Square Pillow BOO Box

 Used a square pillow box die set from Sizzix for my Halloween treat holders:

For these pillow boxes I wanted to use up more of my holiday 6x6 card stocks. A couple of these holders I used one print for the front of the box and another print for the back:

To make the pillow boxes I die cut out all the front and back pieces for the boxes. Stamped my image on white card stock using black ink. Die cut those all out using a circle die. For the lacey scallop pieces behind the stamped house image I used a die set I recently bought on Amazon. For the solid scallop pieces I used a scallop die from my stash to cut those out.  Stamped a greeting stamp onto white card stock using the black ink. Used a banner die set to cut out the greetings and used a banner punch for the ends of the greeting banner. For each banner I die cut out a solid piece of card stock to put behind the greeting banner piece and I used the banner punch on those as well. 

Put the circle pieces together and put the solid and stamped greeting banner pieces together. Used tear and tape and assembled all the pillow boxes. Since the pillow box has a curved shaped I ran the stamped circle stack over the bone folder to give this piece a little curve to it so it was easier to put that on the pillow box front using tear and tape. Used that tape to also add the greeting to the stacked circles piece. Ready to fill with chocolates for BOO Day.  This is a good size pillow box so it will hold lots of treats.Easy treat holder to put together! Here are more photos:

Pumpkin Pops

 Taylored Expressions has their new Halloween release available and I ordered two items. One die set is a their Pumpkin Treat Wrap holder for a Tootsie Pop (or lollipop) as well as their Itty Bitty Tags Halloween die set. Here is a photo of the Pumpkin Treat Wraps I made:

For my holders I used pumpkin coloured card stocks. I cut out the holders and I used three different background stamps to stamp on the holders to give them some dimension. Each holder has a different pattern on it. This die set embosses lines on the front and back pieces of the pumpkins so putting the overlay die onto the pumpkin is easy:

After I die cut the holders out I stamped them with matching inks using the different background stamps. Set these aside to dry and I cut out the overlay pieces - two of the pumpkins I used glittered card stocks for this and one of the pumpkin I used the same card stock I used for the holder and then I sponged that with ink. I put the overlay pieces on the pumpkin base using liquid glue. I put both the overlay pieces and stems on both the front and back of my pumpkin holder. Here is a photo of one of the backs:

Probably could have left the overlay and stem pieces off the back but I think it finishes it off and if you were to use these in a table setting it looks better finished. I used a sprig punch and a border leaf punch from the stash for the leaves on the front. (For photo purposes I put Tootsie Pops in the holders but with DH in the house I am sure these will be long gone sooner than later.... )

I have some small holiday greeting stamps from Morningstarstamps.com that I wanted to use on these holders so when I saw the new TE mini tag set I decided the dies would work out well for the greetings:

I used twine from the stash to close the holders. Added stash sequins to the holders and tags using Glossy Accents. Easy holder to put together and it is free standing so they would even work as a table marker on the Thanksgiving table. Also if you ordered from Taylored Expressions in the past be sure to check your "rewards/points" balance when you order - on this order I used what I had saved in my rewards/points and I saved $16.00 on this order so be sure to check if you should have a balance you can use. 

Craft Room Organization and stuffs - -

 Creativity is not always working when you have time in the craft room but putting things away, organizing, or moving things around can sometimes help to get the creativity flowing again. . . Been working in the craft room this weekend, reorganizing and moving things around. . .  again . . .

To start with DH recently went to one of his swap meets and he came home with large glass jars with lids for me for the craft room. Awhile back he had built me two holders for my mason jars that I have clothespins in and when he saw the larger jars he thought I would be happy to have those as well. Here is a photo of one of the holders he made for the mason jars for me using wood from a free pallet:

In June we attended the NC301 Yard Sale that covers over 100 miles. One of the sellers had a lot of the old wooden crates that soda came in. I picked up an old wooden Pepsi tray for $10.00 and brought it home for the craft room. DH lightly power washed it to clean it up and I brought it in the craft room but was not sure what I wanted to use it for. Once DH came home with the large jars from the swap meet I knew they would work well together. I cleaned the jars and the lids but for the most part the lids were covered in dirt and rust so after I cleaned them up DH lightly sanded them and we spray painted them red and I put them to use shortly after that. Here is a photo of them:

I took all my beads/jewelry supplies out of the drawers of the Alex units and sorted everything into clear bags into the jars. With the jars being clear I can see at a glance what I am looking for and it has worked out well since I moved everything to the jars. An earlier trip to Hobby Lobby they had their "Spring Shop" items on sale for 66% off so I bought two of the metal containers - a medium and a larger one. The medium is in the bead tray and that holds all the jewelry making tools - pliers:

The larger container holds my corner chomper and my eyelet setter (with direction sheet for sizes):

My eyelets are in the drawer nearby so having these tools in this area is a good idea. Plus since these tools and the jewelry tools/pliers are heavy the metal containers work well. While I was moving things around and sorting I decided to centralize my hot foil system and supplies.....

