Long time, no see . . .

Well.... finally found the top of the work table which I believe the last time I was able to see that was well before BOO Day . . . .  Not sure how long this will last but . . .

Earlier this month I turned my work table around in the craft room so it is in the center of the room and it now faces the door rather than the far wall. This is a much better arrangement and certainly one that makes one wonder why they did not do this long ago . . .  On the other wall across from the work table is the card stock shelf unit from years ago from a store that was remodeling - nothing much on that has changed since I loaded it up when it arrived to the craft room - - 

This unit also holds my acrylic blocks that I store in a divided silverware tray from IKEA:

Hard to photograph them with the glare from the lights but here they are. I still use the blocks and esp the larger blocks get used when I am putting die cuts together or gluing things. Glad I kept those after the MISTI joined the craft room. . . 

While cleaning off the work table and sorting stamps and dies and such I decided to work on the stamp shelf - this shelf holds my clear and cling stamp sets:

I was using the clear bins to store the stamp sets but of course for gags and giggles some of the stamp manufacturers decided to make very large stamp sets and they do not fit in the clear bins. I needed to keep storing to a minimum so I added two large plastic bins from HobLob and I have a few manufacturers in the same bin. One bin holds the Simon Says products and the Altenew products. The second bin is for Jaded Blossoms, Sunny Studio, MFT, and Honey Bee products. I put a tag on the front and used the label maker so I will remember which bin is holding what stamp sets. 

Also -- new additions to the craft room -- DSD decided she no longer was going to make planners and one day she brought over a full box of washi tapes and the clear plastic storage containers she had stored them in that she had bought from Mikes. I also store my washi in those containers so I gladly added her containers to mine and reorganized that -- I went through her washi box and took a few rolls but she has a lot of washi that I already had and she has a lot of washi that can be used for a planner or a scrapbook.... I sent a photo of the box to my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) and she is going to look through the box for any washi she would want.  Here is my reorganized and new additional containers to my washi and twine storage:

These containers are nice because they can be stacked to store more. The two containers at the far left are empty for now but I am sure I will find something to go in them... brads, eyelets, something.... I decided since these containers have a drawer with three sections in it that these would work for my twine storage so I moved those over to the drawers and now I can see at a glance what colours or what type of twine/rope I have as some of the twine is much thicker than others:

In the container on the right I have washi in most of the drawers but at the bottom I have left that for storage for metallic threads and wire. More containers:

I have the washi by holiday or season so this will help me to use more washi than before. But I did use a lot of washi this past Christmas on holiday projects and tags and such so that was a good thing. (These containers are also not 100% full as I have space in the back of the drawers). Happy to have more containers for free to help organize more stuffs....  Out of sight is out of mind in this craft room so nice to be able to see what I have, SEE where it is, and USE it. . . 

Still working through the craft room but things are coming along. Hoping to finish this seemingly never ending organizing/reorganizing session soon and get back to crafting..... 

Just scoot over . . .

Finally figured out why after Christmas the craft room always looks like a tornado spent some time in here. . . then I thought about it and it all fell into place . . .   As usual I begin with the BOO Day projects which is followed closely with the Thanksgiving which is followed closely with Christmas... so really not much time for projects or maybe not enough time for projects. . .  compounded by the grand idea of moving the work table in the middle of the Christmas rush..... when else to do that???? 

One day I walked in the craft room and suddenly it came to me to turn the craft work table so it would be in the absolute center of the craft room which would give me easy access to everything on all four walls of the room rather than to have the work table closer to one end of the craft room facing one wall.... when else to do this but when Santa is just about breathing down your neck??? So one night after dinner I came into the craft room and made the change for the table location and so it goes.... like the domino effect . . . but I was happy with the change and I have tried to work in the craft room whenever I could after that to keep the momentum going until everything is where it should be and in place . . . great idea until I decided .... 

