Graphic 45 Letters to Santa

 Every year for the past 16 years I have been with my grandkids as they write their letters to Santa.  My youngest grandchild will soon be outgrowing this ritual which makes me super sad.  These are moments that we need to treasure as we only get a few chances to enjoy them.  First when we were children then years later when we have our own children and then again when we are lucky enough to get grandchildren.  I absolutely love this collection from G45 Letters to Santa.  Again I was insane and only bought the 8x8 pad and being rushed to get Christmas cards done these are pretty basic.  But with the beauty of the papers they look awesome.

Well at the moment I'm "Speed Carding".  Trying to get as many different ones done from different collections as I can before the actual holidays are here.  So far I think I'm failing.  There are only 3 days left before Christmas and not one single card has been mailed.  Good thing there's 12 days of Christmas! LOL

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

Lets Get Cozy G45

Blue Christmas.  Do you remember the song?  If you grew up with Elvis you do and I sure do remember swooning as he song this song.  As an adult I had found that on many occasions the song could bring tears to my eyes as I would remember friends and family that had either moved away or passed on in life.  But today on my Blog Blue Christmas is going to take a total turn.  Instead I'm talking about the G45 paper collection Let's Get Cozy.  Not exactly Christmasy but definitely Wintery that can be turned into a Christmas card that you can send to all your non religious friends or family.  It has such a wonderful Nordic theme to it and beautiful Winter Blue/Gray colors.  I and overjoyed at this collection. So as not to get too carried away I decided to just make a couple cards Using the cut-a-parts for my main focus.  Now I foolishly bought the 8x8 paper pack.  My reasoning?  I just so happened to have been up at a LSS and they had a few of these gorgeous 8x8 collections.  They also had the 12x12's but boy oh boy I wanted more than one plus I was there for a whole lots of other things and I had to stick to a budget so I thought I was being wise..  Months later I went back and the 2 collections I had bought had been replaced with 2 different collections.  Again being thrifty and the fact that I hadn't used the first 2 collections, I bought the next 2 also in 8x8 pads.  Now months later I have decided to jump into these collections. So today I share with you the Lets Get Cozy Cards.

The 3 I made with the cut-a-parts are 5x7's.  All I added to these were some snowflakes and stickles.  All of the papers are from the collection except for the card bases and the dark blue layer.  The smaller card is a 4.25 x 5.5 and was made with some of the larger pieces of scraps.  I have a few more scraps that I will be turning into tags later.  All together I only used 2 sheet of background paper I think and 1 sheet of the cut-a-parts.

Stay tune for the next collection and eventually an entire assortment of tags from all the collections.

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

Christmas with G45

 It's the most wonderful time of the year. With hustle and bustle, I'm so far behind.  The more I try to catch up the further behind I get.  How is that possible?  So when a LLS offered up a G45 Christmas card class I jumped right on the list.  First because I needed cards and second because I LOVE G45!

These cards were beautiful.  The class used the Letter to Santa collection.  Which made me happy and sad.  Happy because I had a pad of Letters to Santa that I picked up when it was released but sad because I had picked up the 8x8 paper pad size and she used the 12 x 12 sheets.  Specifically, the 12 x 12 sheet of the Cut-A-parts.  So, if I were to make these same cards I'd have to made them in miniature size.  Anyway, we made a total of 6 cards.  Oddly I had found that none of her cards were consistent in size.  At a glance it looks like we made (4) 5 x 7's and (2) 4.25 x 5.5's but that is not what we ended up having.  All cards were off by 1/2" to 1" in some way or another.  Not how I would have run a class. 

But the cards were beauties nevertheless.

Now me being me loved these cards as they are but I will admit that before I mailed them, I did add some stickles to each and every one of them.  I just can't help myself. LOL

Well, I have more cards to get done and out into the mail before it's too late.  Hope you all are more organized than I.

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

Simple Flat Card Kit Gifts

 Oh my goodness I am so excited for what I'm going to hand out to friends this year.  Little card kits!  This won't be a Christmas gift just a little something to say thank you for being my friend. 

I found these adorable Organza bags on Amazon that had little snowflakes embossed on them and BOING!!!!  Light bulb moment!  I decided that I was going to make up a little kit of maybe 6 Christmas cards that my friends and family members could easily put together and handout to their friends as something they made especially for them.  I wanted them to be different than just normal folded cards so I took one of Sue Campfields ideas and did a super easy fun fold that anyone can do. Super Duper easy!

For this card you need very little supplies.

(1) piece solid cardstock 4.25" x 5.5"

(1) piece DSP 5.25" x 8" scored at 4 & 6. 

Some sort of front add on.  See photos to understand. 

Save your double-sided papers and use single sided for this project.  You'll never see the back side.  Now I also used a large and a medium label punch for my original card kit which is the blue card in the photos.  So I also needed a scrap about 3x4 of dark blue and a scrap 2x3 of white.  But as you can see from some other samples the options are limitless.  Use whatever you have on hand.

