Happy Monday Freebie Time!

I hope you had a great weekend. It’s been a few days since I’ve given away a free file so here is a cut little heart Carton that you can cut with your Cricut if You have Design Studio or Sure Cuts a Lot. The original template was designed by Kate Pullen from the About.com stamping forum. You can see her design as well as get a printable version and folding instructions here. With her permission I have made the file available for Cricut users (thanks Kate!) See download links below.

Heart Carton Treat Boxes

Front of large box

The sides of the box are flat like a sour cream packet.

This one is my favorite!

A bow secures it from the top so it can be opened and closed without damage.

Wouldn't these make lovely wedding favors?

download links:

A .cut file to be used with Design Studio and the George Cartridge.

An SVG version to use with SCAL software.

All the stamps I used in this are from The Rubber Cafe. I used Mystique glitter embossing powder by Judikins on the hearts after stamping them with a purple rainbow pigment ink pad (versacolor) although the shine looks way better IRL! I made the dark plum boxes with the Design studio (this will work with the original cricut too and the free trial of design studio) and the lavender ones with SCAL. The nice thing about scal is that it is easy to re-size the boxes, with DS you have to re-size every little shape (unless there is some group re-size feature I don’t know about in which case please fill me in!)

Have fun with this, they are very easy to make, perfect for school valentines!

Exciting News!!! I have been invited to join the Creative Cuts and More Design Team on a permanent basis!!! I am so excited, I love their die cuts, I’ll be sharing many projects I’ve made with them in February so stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time happy crafting!

The Rubber Cafe DT Card Challenge and a Blog Award…or Three!+

Well, Melissa, the owner of The Rubber Cafe challenged us Design Team gals to make a card that was mainly white, clean no inked edges with a touch of red. Here is what I came up with:

This is a movement card, the heart spins back and forth down the track. Here is how to make a spin or slider card. Using a craft knife cut a 1/4″ track  in the cardstock where you want your focal point to move. Then make your sliding object. I stamped a heart on a scrap of white cardstock and punched  it with a 1-1/4″ punch then matted it wit a 1-1/2″ punched circle.  Then I stuck a round foam dot, I cut mine by hand or you can use a round Pop-Dot. Then stick the other side to a penny. I tucked the penny through the slot and mounted the white panel to the red card with foam tape. The foam tape gives the penny in the back space to move. The stamp I used is by The Rubber Cafe, it contains 3 hearts, see upper right of card for it in it’s entirety, but I used a red Marvy LePlume brush tip marker to color just the heart I wanted to stamp and stamped it. I used my computer and the font Betsy for the sentiment and the swirls were also done on the computer with the dingbat DB dainty Swirls by Lettering Delights. Hybrid, Yay!

I punched 1-1/4″ squares and ran them through my Big Shot on a Fiskars texture plate. See how to use a Big Shot to emboss with any stencil here. If you want to emboss with a stylus or texture tool do it before you punch the squares. I used the circle and square punches from Creative Memories, I got them 6 years ago, I use them almost everyday and they keep on ticking! Both sizes are on one punch and they were expensive, $22 then, but they have lasted me!

If you wan to see more of the Designers’ challenges you can see and Melissa’s here (and be sure to wish her a happy Birthday too it’s tomorrow!)…The rest of the team is still working but you can check out their blogs under the Rubber Cafe Design team links to the right.

And I received 3 blog awards over the weekend! Thank you Sharon, Carla and Penny. You gals are so kind!

Have an awesome holiday tomorrow, Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the States, and until next time happy crafting!

Cheaply mount your stamps!

Card by Lindsay Weirich 2009

Don’t you love unmounted stamps? They are cheaper, easier to store and work as well as the wood mount ones. What I don’t love is buying EZ mount foam because it adds to the cost of the stamp sets and it gets my scissors all sticky when I have to cut it apart. Solution: a cheap, quick way to mount your stamps so that you can still use them with an acrylic block. Easy as pie and easy on the wallet too!

I bought several sheets of artsy unmounted stamps a while back and Just slapped them to a block with double stick tape andI was good to go. This method is fine, just make sure you have a sheet of fun foam or a mouse pad under the paper you are stamping on. But I grew tired if replacing the tape on my blocks when the sticky was gone and they never stuck well in my storage binders with the tape. So I developed a clever way to mount them with Self adhesive foam, spray adhesive and cling vinyl.

Spray the BACK of your rubber stamps and attach to craft foam.

Step 1. Spray a generous amount of adhesive (I used Elmer’s multi purpose) on the backs of the rubber dies. You can do the whole sheet at once but mine were already cut apart.

Step 2. Quickly stick the rubber to the non adhesive side of the craft foam. Let it set for a few minutes. Check the clearance isle at the craft store of self adhesive foam, you can probably find Christmas themed sheets for pennies!

Peel off the adhesive backing on the foam and stick to a shhet of cling film. I trimmed the foam (purple) before I stuck it down.

