An Emporium of Delight

Every now and then, a kit comes along that’s so versatile, so “right,” so easy to use, that I find myself drawn to it again and again for my art projects. This spring, that’s exactly the way I’ve felt about our “Emporium” papers! The dictionary defines an emporium as a large marketplace where a broad variety of products are sold—well, in my view, our Emporium is a marketplace of great ideas and inspiration. Every time I visit it, I find something new and different!

For these fun cards, I used two different hot trends as focal points—buttons and birds. In the “Anything for you” card, see how the cluster of varied buttons creates a tree, with each “leaf” a different button? I love this look and it’s a great way to use your extra buttons creatively. The “Just Because” card captures the “birdie” trend beautifully. It’s a simple stamped image base, with a stamped bird’s wing popped up for interest, and the great greens and terrific Twilight of “Emporium” make a big statement for this tiny card.

For my 12”x12” scrapbook page, I have Consultant Amy McGrew’s great photo to thank for inspiration. This simple photo showing the backs of her children (plus “mom”!) is very clean and open—giving me permission to add lots of embellishments. I had some fun creating dramatic and eclectic clusters of embellishments using stitching, stamping, buttons, and a mix of Dimensional Elements. I used that awesome “chicken wire” pattern from Emporium on the layout to pull all the different elements together. The result is fabulous, varied and fresh—true to the Emporium name!