Now basically all you do to make this card is score the DSP, fold it in half so right sides are facing each other, take the other fold and fold it back so the 2 white sides are touching.  Yes I just stupefied the accordion fold.  LOL.  I just realized how dumb this is reading.  Well at least I'm entertaining right????

Anyway, glue the two 2" sides together.  It just makes it a sturdier flap.  Now glue the 4" side to the solid 4.25 x 5.5 cardstock.  Done, except for add ons that you choose. If you use colored card stock for the 4.25 x 5.5 piece I would either put another piece of white card on the back for personal message or option 2 is to put a slim 1.75 x 5 strip on the inside flap.

This is more like a Post Card greeting card than a standard card since it will not stand independently but it does fit in the normal A2 envelopes.  Another thought is that if you want to have it stand you could make an easel for it.  I do have a small easel die that I got off of Amazon a long time ago similar to THIS . Or I'm sure you could just make your own.  Hope you enjoyed this quickie Christmas card.

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

Halloween Split Card

 Halloween cards are so much fun to make.  I love being able to be playful with cute ghosts and skulls and bats and pumpkins.  I'm going to be so sad when all the grandkids are too grown for the cutesy cards.  Although I am a huge lover of Fall so I will probably have no problem transitioning into Autumn cards.  But for right now I'll still do cute but this one more toward teens.  A little more grown up but not yet total adult.

I made this sample for my ladies group to make 2 weeks ago.  I cut all the pieces so it was basically a slap together card.  I also use all the scrap DSP pieces from previous Halloween cards I just did  in the last few posts.  The base is a standard landscape card 5.5"x 4.25".  Diagonal front piece from upper left to lower right.  Scrap to be used for a different project if you want.  DSP is 5.25" x 4" also cut diagonally.  1 part glued to the bottom front flap the other to the inside right top.  The solid purple is 3"x6" folded in half and glued on inside middle so that when you fold the purple down over the left front flap it is still centered.  Now you embellish.  Mine here is embellished with a lot of extra scraps because I had asked my granddaughter to put hash marks around the edge of the purple and she totally messed it up.  Instead of throwing it out we used scrapes from punching out bats and just covered the mistakes.  So this card is bacially a do whatever card.

So it didn't turn out bad but everyone in my group just got basic pieces.  I did supply them with the ek bat border punch so if they wanted to add some bats and then take the back scraps for more embellies they can.

Here's a little side view of my finished card.

Another super Easy Peasy.........................

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

Halloween Miura Card

 Back in April 2024 I made a post titled Fancy Fold Re-Visited and I decided to use this same fold for a few Halloween cards this year.  I have so many Halloween cards I need to make and I'm the type of person that gets bored with the same style and same papers and same dies so I like to mix things up.  To add to my selection to hand out this year I went back to this design and Oh My how adorable.  My papers are a generic package that I received from Amazon.  They were listed as 12" x 12" double sided Halloween papers.  In actuality they came in more like 12" x 11 3/4" and the design was the same on both sides.  This was fine with me because it didn't make me have an anxiety attack over which side I was going to use lol.

I stuck with the black white and orange sheets with this set of cards.  I think there were 3 different designs in this color combo so I did use 2 of the designs.  I loved the way they turned out. I think I used only this paper pack for all my Halloween cards this year.  

Hope you like this set.  Next one to come is sample I did for my ladies club.

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

MINI SLIMLINE FANCY FOLD

 Quick easy and a MINI!!!  What could be better? I wanted to have another fancy fold option in mini form and there really aren't very many options out there for the mini slimline cards.  I always like the look of the stepper cards and thought they shouldn't be too hard to re-size.  Boy I was right.  Super easy once I figured out you can't just grab a piece of 6x6 piece of paper.  Duh what was I thinking?  That sure did make it super mini lol.  Anyway for those who make steppers, you know the process of assembly so all I'm really going to do here is give you the basics.  Like the base size and the cutting area.  Since it's a mini scraps of DSP can be used for the layers which is a double plus of this card.

Here's the template:

Your base card stock is 6" x 7".  Just follow scoring above and cutting line.  Then here are the 3 cards I made using this size.  They fit perfectly in those Dollar Tree envelopes.

Off to get more Halloween cards done before Halloween so see you next time.

Faux Stepper Card

 Hello!  It's time to jump into Christmas cards. We are jumping Easy Peasy so that you can whip out quite a few of these in mass production quickly.  I'm doing a Faux Stepper card today.  This one fits perfectly in your general envelopes because it measures  4.25" x 5.5" when folded.  Your personal message goes on the back.  If you are using colored card stock for the base of the card just make a small label piece to place on the back to write on.

To make this card you need the following:

(1)  solid cardstock  5.5" x 7" scored with 7" top of scoreboard at:   1 3/4,  3 1/2 & 5 1/4

(1)  solid cardstock  3 1/4" x 8 1/2" scored at 4 1/4

(2)  DSP  1 3/4" x 5 1/4"

(2)  DSP  1 3/4" x 1 3/4"

(1)  White cardstock for a label on back if it is needed.