Just scoot over -- combined all the glue dots/foam tapes/tear n tapes/double sided/red sticky tapes and the extra glue sticks to my favorite hot glue gun by Surebonder. I took all the glue dots out of their packaging and that saves space as well as storing my extra glue sticks in a cleaned plastic peanut butter jar with a lid to keep them dust free. I took one of the clear dividers I had bought at IKEA for my Alex units to keep all this in in their new drawer location which is next to the work table now:

For the glue sticks I cut the name off the bag and taped that to the jar so I know those are for the Surebonder hot glue gun:

Also took all the bling - pearls/gems/crystals and put them in sandwich bags from the dollar store by colour so if I want a certain colour I will have all I have in that colour together for use. Still working on moving the glitters and embossing powders since I also moved the embossing tools to a new location but trying to get it all done ---

While putting Christmas and other holiday items away I cleaned out my bin the work table of new items to the craft room that arrived in the mail from online shopping.  When I saw the die for this little guy I stopped to put him together to see his actual size as he is just too cute to pack away until next Christmas:

Such details on this Cottage Cutz die I bought from franticstamper.com. Here is a photo of the die packaging for him:

This die has so much detail and dimension - first the mortar joints between the bricks on the chimney are a separate die piece and it sits on the front of the chimney. I used scrap card stocks to put him together so I used scrap kraft card stock for that. Also the white snow mounds that the chimney is on - there are slits that the die cuts into the snow mound for the chimney to sit it it and the red sack also fits into another slit on the die cut piece. Such a cute detail for this die:

Happy I took the time to put him together to see his actual size and all as he is a cutie. . . 

Certainly not going to complain about having a mess of a craft room on my hands with the year we have had - just glad I was able to work in the craft room here and there with everything going on . . .  too much invested in there to not use it but many times that is easier said than done. . . .     so back to scooting over and hoping to have it finished in another day or too -- and still wondering why I waited to move the craft room work table before now?  Happy New Year and happy crafting in 2021!

Now for the Snow Family . . .

Many years ago, as an beginning stamper, I had gone to a stamping show where I came across Morningstar Stamps. Not only was I attracted to the displays at their booth but the great stamp images and word stamps. A bigger plus to their booth was how affordable their products were!

Pam M. is the owner of  morningstarstamps.com   and she is very helpful if you should have any questions about anything. Years ago I bought both her small Snowman Face stamp and her large Snowman Face stamp for projects I was working on. (They are under "Snowmen" on her home page). The first project I bought the smaller stamp for was Snuggets that I make every year for Christmas treat holders:

Snuggets have the Hershey Nugget candies inside and I used the finger tip of bath gloves from the Dollar Tree for their hats.  Again using the small Snowman Face stamp I made two "tie ons" for gift bags or a treat holder. First is a wooden craft stick cut in half and painted and stamped:

I also have used the circle tags from the office supply store that have the metal piece on the edge for another "tie on":

I also used the larger Snowman Face stamp for some tags I had made:

Every year these two Snowman Face stamps get used in this craft room and this year I wanted to make something different than what I have made in the past. . .  Did not have a pattern so I stamped each stamp onto scrap white card stock and figured out dimensions from there.... 

Out to the garage to ask DH to cut wood scraps for me and with his talents I began the Snow Family. Here they are in their Christmas photo - ;0)

Have seen wooden snowmen with fleece hats and scarves but I did not have any fleece.... but I do have lots of Christmas prints and fat quarters so I rummaged through those and found three prints that would work together. To begin with here are rough measurements for the snowmen;

Dad (plaid hat) is approx 8" high by 2 5/8: wide

Mom (holly print hat) is approx 7" high by 2 1/4" wide

Kid (dotted hat) is 5 3/8" high by 1 1/4" wide

DH cut the wood and lightly sanded them to avoid splinters and I asked him to mount them on an old paint stick he had on the workbench so they would be free standing. I painted them with white acrylic paint from the stash that I had picked up at a craft store. Set them aside to dry well.  I cut all the hats/scarves using scissors and really no measurements other than by sight or by how big the fabric scrap piece I had on hand. Using an extra small and a small circle punch I punched circles out of flocked black card stock for their buttons. I stamped the Snowman Face stamps onto clear packaging so I would be able to use that to line up the face stamps on the wooden pieces.  Stamped all the faces at one time and set those aside to dry. 

