Chickens!

Hi Everyone,

Well, it was a beautiful day today.  I sat out on my deck and did my paper crafting there.  Then the day got even better.  I got 2 packages!  One was some books that I had ordered and the other was from my dear friend, Susan.  She sent me a pair of fingerless gloves that she had knitted for me and the 3 adorable red chickens that you see in the photo below. 

Susan made those red chickens.  She made them for me!  I got right to work and used them to create a new chicken display for our dining room table.  I made the 3 signs that you see a while ago.  I made them with my Cricut Explore Air 2 and some vinyl. 
 
One of the people I follow on Instagram, Rae.Dunn.forfun, paints wooden beads so that they coordinate with her display, strings them together and hangs them on her displays.  I love that idea and ordered some beads a while ago.  Well, they still haven't been delivered so I strung some red and yellow beads together that are from a strand of Christmas garland that I broke apart. 

I also follow dugansgirls on Instagram.  She has real chickens and used contact paper to paper the inside of their coop to dress it up!

So what I am trying to say that Susan's gift inspired the new display.  That Rae.Dunn.forfun and dugansgirls inspire me to create tiered displays. 

Have a good night.

Watermelon cards

Good Morning,

Today I have some watermelon cards to share with you.  Washi tape is such an easy tool to use to create layering paper.  I bought the watermelon washi tape that I used on this first card from Eyelet Outlet.  The sentiment was created with a Dandelion Designs wooden stamp.

The monkey on this second card was created with a Dandelion Designs stamp.  That strip of watermelon patterned paper is 2" wide.  When I cut down my papers from a 6" paper pad I end up with one paper that is 4" wide and another that is 2" wide.  I like the look of the 2" wide papers and find myself using them more and more often. 

My dear friend Toni knows that I have been creating a variety of fruit themed paper crafts lately so she sent me a set of 4 adorable fruity chickie stamps from Denami Design.  You'll see how I used the other stamps in the set soon. 

Take care. 

More Fruit themed cards

Good Morning,

The skies are blue and that makes me happy.  Today I am going to share more of the fruit themed cards that I made. 

I was thrilled when I found a wooden lemon stamp and a sentiment that goes along with it.  I got both of them from Impress in Seattle.  The stamped images are mounted on some citrus paper from SEI.

Here's another cherry card too.  Cherry layering paper, cherry ribbon, and a cherry stamped image made this a fun card to create.

Strawberry season is getting closer and I am looking forward to all sorts of strawberry salads and desserts.  I have a wide selection of strawberry themed paper crafting supplies and used them to create some cards. I used a clear stamp and die set to create the strawberries on the card with the red dotted background.  The other card has a scrap of paper from SET on it with a washi tape border. 

I stamped a clear Hero Arts strawberry stamp repeatedly on the layering paper on the first card.  The second card has strawberry brads from Eyelet Outlet and some strawberry ribbon.   

 

That's it for today.  Take care.

 



 

Good Morning!

The other day I took out my fruit and vegetable dishes, decorations, and banners and decorated my house.  They added a much needed cheeriness to my home.  I used some of my dies and scraps of patterned paper to create this banner.

I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to cut the pieces for this watermelon banner.

Then I used some Timeless Templates from PaperTrey Ink to create gift boxes and bags.  I always have a stash of them so that I can easily grab one before I head out the door.  I often bring my doctors, hairdresser, or hostess a bag or box that contains 4 to 6 cards and envelopes as a thank you gift. 

Next I spent a couple of days creating a variety of cards.  I created some with a grape theme.

I made some with a bananas theme.  I used washi tape to create the patterned paper on the thank you card.  I used a wooden stamp from Impress Cards to stamp a bunch of bananas repeatedly on the miss you card. 

It was fun to make some cherry cards too.  I used cherry brads from Eyelet Outlet on the miss you card.

I'll share some of the other cards I made another day.  Take care.

Hang in There

Good Morning.

I have been papercrafting for about 15 years.  I like to use blank cards that are colorful on the outside and white on the inside as the base of my cards.  I have been running low on them for a while. Thankfully my friend Janet suggested I visit amusestudio and check out their solid cardstock.  Happily it was just what I wanted and needed.  I spent a while yesterday cutting the cardstock, scoring it, and folding it into blank cards.

 

Now that I had a stack of blank cards prepped it was time to get to work.  The sentiment on this first card is a perfect one for all of us right now.  It was created with an Inky Antics wooden stamp.  I used a Changito wooden stamp to create the monkey. 

 

 

 

The ladybug and sentiment on this card were created with clear stamps from The Stamps of Life.

