Scarecrow Embellishments

Had seen a video on YouTube awhile back featuring a scarecrow die and had to order the die set to make this him since he is so cute:

http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_dUlGi7A

I believe it was on a video by Craft Eccentricity about a month ago. She had used this die for a card with "thankful" below him.

AliExpress dies do not come with packaging showing what the die will look like once it is cut out and put together so when I get an Ali die I always cut it out right away so I can see what I am looking at. I keep this sample with the die set for future use. When I first got this die set I put the scarecrow together using scraps:

Here is a photo of this 11 piece die set:

I had not ordered anything off AliExpress in almost a year and I remembered that it usually took 3 weeks or so until the item would arrive. With everything going on now I thought it could be closer to 5-6 weeks but I am happy to say it was just over three weeks before I received this little guy. . . Face pieces - nose, cheeks, and eyes are easy to place because as the face die cuts out the face piece it also embosses it so you have perfect placement for them. Here is a photo of a die cut face piece to show this:

And of course not leaving well enough alone... I made a second scarecrow and this time I sponged the edges of the scarecrow face and the scalloped piece I added under his chin:

For that scalloped piece I used an EK Success 1 /34" scalloped square punch to make the scalloped piece under his chin. I punched out the square and used scissors to cut it to the size I wanted to use and I sponged the edges of that and then adhered it to the scarecrow piece. Here is a photo of the scallop piece after it was cut apart:

Used a circle punch for his scarf. For the center of the sunflower I used flocked card stock - I think it adds dimension to the flower. . . And of course not leaving well enough alone:

For this third scarecrow I sponged the edges of the hat, the face, the scalloped piece and for that scallop I used a smaller scallop punch. I also sponged the cheek circles as well as the nose and the sunflowers.. For all my scarecrows I used black crystals for the eyes - those small black crystals were from AC Moore before they closed. . I like the last option with everything being sponged. I also used scraps for all the scarecrows and that is always a good thing -- less scraps in the craft room!!! Easy project to put together and another good use for scraps - both solid and printed card stocks. He will make a fun embellishment for Fall projects!

Could you ever need an extra hand? ? ?

Recently came across this liquid glue stand that I had not seen before and after checking into what it was and how it worked I decided to buy a set for me and one for my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime).  I bought ours off Amazon:

www.amazon.com/STANDIY-Liquid-Glue-Stand-Replacement/dp/B088KJ6YBR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Standiy&qid=1595693628&sr=8-1

This is a photo of the packaging:

This is sold in a set of two and although I do not scrapbook or go to crops/classes I was happy to have the two. I can keep one on hand for later use if need be. But I knew my PIC would be able to take it to the scrapbooking crops/classes she attends and have one for use in her craft room.  DH had made me a glue/Glossy Accents wooden block with circles drilled out so I can stand the glues/Glossy Accents upside down so they are always ready for use. But that holder is not large enough for the larger (more economical) bottles of glues so this holder is perfect for the smaller AND larger bottles. Here is a full bottle of Scotch glue I recently bought in this holder and even being larger and full the weight of this does not smash down the holder nor does it fall out. (In my photo I have the glue cap on this - just showing the size of this glue bottle and that it does not smash the holder in anyway:

and this is the back of the packaging:

I have already dropped these off for my PIC to use - I tried mine out and it does work! Sometimes when crafting it is nice to just grab a bottle of glue and use it without having to take the cap off every time. . . Plus it will help to keep your glues from drying out if you should forget to put the lid back on it.  Easy to put together too! Smart new tool in the craft room and am sure I will get lots of use from it!

Rest of the BOO Tags

Finished up the rest of the Beware BOO Tags and thought I would share the photos:

A few years back I was in a Walgreens store when the clerk was replacing the shelf strips in the candy aisle - this was at Halloween time so I asked her what they did with the strips she was removing? She told me they throw them away as each holiday/season they get in different patterns. I asked her if I could have them and she gave me a huge amount -- large enough that I was able to share them with my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime).  With my Halloween projects every year I try to use some of these free shelf strips for some of my projects. This year I used them on these Beware BOO Tags:

On the left tag I used the shelf strip for my rosette using the Sizzix Rosettes die. For the tag on the right I used it for the top banner piece under the green rosette. Perfect spider web print for Halloween for sure.  These tags helped to use up a lot of the holiday prints I had in the stash so that is always a good thing. Moving onto Christmas projects this week I hope.... Time will tell....

