St. Patrick's Day Card

Recently I posted a tip by Natalie on her YouTube channel "NB Cards" for adding liquid glue to thin die cut pieces without the mess.... I tried out her tip and was so happy it worked.... so fast forward to making St. Patrick's Day cards.... Long ago I had bought the "Shamrock Card Panel" cover plate die set from Frantic Stamper to use for St. Pat's cards. Only problem is the lines on this die set are very thin and adding any type of adhesive to this die cut piece to adhere to a card front was not easy.... so I gave up and stored this die set in the stash until I could figure out something... Happy I saw her tip because I used it on my card today. Here is a photo of the card:

To start this card I cut and scored a dark green card stock at the top for the card base. I then tried out the smoosher Natalie uses on her YouTube channel for my background base. With that done and dried in between each colour of ink I trimmed it to the size I wanted for the card front. Set it aside. 

Here is a photo of the Frantic Stamper Shamrock cover plate die:

I cut this Shamrock die out of white card stock. Then I used a frame die set from the stash and also cut that out of white card stock:

Here is a photo to show her tip for adding liquid glue to my Shamrock cover plate die piece: 

Used the brown craft mat, squirted out a little liquid glue, and used a silicone brush - bristles cut close to the handle. Bounced the silicone brush into the glue and then bounced this all over the back of the shamrock die cut piece to add adhesive. Put this glued piece on top of the smooshed background card front. With that put together I used tear and tape and put my white framed die cut piece over the shamrock piece on the card front. Rinsed the silicone brush off in water and all glue came off. Set this card front aside to dry. 

Used this die set by Karen Burniston for the holiday greeting and cut it out twice from green card stock. Cut the shadow piece out of vellum:

I cut out two of the shamrock pieces from gold poster board from the Dollar Tree and used liquid glue to add them to the greeting piece. Used liquid glue to put greeting layers together and then to add them to the vellum shadow piece. Once all glued I put this on the card front. Added green gems for some sparkle and shine to the card front:

Happy I was finally able to put the Frantic Stamper Shamrock cover plate die to use and happy with the smoosher technique and also the liquid glue silicone brush tip. Thanks to Natalie for sharing her tips and tricks for card making!

Happy Valentine's Day Card

This year I used the new bundle from Concord & 9th by Kristina Werner "Happy Love Day" for my Valentine's cards. She has done a lot of work with Simon Says Stamp in the past and I was happy to see she was now releasing her own product line with Concord & 9th. The bundle has a four piece stencil set, the greeting die set, and a small stamp set. Here is one of my cards:

Her stencil set has the four heart stencils for layering and these stencils are 6" x 9". This is nice because you stencil a larger piece and when done you cut it in half and it will measure 6" x 4 1/2" which gives you two finished pieces for card fronts. Once the stenciled hearts were done I went through my stash of background stamps and found a French script stamp and I inked that with white ink and stamped it over the stenciled hearts. Set these aside to dry. 

Used the Ellen Hutson framed die set and cut out my silver frames from foiled poster board from the Dollar Tree. This is a very thin frame so how to put it on the card front so it is straight and not wavy? 

I cut and scored my red card stock base at the top for the card. Trimmed my heart stencil card front piece to the size I needed for the card. To put the silver frame on the card front and to be sure it was straight I used the center piece this frame die cut out and laid that onto the stencil piece - then I added glue to the back of the frame and laid that over the center piece to keep it straight. Once the thin frame piece was on the card front I removed the center of the frame piece:

Set that aside to dry and I cut out the "Happy Love Day" greeting from the silver poster board and for the shadow piece I used vellum from the stash. Use liquid glue to put those together. Used liquid glue and put the card front on the red card base. Used the same glue to add the greeting to the center of the frame:

The above photo shows the greeting added and it also shows the white background stamp stamped over the stenciled hearts. I stenciled all my cards using this stencil/stamp/die bundle set and half the cards after I stenciled the hearts on I used a small circles stencil and added red circles to the stenciled pieces and here is what that card front looks like:

Happy these cards came together quickly and easily with stenciling a larger piece of card stock at one time. For the inside of the card I used a wooden stamp from the stash and I stenciled one of the red hearts above the stamped image:

Love the larger sized stencil set -- love the fat, curvy hearts and how easily it was stenciled and when done I cut it in half for two card fronts. Certainly saves time ..... ONLY thing I wish this stencil set had was numbers on each stencil so you know which order to stencil them in but I used a black Sharpie marker and numbered them myself. Easy cards to put together for Valentine's Day!

To complete the cards I added holographic sequins from the stash:

Another shopping nudge while tagging along . . .

This morning hubby wanted to run some errands so I decided to tag along but I asked if we could stop at a nearby Restore where he was running an errand to see what they had.... this store never has craft items but a lot of household and building items. We have shopped this Restore before -- my biggest find there was the set of Royal Doulton Mosaic Garden china  I picked up for one dollar a piece and that certainly made me and my china cabinet happy..... but today I came across a first.....

