Floral Card Fronts

 Finally had time to work on floral card fronts that I have wanted to make. These card fronts have embossing folders with matching stencils for easy ink blending to add colour to the flowers. Here is a photo of some of the finished stenciled pieces:

The pink sample was made using the Vintage Lace 3D embossing folder and stencil set from Altenew. To make this card front I cut my white card stocks to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. Once I put the card stock in the embossing folder I lightly misted the front of the card stock with water and ran it thru the die cutting machine to emboss this design. I did this same thing with the blue rose sample. Set these aside to dry.

Cut my coloured card stocks to the sizes I needed for the card base and card front. Set those aside. With the stencil in place over the embossed pieces I added ink to the design using blender brushes. Once all the blending was done I cleaned my stencils and trimmed the floral pieces to the size I needed for my card fronts:

Assembled the layered card fronts. Put them on the card stock bases using liquid glue. The floral designs can be used for many different occasion cards. Now I have to hot foil my sentiments or maybe heat emboss them - will have to see what I have in the stash... For a crafter that can not do colouring with Copics and such these embossing folders and matching stencils certainly let me have that "look" of a card that was coloured.  The Altenew 3D embossing folder embosses well with one pass in the machine and has lots of detail on the design:

Patriotic Pull Aparts

 A few years back Simon Hurley introduced his line of background stamps which he called Peel-Aways. These background stamp designs come apart so you can use them as a solid background piece or take it apart and make a partial background or to use that stamp piece as a stripe or border on a project. These separated stamp pieces fit easily into the background stamp for a solid background again. Now Taylored Expressions has introduced their separating stamps - Pull Aparts - and I bought their new Patriotic Pull Aparts for cards and tags I am making. 

Here is photo of these stamps:

The stars part of the stamp can be removed so you can easily stamp the striped part of the stamp. I used scrap card stock and cut that to size and put it in the MISTI. Then I laid the stamps on the card stock with pieces together:

I took the striped halves of the stamps off the MISTI and I inked and stamped the stars stamps using Catherine Pooler Dress Blues ink:

With those stamped I put the striped part of the stamp back under the stars pieces for stamping:

Took the stars pieces off and inked the stripes with red ink and stamped those:

I cleaned the stamps when the stamping was done and the stamps cleaned up easily:

On the TE YouTube channel they demonstrated these Pull-Apart stamps and made a patriotic card. Altho I do not have all the products they had I used items from my stash and made my own cards - I made a card using kraft card stock as they did, and I made a red and a white card. Here is a photo of the three cards:

For my patriotic background I used a background stamp from Divinity Designs:

This is the Old Flag background stamp and I bought this stamp at a stamp show long ago. I felt it worked for the backgrounds on the cards as it has a lot of shadows on it and interest. I used Pebble ink from Catherine Pooler to ink this because that is the lightest gray ink I have in my stash. 

For the card on kraft card stock I inked the edges of the background and the heart piece using brown ink and for the other two cards I used a light gray ink for the background edges and the edges of the heart and star pieces. The banners used are also from Taylored Expressions - their new release Fly Your Flag clear stamp and matching banner die set. I used brown ink for some of the words and blue ink for the others. 

Cut all the card stock bases and scored them at the top. Trimmed my background pieces to the size I needed for the card fronts and sponged the edges. Stamped, die cut, and sponged the edges of the hearts and star pieces. Used liquid glue to put the background piece on the card front. Used thin foam tape to put the heart or star pieces on the card front. Used pop dots to put the banner pieces over the hearts/stars on the card fronts. Added red sequins using Glossy Accents to the card fronts. 

Love the heart/star pull apart stamps as you get such a clear/clean stamped impression without having to mask off part of the stamp and having to use markers or something. 

Happy to add these two new TE products to the craft room and happy I was able to use more of my scrap white card stock for the cards as well as the Divinity Designs background stamp I also had in my stash. The heart/star stamps are approx 3" or so in width so these look good on a card front but can also be used as a tag or a decoration for a holiday table or on a treat holder.. 

