A Gnome for the Gnome Card

 I so adore the Gnome card I made that I just had to make a little Christmas Gnome for the tree too.  This guys was super easy.  I have alot of different trees in my yard and have access to some different pinecones.  The one tree provides the perfect ones for the Gnomes beard.  I then just hot glued some tiny cones from another tree and used some felt, bells and a wooden bead..  Not many supplies are needed.  The main pinecone is from a pine tree that is very sappy so it is best to not use cones that you have just gathered this year but let them dry out for a year or two.  They release this terrible sap for what seems like forever!  Mine have been down in the basement for maybe 2 years and still had some sappy pitch on them.  Anyway paint them white and let them totally dry.  Cut a piece of felt into a quarter circle and form it into a cone and glue together.  I wing it.  No pattern was used.  Glue to the top of the pinecone where the stem is.  Next decorate the hat.  I chose to use tiny cones on the brim but you could use pom poms or chennile stems or even cotton balls or sequins.  Up to you.  You could even leave it alone.  I also added a little greenery and a berry.  Up by the brim I glued a wooden bead for the nose.  A pom pom could be used here too.  Then at the top of the hat I poked a hole with a skewer and slipped a hook through then added some twine and a jingle bells.  Super cute.

I made a couple but next year I think these may be placed on some of the packages.

Til Next Time.........................................  

Gnome for Christmas

 Yes I'll be "Gnome For Christmas"

I love Gnomes and so do some of my dear friends.  Some of my other friends also gifted me some Papers from Photo Play The New Norm which got me thinking..... Why not combine the 2 of them with Christmas and make a very unusual Christmas card.  We all need something to smile at right now and I thought this might put a grin on a few friends faces. 

I own a few Gnome stamps and dies and I'll admit I picked the one easiest to color.  I haven't much time this year and of course I'm really hoping these cards won't be needed next year so no time to waste with fussy coloring.  I was racking my brain trying to figure out what to write on the inside.  Then in the middle of the night (of course) I thought of the first 2 lines.  Jumped out of bed and jotted it down in the bathroom with eyeliner before I forgot.  I swear when I was done I went to the kitchen grabbed a pen and paper and had seriously already forgotten what I had just wrote.  Late night writting does not stick in my head.  About an hour or so later I came up with more, 20 minutes later a bit more and 2 hours later even more.  By morning it was a bit confusing but I was at least able to rearrange and it at least made a bit of sense.  Here's the first finished card.  

Drum roll please......................................

I Then decided to make a few Slimline cards as well as a couple more regular ones.  But no time to make as many as I wanted to.  All of them had the dame saying on the insides.

As much as I loved making these I really hope I won't need to repeat them next year.

Til next time

HAPPY CARDING AND

M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S ! ! ! !

SIMPLE COOKIE EXCHANGE TAGS

 I am not sure how many of you feel the same as I do but here we are nearly a year into a pandemic where many of us have "Sheltered at home" and I feel like I don't have enough time.  I started the holiday season thinking "Hey I got this"!  Order gifts on line early.......Check!     Wrap gifts early........nope.......hmmmmm.  Make tags for said gifts........well kinda?  They are super simple but I do have some made so CHECK!  Make Christmas cards....Ccchheck???  Get them mailed early...well they are as of this weekend so Check!   Make Christmas Cookies.........Check!  Make Cookie tray tags............Ok ok major fail!  I made a tag but OMG Looks nothing like what would be on a festive cookie tray.  I mean C'mom....we are "Sheltered at Home"  What else do I have to do????  But nope I did not take the time to make totally awesome Baking inspired tags for the cookie trays.  Instead they turned out like this.........................

Yep!!!!!  Just took cut aparts out of a 6x6 pad and slapped it onto a piece of card stock.  Rounded the corners and punched a hole.  When I put it on the plates.   I didn't even add twine.   I just shoved it between a couple of the cello bags on the plate.  HOW LAZY IS THAT!!!!!  SHAME ON ME!  I swear I don't think I would have been this lazy if it had been an actual cookie exchange.  Ok it was an actual exchange but it was family and family forgives right?  UGHHHH now that the plates are all gone I feel like such a shlup.  Like I should redeem myself and do a porch drop off of a bottle of wine.  Oh wait.......................I still have to wrap presents!   Ugggghhhhh.......I need more time.

