Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Flower Medley Tag and Pillow-Box Gift Set with Itsy Bitsy



Hello crafty friends -Kathy here for my first Design Team project post with Itsy Bitsy and I can't wait to share it with you! I am so grateful for this opportunity and just had so much fun creating with these beautiful products. Let me walk you through the process of creating the flower tag and matching pillowbox...


Starting with beautiful paper is the key to every good project and this "Happy Birthday" paper pack is gorgeous-there is not a single print in here that I can't wait to use! And the Adhesive Foam dots come in a pack containing 3 different sizes...small, medium and large...which I found to be super convenient!


The Poppy set from the Papercrafting Medley Collection is filled with a variety of 11 wonderful 3D elements...I didn't even use half of them on this project! So I can have more fun using the rest on a future project, lol.


The first step was to emboss a large manila tag using the Blossom -Mums embossing Folder.


I then traced around the tag's shape unto the patterned paper, trimmed around it and glued it onto the side with the debossed impressions. I also made sure to re-punch the hole at the top.


On the back of the tag (the side with the raised images) I brushed Ranger Distress Ink directly from the pad to the paper.


For the front of the tag, I layered the burlap doily along with the vine and 2 blossoms. I overlapped and glued down the doily over the right edge -trimmed off the extra that was overhanging and saved it for another project. The medium sized foam squares were the perfect size to pop the flowers up off the surface.


Using the white cardstock from the Blank Cards Value Pack I trimmed a small rectangle out, blended Picked Raspberry ink over it and spritzed it with water to get a watercolor washed look for my sentiment banner accent.


Now, I just have to brag about this Pale Copper Fairy Dust glitter for a bit...not only is it a gorgeous rose gold color that is very on trend right now, but I just love the container it comes in because it comes with a little spout top that is so easy to tap small amounts of glitter out of! I don't often reach for my glitter because of the mess it can make, but this design is brilliant!!!

Anyway, I used the glitter and some glue to accent the polka dots in the patterned paper and the center of the coral colored flower.


Using a "Happy Birthday" stamp from the adorable Purrfect Birthday stamp set (#IBST34076), I stamped in black ink on the custom ink blended and hand trimmed banner. And you can see below that the large foam dot pieces were perfect for adhering the banner to the bottom of the tag front.


Using a free template I found online, I traced and cut out a simple pillow box from the same sheet of patterned paper, scored it, folded it and then assembled it with some Double Sided Tape.


I then used a long piece of Jute Cord to wrap around the package and to tie on the tag,


Trimming down a piece of double sided tape, I made a strip for the glitter to adhere to for the final accent on my sentiment banner.



 Since I had a piece of the blended pink paper left over when I trimmed down the banner, I used it to top the back of the tag...using small circle punches and kraft paper to finish off the tag holes on both the front and the back.



I had a blast creating this gift set and working with these high quality Itsy Bitsy products! Hope you'll be inspired to try something similar and make time for some crafting today.


Until next time~




Monday, August 28, 2017

How to Make Your Craft Supplies Stretch Way Beyond the Craft Room!

Today's post for ScraPerfect is not an actual craft project, but rather a reminder that you can use your craft supplies outside of the craft room with very good results! 


As was mentioned on my blog last week, I participate in small animal rescue so there is always a need for me to have a well equipped cage ready to go for a new furry friend. A generous hamster loving friend donated a large cage and supplies to my Rodent Room several weeks ago and I finally gathered everything I needed to set it up. But in the process, I ran into a problem...I often like to secure food bowls on top of a wooden house so that they don't get spilled or covered in bedding...but this time I ran out of my self adhesive velcro rounds. So I tried to use Command brand fixtures instead, only to find out that their adhesive strips would NOT stick to the wood of the house -they just popped right off...UGG -so very frustrating!


This is where the Best Glue Ever came to my rescue! The food bowl already had velcro attached to the bottom of it, so I just needed a way to stick it to the top of the wooden house and not have it slip and slide around. I spread BGE onto the back of the non -cooperative adhesive of the Command strips, positioned the bowl where I wanted it, weighed it down with a marble tile coaster and a larger bowl and walked away to let it set up and dry for several hours.


When I came back to check on it the following morning, everything was firmly attached where I wanted it to be! So the Best Glue Ever really DOES work on so much more than paper...give it a shot and I promise that you too will fall in love with this product! (even if you don't have a Rodent Room in your house or love hamsters like I do, lol)


Until next time, happy crafting with ScraPerfect~




Friday, August 25, 2017

October is for Anniversaries

Today's card is the first of several I will be making for wedding anniversaries in our family during the month of October...as of last count there are at least 3 and another nephew's wedding coming up this year too! For this one, I was inspired by the sketch @ Retro Rubber, the "Layer It Up" challenge @ International Art & Soul, the "Wood is Good" challenge @ Shopping Our Stash and the "Things Beginning With B" challenge @ Moving Along With The Times.



