"Little Things" Tag

My first real tag creation was inspired by an upcoming baby-arrival gift. The gift looked so lonely in its envelope that I decided a fancy tag needed to keep it company during its U.S. Postal Service journey.

• The tag started with a base made from recycled manila folders, sent to me in a care package made from a friend's craft stash.
• I sponged tea dye and vintage photo Distress inks alternately all over the tag, edging it with the vintage photo ink, then flicking a bit of water to get the water-distressed spots.
• I stamped two alternating corners with a Flonzcraft art nouveau stamp in tea dye Distress ink.
• The sentiment stamps are in vintage photo Distress ink and from KaiserCraft "Furry Friends" set, which I cut in half to make stamping individual definitions easier.
• The edges needed an extra something, so I pulled out my gold metallic Gelato and rubbed some along the tag edges.
• The cloudy texture behind the main sentiment journal card is actually a twice-used dryer sheet, folded in half and with the top and bottom edges hand-ripped.
• The journal card is from the Authentique "Durable" stack, die cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Five, and edge-inked with vintage photo Distress ink.
• Finishing touches: a strip of Little B gold metallic rose washi tape under the bottom left side of the dryer sheet, a glittered gold star on the die cut journal card, and a strip of cotton ribbon through the tag hole.

Entered in:
613 Avenue Create - Challenge #151 anything goes
Aud Sentiments - Challenge #145 anything goes
Brown Sugar - Challenge #173 anything goes 
Craft Your Passion - Challenge #289 anything goes
Crafting From The Heart - Challenge #87 anything goes 
Create And Inspire - Challenge #34 anything goes
Creative Fingers - Challenge #98 anything goes
Not Just Cards - Challenge #26 November anything goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Challenge #254 anything goes
Simply Papercraft - Challenge #18 anything goes 
Sparkles Monthly - Challenge #74 Anything But A Card
The Crazy Challenge - #211 Everything Goes
Word Art Wednesday - Challenge #210 anything goes

Masculine Birthday Card

I have spent most of 2015 in a very remote town that gets mail once a week… highly dependent upon weather. Mail day pretty much always feels festive for me due to my excitement level about mail in general, and specifically because I usually get either cards, care packages, or fun mail order stuff each week. That said, the postman is a nice acquaintance due to the amount of time I spend at the post office on mail days, both for my own mail and to help haul mail for a couple other folks. So when he mentioned his birthday was coming up, it was CARD TIME! I did not want to spend hours on one card (which is a frequent occurrence for me), so I came up with a simple masculine card design that took me about 15 minute to put together after the initial layout & paper selections. I liked the design so much that I made a second card for another upcoming birthday and a third card for my personal stash.

On an off-white card base, I glued down patterned paper from DCWV’s “Tattered Time” 4"x6" mat stack. I die cut a rounded clip embellishment from Papertrey Ink’s“Clip Tips” set from ivory cardstock and sponged it lightly with vintage photo Distress Ink, then stamped it in the same ink using a round arrow from the coordinating stamp set.

The die cut clip embellishment was a great addition to a square photo frame paper from We R Memory Keepers “Indian Summer” Albums Made Easy set. The Albums Made Easy set was an impulse sale buy because it was over half off and I knew the colors would coordinate with others in my stash; I’m so glad I grabbed it. I glued the clip to the paper frame, then adhered the frame off-kilter on the front of the card. I couldn’t make the frame as asymmetrical as I originally wanted, because the card wouldn’t have fit in its envelope! Once adhered, I stamped a birthday sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Movers & Shakers Sentiments” set, and stamped the second coordinating sentiment inside the card using crisp onyx black Versafine ink.

Entered in:
613 Avenue Create - Challenge #150 anything goes
A Bit More Time To Craft - Challenge #8 anything goes
Craft Stamper - November "Take A Stamp" Challenge
Craft Your Passion - Challenge #288 anything goes 
Crafting From The Heart - Challenge #86 anything goes
Crafts Galore Encore - "Use a Stamp or Digi Image" Challenge
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - November Challenge anything goes
Create and Inspire - Challenge #33 anything goes
Creative Fingers - Challenge #97 anything goes 
Fan-Tastic Tuesday - Challenge #111 anything goes/twist of "B" (for brown/birthday!) 
Not Just Cards - Challenge #26 November anything goes
Simply Papercraft - Challenge #17 anything goes 
Word Art Wednesday - Challenge #209 anything goes 

You Light Up My Life

This was a quickie card, inspired by Shopping Our Stash's "Light My Fire" challenge. As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew I had the perfect, until-now-unused stamp sitting in my collection.

