Carrie Stamps

January Happy Stamping Box

The January Happy Stamping Box is available for order! 

You are invited to join me in creating some CUTE Valentine themed projects from the comfort of your own home with the Happy Stamping Box! 

The January box features the Valentine Pals stamp set and coordinating die set, heart punch, glittered foam stickers, sequins and printed paper. The theme this month is Valentines, but I have included a birthday card and a card that can be used as a thank you card as well.  

From this box you will be making 5 cards, with an opportunity to earn a BONUS 6th project for FREE! Each project is a unique creation designed by me.  Some cool things we will be making are a shaker window card, a window card, a double z-fold card and if you earn the BONUS project, a shape card with pop ups!  You are going to love these cards so much you might have a hard time giving them away! 

With the purchase of your box you will get an invitation to my private Facebook page, The Happy Stamping Box.  Where you will have access to a printable PDF tutorial for the class projects.  And this page is where the LIVE online class video will take place. 

INCLUDED IN YOUR DECEMBER HAPPY STAMPING BOX:

(a kit only box is available with out the stamps, dies and punch)

Valentine Pals stamp set (set of 15)

Valentine Pals die set (set of 4)

From the Heart Printed Paper sampler pack

Heart Punch

Silver Sequins

Silver Glittered Stickers

Accessories to complete your projects

5 project kits, cut and ready to make

Full Color PDF tutorial to print out for use with the On-Line Class

On-Line Class - taught LIVE so you can stamp along with me and ask questions (available for 3 weeks after the live event to watch at your convenience)

BONUS PROJECT: 

Earn a 6th Bonus Project for FREE by ordering your January Happy Stamping Box by JANUARY 2nd or inviting a friend I have not to join. Just email me your friends name and you BOTH get the BONUS PROJECT! 

WHAT YOU NEED:

You will need to have some basic supplies on hand to make these projects.  Below I have shared what I will be using. Feel free to use what supplies you have on hand or click to shop for exactly what I will be using, scroll to bottom for clickable links. 

Black Licorice stamp pad, Watermelon Fusion Stamp pad (bright pink), Markers or Pencils to color in your stamped images, Glue, foam squares, scissors, anti-static tool, crease tool. 

WHEN IS THE CLASS? 

The January Happy Stamping Box class will be held LIVE in the private Facebook group on Saturday, January 26th at 9:30am MST.  If you can not make the LIVE event the video will be available after the event in the Facebook group for 3 weeks for you to watch at your convenience. 

You will be added to the Facebook group about 1 week prior to the LIVE class. If we are not currently friends on Facebook please send me a friend request when you sign up for this class (Carrie Cady Rhoades) so I can easily add you to the page. 

REGISTRATION: 

Registration for the January Happy Stamping Box is now open and closes on January 4th. Your registration options are listed below with links to register via PayPal. 

OPTION 1 - Full Kit ~ $55 (plus $7 shipping)

Box includes: 5 project kits, Valentine Pals stamp set, Valentine Pals die set, Heart Punch, Silver Sequins, Silver Glittered Stickers, From the Heart Printed Paper sampler, accessories to finish your card, envelopes, access to the private Facebook group, access to the full color printable PDF. 

Register here for the FULL KIT: 

 

OPTION 2 - MATERIALS ONLY KIT ~ $30 (plus $7 shipping)

Box includes: 5 project kits, Silver Sequins sampler, Silver Glittered Stickers, From the Heart Printed Paper sampler, accessories to finish your card, envelopes, access to the private Facebook group, access to the full color printable PDF. 

Register here for the Materials Only Kit:

<center?. /> All products for the kits will be ordered and prepared by me after the registration deadline, January 4th. I do not have all the product on hand, it is ordered when registration is complete. Class kit ordering, cutting and preparing take 10-12 days after the deadline. The expected shipping date for all boxes is January 18th. 

Happy Stamping Boxes can only be mailed with in the United States at this time, send me a special request if you are outside the US. ([email protected])

Registration ends on January 4th. 

The LIVE class is on Saturday January 26th at 9:30am MST.  The recorded class will be available for viewing immediately after the live class is over for your to watch at your convenience for up to 3 weeks.  After 3 weeks the video and PDF will be removed in preparation for the February Happy Stamping Box class.  

The PDF tutorial will post to the Happy Stamping Box FB page around 1/21/19 for you to print out and use along with the LIVE class. 

Everyone is welcome to join, new stampers, professional stampers, beginners, etc. Try out my Happy Stamping Box, I know we will have fun  making!  

I have some very cute cards for you this month, you are going to be thrilled!  Can't wait to create them with you! 

Clickable links to all the supplies I will be using to complete the cards on the live class are linked for you below. Feel free to sub in product that you already have on hand. 

