Category Archives: Paper Crafts

Daily Happy Planner Layout for August 2022

Daily Happy Planner Layout for August 1, 2022

Daily Happy Planner Layout for August 1, 2022

Hi Everyone! Here we have another daily planner layout that I created for August 1, 2022. I’m entering this project in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge.

More About This Craft Project:

I really like weekly planner layouts, but they don’t always work perfectly for me — because most weeks, the standard weekly layouts just don’t provide enough space for all the things I want to keep track of. So lately I have been adding at least 2-3 daily layouts in between my weekly layout pages when needed.

To make the page you see pictured, I started with a page from one of the Happy Planner block pads. In general, I really like this page layout, but some of the things on it are not that useful to me — so I cover them up with stuff that I’ll actually use (or at least stuff that I’ll enjoy looking at).

For example, the standard page layout from this block pad has an hour-by-hour format. I covered that up with a strip of Graphic 45 patterned paper — LOVE how that turned out. I adore the color of the paper; it is soooo pretty, and somehow it manages to be an exact match for the block pad pages.

Another thing I covered up is a section for items to buy. I’m not doing a lot of shopping right now, so I covered that section up with some bits to help me track my wellness to-dos for the day.

The date stamp is by Heidi Swapp. The “To Do” and “Wellness” subheadings are spelled out using a Lawn Fawn alphabet stamped set. I also used some elements from the Lawn Fawn “Plan on It” stamp set. The scalloped edges are all fussy cut using various scalloped scissors.

Overall, I LOVE this layout, and I really enjoyed using it! I liked it so much that I will probably make another one like it soon. Since I have somewhere around 80+ pages left in my block pad, I will most likely reuse this style layout again, perhaps decorating it with different papers, stamps and other embellishments.

Daily Planner Layout Featuring a Goals List and Habit Tracker

Daily Planner Layout Featuring Goals List and Habit Tracker; Stamps by Lawn Fawn and Simon Says Stamp

Daily Planner Layout Featuring Goals List and Habit Tracker; Stamps by Lawn Fawn and Simon Says Stamp

Hello friends!


I’ve been busy creating new paper crafts projects. Today I’m posting a new daily planner layout featuring a goals list, habit tracker and bunches of other elements that will help to facilitate planning. I’m entering this project in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the theme of “Anything Goes”. This week Simon Says Stamp is featuring their own branded products; I happen to have a set of their stamps, and I love it!


The set I have is called “Hand Crafted With Love”. If you look carefully on my planner layout, you can see a couple of cute stamped images from this set. One is the adorable little pair of scissors, and the other is the stamped ball of yarn with the crochet hook.

List of Craft Supplies Needed for Creating This Daily Planner Layout Featuring Rainbows, Butterflies and Flowers

Thanks so much for checking out my project! I sincerely appreciate your interest.

Posted By: Amy Solovay

This page was last updated on 8-2-2022.

Bold Black and White Greeting Card With Warm Glow Accents Featuring Supplies by Gina K Designs

Bold Black and White Greeting Card With Warm Glow Accents Featuring Supplies by Gina K Designs -- This Greeting Card Features a Bold Heart Design and Stamped Floral Images by Gina K Designs

Bold Black and White Greeting Card With Warm Glow Accents Featuring Supplies by Gina K Designs — This Greeting Card Features a Bold Heart Design and Stamped Floral Images by Gina K Designs

In my last couple of blog posts, I shared two different cards that I’m entering in a couple of online challenges. First of all, I’m entering them in the Monthly Mix Challenge over at the Gina K Designs website, and second, I’m entering them in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the theme of “Anything Goes”. Here’s another card from the same series that I am entering in the same challenges.

At the Gina K Designs website, participants were challenged to

” make a Black and White card with a POP of color! The majority of your card must be black and white and you can choose any color you want for your POP, but it must be one color. For those of you who prefer numbers, keep the color at no more than 25% of your total card. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!”

For this card, I used the same Fancy Floral stamps that I used in my first challenge entry. For my “pop” color, I decided to try using “Warm Glow”, which is one of the many colors in Gina K’s color palette. “Warm Glow” is a gorgeous color that’s not quite brown, not quite beige, and not quite coral. My photos do not accurately represent this color, which I think is a bit darker and brown-er than depicted.

I fussy-cut all the scalloped designs you see pictured. The larger, bolder scalloped scissors are by E.K. Success. The smaller scalloped design I used to cut out the flowers were made with Fiskars Mini Scallop Paper Edgers.

