Mama Elephant Giveaway & Highlight: Cup of Wishes

Wedding Wednesday will return next week!

Today, I've got another Mama Elephant highlight for you. Remember, the November release goes on sale tomorrow, November 15th, with a full reveal of each set.

We're giving away a Cup of Wishes stamp set and all you have to do is comment for a chance to win. One winner will be randomly chosen from all of the Design Team's blogs and the will be announced on the Mama Elephant blog tomorrow, November 15th.

The Mama Elephant Cup of Wishes stamp set is adorable. When I saw it, I knew I had to make a shadowbox for my kitchen wall. The typographical treatment on "warm" is so pretty and the perfectly fitted sentiment "and cozy" gives the collage shadowbox just the right touch. I wanted to create a cute collage using the cups to represent my coffee-drinking husband and my tea-drinking self sitting on a kitchen table. How'd I do? I love it!


Materials used: Mama Elephant Cup of Wishes, CTMH ink, Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black

Don't forget to stop by the Mama Elephant blog to see what the rest of the design team and special guest designer, Julie Ebersole, made with this set!
Come back tomorrow for a full view of the Mama Elephant November release!

Thanks for stopping by!
- KRAFTY pearl

Personalize Your Wood Grain!

I totally love the look of faux bois! And it's often used in card making and scrapbooking. There are lots of papers and cardstocks out there that have really pretty wood grain pattern:
  1. My Little Shoebox's Woodsy paper
  2. Art Warehouse's Wood Embossed Great Outdoors paper
  3. Karen Foster's Wood Pattern paper
  4. Creative Imaginations Real Wood Veneer paper
But this past Valentine's I really wanted something personalized for my card. So instead, I decided to draw my own tree and wood grain:

blog 1 - valentines day card


Notice anything within the wood grain? Here's a closer look. Do you see it now? Embedded within the pattern, I wrote 'i love you' in script!

blog 2 - valentines day card detail


I loved the result so much, I decided to doodle another piece... 'i adore you' with 'you' centered in the heart:

blog 3 - faux bois i adore you


I also decided to put it in a shadow box as the main focal point but I could do so much more to it. (I bought a nice and simple Ribba shadow box from Ikea. Absolutely love these shadow boxes.) I could put a picture to the left of the heart. I could decorate it with more embellishments. The possibilities are endless.

What's great about drawing out your own wood grain pattern is that you can actually write camouflaged words or designs within the wood grain, really making the piece of art your own!

Here's a quick how-to:

I found the EK Success Zig Memory System Writer Dual Tip Pen Writer the most useful in drawing out my lines because of the sharp consistent point, though I also love doodling with Bic's Mark-It Permanent Markers Fine Point. But feel free to use whatever fine point pen you're most comfortable with controlling your lines.

First, start with your designs or words.

blog 4 - faux bois i adore you diy


Second, draw concentric lines around your designs and words leaving a fair amount of space between your lines. The lines doesn't have to be perfect because that's the beauty of wood grain patterns, they're not perfectly spaced.

blog 5 - faux bois i adore you diy


Third, continue to draw lines around your words or designs and let the imperfections guide you for a perfect faux bois doodle.

blog 6 - faux bois i adore you diy


And there you have it, a pretty piece of art personalized with your own message and design!

blog 7 - faux bois i adore you diy detail


So whaddaya think? Is it a cute personalized keepsake or what?

Until my next post!
- KRAFTY pearl