Easter Treat Holders

Made more of the treat holders for Easter using the Classic Rose Mold from Heartfelt Creations. This time instead of spritzing my flowers with Shimmer Mist I put glitter on the tips of the rose petals:

The egg carton on the back left side of the photo is from Stampin Up. I spritzed colour on it and set it aside to dry. While that dried I cut out a stitched frame die from white card stock and put that over a white lattice die cut piece using red sticky tape. Once the egg carton was dry I put the lattice frame onto the carton top. Used a white Pearls Pen for the intersections of the lattice piece. Used a greeting stamp from Reverse Confetti and Stampin Up Pool Party ink for the banner piece. Banner was made using the banner punch from Stampin Up:

For the rose and leaf pieces I used the Classic Rose stamp and matching die set from Heartfelt Creations. To mold the rose pieces and leaf pieces I used their Rose Shaping Mold. Pool Party ink was used for the rose and Pistachio Pudding ink was used for the leaf pieces. This time when I used the shaping mold I stacked two die cut pieces in the mold at a time so I could shape more flower pieces at a time. If you should do this be sure once the mold goes through your die cutting machine that you separate your pieces while they are still damp so they do not dry stuck to each other. For the shimmer on the leaf pieces I used Pearls Shimmer Mist.

Once I made the roses I put a small amount of glue on the tips of the petals and sprinkled my glitter on each flower taping off the excess. Set these aside to dry. For the banner piece once that was cut out I ran it over the bone folder to give it some shape. Used glue dots to put the leaf pieces on top of the framed lattice piece on the carton top. Also used glue dots to put the rose on top of the leaf pieces. Tucked the banner piece under the leaves and rose and used glue dots for that.

This next treat holder holds five of the Hershey nugget candies. The box was made using the Gift Card Box die from Close To My Heart. I cut out the box from a sheet of Pool Party card stock. Wanted to stamp a design on this so I used the Stampin Up Something Lacy stamp and inked it with Pool Party ink and stamped my die cut box piece while it was still flat. I used scrap card stock so I could mask the die cut box piece so my stamped image would not overlap on the box. For the oval window on the box top I used plastic packaging and cut out the piece to fit behind the oval window. Put that on the die cut piece using red sticky tape. Here is a closer photo of the box:

and a photo of the bottom of the box to show the stamped image:

For the basket:

The basket was cut out using the Stampin Up Berry Basket die and I cut two pieces using Pool Party card stock. With the two basket pieces cut out I wanted to add some texture to the basket pieces. I used the Basket Weave embossing folder by Lifestyle Crafts and embossed just the sides of the basket die cut pieces. Cut a white paper doily from the craft store in half and put that on one of the sides of the basket using double sided tape. This would be the front of the basket.  Used red sticky tape and assembled the basket. Since I had two handle pieces cut out I put them on top of each other using the ATG to make my handle stronger. Put the handle on the basket using brads.

Used glue dots to put the die cut leaf piece and the rose on the front of my basket over the doily piece. Filled the basket with white paper shred from the dollar store and will add the candy treats closer to Easter. Still working on candy holders to put into the basket and the egg carton and will post those as they are done.

One of the BEST products I  have bought in a long time is the Rose Shaping Mold from Heartfelt Creations... WHO would have guessed making roses would be this easy and fun? Roses are perfect for Easter as well as Mother's Day so am sure I will be getting lots of use out of the mold!! Just glad that my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) and I went to the stamp show last weekend so I could see the molds demonstrated at the Heartfelt Creations booth!!

FYI -- recent stop at Walgreens and I picked up egg shaped Ferrero Rocher candies. They have two flavors so I will be putting one of those eggs as well as a Cadbury egg in the egg cartons I am decorating for Easter. Had never seen the Ferrero eggs before so hoping everyone likes them. TFL

A rose is a rose . . .

Have always liked the cards, journal covers, scrapbook pages, and other projects that Heartfelt Creations creates using their rose and other flowers stamps and die sets. Watched a few videos on how to shape the flowers once they are stamped and die cut to make these realistic flowers... but for a card maker that mails out many cards putting flowers on all my cards would not work for me. . . I had bought a couple of their floral stamp and die sets and decided I could make flowers for tags or gift bags or treat boxes, etc. . .

