Altered Dollar Tree items

Had seen a video on YouTube by  "Jody's Craft Room"  using the Halloween thin wooden shapes from the Dollar Tree altered so I thought I would give it a try. . .   Here is a photo of these thin wooden shapes before I started:

I already had craft paints on hand so I used colours I have. Dies I used are from my stash from various manufacturers. Small Halloween wooden shapes are from Hobby Lobby:

One of these shapes is the spiderweb I used on the ghost. Flowers were also from Hobby Lobby when their PaperStudio brand was on sale for fifty percent off. For the "BOO" and the eyes/mouth for the ghost I used black glittered card stock from Hobby Lobby. For the black card stock for behind the pumpkin I used #110 black card stock from Mikes that I cut with scissors to fit behind the pumpkin. To make a pattern I laid the pumpkin on a sheet of white/GP card stock and traced around it with a light pencil line. I used scissors to cut that shape out cutting about 1/4" inside the shaped line so that the black piece could not be seen on the edges of the pumpkin. Here is a photo of the pattern piece:

I used liquid glue to put the black card stock behind the pumpkin. Here is a photo of my altered items and a big thanks to Jody for her inspiration! 

Bling it on -- decided to add a couple of touches to these altered items. For the pumpkin I die cut "Happy Halloween" from black foil card stock and put that on the upper left side of the pumpkin:

I also used clear Wink of Stella over the petals on the flowers for some shimmer:

For the ghost piece I added clear Wink of Stella to the die cut fence piece at the bottom:

Set these aside for holiday decorating now that they are finished.  TFL

The work out. . .

Certainly the glass craft mat on my work table is getting quite the work out lately -- so much so that I had to clear it off to clean off glue and residues from craft products:

Used a kleenex and Goo Gone and cleaned off all the glue residue and such off the glass We R Memory Keepers mat on my work table. Once the mat was cleaned off I used a baby wipe and wiped off the mat to get any Goo Gone off of it. With that done I dried it off with a paper towel and back to work for the mat:

Lots of projects are "in the works" in the craft room ---

Still don't understand why when I watch a FREE video on YouTube that it costs me money on Amazon?????  hahaha.... wondering if Amazon actually owns YouTube???????     ;0)

Went to a larger Dollar Tree this week in an area I don't usually get to shop in - they were setting up a full Craft Section and happy me I was able to located something to bring home.....

They sell craft paints, chip board shapes, glass bottles, glitter, glue remover, scissors, an exacto knife with different blades, Aileene's glue, sequins, etc.... the gal setting it up said the larger stores will all have this section so something to keep checking out to see what all they will be carrying.....

Also -- DH was driving us earlier this week to a Hobby Lobby and we ended up behind a tractor trailer with the cutest bumper sticker on the back door -- I took a photo with my phone but it is not very clear -- the bumper sticker reads "Blinky thing means I am turning"......   I read it and DH did not know what I was laughing about so I had to take that photo to show him and I told him what it said.  Cute sticker....

I am supposed to be finishing my fall cards and get those mailed out this week but wanted to share about the Dollar Tree and such.   TFL

Wicked Hershey Bar Treat Holder

My SU order for the "wicked" die set arrived this week and I wanted to put it to use right away. I had seen this video by Lisa on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woq0p8h7bnU

She has a very easy pattern for this treat holder using a piece of 6x6 card stock or if you use a sheet of 12x12 card stock you can make four treat holders. Some companies offer a die for the Hershey bar treat holder but just using a score board will give you the same results. Here is a photo of two of the treat holders I put together that have the candy bars inside:

Here is another photo to show when you pull on the ribbon bow the candy bar is exposed:

I made other treat holders but will wait until we are closer to BOO Day to put the candy bars in the holders. (DH has already eaten one of the sample candy bars in the photo.... ;0)   This way I will have fresh treats for the holiday).

Here is a photo of the other treat holders I made but they are still flat and not closed:

Since I will not be putting the candy bars in these other holders until the end of October I typed up the directions Lisa gives on her video to keep in the storage pouch for this project with the holders I have ready and pieces/parts that are extra:

Having the directions inside with the holders that have to be assembled will remind me what to do to finish them -- where to put the tear and tape to close it, to use the crimper on one end, to sponge the edges, and to add the sequins, etc.. A big thanks to Lisa for sharing such an easy treat holder and happy I was able to use some of the prints from my 6x6 holiday paper pads!