Used left over holiday die cuts for the snowflakes and holly pieces on their hats. For the black flocked buttons I used just a dab of hot glue to put them on the bodies. Ironed my fabric pieces so they would be smooth and I put the fabric on the wooden snowmen using tear and tape on front, back, and sides of the wooden snowmen and I tied them with red and white twine. I added a little Glossy Accents behind the twine bow to keep it in place and tied. Used hot glue to add the snowflakes/crystals and holly pieces to the brims of their hats. Used scissors to cut the "scarf" pieces for each snowman. Used an orange marker for the noses. 

Here is a photo to show the two sizes of the Morningstarstamp snowman face stamps next to each other:

Dad and Mom Snow have the larger face stamp and the kid has the smaller face stamp. These stamps stamp so nicely with no problems and you can't help but smile when you see them! Happy I finally was able to make my Snow Family as I have wanted to work on them for sometime now and they are perfect for a table top since they are free standing... a big thanks to DH for making them from his scraps to my specs and to Morningstar for such cute stamps! TFL

Ali Express Dies

Putting the Christmas stamps/dies away and thought I would share what I do with the Ali Express dies. I do not often order from Ali Express but when I do place an order I always print out their photo of what the die will look like when die cut. For this sample here is a Santa Clause Head die set:

Ali Express dies do not have a photo packaging that comes with the die set as all the dies are in clear plastic bags. Problem being with shipping times - could be up to 3 weeks - I may not remember exactly how the die goes together. With a printed picture of the die I can keep that with the die set and it makes for easy assembly. This picture also helps while I am waiting for the die to arrive to remind me what die I have ordered from them. 

This Christmas I gifted one of the Santa Clause Head die sets to my PIC (stamping Partner in Crime) and I did not want to just toss the die in the gift bag so I used kraft card stock and made a mini policy envelope to put the die inside. On the outside I die cut the Santa die and put that on the front of the envelope. Inside with the die is a copy of the photo so she can keep it with the die if she wants when she stores it:

Just added some holiday washi tape to the bottom of the envelope to dress it up a bit.  Here is a second Ali Express die set I gave her for a Poinsettia:

For this policy envelope I used double sided card stock. For the Poinsettia I die cut that using red foil card stock and gold glittered card stock for the center flower part. This way she will see what this die set looks like assembled. 

The Santa die is nice because when you die cut the head/face base piece it embosses where the eyebrows, eyes, mustache, and cheek pieces go so it is easy to assemble. It is much like the Scarecrow die I had bought and used on Fall projects:

Putting face pieces on a die can be challenging but with these dies embossing as they die cut it helps for even placement for all the pieces. . .    TFL

Rudolph Tag

 Used the Reindeer die from Simon Says Stamp for this quick tag:

Added a foil red nose so it is Rudolph. Added red washi tape to the front of the tag. The HOHOHO is a background stamp from My Favorite Things stamped using a red ink from Gina K. The tag die is from the stash. Tied twine and bells at the top. Easy tag to put together!

Christmas Projects and some online shopping - - -

 This post has the Christmas cards and some of the projects I made for this holiday season. Last year I had bought the first Gnome die from Simon Says Stamp and after I had made projects using that die I had seen other crafters projects featuring the same die.  One of the projects was a gift bag with the Gnome on the front of it and I liked the theme she had used for it and the colours - too late for last year but I decided to use her inspiration for my bags - here is her blog and I believe the post was in November 2019 if you search her blog:

https://kath-allthatglitter.blogspot.com/

Here is the front of the gift bags I made for this holiday season:

The bags I had made last year were very pretty and shiny and sparkly but this has not been a great year for us all and this year I wanted to keep it to basics - traditional colours, things that would make you smile, (Snuggets and Santa Nuggets), and just a more simple holiday project.  I had always liked seeing projects that crafters had used basic acrylic paint from the craft store for splatters or snow but try as I may it always would turn out with glops of paint here or there or drips or something.... happy me that I had seen a video from a crafter on Youtube - forgot who tho - and she used a soft toothbrush from the dollar store with acrylic paint and a very small drop of water mixed in. This had to be the way to do this so I decided I would try it for my bag fronts. . .

