Designer Highlight with Irit Shalom

Hello, Prickley Pear Fans!

This week, we've got a Designer Highlight with Irit Shalom! Irit recently created this gorgeous canvas and I was curious about some of the techniques she used.

So, I've asked Irit to share with us some of her secrets.

Irit first covered the canvas with gesso, then applied texture paste used with her chosen stencils. To get the bubbles, the texture paste was dried with a heat gun. After that, acrylic paint was used to paint the canvas and the other stenciled areas.
(Image: Bicycle for Two)

Next up was adding the stamps. Having a hard time getting your sentiments and images added? Irit first stamped her images onto white tissue paper with Archival Ink, then tore the tissue and applied it to the canvas with gel medium.

(Sentiment: Creativity)

This also provides the opportunity to change the images a bit. This girl with flowers is half of the original stamped image. The other half was carefully torn away from the tissue. 
(Image: Love You Mom)

Additional stamps were stamped directly onto the canvas, such as flowers and the small butterflies near the the top of the canvas. 
(Flowers: Circles Set)

Chipboard was added after being painted and, in some cases, covered with crackle glaze.
(Butterflies: Butterfly Clear Set)

Next, splatters were added with a mix of mists over the dry painted canvas. Finally, the butterflies were stamped, die cut and glued onto the canvas. 
(Butterflies Cut with the Butterfly Die)

My goodness! Irit makes it look so easy. 


These aren't the only Prickley Pear sets that would make gorgeous canvas works of art. Check out the entire inventory in the Prickley Pear store for more great options.

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Designer Highlight with Kelly Santi

Hello, Prickley Pear Fans!

It's Designer Highlight week and this week Kelly Santi is here. Let's see what sweet inspiration Kelly has for us.

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Hello Prickley Pear Fans! 
Today's post brings you a quick and easy way to make treat holders for any occassion - for the young and young at heart! My spring/easter projects use two stamps from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps: Jumping Bunny and the Spring/Easter Banner clear set. Add in some paper, glue and ink - and that's it! With just the supplies you have right on hand, and your Prickley Pear stamps, you can make these and deliver them to your family members, friends, teachers, co-workers' desks and more!

 

To make these little carrot treat boxes, you'll need a sheet of patterned paper, some glue, a stapler, some green paper for the sprouts, stamps, ink, your die cut machine and dies.

The measurements for my carrots are 8" x 4", and to create the shape, you'll need to make a few nips and tucks! First, roll the patterned paper into a cylinder shape and adhere the paper together with a quick drying glue (it will resemble a toilet paper roll). Then, cinch one end closed by gluing it shut and you'll have the beginning shape of a "sour cream container" look.  

Fill the container with the desired chocolates (I used two Lindor truffles for the perfect fit!) and then seal the top end of the container in the opposite direction as the bottom, so if you turned the container right or left, you'll see opposing seals.

  

Next, I fussy cut a strip of green paper to resemble sprouts of the carrot and simply stapled that to the front of the carrot box - don't worry about how it looks, you'll cover that up with your label or stamped image. 

Using my Jumping Bunny stamp, I stamped it using Memento brown ink onto white cardstock and ran it through my diecut machine with my desired shape. Add some adhesive and attach to the front of the carrot. Easy breezy! 
 
 

I repeated this process twice more to get my "garden" of carrots. These are so easy to add to someone's desk or lunchbox and a real treat to open for a tasty surprise!

The bunny basket is another way to hold a few treats. This one uses a sheet of heavy duty cardstock cut to a 10" x 3" size, folded in four places to create the rectangle shape. I added a piece of corrugated cardstock as the handle and a sheet of patterned paper to the front. On top of that, I stamped the Happy Easter sentiment from the Spring/Easter Banner clear set and added that to the front as well. I reinforced the handle using a brad, so it could swing from side to side - easier to reach the yummy chocolates! 

 

I hope you enjoyed my project this week. Be sure to stop by the Prickley Pear store to pick up these cute stamps and have your Easter treats done well before the holiday gets here.

Check out the other stamps in the new release collection for many more options that would work just as well for this fun project!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to like our Facebook page and get caught up on all the latest Prickley Pear news!

