IOStamps Order Arrived

 My Impression Obsession (IOStamps.com) order arrived and this is what I bought:

They sell stencils now and I bought a three piece stencil set for Christmas. This pattern is a random pattern and not layered so you can put the leaves stencil anywhere you want on the flowers as well as the berries stencil. These stencils are not numbered as layered stencils are but seem to be a good quality. I also bought the scalloped tag die (AnnaWight) and that will be fun to use. The greeting stamp set is too cute for Christmas so I bought that as well:

Loved the judging stamp and the phase.... will be cute for cards and treat holders. Glad they offer stencils now and hoping they have more new products added to their website now that they have discontinued many of their cling stamps from their inventory... Lots to play with for holidays ahead!

Pass me a napkin, please . . .

Made a run to the DollarTree the other day as I had seen some items featured in YouTube videos that I wanted to pick up.... but of course my store did not carry those items... but they did have the wooden slat pieces and the wooden oval plaque pieces so I picked up two of those:

I also picked up 4 packages of their "Harvest DIY Words" that they had in the Fall items section for my oval plaques. And on my last trip to Hobby Lobby I picked up a package of their Fall napkins on sale that I wanted to use for this project. I also went through my box of Fall items and found another napkin that I could use for a Thanksgiving plaque so I was happy to find these wooden oval pieces. 

Using craft paints from my stash first thing I did was to paint all the word pieces:

I put two coats of paint on those and while those were drying I worked on the wooden ovals with the napkins. 

Here is a photo of one of the napkins showing the 2 ply (backing) I peeled off the printed napkin front:

With the napkin fronts separated from the ply backings I used a cool iron and pressed out the folds in the napkin. Then I used ModPodge and covered the front of the plaque and laid the napkins on them:

Once the ModPodge dried I used scissors and cut off the excess napkin around the ovals. With the trimming of the napkins done I used a small paint brush and painted the edge of the ovals and back of the ovals using a light rust paint. Set these aside to dry. Once they were dried I brushed on another coat of ModPodge over the napkin front to seal that and set that aside to dry. 

With the word pieces dried I used a metallic wax and put that over the letters using my finger to give the letters a shiny finish and a little sparkle:

I laid the words on the finished plaque pieces and I will add a bow and some other decorations to the front of the plaques but for now this is how they look -- once I decorate the front of them I will hot glue the word pieces onto the napkin fronts:

I put the twine hangers that came with the wooden ovals back on them to hang them but once I decorate them I may change that out. The extra words I will use on other projects. The package of words has a set of 6 and they are:

Happy Fall, Give Thanks, Hello Fall, Welcome Autumn, and the other two word sets are Blessed and Farm Fresh and I did not use those for this project so they are not painted yet but soon they will be once I decide how I will use them. Happy I found something at the DollarTree that I could use for Fall crafting projects!

Stenciled Halloween Cards

I had seen a video on YouTube by Cards & Coffee Time and she featured the new Pumpkin Faces stencil and Halloween die set, Halloween Word Trio by Photoplay/Say It With Stamps, and I was inspired to order these for myself. I ordered them from Scrapbook.com and they shipped out within 24 hours of my order and when they arrived I put them to work for more Halloween cards. Here is a photo of these two new craft room additions:

This stencil is 6x9 so you can use different size card stocks for your projects. For my card fronts I cut yellow card stock 5 1/2 x 4 1/4. I sponged orange inks on the edges of the card stock pieces and left the centers of the yellow card stock yellow. Then I stenciled those using blending brushes and black ink:

With the card fronts stenciled I used the word dies and cut out the words using glittered black craft foam and then I cut the words out using scrap #110 weight black card stock. Used liquid glue to put the foam words onto the card stock words to make them sturdy:

For the first card I wanted to use a Sizzix grid die from my stash which gives me a card that is 4 3/4 x 4 3/4. To make this easier to assemble once it was die cut I turned the stenciled card front over and laid the die on the back of the card front. I used a pencil and wrote a number in each grid opening - which is nine pieces. Once that was marked I put the grid die on the stenciled side of the card front and die cut the pieces out. Having the numbers on the back of them made for quick assembly using the grid frame.  I also used a piece of #110 weight black card stock from Mikes and cut out the grid die for the frame to my piece. Doing a dry fit this is what it looked like after the die cutting was done:

