Valentine’s Day Blog Hop

Happy Saturday morning and welcome to our 2014 Valentine’s Day Blog Hop! You should have reached here from D’s blog at Designs By Dragonfly.  If you are just joining me here, please go to  RockinRenee's blog to start at the beginning so you won’t miss any of the fun.  There are so many great projects and I don't want you to miss a single one!  Today we are highlighting Valentine's Day inspired projects.  I made a “Card in a Box” for Valentine’s Day. I first saw these on Split Coast Stampers site and I couldn’t wait to try it myself.

These are so much fun to make and very easy also. You can change it up to make one for any occasion. A tutorial for making these can be found at Tina Wetter’s blog, SereneStamper.com (since I followed her tutorial, I want to give her credit for this!). It only takes one sheet of cardstock to make the foundation of the ‘box’ and then you can decorate it however you’d like. There are two small pieces of cardstock inside of the box that you use to layer your embellishments.

I used several different images from different cartridges to create my embellishments.

The Cupid is from Artiste, the hearts are from Art Philosophy and Lyrical Letters, the rolled flowers are also from Art Philosophy, and the ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ sentiment (below on the envelope) is cut from Artiste.

In the photo above, I stamped some Tim Holtz stamps on vellum using VersaMark ink and white embossing powder then punched a couple of  butterflies with a Stampin’ Up punch. Then I dressed them up with some pearls. The Valentine tickets are also stamps by Tim Holtz. I used patterned paper by Echo Park.

 

The back panel of the box is left upright so that you can add another cardstock layer to put your greeting and sentiment on. I haven’t put that part on yet since I made this Valentine for my grandson to give to his babysitter and I want him to ‘write’ his name (I guess scribble something would be more accurate since he just turned one, lol)  or put his handprint on it. Whatever he does, I figured it would be better to adhere that part on AFTER he finishes with it!

I used my handy dandy Envelope Punch Board (I LOVE this!) to make an envelope that not only matches my card but it is also the perfect size! Here is the Valentine sentiment that I cut from the Artiste cart. It cut out beautifully at only 2.50”!

All you need to do is fold your box flat to put it in your envelope! I think this is such a neat idea and something different. I loved this card in a box idea so much that I couldn’t stop making them…

as you can see! I haven’t put the embellishments on these yet so maybe you can see the pieces of cardstock inside that you use to adhere your embellishments to. (Sorry I didn’t get a better photo of that).

Well, I hoped that you enjoyed my Valentine’s Day project and are inspired to try a Card in a Box yourself! If you have any questions please leave me a comment below (I love to receive some “blog love”!). I can’t wait for my little Charlie to give this to his babysitter!'

Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself! LOL!

Thank you for joining me today.  Your next stop on the hop is with *Violette* at Whimsical-Treasures.
And here is the entire blog list just in case you get lost on your way:
1. RockinRenee - I came, I saw, I created.
2. HappyScrapper64 - Random Thoughts of a Scrapbooker
3. gonescrappin - Col's Creative Corner
4. Hrvatica  - Croatian Crafter
5. Scootingranny - Scootingranny's World
6. MamaC - Carolyn's Creative Corner
7. Greenie8705 - Gina Beana's Crafts
8. MariaJ - Stamp, Cut, Create!
9. Di&Co - Creating Is Like Breathing
10. Dragonfly50 - Designs by Dragonfly
11. TiffysMom - Angie's Paper Passion <<---YOU ARE HERE! 12. *Violette* - Whimsical Treasures <<---GO HERE NEXT!
13. cricutaddicted - ScrappingForMoreFun
14. LoriSjogren - The Singing Shell
15. scrapalette - Around the Block with Scrapalette

I am so happy to be crafting again! Thanks for sticking with me!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

A Quick Valentine’s Gift!

