Maya Road Design Team

Paper Princess

Every princess needs a crown... and whether you believe in fariytales or not, every little girl is a princess to somebody. 

My project today is a sweet little girl's crown.  I've made a few of these in different colors for birthday girls before and I always use pretty Maya Road embellishments to fancy them up so that the little princess feels extra special.  I'm fairly sure that if I were a princess, I would want a whimsical paper crown just like this!

One of my favorite things on this crown are the Kraft Layerable Flowers.  I have to tell you that I was so afraid of those  when I first saw them and this is actually my first time using them on a project.  Now I don't know why, because I want to make more of those fun and spikey flowers!  I loved painting and glittering them up.  I just painted the front side so that the paint didn't clog up the slits that are cut in them.  After the paint was dry I formed them into the flowers and once they were shaped the way I wanted them, I added the glitter and the centers.  I think that the Velvet Resin Blossoms look so cute in the centers.

The pink organza flowers were made using the Carnation colored Afternoon Tea Trim.  To make the flower, cut one of the flowers from the trim then use a needle and thread to make a loose running stitch around the outside edges of the flower then pull the thread tightly so that flower become smaller and more bulky.  Make sure to bring the gathered edge to the backside of the flower.

When I use the Trinket Pins on my crowns, I use a wire cutter to cut the sharp end of the pin off.  I usually cut the pin off to about half its length.  Then I use hot glue to completely cover the cut end of the pin when I insert it behind the flower.  I don't want the pin to poke through the crown and hurt the child so I take some extra precautions to make it safe.  The hot glue encasing the end should work.

When I start decorating the crowns I always start in the center of the front with a Chipboard Scallop Frame.  They are such an awesome base for the childs intial of her name or the number of the birthday year.  The Scalloped Frames have always been a staple for me when I create, whether I am making a scrapbook layout or another type of paper project.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I was glad to share my project tips with you and hope that you all have a princess in your lives to make one for someday!



Other Maya Road items used in this project:
Ruffle Blossoms- Cream (sprayed purple)
Amethyst Purple Maya Mist
Velvet Pleat Flower- yellow
Antique Metal Butterfly
Natural Wood Button
Vintage Paper Posies (sprayed purple)
Velvet Point Blossoms- cream
Tulle Pleat Trim- milk
Mini Ruffle Trim- cream
Lustrous Button Jewel

Embellishing with stamps

Hey Roadies! Mandy Kay here, to talk to you, about stamps. I LOVE stamps. You can use them over and over, change the color and texture whenever you choose, and they are a great way to add something to your project without a lot of bulk. I have to admit though, that even though I love using stamps, I don't love the risk involved when adding them to a project. I am always afraid of the dreaded stamping shadow, or missing my mark just a bit. BUT I have found a way to use my stamps without fear! Come on, I'll show you!

  First, I collected my Perfect Shot Arrow Stamps, Vintage Camera Stamp, Say Cheese stamp set, my ETC. set, my inks, some embossing powders, vellum, and a couple scraps of patterned paper. I laid out my papers and photos, then I got started with my stamps...

I stamped my cameras on scraps of patterned paper, with some black ink and my ampersand in a deep orange on white cardstock. For my arrows, I stamped them on vellum with VersaMark and embossed them in matching colors. I cut or punched them all out, and added them to my layout. Since they were stamped on paper, I could move them around until I had it just the way I wanted, before gluing it all down. Here is how it looked in the end...

And a few close-ups...

I hope you enjoyed my tips and tricks today and I hope you'll be busting out those stamps on your next project! Thanks for stopping by the Maya Road Design Team blog!

Twine for Texture

Hi everyone!

This is Karen and I am here to share a little tag with you today. If you're like me and have been hoarding twine and pins, this one will appeal to you:

 

The first thing I did for this tag was to cover the background with lots and lots of glue and lay down strips of twine. I didn't even cut the ends first and just went back and forth until the whole thing was finished. Then I cut the edges and painted all around with a bright green acrylic paint.

I then adhered my little envelope and filled it with all the pins that make me happy. For the canvas butterfly, I sprayed some Maya Mist on a baby wipe and just blotched it all over my butterfly (beautiful system for people like me who are deathly afraid of the spray itself.)

Then I grabbed two chipboard words "love" and "you" and painted them with the same acrylic green I'd used on the edges of the tag. I decided I wasn't loving the finish so I covered the whole thing with glossy accents and voila! it looked much shinier.

 

A few colorful strips of paper twine cording (one of my favorite products ever!) and my little tag was done. A lovely addition to any present!

Have you ever covered your tag with twine? If not, I definitely recommend it, it's a fast and lovely way to introduce some texture. If so, please link me up in the comments, I'd love to see them!

