Halloween and Flamingos

October 28, 2010October 27, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Wow, is it Thursday already? This week was blur, starting with my son’s birthday (where I forgot my camera), my daughters Daisy Scout Halloween party (where I also forgot my camera) to my kids karate class where I remembered my camera (but left my memory card back home in the computer) and yesterday in a mad dash to help my daughter with her research paper and I misplaced her bright orange folder with ALL of the assignment details in it! More about the flamingos later….

But luckily I had my moment (albeit brief) of zen in my craft room where I made this quick card with Vintage Halloween labels digistamps from Lindsay’s stamp stuff:

Now, every now and then I like a shortcut, I keep a stash of 5″x7″ cards and envelopes in white and cream on hand all the time. You can buy them in packs of 50 for $5 (on sale) at AC Moore or JoAnns around the holidays. To give my store-bought envelope a homemade touch I stamped a flourish in the corner and cut a piece of houndstooth paper use as an envelope liner. I used the black and white houndstooth paper from the Uptown Houndstooth paper pack.

This card qualifies for the following challenges: 2 sisters, (anything goes), By the cute and girly , ohh la la, Simon Says stamp (Spooky), Crafty CAtz ( black 7 white + one colors), Crafty creations, Crazy 4 Challenges, Dutch DAre, MySherri crafts, Paper Playtime (Halloween) and Tuesday Taggers (Halloween + purple)

Need some more last-minute Halloween ideas? Check out these spooky sets from Lindsay’s stamp stuff:

And now for the freebie, I made this SVG cutting file for my daughters flamingo report (I cut the birds and the word flamingo, handed her markers, glue and poster board and hoped for the best:) and I thought that maybe you might like the file too especially with it being breast cancer awareness month and we are all loving the pink! Click the pic to download.

Now let’s see what the LSS design team has been up to this week:

Cheryl Gorka DT Coordinator

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Cupcake Carrier,Customer Spotlight and a Freebie!

October 2, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Wow, I am glad the weekend is here, did you every have one of those weeks where every day brought a new disaster? Well, I’m glad it is over and I can enjoy the weekend with my family 🙂 One bring spot of the week (yesterday actually) was that I finished up a SVG set, it is a Cupcake Carrier and cupcake parts you can use to make lots of fun stuff. The insert that holds te cupcake is separate (you just slide it in) so you can use it as a regular box or basket too. You can never have too many boxes I always say:

cupcakecarrier — The SVG files will work in both SCAL and MTC. Printable templates included too.

I used one of the cupcakes on an easy-breazy card too:

newcupcakecard2 — Tip: Chalk around the edges of die cut shapes to add dimension!

The other bright spot of my week was yesterday when I got and email from Connie Massengale, she sent me photos of two adorable projects using my 3-D Mailbox Template:

Here is what Connie said “I am a scrapbook volunteer-teacher to a group of 12+ ladies at church, and we are having our quarterly 3-day weekend crop next weekend at a nearby lake cabin. On each gal’s work table I am placing one of these darling mailboxes, filled with chocolates. The ladies’ ages range from 33-91, and I know all are going to just love your design.”

Thanks so much for sharing your talent with us and have a great time at that 3 day crop…you got room for one more? LOL!

Also I have a little freebie for you, it is a graveyard scene that would be cute as a card overlay, click the picture to download.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Fun Favors and a Freebie!

September 16, 2010September 16, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

I have been getting ready for my daughters’ birthday party all week and today I want to share the favor boxes and cupcake wrapper I made. I used the Pretty Favor SVG and the Alice ATC collage sheet sets which are both 30% off thru Friday along with everything else at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff:

favorandcupcakewrapper — I cut the favor box, banner and cupcake wrapper with my cricut, to see the entire banner please check out yesterdays post.

The favor boxes were cut with my Cricut MAchine and SCAL software (on sale $15 off!) using the SVG file in the Pretty Favor Kit (printable versions are included in the kit too if you don’t have a cricut) and they were so quick to make!

morealicefavors — The best thing about these boxes is that they cut quickly. I get two 4"x5"x1.5" boxes from a 12"x12" paper. A bit of hot glue and the box is done!

I simply cut out and assembled the boxes, added fringe or flowers made from crepe paper party streamers and images from the Alice ATC collage sheet kit. This project qualifies for the following challenges: Crafty calendar (blue and flowers-the gift bag in the tip photo), Our Creative Corner6 (fun with folds-folded, pleated, fringed crepe paper), Paper Take Weekly (inspiration-top photo), Pocket Full of Poises (flowers), Practical Scrappers (buttons), Scrappekammeret and Southern Girls Challenge (anything goes), Scrappy Frogs (make your own flowers-on the gift bags in the 2nd photo)

When the kids got home from school I let them fill the boxes with candy and favors!

Here is a look at the kits I used:

And now for your freebie, a quick to cut cupcake wrapper, enjoy! Click the preview to download.

