Patriotic Strips Card

Had not bought anything from Jaded Blossoms for a long time as they have been releasing products mainly for their Gnomes line of products until their new "America Strong" release for the 4th of July. This stamp and die set I bought is for the 250th birthday for the USA. Here is a photo of the stamp and die set I bought:

and the die set:

When I ordered these two items I had a different card layout in mind for my 4th of July cards I wanted to make but then I saw a video on YouTube by "On Y Go! Stamping" showing her zig zag card pattern. I watched her video and tried to follow how she made her card but had issues... she says in her video to be careful that the strips stay straight ... well mine were not:

So here is a photo of my card and I will explain what I did to keep my strips straight:

I did follow her pattern for her strips and mine are cut 1/4", 1/2", and cut in between those two and I cut them all to 2 3/4" long. For my card I used a piece of navy card stock from the stash cut and scored at the top. For the card front I used a piece of white card stock 4" x 5 1/4".  I used scraps and a patriotic paper pad "Americana" by Pebbles and I had bought that paper pad long ago from Tuesday Morning. I cut all the strips I would need to cover the white card front piece - I cut 13 of these. I laid them out and put them in the order that I wanted them in and then I turned them over. 

Using the grid lines on my Glassboard craft mat I laid all the strips out next to each other - some higher and some lower than others to make the zig zag look. Using Scotch tape I cut small strips of tape to lay across the strips to keep them touching each other and together:

Turned over to show the front:

With all the strips taped together on the back I took a ruler and made a light pencil line across my strips so I cut take this to the trimmer to cut my strips where I wanted for my card front. Once it was cut I used liquid glue to put the strips at the top of my white card front and again used liquid glue for the longer strips piece for the bottom of my white card front. Set the card front aside to dry. 

Using scrap white card stock I stamped one of the stamps from the "America Strong" stamp set using Night blue ink pad from SimonSaysStamp (stash item).  Used the matching die and cut that out. I also cut out another piece to put my sentiment on to make it more sturdy. I used liquid glue to put the two die cut pieces together for the card front. 

I put the white card front strips piece onto the navy card base using liquid glue. Put pop dots behind the die cut sentiment piece and put that on the card front. Pulled out some star shaped gems from the stash and put those on the card front. Fun card to assemble and good use for scraps in the stash as well as a fun layout. Thanks to "On Y Go! Stamping" for sharing her card layout idea and directions!

Cover Plate BOO Treat Bag

Stash or cash - Putting cover plates away and saw the cover plate I had bought last year on sale from Catherine Pooler "Who's There?". Although I used it for the front of a card last Halloween I wanted to use this cover plate again for the front of the BOO Treat Bags for this year. Here is a photo of the cover plate on the card I made for Halloween:

I decided to look through my stash of paper gift bags and I have some black bags so I decided to use them. Here is a photo of one of the bags I made:

First I cut out a piece of black card stock and using holographic silver foil I hot foiled the Spellbinders Better Press Spider web press plate. Once that was done I used the cover plate and cut out that of the spiderweb foiled piece. Cut a piece of lime green card stock to fit behind the cover plate piece. Used liquid glue to put the foiled piece onto the lime green card stock. Cut a piece of white card stock to put this cover plate piece on for the front of the bag. Went through the stash and found a black and white polka dot card stock to cut for the bag front. Once that was cut I cut a piece of lime green card stock to put that onto. Used liquid glue for all the layers on the bag front. Once those were glued onto the bag fronts and drying I decided to make crepe paper fringe for the top and bottom of the bag. I only wanted to use black and white so I cut three pieces of black crepe paper and then three pieces of white crepe paper that were a little longer than the width of the bag. I layered these up starting with white, then black, and so on and the top layer is black. Hot glued these together as I stacked the layers. Once that was done I used my fringe scissors by Martha Stewart and cut the fringe the length of the crepe paper. I used hot glue and put the fringe pieces at the top and the bottom of the bags. Used scissors to trim off the pieces that were over the edges of the bags. Scrunched up the crepe paper with my hands both top and bottom pieces.

For the "boo" I used this die in the stash by Poppy Stamps:

I used lime green and mirror black card stocks for the "Boo Outline" sentiments for my bags. I used liquid glue and foam dots to put the "boo" on the bags and each circle in the letter "boo" fit over the center of the spider web on my hot foiled backgrounds perfectly:

For the white ghosts I used an old Sizzix steel ruled die from the stash "Ghosts 2" and I cut them out of white glittered card stock. Two of the bags I made I used the same black and white striped card stocks so for one bag I have my ghosts facing one way and the other my ghosts face the other way. I did this by cutting the ghosts out with the glittered card stock facing down on the die and cut those out. The next set of ghosts I cut out the glittered card stock was facing up on the die when I cut them out. Here are those two bags:

Used liquid glue and foam tape to add ghosts to bag fronts and then added small lime green gems from the stash for some sparkle. Here is another bag using another striped card stock from the stash:

Fun bags to put together and all with items from the stash. Happy those are done and will put them all in the Halloween bin for use in October. "Who's There?" cover plate is too cute to just use for one card so happy to be able to use it on the bag fronts..... 

