Valentine Mini Matchbox Treat Holders

Used the Matchbox die set from Hero Arts for the Valentine Mini Matchbox Treat Holders I made.This die set makes a small matchbox with lid. I bought the Dove heart shaped chocolates for Valentine's Day and two of these candies fit in the box:

Used solid card stocks for the box base from the stash. Printed holiday card stock from stash and Hobby Lobby. Used heart punches from Marvy for my hearts and heart crystal bling are from the stash:

This matchbox die set makes a small matchbox and it does not hold a lot:

The box is not deep enough to hold a Hershey nugget, a Hershey kiss, mini Tootsie rolls, etc.. The Dove candies are about as high as the box is so they work well. Here is another photo to show more of these mini matchbox treat holders I made:

This die cuts the heavier solid card stock easily with one pass through the machine. Easy treat holder to assemble. For the prints on the top of the box I assembled the box top and measured that and used the trimmer to cut my printed card stocks to size. Used liquid glue to put these onto the matchbox lids.  Cute little holiday treat holder.

Christmas Clean Up Cuteness

Cleaning up all the holiday project residue in the craft room... card stocks, trims, washi tapes, stamps, and dies. Have a bin on the work table that holds new products that were ordered during the holiday sales and are waiting to be used or put away for future holiday projects.... Went through the bin and this post is about a die set I ordered before Christmas....

DH wanted me to order something for him off Amazon before Christmas and the price did not qualify for the free Prime shipping so I quickly searched for a product for the craft room to bring the total up to the Prime shipping minimum.

Here is the die set I bought for me:

Simple little holiday bow die set. I wanted a die set that had antlers with a bow. Amazon has other sets similar to this but I liked the size and the shape of these antlers and that they are thicker looking and do not look thin like branches. As with many of the Amazon die sets there is no photo packaging with the die set so I always make a sample of the die cut out and keep it with the die set so in the future when I am going through the dies at a glance I will know what the die set looks like cut out and assembled. 

Using holiday scrap printed card stocks I made up two of this die set bows:

For the antler piece I cut that out of recycled cardboard. This die set comes with the bow center strip and also an oval die piece for the center of the bow:

This bow is approx 2 3/4" from bottom of bow to top of antlers and it is just shy of  3" in width once assembled.  Here are the two samples together:

The die set also has a small snowflake die piece so you can cut that out and put it in the bow center or just on the front of the bow piece. This die set will get used for this next holiday season and the treat holders or tags. (On Amazon these bow dies with the antlers are under "deer horns").  Cute project and another good use for scraps. 

Here is the die set on the magnetic sheet for storage with the two bow samples I made:

HOT Hot Foil Plates

 A couple of years back DH wanted to stop at Harbor Freight for some such product so I went inside with him and looked around. I found a small telescopic magnet and I picked that up thinking it would get use in my craft room if I dropped a metal die piece or whatever on the floor. I keep this tool on the side of my Big Shot machine and it has gotten much use in this craft room from picking up metal dies on the floor or small scissors I knock off the work table, etc...  Fast forward to hot foiling...

My Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil Machine came with a magnetic tool to pick up your hot foil plate pieces off the machine when you are done hot foiling to transfer them to the cooling mat that also comes with the machine. The magnet pick up tool keeps you from touching the heated hot plate pieces.... Works great for small hot foil plate pieces but once the solid plates and background hot plates were introduced the small pick up tool could not lift the heavier plates up off the base of the hot foil machine...

Off to the auto store for me - right by the register is a stand of magnetic "tool pick up" tools. Some reach further than others, some have a light with it, some of them made for heavier items. ... but I bought your basic magnetic pick up tool:

I recently bought the Hero Arts Hearts hot foil plate and this pick up tool works well for that:

Happy this heavier pick up tool worked picking up this solid plate but I also took a photo to show which plate I had originally bought this pick up tool for:

This solid plate is from Pink Fresh and every time I hot foil I use this plate at the end to hot foil all my negative foil pieces to keep my waste to a minimum. This is the largest and heaviest hot foil plate I use. With using this magnetic pick up tool from the auto store I do not have to handle the heated hot foil plate to get it off the machine and onto the cooling mat. I keep this magnetic pick up tool in with all the tools I use for hot foiling. 

Nichol Sphor recently made a hot foil video for YouTube sharing all her hot foil tips and tricks. It is an informative video and easy to follow for anyone with questions - she also makes projects as she is hot foiling so you can see her use her foiled pieces on her projects. I foiled the Hearts hot foil plate by Hero Arts and I will be using these hot foiled pieces on some of my Valentine's Day treat holders I am working on. Hot foiling gives your projects a nice touch -- and easy to do .... but practice makes perfect as with anything else that is new to you.... Watch videos and take notes but most importantly take your hot foil machine out of the box and play with it! 