(1) 3"x4" Christmas cut apart from 12 x 12 sheet for front

Score the 5.5 x 7 solid card stock and then add the 1 3/4 squares dsp to each end of first scored section.  Skip next section then in third section add one strip of 1 3/4 x 5 1/4 dsp. Accordion fold the piece and set aside.  Next fold 3.25 x 8.5 piece of solid card stock and adhere Cut- Apart to one side.  Glue this to the accordion fold piece centered as shown to the front with the 2 small squares on either side.  Glue the back to the last accordion fold back to complete card.

Basically, this is it.  Now time to embellish.  With the extra strip of dsp 1 3/4 x 5 1/4 glue this to the bottom back of the card.  Above that will be where you will put your message.  If using colored cardstock you will want to add a piece of white cardstock back here to write on.  Then on the front add embellies where you think they are needed.  Maybe some bling or flowers or even a holiday wish if one is not already on your cut-a-part.  As you can see I kept mine super simple with just 1 embellie.  I will sign my card on the back.

Thats it for now so until tomorrow.  Yep tomorrow!  I have catching up to do lol.

All Flowers can be Perfect

 Hello!  My apologies for this extremely late post.  Seems like this one got lost in my list.  I guess I wrote it, saved it and then skimmed over it to right the next one and then completely forgot about it and it just kept sliding further and further down the list.  Today as I was surfing through some of my old posts, I noticed this draft.  I could not believe how far down it had slipped.  So I thought what the heck, I'll share it anyway with you today.  It's a few months old but I hope you still enjoy it.

Alot of times we are told nothing is perfect.  Well that is not quite true when it comes to flowers.  A flowers has so many parts that there is always something perfect about it.  It could have a perfectly straight stem or the perfect curve to the stem.  The pedals may be a perfect shape or each one shaded just right.  Even when a few pedals are missing on a flower if you turn it just right it can still look perfect.  And so can be paper flowers made by an over anxious 7 year old! LOL

Over the weekend my granddaughter was dropped off while the parents went to have taxes done.  Of course she wanted to do a craft and with her drop off being at the spur of the moment I was not prepared.  So the quickest thing to do was suggest we needed some flowers for some tags I need to make later.  Well she was more than eager to help out.  She got out a couple punches and grabbed just a couple pieces of cardstock and punched away. Then it was time to assemble.  She did not want to take time for shaping so it was gather a couple and just glue them together to be fluffed later.  I thought she would like to use some foam dots too but after doing 1 she changed her mind and went back to the glue.  What is it with kids and their love of glue?

She made a few which we put aside for later use.  She was returning in a few days and I figured we would make a few gift tags then.  Here are her flowers.

Not too bad considering that she only had 2 hours here and she gathered all the punches and paper and punched the flowers first. They are a bit wonky. They were definitely flat as a pancake until I pulled up the pedals some.  She forgot the leaves but got to those later.  So at first glance, no not perfect but perfectly loved. Then I took a couple and made a few embellies for her to see how we can add them to a tag when we get to that project.

She had not seen the embellies until she returned on a different day. When she did return she was eager to sit down with the tags, flowers and embellie ideas and go to work making a few more embellies and then on to the tags.  She decided to package these up and give to her mom as a surprise gift.  What a sweetie.  She kept asking me to make flowers with her but she is very competitive.  If I made one better than hers she gets all sad and pouty claiming she can't do anything right and then gives up.  So to not have that happen I helped by cutting the sentiments and adding fishtails to some or cutting scraps into smaller squares to add to the embellishment.  Just so she saw me working on her project made her happy.

See her flowers turned out "Perfect".  Perfect because she made them.

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

Crafting at the cabin TAG TIME

So Hello!  Another beautiful day at the cabin and another day of paper fun.  Remember earlier I did a post about those 12 x 12 sheets that are in pads of Designer Papers that we never really know what to do with?  They are the full sheet scene type sheet that are usually used for scrapbooks but we as card makers or in my case tag maker rarely have any use for those pages and usually end up just sticking them in a corner somewhere.  In that post I did the more country style Christmas tags in a hunter green, browns and brownish reds.  This time I'm going for other sheets that have even larger prints on them.  I'm talking sheets like these.

Well I learned something while trying to work with smaller paper pads for the kids' kits over the 4th of July and that was that I really do prefer to use these bigger 12x12 sheets that I would normally ignore for the tag backgrounds than use the smaller all over prints.  Why???  Because when you cut these sheets into the desired number of layers you need, each tag looks totally different.  In comparison, if you had cut out the layers for your tags from a typical all over print all tags would look identical.  So I took those 3 sheets, cut them into 6x6's for easy traveling and decided they were the next cabin project. You can already tell that the tags are all going to look different just by cutting these sheets into 6x6's.  