Craft room storage items/tips/etc

Lots of thrift store items in my craft room. Buying items from a thrift store saves a lot of monies instead of buying an item for storage or use for a craft item. I use clear glasses from a thrift store to store my glues in:

These small glasses sell for a quarter or 50 cents and I brought them home and in the dishwasher they went for use in the craft room. Also bought a small glass bowl there to hold my wet baby wipe while I am working on projects to clean off my mat or hands or glue tips:

This glass bowl not only keeps the baby wipe off card stock or maybe lost on the craft table but the bowl helps to keep it from drying out so fast.  Also bought a square glass container to hold scissors next to the craft table:

Bought a plastic Wilton cake decorating turntable to keep my grip mat on for when I stencil items. I really like that it spins and you can easily stencil items on it:

Pampered Chef made a kitchen utensil tool caddy for your kitchen countertops but I bought mine used and it holds a lot of the tools/items I reach for a lot when making things and I keep it on a Copco turntable for easy use:

Mason jars with lids from the thrift store hold clothespins, binder/bulldog clips, paperclips, etc and being clear glass you can easily see what is inside and dust free with the lid. Also a thrift store find is a heavy metal napkin holder and it holds my Big Shot extra plates, my metal plate, shims, and extra plates for my Glimmer Hot Foil machine:

From Restore I bought a used kitchen cart. I keep my Brother Scan n Cut machine, the Cinch, my laminating machine, my large Big Shot machine on it. To keep these machines dust free in between uses I bought the microfiber towels from the auto section at the Dollar Tree:

I used my label maker and labeled the front of the cart where the machines are. Also - tape dispensers. In this photo you can see my Mint tape, Spellbinders Yellow tape, and other tape I use when die cutting items out:

These tapes are on a heavy duty metal turntable I picked up in the kitchen section of IKEA and this sits on the craft table.  Other nearby storage is the three drawer Iris unit I picked up last year at the 301 Endless Yard Sale for $2.00. It holds many items I use for most projects I make:

Also I had bought the plastic turntables from the Dollar Tree when they first came out to hold ink refills or distress sprays etc. The problem was there are 4 of those and one counter by my ink pads where they all are.  So I bought two two tiered Copco turntables in the kitchen department at a store and now I store four Dollar Tree turntables on the space that two could take up freeing up lots of counter space for my by my inks:

Other items I use is a lint roller:

Altho I keep my Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine in a bin with a lid to keep it dust free I always run the lint roller over my hot foil platform before I turn the machine on to pick up any dust particles. I also use the lint roller to clean off my steel ruled dies if I should cut out any glittered card stock, felt, or any other material that could "shed" and stick to the fabric finish on these dies. 

Another item I reach for often is the telescoping magnetic tool from AutoZone. I had originally bought this to pick up the solid plates and full cover plates for the hot foil machine. Spellbinders includes a small magnetic tool with the hot foiling machines to pick up your hot plates off your machine when you are done but that tool is small and can not always pick up the larger/heavier plates. Online stores sell a larger magnetic tool to pick up these plates but by far AutoZone is cheaper:

I have also used this tool to pick up a die that fell on the floor or maybe under something or while I am cutting new dies apart and it goes flying..... so a great tool to have... Also I have a wallpaper seam roller in the craft room. Last project I used it for was Halloween cards and the backgrounds:

Both cards I made the background by inking the high side of the Darice Crackle embossing folder with black ink. Placed a piece of white card stock inside the folder and closed it. Ran the wallpaper seam roller over the closed folder and this transferred the ink to the card stock for my backgrounds:

Also a bead threader - tip from MayMayMadeIt - to put ribbons in the tag hole at the top of a tag or to run ribbons/trims through small areas on a project:

So lots of items to use in the craft room to save monies on rather than to buy something that was made to be a glue holder, a crafting tool caddy, scissor holder, etc.. Lots of kitchen items in this craft room but they work and esp from a thrift store or Restore or a garage/yard sale, etc.. Also use a metal cookie cooling rack from the thrift store to put my handmade flowers on after I add glue and glitter to them so they can dry flat. Also put items on there to dry if I use Stickles or Nuvo drops so the items can be flat and not get stuck under anything on the craft work table......