Heart Shaped Rosette with no die - -

 Had seen the video by Vianneycreates on YouTube with instructions to make a heart shaped rosette without having to buy a die for this. I watched the video and followed her instructions. First I pulled out a piece of printed 12 x 12 card stock. Cut a 3 inch x 12 inch strip off of that. Put the 3 inch strip on the scoreboard and scored this piece every 1/4 inches as she explains. Once it was all scored I took it to the trimmer and cut this strip in half lengthwise so you have two 1 1/2 inch x 12 inch long strips. (She explains that she cuts it in 3 inch x 12 inch strips and then scores it and when you cut it in half you now have two strips already scored for your two rosettes). 

Once it is scored and cut down to the 1 1/2 inch x 12 inch strip you fold it in half and then draw the pattern for the heart rosette - which looks like a landscape design:

I drew the landscape shape with a pencil and cut this out using scissors:

Fold the strip on the scored lines. When that is done I used tear and tape to put the ends of the rosette together and that then has to be trimmed off as you do not want that point there:

She uses circles of card stock and covers them in hot glue and presses down her heart shaped rosette and tries to shape her rosette all at once. I make my rosettes the way Tim Holtz shows -- crease the score lines, tape the rosette ends together and stand up the rosette on your craft mat. Put a dollup of hot glue on the craft mat in the center of the standing rosette and use two hands to press the rosette into the hot glue on the craft mat and hold in place until set. I find this much easier than trying to make sure the circle you use for your base is in the center of the rosette on the backside. (Photo not taken but I use my brown Ranger craft mat to make all my rosettes on as the hot glue will not stick to the mat or damage my table top craft mat). 

With the heart rosette made I die cut out a white doily piece to use as a base for the decorated rosette. Used hot glue to put the heart rosette onto the doily. Then cut out a glittered tulle circle to put on top of the rosette, gathered up metallic silver thread and used a red foil die cut heart for the front of the rosette. Added a "love" word across the front and the rosette embellishment is done:

Here is a photo to show the size of this rosette embellishment next to the round rosettes I had made for my Valentine's Day bag toppers:

I also put this heart shaped rosette embellishment on the front of my Valentine gift bag to show it is a nice size for that:

That was nice of VianneyCreates to share her pattern for the heart rosettes so yo do not have to buy a die to make them. Cute idea for Valentine embellishments!

Pre Holiday Sales

EllenHutson.com held a sale before the holidays and I bought three items. The sale was for her brand only, Essentials by Ellen. I bought her Holiday Cheer hot foil plate, matching strip die, Sentiment Strips. I also bought her clear stamp set, Holiday Vibes. Here is a photo of the products:

Her clear stamp set, Holiday Vibes, is a one piece stamp so when you stamp it you do not have to struggle to place the sentiments straight on your card stock for stamping:

Hard to really see but this is the backside of the stamp to show all sentiments are on the one stamp:

The strip die also works with this stamp set so economical set to buy - the hot foil plate, strip die, and the clear stamp sentiment strip stamp. I have not used the stamp yet but I did get to hot foil the sentiment hot plate:

Cut the strips out using the strip die:

The day I did hot foiling I only used red, silver, and holographic hot foil. After cutting these strips out I had quite the supply of greetings:

I hot foiled both the positive and negative foil pieces so I have a variety of strips for Christmas projects ahead. Put them in a clear box and labeled that so when I work on Christmas projects I will have the pre made sentiment strips ready for use:

I still want to hot foil the sentiment plate with gold foil, blue, and other colours but for now I have a start to holiday projects. Happy to be able to shop these products on sale!

PIC's Thank You Card

My PIC (stamping Partner In Crime) gave me lots of great presents for Christmas and I needed to make her a thank you card.... but... not so easy... she is a purple person -- it is her fav colour -- but I have very little purple card stock in my craft room.... so what to do for her card???

Used a Concord & 9th quilt die and made a card front.... but did not like it and I thought it looked "flat" so it sat on the craft table for a couple of days... until..... here is the pieced card front before gluing:

Liked the quilt design but it was not ready to give to her.... laid sequins on the centers of the quilted squares and altho it helped, still not right... then I remembered the Tessler Crafts grid die I had used on Halloween bag fronts: 

Decided I would pull out the die and cut it out of solid purple card stock and lay that on top of the card front piece and see if I liked that any better..... so it worked for giving the card dimension and here is the card I made her:

For the greeting "Thank you" I used a die from my stash and I cut that out using three pieces of white card stock. Used liquid glue to stack those together and set them aside to dry. Then I die cut the words out of holographic silver card stock. If you have used mirrored (foil) card stock in the past then you know it is hard to get the adhesive on the back of the card stock without getting any glues/adhesive on the foiled side.... you can't use the adhesive eraser to remove it from the foiled card stock and a Qtip dipped in rubbing alcohol does not always remove the adhesive..... but....