I have the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine and of course with that comes all the supplies you need..... so I decided to clean off one of my Ikea Raskog carts and put all hot foil supplies together:

Foiling is very pretty but you have to be mindful of dust particles so I decided I would keep everything covered. On the bottom part of the Raskog cart is a clear container with a snap on lid from Walmart (sold in the office supply/school supply section) and in that container is the Glimmer Hot Foil machine and cord.  On the second shelf are two containers with lids from Ikea (Kuggis brand) and I have the hot foil rolls in there. They are all out of their store packaging in these containers and I labeled the inside of the rolls with the package bar code and product colour so I can reorder easily when they are gone. I also have a soft brush to brush away any dust on my card stock before I foil it.  These boxes are very sturdy and stackable so that is nice. 

The top part of the cart has a larger Kuggis container and I have all my hot plates w dies in that. I used the We R Memory Keepers tab punch board and made dividers so the plates/dies are organized. Behind that bin is the Spellbinders foil trimmer that my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) had gifted me and I keep it there for easy access. I keep this cart right next to my table DH had built for my die cutting machine so when I want to hot foil I can just wheel the cart over to the table and all my supplies are together for foiling. The cart makes it easy to move around as well as to keep all foiling items organized and together for use. 

I do not have many but I do have a few of the ink pads from Catherine Pooler. Altho the ink pads stack nicely there is no labeling on them so when you stack them you can only see the top of the top ink pad so you do not know what the colours are. I used scissors and cut apart small Avery labels I had in my craft room to label the ink pads. I used a dauber to put ink on the label pieces and then put them on one end of the ink pads. At least now I can see what ink pads I have:

Always happy when things move along and happy to say I got a lot accomplished.... always more to do but sometimes we have to stop the organizing and moving things around just to be able to craft again -- working on some Fall projects so at least those are getting started:

Busy weekend in the craft room and things are coming along.... but are we EVER done???   ;0) 

Queen & Co Holiday Jar Kit

 My Queen & Co Holiday Jar Kit arrived this weekend and am looking forward to using it. Here is a photo:

These jars can be made into shakers or you can use them for card making, embellishments, etc.. With their kits you get the dies, stamps, foam for shakers, shaker pieces, stamps, and a 6x6 pad of card stocks. So many dies with this set -- including a rocking horse! Looking forward to getting this in use in my craft room:

So many holiday icon dies! Plus they include a die guide sheet so you can see what dies you need to use to complete your holiday icon:

and the stamps for both the inside of your cards as well as for outside or maybe tags:

Foam pieces for shakers:

and their 6x6 pad of card stock:

Plus Queen & Co sell kit refills on their website if you should need to reorder more pieces for your projects. I have other kits of theirs and they are all good quality products. This will be a good start for the Christmas projects and cards ahead. . . Busy, busy..... but fun!

Dollar Tree find - -

 Recent trip to Dollar Tree I picked this up:

Have this on the craft table with the shammy for stamp cleaning. Here is a wooden stamp I used and cleaned off and it was not dry after I wiped it off:

After I wiped the stamp off I rubbed it onto the Dollar Tree microfiber pad and now the moisture is off the stamp:

This way the stamp and go back into the box for storage, clean and dry.  Had not seen this pad at my Dollar Tree before but already it has been put to use in this craft room and so far? So good.....

Hey Cupcake! Halloween Embellishments

 Had seen these Halloween Embellishments made by Petra Smieszkol on her YouTube channel. Although I have the auto translate on YouTube I still had to figure things out and so I did - - -  Here are three of the Halloween Embellishments I made inspired by Petra's idea:

I did recognize the die she used for her witch legs and shoes so I decided to dig through my Halloween dies and find it -- here it is:

This is the "Mix and Match Witches Legs" die set from FranticStamper.com. For the base of her embellishment she used a postage stamp edge die and I also have a set like that in the stash and mine is the "Postage Dies" by Pink & Main:

I used the second largest die in the set for my embellishment base. For the witch's skirt I used three different Halloween cupcake liners - when you cut apart the cupcake liner you cut it into four pieces so this is a very economical project as your cupcake liners will go a long way. For my witch shoes I cut them all out of foil (mirror) black card stock:

For the buckles on the above photo I used silver foil (mirror) card stock. Used liquid glue to add them to the shoes. This next photo I used silver card stock for the lace holes on her shoes:

and for the buckles on these shoes I used holographic card stock for extra shine:

The assembly for my version of Petra's embellishments is:

Die cut the black embellishment base using the postage die and #110 weight card stock in black. Used a ruler to measure and used the trimmer to cut my printed card stock background pieces. Using liquid glue I put all the prints onto the black postage die cut pieces. Set those aside to dry.

Using scraps I die cut the witch legs. Using foil (mirror) card stock I die cut the shoes. Again using scraps I die cut the buckles for the shoes. I assembled the legs and the shoes and set those aside. Using scissors I cut the cupcake liners into four pieces, cutting away the center of the cupcake liner first. I used tear and tape to layer my cupcake liner pieces for her skirt. Used the Bow It All and made the black and white ribbon bow for the top of her skirt. 

