Guest Designer: Liza Sivek

I have been crafting since childhood and an artist since young adulthood. I took the plunge to pursue art as a career in 2012, when my employer of 15 years closed and I was laid off. Now I instruct, create, and design with a new passion and a new outlook. I am also a wife and a mother to two more-or-less grown daughters. I have way more creative ideas than I can accomplish in this lifetime, but I am going to try.

Unlock My Heart 3D card

All the love you hold inside your heart is bursting out! What is Valentine’s Day without a special card? I have always been infatuated with the heart lock and key imagery so when I saw that the Authentique Paper Smitten Collection Kit included that theme in the Connections patterned sheet I was pretty excited! This 5” x5” square card made of heavy white card stock has a layered front with Engraved pattern paper cut to show the wood grain and a tiny corner of foliage, like a door on an old house. There is a square of the pink wood grain layered over a 6” white cardstock circle cut into a doily. 

Another layer of Engraved peeks out from below.  The Connection pattern lock and key side and solid brown from the 6” x 6” bundle was used for the die cut lock. Embellished with ink and stickers from the kit, it directs your love to “Unlock My Heart”. Inside, the heart has been set free! Lie the card flat to reveal a Valentine paper sculpture of a heart with gold-inked wings and a collage of die cut lace edge, sentiment stickers from kit and a stamped saying. Turn the sculpture around and find it hiding a “King Of Hearts” card from the Promise paper behind one wing!

Authentique products: Smitten Collection Kit and Bundle including Connections, Engraved, Promise cut apart sheet, Details and Components

Other products: Sizzix Lock and Key die cut, We R Memory Keepers Mini 8 Punch and Border Punch in Trellis, Xyron adhesive, heart brads

Breakfast In Bed Tray

Every year around the holidays my local craft stores start stocking photo trays at low prices. This combines my love of two things – photography and eating! So naturally I had to find a way to utilize one of these in my crafts. Along came the Smitten collection and I had an idea – make a tray I can display year ‘round but can also be romantic. This was an easy one – I removed the frame back from the photo tray and put the pre-cut photo mat aside. Then I measured the open area of the frame and created a scrapbook layout around my husband’s favorite picture of us together. It was taken this past fall in Acadia National Park at the summit of Dorr Mountain. So, of course, the pink wood planks on the Engraved paper caught my eye to keep with the natural theme. I created a horizontal layout with Engraved, Written (the arrow side), and lots and lots of sentiments and shapes. First, I embossed a 5”x7” piece of Kraft paper with a wood grain, adhered the photo to it, and then built up strips of Cupid and Written into a frame around it. Then I adhered it to the background, added the collage of cardstock and sticker sentiments, And to complete the picture, a love coupon cut from the Promise paper, good for one breakfast in bed! (I wisely did not specify to “to/from” so I would be eligible, too!) The whole project took me about 30 minutes and is an easy skill level.

Authentique products: Smitten Collection Kit and Bundle including Cupid, Engraved, Details and Components

Other products: kraft paper, home décor photo tray, Xyron adhesive, Canon photo paper

Love Coupons Pennant – Acrylic and Chipboard

The Smitten Collection includes one large sheet (in the 12” x 12” sheets) and two small sheets (in the 6”x 6” bundle) of little coupons and cards with a love theme. They can be used as a full sheet on a layout but I chose to cut them up and use the coupons to inspire this pennant made of acrylic and chipboard shapes. The corset and vest are the cover and one page from acrylic albums that I chose to deconstruct and use as individual pieces. The two layers of acrylic shapes are layered with as many patterns from the Smitten collection as I could get in there! And I used both 12” x 12” and the smaller scale versions on the bundle stack to give it a lot of interest. The corset includes Cupid between and on top of the acrylic with accents of the handwriting pattern side of Engraved. There is even a heart “pinned” to her chest, along with some other embellishments top and bottom. A tulle edged in pearl is a finishing touch. The vest is in the Fusion heart checks pattern and lined in the Collection pinstripe. In the vest “pockets” I tucked the little love coupons, (the kind you get from your significant other for free hugs and breakfast in bed!), and one is even falling out of the pocket, he has so many! Each chipboard flag is covered in a coordinating pattern from the collection and embellished with cardstock shapes and stickers from the kit.  I have it up for Valentine’s Day but this theme would be perfect for a wedding shower or anniversary, too.  Authentique’s double sided paper would let me show the other side of the paper through the acrylic shapes, which would make the pennant reversible or displayed away from a wall. But I left it unfinished in the back; I am going to add another Authentique paper theme to use for a different occasion, (Promise collection maybe?) Then I can flip it after Valentine’s Day and leave it out to enjoy through Spring!

Authentique products: Smitten Collection Kit and Bundle including Cupid, Engraved, Details and Components

Other products: Clear Scraps Corset acrylic album and Vest acrylic album, Xyron adhesive and Zip Dry glue, vintage tulle and pearl trim

 Be sure to visit Liza's personal blog and say hello, and please let her know we sent you! 

Also, check out our "We Spy..." board on Pinterest; and don't forget to share your projects with us on Facebook!  If we spy fabulous projects using Authentique products, we might just feature you in a future blog post!