When I finally sat down to make the card days later, I decided to use a partially-altered kraft card base that has been sitting on my desk for about a month. The card base was originally an idea I was toying with for my Spooky Halloween card set (sponged black pigment ink background instead of the black cardstock background I went with), that ended up being a dumping ground for a leftover batch of customized modeling paste. The customized modeling paste had added black acrylic craft paint and Prisma ultra fine multi glitter. I smoothed the leftover paste into a very fine layer over the sponged black ink using an old plastic gift card, and a funny thing happened. The Prisma glitter that normally looks very white? When the modeling paste was thinned out, the exposed glitter was suddenly only green, blue, and red. No white to be seen! It's amazing how our eyes process color!

So over this existing card base, I just did a simple Versamark stamp of Hot Off The Press' "Light Bulb", covered with white embossing powder, then added an alpha-stamped strip of silver washi tape. I liked the somewhat-accidental "light" halo around the light bulb, leftover from the embossing powder catching on the modeling paste. For the alphabet stamping, I tried both my black StazOn and Versafine on the metallic washi tape, but neither turned out very dark. The final version used StazOn ink to prevent smearing.

{crafted while listening to David Lagercrantz's "The Girl in the Spider's Web" audiobook}

Entered in:
613 Avenue Create - Challenge #149 anything goes
A Bit More Time To Craft - Challenge #7 anything goes
Crafting By Designs - anything goes challenge
Crafting From The Heart - Challenge #85 anything goes 
Crafts Galore Encore - "Use a Stamp or Digi Image" Challenge
Create and Inspire - Challenge #33 anything goes
Creative Fingers - Challenge #97 anything goes 
Creative Moments - Challenge #80 anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Challenge anything goes
Shopping Our Stash - Challenge #226 "Light My Fire" - Top 3 Winner!
Sisters of Craft - November Challenge anything goes
Word Art Wednesday - Challenge #208 anything goes
Your Scrapbook Place - November Challenge anything goes 

Challenge Accepted! "3 Patterned Papers" Scrap Card

Last year, I discovered Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-A-Faire and had a lot of fun (and not a lot of sleep while playing along. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to participate this year, but I did complete one of their challenges just for the fun of it. The challenge was to use 3 different patterned papers on one card or project.

I dug through my recently reinvigorated scrap stash; a friend recently sent me a care package of scraps and elements from her craft stash. Aren’t fellow crafting friends the best? I found two lovely patterned paper scraps from my friend’s stash, and a leftover panel from one of the Graphic 45 "Couture" papers. Perfect! Almost. As usual, I laid everything out and felt like something was missing. I dug through the care package scraps and found a sheet of matte gold paper covered in tiny metallic gold polka dots. The shininess of the gold polka dots was appropriately eye catching when added as a small accent along the edge of the Graphic 45 fashion panel. I happened to have the coordinating Hampton Art Graphic 45 Couture (set 3) stamps with me, so I added a small swirled costume-jewelry stamp with gold embossing powder* to the fashion panel to complement the shiny gold accent paper. After adhering all of my patterned papers to an off-white card base, I added a hint of embellishment to the black & white flowered border of the fashion panel by making small pearls in the center of each flower using VivaDécor’s Pearl Pen in ice white.

I grabbed this Pearl Pen to try out and one in silver using coupons at Joann Fabric And Craft Store a few months ago, and I really like them. They are great for adding a pearlescent touch of any size, as opposed to the larger fixed sizes of adhesive pearl embellishments. I haven’t tried writing any words with them, because I’m not that great at consistently applying steady enough pressure to produce a nice-looking word.

*On a side note, I just realized that my gold, silver, and clear embossing powders are from Personal Stamp Exchange, and are nearly 20 years old! Those must be among the oldest things in my craft stash. What do you think your oldest stash items are?


Entered in:
613 Avenue Create - Challenge #149 anything goes
A Bit More Time To Craft - Challenge #7 anything goes
Artistic Inspirations - Challenge #144 anything goes/feminine
Catch The Bug - anything goes challenge
Craft Your Passion - Challenge #287 anything goes
Crafting By Designs - anything goes challenge
Crafting From The Heart - Challenge #85 anything goes
Crafts Galore Encore - "Use a Stamp or Digi Image" Challenge
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - November Challenge anything goes
Create and Inspire - Challenge #33 anything goes
Creative Fingers - Challenge #97 anything goes
Creative Moments - Challenge #80 anything goes
Not Just Cards - Challenge #26 November anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Challenge anything goes
Scrapper's Delight - Challenge #50 anything goes
Simply Papercraft - Challenge #17 anything goes
Sisters of Craft - November Challenge anything goes
Word Art Wednesday - Challenge #208 anything goes
Your Scrapbook Place - November Challenge anything goes

Autumn Gift Box

And now for something a little different….

