How To Make a Winter Wonderland Card Using the Best Glue Ever

Today, this card I made for the ScraPerfect design team is super simple but -WOW - what an impact that foil makes!!! I'm in love with working with Transfer Foil and the Best Glue Ever...you've gotta try it. I promise that you won't be disappointed!

I'll be entering it @ Cards in Envy for "Winter Chills" and @ Always Fun Challenges for "One Layer".

This HOTP/TCW stencil also had Santa with his sleigh on it, but I only wanted to use the snowy swirly part, so I taped off the sections I didn't want to use with some washi tape before laying it over top of my A2 sized white card front. I then lightly sponged on the Best Glue Ever, making sure not to move the stencil.

After carefully lifting the stencil and setting the card aside to dry, I immediately covered the gluey stencil with the Best Cleaner Ever, let it sit for awhile and then scrubbed it gently with a baby wipe and a paper towel.

After the glue turned from white to clear, I knew it was ready to apply the foil. I made sure to thoroughly rub over the entire design firmly with my fingers so that the glue was covered completely with the foil. Removing the foil is the best part -it's like a magic trick, lol.

I used the Chilly Time digital stamp set from Craftin' Desert Divas again to print out the skating penguins and colored them with pencils before fussy cutting them out and popping them up in the bottom left corner of my card using mini foam dots.

I then added the finishing touch of several sequins to my card using the Best Glue Ever with the No Clog Writing Cap and the Embellie Gellie tool...they make the perfect combo for handling and applying the smallest of lovelies!

On the inside, I added a digi sentiment that I die cut using 2 circle layering die sets from Itsy Bitsy.

I just love the shimmery blues and greens in this foil -makes for a very stunning CAS card!

That's it for me today -until next time, happy crafting with ScraPerfect!

How to Make a Gorgeous Foiled Christmas Tree Card

Today's project is a gorgeous holiday card made using lots of "magically perfect products" from ScraPerfect! 

This card is a 5" x 7" (A7) white base with a kraft panel cut from cardstock for the front. Using the Best Glue Ever, a sponge and a beautiful tree stencil from The Crafters Workshop, I gently applied the glue through the stencil to just the tree image on to the kraft cardstock.

After carefully pulling the stencil away, I let the glue dry until it was tacky and clear -this took about 45 minutes...it may have actually taken less time, but I got involved in another project and knew that extra time to dry would not hurt my tree project.

The next step was to lay the green Transfer Foil down on top of the glue stenciled tree design with the green side facing up. Burnishing it well is the key here to capturing all the details! 

Gently peel the foil back to reveal your design! You can now save the rest of your foil sheet for another project.

Because of the nature of this project, there was still a bit of sticky residue coming through the foil, so I lightly tapped the Perfect Crafting Pouch all over the tree to de-stick it and then buffed the tree gently using the Perfect Cleaning Cloth to ensure no residual powder was left behind to dull the shine of the foil.

Now, of course we can't forget that we still need to clean all that glue off of our stencil and I have the perfect tool for the job in the Best Cleaner Ever. I first laid my stencil on top of a paper towel, but learned that wax paper works much better for this step because it doesn't soak up the cleaner-so learn from my mistakes if you give this technique a shot! 

I generously spritzed the cleaner over the stencil and carefully spread it around using my fingers then left it to soak for a good long time...ok, I gotta be honest here, I just plain forget about it until several hours later, lol. But it did the trick and I was then able to wash the glue and the cleaner off in warm water.

I stamped and gold heat embossed the sentiment from Stampin' Up!... you can see that the shine and texture on this card really packs a punch!

Layering the kraft panel to the card front using self adhesive gold foil photo corners was the perfect accent for this clean and simple card.

I heat embossed the sentiment inside also and that finished off this card quickly and easily.

That's it for me today and I hope you will give this stencil/foil technique a try -it is alot of fun and the hardest part is cleaning the stencil, lol. Until next time, happy crafting with ScraPerfect!