Beware BOO Tags

Awhile back I had seen a Halloween project on the internet but could not find a posting for it to tell me what products were used. Although the project was cute I only wanted the skull and crossbones product used to use for my BOO day (Halloween) tags.  Decided I would search the internet and see where I could find this product....  Long time later I gave up on it being a die... so this product was now on the "hope to find someday" product list . . .  until . . .

Had seen a video on YouTube a few weeks back and a gal had made Halloween embellishments and at the end of her video she showed embellishments she had made featuring the skull and crossbones I had been searching for -- as she explained the project she said she had used the EK Success punch for her skull and crossbones and it was an older punch from her stash. . . Punch? I had not thought of that as I did not realize this is an older product. Off to Ebay to search for it. . .  Came up with nothing and I thought maybe I would try Etsy.com as in the past I have been able to find older products on that for sale.  Happy me to find this punch for sale and it arrived yesterday!! Here is a photo of this punch:

This is a thicker punch and I wanted to try it on three different card stocks to see how well it would work. In this photo I punched out a black glittered card stock, #110 weight black card stock from Mikes, as well as a black foil card stock. The punch punched them all out with no problems. That is a drawback from buying a used punch in that you really will not know how well it punches out the shape until you try it for yourself. The seller had wrapped the punch very well and used bubble wrap and the punch arrived in mint condition:

When I bought this punch I had already decided I would use it to make tags for my BOO Bags I am making for Halloween for my treat holders. Here are two tags I just made using this new to me punch:

Now to another problem -- I wanted to have these tags be larger than my normal tag dies and I have a set of these larger tag dies from My Creative Time.  But that die set cuts wonky stitches on the tag piece and I did not want that. To get my tags I laid the largest die in that die set on top of the #110 weight black card stock from Mikes and I used scissors to cut this out. I cut out two for my tags.

For the printed card stocks on my tags I used all scraps in the Halloween printed card stock bin so that I would not be cutting up anymore full sheets of card stock. The printed scrap sizes dictated how long the flags/banners I would have on the tags. First I used the larger scraps and cut a piece longer than the tag but a bit narrower for the front of my tags.  I used the ATG and put this onto the tag. I turned it over and I used scissors to trim off the tag corners and top. Punched a hole for the tag top.  This way my whole tag is covered with the printed card stock from the top to the bottom of the tag.. Set those aside.

I used the Hobby Lobby three banners punch and punched out a 2" wide and a 1 1/2" wide banner piece. A longer one and then a shorter one for each tag. I used the ATG and put the smaller banner on top of the larger banner piece. I put this onto the tag front, again using the ATG, and turned the tag over and trimmed off the top and the corners so the prints would match the tag shape. Used a small circle punch and punched the tag hole in the prints.  Stamped my greeting "Happy Halloween" on scrap white/GP card stock using Close To My Heart black ink. I trimmed this piece to the size I wanted and used a small banner punch for the ends. Then I sponged the edges of the greeting banner with black ink and put them onto solid card stock scraps.

For the skull pieces - I used black glittered card stock for one skull and a glittered silver card stock for the other. I also punched skulls out of scrap #110 weight black card stock. I used TomBow glue to put the black card stock skull behind the glittered skulls. This gives the skull more stiffness and shape. I used various printed card stocks and the Sizzix Rosette die set and die cut two different rosettes. I put those together using hot glue. Put the skull in the center of the rosette and set them aside.

Using Glossy Accents I added a glittered card stock bow to each skull. The bow punch is older and I had gotten that at Hobby Lobby.  I added a crystal from the stash to each bow:

Using hot glue I put the skulls on the rosettes and then put the rosettes onto the banner pieces on the tags. Used foam tape to put the greeting pieces on the tags.

