Dollar Tree Notepads

Had seen the decorated 4 x 6 notepads from the Dollar Tree altered by Sherry at the PoshPaperLady and Wandy's Sweets on YouTube but first trip to a Dollar Tree I could not find any the paper pads they used.... But made a second trip there this week and I was able to pick up some of these pads they used. Here is a photo of what the pads look like:

Decided for my paper pads I would use fall card stocks from my stash. I also used decorations from my stash from last year. Here are my two decorated paper pads

Card stocks are from the stash and different manufacturers. The pumpkin card stock on the left is by Carta Bella and the turquoise top is by Recollections. For the pad on the right I used a pumpkin print by the Paper Studio @ HobbyLobby and the beige print at the top is also theirs. Here is each a photo of each pad:

I cut a scrap piece of light turquoise card stock from my scraps to put across the top of the pad. I wanted to decorate the top of the pads so I pulled out my baggie of "autumn" parts of left over pieces from projects I work on each year:

Dumped it out on the work table to see what all was inside the bag of pieces:

For both my paper pads I pulled out two "Thankful" banners I had made using solid card stock and foiled card stocks from the stash. They were made using a die from FranticStamper for past fall and Thanksgiving projects I have made. The pumpkin 'bling' are from HobbyLobby. Here is a photo of the second pad I decorated:

This paper pad I wanted to use a ric rac die by Impression Obsession (IOStamps.com) and the designer of that is Anna Wight and she is also on YouTube. I used a scrap piece of pumpkin coloured card stock and die cut the ric rac piece out and put that across the top part of the paper pad. Here is a closer photo of this to show the stitching the die cuts on the ric rac:

Sherry, the PoshPaperLady, has an easy to follow video on decorating these paper pads. I used her measurements - pumpkin prints are 4 x 5 1/2 and my top pieces are 4 x 4 and I rounded the corners as she suggests. (I used my ATG to add my adhesive). She shows a pen with her paper pads but I do not have any decorated pens for my pads yet so I will have to look on Amazon for those and add them to my pads later. These pads are the right size to keep in your purse and for both of my pads I used a darker card stock for the backs:

I have kept the decorations on the front of my pads flat since this could be in a purse. I made the ones for Autumn first and you can write a holiday grocery list, keep recipes in there, lists of holiday projects, or anything else you would want to write down to help you remember. But.... these are addictive to make and super fast!! Three pieces of card stock and add a pen and you are done! Will be working on some for Christmas next! Thanks to both ladies for their videos and inspiration for a cheap and fun project!

 

Patriotic 4th of July Card

Card stock base is red. Blue card stock is from the stash. Used a small alphabet die set for the "usa" letters and I used scraps for those. The stars hot foil background was made using a hot foil plate from Dare2BArtsy and I used silver foil from Spellbinders in the Glimmer Hot Foil machine. This photo shows a better photo of the Uncle Sam hat:

The Uncle Sam hat was made using scrap card stocks and I used the hat die set from the Gnome Patriotic Add On die set from Jaded Blossoms. The die cut all the card stocks easily and the stitching on all the die pieces add dimension and detail to the hat. 

Some of the cards I made I used blue card stock for the frame around the card front piece and other cards I used silver foil card stock for the frame piece. The frame pieces were die cut using a rectangle die set I have in the stash. Easy card to put together and happy to be able to use more of the scraps but as with all foil, it is hard to photograph the foiled background without glare.

This and that from here and there.... Porch

This is a DIY post that I just finished and wanted to get it on the blog before I forgot... With my job working at a school I always had summers off - until the pandemic hit. For the past two years I have had to work all year around so with not having my summer off many projects I either had started or wanted to do were put on the back burner. Happy me that I have this summer off and the first project I wanted to finally put together and finish was the side porch.... Over time when we would shop Restore stores, thrift stores, auctions and the 301 Yard Sale I would pick up different things that I thought I would be able to use on the porch. I did not want this porch to be 'matchy, matchy' or to just have a porch furniture set out there and be done with it.... so here are photos of things I picked up for my porch and I will explain as I go along - 

First - this bench I picked up a few years back cheap at the 301 Yard Sale NC holds each June. It was painted black and all faded and had paint splatters on it but I was happy it was not dented or broken or wobbly... DH power washed it for me and I used two cans of Rustoleum spray paint to paint it the dark green:

Once it was painted and dry I added rubber feet to it from Lowes. This next project was the pinkish red coffee table that I picked up at the 301 Yard Sale. Did not want to keep the red but knew it was a wooden table so I was hoping under the red I would find a nice table:

The above photo was before it was stripped - red paint, then a layer of black paint and happy to say I used the CritusStripper and it cut through both layers in one pass so that was easy - here is the table under the paint layers:

Happy me this table is is good condition - not bad for the $10 I paid for this table... But I had looked and looked for a small table to put next to the bench to put a lamp on and I could not find one... until DH saw this in the furniture clearance section at HobbyLobby:

Shelves - had picked up the larger white shelf at the Restore and it is from Ikea:

The smaller white shelf was at a thrift store and no markings are on that. I wanted two chairs to go by my other 301 Yard Sale table find for the corner on the porch so last trip to Restore I picked up this chair:

I liked this chair because it is wood, it had the green on it but it also had white spackling splattered here and there on it. I paid $5 for that and when I got it home I used a wet cloth to wipe the spackling off and that worked and then I cleaned it up for the porch. (Under the seat of this chair is stamped Pier 1). For the white chair next to this table I rummaged through our garage and found it so cleaned that up and it has a home on the porch. 

DH had recently gone to a warehouse auction for car parts and tools and such and for $5 he brought home this wooden crate for me:

It was covered in dirt and grime and such so when he got home he power washed it for me and I made a place for it on the porch. Another crate I used next to the bench he picked up and it was full of tools so he asked if I wanted that one too so happy me I have two of them on the porch... At the 301 Yard Sale a couple of years ago I picked up this metal "bag" that is a planter - it was dirty and all rusty but I brought it home and cleaned it up for the porch:

Here it is hanging on the wall and I used greenery and a flower cluster from HobLob to put inside of it. For the pink flowers on the right I picked those up at DollarTree:

Recent Restore find is this glass cutting board that I picked up for $2 and decided to put it on the gray table top in the corner on the porch:

This project has been in the works over a few summers -- DH laid down the new flooring out there I had picked out and he hung all my mini blinds, curtain rods, items on the walls, and my shelves. He also made a shelf for the long wall on the porch to hold all my insulators -- that collection is a whole other story - so a huge thanks to him for helping me bring this all together for the porch I have wanted for over 3 years!

On the coffee table is a metal tray I picked up for 50% off at HobLob and that holds a fake plant and three insulators - I picked up the round gem stones at Dollar Tree to fill the tray:

The flamingo planter was gifted to me by the DSD so he had to be included on the porch:

The floral print over the bench I recently picked up at Restore for $6. For the two prints over and under the Ikea white shelf:

Both prints are from Home Interiors (remember them?) and one I picked up at Restore and the other was at the 301. I wanted them hung together because they both have tulips and the matting and frames are the same. The quirky bird house on the shelf is from Restore, the yellow flowers is a floral cluster from HobLob on sale for 50% off. I draped a piece of their greenery garland on that shelf and then put an old Atlas jar I had and more insulators around the items on that. This small shelf:

The white milk glass vase is from a flea market, white basket is from HobLob, and red pitcher I had in my stash from long ago before the porch was even a thought.... The green ivy in both the crate under the gray table and on the bottom of the small table next to the bench are from Restore. For the ivy under the table in the gray watering can I added a small sprig of pink flowers from the Dollar Tree just to add colour to that ivy. 

The valances and four floral pillows are new from Amazon. The rug on the floor I just bought at Ollie's and everything else is this and that from here and there. . .  I did pick up a semi gloss clear poly to put on the coffee table and that I will put on tomorrow but I wanted to get these photos posted before I start working on my next project -- which IS a card project and I hope to be posting that soon. All that is left for the porch is to find something really great to put on the gray table but so far I have not found anything that stood out to me... but with summer comes all the yard sales and flea markets so you never know what you will find.... 

Where to begin with decorating this porch? Three of the four walls are windows and you can see all the green trees outside so I thought I would stick with the green for the base - for the bench, the valances, and happy I had the green birdhouse lamp from my old house to put on the table next to the bench. All the plants and flowers are fake so for the winter I do not have to scramble and bring in all the plants so they will not die with the cold. I also wanted to bring in items that not only do not go together in a matchy, matchy way but to have things with character - DH had brought this pulley home from one of his auctions he shopped:

He hung that next to the outside door of the porch and that is something else you would not expect to see.. Happy this project is done and we can sit out there and not be bothered by bugs... ;0) So the only consistancy on the porch is the green base and then everything else is tied into that or has a history to tell. Happy this project is completed and looking forward to sitting out there.... 

Hot foil and new stuffs . . .