How to Make a Cute Spring Pocket Page Dashboard For Your Planner

Hello~Kathy here today from Create.365 to share with you a cute way that I like to personalize my planner every month. Each month, I design a new pocket page dashboard for my planner using a Simple Stories scrapbook pocket page. Spring has finally sprung here in my neck of the woods, so I decided to use some of my favorite elements from nature to celebrate it's arrival with owls, flowers, feathers and many shades of green!

So let's get started! The 3-D flower embellished paper clips were made using an old flower trio punch from Stampin' Up and layered together with my DIY'd ScraPerfect Best Glue Ever mini glue dots (see video on how to make them by clicking the link). Mini pearls were added to the centers and then more mini glue dots were used to attach them to the paper clips.

The Best Glue Ever really does work on everything from paper to metal -it's very strong and versatile stuff!

The whole tedious job of trimming all the papers was made super simple because I used my Pocket Cuts dies from Fun Stampers Journey to perfectly cut the pieces to fit in each pocket. 

The coordinating patterned papers have been in my stash for so long that I no longer remember where they came from. However, the Owl stamp is new and came from Unity Stamp Company and the sentiments and feathers came from a set I got about a year ago from Paper Wishes. I used a small embossing folder from Cuttlebug to emboss the flower in the bottom left corner and then sanded it to get the white, distressed look.

 I stamped and embossed the solid feather in Versamark ink and white embossing powder on the sage patterned paper rectangle, but it still looked too plain, so I diecut 2 small feathers from vellum, tied a tiny jute bow and glued all 3 pieces on using more of the ScraPerfect's Best Glue Ever. The owl was stamped in Momento Tuxedo Black ink and colored in with Prismacolor watercolor pencils and the Dove Blender pen -they are pretty much my favorite coloring medium as of late -I just love the effect I can get with such little effort! I then diecut the cross-stitch border around the edges for some texture before gluing it onto the olive patterned paper and stamping the sentiment above it in FSJ Licorice Black ink.

The feather stamp set came with a matching stencil and I knew I wanted to incorporate that element somehow, but the stencil was still covered in an obnoxious sticky residue from the packaging it came in -UGG! This is where my ScraPerfect Best Cleaner Ever came in handy...I squirted a little cleaner on the stencil and smeared it all over the sticky glue residue. After letting it soak for a few minutes, I rubbed all that sticky gunk right off with a tissue....good as new!

On the back is where I decided to use the stencil and the detailed feather stamp. 

 I sponged Whip Cream (right) and Buttercream (left) pigment inks through the stencil directly onto the patterned paper, heat set it with my heat tool and then brushed the ScraPerfect's Perfect Crafting  Pouch over it to dry it completely so the embossing powder in my next step wouldn't stick to the  stenciled area instead of the Versamark ink. I then stamped the feather detail off-set over the stenciled feathers in Versamark ink and embossed them with Silver Pearl powder.

Well, thanks for hanging out here in my craft room with me today...that pretty much finishes up my planner dashboard for the month of May! Until next time, happy crafting with ScraPerfect~

Foiled Ribbon How -To in Support of Lyme Disease

Hello -Kathy here with my first post as a ScraPerfect Design Team member -woohoo!!! I have been having so much fun playing with all the new ScraPerfect products that came in my design team kit and can't wait to share my creations with you here and on my blog @ create.365 . 

Today's card was designed in support of May being Lyme Disease Awareness month. For those of you who may not know, I went undiagnosed with Lyme disease for over 30 years but began treatment early in 2015 with hopes of someday reaching remission. My young adult daughter was also diagnosed with Lyme within 6 months of me and so we travel this hard road together. This card is for her in our support of raising awareness for Lyme Disease - with hopes that in the future all will be tested, diagnosed and treated properly for this devastating disease that has no cure!