Oval Crop-A-Dile

American Crafts "We R Makers" just came out with an oval Crop-A-Dile and it just arrived this week. This new tool only punches an oval at 1/2" inch unlike the original Crop-A-Dile which lets you punch your hole at different measurements. This new tool comes with gold oval eyelets and washers in a set of 25. If you should order different colours of your oval eyelets those are sold in sets of 50. They have gold, silver, and the brown oval eyelets and washers on their website but they say they are hoping to stock different colours soon. Here is the new Oval Crop-A-Dile:

Wanted to make a Halloween tag so I went through my stash of dies but my dies all have a circle at the top for a round eyelet and many of these circles are further into the tag than 1/2" inch. So to make my tag I used a Spellbinders tag set from the stash:

I put the tag die on a piece of black card stock and I traced around the outside of the tag die for my tag shape. Used the trimmer to cut this tag out. Wanted to have a piece of printed card stock on the front of my tag so I used this same Spellbinders tag die and traced the INSIDE of the tag die onto the printed card stock and again used the trimmer to cut this out. Here is a photo of this tag:

With both the black card stock tag cut out and the printed tag card stock cut out I used a corner rounder punch on the bottom of both to curve the bottom. Used liquid glue and put these tags together. Once those were together I used the Oval Crop-A-Dile to make my oval punch at the top of the tag:

Put the oval eyelet on the front of the tag and the oval washer on the back of the tag and attached them using the new Crop-A-Dile:

This oval shape allows for use for a thicker/wider ribbon or trim than the standard circle eyelet allows. The washer also finishes off the back of the tag so the eyelet is smooth like the front is. Here is a photo to show the thicker trim I put through my oval eyelet on the tag:

I used black mesh tied with crinkled seam binding for the top of my tag. For the ghost I used an old Sizzix die from the stash and cut him out of white glittered card stock:

The "BOO" on my tag is a die from a stash die set and I cut that out of orange glittered card stock and used liquid glue to put that on the tag. Added orange gems from the stash for some sparkle on the tag:

Happy they made this new shaped Crop-A-Dile tool. It is easy to squeeze to set the eyelet/washer on the tags. Lots of ideas for using it on projects besides tags....

Crafting away.... and then the phone call.....

Busy in the craft room yesterday and die cutting and gluing away when my PIC (stamping partner in crime) sent a text asking if she can call me -- told her yes and the phone rings..... She was listing an appliance for sale on Facebook Market Place and she came across a sale listed for paper crafting items but this sale was yesterday morning and it was now afternoon. My PIC contacted the seller and the seller said we could come over now so she called me to ask if I wanted to go along with her to shop?? Ahhh... SURE!!

So I met her at the house and we shopped for an hour or so. This seller used to be a demonstrator for Fun Stampers Journey so she had a lot of their products along with so much more.... I was happy to bring home new in the package Fun Stampers Journey card stocks:

These are packs of 25 sheets and I paid $6.00 each pack - Stampin Up has their 8 1/2 x 11 card stocks in packs of 24 for $14.00 so I was happy to find these!! I also bought a bag of glue dots/foam squares/foam tape for $2.00 for the bag:

Inside is:

Bought two stamp sets with matching dies:

These die sets were $5.00 each and look brand new:

and

Also this Diamond Press shaker set:

The second sheet of dies in this set has two shaker bits dies included:

I also picked up a baggie of a die set and I put them on a magnet strip for storage. I think I paid $2.00 on these:

Happy to be able to shop this sale! She had the white cubbies and Sterlite drawers for sale,Totally Tiffany, tools, machines, card stocks, punches, steel ruled dies, storage items, trims, ribbons, twines, etc. Certainly nice of her to let us both shop after her posted hours for her sale as well.... Always happy to find more items for the craft room at great prices!

Halloween Tags

Cash or Stash - Went through my Taylored Expression tag/sentiment sets and I decided to make some Halloween Tags for holiday projects ahead.... I used the Taylored Expressions "Pennant Parade-Halloween" sentiments set for the sentiments and I used their "Tag Team" die set for the tags. Here is a photo of the tags I made:

For the tags I used white card stock and the tag die set is a set of three tag dies. I have never cut them apart so I die cut the three of them out of white card stock as one piece for the Misti:

With that cut and placed in the Misti I cut out more of the white tags for stamping. With those cut out I placed three of the tags in the tag cut card stock in the Misti for stamping:

Used three of these sentiment stamps for stamping:

I stamped all the die cut tags using black ink and I stamped them all as an assembly line fashion. Once they were all stamped I took out the Halloween card stock bin and went through that looking for small printed card stock scraps for the tops of the tags. Since I never cut the three tag dies apart it was easy to cut out three tops for the tags with one pass in the die cutting machine. But although all the tops were die cut out I needed them to be all the same length and since they are small....

I decided to use the top of a Post It Note where the adhesive is to help me cut out the tag tops. I used a ruler and measured 3/4" in and used a pencil to make a line. This made it easy to line up the die cut tag tops on the adhesive side so they would all be the same size:

I lined up my tag top pieces along the line:

With all the tag tops across the Post It Note I turned this over and took it to the trimmer and trimmed off the tag tops to the edge of the Post It Note:

Put the tag tops on the stamped tags and decided I wanted a strip of solid card stock below the printed tag taps so I used scraps and cut them using the trimmer to different sizes:

With all tag tops and solid strips cut out I used liquid glue to put these onto the stamped tags. I then used scissors to trim off any extra card stocks that were longer than the width of the tags:

Will keep these with my Halloween projects that I have already started to tie onto treat holders and such for projects ahead..... Glad to have these finished and certainly glad to be able to use the stash for all of these.....