Wednesday 365 Cards!

It's been a little bit since I posted my card for the Wednesday design challenge over at 365 Cards. If you're new to McLion, I'm a design team member over at 365, and my cards are featured on Wednesdays. I encourage you to join in and complete some (or all!) of the challenges along with us!

This Wednesday, the challenge was to use a kite on your card. Here is my submission!

A kite-less version of this card is also for sale at my Etsy shop here. 

If you make a kite card for the challenge, remember to link it over at 365 Cards for a chance to be a featured design! 

Adoption/ Baby Shower Invitations

Good Morning, everyone!

After the hoopla surrounding the new wedding invitation line, I thought I'd wait a little bit to introduce another series of invitations-- these being adoption celebration announcements and baby shower invitations!

These are now listed online at my Etsy shop here in packs of 10 for $30. HOWEVER, if you become a new fan of our Facebook page or share one of our statuses on your page, I will send you a coupon code for $5 off! Just send me a message on Facebook or comment here to let me know and I'll send it right out!

Check out a sampling below!

All colors are customizable, of course, and I'm happy to do custom orders! 

Have a happy Monday, everyone : )

A quick note about the new McLion invitations lines

Hey everyone!

I've just posted the new lines of wedding/ baby shower/ adoption invitations and already I am getting some questions about some of the example designs. Let me be clear for a moment:

My husband and I believe in the beauty and power of love. We shared our last names when we got married to represent our belief that in our relationship we are equal partners. We donate regularly to the Human Rights Campaign, are outspoken about our strong support for families of ALL kinds and makeups, and believe in the validity of love in its many forms.

To this end, I strive to make products that support and endorse equality. Almost all of my wedding invitation lines have one example of a heterosexual couple, and one of an LGBT couple. I have also tried to provide good non-heteronormative choices for families who are adopting or having children. I was hoping that this alone would make it clear how I feel about equality, but because I was asked if I had "accidentally" used two women's names on one invitation, I thought it was important that I be more direct.

I am very proud to support equality, even in this small way. If you feel similarly, know that your purchases from McLion Design supports my family's work for equality.

Thank you!

Wedding Invitation Line Debut!

I'm so proud to announce that McLion Design is now creating and selling these lovely wedding invitations!  You can see all the new lines at my Etsy shop, but below is a quick sampling. Each line is named after and inspired by a place that is special to my husband and I-- places we've lived, visited together, etc.

To purchase a custom sample for your special day, hop on over to the shop! With your order you'll receive one custom invitation and a matching RSVP card. If you choose to order a full order, your initial sample purchase price will be credited to your order cost. And of course, I can make tons of coordinating things like escort cards, table numbers, thank you cards, etc!

 I'll be hosting a contest soon too where you could win up to 100 custom invitations and RSVP cards or 50 custom thank you cards when you order a sample invitation set!

Click here to visit the shop!

Check 'em out!

Hampstead line

Baltimore line

Jim Thorpe line

Lancaster line

Manheim line

Newport line

Philadelphia line

Pittsburgh line

Seattle line

Jackson line

All wedding invitations are now live at the shop so spread the word! If you're friends with me on Pinterest, please help me by re-pinning my work that I'll be pinning this afternoon. Thanks for your support, everyone, as McLion moves another step forward!

Woooo!

First, sorry I've been so absent lately- it's been so crazy here!

First of all, let's rewind a week and a half to the winner of the Facebook liking contest- now that Connie has received her prize in the mail, I can post some pictures of it! I gave Connie the choice between an item from the shop, the set of three Tim Holtz inks, or a custom item of her choice. Being the wild child she is, she told me to make her a custom home decor item and to surprise her with its design! Here's what I came up with: 

I'm really proud of it! 

Speaking of things I want to brag about, a local shop just ordered some of my cards to display in their store! The store is the Mukilteo Chocolate Company near the Rosehill Community Center in Mukilteo. They make AMAZING chocolate truffles, fudge, and other such deliciousness. Jan, the fantastic and friendly owner, has also agreed to show some sample favor tags that I've mocked up when people come in to order wedding or other party favors. So exciting! 

I also taught my first class at Lila's this week. I taught a bunch of techniques, including wet embossing and distressing. It was a pretty small class and I've had some requests to re-teach it tomorrow night.

you're nearby and want to take the class, call Lila's at 425-355-2500 and let her know! I'll also be selling some cards at Lila's, so if you're interested, come by and check 'em out! 

And of course, I still have lots of cards up for sale on Etsy here! 

There are some other new and exciting things on the horizon as well, but I don't want to spill all the beans at once! : )

Have a great weekend, everyone! 

Hometown

A non-paper post?! Shocking, I know. Well, technically there's a little bit at the end about crafting. You'll see!