Here are a couple of quick projects for those last minute Valentine's Day gifts. The first one is a simple note card:

I cut the cardstock at 3x6 to make this into a 3x3 card and added a 3x3 piece of patterned paper to the front. The scalloped border is from my 'old faithful' cart - Plantin Schoolbook! Even with all of the newer carts around this one still is a wonderful cart with so many great images. I cut out about 10 borders in cardstock at 0.5". I also used Accent Essentials to cut out the heart in glitter paper at 2.25". After inking the edges of the scallops, I adhered them to the card by staggering the borders, added a piece of ribbon with glue dots, and the heart with small pop dots. Once finished I decided that it needed one more thing so I punched out a tag shape (Jewelry Tag) and stamped a Valentine's sentiment (Teeny Tiny Wishes) on it and adhered it to the heart with a tiny red brad. Both the the punch and the stamp are made by Stampin’ Up! Then I was satisfied that it was finally finished!

Next is a Tag Treat Holder:

Again, I used Plantin Schoolbook. This image is on page 71 (shift/Italic). It's one of those images that I often don't pay attention to and skip over but it makes a cute little treat holder by scoring it in the middle and folding in half. It was cut at 8" with the Fit to Length feature turned on with my Expression and scored at 3.75" and again at 4.5". I added two little hearts cut with the shift/Tall Ball feature (found on the same page) at 2.5", adhered them on to the tag, and tied it together with some twine. This would be great to give to someone with a piece of chocolate inside (think Ghirardelli chocolate squares! Yum!)

I think I will put both of these little gifts into this gift bag that was made with Plantin Schoolbook (see, I told you it was still a great cart!):

This was cut with the Fit to Page feature turned on. After putting it together with Scor-Tape, I adhered some ribbon and my flower on it. I cut three flowers out at 3” each, the leaves were cut out at 2”. After the flower was cut, I inked all the petals and rolled them towards the back with a paintbrush to give them some dimension. For the brad, I took a plain silver one and applied VersaMark ink to it and then a pink shade of ColorBox ink. I then dipped it into some Iridescent Ice embossing powder by Stampin’ Up! and used my heat gun to melt it on the brad. Instant color change! You can use this little trick to alter any metal brad to suit your needs. Now you don’t have to have every color of brad in your stash! (Or DO you?!?!)

  (Click on the photos to enlarge any of the images)

I also just want to say “Thank You” to Carolyn and Gena from The Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie for inviting me to teach at the shop this past weekend. I had such a wonderful time and I can not wait to go back to teach (and shop) again! My students were the GREATEST and I now have 5 more crafty friends! Thanks to all of you for signing up! If you live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area (or coming to visit) and have never been to The Crafty Scrapper then get there as fast as you can! They have a wonderful and knowledgeable staff, great classes, and the shop carries everything that you need for scrapping & crafting.  It is THE place to go here in North Texas!

Today is also my day as Guest Designer over at Cricut FANatics! Please stop by to leave a comment and to see what the other designers have created!

So whatever you give (and receive) this Thursday, I hope that all of you have a sweet and happy Valentine's Day! Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Falling for Halloween Blog Hop ~ Day 2

First I’d like to thank Maria for hosting this incredible Blog Hop this weekend and to also thank her for letting me participate in it. I’ve had a wonderful time and I hope that you have too.

Remember, you should have arrived here from Khrista’s blog. If not, you missed the beginning of the hop, so please go to Maria's blog to start so you don't miss any of the projects. I will also be picking one lucky visitor on Monday to receive a box of Blog Candy so be sure to leave comments on both days of the hop and become a follower! Now on to today’s projects!

I guess I wasn’t quite ready to put the vinyl away since I used it here in my first project. You gotta admit, this stuff is so addicting! Here is my Bewitching charger plate:

I bought the charger plate at Michaels with the bling already on it. I got it at a steal since it had some scratches on it – perfect for a Halloween craft project! For my image, I used the Cricut cartridges A Frightful Affair and Chic and Scary by Teresa Collins. I used the Cricut CraftRoom and my Expression to cut the witch from orange vinyl at 8” and the word ‘bewitching’  from iridescent vinyl at 1 1/2”.

I tried to take a photo from a different angle so you could see how beautiful this vinyl really is – but unfortunately I failed! But you can see that I blinged her up a little by placing rhinestones on her hat and shoes. After all, we all like bling – even the little witch in us, lol!

Next I made a Halloween Treat Milk box. These would be so cute to hand out to those special little ghosts and goblins that knock on your door this Halloween.

