New Upcycle & Tiny Type: In Stores Now!

Upcycle is a new and very fun line from Cosmo Cricket! It has a retro yet girly appeal to it. This line includes eight double sided 12X12 patterned papers, a paper crafting kit, a 6X6 mini assorted deck, buttons, butterflies, stickers, jewels, and chip board embellishments. This line gives off a springy feel with the bright, bold shades of fuchsia, mustard, turquoise, and chartreuse, sure to make any project fabulous!

Here is just a taste of the gorgeous new paper:

Below, you can see the coordinating embellishments.

Cosmo Cricket also has ten new Tiny Type letter formats. They come in a variety of fonts and colors and each package also contains some really cute images and sayings. My favorite item of the new line are the Tiny Type Numbers! They, too, come in a variety of fonts and colors including black, cream, and clear. Some of these colors coordinate with the Upcycle line, too! Tiny Type is a cute and easy way to add lettering to any project!

All of the items seen here and more are now available in all nine of our stores! To see some fabulous crafting ideas by Cosmo Cricket, please visit their blog here.

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By the way....

We are having a blog follower contest, now through the 11th of April. To celebrate the 1 yr anniversary of the PZ blog, we will be selecting one follower of our blog at random to win a $20 Paper Zone gift card! If you are not already a follower, but are interested in joining, here are some easy steps to follow:

1. At the top of the home page of this blog, you will find a button to 'sign in'. If you already have a Google account you can sign in, if not you will need to create a Blogger account by clicking on 'get started'.

2. You can use any email address to create your account. Once you fill in the information and click 'create', your profile account will pop up. If you scroll down you will see an option to add blogs to follow.

3. Click on 'add' and type in our blog address: http://www.paperzoneblog.com. You will have an option to follow publically or anonymously. Click 'follow' and you are done! Wasn't that easy?!

You are now a follower of our blog! Congrats and good luck with the contest!

Happy Crafting! -Malyse

Scrapbooking Made Easy: Hello Luscious

Hello Luscious is a sassy new collection from Basic Grey that offers 18 new double sided 12x12 papers along with coordinating embellishments. The color themes in this line can be used for both spring and summer projects. The usual coordinating items are included; brads, stickers, rub-ons, die-cuts, stamps, paper ribbon, etc. I am showcasing the paper ribbon today. This is something we often get with our scrapbooking lines, but is often overlooked. Paper ribbon is a fun and easy way to add a little something special to any project!

The supplies you need are: 6 different 12X12 scrapbooking papers (1 pattern and 5 solids), 6 photographs (I'm using pictures of my father and I from my wedding!), ATG gun and tape, a 12 inch paper cutter, scissors, and paper ribbon.

I prefer to use the soild coordinating paper with this line as oppose to regular plain cardstock. The great thing about Basic Grey's solid prints is that they have a weathered/textured look. This adds a little extra something to your page without a lot of work. First you want to crop your photos and get rid of the 'dead space' I talked about in my previous post.

Next, arrange your photos on your base papers in a way that you find appealing. I am using two groups of photos. The first are posed photos of me and my family. Since there is a lot of color in these photos, I put them on a neutral solid paper. The second group of photos are action shots of dancing. I put these on a colorful and busy patterned paper because the photos are lacking color.

Next, back your photos with solid color paper. Start by using your ATG gun to adhere your photos to your paper. In my previous post, I encouraged you to cut the paper to a certian dimension and then adhere the photo. That is an easy way to adhere photos that are 4X6. In the case below, I cropped this photo, so it was an odd size. I find it easier to border odd-sized photos by adhering them to the paper first and then cutting them out.

Next, you want to choose a photo on each page to highlight. On this page, I chose a close up shot of my father and I. A nice subtle way to highlight a photo is to back it on a different colored cardstock. This will make the photo pop and catch the onlookers eye.

After that, adhere your photos to your page using the ATG gun.

Now comes my favorite part; the comment box! Cut out a piece of light pink paper 2.5"X3.5" size. Next, adhere it to your page and write your message, description, or thoughts about the photos.

Since this comment box is a little plain, we should dress it up! Carefully using scissors, cut out a flower from the floral print paper.

Using the scissors again, carefully cut out 5 half circle shaped pieces from your green paper ribbon.

After that, adhere the pieces of paper ribbon to the back of the flower using your ATG gun. You will want to press firmly to ensure a stong hold.

The paper ribbon is conveniently self adhseive. Pull off the backing to the ribbon and place the finished flower in the bottom right corner of your comment box.

Next, measure a 12 inch strip of the green paper ribbon and another 12 inch strip of the yellow paper ribbon. Pull off the backing and place vertically just in from the left side of the page. Place the yellow strip on top of the green strip and press firmly to ensure a strong hold.

Your left page is now done!

Use another sheet of the floral print as the base for the right page. Since it's a busy pattern we won't need to embellish it much. Start out by backing your photos with solid colors. I used the same light pink from the previous page for two photos. I used a darker pink for the highlighted photo. Next, make another comment box. This time, use the same green paper as before and cut to the same size of 2.5"X3.5".

Next, cut a 2.5" strip of the yellow paper ribbon and adhere it vertically to the left side of your comment box. Then, write your comment.

I backed this comment box with same dark pink paper. Adhere the finished piece to your page. Now your right page is done!

Happy Crafting!

-Malyse