Along with brand new embellies to adorn these tags.  By brand new I mean brand new homemade lol.  I plan on using some embellies that I have pre-made at home from punches my granddaughter Claire has done for me.  She is such a great helper.  She is just turning 7 and absolutely loves anything crafty and when she saw all my punches laying around the dining room....well she just could not resist.  So I handed her a bunch of coordinating colors for the tags and set her up to punch away.  Here's what she gave me in one evening!  Yay for my Claire Bear!  So this collection of tags are all going to be done in BLUE.  I know.  You're thinking blue is not very traditional but we don't always have to have red and green for Christmas.  I think blue is a perfect winter color so those are the colors I gave Claire.    

Well we started out with Blues and silvers until she found the paper that had gold in it and then she wanted "Golden" stuff. LOL  So though it wasn't in my plan I let her punch some gold shimmer paper.  I'm sure I can squeeze it in somewhere.

So here we go!  I used 110# white card stock for the tag bases and cut various size tags.  I got quite a few 6X6 pieces out of those 3 sheets of 12x12 designer paper but I didn't want to go too crazy with the number of tags.  Plus I wanted to be able to use some more of those sheets to help establish the embellies.  Claire, being only 7, wasted quite a bit of useable paper while punching so I did end up turning her scraps into usable scraps and set them all on the side for a different project.  You already saw those scraps used on the small winter set I made for another niece -in-law.

So most of the embellies that I had made for my niece-in-laws tags were Blue/White & Silver so as I started putting together this set things looked too familiar to me.  I am not a creature of habit.  I do not like repeats and I like things to be a tad different so after laying all the embellies on top of the bases I had decided to wait until I got home to make a few that had a little pink an gold in them to add to the blues and silvers.  Feeling much better after making a few more embellies, these tags went together lickity split!  Mainly due to the fact that everything was all ready to go so all I had to do was lay out all the tag bases that I had already adhered the first layer of DSP on and start applying the embellies.  I think I like this system.  I might go get some containers and have them filled with embellies that  I pre make and then all I have to do is cart the containers and tag bases up to the cabin with me.  It's a thought.......though I don't usually follow through.  I tend to take the "Long road home" LOL    

So as you can see after I got home I got a bit crazy.  Basically because we ended up staying home longer than  I expected so I had way more time on my hands.  I was able to add some pink to my Blue tags and then as you can see add way more tags.  But thats ok I'm sure going to need them come Christmas.

Well that's it for now.  Til later........................

 

CRAFTING AT THE CABIN 2024

 Hello.  Got a late start posting this summer.  Ok lets be real, I got a late start crafting this summer up at the cabin.  We did not arrive as early as usual due to the many plays we attended that the grandkids were preforming in at the end of the school year.  By the time I got up here it was time to prep for the 4th of July festivities we host every year.  Seemed one thing just led to another.

So today is kind of a craft dump.  First lets start with these cute little wooden owls.  I did these with the kids before the 4th so I could hang mine in our little woodland garden area up north.  Well mine still isn't hung.  Hubby is a bit slow when we get up here.  Seems he'd rather strum his guitar by the lake.  LOL  Guess I'll give him a pass after all he did cut the wood for these owls for me.

We used tree twigs at the bottom and then ties some jute on it to resemble the feet.  the branch was attached with wire and put through tiny holes we drilled through the owl.

Some jute was stapled on the back to hang them with.  So cute.

Second project I worked on were card kits for my grandnieces.  My nephew brings his family up here to use the cabin every summer for a week.  The perks of being my favorite.  So to make sure the have something to do in the evenings or on a rainy day I try to have some sort of paper craft ready for them.  Last year it was tags and this year it's a small set of cards.  I made them 2 samples and bagged everything they would need.  I made all the major embellies and even made the envelopes since the cards are made of my scraps and measured 4 x 4.5 so they needed custom envelopes.

Each packet had 4 bases and 4 double sided DSP's for them to begin with.  They can get inspiration from the samples which I kept super simple since 2 of the kids are ages 6 and 9.  I didn't want them to be too complicated.

Well that's it for now.  I have alot more embellies to gather up and some more cark kits to make for other people.  Plus another HAPPY MAIL idea.  So stay tune.  I'll be crafting at the cabin at least til November.

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

Quick Slap Together

 While out with a close friend one weekend at a local scrapbook store she came upon a super basic card kit.  It was definitely a no frills set of 6 cards. 4 of them 4.25 x 5.5 and 2 of the 4 x 9 slimline cards.  My friend brought up a good point about this type of kit though I did convince her not to buy it .  Her point being that there are many times that at the sur of the moment you need a card and many of us do not have one on hand.  So many people then run to the local drug store (do they still call them that?) and pick one up for way too much money and we always feel like it's just not a "good enough" card.  What would be better would be a handmade one.  Having a quick kit readily available to just "SLAP" together but still look wonderful would be a great idea.  So this local store had a great idea!  Just not great enough for me to let my friend purchase it hahahaha.  I of course convinced her that I could make her a kit just as nice alot cheaper and in fact we could make many kits to have on hand in themes by just picking out a few sheets of Designer Paper while we were in the shop.  So that is exactly what we did and set up a date to make a bunch of kits.  In the mean time I stuck to my promise to make her a starter kit.  

