Graphic 45 Featured Artist: May Flaum
Hello G45ers,
Happy Wednesday to you all! Thank you for stopping by our blog today! We have some fantastic craft inspiration to share with you! We've got a special guest artist, the amazing May Flaum! She's created the most incredible crafts that are sure to inspire your day! You're going to love what you see! She's made some stunning layouts that will take your breath away. Plus we have a great interview with May that is tons of fun. This is going to be such a fabulous day! We're having a grand time here at Graphic 45! Yesterday we received this heart-warming thank you from the MS Benefit Scrapbook Retreat. What a wonderful surprise to open the mail and find it filled with cards and thank you notes! Receiving beautiful handmade cards in the mail is among the best things ever! And we were so happy to help support this fantastic cause. We thought we'd share the love with all of you! Have a look at these wonderful cards and photos!
We are very excited today to bring you the incredible work of May Flaum. May is well known in he scrapbooking community. Her crafts are incredibly captivating and inspiring. Her style is beautiful and diverse. She has a keen eye for mixing vibrant colors, patterns and pretty embellishments to create a unique statement in each of her creations. Her blog May Flaum Designs is filled with so many fun ideas, great videos, and great tips to inspire creativity! One look at May's work and you'll know exactly why we wanted to feature her work here on our blog! Ladies and gentleman, say hello to the magnificently talented May Flaum!
About May:
I’m a California born girl who loves life with her two daughters and firefighter husband. I love all things lilac, vintage inspired lace, Parisian macarons, doilies, afternoon tea, a good book with a happy ending, and great food. I have authored two books, and I’ve been working in the craft industry for nearly a decade now. I believe creative time should be fun, and that if I’m not enjoying myself I’m doing something wrong.
Most days you can find me blogging at www.mayflaum.com – and right now I’m running a free summer workshop on my blog called “Camp Scrap” with new content posting daily. Because truly? I love to share what I make. I hope you’ll come and visit me!
My crafting style has one rule – that I love what I do. I like to play a lot with paints and inks, and I do wander off the scrapbook page into mixed media and paper crafts too, but at my heart is scrapbooking. I love telling stories and working with photos from my life. I am not afraid of failure either – I embrace it as all being a part of the creative process. Color to neutral, vintage to current fashion trends – I’m all over the map and I just go with whatever is inspiring and I’m loving at the moment.
What is your favorite Graphic 45 collection?
I love them all – but the basics and the kraft papers have my heart. At the core of my crafting is a lot of neutrals and I like to customize things, so I am always looking for great metal and kraft goods. Right now I’m really obsessing over a Ladies Diary too – love the tea and fashion bits.
Is there one crafting product you cannot live without?
Kraft cardstock. I can substitute and make do without a lot of things, but I need my kraft.
What is your guilty pleasure?
You say guilt, I think chocolate. Honestly I’m working really hard right now to eat right and avoid most sugar. So when I can have some milk duds or a coca-cola in a bottle or a really great brownie I’m in heaven. If I can combine that with sitting and watching a great show or movie, or maybe reading a book and doing nothing else but just enjoying – it’s heaven.
Here May explains the inspiration behind these wonderful works of Graphic 45 art! These layouts are simply stunning and filled with so much heart-warming sentiment!
One of my favorite lines for sure – and I love how the typewriter stamps worked perfectly for my title. I couldn’t stop stamping words! I will be putting this stamp set on all kinds of projects from cards to layouts in the future for sure. When I started playing with A Ladies Diary, I wanted to save it for the afternoon tea and Parisian patisserie photos I’ve got. Instead, I wanted to see if I could make it work for regular everyday kid pictures. One of my favorite things to do is to layer on color by inking or painting my background paper. Sanding, misting, and using other tools to distress and change a paper are other great methods too.
For this layout I used a brayer to apply a thin coat of white paint, then I patted and rubbed as much off as I could with a paper towel. Then I used the brayer with some yellow and blue mists (squirt mist onto craft mat, then pick up with brayer and roll on) to add some of the color I wanted without adding any opacity. The pattern still shows through, but it is a lot more subtle and works better as a background for what I was looking for. I also used paint and embossing powder to get an enameled look on my G45 butterfly – I love altering the metal bits! Whether you choose to alter stuff, use smaller amounts with solids, or mix and layer, you can do so much with these beautiful lines – and I’ll be sharing more (and my tea inspired creation) soon over on my blog. Thanks to Graphic 45 for having me as a guest!
We want to thank the amazing May Flaum for today's incredible inspiration! We encourage you all to visit her wonderful blog to see more of her fabulous work! Thank you all so much for joining us! We will have more fun-filled craft inspiration on tomorrow's blog. We hope you'll join us! Have a great day, G45ers!