For some, Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Latte heralds the true beginning of autumn. I may not be one of those folks, but that didn’t dampen my excitement when some instant Starbucks Via arrived in a recent care package… in Pumpkin Spice Latte flavor! Really, it doesn’t just say “Pumpkin Spice.” There were enough to share, so I pulled out a couple for friends. Then I added a couple Spiced Apple Cider K-Cups. Then I added an extra Halloween decoration sign I made last year; this one asked “Got Candy?” Once I had this smile pile of goodies, I didn’t want to merely plop them into my friends’ hands; thus started my quest for a suitably decorated container.

My breakthrough came when I spotted an old oatmeal box in the pile of boxes on my desk that are awaiting their turn at being made into beautiful die cut elements. I pulled out one of my backs of reusable packaging materials, and was surprised to find that I actually had orange tissue paper! I also had some green plastic strapping bands that I pulled off of a box last month and the shade of green went well with the orange, so I added that to my materials pile. The front of the box was going to need more embellishment than just the strapping band, so I searched through my stash of paper for a few coordinating pieces. It took me 2 or 3 tries before I settled on my final paper/die cut/layer combination.

To start my gift packaging, I mixed a little red and metallic gold acrylic craft paint into a larger amount of orange acrylic paint, then used a foam brush to paint two layers onto the outside of the oatmeal box.

The paint somewhat obscured the text on the box, although it was much better after gluing on the orange tissue paper. I used a good old glue stick to adhere the tissue to the box, having learned last week how dreadful other adhesives look through tissue paper. When I laid the tissue on the sticky glue, I intentionally wrinkled the paper a little so that the half-inch tissue border I left over the top edges of the box would have a bit of wave texture. The oatmeal box ingredients still showed through a bit on the sides of the box, but a second and third layer of tissue took care of that.

After trimming the tissue paper edges, I used some E6000 glue to affix the green plastic strapping band all the way around the middle of the box. That glue choice may have been overkill, but I didn’t want that band to move. Ever. My original idea for the centerpiece embellishment on the front of the box was to use a stamped sentiment about autumn as the focal point of multiple die cut layers, but it turned out that I didn’t have any autumn-related stamps with me. Instead, I found a delightful little vintage piece in Authentique’s “Thrilling” Halloween stack that says “A treat is better shared with a friend.” I cut that out and stuck it to a fancy die cut dark yellow glitter cardstock piece (Spellbinders Shapeabilities Ornate Squares, DCWV Glitter Brights stack). The base layer of my embellishment was die cut using Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 13 from white polka dotted orange paper from the Authentique stack. Once I did the final layout prior to gluing everything down, I realized that there wasn’t enough contrast between the yellow glitter and the orange polka dot papers. So I die cut a smaller Spellbinders Label 13 from DCWV black Glitzy Glitter paper, and that added the lacking contrast. I adhered the bottom two layers together, glued it to the box front over the strapping band, then added the top sentiment layer with pop dots.

{Crafted while listening to Florence + the Machine’s “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” album}

Entered in:
4 Crafty Chicks - Challenge #270 anything goes
613 Avenue Create - Challenge #148 anything goes/host gift 
A Bit More Time To Craft - Challenge #7 anything goes - Winner! 
Altered Eclectics - November Challenge anything goes
Artistic Inspirations - Challenge #143 anything goes
Craft Your Passion - Challenge #286 anything goes
Crafting From The Heart - Challenge #84 anything goes 
Crafts And Me Inspiration - November Challenge "Autumn/Fall Colours"
Crafty Girlz - Challenge #8 anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - November Challenge anything goes
Create and Inspire - Challenge #32 anything goes 
Creative Fingers - Challenge #96 anything goes
Creative Moments - Challenge #80 anything goes
Eclectic Ellapu - Purple Team November Challenge "Altered Art" 
Fairytale Challenge - #129 box or album
Glitter 'N' Sparkle - Challenge #161 anything goes
Lunagirl Moonbeams & Lunagirl.com - November Thanksgiving/Harvest/Gratitude challenge 
Not Just Cards - Challenge #26 November anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Challenge "Take Your Pick"
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Challenge #251 anything goes
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - anything goes
Simply Papercraft - Challenge #16 anything goes
Sisters of Craft - November Challenge anything goes
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - #104 anything goes/shabby chic
The Crazy Challenge - #209 vintage
Word Art Wednesday - Challenge #207 anything goes
Your Scrapbook Place - November Challenge anything goes