Handmade Valentines for Kids and Teachers!

Howdy folks! I wanted to share a new SVG/Printable set I designed last week called Valentines Galore! There are many templates in this kit to satisfy all of your kid’s classmates, teachers and whoever you want to make a valentine for.

I love the 3-D heart purse, it is so easy because it cuts as one piece out of a standard sheet of cardstock. It is also quick to print and cut if you do not have a die cut machine 😀

I think this library pocket would be cute filled with pencils for a teacher or even as a journaling pocket on a scrapbook page! Also I included a pencil topper so if you don’t want to give out candy you can still give something sweet!

The conversation heart box covers are awesome! These are inspired by an iPod valentine I saw in the magazine Family Fun. I thought how about a calculator and a cell phone too! The really cool thing is you can cut several of these designs out of a few different colors of cardstock and mix & match the buttons and dials. These designs will import in SCAL the exact size of a box of convo-hearts (sweethearts brand) so there is no need to resize anything;) There is no wasted paper and the kids can use white glue to glue the pieces straight to a box of convo-hearts! Easy, inexpensive and the kids can do it themselves. You can le them write their own “texts” in the window and you can still use the to/from spot on the back of the convo heart box.

I also included a plain box in case you wanted to used the covers but fill with your own goodies or even a mini coloring book and crayons!

I hope this gives you some fun ideas to use this valentine’s day! Here is a look at the Valentine’s Galore kit:

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Cute Owl Gift Tags

My girls were invited to an Owl themed birthday party yesterday and I made these tags for the gifts:

 

I love to use solid image stamps (stamped images that you do not need to color) for quick tags. I used the Wise Old Owl, Small Banners and Carnival Alpha (small) from Pink Persimmon. I love how the owls stamp in pieces so I could make the wings open up to hold the banners. The birthday girls’ mom liked the stamped owls so much she asked if she could borrow the owl stamp to make thank you cards! And of course I said “yes!” 😀

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

And Yet Another Way to Make Stamps…

Happy Weekend! I hope you have a bit of time to fit some crafting in 🙂 Yesterday I showed you how you can carve your own custom stamps. Today I am going to show you another way to make stamps and yes, I made ANOTHER cameo:

Isn’t she pretty? I used thin stamp material in my electronic die cutter to make this. I found a pretty dingbat font called DB Cameo Busts for $3 from Lettering Delights and used my SCAL software to alter it a bit for cutting. Basically I removed a few nodes (there was a detail cut into the neck of the cameo that would not cut well from this material) and cut it with my Electronic Die cutter (OK folks, I cut it on a Cricut but you can’t buy SCAL for Cricut anymore and I used the Cricut stamp material but I bought it long before Provocraft bullied SCAL into not selling Cricut compatible software, phew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest LOL!)

There are a few things you need to know about using the stamp material:

1. It is a clear thin (1/16″) film you can cut with an electronic die cutter.
2. You need a deep cut blade & holder and a brand new sticky mat or the stamp material will shift and move.
3. Don’t try to cut anything too small or detailed. I had to go in with scissors to clean up this cameo stamp.
4. This materail is much thinner than traditional stamps so you have to be careful not to get ink on your stamp block because it will easily smudge on your stamping surface.

Keeping that in mind it is a fun product to work with. I bought a pack of 2 6″x6″ sheets for $6 last year from JoAnn Fabric. It was regularly $10 but JoAnn let me use a 40% off coupon (at that time anyway-I’m not sure about now because I have not bought a cricut product since they sued SCAL.) I think I might try and use the other sheet of the stamping material as a faux gelatin printing plate, I’ll let you know how it works;)

Here is another fun tip, I needed a frame to stamp around my cameo and I remembered this Stampin Up sentiment stamp I got years ago, I used a marker to ink only the frame up and stamped it, then stamped my cameo on top. I think I am going to cut that stamp apart now that I see how pretty the frame is on its own!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Video Tutorial: Stamp Carving!

I love my store-bought stamps AND my digital stamps but sometimes I want to create my own image but still be able to get inky! I have drooled over the Stampmaker but Alas, it is not in my budget! So, what is a starving artist to do? Carve her own or course! It’s easy too, I carved the cameo I used on this card and paired it with a frame (Glitz) that I already had on hand:

Stamp carving is easy, quick and inexpensive. You can carve a simple stamp with an x-acto knife and an eraser or you can purchase an inexpensive stamp carving tool and some e-z cut rubber for more detailed designs. See how simple it is in this video:

Maybe someday I will have a Stampmaker but until then I have my stamp carving supplies! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Catching up on some scrapping…

So it has been a couple of months since I scrapbooked. Don’t sound so shocked 😉  I made scrapbook calendars for my family but as for pages in my books It had been 2 months since I made a page. Well, I got 6 pages done this weekend and I am about 3 pages away from completing my 2011 book, YAY! Here are a couple of pages of my son’s Harry Potter Birthday Party:

 

I use Picture Collage Maker Pro software to print my photos in a collage and then i just cut them out as a whole. It is soooo easy to fit a ton of pics on a page that way!

If you want any details on how I did the food and decorations you can see all of that in this post.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Kid’s Craft: Finger Puppets!