Used a black card stock base for this card with the scored line at the top. Used liquid glue to put the grid piece and all the die cut squares on the card front. Used two circle dies from the stash and die cut a black circle and a white circle for the piece behind the word greeting:

Here are other cards I made using these stenciled card fronts:

This next card I did last. Since this stencil is so big I decided to use it to make a card front for a mini slimline card. I cut the card front at 3 x 6 and sponged the edges with orange ink and then stenciled the pumpkin faces on that using black ink. This card is scored on the long side:

All the cards I added crystal gems from the stash. Using an older Cuttlebug ghost die I cut out the ghosts from glittered white card stocks. The little pumpkin was made using a solid pumpkin punch from M Stewart and a pumpkin face punch from EK Success. Easy cards to assemble with cutting all the card fronts first and sponging and stenciling those. Then I die cut all the word dies and circles for the card fronts. I cut all the card stock bases and scored those. Added the stenciled pieces to the card fronts. Added the black/white circles and die cut words and then added the ghosts, pumpkins, and crystals to each card. 

The word dies easily cut out the words using the glittered craft foam and the heavier black card stock. Also the black ink wiped off the stencil with no staining. This is my first purchase of Photoplay products and I am sure I will have more of their products in the craft room in the future. Fun cards to put together for BOO Day!

Baby Wipe Technique Thanksgiving Cards

Dug out an old stamp set with a two part leaf stamp -- the full leaf stamp and the second stamp has the leaf veining only on it. I used an unscented baby wipe with a dark yellow, a rust, and a pumpkin coloured re-inker for the inks. For the card stock bases to the cards I used whatever bases I already had cut and scored in the extras basket so not all cards have the same colour card stock base. Here are two of the cards I made:

To begin with I folded the baby wipe and added the re-inkers to that and let that sit while I got out all the other card parts I would need for the cards. With all the card stock bases already cut and scored the only cutting I had to do was the cream card stock fronts of the cards and any other pieces I would use for the card fronts as well as a cream card stock piece for the inside of the cards. . 

For the card fronts I stamped the solid leaf stamp three times turning it as I stamped it. With the card fronts stamped I then stamped the pieces for the inside of the cards stamping one leaf in the lower corner of each piece. With all the leaves stamped I cleaned off the stamp.

Using gold Delicata ink I stamped the leaf stamp with the veining over the solid leaf image to add some sparkle and shine to the leaves. I did this free hand as it is a cling stamp set and I did not want it to be "perfect" but more random. Here is the stamped card front showing this sparkle on the leaves:

I also stamped the veining stamp on the leaves for the inside of the cards:

In this photo I turned the stamped leaf card inside pieces so that some of the insides with have the leaves at the bottom of the cards and others will have the leaves at the top of the cards - both give me plenty of room for my inside stamp to fit. 

Here is one of the cards:

Added sequins to the card fronts using Glossy Accents. IRL you see the sparkle of the sequins as well as the gold ink over the stamped leaves. Happy to use more of the stash card stocks and card bases for these holiday cards. Easy technique to use to add Fall colours to the card. 

Holders for Ghirardelli Candies

Have wanted to make the Matchbook Ghirardelli candy treat holders for Christmas using the pattern with the inside pocket for this year and so today I made some:

Usually make the Matchbook treat holders for Christmas and I would use a solid card stock base so that out of a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock I will get 4 holders. But this year I wanted to use printed card stocks and scraps from my stash for my holders so I had to re-figure my pattern for each holder. 

For each Matchbook treat holder I used a piece of solid or double sided printed card stock cut:

7 3/8 x 2 3/4

Score on the 7 3/8 side at: 3, 3 1/2, and again at 6 3/4

Crease all score lines with a bone folder and set aside.

For the inside pocket:

5 3/4 x 2 3/8

Score this on 5 3/4 side at: 2 1/4, 2 1/2, 2 3/4, and 5, 5 1/4, and 5 1/2

I used 1/8 wide tear and tape to put the pocket together after I scored all the lines. 