 

 

The small ladybug on this card is from that same stamp set.

 

 

These cards also have positive sentiments that we all need at this time.

 

 

That's it for today.  Will be back soon with some "fruity" cards that I have been creating.

 

Hugs!

 



 

1.  

 

Bags for Easter

Hi Everyone,

I purchased candy for Easter early this year.  We won't be having guests here for Easter, but we will still try to brighten the day for some of our friends, family members and ourselves . 

Like all of my crafty friends I always have a stash of patterned papers, adhesives, ribbon, etc.  I also have a stash of plain gift bags in an assortment of sizes.  Last night I decorated some bags and filled them with treats.

The Easter paper that I had in my stash came with a sheet of stickers.  I used those stickers to embellish the bags and gift tags. 

In addition to decorating store bought plain gift bags, I also create some bags on my own.  I have a gift bag template that I purchased as a download from PaperTrey Ink years ago.  This template is still available to purchase from them at this link.

The bags are really easy to assemble and I keep blank ones handy so that I can decorate them for any occasion when I need one.  Here's how I used this bag.  We have a dear friend who turned 98 years old on March 21.  She lives alone in the house where she raised her family.  Like the rest of us she has been self-isolating for weeks.  Her son-in-law leaves groceries on her doorstep and talks to her from the front yard.  She continues to be the upbeat woman that we have known for more than 45 years. 

She loves receiving and sending cards.  So I filled this bag with handmade "thinking of you" cards for her to send.  I put postage stamps on the envelopes so she won't need to worry about stamps.  We will drop off her gift along with some baked goods on Sunday.  That's an idea that some of you crafty people might like to do...

Take care.

More Bookmarks

Hi Everyone,

I made more bookmarks this morning to give to some friends and family members.  They all have a positive message on them.

If you would like to know how to make them, please read yesterday's post for instructions.

Take care.

bookmarks

Hi Everyone,

I know that I am in a funk when I don't want to craft.  When I got up this morning I decided to figure out a way to help get myself and others to move out of that funk.  I decided I would make some bookmarks that have positive and "thinking of you" messages on them. 

I'll share the details of my bookmarks with you, but remember you can easily adapt them to your needs and interests. 

All of my bookmarks are 6" long.  Most of them are 2.25" wide.  Now I realize that if I made them just 2" wide I would get 12 instead of 10 out of a sheet of 12" x 12" paper, but I wanted to leave room for the "stitched" paper I added to each bookmark.  You figure out what width works for you.  I rounded the corners of each bookmark. 

I stamped images and sentiments onto a "stitched" paper that I cut with a die I have from Lawn Fawn.

I added a tassel to some of the bookmarks.  I threaded beads onto some of the tassels.  I added a threaded charm to other bookmarks.  You could always just add some twine to the bookmarks or don't add anything at all. 

Look through your stamps and papers to find ones that suit your interests or the interests of the people who will receive the bookmarks from you. 


You might want to laminate the bookmarks when you have finished creating them.  Or use contact paper to cover them.  Or just leave them as they are. 

Hugs! 

Mini Tote for Ghirardelli Chocolate Bunnies

Good Morning,

One of the crafters I follow on the Internet is The Paper Pixie.  She shares a variety of great ideas for cards and other paper crafting projects.  Last year she showed us how to make a mini tote that holds 2 Hershey's Mini Chocolate Bunnies.  I made some of them for my friends and family.  Here is the link for her video tutorial for making those totes. 

I purchased my Easter candy many weeks ago and bought Ghirardelli Mini Bunnies.  When I went to create mini totes for them last night, I discovered that the packaging for those bunnies is slightly taller than the packaging for the Hershey bunnies.  So I played around and came up with measurements for a mini tote that will hold 2 Ghirardelli Mini Bunnies. 

If you watch the Paper Pixie's video and study her template for the tote you will learn how to create a tote for 2 Hershey's mini bunnies.  You may even want to make one of them just so you see how it looks.  Once you understand how to make them you can follow her directions, but use my measurements to create a tote for 2 Ghirardelli mini bunnies. 

Here are my adjustments.
Cut paper to 2.25” x 10.5”
Score along the 2.25” side at ½” and 1.75”.
Score along the 8.5” side at 1.25”, 1.75”, 5.25”, 8.75”, and 9.25”.
Score along both sides of the 8.5” side at 3” down to the horizontal score line.

Hope these adjustments help those of you who have Ghirardelli mini bunnies instead of Hershey mini bunnies. 

Take care.