Happy Chaos

Tags for the Wee Ones

 I don't know about all of you but when my little grand children open presents on Christmas Day the last thing they are doing is Oooo'ing and Ahhh'ing the beautiful tags on the gifts.  In fact One is lucky if they even take the time to read the tag.  lol  The youngest is now 4 and she has no interest in the tag.  All she wants to know is "Is this mine?"  Her brother now 9 is a "Counter"  Does not care what the tags look like or whose name is one it just as long as he and his sisters get the exact same number of gifts and he makes sure everyone has one in front of them before they open it so all is fair.  The eldest is 12,  you would think she'd be interest in Ama's (me) tags since during the year she helps me make cards and tags for birthdays but nope no interest at all.  So why spend time and energy creating beautiful elaborate tags that will most likely be torn while an anxious child opens a gift?  No one wants that stress on Christmas so I make super simple, I don't care if they're tossed tags.  For those who know me you know I love making tags probably more so than cards and I can get carried away.  So simple is a challenge for me though I know I can do it.  My only problem is I look at them when done and think geeze sooo boring.  But here's what I do.

I use the most inexpensive card stock I can find.  Freebies from friends is best but when I have to buy it I usually get the Recollection brand from Michaels when on sale.  Then at the end of the season they usually have these 6x6 paper pads on clearance too so I pick up what ever they have left.  I don't care what it is I just grab and go.  Last year it was these three.

Now I'm not a scrapbooker so these pads always have sheets that I usually can't use for cards.  Those are the ones I pull out for the tags.

Ooops when I went through the pads I found that the middle pad Happy Pawlidays was actually doublesided so though 1 side I couldn't use the other I could.  But the other 2 pads had these larger design sheets that are actually meant for scrapbook pages so I cut them up for the tags.

All together I'm working with 9 6x6 sheets.  I cut my first set of tags 2.5 x 4 and scored at 2 to make a folded 2 x 2.5 tag. The layer of the above papers were cut 1.75 x 2.25.  I got 16 of these and then carried on to another style since I get bored quickly lol.

Second set were 2.75 x 4 with layers of 2.5 x 3.75.  Very minium embellies.  I was able to whip out 32 of these.  I made both sets while watching the evening Television thats how quickly they went.  I just sat there with a glue stick and glued away!

This was the year I was suppose to show my daughter-in-law and niece-in-law and sister how to ake tags using nearly zero supplies and 1 6x6 paper pack but due to Covid that didn't happen.  I am hoping next year will be different.

Til next time............................

HAPPY CARDING!

No Tag Time

 This year has been crazy.  Well I'm sure that's no news to you.  In our own family there have been health issues (no covid thank goodness) that had kept me away from my craft room except when absolutely necessary.  Things had finally quieted down and I was rushing to get a handful of cards made (actually had to grab some of the leftovers from previous years).  Then there were Christmas gifts for the grandkids.  Yikes!!!  Not wanting to go into stores I did nearly everything on line.  So hard for me since I'm a touchy feelie kind of person.  I had alot of disappointments in purchaces when they arrived because they were not exactly what I thought they were.  Now tags...Ey Yi Yi.

I Cut up some white cardstock 2.75 x 4.25 and then hit the scrap bin.  Corner rounded the tops with ticket punch or scallop punch, layered a 2.5 x 4 piece of scrap added either a circle or square with a sticker of some sort on it and stamped to and from on the back.  DONE!!!  I just don't have time this year.  I feel bad since normally my tags are a bit fancy but not this time.  These have to do.  I got 32 whipped out in an evening.  

I'm now working on tags for the grand kids gifts ages 4-12 and then the grand nieces and nephews ages 5-11.  Doing the simple route again.  Mainly because I really need to get these gifts wrapped!  Times a tickin'!  lol

My husband of course wanted to know why I don't just use those store bought peel and sticks............come on!!!!!  I'm a card maker!!!!!  Papercrafter!!!!  I got stuff!!!!  I should use it right?????

Til next time

HAPPY CARDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm Obsessed

 OMG...........................DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?????

I DO     I DO     I DO

I saw these adorable snowmen on Pinterest a bit ago and now with Covid and being locked up for the last 9 months I really needed to find something else to focus on.  So............garage digging!!!  I got my husband to make me a new mailbox post and I ordered a new mail box and got it all prettied up.  Of course there were scraps.  Hmmmmmm...what to do, what to do????  Well Pinterest?  Snowmen?  4x4's?  2x4's?  3x4's?  I got it all!!!  Buried in the garage but I got it!  So digging I went.  Then got hubby cutting and cutting and cutting.  I was at first happy with 4 of them made with 2x4's about 7" tall.  I had a bag full of new stretchy gloves from clearance last year that we all thought we could do something with but had no clue what until now. and I did these.

Then I thought hmmmm  why not use 3x4's cut at 5" high and use the mitten's instead of gloves?  So I came up with these and I also thought they were all kind of boring so I added a tad of greenery to all of them too.  Oh and I did try to make 2 from corks and just fingers cut from gloves but nevermind.  Pain in the butt.

