No wasted foils -

Did all the die cutting for the Spellbinder Better Press plates I had foiled yesterday. Once I foiled the plates I also foiled the 'waste' pieces of foils - here is a photo of the spider web I had foiled onto black card stock and then I foiled the piece I peeled off the black card stock,  the 'waste', and I foiled that onto white card stocks:

I foiled the sentiments and then foiled the 'waste' from the sentiments:

Die cut all the sentiments out with the banner dies included in the sets and now I have more than enough holiday sentiment strips for Christmas:

The last Better Press plate I bought on sale is for Halloween and it is a background plate. Once again I foiled that and then foiled it again with the waste:

It is the Pumpkins and Ghost plate. Here it is on white card stock with black foil:

and the black 'waste' foil:

For this one I used holographic rainbow colours foil with a circle design on it:

This one I foiled it with holographic rainbow colours in a striped pattern:

and then the 'waste':

Easy background to foil and use for card fronts. 

While I was foiling I decided to try to foil a small Gemini foiling plate I had picked up awhile ago at the Reconsidered Goods store in Greensboro. It was marked $1.00 and I liked the saying it says so I thought I would give it a try:

I used silver holographic and sparkly holographic foils in silver and gold to foil this onto white card stocks:

and the 'waste':

Happy the Gemini plate worked so well - was not sure if I would have to use a shim or be able to just use the two foiling plates that came with the machine to get a good foiling piece. I will have to say the Better Press plates foil wonderfully and the finished pieces have no over foiling and that is always a good thing.... now to make projects to use all these on!  :0)

Hobby Lobby Clearance

Does not happen often that I shop at HobbyLobby anymore since they seem to be going to the home decor of stores.... but last week I went to Charlotte and I stopped at a Hobby Lobby on my way. I was happy that I finally found something they had on clearance that I would use in this craft room:

First this the large scissors from Tim Holtz/Ranger that was regularly $13.99 and I paid $6.99. Not a bad price for the larger scissors and they have a plastic case for the tips. Also:

White pens were 99 cents each, small quilling tool (for flowers) was 44 cents. Also picked up some Fall cupcake liners for rosettes and they were 40% off on sale. 

Also stopped at the Reconsidered Goods store in Greensboro on my way and found a few items:

Happy I was able to find 12 x 12 orange card stock in a weight that I like:

Also TOO cute to leave there so I brought it home and will make it up and get a frame for it and hang it in the craft room:

Not sure about the colours but I can always change that. The Reconsidered Goods store in Greensboro is a store that recycles donated craft supplies and every time you go there is so much to see.... wish we had a store like that here in Raleigh but we don't so for now I will have to drive to Greensboro to shop the Reconsidered Goods store. Really happy about the orange card stock for Halloween projects ahead since I am running low on orange card stock and it is not easy to find.... 

4th of July Project Gift

My PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) stopped by for the July 4th holiday and gifted me this cute decor item she made:

This is one of the small wooden crates sold in the craft section of the Dollar Tree and she painted it white:

She used a napkin also from the Dollar Tree and added their flowers, flags, and party decoration to the top - very cute idea for a Patriotic table!

Nice how the napkin has different words and script on it along with the flag, stars, and such. Cute idea and happy me she gifted it to me!

Not going down that Rabbit Hole . . . .

BetterPress.......  Another product for card making/scrapbooking..... You need a special machine, special ink pads, yada yada.. so not going down that rabbit hole. . . but... maybe?

I have the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine and I love the way the foiled pieces look on a card, tag, or project but when I foil? I have to make the foil face... My platform sits tightly on the machine and I have to use two hands to remove it from the platform while making the foil face... but having to pull so hard can make the platform jerk or jiggle and then you get over foiling because the plate, the foil, and the card stock did not stay in place. Some crafters suggest taping the card stock to the top of the foil plate - like a hinge - and then put the foil in between the plate and card stock and that will prevent over foiling.. .. .. but not for me.....  Other crafters suggest taping the two plates you put on top of your card stock to run it through your die cutting machine will also prevent over foiling.. .. .. but not for me...