 

Snowmen Days Thank You cards

Christmas was very enjoyable here for the Rhoades family. We spent some quality time with family and took time to relax. Which is big for me since I usually am running all over cooking, cleaning, etc. I kept things simple and I LOVED it!  And now that the decorations are being packed up I find I now need to send some thank you cards. I wanted them to have a wintery feel but not a Christmas feel. So I pulled out my Snowmen Days stamp set by FSJ to make some quick and easy cards. 

I kept the coloring simple so I could make a four cards in a short time. 

The backgrounds were sponged on with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink. These inks have a very soft finish and add to a fresh snow falling feel with paired with the Winter Wonderland stencil. 

The vellum pieces for each card were die cut using the Frame it die set, I liked this rectangle because it has a double stitched border. But I needed a smaller, more square piece for this little snowman. So I ran my already die cut rectangle back through my machine a second time with the same die, but positioned so it would cut my rectangle into a smaller square. You can see how in my video below. 

All the coloring was done with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers on Bristol Smooth card stock. 

I used 5 makers for all of the cards. Here are the numbers and colors I used; #302 - Haze Blue, #303 - Shadow Mauve, #032 - Persian Blue, #026 - Light Pink, #029 - Geranium Red. 

For this card I wanted to show that you could make the card even more simple by omitting the stencil and just sponging on some of the Tumbled Glass ink for a nice glow behind the snowman. 

I did not have a stamp that said Thank You Snow Much and I really wanted that sentiment, so I created it myself. The stamp is from the Simply Sentiments by Lawn Fawn. After stamping it I used my black Gelly Roll pen to cross out the so and hand write in SNOW. I think it adds to the whimsy of the card and is a fun element. 

The final touch to each of these cards was some drops of Journey Glaze to add to the snowy, icy feel of the card. 

You can see the making of these cards in the video below. 

Be sure to visit my Carrie Stamps Facebook page and click to follow so you can watch when I go live on Mondays and Fridays. Scroll to the bottom for links to all the products I used. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and letting me share these cards with you I hope you have an enjoyable New Years Even and a very Happy New Year!  

 

Wooden Christmas Scenes

Not sure if you caught my live video from Michaels back in November. I was on the hunt for something cute my friends Lael has shown me. These adorable Wooden Christmas Scene's.  Once I found them I went a little crazy over them and shared my excitement with you on FB. Here is one of the pieces I bought. 

I had to have this truck piece!  What is cool about these scenes is that the bottom piece slides out and you can pull the inside panels out to paint! And that is what I did. I used my FSJ acrylic paints to add color. 

So much fun!  And pretty easy too. The other fun thing about these is that they light up! So to help with the shine and the feeling of snow, I added glitter to my white paint when it was wet. 

For the look of falling snow over the trees and truck I thinned out some white paint with water and splattered it over the already dry paint. 

The second piece I worked on is the Deer Scene. 

This one might be my favorite. 

I did this one the same as the last. They are not hard to make if you have a thin paint brush for the little details, like the ribbon around the ornaments. But it does not have to be perfect, you can not even tell there are parts on mine that I think are not perfect. It's hand made and it does not have to be perfect. 

The last one is a Gingerbread Scene, this one was painted by my daughter Hannah, my husband and myself. We had a great time listening to Christmas music and painting these. 

We ended up coating this one with Journey Glaze once all the paint was dry and sprinkling the entire piece with Sparkle Cuts glitter. 

And I added a few Sparkle Drops to the centers of the candies. 

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share these hand made Christmas gift with you. I hope you have a blessed Christmas! 

Balsa Wood Ornaments

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!  Once again, it snuck up on me!  I feel ready for Christmas, but still have cute things I want to make!  One of which were my Woodland Critter ornaments from Balsa wood. You may have seen my felt and paper ornaments from these same dies. Today I am sharing two ways to make ornaments with dies and Balsa wood and of course I am using the same little critters. 

First lets start with the painted critters. 

They started with a piece of Balsa wood, which is very light weight and about the thickness of fun foam.  It is commonly used for making models. And it die cuts very nicely! 

I die cut all the pieces to make my raccoon and glued him all together with a hot glue gun.

Then I pulled out my FSJ acrylic paints, Black Licorice and Whip Cream. I love these thick paints with a matte finish.

I mixed the black and white paints to make a custom gray and painted the entire piece that medium shade of gray.  They I added some more black to it and painted his mask with it. Then I used the black paint by itself for the eyes, nose and lines on the tail.  And white paint alone for accenting. 

Then I took a scrap of sandpaper and sanded the edges of the ornament to give him a distressed look. I found that it is best to sand in the direction of the wood grain with a gentle touch as you can easily break this wood. 

