Happy Bee-Day! Repeat a Pattern for cohesive Design!

Hi friends! How do you go about your card making process? Is it a scramble of sifting through everything you have hoping to find the perfect paper, embellishment or die cut only to make a chaotic card and have a complete mess of a craft table when you are done? If so I am going to share a tip that will streamline your process and help you create stylish cards (and you probably have everything you need already!)

I got the brand new Bee-Utiful Day stamp set from Rubber Stamp Tapestry this week. RST is a wonderful company who sponsors a weekly tutorial on my blog and YouTube channel and as a bonus they don’t mind one bit that I encourage you to use what you have:) Love those guys! When you get a new stamp set it should make all of your other supplies more useful (not redundant as so often happens) so keeping that in mind I thought of a design element I could repeat in the card. Hexagons! I could replicate the look of honeycomb by gathering the various hexagon stencils, embossing folders, punches, dies or pattern paper I already had and give them new live with the new stamp set! See where I’m going here? I could repeat the hexagon shape with different tools and add variety with different colors and materials but still have cohesion because of the consistent design element of the hexagon shape. Repetition and variety equal good (and easy!) design!

Need more ideas? Watch today’s video!

This video is sponsored by Rubber Stamp Tapestry! Use coupon code: FRUGALAUGUST17 – 10% off everything in the store. Coupon expires August 31, 2017. Become a Peg Stamp VIP & get an instant coupon for 20% off RST stamps here plus the deepest weekly discounts available! Offer expires August
31, 2017

Supplies from Rubber Stamp Tapestry:

• Bee-Utiful Day Unmounted Stamp Set
• Chamomile Bee Peg Stamp Set
• Field of clover Peg Stamp Set
• Ink Blending Brush
• Sponge blenders (make up wedges)
• Distress Oxide Ink Pads
• Archival Black ink (to stamp the bees and sentiment so the ink won’t bleed)
• DIY Spray mist tutorial
• Spray bottles: small or mini (Good price!)
• Honeycomb embossing folder
• Glue
• Foam Tape

Other Supplies:

• Heavyweight cardstock (white or cream)
• Hexagon stencil
• Pattern paper (purple and yellow)
• Tombow Markers (water based markers)
• Brads
• Vellum (Black & teal)
• Nature Dies (honeycomb)  (butterflies)
• Honeycomb embossing folder (if sold out above)
• Liquid watercolor in pearl (big 8oz bottle for ALL the spray ink you will need to make LOL!)
• Paper towels or rag

I also employed the “make the envelopes first and die cut the scraps trick” that I have been using a lot mainly because I have lots of pattern paper I love to use and I am no longer buying the cheap blank card and envelope sets. I am really loving the look though because a patterned envelope is so much fun and special to receive. What tips do you have to improve your card design or mix old and new supplies? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to share this tutorial with friends who might like it. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

PS here is a link to my DIY Shimmer Spray and Ink Dauber tutorial from a few years ago if you want it:) Have fun with your DIY supplies!

 

 

Easy Coloring Botanical Birthday Card with Frugal Techniques!

Hi friends! Today we will make a slightly over-sized card where we can play with many techniques and dust off some supplies you may not have used in a while:) There are many substitutions you can make while creating this card so I urge you to use what you have! 

 

This card ended up bring 5.5″x7.5″ but you can make any size card you like.  I will share a few fun, fast and frugal techniques in the video and mention where you can substitute products, I will also post a specific supply list below. *Contains affiliate links.

Video!

Tutorial sponsored by Top Flight Stamps  Use coupon code thefrugalcrafter10 to save 10% on your order!

Supplies:

• Stamps: Tall Wild Flowers and Floral Postcard (Crafty Individuals), Happy Birthday (unknown)
• Black ink (Memento)
• Waterbased blending marker
• Distress Oxide Inks
• Watercolor crayons (Caran Dache)
• White cardstock, Black, Kraft
• Bookplate
• Narrow purple ribbon
• 1.5″ mesh ribbon
• Wooden buttons 
• ATG gun
• Scor-Tape 1/8″
• Stencils

Let me restate that you can use what you have for this. I think the most interesting part of cardmaking and stamping it taking an idea and using it as a jumping off point to create something original. No harm will come if you try to make any card with the supplies you currently own and then only purchasing something new if you feel like it adds value and versatility to your supply stash. The fun with craft supplies is in the using, not the “having” I think:) Hmmm, Maybe I have been watching too many minimalist videos on YouTube hahaha:)

So, tell me in the comments below what supply you “made do” with instead of “buying new”, I am always looking for ways to breathe new life into old stuff like the glitter bookplate I had been hoarding for years LOL! I love to hear your insight. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Stamp Giveaway & Fun Shimmer Background!

