It's A Girl Banner + Tips...

I've been working like a 'busy bee' these last few weeks before Christmas! So since I have a few new creations and some helpful tips to share, I'll be brief because I plan on posting several tonight...squeezing it all in before the New Year!   First up is this festive and girly, shower banner!

I had originally started out with an argyle pattern, and even after I stamped all 10 banner cards in argyle, I decided it just wasn't working for me!  I went back to my 'stamping board' and came up with this little number...POLKA DOTS!  If you've followed my blog for even a short period, you'll find me using polka dots A LOT!  They're so versatile and stripes are also a great compliment to polka dots!  For the top border I 'scrunched' up some crate paper(party streamer paper!) and glued it down with a 1 inch strip of certainly celery cs.  On top of the cs, I used a chocolate circle border and strategically cut it just so...evenly spaced out for room to add a few rhinestones!

For the lettering, I tried something NEW!  Normally on my banners I use regular old cs for the lettering...not today!  I knew I had some espresso chocolate vinyl in my stash so I thought I'd give it a whirl!  I have to say, I may start using this a whole lot more than cs now!  It goes on smooth and I don't have to double matte the letters like I normally would with regular cs.  If you're not comfortable sticking the vinyl on 'blindly', you can use line contact paper like I did below with the 'G'.  Letters with a lot of curve can sometimes be tricky to get on straight and I can't tell you how many times I've had to re-cut letters!  Go with the contact paper...especially with extra curvy fonts.

Sweet little embossed star!

A quick tip!  When you're punching holes in the banner cards, simply put 2 cards 'back-to-back' and  you'll get evenly lined up holes for every card.  Once you have 2 cards punched, use 1 as a guide for the next card and so on and so forth!

Peppermint Candy Tutorial...

It's beginning to look A LOT like Christmas! At least at my crafting station it is...the weather being in the 70-80's...not so much! It still puts me in a crafty mood and I was really excited to try something new for my tags this year. Follow along and I'll show you how I made some easy-peasy candy tags!

SO pretty and glitter-y!  I love the 3-D effect the twine gives to the candy.  The candy twists on the ends are made with my small SU! heart punch.

Here we go!  I've showed all the steps here...looks tedious, but I promise it's 'easy as pie'!

Step 1:  Punch out a 1 1/4 circle and cover with double sided tape.  My tape does run over onto the table, you may not want to do this, but I prefer this method because it holds my circle in place as I wind the twine around and around.  To find your center point, use a circular piercing mat, place your punched circle right on top and VOILA, you can punch a center dot with  your piercer.

Step 2:  Once your circle looks like a candy, pull up gently from the table.  I used a small pair of mustache scissors that I keep in my tool box...these scissors are great for fine detail cutting as well!  You can simply fold under the excess tape tabs onto the back.

Step 3:  You can certainly stop here if you want to keep the 'soft threaded look', but I really wanted to achieve a shiny piece of candy.  I love SU! Crystal Effects for many reasons and I use it often!  Squeeze a generous amount over your candy and let dry overnight.  Once your candy is dry, the Crystal Effects not only makes your candy shiny, but it also helps keep a nice BIND of all the twine. 

Glitter...So Much Glitter!

What's a Mom to do for a little girl who's just GOT to have red glitter shoes for her Dorothy costume, yet you KNOW full well you will not find a pair here...in her size?! Well, once again we 'make-do'! We searched high and low for the REAL Dorothy shoes but when I saw my 6 year old prancing around in her Old Navy RED flip flops, I knew I could work some Mommy ingenuity and make good use of that over sized bottle of red Martha Stewart glitter I bought years ago! Yes, YOUR crafty/hoarding side can totally relate to me here, right? We gathered our supplies and headed out on the balcony.

VOILA! The E6000 provided ample and smooth adhesive coverage and the glitter went on smoothly. I did let them dry overnight and washed down the excess glitter in the sink. There were no issues with glitter rubbing off or shedding...SCORE! She ran around all day with these on and they stayed PERFECT!

My posse! This is a daytime party with Daddy's work and boy was it HOT!

There's just something pretty awesome about 'aircraft trick or treating', right? This was such a special treat for the kids and they hopped from plane to plane, and then back again for a second round. These are the planes my hubby started out on when he first joined the MC. They are old REALLY old and these are headed for the scrap yard and being replaced with new, more modern aircraft. Fun and bittersweet day for sure!