Went to a stamp show last weekend in Columbia, SC and Heartfelt Creations had a booth there of all their products and project samples:

Had recently seen that Heartfelt had a new stamp and die set for Poppies so I picked that set up while I was at their booth. Lots of shoppers there so while I was waiting in line to check out I was near the demo table and I saw them demo their new flower molds -- these molds do all the molding of the flowers for you so all you have to do is stamp, die cut, and run your floral pieces through your die cutting machine in this new mold and your floral pieces/stems all will have creases and lines for dimension and your flowers can now be assembled. . . .   Sounded too good to be true to me but when I got home I watched this video by Cheryl B on Youtube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaGnB0oCpTM&t=985s

This video not only shows how to use the flower mold but it also shows how she layered and decorated her card front. I watched the video for the molds and came away with lots of tips from Cheryl.  Many times when you shop the vendors at these stamp shows they will give you a coupon for a discount on your next online order from them which Heartfelt did. Once I had seen Cheryl's video I ordered my Rose Mold from Heartfelt. They shipped it the next day and by Thursday I had my new floral mold. They have a couple different flower shaping molds for sale but my first one is for roses since I have the Classic Rose stamp and die set:

Here is their new Rose Shaping Mold:

the back of the packaging shows how this is used:

You stamp, die cut, and colour your flower pieces and leaves/stems and then put them in this mold. Lightly spritz it with water -- put the top on the mold and run this through your machine. There is only one way for the lid to the mold to go on the base so it is very easy to use. Once your pieces have been molded you can set them aside to dry -- does not take long. Then let the layering begin.....

Here is a photo of my first roses I have made using my new Rose Shaping Mold:

With this being my first set of flowers I decided I would use white/GP (Georgia Pacific white card stock sold at Walmart). Was not sure if this card stock would work in the molds with the shaping and such but it worked beautifully with no rips or tears. To make this project I used the egg cartons I bought off the Clearance Rack from Stampin Up and spritzed blue ink onto it using a spritzer filled with rubbing alcohol and re inkers:

Just did a light layer to add colour to the egg carton and set that aside to dry. The paper they use for these egg cartons is very porous and you have to be careful not to get them too wet.  Stamped my flowers using the Stampin Up Bashful Blue ink and cut them out using the matching die. I did this twice so I would have two full sets of flower pieces since I was not sure how many flowers I would be making. Once the flower pieces were stamped and die cut I inked the flowers and edges using the Bashful Blue ink and a sponge. Set those aside. For the leaves I stamped them using Stampin Up Old Olive ink and before I cut them out with the matching die I sponged the stamped images using the Old Olive ink and then die cut them out.

Liked the card Cheryl had made for her video. She used a detailed oval die from Heartfelt Creations for her birthday card but I do not own that die. (How did THAT happen???? haha)  But I liked the lattice work on her card and so I used her ideas for that for my egg carton top. For my lattice piece behind my frame I used the Spellbinders Fancy Lattice die and cut out a piece of white/GP.  I cut out a full piece of this lattice die. For my frame on my box I used a stitched square die for my white frame:

Laid this frame over the die cut lattice piece and using a pencil I traced around the square frame so I would know where to cut my lattice piece for the size I needed -- I trimmed the lattice piece inside the pencil lines so this would not show on the edges of the frame piece. I used thin red sticky tape around the back of the square frame and put this onto my trimmed lattice piece:

With the lattice piece behind the square frame piece I put wider red sticky tape on the back and this will hold this framed piece onto the top of my egg carton:

Peeled off the red strips and put this framed lattice piece onto the egg carton top gently pressing down to get the red sticky tape to stick to the carton top. I laid the two leaf pieces I was using for the carton top  over the framed lattice piece so I would know how much of the framed lattice would show. Using a white Pearls pen I added white pearls to some of the intersections of my lattice piece. Cheryl had used Nuvo drops on her oval framed piece but I like the sparkle and shine of the white Pearls pen on mine.

With all my floral pieces shaped from the mold I began to put them together. I used Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky glue to put my floral pieces together. Decided to make a large rose and two tiny roses for my egg carton top. With those glued and shaped I set them aside to dry.  Using scrap white/GP I stamped "easter greetings" from Reverse Confetti using the Bashful Blue ink. Used a ruler and pencil to make a line above and below my stamped greeting. Trimmed this piece on the pencil lines and used the banner punch from Stampin Up to punch the banner end. Lightly sponged the blue ink on the banner piece and ran this over the bone folder to give the banner a 'wave' look.

With my roses dried from gluing I spritzed them and the leaves pieces using Shimmer Mist Pearls to give them all some sparkle and shine:

With those dried I now could put my pieces onto the top of the egg carton -- I used glue dots to put the leaf pieces on and glue dots to put the flowers on top of the leaf pieces. With those on the egg carton I then tucked the greeting piece under a leaf and put the greeting piece on also using glue dots.