Then I thought heck I still have wood so lets keep going.........

So yes all in all (4) 7" ones,  (10) 5" ones (2) cork ones and then..............

Yep had to do it..................................

45" 4x4

Dare I go back in the garage?????  I think these's some pressure treated wood in there somewhere lol!

Til next time

???????????????????????

No Card Post

 So Christmas is just around the corner and I wanted to get together a craft box for the nieces and nephews like I did for the fall.  But why do the same right?  So I changed it up just a wee bit and made it into a Christmas Craft Bag from Aunt Santa Sue.   I ordered some material on line and made little draw string bags that measured about 16" wide by 20" tall when completed and filled them with various craft items.  I did include some other activities too that I usually include in my grandkids Christmas box.  Here's a picture of 2 of the 4 bags after they were filled...

Pretty cute and home made tags too.  Inside they have a calendar with some fun activities to do like bake cookies, make a snowman, take a walk and look at neighborhood Christmas lights, have a movie night, make a neighbor a card (supplies provided) etc.  Here are some of the crafts.

All supplies were put into the bag so they didn't have to search for anything.  Thay LOVED it just as much as I loved putting it together.

Now as for my own Grandkids, I had started the tradition of a Christmas box that the kids recieve on the eve of November 30th evry year.  It has a calendar with daily activities counting down to Christmas starting with writing your letter to Santa.  Certian things in the box are wrapped so its a surprise.  Example one of the days states its a good night for a movie so open gift #4 and it would be a new Christmas movie they haven't seen yet.  Usually an oldie but goodie lol.  There's a new Christmas book wrapped up for the day that states read a book before bed open gift #5.  I'm so excited about this years book.  I got the Jimmy Fallon book 5 More Sleeps til Christmas.  Here's their box nearly finished being filled this year.  

I re-use the same box every year.  My son returns it to me at the end of the holidays. 

Well That's it for now.  I'm definately more into a crafting mood than cardmaking mood right now so I'm not sure what my next post will be so...........................

Til next time

HAPPY WHATEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Simple Blue Christmas

Well this year I am so far behind on doing my Christmas cards.  Usually I decide over the summer what I want to do and then while relaxing at the lake I do all my cutting and gluing embellies together (I like to make alot of my own).  But this year.......well 2020 happened. Medical issues kept us away from the lake as well as people and stores and I got absolutely NOTHING done.  Fast forward to now.  First I had decided what I was going to do.  Originally I thought I was going to make teepee cards but after finally finding a size I liked, I realized I would have also had to make all the envelopes.  Nope no time for that so I went through my stash for inspiration.  Found an older Crafters Companion edge die and decided to play with that.  I then went on line to Michaels and ordered a pack of silver shimmer cardstock.  I had decided the main theme would be snowflakes so I searched Amazon for snowflake paper and found a Martha Stewart pad seen HERE .  Perfect.  So here's what I came up with a simple fancy fold for Christmas.

The lighting does not do it justice but it really is pretty in real sight.  Well now off to make a bunch more.  Good thing I don't send out many.  Every year my list seems to get smaller and smaller.

Til next time......................................

HAPPY CARDING!

FALL CRAFT BOXES

 Happy Fall!!  My favorite time of year and I just love doing Fall crafts.  Unfortunately Corona is still here and we are all still social distancing so it's time for a craft box for the grandkids and grandnieces/nephews.  A while ago I had put together boxs for the kids with various art supplies. They had a ton of fun and it took there minds off of being stuck at home.  Now months later these same kids are still stuck at home and now even have to homeschool due to the virus not being under control.  So many fall plans have been cancelled so to ease the boredom I decided it was time for another box.  This time all fall related.

I made little packets for each child with each craft in a separate bag.  I also typed out instructions with pictures so their parents know how to put them together.  First up..............A scarecrow, Tree of Thanks, and a Brillo pumpkin.

Brillo pumpkin super easy.  You get a pack of the copper pads that come in a 4 pack from the Dollar Tree.  Grab a stick from outside and glue into the middle where there is a hole.  Glue on googlie eyes and a scrap piece of orange cardstock for the nose and black for a mouth.  I used a silk leaf glued to the stick and a black glitter ribbon to decorate.

Scarecrow was just popsicle sticks glued together.  Paint them with whatever paint you have, add googlie eyes, a rhinestone nose and draw on the mouth.  The patchs are just cardstock.

Tree of Thanks.....Trace the childs hand on brown cardstock and cut out.  Cut a lighter piece for the trunk and glue together.  Paper punch various color leaves and on some of them write what you are thankful for.  Glue all the leaves on the hand and add the little Tree of Thanks Plaque.