To finish him up I added some Journey Glaze to his eyes and nose.  Then I die cut a holly and berries from the balsa wood as well, using the Woodland Critters Winter Add-On die set. I found that when die cutting balsa wood with a wafer die like the holly the die will flatten the wood and make it almost paper thin, so be careful. To color my holly, I wondered if ink could be used, so to test it out I just pressed a scrap of it in to my ink pad.  I loved the look so much I did not paint on the ink or anything, I just pressed my die cut holly leaves on to the Kiwi Slice pad. And the berries onto the Cranberry Bliss pad.  Since these were so thin I die cut a card stock set of leaves and berries from the coordinating colored card stock and glued the wood pieces to that, for stability. I hot glued the holly on and added Journey glaze to the berries. 

I did all the same things for my fox, but I made a lighter gray color for his body than the gray for the raccoon. 

To add the hanger I hot glued a piece of twine to the back of the head and then covered up the twine with a small scrap of balsa wood. 

Now let's chat about the glittered ornaments. 

I loved the look of the raw wood on these ornaments so much I wanted to preserve that look in an ornament too. 

Here is what the fox looks like before glitter was added, just die cut balsa wood pieces hot glued together. 

I then painted the entire fox with Journey Glaze.  I squeezed some out onto a paint palette and used a paint brush I did not care too much about to paint it on the fox.  Then I sprinkled on Sparkle Cuts chunky glitter. I was IN LOVE!  Once the glaze dried I added another layer of glaze to the eyes and nose. 

And then I realized that this ornament needed some holly and berries too. So I just repeated what I did for the painted ornaments and then covered the holly with glaze and sparkles cuts and used the glaze to glue it in place. 

I adhered the twine the same way I did on the painted ornaments, sandwiched between the back of the head and a scrap of balsa wood with hot glue. They hold really well. 

I LOVED making my own ornaments this year. I hung a few on my tree and gifted a few. 

You can see my felt critter ornaments HERE and my paper critter ornaments HERE, made with all the same dies. 

Scroll to the bottom for the links to the products used to make these ornaments. 

 

Last minute gift tags

First of all, I am all about making things over the top cute!  I love layers and all the little details. But I also need a bunch and tags for wrapped gifts. Now, I want them to be cute, but they can be simple. And since I need a bunch I want them to be quick and easy to make. 

So, in today's post I am sharing with you some quick and easy gift tags I made using the Tag Set die set, Gnome for the Holidays stamp set and Tiny Tags Sayings stamp set. 

All the tags shown here are made with the smallest tag from the die. You can see I added in some printed paper from the Cozy Prints pack. I can not get enough of the plaid and buffalo check patterns. 

You can see I kept the tags very simple with just stamps, ink, and paper.  These are the medium sized tags I made, I especially love the one that is stamped with the word JOY in an ombre effect! 

And lastly these are the largest tag on the die, I didn't think I would need very many of these so I only made a few. 

The dies I used were from the Gnome for the Holiday die set and the row of hearts is from the Bunch of Hearts die. I used the little hearts this die cuts for the center of the O in JOY. 

I chose to stick with red and grays for my tags to match the wrapping paper I am using this year. But it would be so easy to change up the colors to have them match any wrapping paper or gift packaging. 

I think these tags are cute, but not so much time went into them that I will be sad if they get thrown away. 

I have a video for you below on the making of these tags, I challenged myself to make 40 tags in about 30 minutes. I went a wee bit over the 30 minutes, but I got all 40 done. But check out how easy these tags are! 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope that whatever you are doing for the holidays that you have time to relax and reflect and rejuvenate for next year.  Scroll to the bottom for links of all the products I used to make my tags. 

Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you, thank you for your support! 

 

 

Woodland Paper Ornaments

Today I am sharing some fun ornaments you can quickly and easily make out of paper, specifically card stock. These were made to be sturdy and stand the test of time. AND of course they are cute as can be! 

My critters were die cut using four dies from Spellbinders; Who's There, Bandit, Hey Foxy and It's a Bunny Thing.  All four dies are currently on sale, which I loved!  To give them all a Christmas feel I used the Lawn Fawn  die set; Woodland Critter Huggers Winter Add-On. 

To make the ornament sturdy so that they can be used for years to come I die cut 3 of the owl body pieces from Whip Cream card stock. I glued them together, layering them up to make a very sturdy and thick ornament. For the pieces that go on top I did 2 or 3 layers, this help with the sturdiness and give the ornament some dimension. To dress up this owl I used the ear muffs, mug, whip cream and mittens dies from the Woodland Critters Winter Add-On die set.