I will say with Stampin Up discontinuing their Sizzix Big Shot machine and chatter out there suggests they are changing their dies and you would need a new machine to use the new dies I did not order from their holiday catalog.  I have far too many dies already to have to switch to a new die cutting machine for some other dies..... But in Lisa's video she used the new "wicked" die set and she easily cut them out using the Big Shot machine so that sold me on ordering this die set. So thanks to Lisa for the inspiration!

Amazon share

With me working on BOO Day projects as well as Fall/Thanksgiving and Christmas projects lots of "project piles" were showing up in the craft room.  These piles were getting out of hand and inspiration to finish was fading .... fast.....

My new arrival from Amazon arrived earlier this week and already piles are fading.....   I bought these plastic snap closure envelopes off Amazon in a set of 30 envelopes:

These envelopes are approx 9" x 13" and you can see through them so no labeling is required. Here are two of these envelopes in use for my ongoing BOO Day projects:

I have all the pieces for the BOO Day treat bags in one envelope and in the other are die cut pieces I will be turning into treat holders for BOO Day.  Here is a photo to show the detail of the envelope:

The snap closure keeps all the small pieces inside the envelope and you can get a lot of items in these envelopes. These envelopes would be perfect for crops and classes and anywhere else you would need to take your paper craft projects with you. In this envelope I have all the pieces to my treat holders except I have not yet cut the insert pieces to make these into a treat holder.  But when I have the time to do that I can put them in the envelope for assembly and filling later.

Another good thing about using these envelopes for projects in progress is nothing on the work table will get lost in the "project piles" or stuck somewhere they should not be.  Plus I keep these filled envelopes together in a basket and this keeps the work table cleared off - which seems to be an ongoing challenge for this crafter...   ;0)       Also sometimes my time is short in the craft room so with the envelopes and all the pieces/parts together I can work on one of the projects that is already started rather than start another one. 

Amazon sells a variety of these clear plastic snap closure envelopes in different quantities and sizes but I bought the larger quantity in this size because I plan to use these envelopes for projects and also for storing some other items in the craft room.  This is another good purchase off Amazon for the craft room - esp with helping getting things organized - which certainly is an on going project in itself for this crafter . . .

Hey Ghoulfriend!

BOO Day treat bags -- have started those and still working on them but have four of them done and here they are:

and also:

Bought the paper bags from the Dollar Tree.  Witchcraft die is from Sizzix. Miscellaneous holiday printed card stocks are from the stash.  Used various black trims from the stash as well as the sequins. "Wicked" is a Sizzix die and I used glittered rust card stock from Hobby Lobby for that. Cheesecloth is from Mikes.

When I cut out the witch I decided to "dress" her to show the detail of this die. For the black cat I used flocked black card stock so the cat has a soft texture. The white die cut piece the witch is on uses a die from AliExpress. It cuts a smaller framed piece but I wanted to use the die for the bag front so I measured the width of the die and cut white/GP card stock to that width. I measured the front of the bag and decided the length I wanted the white framed piece to be and I cut all white pieces to that length. I then die cut the ends of the white pieces only to give the top and bottom edges some dimension. With all the white die cut pieces done I sponged the edges of the white pieces using black Memento ink. Used a small background stamp and stamped all the white pieces with black ink.

Using various prints from the stash I cut them large enough for the front of the paper bags and a bit larger than the die cut white/GP pieces. I used tear and tape to put the prints on the bag fronts. Using liquid glue (I used Beacon 3 in 1 glue) I put the 'dress' on the witch. Set those aside to dry. Using various black trims I put the trim on the left side of the printed pieces on the bag fronts trimming those to the length I would need. Some black trims I added silver sparkle gem strips to to give the trim some sparkle and shine. Using the same liquid glue for the witch dress I added the witches to the white pieces. Set them aside to dry. For some of the bag fronts I added cut white cheesecloth and other bags do not have it. I trimmed the cheesecloth to the size I wanted for the bag fronts.

With the trim on the bag front I used tear and tape and put the dried white pieces to the bag fronts over the cheesecloth pieces. I did not use adhesive for the cheesecloth since it is so thin. The tear and tape holding the white bag fronts to the bags will hold it in place.  Used Glossy Accents and added sequins to the white pieces around the witch - carefully leaving space to add my cat later. Used red tape to add the black cat to the witch fronts.