I put the pocket inside the Matchbook treat holder and stapled them together at the bottom of the holder. To cover the staple on the treat holder front I added washi tape to each holder:

This is an opened holder to show the inside pocket that holds the Ghirardelli candy:

Used holiday punches to decorate some of the fronts of the Matchbook treat holders and for others I used this circle greeting piece - the "merry wishes" is a stamp from Morningstar Stamps and I used red ink for that. Used a circle punch to cut that out and used a scallop punch for the red scallop behind the stamped piece. 

Will add the candies the week of Christmas but for now I have a stack of the treat holders ready to go:

Have already started some other of the Christmas treat holders so these will be put in that box for holiday projects. Some of these holders I added stickers I had in the stash to the fronts to dress them up for the holiday. They are easy to put together and a fun treat holder to decorate.

Witching Hour Cards ....

Decided for the Boo Day (Halloween) cards this year that I was not going to buy anything new but instead to use whatever stamps and dies I had on hand as well as card stocks.... Here is a photo of just three of the cards I have made:

To start with all the cards are on a card stock base of #110 weight black card stock from Mikes, cut and scored on the side. For the fronts of all the cards I used solid card stocks I had and all the prints were in my stash and also from 6x6 pads holiday card stocks. Here is the first card:

This card I used different printed card stocks for the card front. The stitched rick rack piece on the left front of the card was die cut using the IOStamps (Impression Obsession) Trims die - by Anna Wight. The Witch is also a die from IOStamps - again by Anna Wight. I used glittered black card stock for that. I also cut a witch out of the #110 weight card stock to put the die cut glittered witch on to make it sturdy. The ticket is a stamp I have in the stash and I stamped that onto scrap white card stock and cut it out with scissors. Sponged the edges of that using black ink. The witch and ticket are put on the card front using foam tape to give them dimension. 

This next card:

Again used more printed card stocks from the stash for the card front and rick rack piece. This witch die cut is the side profile die also from IOStamps - Anna Wight. (These witch dies were released last year). The "Oct 31" small ticket in the upper right hand corner was stamped using my date stamp and I masked off the year on the stamp when I inked it up. The small tickets were die cut using the Mini Ticket Strip die from MFTStamps that I bought off Ebay awhile back. I die cut the strips of small tickets, stamped the dates on them, tore the tickets apart on the perforated lines the die cuts on the strips and then I sponged the edges of the tickets using black ink. Again the witch and ticket are on the card front using foam tape for dimension. 

The third card:

Again scraps and stash prints were used for the card front. Used foam tape behind the witch and date ticket piece in the upper right corner. For each of the cards I added gems from the stash to give the card fronts a little sparkle. Here is a photo of the inside of the card:

All plans out the window during a stop at Hobby Lobby in the Spring - I found this new holiday plaid card stock and I picked some of this up for the inside of the cards. I also had bought the "Happy Halloween" stamp from the IOStamps website when they had the sale for their discontinued cling stamps back in early April. These are the only two new additions I ended up using for the Halloween cards... The rick rack piece on the inside of the cards matches the rick rack on the front of each card so each card front and inside of the cards go together. Except for these two additions I used everything from the stash for the cards and happy I was able to use up lots of holiday printed card stocks. Some of the prints are double sided card stocks and others are not but I tried to mix and match them using as much of the prints as I could.  

Did all the card stock bases at the same time -- cut and scored all card bases. Then cut all the solid card front pieces, then the printed card front, the strips for the left side of the card, then die cut all the rick rack pieces - 2 for each card. One for the card front and one for inside the card. With all the card stocks cut I did the die cutting of the mini ticket strips and then all my stamping. With everything done for the card fronts I put the cards together using the ATG.. Die cut all the witches out and put them on the card fronts and also the ticket pieces. Added the crystal gems using GlossyAccents. Set the cards aside.

Cut the holiday plaid card stocks for the insides of the cards. Cut the small white rectangles for the insides of the cards and stamped the greeting using black ink. Used scissors and trimmed the rick rack pieces for the inside of the cards. Put the stamped white rectangle piece on the plaid background. Put the rick rack piece on the rectangle piece using liquid glue. Put the inside of the cards in the cards using the ATG. 