Isn't he so cute all bundled up? I die cut the mittens from felt to give some added texture. And to bring this owl to life I added some white highlight with a gel pen to his eyes, beak and feet and covered them with Journey Glaze.  I adore glitter, so I add some Journey Glaze to the ear muffs and the heart on the mug and sprinkled it with Sparkle Cuts by FSJ while the glaze was still wet.  I love that this glitter is clear and you can still see the stripes of the ear muffs when it is covered with the glitter, giving it an ice feel. 

Look at the naughty little raccoon, she stole the Christmas goodies!  This raccoon is also 3 layers of card stock, Riverstone by FSJ is the gray card stock I used. I do LOVE FSJ card stock, it is so sturdy and it perfect for these ornaments. I gave my raccoon a Santa hat from the Woodland Critters Winter die set as well as the candy cane and ginger bread boy. I love the look on his face, like he just got caught sneaking candy! 

I added accents to his eyes and nose with a white gel pen before coating them with Journey Glaze, this white line helps give life to the eyes and shine to the nose. I also used Journey Glaze for the candy cane and the white of the hat. The white of the hat also got a dusting of Sparkle Cuts. To make the buttons on the gingerbread boy red, I used Nuvo Drops in Autumn Red. I love that the Autumn Red has a shimmer to it, almost a pearlized look.  To give make the gingerbread boy's eyes white, I sandwiched a piece of white card stock between the Hazelnut blend layers of body. 

This fox is just so darn cute!  He looks like he's going to give you is prized possession, this giant candy cane. The giant candy cane is from Spellbinders, it's the Christmas Candy Canes stamp and die set designed by Joanne Fink. This set has two candy canes, one facing each way with a coordinating die for each as well a bow stamp and die. 

My favorite thing about this fox is his paws!  I got them from the Owl die, they are the owl's feet. Giving him the candy cane to hold really makes this ornament. 

I colored my stamped candy cane in with colored pencils and then painted it with Sparkle Silk. Last I covered it with Journey Glaze. It's one of the prettiest candy canes around!  I added the holly to his ear to finish off the fox and of course covered it with Journey Glaze and Sparkle Cuts for more shine and shimmer.  If you look closely at this fox you can see that one of his layers is white. I tried a middle layer of a light weight white chipboard, as this was my first ornament in the collections. I did not like that the white showed and that is when I decided to use layers of card stock for a more seamless look. 

I had a lot of fun with my bunny!  His neck was a little small for the scarf in the Woodland Critter Winter Add-On die set. So I cut  the long scarf piece and then put this piece  back in the die, scooting it over so that one end hung out one side and die cut it again, making it shorter. Then I die cut the other scarf piece that has a score line where you fold it over the other scarf piece, love that!  This die also cuts the fringe at the end of the scarf!  Genius!  The holly and present are also from the Add-On die set. I got a little gel pen happy on this one, but I love the look of the fine white lines/stripes on his scarf and the delicate dots on the gift.

Now if you are going to have a giant tail, it should be glittered, right!!!  That's all I have to say about that. 

To attach a string to these ornaments I simply glued on the already knotted string between the card stock layers. 

I hope you have enjoyed these ornaments. I had a blast making them!  And think that making sets of ornaments is going to be something new I make for friends and family. My grandma has made me ornaments all my life and it has really become a very special thing to me, I think I want to carry on that tradition. 

If you'd like to see my felt ornaments made with these same dies, you can find that post HERE. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and letting me share my ornaments with you. I hope you are inspired to create some of your own. 

Below you will find links to all the products I used to make today's projects. Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you, thank you for your support. 

Stay Cozy Balsa Wood Ornament

I have been having so much fun playing with the December Stamp Set of the month, Stay Cozy by FSJ. My favorite thing about this stamp set is that it takes very little effort to make it look great.  Very little coloring to add life to the stamped images. 

Today's project is made of wood and not paper!  Balsa wood to be exact. It is a very light weight wood that is used a lot to make models, it has the weight of fun foam and is about as thick, depending on what you buy. 

AND, it can be die cut!  So, die cut an ornament for todays project. 

I was able to use my thin wafer die set, Globe and Ornament Shaker Tag by Honey Bee to die cut this ornament. 

I stamped my cabin image with Black Licorice ink then heat set it and stamped it once again using my stamp positioning tool, heating it a second time to make sure the ink was set before coloring it. 

Then I repeated this process with the sentiment. The reason behind heating it and then stamping it again is so that there is not an over saturation of ink. If there is then it can bleed on this wood. 

I added color to my image using Journey Color Burst pencils (#21,27,39,48). Just hints of color here and there, that is what I love about this stamp set, you really only need a little bit of color to bring the images to life. 