Now lets see what the rest of the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff team has been working on this week:

Cheryl Gorka DT Coordinator

Be sure to check out the September Sale at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff to save 30% on everything through Friday!

Til next time happy crafting!

40% off and a freebie!

August 14, 2010August 13, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

OK now that I have you attention I want to let you know that EVERYTHING in the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff shop at Mygrafico is 40% off today only! Be sure to hurry over because the sale is over Midnight tonight (Saturday). Here is a set of party favors I made with my new Vintage Halloween Labels stamp set and my brand new Halloween Favors SVG and printable template set:

favorboxeshalloween — Cut these 3 favor boxes with your cricut (or by hand) with the Halloween favors set and decorate them with Vintage Halloween Labels all from Lindsay's stamp stuff

I used test tube shooters (instead of real test tubes, they are food safe, have a stopper and unbreakable plastic BTW they are way cheaper too!) you can get them at a bar/restaurant supply store online.

I think the sets work well together and they are so fun to make. The coffin box cuts as one piece so it saves paper, the scoring can be a bit tricky on the lid so I added a scut2 file with some perforated scoring marks to make it a bit easier for SCAL users. The directions and scoring guides for all of the boxes are on the printable versions of the templates. Refer to them as you build your boxes!

Now for a freebie, it is a scary skull that you can cut inside a tag (even make a stencil) or cut from vinyl to make some erie Halloween wall art, it’s up to you, just have fun! Click on the pic to download.

Here is a peek at the 2 new Halloween sets up in the shop this week, don’t forget that the 40% off sale at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff is over Saturday at midnight!

Till next time happy crafting!

Shower time!

July 25, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

My niece is getting married next moth and today was her bridal shower, she picked the most unusual color scheme for her wedding but it is truly stunning: Orange, green with grey and black, it did not scream wedding to me at first until I played around with the colors, here is the card I made her:

sarah_cardenvie — Dress card die cut: Creative Cuts & More, Stamps: Autumn Leaves, Inkadinkado, Stampin Up, Paper: Bazzill, American Crafts

I found this Dress Window die cut card from Creative Cuts & More stashed away with my white paper scraps and had to use it, I added some stamping and decorated the inside so there would be something pretty to see though the dress cutout:

sarahscardinside — I think I like decorating the inside of the card as much as I like making my homemade envelopes!

The envelope for this card is a SVG freebie (to cut with your Cricut and SCAL software) I designed and you can grab it here, it is adjustable in SCAL2 (square or rectangle), in scal 1 you are stuck with it being a square envelope, but you can still make it whatever size square you want.

Now, my niece is a very talented crafter, she was over the other day using my Cricut and she told me that she was going to buy thank you cards for the wedding instead of making them (Hats off to any bride who sends thank you notes, homemade or store-bought!) so I decided to letterpress her a set of 10 thank you notes, here you can see the detail of the debossed letterpress design:

letterpressthanks — Letterpress plates and paper: Lifestyle Crafts

If you remember a few months ago I showed you how I made a letterpress bed to fit in my Big Shot diecutter, if you want directions to make one for less than $10 check out this post, as you can see it works as well as the $149 kit from Lifestyle crafts and you can use their plates in it. Here are the cards and matching envies:

letterpress_cardsenvies — Envelope paper: K&Co, Tool: Scor-pal

Also I while back I showed you how to make envelopes with your Scor-pal, if you missed it you can see the video and grab my cheat sheet here.

These projects qualify for the following challenges: Annabelles Stamps (embossing), Clearly I Stamp (thank you cards), Cowgirls Sunday Stamping Challenge, DigiDoodles (anything goes), Creative craft Challenge (bride), I Did It (buttons & bows), Totally Gorjuss (congrats) and Wee Memories (stamping.)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Glimmer Mist Tips & Tricks!

July 17, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Happy Saturday! I got a chance to play with my shipping tag freebie SVG template the other day and made these:

GM_tags — I inked, masked, sprayed and stamped these

I was all excited to use my glimmer mist (OK, my one bottle of glimmer mist and my 8 homemade versions that work just as well!) because Elania from the gingersnap creations group showed us how to unclog our bottles of shimmer spray!

Here is what worker for me: How to unclog bottles of glimmer mist:

pull up on the spray nozzle to remove the spray cap and soak in hot water for 20 minutes.
poke a long straight pin down the exposed tube in the top of the screw-on spray part, this will remove any dried particles.
take the spray caps out of the water and use canned air or an air compressor to spray air through the cap.

That outta do it! In some cases if the air does not work you can soak the spray cap longer. To prevent the mist from clogging again do not shake the bottles violently up and down, instead swirl the bottles in a “bell” type motion, trust me, it works! If you want to be really sure it will not clog you can pop off the cap and rinse the spray cap each time you use it but I’ll take my chances.

I used my cricut and SCAL software to cut some masks from cardstock and acetate to sponge ink over on the tags, they work great with the spray mists too!