I walked in the store and on the shelves by the front door was lots of paper crafting supplies -- I went through the stacks of 12 x 12 card stock pads and picked up a few of those -- they also had sealed Stampin Up card stock packs and all pads of card stock and packages of card stock were one dollar each:

Also two mats from Fiskars - one dollar each:

There were two bins of stamps - wooden stamps a dollar each and stamp sets from Close To My Heart also marked a dollar each. I picked up two wooden stamps and one of the CTMH stamp sets:

Also brand new Xyron refills for $1 each so I picked those up for my small Xyron:

Also in one of the bins of misc items were die sets for 50 cents:

The die sets I picked up are by CottageCutz as well as a couple from My Favorite Things (MFT stamps) again for 50 cents each. I picked up a loose die for a pillow box and under that is a Christmas stocking die set. Here is the stack of stuffs I picked up and certainly happy I tagged along for errands!

Now to put it all away..... just finished re organizing my card stocks so hoping it will not take long to get things in their new homes.....

Finishing up the Valentine's Day Treat Holders - - -

All my treat holders/bags for this Valentine's Day are all made using this printed card stock from Triplicate that I found on Amazon:

When I decided what treat holders I would make for this year I decided to hit the stash first and see what colour paper gift bags I had on hand from the Dollar Tree. I came across bags that are a brick red and when I saw this paper pad I thought it would be perfect for all my projects this year. I had made my list of projects I wanted to make using my altered clipboard for Valentine's Day so that I could keep track of things I wanted to make..... was just about to start on my last treat holder when.....

www.happycraftershop.com  changed all those plans..... I saw they had a new release out for Valentine's Day and she has the Heart Gift Bag die set and I knew I had to order that right away! Here is a photo of the front of the die packaging:

The backside of the packaging has the stitched lining die pieces for both the bag and the sides. It also has the side pieces and two heart shaped tags..... Here is a photo of just two of the Heart Gift Bags I have put together for this year:

The printed card stock works well with the solid darker red card stock as well as the kraft card stock on the second bag. The kraft card stock is from PaperTreyInk and this die set cut right through that thicker card stock with one pass in the Big Shot with no shims. The nice thing about this die set is both the lining piece for the printed card stock cuts out the front of the bag as well as the handle piece and being all one piece it is easy to put onto your solid bag base. Here is a photo of the red one, front and back:

And the kraft bag:

For the fronts of the bags I used a heart die set and cut out a heart using red glittered card stock. The bows on each bag front are die cut from red foil card stock and I used a bow die set from Scrapbook.com, their brand. 

This bag will hold a lot and would be good to hold embellishments, small die sets, lots of chocolates, etc. The width is approx 5 inches across the front and approx 5 1/8 inches high - from the bottom of the bag to the top of the handle.  Very cute treat holder and very easy to assemble. This is my first die set from the "happycraftershop" and happy I saw it for Valentine's Day treat holders!

 

 

Valentine's Day Treat Holders

Here are some of the treat holders I am working on for Valentine's Day. I bought the Heart Top Box from the new release at My-Creative-Time.com:

This is a four piece die set and very easy to decorate and assemble. You cut the box die out twice for the front and back of the box and the die set has two panel die pieces for the front and sides of this box. Here are photos of the box and showing the side panels:

I used PaperTreyInk kraft card stock for the boxes and the panels are papers from a vintage pad of paper by Triplicate that I bought on Amazon. I used red washi tape from the stash to decorate the top of the box. All I have to do is fill the box with chocolate treats and add a tag.... I used the lollipop die set from MFT Stamps for my Tootsie Pop holder and I used the Sizzix Rosette die for the rosette. The cream doily was die cut from a small doily die from my stash:

Here is a photo of the lollipop die set as well as the Rosette dies I used:

Also my accessories for when I make the rosettes:

First I have a dauber handle tool that I use to make my rosettes with - I punched out a small circle from my brown craft mat and glued that to the bottom of the dauber handle tool. When I use the hot glue to make my rosettes I press down on the top of the rosette using this dauber tool and I do not have to touch the hot glue on the rosette. This next photo shows the circles I have made as patterns for my tulle I use on the rosettes:

I keep the different sized circles in a bag so when I need a certain size I can easy lay it on the tulle and cut out my circle to fit whatever size rosette I make.

Added sparkle red tulle to the front of the rosette and metallic red thread behind the die cut heart I added to the center. This next treat holder was so easy to assemble:

The die set to make this box that holds four Hershey Nugget candies is:

This Art Impression die set has small pieces to die cut card stock pieces for the side panels of the box but I wanted to use scrap pink gingham card stock I had on hand so I just measured the panels and cut out my pieces and put them on the box panels using liquid glue. I used SimonSaysStamp Cotton Candy card stock for my boxes and I die cut a heart from the box top for a window. I used clear sheet to line that cut out piece. To keep boxes closed I used a little velcro dot. 