Happy Halloween!

Making Do With What I've Got...

Living abroad now, I really have to 'make-do' with the supplies I've got on hand. Case in point, I REALLY needed black glitter paper for my Halloween banner...what's a crafty girl to do?! My sweet SU! lady(HEY, Susan!) recommended a few options and since I have a few sheets of the SU! silver glitter paper the 'inking' option is what I chose! This can get a little messy, so have plenty of wipes or moist towelettes on hand for clean-up! The lighting is terrible in the first pic, but follow along you'll see the difference in color tones.

I used a sponge tip and Hybrid Palette Ink for this project. I'd probably stay clear of regular ink dies as it's not going to stick to the glitter paper as well and probably just smear right off. Here you can see the BIG difference between what I started with and how it turned out after I applied the ink. Now, you won't get a super dark black, but more of a vintage black which I think is just as fitting for Halloween. You will still get a great twinkle/sparkle even through the ink.

Here are all my letters(cut with the Cricut)and as you can see it does get messy, but just have a scrap paper pad when inking because you will go off the edges. I'm really pleased with how well the ink took and I would definitely try it again. Just a little advice if you're impatient(like me!)be sure to break out your embossing heat gun and do a quick pass-over to 'set' the ink.

Happy Crafting!  Dawn ;)

Washi Tape Tutorial...

So if you've been on the FB page you know I've been drooling over this fun new product(Washi Tape) I've been experimenting with. Now, I will tell you, it really is not a new trend or fad, as a matter of fact I remember seeing this as a kid when I lived in Hawaii(some 20 years ago). In Hawaii this tape is known by Kawaii Tape. It's essentially the same thing, thin rice paper tape, but the Kawaii versions have cartoon characters like Hello Kitty etc. There are lots of places to buy Washi Tape and the collection I'm sharing with you today is from Etsy. Today's post is going to focus on the Christmas stack on the left. Let's get started! I decided to make my own background pattern so I used my CM self healing mat to keep my line positions straight. The tape is not super sticky, so if you need to reposition, just don't press down hard your first try...don't ask me how I know that!Next, you can trim off the excess if you'd like, but I chose to simply tuck behind onto the backside of the card stock.I mixed two patterns for two separate cards.Voila! See how pretty your background comes out? I didn't want to cover up too much of the pretty tape(Washi Tape is fun to play with, but it doesn't come cheap!), so a few textured 'holly' leaves and some red Dew Drops finished my focal image.I was needing a little more depth and texture to my leaves so I traced around the edges with my Copper Stickles.On these cards I only used 1 green strip of Washi Tape(underneath the red ribbon) as an accent.The stamp set is Holiday Button Bits. My cards are on a smaller scale than A2, so I chose to substitute buttons with Dew Drops...sparkly! Next post will share some more Washi Tape designs with some yummy gingerbread! Although I've used this tape for holiday cards, I'm almost certain the tape would also make fun monogrammed cards?! ;) I just might have to play with some of those too!

Sweet Tooth...

ETA: Sandy would like to know where I get my clear bags for these treat sticks so if anyone else is interested here is the link to clearbags.com ;))

1x8 CLEAR BAGS


TGIF! Sharing something a little sweet today! These are some goodies I made recently for a customer who wanted a little something for her children to share with their classmates at an end-of-the-year party. This batch I made with m&m's and a 4th of July theme. I used some mini manila tags and recycled some heart buttons. The buttons had a loop on the back that was cut off, allowing them to lay flat on the paper. The patterned paper is from a new Pink Paislee pack that you will see below.This is the new Pink Paislee pack I picked up on my last visit to VA. It's a super cute 6x6 pad and here I showed the 3 sheets I chose for this project. The great thing about 6x6 pads is that the pattern is the same as the larger sheets, but on a smaller scale...this allows you to use your favorite sheet on smaller projects!I made this bunch with skittles to avoid a peanut allergy with the m&m's. Still a great and sweet substitute! This was the first time I'd used skittles and they fit just as nice and snug as the m&m's.Added a little crystal effects for a shiny melon! I thought I'd add this quick note on how I made the watermelons. Just layer your circles then cut in half. When it comes to getting your 'seeds' lined up(below), stamp both corners and the middle FIRST...then go back and add your additional seeds. This will give you nicely spaced out seeds without having to guess if you do them one at a time ;).

