Simon Says Stamp February Kit–I can’t find where the kit is available, but all of the components inside the kit seem to be…here’s the link to them: https://tinyurl.com/da2zraxa
I was made aware of Cards for Cubs by Bearly Art Glue, and wanted to participate to give kids in foster care, cute and uplifting cards.
If you want to participate, you have until the end of this month to get your cards to them. You’ll need to register to participate, and here’s the links to do so.
I made 28 cards, but will include two more from my stash to donate 30 cards, as they want them in groups of 10’s.
To make a lot of cards and to do it as easily as possible, I started with pre-made card bases I bought at Michaels in their “Hot Spot.” I could get 50 cards and envelopes for under $5. I’ve had these for a while, as after buying them, I realized they weren’t a very thick card base, so needed to do some layering. So I went to my stash of layering layers of designer paper that are 4 1/2″ x 6″ and I cut them to 4″ x 5 1/4″ and using Bearly Art Glue, glued matching layers to the fronts of the card bases. I did this to 26 card bases, and made two more cards, by taking the pieces I’d cut off of the designer paper, that I would normally have discarded, and cut these into triangle (diamond) shapes with my Fiskars Guillotine trimmer, then using a premade card base, attaching double sided carpet tape to the front, link: https://tinyurl.com/ms26anxk. After removing the backing from the carpet tape, take one of the diamond shaped scraps and lay it onto the card making the point somewhere near the center of the card. Butt the next piece up to the first and continue turning the scraps so they form a circular shape in the center. You’ll sometimes need to overlap the pieces to get the circle to form, and you’ll need to put glue on top of the piece you’re overlapping to ensure they stay adhered to the card. You’ll want to color coordinate these scraps so they look like they belong together. I made one pink and one blue card doing this. I also took a piece of glitter card stock and cut it into diamonds as I think these cards really look good with either glitter or mirror card stock included in the design.
I stamped a lot of images and here are links to some of the stamps I used:
The rest of the stamps I used were older and retired, sorry. After making the card bases with the layered designer series paper on it, I stamped out 30 images and sentiments with Gina K Onyx Black ink and then used clear embossing powder and heat set the images so they wouldn’t smear using a variety of coloring mediums on them. Next, I used my Hippie Crafter watercolor palette and painted all of the backgrounds of the images, not really thinking about matching the background to one of the card bases I’d already made. Once all of the backgrounds were dry, I matched the background color to a similar card base color and made a pile of the images with their card bases, then took the pile and using Arteza alcohol markers, I colored the images so they matched the card base. Once all of the images were colored, I cut them out and attached them to their card base and used ribbons, embellishments and foam squares for dimension to make the cards look unique from each other.
My nephew’s wife is having their first baby in the next couple of weeks, and I offered to make the thank you notes for her baby shower since she lives 800 miles away, and I wouldn’t be able to attend. It meant a lot to me to participate in some small way. I made 20 of these and had a great time doing it.
Stamps Used:
Hanging Baby–I bought this stamp a couple of years ago on Aliexpress and can no longer find it. If you’d like, I’d be happy to stamp it out a couple of times and mail it to you and if you need more, you can copy them onto cardstock. Let me know in an email: saundralparker@yahoo.com.
Thank you so much-Crafter’s Companion-came in an album of sentiments sold on HSN
Postcard Stamp: Amy Tangerine Better Together Stamp, retired, sorry
Paper:
Joann’s Park Lane 12 x 12″ link: https://tinyurl.com/5n7j6f3d Cut at 6″ and then turn one turn and cut 4″ and 8″, to give you 6 postcards with each sheet. I cut 40. I stamped 20 of them with the postcard stamp in archival black ink so the ink wouldn’t run in the mail. Put washi tape in the MISTI to hold the postcards in the same position every time as the stamp was too thin to use with magnets. I took the other 20 blank 4 x 6″ cut cards and stamped with archival black ink in the MISTI with the Thank you sentiment and the baby, and then used clear embossing powder and heat set both. I created a mask of the baby on the clothesline with thin paper and then attached some post-it note paper to the back so the mask would adhere to the images. I laid the mask on the baby and then stamped over the design with the decorative dot background, making sure to line it up with the right side of the postcard, as the stamp is too short to cover the whole postcard. Stamped with Stampin’ Up Bordering Blue (retired) ink. Then I used the Stripes background stamp to stamp on the left edge of the postcard that the polka dot stamp didn’t cover. I used Stampin’ Up archival gray ink to stamp with and I placed a piece of paper onto the postcard where the polka dot pattern stops, so I don’t stamp lines over the polka dots. It didn’t matter if the lines aren’t perfect straight, as I fix this by using a ruler and a black alcohol marker that I outlined the lines I stamped, basically lining the ruler so it was straight and drawing the line following the ruler, then used a darker gray and a lighter gray alcohol marker to color the entire wide line, using the lighter gray in the center.