Find Joy Mini Canvas

Hi Roadies! Julia here again with another Maya Road creation.

I love creating things just for the joy of it. Lately much of that joy in creativity is coming from the mixed media trend that is so popular right now. Combining a myriad of supplies and layers together to make something entirely new can be so exciting. And that's really what Maya Road is all about...the creative journey and the ability of the products to be used in so many creative ways.

My joy mini canvas started off as a 5x5 canvas  I picked up at a local arts & crafts store. It's layered with tissue paper adhered to the surface and the edges coated with black acrylic paint. To add some beautiful color to the project I misted it with Blue Agave, White Out and Green Apple Maya Mists.

Almost all of Maya Road's products are alterable. I love the gorgeous Vintage Edge Mums and this one is misted with White Out and Blue Agave Mists. It's paired up with some stamped leaves and lots of other gorgeous embellishments.

My all-time favorite Maya Road stamp set is the Art Journaling Words set. It's perfect for multi-media projects as well as cards and scrapbook layouts.

Also adding a sentiment to this mini canvas is the Lisa Uppercase Chipboard letters that spell out JOY. They are misted, then covered with a clear glaze and glass glitter to give them a beautiful shine.

Grab a canvas and some Maya Road supplies and see where your creativity takes you!

Maya Road Products Used:

Vintage Edge Mum

Blue Agave Metallic Mist

Green Apple Mist

White Out Mist

Leaf Trinket Pins

Turquoise Star Pins

Lisa Uppercase Alphabet

Decorative Scrolls Chipboard Set

Antique Button Jewels

Ornate Botanicals Stamp Sheet

Art Journaling Words Stamp Sheet

Vintage Raspberry Beads

Fabric Leaves

Natural Wood Buttons

 

It's a Chipboard Addiction

Hi there Roodies.

Hope you guys had a great weekend and are all set for some crafting fun.  Today I want to share some projects that I recently created focusing on chipboard and more chipboards and of course chipboards. I dont think you can ever have to many to these. 

My first project is this mini ablum using the super cute Home Tweet Home Chipboard Album, Home Tweet Home mini chipboard set (for some of the little birds and branches; selection of chipboard birds are also provided along with the mini album), Love mini chipboard set (for those hearts) and Christmas Words mini chipboard set (for LOVE).  

I had a lot of fun creating this little mini, especially the cover page. I really like how the album had the house frame layer and also the circle cut out (only for cover page). This gave me the idea of having one of the birds peeking out from behind. Also there were seperate chipboard pieces that you could use to create the window still for the birds.  On some of the chipboard pieces I added some glossy accent to give it alternative look and feel (love textures, as you can see from the ribbons there too). 

And for my second project, having more fun with chipboards and mist. This time using chipboard pieces from the following sets: Decorative Buttons, Ornate Tags and Butterfly along with some of the new paper twine cording, wooden button, pins and kraft typography number. 

Here I wanted to play around with the mist abit and on the button piece (pink), instead of evenly spraying the mist onto the chipboard, I applied it in droplets.  I used the pink ginger maya mist which gives a nice metallic shine and as I found out by applying it this way, I could create a marbled look. 

Hopefully I've inspired you guys to get out those chipboard pieces (I know you have them)! Thanks for stopping by everyone and hope you guys have a great week ahead!

No Ordinary Moments Gift

Hello!  Today I made a a fun little gift box using a page from the Maya Road "Home Sweet Home" Mixed Media Album.  I loved that album from the minute I saw it and I knew that there were many more possiblilities than just an album.

I cut chipboard to add to the back of the chipboard house shape from the album set to form the box and the bottom then adhered old book pages and patterned paper to the all sides of the house box.  I used 25 gauge wire for the handle and one of the large Vintage Spools.  The spool is wrapped in yellow Vintage Measuring Tape Trim.  I lightly sanded the tape trim to give it a time worn look and to soften the color to match the soft colors in the rest of my project.

The little pom poms were made from the Twine Cording in "Shine Gold".  Can you see the little slivers of sparkle in the poms?  I love that.  I also used some of the new "Champagne" Vintage Butterfly Trinket Pins that I stuffed into that bouquet of the Vintage Paper Posies.

My thoughts on gifting this box is that it would make a great gift for a crafter or scrapbooker.  They can use some of the things in their projects like the bouquet of mini posies, the pom poms, or even the metal heart tin.  You could also make the house box for somebody special on May Day and fill it with a few sweet treats.