Valentine's Fun Dip Bands...plus tutorial!

Sorry my first official post of the New Year is running a little late today...see, we sort of have a little snow on the ground...roughly 5 inches...and we had to go play FIRST! And to think we were only slated to get an inch! It's just so pretty outside right now. The view is better enjoyed from my warm comfy couch.

Anyhoo, I've finally gotten around to updating the ol' blog with some fun projects and today I even have a quick tutorial to share! I'm always on the look out for goodies that I can dress up and use for the kids Vday cards. This year I decided to come up with something different for these Fun Dip packages. In case you need more ideas, HERE and HERE are the ones from last year. Lets get started! Take a sheet of 8.5 x 11 kraft cs and cut into 1 inch strips. Be sure to scor the strips at the 3 and 7.25 marks on your scor-pal. Stamp your polka dots only in the center with versamark ink. You can use whatever stamp you like, I'm just addicted to my polka dots! I used the medium dots from THIS PTI set...it fits perfectly between your 2 scor lines! Now it's assembly time! Add your cute little vday image to your strip and now your ready to band the Fun Dip packaging To add the band, add 2 small strips of adhesive.Once you add the band, it will "bunch" slightly around the cello bag...that is OK, you want a snug fit so the band does not slip off...or you can add a strip of adhesive (1 of 2 strips in the above pictures) so it attaches to the cello bag.

Wrap your band, seal the cello bag and now your ready to send to your favorite Valentine. There is plenty of room on the back of the band for the kids to write on.If you'd like to skip the manual labor and make up some quick kits yourself, I've added a few to my Etsy Shop. The kits includes 10 bands (2 of each design), fully assembled, with 10 cello bags...all you have to do is add 2 adhesive strips, attach the band, and candy.

Dressin' up THE Dress...(tutorial)

With the start of Spring/Summer and hot weather arriving, we made a trip to Marshall's to pick out some new shorts and dresses for the girls. My oldest picked out this plain jane dress, which to me SCREAMED "blank canvas". You will have to scroll to the bottom to see how my Daughter "loved" Mommy's idea!
The neckline looked rather plain to me so I thought I'd add a little dazzle with some ribbon and a vintage flower.
I started by folding over the ribbon to make pleats. The ribbon is folded at about every 1 inch and pinned directly to the neckline.
She's all pinned and ready for sewing!
Sewing is complete! be sure to go slow with you machine as you will have the added thickness of the ribbon.
Making the vintage flower! I used approx. 18 inches of 2 inch polka dotted grosgrain ribbon for my flower.
Loosely gather your ribbon and sew in the middle to allow for proper gathering. This is a good spot to heat seal your ribbon edges to prevent fraying.
Flower is complete! Don't worry about your visible threads, you will cover them later!
To make the inner layer of your flower, you will need the largest cuttlebug die in this flower set. I folded over my material tight enough to make a "heart" shape at the top. I sewed 2 stitches to keep the flower tip from opening.
Adhered my black flower tips on with E6000.
Covered my threads with a vintage LARGE rhinestone.
At this point, you can glue your pin on the back. I would've rather used a black piece of felt on the back, but I didn't have any. I'm not too worried about how the back looks like because you won't be able to see it, nor will it be going in the washer.
How snazzy is this?!!!!
Since I used a pin on the back of the flower, you can adjust her where you want:) You see that Amy Bulter fabric in the background?? Well, that my friends is my peg board that I decopauged because I didn't like the holes showing through! It's super easy to insert my hooks etc. You can see on the bottom where I store all my punches in my IKEA baskets/rods.
In the end, this WAS a surprise for my oldest Daughter and I hung it in the foyer so she could see it when she came home. Well, she hates it and told me so...said we should throw it in the trash! I never expected that from her and she asked me if I could take the ribbon and flower off?!!! Needless to say, it sent her in a total tear fest and she was terribly upset that I ruined her "normal" dress! I did hang it on her doorknob yesterday in the hopes that she would wear it today. She woke up this morning and dressed her little sister...any guesses to what little sister was wearing???!!! Little stinker!