Monochromes – Shades of Celebration : MajaDesign

Thank You Teacher Cards

24 May, 2020 - Cards, Celebration, Monochromes - Shades of Celebration

Good morning, Maja Friends, welcome to the blog today 🙂

Although the pandemic caused closure of schools worldwide, it doesn’t mean studying stopped as well (but perhaps pupils aren’t so happy about it 😉 ). And of course it doesn’t mean teachers stopped working. Running online classes is no less demanding and many claim they spend even more time getting the lessons ready than at school. Most students in Poland won’t be returning to schools before the summer break, but they still want to express their gratitude towards their techaers who help them deal with this difficult situation we’re all in. And so I made two cards thay say “Thank you!”:

They are larger than my usual cards, measuring 15×20 cm (so twice the regular size), I guess these pupils are particularly grateful! 🙂 One is for the headmaster:

…and the other for a Polish language teacher:

The card for the headmaster features the Little Street Cafe collection and a hand-coloured stamped images of an owl and some books that I also heat-embossed with gold ep. I added a flower cluster and die cut sentiment:

For the Polish language teacher card I used the Celebration collection. The focal point is a book I made from scraps of paper and decorated with flowers made from foamiran and an embossed chipboard sentiment. I also added a beautiful letter-patterned ribbon to look like a bookmark going across the card:

I hope the teachers would like the cards as much as I liked working on them!

Here’s what I used:

Maja Design papers:

: Flower giveaway bs

: Mono Celebration-Muted Fuchsia bs

: Mono Celebration-Muted Fuchsia

: Joyful

: Tea please-bs

: Wine

Other: stamps: Lemonade, Agateria; dies: Leane Creatief, Nellie Snellen, Marianne Design; flowers: Prima, handmade; chipboard: Wycinanka.pl; embossing powder: Blue Fern Studios; enamel dots: DP Craft; border punch: EK Success; ribbon: Eight.pl.

That’s all for today, stay healthy at home, and see you soon!

Confirmation Card

Posted by Maja Nowak

10 May, 2020 - Cards, Celebration, Monochromes - Shades of Celebration

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Good morning, dear Maja friends, welcome to the blog today 🙂

March is the traditional month for Confirmations in Poland, but due to the pandemic everything has been affected and many events have been cancelled or delayed. And so I’m sharing this Confirmation card today, almost two months later than usual 🙂

I used the Celebration collection to make the card. I think these patterns and colours make it look both girly and elegant:

I layered the papers and placed a chipboard dove combined with a gold metallic matting circle in the centre.

The layers are shaped in curves which add both interest and subtle lightness to the card design:

I added handmade foamiran flowers in matching colours and iridescent sequins as the finishing touch:

The card is dimensional so I also decorated the card box to match.

And here’s what I used:

Maja Design papers:

: Charleston

: Mono Celebration-Lavender Rose

: Mono Celebration-Lavender Rose-bs

Other: dies: Leanne Creatief, Spellbinders; chipboard: Scrapiniec; foamiran, flower stems, ribbon, sequins: my stash.

I really like the delicate but at the same time festive look of the card! What do you think?

Best Wishes Balloons

Posted by Maja Nowak

24 October, 2019 - Cards, Celebration, Monochromes - Shades of Celebration

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Good morning, dear Maja Fans, welcome to the blog today 🙂

What I love about the crafting community is that it brings together creative people willing to share their talent and support other crafters worldwide. I found some of my best friends through crafting sites and even though we’ve never met in person I feel I can rely upon them and they can really brighten my day. In my last post I shared a welcome baby card that featured a shaker element and I complained about how tiresome it was to build up the shaker window edge. And then in the comments I found a very useful tip that Maryann Laursen shared – using craft foam to die cut the shape. And that was it! Why did I never think of that? 😀