LOVE the flower mold -- can not believe I made a rose!! :0)   The mold is very easy to use -- I have the Stampin Up Big Shot machine and I use the mold with a clear plate under it and a clear plate on top of it and it went through the machine with no problems. Each machine is different and Heartfelt Creations has a list of machines and "sandwich" for using their molds on their website so you can see how to use these molds in your machine. Can not believe how easy and FAST these flowers went together..... now trying to figure out how to put a flower on the birthday card for DH for July.... haha. A BIG thank you to Cheryl B for sharing her video and how-to's for this great new product from Heartfelt Creations...  off to make more flowers in all colours.... ;0)

Two Valentine Cards

Clearing out photos on the camera for our trips this week and realized I did not post these two Valentine cards on the blog -- so here they are:

Card stock base is #110 weight black card stock from Mikes. Heart print is the Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby as is the polka dot card stock.

Cut and scored the black card stock with the scored line at the top of the card. Cut a piece of the black hearts print to the size I needed for the card front. Set that aside. Used a holiday saying from the MFTstamps stamp set Homespun Hearts and stamped that onto scrap white card stock using Stampin Up Real Red ink. Used the Stampin Up banner punch for the two ends of the greeting banner. Cut a piece of the black polka dot print to fit behind the greeting banner. Put the polka dot print across the black hearts print  near the bottom and put these onto the black card stock base using the ATG.

For the Tic Tac Toe board I used the Tic Tac Toe die set from MFTstamps that I recently bought at the Paper Muse store in Matthews, NC.  Used scrap black and red card stocks to cut out the grid, X's, O's, and red hearts. Cut a piece of white/GP larger than the black grid piece and used a glue pen to put the Tic Tac Toe board together. Cut a piece of red card stock to fit behind this piece and put the two pieces together using the ATG. Used pop dots to put the Tic Tac Toe piece onto the card base. Used glue dots behind the Valentine greeting banner to put on the card front.

This next card -

Lots of stamps used for this card:

Card stock base is Stampin Up Crumb Cake card stock scored on the side. Red is from Mikes and the cream card stock for the card front is Stampin Up Very Vanilla.

Cut and scored the card stock base. Cut the red card stock to the size I needed. Cut the Very Vanilla for the card front. On the Very Vanilla piece I first stamped the Stampin Up Cheesecloth background stamp using the Crumb Cake ink on part of the card front. Then stamped various stamps from the Stampin Up Work of Art stamp set as well as their Gorgeous Grunge stamps again using the Crumb Cake ink on the piece randomly. Used a small heart stamp from my stash and inked that and stamped off and then stamped the Very Vanilla piece. After all stamping was done I put the stamped card front onto the red card stock using the ATG.

With all the background stamping done I wanted to add twine to the card front.  Problem is when using twine it can make your card front have a bump on both sides where you have your twine attached. I wanted to minimize that bump so I taped the twine to the back of the card after I untwisted the twine - only on the back of the card - on each side. There is still a bump but it is flatter now than if I had not untwisted the twine on the back of the card front:

With my piece of twine across the front of the card I then stamped a stamp from PSX "with love" onto scrap Very Vanilla card stock using Real Red ink. I only wanted to use the word "love" from that stamp so I covered "with" with a piece of painters tape and inked the stamp. Peeled off the painters tape and stamped the "love". With that done I used the Stampin Up Bitty Banners die set and cut out the "love" banner. Sponged the edges of this banner using Crumb Cake ink. Cut off one end of the banner using scissors and put this onto my card front using the ATG:

Cut off another piece of twine and tied a bow. Put the bow onto the card front using glue dots. For the three larger hearts on the card front I used the Stampin Up Hearts A Flutter stamp set with matching die and stamped and cut out my hearts. Sponged the edges of those. Using stacked glue dots I put these hearts onto the card front:

Both cards were easy to put together using dies and stamps. TFL

Brusho Valentine Card

Had seen this card from France Martin AKA Frenchie Stamps on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inK7leZ1_s4&t=14s

I have never used Brushos before but Stampin Up was now selling a set of 5 of the Brushos for $30.00. That seemed high to me and since I liked Frenchie's card I figured I would use the Brushos again so shopped around.... found a set of 12 colours on DickBlick for $32.97 so I ordered a set from them:

www.dickblick.com/products/brusho-crystal-colours/

Here is a photo of my Brushos once I removed them from the box and got them ready for use:

As Frenchie explains no two cards will look the same. The Brushos react to water and depending on how much water you use or the card stock you use the Brushos can be different each time. Not having used these before I paid attention to her tips on her video and here is my card:

For my card -- my card stock base is Lipstick Red card stock from SimonSaysStamp. The watercolour card stock is Canston. For the gold speckles on the card front I stamped a background stamp from the Stampin Up stamp set Gorgeous Grunge using VersaMark ink. I used Stampendous Jeweled Gold embossing powder and heat set that. With the embossing done I misted this piece with water and sprinkled the Brushos on -- very little Brushos goes a long way. Set this aside to dry.

