Bead Storage

Long ago I had seen a video on YouTube by the Hometalk channel and they do a lot of DIY's for the home for storage/organization and such. They had used the acrylic drawers and bamboo cutting boards from the Dollar Tree and made a small countertop storage item for the bathroom to hold cotton balls/Q-tips and other small items. I liked that idea but did not make one then.... Recently "Crafting to Cope" on YouTube shared her video using this idea for bead storage in her craft room. Great idea for bead storage as the system I had now was not working. . .

Off to Dollar Tree with my plan to make this countertop storage idea for my craft room with a list of items I would need to make my holders. Not so fast..... went to two Dollar Tree stores looking for these acrylic drawers and bamboo cutting boards and NO LUCK.... WHY  all the Dollar Tree stores do not sell the same products is beyond me......  Third try was the charm and happy me they had all the drawers and cutting boards I would need in stock. Here is a photo of my bead holder and my holder is 4 drawers high:

I like not only can I see all the beads in the acrylic drawers but I can easily remove a drawer of beads to take to the work table to use:

I also bought 4 extra acrylic drawers and stacked those and that stack will be for the head pins, lobster clasps, and other items I need to use:

This can sit on top of the other holders or since it is free standing it can stand on the countertop for easy access. Here is a side view of this one:

In the Hometalk video they used a hot glue gun to assemble their unit but I have the Surebonder hot glue gun and mine is not a low temp glue. I did not want the hot glue to melt the acrylic drawers so I used E6000 to assemble mine. These acrylic drawers are wider in the front and taper back to a narrower size in the back so keep that in mind if you should make one. I put the E6000 on the bottom of the drawers along a thin ridge they have and I used a thin line of the glue on them. E6000 is very strong so you do not need to glob it on and it stays clear once dried. I also put E6000 on the side of the drawer that sits next to the drawer next to it. The glue container says after 72 hours this adhesive is its' strongest so I worked on my holders over a period of a few days rather than trying to do all the steps at one sitting. It is a strong smelling adhesive as well so do this in the garage or maybe outside where you have fresh air while you are using this glue. 

Before I had all my beads in clear plastic bags for storage but it was not easy to not only remember what beads I had in the stash but also to find them when I was wanting to make something with them.... Happy Crafting to Cope uses this Hometalk idea for her bead storage and thanks to her for making her video and showing her how-to's as she makes one. And thanks Hometalk shared this idea for countertop bathroom items! Another project off the list and new storage that works in the craft room.... 

Holographic Halloween Die Cuts

franticstamper.com   is closing the doors to their store on July 31, 2026.  She carries many brands from Altenew, Tim Holtz, Memory Box, Lawn Fawn, and many more... She also sells her own brand of dies and I have many of those. This die set is what I was working with this week:

I did some die cutting using scraps and also using the holographic sticker sheets that I used on the butterflies for this card and it was inspired by Heidi the Yorkshire Crafter on YouTube:

I used two ghost dies from my stash along with the Frantic Stamper "Fun Happy Halloween" set of 2 dies for the words on my samples:

and the ghost with the words:

These holographic sticker sheets give your project the sparkle and shine without having to use glitter or glittered card stock for your projects.  As usual hard to capture the holographic sparkle on the die cuts with the camera:

Franticstamper is having different specials as she gets closer to her closing date the end of July so many good deals to be had and she has a large store so many things to look at. As with using the holographic sticker sheets I was not sure with the "Happy Halloween" word dies having so many cut outs if the dies would cut the sticker sheets well or not, but as all her brand dies do, these easily cut the sticker sheet and the card stock it was on with one pass in the machine. Sad to see yet another online store close it's doors but she has many specials going on her sight so a good time to shop .....

Seas the Day Card

Last fall I shopped the Customer Yard Sale at Enchanted Cottage in Lewisville, NC and for this card I used two of the items I bought for a dollar each. Here is the card:

Fun card to put together for summertime. For this card I used blue card stock cut and scored at the top. I used a light speckled gray card stock in the stash for the card front panel. I used liquid glue to put the gray card stock piece on the blue base. I used two new-to-me die sets for this card. The first one is from Spellbinders and the red "1" on the front was the price I paid:

The packaging says this was part of the Crate of the Month offering that Spellbinders holds and this was from June 2025. Cute and very easy sailboat to assemble and another good use of scraps.... the second die was also one dollar and it is from Stamps of Life:

Very good deal for one dollar since this is a two piece die set - words and shadow dies included. I cut the shadow out of white card stock and the words out of the matching blue card stock to match the base of the card. Used liquid glue to put those together. I wanted to use a nautical embossing folder for the front of the card but I was not sure what I had in the stash. Looked through my embossing folders and found this folder by Lifestyle Crafts which was bought out by We R Memory Keepers and they are We R Makers now:

I put a piece of black card stock in the folder to show this pattern. I wanted my embossed piece to be white but I did not want it to be a rectangle shape so I used an oval die and cut out an oval. Then I put the oval inside the embossing folder and embossed that. Using two different oval dies I cut out a blue card stock frame to go over my embossed oval piece. I put the frame on the embossed piece using liquid glue.