I'm calling these SLAP KITS.  Mainly because that is what you do.  You just SLAP them together and your done.  If you want to add more embellishments you can but if you are on a mission and need one right now these are perfect because they literally take less then 2 minutes to make if made as is.  Here is what I put together in a kit to give to my friend.

Now I did take things 1 step further than the store kit.  The store kit was a total of 6 cards mine has 8 because I had to include at least 1 simple fancy fold that is so easy it's ridiculous!  It's also a mini slimline so I felt it had a place in the quick to make card kits.  Below is how they look at the very basic.  Also a side note the store kit did not come with sentiments.  That to me had plus's and minus's in my opinion.  The plus is that you can decide and make your own making the card truly personal but the minus is that you would need to find matching card stock and take the time to find a die and do the cutting, gluing etc.  Though not really time consuming to make your own sentiment it sure is easier to just "SLAP" on a ready made generic one right? 

Now I will admit these were the hardest cards I have ever made.  Why you ask?  Because I am a futzer. Is that a word?  Probably not.  I fiddle.  I can't leave well enough alone.  I add a little, walk away then come back and add a bit more.  I can't help it.  I love do dads.  So making a card with nearly nothing on it is super hard.  Every time I walk by I (to myself) sing "do do do do ..do do..do do. Don't touch this"  I seem to remember back in the 80's or maybe it was the 90's my son listening to some rapper singing something with those lyrics in it. LOL These were a little bit easier to leave alone because of the paper I used.  Isn't it pretty?  Those butterflies are part of the paper not something I added.  So think about what paper you choose when making your "SLAP" kit.  It can make a big difference.

As I said I will be making more of these "SLAP" kits so that I have a kit for kids and one that's more masculine.  My kits will definitely have more embellishments but not a lot so that I won't be overwhelmed when I'm in need of a quick card.

Pssssst......don't tell my friend but I made a few embellies from the scraps.  I just had a few strips and pieces ready to just toss because lets be honest I can't keep everything even if I usually do.  But this time I was going to toss because I needed to pack up to leave on a trip but as usual I just can't do it so..............here we go.  I pulled out of the paper toss out bag, piece a few embellies, feel better.  HAHAHA.

Until next time.....................

Envelope Pocket Happy Mail

 I LOVE HAPPY MAIL!  Shhhhh.....don't tell anyone, not that I'm begging but I wish I got more!  LOL  I love going out to the mail box and finding a mystery envelope from someone unexpected.  Sometimes it's a pretty card and boy there are talented people out there and sometimes I feel undeserving of someone's kindness but it's always fun!  So it is not surprising that I am always looking for cute little ways to make my Happy mail a little bit unique.  Since I love fancy folds my fall back is usually a fancy fold card and then all the makings and instructions for the receiver to make one themselves.  

I came across this video on YouTube for pocket tags using envelopes.  She filled the pockets with scraps of book pages just torn and folded in half.  I think it was just an embellishment to look at not something functional or useable.  I decided to make mine a useable/useful, pocket/ephemera, happy mail/embellie.  They are fun, can be mass produced and are relatively flat for mailing.  That is if you don't go crazy lol.  I do have that "Crazy" trait.

So what do you need?  Oh???  You want to see what I'm talking about?  Geeze, I thought we'd just skip the formalities! hahaha.  Ok here you go.  This is what we are going for.  This is the sneak peak.

This little beauty measures about  3  1/4" x  3  5/8" without the tag part sticking up.  It all depends on how you tear and how much of an edge you have exposed on the side and how much sticks out of the pocket.  You'll want to remember that it cannot be bigger than the size of the envelope you are going to slide it into to mail.  So take that into account when making these.  The main Envelope will have 2 pockets.  1 pocket will have another envelope in it.  Remember those Teabag envelopes I made in my post Ephemera Embellishment Fun?  Well those are what I used in the first pocket and in the second pocket I made vellum sleeves.  So now for supplies:

1   sealed standard white envelope 6  5/8" x 3  5/8" I used Dollar Tree envelopes. 

Scrap DSP

Rose Printable Journal card (I used a freebie from internet)

Distress ink in brown/grey/blue or rose for distressing envelope (your choice)

Misc die cuts etc (for putting into pockets)

sequins, glitter etc to pretty up your pocket fronts if you want.

 First seal top of envelope. After sealing it closed hand rip each end to make jagged edges and then fold in half to allow both jagged edges to show.  With Distress ink of choice, ink all the edges of both sides of the envelope.  Making sure you get those jagged edges real good.

I then took a printable Rose journal card that I printed onto lightweight printer paper. I tore the edges so that the piece would fit on to the front portion of my pocket piece and then inked the edges and glued it to the front.  Before gluing the first pocket flap down I cut a piece of scrap DSP into a tag top shape, inked it and glued it in place and then glued the front pocket flap to the back flap.  Added a homemade grommet to the tag part and basically your envelope pockets are done except for any embellishments you would like to add to the front.