Step 3. Peel off the paper on the sticky side of the foam and apply the cling film. The kind I have comes in 8.5″x11″ sheets made for making stamp foam work with acrylic mounts but you can probably use the stuff they sell at the fabric stores, just bring along a stamp mount to see if it will stick! This cling film will work if you have Stampin Up sets that you want to use with clear blocks. Instead of sticking them to the wood mounts stick them to this film.

All mounted and ready to go! (that sounds kinda bad, huh?)

Step 4 peel off the protective backing and it is ready to use with your acrylic mounts!

Mwahahah! My rubber Cafe DT samples! There mine all mine!...Oh alright you can get them too, there on the TRC website now LOL!

I mounted all of my Rubber Cafe stamps this way, if you order stamps from them they will come with the E-Z mount already on and trimmed but since I am on the Design Team I sometimes get the promo copy strait out of the factory! their stamps are so deeply etched that they will stamp fine without the foam but having it on makes my creating process faster and easier!

I’ve heard other creative mounting ideas too, one very frugal idea is to use foam core (you can get a 20″x30″ sheet at the dollar store of ask a frame shop for scraps) just tape or spray adhere the stamps to the foam core and you are good to go without a handle since the foamcore is rigid enough to be it’s own block. It may bend and wear out over time but hey it only cost a few sents! Good to know if you are in a jam!

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Did you know you can rent Cricut Cartridges?

I was thinking that it be great to be able to rent cartridges for your Cricut machine. You could try it out before you spent $40-$100 on it to see if you really like it, or, if you just need a cart for a particular project like a baby shower you could rent it for as long as you need it. Cool idea right. Why didn’t someone think of that before? Well Someone did, I found this site: crabbycrowcartridgerentals.com. they work like Netflix, you pay a monthly fee to rent 1 or two carts at a time. When you mail the one you have back you get the next one on your list. Cool Huh. I have not used this service because I can do pretty much anything I want with my SCAL software but if you love the Cricut carts you may want to give them a try.

Speaking of Cricut cartridges, see what I made with Wild Card and my new Rubber Cafe stamps. Deal Aleart: free shipping code for The Rubber Cafe: HNY2009

Cards by LindsayWweirich 2009

I love how the dew drops sparkle! You can buy them at the rubber cafe or if you have a glue gun you can make something similar, read how here.

To make the card I laid all of the parts out in design studio. I kept it all on one mat and cut it out in several different colors so I can mix and match to make different valentines cards, there are candles in the design too that I will use on Birthday cards! I stamped Happy Valentines Day on the inside of the card with brown then stamped Trailing Hearts with clear embossing ink and then dabbed on red and pink Pebbles chalk. I ran the bottom layer of the cupcake through a paper crimper (OK that’s a lie, I didn’t have a paper crimper so I used a tube wringer, a devise used to wring out tubes of paint so you get every drop, there I go saving money again!) then I inked it to show the texture. I tied ribbon around the bottom later before adhered it to the base. TIP: tie your ribbon upside down for a perfect bow every time! Then I added pink dew drops and adhesive pearls for sprinkles. I like them but then again I’m especially fond of cupcakes, vegan ones that it!

If you are using the Wild Card cartridge without Design studio just set the size for the card base and keep the dial set there and all of your layers should come out the right size. Do not use the “real dial size” feature. If you want to try out wild card before you buy check out Crabby Crow! BTW Cricut Carts are on sale for $40 and accessories are 40% 0ff at Jo-Anns January 11th-31st!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend and as always, happy crafting!

Make your own photo corners!

Want to double your stamp collection without spending a dime? You can make your own custom photo corners with a stamp, square punch and scissors. Heres how: Stamp an image, punch out a square, cut in half corner to corner then cut in a little notch if desired. Think of all the big stamps you have they would make interesting photo corners. You can also do this with pattern paper. I used stamps by The Rubber Cafe for this card.

Card by Lindsay Weirich 2008

Easy handmade photo corner

I sprayed the chipboard butterfly (colorbok) with my homemade shimmer spray and die cut flowers from cardstock also coated with shimmer spray. Try it, its fun!

Sneak peek…I’m giving away a big ole freebie when my blog hits 30,000 hits, he he I can’t wait! I’ll have printables, digi scrapping stuff and an SVG pack for my Cricut/SCAL buddies so be sure to check back in a day or two! Till next time happy crafting!

Get out that vellum!

When I fist started scrapping there was noting lovelier than the sheer pristine sheets of vellum lining the shelves at my local scrapbook store. In fact I routinely used my 50% off coupons to buy packs of the white vellum at JoAnns. One time I hit a great sale of 12×12 embossed vellum at 10 cents a sheet and yet I bought a ton….OK so now what? I have a lot of vellum, isn’t it time we brought it back in style again? I think so too!

