Designer Spotlight with Paige Evans: Rebecca Luminarias

The thing that immediately catches my eye and draws me in to Rebecca Luminarias’s projects is the carefully planned and thought out backgrounds and set ups she creates to share her designs! I am excited to help you get to know her better in today’s Designer Spotlight!

Name: Rebecca Luminarias
Location: Irvine, California
Blog: thurstonpost.blogspot.com
Instagram: @thurston_post
Pinterest: @rtl
Facebook: Thurston Post
Etsy: Thurston Post

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started crafting: I’m originally from upstate New York but I moved out to California on a whim 12 years ago. I lived in Mammoth Lakes (a ski town in the Eastern Sierra Nevadas) where I met my husband Arvin. Two years later we moved down to sunnier weather in Orange County and got married. This past November we celebrated our 10-year anniversary, and that’s about how long I’ve been crafting, having been bitten by the bug while planning our wedding. The hobby soon turned into a way of life! My first design team was Crate Paper and I’m currently designing for Pinkfresh Studio and the Papertrey Ink Moments Inked teams, hitting a few others along the way. I have an Etsy shop (ThurstonPost) where I sell some of the projects I’ve made and some curated gift wrap / embellishment / paper kits. I spend my day juggling the crafty bits with the Mommy bits, taking care of my two little loves, Gus (6) and Nemy (3).

Favorite thing to create: At the moment, I’m in love with creating wrapped gifts and layered tags; they kind of go hand in hand (like in my project for Scrapbook Expo). Texture is everything so I love to use supplies like paper doilies, lace, tulle, and ribbon on any project I create. My layered tags always have lots of those elements mixed with traditional paper crafting supplies. It’s the same with a gift and there’s just something about a beautifully wrapped present that I adore. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s a surprise inside!

What do you love about this hobby? I’m inspired everyday. I’m blown away by the talent and the endless ideas everyone has in this industry. The hobby has given me the opportunity to connect with other people (mostly women) who are creative and share my love of all things paper. It’s also important for me to channel my own creativity into something productive instead of letting my imagination go wild and manifest itself into something like anxiety. When I’m working out project ideas instead of thinking about what might happen if I suddenly have to vomit in the grocery store, that’s better for everyone!

5 fun facts about yourself:
1. The Thurston from Thurston Post is my middle name. Thurston was my great aunt Helen’s surname. As I kid I hated it because it was so different, and I got teased about being named after a man–Thurston Howell from Gilligan’s Island–and for being thirsty. Now that I’m older, I love it and appreciate how uncommon it is. That’s probably why I settled on names like Augustus and Anemone for my own kids. They may curse my husband and me for a few adolescent years, but I think they’ll eventually learn to appreciate them. 😉
2. I’m a small town, open space girl at heart. We live in the suburbs of Irvine, CA, and there’s a point in almost every day that I tell myself I’m not cut out for living this way–planning our errands and social visits around traffic, living so close to our neighbors, paying an exorbitant amount of money for a small house with a tiny yard… paradoxically, though, I’ve embraced the anonymity that comes with living in a larger city! (And four Targets in a 3-mile radius helps, too.)
3. I’ve never met a donut I didn’t like.
4. I don’t know how to use chopsticks! I keep trying to learn, but I just don’t seem to be able to get it. I always have to ask for a fork when we go out for sushi!
5. The most unique place I’ve ever traveled to is the Isle of Man, many years ago. It’s a tiny island that is known in certain circles for it’s offshore banking, TT Races (motorbikes), and the Manx cat. 

Here is the lovely project Rebecca made for her feature:

GIFT BOXES by Rebecca Luminarias

These gifts boxes are slightly unexpected, taking pretty, feminine die cuts from the Maggie Holmes Gather collection and pairing them with black boxes and gold crepe paper. They’re girly and sophisticated at the same time, and the boxes themselves were pretty easy to decorate. I just ran my tape runner down the center of the box, then adhered crepe paper over it in a ruched style. I covered that with a strip of lace and placed the tag on top of that.

GIFT BAGS by Rebecca Luminarias

I love this project for all of it’s color! I also love the trend of the large word stickers which are so gorgeous on scrapbooking pages. Unfortunately, I rarely scrap and they’re usually too big for cards and tags, so I found a different way to use them, incorporating them into gift wrap!

GIFT TAGS by Rebecca Luminarias

These are a classic example of my love for texture on layered tags. I used everything from glitter to lace, to fabric, and even made some fringe bows out of embroidery floss skeins to add pops of rich color. As a side note, floss is my current favorite product to use–I make easy tassels out of the ends and the bows out of the leftover midsection. Plus, they come in tons of brilliant colors!

GIFT BOX by Rebecca Luminarias

This little gift wrapped box uses Pinkfresh Studio supplies mixed with everyday products found in the big box craft stores like tulle, lace, embroidery floss (tassels), and ribbon. I find I can stretch my scrapbook supplies by adding these other elements and still get the texture I prefer. Scrapbook prints are also some of the most beautiful papers out there so when I have small boxes to wrap, I reach for the 12×12 papers as my gift wrap.

HELLO CARD by Rebecca Luminarias

I enjoy making cards, too, and in fact, that’s primarily what I made when I started on this crafting journey.  What I love about this one are the DIY elements. The fabric flower, the glittered clothespins, the tassels–it’s fun to take the card design a step or two beyond using ready-made products.

I hope you are inspired to take your gift packaging to the next level from Rebecca’s designs! Have a wonderful rest of the week and see you again soon!