Also this year I wanted to use as much washi tape on my projects and paper scraps that I could so this bag front worked for both. In the past washi tape has been known to lift off a project or just not stick to begin with so I used ModPodge and a paint brush to add the ModPodge to the backs of my already torn washi tapes. I put them on the pre cut kraft piece for the bag front. While that dried I die cut the Gnome and used scraps for him and various stamps to add patterns to the hats. I did not assemble the Gnome yet. 

I lined the bathtub with a painters drop cloth and used a new soft tooth brush and the acrylic paint/water on a stamp block and splattered the kraft pieces over the washi tape. I had put all the Gnome robe and hat pieces on the drop cloth and splattered those as well. Left all of these to dry - which did not take long since the splatters are so fine and not all gloppy paint splatters all over everything. While those were all drying I die cut the "believe" from red glittered card stock and also die cut the snowflakes from white glittered card stocks. Also made the black plaid bows using the Bow It All. Once everything was dried and die cut I put it all together on the bag fronts with a piece of red card stock behind the kraft piece. Added red crystals to the center of the snowflakes. And the pom pom on the Gnome hat -- but I did add black boots -- used a circle punch and punched out circles using black foil card stock. Used scissors to cut the circle in half and that gave me the two pieces for his boots - added a die cut holly piece to the "believe" at the top of the bag. Tied on some red bells and the bag front was done. 

Here are some of the treat holders I made to put inside --

Snuggets -- LOVE both the small and the large Snowman Face stamp from Pam at:

http://morningstarstamps.com  (will have another project to post this weekend)

I make Snuggets every year and they always make people smile -- snowmen and chocolate Hershey Nuggets -- a winning combination!

This year I packaged them differently than I have in the past and I was able to use scrap card stock as well as washi tape for them - 

Hats are finger tips from the gloves at the Dollar Tree that are sold on the bath aisle. The Snowman stamp is the small Snowman stamp and he is perfect for Snuggets!!  Also made a Santa Nugget as well:

Used the SU Cutie Pie die I had bought used at a stamper's sale for this treat holder:

Also the Taylored Expressions Tuck In box die for the Ghirardelli holder:

Before I put them in the bags I added a small red crystal to the top of the little tree that was tied on the top of the box. That tree die was a free gift from Taylored Expressions a few years back and I certainly have gotten lots of use out of that! 

Ferrero Rocher - just made the card stock base - put clear sheet over the top and wrapped it with washi tape and added a punched bow with a crystal:

For my cards this year I used a die from MFT - My Favorite Things:

Again used scraps for the letters - some of the cards I used gold foil card stock for the flame to the candle and others I used glittered card stock for the flame:

Easy card to assemble and good use for the scraps. . . Some of the cards I added clear Wink of Stella to the rim and pom pom on the Santa hat. 

Shopping - My-Creative-Time had a new release and if you ordered you would qualify for a free HO HO Ho die - here is my order:

and the free die - I cut it out to show it assembled using both foiled and glittered card stocks:

Love this die and it will be put to use for projects next year for sure! I have always wanted a die that would cut out a small Cardinal and I found one at PaperWishes.com:

Happy I found the Cardinal die from Hot Off the Press and I also bought their Ice Skates die set. The bird will be perfect to tuck in a tree or a wreath for future holiday projects - plus it is one piece so I will not have to worry about dropping a teeny tiny die piece . . . 

IO Stamps -- Impression Obsession.... They usually hold a yearly Warehouse Sale in the Fall that I go to with my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime).... but as everything else this year their in person sale was canceled. They had an online sale and I bought some dies and a stamp set:

and that qualified me for the free "Grab Bag" of three dies they pick out:

Plus I bought a stamp and die set from a store I had not shopped before but I love what I got:

Looking forward to BOO projects for next year using these products from Whimsy Stamps. Lots of cuteness ahead . . . 

Hoping we all have a happy holiday and stay safe and healthy as 2020 holiday season is upon us. TFL