Used tear and tape and glue dots to put the legs/shoes onto the black embellishment base. Used tear and tape to put the skirt over the legs. Used hot glue to add the bow to the top of the skirt and added a crystal from the stash to the center of the bow. Used various sequins from the stash and put them on the embellishment base using Glossy Accents. 

Easy embellishments to put together and a fun way to use cupcake liners. I have used them in the past for layered rosettes but that is all. This is a cute embellishment for the BOO Day projects already in progress in this craft room. A big thanks to Petra for sharing her fun idea! Here are more embellishments using this idea but with a belt on the skirt and gems:

For the belt I used a 1 3/4" circle punch and punched out a black circle. I used a 2 1/4" circle and punched out a circle out over the smaller circle in the black card stock and this gave me a circle frame piece. I used tear and tape and put this onto the cupcake liner skirt top and used scissors to trim that to the size I needed. For the crystal/gem I used glue dots and hot glue to add that to the skirt belt. For the shoes I added gems to those and for the purple socks I had them showing above the shoes:

Clear crystals on these shoes:

and orange crystals on this pair using hot glue:

As with the other embellishments I added sequins using the Glossy Accents for extra sparkle and shine. Fun embellishments to put together and a fun use for the cupcake liners other than using them for rosette embellishments. 

Tomb Sweet Tomb Treat Holder

 Wanted to make a treat holder using the Headstone die from Tim Holtz:

Looking at the photo on the packaging for this die you can see the headstone is leaning to the one side like it is very old and settling into the ground. I wanted to add a box insert to my pieces so I had to die cut two pieces - front and back - for my treat holder:

So that my headstones would be straight and level I used a ruler and a pencil to make a straight edge at the bottom - cut across this line using scissors:

Using the #110 weight gray card stock from Mikes for my holder I also cut a smaller piece to make the box insert to put between the front and back headstone pieces for my treat holder. Here is the front of my treat holder:

Once my two headstone pieces were die cut I used this background stamp from Technique Junkies and gray ink to stamp on my headstone pieces:

Once they were stamped I used black ink and sponged the edges of the pieces. For the pumpkins/branch/leaves pieces on the treat holder I used a Fall wreath icon die set from Frantic Stamper. I had used this die set last year for a Thanksgiving card I made:

Using scrap card stocks I die cut the pumpkins/leaves and wreath base piece. But I cut the wreath base piece apart so I could put this on both sides of my front headstone piece. I sponged brown ink onto the wreath piece to add a darker brown to it and then cut it apart. I put it on the headstone piece using liquid glue. For the grass piece I used a grassy edge punch by M Stewart and scrap green card stock. Once that was punched out I cut it to size and sponged green ink on it. Put it on the bottom of the die cut piece using tear and tape at the bottom only so I could tuck in a ghost and a pumpkin behind the grassy piece. For the leaves I cut them out of scraps and sponged them with various inks to add more dimension to them. Here is a better photo of the layers at the bottom of the die cut piece:

I added mini stars and glittered black card stock bats to the front of the headstone using liquid glue. For the skull and crossbones piece I used a Halloween Icon die set recently on sale at Frantic Stamper:

I stamped "tomb sweet tomb" from a Jaded Blossoms stamp set using black ink. I used tear and tape on the box insert of the treat holder and put the back headstone and front headstone pieces onto that. Easy treat holder to assemble once all die cutting was complete. Here is a photo to show the box insert that will hold the holiday treats:

Holographic Fry Box

 Had seen a Halloween treat holder done by Paper to Masterpiece on YouTube using a fry box die with holographic card stock. He had used sparkly holographic card stock and although I have some of that card stock mine was from AC Moore and rather than a paper base it has a plastic base so when you die cut something using it the layers will peel apart. But I do have the holographic card stock from Park Lane at Joanns so I used that for my Halloween fry boxes. For the base of my fry boxes I used #110 weight gray card stock from Mikes:

I did have a fry box die in my stash but it is a smaller size:

In his video he suggested buying the die set he used from Ebay which I did. I bought my die set from KSCrafts and it is the Elegant French Fry Box die set. I saw the die set was from China and I did not expect it to be delivered for a month or so with COVID restrictions and all but 9 days after I ordered the die set it arrived in the mail and post marked from NYC. Here is the photo of the die set as it comes in the packaging:

I cut the pieces apart for use and put them in an envelope for storage: 

If you use the edge die piece with the lattice die pieces you can cut out your panels for the front of the fry box as well as the front of the back of the fry box. If you just want to use the edge die piece without the lattice die pieces you can cut out holiday printed card stocks for the front of the fry box and the front of the back of the fry box. This die set cut through the holographic card stock with no problem on the first pass through the die cutting machine. 

The only decoration I have on the fry boxes are the leaves/swirls/flowers I used glittered card stock and silver foil card stocks for:

When I get closer to Halloween I can always add things to the box front or a greeting strip or something. For both boxes I used the eyelet die pieces for the edges to the boxes. One box I used black card stock for that and the other I used the holographic card stock:

Here are the two fry boxes together:

Thanks to Paper to Masterpiece for sharing his cute Halloween fry box treat holder. It is a good size and the #110 weight card stock makes it very sturdy. It is a nice die set.