Thank God I married a man who can cook!

Happy Christmas eve folks! I am just popping in with a quick post as I need to ready the house for Christmas Eve guests. My honey is making lasagna, deviled eggs and he already made veggie and chicken soup, I am making my famous rolls and veggie chili and each of my kids want to bake something. I’d say I need to supervise them in the kitchen today but really it is the other way around LOL! I’m no hero, or martyr, when it comes to holiday entertaining  if someone offers to bring something I accept, I use frozen pies (I found 2 vegan Sara Lee pies at the supermarket yesterday-Score!) because, let’s face it, Mrs. Smith and Sara Lee know a heck of a lot more about baking than I do!

As I worked on holiday projects this year I would die-cut the scraps into tags, and I am glad I did because when it came time to wrap I couldn’t find the peel and stick variety I bought last year. I like these better any way…that does not mean I am above using office printer labels for gifts in a pinch…see…nobody’s perfect  So, folks, my advise for today is not to get hung upon the details. Christmas will come whether or not your dishes and gift tags match, if extra people come over and they have to drink from jelly jars, so what, (if you-know-who can sleep in a stable your guest will survive drinking from a Mason jar) welcome them, make room, and oh yeah, one more piece of advise; marry a man who can cook! Merry Christmas and til next time happy crafting!

Tips for thin detailed dies!

Howdy folks! Yesterday I told you about the Mega-Mount being my biggest stamp show splurge. My other big splurge was a doily die from Cheery Lynn. I had a coupon for 20% off so after tax I paid $19. I was not cheap by any means but I have been wanting an intricate doily die for years and I had dozens to pick from at the show and this was my favorite:

 

I am very choosy when it comes to dies. I like to buy thick dies that I will use hundreds of time that will cut felt, metal, burlap and matboard. I only have a couple thin dies because they only cut paper/cardstock and thin materials and I have an electronic die cutter and SCAL software to cut whatever I want from thin materials. The one caveat of the electronic die cutter (I have a Cricut unfortunately) is that is cannot cut fine details and it snags my softer papers.

 

Thin intricate dies take a bit more patience to use though. I knew this before I bought the die so I was prepared to spend the time to learn how to get a good cut. Here are my tips:

• Place a piece of waxed paper between the cardstock you are cutting and the die.
• Try cutting the die with the normal plates you would use for a thin die.
• You will probably need to shim it. I used a sheet of rubber gasket and a couple of sheets of paper, you can keep checking to see if it is cutting, cut it with the cutting blades facing up so you can see if you are cutting the paper or not.
• Each time you send it through the machine crank it through and then back so it passes through twice.
• If you see at one section is not cutting place a small piece of cardstock under the cutting pad in that area to apply more pressure.
• Flip the die over and run it through the machine again to ensure a good cut.
• Some people swear by using a metal shim in their machine. If you have some metal flashing or coilstock left over from a project you can use that (for free!)
• To store your dies you can put magnet sheets in a picture album and the dies will stay put (see photo)

 

Stamping Tip! I fell in love with the marker technique I learned at the stamp show from Local King Rubber Stamps and I wanted to try it on one of my cheap clear stamps but the ink kept beading up.  So, I pressed the stamp in a light blue ink pad and then colored over it with my watercolor markers and it worked like a charm!

Oh, one last tip! Look at your design in a new way! I took the smaller center doily and cut it in quarters to make the corner element on my card. Think outside of the box…er, die! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

My First Creatopia Page &WOYWW!

Happy Wednesday folks! I spent a lovely rainy day yesterday playing with my new Xyron Creatopia. Here is the page I made:

 

Stamp by About Art Accents/Art Neko.

I used the large embossing rollers to emboss an entire sheet of kraft cardstock then dry-brushed pastel yellow paint over it. I used the rotary cutters to cut scalloped strips and the smaller embossers to emboss the dots on the strips. I used the die cutter to die-cut paper, cardstock and burlap. I tried out everything except the adhesive because that would require me to look at the manual since I have not used so much as a sticker maker before LOL!