Next I just grabbed one of my little teabag envelopes I made previously and put 2 work die cut out and some tiny words in there and then slipped it in the first pocket.  My next pocket (and this you will need to measure because each one may be different) I needed a strip of 3.5 x 7" piece of vellum scored in 1/2.  I used washi tape on each end to seal 2 of the ends leaving 1 end opened for filling and I used a 5/8" hole punch to put a notch at the open end.  I filled that pouch with 2 small tags,  2 matching tickets, and a small journal card.  I tried to keep everything pretty flat.  Also since I used a printable from the internet, the page I chose had a couple different journal cards on the sheet and different sizes so I printed 2 sheets and used all the extras for making my embellishments.  That way all 4 of mine were tied in together by the color and pattern.  Obviously if you are only going to make one, by all means use scraps if you have them but if you are going to make multiples or gift some it is always nice to have things blend.  My only difference is in the teabag envelopes since these were made at a different time.  They seem to work though.

I see me making alot more of these.

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

Ephemera Embellishment Fun

 Hello!  I think Spring is finally here.  Well maybe lol.  Anyway a friend of mine shared a video of recycled teabag envelopes.  Those little envelopes the tea bags come in when you buys a box of tea.  So often we just throw those out.  There have been many people on the internet that have done tea bag art where they discard the tea leaves and use the little thin sashes to make an embellishment for a junk journal of scrapbook but usually people just threw out the little envelopes that those tea bags came in.  Well my friend found this cute idea and knew it was right up my alley.  Boy I came home and wanted to gathered all I could find and get to work.  Not knowing what I was going to do with them at the time just that I had to make them.  Well Guess what?  There was not ONE SINGLE tea bag in an envelope in my entire house!  I have tons of different brands of teas as I love tea.  I won't go into all the different brands but everyone one knows the main one that has been around forever.  The one in the big yellow box.  Dare I say the name?  I mean I don't want to "Diss" them because they no longer put their tea bags in individual envelopes.  I mean everyone is making changes to their product packaging.  But geeze just when I counted on my box I opened it to find they are now in 4 separate trays of 25 bags wrapped in gold cello type paper.  UGHHHHH.  Yes Lipton I see your point but.  Then I ripped through my other herbal teas and they were all individual pouches but the type you had to rip open not an envelope.  I may have to reach out to friends to check their cupboards.

Time to pivot.  So with nothing to go by I decided that a normal teabag envelope is 2.5" x 2.5   A friend of mine one time gave me a box of linen paper from her office when the office was moving to a different building and all paper products with logos had to be discarded.  Although it was super thin paper (thinner than normal printer paper) she figured it could be used as an insert sheet for sentiments inside of cards so instead of trashing it she brought some home.  I was lucky to get some and decided this was the perfect weight for the teabag envelopes.  I cut a bunch of strips 2.5" by 6" and scored at 2.5" and at 5" .   Since these were already white I didn't need to Gesso so I went right into watercoloring each piece just to give color.  I used a Pearl pan watercolor set.  My first attempt I was way too heavy on the color and I chose too dark of colors for Shabby Chic.  My later ones are much softer in back ground color.  But it's fun just to play and get messy.  I splattered after the paints were dried too.  

Next was to make them look like teabag envelopes.  If you remember those envelopes had little ridges along the sides.  Hmmmm, how to do that only on the sides.  Using the scoreboard did not give me what I wanted but I had a pastry roller in the kitchen and when placed on the edge of my envelope as it sat on the edge of my Cuttlebug platform right after I applied wet glue it seemed to give me what I wanted.  Perfect?  No, but it'll do.

Now to embellish.  You can use whatever you'd like.  Left over stickers.  Some of those Tim Holtz ephemera 's.  Scrap lace. Buttons or bows.  Charms or even pop can tabs.  What ever you have laying around.

Now how to use these.  First the could have a paper clip added to the back and be used as a paperclip inside your journals or books.  Add to the front of a tag making the open side the front and gluing the one side to the tag, you can then insert another smaller tag into it or maybe folded cash. Add inside pockets of mini albums to hold little tag messages or cropped photos.  Fill with little extra sequins, tiny tags, punch outs, or how about mini envelopes in the envelope lol then seal flap and punch a hole in the corner tie a ribbon and add to a package or tag as an extra gift to a crafty friend.  I just add a ticket and thread to the front of mine and inside I slipped in a few extra tiny word die cuts.  Maybe a few grommets will be added later too.

