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