I LOVE how this black and white greeting card with warm glow accents turned out — and the best part is that this is a design I never, in a zillion years, would have come up with on my own without this challenge. This took me out of my creative comfort zone in a good way.

You can see my other challenge entries featuring the same stamps on the following pages:

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today; I really appreciate your presence here. My heartfelt thanks to the team at Gina K Designs for hosting this fun and thought-provoking challenge, and also for making such fantastic stamps and paper crafting supplies available.

Posted By: Amy Solovay


This page was last updated on 8-2-2022.

Card Making Idea: “Warmest Wishes” Floral Card Featuring Stamps by Gina K Designs

Black, White and Pink Warmest Wishes Greeting Card Featuring Stamps by Gina K Designs

Black, White and Pink Warmest Wishes Greeting Card Featuring Stamps by Gina K Designs

In my last post, I shared a red, black and white greeting card that was inspired by the Monthly Mix Challenge over at the Gina K Designs website, I’m also entering my projects in the “Anything Goes” Wednesday Challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp blog. Here’s another card from the same series that I am entering in these same challenges.

At the Gina K Designs site, participants were challenged to

” make a Black and White card with a POP of color! The majority of your card must be black and white and you can choose any color you want for your POP, but it must be one color. For those of you who prefer numbers, keep the color at no more than 25% of your total card. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!”

For this card, I used the same Fancy Floral stamps and Cherry Arte paper that I used in my first challenge entry. However, I changed them up quite a bit by using a different card size and by using pink instead of red for my pop color.


Another differentiator is the pink and white polka dotted washi tape I included on this card; Studio Calico is the manufacturer. The pink fabric flowers are by Petaloo.


Want to see a couple of other similar cards I’m entering in the same challenge? I invite you to check out the pages linked below:

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today; I really appreciate your presence here. My heartfelt thanks to the team at Gina K Designs for hosting this fun and thought-provoking challenge, and also for making such fantastic stamps and paper crafting supplies available.

Posted By: Amy Solovay


This page was last updated on 8-2-2022.

Card Making Idea: “Warmest Wishes” Slimline Card Featuring Stamps by Gina K Designs

Floral Greeting Card Featuring Stamped Images by Gina K Designs

Floral Greeting Card Featuring Stamped Images by Gina K Designs

Hi everyone! What’s new?

I have been busy making sooooo many craft projects that it is hard to know where to start with sharing them all. I’m starting with this pretty black, white and red floral greeting card making idea because it this project is one of the few things I’ve made that has a deadline attached. It was inspired by the Monthly Mix Challenge over at the Gina K Designs website, and that challenge ends today ended a couple of days ago. I am updating this post today because I decided to also enter this project in the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge.

At the Gina K Designs website, participants were challenged to

” make a Black and White card with a POP of color! The majority of your card must be black and white and you can choose any color you want for your POP, but it must be one color. For those of you who prefer numbers, keep the color at no more than 25% of your total card. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!”

People, this was a TOUGH challenge!


When I used to work in the textile industry, I did frequently have to design fabrics featuring a limited color palette. So this idea of using a limited color palette is not totally foreign to me. However, using a limited color palette isn’t normally something I do when I’m making handmade cards. So I definitely found this to be a challenging challenge! Which, I guess, is the whole point. I participate in challenges because I enjoy being forced out of my comfort zone creatively.

I actually made a bunch of different projects for this challenge using different colors as the “pop” color. Out of all of them, the one you see pictured above is my favorite. I used red as the “pop” color, and I LOVE how it turned out!


Floral Greeting Card Featuring Stamped Images by Gina K Designs

Floral Greeting Card Featuring Stamped Images by Gina K Designs


It’s a slimline card featuring floral images that I made using the Fancy Florals Mini Stamp Set by Gina K Designs. I layered the stamped images with some other elements including a three-dimensional fabric flower by Petaloo, a scalloped heart design, and a paper lace border design. I fussy-cut those scalloped elements using scalloped scissors by E.K. Success.

While I was struggling with what to make my “pop” color, I looked back in my folder of older card designs and I came across a card I made that was published in the Stamper’s Sampler magazine many years ago. I still love it all these years later.

Black White and Red Handmade Greeting Card Featuring Hearts and Paper Lace

Black White and Red Handmade Greeting Card Featuring Hearts and Paper Lace


And when I saw it, I remembered how much I LOVE black, white and red color combinations. So I knew red had to be the first “pop” color I tried using for this new challenge.