For the boat I used different card stocks for that and put that together using liquid glue and I also cut out one more boat base piece to put the boat on to give it some dimension for the front of the card. I used foam tape behind my framed oval piece and put that on the card front. Added pop dots behind the "Seas the Day" sentiment for dimension. Here is a side view of this card to show the dimension the foam tape and pop dots give it:

This photo shows the embossing behind the boat:

Easy card to assemble and happy to use more of the stash for the card with the two one dollar additions to the craft room.....

With the completed card I looked through my clear gem stash and found the star gems so I used two red ones with two small red gems for the card front. Always happy to find used items at great prices to add to the stash......

Tulips Thinking of You Card

Did not buy this tulip set when it first came out so the stamp and die set were not available as a set so off to Etsy.com I went and my order arrived this week. Made a card using pinks and greens:

I used a green card stock base cut and scored at the top. I used the same green card stock for the base as I used on the tulip leaves. Looked through my gingham card stock stash and found a similar green for the card front so I cut a piece of that to cover the whole card front base. Used liquid glue to put that onto the green card stock base. Set this aside and worked on the tulip frame/card front. 

I cut the tulip plate out of white card stock. Here is a photo of the 10 piece die set:

I decided to use a medium pink card stock to cut and put behind the white tulip frame piece and I put the pink card stock on the back of the white frame piece using liquid glue but avoiding the leaf areas so that I would still be able to lift those leaves when the card front was done. I used the two leaf dies and cut out my green leaves. Put those on the tulip frame piece using liquid glue. Using the same pink card stock I used to put behind the tulip frame I cut out another tulip frame piece and that gave me the 12 pink tulips I would need for the card front. Using a slightly darker pink card stock I cut out the layered tulip die pieces to put on the front of my solid pink tulips. Added these layered pieces to the tulips using liquid glue. 

I put the framed piece, with leaf pieces in place, on the gingham card front using liquid glue. I used a pop dot behind each layered tulip and I put those over the tulips on the card front. With those in place I stamped my sentiment, "Thinking Of  You" from the matching die set onto scrap white card stock. Cut that out using a small banner die set from Pink & Main. I also cut out a larger banner from green card stock to put behind the sentiment:

Used foam tape to put these on the card front. Added pink gems from the stash. With the card front done I lifted all the leaf pieces to give the card front some dimension. From the side of the card you can see the pink card stock behind the tulip die cut frame piece:

Very easy card to assemble and the die cutting went quickly as you just cut the tulip frame piece, the leaves pieces, and the frame piece again to get all the tulips you will need. Remember when looking for used products both Ebay and Etsy have lots of listings and you can even put a product "watch" on your account if someone should post an item for sale that you are wanting to look at or buy. 

Holographic Sticker Butterflies Card

This card was inspired by "Heidi-the Yorkshire Crafter" on YouTube. She made a video to show how she made her card using Holographic Sticker sheets to make her butterflies holographic. I did not have any sticker sheets in the stash but easily found them on Amazon and placed my order.  Her card is larger than the one I made so her card has three butterflies on the front. I also do not have the butterfly die set she used but I dug through my stash and decided on the Butterfly Set by ScrapdivaDesigns.com for my butterflies. Here is a photo of the card I made:

Except for the sticker sheets I ordered, everything I used on this card is from the stash. I used light turquoise card stock, cut and scored at the top, for my card base. As shown in her video I used a piece of white card stock for my card front but for my background design I used a stencil from Divinity Designs:

This is their circles stencil and I only wanted to have a pattern in the center of the background piece and not all over the card front so I placed the stencil over my card stock and used tape to mask off the edges of the card front which I cut down later for the card front:

Used distress oxide ink, Salvaged Patina, for the center of the pattern:

Using a light hand I added both inks to this piece. The second colour I used was the distress oxide ink Wilted Violet. I added that lighter and darker in some spots:

With the ink blending done I removed the stencil, spritzed water on this inked piece and used a clean paper towel to remove water. Used a splatter brush and splattered white over this piece. Set it aside and I cleaned my stencil off.  For the butterflies I used the light turquoise card stock and cut those out using the die set:

I used similar inks on my butterflies as she did in her video - first a green, then a turquoise, then a purple, and the outside edge is a dark blue ink. Once these were ink blended I cut off the antennae and head using scissors. Laid these butterflies on the scrap paper I used and covered them with the sticker sheet using a piece larger than the butterflies:

And as in her video, I taped the dies over my butterflies and ran them through the die cutting machine to cut them out. This ride through the die cutting machine for a second time will press the sticker sheet onto the butterfly:

As she said in her video putting the dies over the die cut butterflies after you cover them with the sticker sheet the die will "lock" in place over the butterfly and it does. I used yellow tape to keep my dies in place over the butterflies:

A with the butterflies die cut with the sticker sheet on them I used scissors to cut off the antennae and head and then I used liquid glue to put the butterfly body on my butterflies that I had die cut out of matte silver foil card stock. Here is a photo to show those added and the shine the sticker sheets gives the butterflies:

I used an older sentiment stamp/die set from HoneyBee Stamps "Mini Messages" for the "Just a Note" sentiment strip on my card front. I embossed that on black card stock using WOW fine white embossing powder. Then I die cut that out using the matching die in that set. I cut a piece of foam strip to put behind the sentiment strip and before adding that to the card I ran a black Sharpie marker over the sides of that foam strip so it would be black like the card stock it is on. 

Added light turquoise and purple gems from the stash to the card front to add some sparkle here and there. Thanks to Heidi for sharing this card and all her inspiration with her tips and tricks. But my camera does not show the purple inks as purple but they look bluer than they are.  Easy card to put together and IRL the butterflies have lots of sparkle and shine using the holographic sticker sheets from Amazon. I bought a variety pack so I have different holographic patterns to use on future projects but for my card I used the star sticker sheet as she did on her card. The sticker sheets will come in handy for die cut pieces for Christmas projects ahead! So hoping to work with them again soon.....

Holiday Sentiments Foiled

Bought the Simon Hurley Wonderful Winter Sentiments hot foil/die set used and I hot foiled this using scraps and different coloured card stocks from the stash. Here is a photo of the packaging for this set:

I used scraps of card stock and different foils for the sentiments:

Then larger pieces of card stocks and I used silver, matte silver, gold, matte gold, white and red foil for the sentiments:

With all the foiling done I then used the matching die to this sentiment plate and cut out the sentiments:

Will keep all the sentiments together for holiday projects ahead. This way at holiday time, when time is so short, I already have sentiments foiled, die cut and ready to add to whatever I am making. Happy to have this new to me hot foil plate in the holiday stash......

Double Frame Terrazzo Card

Went through the background hot foil plates in the stash and I came across the Terrazzo Press Plate from Altenew.  I wanted to be able to use the dotted hot foil again for the background and while I had all the hot foiling items out I also hot foiled this plate with the striped foil. Here is a photo of the two rolls of foil I used:

and a photo of this hot foil plate:

First is the sample with the striped hot foil used straight up and down:

Second time I used this striped foil I put the foil on the plate diagonally so the colours look like they flow into each other:

I liked both of those samples but once I hot foiled the dotted foil I knew this would be the sample I would use for my card:

For my card I cut and scored a light turquoise card stock at the top. Wanted to add a frame to this hot foiled background so I used the Spellbinders Precision Layering dies and I picked out two frame dies and taped those together to die cut a rectangle frame using white card stock. With that done I put this frame onto the foiled background piece and trimmed the background to fit behind the frame. Wanted to have a second frame so I pulled out a piece of matte mirror card stock in blue and cut out another frame for the card front. I put the both frames on the background piece using liquid glue. Set these aside to dry.

Recently shopped a crafter's paper crafting sale and I picked up this hot foil/die set in a bundle of hot foiling supplies:

This is a Spellbinders hot foil plate with matching die from 2019. I hot foiled it onto white card stock using turquoise hot foil and die cut it out with the matching die. I also cut out a second piece from white card stock to put behind the foiled greeting piece to make it more sturdy for the card front and I used liquid glue to put those together. 

With the greeting hot foiled and cut out I put it on the front of the card using pop dots. I added three turquoise gems from the stash above and below the greeting and the card was done. Here is the finished card and as usual the camera did not capture the sparkle and shine of the hot foiled background well:

The plates from Altenew always foil nicely and this plate has an all over design of the larger and smaller speck pieces so it does look like Terrazzo -- which looks like the actual Terrazzo flooring pattern. Happy to be able to get more use out of the dotted hot foil in the stash as well!

Up & Away Better Press Plate

Hot foiled the new Spellbinders Up & Away Better Press Plate and I wanted to try this with different coloured card stocks and different coloured foils. Here is a photo of this new Better Press Plate:

With this Better Press Plate is a sentiment plate and matching dies for those. The sentiments included with this plate are:

Things are Looking Up

Glad You're Along

Let's See Where This Goes

For my samples I only hot foiled the air balloons plate. I used different foils and I started with black card stock and a matted silver foil:

Used a holographic turquois foil on blue card stock:

Then a silver and then an opaque foil on navy card stock:

These last samples were made using these two multi coloured foils - one is a striped and the other is random circles on the foil:

Here are the samples:

The sample on the left I cut the foil and turned it on the diagonal so the colours did not look like up and down stripes like the sample on the right where I laid the foil on the plate straight. This striped foil is very nice but thinking with such fine lines on this hot air balloon plate you can not see how the foil blends from colour to colour. Here is a photo of a Better Press Plate that has a fuller design and you can easily see the colours this foil has:

On this butterfly card I had also turned the foil on the diagonal so the butterfly would not have up and down stripes. This next hot air balloon sample is the one I used the dotted foil on and you can see all the colours in the foil show all over the design:

And next to the striped foil samples:

Happy to find a plate that works well with the dotted foil. IRL this dotted sample is a good background for a card/project since the colours are all over the design and there are no stripes - up and down or diagonal - to look past. Also Better Press plates foil beautifully no matter what foils or colour card stocks I try.....