My sister got married this fall and as a gift I made her an album of the shots My husband and I took. This is the intro page. I used stamps by The Rubber Cafe to emboss the design on the vellum.  Make an embossing pouch to emboss easier, how to here. I stitched a pocket at the top of the page to hold a note to the bride and groom. My sister should be opening her album today! They return from their honeymoon today and it is waiting for them! I hope they like it! *By the way, I just got word that The Rubber Cafe will soon be carrying Copic markers at a price even The Frugal Crafter would love!

See this Layout, "From the Heart", in the December 08 issue of Scrapbook News & Review!

As for the printed vellum you can use it as a luminary. Here I took 3 picture frame mats and placed the printed vellum behind the “windows”, then punced holes in the side with my Crop a Dial and tied them together with twine. Inside I placed a large jar candle (no open flames please!)  it is beautiful when it glows!

Project by Lindsay Weirich 2008, Vellum: K&Co

Other used for vellum:

Print journaling spots on them, trim closely and they will be ready to go the next time you scrap. Look in digital kits you already have to find some or check out DB boho frames & DB frilly Frames at scrapnfonts.com, they are still on sale I think!

Copt this look! Sheer Journal sots from Maya Road

Are you expecting? Make you birth announcements ahead of time the print the details on vellum with the baby arrives and attach to the cards with ribbon or brads (thanks to Nicolle who just had baby Lily this weekend for that tip, she is a cutie!)

Got more tips? Leave a comment, lets use up our stash!

Paper house card

I found a great website the other day that has TONS of free svg and gsd files for download. It’s a French site called Le Craft Robo. You can find the GSD files here and the SVG files here. The only thing I do not like about it is that some stuff you have to download before you can see what it is and if you don’t speak French It’s hard to figure out what you are downloading. That said I found some beautiful stuff and had no trouble using the files. I made this with a file I got there:

Here is the link to that file. I imported the file into scal and chose Blackout mode, then I welded a rectangle to join the two house shapes, then I made a door and window from the basic shapes in the shapes library. It you don’t have a cricut just right click the picture above and save as then print it out and trace it on a piece of cardstock folded in half. Easy peasy!

I used the Paisley boarder stamps from The Rubber Cafe to fancy up the edges, I love this stamp because it adds a bit of elegance to whatever I use it on and it is so versatile! I colored the window and door with ink and I used a scrap of cardstock and foam tape for the “window box”. I put metallic copper cardstock behind the windows.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time Happy Crafting!

Faux Tearing, It’s Fun!

Here is a nifty little trick that will save you money on paper and postage. You can get the look of layered torn paper with an old magazine and a couple of ink pads.

The green paper is craftily applied ink!

Here’s how:

You'll need ink pads and an old magazine

First lay your card (or Scrapbook page) on an old magazine. then tear a sheet out of the magazine in half, the rougher the better and place it over your card. The part you see is the part that will be the “torn layer”.

Using the torn page as a mask, rub ink the card working from lightest to darkest

Rub ink pads over the exposed card holding the magazine in place. *note: I used Whispers inks for this project. They are dye based and the pad is spongy so the look is nice and soft. If you are using Stampin up (or felt like pads) it is best to apply the ink with a brayer or cosmetic wedge. I like the Whispers pads because you don’t waste ink (the brayer method will use more ink), you won’t have a brayer to clean afterward AND you can get a caddy of 30 ink pads for $20 with your 50% off coupon at AC Moore!

shift back the page and ink a bit

Shift the top paper back a bit to expose a little bare card and lightly brush it with the ink pad.

re-adjust the paper and stamp

Re-Adjust the paper and Stamp on a design if you wish. I used the Lace Flower stamp from The Rubber Cafe.

Antique with brown, Amazing!

Rub on some brown ink if desired. Wasn’t that fun?

Try this on your Christmas card this year, it’s quick, fun and easy! It’s a good idea to buy re-inkers for your ink pads, you can find them on line or do what I do, the next time you are invited to a Stampin Up party buy ink to match the pads you have. Yes you can re-ink your pads with different brands and you can mix colors so you don’t need to buy every color. Just remember to use dye based ink on dye ink pads, and pigment on pigment pads. You can also use re-inkers to re ink your Brush tip markers…More money saved. If you want to learn how to make your own pigment and embossing ink click here.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting (and inking too!)

Lindsay

Vintage postcard freebie!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…Alright I admit it’s a  stretch even in my part of the world where we have been know to Trick or Treat in the snow! But I love making holiday cards and if you craft you know you need a head start. Here is one vintage inspired card I have made:

I used papers by Autumn Leaves, Buttons form Dress it Up, Stamps by The Rubber Cafe and copyright-free images from the Memories of a Lifetime book/CD series.

Here is a sheet of vintage postcards for you:

Click link below to dowload

Download it here.

I printed out lots of images and have been creating like crazy with them. I like to print them on sticker paper and cut them out with deckle edge scissors for more vintage charm, you could also print them small and cut them out with stamp edge scissors to make faux postage embellishments!

Have fun with your vintage images, leave me a link if you make something with them, I’d love to see it!

Til next time Happy crafting!

Lindsay