The stamps I used to make that old card are by a long-defunct stamp manufacturer called Inque Boutique. That floral stamp used to be my most-frequently used stamp EVER, until I wore it out and couldn’t replace it. I was so bummed about that.


But now I am so, so, so SO HAPPY, because Gina K’s Fancy Floral stamps are even better than the Inque Boutique florals that I used to own and use so often. I TOTALLY LOVE THEM! And they are now becoming some of my most-frequently-used stamps for card making and other paper crafts, because, as you can see, they are extremely versatile.


Gina K Designs actually makes some gorgeous black and white patterned paper that I would love to have used in this project, except for 2 problems: 1 — I don’t happen to have any of that particular patterned paper in my stash at the moment, and 2 — Even if I did, the 6″x6″ papers aren’t quite long enough for making this particular slimline card. To make this particular card design, I had to cut a piece of paper measuring 8 1/4″ x 3 1/4″; the solid black-colored cardstock layered underneath measures 8 1/2″ x 3 1/2″. But I would really love to try making a similar, smaller card using Gina K’s elegant black and white papers and these same stamps.


As it turns out, the only black and white papers I have stashed at the moment are ancient ones dating back to 2006ish through 2009ish. The one I used in this project was made by a now-defunct company called Cherry Arte. The brads I used as flower centers are also from that same time period; they were made by Queen & Company. I just checked to see if they still make these, and I couldn’t find them, which I suppose isn’t exactly shocking.


So one of the next projects I’m planning is to try remaking this general card design using papers and other supplies that are actually still available — and probably also using green for the leaves and a riot of colors for the rest of the project. In the meanwhile, the Fancy Floral stamps I used for this are in stock and available at the Gina K Designs website. I highly recommend these if you are in need of a versatile set of floral stamps that could be used for creating cards, scrapbooking layouts, planner layouts, collages, art journals and basically any other type of art or paper crafts project you could imagine.


Want to check out my other entries in this challenge? They’re linked below; If you’re in need of more DIY card making ideas, I invite you to take a look.

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today; I really appreciate your presence here. Please stay tuned for more posts featuring my other entries from this fun and challenging challenge. My heartfelt thanks to the team at Gina K Designs for hosting this fun and thought-provoking challenge, and also for making such fantastic stamps and paper crafting supplies available.

Posted By: Amy Solovay


This page was last updated on 8-2-2022.

Daily Planner Layout Featuring Rainbows, Butterflies and Flowers

Daily Planner Layout Featuring Rainbows, Butterflies and Flowers

Daily Planner Layout Featuring Rainbows, Butterflies and Flowers


Yesterday I posted pics of a floral greeting card I made for Pinkfresh Studio’s July challenge. The challenge is to incorporate sparkles, glitter, metallics or other sorts of shimmer and shine into any paper craft project.


Pictured here, you can see the second project I made to enter in this challenge. It’s a daily planner layout featuring rainbows, butterflies and flowers.


Close-Up Picture of the Stamped Image on the Upper Right-Hand Side of the Daily Planner Layout. This Stamp Is From the Take Pride Stamp Set by Pinkfresh Studio.

Close-Up Picture of the Stamped Image on the Upper Right-Hand Side of the Daily Planner Layout. This Stamp Is From the Take Pride Stamp Set by Pinkfresh Studio.


I LOVE how colorful, sparkly and eye-catching this turned out — although it doesn’t look quite as pretty in the pics because the sparkles don’t show up very well in the photos.

List of Craft Supplies Needed for Creating This Daily Planner Layout Featuring Rainbows, Butterflies and Flowers

Thanks so much for viewing my project! I sincerely appreciate your interest.

More Craft Projects Featuring Supplies by Pinkfresh Studio

More Paper Craft Project Ideas

Posted By: Amy Solovay

This page was last updated on 8-2-2022.

Card Making Idea: DIY Floral Greeting Card Featuring Supplies by Pinkfresh Studio

DIY Floral Greeting Card Featuring Papers and Stamped Images by Pinkfresh Studio

DIY Floral Greeting Card Featuring Papers and Stamped Images by Pinkfresh Studio


The lovely folks over at the Pinkfresh Studio blog are hosting a challenge with the theme of “Shimmer & Shine!” The challenge is to incorporate sparkles, glitter, metallics or other sorts of shimmer and shine into any paper craft project.