These bags will be used to put Halloween treat holders in so they are just the right size to hold a few of the treat holders.  Have a few more to finish and then onto another project. TFL

Dollar Tree Stop

Stopped at the Dollar Tree over the weekend and picked up a few things for projects I am working on.  I had seen this sign and decided to pick that up knowing I would be adding to it:

Decided to add a fall coloured bow and two pumpkin buttons I had in my stash:

Also picked up a couple of packages of thin wooden painted and glittered pumpkin stickers. Earlier this year I picked up a used Fun Stampers Journey Pillow Box die at a sale.  This is a small pillow box that measures 2" x 3".  Wanted to use the pumpkin stickers on the fronts of the pillow boxes but did not want to use the pumpkin stickers as they were.  I had picked up layered sunflower stickers on sale at Hobby Lobby so I added those to the pumpkins. The layered sunflowers have a pop dot between the two flower layers as well as a pop dot on the back of them. Using both of the pop dots would make the Sunflowers too high for my pumpkin fronts so I peeled the pop dot off the backs and used hot glue to put the sunflowers onto the pumpkin fronts. I also used a sprig punch from M Stewart and punched out sprigs to put behind my sunflower stickers.  For the sprigs I used gold foil poster board from the Dollar Tree. For the belly bands around the pillow boxes I used scrap autumn themed card stock. Here are the pumpkins:

Here is a photo of the pillow boxes with the billy bands in place:

And the pumpkins on the pillow boxes:

An easy treat holder for Autumn ready for chocolate treats. Happy I found this small pillow box die at a great price and with it making a small pillow box it will be a treat holder for just a few treats. TFL

Time's Up . . .

Time's up. . .   Summer has come and gone, online sales have brought more products into the craft room, craft stores have had "lowest prices of the season" -- whatever that means, and so it goes... but time is up.... Time to stop working on all the projects I have started and find the top of the work table DH built me in 2017....  to put all new to the craft room products away, to stop trying to re organize or move things around.... Seems I have spent more time doing things in the craft room that do not end with completed projects... So this weekend I decided I will finish all the sorting, taking product out of packaging and putting things away where they belong.

Here is a photo of the top of the work table that I honestly have not seen in awhile but am glad it is still there!

Decided to keep my Bow-It-All on the work table top so I can get to it easily for use:

I put the Stamparatus on top of the MISTI in the same slot to free up a slot for the Bow-It-All in the white storage bag. Next to these items is a clear bin from Bed Bath & Beyond that holds refills for the ATG. Above the Bow-It-All is a cabinet storage rack from Walmart that is plastic coated. This rack can be used in the kitchen to hold pan lids.  I use it to hold my score boards - Two M Stewart boards, (one is for the craft room and the extra is for classes), also two of the Scor-Pal regular sized score boards - one for inches and the other is centimeters. Also have a mini Scor-Pal - again for classes. I also keep my small Fiskars trimmer in this rack. Here is the other side of the work table:

This side of the table has the Pamper's Chef tool caddy on a lazy susan from Bed Bath & Beyond with a Post It note holder and the holder for my stamp cleaning cloth. I keep my white/GP card stock in one slot and the bottom slot has the white #110 card stock from Mikes. I use a lot of white card stock so keeping it handy on the work table works well. The holder that has the slots I picked up long ago at a Restore. It was used under kitchen cabinets over a mini desk area to hold desk items. I am happy when DH built my work table that he knew I would want to keep using this piece so he made sure it would fit on the work table.

Happy I have found the table top once again and things are put away. Hope to finish the rest of the craft room over the weekend so next week I will be all set to get back to the BOO Day, Fall and Thanksgiving, and also Christmas projects I have already started....  Sometimes we just have to stop and clean and sort items so we can begin again with a clean work table for our creativity.  TFL

New arrival to the craft room

Happy to say my Bow It All - V.3  arrived and is now in the craft room.  Had seen lots of crafters using this tool on YouTube videos and blog postings so I decided to buy one for myself. Amazon sells these and with Prime shipping that is free and in a couple of days it arrives!

The first bow I wanted to make was a Double Looped Bow so using gingham ribbon from:

www.reasonableribbon.com 

They have a good variety of ribbons and such with good prices. With upcoming BOO Day (Halloween) projects already started in my craft room I thought the black and white gingham bows would be good additions. Here is a photo of the box:

Inside the box is the bow working board in a zippered bag and a all the tools needed to use the bow maker:

On the sides of the bow working board you can store all the ribbon pegs and the wrench to tighten your ribbon pegs. You can keep the ribbon spools, the plastic "helping hands", and the scissors in the zippered bag for storage. This tool comes with a how-to booklet as well as a thin supplement booklet so you can begin making bows right away.