I then asked hubby to cut me out a few ghost for the kids to paint and he came up with an adorable Ghost.

He mounted the ghost to a dowel rod and made a little wooden stand for the dowel to set in.  It was then up to me to decorate it and add the makings and instruction into the box for the kids. I glued on some colored moss from Hobby Lobby, added a couple pumpkins and pinecones and tied a bow on the stick.  I think it is so cute and placed my sample right on the mantle.  Can't wait for the kids to get their boxes.  I think delivery will be this week.

Well that's all for now so til next time.......................

HAPPY CARDING

PUMPKINS AND ACORNS

 Earlier I showed you my Coffin Halloween cards which I think are great for my older grands but for the "Wee" ones I decided to make pumpkins.  This is a great die set by Stephanie Barnard and you can whip out a bunch of pieces and then spend a night on the comfy sofa gluing all the pieces together.  Another Stephanie die is the Acorn fold out, like the pumpkin fold out you can cut a bunch of pieces out and sit with all your pieces gluing them together.

I only needed 5 at the moment but I have enough cut out for 6 more pumpkins and 7 more acorns.  I've never really sent out fall cards in the past but with all this quarantine stuff going on and the thought that holidays may not take place as usual I thought spirits could be lifted with a little Hello Fall card.  Since I have a few of these already cut...I'm ready to go.  lol

Til Next time.................

HAPPY CARDING!

Wedding Bell Blues

 A very close friends daughter is getting married.  I held this little girl when she was a baby and now in her late 20's she has finally found the love of her life.  The 2 of them have been through thick and thin with a few bumps in the road since high school and their relationship has survived.  Last year they got engaged and we all marked our calendar saving the date.  Then here comes COVID.  Plans get re-arranged.  Though they are still getting married on the planned date, only immediate family will be attending and they plan to celebrate next year.  I still wanted to make them a card and this is what I came up with.  I used my favorite white shimmer paper for the entire card.  I'm kind of a hoarder of shimmer paper lol.  Its my favorite paper to use but I only use it on real special cards.

I noticed the pearls didn't show up well in the first picture so I added a close up of the flowers.  That little touch of green is the only color added to an all white card.  I still have to ad the sentiment and then I'll be done.

Pretty simple and fits in a 5x7 envelope.  One piece of cardstock is 5x7 then the next is 5x6.  On the 5" side of both of these I used a Martha Stewart border punch.  Punching both sides of both pieces of cardstock.  Then on the 5x7 one I scored each side at 1.5.  On the 5x6 one I scored both sides at 1".  Then I embossed a piece of card that was 4x6.5.  After embossing I scored the long side at 5".  When folded back it gets sandwiched between the 2 larger pieces.  Hope this makes sense.  To decorate the front I used various Anna Griffin dies and some Tim Holtz leaves dies.  The happy couple are total outdoor people and work in that type of environment so leaves made sense to me.

Simple but elegant.  I am so sad that I will not be able to attend.  I cried at her sisters wedding and I wanted to cry at hers.  To wait a year seems so unfair.  Stupid COVID.

Well til next time...............................

HAPPY CARDING!

Coffin/Couffin Basket/Cradle

 Did you know that the word Coffin was from an Old French word meaning Basket in English and that its modern day French word Couffin translates to Cradle?  Makes it seem like a not too eerie thing when you say your making a Coffin card.  lol  

I had decided to try making Coffin shaped Halloween cards for the kids this year.  Not having a Cricut I had to make my own template for the card and the layers.  Alot of trial and error since I had a hard time getting my left side the same as the right side and then needing to shrink it for layers.  Let me tell you I made it a whole lot more complicated than it had to be.  Silly me should have just gone on the internet....look for coffin templates...copy one I liked into my computer and then just shrink it 2x's for the layers. But noooooooooooooooo........I have to waste all morning and part of the afternoon measuring and cutting only to find out after I folded it that it wasn't even.  So don't be like me...................take the easy route.

I ended up with 2 different sizes during my trial.  I intend to use both sizes for cards.  The smaller ones do not work as layers for the bigger ones due to my measuring.  The angles on both sizes are totally different and cannot be used together. (see I made it complicated lol)  The smaller one though would be a perfect size for a tag so I may make a few of those too.   

All the insides are a variation of what you see above.  Inside each card I will be placing these adorable Halloween face masks I found on line at Amazon.  They take awhile to arrive so you may not have time to get them for your cards but they also have Christmas designs.

Christmas masks

I might order some of these for my Daughter in law.  She teaches at a school and these would be so fun for her.