With putting the cards together in assembly line fashion it did not take long to make all of them and each card is different due to the prints I used. Happy to have the cards all made for BOO Day and now I can start on my BOO Day treat holders! Will post those soon....

Fall Pumpkins

 Used my new sale die set from my last Spellbinders order to make some Fall Pumpkins:

This is a three piece die set from Spellbinders -- the pumpkin, the stem with vine piece, and the face die to make a Jack O Lantern pumpkin.  Here are the pumpkins I made:

The larger pumpkins in the photo were made with the pumpkin die set and these dies also emboss the card stock when cutting them out for more detail. I cut out all the pumpkins and sponged the edges of them for dimension and put the stem/vine piece on the pumpkins using a liquid glue. For the face pieces I used scrap black card stock and glued those pieces onto some of the pumpkins for Halloween. For the three smaller pumpkins in the photo I used two punches:

The solid pumpkin is a punch from M Stewart. The small pumpkin face punch is from EK Success. First I punched out a solid black pumpkin and then punched the face out of pumpkin coloured card stock. Using the solid pumpkin punch I punched over the punched face piece and that gave me the pumpkin shape. Used liquid glue to put the pumpkin face piece onto the solid black pumpkin piece. Used a brown marker to colour the pumpkin stem. I also sponged the edges of these smaller pumpkins for dimension. Will be making more of these for upcoming BOO Day and Fall projects. 

Fall Gnome Cards

Jaded Blossoms had their recent release posted on YouTube and when I saw the new Fall Add Ons for their Gnome set I knew I would want to order it and make some cards.... Here is their new release for their Gnomes:

They also have a new stamp set that has the outline dies available:

Using the Gnome Add On sets I get to use scrap card stocks so once again I got out my scraps and began all the die cutting for my cards..... I also used extra card bases I had in the basket so I would not have to cut more card stock for those. I did not want any borders on the fronts of my cards so I cut my printed card stock for the card front the full size of the card front. All background prints on my cards are from the stash and various manufacturers. Here are the cards I have made so far:

For this card the card stock base is Kraft card stock. I used a blue print from the stash for the card front. Used green card stock and die cut a grass border on the top edge of that. Cut that to the size of the card front that I would need. Sponged the edges of this piece using green ink. The fence is also a die from my stash and I used scrap card stock to cut that out. Sponged the edges of that using brown ink. The pumpkins - the pumpkin with the leaf was punched out using a M Stewart pumpkin punch. I punched out an small oval to put in the center of the pumpkin and sponged the edges of that for dimension. The other two pumpkins were die cut with a die in my stash. 

The Gnome -- I used gray card stock for his beard/mustache and sponged the edges of those using gray ink. His straw hair is kraft card stock and used prints from the stash for his hat. The acorn is also scraps and once that was assembled I sponged the edges of that. The sunflower die is a die from Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Easy sunflower die to assemble -- the gnome and pumpkins have pop dots behind them for dimension. The "Hello Autumn" is from the Gnome word stamp set and I stamped that onto scrap card stock and used the outline die to cut a solid piece of card stock that I off set behind the word die.

This next card:

For this gnome I used a die that cuts out a regular hat and not the scarecrow w patches hat I used on the first card. His beard/mustache is brown card stock. Again added pumpkins and a sunflower to the card front and for this gnome he is holding the leaf die piece that comes in the die set. The "Pumpkin Farm" sign I cut out from a printed piece of card stock so I would have a sign for the front of the card. I put that sign on a piece of kraft card stock and hand cut that out to make the sign sturdy. The card is on a dark brown card stock base.

The last card:

This last card again I used the scarecrow hat and straw hair for my gnome. Beard/mustache is scrap white card stock that I sponged brown ink over.  I used the pumpkin die in the die set for the pumpkin the gnome is holding. Added two more pumpkins to the front of the card by the fence. The "Hello Pumpkin" is from the new gnome add on set. Again added a sunflower to card front. The card base is a dark rust. 