Designer Highlight with Katie Skiff

Hello, Prickley Pear Fans and welcome to our Thursday post! 

It's Designer Highlight week and this week we're featuring the work of Katie Skiff. 

Katie has been getting crafty with the newly released Valentines Cupcake set and matching Cupcake Die Set.





This is a z-fold card. Check out this video Katie put together to see how this great card works. It's perfect for larger stamps or making scenes with your card space.

Here's a tip from Katie:
"I love interactive and fun fold cards. However, I know they can be overwhelming. My advice to get you going is to just practice. Try using a light weight or even computer paper to practice the folds. Try it out and you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy you'll catch on to it. And your loved ones will be blown away by your out-of-this-world cards!"

Katie also made an explosion box to go with her fun fold card. This fun project gives you so much decorating space, plus....

...a surprise inside!! 
The banners inside this adorable gift were made with the Banner Die Set.

Did you enjoy Katie's Valentine Cupcake project? Don't forget about the original Build a Cupcake set or Christmas Cupcake set also available in the Prickley Pear store. 

"I love the new cupcake sets because they are so versatile! You can mix and match the images from the sets. And the combos within one set are fun as well. It gives you variety and allows you to create your own images to work with. Plus, they are cupcakes. What is not to love about a NON-fattening cupcake!"

Be sure to check out the Prickley Pear store these cupcakes and other non-fattening treats. 

Don't forget to like our Facebook page for all the up-to-date news!

Designer Highlight! with Heidi Erickson

Happy Thursday, Prickley Pear Fans! 

It's time for another Designer Highlight and this week Heidi is back with one of her fabulous creations. 

Let's see what Heidi's been crafting this week:

Hello everyone!  I hope to inspire you to create other fun projects that go beyond paper.  I love to make cards and sometimes going beyond my comfort zone can be a challenge. I had this little lunch tin for several years and decided it was time to start creating.
Here is my creation for the week!




Challenge #1 for this project was the white tin. How do I cover it?  I dusted off my alchohol inks that I had stashed in a drawer. Here, I've used Eggplant, Sailboat Blue and Purple Twilight Adirondack Alcohol Inks. Using a ink applicator and felt pad, I dropped 3 - 4 drops of each color onto the felt. Then I added some of the blending fluid to the felt and started daubing the ink directly onto the surface of the tin.  I did need to re-apply ink to the applicator and repeat 2 times.

Once the ink was dry, (it dries very quickly) I started to decorate. I cut two strips of paper 1 3/4" x 11 and stuck them together end-to-end with ScorTape. I wrapped it around the tin and cut off the extra length of the strip that I didn't need.  I adhered it using more ScorTape around the top and the bottom of the strip of paper.  Once the strip of paper was around the tin, I cut two lengths of the lacy border die to attach to the bottom of the strip. The top edge seemed bare, so I lined the upper edge with 3/8" ScorTape and added Elizabeth Craft MicroFine Purple glitter, rubbing the glitter into the tape strip to make it sparkle!

The one thing I love about Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps is their great selection of Butterflies and Flowers!  These come as clear stamps with several images of flowers or butterflies and different designs. The matching dies often go with multiple stamp sets, so you get good value for your money. For this project I used the small Hibiscus flower from the Hibiscus 2 clear set and the matching die. I also used the large butterfly image from the Dragonflies 2 set and the matching butterfly die.  

All images were colored with Copic Markers and my Sakura Clear Gelly Roll pen added some glittery accent.

I hope you are inspired to find something laying around your place that is calling out to be decorated...and start creating!
  

Be sure to check out the Prickley Pear store for more Butterfly and Flower sets...in my opinion, they are versatile "must haves" for your craft room! Check out these great options!

Butterflies Clear set and matching die




Or perhaps you prefer the small butterflies of the Mini Butterflies 2 clear set and Mini Butterflies die.

 

 Here are the mini butterflies again with Flowers clear set and the Bunny with Daisy stamp (red rubber)

 

The Flowers clear set also comes with these tiny, versatile flowers (paired with Mini Birds clear set and Birdcage die set)

Finally, this card highlights another flower style (Poinsettia clear set) and the great foliage options (Leaf Die Set).

Thanks for stopping by today. Remember, more great inspiration can be found on our Facebook page.