I wanted to make sure the colored pencil would not fade over time, hopefully this will hang on someone's tree for a few years, so I embossed the front of the ornament. To do this I pressed the entire ornament into clear embossing powder, covering the entire surface with clear ink. Then I sprinkled Clear Embossing Powder over it and used my Heat Gun to melt the powder. This intensified the ink and gave it a nice shiny surface.  To make my ornament more sturdy I die cut a second ornament from Balsa wood and glued it to the back of the stamped one. You could stamp this other one too, so that both sides have something cute, or sign your name and date it. 

The topper for this ornament is made out of card stock. I did not use the wood because I found that when die cutting out the topper the very thin part of die cut topper kept breaking. This is wood and it does have wood grain and so the thin area could not hold up. So I die cut two of the toppers from white card stock. I dipped one in Clear Pigment ink and embossed the entire piece with Silver Embossing Powder. I really wanted it to look like a metal piece, so I repeated this step two more times, each time melting the powder with my heat gun before dipping it in ink and powder. Make sure to let this cool before touching it.  The three layers of silver embossing powder really give it the look of metal and make the card stock more sturdy. But to ensure that this little piece was going to stand up to being hung on a tree I glued the second topper piece that I die cut from card stock to the back of the embossed one. I set this under an acrylic block to dry. 

Now it is on to the finishing touches. You can see here that I added two pinecones to the top of the ornament. They are die cut with a die set from Spellbinders called, pinecones. They are very easy to make, just die cut the large and small pinecone piece that cuts out a spiral with a zig zag like edge. You then roll these up, I used a small wooden dowel. When you get to the end just add one dot of glue to secure the end to the pinecone. Repeat this with the small piece and you have two different sized pinecones, ones that are small and look like you saved them from the dense forest floor. I sponged a little Whip Cream ink on the edge of mine to give them a snowy look. 

My FAVORITE part of this ornament is the edge. I wanted to cover up the sides, as you could plainly see that I had glued two together.  So I added some Journey Glaze to the edge and dipped it in Silver Shavings!  They are magically delicious!  Not Really, DO NOT EAT THESE! They are actual silver shavings, not a cute name for glitter. I love the vintage look it gave the ornament and really took it up a notch to special. To make it really thick and chunky I added a second layer of the silver shavings. I set this on an Acrylic Block that is smaller than the ornament to dry and then using Journey Glaze I glued on the silver topper. Give this ample time to dry, about 1 hour. Then string the pinecone through a piece of twine, I chose Candy Apple Twine, and string this through the ornament topper and tie it off.  And what an adorable ornament!  

You can have so much fun with Balsa wood making ornaments. I encourage you to give it a try, play with the dies you have and your Christmas stamps, I bet you can make some fun creations! 

Below are some helpful resources for you, the LIVE video demonstration of this ornament as well as links to all the things I used to make this ornament. 

 

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my love of creating with you! 

6 Gift Card Packaging ideas

What is the best last minute gift?  Gift Cards of course. If you want to dress your gift cards up I have 6 ideas for you!  Make the gift card gift a little more special with cute packaging. 

IDEA 1 - Alter a Tag

For this gift card holder I die cut three tags, using the largest tag die from the Special Day Tag die set by FSJ. Two from the blue snowflake printed paper (from the Dear Santa paper by Spellbinders) and one from white card stock. I glued the two printed paper tags back to back. Then scored the top of this piece at 1" and folded it down. Gluing the tags back to back makes this thinner paper more sturdy and since the paper is one sided, I have the same pattern on the folded down flap as I do on the front of the tag. Adhere this to the white tag using a thin line of glue or 1/8" double sided tape, leaving just enough room for the gift card to slide in. 

The singing tree is from the Dear Santa die cut shapes set that matches the printed paper.  And I used another of the die cut shapes for the back of the tag/holder.

IDEA 2 - Use a gift card die

This is a no brainer, I love that when I just need a quick gift card holder I don't have to create something from scratch. I can die cut this Gift Card Sleeve with cute paper it's ready to go. 

 And using the Dear Santa paper and pre die cut images makes it even easier! 

I used another small die cut on the back to hold the flap of this envelope like sleeve shut, so no need for velcro or for the recipient to rip it open. 

IDEA 3 - Use dies to create a shaped gift card holder

I die cut two of the these mittens to make this holder, just sandwich two back to back and leave an opening at the top for the gift card. Look at the dies you have and see what you might be able to use to make a gift card holder. I also have a stocking die that I made gift card holders with last year.  Here's a little tip for sandwiched shape dies as gift card holders. Use a few layers of double stick tape to adhere them, giving a little dimension to the opening, making it easier to get the gift card in and out. 