I filled the inside of the box with some shredded brown paper bag then added a 4 1/2" pinwheel to serve as a backdrop for all of the other things.  The pinwheel is topped with a chipboard Scallop Frame and a Velvet Pleats flower.  The metal Heart Tart is painted, distressed and the center is filled with patterned paper, an old family photo, and some buttons and the Pearl Chain Trim.

The little pink eggs were stamped with the words from the Art Journaling Clear Stamp Set.  The Antique Room Key was glittered up and hung along with the pom poms on the handle.  Metals are so fun!

The house front was decorated with a chipboard "Doorways" piece that was painted, distressed and glittered.  Some Ruffle Egde trim and big ric rac trim were used along the roof then I piled on the wood alterable buttons.  Have you seen the new wood Shaped Buttons?  Those are so cute! Included are hearts, flowers and stars.

I also used Vintage Paper Roses, more Pearl Chain trim, a Ruffle Blossom flower, a Velvet Resin Blossom and of course more Trinket Pins.  I'm in love with the new Vintage Pale Pink Pearl pin.... love, love, love!!  Maya Road knows how to make me all giddy inside :-)

See !!  So perfect... so vintagey perfect.

One last thing to mention is the Mini Organze Roses trim along the bottom of the house...  so soft and pretty for just about everything.  So, then that's it!  If you have a chance and want to make something unique,  get yourself some of the  so, so awesome Chipboard Albums from Maya Road.  You'll find they have some secret power to inspire you to be extra creative.  Go ahead I dare you to give it a try... you won't be disappointed :-)

Thanks for stopping by.  Best wishes for a super happy day ahead!

How To: Be Tag

I love the warm colors of this Be tag.  The pop of blue against the fiery colors suggests both my easy going but passionate personality.   Maya Road Mists make it easy to bring colors to life.  Their embellishments are so much fun to add in layers.   Here's a quick look at how to create this tag.

1. Cover tag with book paper and seal it with matte medium.
2. Add drops of Maya Mists.  Here I used Dragon Fruit Pink, Pomegranate Pink, and Sunflower Yellow.  Using short blasts of compressed air, move the mists around the tag. Let it dry.
3. Add drops of White Out Maya Mist to the background and spray kraft butterfly with same mist.
4. Layer kraft butterfly on the kraft doily.  Add blue ruffle blossom flower and trinket heart stick pins to the butterfly.
5. Using scallop scissors, cut the vintage measuring tape trim & add to the bottom of the tag.
6. Wrap vintage hotel key with floss and add to the tag near bottom.
7. Spray "be" chipboard letters with espresso brown Maya Mist and adhere to tag.  Tie gingham brown bow to the top to finish the tag. 

Hello Italy... Click Click!

Hi there Roodies!  Hope you guys had a great weekend and Piradee here to kick start the week with a mini album inspiration using some of the new products released...

First off are these super (super) cute camera and polarid frame chipboards. Seriously these are so adorable and love how there are little bits that you play around around with. 

On the cover, I used a couple of cameras that I paint with white paint and misted some of the other little bits to create a constrast.  I then layered those chipboard pieces over the misted shipping tag chipboards for more constrast; as I opted to leave mini ablum base "raw".

For my mini album I used the 5-Ring Tab Album, where I also included some kraft cardstock pages along with a few envelopes here and there; which allows me to store all those keepsakes that I collected during the trip. 

And here's some close up and full page pictures of some of the pages. Mostly on the chipboard tab pages, I went crazy with chipboard and embellishments whereas on the kraft cardstock pages, I kept these clean and simple with pictures and captions from our trip to Italy. 

On this chipboard tab page here,  I had a fun time creating a little scenary for all those wonderful sunny days that we had on our trip and also using the new butterly clip and one of the wood embellishment from the wood measure once, cut twice set.

And on these pages here, I used the awesome camera images from the new Krafty Say Cheese Camera collection ... these come in both black and white images. 

And on my last page here, I had  fun time layering all the different pieces and elements... from the new kraft DIY butterfly sticker, to the anitque ornate frame and antique filigree butterfly vintage findings.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and hope you guys have a great creative week ahead! Also don't forget to stop by the Maya Road website for the full details on all the new products being released this season HERE.

Insta Chicago Mini Starring the Picture Perfect Camera Stamps

Hello Roadies!

Emily on deck today with, yes, another mini album. This one is all about our day trips into Chicago last summer while the Maya Road team was at CHA. I had just purchased my first camera phone and, like any new camera phone user, I was having fun learning Instagram. So I put together a mini album of the two trips into the city.

I cut out some feathers, embossed a LOT, did a fun technique to cover the chipboard, and used elements that I wouldn't normally pair, but I think it really worked.  And I used this stamp set, the Picture Perfect Camera Stamps A LOT. It's a very fun and useful set, I highly recommend it.