For the twine on the tag I used black and white twine from my stash. Put it through the hole at the top of the tag. To keep it in place I used hot glue to add my black and white gingham bows that I had made using my Bow It All tool. With the bows on I added crystals from the stash to the tag fronts randomly. Here is a closed photo to show the bow is over the twine at the tag top:

Using hot glue to add the bow to the tag top will also keep the twine from being able to fall off the tag and the glue will also keep the loop I made putting the twine on the tag in place. Happy I was able to find this punch after my long search ... now I am down to searching for one die from long ago -- Sizzix 658979 which is a Decorative Frame die - it is a movers and shapers die from long ago but hoping to find it on Ebay or maybe a used stampers sale next time someone in the area has one.

Glad to be able to use so many of the printed card stock scrap pieces for the tags. Have cut out more pieces for more of these tags I am making and the scraps make each tag look different so that will be nice that everything does not match. Easy project to put together as well! Thinking by the end of the weekend that punch will get a good workout --- haha.  Happy I finally found it to add to the craft room stash. . .

Sometimes -- who knew? ? ?

Have looked at my Hobby Lobby in the past for the faux leather ribbon spools but until last week I could not find any.  Ribbon spools were 50% off last week so I stopped in my Hobby Lobby and was happy to see they had a variety of theses spools.  I picked up three different spools for some future projects. First I bought one of the rolls of the glitter faux leather:

On that I used a steel ruled multi butterfly die to cut it out:

The steel ruled die cut right through this thicker ribbon with ease. This next photo is of a second ribbon spool and I want to use this for a Christmas project:

This red and black check faux leather has a more vinyl finish and once cut out using a steel ruled bow die it almost seemed "floppy" due to weight.  Decided the bow steel ruled die was too large for the project I would use it on so I decided to use a thin die and see if that would cut this ribbon. This is a photo to show the back of this checked ribbon showing it is woven:

I thought with the woven back that maybe I would have more success if I cut this with the die pieces on the back rather than the front of the ribbon. I used the medium bow die from Pink & Main:

I ran the die through the machine front to back and using one piece of a card shim. The Pink & Main die cut through the woven ribbon with no problems! Happy surprise for me -- here is a photo of the larger bow and the smaller Pink & Main bow together:

Using the smaller bow die the smaller bow holds it's shape well and it is the perfect size for my next Christmas project. Happy the thinner metal dies can cut through this woven ribbon. These spools are sold in a 24" x 8" size - less than a yard - but with the smaller dies I will be able to cut out a lot of ribbons using the smaller die set. Wished the check pattern was a bit smaller but happy the smaller die was able to cut through it for my bow!

Glittered Butterflies

Finally found the faux leather ribbon at Hobby Lobby I have seen other crafters use on their projects on YouTube and some blogs. Hobby Lobby only had one of these that was glittered so I picked it up for a project I wanted to make. Happy me all ribbon spools were 50% off on sale.  Here is a photo of the label:

I used a Sizzix steel ruled butterflies die that cuts a larger butterfly and a smaller butterfly. Here is a photo to show the front and back of this glittered faux leather ribbon:

Here are three of the butterflies I cut out:

The ribbon has a fabric texture to it so it is not stiff like a card stock would be. I cut the smaller butterfly out of this glittered ribbon and for the larger butterfly I used a stiff silver glittered card stock from Mikes. I used Glossy Accents to attach the smaller butterfly on top of the larger silver butterfly. I cut out the body piece from the sliver card stock and attached that also with Glossy Accents. I added clear crystals from the stash to that. Here is a better photo of one of the butterflies:

This is a good sized butterfly and it will work well on a large paperclip or on a clothespin as an embellishment. The camera did not capture all the sparkle and shine of the sparkled ribbon or sparkled card stock. These are very shiny and sparkly IRL.

As with any glittered card stock and a steel rule die the die was covered in glitter when I finished all the die cutting:

To remove this glitter I used a lint roller and ran that over the die a couple of times and now it is ready for the next project:

Hoping my Hobby Lobby will get this faux leather ribbon in other colours with the holiday season ahead. Lots of projects to use this faux leather for besides just for bows.