I was just thinking how strange it is to move to a new place. My husband and I recently moved to Washington from Pennsylvania (2800 miles!). We love it here, but you'd be surprised how different the east and west coasts are! I'm from rolling farmlands, frenetic cities, fast paces. Now I live in what feels like the great northern wilderness- even though I'm only 20 minutes from Seattle.

Now I have always been very involved in whatever community I've lived in, usually through community service. Now that I have a new hometown, ( and a lot of free time with my husband in the Navy ), I wanted to dive right in! Today I took some time to wander around "downtown" and check out some of the shops and parks. I thought I'd include a couple pictures because my new hometown is just gorgeous!

Um, yeah. Those are the Cascades. As a backdrop for a PARKING LOT. 

Local Cafe with a sculture of a man bursting through the ceiling to serve you coffee!

I loved poking through all the shops, meeting the owners, checking out the new community center, etc. This town has such a friendly, inclusive atmosphere. I am going back to the local chocolate store to show the owner a portfolio of my work to maybe sell some things! (See, papercrafting!)

Isn't it fun to explore your hometown?

365 Cards Wednesday Challenge!

First of all, I am so excited to be working with 365 Cards! Today is my first featured card as a member of their design team and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out! 

Today's challenge is a color challenge! The colors are below: 

I'll be totally honest- I had a hard time trying to tell if that center color was an ivory/ cream kind of color, or a very pale green. I decided on ivory after looking at that swatch about a thousand times and my card is below!

I don't usually use these colors, using jewel tones or earth tones most of the time, so this card was a real challenge for me. I think it turned out really pretty, despite my agonizing over making sure that I had the right colors, haha. I embossed the darker purple on the sentiment and the birds (which is why I included the picture where the light is shining on them). 

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with for this challenge! 

Keep It Simple

As I mentioned last week, I was recently invited to join 365Cards as a Design Team member. I'll be the designer featured on Wednesdays and while I can't give you a sneak peek of my card for tomorrow, I thought I'd post my card from today's challenge.

The challenge was to "keep it simple" by using just one piece of patterned paper, one stamp, and 3 embellishments. Whenever I read scrapbooking or other paper craft magazines, it seems like the ones who get published are the ones who make cards or layouts where it looks like their embellishment storage threw up on the page! A lot of designers stick random bits, buttons, and baubles all over the place, whether it pulls the design together or not. It's a nice reminder to "keep it simple"!

Here's my design:

Pretty simple! And I LOVE that lace- I got it at Jo-Anns on super-mega sale and it's just so gorgeous I want to use it on everything. 

Look forward to tomorrow morning when I post my first daily card design for 365Cards! 

French Home

Here's another peek at a sample I've made for Lila's! This collection is from Canvas Corp. and is very much my style! It's got beautiful kraft paper with prints like script, damask, bold lines, etc. Beautiful, beautiful stuff! I made a 2-page layout and 4 cards. Check 'em out!

Because this paper has such a high contrast with the black ink, I thought it would a little busy for a background so I stamped and embossed plain Bazzil cardstock to give it a little bit of a background image without overwhelming the other elements. This is something I'll cover in the class I'm teaching at Lila's in a couple weeks! Tuesday, March 13th, from 2-4pm and then again from 430-630pm. $20 and you'll make five cards and a cute little spring tag. Call Lila's to reserve your spot!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Mom's Kitchen

Hey, everyone!

I hope your weeks are going just lovely-- I've been a busy bee so far! First, let me congratulate Connie Roberts-Huth for winning the Facebook contest! She's won a custom item which I'll be working on tomorrow all day and sending out next week-- I'm so excited!

Also, congratulations to Patti Fedula for being our 100th like! She's won a coupon code for 50% any shop item. Congrats, ladies!

On to business! So as you all know, I'm working for a couple design teams now and I just love it! I love being challenged, love working with new designs, and love being pushed out of my comfort zone! This week, I've been given two packs of paper with which to design for Lila's. The first of these is from Best Creation Inc., called Mom's Kitchen. This is such a fun and colorful collection with a little sparkle- not my usual style, but so adorable, I was thrilled to work with it!

Below you'll find my 2-page layout and 3 cards from the Mom's Kitchen collection. You'll be able to see these at Lila's within the next two weeks, as well as purchase all the papers! Check 'em out!

So cute, right?? I just adore this perky paper! I have to admit I have a pretty bad case of spring fever. It's been EXTREMELY cold here in Washington state-- it even snowed a little the last couple days! Now, I'm a Pennsylvania girl so snow is no big deal, but I am very ready for some nice hiking weather, for sure. This spring paper is just the thing to fuel my spring fever and get me ready for some sunshine! 

Tomorrow I'll be posting some designs from Canvas Corp.'s new French Home collection, so look forward to that. Have a great day, everyone!