These gnomes are easy to assemble -- you have your base piece, the beard, hat, mustache, nose, and either shoes or bare feet, and two hand pieces. Plus this die set is good for using up card stock scraps as well. Working on more Fall projects but wanted to share the Gnome cards ..... 

It's the Little St. Nick!

Had just placed an order with Impression Obsession - IOStamps.com - and while I was shopping their new products I decided to look up their Christmas products for sale just to check for something new I may have missed.... but soon I saw the St. Nick die set by designer Anna Wight (on YouTube) and I remembered I had bought this set way back when when it first came out in 2020 but I had not made anything with it yet.... so I pulled out my die set and made some of her St. Nick Santas:

This is the photo of the packaging that the die set comes with. Here are photos of the Santas I have made so far:

The die set comes with the Santa pieces but for all the things I have my Santas holding I used various Christmas icon dies I have in the stash and I cut those out of scraps of card stocks and assembled those. Some of those I added crystal gems to from the stash. All the Santas I added a pom pom to their hats also from the stash. These Santas are approx 4 3/4 tall x 2 1/2 wide and they would not only look good on a card front but also make cute holiday tags! And very easy to assemble -- I cut out extra Santas that I can work on later and I have each Santa and parts in a snack bag from the Dollar Tree:

When I do not have lots of time in the craft room then I will have these pieces already to assemble and still be able to craft.... Here are close up photos of some of the Santas:

Before I made my Santas I watched Anna Wights video again and as she did I sponged the edges of my Santa robe, beard, face, mustache. I also cut an extra robe out for each Santa to put him on to make him more sturdy which will be good if I should decide to turn these into tags....  On some of the Santa robes I also stamped background stamps to give the robes some pattern. This is a very easy Santa die set to assemble and goes together quickly. 

Impression Obsession now has new products on their website. They not only offer stamps and dies but now they have stencils and stencil sets as well as card stock. Looking forward to their upcoming holiday releases!

More Decorated Pokey Tools

 This is a photo of the first decorated pokey tools I had made:

For these pokey tools I used the stainless steel scribe pins that are sold in a set of 2 in the jewelry supply section of Hobby Lobby - the Jewelry Shoppe brand. The pack of two are usually $2.99 but when on sale they sell for $1.49.  I had seen different videos on YouTube with directions of how to make these decorated scribe pins. I used E6000 adhesive on these and the size tube I had in the craft room was a larger size since I knew I would use it for other crafting items for adhesive.... but soon the problem surfaced using this adhesive.... even when I cleaned off the tube top before putting the lid back on the tube I still had to use pliers to break the adhesive seal trying to reopen this tube for use... but then... 

Sherry, the Posh Paper Lady on YouTube, shared her tip to prevent the E6000 lid from adhering shut after each use. She put a light dab of baby oil between her fore finger and thumb and after the first use of her new tube of E6000 she rubbed her fingers with the baby oil around the threads of the tube and then put the lid on.... after seeing her video off to the store I went... 

Bought a package of small tubes of E6000  and a small bottle of baby oil to try this out.  I wanted to make three new decorated pokey tools so this experiment with the baby oil came in handy. I already had the scribe pins and beads in my stash so I picked out all the beads I was going to use and had everything laid out to assemble. Normally when making more than one of the decorated pokey tools I would put them together assembly style -- laying out the beads, adding the beads to the pokey tool, etc.. But I wanted to test this idea for the lid so I made three pokey tools one at a time from beginning to end to see if the tube would continue to easily open for each time. Here are the decorated pokey tools I just made:

After the first time I used the new small tube of the E6000 I put the baby oil on my fingers and ran it over the threads on the tube. Closed it up and finished assembling the pins. Opened the tube again for the next pin and closed it up after each use. After I finished the third pokey tool I closed the tube and left it overnight to see how long this baby oil would work.... a little more than 24 hours later I am happy to say the tube opened easily:

Since you use a small dab of the baby oil between your two fingers the oil does not get into the tube of glue or drip all over everything...  Happy the Posh Paper Lady shared this time so pliers are needed no more and next time I need to buy E6000 I can buy the more economical tube and still be able to open and close it easily. Thanks to her for sharing this great idea as there are lots of adhesive lids this idea will work on!