Picture day - - say Hoot and SMILE!

Photo was taken through a closed window and screen and I zoomed the camera as far as it would go... Not a great photo but like in school -- it was Picture Day:

It was like he knew I was trying to take a pix cuz he looked all around and then turned to look in my direction and he stayed still.... This photo was taken earlier this week and he has been back again so he must like having his photo taken!!! ;0)

BOO Shakers

Not much time in the craft room lately but I am working on embellishments for the holidays ahead. This project is for BOO Day (Halloween) and I am happy they went together well and I was able to use some scrap card stocks. Here is a photo of the dies I used:

The Circle Tag die set on the left is from Close To My Heart.  The circle die set on the right is the Nicole brand from ACMoore. I put the two largest dies together when die cutting using washi tape:

Here are the shakers I made:

I used a lot of my Halloween punches and dies to decorate the tag shakers. For all the shakers I used printed card stocks from the stash and I made bows using a small bow die from Fun Stampers Journey. All sequins/gems/twine are from the stash.

For the tag shakers I used #110 weight black card stock from Mikes. I cut out the round tag and that was the base of the shaker. For the inside back piece of printed card stock I used a 2 inch circle punch and punched out a circle. Used the ATG to put the printed card stock on the full black circle base. With that on the tag base I put the two dies together and I cut out 5 pieces. I stacked those together using Scotch quick dry glue. I also cut out a glittered card stock circle with the two dies together and that gave me the frame piece on the front of the shakers.

For the fronts of the shakers I used clear packaging from craft products I have bought in the past.  I used a circle die to cut out the clear packaging circles. I put the glittered card stock circle frame on the clear packing circles using Glossy Accents. Once the stacked black circles and the framed front pieces were dried I filled the shakers with sequins and glitter and small die cut pieces or punched pieces. Used Glossy Accents to put the fronts on the shaker tags. Set these aside to dry.

Used various card stock prints and die cut out a small bow for each shaker. Used Glossy Accents to put the bow at the top of the shaker tag and I added crystals from the stash to the center of the bows. For some of the shakers I put punched pieces or die cut pieces on the clear shaker tag fronts:

For this ghost shaker I used the ghost die set from Impression Obsession and die cut the ghosts. I put two of the smaller ghosts inside the shaker with the sequin/shaker mix. I also put a ghost on the clear circle front as well as on the glittered card stock circle frame. Using various stamps I stamped holiday greetings on scrap white card stock and cut them out using banner dies. I sponged the edges of the greetings using CTMH black ink and a dauber. Tucked the greetings under the bows at the top of the shakers. Added a piece of twine so these can be added to bag fronts for the treat holders for Halloween.

For the bats I used an EK Success multi bat punch and punched out the small bats from black foil card stock. I put them inside the shaker with the sequins. The glittered back on the front of the shaker was made using the bat punch from M Stewart.

For this spider shaker I used a small bug punch from the old dollar bin at Mikes and punched out bugs from glittered card stocks. I put some of the punched spiders inside the shaker with the sequin and glitter mix.  I added a small bug to the front of the shaker tag as well as adding a large spider I used an EK Success punch for. All the shakers are in a clear box ready to be added to other Halloween projects:

2nd time around -

Made some July 4th treat holders for gals at work.  I have not had much time for crafting but I wanted to make a treat holder for everyone for the holiday. I had made these before and I really like the Sizzix die for the treat bag so I used it again and kept the idea the same as before:

First I used the Sizzix Sweet Treat Bag die (#660265) for the treat bags. I used various solid card stocks from the stash and cut out all the treat bags. For the bag toppers I used the Top Note die and various patriotic printed card stocks I had in the stash. I also used those prints to make the pinwheels on the front of the bags. The pinwheel die is the larger pinwheel die from Lil Inker Designs. I used cloth covered brads from my stash for the centers of the pinwheels.

