Quick and Easy Birthday Cards for Kids!

Wow, April must be a popular month because my daughters have 4 friends celebrating birthdays in the first week! When you make birthday cards for children they should be fun, bright and quick to make (kids may not appreciate the hard work that goes into a card when there is a gift to open and cake to eat you know.) These are for a set of twins turning 5 and since I have twin girls myself I decided to play it safe and make identical cards, that way there will be no drama over who’s card is the prettiest or who got pink…it’s true, these are REAL issues, with my girls anyway…and milk DOES taste better in a glittery pink princess cup, you know what I mean?

Double Gate-Fold Cards closed and open. Paper: Die Cuts With a View (the glitter stack), Stamps: Inkadinkado, Crafty Secrets

The coolest thing is that these took only minutes to make! I cut a 12″x12″ DCWV glitter cardstock sheet in half then I used my Scor-Pal to make the double gate-fold card but if you don’t have one just fold your card at 2″, 4″, 8″ and 10″. Then I stamped some cupcakes and colored them with markers, punched them out and adhered them to the card (this by the way justifies the new clear stamp impulse buy I made the other day, I’ve used this Inkadinkado set 3x already, I think it is called Sweet Stuff.) I stamped the frame (also by Inka) ans then stamped “Happy Birthday” inside, that stamp is from the Crafty Secrets “girlfriends” set.  I cut the label on the inside of the card with my Cricut (Accent Essentials cart), inked the edges and drew on the stitches and adhered it with double stick tape. Try this next time you need a quick card!

It’s fun to make cards for kids because you can use all the fun unsophisticated stuff you wouldn’t use on a grown up card and colors, the brighter the better! Don’t forget to stamp on the envelope too, especially if you are mailing it, kids get a real kick out of getting mail! I hope I’ve inspired you to make something fun for a kid or just a kid at heart! Thanks for stopping by and until nex time happy crafting!

Share your gift…and a gift for you!

“What is she talking about now?” you are probably thinking, I’m talking about the gift of crafting. Every year I donate a painting, gift card set or some other artsy-fartsy thing to be auctioned off to benefit a local woman’s shelter. The last few years I have made gift bags full of assorted greeting cards. I make extra throughout the year and gather them up when auction time rolls around. While someone may not need a painting everyone need greeting cards so the next time you are making a card make a few to donate, you can send them to out troops overseas or package them up for a charity auction. Here is this years:

Stamps: The Rubber Cafe, Paper DCWV, Strathmore, Die Cuts: Cricut, Nestabilities

If you don’t even have time to use the supplies you have been hording you can purge some of your “unlikely to use” stash and donate the supplies to the children’s ward of a hospital, a local school or a women’s shelter, they will all welcome the supplies and doesn’t it feel good to share?

Speaking of sharing I have some printable watercolor background paper to share. I made it by Spraying a sheet of cardstock with my homemade shimmer spray then I colored my new rubber cafe stamps with watercolor crayons that I QUICKLY dipped in water first and stamped, then sprayed the stamp then stamped again. I did this until the sheet was full. The collage was so pretty that I decided to scan it in case I wanted to use it again then I asked permission form Melissa, the owner of the Rubber Cafe, if I could share the collage and she said “yes!” Note: Making patter paper with stamps is so much fun, please try it, but if you want to scan and share it make sure you get permission first from the company as most companies forbid any mechanical reproduction.

Watercolor stamped paper freebie!

Download the 8 1/2″ x 11″ 300 dpi pattern paper here.

Here is a list of the stamps used in this project (All by The Rubber Cafe): Together, Large Paisley Dragonfly, Small Paisley Dragonfly, Small paisley Butterfly, Floral Swirl, and a valentine stamp.

Gift bag instructions: I used my score pal and a sheet of 12″x18″ Strathmore art paper but you can just measure and fold or wrap the paper around a book to make the gift bag.

Step 1. Score the paper (short side) at 2″, 8″, 10″, and 16″. turn the paper and score 1″ from the top, and 2″ from the bottom. If you are using the score pal you will need to shift the paper up to score the full line, make sure to keep it against the fence. Snip off one of the 2″ squares on the bottom end:

here is the scored box unfolded

here it is folded and glued

Fold ans secure with hot glue. Punch holes and insert ribbon. Decorate as desired. They only take a minute to make and they are so special and inexpensive. Thanks for stopping by and until next time happy crafting!

Product Review: Scor-Pal

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post on making your own scoring board. That was one of my most popular posts, so popular the owner/inventor of the Score-Pal read it and asked if she could send me one! What do you think I said? YES!!!!!!!! Grab a cuppa something yummy and settle in cuz this is a long post.

The lowdown: The Score-Pal is a thick piece of heavyweight plastic with grooves in it every 1/4 inch or so. It lets you score cards, brochures and boxes as well as emboss decorative lines in your projects. I decided to use my new Rubber Cafe stamps and papers with the Score pal because the owner of the rubber cafe is a huge fan and tried to convince me that I needed one months ago! She will be so proud! Here are a few project I made with it:

Stamps: TheRubber Cafe, Paper: Basic Grey, Cardstock: DCWV, Dew Droplets: Robin's Nest,Tool: Scor-Pal

The box was simple to make with the Scor-Pal. I placed my 12×12 paper on the surface and scored at 4 and 8 inches, turned it and scored again at 4 and 8 inches. Then I scored from the corners to the points and folded the box. You can see a tutorial of this project at SplitcoastStampers. I used the 6×6 Marrakesh paper pad to decorate the box, there was no waste at all! I gold-embossed the Feathered Fan on blue, cut it out and attached to the box. I’ve wanted to try this box for weeks but didn’t want to bother with the measuring but since the Scor-Pal has the marked grids this was a snap to make. Note: This is a surprisingly big box, you may want to reduce it in size.

This box is made by scoring the 12" paper at 4" and 8" on each side and pulling the corners up with ribbon.

To make the double gate-fold cards I used the directions printed on the back of the box, easy as pie! I used the feathered fan again as well as the new Lori Renn Love Always stamp from The Rubber cafe.

Gatefold card closed

A gatefold card open.

The decorative lines on the edge of this card were also done with the Scor-Pal. The stamps used here are Large Paisley Dragonfly, Small Paisly Dragonfly, and Together, all by The Rubber Cafe.

The Scor-Pal is used to emboss the delicate lines on the edge of this card.

They also sent me the Scor-Mat, this sold me on the product because I always need to have a cutting mat (or 3) out when I craft because I often need to alter a pattern or cut a slit for ribbon and the mat fits in the recess of the board so the Scor-Pal turns into a cutting surface. That means I can leave this out on my craft table. It would be a major drag to have to put it away every time I used it and I likely wouldn’t use it if that was the case.

The bottom line: The Scor-Pal isn’t cheap, it’s $39.95 and the Scor-Mat is $15. However it is rugged and is built to last so if you figure the cost over the years of use it’s not bad. Once you have it and start using it you will love it. I recommend this product to anyone in the market for a scoring board. If you only make one card at a time, or craft occasionally and have a limited budget you may want to skip  it BUT if you mass produce cards to sell or if you are a stamp demonstrator/teacher and need to prepare for a class the Scor-Pal will save you so much time. It’s also great if you make one sheet or die cut boxes. If you want it but are on a budget get the Score-Pal and see if a craft mat you have already will fit (and cut it if it doesn’t!)

I am enjoying this product, it hasn’t left my craft table since I got it and it is likely to remain there right next to my big paper trimmer for years to come.

To learn more about the score pal and see projects visit their website. Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!