I colored the entire scene with alcohol markers and had a couple of alcohol mishaps that I had to fix, but overall, I was really happy with the end results,
The reason I used two pieces of cardstock to create the postcard, is I knew the alcohol markers would bleed through the paper, so this would prevent it from being seen. I took Bearly Art glue and glued the two cards together, making sure they both are face up, and then took my Fiskars guillotine trimmer to cut any uneven edges.
I always have issues with my glue tips getting clogged and not being able to keep the glue running, so I decided to make a video with my latest trials…
You’ll need a lot of hot glue sticks (at least 4 or 5) and some E6000 glue as hot glue will sometimes release off of glass or ceramic if it goes from warm to cold and so the E6000 coating the bottom inside of the planter, ensures that the hot glue and the E6000 together will hold on the ceramic. I added a lot of hot glue in the inside center of the planter and then set the lid of the glue bottle well submerged in hot glue…you’d want to cover about half of the lid so once the glue sets, it will hold the glue bottle and will allow you to unscrew the bottle and the lid will always stay inside the planter, and this ensures the glue is always ready to be used and you don’t have to shake it a lot to get the glue to come out of the bottle…
If you get hot glue on the outside of the planter, use your heat tool and re heat the hot glue and then wipe it off with a cloth.
I’ll let you know if the Stopper Topper works for the Bearly Art Glue. I did try the Standify on Amazon after contacting the owners of Bearly Art Glue and asking for a stopper for the black tip. I didn’t love the Standify as you are supposed to keep the open tip of the glue bottle in the foam at the base of the Standify and sometimes I wouldn’t get the tip to sit directly onto the foam and glue would seep out and I hated that. Plus the Standify always seemed to be in my way and I just didn’t like it.
I bought this pack of paper straws at my local Walmart and found them in a drawer a couple of days ago, and thought they’d be really cute as a Valentine’s Day project. Link: https://tinyurl.com/mrxfk7ad
You’ll need a 5 x 7″ wood frame without the glass and a piece of cardboard that’s 1/16th of an inch thick and cut to 5 x 7″ and a piece of patterned paper also cut to 5 x 7″ to line the cardboard. Cut the cardboard and patterned paper and glue the patterned paper to the cardboard, then glue the cardboard to the back of the frame so it doesn’t move around.
Take a piece of red cardstock (I should have used red and didn’t, so had to glue red foam iran to the cardstock…this will allow you to skip this step) and cut it to 4 ” wide by 6 ” tall then either fold it in half on the 4″ length or score it at 2 ” on the 4″ length and then fold it in half. You’ll want to draw one-half of a heart on the paper with the center of the heart on the folded part of the paper. Hope that made sense. Cut out the heart.. You want to make sure when you open the paper, it’s a complete heart and if it’s not, it’s because you need to make sure you draw it on the paper with the center of the heart up to the fold.
Lay your heart inside your frame to make sure it fits and if it’s a little too big, trim it so it fits better. Take a double sided adhesive…I used carpet tape link: https://tinyurl.com/ub55jwb8 and line the red cardstock completely with the carpet tape. Turn the cardstock over to trim off any excess tape but leave the backing on when you’re trimming it as it will really gum up your scissors.
Lay your straws starting at the top and making sure the straw is horizontal and straight, and line it up so the right edge of the straw is at the right side of the cardstock, but completely covers the edge of the cardstock. Lay the straws down making sure they really butt up against each other. You’ll probably run out of straws, so you’ll need to use a box cutter or Xacto knife to trim the straws off the left side of the heart….don’t press down too hard when trimming the straws, or you’ll crush them and make them unusable. Keep laying the straws until the reach the bottom of the heart. You might want to cut the straws before you lay them onto the heart, if you’re good at eye-balling things to determine how long they need to be.
Make sure the straws are well adhered and trim the straws at the top of the heart in the center so you can tell it’s a heart, then put foam squares on the back of the heart to give the project more dimension. If you use these foam squares from Dollar Tree, you might want to double them up to add a little more height to them. link: https://tinyurl.com/a469tc9v Place it inside the frame and add a sentiment if you choose. Here are some Happy Valentine’s Day stamps to choose from. Link: https://tinyurl.com/2s4yf4tp I stamped mine in black ink and cut it in the shape of a banner and added foam squares behind it and placed it at the bottom of the inside of the frame.