With all the bags die cut I used a small Spellbinders label die from my stash and die cut a window for the front of the bags. Used clear packaging sheets from craft products and cut a piece to fit behind the die cut window so the candies would not fall out. I put the clear sheets on using 1/8" tear and tape. With the windows in place I assembled the bags.  Folded the bag topper piece and put that on the bags using tear and tape on the backside of the bag and on the front of the bag I used half of a velcro oval and this way you can open and close the treat bag.

For the pinwheel I die cut the pieces and put the brad in the center and hot glued the pinwheels to the front of the bag topper on the bag. For the greeting I used an older stamp from my stamp stash and red ink -- which brings me to the ink issue.....

Awhile back SU changed their ink pads from linen bases to foam bases. I do not store my ink pads near a window, near a heat vent, near an air conditioning vent or anything. I bought the ink storage holders from Organize More so they are stored flat. Here are two photos of SU ink pads I had:

Not sure what these bubbles and bumps are but was not much happier with this one:

BOTH of these ink pads were bought brand new and neither had been re-inked....  This caused me to re think my ink for sure... Lucky me my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) sells Close To My Heart products and she told me all about the new style ink pads from CTMH.  I liked that the lids are magnetic so you know the pad is closed and you will not have to worry about the lid coming off the track that holds it or anything. I also like the large ink pad base for your larger stamps and background stamps. For my greeting I used the Close To My Heart Candy Apple ink pad:

and this is the ink pad opened:

These ink pads are very easy to open esp if you have arthritis or if you are trying to open an ink pad with one hand while you are holding something in the other hand..... and you know they are tightly closed so you do not have to worry about the pad still being open and drying out. Happy me to find these! Here are more photos of the treat bags:

In the treat bags are various chocolate candies and everyone liked getting one. They all commented how nice it was that they are free standing as well. The Sizzix die cuts both thinner and thicker card stocks with no problems and two pieces complete the bag. Easy to put together as well.  TFL and Happy 4th!

Just do it yourself . . .

The SU demonstrator I had ordered through no longer is a demo so I figured I would not be getting a new SU catty this year but I had seen projects/cards here and there on the web.  The only item that caught my eye was their mason jar punch. Decided I wanted to order the punch and when I looked on the SU website I decided that I would just order the bundle -- stamp set and punch.

Happy me when this bundle arrived.... until I opened the stamp set. . .  I no longer store my SU stamp sets in the cases they arrive in. I keep them in bins in the Avery Elle envelopes which saves a lot of space on the stamp shelf I use. Here is a photo of the stamp set that comes with the mason jar punch:

This is a clear stamp set and usually inside the case is a clear sheet, with stamp images on it, and the clear stamps. I remove the printed paper sleeve from the stamp case and fold that in half and put it in the storage envelope. Behind that I put the clear sheet that holds the stamps. But when I opened this case the first time this is what I saw:

These images are on the backside of the printed paper sleeve now. The stamps are on a clear sheet with no images to go by so not only do you not easily see what the stamp is but whether or not it is right side up or upside down. . . So out came the StazOn ink and I removed all the stamps and stamped the clear sheet myself. I cleaned the stamps and put them all back on the clear sheet for storage in the clear envelope. Now when I am using a MISTI to stamp my images with the mason jar stamp I will know at a glance which floral stamp I want to use and also to know the position of the stamp.  I can not believe SU is saving mega bucks by not putting the stamped images on the clear storage sheets for the stamps but I do not buy stamps that have no images with them.

Here is my stamps on the clear sheet I had to stamp myself:

Now I can see which floral stamp is which and I will not have to hold it up to a light to see which one is what. I did contact SU and made a complaint about this so maybe if others complain as well this practice will stop. But it is a game changer for this stamper....  But am happy to have the mason jar punch and hoping to be working with that soon on a project in the craft room. . . EK Success had also sold a mason jar punch in the past but of course I did not buy one and then it was no longer available to buy . . .  but happy I found another one that was the side I wanted - just wish this stamp set had pre printed images on the clear sheets like all the other SU stamp sets I own. . .