On YouTube I watched a video by Carissa Wiley where she was hot foiling her card and that was the last time I have had any foiling issues since my platform sits tightly in the machine. She shows how she foils and what she does is heat up the attached platform in the machine with the hot foil plate on it. Once the green light comes on to let you know the platform is ready she then removes the platform from the machine. She pulls it out and then puts her foil on the plate and then the card stock on top. She puts her two plates on top that come with the machine and runs this sandwich through her die cutting machine... Beautiful foiling and so simple!! So that is what I have done for a long time and her method works well for me and although I still have to make the foil face, my foiling is clear and pretty as it should be. So happy me....

A Creative Muse, YouTube, is Suzanne Hue and she does a lot of work with Spellbinders and she has even designed dies for them. She has many videos about card making, hot foiling, and also the new BetterPress. One of her recent videos she was saying that Spellbinders was having a 40% off sale and she was going over all the categories - dies, embossing folders, BetterPress plates, etc.. She mentioned that BetterPress plates can be used in the Glimmer Hot Foil machine but that you can not use your hot foil plates in the BetterPress. News to me so I checked on YouTube for other crafters that had used their BetterPress plates to hot foil and everyone seemed to have great results doing this. 

I have ordered from Spellbinders many times and whenever I go to their site I check the "New Arrivals" page to see what is out there so in the past I have seen some of the BetterPress plates.... with the 40% off sale going on I placed an order for some BetterPress plates I thought I could use for hot foiling. First is the BetterPress Spider Web Background plate. I wanted to try this out on black card stock using the silver holographic foil - both of which are in my stash. Here is a photo of that spider web plate:

Since this is a background plate and will cover the card front it is a larger plate. Due to the size I put the plate on my heated up platform and pressed the timer button on the machine. Once that turned off when the platform was ready I left the plate on there for another 30 seconds and then loosened the platform from the machine, laid the foil on the plate, and put the black card stock on top of that. Put the two plates on the top and ran this through my Big Shot. First try:

Looked like it worked but I peeled off the foil and here it is:

PERFECTION! No over foiling and the black card stock took the foiling well. I like this spider web plate because the spider web has such fine lines. IRL you can see the holographic foil on the webs. But that is a design.... how does it do with letters/words?

Next two plates are Christmas sentiment plates and both sets had the plates and cutting dies together and being on sale that is quite the deal - I bought the Merry & Bright Sentiment Strips set and the Mistletoe Greetings set. I have foiled green, red, silver, holographic silver, and gold for my strips:

and on black:

I really like the sentiments on projects on black card stock with white lettering - be it embossed with white ink or using a white ink to stamp it .... but if you use the white ink why wait forever for it to dry just so you can use it??? Seeing as these BetterPress sentiment plates had thin lettering I thought I would try hot foiling with one of these plates on black card stock using the silver holographic foil:

So I tried that and the above photo shows how that looks - with the thin letters you hardly notice the holographic on the foil and it almost looks white on black so that is a good thing. I cut out a couple of the foiled sentiments:

Will finish the rest but for now I have a great start for holiday cards, tags, gift boxes and such for Christmas and happy the BetterPress plates work so well in the hot foil machine! So happy that I was able to see Carissa Wiley with her method of hot foiling and removing the platform before she adds her foil and card stock - works like a charm... altho I still make the foil face while pulling the platform loose.... but whatever works!