Red ribbon–I used velvet, but any red ribbon works. Dollar Tree has grosgrain ribbon in red that would work well…you’ll need at least 1″ wide ribbon.. their grosgrain is 1 1/2″ Link: https://tinyurl.com/4b228yfk
I couldn’t find the LOVE sign on the Dollar Tree site, but I just bought it last week so my store still had some…hope you can find ones you like. Since it’s so close to Valentine’s Day, you might want to consider making either a St Patrick’s Day or Easter wreath similar to this one…here’s a sign for Easter I found at Dollar Tree link: https://tinyurl.com/5794ke2u
Hot glue gun: Mine is a mini Gorilla glue gun, it’s multi-temp, and you need to buy multi-temp mini glue sticks, and for this project, I put the gun on low, as the foam can melt with super hot glue. link: https://tinyurl.com/38rdkbt8
One sheet gold metallic glitter card stock (optional) (I couldn’t find any single sheets of gold glitter cardstock online, so this was the cheapest I found.)https://tinyurl.com/3v89xew2
You’ll need an 6-8″ piece of ribbon to use as a hanger for the wreath, and it just needs to match in some way.
Then you’ll need a couple of straight pins to push the ribbon into the back of the wreath.
To begin: take your wreath form and cut the red ribbon to strips that are 5 1/4 to 5 1/2″ long and mine was 1 1/2′ wide. Start your first strip on the back of the wreath and wrap it around tightly, making sure there are no waffles or bumps in the ribbon making sure the strip ends on the back and you don’t hot glue any ribbon to the front.
I used multi glue temp glue sticks and glue gun, and put mine on the low setting so the glue doesn’t melt the foam wreath. .Overlap each ribbon strip and make sure the front looks good, as it doesn’t matter if the back looks yucky.
Once you’ve covered the wreath with red ribbon, use your heat tool or a hair drier to melt any hot glue that you can see on the front of the wreath, as it will show through the mesh and you don’t want that.
Then cut the mesh into strips, 1 1/2-2″ wide and maybe 2 feet long, and starting on the back of the wreath, lay some hot glue and put the end of the mesh in the glue and then start wrapping the mesh around the wreath, making sure it’s flat and always overlaps mesh, so you don’t have any red ribbon showing with no mesh on it. Wrap the entire wreath, making sure that you always start and stop on the back of the wreath, so there’s no hot glue showing on the wreath front.
I ripped apart the Dollar Tree sign , removing the ribbon that connected it.. I laid them up against the wreath and decided they needed to be backed with another color, so took a piece of gold glitter cardstock and traced the letters on the back of the cardstock. The letter “E” needs to be placed backwards when you’re tracing it, as it will not face the right way when you flip over the paper…fyi. I left a small border between each letter so when I cut the outlined shapes, I cut about 1/8″ larger so I had a border for each letter. I tried just hot gluing the glitter cardstock to the back of the letters, but it didn’t hold, so I used tear tape under each letter and hot glue, and the combination of both finally held the letters to their backing.
Make a hanger out of 1/4″ wide matching ribbon folded in half w/ a knot tied near the bottom Add two straight pins and push them through the ribbon right below the knot, and pushed them into the back of the wreath (this can go anywhere on your wreath at this point) and then added hot glue under the knot and ribbon to really make sure it held. Once your hanger is in place, make sure that spot is the very top center of your wreath before adhering any letters so the wreath looks straight once put together.
I placed the letters around the wreath form to decide where I wanted them, and once I was happy with them, I took them off and glued one on at a time. I found that by gluing down the “O” first, that I could lay the “L” on the “O” for part of the “L”, and the rest of the “L” was not touching the wreath, so I added some foam tape under the “L” where it wasn’t touching the wreath and added hot glue to the foam tape and the wreath so it wouldn’t move. When I adhered the “V”, part of it wasn’t attached to anything, so I added foam tape under it as well, then added the “E” and the hearts above the “E”. I turned the wreath over and hot glued the letters anywhere they seemed loose.
My girlfriend works in the activity department of an assisted living facility and I offered to make Valentine card kits so that each participant has their own “kit” of goodies to make a card with. I think this would be a great idea for crafty hoarders like myself to send to classrooms as well.
Here’s what I put inside each baggie.
Please note: I provide links to as many products as possible…those links are not affiliate links, as I do not make any money from this channel or any sales related to it..