That's all for now. Til next time.

HAPPY CARDING

Not a Card but a Pumpkin

 Today I share another type of recycled project but not in card form.  My husband always has scrap wood in the garage from previous projects but unlike me he doesn't like to save for a rainy day.  In fact usually these scraps are burned within a week.  Lucky for me this one piece was buried up against the wall from a firepit chair I had him make for the grandkids.  He actually only got 1 made and I definitely wanted more but I'll have to wait.  Anyway I saw in an email from HomeTalk these adorable pumpkins.  With the one 2x12" board that was about 30"long I was able to get 3 pumpkins.   He also had a piece of 1 x 6" board that we used for the bases.  The ones on line were white washed but I prefer orange and did an "Orange wash" on them and then stained the bases with a very thin layer of black stain.  I also added some fall leaves and raffia to the stems.  The originals just had the stems.  We also rounded our pumpkins.  The originals had 45 degree angles in each corner making them look a bit like little stop signs.  It was cute but I prefer the rounded corners.

Aren't these guys just the cutest???  I love them.  So will my daughter in law.  As much as I love how these turned out I actually already own some carved wooden pumpkins that I put out on my front porch so I really don't need these too.  I just wanted the fun of making them and now I will also have the joy of handing them over to her for her front porch.

Check your garage....these are so simple and can dress up your front porch too.

Till next time

We used a stivck for the stem.  Yep he has a cornor filled with various siz sticks!  For what you ask???  No clue but I got to use one for the pumpkins.  A few dollar store leaves and some raffia and they are done.  

My original idea when I saw these guys was I was going to give them to my Daughter in law for her front porch.  But they are so cute I want to keep them!  No no no I won't!  I mean I already have wooden pumpkins for my front porch and I don't really need more but they are super cute!  I'm sure she is going to love them and it didn't cost me a thing.  Everything was already available right here in my own house and garage.  Love these types of projects.

Now to go through the garage and see if I can find some wood for a scarecrow for the front porch.  Heck I bet I could find enough wood for at least 2 but I better hurry...tomorrow looks like a day he's planning on having a fire in the fire pit.  YIKES!

Gatefold Birthday Card

 I figured it was about time I put some real thought into a Birthday card instead of just whipping one up at the last minute.  A friend of mine has a birthday coming up in October. (yeah I know! I'm actually planning ahead lol)  Anyway in the past I have tried to come up with a Fallish theme since it's an October birthday but this year I decided to go in a different direction.  She also loves larger cards so this one is a 5"x7".  I'm not sure what you call this fold.  It might be called a double gate but I'm not positive.  

You need 2 pieces of heavy weight card stock cut 7" x 10"  On both you will score at 2.5" and 5" on the long side. Glue the 5x7 sides together to form the center of the card. As shown below.

When closed there will be a small gap at the center.

Now decorate! I find to make this a bit easier you can use a themed paper pack.  I used the Authentique Dame paper collection for mine.  Also to keep it closed I cut a strip 1.75" x 12" to make a belly band.

I think this would look really cute with fall papers too.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time................................

HAPPY CARDING

Recycle Tags

Well Covid has changed the way many of us do things.  I for one can't stand going out to the stores and I really can't believe that I have not stepped into a craft store since February.  7 months!!!  OMG...if you asked me back in November if I could stay out of Hobby Lobby I'd tell you "NO WAY"!  But here it is 7 months later and I have yet to step into any of my crafty places.  When I need supplies I load up my Amazon cart and then click.  We only have 1 mom and pop scrapbook store out this way but it is 20 miles away so I don't go there either though I would have supported them if they had an online store but they don't.  So Amazon it is.

Now I need tags.  Usually I make them from extremely heavy kraft card stock but lately I have just grabbed whatever I have had laying around and turn it into a tag.  You can get alot of tags from the recycle bin.  Here are some things I grabbed out of our cart.

The copper looking piece is a back of a calendar which I ended up not using for a tag base but the boxes and the mailing folder I did use and I got alot of tags.  I probably could have gotten more out of the scraps by making smaller tags but I just wanted some larger ones for now and I'm sure my bin will be full of new cardboard soon.  So here's what I got so far.

I got 22 that are on top which measure 3" x 6".  Then bottom right are 2 at 2.25" x 5" and on the right 3 of them at 2.5" x 5".  Thats 27 tags from trash!!!  Now to cover them.  I also plan on shaping the tops of the tags too.

Now some of the embellies are recycled too.  A page from a magazine for some words, a popcorn bag, an old calendar for some words and pictures and even some starbucks sleeves.

So to start with here are a few Halloween tags and 2 everyday tags.

