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.....................