My daughter designed this project all by herself! She even asked her teacher if she could teach it to the class with mom’s help. Both of my girls had so much fun making these puppets that they did not even want to stop when I called them for dinner! The beauty of this project is the simplicity, you can make it with what you already have but the variations are endless:

 

Here is how to make the puppets. You can use construction paper, cardstock, paper grocery bags or even magazines. I let the kids have carte blanche with my scrap paper bucket 🙂

 

This is a great rainy day or classroom craft. You can create the characters from your favorite book or movie in these cute puppets too! I am so proud of my girl for dreaming up this fun craft!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Tutorial: 12×12 Scrapbook Paper Folders!

Happy Friday! I wanted to share a little tutorial with you today but first let me remind you that everything at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff is 40% off now through Sunday!

12″x12″ Scrapbook Paper Storage Folders {How-To}

I needed a way to transport some 12″x12″ paper to a craft class without damaging it. I had purchased a package of 12″x12″ paper folders in the past but they were expensive and they were all currently in use so I tried to think of something I could cheaply make. “Ah-Ha!” I thought, I will make some file folders out of poster board! White poster board was on sale 5/$1 last week at ACmoore and I bought 5 sheets (I wish I bought more LOL!) Here’s how to make the folders:

1. Cut the 22″x28″ posterboard in half so you have two 14″x22″ pieces. I simply fold it in half then roughly cut along that line with scissors.
2. Score the poster board at 12″ and 12.25″ and fold. The second score line is optional, it will give you a gusset for a thicker stack of paper. While it is folded you can use a heavy-duty paper cutter to trim 1″ off the rough edge.
3. Round the corners and insert your papers. Since the front of the file folder is shorter you can see your papers!

If you want you can trim your folders on the edges so it is 12″ wide but I like having the extra protection on the edges for my paper. If you are feeling fancy you can stamp or collage on your folders to make them very chic! I love that these look good, do the job and only cost 10 cents each to make if you get the poster board on sale!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

A Kid’s Craft, a Freebie & a 40% Off Sale!

I was going to aim this craft to all of the teachers and moms out there but after I made it I have to say it was a ton of fun and I urge everyone to try it! I am teaching a craft program at the local library next week and I thought it would be fun to do Chinese New Year. I planned on the kids decorating “lucky money” envelopes, coloring dragon masks {for the preschoolers} and for the big kids we could make dragon puppets:

Wow, it was so fun to make the samples. The lucky money envelopes are freebies. I used the SVG in the kit to cut my envelopes from red paper but there is a printable version too if you do not have a die-cut machine. Also There is a full color printable with a Chinese dragon (2012 is the year of the dragon) on the back if you just want to print them and not have to decorate. BTW {shameless plug} Everything at Lindsay’s stamp Stuff is 40% off now through Sunday so after you snag that freebie be sure to have a look around at all of the new products I have added this month!

When I went looking for inspiration on making a dragon puppet I did an internet search and came across a cute template on the Martha Stewart website, well, there was no need to reinvent the wheel there!

Did you know you can cut PDF files with SCAL?

Oh yeah! I saved the PDF dragon template and imported into scal2 (click file-import-then pick the pdf file you want) and with a little tweaking (there is a rogue node on the dragon’s head, just drag it over to the node next to it and click union to make it one shape) I had a great file to cut! Note: I enlarged it and moved it around on my mat to make best use of space. I’d love to share the SVG but I don’t know if that would be cool with Martha.  😀 You can check out her template and instructions here.

I love how the body is jointed so it wiggles and moves when you hold the sticks. I made a few changes in my puppet: I added crepe paper party streamers, they fly wonderfully when you are using the puppet and the pleated crepe paper adds more bulk without weight. I used skinny sticks because I had no chopsticks and I added glitter, sequins would be nice too I think;)

Here is a look at the  Lucky Money Envelopes Freebie:

In the preview you see the color version of the money envelope, for my project with the kids I am cutting them from red paper and they can stamp Chinese characters with gold pigment ink. The stamps I used are from About Art Accents. I heat embossed mine, I think I will let the kids try that too as long as I have an adult to man the heat gun 🙂

And be sure to snag lots of goodies at Lindsay’s stamp Stuff for 40% off! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Why Glitter? Why not! {and storage too!}

I recently did an overhaul in my craft space and built a nice big scrapbook island with lots of cubbies, storage and display areas. You will be able to see my craft room redo in the June 2012 issue of Scrap & Stamp Arts! So after my article was written and the photos shot and sent off to the editor I came to the realization that some of my prettiest supplies were hidden away in a drawer! And you all know what happens if we can’t SEE a product…we don’t USE it! Even though my glitter drawer was labeled it was not being opened unless I was stashing a few more tubes of the sparkly stuff. Well, I can’t have that now can I? I grabbed a large lazy-susan that I rescued from a yard sale and got to work making my spinning glitter organizer, ohhh, so pretty!

It spins so well and since all of the storage is shallow I can easily see what I have, retrieve it for a project and just toss it back when I am done. For the really small bottles, baggies and tubes I grouped them together in small mason jars.

 I like the mix-matched look but if you must have everything uniform you could store your glitters in spice rack jars or salt shakers or test tubes…stop me before I reorganize my glitter again! 😀

 

Now, I am not kidding when I say I have not glittered anything in over a year! (Oh the shame!) so, to put my new storage to the test I made this quick card:

 

Can you believe I had a stamp that said “shine & glow”? Yep, you probably can;)

Gosh, it’s great to be organized {at least in the craft room} and keeping it visible means you will remember to use it. Look around your house and see what you can repurpose for crafty-storage…maybe you can liberate a lazy-susan from your kitchen cupboard! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!