I used CTMH’s Artist cartridge and cut it out at 8” using paper from DCWV (Midnight Spell pad). The nice thing about this cart is that there is an extra handbook that comes with it with assembly instructions. After I adhered it together, I inked all of the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade. I inked a piece of patterned paper from The Paper Studio and wrapped it around the box, added some rhinestones,

and the potion bottles that were cut from A Frightful Affair at 3”. The “liquid” in the potion bottles and the skull and crossbones were cut from glitter cardstock. I used pop-dots to give the bottles some dimension and added more bling.

The potion bottles cut is actually one piece that I cut into two separate pieces and placed on each side of the box. Just because a cut is a certain way in the handbook doesn’t mean that it has to end up on your project that way!

Before and after

The Happy Halloween is stamped with a Stampin’ Up stamp onto a Tim Holtz Sizzix die cut called Tattered Banners which I distressed with Distress Ink and Glimmer Mist then adhered with pop dots. I also used the mist and some Distressed Stains on some white seam binding to change the color of it. The flowers were punched out and also distressed and misted then adhered with glue dots and I placed a rhinestone in the center. Can you tell that I’m also addicted to distressing stuff? (Sorry, the ribbon looks washed out in the photo but looks much better IRL!)

But the following is still one of my favorite projects that I made last year – my little mummy and his tomb cut from the Happy Hauntings cart! Can you tell what the mummy is?

It’s a mini candy bar wrapped up in some plain white gauze with a couple of googly eyes attached!

Thanks so much for joining in on the hop today. Please be sure to check out all the participant's wonderful projects. I've posted the list below in case you've missed anyone. The next blog you will be visiting belongs to the very talented Nadia at http://www.withglitteringeyes.com/. Enjoy!

Maria @  stampcutcreate.blogspot.com

Michele @   scrap-n-dance.blogspot.com

Paulette @  http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/

Cindy @  http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/

Beth @  http://seaswancreations.blogspot.com/

Renee @   icameisawicreated.blogspot.com

Debbie @ www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com

Khrista @ http://creativeandcraftyteacher.blogspot.com/

Angela @ Angie's Paper Passion YOU ARE HERE!

Nadia @  http://www.withglitteringeyes.com/ 

Donna @  http://CarolinasCreativeCropper.blogspot.com/

Diane @ http://dianesdribble.blogspot.com/

Sara @  http://www.sarawandrews.com/

Michele @ www.michelegreen.com

Please come by again because I have more projects to keep you crafting!

Until next time, Happy Crafting,

Control Those Ink Pads!!!

In the process of redoing my craft room I realized that I had WAY too many ink pads –not that I’m complaining, mind you- and I didn’t have any kind of plan to tame my growing collection. Until I found these two tips. The  first tip was found at Rebel Inker. Stacey King has a pdf file that you can download with instructions for making this ink pad holder that uses only 2 pieces of foam core board. She used white foam core in her tutorial but I decided to use black and I got it at Hobby Lobby when it was on sale at 50% off- I’m ALWAYS looking for a good deal!

(Now I didn’t say that I was a master builder, ok? This is as good as it gets!)

This system was made to fit the Stampin’ Up! Ink pads but I found that with a little tweaking, you can use the basic pattern to create a number of configurations, not just for ink pads but for all kinds of storage.

It wasn’t that difficult to put together. I guess the hardest part was just cutting the foam core nice and straight. There are 5 compartments for the ink pads and each compartment holds 12 pads – again, these are SU pads. There is even a place to store your re-inkers at the top!

Because I bought the 2 pieces of foam core at 50% off, this project cost me about $5.00! Now what am I gonna do with the other 100 other brands of ink pads? LOL! More to come on that one. After I figure it out!

The other solution that I found was for my Tim Holtz Distress ink pads. –Hold on for a minute, AT! ok! I’m better now!

I like to use his inks with Inkssentials ink blending pads and Tim’s wooden tool. ok, did I just say that? That didn’t sound good -I’m really a good girl! But I didn’t want to get the inking pads & colors mixed up. So! I went back to Hobby Lobby –right, any excuse!- to purchase Velcro squares that were stick-on and some more ink blending foams.

I first stuck the rough side of the Velcro on the back of the ink pad and the softer side on the back of the blending foam.