Even used some green bubble wrap for the bow on the top second tag.  Papers were from the scrap basket except the popcorn one which was an actual bag from popcorn.

You'd never guess these tag bases started out as boxes from the recycle bin.

Well I have 14 more to go so I'll post those later.

Til next time....................

HAPPY CARDING!

Another Pandemic Birthday

 My oh my days have changed.  With Covid we are all trying to do our best to make the "Littles" feel unforgotten on their Birthdays.  I know in my own family my Daughter in law has arranged 3 different Birthday parade.  Well almost 3.  First she did a combined parade for my 12 yr old granddaughter and my 40 yr old son.  She was able to get the local library to participate as well as our movie theater which dropped off a huge bag of theater popcorn for the 12 yrs old and for the 40 yr old she was able to get a local brewery to drop off some craft beer.  We had so much fun doing the parade and the kids got to watch at least 30 cars drive by honking and shooting silly string and water balloons.  Next was my 4 yr old granddaughters.  We had about the same number of people participating but this time added in a local farm that brought a pony for her to ride around in the back yard.  Talk about one HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!  This time my son was able to get a hold of an Ice Cream truck to be in our parade and then set up in front of their house handing out ice cream for the first 15 min before moving on through the neighborhood to his usual route.  Now the 3rd parade is to happen next week.  Not sure what my Daughter in law has lined up of my 9yr old grandson but I'm sure it will be awesome.

One of the Facebook groups I belong to had a mom from California asking about cards for her 4yr old who is so disappointed that she can't have a party.  I told the mom I'd send a card and told her of our parades.  I guess she is hoping to have one for her daughter.  Anyway the little girl loves princesses and I just happened to have Echo Parks paper pack called Perfect Princess      .

Of course you know me and fancy folds......if I have the opportunity I go for those!  So I made a double diamond card for this little girl who I have never met.  I hope she enjoys it as much as I did making it.  Bet she'll enjoy the $2 for ice cream more....lol.

I've made a few of these and I know I'll make alot more in this style.  They are so easy but so so so cute.

Til next time................................

HAPPY CARDING

Pandemic Gift Wraps

Sorry it's a bit blurry.

HELLO!!  As this pandemic continues I find myself wanting less and less to leave my house.  I have found plenty of things to keep me busy but have found that when it comes to birthdays  I don't really have wrapping options in my house.  Once again we had another Birthday parade to attend over the weekend.  I'll have to admit I was skeptical when these started popping up in April but now I see they are happening everywhere and actually I find myself enjoying the fun.  I always like to drop off some sort of gift.  Thank goodness for Amazon lol.  But now to wrap.................Well in our house newspaper is our friend!  I know...not everyone get an actual paper anymore but up at our summer place we still are a bit old fashioned there.  A local freebie paper is delivered to every resident once a week, so I save them.  It is known in my family that if a gift comes wrapped in newspaper it's a gift from my hubby.  Now during the pandemic it's a gift from Us.  I even decorate the top of the gift with a bow or flower made from the newspaper.  So here's our Birthday Parade Gift!

The tag of course is made from paper packs that I have and boy do I have alot of paper packs!  Perfect Princess paper pack by Echo Park was what I used for the one tag and just a scrap was used for the other.  I had totally forgotten to take pictures before the parade so these are copies of copies so sorry they are not the best quality.  

There are still a few more Birthdays this months so I'm sure I'll be making more Pandemic wrapping post.

Til next time.............................................

HAPPY CARDING!

 

HAPPY MAIL TAGS

  So today I was surprised by some Happy Mail from a nice lady in a card group I am in on Facebook.  It got me thinking that although I have read many posts on other people giving and receiving Happy Mail I personally have never sent any to a total stranger.  So I decide to jump in and give it a try.  I am not as ambitious as other ladies in that group are as I have decided to start small and using the letters in my first name I'd pick a person out from each state of the 5 letters.  Then to make it interesting (to me) I decided once I had a state the person would be picked by their street name which had to mean something to me.  For example one person lived on Lighthouse rd...well at my summer place we have a lighthouse on our road so I picked that person and so on.

My envelope will have Halloween die cuts in it.  I figured its about that time when we may want to make a Fall or Halloween card or tag.  Speaking of which..........I decided to add a little tag to the mail.  These are 3 x 5.

They are not really Halloween but rather fall and can be attached to some nice fall bake goods.

I can't wait to get these in the mail.  I also look forward to doing it again.

Til next time.......................

HAPPY CARDING!

