magenta, and Lemon Metallic. I did the same to our large Natural Wood Buttons.  

I trimmed down the frayed edges of our Burlap Trim in Fuchsia and used that throughout the album as well.

 

I love how the flaps of the envelopes make cool design elements, and here, how it supports the jouranling.

I used a Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue to hold everything in place, it worked very well. I also used it as a fray check on the Burlap Trim edges.

 

The last flap encourages her to look forward with faith.

This project was a lot of fun, once I had my idea down and started executing it. I used photos from her senior photo shoot and tried to match them to the quote. I then split up the quote and with sticky notes, I place set everything. The only suggestion I wish I'd thought of was to stamp it all out, THEN add the bumpy embellishments. A few places where I stamped were tricky because I had a button or butterfly on the other side already.

I love how this turned out, I have a wonderful gift for my daughter when she heads off to college, something I hope will bring her comfort as she starts this new journey. I made an art journal work with my style. I need to stop whining to Ronda. And I need to tell Caroline how much I love mini albums. Maybe she'll stop asking me to make them... ;)

Here's the layout about how I get from my house to Ronda's.

Supplies for Directions layout:

• Avocado Green Maya Mist
• Fig Magenta Maya Mist
• Lemon Metallic Maya Mist
• Metal Vintage Trinket--Our Home
• Fabric Leaves--Medium
• Trinket Pins--Vintage Pearl Butterflies
• Burlap Trim in Fuchsia
• Burlap Trim in Smoke (NEW!!!)
• Lisa Uppercase Alphabet
• Lisa Lowercase Alphabet
• Ruffle Blossoms in Turquoise
• Wood Mini Clothes Pins
• Fabric Tape in Sun Yellow Gingham
• Tulle Pleat Trim in Slushie Blue
• Mini Tag Canvas Pieces

 

 

A Complicated Heart

Hello, 2013!

This is Ania wishing you a fabulous new year with many, many wonderful adventures ahead.

A colleague of mine recently underwent a heart surgery. She's got a complicated heart - at least that's what her Dr. explained to her. I knew the Maya Road Heart Canvas Coaster Album was perfect as the focal point of this little gift containing Get Well-chocolate. I've taken mine apart and used the canvas pages as centerpieces on cards and layouts. Love it :) And I know. I need to stop saying how much the Ornate Vintage Butterflies Stamp are my favorite stamp set to date from Maya Road. But really. They are.  So perfect.

I just took two plates of exclusive chocolate, traced around with my Scor-Pal so I could create this little box..then I wrapped it with grey pleated satin ribbon, added the heart and yeah well, bits and pieces of random Maya Road embellishments.

The heart was gessoed then I painted Maya Mist upon it randomly by the way. I was channeling my inner Ronda. This feels Ronda-ish..minus stencils, but still.. :) I am also totally warming up to the measurement-ribbon. So, so cool. I just curled it, attached with hot glue and made sure it stayed in place. Looks sorta artsyish curled around like this, eh?

Right!

Enjoy the new year....I mean..new year..new possibilities, right?

Like, a fixed-up heart....
And an upcoming CHA....

It's time to trim the tree!

Hello Roadies! Mandy Kay here, to show you a couple quick ornaments, I created for teacher/co-worker gifts.

For the first ornament, I started with some Blackberry Twine, a doilie, a Natural Button, a chipboard heart from the Tiny Banner set, Bubblegum Metallic Mist, and a Large Chipboard Snowflake.

I embossed the snowflake with silver glitter embossing powder, sprayed the heart with Bubblegum Metallic Mist, layered the button, doily, and heart on top, and tied it all off with some twine.

 

And for the next ornament, I used a page from the Canvas Star Coaster Album, a Denim Rose, Cream Flower pins, Cream Organza Rose Ribbon, a Linen Tag, Blue Slushie Twine, and the alphas from the Just My Type stamp set.

Did you see that I embossed the canvas? I didn't know you could (safely) emboss the fabric until I tried it on this project. Cool huh? **I had the most success with the "Glitter" powder. I tried just a plain white powder on another piece of fabric and it didn't really do as well as the glittered.

These were so quick and easy to make, I plan to make them in bulk for gift giving. They would even look pretty as a gift topper. 

I hope I've inspired you to handmake some gifts this holiday season.

Thanks for stopping by!

Maya Road + Tombow Week Day 4

Hi Roadies! It's Julia back with another Maya Road and Tombow Swap project. I've been busy counting down the days until Christmas so this little wall hanging incorporates that in a fun way.

To create this project, I started off with a page from a Maya Road chipboard album. I don't know about you but sometimes I go a little crazy with my mini albums and have to take one out to make them fit. This is a great way to use them up.

The chipboard is easy to cover up with some holiday patterned paper and some Tombow Multi Liquid Glue. I've also adhered some leaf green zipper trim and Cinnamon Tulle Pleat Trim around the back with the super strong Power Tabs.

One of my favorite parts of the design is the glittered Star Bottle Cap. The inside of the bottle cap was filled with Mono Multi and then sprinkled with glass glitter. It's also trimmed with Red and Green Velvet Point Blossoms and trimmed with Seafoam Blue Tu-Tu Tulle.

To hang up the mini wall hanging, I've threaded a couple feet of Apple Red Mini Gingham Trim through the holes at the top of the chipboard page/base. To make it a little more festive, I've threaded on Vintage Chunky Wood Spools that have been altered with glitter and Barn Red Gingham Fabric Tape.

What's Christmas without a wreath on the door? A door from the Doorways Chipboard Set has been misted with White Out Mist and is a sweet place ot hang a little wreath made from Maya Road embellishments. A Natural Wood Button is colored green and trimmed with  Red Ruffle Edge Trim. For paper layers and light embellishments I used the new Stamp Runner Permanent Adhesive and found it really great for adding adhesive exactly where I wanted it.

I love how this project is great for counting down until Christmas. I've combined the Wood Bingo Calendar Numbers with the new Tombow Fastener Tabs. Each day the bingo number can be changed for the countdown.

 

To finish up, a sweet tag from the Canvas Shipping Tag Set is stamped with the Our Town Stamp Strip. The festive sentiment is from the Christmas Words Mini Chipboard Set and is misted with Cherry Metallic Mist before being coated with Mono Multi Adhesive and glitter.

Additional Maya Road Supplies: Let it Snowflakes White, Pink Lemonade Twine Cording, Crystal Star Trinket Pins, Hot Pink Heart Trinket Pins

 

Thanks for joining us today for our blog swap! Don't forget that you still have a chance to win our giveaway! Make sure to go read the details on this post.