The first bow I made is the Double Loop Bow and here is a photo of that:

Easy peasy!! This is going to be a good addition to my craft room since now I will be able to make a variety of bows but also a very small bow all the way up to a large bow. There are lots of videos on YouTube for the how-to's for this product for inspiration but I especially am happy I can also use up my one sided printed ribbons to make nice bows with both sides of the print showing on the bow. When you are making your bows you are also looking at the front of the bow the whole time so you can straighten your ribbons or loops out before you tie it off and remove it from the pegs.

You can also use this tool to make tassels and pom poms so lots to use it for.  Have to make a spot on my workbench table to keep it nearby as I am sure with the upcoming holidays my ribbons will be getting used up -- finally!! ;0)

Now you see it . . . now you don't . . .

The vanishing die trick -- bring a new die home to the craft room, (or warehouse as DH calls it), put it away and POOF!  Now you see it. . . now you don't . . .

I have all my thinlit/framelit dies on magnet sheets in bins from Bed Bath & Beyond on the work table that DH built for me that can hold the weight of the dies and the sheets. All the dies are in the bins together and I used the We R Memory Keepers tab punch board to make card stock dividers using #110 weight card stock from Mikes. But decided I did not need the two big holiday dies in those bins -- BOO Day (Halloween) and Christmas.  It would be easier for me working on projects to keep all those dies together in their own bins. . .

So I separated the BOO Day dies into a smaller bin and the Christmas dies into a larger bin of their own. . .  but as I put new additions in the bins these dies seemed to have vanished . . . where is it? what do I have? I forgot about that one . . . and so it goes. Decided today was the day I would finish with the tabbed dividers in the two holiday bins.  Here is a photo of the new dividers and my BOO Day dies:

In the back of the bin I have my LDRS dies that are taller and behind that is a couple of Cheery Lynn border dies that are longer dies. Here is a better photo to show the labels and tabs:

To start this project I had to decide what size dividers I wanted to use. For both of my bins I decided on a piece of #110 card stock from Mikes and I cut that to 7"  x 5 1/2". This way out of one sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" I would get two divider pieces. Using the We R Memory Tab Punch board I punched out all my tabbed pieces - one with left top tab, one with a middle top tab, and one with a right top tab. I used the large markings for all my tabs.

For the names on the dividers I wrote out all the names of Halloween things - spiderwebs, pumpkins, haunted houses, etc.  Using the Dymo label maker I made all the labels to the list I had written out. With all the labels printed and trimmed I stacked them in a pile alphabetically.  Took all the punch board tabbed dividers I had made and I put them in order - left tab, then middle tab, then right tab and repeated this until all my tabbed dividers were in a stack. One by one I added a label to the tabs keeping the stack stacked.

Took all the dies out of the bin and began the re-organizing of these dies.  Now all my pumpkins are together, all the ghosts are together, etc.. But there are some Halloween dies that come in a set - IE a haunted house with a tree, a bat, a pumpkin, etc  so I made a special divider just for "sets" so those will be kept together in one section.  With the tabbed dividers all punched out and labels printed it did not take long to start organizing the dies. Plus with me keeping them this way I am also saving on the magnet sheets ---which I am sure will get used by the time I finish the Christmas dies bin... For the Halloween dies I decided on orange dividers and for the Christmas dies I am using green. This way when I look at the bins on the work table shelves I can see at a glance which holiday bin I need to pull out and put on the top of the work table for use.

Only makes sense to make it easier to find the dies so I will use them... no sense in buying the dies that I "had to have"  or  "needed"  to just store it away unused. 

Photos of the Christmas die bin:

Much easier to find dies for sure for the holiday projects. In the back of the Christmas bin I have a couple of my favorite dies and I keep them in plastic envelopes with the magnet sheet and packaging:

The Elizabeth Craft Santa die and behind that is the Sizzix Poinsettias die set. With organizing the bin I have extra magnet sheets and certainly "found" dies I forgot I had! ;0)       TFL

Did someone say shower? ? ?

Just finished making a mini wreath that is all over YouTube using one of the plastic snap closure shower curtain rings by Mainstays at Walmart. They are sold in a set of 12 cheap so you could make 12 of these up without spending too much....