Cinnamon Roll Hack

Had seen a video short by Kristin's Friends Cooking on YouTube for the TikTok Cinnamon Roll hack so I decided to give this a try . . .  As I was assembling this recipe I took photos on the phone to text to my niece in Pennsylvania as she loves to cook and we share recipes. Here is a photo of the items needed for this recipe:

Items needed:

Two 8 count cans of cinnamon rolls

1 cup Heavy WHIPPING cream

1 stick melted butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Here is a photo collection of this recipe I took:

Using butter I greased the pan - upper right photo - I spread out the cinnamon rolls. I have 5 rows of three rolls so with the 16th roll I pulled that apart and just tucked it between the other rolls in the pan. The photo on the left shows the heavy whipping cream poured over the cinnamon rolls. 

The photo below that shows the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, sea salt mixed and spread over the rolls. Photo to the right of that shows I sprinkled the chopped pecans over the rolls - you do not have to add nuts if you do not want to. The photo on the lower left shows the foil covered pan ready to go into the oven. You bake these in a pre heated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven you remove the foil and your cinnamon rolls will look like the bottom right photo. 

I put the pan on a cookie cooling rack to cool for 10-15 minutes and then I drizzled the glaze from the cinnamon roll cans over the rolls --

The photo on the right shows a cinnamon roll out of the pan and cut with a fork. These are very good and easy to prepare. A simple breakfast for a holiday or company. I was concerned the heavy whipping cream could make the cinnamon rolls too moist but it did not. GLAZE -- when I opened the two cans of the cinnamon rolls I removed the glaze containers and I left them on the stove top while the rolls were baking. This warmed up the glaze and I did not have any problems drizzling it over the cooled rolls. Remember once you remove the rolls from the oven, remove the foil, and let them cool for the 10-15 minutes or they will be too hot for the glaze topping and they will just absorb the glaze. This way you can see the glaze frosting on the tops. Thanks to Kristin for sharing her recipe and video for this TikTok hack!

Not a Collections Collector....

Years ago, when home stamp parties were popular, companies would sell their collections - ink pads with matching markers, with matching card stocks, with matching ribbons.... and so it goes. But once I began card making using only one company products was not for me... I found over the years I would buy ink pads from different companies, embossing powders from different companies, etc.. But when it came to storing them .... keep like brands together?? keep like colours together?? So for me it made sense to keep these things from the same manufacturer together... Great idea until you needed to look for a certain ink pad in a certain colour or whatever...

Just saw the new craft room reveal on YouTube from Lisa Mensing on her channel "Confetti and Cards".  I watched her video and when she showed her ink pad storage - CLICK - this system would definitely work for me in my craft room! I ordered the eye shadow holders she uses from Amazon and they arrived today and I went right to work..... In her video she also uses the three section clear trays from Dollar Tree in her drawers - with me recently reorganizing my craft room I had two of those trays that I could use in my drawers but I also had lots of plastic white baskets I could put to use. Happily I had one roll left of the non slip foam liner for drawers so I was able to use what I already had on hand to line the drawers. 

To start with I took everything out of the drawers and wiped them down and cut my foam liner to size. The drawers I am using for this new organization are not all the same size as you will see in the photos - but they worked and I love this new system -- Lisa keeps her ink pads and embossing powders and such of same colours in her drawers. For my drawers I have my greens and blues -- ink pads and embossing powders:

Reds and pinks:

Yellows and oranges:

Purples and browns:

Blacks and grays:

For my gold embossing powders I put those in with the yellows and for the silver embossing powders I put those in with the blacks and grays. I have one holder and dish in that drawer for my metallic silver and gold inks by Delicata and I also have those re-inkers in there with sponges I use for those inks as well. 

For my white and clear embossing powders I am still working on that drawer - needing to gather up more smaller baskets for that drawer so that should be finished tomorrow I hope. A BIG thanks to Lisa Mensing for her sharing this idea -- it is a game changer for me for sure -- the other inks I have are Close To My Heart and SU but I have holders I bought for those. In the drawers are ink pads from Simon Says, Memento, Simon Hurley, (just bought a few of those on sale), Catherine Pooler, and other random companies. I could have used this system when I was stenciling all the backgrounds on my Easter cards to help locate all the colours I have available to use -- so happy this came together and can't wait to put it to good use!! (Simon Hurley has done a video in the past talking about storing ink pads on their sides rather than flat and he suggests checking with a manufacturer if you are concerned about the side storing - as for his ink pads he stores his brand and all the distress inks he owns on their sides as well with no problems). 

Glad I saw her video and hope to finish this project up tomorrow after work for weekend crafting ahead!