Laura Griffin Designs

Have you heard of La-La Land Crafts? I’m in love with their printable digital stamps…especially the Marci and Luka line. Because the images are fairly large, they are perfect for practicing Copic hair and clothing techniques. They are small enough, though, to still fit perfectly on the front of a card.

I thought I’d share some works in progress on the couple I’ve colored so far. Here is the before and after image of Scout Marci. My niece is a Girl Scout, and I know this will make it’s way onto a card for her soon.

Here’s a close-up:

My nephew loves comic books and super heroes… so Star Boy Luka was made for him!

I added a gray border around both images to make them “pop” off the page a bit.

Gus had to join in the fun. He thought he’d help arrange the photos…

My niece and nephew are *huge* Harry Potter fans (understatement of the century). When I saw the wizard and wizardette images from TiddlyInks, I knew I had to use them to create a card for my nephew’s upcoming birthday. I pulled out my trusty Copic markers and created the below customized card…

After coloring in the image, I added diamond glaze to the bubbles and Harry’s spectacles to make them shine along with Stickles to make their wands come to life. I used a white gel pen to add a few highlights. You can see the finishing touches a lil’ better in the below picture.

Interested in learning how to color images with Copic markers? I am a certified instructor at a local craft store in the DFW metroplex called Googly Eyes & Craft Supplies. You can see their class schedule here for upcoming events.

Hope you’re having a “magical” day!

I think most papercrafters agree that it’s fairly difficult to come up with masculine card designs. We’re always wanting to stick flowers or glitter wherever we can. *lol* Here’s a quick and easy gender-neutral card design that can help you use up small scraps of paper and ribbon.

The star image features white embossing powder to give it some extra pop and I added a sewn border for added detail.

btw – This card made it’s way to my Dad earlier this week. (Happy birthday, Dad! You’re the best!)

I’ve been obsessing over a number of cute bag patterns recently, and one of my favorites is Noodlehead’s gathered clutch.

I decided to make one last weekend in natural linen. When I went in search for a contrasting fabric at my local CityCraft store, I came across this print and fell in love:

Isn’t it so happy?! I just love that green. After a couple of hours of cutting and sewing (and possibly the occasional curse word while installing the zipper), my fabric pile turned into this:

What a fun and addictive pattern! I modified it a bit by using thicker fleece interfacing to give the bag some body. I also realized on my next one, I’ll want to shorten the side D-ring holder a bit.

Inside the clutch, I added pockets using a red vintage print I’d picked up at a recent estate sale. It just happened to match the Echino perfectly. Love those coincidences!

I see many more gathered clutches in my sewing machine’s near future (they’d make great bday and Christmas gifts, right?!). Thanks again to Noodlehead for the great pattern.

I don’t know about you, but I always manage to misplace my sewing needles. Most of the time, they end up somewhere on the bottom of my magnetic pin cushion with all my straight pins and are never to be seen or heard from again.

When researching gift ideas for a friend who enjoys embroidery, I came across this felt needle book tutorial at Little Birdie Secrets. I loved the idea of having all your sharp and blunt needles in one place, easy to access and find again. I made a few adjustments to the tutorial, and then customized a book for my friend, embroidering her name on the front. After it was done, I decided to make one for myself too so I wouldn’t have to keep buying more needles!

These books were made with 100% wool felt from Magic Cabin. It’s a bit pricey, but the quality is better than any I’ve seen. It went through my diecut machine like butter (which is what I used to make the flowers on the front with an old Sizzix die). The flowers were sewn together for dimension, then glued to the front of the book with fabric glue. The cute little flower buttons are from Hero Arts. Lots of fun to make, and it didn’t take long to complete. Love these kinds of projects!