A Freebie that is Cute as a button!

Well, my goodness it has been a while since I gave a away a free template! I had the design itch the other night and came up with this:

Library card: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, Rubber stamps, Pink Persimmon (buttons), SU! (words), Technique Tuesday (Stitches), Paper: DCWV, K&Co., Punch: Martha Stewart

I made the bracket edge card in PSP and save it as a .jpg file then opened up my handy-dandy Sure Cuts a Lot 2 clicked the “trace” button and poof! saved it as an svg! I imported in to the original scal just to be sure it would cut there too and, good news, it does!Here is the scalloped bracket edge card:

Scallop Bracket-Edge card, download links below 😉

I used brand new paper from DCWV (it’s from the Be Mine and the Mod Retro stacks) The Library Card is one of my Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff digital stamps (only a dollar folks!) and the cute buttons are brand new from Pink Persimmon! This next card is a bit simpler, I used the regular bracket edge card template:

Regilar Bracket-Edge card, download link below 😉 Makes a great minialbum too!

And this one was the easiest! I simply stamped my image and embossed it with white EP on brown card and trimmed it into a circle, hot glued a flower on a 4 1/2″ card, hot glued my stamped panel then hot glued vintage buttons all around. I also used pink metallic rub ons (remember that shiny paste from back in the day) to give the edges of my card and the embossed circle a bit of shabby bling!

This only took minutes to make!

Here are the download links:

For a printable template click here. Both scallop and strait edge are on this template.

For the regular bracket-edge card svg template that you can cut with you Cricut if you have SCAL software click here.

For the scalloped bracket edge svg template that you can cut with you Cricut if you have SCAL software click here.

I hope you like this freebie! It is very versatile, in fact, I have used this template to make a mini album that I will share with you in a few days 😉 Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!

A garden themed freebie! And a new guest designer!

If you have been reading this blog for any time you realize that every Thursday I hide a free digital stamp on one of the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff DT blogs. When one of my DT girls suggested a garden themed stamp I couldn’t resist, here is the stamp I designed for her in a card using this weeks sketch from 2sketches4you:

Digital Stamp (Garden Tools) Lindsay's sTamp Stuff, Paper: K&Co., Rubber stamps: (thankyou) PSX, (with love) Inkadinkado, Other: Eyelets and yarn

To get the textured surface on the pot I colored it with my Bic Mark-Its then used a very light (brick white) Prismacolor marker and dabbed spots everywhere to get the mottled look of a clay pot. The “thank you” stamp is an old (2002) PSX stamp and the little circle “handmade” stamp is from inkadinkado. It’s fun to mix rubber and digi images, it really stretches your supplies!

I love the paper on this card, it is from a pack of 300 sheets that came in a cute  box at JoAnns on sale for $20, and yes, it’s 12×12! You get 3 each of 100 designs, you could split it up with three people and all increase your paper stash! As for the fiber I got that at my local yarn shop, they have big bins of partial rolls and the lady let me cut off a couple of yards of each kind for free! I bet you can guess when I bought my yarn after that!

alright I know what you are thinking “Where’s my freebie, lady?” Well as always you have to find it! It is on one of my Design Team Members blogs, but before you start hunting I want to introduce you to our guest designer for August Diana Stout, She will be making wonderful projects for you all month long!

Diana Stout (August Guest DT)

Katt

Melissa Bove

Margie

Melissa Craig

Lisa

Tamara

Row

Leanne

Janet

Olena

Kim

Tracey

Here is a link to the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff Shop if you want to check out the other stamps for sale, and since the “Spend $5, get a free stamp” sale was so popular I’m making it an everday sale! For ever 5 bucks you spend (keep in mind my stamps are only $1 a piece) you get to pick a freebie, I’ll ask you want stamp (s) you want for free when I email you the order 😉 Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!

A giftie for my Sistie…er, Sister!

When my sister gave me the Fuseworks microwaveable bead kiln for my birthday I knew I wanted to make some beads for her to thank her:

Stamp: Stampin Up!, Paper: K& Co., Die Cuts: Creative Cuts & More, Punch: Martha Stewart

To display and protect the beads in the mail I used a shaker kit from Creative Cuts and More. To keep the backs of the post style earrings from poking through the envelop when I mailed it I placed some plastic packaging behind the card and mailed it in a padded envelope, they arrived safe and sound 😉 To attach the beads to the metal bail and ear posts I used E6000 glue, it’s rugged so beware! Have good ventilation.