–8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ or A2 card base scored on the 8 1/2″ length at 4 1/4″ The card bases I included were from an old set of premade card bases from Michaels with hearts on the edges, and I wanted mine to have a red border, so I used watercolor paint and painted the edges. You could also use a marker to color the edges if you wanted
–decorated paper to layer on top that is 4″ x 5 1/4″ Mine was from an old Michaels pad of silver foil 12″ x 12″ paper that I cut down to size
–large heart shape doilies cut down to a size that fits easily on a card front , Link https://tinyurl.com/bdcnr8hf
—Stampin’ Up Good Greetings sentiments “happy valentine’s day”, “I love you” and “thankful for you. I included two in each packet so there could be one sentiment on the outside and one on the inside. I used a Stampin’ Up Modern Label Punch to punch the two sentiments besides Happy Valentine’s Day, as it was too long to fit in that punch, so I just cut them in strips that could be made into banners if the card maker chose to do so.
–row of red adhesive half pearls in a strip
–Images to color that I die cut…they were dog and cat from Inky Antics –I couldn’t find the stamp I bought, but I did find one that was similar, link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8c6827 Penny Black hedgehogs with apple stamp, still available on ebay link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8498vv
–foam tape–if there’s not enough in the packet, you can always use fun foam to add some dimension behind a layer of cards and just add tear tape to the fun foam Dollar Tree foam tape link: https://tinyurl.com/88ewt6wa
–extra sentiments in case someone loses theirs –extra images to color in case someone has an accident with theirs
–extra ribbon
I made one of the cards from one of the packets by adhering the heart background paper that I cut to 4 x 5 1/4″ on foam tape after wrapping the red polka dot ribbon to the front of the panel upside down so it’s only red, and then I put tear tape on the back of the red strip of Dollar Tree plastic bead trim and laid it centered on the red ribbon. Then I attached all of it to the card base. I colored my dog and cat image by using watercolor markers and scribbling them out on a palette and using a wet paintbrush to paint the marker ink onto the image. You can color your image with crayons, markers, watercolors, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, or don’t color it at all and just adhere it to the card.
Before attaching the colored image to the card, lay everything you want on your card and move them around until you’re happy with their placement, and then adhere them. I put the glue dots on the back of the heart doily to adhere it to the card, and I added a couple of brads to the card…one through the center of the dog/cat image and one on the end of the “I love you” sentiment.
To attach a brad, you need a sharp object like a thick pin or a safety pin that you’ll push through and then wiggle it around to make the hole bigger. Push the brad through and then open up the two legs of the brad until they’re flat. I cut the Happy Valentine’s Day sentiment into a banner by cutting into the right side in the center about 1/4″ and then from the top right edge, angle cut to the center, and from the bottom right edge, angle cut to the center so you’ve got a “V” cut out ( a sideway V). I laid the sentiment on the heart and added the “I love you” sentiment with a brad through it inside the card. I made another set of Easter card kits as well and hope my friend and her residents enjoy making cards with them.
I wanted to make one of these tools that helps you get a better impression when you use your MISTI and I had a vintage jar with a lid, and broke the jar, so decided to use the lid to make one of these tools. A lot of people make them out of lids to Yankee Candles, but I like that this one is easier to hold. I’ll put in an ebay link to similar jar lids below…
Dollar Tree adhesive cork:https://tinyurl.com/2zwwhmvkYou can use normal cork, but if you can find this cork, it will be inexpensive and has adhesive built in.
Peel and Stick Black Felt link: https://tinyurl.com/ykwj3r4mNOTE: You don’t need to use adhesive felt as you can simply use a piece of black felt and glue it to the project. I would buy a better quality felt than the cheaper pieces you get in craft stores…try the fabric section and buy felt there as it will be thicker and work much better for this project.
Piece of patterned paper that will match the shaker components you’ve chosen for inside the lid.
Start by taking your jar lid and tracing the base onto the foam core, cork, felt and patterned paper. I used a disposable scalpel link: https://tinyurl.com/ycn2sexa to cut out the foam core and then a sanding block link: https://tinyurl.com/393urjpm to sand the edges that are rough from cutting. I cut the cork and felt with fabric scissors and the patterned paper with regular scissors.
I glued the patterned paper to one side of the foam core and glued the cork to the other side of the foam core, using the E6000 to glue both in place. I added more E6000 to the cork and attached the felt to it, making sure the felt covers the cork so you can’t see any cork, and everything that you can see on the sides of the jar is black…black foam core and black felt.