This is my first one and rather plain but I have lots of bits and pieces of this and that I can dress them up with. For mine I used the green pipe cleaners (chenille stems) from Hobby Lobby and the bows I had bought off Amazon.  I used hot glue to put the pipe cleaners on the curtain hooks. The shiny red flower is also from Hobby Lobby and I used a leaf punch for the gold leaf pieces:

Not a great photo of the flower. . . Here is a photo to show the tiny sequins that are on the bow:

With the sparkly holiday pipe cleaners you could make up a lot of these in different colours and decorate each one differently. There are lots of videos on YouTube showing the how to's to make this wreath and after watching a couple of different videos it is easy to figure it out whichever way you want to make it. Do not know who originated this idea but thanks to them for a cute new idea for a Christmas ornament/package or gift bag tie on.  TFL

Autumn Treat Bag

Here is a photo of the treat bag I made for Autumn - it can also be changed out to be used for Thanksgiving as well:

Recent trip to the Dollar Tree brought home kraft gift bags and fall flowers. Decided I would make an Autumn Treat Bag using these items. Here are the flower bundles I picked up:

Although I like the colours of the flowers they sit too high for my bag front. I used wire cutters and snipped just below the flowers to remove the wired stems. With this done I put the flowers onto the cookie rack I have in the craft room that I had picked up at the thrift store:

With the flowers on the rack I then spritzed them with the Pearls Shimmer Mist to give them a little sparkle. Set these aside to dry.  Once dried I pulled out the stem/flower center pieces they came with and I used a small brad to hold the three layers of the flowers together. I did not want to keep them as high as they were made for my bag fronts. Easy thing to do and I think the brad gives them a much softer look.

For the print on the bag front I used old card stock from the stash and die cut the panel out using the Cheery Lynn die set I had bought from a used stamping sale for $5 earlier this year. I used the largest die in that set. I cut out one of the panel pieces using the printed card stock and then die cut 2 pieces of cream #110 weight card stock from Mikes. Stacked these three layers together using the ATG.

For the foil leaves/sprig pieces by the flowers I used the foiled poster board I recently picked up from the Dollar Tree:


The packs have a variety of sheets in them so you have a lot of choices to work with. I like this because it is like a brushed mirrored card stock and it is a little heavier than the mirrored card stock. I used a leaf punch from EK Success for the leaf pieces and the small sprigs were punched out using a punch from M Stewart.

Used cream card stock from the stash and cut out a large doily using the large doily die from Cheery Lynn. Used a circle punch and punched out a printed card stock circle to put in the center of the doily. Used the ATG for that. With the panel piece done I used a sponge and sponged the edges of the panel piece with matching ink. For the orange/gold ribbon I used tear and tape to put those two pieces across the panel piece. Trimmed the ends off equal to the sides of the panel. I have one ribbon piece at the top of the panel and one at the bottom of it.

For the pumpkin -- I used scrap card stocks and die cut the pumpkin pieces and layered them two or three times for dimension. Used a printed card stock for the pumpkin center piece:

Sponged the edges of the pumpkin pieces and layered them together using the ATG.  Used a die from the stash for "autumn"  and cut that out using the Dollar Tree gold poster board. Put that across the pumpkin front using Glossy Accents. With all the pieces for the bag now done and cut out I assembled it all.

Put the doily/circle piece on the panel front over the ribbon pieces using the ATG. Put the pumpkin on the bottom of the doily piece over the ribbon using pop dots and tear and tape.  For the flowers I needed something to mount them on as I did not want to just glue them to the panel. I used a circle punch to punch out a circle - used hot glue to put the flowers on that. Added the leaf/sprig pieces under the flowers. Punched out a second circle to cover all this under the flowers:

Put the second circle on the flowers circle to give it a cleaner look and I used tear and tape to put the fine gold thread under the flower piece. Put this onto the doily on the panel piece. Wanted to add some more gold to the bag so I used a doily border die from Close To My Heart and die cut the border out of the same gold poster board from the Dollar Tree:

The die cut the gold board on the first pass through the machine. I used scissors and cut the border length in half and put this at the top and the bottom of the panel using red sticky tape:

Using Glossy Accents I added random fall coloured sequins to the doily piece on the panel. This panel was easy to put together once I had done all the flowers and they were dry. Each panel will look different depending on what fall printed card stock I use from the stash. The "autumn" die can also be changed to using "Blessings" or "Thankful" if you wanted to make treat bags for Thanksgiving.

Easy bag to decorate and I like that all of them will look different depending on what card stocks I can dig out of the stash!!  TFL