With so many cute die cuts in this pack it was fast and easy to not only make the front of my holder cute, but also the back. 

IDEA 4 - What dies do I have that could hold a gift card? 

When creating these gift card holders I did just what I mentioned above and found this Window Pocket die, and found that it will fit a gift card nicely if attached to an insert! 

In the window here you can see the insert with out a gift card, but what is fun about this holder is that the recipient gets a peek at their gift card. 

Just add the gift card to the insert with a few glue dots or foam squares. 

See how the window gives a little look at what's inside!  

IDEA 5 - Use a little box for a gift card plus treat! 

I thought this holder would be perfect for a Starbuck gift card and candy cane! 

IDEA 6 - Put a gift card inside a card, with a sliding holder. 

On the outside it is a normal Christmas card. Made very easily, I might add with the use of the Dear Santa paper and die cut pieces. 

On the inside...

A fun spot for a gift card using the Gift Slider die!  You can die cut this piece and add it to any card. It's fast easy and cute!  I can take the cards I already have on hand and add this to include a gift card very easily.  

I love all of these ideas, because they are fast any easy. I don't use kits that often now days, but I have to say they are a blessing at Christmas time for last minute tags, gift card holder and cards.  I recommend finding one you like to make your holidays a little less stressful and still help you feel like you hand crafted heartfelt gifts. 

At the bottom of this post I have linked all the things I used to make todays projects. But before you go I have one more project with the Dear Santa paper and die cuts.  A mini gift bag, a gift card could be added to this insert too. But I decided to make little gifties for my crafty friends, sharing some of the extra die cuts left from this kit. And a personal note on the insert. 

Thank you so  much for stopping by and spending some time with me!  I hope you are leaving inspired to create. 

 

December FSJ Creative Team Blog Hop

YAY! It's time for another FSJ Creative Team Blog Hop!  

December's Blog Hop is all about Christmas finishings, tags, cards, ornaments, etc.

I had to make some woodland critter ornaments. My daughter got a felt animal kit for her birthday and we had a lot of fun making the animals in the kit. After that I stumbled upon some woodland animal dies from Spellbinders.  Hannah and I decided we needed them to make some more felt animals.

And they arrived just in time to turn create Christmas ornaments with them. 

Let me share some tips and tricks for making these cute felt ornaments with you that I learned along the way. 

First of all you will want to buy some higher quality felt. I got my felt at Hobby Lobby and it is 2mm thick, much thicker than the felt I normally get for kids craft projects. This felt was 78 cents a sheet, but 50% off!  I got two sheets (8-1/2" x 11") each of the colors I thought I might need.  Second, buy some coordinating embroidery floss.  The felt die cuts very easily with the dies I used because they are steel rule dies.  But because this is thick felt it may be hard to cut more than one layer of felt at a time. 

This owl was die cut with the Who's There Steel Rule Die. I cut two of each piece on the die except the heart. And the holly is from another die set, Reindeer. 

First step for the owl was to stitch the elements to the top piece; the eyes, wings and heart. I did this with a running stitch, going around each element twice to fill in the spaces between the stitches. The feet, holly and beak are hot glued on. I did double up the beak, hot gluing one beak on top of the other. It just seemed like it needed to be thicker. NOTE: I did all the hot gluing once the owl was all done. 

Then I laid the two owl piece back to back and did a blanket stitch around the outside, I like to do this stitch when my die cut pieces do not have already pierced holes in them as a guide for stitching. 

I left and opening in the two pieces and filled the owl with polyester fiberfill and then continued to stitch the owl closed. I added a bit of Candy Apple twine to the top for a hanger. 

The bunny is done much the same way as the owl, using the It's a Bunny Thing Die, but I do have a couple pointers. For the ears, die cut two pieces and then overlap them slightly and secure with a dot of hot glue. Do a running stitch around the ears as if they were one piece. Once you gone all the way around stitch back through your holes, filling in the open spaces. So there are no spaces between the thread. Set the ears aside. 

Add the eye to the bunny with a tiny dot of hot glue and then add a french knot to the black eye, giving it some life. 

Lay the two bunny pieces together. Blanket stitch them together, but when you get to the spot where the ears will go, only blanket stitch the top layer of the bunny. This leaves an opening for you to hot glue in the stitched ears, but the top of the bunny will have that continuous blanket stitch. Before gluing in the ears, add some stuffing and then hot glue the ears to the front and back of the bunny, closing him up. 

Hot glue on the pink nose and holly. 

For the tail, blanket stitch around two tail pieces. When you have a small gap left stuff the tail, finish stitching the tail closed and hot glue it to the bunny. 

Add a piece of twine to the back for a hanger. 