A RAWRSOME BIRTHDAY

Dino's are a girls best friend!  Well they are if your a little girl...lol.  My gran-niece has been a fan of dinosaurs for most of her toddler stage and now at 6 she is still in love with Dino's.  So with me having a limited time for crafting lately I decided to do this double diamond Dino card for her Birthday this week.  I know this is rather simple for me.  I tend to get a bit involved in my cards but like I said no real time here.
I followed fold instructions from Stampin by Hannah seen HERE  The paper pack I used was from Echo Park called Dino Friends.  It was from 2016 so I'm not even sure if it's still available.  I got mine at Tuesday Morning when I went just for a looksee.  Yeah that never happens...one always ends up buying lol.  Anyway I just used some of the stickers from the pack, added a touch of stickles to some of the dots and Dino's and a few sequins. I then decorated the envelope with a few triangle scraps I had and the card is complete.  A 6 yr old will love it.  Finished card is about 4.25 x 5.25.

Well that's all.  Like I said I haven't much time lately but I'll do what I can squeeze in.

Til next time.......................
HAPPY CARDING

New Christmas Tags

Hello....it's July and you know what that means........Christmas in July!! I actually could and do enjoy Christmas every month.  It is my favorite Holiday for paper crafting!  So it is no surprise that I'm doing Christmas today.   I have had a very chaotic few months and squeezing in some fun crafting has been difficult but today I had some alone time and decided to grab a few sheets of paper and do a couple tags.  Ok Twelve actually.  9 large and 3 small from the scraps.  You know my love of scraps.
 I saw a You Tube video from Polly Paper Studios where she whipped up these adorable tags.  I did not have the same papers nor did I have the same stickers.  She did say that her local Hobby Lobby was just putting out the new 2020 Christmas stuff in the paper crafting department.  Oh my, I can't believe it's that time already.   If I wasn't such a chicken I'd run out to the store and see what they have put out but #1 I hate wearing a mask though I know it is for safty and required in my state and #2 I'm just not ready to be that close to people yet.  I'm in the 65+ age group and our family does have some medical issues so I don't want to take any chances yet.  But who am I fooling....of course I have stuff right here that would probably work.  So for the larger tags I used 110# white stock for the base.

I had 2 different wood look papers that I used for layers and I used scraps to put behind the window I created with the postage stamp die.  Then I layered and added embellies.

With the scraps I was able to get 3 more smaller tags.  I think these measured 3x4.

I really love the paper and the stickers Polly uses and for sure I'll be keeping my eyes out for those Hot Cocoa cups.  Hmmmm I could make my own if I had a coffee cup mug die.  LOL hope I have the strength to stay off the internet.  
If you get a chance go to you tube and check out Pollys video.  Her tags are adorable.  You can watch HERE.


UPDATE:  Ok I couldn't resist.  Went on Amazon and found the cutest mug dies.  Mugs are only about 1.75 x 2  perfect for tags.  Yep I'm going to be making embellies as soon as they come.  Are you interested???  Here's the link.
Mug Die
I know...I know...I'm such an enabler...giggle giggle.

HAPPY CARDING!

Update Pin in Glue

Remember a while ago I wanted to experiment with pins in glue bottles?  I had no idea if any of mine were stainless steel or not but I did not want to go out to the stores to find some to try.  So instead just thought I'd give the pins I had a try.  2 of the pins were dress making pins.  I had thought one of them could be stainless because who wants rust marks on their fabric?  Then I had found some vintage corsage pins.  Though not stated on the package, surely these should be stainless because they stick into wet plants to be pinned to clothing.
Well??????????????????????
NO... they rusted.  All three pins.  In fact the corsage one was the rustiest!

The middle pin is hard to tell but you can see by the tip of the glue bottle that there was rust forming.  And that one on the far right.......well by golly it was even turning the entire glue yellowish rusty color.  Yikes!

So now what?   Well looking around the house I found 2 more objects that "Might" work.  So the experiment continues.

First on the left is a Turkey lacing skewer.  You know....the ones that come with a little bit of twine to keep the stuffing in?  Don't know if that's stainless.  Now in the picture it looks like it is already discolored but trust me it is just a shadow.  Someday I might actually look into a photo box thing to take my pics in so there are no shadows.

Now I have no clue what these are made of but I do know they are easily available.  And yes I am aware that the tip of the bottle on the left is discolored.  That was from previous experiment.  I didn't think it would make much of a difference.  I mean it's not rust that makes something rust.  So now I sit and wait.