Careful....these are so addicting to make.  I could go on and on and on and on.  I really wish they were the real deal.  Re-cycled teabag envelopes.  They might have turned out to be a bit of a more perfect envelope but I'm happy with these

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

Puzzle Card

 Well Hello there!  Is Spring coming yet?  I think the groundhog lied.   Both the famous Punxsutawney Phil and our Local Woodstock Willie predicted an early Spring.  Well we had some beautiful days and then BAM we got back into the 40's again and yesterday it was into the 80's but today it will be in the 50's then this weekend 1 day in the 80's the next in the 60's.  Good Gravy!  Let's get with the program guys!!!!  The only thing good about the weather is the time I get to spend watching Susan Campfields videos and she has not failed me again.  If you remember last time she brought me the lovely Double Stack Display Card that I turned into a Sympathy card.  Susan has all her PDF's for her fancy folds available on her site at a reasonable price.  You can head over there for all the measurements.  

Today I'd like to share with you the Puzzle card.  This one is a "Let the Paper be the Focus" for the front of the card.  You really don't need to put a sentiment on the front if you don't want to.  What a great card.  So quick to put together and I bet it would be a great card for beginners too.  Although I wanted to add to my Birthday collection I also wanted to add a quick card into the Christmas pile too and this one is going to be a favorite.  This is one that will be great for scraps too and you know I'm all about scraps.  All together you would only need 1 piece of 3.75" x 5" DSP for this card all the rest would be solid cardstock.  So can you imagine how many cards you could get out of a pad of paper or better yet out of mix and match scraps?  Take a look at these beauties!  Now the first 2 had actual patterns/scenes.  One is from Heartfelt Creations and the Other is G45 Let's Get Cozy Collection (this is going to be a great Christmas card).  These 2 you have to be quite careful to make sure you are gluing in the correct order.

The next one was a sheet of Charcoal & blush floral border 12 x 12 DSP in a    pad.  When this piece was cut and glued together it would be wise to note the order but you might be the only one to really notice if it is out of order.

This one was done with an "All Over" pattern.  It would not matter which direction the placement of the puzzle goes since every piece looks the same.  I feel as those with this one though it would benefit from a sentiment on the front of the card.  To me it looks a bit naked with out.  

But as you can see the Puzzle idea can work on this type of pattern too.  Don't you just love this G45 print?  I swear I have been hording this one sheet forever.  LOL This type of print doesn't have to line up like a puzzle so it gives you an idea where you can use any scraps you have laying around for this type of card.   I think they are all very adorable cards that are pretty easy to whip together.  Vamp them up a bit with a little bling.  I think I will with some extra small flowers and they are then super duper cute.  As I said before these when folded are 4.25 x 5.5.

Head on over to Sue's blog to purchase her PDF.  I do not benefit at all promoting her blog.

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

It's for the BIRDS

Birds of a feather want to stay out of the weather and what better way to do it than with the beautiful cedar houses my husband made for me and my lady friends to decorate at my ladies weekend of crafting this past weekend.  We are just a small group of 4 who get together for the weekend and socialize and craft and this time I brought birdhouse for use to put in our yards.  I posted the before houses in my last post and could not wait to get at the paint.  

I will admit when I mentioned that I thought it would be cool to make whimsical houses all 3 of them sighed unenthused.  I really had to rev them up and I was failing.  I swear it felt like there were 3 toddlers in the room throwing mini tantrums because the mommy wanted them to take a nap.  LOL  Most of the complaint was the fact that nobody thought they could paint whimsically.  Then there was disappointment that I did not bring stencils to make it easier (duh...then it's not whimsical  right?).  So after some prodding I finally got them up and at 'em and got them started.  Guess what?  Once they saw I brought a couple embellies they got a little more excited.  Next thing you know they were off and running.   

Now for the reveal.   

I think they turned out great!  I wasn't quite done with mine because I always seem to keep on adding details as time goes by.  I swear if my husband doesn't hang it soon I'll just keep on adding to it.  Maybe I should start another house.  Heeheehee.

The ladies enjoyed this craft so much they asked for my husband to make more in different styles so we can do it again.  Guess we will all have new Gated "Bird Communities" coming to our yards soon.

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

A No Card Day

Hello friends!  I have a spring in my step and the birds have "Spring" on their mind.  They are "Twitterpated" all over my back yard.  What is Twitterpated you say?  Have you not seen Bambi?  I believe a conversation between Thumper and the Wise Old Owl discuss the birds being Twitterpated.  I'll just leave it to your imagination. Or you can google ...Bambi movie twitterpated...and a short YouTube video with that scene pops up.  Cute as can be.   Lets just say I think all that Twitterpating should be done in nice whimsical birdhouses.  So this weekend my lady friends and I are gathering for our annual "Girls Weekend"  We craft, we eat, we eat, we, gab, we eat, we craft, we eat, we gab, we eat, we snack, we craft......lol get my drift?  We eat alot!  But we do craft a bit and this year I thought it would be fun to decorate birdhouses for our yards.  Make them Whimsical. I got my hubby to make them for me though he made 5 and I only needed 4 but that's ok as I'm sure at a later date my granddaughter would love to decorate one. 

I thought I'd share a quick post with the starter houses.  Truth be told I nearly forgot to take a picture before I packed them up and as soon as I get to my friends house it will be too late because my mind will be else where like eating.  Hahahaha.  So for now here's the before.  Stay tune for the after's.  I bet they will be amazing.