 

Tip: I saved the burlap bag that my basmati rice came in and cut a strip to make the ruffle under the main photo. I painted a piece if burlap to keep it from fraying before I die cut it in a heart shape. Place the burlap between a piece of wax paper to keep paint from transferring to the die and to keep fibers from unpainted pieces from going everywhere.

 Since it is WOYWW I snapped a photo of my desk during my creatopia experiment:

 

I have since cleaned it up and found a permanent spot in my craft room for the machine (it is about the same size as my Cricut expression!) Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Thanksgiving Sale! 50% OFF!

Who needs black Friday when you can shop at home in your jammies? I myself plan to stay in my PJs til noontime today and work on some crafts with my kids Hubby always has to work til 2pm on Thanksgiving so the kids and I watch the Macy’s parade and make stuff, it has kinda become a tradition! If you are looking for some fun crafts to make (SVGs, templates, digistamps, printables, etc) check out the 50% off sale today at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff. Here is a fun SVG set I made for traditional 3-D snowflakes. I learned how to make the snowflakes traditionally but folding and cutting was tedious and time-consuming (it took me over 30 minutes to make 1) so I designed an SVG cutting file and now I can make these in 10 minutes, they are easy enough to make once you get the hang of it that my kids can make them and they are so pretty hung from fishing line like I did here:

I think I will add some glitter to them too. You can find the 3-D snowflake SVG kit here and it is 50% off today!

 

Don’t miss the 50% off sale at Lindsay’s stamp stuff AND MyGrafico today only. Happy Thanksgiving and til next time happy crafting!

New ideas for old die cuts!

Are you kind of bored with the same old dies sitting on your shelf? Maybe you have some punches or shape cutting templates (Coluzzle anyone?) that need some love. Well, after today I hope you will look at them in a whole new way! On this layout (Yup, those are THIS years Halloween photos, I’m patting myself on the back) I used a tag die I’ve had for 5 years as a banner:

Supply Credits: Paper: DCWV, Echo Park, Cosmo Cricut, Stamps: Happy Halloween, hats: Pink Persimmon, Numbers and Events: Inkiadinkado, Spiders and web: Martha Stewart, Small date stamp: Inque Boutique, Dies: Tag: Ellison, Button: Sizzix, Spider: Cuddlebug

 

The candy corn are made from an inexpensive button die. It’s easy and if you don’t have the die don’t worry, you can hand cut them. Watch this short video:

I don’t have too many physical dies since I have an electronic die cutter and SCAL software to cut whatever I want but I like the thick steel-rule dies because I can cut through materials my Cricut can’t handle like felt, matte board, metal and thin wood. The types of dies I use the most are tags, hearts, flowers, clock hands and book-plates. I also picked up a few thick alphabet sets and I like cutting them from chipboard or adhesive backed fun foam. they look like “thickers” but I never run out of “e”s and “l”s. I have a few thin dies too and I have 6 button dies! I love them, I got a 4 pack at custom crops on clearance for .50, a Ellison one for $3 at my sister’s craft shop and my fave, the ellison embosslits from my stampin’ up lady for $11, it was a splurge but well worth it! Dies are an investment so you wan to be sure you can use them over and over again. Here are close-ups of the pages if you want to see:

Tip: If you have a lot going on during a particular holiday or event why not journal it in timeline fashion like I did here. We had so many parties going on around Halloween that by the time the big night arrived we were a pretty shabby bunch with costumes being held together with twist ties and hot glue but look at all the fun we had! I plan on doing a timeline page in december for all of the holiday activities that we do. Plus it is fast and easy and that is a plus when the holidays roll around!

 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope I inspired you to look beyond what your dies are intended to do and come up with even more ways to use them. Til next time happy crafting!

A Ninja, a Fairy and a Princess…

Those were the Halloween costumes last year. Actually the princess was supposed to be “the Good Witch” form Wizard of OZ but I was only informed of this change of costume a day before Halloween so a princess costume would have to suffice

 

I used stamps from Pink Persimmon on this layout. I colored the Vintage Pumpkins with markers and perched them on a ledge made with the Singing Birds mat stamp and added the word Halloween with the small Carnival alpha. Here is a look at the stamps I used:

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Back to School in Style!