The stamps I used here are all at least 10 years old and a mix of Stampin' Up and The Angel Company. The paper too is long retired from Basic Grey in various golden and red wood grain patterns.


The A2 card base is made from an off white aspen flecked cardstock and all the layers were added flat using the ATG gun after cutting them according to the sketch. Then, to achieve another layer of layering I pealed back the layers on the bottom right corner and tore them off to make a distinct area for my sentiment to be embossed in antique copper powder...you'll be able to see what I mean much better in the close up picture further down below.


All images were stamped in Rick Cocoa Memento ink and colored with Prismacolor pencils. The covered bridge panel was aged and distressed along the edges using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then heavily spritzed with Pearl Mica Shimmer Spray. While the camera doesn't pic up that shimmer, it is very pretty in person...making the bridge appear soft and slightly out of focus -which I think just adds to the vintage appeal.



I really debated whether or not to add gold sequins or something to this card, but decided it didn't quite fit in with the vintage vibe I was going for, so I decided against it in the end.


Inside you can see the flecked texture of the card base fairly well...I stamped, colored and distressed there too, to continue with the card's theme. That's it for today...enjoy your weekend!


Until next time~


Wednesday, August 23, 2017

A "Wheelie" Cute Hamster Card

Today's card was inspired by sketch #335 at Try Stampin' On Tuesday and will also be entered @ The Paper Players for "CAS: Get Coloring", @ Dragonfly Dreams for "Animals" and @ Addicted to Stamps & More for "Anything Goes".


My son gave me this Hamster stamp set from Lawn Fawn for Christmas and I have been dying to use it. For those of you who may not personally know me, I do volunteer work in small animal rescue and provide both long term and foster homes for gerbils, hamsters and mice. But I have to admit that the full size Syrian Hamsters like the one pictured in this stamp set are by far my favorite! I currently have 3 in my furry family and 2 of them are Black Eyed Creams (one Satin and one Long Haired) that look just like the one I colored.


Using 12 x 12 white, solid aqua and coordinating patterned cardstock from CTMH, I made a top folding A2 white card base. After running the front aqua panel through my machine with the paw print embossing folder, I adhered it on to the card front and used a corner punch to round the bottom corners. 


I stamped the Wheelie sentiment in black ink on an aqua scrap and trimmed a banner to mat with patterned paper.


Using a Spellbinders stitched heart die, I cut a heart from white and stamped the wheel and hearts on it. On a scrap piece I stamped the hamster so that I could fussy cut it out and pop it up. Spectrum Noir markers made the coloring quick and easy.


Adding light gray in the center of the wheel behind the hamster and around the outside of the wheel added a nice depth to the simple image.


The patterned paper strip at the top and the heart were adhered flat with my ATG gun. The hamster and the sentiment banner were popped up with foam dot adhesive. The final touch on the front was to add a tiny sequin heart to the sentiment and sprinkle a tiny bit of glitter over the exposed glue.


Inside I used a stamp from STAMPlorations "Funny Kinda Love" set and more of the tiny hearts like are on the front...this is about as CAS (Clean and Simple) of a design as I can seem to manage to do, lol! This card will get tucked in my hubby's overnight bag on one of his upcoming business trips.


Until next time~

Monday, August 21, 2017

Sweet Succulent Birthday Card

Today's card was made using sketch #226 from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and is my second  Design Team creation for them! I will also be entering @ the heARTful stamping challenge for "Anything Goes + a Stamp" and @ 613 Avenue Create for "Anything Goes w/option of Shabby Chic".



This card was made on an A2 white card base and I used patterned paper from Basic Gray, stamp sets from Close To My Heart and Stampin' Up! + Tuxedo Black ink.


Using circle punches in two different sizes, I punched the smaller circle for my sentiment in white and the larger from a blue scrap of patterned paper.


Next, I stamped the Succulents in black ink and colored them using water color pencils and my Dove blender....and I am really lucky that the ink didn't run, because I grabbed the one I usually only use for colored pencils and alcohol markers by mistake, instead of the Archival one I use with water mediums, lol -oops! I also sanded the edges of the blue circle before layering them and then fussy cut the succulents out. 


The banner was stamped 2 times on the creamy tan patterned paper, fussy cut out and tucked under the circle layers on the card front according to the sketch. 


For added sparkle, I colored over all three of the Succulents with the Wink of Stella pen before popping them up on the card front using foam pop dots. The sequins from CTMH came with mini glue dots already on the back of them -so handy! I then stamped the small succulent behind the Birthday Wishes from SU! in a light gray ink -I think this added such a classy touch!


Inside I made use of the rest of that left over patterned paper, stamped the sentiment in black and the large succulent in gray in the foreground. This card will be going out in the mail to my Dad for his birthday in October.


Until next time...