I had some fun with the fox!  He might be my favorite. I did use two elements from the Owl die, the feet to make paws for the fox and the heart. I love that I can use elements from the other dies for more options. 

The fox die, Hey Foxy, cuts one piece for the head and another for body. So, here's how I handled that. I hot glued the body to the head and used that as a guide to do the same for the back of the fox, so the front and the back are exactly the same. This way when stitching I can treat these pieces as a single piece. Before stitching up the fox, add the face piece with hot glue. And the heart to the belly with a running stitch, going around the object twice. Then add a french knot to each eye. 

Now blanket stitch the front of the fox to the back of the fox. Leaving an opening to add a bit of PolyFill. Then hot glue the tail accent piece to the tip of one tail piece, taking care to only use a dot. Then stitch the two tail pieces together, all the way around with a blanket stitch. Then hot glue the tail to the back of the fox. 

Lastly add the paws, die cut from the Owl die, and the holly with hot glue. Stitch on a pice of twin, but running a piece of twine with a needle through a couple of stitches in the critters head. 

The raccoon is die cut using the Bandit die, exactly as I did the fox. I love these dies so much that I plan to make some other critter ornaments using other materials to share with you soon. 

Below are the dies I use to make these ornaments, including the Reindeer die set that I used to make the holly. It is a thin metal die set, so my tip there is to run it through the die cutting machine a couple times to get a nice clean cut with it from felt. Click any of the dies to shop for them, NOTE that all the main critter dies I used are currently on CLEARANCE!  

 

Now you will want to hop along to the next blog on the hop, Love of Sparkles with Christine Chan. If you missed a link on the hop the others are listed below for you as well. We love it when you leave us comments, so don't be shy.

 Got lost hopping?  Don't miss out on these other stops on the blog hop: 

Jill Hillard

Marty McGee

Alissa Hall

Thanks for stopping by! 

Bubble Gum Christmas Card

I love to stamp and create in the early morning hours when my hubby is off to work and my children are still sleeping. The other morning when in the middle of creating I noticed a beautiful sunrise of pink.  The clouds glowed with a perfect pink color. The roof tops were snow covered and Christmas lights were still on from the night before. This beautiful scene inspired todays card. 

The Bubble Gum color from FSJ was the perfect color to create my card in. I used the card stock, ink pad, and ink refill. 

I added shine and sparkle to my card using the Glimmer Hot Foil System from Spellbinders, silver heat embossing and Sparkle Silk. 

You can see the making of this card in the video below.  I love the Hot Foil machine, it is easy to use with only a few times of practice I was able to get great results like the Happy Holidays sentiment on this card. See the machine in action as well as the other techniques I used in my video demonstration. 

 

Below I have linked all the products I used to make this card for your convenience. Thank you for stopping by and letting me share my pink sunrise inspired Christmas card with you. 

 

 

 

2 Stencil Techniques with Distress Oxide inks

I've been playing in my stamp studio again with my new ink pads, Distress Oxide by Tim Holtz. Today's card feature two techniques using stencils with these hybrid inks. 

This card started by blending 3 colors, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean on a piece of white card stock.  Because these inks have not only die ink but also pigment ink, they blend like butter. The rich color coats the top of the paper beautifully. 

Next step is to adhere this panel to a stencil, I used the Winter Wonderland stencil by FSJ. With the inked side of the paper up and the stencil on top, I misted the paper with water. Leave this on for a minute and then remove the stencil to see the oxidation that occurred. I will leave a beautiful background. 

I stamped images from the Most Wonderful stamp set over the top with Lucky Clover Distress Oxide ink. 

Technique number 2, uses the Buffalo Check stencil by FSJ.

I started with a piece of white card stock and coated it with Black Soot distress oxide ink, by rubbing the pad direct to paper.  Then I took the Buffalo Check stencil and misted it several times with water, laid the wet side down onto my ink coated paper. Let this sit for a minute or so and use a paper towel to press on the stencil so that it comes in contact with the entire surface of the card stock. 

You can watch the making of these cards in the video below. If you have not already LIKED my facebook page make sure you do so that you can catch me when I go live each Monday and Friday night. 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you are inspired to try something new with your paper crafting today.  Below you will find links to the products I used to create these cards. 

 

 

 

Merry Everything Gift Tag

I don't know what it is about gift tags that make me so happy.  Maybe because it is like a mini card. But I have been loving the Special Day Tag Die set and making tags with the large scalloped tag. 

Here is one I made that features the Merry Everything stamp set. 

I love this soft and pastel color combination for Christmas, it has a retro feel that is joyful. 

My favorite part of this tag has got to be the tree though. I stamped the die cut tree, also from the Special Day Tag Die Set, with the Flannel Life background stamp. I LOVE that stamp!!! 