For the earrings I used black glass for the bottom layer, then a bit of silver leafing, then transparent green on top. For the pendant I used black glass with a foil pattern and clear on top. The foil did no damage to my microwave in the kiln!

That’s all for today, thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!

Tray Chic {part duex!}

Here we are in the second phase of the the tray table I am painting for the Maine Discovery Museum’s Charity Auction, to see part one click here. This step is done in well under an hour and will teach you a faux-finishing technique called marbleizing, lets take a look at what the table will look like when this step is finished:

An easy faux-finishing technique!

I wanted the table top to have a chess/checker board on the surface to add decoration as well as usefulness , how nice to be able to play a game of chess or checkers without dragging out a board! Here is what you will need for this step:

Supplies: Contact Paper, Acrylic Paint (M Graham & Co.), Craft knife, sea sponge, foam brush, ruler, pencil, Other: Painter's or masking tape, scissors and a feather or fine brush.

Step 1: Cut 32 1 1/2″ squares out of the contact paper. Mark out a 12″ square in the center of the table top and stick down the contact paper in the design of the grid.

Stick down the contact paper where you want the dark squares.

Step 2. Mask off the boarder with painters tape.

The painters tape will give you a nice crisp border!

Step 3. Set up your palette, I am using a disposable palette (a pad of this waxed paper) squirt out dabs of white, yellow ochre and burnt umber and mix them to make a dark, medium and light shade of brown, do not over-mix!

Mix 3 shades of brown using white, burnt umber and yellow ochre.

Step 4. wet the sea sponge and squeeze out all of the water you can, dab it in the paint colors and sponge over your checker board. Do not rub or paint may seep under the contact paper.

Never put paint on a dry sea sponge or you will ruin it, always wet it and ring it out first!

Just dab on the paint, that's all there is to it!

Step 5. Take a feather or thin paint brush and add in a few veins to the marble with strait burnt umber and white paint.

don't try to be perfect when painting the veins, the sloppier you are the better it will look!

Step 6. Wash out your brushes and sponge with dish soap. Remove the painters tape and contact paper. Do not worry about any rough edges, we will fix those next time 😉

Peel off the tape and contact paper and viola!

Thanks for checking out my progress on this table and thanks to M. Graham & Co. for donating the paint for this project. Til next time happy crafting!

Just For You!

This card started off as a castoff from another project (that you will see later this week) I was making a window card but cut the hole too big so rather than tossing the card I made this:

Stamps: About Art Accents, Paper K&Co, Other: SCAL + Cricut+ DB Dainty Swirl Font

I cut the swirls with my cricut and SCAL software using the font DB Dainty Swirls, note this font is , well, dainty so you need to use a shadow of .50 to 1.00 to get a nice clean cut. The flowers were punched with an EK success punch and inked in turquoise ink. I used my homemade dew drops with a dusting of pearl-ex to top them off.

Here is a close up.

The stamps I used are from About Art Accents,

and I stamped them on ivory cardstock with green chalk ink.

I found the pattern for the crochet butterfly on the Crocheted Sass blog, she has lots of nice patterns there. I used variegated thread and a size o hook to crochet it.

Here is a peek at the inside of the card, there is plenty of space around the focal image to write:

Stamp: About Art Accents, Paper K& Co.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Kid Friendly Crafts!

Do you have bored children wandering around your house asking to watch TV every 5 minutes? Well, this craft will keep them busy for hours and it is pretty too:

Make these beads with rolled strips of paper!

Homemade paper beads! My children spent hours making these over the past few days (ages 4-6) and they are so easy. Just cut tapered strips of scrapbook paper, I used my X-Acto guillotine style paper trimmer to cut 6 sheets at a time, and give then bamboo skewers to roll them around and secure the ends with a dab of white glue. I put a bit of glue in a dish and gave them a tooth pick to dab the glue on the end. You can cut the pointy end on the skewer for safety if you like. It is a great way to use up old scrapbook paper but you can use colorful magazines too! This would be a great classroom craft too because it is so inexpensive AND it keeps the kids occupied. To make a more durable bead you could roll it on a clear inkpad and heat emboss it with clear embossing powder.

Easy paper beads!

Don’t worry if the first few beads look awkward, they will get more uniform with practice, this craft is a great intro to quilling, a craft my 6 year old son now enjoys 😉 (However he sees it as a way to make high power spit balls LOL!)

Thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!