 

For the cover and inside pages of the new 4x6 2-Ringed Round Tab Chipboard Journal Book , I painted them bright school bus yellow. I added some dimension to the cover with an extra thick layer of paint, and then stamping the word HELLO from the Picture Perfect Stamp Set over and over in the still wet paint and letting it dry.

Once all surfaces were dry, I sprayed the chipboard with Antique Bronze Maya Mist and then rubbed it off with a paper towel. It gives a cool grungy look perfect for a city mini ablum. 

A few places, I rubbed too hard and pulled some of the paint off, so I sprayed with more mist and you get this really awesome look.

I also used the Varsity Uppercase Letters Stamp Set. I think this is going to be another of my go-to alphas, such a fun size and you get a great image every time!

I made my own cut file to add a few extra pages to the album and to title each day trip.

I used the new Say Cheese Camera Transparencies in both Black and White. I love them! I also used a few different colors of the new Paper Twine, that is such a fun product, it can be unrolled like the raffia of the 80s, or tied like this, or well, the possibilities are endless. 

I stamped and embossed a lot. The Spool Sentiments Stamp Sheet reminded me of a passport stamp, so I used that freely in the book. The sentiments work surprisingly well for a travel mini album. Also, I like having different shapes in my mini albums, that set is a great way to bring in a circle!

The new Perfect Shot Arrow Stamp Strip has nine different kinds of arrows. I could not get enough of that set! I think I may need to order an extra set, it's so versatile!

The new Say Cheese Mini Chipboard Set has the cutest little cameras and polaroid type images, I love how you can personalize them because the cut outs pop out and back in! I also used the new What's the Good Word Stamp Strip. It has some awesome speech bubbles in the set, so you can be right on trend!

I kept the star theme going throughout the book by using the My Star Singleton Stamp Set. I loved all the variety one little set can offer!

I like to add unexpected elements to my designs, I used a single bead from the 8 mm Peal Bead Chain

for each of my feathers in the album. I used some small pliers to bend the wire to get each bead off the chain. Super easy and it adds such a fun bit of surprise to the album.

For each day, I stamped on a Kraft Large Ticket the date of our excursion.

To maintain the arrow theme, I cut up bits from the Yellow Vintage Tape Measure Trim and mixed those with another color. I love how much movement it adds!

Maya road has so many great camera stamp sets, I used the Vintage Camera Singleton Stamp here on the left and the transparency of the same design on the right.

That's the boss lady, waiting for the train back to our hotel on the last day of our week in Chicago.

And here's the back cover, just as on the front, I used the unstitched Linen Star Piece as a base for my design, it adds such a nice cozy feel I think. 

It took me forever to put together, but I really am happy with how it turned out!

This one's for you, Grandma

Hey Roadies! Ania here with a tiny, little confession.

I've been holding on to the photos used in this mini ever since 2006. Which is a shame really, considering my dear grandma  is closing in to three digits.

Also, my mom keep reminding me to not forget to send my grandma cards and letters, and "if I don't mind, some of my altered things" as well. Apparently they make her proud,  whenever she gets guests she's quick to bring these items to the table so others can enjoy too (I just hope the guests doesn't get too bored, haha).

And isn't that why we keep creating? Part of why? Because we want our creations to bring joy and happiness to the people we make them for, which in most cases are the same people we care for? And I care for my grandma, really. I guess that's why I've been so hesitant using these photos...I wanted to make them into a perfect little keepsake for her, I wanted them to really shine, to not be overpowered by embellishments or papers, but rather have the scrapbook-elements supplement and accent the photos.

But I digress..

The time had come for me to actually put these photos into a mini...and to send the little "just because"-gift off to grandma (unfortunately I live far away from her, causing me to see her only once or twice a year).

I knew that the Sew Cute Mini Chipboard set would be the perfect accessory to this mini. Add in a piece of the Vintage Tape Measure Trim in yellow, Vintage Wood Tiny Ruler and Organza Primrose Trim in Chocolate on a piece of file/binder chipboard from the Road Rage Signs set and you have the perfect little cluster for your cover.

Add in some Twine Cording, trinket pins and Maya Mist..

The insides were kept very clean.

I adore my grandma. And I hope she'll enjoy this little mini holding memories from the day in 2006 where she pulled out the trusty, old Singer sewing machine to fix my brand new pair of jeans (the legs are always too long for me!).

Well actually. While grandma prepared the sewing machine, it was my mom who fixed the pants.

Nevertheless. I've now finally put this memory down into something grandma also can enjoy.

Now off you go. Create something that will put a smile to someone elses day. I dare you.