Pictured here, you can see one of my entries for this challenge. It’s a floral greeting card featuring a stamped focal image by Pinkfresh Studio. The floral accent stamp and papers are also by Pinkfresh Studio.


Floral Greeting Card Featuring Papers and Stamped Images by Pinkfresh Studio

Floral Greeting Card Featuring Papers and Stamped Images by Pinkfresh Studio


Strangely enough, even though I own approximately one zillion different paper craft supplies made by Pinkfresh Studio, I somehow do not have any sparkly Pinkfresh Studio supplies. How is it even possible that I own NOTHING they’ve manufactured that includes gold foil, glitter or sparkles?


Weird. Weird, but unfortunately true.


So, I added a bit of glittery, sparkly washi tape by Graphic 45 to my project. This is my all-time favorite washi tape, and I think of it as being a must-have craft supply.


I also used a purple metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pen to add even more shimmer. Sadly, the metallic shimmer didn’t photograph well when I took pictures of this card. If you look really closely at the scalloped edge around the stamped image that says “I am so proud of you”, you can kinda see it. A little. Sort of? Or maybe not?


But you can definitely see it if you actually hold this card in your hands and look at it — and the shimmery metallic purple color is gorgeous!

Other Supplies Needed to Create This DIY Floral Greeting Card:

So there you have it: A Card Making Idea for creating a DIY Floral Greeting Card that includes Supplies by Pinkfresh Studio and a few other manufacturers. I made a couple of other projects to enter in this challenge besides just these, so please stay tuned for more projects to be posted soon.


Thanks so much for dropping by!


Posted by: Amy Solovay


This page was last updated on 8-1-2022.

Easy Altered Art Project

Wall Art Made Using a Thrift Store Find Plus Scrapbooking Supplies

Altered Art Project Made Using a Thrift Store Wooden Tray, Patterned Paper and a Clear Scraps Acrylic Piece Colored With Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks

Altered Art Project Made Using a Thrift Store Wooden Tray, Patterned Paper and a Clear Scraps Acrylic Piece Colored With Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks

Do you enjoy browsing through thrift stores looking for things to alter? I do! Here’s a quick and easy altered art project I want to share with you.

I love creating complicated, artsy projects — but these days I spend so much time working that I just do not have the time for it. I know that many other artists face the same challenge.

This is one of those projects where I let the supplies do all the hard work for me. I didn’t paint anything except the tree. Imagine that!

Altered Art Supplies: Materials I Used for Creating This Altered Art Piece. Not Pictured: Adhesive and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks

Altered Art Supplies: Materials I Used for Creating This Altered Art Piece. Not Pictured: Adhesive and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks

Supply List:

  • Wooden thingie from a thrift store — I’m not exactly sure what it was supposed to be, but now let’s just call it “wall art.”
  • Clear Scraps tree-shaped keychain mini album
  • Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks
  • Patterned papers — I used papers from My Little Shoebox and My Mind’s Eye
  • Die cut by My Little Shoebox
  • Letter stickers, logo sticker, or some other sticker with a fun slogan or quote
  • Adhesive

Project Instructions:

I made this project for the Clear Scraps booth at one of the Craft and Hobby Association trade shows, so it has a Clear Scraps logo on it. If you make a similar project, I suggest using letter stickers to spell out “Katy’s Room” or something along those lines, (substituting your child’s name, or your own name of course.)

  • Gather your supplies
  • Apply alcohol inks to one page of the tree album — save the rest of the album for other projects. Let your inked tree piece dry before doing anything else with it.
  • Cut out your papers and tentatively arrange them the way you want them onto your thrift store find.
  • Stick everything down using your adhesive.
  • Add additional embellishments if you wish. After I took the photo, I did a little bit of doodling on the papers, which made some of the elements stand out more. Wish I’d remembered to take another pic — phooey.
  • Done! Enjoy. 🙂

More Altered Art Projects:

About the Author: Amy Solovay is a freelance writer with a background in textile design. She has been crocheting and crafting since childhood, and knitting since she was a teenager. Her work also appears at KnittingandCrochet.net , ArtsWithCrafts.com and Crochet-Books.com. Amy sends out a free knitting and crochet newsletter so interested crafters can easily keep up with her new patterns and tutorials. If you’re already an Instagram user, Amy also invites you to follow her on Instagram.

This page was last updated on 8-27-2022.

Scrapbooking Layout: Brian Head, Utah. Supplies by Reminisce.