Hi friends! Today we are going to get out the messy media and make some cards!

Watch the video to see how to make a shimmer background that you can use to enhance several cards! Be sure to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win the stamp I used!

Sponsored by Art Neko  *Save 10% off your next order of any size or get free shipping on orders over $50 (whichever discount is greater you get!) just by mentioning thefrugalcrafter!

I will post a giveaway tomorrow on my blog!

Supplies:

• Pigment powders: Color Burst, Brusho, Magenta Nuance, Magicals, Pearl Ex, Perfect Pearls, or Schminke Aqua bronze *Any can be used in combination with each other!
• Metallic ink: Precious Alloys
• Watercolor paper (you can use the back of a failed painting)
• Watercolor pens, markers, dye inks or watercolors (I used Mermaid Markers)
• Smooth cardstock, Bristol or watercolor paper for stamping
• Pigment ink
• Gold and black embossing powder
• Stamp: Framed flower from Art Neko
• Sheer gold webbed paper
• Adhesive: Foam squares and clear glue, atg
• Skeleton leaves
• Metallic thread
• Gold card base
• Embossing folders

Directions:

1. Spray and flick water onto watercolor paper. Shake on pigment powder. Spread with a brush if desired. Add metallic inks and Let dry.
2. Stamp and emboss framed flower and color with inks or watercolors. Trim.
3. Assemble card as shown embellish with sheep paper, thread, and a skeleton leaf.

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win the beautiful stamp I used from Art Neko! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Mirror Mirror On The…Stamp?

Hi friends! Today I am going to share a fun way to double the usefulness of all of your stamps, especially the tricky layering ones!

If you have been stamping for a while you might remember the solid wood mounted “mirror” stamps that you could buy to reverse the image. To use them you stamp directly on the rubber of the mirror stamp with whatever image you wanted to reverse and then stamp the mirror on your paper and get a reversed image. It was pretty cool. The downside is that you could not see where your stamp was going to stamp on paper. That was not a big deal because you could get it in roughly the right place but if you wanted to reverse something with layers it would be a big headache…until now. Watch the video and see how it’s done!

Sponsored by Tupelo Designs! January is their birthday month and they have some amazing deals for you! For every order placed you get:
a) Free USA shipping on every order with no minimum (they offer this every day)
b) Free desk calendar ( $15 value)
c) Free Ranger mini ink blending tool ($3) value
***For order over $20.17. Along with the above free gifts
d) A free stamp from my favorite things (MFT) ( $15-$18 value)

Check out their amazing selection, some of which was used on today’s project!

Supplies:

• White cardstock ***Tupelo has a 250 sheet ream of #80 Neenah classic crest, Solar white for $31! Best price I have seen!  That’s $9 off!!!
• For the “Mirror” stamp you can use the backside of a clear background stamp (just put it on a stamp mount backwards), a “Gel” printing plate such as Gelli Arts or Gel Press plates or a Stampendous Creative palette, or you can try a piece of acetate.
• Patterned paper (Dear Lizzy “Happy Place” by American Crafts)
• Stamps: Hero Arts Goldfish, available with dies and ink or just the stamps
• Distress ink peacock feathers
• Dye ink (memento) Daffodil, Tangelo, Morocco and Angel pink
• Versamark ink pad
• Spectrum Aqua Markers 
• White gel pen
• Color duster (ink brush sweeper)
• ATG adhesive 
• Clear Glue
• Black pen (I used a micron)
• Other: Brad, clear gems

Watch the video for full instruction on how to mirror your stamps and for other handy tips and tricks! Think of all the possibilities n your stash! Happy crafting!

LSS Design Team Wrap-Up!

Happy Monday folks! I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was busy but this is the last week of school here so soon we will begin the lazy days of summer! The Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff Design Team is anything but lazy tho, take a look at all the pretties they have made this week:

First up is Micki with a sweet treat we could all use right about now using the Sweet Stuff  digital stamp set.

Next is Karin with a beautiful all occasion card using Steampunk Style digital stamps.

Karin also made this card, perfect for this time of year using Birds and Branches Digistamp set.

Here is Jennifer also with a card using Steampunk Style digital stamps.  