Happy Papercrafting!
Your Friends at Graphic 45
Congrats to May for being your guest!!! I absolutely LOVEEEEEEEEEE her creations!! They are gorgeous!
Posted by: Julie Tucker-Wolek | June 13, 2012 at 05:46 AM
What a fabulous Guest Post this is!! I only recently discovered May's Blog and love it, her creations are fun and ecclectic..love it!
Posted by: Michelle Reaves | June 13, 2012 at 05:59 AM
Enjoying May's creations! Thank you for your fresh take!
Posted by: Beverly Jordan | June 13, 2012 at 06:04 AM
The creations featured on the blog are fantastic....never a day goes by that I'm not inspired. Love to see how the artists use the incredible papers!
The papers are all so different yet adaptable to all the different styles.....thanks for sharing all their talent
Posted by: Kay (Texfolkart) | June 13, 2012 at 06:05 AM
FUN! Love these layouts.
Posted by: Sara Nell Langland | June 13, 2012 at 06:22 AM
Lovely work. And a lovely thank you from the MS Benefit Retreat to boot! Thanks for all the inspiration from your product and your website!
Posted by: Mary Hinton | June 13, 2012 at 07:16 AM
Gorgeous layouts!!
Posted by: Dorothy McCarthy | June 13, 2012 at 07:54 AM
Vibrant, fresh look. Thanks May for all the inspiration. Love this stuff.
Posted by: Eugene Bellion | June 13, 2012 at 08:07 AM
So fun! Thanks for sharing! I love the layouts!
Posted by: Emily H | June 13, 2012 at 08:49 AM
I so admire a person's ability to not only take and enjoy photos they take, but to display the photos within art--wow.
Posted by: Rita P. | June 13, 2012 at 08:50 AM
So cool, love the backgrounds, will have to try this. Thanks for sharing!!!
Posted by: becky jeffress | June 13, 2012 at 09:10 AM
I can certainly see why you picked May for your featured artist! What a creative crafter she is :) I am hopping over to check out her blog - definitely can use some scrap tips from her! And it sounds like we have lots in common!
Posted by: Becky D | June 13, 2012 at 10:28 AM
These layouts are great! I love that May is such a "go for it" kind of girl.
Posted by: Tona | June 13, 2012 at 10:37 AM
Love the work.. Going to run to May z blog..
Posted by: Jeyatha | June 13, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Wonderful projects and I loved the butterfly with the FLower Soft. What fun. Great job.
Posted by: Dorina D | June 13, 2012 at 11:07 AM
beautiful May ! you are so creative !!!
Posted by: Marie Duval | June 13, 2012 at 11:14 AM
I like your style May! I also agree that crafting should be fun! I am totally on the same page!
Posted by: Carrie | June 13, 2012 at 11:55 AM
great projects loved visiting your blog thanks Graphic 45
Posted by: Debbie E | June 13, 2012 at 12:10 PM
Congrats May on becoming a features artist.
Posted by: Disco Queen | June 13, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Cute layouts!!
Posted by: Jean Marmo | June 13, 2012 at 02:30 PM
Congrats on your feature, May! Your work is amazing!
Posted by: Romy | June 13, 2012 at 02:40 PM
Just found May's blog a few days ago, and I am entranced! Thanks for sharing so much of your life and your method with us.
Posted by: kathy/NorthCarolina | June 13, 2012 at 03:52 PM
Now I gotta check out May's blog!!
Posted by: Danielle Copley | June 13, 2012 at 07:37 PM
These layouts are great. Thanks for sharing May!
Posted by: Bethany Becker | June 13, 2012 at 07:54 PM
May's pages are very creative.
Posted by: Jackie H | June 13, 2012 at 07:57 PM
Loved learning more about May Flaum, who I've heard about online for some time. So fun to hear that she's a California girl...like I am!
Posted by: karenladd | June 13, 2012 at 10:23 PM
Really nice layouts, thanks for sharing her work.
Posted by: Carol E Brooker | June 13, 2012 at 10:35 PM
Love scrapbooking and thrilled to have found May and her blog. Love Graphic 45 and hoping someone will let me know about the typewriter stamps she uses here. Are they part of one of the lines? Maybe Ladies Diary?
Posted by: Barbara Ford | June 14, 2012 at 05:39 AM
I love your style, May!
Posted by: Jenna | June 14, 2012 at 09:54 AM
Fun layouts, thanks for featuring May, I'm off to check out her website as we speak!!
Posted by: Katina | June 14, 2012 at 10:58 PM
I love all your proucts and ideas. The style is what I have been looking for. Thank yhou !!
Susan T
Posted by: Susan T | July 01, 2012 at 07:06 PM