My husband and his friends are really into mountain biking. This past August, we took a trip to Brian Head, Utah, so they could ride in a race that was taking place there. I actually took my bike along for the trip too. It was so much fun, even though I fell off my bike a bunch of times and got totally scraped, bruised and sunburned.

Normally when I go on these trips I take a camera, but not a bike. These guys are really experienced riders, and I am not. I do enjoy riding the trails with my husband, but it’s not as much fun for me when he gets together with a bunch of hardcore riders and they decide to ride down really insane terrain. To that, I say, “No thanks!”


I usually have more fun taking photos of them than I would have if I were attempting to ride with them. I took quite a few photos on this Utah trip~ almost 1,000 photos all together. No, I am not going to scrapbook them all. 😉 But I am picking out all my favorites to print and scrap.

It was sooooooooooooo beautiful up there in the mountains, and it was hard to take a bad picture up there. Everywhere I looked, there was gorgeous scenery. Pretty incredible! Utah is just spectacular.

The rider pictured in this scrapbook layout is my husband. For his cycling layouts, I try to keep it simple- definitely no paper lace, ribbons, or Prima Flowers. The truth is that my husband would rather just have his photos stuck in albums. He does humor me with my scrapbooking, but I try not to press my luck and go too crazy with embellishing his bike photos. 😉


Interestingly enough, I’ve found that he seems to like the layouts I’ve been doing lately with Reminisce’s Great outdoors line. The papers are really ideal for this kind of layout — much better suited than the few-and-far-between bike-themed papers that I’ve seen. I do dream about the day when someone will release a downhill mountain biking themed collection, but until then the Great Outdoors line is the next best thing.

Supplies Used To Create This Scrapbooking Layout:

  • Camping Alphabet Stickers: by Reminisce, from the Great Outdoors Collection
  • Wilderness Map / Trail Map patterned paper: by Reminisce, also from the Great Outdoors Collection
  • The Great Outdoors Journal Stickers by Reminisce
  • The strip of Camouflage patterned paper is by K & Co.
  • Black Sharpie Marker
  • Gray Cardstock
  • Fiskars Paper Edgers — I think this design is called “Mountains”. It seemed appropriate. This particular design is now hard to find, but you could substitute either a pair of pinking shears or a different pair of paper edgers. There are a zillion of ’em. If you are doing a “guy” layout like this one, it’s a good idea to avoid the ones that are too froofroo, but you have quite a few choices available.

New Art and New Paper Lace Web Site!

My latest artwork is taking a new and, I think, interesting direction. I haven’t stopped creating spin art– not at all! However, my spin art is something that I like to create outside, and lately the weather hasn’t been too cooperative. When it gets windy and cold (not that it’s that windy, or that cold, here in Santa Barbara), I tend to dream up new artistic ideas that don’t involve being outside.

So, I have a whole new body of work that does not include any spin art at all. I am really excited about it! I am not quite ready to post pictures of my new work yet, though. Don’t worry, I will! At this point I have submitted all the best pieces to a publisher for possible publication. So, I don’t want to spoil things by putting up pics yet. But soon enough I will have even more new work. I am overflowing with ideas for a whole new series, and I can’t wait to develop it further.

What I will do, however, is drop the hint that my new work incorporates paper lace. In fact, I am so excited about this new direction, that I created a whole new web site on the topic of paper lace. If all goes according to plan, the new site will feature interesting information about paper laces: artists who use paper lace in their artwork, information about the history and manufacture of commercial paper lace, info about antique valentines, postcards, religious cards, and other paper laces, and of course lots and lots of images of lovely paper laces.

In the process of researching paper lace, I also came across some information about papercuts and paper cutting. Needless to say, I am totally enthralled by papercuts. There are some truly amazing artists out there creating them. So, the paper laces site will hopefully feature some artists who are creating papercuts, too. Maybe I will even give paper cutting a try- I already have some ideas for it. Lots of good stuff to look forward to! 🙂

About the Author: Amy Solovay is a freelance writer with a background in textile design. She has been crocheting and crafting since childhood, and knitting since she was a teenager. Her work also appears at KnittingandCrochet.net , ArtsWithCrafts.com and Crochet-Books.com. Amy sends out a free knitting and crochet newsletter so interested crafters can easily keep up with her new patterns and tutorials. If you’re already an Instagram user, Amy also invites you to follow her on Instagram.

This page was last updated on 7-15-2019.