Now for the heart and "love" die set Frenchie had used on her card. . . .   That is from the Stampin Up die set Sunshine Wishes. I have bought other die sets over the years from Stampin Up but I will say this die set turned into a nightmare ... ... ... grrrrr  .... First it felt like the dies would bend trying to take them off the paper packaging ... I tried to remove them slowly but even then the paper and tape residue came off on some of the die pieces... only thing to do? Get the Goo Gone....

Took all the die pieces and put them in a plastic pan from the dollar store I have in the craft room and I spritzed the Goo Gone onto the dies. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and then I was able to get the paper packaging and the tape residue off the die pieces. Then I had to wash them with dish soap to get all the Goo Gone off the dies.... once dried I put them on a magnet sheet and they were ready for use. Here is a photo of this die set:

With those ready to be used I cut the heart die out of a scrap piece of the Lipstick Red card stock that I had Stick It sheet on the back.  For the "love" word I cut that out of gold foil card stock that I put Stick It sheet behind.  Also wanted the "love" word to be thicker on my card front than the heart so I also cut out the word "love" from a card board tab top to a kleenex box -- 'klipboard'. With the "love" word pieces cut out I was ready to assemble the card.

Using the ATG I put the Brushos card front onto the Lipstick Red card base. Peeled off the Stick It sheet behind the heart and put that on the left front side of my card. With the card board and foil words cut out I peeled the Stick It off the gold foil word and put it on top of the card board word. Using a glue pen behind the card board word I put this over the heart on the card front over one side of the heart. Here is a photo (not great) of the "love" word over the heart to show it is higher:

This next photo shows the sparkle and shine the embossing powder gives the card front:

IRL this card has a lot of sparkle and shine which plays nicely against the Brushos background. A big thanks to Frenchie for sharing her card and for making the use of Brushos on a card front look easy!! AND IT IS! :0)    TFL

Stenciled Heart Card

Card stock base is white from Paper Trey Ink. Red card stock is Mikes and stenciled piece and frame are white/GP.

Cut and scored the white card stock base with the scored line at the top. Set that aside. For the stenciled hearts I used a piece of white/GP cut larger than what I wanted for the frame piece. Using the MFTstamps Hearts Background stencil I taped that over my white/GP piece with the tape covering some of the hearts on the stencil. Used a Post It Note cut into small pieces to cover one of the hearts on the stencil:

Used pink distressed ink and covered the stencil hearts using a heavier hand on the outside of the stencil and a lighter touch closer to my covered heart. When finished covering the stencil with the pink ink I removed the Post It Note pieces to expose the un-inked heart. Used other Post It Notes to place around the one heart to keep the distressed red ink off the other hearts:

With the Post It Notes removed and all the blue tape I then used a stamp from Avant-Garden from Stampin Up and the pink distress ink and stamped the background onto the stenciled hearts piece very lightly.

Used a frame die and cut out a frame to go over the stenciled piece. Laid the frame over the stenciled hearts and marked the stencil piece so I could trim that to the size to fit behind the frame. Used red sticky tape to put the stenciled hearts onto the back of the frame. Cut a piece of Mikes red card stock a bit bigger than the frame piece and put the framed stencil piece onto this red piece using the ATG. With all pieces together I used the ATG and put them onto the white card stock base.

For the banner greeting -- I used a dollar stamp from Mikes -- it is an older stamp from when the dollar stamps were a dollar! haha   I used Stampin Up Real Red ink and stamped this onto a scrap piece of white/GP card stock. Trimmed it to size and used the Banner Punch from Stampin Up for the banner ends. Added small red crystals from the stash to each end of this banner. Ran the banner over the edge of the bone folder to give the banner piece a wave so it is not so flat on the frame. Used micro mini glue dots, double stacked, to put the banner piece across the framed piece:

Inside the card I used washi tape with multi hearts on it in the colours I used for the stenciled piece:

 Easy card to put together for Valentine's Day. TFL