 First - my second order from IOStamps (Impression Obsession) arrived this weekend. I had placed an order early in April for their month long stamp sale and after that order I was able to spend more time looking through their stamp inventory and placed another order. I was happy to add these stamps to the craft room:

Fun stamps for BOO Day and Thanksgiving projects I am working on now.... I also ordered their Painted Lines background stamp:

I have quite a few of their background stamps as the quality is great as is the variety - I love this stamp since it has a distressed look to it and is not solid lines. I stamped it onto white card stock using red ink and these stamped pieces will be used for card fronts, tags, and other holiday projects for this year. 

Also have been hot foiling -- first project is using a hot foil plate from Waffle Flower:

The first hot foil plates I bought were all from Spellbinders but as time has passed more and more places are offering the hot foil plates. Waffle Flower has a few plates but so far this is the only one I have bought --- here is a photo of two pieces I foiled using two different colours of foil off set on the pattern:

One of the offset panels has green and blue foil and the other has silver and blue foil. I also foiled the negative pieces of the foils behind the off set panels and also here those are:

In the photo above I used silver, blue, green and holographic silver foil negative pieces and foiled them.

Spellbinders recent Warehouse Sale happened and I picked up the presents hot foil plate on sale and I used a light blue foil to foil that.

Pink Fresh Diagonal striped hot foil plate was used in the photo above showing both the positive and negative foiled images on white card stock.

Another hot foil plate from Pink Fresh and I used gold foil for the positive and negative images and here is a photo showing this in silver foil:

Used a background hot foil plate from Spellbinders to make this background. I first foiled it using solid gold foil and then turned the plate and foiled it using holographic gold foil:

Again I have the positive piece and the negative piece in the photo. 

I had never heard of this company before I had seen this plate in a demo on YouTube but I really liked the pattern so I ordered the plate. The company is "Dare2BArtzy" and this hot foil plate foiled perfectly the first time out! I love the stars pattern and I foiled it in silver foil as well as the holographic silver foil:

Both the positive and negative images are perfect and it foiled beautifully with no over or under foiling.They also ship quickly so I was happy with that. Have lots of foiled background pieces for projects ahead for sure and happy to report the July 4th cards are ready to be addressed and in the mail in the end of June.... Still working on other holiday projects as I go along but wanted to share the new additions to the craft room.... 

Working on this and that . . . mainly from the stash....

Been working on this and that in the craft room so not much to post as far as a finished project goes.... First I pulled out the "A Little Hello" bundle set from Gina K Designs for the first project I am working on:

This bundle has the stamp set, the matching stencil, and the matching dies. I stenciled the flowers eleven times and that gave me 11 card fronts for future cards:

I used pre cut card bases from the extra card base bins for the future cards I will make. Used a rectangle die to cut out the card front pieces. That left a sizable border on the side of the stencil piece:

Did not want to waste these pieces so I used a die from the stash and die cut out 11 tags:

Spellbinders recently held their Spring Warehouse sale so for one dollar I picked up a tag die set of theirs and I used a piece from that die set for the tag hole on my tags. Here are photos of the Spellbinders die set:

Used scrap card stocks for the tag hole covers so not all the tags look the same. 

Also am working on some Christmas holiday projects and pulled out the Snowy stamp and die set by Penny Black:

Used scrap white card stocks to stamp the stamp on using black ink. Then used the matching die and cut the snowmen out. Still working on them but will post that once they are finished. 

Shopping - Ellen Hutson held a sale for 25% off all Honey Bee Stamp products and I ordered a few die sets I have wanted:

Upper left die set is their Patchwork Pumpkin set, next to that is the Seed Packet die, and at the bottom is their Deckled Edge die set. Working on altering another item and this die set will come in handy. Glad I was able to pick them up at such a good price.... 

Still sorting and organizing as I go and finished the stencil storage so that will help with future projects. Here is a photo of the finished storage bin for the stencils:

Using an empty refrigerator storage bin that stamps used to be in I decided I would use this for all my stencils. Using extra card stock (pinks) I used the WeRMemory Keepers Tab Punch Board and made tabbed dividers so I could sort and then label the dividers for the stencils. The taller stencils are in the back of the bin. In the front of the bin are pre-cut 6x6 pieces of white card stock I cut for future projects. This way when I want to use a stencil my white card stock is already cut and ready to go for whatever project I will be stenciling. I also have a piece of drawer liner in the front of the bin that I use when stenciling as I keep my ink pad on that piece of drawer liner so the ink pad stays in place when I am using it. 

More organizing in progress but it is all coming along as I do one project at a time. But as I go and I come across products I have not used or products I want to use I put them in a basket on the work table so I will not forget to get some use out of them. Happy to get some projects started using products I bought in the past but have not used yet as well as more organizing done....