Amazon sells this package of adhesive sheets and I used them to put adhesive on my foiled words:

This is a package of 11x17 sheets of adhesive that will last a very long time. On the front of the package shows how to use them:

You peel back the protective sheet and place your card stock piece on the adhesive - right side up. I put a piece of new printer paper over my foiled piece and rubbed it onto the adhesive sheet and then I put my foiled "Thank you" on the white die cut pieces. Here is a photo of that on the card front with the stacked white card stock behind it:

I also used these adhesive sheets to put adhesive on my red foiled "Love" for my Valentine bag toppers:

Happy to have this new way to add adhesive to foiled card stock pieces without having to use the liquid glue and getting it all over the place on the foiled pieces. 

Fringe Benefits - - -

Used the crepe paper fringe on past projects:

Decided I wanted to make fringe for some of the Valentine treat holders I was making. For each fringe piece I used 6 pieces of crepe paper cut to approx 12 inches long. For my Valentine fringe I used three colours - red, white, and a light pink. First I cut all the crepe paper and put it in stacks for each of my fringe pieces. I made two different patterns -- one stack has two light pink pieces, then two white pieces, and two red pieces. The other stack had one red piece, one white piece, one light pink piece, then repeated. I used a thin line of hot glue on each piece of crepe paper to stack the pieces together:

Once all the stacks were glued I used fringe scissors to cut each side up to the hot glue line:

With the fringe cut on each side then I scrunched the crepe paper:

The above photo shows the stack of crepe paper glued together, then cut with the fringe scissors, and the bottom piece is after it is scrunched using my hands. This photo will show how stacking the crepe paper differently gives the fringe a different pattern:

The scrunched fringe piece second from the top in the above photo shows the pattern you get by stacking your two pieces of each colour together - I have two light pink pieces on the bottom. two white pieces, and then the two red pieces on top of the stack. When it is scrunched you can see the red in the center, then white, then light pink on the bottom.  The second scrunched piece shows the pattern the three colour crepe papers make when you alternate them - light pink, white, red, light pink, white, and then red. When you scrunch that stack you can see the red throughout your piece and it is not a definite stripe look. 

Using the Gift Bag die set from Spellbinders I made some treat bags for Valentine's Day and I decorated them using this fringed trim at the top:

The above photos show the fringe with the crepe paper stacked together - 2 pieces of each colour on top of each other. This next photo shows the fringe with the coloured crepe paper alternated:

Two different looks using the same crepe paper. Easy trim to make and easy to put together using the hot glue. 

Valentine Bags

Finished the front of the Valentine Bags I am making for all the Valentine treat holders I am making. I used the Hearts stencil set from Scrapbook.com for the bag fronts. The lacy heart is from the new release from Trinity Stamps. Used hot foil for the banners under the tag. The heart in the center of the tag is from the hearts border from Trinity Stamps also. Here is the bag:

This bag has the red foil heart in the center of it and here is a photo of the two center hearts I made:

Here is a photo of the tag with the hot foiled banner pieces:

For the pink hearts across the top and bottom of the bags I used ribbon from the DollarTree and it is shiny and has a holographic look to it:

Definite theme this year is pink and reds.... Love the layered hearts stencil as well as the Trinity Stamps heart die set I used on the fronts of the bags. Used white gift bags from the stash for the bag. White card stock from the stash used for the stenciled front. Heart ribbon/bow is also from the stash. Fun bag to put together and shows off the hot pink and red inks on the stenciled hearts. 

Valentine Bag Toppers

Recently bought the Heart Bag Topper die set from Scrapdivadesigns.com for my Valentine treat bags. The nice thing about this die set is it is a set of three bag toppers - small, medium, and large. This way all sizes are in the same die set and you do not have to buy different die sets for different sized dies. Erica owns Scrapdiva and she ships quickly so you do not have to wait long to try out your new die set. Here is a photo of some of the Valentine Bag Toppers I made:

For my bag toppers first I die cut out the bag toppers from solid card stocks. I wanted mine to have a printed front to them so here are photos to show how I did this:

Now cut out the printed card stock for the bag topper front:

Folded the solid bag topper and covered the solid card stock with liquid glue:

Put the printed card stock piece on top of this: (Do not fold - leave flat)

Put a stamp clear block on top and set it aside to dry. Once it was dried I turned it over and used scissors to trim off the top pieces that were not needed:

For my bag toppers I used the large die in the set. I used heart printed card stock from HobbyLobby and die cut my rosettes using a Sizzix rosette die. Used a doily die from my stash and cut out the white doilies to put my rosettes on. Used a card stock circle and cut out glittered tulle for the tulle circles on top of the rosettes:

The above photo shows the different #110 weight card stock circles I have on hand for my tulle circles. I take a long piece of the tulle and fold it up and lay the circle on the top of it and cut the circle out using scissors. For some of my rosettes I used small tulle circles and also larger tulle circles. I also added metallic thread under the punched glittered card stock hearts on the rosettes:

Here is a better photo of some of the bag toppers:

Added glittered stickers to the fronts of the bag toppers and heart shaped bling to the center of the punched hearts on the tops of the rosettes. Easy bag toppers to put together. The "Love" die set is from my stash and I cut that out of red mirrored card stock and the background piece is #110 weight white card stock scraps from the stash.