Well I waited 6 days.  The same number of days I waited with the pins.  Hmmmmmm........was pretty sure the ornament hook would rust.  I mean those are so inexpensive and the packaging doesn't really tell you what they are made of.
The turkey skewer?   The packaging also doesn't tell you what they are made of.  I would have assumed stainless since it's put into food you ingest.  So imagine my surprise when I realized that neither of them rusted!  That's right NO RUST!  One little problem though.  The holes in my glue bottles were a bit large so they both fit nicely in my bottles but for those of you who have tiny holes that only a needle would fit in, well these won't work for you.  Unless you make the holes a bit bigger.  Another issue is that the caps cannot be put on with these skewers/ornament hanger in the hole.  Personally I only use something in the hole while I'm working on a project just so the hole doesn't clog between applications.  When it comes time to put the glue away for the day I tap the bottle on the counter so all glue starts flowing to the bottom of the bottle and slide the skewer in and out of the hole to make sure it is clear of glue then I cap it and put it away standing upright. I'm not sure if the glue will dry up with just a pin or skewer in the hole with out a cap but???????  I know during this experiment of 6 days with no cap and the fact that life happened here and the glue bottles did not get their caps again for an additional 18 days, my glue was still fine.


Some people have used glue toppers like what maymay made it has. Seen HERE. They use these instead of the caps which I suppose could work but I have never tried it.  Maybe that's my next experiment...DIY Stopper Toppers?   Hmmm....maybe. 

Til next time...................
HAPPY CARDING

Wet Glue Anyone?

Guess you see I have a theme going here.  First glue sticks, now wet glue and yep I may be talking tape runners later.

So many thoughts on wet glue.  First we all have in the past had projects that just would not stick.  Then there is the buckling of the paper.  That in my opinion is the worst problem to have.  Nothing makes a card or scrapbook page look shoddy than wrinkles.  Hmmmm...I must look pretty "shoddy" at my age.  lol

Those of us who make alot of cards or paper projects want to be able to save money somewhere and alot of us look toward the glues we use.  During the school year Elmers school glue is all over the stores and sometimes for less than a dollar a bottle but we all tend to stir away from such glues.  We think because it's not archival it can't be good.  Ok but when I really think about it (and come on lets be perfectly honest) How many cards really need archival glue?  In our (meaning crafters) perfect world every one whom we send a card to would carefully place it in an archival box and keep it forever.  Our children would find the box and skim through the hundreds of hundreds of cards that we have saved and gently place the lid back on to show their grandchildren in the future.  Then generations from now a young adult will be going through boxes and stumble upon these special boxes with cards (a hundred years old) that are very pretty.  They will read some and wonder who these strangers were that sent such pretty cards. (because by then you probably just have to think something and it somehow gets transmitted through the air into the head of the person who was to receive the thought)  Our generations away adults then probably pop the box into the fireplace.  Good kindling!  Oh wait you may be able to start a fire just by thinking of it.  lol  Anyway my point is as much as we hope our cards are kept forever I highly doubt that would happen.  So we should just use glue that sticks and quit worrying about archival.  Yes this is just my opinion and you should do what you feel is acceptable to you.  To me it's just making it stick.  Now I have a totally different opinion when it comes to glue down phots if your into scrapbooking.  There you should use archival glues, tapes etc.

So here are the glues I had down in the craft room.  I did not go out to buy anything new because these are the ones I usually go to.

Ooops the Elmers school glue is hiding behind the 3-in-1.  Sorry.
After 24 hours.  I got side tracked and forgot about my experiment heeheehee.  Squirrel!!!
Finally remembered and took a look.  They all looked fairly flat.  Now it could be because when I applied the glue I used my bone folder to smooth the paper to the paper.  Some oozed out the sides since I sometimes get a bit heavy on the glue.

I was a bit surprised that Glossy accents lifted at the corner with ease but then the rest was pretty tight.  The 2 corners on Scotch Tacky glue and the Elmers school glue both only lifted a tiny bit and might have been due to the way I ran the glue.  Both were super tight otherwise.  Surprising was the Paper Studio and the Dollar tree glues.  Both super inexpensive but held really tight.  Scotch Tacky lifted a tiny bit in the corner as well as Beacon 3 in 1/

About 8 days later I went to check the above sheet to see if all was still stuck and to roll up the card stock to see if the glued pieces would crack and then fall off due to the glue drying out.  Seems like some held up but 2 totally came off.

Well Glossy Accents pulled right off and so did Beacon 3 in 1.  I didn't like those prices anyway lol.  I was really surprised by the Paper Studio one since I originally thought it wouldn't stick at all.  Its what I usually give the kids when I run out of Elmers.  Speaking of which I was also surprised by Elmers.  That stuff really sticks.  Art Glitter pulled up on 1 corner.  My Favorite?  Its a toss up between Paper Studio, Dollar Tree and Scotch Tacky.  But in a pinch I will be grabbing the kids Elmers School glue.

Til next time..........................................................