Newsflash: Everything at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff is 40% off til Midnight Sunday!

I know…It’s only August but before you know it the kids will be getting on the school bus for their first day of school. I used the SVG die cuts in the Apple For Teacher kit to make some cute back to school goodies:

I love the gift bags, you can fill them with goodies for teacher or supplies for kids, I think it would be really sweet to make a bag like this for a pre-schooler who want’s to go to school with the “big kids” but is too young so they can play school anytime they like.

It is still summer and I’m making sure my kids stay on track with their reading. That’s why I designed this bookmark with a slot cut into it so my beginning readers can isolate one line as they read, now that they are starting on chapter books it is easy to lose their place and this really helps. Teachers can make these up and laminate them so they will hold up through the school year and still be see-through.

These sweet apple clips can be used as bookmarks too if you like! Also you get a plain paper clip and a plain apple SVG die cut so you have more versatility!

But that’s not all, I know not everyone has a die cut machine so I included full color printables in this kit, just print, cut and glue! As always you also get outline black and white templates too Here is a look at the Apple For Teacher kit:

You might also like Teacher’s Helper SVG set too:

I hope I inspired you to create a little back to school treat this year!

Don’t forget the 40% off sale on at LSS through Midnight Sunday! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Make Your Own: Memory Match!

Remember playing the game “Memory” when you were a kid? My kids love that game (and beat me every time we play…they say the mind is the first thing to go!) so when the parent-teacher group at my kid’s school asked me if I could make some large memory match cards to use at the spring fair I couldn’t resist! I grabbed some bright cheerful cardstock and used die cuts from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff to make these:

The cards are 5″ square and will be laminated and adhered to a large board. Then they are making felt curtains to hang over each card so kids can lift the curtains rather than flipping the card. I can’t wait to see the big game board in action at the Spring Fair on Saturday, I’ll try to remember to snap a pic;)

You could make a special memory match game for any theme using die cuts, clip art and even photos! I embossed some of the shaped to add some fun textures. That would be great for babies and toddlers to play with!

I hope I got you brainstorming! Here are the SVG/clip art sets I used on this project:

This project qualifies for the following challenges:

Crafts and Me, House That Stamps Built, Penny’s Paper-Crafty, Truly Scrumptious, Top Tip Tuesday, Tuesday Throwdown, DDH Challenges, and Kenny K Krafty Girlz

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Summer Lovin’-Had me a Blast…

Wow, I just realized that summer vacation is just 2 months away! Wow, where did the year go!?! Last summer was awesome weather-wise, we went swimming almost every day and I actually (gasp) had a tan! I’m hoping for another warm sunny summer again this year and while I was on this train of thought I came up with the new Summer Fun SVG & Printable template set!

I love the 3-D flowers, I think I might make some out of felt and put them on hair clips

Last weekend I bought bubbles for my kids and I snapped a few pics of them playing outside with them…oh yes, I feel a scrapbook page coming on!

You get this whole set of Printable and SVG crafting Templates including:

• 3-D Paper Beach Pail Favor
• 3-D Hibiscus Flower
• Flip Flop Card and Single left and right flip-flops
• Beach Ball Card and plain Beach Ball die cut
• Beach Pail Card
• Bubble bottle and Bubble wand paper piecing die cut.
• Happy Sunshine with sunglasses layered die cut.

The SVG files have been tested in Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL), Make the Cut (MTC), and Fairycut software and will work with your Cricut TM and other compatible die cutters with the above software.

You get the entire Summer Fun set for $5!

Thanks for Stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Quick and easy banner cards!

I had some scraps left over from Thursday’s High Flying cards project so I made these:

I used my Cricut and SCAL software to cut out the banners and envelopes for this set, I used these sets from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff on this set:

Up, Up & Away SVG set

Up, Up & Away Papers

Envelope Bonanza SVG and Printable envelope templates. The envelopes took seconds to cut and fold, I made the entire set in about 30 minutes!

To add the little letters to my banner I used my Studio G dollar wood mount alphabet sets. I was just at AC Moore the other day and they had tons of them! I have a bunch, now I just need to make myself use them more and these little banners are perfect for that!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!