Take the jar lid and make sure it’s clean and with the opening facing up, fill it with minimal shaker components and set it aside until you’re ready to adhere the pieces together. I used the Sizzix shaker elements linked above and added a few small beads as well. You don’t want to add a lot, as it will make the lid heavy and that will defeat the purpose of using this to rub across the face of the MISTI. I added six dollops of E6000 to the edges of the patterned paper, and then added hot glue to fill where I didn’t have any E6000, so the edge of the paper circle has glue the entire way around, but only at the very edges of the paper…Then gently attach the patterned paper side of your sandwich of foam core, cork and felt onto the opening of your lid and hold it in place until the hot glue has had time to dry. Don’t turn the lid over yet until you’ve checked and made sure there are no gaps where you can see between the lid and the “sandwich”…If there is a gap, simply add more hot glue into the opening and wait for it to dry before turning over the lid. If you have any strings of hot glue, simply use a heat tool or hair drier to heat them until they disappear.
I needed to make a card for a wedding and wanted to make something simple yet elegant.
Sadly the bride and groom stamp from Rubbernecker Stamps is no longer made…sorry.
I used the Hero Arts Congrats stamp set is available on ebay…here’s a link to the sets I found. https://tinyurl.com/yckn8j2y
The cardstock i used is from Recollections and is their heavyweight, here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/bd9bfhfp . The color of cardstock I used, is cream and cut the cardstock to 8 1/2″ by 5 1/2″ tall, then scored at 4 1/4″ on the 8 1/2″ length to make an A2 size card.
I stamped with Stampin’ Up archival gray ink link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8auc6j. I don’t know if Stampin’ Up makes this ink any more, but ebay has a lot of it for sale.
I stamped the bride and groom from Rubbernecker on the card base first, so I’d know where I would have room to stamp the sentiments.
I stamped in the MISTI https://www.mysweetpetunia.com/MISTI-p/original-misti.htm ,the “Congrats” and leaving the stamp in place, and moving the card base, I stamped it two more times, then added “on your wedding” from the same stamp set…I wish I’d only stamped “on your wedding” once instead of three times, but that’s how I rolled…
I used clear embossing powder on the words to make them raised and shiny, and then heat set them. I wanted to add some color to the card, so I took a piece of plastic packaging and scribbled water based markers onto the plastic, in Stampin’ Up markers in Concord Crush and Wisteria Wonder but only used Wisteria Wonder as an outline, a shadow on her dress. Then I painted his head to make hair with a brown marker (Chocolate Chip), and I used black on his tuxedo. After the card dried, I used a black marker and colored the tuxedo again to make his jacket more black than it was.
I used leftover diamonds from diamond paintings and tiny Glue Dots Link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8k2424 to attach the diamonds to the card. I used a random pattern for the diamonds (and one I placed to cover an ink spot.)
The nice people at InLoveArtshop.com sent me this die and I thought it would be perfect to use for our great niece’s 21st birthday card.. They’re also providing my viewers with a 20% off discount code which is G-42879.
I started with an A6 size card base and cut a piece of 6 x 6″ patterned paper I had down to 4 1/4 x 6″ to fit the base, then cut the big birthday wishes die link: https://bit.ly/3z3jb0oout of a light blue mirror cardstock. After it was die cut, I attached a piece of clear plastic to the back of the big birthday wishes die cut using tear tape to make sure the acetate stayed put. I added two thin rows of the thin foam strips link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8ujkfa all around the outside back edge of the blue mirror cardstock that I die cut, making sure there are no gaps so the shaker pieces don’t come out. I laid the card base on a large cutting mat and used washi tape to surround the card base, then removed the card and laid the big birthday wishes die cut inside the spot I’d washi taped, making sure it was centered with the washi tape and was face down. I used an embossing buddy link: https://tinyurl.com/musk96z5 to the sides of the foam tape so the glitter won’t stick to the sides of the foam. Then I used some larger Recollections glitter link: https://tinyurl.com/yc2z52cr and put one color in the top portion of the die cut and another color near the bottom.
To put the card together, I took the card base with the opening facing the left side and laid it onto the die cut making sure it fit exactly into the washi tape I’d surrounded it with earlier, thus making sure the die cut is centered on the front of the card, and helps ensure the shaker pieces don’t fall out when you’re assembling the card.
I had some number cardboard pieces and painted a 2 and a 1 a matching blue color and then painted Brutus Monroe’s Glitter Glue link: https://tinyurl.com/4krnnu3n onto the numbers with a paint brush, then added a fine clear glitter link: https://tinyurl.com/yckrubv7to both numbers and let them dry. Once dry, I added them to the center of the front of the card using the same thin foam strips to adhere them.