If you want my recipe for homemade glimmer mist it is on this post.

These tags are for the gingersnap creations challenge to Case a Ginger and I chose Dan99, for one because I used his bird and wrought iron SVG files to make masks and two because he makes cool artsy tags all the time:)

Now I need to use these tags for something so they don’t end up in my ever-growing stack of UFOs (unfinished objects), I’ll keep you posted;)

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend and til next time happy crafting!

Sweet Set {of cards}

July 15, 2010July 15, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

As you know my birthday was last week and since my friends and family spoiled me rotten I am in need of many thank you cards so I made a bunch with my new Sweet Treats 2 and Sweet Stuff digital stamps from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff:

sweetset_all5 — Digital stamps: Lindsay's stamp Stuff: Rubber stamped sentiments from SU!, Inkadinkado, Paper from PSX, Sandylion

The Sweet Treats 2 stamp set is so fun, in addition to the “goodies” included with the kit you can also use digital stamps from the Sweet Stuff set and even rubber stamps to combine with this it is so fun! I recommend using the png versions of the files in the kit and place the cake plates on top of the goodies for best results and yes, you can even layer these in word or Open Office if you don’t have fancy software;) Here are closer looks at the cards:

These cards qualify for the following challenges:2 Sisters (anything goes), Clearly I stamp (gratitude), Critter Challenge (thank you) and Raise the Bar (baked goodies).

Take a look at all {14!} of the stamps you get in this set:

And now for the freebie, it is a sweet SVG set, a jar you can fill with goodies, how cute would that be on a card or scrapbook page? SVG templates can be cut on with your Cricut using SCAL software. If you don’t have a cricut, no worries, the printable template is included;)

lss_jarofjoy_preview — a fun little freebie template for you 🙂 click the pic to download!

Now let’s see what the rest of the Lindsay’s stamp Stuff DT has for us this week:

Cheryl Gorka DT Coordinator

Shannon Neparko

Margie Visnick

Lisa Jurecek

Melissa Craig *a bit late today, please check back:)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Strawberry Picking!

July 9, 2010July 9, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Summer in New England, nothing better! Especailly during strawberry season, we picked berries a couple weeks ago, picking were slim but we had a good time. I used stamps from the Strawberries and Watermelon digital stamps set and the shipping tag template freebie as well as the journal block freebie all from Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff.

Don’t forget everything in the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff shop (myGrafico only) is 34% off through Saturday!

lss_strawberrypage — Digital stamps and template: Lindsay's stamp Stuff, Pattern paper: My Minds Eye, Bo Bunny, Cardstock: Neenah, Markers: Copic

This page qualifies for the following challenges: By the Cute and Girly (summertime), Cowgirls Sunday Challenge (scallops, buttons), Drunken Stampers (summer), Easy Craft Projects (summer), Kaboodledoodles (summer), KLS stamping (summer) and Oh la la creations (summer).

Here is a look at this stamp set, it is perfect for coloring with Copic Markers:

sws — Get this stamp set now while it is on sale!

Scrapbooking tips:

Thread hemp twine through all the buttons at once then hot glue to page.

Print your journal box in color and accent it with markers to match your page.

Use Kraft colored cardstock for your background, it flatters all colors!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Strawberries, Watermelons and a freebie!

June 24, 2010June 24, 2010 | thefrugalcrafter Lindsay Weirich

Happy Thursday folks! What a week, rain, fog and humidity, I was so hoping to get out and pick strawberries but I guess this card will have to suffice:

berrybasketenvie — Template (envelope bonanza), Digital Stamps (Strawberries & Watermelon) both from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff

I used my new Strawberries and Watermelon set to make this card, I printed the berry basket on Neenah and colored it with Copics. The decorative edge was done with a SU punch (love how it goes around corners, it is seriously one of the only 2 edge punches I own, are you sick of seeing it yet?) I used My Envelope Bonanza set to cut the petal envelope using SCAL software and my Cricut, Easy Peasy! This card qualifies for the following challenges: ABC, Annebelle Stamps (pink & Green), Bee crafty (pink & girly), Bunny Zoe’s Crafts (girly), Cupcake Craft Challenges (strawberries & cream), Everybody Art Challenge (pink & green) and Little C’s (photo inspiration).

The background paper is from the inch by inch collection at Lettering Delights. It is so summery! Here is a look at the complete Strawberries and Watermelon digital stamp set:

s&w — You get 7 highly detailed digital stamps for $5! Perfect for summer!

Now for the freebie, There was a discussion at MyGrafico on where to find the popular shipping tags the Tim Holtz uses and I explained how to make some from manilla folders (incase you did not want to buy a bulk box of 1,000) and I thought, Hey, why not make a SVG file so we can cut them with our Cricuts and SCAL software! In the example I have glued on the hole re-enforcers but I recommend inking and decorating the tag first then gluing on the re-enforcers so it looks neater 😉 Click the picture to download.