So let's get crafty, shall we? I used sketch #63 from the challenge over @ Your Next Stamp, but I flipped it vertically instead of horizontally. As you can see, I also went with a monochromatic theme (Lyme green), so I will also apply this card over at the Dragonfly Dreams Challenges blog for the month of May.

Gathering supplies is always a work in progress -as you just never know how a project will evolve -changing your mind several times along the way is just a given as a designer, right? The main stamp set I used is called "Fight Like a Girl" and is from Amuse Studio. While it is a stamp set designed for supporting Breast Cancer, (like I did in this card here) I love that it will also work for supporting any cause of your choice, just by changing the ribbon colors. The wooden ribbon stamp is from Stampin' Up! 

After trimming my cardstock layers to work with the sketch for my A2 sized card base, I cut the long tail off the small ribbon stamp and used it to randomly stamp a background strip in Twisted Citron Distress Ink. (Don't worry, the stamp is not ruined and the line will be barely noticeable when I use them together to get the whole original image. But after having had this set for 2 years and never using it the way it came, I decided to make the change!)

Using a scrap piece of acetate as my palette, I inked it up directly with the ink cube and sprayed it with water...carefully flipping it over, I then repeatedly applied the diluted ink to my watercolor panel until I got the look I wanted for my background. Once it was dry, I then spritzed it with some water droplets to lift some of the color off in random spots. As you can see with my first go around, I didn't add enough water and you can see the distinct square shape of the ink pad -no worries, I'll just cover that up with my layers later anyway...no one will ever know! (except for you all, lol)

While waiting for the watercolor to dry, it was time to get messy and experimental! I had an image in my head of what I wanted to do, but we crafters all know that our visions don't always work out the way we had imagined they would...this is one such instance. The idea I had was to sponge the Best Glue Ever onto the stamp with a make-up sponge, stamp it onto the cardstock, let it dry until clear and tacky and then apply the green Transfer Foils to it...in theory, it was a great idea -in reality, it was still a good idea, but took some practice to get it right. My first try I added too much glue and after I stamped it down, I went to pull it back off the paper and it brought a layer of the paper with it, lol. UGG -take two -lesson learned that this glue is really strong stuff and you only need the tiniest of bits to get it to work! So I tried it again and this time used the thinnest film of glue across the stamp's surface and it worked perfectly! 

While I waited for the image to dry, I immediately used the Best Cleaner Ever to take the left-over sticky glue off of my stamp...worked like a charm and removed every last bit with no sticky residue -YAY! Once it was "dry", clear and tacky to the touch I laid the green foil with the colored side facing up over the top of the stamped ribbon and rubbed it down to adhere the foil, pulled it away and enjoyed the "magic". Then I fussy cut my newly foiled ribbon out and set it aside. (If you want more specifics on using Transfer Foils, there are some great videos on the ScraPerfect website)

For the "hope" diecut sentiment, I wanted it to stand up off the card a but, so I cut it twice...once from Lyme green glitter cardstock and once from white fun foam.

I then simply used tiny dots of the Best Glue Ever to adhered the 2 layers together...if you've ever worked with fun foam before, then you know that it can be ornery to glue...problem solved when using the BGE!

To make the center panel of the card, I broke out a retired stamp set from The Angel Company to stamp the words that would be behind the foiled ribbon in lyme green ink, sponged that same ink along the edges and then used a distress tool to rough up the edges and add some texture to them. The foiled ribbon was adhered with mini foam dots.

Since the sequins were a last minute designer decision, I completely forgot to take a photo of them being applied, but with the help of the Embellie Gellie "magic wand" and the Best Glue Ever they were a quick and easy addition. (find video details on how to use Embellie Gellie here) The layers were all assembled using the BGE and the small ribbon stamped on the lyme green cardstock was inked in white pigment ink and then heat set to dry.

Inside I stamped the Amuse Studio sentiments and one more small ribbon in the same Lyme green ink. This card is now off in the mail to my daughter and will hopefully bring a smile to her face later this week!

Until next time ~Happy Crafting with ScraPerfect~