The stitched rectangle and the die cut "to" are also from the same die set. There is also a die for the word from, which I added to the back of this tag. 

To give the look of snow on the tag I splattered the finished piece with Whip Cream Silk. I love that this silk is more translucent than most and can give a very subtle look. 

Will you be making gift tags this holiday season? I'd love to see them if you do! 

Below are all the products linked for you convenience. Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you thank you for your support! 

 

Stay Cozy Ornament Card

Happy December!  Last night on my Stamp Set of the Month Live demonstration on Facebook I introduced the December stamp set of the month, Stay Cozy by FSJ.  Stamp set of the month is a set that I choose as one I LOVE and want to share with you. I love a stamp set that is versatile with images and sentiments. Usually the set I pick will have a matching die set, but not this month. 

And in last nights demonstration I showcase not only this stamp set but a fun technique with Distress Oxide inks and show a unique card that has a removable ornament. 

I have been OBSESSED with making shaker ornaments with the DIY hoops from Spellbinders/FSJ. You can see the cute little critter ones I made, HERE. 

On this ornament I showed how to use a MISTI to stamp on a window sheet with FSJ's True Color Fusion ink. It really takes the stress out of stamping on this slippery surface and you can get good ink coverage by stamping the image lightly and repeatedly. 

I did say that the ornament was removable. But I did not the card to be a total waste once you remove the ornament. So I added a cute stamped element behind the ornament. 

To secure the ornament to the card I threaded the string through the card front in a small hole. I used the large holly at the bottom of the card as well as the gems on the right to help hold the ornament in place.  The recipient just pulls the string out of the card to remove it. 

Now let's talk about the background. It started with Distress Oxide ink, my new favorite thing to play with!  I covered a piece of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb. card stock with Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide ink. This ink is a fusion of dye and pigment ink. Because of the pigment in this ink, the ink sits on top of the paper and is thick, creamy and almost suede like. 

Next I inked up the Solid Holly background stamp from Impression Obsession with Twisted Citron Distress Oxide ink. Since this ink reacts amazingly well with water I sprayed the inked stamp with water and then stamped it on my Mowed Lawn panel. After letting it sit for a couple minutes I got this amazing two toned background that looks almost like a pice of fabric. You want to use a heat gun to help dry the paper and watch the image intensify as it dries. 

You can watch the making of this card in the video below. 

 

If you managed watch this entire video, sorry so long, you heard that I was going to share a matching tag to this card. So here is a cute matching shaker tag. 

I use the largest tag and rectangle in the Special Day Tag die set to make the frame for this tag. For the scene, I die cut part of the tag and then cut around the top part of the image. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, as always I am here to help you, please reach out if you have any questions. I'd love to hear from you. 

I have linked all the products I used to make these projects for you below. Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you, thank you for your support.

 

 

 

Snowflowers in 3 sizes!

Last year I shared some paper ornaments that I a made with my daughters art class. I called them snowflowers. This year I wanted to make some more and thought it would be fun to make then in different sizes. I started with the original and then made one smaller and one bigger. 

Let me start by showing you the regular size. 

Aren't they so pretty! And easy to make. Here's what you need: 

7 strips of printed paper that measure 1/2" x 12", scored at 3" and 7". 

BUT, I like to score a piece of 12" x12" paper at 3" and 7" and then cut it into 1/2" strips, much easier than scoring seven 1/2" strips.  Then I have enough strips to make 3 snowflowers.  Each strip gets bent into a petal. The finished flower is about 4-1/2" in diameter. It is hard to explain how you bend and glue them, so I have a video for you on how to make them below. 

Next up is the smaller version. 

For the small snowflower you will also need seven strips. These strips are 1/2" x 9" and are scored at 2" and 5".  The finished flower is about 3-1/2" in diameter. 

Again, I started with a piece of printed paper that was 9" x 12" and on the 9" side I scored the entire piece of paper at 2" and 5" and then cut them into half inch strips. You will see how much faster this is in the video. 

Lastly I have the largest snowflower, where I added a fourth loop to the outside of each petal. 

This beauty measure just over 5" in diameter.  To make it larger you make the 7 petals for the original size and then add another loop to the outside of each that is 1/2" x 6". 

I added some fun elements to the center of each snowflower. This one has a poinsettia that I made HERE. 

I also thought I'd help make the ornaments a little more sturdy by adding a small element to the back side. 

Here I used a small punched circle from coordinating paper. 

On the others I used a button or rhinestone that matched. 

Now let's take a look at how to make these ornaments. 

Thanks for watching and visiting my blog. If you have any questions I'd love to hear from you! 

Below I have linked all the things I used to make these Snowflowers. Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.