As you can see, I used a slightly more complicated shape to cut, but with the foam it was pretty easy to do and I only needed two pieces to make a decently deep window. So much easier than using foam squares or glueing at least 8 layers of paper! Then I traced the shape on the acetate with a permanent marker and cut it out by hand (now I found that diecutting acetate makes it crack like glass, and besides, craft foam die cuts a bit larger shape than paper due to its elasticity) and then for the top layer I used glitter craft foam:

I used the Celebration collection with the Monochromes papers too as I didn’t want to distract the eye with a pattern. I decorated the balloon with flowers and added some liquid enamel dots for more texture in the background:

I filled the shaker window with sequins of various colours and shapes and added some microbeads:

I was so happy with this new easy technique for shaker cards that I made another card of the same design and using the same papers, but in a more masculine colours:

This time I used a delicate stripes pattern for the background and added pieces of washi tapes to add some interest.

And I really want to give Maryann Laursen a shout-out here. If you go through the posts on our blog, you will barely see one she didn’t comment on! She is a lovely person who is always ready to appreciate creative work and share her knowledge too. Maryann – thank you for being such a loyal Maja Design fan, these cards are for you 🙂

Here is the list of supplies I used:

Maja Design papers:

: Bs

: All dressed up bs

: Mono Celebration-Pearl

Other: flowers, vintage ribbon: Wild Orchid Crafts; stamp: Lemonade; balloon die, washi tape: Action; sequins, wax string: my stash

That’s all for today – thank you for visiting and come back tomorrow for more inspiration!

First Communion Exploding Boxes

Posted by Maja Nowak

10 May, 2019 - Altered Items, Celebration, Monochromes - Shades of Celebration

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Good morning, Maja Friends, welocme to the blog today 🙂

May is traditionally a month of the First Communions in Poland. Every May Sunday in various churches a group of kids receive the Sacrament and then celebrate with their faimilies with festive dinner and presents. Money and jewellery are quite popular First Communion gifts and I designed exploding boxes to give them a nice packaging 🙂

Here’s the girl’s version:

I decorated the box with Celebration papers:

The lid is decorated with a flower bouquet and a stamped sentiment embossed with golden ep:

When the lid is removed, the walls fall open and reveal the inside. There’s a stamped, embossed and hand-coloured image of a First Communion girl:

…a small gift pocket:

I also added a panel with a stamped poem, whilst in the centre I placed the chalice decorated with flowers:

The girl’s version is traditionally in the pink palette – I also made a boy’s version in blues:

The design is basically the same, of course the stamp is different 🙂

I really like how the Celebration collection provided delicate flower patterns for the girl’s box, but also elegant flowerless motives for the boy version 🙂

And how do you like the boxes?

Here’s the list of my supplies:

Maja Design papers:

: To the party bs

: Festivities bs

: Congratulations bs

: Mono Celebration-Old Brass

: Mono Celebration-Pearl

Other: dies: Spellbinders, custom vine die; flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts; stamps: Lemonade; washi tape: Dekoracyjna Taśma; bling: Marianne Design.

I hope you enjoyed your visit to our blog, don’t forget to drop by tomorrow for more inspiration!

Have a nice day!

Welcome Baby Cards

Posted by Maja Nowak

10 April, 2019 - Denim & Friends, Monochromes - Shades of Celebration, Vintage Baby

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Good morning, Maja Friends, welcome to the blog today 🙂

Spring always makes me think about new life after winter (though we all know winter IS coming! 😉 ), and since a couple of my friends are expecting right now, I thought it would be nice to have some welcome baby cards in stock, just to be ready when the time comes! And so in my today’s post I’m sharing a set of two cards I made using a mixture of papers:

I used the same stamp for both cards, only coloured them – as usually, with Distress inks – according to traditional girl’s pinks and boy’s blues. I tried to match the shades of Vintage Baby papers that I used for the top layers of my cards. I also added some Monochromes for the bottom layer. The design is pretty simple: just some curved-edge layered papers: