If first you don't succeed . . . try try again . . . and again . . .

Bought the PixiDustDesigns Excellent Box die set for Easter a couple of years back... watched the video on YouTube for it before I bought it so I knew how to assemble it.... or so I thought.... Here is a photo of the die set and the packaging showing what it is suppose to look like assembled:

and packaging photo:

The die set makes an oval box and you can make it into a Unicorn, Bunny, or Chick.... Cute idea and so I used scrap card stocks for my first try and glad I did because my box did not look oval..... there are no score lines to shape your box piece into a true oval so it was a wonky mess... so I put the die set away with my other PixiDustDesigns die sets and every once in awhile I would think about how to improve this die set because IF it was as simple as it looks it really is a cute box.... 

Used solid card stock and this time I cut out an oval from the die set. I used scissors and I trimmed around the oval (there is a stitching line on that so I had something to follow) and I figured I would be able to shape the box piece around this oval to make a true oval shape. Here is photo of a box I made not trying to shape the oval box but just using it as the die cuts it and you can see in the photo the box does look wonky ---

Here is what the box looks like as it is meant to be assembled:

I cut it out of hot pink card stock and used the oval die piece I trimmed around to shape my box with:

Altho shaping the lid to the box and the bottom of the box helped a little for the oval shape I was not happy with the out come of this box and I give up..... I even ran the long box strips over a bone folder so the card stock could easily be shaped into the oval. So I will keep the die set and use the bunny face and make a bunny for other treat holders as she has a cute face and eyes and a bow but no more bunny boxes for me with this die set. Very frustrating when you try and try to use a die set as shown and your results are not good..... but happy only one other die set I have ever bought did not work out either so two die set disappointments over a period of 18 years of card making is not too bad.... haha.... Here are two bunny boxes I did use as treat holders:

 

Easter Treat Holders

Here are photos of the treat bags I made this year for Easter using a Large Die of the Month from Spellbinders:

Photo of some of the treat holders I made:

First - red holders with the bunnies on them - that is a pattern from StampingwithAmore on Youtube and it holds a chocolate bunny. In her video she used a smaller Ghirardelli bunny but my bunnies are Kit Kats and they are taller than her bunny so I adjusted the pattern for the height. The bunnies on those holders were made using a LadyBug punch. The second from the left tag holder that has the three Hershey nuggets in it is a tag die set and add on's from My Favorite Things from years ago that I had in the stash. Made a sour cream container using pink 6x6 card stock and I added a carrot bow that is made from the Carrot Bow die set I bought a couple of years ago from KS Crafts. The green and blue things below the sour cream container are mini Post It Note holders that have a velcro dot to close them. I bought a pack of the mini Post It Notes from Ollie's and the brand is from Staples:

I paid $1.99 for the pack and the label says this pack sells for $6.43 "their price".   Also used 6x6 card stocks for those. More treat holders:

Pizza box on the left is a die from Elizabeth Crafts and it cuts the pizza box out in one piece:

Die cutting it in one piece not only makes it more sturdy but very easy to assemble. Middle box in the pink holds a Reese's peanut butter cup and that is a die from Taylored Expressions. The small box on the far right is an older unknown die n the stash and that also cuts it out with one piece. Bunny on the front of the pizza box is this die set:

Fun treat holders to put together and used all items and card stocks and pom poms from the stash so that is good. All Easter treat bags have been delivered.... just hoping the chocolate make it until Sunday and not all eaten before!! :0)

Thank You Card

My PIC (stamping Partner in Crime) gifted me lots of crafty items for my birthday.... Hot foil from Altenew and their glittered card stock, bundt carrot cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes (DELISH), gift card from Hobby Lobby, diamond painting she made and framed for Spring, etc... So I made her a thank you card using the new My Creative Time Criss Cross Card die set I just bought:

Here is the card I made:

To begin with this makes a smaller card than your standard A2 card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2). After I made the card I laid it on top of an A2 card base to show the size this die set makes:

For the thank you greeting for the inside I used an old wooden stamp from the stash that I had bought years ago used:

The stamp is from 1993 and I stamped it in matching ink to the checked card stock I used. I wanted the  eyelet trim on the top of the criss cross flaps to be white so I cut that out of white card stock and then used a floral print on one pocket and the checked card stock on the other flap for the layering pieces. Added a flower from the stash and two leaves left over from the die set I used for the bunny on the front of the Easter bags I made:

With the criss cross die set you can either attach your two front flaps to the inside of the card pockets or attach them to the solid base/back of the card. I wanted the flaps to be concealed so I attached them to the inside of the pocket/base front - but I had to trim a bit off the tab for the pocket as you would be able to see it above the white eyelet piece of the flaps. Here is a photo to show how this showed and a photo to show the trimmed pieces:

You can see the excess on the tab above the third eyelet from the right. Here is the trimmed photo:

Fun card to put together - wish it was a true A2 size but still fun to put together and use different card stocks from the stash. Made a napkin covered envelope for this card:

added lace to back flap:

and with the card:

WHY??

W H Y  do all the Dollar Tree stores not sell the same products???? Took me three trips to three Dollar Tree stores but I found it...... Had seen other card makers on YouTube using the new Snack Box from the Dollar Tree and last video that sold me was by "MsCoopersCoop" (Muriel).  Thinking finding this box should not be hard to do...... wrong.... but today I ran errands and stopped at different Dollar Tree stores and here is one of the Snack Boxes I found:

and without the lid:

Happy to find this box and even happier it is sturdy.... of course it is one of their more expensive items - being $6.00 each -- used to be $5.00 items.... but like the $1.00 and $1.25 prices that is a thing of the past. I like the clear lid and you can stack the boxes so this will help with storage. The compartments are stationary but big enough for larger items or die cuts/ephemera items.... They are available in a few colours but I bought the white to go with everything else I have in the craft room for storage. Just glad I finally found them......

Napkin Covered Envelopes

In the past I have tried covering envelopes with cling wrap and a hot iron but the cling wrap always gets wavy due to static and it does not stay smoothed out as careful as I was... once you add the heat from the hot iron the creases remain.... recently saw a video on YouTube from "Paper Terrace" and she was using the Glad Press and Seal clear wrap. She shows how she uses the Press and Seal wrap and it sticks to the envelope as you smooth it out so there are no creases when you are adding the heat from the hot iron so that was a win-win for me.... 

I already have a bin full of napkins that I have collected over time and I was happy to get some use out of those! I also already had the white envelopes I wanted to use and I decided for people that I would give an Easter card to in a treat bag that I would cover the envelopes with this method and napkins. Some napkins have a one way design and others have a design in all four corners of the napkin so it has a directional pattern in each section. For this envelope I used a plaid napkin with no directional pattern:

This first envelope uses a cheaper napkin from the Dollar Tree and the pattern on the napkin was printed on the napkin and this napkin came with creases in the design but I wanted to use it anyways due to all the Spring colours it has..... This next napkin covered envelope shows a napkin design that has an 'up/down' pattern in each section so putting the envelope flap on the fold of the napkin works so the design is right side up on the front of the envelope as well as being right side up on the back flap of the envelope:

Here is a photo showing the back envelope flap when it is closed:

Once the envelopes were all covered with the napkin and Press and Seal I decided to add a small piece of lace to the back flap to dress up the envelopes:

I  did not want to seal the envelopes so I used twine from my stash and just tied that around the envelopes to keep them closed. Added flowers from the stash to the envelopes on the back:

Here are the envelopes with the Easter cards I made:

For my envelopes I used white envelopes from the stash and I already had a roll of the Press and Seal on hand for die cutting. I used parchment paper on a roll from the Dollar Tree to protect my iron while I applied heat to the napkin. Once the napkin was adhered I used scissors and trimmed all around the envelope to remove any excess cling wrap. Ran the hot iron over all the edges of the envelope to be sure the napkin would not "lift" on the edges. When the envelopes were cooled I used a dauber to sponge all edges of the envelopes. Used liquid glue to add the little flowers to the envelope back flap. To add the lace to the bottom of the black flap I used thin tear and tape with liquid glue over that to be sure the lace would not come off. Easy project to put together and happy "Paper Terrace" shared her idea and all her tips/tricks using the Glad Press and Seal wrap with the napkins and iron. Also happy to be able to use more items from my stash.......

 

Easter Treat Bags

Stash or cash -- I am a long time member of the Spellbinders monthly Small die of the Month club and the Large die of the Month club. Both die sets for the monthly club in February are Easter related. This first die set is the Large die of the Month - "Spring Specs":

and the packaging has a photo of an assembled project using this die set:

This is a larger die set and can fit the front of an A7 card. I wanted to use it for the front of my treat bags I am making for Easter. The brown bags I had in my stash and I used card stocks from the stash. The pink trim was on sale at Hobby Lobby and I used that at the top of my bags. All clear crystal blings are from the stash. Here is one of the bags:

For this bunny I used mirror black card stock for her eyeglass frames. Here is a better photo of that:

In this above photo you can see the glare of the ceiling lights in her eyeglasses. I used a clear sheet to cut a circle for her glasses so they would have a more real look to them. This die set has dies for all the flowers and greenery and I used scrap card stocks for those. Cut the bunny head and body out of #110 weight white card stock from the stash from Mikes. I sponged the edges of the bunny pieces using gray ink. Cut out all my flowers and greenery and used inks on those as well. Adhesive used for this project is liquid glue with some pop dots and the bunny has foam tape behind her for dimension.  I made a couple of bags with the bunny having the black eyeglass frames. Here is another bag where her eyeglass frames are cut out of glittered pink card stock from the stash:

and these frames were cut out of holographic card stock from the stash:

IRL this is very shiny and you can see all the colours clearly. For all the bag fronts I used this die set from SimonSaysStamp for "Happy Easter" and I cut that out of the craft foam from the stash using white card stock scraps and I layered those using the liquid glue:

I also used the larger grass border die set I had recently bought from Wafflerflower.com for the grass piece at the bottom of the bag:

From the stash I used a very old carrot die set from Oriental Trading and I also used an old butterfly punch from M. Stewart for my pink glittered butterfly:

Here is a photo of this Large die set of the Month and it has a lot of pieces to it and the flowers and greenery dies can easily be used on other projects besides Easter:

The silver trim I added to the pink Hobby Lobby trim at the top of the bag is from the stash and I bought that a few years back at Dollar Tree when things were actually one dollar...... Fun die set to assemble and it makes a cute Easter decorated treat bag!

Egg Hunt Easter Card

I am a member of the club of the month from Waffleflower.com and in January I received that club of the month product. It was the postage Egg Hunt stencil set. TOOOO cute and I was happy when their new release for Feb 2026 had more of the Egg Hunt products..... I bought their Basket Sentiments combo that has both stamps with matching dies, the Tall Grass die set, the Grass Texture cover plate die, as well as the Postage Collage Egg Hunt Icons die set. Here is one of the cards I made using this new release as well as other die sets from my stash and card stocks from the stash:

Here is the Basket Sentiments set:

the Tall Grass die set on the right next to the Grass Texture cover plate:

For the grass inside my basket I used the Grass Lawn die set from Divinity Designs along with the Carrots die set from IOStamps (ImpressionObsession):

and a photo of the Postage Collage Egg Hunt Icons Die set:

For my cards my card bases are cut and scored at the top. Used plaid and printed card stocks from my 6x6 card stock stash for the card fronts. The white doily was die cut using the Sunny Studio doily die set:

For my green card fronts I did not want to use a bright lime green card stock so I used a mint green card stock instead. I die cut the Grass Texture cover plate die and I used my deckled edge trimmer to cut all green pieces to the size I wanted for the card fronts. I used the Tall Grass die and cut those out of mint green card stock also and I sponged a darker green ink over that to add a darker green to that piece. I used the deckled edge trimmer to trim that at the bottom so it would match the deckled edges of my green card stock front pieces:

Put on a RomCom movie and did all the die cutting for these cards using scraps and card stocks from the stash. Then I assembled the card fronts. Once I got those all done the card front looked flat so I decided to use white splatter and put that on the green card front.... but all card fronts were already assembled..... so I pulled out a Spellbinders rectangle layering die det and cut a rectangle from scrap white card stock and laid that over the front of the cards just showing the green fronts and then I splattered the and they turned out well:

Layered all my pieces and sponged edges of the egg pieces and then used small stencils from the stash to add designs to the eggs:

Fun card to assemble and good use for scraps!! Chicks are on foam dots for dimension and I used a white gel pen on their eyes. Happy to get more use from scraps and more use of products/dies I already have in my stash....