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

With Sympathy

Hello.  Well not my favorite card to do but sometimes they have to be done.  I know I  am never in the mood to make a sympathy card when I need one so now is probably a good time to make some.  When they are not needed so they can be put into a folder safely tucked away until needed.

Today I have 2 of them.  One a 5 x 7 and the other a fancy fold but when folded it fits into a regular 4 .25 x 5.50 envelope.  

First up the 5 x 7.  Its a trellis looking front very similar to what I did back in April.  You can see that one  HERE .  The Sunflower I have dimensionaled with 3 layers.  The stamp and die set is from Temu so it is unbranded.  The tear drops are the punch outs from the with sympathy die.  I just saved the tiny pieces and they looked like tear drops so I used them.   In my original post I stated that I followed a Jennifer Mcguire video to make the card   WATCH   The solution to the writing on the inside that I had with my original cards I fixed this time by making the trellis on a 4.75 x 6.75 piece of card stock the same color as the base of the card and then adhering it to the front with foam to the 5 x 7 base.  I think it turned out awesome.

My second card is a fancy fold that I learned from Susan Campfield.  Its called the Double Stack Display Card.  Super super cute.  I am going to make alot of these types of cards.  These are adorable.   Sue has her PDF's for sale at a reasonable price so you can head on over there for directions for this card.  The papers I used were from an old 12 x 12 pad of DCWV I had in my stash.  I love the colors. 

Well I hope you like these.  I will be working on a few more to build up a small collection so I'll be ready if needed.

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

FANCY FOLD RE_VISITED

 So the other day I was searching the craft room for a music note punch that I knew I had but for the life of me couldn't find.  My DIL wanted to borrow it for a project so I was on a mission.  While on my search I came across a card I had made a Million years ago.  Ok maybe not a Million but sure looked like a Million LOL.  It was probably one of the first fancy folds I had done (and not very attractive) .  Boy I've come a LONG way BABY hahahaha.  I definitely had a good laugh.  First, I had no idea what the fold was called. Second, I was not very creative.  I mean where are the layers?  Or shall I say why is the base DSP?  Third, what the heck size card is that?  I must have just "Willy Nilly" said "Yep! this can be a card size!"  Probably never sent it to anyone because I could never find an envelope.

So I decide to go to my favorite browse area (Pinterest) and see what I find.  To see if this card really does exists.  Guess what it does.  Strangely though I do not find it as far back as I am sure this card was made.  Mine is definitely made back in maybe 1998 and the only ones I am finding on Pinterest are on blogs dated only as far back as 2019.  So I'm thinking this card that I had originally made is from one of those card making books that were so popular back in the 90's when we didn't really have the internet to cruise through.

Right now this card is called a Mini Miura or a Tri-fold Miura Ori card.  It is a form of origami.  Not difficult to make.  In fact the base is rather easy.  The layers take some time and it would be helpful if you make templates if you are going to make multiples of this card or want to make more in the future or want to teach it to a class because those will be the most time consuming.  I will share a picture of those measurements at the end of the post.  For my sample though I just grabbed some of the papers I have that I let my granddaughter play around with.  Since I wasn't sure how the card would turn out I didn't want to waste precious papers.  Well ends up I love how it turned out.  This one would make a great kids card. There's an extra piece put on the back so it can stand.  My original one does not stand at all which is a problem for me.  The extra piece on the back can be done a couple different ways.  I chose to angle cut mine but it could be left straight.

Its kind of hard to see the bottom right but if you look at the shadow on the table you can see how there are 2 little points.  The one on the left is from the back piece I attached to the right side of the card allowing it to stand when opened.  If you don't angle cut that piece it will still stand but instead give a straight across look.  I used 65# cardstock for this card and it does seem sturdy enough to stand but if I am to make one with my usual papers I would definitely put more thinking into my papers.  For example if I am only going to use 1 layer (like above) of DSP I would make sure that my base cardstock is at least 80# so that I am sure it will with stand multiple openings and closings.  But if I am going to put a layer on the base and then DSP I may just use 65# for the base.  Otherwise the card may end up rather thick for mailing.  

To write out the directions will make this sound way too complicated.  Trust me.  I tried writing it out in this post and ended up deleting the whole thing.  I was confused just reading it.  So instead here's pictures.  Just zoom up.

Way easier.  The Yellow is your base.  The orange are the solid layer and if you want a DSP on top of that cut a second set 1/8" smaller of each piece out of DSP.  If you are omitting a solid layer then the orange measurements are to be used for your DSP as I did for my card.

A piece I forgot to photograph was the piece for the back to make it stand.  All I used was the templet (Orange piece size) of the right back piece flipped so point is on left corner.  Or do not cut a point at all just glue this piece to the back and it will support the card for standing.

I hope you give this a try.  I'm going to make a few to have on hand.  They're quick and cute for little ones.

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