Next step was to put the blending foam on the ink pad:

Now, when I need to use a certain color of ink, I grab it, take the blending foam off the back and stick it to the blending tool!

Even with the piece of Velcro between the pad and the tool, I have no problems at all getting a smooth, even color on my project. When I’m finished, I just reverse it – take the pad off the blending tool and place it back onto the bottom of the ink pad.

Easy as pie! Give it a try! If you do try either one of these storage tricks, please comment on this post and let me know. I just want to know if you like getting some tips & tricks on storage, scrapbooking and cricut related items also.

Dakota Bear, I hate to do this, but I can only give you until Wednesday, March 9th to contact me for your Blog Candy. After that date, I’ll have to pick another name!

Thanks for looking and until next time, Happy Crafting,

More Stamped Cards to Share and The Winner from My Fabulous and 50th Birthday Blog Hop!

First I wanted you to know that I will start sharing my Design Studio and Gypsy files soon! I only have a few now but I am designing more and more and I’d be delighted to share them with you. I’ll keep you updated!

I wanted to share a few more of my stamped cards with you. The first two were stamped with Stampin’ Ups Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. I think that the sentiment on the left card was made with a hostess stamp set. I love these stamps and use them a lot!

 

In the next set of cards, the one on the left is very special to me – this is the very first card that I made with SU stamps and ink pads! When I saw this stamp set and the background stamp I was hooked – bought both sets on the spot! did you notice that the flower stem is upside down? You didn’t? Then I shoulda kept my mouth shut! lol It wasn’t long afterwards that I became a Demo for SU. The background stamp is En Français and I can’t even remember the name of the other set and since I am still re-doing my scrapbook room – yes, STILL -, most of my stamps are boxed up right now.  The card on the right was one of my demo cards using the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set and the Upsy Daisy set for the sentiment.

 

On the next card (left), I stamped the  flowers from the Petal Pizzazz set, punched them out and adhered them with foam dots. The sentiment is from the Sincere Salutations set – a great set! The card on the right was stamped with Bird on a Branch set.

 

The first card was done for a card swap and there are no SU sets used on it. I used an embossing folder on the background and a watercolor technique on the stamped image. I just love the next card. It was created with only punches! I used circles, ovals, a flower, and a heart to create this Easter Bunny!

 

The card on the right was made using Bird on a Branch again and Birds and Branches strip die cut from Sizzix. One of my all-time favorite stamp sets is the one that I used to create the first card – Baroque Motifs! The technique used on this is a faux 3-D shadow technique. You need the same color of cardstock and ink color (that’s one of the things that I like about SU – everything matches!), a white pigment ink pad and a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig! Stamp the image in the white pigment ink and let it dry. Then using the SAMJ tool, re-stamp the same image again with a dye ink in the same color as the cardstock , just a slight bit off center from the first one. (see the next photo for a close up) It looks very dimensional but without the bulk – great for mailing.

 

The next card (left) was stamped with the Bloomin’ Beautiful stamp set. I stamped the image on watercolor paper with a VersaMark stamping pad, sprinkled it with gold embossing powder, then heat embossed it. Then using my ink pads and an aqua painter (a plastic paint brush filled with water), I water colored the image in. I used the Razzle Dazzle set and a scalloped die cut to make the next card.

 

Ok, last set! I promise! First card – I stamped the image  - Inspired by Nature – with a VersaMark ink pad and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Second card – used my favorite stamp set again, Baroque Motifs, and the Baroque Border using the Stampin’ Around Wheel. Those two strips on the top left of the card were made with the Word Window punch – a very versatile punch!

Thanks for taking the time to look at my work. I hope that you enjoyed the cards and get some ideas from them!

Now for the winner of my Fabulous & 50 blog candy!!!

 

And the winner of a new Nifty Fifties Cricut cartridge is………..

(drum roll please!)

 

Dakota Bear!

Dakota Bear said...

Happy Birthday!
The box is beautiful. Thank you for the great tutorial. I'm looking forward to seeing how you did the glass.

Dakota Bear, please email your name and address to me so that I can get your cartridge in the mail! Thanks to everyone for the warm and wonderful birthday comments! I appreciate each and every one of them! Until next time, Happy Crafting,