 

Candy holder for Easter

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to concentrate on the things I would be thinking about under normal conditions.  For me that would be Marie's upcoming birthday and Easter.  I am not even sure that the 5 of us will spend Easter together, but I still want to have treats for my family.  Fortunately, I picked up candy weeks ago. 

There is certainly nothing wrong with simply placing treats in Easter baskets, but I usually embellish those treats in some way.  I wanted to dress up small packages of Brach's Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs so I decided to create a wrapper for them.  Since we all love to hold the new baby in our family I decided to add a paper bunny holding a mini Lindt chocolate bunny to the front of the holders.

Here's a view of the side of the holder.

Depending upon what you use for the candy inside of the holder you may have to change the measurements, but here's what I did.

Cut a piece of patterned tag so that it measures 3.5" x 12".  Score at 4", 5", 9", and 10".  Fold along all score lines.  I used border punch to decorate the shortest fold.  Then I stapled a bag of candy inside the holder and stapled the holder so it was closed.  I used my Cricut to cut some bunnies for the front of the packages.  I put a mini Lindt chocolate bunny in the paper bunny's arms. 

This was a quick and easy project once I figured out the measurements that I needed.

Take care.  Focus on the blue skies and sunshine we are seeing today.

Hershey's Bunny Wrappers

Hi Everyone!

I have been spending my time creating birthday gifts for my daughter and treats for Easter baskets.  Today I'd like to share an idea for wrapping Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bunnies.  They are sold in a package of 6 bunnies.  I have been creating these wrappers for years and I am not sure where I originally found the idea. 

For each bunny you will need a piece patterned paper that is 4" tall by 5" wide.  Score the paper at .5", 2.25",  2.75" and 4.5 ".  Use a 1 3/8" circle punch or one that is close to that size to punch a hole in the paper where the bunny's face will peek through. 

Fold along the score lines.  Attach a piece of Scor-tape along the edge of the fold at the 4.5" mark.  Place the bunny in the wrapper and tape the wrapper together. 

I used washi tape to decorate the top and bottom edges of the wrapper.  Enjoy!

"Carrots"

Hi Everyone!

I hope that all of you are doing well.  Happily as far as I know my family and friends are healthy.  I am hoping that all of us will stay that way.

I have been creating treats for my family's Easter baskets. 

I used Annie's Cheddar Bunnies to make these "carrots." 

The crackers are placed in some decorative triangular bags that were stored with my Easter decorations.  However, many times I have used triangular cake decorating bags and they look very similar to these carrots.  I put about 3/4" cup of crackers in each bag and tied them tightly with some patterned ribbon. 

If you don't have cheddar bunnies maybe you have goldfish crackers which I have used many times.  Or maybe you have some cheese balls or really any orange snack food you have will work.

Take care.

Easter Snack Mix

Hi Everyone,

Hope that you are all doing well and finding ways to entertain yourselves during these days of social isolation. 

One of the people I follow on Instagram and her blog is thebakermama.  She shares great ideas for food boards, snacks, and meals.  She shared photographs and a recipe for an Easter Snack Mix that I just made for my family.

This mix is perfect for Spring and Easter.  If you google thebakermama and the words "Easter Snack Mix" you will find her photographs and recipe.  Now if you are not able to find the exact ingredients that she used please do not stress.  Follow her recipe in terms of quantities and make any substitutions you need or want to use.  Here are the ingredients I used.

By the way thebakermama released her first book a few months ago.  It is called Beautiful Boards and is an awesome book. I refer to it over and over again when I am preparing food boards for my family and friends.

Take care.

Thinking of You cards

Hi Everyone!

I have a friend who turned 98 last week.  Like many of us she has been housebound for weeks.  She told me how much she enjoys studying and reading the cards that people have been sending her.  After speaking with her I was motivated to work on my "thinking of you" cards.

This card is an easy one to create.  The tulips and bow were created with a Martha Stewart paper punch.  I used a die to create the little tag.  The layering paper is embossed.  Many of us love tulips which is why I chose them for this card, but you could use any punch that you have.

My friend and I are hoping that soon we will be seeing birds, bees, butterflies and flowers in our yards again.  That conversation inspired me to create some  "bee" cards.  These bees were created from a Hero Arts stamp and die set.  The sentiment was created with an Art C stamp. 

Here are those same bees presented in a different way.  The sentiment is from the Open Studio Bee Yourself stamp set.

This was another easy card to create.  Many people send friends and family cards at Christmas, Valentine's Day and for their birthday.  Why not send some cards just to brighten their day?

Take care.