Guest designer: Jolene Johnston!

We had so many wonderful submissions for the 2009 Banana Frog design team that in addition to our amazing design team, each month we will have a guest designer showing you fantastic creations. The guest designer will have two days to show their lovely projects, 1st and 15th of the month.

Well, that's the schedule that we have had for 2009 except one month when the parcel of goodies went walkabout so we had to miss out on Jolene Johnston. So for this month we have two wonderful guest designers!

We are delighted to finally welcome Jolene to Banana Frog! Over to you Jolene!

My name is Jolene Johnston, and I live just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana.  My husband, Scott, and I are the proud parents of two feisty boys, Ian and Matthew. I taught elementary music for ten years before staying home with my boys and turning my crafting hobby into a mini-profession. I share scrapbook space with eleven other designers in a local antique mall and enjoy  meeting and working with other scrapbookers in the area. Crafting is my chance to indulge in artistic freedom since most of the rest of my life is scheduled and routine. My sons love to share my stamping goodies and create some wonderful cards for our family.
 
I love to stamp, alter projects and scrapbook photos of all sorts. I have had the honor of being published in several craft magazines as well as on the covers of two published works. I am so relieved that my Banana Frog stamps finally made it to the states (ninja-free this time!) Thank you to Banana Frog for this opportunity to design with your stamps. It's an honor to show off your products and share the fun!

Best Friends (card)

 
For this card I created my own flower using the Flowery Thoughts set of stamps. I stamped the largest flower on olive green felt and cut out the image. (Since I used the back of the flower, it doesn't matter what color ink you use.) I then stamped the "sunburst" stamp from the Superlicious set on ivory felt with a rust colored ink. I trimmed the ivory flower and made small snips in the felt to mimick the jagged edge of the stamp. I also frayed the ends achieving a more natural, uneven look.

I stitched the flowers together with a button and embroidery thread. Finally, I stitched around the large flower and pulled to gather and shape the flower. I love knowing that this flower embellishment is completely unique and something you just can't buy in a store.

Copper Birthday (card)

 
I made this card with a grungy, masculine look in mind. I embossed the plain circle stamp from Flowery Thoughts with clear ink and powder onto a piece of patterned paper. This gave it a shiny, raised texture without taking away from the gorgeous colors of the paper.

I created a banner with black cardstock and stamped a long flourish from the Swirls stamps and embossed in copper. The happy birthday medallions from Flowery Thoughts were stamped onto text paper, embossed in black and mounted onto copper metallic cardstock.

Love (layout)

 
This photo is one of my all-time favorites, so I knew that I wanted to make a special layout for it. I stamped the large flower outline from the Superlicious set onto black cardstock and embossed in white. The coordinating smaller flower outline was stamped onto white cardstock. Both sets of flowers got some extra sparkle with Stickles in their centers. I added white embossed swirls, also from Superlicious, to the sides of my label shape to frame the title.

Thanks Jolene for showing us some great ways of using the stamps. You can see more of Jolene's work on her blog, and we will have some more of her Banana Frog projects on the 22nd, so make sure you check back!

Comments

[Carolyn Lontin]

WOW!! Such gorgeous projects!! CONGRATS!!

[Celeste B.]

Love the different ways you used the stamps.

[Wireless ISP software]

These are awesome designs very classy and very graceful I love it.

[Accounting Software]

Her style is very beautiful I like the flowers and the color very classy and elegant.

[Julie D]

Jolene, these are all just gorgeous!