Rhonda also used Birds and Branches stamps to make her card this week:

Cassandra also used the Steampunk Style digital stamps on her card this week:

And she made another “jar” with Doodle Flowers stamps too!

I think I am noticing a trend in the DT’s favorite stamp sets ha ha 😀

Here is a closer look at the sets they used from Linday’s stamp Stuff:

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Blog Hop Winners!

Happy Tuesday, after a week of rain and gloom the sun is shining and I have prizes to give away! Woohoo! First of all I want to thank everyone who participated in the blog hop and virtual crop last week, it was so fun getting to know you all:) I have picked wild card winners who left comment on my blog during the hop and they are:

Sandy Christy

April Stevens and

Lisa Kamphuis

Congrats Ladies, you can pick ant stamp set from the Lindsay’s stamp stuff Shop as your prize!

But wait, there are more prizes that are to be won! Did you leave a comment on any of the design teams blogs? Well better go and check to see if you won, here is a handy list of links to their blogs:

Shannon Neparko

Margie Visnick

Lisa Jurecek

Erin Bailey

Tracey Allen

Melissa Craig

Leanne Garner

Tamara Bennett

Cindi Hooks

Micki Harper

Rebekah Doak

Cheryl Gorka

Karin Martin

Jennifer Bliss

Cassandra Cushman

Rhonda Walker

Now, as you know it is “Green Week” or “Earth week” and we all want to do our part to save the planet (not to mention our pocketbook) so here is a set of projects that use only 2 8.5″x11″ sheets of kraft cardstock and 2 sheets of pattern paper (one sheet was used to make (two 4.25″x5.5 envelopes!) I used digital stamps from Lindsay’s stamp stuff that I printed out ages ago and were in my “someday” folder, I colored them with markers and put these together in a flash:

Look at those cheeks, can you stand it! The stamps are from Fancy Flowers set and the paper is from DCWV. I swipe of pastel yellow paint along the edge gives it an instant shabby feel!

The paper is a patchwork style so it has lots of patterns, I cut the blocks of pattern apart and stitched them down, it was fun to make! I colored the daffodil stamps with markers and added them with foam tape. I crocheted the little flower with some cotton thread using a free pattern off the internet and viola, cute, fun and easy!

I made the cards the same way as the scrapbook page. I cut both envelopes from one sheet of 12x12 paper using my envelope bonanza templates that are available along with the featured stamps from Lindsay's stamp Stuff. I colored the stamps with Prisma markers.

I used stamps from Doodle Flowers and Sweet Stuff on these cards. I cut both envelopes from one sheet of pattern paper using the “bb envelope” (that stands for “Baby-Bug” because you can cut the envelope full size on the original 6″x12″ cricut using SCAL software) that is in the envelope bonanza kit. If you do not have a cricut all of the templates are printable too! This file will give you an envelope just big enough for a standard size card that is not embellished very much but since I had some lumpy doo-dads in my cards  made liners from my scrap paper and added then to the envies to make a bit of decoration and give me a bit more room to accommodate the lumps. I punched the flaps with a border punch, pretty, no?

Well I’m off to enjoy this beautiful day with my kids who are on vacation this week, If you won a prize and have not got it yet via email you will receive it tomorrow. For my wild card winners, let me know what set you want and I’ll send it out tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Don’t Forget to Vote!

My husband and I were watching Meet The Press a few weeks ago while we were still undecided and my 6-year-old asked “Why do you vote?” As usual I thought about how to explain this to him so he will understand but before I could my husband said “So we can pick who’s in charge.” Yes it is as simple as that. Go vote so you can pick who will be in charge! Here is a card I made to honor this wonderful tradition:

Stamps: Inkadinkado, Image: vintageimagecraft.com, Cricut, SCAL

I got an email from the creator of a great website any crafter who likes vintage stuff should visit. It’s called Vintage Image Craft and that is where I got the vintage image I used on the card…for free I might add! Click on crafts and you will find lots of beautiful projects all with free vintage images to download. I love the vintage Christmas Blocks project made from milk cartons, that project is where I found the above image. I think I will try to make the blocks on my cricut since I no longer have soy-milk boxes around now that I make my own!

Speaking of my Cricut, how about a couple of freebies:

I created the star card in Sure Cuts a Lot, then I remembered that I could make this with the trial version of DS and the George cart too so here are both versions.

Star card for Cricut Design Studio

Star Card for Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL)

I hope you enjoy these, until next time happy crafting (and voting too)!