For the small pillow box treat holders I used a die set from FunStampersJourney to make the box and I used red card stock for those:

Here is a photo of the die set

The hearts I put on the fronts of the pillow boxes are the hearts I had cut out of the pink boxes for the windows:

Still have to add embellishments but mostly done with treat holders and the bags they will go into. Happy to have the Heart Top Box die set from MCT - nice size and free standing!

Who knew????

Who knew???? Had come across a video on YouTube by NB Cards and she was making a project with die cuts and these die cuts had fine lines and she showed her tip to add glue to these finer die cut pieces for her project. Usually when I use finer die cuts I will use the Artist-Tac sheets to add adhesive to the die cut pieces but I was working on a Valentine's Day project and I used a die for "Happy Valentine's Day" with lots of detail and lots of thin lines. . . did not think the Artist-Tac had enough space to adhere well so was not sure how I would add adhesive to the word die pieces until I saw her video. 

She used a silicone brush to add glue to her die cuts --- so here is my new silicone brush:

As she showed in her video I used scissors and cut off the long bristles:

Using a craft mat I squeezed out some TomBow glue and now I could add this glue easily to the finer die cut piece I needed for my project:

Tapped the silicone brush into the glue and then tapped it over the back side of the die cut I needed glue on. I put the die cut on my project and it works great! Rinsed off the silicone brush under warm water and the glue comes right off. Simple idea but certainly will be a time saver for future projects. She has a lot of great videos on her channel with lots of tips and inspiration. Happy I came across her video on adding glue to die cuts and thanks to her for sharing this great idea!

Shopping Share

Does not happen often but Scrapbook.com offered free shipping and items I had looked at before but did not buy, due to price and then the high shipping, were on sale.... Here and there I have ordered from Scrapbook.com but more than once the shipping is higher than the price of the item I want to buy. I have emailed them about the high shipping costs and one time they changed how they would ship my order to me so the cost was lower. But when I order items online I also have to factor in the cost of shipping with each order. But the larger the item the more the shipping will be..... 

Their acrylic ink pad holders I had seen them demonstrate on their YouTube channel and other crafters have shown in use in their craft rooms were on sale -- for 60% off for a set of two -- which is a great sale but with those on sale they were also offering free shipping so I figured it is now or never to order these ink pad holders for storage.... But being acrylic you never know how sturdy something will be or if it will be on the thinner side so maybe not so sturdy but with the sale price and the free shipping? I figured I should see this for myself...  also being larger items the free shipping was a big factor.... so I placed my order...... 

Over time, here and there, I have bought ink pads from Catherine Pooler. In an earlier post I mentioned I had shopped at the Paper Crafting Studio in Greensboro. Unfortunately this next week is their last week in business and they are having a store wide sale. This was a good time to get more of the CP ink pads in colours I know I will use so I bought those at 40% off. Figuring with the acrylic ink pad holders I can keep these ink pads on the counter top and the ink pad holders will keep everything in order. Happy the order from Scrapbook.com arrived yesterday afternoon and I quickly filled three of the four of them up on the work table to see how they will work.

I will say these holders are very sturdy and well made. They arrived packed well and no damage. I was happy the CP inks fit and I can also store the ink refills with the pads. 

Each holder is approx 5" wide and approx 13 1/2" tall. My holders were bought for countertop storing and there are no predrilled holes in the back should you want to hang them on the wall. I bought two sets of the two holders and they normally charge $70.00 for this set of 2. I paid $37.99 each for my two sets of 2 holders and then the free shipping. Happy these will work so well for the CP inks and ink refills. Here is a photo showing other inks I have:

These holders hold distress ink pads, Gina K ink pads - and other brands in that style - Simon Hurley, IO Stamps, Memento, etc. Also both the older and newer style SU ink pads sideways - the only ink pad I have that will not fit sideways is the newer style of the Close To My Heart ink pads but I have another holder I have to hold their ink pads. 

This sale came at a time when after the holidays organizing was in full swing in this craft room so I am happy to be able to finally get these ink pad holders ON SALE plus FREE SHIPPING...... yay!

After Christmas sales and a new release - -

Placed a couple of orders for after the holiday sales at online stores and first is the order from The Greetery:

I bought the "Spring Frame" hot foil plate on the right and their "Char-Cut-erie Board" die. Always happy to get a sale..... the next order is from ScrapDivaDesigns and I finally bought her "Baking Mrs. Clause" die set - she is so cute made up and festive for holiday baking projects.... Also bought her Christmas Gnome die set also which I have wanted since she released it - that is a 25 piece die set and lots of ideas for him. He is a good size so he can be a card by himself, a tag, etc.. Thinking her sale was 25% off which was a good deal.... 

Bought the new release from This Calls For Confetti "Sweet Talk" die set and matching stencil set for Valentine projects ahead: 

Stencil set makes the solid hearts and then the shadow and words for the candy hearts:

Cute release from TCFC and hoping to use those soon..... Always happy when online stores offer sales for more than 10% or 15% off......