Halloween Cat Bow Embellishments

Bought the new Halloween Cat Bow die set from KS Crafts. This die set is available in the small and the large sizes. I bought the small die set and here is a photo of the cat embellishments I made:

I used black #110 weight card stock for the cat and I cut out two for each embellishment so the cat will be sturdy. I used liquid glue to put the two cats together. Using scraps I cut out the pink ears, pink nose, green eyes, and for the whisker piece I used black mirrored card stock and also a shimmer black card stock. Again used liquid glue to put them in place Here is a photo of two of the embellishments:

First I die cut all the cat pieces and assembled those:

Here is a photo of the 10 piece die set:

For all the bows I used printed card stocks from the stash - but here is a photo of two cats to show the difference of attaching the bows to the cat bases:

For the cat on the left I assembled the bow - the tail piece and then the two loop pieces stacked on top with a crystal gem in the center. Doing it this way the bow is OVER the cat tail. The cat on the right I put the bow tail piece behind the cat and then put the two bow loops with center crystal on the front of the cat - this way you can easily see the looped cats' tail so you have a choice which way to assemble the bow. Once the bow tail piece is attached to the back of the cat you will not see it as this will be attached to a project. 

For placement of the ear pieces and eyes, when you die cut the cat out this die also embosses the face impression onto the card stock for placement.  The whiskers are all on one die piece so that makes it easy to adhere them to the face. Also - this is the small cat die set and  completed it measures 2 3/4" from top to bottom and from side to side - from tail edge to bow tail edge on other side is also approx 2 3/4".  A sizeable embellishment and it would also make a nice tag on a treat bag. 

Lunch Bag BOO Day Treat Holder

Used paper lunch bags to make these BOO Day treat holders using the new Trick or Treat Bag Topper die set from KSCrafts from their July release. Wanted to use die sets and card stocks from the stash so the only new item I used was the bag topper die. 

For each bag front and back I used two coordinating card stocks that would go with the card stocks I used for the bag toppers. I die cut the front and back of the bag toppers using two different card stocks as well to add interest to them - here is a photo of everything cut and ready to be assembled but first I would have to trim the bag topper printed card stock panels:

With everything die cut and card stocks trimmed to size I was ready to assemble (rosette bases in photo is for another BOO Day project). Here is a photo of the finished decorated bag treat holders:

The one draw back with this bag topper die set is there is no die in the set for the printed card stock panel pieces on the bag topper. If you use the die as it is and cut out a printed card stock panel this is the look the die will give you for your printed panels:

Definitely not the look I wanted for the bag topper so I used scrap cream card stock and cut out the flap of the bag topper and once that was die cut I took the scissors and trimmed around the stitching line at the top of the die piece to mimic the stitching line that goes all the way around the die:

You only need to trim this pattern piece from one side of the handle to the other side of the handle so it is not a lot of fussy cutting. Here is a bag topper I had used my patter piece on:

The bag topper with "TRICK" on it shows the top now using the pattern piece compared to the sample on the left using the die set as it is. Once all my bag topper fronts and backs were cut out I used liquid glue to add the printed card stock to the bag topper piece. To dress this up I used this die set from the stash and cut out spider webs from mirror black card stock and I also cut out a spider and put that on the front of the bag:

Here is a photo to show the bag fronts-I used a scallop border die from the stash and cut out black glittered card stock for that to put at the bottom of the bag:

Right now the bags are all put together and when I put the candy treats in the bags the week of Halloween then I will attach the front of the bag topper to the bag front using tear and tape and I will use velcro dots on the back of the bag topper so the bags can easily be opened. To attach the printed card stock to the front and back of the bags I used tear and tape and the "around the block" method to put these on the bags so they would be straight - put tear and tape on the back edges of the panels and lift up 1/4 of the tape at one end for each side.  Fold this to the front of the panel and when done you will have four 'pull tabs' to remove the backing on your tape:

Lay the panel on the bag, print side up, and put one tab at a time until all are pulled off:

And after all tabs are pulled off:

With not using liquid glue you do not have to wait for it to dry or deal with any bubbles or glue on your edges. Quick and easy way to add the printed panels to the bag fronts and backs. For the words on the bag topper "TRICK" "or" "treat" I used glittered card stocks from the stash and cut those out. Easy project to put together for BOO Day treats!